Progress Marches On

Strip off the Michael J. Fox mask and see what kind of evil is leering back at you:

The Drudge Report recently highlighted a shocking story from the BBC that centered on “disturbing video footage” of “dismembered tiny bodies.” “Healthy new-born babies” in the Ukraine, “the self-styled stem cell capital of the world,” have allegedly been killed “to feed a flourishing international trade in stem cells.”

Apparently this isn’t an isolated problem. The Council of Europe “describes a general culture of trafficking of children snatched at birth, and a wall of silence from hospital staff upwards over their fate.” Imagine the horror of young mothers who “gave birth to healthy babies, only to have them taken by maternity staff.” What happened to these newborns was anybody’s guess, but recent footage obtained by the BBC may provide insight into their fate: “The pictures show organs, including brains, have been stripped–and some bodies dismembered.”

Still in the Gutter

Jeffrey Simpson apologises (subscribers only) for a whole lot of things, except for having directly and indirectly called Ralph Klein and Albertans bozos. Prolific apologies are offered to Ignatieff, however, but none to Albertans.

Simpson doesn’t quite succeed in getting himself out of the gutter-press category that he condemns.

crossposted from civitatensis.ca 

Rejoice in the Execution of this Tyrant – Challies

Go read, The Death of a Tyrant:

And so we can rejoice in the execution of this tyrant. We can rejoice that justice has been done. At the same time, we must not rejoice wrongly. We must take no wrongful pleasure in the death of another person. Death is an unnatural state for humans and one that should always remind us of our state of fallenness. Were it not for our sin there would be no death. And always we must remember that the sin that filled Hussein is the same sin which lives within all of us. Were it not for the restraining hand of God, were it not for His grace, any of us could commit acts equally horrific.

We must never make light of the fact that Hussein is, in all likelihood, in hell now. And, as difficult as this may be to believe, all the pain and torture and devastation Hussein caused in his life, either directly or indirectly, is as nothing compared to what he is experiencing now and what he will experience for all of eternity. We must never, ever make light of hell as the eternal destination of any man.

Hussein’s death is a testament to the depravity of humans, but it is also a testament to the justice, mercy and goodness of God. It is a time to mourn at the state of mankind, but also to marvel at the power and sovereignty of God.

Saddam in Hell

While the bureaucrat who videotaped Saddam’s execution thought he was relatively humble and afraid, I suspect John F. Burns’s description of Saddam’s pride is probably the greater truth about the tyrant. His reflections are fascinating, especially the degree to which even during his trial he kept his companions (who were also on trial) in abject fear. Also noteworthy is the incredulous reaction Iraqis had for the pity and other Western journalists had for Saddam during moments of his trial:

That I could feel pity for him struck the Iraqis with whom I talked as evidence of a profound moral corruption. I came to understand how a Westerner used to the civilities of democracy and due process — even a reporter who thought he grasped the depths of Saddam’s depravity — fell short of the Iraqis’ sense, forged by years of brutality, of the power of his unmitigated evil.

That says quite a bit about the kind of coverage the Western media has provided us. But that’s for another day.

Today one can reflect on the enormity of Saddam’s crime and perhaps his punishment. The obvious place to look is Canto XII of Dante’s Inferno, where we read about the tyrants getting boiled in blood, an echo of their own crimes against their peoples. There, rage drives the Minotaur to devour himself.

But perhaps Canto XIV, where Dante meets the blasphemers against God, is more appropriate. There, he sees one of the Theban kings, Capaneus: “that huge one who doesn’t seem to mind/ the fire, but lies and twists his face for spite,/ so that the rains [of fire] don’t seem to ripen him.” In defiance Capaneus rages, and Virgil address him: “Your pride has not cooled off, O Capaneus,/ And in that you are punished all the more!/ No other torture than your own mad rage/ would bring fury its most fitting pain.”

And so they turned and went their way, leaving Capaneus and Saddam to their punishment.

Gas Prices: It’s Been Awhile

We haven’t heard any major news stories on gas prices lately. They haven’t been rising or falling precipituously and we are all getting used to prices in the buck a liter range.

However, it is always something I pay attention to. It is the most visible weekly expenditure for me, and it is displayed on almost every street corner.

For something so visible, I would expect to hear from the blogosphere on it more often. Here is my update for those of you interested.

In the GVRD (Greater Vancouver Regional District) we have about 6-7 cents a liter markup on our gas from various transit taxes – the socialists’ efforts to bleed us into taking the Skytrain – that amazing feat of engineering that seems to only run where they themselves admit they don’t want it to run. If it actually went where I needed it to go, I might actually take it. In order for me to take advantage of it I would have to do what the GVRD doesn’t want me to do – take a job in downtown Vancouver… but enough about that.

Anyways, I expect to pay 6-7 cents more than everyone else in the province pays. If I want cheap gas, I’ll find an excuse to go visit friends in Abbotsford or Chilliwack. So when we left for our Christmas trip to Alberta, I deliberately ran my tank to almost empty so I could gas up in Abby. Surrey was 110 cents a liter, Abby was around 102 when I filled up. Good. That is reasonable.

Now, when you get up into the hinterlands away from the Fraser Valley, things usually get more expensive. The more remote you get, the more expensive. It usually reaches a peak in the National Parks, Jasper and Banff, then drops off dramatically as you leave the resort areas. It most often bottoms out in Edson, where the market is driven down by competition from commercial traffic.

That didn’t happen.

Kamloops: 95 cents.

Valemount (aka the back end of NOWHERE): 92

Jasper: 92

Edson: 88

Edmonton: 82(!!! Some places reporting as low as 79!)

Mark that: a 15 cent difference from Greater Vancouver to Hicksville BC where it probably costs a fortune to get gas trucked in.

Now, I’ll give you that Alberta probably has a different gas tax model. They certainly don’t have to deal with transit incentives, and no PST helps. But 30 CENTS DIFFERENT? 33% CHEAPER?

I think I have made the case: Vancouverites are being gouged. No question.

One last number in case any of you Vancouverites think this is some freaky aberration. Central Toronto is only paying 89.

‘Nuff Said.

Remembering Gerald Ford

Complements of the NYT, a good assessment of the virtues of Gerald Ford:

Mr. Ford’s presidency was an extension of his own political personality: reactive rather than activist, instinctive instead of intellectual, humanistic but within the fiscal limits of conservative dogma.

Mr. terHorst, the biographer, puzzled over the seeming contradiction between the president’s personal and professional philosophies: “The problem with him — he doesn’t like to be kidded about it — but the fact is, this guy would, if he saw a schoolkid in front of the White House who needed clothing, if he was the right size, he’d give him the shirt off his back, literally. Then he’d go right in the White House and veto the school lunch bill.”

John Hersey, after spending a week in close observation of the president, wrote in The New York Times Magazine of April 20, 1975: “What is it in him?”

“Is it an inability to extend compassion far beyond the faces directly in view?” Mr. Hersey wrote. “Is it a failure of imagination? Is it something obdurate he was born with, alongside the energy and serenity?”

The answer seemed to be a belief — one Mr. Ford was schooled in if not born with — in the essential dignity of human struggle. “Everything didn’t turn to gold just because I did it,” he remarked. “I had this foundation, and I had been brought up with the training that — and this is an oversimplification, but I think it’s indicative — the harder you work, the luckier you are. And whether it was in such things as the Boy Scouts or athletics or academics, I worked like hell.”

Commence Dirty Tricks

Along with the entirely coincidental news that Mark Marissen has been appointed as the Liberals’ national campaign co-chair comes this revelation of renewed Liberal dirty tricks:

Yesterday, we got a fishy e-mail purporting to come from Jennifer Bernier, Présidente, NPD Abitibi—Témiscamingue, calling for Jack Layton’s resignation. Today we find out from the real Jennifer Bernier that it was a hoax…

Leads me to wonder, who would impersonate an NDPer in order to smear Jack Layton and pump up Stephan Dion?

Indeed.

The comments on that thread are pretty funny too as the Liberal local yokels proclaim innocence in this and all things.

What happened to those 1,600,000 PC votes?

In the aftermath of Meech Lake, the shattered old Progressive Conservative organization was a zombie – dead, but still staggering around. Mulroney had lost two-thirds of his record-breaking mandate, and gone from 211 seats down to 2!

Yet with Charest as leader, the PC’s could still command 2,400,000 million votes in 1997.

But the organization had lost its soul. The people who carried the traditions had been marginalized by Mulroney’s crowd. When the question of succession came up, the senior Tories bailed out. It was left to Kim Campbell.

She was given the helm of a sinking ship, and she promptly went looking for an iceberg. When the Tories finally gurgled down to 2 seats, the party didn’t even have a presence in the House anymore.

It was the greatest political defeat in Canadian history.

With Joe Clark as leader, the PC’s pulled only 1,600,000 votes and the bells were tolling. Within three years, Joe Clark was sidelined, David Orchard was narrowly prevented from taking over the party, and the new leader, Peter Mackay, had endured his humiliation as the price of his elevation.

Mackay could see the direction things were going in. He had the good sense to merge his party with its once-bitterly hated foe, the Canadian Alliance. Political competition returned to Canada.

Our question for today: what happened to those 1,600,000 PC votes in the 2004 election?

Comments?

TO BE CONTINUED …

Judy Rebick: Gird Your Loins!

Speaking of heads on sticks: Listen and learn, feminists of Canada. Step out of line and you will deal with the wrath of The Rebick.

By the way, I enjoyed this passage:

Since you have so little respect for me or for the women’s movement which mobilized for so long to win this hard-earned right, I hope you will understand that I ripped up the cheque I had written to the Green Party.

Damnit! May could have used those Canadian Tire dollars!

Seriously, though. That last excerpt should really be interpreted as a dig at the silly university department that is currently paying Rebick a professorial wage so that she can preach at Canadian women from great heights. I remember when political science departments hired faculty to, you know, conduct research. How parochial!

Waiting on an Election

Amongst news of Taliban atrocities and Canadian troops being welcomed into formerly Taliban strongholds, Stephane Dion has announced that he will not vote against the mission because doing so may trigger an election that the Liberal Party is not yet ready for.

It’s good to see that he’s keeping his priorities straight. I wonder how many heads on sticks Dion will tolerate once his party is ready for an election. My vote is for “countless”.

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