The Montreal Massacre had a Muslim link too

I don't remember seeing this in the news, but Marc Lépine was the son of an Algerian muslim, Rachid Liass Gharbi.   Marc changed his first name from "Gamil".   The dad was abusive and "non-practicing" but it looks to me like the culture of Mohammed played a role.  Marc went after women in non-traditional roles.   What are the odds nowadays he'd have been on-line posting approvingly about ISIS before turning butcher?      Substitute "stick" for "gun" and I'm reminded of the Saudi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

On December 6, 1989, Lépine walked into the École Polytechnique de Montréal. There, he entered a second-floor classroom where he separated the men and women and then ordered the approximately fifty men to leave. Claiming that he was fighting feminism, he shot the nine women who remained, killing six and injuring the rest.

h/t commenter at smalldeadanimals

Avatar of the average male. Netherlands looking tops.

See the avatars for yourself. The average Dutch male is much taller and slimmer than the white American male.   Nothing pretty here, just the average shape.  Original article at The Atlantic.

US dethroned by three inches.
Crown goes to the Netherlands.
US (and Canada) looking a little soft.

Left to Right:  US, Japan, Holland, France.

Dems will rewrite history to get rid of love affair with Barack Obama.

  Ramirez cartoon.  "Hello? Tattoo removal service?"

Easter Island discovered America

A genetic study shows Easter Islanders have 8% American Indian ancestry and the DNA was picked up in the AD1300-1500 period before the Spanish and English got their licks or dicks in. (The genomic tally also shows 16% of European origin.)   Easter Island was reached about AD 1200 and it is easy to imagine some settlers continuing on to find America because if they explored to the east, they couldn't miss.  A few must have made it back.

Reported in Science Daily News.
Something else interesting about the 900 statues they built:  Most of the carved statue is sunk below grade.

To be fair, the first reported European on Easter island  is neither Spanish nor English.  In 1722  Dutchman, Jacob Roggeveen, landed there.

Is fatal cancer setting Putin's schedule of accelerated aggressions?

The New York Post publishes rumours pointing to spinal or pancreatic cancer that gives Vladimir Putin a short time to leave a legacy of strong borders and respect for Russia.   You may not like Russia but it does have hard-to-defend borders on the west, and impaired ocean access through the Black and Baltic seas.

From the Financial Post

This can explain the brass balls threat of using nuclear weapons, expropriation of the Crimea, the pardon of Khodorkovsky, repeated air incursions into Japanese,  Nato  and American airspace and threats to the Baltic states. Is his face a little puffy from steroid treatments, the Post asks?

Rumours should be mistrusted but not ignored.   h/t HotAir for the link.

Karate chop-the-block GIF in slo-mo.

Dust flies off the block, the fingers are assels in the breeze.
Found at Ace of Spades
If you persist towards a goal
and give 100% against the odds,
what you accomplish may look impossible to others.

Courts hide behind "Judicial Restraint" to favour Big Government and its parasites.

A new book argues that right-leaning judges (you read that right) erode citizen protection from Big Government by invoking judicial restraint, which is  "a theory of judicial interpretation that encourages judges to limit the exercise of their own power. It asserts that judges should hesitate to strike down laws unless they are obviously unconstitutional".    h/t Instapundit.

From reviews of Neily's "Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution's Promise of Limited Government" at Amazon:

“Clark Neily’s elegant essay slays the idea that ‘judicial restraint’ is always a virtue. It often amounts to judicial abdication. Neily explains that judges must judge to defend the rights that government exists to secure.”
—George F. Will

“Through the use of compelling real-world cases and remarkably clear, accessible and accurate explanations of current law, Clark Neily exposes the legal charade by which, in the name of ‘restraint,’ judges have stacked the deck in favor of those who use laws and regulations to line their own pockets. Required reading for all who care about their liberties and the Constitution that is supposed to protect them.”
—Randy Barnett, Professor at Georgetown Law School


“Clark Neily weaves constitutional analysis with anecdotes in service of large principle. His basic principle is that a squishy policy of judicial deference disserves his clients, the public at large, and the critical role of judicial oversight in a democracy. He is right on all counts. A great read for lawyers and nonlawyers interested in the real-world consequences of judicial decision making.”
 —Richard Epstein, Professor at the New York University School of Law

Data breach at the White House? UPDATE: It's for real and Russian

Developing story, reported at Powerlineblog.

"We have yet to hear from the White House press office in response to our request for a comment on our reader’s report that a major network problem has hit the computers used by staff in the Executive Office of the President. Our source, however, updated us with the latest on the issue overnight. He believes it is expected that news of the problem (whatever it is) will soon break publicly, if not today. Describing the problem as a “major data loss,” he believes that repair is expected to take weeks.   From what he understands, this is a serious problem. He asserts: “We are potentially talking OMB, USTR, ONDCP, OPM, and the White House itself(!). Top-line executive deliberations. Gone. Stolen? No idea.”

An update: Limited acknowledgment.  Perhaps only "non-secure" areas were breached.
Major update at the Washington Post:  The White House acknowledges the event which was detected two weeks ago and traced to Russia.  An ally (Britain) alerted Washington to the problem in the "non-secure" part of the President's office network.   Further comment at Powerlineblog emphasizing that the entire network of reporters kept silent for two weeks and somehow it had to be a foreign ally to tell us what was happening under our own noses.

Cash for Trash

Don't get your pants in a knot about the attack of the killer landfills.  All the garbage ever generated in North America from day one to a hundred years in the future will fit in a hole less than three miles to a
side.  ( What if the U.S. put all its trash in one giant landfill?  Take the numbers and convert to cubic miles, top it up 10% for Canada and add a fudge factor for the first couple hundred start up years).

I wish I could live long enough to buy that landfill and turn it into gold, paper and fertilizer, steel and  fuel.  The technology is around to do this, it's just inconveniently expensive at the moment.  If you've ever watched a cream separator at work on a farm, you'll know what I mean.  Raw stuff goes in the top, and pure yummy cream and milk comes out the bottom spouts.

Cream on the left, skim on the right.
I used to have one of these.

How can you keep a straight face watching your neighbours dividing their little pile of debris into bottles and papers and light compostables and heavy compostables, stuff for the metal recycling depot and styrofoam to quarantine at a special corner of the regional dump.  To question this is to question their faith.   Maybe Christ didn't die on the cross to redeem them from sin but they sure as heck believe that paper goes in the paper box.

If you value your time at even the minimum wage and times it by the number of mostly wasted hours citizens spend with their garbage, you might get the idea that the money would be better spent learning how to mine junk.  Capital that should go into better, market-based landfill technology is replaced by hundreds of millions of hours from volunteer little "green" helpers with blue boxes.

Crazy.

Misfits for Mohammed

There will be more lone shooters creeping out of the slums of Mohammed.  Islam is an ideology willing to give status and licence to killers who tack the name of Allah to their predation.   Just be glad the Jihadi's flag-bearer, ISIS, doesn't have a seat in the UN.  Then Misfits for Mohammed will be replaced by Undercover Islamic Warriors.    ("Warriors" sounds better, doesn't it?  That's the whole idea).

At least we're not calling it road rage or political protest when Misfits for Mohammed kill people in Canada.  Thank you Stephen Harper for saying "Terrorism".

We know the response will be incremental like the response to Ebola, but the bad actor can  grow exponentially for a time.  A little more glory for ISIS and  home-grown crooks with Islamic names will quickly hoist the black flag to join the winning team, and will kill with "Allahu akbar" on their lips and a kaffiyeh on their shoulders.  (Add "loot and rape" to "murder" and you get the picture.)

Below excepted from "The Relgiion of Peace":

"The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule.  Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding.  Muslims who do not join the fight are called'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.
Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text.  They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.  

Quran (48:29) - "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And those with him are hard (ruthless) against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves"  Islam is not about treating everyone equally.Quran (2:216) - "Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not."Quran (2:191-193) - "And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out. And Al-Fitnah [disbelief] is worse than killing...but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and merciful.   And fight them until there is no more Fitnah [disbelief and worshipping of others along with Allah] and worship is for Allah alone.  But if they cease, let there be no transgression except against Az-Zalimun (the polytheists, and wrong-doers, etc.)"  

I'm inexpert but have read the Quran through once slowly and a second time skimming looking for parallels with the Old and New Testaments, which I've also read several times.

Drudge Juxtaposes "Fat Man Christie" with UK "Pound for Pound" Weight Loss Program.

Tongue in cheek.  The picture of the NJ Governor appears to go with the weight loss story.

Networks give up on US election: Crickets

A chart to warm the cockles:   ABC  CBS and NBC have stopped reporting on the midterms, a total turn-coat operation compared to 2006 when it looked like their beloved Democrats were making a comeback.  Convincing evidence this is turning into a surge election.

"According to an exhaustive study performed by Media Research Center analysts, between September 1 and October 20, the three major broadcast networks only bothered to mention the fact that there is a critical election coming up only 25 times. Of those mentions, only 16 of them were in the context of packaged report.
By contrast, in the same period in 2006, when Democrats were believed to be likely to take control of both the House and Senate, the three major networks mentioned the coming midterms 159 times with 91 of those mentions broadcast as part of detailed reports."

Surge Election in the US

2014 feels like a surge election.  The  Republicans don't deserve it but feeling sorts out a lot of "undecided" votes.  I think polls understate the trend.

It's not a trend to the right but a trend away from stress about government.  My money's on Romney because Americans want a break from worrying about things like Ebola, ISIS and Ferguson.  "A rest is as good as a change".

I want a robot surgeon

Microsurgery by a robot sounds like it will be better than an experienced guy with a knife and a degree. Proof of concept had a titanium thread follow a curved path through the cheek into the base of the brain  while a dummy patient was in an MRI machine. The destination was accurate within a couple millimetres and could have been used for epilepsy repair on a real patient, the kind of repair you can stand up and walk home from.  Cadavers are next and real patients in ten years.  That "thread" had a couple inside layers capable of steering the outer shell and giving a pathway to deliver service.  Bring it on, but don't skip the practice stage.
Story at Science Daily News.

Russia's budget gets fracked hard

Fracking and a drop in oil demand will teach Russia manners.  Their economy has to have oil above $104/barrel.  Expect a little more cooperation with Europe and the Ukraine soon.  The little chart spells curtains for adventurism.  As a bonus, The American Interest shows the breakeven oil price for some trouble-maker countries that were blessed with oil and used the money to enrich the big shots and make the populace dependent on government redistribution.  The source article has detail.  Energy abundance bugs tyrants.

Russian deficit tied to price of oil.

Note: The red graph exaggerates the vertical scale to create drama but the message is important.

Hysteria in the Schools

Political correctness is the ancient hysteria that burnt witches and staked vampires.    A little kid in Alabama was used as a scapegoat offering by school officials who wanted to abjure Satan and all his works and bring back goodness to their community.   They got their holiness back after apprehending the five year kid who said "pew pew" with a crayon gun.    She was made to recant, sign a confession she didn't understand and evicted from the fellowship.  I don't see a difference between Iron Age hysteria and this magical behaviour to stave off harm.

It's as old as the hills.  They are still digging up ancient corpses in Europe with stakes through the heart, stakes put there by a PC community of believers who found a ritual to keep their village safe from vampires.

A Mobile, Ala., mom says school officials forced her daughter to sign a contract promising not to commit suicide or harm others after the kindergartner "drew something that resembled a gun," then pointed a crayon at another kid and said "pew, pew!" 5-year-old Elizabeth was sent home after school officials made her take a questionnaire .. evaluating her for suicidal thoughts, then had her sign the safety contract promising to contact an adult if she was thinking of suicide or homicide. This all happened while her mom waited in the lobby to pick her up.   According to her mom, Elizabeth didn't know most of the words on the contract she signed. "Suicide," in particular, was a new one for her. "Mommy, daddy, what is suicide?" Elizabeth's mother says she asked.

Vinyl LP's and newspapers - Legacy Media

About 5% of our viewing goes to papers and magazines but advertisers still drop 20% of their bucks on them.  They will soon wise up that maybe four times too much goes into hard copy updating only once a day or once a month, says former Washington Post chief.   Subscribing to a magazine will be a novelty purchase, a legacy quirk like limited edition vinyl LP's.

Source

"Extra Extra Read All About It" is a ding on your twitter inbox, not a lad on the streets with arms full of paper.

This is good news.  More information is reaching you before it's mascaraed and  and corseted by the spinmeisters.  Papers need to move on to where there former customers are now congregating.

As Peter Drucker wrote, the first task of a business is to create a customer and the second is to keep him.  You go where he goes, and serve him well.

Added:  Getting unfiltered information won't make us smarter but it will improve the marketplace as more people bid for access to power.

The Highest Bidders Control The State

The chart shows who has the money.
The wealthy co-opt the political class.
The political class transfers payments to the voting class.
That's why socialism appeals to the very rich and the poor
if every adult gets a vote.

Chart and post title from Zero Hedge


 (They call it, "Self Serving Elites" and argue that any town, province or country run by such is the poorer for it.)

Trapped in a Coma.

 Scientists found some wide awake people in a brain survey of vegetative state patients.  32 "brain dead" people and some normal ones were asked to pretend they were playing tennis.  An EEG was taken. Graphics were added to show traffic between parts of the brain.  Some of the "vegetables" showed the same activity as normal people.  The image is stunning although the aura is a digital FX.

Vegetable on left, normal on right, miracle in the middle
after being told to pretend to play tennis.

Comet almost crashes Mars Sunday October 19th.

An Oort cloud comet, "Siding Spring"is missing Mars by a whisker on Sunday, by a mere 87,000 miles.  The planet will get a small dusting of carbon compounds and water vapour.  A little closer and it could have dumped enough stuff to restart a robust atmosphere..  Mars orbiters plan to duck and cover on the other side of the planet about an hour and a half after the nucleus passes to hide from the debris trail. Meanwhile both orbiting sun observatories and other devices will scoop data.
Science Daily News.

Artist's Imp;ression