Catholic commentator on Obama's dangerous attitude to Islam

Last week, in "It's not 'the film', stupid! It's just anti-Americanism, is all", Walt explained that the stupid little video clip -- maybe there is no full-length film -- is not the cause of the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi which resulted in the death of Christopher Stevens. The cause, as any fule nose, is rabid anti-Americanism, the fires of which are being constantly stoked by Islamic fundamentalists.

Does the Obama administration admit this? Does the Prez concede that his policy of dialogue and reconciliation with the Muslims is a complete failure? In the middle of an election campaign? Not bloody likely! Walt's opinion is shared, it seems, by Phil Lawler, whose articles are a mainstay of the generally fair and unbiased CatholicCulture website.

Mr. Lawler's topic this week is "The truth about Benghazi, and Obama's dangerous attitude toward Islam". And here's part of what he has to say.

The attack on the US consulate was not an angry reaction to an anti-Muslim film, President Mohamed Magarief told NBC News. If the Islamic radicals had been incensed by scenes from the amateur film, The Innonence of Muslims, they would have reacted 6 months earlier, when those scenes first became available. They chose this date, 11th of September, to carry a certain message,” Magarief said. If only President Barack Obama could be equally candid!

What is particular appalling about the killings in Benghazi is the flat refusal of the Obama administration to tell the truth about the tragedy. For days the administration pretended that the grenade attack on the consulate was the result of a demonstration that got out of control. Eventually the burden of evidence forced the White House to change its story, and acknowledge that the attack had been premeditated. Still even today, in his speech to the UN, President Obama conveyed the impression that the main problem is the understandable outrage of Muslims over a provocative film.

Nonsense! The real problem is Islamic violence. The film is a distraction, a pretext for aggression. By refusing to acknowledge that reality, the Obama administration is playing into the hands of the Islamic radicals.

The disciplined agents of Al Qaida are trying to create the impression that the Islamic world is simmering with barely-suppressed outrage, ready to explode at the slightest sign of provocation from the West. President Obama’s speech to the UN reinforced that impression.

Here's what Walt can't figure out.

• Obama's make-nice-with-Islam foreign policy is a disaster. (Phil Lawler says so. Charles Krauthammer says so. Walt says so.)
• The economy is on life support and Obama has no plan to get it off the critical list.
• The Prez's vaunted health care plan looks like being both unconstitutional and unworkable.
• His administration's attacks on Christian values are the very work of the devil.
• And the silent majority of Americans are sick, sore and tired of having diversity, gay rights, multiculti, eco-correctness and other left-wing nonsense shoved down their throats

And yet Obama has a huge lead in the polls. Is this because Romney is the most unattractive Republican candidate since, ummm, Bob Dole? Or are the American people really so stupid as to be hell-bent on re-electing a president who's famous mainly for managing to get elected in spite of being black?

Mitt!!! Go big or go home!!!

Charles Krauthammer said it, in today's Washington Post. I don't like to quote at length too often from the writings of newspaper columnists, but some of them -- CK is one of my favourites -- have a way of putting things that I can't even come close to matching.

Mr Krauthammer's thesis today is that the Inevitable Mitt has squandered umpteen chances to speak out forcefully and clearly against the manifold errors of Obama and his administration, but for some reason keeps pulling his punches. Romney's play-it-safe strategy would be fine if he were leading, but he's behind -- way behind, now -- and he needs to come out of his corner swinging with both fists. "His unwillingness to go big, to go for the larger argument," the writer says, "is simply astonishing."

The example CK gives is that of the Prez's incredibly lame speech to the General Assembly of the Disunited Nations. Referring to this month's anti-American demonstrations all over the Muslim world -- which included the killing of a US ambassador, let's not forget -- Krauthammer says:

Obama seems not even to understand what happened. He responded with a groveling address to the UN General Assembly that contained no less than six denunciations of a crackpot video, while offering cringe-worthy platitudes about the need for governments to live up to the ideals of the UN.

The UN being an institution of surpassing cynicism and mendacity, [I love that line! Walt] the speech was so naive it would have made a fine middle-school commencement address. Instead, it was a plaintive plea by the world’s alleged superpower to be treated nicely by a roomful of the most corrupt, repressive, tin-pot regimes on earth.

Yet Romney totally fumbled away the opportunity. Here was a chance to make the straightforward case about where Obama’s feckless approach to the region’s tyrants has brought us, connecting the dots of the disparate attacks as a natural response of the more virulent Islamist elements to a once-hegemonic power in retreat. Instead, Romney did two things:

He issued a two-sentence critique of the initial statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on the day the mob attacked. The critique was not only correct but vindicated when the State Department disavowed the embassy statement. However, because the critique was not framed within a larger argument about the misdirection of U.S. Middle East policy, it could be — and was — characterized as a partisan attack on the nation’s leader at a moment of national crisis.

Mr. Krauthammer concludes with some serious and urgent advice that Romney must heed if he's not to become Mitt, the Inevitable Loser.

Make the case. Go large. About a foreign policy in ruins. About an archaic, 20th-century welfare state model that guarantees 21st-century insolvency. And about an alternate vision of an unapologetically assertive America abroad unafraid of fundamental structural change at home. It might just work. And it’s not too late.

Whether you agree or disagree, you're welcome to write to Mr. Krauthammer directly. Here's his e-mail: letters@charleskrauthammer.com. Don't tell him Walt sent you, because the Washington Post Writers Group would likely ask me to pay for reprinting over a third of his column!

TX talk show host calls out the NAACP

Thanks to Agent 6 for passing along thia audio file of someone who's not afraid to get up on his hind feet and call a spade a spade. Michael Berry is the host of a daily radio talk show in Houston. He is an attorney and former member of the Houston City Council. He is not normally a ranter, but something about July's NAACP meeting in Houston set him in the off. Here he says, on the air, what a lot of people would like to say, if they weren't so afraid of the PC police. It takes just over nine minutes but is well worth listening to.



Walt apologizes if this clip wasn't visible and audible until about three hours after we put up this post. As mentioned earlier this week, the geeks at Google have blessed us ["cursed us", surely! Ed.] with a new version of Blogger. Frankly, it's as buggy as hell!

Cheezit! the cops!

For months now, CBC Radio has been airing items about "alleged" corruption in the Niagara (Canada) Regional Police Department. There have been stories of drug abuse and drug smuggling across the bridges connecting Ontario with those terrible border towns on the New York side of the Niagara River. But for some reason most of the lamestream media have downplayed or outright ignored the story. Until today.

Today Niagara's finest acknowledged, at last, that yes, there has been an investigation. And yes, some current and past members of the force are involved. Charges have been laid, not just under the toothless Police Act, but under the Criminal Code.

Was it the problem with "substances" that just couldn't be hushed up any more? Well, errr, you might say that. The serious crime which led to today's charges was... wait for it... cheese smuggling.

That's right! Seems its not just Packers fans who are cheeseheads. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Cheese Squads of the US Department of Homeland Security and the Canada Border Services Ehgency, Police Constable Scott Heron, 39, former Niagara Regional police officer Casey Langelaan, 48, and Fort Erie resident Bernie Pollino, 44, were arrested and "charged in regard to a large-scale smuggling scheme to distribute cheese products and other food items into Canada," according to a statement issued by the regional police.

According to the news release, over $200,000 worth of cheese and other products were purchased and distributed to pizzerias and other low joints for an estimated profit of more than $165,000. Charges laid against include conspiracy to commit the indictable offence of smuggling goods under the Criminal Code and Customs Act, plus offences of breach of trust; making false or deceptive statements; evasion of duties; and acquiring, keeping, and/or disposing of illegally imported goods. Oh yes, and smuggling.

The Niagara Regional Police are also investigating some of their officers with respect to steroid use and possible trafficking in performance-enhancing drugs, but it was the cheese that really took the copcake. (Geddit?)

Agent 3 will keep us posted on whether any Ontario judge will break with the tradition of acquitting any officer charged with any offence because, after all, it wouldn't do to shake the public's confidence in the police and so-called justice system. Stay tuned.

Sex with vegetables? Toronto school board links you to more info

WARNING: Following the links in this article will lead you to websites containing immoral and, frankly, disgusting content.

Now that Walt has your attention... It's been known for some time that the Toronto District School Board is dominated by barking mad, left wingnuts. That's the public board, not the Catholic one, although some think the Catholic board is little better.

The TDSB is the one which favours tearooms for the queers, prayer rooms for the Muslims, and segregated schools for the black kids. [Really?! Ed.] Yes, really. That's so the black kids won't feel inferior. They'll learn better in their, errr, "special school", and all will pass and one day one of them will be a famous rap artist. This year six (6) chillun have signed up for the TDSB's new "Afrocentric" high school.

The TDSB is also well  known for promoting deviant sexuality. In their abhorrence of traditional family values, they support, promote and teach anything that is not straight. Mind you, they can say with a straight face that they are just taking orders from Ontario's Liberal government, and its queer-loving education minister, Laurel Broten.

If you're in any doubt about the TDSB's stance on homosexuality, bestiality, and other "alternative lifestyles", visit the "Websites" page in the "Community" section of their website. The blurb at the top of the page says it lists "websites contain interesting facts, historical events, people profiles, and other items that may be useful in preparing lessons and planning events for your classroom and school."

There, in amongst the listings for "Anti-Sexism and Gender Equity", "Islamic History Month" (coming soon!) and "Anti-Classism and Social-Economic Equality" (that's the communist one), you'll find a link to the website of the "Coalition for Positive Sexuality".  Enter only if you're brave and open-minded, because here's a sample of what's inside -- the "Just Say Yes" page, which advocates encounters with vegetables -- yes, vegetables! -- and other interesting options.

Just Say Yes is about having a positive attitude towards sexuality -- gay, straight,bisexual or whatever. It's about saying "yes" to sex you do want, and "no" to sex you don't. It says there's nothing wrong with you if you decide to have sex, and nothing wrong with you if you decide not to.

On the "Pro Sex" page which follows, they tell us:
Most of us learn that our bodies, and our sex, are things to be ashamed of. Most of us learn that sex means a man on top of a woman, and that the only other choice is abstinence. But sex can be lots of things ...

Women have sex with women, men have sex with men, women have sex with men -- and sometimes the best sex is with yourself!

There are lots of safe and fun ways to get off, which you probably won't learn in school. You can do many of these things all by yourself as well as with others, and you can talk about them even if you don't want to do them. Don't feel like you have to do everything on this page, but don't feel like anything is automatically off limits either. 

There are "lots of safe and fun ways to get off", they tell us. And they give a list of 12 -- let's call it the Dirty Dozen -- including:

suck, kiss, touch, bite, fondle, nibble, squeeze, and lick someone's body, nipples, calves, toes, neck, ass, dick or vulva ...

look at sexy pictures and videos ...

make up or act out fantasies, talk dirty, dress up, strip down, or cross-dress (dressing in the clothes of the other gender) ...

play with your own or someone else's ass or vagina, put your fingers, dildoes, vegetables, or buttplugs into them.

Enough already. You've got the disgusting flavour. But, some will say, so what? We know there are people out there who think it's OK to go way beyond the Church's teachings on the proper place of sexuality in our lives. That's their choice. Let them lose their souls if they so choose.

After all, it's not like these things are being taught in our classrooms. Right? Right? Errr... well... maybe not quite, although the Ontario government's new sex ed curriculum is heading in that direction. All the same, the people who push the agenda of perversion on the TDSB's website may be the same people who work in the TDSB schools, maybe even teach your kids.

That's the fear of Dr. Charles McVety, president of Canada Christian College. In a letter to Ontario Attorney General John Gerretsen, he writes:
"The TDSB — through its website — is corrupting Ontario’s children with extraordinary explicit instruction.  According to Section 172 of the Criminal Code of Canada, it is an indictable offence to ‘endanger the morals of the child.’"

Dr. McVety insists that it is the responsibility of the Ontario government to protect the children. The "information" available through the TDSB website is "crude, vulgar, [and] corrupting kids", he says, "and the police should be brought in." Indeed.

BREAKING NEWS: A carrier pigeon headed south for the winter landed on Ed.'s head [desk, surely! Ed.] this afternoon, bearing news that the TDSB has taken the offending link and a number of others off its website, so you may find the first link in this piece changed or inoperative [or not working. Ed.] A small victory for the voices of the normal people, but the culture wars go on.

The might of the Canadian Armed Forces

You may have seen video of the commissioning of China's biggest and newest ship, a gigantic aircraft carrier. It's really quite impressive. But when Agent 78 was extolling its virtues to me, I couldn't help but point out that the Excited States of America has numerous carriers, whereas this is China's first and only.

Moreover, even Canada -- not a major military power -- has an aircraft carrier. For those who were not aware of this, Walt has obtained a picture. Here's the HMCS Peter Mackay.

Black guy sees disaster ahead for US if Obama wins

The "Black guy" Walt refers to is Conrad Black, the ex-con who was formerly Lord Black of Cross Harbour, and founder of the Daily Tubby, [National Post, surely. Ed.] for which newspaper he continues to write a column.

His ex-lordship is a keen observer of Canadian politics, and of American politics even more so. Today he has a dire prediction regarding the upcoming presidential election. Its title: "Canada's front row seat for the American disaster". It's virtually impossible to precis Mr. Black, so Walt has selected three excerpts to give you the flavour and gist of his argument.

It is notorious that most Canadians are to some degree anti-American, though most are also appreciators of America, and this makes the present election in the United States, unfathomably banal though the campaign has been so far, a matter of legitimate comfort to most Canadians....

In an astounding demonstration of national fecklessness, a failed president is running slightly ahead in the polls of a challenger who has a real CV, unlike recent presidents, but who is so politically oafish and plastic, he makes Elmer Fudd seem charismatic....

Either Romney lucks through and numerate sanity starts to return to American public life, or the most self-destructively incompetent regime since James Buchanan brought on the Civil War, will come back and stoke up a truly spectacular inferno that will purify America in a mighty economic Jonestown.

Strong stuff. American voters, don't say you weren't warned!

A busy day in Heaven

Three men were standing in line to get into heaven one day. Apparently it had been a pretty busy day, though, so St. Peter had to tell the first one, "Heaven's getting pretty close to full today, and I've been asked to admit only people who have had particularly horrible deaths. So what's your story?"

The first man replies: "Well, for a while I've suspected my wife has been cheating on me, so today I came home early to try to catch her red-handed. As I came into my 25th floor apartment, I could tell something was wrong, but all my searching around didn't reveal where this other guy could have been hiding. Finally, I went out to the balcony, and sure enough, there was this man hanging off the railing, 25 floors above ground! By now I was really mad, so I started beating on him and kicking him, but wouldn't you know it, he wouldn't fall off. So finally I went back into my apartment and got a hammer and starting hammering on his fingers. Of course, he couldn't stand that for long, so he let go and fell-but even after 25 stories, he fell into the bushes, stunned but okay. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I ran into the kitchen, grabbed the fridge, and threw it over the edge where it landed on him, killing him instantly. But all the stress and anger got to me, and I had a heart attack and died there on the balcony."

"That sounds like a pretty bad day to me," said Peter, and let the man in.

The second man comes up and Peter explains to him about heaven being full, and again asks for his story.

"It's been a very strange day. You see, I live on the 26th floor of my apartment building, and every morning I do my exercises out on my balcony. Well, this morning I must have slipped or something, because I fell over the edge. But I got lucky, and caught the railing of the balcony on the floor below me. I knew I couldn't hang on for very long, when suddenly this man burst out onto the balcony. I thought for sure I was saved, when he started beating on me and kicking me. I held on the best I could until he ran into the apartment and grabbed a hammer and started pounding on my hands. Finally I just let go, but again I got lucky and fell into the bushes below, stunned but all right. Just when I was thinking I was going to be okay, this refrigerator comes falling out of the sky and crushes me instantly, and now I'm here."

Once again, Peter had to concede that that sounded like a pretty horrible death.

The third man came to the front of the line, and St. Peter asked for his story.

"Picture this," says the third man, "I'm hiding naked inside a refrigerator..."   Thanks to Agent 14, who has surfaced in the Caribbean.

Where's Walt? Lost in the "new and improved" Blogger

This blog is (or was) created using Blogger, part of the octopus that is Google. A few months ago, Google launched a "new and improved" version of Blogger. Ed. tried it and pronounced it dreadful -- slow and buggy. But it was optional, so we just reverted to v 1.0. Two days ago all that changed.

The kind folks at Google, never shrinking from fixing what ain't broke, switched all the Blogspot blogs to the new version. The option of reverting to v 1.0 was taken off the list of tools. The new version sucks, and neither Ed. nor I has the patience to deal with it. Accuse us of being old-fashioned luddites if you like, but we don't like dealing with freezes and crashes which shut down not just this website but everything else we're doing on the Internet.

We have sent feedback to Google, but they are honest enough to tell us that they won't respond. Their feedback feature is like the little buttons you push to get the "walk" light at an intersection -- just there for show, so you should feel that something is happening when it's not.

If there are any bloggers out there who have found a workaround to get back to the original version of Blogger, please let us know. Otherwise, we may be forced to move to WordPress. While we figure it out, please excuse our absence.

Comments from readers are welcome too.

Another martyr to political correctness

Meet Tecumseh. He was an Indian leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy (known as Tecumseh's Confederacy) which fought alongside British soldiers and Canadian militias against the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812.

The bicentennial of the War of 1812 is being celebrated in Canada right now -- the Battle of Queenston Heights will be re-enacted on the site next month -- but for some reason is being largely ignored in the US. Click here for more information on the War of 1812. You'll see a picture of Tecumseh -- well, an actor portraying the great Indian leader -- second from the left on the landing page. If you'd like to watch a good video about Tecumseh and his role in the war, click here.

Now then, about the political correctness... Ed. thinks I should say "Native American" instead of "Indian" in the opening sentence. I will not, for the same reason I won't write "Native Canadian". The Indians regarded themselves then, and still regard themselves as neither American nor Canadian. They are just "the people", and that is how they refer to themselves in Cree and other native languages. Actually there's nothing wrong with the word "native", except that it's no longer politically correct to refer to people of colour by six-letter words beginning with "N".

Nor is it PC to use representations of n*****s as mascots for companies or sports teams or... well... anything. One company that has stopped "appropriating cultural images" is (or was) the Tecumseh Power Company, founded in 1934 as Tecumseh Products.

There is still a company of that name trading on NASDAQ, but it's not really the same as the Tecumseh Power Company that was known in 120 companies around the world for its small gasoline engines, like the one shown here.

This is an old(ish) picture. If you have a Tecumseh engine manufactured in the last half-dozen years or so, you'll notice that the Indian has disappeared, replaced by a nondescript and meaningless geometric design. The chief, it seems, is not wanted in the New Age of Political Correctness.

Warning to fans of the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Black Hawks: You're next! (Signed) The PC Police.

NY Times asks: Are Muslims the new Catholics?

The politically correct New York Times ran an unusual op-ed piece on Monday, contributed by Doug Saunders, writing from Toronto. Mr Saunders draws a strong analogy between contemporary "concerns" about Islam and the Islamization of the West, on the one hand, and 20th-century American anti-Catholicism on the other.

He makes the point that as late as 1950, American Freedom and Catholic Power sold nearly a quarter of a million copies in the USA, and was on the Times best-seller list for weeks. earlier feelings of anger and to anti-Catholic sentiments of earlier generations.

"The view that members of a religious minority are not to be trusted — that they are predisposed to extremism, disloyalty and violence; resist assimilation; reproduce at alarming rates, and are theologically compelled to impose their backward religious laws on their adopted home — is not new.... From the 19th century on, distrust, violence and, eventually, immigration restrictions were aimed at waves of Roman Catholic immigrants."


Mr Saunders continues: "Many Americans shunned such views, but some liberals did not. Mr. Blanshard’s book was endorsed by the likes of John Dewey and Bertrand Russell, and respected scholars like Seymour Martin Lipset, Reinhold Niebuhr and Sidney Hook debated Catholics’ supposed propensity toward authoritarianism."

The point Mr Saunders overlooks -- thus rendering his argument specious -- is that the moral and social values espoused by Catholics are virtually identical to the Protestant Christian values on which America was founded and built.

Muslims, however, follow a false prophet and seek to impose on Western society a culture which is backward, barbaric, and alien to our way of life. If we think the Islamists are predisposed to extremism, disloyalty and violence; resist assimilation; reproduce at alarming rates, and are theologically compelled to impose their backward religious laws on their adopted home — we do so with good reason.

Further reading on WWW: "How can we be silent in the face of Islamization of our country?" This post has been in the top five on Walt's "hits list" for weeks now.

French clerics warn of dire consequences of same-sex "marriage"

In a little over a month, France's socialist government is going to introduce legislation to legalize same-sex "marriage" and adoptions by couples who think it's trendy for kids to have two mommies or two daddies. Philippe Cardinal Barbarin, France's most senior cardinal, thinks these are bad ideas.

Speaking on a Christian radio station this weekend, the prelate warned that the legalization of gay "marriage" would manifest a breakdown in society, and would open the door to the normalization of other sinful perversions, such as polygamy and incest.

"This could have innumerable consequences," the cardinal said. "Afterward they will want to create couples with three or four members. And after that, perhaps one day the taboo of incest will fall. The first page of the Bible, which says that marriage unites a man and a woman, has more force and truth, crossing cultures and centuries, than incidental or transient decisions made by a parliament. This is a choice of the government with which we do not agree."

Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon also entered the debate, demanding a popular vote on gay marriage. "A referendum must be held to allow a real debate and to make sure the government is not in the grip of the [LGBT] lobbies," he said. "A majority of the population agrees with the traditional view of marriage."

This Saturday night won't be the same

We've considered events in the Middle East and the Far East. Now it's time to turn our attention to something of greater import to folks in the Great White North and the satellite to the south.

I refer to the failure of the National Hockey League to get its 2012-13 season under way on time. It now appears possible that there may be no season at all. The owners of the 30 NHL clubs have locked out their most valuable employees, the players, with the result that the pre-season games which should start this weekend Saturday will not so do. No national anthems will be sung, no pucks will be dropped, and 1000s of hockey fans on both sides of the world's longest undefended border will have to find something else to watch on TV.

The owners and the players are at an impasse, the cause of which is pure and simple greed. ["Pure"? Ed.] The two sides cannot agree on how to share a 3-billion-dollar pie. Following the lockout which wrote off the 2004-5 season, the owners gave the players a generous helping -- 57% of the revenue, larger than the chunk given to the players of any other professional team sport. Now the owners want to take it back. And they're not even Indians!

No indeed. What the majority of the owners (and a minority of the players) are is Americans, and they are in hockey for the money. It's purely a business proposition, not a part of the national ethos, as the game is in Canada.

To make matters worse, the NHL is allegedly run by an American, a dwarf named Bettman who has never been seen to lace on a pair of skates, let alone play the game. This is the third labour dispute, on his watch, to result in cancellation of all or part of a season. He is also responsible for keeping hockey in Phoenix, the introduction of the shootout and other acts of lunacy which no hockey man could ever countenance. But Bitchman is secure in his position because he's the bitch of the owners, a majority of whom... go back to previous paragraph.

What is to be done? A more cogent question would be, is the NHL broken beyond repair? Perhaps it's time to put the "national" back in "National Hockey League", and return it (and Lord Stanley's silverware) to Canadian control.

The Lord of all the Canucks, "Call me Steve" Harpoon, is reputed to be a hockey fan. Let him introduce legislation to nationalize (geddit?) all seven Canadian teams, and maybe add an eighth in Québec City, for good measure. That would be one dandy league. As for the Americans, they can go play basketball, or maybe soccer.

Note from Ed.: I regret having to cut Walt's rant short, but the men are here to wrap him in a wet sheet. As a filler, here's a very relevant musical selection.

It's not "the film", stupid! It's just anti-Americanism, is all

With her usual unerring aim, Margaret Wente hits the nail squarely on the head in "It's too easy to lay all the blame on a crude video", in today's Globe and Mail. She exposes the Democratic party line, as expressed on Sunday by Susan Rice (US ambassador to the Disunited Nations) that "what sparked the recent violence was the airing on the Internet of a very hateful, very offensive video that has offended many people around the world".

Ms Rice's characterization of the video is quite correct, but, as anyone who's seen even a snippet of it realizes, "Innocence of Muslims" is no big deal. It looks and sounds like a Grade 8 school play, and in no way deserves to be taken as seriously as would appear from the ferocity of the demonstrations against it.

But -- and this is Ms Wente's point -- the near-riots in the streets of cities throughout the Muslim world are not against the film so much as against America itself. She writes, "The line...that the protests were directed against the video, not the U.S. ...might come as a surprise to the folks who were burning American flags and chanting, 'Obama, Obama, we love Osama.'"

The Muslims hate America. That has been the case for decades, long before American soldiers burnt copies of the Qu'ran, long before they pissed on dead Afghan prisoners and long before this stupid little film appeared on YouTube. "Innocence of Muslims" is just this week's catalyst for a deep and longlasting hatred of America's culture, America's religion [Wozzat? Ed.] and America's version of democracy.

Ms Wente reminds us that Al O'Bama -- a Muslim sympathizer if not a Muslim himself -- was supposed to fix all that.

Back in 2009, President Barack Obama went to Cairo and promised to reset the U.S. relationship with the Arab world. Unlike his predecessor, he sympathized with Muslim aspirations. Muslims were anti-American because of bad American policies, and he would fix that. Things didn’t quite work out as planned. Back then, 70 per cent of Egyptians had an unfavourable opinion of the U.S. Today, 79 per cent do.

What conclusion are we to draw? Too many liberal intellectuals – and now, unbelievably, the U.S. administration – seem to think it’s partly our fault when Western insults to Islam lead to riots in the streets. But maybe there’s a bigger cause. Although it’s deeply unfashionable to say so, maybe what we have here is a clash of civilizations. Indeed.

"Green on blue" killings force NATO to bail on joint ops with Afghans

So far this year, more than 50 members of the NATO forces in Afghanistan have been killed in insider attacks -- the so-called "green on blue" killings. Some say the perps are Taliban disguised as Afghan troops and police. Others say the snipers and suicide bombers really are Afghans, pissed off at being dissed (and occasionally killed, by accident of course) by Americans and other infidels.

Whatever the motive, and whoever's doing it, this business of Afghan police or soldiers turning their weapons on their Western "mentors" has just naturally got to stop! But how? Maybe refusing to go out on missions with them would be a smart move. That, at least, is the theory behind today's order indefinitely suspending most "mentoring operations".

Effective immediately, all front-line missions involving units smaller than an 800-strong battalion will stay behind the barbed wire, leaving the Afghans to go out and shoot each other without the benefit of Western advice. However, a senior NATO spokesman, US Colonel Tom Collins [Seriously? That's his name? Ed.] said the order was only a "temporary and prudent response" to the current situation. Apparently things are worse than usual, what with angry demonstrations in the Stans and across the Muslim world over "that film".

Reuters quote an anonymous ISAF official as saying "This is not a happy day for the coalition." Walt doesn't understand. Shouldn't they be happy not to have to go out and get blown to bits in a pointless exercise in pretending to be the world's police force?

Muslim camel's nose inside door of "Catholic" school

You know the old saw about the camel's nose coming inside the tent. Well, it's happened in yet another Canadian school, this time a so-called "Catholic" high school in London. (That's the other London, not the big Third World city.)

Walt should explain that owing to a provision in Canada's first constitution -- the British North America Act -- the province of Ontario is unique in North America in having two publicly funded school systems, the so-called "public" system and the so-called "Catholic" schools. You might think there would be a big difference between the two, as between public schools and parochial schools in the USA, but you would be wrong. Since the Catholic schools are paid for out of the public purse, they are subject to the same rules as the public schools, meaning they have to accept all students, Catholic or not.

Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School in London ON has about 1400 students. Some two dozen of them are Muslims who for some reason have chosen to attend a Catholic school in spite of all those crucifixes in the classrooms and other trappings of infidelity. [Are you sure they still have crucifixes in the rooms? Ed.]

Being good followers of the prophet, the Muslims have asked for their own prayer room, in which to point their bums skyward five times a day, and possibly plot demonstrations against America at other times. And sure enough, in a display of the politeness and political correctness for which Canadians are famous, the Catholic school board agreed.

An Islamic prayer room is under construction even as I write. Carpet will soon cover the tile flooring, speakers will be installed and prayer mats purchased to provide the school's Muslim students with "a quiet and private place to pray.... They're members of our school community. We want to ensure that all our students feel welcome, that they feel that they belong," said the school's principal, Ana Paula Fernandes.

Sorry, Ms Fernandes, but Muslims are not and cannot be members of the Catholic community. Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is an Abrahamic religion, but, like the Jews, Muslims reject the core principles of Catholicism: the Virgin Birth, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of "many" (not "all").

In a word, Muslims are non-believers in Christianity, and they reject (to put it mildly) Christians who are, by definition, non-believers in Islam. The notion that all religions lead to the same God, and all will be saved as long as they believe in something is heretical. The false "ecumenism" of the "new and improved" Catholic Church does not change that dogma, proclaimed centuries ago.

As for the "Catholic" school board and "Catholic" principal, they are guilty of the vilest pandering to a vocal minority, presumably to prove how sensitive Catholics are to the needs of others, and how much they value and "celebrate diversity".

Let me ask, if you're going to establish mosques and synagogues and gay clubhouses within "Catholic" schools, how much longer will it be before we see these abominations within "Catholic" parish halls and church buildings?

I have to stop writing now. I'm physically sick!

Chinese demonstrations "all staged" says dissident

Today's Globe and Mail has an update on the China-wide anti-Japan demonstrations which were the subject of Walt's post yesterday. I wondered whether the protests could have been orchestrated by China's Communist government to divert attention from domestic political troubles.

Ai Weiwei, the dissident artist and designer, think so. The Globe quotes him as saying, "It’s all staged. Only the Japanese could help us to have such a demonstration. We haven’t had such street protests for decades. The Japanese are helping us get back our rights."

Here's another coincidence which lends support to Walt's theory. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the so-called Mukden Incident of 1931, at "attack" on a Japanese-owned railroad in Manchuria which the Japanese used as an excuse for the invasion of that northern-most part of China. Even when Sino-Japanese relationships are relatively good, there are always demonstrations on that date, since it was effectively the beginning of the Japanese-Chinese war.

Agent 78 asks how I know that it's not the Japanese who are engineering the attacks on their consulates and businesses, as was done at Mukden, so they can invade China. I reply that the 1000s of protesters look Chinese to me. And yes, I can tell the difference at a glance.

In yet another coincidence, tomorrow will also see the start of the treason trial of Wang Lijun, the former chief of police chief of Chongqing, who blew the whistle on the now disgraced [and disappeared? Ed.] Bo Xilai, whose wife was just convicted of arranging the murder of a British businessman who, it was said, had assisted the Bo family in certain nefarious business dealings. The demonstrations should push this story well below the bottom of the fold on page 16 of the People's Daily.

What's going on in China?

That's what Walt would like to know. I'm waiting for first- or even second-hand reports from Agents 78 and/or 88 to get behind the video clips on the TV news. Via satellite, I've been able to see clips aired on Hong Kong's TVB, showing large, angry demonstrations in the streets of Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai. One report says there was trouble in no fewer than 28 cities.

The ostensible target of the protests is Japan, which this past week purchased a couple of small islands to which China (and Taiwan) lay claim. The islands themselves are just dots of rock, but the sea around them is full of fish, and beneath the ocean floor there may be quantities of... you guessed it... oil.

So... 1000s of young people are protesting Japanese imperialism by throwing rocks at Japanese consulates, businesses... even Japanese cars. Walt [whose Putong'hua is severely limited. Ed.] was able to understand yells of "war" and "now". Is the Beijing government likely to declare war on Japan, or even send a force of marines to take back the rocks? About two platoons should do it, but trust me, it's not gonna happen. (Lifetime pct .090)

Why, then, would the Communist government allow these near-riots? And trust me again, if the government didn't want the demonstrations to take place, they wouldn't. Remember Tiananmen Square!

Walt's guess is that the "spontaneous" demonstrations, which seem to include large numbers of printed banners and pictures of Chairman Mao, are being permitted, perhaps even fomented, to deflect attention from the strange disappearance and reappearance of Xi Jinping, the heir apparent to Hu Jintao, the outgoing paramount leader of the People's Republic of China. Or maybe not.

Mr. Xi was widely expected to be acclaimed as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China late this year. In due course he would also become President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. When you wear all three hats, you indeed Da Man. It's like winning the Triple Crown.

But a funny thing happened on Xi's way to the throne. Around September 2nd, the presumptive emperor dropped out of sight, and remained so for about ten days, missing at least three scheduled public appearances. To the extent that the social media operate in China, tweets and twitters of "Where is She?" [That's how you say "Xi". Ed.] flashed across the land and around the world. But there was no answer until, like Lazarus, Xi emerged on Thursday, with no explanation or apology given.

Was Mr. Xi really suffering from a bad back, as was rumoured, or does he have a more severe health problem? Or is it his political health that's in question? Has there been a power struggle within the Forbidden City? The Chinese government no longer operates out of the ancient abode of the imperial court, but the metaphor is still valid.

And what will happen next? Will Xi succeed in succeeding? Or will he quietly step aside "for health reasons" in favour of... who? Or Hu? What does it all mean? To stop all those questions and rumours, perhaps a little diversion was thought to be in order...

Just one problem with that. When you let a tiger out of his cage, it's hard to predict what he will do, and harder still to get him back in the cage. The demonstrations I saw on the idiot's lantern today seem grossly disproportionate to the degree of bother the average Chinese would feel about two tiny islets being taken over by the Japanese.

The marchers seemed to be pelting the police and soldiers -- and there were 1000s of them too, armed with teargas and water cannon -- with abandon equal to that with which they attacked the Japanese buildings. I had the sense of a lot of pent-up anger and frustration being released. And I wonder when and where it will stop.

An education sponsorship campaign everyone can support

Congratulations to the Red Lion Area (PA) School District for working hard to promote support for the public school system. Obviously our schools need all the help they can get. If you're planning to give, Walt would suggest earmarking your donation for a remedial course in spelling for sign painters.

The meaning of Libya

Western-style liberal democracy finds no favour in the Middle East. Never has, and, Walt says, never will. (Lifetime pct .990.) It is repugnant to the Arab culture and the Muslim religion. Until the "Arab spring" you couldn't find one true democracy in the whole region. Some would say you still can't.

But that's OK, the great leaders of the free world said. We'll help you bring about régime change in the worst of your dictatorships -- Egypt and Libya -- because we know what's best for you. We'll fight for you, to give you the democracy we know you really want.

And so, as if Iraq and Afghanistan weren't enough, the West inserted its meddlesome self into the Libyan brouhaha. Obama, Sarkozy and Cameron told us we had to. Why? Because Daffy Gadhafi supported terrorists and posed a threat to world peace, even if he had been pretty well minding his own business of late. If that excuse ["reason", surely. Ed.] weren't enough, well, there was our "responsibility to protect" the Libyan people, since they were obviously unable to protect themselves from their own ruler.

So Western planes bombed the excrement out of Tripoli and the surrounding countryside, killing a few of the "good rebels" and hundreds of innocent bystanders along the way, but yet another altruistic mission was accomplished. The Mad Colonel was overthrown and, incidentally, an important source of oil for the West was made secure. The price of gas went down and all were happy once again.

Or maybe not. Questions were raised by Walt and others about who would fill the power vacuum which would be created by the overthrow of Gadhafi, Egypt's Mubarak and others. The "good rebels" seemed to be a rather ragtag lot of chancers, Islamic fundamentalists, criminals, Rambo wannabes, maybe even Al-Qaeda terrorists. Don't worry, our leaders told us, we can handle them, just like the Germans handled the Nazis in the dying days of the Weimar Republic.

Again, maybe not. This year, the anniversary of 9/11 was the occasion for anti-American demonstrations in Egypt (first) and Libya, now spreading to Tunisia and Yemen. US flags were burnt and American diplomats were killed. After all the US of A did for those people! Where's the gratitude?

Paul Heinbecker, former Canadian ambassador to the Disunited Nations, told the Globe and Mail, "I don’t think the mob in the street give a damn about what [we have] done." (Yes, the Canucks took part in the beating up of Libya too.)

According to Mr Heinbecker, two forces contributed to the violence against US missions in Cairo and Benghazi. The first is the so-called clash of civilizations multiplied by the speed of the Net. An Israeli-American posts a video calculated to insult and provoke Muslims. Social media amplify its effect, sending people into the streets.

A day later, more and more doubt is being expressed as to the identity of the film-maker, and whether a complete film actually exists. "Innocence of the Muslims" may well be a hoax, perpetrated by Islamic -- or Protestant Christian -- extremists to inflame passions and start riots which Al-Qaeda could then use as cover for planned attacks.

The second contributor to the violence, Mr. Heinbecker says, is the decline of the autocrat in the Muslim world. Whatever one could say about Colonel Gadhafi and President Mubarak, mobs didn’t burn embassies unless they wanted them burned.

It's worth noting that Egypt's new president, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, hasn't said a word about the attacks in Cairo. Walt suggests that either his government, like that of Libya, is unable to control the howling mobs, or... it approves of or at least acquiesces in their actions.

If I were President Obama -- and I was not born in the USA -- I would be wondering about the risks involved in getting in my country into another Middle Eastern imbroglio. Like Syria, for instance. Or Iran.

There's the risk of death to Americans who are sent into the middle of the maelstrom. And there's the risk of political death for those who send them. Unless, of course, American voters don't make the connection between their country's "good deeds" and the not-so-goodwill they are now reaping. "No good deed goes unpunished."

Swaziland girls now need visas to visit Canada

Breaking news from Ottawa, the world's second-coldest capital city. Amid mounting concerns over the porousness of Canada's borders, Immigration Minister Jason "Kenny" Kenney has announced that, effective immediately, visitor's visas will be required for those wishing to visit from St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Namibia, Botswana and... yes... Swaziland.

In a remarkably forthright statement of the obvious, the government said documents from St. Lucia and St. Vincent are "unreliable" because "criminals from these countries can legally change their names and acquire new passports."

Fraudulent papers are also of concern in the three African countries added to the list, along with human trafficking, especially of minors like those shown in this picture.

Minister Kenney has said that he personally will check out all the applications of girls such as these to make sure that they are what and who they say they are, and that all their figures are correct. "It'll be a tough job," he said, "but someone's gotta do it."

Israel won't nuke Iran until after US election

Walt can reveal that "Battlin' Bibi" Netanyahu won't unleash the dogs of war on Iran until after the US election.

He is hot to trot, and sooner rather than later. Yesterday Bibi reacted angrily to Hellery Clinton's statement that there's no deadline for resolution of the impasse between Iran and the West. At a presser in Jerusalem (which the Democrats remind us is Israel's capital), Netanyahu said that a "red line" must be drawn in front of Iran, and that those who refuse to draw that red line can hardly show a "red light" to Israel. In other words, "try and stop us!"

However, "the Zionist entity" hasn't the military capacity to finish off Iran on its own. It's widely believed that the Jews do have nuclear strike capability, but being the first to drop the Big One since the Americans obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki would not improve Israel's standing in the international community.

So Israel is counting on the USA (and its running dogs like Canada) to finish the war they intend to start -- this in spite of the demonstrated inability of the West to accomplish similar missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And the Israelis know they can depend on their great and good friend, Al O'Bama, to send in the Marines or Seals or whatever when the time is right. And there's the hitch. The run-up to the presidential election is not the right time to force the incumbent to substitute action for promises.

Obama needs the Jewish vote in Dade County to win Florida, and he needs Florida to win the nation. So naturally he and his party say all the right things about Iran being a rogue state, a sponsor of terrorism, and so on and so forth. And, they promise, one of these days we're going to do something about it.

But if that day comes -- on Hallowe'en, let's say -- and orders have to be given to commit American dollars, American matériel and American troops, Obama will need Congress and, ultimately, the American people to approve. Walt doesn't see that approval forthcoming.

So now we have the spectacle of the President of the Most Powerful Nation on Earth avoiding any meeting or conversation with the Prime Minister of the Most Jewish Nation on Earth. Bibi is coming to the USA later this month, to speak at the United Nations, for all the good that may do. Unfortunately, the Prez won't be addressing the UN that day, and has other engagements in other cities all week.

Click here to read the Reuters analysis of why Obama doesn't want to meet Netanyahu. Or let Walt explain more simply. It's like seeing a poor relative pulling into your driveway. You know if you let him in the house he's going to ask you for something, so you quick pull down the shades, turn out the lights and pretend nobody's home.

The lights in the White House will be turned back on, and the windowshades lifted, on November 7th. What worries Netanyahu is... who will be inside?

Mugabe calls Jamaica a nation of pot-smokers

Comrade Bob Mugabe, the head nagger of Zimbabwe, owes his too-long life to lean living. He neither drinks alcohol nor smokes anything. Certainly not "mbanje" which is the chiShona word for marijuana, the sacramental herb so beloved of Jamaicans like Saint Bob Marley, after whom Mugabe was named.

Speaking last week at the "Research and Intellectual Expo" in his country's capital, Uncle Bob made some rather strong statements about Jamaica, which he described as a nation of marijuana smokers, where women were now taking charge since men were always sloshed.

Mugabe said he wished Zimbabwe had never followed the footsteps of Jamaicans whose influence on the impoverished African country is pervasive.
"In Jamaica they have freedom to smoke mbanje, men are always high, and universities are full of women. The men want to sing and do not go to colleges. Some are dreadlocked. Let us not go there," was how Mugabe put it.

Toronto (Canada) mayor Big Bob Ford is studying Mugabe's remarks from behind the wheel of his Escalade while stuck in traffic. And Jamaican Foreign Affairs minister A.J. Nicholson said on Sunday that his government was aware of the report but is not yet in a position to comment, as everyone is recovering from the weekend jump-up.

"Don't confuse me! I'm a girl!" - the video

Ed. here. Walt wanted to get "Send your kids' school the 'traditional values letter'" posted before we quit tonight, so he made me hit the "publish" button before I could locate the famous "Don't confuse me! I'm a girl!" video, sponsored by the Institute for Canadian Values. Here it is.

Send your kids' school the "traditional values letter"

First the background. Hamilton ON dentist Dr. Steve Tourloukis is suing the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board for refusing to warn him when teachers plan to preach the Ontario government's sex education curriculum to his kids.

Dr. Tourloukis is a Greek Orthodox Christian and a believer in Christian family values as regards things like homosexuality, abortion, pre-marital and extra-marital sex, and so on. He's against those things, at least for himself and his family, and he doesn't want them being shoved down the throats of his children, who are in Grades 1 and 4 in Ontario's so-called public school system.

The school board, which takes its direction from the Kremlin [Ontario government, surely! Ed.] says respect for alternative lifestyles, yadda yadda yadda, is a good thing and should be not just encouraged but actively promoted. Laurel Broten, the minister who succeeded a proud lesbian to the education portfolio in the Ontario government, says her government's humanistic approach -- based on a rejection of even the notion of a Supreme Being -- is here to stay.
"A little person can draw a picture of her two moms or two dads, for example, and feel safe and accepted. That’s what happens in classes across Ontario and that’s what should happen," she told a Toronto newspaper.

Dr. Tourloukis says if there's to be any teaching about family, marriage or human sexuality, he'll do it himself. Not surprisingly, 1000s of Catholic and evangelical Protestant parents agree. So, apparently, do numerous Muslim parents. Following reports of the lawsuit, schools across Ontario are starting to receive formal requests for notification when their children’s classes will discuss topics ranging from homosexuality and birth control to wizardry, evolution and "environmental worship", so they can withhold their child from classes that contradict their religious beliefs.

The letters have been modelled on a form being circulated by a group called P.E.A.C.E. Hamilton. P.E.A.C.E. stands for Public Education Advocates for Christian Equity. Click here to visit the P.E.A.C.E. website, and read about the true intent behind the new curriculum, which is to "change the traditional norms and values of society, and change them for good". That's a quote from Ms Broten.

If you have children in the Ontario system, but feel the traditional norms and values of society are just fine the way they are, you should sent a letter along those lines -- let's call it the Traditional Values Letter -- to "your" school board. (Hey, you elected them, didn't you?) Here is the model letter with some instructions on how to use it to communicate your beliefs.

If you have children in any other "public" school system, who are being threatened by the queer agenda -- see "Ontario schools forced to promote masturbation, homosexuality", WWW 4/3/10 -- please draw inspiration from Dr. Tourloukis and P.E.A.C.E. They will be only too happy if you adapt the Traditional Values Letter -- indeed, the entire campaign including a lawsuit if necessary -- to the situation in your province or state. And God will bless you for standing up for what is right according to His laws.

Further reading from WWW:
Lesbian cabinet minister pushed queer sex ed plan, 24/4/10
Don't confuse me! I'm a girl! 30/9/11

Campaign buttons we'll wear proudly

Agent 6 presents us with the first of this year's crop.

Ed. wonders if it's really one of this year's buttons, but it's the first time we've seen it.

The coffin of civilization

Readers of a certain age may remember history being taught in schools. Of course there was less of it, then. I rather enjoyed history, and learned from studying it that, to see more clearly where you should be going, you need to look back to see where you've been.

Which brings us to the Middle East, where human history began. Or so we were taught in Ancient History 101. Civilization began, we were told, in the Fertile Crescent, the land between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, stretching from modern-day Turkey down to the Persian Gulf.

Superimpose today's national boundaries on the map, and you'll see that this cradle of civilization takes in five 21st-century states: Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and "the Zionist entity" aka Israel. If you count Palestine, you get six mutually antagonistic nations.

Just to the east lies Iran, historically known as Persia. From 2000 BC to 1000 BC [Dates are approximate, since Walt wasn't actually there. Ed.] Persia was occupied by people known as Medes, whose empire (known as Media -- no kidding) stretched from Cappadocia (eastern Turkey, today) across central Asia to what is now Pakistan. Media was one of the four great powers of the ancient Near East, until 550 BC when it was conquered by Cyrus the Great. Today, one man's Mede is another man's Persian.

The Fertile Crescent has been fought over since Cain and Abel. Visitors say the parched and dusty land seems hardly worth fighting about, but when you add in the competing claims of three religions, you have a recipe for endless warfare. The Semitic peoples -- the term includes Akkasians (Assyrians and Babylonians, Elbaites, Ugarites, Canaanites, Phoenicians (including Carthaginians), Hebrews (Israelites, Judeans and Samaritans), Ahlamu, Arameans, chaldeans, Amorites, Moabites, Edomites, Hyksos, Arabs, Nabateans, Maganites, Shebans, Sutu, Ubarites, Dilmunites, Bahranis, Maltese, Mandaeans, Sabians, Syriancs, Mhallami, Amalekits and Ethiopian Semites -- take great delight in killing each other for any reason (or no reason) whatever.

To come to the point [Thank you! Ed.] Walt predicts that the cradle of civilization is going to become the coffin of civilizatin, sooner rather than later. I won't put my lifetime pct (.989) on the line by giving an exact date for the commencement of the Armageddon, but the signs and portents are there.

On Friday, when the world was thinking TGIF and not paying attention, the Canadian government quietly closed its embassy in Tehran. The announcement was made by the Foreign Affairs Minister, John "Nancy" Baird, who was attending the APEC summit in Vladivostok with his puppet-master, "Call me Steve" Harpoon.

Remarkably, a couple of Canadian journalists were still sober enough to catch the play, and the story was -- even more remarkably -- soon on the international wire services. Read in isolation, the Canucks' decision to close up shop, and send home the Iranian dips in Ottawa, seemed no big deal. The British closed their embassy after an incident a couple of years ago, and the Americans did the same long before that. The Harper government has become notorious for sucking up to Israel, so this latest move would seem to be a logical extension of Canada's so-called policy on the Middle East.

But why now? Why choose a quiet, end-of-summer weekend to decamp? Canada officially declared Iran to be a terrorist state, or at least a sponsor or supporter of terrorism. And, Mr. Beardless said, Iran hadn't stopped work on developing a "nuculer" bomb. Nothing new there. So why now?

Walt thinks the Israelis -- whose prime minister, "Bibi" Netanyahoo, within seconds issued a statement praising the Canadian action -- are getting set to pull the trigger, and gave their Canadian friends a little advance warning so there'll be no smell of cooked back bacon and maple syrup hanging in the air of Tehran.

Would Israel strike first? It wouldn't be the first time. Their own people are expecting it and preparing accordingly. In Jerusalem, gas masks are reportedly selling briskly.

From the Canadian side

Agent 36 takes us to the weekend with a reminder that there are some things you just don't think about... like what Mount Rushmore looks like from the Canadian side

Hope and change? One Americanuck's view

Walt is waiting with baited breath [He's been eating cheese. Ed.] to see what Hussein Obama is going to say in his own defence when he accepts the Democractic nomination tonight. This would be a good time for some straight talk, an admission that all those promises of change remain largely unfulfilled.

Should we expect the Prez to say he failed? No. Should we expect him to admit he lied? Oh hahahahahaha... What we should expect is not "Repeat after me: yes we can!" but "Repeat after me: we did the best we could under the circumstances." (I admit I didn't make that up; it's the text of the editorial cartoon in the current Economist.)

Unfortunately for Obama, the excuse that he was just a captive of events isn’t much of a campaign platform. I didn't make that up either. It's taken from an excellent column by American-turned-Canadian columnist Margaret Wente: "Hope and change won't cut it now", in today's Globe and Mail. (The drawing above is the work of the Glob's Anthony Jenkins; credit where credit is due.)

Ms Wente says she was a big fan of Obama's back in the day, the day being about four years ago.
"He was attractive, he was smart, he was young and, best of all, he wasn’t George Bush. The United States was in an awful mess, and the world economy was teetering. The old order was finished, and everyone was desperate for change. I was ecstatic when he won. I had faith that he was smart enough to get it (whatever it turned out to be). I knew his halo would be tarnished soon enough. But I figured he could scarcely make things worse than they were."

"Today," Ms Wente continues, "the love affair is over. If I were voting in this election, I don’t know what I’d do. The main thing Mr. Obama has going for him is that he’s not Mitt Romney, who strikes me as a decent enough man who’s been taken hostage by a bunch of lunatics. Unfortunately, the fact that you’re not the other guy is not the most inspiring argument for re-election." Indeed.

Reading on... "[Obama's] greatest problem is that he doesn’t seem to know the old order is finished. He seems to think that all he needs to do is tax the rich, wait it out and soon the good times will return. That’s not a vision, or a plan. It’s a fantasy.

"Mr. Obama doesn’t seem to know there’s a problem. If only he could bring himself to say, as he did in 2009, that it’s time for 'a new era of responsibility'. That hopey changey stuff won’t cut it any more. Americans are still in crisis, and they’ll need more than happy talk to fix it."

Those are the highlights of Ms Wente's able argument. Click here to read the column in its entirety.

Democrats appeal to God... but not much

As you know, Walt was away for a couple of days. My intention was to go to one of my favourite southern cities to watch the spectacle of southern and western Democrats holding their noses for the renomination of Hussein Obama.

I was told, however, that I would be recognized -- not as a speaker or delegate but as a reasonably able, straight, white male, and a Catholic to boot, thus Surplus to Requirements. In other words, my kind is not much wanted in the Grand Conclave of the Politically Correct.

Seems, though, that a few Christians snuck in the door, and exerted sufficient pressure to persuade the Dems to change their convention platform to add one (1) mention of God. Following criticism from the GOP, who got God into their platform twelve (12) times, the Democrats reinstated language from their 2008 platform that said "we need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential."

This very small and wet sop to religious Americans -- now shrinking to minority status, at least in Obama's party -- was not unopposed. Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa called three (3) times for a vote on the motion to amend, before declaring it approved without a vote being taken. His ruling was met with a loud chorus of booze ["boos", surely! Ed.] and cheers ["jeers", surely! Ed.] and cries of "God is dead and we hope he hears us!"

Having pacified the Christians, the Democrats also decided to get the Jews onside. (Not that there was ever much chance of their backing a Mormon and a Catholic!) In a paradigm of pandering, the party declared that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

What's interesting about that move is that it's said to reflect Obama’s personal views on the city claimed as holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims. [In that order, too. Ed.] If that be the case, does it mean that Obama's America would go to war -- against Iran, let's say -- to preserve the status of Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist entity? Just asking.

A test of your powers of observation

Walt apologizes for his absence over the past weekend. Hey, everyone's entitled to celebrate Labour Day, right? I'm all in favour of labour. I could watch people working for hours.

As a bit of compensation for the paucity of posts, and before we get to hard news, let me pass along a little quiz, submitted by Agent 1, to test whether your brain is working. Here it is.

Can you spot the blonde?

Scroll down...

Farther down...

Here she is!

Aren't you embarrassed that you didn't notice it before? The blonde is the one with the wrong leg up!

Footnote: Our man in southern Africa reports that the famous Reed Dance was performed in Swaziland over the weekend, in spite of the condemnation of wimmin around the world. Ed. has yet to receive a picture of this year's ceremony, but you can click here to see an older pic.

Why do Afghans keep killing Westerners? They hate us!

Readers who have been following WWW since Day One know that Walt has stopped noting the deaths of Canadian military personnel in Afghanistan. That's because Canada gave up on supporting the US-led occupation, withdrawing all but 1000 or so "trainers" who are now safely (?) inside the wire in Kabul.

Most of the French left last year, and other NATO forces are packing their duffel bags even as we speak, leaving the Americans to turn off the lights, which they plan to do by the end of 2014, leaving the so-called Afghan National Army and police responsible for their so-called country's so-called security.

But the withdrawal ["retreat" or "headlong flight", surely! Ed.] isn't happening quickly enough to suit the Afghans. They showed their impatience to be rid of the occupying infidels several times in August, killing numerous western troops and more numerous Afghans in suicide bombings and other attacks in various parts of the sandpit.

At dawn today, two suicide attackers, one driving a fuel tanker, blew themselves up near a US base in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 12 people. No American or coalition soldiers were killed, although an undisclosed number were wounded.

A Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, which he said was targeting the US base. In a separate incident, two US soldiers were killed in eastern Ghazni province. That's the first two for September. 53 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan in August.

A disturbing number of the attacks on Western troops are what are now being called "green-on-blue killings" -- attacks by Afghan soldiers or police, or at least by terrorists dressed in those uniforms. According to a recent column by Gwynne Dyer, fully one-quarter of the Westerners killed in August were murdered by Afghan government soldiers or police.

Why are the "students" rising up against their "teachers"? It's not because they are all terrorists. According to a 2011 Pentagon analysis reported by Bloomberg, only 11% of the killings are the result of Taliban infiltration. The more common cause is beefs about and against their western "teachers" and "helpers". The Afghans don't want their country occupied by infidel foreigners. Period.

Quoting now from Gwynne Dyer's column:

Last year a team of US Army psychologists investigated the nature of these grudges and quarrels, conducting interviews with dozens of American and Afghan focus groups. Their report, "A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility," concluded that the Afghan troops see the American soldiers as "a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self-serving, profane infidel bullies hiding behind high technology."

The U.S. troops, in return, generally view their Afghan allies as "a bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot-smoking, treacherous and murderous radicals."

Dyer says this does not constitute the foundation for a successful collaboration. Indeed. But it gets worse.

The view of the Afghan soldiers is more positive, despite all that, than the civilian population's attitude towards the foreign forces. A poll conducted in late 2010 by the Afghan Centre for Socio-Economic Research reported that nearly 60 percent of civilians wanted all the foreign soldiers gone within a year. Forty percent would still want the foreigners out, even if their departure meant that the violence got worse.

The question becomes, then, why are we still there? The Afghans hate us even more than we hate them. Western blood and Western treasure are being poured into the desert sands every day. Yet America still plans to leave tens of thousands of its military personnel in Afghanistan after 2014 -- on their own, mind you -- to "help" those who cannot and will not be helped.

Why?! If you're an American, you need to think about that before you vote in November. If you're a citizen of Australia, Britain, Canada or a western European country, let your government know that you oppose following the USA into any other Middle Eastern quagmires. Like Syria or Iran. We can't afford to do this again!

Common Sense, RIP

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who was with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

Common Sense will be remembered for having taught us valuable lessons, such as:
- Knowing when to come in out of the rain
- Why the early bird gets the worm
- Life isn't always fair; and
- Maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. His condition was worsened by teports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student, but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses, and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death:
- by his parents, Truth and Trust
- by his wife, Discretion
- by his daughter, Responsibility, and
- by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his five stepbrothers:
- I Know My Rights
- I Want It Now
- Someone Else Is To Blame
- I'm A Victim, and
- Pay me for Doing Nothing.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

We welcome Agent 28, keeping an eye on the world from the UK. Thanks for this.