I don't believe dinosaurs walked the earth with humans...

But there are certainly Neanderthals walking among us today.

 "The integrity of decisions made by my department is being questioned too often without sufficient justification." Jason Kenney on the Federal Court.

Gee, maybe that’s because of this:

   Under the Harper government, acceptance of refugee claims from applicants already in Canada has fallen sharply, from nearly 16,000 in 2006 to just more than 9,000 last year. The number of successful applicants on compassionate and humanitarian grounds, which had been averaging between 10,000 and 11,000 a year, fell to 8,848 in 2010.

And maybe it’s because your party and those who support it  tend to think women ask for the violence they receive.

And maybe the Federal Court, which can really look closely at legal issues and is therefore given authority to override CIC decisions took note of the increasing number of gender-related persecution cases being turned down by Kenney’s department.

(In) 1993, Canada became the first country in the world to establish formal guidelines for refugee claims by women facing gender-related persecution.

Not all countries protect women and children from brutal domestic violence, and in many cases, even when protection laws exist, they aren’t enforced.  Just like the bad old days in Canada when such abuse was considered a private matter.

If Kenney doesn’t want the Federal Court to legally override his decisions, he should really shed his caveman attitudes, examine the laws relating to women, recognize that women all over the world still have to fight - at great risk - for the simple right to safety, and start treating women the same way he would treat his bestest, white, rich, christian buddies.

Shocked but not surprised

As U.S. Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords lies in critical condition with a gun shot wound -  delivered at close range - to her head, and six others, including a 9 year old girl are dead, we can hardly claim to be surprised that such a horror occurred.

(Pima County Sheriff Clarence) Dupnik did not state a motive for the assassination attempt against the Democratic congresswoman. But he suggested that "vitriolic rhetoric" in political debates could have deadly consequences.

"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government, the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this county is getting to be outrageous."

Vitriolic rhetoric does stir up the crazies, even more so when it is given sanction by political figures.

Readers may remember this little bit of American conservative eliminationism, from Sarah Palin’s PAC site. She invited Americans to “take aim” at twenty members of Congress who had supported Barack Obama’s health care legislation.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was one of three incumbents targeted in Arizona.

Dr. Dawg refers to this, and accompanying text   -

image thanks to Orwell’s Bastard

When high profile political figures use words like “take aim,” graphics showing someone in the cross hairs of a rifle, or blithely recommend the assassination of people who are inconvenient (we all remember Flanagan’s statement that Assange should be assassinated), then such rhetoric gives murder for politics and ideology a certain legitimacy in the minds of some. 

They aren’t murderers, they are freedom fighters!  They are defenders of democracy!  They are protecting their country from those who would destroy it!  They are, taking a stand!  They will go down in history as heroes!

In their own sick minds, that is.

Gun imagery used in politics - targeting a political opponent in the cross hairs, for example, makes for a more dangerous environment especially when there is such a push for the right for everyone, regardless of mental state of mind, to carry a fire arm in a country where guns are just the coolest thing evah and so linked to what it is to be a true, red blooded male.

(Jared Lee Loughner’s) rambling videos had already caused him trouble at school, scaring his community college into suspending him in September.  In early October, he agreed to withdraw from school.  By November, Loughner had bought a Glock, purchased legally from a Sportsman's Warehouse in Tucson, the Associated Press and Washington Post reported.

A nutcase suspended for scaring his college manages to legally acquire a semi-automatic weapon a month later and uses it to kill nine people when he shows up armed at a function where issues have already incited violence.

Giffords, 40, is a moderate Democrat who narrowly won re-election in November against a tea party candidate who sought to throw her from office over her support of the health care law. Anger over her position became violent at times, with her Tucson office vandalized after the House passed the overhaul last March and someone showing up at a recent gathering with a weapon.

You politicians want to reduce crime?  Curb your own vitriolic rhetoric and toughen up gun laws.

I hardly think giving Loughner - if he is found guilty - a very tough sentence will deter other crazies who think they are on some kind of heroic mission to enlighten us all to their madness.