Category: Good Stuff

As most of you know, I am often highly critical of those who work in the mainstream media. I still am, because I truly believe that, more often than not, my criticisms are fully justified.

Whether for ideological, agenda-driven purposes or from a simple desire to get a bigger slice of the media pie at any cost, members of the media mislead us each and every day. Some of them even outright lie to us.

Sometimes though, one of them will just make an honest mistake. Perhaps a lapse in judgment, perhaps simply an inability to keep up with the maelstrom of information that swirls around a particular story as it unfolds. But still, a mistake. And then the weasely son of a bitch still tries to worm his way out from under it, rather than admit he was wrong.

Alleged link to killer an insult to victim Emily

I am very pleased to say that the TO Sun’s Thane Burnett is not such an individual. Thane screwed up. Big. But instead of puking up a bunch of weasel-talk and trying to shift off the blame, Thane stood up, admitted what he did, said in no uncertain terms that it was wrong, accepted the consequences and took it like a man [aw, crud; the feminists are gonna poop on me now…]:

BLACKSBURG — In the stampede that followed the massacre at Virginia Tech, victim Emily Hilscher was cut again and again.

Including by me.

Emily was likely the first of Cho Seung-Hui’s victims here, along with Ryan Clark, inside West Ambler Johnson residence. Clark had rushed to her aid when he heard the first shots of the day on Monday.

Police have not officially called Cho the pair’s executioner, because while the same weapon was used in their deaths as the 30 others inside Norris Hall a few hours later, they have not proven that connection beyond their own professional benchmark.

Which is a good reason to bring me back to 18-year-old Emily, and the insult news writers like myself placed on her memory. In most early stories — including my own for Sun Media — Emily was offhandedly referred to as a possible girlfriend to Cho. Or that they, at least, had a relationship.

There were other stories printed elsewhere which went beyond, accusing her of leading him on or of cheating on him. That loose end was tied up and we went on to the next of how many more disturbing facts — leaving Emily to linger too long in the filth of an unlikely association.

Even yesterday, an overseas online headline read: “Gunman’s Love Spat Sparked Massacre.”

Sickening enough that a madman killed her. Now add the slur she was involved with him romantically.

How the ghost of Cho — who took pictures of girls secretly and would not say hello to them but stalked them via the Internet — must have grinned at that link.

Police said yesterday they were still trying to find a connection between Emily and the twisted character who liked to be known as “question mark.” But it seems clear now her world, or any of the important elements in it, didn’t likely include Cho.

She was light, happy and loved to ride in the country with her mother — whom she called almost every day.

He was dark and angry — worrying his own parents he was suicidal.

Tommy Pendleton, a friend of Emily’s, pointed out in an online posting: “Emily Hilscher is not related to the shooter in any way regarding a serious relationship.”

While the probable lack of any relationship has been amended and clarified deep inside news copy which has flowed out of here, I feel guilt that I had any part in drawing her into an embrace with a killer.

What seems beyond question is that Emily Hilscher didn’t deserve to appear in the same sentence as vile Cho Seung-Hui, let alone maligned by the allegation he held a place in her heart.

The emphasis, of course, is mine.  I apologize, Mister Burnett, if I am not adequately able to state my feelings at having found a journalist demonstrating such integrity. It is an experience to which I am most unaccustomed.

But it is most welcome. For that sir, I thank you.

No doubt about it, today is a damn fine day to be from Wild Rose Country. HMPM Harper has announced in the House today that, with the retirement of Sen. Dan Hays in June, he will be appointing Alberta’s Bert Brown to the upper chamber.

Brown — a farmer from Kathyrn, Alta., who once plowed the message “Triple-E Senate or Else” into a barley field — was actually chosen by the people of Alberta in their third senate election in 2004. Brown will become oly the second elected senator in Canadian history, after Stan Waters; who was appointed in 1990 by Brian Mulroney (another conservative… hmm).

You can read more about it here, here, here and here.

Interestingly enough: if your only source of news is the Ceeb, you’d never know about this. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s just buried under something else. “Canada’s news,” indeed… 🙄

Um, okay… Not… really… sure… where to file this, to be honest.  I really don’t want to have me a “Lighting Your Own Brainfarts” category on this sight.  It would be kinda unsightly, ya know…

Over at DMB, ol’ Brainfart Badwulf seems to have finally cashed in on his Andy Warhol / War of the Worlds / Blair Witch Project minutes…  Just click the links, read the comments (check the ones on Red Tory), scratch your head and go have a beer.

I did.

It didn’t take me long after I sat down in front of my PC today to stumble over Paul Jackson’s latest offering at the Calgary Sun, “Appeasement is pure folly.” As most of you already know, I have a bit of a habit of checking out what’s on Paul’s mind from time to time. Sure, he sometimes comes off a little too pro-American for my taste but more often than not, he has a habit of being spot-on.

In today’s column, he talks about a little something that was passed on to him recently:

A remarkable document came into my hands the other day from a Republican friend in Washington and it is something that should be read by all patriotic Americans and Canadians.

It should also be read by lib-lefters, appeasers, sell-out artists and cowards in all western democracies who want the U.S. and Britain to pull out of Iraq, and the U.S., Britain and Canada to pull out of Afghanistan, and the West to just give in to the demands of fanatics such as Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korea’s Kim Jong Il.

It’s entitled Europe — Your Name is Cowardice and was written, strangely, by a German, Mathias Dapfner, CEO of the huge publishing house Axel Springer (AG) and published in Germany’s largest newspaper Die Welt.

Alright Paul, you’ve got my attention. And after a bit of digging around, I find myself agreeing with you; this is definitely something to file in the “must read” column. The problem is: which version?

Ever since German periodical Die Welt published the editorial by Mathias Döpfner on 20 November 2004, there have been literally dozens of versions of it popping up here and there around the internet, in just about every Western language you can care to name. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing — like I said, I consider it a must-read — but the problem is that a lot of the English-language translations of this editorial that have been circulated via the Internet include alterations and additional invective that weren’t present in the original. Judging from the quotes in the article, Paul must have gotten one of these. Not that I’m trying to beat Mr Jackson over the head or anything but if we’re going to quote someone, let’s at least do our best to get it right.

So… before I get any more long-winded than I’m already being, let’s cut this short. Reproduced below is the most accurate-to-the-original translation that I could find (thanks to Snopes). Even without the extra barbs, it’s still damned good…

UPDATE: for those looking to split hairs, click here. 

A few days ago, Henryk M. Broder wrote in the Welt am Sonntag, “Europe — thy name is appeasement.” It’s a phrase you can’t get out of your head because it’s so painfully true.

Appeasement cost millions of Jews and Gentiles their lives as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated far too long before realizing that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to agreements. Appeasement stabilized the Communist Soviet Union and the former East Germany, those parts of Eastern Europe where inhuman, suppressive governments were glorified as the ideological alternative. Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and we debated and debated and were still debating when the Americans finally came in and did our work for us. Rather than protecting the only democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word “equidistance,” relativizes the fundamentalist Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel. Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to condone the 300,000 victims of Saddam’s torture and murder machinery in Iraq and condemn the actions of George Bush in the self-righteousness of the peace movement. And in the end it is also appeasement at its most grotesque when Germany reacts to the escalating violence of Islamic fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere by proposing a national Muslim holiday.

What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership realize that there is a form of crusade underway, an especially perfidious one of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims targeting civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies. This is a conflict that will likely last longer than any of the great military conflicts of the last century, waged by an adversary who cannot be tamed by tolerance and accommodation but is instead spurred on by such gestures, mistaking them as signs of weakness.

Two recent American presidents had the courage needed for staunch anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush. Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, and Bush — supported only by the persuasive Social Democrat politician Tony Blair — recognized the danger in the Islamic war against democracy. His place in history will need to be evaluated a number of years down the road.

In the meantime, Europe snuggles into its multicultural niche instead of defending the values of a liberal society with charismatic certitude and acting as a positive center of power in a delicate balance between the true global powers, America and China. We instead present ourselves as the world champions of tolerance against the intolerants, which even Otto Schily [Germany’s former Federal Minister of the Interior] justifiably criticizes. And why, actually? Because we’re so moral? I fear it’s more because we’re so materialistic.

For his policies, Bush risks the devaluation of the dollar, huge amounts of added national debt, and a massive and lasting strain on the American economy — because everything is at stake.

Yet while America’s so allegedly materialistic robber baron capitalists know their priorities, we timidly defend the benefice of our social affluence. Just stay out of it; it could get expensive. We’d rather discuss our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage or listen to televangelists preach about the need to “Reach out to murderers.” These days, it sometimes seems that Europe is like a little old lady who cups her shaking hands around her last pieces of jewelry as a thief breaks in right next door. Europe, thy name is Cowardice.

Well, since I seem to be in a video kind of mood today, let’s add this one to the pile. SDA had this earlier and it’s pretty damned dumb.

Ah, ecotourism, isn’t it just wonderful? Happy little tree-hugging granola-grinders getting themselves back to the loving, gentle embrace of Mother Nature, where nothing nasty ever happens, there is never any violence, and all the goddess’s happy creatures live in perfect harmony with one another. Probably because there’s no conservatives around.

Memo to the Ecotardsâ„¢:
Nature isn’t politically correct. Nature isn’t pacifist. Nature is downright violent. Nature has a word for vegans and that word is: “FOOD.” Animals fall into two categories: those that eat other animals and those that get eaten by other animals. Neither one gives a shit about you, how many petitions you signed in college, or how much you hate the east coast seal hunt. They do, however, give a damn about their young. And ELEPHANTS are something that, if you had two brain cells to rub together, you would stick right up near the top of your “I don’t wanna screw with that” column.

These idjits aren’t that smart, though. The price of their stupidity? I’m not 100% sure, but the quoted stat of “two were injured and one was killed” doesn’t stretch the imagination too much. Can you say “Darwin Award,” boys and girls?

Content Advisory: If you’re a chick, this will probably just bore the crap out of you. 😛

Just what the hell do I file this under? Yeah, I know it’s got bugger all to do with politics, bitching about Lefties or anything else that I usually put up here but COME ON NOW, this is just too damned cool not to post. I found this over at Celestial Junk today and I just couldn’t believe it the first time I saw it.

Like a lot of other people my age, I remember the shop teacher with the missing fingers. Well, this just might put an end to that. I’m not even going to bother babbling any more about this. Just watch the video…

Now tell me, was that COOL or what??