Good News

Say good-bye to obesity!

Because remember, "...cheaper food leads to more eating...."

Overweight? It may be your furnace's fault

More brilliance from the New York Times, and some British researchers with too much time and money on their hands.

The newer paper, published this week in the journal Obesity Reviews, looked specifically at indoor temperatures. The researchers found that since central heating became commonplace in the 1960s, room temperatures have increased slowly but steadily in both the United States and Britain. In both countries, obesity has also been on the rise.

To be or not to be...that is the question

...for Western civilzation. Mark Steyn (yay, new content on his site!) discusses the latest Dane to be put on trial for daring to whisper ...well, anything about Islam.

In their folly, the multiculti enforcers are setting the stage for great violence, and a descent into barbarism.

"Even nail salons... are monitored more closely"

There was blood on the floor and urine was splattered on the walls. A flea-infested cat was prowling around, and there were cat faeces on the stairs. Semi-conscious women scheduled for abortions were moaning in the waiting room or the recovery room, where they sat on dirty recliners covered with blood-stained blankets. [...]

What this case shows is that supporters of abortion rights are far, far, more interested in defending an ideology than protecting women.

Michael Cook, MercatorNet. Read it and weep.

Go, Eduardo!

The world needs more like him.

Well, I declare!

This is what you get when you don't read your headline out loud before you print it.

Yet another response

...to the "don't have children because it will ruin your life" meme.

Are new mothers happy? My answer on MercatorNet's "Family Edge".

I thought it was the fault of Buy 'n' Large!

Nope. Turns out Walmart makes you fat.

While the most obvious explanation is that cheaper food leads to more eating, Courtemanche said further research is needed to determine the exact connection between Walmart supercentres and obesity.

Yeah, more research just like this is exactly what is needed. If they could only uncover these sinister Walmart operatives who are forcing people's mouths open and cramming the food in, I'm sure that would go a long way toward breaking the Walmart supercentre-supersize customer link.

If people overindulge because food is cheap, how come you don't hear of anyone gorging themselves on carrots?

Not for the faint of heart.

God bless the men and women who work against this horror, and who give the bodies of these (mostly girl) children the dignity of a decent burial.

Naturally, others see the problem in a different light: it's not that babies are being killed, it's that they're being killed slightly later than they ought to be:

Abortion is prohibited in Pakistan, except when the mother's life is at risk from her pregnancy, but advocates say that legalisation would reduce infanticide and save mothers from potentially fatal back-street terminations.

They just don't get it.

h/t Small Dead Animals (where several commenters make the same connection between abortion and infanticide)

Ricky Gervais channels his "Office" character

Hilarity The withering of the delicate flower that is the Hollywood actor ensues.

But I thought Hollywood loved everything that is tasteless, daring and irreverent!

And now, the nominees in the category of, "No Sh*t, Sherlock"...

Mountie-killer's guns not registered, inquiry hears

"I think it's fair to say James Roszko had a wanton disregard for any (firearm) legislation," said RCMP Sgt. Dale Baumgartner, a gun-tracing expert.

I wonder what the implication is here? That opposition to the gun registry puts you in the same category as this psycho cop-killer?

Or could it possibly be that criminals tend not to obligingly register their weapon of choice with the government?  Better form a federal commission to study that.

U.S. passport applications go gender-neutral...sorta

Last week, I read on Fox News (story appeared Jan 7) that the U.S. State Department plans to remove the words “mother” and “father” from U.S. passport applications for children. The terms will be replaced with gender neutral terminology.

“The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father,’” said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. "They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’"


Sprague said the decision to remove the traditional parenting names was not an act of political correctness.

Forgive me a Seussian chuckle. Sprague argues, somewhat disingenuously:

“We find that with changes in medical science and reproductive technology that we are confronting situations now that we would not have anticipated 10 or 15 years ago,” she said.

But why stop at medical science? The State Department should be even more inclusive, and encompass labels based on social science too. In that case, even the word “Parent” is too narrow and discriminatory. Perhaps the State Department may have to consider providing choices that take into account various pseudo-parenting sub-categories, such as "Sperm donor who maintains involvement"; "Surrogate womb who is Parent 1’s female sibling"; "Parent 1's best friend, who is actually more supportive than deadbeat biological Parent 2;" “Parent 2’s current boyfriend”(oops, sexist! Make that current partner), and so forth.

Perhaps it isn’t about medicine or science at all—maybe it's all about feelings. But whose feelings? Evidently only those of certain Americans, specifically, a tiny minority of gays, lesbians and “other-gendered” (the official acronym has grown too wieldy for memory) with children. The feelings of traditional family advocacy groups and individuals apparently don't matter one jot. Conservative groups oppose the State Department’s decision, but they are not likely to win any sympathy from the current administration.

“Only in the topsy-turvy world of left-wing political correctness could it be considered an ‘improvement’ for a birth-related document to provide less information about the circumstances of that birth,” Family Research Council president Tony Perkins wrote in a statement to Fox News Radio. “This is clearly designed to advance the causes of same-sex ‘marriage’ and homosexual parenting without statutory authority, and violates the spirit if not the letter of the Defense of Marriage Act.”

On the other hand, “Gay rights groups are applauding the decision.” And why not, since various pro-homosexual groups, the Family Equality Council among them, have been lobbying for this for some time.

“Changing the term mother and father to the more global term of parent allows many different types of families to be able to go and apply for a passport for their child without feeling like the government doesn’t recognize their family,” said Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of Family Equality Council.

(Incidentally, I don’t know what makes the word parent “more global”; it’s not as if the terms “mother” and “father” were some sort of xenophobic American inventions, but that is neither here nor there.) Chrisler claims that the old passport form made her female partner feel like a 'second class citizen' when it required her to fill in the 'father' field on an application. It felt "discriminatory."

Sprague said she would not use the word discriminatory to describe the old passport form. “I would prefer to use the word imprecise,” she said.

Ah, yes, if you're looking for precision (that is, accuracy, exactitude), the labels "Parent 1 and Parent 2" make everything a whole lot clearer, do they not?

But if you think this is extreme (or just plain silly), brace yourself. It could get much worse, and eventually, I'm sure it will. Just wait until the polygamy crowd (no pun intended) joins the fun. There are no hurt feelings like radical Islamist hurt feelings.

UPDATE: Wonder of wonders! The State Dept. won't go entirely neutral after all...as reported on Mercator Net.

Seek and ye shall find.

Instead of referring to honor killing like it is a recurring bedbug infestation, how about we treat it like we do other killing? In other words, put the 'murderers' who 'commit' 'honor killings' into 'the slammer' and 'throw away the key'. I'll bet the immigrants who came here to get away from such barbaric practices would think it's a good idea - especially the ones whose lives could be spared as a result. Newspapers could also stop putting the phrase 'honor killing' in quotation marks as though it's a fabricated term that they reluctantly use for the sake of people who don't understand the cultural nuances of the practice.

In July, Ambrose hinted that the Conservatives wanted to draw more attention to the growing issue and were looking at making honour killings a separate indictable offence under the Criminal Code. A Justice Department official quickly refuted the claim, though.

If by "draw more attention to the growing issue" you mean "stamp out the practice of murdering your own family members", then go to it!  As a psychiatrist in the story goes on to say,  “Honour killings should be treated as first-degree murder,”  He seems to get a little loopy after that, though:

“The public should be aware of the sensitivity and we should recognize it as an honour-based crime, but there should be no separate law.”

I agree, there should be no separate law. But what does it mean for the public to be "aware of the sensitivity"? Does he mean that the people who commit honor killings are sensitive about admitting that it's connected to their culture or religion?

Muhammad said the issue is not necessarily cultural, but another example of domestic violence. If it were made a separate offence, it would make it easier for defendants to argue that they themselves are victims of a “cultural trend,” wrongly paving the way for more lenient sentences, he said. It may also perpetuate stereotypes that honour killings only occur in certain cultures or religions.
“We should not be focusing on any particular group or culture,” he said. “Honour killings can happen to anybody in Canada.”

 If this guy studies honour killings, he must not study them too closely. I wonder if he has noticed any commonalities in these random acts which occur in every "group" and "culture" in Canada? I can't wait for the government leaflets which will be dutifully distributed to ALL Canadians, urging us ALL not to kill our daughters if they, for example, decide to date men from a lower caste. Because Presbyterians are always pulling crap like that.

Of course, the government sees things so much more clearly, and has the Unified Answer for Everything: apply for government funding to start a project to explore the issue. That'll do the trick!

“We continue to encourage women’s groups and other community-based organizations to apply . . . for support for projects that explore, expose and (contribute) to ending violence against women, including honour-motivated violence,” said the [Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose]'s spokeswoman, Rebecca Thompson, in a recent email.

Speaking of barbaric practices, the involvement of Status of Women is horribly ironic, considering they are Canada's #1 cheerleading squad for the right to brutally dispose of an inconvenient daughter (or son) much earlier in the game.

Honor killing may not occur in every group and culture as the doctor claims, but sin is certainly present in every human heart. If the government is seeking ways to stop honor killings, then it must at the same time seek to honor all human life.

If it's a good strategy for cigarette packages...

...why not for sex-ed classes?

With memories of sex-ed classes that relied on “boring workshops” and “disgusting pictures” of sexually transmitted diseases—a strategy he characterizes as “you shouldn’t do this because you can get this”—Jones finds this new approach refreshing.

Oh, wait, I forgot - smoking is a physical pleasure which can result in a myriad of health problems, so teens shouldn't do it at all. Non-marital sex is a really intense physical pleasure which can result in a myriad of health problems, so teens should have all the help they can get if they feel like doing it. Understood.

h/t Mark Shea

Ban 'em All!

They tried to ban Mark Steyn. They're partly banning Mark Twain. They've already banned Mark Knopfler. 
Bad time to be a creative guy named "Mark"! (Even if it's a pseudonym.) Look out, Mark Shea!  

BAN 'EM ALL!

They say there's a book with a certain bad word that we shouldn't read anymore
Heavily laden, a time-expired slur, which all decent persons abhor-
There's many a comic who uses this word, how come they're allowed to go on?
It makes no commotion - what's with this odd notion? How come they don't ban 'em all?

Ban 'em all, ban 'em all, American, Briton or Gaul,
Ban all the poets, the rappers, songwriters,
Ban all the authors, 'cause they're mostly blighters,
We'll say goodbye to them all, to their dark, grotty garrets they'll crawl,
They'll get no permission for verbal emission, so shut 'em up, lads, ban 'em all!

They say if you work hard you'll get better pay - we've heard all that before
Clean up your sentences, polish your prose, rework that verse just once more.
There's many a songwriter's taken great care - his hook line and lyrics we'll maul
'Cause now it's verboten to sing what he's wroten, so ban all his songs, ban 'em all!

Ban 'em all, ban 'em all, Flannery, Twain and St. Paul,
I'll grant you there are no bad words in Ephesians,
But they have, we're certain, some very good reasons
For saying good-bye to them all, world lit'rature we'll overhaul,
You'll get no Colossians 'twixt any two oceans, so cheer up, my lads, ban 'em all!

Now they say that the censors are very nice chaps, oh, no truer tale could you tell!
Ask them for leave to speak just as you please, you'll be shown to a nice padded cell.
There's many an author has blighted his life through writing rude words on the wall
He'll get no promotion this side of the ocean when we've banned him once and for all!

Ban 'em all, ban 'em all, here's a guide to make each judgement call:
If your tone is all wrong or your meaning's abstruse,
If you're not gay enough for the phrases you use,
We'll be saying' goodbye to you all, down the memory hole you will fall,
Harper Lee, Alex Haley, the list will grow daily - but they'll stop sometime, after all -

Nobody would ban any words that we use - so cheer up, my lads! Ban them all!

Spanking revisited

I was so inspired by Mrs. Beazly's smackdown of Sen. Celine Hervieux-Payette and her ilk, that I decided to toss in my two bits.  (Mercator Net, "Family Edge" blog)

OK, so spanking is the root cause of violence; religion (Christianity) is the root cause of spanking, but who or what is the root cause of religion? Now the senator’s logic hits a snag. Who made up the rules of the Church? (The anti-religious senator dare not suggest they came directly from God.)


Religion was created by men, of course—power-hungry, violence-loving men! Wait, I’m confused. According to the senator, men are innately good. Who taught them to be violent and power hungry in the first place? Surely not the gentle apes from which we evolved.

Jeepers, do we really want government officials who aren't even capable of logical thought making laws or trying to tell us how to live and raise our families? Oh wait, we've been enduring that for several decades already...

Till "me" do us part

According to the New York Times (that beacon of sanity and correct living), the healthy marriage is the "Me Marriage". It's all about "using your partner for self-expansion." In other words, I'll love you as long as you continue to make me feel really good about myself. That sounds like a recipe for true happiness, all right. Carolyn Moynihan smartly dissects a really dumb idea.

Cash in your Club Z Points Now

No more Zellers in Canada? How can my shopping life go on?

And what is Target's policy on stealing and throwing away their shoe customers' footwear?

Weigh in, if you dare

My latest post at Mercator Net. (I wonder why I keep writing about obesity...)

Yeeeeee-haaaaw!

 Here's  a  good story that may remind some of our readers of our last family reunion and the party crashers thereof:

"We work with cattle -- it works with them so we figured it would work with him."

 Hopefully this stupid punk has been "em-bare-assed" out of thieving from now on.

"All about the anus"

Fact #1: It's where Planned Parenthood's head is firmly lodged.

Parents should give babies sense of sexuality from birth: Planned Parenthood


via LifeSite News.

In the Bleak Midwinter

This week the Christmas tree comes down. I've always found that to be the peak of "the bleak midwinter" - no more presents, Christmas music, decorations, or time off school and work. In the liturgical year of the Roman Catholic Church, the season of Christmas ends today and tomorrow we return to Ordinary Time. As I'm taking the ornaments off the tree and packing away the nativity set for another year, I'm inclined to lament, along with Elvis, "Why can't every day be like Christmas?"

Another far more beautiful song has the response. "The Three Kings", which I posted on the Feast of Epiphany, reminds us of the answer:

Thou child of man, lo, to Bethlehem
The Kings are travelling, travel with them!
The star of mercy, the star of grace,
Shall lead thy heart to its resting place.
Gold, incense, myrrh thou canst not bring;
Offer thy heart to the infant King.

Making every day like Christmas isn't merely a sentimental idea from an Elvis song - it is our calling as Christians.  That, to me, is a wonderful thought. The kings are always travelling – we can travel each and every day with them, toward the Christ child! We can allow Him to be born in our hearts every morning; we can let Him displace pride, selfishness, greed, gluttony - whatever moldy old straw is taking up room in the manger. The angels are calling us from tending the flocks in the cold darkness, toward the warm radiance of the stable, to go and worship the King so that He might permanently implant in our hearts the joy and generosity we feel on Christmas Day. That is a very comforting thought indeed, as Bleak Midwinter descends. In fact, “In the Bleak Midwinter” ends with the same exhortation as “The Three Kings”:  

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

That is surely the best gift we can give, and one that will truly transform the coming weeks of Ordinary Time into something extraordinary.

Mr. Warren hits one out of the park...as usual.

"We are all wayfarers through this world; and to those who have the character and formation to know that this is so, the constant reminders of exile are useful." 

Heh. "Energy Saving" Treadmill

Is that an oxymoron, or just ironic? I was browsing through a Sears catalogue recently and a certain treadmill caught my eye, because there was an icon of a light bulb (incandescent, no less! naughty, naughty) advertising that the treadmill in question was ENERGY EFFICIENT (Sears' caps, not mine). It also has "recycled content in packaging", ha ha, but I digress. Apparently it costs less than $0.50 worth of electricity to run it for one hour.

I find it kind of amusing that the average treadmill owner would actually be concerned about wasting a bit of electricity when it came to such blatantly non-essential items as treadmills. (I own one, but I do think they are frivolous.) For pity's sake, go run or walk outside (it's free), if you care so much about the environment! It's also ironic that the average overweight person (sadly, I'm in that group too) would care whether or not his treadmill consumed too much energy, when we wouldn't be in our current state if we didn't consume too much ourselves. Pampered, frivolous, over-fed, environmentally-obsessive western society is funny, no? I think that many of us fatties have discovered an even better way for our treadmills to "save energy" --we rarely use them.

Read this column by Ezra Levant.

It's a spanker!

"Honourable senators, I will try once again to demonstrate the need to amend the Criminal Code in order to ensure that our country shows greater respect for children and does more to reduce violence in our society."

That would be a great starter for a debate about abortion. However, this is actually the beginning of one senator's argument for repealing Section 43 of the Criminal Code which reads:

Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.

Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette asks on her website:

"What if the dark side of human nature were the result of standard child-rearing violence?

What if human nature were originally good but was corrupted by totally inappropriate child-rearing techniques?"

This is apparently the basis for her desire to repeal Section 43. Violence entered the world through "totally inappropriate child-rearing techniques". It is always fun to listen to people who say they don't believe in evil try to describe it.

If the senator really believes that there's no such thing as original sin, and that all our aggression is imprinted upon us by way of "standard child-rearing violence", then why should we be blamed, much less held criminally responsible for, "using force by way of correction"? As Mr. Levant points out in his column, if you follow this logic, then those who grow up to spank, abuse, or even murder children are just victims of all the spanking generations before them. Even their parents can't be blamed, because they were victims, too.

But what if we were never spanked ourselves? What if we never even played an aggressive sport like football? What if it was only flag football? In that case, where did we 'learn' to be violent? Hey, I know: maybe all humans, even those who escaped the permanently damaging experience of being swatted on the bum for repeatedly pulling their sisters' hair, share some kind of tendency toward sin behavior displeasing to their Scientifically Enlightened Governing Betters, simply due to their origin!  Hmmm, I'll have to think up a clinical-sounding name for that in case I ever become a politician. How about "Original Spontaneous Involuntary Negativity"?

Okay, so children aren't ever bad - they're just "boisterous", and therefore parents must never use force to correct them. (Can we even use the word 'correct' if their behavior is not 'incorrect' in the first place?) If parents are not justified in using reasonable force to correct a child, then I don't see how the state is justified in using force, such as one might experience during arrest and incarceration, to correct citizens who spank their children. The only remedy the senator mentions is "parenting education", which is scary enough, considering it would no doubt be mandatory and administered by the government. However, since we are talking about the Criminal Code, it's not unreasonable to imagine that a parent who spanks his child could end up in jail, despite the senator's assertion that

"Those who say this provision would result in the criminalization of parents or guardians for so-called "trifling" reasons are arguing in bad faith. [...] Not one of the 26 countries that have thus far banned the use of violence in child rearing has experienced this result."

Maybe she's right. We all know that no parent has ever been unjustly interfered with by the state, so why not hand over as much power as it thinks it can handle? We can't be trusted not to beat up our children - not with that juicy Section 43 loophole to slip through - so why not let Nanny State close it up? It's not like anyone will ever really be arrested for spanking, and if they are, well, they'll only be subject to some "government education". That's probably just FedSpeak for being taken to Timmy's and reasoned with "through argument" over a double double, just as you might do when your 3 year old pours milk on his little brother for the third time in as many minutes. Heaven Our Scientifically Enlightened Governing Betters forbid that "we should submit [children] to parental authority, and...control them through authority."

I agree wholeheartedly that parents do not have "ownership" of their children. As I recall, it is more often the state which is trying to slap a "Property of..." sticker on the foreheads of human beings of  every  age, and disposing of them as it sees fit.  My children, my duty to lovingly correct them in a reasonable manner, and any (often over-stepped) authority which the state legitimately possesses all come from one source. And here's a hint, senator: it isn't the government.

Can they be angry? Or are just 'older', 'white' and 'male' allowed?

The Saturday Night Live skit that is the NDP goes on.

It gives Ham of Atonement a whole new meaning.

You won't see this guy interviewed by Oprah any time soon. Or hired as a weight-loss consultant by "The Biggest Loser." Or on the NY Times bestseller list.

Because he actually knows the cause of obesity. Zac Alstin, MercatorNet. Required reading for those of us who need to drop a kilo ...or ten.

Many people over-eat in the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake. Their actions betray a disordered motive as their consumption of food meets and then exceeds the good of nourishment, becoming instead a harm to their health and life.


[...]
This error is the essence of what we used to call "gluttony" -- the inordinate or disordered desire for food. The medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote that: “The vice of gluttony does not reside in the substance of the food, but in the appetite ill-regulated by reason.”

"We are consumed by the desire for pleasure in eating."



WE are consumed. Ironic, no? And it tuns out that the answer for all our diet, weight-loss and food-obsession woes are to be found in simple religious teaching. Wonders never cease.  

Epiphany/ Merry Christmas!

A few more of my favorite Christmas carols.



What is it about "tree" carols? I love them.



And the one everybody knows:



Here's one I never heard before - "The Linden Tree Carol". So far, all I can find for audio is a sample on Amazon.

Hamming it Up

The Atonement Hams (see post below if this entry is more confusing than usual) are beginning to pour in! Well, okay, I have received only one, and it's not from the RCMP's Committee for Intercultural Group Hugs and Warm Fuzzies, but it looks like a beauty and should last us for a while.

Loyal reader Ted Blurn writes:

Mrs. Blurn made this one for me to atone for exposing her ankles and wearing slacks on consecutive days. Feel free to quote me. I want to be famous.

Done, Ted! Done like the Atonement Ham which accompanied your message. 

Fame will follow naturally - I have a feeling about 80% of DOH readers already know you personally.

Loyal readers, get in on the fun! Just so you know, I will also accept Bison Roasts of Reparation,  Turduckens of Satisfaction, and Sacrificial Scapegoat.

The Mounties Always Get Their Naan

At least, they might have got some at one of several end-of-Ramadan feasts where "outreach" officers tried to suck up to Muslims because some other Muslims had been arrested at the wrong time of year. Bending over backwards must come naturally when you have no spine. Here's hoping they all spilled tabouli on their uniforms.

Why would law-abiding Muslims care when accused terrorists are arrested? We are constantly lectured on how we should not even contemplate thinking about the merest hint of the possibility that Islam and terrorism are in any way connected, so why would the RCMP think they owe other Muslims an apology for weeding out criminals from their midst? How do officers and detectives feel about their superiors apologizing for their efforts to uphold the law and protect their fellow citizens?

I'm sure it is a stressful event when your cousin, neighbor or guy who happens to belong to the same religion as you gets arrested. It might make things easier on everyone if the RCMP (after consultations with all religious groups, of course) issued a Diversity Calendar so that not only Muslims, but Christians, Jews, Hindus, Unitarians, and Grand Poobahs of the Church of What's Happenin' Now could have a convenient heads-up as to when the Mounties would be most reluctant to arrest them, and plan their illegal activities accordingly. What is the primary goal of good police work, if not caring about the feelings of the suspect and his (or her!) community?

Just to let you know, RCMP cultural diversity consultative committee, Lent will soon be here. On the off-chance that you arrest any validly baptized persons between March 9 and April 24, I expect to receive a Vermont-style Ham of Atonement along with an apology written in fancy gold ink.

"Gold, incense, myrrh thou canst not bring; Offer thy heart to the infant King."

1. Three Kings from Persian lands afar
To Jordan follow the pointing star:
And this the quest of the travellers three,
Where the new-born King of the Jews may be.
Full royal gifts they bear for the King;
Gold, incense, myrrh are their offering.


2. The star shines out with a steadfast ray;
The kings to Bethlehem make their way,
And there in worship they bend the knee,
As Mary’s child in her lap they see;
Their royal gifts they show to the King;
Gold, incense, myrrh are their offering.


3. Thou child of man, lo, to Bethlehem
The Kings are travelling, travel with them!
The star of mercy, the star of grace,
Shall lead thy heart to its resting place.
Gold, incense, myrrh thou canst not bring;
Offer thy heart to the infant King.

Epiphany

Here is my favorite rendition of "We Three Kings". I love this carol because it tells the whole wondrous story, of which Christmas is only the beginning!

This is for everyone who is seeking the Christ child, especially those who may have felt for many years that they did not need to look for Him. The stable door is open.