In today’s Sun: death by gun

— 07.24.2012 12:00 AM

Whenever a lot of people get murdered by people carrying guns – as they have, recently, in Toronto and Denver – other people ask: “How did this happen? Why do these things keep happening?”

With the greatest of respect, those are unintelligent questions. One does not need to be a police officer, or a scientist, to know that (a) crazy and/or stupid people exist and (b) if you make it easier for crazy and/or stupid people to get guns, they will use them on innocent people.

There are other factors at work, of course. But those are the big ones. If you don’t get that, you need more help that a newspaper opinion column can provide.

Now, when I was a cop reporter, in Calgary and Ottawa, I noticed that the higher-ups would lay on more officers whenever it was hot, or a full moon, or when school was out. That’s because violent crime tended to go up, noticeably, on those occasions. The reasons, to me, were straightforward: when it got hot, people drank more. When people drank more, they did stupid things, sometimes involving guns.


Comments (40)

Nurie responds

— 07.23.2012 07:38 AM

Nothing from JamesHalifax yet.

Dear Mr. Kinella,
Thank you for this timely message. Firstly, please allow me to apologize for causing you any sort of grief
or aggravation, as a result of my childish, immature and silly comments. Secondly, I have decided that
this will be my last post on your web site, as while I would fully conform to your rules if I were to continue
to post, I feel very bad for upsetting you. Thirdly, you are quite correct that I have posted “race based crap”
and for that I am truly sorry for that. I can assure you that I do not hate individual or group on the basis of
their racial, ethnic, cultural, national, linguistic and/or religious background. While my comments were indeed
very silly and clearly wrong, I was only doing them in an effort to ‘smoke out” the racists, who post to your
forum on a regular basis, and to that end, I do believe I was vindicated. I was deeply distressed by the
cravenly indifferent, crypto-racist, and highly euro-centric comments, which quite often made direct attacks
upon Afro-Canadians, with regard to the issue of gun control. So I thought I would “give them a taste of their
own medicine”, as it were. However, it was very wrong of me to use your forum for personal reasons
like that. I would like to wish you the very best of good luck and success with all of your projects in the future.
I do hope you can forgive me for causing problems on your web site. If I may suggest, perhaps it would be
prudent for you to remove any and all comments I have made in the recent past on your web site, as they
may be offend and upset potentially new readers who visit your web site.

Sincerely,
Nurie Jahangeer


Comments (31)

Hot Nasties, reviewed, 32 years after the fact

— 07.23.2012 07:33 AM

“Like a divergent australopithecine strain, The Invasion shares many tendencies with its descendants, while dabbling in different musical genera entirely: On its A-side, it establishes its ’77-proof DNA with “I am a Confused Teenager” before deteriorating into guttural discord and pre-hardcoric throat-shredding in “Invasion of the Tribbles.” B-sider “The Secret of Immortality” is yet another permutation, pairing open-air drive-thru pop with pensive ruminations on morality, life, death and Catholic guilt…”

Great wordsmithing, there.  Can’t recall seeing “australopithecine” in a review anytime recently.  Or, like, ever.


Comments (0)

Dear JamesHalifax and Nurie

— 07.22.2012 06:08 PM

Your comments, and the number of comments you’ll be permitted, are heretofore limited. There has been too much libel, too much ad hominem, and frankly too much race-based crap.

I don’t care what side of the spectrum you’re on, either. This is my house, and my rules prevail. If you don’t like that, beat it.


Comments (14)

In Sunday’s Sun: don’t tear down that wall

— 07.21.2012 06:47 AM

The church should not dictate to the state. And the state has no business — none — dictating to the church.

If you disagree with that, or if you still need to be convinced that there is properly a wall between church and state, look to Germany. About two weeks ago, a court in Cologne ruled a doctor had caused “bodily injury” to a Muslim boy by circumcising him. In effect, the German court determined that circumcision amounted to a criminal act.

The Cologne case concerned a four-year-old boy whose parents had him circumcised, following which there were minor complications. The court held that the boy’s “fundamental right to bodily integrity” outweighed his parents’ desire to follow the tenets of their faith. If the boy wanted to get circumcised later on in life, the German court declared, his religious freedom “would not be unduly impaired.”

Muslims and Jews — in Germany and around the globe — felt otherwise. As news coverage about the boy’s case spread, outrage grew. In the Muslim and Jewish faiths, circumcision is a solemn requirement. For Jews, it represents a literal commandment from God; for Muslims, it is a “sunnah,” or practice, of the Prophet Mohammed.

The Cologne court ruling is not enforceable in other German jurisdictions, but will almost certainly persuade German doctors to decline to perform circumcisions, fearing legal consequences. In Germany, many Jewish and Muslim parents have reported that they are now uncertain how, or if, they can get their sons circumcised.

The ruling “places an intolerable burden on the free exercise of religion by Jews and also by Muslims who practice male circumcision as part of their religious faith,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the legendary national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “An unprecedented and dramatic intrusion on the self-determination of religious communities,” said the leader of Germany’s Central Council of Jews in a statement.

Meanwhile, Jewish and Muslim leaders met a few days ago in Brussels to denounce the Cologne court decision. “Circumcision is an ancient ritual that is fundamental to our individual faiths, and we protest in the strongest possible terms this court ruling,” the Muslim and Jewish clerics said. There are 100,000 Jews and four million Muslims in Germany.

Fearful that the court’s verdict could bring back unhelpful memories about Germany’s Nazi past — as it already has — Chancellor Angela Merkel said that, unless the decision is overturned, Germany would be regarded as a global “laughingstock.” In fact, it is worse than that.


Comments (22)

Carcross-Tagish First Nation: this time it’s personal

— 07.19.2012 07:57 AM

From the Yukon News:

Ottawa continues to turn down the Carcross/Tagish First Nation’s calls to negotiate a financial transfer agreement.

With concerns that it will be broke by the fall, the self-governing Tlingit group looked to its citizenry for help.

Luckily, Warren Kinsella’s daughter is a First Nation member.

“She has a copy of the self-governance treaty hanging on her bedroom wall,” the pundit and former Chretien spindoctor said in an email to the News on Tuesday.

Kinsella has a history of battling Conservatives. And along with being a staunch Liberal, he also co-founded the Daisy Consulting Group, which “has a lot of involvement with aboriginal files, right across the country,” said Kinsella.

“Since my daughter is a citizen of CTFN we felt we needed to help… to shine a light on what the Harper government is doing to this proud First Nation. We intend to help them tell their story to the whole country, and force the Conservative government back to the table. We’ll do whatever it takes.”

Talks between the First Nation and Ottawa came to a stalemate with Ottawa in May 2011. The First Nation’s last financial transfer ran out that March.

Carcross/Tagish turned down an offer on the table for more money.

There was no negotiation, said Danny Cresswell, the newly elected chief of the Tlingit group.


Comments (32)