Clear Card Security Breached

The company that's contracted to provide Clear Card, the TSA's handy-dandy system for screening out terrorists (or, at least, providing people willing to shell out 150 bucks slightly shorter lines) has managed to lose its customers' sensitive data and compromise the entire system. The company that runs the Clear system, which speeds customers through airport screenings, has been prevented from enrolling new ...

Support Canada’s Troops

I saw this gigantic "Support Our Troops" poster hanging from a building in downtown Montreal over the weekend: It's interesting to see given Canada's image as less martial than the United States, a reputation presumably earned by their sheltering of our Vietnam draft dodgers. It's useful to recall that, Mark Steyn notwithstanding, America isn't alone in sending troops into harm's ...

Canada: American Military Deserters Not Welcome

If you've volunteered for service in the U.S. Armed Forces but don't actually want to go to war, don't count on hiding in Canada. The Canadian government’s effort to remove [U.S. Army deserter James Corey] Glass contrasts with the warm reception given to deserters and draft avoiders from the United States during the war in Vietnam. And although the war in ...

G8 and EU Growing Pains

Two articles cited in today's Small Wars Journal roundup have almost nothing to do with wars, small or otherwise, but are nonetheless interesting in showing the state of flux of some key international institutions. Steven Erlanger reports on a bold attempt to forge a "Union of the Mediterranean" which would be something of a minor league for the European Union. Perhaps the ...

Iraqi Yellowcake Uranium Moved to Montreal

Saddam's supply of yellowcake has been secretly sold to a Canadian energy firm and flown safely to Montreal. The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. ...

Obama = Charismatic = Hitler = Armageddon

Arthur Silber is, as am I, fascinated by the cult of personality surrounding Barack Obama.  He notes some anecdotal creepy gushing on a local radio show and then Reactions of this kind to Obama are fairly common. No, they are not this extreme much of the time, but such statements are far from unusual. And many of Obama's less obviously deluded ...

Obama’s Prudent Inconsistency

If a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, Barack Obama is a wise man, indeed. He's changed his mind a lot lately. The latest example is NAFTA. After having campaigned in Ohio and elsewhere on the need to renegotiate our trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and excoriating Hillary Clinton for her long-time support ...

Psychic Information Began Child Abuse Investigation

A Canadian mother was recently subjected to a child abuse investigation on the grounds that a psychic informed a school district employee that a child was being abused.The mother of an autistic girl says the public school board was "completely unprofessional" to formulate a theory that her daughter was being sexually abused based on a psychic's perception. Barrie resident Colleen ...

Freedom to Offend an American Exceptionalism

Adam Liptak reminds us that free speech rights are much more extensive in the United States than in most of the developed world. He cites the ongoing suit against Canada's MacLean's magazine and the numerous judgments against Brigitte Bardot in France, both for speech that offended Muslims. “In much of the developed world, one uses racial epithets at one’s ...

Caption Contest Winners

The Cash and Kerry Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) ✰ THE WINNERS ✰ First(tie): Timmer - Kerry thought bubble: At least it didn't take me 16 months to beat a girl. First(tie): Wyatt Earp - "A lot of Republicans call me a one-trick pony. Well, there's only one horse in this Party ...