Mid-Week Post

The chewy centre of the work-week...


In an effort to be even more bleeding-heart than thou, mayors of major Canadian cities insist on letting in more unvetted Syrian refugees without pondering why they didn't give a crap about Middle Eastern Christians and Yazidis and why countries like Saudi Arabia refuse to let in their Islamic brethren because of fears of terrorism:

Big city mayors are working together to bring more Syrian refugees to their cities, amid new poll results that show nearly one in two Canadians want the country to accept more Syrians than previously promised by the federal government.

Efforts from Canadian mayors includes a personal promise from Toronto Mayor John Tory to co-sponsor a refugee family and a motion Tuesday from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson asking the federal government to increase its commitment to accept refugees.

For decades, Europe has not only rested on the laurels of its past cultural greatness but it has depended on countries like the US to defend it against the Red Menace. All the while, Europe built a nearly childless nanny-state that migrating masses now expect. The useless, toothless UN should be defunded for expecting any European country to take in unassimiable masses they can't look after:

Leaders of the United Nations refugee agency warned Tuesday that Hungary faces a bigger wave of 42,000 asylum seekers in the next 10 days and will need international help to provide shelter on its border, where newcomers already are complaining bitterly about being left to sleep in frigid fields.

Officials from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it was sending tents, beds and thermal blankets to Hungary's border with Serbia, where for the past two days frustrated groups from the Middle East, Asia and Africa have ignored police instructions to stay put and instead have marched on a highway north to Budapest.

Commissioner Antonio Guterres accused the entire European Union of failing to see the crisis coming or take co-ordinated action, even though the 28-nation bloc of 508 million people should have enough room and resources to absorb hundreds of thousands of newcomers with ease. ...

The EU has struggled, in part, because front-line nations such as Hungary and Greece have not put enough facilities in place to house a human flow averaging 2,000 to 3,000 a day while the vast majority of people try to push deeper into Europe and seek refugee protection in Germany, the nation accepting the greatest number by far. ...

In Geneva, the U.N. special representative on international migration said too many countries wanted to give financial aid but no places for refugees to live.

"Buying your way out of this is not satisfactory," said the official, Peter Sutherland. Even so, U.N. members had not provided nearly enough funding for existing relief efforts, he added.

Poland, the largest of the EU's eastern members, has agreed to accept 2,000 refugees, saying it has too many economic problems to take more. In addition, officials have said that as a predominantly Roman Catholic country, Poland would have trouble integrating Muslims. Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said it would accept only those who have no hostility toward Poland.

Hey, remember when everyone said that the deal with Iran meant peace in our time?

Iran's supreme leader said Wednesday that Tehran will not expand talks with the United States beyond the international negotiations over its nuclear program and predicted that Israel would not exist in 25 years.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's statements underscored his lingering distrust of the United States and hostility toward Israel as the U.S. Congress prepares to vote on the landmark nuclear agreement reached with Tehran in July.

Iran will be glass by Christmas if it moves wrongly.



Thomas Mulcair is not going to remove Shawn Dearn because he didn't offend the wrong people:

New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair said Wednesday that he had no plans to fire his most senior communications aide for tweeting offensive anti-Roman Catholic comments.

At an event in Niagara Falls, Ont., a grim-faced Mulcair said he stood resolutely by Shawn Dearn, whose two-year-old tweets resurfaced late Tuesday.

"He felt very bad about it and I'm more than willing to move on from that," Mulcair said.

(Sidebar: bullsh--.) 

The tweets by Dearn, hired in February as Mulcair's director of communications, were quickly circulated on social media.

"Memo to CBC and all media," one of them reads. "Stop calling the misogynist, homophobic, child-molesting Catholic church a 'moral authority.' It's not."

I need to fix this:

"Memo to CBC and all media," one of them reads. "Stop calling the misogynist, homophobic, child-molesting Catholic church ISIS a 'moral authority.' It's not."

Now Shawn Dearn would have to apologise.



This woman isn't Rosa Parks. Turf her:

Maiia Mykolayivna Zaafrane has filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, alleging religious discrimination by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

On Dec. 4, 2013, Zaafrane was forbidden from taking part in a citizenship ceremony unless she removed her niqab. 

Like Ishaq, she was willing to take the garment off in a private room in front of a female citizenship officer in order to verify her identity.

Zaafrane, a Montreal woman who moved to Canada from Ukraine, filed the human rights complaint in April 2014 with the help of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM).

(Sidebar: follow the money.) 

Arresting someone over failing to issue licenses can't be worse than throwing gays off of roofs, can it?

After a five-day stint in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis will return to work this week to face another day of reckoning.

It's as stupid as denying accreditation to a university no one has to go to if one doesn't like the code of conduct.



Heavily mobbed-up unionised teachers often give out homework because they think that is what is expected of them. Not handing out any homework is disastrous in that the students will not review the day's lessons nor put their new skills and knowledge into practice:

Some parents and educators have launched a crusade to abolish the practice in an effort to relieve stress, reclaim childhood and even the playing field for students. But others aren't convinced that will help anyone and, instead, want to flip some long-held beliefs about homework, like that it needs to be done at home. ...

To Kralovec, homework's negatives outweigh any potential positives.

The practice worsens economic inequalities, she says.

Kids from some families have access to well-educated parents, tutors and high-speed internet — a.k.a. the help they may need to finish their assignments.

Other kids aren't as fortunate. They may be working to help support their family, taking care of sick relatives or babysitting siblings, says Kralovec. 

"It privileges the already privileged kids," she says. "It disadvantages the already disadvantaged kids."

(Sidebar: kids who drop out of school because of homework didn't really do so for that reason. Furthermore, not every student is in the mythical "one percent" or has harried parents.)

Cooper, a professor at Duke University's psychology and neuroscience department, is what Kralovec calls a "pro-homework guy."

He believes the practice shouldn't be abolished just because it doesn't benefit all kids equally.

"Homework can help all students," says Cooper, who wrote The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers and Parents.

He rattles off a long list of why homework's proponents embrace the practice. They claim it improves achievement, develops time-management skills and helps kids realize learning can happen outside of the classroom.

Which it can. The student won't be in school forever. His future "classrooms" will rely on skills and knowledge practised over the years.

And now, every Southern Gothic novel ever:

          ...

11. It’s Too Hot For Justice Today
12. I Drink Because This House Is Filthy And All The Servants Have Fled
13. Someone Is Going To Have To Shoot The Dog Before It Reaches The Courthouse
14. Vines Cover The Mansion Much As The Inescapable Past Covers My Ruined Life
...