Canada's Carbon Conundrum

Canada Wonders, if U.S. Balks, Is Carbon Pricing Still the Answer?

Dear Canada: "carbon pricing" was never the answer. But if the U.S. isn't on board, why on earth would/should we be?

Syrian Refugees in Canada: Could Their "Struggle" Lead Some to Choose Jihad?

The Toronto Star has a story about a family of Syrian refugees living in Mississauga--a mom and dad and their five young kids--who are likely to have a tough go of it once federal resettlement assistance ends in February. The problem, of course: the parents are unskilled, don't speak English and have many mouths to feed in what is a very expensive place to live. Provincial welfare will pick up some of the slack, but not nearly enough to keep them even close to the poverty line.

In other words, day-to-day life for these newcomers is about to get very tough:

While the highly skilled Syrians — most of them resettled under private sponsorships — may encounter problems in professional licensing and employers’ demands for Canadian work experience, those with lower education may have difficulty finding manufacturing and service jobs. 

The transition would be tougher for the government-assisted refugees than for those supported through private sponsorship groups because families supported by Ottawa are generally much larger in size (53 per cent with three to six kids), with lower education and skills, and speak little English. 

“My worry is the public has unrealistic expectations of how quickly these newcomers can find jobs and become independent,” said Mario Calla, executive director of COSTI, which settles government-assisted refugees in Toronto.

My worry is that some of the children of these refugees will become very angry about being imported by a Canadian government that welcomed them so effusively and then left them to fend for themselves, and, to assuage their bitterness, will take up the traditional "struggle" to prevail over infidels. (And it certainly won't help that they're being exposed to fundamentalist sermons in public school.)

You can be sure, though, that such an "Islamophobic" thought never entered Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's pretty, vacant head.

Victor Davis Hanson Grades Obama's Manifold "Achievements"

VDH gives him an "F" for 'em all, including these "milestones":

“Securing the historic Paris climate agreement.”
The accord was never submitted to Congress as a treaty. It will be ignored by President-elect Trump. 

“Achieving the Iran nuclear deal.” 
That “deal” was another effort to circumvent the treaty-ratifying authority of Congress. It has green-lighted Iranian aggression, and it probably ensured nuclear proliferation. Iran’s violations will cause the new Trump administration to either scrap the accord or send it to Congress for certain rejection. 

“Securing the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”
Even Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton came out against this failed initiative. It has little support in Congress or among the public. Opposition to the TTP helped fuel the Trump victory. 

“Reopening Cuba.”
The recent Miami celebration of the death of Fidel Castro, and Trump’s victory in Florida, are testimonies to the one-sided deal’s unpopularity. The United States got little in return for the Castro brothers’ propaganda coup. 

“Destroying ISIL” and “dismantling al Qaeda.”
We are at last making some progress against some of these “jayvee” teams, as Obama once described the Islamic State. Neither group has been dismantled or destroyed. Despite the death of Osama bin Laden, the widespread reach of radical Islam into Europe and the United States remains largely unchecked. 

“Ending combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
The Afghan war rages on. The precipitous withdrawal of all U.S. peacekeepers in 2011 from a quiet Iraq helped sow chaos in the rest of the Middle East. We are now sending more troops back into Iraq. 

“Closing Guantanamo Bay.”
This was an eight-year broken promise. The detention center still houses dangerous terrorists. 

“Rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific region.”
The anemic “Asia Pivot” failed. The Philippines is now openly pro-Russian and pro-Chinese. Traditional allies such Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea are terrified that the U.S is no longer a reliable guarantor of their autonomy.

Update: But for Obama's mania for golf, even worse havoc might have unfolded.

Syrian "Refugee" Tosses Two Molotov Cocktails Through the Window of a Shia Community Center in Malmo, Sweden. Just Don't Call It "Terrorism," 'Kay?

The "genius" Swedes have a very strict definition of "terrorism," apparently, and this feat supposedly falls short of it:

The man detained for a Malmö arson attack claimed by Isis did not commit a terror offence, a Swedish remand hearing has concluded.  

The Syrian citizen has instead been remanded accused of arson, in relation to a fire in Malmö on October 11th which caused smoke damage to a community centre. 

The chief prosecutor had pushed for the incident to be described as a terror offence, but after a three hour remand hearing, Malmö district course decided that was not the case. 

“There are very high conditions that need to be met for something to be a terror crime. In my closing statement I said that the prosecution is far from that. And the district court clearly agreed with it,” defence attorney Lars Edman told news agency TT after the hearing. 

On the early hours of October 11th, two Molotov cocktails were thrown into a Malmö building used by Iraqi cultural association Aldorr. 

The incident provoked little media attention both in Sweden and abroad, but in the immediate aftermath, Isis magazine al-Naba claimed the fire was started by “a warrior from the caliphate”, and that the centre was used by “infidels”, which in the context of their article was believed to mean Shia Muslims. 

Here comes the "genius" reasoning I referenced:

An Aldorr spokesperson told Swedish news agency TT that the building is not a place of worship, but rather, a community centre, and while members are Shiites, the association's activities are not primarily of a religious nature.

Ah, yes. One can see how that would make all the difference. 😏

Donald Trump Thinks It's a "Great Honor" To Be Named TIME's "Person of the Year". Is He Right?

Well, I guess if you don't bother to read the accompanying text, you could construe it as being a "great honor." It's hard to see, though, how the following disparaging words fit that bill:

For reminding America that demagoguery feeds on despair and that truth is only as powerful as the trust in those who speak it, for empowering a hidden electorate by mainstreaming its furies and live-streaming its fears, and for framing tomorrow’s political culture by demolishing yesterday’s, Donald Trump is TIME’s 2016 Person of the Year.

Demagoguery does feed on despair.

Hence "hope and change" and all the jazz.

Reflections on "A Day That Will Live In Infamy," 75 Years Later

The author of a new book on the subject claims that "racism"--the Americans', of course, and never mind the supremacist mindset of the Japanese--led to the attack.

A more conventional (and much saner) analysis can be found here.

Fidel Takes You Down to His Place Near the Ocean...

Who knew that Leonard Cohen and Fidel Castro, who died within weeks of each other, had history of sorts?

Cohen first visited Cuba in 1961, not long after his sister, who had honeymooned there, returned home raving about it. His timing, alas, was hardly propitious:

Cohen grew a beard in tribute to Castro’s co-revolutionary Che Guevara and wore khakis. He told a biographer he “thought maybe this was my Spanish civil war,” though it was “really mostly curiosity and a sense of adventure. 

But as the revolutionaries shuttered the nightclubs, Cohen found himself “the last tourist in Havana.” The month after he arrived, the U.S. led the Bay of Pigs invasion. One night Cohen was summoned to the Canadian Consulate. There, a secretary told Cohen his mother had called, and she was very worried. 

He later channeled his brush with the Castro regime into a poem about Canadian politics (see above). In “Field Commander Cohen” he imagined himself a spy “urging Fidel Castro to abandon fields and castles.”

Cohen’s trip made him realize he wasn’t a revolutionary, but rather, he “was exactly the kind of enemy the Fidelistos were describing: bourgeois, individualistic, a self-indulgent poet.” The two men met in real life only decades later: Both were honorary pallbearers at Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s funeral in 2000. 

That part where Cohen's anxious mom back in Montreal phones Cuba--priceless! It shows that even a brooding "ladies man" who fancies himself a globe-trotting poet/troubadour cannot escape the ambit of a worried Jewish mama.

All My Hestitations About a "President Trump" Condensed Into a Single Line

It reads as follows:

The meeting [with climate change huckster Al Gore] came just days after a source said Ivanka was interested in making climate change one of her signature issues.

Update: This one gives me pause, too.

They're Neck and Neck

In the "WORST POTUS EVER" horse race, Barack Obama is poised to overtake the previous "champion," Jimmy Carter.

And speaking of the worst of the worst, let's not forget that pompous gasbag, John Kerry.

Don't Do It, Mrs. Kushner!

Who thinks this is a good idea--Ivanka is going to meet with Al Gore to discuss climate change issues?

Update: WTF?!

Why Are American Jews In the Forefront of Importing Jew-Hating Syrians Into the U.S.?

It's what happens when one is fed an exclusive diet of "tikkun olam" tripe (my bold):

The truth is that Syrian refugees can and ought to be aided abroad, in their own region, or in any of the 50 Muslim-majority countries, through a plethora of nongovernmental organizations. These organizations are able to and should also be supported by the U.S. government as well as by private organizations, including Jewish organizations. Yet resettling tens of thousands of poorly-vetted Syrian refugees in America by political fiat, in order to demonstrate moral virtue, isn’t a requisite or constructive policy choice; it’s the product of personal and political vanity.

Meanwhile, here in Canada, the nitwit we call prime minister was overcome with emotion as he participated in a roundtable discussion with Syrian refugees and their sponsors:

Justin Trudeau wiped away tears during a roundtable with Syrian refugees and sponsors, as one newcomer recalled being greeted by the prime minister when he arrived in Canada one year ago...

Asked by Matt Galloway, host of CBC Toronto's Metro Morning, why it was important for him to be at the airport to greet that planeload of refugees on Dec. 10, 2015, Trudeau said it was because the Syrian refugee program "was something I knew that all of Canada was involved in, that making the commitment to bring over 25,000 and more Syrian refugees was something that the government couldn't do on its own." 

Trudeau noted that he had only been on the job for about a month, and throughout the federal election campaign Canadians' expressed interest in doing more to help refugees.

"I felt that being there in the name of all Canadians to welcome people was really important," he said. 

He also said the Syrian refugee issue reminded him of the power of the office of prime minister, noting the legacy of his father's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the legacy of the prime ministers who came before him. 

Justin Trudeau could be the poster boy for moral vanity. Just don't ask him what's going to happen now that this refugee cohort, most of whom are uneducated, have large families and don't speak English, are going have to fend for themselves now that the government's financial support has run out. That should really make him cry.

Update: At the aforementioned roundtable, Justin seemed to be channeling his inner Obama:

"The other two political parties have leadership races on now. I'd like to see more Canadians of diverse backgrounds engaging with parties that line up with their convictions and ideologies to make sure that no party gets to run against Muslim Canadians or any other group of Canadians and demonize them," Trudeau said. 

"And I think the way we do that is getting involved in the whole breadth of the political spectrum in Canada. I'm happy when people decide they are more aligned with me and my party, but they should also think about being active and aligned with parties that disagree with me on certain issues." 

Galloway also asked the prime minister about how his policy, which has brought more than 35,000 Syrian refugees to Canada in just over a year, contrasts with that of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and some politicians across Europe, who advocate for a more closed approach on refugees. 

"I'm not going to answer whys," he said. "I'm just going to continue to point out the facts that the way Canada is benefiting from welcoming in people who are so deeply committed to living up to the opportunity given to them." 

He added, "I challenge any one of those governments or those citizens to sit down around a table like this and break bread and not be afraid of the other."

How the hell does he know they're "so deeply committed to living up to the opportunity given to them"? Since they weren't subjected to a rigorous screening process, save for the fact that they're refugees, he knows absolutely nothing about them. For example, I would have loved it had someone at the roundtable had the presence of mind to say, "Hands up everyone who likes the Jews."

That show--or rather non-show--of hands would have been most illuminating, don't you think?