Happy Birthday, Sarah Palin!

I remember birthdays.


That's what I do.


And I remember this one.

Happy birthday, Mrs. Palin!

An Open Letter from Japan to China

Hiiiiiiiiii!


It's us again.

The last time we wrote to you we were very, very annoyed about your little trawler captain spin. This time, we'd like to talk about God,

The Lord Thy God will settle thy hash...

specifically those who believe in God.

Now, granted, we haven't always been gentlemen about that sort of thing but we think we've got a handle on the separation of church and state and freedom of religion better than you. We just thought we'd dip our oar in. After all, you do that all time.


What do you mean by this?

The Chinese government has announced plans to “guide” Protestant Christians worshiping at unregistered “house churches” towards worshiping in the state approved China Christian Council/Three Self Patriotic Movement.


In its agenda for the coming year published on Jan 24, China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) said bringing all Protestants into the fold of the CCC/TSPM would help the activities of Protestant churches proceed in a normal and orderly way. However, details of how this guiding would take place have not been revealed, the Peking-based People’s Daily reported....


SARA stated it would also work to “educate” China’s Catholics on the principle of self-governance in church affairs, “guiding” Catholic churches in China to independently select and consecrate bishops, rather than defer to the Vatican.

"Guide"? Really? When you say "guide", do actually mean that you will tell everyone what to do and say or they'll get arrested and have bamboo shards stuck up their nails? We just need to be clear.


Or do you mean to plant some puppets in the churches in an attempt to convince them of the Biblical benefits of Mao's pungent legacy?


Again, we just need to be clear.


Then there's this:

The agenda said the SARA will strengthen regulation of foreign nationals’ group religious activities in China and resist foreign infiltration under the pretext of religion.

We wouldn't be doing our job as China's favourite whipping boy if we didn't ask about that. Do you mean that religious pilgrims would be restricted because you fear a takeover of your country?


For the record, you wrecked the place. I mean- you have cancer villages. Trust me- no one WANTS to take over China. You can keep the place. No, the thing that's a constant niggle for us is the "foreign nationals" part. We have Masses in a variety of languages. We don't care. Japanese, Tagalog, Korean- what's the big deal? Provided they don't gas a train, we're happy to live and let live. Infiltrating a house of worship and attempting to sway believers into buying Mao's Red Bag of Total Pig Crap- well- that's just going too far. In fact, that's paranoid. Someone needs a beer and God, Buddha or Hello Kitty knows if there is a suitable one in vending machine somewhere.

I never realised the Vikings went that far.

Sure, you may have sold this bridge to the Anglicans:

Anglican groups have worked to strengthen formal ties with the official CCC/TSPM as well as encourage the burgeoning house church movement.  In December the Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt. Rev. David Urquhart paid an official call on Elder Fu Xianwei, Chairman of the National Committee of the TSPM.  Elder Fu “extended his gratitude to The Church of England for supporting the Chinese Protestant Churches for so many years, meanwhile, also conveyed the greetings to the Archbishop of Canterbury on behalf of CCC/TSPM,” a Chinese press statement reported.

But we're not wholly convinced. In fact, we're sure that this shameful display is just typical of what you always do- bully people into doing your twisted will and leaving the rest of the populace to wonder if they don't get something in this life, are they going to get shafted in the next? Just like in Cuba.



It's just sad, really.


Yours' in Akira Kurosawa,


Japan

Mid-Week Post

Talks between North and South Korea have failed:

Military talks between the rival Koreas have collapsed, a unification ministry official in Seoul said on Wednesday, dealing a setback to efforts to restart international aid-for-disarmament talks.


Tensions have eased on the divided peninsula since the start of the year, with both sides calling for dialogue, raising hopes the neighbors could rebuild relations shattered over the past two years by a series of deadly attacks and failed nuclear talks....

 The South's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the North's representatives had "unilaterally walked out of the meeting room."...

Seoul said the offer for senior-level military talks still stood, but on the condition the North "takes responsible steps regarding" last year's attacks, a ministry official said.

The talks also became bogged down over the procedural issue of what rank any senior talks would take, with the South demanding either a ministerial or four-star general confab while North insisted on vice-ministerial dialogue.

What a shock! Did not see that coming! Oh wait! Maybe I have. It's been done before.


Let Japan and South Korea nuclearise. Cut China out of the picture. I wager North Korea will be a little more co-operative then.


Somewhat related: the Catholic Church in South Korea helps bolster the staggering birth rate and boost the cute quotient:

In an effort to promote a culture of life, the South Korean Catholic Bishops’ Conference (CBCK) has announced it will provide shelters and financial support for single mothers and free delivery for unmarried pregnant women in Catholic-run hospitals.


The initiative, called “New Life Project,” was inaugurated by the CBCK on February 7 at a Mass presided over by Bishop Gabriel Chang Bong-hun of Cheongju, president of the CBCK Committee for Bioethics. 

“The Catholic Church teaches that human life begins from fertilization,” said Bishop Gabriel Chang Bong-hun of Cheongju. “Abortions and destruction of human embryos are grave crimes that destroy life.”

“We all should be the protectors of life by respecting and loving life and being proclaimers of the Gospel of life.”
The project seeks to encourage unwed pregnant women to have their babies through free delivery at hospitals, then accommodates the women following the birth of their child at 15 church and pro-life group shelters.  It is funded by the continued financial support of the dioceses.  In addition, the plan will also set up sex education for youth in Catholic schools and Sunday schools on preventing “unwanted pregnancy.”...

Although South Korea’s Mother and Child Health Law only permits abortion when the mother’s health is in serious danger, or in cases of rape, incest or severe genetic disorder, abortion is rampant throughout the country. In the past the government has promoted population control by abortion, and it continues to turn a blind eye to the illegal abortion trade.

South Korea now has one of the highest abortion rates worldwide and the second-lowest birthrate. Official data from the Ministry of Health last year indicates that doctors perform 350,000 abortions per year, while they deliver on average of just 450,000 babies, meaning 43.7 percent of pregnancies end in abortion.

And people say the Church doesn't care.


People question the existence of Jesus:

This sort of questioning is only taken seriously by a small cadre of zealots who trot this sort of argumentation out in order to pursue their anti-Christian agenda.  Nobody talks this way about any other historical figure, much less a historical figure with the massive impact of Jesus.  For instance, nobody says of Hannibal that he never existed, or that the campaign he waged against Rome was a myth.  When people do attempt such massive conspiracy theories, they inevitably turn out to be either kooks or satirists.

It's one thing if you don't care for Christians or Christianity; it's quite another to deny that its founder existed. It's a conspiracy theory so absurd, a child could punch a hole in it. And lie as one might to oneself, it certainly won't add credence the complete disbelief one has in Jesus.

What other historical person will be denied next? Tecumseh? Beethoven?


As someone once said:

The Historical Jesus can be explained this way....
 
Massive religious followings don't appear *SUDDENLY* around and about men who didn't exist. THe Romans recorded the existence of Christians since day one. Proof of Historical Jesus established.

A more thorough explanation can be found here. And let me just add: shazam!

The charge is that there's no historical support for Jesus outside the Bible, and that Christians are believing in a complete fable. How valid is this charge?


As it turns out, it's one of the weakest arguments an atheist can bring to the table - one that can even be counterproductive, by making Christianity actually stronger appearing than it was before it was brought up. Once the historical record is examined, Christianity becomes even more trustworthy, not less so.

Jerks ahoy!


Here:

Skinny,
"Why should people feel empathetic toward the people of Israel when many supporters of Israel lack empathy for others?"
While I'm sure this was asked more in frustration than anything, we all need to try and keep some perspective. The people of Israel hold a wide range of views, and a great many of them do not support the current Israel. Withholding empathy for such a group can lead to racist views.
As racist and illogical as most supporters of Israel are, these failings are only too human and such people should be both pitied and corrected. Hate the position, not those that hold it.

And here:

She was six WEEKS pregnant. Or she was 2 weeks LATE. Then she took meds without reading the bottle.

Yes the pharmacist made a mistake but so did she. WHO takes something without reading the bottle first? Does she regularly drink bleach thinking its apple juice too?

Mistakes happen, people. She has to take some responsibility for this, as well. And add to that the fact she was still in her FIRST trimester...

The last comment is especially callous given there was a baby involved. Yes, people should read their prescriptions carefully. People should also do their jobs correctly and feel bad when someone is poisoned.


Drill, baby, drill:

The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world''s largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent an oil price spike, American diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks said.


The cables, published in the Guardian newspaper, ask Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom''s crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300 billion barrels, nearly 40 per cent.

According to the cables, Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration at the Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, met the US consul general in Riyadh in November 2007 and told the American diplomat that firm''s 12.5 million barrel-a-day capacity needed to keep a lid on prices could not be reached.

Husseini said that at that point Aramco would not be able to stop the rise of global oil prices because the Saudi energy industry had overstated its recoverable reserves to spur foreign investment. He argued that Aramco had badly underestimated the time needed to bring new oil on tap.

"According to al-Husseini, the crux of the issue is twofold. First, it is possible that Saudi reserves are not as bountiful as sometimes described, and the timeline for their production not as unrestrained as Aramco and energy optimists would like to portray," one cable said.

According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12 million barrels a day in 10 years but before then possibly as early as 2012 global oil production would have hit its highest point.

Seven months later, the US embassy in Riyadh went further in two more cables. "Our mission now questions how much the Saudis can now substantively influence the crude markets over the long term. Clearly they can drive prices up, but we question whether they any longer have the power to drive prices down for a prolonged period."

See! Sarah Palin IS right (obligatory Sarah Palin mention for the day).


I commented on this briefly in my last post. I'm glad to see someone agrees:

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is demonstrating outrageous gall by seeking to have the Church of Nativity noted as a World Heritage Site under its purview. The PA's ruling party is Fatah and its active terrorist units, the al-Aqsa Brigades, desecrated the Church of the Nativity in 2002. The terrorists used both the church and clergy as shields against the Israel Defence Forces who had finally pursued the terrorists after the suicide bombing at the Park Hotel that obliterated 30 people and maimed 140 others who were enjoying their Passover meals. Eiman Abu Eita, a Fatah representative who was a local al-Aqsa Brigades commander at the time, admitted the PA directed local terrorists to use the church as a sanctuary. 

The Fatah terrorists left the church in an awful state with filth everywhere, damage, religious items stolen and Bibles were even used for toilet paper. Since the PA took over following the ill-advised 1993 Oslo accords, the Christian population of Bethlehem has dropped from over 60% to less than 20%. 

The PA now wish to use the church as their political tool. There is a word for this sort of cheek in that part of the world: chutzpah.

A. Men.

We should not think for ONE minute that Fatah or the Muslim Brotherhood or any extremist terrorist group cares one whit about human life or the oppressed. We should stop giving them opportunities to carry out their maniacal plans.


And now, a baby elephant.

Carbon Is Just ONE of the Most Common Elements in the Universe

Indeed.


Did we double-check prospective university applicants BEFORE they started classes? Yes? No?


It all starts in the early years:

Is this creature capable of exposing shocking internet illiteracy?

Donald Leu, a researcher from the University of Connecticut, conducted a U.S. Department of Education-funded study of internet literacy among so-called “digital natives,” fabricating the tree octopus to test students’ ability to evaluate information they find on the internet.

Researchers asked students to find out information about the endangered Pacific Northwest tree octopus. Students had no problem locating a Web site dedicated to the cause, http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/  “but insisted on the existence of the made-up story, even after researchers explained the information on the website was completely fabricated,” according to a press release.

And you wonder why people believe things like the world will come to an end in 2012 or just about anything they read about Sarah Palin (first obligatory reference). We've devolved morally AND academically. Yes, there are parents and teachers who help mould the minds of children with hard work, dedication and the best materials they can get their hands on. There is also any number of people out there for whom higher brain functions serve as a burden which is why they are not exercised. From that to tree octopus, it's not much of a leap.


Second obligatory Sarah Palin reference: First Lady Michelle Obama pitches her anti-obesity program:

First Lady Michelle Obama, meeting reporters on the eve of the first-year anniversary of her "Let's Move" anti-obesity campaign, found herself talking about more than diet and exercise.

She addressed smoking (she's "very proud" the president quit almost a year ago), choosing her wardrobe (she buys dresses, not designers) and keeping her marriage strong (lots of laughing helps).

Obama 's campaign aims to end childhood obesity within a generation. About one-third of children are overweight or obese.

She was asked about criticism from Sarah Palin, who said the first lady didn't want people to eat dessert. Obama would not speak directly to Palin's charge, but said the vast majority of people understand that childhood obesity is a "real issue" and that parents, teachers and pediatricians are "grateful that we're having this conversation."

When asked if the menu for the White House Super Bowl party, featuring kielbasa, bratwurst, deep-dish pizza and cheeseburgers, sent the wrong message, she noted that salads also were served and that achieving "balance" is what's important.

Oh, isn't that cute? She's flirting with the press. Again.


Here is what Sarah Palin actually said:

During an episode of her reality show, the once (and future?) candidate cooked up a mess of hot s’mores and a side of even hotter politics, declaring: “This is in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert.”

(See the video at the 2:30 mark. Watch for something touching about Trig at the 1:20 mark.)



Here is what Michelle Obama said:

“We can’t just leave it up the parents.”

Michelle Obama's "popcorn and beer" moment. 


Tree octopus to this.  Five minutes of intellectual effort.


For your reading pleasure,  fifty-seven states. Guess who said that one.


From Sarah Palin to her Wonder Twin, Ezra Levant:

This is an uncomfortable subject for liberals. Equality of men and women is an essential western principle. Acceptance of gay rights is the new liberal litmus test. Teaching historical facts in the face of religious faith is the foundation of secular enlightenment.

But many liberals don't confront bigotry when it arrives in the form of an immigrant, non-Christian visible minority.

Here's a tip for politically correct liberals wondering how to respond to sexist, anti-gay, anti-Semitic demands from new Canadians: Pretend they're old white Christian men.

If the Pope demanded public schools shut down music classes or boys and girls be segregated, you can imagine the outrage. We're well trained in the phrase "separation of church and state."

Well, how about separation of mosque and state? How about promoting Canadian values?

 

Well, he does have a point:

My position is this: Yes, it’s important that Quebec remain a predominantly French-language society. And ideally, everyone in Quebec should be able to speak French. But we should not try to reach this goal by restricting people’s rights and freedom of choice.

French will survive if Quebecers cherish it and want to preserve it; it will flourish if Quebec becomes a freer, more dynamic and prosperous society; it will thrive if we make it an attractive language that newcomers want to learn and use. Not by imposing it and by preventing people from making their own decisions in matters that concern their personal lives.

Francophones are their own worst enemy. Push and someone will push back. Also, know your numbers.


Doctors should also heavily reference Kermit Gosnell, too.


Some North Korean news: Israel gives refugee status to a North Korean couple; the North Korea-Hosni Mubarak connection; is someone defacing pictures of the Kims? (hat tip: OFK)


The Palestinians will use even the birthplace of Christ to get what they want. It's too bad they won't protect it or the people who believe in it.


Even dogs understand the need for blessings.

Monday Is a New Day

...for some.


Obligatory Sarah Palin mention- Mrs. Palin honours Ronald Reagan and warns of "ruin":


"This is dangerous. This is insane," she said. "This is not the road to national greatness, it is the road to ruin."

Revisiting themes familiar from her 2008 campaign, she said the U.S. was being shackled by high debt and taxes, dense government regulation and rising spending, often for programs that don't work. She said a rush toward green energy was overlooking the nation's oil and natural gas reserves, a choice that will cost jobs and drive up pump prices.

And now, the witty rejoinders of "Sarah Palin is stoopid, LOL" from people not even clever enough to use Spell Check.


You know it's bad when people that mentally dull are considered to be among the politically savvy. This is why I pray that Mrs. Palin does ascend to the highest office in the land. Watching moron-bots' heads explode... money can't buy that kind of entertainment. It just can't.


Hhmmm... what else is in the news?


What do you do when a grassroots organisation catches you in the act of being an accomplice? Tell the FBI, that's what!

In what may be an orchestrated hoax targeting Planned Parenthood, at least 11 of the abortion provider's health centers were, in a one-week span, visited by men who implied they ran interstate sex trafficking rings involving teenagers and undocumented immigrants.


Planned Parenthood reported the incidents to the FBI, and its president Cecile Richards wrote to US Attorney General Eric Holder detailing the visits and outlining possible sex trafficking-related crimes that may have been committed.

The biggest reaction from some naysayers isn't one of disgust but one of outright denial and outrage that a multi-billion dollar industry was caught (again) skirting laws which protect minors from abuse. Where is the shock that this is happening (check the videos out yourselves)? Doesn't anyone want to get to the bottom of it? Or is anger over abuse only reserved for people who aren't Planned Parenthood or Roman Polanski?


Check out this pantload of a reaction:

Welcome to the brave new media world, where national organisations doing public good can be brought down by one lying punk with a video camera and a bunch of amoral cowards who wrap themselves in proclamations of speaking "The Truth" while ecstatically kicking real truth to the curb. Without wanting to imply the historical context, let me quote Max Liebermann: "Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen wie ich kotzen möchte." 

One might say that was pure kotzen.


As was said before, Planned Parenthood is a multi-billion dollar industry (not at all a charity) caught several times advising and attempting to hide abuse and trafficking. The first response from a real person to questions about hiding sexual abuse shouldn't be the best way to do it but a call to the authorities. Complaining about being caught to the FBI isn't an act of civic responsibility; it's creepy cowardice and backside covering.


Oh dear...

A 14-year-old Bangladeshi girl allegedly raped by a much older cousin has died after being publicly flogged for adultery, media reports said.

Hena Begum was sentenced to receive 100 lashes by a village council made up of elders and Muslim clerics in the district of Shariatpur, about 35 miles from the capital, Dhaka, the BBC said today.

She endured about 80 lashes before collapsing Monday, according to The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper. Her family took her to a hospital, where she died.

"What sort of justice is this? My daughter has been beaten to death in the name of justice. If it had been a proper court then my daughter would not have died," Dorbesh Khan, the girl's father, told the BBC.

Family members said Hena was raped by a 40-year-old married cousin, The Daily Star said. The man's family beat up the teen, then accused of her adultery, the newspaper said.

The very next day, she was sentenced to the flogging in a fatwa, or religious ruling, issued by the village council under Islamic Shariah law, the BBC said.

Her father was also told pay a fine of about $700, police told the BBC.

Four people, including a Muslim cleric, have been arrested in connection with Hena's death, the BBC said. Police said they were looking for another 14 people in the case.

This is just one more case of a backward tribal way of life. When is someone going to be so sick of what is going on before something is done about it?


Related: aid worker to be hanged after converting to Christianity:

An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity.

Said Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards.

Mr Musa, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion in the 1990s, has worked for the Red Cross for 15 years and helps to treat fellow amputees.

He was arrested in May last year as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy following a crackdown on Christians within Afghanistan.

He claims he was visited by a judge who told him he would be hanged within days unless he converted back to Islam.

But he remains defiant and said he would be willing to die for his faith.


He told the Sunday Times: 'My body is theirs to do what they want with.

'Only God can decide if my spirit goes to hell.'

Defence lawyers have refused to represent him, while others have dropped the case after receiving death threats.

 Mr Musa was arrested after a TV station showed western men baptising Afghans during secret ceremonies.

Interesting:

“I mean sermons about Afghanistan, about Iraq, about Kashmir, about suicide bombing and chaos in the Muslim world. As a project I visited mosques in each corner of the city and in lectures, statements and sermons at Sunni mosques from Stouffville to Toronto, imams are preaching about how Muslims all over the world are being attacked by non-Muslims and they are justifying the violence by Muslims against NATO and everyone else,” he said. “I’m scared to take my children to the mosque. So I don’t.”

Another audience member who wished to remain anonymous said he has stopped going to mosques in Toronto altogether.

“I used to go to the downtown mosque [at Dundas and Bay] but I don’t anymore,” he said. “I didn’t like the political discussions, they were divisive. I saw no indication of interest in promoting integration into Canadian society. It was always about how different we are, how Muslims should live in Canada. There were political undertones of why some of the international events were happening and how we should feel about them.”

Will this result in a schism? Is this discomfort a product of assimilation or acclimatisation? The Trudeau-style multiculturalism never attempted to resolve differences in culture, nor did ever wish promote unity through similar ideals and values. Far from it. The above article is just an example of how divisive the policy truly is and why it is necessary to promote a workable national culture, one that does not hold all cultures, values and morals as the same but one in which discernment is key. How can whipping a teen-ager for being assaulted or sermons demonising one's own countrymen be on par with women's rights or tolerance?


Related: when multiculturalism and total meanness collide:

Charges have been laid against a downtown restaurant and its owner for denying access to a blind woman.


Although the owner of the Dunlop Street establishment believes it is a misunderstanding, many believe it’s a lack of understanding about the Blind Persons' Rights Act that is to blame.

Barrie police say the woman alleges she was refused service at a downtown restaurant last July because the waiter did not want her to bring her service dog into the restaurant.

How is this a fine example of a multicultural mosaic?


Don't believe me?

A dozen Muslim families who recently arrived in Canada have told Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School Division that they want their children excused from compulsory elementary school music and coed physical education programs for religious and cultural reasons.


“This is one of our realities in Manitoba now, as a result of immigration,” said superintendent Terry Borys. “We were faced with some families who were really adamant about this. Music was not part of the cultural reality.”

Borys said the school division has alerted Education Minister Nancy Allan about the situation since music and phys-ed are compulsory in the province’s elementary schools.

There have been no issues so far with children of middle-school or high-school age, he said.

The families accept physical education, as long as the boys and girls have separate classes, but do not want their children exposed to singing or the playing musical instruments, Borys said. The division has suggested they could instead do a writing project to satisfy the music requirements of the arts curriculum.

However, a local Muslim leader says there is no reason for young kids to be held out of music or phys-ed classes based on religious and cultural grounds.

“Who is advising them? My first concern would be who are these new immigrants talking to?” said Shahina Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social Services. “This is the first time I am hearing this; I’m not very happy about it.”

Siddiqui said there is no problem with elementary-school children taking coed phys-ed, at least “not with little kids under the age of puberty.”

She said when some middle-school and high-school students have asked not to mix genders, they have been accommodated by schools.

Who is worse- the people who bring with them the backward ideas that destroyed their former countries of the yahoos who allow it?

I promise to be mature about this next article.

No, I won't!

(insert raspberry sound here)

A group of academics has launched a campaign defending Canadian Christian universities against what it terms anti-religious bullying by the country’s leading university teachers’ federation.

“What we have here is an academic union ganging up on these smaller Christian universities and I thought it was high time that people from the public universities take a stand,” said Paul Allen, an associate professor of theology at Concordia University in Montreal.

The protest is a direct response to reports that the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) issued against Trinity Western University in British Columbia more than a year ago, Crandall University in New Brunswick in July and Winnipeg’s Canadian Mennonite University in October.

“It bothered me that this is anti-religious ideology masked as supposedly an academic freedom issue,” said Mr. Allen, who started a petition to warn about CAUT’s actions. “This was an opportunity in the current [secular climate] to go after religion. Some of the most famous universities in the United States and in Europe have faith basis in their constitutions and no one would think to sneer those schools.”

Perhaps the complainants wish to air "Iranium" and see how that works out for them.

Is there a Chatty Cathy at your office? Maybe this might help.

(hat tips: BBW, BCF)

The Feast of the Japanese Martyrs

597.43 kilometers.



That's 371.23 miles.



That is how far it is to walk from Kyoto to Nagasaki.


It is 562.48 kilometers from Osaka to Nagasaki. 




Imagine walking on unpaved road.




In winter.



With average precipitation of about ninety millimeters and with temperatures reaching no more than ten degrees Celsius. 



Imagine at the end of this journey being crucified because you loved Jesus so much.



Imagine not regretting it.

They didn't.

Saint Paul Miki's words

Thursday Post

Transport Canada has re-allowed nail scissors and glasses repair kits:

Small scissors and tools, such as eyeglasses screwdrivers, are now OK aboard planes.

There's a six-centimetre limit for these items and knives of any length are still banned.

It's part of an effort to reduce hassles at airports, Transport Minister Chuck Strahl said Thursday.

I'm concerned. Isn't it a bad idea to arm wheelchair-confined ninety-year old women with small, pointy objects? Aren't those women a true threat to airplane security as opposed to- say- a Muslim male between the ages of twenty and fifty years old?


Yes, this will only get worse:

President Hosni Mubarak said on Thursday he wanted to quit but that he feared his resignation would bring chaos to Egypt, as protesters demanding an end to his 30-year rule confronted his supporters on Cairo streets.

Mubarak's government has struggled to regain control of an angry nation, inviting Islamist opponents to talks and apologising for bloodshed in Cairo that left 10 people dead.

A bitter and bloody confrontation gripped central Cairo where armed government loyalists fought pro-democracy demonstrators intent on the Mubarak, 82, stepping down.

"I am fed up. After 62 years in public service, I have had enough. I want to go," Mubarak said in an interview with ABC.

"If I resign today, there will be chaos," he added.

In a move to try to calm the disorder, Vice President Omar Suleiman said on Thursday the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most organised opposition movement, had been invited to meet with the new government as part of a national dialogue with all parties.

An offer to talk to the banned group would have been unthinkable before protests erupted on Jan. 25, indicating the giant strides made by the reformist movement. But scenting victory, they have refused negotiations until Mubarak goes.

Related: for some reason, the Liberals think the world hangs on their every word.


You have selected regicide. If you know the name of the king or queen being murdered, press one.


And now, the obligatory Sarah Palin post.


Wrap your head around this:

The women of NOW share a palpable disdain for certain women, but particularly those who refuse to accept the narrative of their inequity -- and most notably Sarah Palin.  In an August 2008 press release, PAC Chair Kim Gandy stated, "'[W]e recognize the importance of having women's rights supporters at every level but, like Sarah Palin, not every woman supports women's rights."  Or, in the words of University of Chicago professor Wendy Doniger, Palin's "greatest hypocrisy is in the pretense that she is a woman."

Touché.  Meet the feminists of today, or, Women In Name Only. 

Meghan McCain, who holds the dubious honor of being both a RINO and a WINO, recently declared Michele Bachmann the "poor man's Sarah Palin."  WINOs disparaging the women they claim to champion is nothing new.  But McCain managing to spit on the poor, Bachmann, and Palin all in one fell swoop is a new low for a WINO -- even a young elitist who makes a living feeding the progressive fires of the left.

Palin is used to vitriol in the extreme.  She makes the Dan Quayle media attacks of old look like a toddler's sandbox scuffle.  She's been called a "turncoat b****, Uncle Women, a whore in f****** cheap glasses with her hair up, a f******* hyper conservative," a "Christian Stepford wife," an "Alaskan hillbilly," "Caribou Barbie," a "pig with lipstick," "yammering," an "idiotic c***," a "whore," and a "f******monster."  She has endured "jokes" about the rape of her teenage "whore" daughter.

And those are only the accusations from other women.

If one were to strip away the political veneer of those whose "dislike" of Mrs. Palin runs into the noxious, it would boil down to simple high-school cattiness. An attractive overachiever with a humble background cannot possibly represent the supposed causes of a largely white upper-middle-class echelon. Sarah Palin's conservative leanings are actually incidental to the liberal/leftist female set. She is objectified physically and professionally by the people who could never aspire to her stature.  Self-made, happily married, confident, can rock a pair of knee-high boots after having had five children. For these things to be the focus of a political game-changer isn't a reflection on Mrs. Palin but her detractors. What about her policies are particularly grating? Does there exist an answer or does one need to be fed a response? Why even go there? If she isn't a part of the Ivy League set, who cares if she has an iron-clad answer for a problem?


It's an easy explanation, really, but I think that is a part of it.

Happy Seolnal

 

/Year of the Rabbit


For all your Seolnal needs.


Celebrate Seolnal AND warm yourself with a hearty bowl of manduguk.


Find your Chinese zodiac sign.


How has your Setsubun been so far?

Mid-week Post

Remember that global warming? Yeeaaahhhhh....


If it helps, twelve out of twenty-four groundhogs predict an early spring.


How can anyone kill a face like this?


After handing a prize to Obama (of all people), this should be no surprise. If hacking into a series of computers and opening one's fool mouth is worthy of a prize, there is probably some Asian kid wondering why he is not getting a Nobel Prize for World of Warcraft.


Mubarak may have promised to step down but his supporters are still out in full force:

Backers of President Hosni Mubarak, throwing petrol bombs, wielding sticks and charging on camels and horses, attacked protesters in Cairo on Wednesday after the army told reformists demanding the president quit to go home.

Anti-Mubarak demonstrators hurled stones back and said the attackers were police in plainclothes. The Interior Ministry denied the accusation, and the Egyptian government rejected international calls for Mubarak to end his 30-year rule now.

This apparent rebuff along with the appearance of Mr. Mubarak supporters on Cairo’s streets and their clashes with protesters — after days of relatively calm demonstrations — complicated U.S. calculations for an orderly transition of power in Egypt.

In pointed comments, a senior U.S. official said it was clear that “somebody loyal to Mubarak has unleashed these guys to try to intimidate the protesters”.

Troops and tanks stood by as the violence raged.

The emergence of Mubarak loyalists, whether ordinary citizens or police, injected a new dynamic into the momentous uprising in this most populous Arab nation of 80 million people.

The protests broke out last week as public frustration with corruption, oppression and economic hardship under Mr. Mubarak boiled over. At least 140 people are estimated to have been killed so far and there have been protests across the country.

What is really going on in Egypt:

 

 

Contrary to pundits, it turns out that the Egyptian regime was neither stable nor secure. The lack of its stability is not a reflection of its weakness or lack of a resolve to oppress. It is a reflection of its inherent contradiction to the natural desire of men to enjoy their basic freedoms. Egyptians might not know what democracy actually means, but that does not make the concept any less desirable. Perhaps it is precisely its vagueness and abstraction that makes the concept all the more desirable....

 

It should come as no surprise to anyone that after 58 years of organized state propaganda, people would not believe for a second the government's media machine and its coverage of the events. Why they chose to believe the alternative propaganda needs more explaining. People believed the twitter messages and the facebook postings because they wanted to believe them. Tunisia had broken the barrier for many people. It mattered not that the situation and ruling formula in Tunisia is very different than the one in Egypt. Perceptions were more important than reality. If the Tunisians could do it, then so could we. With 15,000 demonstrating in Cairo, Egyptians were already texting each other with stories of the President's son escape. The only debate being whether Hosni Mubarak would escape to London or Saudi Arabia.

The next day the demonstrations continued with a promise of a return on Friday the 28^th after Friday Prayers in Mosques. The regime started panicking at this moment. This was simply something they did not understand. Imagine for a second Mubarak's advisors trying to explain to the 83 year old dictator what twitter is in the first place. What was more worrying for them was that the only real force in Egyptian politics, the Muslim Brotherhood, announced its intention of joining the demonstrations. Suddenly they were faced with the prospect of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators from every Mosque in the country. They acted as every panicking authoritarian regime would act. They acted stupidly.

The internet was cut off in Egypt. Mobile phone companies were ordered to suspend services. With tools of communication disrupted the regime was hopeful that they had things under control. Simultaneously they started standard arrests of Muslim Brotherhood leaders. Things seemed for them under control. But they weren't. With every stupid panicking move by the regime, the narrative of its weakness was only reinforced for the people. People saw a regime that was scarred of the internet and they rightfully calculated that this was their golden opportunity.

Friday was an unprecedented event in Egypt. While it is impossible to guess the number of protestors on the streets that day, it is safe to say that they exceeded one million. Every Mosque was a launching site for a demonstration. The Islamists were out in full force. The slogans that day were quite different than the previous ones. Islamic slogans and activists were clearly visible. The security forces were faced with wave after wave of protestors that came from every street. In 4 hours, the security forces were collapsing.

Whether Mubarak was fully previously told about the deteriorating situation for the previous days or whether it was at this moment that he suddenly realized the gravity of the situation remains unknown. One thing is sure; the regime was not prepared for this. It is at this moment that the decision was taken to call in the army, announce a curfew, and withdraw the security forces. In reality the army did not deploy immediately. The troops and tanks that appeared in the streets were the Presidential Guard units deployed in Cairo.

The army was actually still far away from deploying in Cairo. Because no one had imagined that the situation would totally be out of control, the level of alert of the army was never raised. Officers were not called from their vacations and the whole top command of the Egyptian army was actually thousands of miles away in Washington for strategic prearranged discussions at the Pentagon. Moreover, the plan of deployment of the army never imagined a scenario where people would defy it. No one imagined that the army would be required to put a tank in every street. They thought that the mere mention of the army being called in, the sight of a few tanks, and the announcement of the curfew, would make people immediately go home scared. People did not.

The Egyptian army is hugely popular. This is due to the established mythology of Egyptian politics. The army, which is in all aspects the regime, is seen as separate by the people. The army is viewed as clean (not like the corrupt government), efficient (they do build bridges fast), and more importantly the heroes that defeated Israel in 1973 (it is no use to debate that point with an Egyptian). With the troops and tanks appearing in the streets, people actually thought the army was on their side, whatever that might mean. With an announced Presidential addressed that kept being delayed; Egyptians prepared themselves for an announcement of Mubarak's resignation.

Mubarak was at a loss. The troops could not possibly shoot people. That would not only destroy the army's reputation, but more importantly the troops practically could not do it. These guys after all were not trained for this. They do not have rubber bullets or tear gas. They only have live ammunition and tanks and the thought of actually using them in this situation was never an option. To the surprise of the regime, people just celebrated the army's arrival and started dancing in the streets defying the curfew. More importantly something else was happening as well. The looting was starting.

 

 

Read the whole thing.

 

 

Brownshirts are faaaaabulous! 

 

And now, the obligatory Sarah Palin-related post:

 

Rachel Maddow is stupid. Don't just take my word for it:

So, in a segment making fun of rightwingers, the hilarious Rachel Maddow quoted liberally from a website called Christwire.org. The website had urged Sarah Palin to call for invading Egypt – making her a mummy grizzly ripe for Maddow’s mockery.

 

Rachel had to run with it.

And boy did she enjoy it. A little too much, perhaps.

Too bad it ain’t real.

See, Christwire is a parody site – all the stuff is made up.

Still, she fell for it like a tourist pawing at a fake Rolex.

But that’s no big deal. It happens. We get stuff like this pitched all the time and we’ve almost been taken. And, I’m still convinced Fred Phelps is a left-wing performance artist. A damn good one, I might add.

Anyway, Maddow let her lazy assumptions about the right get the better of her. Dripping with disdain for Palin and conservatives in general – she can’t see the difference between what’s real and what’s phony.

"Okay, so Rachel Maddow's, like, "I'm reporting this Sarah Palin thing really fast because then I sound like I'm, like, wicked political or something," but I'm thinking: "Girl, the site is not even REAL!"

A happy Seolnal from me and from some others.

February 1st, 2011 (AD)

Just to make sure we're not in Sumeria.


It's February. It's not just the shortest month of the year, or the month in which Groundhog Day, Seolnal or Saint Valentine's Day takes place. It's also Sarah Palin Month.

A month of pure Palin. Hot dogs, potato sack races, balloons for the kids, marshmallow roasts... will not take place. I will bring her up a lot, though.


The latest from Egypt- Mubarak won't run again for presidency:

Speaking on state television on Tuesday, Mr. Mubarak announced that he would not be running again in September's upcoming elections and would work in the last months of his term to allow the transfer of power. In the statement he also said he would begin the process of constitutional reforms. He said the main priority was the stability of the nation to allow the transfer of power.

Mubarak has been the dictatorial leader of Egypt for almost thirty years. Arrests, persecutions and the might of the army have been the reality of the Egyptian political scene even before him. So, too, has the rise in Islamofascism. Since the start of the protests- fueled by unemployment and poverty- in late January, the worry has been who will helm Egypt. Mubarak is no longer wanted but if he is replaced by  the Muslim Brotherhood, the relative stability Egypt has had with its neighbour, Israel, will disappear. There is no winning here because there are no alternatives for Egyptians. One dictator or another. Democracy will not emerge from the vacuum has it has done (though slightly uneasily) in former Soviet bloc nations. There simply has been no development of it in a country still in the trappings of totalitarianism and theocratic fascism. Mubarak may see the writing on the wall but his replacements will wipe it off. The electorate may not know any better.


In other news, Obama backs the Muslim Brotherhood. He also agreed to meet with Iran without any pre-conditions.


In less insane parts of the world, Canadians prefer a Conservative minority over a coalition government:

 Canadians would prefer a Conservative minority in power over a coalition government if the Tories can’t win a majority in the next election, a new poll suggests.

Fifty-five per cent of Canadians say they’d rather see a Conservative minority at the country’s helm while only 45 per cent said they would support a government run by Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP leader Jack Layton, findings from a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted exclusively for Postmedia News and Global News revealed Monday.

 

 

Why should socialist Jack Layton or American Michael Ignatieff be trusted over a party that's done a better job than either of Layton's or Ignatieff's parties? No one said you had to like the PM; you just had to admire his handiwork.


I'm glad schools aren't focused on teaching but brow-beating six-year olds:

A couple in Laval, Que. has sparked a fierce debate over how far schools should go to teach children about environmental responsibility after their six-year-old son was shut out of a kindergarten draw to win a stuffed animal because he had an environmentally unfriendly sandwich bag in his lunchbox.

Marc-André Lanciault said he hadn’t heard of the school’s draw or any environmental policy until his wife, Isabel Théorêt, was making their son Félix a sandwich and he begged them not to put it in a plastic bag.
“He said, ‘No mommy, you can’t do that. Not a Ziploc,’ ” Mr. Lanciault said.

Through tears, the boy told his parents that the school had held a draw to win a stuffed teddy bear and only children who didn’t have any plastic sandwich bags could enter. The family normally uses Tupperware, but it was all in the dishwasher, and so they had packed their son’s ham sandwich in a plastic bag. 

When Mr. Lanciault questioned his son’s teacher, she confirmed the school had staged the draw at a lunchtime daycare and that any student with a plastic sandwich bag was excluded. “You know Mr. Lanciault, it’s not very good for the environment,” the teacher told him. “We have to take care of the our planet and the bags do not decompose well.”

Mr. Lanciault said he objects to the fact that a school would penalize a kindergartner for his parents’ choice to use non-recyclable lunch containers and that his son hadn’t learned any valuable environmental lessons, except to fear plastic bags.

“If we want to teach people about the environment, I can understand that,” he said. “But surely there’s a better way than to penalize kids. The goal wasn’t achieved anyway. At the end of the day my son doesn’t know why he shouldn’t use a Ziploc bag. It’s not only the bag, it’s the whole idea that we’re being brainwashed from everywhere. They told us Ziploc bags are bad, so we’ve stopped thinking about it and just started applying the rule.”

Now that the boy has had his will broken over a questionable environmental policy, can he enter the draw?


And now, Han Solo in candy carbonite.

Mid-Week Post

Because it is the middle of the week.


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


Also, she has an entire month dedicated to her.


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

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

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


So goes Tunisia, so goes Egypt.


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


It's not quite Godzilla but....

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

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

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

666

The unrighteous post.


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

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

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


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

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

How true.

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

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


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


In a word, yes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

Man is fallible. To put the moral destiny of humanity in the hands of someone who will not see that  is a disaster in the making.

***

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

 

North Koreans are taught that South Korean cookies and pens cause grave physical harm.

North Korea makes wigs and false eyelashes for export.

 

 

Every other army in the world marches on its stomach except the North Korean one.

Isn't North Korea a secularist state?

 

Hhmmmm...