On This Day ...

We remember one of the original X-men (the Jesuit ones, not the super-powered ones):

During the period of his life when he should have been settling into a steady career, earning money and honor, and preparing for comfortable retirement, Ignatius was reassessing his entire worldview. Not only did he do an about-face when he converted from soldier of Spain to soldier of Christ, but he then confronted many tribulations of sickness, persecution, doubt and failure. Ignatius gave his life totally to Christ, but this did not mean his vocation was clear.

 

Also: 

St. Martha Wang (1812-61) was a 19th-century Chinese martyr killed by local authorities because of their hatred for the Catholic Faith. Her feast day is July 29.

She was born in Zunji, China. She married and moved to Qingyian, where she and her husband grew vegetables. The couple, unable to conceive children, adopted two nephews. Martha’s husband died, and by the time her nephews had grown up, they had spent her money and left home, so she opened a small inn. She busied herself with mundane tasks, including cleaning and cooking, and was especially known for her steamed buns. It was while operating this inn that she met a Catholic catechist and became interested in the Catholic faith.

She converted to Catholicism in 1852. She gave herself entirely to the service of God and moved to Guiyang, where she could attend Mass daily. While there, she served as a cook in a Catholic hostel for young women. Bishop Hu established a seminary in Yaojiaguan, and she went on to work as a cook and cleaning lady for the seminarians and the seminary staff.

In 1861, the local political authority was hostile to Christianity and ordered the arrest and execution of three seminarians. She visited the three and brought them food, did their laundry, and smuggled communications between them and their bishop.

On July 29, 1861, she walked with the seminarians to their place of execution. She was unafraid of death threats made by the soldiers leading the seminarians, and was arrested herself and beheaded.

She was beatified by Pope St. Pius X in 1909, and canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000.

 

We Don't Have to Trade With China

And yet ... :

Guido Crosetto, Italy's defense minister, just slammed his country's decision to join China's Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, describing it as "improvised and atrocious."

The country's now mulling a diplomatic exit by the end of 2023.

** 

I wouldn't trust him, Miss Meloni:

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has briefed U.S. President Joe Biden on her plan to curb Italy’s reliance on China and to establish balanced ties with the Asian country, as she mulls a strategy to disentangle from a controversial investment pact.

"If you think that the U.S. demands or imposes the policy on this, you are wrong. The conversation is broad and involves all G7 countries and it is about de-risking from supply chain dependence on China, which is a priority,” the prime minister told reporters after a meeting at the Oval Office with Biden on Thursday. "The U.S. knows we are trustworthy.”

Meloni added that a decision on the Belt and Road initiative pact will be taken by the end of the year. "It is crucial to keep a constructive dialog open with Beijing,” she said.

In an interview published Sunday, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called the decision to join the Belt and Road initiative "improvised and atrocious" as it did little to boost exports.

"The issue today is: how to walk back (from the initiative) without damaging relations (with Beijing). Because it is true that China is a competitor, but it is also a partner," the defense minister added.

** 

Why isn't this a huge deal?:

Local and federal authorities spent months investigating a warehouse in Fresno County, California, that they suspect was home to an illegal, unlicensed laboratory full of lab mice, medical waste and hazardous materials.

“Certain rooms of the warehouse were found to contain several vessels of liquid and various apparatus,” court documents said. “Fresno County Public Health staff also observed blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material.”

Hundreds of mice at the warehouse were kept in inhumane conditions, court documents said. The city took possession of the animals in April, euthanizing 773 of them; more than 175 were found dead.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested the substances and detected at least 20 potentially infectious agents, including coronavirus, HIV, hepatitis and herpes, according to a Health and Human Services letter dated June 6.

An investigation found the tenant was Prestige BioTech, a company registered in Nevada and unlicensed for business in California. City officials spoke with Xiuquin Yao, who was identified as the company president, through emails included in the court documents.

Yao told officials that Prestige BioTech moved assets belonging to a defunct company, Universal Meditech Inc., to the Reedley warehouse from Fresno after UMI went under. Prestige Biotech was a creditor to UMI and identified as its successor, according to court documents.

Officials were unable to get any California-based address for either company except for the previous Fresno location from which UMI had been evicted.

“The other addresses provided for identified authorized agents were either empty offices or addresses in China that could not be verified,” court documents said.

 **

Was it something they said and did?:

A new survey of people in 24 countries has found that 67% hold unfavorable views of China, suggesting negative opinions of Beijing continue to stand at or near historic highs.

In the survey released late last week by the Pew Research Center, only about 28% of respondents had a favorable opinion of China despite Beijing’s diplomatic initiatives over the past year, including brokering a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The survey of more than 27,000 adults in North America, South America, Western Europe, the Asia-Pacific and Africa from February to May found that negative views of China have remained high over recent years in almost every high-income country surveyed. Middle-income countries have taken a generally positive view of China, with the exception of India.

 

But Paul Bernardo Could Have Been Rewarded With a Transfer

Make no mistake - the Canadian legal system rewards the worst sorts of offenders.

(Insert own political reason here):

 

Pastor Artur Pawlowski's troubles with the Canadian authorities began long before his sermon to commercial truckers encouraging their peaceful defiance against what he thought were "oppressive" public health mandates for COVID-19.

In 2005, he began serving and ministering to downtown Calgary—Alberta's poor and downtrodden. "In other words, feeding the homeless and praying for them, which is now illegal," he described to The Epoch Times in a telephone interview while under house arrest in Calgary following his court conviction in May for inciting mischief and violating his release conditions.

The police eventually showed up at Mr. Pawlowski's church, telling him he couldn't feed the homeless by law. Neither was he allowed to assemble or preach in public.

Such actions are also illegal and punishable with tickets, fines, and even jail time.

If These Sell Like Non-Exploding Hotcakes, Why Offer Rebates?

I ask legitimately:

 The Department of Transport is reviewing the “need for adjustments” to $5,000 rebates for electric vehicle buyers, says a briefing note. A U.S. program pays nearly twice as much: ‘We will assess the need for adjustments to the program.’

 

 

Presented Without Comment

 A woman who said this about the economy she helped tank ... :

Once upon a time, Chrystia Freeland attempted to relate to Canadians' cost-of-living concerns with a personal anecdote -- and it didn't produce a fairy-tale ending.

"I personally, as a mother and wife, look carefully at my credit card bill once a month, and last Sunday I said to the kids, 'You're older now. You don't watch Disney anymore. Let's cut that Disney Plus subscription,"' Freeland told Global News in an interview that aired on Nov. 6.

 

... is reduced to this:

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland makes frequent use of a government-issue car and chauffeur in Toronto, according to expense accounts. Records contradicted Freeland’s claim Friday that she avoided car travel and attended meetings on foot or by public transit: “I walk, I take the subway.”

 

 

Common Sense Will Not Be Allowed In This Discussion

Nor the evidence of arson:

Activists engaged in systemic exaggeration and the deliberate avoidance of conflicting evidence undercut our ability to understand the issues and thereby prevent informed, responsible action.

Fires occur naturally from lightning and heat. Add inconsistent forest management practices and you end up with a giant tinderbox.

What is missing is a balanced and fair assessment of an obvious truth: a sizable number of forest fires are not related to climate change but, instead, are a result of human activity, such as campfires and ATVs, questionable forest management practices and even arson.

Eco-activists and environmental NGOs want us to believe that there is a climate crisis and that fossil fuels are the cause of virtually all of these fires. Yet recent news stories about the causes of various forest fires suggests that attributing them all to climate change is misleading to say the least.

The activists hope to produce radical and dramatic environmental action, like accelerated carbon taxes — a policy that simply doesn’t fulfill its purpose, especially in a large, northern country like Canada where cold weather and long distances will ensure we continue to be a heavy consumer of energy.

Climate change is happening, although less dramatically than the extreme eco-activists repeatedly say. The assertion, made so blithely and repeatedly, that every forest fire is directly attributable to climate change and that this summer’s fires are a sign of impending doom are simply irresponsible.

As shown in California and Australia, both of which have suffered from intense forest fires in recent years, issues of forest management, over-development of ecologically vulnerable areas and expanded human activity in forested areas play significant roles in the proliferation of fires.

We need to move towards a clear, honest dialogue in our discussion of the recent fires. As a starting point, we need a public conversation about the manipulation of public opinion by interested environmental organizations.

Forest fires are bad enough. Misinformation, deception, exaggeration and wilful ignorance make things much worse, heightens anxiety, prompts inappropriate policy responses and forces the country toward costly and aggressive climate change policies that have a detrimental effect on the economy.

I abhor the false and misleading information that the public has been force-fed. Government officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, have repeatedly used forest fires to justify increased carbon taxes and aggressive climate change interventions.

 

This Must Be Embarrassing

Is she taking her marching orders? 

When asked to sue, does she respond with: "How high?!":

Ah here it is, she been busy helping Senator Woo.https://t.co/namc4aI2JV

— Steve Rae 🇨🇦🛢️⛽ (@SteveRae11) July 30, 2023

 

Oh, there is so much more:

Ottawa resident Zexi Li says that she "may have" told the protesters to "go back to where the f*** you are from" and that she did not witness anything that could be considered "sabotage or espionage" during the protests in Ottawa. pic.twitter.com/cOFPzV5Elb

— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) October 14, 2022

**

 

And the Rest of It

Canada is finished but there is still a chance for the US:

And here’s the irony. In a nation in which state-practiced murder is becoming one of the most common causes of death, the state refused to grant Cardinal’s request.

I understand why. Giving Cardinal terminal relief from his suffering is to acknowledge that a procedure that the state so strongly supports is cruel and inhuman. It’s better that one person suffers horribly than to admit that its “gender-affirming” care is barbaric. (I am not advocating euthanasia. I am just pointing out the cruel logic here.)

All this gender madness will be remembered as one of the darkest times in Western history (assuming we survive to have a history written about us). And what’s happening in Canada is coming soon to America. In fact, depending on where you live, it’s already here.

 

 This US:

On Tuesday, the FBI handed over requested documents on its efforts to target Catholic Americans after another threat from Congress to hold director Christopher Wray in contempt.

As reported by the New York Post, Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, had subpoenaed the files in question and threatened to hold Wray in contempt of Congress if the documents were not delivered by the deadline of July 25th.

The documents that are now in the possession of the Judiciary Committee also deal with the FBI’s plans to crack down on the grassroots protest movement led by conservative voters and parents to hold public school boards accountable for far-left propaganda being included in their curriculum, among other grievances. The movement started in 2021 and became a nationwide phenomenon that has seen numerous conservative victories, from the flipping of many school boards to a Republican wave in Virginia in 2021.

More recently, the FBI had outlined plans in a since-retracted memo for infiltrating Catholic churches, as the bureau had come to see “radical-traditionalist Catholics” and pro-life Catholics as possible domestic terrorist threats.

Acting Assistant Director of the FBI Christopher Dunham, in a letter attached to the documents, pleaded with Jordan to not release the files publicly.

“The production of this information to the Committee does not waive any applicable privileges or other protections,” said Dunham in his letter. “We respectfully request that the Committee not disseminate or otherwise disclose these documents without prior consultation with the FBI.”

 

 

What is this? Quebec?:

The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Tuesday announced that 249 out of 2,123 missing or "ghost" babies have been found to have died, be it from sickness or in some cases because their parents killed them. The announcement slipped through almost unnoticed because Koreans were focused on more than 40 deaths caused by the recent torrential rains and flooding.

The fatality rate of the babies, whose birth was recorded in hospitals but whose parents never registered them, stands at 11.7 percent, more than 50 times higher than Korea's normal infant mortality rate of 0.24 percent as of 2021. The fates of the remaining 817 missing babies, which are still under investigation, could push up the fatality rate even higher. But Korean society seems numb to their suffering. 

 

Perhaps this apparent indifference is due to the mentality of viewing babies as the possession of parents. Until the 1970s, babies were often registered one to two years after birth in Korea because 40 to 50 out of every 1,000 babies died from diseases such as typhoid.

 

These attitudes were reflected in laws and policies. The most glaring example is that the penalty for infanticide was much milder than for murder. The law was criticized for being antiquated, but was not revised once since it was enacted in 1953. Only now, amid the latest shocking discoveries, has it been scrapped.

 

The 249 deaths occurred between 2015 and 2022, or at a rate of 31 a year during that time, but the government was completely unaware. It claims that the oversight happened because hospitals are not required to inform the government of childbirths. But hospitals have always kept records due to payment receipts from parents, so the information was readily available for the government to check. 

 

The indifference of civil servants is as much to blame as Korean society's perception of infants as parents’ property whose rights can be disregarded.

 

A society's level of maturity can be gauged by how it treats its weakest members. Major countries require government workers to visit hospitals and verify childbirths and register them because they value infants as human beings just like adults. But Korean society continues to remain unfazed even after the shocking news of 249 unrecorded deaths. We need to change this mentality.

 

 

 And now, some good news - 

The little movie that could:

Angel Studios is launching its unexpected summer hit Sound of Freedom in a bunch of international markets after it made $127M during its first three weeks in U.S. theaters.

Written and directed by Alejandro Monteverde, the pic, which has been widely embraced by conservative and right-wing commentators, will be released in South Africa from August 18 and Australia and New Zealand from August 24. The film will hit cinemas in the following territories from August 31: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Belize, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. The film will receive subsequent releases in the UK and Ireland from September 1 and Spain from October 11.

 

 

You can make it, little guy:

 A first-time Pennsylvania mom who was told her baby “wouldn’t make it” because he was born so small, now says he is “thriving” at home following 181 days in hospital.

Zaylan was born when Krysten Risbon went into labor 16 weeks early.

He had a hole in his heart and needed constant oxygen, but he made it—and Krysten is now studying to become a NICU nurse, inspired by the care they received.

“When I first held him he could fit in my bra,” said the 22-year-old from Altoona. “Now only his foot fits in.”

“He’s a little fighter.”

 

Interesting:

An underwater photo shoot that took place 6.4 metres below the surface of Georgian Bay has been confirmed to be a Guinness World Record.

Hamilton-born photographer Steven Haining, Brantford model Ciara Antoski and a crew of divers staged the record-setting shoot at the rudder of the W.L. Wetmore Shipwreck at the Fathom Five National Marine Park in Tobermory, Ont.

The shoot saw Antoski brave temperatures of 14 degrees for as long as 30 minutes straight, before warming up and diving back into Tobermory’s famed turquoise waters. In total, the crew visited five ship wrecks over four days, in a shoot that took longer than three months to plan.

The final product is the world record for the deepest underwater model photo shoot.

 

 

 

On the Korean Peninsula

China let its attack dog off the leash:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to discuss military issues and the regional security environment, state media said Thursday as the country celebrated the 70th anniversary of an armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. ...

During the meeting, Shoigu conveyed to Kim a “warm and good letter” signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, KCNA said. The report did not specify the military matters that were discussed.

Kim also took Shoigu to an arms exhibition that showcased some of North Korea’s newest weapons and briefed him on national plans to expand the country’s military capabilities. Photos from the exhibition showed Kim gesturing while talking to Shoigu as they walked near a row of large missiles mounted on launcher trucks.

 

This North Korea:

Both Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and his father, KimJong-il, began displaying portraits and statues of themselves in public in theearly years of their rule.

In a report on the exhibition, the Korean Central News Agency said that the paintings showed “the great personality of Kim Jong-un” and that he has “achieved one victory after another in the confrontations with imperialism and the US that have lasted for centuries”.

 **

At the age of 92, Lee Dae-bong doesn't particularly enjoy getting out of bed. He has lived enough of a life. As he readjusts his pyjamas, his left hand reveals three missing fingers.

His injury is not the result of the war he fought, but the subsequent 54 years he was forced to toil in a North Korean coal mine.

The former South Korean soldier was captured during the Korean War by Chinese troops, who were fighting alongside North Korea. It was 28 June 1953; the first day of the battle of Arrowhead Hill, and less than a month before the armistice brought an end to three brutal years of fighting.

All, bar three of his platoon, were killed that day. As he and the two other survivors were loaded onto a cargo train, he assumed they were heading home to South Korea, but the train veered North, to the Aoji coal mine, where he would spend most of his life. His family was told he had been killed in combat.

Between 50,000 and 80,000 South Korean soldiers were held captive in North Korea after the Korean War ended with an armistice agreement that divided the peninsula.

A peace treaty never followed, and the prisoners have never been returned. Mr Lee was one of the very few who managed to plot his own escape.

 

 

Your Awful Government and You

Don't let the grumblings fool you. 

Canadians enjoy the decrepit state of their affairs at the hands of a frat-boy so useless that even his father set up a trust-fund that could only be accessed when he was forty-five. 

People in other countries would at least have an ounce of self-respect:

The federal Liberals want their recent cabinet changes to improve their economic message, but new data show Canadians believe the Liberal government is the party the least equipped do deal with economic concerns.

 

(Sidebar: and this after Justin dumped his most useless cabinet members. But not all of them.)

**

Let's live off of other provinces!

That should help!:

Five provinces have solid finances that should carry the rest of the century, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. “All other provinces and territories have current fiscal policies that are not sustainable over the long term,” warned analysts. Two are headed for insolvency: “Manitoba will see the largest deterioration.”

**

Millions spent on the taxpayer-owned Trans Mountain Pipeline are not included in total costs, records show. Additional subsidies were excluded from calculations used in supporting cabinet’s claim that “no more public money will be used to complete the Trans Mountain Expansion.”

** 

Who did you vote for, Canada?:

Canadians are buying fewer groceries due to food inflation, Statistics Canada said yesterday. “Shoppers are spending more but buying less,” wrote analysts: “Many grocery items have continued to increase month after month and on balance are 20 percent above levels reported two years earlier.”

**

Canadian households are about to be hit with a demand limiting factor—income. Household disposable income growth is failing to keep up with inflation according to StatCan data. Even worse, once adjusted for inflation and the country’s booming population growth, it paints a dreary picture as debt problems surface. 

**

We used to have an effective army:

 A Privy Council briefing note rates Arctic security “more important than ever.” Soldiers, sailors and air crew permanently assigned to the vast region number 300, it disclosed: “We have some 300 full-time military personnel in the North.”

**

Flight logs show the Department of National Defence flew half-empty mercy flights out of Kabul for days before the city fell to the Taliban, trapping thousands of Canadians and Afghan allies. The department in a newly-disclosed memo said it flew with empty seats in part because it wanted to conserve fuel: “It was very obvious the city was coming under siege.”

** 

The Americans are right to laugh at Justin:

Canada is again in the U.S. spotlight for what one Republican senator is calling its "feeble commitment" to defence spending.

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan called out the Liberal government's commitment to NATO during a confirmation hearing Wednesday for the next Norad commander.

Sullivan cited a Wall Street Journal editorial earlier this month that described Canada as a free rider on the global military alliance.

The country has a history of falling well short of NATO's agreed-upon spending target of two per cent of GDP.

And a Washington Post report in April said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has privately conceded that Canada, where defence spending is at around 1.3 per cent, would never meet NATO's threshold.

U.S. Air Force Lt.-Gen. Gregory Guillot, President Joe Biden's nominee to take over the continental aerospace defence system, promised Sullivan he would press Canada to meet the target.

"Americans get frustrated when our allies don't pull their weight," Sullivan said, noting the subject came up during the recent NATO summit in Vilnius.

"With regard to NATO, Canada's not even close to pulling its weight. Can you commit to us to have those tough conversations, but important, with your Canadian counterparts?"

 **

It's censorship to cover the graft:

 

The Senate Standing Committee on Indigenous Peoples has released a 30-page report titled "Honouring the Children Who Never Came Home: Truth, Education and Reconciliation." The report includes a recommendation “that the Government of Canada take every action necessary to combat the rise of residential school denialism.”

In similar fashion, Stephanie Scott, the executive director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, says that support for “denialism” must be dealt with by legislation.

The report fails to define “denialism” specifically, but says that it “serves to distract people from the horrific consequences of Residential Schools and the realities of missing children, burials, and unmarked graves.” This suggests that “denialism” likely means any disagreement with the dominant narrative that Indian Residential Schools were unmitigated racism, genocide, or another form of pure evil.

Whether this dominant viewpoint is correct or not, the belief that government, with its massive resources and coercive power, should be in the business of “combatting” a minority viewpoint is frightening, and anathema to liberal democracy.

Only repressive regimes (whether fascist or National Socialist or theocratic or communist) are in the business of using government resources to “combat” the “wrong” opinion. The cause of truth is violated when government uses its power to indoctrinate citizens with the “correct” viewpoint. In contrast, the cause of truth is served by humble and open-minded inquiry, by the expression of multiple opinions including wrong and provocative ones, and by frank and honest debate. This messy and unregulated process, regardless of what issue is being debated, will invariably include comments made by people who may be ill-informed, and even from those who do not act in good faith. The free society assumes that adults can decide for themselves what is true or false, right or wrong, good or evil, rather than having the government impose its “truth” on society.

According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabian authorities publicly flogged blogger Raif Badawi, who had been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for “insulting Islam” and founding an online forum for political debate. This is a practical example of what happens when government gets into the business of determining what is true or false. It is not difficult to think of numerous other examples across the globe, currently and in the past.

While Senate Committee Chairman Brian Francis and his colleagues are no doubt motivated by a sincere desire to achieve justice, their recommendation that governments use their massive resources to “combat” an “incorrect” opinion is the symptom of a toxic cancer that is slowly destroying Canada as a free society.