Shark Bait

I'm going to give the global warming movement a helping hand.

I know, I know. I've been ragging the alarmists and tormenting them with my blog jabs.

But now, I'm feeling a bit sorry for them. Nature just isn't cooperating with the script. It was so cold in Toronto today, people were wearing winter coats. What a sorry bunch.

So, here's my gift to them.

There's been a rash of shark attacks off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the USA lately.

BLAME THEM GLOBAL WARMING.

I'm surprised they haven't already thought of this.

Let's see how long it takes for someone to propose a link between the shark attacks and climate change.

And that's the way the Shark Fin bounces.

The Toronto Transit Commission Strikes Again

Although I'm mostly retired, I've got a bit of residual consulting work in Toronto. Downtown. Last Sunday, the TTC promised, as in PROMISED, to let us know by 4pm whether they were striking. Silly me. I believed the TTC. Logged on at 4pm for the news. No news. Finally, at around 5:15pm, I figured I had to make a decision -- my downtown hotel reservation had to be cancelled by 6pm. So I left our Toronto condo and headed downtown, so I would be in downtown Toronto for Monday am. business. That cost about $140. When I got to the hotel, and checked in, I learned that the strike had been averted. Too late for me. I had to pack, check into the hotel, early next morning check out of the hotel, deal with downtown parking, etc. etc.

All because a union leader failed to keep his word.

This same guy promised to give Toronto residents 48 hours notice of any pending strike action. As in PROMISED. He broke that promise too. The union went on strike, suddenly, at midnight Friday. A lot of people were stranded. I was driving back into Toronto on Sunday, with more work downtown, and, once again, I needed to know: is the TTC going to be on strike, or not? The legislature met, and ordered the TTC back to work. The left-leaning CBC dutifully reported that the TTC planned to honor the government legislation and return to work. As if defying the law would have been a possible and perhaps reasonable response for a union. Is the rule of law really that tenuous in today's rights-obsessed Canada?

Anyway, I found out in time to cancel tonight's reservation at the Holiday Inn on King. And, with the Lord's help, I'll be in downtown Toronto tomorrow morning fulfilling my contractual promises. Still, the contempt that the TTC has shown for the citizens of Toronto lingers, along with the sharp memory of personal uncertainty, inconvenience and expense. Here's my point: I would like to see the TTC Union leader arrested and thrown into jail.

Is that too much to ask?

Climate Change and the Coming WWIII

Just when you think the global warming hysterics can't get any worse --

The UK Telegraph is reporting that climate change "may put world at war"

"Climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars but lasting for centuries unless the problem is controlled, a leading defence think tank has warned."

Read that last bit slowly. As big as WWI and WWII, but lasting for centuries.

You might as well throw in Ted Turner's prediction of cannibalism for good measure.

About the only thing they haven't predicted yet is intergalactic conflict.

But, I'm sure that's coming.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

It's Earth Day in Toronto

I have some distressing news. You know how we had Earth Hour a few weeks ago, right? That was where people did token things like turning off a light in the name of whipping catastrophic global scorching.

OK. We got through that.

Today is Earth Day. Worse than that, I did a Google search and discovered that the entire month of April has been designated Earth Month.

Your intrepid reporter was in Toronto today for Earth Day. Here's my on-the-spot report: the downtown today was inundated with people wearing fresh new T-shirts with the inscription Toronto Tourism - Earth Day - or something to that effect.

According to a googled press release, they are also planting trees. Let's hope they plant enough trees to offset the effects of manufacturing and transporting those T-shirts.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2008/18/c7191.html

And that's the way the johnny-on-the-spot Ball bounces.

German Ingenuity: Something to Chew On

At times you may wonder, "is moseying over to The Way the Ball Bounces really worth the effort? After all, there are some keystrokes involved.

Here to answer your question and end all doubt, I give you: The German Auto Restaurant

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2008/04/080409_germany_auto_restaurant.shtml

And, if that's not good enough for you, I've got video:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7336490.stm

Now just think how impoverished your life would have been if you had never heard about the German Auto Restaurant.

And that's the way the German-engineered Ball bounces.

Episcopal Pap

"It's not about having answers as much as it is about engaging a story. It is about your story and how your story connects to an ancient story of desert wanderers that, in time, came to see that humanity and this energy they called God mingled and existed through Christ and thus, exists in all of humanity."

"this energy called God"? Really? God is something less than a person, something less than what humans are? Star Wars was right, and the Bible is wrong?!

"mingled and existed through Christ". Mangled syntax. Hard to know what this is supposed to mean.

"and thus, exists in all of humanity". The Episcopal Church has gone Oprah. God exists in everyone. No need to be saved if God exists in all of us. Just recognize the divinity within.

Is this the message of the Bible?

It is not.

There is an urgency to the gospel message. We are lost. We are perishing. We must be saved. God has done something. He has offered Himself. He has given us Christ -- someone human like us -- as an object of faith to believe in. There is an imperative to the gospel. You must repent and believe in the lifesaver God has thrown out to you.

This urgent imperative is lost, all lost, in the pap that passes for Episcopal belief today.

The Episcopal Church does not need polite people that put getting along and being polite above all else. They need prophets who will tear a strip off of the faithless leaders that are leading this church into ruin.

God, please raise up prophets within and to the Episcopal Church, through Jesus Christ, Amen.

Quebec Shoots Itself In Its [Subsidized] French Foot

The wandering contributor "frappeur" has sent this in.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=0a7aa6e7-2068-4f52-84de-3dcfb3002eb7

It's a story about the French-dominated government of Quebec doing its best to wipe out English in the province of Quebec (using tax subsidies provided by English-speaking Canadians to do so -- how these guys have any self-respect is beyond me).

In spite of laws forbidding it to do so, the Quebec government has apparently been (gasp) posting notices to businesses in the verboten English. Seems that North American businesses like to do business in English.

Surrounded by a sea of English-speaking people, I interpret "French Only" edicts as "you are not welcome here".

I would respect the Quebec government if they were at least consistent. Let's see them publish all of their North American tourist advertising and information IN FRENCH ONLY.

And that's the way the English-speaking Ball bounces.

Reproductive Freedom's Shining [Hoax] Moment [updated]

Update: It was a HOAX.

Like many modern art projects, this appears to be nothing more than an egotistical "artist" seeking to draw attention to herself. The art itself, like many if not most modern "art" projects, is utterly without merit.

- - - - - - - - - -

Here's a story Drudge is covering today.

Art major Aliza Shvarts has taken the enshrined right-to-control-my-body mantra to new, dizzying heights.

For nine months she has artifically inseminated herself, gotten pregrant, and then induced miscarriages.

She has made an art project of it all, featuring video recordings and collections of blood.

We are wading in the depths of human degradation here, folks.

And those on the left can have nothing to say against it. They have already stated that a woman has the unqualified right to "control her body". So, there can be no moral objection to this life-destroying, self-destructive, soul-destroying behaviour.

It was for such degradation, and worse, that Jesus came to bear the sins of many (he didn't just come to save the "respectable" from their sins.) If the world was ever to wake up and agree that it needs a saviour, there is only one.

His name is Jesus. Saviour of the world. Light of the world.

We need him now.

Jesu, mercy.

Good luck with this...

The latest from the BBC's all-bad-all-the-time AGW alarmism:

"For the past 2,000 years, the [global average] sea level was very stable, it only varied by about 20cm," said Svetlana Jevrejeva from the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL), near Liverpool, UK.

"But by the end of the century, we predict it will rise by between 0.8m and 1.5m.

I'm not sure what more can be said. The scientists have 2,000 years of actual evidence, including much warmer times when great land masses such as Greenland were "green", in which world sea levels varied by a mere 10 inches.

However, they also have computer models, fed with data and assumptions, that enable them to predict sea level rises of three-five feet in the next 90 years.

So which do they go with -- hard historical evidence or speculative computer models?

Hint: only one will result in massive amounts of fresh AGW funding.

Here's what I want to know: are AGW alarmists buying up real-estate that is one block in from coastline properties?

Or do even they believe their predictions may be only so much hot air?

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

This is Cool!

http://www.ip-adress.com/

Try it!

Thou Shalt Not Kill Fish

The BBC is shocked. Europe is shocked. Here's its shocking headline: "Shock at polar bear's carp kill". I told you, they're shocked.

A polar bear kills some fish -- and Europeans are in shock. They're upset that the once-cute-and-cuddly Knut has grown up into a wild animal. "

Come to think of it, this is a perfect example of how liberal ideas about life are continually undermined: if we treat the polar bear like a cuddly domesticated pet, he'll behave like one. To this can be added:

* If we build basketball courts, we'll keep kids from getting into drugs and gangs crime

* If we flood welfare recipients with government services and easy-money, they'll turn into productive citizens

* If we are nice to terrorist-types, and appeasing to their religion, they won't attack us

It gets worse:

There is speculation that Knut killed the carp just for fun. Going further, a German news website accuses Knut of murdering the carp "senselessly murder[ing]", to be exact.

Is it even possible for fish to be "murdered"? Is it even possible for an animal to "murder" anyone. Apparently so. In the morally barren landscape which is post-Christian Europe, it's murder to kill a fish, but a sacred right to slaughter the unborn.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

I'm Such A Clever Boy

Still doin' my income taxes. I'm on the home stretch! I've calculated our combined taxes owing to the penny. Thanks to the miracle of income tax software, I can fiddle with the amounts. I've been adjusting the amount of charitable donations that I claim vs. my wife.

Initially, the total amount we owed ended in 28 cents. By clever manipulation of the charitable donations, and dogged persistence, I managed to reduce the total amount owing down to a 27 cents ending. I didn't stop there -- I kept on going. Got it to 26 cents. Then 25. Then, 24 -- until, finally, I got it down to a breath-taking 23 cents. I'm saving five cents!

I'm declaring complete and total victory over the nefarious Canada Revenue Agency!!!!!!!!

And that's the way the taxed-to-the-max Ball bounces.

Wheelchair-Bound Bank Robber: It's An Equality Issue

I've got some great news. There's a story out of Palo Alto, California that a bank was robbed by a guy in an electric wheelchair. Even though his getaway would have been a slow-speed chase, he managed to elude capture. Police don't know whether the wheelchair was just a prop or whether the robber was truly disabled.

I'm rooting for it to have been a truly disabled person. This would be a great day for the disabled, to show that, in spite of their disabilities, they are able to function as full participants in American/Canadian life.

But what about the getaway? Doesn't it seem unfair that the police should be able to run and use cars when the wheel-chair-bound bandit is cemented to his wheelchair?

I think this deserves a human rights hearing.

In the interests of fairness, when a bank is robbed by a physically disabled person, the police should not be allowed to walk fast, run, or use cars. They should be compelled to either use their own pursuit wheelchair, or, barring that, hop on one foot. The disabled should have an equal chance to escape.

Anything else would be discrimination.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Expelled: The Movie

Vicki told me about this movie about a year ago. It will be out later this month. Go and see it! It's by Ben Stein and it's all about how the educational system of America has locked-in Evolution and locked-out consideration that the universe looks designed and may in fact be designed.

I went to the associated Blog. The venom was poisonous. People hate the idea of Intelligent Design. They mischaracterize it as an argument that says, "God did it". That's not what Intelligent Design does. It suggests that the evidence of the universe points to design. Period.

And, it does.

I responded to the venomous posters. I used a variation of C. S. Lewis's classic argument that says if our brains are uncreated and undesigned, and the universe purely materialistic, then we have no rational basis for trusting anything that comes out of them. Here's the way I put it to them:

"Interesting to listen to the mockers. They act as if [they think] their thoughts mean something. Yet, if they believe their brains are unplanned, undesigned and made of evolutionary junkyard parts, surely they would doubt the veracity of anything emanating from them — nothing more than mindless chemical drips, really. And yet they deify and idolize their own thinking!

Abstract thought.

Such a wonderful conundrum to those who believe in a closed-system, purely materialistic, mindless, unfeeling, and indifferent universe.

Mock on!"

Ratcheting Up the AGW Rhetoric: Keep Your Eyes On Your Thighs

For some weeks now I've been wondering how the global warming alarmist crowd could ratchet up the rhetoric any further. We've had "earth has a fever", we've had "planet is on fire", we've had flooded coastlands and disappearing islands.

Credit the left's Ted Turner for the latest in hyperbole.

AGW will lead to cannibalism.

This from NewsBusters: "Not doing it will be catastrophic. We'll be eight degrees hottest in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals."

Notice that he links the "us" in which he finds himself not with the us who will have died but with the us who will have become cannibals.

But this leads to a world of important questions.

How long can cannibalism last? Is it sustainable? Are scientists looking into the important issue of "Long-term sustainability in a cannibalist-led future"? Are funds being granted? Are graphs being plotted? Are symposiums being planned? Has CBC lined up David Suzuki to do spot promotions?

Meanwhile, if you find yourself in the presence of Ted Turner -- "A man after your own heart" -- I would remind you all to "Keep Your Eyes On Your Thighs".

It's enough to make you want to swear off meat.

And that's the way the non-vegetarian meat-eating Ball bounces.