Best wishes for the New Year 2022

from Walt Whiteman, Poor Len Canayen [and Ed.! Ed.]

 

"Till We Meet Again"

Tuba Skinny on Royal Street, New Orleans, 14 January 2019

You can't make this stuff up....

Ed. here. Thanks to Agent 6 for these two submissions to Walt's "True stories and photos" contest. You understand it's not really a contest, just our way of getting some funny (but true!) stuff to share to relieve the tension of a steady diet of unfunny (but true!) news. Check these out.

No wonder aliens don't bother invading us

This is shocking!

Thanks to all who participated. We hope to see more in the new (and better?) year.

Old copper wire shows who's ahead of the curve

Agent 9 has had a busy Christmas, but found time to send us a seasoned greeting and a little story which made us chuckle.

After having dug to a depth of ten feet last year, British scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 200 years and concluded that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 150 years ago. 

Not to be outdone by the Brits, in the weeks that followed, an American archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet. Shortly after, a story was published in the New York Times: "American archaeologists, finding traces of 250-year-old copper wire, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network 50 years earlier than the British." 

One week later, the Canadian Department of Mines and Resources reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 feet in Newfouondland, Jack Lucknow, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Mr Lucknow has therefore concluded that 250 years ago, Canada had already gone wireless."

Poor Len sez: Makes a guy bloody proud to be Canadian eh!

VIDEO LINK: Breitbart FULL interview with Victor Davis Hanson

Elites Are Destroying America with Globalism, Leftism, and Tribalism That's the headline atop Breitbart's two-hour interview with American conservative commentator, classicist, and military historian Victor Davis Hanson. In examining how America is being undermined by a modern globalist aristocracy, Mr Hanson draws on analyses in his latest book, The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America. 

Mr Hanson warns of lessening governmental accountability to citizens via the dissolution of American citizenship. The concept of citizenship, he adds is an essential component of Western civilization.

In his book, Mr Hanson argues that the concept of the "citizen" is historically rare. Yet it was among America's most valued ideals for over two centuries. But without shock treatment, American citizenship as we have known it may soon vanish. 

The historical forces that led to this crisis (Mr Hanson writes) are:

* the evisceration of the middle class over the last fifty years, which has made many Americans dependent on the federal government

* open borders, which  have undermined the idea of allegiance to a particular place

* identity politics have eradicated our collective civic sense of self, and

* a top-heavy administrative state which endangers personal liberty, along with 

* formal efforts to weaken the Constitution.

As in the revolutionary years of 1848, 1917, and 1968, 2020 ripped away our complacency about the future. But in the aftermath, Mr Hanson believes, we as Americans can rebuild and recover what we have lost. The choice is ours.

Having watched the video, Walt's New Year's resolution -- the only one -- is to run [or ski? Ed.] to the  nearest bookstore and buy the book!

An alternative to mass immigration?

Note from Ed.: This is for our Canadian readers, although we know many of our American (and Australian and British and French etc etc) would welcome this kind of initiative in their own countries. 

A poll by the well-known (and non-partisan!) Angus Reid Institute, published on the CityNews website six months ago, showed that a plurality of Canadians would like less immigration. 

The Liberal government of Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface plans to accept more than 400,000 newcomers in 2022. While there is some divide based on political stripes, 39% of those polled say the target is too high. A little more than a third believe that 411,000 is a good number and 13 per cent say Canada should welcome more people looking to immigrate. 

More people who voted NDP and Liberal in the past -- 43% and 47% respectively -- believed that Canada's target was appropriate. Residents of Alberta and Saskatchewan -- 50% and 54% -- were more likely to say the target should be scaled back. 

This opinion was also more common among people who've voted for Conservative in the past, 64% of whom disagreed with the target. Less than a quarter who voted Tory previously supported the Liberal plan to admit hundreds of thousands of new Liberal voters. 

Yet in the fall election, Erin O'Tool's CINO (Conservative In Name Only) Party did not raise, let alone oppose, the immigration issue. The only party to call for fewer (and better!) immigrants was Maxime Bernier's People's Party of Canada. See "Reducing Overall Levels and Prioritizing Skilled Immigrants", in the "Platform" pages of the PPC website.

Dear Canadian reader: If you would like to address the issue of mass immigration of people who cannot and will not be assimilated into Canadian society, consider joining Opportunities for Canadians -- a coalition against anti-Canadian bias in employment. Tell `em Walt sent ya!

VIDEO: Journalists out Canuck media's lack of balance on Covid "crisis"

You think the American lamestream media are guilty of pushing the Dempanic button over the Wuhan flu? At least in the Excited States you can get a reasonable facsimile of the truth on Fox News -- important because it's on "real TV" -- and Breitbart News. In Canada there are no TV channels which don't toe the Liberal government line on the Covid "crisis" and everything else. 

When it comes to telling the truth, or even giving a choice of opinions, the lickspittle media are failing Canadians! That's the message of Candice Malcolm's interview with Toronto Sun comment editor and columnist Anthony Furey, contrasting the more balanced coverage of the US media with the relentless stream of liberal propaganda broadcast 24/7 by the Canadian "Big Three" - CBC, CTV, and Global -- and echoed by City and lesser outlets.

   

Dr Jordan Peterson watched this interview and tweeted this trenchant comment. "The legacy media are in an unrecoverable death spiral, spinning ever more uncontrollably. The CBC has become a mewling, meandering, self-righteous, slogan-spewing narcissistic near-corpse." 

I wish I'd said that! With the "progressives" and their sycophantic propoagandists in the media, everything is a "crisis". Covid. Climate change. Opiods. Homelessness. Refugees. Everything! 

The only good news is that even sheeplike Canucks are getting tired of listening to the media boys (and gals and trannies) cry wolf. In Canada, just as in the US of A, yearend sales and ratings statistics show that establishment media outlets are being abandoned, as liberal control of  "the news" is rejected by the very audiences the lickspittle media seeks to braInwash.

Merry Christmas!

Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men of good will.

St. Luke 2:14

Walt, Poor Len [and Ed.] wish you a

Happy and Holy Christmas

Madonna with Child, by William Adolphe Bouguereau, 1899

Christmas greeting from President and Mrs Biden

This is real, not made up by the Babylon Bee. Story below.

   

The President of the United States of America was fooled by the father of some children that he called for Christmas to track Santa Claus via NORAD.

Mr Biden spoke with several couples and children during the traditional Santa tracking event with military families, a tradition for the presidents on Christmas Eve. First Lady Jill Biden led the call, while the president chimed in on occasion. 

"Merry Christmas, and let's go, Brandon!" the father named "Jared" said, referring to a phrase popular with readers of WWW, and the President expressed his agreement.

Christmas Eve, A.D. 2021

Ed. here. Our friend Arnie over at Blazing Cat Fur regularly posts photos of beautiful landscapes, but never tells us where those beauty spots are. Bill Gates does the same thing when you boot up Win10. 

Walt has only a handful of pictures taken by his own goodself, right around home. Since it's already Chrismas Eve for our readers in the Antipodes, let us share this one, as we await the coming of the Saviour, Christ the Lord.

SE1/4 L17 Conc 1EHS

Let us not forget the other seasonal celebration

"Good morning everyone and welcome to everyone’s favorite holiday – Festivus!" 

said U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)” yesterday, referring to the holiday made famous by a 1997 episode of Seinfeld, in which the senator is seen in the role of George Costanza's father Frank.

[Ummm, are you sure? Ed.]

The principal event of Festivus is the Airing of the Grievances. "I've got a lot of problems with you people!", the Senator tweeted, "and by 'you people' I mostly mean the petty tyrants who run your local, state and federal government. 2021 was a banner year for being a pretty tyrant, with them all literally tripping overe each other for the dumbest Covid lockdown or mandate idea."

Senator Paul's Festivus Report -- click here to read the whole thing -- details  egregious, wasteful government spending over the last year. His fecal roster for 2021 includes money spent on "a study of pigeons gambling on slot machines, giving kids junk food, and telling citizens of Vietnam not to burn their trash." Here are some examples, with references to the department or agency of the Brandon government responsible in brackets.

Foreign countries use our aircraft for free for 4 years (DOD) $773,000,000

Purchase of bought Afghanistan airplanes that were later thrown away (DOD) $549,000,000

Funding Green Energy programs in Africa (State) $179,000,000 

Fattening eels for human consumption (FDA) $337,500 

Covid relief grant for Democrat-run New York City to display art projects across the city, $25,000,000 Constructing border walls in the Middle East and North Africa (DOD) $250,000,000 

Free trips for Korean kids to visit D.C. (USAID) $150,000 

Grinding up ferrets to develop Covid and flu vaccines, $4,500,000 [Seriously? I thought it came from aborted babies. Ed]

Tax Credit incentivizing California residents to uninstall fireplaces, $2,100,000

Teaching French people about US culture [??? Ed.] (State) $200,000 

Developing a film about dinosaurs to inspire middle schoolers (NSF) $2,500,000

Pigeons playing slot machines (NIH) $465,339 

Telling people to not burn their trash (USAID) $11,300,000 

Funding Green Energy programs in Africa (State) $179,000,000 

Planting trees in Democrat-run New York City, $400,000,000

Fattening eels for human consumption (FDA) $337,500 [What's wrong with that? They're pretty good. Ed.]

And last but not least... in fact the most...

Social Security overpayments to beneficiaries in fiscal year 2019 (SSA) $4,200,000,000. Four. Billion. Two hundred. Million.

Walt sez: This makes me so mad I'd write a letter to my congersman, if I thought USPS would deliver it anytime soon... and if my congersman could only read.

VIDEO: Elon Musk speaks his mind to Babylon Bee - FULL INTERVIEW

Yes, really! Not a joke. Elon Musk sat down with Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, Editor-in-Chief Kyle Mann, and Creative Director Ethan Nicolle for an in-depth interview on wokeness, Elizabeth Warren, taxing the rich, the Metaverse, which superhero Elon would be, and how the left is killing comedy. 

This is the full interview with 45 additional minutes of content (total time 1:39:46). Turns out Elon Musk isn't one of the Wokesters. He can also be quite funny. 

   

Don't chide me for giving you the YouTube link. The good people at Babylon Bee (you'll see some of them during the video) will get some money from YT when you watch.

Footnote from Poor Len Canayen: Bet you didn't know Elon Musk is a Canadian citizen, and went to college in Canada! And now he's a rich American. Dat's all ye know and all  ye need to know!

Another "True Stories &c" winner... involving lawyers!

An assiduous reader has entered Walt's "True stories &c" contest, with an instant winner, from yesterday's online edition of the (UK) Daily Mail.

Tarique Mohammed, Esquire, a senior barrister with the English Crown Prosecution Service, sued the CPS for harassment and discrimination after a colleague asked him to stop breaking wind. He lost.

An employment tribunal was told that Mr Mohammed was left feeling "embarrassed" after he was asked by a colleague to cease farting in the small office they shared. He said he couldn't help his flatulence because it was caused by medication he was taking for a heart condition. 

In his claim for disability, he also accused co-workers and bosses of discriminating against him by deliberately throwing his water bottles away when he left them on a shared desk, asking him to work one day a week 60 miles away, and failing to pay for his barrister's practising certificate while he was on sick leave.

The tribunal threw out Mr Mohammed's claims of disability related harassment and victimisation and found the request to stop passing gas reasonable, given the size of the office shared with his colleague, and the "repetitive nature" of the flatulence. The judge apparently took his colleague's word that he threw out five water bottled which Mr Mohammed had left on their shared desk because he thought they were rubbish.

All the same, the tribunal found the CPS was guilty of disability discrimination and failing to make reasonable adjustments by not allowing the barrister to work from home two days a week, leave work at 4pm to help him manage his condition, and by removing him from court duties. 

Source: Mailonline, 21/12/21. Reporter: Bhvishya Patel (presumably a non-Muslim).

VIDEO: Kamala Harris train derails on comedy show interview

A few days ago, Kamala Harris' helpful staff, reacting to complaints that the Veep had said and done next to nothing in her first year in office, set her up for a year-end interview with Comedy Centra personality (certified Black, certifiable leftie) Lenard Larry McKelvey, aka "Charlemagne tha god". It did not go well. Here's a clip.

   

America's first Black(ish) Indo-Jamaican Vice-President was gobsmacked (as the Brits say) when Mr McKelvey asked her who the nation's "real" president is -- Joe Biden or Joe Manchin. Before she could compose her thoughts sufficiently to respond, her helpful staff tried to end the interview -- "we have to wrap!" -- with the excuse that Ms Harris couldn't hear "tha god". Not picking up the cue from her staffer, Ms Harris said "I can hear him," and then accused "tha god" of talking like a Republican!

"C'mon, Charlamagne," she said, and repeated "No, no, no, no, it's Joe Biden," as he tried to give his reasons for the question. "And don’t start talking like a Republican, about asking whether or not he’s president." She added defiantly, "It's Joe Biden, it's Joe Biden and I'm vice president and my name is Kamala Harris," omitting only "...and I approve of this message." 

Over on the Fox News channel, "The Five" opined that the whole thing -- the Veep appearing on a comedy show, and Mr McKelvey "feeding her marshmallows" throughout (and taking her part in the conclusion) -- is all part of a DNC plot to get rid of both President Brandon and his putative successor, in favour of an all-new ticket in 2024.

Warning: After the first five minutes or so of the Fox video, you need to skip over about five minutes of ads to get to the part about who might head the Dumbocratic ticket in 2024. Hint: it could be a Clinton! Wouldn'tcha love it?

VIDEO: For the sake of civilization, Francis must be stopped!

Jorge Bergoglio, the man who calls himself "Pope Francis", must be stopped. That's the message in the latest video from Michael Matt, editor of the Remnant newspaper. Whether or not you’re a Catholic, I urge you to pay attention to Mr Matt's plea. It's not just about rescuing Holy Mother Church from the haqndes of the globalists, but about saving civilization, by which we mean Western/Christian civilization. 

Christian patriots of every denomination have a common enemy -- the cabal of globalist one-worlders. Their worldview is antithetical to the worldview of Christianity, which is why they are the obedient servants, not of Jesus Christ, but of population controllers, climate change fanatics, and globalist operatives such as Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, and George Soros. 

Theologians are examining the options for how to remove an evil man intenton gaining total control of the Catholic Church. But in the meantime, resistance is key and not just from Catholics. All those who understand the power and influence of the Catholic Church on geopolitics will recognize how perilous the situation is. 

Mr Matt is at the forefront of a rapidly growing movement of Catholic traditionalists, including YVT, who make this appeal for the sake of Christian civilization as a whole. Powerful globalist entities are still hell bent on co-opting the Catholic Church, with Her two billion adherents worldwide, because they know very well that if the Church blesses and approves their diabolical plan to take over the world, there will be little to no opposition to their geopolitical agenda. 

Francis is key to the globalist vision for humanity. So even if we wanted to leave the Church (which we do not!), that would not help the situation, since there would then be even less opposition from within. We must stay on in order to expose and oppose these infiltrators. And with God's help, that’s exactly what we intend to do!

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

All I want for Christmas... (v. 2)

Have you got your very own variegated monstera yet? No home is complete without one, this Christmas! With everyone working from home, Zooming here and there, and having virtual get-togethers with friends and relatives, it's become de rigueur to have one of these beautiful tropical houseplants in the background, for that clean, minimalist interior aesthetic.

The variegated monstera, a house plant with a rare genetic mutation, has captured the hearts of green thumbs in the toney parts of cities -- the areas where you don't have wear a bullet-proof vest and step over piles of human shit -- across North America. 

Variegated monsteras have a broad, frilly green leaf that can be streaked or splotched with white patches. Because the distinctive white bands or spots are the result of a mutation causing an absence of chlorophyll in those regions, the most sought-after monsteras are fragile, and cannot be cultivated from seed. Instead, they are carefully propagated by taking cuttings from existing monsteras. 

Even a few leaves cut from a healthy plant are fetching hundreds, and large ones like this are selling on Etsy and other sites catering to "social media influencers" for 1000s (plural) of dollars. Seriously! I checked.

Students of social history will know that just under four centuries ago, the same thing happened in Europe. In the 1630s, a craze for tulips swept the Netherlands and spread like Covid to the rest of the continent. Though traders had introduced the colourful Turkish flowers to the Dutch public the century before, a mania for certain special colours and varieties took hold in 1634. Demand from neighbouring countries, especially France [Surprisesd? Ed.] then grew. Speculators entered the market, causing prices to skyrocket until they dramatically collapsed a mere three years after the craze had begun.

Sadly, with only four days left until Christmas, Walt's cabin in the pines is incomplete. I do not have a variegated monstera. Readers are invited to send cuttings or entire plants to the usual address. When I resell them after Christmas (but before the market crashes), I'll split the profits with you. That's a Brandon promise!

MUSIC VIDEO: All I want for Christmas is...

Hey, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbours! It's that time of year again! Walt is checking the weather forecast.... 

Sung by The Drifters. Cartoon by Joshua Held. Featuring Clyde McPhatter, tenor, and Bill Pinkney, lead bass. An animated holiday Christmas card, sent with best wishes to all who share the sentiment.

Note from Ed.: SJWs needn't bother sending us complaints about hidden "dog-whistle" messages. Check out this photo of The Drifters. OK?!

UPDATED: Results of Sunday's Hong Kong, Chile elections

Q. When do the Chinese have their best elections? A. Just before bleakfast... 

Well, there's no election in "mainland China" today, but there is a sham election in the Chinese "Special Administrative Region" of Hong Kong. To prove that they have nothing to learn from American Democrats, the Chinese Communists (CPC), who control the central government as well as those of the SARs, are inviting patriotic citizens (only) to vote today in the first election since Beijing amended the laws to reduce the number of directly elected lawmakers and vet candidates to ensure that only those loyal to China can run.

Only 20 of the 90 seats in the Legislative Council (LegCo) are up for grabs. "Independent" candidates approved by the government are in tough against official CPC candidates. No matter who wins, the Communists will remain firmly in control. There will be no repeats of the pro-democracy protests and demonstrations that rocked Hong Kong in 2014 and 2019, but were crushed by security forces. 

A sweeping "national security law" was quickly imposed, effectively silencing most of the city's opposition activists and led others to flee abroad. Night has already fallen in Hong Kong, and officials are slowly counting the handful of votes that were cast. Said one voter, "Although there is a chance to vote for pro-establishment and democracy candidates, there are few democratic choices, so Hong Kong people do not feel enthusiastic when it comes to voting." 

Carrie Lam, head of the Hong Kong government, attributed the low voter turnout to general satisfaction about the way the city is being run under the progressive leadership of the Communist Party and the much beloved Chairman Xi Jinping. 

Voters in Hong Kong had a simple choice. They could vote Communist... or Else. Chilean voters, by contrast, are today offered a clear choice between Hard Right and Hard Left, in a runoff between two presidential candidates offering starkly contrasting visions for the future.

In the country’s most divisive elections since it returned to democracy in 1990, leftie Gabriel Boric, a tattooed former student protest leader, has pledged to empower women and indigenous people and  create "a fairer Chile". He will build back better, he says, by increasing spending, which will be paid for by raising taxes on the rich. Sound familiar?

His conservative opponent José Antonio Kast is pro-life and against "gay marriage". A staunch defender of former president Augusto Pinochet, Sr Kast has promised to dig ditches along the country's northern border to slow the invasion of illegal migrants. 

After years of "liberal democratic" rule, the sharp choice has resurfaced deep divisions in one of Latin America's most stable democracies. Although Sr Boric is not a card-carrying Commie, he is at the head of a coalition which includes Communists, and conservative Chileans are convinced that his "progressivism" would push Chile into a Venezuelan-style economic tailspin. 

Both candidates claim that it is their rival who instils fear among voters. Sr Kast frequently rails against the influence of the "gay lobby". At his final campaign rally on Thursday, he said, "This Sunday we are going to say 'no' to intolerant people! We will defeat fear… We will win by a wide margin because this is what I have been hearing the length of Chile!"

And now the results. May I have the envelopes please?

Sr Kast's prediction was wrong. The people of Chile, apparently having forgotten the Allende years, voted for the crypto-Commie, Gabriel Boric, 56% to 44%. Let's see if they suffer "buyer's remorse" quicker than the Americans who voted for Sleepy Joe.

[Did anyone vote for President Brandon? I haven't met anyone lately who admits to having done so. Ed.]

In Hong Kong, to the surprise of no-one, pro-Beijing (read: Communist) candidates romped to victory, virtually unopposed, as the city saw its lowest-ever voter turnout. It was the first LegCo election since China made sweeping and controversial changes to the city's electoral system. Officials argue the changes were needed to ensure stability, but critics say they weakened democracy. 

On Monday, Beijing also unveiled a statement outlining "democracy with Hong Kong characteristics". In a white paper released hours after election results were announced, China said Hong Kong was now entering a new stage of "restored order" as a result of the Beijing-introduced changes.

In the Excited States of America, the Democrats are set to propose an amendment to change the name of H.R.1/S.1, presently stalled in the Senate, from the "For the People Act" to the "Democracy with Democratic Characteristics Act". Stay tuned.

Tired of fake news? Check this out!

I'm talking about fake news from the lamestream meeja, of course. Everything you read here on WWW is accurate, factual and true... except when I say I'm lying. I do that sometimes. And sometimes, someone else is lying and I just report what I (gullible old fool that I am) believed to be true because a liar told me.

Anyhoo... if you want some True Facts, you'll find dozens of pages of them in the August 1988 ish of National Lampoon, on sale in our dear sponsor's little store.

National Lampoon, once billed as "The humor magazine for adults", jumped the shark four or five years before this issue was published, when the Simmons gang took over publishing and editing, and funny people like Doug Kenney, P.J. O'Rourke, Tony Hendra et al. stopped writing for them. 

OK, Kenney died but my point is the writing got pretty lame and repetitive in the mid-80s. By the time they went bimonthly -- a sure sign of trouble -- in 1987, things had got to the point that the True Section (true stories, true signs, true headlines and true truth) was the most-read part of the mag. The August 1988 issue proves that truth is, indeed, funnier than fiction.

Note from Ed., added at 1930. I asked Walt how he could just leave it there, without giving a couple of examples of the funny facts. He contacted our sponsor who sent these....

Jordache, the designer-jeans manufacturers, lost its laawsuit against an Albuquerque NM company which sells designer jeans for hefty women under the name Lardashe. According to Insight magazine, "The Denver-based Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Jorache's argument that the Larashe name was an attempt to confuse the public.

Lardashe jeans are made by Oink Inc., which considered a number of names before deciding on Lardashe in 1984. Among the other names considered were Vidal Sowsoon, Calvin Swine, and Seambusters.

A north Philadelphia man, Harold Askin, was accussed of first-degree murder after stabbing his robbery victim, Eli Reeves, to death. Despite the fifty-eight stab wounds on Reeves' body, Askin claimed that he had acted in self-defense and that Reeves "fell on the knife."

Like those? True Facts `88 has hundreds of `em, so our sponsor sez.

Cardinals say Church's problems stem from "progressives" undermining core Catholic beliefs

Cardinal Joseph Zen, the Archbishop Emeritus of Hong Kong,  has published a scathing rebuke to Jorge "Pope Francis" Bergoglio for ongoing attack on the traditional Latin Mass and other sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church.

In July, as reported here, the man who claims to be pope issued an apostolic letter, Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of Tradition - NOT!), restricting the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass in Catholic parishes and eliminating many existing accommodations for priests who wanted to use the traditional Tridentine form (called "the Extraordinary Form" by Benedict XVI) of the Catholic liturgy. 

In his post (link to English and Chinese versions at bottom), Cardinal Zen says Francis' letter contains "many tendentious generalizations" which "hurt more than expected the hearts of many good people."

The prelate goes on to say that the papal text "considers the very existence of a parallel rite [alongside the Novus Ordo or "new mass"] to be an evil," and clearly wishes "for the death of the [traditional] groups."

Traditionis Custodes was supposed to have been the result of a consultation with the bishops of the Church, but His Eminence claims it came "as a bitter surprise to me personally that the 'widespread' consultation did not reach me, a cardinal and once a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments." He writes, "Not having known either the questionnaire or the responses to the questionnaire, I cannot judge, but only suspect that there was much misunderstanding (or perhaps even manipulation) in the process."

Then comes the real sting. The real problem is not "which rite do people prefer," but rather "why don’t they go to Mass anymore?" 

Thus Cardinal Zen echoes the reflections of fellow Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former chief of the Congregation for the Defence of the Faith, who in an article published in July chided Francis for trying to suppress the traditional Latin Mass while at the same time allowing progressives to reject with impunity basic tenets of the True Faith.

Francis has "drastically restricted" the celebration of the Latin Mass (the prelate wrote) with the clear intent to "condemn the Extraordinary Form to extinction in the long run."

Worse, the Cardinal observed, by punishing the conservative peripheries, Francis "ignores the religious feelings of the (often young) participants in the Masses according to the Missal John XXIII" without the "slightest empathy.... Instead of appreciating the smell of the sheep, the shepherd here hits them hard with his crook!"

In summary, both Cardinal Zen and Cardinal Müller are saying unequivocally that the very real problems of today's Catholic Church do not come from traditionalists, but from progressives who undermine the core of Catholic belief.

Further reading: "Why do they see problem where there is none and close their eyes to the problem, for which they are also responsible?" - complete text of Cardinal Zen's blog post. And here's the Chinese version: "為什麼他們見到不存在的問題，卻見不到實在的問題，且也是他們有份造成的?"

VIDEO: "Madagascar Crash Landing" - A reindeer tale

It's only a week until Christmas Eve! What better time for a nice fairy tale about flying reindeer, to show your kids? Here's a ten-minute tale by an old friend of one of Walt's agents (who admires her greatly!) -- English traveller and writer Christina Dodwell. Watch her pets fly into an adventure in the exotic land of Madagascar!

   

If you like this, be sure to watch previous episodes: "Teaching Reindeer to Fly", "Kidnapped - Reindeer on the Run", "Battle for the Manor" and "Splash and Dash". You'll find links on the YouTube page.

Christina Dodwell is an old friend of one of Walt's agents, who admires her greatly! She was born and raised in west Africa, and became known as an explorer after her three-year (1975-8) journey through Africa, often on her own, by horse and dugout canoe. This was followed by two years travelling through Papua New Guinea living with remote tribes, and many other journeys over the course of 20 years.

The reindeer tales are part of Ms Dodwell's efforts to publicize the work of The Dodwell Trust, a British registered charity, which she founded in 1995 to help the people of Madagascar, one of the poorest countries on earth. Follow the link to learn more.

VIDEO: Kimberly Dawn explains the Covid Dempanic rules

In case you had trouble understandine the video we reposted in November on how to behave during the Kung Flu Crisis [because of the strong Scottish accent? Does YouTube know we said that? Ed.], we present now, as a public service,  singer/songwriter Kimberly Dawn, star of the Adley Show, who gives us a clear and comprehensive list of  Covid do's and don'ts.

 

Ms Dawn writes: "What We Should ALL Be Doing Right Now!" was inspired by a Facebook post I believe to be originally created by Sergio C. from Madrid.... It feels amazing to share laughter with so many people across the world and bond over our uncertainty. Sometimes, it's the only thing we CAN do."

Walt begs to differ. If you feel, as so many do, that the Covid hysteria -- the Dempanic -- has reached the point of being nonsensical, stand up and say so! Call BS on it! Do what you think is right for yourself and your family, then tell the nanny state to get out of your face... and your lives. 

How (Walt hears you ask) can I be part of the resistance? Elections are coming up next year, in almost all the places where WWW is read. When you cast your ballot (in person, please!) remember what The Authorities have done for/to you for the last two years, and vote accordingly.

Walt takes off his plexiglass face shield to Agent 6 for pointing us towards this video. Stay well!

Was it something we said? YouTube censorship strikes again

Long before dawn yesterday, we posted a funny video, "Indian soccer play-by-play... nuts!!!", which showed a soccer playing colliding with a goalpost and hurting a sensitive part of his anatomy, as described by an east Indian commentator in the manner of speaking peculiar to people from the Bombay area. It was, in Walt's humble opinion, LOL funny. 

Apparently some viewers -- not readers of WWW, we'd like to think -- rattled YouTube's chain, for the video became "unavailable" on WWW within mere hours of our reposting it. Now here's the crazy thing. The video, which was not Walt's creation or property, is still there on YouTube! See? 

      

So we ask ourselves, who complained about whom? Could it be that some snowflake complained not about the video offending their tender sensibilities by provoking laughter at Indian speech mannerisms, but about our reposting it?! 

How could it be? Did we do something politically incorrect by laughing? Wasn't that what the creator of the video wanted us to do? Or did we somehow promote racism etc etc by sharing the video with our readers? Is a puzzlement!

Whatever we did to offend the Masters of the Metaverse, we are certainly very sorry. Oh my goodness, yes! And we promise never to do it again, good sirs, if you will but tell us wherein we have offended. And to all those who think calling attention to the very real differences between people is not funny... many good lucks to you, by Jove! 

First winner in Walt's true stories &c contest

We haven't had a lot of response to our invitation to submit true (and funny!) stories, photos etc, but an assiduous reader in Niagara Falls gets a photo of Le Patriote for this one, which appeared today in the online edition of the Niagara Falls Review.

I am waiting now for someone to ask: What's so funny about that? Who are these Cornholers of which they speak? What is this game that they play? There is, after all, an American Cornhole Association. You can look it up.

Weeellllll... maybe I'm getting old, or my country-boy roots are showing, but there is another, older meaning of "cornhole". You can look that up too, in a good dictionary of American English slang. 

One hopes the members of the ACA are playing a different sport. But still I wonder... Hasn't anyone told them about that other thing?! Really??!! 

VIDEO BOOK REVIEW: Mark Milke explains the "victim culture"

What follows is not my own review. Ms Prim Blue-Stocking, head librarian of the Fort Mudge Library, has become "woke", and refuses to buy any books which she deems "controversial", i.e. dissenting from the prevailing liberal orthodoxy. So here's the Goodreads summary of The Victim Cult: How the culture of blame hurts everyone and wrecks civilizations, by Mark Milke (Thomas & Black, 2019).

No one disputes that some people are victims... of others, accidents, and life. But we also all know someone who thinks like a victim. The Victim Cult is about such people—who play the victim card—but multiplied by millions, where people and societies become stuck blaming others. 

The Victim Cult looks at the worldwide grievance culture from American college students to some Canadian indigenous leaders and on to Donald Trump. It also details the tragic historical consequences when victim narratives go viral and destroy entire societies and civilizations.

The Victim Cult also chronicles the refusal of some who were victimized to get stuck there, with the rise of Asian Americans over 150 years as a positive example. 

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! Mark Milke appeared yesterday on The Andrew Lawton Show to discuss the new Canadian edition of his book. In this wide-ranging interview, he and Mr Lawton talk about identity politics, cultural appropriation, and the left's blame game.

 

The Victim Cult is available in both paperback and Kindle [Wozzat? Ed.] formats, on Amazon and other outlets... if not in your local library!

VIDEO: New for Christmas! Greta on the Shelf

This Christmas, get the doll that will shame and terrify your children about the climate… 

 

Yes, it's from Babylon Bee, your trusted source for fake news! So don't expect to find one of these at your local Walmart. But I'm sure they have lots of other woke toys you can get for your kids... or yourself!

Poor Len Canayen on "Jake and the Kids"

Poor Len here, with a quick quiz for you. Q. What is Dauphin, Ylönen & Clague? A. No, it's not a law firm. It's the latest trio of "expendables" to join the Montréal Canadiens -- aka Hapless Habs -- this season.

With "regular" players dropping like flies -- Josh Anderson and Christian Dvorak went to the infirmary this week -- Laurent Dauphin (C) and Jesse Ylönen (RW) were called up from the Laval Rocket, and Kale Clague (D) was claimed on waivers from... well, it doesn't matter. Suffice it to say that you never heard of him or the other two before, and likely won't hear much about them in the future.

Clague has been with the alleged defensive corps for two games and is -1. Unfortunately that one was a goal he put right on the stick of Tampa Bay's Pat Maroon in Tuesdsay night's 3-2 loss.

Dauphin has been good at the faceoff dot, winning 70% of the draws he's taken. Unfortunately he doesn't play defence so well, and is -3 for two games. Ylönen, playing for the first time in last night's 2-0 loss to Chicago,  is only -1. He had one shot, otherwise 000 across the score sheet.

That brings us to Jake. Walt tells me that 60 or 70 years ago, before the CBC became the propaganda arm of Canada's Liberal party, they used to have some pretty good radio [??? What's that? Ed.] dramas, among them a series called Jake and the Kid. It was a collection of short stories by Canadian author W.O. Mitchell. "The Kid" is a boy growing up on a farm in fictional Crocus SK, in the 1940s-1950s. "Jake" is the hired hand who helps the Kid's mother run the farm, and keeps the Kid abreast of events in the greater world and in Crocus.   

But that's not the "Jake" we're talking about here. Walt says the saga of the Formerly-glorious Canadiens should be called "Jake and the kids", because what we've got now is Jake Allen, the hired hand acquired last season to back up Carey Price, trying to keep the Habs in the game, without much support from the motley crew of youngsters and "expendables" trying to fill the skates of a long list of sick, injured and just-plain-tired veterans.

I feel bad for Jake Allen. He does the best he can, and has played nearly 1200 minutes, more than any other goalie in the NHL. His stats aren't as bad as they appear if you just look at the 5-13-2 win/loss record. He has appeared in 21 of the Habs' games, and has a GAA of 2.96 with a save percentage of .907. 

Those numbers are the more remarkable since, thanks to the woeful defence, Allen often faces 40 or more shors per game, compared with a "normal" 30-35. And he is often the victim of egregious errors by the players in front of him. On Tuesday it was Clague's giveaway. Last night it was Alexandre Romanov who made nifty pass right to a Blackhawk in the middle of the slot.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. This year's edition of the Canadiens needs to score 4 goals a game, since they're going to allow 3, in spite of the best efforts of Jake Allen. Sadly, too many of the Habs' games have been one-goal games. By that, I mean they won or lost by one goal, but that they scored just one only goal. Last night, against the Chicago Blackhawks, they didn't score any. Final score: 2-0.

Footnote: The Chicago goalie who posted the shutout last night was none other than Marc-André Fleury, a native of Sorel QC. For most of his NHL career, Fleury starred with the Pittsburgh Penguins. More recently he had a backup role with the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and this season joined the Chihawks as a no. 3 goalie. 

Last night's win was Fleury's 500th career victory. He is only the third goaltender in NHL history to reach the lofty plateau of 500 wins. Ahead of him are Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy, both of whom are also gars de chez nous. There's a lesson there somewhere.

Walt wants your true stories and photos!

There was bound to be one somewhere. This Ford dealership is in Wellington OH. Reported by "Just A Car Guy". 

Ed. here. Chuckling at the True Stories and photos of signs like this one (although this came from elsewhere) in the August 1987 issue of National Lampoon gave us an idea. We invite YOU, dear reader, to e-mail us true (and funny!) stories and photos from your local meeja or your own photo collection. We'll publish some of the best, from time to time, and contributors will receive... hmmm, lessee... how about a nice picture of Le Patriote (Le Vieux de `37), suitable for framing if you have a small frame.

Stories and photos must be from a verifiable source, e.g. a URL or newspaper clipping with name of paper and date, and must be suitable for inclusion in Walt's family-oriented blog.  No photos of kiddies (under 18), or anything that couldn't be printed without censor bars. Memes are OK. 

Receipt of e-mails will not be acknowledged. If you want the little reward, be sure to include your postal address. Let's see whatcha got!

True (stupid!) crime stories

Kind of a slow news day yesterday. Canadian Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface followed President Brandon's lead ["leash", shurely. Ed.] by saying Canada would join the "diplomatic boycott" of the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Meaningless virtue-signalling is what liberal democrats are good at. Do the Chinese give a 粪? Not so's you'd notice....

But that's not what I wanted to talk about. My topic for today is the stupidity of the "reparations shopping" now forcing businesses in Democrat-controlled cities across the Paranoid States of America to board up their windows. If I were Neiman-Marcus [You wish! Ed.], I'd close all my brick-and-mortar shops and allow people to buy my over-priced junk only online. If the department stores, electronics stores, clothing stores, liquor stores, etc all did that, certain "communities" would be left with nothing to loot but grocery stores.

Senseless and stupid crime does not pay, as witness these True Stories, taken from the "Crime Report" in the August 1987 issue of National Lampoon. 

A man was charged with robeery after passing an Orlando FL bank teller a stickup note written on the back of his own probation-parole card.

Another man held up the First Insterstate Bank in Tucson AZ with a note written on the back of his own pay stub. [He was employed?! Ed.]

A sixteen-year-old Marvin, of Rochester NY, was arrested after his report card was found at the site of a burglary. "His marks weren't too good either," said a police spokesthingy.

A Mount Pleasant SC man called police and claimed he had placed bombs thoughout the Charleston and Columbia airport terminals. He demanded that two million dollars be placed in his bank account, and supplied police with the name of the bank and the account number.

Police in Fulton County GA [site of a hyuge fraud in November 2020. Ed.] said an Atlanta man entered a bank there and handed the teller a note demanding a bag of money. He was arrested after he left the bank, walked across the street to a Starvin' Marvin and bought a beer.

San Mateo CA cops arrested a man for the theft of a 400-lb. safe from a hotel less than a block from his home. They followed the gouge marks he left in the concrte as he dragged the safe home.

And in Utah, when police arrested a man suspected of breaking a 7-11 window, he denied it. But when he was told a clerk had seen him, he remarked, "No-one saw me. I waited until there wewre no customers in the store."

Got time for one more? After robbing assistant restaurant manager Janice Head at knifepoint and taking her pocketbook, the assailant called to ask her out. Nashville TN police arrested him when he showed up for his date.

[Do you suppose that the victim, before she became assistant manager of the restaurant, was the Head waitress? Ed.]

The "All-New Super-Colossal True Facts Section" of the August 1987 National Lampoon has hundreds of rib-tickling stories like this, proving once again that truth is funnier than fiction. Our sponsor has one (1) copy for sale here.

Further reading: "Mayor Lori Lightfoot Blames Chicago Retailers for Not Fighting Crime", by John Nolte, Breitbart News, 9/12/21. True crime story! Excerpt: "...the retail smash-and-grab epidemic is not the fault of the Democrats who run Chicago’s government as an unopposed monopoly. Instead, it is retailers’ fault, so they must now 1) create a private police force, 2) lock up all their merchandise, and 3) stop attracting crime with all their fancy merchandise."

LAME! Brandon announces "diplomatic boycott" of Commie Olympics

There is a special place in hell (so it is said) for those who, in a time of moral crisis, refuse to take a stand. If weakness and indecisiveness lead you to hades, President Brandon is well on the road. In fact he's in the fast lane! 

Case in point: Yesterday's announcement (made by the ubiquitous Jen Psaki, since the Grim Creeper is increasinbly unable to read the autocue) of an American "diplomatic boycott" of the Winter Olympics, to be held early next year in Communist China. 

What (Walt hears you ask) is a diplomatic boycott? If you want to express your condemnation of the Red Chinese genocide of that country's Uyghur minority, you boycott the Olympics completely, totally and absolutely. Have nothing to do with Mr Xi's propaganda games, clearly modelled on Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics to show what a great and powerful nation Communist China has become. 

But nooooo... Sleepy Joe doesn't want to go that far. It might be bad for business, dontcha know. So he has adopted the mugwump strategy. You know what a "mugwump" is, don't you?

The idea is to have it both ways -- do something while at the same time not doing anything! So the "diplomatic boycott" means that 100s of American dips, politicians and sports executives won't get to visit Beijing in the (ugh, brrrrrr) winter. But American athletes will get the chance to do a Jesse Owens and show up the Chinese super-athletes in front of their Dear Leader.

What does the rest of the world think of this? Another sign of weakness from a doddering old man who is a good bet not to finish out his term. It's not the first such failure. There was the Afghaistan debacle. Then there was the failure to respond to the Colonial pipeline attack, followed by the failure to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. America's enemies look at these things as opportunities to step up their plans for aggression, knowing Brandon will do nothing to stop them.

Cases in point: The Chinese are rattling sabres [flying fighter jets, actually. Ed.] across the Taiwan Strait, threatening the long-promised invasion to reclaim the "rogue province". And the Russians are massing troops along the border of occupied Crimea, preparing for war against what's left of Ukraine.The Russians and the Chinese know the Brandon administration lacks the fortitude to do anything serious for a strong defence of other nations. So they're going to go do anything and everything they please, knowing they're going to get away with it. 

The US State Department is tut-tutting vigorously, promising that if push comes to shove, stern measures will be taken... up to and including a "diplomatic boycott". President Brandon's inabililty to make up his mind, let alone order any concrete action, not only discourages whatever allies the USA has left, but encourages America's enemies.

Can Russia and China be stopped from dominating the rest of the world, economically and by force of arms? The question is not how they can be stopped, but who is going to stop them!

EXCLUSIVE: Kamala Harris speaks her mind

There has been a lot of talk, in the last few weeks, of moves by Democratic Party insiders to push Kamala Harris out of the Vice-Presidency, to make room for a woman who would be a suitable replacement for President Brandon for the 2024 election, or sooner, if his "retirement" can be conveniently and decently arranged.

Some of the rats in Ms Harris' office have already jumped ship. It was announced last week that Symone Sanders, the Veep's chief spokesthingy, would soon depart. Peter Velz, her director of press operations, and Vince Evans, the deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs [Seriously? That's his title? Ed.] are also said to be looking for the exit door.

What was originally inside-the-Beltway chatter about the competence of the first Indo-Jamaican-American Vice-President has spilled into view, threatening to chip away at Democratic morale. It is rumoured that Ms Harris would refuse to analyze briefing materials set forth by employees, but then scold them if she appeared unprepared. 

One senior staffer allegedly told WaPo, "It's clear that you're not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work. With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you're constantly sort of propping up a bully and it's not really clear why." 

As is well known, Walt is a champion of fairness and justice for all. Audi alteram partem! That's my motto! [It means: My other car's an Audi. Ed.] So, as a public service, I persuaded Ms Harris to sit down for a little heart-to-heart. Here's her side of the story.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm in this rat race. It's not for the money, believe me. My husband is the money-maker in the family. You start in politics because you've got ideas. You want to try them out, to help people. 

At first, you're gratified by the response you get. If you win, you're deliriously happy. Then the honeymoon is over. After that, it's "gimme, gimme, gimme." Nobody's really interested in you or your program, especially if you're a woman, especially a woman of colour, especially a woman of two colours!

When I was campaigning for the Democratic nomination, I finally realized that the game wasn't worth it. I grew to hate all those people who lined up to meet me in city after city. It was all a fake. Fake enthusiasm drummed up by the back-room men. 

 The women in this country are full of shit. If they liked me as much as they claimed, why didn't they all vote for me? Anyone with an ounce of brains could see I was a hell of a lot smarter than Biden -- he has Alzheimer's, for God's sake -- and that Jew Sanders or that fag Buttigeig. I mean really! 

They were all liars and hypocrites. It was all lip service to the women's movement until the chips were down, and then all the women just peed in their pants and left me flat.

I think most women are afraid to have a woman a heartbeat away from the presidency, let alone in the Oval Office. They think I would crack up in a crisis and cry. Or that I have cranky moods when I have my period. As far as I'm concerned, most women are small-minded, petty, insensitive and stupid, especially the "Squad" and those bitches on "The View". They are all shits, not worth a dime. All of them.

I'm going to jump ship just as soon as my appointment to the Supreme Court comes through. (As President of the Senate, I can vote for my own confirmation, you know!) Then let them appoint Mrs Bill Clinton or, God help us, the lovely Michelle. See what happens then!

Too funny not to share

Jen Psaki Announces President Biden Will Visit Family Of Traumatized Waukesha SUV Driver 

This headline comes from the Babylon Bee, Your Trusted Source for Fake News. So you know it's a spoof, right? But would you be surprised if it turned out to be true?

We can't copy the photo, and we know BB would be very upset if we reposted the entire (and entirely fake and funny) article, so we'll just let you click on the headline for your weekend laugh.

Further reading (in case you missed it): "Waukesha WI: accident or 'incident'?" WWW 22/11/21.

Latest US employment report weak; some seasonal jobs still available

Breitbart News reports that the American economy added 210,00 jobs in November and the unemployment rate sank to 4.2 percent. This was a far weaker jobs report than expected. 

Economists had forecast 545,000 positions added to payrolls and an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, according to Econoday. The unemployment rates for adult men and adult women declined to 4.0 percent. 

The white unemployment rate fell to 3.7 percent and the black unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent. The Hispanic unemployment rate declined to 5.2 percent. There was little change in the unemployment rates for Asians, at 3.8 percent, or teenagers, at 11.2 percent. 

The labor force participation rate inched up to 61.8 percent in November but remains 1.5 percentage points lower than in February 2020. The employment-population ratio rose by 0.4 percentage point to 59.2 percent in November. This measure is up from its low of 51.3 percent in April 2020 but remains below the figure of 61.1 percent in February 2020. 

Surprisingly, employment in retail trade declined by 20,000 in November. General merchandise stores shed 20,000 jobs, clothing stores shrank employment by 18,000, and sporting goods, hobby, book, and music store employment declined by 9,000. That raises questions about the strength of retail going into the holiday Christmas season.

There are, however, a number of openings for seasonal help. See drawaing at left, which originally appeared in the January 1986 "Good Clean Sex...Again" issue of National Lampoon. Our kindly sponsor has one copy for sale, cheap, here.

VIDEO: New Covid variant hits South Park!

It's been years (really!) since I watched a full episode of South Park, since it's not on "free" TV any more. I don't think I'm the only one who won't pay for programming I'll never watch just to see one show, as clips from the latest episodes appear on YouTube within hours of being aired. 

In this one, set in the South Park of the Future -- yet strangely in the present -- citizens of South Park go into panic mode when it is revealed that Dr Kenny McCormick died of a new variant of the kung flu. Think about this as you're shopping today for turkey or toilet paper.

 

Panic over nothing. It's what Americans do best. But the South African discoverer of the Omicron variant is officially telling everyone to calm down . In a column for the UK Daily Mail, Angelique Coetzee criticized the global ramp-up of travel bans, mask mandates and quarantine extensions wrought by the new variant. 

"The simple truth is: we don't know yet anywhere near enough about Omicron to make such judgments or to impose such policies," she wrote, adding that there is still no evidence of anybody being hospitalized due to Omicron. "If, as some evidence suggests, Omicron turns out to be a fast-spreading virus with mostly mild symptoms for the majority of the people who catch it, that would be a useful step on the road to herd immunity."

VIDEO: Michael Matt on Jordan Peterson's "Warning to the World"

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, the season in which Christians prepare for the coming of the Light -- Jesus Christ -- into the darkness of the world. It's a pretty dark world we live in right now, and many people are looking for a light, a truth, to live by during these hard times. 

Among them is Dr Jordan Peterson, whose videos have been reposted here many times. Dr Peterson is a very wise man, wise enough to know he doesn't have all the answers. As he tells us at the beginning of this video, he too is searching for the verities of the Eternal Truth. 

Then Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper, explains why he believes the Truth is to be found in the Catholic Church. In just ten minutes he describes (much more powerfully than I could) why he is a traditional Catholic, and why we must pray and, yes, fight harder now than ever to make the Truth of the Faith known and believed.

This video was excerpted from "THE ONE WORLD RELIGION: Francis and the Abrahamic Family House", first posted on Remnant TV in November. We omitted the first part of the original, in which Mr Matt gives his further thoughts on the Covid "crisis". 

Part of our edited version was further edited by YouTube to cut out video of Pope Bergoglio signing an agreement with Muslim leaders to build a church next to a mosque and a synagogue in Abu Dhabi. The organization objecting to that being seen is called "the Committee for Human Fraternity". That tells you all you need to know, right there. Click on the link to hear the entire, uncensored program on Remnant TV.

Let us close with the Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel. Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. 

"Allahu akbar!" in SanFran: berserk Afghan terminated by cops

Last Wednessday, in beautiful downtown San Francisco, a man screaming "Allahu akbar!" charged at police with a large kitchen knife and was shot multiple times with a handgun and beanbag projectiles. 

According to AP, Ajmal Amani had previously threatened to kill a man in his residential hotel with the same large knife, and later died of his wounds. He was "a former Afghan interpreter for U.S. special forces who had been shot several times during more than five years of service and struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder."

PJ Media's Robert Spencer, who authored this report, sez: That is a tragedy, but it's also a warning: how many of the tens of thousands of unvetted Afghans who have been brought to the U.S. by Old Joe Biden’s handlers are a similar threat?

Where are they now?

Yesterday we devoted this space to an article written 36 years ago by Nat Hentoff, decrying the hypocrisy of the liberal elites. Mr Hentoff accused the gliberals of trying to silence all views that did not reflect the politically correct orthodoxy of the day. I promised I'd give you an update on what became of the organizations mentioned in his rant, so here it is.

According to Wikipedia, the National Organization for Women is one of the main liberal feminist organizations in the USA, and primarily lobbies for gender equality within the existing political system. One supposes they are still awaiting the election of the first female president. Who do they support now? Karmala Harris? Hellery Clinton (again)? Or the one the DNC insiders are plotting to nominate? [Who do you mean? Ed.]

The Progressive, which Wikipedia calls "an American magazine and website of politics, culture and progressivism with a left-leaning perspective", is still publishing. "It supports civil rights and civil liberties, gender equality, immigrant rights, labor rights, environmentalism, criminal justice reform, and democratic reform." You still can't buy an ad to promote the pro-life cause. 

Eagle Forum is still a voice for conservatives. It is the parent organization of the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum focuses on social issues and describes itself as pro-family. Wikipedia, on the other hand, calls it "socially conservative and anti-feminist." No bias there, of course. 

Feminists for Life of America is still out there, fighting the pro-life battle. The organization describes itself as "shaped by the core feminist values of justice, non-discrimination, and non-violence". It publishes a biannual magazine, The American Feminist, and aims to reach young women, particularly college students. Wikipedia can't resist pointing out that FFL's anti-abortion positions have been criticized by feminists. 

According to its website, the Funding Exchange, "a pioneer in social justics philanthrophy", was a national network of social justice foundations created in 1979 by "young activists with inherited wealth who had a 'change, not charity' vision of how they felt their money could make a difference."

The founding members sowed the wind by "involving community activists in grantmaking decisions", and reaped the whirlwind. The Funding Exchange was legally dissolved effective November 21, 2018, because of (among other things), "challenging conversations about race,"

A quick read of the organization's official history, p. 46 ff, reveals that it fell apart because of... wait for it... divisions over race! How American is that?! Seems the white gliberals couldn't get along with the BLM types, and vice-versa. Here's a quote from the history, which I'm including because I love seeing the liberals eat their own.

[One of the foundations] would bring a large contingent to board meetings, basically packing the room. Board meetings...were taken up with contentious anti-racism sessions, separate white and people of color caucuses, and political discussions that never seemed to resolve anything. There was a sense that a lot of time was wasted on infighting and spinning of wheels. As a result, several member funds began to opt in and out of participating in board meetings.

So the Funding Exchange is gone, but the SJWs, BLMers and other looney leftists still have plenty of money, quite apart from the grant money and other "reparations" they get from the Brandon maladministration. (Does the name George Soros mean anything to you?) 

But our side has money too, and the fight goes on. The voices of conservatism and common sense have not been silenced. On the issue of abortion, those who advocate women's "rights" to kill their babies, without regard to the rights of the unborn babies, are running scared now. Roe v. Wade could be overturned even before President Trump is re-elected in 2024. Keep fighting ladies (and gentlemen!) and God bless you!

Nat Hentoff: Why I'm mad at liberal hypocrites

Nat Hentoff? Isn't he dead? Well yes. Since 2017. Before that, Mr Hentoff was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. He was a staff writer for the New Yorker, and columnist for The Village Voice from 1958 to 2009. He wrote some fine books, including The First Freedom: The Tumultuous History of Free Speech in America. This article -- even more relevant now than 36 years ago -- appeared in the November 1985 "Mad as Hell Issue" of National Lampoon, on sale here.

Nothing gets me madder than liberals who condemn those right-wingers who attempt to suppress contrary opinions, while those very same liberals do the same thing. 

Item: The National Organization for Women (NOW) passed a resolution two years ago that prevents anyone from being invited to address the annual NOW convention if that person has any point of view that disagrees with any of NOW's policies. If Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum had passed such a resolution, every member of NOW would chortle at those right-wingers showing again how rigid and narrow they were. 

Item: The Progressive, a monthly out of Madison, Wisconsin, is one of the most exuberantly independent of all American political journals. It never caves in to anyone, least of all the government.... Like most irreverent political journals, The Progressive is in chronic need of money. It's been helped, now and then, by the Funding Exchange, a consortium of foundations created by the "rich kids" -- the scions of families with huge, rapaciously acquired fortunes who want to do good in penance.

On the question of abortion, the editors of The Progressive, like the staff, are pro-choice. But the editor believes that anybody who wants to talk to the readers in the advertising columns is entitled to, providing that what he's advocating is legal.

A small radical pro-life group in Kansas City, Missouri, Feminists for Life of America, put a tiny ad in the magazine for three issues running. The ad showed an eight-week foetus and advised pregnant women to think twice or maybe three times before killing him or her. That's all she wrote. The president of Feminists for Life of America, by the way, has been busted both for protesting abortion and for protesting nuclear power plants. And she runs a magazine that is far more to the economic left than those rich kids with their foundations.

Well, the executive director of the Funding Exchange (the rich kids' consortium) cancelled their subscription to The Progressive and also said she and her staff would not help raise any more money for the magazine. To be "progressive" enough for the liberal rich kids, The Progressive would have to keep its pages utterly clean of anything deviating from the pro-abortion orthodoxy.

Liberals -- especially if they're rich -- want to stifle ideas they find offensive, yet go on pretending they're the ones who are truly open to dialogue.

Then there are those librarians who, while they defend the books in their libraries from outside censors, do a pretty mean-spirited censoring job of their own. Some will not order "controversial" books -- a foolproof way of ensuring they won't get into trouble with pressure groups in the community. Others create their own system of banning books that have somehow gotten into the library. 

Consider a library center in upstate New York that provides books to school libraries in Albany, Schenectady, etc. This is the advice the hip, liberal librarians in upstate New York give to their colleagues in the schools. "Place a warning label on biased material: WARNING: IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT THESE MATERIALS ARE SEX-STEREOTYPED AND MAY LIMIT YOUR SENSE OF FREEDOM AND CHOICE."

That's a hell of a turn for librarians to take -- labelling books as "bad" for readers. And who determined that those materials are "sex-stereotyped"? By what criteria?" Which novels by Faulkner, Dostoyevsky, and Mark Twain will have to be burned in the schoolyard? And what is this about limiting my sense of freedom and choice? Just who is doing that? Could it be these liberal librarians? 

But let me show you what gets me maddest of all in this ceaseless abundance of liberal hypocrisy. A political science professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz invites to his class one of South Africa's representatives to the United Nations. The professor wants his students to hear and to test the real thing -- a true believer in apartheid. The professor figures they'd learn more from an exchange with someone in the racist South African government than from simply reading about that government.

The South African was never able to say a word to the class. An integrated mob of fifty students made it impossible for the rest of the 150 students in the auditorium to hear the visitor. They so yelled and screamed that the South African had no choice but to leave. The students who had been waiting to ask him some very sharp questions about his government had been silenced just as effectively as had the South African. As the South African left the campus, a student yelled, "Let the story go out that students would not allow a racist to speak on this campus!"

That's the only part of the story that got out. The rest of it was that some American students, like the government of South Africa, do not permit views to be heard that are contrary to their own. But I'm sure the students who prevented the South African from speaking consider themselves to be authentic liberals.

There's a term -- "liberal" -- that used to have some integrity to it. Increasingly, though, liberals lust to censor just as fervently as reactionaries. And just like reactionaries, liberals deny that's what they're doing.

Mr Hentoff was never anyone's idea of a conservative, let alone a right-winger. His rant shows that the hypocrisy of the liberal elites was known, even if not admitted, within their own ranks. Well said, sir! In my next post, I'll let you know what happened to NOW, the Eagle Forum, The Progressive, and Feminists for Life of America. Stay tuned.