North Western Winds

That about says it all. Notice that nothing gets said about any nation attacking the U.S. via Canadian airspace. No, it's all about how we did it to the the yanks. What is it about the Liberals and they're obession with the Americans? "Independent course" my hiney. Tip: Small Dead Animals ; source: Cox & Forkum

The Phantom Observer hosts the latest edition of The Red Ensign Standard . Go on and have a look, he's done a swell job.

The U.S.A. was founded on Christian principles, true or false? As usual, it depends on how you define things like "founding" and "Christian principles." Jennifer at Scattershot takes a look at the question. It's harder - not easier - to argue that Canada is not a religiously founded country, btw. Our ties to the English Monarchy (defender of the faith) ought to make that clear enough for anyone (but sadly doesn't). *** Postscript *** Peter Thurley at Diner Table Don'ts tips us to a lengthy New York Times article on the same subject. Seven Sorrows is a Catholic alternative band whose music you can download for free. The band's site is here (looks good, sound quality is muddy) or from Download.com (MP3's sound good, site looks, well, blah). Before I became a country bumpkin I listened to alternative stuff for years. It leaves me a bit cold now, but I can still get into light trippin' ambient anytime. There's lots to be found on in...

Pure Intention and Man Made Law Chapter four of Thomas Merton's No Man is an Island is a look at what he calls "Pure Intention," by which he means learning to discern what we want from what God wills. I'm going to try and bring this around to a comparison of John Rawls' argument about liberty from what he calls the "Original Position." Bear with me. First, Merton offers some clarification about what is meant by the "will of God," a term that is the subject of much abuse and misunderstanding. One thing we ought to get right off the top is that we are not talking about God as a figure like Zeus who wants to have one thing rather than another (who made the things Zeus wants?), and we we are not talking about impersonal power number crunching it's way through time: There are religious men who have become so familiar with the concept of God's will that their familiarity has bred and apparent contempt. It has made them forget that's Go...

Blogger John C. Bambenek went through some stats in effort to compare the sex scandal that's been embarrassing the Catholic Church for a while now with the number of unreported child sex crimes that slip through the hands of Planned Parenthood every year. He concludes that the numbers in the church scandal "amount [to] roughly... the amount of sexual abuse cases covered up by Planned Parenthood in Ohio for only one year ." That gives some much needed perspective (and in no way condoes either organization's misdeeds). I suspect that there is a very important difference in outlook skewing the figures. If you do something you know is wrong, you are not likely to do it as much as someone who denies that the act is wrong at all. This has implications for policy (and policy debate!). If you propose something like "hosting a teenage drinking party is a bad idea," and people tell you "oh, they'll just do it anyway" you can kindly point out that you ...

The underlying story Via Dawn Eden I learned today that Planned Parenthood is so much in love with abortion that it is opposed to a bill being put before the US Senate that is intended to make aborting a child for being gay illegal. No such technology exists today, and I'm not sure there are any gay genes waiting to be found. Nevertheless, PP is making it clear that killing based purely on any principle (or none) is it's policy : The bill is called “An Act to Prevent Homosexuals from Discrimination.” I’m all for that. I just sort of thought it might be done by giving “homosexuals” [sic] the right to marry, protection from employment and housing discrimination, parental rights, maybe some new reality television shows about gay people that don’t involve fashion. Not by limiting the rights of women to terminate pregnancies. It's tough to enjoy any of the rights the author says she favours when you don't make it into the world at all. At least we know which they think is...

Check out Kate at Small Dead Animals on the Terri Schaivo case. Despressing, isn't it, that so many media outlets are calling it a right to die story. Terri does not want to die; or if she does no one knows that. What we do know is that her creepy husband wants her to die and he stands to gain a large financial windfall if she does. He's hardly an unbiased or objective "caregiver." This woman is not attached to machines that keep her alive. What's being proposed here is to deny her food and water, simply because she's too weak to do anything about it. Any of us could find ourselves in her situation - especially if we are active, play sports, clean the roof, slip in ice, etc. There but for the grace of God... If you should watch the Oscars this weekend (I never ever do), I hope you'll think of Terri when Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby comes up for best picture. The script doesn't even make sense. The boxer fights hard and overcomes gre...

I thought these were priceless. I live with two women (wife and mother-in-law). I swear they think I'm a martian from time to time. Tip: Wicked Thoughts TWO DOZEN THINGS THAT MAKE A BRIT FEEL LIKE A MAN (May need some translation) 1, OPENING JARS - nnng, she's struggling. You take it from her hands, open it effortlessly and pretend she loosened it for you. She didn't. Jars are men's work. 2, CALLING SOMEONE 'SON' - Especially policeman but even saying it to kids makes you the man. 3, DOING A PROPER SLIDE TACKLE - Beckham free kicks? Please. A Stuart Pearce tackle is the pinnacle of the game, simultaneously winning the ball and crippling the man. Magic. 4, SHARPENING A PENCIL WITH A STANLEY KNIFE - Blunt, is it? Hand it here love. No, I don't need a sharpener, you think I can't whittle. 5, GOING TO THE TIP - A manly act which combines driving, lifting and - as you thrillingly drop your rubbish into another huge pile of other rubbish noisy dest...

We've had a real warm and sunny stint here over the last week and I'm starting to really look forward to spring, and longer days, and flowers in bloom, and... you get the picture. It was 16C yesterday afternoon but it's still close to freezing at night. This a great song for the kind of days I'm longing for. The artist is Keith Urban , whose upcoming show in Vancouver sold out in minutes. Where the blacktop ends Gonna kick off my shoes And run in bare feet Where the grass and the dirt and the gravel all meet Goin' back to the well gonna visit old friends And feed my soul where the blacktop ends I'm lookin' down the barrel of Friday night Ridin' on a river of freeway lights Goodbye city I'm country bound 'Til Monday rolls around Gonna kick off my shoes And run in bare feet Where the grass and the dirt and the gravel all meet Goin' back to the well gonna visit old friends And feed my soul where the blacktop ends Workin' in the grind i...

Reap what you sow I am no fan of protests, peaceful or otherwise, so I found this story about some Greenpeacers being "actively resisted" both amusing and interesting (tip: Bill's Comment's ). A short summary is that they entered a London trading floor for petroleum, planning to disrupt trading in an effort to voice concern over air quality. The traders would have none of it and beat the heck out them. I'm inclined to back the traders on this one, with a few caveats thrown in. I am willing to overlook protests that really are peaceful. Blocking access to property that is not yours is not peaceful. This is obvious in cases of private property, but it applies to public property as well, since public property does not belong to protestors alone. I don't actually care if I like your cause or not. Being right about the ends does not give one carte blanche on the means. I have only taken part in one such protest and I'm sure it'll surprise no one tha...

I have been adding some new things to my template today and I thought I'd take a moment to point them out. Nothing high tech, just some places you might want to visit. Under NWW Daily News - Godspy , a very slick Catholic webzine. There's lots of good quality material here for a thoughtful person of any persuation. For instance, there's a interesting interview (some might find it shocking or disturbing, but they would be folks unfamiliar with war books, methinks) with Evan Wright , author of Generation Kill . The book is about his time in Iraq and parts of it were serialized in Rolling Stone . An excerpt from the book is here . Under References - Snopes , a site for information about urban myths and W3Schools , a very useful site for bloggers needing to find information about html and stylesheets. W3Schools is a good place for all those times when you can't remember if the code for light green is color: #00ff00 or color: #11ff11. You can experiment with code right ...

Via Dissect the Left , I came across a very interesting interview with evolutionary biologist Greg Cochran. Cochrane presents a pretty plausible argument that gay genes will never be found because the more likely cause is that male homosexuality is caused by a virus. See also here . Here are the highlights: Isn't it the current expectation among scientists that we will eventually find some sort of "gay gene" that codes for homosexuality? ... we can be pretty sure that there is no gene that codes for male homosexuality: not one that accounts for much of the story, anyhow. Although there is some familial clustering, there is certainly not a simple Mendelian gene: there is no simple Mendelian inheritance pattern of the type we see in cystic fibrosis or muscular dystrophy. In fact, identical twins are usually discordant for homosexuality (~75% of the time) - so homosexuality is unlikely even in a homosexual's twin. Obviously some environmental effect plays a...

If you're not reading Blimpish ... you're missing something. Something very English and very smart. Blimpish on the BBC: the problem with the BBC is not a conscious attempt to indoctrinate the viewer, but the uncritical parroting of media elite conventional wisdom. Our own CBC has exactly the same problem. Created to be different and objective, it is more than anything else a slave to the tastes of Upper Canada (geographical, ideological and class). Blimpish on the what the future holds for the Left : I remain firm in my belief that the next intellectual stage for the Left will be some pure form of libertarian individualism. They're already way on their way there: for the Left's base, values issues - pro-choice, multiculturalist, etc. - are extremely important... It's just that they get hung up on the economic policy stuff which is all settled for most people. When it comes to the questions raised by biotechnology - stem cells less important here than genetic en...

These lines from Francis Beckwith are great. "It's always wrong to generalize." Indeed. I never do that. I also liked this: "If a pregnant woman were carrying a spotted owl in her womb, what would be Al Gore's counsel to her?" G.E. Anscombe on the necessity of force is also worth a think.

This quiz aims to tell you what level of Dante's Inferno awaits you. I think I got the panderer thing because I thought it was ok to tell a white lie... The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory! Here is how you matched up against all the levels: Level Score Purgatory (Repenting Believers) Very High Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) Moderate Level 2 (Lustful) Moderate Level 3 (Gluttonous) High Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) Low Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) Low Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics) Very Low Level 7 (Violent) Very Low Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) Moderate Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous) Very Low Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

This is certainly interesting. Vatican to announce St. Paul's tomb found . No matter what your politics, we all ought to be happy that we have new media and mediums in which we can attempt to level the playing field with large players who would have us think they know what we need , and know how to put one right by us. Examples: Fair is fair. Lots of folks got all steamed when the Knights of Columbus and other Christian groups got some help from across the border. I say, so what? No one gets too concerned when labour or environmentalists share resources across the border. Justice is blind- if you're lucky. It turns out that many of the legal critics of Stephen Harper's notable speech in parliament last week are members or donors of the Liberal Party . Now why would a reputable unbiased paper like the Toronto Star forget to mention things like that? In Canada, securities sales people are now required by law to state if they have any interest or holdings in stocks and w...

It's hard, there's no way around it. Life just does not make sense as we would write it. If you have a moment, say a prayer for two of my blogging friends , both of whom have some hard times ahead. You two were both in my thoughts today.

Thomas Merton 1915- 1968 The following is taken from Thomas Merton's book, No Man is an Island . Merton was a Trappist monk in the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsmani, near Bardstown, Kentucky. His works are still popular today. The best known of them remains Seven Story Mountain . ... If I do nothing except what pleases my own fancy I will be miserable almost all the time. This would never be so if my will had not been created to use its own freedom in the love of others. My free will consolidates and perfects its own autonomy by freely co-ordinating its action with the will of another. There is something in the very nature of my freedom that inclines me to love, to do good, to dedicate myself to others. I have an instinct that tells me that I am less free when I am living for myself alone. The reason for this is that I cannot be completely independent. Since I am not self sufficient I depend on someone else for my fulfillment. My freedom is not fully free when left to itself. It ...

"this debate will not reach a conclusion or social peace until equal rights, multicultural diversity and religious freedom are balanced" Tory Leader Stephen Harper was very good in the house of commons this week. Here's a long reprint of his response to Paul Martin's introduction of the SSM bill: We believe that our proposals speak to the majority of Canadians who stand in this middle ground and frankly, who seek such a middle ground. Our proposal is that the law should continue to recognize the traditional definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, but at the same time we would propose that other forms of union, however structured, by appropriate provincial legislation, whether called registered partnerships, domestic partnerships, civil unions or whatever, should be entitled to the same legal rights, privileges and obligations as marriage. Many of these types of unions are already subject to provincial jurisdicti...

It seems I'm not the only one who thinks Paul Martin's reign has been more than disappointing thus far. You can read some of the Libs squawk about it here. The New Sisyphus shares a story that explains why I never want to see Al Jezeera on Canadian cable. He also has a nice words for "Red Ensign Canadians" but seems unaware of the Red Ensign brigade. Tip: Little Green Footballs Microsoft has decided to ship IE 7 ahead of the next version of Windows, with a beta available this summer. WSJ's Peggy Noonan on Blogging . Also, there's a pretty nice religion blog in Wittingshire . There is a sad story out of Kansas this week. It involves a certain infamous late term abortion doctor. It seems he's had at least one -and possibly two - women die on him in five weeks. This is the same doctor that Quebec women were being sent to because Canadian doctors were refusing to do the operation that late. I'm not sure if that practice is still ongoing. Anyone k...

This post by the hard working John the Mad reached out and got me. He's a lucky man.

This one is for those of you who take your b****** seriously . Quote: The characteristic topics of a bull session have to do with very personal and emotion-laden aspects of life — for instance, religion, politics, or sex. People are generally reluctant to speak altogether openly about these topics if they expect that they might be taken too seriously. What tends to go on in a bull session is that the participants try out various thoughts and attitudes in order to see how it feels to hear themselves saying such things and in order to discover how others respond, without it being assumed that they are committed to what they say: It is understood by everyone in a bull session that the statements people make do not necessarily reveal what they really believe or how they really feel. The main point is to make possible a high level of candor and an experimental or adventuresome approach to the subjects under discussion. Therefore provision is made ...

This post from The Maverick Philosopher is terrific. Evelyn Waugh is the author: There is no more agreeable position than that of dissident from a stable society . Theirs are all the solid advantages of other people's creation and preservation, and all the fun of detecting hypocrisies and inconsistencies. There aren't too many dissidents in North Korea or Syria. The U.S., on the other hand, is crawling with them. In Canada, they form the government. In Lebanon, the dissidents are the 40% Christians there. No wonder we hear so little sympathy for them in the MSM. PM the PM said today that Syria was " keeping the peace " in Lebanon. I'm at a total loss of words here... Housekeeping notice: I am questioned from time to time about why I'm so hard on Paul Martin. The short answer is that I think he deserves it. It took his predecessors seven or eight years to make me dislike them with anything approaching the contempt that I have for Martin. In a nutshell, if...

The essence of religion? While he was at Oxford in the early 1940's, C.S. Lewis created and chaired a debating club called the Oxford Socratic Club . It was intended to foster debate among people on campus, especially the religious and non religious. The following is taken from a paper he presented to that group titled Religion without Dogma? I should add, before I bring in the quote, that Lewis is responding to a previous paper making the assertion that all religion is about immortality, which is offered up to the credulous as a bribe for joining the "club." Lewis responds that Hinduism is a major religion which is not about immortality; there, the prize is relief from immortality. And Judaism has little interest. He then responds to the idea that immortality is all that religion is about: I cannot sufficiently admire the divine tact of thus training the chosen race for centuries in religion before even hinting at the shining secret of eternal life. He behaves like ...

Marriage makes us happy. Economists prove it . Jason Kenny was right. About Libby Davies . What is it about hard core lefties that makes them mutilate their identities for their ideals? See also here . The whole thing reminds me of something I had forgotten. Oceana has always been at war with Eurasia: At this moment, for example, in 1984 (if it was 1984), Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially the change of partners had never happened . Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented...