"Islamophobic" attack in London: a calm look at the facts

Last week Canada's liberal political and media elites were clutching their pearls over the discovery of over 200 unmarked graves -- not one mass grave! -- at the Kamloops (BC) Indian Residential School. See "Canadian residential school deaths: a calm look at the facts", WWW 7/6/21. Copious quantities of crocodile tears were shed. Vigils were held. Statues of old white men were torn down. And apologies were issued on behalf of all those evil Canadian white supremacists.

This week's victims, we are told, are the 1000s of Muslims who have chosen to immigrate to the Great White North, notwithstanding that it's no country for followers of the Prophet. Why would anyone say that? Because, while out for a Sunday evening stroll in London ON, a family of recent immigrants from Pakistan were run down by someone driving a black pickup truck. Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, their daughter Yumna Afzaal, 15, and Salman's mother, Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed. The youngest member of the family, nine-year-old Fayez, survived and remains in hospital.

All that is known, really, is that the family were standing on or near the corner of a busy intersection, waiting to cross the street, when they were struck. The truck did not stop. Nathaniel Veltman, 20, of London, the alleged driver, was arrested some six miles away from the scene, and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. London city police have called in the Mounties with a view to laying charges of terrorism as well. 

Under the Criminal Code of Canada, murder in the first degree requires premeditation. Mr Veltman was heretofore unknown to the police. There is no evidence of any relationship between him and the Afzaal family, or any motive that he might have had for attacking them. 

Nevertheless, Inspector Knacker waited all of 30 seconds before announcing that this was a "targeted killing", with the victims being selectede because of their Muslim faith. Since they did not have placards around their necks proclaiming their faith, it must be assumed that, seeing the way they were dressed, the driver of the truck (whoever he may be) just jumped to that conclusion. 

Open-and-shut case then? Agent 3 says that if he were defending Mr Veltman he would have a lot of questions to ask, such as:

- Where exactly was the family standing when they were hit? Did London's finest send an accident reconstruction squad to the scene? Is it possible the Afzaals were crossing the street against a red light? Did the truck drive straight through the intersection or did it make a right turn?

- On what basis was Mr Veltman arrested, six miles from the scene? Does he own/drive a black pickup truch? How many such trucks are registered to London addresses?

- What evidence -- not suspicion but evidence -- do the police have of "targetting"? What do they say as to Mr Veltman's motivation? 

- Even supposing that he did want to kill the Afzaals, why would not attack them in their home? Why wait until they went out for a walk? And how would he have known that they were standing at that particular location at that particular time?

Deplorable as the killing of these people is, Agent 3 says there's plenty of reasonable doubt about whether it was first-degree murder, let alone terrorism. There could be doubt, too, about who was behind the wheel of the black pickup, and what actually happened at the scene. 

Until such doubts are replaced by certainty, it is wrong to politicize the incident, as Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface and socialist leader Jugmeat Singh have done, by calling for still more laws against "Islamophobia" and "hate speech". You can't legislate brotherly love and peaceful co-existence.

One more thing.... How is it that when a white guy does something like this, all the rest of us millions of white men have to don the sackcloth and ashes, and admit that we are racists and haters, but when an "other" (non-white, and let's say non-Christian) does it, it's just the act of a mentally ill "lone wolf" (like this guy) and shouldn't be interpreted as in any way characteristic of followers of "the religion of peace"? Just askin'...

Montréal Canadiens - Canadian Champions!

Ed. here. Last night we received a message from a sports bar not 1000 miles west of le Centre Bell, where our National Sports Editor was in a celebratory mood.

Hooboy, Hed! Where are ya buddy? Lemme buy you a beer, a Canadian beer, not that American stuff which is like a couple making out in a canoe. [Readers puzzled by that reference may contact me by e-mail. Ed.] 

In fact I'll buy you two beers, to equal the number of chances people thought the Montréal Canadiens had of going deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Because, by golly, tonight they swept the Winnipeg Jets -- four games straight! -- to become the champions of the National Hockey League's Northern (read: Canadian) division.

To explain that... This season, because the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM) was effectively closed to prevent the spread of the kung flu, the NHL (G. Bettman, Prop.) reorganized its four divisions so that one of them, the Northern Division, was comprised only of Canada-based teams, thereby becoming the (unofficial) "Canadian Division" -- a dream come true for Canadian fans.

During the shortened regular season, the Canadian division was, by most accounts, the weakest of the four. The stats proved it. The Canadiens finished 4th in the division, 18th overall, with a goals for/against record of -9. Yet, since the Ottawa Senators, Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames couldn't even do that well, the Habs qualified for the playoffs.

The Canadiens, lacking any big stars (except Carey Price, whose star has dimmed somewhat in recent years) were widely expected to win maybe one game vs the first-place Toronto Maple Leafs, and then go golfing. Wrong! After playing rope-a-dope for four games, they came back to win the last three, confirming the Laffs' reputation as Allstar Chokers.

That took the Habs to the quarter-finals against the Jets, the team that had swept Connor McDavid's Edmonton Oilers in four straight. Again, the Habs were the underdogs. Again they emerged victorious, winning four straight games -- including tonight's 3-2 overtime victory -- to earn the soubriquet Les Glorieux.  

How could that be?! How does a team of two 30-something players getting multi-millions a year without scoring goals, plus four kids with roughly seven years of NHL experience among them, beat teams whose players include trophy winners for scoring and not being scored on?

On paper, and according to the regular season stats, the Canadiens compare unfavourably to both Toronto and Winterpeg. But in the playoffs, certain intangible, unmeasurable factors are in play, the greatest of these being the ability to function as a true team, with a shared and instinctive understanding of how to "play right" and a common will to win!

It is hard to pick just three stars of the win over Winnipeg. Everybody contributed! Carey Price, who went into the game with a GAA of 1.67, look less than superhuman, especially on the second Winnipeg goal, but still, two was all the Jets could manage. That's thinks in large part to a fine defence, even with Jeff Petry, arguably the Habs best D-man, out with an injured hand. In fact, the previously suspect Érik Gustaffson, got Montréal's first goal, on the power play.

The injury to Petry gave rookie Alexander Romanov the chance to appear in his first playoff game, and he acquitted himself well enough. Kudos to defence coach Luke Richardson for figuring out how to pair his weaker D-men with stronger partners to make it impossible for the Jets to put more than 16 shots on Price.  

The Canadiens' forwards, by contrast, had 42 shots on Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who should get some kind of award for heroism under fire. Throughout the playoffs (unlike the regular season) the Habs' real strength has been their ability to roll four lines of more or less equal strength. 

The "greybeards" line -- Joel Armia, Eric Staal and Corey Perry -- nominally fourth, looked more like the top line at times, with Armia scoring a couple of key goals, as did Perry who was involved in at least half the highlight reel plays. The erstwhile first line -- Arturi Lehkonen (in the absence of Tomas Tatar), Philip Danault and the inspirational Brendan Gallagher -- was a factor throughout. Danault was particularly good last night.

The Habs' "kids" -- Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and rookie phenom Cole Caufield -- were very impressive, especially Suzuki and Caufield who combined on a couple of really pretty scoring plays. If those two had been played in the first games against the Leafs, that series might have ended sooner. 

Last but not least, a round of applause for speedster Paul Byron, who scored a short-handed goal while lying prone on the ice, and old pros Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli, astutely acquired by GM Marc Bergevin in the off season. Toffoli (#73 in the photo) led les Glorieux in scoring during the regular season, and scored the overtime winner against the Jets, on a perfect pass from the Caufield (the little guy in the middle).   

All in all, a terrific team effort. The 2021 Canadiens may not be one of the best-ever Montréal teams, but they have been a great team for seven straight games. They go on now to face the Las Vegas Golden Knights or the Colorado Avalance -- whoever wins the Western Division -- who will be underestimate them at their peril. As the Hockey Guy said in today's review, "It's beginning to look a lot like 1993." 

Canadian residential school deaths: a calm look at the facts

Ed. here. At the risk of sounding like a Canadian, I'm going to start with a disclaimer (and apology, of sorts). Canadians have been agonizing for decades now about what to call the indigenous people who have inhabited the Great White North for 1000s of years. Names like "Indians" and "Eskimos" are no longer politically correct. 

In fact, the football team formerly known as the Edmonton Eskimos announced just a few days ao that it will now be called the "Elks". The people known as Eskimos would prefer to be called Inuit, so that's easy. But the people we called "Indians", wishing to avoid the stigma of being taken for south Asians [??? Ed.], can't decide if they want to be called "First Nations" or "Dene" or "Aboriginal" or "Indigenous" or just "the people". So in this article, I'm going to stick with "Indians" because this is about what were called "Indian residential schools". 

Last week, the remains of 215 children were uncovered in unmarked burial sites on the site of the Kamloops (BC) Indian Residential School. The school was established in 1890 and from 1892 run by a Roman Catholic order of religious, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It was once the largest residential school in Canada, with its enrolment peaking at 500 in the 1950s. 

It was in operation until 1969, when it was taken over by the federal government to be used as a day school residence. It closed in 1978. The school building still stands today, and is located on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation. 

It should be noted that the first such residential school had opened almost 60 years earlier, in Brantford ON. A handful of schools run by mostly Protestant missionary groups had been established even before that. In 1847, Egerton Ryerson, superintendent of schools in Upper Canada (today's Ontario), wrote a report recommending the establishment of residential schools for Aboriginal students in the province. Methodist missionaries established a number of such schools in southern Ontario in the 1850s. Other schools were opened in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories in the 1860s.

Following Confederation, the Canadian government became more involved in residential schools, but since education was left to the provinces under the Constitution, the federal government left the operation of such schools to various churches. About 70% of them were run by Roman Catholic orders, with the remainder being looked after by Protestants. 

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), a body set up in 2015 to investigate these schools, they were boarding schools for Indigenous children, that didn’t exist just to teach them school subjects, but "primarily to break their link to their culture and identity."

Sir John A. Macdonald, the anti-French, anti-Catholic, racist drunk who became Canada's first prime minister, had this to say. "When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. 

"It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men."

In other words, the aim of Sir John Eh was to turn Indian kids into "apples" -- red on the outside and white on the inside.  

According to TRC reports, at least 150,000 Indian, Inuit and Métis children passed through the residential school system. They were separated from their families, forbidden from speaking their own language or engaging in their cultural practices. In addition to attending class, students at many schools had to perform chores to maintain the school and even sometimes do farm work to feed the school.

Many were mistreated and abused, physically and sexually. Students were often malnourished or underfed, and lived in poor housing conditions that threatened their safety. Infectious diseases like tuberculosis and influenza often ran rampant among the students, leading to many deaths. 

The TRC identified 3,200 deaths as part of its investigation. They note that indigenous children in residential schools died at far higher rates than other Canadian children, even for the time. Many children died from infectious diseases (notably tuberculosis), fires in school buildings, suicide, drowning, and other accidents.

All too often, the schools and/or government failed to record students' names, gender, or even the cause of death. The deaths themselves were often unrecorded. Some students got sick and were sent home, where they later died. Métis students whose attendance at school wasn't funded by the federal government but who may have died there were not counted.

In its report, the TRC lamented that "due to the limitations in the records, it is probable that there are many student deaths that have not been recorded in the register because the record of the death has not yet been located. Most of these children died far from home, and often without their families being adequately informed of the circumstances of death or the place of burial."

Children who died at school were likely buried at the school, or in nearby municipal or church cemeteries. Some of these locations are known and the cemeteries still maintained, but some are not. As the TRC wrote, "For the most part, the cemeteries that the Commission documented are abandoned, disused, and vulnerable to accidental disturbance."

Such as the case at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. People had known and spoken for years about the existence of a graveyard, but until this year no-one had looked for it. Disturbing though it is, the discovery of the site is disturbing, but not unique. Nor is it evidence of an unspeakable atrocity. It is not one mass grave, but a hiterto undiscovered burial site. That's all.

For that reason, it is unhelpful for the usual gang of virtue-signalling politicians, SJWs and members of the human rights industry to use words like "genocide", and demand apologies -- not to mention "reparations" -- from the Roman Catholic Church and its supposed pope, as if they bear sole responsibility for acts and omissions of decades ago.

The Most Rev. Thomas Collins, Cardinal Archbishop of Toronto, expressed his sorrow in a statement released on June 3rd. Yesterday he told the CBC's Rosie Barton [naturally. Ed.] that the archived records of the OMI had always been available, so it was "unhelpful" for the Prime Minister of Canuckistan (who supports abortion but claims to be a Catholic) to threaten to take the Church to court to obtain production of those documents. 

In response, Carolyn Bennett, who carries Mr Socks's bags on "Crown-Indigenous Relations", told Cacklin' Rosie that it was "unhelpful for Cardinal Collins to call Mr Trudeau's statement 'unhelpful'." Expect more such name-calling, finger-pointing, virtue-signalling and scape-goating in the weeks to come. It's the Canadian way.

Footnote: Yesterday, a mob of iconoclasts ["mostly preaceful protesters", shurely! Ed.] succeeded in pulling down the statue of Egerton Ryerson which stood in front of the Toronto university named after him. It is rumoured that there may have been one or two Indians in the mob. 

A few days earlier, the city council of Charlottetown PEI caved to the pressure and removed the statue pictured in "What's wrong with this picture?", WWW 11/5/21. When it comes to promoting "truth and reconciliation", such actions seem to me "unhelpful"!

Remembering the martyrs of Tiananmen Square

It is not only Christians who are persecuted to the point of martyrdom in Communist China. (See "World Day of Prayer for the Catholic Church in China", WWW 24/5/21.) Nor Uyghurs, who are being herded into "re-education schools" reminiscent of the worst excesses of Nazi Germany. Ordinary Chinese -- students, workers, and other "plain people" -- have been struggling against the might of the Communist police state for decades. 

Many have given up their lives in the fight for democracy and freedom. Today let us pause for a moment to remember those who, were killed by the "People's Liberation Army" (sic), in what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre (天安门大屠杀). 

32 years ago today, troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's advance into Bejing's Tiananmen Square. The protests started on April 15th and were forcibly suppressed on June 4th, when the Communist government declared martial law and sent the PLA to occupy parts of central Beijing. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded.

Today in Hong Kong, now a "special economic zone" (read: colony) of the People's Republic of China, police arrested an organizer of the annual candlelight vigil commemorating what the Commies call "the June 4th incident". People were warned not to attend the event, banned by the pro-Communist city government in an attempt to silence pro-democracy voices.

This is the second yeare the vigil has been prohibited. Last year, authorities were quick to blame the ban on the risks of large crowds gathering during the Kung flu pandemic. That excuse won't wash this year. It's just part of the Communists' continuing campaign to control the once-free city, including a new national security law, election changes and arrests of many activists who participated in the "yellow umbrella" pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong in 2019.

Hong Kong had been the last place in China where the massacre was publicly commemorated. In past years tens of thousands of people gathered in Victoria Park to honour the victims who died when the Communist Chinese military put down student-led pro-democracy protests. In Tiananmen Square itself this morning, security was increased and police checked identities of pedestrians while tour buses shuttled Chinese tourists onto the square as on any other day.

But, dear reader, it's not just another day. Please take a moment to remember and, if you're so inclined, pray for those who have suffered and are still suffering under the yoke of Communist imperialism. Today Hong Kong, tomorrow east Asia. And then, the rest of the world!

VIDEO: Dr Jordan Peterson interviews Rex Murphy

From time to time we've featured words written and spoken by one of our favourite political and social commentators, Rex Murphy. Mr Murphy is best known for working for the CBC (Canadian Broadcorping Castration) in the days when they allowed at least the occasional piece of non-liberal commentary. 

He also wrote for the Globe and Mail, before it too got woke, and is currently contributing columns to the National Post. Mr Murphy is almost as old as Walt, but still a strong voice for conservatism... true conservatism... and common sense. 

He has a podcast on which he has hosted many controversial personalities, including Dr Jordan Peterson, another of Walt's favourites. Here, in a case of turnabout, is Dr Peterson's interview with Mr Murphy, published today. 

This is a long piece -- two-and-a-quarter hours -- for the very good reason that they cover a lot of ground. Topics include Mr Murphy's impressive career, Canadian politics, western culture, the woke culture wars, the liberal orthodoxy of universities, the crumbling study of the humanities, New Finland, Toronto, and much more. I suggest you bookmark it and dip in when you have some time to put to good use.

   

Dr Jordan Peterson and Rex Murphy... inspiration for proudly conseervative (but humble!) scriveners like yr obdt servant. Two thumbs up!

Transcript: BBC coverage of the funeral of the Prince of Edinburgh

Note from Ed.: The funeral held at St George's Chapel in Windsor on last April 17th was a sombre and low-key affair, not the sort of thing that makes for good television. We were hoping to have some video for you, but a lengthy search has produced nothing other than still photos like this one.

However, Agent 3 has just sent us what purports to be a transcript of 

BBC Coverage of the Funeral of HRM Duke Philip, Prince of Edinburgh 

ALAN TITCHMARSH: Welcome one and all, wherever you may be, to this Right Royal Funeral here in the truly fabulous surroundings of St George's Chapel in the age-old city of Windsor. Well, the sun is shining and it's one heck of a beautiful day, but of course this isn't what one might call an altogether "sunny" occasion, is it, Sophie? 

SOPHIE RAWORTH: Morning, Alan! There's a tremendous lot of excitement, with young and old come out to watch, and a group of kids by me painting lovely little miniature coffins, but, no, Alan, you're right - this is, at heart, a very very solemn occasion, as it's a funeral to mark the death of someone very very special.

ALAN TITCHMARSH: Wonderful! And remind us who that very special person is, Sophie - or should I say "was"?!

SOPHIE RAWORTH: It's none other than His Royal Majesty Duke Philip, Prince of Edinburgh, Alan! For younger viewers, he's the one who was married to Queen Elizabeth 1 for I don't know how long! Years and years. But he's now, of course, very sadly died.

ALAN TITCHMARSH: Her Royal Majesty must feel his demise most terribly. How do you think she's feeling now, as she prepares for this, her big day, Sophie?

SOPHIE RAWORTH: They say she's very saddened by her husband's death, Alan and who can blame her?! But it's worth remembering, Alan, that if he hadn't died, none of this would be happening today, and the whole event would probably have had to be cancelled, which would have been very disappointing, especially for all those who have come so far. So, in that sense, Alan, every cloud has a silver lining.

ALAN TITCHMARSH: So now let's go over to Dale Winton, with all the lovely people who've gathered outside Windsor Castle on this truly splendid occasion. What's the mood like down there, Dale?

DALE WINTON: Absolutely super, Alan! How are we all doing ladies? Give us a right royal cheer! Wooh! Yes! Well done, girls! They're all determined to have a really great time here today! And now back to you Alan!

ALAN TITCHMARSH: I'm delighted to welcome Royal expert Simon Schama. Tell us something about King George's Chapel, Simon. It's something of an iconic building, am I right, Simon?

SIMON SCHAMA: Very much so, Alan. It has a history as long as my arm. It was in the 13th century that King Hen... 

ALAN TITCHMARSH: Before you go all historical on us, Simon, I'm afraid I'm going to have to interrupt you because some sort of royal procession is now starting. So over to The Woman Who Knows yes, it's our right royal fashion expert Eve Pollard, no less, soaking up the fabulous funeral fashion!

EVE POLLARD: Yes, Alan, the excitement's mounting as they're take their seats in King James's Chapel, which gives us a golden opportunity to take a look at their frocks! Sadly, the Royals seem to be playing very safe today. It's all black, black, black. Princess Kate is wearing black, and so's The Queen, who's the one in the centre, and even the lovely Pippa has opted for something very very dark. One longs for a flash of bright yellow or lime green to cheer up the proceedings! And what about showing a bit of leg for the blokes, Pippa?! Ha ha! Back to you Alan!

ALAN TITCHMARSH: Thanks Eve! And now we welcome the one and only Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber to the studio. A very sad day, then, in many ways, Andy?

ANDREW LLOYD-WEBBER: Yes, Philip was a remarkable figure who came to see a great many of my shows - Superstar, Cats, Phantom - and he always took a keen interest in everything I was up to, so we'll all miss him terribly.

ALAN TITCHMARSH: And am I right in thinking, Andrew, that you have a brand new TV series on in the autumn?

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER: Yes, we're all very excited, we'll be searching for the new Little Orphan Annie...

ALAN TITCHMARSH: I'm going to have to stop you, there, Andrew, as I'm being told something's happening in the Chapel. Talk us through it, Matt!

MATT BAKER: Well, Alan, this is very definitely the "Wow!" moment we've all been waiting for. Various military types, soldiers or sailors, I'd guess, are striding along holding what looks like a great big box on their shoulders...

ALAN TITCHMARSH: Might that be the coffin, Matt?

MATT BAKER: Hard to tell, Alan, as it's got a flag of some sort covering it.

ALAN TITCHMARSH: And what's the atmosphere like down there?

MATT BAKER: Not many smiles, to be honest, Alan! In fact, I'd almost describe it as funereal. Hang on, there's this bloke down the far end of the Chapel who's started to speak. I'm pretty sure it's Rolf Harris.

ALAN TITCHMARSH: No Royal occasion is complete without Rolf. Let's hope he'll sing Two Little Boys, in honour of poor Wills and Harry, who let's not forget have lost their dear old Granddad... 

SIMON SCHAMA: It looks to me more like the Archbishop of Canterbury Alan.

ALAN TITCHMARSH: Oooh! Very POSH! Nothing but the best, eh? To get down to the nitty- gritty, Simon, I'd imagine he'd have cost the family rather more than some other vicars I could mention. But I guess he's worth it for all the dignity he offers, eh?

SIMON SCHAMA: I... 

ALAN TITCHMARSH: Back to Matt in King John's Chapel itself. Well, the choir seems to be in full throttle, singing some sort of old and much-loved hymn, I'd imagine. Any sign of Gary Barlow, yet, Matt?

MATT BAKER: No, but once this is all over, I'll bet there's some mega celebs lined up for the after-party, Alan. With me now, as the coffin is carried back out, are Will.i.am, Ann Widdecombe, David Walliams, and Katie Price. Tell me, Katie, how well did you know Duke Philip?

KATIE PRICE: Who? Oh, him. He was well fit.

MATT BAKER: Could I ask you to speak up a bit, Katie? The choir's drowning us out! Back to you in the studio, Alan!

ALAN TITCHMARSH: A truly memorable day, a day most of us will probably remember for quite a few hours. So from the funeral of Prince George at St Philip's Chapel, Windsor, it's cheerio from us - and it's cheerio to him! Cheerio!

Another note from Ed.: Examination of the original with an 8x magnifier has revealed a date, 15 June 2012 (almost nine years earlier than the funeral we were thinking of!) and the words "Craig Brown" and "Private Eye". Whatever can it all mean?

Arizona to use chemical invented by a Jew to execute criminals

You've probably never heard of (((Fritz Haber))). Born in 1868 in Breslau (now in Poland), he personifies the dilemma faced by an ambitious man who wanted to be both a  good Jew and good citizen of Germany. 

Herr Haber, you see, was the inventor of Zykon B, the gas used to murder millions of his co-religionists, including his relatives, as part of Hitler's "final solution". In 1909, he and colleagues discovered a way to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen. This artificial fertilizer went on to be used on a large scale, bringing about a huge increase in crop yields, and practically banishing the fear of famine in large parts of the world. For this, Herr Haber received the Nobel Prize.

Then came World War I. Herr Haber, now working for the Kaiser Bill's research institute in Berlin, was desperate to prove his patriotism. He began experimenting with chlorine gas which, he said, would shorten the war. So it did, but only for 1000s of Allied troops who died in gas attacks at Ypres and subsequent battles.

After WWI, Herr Haber resumed his work on chemicals which would be useful in improving food security. In the 1920s, he and his colleagues were successful in developing pesticide gases, the most effective of which was Zykon B, the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide, which, as it turned out, Zyklon B was effective not just against insect pests, but on higher orders of life, including  more than a million Jews and other "undesirables" at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps. 

Zyklon B was manufactured and marked by Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies, it was seized by the Allies after World War II and divided back into its constituent companies.

So it is that no-one currently makes Zylon B. Which means that the state of Arizona is going to make a batch of home-brewed hydrogen cyanide, with which to end the lives of inmates currently on death row.

The Grauniad reports that the state has purchased a brick of potassium cyanide, sodium hydroxide pellets and sulfuric acid, and is undertaking a refurbishment of the gas chamber at a prison in Florence AZ, to make it "operationally ready."

The usual suspects have been quick to criticize the project, not just because of the method's infamous use in the mass killings of the Nazis, but also because (they say) it has produced some of the most botched, disturbing executions in the United States. 

It would have to go some to be worse than the botched electrocution depicted in The Green Mile, but  which is the lesser of the two evils is debatable. A law professor at Fordham University is quoted by the Washington Post as saying that "it's without question that lethal gas, or at least the lethal gas that Arizona is trying to bring back, is the most gruesome of all these methods we’ve had in this country." 

For its part, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry said it was "prepared to perform its legal obligation and commence the execution process as part of the legally imposed sentence, regardless of method selected." They point to the Arizona statute allowing a defendant sentenced to death for a crime committed before November 23, 1992 to choose between lethal injection or lethal gas.

Lethal gas is permitted for executions in six other states: Alabama, California, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wyoming. Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama have authorized nitrogen hypoxia, which uses nitrogen to deprive the body of oxygen. Arizona’s preparation to use lethal gas comes amid a scarcity of execution drugs, which has caused other states to re-examine firing squads and other execution methods.  

There would seem to be an investment opportunity there for an existing company [like Bayer, which was part of IG Farben? Ed.] or "emerging entrepreneur" unconcerned about the morality of the death penalty. Much in all as there are 1000s of miscreants whose removal from society would be a public good, Walt remains opposed to the death penalty. Exodus 20:13.