SpankyMcFarland

My ayatollahs. I polish them every morning. Kinda digital thinking there.

The threats to us are very different. In Canada and Europe, terrorist attacks by Shia Muslims are vanishingly rare. Like Russia, they support a brutal regime in Syria but that's not the same thing. Some argue that the KSA gov is not a supporter of terrorism but I think countries should be judged by their net effect on the world, not on the alleged intentions of their leaders which are unkowable.

Another problem - the power of small lobbies. Apparently, the Trump administration is considering a tougher line on Cuba despite a broad coalition, including many Republicans and businesspeople, in favour of closer ties. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cuba-hardliners-us-defenders-battle-trump-policy-48002878

Events have been telling a different story since 9/11.

Mostly, I am seeing Middle Eastern or Israeli targets there. Iran and Israel/KSA are in a low level war already. I don't lie awake at night worrying about Shia terrorists on Canadian streets.

He overthrew their government in a coup and killed a load of them. Of course, he fears them.

Now Oman is coming to the rescue: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40248145 They won't be too popular with the Saudis.

There should have been some warning about the blockade. Its implementation was designed to cause as much disruption as possible and the accusations of terrorism are a bit rich coming from KSA. I would say it's more about AJ and the MB than anything else. Now the other countries have the gall to slam Qatar for looking to Iran for help. What choice does it have? I see Oman is helping it too. That's a country one does not hear much of - in the ME a good thing.

People are waking up to who the DUP are: https://www.change.org/p/winston-no-coalition-with-the-dup-may-out-postmanpratt1

IS has a Life-of-Brian-like approach to blasphemy and apostasy - everyone except them deserves execution. They hate the Saudi monarchy but would love to set up shop at that end of the beach.

The EU and DUP are going to demand serious concessions over Brexit. I can't see the party staying together on this.

No general election is about one thing. Brexit was supported by half the population but not many want yet another referendum on that in the near future. Re the Lib Dems - FPTP. You only get one vote in their/our system so you have to pick somebody who has a chance of winning even if you disagree with them on a whole load of issues. People (esp. the young) were sick of the Tories and voted for a crazy guy in preference to them. I see May was talking about her percentage of the popular vote as a reason for her staying in power - which isn't supposed to matter in FPTP.

Today the DUP are being googled in Britain by many people who have never heard of them: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/09/suddenly-become-important-democratic-unionist-party-could-hold/

These are the strange people keeping May in office: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dup-hung-parliament-results-policies-manifesto-abortion-gay-marriage-climate-change-who-are-they-a7781656.html

A night of surprises: hung parliament; Labour wins in Canterbury and other strange places; Amber Rudd hanging on by the skin of her teeth; and a sound rejection of another referendum vote in Scotland. I loved the Monster Raving Loony candidate for Islington, Knigel Knapp, resplendent in his somewhat military regalia standing behind Corbyn and nodding sagely as the leader spoke at the announcement of the count. Ignore the other loony in the background: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3759703/moment-ukip-candidate-keith-fraser-mouthed-terrorist-sympathiser-about-jeremy-corbyn-during-islington-count/ One depressing note was that the two most extreme parties in Northern Ireland won all but one of the seats. The Conservatives may now have to depend on one of these, the DUP, to govern the U.K. and they will be pushing for a softer Brexit to protect their farmers.

Poor old Qatar didn't have too many options left. It was either the Ottomans or the Persians to the rescue and I suppose the Sultan inflames the neighbours less: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/07/turkey-to-fast-track-draft-bill-approving-troop-deployment-in-qatar-officials.html

Uber sounds dodgy to me but have any injured passengers not been covered? My experience of insurance companies is that they will try to weasel out of everything they can so it should be possible to find injured passengers who have been turned down if this claim is true. Do such people exist?

Qatar likes to be on good terms with many nations and has an independent foreign policy. It has managed its gas revenues extremely well. This sudden blockade by its supposed brethren is in act of aggression (actually an act of war which was the casus belli in 1967) and treachery, and should be condemned. I'd like to see the Egyptians follow through and take home 300,000 of their citizens who would be delighted to see Cairo again. If KSA is serious about punishing the supporters of terrorism it should start by blockading itself.

The convention rules about the Speaker are more outdated nonsense. There should be laws about it that favour the candidate backed by the larger number of MLAs, or maybe the time has come to appoint a Speaker who is not an MLA.

And not so old people. The drug results in this case will be interesting: http://www.theroot.com/is-tiger-woods-addicted-to-pain-medications-1795727030 https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/05/tiger-woods-is-the-new-face-of-americas-drugged-driving-problem/528525/

Interesting development: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/06/02/conservative-party-takes-disciplinary-action-after-membership-list-shared.html Is 'salting' a list is commonplace, why would anybody associated with a candidate risk using it for this purpose?

I admire the Queen, great worker, and our system has worked well overall. I just feel it could be improved a little bit.

That one would have to say that is evidence enough of the lunacy of the current arrangements.

Of course they would if they were loyal to their country. My preference would be to have an elected Canadian President as head of state - somebody who lives here. As a practical matter, the GG is appointed by the PM. Therefore, in any disputes between political parties, their judgement looks suspect. Regarding the monarchy, if we can't rid ourselves of this ridiculous and humiliating foreign anachronism, let us at least choose our own GG so we can have more faith in their decisions.

This is a major development. I'd say more states will follow.