“So you can’t borrow against the future because, in the most basic sense, you don’t have one.”

There is a lesson to be learned from this, do our politicians have the brains to see it?

What’s happening in the developed world today isn’t so very hard to understand: The 20th-century Bismarckian welfare state has run out of people to stick it to. In America, the feckless, insatiable boobs in Washington, Sacramento, Albany, and elsewhere are screwing over our kids and grandkids. In Europe, they’ve reached the next stage in social-democratic evolution: There are no kids or grandkids to screw over. The United States has a fertility rate of around 2.1 — or just over two kids per couple. Greece has a fertility rate of about 1.3: Ten grandparents have six kids have four grandkids — ie, the family tree is upside down. Demographers call 1.3 “lowest-low” fertility — the point from which no society has ever recovered. And, compared to Spain and Italy, Greece has the least worst fertility rate in Mediterranean Europe. – Mark Steyn

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AlGore Openly Mocked At Apple Shareholders Meeting

Another sign that the tide has turned…

The presence of one of the world’s pre-eminent environmentalists at Apple’s shareholder meeting Thursday was the subject of much of the morning’s pointed discussion.

As expected, Apple’s attitude on environmental and sustainability issues was one of the main concerns of the stockholders present Thursday, followed closely by the company’s immense pile of cash. But early harsh comments about former Vice President Al Gore’s record set the tone. – CNET

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“So many people owe him their life and don’t even know it”

Hero…

The son of one of Hamas’s founding members was a spy in the service of Israel for more than a decade, helping prevent dozens of Islamist suicide bombers from finding their targets, it emerged today.

Codenamed the Green Prince by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, supplied key intelligence on an almost daily basis from 1996 onwards and tracked down suicide bombers and their handlers from his father’s organization, the daily Haaretz said. – Times Online

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Bad Business Model At ABC

This is what happens when you piss off more than half of your potential audience with your lefty bias.

ABC News said Tuesday that it plans to substantially cut its staff as part of a “fundamental transformation” of the news division at the Walt Disney-owned US television network.

ABC News president David Westin, in an email to ABC News employees, said all news department staffers would receive buyout offers in the next few days.

“The response to this voluntary program will determine the extent to which we will need to make further reductions,” he said.

Westin did not say how many jobs the company was seeking to eliminate but he said the restructuring of the news operation to take advantage of digital technology will result in “substantially fewer” people on staff at ABC News.

The Los Angeles Times, citing unidentified newsroom employees, said the network was looking to cut as many as 300 jobs, or around 20 percent of its total staff of around 1,400. The New York Times put the figure at up to 400. – AFP

And then there is just plain malpractice: Why Did ABC News Cover Up the John Edwards’ Sex Tape?

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“But this is my heart. It’s my health and it’s my choice.”

So says Danny Williams while defending his “choice” to travel to the U.S. for heart surgery. It would be nice if our Premiers would allow us all to have a “choice” when planning life saving medical care in Canada. I’m not holding my breath waiting to see that private MRI clinic over on Albert St though…

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is standing by his contentious decision to undergo heart surgery south of the border.

In an interview with Newfoundland Television, Mr. Williams explained the heart condition that led him to seek specialized surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami in early February, and how the surgery that was supposed to take two hours to complete ended up taking six. – National Post

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Religion Of Child Abuse

Just like the prophet…

It was every little girl’s dream; she was to get a new dress, jewellery, sweets and a party for all her friends.

What 10-year-old Aisha did not know was that after the wedding party she would have to leave school, move to a village far from her parents’ home, cook and clean all day, and have sex with her older husband.

“He took out a special sheet and laid me down on it,” Aisha told IRIN, wringing her small plump hands. “After it, I started bleeding. It was so painful that I was crying and shouting, and since then I have seen him as death.” – Al Arabiya Via ROP

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“People make mistakes and mistakes happen in science.”

No shit…

Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century. – Guardian

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Australia Seeks Legal Review of Breaker Morant Court Martial

Looks like The Breaker, Peter Handcock, and George Witton might get their vindication after all. Always one of my favorite movies… – National Post

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Last WW1 Vet Passes

John Babcock R.I.P.

Canada’s last known First World War veteran, John Babcock, has died at age 109, the Prime Minister’s Office says.

Born on an Ontario farm in 1900, Babcock enlisted to join the war at the tender age of 16. He lied about his age to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Sydenham, Ont., and arrived in England a few months later. – CBC

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“in the Netherlands, as in Canada, the truth is no defence”

Mark Steyn nails it again…

In the Low Countries, whenever anyone seeks to discuss Islam outside the very narrow bounds of multicultural political discourse, they wind up either banned (Belgium’s Vlaams Blok), forced into exile (Ayaan Hirsi Ali) or killed (Pim Fortuyn). – Macleans

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