Dispel the Illusion

The NBA has banned Hardaway from this weekend's All-Star game festivities in Las Vegas. NBA commissioner, David Stern, explained why, "We acted immediately, we told him he couldn't do anymore work for us because his views don't represent our views."

Hers is the new face of an old movement: kind, calm, nonjudgmental, a special-forces soldier in the abortion wars who is fighting her battles one conscience at a time. Her center helps women navigate the social-service bureaucracy, sign up for Medicaid and begin prenatal care. She helps pregnant girls find emergency housing if their parents threaten to throw them out. Free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds are just the latest service.

The violence in Chad could turn into a genocide similar to that in Rwanda in 1994, the UN refugee agency has warned. The UNHCR says the killing tactics from neighbouring Darfur in Sudan have been transported to eastern Chad in full.

There are probably more Canadians who complain about CBC television than actually watch it. The public network, which was already in ratings free fall before its month-long 2005 staff lockout, has seen its viewership numbers drop even faster since. On a typical evening, under 700,000 Canadians tune into the Ceeb for any part of prime time, down from about 900,000 prelockout and over 1.5 million a decade ago.

A tip of the hat to my favorite band, which was officially formed at a meeting in the Windy City 40 years ago today, February 15, 1967.

A new abortion ban that would go to a statewide vote in 2008 sailed through the South Dakota House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 45 to 25. Now House Bill 1293 goes to the Senate.

Far-right activist Ernst Zundel was convicted by a German court Thursday on 14 counts of incitement for Holocaust denial. The court ordered the 67-year-old, who was deported from Canada in 2005, to serve the maximum sentence of five years in prison.

B.C. businessman Gordon Keast is suing Telus after the company refused to let him out of a three-year cellphone contract because he objects to Telus offering what he says is a pornography service.

The notion that judicial appointments in this country were beyond the realm of partisan politics before the Conservatives came to power is laughable. As long as politicians have been appointing judges, the process has been partisan.

There was a day would Anna Nicole Smith would have been written off as the harlot that she was. Instead, details of her whoredom elicit around-the-clock coverage of her sex-capades all over cable news. Watching Greta Van Susteren glory in the details of a decadent life gives me the willies. We have become a nation of window-peepers.

If you need to buy flowers or chocolate for your Valentine on Wednesday, you're on your own. The condoms, however, are free courtesy of New York City. Taking advantage of the holiday for lovers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration was to unveil the official city condom in midtown Manhattan, where volunteers were to hand them out free at Fifth Avenue and 50th Street.

Designer Julien Macdonald has declared war on animal lovers protesting against his use of fur in London Fashion Week. Some onlookers were shocked to see his autumn collection relied heavily on different types of fur - even to create an entire dress.

More than 12 members of a Doral based church showed up at a South Beach tattoo parlor to get the numbers 666 tattooed on themselves, all as a show of faith to preacher Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, who is now sporting a 666 tattoo of his own ... In September 2006, which was less than 6 months ago, the founder of the "Growing in Grace Ministry" was billing himself as the second coming of Christ. However, now Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda says he's the Antichrist.

Tomorrow, on Valentine's Day, romance will be in the air. But Planned Parenthood believes that romance without responsibility is a bad idea. So the local organization will be handing out free emergency contraception - Plan B - tomorrow, starting at 7:30 a.m.

The Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute decided to find out what women's magazines are writing about in their February issues. The answer is, pretty much what you'd expect -- from Playboy. In 11 of the top-selling monthly women's magazines, with a combined circulation of more than 30 million, messages about S-E-X outnumber messages about love and romance more than 2-to-1.

Roses, chocolates, even a heart-felt love poem. Those are the usual gifts on Valentine's Day. But what about a whirlwind gay wedding in Toronto? That's the grand prize that listeners of San Francisco's Energy 92.7 FM are vying for this week and more than 50 entries have already been sent in.

If polls are to be believed, Stephane Dion is having trouble putting a positive spin on the Liberal party brand. A Leger Marketing poll, conducted between Jan. 30 and Feb. 4, showed 38% of voters support Stephen Harper's Conservatives versus 31% who support Mr. Dion's Liberals. More troubling for the Liberals is the CPAC-SES leadership report card released this week. It shows a positive trend for Mr. Harper, with his percentage scores on trust (+14), competence (+17) and his vision for Canada (+14) all rising since the January, 2006, general election.

The current debate about the appointment of card-carrying Tories to federal judicial selection committees proceeds on a wrong assumption. These committees are not the proper forum for assessment of the "political correctness" of a judicial candidate. If the government is of a different view, the process is doomed to fail. If the Opposition's only complaint is that the committees may pass those with an "anti-activist" bent, it makes the same mistake.

It started on Monday. The Globe and Mail's front-page headline screamed: "Partisans filling judge nomination committees." That, of course, got Canada's opposition parties in a tizzy, charging that by appointing people with some ties to the Conservative party to committees that select judges, an "ideologically driven" judiciary will be created, which is "shameful." Well, if an ideologically driven judiciary is so shameful, why have these people remained silent for so long? Apparently people with ties to the Conservative party appointed only to lowly nomination committees are "partisans" but dozens, if not hundreds, of judges with ties to the Liberal party are independent, non-partisans and to say otherwise is irresponsible as it throws our entire judiciary into disrepute.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is throwing water on earlier reports that his department has all but ruled out bringing in income splitting for families in the next budget. "Joint filing is one of the items that is on the table," Flaherty told the Canadian Press in an interview from Rome. He was in Europe for a meeting of the G-7 finance ministers.

The scientist whose group took part in groundbreaking embryonic stem cell research in 1998 says cures using embryonic stem cells are likely decades away ... While Thomson believes researchers will learn how to grow embryonic stem cells into various forms of body tissue and organs within a decade, he also thinks safety concerns will delay cures for humans.

Mr. Larsen, 28, began seeing a therapist in Jersey City, joining others across the country making similar attempts to eliminate their gay desires through therapy or religious ministries dedicated to that end. Most are caught in similarly anguishing crises of faith and identity, searching for a way out through a murky world of intense dispute and warring political agendas.

In one way or another, however, the left has for more than two centuries tried to undermine families - including today redefining the words "marriage" and "family" to include whatever kind of people want to live together in whatever way for whatever reason. If "marriage" can mean anything, then it means nothing.

The latest Vatican statistics confirm that the church's population and ministerial workforce are continuing to shift to developing countries, especially those in Africa and Asia. Figures released Feb. 12 showed that the overall number of Catholics increased to nearly 1.12 billion at the end of 2005, an increase of 1.5 percent from the previous year.

Telus is getting static from customers over its new tele-porn feature. Telus spokesman Jim Johannsson confirmed yesterday the company has received "more than 100" complaints from irate customers, but has no plans to cancel the feature. The company says it's offering the portable porn to protect their customers from on-line viruses.

Pope Benedict XVI reportedly lashed out against laws that he said threaten the family and social order, saying none "can overturn that of the Creator." "No law made by man can overturn that of the Creator without dramatically affecting society in its very foundation," said the pope.

A new department created to prosecute crimes under scores of federal laws will handle some 65,000 cases annually, according to federal briefing documents released to the Star. And the newly created director of public prosecutions, who heads the department, will be politically independent and answer only to Canada's attorney general, says the Conservative government.

The Conservative government has loaded the committees that determine who can become a judge, selecting a series of Tories including former politicians, aides to ministers, riding association officials and defeated candidates. The influential but little-known judicial advisory committees were created in 1988 to take partisan politics out of the appointment of judges. But half - at least 16 out of 33 - of the people chosen by the federal justice minister as his nominees are conservative partisans, a review by The Globe and Mail has found.

Maybe it was spending the weekend in this honeymoon capital that inspired George Smitherman, Ontario's first openly gay cabinet minister, to reveal his summer wedding date. Smitherman, deputy premier and health minister who turns 43 today, told the Star the nuptials will take place Aug. 5 at a wilderness resort west of Sudbury. He and his long-time partner, Christopher Peloso, a 33-year-old manager of retail operations for chocolate company Lindt Canada, were quietly engaged on Christmas Day.

A religious television channel that has encouraged viewers to liquidate their retirement savings and charge up credit cards to make donations in the name of God may learn on Monday whether it answers to Canada's broadcast regulator as a higher power. The Miracle Channel, which is carried across the country on cable, is expected to be questioned about its fundraising methods when it appears before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

A science student in Kentucky says when the Bible records God spoke, and things were created, that's just what happened, and he can support that with scientific experiments. "If God spoke everything into existence as the Genesis record proposes, then we should be able to scientifically prove that the construction of everything in the universe begins with a) the Holy Spirit (magnetic field); b) Light (an electric field); and c) that Light can be created by a sonic influence or sound," Samuel J. Hunt writes on his website.

The list truly is a "Who's Who" of prominent scientists in the world today, and now another 100 ranking leaders have added their signatures to a challenge to Darwin's theory of evolution. It's for those who have reached the epitome of their fields, but still are questioning the validity of the Darwinian philosophy and want to put their concerns in writing.

The Roman Catholic archbishop of Vancouver is considering cancelling contracts with Telus after the phone company began making pornography available through its cellphones. Canada's second largest phone company now offers pornographic photos and videos to its customers and confirms it has been receiving complaints from upset customers. Telus introduced the service in January. In doing so, it became the first wireless provider in the country to offer pornographic photos and videos at $3-4 each.