And What A Day!

Did you know that today is National Potato Day in Peru? Enjoy a potato, or creamy, cheesy mashed potatoes.

It is also the feast day of Saint Joan of Arc, Mel Blanc's birthday, the anniversay of when the "Goddess of Democracy" statue was erected in Tiananmen Square, Indian Arrival Day in Trinidad and Tobago and Canary Islands' Day in Canary Islands (where else?).

The Hardest-Working People On the Planet

The hardest-working people are...the Koreans. I could have told you that. These people need a month-long vacation. I doubt the fairly recent five-day work-week is sufficient. It has been my experience that people would take an hour to two hour long trip home after putting twelve to sixteen hours of work in. Leaving when the boss leaves is unheard of. The titles still confound me. While in Canada, many take liberties and refer to someone they've just met or an older person by a familiar name. Not so in Korea. There are titles for the home and workplace. They exist everywhere.

I respected (and still respect) the South Koreans for their work ethic. However, rest is just as therapeutic as earning a day's wage.

A Rare Glimpse of Humanity

Despite being a totalitarian state with an enforced one-child policy (a policy many say is useless as well as draconian), repression of its citizens, a government that aids rogue states in warfare against its people, crooked consumer practices, the Chinese have decided to forego their traditional stances on adoption and reach out to earthquake orphans.

Let's hope this sticks.

An Empty Wagon

The Koreans have a saying: Bin suraega yoranhada. It translates into: an empty wagon is noisy. Basically, stupid people make alot of noise. Judge if you will these examples.



Though I haven't seen Bella (a remarkable movie, so I'm told), I have been made to understand it is a film with a pro-life message. Not according to one viewer:

Correct me if I'm mistaken-- the woman entered an abortion clinic and chose not
to abort the child, therefore the movie wasn't Pro-Life, but Pro-Choice.
Pro-Choice is about having the means necessary to have an abortion and chosing
whether or not to take advantage of it. She chose to deny those services, so she
in fact-- made a choice. The term "Pro-Life" orginated before the opposition had
their title of "Pro-Choice". "Pro-life" was coined in such wording to make it
appear as if pro-choice = pro-death, when in fact pro-choice is about supplying
safe means for women to choose to keep the child or not, without having to worry
about the dangers of back-room abortions which have led to disease and very
often death through out various cultures of the world, inbedded in those
socities for many years before us, and I'm sure many years to come. Bella was a
beautiful portrayal of how women come to terms with unexpected pregnancy, and
I've seen people turned away from it due to its supposedly pro-life message, and
that is being close-minded in my opinion. Just as it was close-minded for people
to grasp onto such a label without really thinking it through.

I believe the terms need some clarification. The so-called pro-choice faction hate the word "abortion" with a passion because it is an ugly word with an ugly meaning. I have yet to hear so-called pro-choice believers openly and unreservedly advocate adoption over abortion. As for me, I personally refuse to coax anybody's ego. If you support abortion, you are pro-abortion because that is what you believe in. If there is nothing wrong with it, don't shy away from the word.

If the hijab is nothing more than "a flimsy piece of cloth", as this writer suggests, then would he kindly explain this, this and this. And really, isn't Islamophobia nothing more than certain parties worried that the rest of the world might not approve of wife-beating, effigy-burning and wilful murder?

Is it Myanmar, or Burma? How about Burma seeing as the military government prefers Myanmar?

Just some thoughts.

Milestones

May 8th marks the end of the European conflict of the Second World War and the birth of modern Israel.

From 1939 to 1945, Canada, among other nations, bravely fought against fascist tyranny. The war scarred men, women, children, nations. Though other Pandora's boxes were opened (the Iron Curtain and the dawn of the nuclear age), other evils were dealt with. Men died for others they had never met.

Israel has transformed itself from a fledgling scrap of desert into a modern state, perhaps the only civilised one in the Middle East.

Here's to you.

Quick Thoughts On Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn is like a train. You can either stand in front of him and get knocked down, or you can get out of the way.

Three law students who appeared with him on tvo's The Agenda should have figured that out by now. Mr. Steyn appeared on the program to justify his position on the Maclean's Muslim article matter.

It is my opinion that Mr. Steyn defended himself in his typical outstanding and out-of-the-way manner and the three law students blathered on how his written words (some of which are statistics and polls- what some may call empirical evidence) and let their insecurities show. The moderator did his job and caught both sides on their comments (basically, he never let anyone get away with rhetoric).

If one had read America Alone, Mr. Steyn, though very pointed in his manner, was clear to distinguish Westernised Muslims from fundamentalists bent on domination.

For more, please go here.

Just my thoughts.

Another Reason Why We Should Stay

Another Canadian soldier is killed.

Corporal Michael Starker, an EMS in civilian life, was killed in an exchange of gunfire in the Pashmul region in Afghanistan. He is described as having had a "heart of gold". He will be sorely missed by all those who knew him.

It's bad enough that certain individuals attack school girls (here and here, if it pleases some), kill Korean missionaries and support the killing of the brave men and women serving in the Canadian Forces, but now they kill those who treat ALL patients, Afghani or otherwise.

Real bravery.

Shoah

...The grave was finished, but the spade

Remained in memory.

(Emily Dickinson, poem 111)