Magic Statistics

Lack of sleep 'is creating a zombie nation' — London Daily Telegraph, 7 June

I’m not sure what to make of this.  It sounds like a significant news story, but I can find no coverage of the incident in Canadian media, and the source includes no corroborative links.

An item posted at the blog of a Bengali living in Toronto says that a near-riot occurred at a Toronto school over a student’s model of the Kaaba (photo at right), the holiest shrine in Islam’s holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The assignment was to build an exhibit, themed around corporations' influence on our way of life. Basically, the teacher wanted these students (Grade 8, mind you) to explore what would happen if corporations indeed took over many aspects of our lives. So what does one (Muslim) student do? She built a model of the Kabaa, but attached to each sides of the Kaaba were stickers, one of KFC, one of McDonalds, and a couple of other corporations. So basically, corporations had taken over the Grand Mosque of Mecca. McKaaba?
. . .
So what happened at this school once this exhibit was present amongst other exhibits? Suddenly, a bunch of young Muslim men in that school decided it was up to them to defend the honor of Islam. So saying good bye to their girlfriends, taking a last sniff of their dope, snuffing out their cigarettes and chucking their half-empty beer cans into the bins, they marched en masse to the principal's office.

It was a near riot. Shouting, gesturing, threatening the student who made the exhibit with dire consequences, they forced the principal to act. She of course marched to where the exhibit was being held, told the student in no uncertain terms that exhibits were meant to foster the learning spirit and not to insult, and asked her to take down the exhibit. The mob went back to whatever they were doing.

The anonymous blogger links to information describing the commercialisation of the real Kabaa in Mecca.  It’s surrounded by skyscrapers and office towers.  The Makkah Hilton & Towers offers upper-floor “Art Deco-style” rooms with luxury bathrooms, butler service, and views of the Kabaa.

If the events transpired as the blogger describes, then this is another instance in which the powers-that-be caved to Muslim intolerance rather than standing up for freedom of speech and related foundational principles of Western civilisation.  Instead, the principal appeased the little terrorists.

Why was the “near riot” not covered by Canadian news media?

h/t: Global Voices Online

Previous related posts:

• Two Canadian Muslims charged in anti-Jewish violence
• Multiculturalism threatens Canada
• Homegrown terrorist cells busted in Toronto area
• Now images of a building are sacred

A published study by scientists from the University of California at Irvine has found that almost all Arctic warming in the last 200 years can be explained by dirty snow.

Soot from vehicles, smokestacks and forest fires enters the atmosphere and falls to the ground in the form of dirty snow, which is darker than snow devoid of soot particles, the scientists said. Dark surfaces absorb sunlight and therefore heat, while bright surfaces reflect it away.

"When we inject dirty particles into the atmosphere and they fall onto snow, the net effect is we warm the polar latitudes," study co-author Charlie Zender said in a written statement. "Dark soot can heat up quickly. It's like placing tiny toaster ovens into the snow pack."

In the past two centuries, the Arctic’s temperature is believed to have increased by 1.6 degrees, of which Zender et al. estimate that 1.5 degrees, or 94%, is attributable to dirty snow.  The global increase over the same period is measured at 0.8 degrees, of which dirty snow accounts for 0.15 degrees, or 19% of the rise.

If this theory is correct, the quickest way to cut global warming would be to switch to cleaner-burning fuels, rather then reduce GHG emissions.

h/t: Pearcey Report

Previous related posts:

• Cleaner air may be exacerbating global warming
• Climate scientists choked

Two Christian social workers were stabbed to death earlier this week in Uttar Pradesh, northern India.

Mr. Samuel Masih (86) and his staff member Aman Singh (43) were brutally killed on the night of 2nd June 2007 in village Awagarh, dist Etah, Uttar Pradesh. Aman Singh’s body had 24 stab wounds while Mr. Masih had been stabbed five times. Police have registered a case of murder and are investigating. As it was well-known that he did not keep and money or valuables, robbery is ruled out as a motive. The mission enjoyed a very harmonious relationship with the local people and there were no known disputes relating to the land. Hence the motive for the murder is not known, though family members suspect that religion could be a factor.

The ferocity of the killings would indicate a crime of passion rather than one driven by monetary gain, so religion could indeed be the motive.

The two servants of God were killed at their ashram, which included a school and orphanage.  (The children were all away on summer vacation.)  Their funeral was attended by about 4000 people from the surrounding area.

Also today, Sudheer Xavier, a Christian pastor in the central Indian state of Madhya Pardesh, was falsely charged with forcible conversion and arrested.  The charge was engineered by radical Hindus.

Previous related posts:

• Indian pastor, missionary receive death threats
• 4000 Christians arrested in Delhi, India
• Brutal attacks on Christian leaders in India

After reviewing an RCMP report on the Fundamentalist Mormon polygamist colony at Bountiful and pondering his options at great length, British Columbia Attorney-General Wally Oppal has passed the buck.  He has appointed a special prosecutor to decide whether the province should lay criminal charges for polygamy, sexual exploitation, and/or child abuse.

"There is some concern that the religious rights of a particular sect or a particular person will trump any right to prosecute," Attorney General Wally Oppal said yesterday.

It's not a position Oppal is happy about, and neither are those demanding the government do something to stop what's happening in Bountiful.

Yesterday, Oppal's office appointed a special prosecutor to do yet another review of whether to charge members of the Bountiful community in southeastern B.C.

Several women who have escaped from the colony allege that uneducated, underage girls are pressured to marry much older men already married to other women.

CBC News obtained government documents that showed 69 babies were born to teenage girls in the community between 1986 and 2004. Some of the mothers were as young as 16.

The leader, Winston Blackmore, is said to have more than 20 wives and 100 children.

The Globe and Mail reports on an interview with Mr Blackmore conducted earlier this year.

"This Attorney-General is nothing more than … prejudiced, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "I think that guy has an agenda, he has a political agenda, and he's very biased. … I think he's biased against polygamy."

I should hope an attorney-general is “biased” against illegal activities.  In fact, I imagine that’s an essential requirement for the job.

In The Globe interview, Mr. Blackmore said his role in arranging Bountiful unions (they are not legally recognized as marriages by the provincial government) was simply to make recommendations on a pair's suitability.

"When I was in charge of a community of about 800 people, all I knew in relation to that was when two parents, the parents would come with their person and present him and their interest in wanting him to get married," Mr. Blackmore said.

"And that's all I know and I never saw anyone's birth certificates or anything, which by the way, I certainly do now … because I'm interested, you know. But I sure didn't then."

“I never saw anyone’s birth certificates”—a “defence” used by all statutory rapists.  It doesn’t matter whether he knew how old the girls were.  If he’s a party to arranging the marriages, he’s implicated.

The sooner that loathsome excuse for a man is behind bars, the better.

Previous related posts:

• BC still thinkin’ about charging polygamists
• BC attorney-general says he’s “not ignoring” polygamy at Bountiful
• International human rights law obligates Canada to eliminate polygamy
• Fundamentalist Mormon convicted of underage sex