No fulsome apologies from Walt!

This morning I heard an educated woman -- the director of a charity which aids the poor and down-trodden of the Third World -- talking on public radio about war crimes allegedly committed in Somalia. (The alleged criminals were Americans of course, not the Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab. Hey, it was public radio!)

The speaker called for a "fulsome investigation" of the "deliberate starvation" of Somalis by the wicked Americans, through restrictions on food aid which otherwise would have prevented the "famine".

A "fulsome investigation"... Really? I'm guessing the speaker really wants a full, complete, thorough investigation, but, in spite of her higher learning, misunderstands the meaning of the adjective "fulsome". Walt's Annadale's dictionary says "fulsome" means "cloying, surfeiting, offensive from excess of praise, gross (flattery, compliments), nauseous, disgusting".

The misuse of "fulsome" has become something of an epidemic amongst the lamestream media and chattering classes. I am sick, sore and tired of hearing news "reporters" promising "more fulsome coverage at 11", and politicians promising to give an issue their "fulsome attention".

This abuse of vocabulary stems, no doubt, from a wish to sound better-educated than the speakers really are. To "big themselves up", as speakers of Ebonics say, the professional talkers reach for the sesquipedelian word, when a plain, simple word would do. To those who are tempted so to do, Walt recommends two books: 30 Day to a More Powerful Vocabulary, by Wilfred Funk (yes, that Funk, as in "Funk & Wagnalls") and Norman Lewis, and the seminal work by Dr. Rudolf Fleisch, The Art of Plain Talk.

If you are a professional talker, and intend to go on misusing "fulsome" because it sounds good, I say, go right ahead and demonstrate your ignorance of proper English. And spare me your fulsome apologies.

RC bishop denounces "totalitarianism" of school gender "guidelines" ... PLUS Cardinal confirms gay lobby at Vatican

Earlier today Walt introduced you to the phrase "gender ideology", a euphemism for the LGBTQ2S OK-to-be-gay agenda which is being fed to us every day in every way by the lamestream media, our politically correct politicians (notably Toronto Mayor John Tory and Ontario's lesbian Premier Kathleen Wynne), and, yes, our ultra-PC school boards and departments of education.

The pale-pink NDP government of Alberta, in the formerly conservative Canadian West, has just released new guidelines for "respecting students' gender identity". The guidelines announced by Alberta's Minister of Education Minister David Eggen "advise" school boards to develop policies that let students choose which washroom to use, the name on their report cards and the sports teams they wish to play on.

It's not what you have (or don't have) between your legs that determines your gender any more. It's how you feel about it! That must be what "two-spirited" means. (See "LGBTQ... but wait, there's more!", posted here earlier today.)

"Advise" is typical pinko-speak for a government "suggestion" that you'd better obey or else! The Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary, Most Rev. Fred Henry, calls the guidelines "totalitarian" and "anti-Catholic". In "Totalitarianism in Alberta", a pastoral letter posted online, Bishop Henry says, "This approach and directive smack of the madness of relativism and the forceful imposition of a particular narrow-minded anti-Catholic ideology."

He goes on to say that "[the guidelines] show no evidence of consultation with or sensitivity to the Catholic community. They breathe pure secularism." The Catholic Church, he explains, holds to a "rather simple" teaching that God created beings as male and female and that "men and women should respect and accept their sexual identity."

Bishop Henry also disapproves of student-led "gay-straight alliances" and "queer-straight alliances", calling them "highly politicized ideological clubs which seek to cure society of 'homophobia' and 'heterosexism,' and which accept the idea that all forms of consensual sexual expression are legitimate. The view of sexuality that they espouse is not Catholic."

Walt couldn't agree more, but wonders if Bishop Henry sent a draft of his pastoral letter to the Gay Mafia within the Vatican for approval or correction. Probably not.

You don't think there's a Gay Mafia at the Vatican? Read "A 'gay lobby' at the Vatican? One cardinal says it's real, and Pope Francis is responding", posted on the Catholic News Agency website 13/1/16. Walt expects that the Holy Father's "response" will be the same as it is to other crises in the world, the Faith and the Church -- confusing, tepid and ineffectual.

LGBTQ... but wait, there's more!

Poor Len told you yesterday about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's visit to Canada's biggest city (and fount of all evil), Toronto. We learned that Himself Jr. is a fan of the Montréal Canadiens, and that he has no hesitation in upstaging Toronto Mayor John Tory in the inevitable photo op.

You would think that with a name like "John Tory", hizzoner would be a loyal, true-blue, conservative Conservative. Indeed he was all of that, eons ago, when he was leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. He learned the hard way that being conservative doesn't pay off in the new liberal, multicultural Toronto, where straight white males like his goodself are almost an endangered species. In his last provincial campaign he was defeated by Kathleen Wynne, now Ontario's Premier, who is white enough, but better-known for being not male and not straight.

After sitting on the sidelines for a few years, Mr. Tory jumped back into the political pool, being careful to remove his party label before running successfully for the mayoralty. Now that he's MOAT (Mayor Of All Toronto), Mr. Tory has embraced diversity in all its forms, including, it would seem, gender ideology.

Since his election, Mayor Tory has never missed an opportunity to pander to the LGBT crowd. At least, "LGBT" is what he called the rainbow coalition at first. Then they added a "Q" (for "Queer"), and so did the mayor -- LGBTQ was the new politically correct acronym.

"But wait!", as Vince Offer used to say, "there's more!" Today, Agent 3 informs us, Mayor Tory announced the opening of a shelter for youths (16-24) of uncertain sexual orientation. And what did he call these poor, shelter-less queer people? "LGBTQ2S"! No kidding. Apparently the "2S" means "two-spirited", whatever that means. Maybe it means you're whichever "spirit" you feel like being at any given time. Or maybe it's what we used to call "AC/DC". No, wait... that's the "B", right?

It's all very confusing to us straight people. Whether we're more confused than the LGBTQ2S folks is another question entirely.

Justin Trudeau's a Habs fan!

Poor Len Canayen here. "Here" does not mean in Toronto. I was not among the 1000s who mobbed Toronto's city hall today on the occasion of the first visit to the Heart of Hogtown by a serving prime minister in the 21st century.

Yes, Justin Trudeau Himself blew into the Little Apple today for, among other things, a chat with Mayor John Tory. Hizzoner presented the PM with -- stand by for no surprise -- a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey sweater, emblazoned with the number 23. Whatever could that mean? Why not number 1? Well, no matter. The PM accepted the sweater with his customary smile. But then, for the photo op, he hiked up his pant leg to reveal his true colours!

Yes folks, Prime Minister Trudeau is a Habs fan! What else could he be? I hope this gives La Sainte Flannelle a bit of a lift, because they surely need it, having barely survived a distastrous -- let us say Price-less -- December. Go Habs go!

Mark Steyn is "Islamed out"

It would be easy enough for me to post, every day, a great quote from SteynOnline, the excellent blog written by Mark Steyn, author of America Alone, After America, The [Un]documented Mark Steyn and other books which I've praised here in the past. See "USA 'the brokiest brokey broke nation in the history of the world'": WWW 11/11/13 -- great to read after the Prez's State of Disunion speech.

I don't do it -- quote Mr. Steyn every day, I mean -- only because Ed. accuses me of laziness often enough as it is. Today, though, I must risk Ed.'s wrath to give you a snippet from "Hold the Mohamed Salad", Mr. Steyn's trenchant comment on crimes committed by guys named "Mohamed" in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Canada...maybe even the USA.

Mr. Steyn writes: I've spent the entirety of this no longer new century writing about [the Islamization of Europe and the decline of the West]. The remorseless demographic transformation of the western world is the biggest story of our time, so why wouldn't a writer want to write about it? Apart from anything else, once you're aware of it, it haunts your dreams.

But most of us still aren't aware of it. I've been fortunate enough to get a couple of bestselling books out of the subject, but that's no comfort if, by the time they're my age, my children are living in a post-western world. And, of course, you can have a "bestseller" and 99.999999999 per cent of the population need never know of it. Every day I get letters from people who come here via a link from someone or other beginning in effect: "What do you mean, 'the Islamization of Europe'? It's the first I've heard of it."

Really? Why did the Charlie Hebdo guys get killed? Because they provoked Islam. Why is Europe's political class so willing to trade away free speech and women's rights? Because they're desperate to appease Islam. Why did the same young secular childless German women who supported Angela Merkel in her multiculti delusions spend the New Year getting groped and raped by the young men they so generously opened the doors of their country to? Because when you appease Islam you provoke Islam.

I'm pretty Islamed out, because I don't have a lot to say I didn't say ten years ago.

Further reading: "Mark Steyn on the Middle East and our 'societal suicide'": WWW 18/11/15.

VIDEO: Russian sobriety test

How long will it take you to figure out what's going on here? How much have you had to drink today?!



Walt thanks Agent 6 for forwarding this very creative item.

PC police fail to control German backlash against immigrants

North America's oh-so-PC lamestream media are underplaying reports from Germany that real ethnic Germans, infuriated by the wave of sex and criminal attacks on white women and girls in Cologne and the surrounding area, have started to strike back with coordinated attacks on the non-white, Muslim invaders.

A spokesthingy for Cologne police told reporters that four separate attacks on asylum-seekers took place this past Sunday evening. Six of them were injured, Inspektor Katzenjammer said, and at least two had to be hospitalized. In an earlier press statement, the Polizei said they had "received information that there were groups of people who were deliberately seeking confrontations in the city centre."

The police immediately deployed in large numbers "to ensure the safety of visitors to the old town" area. In the course of the evening, more than 150 German men -- meaning ethnic Germans -- were stopped and checked. Four were taken into custody and 199 restraining orders were issued. Nevertheless, six Pakistanis were attacked by a group of about twenty men. They were all beaten, and two of them were taken to a nearby hospital where they were discharged after treatment. Later, another group attacked a 39-year-old Syrian, who was injured, but did not require treatment.

That's the news from Germany. Why are we on this side of the pond not hearing and reading more about the anti-immigrant backlash? Because drawing attention to the fact that refugees and asylum-seekers from the Middle East and North Africa are really not welcome in Europe and North America would cast doubt on the wisdom of our governments' pro-immigration, pro-multiculturalism, be-kind-to-the-refugees policies.

Maragaret Wente, often quoted here, has a good piece on the subject in today's Globe and Mail, headed "Germany's brutal immigrant awakening". For those who can't get through the Glob's stupid paywall, Walt presents the highlights from Ms Wente's excellent analysis.

After Cologne, the ugly truth can no longer be ignored. The assailants, described by a senior German official, Ralf Jaeger, as being mainly Arab and North African men, including asylum seekers who arrived in the past year, come from cultures that are deeply misogynistic. Their attitudes toward women are the worst possible fit with Europe’s tolerant, sexually egalitarian liberal norms.

The Cologne police media department initially described the celebration as “peaceful.” As disturbing details began to emerge, police were reluctant to identify the origin of the alleged attackers because of its “politically awkward nature,” as one leading German broadcaster put it. The main German TV station took a pass on the story. Henriette Reker, the pro-refugee mayor of Cologne, said there was no evidence that the assailants were “refugees.”

Until now, sensitivity to anti-immigrant backlash has prevented honest talk about sexual misconduct among immigrant men; such talk has been condemned as racist in the past.... But what happened in Cologne was too big to cover up. News has now emerged of similar New Year’s Eve assaults in Austria, Switzerland, Finland and Sweden, as well as other German cities.

The Viennese police chief has warned women not to go out alone at night. Sweden is now dealing with its own cover-up at a music festival last summer, where young girls were assaulted by hundreds of mostly Afghan men. As the official in charge of the festival’s policing told a local news source, “We sometimes dare not to say how it is because we think it might play into the hands of the [right-wing] Sweden Democrats.”

Yet even now, some of Europe’s liberal humanitarians are still in deep denial. In an interview with Der Spiegel, Cologne’s mayor expressed genuine shock that so many immigrant men do not act like German men. What’s needed, Ms. Reker said, is more language and integration courses, to give them a better grasp of German culture (which begs the question of whether they are interested in grasping it). As for how to behave at public festivals, she thinks pictograms might help.

There are other solutions, but they might be more difficult. Refuse asylum to single men (as Canada has done). Deport the ones who’ve already arrived. Choose who comes. Don’t choose people who can’t tell the difference between a kiss and rape.

As for avoiding a right-wing backlash, it’s way too late. After years of official lies and cover-ups, it’s already here.

Further reading: "Trump warns Germans after asylum-seekers' sex and crime spree", WWW 6/1/16.

UPDATE: Oopsie! Not all the lamestream media are ignoring the backlash. Canada's National Post has just, errr, reposted "Angela Merkel says Germany has lost control of the refugee crisis amid public anger over Cologne sex attacks", a report from the London Telegraph. Here's a key quote: "[Ms Merkel's] comments came after authorities in Cologne confirmed for the first time that the attacks were "almost exclusively" carried out by men "of an immigrant background".