Sunday, February 22, 2015

What does ISIS want? A well laid out article on the subject





A very good explanation by Graeme Wood about the Outlook and thinking of the ISIS. It's a bit long for this generation, but well worth the read. Sobering to think my family would be sold in slavery by these people and my wife and I put to death.

In October, Dabiq, the magazine of the Islamic State, published “The Revival of Slavery Before the Hour,” an article that took up the question of whether Yazidis (the members of an ancient Kurdish sect that borrows elements of Islam, and had come under attack from Islamic State forces in northern Iraq) are lapsed Muslims, and therefore marked for death, or merely pagans and therefore fair game for enslavement. A study group of Islamic State scholars had convened, on government orders, to resolve this issue. If they are pagans, the article’s anonymous author wrote,


Yazidi women and children [are to be] divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations [in northern Iraq] … Enslaving the families of the kuffar [infidels] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Koran and the narrations of the Prophet … and thereby apostatizing from Islam.


Atlantic article


Of course Michael Totten is always a recommanded read as well  http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/too-little-too-late-syria

Friday, January 30, 2015

Bill C-42




The CPC is currently pushing the "Common Sense Firearms Licencing Act" The opposition is aghast, "the streets will run with blood" etc, etc. Beyond the rhetoric (from all sides) the reality is that this bill will do little and may even be harmful to gun owners down the line. The NFA has done a good review of the Act. The CSSA has done as well.

Some key points is that it eliminates the Authorization To Transport (ATT)  and rolls it into the licence. This actually reduces the paperwork burden on the RCMP and reduces the papaerwork for gun owners, but very little real benefit and several pitfalls may open up.

It requires that people actually attend training rather than challenge exams, this seem fair on the first glance till you realize that many place don't have anyone to train or run courses and that the Chief Firearm Officers (CFO) limit the number of trainers. This could put people wishing to own guns legally without any options. Won't bother the people who own illegal guns though.

One of the major issues gun owners have faced is arbitrator rules added on by the CFO without any recourse by the gun owner, you are basically completely at their mercy and several have little of it and fair bit "power tripping" issues.

In short this is mainly fluff in hopes to pander to a very active voting bloc of gun owners. The Liberals and NDP have been crying about the world ending, but have missed a masterful opportunity to repair relations with gun owners. the Liberals could have fixed C-42 and offered up better ideas while not giving up much more. But they are to busy pandering to their own base. The most painful part is the display of outright ignorance by the Libs and NDP about how the Firearm Act works and does not work. Plus ignoring peer reviewed studies showing the whole exercise of this type of control is basically useless.

At the end of the day both NFA and CSSA will support this, not because it's good law, but because the CPC is the party of no better choice. We really should run an ad in Craigslist saying: "3 million single issue voters looking a for a serious and respectful relation with a political party


I should add this is likely the biggest benefit to the average gun owner, but really a reflection of the cuts done to the CFO/CFC limiting their ability to d their legislated duties.

  • Create a six-month grace period at the end of the five-year licence period to stop people from immediately becoming criminalized for paperwork delays around license renewals;