Diversianity Has its Limits

Vigilantism is not encouraged by most of Western society. Which is odd considering how well movies about vigilantes (i.e. “The Dark Knight”) rake at the box office.

Speaking of Batman, the next story features a boat that looks like something the Caped Crusader might con:

Pictured: The bullet-proof ‘Batmobile’ set to wreak havoc on the Japanese whaling fleets

Who is “The Sea Shepherd Society”? Nothing more than a group of concerned citizens that has waged a jihad (“Now batting for Allah, Gaia!”) against Japanese whalers.

One of the vigilantes activists is none other than Daryl Hannah who I guess is just getting back to her roots (right)?

Whaling is part of Japanese culture. How integral? I don’t know, but who are we to tell them what they can or can’t do in international waters?

Incidents between the “Sea Shepherds” and Japanese whalers in the past have resulted in people getting hurt.

These Hollywood types are really something else. They seem to pontificate about how there is no right and wrong, yet there are plenty of things they seem to find “wrong”. So much so that they take extreme measures to battle whatever they deem as “wrong”, multiculturalism be damned.

Much closer to home, why aren’t they protesting the ritual slaughter of lambs by Muslims and Jews? You wouldn’t need a bulletproof Bat Boat to do it either, but for sure it’d upset the apple cart much more than protesting a distant nation’s customs.

To paraphrase a fictional Politburo member: “Where are the cultural relativists here!?!”

Mr. Buck Meets a Grisly End

Yesterday, my wife took our son to Bear Creek Park to visit some of the animals kept there. Afterwards she related to me that there was a big hubbub there complete with sheriff deputies and the local media’s satellite vans. She didn’t know what all the fuss was bout, well last night watching the local news, we found out.

One of the deer kept there was brutally killed by a trespasser. The buck (below), who went by the name “Mr. Buck”, was not afraid of human beings and unfortunately, this contributed to his death.

Allegedly, Monday night some troubled individual broke into Buck’s enclosure and decapitated the 8 to 10-pointer, presumably to mount the head. Here’s the story from the Houston Chronicle,

Houston park visitors, workers mourn decapitated deer

I’m not a hunter, though if invited, I wouldn’t mind going deer hunting. Obviously what this person did was not hunting, though I know there are many (like the folks at PETA) who don’t see a difference between what happened to Mr. Buck and what happens to some deer who every year find themselves at the wrong end of someone’s .30-30.

While I appreciate and agree with the outrage towards the manner of Mr. Buck’s unfortunate demise, I cannot help but think that the only folks who have a real gripe are those who don’t eat meat and/or consider the consumption of meat as some sort of affront towards Mother Gaia or some other pagan deity or deities.

Seriously though, those of us who enjoy a good steak: Let’s temper our outrage with a little introspection.

How do we think that smoked sirloin (medium) at TXLC gets to play Batman to that loaded baked potato’s Robin?

The folks at slaughterhouse certainly don’t sweet talk the cows to death, now do they?

Comparing Barack Obama to Royalty

No, the post does not refer to the endless and erroneous comparisons to Camelot, the closest America has had to even a hint of royalty.

The comparison is to Princess Di and it came in one of the 2 columns referenced here.

Both of these pieces ran in the UK’s Daily Mail, quick someone cue up Paperback Writer!

One piece is written by Peter Hitchens (below)

The night we waved goodbye to America… our last best hope on Earth

To paraphrase Brian Giles, “his brother’s Christopher”

Whether or not Mr. Hitchens’ laid it on a little thick with the column’s title can only be ascertained after reading his opinion. I thought he made a couple of keen and dispassionate observations.

Here’s the intro to the column,

Anyone would think we had just elected a hip, skinny and youthful replacement for God, with a plan to modernise Heaven and Hell – or that at the very least John Lennon had come back from the dead.

The swooning frenzy over the choice of Barack Obama as President of the United States must be one of the most absurd waves of self-deception and swirling fantasy ever to sweep through an advanced civilisation. At least Mandela-worship – its nearest equivalent – is focused on a man who actually did something.

I really don’t see how the Obama devotees can ever in future mock the Moonies, the Scientologists or people who claim to have been abducted in flying saucers. This is a cult like the one which grew up around Princess Diana, bereft of reason and hostile to facts.

It can be argued that Obamamania hasn’t been described any better than this.

The second piece is by Liz Jones and it focuses on our future First Lady, Michelle Obama.

Black Pride

It is a terrible thing that the worst of all the vices can smuggle itself into the very centre of our religious life. But you can see why. The other, and less bad, vices come from the devil working on us through our animal nature. But this does not come through our animal nature at all. It comes direct from Hell. It is purely spiritual: consequently it is far more subtle and deadly… — CS Lewis on Pride

No, the title of this post is not in reference to any racial identity movement, but rather to what Lewis references in the above quote from his classic, Mere Christianity.

It is in reference to the sickening and soul-sucking sense of superiority one feels upon hearing the consequences that result from the poor choices of others.

Yesterday, our youth pastor (JB) came in from the bullpen and preached a stirring sermon on a familiar story, Jesus’ parable of the so-called prodigal son.

JB described the older son in the parable, who couldn’t bring himself to celebrate his younger brother’s return from the figurative dead, as the son who wanted nothing more than to please his dad, by abstaining from as many things as humanly possible. He followed the description by faux applause.

With this son, it was about externals, the easy way to perdition, as the unrepentant Pharisees Jesus scolded came to find out.

Personally, at this point in my A.D. life, I find myself more like the older son. As JB aptly observed, “maybe we have forgotten what it’s like without God.”

Raptors in the Texas Medical Center

Not the Toronto Raptors, but the title alludes to those magnificent creatures which dive, soar and hunt amidst the edifices of the Texas Medical Center.

By the way, a raptor is a bird of prey (eagles, falcons, hawks etc).

There was the one time that I was peering out one of the windows in my lab when a peregrine falcon ran smack into it jolting me out of my reverie.

Then the other times when I’ve had the privilege of watching a hawk dive bomb on one of the countless (and hapless) rats with wings pigeons that infest the out of doors of this medical mecca.

Believe it or not, the hawk doesn’t always fly back to its roost with a pigeon in its talons. How such a finely designed creature doesn’t have a 100% success rate is mind-boggling, but then again pigeons can be pretty resourceful.

And according to this story, I guess robins can be as well: You should see the other guy… The ragged robin who tangled with a sparrowhawk and lived to tell the tale

Here’s a shot from the story,

Holy Hawk Batman, that was close!