Brutal Attack on BC Bishop

The Vancouver Sun Reports:

Bishop David Monroe, 69, was admitted to Kamloops Royal Inland hospital with severe trauma to the face and head, and body injuries, including several cuts after emergency officials found him lying on the floor bleeding and unconscious.

He was taken out of intensive care Sunday and moved to a recovery unit where he continues to be monitored closely, said Msgr. Jerry Desmond, vicar general of the Kamloops Roman Catholic Diocese.

“He recognizes people and can say his name but that is about it,” said Desmond. “It’s that serious.”

Fortunately it seems they have found the attacker:

Police were able to get a modest description of the suspected attacker after linking the attack to another incident at the Royal Inland Hospital, just two blocks away from the church.

At about 8:30 p.m., a man was reported to have broken a hospital window and fled after his family admitted him because of concern over his well-being.

“He may have had some delusions about religion,” said [Sgt. Scott] Wilson [of the Kamloops RCMP].

The Church's grace and forgiveness was on display when Monseigneur Desmond said:

“It’s quite a tragedy. We pray for the recovery of the bishop and the mental state of the (suspect).”

I do pray that the Bishop makes a full recovery and that the suspect comes to his senses, realizes the gravity of what he has done, and repents of his sin.

Are the Liberals more conservative than the Conservatives?

Probably not.

Yesterday the Liberals announced a plan to eliminate the deficit faster than the Conservatives.

The announcement got me thinking. . .

• Maybe the Conservatives' drift to the left is finally going to bite them.
• Is Ignatieff actually a brilliant strategist who helped force the Conservatives to the left and now stands ready to capture the fiscally responsible title?

The answer is likely no on both counts. Rather than cutting spending, the Liberal plan involves raising tax revenue by cancelling planned corporate tax cuts designed to stimulate the economy. Brian Lee Crowley, of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa think-tank, noted:

It’s an economic fact of life, that lowering corporate taxes creates jobs, and freezing those taxes, as the Liberals propose, would keep those jobs from being created.

More ridiculous their so called plan to eliminate the deficit is based on gaining $6 billion by cancelling the planned tax cuts, when the budget office estimates the cost of the tax cuts is only $4.5 billion. That's a huge problem if this is the cornerstone of their deficit reduction strategy.

The Conservatives can be assured, Canadians will see through the Liberal smoke and mirrors and continue to place their trust in the Conservatives for sound economic planning.

Say it ain't so.

Canada's Redneck Games are no more. The Wellington Advertiser reported this weekend:

After five years and numerous top 100 festival awards, the Minto Redneck Games will no longer be there to “Get It Done.”

Last week, council made the decision to cancel the games, following a loss of roughly $8,500 on the event’s Saturday night concert.

Although Economic Development Committee manager Belinda Wick-Graham was welcomed to the table, it was with a heavy heart she presented her report on the status of the games and the results of the meeting held with the Redneck Games committee.

“My report basically sums everything up,” Wick-Graham said. “I have mixed feelings about this.” She explained there were multiple meetings with the core committee, made up of 14 different community groups involved with the event, to try to come up with a decision.

There was not a solid consensus and if a few additional people had been at the meeting, Wick-Graham said it may have swayed the vote in a different direction. . .

The recommendation made to council was to discontinue the event.

“If at some time in the future, if there is an urge to regenerate it, that can happen.”

With regret, council approved the recommendation of the Redneck committee that the event be discontinued.

It's sad news no doubt. I never attended the games, but I always got a kick out of the pictures that would make it into the local paper. It looked like serious fun.

The brutal truth is despite the fact that I always though the event looked fun and Harriston is less than an hour away, I never went. The event was cancelled because there wasn't enough attendance or volunteer leadership. This is a reminder that if we want community events, we really should lend our support.

Is Religion a Force for Good?

75% of Economist readers think not. During a 10 day debate, polling was consistent with a daily maximum of 27% of respondents agreeing with the statement, "This house believes that religion is a force for good."

The result is not unexpected given the typically hostile view the magazine holds toward religion. But, the result is scary none the less as the magazine has a massive circulation and is read by leaders of industry, government, and academia as well as wannabe thinkers like me. I don't usually comment on online articles but I couldn't resist this time. Here's what I had to say:

Dear Sir,

It seems that the working assumption on both sides of the motion is that God does not exist and that religion's primary benefits are fostering a sense of community and the enjoyment of ritual. When weighed against the clear evils that have been done in the name of religion such as Islamist terrorism, the widespread conclusion that it is not on balance a force for good is understandable.

I suggest that if both sides started with the assumption that we are created beings longing to be in touch with our creator, this debate would have been entirely different. That said, without getting into the debate about the truth of religion it is still a force for good on both an individual and societal level.

On an individual level religion provides meaning and answers the basic question of why we are here and what is our purpose. There is no satisfactory answer provided by atheists.

Religion empowers people through prayer. When there is little or nothing you can do individually to change a situation, prayer offers something positive that can be done.

As a society, religion defines virtue. Secularists and unbelievers can claim to be moral (and very often are), but that morality must be measured against an objective standard and without religion no such standards would exist.

The point was made well that religion builds community. I can speak personally to that, attending world Youth Day in Toronto in 2002 was a chance to see 1 million people gather to participate in the mass led by Pope John Paul the Great. Looking around and seeing the faith, energy, and enthusiasm from people from countless cultures and every corner of the planet was a truly transformative event in my life.

The criticisms leveled against religion seem to assume that it is an irrational opinion to hold. However Pope Benedict has made explaining the mutual dependence of faith on reason and vice versa a cornerstone of his papacy.

I applaud the Economist for attempting to debate this important topic, however, next time I’d encourage inviting people with more theological depth and breadth
to participate.

I don't suspect my comments will have any influence, after all the Economist's debate has ended. The results are a warning especially to Christians who feel like their views are being deliberately excluded from public policy. People of faith must make the their views known eloquently and fight for the right to continue to do so. There's a large segment of the population that would prefer we be silenced.

American Muslim Workers Sue for Prayer Breaks

I saw this story on a news website specific to the meat trade. It's a free site, but because you need to register, I've included the full article for those who don't want the latest meat trade information in their email twice daily.

Basically a group of Muslim workers is suing a meat packing plant for not letting them take prayer breaks at a specific time of day during Ramadan in 2008. The suit is being sponsored by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency.

I've gotta say I feel for the company on this one. They appear to have done everything they could to accomodate the workers, even attempting to change their break times.

JBS discriminated against Muslim workers, Feds say

By Tom Johnston on
8/31/2010

Federal officials said JBS USA’s Grand Island, Neb., beef plant must provide Muslim workers prayer time and not retaliate against those who request it.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday filed a lawsuit on behalf of 86 Somali Muslims who were fired after walking off the job during Ramadan of 2008.

“[JBS] has engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination by (1) unlawfully denying reasonable religious accommodation to its Somali Muslim employees; and (2) unlawfully terminating its Somali Muslim employees because of their religion, national origin, and in retaliation for their requests for religious accommodation, and their complaints of denied religious accommodation,” the complaint states.

The suit seeks backpay and other compensation for the workers.

A similar suit was filed in Colorado aimed at JBS USA's Greeley, Colo., beef plant, an EEOC spokesoman told Meatingplace.

JBS did not respond to requests by Meatingplace for comment.

The company fired the workers in the fall of 2008 for repeatedly walking off the line while bartering for prayer accommodations during Ramadan, a month-long holiday during which worshipers fast from sunrise to sunset.

At one point JBS resolved to move up second-shift dinner break up to 7:45 p.m. from 8 p.m. so Muslim workers could observe the holiday. However, management changed its position after nearly 400 non-Muslim workers walked off the job, protesting that the company's decision unfairly catered to their peers.

The EEOC spokeswoman said the break-time requests the Muslim workers made were within timeframes permissible in their bargaining agreements.

It's fair to say comments on the article were pretty solidly in favour of the company.

Mirage Politics Fascinating

Don Martin describes a fascinating background to the announced closure of the Camp Mirage military base. The way he describes it, this is a trade dispute that has spiralled out of control. Hopefully there's a way to turn rescue the situation before the base is closed:

In a remarkable tit-for-tat exchange, Canada’s refusal to allow more UAE-based airline flights into Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary turned into the UAE’s petulant blockade and military eviction. Some say the UAE went so far as to lobby its Arab neighbours to vote against Canada’s security council seat.

There are no angels in the air over this dispute.

Transport Canada has been needlessly protectionist in refusing sister carriers Emirates and Etihad Airlines more than their thrice-weekly landing rights in Toronto; this from a Conservative government that has campaigned worldwide to eliminate barriers to trade and commerce.

But the UAE is not playing fair in evicting Canada from Camp Mirage on 30 days notice, and then denying Defence Minister Peter MacKay and his top general permission to land there over the weekend. . .

To sacrifice so much trade in one of the world’s fastest growing economies and a military partnership with the most Western-friendly Gulf state to help a domestic airline seems an expensive airfare subsidy.

Provided Air Canada is granted equal air access to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Transport Canada should open up our skies and let consumers make the choice of which seats to fill. That is supposedly the Conservative mantra.

Thanksgiving and the Book of Common Prayer

Flipping through an old Anglican Book of Common Prayer, I came across some excellent prayers. It was a welcome reminder of how dependant we are on God's provision every year and that just a few poor production years on our farms could send our world into chaos. All the more reason to remember to ask God for his continued blessings and to give proper thanks. Here are two prayers worth reciting, I think they're especially fitting if you experienced the same perfect weather we had in Southwestern Ontario this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend:

ALMIGHTY God, who hast blessed the earth that it should be fruitful and bring forth abundantly whatsoever is needful for the life of man: Prosper, we beseech thee, the work of our farmers, and grant such seasonable weather that all may gather in the fruits of the earth, and proclaim thy great goodness with thanksgiving; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, We thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks For all thy goodness and loving-kindness To us and to all men; We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; But above all for thine inestimable love In the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; For the means of grace, And for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, That our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, And that we show forth thy praise, Not only with our lips, but in our lives; By giving up ourselves to thy service, And by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, To whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

Yes Lord, please accept our humble and hearty thanks!

Great Song and Incredible Hand Dancing

I was planning to write about competitive currency devaluation, but that issue isn't going away anytime soon. Instead I'm just going to point out this incredibly fun song, that I'll probably listen to several times this weekend:

Boys in Blue, You Have my Attention

I'm a bandwagon Leafs fan at best. I believe the team only deserves our attention if they are at a level that starts to approach decent. The last several years that simply hasn't been the case. I got a little excited as I drove by the Molson Brewery on the way home from a meeting and saw a massive Toronto Maple Leaf's flag waving. A close win by over the Montreal Canadians is a great way to start the season. National Post sports writer Michael Traikos is optimistic:

this is a different team than last year. . .

In fact, 13 of the players in last night’s lineup were not part of last season’s home opener loss to Montreal.

The Leafs now have a legitimate No. 1 line. They have a goaltender who can bail out his defenceman and stop the puck. And for the first time in two years, they have a captain.

If they start winning consistently, I'll start paying attention.

Keep Enforcing the Law

I somehow missed the news that an Ontario Court ruled that laws against prostitution are unconstitutional. Fortunately our government and at least some police are taking the right course of action. The Federal government is appealing the ruling and asking that the decision be put on hold pending appeals and Vancouver Police made headlines by shutting down a brothel today:

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton said at a news briefing the
force won't stop prosecuting such offences.

"We're aware that there are some court challenges to some prostitution offences in other provinces but that has absolutely no effect on how we're doing business right now," he said.

"Until the Parliament of Canada strikes those offences from the Criminal Code, we will continue to enforce them."

Hat's off to the the Vancouver Police. I hope that police in the rest of the country take the same position. I also hope that the government's appeals are successful and that our current laws remain in force despite this radical ruling.

At a time when the travesty of human trafficking is becoming ever more apparent, now is not the time to allow our laws to be changed. Otherwise there will be even more incentive to continue enticing people from poor countries to come to Canada only to be forced into the sex trade.

Honestly I really don't know how the ruling can hold. Even the so called feminists that support the ruling seem to be contradicting themselves:

"While we agree with the decriminalization of women in prostitution, we feel that it's only a half-measure," said Trisha Baptie of the Vancouver-based advocacy group, Exploited Voices now Educating. "There's still a further step that needs to be taken to air on the side of women's equality and see prostitution for what it is, which is violence against women."

If prostitution really is violence against the prostitute, and I believe it is, then there is only one logical response. Keep our laws in force.

Brand New ProLife Hero

Ruth Lobo is an eloquent and brave young woman who was arrested along with four other university students at Carelton University. They've been charged with trespassing after refusing to take down pro-life signs that they were holding. It's been clear for many years that conservatively minded students at Canadian Universities are subject to ridicule and unfair treatment. This is a brand new low.



My bet is that Carelton picked a fight with the wrong girl. In this video Ruth is eloquent and confident even as she is being arrested. The university should drop the charges immediately. Miss Lobo should launch a civil suit against the university for violating her rights as a student.

Stay Strong Ruth!

h/t Christian Conservative

Eddie Long Coverage Reveals Double Standard

Televangelist Eddie Long is vowing to fight allegations that he used his wealth and position of power to coerce young men into sexual relationships. Long is 57 years old, married, and head of a 26,000 member Baptist mega-church in Georgia.

So far, that seems to be the theme of the coverage. A focus on his flash and charisma more than the pain that his victims that have (allegedly) suffered. One article even used the tragedy to rave about his fashion sense and chiseled abs:

I'm just a fashion editor. And while we may not be the first to spot a good liar, we sure can spot good style. And no one, but no one, makes a stronger style statement than Bishop Eddie Long. The leader of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, an Atlanta-area mega-church with over 25,000 members, has a penchant for bad toupee's and good clothes. Really, really good clothes. He's also - allegedly - got a penchant for young men. At least that's what his accusers, all four of them (and counting) are saying. . .

If his wardrobe in the pulpit is predictable, his sartorial choices outside of it aren't. In the few photos of a more casual Long that litter the Internet, it is very apparent that he is an exercise buff. A news clip of him in a tracksuit hint that he might have a workout wardrobe as collated -- and curated -- as his preaching one.

That hint was proven true when suggestive, self-portraits of a remarkably buff Bishop surfaced. They showed Long, primping and preening in flimsy muscle shirts that hugged every ripple in the fifty-seven year-old's startlingly chiseled physique.

What this man is accused of doing is a disgrace and a tragedy. Unfortunately, the event has generated a sea of spin and gossip mongering.

I suppose that's all we can expect since prominent evangelical pastors crash and burn regularly. Ron Hart notes sarcastically, "By now we know how the redemptive process works for a televangelist accused of sexual relations with young males." So the story needs a new angle weather its race or fashion sense.

A few things about the story strike me:

First there just doesn't seem to be the same kind of anger directed toward this guy as toward the Catholic Church when allegations of abuse surface.

Second, in most accounts, including the article above, he is referred to as "Bishop Eddie Long," despite the fact that Baptists do not have a hierarchy. Strictly speaking a 'Baptist Bishop' is a misnomer. Including the title of Bishop in the story seems to be just another way to somehow transfer the tarnish of this man's sin onto the Catholic Church by association.

Most importantly, the fact that he is married apparently did nothing to stop his aggression or sexual appetite. This is very reminiscent of the charges brought against prominent evangelical Ted Haggard. Haggard was also married and sought homosexual relationships.

Whenever news of a scandal happens in the Catholic Church it is used as an argument against the vows of chastity that men and women consecrated to holy orders take. But stories like this make it clear that allowing priests to marry would not end abuse. Something else must be done. Fortunately, especially since the scandals in 2002, the Church has placed an emphasis on screening unfit candidates before they enter the priesthood, on proper formation of the men in seminary and on supporting priest's spiritual needs in order to prevent tragedies like this.

The Social Network

Here's an excellent quote from the Colbert Report last night. Stephen was interviewing the director (I think) of the new film, "The Social Network." The director had a quote that I'm sure will catch on, "Socializing on the internet is to socializing as reality TV is to reality."

Brilliant!

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Mobile Post

This is my first mobile post. I'll keep it short. I saw a daily chart in USA Today. They had a poll that showed 44% of Americans who lost their jobs during the recession thought that their new jobs were better than their previous jobs. Less than 20% thought their new jobs were worse.
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Defending Freedom

I was inspired a moment ago by a post called 'The Key to Freedom' from the Moose and Squirrel. Briefly, the argument is that the key to freedom is having the tools to defend yourself i.e. guns. The post reinforces a well argued point made by George Jonas, that by enabling citizens to arm themselves they can better protect their freedom than by ensuring that guns are owned by only police and criminals. I'll grant that point.

BUT it takes more than guns to make people free. Frontier or vigilante justice can quickly give way to anarchy. So guns alone can't guarantee freedom. Authentic freedom can only exist in a society where people have value. A place where if everyone had a gun they would only use it to defend themselves or the innocent, where that gun would not be used aggressively.

Anyway this post isn't about guns, it's about freedom. A free society depends valuing individuals enough to respect their inherent freedom. True freedom rests on values. As Carl Anderson writes in A Civilization of Love:

Freedom is not an absolute value. It cannot be lived in isolation, that is, unhinged from other values such as equality and human dignity. In a tyrannical society, the masters are just as much in bondage as their slaves. As a nation, we have put slavery behind us. But what is slavery other than the ultimate institutionalization of the idea that another human being can be regarded as an object to be used, rather than always regarded as a person to be loved. If there is to be freedom in any meaningful sense, it must be rooted in something higher, and that is morality.

Earlier in his book he also notes: We are all familiar with the lines from the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." We frequently forget however, that these lines explicitly say that "all men are created equal" and that "they are endowed by their Creator" with these "unalienable rights." Can our belief in these rights continue to stand without a belief in a God who upholds them or, even more important, whose revelation of love reveals their true meaning?

Quite simply it takes more than guns to defend freedom. Defending freedom requires an understanding that freedom rests on the premise that everyone has value. And the premise that everyone has value by virtue of their humanity comes from our understanding that God created us in His image in order to love and be loved.

Pope Benedict's Address at Westminster

Faith and Reason was again a major theme of Pope Benedict XVI as he addressed Britain's political leaders at Westminister Hall. He eloquently argues that faith is strengthened by reason and the reason and that reason is also strengthened when informed by faith and because of this faith must have a major role in informing public policy discussions:

The central question at issue, then, is this: where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found? The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation. According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by non-believers – still less to propose concrete political solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion – but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles. This “corrective” role of religion vis-à-vis reason is not always welcomed, though, partly because distorted forms of religion, such as sectarianism and fundamentalism, can be seen to create serious social problems themselves. And in their turn, these distortions of
religion arise when insufficient attention is given to the purifying and structuring role of reason within religion. It is a two-way process. Without the corrective supplied by religion, though, reason too can fall prey to distortions, as when it is manipulated by ideology, or applied in a partial way that fails to take full account of the dignity of the human person. Such misuse of reason, after all, was what gave rise to the slave trade in the first place and to many other social evils, not least the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century. This is why I would suggest that the world of reason and the world of faith – the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief – need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization.

Religion, in other words, is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation. In this light, I cannot but voice my concern at the increasing marginalization of religion, particularly of Christianity, that is taking place in some quarters, even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance. There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere. There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none. And there are those who argue – paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimination – that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience. These are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square. I would invite all of you, therefore, within your respective spheres of influence, to seek ways of promoting and encouraging dialogue between faith and reason at every level of national life.

The Pope is correct and I truly hope that Western world leaders take his advice to heart and stop the deliberate marginalization of faith in our society.

I should also note that my primary source for analysis of the Pope's visit to England is Archbishop Cranmer's blog. At time's he is a harsh critic of the Catholic Church, but he is always reasoned and succinct in his analysis.

Safety First

So called 'equality' crusaders set off alarm bells Thursday as they tried to spin a court decision that ruled that Canadian Blood Services has the right to refuse to accept blood from homosexual men. How inconvenient that on the same day another study confirmed that homosexual men have the highest risk by far of contracting HIV:

Transmission of the AIDS virus seems to be "out of control" among gay men in France despite an overall fall in the number of new HIV cases in the country, according to a study published on Thursday.

Scientists from the French National Institute for Public Health Surveillance found that nearly half of the 7,000 people newly infected with HIV in the country in 2008 were gay men, and the incidence among homosexual men is 200 times higher than in the heterosexual population.

The health data is similar in Canada as the National Post's Mark Gurney notes:

Over half of the new cases [of HIV/AIDS] reported in Canada each year are a result of sexual acts between male partners. That’s triple the rate from intravenous drug use. HIV/AIDS is not, as it was originally claimed by many, a gay disease, but it remains a disease that hits the gay community with disproportionate lethality.

That activists are seeking to put their bizarre agenda ahead of the health of Canadians is unconscionable. Canadian Blood Services CEO, Dr. Graham Sher, and the judge who made the ruling were absolutely correct in their analysis. Sher said:

"Firstly, blood donation is not a right. There is no law or obligation that requires Canadians to be blood donors and Canadian Blood Services is under no obligation to receive a donation. Blood donation is a gift; it's not a right."

Secondly, Sher said, the court decided that his agency's policy to not accept blood donations from men who have sex with men does not distinguish on the basis of sexual orientation, but rather, is based on health and safety issues -- in particular, the much higher prevalence of HIV and other diseases in the men-who-have-sex-with-men population.

Thank goodness for some sanity. No amount of screening can make erase the fact that accepting blood from practicing homosexual men is exceptionally risky. The health of Canadians must always be put ahead of the ludicrous demands of these homosexual activists.

How Crazy was the Crazy EnviroWacko?

EnviroWacko James Lee was shot dead earlier this week after a foiled attempt to takeover the Discovery Channel and force them to broadcast his anti-human manifesto. Safely dead, he's being widely condemned as a crazed extremist. But seriously just how crazy was he? Or rather how far are his views really outside of mainstream environmentalist thinking? My two favourite quotes from his rant are:

Saving the Planet means saving what's left of the non-human wildlife by decreasing the human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies!

Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what's left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture.

Honestly if he didn't decide to invade a major TV studio, his thoughts would be totally unexceptional. I'm reminded of an almost readable blog that I stumbled on the other day. The blogger describes his writing as follows:

The blog of a bipolar misanthrope. The fact that I like many individuals and even love a few doesn’t stop me from hating our species as a whole. This is what I mean by bipolar, rather than that I actually am bipolar in a clinical sense.

Our species has truly earned its place in history. We are the cause of the sixth great
extinction on this planet. Like the comet that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs, we are a catastrophe. Quite literally, our evolution has been a catastrophic event on this beautiful insignificant planet we call home.

The Misanthrope is almost eloquent, and I think he demonstrates that it's not necessarily unreasonable to hate humans. Rather, it's a logical conclusion if you assume that (1) the biodiversity of the planet is the most important value on Earth and that (2) humans are just another species.

Was James Lee crazy? He did want to eliminate people to save the planet, but then again we will often have controlled hunts or animal culls when a species is taking over in it's environment. So if he really bought into the ridiculous notion that the value of our species is equivalent with all others maybe he wasn't that crazy at all.

How do we stop the next James Lee from trying to take down a TV station? Maybe all we need is a different worldview, one that says humans are in fact special and that every human life is valuable because it was made in the image of a loving creator.

Where's Irealnd?

The Economist magazine had an interesting artilce about the rapid increase of beer consumption in Asia featuring this picture:

I was shocked that the graphic didn't include Ireland's beer consumption. I know they have a relatively small population, so their total consumption might not be huge. Still, out of deference to Ireland's history and status as the world's biggest beer exporter (I think - correct me if I'm wrong), one might expect that they'd at least make the chart.

Oh well, Ireland fared better than Australia which is completely covered by a second chart.

No Sympathy for Khadr

"Don't look at me - anyone could have thrown that grenade." That's the line Omar Khadr's defence took at his trial today. Given that there's video evidence of Khadr assembling an improvised explosive device, eye witness accounts that he threw a grenade killing an American soldier and he himself confessed to throwing the grenade and being a terrorist, I've got a pretty good idea of how this trial might turn out.

The drama surrounding the trial including Khadr's lawyer's collapse today and Khadr's age at the time of the murder are red herrings. What matters are the substantive arguments that have been made so far. The Washington Post reports:

Because conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the defense contends that the other fighter's presence makes it impossible to know who threw the grenade.

To counter that doubt, the prosecution plans to introduce Mr. Khadr's interrogation statements indicating that he threw the grenade. The defense contends those statements were taken under abusive conditions and are unreliable.

The government also introduced a videotape showing Mr. Khadr assembling roadside bombs among joking and bantering al Qaeda militants.

These are the arguments that matter and I'm hoping the trial resumes soon so that Khadr can face justice.

Can't Contain Excitement over Contained Well

The news was all over the radio on the drive home from work. I kept on switching stations to get another take on the news that BP has finally contained the oil that was gushing out into the Gulf of Mexico. I really hadn't been following the story aside from the headlines over various failed attempts and the tragic delays in clean up efforts because of government inaction. Still today I can't contain my excitement over the contained well. There's finally hope that the clean up efforts will be a winning battle. I'm praying it works!

Just in case you missed it. Here's the Guardian's take on it:

for the first time in 87 days, it appeared last night that BP had control over the well.
The company said it would have to monitor the cap holding back the oil in a series of pressure tests every six hours for the next 48 hours, before it could be certain the well would hold.

It also cautioned that the final solution remained a relief well, still some weeks away.

"I am very excited that there's no oil in the Gulf of Mexico," Kent Wells, a senior vice-president for BP, said in a conference call. "But we just started the test and I don't want to create a false sense of excitement."

Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, said engineers would be checking carefully to make sure no oil was escaping from the well from previously undiscovered leaks.