Can you ban kids from social media? Australia is about to, but some teens are a step ahead

It took 13-year-old Isobel less than five minutes to outsmart Australia’s “world-leading” social media ban for children.

A notification from Snapchat, one of the ten platforms affected, had lit up her screen, warning she’d be booted off when the law kicked in this week – if she couldn’t prove she was over 16.

“I got a photo of my mum, and I stuck it in front of the camera and it just let me through. It said thanks for verifying your age,” Isobel claims. “I’ve heard someone used Beyoncé’s face,” she adds.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

CRISANTI: Toronto needs a course correction, taxpayers deserve better

I still remember the good old days when the taxpayers were in charge, and all Torontonians could rely on the consistent delivery of core services.

Back then, people were confident that their local government was working for them. As Torontonians grapple with the thought of another property tax hike, they have simply lost faith in how it will benefit them.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

Chicagoans throw snowballs at ICE agents as street turns into chaotic tear-gas blizzard

Rowdy Chicago residents were seen throwing snowballs at federal ICE agents before the freezing streets were filled with clouds of tear gas.

The chaotic scene took place on Saturday in Elgin, Illinois, about 50 minutes outside of Chicago, as a massive crowd of anti-ICE protestors took to the streets to try and fight back against President Donald Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown.

Federal agents descended on the Chicago area as part of Operation Midway Blitz in early September, and in recent weeks they have been focusing on the Windy City’s suburbs.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Deep State", Camp Of The Saints, USA

Saint John tackles crime concerns with 2-year private security pilot

Saint John is launching a two-year security program to address resident and business concerns about crime and public safety.

The program — called the Community Safety and Security Team — will bring private security guards to what city staff say are the city’s most crime-affected areas like the uptown core, Waterloo village and around local shelters.

“This is really about deterrence and a presence in those key service areas,” said Amy Poffenroth, the city’s commissioner of Growth and Community Services, at a Tuesday morning announcement.

As I recall this has been done on a neighborhood scale in Toronto, albeit a wealthy neighborhood.

Not sure if any stats exist showing value for money.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Depolicing", WTF?

Transatlantic Tensions Surge After X Fine and Harsh New U.S. Security Strategy

Relations between the United States and the European Union appear somewhat fraught after two Friday announcements triggered outrage on both sides of the Atlantic.

First, Brussels imposed a €120 million fine on the social-media platform X—and its owner Elon Musk personally—for breaching transparency rules of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Marco Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State, called the fine “an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEU, Europe, USA

More than half of Canadians support new pipeline from Alberta to B.C., Nanos poll finds

A slim majority of Canadians and British Columbians would support building a new oil pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast, even if the B.C. government opposes it, according to a new poll.

The Nanos Research poll, which was commissioned by The Globe and Mail, shows 56 per cent of Canadians support or somewhat support building a new oil pipeline and 55 per cent are in favour of lifting the ban on tanker traffic to make it happen. Roughly 37 per cent oppose or somewhat oppose each.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada

BARCLAY: The Liberal attack on democracy in Canada

Over the past decade, left-wing pundits and politicians have attempted to misconstrue all fascism and undemocratic politics as the unique property of conservatives and right-wing ideologies, such as populism.

Even the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has become an instrument for the ‘Other’-ing of conservatives in Canada under the auspices of the Liberal government and recently regurgitated the tired leftist trope that any right-wing or “traditional values” are “…a sign that [a person is] becoming more extremist.”

And yet, undemocratic politics and human rights violations are by no means the exclusive purview or property of the Right.

(Incognito)

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

The Right Questions about America’s Strikes on Venezuelan Narco-Boats

In the Caribbean, we should worry about what is decent and smart, not about what activists say is lawful.

nce again, the United States is using lethal force off its shores. In recent weeks, American drones and warships have sunk or disabled a string of speedboats in international waters off Venezuela. Washington says the vessels belonged to narcoterrorist networks tied to the Maduro regime and Tren de Aragua and that they were carrying cocaine and fentanyl precursors bound for the United States. At least 83 alleged traffickers and others are dead. Caracas calls this extrajudicial murder. Human-rights groups call it assassination. Cable-news panels and UN press releases are already rehearsing the same ritual question: Is this legal under international law?

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA, Venezuela

King Charles: I don’t want my grandchildren to say I failed on climate

The King has admitted he does not want to be accused by his grandchildren of failing to act to save the planet and leaving them a “ghastly legacy of horror”.

He told environmentalist Steve Backshall on a new ITV documentary that he found it “very frustrating” that scientists’ warnings about climate change still went unheeded, despite the world being at a “tipping point”.

The documentary, Steve Backshall’s Royal Arctic Challenge, looks back at then Prince Charles’s 1975 voyage to the Canadian Arctic, where he braved an under ice dive that organisers now admit was more dangerous than his team realised.

Charles the Eco-Nut King.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Woke Royals"

Christian Heritage Month: An idea whose time has come

Earlier this week, Bill 229, which proposes recognizing December as Christian Heritage Month, was introduced in the Manitoba legislature. The timing couldn’t be more appropriate.

Brought forward by PC MLA Carrie Hiebert, Bill 229 would formally acknowledge the historical and contemporary contributions that Christians have made to life in Manitoba. As Hiebert explained when introducing the bill: “This bill recognizes the significant contributions that Manitoba’s Christian community has made to the province’s spiritual, cultural and humanitarian landscape. By designating December as Christian Heritage Month, the Act encourages Manitobans to reflect on and appreciate the enduring contributions of Christianity throughout the province.”

May pass in Manitoba but I’m pretty sure Ford would consider this “far right”.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inChristianity

How the ‘decolonisation’ movement betrays black history

In 1947, as the British Empire was starting to unravel, Obafemi Awolowo, one of Nigeria’s foremost independence leaders, wrote:

‘The conquest of one nation by another in an unprovoked act of aggression cannot be justified by any standard of morality… Nevertheless, it would be harsh to condemn Britain today because of her actions in the 19th century. Every nation or tribe, at one time or other, has been guilty of wanton aggression… We must not allow present grievances to blind us to the virtues of the empire.’

Two decades later, with Nigeria independent, Chinua Achebe – whose novels laid bare the wreckage of colonial rule – told an interviewer: ‘I am not one of those who would say that Africa has gained nothing at all during the colonial period… This is ridiculous – we gained a lot.’

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Critical Race Theory" Crackpot Communism, "DEI - Diversity Equity Inclusion"

The army of machines that will kill the West

THE West – a metaphor abused and rarely understood – is nearing its end. Its decline is no longer exceptional but emblematic. In fact, credible augurs claim its demise is no more than 20 years away. Democracy, for its part, never truly rose from the grave after its passing more than 2,000 years ago.

What is democracy? On paper, it is an arrangement grounded in unconditional pluralism and unreserved respect for individuals, administered by honest civil servants in an atmosphere of frugality, transparency, uprightness, strictly limited terms of office for all officials – elected or unelected – alongside direct citizenship participation. The individual – not the pack, not the people, not society – is the cornerstone of any community worthy of the name. Over body, property and mind, the individual is the uncontested sovereign. True democracy upholds the indisputable supremacy of the individual over the collective. Yet today it is a chimera rather than the system proclaimed to be in force.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inDecline & Fall