Brian Lilley:

Fixing America’s economy is vitally important for the health of Canada’s economy. It is true that the Harper government has pushed forward on expanded trade deals including free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and Jordan and attempted to expand trade with India and the EU but the U.S. is still the biggest market for Canadian goods.

“At the same time, it was possibly an insult.”

NYT confused by Mitt Romney’s “obsession” with… asking people questions about themselves.

I guess if you live in cosmopolitan, multicultural New York, you just assume everyone is exactly the same as you and therefore you already know all about them!

Wow, there really are two Americas…

Mr. Romney likes to congratulate people. For what, exactly, is not always clear.

“Congratulations,” he told a grandmother at an event on Thursday night, presumably because she had a large brood.

Over three consecutive days last week, he congratulated a girl who said she was attending college, a woman who said she owned a small business and a mother who said she was going back school. “Congratulations!” he exclaimed upon learning that a woman had three children.

The New York Times seems particularly irked by Romney’s (albeit amusingly incompetent) attempts to guess people’s national origins. Normal people actually care about race and culture. So do the readers of the NYT, but they’re obliged to pretend they don’t.

A few tips for Romney and his handlers:  

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• I know someone once told you there are lots of ethnic French Canadians in New Hampshire. But while it’s semi-clever to ask “Are you French Canadian?” in that particular sate, not every state is in fact New Hampshire (Iowa especially) although at this point in the race I’m sure it feels that way.
• Don’t ask a Sicilian to spell his name. It only confuses him.

Wonders if Die Hard might be to blame…

(via Sharpshooter PR)

Here’s what really happened.

Duane writes (and do read the whole thing for an encouraging story):

This “mess” is on full display every day of the year on Black America’s most popular website “mediatakeout.com”. Only when it hits national media do many of us suddenly get embarrassed , outraged and want to immediately accuse White media of exploiting Black folks. Give me a freakin’ break.

Yes, these folks are acting out what it took Black folks years to fight against. But unless we stop with this knee-jerking only when it hits the national media, the very ones that are tisk-tisking our fellow Black folks are just as guilty for covering up for this raw foolishness. Don’t worry. Mr. Charlie sees it all (lol). The question is what are doing to turn this consumption-only midset of our people?”

BONUS: Mark Steyn and guests discuss the phenomenon (free video)

Halt Muslim immigration to the West.

John Chow writes:

This may come as a shock to people living in Canada, but the medical service in the US is far superior to anything offered in Canada. When I take Sally to see a doctor in the US, I don’t have to wait. The appointment time is the actual time to see the doctor, not the time to wait in the waiting room. Test results are usually sent back the same day, and you can see a specialist without a referral.

Canadians will say their medical system is free and available to everyone. That’s only half true. The BC Medical Services Plan (MSP) isn’t free. You do have to pay for it if your family makes over $30,000 a year. If you make less than $22K a year, then it’s free. There is premium assistance between $22,001 to $30,000. The monthly premium rates are $60.50 for one person, $109.00 for a family of two and $121.00 for a family of three or more. You will have to pay out of your pocket for extended and dental coverage. I pay about the same in the US for my medical and dental as I do in the Canada, but the service is way better in the US.  

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As I never grow tired of saying:

If you REALLY believe that 9/11 was an inside job, that “truth” should so horrify and outrage you that you will do everything in your power to punish those involved.

Or, if you’re more cowardly, commit suicide in sheer despair.

You should not wish to live a moment longer in such a nation, in such a world.

If you fail to do either, you are a poseur.

And/or seriously mentally ill — and living in a time and place where treatment for your paranoia is readily available, should you choose to accept it.

Hollywood loses one idiot leftist Boomer — alas, how many remain?

Reading his final blog post brings to mind Woody Allen’s vastly superior summary of a generation in four sentences, circa 1977, to whit:

“My first wife was a kindergarten teacher, you know. She got into drugs and she… moved to San Francisco. Went into est, became a Moonie.

“She’s with the William Morris Agency now.”

Of course, those lines from Manhattan were fiction.

When your actual life sounds like a parody of a leftist Boomer life — like the backstory of a character that didn’t make it to the final draft of The Big Chill — maybe killing yourself is the only option.

ANY group. Always.

Black people’s weird and deadly obsession with running shoes spills over to UK, with bonus awesome (that you have to scroll WAY down to get to)

One said the killer said ‘Wallah’, an Arabic slang term for ‘I swear to God’, before plunging the knife into his victim.

PS: apparently this is not satire…

The Air Force 1 shoe is one of Nike’s most revered and iconic models. This limited-edition version is not for sale but rather a special product, proudly displaying the colors of the African American flag. Rich black leathers have been chosen to represent the essence of all color. Contrast stitching has been used to show an energetic pop of pride and perseverance. The centennial logo honors the long and rich history of the African American culture. Forty-four stars circle the outer perimeter of the logo to represent the celebration of the first African American to represent a people as well as the American government. The Swoosh has a luxury material of metallic black leather and the outsoles are marbleized like the courtrooms of the US Supreme Court – the place where many civil rights battles were fought and won.

Personally, I found this comment particularly moving:

My mom passed away February 12, 2008. This would be a great gift for me in rememberance of her struggle and life. She was 80 years old. It was a very painful time and still is painful. This would give me a insight of her life and some comfort. My shoe size is 8 1/2.  

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I’m not sure The Great Escape is great film-making, but it does portray the kinds of resourceful, risk-taking men we’re mostly not raising today.

If the list really is about the former consideration, then perhaps Jason and the Argonauts?

“There might be young people unaware of the dire historical facts and the unspeakable human toll of that war, but for almost everyone else, the sheer scale of the losses and nightmarish reality of the trenches, repeated in refrain for almost a century, has dulled us to the staggering truth of it all.

“Which is probably why Spielberg and the creators of War Horse have seen fit to transfer our sympathy from a mere human caught in that carnage to a horse, enlisting it to re-awake our sense of pathos in the form of that most noble and graceful of animals, into whose big, dark, anxious eyes Spielberg invests so much human emotion. It’s a remarkable feat, to be sure, but some part of me can’t help but be saddened that we’ve had to transfer to an animal what we can no longer comprehend in men.”

Please let this be true…