Public Opinion in Wacko-land

Just a passing comment, and don't read too much into it, but it's a strange thing that passes for public opinion in some of our sister countries.

The Toronto Star carried a story today about the storming of the Red Mosque in Pakistan. The story itself was depressing enough, but what about this little nugget buried about halfway down the column:


"But a major loss of life at the Red Mosque could further turn public opinion against the president, who already faces mounting opposition for his bungled attempts to fire the country’s chief justice."

Hmmmm. One wonders what it would take to turn public opinion against the extremist group causing the problem. I mean, they've armed themselves to the teeth; fortified their holy place; run about the streets abducting women; held citizens hostage and subjected them to torture; used children as shields; fired on the police; and generally behaved in a lawless, violent and dispicable manner.

Yet all this, apparently, is not enough to turn public opinion against them.

Guess "the public" just figures, Well, yes, they're behaving a bit badly, but at least they're not smokers.

Wacko-land.

Toronto - An Anomaly in War

Lt. William Turner is an anomaly.

Lt. Turner was killed in Afghanistan, in the service of his county, in April 2006. It seems he was a bit of an odd duck. A former postal worker and marathon runner, he didn't volunteer for duty in Afghanistan until he was in his mid-40s. He was 45 when he died.

Even more unusual in this dirty little pacification exercise, Lt. Turner was from Toronto. Wow! What an oddball!

Of the 66 Canadian servicemen and women who have given their lives so far, it appears Lt. Turner was the only Afghanistan fatality to call Toronto his home town. At least, according to the official records. And perhaps they're wrong. Soldiers move around. It's sometimes hard to know where they came from originally. Maybe several other fallen soldiers came from Toronto, but they got misplaced somehow, in burgs like Lincoln, New Brunswick, or Pilot Mound, Manitoba.

But it's odd, isn't it, that Lt. Turner seems to be the only Torontonian to have made the supreme sacrifice in this current war? With 2.5 million people, a vibrant youth demographic and about 20 per cent of the province's population, you would have expected at least four Torontonians to have lost their lives. At least. Statistically speaking.

But no. Northern Ontario, with a mere seven per cent of the province's population, has donated five lives -- 20 per cent of Ontario's dead. Thunder Bay, a small city with few enough young men to give, has contributed two. Others among the dead have come from places like Port Lambton, Sarnia, London, Bowmanville, Orangeville, Gananoque, Kingston, Hamilton, Owen Sound and Ottawa. Even Richmond Hill, a close neighbour of the Engine of Growth, has given up one of its own.

All kinds of cities and towns across the province -- indeed, across the country -- have send their young men and women to fight and die in Afghanistan.

But Toronto? Not so much.

Maybe that's the way it always is and always has been: That the unassuming young people from quiet places step up to do society's heavy lifting, while their glittering cohorts from the big city go to school, yak their heads off, make contacts and get on with their careers; that poor folks from the periphery, like the Highland Scots of Britain's empire, die in foreign wars, while their urban betters go on with their busy metropolitan lives.

Or maybe Toronto just isn't all that engaged with the country.

Who knows?

But Lt. William Turner was certainly an odd man, bless his 45-year-old heart.

An Ugly Face Unveiled

Here's something.

According to The Toronto Star, the new Pope is allowing priests to use an old Latin liturgy that prays to the God of Abraham to wipe the veil from the eyes of Jews to let them see the godliness of Jesus.

VATICAN CITY – A prayer for the conversion of the Jews sidelined from Roman Catholic liturgy in the 1960s may stage a surprise comeback on Saturday, when Pope Benedict is expected to allow broader use of the old Latin Mass.

Well, here's something else.

Any religion that badmouths Jews, or seeks to convert them to some new world flakiness -- particularly when that so-called religion feeds off the Jews like blow flies at a dungfest -- is garbage.

It's about time that we fixed a gimlet eye on this kind of anti-Semitism.

What, exactly, is going on here?

A bunch of Johnny-come-lately slackers swoops down to scoop up someone else's religion, gussy it up with some Messiah jazz, then call upon their newfound God to wreak holy hell on the original holders of the religion, who are, in blissful ignorance, just going about their business of being good Jews according to their books as they understand them.

Pu-leese.

Why don't you go get your own religion? Is it too much trouble to think for yourselves? Does it hurt your little Roman heads to puzzle out a Jesus who isn't a Jew? Or a Mohammad who isn't sucking away at the Jewish faith as fast as his little lungs can suck?

People of the Book, be damned. There is but one book, and it belongs to the Jews. And that just chews your socks off, doesn't it?

Both of you derivative religions -- and you know exactly who I mean -- should know this. You can browbeat, denigrate, humiliate and try to eliminate all the Jews on earth, but that won't change the fact that you stole and soiled their religion because you were too damned stupid to think up your own and too damn arrogant to acknowledge the truth of theirs.

The bottom line is that God spoke to them. He did not speak to you.

Kill them or convert them. It will do no good. The fact remains that Abraham was Jewish, and the Book is Jewish.

So get over it and move on. And maybe have another look at that stupid prayer of yours. The truth probably goes the other way, you know. Maybe you should ask the God of Abraham for the insight to understand his people.

And while you're talking to their God, maybe you should ask for forgiveness. While you have the chance.

There is Hope for Canada

There is hope for Canada.

At least, on the world's sports stage. At least, on one very important corner of the world's sports stage.

I'm talking soccer, the beautiful game, in which we have always been on the outside looking in, with out envious noses pressed against the glass. Well, folks, the times they be a-changing, and our time might be upon us. Our salvation could come from an unlikely, but when you think of it, wholly predictable source.

Seems there's an Aboriginal community, the Sechelt First Nation, on the coast of British Columbia, with an unusual enthusiasm for soccer. And, according to Chief Stan Dixon, the band is "very successful" in soccer. The 700 people who live on the reserve have produced seven teams with players who do very well, says the chief.

This delightful Canadian resource only came to light because a celebrating team of 13 year olds ran into trouble with a few newby RCMP officers. The come-from-away officers apparently ended up macing the youngsters and their coaches because they didn't understand the band's rituals for celebrating their frequent soccer victories.

Never mind! It will all be worked out.

In the meantime, let us rejoice. We've been waiting a long time for Canada's first peoples to find their footing. Now they're finally starting to put it together in sports. And in soccer, thank goodness, where we really need their physical prowess and mental stamina to take us to the next level of international play. Let's face it. More and more of us live in urban comfort. Our urban children are not the tough, resourceful, uncomplaining children we remember from the past. They have a lot of other fish to fry; and many more fries to fish.

But the peoples of the First Nations! Ah! A different story entirely. If the Sechelt are coming forward, can a Maradona or a Pele be far behind?

Wait and watch.