Ads 468x60px

Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Impolite Canadian: Child killer free as a bird as of today.

The Impolite Canadian: Child killer free as a bird as of today.:  Guy Turcotte, the former cardiologist who STABBED TO DEATH his 2 children in 2009, is now free to roam wherever he may. Guy Turcotte, b...

Canadian power trio RUSH to be (finally) inducted to the RnR Hall of fame!!

From the Globe and Mail 

Over the years, the members of the Toronto rock trio Rush have remained steadfastly ambivalent about their inability to crack the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — they maintained it was something they wanted for their loyal fans, not themselves.
And now that the band will finally be inducted into the Cleveland rock shrine, that hasn’t changed. While it was easy to detect a note of triumph in guitarist Alex Lifeson’s voice as he called to discuss the honour — announced Tuesday — the power-prog threesome still isn’t about to alter its tune.




“I never really cared if it happened or not, to be honest with you,” a cheerful Lifeson said down the line this week. “It doesn’t change anybody’s life at the end of the day. Are we going to become more popular? Are we going to sell more records? Are more people going to come to the shows? I don’t know. We’re quite happy where we are and with what we’ve accomplished.
“So we continue to do the kind of work we want to do and we will continue regardless of our induction or not,” he added. “I think at the end of the day, really, what this is about is making our fans feel like their support has been worthy.”
Indeed, this moment has been a long time coming for the band’s many ardent fans.
Rush will officially gain entry into the rock hall on April 18 after a ceremony in Los Angeles, where they’ll be honoured alongside fellow inductees including fiery New York rap pioneers Public Enemy, disco innovator Donna Summer, influential blues guitarist Albert King, gifted songwriter Randy Newman and American-Canadian rock outfit Heart.
Rush had been one of the most egregious omissions for the rock hall, which opened in 1983 and annually saw its announcement of new members greeted by snorting derision from jilted Rush fans.
It makes sense. The trio is renowned for its virtuosic instrumentation, they’ve released 18 platinum-plus albums in Canada (while clearing the same sales hurdle more than a dozen times Stateside) and, with roughly 40 years behind them in their current incarnation, have fostered a live reputation that’s nothing short of sterling.
For fans, their exclusion had been as galling as it was perplexing.
“If there’s one band in the history of rock music that’s deserved the acknowledgment of getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it’s Rush,” said Sam Dunn, co-director of the 2010 Grammy-nominated documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage.
“Here’s a band that has been making creative and unique music for over 40 years now, has a massive fanbase around the world ... (and) they continue to be one of the best live bands on the planet.
“I think there’s a bunch of good reasons why they deserve this achievement.”
In fact, Lifeson struggled to pinpoint exactly why the band hadn’t been deemed worthy before, acknowledging that the honour was “a long time coming.”
Like Dunn, he does figure it had something to do with the style of music they’ve played.
“The progressive movement is not something the founders of the Hall of Fame are too keen on,” said Lifeson, noting that well-regarded prog peers Yes and King Crimson have also been thus far excluded from the Hall.
“But it seems to be changing. If you look at this year’s nominees, it’s really quite an eclectic group.... I kind of like the idea that it is becoming broader and more areas of popular music are being included. And so therefore at some point in the near future, progressive music will start being included.”
Even if Lifeson managed to remain somewhat reserved about the honour, he acknowledged the excitement of the people around him.
“I think my sons were like: ‘Finally, Dad,’ ” he said with a laugh.
He also got a glimpse of the Hall’s meaning when he went to a dinner over the weekend with friends he hadn’t seen in a while.
He had to keep quiet about Rush’s imminent inclusion — a secret at the time — but even the mere fact of the band’s nomination for Hall consideration was enough to send a charge through his dinner-mates.
“Every single one of them was so excited about the nomination,” he recalled. “It really meant a lot to them. And I thought, this is so weird. I never would have thought these people would have even cared or known. But there’s something about it that’s really important to a lot of people.
“And certainly for Canadians, any type of success that a Canadian artist or athlete ... gets, really means a lot to people in this country. So I’m starting to realize how big of a deal this actually is.”
And it means even more to the band’s diehard fans. Dunn says Rush’s followers are as passionate as they are because the band strikes a particularly personal connection with its listeners.
And he acknowledges, as does Lifeson, that his documentary has played a role in the increasing interest in the band the past few years.
“I think the film helped remind everyone that Rush has been an important band in their lives,” Dunn said. “I think also, the film showed it’s not just the nerdy, pimply, ‘Dungeons and Dragons’-playing male audiences that we long assumed was the entirety of the Rush fan base.
“Young people, old people and increasingly women are coming to Rush shows and I think realizing there’s more to Rush than just 13-minute prog epics. There’s some really good lyrics in there, there’s some great melodies and there’s some really catchy material as well.”
That the honour comes during another strong year for Rush — which saw the trio top the Canadian charts with the enthusiastically reviewed Clockwork Angels and pull off yet another successful arena tour — just makes the timing a little sweeter.
Of course, Lifeson isn’t exactly sure what the impetus was for the Hall’s finally seeing fit to recognize Rush now.
And he doesn’t sound inclined to spend too much time trying to figure it out.
“I guess maybe it was just time,” he said. “It’s hard to argue that Rush hasn’t been influential in some way. We’ve been around for 44 years, we’re still touring, we put out a new album that’s arguably one of our best.”
“There’s been such a controversy and so many strong feelings by fans who support our being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So I guess it was time.”





Under the Fedora: Back from Hiatus-- By DaTechGuy

A weekly contribution by DaTechGuy's Peter Ingemi



While life has been busy for me the rest of the world has gone on:
The biggest news being in Egypt as an actual people’s revolution is taking on the Muslim Brotherhood while the MSM and Americans ignore it:
Fast forward a bit and we are more than two weeks into a second uprising in Egypt after the newly elected Muslim Brotherhood president Morsi took dictatorial powers for himself less than 24 hours after he won praise for taking the heat off the Muslim Brotherhood for not fighting Israel brokering a cease-fire between Israel & Hamas.
There are not only no cheers this time but it seems the western media in general and the US media in particular find this revolution unimportant and those fighting it not worth the trouble to cover.
While the media is keen on protecting Obama the press is missing something huge first the very fact of the revolution against the Muslim Brotherhood:
If with the protections that the laws of United States and Western Nations provide, follows of Islam feel intimidated, how must worse must it be is when you live in a nation where a person can disappear without effort, where the authorities are used to being obeyed, where the press isn’t free, where you find yourself monitored and where the religious, social and cultural norms are against you to the point where even if people don’t take part in acts against you, they either approve or understand?
Given that situation the revolt is huge as would the results:
If this revolution succeeds even slightly, say with the meaningless replacement of Morsi with another Muslim Brotherhood hack, that success will be an earthquake equivalent to Lech Walesa first day in the shipyard in Poland standing up and fighting.
It took a decade for Walesa’s activism to bear fruit and another decade for the freedom of Poland and the nations behind the Iron curtain to follow.  It might take ten times that in a culture that doesn’t have the same history for this to bear fruit.
I can’t overstate the importance of this, if this happens it could be radical Islam’s doom.
While our government hasn’t been willing to endorse these peaceful rebels they are starting to get on board in Syria:
A plan to provide military training to the Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime and support them with air and naval power is being drawn up by an international coalition
Assad is a murderous bastard of a dictator, however the people who are fighting him, who now possess chemical weapons btw, are no ray of sunshine either
A few days later, we returned to the issue of victims, of whether or not they are all shabiha, and his friend Mohammad. At the end of the day, I told him, he was a Syrian killing other Syrians. “I used to think about the people I’d killed, I’d think about their parents,” he says. “Yes, we are all Syrian, but we didn’t create these differences, they did. It is because I am Syrian, because these people, these civilians who are dying are Syrian, that I am doing this, that I am standing with and for my people. Those who are not standing with their people are not Syrian, they are traitors, and traitors must die.”:
This is real trouble:
ask yourself, if he was willing to kill his fellow Syrians, his fellow Muslims and his childhood friend, how much easier will it be for him to kill or blow up an infidel westerner if his religion calls upon him to do so?
When the fighting in Syria and elsewhere is done, hundreds to thousands of men like this will be unleashed on the world following a religious doctrine that tells them if they slaughter us they get paradise.
This is a preview of coming attractions, you can deny it or ignore it but that won’t stop it from happening.
I give credit to Canada they are taking a harder line with the rebels
“Canada told the Syrian opposition Tuesday it must reject extremism and embrace minorities before Ottawa will recognize its legitimacy as a successor to President Bashar Al-Assad, according to a federal official.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird explained Canada’s preconditions for official recognition at a meeting with representatives of the opposition Syrian National Coalition in Morocco on Tuesday, the official said.
Thank God somebody is
Incidentally there is also a cyber war going on in Syria, Stephan Faris writes about it here.
Speaking of rewarding bad behavior Brett Kimberlin who we have written about in these pages before had cases on both the federal & state level against him thrown out last week.
It’s actually worse than that: It’s not just bad characters, but bad behavior that have been emboldened. Why shouldn’t everyone with a grudge resort to the methods Kimberlin& Co. employed against Walker?
The targeting of political bloggers, the cyberstalking and harassment, are now all now acceptable tactics for which there is evidently no legal discourse. Thanks, Judge Potter.
And Attorney Dan Backer notes it’s even worse
“The precedent set here is just terrible,” Backer said, talking about how Judge Potter ignored Kimberlin’s violation of court orders to seal the discovery materials. “Why should anyone comply with discovery?”
Walker is penalized for obeying the Judges rulings while Kimberlin is rewarded for flouting them, sounds like the left on gun control.
As Glenn Reynolds says you get more of behavior you reward, more is coming.
If you want to know why Union thugs feel safe punching out Steven Crowder on camera this is why they know their faces won’t be on ABC, CBS or NBC.
I still want to know who writes the checks?
Speaking of villainy that is not being exposed Jay Nordlinger writes about the women in White in Cuba:
almost 100 members of the Ladies in White were arrested and beaten on Sunday. The Ladies are a Cuban democracy and human-rights group. For a story on the latest, go here.
I wish to name some of the women arrested and beaten. I will name, arbitrarily, three from the first half of the alphabet, three from the second. Marlene Abreu, LisandraFarray, Tatiana López. Bárbara Pausa, Berta Soler, Olga Torres.
You want to know something cute? The dictatorship accused the Ladies of not respecting the “grief of the Cuban people” over the ill health of Comrade Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan strongman.
If you haven’t heard about the Ladies in White and their fight for justice in Cuba, you are likely an Obama voter.
Some sports, the New England Patriots absolutely destroyed the Houston Texans 42-14.  This makes the third time in four weeks they have scored 42 or more points in their last 4 games (49 vs Jets 59 vs Colts).  The difference in the teams is best illustrated by the patriots indifference to the result.  The Texans called it the most important game in their franchise history while the patriots considered it an afterthought.
In the 21st century The Patriots have won their division 83% of the time, appeared in the Superbowl 45% of the Superbowlswinning 3 times out of 5 ( 27% of the total superbowlsof the 21st century). 
To the players on the Patriots, the season will not be considered successful unless that 45% number becomes 50%, and that 27% number becomes 33%.
That must be how the Yankees of the 40’s & 50’s and the Celtics of the 50’s and 60’s felt.  Fans should enjoy it, very frew teams ever reach that level.
A little cinema?  The first of the Hobbit trilogy comes out this week, It’s one of the few movies I’m excited to see.  That one of the shortest books Tolkien wrote on middle earth has been stretched to three movies is odd but if they are anything near as good as the Lord of the Ring’s series then Peter Jackson will be responsible for the two best trilogies of all time just ahead of the Godfather movies.
And yeah Godfather 3 was a good movie.  It’s underrated because it is compared to the first two which were two of the greatest movies of all time.
Some religion, the Pope tweeted out his first ever messages Wednesday some thoughts on it here.

Finally this is the first Under the Fedora in three weeks, this is because in the space of 16 days my mother went from getting her license renewed at 88 to being on her deathbed unable to rise, eat, drink or speak. 
The path from Doctor’s visit to Hospital to Intensive Care to Hospital Room to Home to die was very quick and reminds one that no matter what the Mayans say, you and I are all going to have our end of the world moment and need to be sure we are right with God.
I’m sure my mother is ready, it’s up to all of us to make sure we are