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!

UPDATED: EU court rules illegal immigrants don't have same rights as those who follow the law

Walt has been following events north of the World's Longest Undefended Border, where a handful of "First Nations" people ("Native Americans" to, errr, Americans) and the usual mobs of ultra-lefties and antifa types have succeeded in shutting down Canuckistan's railways almost completely.

They are protesting that the hereditary chiefs (as opposed to the democratically elected chiefs) of an obscure "nation" -- the Wet'suwet'ens -- were not consulted about the building of a natural gas pipeline that crosses their territory in northern British Columbia.

It's a big deal, since many of the things that millions of Canadians depend on to live a normal life -- e.g. water purification chemicals and propane, not to mention food -- move by rail. It's a big enough deal that Just In Trudeau interrupted his latest virtue-signalling world tour to come back to the World's Second-coldest Capital and take a meeting.

When he emerged, blinking in the sunlight, Mr Socks proclaimed that Canada is a country where the rule of law is respected and must be followed. This had Canucks ROFL because the railways have obtained court injunctions against the blockades, orders which the Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen refuse to enforce. In Canada, apparently, court orders and the country's laws don't apply to the marginalized and oppressed victims of colonialism, white privilege, yada yada yada.

Walt wonders what Blackface Justin thinks of a recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Gatestone Institute reports that on February 13th the ECHR issued a decision reaffirming the proposition that in order for migrants or other "victims" to benefit from certain human rights protections, such as access to lawyers, interpreters and the right to remain in Europe, they must first enter European territory in a legal, as opposed to an illegal, manner. Imagine that!

The case goes back to August of 2014, when hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa stormed the border fence at Melilla, a Spanish exclave in North Africa. After spending several hours perched on top of the fence, two men, one from Ivory Coast and the other from Mali, climbed down and were handcuffed by Spanish border police, who handed them over to Moroccan authorities.

The two Africans said they were never given a chance to explain their personal circumstances or receive help from lawyers or interpreters. In February 2015, with the help of human rights weasels ["lawyers", shurely! Ed.] the pair took their case to the ECHR.

In October 2017, the ECHR ruled that summary deportations were a violation of European law, which is politically correct on such things. The court determined that Spanish border police had failed to verify the identity of the migrants, or to provide them with access to lawyers, translators or medical personnel, and ordered Spain to pay each of the men €5,000 (over $5400 in real money). In December 2017, Spain's previous mildly conservative government appealed.

On February 13th, the ECHR unanimously reversed its previous judgment. In a statement, it explained that "[the migrants chose] not to use the legal procedures which existed in order to enter Spanish territory lawfully. Consequently, the Court considered that the lack of individual removal decisions could be attributed to the fact that the applicants — assuming that they had wished to assert rights under the Convention — had not made use of the official entry procedures existing for that purpose, and that it had thus been a consequence of their own conduct."

How about that?! Here's a photo of some illegal immigrants crossing the World's Longest Undefended Border at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Québec. Who's carrying their bags for them? Why it's the very same RCMP who, for some reason (Hello, Liberal government!) are not enforcing the injunctions against the mob blockading Canada's rail services.

Just In (from Africa) Trudeau has probably not heard about the ECHR decision, and it's not binding on Canadian courts or governments in any case. Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, spokesman for the Spanish Vox (= Voice) Party, commented: "The ECHR's ruling determines that a nation state has the right to defend its borders. When someone is dedicated to violating those borders, the nation state has the right to return that person to their place of origin as quickly as possible."

Wouldn't it be nice if Canada's woke government, or the even-more-woke government-in-waiting (?) of the USA did a 180, like the ECHR, and reserved the benefits of the rule of law to those who obey the law?

Further reading, from the National Post, 17/2/20:
"Enough is enough. Clear the blockades, restore the rule of law", by Derek H. Burney, a former Canadian ambassador to the USA and chief of staff to former PM Brian Baloney. "Dialogue is no prescription for those who refuse to listen because they believe themselves to be custodians of the only truth."
"If Trudeau has lost interest in his job, perhaps he should quit", NP editorial. "While cabinet members have struggled to deal with the rail blockades, Trudeau has been flying around Africa and Europe. Over his four years as prime minister, it has become noteworthy how often Justin Trudeau faces problems of his own making. His sanctimony keeps coming back to bite him. Canadians who follow politics have long been aware of the prime minister’s weakness for pious declarations of well-intentioned morality."

UPDATE ADDED 20/2/20: Canada's Public Safety and Emergency Unpreparedness Minister Bill Blair has just announced that the Mounties in British Columbia have agreed to withdraw from their position on Wet'suwet'en territory and barricade themselves in a nearby town names L'alamo. [Ed., please check town name.] So Just In (from Africa) Trudeau's Liberal government has caved to a few dozen radical activists who don't even have the support of the majority of the Wet'suwet'en people, as represented by their elected (as opposed to hereditary) chiefs. In today's Canuckistan, the mob rules!

What became of Tom Paine's body? Walt tells the story

Billy Bedammed, from Teaticket MA, asks: "Mr Walt, I have a stamp in my collection showing a man with a big nose named Thomas Paine. Which president was he?"

[Walt chuckles.] I'm afraid your friend loses, Billy. That man was no president. He was Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain, aka Tom Paine) an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. He authored Common Sense and The Rights of Man, the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and inspired the patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of transnational human rights.

Sadly, Thomas Paine died reviled and nearly friendless, in large part because of his ultra-liberal ideas. Only six people attended his funeral. However, one of his harshest critics, an English pamphleteer named William Cobbett, had a change of heart after seeing the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the poor. Mr Cobbett became a radical reform, inveighing against monied interests and monarchical privileges. In 1817, after serving two years in prison for sedition, he fled to the land of the free, as the USA then was.

Soon after his arrival, William Cobbett visited the grave of his hero in New Rochelle NY. He was outraged at how poorly the grave was being maintained, writing "Paine lies in a little hole under the grass and weeds of an obscure farm in America." He made it his mission to remove Paine's earthly remains to England, where he thought they could be properly venerated, with a monument which would be a rallying place for the poor and downtrodden.

Getting Tom Paine's body was easy enough. Cobbett dug it up in the dark of night and shipped the corpse to Ole Blighty. Unfortunately, he lacked the money needed for the elaborate funeral he had planned, let alone a decent mausoleum. What to do?! He decided to take the relic on a tour of Britain, expecting that thousands of people would pay to see it. He was wrong. No-one came to Cobbett's "bone rallies". Eventually he was reduced to selling locks of Paine's hair. Wrong again.

William Cobbett was forced to realize that nobody in England gave even one piece of excrement about Thomas Paine. Reluctantly, he shelved his plans, and shelved Paine's earthly remains under his bed, where they stayed until Cobbett's death in 1835. The estate, including what was left of Tom Paine, passed to Cobbett's son. When he was arrested for debt, all his possessions, including poor Tom's skeleton, were seized for auction. However, a judge ruled that the skeleton was not a marketable asset, and ordered it returned to the younger Cobbett. What happened to it after that remains a mystery.

Credit where credit is due Dept.: This story was adapted from A Treasury of Great American Scandals, by Michael Farquhar, Penguin 2003.

Allowing millions of 3rd Worlders into Europe "cardinal mistake": Putin

When it comes to the wisdom (or otherwise) of filling your country with unassimilable Muslim "refugees" and asylum-seekers, Vladimir Putin is on the right track. Speaking at the beginning of the G20 summit in Osaka, the Russian president declared recently that liberalism in Europe and the US has "outlived its purpose".

The Father of All the Russias [Archaism! Ed.] criticised Western views on gay rights, immigration and multiculturalism, all of which he sees as parts of an attack on traditional family values. Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr Putin said the "liberal idea" was on its way out, as the public has turned its back on "social justice" issues. And he called German chancellor Angela Merkel's 2017 decision to allow more than a million "refugees" into her country (and thus into the European Union) a "cardinal mistake".

President Putin said, "[Liberals] cannot simply dictate anything to anyone just like they have been attempting to do over the recent decades. This liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done. That migrants can kill, plunder and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants have to be protected. Every crime must have its punishment. The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population."

Indeed. But do you hear anything like that from any of the mainstream political leaders in western Europe or the AABC countries? Sadly, no. Walt would like to hear one, just one of the 20+ hopefuls looking to lose the 2020 election say at least that it's time to have a "conversation" about the wisdom of the Democrats' liberal (and worse) policies. But I'm not holding my breath.

Further reading: "Francis Fukuyama: unassimilated immigrants pose threat to liberalism", WWW 18/6/19.

VIDEO: Mr Bean speaks about freedom of speech

Mr Bean is the most famous screen persona of British actor Rowan Atkinson. You knew that, didn't you? That's for anyone who may have thought Mr Bean is a real person. Mr Atkinson is rightly concerned about the intolerance of the liberal elites and the cancerous growth of political correctness. "We need to build our immunity to taking offence," he says, in this short (9:20) address at the Parliamentary Reception for the Reform Section 5 campaign.



That was in October of 2012. The campaign succeeded (bravo!) but, IMHO, the chill of censorship has only gotten worse since then. One of our readers has just been banned forever from commenting on the CBC News website. Her crime? Apparently it's including in some of her comments a link to WWW. Walt suggests that the CBC remember the old saying: Just because you've silenced someone doesn't mean you've converted him!

HS principal reported to HR police over "Black List"

Peggy Aitchison, the principal of the Etobicoke (Ontario) School of the Arts, has found out the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished, especially when the do-gooder is an educated white woman (read: Ms Aitchison) and the beneficiaries are less-educated black yoof.

The ESA is a surprisingly elitist high school run by the loony left Toronto District School Board, where students (of all races, faiths, yada yada, of course) can study drama [Perhaps to become future prime ministers? Ed.], meeja, film-making, music and dance -- all the artsy-fartsy stuff that will make them underproductive citizens when (if?) they grow up.

Pictures of the ESA student body reveal that the majority of the kids are white, which may or may not be odd since white folks are a minority in the Greater [sic] Toronto Area. But some of the students are black, or, as the Toronto Red Star styles it, "Black". And some of those kids -- the Black kids -- are, errr, underachieving. Concerned about how to bring these yoofs up to the level of their peers, Peggy Aitchison compiled a list of all "students of colour" at the school, which she passed out to teachers so they could give the underachievers extra help. You can see what's coming, can't you?

George Brown [sic], the parent of an 18-year-old student at ESA, found out about what he calls the "Black list", and filed what he says is a "human rights claim" against both Principal Aitchison and the TDSB. "It took the photos of the black students in the yearbook and places it beside their names," he told CTV News. "It is not being done on the basis of collected data. It is profiled!"

Mr Brown went on to explain that the list also placed students in categories based on mixed race. "You were in a different kind of category, as if you had some kind of white in your background, maybe you aren't, I guess, stupid. But you were put in another list is you were black from Africa or Jamaica." Hmmm.

At a meeting of parents earlier this month, Ms Aitchison admitted to creating the list, and apologized profusely, in the grand old Canadian tradition, saying that she only meant to help measure achievement at the school. "Upon reflection and discussion with others," she said, "I recognized that this was a limited, flawed, and ultimately inappropriate approach to identifying gaps in supports and so, that very same day, I retracted that compilation that was based solely on perception."

Mr Brown told CTV he doesn't accept the apology because her explanation "wasn't enough" for him. He and his son (who Walt assumes was on the Black list) say they want the TDSB to provide human rights training to all staff and to provide assurances that no more lists like the one found at ESA will ever be created. And they want Ms Aitchison should apologize to every student on the list individually.

Ms Aitchison responded by asking to be transferred to another school, and the TDSB said "So let it be written; so let it be done."

Muslims force Canadian private school to "accommodate" them

The following comment on a decision of the Alberta Human Rights Commission -- "promoting human rights for everyone except straight white Christians" -- took over five months to find its way to Walt's inbox. Many thanks to Agent 6 for sending the link.

Here's the set-up. Webber Academy is a private, independent, non-denominational school in Calgary, Alberta (Canada's version of Dallas). No-one is allowed to pray there. Or, we should say, no-one was allowed to pray there. Until, that is, the parents of two teens -- Sarmad Amir and Naman Siddique -- decided to challenge school policies which forbade praying on the grounds of the school.

The two Muslim youths were admitted to Webber Academy in late 2011. For the first few weeks, school staff accommodated their request to pray by allowing them to use an empty classroom. But in December 2011, their parents received a call from the school saying the children would now need to leave the school premises to pray.

The boys began going outside, but still on school property, when timings of some of the five Muslim daily devotions coincided with class hours. If there was a blizzard outside [When wouldn't there be? Ed.] or if it was too cold to pray [??? Ed.], the pair would use a nook or cranny inside instead.

Come February, Webber wrote the boys' parents to say that because the school’s policies were being ignored the boys would not be accepted for enrolment for the next academic year. The parents, instead of moving their children to a Muslim school as might reasonably be expected, ran to the Alberta government and cried "discrimination".

Their human rights complaint was not unexpected, nor was the response of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, which, predictably, sided with the parents, even though their children were being treated exactly the same as all the other students.

Wrote the Commission, "Allowing two of 900 students to pray behind closed doors for a period of five to 10 minutes is insignificant in the context of religious identity, affiliation or influence." Any reader able to explain in clear English what that means is requested to send a postcard to Walt, with a copy to the HRC.

What it means to Webber Academy is a fine of C$26,000 ($19,250 in real money, as of this afternoon). Case closed? Perhaps not, as an appeal was planned. While we wait to see what eventuates, here are some comments from professional curmudgeon and crusader against political correctness, Ezra Levant.

OOPS! We have a problem! Ed. here. No sooner had I put this up than the URL for the video disappeared from YouTube. Can no longer be found. Gone. Censored? Probably, given that Mr. Levant is being prosecuted for making "inappropriate remarks" about the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The case is due to be heard next month. We can't get an embed code for Mr. Levant's video about this, but here's the link. "Ezra Levant: Prosecuted for calling human rights commissions 'crazy'".

If you want to help Mr. Levant with his legal bills, click here to go to his website..

Toronto "public" housing allowed to discriminate by religion, ethnicity, etc

Meet Austin Lewis. He's 21, and disabled by a disease that attacked his spinal cord when he was 8. And he's homeless. He needs to live in a wheelchair-accessible building, and has applied to more than 100 in the Greater Toronto Area, without success.

Mr. Lewis did succeed, a few months ago, in getting himself on the list at a building called the Ahmadiyya Abode of Peace, on Finch Avenue West in northwest Toronto. The 16-storey building is subsidized by the taxpayers as part of a programme to encourage religious and other non-profit groups to build affordable housing.

In the USA, if your organization gets public funds for something like a school or hospital or affordable housing, the facility must be open to all members of the public. In the USA, there's no discrimination on the basis of race, colour, "gender preference", religion or anything else.

One might think that in Canada, generally a more socially liberal society than the Excited States, the same rules apply. After all, Canada has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms which protects the same "human rights" as those enjoyed and abused by Americans, eh?

If that's what one thinks, one would be wrong. Austin Lewis found that out last week when a letter arrived at his mother's house telling him that he had been removed from the waiting list at the Ahmadiyya Abode of Peace because... wait for it... he is not a follower of the Prophet Mohammed, i.e. a Muslim.

How can this be, Mr. Lewis wonders. "This letter came as a complete shock," he told a Toronto Star reporter. "Why would a government segregate its own building?"

A spokesthingy for the City of Toronto explained that "The City’s mandate policy allows social housing providers to restrict their housing to individuals belonging to an identifiable ethnic or religious group if specific conditions are met." The city provides a subsidy of C$1.7 million ($1.275 million real dollars) for 94 rent-geared-to-income units under an agreement that restricts tenants to "members of the Muslim Jama’at".

But, the city's flak-catcher said, it's not like the Muslims are getting special treatment by being allowed to bar non-Muslims from their building, with its prayer rooms and other "facilities from which others would get no benefit". There are eight such buildings in Toronto, catering to Muslims, Macedonians, Germans, Chinese, Greeks, Hungarians, Lithuanians and "Christian seniors". So that's all right, then.

Final word comes from lawyer Barry Swadron (a classmate of Agent 3), who has extensive experience in disability law. "Here you have a building for Muslims, and normally that would be discriminatory because other religions could not be accommodated there," he told the Toronto Star. But the Ontario Human Rights Code says if it's a special-interests organization -- religious, philanthropic, educational or social -- they can discriminate in that way. It's very unfortunate, but that’s how the law was written."

But what about Austin Lewis? Mr. Swadron explained that, while the intention was to create safe spaces for minority communities, this kind of permissible "positive discrimination" inevitably produces collateral damage. Unfortunately for Mr. Lewis, he's "an unintended casualty of the system."

Mr. Lewis says the Ahmadiyya Abode of Peace is the only landlord who's had the courtesty to tell him in writing that he's inadmissible, and wonders how many others have refused his application without bothering to notify him. Seems to me the solution for him is obvious. Don't wait for the politically correct Ontario or Toronto government to change the law to make "public" mean truly public -- open to all. Convert to Islam!

VIDEO: Who has more "rights": Muslims, women or gays?

Today's National Post features an excellent piece entitled "Why human 'rights inflation' could spell 'the beginning of the end of social change'". According to Dominique Clément, a historian at the University of Alberta, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed in 1948, included a few dozen rights, all familiar from their notorious violations by repressive states. Today, international law recognizes more than 300.

These less familiar "rights", such as the human right to affordable Internet access or higher education, represent a worrisome trend. "Rights inflation", he argues, erodes the legitimate core of rights that are strictly necessary to life and freedom.

How so? Well, the more "rights" people have, the more likely they are to come into conflict. The "rights" to which I am "entitled" is as long as my arm, but what happens if your arm is longer than mine? Human rights legislation says you may not discriminate against me, or preach hatred against me, for being a white, male, traditional Catholic.

I happen to be a "social conservative" too, but there are no laws to keep the "progressives" from ridiculing my beliefs and demonizing me as antideluvian, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, etc etc and so forth. And if I, or someone like Mark Steyn (Hi, Mark!) attempts to turn the tables, it's "Helloooo, Human Rights Tribunal!"

Imagine, then, what would happen if one of the "protected groups" -- gays, let's say, or wimmin -- came into conflict with another, like... wait for it... Muslims. Consider the following cases.

Case One: a friendly soccer game in Brampton ON last week. It's established law in Ontario that girls can play sports -- even a real sport like hockey -- on boys' teams if they want to. Last Tuesday a coed team from Robert F. Hall Secondary School (a Catholic school) met on the field with an all-male team from ISNA Private Islamic High School. The teams played the first half without incident, and Hall led ISNA 3-1 at the break.

At that point, the coach of ISNA's team realized that there were girls playing on the other team! (How he figured this out is not reported.) So at halftime, the Muslim coach told the referee that his team "didn't feel that they could continue for religious reasons and for their own personal beliefs."

Obviously his complaint had nothing to do with his team's being on the low end of the score, but, although ISNA would have lost the game by forfeit, Hall needed to win by more than a two-goal differential to advance to the next round of the tournament. So, the girls volunteered to sit out in the second half so play could continue, and Hall went on to win 6-1. Bruce Campbell, speaking for the Catholic school board called the girls' decision to come out of the game "an incredible display of sportsmanship and selflessness and team spirit. But [he added] they shouldn't have been put in that position."

A spokesthingy for the athletic association that organized the tournament explained all teams are expected to abide by league rules and league constitution that includes a gender equity policy, which gives female students the right to play on a boys' team if their school doesn't have a girls' team. "It's our assumption that when schools apply (to be part of the league) they've read the rules and regulations," he said, adding that any team that joins the league is bound to abide by its rules and regulations.

The Brampton Guardian report says that at press time, ISNA Private Islamic High School had not responded to a request for comment. Their end the story by saying that "commenting has been suspended...because some readers have violated our commenting guidelines. Rude remarks and comments that are off topic are unacceptable. Foul language is forbidden."

Case two comes to us from Steven Crowder, an American actor, comedian and former contributor to the Fox News Channel. In October 2013, Big Journalism reported that Fox News had dropped him, shortly after he made negative statements about Fox News host Sean Hannity. Mr. Crowder now hosts a weekly talk show, Louder with Crowder on WAAM in Ann Arbor MI, and posts comedy, commentary and news videos to his YouTube channel, Louder with Crowder -- "the most politically incorrect channel on the Web".

In April, Mr. Crowder posted a hidden camera video which proves that, if you're a Christian who wants to practise religious freedom, you'd better get ready for ridicule, threats and discrimination. But if you're a Muslim who wants to practice religious freedom, of course there's no problem! At least, that's the case in Dearborn MI where he attempted to get Muslim cake shops to bake a cake for a gay wedding, which Islam teaches are wrong. Need we tell you that they refused openly? Watch! And ask yourself if a Christian baker could have got away with this.

Warning! "Body-shaming" latest form of political incorrectness

For decades -- centuries, even -- "fat jokes" were staples in the routines of every comedian and comedian wannabe, right up there with mother-in-law jokes. Walt remembers one alleged comedian, Leonard Libitsky, who made fun of his own fatitude, calling himself "Fat Jack Leonard". In 1964 he did a record called "How to Lose Weight with Fat Jack". The premise was that fat people could change if they wanted to, for instance if they got tired of being the butt of "fat jokes".

Walt also remembers a regular bit on the Garry Moore Show in which Garry's sidekick Durward Kirby, in the role of Senator Claghorn, did a half-dozen or so fat jokes, along the lines of:
"She's so fat that the post office is going to give her her own zip code!"
"She's so fat that when she gets into the same elevator you're in, you'd better be going down!"
"She's so fat that when she takes off her girdle, you'd better stand back or you'll get flabbed to death!"
Badabing, badaboom!

And then there was Married with Children, in which Al Bundy constantly made fat jokes about and at the expense of large ladies who came into his shoe store. Here's a video mix.



Yes, there's a "skinny joke" in there too. And an ageist "ugly joke". Bad, bad Al! Bad, bad writers! And bad, bad audiences, to laugh at other people's "challenges". How lucky we are to live in the enlightened 21st century, when that type of low humour is forbidden.

That's right, folks. It's now politically incorrect to make mooing sounds as fat women in yoga pants waddle down the street. Why, that's "body-shaming", a type of "bullying" which you can expect to be added to the ever-lengthening list of behaviours prohibited by our ultra-PC human rights codes.

Nowadays, thanks to the suffocating political correctness spread over the land like a wet blanket by our lamestream media and politicians, everyone (except old, straight, religious white guys like us here at WWW) is entitled to the protection of the nanny state from any form of insult, offence or embarrassment. So the next time you see someone who looks as if she/he/it belongs on the People of Walmart website -- I've got that one bookmarked! -- keep your mouth shut. Don't say you weren't warned.

Note from Ed.: While looking for a picture to go with this post, I stumbled on a website called Girls In Yoga Pants. Some of you may find it of interest. Some may find it indecent. Whatever your opinion, please keep it to yourself. Don't risk the wrath of the PC police!

"Out of Mao's Shadow" -- true stories of oppression in Communist China

The late Right Honourable Pierre-Eliot Trudeau was Prime Minister of Canada from 20 April 1968, to 4 June 1979, and again from 3 March 1980 to 29 June 1984. During his reign -- I use the word deliberately -- he changed Canada from the Great White North to the Great(ish) Not-so-white North, just as he promised.

His son, Justin, aka Trudeau Lite, is now leader of the Liberal Party, and poised, some think, to become prime minister if Steve Harper gets his just desserts next October. Trudeau II caused a bit of a stir amongst Canuck chattering classes when he expressed admiration for the way the Chinese government gets things done.

He had been asked a question about which nation’s administration he most admired and why, and gave this response. "There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime. I mean there is a flexibility that I know Stephen Harper must dream about, of having a dictatorship that he can do everything he wanted, that I find quite interesting."

That's kind of like saying that Hitler built some nice highways, Mussolini made the trains run on time, and Stalin deserves credit for running a pretty tight ship. It's true that the Communist rulers of the self-styled People's Republic of China (PRC) know how to get things done. Did they not dam up the mighty Yangtze and build a high-speed railway that will take you from Beijing into the heart of occupied Tibet? And how about the 2008 Olympics? Great accomplishments, to be sure. But at what cost?

The fact is that Communist China is one of the most authoritarian police states in the world. The price for its economic and material achievements is paid by the Chinese people in physical suffering -- imprisonment, torture and execution -- and deprivation of the human rights and freedoms.

In the early 90s, Beijing lost out to Sydney in its bid to host the Olympics, because of Western criticism of China's abysmal human rights record. When it applied again, in 2001, the pitch was that its record had improved, and if it was awarded the Olympics, it would do better. And so Beijing was awarded the Games. People wanted to believe -- then as now -- that increasing prosperity and engagement with the international community would soften China's authoritarian political system.

And did it? The answer, according to Philip P. Pan, is NO! Mr. Pan was the Washington Post's Beijing bureau chief from 2000 through 2007, and witnessed firsthand the persecution and prosecution of Chinese citizens who had the courage to assert the rights supposedly guaranteed to them under the PRC's constitution. He also investigated accounts of the fate of others who had earlier -- before 2000 but after the death of Chairman Mao -- fought and died for a freer society.

In Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China (Simon & Schuster, 2008), Mr. Pan presents detailed profiles of 11 Chinese who fought for a freer society. The result is a not-so-pretty picture of what life is like for large numbers of ordinary Chinese in the post-Mao era of economic and political "development".

Mr. Pan's book is history, written in the best and most engaging way, in tales from the lives of real people. The author takes us inside the dramatic battle for China's soul and into the lives of ordinary men and women struggling to come to terms with their nation's past and take control of its future. Among the 11 people we meet are...

* An elderly surgeon who exposed the Communist cover-up of the SARS epidemic, then, years later, had the courage to write about his experience during the Tiananmen Square Massacre. For his pains, Jiang Yanyong, "The Honest Doctor" (that's the title of Chapter 8) was detained, interrogated, subjected to house arrest, and forbidden ever again to visit his children in the USA.

* A filmmaker, Hu Jie, who spent years making an unauthorized documentary on the execution of a young woman, Lin Zhao, during the Cultural Revolution. Ms Lin was at first an avid, slogan-shouting, little-red-book-waving Communist. But her eyes were opened by the mindless violence, mass starvation and other horrors unleashed by Chairman Mao. Her denunciation of the Communist Party and its "system" landed her in prisons and mental hospitals, where she wrote hundreds of pages of thoughts and pleas in her own blood. Hu Jie's film "Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul" (Chapter 2, followed by "Blood and Love", Chapter 3) was an underground success, but led inevitably to the knock of state security agents on his door.

* A blind man, Chen Guangcheng, who wasn't satisfied to be a masseur or musician -- about the only work open to blind people in China then and now -- so learned the law by self-study. Although not a lawyer, Mr. Chen devoted himself to bringing court challenges on behalf of the poor and oppressed, especially peasants who were being taxed to the point of starvation, and suffering the loss of millions of babies aborted or killed at birth because of China's evil One Child Policy. We read in "Blind Justice" (Chapter 11) how Mr. Chen was abducted, beaten and imprisoned, but lived to tell his story.

Do any of the stories have a happy ending? Yes and no. Like some films where titles at the end tell you what became of the characters, Out of Mao's Shadow has an epilogue in which we learn what became of Dr. Jiang, Mr. Hu, Mr. Chen and the others. Except for Lin Zhao, they all survived. They are still alive.

But did they win their battles? For the most part, they fought the Communists to a draw or, at best, a narrow win. But the larger war for basic human rights and freedoms continues. 11 Davids -- or 11,000 or 110,000, as in Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution -- are not yet enough to be more than a mere annoyance to the Goliath that is the Communist Party of China.

Out of Mao's Shadow challenges the conventional wisdom that free markets automatically lead to free societies. Justin Trudeau should read it. So should Pope Francis, Hussein Obama and all the other naive leaders of the West who think that "engaging" and "dialoguing" with the Communists will make them change. And yes,  you should read it too!

"We're Vikings! We don't hire Christians!"

Meet Bethany Paquette, a clean-cut, outdoorsy girl with a love for camping, river rafting and suchlike pursuits. She's also a self-proclaimed born-again Christian, and has a degree in biology from Trinity Western University, a Christian university in Langley BC. According to Amaruk Wilderness Corp., a packager of wilderness tours, being a Christian isn't the kind of thing they want to see on the résumé of someone who'd like to work for them.

Ms Paquette applied to work for Amaruk's Canadian operation guiding tours in the Great White North. She was shocked to receive an e-mail from Olaf Amundsen, the company's HR thingy, rejecting her on the grounds that she wasn't qualified and "unlike Trinity Western University, we embrace diversity, and the right of people to sleep with or marry whoever they want."

Apparently Mr. Amundsen had heard that all TWU students must agree to a covenant prohibiting sexual intimacy outside heterosexual marriage, under pain of possible expulsion. That covenant has led to an ongoing controversy over the university's law school -- see footnote below -- since the busybodies in the human rights industry contend that TWU discriminates against the LGBT "community". So, according to the perverse "thinking" of progressive and fair-minded people like Mr. Amundsen, that makes it OK to discriminate against those old-fashioned and narrow-minded Christians.

We shall see. Ms Paquette has filed a complaint with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. Oh the irony! She told CBC News that the series of e-mails she received from Mr. Amundsen "really hurt me.... I did feel really attacked on the basis that I'm a Christian. My beliefs have developed who I am as an individual, but they don't come into play when I am doing my job."

Apart from defending "the right of people to sleep with or marry whoever they want", Mr. Amundsen wrote, "The Norse background of most of the guys at the management level means that we are not a Christian organization, and most of us actually see Christianity as having destroyed our culture, tradition and way of life."

Ms. Paquette replied defending her faith, saying "your disagreement with Trinity Western University, simply because they do not support sex outside of marriage, can in fact be noted as discrimination of approximately 76 per cent of the world population!!! Wow, that's a lot of diverse people that you don't embrace."

And she signed her e-mail, "God Bless, probably partially because I knew it would irritate them." It clearly irritated Mr. Amundsen, who wrote back, describing himself as "a Viking with a Ph.D. in Norse culture. So propaganda is lost on me."

Footnote: If you think it's hard for a Christian to get hired as a river rafting guide, try getting called to the bar (admitted to the practice of law) in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Lawyers in those provinces -- many of whom are secular humanists and/or, errr, non-Christians, have been besieging their law societies with demands that graduates of Trinity Western's law school not be admitted to the profession, because, errr... well... they're religious! See articles listed on the CBC News Topics page for Trinity Western University and "Queer students campaign against Christian law school".

Free candy! Ku Klux Klan recruiting in South Carolina

FOX Carolina brings us news from Seneca, South Carolina, where the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have staged a recruiting drive they call a "night ride".

A Seneca subdivision woke up Sunday morning to find bags of candy on their driveways with literature inviting readers to find out how to "Save our land, join the Klan."

When you call the number shown on the flyer (and on the website) -- (336) 432-0386 -- you get a voicemail message which starts with, "Be a man join the Klan! Illegal immigration is destroying America!" It goes on to discusses immigration concerns and ends with, "Always remember if it ain't white, it ain't right. White power!"

Robert Jones, the Imperial Klaliff of the sect, the Loyal White Knights, returned a call to FOX Carolina. Part of the conversation can be heard in the video report. Mr. Jones said that Klan chapters across the country drop literature overnight to attract new members. Their hotline, he added, has received around 20,000 calls, many from people are interested in joining the cause.

Mr. Jones said that his members don't target the homes of non-white or mixed couples for their night ride. "I mean, we can't tell who lives in a house, whether they're black, white, Mexican, gay, we can't tell that," he said. "And if you were to look at somebody's house like that, that means you'd be pretty much a racist."

He went on to say that the Loyal White Knights are not a hate group but a civil rights organization following the Bible. He said the Klan has always been strong throughout South Carolina and that this type of recruitment is nothing new. With more than 8,500 members, Jones said these days their focus is protesting against illegal immigration. His chapter is planning a public protest against illegal immigration in North Carolina on August 9th, with a cross-burning planned after dark.

As the silent majority of Americans wake up to the reality of Obama's "hope and change" agenda, don't be surprised to see more of this type of recruitment...and an increase in membership of organizations standing up for America!

DISCLAIMER! As a traditional Catholic -- a recusant -- Walt is forbidden to belong to the Ku Klux Klan or any other secret society. Moreover, Walt finds repugnant the anti-Catholicism -- implicit and explicit -- of the Klan. However, the things the Klan is saying about immigration and the destruction of American society very much need to be said. Mr. Jones and his colleagues are fortunate to be living in a country where their right to say things that are not politically correct is protected by the First Amendment. In Canada or elsewhere, they'd be hauled in front of a "human rights" tribunal...or worse. Thank God for freedom of speech! And God save the United States of America!

China -- not a good place to be a democrat or a Catholic

China may be far from Walt's decrepit body, but it is never far from his mind. [Or what passes for it. Ed.] I pray especially -- and hope Catholic readers of WWW will too -- for Chinese Catholics who, if they wish to be loyal to and in communion with Rome, must worship in secret, as did the first Christians. Here's a picture of worshippers at an "underground church" in Yunjiang.

They are gathering in someone's home, because the few church buildings still existing in China are owned by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, the schismatic "church" set up by the Communists following the revolution of 1949. 1000s of Catholics, including priests and even bishops, went over to the CPCA, but other 1000s belong to the "underground Church", the True Church recognized by Rome.

Last month the underground Church lost one of its dwindling number of priests. Father John Peng Weizhao, the apostolic administrator of the Yujiang diocese, was arrested on May 30 by agents of the Communist "religious affairs department". His current whereabouts are unknown. Eyewitnesses told UCANews they were saddened -- but not surprised -- when the officials who were on hand when Father Peng was arrested now say that they know nothing about him.

Meanwhile, Joseph Cardinal Zen, the retired Archbishop of Hong Kong, has repeated his support for a democracy initiative in that "Special Administrative Region" of China. The prelate told AsiaNews that the people of Hong Kong will "hit back if they are repressed and forced to be enslaved."

Cardinal Zen is well known not just at the Vatican but to Catholics and human rights activists around the world, thus is unlikely to be treated in the same way as Father Peng. He has taken a prominent public role in support of a referendum calling for true democratic elections in Hong Kong. In a radio interview, he criticized a "White Paper" issued by the Beijing government, which stressed China’s "comprehensive sovereignty" over the region. In the Cardinal's view, the Communists may have sovereignty over the bodies of Hong Kong's people... but not their souls.

When it comes to gay rights, Africa is... errr... ???

Africans are just like the rest of us, right? We in the West -- Europe and North America -- are no more civilized or progressive than our dusky-hued brethren in the Dark Continent. Right? And they're just as committed to equality for everyone, regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation. Right? That's what the "human rights activists" keep telling us.

However, as this Amnesty International map discloses, there is at least one significant difference between Europeans (including us gringos) and Africans. The latter overwhelmingly reject the sexual diversity which our governments, media and opinion-makers tell us we must embrace. The Church told us (under Pope Ratzinger at least) that homosexuality was "disordered". But in most African cultures, being gay is regarded as sick, depraved and contrary to the laws of God and nature!

It follows that homosexuals acts, even between consenting queers, are illegal in most of Africa -- the countries shown in red. Walt is surprised to find Chad, Niger and Mali (in west Africa) coloured grey, given the strong Islamic influence in those states. Perhaps they have not yet adopted Sharia law, which also forbids homosexual acts. But Sharia is surely coming, and the LGBT crowd should be packing their bags.

Turns out that queers from the "red countries" are already en route to Europe in record numbers. Having mastered the English word "REFUGEE", they are arriving by the hundreds in EU countries such as the Netherlands [home of Zwarte Piet! Ed.], where they believe they will be made welcome and gifted with houses, cars and condoms. Will you be surprised when Walt tells you the gay asylum-seekers are not entirely welcome? I thought not.

In fact the Dutch Council of State asked the European Court of Justice -- the EU's supreme court -- whether homosexuals could be considered a "particular social group" (thus potential victims of discrimination) and whether criminalization and possible imprisonment amount to persecution. Will you be surprised when Walt tells you the ECJ's opinion?

Not much of a spoiler here then. The ECJ ruled that homosexuals from Sierra Leone, Uganda and Senegal who fear imprisonment in their home country have grounds for asylum in EU member states. Asylum can be granted, the court said, in cases where people are actually jailed for homosexuality in their home country.

The ECJ says laws specifically targeting homosexuals do indeed make them a separate group. (Walt guesses that would be "the LGBT community" that the gay rights activitists and our lamestream media bang on about.) But, the court said, it is up to the national authorities - in this case the Netherlands - to determine "whether, in the applicant's country of origin, the term of imprisonment...is applied in practice". In other words, do the "homophobic" laws exist only on paper, or do places like Uganda actually lock up their queers?

Walt finds it interesting that the Netherlands would ask the ECJ "Do we have to take them?" What the Dutch -- always a practical people -- should be doing is greeting them at Schiphol and handing them one-way tickets to JFK, LAX or (best of all) SFO. [Crackheads could be sent to YYZ. Ed.] American and Canadian politicians wouldn't dare ask the queers to prove they were legitimate asylum-seekers. Hell no! Instead, they'd probably organize a "pride parade"!

Supremes say: Let gayety reign unconfined

Did you hear the bells pealing [tolling, surely! Ed.] today? The gay rights advocates and heavy hitters in the human rights industry -- for that is what it is -- are all agog because, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled the federal ban on benefits to same-sex couples unconstitutional.

That's right. The DOMA is doomed, and Christian/family values be damned. Walt thinks the weakening of the institution of marriage and the decline in family values generally is the cancer that's going to kill our Western "culture". The Supremes either don't see it that way or (more likely) have given up trying to fight the gay lobby in the media and in the Obama administration. (Presumably the gay lobby in the Vatican had nothing to do with this week's decision.)

Click here to read "Supreme Court strikes down key part of Defense of Marriage Act", from today's Washington Post.

Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court also struck another blow (albeit a backhanded one) for the LGBT crowd by declining to rule on California's Proposition 8, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman, just as it says in the holy books of all the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam).

Click here to read "Supreme Court clears way for same-sex marriage in California", also in the Washington Post.

Wonderful, isn't it? Now all the buggers and sushi-eaters in San Francisco can get "married" and enjoy the same rights as those who think homosexuality is unnatural. It may be disordered, but it's not illegal any more!
Ontario's openly gay premier, Kathleen Wynne, has applauded the decisions. So has the not-openly-gay President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.

So... Windsor v. United States and Hollingsworth v. Perry are now the law of the land. In a country where there was an even balance between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature, the elected members of the last-named body could undo the wrongs which the "justices" have done. Sadly, as we have seen with the persistence of Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade, the USA is not such a country. In America, the Supreme Court rules supreme.

Archbishop besieged at home for opposing LGBT agenda

Still more on the bullying and persecution of those opposing the LGBT agenda. Today we learn from the Italian newspaper Tempi that Most Rev. Giampaolo Crepaldi, Archbishop of Trieste (Italy) was besieged in his own home earlier this month by a gang of "gay rights" activists.

The demonstration was organized by a queer crypto-Fascist group known as ArciGay. They accuse the prelate of being a homophobe -- afraid of homosexuals -- and, sure enough, racist too.

Archbishop Crepaldi said that the protest was organized against him because of “the false and very grave accusation of being intolerant and racist.” He said that gay-rights activists are determined to gain approval for same-sex marriage, and toward that end will accuse all opponents of “homophobia.”

Their agenda is clear enough. In Italy as in North America the goal of the LGBT gang is to get “homophobia” defined as a crime -- some sort of "hate crime -- under which Christians (and non-Christians too) "who say publicly -- as the Catholic Church has always done -- that the real family is only that founded on marriage between a man and a woman" would be subject to prosecution under not just "human rights" legislation, but the criminal law as well.

Will they win? In Italy as in North America, politicians courting the gay lobby and its bloc of voters are running to get on the rainbow-striped bandwagon. Until now, Italian media outlets have ignored the incident, and some city officials in Trieste actually showed their support for the clearly illegal demonstration.

Two members of the local city council reportedly joined in placing the archbishop under virtual house arrest. In Italy. Can you imagine? Is there nowhere in the so-called Christian West where people, even clerics, can stand up for Christian values without fear of demonization and persecution? Queers rule, boys and girls... queers rule.

Victory for free speech - Canadian Human Rights Act s. 13 repealed!

Not exactly front-page news, but good news all the same from north of the world's longest undefended (?) border. Ezra Levant reports in today's Toronto Sun that Section 13 of Canada's Human Right Act -- the "hate speech" section -- is coming off the books.

S. 13 is the notorious provision of the CHRA that made it a crime to publish anything "likely to expose a person … to hatred or contempt". Read Mr. Levant's column for an explanation of why progressive thinkers in the Trudeau Liberal government of the day -- pushed by the now-defunct Canadian Jewish Congress and a commission headed by a chap named Cohen -- considered it necessary to criminalize political correctness.

That was done in 1977. For more than 30 years, Section 13 had a 100% conviction rate for the thought crime of hurting someone’s feelings. One of the most notorious prosecutions was that of internationally respected author Mark Steyn, who had the temerity to quote a Muslim leader to the effect that the Islamization of the West might not be such a good thing. The words complained of weren't even Steyn's own!

In today's column, Levant calls the law abusive, un-Canadian, and "ridiculous...in the age of the Internet". And now it's on its way out. Last Wednesday Canada's House of Commons voted in favour of Bill C-304, a private member’s bill which Walt predicted last November would pass. Lifetime pct .990.

Following royal assent, and a one-year phase-in period, Section 13 will be history, pulled out (Levant writes) like a noxious weed. Good for the Canucks. Pretty soon they'll be as advanced as the Americans, whose constitution has protected free speech since, errr, the 18th century.

Further reading: "Good riddance to Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act", by Jonathan Kay in the National Post.

No Christian tees, please, in Canuck public schools

"Life is wasted without Jesus!" That's the belief of William Swinimer, a sometime Grade 12 student at a so-called public school in Chester Basin. That's on the south shore of Nova Scotia, one of Canada's "down east" provinces. [Somewhere near Chester Shower and Chester Memory? Ed.]

At some point in his progress through school, Bill got the idea that he had the right to free speech. That would be so in the USA -- the First Amendment guarantees that -- but not in Canada, where your right to say what you think stops at the door of a human rights commission. Or in this case, the South Shore Regional School Board.

Perhaps it would have made a difference had Mr. Swinimer chosen to wear a tee-shirt proclaiming his belief in Allah or the New World Order. Instead, his tee-shirt carries the pro-Christian message shown. And for sporting said tee, Bill got suspended from school. His shirt might offend non-Christians, dontcha see. And in Canada, minority rights trump the rights of the majority every time.

Walt is pleased to report that at least some of the Chester Basin's majority decided to be silent no longer. As a result of popular pressure, the SSRSB has gone to the liberal educator's default. Yep, they're bringing in a facilitator, who will facilitate (or whatever) a forum (or whatever) to discuss the issue, which has now been defined as "how to ensure students’ rights are not violated, while protecting other students from criticism". Everyone clear on that?

Ed. thanks Agent 6 for the lead on this story.

PS - If you would like to contact the South Shore Regional School Board to voice your support for their fearless stand in favour of secularism and political correctness, this link will take you to their contact page.

Happiest people on earth?

You would think that Americans, living in the greatest nation on earth -- if you don't believe that, just ask them -- would be the happiest people on earth. You would be wrong, according to the Earth Institute of Columbia University.

In its first ever "Happiness Report", the Earth Institute says the four happiest countries are all in Northern Europe: Denmark, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands. The four least happy countries are all poor countries of sub-Saharan Africa: Togo, Benin, the Central African Republic and Sierra Leone.

Europe happy; Africa unhappy. No surprises so far. But what of North America? Canada ranks 5th on the survey's "Cantril Ladder" (see page 31), and the USA... errr... 11th. And get this! Although the report finds the world has, broadly speaking, become a “little happier” in the past three decades, as living standards have risen, America is an exception. In the United States, life satisfaction has not improved.

All of which proves that wealth alone doesn’t make people happy. (The USA is not the richest country either, but it's well up there.) Other than income, key factors in defining happiness include: political freedom, strong social networks and an absence of corruption. These things, the authors say, are "together more important than income in explaining well-being differences between the top and bottom countries."

At the individual level, "good mental and physical health, someone to count on, job security and stable families are crucial." What does that last one say about societies where public discourse is dominated by "progressive thinkers" who are actively working against families and family values?

The authors of the "Happiness Report" believe that stable family life and enduring marriages are important for the happiness of parents and children. Yet our "mainstream" politicians and lamestream media keep telling us that gay marriage, divorce and abortion are not just "human rights", but good for our society. Some cognitive dissonance there, surely!