The problem of AR-15 sentience

The Anglican Journal has an article on the Pittsburgh synagogue murders that contains this odd sentence:

The AR-15 and its non-patented variants have been behind most of the mass-shootings in the U.S. in recent history.

A church that has ceased to believe that “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” still has to pin the blame for evil on something, so what could be better than a semi-automatic rifle – “in sin did my gunsmith conceive me.”

In 2018 a secret cabal of AR-15s became self-aware, precipitating judgment day: it could be the theme of a movie.

In fairness to the article, other comments made by clergy do recognise that “Human beings have moral agency”, a sentiment not strengthened further down by Bishops Against Gun Violence who, we can only assume, are entirely comfortable with knife violence.

Nor are the calls to end anti-Semitism made more convincing by the repeated Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions motions – none of which have yet passed – presented in TEC synods.

The article ends with:

Most of all, we offer ourselves, our ministry, and our own prayerful witness to those who have endured the horror of gun violence in all of our communities so that together, we can drive away the spectre of hate with light and life.”

It sounds good but the problem isn’t hate, it’s sin and that is something Anglican clergy don’t like to talk about.

Canadian government budgets over half a billion dollars to regulate cannabis

There will, of course, be “cost recovery”, although that doesn’t include health care cost increases – psychiatric and physical – which will be borne mainly by non-imbibing tax-payers.

I strongly suspect “organized crime” mentioned here will be rubbing its collective hands in glee since its unregulated prices will ensure a continuing or, more likely, increased stream of customers as dope addiction tightens its grip on a growing number of witless Canadians.

OTTAWA, Oct. 5, 2018 /CNW/ – The Cannabis Act will come into force on October 17, 2018. The Act aims to keep cannabis out of the hands of Canadian youth and the profits away from criminals and organized crime.

[……]

  • In the Fall Economic Statement 2017, the Government announced $546 million over five years to ensure appropriate capacity to license, inspect and enforce all aspects of the Cannabis Act and to undertake robust public education and awareness activities.
  • The cost-recovery approach is guided by the principle that fees should allow for both larger and smaller players in a diverse market. Through this approach, Health Canada will collect no more than the cost of delivering the regulatory program.
  • Cost recovery for the regulation of cannabis includes four fees:
  • Application screening fee: recovers the costs associated with screening new licence applications ($3,277 for standard licence applicants and $1,638 for micro and nursery licence applicants);
  • Security clearance fee: recovers the costs associated with screening, processing, and issuing or refusing security clearances ($1,654);
  • Import/export permit fee: recovers the costs associated with screening, processing, and issuing or refusing to issue an import or export permit for medical or scientific purposes ($610); and,
  • Annual regulatory fee: recovers the aggregate costs of administering the cannabis regulatory program that are not covered under any of the other fees (2.3% of cannabis revenue for standard licence holders, or $23,000 if cannabis revenue is less than $1 million, and 1% on the first $1 million of cannabis revenue for micro and nursery licence holders or $2,500 in cases where cannabis revenue is less than $250,000).
  • Licence holders who produce cannabis exclusively for medical purposes are exempt from the annual regulatory fee.

 

O Cannabis: Canada gone to pot

Recreational use of cannabis became legal in Canada yesterday.

It was an election promise of Justin Trudeau’s liberals; we voted for him (well, not all of us) and so, as a nation, we have received what we asked for, what we deserve: big dope, big government, big stupefaction.

The Government of New Brunswick has a helpful website on bongs, blubbers, dab rigs and other paraphernalia to facilitate your consumption of cannabis and hasten you on your journey to psychosis and schizophrenia .

The Anglican Church of Canada, normally much inclined to giving its prophetic viewpoint on every contemporary societal lunacy, has been strangely silent on the matter. Perhaps they are waiting to see whether pot induced psychosis will lead the unwary into tottering in to one of its decaying churches, mistaking the whiff of incense for something stronger.

We have spent the last 60 years trying to stamp out tobacco smoking; here we go again.

From the Globe and Mail:

First, public health officials at all levels of government have been quite clear that marijuana remains a mind-altering drug, and that it has the potential to become addictive, impair judgement, and increase the risk of developing psychosis with heavy use. Some heavy pot smokers are even tormented by constant nausea.

Depending on how Canadians choose to consume the drug, there are also fears that it could lead to a renormalization of smoking. There are at least 33 known carcinogens in marijuana smoke and it’s been tied to cancer, respiratory problems and heart disease.

Meanwhile, students who use the drug regularly have been shown to suffer from poor health and tend to get lower grades. Experts have argued that setting the legal age federally at 18 (legal age will be 19 in most provinces) is a mistake, as the adult brain continues to develop until the age of 25 and too much pot may impede that development. (There are some studies, including one out of the University of Pennsylvania, indicating that concerns surrounding marijuana’s physical effects on young people may be overblown.)

One of the main reasons the government said it wanted to legalize marijuana in the first place was to cripple the black market and reduce access for young people.

On the other end of the spectrum, seniors are being told to be cautious if they are particularly frail, as pot impairment can have an affect on cognition and mobility. Children are particularly susceptible to consuming marijuana edibles (which are not legal yet) and these products should always be kept out of reach.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada warns that there is growing evidence on the harms of cannabis use during pregnancy. Risks that may be associated with pot use include low birthweight, preterm labour and stillbirth.

Canadians of all ages must also remain aware that synthetic marijuana, a compound that mimics the effect of THC, may continue circulating on the black market after legalization, and should be avoided.

Canada Supreme Court strikes down prostitution laws

From here:

The Supreme Court of Canada has unanimously struck down the nation’s anti-prostitution laws.

The high court deemed laws prohibiting brothels, communicating in public with clients and living on the profits of prostitution to be too sweeping.

The ruling follows a court challenge filed by former and current sex workers.

The justices’ decision gives the Canadian government one year to craft new legislation.

All nine of the court’s judges ruled in favour of striking the laws down, finding they were “grossly disproportionate”.

“It is not a crime in Canada to sell sex for money,” Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in Friday’s decision.

Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin has a point: since prostitution is not illegal in Canada then, legally, brothels should be little worse than restaurants, “communicating in public with clients” is merely advertising and pimps are a form of publicity agent. Becoming a prostitute is clearly a legitimate career choice whose adoption by, say, one of McLachlin’s daughters – assuming he has any – would prompt little more than the raising of a parental eyebrow.

Perhaps prostitution should be illegal – at least that would be consistent.

Lawyers for the Ottawa government reportedly claimed “if the conditions imposed by the law prejudice [sex workers’] security, it is their choice to engage in the activity, not the law, that is the cause”.

But the Supreme Court ruled it was not a choice for many.

“Whether because of financial desperation, drug addictions, mental illness, or compulsion from pimps, they often have little choice but to sell their bodies for money,” Justice McLachlin wrote.

The Supreme Court didn’t pay prostitutes much of a compliment by ruling that prostitution is not “a choice for many.” To claim a person is bereft of one of the distinguishing characteristics of humanity, free will – the potential a person has to make a choice that is not entirely conditioned by circumstance – is to regard her as less than human.

Trudeau: Boston bomber felt “excluded”

Justin Trudeau, keen to chart new territories of shallowness while packing as many clichés into as few sentences as humanly possible, reckons the “root cause” of the Boston bombings was whatever gave the bomber a feeling of “exclusion”. If only the neighbourhood welcome wagon had got to him earlier.

There is no escape: from the Anglican Church of Canada to foppish liberal politicians, one vice rules them all – exclusion.

From here:

In an interview with the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge that aired Tuesday night, Trudeau was asked how he would have responded to the attacks that killed three people and left about 170 injured.

Trudeau said he would offer the American material support “and at the same time, over the coming days, we have to look at the root causes.”

“Now, we don’t know now if it was terrorism or a single crazy or a domestic issue or a foreign issue,” he said. “But there is no question that this happened because there is someone who feels completely excluded. Completely at war with innocents. At war with a society. And our approach has to be, where do those tensions come from?

The Boston Marathon Bombings

As of this writing, three people have died – one an eight year old boy – and 143 are injured. Two bombs went off and two others were defused. Horrible though this is, it strikes me as a far cry from the kind of mayhem America’s enemies would like to inflict: terrorists on North American soil are, for the present, a bedraggled coterie of less than effectual bumbling cowards.

Predictably, President Obama couldn’t bring himself to call the bombings a terrorist attack even though, judging by the news video footage, everyone looked terrified.

On CNN, Peter Bergen suggested the bombers could have been “right wing extremists”; he really wanted to say “right wing Christian extremists” but didn’t think he would get way with that even on CNN.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah clearly were not listening to Peter Bergen since, minutes after the atrocity, they made a presumption of ownership and began to celebrate:

Shortly after terror bombs exploded and murdered over 12 people [actually only 3 so far] at the Boston Marathon, members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah were reported to be dancing in the streets of Gaza, handing out candies to passers-by.

[…..]

The head of an Islamic terror organization in Jordan – the Muslim Salafi group says he’s “happy to see the horror in America” after the bombing attacks in Boston.

“American blood isn’t more precious than Muslim blood,” said Mohammad al-Chalabi, who was convicted in an al-Qaeda-linked plot to attack US and other Western diplomatic missions in Jordan in 2003.

It seems that a Saudi national is a “person of interest”; even so, no-one denounced this as racial profiling – yet.

And the church is praying.