In the new NHL, where you can't ice the best team money can buy, the differences between the top teams and the middle-ranking teams aren't as great as the standings suggest. That's the lesson Walt has learned from the first round of playoffs, which saw a number of surprises and, last night, a sensational shock!
First, let's see how Walt fared with his fearless predictions.
Western Conference
Walt called Sharks in 6. Right on the money!
Nashville in 7? Dead wrong. The Cinderella story is over. Chicago wins in 6.
Walt predicted Vancouver in 7. In fact it took them just 6 to dispose of the hockey players who would be Kings.
However, it took Detroit 7 games to dispose of the pesky Coyotes, the suprise of the West.
Walt's record: .750.
Eastern Conference
Walt correctly predicted the Flyers-Devils matchup would be over in 5 games. Picked the wrong team though.
Same for Boston and Buffalo. Apparently there's no O in Buffalo and Sabres goalie Ryan Miller couldn't stop pucks and score at the same time.
It took the Penguins one more game than predicted to finish off Ottawa, the perennial first-round drop-outs. Good hockey though. Give Walt a W on this one.
And now for the sensational shock! Walt, thinking with his head rather than his heart, didn't give the Montréal Canadiens a chance of winning even one game against first-seeded Washington. In fact they showed extraordinary guts and exceptional goaltending in coming back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series last night. Les Canadiens sont là! To quote Damien Cox in today's Toronto Star, hail the conquering heroes! [Did he make that up? ed.]
Walt's record: .250.
Total for the first round: 1.000. Lifetime average: .983.
What??? Hey, figures don't lie! .750 + .250 = 1.000. You can look it up!
Footnote: CBC-TV took a pass on the Montréal-Washington series, electing instead to show Buffalo vs Bruins. What dummy made that decision? What did I tell you about the CBC being dominated by the Toronto crowd? "It's a Canadian thing!"
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Focus on "family planning" in Africa "insane", says African journalist
Following up my earlier post, I commend to you an article by Gaston Asitaki, an African journalist based in Kinshasa, in the so-called Democractic Republic of Congo. (This is one of the countries Her Jeanness, the Governor-General and First Lady of Canada, visited on her farewell tour earlier this month.)
Mr. Asitaki says that the intense focus of US foreign aid on expanding family-planning programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo is "certifiably insane." The urgent need for the country's impoverished people is an adequate supply of ordinary medicine. Antibiotics, he says, save lives...not condoms.
Click here to read "We need penicillin, not condoms, in central Africa".
Mr. Asitaki says that the intense focus of US foreign aid on expanding family-planning programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo is "certifiably insane." The urgent need for the country's impoverished people is an adequate supply of ordinary medicine. Antibiotics, he says, save lives...not condoms.
Click here to read "We need penicillin, not condoms, in central Africa".
Eugenics redux?
Canada's Conservative government has announced, ahead of June's G8 summit, that although the theme of the meeting is "improving maternal health", it will not fund abortion on demand in third world countries. For this it is being pilloried by the usual gang of liberals, progressives, wimmin's rights nutters and advocates of baby-killing -- the same people who applauded when Henry Morgentaler was made a member of the Order of Canada.
Steve Harper says that there are better ways to spend taxpayers' money on helping third world women -- ways which will not cause division amongst Canadians. He is right (for once) and those who accuse him of trying to reopen the abortion debate are wrong.
Walt wonders if the loony lefties who think the developed countries should be handing out condoms and paying for D&C's in Africa have heard of eugenics.
Popular in North America and the U.K. during the first half of the 20th century, eugenics is the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species. The idea is that you will gradually get rid of the inferior specimens by keeping them from breeding. Has no-one made the connection between this theory and the agitation for more birth control and more abortions in the third world?!
Eugenics had many proponents until it became associated with Nazism in the 1930s. Among them was Canada's own Nellie McClung, who has been honoured for her tireless campaigning for the vote and other rights for women. But now Forces for Good in Winnipeg are fighting to prevent the erection of a statue of Nellie because -- horrors! -- she thought it would be better if the inferior races didn't have so many babies.
This view was shared by historian H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, and even abortion advocate Margaret Sanger. They all thought that the poor and uneducated, those with mental problems, low intelligence or loose morals should be discouraged or even forcibly prevented from breeding.
Like many others of his day, Wells argued, in his book Anticipations, that it was only natural that the white races should dominate the others. It followed from Darwin's theory of natural selection that northern Europeans were better able, physically and intellectually, to develop and rule a better world. Asians came next (in descending order of yellowness or brownness) followed by Amerindians, with black Africans at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak.
Australian doctor and sexologist Norman Haire, inventor of birth control devices, went farther. He advocated the killing of inferior babies and the sterilization of the unfit so society's resources could be focused on preserving higher-quality people.
Even now, inferior babies -- that is girl babies -- are routinely killed or abandoned to die in China, India and Africa. (In the Indian communities of North America they are simply aborted.)
See "Gendercide" in The Economist of 4 March 2010, for details of how at least 100 million girls have simply disappeared due to abortion, infanticide or neglect.
The net result of the birth control and abortion programmes that the libbers and lefties demand we fund in the third world will be a reduction in the number of non-white babies. So...would Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, the women in sensible shoes and all the others who accuse the Tories of sexism, racism, and so on please explain the difference between their "maternal health" agenda and eugenics?
Steve Harper says that there are better ways to spend taxpayers' money on helping third world women -- ways which will not cause division amongst Canadians. He is right (for once) and those who accuse him of trying to reopen the abortion debate are wrong.
Walt wonders if the loony lefties who think the developed countries should be handing out condoms and paying for D&C's in Africa have heard of eugenics.
Popular in North America and the U.K. during the first half of the 20th century, eugenics is the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species. The idea is that you will gradually get rid of the inferior specimens by keeping them from breeding. Has no-one made the connection between this theory and the agitation for more birth control and more abortions in the third world?!
Eugenics had many proponents until it became associated with Nazism in the 1930s. Among them was Canada's own Nellie McClung, who has been honoured for her tireless campaigning for the vote and other rights for women. But now Forces for Good in Winnipeg are fighting to prevent the erection of a statue of Nellie because -- horrors! -- she thought it would be better if the inferior races didn't have so many babies.
This view was shared by historian H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, and even abortion advocate Margaret Sanger. They all thought that the poor and uneducated, those with mental problems, low intelligence or loose morals should be discouraged or even forcibly prevented from breeding.
Like many others of his day, Wells argued, in his book Anticipations, that it was only natural that the white races should dominate the others. It followed from Darwin's theory of natural selection that northern Europeans were better able, physically and intellectually, to develop and rule a better world. Asians came next (in descending order of yellowness or brownness) followed by Amerindians, with black Africans at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak.
Australian doctor and sexologist Norman Haire, inventor of birth control devices, went farther. He advocated the killing of inferior babies and the sterilization of the unfit so society's resources could be focused on preserving higher-quality people.
Even now, inferior babies -- that is girl babies -- are routinely killed or abandoned to die in China, India and Africa. (In the Indian communities of North America they are simply aborted.)
See "Gendercide" in The Economist of 4 March 2010, for details of how at least 100 million girls have simply disappeared due to abortion, infanticide or neglect.
The net result of the birth control and abortion programmes that the libbers and lefties demand we fund in the third world will be a reduction in the number of non-white babies. So...would Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, the women in sensible shoes and all the others who accuse the Tories of sexism, racism, and so on please explain the difference between their "maternal health" agenda and eugenics?
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
A palindromic message worth listening to twice
A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video is the palindrome of all time. Not only does it read/sound the exact opposite backwards as forward, but the meaning is the exact opposite too.
"Lost Generation" was submitted in the AARP's U @ 50 contest. When they showed it, everyone in the room broke into spontaneous applause. To watch it takes takes only 1 minute and 44 seconds, backward and forward. Make sure you read as well as listen.
Thanks to Agent 19 for sharing this.
"Lost Generation" was submitted in the AARP's U @ 50 contest. When they showed it, everyone in the room broke into spontaneous applause. To watch it takes takes only 1 minute and 44 seconds, backward and forward. Make sure you read as well as listen.
Thanks to Agent 19 for sharing this.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Lesbian cabinet minister pushed queer sex ed plan
I hadn't intended to write another post on the Ontario Liberal government's about-face on its new sex education curriculum -- the one that proposed to start teaching pre-teens that homosexuality is "normal". As I said yesterday, the people have spoken and for once the powers that be listened.
However... Rosie DiManno has a very incisive and insightful piece in today's Toronto Star which is worth considering. It seems to me she gets right to the heart of the problem that the straight majority have with the LGBT* agenda which was being crammed down their ... err ... throats.
Thanks also to Rosie for supplying a bit of evidence to back up my assertion that this disgusting dogma of immoral sexual licence was being foisted on the people of Ontario by a large and vocal gay lobby.
The education minister on whose watch this witches' brew of immoral behaviour was stirred up was Kathleen Wynne. What I didn't know until today was Ontario's first openly lesbian cabinet minister. No wonder "she called the Tories 'despicable' for opposing the plan." Ms DiManno reports she shouted across the benches "You’re aligning yourselves with homophobes!"
Ms DiManno continues: "Homophobia — while a handy accusation to toss around — is emphatically not why so many parents revolted when delivered this fait accompli, now quickly withdrawn.... It’s the age of the thing that elicited gasps of disapproval, and the spoon-fed doses of sexual enlightenment as prescribed by alleged education experts that rankles.
"Nearly every buttonholing interview of parents conducted by the media over the last three days turned up deep reservations about introducing 6-year-olds to sex.... These youngsters are still learning their ABCs.... Then, a mere two years later, we’d have those children instructed on 'healthy relationships' and sexual orientation, subjects so complex that many adults would receive failing grades.
"It was demanding a great deal for parents to accept invasive sex instruction in the schools at complete variance with ethics taught at home. While many of us may disagree with some of those moral paradigms, we can’t compel others to change their personal views, or meekly hand us their very young children so that we can shape theirs."
Just so. Good column, Rosie.
However... Rosie DiManno has a very incisive and insightful piece in today's Toronto Star which is worth considering. It seems to me she gets right to the heart of the problem that the straight majority have with the LGBT* agenda which was being crammed down their ... err ... throats.
Thanks also to Rosie for supplying a bit of evidence to back up my assertion that this disgusting dogma of immoral sexual licence was being foisted on the people of Ontario by a large and vocal gay lobby.
The education minister on whose watch this witches' brew of immoral behaviour was stirred up was Kathleen Wynne. What I didn't know until today was Ontario's first openly lesbian cabinet minister. No wonder "she called the Tories 'despicable' for opposing the plan." Ms DiManno reports she shouted across the benches "You’re aligning yourselves with homophobes!"
Ms DiManno continues: "Homophobia — while a handy accusation to toss around — is emphatically not why so many parents revolted when delivered this fait accompli, now quickly withdrawn.... It’s the age of the thing that elicited gasps of disapproval, and the spoon-fed doses of sexual enlightenment as prescribed by alleged education experts that rankles.
"Nearly every buttonholing interview of parents conducted by the media over the last three days turned up deep reservations about introducing 6-year-olds to sex.... These youngsters are still learning their ABCs.... Then, a mere two years later, we’d have those children instructed on 'healthy relationships' and sexual orientation, subjects so complex that many adults would receive failing grades.
"It was demanding a great deal for parents to accept invasive sex instruction in the schools at complete variance with ethics taught at home. While many of us may disagree with some of those moral paradigms, we can’t compel others to change their personal views, or meekly hand us their very young children so that we can shape theirs."
Just so. Good column, Rosie.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Afghanistan: the reality of the enemy
Thanks to Agent 17 for passing along this link to a speech given by Lt. Col. Allen West (US Army, Ret.) to the Center for Security Policy's National Security Group on Capital Hill. Col. West was a senior advisor, Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan, U.S. Central Command. He is running for Congress in South Florida.
Col. West says we are in a war against "an Islamic totalitarian enemy" we do not understand and refuse to focus on. They understand us, he says, better than we understand them. Instead of using all the weapons and elements at our disposal, he argues, we're trying to engage in a "fair fight", and that's one we cannot win.
Col. West says we are in a war against "an Islamic totalitarian enemy" we do not understand and refuse to focus on. They understand us, he says, better than we understand them. Instead of using all the weapons and elements at our disposal, he argues, we're trying to engage in a "fair fight", and that's one we cannot win.
Follow-up: RCMP investigates threats against Indo-Canadian MP
Earlier this week, in a post headed "Sikh, Sikh, Sikh", I shared with you quotes by Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh on the subject of Sikh extremism and terrorism. Predictably, Mr. Dosanjh has now been threatened with death by anonymous posters on Facebook. Here is the Canadian Press report, as published in today's Toronto Star.
Members of the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team are investigating threats against B.C. MP Ujjal Dosanjh. Insp. Paul Richardson says his team was informed Thursday of what he described as “very serious” threats posted on Facebook, and an investigation is underway.
Several of the entries have been removed from the site but at least one posting on Friday morning urged the assassination of the Indo-Canadian politician, saying it would be better to pierce Dosanjh with bullets than compassion.
Dosanjh has been an outspoken critic of Sikh extremism, and most recently sounded the alarm that extremism might be on the rise in Canada after he was the target of veiled threats on a Punjabi-language radio show. He says some of the postings have been printed for him and “Canadians should take these threats very seriously as an indication of poisoned minds, born and raised in Canada.”
The one-time B.C. premier has received threats in the past and was severely beaten in 1985 for his condemnation of Sikh violence in the Punjab during the Khalistan separatist movement.
Innocent questions: Who do you suppose the anonymous posters might be? Do you think they might wear turbans? If any are ever identified, do you think they'll be prosecuted for uttering threats or hate crimes? Answers on the back of a postage stamp to Walt at the usual address.
Also see: "Canadian Sikhs: The shaming of the majority by the brutality of the few", by Anthony Reinhart, from the Globe and Mail, 25/4/10.
Members of the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team are investigating threats against B.C. MP Ujjal Dosanjh. Insp. Paul Richardson says his team was informed Thursday of what he described as “very serious” threats posted on Facebook, and an investigation is underway.
Several of the entries have been removed from the site but at least one posting on Friday morning urged the assassination of the Indo-Canadian politician, saying it would be better to pierce Dosanjh with bullets than compassion.
Dosanjh has been an outspoken critic of Sikh extremism, and most recently sounded the alarm that extremism might be on the rise in Canada after he was the target of veiled threats on a Punjabi-language radio show. He says some of the postings have been printed for him and “Canadians should take these threats very seriously as an indication of poisoned minds, born and raised in Canada.”
The one-time B.C. premier has received threats in the past and was severely beaten in 1985 for his condemnation of Sikh violence in the Punjab during the Khalistan separatist movement.
Innocent questions: Who do you suppose the anonymous posters might be? Do you think they might wear turbans? If any are ever identified, do you think they'll be prosecuted for uttering threats or hate crimes? Answers on the back of a postage stamp to Walt at the usual address.
Also see: "Canadian Sikhs: The shaming of the majority by the brutality of the few", by Anthony Reinhart, from the Globe and Mail, 25/4/10.
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