The way the Ball bounces: February 2013

Monday, February 25, 2013

Washington Post: Concern over woman killed in abortion an 'illegal violation of her privacy'

On Thursday, she wrote a column entitled, “Woman loses her life and then her privacy after an abortion.”.... She expressed anger and outrage, not at the death (which she termed “tragic”), but at the fact that demonstrators outside the clinic had learned the victim's name and, she assumes, her medical history.... “The protesters are exploiting this woman’s death and making other women think that their privacy is never truly protected when they seek an abortion.”

That, she wrote, “is cruel.”

I think losing one's life to abortion is cruel.

Related articles

Saturday, February 23, 2013

This Will Make Leftists' Heads Explode

Coat of arms of Toronto (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The city [Toronto] should neither help nor encourage these people to stay, argued Mr. Minnan-Wong, who asked city council to support the federal government’s approach to legal immigration, and endorse deporting people who are in the country illegally.

“They are an insult to every immigrant who played by the rules to get into this country,” he said. “It sends a message to the world that it is OK to break the law to come to Canada, and it says that the city of Toronto is an accomplice to this lawbreaking.”

Cue exploding leftist heads.

Followed by this:

City council shot down Mr. Minnan-Wong’s request, and instead took steps designed to help people living in Toronto ~~illegally~~ without legal status feel more comfortable accessing city services.... City staff will report back later this year on ways to “improve access without fear”.

Is this what our society has come to -- making people who are here illegally "more comfortable"? What's next: making people who don't pay their Toronto municipal taxes "more comfortable" by assuming they have good reasons for not doing so?

The question is not, "is this a good idea?". The question is, "can a society that acts this way survive?".

Related articles

Thursday, February 21, 2013

"Is There No Law In Northern Ontario"?

Ontario Provincial Police (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A De Beers lawyer faces Canadian law enforcement, circa 2013:

TIMMINS, Ont. - The ongoing blockade outside the Victor diamond mine is not an First Nations protest but an act of extortion, a Timmins Superior Court judge declared Wednesday....

The De Beers lawyer questioned "what is the message being sent to the world" when "five or six disgruntled ex-employees ... can shut down a business of 500 people at a cost of millions? That there is no law in Northern Ontario?"

Smitheman said it is troubling if the police don't know how to remove six protesters blocking a road.... "This is Attawapiskat. It's not Kandahar," he said.

The OPP wants to come across as neutral. Problem is, laws are being broken. OK, so the OPP wants to come across as neutral with regard to Canada's laws. Got a problem with that? Maybe we should ship them to Kandahar.

Since there's no peace when someone is blockading a public road, we can't call them peace-keepers. And since they have no intention of, you know, enforcing the law, we can't call them law-enforcement officers. What are they, then? They're probably there to ensure that no one interferes with the law-breakers. The OPP's finest moment was when one of their patches appeared on the Sgt. Pepper cover. It's been pretty much downhill since then.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

The West's Death Wish: Wiccan, Pagan holidays at University of Missouri

The first holiday on the list is the Hindu two-day festival celebrating the birth of Krishna, a god considered to be a “warrior, hero, teacher and philosopher.” During the observance, which occurs on Aug. 28 this year, Hindus are likely to forgo sleep in order to, among other things, sing traditional songs.

“Avoid scheduling major academic deadlines on this day, since it is likely that students will be operating on very little sleep,” the guide continues.

Other holidays like Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah and Easter are included in the guide of 43 holidays with varying degrees of suggested accommodations to be granted to students at the 34,000-student public university in Columbia.

To downgrade Easter to the status of a Wiccan or Hindu holiday is to deny 2,000 years of Western history. Here's the question: by the time the West finishes clear-cutting its culture in the name of relativism, appeasement and guilt, will there be anything left worth saving?

Related articles

Sunday, February 17, 2013

"Spreading Christianity Is A Crime..."

Spreading Christianity is a crime in this predominantly Muslim North African country.

Meanwhile, "Prime Minister Stephen Harper will unveil the government’s long-awaited Office of Religious Freedom and name Canada’s first religious freedom ambassador at a Toronto-area Ahmadiyya Muslim community centre on Tuesday."

Somehow I doubt he's going to go all waggy-finger on them.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Word of the day: simulacrum

simulacrum

1. an image or likeness.
2. a mere image or one that does not represent the reality of the original. (thefreedictionary.com)

Used by: Mark Steyn:

In that sense, like Beyoncé lip-synching the National Anthem at the Inauguration, the State of the Union embodies the decay of America's political institutions into a simulacrum of responsible government rather than the real thing, and a simulacrum ever more divorced from the real issues facing the country. -- Mark Steyn

My usage:

You call that a whole cookie? It's more like a simulacrum.

And that's the way the Ball bounces, er, cookie crumbles.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Of Mice and Men: Billion$ in Medical Research Can't Be Wrong. Oh, Wait.

Laurie Anderson - Big Science (Photo credit: kevin dooley)

Papers rejected because, "they had to be wrong".

When your funding depends on it, the fact your underlying assumptions may be wrong becomes a rather unwanted, inconvenient truth. An interesting critique of taxpayer-funded, Darwinian-based Big Science.

You think mice-men is bad? It's a minor skirmish.

Imagine the train-wreck when the evidence comes in that the neo-darwinian model is hopelessly insufficient and wrong-headed to explain... you. It's pouring in now, but as with climate-change, everything is interpreted as evidence of the model.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Crossroads Christian Communications in the Gay Crosshairs

Adam and Eve (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My friends at Crossroads Christian Communications have come under fire by homosexual activists. Apparently taking any public stance that is less than enthusiastic about gay sex is now something that results in social ostracization. I said years ago when gay advocates were pushing for "tolerance" that this was not about tolerance, it was about "we win - you lose". And that's the way it's being played out.

Over the years I have met many folks from Crossroads. They are committed evangelical followers of Jesus. I have never heard any of them utter an "anti-gay" statement, ever. Crossroads does view homosexual acts, along with a lot of other sexual behavior, as sinful, as Christians have for centuries. Jesus himself had some very "intolerant" views of what constituted sexual sin. Worse, he "hung out" with Moses at the transfiguration, and personally chose the apostle Paul to be his messenger to the Gentiles. So, I guess the Crossroads folks are in good company.

The question is: is there a place for actual diversity in Canada where persons of diverse views and convictions can participate fully in public life, or is there only room for the shriveling diversity of the left where everyone must think, speak, and act alike? Remember, Crossroads is being punished not for its actions, but its beliefs.

For an important article on the double-speak of "tolerance" and how we got to the discourse-shrinking place we are today, see The Illusionist: How Herbert Marcuse Convinced a Generation that Censorship Is Tolerance & Other Politically Correct Tricks by Robin Phillips.

The way the Ball bounces