New evangelical blog praises Harry Potter

Seeing as we're in the twilight zone today and turning stereotypes on their heads...

Chuck Colson's Breakpoint has set up a group blog, The Point, and one of the current themes is defence of Harry Potter. Yup, that Harry Potter. Just when you think you have the world figured out...

Stereotype-buster Walrus at your service.

(Somebody should tell them over there that posting a comment as a separate post is a very annoying habit.)

Technorati tags: Harry Potter, Chuck Colson

Union leader and Liberal premier oppose Conservative pollution controls

We have now officially entered the twilight zone. Union leader Buzz Hargrove opposes the Conservatives' plan to enforce emissions controls because it will hurt the auto industry. And Ontario Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty plays the national divisiveness card on top of that, portraying Ontario and its auto industry as a victim of the nasty feds. Meanwhile the Conservatives are cheerfully assuring them both that they fully intend to hit the oil and gas industry equally hard.

Are you confused yet? Did you think some gremlin had been switching labels in the news reports? No, you read right. The left wing is attacking the right wing for being too hard on industry and wanting to enact environmental controls.

I was strongly tempted to think that the commitment of the left wing to environmental issues was really just a stick to beat conservatives with and that they had no intention of ever actually DOING anything about it, an impression that was greatly fortified by Paul Martin's shameful and hypocritical finger-wagging at the Americans in the last election. (It was at that moment he lost me completely. Anybody with the slightest interest in the environment knew that the Americans were doing better than us.) Now it has been confirmed. As soon as the Conservatives make a move to pick up that stick themselves, the left wing immediately switches camps. Or at least some of them do.

It was all about politics, not policy.

I certainly hope that the Rona Ambrose's environmental policy will not just contribute to global warming through another mass emission of hot air, but will actually accomplish something. I am one of those quaint people that believes good policy is good politics. If I'm lucky, the Conservatives will be equally quaint.

All of this illustrates how flexible the labels right and left wing are. Which cause belongs to which camp shifts with the political winds. (Remember when supporting Israel was a hard-core left-wing thing to do?) And all the more reason to vote according to your core beliefs, not according to political labels.

Note to Dalton McGuinty: they still sell cars just fine in California. You are seriously eroding your credibility with this mock indignation. We recognize political opportunism when we see it.

Technorati tags: Rona Ambrose, Buzz Hargrove, Dalton McGuinty

Kat in Iraq

Callimachus at Done With Mirrors has started a new series on life in Iraq for American contractors. Kat, the young lady on the right, is the contractor in question.

This opens a series of posts that will run here over the next few days. It expands the account written by my friend Kat, who worked in Iraq for a contractor in infrastructure reconstruction. That story was told in outline here.

A large part of her message is her frustration with the lack of media coverage of work such as she did for almost two years.
...
A week or so ago I sent her a link to an interview with New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins. As the interview was written up, it justified the MSM in its lack of complete coverage of Iraq by presenting Iraq as a place too dangerous for them to go out and do their jobs. I knew this would get under her skin, and I hoped it would provoke her to writing a rebuttal to that attitude.

She did, privately, and later she agreed to let me publish it.

Kat was more than a little blistering in her attack on the courage of reporters. She was challenged by a commenter, and her response has grown into a three-part series on life in Iraq for an American contractor. It's a fascinating read, and more than a little disturbing, something like looking into an alternate universe.

Kat had made an earlier appearance on Done With Mirrors, which I linked to here.

Technorati tags: Iraq contractors

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Oct. 3

I still haven't figured out how the Anchoress manages to sound so passionate and so reasonable at the same time (very rare combination), but she's doing it again with her rant on free speech.

Amba at Ambivablog is citing experiments with Botox that add extra evidence for the theory that your facial expressions affect your mood.

No, not even big brother Egypt can hammer sense into the head of Hamas. Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters comments on Hamas' refusal to accept a prisoner swap for Shalit.

Technorati tags: Botox, Gilad Shalit

Killing Amish schoolgirls

Charles Carl Roberts is an enigma. The milk truck driver, up until yesterday a law-abiding man, devoted husband and father, and apparently all-round nice guy, invaded an Amish schoolhouse and executed the schoolgirls. Few are expected to survive.

Police are scrambling to determine a motive. He did leave suicide notes, apparently outlining a 20-year old desire to molest girls and an anger with God. Police also speculate that the latter was fueled by the death of a newborn daughter in 1997. Evidence of the former comes from his suicide notes and the sexual lubricant he brought with him to the school siege, but which he apparently had no time to use.

There were virtually no advance warning signs, only a shift in moods reported by coworkers.

Roberts' co-workers said his mood had darkened in recent weeks, but suddenly brightened over the weekend, [State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B.] Miller said.

"A few days before the shooting a weight was lifted," Miller said Tuesday.

I am struck how easy it is to not know the people we work and even live with. There are things under the surface that can be incredibly powerful - for good or for evil - and yet remain completely hidden. Evil things in particular grow better in the dark. Most of the deranged killers in recent memory have been loners or very quiet men, turned in on themselves, or at the very least, keeping locked rooms in their souls that no one else was allowed to enter.

So what can be done about it? We can't exactly start reporting our coworkers to police every time they fall into inexplicable funks. Perhaps we need to be more sensitive to the people around us and probe gently if they make strange, uncharacteristic remarks. I've been guilty in the past of timidly backing away from topics that might get weird or messy. Maybe I shouldn't. Sunlight and fresh air are great disinfectants.

But our first responsibility remains ourselves. What are we nurturing in our own hidden rooms? It might never erupt in the spectacular evil of the Nickel Mines schoolhouse, but we could very well spray the acid of our bitterness, or the putrid stench of our sick obsessions on the people around us, wounding them or - even worse - encouraging their own evils. It is perhaps time to go talk to a friend, a pastor or priest, or a help line and let the air in.

Maybe if only one person confronts his own evils as a result of this slaughter, those little Amish schoolgirls will not have died in vain.

In the meanwhile, my heart and prayers go out to the families of both the victims and the killer.

[Correction] The references to molestations in the past that CCR claims to have done were made in a phone call to his wife during the siege.

[Update] See here for the reaction of the Amish.

Technorati tags: Charles Carl Roberts, Nickel Mines

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Oct. 2

Armstrong Williams at Town Hall is lamenting the dangers of a culture obsessed with celebrity and entertainment.

It is only when we as a nation recognize that every pre-eminent nation that succeeded us fell when they became enamored with sports, entertainment, and thus became consumed with lifestyles of the rich and famous. We must recognize that we can learn quickly from their mistakes and misplaced values so that we can avoid the same decline.

Unlike most commentators, he doesn't wallow in gloom and doom though; he sings the praises of a program designed to point children toward academic excellence - the Carson Scholarship program. Hat tip to Booker Rising.


Cicero at Winds of Change, shares a bleak and realistic assessment of America's options in a new world of nuclear proliferation. Nonetheless, he seems some small cause for hope. The preamble is a bit lengthy; skip the first four paragraphs if you're not in a leisurely mood.


On a more optimistic note, the Strategy Page outlines the reasons to believe that Al-Qaeda's influence and strength are waning.


Technorati tags: Al-Qaeda

Violent protests in Palestine may be sign of hope [Updated]

I know that sounds perverse, but I think that the only real hope for Palestinians is to reject both Hamas and Fatah and enter the real world. They need to accept that Israel is not going to go away, and that if their Arab brethren haven't risen up to liberate them since 1948, that might just mean they never will (60 years is a long time for a message to sink in). Coming out into the real world will entail a painful re-ordering of mentalities, but now that the enablers have cut off financial support, Palestinian fantasies might finally die.

That's why I think the riots in Palestine, which have both Hamas and Fatah worried, might actually be a good thing, as the Palestinian "street" starts to realize that their leaders have never brought them anything but grief.

One can hope, anyway.

[Update] It would appear I spoke too soon. Other news releases make it clear that the fighting is between the rival factions of Hamas and Fatah, not a rejection of the two of them together. No encounter of any kind with reality on the horizon.

Technorati tags: Fatah, Hamas

The good news from Afghanistan

Shere Khan at Dust my Broom is a little weary of all the gloom and doom reporting coming out of Afghanistan, so he took it on himself to do some research. Truck on over if you would like a good, meaty report on successful reconstruction and other good news in Afghanistan. You certainly can't count on the traditional news sources to give you this kind of information.

Costello calls to buy a computer from Abbott

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.

ABBOTT: Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommend something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!

ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.

COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: Word in Office.

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W".

COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?

ABBOT T: Money.

COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.

COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?

ABBOTT: One copy.

COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.

COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!


(A few days later)


ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?

ABBOTT: Click on "START. . ."

Lifted shamelessly from Miss Snark.

This, of course, is a spoof of Abbott and Costello's famous comedy routine, "Who's on First," which can be found here.

Technorati tags: Abbott and Costello

Canadian teen obtains justice in Pennsylvania

The Amazing Wonderdog delivers the denouement of the Travis Biehn story, which was big news last year, but is now being neglected in the media.

Travis Biehn, the Newfoundland-born teenager who was convicted in Pennsylvania last year of making a bomb threat against his school and possessing explosives, has won his appeal. Biehn's conviction was overturned last month, and the DA has not filed a counter-appeal.

...

Fear is what this whole sorry story is about. Biehn was charged, in the absence of evidence, because of fear. He was convicted, based on innuendo, in a climate of fear. His conviction became news touted by a media that acts to magnify that fear, and commented on by bloggers who were, by and large, too busy pissing themselves to use their brains.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and Biehn has been cleared. Diane Gibbons, the District Attorney who was attempting re-election at the time, had tried to make Biehn's nationality an issue, although the judge (also named Biehn, but unrelated), who clearly didn't like Travis, had said that anti-Americanism was not a factor.

Technorati tags: Travis Biehn