Senior bishops call for end to persecution of Christians in Britain
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, TELEGRAPH [UK]:
Six prominent bishops and Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, describe the “discrimination” against churchgoers as “unacceptable in a civilised society”.
In a thinly-veiled attack on Labour, they claim that traditional beliefs on issues such as marriage are no longer being upheld and call on the major parties to address the issue in the run-up to the general election.
In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph, the bishops express their deep disquiet at the double standards of public sector employers, claiming that Christians are punished while followers of other faiths are treated far more sensitively.
[...]
Censorship and satire
George Jonas, NP:
The Roman poet Juvenal remarked that it’s hard not to write satire. Things have gone downhill since then. By now it’s hard not to write slapstick comedy.
Take this week, which began with a Canadian academic haughtily reminding a visiting American firebrand of the respect and civility that’s the hallmark of public discourse in this country,
“There is a strong tradition in Canada … of restraint, respect and consideration,” wrote University of Ottawa provost François Houle to enfant terrible Ann Coulter, urging her “to respect that Canadian tradition while on our campus.”
This was on Monday. On Tuesday, a howling mob demonstrated Canada’s commitment to restraint and respect by blocking Coulter (and those who came to hear her) from entering a lecture hall on campus.
The only group exhibiting Canadian-style restraint was the police.
[...]
I don’t think that remark about the police is fair at all. Why if the speaker had been Henry Morgentaler and the crowd a group of pro-lifers peacefully protesting his speech then I ‘allege’ [for legal reasons] the cops ‘may’ [for legal reasons] have beaten the crowd senseless and carted them off in paddy wagons. Just … kidding.
‘People who know Paul Ryan say he will be president one day’
Bill Dupray, American Conservative:
Okay, it’s time to talk about Paul Ryan. The headline quote is from Mark McKinnon, who thinks Ryan is the real deal. Check out Ryan’s list of simple, effective, liberating proposals.
[...]
H/T: Linda at The Great Pumpkin
Earth Hour: No Thanks
Ross McKitrick:
I was recently asked by a journalist for my thoughts on the importance of Earth Hour. Here is my response, edited slightly for readers outside this area.
I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity. Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing, as well as the ability to provide safe indoor lighting for reading. Development and provision of modern health care without electricity is absolutely impossible. The expansion of our food supply, and the promotion of hygiene and nutrition, depended on being able to irrigate fields, cook and refrigerate foods, and have a steady indoor supply of hot water. Many of the world’s poor suffer brutal environmental conditions in their own homes because of the necessity of cooking over indoor fires that burn twigs and dung. This causes local deforestation and the proliferation of smoke- and parasite-related lung diseases. Anyone who wants to see local conditions improve in the third world should realize the importance of access to cheap electricity from fossil-fuel based power generating stations. That’s how we developed.
The whole mentality around Earth Hour demonizes electricity. I cannot do that, instead I celebrate it and all that it has provided for humanity. Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it is nothing more than an hour devoted to anti-humanism. It invites people to become sanctimonious do-gooders by turning off trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in service of some ill-understood abstract concept of “the Earth,” all the while hypocritically retaining the real benefits of electricity. People who want to do without electricity in service of some symbolic solidarity with nature should shut off their fridge, stove, microwave, computer, water heater, lights, TV and all other appliances for a month, not an hour. And pop down to the cardiac unit at the hospital and shut the power off there too.
I don’t want to go back to nature. Haiti just went back to nature. For humans, living in “Nature” meant a short life span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. People who work to end poverty and disease are fighting against nature. I hope they leave their lights on.
Here in Ontario, through the use of pollution control technology and advanced engineering, our air quality has dramatically improved since the 1960s despite the expansion of industry and the power supply. If, after all this, we are going to take the view that the remaining air emissions outweigh all the benefits of electricity, and that we ought to be shamed into sitting in darkness for an hour, like naughty children who have been caught doing something bad, then we are setting up unspoiled nature as an absolute, transcendent ideal that obliterates all other ethical and humane obligations. No thanks. I like visiting nature but I don’t want to live there, and I refuse to accept the idea that civilization is something to be ashamed of.
Ross McKitrick Professor of Economics University of Guelph
h/t: Linda at The Great Pumpkin
Smackdown – Pierre Poilievre Gives Iggy A Diggy
OfficiallyScrewed:
Ann Coulter has entered Hansard. The Smackdown is italicized below.
Mr. David McGuinty (Ottawa South, Lib.):
Mr. Speaker, the darling of the reform-conservative-republican movement really outdid herself last night in Calgary. By addressing Canadian diversity, Ann Coulter said that diversity is not an advantage to a country like Canada. “It’s not a strength”, she continued. Then she went on to compare diversity to cancer. From organizing speeches to putting on cocktails, the Conservative Party’s dirty little fingerprints are all over her Canadian tour.
Will the Prime Minister immediately and publicly condemn Ann Coulter’s outrageous and intolerant views?[...]
H/T: Linda at The Great Pumpkin
It’s over: MPs say the special relationship with US is dead
Michael Smith, Times [UK]:
BRITAIN’S special relationship with the US — forged by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt in the second world war — no longer exists, says a committee of influential MPs.
Instead, America’s relationship with Britain is no more special than with its other main allies, according to a report by the Commons foreign affairs committee published today.
[...]
Isn’t ‘Smart Power’ cool?
Palin: Media ‘lies’ about links between tea parties, violence
By KENNETH P. VOGEL, Politico:
Firing back at critics who say that she and other conservatives had encouraged harassment of House Democrats who supported the healthcare overhaul, Sarah Palin Saturday ripped the media for casting her and tea party activists as violent.
“When we talk about fighting for our country, let’s clear the air right now about what we’re talking about,” she told an estimated 20,000 tea partiers gathered for a rally in a windswept desert lot about four miles north of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s tiny hometown. “We’re not inciting violence. Don’t get sucked into the lame-stream media lies.”
Palin said “violence isn’t the answer.” She said “our vote is our arms” and encouraged activists not to be discouraged by the passage of the Democratic healthcare overhaul bill last week, but rather to channel their energies into defeating congressional Democrats who supported the legislation.
[...]
Now that’s odd. I posted an AP article earlier which, among other things, happened to record the crowd around 7,000 whereas this article records 20,000.
David Litman at the UN-HRC
h/t: Vlad Tepes
As Accusations of ‘Violence’ Flow, Let’s Take a Look At the Record
Posted by Penny Nance, BJ:
There have been accusations of violence flying everywhere since the dreadful healthcare bill was passed on Sunday night. It’s certainly true tensions are running high, just like they have been for an entire year. And for good reason. Many of our freedoms as Americans were stripped away when healthcare passed. But are the threats of violence just a charade to distract Americans from learning about what the massive healthcare bill really does? I think so.
Could you imagine what would happen if someone set fire to, say, Nancy Pelosi’s church? (Does she even go to church?)
[...]
Proof Harper and his faux Conservatives are unaquainted with truth telling
Canadian Human Rights Commission to expand despite rumoured job cuts
The cost of voting in Trudeau and successive Liberal idiots
Police search for violent offender just hours after his release
Electric Green Waste
By Bruce Thompson
Green initiatives are costing hard-pressed Americans billions of dollars in the form of higher utility bills and squandered investment in inefficient electric power generation.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is about to institute the first of four rate increases for electric power planned to take effect within the next year. The increases are expected to increase power costs for businesses by 21% to 22%. Residential customers will see increases ranging from 8.8% to 28.4%.
The money generated by the increase would enable [Los Angeles Mayor] Villaraigosa to carry out a longtime political promise: securing 20% of the DWP’s power from renewable sources, such as solar and wind energy, by Dec. 31.
The political purpose of this is to replace coal fired generation with “green power.” The DWP website has a link to a report detailing its existing generation sources. It has a total of 6,991 MW of “net dependable capability,” of which 1,515 MW is coal-fired and 285 MW is from renewables and distributed generation. Therefore, “going green” would require decommissioning about 21.6% of the existing dependable capability. The question ratepayers ought to be asking is “why?”
Let us examine the largest coal-fired power plant. It is Intermountain Generating Stationoperating report located near Delta, Utah. LADWP’s share of its output is 1,038 MW. The 2009 provides this summary:
[...]
The consequences of the US-Russian START treaty
Aaron Gee, AT:
Rogue states like Iran continue to strive for nuclear weapons in defiance of “words that matter.” Such words didn’t stop the rogue state of North Korea from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and now it is threatening to use them against the United States. Is this anytime to signal to the world that we are willing to pull back on anti-missile technology and defensive weaponry?
[...]
Earth Hour
Hey folks it’s Earth Hour Day or is that Earth Day Hour or an Hour on Earth or something …
So, be sure to join in by turning on your lights for an hour tonight from 8:30 – 9:30 p.m. Actually, I think you might also consider running an appliance or two. Let’s try to suck the energy right out of the grid – yah!
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