Turkey: Canadian Christian’s grave relocated because it makes Muslim family uncomfortable

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From here:

The remains of a retired Canadian diplomat have been relocated to another corner in the Bodrum cemetery, following a local family’s complaints. Wife of the late diplomat Hans Himmelbach is deeply unhappy about the incident and says her efforts to stop the relocation was futile

The remains of retired Canadian diplomat Hans Himmelbach have been relocated to a remote corner in the Bodrum cemetery where he was buried, because a prominent local family was uncomfortable with his proximity to the graves of their loved ones……

“We objected because we weren’t comfortable performing Muslim prayers right next to a Christian grave. We weren’t trying to hurt anybody,” said Dayıoğlu.

The important thing is, the Ground Zero Mosque, is not going to be relocated no matter how many families it makes feel uncomfortable.

Twin abortion

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The latest revolting and callous abortion fad for a mother of twins is to abort one of them if having both is likely to be too much bother.

The preferred euphemism for this is “Selective reduction”.

From here:

Like so many other couples these days, the Toronto-area business executive and her husband put off having children for years as they built successful careers. Both parents were in their 40s — and their first son just over a year old — when this spring the woman became pregnant a second time. Seven weeks in, an ultrasound revealed the Burlington, Ont., resident was carrying twins. “It came as a complete shock,” said the mother, who asked not to be named. “We’re both career people. If we were going to have three children two years apart, someone else was going to be raising our kids. … All of a sudden our lives as we know them and as we like to lead them, are not going to happen.”

She soon discovered another option: Doctors could “reduce” the pregnancy from twins to a singleton through a little-known procedure that eliminates selected fetuses — and has become increasingly common in the past two decades amid a boom in the number of multiple pregnancies…..

“I’m absolutely sure I did the right thing,” she said. “I had read some online forums, people were speaking of grieving, feeling a sense of loss. I didn’t feel any of that. Not that I’m a cruel, bitter person … I just didn’t feel I would be able to care for (twins) in a way that I wanted to.”

Not cruel? What do you call this, then:

Fetal reductions are most commonly conducted by inserting an ultrasound-guided needle through the mother’s abdomen and into the uterus, injecting a potassium chloride solution into the chosen fetus or fetuses, stopping their hearts.

The “chosen fetus” is an interesting turn of phrase: two of our children – now adults – are twins. If “selective reduction” had been an option 30 years ago and their parents non compos mentis, which would have been the “chosen fetus”, I find myself wondering.

The organ of the Diocese of New Westminster is accepting paid advertising

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With some exceptions:

We accept no advertising for liquor, tobacco, small loans, lotteries or any other gambling.

All advertising in Topic must meet the standards of good taste and be graphically and stylistically compatible with the visual format of the Topic publication.

Which make little sense since, after a dose of the graphical and stylistic good taste of the diocese, a shot of something stronger than the clichéd “more tea vicar” would be in order to steady the nerves.

In Anglican Church of Canada, the Gospel is part of a Sacred Circle

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From here:

The Gospel in the Centre of our Sacred Circle has become an important and dynamic part of the growing spiritual movement among Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island.

The Gathering Prayer
Creator, we give you thanks for all you are and all you bring to us for our visit within your creation. In Jesus, you place the Gospel in the centre of this Sacred Circle through which all of creation is related. You show us the way to live a generous and compassionate life. Give us your strength to live together with respect and commitment as we grow in your Spirit, for you are God, now and forever. Amen.

Why does the Gospel of Jesus Christ need a “Sacred Circle”? There are a sufficient number of unappetising “Sacred Circles” to make any association – even if just in name, although it appears to be more than that – between them and a church a thing to be assiduously avoided.

Here are some examples: The Wiccan Sacred Circle,  The Shamanic Sacred Circle, the Tarot Sacred Circle and, my favourite, the Canada Goose Sacred Circle (also Shamanic).

The Anglican version appears to be based upon the First Nations Sacred Circle which has nothing at all to do with the Gospel and has probably only been adopted by the ACoC out of a misplaced sense of guilt.

What is Wikileaks really about?

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This:

The familiar irony is that the medium used to disseminate the leaked information was invented by the military of the imperialists that these protestors seem intent on smashing. And it is now maintained by the commercial interests of the same imperialists.

To compound the irony, hackers mounting Denial of Service attacks against banks and governments in the name of free speech, by trying to bring down web sites, are actually doing their bit to suppress free speech.

The members of this particular coterie of twerps are the new Luddites: they won’t be happy until they have destroyed the underpinnings of the system that maintains the technology they love to play with. They still won’t be happy, though, because spoilt children that they are, they will have broken all their toys.

Our priorities are Wikiwonky

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A 17 year old boy was arrested recently because he mounted a Denial of Service attack that brought down the servers for the online version of Call of Duty.

Meanwhile, back in the real word (RL as compulsive gamers like to call it), in retribution for cutting off Wikileaks’ funding and saying unkind things about Julian Assange, hackers have mounted Denial of Service attacks on the sites of Visa, Paypal, Mastercard, the Swedish Government, Sarah Palin, and are openly advertising how others can join in the fun.

And no-one has been arrested – well, other than Julian Assange for not using a condom.

Call of Duty is a very good game – if a trifle violent – but it’s difficult not to spot the disproportionate amount of energy the law is expending on protecting on-line gamers while ignoring acts that have the potential to bring down banks and governments.

Any doubts that Wikileaks means business should be dispelled by the sight of the hardened bunkers used to house its servers:

Add an Image

Submarine engines converted to run a UPS:

Add an Image

And Wiki Elves toiling away:


Add an Image

Here is a report from the BBC:

[flv:https://anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/videos/Wikileaks-BBC.flv 700 400]

Anyone who uses “partner” as a verb should be treated with suspicion

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Not that I needed that particular hint to be suspicious of Avaaz.org which has piously proclaimed its support for Wikileaks  (or as a CBC radio announcer intoned on the 5:00 p.m. News the Licky Weaks – he did, really):

The massive campaign of intimidation against WikiLeaks is sending a chill through free press advocates everywhere.

Legal experts say WikiLeaks has likely broken no laws. Yet top US politicians have called it a terrorist group and commentators have urged assassination of its staff. The organization has come under massive government and corporate attack, but WikiLeaks is only publishing information provided by a whistleblower. And it has partnered with the world’s leading newspapers (NYT, Guardian, Spiegel etc) to carefully vet the information it publishes.

This is all nonsense: it has next to nothing to do with freedom of the press and everything to do with Assange’s contempt for the West and his desire to undermine it.

The information he has published may or may not be damaging in itself; what, without doubt, is damaging is the fact that he has published it, destroying any lingering doubts over whether the US is prepared to do what it takes to keep its secrets – secret.

It is too late to stop the information spreading, but it is not too late to send the message that anyone else tempted to indulge in similar informational espionage will suffer the same fate as Assange  – and be “partnered” with the Guardian.

Body scan ogling

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From here:

Former “Baywatch” babe Donna D’Errico is barking mad about being body scanned.

The 42-year-old actress, who spent two years running around in a tiny red swimsuit on the hit series, and also posed nude for Playboy, said that she was subjected to an embarrassing full body scan at the airport, purely because of the way she looks.

After being subjected to the scan by TSA agents at Los Angeles International Airport, “I noticed that the male TSA agent who had pulled me out of line was smiling and whispering with two other TSA agents and glancing at me,” D’Errico told AOL News.

“I was outraged.”

Most of us don’t want to be body scanned because, being neither exhibitionists nor particularly proud of our unadorned nakedness, we are less than keen on the thought of the real or imagined suppressed snickering that such an unveiling would provoke.

But how can someone who has made a career out of prancing around without – or almost without – clothes for the lecherous to ogle be outraged because – well, the lecherous want to ogle her?

What should be the military be pre-occupied with while at war?

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Cross dressing, of course.

From here:

As U.S. politicians continue to debate whether to let gays serve openly in the American military, the Canadian Forces have issued a new policy detailing how the organization should accommodate transsexual and transvestite troops specifically. Soldiers, sailors and air force personnel who change their sex or sexual identity have a right to privacy and respect around that decision, but must conform to the dress code of their “target” gender, says the supplementary chapter of a military administration manual.

Cancun Global warming hypocrisy

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From here:

The climate change summit in Cancun will generate 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide, its Mexican hosts admitted last night.

That means the £43million event will produce as much greenhouse gas as an average-sized African country would over the same two-week period.

The figure includes the carbon generated by flights, transport, hotels and food – and means the conference is polluting at the same rate as Somalia or Mali.

The Anglican Church of Canada is doing its bit to contribute to the farce.