Your Singhs today - Part of the Wedding party nabbed at the border

In a story straight out of Border Security, two graduates of the notorious Singh School of Truck Driving -- Ranjit Singh Rowal and Iqbal Singh Virk -- both "Toronto men", have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other federal charges in California, in connection with a transnational drug-smuggling conspiracy, allegedly led by former Team Canada Olympian Ryan Wedding.

The Sikh gentlemen are the first Canadians to sign plea deals with US prosecutors following the FBI's "Operation Giant Slalom", a massive investigation revealed last fall. The probe -- named after Mr Wedding's previous career as an elite snowboarder [snowboarder, geddit? Ed.] -- sought to dismantle his alleged drug trafficking network, which uses commercial transport trucks to move tons of cocaine and fentanyl across North America.

The group has also been linked to at least four murders in Ontario. Mr Wedding, who competed for Canada at the 2002 Olympic Games in Utah, is listed as one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives, with a $10-million reward offered for information leading to his capture. Readers may send their tips to Walt at the usual address, and I will definitely pass them on the relevant authorities.

According to documents recently filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, .Messrs Virk and Rowal have each committed to plead guilty to charges including conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

They were arrested in August of last year as they tried to cross the Blue Water Bridge from Michigan to Sarnia ON, while carrying 95 kg of cocaine bricks and 20 kg of heroin in a secret compartment in the trailer. 

They attempted to conceal the drugs by carrying legal goods and documentation to show the products were meant to be hauled from the US. to Canada. However, CBP agents pulled their truck over for a secondary inspection, where an X-ray scanner and a sniffer dog revealed the "non-factory" compartment.

CBC News discovered that the trailer was registered to a company based in Brampton ON linked to Mr Rowal. A grand jury indictment unsealed last October named him and Mr Virk -- Indian citizens who hold permanent resident status in Canada -- as well as 14 others as members of Mr Wedding's drug ring. 

The indictment said the pair worked on behalf of a transportation network that handled the gang's shipments to Canada. However, the transnational criminal operation didn't always go smoothly. Court documents reveal an internal dispute in May 2024 led to one big drug shipment being called off. 

According to the plea, Messrs Virk and Rowal pulled over at a rest stop in southern California, expecting to receive a 347-kg load of cocaine. Their truck, however, only had room for 250 kg. Through an intermediary, Mr Wedding purportedly offered to pay C$150,000 (about $108,000 in real money) to move the reduced shipment, instead of the agreed rate of $220,000. 

But Gurpreet Singh, a Sikh and allegedly a leader of the transportation network, wouldn't agree to the cut rate.The shipment was called off. Mr Singh and his uncle, Hardeep Singh Ratte, who are accused of co-ordinating cocaine shipments to Canada for Mr Wedding, both remain in custody in Ontario while facing extradition to the US of A. How difficult it must be at the jail when the guards call for "Singh" and everybody stands up!

CBC News recently reported that a historic drug bust in Peel Region, west of Toronto, mirrored the smuggling route used by the Sikh truckers. Peel police (known locally as "boobies") said it's highly likely the Wedding network remains active in the so-called Greater Toronto Area.

Mr Wedding -- alias "Public Enemy", "Giant", "El Jefe", and "The Boss" -- is said to still trafficking drugs while on the run, and to have access to a network of hitmen. The FBI thinks he may be hiding in... wait for it... Mexico, under the protection of the murderous Sinaloa cartel.

Note from Ed.: This is an edited version of a report by Thomas Daigle, of CBC News. Since the Canadian Broadcorping Castration is funded by Canada's very Liberal government, we assume they don't need any money they might get by suing us.

Pope Leo XIV echoes the looney left's call for "peaceful coexistence"

On Sundays I go my local church, where we still have the Mass of All Time, so failed to attend Pope Leo XIV's Mass in St. Peter's Square on Sunday. 

ABC News reports that, in his homily, Pope Prevost criticized the surge of "nationalist political movements in the world" and called for "reconciliation and dialogue" with... well, he didn't say who we should "dialogue" with, but I would guess that he meant the people now mixing up the Molotov cocktails.

That would accord with the Pope's pledges to make the Catholic Church a symbol of peace. Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, so Leo asked the Holy Spirit to "break down barriers and tear down the walls of indifference and hatred." The leftist commentariat tell us he meant the Great Wall now abuilding between the USA and Mexico, not the other one.

"Where there is love, there is no room for prejudice," the Pontiff went on (and on) "for 'security’ zones separating us from our neighbours, for the exclusionary mindset that, tragically, we now see emerging also in political nationalisms." Again, he did not name any specific country or politician.

"First of all, peace in our hearts, for only a peaceful heart can spread peace in the family, society and international relations," Leo said, then prayed for reconciliation and dialogue wherever there is war in the world. He didn't say anything about Los Angeles.

Victor Davis Hanson on the sad state of America's cities... and society

 Victor Davis Hanson is an American classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Washington Times and other media outlets. His clear thinking has been reposted on WWW; plug his name into the search window to find earlier posts. 

Yesterday, Mr Hanson's latest thoughts on the decline and fall of the Disunited States of America were published on the American Greatness website under the headline "America’s Decline?". Subhead: The remedies are agreed upon, but the needed medicine is feared more than the disease. Because today, the government is the cause of our many crises. Here's the first part of his commentary.

Now with the election of Joe Biden, what had been a fast-tracked decline has accelerated at such an astonishing rate we can scarcely recognize our country.

Our largest cities are becoming uninhabitable—dilapidated, dangerous, and dysfunctional. The challenge is not just rampant crime, but the realization that if you, the citizen, are stabbed, shot, or beaten up on the street, the perpetrators may well be exempt from most punishments. And the victim either will be forgotten in his misery or, indeed, blamed for bringing such violence upon himself.

Urban schools are not places of instruction anymore. That fact is accepted by teachers’ unions, whose operative principle seems to be that the more hopeless the idea of educating urban youth is understood to be, the less burdensome the workload, and the greater their hazardous duty pay.

Urban chain stores are closing down on the principle that if police cannot or will not stop consumer violence and theft, then consumers there should not have any store to buy anything, anyway. If there is no store, how can it be looted or shop-lifted? [That's called "reparations shopping"! Ed.]

The only mystery remaining is how long these Democrat-controlled, racially charged, and corrupt municipalities can sustain their budgets and pension commitments with increasingly declining revenue. One can tax the well off, and perhaps even gouge them as California does. But one cannot insult and ridicule them in the process. Being highly taxed is one thing, being highly taxed while hated is quite another.

How eerie that medievalism—defecting, urinating, fornicating, injecting in the street—is relabeled “homelessness—as if the problem is merely a shortage of apartments or tent cities. Somehow cities developed the notion that it was crueler to be told not to pull down one’s pants and defecate in the street than it was for a pedestrian to step into infectious human excrement.

In the next five years, either cities will seek new governance to reduce taxes, break up municipal unions, mandate charter schools, restore police funding and manpower, recalibrate pensions, and prosecute criminals and corrupt officials—or Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, and a score of others will become Detroit. [And let's not forget Chicago! Ed.]

One of the strangest phenomena amid our current debility are the millions of affluent leftists and liberals who have fled their unworkable, now unlivable blue-run, but naturally beautiful cities like San Francisco or Portland. They seem to lack an abstract recognition why they are leaving, or why and how their new chosen destinations are so different and therefore so inviting to them. Is their motto, “I am fleeing what I created, but I still hate those who created what I want”?

Mr Hanson is not one to post a jeremiad without suggesting some solutions, and he does so in the latter part of this article. Click here to read the whole thing. But will Mr Hanson's sensible solutions be enacted? Walt says there are two chances... slim and none!

AL teacher suspended for giving kids "The L.A. Math Proficiency Test"

What follows is (according to Snopes) an Internet meme which has been around since the 90s. Somehow this escaped Walt's attention until earlier this month the Washington Post reported, in its Education section, that a Mobile AL public school teacher has been suspended after giving "The L.A. Math Proficiency Test" to Grade 8 students, just a few days before the end of the school year.

Apparently some of the kids' parents -- well, one parent, anyway -- complained to the Mobile County Public School System that the quiz that drew used inappropriate themes and had "racist overtones". Check it out and see if you can figure out why they would think that.

1. Ramon has an AK 47 with a 30 round clip. He usually misses 6 out of every 10 shots and he uses 13 rounds per drive-by shooting. How many drive-by shootings can Ramon attempt before he has to steal more ammo and reload?

2. Leroy has 2 ounces of cocaine. If he sells an eightball to Antonio for $320 and 2 grams to Juan for $85 per gram, what is the street value of the rest of his hold?

3. Dwayne pimps 3 ho’s. If the price is $85 per trick, how many tricks per day must each ho turn to support Dwayne’s $800 per day crack habit?

4. Raul wants to cut the pound of cocaine he bought for $40,000 to make a 20% profit. How many one ounce bags will he need to make to obtain the 20% profit?

5. Desmond gets $200 for a stolen BMW, $150 for stealing a Corvette, and $100 for a 4×4. If he steals one BMW, 2 Corvettes, and 3 4x4s, how many more Corvettes must he steal to have $900?

6. Pedro got 6 years for murder. He also got $10,000 for the hit. If his common-law wife spends $100 of the hit money per month, how much money will be left when he gets out?

7. If an average can of spray paint covers 22 square feet, and the average letter is 3 square feet, how many letters can be sprayed with three 8 ounce cans of spray paint with 20% paint left over?

8. Tyrone knocked up four girls in the gang. There are 20 girls in the gang. What is the exact percentage of girls that Tyrone knocked up?

9. LaShaundra is a lookout for the gang. Lacuna also has a boa constrictor that eats 5 rats per week at a cost of $5 per rat. If LaShaundra makes $700 per week as a lookout, how many weeks can she feed the boa on one week’s income?

10. Marvin steals Juan’s skateboard. As Marvin skates away at 15 miles per hour, Juan loads his .357 Magnum. If it takes Juan 20 seconds to load his piece, how far away will Marvin be when he gets whacked?

The Post (Donald Trump's least favourite newspaper) quotes school board spokesthingy Rena Philips as saying that a parent raised concerns about the assignment, in response to which the school immediately called the PC police and placed the teacher on administrative leave.

Ms Philips declined to identify the teacher or offer more details, citing privacy concerns related to personnel matters. "We regret that this happened, especially so close to the end of the school year," she said. "We have 7500 employees in Mobile County public schools, and the vast majority of them are doing phenomenal work in our classrooms."