Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Mid-Week Post

Because it is the middle of the week.


Sarah Palin has a whole bunch of comic books about her. I called it. Sarah Palin derives her power from the yellow sun and has an adamantium exo-skeleton and we all know it!


Also, she has an entire month dedicated to her.


Somewhat related: Ezra Levant, Mrs. Palin's Wonder Twinreminds us how good it is to not have Chretien running things into the ground:


Can Emirates Airlines even really be called a company, if it's 100% owned by a foreign dictatorship, doesn't pay taxes, gets a free, state of the art airport built by near-slave labour, etc., etc.? And today the great moral exemplar, Jean Chretien, took its side against Canada. From pepper-spraying Canadians protesting against Suharto at the APEC conference, to shilling for China, to this, is there a world dictator Chretien won't support?


I've had enough of affluent Liberals lying and stealing from me and no election will make me feel differently.


So goes Tunisia, so goes Egypt.


Bankruptcy has never looked so fabulous. (hat tip: BCF)


It's not quite Godzilla but....

Animal services officers often get calls reporting "huge," monstrous reptiles, only to arrive and find an itty-bitty garden snake.

The 5-foot Monitor lizard wandering around a condo complex in the city of Riverside was way bigger than animal control officer Jenny Selter could have imagined.

"She said she saw it and almost jumped back in her truck," said John Welsh, spokesman for Riverside County Animal Services. "The residents were freaking out because here's the Godzilla-like creature walking down the sidewalk."

666



The unrighteous post.


And what better way to inaugurate this post most unholy than with secularism, the dead-beat dad of moral relativism?


The most popular objection to religion is that it replaces thinking with sets of unprovable truths — and that the rules flowing out of those truths turn adherents into robots. Those who leave religion behind, we are led to understand, will begin to think for themselves and thereby exercise real freedom as responsible citizens.

This is the theory. But that is not how things have turned out. 


As Western societies have become more secular, they have become even more self-pitying and more likely to blame their travails on amorphous entities. Instead of promoting personal freedom, and the responsibility that comes with it, secularism has given us an expansive vocabulary for saying “It’s not my fault.”

More people are willing to blame their own mistakes and sins —from consumption of pornography, to rampant consumerism, to burdensome debt — on the media, the government, the banks. Or they refashion their choices as a response to an “addiction.”



How true.

One of the most popular memes in modern secularist culture is that religious adherents are incapable or unwilling to think for themselves, preferring to let their respective religious body do that for them. The presumptive secularist doesn't explain how religious adherents live at all if that were the case. Choices in media, family and friendships, profession, even the food one eats are all made by religious adherents each day. How many believers buy into the idea that only a secularist has freedom? Wouldn't that be indicative of conscious thought?

What of thought patterns? Do we not view the world through a particular lens? Does a Canadian not see political matters more differently than, say, an Italian? Does one, therefore, render the Italian's view invalid because of where he lives or his socio-political reality? So why should a Christian's world-view be discounted? He has a brain. One might say he uses it more than a person who thinks a government filled with fallible and corrupt people is the best arbiter for matters political, financial and social. The worst is putting standards of morality or ethics into the hands of those who think they are the pinnacle of humanity. History has taught how that turns out.


Moving onto societal ills- if secularism is meant to free the human mind from the trappings of religious belief and therefore open the way to clearer thought, why blame consumerism or the "diseases" of addiction? Why even say these things are wrong at all? Wouldn't that be putting things in a moral framework?


In a word, yes:


What religion teaches is that the dignity of each person is paramount. It also teaches that with this exalted state comes responsibility. Never go into a Catholic confessional and blame your abusive behaviour toward your own wife and children on a “culture permeated with violence.” God gave you the right to choose right or wrong, a smart priest would say, and you made the wrong choice. Now get help, repent, pray and fix it.

Never tell a Baptist minister that you spend half your evenings in the basement cruising porn sites because “television and advertising is saturated with sexually explicit material.” Even the least clever of clergy might suggest not watching those shows. So simple; so difficult.

Jews fast on Yom Kippur to make-up for the things they have done wrong through the year. It is not a magic solution to making guilt disappear. In fact, being forced to face one’s own sins can produce guilt, as it should. The point is to feel the pain of those wrongs, make it right with God and move on. It is the reason it is called the Day of Atonement and not the Day of Whining.

The Jesuits have a spiritual practice called the “examination of conscience.” It is a daily review of what happened in one’s day — all of it. It assumes a subscription to a set of moral truths that are not up for debate.

In this world view, freedom comes from an obedience to greater truths. It demands attention to the details of life. It asks that life not be a blur of excuses but freely exercised choices. And then it asks you to be an adult and take responsibility for all that you do.


How many sane, rational persons buy the argument that only outside influences directly cause societal harm? Let me rephrase: how many people buy the argument that anything one says or does moves one like a puppet and the person, therefore, cannot be held to account? How many apologists and moral relativists do you have out there who deny moral absolutes or who think an act of terrorism is a perfectly sane response to something offensive? If the hallmark of the secularist age is not only thinking for oneself but taking responsibility for one's actions, where did secularism go wrong? We've abandoned the benchmarks for higher living and thinking and replaced it with some sort of "no-fault" insurance. No one is to blame, really. Injecting some sort of higher belief or greater moral framework will only produce the kind of guilt no one wants in this care-free age. Maybe one should feel guilty for stealing or causing bodily harm. It's civilised, isn't it? Would one prefer living in a society where no one felt bad for doing stupid, even harmful things? Well, we already do, and it stinks.
 
 
Man is fallible. To put the moral destiny of humanity in the hands of someone who will not see that  is a disaster in the making.

***

Continuing with the post most evil, why not throw in something from Satan's Chubby, Little Helper?
 



 
 


Isn't North Korea a secularist state?
 

Hhmmmm...







Tuesday, January 25, 2011

"It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?"

Smart guy that Dostoevsky.


How is it that Russians know how to hammer a man but cannot prevent the initial crime?


The suicide attack on Moscow's Domodedovo airport may prompt a reevaluation of how to protect airport terminals but is unlikely to result in tougher security measures, pilots and aviation security experts said Tuesday.

Analysts warned that the large crowds that gather at airports' public areas are an easy target for terrorists. But it's virtually impossible to screen them because many airports have been turned into commercial centres, with shops, food courts, train stations and other facilities.

"Airport security needs to be thorough but it also needs to be rational, and the truth is that we can never make any airport totally impervious to attack," said Patrick Smith, a commercial airline pilot and aviation author.

"Like any crowded public space, be it a subway station or a shopping mall or a football stadium, an airport will always have inherent vulnerabilities."

Monday's attack in Domodedovo's international arrivals area killed 35 people and wounded 180.

Most airports in the West don't restrict access to the terminals, which are considered public areas. Security screening only takes place once the passengers enter the departure areas.

But in some countries, like Israel, Jordan or Pakistan, police roadblocks situated several kilometres from the airport parking lots prescreen arriving passengers and others, before allowing them to proceed.


It is suggested that Russian security failed to prevent this attack (just like in Beslan). It's not like the Russians didn't know who or what they were looking for. The Israelis do which is why their airports are some of the safest in the world. The proverbial horse is out of the barn. The Russians can either adopt Israeli (one may even be familiar with the Russian frame of mind) methods of security or get used to further violence.


Stelmach is out. Discuss amongst yourselves.


Other ways in which we can screw up:


Canada’s youngest multiple killer on Tuesday will face a Medicine Hat, Alta., judge who will review her progress with intensive rehabilitation.

The girl, whose identity is protected by law, is 17 and serving an open custody sentence in a Calgary group home. The move, which allows her to go on escorted trips to shopping malls and banks, was a step toward gradual reintegration to society by 2016.

She was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder in the 2006 slaughter of her parents and eight-year-old brother in Medicine Hat.

She was 12 years old at the time and called herself Runaway Devil online.
The regular hearings, held in Medicine Hat’s Court of Queen’s Bench, are the only chance the public has to learn of the convicted girl’s progress, as her identity and psychological reports are kept secret by youth criminal justice and privacy laws.

As part of her 10-year sentence — the maximum in youth law — she spent time in Edmonton’s Alberta Hospital intensive rehabilitative custody and supervision. The sentence includes time spent in custody awaiting trial.

At age 22, she will be free.


She helped plan and carry out the brutal deaths of her family. She now has escorted trips to the mall. In the greater interests of justice, she should never be released.


What this guy said.


Let me understand something. If all religions are the same, why are Ethiopian Christians told to convert or else?


According to a news release from International Christian Concern (ICC) , Christians in the Ethiopian city of Besheno are being harassed and physically abused after Muslims posted notices on the doors of Christian homes warning them to convert, leave the city or face death. 


The world has taken crazy pills.

Monday Night Footballs

The title is in reference to the Super Bowl. Care or don't.


Thirty-five killed in a suicide attack in a Moscow airport:


A suicide bomber killed at least 35 people and wounded over 130 in the packed arrivals hall of Moscow's largest airport in an attack slammed by the Kremlin and the world as an act of terror.

There were scenes of carnage at Domodedovo airport in southern Moscow Monday as corpses were stretchered out of the smoke-filled arrivals area after the blast, the latest deadly attack in the capital after the March metro bombings....

"Today at 4:32 pm (1332 GMT) an explosion went off in the international arrivals hall of Domodedovo airport," the Russian investigative committee said in a statement.

Airport spokeswoman Elena Galanova said that the bombing took place in a freely accessible public area of the airport where passengers meet relatives after passing through customs.

At least 35 people were killed, she said, a figure confirmed by the investigative committee. At least 130 were wounded, the health ministry said in a statement. It said that of the wounded, 20 were in a serious condition....

The Russian capital has been repeatedly rocked by attacks over the last years blamed on militants from the Northern Caucasus region, where Russia has for years been battling an Islamist insurgency.

Double bombings carried out by two female suicide bombers on the Moscow metro on March 29, 2010, killed 40 and wounded more than 100.

The Kremlin fought two wars against separatist rebels in Chechnya in the 1990s but the insurgency has now become more Islamist in tone and has spread to neighbouring Ingushetia and Dagestan.


Do note the casual use of the words "militant" and "insurgency". They sound cool and can be used when someone doesn't want to make reference to terrorism. What happened in Moscow is not an act against an organised government nor was the suicide bomber engaging in warfare.


If the Chechens are responsible, let us remember that they are among the "poor, oppressed masses" who raped, maimed and killed innocent civilians in Beslan. However rotten Russia may be to its fellow man, these lunatics take the cake when it comes to cruelty. There is no reasoning with them, nor appealing to their better natures because it is clear they have none.


The real kicker is a comment like this (just one out of many, unfortunately):


I hope I'm not going to hear the "Oh, I bet it was the Russians who staged this... the FSB". When something bad happens in the USA, the Muslims did it... when something bad happens in Russia it was the Russians who did it as a pretext to start another conflict.

The truth is people, we're all affected by radicals, whether Muslims, Christians, Jews or other...Good thing is that the majority of people are good people, regardless of faith... We all need to fight terrorism regardless of where it comes from. One thing I like about the Russians is that they play hardball. It may not be the most ethical way, but it does get things done.

It's comments like these, dripping with moral equivalence, that muddy the waters. How many Christians fly airplanes into buildings? How many Jews kill their daughters over matters of dress? Do Hindus and Buddhists accept that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and that is why they threaten people with death over cartoons they have never seen? I'm stumped by the reaction to terrorism. Is it fear, stupidity, or political correctness that prevent people from speaking plainly? What has to happen before the West finally accepts who is to blame and what should be done about it?
 

 

Former call girl and dominatrix Darquise Johnson told an Ottawa court Monday she’s now “trying to do right” by telling the truth about how a disabled client was bilked of more than $800,000.

Johnson — she also goes by the name L’Ecuyer — has told court that she only participated in the elaborate scheme because she was afraid of her husband, Nolan Johnson, whom she has described as a violent, Jamaican-born drug dealer.

The Crown contends Johnson was a willing and active participant in the defrauding of Ottawa computer systems analyst Douglas Macklem.

Johnson, 31, has pleaded not guilty to fraud, conspiracy, extortion, money laundering and possession of proceeds obtained by crime.

She has said she was beaten, kicked, choked or threatened whenever she raised objections to her husband’s plan to take Macklem’s money.

Testifying in her own defence Monday, Johnson admitted to lying in a 2008 civil court examination, in which she took responsibility for selling Macklem on the idea of buying resort villas in the Dominican Republic.

In that examination, Johnson also said she had “betrayed” her husband by acting as an escort and expressed regret for doing so.

Johnson told court that she had lied to cover for her husband “out of fear” since she knew he would read the transcripts of her evidence.

“He had told me to be careful with what I say and don’t slip up,” Johnson testified.

Nolan Johnson was, by then, living in Jamaica, but Johnson said she continued to be afraid of him and his associates in Ottawa.

Johnson’s lawyer, Bruce Engel, asked her what had changed during the past two years that prompted her to tell a different story at her criminal trial.

“The fear is still there,” Johnson said. “But the difference now is that I’ve had enough of covering up for him. I am fed up with him having control of my life for so long.”

She told court that she’s now trying to “do right” even though she’s still scared. “People are telling me that the more I let the fear control me, the more I am letting him control me.”
 
Five people, including four former employees, have been charged with defrauding a school for children with special needs through the misappropriation of approximately $700,000.



Fugitive monkey in Japan finally caught.  Thank God! I was really worried.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Friday Post

South Korea, mad as hell, not going to take it anymore:


At dawn Friday, South Korean commandos steered their boat to a hijacked freighter in the Arabian Sea. Under covering fire from a destroyer and a Lynx helicopter, they scrambled up a ladder onto the ship, where Somali pirates were armed with assault rifles and anti-tank missiles.

Five hours after the risky rescue began, it was over.

All 21 hostages were freed from the gunfire-scarred freighter. Eight pirates were killed and five were captured in what President Lee Myung-bak called a "perfect operation."

It was a remarkable ending to the daring and rare raid, handing South Korea a stunning success in the battle against pirates who have long tormented shipping in the waters off the Horn of Africa.


Related: Japan, mad as hell, not going to take it anymore but stuck in the mud thanks to six-party dithering:


Japan and South Korea were informed in December that Yaeko Taguchi, a Japanese kidnapped to North Korea, was seen alive in Pyongyang last year along with two South Korean abductees, information that casts doubt on Pyongyang's claim that she died in 1986, government sources said Wednesday.

The information is in line with remarks last August by Hiroshi Nakai, then state minister in charge of the abduction issue, that there was a report of her living in Pyongyang until 2003. But as the latest information includes specific details previously unknown, it is being analyzed by Tokyo and Seoul, they said.

Provided by informed North Korean sources, the account said Taguchi was living in an apartment complex on Changgwang street in Pyongyang's Mangyongdae district and was seen spending time with two South Korean abductees, the sources said.

One of the South Koreans was Ko Sang Mun, a former high school teacher who disappeared from Norway in 1978, and the other is possibly married to Taguchi, they said.

Taguchi was abducted to the North in 1978, and Pyongyang has claimed she married Tadaaki Hara, another Japanese abductee, and died in a traffic accident in 1986.




Also related: China wants North Korean women because it has killed too many of theirs:


North Korea has offered to send 2,000 female workers to work at laminated timber factories in northeastern China as part of increasing economic cooperation between the countries, sources here said Wednesday.


China is awfully good at exploiting North Korean women. What does it say about the mongrels who allow it?


What the hell is he saying?


President Barack Obama claimed the role of champion of US businesses Friday, vowing to slip the economy into "overdrive" and enlisting corporate America in his crusade to create jobs.

Obama named General Electric CEO and Chairman Jeffrey Immelt to head a new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in his latest conciliatory gesture to the business sector following a Republican mid-term election rout.

"The past two years were about pulling our economy back from the brink," Obama said after touring a GE plant in upstate New York, which manufactures hardware for solar, steam and wind power energy industries.

"The next two years, our job now, is putting our economy into overdrive," Obama said, in a thematic shift for his presidency ahead of next week's State of the Union address.


Seriously. Unemployment has been at ten percent and he's been hoodwinked by China the octopus. Talk about being desperate.


What the hell is wrong with Alberta?


If Albertans were inclined to start affirmative action programs for their elected representatives, they could begin with their provincial leaders as easily as anywhere else. 

The number of aboriginals in the Progressive Conservative caucus (one) vastly under-represents the 5% of Albertans identifying as First Nations. There isn't a single Jew. And only 20% of Tory MLAs are women. Voters, however, seem to accept that their government does a reasonable job of representing their various hues, genders and creeds fairly. There certainly haven't been many complaints. 

But Alberta's Education Minister, Dave Hancock, isn't so sure we can expect the same broad-mindedness from the province's school boards. In the process of proposing updates to the Alberta School Act, he has been on the defensive over proposals to give his ministry power to appoint school trustees to traditionally elected boards, when situations warrant. He would, he insists, use the formidable power only for good. 

"Nobody has decided yet that there will be any appointed trustees. What we're talking about is: What's the right kind of governance model which involves all those people whose voices should be heard to ensure that our children get the education they need?" Mr. Hancock has said. 

No, no and no. Sloth and privilege might have been alright in eighteenth century Europe but it is not alright in Canada.

At least it shouldn't be.

Why deprive parents the right to choose representatives they know and trust? If other parties are concerned about representation, they can get themselves elected. Not that it should matter because students everywhere have to prepare for the same job market. This is so-called "good intentions" appointment completely undermines merit and character. This isn't the Halton Catholic School Board, you know.


Unbelievable:

Ian Thomson moved to a rural homestead in Southern Ontario to lead a quiet life investing in a little fixer-upper. Then his neighbour's chickens began showing up on his property. He warned his neighbour, then killed one of the birds. 

The incident began six years of trouble for Mr. Thomson that culminated early one Sunday morning last August when the 53-year-old former mobile-crane operator woke up to the sound of three masked men firebombing his Port Colborne home. 

"I was horrified," he said. "I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what was happening. I had no idea what was going on." 

So Mr. Thomson, a former firearms instructor, grabbed one of his Smith & Wesson revolvers from his safe, loaded it and headed outside dressed in only his underwear. 

"He exited his house and fired his revolver two, maybe three times, we're not sure. Then these firebombing culprits, they ran off," said his lawyer, Edward Burlew. 

His surveillance cameras caught the attackers lobbing at least six Molotov cocktails at his house and bombing his doghouse, singeing one of his Siberian Huskies. But when Mr. Thomson handed the video footage to Niagara Regional Police, he found himself charged with careless use of a firearm. 

The local Crown attorney's office later laid a charge of pointing a firearm, along with two counts of careless storage of a firearm. The Crown has recommended Mr. Thomson go to jail, his lawyer said.

Singed a husky? Now I'm mad!
 

We can't let citizens protect themselves lest they decide the police and law are utterly useless in representing their interests.
 

 
An aboriginal lawyer says his people will continue to be financially dependent on the federal government until they say no to what he calls federal welfare. Calvin Helin said on Thursday that with aging Canadian Baby Boomers heading into retirement, it is in the best interests of the federal government to help aboriginal people get out of what he calls "undependence." "In 2006, we received $10-billion in transfer payments," said Mr. Helin, author of the bestselling book Dances with Dependency: Out of Poverty Through Self-Reliance and his new book The Economic Dependency Trap. "It will soon be $40-billion, when a third of our country is getting ready to retire. The writing is on the wall -- it's simply not sustainable," Mr. Helin told a luncheon meeting of the Frontier Centre.

 
Thank God somebody said it!
 

Another riot in Pakistan. Did not see that coming.




It's time to ask people what they really mean. After all, it's ugly enough without the rhetoric. More here.


Related: what he said.


Maybe if they focused on studying things instead of banning free speech:


The next logical step for many after finishing high school is to attend college or university. 

After all, it's tough to get a job with just a high school education. So students save, take out hefty loans and parents drain savings to pursue a degree, but what do students really learn?

A new study out in the U.S. shows the answer is not much.

It found 45 per cent of students show no significant improvement in skills such as critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing during their first two years.


Also, teachers in elementary and secondary schools should get off their collective butts and do what they are paid to do. Parents, start reading to your kids. Make them learn a skill. Schools aren't baby-minding centres, you know.


And now, a museum for stuff you could never use.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

But Wait! There's More!

Hu Jintao is a big, fat liar.


Cases in point: China does not pose a military threat, says Hu:



Chinese President Hu Jintao denied on Thursday that his country was interested in competing militarily with the United States — but warned against any foreign interference regarding Taiwan and Tibet.

Delivering his only speech during his four-day visit to the United States, Hu also made clear that China’s ruling Communist party remained committed to building a “socialist country” and that freedoms would be defined within the context of socialism.

“We will develop a socialist democracy, and build a socialist country under the rule of law,” Hu said in his speech, which he delivered to a mainly business audience in Washington.

“We will make continuous progress in our endeavour to build a prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious modern socialist country.”


And:
 
 
Chinese President Hu Jintao acknowledged Wednesday that China had "a lot" more to do on human rights but warned the United States not to meddle in its affairs. 

On a state visit to the United States, the Chinese leader and President Barack Obama sparred over human rights, although they smoothed over sharp differences by making an economic and strategic case for working together. 

Mr. Obama said he believed China's emergence as a major power was good for the United States economically, but revealed Washington's doubts about the long-term political goals of the world's most populous country, which remains under communist party rule. 

"We welcome China's rise," Mr. Obama said at a news conference in Washington with Mr. Hu. 

(Sidebar: I'll bet he does.)


"We just want to make sure that that rise is done in a way that reinforces international norms and international rules, and enhances security and peace--as opposed to it being a source of conflict within the region [and] around the world." 

He added, "We have some core views as Americans about the universality of certain rights -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly -- that we think are very important and that transcend cultures. I have been very candid with President Hu about these issues." 

In response, Mr. Hu said China recognized "the universality of human rights." 

"China is a developing country with a huge population and also a developing country in a crucial stage of reform. In this context China still faces many challenges in economic and social development and a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights," he said. 

"We will continue our efforts to improve the lives of the Chinese people and we will continue our efforts to promote democracy and the rule of law in our country."
 

Really?
 

Let's pick apart Hu's quips so that we may see his lies more clearly.
 
 
"Chinese President Hu Jintao denied on Thursday that his country was interested in competing militarily with the United States"
 
"-  but warned against any foreign interference regarding Taiwan and Tibet."
 
 
China recently conducted a successful test flight of a stealth jet, has a permanent seat on the UN security council, is at constant odds with both Taiwan and Japan, is attempting to gobble up South Korea (and, therefore, destabilise the Korean Peninsula- hat tip: OFK), has militarily, politically and financially backed not only the Stalinist state of North Korea but Sudan, as well, and has the one of the largest standing armies in the world (the US also possesses such an army). If one chooses not to count the country's brutal treatment of its own people, China still stands out as an oppressor of the North Koreans and the Tibetans.
 

What could the US possibly have to worry about?


"China is a developing country with a huge population and also a developing country in a crucial stage of reform. In this context China still faces many challenges in economic and social development and a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights,"...

 

So, the reason why the Chinese communist government arrests people, bans free expression, bars the Internet, allows forced abortions and female infanticide (go here), has a host of labour rights abuses and lets people live in unimaginable filth is because it is too poor and stupid to know better? I've seen better lip service over the years and this doesn't count as a good one. Way to promote your country, Hu. 
 

Why are we trading with these people? Why are we selling our industry, knowledge and resources to them? We are cutting our own throats. I realise Obama has absolutely no scruples whatsoever, but surely there must be someone out there who clearly understands how utterly disastrous it is to surrender the West to an octopus so savage.
 
 
 

South Korea agreed on Thursday to a North Korean offer of high-level military talks, a major breakthrough in the crisis on the peninsula. Such talks could clear the way for the resumption of long-stalled aid-for-disarmament negotiations with the North.

The New York Times said Obama warned his Chinese counterpart that if Beijing did not step up pressure on North Korea, Washington would redeploy its forces in Asia to protect itself from a potential North Korean strike on U.S. soil.

But...the US has nothing to fear from China. I'm confused!


Make North Korea prove itself before making a move or South Korea will be back where it started.



Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Mid-week Post

Obama has vowed to fight his own countrymen the way he will never fight the Chinese:


The Republican-controlled House of Reprsentatives has voted to repeal the health care law President Barack Obama signed last year.

The 245-189 vote marks the fulfilment of a promise many Republicans made in last year's political campaigns.
The vote will not eliminate the system signed last year by President Barack Obama.

The House bill has little or no chance to passing the Senate, controlled by Obama's Democratic supporters. And Obama has vowed to veto it if it reaches his desk.


This shambles of a healthcare reform bill is Obama's pride and joy (along with cowering to the Chinese and Iranians). He'll be damned if he lets a bunch of Republicans democratically shred it. The arrogance of that man in assuming he knows what is good for countrymen on whom he looks down.


I, for one, am glad not to have that dictator here.


Related: Hu silences human rights critics with lip service:


In a rare concession on a highly sensitive issue, Chinese President Hu Jintao used his White House visit on Wednesday to acknowledge "a lot still needs to be done" to improve human rights in his nation accused of repressing its people. President Barack Obama pushed China to adopt fundamental freedoms but assured Hu the U.S. considers the communist nation a friend and vital economic partner.

Hu's comments met with immediate skepticism from human rights advocates, who dismissed them as words backed by no real history of action. Hu contended his country has "made enormous progress" but provided no specifics.

Still, his remarks seemed to hearten and surprise U.S. officials, coming during an elaborate visit that centred on boosting trade and trust between the world's two largest economies.





Question: why do we have to take cues from the Iranian government or would-be terrorists in this country? Did we lose a war? Did Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant toil in vain? Did everyone forget Zahra Kazemi?


Just gob-smacked- an inter-faith fatwa.


Related: what this guy said:



The Copts — and other Near Eastern Christians facing extinction -- in their ancestral homelands no less—should be spared the condescending wringing of hands and other worthless histrionics of collective sorrow. Something else, of an entirely different nature, needs to take place: politicians, academics, prelates, lay leaderships, Middle East experts, and decent Muslims all over the world could resolve to take a firm and decisive stand against Muslim supremacists. Nothing short of summoning brutally honest Arab and Muslim introspection — by Arabs and Muslims—should be deemed acceptable any longer.

The culture and theology that produce these sorts of genocidal impulses—of which the Copts are only the most recent victims—should be put on trial; not the "terrorists," and not "al-Qaeda."

The ongoing destruction of Eastern Christians is not a modern phenomenon, nor is it a reaction to Western colonialism, American meddling, the existence of Israel, the war in Iraq, or economic hardships in the Middle East—the standard pretexts flaunted by a biased Middle East scholarship and media.

The deliberate, methodical erasure of the histories, languages, cultures, and memories of indigenous non-Muslim Middle Easterners is a phenomenon fourteen centuries in the making. An honest recognition of this horrid legacy is imperative to a sound understanding of the Middle East.


Why would the deliberate genocide and elimination of a culture be deemed acceptable or an acceptable loss? Do tell, liberals.


Apparently, it is wrong to censor things.


Cut. Pakistan. Off.


Pakistani police are threatening the father of an 18-year-old Christian man whom officers raped, killed and threw into a sewer last week, according to area Christians.

Christian residents of Akhter Colony, Karachi who pulled the body of Waqas Gill from the sewer on Jan. 11 protested an alleged police cover-up by placing the corpse in the middle of a street and chanting slogans against officers of Mehmoodabad police station. They said local officers kidnapped and sodomized Gill before shooting him dead on Jan. 9.


The victim’s father, Pervez Gill, told Compass that four policemen on Jan. 6 abducted his son without a warrant and without making any charges. He said higher level police officials took notice of their Jan. 11 protest and reluctantly filed charges against the four policemen, two of them identified as Muhammad Amir Butt and Muhammad Adeel Khatak of the Mehmoodabad police station in Jamshaid Town, Karachi. The First Information Report is No. 38/11 under the murder laws of Section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code.

“Police are now threatening us and other Christians of Akhter Colony that we have to retract the charges,” Gill said, nearly in tears. “Police registered a case against the culprits, but they have not filed it under the proper parts of the section, which weakens the case, and police have done everything possible to save their fellow policemen.”

Gill said this police bias was the reason the other two officers named were still at large, with no action taken against them.


We can re-build them. We have the technology. Or lack thereof:


Susan Maushart lived out every parent's fantasy: She unplugged her teenagers.


For six months, she took away the Internet, TV, iPods, cell phones and video games. The eerie glow of screens stopped lighting up the family room. Electronic devices no longer chirped through the night like "evil crickets." And she stopped carrying her iPhone into the bathroom.

The result of what she grandly calls "The Experiment" was more OMG than LOL — and nothing less than an immersion in RL (real life).

As Maushart explains in a book released in the U.S. this week called "The Winter of Our Disconnect" (Penguin, $16.95), she and her kids rediscovered small pleasures — like board games, books, lazy Sundays, old photos, family meals and listening to music together instead of everyone plugging into their own iPods.


Filthy, immoral, sinful cats!



A cat who observes the rule of law.


Cats should be judged not by the colour of their fur but the content of their purring.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

There Is Still So Much to Say

Quebec legislature denies access to Sikhs carrying kirpans:


Several Sikhs were denied entry into the Quebec legislature Tuesday amid a heated debate over multiculturalism and just where to draw the line when it comes to tolerating cultural practices.

Security officials at Quebec's assemblee nationale refused to let them in because they were wearing kirpans, small stylized daggers worn by some religious Sikhs.

Four representatives from the World Sikh Organization of Canada had planned to attend public hearings but were told by security to leave their daggers at the door if they wanted to enter. They refused.

The provincial government reacted with cautious language to the decision. The opposition Parti Quebecois, meanwhile, applauded heartily and said Canadian-style multiculturalism was unwelcome in Quebec.


Good. I don't care who you are, weapons are not allowed. Is Trudeau-style multiculturalism far more important than safety and the rule of law?


If I were a Saskatchewan marriage commissioner, this would be my response to a nagging special-interest group.


Someone else who should salute with a dreaded finger.



Speaking of tidy little fascists and their love for shutting up people they don't like:


The objection students’ associations have to allowing any opinion at all to be expressed on campus is that some opinions are upsetting to members of the university community. Hearing these opinions, the argument goes, robs such people of the peace of mind, feeling of belonging, and confidence in their identities that they need to participate fully in academic and campus life. That the students’ association is able and willing to deny certain resources (such as meeting rooms) reassures these people that they will be able to participate safely in academic and campus life.

Make the greedy little student unions repay every single penny to the students they rip off. Highway robbery never looked so... academic.


Hu Jintao arrives in Washington to check out his investment. The commander-toady-in-chief has promised his boss trading partner a welcoming family dinner because China owns American debt, has taken North American jobs while it mistreats its own workers, kills North Korean refugees to help its vassal state save face and is just an all-around bully.


Related: from the makers of unsafe toys to potentially unsafe toys:


The federal government is restricting the use of certain chemicals used to make toys and child-care articles soft and squishy.

The new regulations restrict the use of six compounds known as phthalates in toys and items such as bibs and sippy cups.

For more than a decade, manufacturers have followed voluntary restrictions on the use of these chemicals in things such as pacifiers, rattles and baby-bottle nipples.

The new rules extend the restrictions and bring Canada in line with the United States and the European Union.
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says there are concerns that the chemicals can leach out of certain items that may be chewed or sucked over long periods.

Under the regulations, phthalate concentration will be limited to 1,000 milligrams for every kilogram of plastic.


Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier won't be able to exploit Haiti's power vacuum because he has been taken into custody.


Cut. Pakistan. Off.

The lifeless bodies of two tiny babies are being given their final bath before burial in Karachi, after they were left to die in the southern Pakistani city's garbage dumps.


"They can only have been one or two days old," says volunteer worker Mohammad Saleem, pointing at the two small corpses being gently washed by his colleagues at a charity's morgue.

In the conservative Muslim nation, where the birth of children outside of marriage is condemned and adultery is a crime punishable by death under strict interpretations of Islamic law, infanticide is a crime on the rise.

More than 1,000 infants -- most of them girls -- were killed or abandoned to die in Pakistan last year according to conservative estimates by the Edhi Foundation, a charity working to reverse the grim trend.

The infanticide figures are collected only from Pakistan's main cities, leaving out huge swathes of the largely rural nation, and the charity says that in December alone it found 40 dead babies left in garbage dumps and sewers.

The number of dead infants found last year -- 1,210 -- was up from 890 in 2008 and 999 in 2009, says the Edhi Foundation manager in Karachi, Anwar Kazmi.


A sad yet touching photo of a dog and its former owner.

Monday, January 17, 2011

If This Is Monday, Where Did the Week-End Go?

Perhaps away from the snow in a post-global warming world. Or a post-"Marshmallow World". Just enjoy the song.


Harmonise vaccines across Canada:


The Canadian Paediatric Society has reiterated its call for Canada to institute a harmonized immunization program that would avoid potential errors in vaccine delivery as some families move between provinces.


Forgive my ignorance, but isn't that what medical records are for?



The best way to get funding is to make the killers pay for it themselves:


The federal government is urging more community groups to come forward to help combat honour killings. Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose, pictured, first called for a pitch from organizations for projects targeting this type of violence in July. Just over $2-million was set aside to fund initiatives, and so far about $800,000 has been allocated to three projects in the Greater Toronto Area aimed at empowering women, particularly immigrants, to learn about their rights and to speak out against abuse.


Aahhh, multiculturalism... It works on so many levels.



Class in Sudan:



South Sudan's president urged his people to forgive the Muslim north for a devastating 1983-2005 war, as partial results trickling in on Sunday from a landmark vote showed a landslide for secession. 

In his first public pronouncement since the referendum wrapped up in the mainly Christian region on Saturday, President Salva Kiir joined thousands of faithful in giving thanks for the week-long independence vote and praying for their nation-in waiting. 

Speaking from the pulpit of Saint Theresa Roman Catholic cathedral in the regional capital Juba, Kiir said: "For our deceased brothers and sisters, particularly those who have fallen during the time of struggle, may God bless them with eternal peace. 

"And may we, like Jesus Christ on the cross, forgive those who have forcefully caused their deaths."
An estimated two million people died in the 22-year civil war, the latest round in five decades of conflict between the south and the mainly Arab north that has blighted Africa's largest nation.



Beats "Death to those who insult Islam" any day.


North Korean burger joint? Not buying it.


Where toilet humour is welcome.


By the power of Blackbeard's sword!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Mid-Week Post

Note to self: dig out from under snow.


Because liberals assume adults are children and can be easily confused and coddled, Sarah Palin takes the high road and, instead of wildly accusing people or pretending to be a savior of all because his presidency is failing (who could that be, I wonder?), she says this:


Vigorous and spirited public debates during elections are among our most cherished traditions.  And after the election, we shake hands and get back to work, and often both sides find common ground back in D.C. and elsewhere. If you don’t like a person’s vision for the country, you’re free to debate that vision. If you don’t like their ideas, you’re free to propose better ideas. But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.

There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal. And they claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently. But when was it less heated? Back in those “calm days” when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols? In an ideal world all discourse would be civil and all disagreements cordial. But our Founding Fathers knew they weren’t designing a system for perfect men and women. If men and women were angels, there would be no need for government. Our Founders’ genius was to design a system that helped settle the inevitable conflicts caused by our imperfect passions in civil ways. So, we must condemn violence if our Republic is to endure.

As I said while campaigning for others last March in Arizona during a very heated primary race, “We know violence isn’t the answer. When we ‘take up our arms’, we’re talking about our vote.” Yes, our debates are full of passion, but we settle our political differences respectfully at the ballot box – as we did just two months ago, and as our Republic enables us to do again in the next election, and the next. That’s who we are as Americans and how we were meant to be. Public discourse and debate isn’t a sign of crisis, but of our enduring strength. It is part of why America is exceptional. 

No one should be deterred from speaking up and speaking out in peaceful dissent, and we certainly must not be deterred by those who embrace evil and call it good. And we will not be stopped from celebrating the greatness of our country and our foundational freedoms by those who mock its greatness by being intolerant of differing opinion and seeking to muzzle dissent with shrill cries of imagined insults.


Class under fire. Please note the obvious violent imagery in the previous statement.


Related: Charles Krauthammer weighs in.


In other news, one Quebec chef will not stuff it- with truffles:


When the folks at the National Capital Commission signed up chef Martin Picard to host a gala dinner in Ottawa next month, they knew exactly what they were getting. This was the self-described wild chef who gleefully demonstrated the preferred preparation of moose testicles on his TV cooking show and made foie gras poutine the signature dish at his Montreal restaurant, Au Pied de Cochon. 

"With Martin Picard, I'm sure foie gras will be on the menu," the NCC's Andree-Anne Bonin told the Ottawa Citizen when the event was announced in December. "We can't do Martin Picard without foie gras." 

Well, not unless a handful of animal-rights activists unhappy with the treatment of ducks in foie-gras production kick up a stink, in which case you inform Mr. Picard to leave the delicacy in Montreal. 

On Monday, the federal commission announced that Mr. Picard had withdrawn from the Taste of Winterlude event rather than be told what he was allowed to serve.


I don't care one way or another about foie gras. I do care that even the food one may or may not eat is subject to the thin-skinned scrutiny of animal fetishists and the people who are afraid of them. Something fortifies Mr. Picard, something iron (or with iron).

Make it so, other Picard.


Are Chinese mothers meaner? My experience has taught me that Asian mothers drive their children to the brink of near-breakdown in pursuit of excellence. Children should be children. They should also be taught valuable life skills, trades, manners, values and even how to dress, something Western parents have largely forgotten to do. Before decrying those "Asian hordes" and their terrible parenting skills, ask why little Brady/Cady/Hayley/Bailey/Montana/Madison still has trouble spelling their trend name at age ten. Is this your future astronaut?


I'm sure he didn't mean to do that:


A Muslim policeman shot dead an Egyptian Christian on a train on Tuesday and wounded five others, sources said, less than two weeks after a church was bombed in Egypt's deadliest attack on Christians in years. The shooting is likely to stoke tensions in the Muslim majority country, where Christians protested for several days after the Jan. 1 bombing of a church in Alexandria that killed up to 23 people. Christians make up a tenth of Egypt's 79 million people and have long complained of unfair treatment. They have accused the government of not doing enough to protect them. A security source confirmed one Christian had been shot dead and said the attacker was a Muslim police officer. An Interior Ministry statement named the attacker as officer Amer Ashour Abdel-Zaher.

I'm sure there was some violent rhetoric involved but it was never related to an imam.
 

 
In commenting on the the Halton District Catholic School Board's ban on the gay rights groups, Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association president James Ryan is wrong when he says: "Catholic schools are every bit opposed to homophobia as non-Catholic schools are." 

He certainly speaks for his own group, whose relative gay-friendliness is frequently slammed by hard-core Catholic groups like Life- SiteNews.com.I suspect he also speaks for the majority of Catholic families and students, who share mainstream Canada's well known gay tolerance. He clearly does not, however, speak for those running the Catholic schools or for the Catholic religious Magisterium pulling their strings behind the scenes. They consider homosexual inclination "objectively disordered," as stipulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. They believe in the Catechism's call to chastity for homosexual persons. For them, tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality must be shown no quarter in the publicly funded Catholic school system -- even though most members of that paying public are tolerant of homosexuality. 

Ontario should ends its support for the discriminatory Catholic school system and move toward one school system equally accessible to all.


I'm sure he wouldn't be saying that if taxpayers happily funded his crap. This selfish individual wants to push his politics on students who should be studying, not marching to his tune. He can deal with students hu typ lyk dis 4evah. Apparently, special interests take precedence over moulding kids into productive human beings.


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

That Post That Says Alot

This is that post.


I knew this would happen:


It’s been nearly four days since the terrible shooting spree in Tucson targeting and critically wounding U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords, and killing six others—which means it must be time for the simplistic debate about the dangers of over-heated rhetoric and metaphor to make room for the predictably simplistic debate over gun control regulation....

So, if Tucson proves anything about gun control laws it’s that we can’t even rely on them to work properly. But that’s an argument for better enforcement of existing laws, not one for coming up with ridiculous, new ones. Unfortunately, there will always be those who believe just one more law will make all the difference in preventing another madman’s rampage—no matter how inane that law may be.


Watch the mental midgets backtrack on their ludicrous assertions that "words kill".



China has proposed a huge investment deal to revive North Korea's faltering economy, a report said Friday, amid an international drive to coax Pyongyang back to nuclear disarmament talks.
 China's state-run Shangdi Guanqun Investment plans to invest about $2 billion in a project to build up a North Korean free trade zone into a regional export base, the JoongAng newspaper said.
 A memorandum of understanding was signed with Pyongyang's Investment and Development Group on December 20, it said.

The two sides hope the area in Rason near the North's border with China and Russia will be the biggest industrial zone to be built in Northeast Asia in a decade, the daily said, citing documents related to the deal.
Pyongyang issued a decree in January to upgrade the status of Rason, formerly Rajin-Sonbong, which became a special economic zone in 1991 but never fulfilled its proposed role as a transport hub.


Rather, China needs North Korea as a buffer-state AND an extra source of income, all the while shooting North Korean refugees and exploiting North Korean women.



Related: what he said:


As time runs out on the tenure of both Presidents Lee Myung Bak and Barack Obama, the temptation to take the North Korean bait will probably grow, not diminish. But Mr. Lee and Mr. Obama should not be so hasty to react to Kim’s calculated provocations. In actuality, now is the winter of Kim’s discontent. He must contend with the collective weight of a nearly two decade-old food catastrophe, increasing influx of information, and outflux of citizens across the border. Add to that another hereditary communist power transition (to his son, Kim Jong-un), and the growing reality that even in the case of a leader-for-life, death will have its day.
Strike while the iron is hot, as they say. 


Japan's foreign minister on Thursday called for renewed dialogue on the divided Korean peninsula, but said the North should first take "concrete actions" to lower tensions.

"The nuclear and missile development issue of DPRK (North Korea) is a cause for major concern," Seiji Maehara said in a speech to a Washington think tank before meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"What is most important is that a North Korea-South Korea dialogue be opened up," Maehara said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But, North Korea "needs to first take concrete actions," he said, without providing further details.
Speaking through a translator during a question-and-answer session, Maehara said North Korea "these days is escalating the level of its provocation against the region and the international community."

He referred to the sinking of a South Korean warship last May, as well as the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean border island in November that sparked some of the worst saber-rattling since the 1950-1953 war.

He also cited a long-running dispute with Pyongyang over Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean spies in the 1970s and 80s. The kidnap victims were forced to train Pyongyang's secret agents in Japanese language and culture.

His remarks came after China, which has refused to rebuke its communist ally over the recent attack on the South, backed the North's call for "unconditional" talks with Seoul.

Hat tip: OFK.



Christians need an Islamic state like sharks need Quint:


So is the problem a growing ‘Islamisation’ of society as those with a wider political agenda to secularise Muslims and change Islam are claiming? In answer to this we need to examine the sharia laws relating to Christian and other non-Muslim citizens living in an Islamic State and look at some historical examples of when these sharia laws were applied on Christians. Non-Muslims citizens living in a Khilafah have an honourable status and are referred to as dhimmi (people of contract & protection). Their places of worship, lives and property are protected and they are not persecuted for their beliefs.


What a lying sack of sassafras.


Related: Pakistan MP accuses the Pope of "insulting Muslims" (what else is new?)


PAKISTANI politicians have accused the Pope of interfering in state matters after he called for controversial blasphemy laws to be scrapped.

Benedict XVI urged the Islamic nation to repeal the legislation — which carries the death penalty for insulting Islam — a week after the shooting of the governor of Punjab, who had criticised the laws.

“I once more encourage the leaders of that country to take the necessary steps to abrogate that law,” the Pope said.

“The tragic murder of the governor of Punjab shows the urgent need to make progress in this direction.”
He added that the legislation had been used as a pretext for violence against non-Muslims.

Islamic party leaders condemned the Pope’s comments.

“Pakistan is an Islamic ideological state and the Pope cannot tell us to change our laws, which are in conformity to our belief,” said Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior leader of Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam, one of the country’s largest Islamic groups supporting the blasphemy laws.

Farid Paracha, the leader of Jamaat-i-Islami, the most powerful Islamic party in the nation, said: “The Pope’s statement is an insult to Muslims across the world.”

More here


Is this one of those cases where one does not anger the perpetually angry or else? Of course it is. 


In other news... 


The Irish aren't impressed with our healthcare system. Don't worry. Neither are we.


This was originally from the Huffington Post so don't be surprised by its total fluffiness.



A moose can kill you so sue someone.


The Pope is just right about stuff:


Children begin to acquire the character of a son or daughter of the Church "starting from a Christian name," said Pope Benedict XVI -- who was christened Joseph -- as he baptised 21 infants in the Sistine Chapel on Sunday, marking the feast of Christ's baptism. 

Traditional names are "an unequivocal sign that the Holy Spirit gives a rebirth to people in the womb of the Church." 

That prompted Italian media to warn parents of the perils of not naming newborns from the Bible, despite the fact that most Italians still tend to name their children after saints. 

It's a different story in Canada, the United States and Australia, where parents are more likely to give their children unique names compared with their European counterparts in Denmark, Austria and the U.K., a new study in the journal Psychological Science found. 

Researchers theorized that frontier countries such as Canada were founded on a need for independence from the old world and, while the frontier spirit may have faded from contemporary Canadian culture, our penchant for unusual names has only grown stronger as the Canadian identity has matured. Provinces that were settled more recently, such as Alberta and B.C., were more likely to give their children uncommon names compared with Eastern provinces, which were settled earlier. 

"You're not going West on a wagon anymore, but those values of individualism and independence are still reflected in the culture," says study coauthor Michael Varnum. "The message is that frontier settlement still has contemporary consequences." 

The phenomenon has exploded since the 1990s, researchers from San Diego State University found in a 2010 analysis of names of 325 million babies born between 1880 and 2007. Parents started straying from more common names in the 1950s, but the shift toward unique names really began in 1983 and has picked up speed only in the past 20 years. 

"It's a question of a culture's most important consideration: giving a child a common name so they can fit in, or giving them a unique name so they can stand out," said study author Jean Twenge. 

Edmonton's Dana Coombe, a new mother with long ancestral roots in Canada, says the name she'd long wanted for her child --Aiden--was quickly shelved when it became too popular. 

"We really didn't want our son to be in a situation where there were eight other kids with his name in the class and you had to use last initials," said Ms. Coombe, who alongside husband Jesse ultimately chose the name Ryker -- which, according to BabyNameWizard.com,was only given to roughly 200 of every million babies born in 2009, compared with nearly 4,000 Aidens. "We really liked the fact that Ryker sounded manly and wasn't common. And no, we did not get it from Star Trek."


Frontier independence has nothing to do with it. People give their kids trend names and when the trend wears off in the next fifteen minutes, the kid has a lifetime of explaining his crappy name to his school-mates who will invariably beat him up after school.

Thanks, Mum and Dad.





Hhhmmm:


Historically, then, modern atheism and theism have a kind of co-dependent relationship. Theism gives rise to atheism, atheism takes its vocabulary and thought forms from theism.

I’m wondering if that’s why I find that many atheists sound so much like the religious types they despise. I’m not talking about everyone who doubts or denies the existence of God. I mean the noisy, public atheists from the celebrity authors to the army of busy little bloggers who spread the gospel of freedom from religion with missionary zeal. And I don’t mean all religious people, but those who conform to the stereotype these atheists have of religion – that it is irrational, dogmatic and closed minded. The more I hear from the atheists, the more they seem to me like the mirror image of their adversaries.

Like their religious counterparts, these atheists see a world divided between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. Whereas for the religious, the division is between the saved and the unsaved, for the atheists, it’s between the enlightened and the superstitious. In any case, theirs is a flat, dualistic world of simplistic oppositions, lacking in nuance, historical context, texture or levels of meaning.

Like their religious opponents, this kind of atheist is not only ignorant of the other side, but wilfully so. On the religious side, this ignorance takes the form of “God said it, I believe it, that settles it;” on the atheist side, “Religion is stupid. What’s to know?” Their knowledge of the other is not a deep appreciative knowledge, but the “knowledge” of the polemicist who is only concerned with what is useful for belittling and attacking.   Consequently, like their religious adversaries, they oversimplify vast and complex phenomena – by, for example, putting all religious convictions on the same level as belief in leprechauns.

Like their religious alter egos, this kind of atheist uses incendiary rhetoric to make his points. (Is it my imagination, or are most of them guys?) Except that if someone says that homosexuality is an abomination in the sight of God, he can be accused of hate speech; while, when Dawkins muses that parents should be charged with child abuse for teaching religion to their children, he is feted by the CBC.

Like their religious adversaries, this kind of atheist deals in static abstractions. They have no appreciation for the deeply and mysteriously biographical nature of belief. Anyone who has faith knows that it is more than assent intellectual assent to a set of propositions.  It is a framework of meaning and a way of life that goes to the deepest core of one’s being.



Park Chan-Wook does something cool:


Director Park Chan-Wook, who won the Jury prize at Cannes in 2009 for Thirst, revealed yesterday at a screening of his latest film, Paranmanjang, that the 30-minute short was shot entirely on Apple’s iPhone 4, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“From hunting for a film location, shooting auditions, to doing a documentary on the filming process, everything was shot with the iPhone 4,” Park told the Wall Street Journal after the screening. “We went through all the same filmmaking processes except that the camera was small.”


If I had a pantheon of superheroes, he would be one of them. I would dub him "Director-Man". He wouldn't have to wear a cape, though. He could just wear dark glasses and give profound quips about film-making.