Mid-Week Post

Five more shopping days until Chuseok ...


Lots to talk about ...




Then you can die:

President Moon Jae-in on Thursday ruled out the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea. In an interview with CNN on the eve of his trip to the U.S. he said, "I do not agree that South Korea needs to develop our own nuclear weapons or relocate tactical nuclear weapons in the face of North Korea's nuclear threat."

"To respond to North Korea by having our own nuclear weapons will not maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula and could lead to a nuclear arms race in Northeast Asia," he added. Moon's comments seem surprisingly oblivious to the grave threat we face from North Korea.

Kim Jong-Un is not even remotely as lenient.

The South Koreans sure do know how to pick 'em.


Also - China should not be involved in what happens to North Korea now or when there is actually a regime change. It already forces North Koreans to return. Economic refugees shouldn't be that hard to boot, except there will be no firing squads waiting for them:

From China’s perspective, officially broaching the issue could alarm its neighboir, which has received Beijing’s backing since the Korean War in the 1950s. There’s also a fear that it would give the U.S. an advantage in one day reunifying the Korean peninsula on its terms. 

“When we first started these efforts, the Chinese told us — and many other people, including U.S. officials — that if they engaged in such discussions with the United States it would come out, it would get leaked, North Korea would find out and they would retaliate,” Glaser said. ...

Any incursion by Chinese troops into North Korea risks drawing in South Korea, whose constitution covers the entire peninsula. Similar to China, authorities in Seoul would also be worried about large flows of refugees who might flee, particularly if war leads to shortages of food and other essential goods.

Jia Qingguo, dean of the School of International Studies of Peking University, wrote in a Sept. 11 article for the East Asia Forum that China’s military should consider creating a safety zone within North Korea to prevent a large flow of people into its northeastern provinces.

(Sidebar: that sounds like an occupation to me.)




Why am I not surprised?

Police say they expect no charges to be laid following an investigation into a small Southwestern Ontario First Nation’s powwow that was flagged in an audit demanded by angry band members.

The Liberals and their opaque form of governance are part of the reason why this sort of thing can happen again and again.



Speaking of which:

The Liberals are blaming the previous Harper government for the failing grade they received in an independent audit of compliance with the Access to Information Act, saying the Conservatives left behind a badly damaged system. ...

The audit was funded by national industry group News Media Canada, which represents more than 800 print and digital titles across the country. It was researched and prepared independently by a team headed by lead author Fred Vallance-Jones, who teaches journalism at University of King's College in Halifax. 

A total of 428 requests sent to different levels of government were included in the analysis.

In their 2015 platform on open and transparent government, Trudeau's Liberals stated that transparent government is good government, the report notes. "It's a sentiment shared by just about every opposition party that seeks power, but often falls out of favour once power is achieved."

The federal access act allows people who pay $5 to request records ranging from correspondence and studies to expense reports and meeting minutes. Agencies must answer requests within 30 days or provide a reason why more time is needed.

The researchers found the federal system continues to be far slower and less responsive than provincial and municipal freedom of information regimes.

 
Indeed:

Taxpayers are on the hook for more than $215,000 for the prime minister's jaunt to the Bahamas over the Christmas holidays, CBC reports.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family were guests of the Aga Khan on his privately-owned Bell Island and was joined by a number of staff.

While Parliament originally said the trip cost $127,187, according to a document the broadcaster obtained through an access to information request, the total cost was actually $215,398. This includes costs to cover RCMP, defence staff, Global Affairs Canada and Privy's Council staff who accompanied the prime minister on the trip.

Part of the reason for this higher number is money for the RCMP security detail. Parliament originally said the cost was $71,988 - which covered both overtime and travel costs. However, CBC reports the new document puts that "total cost of all expenses incurred" for the RCMP detail at $153,504.

The CBC said RCMP had told Parliament $71,988 only covered costs up to Feb. 1 and confirmed to the broadcaster in an email that some of the expenses had not been processed when it reported that figure.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson is currently conducting a probe into the 2016 trip. 

(Sidebar: this Mary Dawson.)


And:

The Liberal government is heading into the second half of its mandate with a number of big legislative priorities they are eager to move through Parliament.

And they are ready to curtail debate if they think the opposition parties are dragging their feet — especially since the will of the increasingly independent Senate is becoming harder to predict.

However:

A Conservative bid for an emergency debate on the Liberal government's controversial small business tax proposal was thwarted Wednesday, but that does not mean they — nor the public — are out of options for sharing their views.

"Parliament, and not the government, is the final authority on taxation," Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre said as he called for a House of Commons debate on the proposed changes before consultations wrap up next week.

Deputy Speaker Bruce Stanton, a Conservative MP, ruled the request did not meet the criteria and turned him down.

The proposals, unveiled this summer by Finance Minister Bill Morneau, would eliminate small business tax provisions that the Liberals argue allow some wealthy Canadians to avoid paying their fair share.

That includes restricting the ability of business owners to lower their tax rate by sprinkling income to family members, even if they do no work for the business, and curbing the ability to convert regular income into capital gains, which are typically taxed at a lower rate.

The proposed changes would also limit private corporations from making passive investments in things like real estate or stocks.

They have sparked a revolt by doctors, farmers, small business owners and even some backbench Liberal MPs, who have spoken publicly about the complaints they have been hearing from their constituents.

Amid the ensuing uproar, the government has insisted they are listening to concerns and open to changes — with several sources suggesting they are open to going back to the drawing board.

The Liberals say they have no intention of extending the Oct. 2 deadline for consultations, but a government source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that does not mean everything will be a done deal by then.

And then there's this little doozy right here:

The Privy Council Office says it has launched an investigation into who leaked confidential information about settlement money paid to former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr. ...

The fact that a settlement had been reached with Khadr in his civil suit against the Canadian government, along with the alleged amount of that settlement ($10.5 million), was initially leaked to the media in early July.

News of the payout quickly became a political nightmare for the governing Liberals, prompting a backlash from the opposition Conservatives, the families of the American soldiers Khadr is alleged to have killed and injured in 2002, and broad segments of the Canadian population.

By transparency, I'm sure the Liberals meant to say that they were clear about lying to everyone.

I think that was it.


Also:

When it comes to intolerance, look no further than the Liberal and NDP MPs who walked out of a meeting simply because the meeting’s chair, Rachael Harder, opposes abortion and backed a bill to impose stricter penalties for crimes committed against pregnant women.

Intolerant NDP and Liberal MPs refused to be in the room with Harder simply because she holds a different view — a view shared by millions of Canadians of all political stripes.

They don’t want to talk about it, they just want to shut her out and take away her voice — and that of Lethbridge voters who elected Harder to represent them in Ottawa.

Sure, these leftist MPs were exercising their own freedoms, but this act of political theatre sets an example that you can silence and exclude those with different opinions.

Childish MPs weren’t the only example of a refusal to engage honestly on issues of the day.
Earlier this week, I wrote a column critiquing a CBC article over its claim Sharia law is already in place here in Canada.

When CBC News shared their article on Twitter, they wrote “Shariah is already in Canada.”

My column — “Stop normalizing Sharia law in Canada” — refuted the idea “Sharia is already in Canada”, and encouraged freedom-loving Canadians to join forces with moderate Muslim activists in campaigning against Sharia creeping into our society.

Sharia is more than just a set of spiritual guidelines for Muslims.

There is no separation of mosque and state in Islamic societies, and therefore, Sharia governs both private and public life.

But rather than having an honest discussion about Sharia and our secular Canadian society, rather than challenging my points and perhaps explaining how the two might be compatible, leftist critics simply attacked me and mischaracterized my argument.

They accused me of fear-mongering by saying Sharia is already in Canada — a claim made by the CBC, not me.

A Huffington Post article took my words out of context to promote the Trudeau government’s agenda and to demonize conservatives.

These tactics work to intimidate would-be critics and silence those with opposing views. They undermine the freedom of speech and civil discourse necessary in a healthy democracy.

If we cannot have an honest discussion about the realities of Sharia law, how can we safeguard our society against it?

When we allow freedom of speech to be curtailed for short-term partisan objectives, in the long run, other freedoms become collateral damage.

Because, my dear Mrs. Malcolm, that is how the fascist ball bounces in Trudeau's Canada.



Speaking of fascists:

The federal Liberals are working on an apology for the Canadian government’s decision in 1939 to turn away a boat of German Jews hoping to seek asylum in Canada, The Canadian Press has learned.

Some wanted the apology for the MS St. Louis to come in concert with today’s inauguration of the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will instead only make reference to the issue in his speech.

(Sidebar: coward.)

The ship bearing 900 Jews was turned away from both Cuba and the United States before a group of Canadians tried to convince then-prime minister Mackenize King’s government to let it dock in Halifax.

 
Too late. They're already dead and MacKenzie King helped kill them.




Just like with Rachael Harder, it is never about individualism:

Women who have been impacted by pregnancy from rape have been forced to change a speaking venue because the hotel which had taken the booking feared pro-abortion protests.

The three women are speaking in Dublin and Cork as part of the “Ending the Silence: women impacted by pregnancy from rape speak out” initiative organised by Unbroken Ireland, which aims to give voice to those affected by pregnancy after rape. Two of the women are rape survivors, while one of the speakers was conceived in rape.

The Life Institute, which is co-hosting the event, said that it was absolutely shameful that the Gibson Hotel had apparently bowed to pro-abortion bullies who wanted to silence rape survivors.

Niamh Uí Bhriain said that this was the second pro-life event which had been cancelled in Dublin within a week because of threats of pro-abortion protests, with a different event in the Aisling Hotel cancelled after intimidation from abortion campaigners.

“It is absolutely shameful that pro-abortion campaigners feel that they can shout everyone down, and that the Gibson Hotel have effectively let repeal the 8th extremists silence women who have been raped,” she said.

“These women know at first hand the trauma of becoming pregnant from rape, and the stigma attached to children who are conceived in this way. They say that women like them they are too-often silenced by the stigma and shame they are made to feel, and that only the rapist, who is a criminal, should feel this stigma,” said Ms Uí Bhriain.

“Whatever your views on abortion, I think most people would recognise that these women have an important part to play in the debate – and that their voices are rarely heard. It is frankly disgusting that abortion campaigners want to silence them,” the Life Institute spokeswoman said.

(Sidebar: but I thought that women should be believed ... unless they refuse to abort or are Yazidi or kidnapped by Boko Haram ...)


But don't just take their word for it:

Blaming the victim

This is why I refuse to call such people "pro-choice". No matter what happens to a pregnant woman and her child (that genetically separate being whose size fries the hell out of people) or what her circumstances, the answer for pro-abortionists is unrestricted abortion without one moment's hesitation or self-reflection. And if that opinion differs even slightly, the knives (and worse - the melodrama) come out.


Also in "self-made conservative women are so g-d- uppity. Why can't they just shut up so that wealthy white Liberal men can continue wasting everybody's money?" news:

Calling for Sen. Beyak’s head is just the old Liberal trick of creating a bogeyman to divert attention from the real issue.

Like the Liberals’ Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, already a train wreck, which was preceded by at least 29 other inquiries and reports on this issue since 1996, which made over 500 recommendations, to no avail.

What do Sen. Beyak’s views have to do with that?

And:

The NY Times, the paper that ignored the crimes against humanity committed by Stalin as they were happening, is now looking to provide the same treatment retroactively to Mao Zedong. ...

“The Communists did many terrible things,” my grandmother always says at the end of her reminiscences. “But they made women’s lives much better.”

That often-repeated dictum sums up the popular perception of Mao Zedong’s legacy regarding women in China. As every Chinese schoolchild learns in history class, the Communists rescued peasant daughters from urban brothels and ushered cloistered wives into factories, liberating them from the oppression of Confucian patriarchy and imperialist threat.

Only to force abortions on both Chinese and North Korean women (who are forced into brothels if not being forcibly returned), arrest dissidents, starve, evict and use as cheap labour.

Hell of a deal!

The Trudeaus must be tickled communist pink!




Never doubt the power of prayer:

Poland’s bishops have urged the nation’s Catholics to join a massive rosary prayer crusade along the country’s 2,000-mile border to pray for the salvation of their country.

Organizers say they expect up to a million people to participate in the “Rosary on the Borders” event on October 7, the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, where “the Christian fleet overcame the Muslim armada, saving Europe from Islamization.”

The Catholic Feast of the Holy Rosary was established by Pope Pius V in 1571 as “Our Lady of Victory” after the so-called Holy League won a landmark victory over the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto.

On October 7th, 1571, a fleet of ships assembled by a coalition of Christian nations fought an intense battle against the forces of the invading Ottoman Empire. The unexpected victory of the so-called “Holy League” radically curbed efforts by the Ottoman Turks to control the Mediterranean, “causing a seismic shift in international relations from East to West.” As Fr. Steve Grunow, CEO of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, has written, “the world that we know came into being with this victory.”

In preparation for this decisive encounter, Pope Pius V ordered the churches of Rome opened for prayer day and night, and urged the faithful to invoke the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary through the prayer of the Rosary. On hearing of the Christian victory, the Pope established a new feast day in the Roman Liturgical Calendar, which would come to be known as the feast of the Holy Rosary.

“We believe that if the rosary is prayed by about a million Poles along the borders of the country, it may not only change the course of events, but open hearts of our compatriots to the grace of God,” the organisers say on their website.

“The powerful prayer of the Rosary can affect the fate of Poland, Europe, and even the whole world,” it reads.

The “Rosary on the Borders” event will also mark the end of the Fatima centenary, celebrating 100 years since the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, in the spring of 1917.

The Polish bishops’ conference has endorsed the event, and asked all Catholics to join the rosary prayer for “the intentions of Poland and the whole world,” even if they are physically unable to make it to the border.

“Families may pray in their homes, sick in hospitals, and parish communities in their churches,” they said.

“A hundred years ago, Mary gave these three Portuguese children a message of salvation: repent, give reparation for sins against my Immaculate Heart and pray the rosary,” the bishops said. Rosary on the Borders is a “special opportunity” to fulfil that calling.

 
(Sidebar: I'm sure Breitbart meant to say "Catholics" but many there believe that the adherents of the true Church have a form of cooties.)

... swieta Mario, Matko Boza, módl sie za nami grzesznymi teraz i w godzine Smierci naszej.