Chastity Makes Marriage Better

It may fly in the face of our oversexed culture's conventional wisdom, but people who remain chaste before marriage have better marriages according to a number of measures. The Medical News reports:

A new study that appeared in the Journal of Family Psychology finds that couples who wait until exchanging vows to have sex are “are happier with the quality of sex” and enjoy a “stable, happier marriage”. The team of researchers assessed 2,035 married couples in an online questionnaire based study called ‘RELATE’.

The results showed that couples who waited until marriage to have sex rated sexual quality 15% higher than people who had premarital sex, rated relationship stability as 22% higher and rated satisfaction with their relationships 20% higher.

The study controlled for religiosity and found, “Regardless of religiosity, waiting helps the relationship form better communication processes, and these help improve long-term stability and relationship satisfaction.” So the study seems pretty solid. There's always room for criticism though, The Economist notes:

Unfortunately, Dr Busby’s method cannot distinguish the cause of this. It could be, as many moralists preach, that the delay itself is improving. It could, though, be that the sort of people who are happy to delay having sex are also better at relationships. Correlation, in other words, rather than causation. That is material for another study.

That criticism is valid enough I suppose. Can't rule out selection bias. BUT if you're a young person getting into a relationship and considering marriage, choosing a mate is very much about selection bias. And no matter the reason why, the results are clear: if you and your partner can stay chaste you're marriage will be happier for it.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

It's a little late to be plugging the movie now that it's been running for 6 weeks and has dropped out of the top 10, but the Voyage of the Dawn Treader is an excellent movie. The casting is excellent. The new character Eustace is extremely convincing. It was probably more faithful to the book than the previous 2 movies. I think it's my favourite Narnia movie so far even though I would have ranked the book in the middle or toward the end of the pack. If you get a chance it's definitely worth seeing in the Theatre. I plan on owning the DVD.

A Gay 'Rights' Trifecta

"It makes no sense that Mr. Lusk could be acquitted in a Quebec court and then found liable for moral and punitive damages in front of a human rights tribunal," Mr. Angers said. "These tribunals are just in another world."

That's a pretty good summary of the situation after the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal fined a man $12,000 for saying a bad word:

The case against Mr. Lusk, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Canadian Forces, stems from an April 2004, incident in which Mr. Thibault is alleged to have driven recklessly down their street in the Montreal suburb of Pointe Claire while neighbourhood children, including Mr. Lusk's son, were playing road hockey.

A witness testified that Mr. Thibault had run a stop sign and driven at high speed toward one of the kids, nearly hitting the child. . . When Mr. Lusk heard about the latest encounter with Mr. Thibault, he decided to take the matter up with his neighbours.

Messrs. Thibault and Wouters allege Mr. Lusk showed up at their home yelling and hitting their metal gate, an accusation Mr. Lusk steadfastly denies. The couple said Mr. Lusk accused Mr. Wouters, who had not been in the car, of driving dangerously and endangering the lives of his children, calling him a "f---ing faggot." . . .

Police also charged him with assault and uttering death threats, but he was later acquitted.

Still, the Human Rights Tribunal, using surveillance footage of the encounter captured by cameras Messrs. Thibault and Wouters had installed on their home, ruled "by a preponderance of evidence, that the defendant, by his behaviour, his comments and his attitude, has violated the rights of the plaintiffs, on the basis of their sexual orientation."

I really don't know where to start. This is a grave injustice. First it was a matter between neighbours. It's pretty common for neighbours to have disagreements, and it is a father's responsibility to protect his children. I can't imagine the police treating this type of complaint seriously under any other circumstances.

Second Mr Lusk was acquitted of all charges related to the incident. We have a constitutional right not to be tried twice for the same crime so the Human Rights tribunal seems to be tramping all over Mr Lusk's rights.

Finally, I came across the story via a comment on my last post about the disturbing pace our rights are being eroded in the name of 'human rights.' That post referenced a court ruling that marriage commissioners cannot op out of performing marriage ceremonies for same sex couples and the silly censorship of the 1980s hit song Money for Nothing. That makes 3 decisions in one week that tramped on the rights of individuals in favour of the gay lobby.

I suppose now is the time for a disclaimer. I have nothing against gays individually or as a community, but when our basic rights are trampled on to appease a vocal minority we must stand up to protect them.

Stop the Madness Now!

First things first: Faggot, Faggot, Faggot. Take that you silly censors!

The ridiculous ruling by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council to ban the original version of Dire Strait's hit song 'Money for Nothing' is part of a very disturbing trend this week. It follows a decision earlier this week by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal that concluded marriage commissioners have no right to refuse to marry same sex couples.

In neither case are the rights of homosexuals harmed or challenged, but in both cases the rights of others are seriously threatened. Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Conscience are fundamental to democracy, both have been harmed this week.

Fortunately, many Canadians are willing to stand up to the censorship decision. Q104 Halifax and K97 Edmonton are both publicly defying the ruling by playing the song, in their report, the Toronto Sun helpfully published contact information to complain to the CBSC. Anyone can contact the CBSC national chair Ronald Cohen at ron.cohen@cbsc.ca or 1 (866) 696-4718. I definitely plan on doing that, but I wish it were as easy to fight the Saskatchewan decision on conscience rights, because I think that's more serious.

In the meantime here's the unedited version of the song



and the offending lyrics:

See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire

'Sky Cake' is More Profound than This Dude Thinks

Patton Oswalt is deliberately offensive in this video implying that anyone who takes their faith seriously might as well believe in 'sky cake.' His athiest fans love it and if you're not offended too easily it's kinda funny:



The interesting thing to me though is that it actually makes a pretty profound point. Right of the top he says, "if we didn’t have religion we wouldn’t be here by now . . . there’d be no civilization."

I don't think I could have said it much better. Maybe his athiest fans can take note the next time they try to remove any reference to God from the public sphere.

Open at Your Own Peril

On the 10th day of Christmas, I finally caved and wrote a post lamenting corporate crimes against Christmas.

There's the standard 'happy holidays' or 'holiday lighting' phrases that just drive me crazy as they seemingly attempt to deny that we are even celebrating Christmas. I've spent more energy than I want to ranting against this lunacy. All I did this year was try to give some preference to stores that mentioned Christmas. (It was handy that many individual Tim Horton's franchises had Merry Christmas written all over their windows.)

This year's major crime against Christmas came from Shoppers' Drug Mart. They are the dominant pharmacy around these parts, much like Walgreen's in the US. Many Shoppers' stores were open on Christmas Day. If your family doctor is closed, I don't see the reason why the pharmacy needs to be open especially since you usually get at least a week's worth of prescription medicine at one time. Besides, the stores also feature cosmetics, photo finishing, gifts, and a grocery section. It's hard to imagine why other major retailers wouldn't argue if Shopper's can open, we must too.

It's a tragedy that so many of that company's employees needlessly worked on Christmas Day. It's also very easy to imagine other retail employees following suit. It was only a few years ago when every store in Ontario was closed for Boxing Day (Dec 26) as well as Christmas day.

Retailers are best advised to remember that time off at Christmas facilitates the gift giving that makes the season so profitable for retailers. If they decide to open en masse then there will be less people available for Christmas day gift exchanges and less gifts exchanged.

My advice to retailers is stay closed on Christmas Day, but if you do open it is at your own peril.

Christmas Light Show

Most likely I'm still at Midnight Mass, but I wanted to be sure to say Merry Christmas! Here's a way to celebrate for one and half minutes, or two minutes if you want to let the video load for a second.

Polar Bear Panic

I still can't believe that one cheap animation in an Al Gore presentation has had so much effect on our culture. The imminent extinction of the polar bear has been well documented over the past 3 weeks. Mercifully, at least one Ottawa Citizen reader is doing his part to insert logic into the debate:

Since your newspaper is so deeply interested in current scientific opinion, you are undoubtedly aware that another polar bear specialist, Dr. Mitchell Taylor
(Department of Environment, Government of Nunavut) has declared that, "It is entirely appropriate to be concerned about climate change, but it is just silly to predict the demise of polar bears in 25 years, based on media-assisted hysteria ... Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present. I understand that people who do not live in the North generally have difficulty grasping the concept of too many polar bears in an area. People who live here have a pretty good grasp of what it's like to have too many polar bears around."

After two weeks of shovelling snow and feeling my nostrils freeze, I'm sure the Arctic ice will be just fine and the polar bears will have tasty seal for dinner soon. Wait, aren't we supposed to save all the baby seals? No I'm sorry that was last year's cause du jour.

What Can We Do?

This month old article in the Globe and Mail highlights the problem of ethnic cleansing in Iraq:

The Islamic State of Iraq, an organization affiliated with al-Qaeda, announced it carried out the cathedral attack to force the release of Islamic converts allegedly being detained by the Coptic Church in Egypt. The group later declared Christians everywhere to be “legitimate targets.”

As Christians converged on their churches Wednesday to seek counsel from their religious leaders, the capital's Syrian Catholic archbishop made an emotional appeal for Western countries to come to their rescue.

“It would be criminal on the part of the international community not to take care of the security of the Christians,” said Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka as he tried to console members of the Baghdad cathedral’s congregation.

I'll admit I feel helpless. I don't know what to do to help these embattled Christians. This is a country that our American allies paid dearly to liberate. Unlike Afghanistan, I don't think the Americans could credibly threaten to withdrawl their support from the country. There are far too many risks by simply leaving the country for Iran to meddle in.

I shall simply pray and hope whatever pressure our governments are able to apply will have some effect. In the meantime I will take some small comfort in the fact that the Iraqi Prime Minister is at least saying the right things:

Wednesday’s attacks came just a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited the scarred cathedral and urged Christians not to leave the country. Iraqi security forces would protect them, he promised.

Innovation in China

I was pretty impressed on Saturday morning when I read about China's new high speed train:

Measurements during trial service on the run showed that train CRH380A reached a maximum speed of 486.1 km/h (302 mph), breaking the world operation speed record for unmodified commercial use trains. With this run, the train obliterated its
own previous record speed of 416.6 km/h (259 mph) set a mere two months ago.

I'll admit my bias toward China is it's a great place to buy cheap throw away items. Now it seems they're capable of advanced technology as well.

Good for China. They have the money and economic growth to invest in new technology, and the fact that they have partnered with a strong international company like Siemens is a positive sign that the technology may be transferred to the rest of the world.

There's probably no need to make too big of a deal about the train. It's normal operating speed is 350km/hr which isn't terribly faster than the TGV trains in Europe. Nonetheless, the story offers a welcome challenge to my image of China as a low tech, high pollution economy.

Working Too Hard

I've been putting a lot of hours in at work. In the office, on the road, and now even at home. I just can't seem to switch gears. So here it is a work related video on my personal blog. It's 4.5 minutes and it helps explain the problems with the livestock industry in Ontario. Both the cattle and hog industries are shrinking dramatically, breeding cow inventories have shrunk by nearly 20% since 2003 and the breeding herd for pigs is shrinking even faster. Down by more than 20% in less than 3 years. There are plenty of reasons, US trade barriers like Country of Origin Labelling, H1N1, an increasing Canadian dollar, and rising feed costs lead the list.

It's to the point now where there have been massive layoffs in the processing sector and suppliers as well as farmers are going out of business. If the industry falls below a critical mass there could be even less processing capacity causing a descent into a death spiral that does huge damage to the whole economy along the way. Ontario Farmers have put forward an affordable solution for governments. Hopefully you'll take a minute or 4 to watch the video and maybe even learn more about the program at http://www.beefporkrmp.ca/.

Doctors Playing Hard to Get

The headline story from a recent study of Canadians' views on Health Care is, "It's hard to get health care after-hours." That's a very polite assessment, it's hard to get care anytime. The Toronto Sun reports:

Although Canadians take great pride in their country’s health-care system, they have a hard time accessing health care after-hours and are often forced to turn to emergency departments for care when their family doctors are unavailable, according to a new survey.

More than one-third of Canadians surveyed (37%) said it is very difficult to get care in the evenings, on weekends and holidays without going to a hospital emergency department.

And 44% of Canadians said they had visited an emergency department at least once in the last two years — making Canadians the most frequent users of emergency departments of all 11 countries surveyed. Switzerland, Germany, the U.K., Norway, the Netherlands, France, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden and the U.S. were all surveyed.

Timing of medical care was also a concern for Canadians. More than 40% said they had to wait more than four weeks to see a specialist after being advised to do so, and only 45% were able to get an appointment on the day or next day when they were sick or in need of medical attention.

I'm just not that concerned that doctors don't work evenings, if you're that sick take off work. The more scandalous news is that 55% of Canadians can't get an appointment with their doctor within 2 days. The survey also doesn't mention wait times at emergency rooms. It's very common for people to try to decide which hospital to go to based on where they think the wait time will be shortest. It's also extremely common for people to go to an emergency room and then decide after 4 or more hours of waiting that they'll just take their chances at the pharmacy.

A lot More Green for Electricity

The Ontario government's latest plan to discount electricity rates by 10% is barely going to scratch the surface of the rapid increases we'll see in the next 5 years. The Star notes:

Ontarians will be zapped with a 46 per cent increase in home electricity costs over the next five years to pay for much-needed hydro system upgrades, warns the Liberal government. . .

Duncan conceded the Liberals’ green energy policies account for 56 per cent of the skyrocketing prices with expansion of nuclear and natural gas power plants the reason for the remaining 44 per cent.

Extremely generous subsidies for wind and solar power are costing consumers dearly and (interestingly) drawing criticism from environmentalists for turning farmland to concrete. I haven't given the issue much thought, but given the fact that both natural gas and nuclear power have nearly zero greenhouse gas emissions and are substantially cheaper than these renewable sources, it's probably worth having a debate about whether the subsidies for solar and wind power are just too rich.

The Mob Funeral

Watching some video of Nicolo Rizzuto's casket being carried out of the funeral at a Montreal church today left me with several questions. I wonder what the homily was like. . . How do you honour the life of a brutal murderer? What would happen if the priest said something unkind? How were those folks carrying the casket feeling knowing they were all vulnerable to an unscrupulous sharp shooter?

It's good that everything went off smoothly today, with a great deal of restraint by all involved.

Still the best word I have to describe this is eerie.

Poppy Protocol

Watching CBC news (involunatrily at the airport). Lots of reporters are still wearing poppies. What's the protocol? I thought that after Nov 11 we were supposed to stop wearing them. Anyone know the right answer?
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Smack the US Around a Little Stephen

I feel a little betrayed by Stephen Harper's comments defending Quantitative Easing in the US. The US plan to print an additional $600 Billion can only lead to a further devaluation of the US dollar and continued inflation in commodity prices, which will move through the rest of the economy at an uncomfortably quick speed. The weaker US dollar, gives every US company a competitive advantage against Canadian companies and the impact has been felt for the past several years as the Americans have allowed their dollar to plummet in value.

Stephen Harper reportedly said:

Under the circumstances, the quantitative easing policy is in the short term the only option available for the Federal Reserve and I'm not sure anyone else has provided any compelling argument as to what alternative policy they would pursue, at least in the short term.

Well let's try this alternative. Do nothing. The American government has run up a massive deficit and contributed to a destabilizing of world currency markets by last year's quantitative easing. Stock markets have increased, commodities prices have risen so now it's time to let the American economy adjust gradually rather than start a wave of massive inflation in the medium term and shut down more Canadian businesses in the short term.

New Meaning this Remembrance Day

Tim Horton's had a great radio spot today encouraging everyone to wear a poppy to honour all of our soldiers who have fallen and those who continue to serve. I love this tradition, it's something so small that we can all do it. The poppy boxes are almost omni-present and they slide easily from one jacket to another.

I've always worn a poppy, but it took on special significance when my brother joined the army 7 or 8 years ago. One of my proudest moments was when Remembrance day fell on a weekend and we were both able to make it back to the ceremony at the cenotaph in our hometown. When I saw him (and his wife) wearing a their uniforms and standing proudly in front of our friends and neighbours. I just wanted to shout out, "I'm with them!"

This year my brother is serving in Afghanistan. I don't know much about the mission, but he has been able to send regular updates and he believes in his mission and the specific project he's working on. (Although he hasn't told me what it is).

I'm not sure of all the emotions that I'll be feeling at 11:00 tomorrow, but I'm sure pride and thankfulness will be among them.

Tomorrow I will say a prayer of gratitude for everyone who has sacrificed themselves in service of our country. And if there are any present or past members of the armed services reading this. Thank you for all you've done!

Robbing the Robin Hood Legend

"There's no story that isn't made better by the retelling," an Irish relative told me recently. This weekend I found a sad exception to the rule. Hollywood's latest take on Robin Hood was incredibly disappointing. Although the acting was quite good and some twists on the story that seemed somewhat plausible (such as Robin acting as an impostor for a dead nobleman) the plot moved at a glacially slow pace. My much bigger complaint is that the movie is grossly historically inaccurate and completely contradicts earlier versions of the legend (from story books, Disney, Kevin Costner and Mel Brooks) that I've heard. My dismay is driven by 3 major falsehoods:

• King Ricard's death - In all of those stories I remember King Richard returned from the crusades. Wikipedia also says that King Richard returned, so that's a pretty huge and unnecessary liberty taken by the movie in an early scene that sets the movie off course from the start.
• An open condemnation of the crusades - Russell Crowe's character states that he was about to kill an innocent woman who looked up an pitied rather than feared him. This made my stomach turn. It's an example of our cultural elites famous 'Western self-loathing' on display. I'm quite certain there was no mention of a saintly Muslim martyr in any earlier variations of the Robin Hood legend. I know also little about the crusades, but I'm certain they must be judged in the context of aggressive moorish expansion throughout southern Europe.
• Reference to the Divine Right of Kings - In this version of the story, Robin Hood supposedly presented the Magna Carta to King John, but John refuses citing the divine right of Kings. There are at least 2 problems here. The first is that King John actually did sign the Magna Carta. The second is that the doctrine of the divine right of kings did not come about until nearly 400 years after the Magna Carta was signed.

The story was a complete disaster. If you haven't seen this movie count yourself lucky.

Disastrous Arrogance

Barack Obama's disastrous arrogance apparently knows no bounds. Only hours after being handed a nearly unprecedented rebuke in yesterday's congressional elections Obama suggested he would force changes to the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy during the lame duck session of Congress:

President Barack Obama on Wednesday renewed his call for repealing a ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military, voicing hope that action could be taken before a new Congress is sworn in.

Obama said legal wrangling in the courts over the issue had created confusion for the armed forces.

"We need to provide certainty. And it's time for us to move this policy forward," Obama told a news conference.

Speaking a day after his fellow Democrats suffered a major defeat in legislative elections, Obama suggested the law could be changed in the current Congress before a newly-elected Republican majority takes over the House of Representatives in January.

With the Pentagon about to complete a review looking at the effect of lifting the ban, Obama said there was still time to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law in the final weeks of the current Congress.

"There's going to be a review that comes out at the beginning of the month that will have surveyed attitudes and opinions within the armed forces," he said.

"I will look at it very carefully. But that will give us time to act in -- potentially during the lame-duck session to change this policy."

American voters have clearly signalled they want a change from the Democrats' extreme left wing agenda. Now instead of being humbled, it seems the President will deliberately push through as much wrong headed legislation as he can before he faces a new congress that will hold him accountable. Too bad it's still another 2 years before Americans can finally turf this radically arrogant disgrace of a president out.

Mark Steyn in London

I saw Mark Steyn in London last night with a crowd that filled the main floor of Centennial Hall - there were probably 1000 people there. The controversy created by the University of Western Ontario's lack of cooperation and the London Convention Centre's decision to cancel his original booking certainly helped pack the hall.

I didn't really know what to expect from the event, the singing and comedy meant that instead of just hearing a run of the mill political speech, it was actually quality entertainment.

I've been a fan of Mark's for years and I'm very familiar with his thoughts on the decline of the West economically, demographically, and intellectually. But he expanded on a new idea last night. Part of the reason for the economic and social decline of the West is our refusal to work. When university students stay in school until their late twenties or early thirties studying impractical topics women's and multicultural studies and then expect to retire in their 50s, people simply aren't working long enough to drive economic and social development. Combining that with the empty intellectual philosophies like moral relativism and ever declining birth rates our society has already begun to decline and it will be very difficult for most countries to stop.

He made one argument that the pace and significance of technological change over the last 60 years is nothing like the transformational technologies over the previous 60 years despite (and perhaps because of) the fact that people are spending about twice the time in school. I'm not totally convinced, but I'm willing to hear him out on that.

On a purely personal note standing in line to get my first edition copy of America Alone signed, I couldn't help but feel like my inner geek had completely taken over. I was so excited to talk to him, I forgot to mention my name.

My wife was quick to lean over and let Mark know about a conversation we had years ago. She had asked what some of my goals were in life, the first was to have a beer with Mark Steyn. Later in the list came a veiled reference to wanting to spend the rest of my life with her. I didn't get the beer, but a hand shake, a picture, and his autograph will do quite nicely.

He Better Serve His Full Sentence

So only shortly after admitting that he did throw the grenade that killed Sgt Speer, Omar Khadr said he's sorry to the sergeant's widow.

“I am really, really sorry for the pain I have caused you and your family,” said Mr. Khadr, now a hulking 24-year-old who bears little resemblance to the fresh-faced 15-year-old he was the day he admits he threw a grenade that killed Sergeant Christopher Speer, a special forces medic.

He deserved every bit of the condemnation that Tabitha Speers gave him:

“You will forever be a murderer in my eyes. It doesn’t matter what you say,” widow Tabitha Speer said, fighting to keep her composure in a hushed Guantanamo Bay courtroom.

“I’ve heard over and over how he’s the victim, he’s the child,” she said, glaring at Mr. Khadr. “He made a choice. My children had no choice. … [They] didn’t deserve to have their father taken by someone unworthy like you.”

That said. I hope for her sake that she is able to forgive Khadr with time. Letting herself be consumed with anger will do no more damage to him. The truly disturbing part of the story is the strategy of his legal team

His Canadian legal team will likely claim he is entitled to immediate release once he returns to Canada, based on the nine years he will have already spent in U.S. custody and that fact that he was only 15 years old when he committed the crimes.

If he is sucessful Mrs. Speer's healing process will be even more difficult.