Jack's Newswatch

The scandalous underequipping of soldiers in Afghanistan has uncomfortable echoes of 150 years ago
There is a moment in every war when it becomes necessary to wheel out the big guns, the heaviest weapons in the armoury. In the continuing war in Afghanistan, it is time to deploy the moral firepower of William Howard Russell, the [...]

ATHENS — Vasia Veremi may only be 28, but as a hairdresser in Athens, she is keenly aware that, under a current law that treats her job as hazardous to her health, she has the right to retire with a full pension at age 50.
“I use a hundred different chemicals every day — dyes, ammonia, [...]

Despite the myriad sources of information from which to draw in order to write a column that has a grain of truth to it, it would appear that the usual suspects from the usual media sources insist on getting it wrong. You can hardly blame them. Well, actually you can, but it will hardly help. [...]

Tackling the deficit and clamping down on the growth of government spending will avoid “devastating cuts” in the future, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday in Parliament.
“Bad choices now, unaffordable long-term spending commitments, ill-advised tax hikes, ditherings on deficits and difficult decisions will doom those countries who choose them to years of debt, stagnation and [...]

Healthy, elderly who are simply “tired of living” could be allowed to end their lives with a lethal injection under new euthanasia laws being debated in the Dutch parliament.
MPs will discuss the proposals after campaigners collected more than 100,000 signatures in support.
The influential Dutch “Right to Die” campaign, which has been active since 1973, has [...]

While the secret non-trial and exoneration of former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer on cocaine-possession and drunk-driving charges may have satisfied the letter of the law, it hasn’t exactly enhanced public confidence in the judicial system.
A furor erupted earlier this week after prosecutors inexplicably dropped all criminal charges against the ex-politician.
In return, Jaffer pleaded guilty to [...]

The time has come for somebody in the Democratic party to show moral courage.
Consider the situation. Despite a seventy vote majority in the House of Representatives and a then-twenty majority in the Senate, the Democratic party was only able to barely pass health care legislation in both Houses of Congress; and the two versions [...]

That eerie hissing you hear may well be the air beginning to seep out of the green energy bubble. The sound is similar to the pfffffft and sshhhhsssssp noises we heard in the early days of the dot.com bubble collapse or the subprime mortgage meltdown. If you can’t hear it, you are not alone.
While investment [...]

#1 — BBC | Greece hit by third general strike in a month
Public services and transport in Greece have ground to a halt as workers stage a third general strike in protest at the government’s austerity measures.
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#2 — BBC | Nigeria charges 49 over Jos killings
Nigerian police say 49 people are to be charged with [...]

#1 — CBC | Murder charge laid in deadly police shootout
Ontario Provincial Police have charged former township leader Fred Preston with first-degree murder in death of a constable who was killed in a shootout on a rural road in southwestern Ontario.
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#2 — CBC | Federal contractor racks up hefty bills
Federal contract workers charged the government [...]