Pious Perverts

The state-funded religious-nationalist school of Orot Girls opened in new premises in September in the city of Bet Shemesh. As per school regulations, all the girls wear skirts to their knee or even below, and their sleeves reach the elbow, at least. All of the modestly attired students are between the ages of 6 and 12.
Since the school's opening in September, groups of fanatic Haredim men have been gathering regularly at the gates to harass the students, yelling "whore" and "slut" at the girls and their mothers as they enter the school grounds. These fanatic fundamentalists claim the girls are immodestly attired and want to impose on them their extremist view that even little ones as young as six should cover up all of their skin. Being the mentally challenged types that these Haredim are, they resort to such tactics as launching stink bombs of excrement and rotting fish through classroom windows to try to force the school out of the neighbourhood.
Of course, it must be noted that not all Haredim are funcionally brain-dead, as are the protesters outside the school. Jonathan Rosenblum, a Haredi columnist for the Jerusalem Post, has vocalized his opposition to the "vandalism, taunts and threats" being employed in Bet Shemesh, and some Haredim women in the city, wanting to distance themselves from the extremists, have approached the students "sister to sister" to give them flowers and tell them that they are beautiful.
Unfortunately, none of that changes the fact these morons are out there harassing these innocent children on a daily basis, subjecting them to fear they have done absolutely nothing to deserve. Community activist Rabbi Dov Lipman asked one protester why they were so focused on the way the girls were dressing. The answer he received was "even an eight-year-old draws my eyes".
I have said it before, and I will say it again. The fact that a person has several fleshy protuberances dangling between their legs means nothing more than the owner of those protuberances is a male of the species. In no way does it signify any kind of superiority, no matter what the owner of the aforementioned danglers might want to think.
A child of eight has no wish to draw the eyes of any adult male in a lustful manner. She hasn't even got any real understanding of lust at that age. It is only the lustful adult male casting his eyes on a little one who is engaging in improper behaviour. Any male who indulges in such thoughts is a pervert, plain and simple. Such a possessor of those fleshy protuberances is naught more than a pedophile. It is the children who need protection from such a one, not the other way around, no matter what the pious pervert might try to say otherwise.

Just Sayin'

Yue Yue, the two-year-old girl that was viewed by the world on you-tube as she was run over twice and ignored by 18 passers-by in a Chinese market place has died of the massive injuries she sustained. Reaction has ranged from shock and outrage to the simple statement of "That's China for you." One explanation for the seemingly total indifference to the little one's ordeal is that those who left her there were too afraid to help, too worried about having a lawsuit brought against them for supposedly causing injury in their attempt to help.

Bullshit.

Let's start with the person making the video, shall we? This person was not taping the agony of an injured child. This person was greedily pursuing their moment in the spotlight as the maker of a vid that could go viral. They did not even care enough about the little girl to move her out of harm's way after filming the initial hit-and-run. Like the videographer, the others who passed her by did so because they are all members of a society that values the male above the female.
Look at the great imbalance in female-to-male ratio at birth in China. "For every 100 girls registered at birth, there are now 118 little boys - in other words, nearly one seventh of Chinese girl babies are going missing." With China's one child policy firmaly in place and the technology available to i.d. the gender of a child in utero, one female after another has been aborted in order to facilitate the next attempt to conceive the much sought after male. It is estimated that the number of such abortions reaches one million a year. Females who do make it to birth are abandoned at an alarming rate. It is not known how many of these poor unfortunates there are yearly, but it is known that many of them are found tossed onto garbage heaps. They are usually found there by garbage pickers.
It has been said that Chinese tradition despises girl children. (click to see further detail) That is the reason little Yue Yue was ignored by so many as she lay in agony, in peril of her very life. She was nothing more than a despised female.
Just sayin', that's all.

How Wonderful It Would Be

British Prime Minister David Cameron went on record this week to say, "Forced marriage is little more than slavery. To force someone into marriage is completely wrong." Truer words could not be spoken.
Cameron announced he was making it a criminal offence to breach an order issued by the courts to prevent a forced marriage and is asking Home Secretary Theresa May to consult on making the practice an offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Earlier this year, the cross-party Commons Home Affairs Committee had called for forced marriage to be criminalised, but the Home Office rejected the recommendation in case it discouraged victims from coming forward. Cameron addressed that issue, saying, "... as a first step, I am announcing today that we will criminalise the breach of Forced Marriage Prevention Orders. It's ridiculous that an Order made to stop a forced marriage isn't enforced with the full rigour of the criminal law. And I am also asking the Home Secretary to consult on making forcing someone to marry an offence in its own right, working closely with those who provide support to women forced into marriage to make sure that such a step would not prevent or hinder them from reporting what has happened to them."
It should be noted here that I am not discussing the practice of arranged marriages. When someone's parents select a prospective spouse, so long as the intended bride or groom is given the final say on whether or not they accept the choice, arranged marriage does not rob an individual of their rights. It is not a problem. What is a problem is a marriage that is forced on someone whether they want it or not. Relatives who try to claim they were acting in the "best interests" of their child need a crash course in the concept of personal freedom and rights.
Forced marriages occur here in Canada, (details here) as well as in the UK and many other parts of the world, but perhaps most especially in the western world, the occurrence generally takes place under society's radar. Those perpetrating this form of violence -for violence it is -are usually quite aware that what they are doing is wrong. They know that if authorities became aware of the despicable deed, they would be stopped. This abhorrent act is not a part of any particular culture. It is, quite simply, an abuse of control and power that needs to be stopped.
Kudos to David Cameron, and to everyone that supports his measures. Canada needs to follow his lead, as does every other country, worldwide. How wonderful that would be.

Idiot Alert Files Updated

Ontario's provincial election is today, so out I went to my polling station to exercise my right to vote. I had just finished marking my ballot and fitting it into the designated slot, when I saw Little Miss Brain-Dead making a fuss at the door. She was standing at the table where voters are asked to show their registration cards in order to be directed to correct booth. In her arms was a puppy. He was just a puppy, much too young to be a service dog, and neither was he wearing any I.D. as a service dog-in-training. In other words, there was no reason for the puppy's owner was creating.
Just as I approached, the idiot threw her voter registration card down on the table and declared she "would be in touch with the party". The woman at the table apologized and said she could tie the dog at the door for a moment while she voted, but that she could not bring the dog with her to a voting booth. Says the dog owner, "He's just a puppy and I'm not leaving him anywhere."
Since I had a little time to spare and I thought it might help defuse the situation, I offered to stay with the puppy at the open doorway while the woman voted. Her response was a curt, "No. I don't need your help."
She then declared that she would be contacting her party to tell them why she hadn't been able to vote for them. Obviously, it filled more of a need for her to take umbrage and stage a dramatic stalking out of the place, with the puppy firmly in her arms, than it did to exercise her civic right to have a say in the government.
Women weren't even allowed to vote in Ontario until 1917, not even one whole century ago, but she probably wouldn't know or care about that. Aboriginal women (and all First Nations people, for that matter) were not allowed access to the voting booths of the nation until 1960. She probably wouldn't know or care about that either. She just threw away her right to vote in order to have all eyes on her for her moment in the spotlight, whether it was a valid one or not.
Idiot.

Give Your Head a Shake, Sarah

Sarah Grunfeld is the one to whom the above title refers, and at the moment she is acting very much like a spoiled little brat. While sitting in the “Social Sciences 1140: Self, Culture and Society” class at York University on Monday of this week, she started a furor for which she owes a sincere apology. It's an apology she refuses to give.
During the lecture Professor Cameron Johnston, was seeking to make a point. He wanted to point out to his students that the much-mouthed platitude "everyone is entitled to their opinions" is incorrect; that is is, in fact, a dangerous belief to foster. Seeking to better explain his point, he gave an example of what he felt to be a totally unacceptable and dangerous opinion, and quoted “All Jews should be sterilized” as a deplorable belief to which no-one should feel entitled. Grunfeld practised a little selective hearing at that point, and jumped off the deep end into the whirling eddy of poorly thought-out mud-slinging.
Rather than checking to see if she had heard correctly, or asking for any clarification, she walked out and immediately contacted an Israel advocacy group to inform them that her professor was an anti-Semite. Press releases were fired off to Jewish groups and the media, and demands were made for Johnston, a professor with 30 years tenure at York, to be fired. The whole mess instantly went viral.
Johnston himself is Jewish, and was terribly upset by the whole misadventure, but he at least had the good grace to say he saw a silver lining in the allegations of anti-Semitism Grunfeld has hurled at him. Says Johnston, "It's a very good thing that people are sensitive to this kind of remark, and I think it's a very good thing that someone would respond immediately and deal with it if they thought that they heard an anti-Semitic comment."
It would seem a duty more than incumbent on Little Miss Entitlement to admit her mistake now and offer an apology for her inaccurate allegations, but she refuses. Says Grunfeld, "I understand that there may have been a miscommunication, but any miscommunication was on the part of the professor, not me." (emphasis my own) The little brat offers as the reason for her intransigence the fact that the words 'All Jews should be sterilized' came out of Johnston's mouth. Reality be damned, according to Miss I-Know-Everything, that's just not something he should ever say.
Newsflash, Little Sarah-la. The world today is full of people who feel more than entitled to opinions that would mean death and destruction to many a targeted group, if no-one challenged their "right" to that opinion. Throughout history, the world has seen more than its share of such types, but apparently, if Miss Grunfeld were to have her way, history books for instance would have to be rewritten. They would now have to make such statements as "Hitler loved all the Jews" and "bin Laden loved all Americans". If they actually stated reality, any teacher or professor who tried to quote from them would find themselves on Little Miss' hit list.
What a joke.

Talk about an exercise in frustration.
I went to my local Shoppers Drug Mart this morning looking for a particular brand-name ophthalmic gel, which I have purchased before at a Shoppers', although not at this specific location. I found the eye drops made by that company, but the gel was not there on the shelf beside them. I went, therefore, to the prescription counter to enquire if they might have any in stock.
The woman who came to help immediately began turning my quest into the aforementioned exercise in frustration. First, she told me the store did not carry that brand-name. I told her there was some of it on the shelves just behind me. Then she told me she would have to look it up on the computer to see if they carried that brand. I said again that they quite obviously did and that all I wanted to know was whether or not they had any of the gel, perhaps behind the counter. By then, she had completed her search and she told me that they did not carry Lipitor. The name I had said was Liposic. Obviously, from her appearance and her accented English, she is from somewhere in Asia, and I was beginning to suspect that the English of our conversation was posing difficulties for her. I tried once more to explain to her what I was hoping to find.
At that point, she said to me that she could ask someone else. The person in question turned out now to be just behind me dong something at the shelf VERY CLOSE TO THE BRAND-NAME PRODUCT. The woman from behind the prescription counter came out and asked the second woman if the store carried the particular brand name that I had finally gotten across to her. From the second one came a firm "No." Starting to sound like a scene from a sitcom, isn't it?
I smiled at the second woman as I lifted one of the brand-name bottles of eye drops off the shelf to show her while I told that yes, they actually did carry that brand. I explained then that I was looking for the gel, not the drops. She said they could look in the computer for me to see if that brand made a gel. I told her I knew they did because I had previously purchased some. She said again they could look in the computer to see if that brand made a gel, and if Shoppers' carried it. Rather than turn and run screaming, which was what I really felt like doing by then, I thanked them both for their time and quietly walked away.
I have no interest in playing a role in any one's poorly written sitcom, and this was, indeed, a very poorly written one. It was, in fact, a veritable comedy of errors. I think it's one that needs a new script written, ASAP. The new script should include employees with a better aural grasp of English, and a better knowledge of the stock carried by their employer. Given the fact they were so inefficient at offering any help with medications, their shoddy performance would give reason to doubt any guidance they might offer on products that could impact the health and safety of Shoppers' customers.
Those two give Shoppers' a bad name, a name that means frustration, much more than it means satisfaction. Something should be done about it.

Recently, an 80-year-old woman of my acquaintance passed away. Several years ago now, my father did too, at about the same age as this woman. Both of them left behind family members who handled the passing in somewhat similar fashion, with a seeming need to try and ensure that person would be guaranteed a place in the memory of the living. What these relatives failed to understand is that this is not something that can be done by anyone other than each one of us, on our own, while we still draw breath.
One of my sisters, the executor of my father's will, purchased a granite gravestone and had it engraved in the usual fashion, with dates and a pithy little saying. I had no problem at all with the purchase, but the reason given for it seemed to me to miss the mark entirely. "Without the stone," said she, "it's as though he never lived."
Likewise, upon the more recent death, a surviving son said he felt the need to write something about his mother and post it in an online weekly. No problem except that the reason given was that he "didn't want (his mother's) life to be in vain". There again, a total miss of the mark.
For both of the deceased, in this case, they had lived a span of many years, in situations of peace and relative ease. Neither had ever faced starvation or lost family to any horrendous circumstance. Both had had more than enough opportunity during the span of their years to create their own memorials, to ensure for themselves that they would live on in the hearts of others. (Victims of calamity beyond their control, have had years of opportunity stolen from them,and for these people, like the victims of 9/11, every memorial constructed is more than fitting.)
When Charles Dickens wrote his story "A Christmas Carol" he gave the ghost of Jacob Marley words to say that express exactly that point which I seek to make, "It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men..." Through Marley, Dickens exhorts his readers to "make mankind (their) business" When someone does this while they are alive, they create their own memorial, one with much greater meaning than a slab of stone that sits perched above their remains, or words posted somewhere online. Granite may last untold years, and readers in their thousands may peruse the online piece, but neither one means anything more than a curiosity, if the deceased never made mankind their business. If they never set out to make the world a better place for someone less fortunate than themselves, what is there about them that anyone should remember? If they never did their best to put others ahead of themselves, what is there about them that is worth remembering?
That slab of granite will last far longer than will anyone who knew my father. When the last one of them dies, the granite will then be truly nothing more than a random slab of stone. Perhaps some day in the distant future, a class of school children might walk among the stones where it stands, and use paper and pencil to make rubbings, but they will have no idea of the man whose marker they stand beside. Neither will the words online bring any reality to the name they appear with.
The only hope for these two, or any other of our species once they are deceased, is to be held in the hearts of those for whom they made a difference; those for whom the world was, indeed, a better place because of their determination to make mankind their business. If there are such people left behind, they will hold the memory of the deceased close and help it to live on in the stories they pass along to their family and friends. If the deceased never built bridges from themselves to any others, then the last breath they drew will be truly their total and absolute end.

Democracy?

I recently visited the Toronto area Shri Swaminarayan Mandir complex. At 32,000 square feet, it is the largest Hindu temple, or mandir in Canada, and impressive it is, indeed. The carvings that grace the ceilings alone are more than enough to give a visitor quite the crick in their neck from looking upward so long in an effort not to miss any of them. The ceiling carvings are not all there is to see in this amazing structure, and it would take a very long time to truly familiarize oneself with all the visual wonders of the mandir.
The main floor display that details the contributions of the Hindu community to the world at large, however, is where the wonder of the place comes crashing down on the head of reality, with a resounding thud. The many wall displays rhapsodize claims that those who practise Hinduism have, through the ages, discovered or invented damn near everything worth note in our world. Each to their own opinion, perhaps, except that when one arrives at the display that claims India to be the greatest democracy in the world, that opinion is unacceptable. That is where the claims all become hollow sounding gongs clanging out a cacophony with the claim about democracy the most strident noise therein.
Before going any further, perhaps a definition of democracy would be helpful. Most would agree it is a form of government by the people, in which power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them and/or by representatives elected by them under a free electoral system. It is, further, a state of society that is characterized by an equality of political and social rights and privileges. Having established this as the definition of democracy, one needs only to look at a few figures for India to see how far short of the definition the country falls.
When the "great democracy" claim is made, those who make it usually follow it up with mantra of "one person, one vote" as though that should suffice to clear away any doubts there might be about the claim.
According to UNICEF, for instance, "A report from Bombay in 1984 on abortions after prenatal sex determination stated that 7,999 out of 8,000 of the aborted fetuses were females." Those who intone, "one person, one vote" forget to account for the females murdered throughout India each year, before they have a chance to be born; a chance to grow old enough to cast a vote. Obviously, the alarming state of affairs in Bombay (Mumbai) would hold true throughout the country where females are so devalued.
The 7,999 females referred to above are only one example of the chilling numbers one can discover upon looking into the gender inequality in India. Follow the link to find more, or simply type "female infanticide in India" into a search engine. Nor is infanticide the only type of gender-based violence practised in the country. Read about the women who have had acid poured on their faces as part of a bid to secure more dowry money, or as revenge for their spurning sexual advances or marriage proposals. Look at pictures of victims of these acid attacks and remember that legal persecution of the attackers is rare, with most lawyers portraying those women who do dare to take their tormentor to court as wantons who drove their attacker to throw the acid. It must be remembered that such attacks can never really be spontaneous crimes of passion, since the attacker has first to go out and purposefully purchase the acid, and then carry it in a careful manner so as to avoid harming himself with it. How even one of these attackers could be allowed to go free by a judicial system unless it accepts a less than democratic view of females as valueless is a question that needs to be asked of those who claim India to be such a great democracy.
I understand, of course, that India is not the only location in the world where life is an unending struggle for so many women, simply because they are female. I also realize that gender-based violence is not practised solely by those who call themselves Hindu. I do, however, find it impossible to listen to the claim that India is the world's greatest democracy, without thinking of all the females for whom this claim is nothing but empty words blowing in the wind. At the mandir, I found that claim negated the beauty of pretty much all the awe-inspiring carving to be seen on the ceilings.

Nothing Less than Disgusting

I know two things about the entry I'm about to write. One is that many will say I'm overreacting and belittle my concerns. The other is that many will feel just the same as I do.
Yesterday, in the Spanish town of Bunol, near Valencia, over 40,000 people took part in "La Tomatina" a gargantuan food fight held each year in August. During this inexcusable descent into debauchery, more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown around in the streets. More than one thousand metric tons of food is wasted, wantonly destroyed, with no thought to what it could mean to those currently suffering in the Horn of Africa.
According to the UN, more than six out of every 10,000 people there are dying of hunger every day. In some parts of Somalia, more than half the children are suffering from acute malnutrition. "Somalia is facing its worst food security crisis in the last 20 years, This desperate situation requires urgent action to save lives." So says Mark Bowden, the UN official in charge of humanitarian aid in Somalia.
In that same region, Ethiopia and Kenya are also facing a famine because of the worst drought in 60 years in some places. While the disgusting scenes of La Tomatina played themselves out in Bunol, there were 11 million people starving in Africa. They all require humanitarian assistance. They all would have been more than delighted to eat those tomatoes. They would have treasured that food so willfully wasted in Spain.
La Tomatina should never happen again.

Bacon-izing America's Waistlines

The home of the brave and the free is getting more and more obese every day. Latest figures show that Colorado is the last state left where obesity rates have not yet topped 20% of the state's population. Before Colorado gets too puffed up with pride, however, it should be noted that their rate is 19.8%.
Ever ready to help out with the problem, the fast food chains continue to pump out the products that will pad the waistlines of their customers. One of the most unbelievable offerings is the recently announced bacon sundae available at Denny's. “Bacon is magical,” chirps the enthusiastic writer for Denny’s website. “Bacon transforms classic foods into colossally awesome ones.”
I know the sundae is now old news, but the rising obesity rates stateside is today's news, and the two really go together. For the fast food chains, the bottom line is strictly their profit. They don't give a damn about any of their customers, other than as someone who might come into the store with money to spend, and Denny's bacon magic is a perfect example of that attitude.
Anyone who chooses one of those artery slammers needs help. It would be wonderful if Denny's and the other chains that offer obesity-to-go could come up with something else that was magical, as well - something like a new technology that would show the diner a video of their arteries, and an interior close-up of any abdominal fat they are likely lugging around, while they munch away on their purchase. The vid should include numbers, too, like the 810 calories, 2 grams of saturated fat, and 460 milligrams of sodium packed into one of those bacon sundaes.
A magical finishing touch for the vid could be to have it include the fact that you have to burn 3500 more calories than you take in to lose just one pound, and then have it go on to show some numbers from the Mayo Clinic website. There they would see that if they want to ingest that sundae without having it load the lard onto their waistline, they are going to need an hour of jogging at a steady 5 miles/hour pace to use up the 810 calories and maintain their bodily status quo. Make that seat magically impossible to get out of until all the above has been viewed, and then presto! away would go another happy and satisfied consumer of garbage masquerading as food.