But Wait! There's More!

Hu Jintao is a big, fat liar.


Cases in point: China does not pose a military threat, says Hu:

Chinese President Hu Jintao denied on Thursday that his country was interested in competing militarily with the United States — but warned against any foreign interference regarding Taiwan and Tibet.

Delivering his only speech during his four-day visit to the United States, Hu also made clear that China’s ruling Communist party remained committed to building a “socialist country” and that freedoms would be defined within the context of socialism.

“We will develop a socialist democracy, and build a socialist country under the rule of law,” Hu said in his speech, which he delivered to a mainly business audience in Washington.

“We will make continuous progress in our endeavour to build a prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious modern socialist country.”

And:

 

 

Chinese President Hu Jintao acknowledged Wednesday that China had "a lot" more to do on human rights but warned the United States not to meddle in its affairs. 

On a state visit to the United States, the Chinese leader and President Barack Obama sparred over human rights, although they smoothed over sharp differences by making an economic and strategic case for working together. 

Mr. Obama said he believed China's emergence as a major power was good for the United States economically, but revealed Washington's doubts about the long-term political goals of the world's most populous country, which remains under communist party rule. 

"We welcome China's rise," Mr. Obama said at a news conference in Washington with Mr. Hu. 

(Sidebar: I'll bet he does.)

"We just want to make sure that that rise is done in a way that reinforces international norms and international rules, and enhances security and peace--as opposed to it being a source of conflict within the region [and] around the world." 

He added, "We have some core views as Americans about the universality of certain rights -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly -- that we think are very important and that transcend cultures. I have been very candid with President Hu about these issues." 

In response, Mr. Hu said China recognized "the universality of human rights." 

"China is a developing country with a huge population and also a developing country in a crucial stage of reform. In this context China still faces many challenges in economic and social development and a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights," he said. 

"We will continue our efforts to improve the lives of the Chinese people and we will continue our efforts to promote democracy and the rule of law in our country."

 

Really?

 

Let's pick apart Hu's quips so that we may see his lies more clearly.

 

 

"Chinese President Hu Jintao denied on Thursday that his country was interested in competing militarily with the United States"

 

"-  but warned against any foreign interference regarding Taiwan and Tibet."

 

 

China recently conducted a successful test flight of a stealth jet, has a permanent seat on the UN security council, is at constant odds with both Taiwan and Japan, is attempting to gobble up South Korea (and, therefore, destabilise the Korean Peninsula- hat tip: OFK), has militarily, politically and financially backed not only the Stalinist state of North Korea but Sudan, as well, and has the one of the largest standing armies in the world (the US also possesses such an army). If one chooses not to count the country's brutal treatment of its own people, China still stands out as an oppressor of the North Koreans and the Tibetans.

 

What could the US possibly have to worry about?

"China is a developing country with a huge population and also a developing country in a crucial stage of reform. In this context China still faces many challenges in economic and social development and a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights,"...

 

So, the reason why the Chinese communist government arrests people, bans free expression, bars the Internet, allows forced abortions and female infanticide (go here), has a host of labour rights abuses and lets people live in unimaginable filth is because it is too poor and stupid to know better? I've seen better lip service over the years and this doesn't count as a good one. Way to promote your country, Hu. 

 

Why are we trading with these people? Why are we selling our industry, knowledge and resources to them? We are cutting our own throats. I realise Obama has absolutely no scruples whatsoever, but surely there must be someone out there who clearly understands how utterly disastrous it is to surrender the West to an octopus so savage.

 

 

In somewhat related news, North Korea is trying to hood-wink South Korea again: 

 

South Korea agreed on Thursday to a North Korean offer of high-level military talks, a major breakthrough in the crisis on the peninsula. Such talks could clear the way for the resumption of long-stalled aid-for-disarmament negotiations with the North.

The New York Times said Obama warned his Chinese counterpart that if Beijing did not step up pressure on North Korea, Washington would redeploy its forces in Asia to protect itself from a potential North Korean strike on U.S. soil.

But...the US has nothing to fear from China. I'm confused!


Make North Korea prove itself before making a move or South Korea will be back where it started.

Mid-week Post

Obama has vowed to fight his own countrymen the way he will never fight the Chinese:

The Republican-controlled House of Reprsentatives has voted to repeal the health care law President Barack Obama signed last year.

The 245-189 vote marks the fulfilment of a promise many Republicans made in last year's political campaigns.
The vote will not eliminate the system signed last year by President Barack Obama.

The House bill has little or no chance to passing the Senate, controlled by Obama's Democratic supporters. And Obama has vowed to veto it if it reaches his desk.

This shambles of a healthcare reform bill is Obama's pride and joy (along with cowering to the Chinese and Iranians). He'll be damned if he lets a bunch of Republicans democratically shred it. The arrogance of that man in assuming he knows what is good for countrymen on whom he looks down.


I, for one, am glad not to have that dictator here.


Related: Hu silences human rights critics with lip service:

In a rare concession on a highly sensitive issue, Chinese President Hu Jintao used his White House visit on Wednesday to acknowledge "a lot still needs to be done" to improve human rights in his nation accused of repressing its people. President Barack Obama pushed China to adopt fundamental freedoms but assured Hu the U.S. considers the communist nation a friend and vital economic partner.

Hu's comments met with immediate skepticism from human rights advocates, who dismissed them as words backed by no real history of action. Hu contended his country has "made enormous progress" but provided no specifics.

Still, his remarks seemed to hearten and surprise U.S. officials, coming during an elaborate visit that centred on boosting trade and trust between the world's two largest economies.

Question: why do we have to take cues from the Iranian government or would-be terrorists in this country? Did we lose a war? Did Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant toil in vain? Did everyone forget Zahra Kazemi?


Just gob-smacked- an inter-faith fatwa.


Related: what this guy said:

The Copts — and other Near Eastern Christians facing extinction -- in their ancestral homelands no less—should be spared the condescending wringing of hands and other worthless histrionics of collective sorrow. Something else, of an entirely different nature, needs to take place: politicians, academics, prelates, lay leaderships, Middle East experts, and decent Muslims all over the world could resolve to take a firm and decisive stand against Muslim supremacists. Nothing short of summoning brutally honest Arab and Muslim introspection — by Arabs and Muslims—should be deemed acceptable any longer.

The culture and theology that produce these sorts of genocidal impulses—of which the Copts are only the most recent victims—should be put on trial; not the "terrorists," and not "al-Qaeda."

The ongoing destruction of Eastern Christians is not a modern phenomenon, nor is it a reaction to Western colonialism, American meddling, the existence of Israel, the war in Iraq, or economic hardships in the Middle East—the standard pretexts flaunted by a biased Middle East scholarship and media.

The deliberate, methodical erasure of the histories, languages, cultures, and memories of indigenous non-Muslim Middle Easterners is a phenomenon fourteen centuries in the making. An honest recognition of this horrid legacy is imperative to a sound understanding of the Middle East.

Why would the deliberate genocide and elimination of a culture be deemed acceptable or an acceptable loss? Do tell, liberals.


Apparently, it is wrong to censor things.


Cut. Pakistan. Off.

Pakistani police are threatening the father of an 18-year-old Christian man whom officers raped, killed and threw into a sewer last week, according to area Christians.

Christian residents of Akhter Colony, Karachi who pulled the body of Waqas Gill from the sewer on Jan. 11 protested an alleged police cover-up by placing the corpse in the middle of a street and chanting slogans against officers of Mehmoodabad police station. They said local officers kidnapped and sodomized Gill before shooting him dead on Jan. 9.

The victim’s father, Pervez Gill, told Compass that four policemen on Jan. 6 abducted his son without a warrant and without making any charges. He said higher level police officials took notice of their Jan. 11 protest and reluctantly filed charges against the four policemen, two of them identified as Muhammad Amir Butt and Muhammad Adeel Khatak of the Mehmoodabad police station in Jamshaid Town, Karachi. The First Information Report is No. 38/11 under the murder laws of Section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code.

“Police are now threatening us and other Christians of Akhter Colony that we have to retract the charges,” Gill said, nearly in tears. “Police registered a case against the culprits, but they have not filed it under the proper parts of the section, which weakens the case, and police have done everything possible to save their fellow policemen.”

Gill said this police bias was the reason the other two officers named were still at large, with no action taken against them.

We can re-build them. We have the technology. Or lack thereof:

Susan Maushart lived out every parent's fantasy: She unplugged her teenagers.

For six months, she took away the Internet, TV, iPods, cell phones and video games. The eerie glow of screens stopped lighting up the family room. Electronic devices no longer chirped through the night like "evil crickets." And she stopped carrying her iPhone into the bathroom.

The result of what she grandly calls "The Experiment" was more OMG than LOL — and nothing less than an immersion in RL (real life).

As Maushart explains in a book released in the U.S. this week called "The Winter of Our Disconnect" (Penguin, $16.95), she and her kids rediscovered small pleasures — like board games, books, lazy Sundays, old photos, family meals and listening to music together instead of everyone plugging into their own iPods.

Filthy, immoral, sinful cats!



A cat who observes the rule of law.

Cats should be judged not by the colour of their fur but the content of their purring.

There Is Still So Much to Say

Quebec legislature denies access to Sikhs carrying kirpans:

Several Sikhs were denied entry into the Quebec legislature Tuesday amid a heated debate over multiculturalism and just where to draw the line when it comes to tolerating cultural practices.

Security officials at Quebec's assemblee nationale refused to let them in because they were wearing kirpans, small stylized daggers worn by some religious Sikhs.

Four representatives from the World Sikh Organization of Canada had planned to attend public hearings but were told by security to leave their daggers at the door if they wanted to enter. They refused.

The provincial government reacted with cautious language to the decision. The opposition Parti Quebecois, meanwhile, applauded heartily and said Canadian-style multiculturalism was unwelcome in Quebec.

Good. I don't care who you are, weapons are not allowed. Is Trudeau-style multiculturalism far more important than safety and the rule of law?


If I were a Saskatchewan marriage commissioner, this would be my response to a nagging special-interest group.


Someone else who should salute with a dreaded finger.



Speaking of tidy little fascists and their love for shutting up people they don't like:

The objection students’ associations have to allowing any opinion at all to be expressed on campus is that some opinions are upsetting to members of the university community. Hearing these opinions, the argument goes, robs such people of the peace of mind, feeling of belonging, and confidence in their identities that they need to participate fully in academic and campus life. That the students’ association is able and willing to deny certain resources (such as meeting rooms) reassures these people that they will be able to participate safely in academic and campus life.

Make the greedy little student unions repay every single penny to the students they rip off. Highway robbery never looked so... academic.


Hu Jintao arrives in Washington to check out his investment. The commander-toady-in-chief has promised his boss trading partner a welcoming family dinner because China owns American debt, has taken North American jobs while it mistreats its own workers, kills North Korean refugees to help its vassal state save face and is just an all-around bully.


Related: from the makers of unsafe toys to potentially unsafe toys:

The federal government is restricting the use of certain chemicals used to make toys and child-care articles soft and squishy.

The new regulations restrict the use of six compounds known as phthalates in toys and items such as bibs and sippy cups.

For more than a decade, manufacturers have followed voluntary restrictions on the use of these chemicals in things such as pacifiers, rattles and baby-bottle nipples.

The new rules extend the restrictions and bring Canada in line with the United States and the European Union.
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says there are concerns that the chemicals can leach out of certain items that may be chewed or sucked over long periods.

Under the regulations, phthalate concentration will be limited to 1,000 milligrams for every kilogram of plastic.

Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier won't be able to exploit Haiti's power vacuum because he has been taken into custody.


Cut. Pakistan. Off.

The lifeless bodies of two tiny babies are being given their final bath before burial in Karachi, after they were left to die in the southern Pakistani city's garbage dumps.


"They can only have been one or two days old," says volunteer worker Mohammad Saleem, pointing at the two small corpses being gently washed by his colleagues at a charity's morgue.

In the conservative Muslim nation, where the birth of children outside of marriage is condemned and adultery is a crime punishable by death under strict interpretations of Islamic law, infanticide is a crime on the rise.

More than 1,000 infants -- most of them girls -- were killed or abandoned to die in Pakistan last year according to conservative estimates by the Edhi Foundation, a charity working to reverse the grim trend.

The infanticide figures are collected only from Pakistan's main cities, leaving out huge swathes of the largely rural nation, and the charity says that in December alone it found 40 dead babies left in garbage dumps and sewers.

The number of dead infants found last year -- 1,210 -- was up from 890 in 2008 and 999 in 2009, says the Edhi Foundation manager in Karachi, Anwar Kazmi.

A sad yet touching photo of a dog and its former owner.

If This Is Monday, Where Did the Week-End Go?

Perhaps away from the snow in a post-global warming world. Or a post-"Marshmallow World". Just enjoy the song.


Harmonise vaccines across Canada:

The Canadian Paediatric Society has reiterated its call for Canada to institute a harmonized immunization program that would avoid potential errors in vaccine delivery as some families move between provinces.

Forgive my ignorance, but isn't that what medical records are for?



The best way to get funding is to make the killers pay for it themselves:

The federal government is urging more community groups to come forward to help combat honour killings. Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose, pictured, first called for a pitch from organizations for projects targeting this type of violence in July. Just over $2-million was set aside to fund initiatives, and so far about $800,000 has been allocated to three projects in the Greater Toronto Area aimed at empowering women, particularly immigrants, to learn about their rights and to speak out against abuse.

Aahhh, multiculturalism... It works on so many levels.

Class in Sudan:

South Sudan's president urged his people to forgive the Muslim north for a devastating 1983-2005 war, as partial results trickling in on Sunday from a landmark vote showed a landslide for secession. 

In his first public pronouncement since the referendum wrapped up in the mainly Christian region on Saturday, President Salva Kiir joined thousands of faithful in giving thanks for the week-long independence vote and praying for their nation-in waiting. 

Speaking from the pulpit of Saint Theresa Roman Catholic cathedral in the regional capital Juba, Kiir said: "For our deceased brothers and sisters, particularly those who have fallen during the time of struggle, may God bless them with eternal peace. 

"And may we, like Jesus Christ on the cross, forgive those who have forcefully caused their deaths."
An estimated two million people died in the 22-year civil war, the latest round in five decades of conflict between the south and the mainly Arab north that has blighted Africa's largest nation.

Beats "Death to those who insult Islam" any day.


North Korean burger joint? Not buying it.


Where toilet humour is welcome.


By the power of Blackbeard's sword!

Mid-Week Post

Note to self: dig out from under snow.


Because liberals assume adults are children and can be easily confused and coddled, Sarah Palin takes the high road and, instead of wildly accusing people or pretending to be a savior of all because his presidency is failing (who could that be, I wonder?), she says this:

Vigorous and spirited public debates during elections are among our most cherished traditions.  And after the election, we shake hands and get back to work, and often both sides find common ground back in D.C. and elsewhere. If you don’t like a person’s vision for the country, you’re free to debate that vision. If you don’t like their ideas, you’re free to propose better ideas. But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.

There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal. And they claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently. But when was it less heated? Back in those “calm days” when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols? In an ideal world all discourse would be civil and all disagreements cordial. But our Founding Fathers knew they weren’t designing a system for perfect men and women. If men and women were angels, there would be no need for government. Our Founders’ genius was to design a system that helped settle the inevitable conflicts caused by our imperfect passions in civil ways. So, we must condemn violence if our Republic is to endure.

As I said while campaigning for others last March in Arizona during a very heated primary race, “We know violence isn’t the answer. When we ‘take up our arms’, we’re talking about our vote.” Yes, our debates are full of passion, but we settle our political differences respectfully at the ballot box – as we did just two months ago, and as our Republic enables us to do again in the next election, and the next. That’s who we are as Americans and how we were meant to be. Public discourse and debate isn’t a sign of crisis, but of our enduring strength. It is part of why America is exceptional. 

No one should be deterred from speaking up and speaking out in peaceful dissent, and we certainly must not be deterred by those who embrace evil and call it good. And we will not be stopped from celebrating the greatness of our country and our foundational freedoms by those who mock its greatness by being intolerant of differing opinion and seeking to muzzle dissent with shrill cries of imagined insults.

Class under fire. Please note the obvious violent imagery in the previous statement.


Related: Charles Krauthammer weighs in.


In other news, one Quebec chef will not stuff it- with truffles:

When the folks at the National Capital Commission signed up chef Martin Picard to host a gala dinner in Ottawa next month, they knew exactly what they were getting. This was the self-described wild chef who gleefully demonstrated the preferred preparation of moose testicles on his TV cooking show and made foie gras poutine the signature dish at his Montreal restaurant, Au Pied de Cochon. 

"With Martin Picard, I'm sure foie gras will be on the menu," the NCC's Andree-Anne Bonin told the Ottawa Citizen when the event was announced in December. "We can't do Martin Picard without foie gras." 

Well, not unless a handful of animal-rights activists unhappy with the treatment of ducks in foie-gras production kick up a stink, in which case you inform Mr. Picard to leave the delicacy in Montreal. 

On Monday, the federal commission announced that Mr. Picard had withdrawn from the Taste of Winterlude event rather than be told what he was allowed to serve.

I don't care one way or another about foie gras. I do care that even the food one may or may not eat is subject to the thin-skinned scrutiny of animal fetishists and the people who are afraid of them. Something fortifies Mr. Picard, something iron (or with iron).

Make it so, other Picard.

Are Chinese mothers meaner? My experience has taught me that Asian mothers drive their children to the brink of near-breakdown in pursuit of excellence. Children should be children. They should also be taught valuable life skills, trades, manners, values and even how to dress, something Western parents have largely forgotten to do. Before decrying those "Asian hordes" and their terrible parenting skills, ask why little Brady/Cady/Hayley/Bailey/Montana/Madison still has trouble spelling their trend name at age ten. Is this your future astronaut?


I'm sure he didn't mean to do that:

A Muslim policeman shot dead an Egyptian Christian on a train on Tuesday and wounded five others, sources said, less than two weeks after a church was bombed in Egypt's deadliest attack on Christians in years. The shooting is likely to stoke tensions in the Muslim majority country, where Christians protested for several days after the Jan. 1 bombing of a church in Alexandria that killed up to 23 people. Christians make up a tenth of Egypt's 79 million people and have long complained of unfair treatment. They have accused the government of not doing enough to protect them. A security source confirmed one Christian had been shot dead and said the attacker was a Muslim police officer. An Interior Ministry statement named the attacker as officer Amer Ashour Abdel-Zaher.

I'm sure there was some violent rhetoric involved but it was never related to an imam.

 

Some people have no shame:

 

In commenting on the the Halton District Catholic School Board's ban on the gay rights groups, Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association president James Ryan is wrong when he says: "Catholic schools are every bit opposed to homophobia as non-Catholic schools are." 

He certainly speaks for his own group, whose relative gay-friendliness is frequently slammed by hard-core Catholic groups like Life- SiteNews.com.I suspect he also speaks for the majority of Catholic families and students, who share mainstream Canada's well known gay tolerance. He clearly does not, however, speak for those running the Catholic schools or for the Catholic religious Magisterium pulling their strings behind the scenes. They consider homosexual inclination "objectively disordered," as stipulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. They believe in the Catechism's call to chastity for homosexual persons. For them, tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality must be shown no quarter in the publicly funded Catholic school system -- even though most members of that paying public are tolerant of homosexuality. 

Ontario should ends its support for the discriminatory Catholic school system and move toward one school system equally accessible to all.

I'm sure he wouldn't be saying that if taxpayers happily funded his crap. This selfish individual wants to push his politics on students who should be studying, not marching to his tune. He can deal with students hu typ lyk dis 4evah. Apparently, special interests take precedence over moulding kids into productive human beings.

That Post That Says Alot

This is that post.


I knew this would happen:

It’s been nearly four days since the terrible shooting spree in Tucson targeting and critically wounding U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords, and killing six others—which means it must be time for the simplistic debate about the dangers of over-heated rhetoric and metaphor to make room for the predictably simplistic debate over gun control regulation....

So, if Tucson proves anything about gun control laws it’s that we can’t even rely on them to work properly. But that’s an argument for better enforcement of existing laws, not one for coming up with ridiculous, new ones. Unfortunately, there will always be those who believe just one more law will make all the difference in preventing another madman’s rampage—no matter how inane that law may be.

Michelle Malkin has an impressive record of all those cute, little things liberals have said about murder and gang-rape. Isn't it cuddly?!

Watch the mental midgets backtrack on their ludicrous assertions that "words kill".

File under: WHY ARE WE TRADING WITH THESE PEOPLE?

China has proposed a huge investment deal to revive North Korea's faltering economy, a report said Friday, amid an international drive to coax Pyongyang back to nuclear disarmament talks.

 China's state-run Shangdi Guanqun Investment plans to invest about $2 billion in a project to build up a North Korean free trade zone into a regional export base, the JoongAng newspaper said.

 A memorandum of understanding was signed with Pyongyang's Investment and Development Group on December 20, it said.

The two sides hope the area in Rason near the North's border with China and Russia will be the biggest industrial zone to be built in Northeast Asia in a decade, the daily said, citing documents related to the deal.
Pyongyang issued a decree in January to upgrade the status of Rason, formerly Rajin-Sonbong, which became a special economic zone in 1991 but never fulfilled its proposed role as a transport hub.

Rather, China needs North Korea as a buffer-state AND an extra source of income, all the while shooting North Korean refugees and exploiting North Korean women.



Related: what he said:

As time runs out on the tenure of both Presidents Lee Myung Bak and Barack Obama, the temptation to take the North Korean bait will probably grow, not diminish. But Mr. Lee and Mr. Obama should not be so hasty to react to Kim’s calculated provocations. In actuality, now is the winter of Kim’s discontent. He must contend with the collective weight of a nearly two decade-old food catastrophe, increasing influx of information, and outflux of citizens across the border. Add to that another hereditary communist power transition (to his son, Kim Jong-un), and the growing reality that even in the case of a leader-for-life, death will have its day.

Strike while the iron is hot, as they say. 

File under: WE OWE JAPAN AN APOLOGY:

Japan's foreign minister on Thursday called for renewed dialogue on the divided Korean peninsula, but said the North should first take "concrete actions" to lower tensions.

"The nuclear and missile development issue of DPRK (North Korea) is a cause for major concern," Seiji Maehara said in a speech to a Washington think tank before meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"What is most important is that a North Korea-South Korea dialogue be opened up," Maehara said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But, North Korea "needs to first take concrete actions," he said, without providing further details.
Speaking through a translator during a question-and-answer session, Maehara said North Korea "these days is escalating the level of its provocation against the region and the international community."

He referred to the sinking of a South Korean warship last May, as well as the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean border island in November that sparked some of the worst saber-rattling since the 1950-1953 war.

He also cited a long-running dispute with Pyongyang over Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean spies in the 1970s and 80s. The kidnap victims were forced to train Pyongyang's secret agents in Japanese language and culture.

His remarks came after China, which has refused to rebuke its communist ally over the recent attack on the South, backed the North's call for "unconditional" talks with Seoul.

Hat tip: OFK.



Christians need an Islamic state like sharks need Quint:

So is the problem a growing ‘Islamisation’ of society as those with a wider political agenda to secularise Muslims and change Islam are claiming? In answer to this we need to examine the sharia laws relating to Christian and other non-Muslim citizens living in an Islamic State and look at some historical examples of when these sharia laws were applied on Christians. Non-Muslims citizens living in a Khilafah have an honourable status and are referred to as dhimmi (people of contract & protection). Their places of worship, lives and property are protected and they are not persecuted for their beliefs.

What a lying sack of sassafras.


Related: Pakistan MP accuses the Pope of "insulting Muslims" (what else is new?)

PAKISTANI politicians have accused the Pope of interfering in state matters after he called for controversial blasphemy laws to be scrapped.

Benedict XVI urged the Islamic nation to repeal the legislation — which carries the death penalty for insulting Islam — a week after the shooting of the governor of Punjab, who had criticised the laws.

“I once more encourage the leaders of that country to take the necessary steps to abrogate that law,” the Pope said.

“The tragic murder of the governor of Punjab shows the urgent need to make progress in this direction.”
He added that the legislation had been used as a pretext for violence against non-Muslims.

Islamic party leaders condemned the Pope’s comments.

“Pakistan is an Islamic ideological state and the Pope cannot tell us to change our laws, which are in conformity to our belief,” said Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior leader of Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam, one of the country’s largest Islamic groups supporting the blasphemy laws.

Farid Paracha, the leader of Jamaat-i-Islami, the most powerful Islamic party in the nation, said: “The Pope’s statement is an insult to Muslims across the world.”

More here. 


Is this one of those cases where one does not anger the perpetually angry or else? Of course it is. 


In other news... 


The Irish aren't impressed with our healthcare system. Don't worry. Neither are we.


This was originally from the Huffington Post so don't be surprised by its total fluffiness.



A moose can kill you so sue someone.


The Pope is just right about stuff:

Children begin to acquire the character of a son or daughter of the Church "starting from a Christian name," said Pope Benedict XVI -- who was christened Joseph -- as he baptised 21 infants in the Sistine Chapel on Sunday, marking the feast of Christ's baptism. 

Traditional names are "an unequivocal sign that the Holy Spirit gives a rebirth to people in the womb of the Church." 

That prompted Italian media to warn parents of the perils of not naming newborns from the Bible, despite the fact that most Italians still tend to name their children after saints. 

It's a different story in Canada, the United States and Australia, where parents are more likely to give their children unique names compared with their European counterparts in Denmark, Austria and the U.K., a new study in the journal Psychological Science found. 

Researchers theorized that frontier countries such as Canada were founded on a need for independence from the old world and, while the frontier spirit may have faded from contemporary Canadian culture, our penchant for unusual names has only grown stronger as the Canadian identity has matured. Provinces that were settled more recently, such as Alberta and B.C., were more likely to give their children uncommon names compared with Eastern provinces, which were settled earlier. 

"You're not going West on a wagon anymore, but those values of individualism and independence are still reflected in the culture," says study coauthor Michael Varnum. "The message is that frontier settlement still has contemporary consequences." 

The phenomenon has exploded since the 1990s, researchers from San Diego State University found in a 2010 analysis of names of 325 million babies born between 1880 and 2007. Parents started straying from more common names in the 1950s, but the shift toward unique names really began in 1983 and has picked up speed only in the past 20 years. 

"It's a question of a culture's most important consideration: giving a child a common name so they can fit in, or giving them a unique name so they can stand out," said study author Jean Twenge. 

Edmonton's Dana Coombe, a new mother with long ancestral roots in Canada, says the name she'd long wanted for her child --Aiden--was quickly shelved when it became too popular. 

"We really didn't want our son to be in a situation where there were eight other kids with his name in the class and you had to use last initials," said Ms. Coombe, who alongside husband Jesse ultimately chose the name Ryker -- which, according to BabyNameWizard.com,was only given to roughly 200 of every million babies born in 2009, compared with nearly 4,000 Aidens. "We really liked the fact that Ryker sounded manly and wasn't common. And no, we did not get it from Star Trek."

Frontier independence has nothing to do with it. People give their kids trend names and when the trend wears off in the next fifteen minutes, the kid has a lifetime of explaining his crappy name to his school-mates who will invariably beat him up after school.

Thanks, Mum and Dad.

Hhhmmm:

Historically, then, modern atheism and theism have a kind of co-dependent relationship. Theism gives rise to atheism, atheism takes its vocabulary and thought forms from theism.

I’m wondering if that’s why I find that many atheists sound so much like the religious types they despise. I’m not talking about everyone who doubts or denies the existence of God. I mean the noisy, public atheists from the celebrity authors to the army of busy little bloggers who spread the gospel of freedom from religion with missionary zeal. And I don’t mean all religious people, but those who conform to the stereotype these atheists have of religion – that it is irrational, dogmatic and closed minded. The more I hear from the atheists, the more they seem to me like the mirror image of their adversaries.

Like their religious counterparts, these atheists see a world divided between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. Whereas for the religious, the division is between the saved and the unsaved, for the atheists, it’s between the enlightened and the superstitious. In any case, theirs is a flat, dualistic world of simplistic oppositions, lacking in nuance, historical context, texture or levels of meaning.

Like their religious opponents, this kind of atheist is not only ignorant of the other side, but wilfully so. On the religious side, this ignorance takes the form of “God said it, I believe it, that settles it;” on the atheist side, “Religion is stupid. What’s to know?” Their knowledge of the other is not a deep appreciative knowledge, but the “knowledge” of the polemicist who is only concerned with what is useful for belittling and attacking.   Consequently, like their religious adversaries, they oversimplify vast and complex phenomena – by, for example, putting all religious convictions on the same level as belief in leprechauns.

Like their religious alter egos, this kind of atheist uses incendiary rhetoric to make his points. (Is it my imagination, or are most of them guys?) Except that if someone says that homosexuality is an abomination in the sight of God, he can be accused of hate speech; while, when Dawkins muses that parents should be charged with child abuse for teaching religion to their children, he is feted by the CBC.

Like their religious adversaries, this kind of atheist deals in static abstractions. They have no appreciation for the deeply and mysteriously biographical nature of belief. Anyone who has faith knows that it is more than assent intellectual assent to a set of propositions.  It is a framework of meaning and a way of life that goes to the deepest core of one’s being.

Park Chan-Wook does something cool:

Director Park Chan-Wook, who won the Jury prize at Cannes in 2009 for Thirst, revealed yesterday at a screening of his latest film, Paranmanjang, that the 30-minute short was shot entirely on Apple’s iPhone 4, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“From hunting for a film location, shooting auditions, to doing a documentary on the filming process, everything was shot with the iPhone 4,” Park told the Wall Street Journal after the screening. “We went through all the same filmmaking processes except that the camera was small.”

If I had a pantheon of superheroes, he would be one of them. I would dub him "Director-Man". He wouldn't have to wear a cape, though. He could just wear dark glasses and give profound quips about film-making.

The Answer

This is probably as good as it gets from Mr. Chicken-Liver Brave Man:

 I dont have a voice in Iran, nor a vote and I cannot effect any change there. Nor can I communicate with the vast majority of its citizens. So I'll start at home.

Really, this is the most bizarre, irrelevant, and deliberate derailing argument I've ever seen. What the hell is it even supposed to achieve?

Every time I criticize your beliefs or values you spin it around to be about Iran. Really?

Cop-out much?


The Iranians have no voice in Iran. Ahmadinejad has seen to that. There are things one can do in the West, however. That, however, is beside the point. He was asked to criticise Islam. He is awfully fond of attacking other institutions he knows will never target him or cause him hardship. He can't even follow the basic rules of English grammar and capitalise a proper noun.


Really sad.

Everyone draw muhammad day was a pretty big success last year. I know you like to think everyone ignores Islam in favour of attacking precious christianity, but it's really not true.

Monday Post

Starting with the paranoia which inevitably follows a shooting.



How can anyone with a brain stem automatically jump to absurd conclusions? How many things has one read which caused ire, annoyance or even piqued one's interest? Was there ever a gun involved? Of course not. As much as we muddle though a culture of self-absorption and often apathy, only the obviously looney ever resort to obtaining a gun and shooting people. And it's always the guy one knew would go off on a shooting spree some day. Desperate to absolve oneself from not giving a much-needed heads-up, the guilty acquaintance of this looney shuffles his foot into the dirt and acknowledges what a disturbed loner this deranged person was.



Then cue the politicians and other wags who think gun control, finger-pointing and tighter reins on free expression would have prevented this tragedy. Nope. Nice try in shutting up the electorate, though.



It is times like this when people really need to take a step back and actually examine the situation. A grassroots political action group is no more responsible for the events in Arizona that the Copts or the Pope are for angering the perpetually angry bearded masses whose idea of a nice barbecue is two parked cars in Paris, a Molotov cocktail and a side of naan bread.


(Sidebar: I would like to stress how naan bread is a delicious accompaniment to a curry and nothing more. In fact, it might even bridge the chasms we often have in our society.)


I'd ask where the parents are but is that what we need when we are dealing with larger-sized people (not necessarily adults because adults don't run amok every time something goes wrong)?


In equally sad news, Major Richard Winters of "Band of Brothers" has passed away. Thus, a hero leaves us.


South Korea and Japan join forces. With their powers combined, they are....  I don't know, actually, but hopefully this will cool things on the Korean Peninsula.


Sudan goes to the polls.


I would rather not go to the polls.


I thought schools were meant to prepare students for adulthood, not give purpose to sad, little special-interest groups who want their way all the time?


How are we to have an informed discussion on Curious George when things like this pop up? Enough with the paranoia already!

WARNING: this picture will no doubt cause violence everywhere.

Friday Freakout: the Cat Edition

Cats giving alms to Buddha.

A cat at a temple in Fukuoka, Japan.

A cat at a temple on Jeju Island, South Korea.

 

 

 

 

A cat near the Twenty-Six Martyrs Shrine in Nagasaki, Japan.

 

At this point, I expect wags in their anonymously handled comments to declare that cats don't exist, to disparage their institutions and titles, and to wildly claim that they are guilty for half, if not all, of the world's evils.

A Challenge

Some people open their mouths because they are able:

Everyone draw muhammad day was a pretty big success last year. I know you like to think everyone ignores Islam in favour of attacking precious christianity, but it's really not true. 

Apparently, he doesn't read the newspapers because, if he did, he would know about the attacks in Egypt, Iraq and the Philippines,  as well as the property grabs in Lebanon. Try as Iran might, North Korea has it beat on the persecution of Christians (not Islamic, I know).


So, "brave" pundit, I am throwing down the gauntlet. In the face of indisputable facts, where is your criticism of these appalling abuses? Where is the criticism of Islam? What should the world do about North Korea? Do you have any photographs of yourself in front of the Iranian consulate waving an angry-worded placard?


I dare you to speak against these things. Dare. If you do, I will print it here.



Come on. Where is your courage?

Mid-Week Post

Pyongyang wants to throw in the towel after it realised that South Korea is mad as hell and is probably not going to take it anymore:

North Korea called Wednesday for "unconditional and early" talks with rival South Korea to put an end to months of tensions. Seoul quickly dismissed the offer as insincere and said it's waiting for an apology for two deadly attacks blamed on Pyongyang.

It's rare for North Korea to issue such a statement addressed to South Korea and it came as the U.S. envoy on the North was in the region to discuss the standoff. Earlier in the day, Stephen Bosworth sought to calm fears of conflict on the peninsula.

Tensions between the two Koreas have been at their highest level in years since North Korea showered artillery on a South Korean-held island near their disputed maritime border in November, killing four South Koreans. The attack was the first on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War, and occurred in waters not far from the spot where a torpedo sank a South Korean warship eight months early, killing 46 sailors.
That attack was also blamed on the North — and allegation the country vehemently denies.

But the North has made some conciliatory moves recently. On New Year's Day, the government issued a lengthy statement calling for warmer ties and the resumption of joint projects with South Korea. Pyongyang, eager for food and fuel assistance, has said it wants stalled international aid-for-nuclear-disarmament talks to restart. Washington and Seoul have said the North must first fulfil past nuclear disarmament commitments.

On Monday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed to increase his country's defences but made clear the door was open for talks with Pyongyang and was willing to enhance economic co-operation between the rivals. On Wednesday, North Korean officials responded with their own call for negotiations.

"We are ready to meet anyone anytime and anywhere, letting bygones be bygones, if he or she is willing to go hands in hands with us," said a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. It added that history has shown that such confrontations can only lead to an "armed clash and war."

South Korea's Unification Ministry immediately rebuffed the overtures late Wednesday.

"We don't consider it as a sincere offer of dialogue," ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said. North Korea first must apologize for the two attacks and take "sincere" steps toward nuclear disarmament, she said.

 What she said.


North Korea has never been trustworthy. They want something. If the corrupt Kim dynasty wants to talk, it can dismantle its nuclear power stations, give up its nuclear ambitions and allow aid groups to feed the people the Kims never will. That sounds sincere.


Related: Japan and South Korea will boost military ties. Awesome. Why didn't they do that before?


Further- a letter in the National Post:

I agree with Matt Gurney that the current Korean situation is not entirely comparable to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 -- the stakes are lower and there are no convenient proxies that can be sacrificed as part of a diplomatic deal. 

It's also not comparable in that there are no ways to establish a quarantine of the North Korea's nuclear build-up while South Korea is totally dependent on the consideration of the United States for its defence against the North's non-symmetric mortal threats. The stakes may be lower for now but they are ever-present in the absence of deterrent balance of power. South Korea needs to be equipped with the tactical nuclear warheads for further eyeball-to-eyeball games --sooner rather than later.

A response to that letter:

 

Letter-writer Kyung Lee suggests that South Korea must be equipped with "the tactical nuclear warheads to further eyeball-to-eyeball games." I have a better solution: how about we end the games altogether? 

Nuclear weapons do not promote peace, nor do they promote the peaceful reconciliation of problems. Peace is built upon international trust, and trust cannot exist between states who, at any time, could blow the other up. 

Please, let's end this madness. I'd like to live without the possibility of another Hiroshima looming over my head.

 

My response:

Do you know who would really not want another Hiroshima? The Japanese. Because they cannot trust the notoriously untrustworthy North Koreans who would gladly wipe them and their southern cousins out, the Japanese and South Koreans have to take stronger measures to ensure their very survival. Perhaps this selfish letter-writer should stop worrying about her poor, little head and worry about the heads of millions of Koreans and Japanese who could be carbonised in a "sea of fire".

 

Look what the Americans are paying for.

Something we already know: former Lebanese president says Christians are being subjected to genocide in Egypt and Iraq; anti-Christian noise before the attacks:

In the weeks before the New Year's Day suicide bombing of an Egyptian church, al-Qaeda-linked websites were carrying a how-to manual on “destroying the cross,” complete with videos on how to build a bomb and the locations of churches to target - including the one that was attacked. 

 

They may have found a receptive audience in Alexandria, where increasingly radicalised Islamic hard-liners have been holding weekly anti-Christian demonstrations, filled with venomous slogans against the minority community. 

The blast, which struck on Saturday as worshippers were leaving midnight Mass at the Mediterranean city's Saints Church, killed 21 people. 

President Hosni Mubarak has accused foreign groups of being behind the attack, which has sparked a wave of angry protests by Christians in Egypt. 

But on the ground, investigators are searching in a different direction - scrutinising homegrown hard-liners, known as Salafis, and the possibility they were inspired by al-Qaeda to carry out the attack. 

Only two or three days before Saturday's bombing, police arrested several Salafis spreading fliers in Alexandria calling for violence against Christians, a security official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media. 

According to authorities, the strong belief among investigators is that local extremists who knew the area and the nature of their target were behind the attack. The Egyptian weekly Al-Youm Al-Saba said police were examining photos of the Salafis' weekly protests for suspects linked to the bombing. 

In the weeks before the attack, al-Qaeda militants on the Web spewing calls for “jihad,” or holy war, on Egypt's Christians laid out everything anybody would need to carry out a bombing. 

One posting widely circulated on al-Qaeda-linked sites includes a so-called “Jihadi Encyclopedia for the Destruction of the Cross,” with a series of 10 videos describing how to build a bomb. 

For the infantile-minded,  this does have to do with Islam and they won't stop at Christians. If they don't like the people who will pick up the trash they won't, they will also go after the milquetoasts who pat them on the back during Jew-Hatred Week Israeli Apartheid Week. You're next. Get some intestinal fortitude. Now. Intolerance can't be met by silence.

And now, a tribute to Danish sandwiches (non-blasphemous) and a man with a golden voice.

Happy New Year

...by a whole bunch of people from a whole bunch of places.

Did You See That?

Did anyone see a gob-smacked Tarek Fatah deliver a one-two punch to Matt Mills on "The Michael Coren Show"?

I'm sure when homosexuals are treated with as much "respect" as Christians are in Egypt, it will be just as complex an issue.

The Second Post of the Year

Might as well get the ball rolling.

Sectarian violence in Egypt:

The head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church appealed to the government on Monday to address Christians complaints about discrimination to ease tensions as fierce riots broke out in the capital following a New Year's Day church bombing that killed 21 people.

The interview with Coptic Pope Shenouda III on state television came as hundreds of protesters clashed with riot police in northern Cairo in late night demonstrations expressing frustration at the government.

Knots of protesters clashed with police armed with batons throughout the neighborhood of Shubra, which has large Christian population. An Associated Press photographer saw at least five people injured including two bleeding from serious head wounds.

In rare criticism by the 87-year-old church leader, Shenouda called on the government to address Christian grievances in the country, especially of laws restricting freedom of worship.

Violence in Islamic countries is nothing new. Like clockwork, incidents of violence against Christians occurs, it is denounced principally by the Pope, ignored by everyone else and forgotten until a major incident happens. When- not if- this occurs in a "civilised" country like Canada, what kind of press coverage will it receive? Who will take action? Someone had better start formulating a plan now. Lip service doesn't work in these kinds of situations.

A judge with common sense:

A case about what to do with man’s — and woman’s — best friend when a couple splits was the subject of an unusual family-law ruling before a Saskatchewan court recently.

With the help of experienced lawyers, the middle-aged former couple was able to reach a compromise splitting up almost all of the family property, some of which is described as having “substantial value.” However, the one stumbling block was the family pet, a female chocolate Labrador retriever that was the focus of a one-day trial last month in Moose Jaw.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Ted Zarzeczny, in his recently released written ruling, made it clear he was none too impressed with the dogfight.

“It is an unacceptable waste of these parties’ financial resources, the time and abilities of their two very experienced and capable legal counsel and most importantly, the public resource of this court that a dispute of this kind should occupy all in a one-day trial involving three witnesses, including an expert called by one of the parties,” Justice Zarzeczny said.

“It is demeaning for the court and legal counsel to have these parties call upon these legal and court resources because they are unable to settle, what most would agree, is an issue unworthy of this expenditure of time, money and public resources,” he added.

Justice Zarzeczny said the only reason the court “tolerated” the trial was out of consideration for the progress made in settling other property issues.

Let me say this simply: it's. A. Dog. I like dogs as much as the next person but I cannot imagine chewing up a court's valuable time with something that sniffs its own butt.


When Irresponsible People Have Knives:

After a night of drunken revelry that escalated into a violent street fight, Crystal-Dawn MacKenzie grabbed a knife from her neighbour's kitchen, yelled "I'm going to kill him" and stabbed her common-law husband in the collarbone.

If the knife had moved just a centimetre in either direction, Patrick Andrew Thomas likely would have lived, a pathologist later testified. But the 29-year-old bled to death on a downtown Saint John street.

Eight months later, Ms. MacKenzie walked out of a New Brunswick court a free woman after a nine-woman, three-man jury in Saint John acquitted the 28-year-old mother of three of second-degree murder, accepting that she had finally snapped after years of abuse at the hands of Mr. Thomas.

The Crown filed an appeal last week, a rare move for a jury trial. Prosecutors are arguing that the judge erred in his definitions of murder and self-defence and that Ms. MacKenzie had alternatives to killing her husband to escape his violence.

"Of course she had other options," said her lawyer, David Kelly. "But she had been drinking and that impaired her judgement."

As appalling as domestic abuse is, this woman clearly killed her boyfriend in a rage (not husband because both irresponsible parties went out of their way not to marry in order to "stick it to the man",  just like the other thirty and forty year old teenagers out there). "She had other options" and had been drinking, as her lawyer succinctly said. Yes. Let us excuse the twenty-three year old child from racing into her neighbour's kitchen and then planting a knife into her boyfriend's collarbone. Why even say that? Seriously? I thought the whole point was to defend an abused woman's desperate actions. This case isn't landmark or even bizarre. It's just a vignette into the lives of total infants.


And now for something completely interesting:

Archaeologists on the island of Crete have discovered what may be evidence of one of the world's first sea voyages by human ancestors, the Greek Culture Ministry said Monday

A ministry statement said experts from Greece and the U.S. have found rough axes and other tools thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years old close to shelters on the island's south coast.

2011

FIRST!


Happy New Year's Day.


Ect.