Good News in Egypt

As with most current events blogs it seems that bad news frequently predominates over good news. However it is nice, every once in awhile, to be able to produce a heartwarming story of unity and solidarity in the midst of trouble, especially when it transcends frequently divisive lines.

Egyptian Muslims turned up for the Coptic Christmas Eve services, surrounding the churches as "human shields" to protect them from attack as the mass was celebrated.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.... “This is not about us and them,” said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly Street. “We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.” In the days following the brutal attack on Saints Church in Alexandria, which left 21 dead on New Year’ eve, solidarity between Muslims and Copts has seen an unprecedented peak. (Link)

Our thanks to the brave Muslims defended the right of Copts to worship peacefully in their nation. Let's keep this up, together.

I Survived Roe v. Wade

Roe v. Wade - 38 Years

For a Future without abortion.

And because it deserves to be resurrected at least once a year,

The Street of the Dead Fetuses

Iranium

I'm sure most of my Canadian readers are by now well aware of the Iranium shut down, but for those Canadians who might have recently come out of a coma and my international readers I will repeat a few of the more important points.

The Free Thinking Film Society was due to show the film Iranium, about Iran and its nuclear ambitions, with a Clare Lopez speech at the National Library and Archives, their usual venue of choice. Following a formal complaint from the Iranian embassy (cue sputtering indignation from anyone to the right of, say, the Canadian Charger staff) and complaints and threats from members of the public (or perhaps rather "public") the Archives canceled the screening.

Heritage Minister Moore intervened, and the Archives agreed to reinstate the screening, only to cancel it again at the last minute due to more threats.

This made front page news on just about every newspapers in Canada, commentators wanting to know since when the Iranians dictated Canadian culture events, etc. Finally the Heritage Minister intervened again and ordered the Archives to honor their obligation to show the film at a later date, now Feb 6th.

So, to all those in the area, or not in the area, the National Library and Archives is the place to be on Feb 6th to see Iranium and hear Clare Lopez (who is flying in again).

Put your money where your mouth is. Tickets available online. http://www.freethinkingfilmfest.ca/

Arizona Shooting

Our condolences to Gabrielle Giffords, the victims, and families of the victims, of the Arizona shooting.

Happy New Year!

To start this post off with the obvious, Happy New Year! Hopefully you all had as good a time I did, fantastic food, great friends, and Pirates of Penzance, on top of some very nice exam results (Perfect score on modern middle east, wonder why) which are my excuse for not blogging as much as might have otherwise been advised. My excuse for the next two weeks of slack posting are precalculus, statistic, and calculus. Did I mention that I haven't really started studying for statistics or calculus yet and I am supposed to know them before I start econometrics on the 18th? You can forgo the comments questioning my mental sanity, I've questioned it enough myself recently.

On that subject, the BC NDP are in a bit of a fix because their new leader must be a woman due to quota rules, and all their candidates are men. At this point I would usually talk about the negative social effects of ruling out great candidates due to the rather irrelevant fact that they are men, but I won't. It might, actually, cause me to rethink my stance on gender quotas. Because honestly a bad leader for the NDP doesn't really make my list of negative social outcomes. What fate more just then to fall upon the rocks of their own bigotry?

The first American Baby Boomer has turned 65. Welcome to the new world. Hope you like it. This seems to me like the perfect moment to resurrect one of my older posts (that had people questioning my emotional stability, caused a local scandal, and resulted in people wishing violence against me. So I knew it was pretty good.)

To continue the first half of my post some days later.

My Mother has been "encouraging" me to put up a Paypal donation button on my blog. I resist on the grounds that I do not blog often enough or well enough to justify anyone paying me. But on the slight off chance that I am wrong and I do have devoted fans who would love to support me, you can check out this little thingamajig.  It is a reminder of an important, if too often overlooked, period of history, sometimes called a civil war, but having a rather one-sided outcome (let's just put it this way, their numbers today are still half what they were in the 16th century). The Huguenots, my ancestors among them, were discriminated against, forcibly converted, massacred (70,000 in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre), driven into exile. But those fortunate ones who managed to escape France alive were immensely influential in the spread and foundation of much of Protestant Christianity (John Calvin being perhaps the most famous example). One beautiful symbol, immensely rich in meaning, that they left us is the Huguenot Cross (aka the Protestant Cross)

The cross as the universal symbol  of Christianity.
The base is a Maltese cross, because we are soldiers of Christ.
It is also a lily, symbol of purity and of France.
The four petals/arms symbolize the four gospels.
The eight points symbolize the beatitudes.
The hearts are to symbolize that our hearts are to be centered on Christ, and they are connected to John Calvin's seal.
The fleur-de-lis represent France, again.
The 12 petals of the four fleur-de-lis represent the 12 apostles.
The ring of points represents Christ's crown of thorns.
The dove represents the Holy Spirit. In times of persecution it was replaced by a dove, symbolizing tears.
(I know, minus several hundred points for tact, alienate all my Catholic readers and still hope to build my readership. But I do love the Huguenot story, and the Huguenot cross, and it deserves to be told. After all, bloggers aren't into political correctness right?

CBC and Kathryn Joyce may believe that "The Demographic Winter" is a piece of racist, anti-women, Christian, etc (you know the list) propaganda, but the million dollar question is this, will their ideological purity preserve them if Canada eventually goes Europe and starts seizing private retirement savings in order to boost public pension funds? H/T RuralRite

And a little late, but none the worse for that. The New York, oops sorry The New Jerusalem Times has a cover story on the birth of Jesus. Best headlines in my opinion. "Planned Parenthood's Success Story: Herod's administration implements ultra-late-term post birth (up to two years or 8th trimester) abortion regimen" and "Who Killed the Dead Sea? Large Roman-made chariots most commonly blamed for the disaster".