Universal Values

There are certain value systems which humans have. Among those is the innate value to survive. Some would say that there are also intrinsic doctrinal values that are available to humans, should they aspire to realize them. Of those, many say that one guiding principle is selflessness; in the sense that the interests of others must supercede self-interest. Conversely, some say that the cardinal value is self interest.

Multiculturalism is probably the most fashionable and thus popular doctrinal value these days, one which moonbats everywhere claim as the Descartian universal truth, the one natural law by which all humans must guide their lives.

But what if, regardless of how strictly you adhere to that idea, people of other cultures disagree with you? And refreshingly, I'm not talking about neo-cons or republicans or whatever. I'm talking about people who, just like any good liberal, hold that the masses are incapable of running their own lives, but rather than working for the CBC they decide to strap explosives to their chests and blow the shit out of themselves and any infidels that disagree. What if those people don't agree that all cultures are equal and deserving of liberty? What should you do? Protect your country's ideals? Or hold sensitivity training courses for the jihadi? That is the question GWB wakes up to every day. Do I protect those in my country who oppose me, or do I let the immediate future prove them wrong?

It's like finding your long lost son!

Sweden, long a bastion for socialist supremacy, the ultimate talking point for many a liberal, has voted in a government that will dismantle the 'cradle-to-grave', or as I see it: embodiment of the law of diminishing returns, system of distribution that has created such orgasmic praise from lefties in the face of astonishing evidence refuting it.

Everything's OK

Ahhhh, I'm starting to get my stuff together again. It's been 3 months since I left PC, and it's definitely taken this long to get to a place where things are organized, purposeful, and right. I'm still tying up loose ends with PC, but just a couple small items. School is really starting to become exciting, the new business is starting to become active, and I'm definitely digging not having roommates. I've seen all of my friends, and most of my family, so I'm feeling a bit more tuned in to what's going on. It's good to be back, and it's good to be around the people I care about. I felt a little like I was floating in the ether for the last couple months; there's been some uncertainty and anxiety, etc., but now I feel focused, and ready to really burn it up, baby.

Pope Benedict: The New Rushdie!

So now the pope's gotten a death sentence. Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin, a hardline cleric in Somalia's Islamic movement has decided that the Pope's gotta go for his quotation of a 14th century Byzantine Emperor. I wasn't going to write about this; it's really quite a tiring thing to work through all of the incidences where the self-described 'religion of peace' makes completely insane moves that reinforce its image as a vicious and intolerant religion of jihad and oppression.

And I mean intolerant in a way that us in the West aren't used to, because yeah, you know how relatively accepting of gay rights and women's rights we are. There's something about affirmative action too. Oh yeah, and we generally like to let people worship however they want to, or not at all if that's their thing. Or um, we have a rule of law relatively free of religious influence. Blah blah blah. Or yeah, remember how willing we are to ignore the flaws of others, as long as the others will accept us and like us. And find us to be non-threatening. Oh right, there's something about free speech that we've all kind of accepted, you know how you can generally say whatever you want publicly, and maybe people don't agree, or maybe they respond aggressively with other words or whatever.

Oh wait, I should stop. It's no use trying to position this superficial, materialistic, individualistic society as somehow morally superior to anybody else (Shhhhhh, Rocketman, you probably shouldn't talk so loud, maybe there's someone listening who wants to behead you), because as we all now know from our postmodern, nihilistic, enlightened perch condescending upon anybody else who doesn't agree, all morality is subjective and equivalent.

And this polite fiction goes on and on and on, and it's great. Everything's great, we're all getting along, and WHAMMO!! The Pope goes and turns off the music at the party and tries to pick a fight. Way to go you Papal maniac!! Why did you have to go and tell Jihad Johnny that he's wearing an ugly sweater? You know he's all coked up and looking for a fight. See look, he's just phoned all his buddies, and they're just a few church-torchings away from coming down to kick all of our asses! Why can't you just shut up for once and keep your opinions to yourself?

Funny how the West can tolerate "The Piss Christ" without getting all freaky, eh?

Conspiracy Nuts Rejoice!

A new conspiracy to debate about for decades to come!! Actually, the staging of the events of 9/11 has been hypothesized for some time, but a group of rabid America-haters seem to have organized a bit. No matter, they're still completely insane. Steve Dutch of the University of Wisconsin debunks.

My favourites from both studies: The first study exclaims: It looks like a building which is being demolished! Steve Dutch rebuts: How's it supposed to look; like an errupting volcano?

The Truth Will Not Be Silenced

Ever wondered whether Saddam Hussein had ties to Al-Qaida?

He's A Few Years Late For The Party

Kofi Annan has announced today that unless the UN intervenes, Sudan is "headed for disaster". No way. You don't say, Kofi.

He goes further and says "When we had Rwanda, almost everyone said we should not let it happen again". Well first of all, almost everyone?

Second of all, if the policy in Rwanda was to debate whether or not it was a good idea to intervene, and then do nothing, and then debate again until everybody's dead, then it looks like it is already all happening again.

Say what you will about the Americans, believe in 'imperialism', 'blood for oil' conspiracies, military-industrial complexes, blame them for all the world's ills, criticize their screw-ups, but hey, at least they're trying in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also did their best in Germany and Japan.

It Seems I've Struck a Nerve

There's been a relative flurry of commenting activity here in the last few days, and I think it's good reading. It seems as though I've said a few things that have created some resonance, and I have to say I've enjoyed the reaction.

Friends, (if I may still have the honour of using the term) let me make an appeal: Please keep it coming. This sort of debating is a healthy thing! You don't need to change my mind, and I don't care to change yours either. What's good about discussions like this is the exploration of the way we feel about the things that are important. We can build on our individual beliefs this way, and if we have opposing views on some things, that's fantastic! Where else can you interact with someone who disagrees with you in a polite arena?

It's too easy to become so rigid in your beliefs that you can't stand to hear opposing views from people you'd otherwise get along with. So again, please comment, it's brain food! I only ask that nobody takes anything personally, and that nobody gets personal. That way, no one gets hurt.

9/11

I'm 29 years old. I'm still young enough that I'm changing quickly, but old enough that I've experienced a fair amount of change. Something that I've realized is that there is a lot of struggling involved with being human. You don't know that as a very young person, but once you get to say, mid-elementary school, it starts to hit you. Struggle to fit in. Struggle to understand yourself. Struggle to understand others. Struggle to survive.

It's funny how when you say a word enough, it loses its meaning. It's a fun game to repeat a word over and over until it sounds like it's from another language. My favourite word for that game is 'leotard'. Say leotard over and over and over, and suddenly it's the funniest sounding word you can think of.

Despite all the little struggles I've had over the years as I've grown up, or because of them, the word 'struggle' had become just like leotard in my vernacular. A silly word with very little meaning.

But it's funny how when you suddenly have proper context for a silly word, it becomes meaningful once again.

Vigilante Justice

In New York city yesterday, a 57 year old disabled grandmother confined to her WHEELCHAIR shot her would-be mugger in the elbow with her registered .357 magnum. That kicks ass in so many ways.

Here in Canada where you are not allowed to fight back against your assailants, the mugger would probably be protected by more laws than the muggee. He'd probably get put in jail (if the police could be bothered to try and find him), but money would be lavishly spent on his 'rehabilitation', and he'd be released early. Then he'd probably sue her, but she'd probably already be in jail for attempted murder with an illegally concealed weapon.

Oh yeah, and there would be people trying to understand the 'root causes' of the crime, which would undoubtedly be the oppression of the working class and the poor by the heartless rich people. The mugger would be a victim of the bourgeousie, and his only fault would be acting out his frustrations.

I say forget root causes, I'm glad he got his, it's only too bad she couldn't have put that bullet in a different spot.

My favourite line from grandma: "I feel bad, but it was his choice."

Communist Revival

Bolivia is exploding.

Dems: They Keep on Slandering, But Can't Take It Themselves

Michael Moore. John Kerry. Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton. Mary Mapes. Dan Rathers. Oliver Stone. Willie Nelson. Dixie Chicks. Maureen Dowd. Thomas Friedman. Daily Kos. New York Times. Los Angeles Times. Reuters. Associated Press. Toronto Star. Globe and Mail. All have slandered the Bush administration over the past 6 years.

vs.


One little miniseries on ABC.


Outrageous.

Canada: Machine of Capitalism?

There are some (all too rare) moments that make me really proud of Canada. This is one of them. Bank of Montreal is helping to create IPOs for Chinese banks, so that those banks can become publicly traded companies. It's a giant step forward for communist China's economy, and will help an already exploding free-market movement expand further. Pierre Trudeau must be rolling in his grave.

A Few More Brazil Pics...

Brazil

2 impressions of 1 experience.

Brazil was amazing. I learned some things, I think. I saw natural beauty. I saw human beauty. I experienced human beauty. There were beautiful products of humanity's efforts.

Brazil was appalling. I saw fear. I saw hatred. I saw envy. I saw misogyny. I saw filth.

I don't mean to sound grandiose, it just fits to say that. It doesn't sound terribly original to me either. I expect that it's typical to have that experience wherever you go in this world. It seemed like a completely human experience to me altogether. These things, aesthetics, are all human. They're all ugly or beautiful, and all because of a human judgement; a comparison of sense data with values held.

"A Society With Nothing To Die For Is Already Dead"

I still can't imagine how this man came to be a product of Canada, but I'm glad he is. Mark Steyn lays the truth bare in his latest column. He covers a lot of ground, but the main point is that the western Multi-Cult tries so hard to understand and tolerate other cultures that it becomes completely blind to the way other cultures see it; and some cultures hate it for it's secularism, individual freedom, decadence, etc. etc. As a case in point, he theorizes that the kidnappers of the FOX News reporters didn't force their captives to convert to Islam for the sake of Islam (because it was clearly a sham), but to show the rest of the Islamic Jihadi world how easy it is to corrupt a culture with no identifying values. It was a show of force against a 'culture' that is perceived as weak.

Justice as a Cultural Value

Four American soldiers are facing the death penalty for murder, by military tribunal. The case against them is a little strange, as they were participating in an official raid, but it sounds like the soldiers were supposed to take prisoners, as opposed to killing their captives - even though the captives were clearly identified as enemies. Regardless, if they are found guilty and punished accordingly, could anyone come up with a story of Al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas, or other religious Jihadis prosecuting their own this way to make sure they do not compromise their own rules of engagement? I think not. I think that the Jihadis don't discriminate.