We are not on Twitter

When it comes to online communication and/or searches, a single letter, or even a dot can direct you to the wrong (or let us say "different") place. So one must be precise. I was googling our blog name one time, and came up with this lady's Twitter address (or handle, or whatever the Twitterites--Twitterenes--Twitteronians--Twits? call themselves).

I highly approve of this graphic: Mrs Pinkerton

DumbOldHousewife
@DumbOlHousewife

Most in the MSM and Hollywood consider women like me to be just dumb old housewives. #wife #momto5#nebraska #catholic #prolife#conservative #NFP

This is not us we (you must use proper grammar, no mattter how awkward it sounds). This is (as you can see from her description) a wife, mother of 5, who is Catholic, from Nebraska, who is prolife, conservative, and promotes natural methods of fertility awareness. Something tells me we could have a tremendous amount in common with her. But I can't say for sure, as I've not read all of her tweets.  

Here are the differences: we are three ladies (albeit two fairly silent ones, for various reasons--we're slowly rectifying that); we have 16 children between us, and we are not from Nebraska. We are from Canada (SK and ON) and Australia. 

In any event, more power to you, Mrs DOH from Nebraska! Let it be noted (if copyright issues ever arise) that she joined Twitter in 2017, and our blog has been operating under this banner since 2009. And she has 128 followers, and we have 34, so we're evidently doing something wrong. Maybe we should get on Twitter. 

.

Why Identity Politics / Social Justice Warriorism is driving me mad

Genius? Dunces? Him? CONFEDERACY???

Mainly because it's killing satire. What would Jonathan Swift have said to all the craziness going on in North American society these days? Possibly, nothing: he'd have been hauled before some human rights or social justice tribunal for writing Gulliver's Travels (alternately, he'd have been given an award by Planned Parenthood for his essay "A Modest Proposal" wherein he --satirically-- suggests that society solve the "overpopulation" and poverty problems in one go by eating their children.) It is satire. He wasn't serious. You have to explain that these days.

When satire is dead, comedy is dead. Also drama, poetry, song, fiction and film. I avoid Hollywood movies for the most part, because  they are no longer interested in telling entertaining and exciting stories. Most of them contain lame preaching on trendy topics, and thus have become the equivalent of medieval morality plays  (in fact, they're probably far worse, becuase at least back then, people knew how to write).  It's the same reason why some Christian ghetto novels and films are so bad. The story must come first; the moral or lesson must be incidental, not central to the purpose of the artwork. But I digress.

I enjoyed this essay/article by Lionel Shriver. I must admit I had not been interested in her work until I saw her interviewed by Mark Steyn, back when he had a TV show on CRTV. Those videos are also worth checking out.

It doesn’t take much parsing to conclude that protecting all and sundry from the terrible experience of having your feelings hurt is the end of free speech altogether. Since nowadays “you can’t argue with what people feel,” umbrage is freed from rational justification. Given that the better part of the human race is crazy, stupid, or both, there’s nary a thought in the world whose airing won’t offend somebody. Doesn’t Darwin offend creationists? Furthermore, in granting so much power to woundedness, we incentivise hypersensitivity. If we reward umbrage, we will get more of it. We do reward umbrage, and we’re buried in it by the truckload.

If you feed me, I will grow.

Trigger warnings/Microaggressions

More from Ms Shriver:

Yet these days, straight white fiction writers whose characters’ ethnicity, race, disability, sexual identity, religion or class differs from their own can expect their work to be subjected to forensic examination—and not only on social media. Publishers of young adult fiction and children’s literature hire “sensitivity readers” to comb through manuscripts for perceived slights to any group with the protected status once reserved for distinguished architecture.

Good heavens, what hope do aspiring writers have, unless the culture regains its sanity?
. 

I have embraced the Dark Side

The Master with his Light Sabre of Free Inquiry:
Soon to be joined by Darth Shapiro, Darth Peterson, Darth Rubin,
Darth Rogan, Darth Paglia, Darth Murray, Darth Saad, Darth Steyn, Darth Greenfield,
Darth Fiamengo, and a whole lot more. Thankfully, there is no dearth of  Darths. 

Here is yet another great article, discussing why the mainstream media is failing--or rather, why the new media online is giving it the Vader chokehold. It should encourage those of you who are perennially angry and frustrated about what you see on CBC or CNN or other MSM outlets. "Inside the Intellectual Dark Web" by British author, journalist and political commentator Douglas Murray. Here are a few quotations: 

You can't make this up

The same people who told us to "Let it all hang out" and "Everybody's doing it" in the 60s and 70s are now issuing "Hugging Guidelines" and forcing employees to spy and report on each other for "inappropriate" relationships, whatever that means. No more eye contact at the water cooler? Hester Prynne, call your office pillory.

(HT Dr JB Peterson on FB)
.

Sunday fun

I still don't understand a lot about YouTube, or just, well...the internet in general (for example, I have yet to be convinced that Twitter is good for anything, but I remain open to learning). It amazes me how many funny and creative people are out there, creating content and basically building entertainment empires from the ground up. The Bad Lip Reading folks are a case in point. Their Star Wars music videos are hilarious.

Some of the more famous YouTubers are worth millions, which is kind of mind-boggling, especially since many of them started out with a laptop webcam, sitting on their sofas. But it's a different world than the one in which I grew up (one TV channel, I kid you not). And now I have zero--TV channels, that is. We've given up on the major networks entirely. And why not, since so much of what they do seems intent on destroying the foundations of Western Civ.

Whereas this is just funny. Enjoy.

Why we don't have ads on our blog.

I suppose at some point we might, but for now, I just find this kind of thing scary. This is a copy of the sidebar of another Catholic web page, which need not be named, because it's not their fault. I'm not sure you have any control over the ads that pop up on your site. But when I'm researching saints and stuff, I just don't need to see what's at the bottom. In fact I never need to see it, not even by accident in the bedroom mirror. (Oh and please don't take the quiz. The photo is there to make a point, not to tempt you.)

Do you pray for your priest? Often Sometimes Not really    See Results    Poll Archive Most Popular    READ        SEARCHED      E_MAILED    1. Jesus Breaks the Habit of Putting Limits on Our Love 2. Don Alvaro, witness of fidelity 3. Vatican warns against misinterpreting international law, human rights 4. Pope Francis: Satan Seduces Us by Disguising Evil as Good 5. HOPE: Here is your part 6. St. Francis of Paola, Saint Ebba the Younger and Companions 7. Introduction Synod of Bishops on the Family 2014 8. The Gift of Grandparents 9. Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time 10. Bl Mother Teresa of Calcutta; St Bertinus; St Lawrence of Justinian

Mainstream media not covering Gosnell trial

Because they still can't figure out how to spin headlines like: "Abortion doctor on trial for killing babies" without it sounding too weird or dangerous. Or something.
.

Mark Steyn, honorary Catholic

And I mean that in a GOOD way. You can also tell he's still Canadian, because he has heard of Peter Mansbridge (and understands him completely). Some great comments (on Hugh Hewitt) on the MSM's handling of the papal conclave/election. 

Well, you know, I think the papal coverage in the so-called serious media, particularly in the United States but elsewhere, too, has been completely ridiculous. [...] I mean, this idea, the parochialism of it, the idea that somehow the American media’s preoccupations – gay marriage and abortion, should also be the preoccupations of the oldest continuously functioning entity in the world. [...] and the fact that these guys have to go to Columbia Journalism School to talk this kind of ignorant codswallop to the world, is amazing to me.

[...] 

I saw Canada’s most famous newsreader, a man who’s like the Peter Jennings and Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw rolled into one, a guy called Peter Mansbridge. He interviewed Cardinal Ouelette, the former archbishop of Quebec, who was in the running to become the first Canadian pope at this conclave. And you could, and again, he was asking these shallow, secular…the questioning from a shallow, secular perspective. And Cardinal Ouelette is far too polite a man to say to him this is the dumbest bunch of questions I’ve ever had to sit through...

I will never forget Peter Mansbridge's coverage of Mother Teresa's funeral. He turned to his colleague and said, in his serious, sonorous, time-filling, journalist-guy voice. "You have to wonder now, whether her order will continue into the future..." or something equally preposterous and ignorant. Canada's "most trusted news anchor" probably thought Mother Teresa had, like six old nuns working alonside her in the slums of India. He did not know that the Missionaries of Charity had gone worldwide and had thousands of members. Did. Not. Know. 

h/t Pundette
.

Warrior babes, free speech and the CBC

In honour of International Women's Day, that celebration of feminism, empowerment and above all, political correctness. 

I don’t work for the CBC, but if I did, this would be a serious new story, and it would be titled: “CBC Host Sexist Misogynist Warmonger!” Except that the CBC, like most left-of-centre media outlets, never reports on its own incongruities.

This guy is too brilliant for words

Daniel Greenfield, aka Sultan Knish: 

Shallowness is actually a winning media strategy. The truly shallow have nothing to hide because they have nothing. They voluntarily turn their life into public consumption. Most of the rest just manufacture a fake reality that seems real only because generations that grew up on television have brains that are trained to confuse natural lighting, low resolution footage and shaky cameras with sincerity.

 [...] The more fake the culture is, the more of a sucker it is for fake authenticity. The explosion of reality shows is traceable to the death of reality. Everyone wants to connect to something and someone and the entertainment industry is abandoning escapism from reality for escapism to a fake reality next door. Music has reached the same range of fake reality, embracing the inauthenticity of making your life public as the ultimate form of authenticity.

Politics thrives on that same fake authenticity. Mitt Romney, a fake authentic politician of the old school, back when politicians were working with magazine covers, snapshots and a 30 second clip, couldn't compete against the truly fake Barack Obama, who in truly modern media style doesn't just fake 30 seconds or 30 minutes in front of the camera, but fakes his entire life going back decades.

[...]Those who believe in nothing are the most gullible because they will fall for anything. Those without faith are always looking to believe in something or someone. Those who have never known value or quality are always looking to pick up a product that communicates value and quality to them, even while they retain no metric for assessing either one. Instead of learning the metric, they follow the brand, they become savvy brand-spotters, rather than knowledgeable buyers. And when they brand lets them down, then the brand apologizes, the emotions are soothed, and the low information voter turns to the big screen for another messiah.

He's got words for Lance Armstrong too. Worth reading.
 .

There is a DOH on Twitter

But it is not Mrs. Beazly and I; it is yet another Catholic, conservative mom of many. That's good. There can't be too many of us about. Especially on Twitter; it's all hers, as far as I'm concerned. I don't particularly care for Twitter, mainly because I don't really have any idea what it is or why it exists.

I have occasionally felt that we ought to have a Twitter presence, but I have always refrained for these  reasons: for someone to "Follow" you, you actually need to be going somewhere.  Secondly, it would probably be too humiliating to have oh, zero followers. Thirdly, there is so much hatred and abuse and foul language on Twitter: do I really need that in my life? No, I do not.

In fact, I probably need to spend much, much less time on Facebook and blogging and being online as well--and much, much more time praying, spending time with my children, appreciating art, literature and music, exercising, doing housework, and baking pies.

 Mr. P's Birthday pies, October, 2011

Newest addition to my list of fave young conservative journalists

Dan Joseph (what a great name!), MRCTV. Funny and easy on the eyes, which always helps.

David Letterman: prophet or Freudian slipper?

His first question to Obama the evening after the terrorist attack in Benghazi:

"How much do you weigh these days?"

Apparently, not much.

Breitbart:

With middle class incomes deflating, four Americans recently assassinated by al-Qaeda, poverty and gas prices increasing, and the debt already saddling our children and grandchildren with mortgage-sized debt, Americans aren’t likely to be any more enamored than the media with Obama's non-stop "smallness."

SUN's Ezra weighs in (sorry) too. 

The debates revealed Obama as a lightweight. But they also revealed that for four years, the mainstream media has covered up that fact.

Well, maybe not all the media. This photographer seems to have caught the gist.

Bad optics? He looks tiny even in relation to the prompters-- 

which is another unfortunate metaphor all on its own.

.

Why I blog about U.S. politics

Even though I don't pretend to know a whole lot. Because what transpires south of the 49th parallel totally matters to us Canucks.

The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Best. Moderator. Ever.) on "The Better President for Canada." Featured on the in-studio panel: the perennially delightful Theo Caldwell, whom I still miss from that other show that's no longer on SUN TV.

Worth the 35 minutes (watch while you do the dishes or something). There were even some LOL moments. The self-delusion of the Left knows no bounds. Example: Obama would be a better president because, abortion.

Best line: (Theo) "Sorry, was I interrupting you, Sheila?" (She was the only woman--a Liberal--on the panel and she was constantly interrupting the other gentlemen, who were indeed gentlemen, because they never interrupted anyone.)
.

Canadian tax dollars at work...with bias

The CBC has a poll that asks a leading (and non-defined) question: "Should the human rights act forbid online hate speech?" Without, of course, defining what 'hate speech' actually is. (Hint: the Bible qualifies)

You're a villain no matter how you vote. Who could be in favour of "hate speech" after all?

Why doesn't it ask: "Should we have free speech online?" or better yet: "Should Canada scrap every last one of its national and provincial Human Rights Commissions?"

Goofballs. Mr. Harper, save us some cash. DEFUND the CBC.
.

Knock me over with an IUD!

Mainstream U.S. media NOT covering huge national story of huge Catholic lawsuit against the Obama administration! It only makes you look (even more) like fools, people. This lawsuit is Not. Going. Away. I wonder if the CBC is NOT covering it too (I don't watch the CBC...)

Funny how the MSM is there with cameras, boom mikes and a thousand reporters if a pedophile priest farts, but when 40 dioceses file suit against the U.S. gubmint over its attack on religious freedom, suddenly it's "nothing to see here, folks." Come to think of it, the MSM won't report that the HHS mandate IS an attack on religious freedom, so go figure.


.

If the CBC loses "Hockey Night in Canada"

Then TSN can hire Don Cherry and Ron MacLean. Life goes on, and everyone's happy. Except the CBC:

"It’s at a point that, in three years, CBC might just collapse."

h/t SDA, who says, "Don't Tease Us Like That." 

.

Don't shoot the messenger

Brian Lilley on a new tell-all book about the CBC.

CBC is a left wing, anti-business, Toronto-centric broadcaster that doesn’t care about producing shows Canadians actually want to watch.That’s not my verdict — although I may agree with it. That’s the assessment of Richard Stursberg, the former head of English services for both CBC television and radio. Stursberg has just released a tell-all book about his six years at the top of the CBC food chain and it doesn’t always paint a pretty picture.

Critics of the CBC will not be at all surprised by stuff like this, cuz we've been exposed to it forever:

[Stursburg] made enemies of people who felt CBC should make the “art-house fare” that no one would watch and bask in their own superiority.Nowhere was change resisted as much as the news department. Once upon a time, and it was a long time ago, CBC’s The National had been the dominant television newscast in Canada. Now it was third in a three-horse race and showed no signs of improving. Suggestions they should improve were met with contempt. Stursberg writes that the news department — Fort News, he calls it — felt it was above everyone else. 

I never in a million years thought I would actually agree with CBC executives, but I sure do on this point: 

One thing made clear to Stursberg was that CBC should not be involved in making Canadian sitcoms, reality shows or the sorts of American-style programs watched by millions in this country.

Amen! Not because of the "Canadian content" angle, mind you, but because they totally stink at it! What should the CBC produce? I think they should do whatever they want to or feel like doing... Let them produce Season 47 of "GLBT Beatnick Environmental Poetry Readings at Little Mosque on the Return for the Tenth Time to the Road to Avonlea" starring the ghosts of Pierre Burton and Pierre Trudeau-- in a canoe, as long it is required to compete on the open market. Let Canadians decide what they want to watch, and what they want to pay for.  

The books does indeed sound like a must-read. 

.

Pretty much the only reason (besides Don Cherry) to watch the CBC

Is when they interview The Steyn.

And he was pure Steynamite. On Canadian-citizen-Al Qaeda-terrorist Omar Khadr: "He's technically a child soldier by Canadian standards where we all stay in school until we're 37..."

Tsk Tsk --Evan Solomon. Poor guy. Unarmed, if you will. (Anders Breivik, on trial for "allegedly killing 77 people" Allegedly, Evan? Might it be a case of mistaken identity or summat?) As the host, he got to change the subject every time he was losing the argument, which was... often.
.

I'm not the only extremist around

NRO's Michael Walsh also has some dangerous ideas...

Notice the implied premise of the phrase, “tack [too] far to the right,” as if being on the right were an extreme position compared with the sensible center or, God knows, the morally preening Left. But it’s the center and all those wonderful moderates out there in the dark that’s gotten us into this pickle, by accepting the Left’s narrative that “progressivism” is inherently good and “conservatism” inherently reactionary. Since when did fidelity to the Constitution, belief in good old-fashioned American values of individualism and enterprise, and a desire to preserve the country as founded become an “extreme” position?

Just so.
.