Dumb criminals story: Woman foils gas bar robbery by giving head

What's going on in the stock markets this week? As an investor who sticks mainly to value stocks -- I'm a yield hog! -- I still find the gyrations of the tech and pot sector fascinating, and worry that their ups and downs will affect other sectors. And then there's the Biden Green(ish) Plan, playing havoc with the energy sector, particularly Canadian oil and pipeline stocks. Thanks Joe, and up yours! And then there's Gamestop. Whoda thunk a bunch of "real people" could cause the big swining dicks of Wall Street to lose billions? Not being a BSD, I love it! 

But I digest. Agent 9, who watches the Big Board even more closely, figures we need some comedy relief, so has passed along a story from Canada's Sun newspapers, for our "stupid criminals" file. 

A woman in Bratislava, Slovakia walked into a gas station last Tuesday night and noticed a robbery in progress. According to Slovakian media outlet Noviny SK, a 24-year-old man entered the gas station and allegedly threatened to kill employees if they didn’t empty the cash register. 

An employee reportedly handed the robber the money. The robber wasn't satisfied, and punched the staff member several times. The employee then ran into a back room where a coworker was hiding, and called the police.

The police say the suspect then entered the back room and tried to get more money from the store’s safe. The second employee bolted. The woman, wanting to thwart the robbery in progress, reportedly went up to the suspect and distracted him by performing oral sex on him until cops came. [Only the cops came? Ed.]

The police found the couple lying half-naked on the floor. When the woman reportedly telling them “I don't take him anymore," the cops slapped the cuffs on him. In the end, while the woman got a mouthful (maybe), the robber got neither money nor oral sex, only a jail cell.

Footnote: Noviny SK reported the unnamed woman was believed to be aged 36 and of Czech nationality. Walt wonders what made them think that. Slovaks and Czechs speak slightly different languages, but did the woman speak with her mouth full? Just askin'. 

George Carlin: Political correctness = fascism

Words of wisdom from the late, much-missed George Carlin.

 

Only in Canada, you say? Pity!

 Turns out that President Trump knew, as early as mid-November, that the Dominion Voting System machines were not used in federal elections in Canada. Those old-fashioned Canucks persist in counting paper ballots... by hand! Can you imagine?!

What a pity that most US states are too "progressive" -- word chosen carefully, to do it the simple, honest way. Americans would have been spared all the drama, litigation and suspense of the fake election of 2020.

VIDEO: Support mental health... or else!

WARNING: This post contains links to animated material which some may find offensive, politically incorrect, disgusting and even... wait for it... unAmerican! 

Walt has been down in the dumps since January 20th, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who follows the news. Sleepy Joe's Executive Orders suspend deportations of illegal aliens, welcome transgender perverts into the military, and kill KXL at the cost of 1000s of union jobs. 

And that's only the beginning of the Californication of America. Depressing, isn't it? Or it could be that I've just got the January blahs. when I get feeling like this, I dust off the old VCR and plug in my complete collection of Ren & Stimpy cartoons, including this cheerful song by Stinky Wizzleteats. Enjoy!

   

There. Don't you feel better now? All part of Walt's campaign for better mental health! 

Can't understand why Ren & Stimpy didn't last longer. Maybe Nickelodeon wasn't the right platform. [Ya think?! Ed.] Lamestream media... BAH! Footnote: John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren & Stimpy, was Canadian. From 1989 to 1992, he was heavily involved with the first two seasons of the show in virtually every aspect of its production, including providing the voice of Ren Höek and other characters. He parted ways with the producers due to "creative differences". 

Than, in the late 1990s, he created the first cartoons made exclusively for the Internet: The Goddamn George Liquor Program and Weekend Pussy Hunt. He returned to television with The Ripping Friends and the adult animation spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", reviewed (unfavourably) here. The Goddamn George Liquor Program won the 1999 Annie Award for "Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Interactive Production". Good show, John. Get well soon!

VIDEO: The life and thought of Thomas Sowell

Things are quier... too quiet! Well, maybe not. After all the brouhaha and foofaraw of the last year -- the "anus horibilis" --, it's nice to have a few days or weeks with nothing to do (thanks to the Nanny State) to reflect on where we've been and where we're going. The "we" in this case refers to those of us with a conservative turn of mind. 

The other day we reposted a video in which Dr Thomas Sowell -- American economist, social theorist, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution -- talked about black culture, a subject about which he is qualified to speak since he is black. (No, he doesn't insist on "black" being capitalized.) 

Just by coincidence, the Free to Choose Network yesterday posted a biography on Dr Sowell which we think is well worth watching. Here it is.

If only America had more Thomas Sowells and fewer professional Blacks like "Rev." Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Maxine Waters. Keep talking, Prof. Maybe as we "progress" into the era of "Black entitlement", more people will listen.

Footnotes: 

- Did you notice that Prof. Sowell's name is pronounced as one syllable, "Soul"?

- Key thought: It's amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.

Hiring based on gender/wokeness rather than merit: not a good idea

Some people think that Justin Trudeau, aka Mr Socks/Blackie McBlackface/Emperor Trudeau II, is Canada's head of state. Except in his own mind, he is not. Under Canada's constitution, the head of state is the foreigner pictured on the left as she welcomes her diverse daughter-in-law to Buckingham Palace.

Since Her Royal Highness, Elizabeth II, Defender of the Faith, Queen of Great Britain etc etc -- for that is her name and part of her title -- does not live in the Great No-longer-white North [and who can blame her? Ed.], she appoints (in theory) a representative known as the Governor General/ gouverneur général. [In Canada, they say everything twice. Ed.]

Being "G-G" is a pretty good gig. You get a hefty salary, unlimited expense account, fancy uniforms, a nice car (with driver), and an RCMP security detail to follow you on horseback when you go jogging around Rideau Hall, the mini-castle in Ottawa which you get to live in, all paid for by the Canadian sheeple. Giggity! [Um... you're thinking of another fictional character. Ed.]

But how do you get to be Governor General? Do they advertise the job? Where do you send your résumé? That, dear reader, is the $64 ($50 in real money) question! The process by which a Governor General is chosen is cloaked in secrecy. Certain liberal elites talk in hushed tones at conclaves and  soirées at Ennui-on-the-Rideau (Canada's capital) until a name "emerges" which the Prime Minister (currently Mr Socks) then recommends to the Queen.

The previous PM, Steve Harpoon, thought the process should be a little more clear, if not totally transparent, so he put in place a selection committee whose recommendation he accepted. That was the Rt. Hon. David Johnston, who served for seven years until 2017, and was widely esteemed as courteous, courtly and bland enough to be perfect for the job.

When it came time to nominate a successor, the committee started to look at several possible candidates. The only constraint was that the new G-G be a francophone (French-speaking), since the tradition since 1952 has been to alternate between francophones and anglophones. And latterly, in the interests of diversity and gender parity, it was obvious that the next G-G had to be a woman.

While the committee was considering its options, the arch-feminist Blackie McBlackface, all by himself, came up with a candidate whose "wow factor" was such that no further search was required. Indeed, Julie Payette, a former astronaut, was so obviously the only one for the job that her other qualifications and employment history need not be checked... at all! What could go wrong?

The answer: plenty! Ms Payette was born into the liberal elite. She was raised in Montréal’s toney Ahuntsic neighborhood, where she attended private schools before being chosen to attend the prestigious United World College of the Atlantic in Wales. There, she completed an International Baccalaureate diploma.

On her return to Canada, Ms Payette studied engineering at McGill University, graduating with B.A.Sc. in electrical engineering in the mid-1980s before obtaining a M.A.Sc. in computer engineering at the University of Toronto in 1990. Just two years later, Payette was hand-picked by a committee -- which included former astronaut and current (Liberal) Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau -- to become an astronaut at the Canadian Space Agency. And go into orbit she did, with Americans, of course. 

She spoke both French and English. She could get by in Spanish, Italian, Russian and German, and she was the recipient of a whopping 28 honourary degrees. She is also a member of the Order of Canada as well as the Ordre national du Québec. On top of all that, she plays piano and has sung in multiple orchestras. How's that for "wow factor"?!

But Julie Payette ran into trouble when she came down from heavens into the real world. The Queen's signature was barely dry on the parchment of her appointment as Governor General when reports began to emerge of incidents in her personal life and past that chipped away at the perfect image portrayed on paper. 

In 2001, it was revealed, she had a second-degree assault charge expunged from her police record. The incident happened while she was living in Maryland. The "alleged" victim was her then-husband William "Billie" Flynn, a retired Air Force pilot. The couple became uncoupled shortly thereafter.

Just one day after news of the expunged assault charge emerged, the Toronto Red Star reported that Ms Payette was involved in a "no-fault" fatal car accident in July 2011, in which a woman -- a pedestrian -- was killed. Mr Socks wouldn't confirm whether the two incidents had come up during the so-called vetting process. Holding back a tear, M Trudeau told the meeja "Obviously, our heart goes out to the family affected by this tragic accident. It was a terrible and tragic thing and we know that Mme Payette actually personally reached out to share her condolences with the family subsequent to the accident."

But wait, there's more. In 2013 Ms Payette landed a plum job as Director of the National Science Centre in Montreal, in spite of never having worked for that organization or in any similar capacity. She left that position "voluntarily" in October of 2016, a fact reported at the time by the Montreal Gazoo, which surely must have been known to whoever vetted Ms Payette's nomination. What they may not have known is that she was given a golden parachute of roughly C$200,000 to go away, following complaints about her treatment of employees. 

But wait, there's still more. After leaving the Science Centre, Ms Payette was named to the Canadian Olympic Committe. She lasted there just under a year, leaving in 2017, not long before her appointment as the Queen's surrogate, after two internal investigations into her imperious treatment of staff.

Apparently verbal harassment and general bitchiness is Ms Payette's style, for that's what led to her abrupt departure from Rideau Hall. In July of this year, a CBC News report quoted a dozen confidential public servants and former employees who claim the Governor General belittled, berated and publicly humiliated Rideau Hall staff. 

She was also said to have been unhelpful to her RCMP security guards, running away from them while out jogging around the grounds. [Maybe she just needed to take a leak? Ed.] Maclean's magazine reported that, for two years in a row, Payette's office at Rideau Hall ranked among the worst in the public service for harassment complaints. An annual government survey conducted last year showed 22% of respondents working for Rideau Hall claimed to have experienced harassment. Of those employees, 74% attributed the harassment to individuals with authority over them. 

M Trudeau is now facing renewed criticism over his approach to choosing Ms Payette for the job. He persists in saying that the "vetting process was followed", but won't answer questions about how the red flags outlined above were, errr, overlooked. Ms Payette blames her personal secretary, a "dear friend" who she brought with her to Rideau to supplant a professional snivel servant. And, says the ex-GG, "different people experience things differently." 

Haven't Canadians heard that before? Do Canadians care? Will they punish Mr McBlackface for making yet another bad book club selection? Don't bet on it. Lifetime pct .981.

A case of mistaken identity, shurely

 I don't believe anyone will dispute my assertion that the liberal elites of Not-so-great Britain (aka the Disunited Kingdom) are even more nutso about political correctness than are those of Canuckistan and the Excited States of America. 

Nor will anyone argue that political correctness and freedom of speech are antithetical. All the same, it comes as a surprise that Internet censorship should  now be extended to the other side (as opposed to our side) of the political spectrum. But here's a headline that proves it, posted by the far left British Socialist Workers Party.

Did you check out that logo? The SWP is a charter member of the loonie left, for sure. And yet, the UK edition of rt.com reports, they were temporarily booted from Facebook, only to be restored hours later with no explanation given for what the Lefties called "silencing of political activists."

Dozens of related pages remain banned. The party said its main account, as well as its local pages, were deactivated on Friday, calling in an "attack", while demanding the profiles be "reinstated immediately." In a press release, the SWP said "Facebook has shut down the accounts of one of the biggest left wing organisations in Britain," adding that only racist conservative fascists deserve that kind of treatment. [Ed., please check the last clause. I'm not sure it's an accurate quote.]

While the SWP said Facebook provided no rationale for the move, it noted that its page often posts "in support of Palestine, Black Lives Matter and against Boris Johnson’s Covid policies," and was "silenced for speaking out on these issues."

How then, do they explain why they were shut down? Walt can reveal that it was a simple case of mistaken identity. Google "socialist workers party" and you'll eventually find an entry for the "National Socialist German Workers Party" (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), aka the Nazi Party. And you know who they were, right? 

It's pretty easy, then, to see what happened. Still, it's amusing that the far left should now be bleating about the kind of attack on free speech which those even an RCH* to the right of centre have been experiencing since the daze of the Obama presidensity. Look good on `em!

* RCH - a unit of measurement known only to engineers.

Quick quiz for hockey fans

 Ed. here. We have received complaints that our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen, always and only writes about the Montréal Canadiens. This year's edition of les Glorieux -- the best since 1993, according to former star player and General Manager Serge Savard -- is so exciting to watch that we can  hardly blame Poor Len. All the same, in the interests of fairness, we have invited Jacques Strappe, who cheers for another team, to write today's hockey column.

Thank you, Ed. Here is a quiz to test your readers' hockey knowledge. 20 seconds should be enough to answer each of the six questions, so total time should be no more a minute and a half, tops!

Q1. What do Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent and Michel Larocque have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... Is your answer, "They're all French-Canadian goaltenders."? That is correct, but there's more.

Q2. What do Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent and Michel "Bunny" Larocque have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... If you answered, "They've all won Stanley Cups", that is correct, but keep going!

Q3. What do Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent and Bunny Larocque have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... If you added "...with teams other than the Toronto Maple Leafs" to your second answer, you're close, but no cigar. So...

Q4. What do Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent and Michel Larocque have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... Give up? Thought you'd see the clue after Q3! Answer: They all played for the Maple Laffs but didn't win a Stanley Cup!

Q5. What do Trevor Kidd, Peter Ing and Darren Puppa have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... What? You don't know? OK, take one last stab at it.

Q6. What do Trevor Kidd, Damian Rhodes, Peter Ing, Jiri Crha, Doug Favell and Darren Puppa have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... Surely you've figured it out by now? OK, I'm gonna give it to you. Those six, along with Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent and Bunny Larocque all played for Toronto between 1968 and 2009 without having their names engraved on Lord Stanley's silverware. Source: Why the Leafs Suck and How They Can Be Fixed, by Al Strachan (Collins, 2009).

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! Besides the nine already named, the following goalies also played, between 1968 and 2009, with Leaf teams that never won a Stanley Cup. 

Allan Bester, Andrew Raycroft, Vesa Toskala, Grant Fuhr, Curtis Joseph, Bruce Gamble, Marv Edwards, Ron Low,  Eddie Johnston, Dunc Wilson, Wayne Thomas, Mike Palmateer, Pierre Hamel, Paul Harrison, Jim Rutherford, Félix Potvin, Tim Bernhardt, Don Edwards, Ken Wregget, Mark Laforet, Jeff Reese, Glenn Healy, Ed Belfour, Marin Gerber, Corey Schwab and the unforgettable Mikael Tellqvist.

You can look it up in Mr Strachan's excellent book, which I recommend especially to Leafs fans. Spoiler alert: Mr Strachan says the reasons for the Leafs' 53 years of failure (and counting) is not so much poor players -- they've had lots of good ones -- but ownership and management which ranged from mediocre to execrable. Names are named!

Missing from the Inauguration: Kamala's sole surviving parent

Kremlinologists used to parse the internal politics of the Soviet Union by studying photos of important events (like the May Day parade) to see who was present (and how far they stood from the dictator of the day), and who was absent.

The politics of the Excited States of America is almost as murky as those of the old USSR. They don't call a certain part of Washington "Foggy Bottom" for nothing, and President Trump never succeeded in draining the Swamp which is just about as opaque as the Kremlin. Here to, lessons can be learned from looking at photos of important events and propagandist photo-ops.

Take Wednesday's Inauguration of Sleepy Joe Biden. [Better change that. How about "President Sleepy Joe Biden"? Ed.] Notably absent from those gathered to watch the descent from Heaven of the Choir Invisible was President Trump. Much has been made of that by the lickspittle media -- "lack of respect", "no sense of tradition", "sore loser", yada yada yada. Big deal.

Also absent were President Joe's parents, for the very good reason that they passed away -- his father in 2002 and his mother in 2010. So also was Shyamala Gopalan, the mother of First Lady-in-waiting Kamala Harris. She died in 2009.

The lady pictured holding a very young Kamala is not her mother. It's the grandmother of her father, Donald Harris, who is still alive, aged 82, and living in Lalaland, where he teaches economics at Stamford University.

You won't see Mr Harris in the Inauguration photos for the very good reason that he wasn't there. One wonders why not. Was he invited but "unable to attend" because of the kung flu?  Or did was he simply not invited, much as Meghan Markle's father was overlooked when they sent out invitations to the Royal Wedding of the Century (TM)?

During the 2020 election campaign, much was made of Ms Harris ancestry. She was hailed as the first black woman [sic] who, if Mr Biden was elected, could be a heartbeat away from the presidensity. When it turned out that she was actually mulatto half-black, "black" changed to "woman of colour", and Ms Harris' Jamaican-Americaness morphed into "multicultural heritage". As I wrote in October, she's about as "black" as Barack Hussein Obama. 

Donald Harris became, and remains, something of a "missing link" in the Vice-President's biography. He was an international student from Jamaica when he met Shyamala Gopalan, a science student from India, at the University of California's Berkeley campus in 1962. In the hippy-dippy 60s, Berkeley was a hotbed of radicalism [Still is! Ed.], and the couple got to know each other at events promoting "African-American civil rights."

Donald Harris and Shyamala Gopalan married in 1963. Kamala born in 1964 and her sister Maya two years later. The couple divorced about seven years later, and custody of the girls was awarded to Ms Gopalan. A family member told a journalist with Canada's PostMedia that Mr Harris "was not around after the divorce." In fairness, it must be said that for Mr Harris to have involved himself in his daughters' upbringing would have meant following them and their mother to Canada and India.

In a  2003 interview, Kamala Harris told SF Weekly, "My father is a good guy, but we are not close." Donald Harris told an interviewer that the family court judge who gave custody to Ms Gopalan imposed a settlement based on "the false assumption that fathers cannot handle parenting." Nevertheless, he said, "I persisted, never giving up on my love for my children or reneging on my responsibilities as their father." 

Not during the election campaign though. At that time (the journalist reports), he told the New York Times, "The celebrity-seeking business is not my thing, and I have tried hard to keep out of it." Still, you'd think he would have wanted to be at the Inauguration, to see with his own eyes what his little girl had made of herself... with a little help from her friends.

Further reading: "Parsing the blackness of Kamala Harris", WWW 28/8/20.

VIDEO: Professor Thomas Sowell talks about black culture

"Lemme ax yo somethin'... Who said that? Answer: Thomas Sowell - American economist, social theorist, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Of course Dr Sowell doesn't talk like that. He's giving an example of "Black English" (sometimes known as "ebonics"), which he says is one of the facets of current black culture (or "subculture") which is keeping African-Americans from achieving economic and social parity with "other-cultured" Americans. 

Here's a short interview with Dr Sowell, posted on his YouTube channel, just ahead of Martin Luther King Day. 

   

What's the good doctor's solution to the problems black people bring on themselves by adapting to the subculture? Rap "music" is the ultimate expression of current black American subculture. But America needs fewer rappers and politicians, and more engineers, doctors and scientists. So? "Equip yourself with skills that people are willing to pay for." 

If you want to learn more about this topic, Dr Sowell suggests you read his books: Black Rednecks and White Liberals (Encounter Books, 2005) and Intellectuals and Race (Basic Books, 2013). For more thoughts from Dr Sowell, see "Thomas Sowell destroys the arguments for multiculturalism", WWW 4/7/20.

In other news: Far right extremist calls for equal treatment of people of all races!

VIDEO: President Trump's farewell to the American people

 

 Ave atque vale! Come back soon!

Previewing tomorrow's inauguration

Scraped from the Babylon Bee. Click here to read the article.* Walt predicts there will be no armed insurrection. (Lifetime pct .975.) But I wonder... if Creepy Joe's clandestine inauguration comes off without a hitch, how will the lickspittle controlled media explain that, when they told us there would for sure be some sort of coup.

* The Bee article ends thus: Sources say that Biden will be brought to an undisclosed location after the inauguration to live out his remaining days peacefully until Kamala Harris's inauguration next week.

Biden promises to undo all the good done by President Trump, NOW!

Weather forecast for January 21st: Massive shitstorms expected in Washington DC and US-Canadian prairies. Expected to last 100 days. Don't go out without your souwester, hip waders and inflatable dinghy.

Yes folks, massive disruptions are in store for the first 100 days of the Biden administration, as promised during the fake election campaign by Sleepy Joe hisself. Just yesterday -- Sundays are convenient for releasing bad news while Christians are sleeping -- the President-elect's handlers gave us a laundry list of all the things Joe will do by executive order to Make America Not-so-great Again.

For instance, the "bathroom laws" will be reinstated, to make sure that no queers, trannies or other perverts will be barred from "female restrooms" just because the sight of their naughty bits might make some real women (and little girls!) uncomfortable. Nosiree, not in Biden's America! 

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! Yes, Biden (and those pulling his strings) are intent on restoring the legacy of the Prez -- kind of like polishing a turd -- and destroying all that Trump hath wrought. 

And to those detractors who deny that the Donald ever did anything notable, Walt says, read the list of his accomplishments published on Saturday on the Gateway Pundit website. (Thanks to Agent 35 for sending us the link.)

  

About a third of the way down that lengthy list, you'll read: "Approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines." Construction of these lines would allow more oil to be brought, cheaply and safely, from Canada to refineries in Texas. 

1000s of jobs would be created and protected in both Canada and the US of A, and America would be helped along the road to energy security, with increased ability to source oil and gas from its friendly neighbour, rather than the Arabs.

You'd think Biden could see the sense of that, but noooo. If Trump did it, it must be bad! Yesterday Canadian Press reported that it had seen transition documents outlining the first actions to be taken by Mr Biden, once he is sworn in. One of them be to slam the door yet again on Canuckistan's politically fraught Keystone XL pipeline expansion. He will do this, the documents say, by "EO" [Executive Order] to be signed on Inauguration Day, or the day after at very latest.

The documents suggest that despite its best efforts, Canada has failed to convince the incoming administration of the virtues of importing fossil-fuel energy from a friendly ally and trading partner with similar climate change goals. 

Some question the sincerity of Canadian Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface, who calls himself almost as great a friend of the environment as Greta Thunberg, while at the same time committing his alleged government (and Canadian taxpayers) to the building of the Trans-Mountain Pipeline, which will take oil from landlocked Alberta to the Pacific tidewater, thence to willing buyers in China. 

Mr Socks can breathe a sigh of relief, then, that Sleepy Joe's Executive Kibosh will relieve him of the political necessity of fighting for both TMP and KXL. No wonder he's smiling!

Ever since May, when Biden first promised to kill KXL, Canadian officials have been advocating for a cross-border discussion on climate and energy that would make room for both building the project and reducing emissions at the same time. "Keystone XL fits within Canada’s climate plan," said the Canuck ambassador to the US [not Chrystia Freeland, surely?! Ed.], adding that it promises good union jobs in both countries "at a time when our economic recovery is a top priority."

While the Liberals in Ottawa dither, the Conservative government of Alberta is lawyering up for a fight.  Premier Jason Kenney renewed his call on the incoming administration "to show respect for Canada as the United States' most important trading partner and strategic ally." He said cancelling the project would kill jobs in both countries, weaken cross-border ties and "undermine US national security" by making the country more dependent than ever on oil imports from OPEC countries.

But hey, cancelling KXL is what the enviro-weenies and anti-oil, anti-business Lefties in the Democratic Party demanded of Sleepy Joe, so he can hardly break his promise now. Right? Who cares about the best interests of the USA (let alone Canada)? Let the will of Soros and the globalists be done!

Poor Len Canayen: Habs off to a good start

The National Hockey League's 2021 season -- shortened to just 56 games -- got under way this week. Here's our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen, with his take on how our favourite team, the Montréal Canadiens, are doing.

Tank youse, Hed. I'm very happy to talk about the new look Canadiens. The players GM Marc Bergevin added to the roster over the summer are fitting in nicely, to the point where, in last night's 5-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, I couldn't see a single "weak link". Not one!

Goalie Carey Price put on a clinic, as he is wont to do when facing star players like the Oilers' Connor McDavid. He will be helped, this year, by having a reliable backup, Jake Allen, acquired from the St. Louis Blues during the off-season. I expect to see Allen carrying a bigger share of the workload than his predecessors, giving Price a chance to rest. Perhaps we'll see Allen in the rematch against the Oilers tomorrow night.

Price will also be helped by having a bigger and better defence corps in front of him. The Habs' top four defencemen -- Captain Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry and new hire Joel Edmundson -- average 6' 3.5", and can all shoot as well as hit. Petry had two goals last night. The third pairing is Brett Kulak and rookie Alexander Romanov. Romanov got lots of minutes in his first game against the Leafs on Wednesday, and showed no "stage fright" whatever, then or last night. He's a keeper!

New additions to the forward lines are Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli, both of them experienced and talented. And strong and tenacious. Anderson, in particular, looked impressive against both Toronto and Edmonton. If he can avoid reinjuring his shoulder, he should be good for 20 goals.

The usual suspects -- holdovers from last season -- all did well, particularly Tomas "Tuna" Tatar, who potted two last night. Young Jake Evans, who I had on the "possible trade" list in my yearend review, seems to be maturing and gaining self-confidence, and may find himself a regular centering the third or fourth line. Paul Byron is still incredibly fast, and made a really nice play last night to set up Tatar's second goal. 

I can't find enough good things to say about this year's edition of la Sainte Flannelle. But for a couple of questionable penalties, they should have won Wednesday's game against Toronto, and last night's victory over Edmonton was entirely convincing.  Right now they're 1 for 2, with 3 points out of a possible 4. I won't start planning a Stanley Cup parade just yet, but I do predict they will finish 1st or 2nd in the NHL's Northern/Canadian division. Lifetime pct .975.

Chatter around the old hot stove... 

 * The NHL, (((Gary Bettman))) Prop., sold the naming rights for the four divisions in the realigned league. Large corporations have paid small fortunes so the NHL will refer to the Eastern Division (for example) as "MassMutual East". The rest of us will snicker behind our hands and just call them Central, East, West, and... errr... Northern.

 * Actually, real hockey fans north of the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM) will refer to the Northern Division as the "Canadian Division", which is what it is, since all the Canadian teams play in that group. Is it possible that the Canadian team owners could work up the courage to secede from the now misnamed "National" Hockey League entirely? Canuck fans hope so!

 * Speaking of Canada... Hockey Night in Canada, seen on Saturdays, has got so "woke" that it should be renamed "Hokey Night in Canada". Last night's telecast started with a tribute to Willie O'Ree, the first black Black player in the NHL. They now have a token black (but not too black) guy on the intermission panel, and a Sikh (who appears without his turban) doing commentary from Edmonton. No women last night, but I expect when games originate in Montréal we'll see Cassie Campbell, who at least knows what she's talking about. Remember: Get woke, go broke!

VIDEO: Michael Matt reacts to the attack on the Capitol

We received an e-mail today from Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper, asking us to share his latest video, restricted by YouTube but available on RemnantTV, their new online channel. In this special report on the impeachment of Still-President Trump, Mr Matt takes a hard look at the disastrous attack on the US Capitol building -- an event which will surely live on in infamy.

    

Mr Matt explains why the Dumbocrats are trying once again to impeach Donald Trump. As Patrick Buchanan argues, it's because "a conviction would strip Republicans of the right to re-elect the man who got the largest number of votes in their party's history." 

In this video -- I'm writing this in case you haven't you haven't yet opened it -- you'll see President Trump's statement of January 13th, blacked out by the lickspittle controlled media, in which he again condemns the breach of the Capitol, calls for the prosecution of those responsible and explains in no uncertain terms how it was diametrically opposed to everything the he stands for. 

Mr Trump has condemned their actions three times now, and patriots all across America have denounced it as the new Reichstag fire (see WWW, 15/1/21) -- a massive blunder being used by the Left to try to crush Mr Trump and his populist movement once and for all. This is no longer about the 2020 election. The impeachment is about making sure there will never be another MAGA rally in this country again.

But wait, there's more. Mr Matt includes a clip from one of Walt's Top Ten Movies of All Time, A Man for All Seasons, in which Paul Scofield, playing Saint Thomas More, shows why and how we must not consider ourselves above the law. No matter what happens to the children of light, they can never behave like the children of darkness.

Are ya ready for an all-American Reichstag fire?

"History repeats itself!" is bunk. It's an aphorism loosely based on an aphorism commonly attributed to George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." 

Strictly speaking, history cannot repeat itself exactly, because there can never be an exactly similar situation involving exactly the same people in exactly the same place. And even if that could be so, you can't predict that the same people would act/react in exactly the same way a second time. Human beings are, if nothing else, unpredictable. 

The most we can say, then, is that certain events occurring now, or which may occur in the future, put us in mind of events that have occurred before, and prompt us to speculate that the outcomes might be similar. That's all. 

So it is with the dire warnings with which the FBI, the Dumbocrats and the lickspittle controlled media are assaulting us every bloody minute, regarding the possibility of armed protests on the occasion of Sleepy Joe Biden's almost-secret inauguration on January 20th. 

White nationalists, Trump supporters and neo-Nazis [they tell us] are preparing for bloody insurrection, not just in Washington DC but in all 50 state capitals! 

 Here's a sample of the steaming load of bullshit being shovelled out by the likes of Business Insider: "Biden's inauguration rehearsal has been postponed because of security threats, report says". And how about this, from the TDS sufferers at Yahoo!: "'Cowboys for Trump' leader plans to bring guns to DC on the day of Biden's inauguration".

Scary, isn't it? Imagine that guy -- Couy Griffin, a New Mexico county commissioner and founder of Cowboys for Trump -- bringing "multiple guns" to Washington! He'll even have one on the front seat of his car [Yahoo! sez], while reminding us that DC law prohibits keeping a firearm in the passenger compartment of a vehicle and has tight restrictions on guns in the capital! The horror! The horror!

I have yet to hear weather-forecast-like phrases such as "the mother of all protests" or "rebelliomageddon", but clearly the lamestream media are whipping up hysteria! 

Why? I am reminded [Coming to the point at last! Ed.] of the Reichstag fire of 1933. For those who don't remember the history of Germany and WWII, the fire was an arson attack on the building housing the Reichstag, the German parliament, four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. 

The Nazis blamed the fire on Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch Communist, saying it was the work of Communist agitators. The government used the fire as a pretext to claim that communists were plotting against the German government, and so it became pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.

After searching the still-smoldering building, die Polizei arrested Mhr Van der Lubbe, who was found inside, along with four Communist leaders. Within hours, Chancellor Hitler urged President von Hindenburg to issue an "emergency decree" to suspend civil liberties and pursue a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communist Party of Germany. The Reichstag Fire Decree was passed the following day.

After the decree was issued, the government instituted mass arrests of Communists, including all of the Communist Party's parliamentary delegates. With their bitter rivals gone and their seats empty, the Nazi Party went from having a plurality to a majority, thus enabling Hitler to consolidate his power. 

Although the Nazis accused the Comintern (Communist International) of the act, many historians now believe, based on archival evidence, that the arson had been planned and ordered by the Nazis as a false flag operation, intended to make absolute their hold on power. Which it did.

Getting back to the events planned for next week, we have already seen evidence that some of the protesters urging the occupation of the Capitol building were actually Antifa and anarchists who had infiltrated the ranks of Trump supporters. There is also the suggestion that some law enforcement personnel didn't try very hard to stop the protesters from running amok. 

Could the events of January 6th be repeated two weeks later? Who knows? History doesn't repeat itself... does it?

"American man" murdered in Toronto

Agent 3 sent us reports of two crime stories which were carried -- edited for political correctness -- by Toronto's controlled media for less than 24 hours yesterday. Black on black crime is not a big deal in Toronto the Good. I'm posting the story here more for what it says about the obvious liberal bias of the Canuck media when it comes to matters of race and immigration. So then... 

Meet Mohamed Jeylani, who died on Wednesdsay afternoon after a stabbing in Scarborough, the eastern part of Toronto, the most multicultural city in the world (according to Mayor John Jello.) He was identified by all three of the city's major news outlets --CTV, CBC and Global TV -- as "a man from the United States". He was from an unidentified city in Minnesota, likely not unadjacent to Minneapolis, which is home to a large community of Somali refugees "new Americans".

Inspector Knacker of the Metropolitan Police said his minions were searching for a man believed to be about 20 to 25 years old, 5' 11", with a thin build. He was last seen wearing a dark hooded top and light-coloured pants at the time of the stabbing. The identifying factor which was omitted from the CBC and Global reports, and quickly deleted from the CTV story, is that the suspect was, errr, black.

Mr Jeylani's death was Toronto's first homicide of 2021. That it was so late in the new year must be one of the benefits of the Covid "crisis" lockdown!

Walt wonders what this "American man" was doing in Toronto. In theory, the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM) is closed, except for "essential workers" or others who are exempt because they are needed in both countries. Like hockey players. I wonder what kind of "essential work" Mr Jeylani was engaged in.

Last night, CTV reported that Ontario's police watchdog has been called in to investigate after a man was shot during an interaction with Toronto police. The cops spotted a "a vehicle of interest" in the parking lot of Church’s Chicken (!), near Midland Avenue and Eglinton Avenue East, the very same part of Scarberia where the homicide occurred.

As officers attempted to block in the vehicle, the vehicle rammed into the police vehicles. An "interaction" follwed, the Special Investigations Unit said, and "an officer discharged their[sic] firearm" and struck one of two people they were investigating. The two individuals were later taken into custody, police said. A 31-year-old man was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. Two police officers were also taken to hospital with unknown injuries. 

Inspector Singh (Hey, it's Toronto!) said he could not provide further details about the incident, such as the identity of the "individuals". Nor would he comment on a possible link with the stabbing of Mr Jeylani. End of story. Nothing here to see, folks.

Not all Canadians are deluded and delusional liberals

If you believe the Canadian lamestream media -- the CBC (Canadian Broadcorping Castration) or read the Toronto Red Star, Maclean's quasi-magazine or the Groan and Wail -- you would think that 99% of the residents [legal and illegal, Ed.] of Canuckistan were true believers in the liberal ideals of their Prime Minister, Blackie McBlackface, and his coterie of anti-Trump, anti-Caucasian, anti-Western do-good wienies. You would be wrong.

Fortunately for the Great No-longer-white North, there are some Canucks who do not believe in M Trudeau's "post-national", one-world ideal, and who will not be silenced. Pictured above, on the Canada for Trump Facebook page, is a lady who said she had travelled to Texas to rally for Still-President Trump.

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there are more! Pictured below are Canadian nurses Kristen Nagle and Sarah Choujounian, first and second from left, with other members of Global Frontline Nurses in a photo posted to Ms Choujounian's Instagram account.

Where are they? Why, in Washington DC, on the steps of Capitol Hill! When was that? On January 6th! And why were GFN's members there? According to a GFN press release, the gathering was intended to "share insight about COVID fraud and corruption inside hospitals." 

For the sin of attending an event which was contemporaneous with the mass protest against the 2020 fake election, Ms Nagle, a neonatal ICU nurse from London ON, and Ms Choujounian, a registered practical nurse from Toronto, are being "investigated" [read: persecuted] by the College of Nurses of Ontario. 

The hospital at which Ms Nagle worked has been placed her on unpaid leave. Ms Choujounian's employer, a long-term care home, says she is no longer with them. It seems that in spite of the "Covid crisis", the services of whistle-blowers are not "essential".  

The lamestream media consistently portray President Trump as a misogynist who delights in grabbing women by the pussy and is reviled by all educated suburban women. These Canadian ladies, apparently, are exceptions. They are being ostracized for daring to speak out, but Walt hopes they know they aren't alone.

So glad the government is protecting us from the kung flu

Ed. here. You may have noticed that Walt's posts this week have been more than a little short on content. Walt is speechless, or should I say wordless. He just sits in a corner of his cabin in the pines, seething and fuming. I expect a lavalike eruption of vitriol any time now, maybe this afternoon, but in the meantime am filling the space with appropriate visuals. This one comes from Agent 9, to whom we take off our masks.

To 9 and to all we say, don't expect things to get any better under a new administration. And don't get caught going out for a walk!

Political headline of the month

Yes, it's from the Babylon Bee.

Waiting for the morrow

 

The leftist "woke" purge of politically incorrect speech has begun

Yesterday, in "Al Strachan on social media and being deplatformed", Walt advised you to try Parler, an alternative app where those of us of a politically incorrect persuasion could speak freely and express ourselves openly, without fear of being 'deplatformed'. 

In an update at the end of the post, I reported that you could no longer get the app on Amazon, Apple or Google stores, but should be able to download it directly. Not any more! Early this morning TheRightScoop reported that Parler has gone dark, turned off by Amazon. 

The Big Tech Purge (they write) is now at the next level. They’ve gone from concept to execution (a fitting word) on their test case of shutting down speech and banning what they don’t like from the internet. In America, if the left doesn’t like you, they can just turn you off.

Brendan O'Neill, writing on Spiked-Online.com, says: With the flick of a switch, billionaire capitalists voted for by precisely nobody have just silenced a man who is still the democratically elected president of the United States. With the push of a button in their vast temples to technology, the new capitalist oligarchs of Silicon Valley have prevented a man who won the second-largest vote in the history of the American republic just two months ago — 74 million votes — from engaging with his supporters (and critics) in the new public square of the internet age. 

Walt reminds the censorious lefties of an old adage: Just because you've silenced a man doesn't mean you've converted him!

VIDEO: Pope has NOT been arrested, sez Dr Taylor Marshall

It is a sign of the times that a rumor spread across the Netscape [What happened to those guys? Ed.] that Pope Francis was been arrested on charges related to pedophilia and child sex trafficking. That, it was said, was the reason for a recent blackout at the Vatican. In this short(ish) video, Dr Taylor Marshall calls the rumor "fake news" and urges us -- Catholics and others -- to be careful what we listen to and more careful what we believe. Still... it is troubling that so many would be so quick to give credence to this scurrilous story. Seems to be a case of the wish being father to the thought... or the rumor....

Al Strachan on social media and being deplatformed

Left-wing Hollywood celebrities are expressing their collective love of Big Brother after Twitter announced that it has permanently banned President Donald Trump. Breitbart News reported that Twitter kicked the president off its platform late Friday because, "After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

Yes, the Alphabet people have "deplatformed" the President of the United States, not just temporarily, but forever! They must be afraid that his campaign for re-election in 2024 will start on January 21st, as indeed it will, with or without Twitter!

Someone who knows a lot about being deplatformed is Al Strachan, a journalist and former columnist for the Toronto Sun, the Globe and Mail, and Montreal Gazette. For a time, he was a regular panelist on Hockey Night in Canada, from which he managed to get fired, not once but twice, for ruffling the feathers of the elites. I've just read (and recommend highly) his latest book (of seven), Hockey's Hot Stove (Simon & Schuster 2020). Here's what he has to say about social media.

Social media could have been such a wonderful addition to our lives. It could have prompted the exchange of information. It could have encouraged participation in worthwhile activities. It could have created friendships and promoted worthy causes. Some of those positive attributes were realized -- sporadically. But really, what social media does more than anything is allow for the exchange of vitriol.

No society in history has ever been so adamant in its demands for tolerance -- yet, it seems, no society in history has ever been so intolerant. We are a modern society and have the technology to prove it. But when it comes to social media, the mind-set is positively medieval. Or should I say media-evil?

Suspicion is aroused and someone on Twitter shouts, "Kill the witch. Kill the witch." Moments later, #killthewitch hashtags are springing up all over the site. Backgrounds are hastily researched and alleged witchlike transgressions that occurred twenty-give years ago are being posted and retweeted. Memes appear, Cartoons appear. By the end of the day, the verdict is almost unanimous. The transgressor deserves to be tortured and executed.

The Middle Ages are back. Bring on the Spanish Inquisition. We are repeatedly told by people on social media that we must accept all forms of alternate lifestyles in the name of tolerance. Fine. But anyway who asserts a contrarian opinion is vilified.

All very true. And now, it seems, politically incorrect opinions are not only not tolerated, but not to be expressed. Period. Freedom of speech is dead in Alphabetland. Forget about Twitter. But there is a bit of good news. Consider an alternative, Parler.com. They invite you to "Speak freely and express yourself openly, without fear of being 'deplatformed' for your views. Engage with real people, not bots. Parler is people and privacy-focused, and gives you the tools you need to curate your Parler experience."

And this just in (thanks to Agent 17): Predictably, the usual suspects when it comes to Internet censorship -- Amazon, Apple and Google -- have removed Parler from their app stores, but you should be able to sign up directly by cllcking on the link above

RIP Kathy Shaidle

Just yesterday, not quite a month since we asked you to support Kathy Schaidle and those who care for her, came the sad news that she had entered a hospice. The merciful end came quickly, for which thanks be to God. Here is the notice, copied from Blazing Cat Fur. 

Kathy Shaidle 1964 – 2021

Following a tedious rendezvous with ovarian cancer, Kathy Shaidle has died, wishing she’d spent more time at the office. She is relieved she won’t have to update her LinkedIn profile, shave her legs, or hear “Creep” by Radiohead ever again. Some may even be jealous that she’s getting out of enduring a Biden presidency.

Kathy was a writer, author, columnist and blogging pioneer, as proud of her first book’s Governor General’s Award nomination as of her stint as “Ed Anger” for the Weekly World News. A target for “cancel” culture before the term was coined, she was denounced by all the best people, sometimes for contradictory reasons.

Kathy did not lead a particularly “full life,” her existence having been comprised mostly of a series of unpleasant surprises. Her favourite corporeal pleasure was saying, “I told you so,” which she was able to utter with justification multiple times a day. A bookish movie-buff and agoraphobic homebody, as a child Kathy (as per the Roz Chast cartoon) “always preferred the little couch ride on the merry-go-round.” Yet Kathy managed to acquire a reputation for mouthiness, a side effect of her bullshit allergy.

Contrary to cliché, Kathy did not conduct herself with particular "grace", "dignity" or "courage" in her final months. She didn’t "bravely fight on" after her cancer was pronounced terminal. All she did was (barely) cope, and then only with assistance from her generous employer, and some energetic and selfless friends whom she’d somehow managed to acquire over the years, much to her astonishment. 

Of course, the greatest of these was her stalwart beloved of over 20 years, Arnie, with whom she is now in the ultimate long distance relationship. They can all finally catch up on their sleep.

Donations can be made to the Dorothy Ley Hospice, Toronto.

All of us at Walt Whiteman's World pray: requiescat in pace.

The year ahead in Canadian politics

 As I said yesterday, it looks as if the fight for the presidensity of the Excited States of America is over. In a prerecorded televised statement, President Trump said he would work towards an orderly transition to the "new administration". And it looks as if the Democrats' howls of "Off with his head...now!" are not being heard, at least not by Vice-Presidsent Pence. So all that remains now is to see what happens on Inauguration Day.

Therefore, absent some kind of divine intervention, there will be no major electoral activity in the US of A this year, and WWW will have to look to the Great No-longer-white North for entertainment of that sort. Last time we heard, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (aka Trudeau II, "Mr Socks", and "Blackie McBlackface") headed a minority Liberal government which remains in office by the grace of the slightly more leftish NDP (read: socialists).

Theoretically this situation could continue until the fall of 2023, but the betting is that the Liberals could lose a vote of confidence sometime this year. There is also speculation that Just In Himself could also walk across the the lawn between Rideau Cottage and Rideau Hall to ask Governor-General Julie Payette either to resign or (more likely) to let him resign, and call an election.

One of Walt's favourite blogs, Blazing Cat Fur, today featured this excellent meme summing up perfectly the feelings of a great many old stock Canadians.

I haven't started making the popcorn just yet, but have reminded Ed. to buy some if he can find a store that isn't locked down.

Sad footnote: Kathy Schaidle, who formerly wrote Five Feet of Fury and became one of the forces behind Blazing Cat Fur, has entered a hospice, near the end of a long battle with cancer. Please keep her in your prayers, as we do. 

It's NOT over ???

 Seen inside the Capitol yesterday...

Recommended reading: "Siege of the U.S. Capitol is an ominous sign of things to come" by Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, 7/1/21.

It's over!

I and about eleventy million other people witnessed yesterday's... errr... proceedings in and around the Capitol. As "mostly peaceful" protests go, this one lived up to its name. 

Although one woman was killed, supposed by "law enforcement", I didn't see a whole lot of violence. For the most part I saw protesters "engaging" with "law enforcement" -- shouting at them, haranguing them, reasoning with them. And I wondered how many of the assorted national guardsmen, cops and rent-a-cops had misgivings about confronting the protesters, all for the sake of making sure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris got formally elected, not just anointed by the media.

This morning questions are being asked by the usual suspects -- SJWs, the lamestream media, the anti-police gang -- about how the protesters were able to mass on Capitol Hill, and gain entry into the Capitol itself, so easily. The suggesion is that it was some sort of conspiracy between President Trump,  his supporters and "law enforcement" to stage a paramilitary coup. As if!

Whether the demonstration was orchestrated or not, it proved to be counter-productive. I understand where the protesters were coming from. Oh boy, do I understand! But what, I wonder, did the protesters think would happen? Did they really think occupying the Capitol would keep the solons from meeting... forever? Did they think "taking it to the street" would convince some of the anti-Trump senators and congresspersons to vote in favour of the objections filed by Senator Cruz et al?  Fat chance!

If anything, the protest appears to have changed the mind of some Republicans. When the objection to the counting of the votes of the Arizona electors came to a vote around 2200 EST, there were only six (6) "ayes" and 93 nays. The objections and horseshit-laden speeches continued into the wee hours, but only for the sake of form, and the vote of the Electoral College was duly confirmed. 

For me, the day and the result were best summed up by Senator Lindsey Graham when he said, "It's over!" So it is.

I note that President-elect Biden -- for now we can actually call him that -- decided last week to skip the traditional Inauguration Day parade. I wonder if he and his handlers were truly afraid for his security, or is that they were afraid of the optics of taking a victory lap following a rigged election which half the American people believe they stole by fraud and deceit.

Of course there was fraud and cheating, said some "honorable senators" last night. But there was no evidence (they said) that it was "massive". Just a little bit, you understand. Not enough to make any real difference. So that's OK then... they said. I had the sense that some who said such things were really acknowledging that the Democrats were better at cheating than the Republicans... this time! 

As they say in Lake Wobegon: What now, do ya think? I'll tell ya what. With the run-off election for both of Georgia's Senate seats now decided in favour of the Dumbocrats (albeit by narrow margins), the US of A is in for four years of affirmative action (read: reverse racism), extreme environmentalism (read: green-scam), tax-and-spend budgets, Antifa riots, weakening of "law enforcement", and all the other liberal "progressive" policies that have made California what it is today. God save the United States of America! 

Further reading: "Pelosi Appoints AOC, Other 'Squad' Members to Powerful Oversight Committee; Leftists Promptly Reveal Radical Agenda", by Mike Miller, on RedState, 6/1/21.

MUSIC VIDEO: You've never heard the "Radetzky March" like this!

Walt called from... somewhere... and I couldn't make out anything he said, just lots of shouting and swearing and the word "bubba" every now and then, whatever that means. There was another word too which I think is not allowed on Google any more (and, lest we forget, Blogspot belongs to the Alphabet People). 

But I digress. To fill this space until Walt generates some copy, we're going to the default -- a nice music video. And it's not Tuba Skinny today. We do like other kinds of music! 

This is a performance of the familiar "Radetzky March", by Johann Strauss Sr, arranged performed by British virtuoso Jonathan Scott, at the organ of The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK. I have never heard this played on the organ, but "played" is too mild a word to describe this heroic performance on the King of Instruments. Enjoy.

 

If you think that was amazing, how about a duet -- piano and organ -- featuring Jonathan Scott at the organ and his brother Tom on piano playing "Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody". Click here to listen and marvel.

If Walt were here he'd remind us that it's Franz Liszt, not his brother Christmas.

Where's Walt-o?

 Ed. here. With big doin's in store for today and tomorrow, Walt is taking a couple of daze off. He was last seen headed in an easterly direction. He will be back when he gets back.

VIDEO: The end of our country? The end of our Church?

In this episode of The Editor's Desk, The Remnant newspaper's Michael Matt takes a hard look at the state of America -- if you want to see the future, take a look at Italy -- the Roman Catholic Church, and the coming global conflicts of 2021.

    

Pretty pessimistic stuff, but the point is that we can't just turn this over to God and let Him take care of it. Listen and consider what you can do to stop the Great Reset of globalism and secular humanism.

One last farewell for 2020 - RIP Wilma Pelly

With this week's "Anus horribilis" posts, I thought we were done with the fond looks in the rearview mirror at some good folks who won't be continuing the journey with us into 2021. But I just learned of, via a death notice in the Calgary Herald, of one more. 

Wilma Pelly, the Canadian indigenous actress best known for her role as Elsie Tsa Che on the series North of 60*, died in Calgary on 28 December 2020. Born Wilma Episkenew in Fort Qu'Appelle SK on 5 March 1937, Ms Pelly was a member of the Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation.

Her daughters, Leeanna Rhodes and Stella Pelley, said their mother leaves a legacy of hard work and perseverance, having worked in factories and at a gardening centre and in factories before finding work as an extra in the early 1990s. 

The rest, as they say, is history. Ms Pelley worked in TV, film and theatre for 25 years. Her daughter told CBC, "She had no training in being an actress or anything like that, but she nailed it. Nobody in our family had ever done anything like that, so we were really proud of her...and she loved what she did.

Her North of 60 character, Elsie Tsa Che, resonated greatly with its audience, and with good reason, for Elsie Tsa Che closely resembled Wilma Pelly herself. Elsie was a highly respected elder who could communicate her disapproval with a mere look. Her daughters said the role was written for Ms Pelly because of her connection to her family and indigenous culture.

"I think a lot of viewers really related to my mom," said Leanna Rhodes. "I believe a lot of people related to her like she was their Kookum [the Cree word for grandmother], and all of her teachings on the show, they learned from." 

She added that becoming something of a legendary figure among First Nations communities across Canada was a meaningful part of her legacy. "What it meant for me to see my mom on screen was that there were always people out there who gave other Nations, and other people, a chance."

* Footnote: Walt has reviewed North of 60 not once but twice! See "Soap opera review: 'North of 60'" (WWW 9/10/18) and "Walt recommends a soap opera. Really? Yes, really!" (WWW 26/9/20 - includes video clip). Yes, I like it that much!