Crime beat- $2 billion safety deposit haul

Border

According to one U.S. specialist, Mexican border smugglers are sitting atop a $5 billion industry.

Ezra Levant

The Iraq War.............looking a lot better

Email from Michael Yon.......

"The trend lines are clear. Iraq war seems to be winding-down. At this rate it is entirely conceivable that at the end of 2008 we will be able to say, in good conscience, that the Iraq war has ended.

Of course this is speculation.

Grabbing headlines today is the news that Australia is drawing down it’s forces from Iraq. The Australian military is comprised of some of the finest soldiers in the world. Yet the Australian government’s commitment to the war in Iraq has been militarily insignificant. The loss of the Australian military contingent is strategically irrelevant.

I’m in constant communications with forces on the ground in Iraq. al-Qaeda continues to be hammered into the dirt. The Iraq Army has demonstrated great competence in Sadr City. They are at the fore front of destroying al-Qaeda in Nineveh province.

Washington Post reports growing success in Basra by the Iraq security forces. Violence in Iraq is reaching an all time low, perhaps lower than at anytime in several decades. But make no mistake Iraq and it’s people have been ravaged by decades of war. Finally they are getting their chance at freedom thanks to the sacrifice of the men and women who have set them free from tyrants. With any luck, on my next trip to Iraq I will see little to no combat.

There are several new dispatches on the website. Free copies of Moment of Truth in Iraq are available with a one year subscription to Town Hall Magazine."

Ahmadinejad says Israel will soon disappear...Breitbart (Peace is just around the corner)

"I must announce that the Zionist regime (Israel), with a 60-year record of genocide, plunder, invasion and betrayal is about to die and will soon be erased from the geographical scene," he said.

"Today, the time for the fall of the satanic power of the United States has come and the countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started."

Unfortunately Dr. Sheela Basrur passed away. She was highly competent and reassuring during the SARS crisis

Macleans' Andrew Coyne is liveblogging the BC Human Rights Tribunal vs Mark Steyn

Keep hitting refresh for updates

Mark Steyn at the BC Human Rights Tribunal today

WABC........Talk Radio

"Liberals drop to Fourth Place in Quebec"

"Donors owe millions after revenue agency investigates foundation"..........CBC

Crime beat- Gun ban- Only in a world of make believe would you target law abiding gun clubs while allowing the violent criminals to continue

on their merry way relatively unscathed.It defies logic but then it seems more like a public relations exercise -pretending to do something, while in reality doing nothing except further restricting law abiding citizens.It's always easier to go after the low hanging fruit.If the object is to keep violent criminals off the streets, this exercise in futility couldn't hit the broad side of a barn door.After his last announcement , there were three murders so real criminals don't pay attention to any bans or by- laws or laws period.

"As Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck notes, most criminals arm themselves by stealing guns or buying guns stolen by someone else. So new restrictions don't make much difference to them. The federal ban was a classic illustration of how gun control works. Law-abiding people who rarely misuse their guns were deprived of options. Ex-cons went on as before."

"'Crime as a career - Repeat offenders are 80 per cent of arrests, cops say'. This squares with what you hear regularly from policemen and security guards. It's the old 20/80 rule really. Just as in business 20 per cent of customers generate 80 per cent of sales, so too 20 per cent of criminals commit 80 per cent of crimes. So focus on that 20 per cent.

An April 17, 2008 article in the Economist "Inner-city crime: Back from the brink" showed how this worked in Baltimore, U.S.: "É the murder rate has fallen because the police are paying more attention to the most violent offenders. One helpful new tool is a registry for gun offenders Like sex criminals, anyone who commits a crime using a gun must register his whereabouts with the police as soon as he is convicted or once released from jail. Failure to do so can get him imprisoned again for up to a year. The logic is simple. Of the 135 people arrested for murder in Baltimore last year, nearly half had a prior conviction for a gun offence. So it makes sense for police and parole officers to keep close tabs on former gun criminals. "


"Regardless of where you live, and to whom you are affiliated, we will be leaving no stone unturned to bring the perpetrators of violence to justice," he declared to the Senate.

Victor Hanson...........Iraq and the General War on Terror

Global warming- Carbon's Power Brokers.........George Will

"Regarding McCain's "central facts," the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization, which helped establish the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- co-winner, with Al Gore, of the Nobel Prize -- says global temperatures have not risen in a decade. So Congress might be arriving late at the save-the-planet party. Better late than never? No. When government, ever eager to expand its grip on the governed and their wealth, manufactures hysteria as an excuse for doing so, then: better never".


But there is a group of people conspiring to make energy more expensive for Americans.

Global warming is a great excuse for a massive expansion of government power. That, not science, is why the overlords, from the New York Times to the United Nations to Al Gore, so heartily embrace it.

Gun bans.....................Lorne Gunter

Fighting Prostate cancer with Tomato Powder