"Plan 9 from Outer Space" actor dies

Troy McClure died yesterday. You may remember him... [Wrong actor. Start again. Ed.] Gregory Walcott died yesterday. You may remember him for his role as Jeff Trent in Plan 9 from Outer Space, long revered as "the worst movie ever made". (Sources for this quote are too numerous to list.) IMDb gives it two stars; Rotten Tomatoes gives it 3.5, largely for its high comedic value.

The 1959 movie was a low-budget oddity written, produced and directed by the idiosyncratic Edward D. Wood Jr., himself the subject of an excellent biopic with Johnny Depp starring in the title role. Plan 9 from Outer Space slowly developed a cult following for its cheap effects and a ragtag cast that included the one-name TV personalities Vampira and Criswell as well as Bela Lugosi, in footage shot shortly before his death in 1956. And Greg Walcott.

To Mr. Walcott’s embarrassment, Plan 9 became a staple at bad-film festivals and the movie with which he was most often associated. The actor had already been in the hit Henry Fonda Navy comedy Mister Roberts (1955) and other movies. He said in a 1998 interview that the Plan 9 script "made no sense," but he took the job because one of the producers was a friend of his. "I thought maybe my name could give the show some credibility," he said.

Here's the trailer for Ed Wood.



And here -- I know you've been waiting for it -- is the link for Plan 9 from Outer Space -- the whole rotten tomato. According to the biopic, Ed Wood said, "This is the one I'll be remembered for." He was right!

Canada re-ups for another year of the Obama war

This just in from the second-coldest capital city in the world. Although Americans might wish otherwise, Canadian Prime Minister, Steve "Stephen" Harper has taken note of the fact that the Prez still has nearly two years of his second term left. Two years in which, if Mr. Harper keeps tugging his forelock tugged and his lips pursed over the presidential nether regions, Mr. Obama might change his mind about blocking the Keystone XL pipeline.

Not only that, but the Dear Leader Himself faces an election sometime between now and the middle of October. Mr. Harpoon would dearly love to make it a four-peat, and protecting the Great Formerly-white North from the evil Islamic extremists seems to be playing well with the frost-backed folk in Otter Haunch SK.

Steve's course was therefore clear. In spite of the fact that "ISIL" (as he calls it, because that's what Obama calls it) has already been "degraded" -- stopped in its tracks -- Mr. Harper has bravely volunteered his country's troops and treasure for another year fighting Obama's war, until the spring of 2016. And, yes, it's now officially a combat mission. (Body count so far: 1 killed in Iraq, 2 at home, total 3.)

One more thing... Canadian forces will now pursue the jihadis into Syria. Walt wonders if Mr. Harper will now change the official designation of the enemy to "ISIS". Walt also wonders if Steve has thought through the implications of following the Islamists wherever they go. Since the beginning of the year, they have extended the Muslim civil war into Libya, Tunisia and Yemen. Will "our" operations expand along with theirs?

Whether the Canadian government (S. Harper, Prop.) has thought about anything other than the political benefits of standing shoulder to shoulder with Obama is doubtful. Mr. Harper, like one of his heroes, Margaret Thatcher, is not one for turning.

All that remains now is to make sure that the brave Canadian soldiers and airmen (and/or airwomen -- whatever the term is) understand the mission. That is the point, Walt reckons, of this brilliant editorial cartoon by Brian Gable in today's Globe and Mail.

INTERESTING FOOTNOTE - JUST RECEIVED from CBC News. Iraq's attempt to retake the city of Tikrit from ISIS has run into a major problem. More than 80% of the ground forces involved on the government side are Shia militias. Many say they won't keep fighting if the US-led coalition (the one Harper is happy to be a part of) is allowed to conduct airstrikes. According to the Corp, the US has poor relations with the militia groups, many of whom once battled the previous American occupation of Iraq. Looks like the good guys (see above) don't want "our" help. How about that, eh!

Flogging a dead donkey

Every now and then, Walt comes across an amusing anecdote in Dr CZ's notebook, which appears most Thursdays in the (Zimbabwe) Financial Gazette. Here's a story that's worth retelling.

Herbert bought a donkey from Bongani for US$100 and asked him to deliver it the next day. The next day Bongani showed up on Herbert’s place. "Sorry Herbert," he said looking really sad. "The donkey died last night."

"Okay," said Herbert, "then just give me back my money."

"Sorry," pleaded Bongani, "I already spent it!"

"Damn it!" said Herbert. "In that case, bring me the dead donkey. After all, I did pay for it, so it's mine!"

Later that day, the carcass of the donkey was offloaded at Herbert’s house. A fortnight later, Bongani bumped into Herbert and, out of curiosity, asked him what he had done with the dead donkey.

"Oh, I raffled it," said Herbert. "I sold 251 tickets at $5 each and made a clean profit of $1150! I just made sure I didn't tell them the donkey was dead."

"But didn’t people complain?" asked Bongani in amazement.

"Only the chap who won," said Herbert, "so I gave him his $5 back."

Western and Muslim societies "irreconcilably different", poll finds

Here's a real news flash for you. Western and Muslim societies are different. They have different religions, different customs, and different value systems. And, according to polling data being discussed at the Metropolis Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies, most Canadians -- Muslim and non-Muslim alike -- think the differences are "irreconcilable".

Whether it’s the rise of Islamic State zealots, the killing of free-speech advocates in Paris and Copenhagen or disputes over niqabs, the polling, done by Leger Marketing, shows Canadians share in the growing global anxiety about sectarian conflict. 63% of Canadian Protestants, 62% Jews, 60% of Catholics and 46% of the non-religious believe Western and Islamic societies cannot be reconciled. Even 42% of Canadian Muslims believe the contrast between the West and Islamic cultures is too great to be bridged.

Jack Jedwab, vice-president of the ACS which commissioned the Leger polls, called the findings "a huge blow to interfaith dialogue". He said the belief of a majority of Canadians that the West and Islamic society are locked in inevitable antagonism echoes the thesis of Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of Political Order. Way back in 1992, Prof. Huntington predicted -- correctly, as it turns out -- that people’s cultural and religious identities would be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world.

The Pew Research Center keeps track of such things. Its new report -- "Latest Trends in Religious Restrictions and Hostilities" -- confirms that worldwide social hostilities involving religion reached a six-year peak in 2012 and have remained basically stuck at that level.
Almost three in four global citizens, Pew reports, live in countries where religion-fuelled conflicts run the gamut from vandalism of property and desecration of sacred texts to violent assaults resulting in deaths and injuries.

What are the worst countries in the world for sectarian conflict? According to the Pew index, India shares that distinction with... wait for it... Israel. Next on the "Very High" list are the Palestinian Territories, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt, Central African Republic, Iraq and Kenya.

What is the link which connects all the countries -- saving perhaps Sri Lanka -- on the list of "Very High" social hostility index? No prize for guessing that they all have Muslim majorities or large Muslim minorities.

What should we in North America learn from all t his? The polling done for the ACS revealed Canadians' concern about religion-related conflict is leading many to yearn for tighter border restrictions and less immigration from Muslim countries such Pakistan, Nigeria, etc etc etc.

Asked whether governments should deal with security concerns by "making it more difficult for people to come across national borders," 68% of Canadian Catholics agreed. So did 62% of Canadian Protestants and Jews, as well as 51% of the non-religious. Even 42% of Muslims agreed.

The two Leger polls of 2000 Canadians, including 500 born outside the country, were conducted in 2013 and 2014. They have an accuracy of plus or minus 2.9% 19 times out of 20. In general the polling results did not show marked differences between the responses of native-born Canadians and immigrants. Even the new-comers know a problem when they see one... even when they're part of it.

Illegal alien kills FL cop, dies of "natural causes"

There's something about Florida that attracts Walt's agents. Some live there full-time. Some go for a few months to escape the harsher northern winter. [You got that right! Ed.] Walt himself still has an expired FL driver's licence in his pocket. However, Walt has yet to set foot in Polk County, somewhere between Tampa and Kissimmee [pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. Ed.]

Agent 9 has added to our stock of strange but true Florida tales the story [verified by Snopes! Ed.] of an illegal alien who got stopped for a traffic violation, shot the cop who stopped him, and was in turn executed by Polk County deputies. No Miranda rights. No negotiations. Filled full of lead -- 68 bullets worth.

Just before noon on 28 September 2006, in Lakeland (Polk County's biggest city), Polk County Deputy Doug Speirs pulled over a speeding rental car bearing Kentucky tags, driven by Angilo Freeland, a 27-year-old native of Antigua who had been arrested on various charges in 1999 but had afterwards skipped bail. The fake driver's licence proffered by Freeland made the cop suspicious, so he called for backup. Deputy Matt Williams and his police dog, DiOGi [geddit? Ed.] were dispatched to the scene.

Likely sensing things weren't going well, Freeland broke from the officers and ran into the woods. He took cover in the densely forested area near a fallen oak tree that made him all but impossible to see. The two officers and the dog went into the woods after him, Williams and DiOGi working one area, and Speirs another.

As DiOGi closed on the suspect's hiding place, Freeland shot the dog in the chest from close range at an upward angle, killing it. He then fired on nearby Deputy Williams, wounding him in the right wrist, left bicep, rear left thigh, right leg, right buttock, and upper right arm. One of the shots penetrated to the officer's spine. Freeland then approached the immobilized man and delivered two shots to Williams' head at point-blank range, finishing him off.

Deputy Speirs heard the shots from a nearby ridge, moved towards the sounds of the gunfire, and was shot at by Freeland. The two exchanged fire, and the deputy was wounded in the leg. He radioed for help and made his way out of the woods.

Every available unit and canine team descended on the area. Freeland remained under the oak tree overnight, where a 10-member SWAT team found him the next morning. When they saw Freeland raise his right hand clutching a gun (one they would later learn belonged to the dead deputy), nine of the ten officers fired, hitting him with 68 of 110 shots. Freeland was dead at the scene.

When asked by the local meeja for a statement about the manhunt and its outcome, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd explained: "You have to understand, he had already shot and killed a deputy, he had already shot and killed a K-9, and he shot and injured another deputy. Quite frankly, we weren't taking any chances. You kill a policeman it means no arrest, no Miranda rights, no negotiations, nothing but as many bullets as we can shoot into you...PERIOD."

Sheriff Judd was reported to have told the Orlando Sentinel that his deputies shot Freeland 68 times "because that's all the ammunition we had."

The Polk County Coroner who examined Freeland reported that he had died of natural causes. When asked by a reporter how that could be, since there were 68 bullet wounds in his body, he answered, "When you're shot 68 times you're naturally gonna die!"

Another rebus puzzle for you

Clue: The place every cowboy eventually heads for.

R R R R R D

O O O O O N

U U U U U U

N N N N N O

D D D D D R

Answer in a couple of days.

Re-re-evaluating P.K. Subban

Poor Len again. [Hey! That rhymes! Ed.] Walt is feeling the effects of a large does of novocaine (not the movie) so I can continue my cost-benefit analysis of P.K. Subban, the Montréal Canadiens alleged defenceman.

There are still those who think the $9-million-a-year one-time Norris Trophy winner is the best thing since sliced bread -- pumpernickel, that is. They are wrong. Don't listen to them! Listen to me! I have maintained, as recently as last Friday, that Mr. Subban is a net liability.

Since then, les Glorieux have played two games. On Saturday night they vanquished the San Jose Sharks 2-0, thanks largely to the stellar goaltending of Carey Price. (Scroll down or click here for a nice little video of a meeting between Mr. Price and a shy kid from his hometown, Anahim Lake BC.) P.K. played well enough -- stayed out of the penalty box and didn't go nuts in the Sharks' zone.

However... last night in Nashville, Marc Bergevin's Great Non-White Hope reverted to form. Subban -- for it was he -- led the team in penalties, taking his first of two at 2:45 of the first period. As Mario Tremblay would say... poor judgment! But that wasn't the killer. Montréal weathered the storm, and Nashville's first goal didn't come until 9:10. Which defencemen should have stopped Matthias Ekholm? Andrei Markov and P.K. Subban.

The Habs scored twice in the second period and hung on to a 2-1 lead until the Preds fluked one at 7:45 of the third. At the end of regulation time, the score was tied 2-2.

In the first minute of the overtime period, Subban treated Nashville fans to an exhibition of his skating and puck control -- "puck-hogging" would be a better term -- doing a couple of laps around the Preds' net, walking the blueline, straight-arming opponents and so on. Did he pass the puck? No. Did he shoot the puck? No. Did he lose the puck? YES!

Gee, Len (I hear you ask), what happened then? Well, when Filip Forsberg took the puck away from P.K. at the Preds' blueline, with no-one between him (Forsberg) and the Montréal net, Subban did that voodoo that he do so well, and tripped him (Forsberg). Result, Nashville power-play, with the game-winning goal being scored 45 seconds later, with P.K. Subban in the penalty box, wearing the goat horns.

What does Dave Stubbs say about this in the Montreal Gazette? The penalty was "not remotely the result of a brain cramp." It was fate! The puck was bouncing! Forsberg accidentally stepped on Subban's stick! Oh, hahahahahahahahaha! Listen to me, Dave! Give up your job writing PR pieces for P.K. You can do a lot better writing for SNL!

VIDEO: Carey Price in "A boy and 3 gifts"

Poor Len here. The Air Canada Foundation, which supports hundreds of charities across the Great Somewhat-white North, has published an excellent video showing what it's done to help the Breakfast Club of Canada to open two new programmes in Anahim Lake BC.

Anahim Lake is a First Nations (the people we used to call "Indians") community of about 1000 souls. It is also the hometown of Carey Price, the young goaltender who is fast becoming a Montréal Canadiens legend. He is the object of adulation -- hero-worship too -- for the local kids.

One of them, Trent Leon, was chosen as his school's "ambassador", to go to meet Mr. Price at his workplace. Watching what happens when they meet will warm the cockles of your heart. It's good to see the tremendous impact athletes can have on youth, and the way small gestures can mean so very much.

"John Underwood, Andover, Mass."

That's the answer to the address puzzle Walt gave you last week. You're welcome.

Was the Mountie's photo the "most Canadian"?

Walt's posting of the iconic photo of the Mountie in full dress uniform playing pond hockey (see below), prompted Agent 3 to forward this one, posted on Twitter by @halifax_ukie.

Somehow, though, Walt doubts that "Halifax Ukie" is really in Halifax. Either that or it's not a recent picture. They've got waaaaay more snow than that "Down East". See below.

Most Canadian photo... EVER!

Corporal Shaun Begg, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, stationed in Kaslo BC, posted this photo on his Twitter account. The caption reads "We may be Mounties, but we are all still kids at heart with @NHL dreams".

In an interview with CBC Radio, Cpl. Begg said no one is more surprised than he is at its explosion online.

"I'm actually very surprised...my thought was to take a photo of myself in serge with my personal camera for a personal screen saver, maybe a Christmas card," he said Begg> "I had no idea it would hit the internet and just explode."

Walt thinks it's a great photo, but warns Cpl. Begg not to be surprised if he's called on the carpet [a red carpet? Ed.] for posting a picture of an ideal Canada which is egregiously politically incorrect. No women, no vizmins, no "brought to you by the Harper government as part of the war on terror" slogan. What were you thinking, Corporal?!

Re-evaluating P.K. Subban

Ed. here. It's been some time since we allowed Poor Len Canayen space for a rant/rave about the Montréal Canadiens, so...

As we say in Montréal, merci/thank you! Assiduous readers know that when I write about the Canadiens, it's usually to wax acidulous about P.K. Subban, their vastly overpaid and overrated so-called defenceman. Unlike the hexperts at the Montreal Gazette, I do not refrain from pointing out his shortcomings -- see "The truth about all-star defenceman P.K. Subban" and "What's wrong with les Canadiens?" -- but for so doing, I get called a racist.

However... as the 2014-15 NHL season has progressed, the star's shine seems to have dimmed somewhat. Even Dave Stubbs and Pat Hickey can't pretend they haven't seen stories that hit the sports pages and even front pages of the non-Montréal media today. Here they are.

P.K. Subban fined for 3rd embellishment citation

The NHL fined P.K. $3000 (real money, not beaverbucks) for his third diving/ embellishment citation of the season. The incident occurred on March 12th during the Habs' 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

The NHL enacted Rule 64 to stop the tendency of certain players to act like soccer players, to wit by diving and embellishing assaults upon themselves in an attempt to draw penalties. Fines are assessed to players and head coaches on a graduated scale. A first infraction prompts a warning; the second draws a $2000 fine.

The fine rises to $3000 for a third-timer. If P.K. gets caught taking the plunge again, he's looking at $4000. And -- get this -- Montréal head coach Michel Therrien will also have to pay a $2000 penalty for the sins of the player he doesn't dare discipline.

Ex-Habs coach Tremblay slags Subban during DUI arrest

Mario Tremblay wore the bleu, blanc et rouge for several years, including four in which les Glorieux won the Stanley Cup. He coached the Habs briefly and, it must be said, not terribly successfully, and now works as a commentator and analyst for RDS. My point here is that M. Tremblay does know something about hockey and about the Canadiens.

On the air, Mario Tremblay is reasonably neutral about P.K. Subban. He's obviously read the memo that it won't do to speak ill of the media darling -- "a credit to his race" and all that -- in whom the club has invested so heavily. (C$9 million -- just over $7 million in real money -- per year for eight years).

However... when M. Tremblay was stopped by the Mascouche QC police for speeding and, possibly, DUI, he felt that speaking his mind might somehow get the gendarme to cut him some slack.

Constable Maxime Perron testified in a municipal court on Thursday that, even though M. Tremblay was chewing gum there was a smell of alcohol on his breath, so he asked the aging ex-star to take a breathalyzer test. "You can’t do that to me. I am Mario Tremblay!" the cop quoted quoted the former coach as saying. Then, "he compared me to some hockey players, [saying] that I was like 'a P.K. Subban', that I had no judgment and that I was being petty."

It would seem M. Tremblay showed pretty poor judgment himself in talking thus to an agent of the law. But... but... his judgment of P.K. Subban has the ring of truth, to my ears. In vino veritas...

Let's look at a few statistics, drawn from the Canadiens' website this (Friday) afternoon. P.K. has played in all 72 games so far this season. He's second, behind Max Pacioretty, in scoring, with 52 points -- 13 goals and 39 assists. Very good, but hang on...

Subban's a defenceman, right? Shouldn't preventing shots against his goalie be more important? Yes, but there's not much fault to find there, as P.K. is +18, the same as his partner Andrei Markov. All well and good but don't forget that he and Markov get more ice time than anyone except the goalies. And with the sensational goaltending of Carey Price -- forgive me for my expression of doubt back in November -- it's hard not to be on the plus side of the ledger.

Don't forget, also, that goals scored against your team when you're short-handed don't count in the plus/minus column. A good thing too, because Subban leads the Habs in penalty minutes. (That's not counting Brandon Prust, the team's designated fighter.) Subban's penalties include a couple for diving -- see above -- and a much larger number for plays which show... wait for it... lack of judgment.

Recognizing the need for a couple of guys who can actually be counted on to play defence, the Canadiens acquired Sergei Gonchar last fall, and the grey-beard can still get the job done. More recently they've added Jeff Petry and brought up Greg Pateryn, both competent players. So, all in all, the Habs' defence looks solid, going into the playoffs... no particular thanks to the 9-million-dollar, not-so-shining, former all-star.

Jordan's King Abdullah II speaks about the "war within Islam"

Thanks to Agent 6 for sending us the link to a thoughtful speech given to the European Parliament earlier this month by a moderate Muslim -- yes, there is such a thing -- King Abdullah II of Jordan. He talks about the war within Islam, the conflict between Islamic terrorists (ISIS, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram) and the rest of the Muslim world, the Palestinian question, and the need for peaceful coexistence with the West.

خطاب جلالة الملك عبدالله الثاني المعظم في البرلمان الأوروبي - آذار

King Abdullah speaks in English. There are Arabic subtitles.

Puzzling address

A rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. Very simple example: the letter H + [picture of an ear] = "hear" or "here". A more complex example is this "escort card" dating from about 1865.

A gentleman would present it to an unescorted lady at a social, for instance. It asks, "May I see you home my dear". Geddit?

Rebuses used to appear as puzzles in the funny pages of the newspapers back when Walt was a boy [before the earth's crust cooled. Ed.] Do newspapers have funny pages any more? Do newspapers even exist any more?

If you've been waiting a long time for the chance to solve a rebus, here's one. It has been reported (by Bill Bryson) that the United States Post Office -- not the latter-day USPS -- successfully delivered an envelope bearing only this address:

WOOD

JOHN

MASS

Can you decipher it? Answer sometime next week...

Sign of spring

Don't know how it is in your part of the world, but in this part -- somewhere underneath the polar vortex -- winter has been too long and too hard. It is with relief, then, that we welcome spring, however late. And yes, a sign of spring has been seen...

A Saint Patrick's Day wish for you

Walt, Poor Len [and Ed.! Ed.] wish you a

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

to be sure, to be sure...

Recommended reading: The Best of Myles na Gopaleen (Flann O'Brien) (Picador 1977)

VIDEO: What's really in Ontario's new sex ed curriculum

Is it sex-ed -- or grooming? Ezra Levant walks Ontario parents through the Wynne-Sandals-Levin sex-ed curriculum, from the "anal fluids" to the "nine different genders." Direct quotes from the published curriculum give the answer. But are Ontarians paying attention?



This video was recorded before Benjamin Levin pled guilty to three kiddy porn charges. As Mr. Levant says, Dr. Levin was one of the movers and shakers behind the new curriculum.

And yes, there's a petition, one of several now circulating on the Net. Click here to visit the Protect Our Kids website and sign the petition. Walt recommends doing so!

A reader wrote to me yesterday to say that the new curriculum seems almost certain to be implemented unchanged. If I were a betting man, that would be the way I'd bet. BUT... that doesn't mean that the majority who are opposed to forcing the LGBT agenda on innocent children should accept in silence the perverted notions of those who, like Kathleen Wynne and Lez Sandals and Ben Levin, think they know better!

What does Ed. look like?

An anonymous reader [Rufus Leaking, of Dildo, NL - Ed.] writes: The little "About Me" blurb at the upper right of your screen sometimes features a picture of Walt, and occasionally a cartoon of someone who I guess is Poor Len Canayen [Don't bet. Ed.], but you have never shown a picture of Ed. How about it?

Walt is always happy to answer a question from an assiduous reader. Here ya go...

I'm not sure if this is the Ed. that Rufus had in mind. This is Ed the mobile robot, the creation of researchers at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. Ed, and his partner Coach are designed and built to help and support people with disabilities, including dementia patients. Click here to read all about it.

And yes, helping people with disabilities does sound like our Ed.'s job description.

VIDEO: Rusty Humphries sings "Sneakin' into the USA"

There's just soooo much stuff floating around the Internet that Walt, even with the assistance of Poor Len [and Ed.! Ed.] can't keep up with it. What would I do without the assistance of my Agents and assiduous readers. Thanks to one of the above, who shall remain anonymous, for sending along the link to this very cogent comment on illegal immigration to the Land of the Somewhat Free and Occasionally Brave.



Walt agrees! It's time to take back America! Click here to visit Sheriff Joe Arpaio's website (WOBC2.com) and get your kit. Lots of good links there too -- "birther" sites and others of interest to searching souls, frustrated taxpayers and individuals who are troubled by corrupt big government and complacent, enabling lamestream media.

"Culture wars" in Canada? Really?

You bet, EH! Not content with involving his country in a shooting war in the Middle East -- score so far: Muslims 3, Canadian troops 0 -- Canuck PM Steve Harper has quite unaccountably resurrected the debate over the "Canadian values" enshrined in Québec's Charter of Values, proposed but not enacted last year.

As Walt explained in "Multiculti types horrified as Charter of Québec Values bans religious headgear", the law mooted by the Parti Québécois government of Pauline Marois would have prohibited the wearing by public servants in public places of religious dress and symbols, including the Jewish kippa, Sikh turban and kirpan, large Christian crosses, and the hijabs, niqabs and burqas favoured by some Muslim women.

If you're not sure about the difference between hijab, niqab and burqa, check out "Hijab, niqab, burqa -- what's the difference?". (That post from 2010 is near the top of WWW's all-time most-read list.)  Or just study this illustration below, which includes the chador, something like a hijab extended to a full cloak.

To the consternation of the English-speaking chattering classes and the usual celebrants of diversity, polling consistently showed the proposed charter a winner with French-speaking Québec voters. But there were other issues -- a sluggish economy, corruption and (as usual) separation -- compared with which religious headgear seemed unimportant, and the PQ government went down to defeat, and with it the charter.

All was quiet for the next ten months, until the Federal Court of Canada struck down a regulation, introduced by then Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in 2011, banning the wearing of the niqab or any other face covering while taking the Oath of Citizenship.

An immigrant from Pakistan had sent home for a bride -- as is "normal" for the clannish south Asians -- and brought to Canada a devout Muslim lady named Zunera Ishaq. In due course Ms Ishaq applied for citizenship and passed the examination ("What's a 'double-double'?") in November 2013. When it came time to take the oath, she objected to the requirement to remove the veil at the citizenship ceremony it is unnecessary for the purposes of identity or security. Worse than that, she said, it's a public event and her face would be seen by strange men.

Immigration officials subsequently offered to seat Ms Ishaq in either the front or back row and next to a woman at the ceremony, but she refused the arrangement since the citizenship judge and officers could still be male, and there could potentially be photographers at the event.

The upshot was that the ceremony was deferred and Ms Ishaq brought suit. Mr. Justice Keith M. Boswell ruled that "To the extent that the policy interferes with a citizenship judge’s duty to allow candidates for citizenship the greatest possible freedom in the religious solemnization or the solemn affirmation of the oath, it is unlawful."

Fair enough. Freedom of religion seems to be covered by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms embedded in the Canadian Constitution. But... is the wearing of the niqab (or hijab or burqa) a requirement of Islam? No! It is just a cultural practice, the custom in certain parts of the Muslim world -- Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and places where "freedom of religion" applies only to Muslims, and not all Muslims at that!

To the surprise of many, the Harper government has decided to appeal Mr. Justice Boswell's decision. A spokesthingy for Citizenship and Immigration Canada said, "New citizens are obliged to confirm their identity when taking the Oath of Citizenship‎, which is sworn or affirmed in public. It is simply common sense to require removal of facial coverings or other items that hide new citizens’ mouths from view. The oath, knowledge and language tests, as well as years of residency, are among the basic requirements for joining the family of Canadian citizens."

The Prime Minister himself put the case rather more strongly. Speaking in the House of Commons this week, Mr. Harper called the Federal Court's move to strike down the 2011 ban "offensive", and said, "We don't allow people to cover their faces during citizenship ceremonies, and why would Canadians, contrary to our own values, embrace a practice at that time that is not transparent, that is not open and, frankly, is rooted in a culture that is anti-women?" (My emphasis. Walt)

So there you have it. Going about with your face covered, especially at a ceremony meant to show your commitment to your adopted country, is contrary to Canadian values. Minister Kenney told CBC Radio's The House today that people should pledge their allegiance to their fellow citizens publicly and openly. (Click here to listen to the complete interview, including Mr. Kenney's waffle on whether or not Canada will continue to participate in the American invasion of Iraq.)

The government view is finding a lot of favour with ordinary Canadians -- non-members of the meeja and PC mafia -- outside of Toronto, particular in... wait for it... Québec. On the same edition of The House, an imam said the niqab isn't part of Muslim culture, but only of Saudi culture. Mr. Harper told the House of Commons that he speaks for not just the majority of Canadians, but the majority of moderate Muslims. Will the Federal Court of Appeal agree? We'll see. Meanwhile, the war continues.

Pope Francis tells interviewer he's going to quit

A Te Deum will be sung today -- or should be -- in Traditional Catholic chapels and mass centres throughout the world, following the revelation by Pope Francis that, after only two  years sitting on the throne of St. Peter, he feels that another two years is about enough, so will be stepping down.

In a wide-ranging interview with Joaquín López-Dóriga of the Mexican media company El Noticiero, the Pope said, "I have the feeling that my pontificate will be brief: four or five years; I do not know, even two or three. Two have already passed. It is a somewhat vague sensation. Maybe it's like the psychology of the gambler who convinces himself he will lose so he won’t be disappointed and if he wins, is happy. I do not know. But I feel that the Lord has placed me here for a short time, and nothing more."

Vague sensations are nothing new to Pope Francis, but he seems clear enough in seeing a precedent in the purported resignation of Benedict XVI. He told the interviewer that "an institutional door has been opened", through which he is free to walk when the next sensation strikes him.

Assuming that Benedict XVI is still alive -- he seems quite well for a man who resigned "for health reasons" -- when Francis steps down, the Roman Catholic Church will then have not one "Pope Emeritus" but two. Depending on the longevity of those two, the number could grow to three or four or... God only knows.

Some have suggested that Francis can't really be the pope, not because his predecessor is still alive, but because no pope, guided and protected by the Holy Spirit, could possibly preach and teach the heresies which Francis utters. God only knows that, too. We mere mortals -- the remnant who cling to the Faith of our Fathers -- can only pray that God will deliver His Church from the present plague of bad prelates.

Ontario parents protests plan to teach kids about oral and anal sex

Anger at Ontario's new "improved" sex education curriculum continues to mount. The new curriculum, which was drafted by "progressive education experts" including one who has just been convicted of serious kiddy porn offences, has been on the drawing boards for almost ten years.

The new curriculum will teach children as young as six (6) about homosexuality, abortion, same-sex marriage and deviant sex, including oral and anal sex. [Whew! I thought you were going to say "sodomy". It's not PC! Ed.] It is backed by Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, who is openly lesbian, and her Education Minister, Liz Sandals, who is not.

One may ask if the Liberal government is conducting a test of some kind, to find out just how gullible and sheep-like the province's people really are. If so, they must be disappointed in the results, because, even though Ms Sandals has announced that the new curriculum will be introduced in Ontario schools -- including state-funded "Catholic" schools -- this fall, come hell or high water, concerned and downright angry parents are turning out by the 100s and 1000s to protest having the LGBTQ education agenda forced down their children's throats (so to speak). See "Anger mounts at 'graphic revisions' to ON sex ed curriculum", posted here February 23rd.

Last night, a couple of Liberal MPPs and trustees of the notoriously left-learning Toronto District School Board held a "health and physical education information session" in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, which, together with neighbouring Markham, has a large Chinese population. From his years in China, Walt knows that the Chinese are very conservative, at least publicly, when it comes to matters sexual. There is no sex education in Chinese schools at any age. Such things are left to the parents. And last night the Chinese (and other "ethnics") turned out in force to say that's the way it should be!

The parents, taxpayers and voters who turned out didn't come to be "informed". They had something to say, and were determined to say it. Things started out with a couple hundred protesters outside holding signs and chanting. Inside, the "educators" attempted to run a workshop with the customary PowerPoint show designed to convince people that there's really nothing to see here folks, just harmless stuff like teaching kids the polite names for their naughty bits... at age six (6).

The frustrated and unruly crowd wasn't having it. The meeting turned into a shouting match, with several in the audience heckling the presentations. Some parents tried to get those shouting to stop, but what ended up happening was yelling back and forth and heated exchanges. Tempers were flaring. "You don’t mess with people and their kids," said former TDSB trustee Sam Sotiropoulos. "There will be more protests."

An angry parent, Jewell McGregor, told a reporter, "Nobody in school authority should be teaching children about anal sex or oral sex.... They are saying we are all a bunch of idiots, but I think any adult who wants to teach anal and oral sex to children has something wrong with them."

Kathryn Chang, speaking for the Parents Alliance of Ontario, said, "We are primarily a Chinese-Canadian group. We generally don’t protest, but in this case we have people here tonight from Agincourt, all the way to Mississauga and Markham. People feel strongly about this. Teaching children these things at this age is way too soon."

Will Kathleen Wynne and her friends get the message that it’s not just religious groups or "homophobes" who are opposed to the the immoral curriculum? Her Liberal government has a majority in the Ontario legislature, so they can pretty much do as they please for the next 3+ years, and the public be damned. Stay tuned.

Further reading: "Political orthodoxy on same-sex marriage, pro-queer sex education harms parental rights, freedom of speech and religion"

Further watching (VIDEO): "Ontario sex-ed: They're teaching my kids to do what?" - commentary by Brian Lilley

Click here to sign the petition "Stop Graphic Revisions to Ontario’s Sex Education Curriculum"

VIDEO: Two minutes of aviation majesty

It's been a while since we had anything for aviation buffs. Those who like to see the old (WWII) warbirds in action will surely enjoy this trailer for the July 2014 air show at The Imperial War Museum in Cambridgeshire, which we have courtesy of Agent 17, aka Sky King. Walt recommends full screen mode, and sound up, to send chills up your spine.

Laugh for the day: Hellery's e-mail "explanation"

Hellery Clinton's writers took a week to come up with her explanation for using her personal e-mail account rather than a government account during her entire tenure as Secretary of State. "It was for convenience," she told us, with a straight face (but somewhat fluttery body language).

The presidential wannabe says it was too much for her to juggle two "devices" and two phones, so she thought it would be simpler to just use the one, in spite of the legal requirement to preserve public records. Ms Clinton, being a college graduate, thought that she was capable of deciding which messages were personal and which were public, and FRA and FOIA be damned. Convenience trumps legalities.

Who finds this funny? Daniel Metcalfe -- that's who. Mr. Metcalfe was the most senior freedom-of-information official in the executive branch of the US government for over a quarter-century. It was his job to help four administrations — including that of Clinton the First — interpret the Freedom of Information Act.

When Mr. Metcalfe read a transcript of Clinton the Second's press conference, he told Canadian Press, "What she did was contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the law. There is no doubt that the scheme she established was a blatant circumvention of the Freedom of Information Act, atop the Federal Records Act."

Here's how he said he would have reacted if he'd heard about a cabinet member in his day setting up a personal email system — and deciding what got deleted and what got preserved as a government record: "I would've said, 'You've gotta be kidding me!"

Mr. Metcalfe said he knows from working under the Clintons [like Monica Lewinsky? Ed.] that Hillary — secretary of state, senator, 2016 presidential hopeful and lawyer — understands the Freedom of Information Act. "You can't have the secretary of state do that; that's just a prescription for the circumvention of the FOIA. Plus, fundamentally, there's no way the people at the archives should permit that if you tell them over there."

What Mr. doesn't fully appreciate is that laws, rules and regulations don't apply to the Clintons, just as they didn't apply to the Kennedys, back in the day. In the increasingly unlikely event that Hellery is elected to head a second Clinton administration, he will find that out.

UPDATED: Remember Libya and Afghanistan? Forget Iraq and Syria!

Those who think that the government-controlled [and financed! Poor Len] Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is simply a mouthpiece for the hawkish Harper should pay attention. The CBC gives a lot of time and space to commentators -- including some of its own staffers -- who are anti-war and (at least mildly) anti-Harper.

One such is Brian Stewart, one of Canada's most experienced journalists and foreign correspondents. Currently he is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. He also sits on the advisory board of Human Rights Watch Canada. In almost four decades of reporting, he has covered many of the world's conflicts and reported from 10 war zones, from El Salvador to Beirut and Afghanistan.

The CBC News website today features a thoughtful piece by Mr. Stewart entitled "Before Canada goes too far into Iraq, remember Libya, Afghanistan". This is a must read for Canadians and Americans too!

Western interventions in Afghanistan and Libya are too recent to have made it into the history books. Mr. Stewart reminds those who weren't paying attention that those "military operations have been followed by the violent rise of the black flag of ISIS jihadism in these same conflict zones.... Not an encouraging record." Indeed.

Mr. Stewart goes on to say that "Canada rarely seems to anticipate the depths of chaos that it's wading into when it unleashes our CF-18s and other combat units on far-flung wars and insurgencies we know very little about." Indeed, (again).

He goes on to say, "We plunge in, it seems, even when our own military warns of dire consequences." He gives the example of Libya. Canada's military intelligence [an oxymoron, surely! Ed.] warned the Harper government in March 2011 that Libya would descend into a lengthy civil war if our planes and other Western bombers helped crush the Qadaffi regime. So that's what they did. Of course.

The result? The NATO coalition "helped unleash a nightmarish civil war and murderous anarchy on a nation that still lacks a stable government four years later." You'd think today's Western leaders -- especially Hellery Clinton-- would realize their mistake. But noooo...

Mr. Stewart goes on to detail the rise of ISIS in Libya and now Afghanistan, and then asks the telling question: "Who anymore can confidently predict the outcome?"

Who? Walt! That's who! My prediction: it will all end in tears and recrimination. Lifetime pct .991.

Further reading on WWW:
"First Canadian soldier killed in mission vs ISIS" - Walt told you so!
"Mark Twain reflects on the folly of trying to civilize barbarians" - So did Mr. Clemens, 117 years ago!

UPDATE (March 13th) -- Click here to read and hear Ron Paul explain why "The World Would Be a Better Place with Saddam Hussein Still in Power". Great minds think alike!

What it takes to join the CIA

Ed. here. I have noticed that when Walt gets too serious for too long, WWW's ratings -- number of visitors -- go down. We can't have that, so need to post a smile every now and then. Today we are indebted to Agent 9 for sending this little story about the kind of "stuff" you need to get into the CIA.

The CIA had an opening for an assassin.

After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done, there were three finalists: two men and a woman.

For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun. "We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill her."

The man said "You can't be serious. I could never shoot my wife!"
The agent said, "Then you are not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home."

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Then the man came out with tears in his eyes, sobbing "I tried, but I can't kill my wife."
The agent said, "You don't have what it takes, so take your wife and go home."

Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions: kill your husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard one after another. They heard screaming, crashing, and banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly, and there stood the woman, wiping sweat from her brow.
"The gun was loaded with blanks," she said. "I had to kill him with the chair."

A dark(ish) horse who just might run

Quick! Who's more socially conservative than Jeb Bush, more of a defence hawk than Rand Paul and more sensible than Ted Cruz? (I'm quoting the Economist.)

Step forward, Bobby Jindal! Here near the headwaters, we're starting to hear more and more talk of the Louisiana Governor throwing his hat in the ring for the Republican nomination. Having more or less given up on the prospect of Ron Paul unretiring, Walt think Mr. Jindal an attractive candidate -- figuratively speaking -- perhaps not for the presidensity, but for the office which, pace John Nance Garner, is worth more than a bucket of spit. He would be a good running-mate for too-moderate Jeb Bush or -- dare we think it -- Paul the Younger. (Forget about Ted Cruz. There's no way a Canuck is ever going to get elected! Lifetime pct .991.)

5 things Walt likes about Bobby Jindal

He's a practising Catholic - a convert, in fact. He accuses Obama of "waging a silent war on religious freedom". He plans to repeal and replace Obamacare, and will surely remove the mandate to provide contraception and abortion on demand, no matter what your conscience tells you. That'll play well with conservative and traditional Catholics and evangelical Protestants, who tend to support the GOP.

He supports school choice - America's public schools are failing -- failing their students (by not failing enough students, geddit?) and failing the country. And Americans who disagree with the "progressive" secular humanist Common Core Curriculum are pulling their kids out of state schools by the 1000s, only to find that the CCC is still imposed on them by fiat of the almighty state. Free our schools and free our kids!

He's against spending, in favour of tax cuts - Who in his right mind doesn't agree? Well, the Prez and Hellery of course, but even sane Democrats know the USA can't go on mortgaging the future, as well as the present, to the Chinese. Unlike Greece, America doesn't have the EU or anyone else to provide a financial rescue package. If America goes broke, the world goes broke. End of story.

He advocates more skilled immigration, no amnesties for illegals - That's the way it should be. Mr. Jindal complains that the current "system" is "a low wall and a narrow gate", when it should be just the opposite. Even the liberal Canadians realize that and have recently reformed their rules to go back to a merit-based points system. And -- get this -- the Germans are looking to the Canadian model to revamp their system!

He calls Obama "unfit to be commander-in-chief" - because the Prez (unlike Canada's Dear Leader) can't bring himself to say that America is at war with radical Islam, because they are waging jihad against the West. Mr. Jindal thinks a c-i-c ought to stop pussy-footing around and show some determination to win! Like Ron Paul, Walt thinks we shouldn't be involved in the Middle East mess in the first place. But, like Jean Chrétien, Walt agrees that you can't be half-way in; either you're in or you're out.

Maybe that's more than five "things". Let's just call them five good reasons to hope that Bobby Jindal does well in the contest for the Republican nomination. His message needs to be heard, and -- let us pray -- acted upon.

"Radicalized Muslim" calls Cirillo killing an act of retaliation

Once upon a time in Libya [Great beginning! Ed.] there was a mujahideen -- a Muslim terrorist -- named Bulgasem Zehaf. Whether to flee the dictatorship of Muhammar Qaddafi or to spread its Islamist poison, Mr. Zehaf wanted to come to the West. Naturally he applied to enter Canada -- infamous then and now for its ultra-liberal immigration policies -- as a "refugee".

It wasn't long before Mr. Zehaf was welcomed into the Great Not-so-white North, where he met and charmed one Susan Bibeau, who seems to have had a soft spot (or spots) for refugees. (She is now Deputy Chair of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board.) On 16 October 1982, Ms Bibeau gave birth to a son, whose name was recorded as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.

The boy's parents settled in Laval, Québec, where the father ran a café. Susan Bibeau started working for the IRB as a Refugee Protection Officer in 1990. When civil war broke out in Libya in 2011, Mr. Zehaf rushed back to his native land to take part. Whether he fought for Qaddafi or against him is unclear.

Around this time Michael decided that he should follow in his father's footsteps. He converted to Islam, and applied for a Canadian passport, possibly to go to Libya, or possibly to Syria to join the Islamic extremists fighting against Assad. Because he was in contact with someone who was on the RCMP's terror watch list, his passport was held up.

Last October, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau went to Ottawa to see about his passport. Evidently it occurred to him that he could strike a blow for the Islamic jihad without going all the way to the Middle East. How? By killing a soldier, just like Martin Couture-Rouleau, who, on October 20th, killed Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent by running him down with his car. Like Zehaf-Bibeau, Rouleau was a recent convert to Islam and told a 911 operator that he killed WO Vincent in the name of Allah.

Instead of a car, Zehaf-Bibeau decided he would use a rifle. With any luck, he could kill not just a soldier or two, but maybe a couple of Members of Parliament. So he made a plan, and a video too, so that his reasons -- he wasn't crazy -- would be understood.

On October 22nd, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. He then stormed into the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, where he was killed in a gun battle with security guards while Prime Minister Steve Harper hid in a closet. For details see "Harper's Islamic chickens come home to roost".

Within 48 hours, the RCMP confirmed that they had seized the shooter's cellphone and the 73-second video which he had recorded, which they would release "soon". Then they changed their mind. (In Canada, the police are unaccountable. They don't have to say or do anything if they don't damn well feel like it.) Parliament Hill insiders speculated that the video, rather than recording the ravings of a drug-crazed lunatic, might instead say something about the Harper government's pro-Israel, pro-American, anti-Islam foreign policies. It just wouldn't do for the Mounties to let the public see anything critical of the Dear Leader!

Walt credits the Canadian lamestream media -- particularly the CBC -- and the opposition parties in the Canadian Parliament, for forcing the RCMP and its political masters to release the video after all. Well, most of it, at least. On Friday, at about the same time Sgt. Andrew Doiron was being killed by "friendly fire" in Iraq, the Mounties released 55 seconds of Zehaf-Bibeau's message. 18 seconds were edited out.

What was the message? What reason did Zehaf-Bibeau give for shooting a soldier who was on ceremonial guard duty -- with no ammunition in his rifle -- and then attacking the parliamentarians? As Walt predicted, the killer said Harper's Canada had made itself the enemy of Islam, and his actions were "in retaliation" for the country’s military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Walt's lifetime pct .989.

Zehaf-Bibeau refers to himself as part of the Mujahideen, the army of holy warriors engaged in jihad​. Walt hopes that the Prez has seen the video, because he still doesn't seem to have got it into his head that there is, in fact, an Islamic "holy war" against the West. Of course there. But who started it? If the West had left the Muslims to fight it out amongst themselves -- it's really an Islamic civil war -- would we now have to cower in fear in our own capital cities?

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. That was Zehaf-Bibeau's message to Harper, Obama and the rest of our so-called leaders. Here are his actual words: "Canada's officially become one of our enemies by fighting and bombing us and creating a lot of terror in our countries and killing us and killing our innocents. So [I'm] just aiming to hit some soldiers just to show that you're not even safe in your own land, and you gotta be careful.​"

Obviously the message hasn't sunk in. The loss of WO Vincent, Cpl. Cirillo, and now Sgt. Doiron makes no difference to the notoriously stubborn and arrogant Prime Minister of Canada. Just yesterday his lickspittle Minister of Defence, Jason Kenney, told the media that the government is not going to change its (alleged) mind about the (alleged) wisdom of joining the American invasion of the Middle East. The mission will be extended, and the killing of Canadians -- and Americans and Westerners -- will continue. And for what? For what?!

Mark Twain reflects on the folly of trying to civilize barbarians

Winston Churchill's A History of the English Speaking Peoples has a place of honour on Walt's bookshelf. I have been an English-speaking people since the age of five. (Like Stewie Griffin, I at first spoke only to the family dog. But I digress...) I am quietly proud to be a member of the race -- please forgive the term -- which has brought what passes for civilization in its highest form to the nether regions of the world.

The trouble is that what we think of as civilization and civilized behaviour does not always equate or accord with concepts of the same held by the denizens of such nether regions as Africa and the Middle East. We have long eschewed cultural practices such as female circumcision and stoning people to death for adultery or blasphemy, yet these customs are still followed in places like Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan [That's enough backward places. Ed.]

This is not a new thought. Over a century ago, Mark Twain thought and wrote about the failure of the English-speaking peoples to impose their Christian religion and cultural ideals on the natives -- please forgive the term -- of places like... wait for it... Australia. 

As I thought about the idiocy of our "mission" to being civilization and democracy to the Middle East, I recalled a story the great American writer told in Following the Equator (1897). He describes the efforts of one George Augustus Robinson -- "The Conciliator" -- to find and bring in the last remaining natives of Tasmania, to enclose them in a reservation so that they might enjoy the benefits of civilization etc etc. And so he did, with predictable results. From Chapter 27, emphasis mine....

The Natives were not used to clothes, and houses, and regular  hours, and church, and school, and Sunday-school, and work, and the other misplaced persecutions of civilization, and they pined for their lost home and their wild free life. Too late they repented that they had traded that heaven for this hell....

In a very few years nothing but a scant remnant remained alive. A handful lingered along into age. In 1864 the last man died, in 1876 the last woman died, and the Spartans of Australasia were extinct.

The Whites always mean well when they take human fish out of the ocean and try to make them dry and warm and happy and comfortable in a chicken coop; but the kindest-hearted white man can always be depended on to prove himself inadequate when he deals with savages. He cannot turn the situation around and imagine how he would like it to have a well-meaning savage transfer him from his house and his church and his clothes and his books and his choice food to a hideous wilderness of sand and rocks and snow, and ice and sleet and storm and blistering sun, with no shelter, no bed, no covering for his and his family's naked bodies, and nothing to eat but snakes and grubs and offal.

This would be a hell to him; and if he had any wisdom he would know that his own civilization is a hell to the savage -- but he hasn't any, and has never had any; and for lack of it he shut up those poor natives in the unimaginable perdition of his civilization, committing his crime with the very best intentions, and saw those poor creatures waste away under his tortures; and gazed at it, vaguely troubled and sorrowful, and wondered what could be the matter with them.

I wonder  if President Obarmy has ever read more of Twain than the adventures of Tom Sawyer and (maybe) Huckleberry Finn. And what about Kipling? In The Man Who Would Be King, Peachey Carnehan describes the residents of Kafiristan (real place, part of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan) as "savages, one and all". Do we really think we can turn them into somewhat darker copies of ourselves?

First Canadian soldier killed in mission vs ISIS

No. 1

It was bound to happen. Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron, a member of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment, was killed Friday night (local time) somewhere in Iraq. Three other Canadian soldiers were injured and are being treated in Iraq. They are said to be in stable condition.

About six dozen members of Special Ops are in Iraq, participating in the American-led mission against ISIS (or ISIL, as Obama and his camp followers still call it). So was it ISIS jihadis who shot the four Canucks? Errr, no. Sgt. Doiron and his comrades were fired on by Iraqi Kurds. By mistake, of course.

Canadians were promised by their Dear Leader, Steve Harper, and his lickspittle ministers -- step forward Messrs. Baird, Nicholson, Mackay and Kenney -- that their troops would not be in harm's way, that they would just be "training" and "advising". Walt said at the time that trainers and advisors wear the same uniforms as combat troops, carry the same weapons as combat troops, and would doubtless be going into places where combat was taking place. It was therefore only a matter of time until they started coming home in body bags. See also "Canuck 'trainers' fired on in Iraq -- just fancy that!"

Since the initial Canadian commitment was for only six months, participation in the American invasion is supposedly up for review at the beginning of April. Messrs Harper et al. have, as recently as Thursday, been dropping broad hints that an extension of the mission was all but certain. Will they now rethink their mindless following the disastrous foreign policies of their good friends to the south, who, by the way, have not yet had a single casualty? Don't bet on it.

RIP, Sergeant Doiron. Walt hopes that the blowback from your death will prevent the deaths of others like you.

Clinton campaign momentum building!

Ed. here again. No sooner had I posted the previous non-story, when Poor Len sent me this terrific drawing by the Globe and Mail's award-winning editorial cartoonist Brian Gable. We too are enjoying watching Hellery's campaign unfold/explode/implode...

Note to Mr. Gable: Yes, I know your work is copyrighted, but hope neither you nor your publisher (desperate as they may be for any kind of revenue since the paywall isn't producing any) will mind our posting this here. Hey, we don't make any money on it. We don't even accepting advertising on WWW. This blog is for the common weal. Thank you!

Madame De Gaulle's wish on her husband's retirement

Although the wish may be father to the thought, Walt has been so engrossed in watching Hellery Clinton implode that he has been unable to think of much else this week. Since it may take awhile for the demise of her campaign for the presidensity to eventuate, Ed. insists that something be found to fill this space. To the rescue comes Agent 6, who submits this little story about un mot du Général de Gaulle on the occasion of his retirement.

When Charles De Gaulle decided to retire from public life the British ambassador and his wife threw a gala dinner party in his honour. At the dinner table the Ambassador's wife was talking with Madame De Gaulle...

"Your husband has been such a prominent public figure, such a presence on the French and international scene for so many years! How quiet retirement will seem in comparison. What are you most looking forward to in these retirement years?"

"A penis," replied Madame De Gaulle.

A huge hush fell over the table. Everyone heard her answer... and no one new what to say next.

Le Grand Charles broke the silence a moment later as he leaned over to his wife and said:

"Chérie, I believe zat ze English pronounce zat word " `appiness " !

Note from Ed.: Speaking of le Général, since WWW is written primarily in English, we don't get a whole lot of readership from France, but an enduring favourite, registering 1000s of hits, is "Charles De Gaulle warns about Muslim immigration".

Amnesty offered to 240 million illegal immigrants to USA

Note from Ed.: Thanks to Agent 34 for sending us the following item, from the CityWorldNews website.

The Native American National Council will offer amnesty to the estimated 240 million illegal white immigrants living in the United States. At a meeting in Taos NM, Native American leaders weighed a handful of proposals about the future of the United State’s large, illegal European population. After a long debate, NANC decided to extend a road to citizenship for those without criminal records or contagious diseases.

“We will give Europeans the option to apply for Native Citizenship,” explained Chief Sauti of the Nez Perce tribe. “To obtain legal status, each applicant must write a heartfelt apology for their ancestors’ crimes, pay an application fee of $5,000, and, if currently on any ancestral Native land, they must relinquish that land to NANC or pay the market price, which we decide.

“Any illegal European who has a criminal record of any sort, minus traffic and parking tickets, will be deported back to their native land. Anybody with contagious diseases like HIV, smallpox, herpes, etc, will not qualify and will also be deported.”

European colonization of North America began in the 16th and 17th centuries, when arrivals from France, Spain and England first established settlements on land that had been occupied by native peoples. Explorers Lewis & Clark further opened up western lands to settlement, which ultimately led to the creation of the Indian reservation system.

Despite the large number of Europeans residing in the United States, historical scholars mostly agree that indigenous lands were taken illegally through war, genocide and forced displacement.

However, a native group called True Americans lambasted the council's decision, claiming amnesty will only serve to reward lawbreakers. “They all need to be deported back to Europe,” John Dakota from True Americans said. “They came here illegally and took a giant crap on our land. They brought disease and alcoholism, stole everything we have because they were too lazy to improve and develop their own countries.”

Lesbian premier of Ontario pretends not to notice as pervert who drafted new sex ed curriculum pleads guilty to kiddy porn charges

The story so far... Back in 2010, Kathleen Wynne, a proud member of the LGBT "community" who was then Ontario's Minister of Education, introduced a new sex education curriculum which would have preached the pro-queer message -- homosexuality is OK, "gay marriage" is OK, alternative lifestyles are OK, etc -- to children as young as six. The reaction of parents, teachers and religious leaders was so negative that then-Premier Dalton McGuinty pulled the pink rug out from under Ms Wynne, and the new curriculum was sent back to the eggheads in the Ministry of Education for a rethink.

Typical of the pushback against the gay mafia's attempts to force their "morality" on innocent children was the famous "Don't confuse me; I'm a girl!" ad, sponsored by the Institute for Canadian Values. The lamestream media and the usual gang of secular humanists and celebrants of diversity called the idea that girls should be left alone to be girls, and boys to be boys, old-fashioned, homophobic, etc etc and so forth. But give it time, they said. We'll give it a few minor tweaks and bring it forward again, after a decent interval.

Time passes. "Premier Dad" resigns and hands the reins of power over to... wait for it... Kathleen Wynne. The new curriculum remains in the closet [keen choice o' words! Ed.] until Ms Wynne somehow wins an election, and then, lo and behold, is trotted out again last November. Were any significant changes made? Errr, no.

It didn't take long for Ontarians to see past the new cover and copyright date. Isn't this the same stuff, they asked, that they tried to foist on us a couple of years ago? Who wrote this stuff, anyhow? Aha! The penny drops! That question was asked and answered more than a year earlier, when Dr. Benjamin Levin, former Deputy Minister of Education, was arrested on charges of making and possessing child pornography. See "Are perverts pushing Ontario's sex education curriculum? Could be!"

Oh... that guy... was the reaction of Ms Wynne and the new Education Minister, Lez Sandals. He didn't have anything to do with it. He was Deputy Minister years and years ago, and anyway, those charges haven't been proven in court, so don't give it another thought. We'll be bringing out the new curriculum in the spring and it's better. Nothing in there to worry about. You'll see.

Whoops! The words were still echoing in the marble halls of the Pink Palace when Professor Levin's lawyer announced he'd made a deal with the Crown for his client to plead guilty to some of the charges. Soon. Like the beginning of March. Double whoops!! Roll the damn thing out double-quick, Ms Sandals! And so it was done.

That brings us to today, when, as promised, Dr. Levin pled guilty in a Toronto court to three charges: making written child pornography, counselling a person to commit a sexual assault, and possession of child pornography. The agreed statement of facts, read into the record by the Crown, was so shocking that one Toronto TV station warned its listeners not to listen [hahahahahaha... Ed.]

The man who had a large hand in drafting the new sex ed curriculum liked to hang out in Internet chat rooms. Among the people he chatted with were undercover cops in Toronto, London (Ontario) and New Zealand -- all posing as women interested in sexual activities with children.

In a conversation beginning in August 2012, the Toronto officer said she had two daughters aged 8 and 14. According to the Crown, Levin "normalized and encouraged the sexual touching of the girls by their mother."

In June 2013, the same officer logged into an "incest" chatroom claiming to be a mother attracted to her 8-year-old daughter. The court was told Levin instructed her on how to "groom the child to get her 'used to sex'", to expose her daughter to pornography, to be nude, and to masturbate in front of the child.

Hmmm... "Get her used to sex," eh. Isn't that what the new sex ed curriculum aims to do by starting to teach kids about sex as early as Grade 3, and the reproductive anatomy even earlier? Grade 3... That would be age 8. Where have we heard that number before?

Back to the chatroom... The undercover cop "advised Mr. Levin that she had followed his instructions...that she had sexually assaulted her child," the court heard. "Levin instructed (her) to 'play' with this child. [He] stated that it was fine if the child cried and the child should understand that more would be done to her. The theme of these discussions was sexualization of the officer's child."

Sexualization of a child. Isn't that... (See above.)

The court heard also that Levin didn't think the undercover officer's profile was real, but didn't suggest or ask if she or her daughter were real people. "Nor was it explicitly suggested that their exchanges were intended to be pure fantasy. He knowingly counselled [the officer] to sexually assault her daughter."

Remember, what you're reading are not allegations. These are details from the statement of facts agreed to by Professor Levin's counsel.

In his chats with the London policewoman, in December 2012, Levin expressed further fantasies. According to Crown counsel, "He said he hoped his daughters would 'share' their own children -- his grandchildren -- with him and his wife."

With the undercover officer in New Zealand, Levin's discussions included sending images of females under the age of 18. One depicted a girl in a bondage scene with an adult woman standing over her. Levin's comment on the picture? "Mmm? So hot to imagine a mother doing that to her girl to please her lover."

Other images sent to the officer by Levin included the picture of a crying girl on which he commented "That girl might be crying because she was used somewhat roughly by her mother's lover." In June 2013, at the New Zealand officer's request, Levin created an online story "detailing the violent sexual assault of a 10 year old child."

Why am I posting all this? Because, remember, Benjamin Levin, the man guilty by his own admission of advocating the "sexualization" of children, is the same Benjamin Levin who held the post of Deputy Minister of Education in Ontario, and, again by his own admission, played a major role in developing Ontario's new sex education curriculum.

In 2009 Dr. Levin presented the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) with a bio in which he boasted, "I was the Deputy Minister of education. In that role, I was the chief civil servant. I was responsible for the operation of the Ministry of Education and everything that they do; I was brought in to implement the new education policy." Source: the OISE newsletter.

If Dr. Levin's sexual appetites were so depraved that he could counsel a mother to assault her own child, Ontario parents are well within their rights to be suspicious of the motives for the curriculum's introduction of detailed information about sex to children. Surely it's not old-fashioned or homophobic to see it as a subtle "grooming" of innocent children in preparation for corruption and abuse!

If you're an Ontario parent and you want to stop your children being groomed, to protect them from the likes of Benjamin Levin, click here to sign the Institute for Canadian Values petition, AND (or) here to sign the Parents As First Educators petition. For the sake of your children, do it now!