North Western Winds

John Ray at Dissecting Leftism kindly responded to my Post about the effect of poor Christian behavior on the stature and credibility of Christianity, and poses a question: North Western Winds notes my comments on the often un-Christian behavior of Christians and says that such behavior does not reflect on Christianity. I wonder would he argue that the vicious behavior of Communists does not reflect on Communism? But I in any case agree that the teachings of Christ are in no way damaged by those who do not follow them. I think Communists ARE following their teachings -- particularly if Lenin is taken as the teacher. The terrible behavior of Communists in Russia and elsewhere does reflect on their creed in a very bad way. My short answer invites a second question, namely why am I treating these creeds differently? And that requires a longer answer. The Russian Communists made many claims about the nature of the world and their creed. They said that there was no God, that the Chur...

I came across this tidbit from Ann Coulter's site today. During the Democratic primaries, Kerry went to Michigan and bragged to the Detroit News: "We have some SUVs. We have a Jeep. We have a couple of Chrysler minivans. We have a PT Cruiser up in Boston. I have an old Dodge 600 that I keep in the Senate. ... We also have a Chevy, a big Suburban." He was starting to sound like a used-car dealer in a giant cowboy hat peddling his wares in a cheesy, low-budget late-night TV commercial: "We got Jeeps, we got PT Cruisers, we got minivans, and they're priced to move, folks ..." But a few months after Kerry won the Michigan primary in February, the feckless opportunism told a bunch of environmentalists: "I don't own an SUV." When pressed on the apparent contradiction, Kerry explained: "The family has it. I don't have it." It's a waffle, it's a cheese burger, it's John Changing Man Kerry! [queue canned applause] Paul ...

I like John Ray's blog and agree with him often, but I want to use one of his essays to point out a common error in often seen in public discussions of the merits of Christianity. I agree wholeheartedly that Christianity is an enormously beneficial influence on ethical behavior but cannot see that it is essential or unique. And it certainly is not sufficient. We might think that Christ's central commandment "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22:39) would be as firm a foundation for respect for the rights of others as one could possibly imagine but there are unfortunately very few Christlike Christians and savagery and tyranny have historically been far more common in Christian lands than anything else. Just because someone fails to be all that a Christian should be, does not refute Christianity. In fact, the faith tells us that we cannot succeed, we are too weak, the cross is too great and thus we need God's Grace as much as possible. Grace ...

"Mr. Hoogasian, are you a Republican?" he remembers being asked. When Hoogasian answered yes, the committee member replied: "We don't need to hear any more from you." San Francisco , Ottawa, what's the difference? Other than crummier weather in the north? My own union is probably just as crappy as the one mentioned in this article.

This essay, found via John Ray at Dissecting Leftism , is very, very good. The author is a young Jewish man raised in a culture of Bostonian Liberalism, who has come to reject that upbringing after his eyes were opened to the threat that radical liberalism poses to his faith and his people. The author's name is Benjamin Kerstein and his blog is Diary of an Anti-Chomskyite . ... to the universalist, whose ideology is inherently totalist in its dimensions, any rejection is also, by definition, a threat. The distinctiveness of Judaism, its very sense of itself, was offensive to the ideology [liberalism] to which I had paid piper for so long, and thus the turn into anti-semitism was an inevitability of liberal philosophy. Most dangerously of all, liberalism's adherents felt themselves incapable of such thinking, for they believed their ideology to be a prophylactic against anti-semitism, when, in fact, anti-semitism was the result of that very ideology itself. It was in this co...

I'll get this stuff sorted out eventually Blogger is all messed up tonight, so I'm not going to bother creating any more posts only to risk loosing them into the internet netherworlds. That said, I've got Blogrolling working on the site now, and that means working with my blogroll will be much easier than I'd thought. I think I will wind up copying an idea from my wife and have a list of "daily blogs," a top tier of stuff I read almost every day, and a second list of "blog friends," people whose blogs I like, and who are willing to give me a link in return.

"I don't know why I don't get any respect." I read in the National Post today that this look is on the way out. I can only hope it's true.

And terrorist appeasers because I never get tired of hoping and praying that thing like this never happen again, anywhere in the world: The Beslan victims were not as numerous as ours — hundreds died, not thousands — but the national shock is comparable, because their suffering was so great and so prolonged, and because Russia's children were not collateral damage in this attack. They were the chosen victims of the global Islamic terror network, and all Russia watched in horror, day after day, as they were shot, stabbed, raped, and blown-up, along with their helpless parents and teachers, while other little ones perished in slow agony from thirst, dehydration, and heat stroke, inside a Russian school where the water fountains ran but dying captives were not allowed to drink anything but their own urine. Something like 1,200 Russians were subjected to this ordeal; more than a third — possibly as many as half — are dead, and most of the dead are children, crammed in on top of ea...

Novak on Zell Miller and the Dems This is what I mean: That was the exact point on which the great tradition of the Democratic party was destroyed from within. It was destroyed by leading Democrats of the left and by the educated class into whose hands the party's leadership increasingly fell. It became the new party of the rich and the movie-actor/professor/journalist axis, claiming to speak for the poor: the frauds. ... Zell Miller nailed the difference that has overtaken the Democratic party between then and now, and as far as I can see, most of the Democrats in the press (which means nine-tenths of the major media) don't dare to see what Zell sees. They are mistaken, however, if they don't see that the 1980s "Reagan Democrat" phenomenon is in full bloom again. Think not only Ron Silver the actor, but also Ed Koch the Mayor, and a swelling tide of Democrats in Ohio and Pennsylvania, in heavily Democratic districts, coming out to cheer for a president ...

I liked this bit from yesterday's mass: Who can know God's counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends? For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans. For the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the that has many concerns. And scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out? Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight. Wis 9:13-18b My reading of the Bible is still very lacking, but I have looked over the books of Wisdom, and they will probably be a favourite for a long time to come. No one can even begin to be wise, which is among the greatest of gifts, without getting their epistemology right. How do you know what you think you know? It isn't through reason, as that can only be a circula...

A quote from Alice Cooper currently making rounds on the web : If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal.

It's been no secret to anyone who's known me for any length of time that I really quite despise 60's values and the personalities that sell them. As a kid, I was spoon fed that junk in school and in all of the media that I consumed. Then I grew up and very slowly began to realize that I'd been sold a pig farm when I'd been promised a rose garden. So here's two links and a quote on the boomers : In a great karmic irony, the worst Generation may in turn be raising another great one. Having taught the children of the Baby Boomers off an on for five years now, at the University of Texas at Georgetown, I find them to be the opposite of everything I despise about their parents -- they are engaged in their communities, spending endless hours volunteering to build housing for the poor or to feed the homeless. They are concerned about their classmates, having calmed down the PC mania and replaced it with a sensible sensitivity to the feelings of others. They ...

I'm still sorting myself out on the blogosphere, seeing what tools are available to me in terms of editing and linking. I've joined St. Blogs and now I've applied to Blogs Canada. I think Rings and such are always useful tools and that's why I've decided to use them. The other issue on my mind is asking other bloggers for reciprocating links, which I have not yet done partly because, 1) I'm shy, and 2) I'm not sure that I want a link list ten kilometers long. I see what blogs like mine do as being acting a bit of as a gatekeeper. We pick out items from the web - news, pictures and, yes, other blogs. People visit based on how much they like your choice of stories and your take on said stories. A blog collection is a bit like a custom newspaper that you can read at anytime, because it is always being updated. It never sleeps and it never "goes to press." So I'm leaning towards a trim link list and hoping anyone who asks for a link and is refus...

Mark Steyn is a gem of a columnist and his loss is one of the reasons I can't really be bothered much to read a National Post much these days. Thankfully, he is published around the world and readily available on line . His response to all the hang wringing over the awful end to the hostage taking in Russia: Sorry, it won't do. I remember a couple of days after September 11 writing in some column or other that weepy candlelight vigils were a cop-out: the issue wasn't whether you were sad about the dead people but whether you wanted to do something about it. Three years on, that's still the difference. We can all get upset about dead children, but unless you're giving honest thought to what was responsible for the slaughter your tasteful elegies are no use. ... When your asymmetrical warfare strategy depends on gunning down schoolchildren, you're getting way more asymmetrical than you need to be. The reality is that the IRA and ETA and the ANC and any number ...

It's my birthday today. I can't belive my thirties are almost half over already. That's as much as I choose to reveal here. And this is certainly a reminder not to take a single day for granted.

What the hell is wrong with you people in Canada? According to the federal agency [Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)], to avoid being 'partisan' means to not address issues on which the competing political parties have opposing views. Dawna Lynn Labonté, a media relations officer for the federal Minister of National Revenue, told LifeSiteNews.com that not only would churches be penalized for telling congregants to vote for a certain party or candidate, they would also be penalized for coming out strongly on an issue on which the parties were opposed, such as abortion or same-sex 'marriage'. In fact, it was specifically on same-sex marriage that the Canada Revenue Agency addressed Leddy and Buckingham. Having kept one eye on the election process in the U.S., especially on the impact that the Swiftvets have had on the Kerry campaign, it is very distressing to see how different a course we are on in Canada. In Canada, there could never be anything like the Swiftvets campa...

Abbotsford's Jacob Hoggard. He's a great performer. Too bad about that lip ring.

I've been enjoying the Canadian version of of the Idol TV show all summer and I especially liked this weeks episode because the theme was one I can groove to, the so called "standards" of the 40's and 50's. Theresa, above, did "Paper Moon" and stole the show. I don't think she can win it, though. Despite stronger performances in the last couple of weeks, I think she'll be gone next week. Still, isn't she cute? My hometown of Abbotsford has had two contestants for most of the summer, although lastweek we lost Shane. Our other local hero, Jacob, is a strong performer but I expect that he will be the runner up. That twerpy kid from Alberta is going to win the big prize because there are teenage girls all across the country going hysterical at the sight of him. And if my female family and co-workers are representative at all, he has fans in the 60 plus category too.

THE PRIEST AND THE PROTESTANT One day while he was at the track betting on the ponies and nearly losing his shirt, Mitch noticed a priest who stepped out onto the track and blessed the forehead of one of the horses lining up for the 4th race. Lo and behold, that horse - a very long shot - won the race. Mitch was most interested to see what the priest did the next race. Sure enough, he watched the priest step out onto the track as the 5th race horses lined up, and place a blessing on the forehead of one of the horses. Mitch made a beeline for the window and placed a small bet on the horse. Again, even though it was another long shot, the horse the priest had blessed won the race. Mitch collected his winnings and anxiously waited to see which horse the priest bestowed his blessing on for the 6th race. The priest showed, blessed a horse, Mitch bet on it, and it won! Mitch was elated! As the day went on, the priest continued blessing one of the horses, and it always came in first. Mitc...

"Harm reduction" is one of the stupidiest things I've ever seen in terms of public policy. It seems to say, this is bad for you, so in order to help you find the willpower to stop, we will make your bad habit easier to do . It is the polar opposite of the "broken window" approach first taken in New York, and succesfully exported to other cities. The real answer to why we are seeing "harm reduction" is that there are very, very large numbers of people in our society who, even if they do not like or use drugs themselves, cannot find it in themselves to say so publically, so fearful are they of being called "intolerant." Well, guess what? Some things should not be tolerated. That used to be obvious. To many, it still is. Our very serious problem takes the form of leftie boomers and radicalized boomer kids, for whom any taboo is taboo. Not all boomers think this way - and certainly not all boomer kids! - but many do. The boomers who run Van...