The economy is so bad ...

The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

It's so bad, I ordered a burger at McDonalds and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"

The economy is so bad that CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

The economy is so bad if the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

The economy is so bad Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.

The economy is so bad McDonalds is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

The economy is so bad parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.

The economy is so bad a truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.

The economy is so bad Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.

The economy is so bad Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.

The economy is so bad the Mafia is laying off judges.

The economy is so bad Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

[h/t Vinney]

Canada just lost its private healthcare system

The Dems just passed Obamacare in a 220/215 vote in the House. So now where will Canadians go for private healthcare once the Americans start rationing theirs?

Stephen Harper’s stalker, Yann Martel

According to an interview with author Yann ("Life of Pi") Martel:

... Every two weeks for the past two years, Mr. Martel has mailed a book to the Prime Minister's Office. He tucks a letter to Mr. Harper inside the front cover explaining his selections...

... Mr. Martel has received only the most perfunctory letters from the Prime Minister's Office thanking him for his packages -- five letters in total, none of them signed by Mr. Harper himself-- a minimal response compared with the nearly 70 letters Mr. Martel has mailed.

Harper’s non-responsiveness sets Martel’s imagination (not to mention
condescension) working:

"Obviously, Harper is a very bright man. Obviously he can process information, he can understand political and economic ideas. But with books you explore the other. You develop your sensitivity for the experience of others," said Mr. Martel. "Books make imaginative leaps into other lives. If he doesn't have that, that means he's only led his own narrow, intellectual life."

And the absence of information about his reading habits makes Harper ... "scary" (of course) and cues yet more condescension:

He is not interested in debating the merits of reading fiction, which I find scary," Mr. Martel said ... "The reading of fiction is an essential tool of reflection."

No doubt Martel thinks he’s doing something useful but he comes off more as an obsessive, hectoring kook. It’s not much wonder Mr. Harper doesn’t respond. In fact, he should consider getting a restraining order.

The killings at Fort Hood

And speaking of Muslims, a lot has been said about US Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan's murderous rampage at Fort Hood, Texas last Thursday. Predictably much of the media coverage studiously and lamely avoided discussing the relevance of the killer's devotion to Islam. Mark Steyn thinks it's more than just the media, that the Shooter exposes a hole in the U.S. terror strategy:

... a glimpse of a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of what we have called, since 9/11, the "war on terror."

... [Hasan's] superior officers and other authorities knew about his beliefs but seemed to think it was just a bit of harmless multicultural diversity – as if believing that "the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor" (i.e., his fellow American soldiers) and writing Internet paeans to the "noble" "heroism" of suicide bombers and, indeed, objectively supporting the other side in an active war ...

... we're scrupulously nonjudgmental about the ideology that drives a man to fly into a building or self-detonate on the subway, and thus we have a hole at the heart of our strategy ...

... that's the problem: America has the best troops and fiercest firepower, but no strategy for throttling the ideology that drives the enemy – in Afghanistan and in Texas.

Maher Arar update

Ezra Levant has an excellent update ("Maher Arar is a liar") on Arar's on-going attempt(s) to shake down governments:

... Maher Arar, the huckster who lied his way into $10.5 million of our tax dollars, has had less luck with the U.S. legal system than he had with ours. A U.S. appeals court threw out his nuisance claim against the U.S. government.

... had Arar actually gone to trial here, his case would have been thrown out, too. Arar's testimony would have been torn to shreds...

... Arar did not have good luck with our legal system. He had good luck with a politicized inquiry that bore his name -- the Arar Inquiry -- but in which he never testified. Of course he didn't: he doesn't want to answer questions.

Update: Ezra responds to comments from a well-wisher:

Ezra Levant[,] You need to be sued right into the poorhouse. You need be be sued so your parents are living on the street. You need to be sued so your grandchildren will still be making payments.

Ezra's reply: I take it you think I'm defaming Arar. But truth is a defence. Have you bothered to look into the facts of his case? From his gun; to his lies about being whipped with a thick cord; to his refusal to be examined by an independent physician, etc., etc.? Do you really think a man who made out like a bandit would risk all of that by putting himself through litigation? And I mean real litigation, where he would actually have to answer questions, not fake litigation, such as a human rights commission, or his laughable "inquiry" in which he didn't even testify. Are you so naive as to think he'd jeopardize his life of luxury for that? Of course he wouldn't. He doesn't want to lose a lawsuit, to pay his lawyers and mine. And, more importantly, he doesn't want to lose the myth he has created: that he is a victim.

NEP II - Hammer Alberta and Saskatchewan to meet climate goals

Bolstering the hype leading up to the December Copenhagen Conference, the Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute today released a report recommending that Alberta's and Saskatchewan's growth be curbed:

Ottawa will have to lead a massive restructuring of the Canadian economy, with wealth flowing from the West to the rest of the country, if it is to meet its climate-change targets, a landmark report has concluded.

The Conservative government's goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 can be achieved, but only by limiting growth in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice ain't happy:

“The conclusions [the report] draws are irresponsible,” said Mr. Prentice

Still, the fact that the federal government appears to believe the ever more clearly dubious AGW hypothesis and continues making plans to waste huge gobs of money chasing that hypothesis is disturbing enough. And so is the fact that the "landmark" idiot report was funded by the TD Bank.

A Globe poll today is somewhat encouraging:

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And, coincidentally, here's Mark Steyn's timely column in Maclean's today: "Gullible eager-beaver planet savers". It's brilliant in it's exposé of statist Big Brotherism in the name of environmentalism. And good for Maclean's for publishing it. The TD Bank could use some of the same kind of intelligence and moxie.

Updates: Kevin Libin's "Carbon report’s bloody portent" [h/t Wilson in the comments].

Also see Peter Foster's "Muddled models":

... [the Pemina-Suzuki] report was leaked to The Globe and Mail, and ... the thrust of coverage appeared to contradict the smiley-faced conclusions of the report, which was titled “Climate leadership, economic prosperity.” Or, please hobble us so that we can run faster!

Under reasons for draconian action, the report quotes the widely discredited report from British economist and climate extremist Nicholas Stern....

Lord Stern is increasingly becoming a figure of ridicule. This week, he suggested that vegetarianism might save the world, and projected that attitudes towards meat eating might become like those towards drunk driving. He has also predicted climate change would turn Europe into a desert and turn the world back in time by 30-million years....

... The TD’s Mr. Drummond apparently doesn’t “endorse” the report. He told me he just wanted people to have “something to shoot at.”

But such a study, while an inviting target, should hardly be the starting point for rational analysis of the greatest policy threat to freedom and prosperity in living memory.

What it does confirm is how far the policy “debate” has been taken over by activists, supported by Big Corporate money.

Jennifer Lynch Live!

J-Ly is testifying lying before the Justice Committee today (live streaming bullcrap began 12:30 PM PST).

Thanks to Blazing Catfur for the notification.

Joe Comartin just asked whether defamation suits would pursued against Levant and Steyn ("Stain", I think he said) for their allegedly false allegations against CHRC employees. Lynch denies that there was any wrong-doing by her employees but that if they wanted to pursue legal action they were on their own.

So far, all I can say is that "I hate that smug bitch!" And I'm not too keen on some of the Bloc and Lib (eg. Jennings) committee members either.

Ezra Levant here and several posts prior.

Update: Deborah Gyapong provides some interesting observations and photos:

Canadian Human Rights Commission head Jennifer Lynch, Q.C. ... literally made my jaw drop. ... her Cheshire Cat grin was wide enough for me to see her upturned lip. She came across as the smiling school marm, patiently explaining to everyone about how equality and freedom of speech need to be balanced.

Richard Warman was there. ... strikes me as quite young, young enough to be Jennifer Lynch's son [I think Deb meant "evil spawn"].