"Cops have been getting a lot of bad rap recently - but it's not fair. Join JonTime for our look at those defending the law. It's Peace Police!"

http://jontime.net/?p=404

"Fighter jets intercepted two Russian bombers flying about 75 kilometres off Canada’s Arctic coast in the early morning hours Thursday, NORAD revealed to CBC News.

Two CF-18s met the Tupolev Tu-95 long-range bombers, commonly referred to as "Bears," at around 1:30 a.m. PT as they flew a course in “the western reaches” of Canada’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the Beaufort Sea, said Maj. Beth Smith, spokeswoman for North American Aerospace Defence Command.

The ADIZ extends approximately 320 kilometres from Canada’s coastlines, a distance far beyond the 22 kilometres, or 12 nautical miles, from the coast that define a nation’s sovereign airspace. Smith made it clear that the Russian bombers never entered Canada’s sovereign airspace, but did come within about 75 kilometres of Canada's mainland.

The encounter comes one day after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delivered a speech in Parliament thanking Canada for its ongoing support as his country’s forces battle with pro-Russian separatist rebels.

“This is disturbing. We’ve heard stories like in the past, of Russian bombers challenging Canadian airspace,” said James Bezan, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of National Defence and a Conservative MP from Manitoba.

“This plays into the narrative of a Putin regime that’s more aggressive not just in Crimea, not just in Ukraine, but indeed testing their neighbour in their entire region," he said.

About six hours before the CF-18s intercepted the Russian bombers, American F-22 fighter jets were scrambled from a base in Alaska to meet a group of Russian aircraft, including two refuelling tankers, two MiG-31 fighters and two long-range bombers.

After the U.S. jets made contact, the group headed west back towards Russian airspace.

“We’re seeing increased aggressive actions being taken by the Russian Federation,” Bezan said during an interview on CBC’s Power & Politics.

Despite the ongoing tensions between Western allies and Russia, it is not the first time Canadian and U.S. aircraft have intercepted Russian bombers seemingly flying toward sovereign airspace.

According to Smith, NORAD has dispatched fighter jets to make contact with Russian long-range bombers “in excess of 50 times” in the last five years.

Canadian jets intercepted the same type of long-range bombers off the coast of Newfoundland in 2010. After that incident, Peter MacKay, then minister of defence, told CBC News that Canadian military aircraft intercept between 12 and 18 Russian bombers annually."

With files from The Canadian Press and http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/story/1.2772440

The "North Warning System" is the most sophisticated radar, satellite and auxiliary dedication system in the world. Russia will not ever be able to penetrate it without NORAD knowing. In a conventional war with North America, Russian forces would never touch the continent. American naval supremacy in the Pacific and Atlantic would assure continental lockdown: Russia deploying troops through Canada's north would not only be impractical but impossible. Any air invasion would be fairly easily negated; their best hope for winning (winning defined as doing damage to North America) a war with NATO would be MAD, which they will never commit themselves to. Fear not, they know they can't win.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100286852/thank-god-my-country-is-still-intact/

"Thank God. Just thank God. I don’t much care at the moment whether God is Scottish, and is glowering approvingly at Great Britain from over His bands and Geneva gown, or whether He is English and is raising a glass of sherry with an absent-minded smile. At least my country is intact.

When I say, “my country”, I don’t just mean what it says on my passport. I’m one of those UK nationals – a minority, perhaps, but not an insignificant one – who self-identify as British. In England, Scotland and Wales, older patriotisms generally take precedence (Northern Ireland is a special case, obviously). Although many people across Great Britain are convinced, indeed passionate, Unionists, a “Yes” vote wouldn’t have forced them to redefine their identity. The UK might have been divided, and they might have been sorry to see it go, but they’d have carried on being English or Scottish or Welsh.

Those of us who are British first had no such fall-back. A “Yes” vote would have meant the end of the country we belonged to – the end of its name, of its flag, of our internal map of home.

I love England dearly, and couldn’t be prouder to represent the Home Counties in the European Parliament. But I’m not English by birth or much ancestry. I’d have had mentally to change my homeland in order to stay at home. As the polls narrowed, I began to sink into a black despair the like of which I have never known. For the first time in my life, I found myself waking in the night from anxiety.

Earlier this evening I attended a friend’s wedding blessing. The service ended with “I vow to thee me country”, and a piper played “Highland Cathedral” as the recessional. I found my cheeks wet with tears. They are wet again now as I write.

There will be consequences, of course. “Devo Max” – or, as we used to call it before we started mangling our language “Home Rule” – is now a democratic necessity. It’s not just that all the main parties have promised it; it’s that there is no other way to unite the two sides. Home Rule for Scotland will then have implications for the other three parts of the country, forcing massive devolution all round. Good.

But that’s for tomorrow. For now, just rejoice. Rejoice at the fact that we live in a country that wants no unwilling subjects. (Try seceding from France or Spain or Italy or even the United States.) Rejoice that democracy works: we’ve just seen a record-breaking turnout on a record-breaking registration.
Rejoice, most of all, that the nation which, over the past three centuries, has achieved more than any rival on the planet, has a new lease of life. The United Kingdom is a country people want to belong to, and the world is a better place.

Be Britain still to Britain true,
Amang ourselves united;
For never but by British hands
Maun British wrangs be righted!
No! never but by British hands
Shall British wrangs be righted!"

United forever! ♥

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN9EC3Gy6Nk

It's been slowly creeping in for quite some time now. It's no where near where it once was. Tomorrow's vote, however, could be the fatal blow. If Scotland is to leave the UK, "the thistle, shamrock, rose entwine" will be no more. Scotland's participation is the entire United in United Kingdom. Sure, there'll still be North Ireland, Wales and England...

But there won't be Scotland, and I don't know about you, but the very idea of such a travesty is so upsetting to me. This would truly be the death of our empire. I patiently await tomorrow's results and hope, strongly, for a no. I don't care about the present situation. The present situation is no reason to disband such an imperial history of brotherhood, probably one of the richest cultures in all the world. William Wallace may have died for Scottish freedom, but this is only going to hurt you all. Please don't kill our empire.

God save the Queen.
God save us all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB2yiIoEtXw