Father Duffy's retirement speech

Father Duffy had been in the same parish for 22 years and was due to retire to an obscure parish in the most remote part of the archdiocese. The parish chapter of the Knights of Columbus decided to host a farewell dinner for him, and invited a leading local politician -- a member of the parish and a Knight -- to make a presentation and give a little speech.

Unfortunately, the politician was delayed, so Father Duffy decided to say a few words of his own while they waited.

"I got my first impression of the parish from the first confession I heard here. I thought I had been assigned to a terrible place. The very first person who entered my confessional told me he had stolen a television set and, when questioned by the police, was able to lie his way out of it.

"He had stolen money from his parents, embezzled from his employer, had an affair with his boss’s wife, had sex with his boss’s 17-year-old daughter on numerous occasions, taken illegal drugs, had several homosexual affairs, was arrested several times for public nudity and gave VD to his sister.

"I was appalled that one person could do so many awful things. But as the days went on, I learned that my people were not all like that and I had, indeed, come to a fine parish full of good and loving people."

Just as the priest finished his talk, the politician arrived, full of apologies at being late. He immediately rose to make the presentation and give his talk.

"I’ll never forget the day of Father Duffy's arrival," he began. "In fact, I had the honour of being the first person to go to him for confession."

Agent 6, who passes this along -- thank you! -- tells us that the moral of the story is: never, never be late!

Petition to FIFA to take 2018 World Cup away from Russia

Mrs Agent 5 has sent us a message saying that, in support of the Ukrainian people and for world peace, she has signed the following petition to Joseph Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA:

"Russia has invaded a foreign country, Ukraine, with the pretext of protecting its foreign nationals. This was the very same reason that Adolf Hitler used to invade Czechoslovakia which started World War II. To protest this violation of international law I believe we should petition FIFA to move the 2018 World Cup to another country and give Ukraine host status as a show of support."

Please sign this petition, she asks, and circulate it far and wide. Walt doesn't give two hoots about football or soccer -- what kind of "sport" is it where you can't use your hands? -- and thinks the petition has two chances of success -- slim and none -- but has signed it anyway, in solidarity with the Ukrainian people! Please do the same!

Announcing Walt's Gay 90s Theme Park

Walt has another brilliant idea, the latest in a long string. Yes, it's Walt Whiteman's GAY 90s THEME PARK, opening soon [too soon. Ed.] in a neighbourhood near [too near. Ed.] you. Here are just a few of the attractions guaranteed to titillate and delight all members of the LGBTQ community.

Judy Garland Theater - You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll simply swoon when you see shows themed on "Cabaret", "Some Like It Hot" and "Judy's Greatest Hits".

Camp Itup Adventure - Visitors don cute little shorts and Boy Scout hats for a walk in the woods with Big Gay Al. For the big finish, everyone sits in a circle while Al ghost stories that will scare your pants off.

Back Tunnel of Love - [Ed., please get an artist to work up an illustration of the entrance.]

Petting Zoo - Featuring lots of adorable woolly sheep. Are they rams or ewes? Play the guessing game and find out.

Confessional Capers - Priests [actors dressed as priests, surely! Ed.] will help you pour out your guilt. Heavy penance, including self-flagellation, for those who beg for it.

HIV Fantastic Voyage - Ride in a giant HIV virus through the bloodstream and lymphatic system, dodging the dreaded antiretrovirals, until you emerge in the middle of a colourful carcinoma.

Simply Spectacular Pride Parade - The highlight of your gay day! Don't just watch, but march along with our Champions of Diversity and celebrity marshals. [Ed., did Wynne, Baird or Kenney respond to our invitations?] Colourful beads and squirt guns for all marchers (fluids not included); posing pouches available in a rainbow of colours.

Dear gay friends, that's just a sampling! More thrilling attractions are in the pipeline even as I write. To get your FREE brochure just send a picture postcard to Walt at the usual address. It's gonna be so super to see you!

Don't miss this thriller, starring the Prez!

This photo was lifted (shamelessly!) from People of Walmart, one of Walt's all-time favourite websites. Most of the pix -- 1642 pages of them -- on the site are pictures of ugly and obese Americans in various states of dress/undress, doing things which are questionable if not downright disgusting. But if you've ever shopped at a Walmart [and who hasn't? Ed.] you know this stuff is real.

6 fundamental questions about immigration

Immigration -- legal and illegal -- and the backlash against it continues to make news in the ABC countries: America, Britain and Canada. [And don't forget Australia! Ed.] For decades now, popular opinion in all four countries -- OK, Ed.? -- as well as all of Europe is overwhelmingly against continuing to allow 1000s and 1000s of illiterate, unskilled, unwashed Third World migrants to head straight from wherever they land to the welfare office. But do our political "leaders" listen? NO!

The politicians keep telling us that immigration is good! Immigrants don't steal jobs, we're told; they create jobs. And they prevent the hollowing-out of our city cores. And they bring us the benefits of multiculturalism and diversity, not to mention ideas about how our decadent society can be improved...by imposing Sharia law, for instance. Those of us who stand up and holler "BULLSHIT!" are branded cold-hearted racists.

And yet, to the consternation of progressive thinkers and the lamestream media, people are daring to ask questions. We're not getting answers, but at least the questions are being asked. Here, in Walt's paraphrase, are some root-and-branch questions written way back in 1992 by Daniel Stoffman, a Canadian journalist, as quoted and expanded on in Nationalism Without Walls, by Richard Gwyn(McClelland & Stewart, 1995).*

- Are newcomers actually bringing with them the kinds of talents and skills the country needs?
- If so, why is the intake comprised largely of "self-selected" immigrants who do not speak our language(s) nor command more than minimal education or skills?
- Does our country any longer actually need more people to fill up its empty spaces?
- What is immigration actually for?
- Is it really any longer in the control of the authorities when so many immigrants are "self-selected"?
And the most fundamental question of all:
- Has an immigration policy for our country somehow got turned topsy-turvy into an immigration policy for immigrants?

Walt suggests that you print out those questions and keep them handy. It won't be long until a politician, or his/her minion, comes knocking at your door, looking for your vote. Demand answers!

* Footnote and recommendation: This is the second time this week Walt has mentioned Nationalism Without Walls. The book was written by a Canadian for Canadians. Readers in America, Australia and Britain can skip over the sections about Québec and the threat of separatism (now greatly diminished) but should find the chapters on the pitfalls of official multiculturalism and massive immigration hugely relevant, even more so now than when they were written. Walt recommends it unreservedly.

69 years later

Someone sent us a chain e-mail being circulated on the Internet by "friends of Israel" and others being taken in by the pro-Israel spewings of Jewish propaganda machine ["mainstream press", surely! Ed.] It begs us to make sure the world never forgets the Holocaust, and to pass it on so that it reaches 40 million people.

NO. Walt will not be passing it on, and will not even say "sorry".

As regards the massacre unfolding in Gaza, I have no sympathy for Hamas, and even less for the Israelis. Israel was created by the United Nations because the Western nations felt guilty about the Holocaust, so decided to give the Jews their "promised land". But of course they didn't give away their land. No. Instead they took some land from poor ignorant Arabs -- the Palestinians -- and said, hey, you have to share this with the Jews because they used to live here before they got smart and moved to Europe, besides which "we" owe them...for the Holocaust, you know.

Have you ever tried sharing anything with a Jew? The Jews occupied the best parts of the territory they were given, then, not satisfied, occupied the West Bank, the Golan Heights, Gaza and the Sinai peninsula during the Six Day War of 1967. About 90 seconds after moving into the Sinai, they discovered there was nothing there but sand, so gave it back to the Egyptians.

Richard Gwyn tells us, in Nationalism Without Walls (McClelland and Stewart, 1995) that there are two kinds of "nations". One is a "state nation", in which the rights and responsibilities of citizenship are extended, more or less, equally, to all citizens regardless of colour, ethnicity, creed (etc etc). Almost all of the countries of North America and Europe [and Australasia! Ed.] fit that definition.

The other kind is the "ethnic nation", which is composed of people of a certain ethnicity/colour/creed, and in which people not of that ethnicity/colour/creed are second-class citizens in fact if not in law. The ethnic nation may exist only in the minds of its people (like Québec), or it may have sovereignty over a defined piece of territory... like Israel. No matter what the UN may have intended, Israel is the land of the Jews, not the Muslim Palestinians, just as Pakistan is the land of Muslims, not Hindus or Christians.

When Iran calls Israel "the Zionist entity", it is stating a fact which gets ignored in all the breast-beating and hand-wringing over Western liberal guilt about the Holocaust, and Israel's "right" to defend itself and its "promised land". The Jews tell us that God gave Israel to them -- just them -- but apparently He didn't make a very good job of it, so now it's their right to "defend" it. And if a few hundred Muslim civilians get taken out, well, that's because they won't get out of the way.

Walt wishes the Jewish propaganda machine -- read "lamestream media" -- would spare us these endless appeals to guilt and the culture of the victim. The body count, last time I looked, was about 20 to 1. That's 20 dead Palestinian Muslims (mostly civilians) for every dead Israeli Jew (mostly soldiers). If there's a Holocaust to be remembered, it's the one going on in Gaza right now.

VIDEO: Woman NOT eating raw bird on Montréal subway

The Internet is a wonderful thing -- a great way to disseminate misinformation around the world in a millisecond. Nowhere is this more amply demonstrated than on YouTube, where things are seldom what they seem. ["Skim milk masquerades as cream..." I know that one. Ed.] Here is what the YouTube caption describes as a "woman plucking and eating a live bird" on the Montréal Métro (subway).



To set the record straight... Yes, it is a woman. She has bravely come forward and identified herself as Christina David, an Inuk -- "Eskimo" is not longer PC -- and former resident of Nunavik, in the far reaches of the Great White North. And yes, she is plucking a large bird -- a goose her aunt brought her from home. But that's as far as it goes.

The goose had already been killed. And Ms David did not eat it on the subway train. She was just making good use of her time while taking the bird home to be cooked. On Facebook she explained: "I couldn't wait. I only had one this year it's not like we get to eat our country food everyday it's very very rare that we can eat like we usually do up North. But I didn't care. I was just...enjoying [it] and on top of it I couldn't wait to go home so I can put it on the big pan with onions and mushrooms."

After the YouTube video went viral, Ms David had her collar felt by the local gendarmes, and was made to appear in provincial court on Thursday last. But she stood by her actions. "I will never ever forget anything. I will always be a real Inuk for ever 'til I'm gone," she wrote on FB.

Walt says good for her, and shame on people who take and post cellphone vids which, through malice or (more likely) ignorance, they totally misrepresent. To whoever took this one, Walt says, mind your own business!

Lawyers warned against saying "Fuck you!" in courthouse

"A lawyer and a gentleman" -- Is it possible for one man [or woman? Ed.] to be both? The Law Society of British Columbia apparently thinks it is not only possible but mandatory. In a ruling issued last February concerning one Martin Drew Johnson, a disciplinary panel opined that "a lawyer’s conduct should reflect favourably on the legal profession, inspire the confidence, respect and trust of clients and of the community, avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and uphold the standards and reputation of the legal profession".

Agent 3, who brings this matter to our attention, feels that the LSBC may have overestimated the "reputation of the legal profession". Do we really believe, he asks, that lawyers are courteous to the point of saintliness, to the point of turning other cheek when provoked by judges, witnesses, or -- heaven help us -- agents of Her Majesty?

Turning the other cheek, it seems, is what Martin Johnson failed to do, thus "letting down the side" in the minds of his gentlemanly colleagues. Back in March of 2011, Mr. Johnson, a veteran criminal defence lawyer, was at the Kelowna BC courthouse representing a man accused of assaulting his wife. During a break in the proceedings, he asked the investigating Mountie if his client could be escorted back to the family home to retrieve a few personal items. A not unreasonable request, but the police mentality is such that whatever the defence asks, they refuse, and that's what "Officer B" did.

Before long, the two men were having a shouting match in a courthouse corridor. It was then that Mr. Johnson dropped the F-bomb. "Fuck you," he yelled at the copper.
"You don’t scare me, you big-shot lawyer," replied the Mountie. "[Saying 'Fuck you!' is] assaulting a police officer!" Mere moments later, Mr. Johnson found himself being "escorted" -- "paraded" was the word his lawyer used -- down the hallway like a common criminal.

Of course no charges -- of assaulting a peace officer or anything else -- were ever laid. Instead, Mr. Johnson found himself accused of professional misconduct, the respondent in a disciplinary hearing before a panel of the Law Society. The nub of the case is a question every courtroom lawyer must wrestle with at some point in his/her career: Is it ever excusable for counsel to curse on the job? In other words, does hurling a profanity always constitute professional misconduct, or are there circumstances in which a lawyer can be so provoked that blurting out a "Fuck you!" or other dire imprecation can be forgiven?

At least, that's how Mr. Johnson's counsel saw it. Agent 3 would concur. But the blue-stockings at the LSBC disagreed. Two of the three panel members said the only issue to be determined is whether or not the use of "Fuck you!" as an insulting interjection, spoken in anger to a witness in a courtroom hallway, constituted professional misconduct. Provocation, they said, was not an issue. Whether anything the sacrosanct police might do could push a lawyer to the breaking point, they said, was irrelevant.

So Mr. Johnson was found guilty as charged. The LSBC is still thinking about an appropriate sanction. Perhaps they will order him to write "I will not say 'Fuck you!' to police officers" 1000 times on the blackboard.

That concludes our report except for one very important thing. The majority decision of the panel contains, at Paragraph 8, an interesting disquisition on the use of the word "fuck" in contemporary society. Although they expect lawyers to be too good and proper to let the F-word cross their lips (in the courthouse, at least), the panel did acknowledge the widespread and unremarkable use of the word in the discourse of the rest of us mere mortals. Here's what they said.

Obviously, we recognize that the use of the word “fuck” in its various word combinations and permutations isn’t as taboo as it used to be. For good or for bad, it is not uncommon to hear the word in its various forms on television or in the movies. Despite the argument that it is still “profane”, we all know it is used in everyday conversation harmlessly and innocuously, although one probably would not use it with one’s mother or with small children in the room.

It is used in humour, literature and music. It is used when one stubs one’s toe, falls down skiing, makes a mistake, or even as a form of self-deprecation. It is used by athletes in sports, and by disappointed or excitable fans. It has been used by presidents, prime ministers, Nobel laureates and Academy Award winners. Its use is not going away, and nor should it. Consequently, we wish to make it clear that our decision is not meant to deny the use of a word in the English language that people may hear or use all the time, or otherwise interfere with one’s freedom of speech.

Rather, we wish to make it clear to members of the profession, that insults or profanity, if uttered in anger (whether using the f-word or not), directed to a witness, another lawyer, or member of the public in the circumstances and the place in which it was used by the Respondent, are not acceptable and can constitute professional misconduct.

What was it Shakespeare said about the law? Oh yeah...

St. James the Greater, "Slayer of the Moors"

July 25th is celebrated in the Universal Church as the Feast Day of Saint James the Greater, Apostle. At least one of Walt's agents was named after St. James, so, for those who don't know, an introduction of the saint follows, along with a few words about why he is known in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries as "Santiago Matamoros" -- Saint James the Moor-slayer.

Walt has had the privilege of visiting the shrine at Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia (northwestern Spain), which honours James the brother of John. The Gospels (Matthew 4:21-22; Mark 1:19-20; Luke 5:10-11) tell us the two were fishermen, the sons of Zebedee, partners with Simon Peter. Jesus called them from mending their nets beside the sea of Galilee at the beginning of His ministry. James, the son of Zebedee, is called "the Greater" to distinguish him from the St. James the Lesser, another of the twelve Apostles, who was apparently shorter. No kidding. Source: the Catholic Encyclopedia.

The Catholic Encyclopedia also tells us that Our Lord nicknamed James and John "the sons of thunder", because they were burning and impetuous in their evangelical zeal and severe in temper. (Mark 3:17) The two brothers showed their fiery temperament against "a certain man casting out devils" in the name of the Christ. John, answering, said: "We [James is probably meant] forbade him, because he followeth not with us" (Luke 9:49). When the Samaritans refused to receive Christ, James and John said, "Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them?" (Luke 9:54; cf. 9:49).

In Matthew 20:21-23 it is recorded that Salome, the brothers' mother, asked Jesus "that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom." Our Lord replied "You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink?" The brothers, not knowing the deeper meaning of the words, said they could. And Jesus told them that indeed they would do so.

According to Tradition, St. James the Greater preached Christianity in Spain sometime between the Ascension and his return to Judaea and martyrdom in A.D. 44. At that year's Passover, Herod Agrippa I (grandson of Herod the Great) "killed James, the brother of John, with the sword." He was the first of the Apostles to be martyred, "seeing that it pleased the Jews". (Acts 12:1-3)

The saint's followers are believed to have carried his body to the coast and put it into a stone boat, which was carried by Holy Angels and the wind beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the straits of Gibraltar), to land near Padrón, on the Atlantic coast of northern Spain. The local queen, Lupa, provided the team of oxen used to draw the body from Padrón to the site of the marble tomb, a little way inland, which she had also provided. James was believed to have been buried with two of his own disciples, Athanasius and Theodore. The site of his tomb was forgotten for some eight centuries.

Early in the 9th century, a hermit, Pelayo, was led by a vision to the spot. The tomb was rediscovered, and the relics authenticated by the local bishop as those of St. James. To protect the sacred relics from the invading Norman French, they were moved to Compostela -- "field of stars" -- which became one of the three greatest places of pilgrimage in the world, the other two being Rome and Jerusalem.

Now we come to the "Matamoros" part. At the time the tomb of St. James was found and his relics moved, Spain sorely needed a champion to inspire Christians against the invading Moors. "Moors" -- the Arabian Muslims inhabiting the northern coast of Africa, including present-day Morocco. Think Moor-occo! Thus the rediscovery came at a most propitious moment.

Legend has it that St. James -– Santiago -– appeared to Christian troops during the Battle of Clavijo in 844. Inspired by the vision of the saint, the Spanish Christians defeated a much bigger army of Muslims. Conflict between Christians and Muslims raged in the Iberian peninsula for the next six-and-a-half centuries, until 1492, and Santiago was recognized and adopted as the divine leader of the Christian forces. He was given the name Matamoros, "Slayer of Moors" i.e. killer of Muslims.

Santiago subsequently became the patron saint of Spain. "Santiago y cierra, España!" -- "St. James and attack, for Spain!" -- became the battle cry of Spanish armies as they slowly recovered the Iberian peninsula from its Muslim rulers. The cry persisted into modern times and was frequently used as a nationalistic slogan during the Spanish Civil War and in the Franco era that followed.

Today, such sentiments are politically incorrect. Pope Francis tells us the Muslims are our friends, we all worship the same God and whether you're Christian or Jewish or Muslim doesn't really matter. Of course that's heresy, but that's the nub of the false ecumenism which the Vatican keeps preaching at us. Meanwhile, the Muslims have reinvaded not just Iberia, but all of Europe. Walt recommends a prayerful visit to Santiago de Compostela.

Senior trying to set a password

WINDOWS: Please enter your new password.

USER: cabbage

WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must be more than 8 characters.

USER: boiled cabbage

WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must contain 1 numerical character.

USER: 1 boiled cabbage

WINDOWS: Sorry, the password cannot have blank spaces.

USER: 50bloodyboiledcabbages

WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must contain at least one upper case character.

USER: 50BLOODYboiledcabbages

WINDOWS: Sorry, the password cannot use more than one upper case character consecutively.

USER: 50BoiledCabbagesShovedUpYourAssIfYouDon'tGiveMeAccessNow!

WINDOWS: Sorry, the password cannot contain punctuation.

USER: ReallyPissedOff50BloodyBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYourAssIfYouDontGiveMeAccessNow

WINDOWS: Sorry, that password is already in use.

Thanks to the seldom-sighted Agent 1 for a knowing chuckle.

America on wrong track: Heritage Foundation survey

A new study by the Heritage Foundation finds hopeful trends in some American cultural indicators, but discouraging news on other fronts.

The 2014 Index of Culture and Opportunity, released yesterday by the Washington-based think-tank, points to favourable trends in the US abortion rate, divorce rate, charter-school availability, and job openings. However the analysts also see bad news in the rates of marriage and fertility, the rise in the number of single-parent households, dips in volunteerism and religious attendance, declining reading levels, and increases in student-loan debt, unemployment, taxation, and government regulation.

Click here to read the overview. The survey is divided into three sections: Culture Indicators, Poverty and Dependence Indicators, and General Opportunity Indicators. And the findings... May we have the envelopes please?

Culture Indicators
RIGHT TRACK: Divorce Rate, Abortion Rate, Violent Crime Rate, all going DOWN. Total: 3
WRONG TRACK: Marriage Rate, Total Fertility Rate, Single-parent Households, Teen Drug Use, Abstinence Among High-schoolers, Religious Attendance, Volunteerism. Total: 7

Poverty and Dependence Indicators
RIGHT TRACK: TANF Participation. Total: 1. Yes, Walt needed to look this one up. TANF = Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Yep, there's a federal program for that -- a couple of them, in fact.
WRONG TRACK: Labour Force Participation (fewer people are working), Unwed Birth Rate (70% in the black community), Self-Sufficiency, Total Welfare Spending, Subsidized Housing Participation, Food Stamp Participation, TANF Work Participation (means needy families will take the handouts but don't want to work for them). Total: 7

General Opportunity Indicators
RIGHT TRACK: Charter School Enrolment, Private School Choice Participation, High School Graduation Rate, Job Openings Rate. Total: 4
WRONG TRACK: Reading Proficiency (first noted by Rudolf Flesch in 1951, still going down. duhh), Student Loan Debt, Employment-Population Ration (fewer people are working -- again), Unemployment Rate (ditto), Job Hires Rate (ditto ditto), Money Taxed Away by Federal Government (surprised?), Start-up Job Share, Major Federal Regulations (up again), Economic Freedom (the opposite). Total: 9

Walt's trusty calculator makes the grand totals: Right Track - 8; Wrong Track - 23. By a ratio of nearly 3:1, America is headed in the wrong direction. That is how the hope and change thing is working out.

The Heritage Foundation summarizes the policy implications of its findings thusly:

Policy should be formulated on the basis of sound principles and data. The indicators included in this Index help to identify obstacles to opportunity in order to help citizens and policymakers focus on cultural efforts and policy solutions that will best address these challenges.
•Pursue policy that promotes life, marriage, and religious liberty.
•Promote limited government and respect the role of civil society, particularly its norms that are conducive to strong individual and community outcomes.
•Advance welfare reform that encourages self-sufficiency through work rather than dependence on government.
•Promote student-centered education reforms that allow for choice.
•Pursue higher education reform that tackles issues of cost and quality by allowing greater innovation.
•Reduce Americans’ tax burden.
•Pursue tax and regulatory reform to restore an environment that is conducive to entrepreneurial job creation.

Further reading: Click here to download the entire report, as a .pdf file,

Afghan family set to kill 10-year-old daughter after rape by mullah

Those who believe that the Catholic Church has a monopoly on pedophilia and the sexual abuse of children by clerics should know about a story -- "Struggling to Keep Afghan Girl Safe After a Mullah Is Accused of Rape" -- by Rob Nordland, in yesterday's New York Times.

The nub of the story is the rape, last May, of a pre-pubescent girl, aged 10, by a mullah at the local mosque in Kunduz, a town in Afghanistan, where the victim had been attending Qu'ran recitation classes. The Muslim spiritual leader, Mohammad Amin, was arrested and confessed to having sex with the girl, but said he thought she was older, besides which he intended to marry her.

But that's not the main point of the story. The real crime here would have been perpetrated by the girl's family, had they succeeded in killing her, for... wait for it... bringing shame and dishonour on her family.

Most of the anger in Kunduz has been focused not on the mullah but on women’s activists and the shelter where the girl took refuge, which is one of seven operated across Afghanistan by Women for Afghan Women, an Afghan-run charity supported mainly by aid from the American government and private donors.

This past Tuesday, local cops removed the girl from the shelter, and returned her to her family, despite complaints from the women’s activists that she was likely to be killed. The head of the women's affairs office in Kunduz, Nederah Geyah, who campaigned actively to have the youngster protected from her family, resigned and moved to another part of Afghanistan.

Dr. Hassina Sarwari, the head of the shelter, was at one point driven into hiding by death threats from the girl’s family and other mullahs -- some of them Taliban, others on the government side -– and from pro-government militiamen. One of their claims was that the girl was actually 17, and thus of marriageable age, not 10.

Accompanying the Times article is a photo of Dr. Sarwari showing on her laptop one of the pictures of the victim she took in the hospital. The photos clearly show a pre-pubescent child, and the doctor said the girl weighed only 40 pounds. Few Afghans have birth records, and many do not know their precise ages. But the girl’s mother said she was 10, and a forensic examination in the hospital agreed, saying she had not yet started menstruating or developing secondary sexual characteristics.

The girl’s own testimony, and medical evidence, supported a rape so violent that it caused a fistula, or a break in the wall between the vagina and rectum, according to the police and the official bill of indictment. She bled so profusely after the attack that she was at one point in danger of losing her life because of a delay in getting medical care.

Ms Geyah told the reporter, "I went to the hospital when they brought her there. I was sitting next to her bed when I overheard her mother and aunt saying that her father was under tremendous pressure by the villagers to kill the girl because she had brought shame to them."

When Dr. Sarwari, a pediatrician, arrived to pick up the girl, a crowd of village elders from Alti Gumbad, the girl’s home village on the outskirts of the Kunduz, were gathered outside the hospital. Among them were the girl’s brothers, father and uncle. Inside the hospital, Dr. Sarwari encountered the girl’s aunt, who told her she had been ordered by her husband to sneak the girl out of the hospital and deliver her to the male relatives outside. They wanted to take the girl, kill her, and dump her in the river, the aunt said.

Dr. Sarwari found the girl’s mother holding her child’s hand, and both were weeping. The doctor quoted the mother as saying, "My daughter, may dust and soil protect you now. We will make you a bed of dust and soil. We will send you to the cemetery where you will be safe."

Muslim mothers often believe there is no choice but to kill rape victims, who are seen as unmarriageable and therefore a lifelong burden to their families, as well as a constant reminder of dishonour.

Dr. Sarwari has accused prosecutors and religious officials of siding with the accused rapist and ignoring the child’s plight. "There are a lot of powerful people behind the mullah," she told the Times. The girl’s family knows they cannot do anything to Amin, she said, but "the girl is easy. They can get to her. She’s their daughter." She said she feared the girl would either be killed, or forced to recant her accusations against the pederastic mullah.

This sad case makes a mockery of claims by the US and other governments that that Western aid and encouragement can make positive changes in the lives of Afghan women. In remote parts of Afghanistan, traditional customs are still stronger than modern law. Taliban insurgents and pro-government elements often make common cause in their hatred of progress in women’s rights.

Walt has said it before in commenting on a similar story -- see "Parents of raped 14-year-old mutilate Muslim cleric, say he should be 'punished even more severely'" -- and he'll say it again: They're savages there, one and all. Leave the benighted heathens to cutting off each other's body parts, killing their wives and daughters and whatever else seems "right" according to their "religion of peace"! And may Allah give them all the rewards they so richly deserve!

Stupid criminal story: Hey, buddy, have ya got a boost?

Note from Ed.: Walt has his eyes glued to several monitors -- not literally! -- following the events in Ukraine and Gaza. He has asked me if I have something, preferably in a lighter vein, with which to fill this space. And so I do, a little story from Cheats, Charlatans, and Chicanery, by Andreas Schroeder (McClelland and Stewart, 1997). If this tale of a botched holdup attempt suggests that Albertans are dumb rednecks -- the Texans of Canada? -- I can only say that they're not all like that.

Two Alberta heisters, just arrived in Vancouver in January of 1985, felt the urgent need to increase their bank balance. Since it was five o'clock in the morning, and no banks were open, they held up the attendant of an all-night PetroCan gas station. The take was meagre, just enough for a meal and a motel, but they couldn't find a motel. Unfamiliar with Vancouver, they criss-crossed the Kitsilano area, looking for signs.

When you're lost in a big city, where better to get directions than -- a gas station? By now they'd been circling for so long, they decided to pull in to one to ask. It was a PetroCan station, much like the one they'd help up half an hour early. Actually, it was the same gas station they'd help up half an hour earlier, but they didn't recognize that fact.

They didn't recognize the attendant either, but he certainly recognized them. He'd only just got himself untied and been dialling the police. And now, good God in heaven, here they came again.

But they just wanted to know where they could find "a halfways cheap motel, eh?", and, when he realized they hadn't recognized him the attendant gave them some directions and then redoubled his efforts on the phone. He was just describing his two assailants to the police and reporting the address of the motel to which he'd sent them, when, lo and behold, here they came back a third time!

They couldn't get their pickup started. They needed a boost or something? Could he give them, like, a boost?

The attendant explained that he didn't know anything about engines and that all the repair stuff was locked away in the garage, but that the mechanic would be in in about two hours.

They didn't want to wait for two hours. But a tow truck would be able to give them a boost, eh? Would he, like, call them a tow truck?

He certainly would. He did. The number he called was the same one he'd been connected to five minutes earlier. And the two truck that showed up five minutes later had a flashing light on it, all right, but it was red, not yellow. It towed the heisters straight to jail.

Too much news for just one day

Summer is usually a slow season for news, so we reach for the silly season stuff, and occasionally go a few days without anything serious to talk about. Today is an exception... and exception-and-a-half. Walt is following three serious stories -- well, OK, one is quasi-serious -- and, while waiting for the other shoes to drop, can only manage these quick comments.

Senator Puffy charged with 31 offences under the Criminal Code of Canada
The chickens belonging to the "Honourable" Michael Dennis Duffy, erstwhile senator from Kanata [PEI, surely! Ed.] have at long last come home to roost. They say that the Mounties always get their man. In this case, they've got a man-and-a-half on 31 separate charges under Canada's Criminal Code, including bribery, fraud, breach of trust and criminal obesity. OK, just kidding about that last one. Walt can only regard this matter as semi-serious because, well, it looks good on the greedy Tory bastard! Start building the scaffold and make sure to use really stout timbers.

Israel launches ground offensive in Gaza
Damn Israelis being offensive again. But why not? Hamas and other Arabs aren't in any position to defend themselves, let alone mount a serious counter-attack, because they're too busy fighting amongst themselves. And who's going to come to the Palestinians' aid? Russia? In light of the third story, Walt doesn't think so. Iran? Already out on a limb in Iraq. Egypt? What, and risk another six-day defeat? Meanwhile, Israel can count on the support of its powerful ally Canada [Eh? Ed.], unless of course the USA tells Israel to cease and desist, which is about as likely as John Kerry saying anything meaningful.

And today's biggie...

Malaysian Airlines B-777 downed near Ukraine-Russia border
Why is it always Malaysian Airlines? Just a coincidence, surely, that it's the same plane, operated by the same airline, as the one which supposedly disappeared back in March. Already, rumours swirl around the wreckage. Was MH17 shot down? If so, by whom? It was supposedly flying at 10,000 metres (33,000 feet), at which altitude it could only have been hit by a large and sophisticated surface-to-air missile, not the dinky little handheld devices the Ukrainian (read "Russian") rebels used to shoot down two Ukrainian military aircraft this month. Alternatively, an air-to-air missile might have been used, but by whose air force? Whoever did the dirty deed must surely have made a horrible mistake, firing on a civilian airliner. Right?

But then... we don't know for certain that a missile hit was the cause of the crash. The plane might have exploded in mid-air for reasons unknown. Or it might have simply flown itself into the ground while everyone on board slept. Like MH370. Walt won't even speculate that there's some connection between the loss of the two planes -- and the lives of nearly 600 people -- but won't be all that surprised if that's how it turns out. That is, if we ever learn the truth.

Free candy! Ku Klux Klan recruiting in South Carolina

FOX Carolina brings us news from Seneca, South Carolina, where the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have staged a recruiting drive they call a "night ride".

A Seneca subdivision woke up Sunday morning to find bags of candy on their driveways with literature inviting readers to find out how to "Save our land, join the Klan."

When you call the number shown on the flyer (and on the website) -- (336) 432-0386 -- you get a voicemail message which starts with, "Be a man join the Klan! Illegal immigration is destroying America!" It goes on to discusses immigration concerns and ends with, "Always remember if it ain't white, it ain't right. White power!"

Robert Jones, the Imperial Klaliff of the sect, the Loyal White Knights, returned a call to FOX Carolina. Part of the conversation can be heard in the video report. Mr. Jones said that Klan chapters across the country drop literature overnight to attract new members. Their hotline, he added, has received around 20,000 calls, many from people are interested in joining the cause.

Mr. Jones said that his members don't target the homes of non-white or mixed couples for their night ride. "I mean, we can't tell who lives in a house, whether they're black, white, Mexican, gay, we can't tell that," he said. "And if you were to look at somebody's house like that, that means you'd be pretty much a racist."

He went on to say that the Loyal White Knights are not a hate group but a civil rights organization following the Bible. He said the Klan has always been strong throughout South Carolina and that this type of recruitment is nothing new. With more than 8,500 members, Jones said these days their focus is protesting against illegal immigration. His chapter is planning a public protest against illegal immigration in North Carolina on August 9th, with a cross-burning planned after dark.

As the silent majority of Americans wake up to the reality of Obama's "hope and change" agenda, don't be surprised to see more of this type of recruitment...and an increase in membership of organizations standing up for America!

DISCLAIMER! As a traditional Catholic -- a recusant -- Walt is forbidden to belong to the Ku Klux Klan or any other secret society. Moreover, Walt finds repugnant the anti-Catholicism -- implicit and explicit -- of the Klan. However, the things the Klan is saying about immigration and the destruction of American society very much need to be said. Mr. Jones and his colleagues are fortunate to be living in a country where their right to say things that are not politically correct is protected by the First Amendment. In Canada or elsewhere, they'd be hauled in front of a "human rights" tribunal...or worse. Thank God for freedom of speech! And God save the United States of America!

Peruvian woman wants to meet Father Duffy

As Canadian readers of WWW know, "Independent" -- read "ex-Conservative" -- Senator Michael Dennis Duffy is not the undisputed king of the Canuck pork barrel. He is the pork barrel! He is currently suspended from his extra-wide seat in the Upper Chamber of Parliament, and under investigation (so they say) by Sergeant Preston of the Yukon [RCMP, surely! Ed.]

See "Moron* Mike Duffy", "'Bring me the head of Senator Duffy!'", and "Emotional and over-refreshed, Senator Puffy denies having his snout too deep in the trough", all posted here last year.

The circumferentially-challenged senator has been maintaining a low profile [Really?! Ed.] while the investigation drags on, but finds himself in the glare of the headlights this week after Canada's Maclean's magazine published an interview with Karen Duffy, a Peruvian woman who claims to be the Puffster's bastard daughter by a convicted drug smuggler.

Yvette Benites says she met Duffy's sister Moira in the early `80s at Kingston's old Prison for Women (P4W) while doing time after being conned into carrying a prohibited substance into Canada. Moira introduced Yvette to her brother, who was then a reporter and gossip-monger for the CBC, while Yvette was on parole at a half-way house, pending deportation.

The Maclean's story says the alleged affair lasted for a few months, ending when Ms Benites found herself, errr, up the duff, at which point Mr. Duffy's interest in her, errr, rehabilitation suddenly ceased.

Now Karen Duffy, allegedly the fruit of the illicit affair, wants the father she never met to at least acknowledge her existence. The 32-year-old said she is not seeking money from Senator Duffy, who is well known to be so impecunious that his "friend" Nigel Wright had to repay the Senate for the money Duffy scammed on his expense account.

Ms Duffy says all she wants is "to have a relationship" with her father. "I want to meet him," she said. "I want him to know me, and share the things that are important to me."

She told Maclean's that she and her mother tried to reach out to the journalist-turned-senator over the past few decades, with no response. So, she has brought a paternity suit in a Peruvian court. Although any order of a Peruvian court would likely be unenforceable in Canada (according to Agent 3), it would seem that the Puffster's options are either to (a) admit paternity or (b) submit to a DNA test to disprove the allegation. The rumour on Parliament Hill is that Nigel Wright has volunteered to take the test for Duffy, for friendship's sake.

Note from Ed. to Agent 9: "Father Duffy"...the other Father Duffy! Geddit?!

Perry v. Paul: who's right about American involvement in foreign wars?

With all the meeja fawning over Hellery Clinton -- Will she run? Won't she run? Does it matter? -- not a whole lot of attention is being paid to the fact that two Republican presidential hopefuls are having a "conversation" [I hereby ban the use of that word to mean anything other than a private chat between two individuals! Ed.] on one important subject where Hellery and her former boss are very vulnerable -- foreign policy.

Senator Rand Paul kicked off the debate [That's better. Ed. last month with "America Shouldn't Choose Sides in Iraq's Civil War", in which he criticized not just the Prez's mishandling of the crisis, but the invasion commanded by President Bush II, which got America into the mess to begin with.

Texas Governor Rick Perry disagrees with Senator Paul's preaching of non-interventionism. In "Isolationist policies make the threat of terrorism even greater", he argued that "Many people are tired of war, and the urge to pull back is a natural, human reaction. Unfortunately, we live in a world where isolationist policies would only endanger our national security even further."

Mr. Perry goes on to question his potential rival's interpretation of President Reagan's foreign policy. "Paul conveniently omitted Reagan's long internationalist record of leading the world with moral and strategic clarity," wrote Mr. Perry. "Unlike the noninterventionists of today, Reagan believed that our security and economic prosperity require persistent engagement and leadership abroad."

Walt doesn't like to criticize an erstwhile conservative Republic, but the Governor listeth. [Errr... that line has already been used by Bill Buckley. Ed.] OK, let's just say "Rick Perry is Dead Wrong"! [Yeah, that's what Paul said, in Politico Magazine, just yesterday! Ed.]

The way Senator Paul sees it, "The let's-intervene-and-consider-the-consequences-later crowd left us with more than 4,000 Americans dead, over 2 million refugees and over trillions of dollars in debt.... Tough talk like Perry's might inspire some for the moment, but when bombast becomes policy it can have long and disastrous consequences."

Mr. Paul also points out that Mr. Perry's criticism of the Reagan foreign policy is miles off-base. "Reagan was stern, but he wasn't stupid. Reagan hated war, particularly the spectre of nuclear war." Which is pretty much what Pat Buchanan said in Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War, by Pat Buchanan, reviewed favourably here a few days ago. Here's how Mr. Buchanan sees American "inaction" -- NON-intervention -- during the Reagan years.

"US inaction was not due to cowardice but cold calculation as to what was worth risking war with a nuclear-armed Soviet Union and what was not worth risking war. When the Polish workers' movement, Solidarity, was crushed in 1981, Ronald Reagan denounced the repression but he neither broke diplomatic relations with Warsaw nor imposed economic sanctions.

"Eisenhower and Reagan were not Chamberlains, but neither were they Churchills. Who ruled in the capitals east of the Elbe was not to them a vital US interest worth a war. They believed in defending what we had, not risking war to retake what Roosevelt and Churchill had given up.... Reagan believed America and freedom were the future, that Communism was headed for the ash heap of history, that we need not, indeed, must not blunder into a war to hasten its inevitable end. Patience and perseverance were required, the use of proxies to bedevil the Soviet Empire at its outposts...and carrying a bigger stick -- that was the Reagan way."

As a favour to Governor Perry, who appears to be as untutored in history as was President Bush II, Walt presents a further quote from the Buchanan opus, on the question of whether America should be the world's policeman.

"America is the last superpower because she stayed out of the world wars until their final acts. And because she stayed out of the alliances and the world wars longer than any other great power, America avoided the fate of the seven other nations that entered the twentieth century as great powers.

"The British, French, German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Ottoman, and Japanese empires are all gone. We alone remain, because we had men who recalled the wisdom of Washington, Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams about avoiding entangling alliances, staying out of European wars, and not going 'abroad in search of monsters to destroy'."

Walt hopes Governor Perry or (please God) Senator Paul or whoever next occupies the Oval Office will take this advice to heart. Otherwise a lot more Americans are going to be dead...for the wrong reasons!

Farting is good for you!

Beans, beans, they're good for your heart

The more you eat, the more you fart

The more you fart, the better you feel

So eat some beans at every meal!

Who amongst us has not heard this ancient schoolboy rhyme? [Who, indeed? Ed.] Turns out there's some medical truth behind it. Canada's QMI Agency today published this short but informative item, titled "Gas we pass could have health benefits".

The gas that we pass has health benefits, believe it or not.

A new study says that when used in the right tiny dosage, hydrogen sulfide has the potential to help treat diabetes, stroke, heart attacks and dementia.

Scientists at the University of Exeter [UK] have designed a new compound (AP39) they claim could hold the key to future therapies, by delivering small amounts of the substance to the right (or key) places inside cells.

The team says it has already found that the compound protects mitochondria, which drive energy production in blood vessel cells. Preventing or reversing mitochondrial damage is a key strategy for treatments of a variety of conditions such as stroke, heart failure, diabetes and arthritis, dementia and ageing.

Prof. Matt Whiteman said, “When cells become stressed by disease, they draw in enzymes to generate minute quantities of hydrogen sulfide. This keeps the mitochondria ticking over and allows cells to live. If this doesn’t happen, the cells die and lose the ability to regulate survival and control inflammation. We have exploited this natural process by making a compound, called AP39, which slowly delivers very small amounts of this gas specifically to the mitochondria. Our results indicate that if stressed cells are treated with AP39, mitochondria are protected and cells stay alive.”

The research is being conducted in several models of disease, and pre-clinical results are promising, the team says on the university's site.

So get that in ya! Or rather...get that out of ya!

US First Ladies -- then and now

What a difference fifty years can make, in the life of a once-great nation. Two First Ladies, both the wives of Democratic residents, representing the American ideal of femininity and class. My, how the ideal has changed.

Human Events posted this image to its Facebook page on June 18th. Since then, it has received almost 26,000 shares and over 7,000 likes.

"What happened, America?" Nothing good, according to thousands of commenters. The phrase "mongrelization of America" hasn't appeared yet [unless it's been censored by the PC police. Ed.] but remarks about Mrs Obama have ranged from adoring through catty all the way to downright scathing. Here are a few samples.

- Even if you took a normal pick [sic] of Michelle, she always has a scowl. The difference. One loved the US, the other, was proud of it for the first time when her scumbag liar husband got the nomination. (Brent Strenski)

- Jackie had a grace, elegance and humility that our current first lady doesn't have. (Niki Tshibaka)

- What happened is that we quit covering up for frauds. The Kennedys were both sleeping around on each other and doing all kinds of illicit things (that the press covered up) while blacks in the south were getting lynched! How racist and psychopathic do you have to be to want to go back to Camelot? (Julienne St. Solange) - Aha, the racism card appears! Walt likes this one though.

- No class, doesn't know how to dress even though we're paying someone to dress her, can't shave under her arms, thinks she's a TV star. (Brenda Bennett)

- Well I have heard Jackie Kennedy speak and she was not a very intelligent woman and she was also a closet racist so a picture tells nothing about a person. (Carol Bridges-Stjohn)

Ah yes. This comparison is obviously the brainchild of rotten racist Republican scumbags. That phrase was actually used. Well, caustic and very personal political "debates" are nothing new in American politics, according to Katherine Jellison, a professor of "women's history" [wat dat? Ed.] at Ohio University.

The difference between then and now, according to Dr Jellison, is that Mrs Kennedy was more insulated from the fray. "The kind of image control that the Kennedy family was able to exercise just isn't possible anymore."

The good doctor adds that the real revelation from the Facebook image is how white and black women are portrayed in US society. [Haven't we seen this movie before? Ed.] Mrs Kennedy is "demure and deferential", while Ms Obama is "boisterous".

"Ideas about African-American women being more assertive, speaking louder," she says. "All of those stereotypes are very much coming into play here." And of course there's no underlying truth to the stereotype. None at all. Just ask Oprah Winfrey.

Footnote: Since the wimmin of America won't be satisfied until one of them is elected President [and maybe not even then. Ed.], how about Oprah Winfrey vs Hellery Clinton for the Democratic nomination?!

Who controls the lamestream media?

It's been a quiet week here in Lake Woebegon. [I think Garrison Keillor has the copyright on that line! Ed.] OK... It's been a quiet week here in the woods next to Lake Mudge. [That's better... Ed.] Kinda noisy in the rest of the world -- Palestine/Israel, Syria/Iraq, Africa and Ukraine -- but Walt can't think of anything witty to say about those wars/insurrections/jihads.

Checking the lamestream meeja for items of interest, I noticed that Canada's CTV News Channel has an Internet icon that they might want to redesign. As it is, it confirms our suspicions about whose hands pull the strings of the meat puppets. Told ya so!

Note from Ed.: We did not PhotoShop or crop that image to make it looks as it does. That's how it appears on the screen, on the CTV website.

Exotic citrus fruit latest target of PC police

In case you didn't recognize it -- and why would you -- this is a Kaffir lime, a variety of the citrus fruit commonly found in parts of Africa and Asia. The origin of the name is obscure, but might just have something to do with the knobby skin, which may have reminded someone of the appearance of the head of a "kaffir".

"Kaffir?", you say. Yes. Dictionary.com tells us that "kafir" was originally an Arabic word, used by Muslims in referring to an infidel or unbeliever. Back in the 19th century there was a large region of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan known as "Kafiristan", the setting for Rudyard Kipling's fine short story The Man Who Would Be King.

The word was carried by Arabs and by British colonizers into Africa, where, for well over a century, it referred to black people of the Xhosa tribe (of South Africa), and later any black person. When Walt lived in that region, around the time "majority rule" came to South Africa, the word was falling into disuse -- spoken in a whisper rather than a shout -- because it was considered "racist". Now we are told that "in South Africa the use of this word is nowadays completely taboo, and is indeed actionable in the courts. It is also advisable not to use the word in any of the compounds to which it gave rise."

Which brings us back to Kaffir limes. As if making the use of the N-word [except by N's! Ed.] an even greater sin than using the C-word in polite company, the progressive thinkers and forces for racial equality are now commanding us -- even those of us a long way from South Africa -- to find another name for the innocent citrus fruit.

Veronica Vinje is a student in British Columbia, doing her master's degree in "Intercultural and International Communications". And CBC News quotes her with approval, which tells you all you need to know about where this nonsense is coming from. "Kaffir," she says, is "deeply racist". Right. Not just "racist", but "deeply racist". Why...it's like using the N-word to describe black people.

Ms Vinje has taken to Twitter [naturally. Ed.] in an effort to change the name to "makrut" lime, which is the common name in much of South Asia, which is (Walt suspects), where she comes from. South Asia and the Middle East also happen to be parts of the world in which "kaffir" is still used as a derogatory term for non-Muslims. And, despite the urgings of Ms Vinje and the usual suspects in the meeja, celebrity chefs like Rachel Ray and Gordon Ramsay still call them, errr, "Kaffir limes".

Police training VIDEO: How to peel a banana

Everybody knows that Canada is a frightfully peaceful [dull? boring? Ed.] country, except maybe for Toronto's Jane-Finch district. Oh...and Malvern and Regent Park and Scarberia and... [That's enough. Ed.] OK, well, York Region, north of Toronto must be peaceful as the local bobbies -- as Canadian police are called -- have enough time on their hands to produce instructional videos on such arcane (but important) subjects as the fine art of peeling bananas. Check this out.



Walt is not making this up. This video was sent out yesterday, along with a series of tweets, by the communications office of York Regional Police. Said their spokesthingy, "I would love to tell you that there was a ton of strategic planning, high-level thinking and the start of a month-long national campaign, but all of that would be untrue. We enjoy having fun with Twitter and today was no exception."

Constable Andy Pattenden told the Notional Pest that he got idea for a series of "instructional fruit videos" when he noticed another underemployed officer peeling a banana from the bottom up, rather than from the top down. "You see," he said, "us [sic] police officers are highly trained investigators and even the little things catch our attention. Instead of just leaving the observation alone, I decided to discuss the revolutionary method by which he accessed the fruit and it lead to plenty of discussion around the office."

Will there be more such interesting and informative productions? It is rumored that next up will be a video on how to eat a donut -- maple glazed, from Tim Horton's of course -- from the hole outwards. Stay tuned.

Footnote: Ontario cops are among the most highly-paid of that province's snivel servants. The government's "Sunshine List" (of those earning over C$100,000 per year -- $94,000 in real money) includes many "lowly" police constables. Agent 3 is checking to see if PC Pattenden is on the list, and says he will write a complaint to any cabinet minister who can read.

Book review: Pat Buchanan blames Churchill (et al.) for both World Wars and the decline of the West -- an argument worth reading

Western civilization is dying! That's hardly an original thought. For the last half-century -- since the flourishing of flower-power and antiestablishmentarianism in the `60s -- many learned and thoughtful commentators have written variations on the theme. Leading the way was James Burnham, whose Suicide of the West (1964) has pride of place on Walt's bookshelf.

Beside it will be placed, very soon, Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War, by Patrick J. Buchanan (Three Rivers Press, 2008). Walt is awarer that any mention of Mr. Buchanan is met with snorts of derision from the liberal establishment and their lickspittle lamestream media. But there is no denying that he is an educated and thoughtful man, a keen student of history, whose insights, however contrarian, deserve consideration.

In this monumental and provocative history, the author argues that, if not for the blunders of British statesmen -- Winston Churchill first among them -- the horrors of two world wars might have been avoided, and the British Empire might never have collapsed into ruins. Half a century of murderous oppression of hundreds of millions under the iron boot of Communist and Maoist tyrannies might never have happened, and Europe's central role in world affairs might have been sustained for many generations.

Walt has just begun reading the book -- it takes me time to get through the books I buy [He moves his lips when he reads. Ed.] -- and, right at the beginning of the Preface, found an analysis worth posting here.

All about us we can see clearly now that the West is passing away.

In a single century, all the great houses of continental Europe fell. All the empires that ruled the world have vanished. Not one European nation, save Muslim Albania, has a birthrate that will enable it to survive through the century. As a share of world population, people of European ancestry have been shrinking for three generations. The character of every Western nation is being irremediably altered as each undergoes an unresisted invasion from the Third World. We are slowly disappearing from the Earth.

What happened to us? What happened to our world?...

Somewhere in the last century, Western man suffered a catastrophic loss of faith -- in himself, in his civilization, and in the faith that gave it birth.

That Christianity is dying in the West, being displaced by a militant secularism, seems undeniable.... But there is no dispute about the physical wounds that may yet prove mortal. These were World Wars I and II, two phases of a Thirty Years' War future historians will call the Great Civil War of the West. Not only did these two wars carry off scores of millions of the best and bravest of the West, they gave birth to the fanatic ideologies of Leninism, Stalinism, Nazism, and Fascism, whose massacres of the people they misrules accounted for more victims than all of the battlefield deaths in ten years of fighting.

Walt recommends Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War, if only for the Preface and Introduction -- all ye know and all ye need to know.

Happy 5th!

Walt is not referring to a quantity of liquor! [Why is it called a "fifth", anyway? Ed.] No. In all the commotion and celebration of the Glorious Fourth and the [Ed., please supply synonymous phrase for the Canadian holiday.], Walt overlooked the Not-so-glorious Third of July, which was the fifth anniversary of Walt Whiteman's World.

Walt, Poor Len [and Ed.] like to think that we have, over the last five years [and three days. Ed.] brought you some food for thought and a bit of amusement for dessert. We hope you've enjoyed it. Expressions of gratitude may be written on the back of cheques or bearer bonds and sent to the usual address. Thanks in advance.

Happy Independence Day!

At the request of the Department of Homeland Security and Paranoia, Walt [and Ed.] will refrain from extending our good wishes for a bang-up Fourth of July. Instead,

Walt [and Ed.] wish

all our American readers

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

VIDEO: Canuck astronaut sings about Canada (?)

Thanks to the Internet, we can send things at the speed of light, but that doesn't mean the receiver is going to see them. This video would have been appropriate for Canada Day, but Walt didn't open it until yesterday -- a day late [and a dollar short...as usual. Ed. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield -- the one with the moustache -- and his brother Dave sing to us about all that's great in the Great White North. Enjoyable.



Just one thing, though... Walt wonders how the Hadfields had the cojones to make up and put up a video about Canada that does not show even one (1) vizmin, turban or hijab. "In Canada" shows the country the way Walt remembers it, but my Canadian agents (including the one who sent this to us) tell me it's not like that any more -- at least not if you live in "Greater" Toronto or Vancouver or even Montréal. Not officially, anyway. Officially, Canada is just one big, happy and harmonious rainbow nation. Yeah, right!

I guess Chris Hadfield doesn't have any political ambitions. Thanks all the same to the Hadfield family for bringing back good memories.

"Communists stole our flag!" sez Pope

Maybe yesterday's post -- "a message for the Pope" seen at the Vatican (???) -- wasn't a joke after all. Like Art Linklater's kids, Francis says the darnedest things!

In an interview with Il Messaggero, the Party Pope was asked about a blog post in the Economist, which described him as a "Leninist" for his criticism of capitalism and calls for radical economic reform. Said Francis, "I can only say that the communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian. Poverty is at the center of the Gospel."

"Communists say that all this is communism," he said. "Sure, twenty centuries later. So when they speak, one can say to them: 'but then you are Christian.'"

The Pope went on to tell Il Messaggero that his own world view is "not dissimilar" to Communist ideology. He has often attacked the global economic system as turning away from the poor and not doing enough to share wealth with those who need it most. He has criticized the wealth made from financial speculation as intolerable. And he has said speculation on commodities is a scandal that compromises the poor's access to food.

Dear Catholic readers, something is outta whack here! Has the Holy Father forgotten that Karl Marx was a self-proclaimed atheist? That is was Marx who called religion the opium of the people? Francis's astonishing ad-libs -- "In my life I have met a lot of Marxists who are good people." -- must have his predecessors spinning in their tombs!

In 1907 Saint Pius X published his encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, which condemned the errors of Modernism of which Karl Marx was a leading proponent. "How far this position is removed from that of Catholic teaching!", wrote the sainted pope. This was followed, in 1910, with The Oath Against Modernism, which was required to be sworn by all clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors, and professors in philosophical-theological seminaries.

42 years after Pascendi, by which time Communist governments had enslaved Russia, eastern Europe and China, Pope Pius XII issued the Decree against Communism, which excommunicates all Catholics collaborating with Communists. Pope John XXIII confirmed the decree in 1962. Pope Francis probably never read Pascendi or took the Oath Against Modernism, but surely he must be aware of the Decree!

What we see here is yet another example of the infiltration into the highest levels of the church of Communists and Freemasons. The writer of the Traditio website points out that Francis is a product of the "new" Society of Jesus (Jesuits). With the "opening up" of the Church by Vatican II, many Latin American Jesuits decided it was OK to defy the Decree, and embraced Communism and so-called "liberation theology".

Well-known traditional Catholic author Malachi Martin, who was a former Jesuit, wrote in his book, The Jesuits (1988), about how the Modernists and Communists took over the order and turned it into a society of Communist sympathizers. Pope Francis was a committed member of that society.

Reflecting on the aftermath of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI said "the smoke of Satan has entered the Church". Now it seems the smoke has wafted all the way to the top.

Seen at the Vatican?

I wouldn't be surprised if this was PhotoShopped. But who am I to judge?
Thanks and a tip of the biretta to Agent 36.

Happy Canada Day! Bonne fête du Canada!

To/à Poor Len et/and

tous nos chers lecteurs canadiens

all our dear Canadian readers

Walt and/et Ed.

wish you/vous souhaitent

Happy Canada Day

Bonne Fête du Canada