Category Archives: Politics

Some good news at last

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The U.S. was behind the assassination of one of Iran’s top nuclear scientists. The fact that Iran is making this claim makes it highly unlikely to be accurate, but if it is true, it’s good news because it means the U.S. still has the balls to do what needs to be done.

From here:

Iran said Saturday it has evidence that the United States was behind the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist this week in Tehran, state media reported.

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed in a brazen daylight assassination Wednesday when two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to his car in the Iranian capital.

The killing bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program, and has prompted calls in Iran for retaliation against those deemed responsible.

 

A faith test for the US presidential candidate

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Mayor Bloomberg wants a presidential candidate who “believes in science”. What does that mean exactly?

It can’t mean a candidate who believes that science exists and it doesn’t mean merely the exclusion of a candidate who is so obdurately opposed to science that he has become a member of the flat earth society.

What it does means is a candidate who has adopted a couple of faith positions: first that materialistic evolution is true and, second, that anthropogenic global warming is occurring. The former is scientifically unprovable and the latter is more a product of political correctness than science.

Imagine the outcry if Mayor Bloomberg had demanded a candidate who believes in Christianity.

From here:

Belief in science should be a no-brainer, especially for anyone running for President, Mayor Bloomberg groused Thursday.

The mayor used an international economic forum at Columbia University to pop off against any candidates who doubt the science behind hot-button political topics such as evolution and global warming.

“We have presidential candidates who don’t believe in science,” Bloomberg said, without singling out dubious Republican candidates directly.

“I mean, just think about it, can you imagine a company of any size in the world where the CEO said ‘oh I don’t believe in science’ and that person surviving to the end of that day? Are you kidding me? It’s mind-boggling!”

Bloomberg grew coy when asked which candidate he was talking about.

“I don’t know,” he said. “You can check the presidential candidates’ speeches… I don’t have time to go do it but all their speeches, everything they said.”

Only one GOP contender – former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman – has come out full force saying he believes in science.

“To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy,” he wrote on Twitter. He later attacked Rick Perry on “This Week” when he said, “The minute that the Republican Party becomes the anti-science party – we have a huge problem.”

 

St. Francis in Wall Street

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The religious left, in the form of Jim Wallis of Sojourners, is hastening to bestow its benediction on the Wall Street protestors who, it seems, are following in the footsteps of St. Francis.

From here:

Religious Left icon Jim Wallis has announced he will conduct a visitation to the occupiers presumably to bestow his blessing and, he doubtless hopes, to receive their homage.

[….]

A prominent Wallis acolyte is pacifist Evangelical Left activist Shane Claiborne, who likened the Wall Street Occupiers to St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is this week.

Brother Shane has a point. As I recall from “The Little Flowers of St. Francis”, one of his first acts on becoming a Christian was to remove all his clothes and present them to his wealthy father. Here is a worthy Wall Street follower doing the same:

And here is another acolyte defecating on a police car. I will have to reread “The Little Flowers of St. Francis”, since I can’t quite recall where that was mentioned.

 

Jack Layton’s funeral – all it lacked was Elton John

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The homosexual cleric Rev. Brent Hawkes delivered the sermon, Steven Page sang Leonard Cohen’s “Halleluia”, Steven Lewis couldn’t resist being political and First Nations National Chief, Shawn Atleo presented a feather in a mawkish neo-pagan send-off of the persona of Jack Layton.

Let’s hope that the person is enjoying eternity in the presence of the Triune God.

R.I.P. Jack Layton in spite of the pantomime

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From here:

Yet what was truly singular about him was how consumed by politics he was and how publicly, yet comfortably, he lived.

How fitting that his death should have been turned into such a thoroughly public spectacle, where from early morn Monday, television anchors donned their most funereal faces, producers dug out the heavy organ music, reporters who would never dream of addressing any other politician by first name only were proudly calling him “Jack” and even serious journalists like Evan Solomon of the CBC repeatedly spoke of the difficulty “as we all try to cope” with the news of Mr. Layton’s death.

The Anglican Socialist Church of Canada intoned its approval of Layton in death much as it had done in life:

The Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the Opposition, had a “ great compassion” for people in need. He was a doer who was deeply engaged in society and had a great vision of what Canada could be.

These are some of the things that Bishop Dennis Drainville, Anglican diocese of Quebec, will remember most about him.

But perhaps the most fitting memorial was scrawled on his gravestone:

I couldn’t agree more. Jack Layton was the reason I started voting, too – for Stephen Harper.

No happy ending for Jack Layton

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From here:

TORONTO – What Jos Chiu remembers most is the sign. A long, red, illuminated sign with big white letters: MASSAGE. The sign was for years vertically attached to number 787 Dundas St. W.

It was a massage parlour, but no ordinary massage parlour.

It was the kind suspected by police as one of the many in the city where women were offering the “extra service” of masturbation — a place known on the street as a rub-and-tug.  It’s the same massage parlour where in January 1996 Toronto Police say they walked in on NDP Leader Jack Layton — then a Metro councillor — with his pants down — literally.  In a statement Friday night, Layton said he was there for a massage and that he was told by police he had done nothing wrong.

“It was a big vertical sign on the side of the building,” said Chiu, who has owned and operated a custom T-shirt shop across the street for over 20 years.

The question is, should anyone who is daft enough to go into a massage parlour that advertises its services on a long, red, illuminated sign and naïve enough to expect his protestations of innocence to be believed, be put in charge of running a country?

Perhaps, as his wife says, “Sixteen years ago my husband went for a massage at a massage clinic that is registered with the city of Toronto. He exercises regularly; he was and remains in great shape and he needed a massage.” Or perhaps Olivia Chow’s desire for vicarious power is sufficient to temper her outrage at her husband’s desire to graze in other pastures – publicly, at least.

Chinese pianist calls Americans “jackals” in a song performed at a White House dinner

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It’s all part of the new political civility.

From here:

A Chinese pianist struck a sour note at a White House state dinner with a rendition of a well-known anti-American anthem.

With the Chinese and U.S. presidents among the dozens of dignitaries watching, Lang Lang belted out ‘My Motherland’, the theme tune to the Chinese-made Korean War film ‘Battle on Shangangling Mountain’.

The song has been a propaganda tool in China for decades and includes a disparaging reference to Americans as ‘jackals’ who will be shot with hunting rifles.

You can hardly blame the Chinese for treating the American government like half-witted wimps considering the same government gave a benign nod to the building of a victory mosque on the site of a mass murder committed in the name of Islam.

Here it is:

Some animals are more equal than others

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As is often the case with socialism in practice, taking care of the poor ends up turning into taking care of poor me.

From here:

[I]f the attitude of NDP power couple Jack Layton and Olivia Chow is any indication, many MPs still haven’t learned the most important lesson of last spring’s expense controversy: You are not entitled to this money, no questions asked, just because you are an MP.

Last year, Chow claimed $530,000 in expenses, Layton claimed $629,000. Both are above average and a little surprising given that both represent Toronto ridings. Last time I looked, T.O. was not that far from Ottawa. One might be forgiven for thinking it would cost less to ferry Toronto MPs back home as opposed to say, Yellowknife MPs or ones from Labrador. But maybe the short distance prompts them to take more trips back to their constituencies, racking up more expenses.

Chow’s sensitive, caring-for-the-average-working-stiff response when asked about her above-average expenses? “It’s within the law,” she told the Toronto Star curtly.

[T]he Layton-Chows act more like the Duke and Duchess of Downtown Toronto. They live more lavishly than the average Conservative or Liberal, then insist we peasants have no right to know more because they are acting “within the law.”

Canada’s new Governor General is Anglican

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The Journal reports:

Canada’s next governor general, David Johnston, is a respected academic and lawyer. He is also Anglican.

Currently the president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo, Johnston will succeed Governor General Michaelle Jean when her term ends on Oct. 1.

According to the Globe and Mail:

Mr. Johnston combines a mind that has traversed securities law, Quebec separatism and emerging high technologies with the formidable diplomatic skills of someone who has served as president of two universities. And he possesses what is universally described as a personality that combines unaffected warmth with boyish enthusiasm.

He will be guided, as well, by his Anglican faith.

Everything seemed fine up until that last sentence.

The leader of the free world doesn’t know how to use an iPod

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A fact that he appears to be proud of. From here:

‘With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations – none of which I know how to work – information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.’

He also laid into the Internet gossip sites for spreading rumour around the world, even if it was false.

‘With so many voices clamouring for attention on blogs, on cable, on talk radio, it can be difficult, at times, to sift through it all; to know what to believe, to figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s not,’ he said.

‘Let’s face it – even some of the craziest claims can quickly gain traction. I’ve had some experience of that myself.’

And one of those crazy claims is that Obama doesn’t know how to use – how can I put it – easy to use devices designed for techno-dummies. Let’s hope no-one has told him where the nuclear button is kept: he might mistake it for a coffee maker.