Category: Historical Events

Supporting Terrorism: Take That!

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not get you off the hook; good on the SCOC this time:


In their unanimous rulings, the court affirmed that a key clause requiring the Crown to prove that defendants were motivated to further the aims of terrorism.
It said that the so-called “motive” clause was carefully constructed to protect those with innocent motivations or who had no genuine awareness that their actions or support could be manipulated by terrorist forces.
“The impugned provision is clearly drafted in a manner respectful of diversity, as it allows for the non-violent expression of political, religious and ideological views,” Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote for the court.
“Only individuals who go well beyond the legitimate expression of a political, religious or ideological thought, belief or opinion and instead engage in one of the serious forms of violence – or threaten one of the serious forms of violence – listed in the (section) need fear liability under the terrorism provisions of the Criminal Code,” she said…

Doomless In America

George Will:


Forty years after “The Limits to Growth” imparted momentum to environmentalism, that impulse now is often reduced to children indoctrinated to “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” Lomborg calls recycling “a feel-good gesture that provides little environmental benefit at a significant cost.” He says that “we pay tribute to the pagan god of token environmentalism by spending countless hours sorting, storing and collecting used paper, which, when combined with government subsidies, yields slightly lower-quality paper in order to secure a resource” — forests — “that was never threatened in the first place.”..

Hiroshima, Japan: 67 Years Ago Today


History revisionists state that the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki was immoral and unnecessary. They purport that the Japanese government was ready to surrender before this, albeit with little to no evidence to support this supposition.
Had American troops been forced to fight conventionally on the Japanese mainland, earlier battles in 1945 provide a vivid reminder of the facts that President Harry Truman was dealing with:
Battle of Iwo Jima – 21,844 of 22,060 Japanese troops killed
Battle of Okinawa – 95,000+ of 120,000 Japanese troops killed
Update: Jon Stewart vs. Bill Whittle   h/t Sooke

Václav Havel (1936– 2011)


Velvet President: Why Vaclav Havel is our era’s George Orwell and more. (from 2003)
Tribute from President George W. Bush – “The most subversive act of the playwright from Prague was telling the truth about tyranny. And when that truth finally triumphed, the people elected this dignified, charming, humble, determined man to lead their country.”
And finally, in his own words.

The post-totalitarian system touches people at every step, but it does so with its ideological gloves on. This is why life in the system is so thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies: government by bureaucracy is called popular government; the working class is enslaved in the name of the working class; the complete degradation of the individual is presented as his ultimate liberation; depriving people of information is called making it available; the use of power to manipulate is called the public control of power, and the arbitrary abuse of power is called observing the legal code; the repression of culture is called its development; the expansion of imperial influence is presented as support for the oppressed; the lack of free expression becomes the highest form of freedom; farcical elections become the highest form of democracy; banning independent thought becomes the most scientific of world views; military occupation becomes fraternal assistance. Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.

Lest We Forget

70 years ago today, on December 7, 1941, Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii:

“In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.” — Admiral Yamamoto
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