Current thinking on MH370

On Wednesday, in "Wreckage of MH370 (?) surfaces" (updated yesterday), Walt expressed doubt -- great doubt -- as to the probability of a piece of debris from Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 having drifted more than 3000 miles westward across the southern Indian Ocean to the island of Réunion, where a B-777 "flaperon" has washed ashore. (Yes, Walt has now learned that a "flaperon" is a part of the trailing edge of an aircraft's wing.)

Turns out, now, that the party line being put out by the Australian and Malaysian "authorities" responsible for the search doesn't say that. They deny the suggestion made by Walt [and others! Ed.] that they've been looking in the wrong place, off the coast of western Australia. No, they say, the debris (the flaperon and possibly a beat-up suitcase) could have drifted considerably farther, in a counter-clockwise fashion north following the Western Australia current, then west along the South Equatorial current, then southwest with the Moçambique (Mozambique) current to La Réunion. Do I have to draw you a picture? Voilà!

Yes, I've taken a map of the Indian Ocean and drawn on the currents named and a couple of others. No, I didn't make those up. The source for the location and direction of the warm (red), cold (blue), and luke-warm (I guess, in black) currents is "Currents and Tides", on the Marinebio website.

The spokesthingies for the governments involved are certainly correct in saying that the currents of the southern Indian Ocean move counter-clockwise. And yes, it's possible that if a plane fell into the sea -- "made a water landing", as the airlines would say -- in the search area (highlighted in yellow), pieces of debris could have gone all the way around from, say, 4 o'clock, counter-clockwise to 9 o'clock.

What the "authorities" aren't saying is that it's even more possible that the plane came down -- accidentally or on purpose -- closer to 12 o'clock, which I have starred in red because it's the location of Diego Garcia, site of a huge US military (air and naval) base.

From Diego Garcia, the Americans control virtually the entire Indian Ocean and the airspace above it. Suppose for a minute that a paranoid US radar operator and/or a trigger-happy US pilot mistook MH370 for an enemy aircraft and shot it down. Would the Pentagon (and the Prez) admit and say, "Gee, we're really sorry but you have to understand that we're protecting the world from terrorism and there's bound to be a bit of collateral damage, every now and then?" Walt thinks not.

Further reading: In "MH370 - Just fancy that!" (18/12/14), Walt reports on the theory of French author Marc Dugain -- a former CEO of Proteus Airlines -- that there has been a cover-up in the disappearance of the airliner, which could have been hacked and then shot down by the Americans! IMHO, the finding of debris on the shore of La Réunion adds strength to M. Dugain's version of what happened, the "official" version notwithstanding.

Anonymous threatens to reveal John Baird's "secret"

The group (?) of hackers which styles itself "Anonymous" has members/colleagues/friends in Canada. The Anonymous Canucks are upset because the Mounties shot and killed one of their members a few days back, during a confrontation in Dawson Creek BC. (See? Canadian police shoot unarmed people too!)

The National Post reports today that the hackers are threatening to release decrypted text messages from former Foreign Affairs Minister John "Nancy" Baird which allegedly reveal the real reason why he abruptly left his position [assumed position? Ed.] in early February.

The warning was made in the Twitterverse from an account which the Post says is one that has been operated by activists responsible for previous leaks of confidential information from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service [sic]. Here's the Tweet.

Whatever could they be talking about?! The Post says the hacktivists presented no evidence to support their claim. Johnboy, of course, declined to comment, as did the buggers at the Department of Foreign Affairs. So, it's up to Walt to poke a hole in their rubbers.

The reason why Mr. Baird, who was one of the highest-profile members of Steve Harper’s cabinet, quit suddenly to join the private sector was revealed right here on WWW in February. See "Canada's Foreign Minister finally comes out of the...errr... cabinet".

That Mr. Baird is as gay as 18 balloons has been an open secret in Ottawa for years. That's why his appointment as Foreign Minister made so much sense. The Department of Foreign Affairs Etc. is home to a large and influential gay mafia, so putting Johnboy on top was, errr, a natural fit.

The only reason that Walt can think of for CSIS to take an interest in the Mr. Baird's "alternative lifestyle" is the possibility that he was risking not just getting AIDS, but blackmail by a jilted lover or even a queer spy.

Such things are not unknown, even in staid old Canada. In 1963, the Associate Minister of National Defence, Pierre Sévigny, was forced to resign when it was disclosed that he had had an affair with Gerda Munsinger, an East German prostitute who lived in Ottawa and worked as a spy for the Soviet Union. M. Sévigny's dalliance with the beautiful Gerda was heterosexual, of course, but that was half a century ago, before homosexuality was made not just acceptable but, in certain circles, mandatory!

@OpAnonDown has not given any timeline for the release of this not-so-hot news flash. Perhaps they won't bother. Or perhaps Mr. Baird will preempt them by outing himself. Remember, you read it hear first. Lifetime pct .976.

UPDATED: Wreckage of MH370 (?) surfaces

Walt found it hard to believe that no trace of the Boeing 777 being flown by Malaysian Airlines as flight MH370, which vanished in March of 2014, would ever be found. Regular readers of WWW will remember that Walt maintained from the get-go that searchers were looking in the wrong place, and that if they really wanted to know where to look, they should ask the US military.

Before saying "I told you so", I'll summarize today's news, as reported by the BBC. Then I'll ask a couple of pertinent questions.

La Réunion is a small island in the Indian Ocean, located just to the east of Madagascar. It is technically a part of France, a relic of the French Empire. So, when something that looked like part of an airplane wing washed up on its shores, it was a matter for the local gendarmerie.

Experts, including at least one American, were called right sharpish, and are conducting tests to ascertain whether the single piece of debris was in fact a wing component from a 777. There have been a number of crashes much closer to the island than the sport west of Malaysia where MH370 was last "seen" on radar.

Malaysia is sending a team to investigate the debris discovered today. Australian investigators, who are leading the hunt, are also reported to be in touch with manufacturers over the find. However, an anonymous US official told Associated Press that investigators had a "high degree of confidence" that the part was a "flaperon" unique to a Boeing 777 wing.

BBC News also quotes an aviation expert, Xavier Tytelman, as saying it presented "incredible similarities" to a Boeing 777 flaperon. [Perhaps Agent 17 could e-mail us an explanation of what a "flaperon" is. "Ailerons" we've heard of, but "flaperons"? Errr, no.]

French experts, however, say it is too early to tell. An anonymous member of the French Air Force told CNN it was "way too soon" to say if it was from the missing flight. BBC News points out that La Réunion is over 3700 miles west of the search area, in the southeastern quadrant of the Indian Ocean, off the western coast of Australia.

That's way off, a long way off indeed. Have a look at this map, which shows the Indian Ocean and its currents.

Madagascar is the large island east of Africa. La Réunion is just to the east of Madagascar, at the tip of the long red arrow extending southwest from the middle of the Indian Ocean. Australia... well, you know which landmass is Australia, right? The area which was being searched for the remains of MH370 is close to the black arrow pointing northeast, next to the number 14. Diego Garcia, site of a huge US military base, is located about at the foot of the "A" in "INDIAN". So let me ask...

* Would debris found on Réunion more likely have floated there from the search area or from somewhere in the centre of the Indian Ocean? Note the direction of the currents represented by the black and red arrows.

* Why were American "experts" called in by the French at the first moment? The search was being carried out mainly by the Australians and Malaysians.

* Who told the searchers to look in the location represented by "14", to the exclusion of the northeast and central parts of the Indian Ocean, in spite of considerable doubt expressed by Walt [and others! Ed.] as to why MH370 would have made a turn of some 270 degrees away from its last observed course?

To whom should these questions be addressed? Walt suggests... again... asking the US military, particularly those authorities responsible for operations at the US base on Diego Garcia. Of course the buck doesn't stop at the Pentagon. If no answers are forthcoming from that quarter, perhaps the Republican presidential candidate [Donald who? Ed.] could ask Hellery Clinton.

Previously on WWW: "MH370 - Just fancy that!" (18/12/14) and "Search for MH370 being quietly scaled down" (3/6/15)

"Fancy that!" Dept: Dawn is breaking to the east of Walt's cabin in the pines. CBC News has an update titled "MH370 search: Indian Ocean currents could have deposited debris on Réunion Island, experts say". Perhaps some of the experts have read this post. Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at Imperial College London, is quoted as saying that, if the debris on Reunion was indeed from MH370, "this westward drift from near Australia all the way across the Indian Ocean can really only happen if the plane went into the water relatively close to the equator."

Or perhaps not. All that Charitha Pattiaratchi, Professor of Coastal Oceanography at the University of Western Australia, could add is that the point of origin of the debris "will definitely be in the Southern Hemisphere." Mind you, "the southern Hemisphere" could include the island of St. Helena and the Andes mountains, so no matter where the decide the "flaperon" came from, the good doctor will be proven right! Brilliant!

25 worst places to be a Christian

The British newspaper The Guardian has published an overview of the persecution of Christians worldwide, accompanied by a list of the 25 worst places to be a Christian. "Christians are facing growing persecution around the world," they wrote, "fueled mainly by Islamic extremism and repressive governments, leading the Pope to warn of 'a form of genocide' and for campaigners to speak of 'religio-ethnic cleansing,'."

Click here to read The Grauniad's list, with their reasons. Walt's "Reader's Digest version" follows. The list is not in bad-worse-worst order because, well... I don't need to explain, do I?

North Korea - Asia, Communist dictatorship. Believers meet in secret "house churches", risking imprisonment, torture and martyrdom.
Somalia - Horn of Africa, officially Muslim, lawless and chaotic. Christians often executed on the spot.
Iraq - Middle East sandpit, officially Muslim, but which kind of Muslim? Shi'ites and Sunni Muslims are fighting it out in a Muslim civil war, in which the USA and its reluctant allies are meddling for no good reason.
Syria - Like Iraq, only worse.
Afghanistan - Like Syria, only worse.

Sudan - Northern Africa, officially Muslim, Sharia law. Converting to Christianity punishable by death. Blasphemy gets you the lash.
Iran - Middle East, officially Muslim. Safer for Christians than Iraq or Syria, and that's about all you can say.
Pakistan - Asia, officially Muslim. Christians are second-class citizens. Blasphemy (against the Prophet or the Holy Qu'ran) punishable by death.
Eritrea - Horn of Africa, pseudo-Communist dictatorship, Muslim majority. See North Korea.
Nigeria - Africa, divided between Muslim north and nominally Christian south. Sharia law in the north. Boko Haram abducts girls, kills Christians by the thousands.

Maldives - Never heard of it, right? Beautiful little islands in the Indian Ocean, southwest of India. Great tourist destination. Officially Muslim. Converting from Islam means forfeiting Maldivian citizenship, and owning a Bible is punishable by death. Churches are banned; Christian migrants and tourists also have to meet in secret and cannot own Bibles.
Saudi Arabia - Middle East, feudal kingdom. Officially Muslim and we're talking Wahabi, the most extreme branch of Sunni Islam. For their faith, Christians may be arrested, imprisoned, tortured and deported.
Libya - North Africa, officially Muslim. ISIS hotspot, going through a civil war following a pointless Western invasion. The new Somalia.
Yemen - Middle East, feudal, officially Muslim. Christians treated as in Saudi Arabia, and caught in the middle of a civil war, with Saudis intervening on the side of Islamic fundamentalists.
Uzbekistan - Central Asia, pseudo-Communist dictatorship. As in China [How did China get left off this list?! Ed.], all churches must be registered with the state. Converts from Islam face imprisonment, beatings and sometimes banishment.

Vietnam - Asia, Communist dictatorship. Not quite as bad as China, since the Roman Catholic Church still has a large following, the legacy of the colonial days. As in China and Uzbekistan, churches must be officially registered. As in China, many churches have been destroyed, and Christians attacked and imprisoned.
Central African Republic - Africa [Duh! Ed.], chaotic, lawless. The militant group Séléka, (= CAR rebels + Muslims from neighbouring countries), have raped, tortured and killed Christians throughout the country. Unlike in other countries on this fecal roster, defence groups made up of people claiming to be Christians are fighting back. Victims, Christian or Muslim, may be eaten.
Qatar - Middle East, Islamic kingdom. Converts to Christianity face banishment and death. Large population of migrant workers have to keep their faith to themselves.
Kenya - Africa. Like Nigeria but substitute Al Shabaab for Boko Haram. If you're a white, presumably Christian tourist, keep your head down.
Turkmenistan - Central Asia, quasi-dictatorship, officially Muslim. See Uzbekistan.

India - Asia. Officially a secular state but under the ruling BJP effectively "Hindustan". Like Pakistan, only with the persecutors being Hindus. In some states there are anti-conversion laws, and attacks on Christians and church buildings occur frequently. Indian Muslims are recommended to move to Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Ethiopia - Horn of Africa. I don't agree with The Guardian on this one, as the majority of Ethiopians are Coptic Christians. But there are Muslim-dominated areas, where Christians report harassment for their faith. The Grauniad says there were 60 violent incidents reported in 2014.
Egypt - Northern Africa, officially Muslim. There is a large(ish) minority of Coptic Christians who were largely left alone until the US-supported overthrow of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, which was followed by a sharp increase in anti-Christian violence, with 65 churches, convents, Christian bookshops and schools attacked. There are fears these attacks will increase as radical Islamist groups gain power in the region.
Djibouti - Horn of Africa, officially Muslim. You'll find it on the map next to Eritrea, which it greatly resembles. That's all you need to know.
Burma - Asia, quasi-dictatorship, officially Buddhists. Included in The Guardian's list (I guess) to show that it's not only the Islamists who have it in for Christians. There has been a rise in nationalist religious movements in the past few years, with nearly two dozen Christians killed in clashes with the army in 2014. Buddhist nationalist groups are putting pressure on the government to adopt laws that would make life harder for Christians, such as limiting conversions and restricting interfaith marriages.

So there you have it -- the 25 worst countries in which to be a Christian. OK, 26 if you count China, which you definitely should. And The Guardian says nothing of the persecution of believers in the True Faith by the secular humanists who have triumphed in post-Christian Europe and North America.

Dear Christian readers, please keep in your minds and hearts the words of St. Paul:
2 Timothy 3:12 - And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Romans 8:35/37 - Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or persecution, or sword? / But in all these things we overcome, because of Him that hath loved us.

Further reading: "Dying for Christianity: millions at risk amid rise in persecution across the globe" (Companion piece to The Guardian's list)

Walt explains why Americans like The Donald

Walt loves watching the liberal lamestream meeja explain to Americans why they're all wrong in supporting Donald Trump's bid for the presidensity. One of the more ridiculous analyses I've seen was that of the CBC's Neil Macdonald, who opines that Americans "don't take people like Donald Trump seriously" and are enjoying the spectacle purely for the entertainment value. Wrong, Neil! Wrong!!!

A better view is taken by Lexington, the Economist's observer of things American. In "El Donald", he (or she) says "What is clear is that he will not win the Republican presidential nomination.... America’s two-party system offers him a bleaker choice: to stay on and heckle in the primaries or to play wrecker as a third-party candidate. Yet the Trump slump, when it happens, will not spell the end of the forces that have propelled him so far. Anti-politics rage is buffeting rich democracies across the world, and America is not immune to it." [Walt's emphasis.]

IMHO, Lexington has put his (or her) finger on the root of Mr. Trump's popularity. While the likes of Mr. Macdonald are already writing obituaries for his "The America We Deserve" campaign, a CNN/ORD national survey (conducted after The Donald's nasty remarks about John McCain) showed Mr. Trump leading the GOP pack, with the support of 18% of Republicans. "Jeb" Noname had 15% and Scott Walker 10%.

Mr. Trump's star is rising, and shows no signs of falling before next month's debate of the top ten contenders. Why is this?

Part of it is The Donald's reputation for business acumen. "I'm a smart guy," he tells us. "I went to Wharton Business School." The second statement is true. As for the first, Mr. Trump has had some spectacular business successes. He's had a few colossal failures too, but anyone who can boast that he could finance his own multimillion-dollar campaign if he wanted to is clearly no slouch at managing the elusive sponduliks. And, according to the same CNN poll, 44% of Republicans think healing the economy is the ballot issue for the next election.

Then there's the celebrity factor. For decades now, Mr. Trump has been plastering his name on everything he touches, from New York towers to California golf courses to airplane tailfins. Walt even flew on the Trump Shuttle, back in the day. Leatherette seats in coach - for decades. He was the star of his own "reality" television show, and his catchphrase -- "you're fired" -- is a commonplace of American dialogue. [You're fired! Ed.]

Mr. Trump has name and face (read: hair) recognition up the yingyang. A recent Gallup poll puts his name ID among Republicans at 92%. But who's John Kasich? Who's Bobby Jindal? Who's... that other guy?
The Trump name demands media coverage (even if it's just in the Entertainment section), which boosts his poll numbers and leads to more media coverage.

We turn now to the Top Two Reasons for Donald Trump's lead in the polls.

His stance on illegal immigrants resonates with the majority of Republicans and, dare we say it, the majority of Americans. Lots of people who were born in the USA, or followed the rules to come in legally, are sick, sore and tire of being branded as racists and extremists. They see no reason to give the queue-jumpers a fast track to resident alien status, or amnesty of any kind. What they want, according to that CNN/ORC survey, is for them to be deported -- immediately if not sooner.

In "Revenge of the Radical Middle", Matthew Continetti, neocon editor of The Washington Free Beacon, writes: "It is immigration -— its universally celebrated benefits and its barely acknowledged costs -— that is the third rail of U.S. politics.... Trump didn’t step on the third rail; he embraced it, he won’t let go of it, and in so doing he’s become electric. Republicans, Democrats, journalists, corporations all want to define themselves against him, and their flaunting of their moral superiority only feeds the media monster, only makes Trump more attractive to the dispossessed, alienated, radical middle."

Which brings us to the undeniable fact that The Donald has become the spokesman for the silent majority. Mr. Continetti calls Trump supporters the "radical middle", who in years past embraced Ronald Reagan, Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich. Mr. Trump, you see, is not a conservative, or even a mainstream Republican. He is a populist, more akin to Ross Perot (another wealthy businessman who ranted about the Mexican threat) or George Wallace than to Messrs Gingrich and Reagan.

The voters to whom Mr. Trump appeals (continues Mr. Continetti) "don’t give a whit [Ed., please check spelling] about corporate tax reform or TPP or the capital gains rate or the fate of Uber, they make a distinction between deserved benefits like Social Security and Medicare and undeserved ones like welfare and food stamps, their patriotism is real and nationalistic and skeptical of foreign entanglement, they wept on 9/11, they want America to be strong, dominant, confident, the America of their youth, their young adulthood, the America of 40 or 30 or even 20 years ago.

"They do not speak in the cadences or dialect of New York or Washington, their thoughts can be garbled, easily dismissed, or impugned, they are not members of a designated victim group and thus lack moral standing in the eyes of the media, but still they deserve as much attention and sympathy as any of our fellow citizens, still they vote."

Speaking last week in South Carolina, Mr. Trump said, "There's a silent majority out there. We're tired of being pushed around, kicked around, and acting and being led by stupid people." To which Walt can only say, "Ain't it the truth!"

Just between us retailers, customers are a pain in the ass

Walt doesn't have a whole lot of followers in France. [Possibly because we rarely post anything en français? Ed.] So it's not likely you, dear typical reader, will have heard of French high-tech retailer Boulanger. They sell lots of cool electric and electronic stuff though. They have a website and a blog and of course they sell online as well as their bricks-and-mortar magasins.

You might want to think twice, though, about buying from them, if you're the kind of person who believes the customer is king... or queen... or flaming queen.... The friendly sales and service reps at Boulanger don't always see it that way. We know this because the company apologized yesterday for vitriolic comments about its customers found in its computer files by France's CNIL (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés).

CNIL is an independent administrative regulatory body whose mission is to ensure that data privacy law is applied to the collection, storage, and use of personal data. Let's just call them the "privacy police". Naturally to do their job they have to access all the data, including very personal data, collected by the French government, businesses, ISPs, and... well... everybody!

In the course of snooping in Boulanger's database, CNIL found over 5800 instances of "inappropriate" comments about clients, including "stupid", "fat bitch", "ball-breaker", "retard", "Jew", "strong African accent", "alcoholic" and "nutcase". [The comments were in French, of course. Translations by Agence France Presse. Ed.]

After a public upbraiding by the watchdog, which gave the company three months to ensure its files contain only pertinent information about clients, Boulanger apologized. Managing Director Etienne Hurez said, "They were rare occurences, but did happen and we shouldn't try to not own up to this serious failure."

So, if you're a Boulanger customer, you must feel better now. Right? But what if you buy from other retailers -- American, British, Canadian, Dutch or whatever? Do you think the French are the only types who would vent their frustration by putting rude remarks on your file? Hm? Wouldn't you like to know what your providers of goods and services are saying about you? LMAO.

HKG woman convicted of assaulting cop with her breasts

Walt apologizes sincerely and profusely for not being able to find a video or at least a better picture to go with the following true story from the Mysterious Orient. [Actually, I'm the one who should be apologizing. But in WWW (unlike Washington DC) the boss carries the can for whatever happens... or doesn't. Ed.]

The South China Morning Post reported on Friday that Ms Ng Lai-ying, aged 30, has been convicted of assaulting a police officer with her breasts during a violent protest in Hong Kong. She was taking part in a demonstration on the streets of Yuen Long against parallel trading (sort of a black market for mainland Chinese) when the incident took place last March.

Ms Ng claimed that Chief Inspector Chan of the Hong Kong police had tried to grab her bag but instead touched her left breast. However, Inspector Chan insisted that it was Ms Ng who bumped her breasts into his arm in order to falsely accuse him of assault.

The presiding magistrate sided with the cop -- surprise, surprise! -- telling the accused, "You used your female identity to trump up the allegation that the officer had molested you." And, he added, Ms Ng's "malicious" claims were damaging to the CI’s reputation. Officers policing protests "should be protected", he said. "There were two groups of people expressing different points of view at the protest. Without police officers there to maintain order, it is not surprising that there was commotion, or even clashes."

Walt has seen a picture of Ms Ng, taken following her arrest, which show her face (only) with a bloody nose, which she said she got when the cops pushed her to the ground. We have chosen instead this photo, which appeared on the Net within minutes. Agent 78 translates the caption as "Big or small, your boobs can be a weapon!"

Ms Ng is to be sentenced later this month. However, Agent 3 recommends an appeal on the grounds that the alleged weapons were not produced and identified in court.

Walt would like to know the calibre of the "weapons". Assuming they were, say, 34A -- typical for a 30-year-old Chinese -- surely the maxim De minimis non curat lex would apply!

Latest score: US military 8 - Muslim terrorists 5

Yesterday, in "Why a Muslim American killed five American servicemen", I argued that the motivation for the attacks of "domestic terrorists" on military personnel in the USA (and Canada and Britain) was revenge for American interference in the Muslim vs Muslim wars of the Middle East.

Every now and then, a "radicalized Muslim" kills a soldier or two or five. Virtually every day, troops of the "coalition of the willing" put together by Dubya and continued by the Prez kill dozens or scores or even hundreds of innocent Muslims (along with the occasional ISIS fighter) while bringing American goodness and democracy to the sandpit. The innocent Muslims are "collateral damage".

Today, BBC News reports that at least eight soldiers of the Afghan army -- the ones we're supposed to be helping -- were killed by friendly fire in a US air strike, on an army checkpoint in Logar province south of Kabul. Several more Afghan troops were injured in a helicopter attack in broad daylight.

Guess that more than makes up for Chattanooga, eh.

According to the Beeb, there are still more than 13,000 international troops in Afghanistan, about half of them American. And more have remained for longer than President 0 originally ordered, after he acceded to military requests to slow down the withdrawal.

The only active international fighting units are "assisting" Afghan special forces, and that is the mission that the helicopters believed to have been involved in yesterday's attack would have been engaged in. But every day, somewhere in that wretched country, there are air strikes, mostly from unmanned drones. Statistics recently emerged showing that in June more than 100 bombs were dropped -- more than twice as many as in any other month since combat operations ended.

Who were the targets? Whoever was unlucky enough to be on the ground, including the people we're trying to "help". Yet we wonder why they hate us.

Why a Muslim American killed five American servicemen

Last October, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau and Martin Couture-Rouleau, Canadian converts to Islam, killed two Canadian soldiers. One was standing on ceremonial guard at the War Memorial in Ottawa. The other was walking to his car, parked near a strip mall near Montréal. Both were unarmed.

It took some time, and a lot of hemming and hawing, before Canada's self-styled Conservative -- but still politically correct -- government admitted that the killers were Muslim. More time passed before they finally disclosed that the "lone wolf shooters" may have been "influenced by ISIS". Surprise, surprise!

Last week, in Chattanooga, Muhammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24, killed four US Marines, a Navy sailor, and two other people, before being himself shot by police. Mr. Abdulazeez was born in Kuwait, but grew up in the USA and was by all accounts an unremarkable young man. He was, however, a Muslim, and distressed by the presence of American troops in his native land, not to mention the American "intervention" in the Muslim civil war now raging in the Middle East.

In, "Chattanooga shooter changed after Mideast visit, friend says", CNN tells us that a recent visit to the Middle East turned the late Abdulazeez into what the US government calls a "domestic terrorist". Surprise, surprise!

His friend, Abdulrazzak Brizada, told CNN that Mr. Abdulazeez had changed after spending time in the Middle East and "distanced himself" for the first few months after returning. "Something happened over there," Mr. Brizada said, adding that "he never became close to me like he was before he went overseas. ... I'm sure he had something that happened to him overseas."

The motive that links these three killers of US and Canadian servicemen is revenge. Informed and inspired by ISIS, they sought to visit the sins of the Obama administration (and Obama's lackeys in Canada, the UK, etc) on any Americans (or Canadians, Brits, etc) they could find -- punishment for America's failed foreign policy of meddling in affairs which are really none of its business.

As President O's pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, said in a sermon in March of 2014, the chickens are coming home to roost. [This link takes you to a post here on WWW which contains an embedded video of Pastor Wright's sermon. If you're using Firefox, you'll need to activate Adobe Flash Player to see it. Ed.]

We turn now to Ron Paul's compendium of positions, ideas and ideals, Liberty Defined (Grand Central Publishing, 2011). In the chapter headed "Empire", Mr. Paul writes:

"It is not infrequently that I hear members of Congress express their unqualified opinion that it is only the hate-filled Muslim religion that is the source of our problems, and we must pursue the war on terrorism at all costs, even if it does mean preventive war.

"Some well-known neocons say they have never heard any other explanation than the religious hatred that they claim Islam generates. They stick to their argument that anyone who would suggest that our own policies contribute to suicide terrorism is committing virtual treason. Sadly, many Americans have been conditioned to believe this.

"Demagoguing, lying, or denying that no unintentional consequences or blowback result from our invasion, occupation, and bombing of other nations, especially Arab and Muslim countries, presents the greatest danger to our society, freedom, and prosperity."

Further reading: "Perry v. Paul: who's right about American involvement in foreign wars?"

VIDEO: A great lady and her great car

Every now and then someone takes Walt to task for posting so much nasty stuff on WWW. Well, the world is a pretty nasty place nowadays. But every now and then I see -- or someone sends me -- a story that makes me smile and feel a bit better about things. Call it a candle in the darkness.

Agent 71 has forwarded this short (<3 minutes) YouTube video about a lady in MI who must be a car salesman's nightmare. She won't buy a new car until she's worn out her old one. It's still in good shape, and only 85 years old! The driver? She's 101! Check this out.

UFOs, sure, but have you seen the UFDs in Portland?

Walt welcomes a new agent, No. 69. [Any reason for that number? Ed.] [Of course not. Walt] Agent 69 has a keen interest in pix and videos of UFOs -- Unidentified Flying Objects -- and other mysterious things. He has just alerted us to the appearance in Portland OR of numerous UFDs -- Unidentified Flying Dildos.

You read right, friends. Hundreds of sex toys have been spotted hanging from power lines across major commercial streets in the Rose City. Here are pix of four sightings.

OK. Maybe we should call them UHDs, for Unidentified Hanging Objects. And they're not really "Unidentified", are they. Most readers of WWW should know what they are.

Whatever they are, their origin remains a mystery. Portlandians or Portlandites [Ed., what do those people call themselves?] have been sharing images like these online, trying to figure out who might be responsible. And the authorities have been called in. A spokesthingy for Portland General Electric said he did not believe the rubber products posed a fire hazard.

Any Portlandian (or whatever) who can shed some light on the provenance of the HDs (Hanging Dildos) is invited to contact Walt at the usual address.

Footnote: There's actually a place in Newfoundland called Dildo. You can look it up.

Note from Ed.: No, I can't see the dildo in the lower right picture either. Maybe it flew away.

VIDEO: Planned Parenthood making a killing on aborted babies' organs

WARNING -- GRAPHIC CONTENT -- The picture below the video depicts a scene of shocking violence against an unborn child. Be prepared to be disturbed.

The headline is a terrible pun, but this is a terrible story. Yesterday, the Center for Medical Progress released video footage, captured during an undercover investigation, which shows a top Planned Parenthood official discussing the organization’s booming business in the sale of organs from the bodies of aborted babies.

In the video, Deborah Nucatola, the senior medical director for the Planned Parenthood Federation, describes how the procedure for late-term abortions is altered to preserve vital organs. "We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver…," she says. See for yourself. [If you're using Firefox, you'll need to activate Adobe Flash Player. Ed.]



By offering organs for sale, Planned Parenthood would appear to be in violation of federal law, which prohibits the purchase or sale of fetal body parts. And the procedure that Ms Nucatola describes in the video may be a partial-birth abortion, which is also illegal. Here, from the CMP article, is an illustration of how they behead babies using this "procedure".

Click here to read "Planned Parenthood director caught on tape selling aborted 'baby parts'", from the Center for Medical Progress website.

Why the chicken crossed the road

As explained by...

The Bible
And God came down from the heavens, and He said unto the chicken, "Thou shalt cross the road." And the chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

Jesse Jackson
The road, you will see, represents the black man. The chicken crossed the "black man" in order to trample him and keep him down.

Baltimore Police Department
Give us five minutes with the chicken and we'll find out.

Richard Nixon
The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the chicken did not cross the road. I don't know any chickens. I have never known any chickens.

Ernest Hemingway
To die in the rain.

Martin Luther King Jr.
I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

Grandpa Simpson
In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

Aristotle
It is the nature of chickens to cross roads.

Karl Marx
It was an historical inevitability.

Bashir Assad
This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

Ronald Reagan
What chicken?

Machiavelli
The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The end result of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.

Sigmund Freud
The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

Bill Gates
I am about to release Chicken Coop 10, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. And Explorer is an inextricable part of the operating system.

Albert Einstein
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

Bill Clinton
I did not cross the road with that chicken. However, I did ask Vernon Jordan to find the chicken a job in New York.

Walt
Because the chicken lacks any reasoning or decision-making capabilities, it seems unlikely that the chicken's action was spurred by any particular motivation.

Was Eva Peron killed by order of her own husband?

People who read or listen to the ridiculously parochial US media miss a lot of interesting stuff. There really is more to the world than the "continental 48". For example, there's the history of Argentina, full of intrigue, revolutions, coups, and blood and gore. [Wasn't he Clinton's Vice-Prexy? Ed.] Most Americans are unaware that Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical, Evita, is (mostly) true -- the story of the mad life and tragic death of Maria Eva Duarte de Peron, wife of Argentinian dictator Juan Peron.


The way the official story goes, "Evita" died on 26 July 1952 of cervical cancer. A few weeks before she died, Eva Peron rode next to her husband for his second inauguration as President of Argentina. Her cervical cancer, it is said, had rendered her so weak, and her limbs so frail, that she was only able to stand inside a plaster and wire cage. She weighed only 80 pounds.

At least, that was the official story. But now, according to a fascinating article by David Robson on the BBC News website, Dr. Daniel Nijensohn, a neurosurgeon at the Yale Medical School, has a different and controversial theory as to what really caused Eva Peron's death.

In his recent paper, "Prefrontal lobotomy on Evita was done for behavior/
personality modification, not just for pain control", the good doctor claims that it was the man beside Evita in the limo -- Juan Peron himself -- who was responsible for Eva's rapid decline. How so? According to Dr. Nijensohn he forced her to undergo a lobotomy.


The operation involves cutting the neural connections between the prefrontal lobes and the rest of the brain, in order to numb emotional responses. The now-discredited surgery was widely used for decades as treatment for schizophrenia, manic depression and bipolar disorder, among other mental illnesses. If you're not sure what effect it has on the patient, check out the penultimate scene in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

It wasn't until 2011 that Dr. Nijensohn was able to obtain scans of Eva Peron's skeleton, which disclosed, among other things, X-ray images of her skull showing signs it had been drilled into. But why? One possibility is that the lobotomy had been a radical measure to help her endure the pain of her cancer. But the doctor suggests another motive. The operation, he writes, may have been President Peron's last desperate attempt to curb his wife's increasingly dangerous behaviour. "It offered the perfect approach to 'calm' Evita and prevent a civil war...."

As Argentina's First Lady, [David Robson writes] Sra Peron was in charge of many of the country's social policies, but, as Evita suggests, had made numerous enemies within the government and without. Perhaps fired by the anxiety and pain of cancer, her rhetoric had become increasingly incendiary towards those who dared to disagree with her.

Dr. Nijensohn tells us: "Her last public speech, delivered on May 1, 1952, Labour Day in Argentina, was a call against her enemies. She also dictated a 79-page document, 'My Message', showing evidence of her belligerence and violent state of mind. She spoke about the 'enemies of the people' who were 'insensitive and repugnant', and 'as cold as toads and snakes'. She exalted the 'holy fire of fanaticism'. She was 'against those imbeciles' who called for prudence. She ordered the people of Argentina to 'fight the oligarchy'."

Dangerous stuff indeed. Even Hellery Clinton couldn't get away with talking like that, could she? It must have seemed obvious to the President that if her threats had been made good -- she had allegedly ordered 5000 automatic pistols and 1500 machine guns with which to arm "workers' militias" -- Argentina could have soon descended into civil war.

So, what to do? Lobotomy had already gained notoriety in the USA as a measure to treat uncontrollable aggression and impulsive violence. Perhaps that was the answer. Acquaintance of Sra Peron's surgeon, Dr. James Poppen, told Dr. Nijensohn that the operation was performed in a back room of the Casa Rosa, -- without Evita’s consent.

In the end [David Robson again], the operation did succeed in silencing Evita, if only by accelerating her decline. After the lobotomy, she simply stopped eating. "The possibility of a conspiracy" David Robson writes, "adds another, tragic chapter to the life of a colourful and controversial figure who continues to fascinate more than six decades after her death."

Memorial for a dead coon

Walt has written before about those makeshift memorials that spring up within seconds of someone's being hit by a car, killed by a cop, shot by a gangbanger, or meeting any other sort of untimely demise. See "Looks like 'a pile of trash' to me too".

You know the kind of thing I mean: a big pile of wilting flowers, cutesy teddy bears and care bears, non-biodegradable balloons, crosses and candles too crude to be displayed in any church. Somehow, adding to the pile seems to make sad lonely people with no relationship to the dear departed feel that they have Done Something Good -- warned against the evils of drunk driving, demonstrated against racism, whatever.

To me, these memorials are just about the basest form of maudlin sentiment, contributing to the betterment of no-one except florists and owners of gift shops. And they do become piles of trash which eventually the municipality has to clean up.

Some residents of Toronto evidently share Walt's sense of the ridiculous, for yesterday some anonymous residents of a downtown neighbourhood set up a memorial for "Conrad", who died alone on a city sidewalk. And they did it while the corpse was still there! Here's a picture.

Yes, Conrad is (or was) a raccoon, one of Toronto's large and growing "Raccoon Nation". How he met his fate is unclear, but it took the city about 14 hours to remove the carcass. [Perhaps it was left there pour encourager les autres. Ed.] Meanwhile, the memorial grew up around it, with a nice framed picture being added, and a candle, as the sun sank behind the golden tower of the Royal Bank building. Shortly after 11 p.m. a city works truck swept up the memorial, and Conrad along with it.

Question from Ed.: Did Conrad have a last name? Not "Black", surely?

WANTED for theft of 14 tons of nuts

Yes, it's a squirrel. And yes, this picture really was posted on the Facebook page of the Shelby Township MI Police Department. They're looking for the thief who stole about 14 tons of packaged snack nuts from a parked tractor trailer sometime over the weekend of June 27th.

A Shelby PD spokesthingy told the press that the wanted poster has not produced any leads on the actual culprit, so far. "Obviously the squirrel attracted some attention but not the types of calls that we were hoping for," said. Det. Lt. Jason Schmittler said.

The Facebook page now includes a warning that "The squirrel is not a suspect. It's just a picture. Used to draw attention. Please do not call in squirrel sightings."

Note from Ed.: Shelby Township is about 30 miles north of Detroit. It is not to be confused with Shelbyville, which is near Springfield in another state.

"Gay triumph now complete" - African journo mocks US Protestants' acceptance of Supreme Court gay "marriage" decision

African-born journalist Ken Mufuka writes a "Letter From America" every week in the Financial Gazette, one of Zimbabwe's courageously independent newspapers. This week his topic is Obergefell v. Hodges, the recent decision of the Supreme Court in which the dishonourable court, by a vote of 5-4, tortured the "equal protection" provisions of the Constitution into a finding that homosexuals (gays, lesbians, transexuals, bisexuals and queers in general) have the same rights as straight folk to marry and have their nuptials celebrated by society.

Gay "marriage" maybe be against God's law, but it's now the law of the USA. God save the United States of America!

Well, that's Walt's view. In "Gay Triumph Now Complete", Mr. Mufuka [pronounced with a long "U". Ed.] takes an even dimmer view of the decision, but he takes much longer to say so. Walt has excerpted some of the more acidic bits of his column. The words are Mr. Mufuka's; the emphasis is mine.

July 4, or Independence Day, commemorates the overthrow of the British imperialists by American patriots in the war of independence. It is big deal, as they say here. Citizens use this day to blow off steam, dance in public and generally engage in good-natured goofy behaviour, even disgracing themselves. It is all done in good faith. The police look the other way.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) “community” had the best July 4th celebrations ever. They say that such a joyous time as this comes only once in a millennium. Their celebrations started June 27, when the US supreme court announced two rulings.

A pro-gay reprobate judge, Anthony Kennedy, announced the judgment. The issue was whether same sex marriages were protected in the US constitution. To cut a long story short, marriage is not mentioned because it was assumed, supported by immemorial custom that a man shall leave his home to find a damsel and marry her.

Having failed to find a constitutional clause, the reprobate judge strained all sensibilities to create one out of thin air, calling it equal protection under law. Same sex partners, wrote the pro-gay judge, bring with them the hope that in their marriages they are not “condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

Chief Justice John Roberts, who disagreed with the decree, nevertheless, saw the earth shattering impact it had on the future of the world. The decision cannot be justified on moral or historical grounds.
The fact remains that United States is an exceptional, confirmed in its own righteousness. As such arrangements have been put in place for the advancement of the gay agenda to the world.

Protestant denominations...had foreseen the gay decision, they were unprepared for the onslaught within their own organizations.... Infiltrated by earthly philosophies over the years, they were left wondering in the wilderness, as gay forces outflanked and swiftly destroyed all opposition. South Carolina Methodists barely survived a gay resolution, but it was very close, 752 votes against 550. The pro-gay lobby promised that “they will be back, the fight is not over.”

The 3.8 million members Lutheran Church (USA) which split into two denominations over the issue revisited it with wisdom gained from experience. Each individual denomination will, after prayer, instruct their pastor whether they will permit gay weddings in their church.

The Anglicans, meeting in Utah, the home of the polygamous Mormon Christians, suffered resounding defeat, 173 delegates in favour, against last-stand motley of 27 resisters. There is another juicy change among Anglicans. Gays can now be married in the full communion of the church, and church wedding bells are allowed. Little boys and girls can walk in the isle to present flowers to a gay couple.

When the deputies took on another position on gender neutral religion, they suffered a worse defeat, 184 supporting the change against miserable 23. In this second resolution, God is no longer “Our Father in Heaven” but the Creator of the Universe. It is, however, alright to say: “God our Mother in Heaven” or to say: “The faith of our mothers.”

It's tempting for us Catholics -- especially traditional Catholics -- to sneer at the Protestants' capitulation to the homonazis, but Holy Mother Church is not immune from the cancers of moral rot and political correctness. The pro-queer agenda, along with weakening of the Church's laws on divorce and remarriage is being pushed relentlessly by the gay lobby in the Vatican and in the liberal churches of Germany and the low countries. This fall will see another Synod on the Family, at which same sex "marriage" will be back on the table. Stay tuned.

Note from Ed.: No, we don't know if Mr. Mufuka is a Catholic. Why don't you ask him? mufukaken@gmail.com.

A prospective teacher's earnest question

After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said:

"Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behaviour, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.

"You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self-esteem and personal pride. You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, how to balance a chequebook, and apply for a job.

"You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams. You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.

"You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.

"You want me to do all this, and then you tell me... I CAN'T PRAY?!"

Drunk driver mistakes police cruiser for taxi, winds up in jail

Every now and then we get a good dumber-than-dumb story. This one comes to us from Abbotsford BC, where an unnamed gentleman, obviously tired and emotional, failed to recognize this car for what it is.

Well, yeah... It's a police cruiser! Duhhhhh! But I guess it's possible it could be mistaken for a taxi... at night... in the dark... with drink taken.

The gentleman was the worse for wear, but not so much so that he failed to realize he was in no condition to drive. That's why he jumped into the back seat of the cruiser. "Get me out of here buddy," he told the astonished constable, "there’s cops everywhere!"

The cop took him, all right... straight to the local hoosegow.

Abbotsford police are showing their sense of humour [Cops with a sense of humour? Ed.] by posting memes of bizarre happenings on social media for "Driving Excuses Week". "This kind of thing happens more often than you'd think," they tweeted after posting this one.

Walt reminds all WWW readers: Don't drink and drive! (You might spill some.)

Know your Confederate flags

Yesterday the South Carolina state senate, by a vote of 37 to 3, read for the second time a bill to banish the Confederate battle flag from a Civil War memorial on the capitol grounds, and put it in a museum where (the "civil rights" nazis say) it belongs. The bill is to be read for a third and final time today. Then it will go to the state House of Representatives. Click here to read the Reuters report on the rather one-sided debate.

Walt was dismayed [yet again! Ed.], while watching this news on the idiot's lantern, to hear a reporter for a major network refer [yet again! Ed.] to the flag in question as "the Stars and Bars". It is not!!! Would all reporters, commentators, pundits and other members of the chattering classes please look closely at the images below!

The Stars and Bars, shown at the left end of the top row, was the first flag of the Confederate States of America, deliberately modelled on the Betsy Ross flag popularly believed -- although the point is debatable -- to have been the first flag of the United States of America. The seven stars in the canton represent the original seven states of the CSA. More stars were added as more states exercised their right to secede from the Union.

The square flag which flies at the SC Civil War memorial is the Confederate battle jack, more accurately the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. It's shown at the left end of the second row. The rectangular version, often called "the Southern Cross", was carried into battle by other units, along with a number of lesser-known unit flags, as shown.

The Confederate battle jack was (and still is) popular with the people of the South, and was incorporated into the second and third national flags of the confederacy. It still appears in the canton of the state flag of Mississippi, whose politically-incorrect legislature has so far shown no inclination to remove it. 

How embarrassing! Rovi gets "Fantasia" still caption wrong

Ever heard of Rovi? Neither had I. But Wikipedia informs us that Rovi Corporation is a US company, known previously as "Macrovision", whose patents, products, and technologies include copy protection, software licensing and "search recommendation" on devices such as set-top boxes, digital video recorders, TVs, and mobile and tablet devices.

We're told also that companies such as consumer electronics manufacturers, cable operators, websites, and social networks use Rovi’s entertainment metadata -- a collection of in-depth information on movies, television shows, celebrities, music, games, and books -- in their efforts to organize and enable the consumption as well as hinder the duplication of the digital entertainment they provide.

So... "in-depth information on movies", eh. The kind of "in-depth information" you might find in an article like "50 incredible animated movies", which appeared on MSN Entertainment today. All captions (the blurb on the landing page sez) were provided by Rovi. Here's Walt's screen cap of one of them.

Fans (like Walt) of the original Fantasia, released in 1940, will know immediately that the cell pictured is not from Fantasia, but from Fantasia 2000, released by Disney in 2000 [Duh! Ed.] to slow applause.

Nasty letters to MSN and Rovi are being drafted by Disney's legal weasels even as we speak.

God bless America!

Happy Independence Day

to all our American readers

from 

Walt and Poor Len

[and Ed.! Ed.]

God save the United States of America!

Strange Canuck road signs baffle American tourist

Ty Burr is the film critic for the venerable Boston Globe. He is also a sometime visitor to Canada, whence he has just returned after spending some time "car camping" with his wife near the coast of New Brunswick.

He began his column yesterday, headed "Do you speak Canadian road sign?" by calling Canada a "gorgeous country". But, he warns his readers, if you're used to American road signs, written in English text, you'd better bone up [Would a Bostonian really use that expression? Ed.] on the amazing array of symbols Canucks use to communicate information to bilingual or multilingual road users. Like these.

"What began as a minor puzzlement for my wife and me bloomed over the course of a few days into a full-on obsession," he wrote of the various blue-and-white, black-and-yellow, French-and-English signs. "What in the name of Rob Ford were the road signs trying to tell us?"

Mr. Burr took the sign in the upper right corner to mean "Roadside genome sequencing booth just ahead". In fact, it's a signpost for the River Valley Scenic Drive. Poor Len Canayen, who alerted us to this story, admits that he didn't know that one either. Nor could he figure out the blue-and-white ones in the bottom row. Whatever could they mean? Don't ask Walt. Read Mr. Burr's column.

Google's "gorillas"

Journalists say some stories write themselves. This is one.

Last Sunday, Jacky Alciné, who works in the Big Apple as a web developer, tweeted a picture of himself and a friend. The image-recognition feature in Google's Photos app labelled it, errr, "Gorillas".

Oopsie! Google bad! Imagine labelling people with dark skin in that horribly racist way! But see, this is a new app, a new technology, and it's still got some bugs in it. In fact, it's been widely mocked online for many other misidentifications.

The tweet quickly prompted an apology from Google, which released a statement saying the company is "appalled and genuinely sorry" about the label. After attempting to fix the algorithm, they decided to temporarily remove the gorilla label, including the application's ability to search for gorillas.

"There is still clearly a lot of work to do with automatic image labeling," they added, "and we’re looking at how we can prevent these types of mistakes from happening in the future."

Click here to read the full story in the New York Times.

Note from Ed.: Walt is to be commended for his considerable restraint in not testing the app to see if it can recognize a certain Canadian hockey player.

VIDEO: "Teens trash GA Wal-Mart" - are racial stereotypes wrong?

Walt was checking the mojo wire just now and saw a story headlined "Teens storm Georgia Wal-Mart". Here, without editorial comment, is the story which followed.

Authorities in central Georgia say up to 50 teenagers bent on destruction raced into a Wal-Mart in Macon, smashing merchandise and causing an estimated $2,000 in damage. Bibb County sheriff's officials say some of the young people snatched a man from a motorized shopping cart and dragged him to the floor during the rampage around 2 a.m. Sunday.

Sheriff's officials said one of the teens later told a Wal-Mart employee the goal was to see how much damage they could cause. Sheriff's officials say floors were coated with broken merchandise.

The Telegraph reports that the teens ran when deputies arrived, but a 17-year-old boy was arrested when he returned to the store to retrieve his cellphone.

Notice that nowhere in the headline or the text is any mention made of the race of the miscreants. Why is it, then, that I knew -- and so did you -- without even looking, that the youthful miscreants would be black? Are we all guilty of racial profiling? Are we all the kind of people who have Confederate flags draped across the back window of our pickups? Or could it be that there are reasons for every racial stereotype...

Here, then, is the last sentence of the wire service report.
Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said investigators are using surveillance video to try and identify suspects.
And here's the video.

Happy Canada Day! Bonne fête du Canada! - with/avec bonus!

Happy Canada Day

Bonne fête du Canada

à tous nos lecteurs canadiens

to all our Canadian readers

from/de
Walt, Poor Len
[and/et Ed! Ed.]

Canada Day Bonus! - Here, courtesy of Historica Canada and the National Post, is a short quiz (only seven questions) to test how Canadian you are. In other words, do you conform to the Canadian stereotype? Non-Canadians can take the test too; see whether you really know what Canadians are like!