Get on the Bus

Get On the Bus: The Freedom Riders of 1961
by TERRY GROSS

Papal Bull in Ottawa

Not seeing the forest for the swamp

And why attention to detail leads to nonsense: One year, millions of dollars, and thousands of pages avoid the question of whether Article 12 of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 was honoured by the highest ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Art 12. Prisoners of war are in the hands of the enemy Power, but not of the individuals or military units who have captured them. Irrespective of the individual responsibilities that may exist, the Detaining Power is responsible for the treatment given them.Prisoners of war may only be transferred by the Detaining Power to a Power which is a party to the Convention and after the Detaining Power has satisfied itself of the willingness and ability of such transferee Power to apply the Convention. When prisoners of war are transferred under such circumstances, responsibility for the application of the Convention rests on the Power accepting them while they are in its custody.Nevertheless, if that Power fails to carry out the provisions of the Convention in any important respect, the Power by whom the prisoners of war were transferred shall, upon being notified by the Protecting Power, take effective measures to correct the situation or shall request the return of the prisoners of war. Such requests must be complied with.

Weston: A consistent move on Afghan detainees
CBC News Posted: Jun 23, 2011 8:59 PM ET

The Spectacular Corruption of Barack Obama

Lord Acton

"I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by full authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it."[7]

Corruption guaranteed incompetence in office, high or low. Professional performance had no bearing on whether men like Chinh held division commands. They kept their positions by their facility at forming corruption alliances with those above them and at creating other corruption alliances with those below in order to channel money upward... Lines of authority that needed to function if the country was to be governed rationally and that were already weakened by the influence of family ties and religious and factional connections were undermined entirely by those networks within networks of graft.

Neil Sheehan
A Bright Shining Lie
John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
page 515

Nuremberg

The Face of War, Salvador Dali

It is an almost overpowering effort to be just, informed, sane and strong when you are worried about a roof over your head, money for food, for the children's shoes, for coal, for a little fun, worried and harassed by the daily unending problem of living. But it is an effort that must be made, for lasting peace is not going to come of itself, nor cheaply, nor due to someone else.

...

Eighteen nations are signatory to the charter under which this tribunal functioned. Eighteen nations are bound by the precedent this tribunal has set. Eighteen nations have agreed that the rights of man are inviolable and that aggressive war is a crime against mankind. The crime, together with all evils flowing from it, is punishable by law. The men who labored so steadfastly and so honorably to set this precedent have committed a great act of hope. The hope is that this body of law will serve as a barrier against the collective wickedness, greed and folly of any nation. In these dark times it is only a hope. But without hope we cannot live. And in a time of doubt and suspicion, there is hope in the fact that men of four nations could work patiently together to brand evil and reaffirm the power and goodness of honest law.

Martha Gellhorn
The Face of War

One summer evening in Vancouver...

Richard Lam, Getty Images

RON MACLEAN.
So it's the wrap up for House of Commons Night in Canada, 2011. Don, what's your take on the season?

DON CHERRY
I've gotta say, it's not the way I would have picked to end it. I'm a die-hard Boston fan, but Vancouver looked like it was playing wounded, in every possible way.

RON MACLEAN
And the House of Commons is about to rise for the summer...

DON CHERRY
...without doing anything...

RON MACLEAN
They're going to pass a Great Big Crime Bill...

DON CHERRY
...just in time for the yahoos in Vancouver...

RON MACLEAN
...and the resolution supporting Canada's involvement in Libya...

DON CHERRY
...with only Elizabeth May voting against...

RON MACLEAN
So how do you see that? After all, you autographed artillery shells in Afghanistan.

DON CHERRY
I support our troops in uniform.

RON MACLEAN
So if the Canadian military is in, you're in.

DON CHERRY
Absolutely.

RON MACLEAN
What if they're on the wrong side?

DON CHERRY
Obama's country, right or wrong.

RON MACLEAN
Have a good summer at the lake.

DON CHERRY
I can hear the loons.

House of Commons Night in Canada - Even Stephen

'Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.'

Bill Shankly, legendary Liverpool manager



RON MACLEAN
So it's Ron MacLean here with Don Cherry on an emotional night in Boston. Don, the Bruins stomped the Canucks for the second game in a row with the Prime Minister in attendance. What's your take on the Speech from the Throne?

DON CHERRY
Luongo's toying with me.

RON MACLEAN
I know it's personal between you and Luongo, but I really don't see how Vancouver would be worried about you at this stage of the Stanley Cup final.

DON CHERRY
Luongo knows my heart is in Boston but my head says Vancouver. He's just raising my hopes...

RON MACLEAN
...so he can subsequently crush them and leave you limp and lifeless...

DON CHERRY
...the guy has no conscience...

RON MACLEAN
...yes, we know all that. But that doesn't answer the questions raised by the Speech from the Throne, and why the Prime Minister would be here rather than watching the game on TV like Jack Layton.

DON CHERRY
It's an obvious win/win situation for Harper. If Vancouver wins, he looks good. If they lose, I die on national television while he catches a Canadian Forces executive jet for Ottawa, for which he pays commercial rates, the plane just happening to be in Boston and heading for Ottawa.

RON MACLEAN
So come on, what's your take on the Speech from the Throne.

DON CHERRY
I dozed off until Brigette turned it into a game.

RON MACLEAN
...Brigette being the House of Commons page who was subsequently fired for contempt of Parliament...

DON CHERRY
Yeah, that's a bit much. I'm a straight shooter and I don't hold with pipsqueaks mouthing off when they should be doing their jobs and keeping their mouths shut. But contempt of Parliament? I don't think so. Harper is the guy Peter Milliken decided was in contempt of Parliament, and now he wants to reform the Senate without understanding how the House of Commons works, and - I'm laying it on the line here - having shown not only contempt of Parliament, but contempt of court. Brigette was standing up to this clown, and got marched off by some sourpuss in a ridiculous hat.

RON MACLEAN
So how do you think events will play out now?

DON CHERRY
Harper will slink back to Ottawa on his executive jet at our expense, the Canucks will take off for Vancouver ASAP, and Jack Layton will say the game on TV was better because it was free and he could turn it off.

RON MACLEAN
So that's it from us at House of Commons Night in Canada...

DON CHERRY
I've got pain running down my left arm...

RON MACLEAN
I don't want to have to give you CPR on the CBC...

DON CHERRY
It's the sort of thing the CBC would do...on the Nature of Things or some other socialist programme...

RON MACLEAN
Do you have your nitro patch on?

DON CHERRY
Are you kidding? I would have exploded by now.

RON MACLEAN
See you Friday.

DON CHERRY
You're such an optimist.

Harper on HNIC vs. Brigette in the Senate

Brigette wins, hands down.