Thanks to Agent 6 for providing the link to a video that should be seen before we rush to condemn those who oppose the building of a mosque near Ground Zero or in their backyard.
As you watch these hidden cam videos, you may think that we should just be tolerant. But ask yourself what would happen if Christians conducted open air prayers and rites in the streets of Mecca or Medina. For the Muslims, the street of tolerance runs only one way.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Live by the Segway, die by the Segway
You know what this is, right? Gee dad, it's a Segway! Do you have one? Were you the first on your block? Or the last? Mercifully, this fad never really caught on.Today's news is that the owner of the British firm that makes the Segway lost his life this weekend when he quite unaccountably drove one of the futuristic machines over a cliff and into a river. As Kurt would say, so it goes.
Millionaire Jimi Heselden led a British team which bought US-based Segway Inc. in December 2009, and now manufactures and distributes the distinctive and allegedly self-balancing vehicles.
The funeral will be held later this week. A large turnout is expected if only to see if the pallbearers will be utilizing the deceased's favourite mode of transportation.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Lost in translation
Agence France Presse reports a Freudian slip of the tongue by France's glamorous former justice minister Rachida Dati. Apparently Mlle [Mme? Ed.] Dati had something else on her mind while speaking on the subject of foreign investment funds."When I see some of them [the funds] looking for returns of 20 or 25 percent, at a time when fellatio is almost non-existent...," she said during an interview on Radio Europe 1.
She was speaking in French, of course. The French word she used is "fellation," which shares some syllables with "inflation", which is the same in French as in English. Cela peut arriver de parler trop vite.
Mme [Mlle? Ed.] Dati was dropped from the French government last year after her penchant for designer dresses and appearing on the covers of celebrity magazines prompted criticism that a senior minister should not engage in such frivolity.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
New hope with a new party
Picking up where we left off a couple of hours ago...
Why, some will ask, is Walt (along with millions of others) so ticked off with Barry O'bama? If I don't like him, don't trust him, don't believe him, I must be a racist, right? No!
The disenchantment with President O (as in "zero") is not a racist thing. To suggest that is the typically arrogant and dismissive approach of the so-called "urban intelligentsia". Our disillusionment is based on the realization that O's "hope" message was a cynical and effective ploy to get elected.
Tea Party members aren't racist. They are merely libertarians who are sick and tired of the same old left-liberal "solutions" to the economic and social problems which the very same liberal elite has created.*
Has it occurred to these pious windbags that people are just sick and tired of being lorded over and taxed to death by a nanny state hell-bent (let us pray) on placating special interests, greasing every minority wheel that squeaks?
Do you want a gay pride parade? Fine. I don't care. Just don't ask me to pay for it.
Do you not like guns? Fine. Don't buy one. And don't run crying to Tim Horton's in search of a cop because you can't defend yourself.
Do you want to stone someone to death for adultery? Fine. Go cast the first stone in a Muslim theocracy where that's the law.
Not everyone who yells "Enough is enough!" is an unenlightened knuckle-dragger who likely beats his wife. More likely he's just a perfectly normal but damn angry white man (or woman) who's not going to take it any more!
If that describes you, I invite you to join my new party, which is destined for even greater things than the Tea Party.
Frankly, I thought the name "Tea Party" was kind of silly, so got thinking of some alternatives. "Libertarian Party" is already taken. You can look it up. So I thought of People's United People, but the abbreviation PUP is less than inspiring. People's Party and People's Union didn't work either.
So I am pleased to announce that all libertarians who have had enough and just want the government to leave them alone are welcome to join the Fed Up Party, or FU for short.
Membership in the Fed Ups entitles you to tell the next pol who knocks on your door, "I'm going to give my vote to FU!" or "I've made my decision. FU!"
I'm pleased to announce as well that we already have our first candidate, the eminently electable John Noone. When you go to vote this fall, ask yourself...
Who will listen to the opinions of ordinary citizens? NOONE!
Who cares about the workers who pay the taxes for all these "services" and "programs"? NOONE!
Who will punish criminals, especially those guilty of breach of trust? NOONE!
Who will close the doors on bogus refugees and illegal aliens? NOONE!
Who will govern with honesty and integrity, in the best interests of our country? NOONE!
The choice is clear. Vote for Noone! FU! FU very much!
* Once again I commend to you Godfrey Hodgson's America In Our Time (1977, Vintage Books).
Why, some will ask, is Walt (along with millions of others) so ticked off with Barry O'bama? If I don't like him, don't trust him, don't believe him, I must be a racist, right? No!
The disenchantment with President O (as in "zero") is not a racist thing. To suggest that is the typically arrogant and dismissive approach of the so-called "urban intelligentsia". Our disillusionment is based on the realization that O's "hope" message was a cynical and effective ploy to get elected.
Tea Party members aren't racist. They are merely libertarians who are sick and tired of the same old left-liberal "solutions" to the economic and social problems which the very same liberal elite has created.*
Has it occurred to these pious windbags that people are just sick and tired of being lorded over and taxed to death by a nanny state hell-bent (let us pray) on placating special interests, greasing every minority wheel that squeaks?
Do you want a gay pride parade? Fine. I don't care. Just don't ask me to pay for it.
Do you not like guns? Fine. Don't buy one. And don't run crying to Tim Horton's in search of a cop because you can't defend yourself.
Do you want to stone someone to death for adultery? Fine. Go cast the first stone in a Muslim theocracy where that's the law.
Not everyone who yells "Enough is enough!" is an unenlightened knuckle-dragger who likely beats his wife. More likely he's just a perfectly normal but damn angry white man (or woman) who's not going to take it any more!
If that describes you, I invite you to join my new party, which is destined for even greater things than the Tea Party.
Frankly, I thought the name "Tea Party" was kind of silly, so got thinking of some alternatives. "Libertarian Party" is already taken. You can look it up. So I thought of People's United People, but the abbreviation PUP is less than inspiring. People's Party and People's Union didn't work either.
So I am pleased to announce that all libertarians who have had enough and just want the government to leave them alone are welcome to join the Fed Up Party, or FU for short.
Membership in the Fed Ups entitles you to tell the next pol who knocks on your door, "I'm going to give my vote to FU!" or "I've made my decision. FU!"
I'm pleased to announce as well that we already have our first candidate, the eminently electable John Noone. When you go to vote this fall, ask yourself...
Who will listen to the opinions of ordinary citizens? NOONE!
Who cares about the workers who pay the taxes for all these "services" and "programs"? NOONE!
Who will punish criminals, especially those guilty of breach of trust? NOONE!
Who will close the doors on bogus refugees and illegal aliens? NOONE!
Who will govern with honesty and integrity, in the best interests of our country? NOONE!
The choice is clear. Vote for Noone! FU! FU very much!
* Once again I commend to you Godfrey Hodgson's America In Our Time (1977, Vintage Books).
The failure of hope
Millions of Americans voted for Barack Obama because he offered hope. It was also a way of showing the world that we're not racist after all, because, hey, we voted for a (somewhat) black guy who at least didn't sound like an end man.* But I digress.
Yes, nearly two years ago Americans voted for hope. Hope of what? Hope of...errr...something. Hope that maybe things would change. Change for what? Well...errr...something better.
When they (not I) voted for Barry it was because they thought he was a moderate, progressive, forward-looking centrist. What they got was a guy trying to right all that's wrong with America and the world...by hope. "Yes we can" should really have read, "Yes we can...I hope."
But, gentle reader, hope is not a plan.
Hope is fine for the rhetoric of the election campaign, but hope, as in religion, depends on there being an afterlife. The bad news is, we are experiencing the afterlife right now. And it turns out our hope was misplaced.
We are experiencing, right now, the failure of reality to match the rhetoric. So we are, to put it mildly, disappointed.
And we are angry. We feel that we've been conned, played for suckers yet again by the liberal humanist ideologues and the "useful idiots" of the mass media. When the masses are being duped effectively, they are seen as progressing towards civility. That's what the election of Obama was all about, dontcha know?
But now that the real desires of the people are being voiced, these pseudo-intellectual talking heads are starting to say the unwashed masses are being duped again, only this time by the reactionary, Republican, neanderthal, [That's enough insulting adjectives. Ed.] knuckle-draggers of the Tea Party.
Watching/reading/listening to the liberal talking heads go apoplectic as normal, hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens take back control is so much fun. Let's keep it up! Keep making noise! Keep voting for the un-PC candidates!
Forget about hope. Support people who understand reality and have a plan for cleaning up the mess that the liberal establishment has created. Power to the people -- the real people!
* Footnote: If you're not old enough to know what an "end man" is, Google "minstrel show".
Yes, nearly two years ago Americans voted for hope. Hope of what? Hope of...errr...something. Hope that maybe things would change. Change for what? Well...errr...something better.
When they (not I) voted for Barry it was because they thought he was a moderate, progressive, forward-looking centrist. What they got was a guy trying to right all that's wrong with America and the world...by hope. "Yes we can" should really have read, "Yes we can...I hope."
But, gentle reader, hope is not a plan.
Hope is fine for the rhetoric of the election campaign, but hope, as in religion, depends on there being an afterlife. The bad news is, we are experiencing the afterlife right now. And it turns out our hope was misplaced.
We are experiencing, right now, the failure of reality to match the rhetoric. So we are, to put it mildly, disappointed.
And we are angry. We feel that we've been conned, played for suckers yet again by the liberal humanist ideologues and the "useful idiots" of the mass media. When the masses are being duped effectively, they are seen as progressing towards civility. That's what the election of Obama was all about, dontcha know?
But now that the real desires of the people are being voiced, these pseudo-intellectual talking heads are starting to say the unwashed masses are being duped again, only this time by the reactionary, Republican, neanderthal, [That's enough insulting adjectives. Ed.] knuckle-draggers of the Tea Party.
Watching/reading/listening to the liberal talking heads go apoplectic as normal, hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens take back control is so much fun. Let's keep it up! Keep making noise! Keep voting for the un-PC candidates!
Forget about hope. Support people who understand reality and have a plan for cleaning up the mess that the liberal establishment has created. Power to the people -- the real people!
* Footnote: If you're not old enough to know what an "end man" is, Google "minstrel show".
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Is there a Ford in Toronto's future?
The first part of today's musings was about the decline of the American rust belt and the impoverishment of Detroit and Buffalo. Half a century later, the virus has spread north. Torontonians are waking up these fine fall mornings to the realization that their city's glory days are over.
Toronto's position as the economic hub of Canada is waning. The auto industry is not the powerhouse of the last century. Banking and finance are still doing OK. But oil and resources are where the money is, and that means west. Hello Alberta! Even poor Saskatchewan is suddenly a player, thanks to potash. [Wat dat? Ed.] Who knew?
Meanwhile, Toronto's streets are beginning to resemble those of Buffalo or The Big Apple itself. Graffiti, sure. Street people -- burn-outs, drug addicts, and panhandlers -- on every corner and in the parks. And gangbangers ruling the night. Shootings are an every-weekend, if not everyday occurrence. And 99% of the time the shooters and the shootees are black and "known to the police".
And let's not forget ghettos. Toronto's got not just racial ghettos, like the notorious Jane-Finch, but ethnic ghettos -- south Asians in Mississauga and Brampton, east Asians in Markham and Scarborough, and Italians in Woodbridge.
That's the other side of multiculturalism. If you encourage immigrants to cling to their own languages and ethnicities there can be no "melting pot" in the American sense.
One of the losers running for mayor of Toronto -- George Smitherman -- says Toronto's diversity (by which he means its huge population of fairies) is its strength. In fact diversity breeds disharmony. There is strength in unity, not diversity. But there is precious little harmony or unity in Toronto these days.
Can Toronto be saved from becoming another Detroit, or -- even worse -- Buffalo? (Please don't get on Walt's case for that remark. It was made by another Toronto mayoralty candidate, Joe Pantalone, part of the outgoing administration that couldn't organize a two-car funeral procession.)
Out of right field comes Rob Ford, the odds-on favourite to beat Mr. Pantsonfire and Furious George. Mr. Ford is running a platform of fiscal responsibility and no more politically correct nonsense. In fact, he is Mr. Politically Incorrect, and thus the darling [How about "Great White Hope"? Ed.] of the (mostly white) suburban and working-class Torontonians who now find themselves a beleaguered minority in their own city.
If Canada had a Tea Party, Rob Ford would be its leader! That's why he's going to win in a walk on October 25th. The implications for provincial and federal politics are enormous.
Toronto's position as the economic hub of Canada is waning. The auto industry is not the powerhouse of the last century. Banking and finance are still doing OK. But oil and resources are where the money is, and that means west. Hello Alberta! Even poor Saskatchewan is suddenly a player, thanks to potash. [Wat dat? Ed.] Who knew?
Meanwhile, Toronto's streets are beginning to resemble those of Buffalo or The Big Apple itself. Graffiti, sure. Street people -- burn-outs, drug addicts, and panhandlers -- on every corner and in the parks. And gangbangers ruling the night. Shootings are an every-weekend, if not everyday occurrence. And 99% of the time the shooters and the shootees are black and "known to the police".
And let's not forget ghettos. Toronto's got not just racial ghettos, like the notorious Jane-Finch, but ethnic ghettos -- south Asians in Mississauga and Brampton, east Asians in Markham and Scarborough, and Italians in Woodbridge.
That's the other side of multiculturalism. If you encourage immigrants to cling to their own languages and ethnicities there can be no "melting pot" in the American sense.
One of the losers running for mayor of Toronto -- George Smitherman -- says Toronto's diversity (by which he means its huge population of fairies) is its strength. In fact diversity breeds disharmony. There is strength in unity, not diversity. But there is precious little harmony or unity in Toronto these days.
Can Toronto be saved from becoming another Detroit, or -- even worse -- Buffalo? (Please don't get on Walt's case for that remark. It was made by another Toronto mayoralty candidate, Joe Pantalone, part of the outgoing administration that couldn't organize a two-car funeral procession.)
Out of right field comes Rob Ford, the odds-on favourite to beat Mr. Pantsonfire and Furious George. Mr. Ford is running a platform of fiscal responsibility and no more politically correct nonsense. In fact, he is Mr. Politically Incorrect, and thus the darling [How about "Great White Hope"? Ed.] of the (mostly white) suburban and working-class Torontonians who now find themselves a beleaguered minority in their own city.
If Canada had a Tea Party, Rob Ford would be its leader! That's why he's going to win in a walk on October 25th. The implications for provincial and federal politics are enormous.
Toronto: the new Detroit?
Walt's been away for a couple of days, emerging timidly from his woodland retreat to prowl the streets of three cities on the shores of the lower Great Lakes: Toronto, Detroit and Buffalo. It used to be fairly easy to tell which side of the border you were on. Now, I'm not so sure.
Just after WWII, Toronto was a small, sleepy, provincial city -- a collection of towns, really. People used to go to Buffalo for a good time. (Can you imagine?) The American border cities were where you found the nightlife and the excitement.
And the business. Detroit's booming auto plants turned out millions of exciting new cars every year, and people bought them. Canada's "Little Three" went along for the ride. Even Buffalo had businesses of some sort, not just dollar stores and pawn shops.
Then came the 60s and 70s. Toronto grew like Topsy and reorganized itself as "Metro" -- the city that worked. Torontonians started thinking of their city as "the Little Apple" -- Canada's answer to New York. Peter Ustinov called Toronto "like New York, if New York were run by the Swiss".
At the same time, the American cities of the rust belt fell apart, or, in the case of Detroit, got burned down in the race riots which marked the "civil rights" era of Kennedy, Johnson and, yes, Nixon. In my view, America has never recovered from the impact of the social engineering policies of that time and the economic turmoil of that time.
Detroit is a hollow shell. Buffalo is, by one recent estimate, the third-poorest city in the U.S.A. You can trace the beginning of the end back to the Kennedy-Johnson era and the liberal humanist economic and social policies of that time. See America in Our Time, by Godfrey Hodgson (Vintage Books, 1976).
What happened to Toronto? See following post.
Just after WWII, Toronto was a small, sleepy, provincial city -- a collection of towns, really. People used to go to Buffalo for a good time. (Can you imagine?) The American border cities were where you found the nightlife and the excitement.
And the business. Detroit's booming auto plants turned out millions of exciting new cars every year, and people bought them. Canada's "Little Three" went along for the ride. Even Buffalo had businesses of some sort, not just dollar stores and pawn shops.
Then came the 60s and 70s. Toronto grew like Topsy and reorganized itself as "Metro" -- the city that worked. Torontonians started thinking of their city as "the Little Apple" -- Canada's answer to New York. Peter Ustinov called Toronto "like New York, if New York were run by the Swiss".
At the same time, the American cities of the rust belt fell apart, or, in the case of Detroit, got burned down in the race riots which marked the "civil rights" era of Kennedy, Johnson and, yes, Nixon. In my view, America has never recovered from the impact of the social engineering policies of that time and the economic turmoil of that time.
Detroit is a hollow shell. Buffalo is, by one recent estimate, the third-poorest city in the U.S.A. You can trace the beginning of the end back to the Kennedy-Johnson era and the liberal humanist economic and social policies of that time. See America in Our Time, by Godfrey Hodgson (Vintage Books, 1976).
What happened to Toronto? See following post.
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