The elephant in the room

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Walt's US readers may be surprised to learn that the Canadians celebrate about six weeks before Americans. How so? Well, it could be that Canadians have less to be thankful for. Or, possibly, Canadians invented Thanksgiving. Who knows, eh?

One thing Canadians can be thankful for is that they are not troubled by wild elephants, as are residents of a part of the world where Walt and Agent 21 spent some years, an eternity ago.


Agent 21 sent along these pix of elephants marching through the lobby and grounds of Mfuwe Lodge in Zambia. Apparently the lodge was built on their migration trail, next to a mango grove that one family of elephants have always visited when the fruit ripens. When they returned one year and found the luxury accommodation in the way, they simply walked through the lobby to reach their beloved grove of trees.


The animals come in two-by-two. Hotel staff and visitors have gotten used to the elephants' impromptu strolls through the lobby. The family group, headed by matriarch "Wonky Tusk", return every November and stay for four to six weeks to gorge on mangos up to four times a day. Andy Hogg, 44, the lodge director, has lived in South Luangwa National Park since 1982. But in all his years of dealing with wild animals he has never seen such intimate interaction between humans and wild animals.

"This is the only place in the world where elephants freely get so close to humans," says Andy . "The elephants start coming through base camp in late November each year to eat the ripe mangos from our trees."

Mfuwe Lodge consists of seven camps and the base camp where the elephants walk through. Employing 150 staff, the management of the lodge report that there have been no incidents involving the wild elephants to date. "The elephants get reasonably close to the staff, as you can see in the pictures of the elephants near the reception area," Andy explains. "But we do not allow the guests to get that close."

Walt recalls staying at the Caribbea Bay Hotel & Casino Lodge in Kariba, Zimbabwe, where a similar phenomenon occurred every night around dusk. There, however, the "jumbos" (as the local people call them) didn't have to come through the lobby, but wandered through the parking lot directly into the gardens, to browse on the shrubbery, much to the consternation of the gardeners, who were prohibited by law from doing much more than yelling, "Shoo! Go `way! Bad elephants!"

Africa. It's not all poverty and famine. But it's not all elephants either. Some might say the solution to hunger would be to eat the elephants. People do.

Obama's "abortion absolutism"

Following up my post of a couple of hours ago...

In an article in The Examiner, political columnist Timothy Carney calls the president's protection of Planned Parenthood (which not only advocates but facilitates abortion on demand) a part of his (Obama's) "abortion absolutism". That in turn is part of his attack on freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Says Carney:
This President, as a State Senator, voted against a bill requiring doctors to care for babies born after failed abortions (and then misled the media on the matter). As a candidate, he promised his first act would be signing the sweeping "Freedom of Choice Act," which would wipe out nearly all limitations on abortion and abortion subsidies. And then during the budget debates we saw him draw nearly his only line in the sand over Planned Parenthood subsidies.

It's abortion absolutism. Everything else -- free assembly, free speech, conscience protection, and his party's other interests -- they all take a back seat to protecting abortion.

So it's not just Archbishop Dolan and the USCCB. Obama's real agenda is all too apparent to millions of Americans. But how can he be stopped if the opposition does not put up a candidate who stands foursquare for the freedoms we believe in? So far, IMHO, the only one who comes even close is Ron Paul.

Committee formed to fight Obama's plans to curtail religious liberty

We all know that President O'Bama is a true democrat. Right? And those rumours that Al is really a Muslim are just BS. Right? So why does his administration -- particular the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) -- keep forcing pro-life Christians, especially those in health care, to follow their evil agenda on contraception, abortion and forced sterilization?

That's the big question that Cardinal Francis George and New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan have asked in a number of letters to the Prez. Have they received any answers? About as likely as the sudden revelation that the Pope is a Mason. [Errr...let me check on that. Ed.]

In a letter to other bishops, Archbishop Dolan stated that “I have offered to meet with the President to discuss these concerns and to impress upon him the dire nature of these actions by [his] government.” Having received no answer, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), of which Msgr. Dolan is President, is forming an Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.

“This basic right, in its many and varied applications for Christians and people of faith, is now increasingly and in unprecedented ways under assault in America,” Archbishop Dolan said in his letter.

“The federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued regulations that would mandate the coverage of contraception (including abortifacients) and sterilization in all private health insurance plans,” he continued. “HHS is also requiring that MRS [Migration and Refugee Services] provide the ‘full range of reproductive services’ to trafficking victims and unaccompanied minors in its cooperative agreements and government contracts —and we all know what that means.”

“Catholic Relief Services is also concerned that USAID, under the Department of State, is increasingly requiring comprehensive HIV prevention activities (for example, condom distribution), as well as full integration of reproductive health activities including provision of artificial contraception, within a range of international relief and development programs,” Archbishop Dolan added. “The federal Department of Justice has ratcheted up its attack on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as an act of bigotry.”

“The establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee is one element of what I expect to be a new moment in the history of our Conference. Never before have we faced this kind of challenge to our ability to engage in the public square as people of faith and as a service provider. If we do not act now, the consequence will be grave.”

Christians, let us pray that this initiative yields real and visible positive change for religious liberty in the USA. And while we're at it, how about saying a prayer for a change in administration next year. Of course that would presuppose that one of the putative Republican candidates would actually have the courage to stand up for freedom of religion. Walt is waiting for one of them -- any one -- to say as much.

LIANE at it again

This editorial cartoon by "Gable" appeared in today's Globe and Mail.

Walt hasn't been paying much attention to the flash mobs or swarmings or whatever it is on Wall Street, because Wall Street is a long way from Walt's cabin in the woods, and the news from within the NYSE is more noteworthy (and depressing) than the news from without.

But now the buzz is that demonstrations by LIANE -- Lefties Indignant About Nearly Everything -- may be organized in other cities with stock markets. That's worrisome, because we do have a stock market in our little town. It's every Saturday morning, down at the fairgrounds.

Apology to P.J.

Ed. thinks I was too hard, in my review last week, on P.J. O'Rourke's new(ish) book, Don't Vote, It Just Encourages the Bastards. How could I pan someone who's Republican, Catholic and (mostly) libertarian in his political views? After all, that pretty much describes Walt.

What I said, in sum, was that you should give it a pass if you'd read O'Rourke's previous books such as Parliament of Whores and Give War a Chance. I stand by my assertion Don't Vote is largely money for old rope, and not even O'Rourke's old rope but a pastiche of quotes from just about everyone who's said anything about politicis and politicians over the last two millennia.

That said, the stew of quotes, aphorisms and witticisms is rich enough. There are some good chunks of beef floating amidst the lentils. Here's one about foreign aid:

I hope we're not expecting our distant relations [in the family of nations] to be grateful. A hundred years ago when foreign aid was unthought of (except as tribute or bribe) we were a respected and admired country. After a century of philanthrophy everyone hates our guts.

In the same chapter on American foreign policy -- or lack thereof -- O'Rourke makes a pretty good case that Al O'Bama should read Kipling, particularly the short story, The Man Who Would Be King. (The movie version, starring Sirs Sean Connery and Michael Caine, is one of Walt's Top Ten Movies of All Time.)

Why? Because Kipling was a believer in the White Man's Burden -- to bring the Western concepts of political liberty and human dignity to the benighted nations of the east and south. This civilizing mission -- hopeless un-PC these days -- has been in the minds of European political leaders going all the way back to Alexander the Great.

What Kipling added to the debate, in the eponymous poem and in The Man Who Would Be King, is the prophecy that all the Western goodwill and striving to make the world a better place is doomed to failure. O'Rourke quotes bits of the poem:

To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride...
Send forth the best ye breed --
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need...
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease...
[And] Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hope to naught.

As we look at the mess that is today's Middle East, we must admit that Kipling was right. But for a 21-st century writer to quote Kipling's dicta, to remind us of the folly of our liberal "we're all one big family" policies... that takes not a little courage. And you have to have read Kipling! So I haven't "unfriended" P.J. O'Rourke. Neither should you.

Footnote: The "Kafiristan" of which Kipling wrote in The Man Who Would Be King is a real place, by the way, in the northeast corner of what is today Afghanistan! You could look it up!

Libyans still revolting

When NATO, either backed by or pushed by the USA, decided to bomb the shit out of Libya, the declared aim was to protect innocent civilians, particularly women and children. The real aim, of course, was to "effect régime change", in other words to get rid of the mad colonel "Duck" Gaddafi.

The duration of the mission was to be three months, although, the military geniuses told us, it would really take only a week or so, because the Libyans were an ill-armed, unmotivated, disorganized rabble. (It wasn't clear if they were talking about the rebels or the government forces.) Walt said he'd take that bet.

It is now over six months since the first shot was fired in anger, and the mission has been extended for another three months, although the US commander tells us the end could come "as early as this week". Walt will take the bet on this week too. (Lifetime pct .979)

Meanwhile, outside of Gaddafi's hometown, Sirte, the rebels have formed a circular firing squad. A number of women and children have been killed already. I don't know enough about Islam to know if they will be greeted in paradise by 72 virgins; that doesn't sound appropriate for women and children.

In spite of the ring of fire around Sirte, the whereabouts of the Chief Tenthead is still unknown. Won't it be funny if the ring is closed, the rebels drive their multi-hued pickup trucks into the middle of town, only to find that Gaddafi has vanished, in a north African version of the old Indian rope trick. Stay tuned....

Postscript: If and when Gaddafi is caught and execute (with or without benefit of trial), Walt will be opening a book on how much time will elapse before the next gang of thieves rebels against the gang now being hoisted onto the throne, with more than a little help from NATO. Our assistance is, of course, totally unrelated to Libya's large reserves of Texas tea.

An Englishman hiking in Scotland

It takes a while for messages to get here from the Antipodes. Agent 21 sent this, tucked under the wing of a penguin...

An Englishman from well south of the border -- the kind who speaks with a plum in his mouth -- was taking a holiday walking in the Scottish highlands. While hiking up a steep hillside, sweating, and awfully thirsty, he came across a wee brook.

He offloaded his backpack and stooped to have a drink. While drinking he suddenly heard a brrrrrroad voice behind him shouting, "Hoots mon, ye shouldna drink there. It's full of the pssst and the shhhhht fra the beasties and the schwein."

The Englishman looked around and said, "I beg your pardon, but I'm on holiday from the south of England, and I'm afraid that I did not understand a word that you said."

The Scots looked at him, eyeing his plus fours togs, and after a few moments pause said "Och aye, well then... What I just said was, the water in this stream has been filtered through the peat and the bracken and the heather, and so for you to drink it... well, its just fine."