An Open Letter From Japan to China

Dear China,

Screw you.

Where do you get off asking for an apology? No, we don't mean what happened during the second Sino-Japanese War or other atrocities during the Second World War. We're truly sorry for that. It was a sin and a crime for which we apologise without reservation. No, we mean our arrest of a Chinese trawler captain.

In case you weren't paying attention, he ran into us. If you chose to be adults about this and treated it like a misunderstanding, we would have sent him on his way and continued our discussion about the Senkaku Islands (or Diaoyu Islands, as you call them) at the UN where you already hold a permanent seat on the security council and have used your clout time and time again to save Iran and North Korea's necks.

But noooooooooooo!

You decided to make a big deal about this. You decided to make us look like the bad guys who hassled some poor skipper and held him against his will while you tried so desperately to free him from our terrible clutches. How did you put it? "I reiterate that what Japan did to the Chinese boat captain in its so-called judicial proceedings were illegal and invalid," Jiang said in a statement posted on the ministry's website. You people ought to know about due process. You even gave him a photo op with his wife and token oneling handing him flowers like he was some guy held in Iran for a couple of years. He even thanked the Party for freeing him! Yeah, like a guy with a fourth-grade education actually wrote a speech like that. How convenient, and by convenient we mean terribly suspect and full of crap. Then you detained four of our citizens who were trying to figure out the best way to clean up the mess we made during the war AND you halted exports of elements we need to make all those fancy gadgets the white guys in the West won't make. Dirty pool, China. Dirty pool (in the sense that it's not fair play, not the filthy conditions under which your citizens live).

In closing, stick your demand for an apology in your ear. Let's be honest- the only reason why you want those islands is because of the resources on them. If this trawler captain lived in one of the decrepit hovels you call apartment buildings, you wouldn't hesitate to kick him and his family out to the curb. His luck that he is used as a pawn for the Party will run out, as it has done for SO many of the suckers your citizens since Mao shoved their rice in his fat, lying yap. If you put as much effort into looking after your own people as you do in being rude to the Koreans, your country might be a First World nation right now.

Yours in Prada,

Japan

Mid-Week Post

Two US senators ignore the rock and a hard place and urge the Obama administration to punish China for investing in Iran:

Two senior senators are urging the Obama administration to punish the Chinese National Petroleum Co. for investing in Iran.


In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer say the Chinese company has violated a new U.S. law aimed at discouraging foreign investment in Iran.


A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said China strongly opposes sanctions against Iran's nuclear activities beyond those imposed by the United Nations, which he said should be followed by all members.

The letter is aimed at prodding the administration to enforce the U.S. law generally. It singles out the Chinese company specifically, however, for its agreement last year to invest in Iran's South Azadegan oil field.

"The administration should penalize CNPC, and other Chinese entities, for helping Iran evade international pressure and undermine the co-operation we've obtained from allies like Japan and South Korea," the letter says.

The lawmakers also cite two other Chinese companies, Sinopec and Zhuhai Zhenrong, and the Turkish energy company Turpas.

Wang Baodong, the Chinese Embassy spokesman, told The Associated Press that China is "strongly opposed to unilateral sanctions beyond the relevant U.N. resolutions on Iranian nuclear issues, which are the guidelines that all U.N. members should strictly follow."

He said China does not want the United States to allow "damaging developments" that would "harm China-U.S. relations and bilateral economic and trade co-operation."

Obama signed the Iran Sanctions Act into law in July. It focuses on Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard and the country's imports of gasoline and other refined energy products. Among other aims, it seeks to penalize foreign companies that help Iran's energy sector.

This is yet another reason why we should not invest in or trade with in China, and apply punitive measures to companies that exploit slave labour. Resource-hungry China might not care about Iran's ambitions (or might care about them a great deal- discuss) but even Obama-run America must realise how precarious a Chinese-backed Iran is. Action against this human rights abuser might very well prevent an armed conflict further down the road. Chinese arms and Iranian oil. Two strong and unethical arms only spell trouble in key regions of the world. America doesn't want to thank Obama for destroying the economy. It won't  want to thank Obama for feeding two monsters.

A Good Samaritan gets beaten:

A veteran trucker who was badly beaten and left for dead by the side of the Yellowhead Highway says his hauling days are over. 

Alex Fraser underwent reconstructive surgery at Royal Inland Hospital Tuesday to repair a damaged eye socket and three broken bones in his cheek — injuries he received while being a Good Samaritan to a stranded vehicle's occupants. 

"I look like an ex-boxer," said Fraser from his hospital bed. 

 The 67-year-old was attacked late Friday just north of Blue River.


He was driving home to Vernon after delivering a load of flour in Edmonton when he noticed a car parked on the shoulder, its headlights facing him and its hood up. 

Fraser slowed his truck and saw at least two men near the stranded vehicle. 

"One fellow stood out from the lights and was waving his arms," recalled Fraser. "So I figured, 'OK, they've got problems; they need help.'" 

He walked to the front of his rig to offer his assistance and heard a man's voice shout, "You truckers are all alike!" 

Fraser was then hit on the back of the head and knocked out by what he believes was a third attacker who surprised him from behind. He doesn't remember what happened next, but someone beat him while he was unconscious. 

When he came to, the attackers were gone and he was covered in blood and too weak to stand.
Fraser crawled to the steps of his truck and fell unconscious again, waking just long enough to get into the sleeper compartment where he blacked out for a third time. 

He awoke near daybreak Saturday. 

"I didn't know where I was," he said. "The truck was still running. I figured, 'I can't stay here.' I couldn't see out of my right eye — could hardly see anything at all — but I managed to drive 34 kilometres into Blue River." 

The injured man pulled into the Husky station in Blue River, opened the door of his cab and fell to the ground. Those nearby rushed to his aid and called 911. 

Valemount RCMP are investigating the attack.

I hope they find those responsible and leave them on the side of the road during a blizzard.

Scientists find a planet similar to Earth (it's called Vulcan- joking...):

 Astronomers say they have for the first time spotted a planet beyond our own in what is sometimes called the Goldilocks zone for life: Not too hot, not too cold. Juuuust right.


Not too far from its star, not too close. So it could contain liquid water. The planet itself is neither too big nor too small for the proper surface, gravity and atmosphere.

It's just right. Just like Earth.

"This really is the first Goldilocks planet," said co-discoverer R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The new planet sits smack in the middle of what astronomers refer to as the habitable zone, unlike any of the nearly 500 other planets astronomers have found outside our solar system. And it is in our galactic neighbourhood, suggesting that plenty of Earth-like planets circle other stars.

Finding a planet that could potentially support life is a major step toward answering the timeless question: Are we alone?

Scientists have jumped the gun before on proclaiming that planets outside our solar system were habitable only to have them turn out to be not quite so conducive to life. But this one is so clearly in the right zone that five outside astronomers told The Associated Press it seems to be the real thing.

"This is the first one I'm truly excited about," said Penn State University's Jim Kasting. He said this planet is a "pretty prime candidate" for harbouring life.

Life on other planets doesn't mean E.T. Even a simple single-cell bacteria or the equivalent of shower mould would shake perceptions about the uniqueness of life on Earth.

 But there are still many unanswered questions about this strange planet. It is about three times the mass of Earth, slightly larger in width and much closer to its star — 22.5 million kilometres away versus 150 million. It's so close to its version of the sun that it orbits every 37 days. And it doesn't rotate much, so one side is almost always bright, the other dark.

Temperatures can be as hot as 71 degrees Celsius or as frigid as 31 degrees below zero, but in between — in the land of constant sunrise — it would be "shirt-sleeve weather," said co-discoverer Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz.

It's unknown whether water actually exists on the planet, and what kind of atmosphere it has. But because conditions are ideal for liquid water, and because there always seems to be life on Earth where there is water, Vogt believes "that chances for life on this planet are 100 per cent."

One day this could all be ours.

Someone clearly does not know with whom he is messing:

Sarah Palin has been granted a restraining order against a Pennsylvania man accused of stalking and threatening her.


Alaska Magistrate Judge Colleen Ray issued a 20-day protective order Monday against 18-year-old Shawn R. Christy, finding probable cause to believe he had stalked the former governor and vice-presidential candidate.

Palin and her attorney claimed Christy made implied threats through phone and written messages, allegedly telling Palin to watch her back and saying he was buying a one-way ticket to Alaska and sending a receipt for a gun purchase.

Christy was ordered to have no contact with Palin's family and to stay a mile away from her home.

Perhaps Christie should watch his back. Seriously. This guy must realise somewhere in his ovine mind that attempting to attack a woman who can take down a moose is a bad idea.

No surprise, really:

Two activists have exposed a disturbing phenomenon that they say is an open secret within the “peace camp”: female “peace” activists are routinely harassed and raped by the Arabs of Judea and Samaria with whom they have come to identify. They say the phenomenon has gotten worse lately and that many foreign women end up as wives of local Arabs against their will, but cannot escape their new homes.

Roni Aloni Sedovnik, a feminist activist, penned an article in News1 – an independent website run by respected investigative reporter Yoav Yitzchak – under the heading “The Left's Betrayal of Female Peace Activists Who were Sexually Assaulted.”...

 Aloni-Sedovnik cites two specific cases which she has knowledge of – one is a case of rape and another is “severe sexual harassment.” The attackers in both cases, she stresses, were familiar with the victims and knew that they were “peace activists.”


The rape occurred several months ago in the village of Umm Salmona, near Bethlehem. The victim, an American activist, wanted to press charges but leftist activists put pressure on her not to do so, so as not to damage the struggle against the 'occupation.'

The second case involved an Israeli activist who took part in the demonstrations at Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, where the High Court ruled that Jewish families may move into homes that they have owned for generations. This woman filed a complaint with the police but retracted it after “severe and unfair pressure” from the demonstrations' organizers, according to Aloni-Sedovnik. Furthermore, the organizers appealed to demonstrators to dress modestly when they come to the Arab neighborhoods and suggested that they wear head scarves.

Aloni-Sedovnik accuses the Israeli media of complicity in the cover-up.

“How is it that we do not hear the voice of the radical feminists who repeat, day and night, that occupation is occupation, and it does not matter if it is a nation that is doing the subjugation, or a man who is subjugating a woman?
"It appears that there is a gap between the radical-leftist feminist theory about the active resistance to the occupation of the Territories, and the stuttering self-annulment in the face of the violent conquest of women.”

The Umm Salmona case was reported in Haaretz as an attempted rape but does not seem to have made it beyond the blog pages...

Earlier this year, a blogger and literature buff named Yehudah Bello, who writes in various venues about history and the theory of evolution, wrote a blog post with the striking title: “The Female Leftist Activists are Raped Day after Day, Night after Night.” Bello is no ultra-nationalist, and he supports the creation of a PA state – a fact which makes his claims all the more believable.


Most female leftist European activists, writes Bello, are brainwashed in their youth into hating Israel, and then sent directly into Judea and Samaria, without spending a single night in Tel Aviv, lest they see civilian Israeli society for themselves and find that they like it. They are whisked off to Shechem, Jenin and other PA towns and housed in Arab educational or cultural facilities, or private homes. Local Arab girls are sent to befriend them and they have no choice but to trust them.

It is is easy, explains Bello, “to carry out a sexual crime against a foreign girl, in her first days away from her family, in a place where no police have ever visited. And this is what happens, and has happened.”

"I was told of such rape cases by women who are not Jewish: a female European leftist activist, a female Red Cross volunteer and a young Arab woman from Yafo,” he says. He says that he met these women when he carried out IDF reserve duty, and met them afterward as well. “They told me what goes on there, in the Palestinian villages, far from any prying eye.”

"These are not just cases of rape carried out to satisfy lust,” he writes. “Usually, they are carried out systematically in order to make the girl pregnant and then take her as a wife – after she converts to Islam, of course. We know about this system from the stories of women who underwent a similar process within Israel and escaped to Europe. But it is hard to escape from the Palestinian territories. Sometimes these women – some of whom are no longer young – are never allowed to leave their homes unaccompanied, in order to forestall their escape.”

I'm not going to ask the left where their outrage is nor am I going to ask what these fluffy-minded do-gooders were thinking. Rape is a disgusting crime. Any sane, rational, thinking, feeling person knows that. I'm simply not accusing the backward tribes of the Middle East of being rational, thinking or feeling. And nor should these "activists" now. Wearing hijabs and extolling the "virtues" of a cult where human life means nothing will never, ever endear one to this emotionally stunted tribe (why they thought that would work baffles me) nor will it create an environment of peace and understanding. There are men out there who think women are their maids and toys. These "liberated" women agreed to be these toys and maids "for the cause". Where has it gotten them? I hope these "activists" finally get it. I really do.

Ethical Oil II

Here is one clip:



Watch the rest here.

Ethical Oil

Just finished watching Ezra Levant on "The Michael Coren Show".

Wow.

Powerhouse.

Ezra Levant lays out a powerful case(s) for using the Alberta oil sands. He touches on everything from the liberal democracies of North America to Saudi Arabia to Sudan to China's dirty, bloody, oily hands. There are more details in his book, which is a must-buy, I might add.

A few quick quips:

- an oil company, Talisman, which briefly operated in Sudan, built schools, hospitals and a women's entrepreneurial clinic until it had to be shut down. The hospitals and schools have also shut down.

- Russia uses its oil dollars to oppress journalists and invade Georgia

- Greenpeace China does not criticise the communist government under which it operates (check out the web page yourself)

- Alberta caps the natural gas from the oil sands and uses it for industrial and domestic purposes. Nigeria lets its natural gas flame out, thereby increasing pollution and letting an opportunity escape them.

It's like Ezra Levant and Sarah Palin are the Wonder Twins of domestic drilling.

Tuesday is the Aftermath of Monday

Kim Jong-Il has handed the reins over to his third son, Kim Jong-Un:

North Korea's ailing leader Kim Jong-il gave his youngest son his first public title on Tuesday, naming him a general in a move analysts said marked the first stage of dynastic succession in the secretive state.


State media mentioned Kim Jong-un for the first time by name, but without identifying him as the son of the iron ruler, hours before the start of a rare ruling party meeting to elect its supreme leadership.

Kim Jong-il, 68, is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008, but despite declining health shows no sign of relaxing his grip on power, underlined by his reappointment on Tuesday as secretary-general of the Workers' Party.

Experts say his son is too young and inexperienced to fully take the reins.

"As expected, the dynastic transition is becoming public. So far, they are following the pattern we saw in the 1970s when Kim Jong-il himself was moving to become the new Dear Leader," said Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University.

"The difference is that this time they seem to be in a great hurry."

Regional powers are watching the party conference, the biggest meeting of its kind for 30 years, for any sign of change in the destitute state's policies.

"I would like to carefully watch North Korea's internal situation," Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.
Financial markets see the preferred outcome of the meeting as a continuation of the current system and relative stability, even though the economy is in near ruin and the internationally ostracized government is trying to build a nuclear arsenal.

The biggest fear is that the country could collapse, triggering a flood of refugees or even fighting on the divided peninsula. That could hit hard the economies of neighboring South Korea, China and Japan which together account for about 20 percent of global economic output.

Experts warn of potential infighting over the rise of the unproven young Kim.

"Succession of power may lead to factional fighting and incur tremendous economic cost that will make the Korean peninsula a powder keg," said Shotaro Yachi, a special envoy for the Japanese government and former vice minister for foreign affairs.

It is said that the inexperienced Kim Jong-Un faces rivals in the military. The installation of the third son is only avoid a power vacuum and possibly a bloodbath. I believe that might happen anyway. North Korea is a dying country. China must be desperate to want to hang onto it. Even as a buffer state between the American-backed South Korea and Japan (China's erstwhile whipping boy), the rate of defectors, starving people and bleeding economy make it a lemon no one can afford to hang onto. I think South Korea had better prepare a contingency plan for when the dam breaks.



Freed dhimmi of the year:

Sarah Shourd who was recently released following to Iran’s benevolent decision, returned to the U.S. ‘I hope that my arrest lead to close relations between Iran and America.’ She said during a press interview in Washington. Sarah Shourd was arrested last year along with two companions in Iran’s border with Iraq.

‘This event could be an occasion to strengthen the peace in the world as well as improving the relations between Iran and America.’ Sarah Shourd announced in an interview with Al-Jazeera news network, insisting on Iranians’ benevolence such as their pacifism.  

‘We can get into conversation with kind, pacifist and philanthropist Iranian people who live relying on Islamic values.’ She added.

And:

Shourd has stayed out of the public eye since being embraced by her mother at a special royal airfield. Few details have emerged of her first days of freedom apart from going to a medical exam and a private tour Saturday of the Grand Mosque in Muscat.

She said she hoped to return someday with Bauer and Fattal — adding the common phrase "Inshallah" or "God willing" in Arabic. A crowd of international media was on hand for her statement in a VIP room with chandeliers and carved wooden doors, but she did not take questions.

Yep. 

Unfortunately, the weird ones are no longer afraid of daylight. Court strikes down anti-prostitution laws:

A court decision striking down key provisions of Canada's prostitution law is being hailed as an emancipation for sex-trade workers.


The Ontario Superior Court ruled today the laws are unconstitutional because they're contributing to the danger faced by sex-trade workers.

The judge found that laws against keeping a common bawdy house, communicating for the purposes of prostitution and living on the avails of the trade "are not in accord with the principles of fundamental justice."

Dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford says it's like emancipation day for sex-trade workers.

Bedford, one of the women behind the challenge, says the ball is now in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's court.

In her ruling, Justice Susan Himel said it now falls to Parliament to "fashion corrective action."

"It is my view that in the meantime these unconstitutional provisions should be of no force and effect, particularly given the seriousness of the charter violations," Himel wrote.

"However, I also recognize that a consequence of this decision may be that unlicensed brothels may be operated, and in a way that may not be in the public interest."

While the ruling strikes down those key Criminal Code offences — which deal with adult prostitution — it does not affect provisions dealing with people under 18.

Prostitution was not illegal in Canada, but the Ontario Superior Court struck down three provisions that criminalized most aspects of prostitution.

"These laws, individually and together, force prostitutes to choose between their liberty interest and their right to security of the person as protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms," Himel wrote her in decision.

These women have opened up the floodgates of forced prostitution and commercialization of the human body. They've taken it upon themselves to normalise the abuse of women and minors. Let us not pretend this the ultimate libertarian dream or "Pretty Woman". In 2006, an Angus Reid poll suggested that sixty-eight percent found that prostitution was "immoral". In Winnipeg, children as young as eight years old (usually aboriginal) walked the streets, selling themselves.  Rape crisis centres, such as one in Vancouver, have pointed out the flaws in legalising prostitution. An estimated seventy-nine percent of trafficked people were subject to sexual exploitation. Allowing this dignifies the abuse of women and children and gives a carte blanche to those who would sell people. Who would monitor these things closely? Judge Himel has given yet another reason why judges should be elected by the public and not appointed.


Naked man challenges anti-nudity laws:

An Ontario man who court heard went through fast food drive-thrus while naked and pretended to get a wallet out of his non-existent back pocket is challenging Canada's nudity laws as unconstitutional.


Brian Coldin is facing five charges for incidents near a clothing-optional resort he operates in Bracebridge, Ont., and incidents at an A&W and a Tim Hortons.

The laws infringe upon charter rights and suggest that somebody in a state of undress in a changing house at a public beach could be criminally charged, Coldin's lawyer Clayton Ruby said outside court.

"This pretty clearly limits the expression of a naturist, somebody who wants to have a relationship with the world that is without impediment," he said.

Ruby said the laws should be struck down so Parliament can tailor them, if it so chooses, because right now they're overly broad.

One witness wept while testifying about seeing Coldin nude at a drive-thru. Another witness testified about his children being upset by seeing Coldin near his resort.

But Ruby suggested no real harm came to them, as they didn't seek counselling.

"If someone's annoyed, well that's just too bad," Ruby said outside court. “That's not what the criminal law is concerned about."

Coldin, a slim man wearing a baggy suit, suggested the witness and the children were crying about other things and not his nudity. At his resort people seem more uncomfortable when a Muslim woman is swimming in the pool wearing a burka than when people are swimming completely nude, he said outside court.

"We shouldn't prosecute or harass a Muslim lady for wearing all her clothes in a pool... and why should we prosecute a naturist for being in a state God created us in?" Coldin said.

What's worse is the shame people feel about their bodies that make them uncomfortable with nudity in the first place, he suggested.

"That's disgusting," he said. "Talk about mental abuse."

In Canada it is illegal to be nude in a public place, or while on private property but exposed to public view.

Under the Criminal Code, a "person is nude who is so clad as to offend against public decency." The attorney general's consent is needed to proceed with prosecution.

Another case of an over-confident yet unattractive guy making others uncomfortable and invoking the idea of liberty so as to make others sick. Also keep in mind that Clayton Ruby (whose consideration for others appears to be be nil) defended Tony Dooley, who beat his son, Randal, to death and stepped up to bat for Abdurahman Khadr and a G20 "protester" (among other things). Apparently, nothing makes him ill.

Schools in Saskatoon will no longer penalise students who plagiarise or turn in an assignment late:

For most high school students across Canada, getting caught stealing other people’s work and submitting it as one’s own results in severe consequences: an automatic zero, meetings with parents and administrators, or even suspension.

But a new report card system in Saskatoon’s public school board is raising questions for its apparent liberal take on the acceptability of the number one academic no-no. Under the new method, introduced this year in city high schools, academic marks and behavioural aspects of performance (such as attitude, whether assignments are handed in late or if they are plagiarized) are reported separately. That means students caught plagiarizing won’t necessarily be given a failing grade, or even a reprimand.

Why not just give them a judicial position in Quebec?

Actually, Quebec is a really nice province; it's just the politicians, judges and corporate yahoos who are jerks.

And now, bunny noses.

Coincidence?

Mr. Burns- a villain on The Simpsons

Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau

Thursday is the Periphery of Friday

It is....

In 2003, Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death in an Iranian prison. Then-prime minister Jean Chretien makes little noise about this other than recalling  Canada's ambassador to Iran. After leaving office, Chretien went onto work for Petro-Kazakhstan, Inc., a company that has had dealings with China, Niger, Angola and Iran. In 2009, Obama, already keen on "dialogue" with Iran "without pre-conditions" takes a soft-serve approach to post-election violence in which protesters were shot and killed. In 2010, a Canadian blogger of Iranian descent faces the death penalty:

A Canadian-Iranian blogger credited with starting the blogging movement in Iran faces the death penalty over his writings, two watchdog groups said Thursday.


Hossein Derakhshan was arrested after returning to Iran in November 2008 and charged with "collaborating with enemy states, creating propaganda against the Islamic regime, insulting religious sanctity, and creating propaganda for anti-revolutionary groups," said Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) and PEN Canada.

According to the two organizations, prosecutors are now calling for Derakhshan to face the death penalty after he was convicted by Tehran's revolutionary court earlier this year.

News of the sentencing request started filtering out on social media sites on Monday, and the CJFE and PEN said they confirmed the reports with his family.

"The proposed sentence is a travesty," said CJFE president Arnold Amber, calling on the Canadian government to intervene.

"Action must be taken right away because in Iran there is not necessarily a lengthy period before executions can be carried out. We are very concerned," he added.

Catherine Loubier, spokeswoman for Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, told AFP that Ottawa was "preoccupied" by reports Derakhshan may be executed and was seeking verification of the facts.

The Canadian government has also sought consular access to him.

However any further help Canada may provide in this case is "limited," Loubier said, as Tehran does not recognize dual citizenship.

Derakhshan is the third Canadian journalist to be arrested in Iran in recent years. In July 2003, Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died in prison, and Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari was briefly detained earlier this year.

Why is Iran is still not taken seriously as a threat? They kill their own people; they have killed a Canadian. Iran is a bomb waiting to go off yet the powers that be are content on waiting.

China is desperate to destroy Japan:

China's self confidence as a world power is beginning to grow as evidenced by their forays into Latin America, Africa, and southeast Asia.

Now the Chinese Communists are flexing their muscles against rival Japan. The Japanese seized a fishing boat they say was operating illegally in Japanese waters. China has retaliated by halting the sale of some rare earth minerals to the Japanese.

China is a ruthless octopus. We should be backing Japan in all of this:

For many years the famine plagued children in southeastern Zimbabwe used the small, hard stones common to the region in their home-made slings and catapults to hunt birds for food. When it was learned that the stones were actually diamonds, the rush was on. People from all walks of life were drawn to the remote fields of Marange hoping to escape the crippling poverty and starvation that has gripped their country since Robert Mugabe came to power.

Buried in the soil of southeastern Zimbabwe is an unimaginable wealth in diamonds which could easily transform the poverty stricken nation into a thriving, modern and affluent society. When word of the miraculous discovery reached President Mugabe, the incorruptible leader wasted no time in sending troops to Marange to secure the diamond fields for the benefit of his regime. ...


Unable to properly exploit the vast wealth from the diamond fields, the Mugabe regime quietly entered into an agreement with China. Malone writes.

Working alongside henchmen from one of Africa's most murderous regimes-headed by Robert Mugabe-the Chinese are here to oversee Beijing's investment in the world's most controversial commodity: blood diamonds. High ranking officials of China's People's Liberation Army, they have been striving to escape detection for their role in this blood thirsty-but highly lucrative trade.

For here, carved out of the African bush, is a runway big enough for huge cargo planes. There is also sophisticated radar equipment, a fully operational control tower and comfortable barracks for the Chinese officials overseeing the entire operation.

Cargo planes bring in men and arms from China and leave with large quantities of rough uncut diamonds. The Chinese and their co-conspirators in Mugabe's military, force the locals to mine the diamonds at gunpoint under the most appalling of conditions. The Marange fields have been surrounded by three individual fences and a number of military outposts to ensure that the flow of diamonds and information will be kept under complete control of the regime. A local villager told Andrew Malone that.

Soldiers set their dogs on one girl, who was mauled and killed in front of her parents. The military said this was a warning to others to keep away from the fields; at least seven people caught near the fields were killed by the military in the last month alone and their bodies dumped.

Lucky Sibanda, a local man, showed me the wounds on his back where he was attacked by dogs after the military caught him by the fields. ‘These Chinese men have hard hearts,' he said. ‘They are taking away diamonds that could save this country. I hate them.'

The disclosures make a mockery of the Kimberley Process-the diamond watchdog set up in the wake of the diamond war in Sierra Leone-to allow Mugabe to sell gems from Marange-which is in the remotest, most inaccessible part of his impoverished nation.

In a secret meeting Andrew Malone met with "one of Mugabe's most senior intelligence chiefs" and learned that weapons acquired from the Chinese were being distributed to the military as they prepare for an aggressive new assault against the regime's opposition. The Zimbabwean official confirmed that the deal with China was "a government to government deal" and that "it has been signed at the highest level."

There is a memorandum of understanding between China and Zimbabwe-Beijing supplies weapons to us, and we allow them to mine diamonds.

Mocking the ‘monkeys in the West' who have been outraged by Mugabe's brutality, my source-a cold hearted killer-predicted that the diamond deal with Beijing would mean they could stay in power indefinitely.

‘You can write 1,000 stories, and print them 1,000 times, but it won't make any difference,' smirked the official. ‘We have all the diamonds, so we have all the weapons-and we kill anyone who tries to take anything from us.'

During the hour-long conversation, the intelligence source-whose identity I know, but who insisted I do not use his name or rank-also admitted that, without the Chinese pact, the ruling junta would have been driven from power. ‘But now we have all the guns we need,' he said.

Once the diamonds are flown to China, they are cut and graded. The best quality stones are sold to dealers in the Middle East and India where they make their way into the international diamond market. Lesser "commercial grade" diamonds remain in China where they are used for industrial applications to help feed their growing manufacturing sector.

Can someone explain to me why we are trading with this country?

Related: 

A Surrey-based reporter says China's Ministry of State Security is threatening his family, life and livelihood for his critical coverage of the Chinese government.

Surrey resident Tao Wang moved to B.C. from China in 2007 and began working as a local general assignment reporter for the Canadian branch of Falun Gong-affiliated New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) in July 2009.

Most of his assignments for the international broadcaster have been innocuous, on topics such as the opening of the Canada Line, the Olympics and the harmonized sales tax.

However, some of his reports have been critical of the Chinese government and its practices. NTDTV is one of the few networks with dissenting views that broadcasts in the Communist nation.

"Some of the reports I think they don't like are on David Matas, the Nobel Prize nominee and human rights lawyer who spoke at the International Congress of the Transplant Society in Vancouver, talking about his investigation regarding organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China," Wang said. "I've also done reports on [Canadian Security Intelligence Service director] Richard Fadden's comments about foreign interference on Canadian governments."

He said the threatening phone calls began a month ago and have become increasingly harsh, escalating to the point of death threats.

Const. Peter Neily of Surrey RCMP confirmed to The Vancouver Sun that the detachment's major crimes section has launched an investigation into the matter.

"We're taking this very seriously and we're in the process of speaking with witnesses and trying to determine followup from here," Neily said. "I can also say we're engaged with the complainant in creating a safety plan. We'll review their current arrangements ... to make sure they're safe while we investigate our file."

Wang, who also owns a company in China that sells medical equipment to retailers, said the threats began in August when several of his company's clients were visited by agents of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS).

"They told them that I participated in illegal activities in Canada that are harmful to the national security of China and asked them to stop doing business with my company," a nervous-sounding Wang told The Vancouver Sun.

On Sept. 2, he said, a man who identified himself as an MSS agent passed a phone number along through a company manager in China, telling Wang to call him.

"I asked him why he interfered with my business and he said, 'You are a smart man; you should know the reason very well,' " Wang said.

"[Eventually] he said, 'Your activity in Canada is a threat to China's national security....' He said I must stop all activities in Canada, which, in my understanding, is my reporting with NTDTV. This is the only thing I do. He said if I don't follow instruction, they will take [further] action on my company."

On Sept. 14, an agent relayed another message via a company manager, this time telling Wang to submit a written guarantee not to participate in any political activity in Canada. When these requests went unanswered, Wang said he received another phone call from the agents — and a threat against his life.

"They said, 'You actually think there is nothing we can do to you because you are in Canada?' They also mentioned, 'If you ever go public on this, you are — in Chinese words — seeking death.' I believe it was a very clear message."

The same day, Sept. 17, two MSS agents went to Wang's company in China.

"[They] sealed up all bank accounts and inventory and threatened [all 10 of] my employees. They became jobless," Wang said.

Besides contacting the RCMP, Wang also went to his Member of Parliament. He said Russ Hiebert's office told him Wednesday it has asked the public safety and foreign affairs ministers to look into the matter. The ministers' offices did not return The Sun's requests for comments by press time, but Neily said the RCMP could team with other agencies for the investigation.

"With files of this nature, that may have an international repercussion, there are various agencies that we could liaise with in order to determine the scope of it internationally," Neily said.

The Sun's calls to the Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Vancouver for comment were not returned.

Margaret Atwood is stupid:

Student interviewer: I was told recently that you were one of the believers who is of the opinion that the Moon landing was actually filmed ... could possibly have been filmed here.

Atwood: The question about the Moon landing is "why haven't we been back?" and it was done in an age when computers were as big as a couple of rooms. If you even look at the Space Odyssey, 2001, HAL the computer - and I think that movie came out in the late '60s - HAL the computer is huge. So we didn't yet have microchips so I just wonder how did they do that? Why haven't they done it again if it was so easy?

Student interviewer: What do you think of the argument to that question, usually most often I hear they say we haven't had a need to return.

Atwood: Well, you think about it. President Bush said we're going back or words to that effect and then people calculated how long it would take and how much money it would cost to actually do that. It was a long time and a lot of money. Just wondering, wondering about the belt of deadly radiation that people have to go through to get to the Moon and those strange shadows and why the flag rippled and a few things like that.

Student interviewer: What would have pushed them to pull off an entire hoax like that?

Atwood: Well, if it was and the jury is open and we'll never know. But it was the space race with Russia... space and arms race that was going on at the time.

We all knew it. We all wanted to say so in high school when our feminist teachers forced us to read her tedious crap. What more is needed for pasty educators to finally see how dreadful this "author" is? Why aren't better things read in high schools? High school students out there, rebel. Don't read Margaret Atwood's crap. Demand better books. Read the Bronte sisters (who have their own action figures). Don't read books because they are "Canadian". That doesn't always mean good. In Atwood's case, it means pure rubbish.


On the lighter side of things....



Or light-ish, anyway:

A woman fends off a bear with a zucchini:

Police say a Montana woman fended off a bear attack with an unlikely weapon — a zucchini.


Missoula County Sheriff's Lt. Rich Maricelli says a 200-pound (90-kilogram) black bear attacked one of the woman's dogs just after midnight Wednesday on the back porch of her home about 15 miles (25 kilometres) west of Missoula.

When the woman, whom police did not name, tried to separate the animals, the bear bit her in the leg.

Maricelli says the woman reached for the nearest object at hand on the porch's railing — a large zucchini that she had harvested from her garden.

The woman flung the vegetable at the bear, striking it and forcing it to flee.

Maricelli says the woman did not need medical attention. Wildlife officials were trying to locate the bear on Thursday.

The beast of the forest is scared of garden vegetables, apparently.


Buy the cheese. The bear isn't kidding.

Don't make him come after you!

Mid-Week Post

Efforts to scrap the long gun registry have been thwarted (note the "imaginative" title):

Politics have clouded the Conservatives' attempt to scrap the long-gun registry, but they see a silver lining in the aftermath of Wednesday's cliff-hanger vote — it's fodder for the campaign trail.

MPs voted 153-151 to kill a Tory private member's bill to scrap the registry, taking the hot-button issue off the legislative table for this session.

But the Conservatives say the razor-thin vote margin shows that the tide is turning and the political fight will rage on.

They warned opposition MPs that the issue will be front and centre in the next election. And they plan to target MPs in rural ridings who changed their votes after saying they would support scrapping the registry.

Tory MP Candice Hoeppner, who sponsored the bill, said opposition MPs who did an about-face will pay the price at the ballot box.

"We won't give up the fight. This isn't the end, this is just the beginning."

(Sidebar: "Ammo"? "Target"? Childish much?)

A lot of hot air has been bandied about in this debate but here are some facts. Guns are smuggled into Canada from the United States. As of 2008, only fifteen percent of robberies involved a firearm. Between 1998 and 2007, female spouses were more likely to be stabbed (30 %) than shot (28 %). One might also note that "common-law" relationships had a higher incidence of abuse (41% of spousal homicides involved victims living in common-law relationships (including same-sex couples), about one-third (35%) involved legally married persons, followed by partners who were separated (22%) or divorced (2%). Between 2005 and 2006, anyone found guilty of a gun-related crime received a mandatory four year prison sentence. These facts would suggest that better policing, better sentencing and - dare I say it? - a sweeping change in attitudes would be better measures than punishing a farmer who fails to declare buckshot.


According to this, Stephen Colbert will testify at a congressional hearing on immigration:

Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert is slated to testify at a congressional

hearing Friday on immigration titled “Protecting America’s Harvest.”

One Republican source said Colbert will be testifying “in character,” the Bill O’Reilly-like muse Colbert uses for his show.

A House Judiciary Committee spokeswoman, confirming Colbert would testify, said the hearing matter was a “serious issue . . . this is not a TV stunt.”

If no one wants to have a serious discussion on immigration, just say so. Granted, the leftists will chuckle at Colbert's repertoire but nothing of any consequence will come of this "hearing". Maybe that is the point.


"We can absorb a terrorist attack..."


Yes, the people of the United States sure can, Mr. President.


Another example of complete moral disconnect:





Someone once posited that liberalism is a mental illness. Indeed, where is the empathy, rationality, even humour? I haven't seen it. What I've seen disturbs and sickens me.


Will the real Sarah Palin please stand up?

Monday Post

The week-end is too short.


Things that come back to bite you:

The cancer-stricken Lockerbie bomber can get out of bed and walk although he is clearly a very sick man, said the father of a victim after visiting him in Libya.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi invited Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora was one of 270 killed in the 1988 bombing, to visit him and the two men spent an hour together on a hospital ward in Tripoli on Tuesday.

Swire, who is British, is convinced of the Libyan's innocence and has spearheaded a campaign for an inquiry into the bombing.

Megrahi, the only person ever convicted of the attack, was released from a Scottish prison in August last year on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Scotland's devolved government, which has control over its own justice matters, freed the bomber after he was given just three months to live and he returned to Libya to a hero's welcome.

But more than a year later he is still alive, to the anger of relatives of the mainly American victims who died when Pan Am flight 103 blew up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

That man should have stayed in prison. I'm sure there is a "blood for oil" scandal here.


Yankee, go home:

American Rodney Watson will always remember watching a fellow soldier brutally beat an Iraqi civilian in anger over a divorce letter from his wife.

He'll recall the soldier spitting racist slurs in the faces of the people they were there to help, and then the same man turning to tell him, an African-American, not to worry — he'd never insult Watson like that.

After one year of duty overseas, Watson refused to return to an institution where he knew he'd be called a snitch for reporting such actions and where he felt his country was actually in a war to reap oil.

When ordered back to Iraq, he fled to Canada in 2006 with the draft dodgers of the Vietnam War era top of mind.

But he didn't expect he'd be trading one prison for another.

Last year, the 32-year-old was the first U.S. war resister to take sanctuary in a church after Canadian immigration officials ordered him deported.

Watson marked his one-year anniversary inside the Vancouver United church Saturday with all the hope he could muster, while longing for a day of fresh air in Stanley Park where he could watch his toddler son run.

"I can't be a part of that and it breaks my heart knowing that I risked my life in war and now I'm being treated like a criminal," Watson said, gazing Sunday around a gathering area in the church that's become his home.

"I can't even be a part of (my son's) life outside of this building. I feel like I'm being punished for having a good spirit."

Watson, from Kansas City, Kan., is among about 40 Americans who've been fighting legal battles, with the help of the War Resisters Support Campaign, to remain in Canada over their views on the Iraq war.

He now lives in a one-bedroom apartment inside the church with his wife and son.

His anniversary comes less than two weeks before MPs debate a private member's bill that would allow like-minded people to apply for permanent resident status in Canada.

If Watson were to return to the U.S., he faces a dishonourable discharge and a year in military prison. He's still awaiting a ruling on an application to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

"It would be funny for us to jail people for hard time, which is what they're getting down in the States, for agreeing with us about the Iraq war," said Toronto-area MP Gerard Kennedy, who spearheaded the bill. "We should stand behind our principles."

Parliament has already passed non-binding motions to stop the deportation of war resisters twice, but the Conservative government hasn't heeded those votes.

I have zero sympathy for "war resisters" (read: cowards or miscreants). The United States eliminated the draft in 1973. Anyone joining the army, therefore, does so of his own free will. They make no pretense about anything. If you join the armed forces, your body belongs to them for whatever amount of time. One could go to war or serve on a base. One can also take issue with the "immorality" (read: unpopularity) of war or unsubstantiated claims. These "war resisters" should take their feeble cases up with their government, not sponge off of Canadian misguided will. We should not be encouraging this. A soldier hiding from an unpopular war isn't the same as a North Korea refugee.


Speaking of which....


North Korea wants something:

North Korea beefed up its military arsenal near its border with the South last year despite a severe economic downturn, a government source in Seoul was quoted as saying Sunday.

The communist country deployed some 200 additional units of 240-mm multiple-rocket launchers along the heavily-fortified border, Yonhap news agency reported.

The 240-millimetre, which can shoot up to 22 rounds every 35 minutes and has a range of 60 kilometres (37 miles), is considered by the South's military as a "core threat" to the capital city of Seoul and populous suburbs, Yonhap said.

Seoul, about 50 kilometres south of the tense border, has a population of 10.4 million people, more than one fifth of the nation's total population.

The US has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against the North, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a ceasefire.

The source said Pyongyang also deployed 2,100 new artillery guns and 300 tanks, adding that the communist state is now known to have some 10,600 projectile weapons and 4,200 tanks.

The South's defence ministry said in a 2008 white paper that Pyongyang is armed with about 8,500 artillery guns and 3,900 tanks.

If China gave its pet project, North Korea, permission to fire on Seoul, the city would be wiped out in an hour. Even the idea of this should be frightening and infuriating to the average South Korea. I would militarize as soon as possible and I don't mean the mandatory two years of military service for young men or having the Americans back South Korea. I'm sure there is a countdown for when Kim Jong-Il dies and his son and the military duke it out for China's property (read: North Korea).



More restive unrest:

Four Buddhist villagers were shot dead and their homes set ablaze in Thailand's troubled Muslim south, police said on Sunday, the latest in a spree of deadly attacks blamed on separatist rebels.

The incidents all took place on Saturday night in the Bacho district of Narathiwat, one of three predominantly Muslim provinces bordering Malaysia where more than 4,100 people have been killed and 8,000 wounded in six years of unrest.

Police suspected the attacks were carried out by a group of about 10 ethnic Malay militants riding in a pickup truck and armed with M-16 assault rifles.

Among the victims was an 83-year-old man shot dead before his house was burned to the ground. The rebels then stormed another house nearby, shooting dead a 46-year-old man and his wife before torching the building, police said.

A 76-year-old woman was later killed in the same district in another gun and arson attack.

"We expect this is Muslim militants trying to evict Buddhist villagers from these areas," a police official said.

The incidents came amid a recent upsurge in violence in the once independent Muslim region, where Buddhists represent about 15 percent of the population. Symbols of the Buddhist Thai state are often the target of rebels believed to be separatists.

No credible group has claimed responsibility for the violence or stated goals or demands. A combined police and military security force of around 60,000 has failed to make any inroads toward quelling the unrest in the rubber-producing region.

According to official statistics, more than half of the victims are Muslims. Experts believe such attacks are aimed at silencing government informants or punishing Muslims for working for the Thai state.

In case there is a lack of clarity, there are people who do not respect even the sanctity of human life let alone cultural or religious differences. Such people cannot be appeased.

Saint Andrew Kim

September 20th marks the feast day of Saint Andrew Kim, the first Korean to be ordained a priest. Korean philosophers sought Christianity and studied it solely as a philosophy. Later, they began to adopt it as a religion. From the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, Korea was largely Confucian country. The adoption of Christianity threatened the hierarchical state of Confucianism. Saint Andrew Kim was forced to go to China to be ordained. He returned to Korea and converted many. He was tortured and killed in 1846. One hundred and three martyrs were killed between 1839, 1846 and 1867.


Today, South Korea has a very strong Christian presence. There are churches, charities, universities and hospitals throughout the entire country. Churches in North Korea were confiscated and closed down. I found the faith of Koreans was extremely strong. We've drifted away from that in the West. How we need it now!

Fantasy Writing

I'm not talking about Tolkien or Lewis- the really good stuff. I'm talking about the really bad, repetitive stuff.


Printed in the Independent:

I am writing to express my outrage at the Pope's Holyroodhouse speech in Edinburgh. This speech was a slander on modern Britain. I refer chiefly to the Pope's description of Nazi Germany and the British resistance, with its references to "how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live" and "the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the 20th century".

Hitler's political philosophy was not based upon atheism and had no connection with atheism. Hitler was nominally a Roman Catholic. He enjoyed the open support of many of the most senior Catholic clergy in Germany and his birthday was celebrated until his death by Vatican mandate.

Even if Hitler had been an atheist, the rank-and-file Germans who carried out the extirpation of the Jews were almost all Christians, primed to their anti-Semitism by centuries of Catholic propaganda about "Christ-killers" as well as by Martin Luther's seething hatred of Jews.

Britain's secular, not necessarily atheist, modern culture should be maintained, not slandered with veiled allegation of Nazism.

The debunking of this myth:

Hitler was an atheist, had as much tolerance for Christianity as some contemporary wags, he strove for an atheist state, did not enjoy the support of the Church, which he persecuted(let's not forget the rescue of the Jews), killed nuns and priests and the Pope never tarred all atheists as Nazis. The attempt to distance oneself from atheism/Nazism is transparently self-conscious.

Conclusion: simply because British people sound posh, it doesn't necessarily mean they are clever. What gives the United Kingdom (particularly England) the right to criticise anyone about anything? Don't forget that the UK's official religion is Anglicanism (founded by wife-hating Henry VIII), that it is ruled by German cousins (don't forget the abdication of the Nazi-loving Edward is the reason why Elizabeth II is now cheating her cloth-eared son, Charles, out of the throne), that they invaded Ireland and India because they could no longer abide eating boiled toast, that all their best writers and poets had distinct memories of tuberculosis and there are two seasons- damp and damper. The martyrs of the British Isles and the victims of the Amritsar massacre were right- replacing God with power, cruelty and bitterness sucks. The pretense that one doesn't need a higher power to be a good person is shattered when one sees that arrogance and beastliness are the substitutes. The generation that did matter- the one that fought the Nazis with courage and conviction- wouldn't recognise the Great Britain that now fears its restive Muslim population. If Cromwell's burning the church at Drogheda doesn't bother Britons, then a firmer hand in dealing with nutcase terrorists who kill innocent passengers on their way to work should be a breeze.

Come on, Britain. I thought you didn't like religiosity.

Or would rather they didn't threaten to kill you?

Related- Pope Benedict XVI was talking about Nazis, not Richard Dawkins (because British atheists have reading comprehension problems):

We're not used to Germans coming here to talk about the war, so many people have jumped to entirely the wrong conclusion about Pope Benedict's attack on atheist extremism. He didn't mean us. He didn't even mean Richard Dawkins. He was talking about the Nazis, who, he said "wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live."

The atheist tyrannies of the 20th century did kill millions of people, many of them for their Christian beliefs. For Benedict, that is one of the main lessons of modern history. He seems never to have appreciated the horrors of Spanish-speaking and notionally Catholic fascisms in the same visceral way. The restoration of decent government in Germany was accomplished in his lifetime by Christian Democrat politicians; the fall of the Berlin Wall might not have happened so quickly without the pressure exerted by Pope John Paul II.

The slow civilising of the barbarians after the fall of the Roman empire was, he believes, accomplished by the church: "Your forefathers' respect for truth and justice, for mercy and charity, come to you from a faith that remains a mighty force for good in your kingdom, to the great benefit of Christians and non-Christians alike."

For him, a nation that turns away from God entirely has nothing to keep it from treating people as disposable means, rather than ends in themselves. The liberal appeal to reason, to choice, and to human rights doesn't go far enough. He believes in all three, but he thinks they must be derived from something else. That something else was once generally understood to be Christianity. If that is no longer true, Benedict believes we are all shrunken and impoverished: "Let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a 'reductive vision of the person and his destiny'."

So he believes that what gave Britain the strength to resist nazism was its long Christian heritage, in which the powerful and effective were animated by their faith. The two saints he name checked in his opening address were a king of England, Edward the Confessor, and a queen of Scotland, Saint Margaret. But the three 19th-century Christians, one diplomatically a Scot, were all Protestants: William Wilberforce, Florence Nightingale, and David Livingstone. All would have been shocked to see a pope of Rome received in state by the Queen.

But it is not their successors who are jumping up and down and shouting now. It is the representatives of what he calls "the more aggressive forms of secularism" which "no longer value or even tolerate … the traditional values and cultural expressions [of Christianity]". It is difficult to judge to what extent this is a large-scale movement. The astonishing variety and force of invective thrown at the pope and his church in much of the media over the last week must certainly, some of it, come from people who would like to drive religious faith out of public life.

Defensive much, atheists?

Dawkins is not credible (well, duh!):

The motley gang of people writing to protest about the Pope's visit are not protesting just about the Pope. Even if they don't say so, they are protesting about religion in general. And many of them are not merely anti-religion, they are anti anything to do with the supernatural. They passionately want to believe that there is absolutely nothing in the world that cannot be scientifically explained.

This can become a bit of an obsession with some of them, as I have observed in the case of one of the anti-Pope protestors, Dr Jonathan Miller, whom I have listened to on the subject on more than one occasion.

But it applies in particular to the chief spokesman of the anti-Pope faction, Professor Richard Dawkins, who made a series of TV programmes recently not just to attack Christianity but to discredit all paranormal phenomena – telepathy, faith healing, even such ancient practices as water divining.

Rather than attacking Dawkins, the Pope and all his followers ought to encourage him, because his attacks are so intemperate, so ill-informed, that he gives atheism a bad name whilst reinforcing the faith of doubters and possibly even making converts to the church.

If the atheists hope to progress, they will have to silence Dawkins and find a more rational spokesman. And it will have to be someone other than Stephen Fry.

G.K. Chesterton said:

"If there were no God, there would be no atheists."


"There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions."


"The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man."


"These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own."


Clever man.

It's not enough that the atheists and anti-Catholics hang onto to discord. They look down on others. They conclude (for whatever reason) that they are on the general course of inquiry even though they expect the answer to be nothing and that adherents to any religion are mindless tools clinging on to superstition. The arrogance and ignorance of it all is astounding. They say there is no god. Okay. Where is their proof? None. I see. They are inquiring. What do they expect to find? Nothing. Right. So- the reason for their snobbery is...? Quite simply, it is not dissimilar from any brand of elitism and bigotry (yes, bigotry). I've met agnostics and atheists who weren't at all total cretins who pretended to a superior intelligence. They were very nice people. I am talking about the Dawkins, the Hitchens, the sad, little atheistic anti-Christians (because none of them have the guts to face the more "upfront" religionists) whose penchant for looking down their noses makes them feel high and mighty. Because they adhere to no belief (or claim to), they think they've escaped from some childish state. Is it childish to be moved by faith or love? Nothing moves them- at least nothing pleasant.

Friday Freakout

Before I begin, I would like to invite my Muslim brethren to indulge in a pulled pork sandwich and/or a cider or beer (don't drink and drive). Now before someone shouts: "Onomatopoeia - or whatever your name is- Muslims don't eat pork!" or "Stop being an instigator and forget that they're planning on building a mosque where their co-religionists killed three thousand people!", know that I am as sincere as a pumpkin patch and am extending my hand in friendship. Is there no greater way to extend friendship than offering a meal? Perhaps if wayward Muslims could put down their makeshift bombs and eat with others they would forget that attempting to kill reigning pontiffs and other "infidels" (as they willfully call them with no attempts on the left to curb such insolence) is Koranic order of the day and move on to less volatile habits. What say you, brothers?

Far be it for apologists of Islamofascism and girl-murderers and others who consider children to be "Papist atrocities" but I digress...

Or digest...

Moving on....

Ezra Levant defends the oil sands...because he's awesome.

Proof that people are thin-skinned and liberals have as much human feeling as Eichmann:

In their failed effort to railroad Free Dominion the Jackbooted Deviants at the Canadian Human Rights Commission cited the following "potential hate crime", a Flyer entitled "Does Mohammed merit criticism" which was erroneously attributed to the Freedo site.

The Flyer contained one of the "Mohammed Cartoons" as well as a picture of a Christian Girl who had been beheaded by Savage Bloodthirsty Muslims in Indonesia. I quote from the intake document:

"...there was a flyer that was was distributed in mailboxes in her neighborhood in Saskatoon Saskatchewan that showed 3 controversial pictures that degraded the muslims. Also in the flyer the writer states that the Islam religion is becoming one of the fastest growing and potentially most violent religions..."

Controversial? You mean the picture of the poor Christian Child beheaded by Homicidal Muslims? That's somehow degrading to Muslims? What about the poor girl? Wasn't she degraded? It's controversial for stating the fact that Islam is the most violent religion? What sort of deviants work at the CHRC? What is it within their twisted worldview that propels them to defend the barbarity of Islam yet attack Christians with such evil fervour?

As appalling as this is, we need to see. We should have no illusions as to who we are dealing with.

Now, it's pulled pork sandwich time...

Ciao (chow).