Two of Walt's agents -- Two [Long time, no hear! Ed.] and Six -- have (independently) alerted us to the cautionary tale of how a scientist with Environment Canada has been put on administrative leave (with pay, fortunately for him) for the sin of creating a politically charged protest song calling for the ousting of Canada's Dear Leader, Steve Harpoon. Definitely a CLM -- Career-Limiting Move.
Tony Turner, a physical scientist at Environment Canada and longtime singer-songwriter in Ottawa's folk music scene, wrote the controversial tune "Harperman". He was sent home a couple of weeks ago, his union says, over concerns that his song "breached Environment Canada's value and ethics code".
The song touches on the trial (for bribery, fraud and being an asshole) of Senator Mike Puffy trial, as well as Harper's too-public feud Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. It includes lyrics like "Who muzzles the poor scientist?" and "Won't buy into climate change until it's sold on the stock exchange." The chorus ends with the blunt line, "Harperman, it's time for you to go!" EVERYBODY SING ALONG!!!
Footnote: In case you didn't see it, here's the welcome message posted on YouTube along with the video. We appreciate all the attention we are receiving since the story broke in the national media on August 21. Comments are welcome but please keep it as positive as possible. The Harperman song and video are about optimism, about joyful protest, about looking forward to the coming federal election and the chance to send Harperman on his way.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
VIDEO: George Carlin explains US Middle East policy
Note from Ed.: Many thanks to Agent 17 for sending us the link to a George Carlin riff we'd forgotten about. Recorded 22 years ago, just after the Gulf War, Mr. Carlin explains how war is really prick-waving. Call it "Carlin's bigger dick foreign policy theory". Check it out.
Warning: This video contains "graphic language" -- lots of it. If obscenity, particularly the F-bomb, offends you, read one of Walt's other posts. OK? Don't say you weren't warned.
Warning: This video contains "graphic language" -- lots of it. If obscenity, particularly the F-bomb, offends you, read one of Walt's other posts. OK? Don't say you weren't warned.
Bad English - Who cares?
In reviewing Michael Savage's Stop the Coming Civil War, Walt complained that the book is poorly written. I called it "not so much a piece of writing as a collage of transcriptions of Mr. Savage's radio rants." That doesn't mean it's hard to read. Quite the opposite. It's written and edited (?) to a level which is comfortable for a reader of the New York Post or National Enquirer. You know. The ones whose lips move as they read.
If I were to calculate Stop the Coming Civil War 's Fog Index, I'd bet that the book would prove to have been edited to a reading ease level of Grade 7. That, sadly, is about right for your average American or Canadian. (It's hard to tell about the Brits. The gap between the educated and uneducated in the UK is much wider than that of English-speaking North America.)
Thoughtful people like Dr. Rudolf Flesch have been bemoaning the decline of educational standards in general, and reading in particular, for decades. Dr. Flesch's seminal work Why Johnny Can't Read appeared in 1955. He argued for a return to the phonetic (as opposed to ideographic) method of learning to read. But instead of teaching people to read better, our "educators" are now teaching people to write worse!
This thesis is put forward -- with qualified approval -- by Dr. John H. McWhorter, of UC Berkeley (where else?) in Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care (Gotham Books, 2003) -- winner of the Walt Whiteman Prize for Longest Book Title of that year.
Dr. John (as I'm sure he'd like to be known) is a musician cum linguist, or linguist cum musician, take your pick. He makes a good case that, in the hippy-dippy 60s, American English changed from being a written language to an oral language, written down the way it's spoken.
An extreme example -- Walt's, not Dr. John's -- would be the comparison of Theodore White's The Making of the President, 1960 with Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail `72. Just the style used to denote the year in the two titles makes the point. Since 1965 -- Dr. McWhorter is very precise about the year -- authors have started to write the way Americans talk... for better or worse.
Dr. McWhorter pinpoints 1965, the year following the passing of the Civil Rights Act. That landmark legislation made it suddenly not just OK, but cool to be black. "African-Americans" (a term which would only come years later) no longer had to "act white" or "talk white" to be successful, particularly in the field of popular music. Nat King Cole was out; Aretha Franklin was in. "Black English" or "ebonics" (as progressives like Dr. John would have it) became not just acceptable but emulated by the white majority.
The result? People stopped trying to write stylish, grammatical English and started writing as they talk. This is particularly so with popular music. Try writing down the lyrics of hit songs of the last two decades, and comparing them with the words turned out by even the poorer Tin Pan Alley hacks of yesteryear.
Dr. McWhorter flirts with the notion (if not the word) of the degradation of American English. Walt would say "blackification", but of course that's not politically correct. The fact remains that even educated people, like the Prez, have adopted a less grammatical, more folksy style of speech -- "We's all jes folks heah in Nawlins!" -- and that style is reflected in much American writing, including that of Michael Savage, Ph.D.
Dr. McWhorter does not condemn the degradation of American English. He merely identifies the trend and predicts that it will continue. He's all, like, wassup wit dat? He's OK with it, y'know? Walt is not. Walt doesn't speak (or write) WalMart.
Footnote: Like Michael Savage (Ph.D.), John McWhorter (Ph.D.) could do with the services of an editor and fact-checker. "Dr. Suess" should be "Dr. Seuss", but then, "Suess" sounds more like the way the name is pronounced. Dr. McWhorter doesn't write very well either, but he would probably say that just proves his point.
Further reading: "Book Review: John McWhorter’s Doing Our Own Thing", Wordorigins, June 2004.
If I were to calculate Stop the Coming Civil War 's Fog Index, I'd bet that the book would prove to have been edited to a reading ease level of Grade 7. That, sadly, is about right for your average American or Canadian. (It's hard to tell about the Brits. The gap between the educated and uneducated in the UK is much wider than that of English-speaking North America.)
Thoughtful people like Dr. Rudolf Flesch have been bemoaning the decline of educational standards in general, and reading in particular, for decades. Dr. Flesch's seminal work Why Johnny Can't Read appeared in 1955. He argued for a return to the phonetic (as opposed to ideographic) method of learning to read. But instead of teaching people to read better, our "educators" are now teaching people to write worse!
This thesis is put forward -- with qualified approval -- by Dr. John H. McWhorter, of UC Berkeley (where else?) in Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care (Gotham Books, 2003) -- winner of the Walt Whiteman Prize for Longest Book Title of that year.
Dr. John (as I'm sure he'd like to be known) is a musician cum linguist, or linguist cum musician, take your pick. He makes a good case that, in the hippy-dippy 60s, American English changed from being a written language to an oral language, written down the way it's spoken.
An extreme example -- Walt's, not Dr. John's -- would be the comparison of Theodore White's The Making of the President, 1960 with Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail `72. Just the style used to denote the year in the two titles makes the point. Since 1965 -- Dr. McWhorter is very precise about the year -- authors have started to write the way Americans talk... for better or worse.
Dr. McWhorter pinpoints 1965, the year following the passing of the Civil Rights Act. That landmark legislation made it suddenly not just OK, but cool to be black. "African-Americans" (a term which would only come years later) no longer had to "act white" or "talk white" to be successful, particularly in the field of popular music. Nat King Cole was out; Aretha Franklin was in. "Black English" or "ebonics" (as progressives like Dr. John would have it) became not just acceptable but emulated by the white majority.
The result? People stopped trying to write stylish, grammatical English and started writing as they talk. This is particularly so with popular music. Try writing down the lyrics of hit songs of the last two decades, and comparing them with the words turned out by even the poorer Tin Pan Alley hacks of yesteryear.
Dr. McWhorter flirts with the notion (if not the word) of the degradation of American English. Walt would say "blackification", but of course that's not politically correct. The fact remains that even educated people, like the Prez, have adopted a less grammatical, more folksy style of speech -- "We's all jes folks heah in Nawlins!" -- and that style is reflected in much American writing, including that of Michael Savage, Ph.D.
Dr. McWhorter does not condemn the degradation of American English. He merely identifies the trend and predicts that it will continue. He's all, like, wassup wit dat? He's OK with it, y'know? Walt is not. Walt doesn't speak (or write) WalMart.
Footnote: Like Michael Savage (Ph.D.), John McWhorter (Ph.D.) could do with the services of an editor and fact-checker. "Dr. Suess" should be "Dr. Seuss", but then, "Suess" sounds more like the way the name is pronounced. Dr. McWhorter doesn't write very well either, but he would probably say that just proves his point.
Further reading: "Book Review: John McWhorter’s Doing Our Own Thing", Wordorigins, June 2004.
Book review: Walt savages Savage's "Savage Truth"
Michael Savage (né Michael Alan Weiner) is a famous (it says here) talk/shock jock. He is also a "#1 New York Times bestselling author", according to the dust jacket of Stop the Coming Civil War (Center Street, 2014) which attracted Walt's attention on a recent visit to the Fort Mudge library.
When someone uses the American flag as a backdrop for his publicity pic, you pretty much know what you're going to get. Here's a sample.
Mr. Savage has summarized his political philosophy in three words: borders, language, and culture. He calls himself a conservative nationalist, while critics (and there are many) characterize his views as "fostering extremism or hatred." Since 2009 he has been barred from entering the UK on those grounds.
Critics on the right (and there are many) call him a "cuckservative".
The King of Speak-your-mouth opposes illegal immigration to the United States, supports the English-only movement and argues that liberalism and progressivism are degrading American culture and emasculating American men.
Walt agrees with most of those views. But if you paid 26 bucks for Stop the Coming Civil War, Walt thinks you overpaid by about $25.01. It's a crappy book, a veritable witches' brew of vitriol, hyperbole and right-wing rant, masquerading as a political manifesto.
Mr. Savage argues that "The United States may well be [note the hedge words] in the midst of a military, economic, and cultural collapse that is turning us into a country in danger of catastrophic failure and leading to the nighmarish scenario of a civil war." He presents his talking points as five questions, which you can get from the dust jacket:
That's it. That's all. The "author" takes those four points and repeats them, rearranging the order, for ten chapters. Eventually -- I chose this word deliberately -- he tells us who the combatants in "the coming civil war" will be. North vs South? Black vs White? Noooo... It will be:
The ballot box? Who can Americans vote for who will stand up for hard-working, middle-class, god-fearing etc. families? Believe it or not, Mr. Savage says "Vote Republican"! He calls on Republicans and "Independents generally" to "return to being a nationalist party, a party that understands that such actions as cutting entitlement spending will spur us to take action against the leftist takeover that is occurring before our very eyes."
The goal is to have Republicans win both houses of Congress in 2014 and elect a Republican president in 2016. That will avert the coming civil war and make America great again. Oh... wait... haven't I heard that phrase somewhere recently?
Walt cannot disagree with Mr. Savage's argument that a Republican president and Congress will be better for America than the incumbent administration, but if that president is a "moderate Republican" or "cuckservative" like Jeb, the difference will hardly be noticeable.
My main quarrel with Stop the Coming Civil War is that it's badly written, a point I'll return to later. It's not so much a piece of writing as a collage of transcriptions of Mr. Savage's radio rants. And it's hard to take seriously someone who (at page 7) calls "the most vicious of all terrorist groups... the Islamic State of Iran and Syria". Too bad Center Street didn't invest a few dollars in the services of an editor and fact-checker.
When someone uses the American flag as a backdrop for his publicity pic, you pretty much know what you're going to get. Here's a sample.
Mr. Savage has summarized his political philosophy in three words: borders, language, and culture. He calls himself a conservative nationalist, while critics (and there are many) characterize his views as "fostering extremism or hatred." Since 2009 he has been barred from entering the UK on those grounds.Critics on the right (and there are many) call him a "cuckservative".
The King of Speak-your-mouth opposes illegal immigration to the United States, supports the English-only movement and argues that liberalism and progressivism are degrading American culture and emasculating American men.
Walt agrees with most of those views. But if you paid 26 bucks for Stop the Coming Civil War, Walt thinks you overpaid by about $25.01. It's a crappy book, a veritable witches' brew of vitriol, hyperbole and right-wing rant, masquerading as a political manifesto.
Mr. Savage argues that "The United States may well be [note the hedge words] in the midst of a military, economic, and cultural collapse that is turning us into a country in danger of catastrophic failure and leading to the nighmarish scenario of a civil war." He presents his talking points as five questions, which you can get from the dust jacket:
- Why have so many of our top military commanders been summarily pushed aside, after years of brave service?
- Is the falsification of records by VA personnel in order to cover up the horrific neglect of our brave soldiers a sign of what's to come with Obamacare?
- How is Obama's irresponsible foreign policy not just weakening us in Russia, China, and the Middle East, but actually endangering our security at home as well?
- What does it mean for our freedom and our way of life that negligent immigration law enforcement allows illegal aliens to cross the southern border into our country with little fear of penalty?
That's it. That's all. The "author" takes those four points and repeats them, rearranging the order, for ten chapters. Eventually -- I chose this word deliberately -- he tells us who the combatants in "the coming civil war" will be. North vs South? Black vs White? Noooo... It will be:
- The haves against the have-nots.
- The illegal aliens against hard-working middle-class families.
- Liberals who hate the Second Amendment versus lawful gun owners, millions of whom refuse to register their guns and ammunition in anti-gun jurisdictions.
- Climate activists whose policies cause forest fires and exacerbate drought against those who understand the effect of human activity on the climate is negligible.
- Anti-Christian communist educators versus god-fearing families.
The ballot box? Who can Americans vote for who will stand up for hard-working, middle-class, god-fearing etc. families? Believe it or not, Mr. Savage says "Vote Republican"! He calls on Republicans and "Independents generally" to "return to being a nationalist party, a party that understands that such actions as cutting entitlement spending will spur us to take action against the leftist takeover that is occurring before our very eyes."
The goal is to have Republicans win both houses of Congress in 2014 and elect a Republican president in 2016. That will avert the coming civil war and make America great again. Oh... wait... haven't I heard that phrase somewhere recently?
Walt cannot disagree with Mr. Savage's argument that a Republican president and Congress will be better for America than the incumbent administration, but if that president is a "moderate Republican" or "cuckservative" like Jeb, the difference will hardly be noticeable.
My main quarrel with Stop the Coming Civil War is that it's badly written, a point I'll return to later. It's not so much a piece of writing as a collage of transcriptions of Mr. Savage's radio rants. And it's hard to take seriously someone who (at page 7) calls "the most vicious of all terrorist groups... the Islamic State of Iran and Syria". Too bad Center Street didn't invest a few dollars in the services of an editor and fact-checker.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Miracle surgery performed in Toronto
Three Toronto surgeons were playing golf together and discussing surgeries they had performed.
One of them said, "I'm the best surgeon in Ontario. In my favourite case, a concert pianist lost seven fingers in an accident. I reattached them, and eight months later he performed a private concert for the Queen."
The second surgeon said, "That's nothing. A young man lost an arm and both legs in an accident. I reattached them,
and two years later he won a gold medal in track and field in the Olympics."
The third surgeon said, "You guys are amateurs! Several years ago a woman was high on cocaine and marijuana and she rode a horse head-on into a train traveling 80 miles an hour. All I had left to work with was the woman's blonde hair and the horse's ass. I was able to put them together and now she's Premier of Ontario!"
Liberal thanks to Agent 9.
Note from Ed.: I'm pretty sure I heard that one in Iowa recently, except it wasn't Kathleen Wynne, but Hellery Clinton!
One of them said, "I'm the best surgeon in Ontario. In my favourite case, a concert pianist lost seven fingers in an accident. I reattached them, and eight months later he performed a private concert for the Queen."
The second surgeon said, "That's nothing. A young man lost an arm and both legs in an accident. I reattached them,
and two years later he won a gold medal in track and field in the Olympics."
The third surgeon said, "You guys are amateurs! Several years ago a woman was high on cocaine and marijuana and she rode a horse head-on into a train traveling 80 miles an hour. All I had left to work with was the woman's blonde hair and the horse's ass. I was able to put them together and now she's Premier of Ontario!"
Liberal thanks to Agent 9.
Note from Ed.: I'm pretty sure I heard that one in Iowa recently, except it wasn't Kathleen Wynne, but Hellery Clinton!
Friday, August 28, 2015
Father Paul Trinchard, RIP
Having just yesterday taken another look at the death of Father Nicholas Gruner ("Who killed Father Gruner?"), Walt is saddened to report that another noted traditional Catholic scholar and author, Father Paul Trinchard, passed to eternity on August 23rd.
Father Trinchard graduated from Loyola University with degrees in Physics and Philosophy, then worked for a short time in industry before he entering the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He was ordained by a diocesan archbishop in 1966, two years before the mainstream Roman Catholic Church adopted the New Ordinal which many traditional Catholics believe is invalid.
In the late 1980s, Father Trinchard canonically separated himself from the Society of Jesus, having suffered persecution from his colleagues and from the Archdiocese of New Orleans for holding to the traditional Faith and continuing to say the Latin Mass. In 1990, following a heart attack, he retired, and went to work with Father Gruner at the Fatima Center. Later he founded his own Marian End Times Apostolate.
Father Trinchard was a prolific author, writing some twenty books including The Awesome Fatima Consecrations -- on my bookshelf as I write -- and God's Word, (available on Amazon), in which he uncovers the lies and deceit of the modernists who have attempted to rewrite the Bible to further their own agendas, and lays open the Truth to which Sacred Scripture testifies. I recommend God's Word highly.
Father Trinchard graduated from Loyola University with degrees in Physics and Philosophy, then worked for a short time in industry before he entering the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He was ordained by a diocesan archbishop in 1966, two years before the mainstream Roman Catholic Church adopted the New Ordinal which many traditional Catholics believe is invalid.In the late 1980s, Father Trinchard canonically separated himself from the Society of Jesus, having suffered persecution from his colleagues and from the Archdiocese of New Orleans for holding to the traditional Faith and continuing to say the Latin Mass. In 1990, following a heart attack, he retired, and went to work with Father Gruner at the Fatima Center. Later he founded his own Marian End Times Apostolate.
Father Trinchard was a prolific author, writing some twenty books including The Awesome Fatima Consecrations -- on my bookshelf as I write -- and God's Word, (available on Amazon), in which he uncovers the lies and deceit of the modernists who have attempted to rewrite the Bible to further their own agendas, and lays open the Truth to which Sacred Scripture testifies. I recommend God's Word highly.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Who killed Father Gruner?
Assiduous readers of WWW will know that Walt was, or is an admirer or Father Nicholas Gruner, the Fatima Priest. For all of his 38 years in the Roman Catholic priesthood, Father Gruner worked tirelessly to promote the Full Message of Our Lady of Fatima, beseeching Popes from Paul VI onwards to release the entire Third Secret -- suppressed by the Vatican to this day -- and consecrate Russia to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart, by which act a time of peace can be brought to this troubled world.At the end of April 2015, Our Lord Jesus Christ called Father Gruner home to be with Him and His Blessed Mother. The statement from the Fatima Center, posted here on WWW, did not mention the cause of Father Gruner's death. In fact it was a massive coronary, suffered while he was, as usual, working at his desk.
There were some -- friends of Our Lady as well as Her enemies in the highest echelons of the Church -- who wondered if Our Lady's Apostolate, founded by Father Gruner, would survive his passing. Walt is pleased to report that the work is being continued under the direction of his niece, Miriam Dias, ably assisted by the Fatima Center management team, and faithful followers such as John Vennari and Christopher Ferrara, who you can see in this video "Remembering Father Gruner".
The next major event on the Fatima calendar is the Save Washington DC conference, to be held on September 22nd-24th in [They already figured it out! Ed.] The highlight of the conference will be a procession and demonstration (with permission of the DC police) to be held on the 23rd, to coincide with the visit of Pope Francis to the White House. Click here for details of what's going to happen and how you can be part of it.
But I digress. The question at hand is: Who killed Father Gruner? For the answer, I have the word of two of my agents, who worked with Father on and off for a quarter of a century, that he was counting on Pope Francis, a man of evident devotion to Our Lady, to perform the Consecration of Russia, in the manner the Blessed Virgin requested. See "Pope Francis: a traditional Catholic's view".
Did Pope Francis do so? Sadly, the answer is a resounding NO. What he did, in October of 2013, was to "entrust" (not "consecrate") "the world" (not Russia, by name) to the Blessed Virgin (but not to Her Immaculate Heart). See "SHOCKING! Pope Francis did NOT 'consecrate' 'the world' to the 'Immaculate Heart of Mary' after all!"
Why the Holy Father shied away from doing as Our Lady asked -- not even going as far as his predecessors -- is known only to him, and (presumably) God. What my agents tell me, though, is that Father Gruner was profoundly disappointed by the Pope's failure to do what had been so fervently prayed for, hoped for, and even expected. It is no stretch, I think, to say that Father Gruner died of a broken heart. Who broke it? Pope Francis!
Toronto "public" housing allowed to discriminate by religion, ethnicity, etc
Meet Austin Lewis. He's 21, and disabled by a disease that attacked his spinal cord when he was 8. And he's homeless. He needs to live in a wheelchair-accessible building, and has applied to more than 100 in the Greater Toronto Area, without success.Mr. Lewis did succeed, a few months ago, in getting himself on the list at a building called the Ahmadiyya Abode of Peace, on Finch Avenue West in northwest Toronto. The 16-storey building is subsidized by the taxpayers as part of a programme to encourage religious and other non-profit groups to build affordable housing.
In the USA, if your organization gets public funds for something like a school or hospital or affordable housing, the facility must be open to all members of the public. In the USA, there's no discrimination on the basis of race, colour, "gender preference", religion or anything else.
One might think that in Canada, generally a more socially liberal society than the Excited States, the same rules apply. After all, Canada has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms which protects the same "human rights" as those enjoyed and abused by Americans, eh?
If that's what one thinks, one would be wrong. Austin Lewis found that out last week when a letter arrived at his mother's house telling him that he had been removed from the waiting list at the Ahmadiyya Abode of Peace because... wait for it... he is not a follower of the Prophet Mohammed, i.e. a Muslim.
How can this be, Mr. Lewis wonders. "This letter came as a complete shock," he told a Toronto Star reporter. "Why would a government segregate its own building?"
A spokesthingy for the City of Toronto explained that "The City’s mandate policy allows social housing providers to restrict their housing to individuals belonging to an identifiable ethnic or religious group if specific conditions are met." The city provides a subsidy of C$1.7 million ($1.275 million real dollars) for 94 rent-geared-to-income units under an agreement that restricts tenants to "members of the Muslim Jama’at".
But, the city's flak-catcher said, it's not like the Muslims are getting special treatment by being allowed to bar non-Muslims from their building, with its prayer rooms and other "facilities from which others would get no benefit". There are eight such buildings in Toronto, catering to Muslims, Macedonians, Germans, Chinese, Greeks, Hungarians, Lithuanians and "Christian seniors". So that's all right, then.
Final word comes from lawyer Barry Swadron (a classmate of Agent 3), who has extensive experience in disability law. "Here you have a building for Muslims, and normally that would be discriminatory because other religions could not be accommodated there," he told the Toronto Star. But the Ontario Human Rights Code says if it's a special-interests organization -- religious, philanthropic, educational or social -- they can discriminate in that way. It's very unfortunate, but that’s how the law was written."
But what about Austin Lewis? Mr. Swadron explained that, while the intention was to create safe spaces for minority communities, this kind of permissible "positive discrimination" inevitably produces collateral damage. Unfortunately for Mr. Lewis, he's "an unintended casualty of the system."
Mr. Lewis says the Ahmadiyya Abode of Peace is the only landlord who's had the courtesty to tell him in writing that he's inadmissible, and wonders how many others have refused his application without bothering to notify him. Seems to me the solution for him is obvious. Don't wait for the politically correct Ontario or Toronto government to change the law to make "public" mean truly public -- open to all. Convert to Islam!
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Canucks! Trust in Justin! (VIDEO)
This post is for Canadians who are fretting about who to vote for in the federal election on October 19th. There must be a great temptation to adopt the stance of Mark Twain [or was it H.L. Mencken? Ed.] who wrote "Don't vote. It only encourages them."
The counter-argument is that all that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. So Walt recommends voting in every election, if you live in a country where elections are free, fair and meaningful. Ah, but we risk going around the Horn here. Let's not. The question for Canucks is, which party and/or which leader is the least of the three evils.
The prospect of Steve Harper's quasi-Conservatives being returned to power for a fourth term fills most of Walt's Canadian agents with fear and loathing. It's one thing to have a dictatorship forced on you at the point of a gun, but to go out and vote for the Dear Leader -- on the better-the-devil-you-know theory -- is beyond contemplation.
That leaves the quasi-socialist New [sic] Democratic Party, led by Angry Tom Mulcair, and the decidedly liberal Gliberals, Canada's former Natural Governing Party. The same old Toronto-centric elite have a shiny new front man, Justin "Nice Hair" Trudeau, son of Himself.
As Walt sees it, there are two ballot issues. Canadians are rightly worried about their economy, which has sunk into a recession from which it can only recover if there is a miraculous increase in the price of oil. [Is there a patron saint of oil? Ed.] Mr. Harpoon claims he (and he alone) can pilot Canada through the rough waters. At the same time, he says the country's economic and financial crisis is due to global conditions, not to any failure of management on his part.
The NDP and Liberals claim to have plans to revive the economy by throwing money at Canada's middle class, which neither Mr. Mulcair or Mr. Trudeau can really define. In fact, the Liberal economic policy begins with "Oremus", and the NDP version with "Let us pray."
The other issue is nothing less than the future of democracy in Canada. More than ever before, political power in Ottawa resides with and in the Prime Minister's Office. The House of Commons, where Mr. Harper commanded a majority in the last parliament, has no power. The Senate, packed with Tory hacks and bagmen [and bagwomen. Ed.] marches to the beat of the PMO's drum. When the Supreme Court of Canada rules against Mr. Harpoon's legislation, the Dear Leader ignores the ruling.
Stephen Harper has more power, in "his" country, than the Prez of the Excited States of America, perhaps even more than Vlad the Impaler in Russia. The ongoing trial (for bribery and fraud) of Senator Mike Puffy -- Harper's appointee -- reminds us of Lord Acton's dictum: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In Walt's opinion, Canadians must end the corrupt Harper dictatorship. Throw them out!
But who to vote for? Ed. won't give me any more space today to explain why I can't recommend either the NDP or the Liberals. Good arguments can be made for and against both parties. But, for today, I'll leave you with a little ditty by "Canada's Favorite [sic] Musical Comedy Duo", Bowser and Blue. Thanks to Agent 6 for sending this along.
Note from Ed.: I have no idea why the screen is split like that. Reminds me of an old stereopticon. (Look it up.)
Further listening: Click here to check out the Bowser and Blue YouTube Library.
The counter-argument is that all that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. So Walt recommends voting in every election, if you live in a country where elections are free, fair and meaningful. Ah, but we risk going around the Horn here. Let's not. The question for Canucks is, which party and/or which leader is the least of the three evils.
The prospect of Steve Harper's quasi-Conservatives being returned to power for a fourth term fills most of Walt's Canadian agents with fear and loathing. It's one thing to have a dictatorship forced on you at the point of a gun, but to go out and vote for the Dear Leader -- on the better-the-devil-you-know theory -- is beyond contemplation.
That leaves the quasi-socialist New [sic] Democratic Party, led by Angry Tom Mulcair, and the decidedly liberal Gliberals, Canada's former Natural Governing Party. The same old Toronto-centric elite have a shiny new front man, Justin "Nice Hair" Trudeau, son of Himself.
As Walt sees it, there are two ballot issues. Canadians are rightly worried about their economy, which has sunk into a recession from which it can only recover if there is a miraculous increase in the price of oil. [Is there a patron saint of oil? Ed.] Mr. Harpoon claims he (and he alone) can pilot Canada through the rough waters. At the same time, he says the country's economic and financial crisis is due to global conditions, not to any failure of management on his part.
The NDP and Liberals claim to have plans to revive the economy by throwing money at Canada's middle class, which neither Mr. Mulcair or Mr. Trudeau can really define. In fact, the Liberal economic policy begins with "Oremus", and the NDP version with "Let us pray."
The other issue is nothing less than the future of democracy in Canada. More than ever before, political power in Ottawa resides with and in the Prime Minister's Office. The House of Commons, where Mr. Harper commanded a majority in the last parliament, has no power. The Senate, packed with Tory hacks and bagmen [and bagwomen. Ed.] marches to the beat of the PMO's drum. When the Supreme Court of Canada rules against Mr. Harpoon's legislation, the Dear Leader ignores the ruling.
Stephen Harper has more power, in "his" country, than the Prez of the Excited States of America, perhaps even more than Vlad the Impaler in Russia. The ongoing trial (for bribery and fraud) of Senator Mike Puffy -- Harper's appointee -- reminds us of Lord Acton's dictum: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In Walt's opinion, Canadians must end the corrupt Harper dictatorship. Throw them out!
But who to vote for? Ed. won't give me any more space today to explain why I can't recommend either the NDP or the Liberals. Good arguments can be made for and against both parties. But, for today, I'll leave you with a little ditty by "Canada's Favorite [sic] Musical Comedy Duo", Bowser and Blue. Thanks to Agent 6 for sending this along.
Note from Ed.: I have no idea why the screen is split like that. Reminds me of an old stereopticon. (Look it up.)
Further listening: Click here to check out the Bowser and Blue YouTube Library.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Out of the mouths of birds oft comes abuse
Well, maybe not where you come from, dear reader, but this story comes out of India, where anything can (and does) happen. Zee News reports a bizarre case from the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra state, where a parrot was summoned to the Rajura police station to answer charges of "hurling obscenities" at its owner's octogenarian stepmother.Inspector Patel was acting "with the utmost despatch" on a complaint by an 85-year woman known as Janabai, that her stepson, Suresh Sakharkar, had trained his parrot, named Hariyal, to utter "offensive slurs" every time the old lady walked past her stepson's home.
Do we have video on this, Ed.? [Yes. Ed.]
For those who don't speak Marathi, Zee News provides this translation: "I am being harassed for the last two years. On seeing me, the parrot uses bad language and foul words. That is why I have complained thrice in the last two years. Police called me, Suresh and the parrot to the police station. Police should investigate and seize the parrot.”
And so they did. All three were taken to the local cop shop so officers could confirm the reports. The bird apparently didn't like being behind bars (as pictured), and, like Michigan J. Frog, refused to utter a word, unkind or otherwise.
So, as there is no law under which parrot can be imprisoned, Hariyal was released into the custody of forest department officials. He will be returned to Mr. Sakharkar when he gives his word not to insult Janabai again.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Freedom Index: Canada 6th, UK 9th, USA... errr... lower
Canada's Fraser Institute has just released its Economic Freedom of the World report for 2014. The index, compiled annually by the Fraser Institute and public policy think tanks in the USA and Germany, uses 76 indicators of personal, civil and economic freedoms.
Why do they do this? Because economic freedom has been shown in numerous peer-reviewed studies to promote prosperity and other positive outcomes. It is a necessary condition for democratic development. It liberates people from dependence on government in a planned economy, and allows them to make their own economic and political choices.
And what is economic freedom? The 1996 report defines the concept this way:
Individuals have economic freedom when property they acquire without the use of force, fraud, or theft is protected from physical invasions by others and they are free to use, exchange, or give their property as long as their actions do not violate the identical rights of others. An index of economic freedom should measure the extent to which rightly acquired property is protected and individuals are engaged in voluntary transactions.
The 2014 report (see link at end of this post) puts Hong Kong at the top of the league table. This surprises me a bit, as virtually every month sees demonstrations and protests in the streets of Hong Kong against rule from Beijing and the absence of universal suffrage. However, we must remember that the EFW report concentrates on economics, not politics.
Second on the list is Switzerland, followed by Finland, Denmark and New Zealand. Canada, in spite of the virtual dictatorship of Steve Harper (now campaigning hard for his fourth term as Prime Minister) is in sixth place. The Disunited Kingdom is ninth, and Germany twelfth.
But (I hear you ask) what about the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? After nearly eight years of the Obama maladministration and ever-increasing statism -- the misguided notion that the government must regulate every aspect of business and personal life -- it's not surprising to find the USA in twentieth (20th) place. Fred McMahon, the editor of the study, says the data on America shows a "significant weakening of the rule of law", an erosion of property rights and "an expansion of quasi-judicial regulations".
The least free country in the EFW index is... wait for it... Iran, with whom the USA is about to sign a treaty which will (according to Messrs Obama and Kerry) solve all the problems of the Middle East and the world. The Undemocratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Yemen round out the bottom five.
Further reading: Economic Freedom of the World -- 2014 Annual Report. The whole thing -- 282 pages in .pdf format.
Why do they do this? Because economic freedom has been shown in numerous peer-reviewed studies to promote prosperity and other positive outcomes. It is a necessary condition for democratic development. It liberates people from dependence on government in a planned economy, and allows them to make their own economic and political choices.
And what is economic freedom? The 1996 report defines the concept this way:
Individuals have economic freedom when property they acquire without the use of force, fraud, or theft is protected from physical invasions by others and they are free to use, exchange, or give their property as long as their actions do not violate the identical rights of others. An index of economic freedom should measure the extent to which rightly acquired property is protected and individuals are engaged in voluntary transactions.
The 2014 report (see link at end of this post) puts Hong Kong at the top of the league table. This surprises me a bit, as virtually every month sees demonstrations and protests in the streets of Hong Kong against rule from Beijing and the absence of universal suffrage. However, we must remember that the EFW report concentrates on economics, not politics.
Second on the list is Switzerland, followed by Finland, Denmark and New Zealand. Canada, in spite of the virtual dictatorship of Steve Harper (now campaigning hard for his fourth term as Prime Minister) is in sixth place. The Disunited Kingdom is ninth, and Germany twelfth.
But (I hear you ask) what about the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? After nearly eight years of the Obama maladministration and ever-increasing statism -- the misguided notion that the government must regulate every aspect of business and personal life -- it's not surprising to find the USA in twentieth (20th) place. Fred McMahon, the editor of the study, says the data on America shows a "significant weakening of the rule of law", an erosion of property rights and "an expansion of quasi-judicial regulations".
The least free country in the EFW index is... wait for it... Iran, with whom the USA is about to sign a treaty which will (according to Messrs Obama and Kerry) solve all the problems of the Middle East and the world. The Undemocratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Yemen round out the bottom five.
Further reading: Economic Freedom of the World -- 2014 Annual Report. The whole thing -- 282 pages in .pdf format.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
How to get rich selling toothbrushes
Agent 9 sends us the story of The Best Toothbrush Salesman Ever.
The kids filed into class Monday morning, all very excited. Their weekend assignment had been to sell something, then give a talk on salesmanship.
Little Sally led off. "I sold Girl Scout cookies and I made $30," she said proudly. "My sales approach was to appeal to the customer's civic spirit and I credit that approach for my obvious success."
"Very good, Sally", said the teacher.
Little Debbie was next. "I sold magazines," she said. "I made $45 and I explained to everyone that magazines would keep them up on current events."
"Well done, Debbie," said the teacher.
Eventually, it was Little Johnny's turn. The teacher held her breath. Little Johnny walked to the front of the classroom and dumped a box full of cash on the teacher's desk. "$2,467!" he said.
"$2,467!" cried the teacher. "What in the world were you selling?"
"Toothbrushes," said Little Johnny.
"Toothbrushes," echoed the teacher. "How could you possibly sell enough tooth brushes to make that much money?"
"I found the busiest corner in town," said Little Johnny. "I set up a Chip & Dip stand and I gave everybody who walked by a free sample. They all said the same thing, 'Hey, this tastes like dog poop!' I would say, 'It is dog poop! Wanna buy a toothbrush?"
Agent 9 says little Johnny was using Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne's method. You give people some crap, dress it up so it looks good, tell them it's free, then make them pay to get the bad taste out of their mouths.
The kids filed into class Monday morning, all very excited. Their weekend assignment had been to sell something, then give a talk on salesmanship.
Little Sally led off. "I sold Girl Scout cookies and I made $30," she said proudly. "My sales approach was to appeal to the customer's civic spirit and I credit that approach for my obvious success."
"Very good, Sally", said the teacher.
Little Debbie was next. "I sold magazines," she said. "I made $45 and I explained to everyone that magazines would keep them up on current events."
"Well done, Debbie," said the teacher.
Eventually, it was Little Johnny's turn. The teacher held her breath. Little Johnny walked to the front of the classroom and dumped a box full of cash on the teacher's desk. "$2,467!" he said.
"$2,467!" cried the teacher. "What in the world were you selling?"
"Toothbrushes," said Little Johnny.
"Toothbrushes," echoed the teacher. "How could you possibly sell enough tooth brushes to make that much money?"
"I found the busiest corner in town," said Little Johnny. "I set up a Chip & Dip stand and I gave everybody who walked by a free sample. They all said the same thing, 'Hey, this tastes like dog poop!' I would say, 'It is dog poop! Wanna buy a toothbrush?"
Agent 9 says little Johnny was using Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne's method. You give people some crap, dress it up so it looks good, tell them it's free, then make them pay to get the bad taste out of their mouths.
Friday, August 14, 2015
And now, a real-life Simpsons kitchen
Yesterday Walt brought you news about Okilly Dokilly, the Simpsons-themed Nedal band. Today we have a report from Calgary proving that Head Ned and his pals aren't the only ones who show their admiration for America's First Family by making them come to life.
Meet Marcia Andreychuk and Joel Hamilton, who've done over their kitchen in le style des Simpsons!
I'd say they've got the look down pat... or should I say, down Patty. Notice the oversized, cartoonish cabinets and doorknobs. It's an orange, blue and purple dream, eh.
Ms Andreychuk calls it "a retrovation". She told Canadian Press, "I don’t like those gutted, new, modular, everybody-has-them kitchens. I like the colour. I love the style. It just delights us."
But how did they do the curtains? Do you mean you can just go into Curtains-R-Us and buy a bolt of corncob cloth? Well, no. Ms Andreychuk explains, "I was able to order the fabric off of a website that you can upload any graphic to and they will take it and print it on fabric."
The Canuck couple began work on their kitchen a year ago, and still haven't finished. We're waiting to see the fridge, the kitchen table and tablecloth (complete with stains), and all the other appurtenances.The Simpsons may not last on TV beyond next season [What? Do you know something? Ed.] but this kitchen will still be there!
Meet Marcia Andreychuk and Joel Hamilton, who've done over their kitchen in le style des Simpsons!
I'd say they've got the look down pat... or should I say, down Patty. Notice the oversized, cartoonish cabinets and doorknobs. It's an orange, blue and purple dream, eh.
Ms Andreychuk calls it "a retrovation". She told Canadian Press, "I don’t like those gutted, new, modular, everybody-has-them kitchens. I like the colour. I love the style. It just delights us."
But how did they do the curtains? Do you mean you can just go into Curtains-R-Us and buy a bolt of corncob cloth? Well, no. Ms Andreychuk explains, "I was able to order the fabric off of a website that you can upload any graphic to and they will take it and print it on fabric."
The Canuck couple began work on their kitchen a year ago, and still haven't finished. We're waiting to see the fridge, the kitchen table and tablecloth (complete with stains), and all the other appurtenances.The Simpsons may not last on TV beyond next season [What? Do you know something? Ed.] but this kitchen will still be there!
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Meet the all-Flanders band -- Okilly Dokilly!
Dear readers, Ed. thinks I owe you an explanation for the dearth of posts this month. It could be the heat, but the main truth is that I'm tired of reading, writing and ranting about the same old subjects: Donald Trump and the 16 dwarves, Obama's wonderful post-racial America, and even the stench of the Canadian election. Not to mention MH370, the Muslim invasion of Europe, Planned Anti-parenthood, and the Formerly Catholic Church. I'll go on writing about those four out of a sense of duty.
I am suffering from weltschmerz, zeitgeist and bad sauerkraut. Nothing has excited me this month... until today, when I read on the Australian website RipItUp about a brand new group called Okilly Dokilly. That's right. They're the world's first (and probably last) Ned Flanders-themed metal band.
No, they're not standing in the Australian Outback. They hail from Phoenix AZ. And here's what their leader -- Head Ned, natch! -- says about how they came up with the Flanders theme, just last month..
"Myself and our drummer [Bled Ned] were in line at a grocery store, entertaining ourselves by coming up with really cutesy names for really hardcore, brutal bands. The name Okilly Dokilly came up and was very funny to us. [So] we ran with it. I contacted a few friends and here we are. Most of us have played in other bands around our hometown."
So they've got the name, got the outfits, got the moustaches (more or less). What about the music? Head Ned told RipItUp that the metal -- or "Nedal" -- music sounds "Not as fast as Bartcore, a little cleaner than Krusty Punk, and not as heavy as Homer J. Nedal is a happy medium in the Simpscene. This is definitely the heaviest-sounding project any of us Neds have done."
But why read about it when you can hear a demo by clicking right here. You're welcome, fanerinos!
I am suffering from weltschmerz, zeitgeist and bad sauerkraut. Nothing has excited me this month... until today, when I read on the Australian website RipItUp about a brand new group called Okilly Dokilly. That's right. They're the world's first (and probably last) Ned Flanders-themed metal band.
No, they're not standing in the Australian Outback. They hail from Phoenix AZ. And here's what their leader -- Head Ned, natch! -- says about how they came up with the Flanders theme, just last month..
"Myself and our drummer [Bled Ned] were in line at a grocery store, entertaining ourselves by coming up with really cutesy names for really hardcore, brutal bands. The name Okilly Dokilly came up and was very funny to us. [So] we ran with it. I contacted a few friends and here we are. Most of us have played in other bands around our hometown."
So they've got the name, got the outfits, got the moustaches (more or less). What about the music? Head Ned told RipItUp that the metal -- or "Nedal" -- music sounds "Not as fast as Bartcore, a little cleaner than Krusty Punk, and not as heavy as Homer J. Nedal is a happy medium in the Simpscene. This is definitely the heaviest-sounding project any of us Neds have done."
But why read about it when you can hear a demo by clicking right here. You're welcome, fanerinos!
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Political correctness comes to South Africa
Agent 34 sent this along...
Comment from Agent 3: "I had those Eskom guys in my classroom once..."
Comment from Agent 3: "I had those Eskom guys in my classroom once..."
More MH370 debris found? Guess where!
There has been a report of the finding of more debris, possibly from an aircraft -- Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 ??? -- which washed ashore on Baa Atoll Fehendhoo and Fulhahdhoo, both in the Southern Maalhosmadulhu Atoll, which is part of... wait for it... the Maldive Islands. Here's a picture of the large piece of flotsam found nearly a month ago.
So what is it? There's a resemblance to the B-777 flaperon found on Réunion late last month. On the other hand, as the South China Morning Post suggests, it could be just a piece of "an unusual make of surfboard".
Inspector Mohammed of the local police has the debris in custody, and "officials" from Malaysia and Australia are on the way to take a closer look [and maybe catch some waves? Ed.]
While it's much too soon to declare a Told-You-So, Walt can't help but be reminded of the investigation by French author Marc Dugain -- see "MH370 - Just fancy that!" (WWW 18/12/14) -- who theorized that there has been a cover-up in the disappearance of the airliner, which could have been shot down by the American military operating out of their huge base at Diego Garcia!
Take a good look at this map. The blue horizontal line running across the middle of the image is the Equator. The olive-coloured island straddling the Equator at the right edge is one of the islands of Indonesia. The last radar "sighting" of MH370 placed the aircraft just about there -- let's call it Point A -- heading northwest.
The "experts" looking for the missing plane claim that it then turned nearly 300 degrees to head southeast to the area in which the search has been concentrated. See the map in "Current thinking on MH370" (WWW 31/7/15).
In the centre of the map above, just southwest of India, are the Maldives -- Point B. Due south of the Maldives is the British Indian Ocean Territory, which includes Diego Garcia, leased by the Brits to the US military. It's marked separately, the dot to the southeast of the island group.
Now look again at the map in "Current thinking on MH370". You will see that the North Equatorial Current of the Indian Ocean runs from Point A to Point B, almost in a straight line. If a plane came down, by accident or by design, anywhere along that line, any debris would most likely wash up on the Maldives first.
That's exactly what M Dugain thought. But his theory, propounded last year, was dismissed by the "experts" because, errr, that would lend credence to the idea that the US military had something to do with the disappearance of MH370 and, for some reason, didn't want their involvement to be known. Imagine that.
So what is it? There's a resemblance to the B-777 flaperon found on Réunion late last month. On the other hand, as the South China Morning Post suggests, it could be just a piece of "an unusual make of surfboard".
Inspector Mohammed of the local police has the debris in custody, and "officials" from Malaysia and Australia are on the way to take a closer look [and maybe catch some waves? Ed.]
While it's much too soon to declare a Told-You-So, Walt can't help but be reminded of the investigation by French author Marc Dugain -- see "MH370 - Just fancy that!" (WWW 18/12/14) -- who theorized that there has been a cover-up in the disappearance of the airliner, which could have been shot down by the American military operating out of their huge base at Diego Garcia!Take a good look at this map. The blue horizontal line running across the middle of the image is the Equator. The olive-coloured island straddling the Equator at the right edge is one of the islands of Indonesia. The last radar "sighting" of MH370 placed the aircraft just about there -- let's call it Point A -- heading northwest.
The "experts" looking for the missing plane claim that it then turned nearly 300 degrees to head southeast to the area in which the search has been concentrated. See the map in "Current thinking on MH370" (WWW 31/7/15).
In the centre of the map above, just southwest of India, are the Maldives -- Point B. Due south of the Maldives is the British Indian Ocean Territory, which includes Diego Garcia, leased by the Brits to the US military. It's marked separately, the dot to the southeast of the island group.
Now look again at the map in "Current thinking on MH370". You will see that the North Equatorial Current of the Indian Ocean runs from Point A to Point B, almost in a straight line. If a plane came down, by accident or by design, anywhere along that line, any debris would most likely wash up on the Maldives first.
That's exactly what M Dugain thought. But his theory, propounded last year, was dismissed by the "experts" because, errr, that would lend credence to the idea that the US military had something to do with the disappearance of MH370 and, for some reason, didn't want their involvement to be known. Imagine that.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
A message from another sponsor
When (I hear you ask) am I going to say something about Donald Trump's latest attack of orepedelia? To be honest [Eh? Ed.] I am left speechless by the manufactured controversies over (1) the Donald's suggestion that Fox's resident blonde bimbo had blood in her wherever and (2) aforesaid bimbo's reference to "the War On Women". All this sturm und drang makes me sad for the American body politic. Surely it's a fortunate nation that has nothing better to worry about than one man's alleged misogyny. Like Mr. Trump, Walt has no time for this excess of political correctness.
Note from Ed.: It is with regret and trepidation that I interrupt Walt as he's getting into full rant mode, but we do have to make room for a message from a new sponsor, a maker of excellent insect repellant.
Thanks to Agent 34, who saw this on Distractify.
Note from Ed.: It is with regret and trepidation that I interrupt Walt as he's getting into full rant mode, but we do have to make room for a message from a new sponsor, a maker of excellent insect repellant.
Thanks to Agent 34, who saw this on Distractify.
Friday, August 7, 2015
Catholic bishops call for prayer and penance to fight Planned Parenthood's barbaric organ harvesting
Even those who support a woman's "right" to kill her baby have been shocked, perhaps even dismayed, by the undercover videos posted by the Center for Medical Progress which prove that Planned Parenthood is generating revenue -- a lot of revenue -- by selling body parts from aborted children. Sometimes they'll even sell you a whole cadaver -- the result of a late-term abortion or even the killing of a baby born alive. See "Planned Parenthood accused of selling parts from babies born alive".
Even the liberal secular humanists who dominate America's media and politics were somewhat embarrassed by the crass barbarism of PP's traffic in dead humans. In one video, Melissa Farrell, the research director at Gulf Coast (Texas) Planned Parenthood, tells undercover reporters that her branch of the organization helps with the "diversification of the revenue stream." Directly contradicting the claim that Planned Parenthood only recoups its costs by the sale of fetal tissues, she says: "I think everyone realizes, especially because my department contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization..."
In discussing the prices that Planned Parenthood could command for fetal organs, Ms Farrell explains that administrative costs can be calculated along with "anything that we piggyback onto that for collection purposes." She also speaks about altering abortion procedures in order to maximize the chance that organs will remain intact; she says that "we deviate from our standard [crushing the child, particularly its head] in order to do that."
Some US senators found the courage to bring forward a bill which would have stripped Planned Parenthood of its $500 million in federal funding. But the "pro choice" (= pro baby-killing) lobby in Washington is strong, and the bill fell 7 votes short of the 60 votes needed to advance. The vote split along party lines, with only Senator Kirk (R - IL) voting with the Democrats, who undoubtedly didn't want to put the Prez or his putative successor (Hellery Clinton) in the embarrassing position of seeing their pro-abortion policies rejected.
Since the Democrats have stymied any action by the Senate, the only way for those who oppose the "harvesting" of the organs of the dead to fight this barbaric and immoral practice is to invoke the help of Almighty God. The Roman Catholic bishops of Colorado have asked the faithful to observe a day of penance and prayer on August 28th for recognition of the sacredness of life.
In a statement on July 31st, the bishops said, "We call on all people of good will in Colorado and beyond to pray that those involved in research and medicine will fix their sights on recognizing the sacredness of life and refrain from putting human life at the service of science. A society can only be considered socially just if it protects the most vulnerable among us."
On Wednesday, in "Another Boy, Another Question", Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, wrote that "for once we can actually take Planned Parenthood at their word, because in these videos they don’t use euphemisms, but instead they openly acknowledge the humanity of the babies they have aborted and are now dissecting. This makes perfect sense. The whole point was that the child was really a human person, and their organs and other tissue could be sold for experiments.
"In other words, the folks at Planned Parenthood finally told the truth about what they are actually doing when they abort over 300,000 babies each year –- that’s more than 20% of all abortions in this country: they are putting an end to an innocent, fragile, defenseless, human life.
"The importance of this is made particularly stark in a horrifying moment in one of the videos. A technician is exchanging small talk with the interviewer, all the while as she coldly describes her handling of the various organs of one of the aborted babies. She is then heard to exclaim, 'Another boy!'
"The pathos of that scene is almost beyond human comprehension. But the acknowledgement of the truth is a pivotal moment. Nobody can hide from it any longer. It comes right out of their own mouths. It’s not a thing. It’s not just some tissue. 'It’s a boy!' It’s a human, baby, boy."
And, in an op-ed published by the Chicago Tribune, Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago said that "the widespread revulsion over the tapes arose because they unmasked the fact that, in our public conversation about abortion, we have so muted the humanity of the unborn child that some consider it quite acceptable to speak freely of crushing a child's skull to preserve valuable body parts and to have that discussion over lunch.
"This newest evidence about the disregard for the value of human life also offers the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment as a nation to a consistent ethic of life," he added. "While commerce in the remains of defenseless children is particularly repulsive, we should be no less appalled by the indifference toward the thousands of people who die daily for lack of decent medical care; who are denied rights by a broken immigration system and by racism; who suffer in hunger, joblessness and want; who pay the price of violence in gun-saturated neighborhoods; or who are executed by the state in the name of justice."
Even the liberal secular humanists who dominate America's media and politics were somewhat embarrassed by the crass barbarism of PP's traffic in dead humans. In one video, Melissa Farrell, the research director at Gulf Coast (Texas) Planned Parenthood, tells undercover reporters that her branch of the organization helps with the "diversification of the revenue stream." Directly contradicting the claim that Planned Parenthood only recoups its costs by the sale of fetal tissues, she says: "I think everyone realizes, especially because my department contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization..."
In discussing the prices that Planned Parenthood could command for fetal organs, Ms Farrell explains that administrative costs can be calculated along with "anything that we piggyback onto that for collection purposes." She also speaks about altering abortion procedures in order to maximize the chance that organs will remain intact; she says that "we deviate from our standard [crushing the child, particularly its head] in order to do that."
Some US senators found the courage to bring forward a bill which would have stripped Planned Parenthood of its $500 million in federal funding. But the "pro choice" (= pro baby-killing) lobby in Washington is strong, and the bill fell 7 votes short of the 60 votes needed to advance. The vote split along party lines, with only Senator Kirk (R - IL) voting with the Democrats, who undoubtedly didn't want to put the Prez or his putative successor (Hellery Clinton) in the embarrassing position of seeing their pro-abortion policies rejected.
Since the Democrats have stymied any action by the Senate, the only way for those who oppose the "harvesting" of the organs of the dead to fight this barbaric and immoral practice is to invoke the help of Almighty God. The Roman Catholic bishops of Colorado have asked the faithful to observe a day of penance and prayer on August 28th for recognition of the sacredness of life.
In a statement on July 31st, the bishops said, "We call on all people of good will in Colorado and beyond to pray that those involved in research and medicine will fix their sights on recognizing the sacredness of life and refrain from putting human life at the service of science. A society can only be considered socially just if it protects the most vulnerable among us."On Wednesday, in "Another Boy, Another Question", Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, wrote that "for once we can actually take Planned Parenthood at their word, because in these videos they don’t use euphemisms, but instead they openly acknowledge the humanity of the babies they have aborted and are now dissecting. This makes perfect sense. The whole point was that the child was really a human person, and their organs and other tissue could be sold for experiments.
"In other words, the folks at Planned Parenthood finally told the truth about what they are actually doing when they abort over 300,000 babies each year –- that’s more than 20% of all abortions in this country: they are putting an end to an innocent, fragile, defenseless, human life.
"The importance of this is made particularly stark in a horrifying moment in one of the videos. A technician is exchanging small talk with the interviewer, all the while as she coldly describes her handling of the various organs of one of the aborted babies. She is then heard to exclaim, 'Another boy!'
"The pathos of that scene is almost beyond human comprehension. But the acknowledgement of the truth is a pivotal moment. Nobody can hide from it any longer. It comes right out of their own mouths. It’s not a thing. It’s not just some tissue. 'It’s a boy!' It’s a human, baby, boy."
And, in an op-ed published by the Chicago Tribune, Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago said that "the widespread revulsion over the tapes arose because they unmasked the fact that, in our public conversation about abortion, we have so muted the humanity of the unborn child that some consider it quite acceptable to speak freely of crushing a child's skull to preserve valuable body parts and to have that discussion over lunch.
"This newest evidence about the disregard for the value of human life also offers the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment as a nation to a consistent ethic of life," he added. "While commerce in the remains of defenseless children is particularly repulsive, we should be no less appalled by the indifference toward the thousands of people who die daily for lack of decent medical care; who are denied rights by a broken immigration system and by racism; who suffer in hunger, joblessness and want; who pay the price of violence in gun-saturated neighborhoods; or who are executed by the state in the name of justice."
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Amazing! UN votes AGAINST abortion and homosexual "rights"
After three years of negotiations, the United Nations has approved a set of "Sustainable Development Goals", which liberal one-worlders and other "progressive thinkers" had assumed would include support for legal abortion on demand, homosexual "marriage" and other secular humanist shibboleths. Walt is surprised to be able to report that abortion and gay "rights" were left off the UN list.
The goals were approved on August 2nd, after tense round-the-clock discussions in which developed nations, led by the USA (no surprise there) and the European Union, pressed for adoption of language that would specifically endorse legal abortion and homosexual rights. Their efforts were successfully opposed by other nations’ delegates, particularly African diplomats who spoke out against the attempt to impose Western norms on traditional societies.
Walt's comment: Say what you will about Islam, but the followers of the Prophet are following God's laws (and the laws of nature) in these matters considerably more closely the leaders of the mainstream "Christian" churches and post-Christian Western society.
Further reading: "No Abortion, No Gays in Massive New UN Development Goals" on C-Fam, the website of the Center for Family & Human Rights.
The goals were approved on August 2nd, after tense round-the-clock discussions in which developed nations, led by the USA (no surprise there) and the European Union, pressed for adoption of language that would specifically endorse legal abortion and homosexual rights. Their efforts were successfully opposed by other nations’ delegates, particularly African diplomats who spoke out against the attempt to impose Western norms on traditional societies.
Walt's comment: Say what you will about Islam, but the followers of the Prophet are following God's laws (and the laws of nature) in these matters considerably more closely the leaders of the mainstream "Christian" churches and post-Christian Western society.
Further reading: "No Abortion, No Gays in Massive New UN Development Goals" on C-Fam, the website of the Center for Family & Human Rights.
Monday, August 3, 2015
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Planned Parenthood accused of selling parts from babies born alive
On July 15th, Walt posted a shocking video released by the Center for Medical Progress, showing a top Planned Parenthood official discussing the organization’s booming business in the sale of organs from the bodies of aborted babies.
Now Catholic World News reports that another damaging video exposing Planned Parenthood’s involved in the sale of fetal tissues was released on July 30th, just hours after a judge in California issued a restraining order barring the release of some similar videos. In the fourth in a series of undercover videos, a Planned Parenthood official in Colorado is caught discussing ways to avoid possible criminal liability for trading in fetal tissues.
The CMP videos have received a lot of attention, as well they should, and there's been a lot of backing and filling on the part of Planned Parenthood, saying that they're not really making any money from the sale of baby parts. Rather, they say, the hundreds of thousands of dollars they rake in from butchering unborn babies to order goes to support their other "good works", such as, errr, providing mammograms for the disadvantaged and, errr... we'll get back to you.
Even normally "pro-choice" (= pro-abortion) politicians are in full CYA mode, demanding investigations, calling for cuts to Planned Parenthood's funding, yada yada yada. Presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee has been quoted as saying he would call in the Army to stop abortions. Since he hasn't a prayer [or only a prayer? Ed.] of being elected, he can say what he likes, but the killing of innocent babies is not going to stop anytime soon.
Meanwhile, David Daleiden, the head of the CMP investigative team, charged in an interview with CNN that Planned Parenthood may have been involved in harvesting organs from babies who were born alive. Mr. Daleiden says that his group had videotaped a conversation with the top executive of Stem Express, a company that supplies medical tissues for research, and "they admitted that they sometimes sometimes get fully intact fetuses shipped to their laboratory from the abortion clinics they work with, and that could be prima facie evidence of born alive infants."
It was Stem Express that asked a California court to block the release of any undercover videos featuring executives of the firm. Mr. Daleiden told CNN that he is convinced the damaging videotape, with the discussion of fully intact fetuses, is the reason for their legal action. "They’re trying to suppress that videotape," he told the interviewer, "[because] they’re very scared of it."
The court order barring release of videotapes involving Stem Express officials is valid until August 19th, when the court will have a hearing on the merits of the petitioner's unusual call for a permanent order to forbid use of the videotapes.
Further reading:
"Bombshell: Investigator Says StemExpress Bought Intact Dead Babies from Planned Parenthood", on Breitbart, with a link to the CNN interview.
"Desperate Dems recycle Planned Parenthood’s mammogram lie", by Michelle Malkin.
"White House says Planned Parenthood videos are fraudulent. How do they know? Planned Parenthood told them", by Doug Powers, on Michelle Malkin's blog.
Now Catholic World News reports that another damaging video exposing Planned Parenthood’s involved in the sale of fetal tissues was released on July 30th, just hours after a judge in California issued a restraining order barring the release of some similar videos. In the fourth in a series of undercover videos, a Planned Parenthood official in Colorado is caught discussing ways to avoid possible criminal liability for trading in fetal tissues.
The CMP videos have received a lot of attention, as well they should, and there's been a lot of backing and filling on the part of Planned Parenthood, saying that they're not really making any money from the sale of baby parts. Rather, they say, the hundreds of thousands of dollars they rake in from butchering unborn babies to order goes to support their other "good works", such as, errr, providing mammograms for the disadvantaged and, errr... we'll get back to you.
Even normally "pro-choice" (= pro-abortion) politicians are in full CYA mode, demanding investigations, calling for cuts to Planned Parenthood's funding, yada yada yada. Presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee has been quoted as saying he would call in the Army to stop abortions. Since he hasn't a prayer [or only a prayer? Ed.] of being elected, he can say what he likes, but the killing of innocent babies is not going to stop anytime soon.
Meanwhile, David Daleiden, the head of the CMP investigative team, charged in an interview with CNN that Planned Parenthood may have been involved in harvesting organs from babies who were born alive. Mr. Daleiden says that his group had videotaped a conversation with the top executive of Stem Express, a company that supplies medical tissues for research, and "they admitted that they sometimes sometimes get fully intact fetuses shipped to their laboratory from the abortion clinics they work with, and that could be prima facie evidence of born alive infants."
It was Stem Express that asked a California court to block the release of any undercover videos featuring executives of the firm. Mr. Daleiden told CNN that he is convinced the damaging videotape, with the discussion of fully intact fetuses, is the reason for their legal action. "They’re trying to suppress that videotape," he told the interviewer, "[because] they’re very scared of it."
The court order barring release of videotapes involving Stem Express officials is valid until August 19th, when the court will have a hearing on the merits of the petitioner's unusual call for a permanent order to forbid use of the videotapes.
Further reading:
"Bombshell: Investigator Says StemExpress Bought Intact Dead Babies from Planned Parenthood", on Breitbart, with a link to the CNN interview.
"Desperate Dems recycle Planned Parenthood’s mammogram lie", by Michelle Malkin.
"White House says Planned Parenthood videos are fraudulent. How do they know? Planned Parenthood told them", by Doug Powers, on Michelle Malkin's blog.
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