Canada is Free and Freedom is Its Nationality

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Thursday, April 23, 2009

News for the week

While we're at it, why not introduce a whole course of comic book studies. Asterix, as MaD says, to learn about Roman history, Tintin to learn about foreign cultures, and Calvin and Hobbes to learn about human nature. Could be worse. (MaD)

And then they can criticize us for being gun obsessed. No lack of a certain shrewd deviousness on the left at any road. (Wall Street Journal)

"Education"  doesn't educate, "human rights commissions" violate human rights, and "Death with Dignity" is not dignified either (Jewish World Review)

Maybe it's just me, but if George Galloway had been admitted to Canada I think that that would be real grounds for discrimination and racism charges. I mean, we don't let Saudi Arabians with names like, say, Mohammed into Canada if they give money to terrorists, why do people think that we should let in Scots who do? (MacLeans)

Yes Ma'am but please, if you have no objection, with modesty. (Northumberland Today)

This is scary. Seriously. I thought that the HRCs were well on the way to denormalization, and then this hits. Oh boy. Just think of the possible implications. People denied expensive mortgages because of their income is a potential CHRC case. The Ministry of Defence being forced to hire non-citizens in sensitive roles. The list goes on. Scroll to page 26. (liberal.ca)

The end of the world! The end of the world! The end of the world! One thing the enviro-nuts and premil dispies both have in common. (SteynOnline)

Childish. That is the only word for it. Mama! If I didn't get invited to Sally's tell Mary she can't go either! (GamesBids.com)

Warning: Not for uptight, humourless liberals. I don't think Steyn needs another HRC complaint. Actually on second though, give the Liberal party stand on HRCs maybe they could use some more bad press... (SteynOnline)

Point of order: Embryo selection is a type of abortion (for the unselected embryos) so how can more embryo screening help prevent abortions? (TimesOnline) 

Binding Faith, pricey but I recommend it. Would you sign your own death warrant?

With any luck all the different interest groups will fight this proposal into the ground. Mind you some such museum would be very interesting and educational if done properly, but this one won't be. (Ottawa Sun)

I always find Margaret Somerville's articles interesting. This one about Phebe Manth is, as usual, very informative. (Mercatornet)

What I want to see is Saudi Arabia supporting a decision which says it is wrong to slander the divinity of Christ and say that the Bible was falsified. Oh wait, they just did.  (Economist)

Telling us what we already knew, but nice to hear coming from a big name source. Marriage is good for children. (Wall Street Journal)


Re: Caring for Karine

     I would like to thank Mr. Coren for the article he wrote entitled Caring for Karine. I am a young woman and I believe that to allow women to be in combat zones defies everything that society ought to be teaching men about cherishing and honouring women.
 
     Society has indeed degenerated badly when we don't remember that women are to be protected. Not abused, not exploited, not put in harm's way. There was a time when a man would take off his hat to God, O Canada, and a woman. When they would give up their seat on the bus. Somehow that was supposed to be demeaning, so now we allow ourselves to be brutalized and killed and that is liberation.
 
     Women are told that our lives are not meaningful unless we are just like men. I don't submit to this triumph of masculinity. I am a woman, and I will celebrate femininity. I don't need to prove my worth by doing everything the guys do better than the guys do it. A woman by virtue of her very existence demands respect and protection and no one can take that from us unless we do so ourselves. We don't need to buy the lies.
 
     Karine's death was a tragedy and I respect that. I don't want to diminish her life or her sacrifice in any way, but I don't want it to happen again. We used to believe in women and children first. Now we abort our babies and sacrifice our women on the field of battle. Maybe this is progress, but I don't think so.
 
    The feminists can have the body bags, I'll take my seat on the bus.
 
    Rebekah Hebert
 

Life Worthy of Life

“When I hear the appalling, disgusting argument that we should have abortions because the child just might be disabled - ughh, the horror that fills my heart. Ladies and gentlemen there are things that you will only be able to learn by the weakest among us. And when you snuff them out you are the one that loses, the Lord looks after them, but you are the one that will suffer forever. And what arrogance. What absolute arrogance and it has been an argument for so long in this human place that we live that the stronger should dominate the weaker - should determine who lives or dies. The arrogance of that. Don’t you realize that you cannot make your own heart beat? Don’t you realize that all the power that you think you possess, you really possess none of it. It is the mercy of God that sustains you - even when you hate Him…”1 Gianna Jessen, cerebral palsy sufferer 

We live in a world where human rights are being talked about everyday in our media, where we are scrutinizing every law that is passed for any possible human rights violation. Where we are starting to insist that people have a human right not even to be offended by what we think or say, much less what we do. In the midst of this, where human rights are extolled and championed in every public square we are beginning to undermine the rights of some of the most vulnerable members of society, those who are disabled. 

Early this year the newspapers focused on the truly horrifying account of the death of Karissa Boudreau. Karissa’s mother Penny strangled  her daughter because the girl was interfering with her relationship with a boyfriend. The town was devastated by the death of Karissa, and when the news broke that the killer was her mother, the entire nation expressed it’s rage and contempt. How could any mother do something so terrible and horrific? Eventually she was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 20 years. A just punishment for a cruel, calculated, coldblooded murder. 

Several years ago a man killed his daughter. It was a deliberate, coldblooded murder. He snuffed out the life of a little girl who could smile and love just like Karissa. But he became a Canadian folk hero. You see his daughter was disabled, and Karissa wasn’t. Robert Latimer was considered justified by the majority of Canadians, because the life of his daughter wasn’t worth all that much. She lived with pain, most people who live with pain still don’t want to die. She did not have the intellectual capacity of most children. Do we now have the death sentence based on IQ level? She was a trouble to her parents,  so was Karissa. Why was Latimer a hero and and Boudreau a villain? 

Now in Quebec a couple are suing a hospital for allowing their daughter with cerebral palsy to live. The hospital gave the baby Phebe Manth a feeding tube after the parents had it removed, The child was not dying but they decided that her quality of life would not be good enough. Now the parents want 3.5 million dollars. They think that the hospital had no right to reverse the couple’s decision to remove nutrition. I don’t care who the parents are, if I see a child dying of starvation, I will not need anyone’s permission to feed it. I will not ask whether or not the child can walk or read or do anything of the kind, they do not deserve to die just because they are disabled.

People say that euthanasia is important because people who are disabled should have the right not to live like they do. They say that we should be able to kill people who live in constant pain (which by the way is mostly a myth. Almost no one needs to live in chronic pain these days, those who do probably need to get a different doctor.) Yet while this is done in the name of the disabled the societies who actually support disability rights are firmly opposed to euthanasia. You see they know. They know that life is worth living even if it is not the life that you would choose to live. They know that euthanasia will lead to people being killed just because they are disabled, because they are too much trouble. They know that euthanasia is the easy answer for people who are well. But it will erode respect for the disabled and will make people more willing to quit when things get tough instead of working through the problems and seeking solutions. 

Mark Pickup wrote, “After living 30 years as a normal, healthy man, the sudden onset of disability was a terrible shock. At about the 2-3 year point with MS my grief was so profound and unimaginable, my sorrow so deep, my heartache so sharp, that my judgment was clouded. I’m glad there was nobody in the business of granting death wishes back in the mid-1980s. Fortunately, I had a family that loved me and lifted me up as somebody of value, even when I doubted my value. If I didn’t have such unconditional love, I might have wanted to die. In 1991, I was forced into retirement from the Canadian civil service at the age of 38 years and sank into a clinical depression. My perspective became skewed I had to be able to safely grieve. People need to grieve loss. They must be able to safely cry out and say the most outrageous things. It is unfair to hold them to a death wish or abandon them when they are at their lowest point.”2

People need love, hope, faith, and charity. They do not need to be deserted in their darkest moments by a society which thinks that they are better off dead.


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

This Week in the News

I think that I have been hurt by climate change because we suffered from severe and unusual snowfall while on holiday in Virginia. Money please. (The Washington Times)

And now for your daily dose of enlightened vocabulary affirmation, along with a side dish of self-applicable reality re-negotiation. (Wall Street Journal)

If we allow capital punishment we might kill people who shouldn't die. If we allow assisted suicide we might kill people who shouldn't die. Makes sense to me. (TimesOnline)

Suttee wishes in Canada, Applauding murder, Kevorkian pirates parts, Don't want to accidentally live, oh boy.(Secondhand Smoke)

Now for once I can link you to a little chicken soup for the soul without any satire whatsoever. (Touchstone Magazine)

Speechless, so I'll just quote Al Mohler (Who better?) "This judge needs to be grounded and sent to her room," (LifeSiteNews)

We don't need this, we already have VBSs with pirate and princess themes. How better to promote sensitivity in the next generation then by having the church glorify thieves, murderers, and rapists. All that being said, a little extra help from the state is always welcome. (exurbanleague.com)

Cheeky of course, but highly amusing. The libel suit notice is probably in the mail as we speak, or is Kinsella smart enough to refrain from suing MacLeans (unlike his other leftist buddies)? Time will tell. (MacLeans)

Remind me why we call the slippery slope a fallacy again? Because here it is, right on schedule, marriage is anything (which means that marriage is nothing). (Gyapong)

Ah but you see, we are free, we are tolerant, we are diverse, (that came out a little squeaky, say it again) we are diverse (better) we celebrate inclusiveness, we are...Miniluv. (LifeSiteNews)

Shakedown, More Shakedown, Yet more Shakedown, why haven't you gotten your copy yet? (Ezra Levant)

"Insolence!" (SmallDeadAnimals)

Those Simple Bear Necessities of Life, (like common sense...) (SmallDeadAnimals)

Call me a super-synic but why do people object to the government knowing all of this when with twitter and facebook they broadcast all this info to the world already. Ah well, privacy is such an un-cool word anyway. (Statebook)