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How about a "Buffalo Crunch" donut? From Tim Hortons, of course!

Turns out Walt's prediction about what would come of the merger between American burgermeisters Burger King and Tim Hortons, the iconic Canadian coffee-and-donuts chain, wasn't that far off the money. (Lifetime pct .974) See "Tim Hortons + Burger King = ??? Burger Bits ???".

No, it's not Tim's Burger Bits, nor is it a Whopper with chocolate glaze and sprinkles on top. It's even better! Are you ready for The Buffalo Crunch Donut?!

Yessiree Bob! Just in time for the New York State Fair, Tim Hortons presents its latest creation, specifically tailored to the American obsession with fast/fat food. So much so that US critics are accusing Tim's of making mock of the American diet. Here's part of the review from FastCompany.com, an American website for fast food junkies.

"The Buffalo Crunch Donut takes different food elements and mashes them together to create a blog-worthy food chimera. Unlike the Doritos Taco and the Cronut, this thing doesn't really make sense.

"Look at the ingredients. The donuts are topped with with an orange dusting of crushed-up chips. The Buffalo sauce is available in hot or mild, which is apparently tempered with ranch dressing. And as the eagle-eyed sleuths at Grub Street note, the dipping sauce in the middle is adorned with two slivers of tortilla chips of questionable utility.

"Buffalo native Rebecca Greenfield says it's not actually that crazy. 'The Buffalo donut is like Buffalo wings plus a donut. Besides being gross, it's not a totally insane combo since Tim Hortons is all over Buffalo.' She also noted that Tim Horton used to play professional hockey for the Buffalo Sabres."

You can try the amazing Buffalo Crunch Donut at the New York State Fair -- that's at the fairgrounds in Syracuse -- until Labor Day for just two bucks ($2.20 in Canadian money). Whether the new taste treat will stay on Tim's menu after that remains to be seen.

Hello Not-a-Kitty!

You already knew, didn't you, that there's no Santa Claus. No Easter Bunny. No Tooth Fairy. And now it can be revealed that Hello Kitty is... wait for it... not a kitty!

No indeed. She may look like a kitty, be cute like a kitty, and even have the word "kitty" in her name, but Sanrio's beloved and iconic character is, in fact, a girl! This picture suggests as much, but don't take Walt's word for it. Believe instead Christine R. Yano, an anthropologist from the University of Hawaii (and currently a visiting professor at Harvard) who has spent years studying the phenomenon that is Hello Kitty.

Culture: High & Low quotes Ms Yano to the effect that Sanrio would adamantly refute any claims that the character is feline. Ms Yano once made the mistake of referring to Hello Kitty as a cat while preparing texts for an exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum. "I was corrected — very firmly," she says. "That's one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She's never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature."

And what does Sanrio itself have to say? They told Kotaku "It's going too far to say that Hello Kitty is not a cat." A Sanrio spokesthingy added, "Hello Kitty is a personification of a cat," using the word "gijinka" which means "anthropomorphization." ["Gijinka" is a lot easier to spell, eh. Ed.]

As his final exhibit, Walt submits the official Hello Kitty profile.
"Hello Kitty is a cheerful and happy little girl with a heart of gold. She lives in London with her mama (Mary White), papa (George White), and her twin sister Mimmy. Hello Kitty loves to bake and she can make really delicious cookies. She learned her baking talents from her mama, who makes scrumptious apple pies that are enjoyed by the whole family.
"Hello Kitty's hobbies include traveling, listening to music, reading, eating cookies and mama's apple pies, and making new friends. One of her most popular mottoes is 'You can never have too many friends.'"

So true. Walt is proud to be one of Hello Kitty's friends. Aren't you?

Political correctness foils detection and punishment of 1400 sex abuse cases in English city

Here's the story in a PC nutshell. Rotherham is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Its population is about 260,000, a substantial (and visible) minority of whom are south Asian -- Pakistani Muslims to be precise. For sixteen (16) years, a ring of Pakistani perverts preyed on something like 1400 (fourteen hundred) children, in what police describe as "organized child sexual exploitation".

In 2010, five Pakistani Muslim men from Rotherham were found guilty of sex offences against girls as young as 12. In 2011 Ashtiaq Asghar was jailed for the murder of 17-year-old Laura Wilson, who had been a victim of sexual exploitation.

There have been four separate enquiries into the scandal, going back as far as 2003, with the most recent being released just this month. Yet the perps mentioned above are the only only ones to have been convicted of anything. No-one else has been charged. None of the officials or "authorities" charged with protecting children from such predators have lost their jobs. Instead there has been only a massive, scandalous and ongoing coverup.

How can this be? No prize for guessing it's because of political correctness. The sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking of children by Muslim vizmins has been called a "taboo" subject. City councillors and other officials stand accused of "ignoring a politically inconvenient truth". Why? For "fear of being thought racist" and "threatening 'community cohesion'". Such is life in politically correct Britain.

Of course nothing like this could ever happen in Canada or the USA!

Further reading: "Real or imagined: Racism 'fear' over Rotherham child abuse" on the BBC News website.

3 portents of the coming Armageddon

Walt has written several times about Armageddon -- not the movie but the place in present-day Israel which the Bible tells us will be the site of the final battle between good and evil, between God and Satan. See the 16th chapter of the Apocalypse (or Revelation). See "The coffin of civilization", posted here almost two years ago.

Yes, there is such a place -- Tel Megiddo. Since it's more of a plain than a mountain, the prophetic vision of Apoc. 16:16 should not be taken too literally. The traditional view is that "Armageddon" symbolizes the progression of the world toward the "great day of God, the Almighty" in which the great looming mountain of God's just and holy wrath is poured out against unrepentant sinners, led by Satan, in a final confrontation which results in the literal end of the world.

Yet it seems not unlikely (to Walt, at least) that the Armageddon could take place at Megiddo. Look at the map. Even if you believe, as many do, that the actual battle will be at Jerusalem, Apoc. 16:16 tells us the armies will gather at Armageddon... not so far away.

When is this going to happen? Walt suggests that you not make any plans for Thanksgiving! Well, OK, maybe that's a bit extreme, but when you look at current events you have to wonder just how much longer God is going to hold His hand. Here are three items from this week's news which, individually, don't look like much, but added together make me think we're now playing in "extra time".

Item 1: USAF U-2 spy planes and drones have been flying over eastern Syria, most of which is held by the ISIS jihadists. It is thought the Prez may call in an air strike or two, to go with the attacks on ISIS in Iraq. This will be more than a bit embarrassing for Mr. Obama, as he will be obliged to ask permission from Basher Assad, whose regime he (Obama) was talking about overthrowing less than a year ago. Making common cause with the Syrian government will put an exclamation point on the failure of US foreign policy in the Middle East.

Item 2: Last week "unknown" military aircraft made a strike [or a spare, at least. Ed.] against Islamic extremists who were attacking the Tripoli (Libya) airport. The terrorists took the airport anyway, but the news here is that the air strike came as a complete surprise to to the USA and other western nations who, it seems, were not consulted or even notified in advance. Whodunnit? Today we learn it was jets of the United Arab Emirates, operating out of a base in Egypt. The threat here is that if these fractious Middle Eastern states start attacking each other without the involvement of the West, war could spread across the entire region like wildfire.

Item 3: Some would say that war has already started, referring to the fighting between Israel and Hamas. It seems only a matter of time before some other power jumps in -- overtly or covertly -- on the side of the Palestinians. Like who? Like Iran, that's who. Just yesterday the Iranian National Guard announced that it had shot down an Israeli drone which was intercepted flying over an Iranian nuclear facility. The other shoe could drop anytime... with a bomb attached.

The Church tells us to "despise not prophecy". Time to start "cramming for the finals"! If you haven't got time for the entire Bible, just read the Gospel of St. John, to which you may profitably add Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, reviewed here earlier this month. The time is coming!

Tim Hortons + Burger King = ??? Burger Bits ???

When you think of Canada [IF I think of Canada. Ed.], you think of Mounties, maple leaves and... Tim Hortons. Like Canadian Tire and the Montréal Canadiens, Tim's is a Canadian icon, but without "Canadian" in the name. Its 1000s of stores spanning the Great Not-so-white North sell (mostly) coffee and donuts, and buying a "double double and a box of Timbits" is part of your average Canuck's everyday life. See Walt's "Field guide to Canadian donuts".

This morning, however, Canadians are in a maple-flavoured tizzy over merger talks between Tim Hortons and... wait for it... Burger King! [Really? Ed.] Yes, really. [But didn't Tim's get in bed with Wendy's a couple of years ago, with disappointing results for both? Ed.] That's true, and you'll still find Tim Hortons and Wendy's stores side-by-side in many Canadian cities, but this is going to be different -- a really really good deal with both companies. [Please don't use the word "blockbuster". Ed.]

OK, Walt will explain. Tim Hortons is a Canadian company, with headquarters in beautiful downtown Oakville ON. It has something like a 95% share of the coffee-and-donut biz in the GNN, with nowhere to grow except into the USA, where it's making steady but slow progress in the northeastern states.

Burger King is a much bigger US corporation, based in Miami, running second or worse in the race to sell more whoppers to the American public. Worse, many Americans have finally realized that tipping the scales at 300+ pounds is unhealthy, and sales of burgers and fries are starting to slip, even at McD's.

Will this whopper of a deal [Don't do that again. Ed.] help Tim's and or BK to grow their businesses and profits? Wouldn't a complete merger give us "burger bits" -- a company that is about neither burgers nor coffee and donuts -- to the detriment of both brands?Seems they've thought about that, and are planning to merge only the holding companies, leaving Burger King and Tim Hortons as standalone brands. The new company would become the world's third-largest fast food chain, with more than 18,000 locations and sales of about $22 billion.

So what's the deal then? Aha! Turns out it's a tax inversion play, bad enough (from the US perspective) to get the Prez annoyed. A CBC business commentator explained that the US corporate tax rate is about 35%, while Canada's is only 26%. By merging with a Canadian company and setting up a head office in Canada, American companies can achieve significant tax savings, said Michael Hlinka. "You've got to merge with a company one-quarter your size, then you can technically set up your headquarters in Canada, even though you still keep everybody in the United States. It's almost like a mailing address more than anything else."

There's more to it, of course. Mr. Hlinka thinks Burger King may also be trying to keep pace with their nemesis, Mickey D's. "McDonald's has become very serious about making a good cup of coffee in the past several years and Burger King hasn't really stepped up, so maybe this is how they're going to compete with McDonald's globally," he said.

As for Tim's, Mr. Hlinka said, "If Tim Hortons gets its coffee into all those Burger King stores worldwide, that would be absolutely huge for it, and I think that might be part of this strategy as well." However, he doesn't believe a Burger King-Tim Hortons merger would mean big changes for the customer picking up his daily double-double. He said Burger King would be unwise to tinker with Tim Hortons successful model.

"Tim Hortons just had fantastic [earnings] results, they're making money, they're expanding their offerings, they're doing a lot of things right on the execution end," he said. "This company just has this incredible momentum behind it that just makes the company work. It's worked for the past 45-50 years, it's going to be with us for another 45 or 50.

"If you go through some of the underground food courts, there will be a lineup at Tim Hortons that will stretch seemingly around the block, meanwhile there's five other places selling coffee and people are just like, 'No, I'd rather wait for the Tim Hortons coffee.'"

Quick! Get your broker on the phone! Buy 40,000 shares!

Quit making apologies for ISIS terrorists! They're Muslim fanatics!

On Friday, in "'You're next!', Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul warns West", Walt made the point that the ISIS extremists who destroyed Christian churches in Iraq and beheaded James Foley are adherents to the same religious faith -- Islam -- that the Pope himself tells us is really a "religion of peace", believers in the same God we believe in, not to mention the brotherhood of man, dialogue rather than violence to resolve conflicts, yada yada yada. "We're all brothers", as the current PC thinking would have it. Of course that's the veriest rubbish!

That's the point made today in Canada's National Post by that eminent son of The Rock, Rex Murphy -- a great one for cutting through the fog of political correctness to tell it as it really is. Today he asks "In [the] wake of James Foley’s beheading, can we finally say the I-word?"

When, he wonders, are we going to stop avoiding calling things by their real names, by "dipping deeds and practices into the sludge of euphemism". Good question, and particularly pertinent in view of the way the lamestream media are talking about the beheading of James Foley. Here's more of what Rex has to say.

Religion, even in a form that civilized people may regard as violently debased, is still a religion to those who embrace it. I stress, and do not apologize for, my use of the word "civilized" there. If hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, subscribe to a violent theological creed, it simply will not do to pretend -- as some Western leaders, clergymen, journalists and professors insist on doing -- that these are merely misguided souls who don't properly know how to interpret a holy book.

The BBC's Security Correspondent...said the barbaric ritual beheading "was not about religion". Well, how many "allahu akbars" have to be ululated before [he] would accept it and kindred butcheries as religious? Have he and we so soon forgotten the psychiatrist at Fort Hood, Texas, who stood up and shouted "allahu akbar" before killing 13 people? That was not supposed to be "about religion" either. Military officials and law-enforcement investigators turned collectively blue in the face before acknowledging what the killer himself proudly proclaimed, that it was, in his brutal mind at least, a "religious" act.

One of the worst offenders, of course, is the Prez, who Mr. Murphy accuses of offering his, by now too familiar, affectless mush on the killing. He declared that 'no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.' But that’s not how ISIS reads the Koran.

Who is Obama not to take ISIS at its word? Like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, it is their declared goal of restoring the “Caliphate” that stirs their demented souls. If they name their religion, let us name it, too.

"It’s a sign there is an utter ruthlessness and depravity about this movement which is hideous and sickening and deplorable," is how Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott described ISIS this week. He said the killing was "as close to pure evil as we are likely to see."

Pure evil — there’s a terminology adequate to the deed.

Walt can only add that if you missed "St. James the Greater, 'Slayer of the Moors'", posted here a month ago, you should read it now. Where is St. James when we need him so badly? [Try Santiago de Compostela. Ed.]

Canuck cabinet ministers not really up for official bilingualism

A person who speaks many languages is multilingual.
A person who speaks two languages is bilingual.
A person who speaks only one language is... English!

That joke has been around for centuries. Of more recent vintage is the one about the southern Baptist preacher whose argument for having English as the only official language of the USA was "If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!"

You hear a lot of such talk in Armerica, as the use of Spanish in day-to-day life spreads north and east, buoyed on the wave of immigrants (legal and otherwise) from south of the border. Those who insist that the USA should have only one official language -- English -- point to Canada as an example of the confusion and cost of bilingualism.

For those who don't know [most Americans. Ed.], Canada has two official languages -- English and French. Notice that I didn't say "national languages". That's because the word "national", common to both English and French, has slightly different meanings. The French "national" refers to ethnicity -- Frenchness -- and is thus a heavily loaded word in the multicultural mess that Canada has become.

But never mind. Bilingualism has been a principal policy of the Canadian government for half a century, and has given a certain style to all communication, written and oral, by public bodies and officials. The style is sometimes called "AirCanada-speak", from the days when AirCan was the national -- oops, can't say that -- the state-owned airline. Here's an example. "Veuillez boucler vos ceintures de sécurité, please fasten your seatbelts." -- all said in one breath. Which language would be spoken first depends on whether the closest city is in a French-speaking or English-speaking area. Really.

But that's the law in Canada! And there's even a Commissioner of Official Languages/Commissaire aux langues officielles to make sure that all public pronouncements are made in both languages. Not kidding. Check out his website.

Uttering platitudes in English and French simultaneously is no biggie for Canuck Prime Minister Steve Harpoon, whose dogged determination to learn the language on the other side of the corn flakes box has served him well. But some of his top cabinet minister apparently flunked high school French and can't be arsed to take remedial lessons.

Walt refers to "Johnboy" Baird and "Skinny Tony" Clement, who preside over the Foreign Affairs Ministry and Treasury Board respectively. Messrs Baird and Clement love to demonstrate their coolness and connectedness by Twittering and tweeting about this, that and the other. [Especially "the other", in the case of "Nancy" Baird. Ed.] But they do so mostly in English, since that's the only language in which they are more-or-less fluent. Too bad for them, because the language police are on their case!

Jason Fekete, writing in the Ottawa Citizen, tells us that the Commissioner of Official Languages is trying to determine whether cabinet ministers, on their personal Twitter accounts, have responsibilities under Canada’s language laws when tweeting on government business or posting information for their departments. "The outcome of the investigation, could put a chill on federal ministers’ use of social media and erode the spontaneity of communicating directly, in real time, with the public."

What do the ministers concerned have to say? One of the most government's most prolific tweetie-pies, Michelle Rempel, the Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, told the Citizen, "My dept. is fully compliant (tweets in both languages) – as it should be. Press releases are the same. While my French is coming along nicely, and I have a great desire to be fully proficient in it, English is still my primary language and as such tweets from my personal account reflect the same."

Mr. Clement went a little farther, tweeting, "I think it’s a ridiculous waste of time. I sometimes tweet in French, much in English. If he [the Commissioner] proposes to overlord me [sic], I will quit Twitter." Dare we hope!

Walt's advice to all of them: If you can't write coherently in proper English, don't write at all. As Mark Twain said, "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

"You're next!", Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul warns West

This is the Most Reverend Amel Nona, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Iraq. Behind him is what remains of St. Paul's Cathedral, destroyed in July by the jihadists of ISIS. These are the Islamic extremists the Vatican was telling us we must "dialogue" with, until recent events proved that there can be no dialogue with the devil.

The ISIS forces -- much more powerful than Al-Qaeda at its peak -- have forced a million Christians in Syria and Iraq to either convert to Islam or be killed. Until the very public beheading of James Foley this week, the Prez and other western "leaders" thought the war in the Fertile Crescent was little more than "a spot of local trouble" which could be handled with a few well-placed air strikes. This week it finally dawned on Messrs Obama, Cameron et al. that we could be next. See "'We’re coming for you, Barack Obama': Top U.S. official discloses threat from ISIL", from the Washington Times.

In an August 18th interview with Corriere della Sera, Archbishop Nona describes the danger as being not in the future, but clear and present. The fanatics are not coming, he says. They are already here! Speaking of our insane immigration policies which welcome increasing numbers of Muslims into our countries, the prelate said, "Our sufferings today are the prelude of those you, Europeans and Western Christians, will also suffer in the near future.... "I lost my diocese. The physical setting of my apostolate has been occupied by Islamic radicals who want us converted or dead.... You will become the victims of the enemy you have welcomed into your home."

Further reading: "ISIS Leader Says Christians Must Convert to Stay", from the English edition of Corriere della Sera.

NOT a picture of an innocent young black guy

One of Walt's agents sent this along.

Was it photoshopped or otherwise faked? Dunno. Was it really lifted from the Facebook page of a recently deceased unarmed black teenager? Ditto. Who arethese guys, anyway? Surely not the late Michael Brown and his accomplice in the Great Cigar Heist!

Hey, I said "NOT the late Michael Brown". Shame on you (and 1000s of others) for thinking what you thought. According to the NewsOne website (for Black America), one of these guys is Micus Brown and the other one is his cousin Joda Cain, both of Portland OR. (Walt's not sure which is which.)

NewsOne reports that Joda, 17, is accused of murdering his great-grandmother at her home in Portland, Oregon then stealing her car to flee the area. He and his cousin, Micus Ward, 19, allegedly killed the 71-year-old grandma after a party they threw at her home. When Cain was planning the party, friends asked him would the noise bother his great-grandmother and he allegedly said, "Don’t worry, I’ll hit her. I’ll knock her out."

How did this picture get all over the Internet, then? Apparently it was posted by Marc Catron, an officer of the Kansas City police. Officer Catron is reportedly under "internal review" following Facebook posts about Michael Brown, including this photo.

Was there any text? Errr, yes. The caption above the photo reads "I'm sure young Michael Brown is innocent and just misunderstood. I'm sure he is a pillar of the Ferguson community." For good measure, Officer Catron added, "Remember how white people rioted after OJ’s acquittal? Me neither."

Death by oranges

These are South African oranges -- Valencias, I believe. [Don't Valencias come from Spain? Ed.] The may look soft and juicy, but that's just on the inside. Until you peel them, they're quite hard.

Hard enough, in fact, to kill a person, if thrown at him with force and in quantity. At least, that's the theory police in South Africa's Limpopo province are working on to explain the sudden death of a farm worker near the tiny town of Tzaneen.

AP reports today that two men are suspected of killing the unnamed peasant by pelting him with oranges. Citing eyewitness accounts, police Lt. Col. Moatshe Ngoepe said the suspects allegedly argued with the man, then collected oranges and began hurling them at him. "They started pelting the deceased with all those loose oranges," he said, "killing him on the spot."

Really? The cop cautioned that an investigation was still underway and aspects of a case he described as "complicated" still had to be verified. However, the farm worker was decidedly dead, declared so at the scene, yet he had no "visible injury", suggesting he may have suffered blunt trauma. Results of an autopsy are awaited.

The truth about all-star defenceman P.K. Subban

Note from Ed.: Regular readers of WWW may have remarked on the absence of Walt's sidekick, Poor Len Canayen, who has not graced this site since the Montréal Canadiens defeat in the NHL Eastern Conference final.

He seems to have emerged from his state of shock and has forwarded the following comment about P.K. Subban, the allegedly super defenceman for whom the Habs this month opened the vault, to the tune of C$72 million -- $65.5 million in real money -- spread over the next eight years.

Eh bien... I haven't said anything about the decision of Marc Bergevin and the Canadiens' management to make P.K. Subban the best-paid defenceman in the NHL, after letting go Josh Gorges, who could actually play his position and could have been resigned for half the money. I just don't understand it.

It's not as if I didn't tell them the truth about Subban's flaws, three times already this year. See "Memo to Marc Bergevin: It's time to trade Subban!", "P.K. can't be trusted on the P.K.!" and "M Bergevin, les amateurs du CH vous prient!". For my pains, I've been called a bigot and other vile terms. And the Montréal moguls didn't heed my advice in any case.

OK then, Messrs Molson, Bergevin et al. You don't want to listen to me? Then listen to Alexei Kovalev, one of the Habs' best scorers of recent years. Even though he left the club five years ago, his heart is still in Montréal, it seems, and he is following the fortunes of les Glorieux closely. Here's what he thinks of P.K. Subban, as quoted by Guillaume Lefrançois in La Presse.

"C'est un bon joueur, mais il demeure un défenseur à risques. Il peut donner cinq buts, mais en permettre cinq, donc le pointage serait égal. Je le compare toujours à Brian Leetch, car il veut aussi jouer selon un style plus offensif. Il ne prend pas toujours les bonnes décisions et il joue seulement comme il le faisait dans la rue, dans son enfance."

For those who don't read the language of Molière, here's my free translation:
"He's a good player, but he's still a risky defenceman. He can give you five goals, but also allow five, so the scoring comes out even. I always compare him to Brian Leetch, because he also wants to play a more offensive style. He doesn't always take good decisions, and he plays basically the same way he did in the street, when he was a kid."

So there. But if Kovalev's assessment should prove to be correct -- as I'm sure it will -- what are the Canadiens to do now? How about a trade to... let's say Toronto. The Maple Laffs are the richest team in the league, with the bucks to blow on P.K.'s humongous contract. They badly need help on defence. And after all, Subban is a Toronto native.

Is Ferguson really about race?

Arentcha getting sick of reading about the riots and looting in Ferguson? Walt is getting tired of writing about this subject, but thinks Americans need to understand what's going on there, in the broader context of the half-century struggle for "civil rights" and "equality".

Today's post is prompted by "Is Michael Brown's shooting death really about race?", by veteran CBC News reporter Keith Boag, on the scene. There's a short video too, in which Mr. Boag steps away from the scene of the crimes to ask some "normal" citizens of Ferguson what's really going on.

In the article, he describes watching two white people having their cellphones snatched, in broad daylight, by young black thugs -- the kind of trash who might well deserve the N-word epithet. Says the reporter, "I have had race relations and "crime and punishment" issues buzzing around in my head constantly since I arrived in Ferguson. Suddenly, some things I thought were settled in my mind came loose and started to float around again. All because of foolish young men behaving like caricatures."

"Foolish" young black men, dressed in their saggy pants uniforms, grabbing stuff they want without regard to law, decency or morality. Call it a caricature. Call it a stereotype. That's how the rest of America -- including older blacks -- sees African-Americans today. And not without reason.

The USA today [Hey, that could be the name of a newspaper for 5th-graders! Ed.] is beset by a large and growing back underclass -- ignorant, uncouth, loutish, drug-ridden, welfare-dependent bastards. (Nearly three-quarters of births to black mothers in the USA are illegitimate.) This in spite of half a century of civil rights and other US government laws designed to ensure that all Americans would be "equal"...and integrated too.

Americans were promised that the civil rights acts of the mid-60s would usher in an era of racial harmony and equality, not just equality of opportunity but equality of result for the hitherto disadvantaged members of society. African-Americans -- or "Negroes", as they were called in those days -- thought they were going to get white jobs, white cars, white houses and [that's enough. Ed.]

Affirmative action programmes were devised to put blacks at the head of the line for government jobs, admission to college, and just about everything else. That was supposed to pull them up out of the ignorance and poverty which white Americans supposedly forced on them. But that's not what happened. What happened was that the rest of society was mongrelized, debased and degraded. And still African-Americans are not "equal" -- not the same as white Americans. Should we be surprised?

At the very end of Coming of Age in Mississippi (Dell, 1970), Anne Moody, a civil rights activist in the `60s, quotes the last two lines of "We Shall Overcome" and adds, "I wonder. I really wonder." Walt wonders what Anne Moody thinks about racial equality and the "events" in Ferguson. Sadly, we won't be able to ask her. According to Wikipedia, Ms Moody does not appear in public or grant interviews.

Top MO cop says Ferguson chaos is going to "make us better"

It's been a quiet week in Fort Mudge, where the men are good-looking, the women are strong, and the children are just about average. Garrison Keillor beat you to that lead-in. Ed. OK, it's been a quiet weekend in Fort Mudge, but not so far away, in Ferguson MO, things just go from bad to worse.

Walt is checking out reports of yesterday's protests and demonstrations. When not busy looting stores and throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the cops, the protesters are chanting for "justice", meaning, it would seem, "justice" for Michael Brown and only Michael Brown. If there were any justice for the looters they'd be shot on sight. But of course that would be yet another example of Armerican racism, since the looters are 99.99% black.

Last night's curfew seems to have been more or less observed, perhaps because the looters were sleeping off their hangovers after the effects of Saturday night's looted hooch wore off.

Or maybe the rabble were in church, listening to the "Reverend" Al Sharpton rouse them. Here we see a picture of the Rev coaching Michael Brown Junior's parents -- Michael Brown Senior and Lesley McSpade [Ed., please check spelling.] -- to make sure they've got their stories straight about what a good boy "Junior" was.

Too bad that the videos and still pix released by the Ferguson P.D. give the lie to the contention that the young man was nothing more than a hulking innocent -- a "gentle giant" as one speaker called him. He didn't look so gentle beating on the shopkeeper as he stole the box of cigars.

But really, you know, it was bad of the cops to show those pix. An NAACP spokesthingy appeared on TV to call doing so "posthumous character assassination". And Missouri Governor Jay Nixon called the publication of the pictures -- the veracity of which is unquestioned -- "unhelpful", which is what liberals always call any message which disagrees with their party line. He said the release of the footage "appeared to cast aspersions" on the dead man -- tsk tsk! -- and "made emotions raw".

That was just before Governor Nixon called out the Missouri National Guard, to restore order, which the militarized police and state patrol had failed to do. Sure. When the paramilitary types can't get the job done, call out the "real" military.

Mr. Nixon's speech wasn't helpful either. Walt wonders if the gov has any feeling at all for the reality of life in places like Ferguson. But today's award for proficiency in putting lipstick on a pig goes to that Master of Political Correctness, Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Patrol. Preaching at a Ferguson church, he said "We need to thank the Browns for Michael.... It's gonna make us better.... Let's continue to show this nation who we are.... We need to thank Michael for his life [and for] the change he's gonna make.... I'll stand tall wichya and I'll see ya out there!"

Click here to see the video clip [preferably before eating. Ed.] and ask yourself, was this helpful? Yeah, Ron, see ya on the street!

Ferguson "protests" - read "looting" - continue

Yesterday Walt wondered if any cigars had been found on the body of Michael Brown, the young black man accused of robbing a Ferguson MO convenience store a few minutes before he was shot dead by a local cop. Later yesterday, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said that "evidence of the stolen merchandise" was indeed found in Brown's possession.

The police also distributed copies of surveillance video showing a large black man throttling a smaller Asian shopkeeper before leaving the store with some ill-gotten goods. (A montage of stills from the video is in yesterday's last post on WWW.) You have to admire the chutzpah of the Brown family's attorney, Algonquin J. Calhoun [Daryl Parks, surely! Ed.] who admitted that the man shown in the surveillance footage "appears to be" Brown. But he and others said the family was "blindsided" by the allegations and release of the footage. Even if it was Brown in the video, they said, the crime didn't justify the shooting of a teen after he put up his hands in surrender to the officer, as his friends are saying.

Another family lawyer, Benjamin Crump, said police "are choosing to disseminate information that is very strategic to try to help them justify the execution-style" killing. Attorney Crump also represented the family of Trayvon Martin, the teenager fatally shot by a Florida neighborhood watch organizer who was later acquitted of murder. Walt wonders how the Brown family can afford to hire not just one but a team of lawyers.

Meanwhile, on West Florissant Avenue, la loota continua.

Just before midnight, some in what had been a large and rowdy crowd of "protesters" broke into the same small store which Brown was accused of robbing, and began looting it, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson. Oh yeah, they broke into a liquor store too. A little brandy to go with the cigars, perhaps.

Capt. Johnson said police backed off to try and ease the tension. No arrests were made. "We had to evaluate the security of the officers there and also the rioters," Johnson said. "We just felt it was better to move back." In other words, the looters were allowed to get away with it. After all, the FBI is on the scene, and we wouldn't want to see anyone's civil rights infringed...right?

Protests over death of an "innocent" black youth continue

Walt presents, without much further comment, a video clip from CBC News, showing how serious the "black community" is in its demand for "justice" in the shooting of Michael Brown.

Note from Ed.: You'll have to take my word for it, there really was a video showing black yoofs boogyin' down the street doing the "hands up, don't shoot" dance. What a great sense of rhythm they have! But the video seems to have disappeared from the politically correct CBC News website. It's "unavailable" now. But here's the rest of this morning's news from Ferguson.

While the party continues, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson identified Darren Wilson as the shooter. Chief Jackson said Officer Wilson -- a six-year veteran of the force -- was called, along with other officers, the area after a 911 call reporting a "strong-arm robbery" at a nearby convenience store. Apparently a couple of yoofs of the coloured persuasion grabbed a box of cigars. It is not known whether any cigars were found on the body of Michael Brown.

UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE: The Ferguson Police Department has just released a montage of stills from surveillance video shot at the convenience store on August 9th. And what do we see here? A large black boy behaving badly towards a smaller shopkeeper who appears to be Asian. Do the stereotypes never end? Can't see the box of cigars. And is the large boy not just black but Brown? Even if he is, executing him seems a little severe. After all, scenes like this occur 100s of times every day, right across Armerica.

Canuck media personality says Jews control world's media, economies

Gilles Proulx is a well-known media personality -- well-known in Québec at least -- with a long history of political incorrectness, going back as far as the Oka crisis of 1990, when his anti-aboriginal comments were blamed for an ugly incident at the entrance to the Kahnawake reserve just outside Montréal.

M Proulx has been a fixture on Québec radio and TV for four decades, ranting about all and sundry, without regard to race, colour or creed. He does, however, show a particular dislike for anglophones (Canajan-speak for English-speakers) and immigrants who fail to integrate themselves into Québec society.

He has also been known to make decidely un-PC remarks about Jews. Last week, in his column in Le Journal de Montréal headlined "Le Hamas: Hydre de Lerne", M Proulx wrote: "No need to be an expert to say that Israel could make Washington, Paris or Ottawa bend, knowing in advance that its diaspora, well established, will make any government submit."*

Just in case we didn't understand what he meant, M Proulx elaborated on his thinking on the Montréal phone-in show "Radio X". Suggesting that Jews historically provoke hate and persecution, he said "The diaspora is scattered around the world, where they take economic control, provoke the hatred of local nations, whether it is in Spain, for example, with the Inquisition, or again later with Adolf Hitler."

Later he added, "The diasporas are so powerful in Paris, New York, Toronto or in Ottawa or Montreal, that they can manipulate the government through their opinions, their threats, their pressure, making it a marionette."

Predictably, the usual suspects -- the Israel Activist Alliance, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, yada yada yada -- have denounced M Proulx for being "anti-Semitic" and have called for his head, along with those of the publishers and producers who allowed him to say such things in public. All of which would seem to prove the point.

One commentator, though, was not particularly shocked. Ira Robinson, interim director of the Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies at Concordia University, said that Mr. Proulx’s comments are nothing new, but "a continuation of a trend that has quite a history, and not merely with Proulx but with other radio commentators in Québec over the last several years."

Mr. Robinson added, "There’s a sort of discourse in francophone Québec where this sort of thing comes forth. Québec is the kind of place where these controversial issues are discussed much more openly than in English Canada." In other words (says Walt), Québec is the sort of place where you are still free to speak the truth as you see it, without fear of the PC police.

* Note from Ed.: I tried really hard to crack the firewall at Le Journal de Montréal, for you, but if you want to read the entirety of M Proulx's column, it looks as if you'll have to pay. Perhaps Le Journal de Montréal is owned by Jews. I wouldn't know.

Paramilitary police rule the Paranoid States of America

Walt is a year older. [Than what? Dirt? Ed.] I'll answer that... I'm so old I can remember when people could write and speak grammatical English. I can remember when popular music had melodies you could hum and lyrics you could sing in decent company. And I can remember when children were taught that policemen -- there were no policewomen or policepersons in those days -- were our friends, human and caring people, the sort who would take a runaway kid back home. [Remember the kindly beat cop in Going My Way? Ed.

But times have changed. Cops have changed. Now, whether as a result of the War on Drugs or the War on Terror -- or the War on Poverty ?? -- North American police see themselves as warriors, "serving and protecting" by keeping "law and order" in our cities by using deadly force against terrorists, criminals and, errr, the rest of us... whenever and wherever they feel like it.

Why do they do that? For the same reason a dog licks his balls. Because they can! Police in the Paranoid States of America [Canada too! Ed.] have been thoroughly militarized. What the lamestream media are now calling the "unrest" in Ferguson MO is just the latest example of how that militarization can play out in city streets.

The cops occupying the St. Louis suburb are -- like most state and local police forces -— outfitted with the armoured vehicles, battering rams and flashbang grenades once reserved for troops. Police and "protesters" have clashed every day and every night since Michael Brown, an apparently unarmed black kid, was shot by an as-yet-unnamed policeman on Saturday. Vandalism and looting broke out the next day. A store was set on fire. Al Sharpton arrived.

As noted here two days ago, police responded in full riot gear. Yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration briefly shut down the airspace above Ferguson as a precautionary measure. Against what, for heaven's sake?! You'd think war had been declared. Oh, wait... Surely a more appropriate response to riots -- for that's what they are -- would be officers armed with pistols and billy clubs, not M-16s and grenade launchers.

Writing in Business Insider, Paul Szoldra, asks "Why do these cops need MARPAT camo pants?", referring to the pattern designed for the US Marine Corps, or MARine PATtern. When he was serving in Afghanistan, Szoldra says, they used big trucks and uniforms intended to project an image as occupiers. When, he asks, did this became OK on domestic soil?

As Walt told you last spring in "SWAT teams abuse your right -- 1000s of times a year!", studies by Prof. Peter Kraska, of Eastern Kentucky University, show that between the mid-1980s and late 1990s, the percentage of cities of 50,000 or more, like St. Louis, with a paramilitary unit almost doubled to 89 per cent.

Smaller cities, with populations of 25-50,000, saw an even greater jump –- from 20 per cent to 80 per cent. "These trends would mean little if these teams were relatively inactive," he wrote, "This was not the case."

Once the police are equipped and trained in the ways of the military -- the art of war -- they naturally want to put all that training and all those big-boy toys to use. Cops like bullying people! Cops like shooting people! It is their nature... like the dog mentioned above...

Prof. Kraska found that between 1980 and 2000, there was a 1,400% increase (!!) in police "paramilitary deployments". The majority of the deployments were for drug raids in private homes, not the intended goal of a SWAT team, which is emergency situations like hostage takings and shooter scenarios where the extra weaponry might be required.

Two months ago, the American Civil Liberties Union released a report ominously titled "War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing". Their statistics for the years 2011-2012 confirm the trend identified by Prof. Kraska.

Of more than 800 SWAT deployments in those two years, 79% were to search the homes of private citizens, largely in drug probes. If it hadn't been the police carrying out these operations, we'd call them "home invasions", for that's what they are -- "legalized" home invasions.

The ACLU criticizes US policing for becoming unnecessarily and dangerously militarized. "Neighbourhoods are not war zones, and our police officers should not be treating us like wartime enemies," said the report. Any further comment from Walt would be superfluous.

Double Darwin: couple falls to death while posing for holiday photo

This is Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of Portugal, thus of Europe. Walt's Portuguese is a little rusty, but I believe the name means "Cape of Rocks". Very apt. And below the rocks is the Atlantic Ocean. Busloads of tourists visit this point every day, to have their pictures taken standing at the end of the civilized world.

You would have to be pretty stupid, though, to climb over the guardrails to get even closer to the brink, so as to have a more spectacular shot. But sure enough, a holidaying husband and wife -- estúpidos turistas, as they're known in Portuguese -- fell to their death on Saturday while posing right at the edge of the cliff, so their kids (ages 5 and 6) could take their picture.

According to the Portugal Resident, the couple fell about 450 feet to their deaths, as their children looked on in horror. Although the website says they were from Lisbon, other media have identified them as Polish. [No comments, please. Ed.] Their bodies have yet to be recovered.

Cabo da Roca is a famous spot for photo ops, and this is reportedly not the first time visitors have fallen to their death in similar circumstances. However, originality is not a criterion for Darwin Awards, and this couple richly deserves a Double Darwin.

Ferguson MO: La loota continua!

Walt doesn't usually run more than one picture per post, but the race riot -- for that's what it is -- in Ferguson MO deserves more. These three, from the online edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, tell you all you need to know about race relations in America, or at least in this typical mid-west American city.

The first two were taken at the QuikTrip in the 9400 block of Florissant Road. We see members of the black underclass -- for that's what it is -- helping themselves to whatever they can carry away. Why? To protest racism and police brutality of course.

Notice that the young buck pictured here is wearing the traditional baggy pants costume of his people.

When all the mess is cleaned up, and the stores are boarded up, leaders of this "community" will doubtless be heard complaining that there's nowhere to buy food or clothing or anything else because the racist white business establishment is disciminating against their 'hood.

And here's the response of the establishment. The Post-Dispatch says the police, now turned into soldiers, are firing teargas. Walt is no expert, but the weapon being aimed by the cop (soldier?) in the centre looks more like an assault rifle. Yes, just another example of racist police shooting at poor innocent black folks.

Click here to see the entire gallery from the Post-Dispatch. La loota continua!

Is swimming nude at the beach an act of terrorism?

A group of people who live near a "clothing optional" beach in Penticton BC have started a petition asking the city and police to ban nudity on the beach. The fight for space on the beach began at the end of May, when the owners of a piece of property where "naturists" had been swimming and sunbathing for decades blocked off the area, saying the nudists were trespassing and scaring off prospective buyers.

Since then, the nudists have occupied an area of the public beach adjacent to the property, drawing the ire of some people who live nearby. Dennis Roszell, who owns a home across from the beach, claimed the nudists are deliberately intimidating the public with their actions.

Walt doesn't see what all the fuss is about. After all, these folks have their hats on! But (in an e-mail from Alberta, where he actually lives) Mr. Roszell said, "The nudists have actually perpetuated their blatant crimes to a point of terrorist activity and should be convicted of terrorism."

Another neighbour, who didn't wish to be named, said "We feel if we don’t do something about it now it’s only going to get worse." So he and other neighbours composed a petition which began circulating last week. It calls for "immediate action" and a sign that reads "No nudity allowed on 3 Mile Beach."

"It’s a really huge concern in the community," said another local resident. "Families and the public are no longer able to enjoy the place because there’s a bunch of people sitting there with their pants off."

Everyone on Three Mile Road signed the petition, he added, except for one man who is himself a nudist.

St. Louis African-Americans protest racist police brutality

Summertime...and the lootin' is easy... This AP photo was taken in Ferguson, Missouri, a predominantly black suburb of St. Louis. The thief pictured is protesting in the traditional African-American manner and against the racism of American society and the brutality of the local police.

A white police officer shot non-white Michael Brown, 18, on Saturday afternoon, after encountering Mr. Brown and another man on a street in Ferguson. According to County Police Chief Jon Belmar, one of the non-white men shoved the cop into his cruiser and a struggle began. At least one shot was fired inside the cruiser, presumably from the cop's gun, since the black kids were unarmed. Several more shots were fired, as a result of which Mr. Brown died from exsanguination.

Mayor James Knowles said he understood that people of the African-American community would "want to vent their frustrations. We understand they want to speak out." Quite right. It only took a couple of hours for John Gaskin, speaking for the NAACP, to shout "We're outraged because yet again a young African-American man has been killed by law enforcement."

Following the ensuing candlelight vigil, people of the darker persuasion looted shops, vandalised cars and stores, and set a gas station on fire as police tried to block off access to several areas of St. Louis. Rev. Al Sharpton is expected to arrive today to urge his people to even greater feats of peaceful demonstration. Stay tuned.

Notes from Ed.: (1) Walt has been waiting for decades to use the word "exsanguination" in a sentence. (2) If you can't remember what NAACP stands for, please rest assured the first word is not the N-word. Anyway, as demonstrations such as this show, the NAACP doesn't stand for very much.

Book review: "Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul"

If you don't believe in the afterlife -- in Heaven and Hell -- you can stop reading right now. This is not for you. But if you do believe, or even if you're just unsure, you should read Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, the latest book by Father Nicholas Gruner, "the Fatima Priest".

Father Gruner has written many short pieces -- magazine articles, papers and the like -- but this is only his second book. The first was World Enslavement or Peace, which concentrated chiefly on the Message of Our Lady of Fatima, which Father Gruner has been preaching relentlessly for nearly four decades. In Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, Father Gruner answers the question: What is the purpose of human life?

The answer, as anyone who has been properly taught the basics of the Catholic Faith should know, is that the purpose of human life is to save our immortal souls.

Sadly, fewer and fewer people -- even highly educated people, even Catholic churchmen -- actually know the Catholic Faith. They have come of age since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), which blurred and distorted the clear truths of the traditional Faith handed down to us from the Apostles through the great doctors, teachers and leaders of the Church. As Father Gruner says, they have not been nourished on the solid food of the true Faith, but have been fed "the sentimental pablum of our times".

This lack of formation in Catholic truth has terrible consequences. People make decisions about crucial matters -- marriage, for instance -- based on wrong information, on false ideas. As a result, their lives become a mess -- full of confusion and disorder.

In the 50 years since Vatican II, the condition of the Church and the world has grown steadily worse. Most Catholics don't understand why so many bad things are happening in our society and in their own church. In Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, Father Gruner argues that we can no longer rely on our Church leaders to be faithful to the immemorial truths of the Deposit of Faith. He clears away the fog that has settled over the Catholic landscape since Vatican II, and shows clearly how we can separate the things we must believe to be saved from the things -- the novelties and heresies -- we must reject.

Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul is concise, factual, and easy to read -- unlike some other "Fatimist" books. Reading it is like having a conversation with Father Gruner about what his work has meant and what he has learned over the years. One of my dear Catholic friends told me "I learned things I should have known before, which became perfectly clear to me as I read this book."

The book includes, as an appendix, the interview given by Sister Lucia, the chief seer of Fatima, to Father Augustine Fuentes, on 26 December 1957. We can see now the accuracy of her prophecy of the defections and betrayals of so many priests and nuns. Her plea is even more timely for us today than when she spoke in the last known public statement she gave before being silenced almost totally for the rest of her life.

Also worth reading is the preface by James Hanisch, who collaborated with Father Gruner in the writing of Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul. He recounts his conversation with Father Gruner in April of 2013, which led to the writing of the book.

"If only [he writes] there were a brief and simple booklet...demonstrating that the true Catholic Rule of Faith is not arbitrarily subject to the whims and fads of a 'living magisterium', and that no churchman of any rank has the 'authority' to change Revealed Truth or to undermine the good of the Church."

Now, that book is available. To get a copy, send an e-mail to info@fatima.org, or call toll-free: 1-800-263-8160. Tell them Walt sent you. And no, Walt doesn't get anything for making this recommendation. I believe Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul is a book you should read for the purpose disclosed by the title, so I'm telling you about it. Period.

Iraq: Is calling in air strikes enough?

The Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities of Iraq clearly needed help to resist the invasion by the Sunni Muslim terrorists who call themselves "the Islamic state" (ISIS). The word "genocide" springs to mind when 1000s of people are herded like sheep -- lambs to the slaughter -- to the top of a mountain and told that they must either convert to Islam or die.

Divine intervention is called for, prayed for. But God and the Pope have no divisions, as Joseph Stalin famously said, so help must come from those that do. Walt therefore applauds the decision of President Obama to authorise the bombing, by drones and manned aircraft, of ISIS artillery and other positions.

But a question nags at my mind [or what passes for such. Ed.] Can the air strikes be anything but a prelude to an invasion by ground forces? Air power first, tanks and troops next. That's what happened in Iraq the first time. And in Afghanistan. And in Vietnam. That's because air power, awesome though it may be -- remember those scenes in Apocalypse Now? -- is never, by itself, sufficient to enable a foreign power to defeat an army or guerrilla force of locals. Take Gaza as today's example. Hamas isn't beaten yet, and the Israelis know it.

If the Gaza argument isn't persuasive enough, consider the thoughts of Matthew Bunker Ridgway. General Ridgway held several major commands in the United States Army and was most famous for resurrecting the United Nations war effort during the Korean War. Several historians have given him the credit for turning the war around in favour of the UN side.

To quote from The Fifties, by David Halberstam (Villard Books, New York, 1993): In World War II and Korea, and in Korea particularly, [Gen. Ridgway] had seen what the Air Force had promised to do with strategic bombing and how limited, in fact, strategic bombing was as an instrument of policy. If we bombed, he argued, we would end up inevitably using ground troops. Ridgway saw air power as as a sort of high-tech aspirin; it gave some immediate relief, but it did not cure the underlying problem.

In Walt's view, we can no longer refer to the ISIS forces as just terrorists. They are a large, well-trained, well-equipped, battle-hardened army. They are in control of large chunks of Syria and Iraq. How they can be defeated without yet another Western invasion of those countries is our dilemma for today. If anyone has a solution, please don't write to me. Send it to the Prez, because neither he nor his advisors seem at all sure of what to do next.

Waiting for the balloon(s) to go up

This just in...

"President Barack Obama has approved targeted air strikes in Iraq, near the site where some 40,000 religious minorities are trapped on a mountaintop after fleeing from Islamic State militants who have threatened to kill them.

"Obama said the Iraqi government asked for U.S. help in fighting Islamic State militants, who have surged across northern Iraq in the country's Kurdish region, forcing tens of thousands of Christians and Yazidis — a Kurdish ethno-religious community — to leave their homes or risk death."

Meanwhile, to the northwest, Russian troops are massing along the border with Ukraine. NATO has called on Russia to "step back", otherwise they will, errr, well... that's kind of unclear. If (God forbid) NATO wants to call in an airstrike on the Russkis, who're they gonna call? The USAF will, it seems, be occupied elsewhere.

And... yes, there's more... there seem to be two chances of a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, the two chances being slim and none.

What next? To be clear, Walt is glad the USA is coming to the defence of the Christians (etc) in Iraq. Better late than never. And Walt would support the use of lethal force to keep the Russians from gobbling up any more of Ukraine. The fear, of course, is that the Islamic militants and/or Russians might stand and fight. So what should we do? Walt's answer: Go big or go home! But...

Memo to Ed.: Remember that bomb shelter we built out in the back 40? Do you remember where I put the key?

Rap VIDEO shoot turns out to be just that!

That an "aspiring rap artist" nearly died of gunshot wounds is hardly news, but when the shooter turns out to be the shootee's bro, that's news! So here's this month's nomination for a Darwin Award (Honourable Mention).

Early last Saturday, a music video shoot at a Bronx bodega turned violent after one member of a rap duo reportedly opened fire on his partner, wounding him in the head, legs, and chest. According to the bodega's owner, the shooting was triggered by an argument over who was the video's star.

The owner of the store, one Ali Abdul [No relation to Apu Nahasapeemapetilon? Ed.] told the New York Daily News, "They were fighting over who's the star, who's better. They were drunk. They spit at each other then one guy pulled out a gun and shot the other guy five times."



Did you notice that the gunman never let go of his drink during the shooting? How cool is that! The video shows several cool witnesses casually stepping over the victim as he writhed on the floor in pain. The victim is in critical condition at a local hospital and is expected to survive. The shooter remains at large. He is described as black [that's enough description... Ed.]

How black do you have to be to be "black enough"?

What you have to understand, to appreciate the irony of this story, is that Canada's equal rights laws -- included in its "Charter of Rights", a part of the constitution -- are so progressive and righteous as to make America's seem like Jim Crow laws by comparison. Never should anything done by anyone in the Great Not-so-white North be tainted by the merest suggestion of discrimination on the basis of colour. Hiring/firing decisions, for instance, mustn't betray a hint of tint!

Poetic justice, then, that a woman of colour [person of colour, surely! Ed.] took to the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission a complaint that she had been wrongfully fired by her employer because of the colour of her skin. Her employer was the Black Educators Association. And the problem with Ms Brothers's colour was that she was not black enough!

No, gentle reader, Walt is not making this up. Unfortunately, the Canuck lamestream media seems unable to find even a tiny picture of Ms Brothers, so we can see what colour she might be. Apparently she's not white, else she wouldn't have been hired in the first place, so Walt assumes she's what was once called a "high yeller". [Are you referring to the pitch of her voice? Ed.]

In a decision released this morning, the Human Rights Commission found that Brothers was "undermined by association staff whose 'colourist thinking' and behaviour created a toxic work environment at the head office in Halifax and the Annapolis Valley regional office in Kentville, where Ms. Brothers was employed as a regional educator."

The woman named in the report for discriminating against Ms Brothers was Catherine Collier, who was vying with Ms Brothers for the same regional educator position, a job which Ms Brothers landed. The HR police chief [Human Rights Commission Chairman, surely! Ed.] said in his report, "It is clear to me that Ms Brothers was undermined in part because she was younger than, and not as black as, Ms Collier thought Ms. Brothers should be.... In Ms. Collier's eyes, Ms. Brothers was not really black enough."

The Association has been ordered to pay Brothers C$11,000 -- $10,000 in real money -- plus interest, for general damages and lost income. The Black Educators Association is, errr, taxpayer-funded, so the award, the lawyers' costs, the Commission's costs -- the whole ball of wax -- comes out of the pockets of the thrifty New Scotlanders.

But never mind. Tracy Williams, CEO of the Commission, assures taxpayers that "This decision addresses an important human rights issue. The commission needs to explore this sensitive subject to better understand its impact and identify ways we can be of assistance." If you pay taxes in Nova Scotia and you disagree, send a postcard saying "I'm a sucker and I'm tired of being licked!" to Human Rights Commission, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Footnote: It's worth reading the decision made by Donald Murray, Q.C., in its entirety, in order to appreciate the kind of thinking that has created the latest in a long line of sins against human rights. The new sin is called "colourism" (or "colorism" if you're in the USA). A bit of good news: apparently people of colour can be just as GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY or colourism as us whiteys.

Monkey impersonators in high demand in India

Is this a monkey or a man? It looks like a langur monkey, but if you're visiting India's capital, you might want to look again. That's because the Indian government has just fired 40 Indian men to impersonate langur monkeys to scare away some of the smaller, red-faced macaque monkeys that infest Delhi's parliament and other government buildings.

1000s of macaques monkeys roam the streets and alleys of Delhi, trashing gardens, attacking people for food, and disturbing the legions of humans who sleep in the streets. Unfortunately, Hindus consider the animals sacred -- incarnations of Hanuman, the monkey god -- so the devout often feed them and encourage them to stick around. What to do?

Delhi's civic authorities tried using real langurs to keep the macaques away from the parliament buildings. However, after protests from animal rights activists and a court order that keeping monkeys in captivity was cruel, they had to come up with a Plan B.

So, India's Minister for Urban Development told Parliament yesterday, the New Delhi Municipal Corporation has hired "40 young persons" trained to impersonate the langurs and scare the macaques away. Officials of the NDMC called the monkey impersonators "very talented", experts in imitating the whoops and barks of langurs and hiding behind trees to ward off the aggressive animals.

So far the impersonators are only working in and around the parliament buildings -- particularly the defence ministry and the prime minister's office -- but consideration is being given to deploying them on the city's metro trains, where they are a great nuisance, refusing to produce tickets and generally annoying the passengers both inside and on the roofs of the railway cars.

Lesson for Americans: Having the deer and the antelope roam through your country is nothing compared with troops of macaques!