All the News That Fits Like Print

Like a glove I say!

McCain chooses Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, as his vice-president. She is a working mother with political experience, is pro-life, hard-working and can rock a pair of high-heels. Ha! In your face, Obama! Choosing some guy who doesn't know what the Church teaches. Yeah, that will win voters over.

If anyone still doubts al-Qaeda's homicidal tendencies and willingness to use innocent people for their twisted aims, please read here. For the record, they are not desperate, they are evil. This is not progressive, it is murder.

When an arbiter ruled against Cuban athlete Angel Matos, he kicked the said arbiter in the face. Fidel Castro, ever wont to preserve the image of the gracious communist, defended the athlete's actions, saying that Matos' kick to the face was "heroic" in the presence of wealthier athletes (but Michael Moore said Cuba was a "paradise). Is that so? I assumed Matos assaulted the man because he was a spoiled bully who didn't get his way.

I often wonder if artistes even know who Hitler is. In order to make an adequate comparison of someone or something, there must be a resemblance. How Stephen Harper and George Bush resemble the infamous Austrian dictator, I do not know, but refusing to fund certain artists can hardly be considered oppressive or a case of censorship. If I was Stephen Harper, I would milk this. I would say: "This is why you're not getting funding. You can't even tell me who Hitler is, let alone produce a taxpayer-funded work that someone will pay $8 to see." Childish mud-slinging is a refuge of the scoundrel.

This makes me mad. The Vancouver Gold Club in Coquitlam, British Columbia has has decided to enforce an English-only policy. Many of its Korean members did not have adequate English skills to participate fully. The management had to draw the line somewhere. Good. Having spent four years teaching in Korea, something I enjoyed and do not regret, I wonder what my efforts were for if my students wouldn't use what was taught to them. Furthermore, Canada, having established language laws, should not have to cater to those whose sole reason for not adapting is because they would rather not. Also, it puts strain on those who work at the golf club because they cannot properly assist their clients. On a very personal note, I am surprised at this kind of thing from Koreans who impressed me with their willingness to learn and engage others from other parts of the world. I sincerely hope this is an isolated incident and not typical.

What the Hell...?

Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden are lying sacks of something. They must be desperate to even consider the possibility of Catholic voters being so stupid as to accept the nonsense that abortion is within Catholic Church social teachings.

Here is what the Catholic Church says about abortion:

It is evident that the determination of what is right or wrong in human
conduct belongs to the science of ethics and the teaching of religious authority. Both of these declare the Divine law, "Thou shalt not kill". The embryonic child, as seen above, has a human soul; and therefore is a man from the time of its conception; therefore it has an equal right to its life with its mother; therefore neither the mother, nor medical practitioner, nor any human being whatever can lawfully take that life away.

Refer to the stances Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Baha'is and other Christian sects respectively hold:

"Hinduism teaches that abortion, like any other act of violence, thwarts a
soul in its progress toward God.

Under the first of the five Buddhist precepts--to refrain from taking life,
from insects on up the evolutionary ladder--abortion is proscribed. Life is
deemed to begin as soon as consciousness arises, and fetuses are seen as having
consciousness. The Buddha's rules for his community of monks also forbade anyone
from recommending abortion. Some practitioners of Japanese Zen who have had a
miscarriage or abortion honor or make an offering to the deity Jizo, the god of lost
travelers and children. It is believed that Jizo will steward the child until it is reborn in another incarnation.

Muslims consider a fertilized ovum that is attached to the womb a living
being that has the potential of reaching its full formation. A developed fetus
is considered a human life and is subject to the laws of inheritance to the
extent that if the mother is sentenced to capital punishment, her life should be
preserved because she is carrying another human life.

And just as any person may not voluntarily do harm to his or her body, a
woman may not voluntarily abort a fetus.

"Baha'is believe the soul becomes associated with the body at conception, and the deliberate taking of human life is generally not permitted. Baha'i writings clearly state that abortion merely to prevent the birth of an unwanted child is
forbidden.

The Orthodox Church teaches that abortion is the killing of a child. Grave
questions like these are settled by the Holy Spirit's guidance, which is found pre-eminently in Scripture, and other writings and community decisions must be consistent with Scripture. From the earliest years, Christian writings have instructed "Do not murder a child by abortion or kill one who has been born" (The Didache, c. 70-80 C.E.).

According to the Southern Baptist Convention's official statement, "At the
moment of conception, a new being enters the universe, a human being, a being
created in God's image. This human being deserves our protection, whatever the
circumstances of conception."

Now that the beliefs of the world's major religions have been established, although briefly, maybe politicians everywhere can refer to them instead of yanking the electorate's collective chain.

Backlog

It’s about time I clear this backlog before this blog expires.

Recent events have shown two ways in which history repeats itself- Russia does something and the West does nothing.

Russia’s invasion of Georgia (it was Russia who started it, for the record) was not its first incursion into a former Bloc country's sovereignty, as the attempted assassination of the Ukrainian president and cessation of heating gas to Ukraine and the quarrel over Russian “war heroes” in Estonia proves. Putin (he never did leave power no matter what the puppet Medvedev may have you believe) has stepped up his attempts to discredit Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakaashvili, and nothing shows a leader’s powerlessness than invading his country (with its vital oil pipelines and ports) while he pleads in vain for the West to help him. The West has done its best to wag its fingers at the recalcitrant Russia (which is still present in Georgia, thus, confirming what political analysts have known since the beginning of this mess). Poland, wasting no more time deciding what was best for it, has allowed the US to build a missile defense system which would ward off possible attack from Iran’s burgeoning missile growth, but might not help if Russia decides to attack Poland, which it has threatened to do. Poland, Russia believes, has arrogantly put a wedge in relation between the countries. So it believes.

The facts are simple yet forgotten. Russia has been expansionist even in its tsarist days but especially during the dark days of communism under which several million perished. When murder and gulags could not achieve the effect of silencing dissent, exile worked just as well. Exile seems, in retrospect, a two-pronged strategy: it removes an offending Russian only to plant him in a territory that may prove strategic later on. This is why Russians are found in places like Kazakhstan and Georgia. A Russian’s residence, however, makes him no more a Kazakh or Georgian than a Canadian living in the US makes him an American. Russians are culturally, linguistically, politically and socially different from the Ukrainians, Poles, Georgians, Ossetians, Abkhazians, Tartars, Kazakhs, Hungarians, Czechs, Koreans and every other people on whom Russia has “exerted” its influence. Russia has never kept promises, observed local rites, customs or languages, nor has it apologised for past atrocities (pogroms, the Holodomor, Katyn forest massacre, killing students in Prague and Hungary, causing WWII or the gulags) and has gone so far as to claim they are the victims, if they could deny the facts no longer (remember- Putin has made claims that 2,000 people were killed by the Georgians yet the claim is incredible). Russia, angered that Georgia and Ukraine could gain independence, has tried to destabilize the countries in various ways. Putin issued Russian passports to Ossetians and Abkhazians in 2004. If the said nationalities wish to distance themselves from Georgia, then acquiring passports from a country notorious for its violent assimilationist policies could prove their undoing. The West would be glad to have this swept under the rug, just as Russia would be, but if the Ossetians and the Abkhazians truly trust Russia, then they will sign a pact stating that no matter happens, the West will never help them. Russia looks after its own.

The next time I hear Canadian athletes complain that their government doesn’t fund their efforts to legitimize a communist country- I mean- participate in the Olympics, I would like to point out Afghanistan’s first medalist. Sure, it’s just a bronze but it’s no ordinary bronze. It’s a “work-my-butt-off-and-nobody-funded-me” bronze.

Steve Coogan is a funny man. However, his newest film, “Hamlet 2”, isn’t so much offensive as it is unoriginal. Making fun of Christians, Christianity, Jesus and William Shakespeare has been done before, in varying nauseating degrees. In order to shake the ground these days one would have to make a comedy about pro-abortionists (have you read their blogs? The material writes itself), cartoons and books about Mohammad (yes, that, too, has been done before but the only thing widespread was the damage not the coverage) and a musical about homosexuals. That would be bold. “Hamlet 2” is just the same old joke told over and over.

The Tories have "bravely" skirted Bill C-484, a bill that would punish the harm or murder of a pregnant woman and her unborn child. What would the courts and government of Canada like victims of violent crime to do? They do the bare minimum for victims, anyway, and now the assault or murder of a pregnant woman and her child can carry on with impunity. If no one is going to be punished, then why do anything at all?

The Conscience of Russia

Let your creed be 'Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph, but not through me.' "
-Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago and Cancer Ward- both scathing novels dictating the evil of communism- passed away this past Sunday (please read here). Described as the "conscience of Russia", Solzhenitsyn merely wanted to be a voice heard rather than The Voice. The Soviet Union, with the help of people like Walter Duranty and weak-willed Western politicians, could not recover from Solzhenitsyn's Gulag. Having failed to get rid of all the witnesses, all the Soviets could do was exile Solzhenitsyn, which they did in 1974. Praise and pardon for Solzhenitsyn came from Gorbachev and Putin but such hollow gestures merely expose the Russian tendency to deflect blame, something that puts Russia behind other nations politically and spiritually. In the end, younger Russians, who would have benefited from Solzhenitsyn's works, cast him aside. Maybe his death might restore the interest in him and let the Lie be exposed once more.