Thursday, May 14, 2015

Ordination of Jim Fleming to Diaconate in St. John's NL

Jim Fleming was ordained last night in St. John’s at Mary Queen of Peace Church on Torbay Road. There was a large turnout, similar to a Sunday Mass, plus around 30 priests. I attended with a contingent from our Catholic Young Adults of Newfoundland group. Jim is now a transitional deacon and he mentioned officially he is called “Reverend Dr. James Fleming” although I’m sure he’d rather be just called Jim.

 

In around one year from now he will ordained to the priesthood. Presiding last night was the archbishop of St. John’s Martin Currie. There was a full choir and Sara Broderick did much of the cantering. She did a great job. Afterwards there was a reception to celebrate the ordination. Jim said it was great to see everyone from CYAN there. He’s a genuinely good guy and very intelligent. Before entering the seminary, Jim had acquired a PhD in organic chemistry and had a very impressive academic career. But he decided to pursue a higher calling.

 

Congratulations Jim on your ordination and good luck with everything!

Thursday, May 07, 2015

Another Day of Absurdity in the World of Feminism

In a desperate attempt to add meaning to their lives, a group of girls at Beaconsfield Junior High in St. John’s, Newfoundland school called are protesting a school dress code which they say creates a different standard for girls and boys. Wait, but girls and boys ARE different, aren’t they? OOPS, what I meant to say is gender is just a patriarchal construct which is completely subjective and only enforces rape culture because the patriarchy like to rape the matriarchy…? I’m sorry I just don’t know how to talk Womenstudian properly.

 

In the typical feminazi way, these girls are complaining that men do have the same dress code restrictions as they do. Apparently men can wear shorter skirts than the girls, and that’s just not going to fly! They also seem to be complaining that men can wear tank tops. What self-respected guy is wearing a tanktop anyway?

 

First of all, are these girls delusional? Do they really believe boys and girls are the same? I thought they used to teach biology or at least “family studies” or whatever they call that stupid subject these days. Clearly boys and girls are different physically. Wait, is that sexist to say? Never mind, it’s too hard to keep track of. So boys and girls are different, we all know that. Only feminazis would ever even challenge that idea.

 

But secondly, guys and girls are different in how they understand and see sexuality. Men are very visual creatures. Women who wear sexually revealing clothing draw the attention of men, and unfortunately the women can end up becoming sexual objects to the men. Take however many women’s studies classes that you want this is the reality of it. This just isn’t the same for women. I’m not saying it’s 0% true for women. On many levels women probably do appreciate a man who is in good physical shape, but it’s a much different situation. There’s a reason why on a hot summer day most people would not be shocked to see a man without his shirt on, but a woman without her shirt on would cause a scandal. This is a cross-cultural reality that developed over thousands of years. It’s not as if one day all men or some leaders got together to decide this will be our view of sexuality.

 

One girl said she should not be sexualized. But who is sexualizing whom? If she insists on wearing short skirts and tank tops, is it a boy’s fault for looking at her, and can she honestly say she is not seeking attention of a sexual nature? Even if she isn’t, she should at least understand how sexuality works because she seems oblivious.

 

Instead of pursuing something as nonsensical and meaningless as this, maybe these girls should focus on doing well academically. How much money have we been forced to waste on “women’s studies” which as far as I can tell have produced no benefits for society whatsoever. Engineering has promoted women’s freedom more than any women’s studies class. How? By creating things like the washing machine and dishwasher, saving women hundreds of hours per year to pursue other activities. That’s the reality.

 

One of the main problems is our monolithic school board where people don’t have a choice where to go. Schools should be private properties and the owners allowed to make whatever rules they want. If the customers (students and parents would be customers) didn’t like the rules they would go elsewhere. Schools would cater to the specific desires of parents and students in order to have the largest customer base.

 

But alas, we don’t live in such a world. We live in a world where a small group of bureaucrats like to socially engineer our culture.

 

Also a note on “rape culture”. First of all it doesn’t exist. Rape culture is one of those concepts which implicitly admits that rape is no longer an issue and in a desperate attempt to find meaning, like the girl/s in this story, we use another term. The new term is far more vague but the good news is that evidence for it is much more readily available. It would be like saying there is a “murder culture” and using as evidence the fact that people are killed in movies or that someone insulted you. It may not be outright murder, but it all contributes to the “culture” of murder. It’s absolute nonsense, but people love to have something to live for.

 

This whole incident is just complete absurdity, and is being used by the people involved to make themselves feel like justice warriors. My suggestion is they do something useful with their lives.

 

 

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Islamic Extremist's Shoots Himself Instead of Churchgoers

A 24-year old Islamic terrorist who was a computer science student accidentally shot himself in the leg as he was on his way to kill people at a church in Paris, France. Perhaps this was divine intervention.

 

This is just one more in a long line of terrorist attacks which have recently taken place in France. The most deadly was the attack on a newspaper that dared publish pictures of Mohammed wherein 12 people were slaughtered.

 

In light of these issues it’s important to look at the reality of what is going on – putting aside how we want things to be and rather look at things objectively. So what is the truth?

 

The first question is “are all religions the same?” The affirmative answer to this question is something you hear frequently. Islam is the same as every other religion, it’s just certain extremists misinterpret the religion and use it for violent purposes. If that were the case, why are we seeing thousands of Muslim terrorist attacks but virtually no Hindu or Buddhist terrorist attacks?

 

In an interesting video I saw recently, it was noted that many people in Islamic countries believe in the imposition of Sharia law, a law which prescribes cutting off hands for stealing and beheading for a variety of other crimes. It advocates stoning to death for adulterers. Many Muslims believe that insulting their religion is a form of attack and the only proper response is to violently attack people who criticize the religion or their prophet. These are not extremist positions, but commonly held views among Muslims.

 

Another interesting video I saw showed for how long and to what degree Islamic groups have been at war with the West. Over the years, they have slaughtered thousands of people and initiated hundreds of battles and wars. These started as soon as Islam started. The Islamic armies conquered vast Christian areas, forcing them into submission. All of North Africa, for example, used to be Christian but was forcibly converted to Islam. We all know about the “choices” people faced – conversion, death, or a debilitating tax and second-class status in society.

 

The idea that Islamic terrorism these days is the result of grievances about particular battles or actions by the West is absurd. In fact, the terrorists themselves don’t cite these things as reasons, so why should we? Most of the terrorists from the West actually come from well-to-do families in well-off parts of town. Many have never even been to the Islamic world. Yet they become killers.

 

So what is the solution? For one thing, the only person who can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. When a psychopath like this guy goes to a church to kill a bunch of people none of your laws will work to stop him. The only thing that would work is meeting him with equal force – not to become sitting ducks. Guns are already banned for personal use in France, but people determined enough find a way to gain access to a firearm will do so. Then is everyone else supposed to sit there waiting to be the next victim.

 

We need to be realistic about Islam and its motives. We can make excuses till the cows come home, but eventually we have to realize that Islam is fundamentally more violent and has a different perspective on when force is warranted. Pretending this is not true is absurd. Once we realize these things, a screening process needs to be put in place to filter out extremists. I’m not sure how such a system could be initiated, but it’s necessary.

 

Secondly, people must be armed with both knowledge and arms. Knowledge is perhaps the most important thing – the ability to spot trouble behavior, people behaving in threatening ways and being able to intervene before something serious happens. Specifically this applies to airport workers. Our system is really stupid. People are chosen at random to be searched. It could be an 85 year old grandmother or a terrorist from Yemen. Both would have an equal chance of being looked at more closely. In Israel, they use a different system whereby they spot suspicious behaviors, body language, and other things. They don’t just randomly pick people. Also, everyday citizens must inform themselves of how to be safe in various situations.

 

In terms of arms, as I said only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. Look up John Lott for more information on this topic. He has researched the information and found that violence always increases when guns are banned because essentially the criminals find criminal ways to obtain guns, but the general public is left helpless. The cities in the US with the strictest gun control laws have the highest gun crime rates. Also, after the bans were initiated, violence increased more in those cities than elsewhere. It may seem counterintuitive, but it makes sense when you think about it a little.

 

Islam is not the same as every other religion. The vast majority of Muslims would never commit a terrorist attack, but we have to be aware of the threat and prepare ourselves. Most importantly, we must pray for Muslims that they convert to Christianity so they will chose to love their enemy and forgive those who persecute them rather than attack them.

 

Article here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/paris-extremist-s-misfire-thwarts-imminent-attack-on-church-1.3043405