More on "the end of woke"

Further to "What does 'the end of woke' look like?", WWW 11/2/25, we have more good news to report. [Notice he didn't say "share". Ed.] The Executive Orders are coming so fast that it's hard to keep up.

First of all, President Trump has announced that it's OK for people to use plastic drinking straws again. "We’re going back to plastic straws," he told the meeja at the White House as he signed the order. "Paper straws don't work. They break," he said, adding, "I don’t think plastic is going to affect a shark very much, as they're munching their way through the ocean." More common sense, not to mention trees saved.

Even more important are indications that Google has given up trying to toe the politically correct line. Their online and mobile calendars no longer include references to the first day of Black History Month or Pride Month, among other events. The company previously had those days marked at the start of February and June, but they reportedly don’t appear for 2025. 

In "Google Calendar removed events like Pride and BHM because its holiday list wasn’t ‘sustainable’", a site called TheVerge first reported the removals on February 7th. In an e-mail to the outlet, a Google spokesthingy wrote, "Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world.

"We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing, and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable. So in mid-2024 we returned to showing only public holidays and national observances from timeanddate.com globally, while allowing users to manually add other important moments."

The company, which has also removed the first day of Women’s History Month in March and Indigenous Peoples Month in June, has stepped back from its diversity, equity and inclusion goals after President Trump signed an executive order to dismantle federal DEI programs. The EO was titled "Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing."

Has the President got the wokesters' attention yet? Looks like it, but there's lots more to come. Stay tuned...and give thanks!

VIDEO: Remembering Christmases past

Those of us who follow the Julian calendar, the Christmas season is just ending. Things ain't what they used to be. A lot of the old customs and traditions have been lost, or (dare say it?) surpressed for reasons of political correctness. Even the word "Christmas" itself has been effectively banned. Note the title at the end of this video.

Agent 5 has been good enough to send along this vintage video, made by Canada's National Film Board, showing how the great Christian holy day was celebrated by the Ukrainian community in the province of Manitoba, 82 years ago.

   

Makes you wish you could turn back the clock, doesn't it? We hope all our Ukrainian readers, friends and family have had a good and holy holiday. And we send everyone our best wishes for health, peace and prosperity in the New Year.

Remembering Abraham Lincoln

February 12th used to be celebrated as Lincoln's Birthday. Which it was. February 12, 1809 was the date. Because it's Black History Month, the only holiday Americans get now is Martin Luther King Day. Washington, Lincoln and other nobodies have to make do with "Presidents Day". That's one of the fruits of the triumph of freedom and equality begun by President Lincoln and completed by... wait for it... President LBJ.

Since President Lincoln and others are gradually being consigned to the Memory Hole, I thought it might be appropriate to share a few opinions of Honest Abe, as penned by his contemporaries, drawn from Civil War Curiosities, by Webb Garrison (Rutledge Hill Press, Nashville, 1994).

No other war maker was so widely vilified as was Abraham Lincoln. Contemptuous of the president's announced policies, the abolitionist Benjamin F. Wade announced that Lincoln's views on slaver "could only come of one who was born of 'poor white trash' and educated in a slave State." Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who had his own eyes on the White House, characterized his leader as "greatly wanting in will and decision, in comprehensiveness, in self-reliance, and clear, well-definted purpose."

Henry Ward Beecher, the nation's most famous clergyman in 1861, denounced the president from the pulpit. According to Beecher, the chief executive lacked any spark of genius and possessed "not an element of leadership, not one particle of heroic enthusiasm." Fellow abolitionist Wendell Phillips described Lincoln as "a second-rate man" and charged his "slackness" with "doing more than the malice of Confederates to break up the Union."

Governor John A. Andrew of Massachusetts, who was among the first to commit himself fully to the war effort, castigated the man for whom he raised regiments of volunteers. "Besides doing my proper work," wrote Andrews, "I amsadly but firmly tr5ying to help organize some movement, if possible to save the President from the infamy of ruining his country."

Soon the Massachusetts leader sent one of his top aides to confer with Lincoln. Reporting about this visit, Henry Lee said just what Andrew wanted to hear. As he sat waiting, Lee recalled, "I grew more and more cross to think that this Western mummy of a rail splitter should sit in Washington's chair."

Congressman Frank Blair of Missouri urged that the primary obligation of every Unionist was "to stop fighting Jeff Davis and turn in on our own Government and make something of it," According to the lawmaker, soon to become a Federal brigadier, all Confederate leaders taken together had not harmed the4 nation has as much as "the cowardice, ignorance, and stupidity of Lincoln's administration."

I'll leave for another day the quotation of President Lincoln's thoughts about "African-Americans" (as they are now called) and their place in American society. Suffice it to say that General Robert E. Lee's views, quoted in Walt's profile, were much the same as those of the Great Emancipator. And we know that they were both wrong, as evidenced by the contribution of people of colour to making America what it is today. Right?

Happy Easter / Joyeuses Pâques

de / from

Walt Whiteman, Poor Len Canayen

& Ed.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to yez!

Walt Whiteman, Poor Len Canayen

[and Ed.! Ed.]

wish all our readers

(We'll all be Irish after a couple of beers!)

Agent 34 explains the origins of the Mexican national holiday

Ed. here. This has been a slow news day in this corner of the forest. So we are much obliged to Agent 34 who sent us this explanation of the origins of the national holiday of Mexico. Muchas gracias!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Walt and Poor Len [and Ed.! Ed.]
wish all our Irish readers
[and isn't it that everyone's Irish today,
to be sure, to be sure! Ed.]

Ontario (Canada?) celebrates (?) "Islamic Heritage Month"

Agent 3 informs us that the Liberal government of the Canadian province of Ontario -- led by Premier Kathleen Wynne, a lesbian and proud of it -- has declared October "Islamic Heritage Month". This latest step in the Islamization of Canada has caused some puzzlement (surely!) outside of the joyously multicultural Toronto, since Ontario was settled in the 18th century chiefly by people from the British Isles, plus numerous "United Empire Loyalists" who migrated northward from "the Boston states" to avoid becoming, errr, Americans.

Walt was hard-pressed to find in the history or geography of Ontario any "Islamic heritage" to write about -- there's no Mecca or Baghdad or Mohammedville on the map [yet! Ed.] -- so there's nothing to do but show you a couple of pictures, courtesy of Agent 9, of sons of the Prophet showing their gratitude for being welcomed into a Christian country, and their determination to make their own contribution to Western society.

HAPPY 240th BIRTHDAY, USA!

WALT WHITEMAN, POOR LEN CANAYEN

[AND ED.! ED.]

WISH ALL OUR AMERICAN

FRIENDS AND READERS

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

HAPPY 149th BIRTHDAY, CANADA!

In a speech to the Canadian Parliament on Tuesday, US President Barack Hussein Obama declaimed "The world needs more Canada!" It's usually wise to not pay too much attention to the mouthings of the Prez, and Canadians may well ask themselves "Does Canada need more world?", but nevertheless

Walt Whiteman, Poor Len Canayen
[and Ed.! Ed.]
wish our Canuck friends and readers

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Happy New Year of the Monkey

Walt and Poor Len
[and Ed.! Ed.]
wish all our Chinese readers,
agents and friends

HAPPY NEW YEAR
OF THE MONKEY
2016

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

Happy Canada Day

Bonne fête du Canada

à tous nos lecteurs canadiens

to all our Canadian readers

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

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

VIDEO: Quick! Go see Cuba before the Americans spoil it!

A couple of months ago, when the Prez announced that the Paranoid States of America was finally going to normalize relations with the evil communists lurking just off the Florida coast, Walt kidded Agent 2 -- a regular visitor to Cuba -- that the days of cheap, quiet vacations on the beach would soon be over. The barbarians are at the gates, I said. [That would make a good book title! Ed.]

Turns out my fears of the dire consequences of the arrival of hordes of rotund not-quite-grown children in silly clothes were shared by others, especially Canadians. In spite of the weakness of the Beaverbuck (compared with real money), the snowbirds have for decades been the largest source of tourists for the People's Republic. Why? Could be the horrors of the Canuck winter. Could be that Cuba, alone of the Caribbean sunspots, is the one place Americans couldn't go. Until now.

But is the end of discount holidays for Canadians really over, now that Cubans have taken down the "Yankee go home!" signs and put up new ones reading "Keep Cuba green! Bring American dollars!"? Jury Krytiuk, who's been "selling Cuba" for decades says don't worry about it. Cuba will have to make some changes to accommodate all the Americans who want to visit, and the improvements in infrastructure and the tourism industry will benefit everybody.


For more information on visiting Cuba, visit the A. Nash Travel website. And yes, Jury will be happy to help Americans, Canadians, Ukrainians or anyone else enjoy all that Cuba has to offer. Tell him Walt sent ya! And no, I'm not getting paid for this. It's an unsolicited recommendation!

About Saint Valentine's Day

Tomorrow is "Valentine's Day". Don't expect any hearts and flowers from Walt. [How about chocolates, then? Ed.] "Valentine's Day" is a crass and commercial secularization of the feast of Saint Valentine (Latin: Valentinius), Priest and Martyr.

All that is reliably known about the Saint is his name and that he was martyred and buried at a cemetery north of Rome, on the Via Flaminia, close to the Milvian bridge, on February 14th. A popular hagiographical account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire.

According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. An embellishment to this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell. Whether or not this is true cannot be known seventeen centuries later. What is certain is that St. Valentine has been associated since the High Middle Ages with a tradition of courtly love.

What is more important is that he was martyred for his belief in the One True Faith. That is why the heart associated with holiday, and with love, is red -- the red blood of the heart of the Holy Martyr.

The good father(s) who write the Traditio blog note that the modern Roman Catholic Church has deleted from its liturgical calendar not only St. Valentine, but also St. Christopher, St. Blaise, St. George, St. Barbara, St. Catherine, and 200 other Saints who had been venerated in the Church for some two millennia. Curiously, the Anglican and Lutheran sects, as well as our separated Orthodox brethren, still venerate Valentine as a Saint.

And that, dear readers, is what St. Valentine's Day is all about.

Happy Thanksgiving

Walt and Poor Len [and Ed! Ed.] 

would like to wish all our American readers

a Happy Thanksgiving. 

Hope you made it home safely.

If you're already there, count your blessings! 

If you don't think you  have anything to be thankful for,

hey, you could be a turkey!

What's wrong with "Happy Holidays"?

Two things, maybe three.

First of all, the majority of people you might say "Happy Holidays" to are not on holiday! Folks who work retail are probably putting in extra hours, with stores open 24/7, and even on traditional holidays like Christmas Day and Boxing Day. (Americans can ask a Brit or a Canuck what that's all about.) Such is the quest for the almighty dollar that the three weeks from mid-December until Little Christmas are the busiest of the year for retailers. You should have seen the crowd at the Fort Mudge liquor store today.

Secondly, in spite of your good wishes, this is not a happy time of the year. It's a very stressful season. Suicides spike. Thefts increase. So does begging. What's there to be happy about?! No wonder Scrooge says "Bah, humbug!"

Finally, when you wish someone "Happy Holidays" (or anything else), your wish implies that there's something wrong with the status quo, that their present situation -- whatever it is -- could be better. Thus the wisher imposes a value judgment on the wishee! Maybe the person you're greeting is quite "happy" being a Grinch. Leave them alone!

Footnote: Speaking of "holidays", whatever happened to "Kwanzaa"? Seems to Walt that is (or was) a "black thing" dreamed up by white people, probably greeting card manufacturers. Only in the USA... Even the Canadian government, notorious for pandering to vizmins, didn't bite on that one!

VIDEO: Canuck politico sends season's greetings to infidel atheists

In this morning's piece about Zwarte Piet (see below) Walt wished all the PC types a Merry Christmas. But I wasn't the only one sending out seasonal greetings to those who think Western religion and culture have no place in our modern secular society.

Brian Pallister is leader of the Progressive Conservative [sic] Party of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Last week he got scrummed inside the legislature building by blogger Natalie Pollock. She had the ole camcorder on while Mr. Pallister expressed his feelings for those who feel excluded by all this Christian talk about Christmas. Here's the video.



Reaction from the usual gang of progressive thinkers, secular humanists, atheists and other infidels was as swift as it was predictable. Donna Harris, president of something that calls itself "Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics of Manitoba" -- number of members unknown -- told the Winnipeg Free Press, "It was very judgmental. The use of the word 'infidels' is especially troubling and negative because there are many countries around the world where being a non-believer, or infidel, may possibly be a death sentence."

Fortunately for Ms Harris, Canada is not among those "many countries". [Which ones could she have meant? Ed.]

When challenged, Mr. Pallister stuck to his guns, defending his use of the word "infidel", which he said the dictionary defines as "non-believer." And so it does.

"I’m always disappointed when people misrepresent the meaning of the words. What I was trying to do there is include everyone in my best wishes over the holidays," he told a press conference this morning. He said he also regrets when his opponents misrepresent what he says. "That being said, I just ask that people in Manitoba ... forgive me at this time of year if they think that I have stepped on their toes, but I sincerely just meant to include everyone in my best wishes. That’s all."

Walt has obtained Mr. Pallister's e-mail address and will be sending him a link to this post, with my very best -- and very politically incorrect -- wishes for a MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Footnote: Mr. Pallister is the MLA for the provincial riding of Fort Whyte. Just a coincidence.

Learn this new Christmas song... and pass it along!

When the sun set last night, I was dismayed to see that one of my neighbours down in the holler has his Christmas tree up in the front window already. So it begins, even though it's still only November. Got your shopping done yet?

Well wait a minute. Just what "rush" are you about to get into? The "Christmas rush" or the "winter holiday rush"? In the media- and government-approved drive to be politically correct and "celebrate diversity", we're in danger of losing sight of what...or Who...this season is all about.

Here, thanks to Agent 6, is a new Christmas song that you should listen to carefully.



Think about it! We are (or should be) celebrating the birthday of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God and Saviour of those who believe in Him.

HE is what "Christmas" is all about, yet we forget and ignore Him. Not very nice on our part. If you don't think so, imagine how you would feel if your birthday was forgotten, and turned into a mad frenzy of spending and buying. Would you not feel even worse if your birthday was deliberately downplayed, and referred to as just another part of the great year-round multicultural celebration.

This song has a clear message for each and every one of us. Let's see if we can start to turn the tide and get it right this year. Don't forget Whose birthday is commemorated on December 25th. Walt and Ed. wish you a very Merry CHRISTMAS!

I love a holiday parade

New Yorkers have their Macy's parade on Thanksgiving. Torontonians have their Santa Claus parade around the same time. And there are countless small-town versions of these festive holiday events.

We seem to be in danger of forgetting that the parades are related to Christian celebrations. Thanksgiving was instituted by Protestant Christians to thank God for His bounty. And of course Christmas is -- or should be -- a joyous celebration of the coming of the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind.

Sadly, in today's post-secular age, the religious connotations of the events are all but forgotten. Except by the non-Christians. The minorities seem to resent the majority celebrating special events in the Christian calendar. So we have the campaign -- and it is a campaign, not just a spontaneous movement -- to take God out of Thanksgiving and Christ out of Christmas. Hey, why not abolish the words "Thanksgiving" and "Christmas" altogether? The politically correct thing, now, is to have a "Winter Holiday Parade"!

I was reminded of this while watching the TV coverage of a Santa Claus parade the other day. The commentators, ever so politically correct, kept using the phrase "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas". As in, "And here's Santa, waving at the crowd, wishing everyone a happy holiday."

It's enough to make you puke. God forbid that we should be anything less than inclusive. Sorry, but Santa says, "Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!"

If African-Americans want to celebrate Kwanzaa (which real Africans have never heard of) or Muslims want to celebrate Eid, or Hindus want to celebrate Diwali, let them organize their own damn parades! Instead of Santa Claus they could have actors portraying Idi Amin (he was a Muslim, supposedly) or Yassir Arafat or Mahatma Gandhi...nice jolly characters that epitomize their cultures.

Parades for every culture and every religion. Another great idea from Walt!

Ben Stein talks about Christmas and God

Agent 6 kindly passed along the following screed, which someone had sent him. In fact this has been circulating around the internet, usually at this time of year, for 3 or 4 years, and I've seen it before. I'm happy to post it, but before doing should add a small caveat.

Maybe I'm becoming overly sceptical about stuff I read on the Net, especially e-mail FWDs, but I've been burned before and thought I'd check this one out on Snopes.com, a very useful "debunking site".

Ben Stein does commentaries occasionally on Sunday Morning, on CBS-TV. This one "Confessions for the Holidays", was delivered on 18 December 2005. However, the version circulating on the Net includes a coda (shown in blue) combining a TV appearance by Anne Graham Lotz (daughter of TV evangelist Billy Graham) made just after 9/11, and the false claim that the son of child care expert Dr. Spock committed suicide. So take the whole cum grano salis, but keep in mind Mr. Stein's sensible thoughts about religious holidays.

My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.

It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?'

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc...I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem. (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.
Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing yet?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass this on if you think it has merit. If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard these thoughts, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

UPDATE for Christmas 2013: If you want to know what you can do to remind people of the real meaning of Christmas, check out the "'Keep Christ in CHRISTmas' challenge" submitted by Coralie Graham, editor of the Fatima Crusader, published in WWW on 12/12/13. MERRY CHRISTMAS!