Michael Coren at Brock

An impromptu invite to a Michael Coren talk was just the way to spend an evening.

Last night, Michael Coren, at the invitation of Brock Students for Life, gave a talk to both students and other interested parties about life issues, including the facile arguments for abortion and how easily they countered. But even mentioning that life begins at conception would have one labelled as a fascist. He noted how events like these had to be filmed, had to have photographs taken and security present to illustrate that merely mentioning these things, let alone having an informed debate, is difficult with those who are allegedly open-minded. He stressed that in a free society, it was crucial to disagree. Indeed. Shutting down a debate or marginalising people achieves nothing. 

Prior to the talk, eager attendees waiting for a class to end took the time to rub elbows with Mr. Coren who was quite personable despite what three or four people (maybe students) thought.

They handed these out.

I am not kidding. These were actually handed out. I avoided taking one but my friends didn’t.

One really has to laugh. These alleged adults believed they stood as vanguards to protect Mr. Coren’s audience and others from a presentation that contained absolutely nothing their feverish little brains thought it would. I guess bigotry and prejudice were kept to a minimum in that they were never present to begin with.

I ran this through a translation matrix and this is what came out:

Back to the talk….

Mr. Coren began his presentation by outlining his illustrious career, the meeting of his charming wife, how he once worked for the CBC, his connections with the late Christopher Hitchens (whom he described as pro-life) and his brother, Peter, his work on GK Chesterton and what he is doing now. He also told a heart-wrenching story of his great-grand-parents’ flight to England from persecution in Poland. His great-grandmother was asked to “lose” her baby before sailing to England so he wouldn’t be a burden on others. Naturally, that was unthinkable and we are beneficiaries of an instinctive act of preserving one’s offspring. A cold description, yes, but then again so is asking someone to “lose their baby”. 

It was this personalisation Mr. Coren mentioned in his talk. Speak in the abstract, who cares? Bring it home, make it familiar, make it personal and watch someone re-evaluate their feelings.

Mr. Coren took apart, with great British aplomb, the usual arguments for abortion. Pro-life logic versus pro-abortion emotionalism seems to escape the layman. Biology, having become too solid a wall to punch a hole through, is cast off for more cosmetic, sophomoric and usual arguments of gender, convenience and poorly thought out theories . A pro-life woman’s views carry no more weight than a pro-life man’s views so gender monopoly on the discussion is irrelevant. Cultural-based sex-selection abortion should not make one any more or less uncomfortable than an abortion for any other reason. Mr. Coren's own talk and questions thereafter touched on these and continued to resonate even after a couple of gentlemen insisted on hijacking the discussion for one on Libya and Syria. Mr. Coren shot them down. The talk was about life issues and that was it. One had to bring him back if one wanted to discuss the Middle East. It was brilliant.

One could go on deconstructing the ludicrous arguments made for abortion but I think the thrust of the talk was not that. It was that life is the primary right upon which all other rights are based, including the right to speak, to express one’s self, and to disagree. Say that life begins at conception and watch heads explode. Why can’t it be said? It’s true, isn’t it? Can’t win the argument? Declare that the debate is finished. No it isn’t. Only someone afraid of the topic would stamp their feet and say so. If it is frustrating to hear the rhetorically miniature declare the debate is closed, it was must be crushing for them to know they haven't a leg to stand on.

After the talk and the question period were finished, the attendees were free to speak to Mr. Coren  (and purchase his books!). I was surprised that there were no disruptions or overly immature protestations (save the "bigotry" warnings before the talk and the attempted shifting of gears to Libya and Syria). One expects that sort of thing to go on after seeing it time and time again. How refreshing it was to simply speak freely and leave with new insight and renewed feeling.

Mid-Week Post

Scroll to the bottom for the winners of the song-of-the-week contest.

Is Romney the next one in the White House?

 

North Korea, fresh from agreeing to a nuclear arms moratorium, resumed its live-fire drills near a South Korean island:

New video broadcast on North Korean television shows a military unit carrying out live-fire drills in sight of a South Korean island.

The military exercises this week on the southwestern coast of North Korea were close to the disputed maritime border.

State television, KRT, also shows tanks repositioning and an artillery machine being prepared, overlooking waters that have seen a number of violent incidents over the years. North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island in November 2010, killing four South Koreans, claiming it was responding to a South Korean military drill in the area….

The footage and fresh threats against South Korea come just one week after the United States and North Korea agreed on a nuclear deal after years of deadlock. North Korea effectively agreed to freeze its nuclear program and the United States agreed to provide 240,000 metric tons of food aid. 

The two sides are due to meet Wednesday to discuss the technicalities of the nutritional aid.

I see it’s business as usual on the Korean Peninsula. The US should have insisted that North Korea’s live-drills cease, as well, but it’s doubtful that there will be any calm between the two Koreas. As long as the North gets its food, it can maintain its dynastic totalitarian regime.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu patronises Obama because he knows the US is now no friend to his country:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he ‘appreciated’ U.S. President Barack Obama’s statements about Iran and looked forward to discussing them upon his arrival in Washington Monday.

“I very much appreciated that President Obama reiterated his position that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and that all options are on the table,” Netanyahu said in a statement posted later to his YouTube channel.

“I also appreciated the fact that he made clear that when it comes to a nuclear-armed Iran, containment is simply not an option. And equally, perhaps in my judgment most important of all, I appreciated the fact that he said that Israel must be able to defend itself, by itself, against any threat.”

Remember that Obama agreed to meet Iran without pre-conditions and called for “dialogue” in the bloody aftermath of a rigged election. Netanyahu had to remind Obama that Israel had hard won its 1967 borders and would not give them up. Whatever the future holds for now emboldened Iran and the forever embattled Israel, there is one president couldn’t care less how it all got there.

Related: Obama gives some useless chick a phone call because she is a victim as well as a shill for his pay-by-force contraception plan:

In his press conference today, President Obama said he called Sandra Fluke because he thought about his daughters and wanted them to be able to take on issues as they grow up, as private citizens, and to engage in civil discourse without being attacked.  He wanted Fluke's parents to be as proud of her for speaking out as he would be of his daughters.

Great.  So where is my phone call?  I'm a daughter and a mother, but I didn't get one phone call  when I was called a mobster, a terrorist, a nazi, a tea bagger, a homophobe and a racist.  Where was the President when conservatives started protesting the bailouts, stimulus, jobs bill and ObamaCare and had their integrity and intellect attacked on every level?  Where was the phone call to Sarah Palin for being called a MILF or to Laura Ingraham for being called a slut?

But a shill for a president who hates the 1st Amendment isn't a lady.

You can set a girl on fire but not a Koran:

Flayed by a fire she began herself, Aatifa's childlike frame is painstakingly wrapped in thick bandages -- her shrieks of "Allah" echoing around the hospital ward where surgeons prepare to graft skin back on to her skeletal torso.

Her wide blue eyes alternating between flashes of anger and wells of tears, the 16-year-old Afghan girl struggles to explain what led her to douse her own body in petrol, step outside and light a match.

Married at the age of 14, the young carpet-weaver, who has nine brothers and sisters, said her mother-in-law criticised her housework and encouraged her mechanic husband to beat her for allowing her mother to visit too often.

She complained to authorities but was berated for causing trouble. Later told that her husband hated her and would marry a second woman, she swung between anger and depression before carrying out her masochistic deed.

(Sidebar: I’m sure the word the article-writer meant to use wasn’t masochistic but desperate because no one could derive pleasure from being burned alive. Dictionaries are important.)

Aatifa poured petrol over her head and, once outside her home, lit the flames that engulfed two thirds of her body. Her brother found her and smothered her with his clothes before neighbours took her to hospital.

"I just wanted to kill myself, this was my goal," she said, her bone-thin arm etched with flaring purple burn scars. "What can I do? I'm not useful anymore. I want to get a divorce, it's better to stop everything."

Bound by early marriage into a life of domestic disharmony, dozens of girls like Aatifa in Afghanistan's sophisticated but conservative main western city of Herat are choosing a brutal form of escape by setting themselves on fire.

In the past one year alone, doctors at a burns unit at the city hospital have seen 83 cases of self-immolation, with nearly two-thirds proving fatal.

Another thing the article-writer completely overlooked (like the real meaning of the word masochistic) is that the act of self-immolation appears in one culture in particular.

But why bore the reader with facts?

Like this:

According to a Reuters news report, "radical Islamists" have desecrated a Benghazi graveyard of Canadian, British and Italian soldiers killed during World War Two.

Amateur video footage of the attack, posted on YouTube, shows several men vandalizing the cemetery, apparently in retaliation to the burning of the Qur'an by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan last month.

According to Reuters, one man can be heard saying: "This is a grave of a Christian" as he uprooted a headstone from the ground. Another voice says of those buried in the cemetery: "These are dogs."

The Toronto Star reports that one of the damaged tombs is that of Flying Officer Martin Northmore, a 21-year-old from Toronto who was killed fighting in the North Africa campaigns which began in 1941 and lasted three years. Northmore is one of 10 Canadians buried at the site.

The National Transitional Council (NTC), Libya's interim leadership since Moammar Gadhafi was ousted last year, said it would pursue those responsible.

"This action does not reflect Libyan public opinion because Islam calls for respect for other religions," the council said in a statement.

“Radical Islamists”? As opposed to moderate Islamists, I suppose. “…Islam calls for respect for other religions”? Let’s just see about that:

“Fight against those who (1) believe not in Allaah, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allaah and His Messenger (Muhammad), (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued”

[al-Tawbah 9:29]

That the highlighted phrases and comments were not questioned doesn’t surprise me. It’s why the blogosphere has become a more relevant source of news and information. If so-called professional and trusted news sources and agencies will not do proper journalism, someone else will. Why would a redundancy like “radical Islamists” (Islamists taken to mean fundamentalist and violent Muslims) and an obvious fallacy like Islamic tolerance for other religions appear in a mainstream article if hard-hitting journalism was a professional and ethical goal? They appear because of lazy, if not cowardly or sympathetic, leanings on the part of the writers, editors and other staff of the popular press.

What is the Polish word for “powerhouse”?

Polish kite surfer Jan Lisewski fought off repeated shark attacks, overcame thirst and exhaustion in a two-day battle of survival on the Red Sea, Polish media reported on Tuesday.

The 42-year-old Lisewski had completed two thirds of a 200 km (124 miles) attempt to cross the Red Sea from the Egyptian town of El Gouna to Duba in Saudi Arabia when the wind suddenly stopped, deflating his kite.

Faced with rising waves and approaching nightfall the Gdansk-born Polish kite surfing champion and instructor sent out his first SOS signal, but it took nearly 40-hours for the Saudi Arabian coastguard to find him.

Lisewski -- who became the first person to kite surf across the Baltic Sea last year -- survived the ordeal with help of energy drinks, some water, two energy bars and a trusty knife to fight off sharks up to six meters (yards) long.

"I was stabbing them in the eyes, the nose and gills," Lisewski told Polish state news agency PAP.

An uplifting story to book-end the horrible tragedy of last year’s earthquake in Japan:

Searching through piles of bodies after Japan's March 11 tsunami, Kenji Sato was struck by the thought -- he could easily have been one of them, had it not been for his son born earlier that day.

In a fortunate twist of fate, Sato, a wiry descendant of fishermen in his coastal hometown of Minamisanriku, took time off from work to see his third child, Haruse, born at a hospital in a nearby port city.

Hours later, the only thing left of the nursing home where he would usually have been was a skeleton of steel pillars.

Nearly all 70 residents were swept away by the tsunami set off by the 9.0 magnitude offshore earthquake that devastated Minamisanriku, one of the worst-hit towns. Sato and his work mates set about the task of searching for them.

"I just confirmed that my wife and son were safe. Then, I spent days on end identifying bodies, looking for evacuation centers for the elderly," said Sato, 31, surrounded by his four-generation family at their home.

A year on, the Satos, who all survived since their house was built on a hill, are planning a quiet birthday with some cake and ice cream for the child who, his grandmother Kazuko insists, "was born to save us."

I’m surprised that there are three children, actually. But, really, this is a very uplifting story of survival, family and dignity.

And now, leadership lessons from a man who knows how to fight a Gorn.

There are no winners of the song-of-the-week contest. There was no the song-of-the-week contest.

Stuff

Lots to talk about….

Super Tuesday.... in progress....

If automated phone calls did not sway the electorate to vote Tory, why do the Liberals care?

Following media reports in recent days, the issue referred to as "robocalls" has generated much concern and interest among Canadians. Many have contacted Elections Canada, as well as the media, various political parties and/or their representatives and other organizations, to provide information. In addition, the House of Commons recently adopted a unanimous motion calling on all members of Parliament and political parties to assist in the investigation.

But I thought there was a regime change and Iran wanted nuclear power for domestic purposes:

Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported Sunday that Iran held at least one nuclear weapons test in North Korea in 2010.

The paper's report is based on "Western intelligence agencies sources," and says that the test, in fact, refutes US intelligence assessments suggesting there is no "hard evidence" that Iran is building nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has recently declared that its nuclear negotiations with Iran have failed.

The statement followed Tehran's decision the bar IAEA inspectors from what is believed to be key military sites in the Islamic Republic.

Iran vehemently claims that its nuclear program is meant to serve civil, peaceful purposes only.

The Die Welt noted that evidence of the 2010 nuclear tests in North Korea was published in early February in Nature Magazine.

According to the report, Swedish nuclear physicist Lars-Erik de Geer analyzed data "showing the presence of radioisotopes that betrayed a uranium bomb explosion."

"After a year of work, (de Geer) concluded that North Korea carried out two small nuclear tests in April and May 2010 that caused explosions in the range of 50–200 tons of TNT equivalent.

"The types and ratios of isotopes detected… suggest that North Korea was testing materials and techniques intended to boost the yield of its weapons," the report said.

Related: rather keen insight on a dictatorship anyone who hasn’t been shot trying to escape would think is mad:

Of course on the flip side there are myriad reasons to judge the North as irrational: Is it rational to think it can win a war with the ROK, let alone with the ROK-US alliance? Is it rational to use provocations up to and including either the use or sale of nuclear weapons or capabilities? Is it rational to starve some 23 million people to allow the regime to survive? Was it rational to attack and hijack the Pueblo? Is it rational to attempt multiple assassinations to kill the South Korean leadership (at least twice in Seoul and once in Rangoon) and to use terrorist action against the South and international community? Is it rational to trade in myriad illicit activities to include being one of the world’s largest and most proficient counterfeiters (to include that of US currency but also cigarettes and drugs such as Viagra and methamphetamines)? Is it rational to turn down Chinese help for economic reform (because such reform would likely end the regime)? Of course from our perspective the answer to my rhetorical questions is no but we cannot just view the problem from our perspective or even through the eyes of South Koreans, who are now vastly different than the North Korean regime. From the Kim Family Regime’s perspective, it has acted in a very rational way and, if we look at things carefully, we should see it has acted in a very predictable way over the past 60 years.

I maintain that though North Korea thinks it is rational, it is not. The nation (read: vassal state) is propped up China and uses extortion to survive. While it could be economically dependent, it cannot run a healthy functional economy without trade. Its abuse of its citizens- however brain-washed they may be- is not just unforgivable but hard to maintain after periods of famine, torture, external but secret contact and exodus of desperate citizens.

 

If one is in the proverbial (if not actual) pocket of a government desperately trying to force an unpopular policy on its people, the word “prostitute” fits:

I think Rush did the right thing in apologizing to Fluke.  However, let’s keep in mind that it was Fluke who made her sexual activity a matter of national political debate by insisting that the government pass laws and regulations forcing employers and insurers to provide her free contraception, and apparently as much as she and others demand.  It’s Republicans who believe that contraception should remain a private affair, and that employers and insurers should be free to decide whether to cover contraception for their employees and customers or not.  Democrats used Fluke to demand that those choices be stripped from private enterprises and instead be forced by the executive branch to entirely subsidize contraception.

That is the argument we should be making, as Republicans and conservatives.  If you want your sexual choices to remain private, don’t use the government to force other people to subsidize them.  Then we won’t have to turn the sex lives of Georgetown law school students into topics for political speculation.

Rush Limbaugh should not have apologised. This woman agreed to rent herself out and make outlandish claims just so the American taxpayer can cover her rotten personal choices. She is a lot of things but a folk hero is not one of them.

And all this time, I thought universities were institutions of higher learning. Not if you’re Fluke, apparently.

And now, something so funny that when I read it, I had to lie down.

 

A Few Things....

... for a Thursday.



It's been done before. North Korea agrees to suspend its nuclear program in exchange for food:

And it’s a bit scripted, but I want to get this right, so let me just launch into it by saying that since taking office, the President has been consistent in signaling that we will respond positively if North Korea chooses the path of negotiation, cooperation, and denuclearization. After the really tough sanctions that were put in place by the UN Security Council and the North Koreans announced that they wanted to return to Six-Party Talks, talks that they had previously abandoned, we and our allies made clear that North Korea needed to take a number of steps that would demonstrate their seriousness of purpose. We were firm that we were only interested in credible negotiations leading to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The North couldn’t be allowed to walk away from their Six-Party commitments, to launch missiles, to further their ICBM program, to conduct a nuclear test, roll out a uranium enrichment program, to attack the ROK, and then simply expect us to come back to Six-Party Talks on their terms. 


The pre-steps, as we’ve called them, that we insisted on and to which they have now agreed in their unilateral statement begin the process of walking back these provocative actions. This agreement opens the door to serious negotiations to achieve irreversible steps by North Korea toward denuclearization and to meeting their other commitments and international obligations.

Now, the President and the Secretary of State also have long made clear America’s clear concern for the welfare of the North Korean people. Following an assessment last summer of humanitarian needs in North Korea, the U.S. put forward a proposal designed to feed babies, to feed mothers, to feed the elderly - which is to say the most at-risk marginalized population of North Koreans. These are people whom the regime either cannot or has chosen not to feed. And the plan to provide nutritional assistance included monitoring requirements designed to ensure that the right type of food gets to the right people.

North Korea says this now but it has been said before in 2006 and 2009. There is no reason to believe that this rigamarole will stop. If Kim Jong-Eun takes after his father, he wants to keep his state (albeit a buffer state suiting China). The false nuclear arms suspension for food aid has been tried, tested and proved effective before. The missile tests have not stopped and starvation has not been relieved. It's quite an effective control tool. The younger Kim must be aware of this.



I think there is more wishful thinking going on than what some would like to admit.



Related: where nuclear work is being done in North Korea.



(hat tip)



God, this guy is so full of himself:

Yesterday, President Obama fired back at critics who claimed that his apology to Afghans for the military’s accidental burning of Korans was a sop to extremists.

Appearing on ABC News, he stated that the apology had “calmed things down.” He continued, “We’re not out of the woods yet. But my criteria in any decision I make, getting recommendations from folks who are actually on the ground, is what is going to best protect our folks and make sure that they can accomplish their mission.”

Oops:

Afghan officials said today that at least seven people were killed in protests around the country against the burning of Qurans at a U.S. air base, bringing the overall death toll after four days of demonstrations to 20.

The fresh protests were evidence that President Barack Obama's apology has not calmed Afghans enraged by the incident at Bagram Air Field earlier this week.

 ***

Two U.S. troops were shot dead in southern Afghanistan when three assailants, two of whom were believed to be Afghan soldiers, turned their weapons against American troops on Thursday.

Afghan and U.S. military officials confirm to CBS News that the dead were U.S. troops, and that a third American servicemember was wounded in the attack. U.S. forces responded with gunfire and killed the two assailants in Afghan army attire, wounding a third Afghan shooter in civilian clothing. The wounded shooter was identified as a teacher and is in custody.

CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark reports the shooting occurred inside a joint Afghan-U.S. base in Kandahar province.

Thursday's shooting is the latest case of Afghan policemen or soldiers - or militants disguised in their uniforms - killing NATO troops.

Six Americans have now been killed and at least 15 wounded in attacks in Afghanistan since the Islamic holy books were burned at a U.S. base there. Dozens of Afghans have been killed or wounded in riots.

This "American" Nevile Chamberlain has emboldened the perpetually angry social retards who throw acid in schoolgirls' faces. Is he that full of himself that he would claim to be a peacemaker and favours the Keystone Pipeline? Yes, he is.



But...but... the world loves us... we're multicultural:

As you're going through your packing checklist before your next trip, don't forget to pack a fake wedding ring and a picture of your faux hubby too, advises the Canadian government.

The Foreign Affairs Canada publication Her Own Way: A Woman's Safe-Travel Guide -- in its third revision -- offers female travellers tips on how to avoid, and get out of, awkward and potentially unsafe situations, such as getting hit on.

"The booklet offers a preventive, female-friendly approach to tackling the security, cultural, health, and social concerns of women traveller's," says the guides intro.

But these government tips aren't the typical ones that come to mind such as travelling with traveller's cheques and a phone card in case of emergency. Instead, they include avoiding wearing mini-skirts and tank tops, and if you have blonde hair, to cover it up.

Canadian arrogance, ignorance and naivety at play. The world does not love us. We are the beige of the world's colours. A wedding ring, scarf and Canadian flag badge are as useful at warding off trouble as gasoline to a flame.



Michael Coren figuratively slaps some sense into a liar.



(hat tip)



And now, a baby sloth.

Sadly....

Andrew Breitbart, the founder of the Big Hollywood/Big Journalism brand, has passed away at age forty-three.


The disaffected liberal turned conservative firebrand will be missed by family, friends, followers and especially enemies.