For a Sunday

I'm sure these acts of violence are not related to whatever people think that they are related to:

Two people are dead after a gunman opened fire at a church in Texas.

A spokesperson for the Fort Worth Fire Department told reporters police received a report of a shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement just before 10 a.m. Sunday.

He said three patients were transported to hospital in critical condition — including the person believed to be the shooter.

This shooter:

In Livestream Video, It Appears a Security Guard Took Out The Active Shooter at a Church In White Settlement, Texas https://t.co/ybFtIvaaT0 pic.twitter.com/N6qYw5LY8G

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 29, 2019

 

**

An intruder with a large knife burst into the home of a Hasidic rabbi in a New York suburb Saturday, stabbing five people just as they were gathering to light candles for Hanukkah, officials and a witness said.

It was a terrifying scene, the officials and witness reported, saying that the violence occurred at about 10 p.m. as numerous people were celebrating Hanukkah at the home of the rabbi, Chaim Rottenberg, in Monsey, which is in an area with a large population of ultra-Orthodox Jews.

**

The London Metropolitan Police said Sunday that it is investigating after anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered on a synagogue and several store fronts in the Hampstead area.

The Star of David, the symbol of Jewish identity, and "911" were spray-painted on store fronts in the Hampstead and Belsize Park area and on the South Hampstead Synagogue, according to images shared by Oliver Cooper, a Conservative councillor for Hampstead. "911" refers to a conspiracy theory casting blame on Jewish people for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Maybe global warming or mental illness are to blame.




Rachel Notley wants to take another bit of the electoral apple:

In the last five years, Rachel Notley has gone from third-party leader, to government leader to Opposition leader, but says she will try again for Alberta's top job in 2023.

The reason, she says, grows from the steady drip of broken promises, half-truths, no-truths, gaslighting and self-dealing from Premier Jason Kenney and the governing United Conservatives.

"There's no way to critically oppose this (government) to make it better. We just need to change this," said Notley in a year-end interview.

"We need to take back our province and get it back on track. I'm a leader and so that's what I've committed to do."

I'll just leave these right here: 

With dry conditions and dozens of blazes already burning across Alberta, Premier Rachel Notley said Tuesday her government’s decision to slash the wildfire budget by $15 million this year won’t impact the province’s firefighting efforts. 

**

Alberta’s unemployment rate rose half a percentage point compared to last month, reaching 7.3 per cent.

Calgary’s unemployment rate is now the highest among Canadian cities at 7.6 per cent, while Edmonton’s sits at seven per cent.

Premier Rachel Notley was discouraged to hear the latest job numbers.

If the NDP take Saskatchewan, the most merciful thing one could do to that province is nuke it from orbit:

Saskatchewan’s premier and Opposition leader are heading into an election year and looking to dig into each other’s political bases.

Voters are to go to the polls in the fall in what will be the first provincial election for Premier Scott Moe as Saskatchewan Party leader and for the NDP’s Ryan Meili, both of whom came to power through leadership contests.

Politicians need to listen to each other on unity, says Nova Scotian toady:

Canada’s politicians have to listen to one another to address economic rifts that could hinder national unity, Nova Scotia’s premier says, as he adds his voice to calls for changes to the federal government’s fiscal stabilization program.

“I worry that the country has an East-West feel to it which is not a healthy thing for Canada,” Stephen McNeil said in a recent year-end interview with The Canadian Press.

I hope Alberta cuts you off, you Carrie Lam clone.




Speaking of Carrie Lam ... :

Citing a letter from a young Hong Konger appealing for people "not to believe the Communists", Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Sunday the island's democratic way of life was at risk from the danger China posed to Taiwan.

The months of anti-government protests in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong have taken centre stage in Taiwan ahead of the Jan. 11 presidential and parliamentary elections, with Tsai in particular warning Taiwan would be next if it gives into Chinese pressure and accepts Beijing's rule.

Speaking at a televised presidential debate, Tsai read excerpts from a letter she said she received from a young person in Hong Kong. She did not name the person nor say when the letter was written.

Tsai read from the letter: "'I ask that Taiwan's people not believe the Chinese Communists, don't believe any pro-Communist official, and don't fall into China's money trap.'"

I have been saying that for ages. 

Also:

But that was then. Now, it would seem, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken it on as his own great idea. Put another way, if you thought that after everything that has happened, Canada’s China policy had been finally expunged of the creepy influences exerted by such disgraced Chrétien-era fixtures as John McCallum, you thought wrong. It’s as though McCallum is back, and he’s now writing Trudeau’s scripts.

You would never know it from the headlines. “Canada to U.S.: Don’t sign China deal until Canadians released.” “Trudeau says he asked U.S. to stall China trade deal until Canadians released.” “Trudeau asks U.S. to not sign China trade deal until Spavor, Kovrig are released.” And on and on.

But that’s not what Trudeau actually said, which was buried in most accounts of his cheery banter with the peppy hosts of the morning show Salut Bonjour on Quebec’s TVA network, in French, just before he jetted off to Costa Rica for the holidays. It was this: “We’ve said that the United States should not sign a final and complete agreement with China that does not settle the question of Meng Wanzhou and the two Canadians.”

That’s not just a pathetic Hail Mary effort to persuade Donald Trump’s White House to stall a “trade war” armistice to correct a half-a-trillion-dollar imbalance with China on behalf of diplomat-on-leave Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor — the two Canadians nabbed in a hostage-diplomacy kidnapping and imprisonment only days after Meng, chief financial officer for Beijing’s “national champion” telecom giant, was apprehended on a U.S. Justice Department warrant in Vancouver. Nor is it just a suggestion that Trump somehow cut Meng Wanzhou some undeserved slack, for no benefit to the United States.

It’s also almost word for word what McCallum said after Trump claimed last December that he could somehow finagle the U.S. Justice Department’s retreat from its efforts at prosecuting Meng on charges of bank fraud and evading U.S. sanctions on Iran, if it would sweeten the American deal in the China trade talks. Said McCallum at the time: “We have to make sure that if the U.S. does such a deal, it also includes the release of our two people.”

The arrest of Kovrig and Spavor was the first retaliatory act in a series of aggressive, costly, rule-flouting extortions Beijing has exacted from Canada over the past year, including massive damage to the agricultural sector and constant threats of further punch-ups.

Trump’s admission that he would be pleased to capitulate from the principle of judicial independence in Meng’s case was not just a profound embarrassment to Chrystia Freeland, our Foreign Affairs Minister at the time. McCallum’s enthusiastic public endorsement of it was an act of mutiny against Freeland, who had been loudly asserting that Canada’s adherence to the rule of law might sometimes mean keeping legal faith with democracies like the United States and upsetting cold-blooded tyrants like China’s Xi Jinping.

And:

China’s Commerce Ministry has “proactively dealt with” trade frictions with the United States this year, it said on Sunday after an annual work conference. 

The ministry has implemented the decisions of the central government and “resolutely safeguarded the interests of the country and the people”, it said in a statement on its website.

I call horse pucky on that.




How is that Singapore thing working out?:

North Korea has opened a high-profile political conference to discuss how to overcome “harsh trials and difficulties,” state media reported Sunday, days before a year-end deadline set by Pyongyang for Washington to make concessions in nuclear negotiations.

**

After Washington dismissed the North’s Dec. 31 deadline as “artificial,” North Korea warned this month that it was entirely up to the Trump administration “what Christmas gift it will select to get.” ​This month, it conducted two ground tests at its missile engine test site to bolster what it called its “nuclear deterrent​.”

Hey, Emmanuel, do you remember when you and your girlfriend, Justin, were braiding each other's hair and calling Trump names behind his back?:

This is massive.

Anti-Macron #YellowVests protests still going strong today in the streets of #Paris, #France, for the 59th weekend in a row.

And not one single mainstream media camera in sight. #GiletsJaunes pic.twitter.com/rz3yEJEnA0

— Sarah Abdallah (@sahouraxo) December 28, 2019

And now, spreading the universal cheer of drinks:

Another fruit-based beverage, sujeonggwa gets a kick from the cinnamon, fresh ginger and dried persimmons with which it’s brewed. The drink has been around for about a millennium, and for the last century or so, it’s been linked to the New Year, according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Seasonal Customs. Koreans serve this booze-free “cinnamon punch” at the end of a meal, sprinkled with pine nuts and sometimes other touches like citrus peel or lotus petals. 

Saturday Post

A bit happening ...




Terribly sad news:

Lee Mendelson, the producer who changed the face of the holidays when he brought “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to television in 1965 and wrote the lyrics to its signature song, “Christmas Time Is Here,” died on Christmas day, his son said.

A reminder of the discontent Justin doesn't care about:

A new Ipsos poll showed Alberta residents feel worse off financially than those of any other province in Canada. 

On average, 28 per cent of Canadian respondents said they were cutting down on essential spending, but that number rises to 38 per cent in Alberta.

Greg Anderson, a political science professor at the University of Alberta, said it’s easy to see why Albertans took a turn for the frugal in 2019.

“Albertan consumers are not feeling all that confident nor flush with cash — any they do have is being held for a rainy day many probably think is here right now,” Anderson said.

The oil-rich province has been undergoing its worst financial crisis in decades. In November, Alberta showed a loss of 18,000 jobs, increasing its unemployment rate by 0.5 percentage points to 7.2 per cent — up 0.3 percentage points from 2018.

 
If Alberta's contributions were to disappear, eastern Canada would feel it sooner than it thinks.

Either the entire Trudeau family and its rotten legacy goes or Alberta does.

One the entire universe can live without and the other is Alberta.




It's just an economy:

According to figures by Statistics Canada, several sectors made marginal declines, with manufacturing down for the fourth time in five months dropping by 1.4 percent, and transportation equipment manufacturing slipping at a hefty 2.5 percent.

These aren’t the only issues that the Canadian economy currently faces, though. While the Economy has worked great for the wealthiest 10 percent, the typical Canadian family is falling behind. With rising food prices also expected in the coming years, it doesn’t look like smooth sailing for the foreseeable future.

Wage stagnation is also a problem. To demonstrate this, let’s turn to statistics from 2017, a year in which Canada’s economy exceeded expectation.

The economy boomed roughly 3 percent in GDP growth that year, according to figures from Statistics Canada. That money, though, went right to the top and skipped over working families.

The 2017 figures showed that average incomes grew just 2.8 percent in two years, with the top 10 percent taking in a quarter of all growth, and the bottom 40 percent only taking in one-fifth of all growth.

According to those same figures, a majority of Canada’s population incomes either stagnated or fell, while those in the top 1 percent saw their incomes boom.

As PressProgress highlighted, “adjusted for inflation, the average the after tax income of all families and individuals rose modestly from $71,200 in 2015 to $73,200 in 2017. That’s an increase of 2.8%.

But families in the top decile saw their after-tax incomes rise almost double that. The top decile’s incomes rose 4.786%, from $192,200 in 2016 to $201,400.”

It looks as though this sluggishness is going to continue. According to fugres by Statistics Canada for 2018, Canada’s GDP grew at 1.8 percent, and we’ve already seen the economy slipping in 2019, shrinking by that previously mentioned 0.1 percent.

News doesn’t appear so grim for our neighbours down south, though. According to the US Labor Department, the US grew “at their fastest pace for nine years” in 2018.

The department’s figures show that wages grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent for October of 2018, another bump up from the 2.8 percent in the month prior.

The US economy has also been booming for months, as the general unemployment rate hit a nearly half century low of 3.7 percent.

The US’s booming economy means more good for minority populations, too, as the jobless rate for Hispanics hit a historic low of 3.9 percent, while African-American unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 percent, the lowest it has ever been.

**

A new wave of cold water is about to hit Canada’s much-buffeted oilsands industry but whether it will be a perfect storm or a tempest in a teapot is yet to be seen.

Tighter pollution rules by the International Maritime Organization are set to take effect Jan. 1. The new guidelines, dubbed IMO 2020, will limit the sulphur content of “bunker” fuel on ships to just 0.5 per cent, down from the current 3.5 per cent.

To wit: British Columbia will not allow Albertan oil to be piped to the coast but will allow coal to be shipped to China.




The Order of Canada has meant nothing since it was given to notorious baby-killer Morgentaler (and thanks for the full-throated defense of the Order there, Steve) and I suspect that this recognition is political smoke and mirrors to pacify anyone who feels like vomiting at the mere sight of Justin:

Stephen Harper was among 120 Canadians named to the Order of Canada this week by Governor General Julie Payette.

Harper, who served as Canada’s 22nd prime minister, will join the exclusive club of notable countrymen that according to Payette’s office, “honours people whose service shapes our society, whose innovations ignite our imaginations, and whose compassion unites our communities.”

The former Conservative PM joins film director James Cameron, retired diplomat Raymond Chretien, philanthropist and founder of McDonald’s Canada George Cohon and optical physicist and Nobel Prize winner Donna Strickland in receiving the highest honour, Companion of the Order of Canada.

Another reason why we should have nothing to do with China:

Hong Kong police arrested about a dozen protesters and used pepper spray on Saturday to break up a protest in a shopping mall aimed at disrupting retail businesses near the border with mainland China.

This isn't the first time such grisly discoveries have been made but one knows who is truly responsible for them:

Five human bodies and two heads were found on a so-called ghost boat washed up on the shore of a Japanese island.
 
The vessel was discovered on Sado Island, northwest from Japan's mainland. 

It had letters and numbers written in Korean on the side, and is suspected to have come from North Korea. 

Wooden ships believed to come from North Korea to Japan, nicknamed ghost boats, are fairly common, the BBC reports.

Coast Guard official Kei Chinen said police made the discovery in the wooden boat's stem around 9.30am local time on Saturday. 

Authorities could not confirm whether the heads were from the two of the bodies found or were from two other people. 

An officer first spotted the wooden boat on Friday afternoon but authorities waited until Saturday before entering it due to unstable weather.

The discovery marks the second time since last month that a wooden boat has washed up on the shores of Sado island.

And the Rest of It

So much going on ...




When will the "Big One" hit?:

The day before Christmas Eve was seismically unusual in the waters off Vancouver Island, alarmingly so to the layperson, trained to expect the worst. A cluster of earthquakes was underway about five kilometres below the seafloor, one every couple of hours.

The first came at 8:44 a.m. local time, just off the northern tip of Vancouver Island, with a magnitude of 5.1. Then at 11:13 was a 5.6, and at 11:49 a 5.8. They were getting larger and more frequent. A 6.2 on Christmas Eve was enough to escalate the panic. Another on Christmas Day seemed fateful. All told, there were nine within a little more than two days, and not just any two days.

What could go wrong?:

The Department of National Defence is fighting a monumental battle to clean up past messes from military training. Data on old munitions buried across Canada reveal huge costs for the federal government that are being dramatically understated on DND’s books

Have we reached peak stupidity in this country?:

Erb said the group’s ambassadors can help influence how others think about climate change, but find themselves in a hypocritical situation.

“They love going and exploring and living this adventure-based lifestyle, but they also know their carbon footprint is big.”

Hill said that was exactly his thinking.

They are raising awareness about awareness of what is truthfully a scam.




The government bribed the press and is planning on stifling social media for any negative comments about Trudeau.

I would say we have not improved on  freedom of speech:

I had said: “‘Free speech wall?’ Ominous doublespeak. Free speech walls emerged in authoritarian societies like China, because there was no freedom of speech, and citizens quite reasonably feared speaking truth to power. That there is an entire generation of Canadian students who think a free speech wall, one tiny corner of the campus approved for anonymously written incorrect thoughts, is something they should be grateful for — well, this is pathetic. A free speech wall is in fact tangible proof (of the problem). It saddens me and scares me more than a little, too.”

Well, I said that in 2014. Have things gotten better since?

 


A good ESL program seeks to not only familiarise students with the rudiments of the English language but make the students' pronunciation more understandable:

Jiang is from China and learned English as a second language. Though she tries not to take it to heart, she admits that after 20 years in Canada, it sometimes gets to her.

"It really shakes my confidence," she said.

Jiang sees her lingering accent as an obstacle, particularly in the workplace. She remembers one job interview in particular. Her resumé had impressed, but she could tell the interviewer was concerned by her pronunciation. She didn't get the job.

"After that, I thought I needed to improve," she said. "I don't want my skill to be wasted because my language [is] blocking me."

Last year, Jiang decided to enrol in accent training classes. 

Also called accent reduction or modification, the programs are available across Canada, and promise to "lessen the negative effects of an accent" and help students "achieve a more neutral or 'Canadian' accent."

You had twenty years. What were you waiting for?






I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned with:

Russia deployed its first regiment of hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles on Friday, the Defence Ministry said, a move which President Vladimir Putin has boasted puts his country in a class of its own.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has informed Putin of the deployment, his ministry said in a statement, which did not say where the missiles were located.

The new system, called Avangard, comprises a hypersonic glide vehicle which is designed to sit atop an intercontinental ballistic missile, one of several new types of weapons touted by Putin as being ahead of their time.

Putin has said that Russia’s new generation of nuclear weapons can hit almost any point in the world and evade a U.S.-built missile shield, though some Western experts have questioned how advanced some of the weapons programs are.

I would say that people who behead and shoot motorists are terrorists:

In the weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration last month that he would forge ahead with designating Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, Cabinet members and top aides from across the government recommended against it, five people knowledgeable about the matter told Reuters.

The recommendations, which some of the sources described as unanimous, have not been reported previously. They were driven in part by concerns that such designations could harm U.S.-Mexico ties, potentially jeopardizing Mexico’s cooperation with Trump’s efforts to halt illegal immigration and drug trafficking across the border, said two sources, including a senior administration official.

Another key concern was that the designations could make it easier for migrants to win asylum in the United States by claiming they were fleeing terrorism, the senior administration official and two other sources said.

Oh, this is no good:

The number of babies born in Japan fell an estimated 5.9 percent this year to fewer than 900,000, the first time since the government started compiling data in 1899, the welfare ministry said Tuesday.

The dwindling number of births will put more strain on welfare finances to support the snowballing costs of supporting an aging population, undermining economic growth, analysts say.

The annual total is expected to fall by some 54,000 from the 918,400 born the previous year, hitting a record low for the fourth straight year.

Dogs are smarter than we give them credit for:

Dogs not only sniff, jump, cuddle and act as our furry buddies — they also seem to be capable of processing numbers like us, according to a recent report in Science Magazine.

A new study from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, published by Biology Letters, indicates that while dogs do not have the capability of counting numbers exactly as humans do, they do notice when we put less food in their bowls, or reward them with extra treats, meaning they can understand quantities.

The so-called “approximate number system” has long been known to exist in many animals, but Science points out that earlier studies used trained animals in their research into animal numeracy. 

This left it open to doubt whether numeric abilities were innate or trained — but the new research indicates that a common, untrained brain function has been transferred across animal evolution, when it comes to numbers and quantity.

Voting Only Encourages the B@$#@rds, Part Deux

One really cannot deny the truth of this.




Cases in point:

The Ontario government’s effort to eliminate its projected $9-billion deficit is a grim struggle that involves unpopular service changes, wage restraint and general penny-pinching. Imagine if there was one change that would cut that deficit nearly in half without raising taxes or taking away any services.

As it turns out, there is. Have you heard about the Ontario Electricity Rebate? That’s the one where the government subsidizes everyone’s power bills, so that we can all pretend that the cost of power is lower. ...

(Sidebar: that ploy sounds terribly familiar.)

 The bill for this act of self-deception is expected to be $4 billion this year. That’s a heck of a way to spend money the government doesn’t have.

The PC government did not invent what was called the Fair Hydro Plan, but it has taken what is probably the worst policy of the former Liberal government and given it a brand new name. Same stupid content, though.

The Liberals, after years of merrily committing to high-priced power deals, finally realized that the cost of electricity had gotten to a number far, far higher than the public was prepared to accept. The government reacted like it was holding a live wire. At first, if offered to eliminate the eight per cent sales tax on power bills. Then it cut 25 per cent from the cost of the bill.

**

As fears continue to grow of a possible impending recession in Canada, more bad economic news has arrived.

Canada’s GDP fell 0.1% in October, which followed growth of 0.1% in September.

A key driver of the fall in GDP was a decline in the manufacturing sector of 1.4%.

But there is no recession.

Or so one is told.




It's not about being virtuous but appearing to be that way.

Seeing as Canadians voted for a blackface-wearing, woman-abusing tyrant appeaser, that doesn't really matter anymore:

The most senior and powerful political staff in Justin Trudeau’s government don’t reflect the diversity of Canada, or meet the same representation requirements that the Prime Minister set for his cabinet.

Since the Liberals formed government in 2015, Mr. Trudeau has made diversity a cornerstone of his political brand. When he unveiled his first cabinet, he declared it one that “looks like Canada.” More than four years into government, the senior staff working for those ministers are still predominantly white and male.

(Sidebar: because priorities.)

**

Internal government documents show that federal officials moved quickly before the fall election campaign to dole out $50 million aimed at transforming the delivery of social services.

Oh, the Liberals bought off gullible Canadians.

Quelle surprise.




A bribed press is a happy press:

Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier will have direct control over which newsrooms receive $595 million in subsidies under a federal press bailout, says the Canada Revenue Agency. Media seeking subsidies must answer rebuttals from anyone they criticize, including Canada Revenue agents: “I am pleased to deliver.”

Not bloody likely:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made a personal appeal to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to condemn the International Criminal Court for taking a major step toward investigating Israel for alleged war crimes against Palestinians.

Justin gets his money from the Chinese and not the Bronfmanns, just as Quebec gets its money from Alberta and would be utterly screwed if - let's say - the Albertans were to withdraw from the national pension scheme and go elsewhere.




They sound like future cabinet ministers:

White-collar criminals have little to fear from the Canadian judicial system, in which nearly all money laundering charges get thrown out before trial, according to statistics obtained by the Star. 

Eighty-six per cent of charges for laundering the proceeds of crime laid between 2012 and 2017 were withdrawn or stayed, according to data from Statistics Canada.

(Paws up)

Brought To You By the Liberal Party of China

Justin's favourite country:

The Trudeau Liberal government is allowing Communist China’s main government-run oil company to drill for oil in Canadian territory.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), has been given approval to drill in the Flemish Pass Basin, which is roughly 400 KM east of Newfoundland & Labrador.

Amazingly, this is happening at the same time as the Liberals put their boot on the throat of the Western Canadian Oil Industry.

This China:

China has stripped literary children's classics in elementary school textbooks of all references to Christianity, replacing “God” and “Bible,” with secular terms, such as “good heaven” and “several books.”  

Just to remind one: Canadians have zero problem with this.

Your Post-Christmas Day Moment of Joy

 

While most in the West were celebrating Hanukkah or Christmas or simply being killjoys, others were just killing:

ISIS released a video purporting to show it killing 11 Christian men in Nigeria, saying it was part of a campaign to avenge the deaths of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and its spokesman.

(Sidebar: this ISIS.)

**

Boko Haram and its IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) faction have recently stepped up attacks on military and civilian targets.

"They killed seven people and abducted a teenage girl in the attack," local vigilante David Bitrus said.

"They took away food stuff and burnt many houses before leaving," he said, adding that a church was also burnt.

**

Fourteen persons were injured in a grenade explosion at around 6 p.m. Sunday along Sinsuat Avenue near the entrance of Pedro Colina Hill and a few meters from the Immaculate Conception Cathedral.

**

Hong Kong anti-government protesters marched through Christmas-decorated shopping centres on Wednesday, chanting pro-democracy slogans and forcing one mall to close early, as police fired tear gas to disperse crowds gathering on nearby streets.

The protests have turned more confrontational over the festive season, though earlier in December they had been largely peaceful after pro-democracy candidates overwhelmingly won district council elections.

**

While we see Christmas trees on every corner, persecuted believers might not ever see a single Christmas decoration. If they do, it’s only in a secret celebration because in several countries, Christmas is illegal and banned outright. Any Christmas celebration carries with it the potential for fines, arrest and imprisonment.

I suppose Boxing Day sales and stupid movies on TV matter more than slaughter and oppression.




Nevertheless, Christmas - past and present - is wrought with gifts of all kinds:

The Christmas of 1552 could hardly have been more different from the Christmases we know today. Familiar Yuletide iconography — Christmas trees, reindeers, mistletoe and the like — was not yet established anywhere in the world (and, naturally, there was not a whiff of the commercialism that marks modern-day Christmas festivities.) The setting for this Christmas was the abandoned Daido-ji Buddhist temple, converted into the Jesuits’ house of worship and living quarters. It would be among the first of Japan’s nanban-dera, or southern barbarian temples, the name given to the makeshift Christian churches housed in Buddhist buildings, with shoji and engawa (a type of terrace) and, often the sole exterior visual difference, a cross erected upon the kawara roof tiles.

On Christmas Eve, Japanese believers were invited to spend the night in the Jesuit living quarters, cramming the venue as they embarked upon an all-nighter of hymns, sermons, scripture readings and Masses. For today’s readers, at least, de Alcacova’s account comes across as a rather gruelling experience, although there’s no reason to doubt the missionary’s numerous references to the “great joy” of the Japanese converts. From dusk until dawn, the new converts were treated to sermons and readings about “Deus” — the Portuguese word for God. The entire celebration contained no fewer than six Masses.

Father Juan Fernandez, an important Jesuit who wrote the West’s first lexicon of Japanese, opened the midnight scripture sessions. When his voice grew weary, he was relieved by “a Japanese youth with knowledge of our language,” de Alcacova writes. At the crack of dawn, Cosme de Torres — leader of the Jesuit mission after Xavier’s departure for India — led a new Mass, while another priest read passages from the gospels and the Epistles. After this night of Christian immersion, the faithful were allowed to go home, likely exchanging greetings of “Natala” — the Portuguese word for Christmas, meaning “birth.”

That was not the end, however. For soon the Japanese converts were back for more, attending yet another Mass, and listening to sermons about the Creation and the life of Christ.

**

It was Christmas Day in 1950, and this was no ordinary birth.

The mother was one of 14,000 North Korean refugees crammed into a US merchant marine ship, fleeing the advancing guns of the Chinese army. 

There was barely enough room on board to stand - and there wasn't much medical equipment, either.

"The midwife had to use her teeth to cut my umbilical cord," Lee Gyong-pil tells me some 69 years on. "People said the fact that I didn't die and was born was a Christmas miracle."

Mr Lee was the fifth baby born on the SS Meredith Victory that winter, during some of the darkest days of the Korean War. 

The Meredith Victory's three-day voyage saved thousands of lives, including the parents of the current President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in. 

It also earned the cargo freighter a nickname - the Ship of Miracles.

**

The first Lessons and Carols was in 1918, and Cleobury conducted more than a third of them, his last being the centennial anniversary a year ago. The original service, blending the biblical stories of Christ’s coming at Bethlehem with traditional Christmas carols, was conceived as a moment of unity and peace after the horrors of the Great War, only six weeks concluded at Christmas 1918.

**

In the days after 39-year-old Tony Belt — a father of three and Purple Heart recipient who served overseas in the Army Infantry — fell 18 feet from a scissor lift at work on Sept. 26, doctors gave his family “pretty much no hope,” his wife, Kyli Belt, tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

“They brought in the organ donation team, the palliative care team,” she recalls. “They made me explain to my kids that daddy was going to heaven.

”

Kyli, from Missouri City, Iowa, says she was encouraged to set a DNR [do not resuscitate] order as her husband lay in a coma, hooked up to a ventilator.

But Kyli noticed that Tony was initiating his own breaths — and last week, he had a major breakthrough. With just days to go before Christmas, Tony started opening his eyes and is now communicating with his loved ones via hand gestures and, as of this Tuesday, mumbled words. It’s a development his son Eli predicted.

“Since the beginning, he’s the only one who never gave up hope,” Kyli says of the boy. “He told me that daddy was going to be awake and talking on Christmas Eve — and tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, and here he is today, turning his voice back on and saying yes and no.

“It was just his will,” she continued, in reference to Tony’s persistence.

**

A century-old cross that was stolen from a church in Digby, N.S., was returned, undamaged, in a Christmas Eve miracle, says the town’s mayor.

Christmas Week: Mid-Week Post

 

 ‘Come out, English soldier; come out here to us.’ For some little time we were cautious, and did not even answer. Officers, fearing treachery, ordered the men to be silent. But up and down our line one heard the men answering that Christmas greeting from the enemy. How could we resist wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even though we might be at each other’s throats immediately afterwards? So we kept up a running conversation with the Germans, all the while our hands ready on our rifles. Blood and peace, enmity and fraternity—war’s most amazing paradox. The night wore on to dawn—a night made easier by songs from the German trenches, the pipings of piccolos and from our broad lines laughter and Christmas carols. Not a shot was fired.

 (Christmas truce, December 24th, 1914)

Christmas Week: It's a Wonderful Post

The Day is fast approaching ...




It's just an economy:

Canada‘s economy unexpectedly shrank by 0.1 per cent in October, the first monthly decline since February, partly because of a U.S. auto strike that hit manufacturing, Statistics Canada data indicated on Monday.

Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a gain of 0.1 per cent following a 0.1 per cent advance in September. Goods-producing industries posted a 0.5 per cent loss while service sectors were essentially unchanged.

October’s growth figures were the latest in a string of disappointing data that analysts say could put pressure on the Bank of Canada to mull a rate cut.

**

Finance Minister Bill Morneau also suggested in separate broadcast interviews that the country's economic track will have a bearing on how the Liberals steer their government's budget in the coming years.

On CTV's Question Period, Morneau warned his Conservative critics to avoid the "irresponsible" claims when private sector economists project growth, which the fiscal update estimated at 1.7 per cent this year and 1.6 per cent in 2020.

The projections would make Canada's the second-fastest-growing economy among G7 countries, behind only the United States.

"I think it's a little bit irresponsible of the Conservatives to be making people more anxious," Morneau said in the CTV interview.

Well, about that: 

The economy shed 71,200 jobs last month, while the jobless rate jumped to 5.9 per cent, up from 5.5 per cent in October.

**

Canada’s annual inflation rate rose 2.2% as expected in November on the back of higher energy prices, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday, but analysts noted a surprise increase in core measures that could make it harder for the Bank of Canada to ease rates.

**

" ... The Parliamentary Budget Office downgraded its outlook for the Canadian economy on Thursday and now expects deficits to be a cumulative $9.5 billion larger by the end of 2025 than it had previously forecast. The government agency, whose baseline estimates were used by political parties to cost their 2019 election platforms, said lower tax revenues and higher operating costs were the primary cause of the wider fiscal gap.”

**

Morneau boasted about economic growth that will likely see Canada come second in the G7 next year; about historically low unemployment numbers, and wage growth that is outpacing inflation.

The finance minister wants Canadians to know that he and his colleagues are good fiscal managers who will continue to reduce the net debt to GDP ratio to make sure the economy is “strong and resilient” in the event of a downturn.

That all sounds like recession talk to me.

Are we surprised coming from a puppet government that cannot tell who or what is the middle-class?


Also:

Two billion people had been pulled out of poverty since I was a young child. What happened? It was globalization, which is much maligned today. It was free trade, despised on the right and the left. It was property rights and the rule of law. It was the culture of entrepreneurship that brought your ancestors to this great country, that pulled two billion of your brothers and sisters out of poverty. That is the essence of how capitalism saves lives.

Perhaps some perspective is needed.

North Korea is a communist dictatorship whose chief tyrant is not only the fattest man in a country of starving people but is also wasting resources on weapons that will wipe his country out.




Alberta-bound:

After seven carbon tax-free months, Albertans face the prospect of once again having to pay a premium on greenhouse gas-emitting fuels starting Jan. 1.

The federal government is imposing the tax on Alberta after the UCP repealed the previous NDP government’s carbon tax as their first act in office. The tax is meant to combat climate change by discouraging the use of carbon products.

Alberta will join Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick among provinces paying a federal carbon tax due to their refusal to implement their own carbon pollution pricing programs. The province is currently awaiting a decision from the Alberta Court of Appeal on their challenge of the federal tax.

(Sidebar: that's called tyranny.)

**

DP Energy has already won approval for one solar park in southeast Calgary and is now pushing for a second in the Shepard Industrial park. Combined, the two would be one of the largest photovoltaic solar farms in Canada generating more than 60 MW of electricity, enough for 14,000 homes.

The company, based in Ireland, easily won approval at a public hearing at city hall in March. The hearing — to redesignate 64 hectares of contaminated land to allow for a power generating facility — lasted 11 minutes.

Now, about that:

Now, I'm not blaming snow alone for the lost productivity. Solar panels operate perfectly well in northern climates--assuming you have good exposure and many sunny days a year. But days are shorter in the dead of winter, which means fewer hours of daylight when the panels can do their thing.  

**

It's your money to waste, DP Energy.




If people will not agree to organ donors on drivers' licenses, why would they agree on tax forms?:

Conservative MP Len Webber drew the first spot in the private member’s bill lottery held this month. The lottery happens at the opening of every Parliament and dictates the order in which private member’s bills are heard. Because they don’t come from the government, the bills often don’t pass through the House of Commons, but going early in the process can be a major boost. 

Webber’s bill would add a question to Canadians’ tax forms asking them whether they would be willing to be organ donors. 

“Right on your income tax form there will be a question there about whether you would be willing to donate your organs upon death,” he said. “There are two things in life that are certain; death and taxes, so I thought I would tackle the tax form.”

No, you're just rubbing it in. 




If anyone thinks this is about public safety, I would like to interest that person in a bridge I no longer want:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan to allow municipal governments like Toronto’s to “ban” handguns will be a big story in 2020, not that it will have any impact on rising, violent, urban street crime.

Rather, it demonstrates how politicians will stubbornly cling to a bad and ineffective idea in order to be seen as combating gun crime without confronting the problem, the criminals who use them.

In a year-end interview with the Canadian Press, Trudeau said he won’t allow premiers who oppose handgun bans (like Ontario’s Doug Ford) to stop municipal governments that want them — like Mayor John Tory and Toronto council.

That suggests Trudeau is prepared to intrude into an area of provincial jurisdiction, which will have the effect of punishing legal gun owners, as opposed to criminals who use illegal guns.

LeBron James must be incapable of feeling shame:

Toronto Wolfpack rugby star Sonny Bill Williams on Sunday became the latest athlete to speak out against China, in a tweet voicing his support for the persecuted Uyghur ethnic group.

The move risks drawing the wrath of the communist state, which has retaliated firmly against NBA and English Premier League soccer teams whose staff or players have criticized Chinese policy.

This China:

The Chinese embassy is taking a swing at "some Canadian politicians" over what it describes as "erroneous remarks" about the relationship between the two countries and the cases of two Canadians detained in China.

** 

Song Hong Ryon looks like any other young woman in South Korea. But three years after her arrival from China, the half-North Korean, half-Chinese 19-year-old has made only two South Korean-born friends and says she’s often been hurt by little things, like when people ask if she’s from China because of her accent.

“I’ve agonized about it a lot by myself,” she said.

Song’s mother fled North Korea in the late 1990s in search of food and work in China, like tens of thousands of other North Korean women did to avoid a famine at home. Many women ended up being sold to poor Chinese farmers as brides, before fleeing again and moving to South Korea, which considers the North part of its territory and therefore embraces North Korean refugees.

Many of the children of these marriages, if they’re able to reunite with their mothers in the South, are alienated and frustrated as they struggle to navigate a strange culture, cut off from friends and many of their relatives.

Do you see what happens when you don't finish a war?