Jerry Falwell Catholics

What is this? The new Jerry Falwell of Catholicism?

“Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition.”

[...]

“This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country – the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age?”

“He attacks all of us and he attacks all of our institutions.

[...]

“We look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it.” ”

Like WTF?  Imagine these same words issuing from a Muslim ... all of Christendom would be up in arms.  Come to think of it ... most conservatives and most definitely Christians are already up in arms whenever a Muslim spews just this kind of crap, where those who oppose them are considered instruments of Satan. 

Conservative Catholics used to rage at the Christian evangelical fringe for just this kind of stuff ... sure, it makes for good red meat when talking to hardcore "Christians" ... but in the process you isolate yourself on an island that few Americans will join, including fiscal conservatives and all those sensible people in the middle who are common sense conservatives who don't see the world in terms of Satan versus the USA.

America is committing suicide through debt ... first and foremost; but the latest greatest GOP crazy is ranting about "Satan" in the same terms that Muslims do.

The DNC can't believe its good luck ... they're just winding up what is perhaps the worst 4 year term in decades, yet they are poised to retain power because the latest GOP darling is talking Satan.

Frankly, even Satan can't believe his good luck.



Update: In response to Rush

Yes Rush, Santorum sounds as loony as Chavez and Alinsky when he makes statements like he did. But, there is something deeply disturbing about Santorum's comments.

He seems to suggest that Satan has targeted "America" in general ... that America holds some sort of special place in God's eyes that Satan would single her out.

That notion ... this sort of "nationalistic Christianity" is dangerous talk ... it's the thinking of Old World Catholics and "non-bible believing" Christians.

Jesus and all writings of the New Testament made it clear that Christianity is a doctrine of the individual ... a doctrine that concerns itself with saving "individual" souls and has nothing ... not one bloody thing to do with state institutions. Furthermore, it has little to do with even "church" institutions because the theology of the New Testament is the theology of personal faith ... not corporatism of any sort.

As such, Santorum not only steps well outside the bounds of presidential behavior; but puts himself into a sort of Holy Roman Empire mindset where the very institutions of government and church are somehow ordained by god and therefore a target of Satan.

Jesus ... and all the Saints of the New Testament would cringe.

Alive After 30,000 Years

It was an Ice Age squirrel's treasure chamber, a burrow containing fruit and seeds that had been stuck in the Siberian permafrost for over 30,000 years. From the fruit tissues, a team of Russian scientists managed to resurrect an entire plant in a pioneering experiment that paves the way for the revival of other species.

The Silene stenophylla is the oldest plant ever to be regenerated, the researchers said, and it is fertile, producing white flowers and viable seeds.

Plants now ... what's next?

Mr. Harper in a Pickle of His Own Making

We've long argued on these pages that when you lay down with the Global Warming monster, you are going to get eaten.

So it is, that in a cynical ploy to stay on side with left of center voters, Mr. Harper's PMO has embraced the Global Warming Hoax ... in word, but only tepidly in deed. Harper fans laud the slippery actions of the PMO as shrewd "chess play" ... meant to keep the wolves at bay while doing nothing.  I prefer to liken his methods to those of a juggler.

I argue that eventually, when sleeping with lions, one is going to get eaten.  In the Global Warming debate, Mr. Harper is now juggling so many balls they are going to start to drop.

We now find Mr. Harper having to do battle with the very forces he has embraced. On the record, he and his administration have decried the horrors of Human Caused Global Warming ... yet in reality, they are now forced to battle the very forces they have sided with:

Canada is threatening a potential trade war with the European Union over its attempts to single out oilsands as a dirtier kind of crude, a revelation that comes just days before a crucial vote on the matter.

Newly released documents reveal David Plunkett, Canada’s new ambassador to the EU, has warned European officials the Canadian government will consider an international trade challenge to fight the bloc’s proposed Fuel Quality Directive (FQD).

We can only hope that America elects itself a conservative president ... and even better, one that turns his back on the AGW hoax. It's too bad we can't expect global leadership from our own PM ... he's too busy juggling.

Meanwhile, the cheer of the day might as well be:

Thank god for China!

Cannibals

There is going to be a reckoning and the number of Islamic states lining up to suffer tragic consequences is growing ... and when it comes it ain't going to be pretty:

The Afghan government said on Monday that police had rescued 41 children from becoming suicide bombers as they were about to be smuggled across the mountains into Pakistan.

Pakistan is set on a course that leads to a precipice.

Mississippi Burning

The Chart Liberals Hate

Why Conventional Energy is Sustainable

The reason that renewable energy projects are more likely to become eco-ruins than lasting sources of working energy has everything to do with the latest revolution in fossil fuel production and significantly safer nuclear power.

Slowly and surely North America and much of the world is waking up to the fact that there will be no energy crisis in the near future ... in fact, it is highly unlikely that even our great grandchildren will have much to worry about.

For starters, there is the shale revolution. There are challenges of course, not the least of which will be the blizzard of misinformation and protest that will issue from the renewable energy lobby ... aka the enviromental movement. But in the end, nobody is going to shove expensive environmentally damaging renewables down our throats when there is affordable conventional energy close at hand ... and a booming economy as a spin off:

• Enough natural gas to meet US electricity demand for 575 years at current fuel demand for generation levels
• Enough natural gas to fuel homes heated by natural gas in the United States for 857 years
• More natural gas than Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkmenistan combined.

While conventional fuels hold the key to energy security, other more esoteric but affordable forms of non-renewable energy are also available and poised to break out.
  
Take Thorium reactors for instance:

China has committed itself to establishing an entirely new nuclear energy programme using thorium as a fuel, within 20 years. The LFTR (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor) is a 4G reactor that uses liquid salt as both fuel and coolant. China uses the more general term TMSR (Thorium Molten-Salt Reactor).

Or, how about Clathrate:

“The message is quite clear, you can produce gas hydrates using conventional techniques,” says Scott Dallimore, a senior scientist at Natural Resources Canada, who co-led the project in the Mackenzie Delta. Over two winters the researchers drilled down more than a kilometre into a 150-metre-thick layer on the edge of the Beaufort Sea at Mallik — the most concentrated known deposit of the frozen fuel in the world.

So, the next time you're accosted by some eco-maniac spewing garbage about "sustainable" energy, assist her with a few facts ... shale, thorium, and clathrate just for starters.  Of course she'll toss the whole carbon-green-house-hoax at you, but at least you can crush the "un-sustainable" myth right out the gate.

In other words ... We Don't Need No Stinking Giant Fans ! ... and it's going to be a hell of a long time before we do.

When You Spot a Pile of Rubble ...

... don't be surprised to see a Pakistani flag on top:

In Pakistani textbooks, the line between mosque and state is virtually non-existent. Students learn that international boundaries – say, between Pakistan and Afghanistan – don’t count for much: “In all the textbooks analyzed, the student is presented a world where concepts such as nation, constitution, legality, standing armies, or multi-lateral organizations – except where they are prescribed by Islamic doctrine of sharia law – do not exist.”

There is some good news in the report: Many of the interviewed Pakistani teachers expressed the belief that, on an interpersonal level, non-Muslim students and their religious practices should be treated with respect. But overall, “as many as 80% of the respondents considered non-Muslims to be enemies of Islam.” This feeling of enmity was justified by reference to a grab bag of complaints against the West: acts of anti-Islamic “blasphemy,” “spreading the evil of alcohol in Muslim society,” “killings of innocent Muslim citizens through missiles,” and “the banning of veils [in France].”

The Other Syrian Blood-bath

The one that hasn't happened yet:

Christians were as common in Syria as in Egypt, before their numbers were immensely swelled by refugees from Iraq — well over a million fleeing up the Euphrates River valley, from anti-Christian persecution by Iraq’s Islamists. By now, there could be more than four million Christians within Syria’s borders.

When the Assad regime falls, it will be open season on them, on the Alawites, and all the other minorities. Granted, Assad is a monster who has earned an ugly fate. But at what expense should we indulge the fleeting satisfaction of deposing him?

American Woman ...

... she's got the hots for me:

A whopping 96% of Americans have a generally favorable view of Canada, while 3% view it unfavorably. That favorable rating is the highest Gallup has measured for any country in more than 20 years of asking this question. Canada's 93% ratings in 1987 and 1989 were the previous high favorable for any country. Complete country-by-country results are found on page 2.

Reading My Email Without a Warrant

Isn't it interesting how the worm turns ... so it happens that we proles have been right all along ... that the Harper CPC were about to enact a law that allowed for the reading of emails, tracking via cell phone, and spying on internet traffic ...  "without" a warrant.

Mr. Toews is quite right that it shouldn’t. But as written, it clearly does. While Canada may need to update its laws to adapt to changing communications technologies, the coercive powers of the state must always be constrained by checks and balances — a warrant from a judge being one of the most important. It turns out that Mr. Scarpaleggia was right all along — the bill would allow for police to access personal information without a warrant. Nor is the “exceptional circumstances” qualifier particularly comforting — given that the act is designed, in theory, to protect children, it would be hard to find a circumstance that wouldn’t be exceptional. The bill will now be reviewed by a Parliamentary committee before being debated again by the House, and one hopes that this major flaw will be swiftly corrected.