Walt has gone out trick-or-treating, without leaving any words of wisdom. So your obdt. servant, Ed., will take the opportunity to answer some of your questions. Nothing original about the concept. It's been done by Scott "Dilbert" Adams and Garry "Doonesbury" Trudeau, whom we (Walt and I) salute.
Di Hard asks, "Is Walt Whiteman a real name?"
Answer: Of course. Google it and you'll see. Besides, if I were going to make up a name, I'd use something witty like "Hugh G. Wrexion"...or "Di Hard".
From Africa, Sarah Leone writes, "I'm sure Di meant, is 'Walt' the blogger's real name."
Answer: I cannot tell a lie. "Walt" is short for "Walter".
A German reader, Leigh Bling, is confused. "I can't decide if Walt is a Canadian making fun of Americans or an American making fun of Canadians," she writes. "Which is it?"
Answer: Walt has dual citizenship.
On a related topic, Hal Seeyon asks, "If Walt is not Canadian, why does he use British English spellings?"
Answer: As you can see from his picture, Walt is very, very old. He learned to spell before Noah Webster attempted to reform American orthography.
Finally, we have a very broad question from Marian Twinette: "What's Walt really like?"
Answer: Walt really likes Coke (the brown fizzy drink), gladioli and Lois Griffin.
You're welcome. Keep those e-mails coming in. walt.whiteman@yahoo.com.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
The masses are revolting!
As a follow-up to my posts of the 26th and 28th about Rob Ford's victory over the liberal elites in the Toronto mayoralty race, please read today's column by Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail.
The headline is "There's good reason why the masses are revolting", and the headline says it all. Ms Wente goes on at some length about the blindness of the chattering classes who inhabit the media offices, universities and fashionable salons of Toronto...and New York. It's a fine, insightful column.
And it's not just about Toronto. Ms Wente is speaking of the disillusionment and anger of ordinary people right across North America. Here's what she has to say about the impending Democrat debacle in the USA.
In the United States, people’s lives have only gotten worse since Mr. Obama took office. Unemployment is higher. More than half of all families are worried about making next month’s mortgage or rent. Health-care reform is so impenetrably complex that people don’t know where they stand. What they do know is that their premiums have gone up and their Medicare coverage is being cut. Sixty-three per cent of Americans say they don’t feel they’ll be able to maintain their current standard of living. They know Mr. Obama didn’t create the mess, but they think he’s made it worse.
No wonder the independent voters who put Mr. Obama into office have deserted him. Fifty-five per cent of the electorate now say they are or lean Republican.
Great stuff. Read it all.
The headline is "There's good reason why the masses are revolting", and the headline says it all. Ms Wente goes on at some length about the blindness of the chattering classes who inhabit the media offices, universities and fashionable salons of Toronto...and New York. It's a fine, insightful column.
And it's not just about Toronto. Ms Wente is speaking of the disillusionment and anger of ordinary people right across North America. Here's what she has to say about the impending Democrat debacle in the USA.
In the United States, people’s lives have only gotten worse since Mr. Obama took office. Unemployment is higher. More than half of all families are worried about making next month’s mortgage or rent. Health-care reform is so impenetrably complex that people don’t know where they stand. What they do know is that their premiums have gone up and their Medicare coverage is being cut. Sixty-three per cent of Americans say they don’t feel they’ll be able to maintain their current standard of living. They know Mr. Obama didn’t create the mess, but they think he’s made it worse.
No wonder the independent voters who put Mr. Obama into office have deserted him. Fifty-five per cent of the electorate now say they are or lean Republican.
Great stuff. Read it all.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
What the Qu'ran says about wife-beating
Agent 6 has sent us this video clip which apparently has gone viral but somehow escaped Walt's attention.
Not speaking Arabic, I can't vouch for the accuracy of the translation, although the sub-titles do seem to match the gestures in a couple of places. I've had a quick look at Google listings associated with the clip, and haven't found any that say it's a hoax.
You may take it cum grano salis [Walt does have a smattering of Latin. Ed.] but don't deny the possibility that it is an accurate statement of the Islamic view of the proper relationship between husbands and wives. It's a pity we Christians aren't so enlightened.
"Ornery voters" full of "elite-phobia"
Walt still has his umbrella up to deflect the fallout from Monday's municipal elections in Toronto. An interesting column appears in today's Globe and Mail in which pollster Frank Graves (the one who said it was the vizmins wot won it for Ford) is quoted thus: "The electorate is 'newly elite-phobic' [but] it’s not clear whether the 'ornery-voter landscape' will be sustained."
Mr. Graves gets Walt's Master of Fuzzispeak prize for this week for creating not one but two pieces of jargon, which will probably be repeated ad nauseam by other pundits, and of course mangled and chewed to death by TV's talking heads.
Still, Walt likes the sound of those words, especially "ornery voters". Some will see a similarity between "ornery" and "ordinary". And that's the whole political story, in Canada and the USA, at this moment in time. [No more jargon, please. Ed.] The ordinary people have gotten ornery. Good on `em.
As for "elite-phobia", I think what this means is that the ordinary people have grown tired of being told by the chattering classes not just what to do (and not do), but what to think. So we -- I'm including myself -- have risen up on our hind feet to say "Piss on you! I'm going to do what I think is right!" Good on us!
Mr. Graves gets Walt's Master of Fuzzispeak prize for this week for creating not one but two pieces of jargon, which will probably be repeated ad nauseam by other pundits, and of course mangled and chewed to death by TV's talking heads.
Still, Walt likes the sound of those words, especially "ornery voters". Some will see a similarity between "ornery" and "ordinary". And that's the whole political story, in Canada and the USA, at this moment in time. [No more jargon, please. Ed.] The ordinary people have gotten ornery. Good on `em.
As for "elite-phobia", I think what this means is that the ordinary people have grown tired of being told by the chattering classes not just what to do (and not do), but what to think. So we -- I'm including myself -- have risen up on our hind feet to say "Piss on you! I'm going to do what I think is right!" Good on us!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Germany's Merkel talks reality...again
German chancellor Angela Merkel, already being pilloried by "progressives" and believers in multicult around the world, has done it again. "It" being advocating a return to common sense on issues of race, culture and religion.
Associated Press reports today that Frau Merkel's government intends to criminalize forced marriages as part of efforts to cope with the rapid grown of Germany's largely Muslim immigrant population.
The Interior Ministry said Wednesday that the German cabinet has agreed to a proposed law that would make forced marriage a crime. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that forced marriages are “a tradition that may have been tolerable in olden times” but not in modern Germany.
Of course this would happen in Germany, or maybe France, with long histories of racism and xenophobia. They don't like strangers very much either. It could never happen in countries like the USA and Canada where we "celebrate diversity". After all, it's our diversity that makes us strong, right?
Associated Press reports today that Frau Merkel's government intends to criminalize forced marriages as part of efforts to cope with the rapid grown of Germany's largely Muslim immigrant population.
The Interior Ministry said Wednesday that the German cabinet has agreed to a proposed law that would make forced marriage a crime. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that forced marriages are “a tradition that may have been tolerable in olden times” but not in modern Germany.
Of course this would happen in Germany, or maybe France, with long histories of racism and xenophobia. They don't like strangers very much either. It could never happen in countries like the USA and Canada where we "celebrate diversity". After all, it's our diversity that makes us strong, right?
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Tea Party takes Toronto, liberals soil selves
Agent 3 (a native of Toronto, and how many can say that, these days?) reports much soiling of silks by that city's Volvo liberals, erstwhile progressives and lamestream media types. The reason? An AWM by the name of Rob Ford is the mayor-elect of Canada's largest city!
Gentle reader, I kid you not. A straight WASP has won handily over Big Gay George, with a certified ethnic coming a distant third. This in a city where heterosexual English-speaking whites have become almost an endangered species.
But the "normal people" are still out there, in Toronto's suburbs if not in spitting distance of the CBC's downtown studios. The silent majority [Did you coin that phrase? ed.] has finally awoken from its slumber long enough to vote for a return to sanity from the diversity-enriching social engineering policies of the previous lefty-led administration.
Rob Ford was accused of being a populist demagogue. [And much worse. ed.] Maybe that's not such a bad thing. Seems to Walt that Hizzoner-Elect simply gave voice -- a loud and clear voice -- to the thoughts of over 50% of Toronto's voters.
Among those who saw a Ford in their future must have been a significant number of immigrants, including the vizmins who now populate ghettos in various parts of the Little Apple of the North. This in spite of the fact that Ford was demonized as being a blatant racist. One pundit said that it was the south Asians who swung the election in Ford's favour.
How could this be? Why would the racist candidate suddenly be surrounded and endorsed by scores of turban-wearing Sikhs? An explanation comes from two incidents reported during the last week of the campaign.
- Posters appeared asking how Muslims could vote for "a man who 'married' another man"...meaning Furious George Slitherman, the "Big Gay George" referred to above.
- An ad was pulled from a Tamil-language radio programme for making essentially the same point.
Homophobia? That's what the PC types say. But the fact is that the majority of third world cultures have a very strong taboo against homosexuality. So does Islam. So do Judaism and Christianity. The difference between the Judeo-Christian preaching and the Islamic proscription is that the Muslims actually pay attention to what their faith teaches them.
Hence the feelings of revulsion engendered by George's flaunting of his sexual orientation. The gay "marriage" wasn't bad enough. Oh no. George and his husband/wife (no-one is quite sure which is which) had to adopt a child -- a lovely baby boy -- during the campaign. There were some who applauded Mr. (Mrs.?) Smitherman's bravery and dedication to gay rights. But others clearly didn't see it that way.
The analysts are now picking over the entrails, trying to figure out whether the apocalypse of Toronto will spread throughout Ontario and Canada. There is no Tea Party in Canada yet. (Indeed, there are no parties at all in municipal politics in Ontario.) But the people -- the majority who are fed up with "progressive policies" and ever-increasing taxation -- have discovered that they can buck the trend. Stay tuned. As Christie Blatchford wrote in today's Globe and Mail, vox populi vox Ford!
Gentle reader, I kid you not. A straight WASP has won handily over Big Gay George, with a certified ethnic coming a distant third. This in a city where heterosexual English-speaking whites have become almost an endangered species.
But the "normal people" are still out there, in Toronto's suburbs if not in spitting distance of the CBC's downtown studios. The silent majority [Did you coin that phrase? ed.] has finally awoken from its slumber long enough to vote for a return to sanity from the diversity-enriching social engineering policies of the previous lefty-led administration.
Rob Ford was accused of being a populist demagogue. [And much worse. ed.] Maybe that's not such a bad thing. Seems to Walt that Hizzoner-Elect simply gave voice -- a loud and clear voice -- to the thoughts of over 50% of Toronto's voters.
Among those who saw a Ford in their future must have been a significant number of immigrants, including the vizmins who now populate ghettos in various parts of the Little Apple of the North. This in spite of the fact that Ford was demonized as being a blatant racist. One pundit said that it was the south Asians who swung the election in Ford's favour.
How could this be? Why would the racist candidate suddenly be surrounded and endorsed by scores of turban-wearing Sikhs? An explanation comes from two incidents reported during the last week of the campaign.
- Posters appeared asking how Muslims could vote for "a man who 'married' another man"...meaning Furious George Slitherman, the "Big Gay George" referred to above.
- An ad was pulled from a Tamil-language radio programme for making essentially the same point.
Homophobia? That's what the PC types say. But the fact is that the majority of third world cultures have a very strong taboo against homosexuality. So does Islam. So do Judaism and Christianity. The difference between the Judeo-Christian preaching and the Islamic proscription is that the Muslims actually pay attention to what their faith teaches them.
Hence the feelings of revulsion engendered by George's flaunting of his sexual orientation. The gay "marriage" wasn't bad enough. Oh no. George and his husband/wife (no-one is quite sure which is which) had to adopt a child -- a lovely baby boy -- during the campaign. There were some who applauded Mr. (Mrs.?) Smitherman's bravery and dedication to gay rights. But others clearly didn't see it that way.
The analysts are now picking over the entrails, trying to figure out whether the apocalypse of Toronto will spread throughout Ontario and Canada. There is no Tea Party in Canada yet. (Indeed, there are no parties at all in municipal politics in Ontario.) But the people -- the majority who are fed up with "progressive policies" and ever-increasing taxation -- have discovered that they can buck the trend. Stay tuned. As Christie Blatchford wrote in today's Globe and Mail, vox populi vox Ford!
Biggest ratholes named and shamed
Every year Transparency International compiles a list of the most corrupt countries in the world. They rank 178 countries on a scale of 10 to 0, with ten being the least corrupt and zero the most corrupt.
Coming in at the bottom of the league table for 2010, with a score of 1.1, is ... the envelope please ... Somalia! Tied for second-worst are Myanmar ("Burma" to the old Asia hands) and ... wait for it ... Afghanistan!
Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore topped the list as the countries with the most virtuous public sectors. China is No. 78, the USA No. 22, Britain No. 20 and Canada No. 6. Canada's ranking improved from No. 8 last year, presumably because the White Elephant Inquiry [Oliphant enquiry, surely! ed.] couldn't pin anything on former PM Brain Baloney.
OK, we all know most of those Third World countries are more corrupt than are we westerners. If you entertain any doubt, click here to see the corruption map. Note how the colours get deeper as you go south and west. So what?!
I'll tell you what. Ask your congressman or MP which countries receive the largest chunk of your country's foreign aid. If you're a Canadian taxpayer, you will be less than pleased, I would think, to know that Afghanistan -- specifically the régime of Mohammed Karzai -- is the Number 1 recipient of the largesse of the régime of "Call me Steve" Harper.
Canada has earmarked nearly $2 billion for "development assistance" to Afghanistan, blithely ignoring concerns about corruption which have been expressed for years and years. Just last week, Krazai admitted that his government receives millions of dollars in cold hard cash from ... wait for it ... Iran!
But wait a minute. The krazai guy is our friend, right? And Iran is our enemy, right? Why would our friend be taking money from our enemy? Turning the question around, why would we be giving billions of dollars to someone who is also in the pay of our enemies?
Doesn't make sense, does it... But then, the whole concept of pouring money down Third World ratholes doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Maybe Hellery Clinton or Lawrence "Loose" Cannon can explain it to me.
Coming in at the bottom of the league table for 2010, with a score of 1.1, is ... the envelope please ... Somalia! Tied for second-worst are Myanmar ("Burma" to the old Asia hands) and ... wait for it ... Afghanistan!
Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore topped the list as the countries with the most virtuous public sectors. China is No. 78, the USA No. 22, Britain No. 20 and Canada No. 6. Canada's ranking improved from No. 8 last year, presumably because the White Elephant Inquiry [Oliphant enquiry, surely! ed.] couldn't pin anything on former PM Brain Baloney.
OK, we all know most of those Third World countries are more corrupt than are we westerners. If you entertain any doubt, click here to see the corruption map. Note how the colours get deeper as you go south and west. So what?!
I'll tell you what. Ask your congressman or MP which countries receive the largest chunk of your country's foreign aid. If you're a Canadian taxpayer, you will be less than pleased, I would think, to know that Afghanistan -- specifically the régime of Mohammed Karzai -- is the Number 1 recipient of the largesse of the régime of "Call me Steve" Harper.
Canada has earmarked nearly $2 billion for "development assistance" to Afghanistan, blithely ignoring concerns about corruption which have been expressed for years and years. Just last week, Krazai admitted that his government receives millions of dollars in cold hard cash from ... wait for it ... Iran!
But wait a minute. The krazai guy is our friend, right? And Iran is our enemy, right? Why would our friend be taking money from our enemy? Turning the question around, why would we be giving billions of dollars to someone who is also in the pay of our enemies?
Doesn't make sense, does it... But then, the whole concept of pouring money down Third World ratholes doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Maybe Hellery Clinton or Lawrence "Loose" Cannon can explain it to me.
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