A recent story on CBC caught my eye and shocked me.  According to the story on CBC News website, influential people in the United States think that Stephen Harper is putting North America’s security at risk by allowing the Chinese company ‘Huawei Technologies” to invest in Canada’s telecom industry.

Apparently even our own Canadian intelligence community thinks Canada should not be allowing Chinese companies to be involved so intricately with Canada’s telecoms.

The CBC story says:

The Harper government’s own Department of Public Safety warned more than a year ago that Canada’s telecommunications network is too important to be left to foreign companies.

In a secret memo written in 2011 and obtained under the Access to Information Act, a senior public safety official says “the security and intelligence community” believes that throwing open the Canadian telecom market to foreign companies “would pose a considerable risk to public safety and national security.”

Michelle K. Van Cleave was the U.S Counter Intelligence Chief during the Bush administration until 2006, and she recently sai:

…the involvement of Huawei Technologies in Canadian telecom networks risks turning the information highway into a freeway for Chinese espionage against both the U.S. and Canada.

Bear in mind this company from China operates at the leave of the Chinese government – apparently they have partnerships with Telus which recently got a $250million contract to provide the Canadian military with secure voice and data services worldwide.

Hhmmm… am I the only one who can see the risk here or what? The real question is if it’s even remotely possible that these companies could be a risk to our security, why does Stephen Harper’s government appear to be putting political ambitions above national security?

I won’t express an opinion on the wisdom of these decisions, but if you can answer that question – you’re smarter than I am!

The Harper government’s own Department of Public Safety warned more than a year ago that Canada’s telecommunications network is too important to be left to foreign companies.

In a secret memo written in 2011 and obtained under the Access to Information Act, a senior public safety official says “the security and intelligence community” believes that throwing open the Canadian telecom market to foreign companies “would pose a considerable risk to public safety and national security.”

Feminists and men-haters out there always yap on about how the overwhelming majority of domestic abuse perpetrators are men.  The Stats Canada survey clearly sends a loud and clear message to feminists which is:

IN YOUR FACE!

Another study of 12 married blokes between 25 – 47 showed that the men sustained injuries such as multiple bruises and abrasions, dislocated ribs, injured genitalia, minor head trauma, numerous lacerations, and internal injuries. Weapons used by the wives included clothes hangers, steak knives, scissors, screwdrivers, cellular phones, fingernails, metal pots and pans, rolling pins, keys and other thrown objects. This study provided some insight into the respondents’ feelings about their situations and the effect those situations had on their self-identity:

The surveyed blokes indicated that they were often met with reactions of disbelief, surprise and skepticism from the staff of domestic abuse shelters, legal-based institutions and hospitals, as well as friends and neighbours.

Of the 495 American couples in the 1995 National Family Violence Survey for whom one or more abusive incidents were reported by a female respondent, the husband was the only violent partner in 25.9% of the cases, the wife was the only one to be violent in 25.5% of the cases, and both were violent in 48.6% of the cases.

Decreased Walloping Rates

According to the Canadian DOJ, an estimated 7 percent of Canadian women and men aged 15 years and over who were in a current or previous, marital or common-law relationship, experienced some form of spousal violence between 1999 – 2004. This includes a rate of 7 percent for women (653,000 women) and 6 percent for men (546,000 men).

Conclusion

If you’re a feminist – quit with your sexist bullcrap.  These are the facts. Not my opinions.  Instead of being female rights campaigners, become equal rights campaigners.

Domestic violence is abhorrent and should not be tolerated for one single second.  Neither should sexist women who try to minimize the importance and gravity of abuse that men suffer at the hands of women.

Lastly – sorry feminists, but the Duluth model is flawed.  It is severely hampered by its rigid insistence on a gendered concept of violence, defined as something done only by men, and only to women. I think I’ve showed here that that is not the case.

There’s a few countries that have been slated to purchase the new F-35 stealth fighter jet for their armed forces.  I know of Britain and Canada that wanted it.  Well now both countries seem to be balking at the price.

According to the Canadian Associate Minister of Defence the purchase of the sixty-five F-35 jets is still undecided. Julian Fantino said “We have not as yet discounted, the possibility, of course, of backing out of any of the program“.

The British government is now balking at the price of having a variant of the F-35 that basically mimics the Harrier Jump Jet capabilities.

What I’m wondering is why anybody is caring about the how much it costs.  Really… how much is a human life worth?  £100billion? £200billion? £300billion? How do you quantify the value of life. No amount of money can replace an innocent person murdered by terrorists.  Equipment is needed to protect ourselves so why would any normal human being take a chance at losing innocent people’s lives by being cheap with a military budget?  If you can answer that question, you are a more intelligent person than me. 

Legality

Being concerned about breaking trademark law, I have done some extensive research and took the precaution of speaking to a lawyer for five minutes.  The Trade-marks Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. T-13) on Canada’s Department of Justice website, Section 9-1 states:

9. (1) No person shall adopt in connection with a business, as a trade-mark or otherwise, any mark consisting of, or so nearly resembling as to be likely to be mistaken for…

You can read the relevant section online or read the full text of the Trade-marks Act on the Canadian Department of Justice website.  Anyways – the relevant and important part is the part that I bolded.  I am not offering this download for money, nor in association or affiliation with any federal/provincial/city entity or department.  Just a private citizen who’s tired of seeing crappy graphics on the internet.

LEGAL:  This is a free download. Be warned that you are subject to the legal stipulations as defined in the Trade-marks Act regarding this image’s usage. I suggest you read it. The offering of this image for free download, is in no way to be taken as an affiliation with the RCA, or an endorsement of myself, my website,  by the RCA.

• Download the RCA Crest ZIP file (149)

We were walking around – I remember thinking Medvedev was a mellow approachable bloke, and Putin was stoic and dour.

At one point during our walkabout, Putin was to my left, and Medvedev to his left. I told Putin how I’d emailed him a while back and said how I think what he did was tantamount to a nuclear attack on Britain, but I respected him for making Russia strong.  The dream ended shortly after.  It was weird because it was so vivid and real.

In real life a while ago I actually did email Putin and told him exactly that – I thought Alexander Litvinenko’s death was a nuclear attack on London (because he died of radiation), but I respected him for making Russia strong.  But to be honest I don’t respect him for making Russia strong – he’s done it through suppression of basic freedoms and human rights so, Vladimir – if you’re reading… I take back what I said in that email.

Well this visible personification of perfection does that for me:

Click here to view the embedded video.

My ribs crashed down hard either on my elbow or his knee because the next morning I got up, dressed ready to go to work and the pain was so severe I had to go hospital for pain meds.  I waited for nearly five hours to be seen and in the end I just left and got pain meds elsewhere.

I tried to go to the gym about an hour ago and had to leave early too because my ribs were hurting too much.  Luckily I’m pretty certain it’s just severe bruising and no fractures or broken bones.  FML

It comes as no surprise that Sarkozy is upfront and direct in saying what’s in his mind.  It also does not surprise me that another Israeli Prime Minister is accused of being a liar.

I wish I could voice an opinion

This will include a “new turret and 40mm cannon, which will allow them to fire more accurately while moving, and there will also be a new armour mounting system, allowing more flexibility with different types of armour“.

Some might say that it’s a good thing Liam Fox resigned, as things seem to be happening a lot faster now.

It is a fact – by Martin McGuiness’ own words – that he was a member of the Provisional IRA.  He has now been allowed to travel to the United States (he is a now a politican running for the Irish Presidency) even though he has admitted to being a member of the Provisional IRA.

Some people might wonder if they would get that same relaxing of the rules applied to them.,