Author: Blazingcatfur
The Insect Apocalypse That Never Was
For the past four years, journalists and environmental bloggers have been churning out alarming stories that insects are vanishing, in the United States and globally. Limited available evidence lends credence to reasonable concerns, not least because insects are crucial components of many ecosystems. But the issue has often been framed in catastrophic terms, with predictions of a near-inevitable and imminent ecological collapse that would break ecosystems, destroy harvests, and trigger widespread starvation. Most of the proposed solutions would require a dramatic retooling of many aspects of modern life, from urbanization to agriculture.
The grimmest method yet of assisted suicide
Right-to-die advocates are dreaming up ever-more grotesque ways of killing ourselves.
You may have heard of advance directives, also known as living wills. They are advance instructions to refuse treatment issued to doctors and carers by very ill people who expect to find themselves unable to communicate when the time comes. Right-to-die associations often promote advance directives as a way of avoiding life with dementia. But what if the doctors involved with your care refuse to follow the advance directive? After all, they are not currently legally enforceable in most jurisdictions.
Starbucks Manager Quits Over Woke Culture That Led to Bullying, Division
Amanda Wannagat was an exemplary Starbucks store manager.
Wannagat had repeatedly received accolades from the global coffee shop chain for her performance. New store managers would get sent to her store in Salt Lake City to learn how to do the job properly.
Usual suspects look to prevent Denmark sending back Syrian refugees
Denmark could face legal action over attempts to return Syrian refugees
Denmark’s attempt to return hundreds of Syrians to Damascus after deeming the city safe will “set a dangerous precedent” for other countries to do the same, say lawyers who are preparing to take the Danish government to the European court of human rights (ECHR) over the issue.
Authorities in Denmark began rejecting Syrian refugees’ applications for renewal of temporary residency status last summer, and justified the move because a report had found the security situation in some parts of the country had “improved significantly”. About 1,200 people from Damascus currently living in Denmark are believed to be affected by the policy.
Jack M. Mintz: We’re getting too far ahead on our climate policies that kill oil and gas jobs
Is Canada moving too quickly with climate-change policies to kill oil and gas jobs? After all, while we are pushing up the carbon price to $170 per tonne by 2030, the U.S. doesn’t even have a pricing policy yet. And on top of our aggressive carbon pricing, we are also adopting important — and burdensome — new measures such as clean fuel standards, electric-vehicle substitution and building retrofits. The federal government has also declared plastics toxic and introduced aggressive environmental regulations to stop fossil-fuel development.
Iran Attempted To Abduct at Least 3 American Journalists in 2019 and 2020
At least three U.S. journalists working for Voice of America were the subjects of attempted Iranian abduction and surveillance efforts in 2019 and 2020, a former senior State Department official familiar with the security threats told the Washington Free Beacon.
In one botched plot in late 2019, Iranian operatives allegedly tried to use a female “honey trap” to lure a male VOA journalist to a hotel room in Irbil, Iraq, according to the former State Department official—a plan that failed when the reporter, who has since left VOA, declined to show up to the hotel. The plot closely mirrors the case of Ruhollah Zam, an Iranian dissident ex-pat who was lured from France to Iraq by a female Iranian operative and then taken to Iran where he was executed by the government last year.
Taliban Thugs Film Beating of Afghan Comedian Shortly Before Murder
A Taliban spokesman confirmed Thursday that Taliban thugs murdered comedian Nazar Mohammad in southern Afghanistan shortly after a video went viral that showed Mohammad being abducted and beaten.
BONOKOSKI: The CBC always complaining but never thankful
A briefing note to Heritage Canada, the overlord of the CBC, says it has received upwards of 10,000 public complaints during the course of the year, the majority of which curse the public broadcaster’s left-wing bias in its news reporting.
Ouchy!
Sticky Situation. Karma served instantly. pic.twitter.com/VFhcdMelTp
— Steve Inman (@SteveInmanUIC) July 29, 2021
Winnipeg Catholic priest accuses residential school survivors of lying about abuse for money
A Catholic priest has been banned by a Winnipeg archdiocese from speaking publicly after accusing residential school survivors of lying about sexual abuse to get more money from court settlements, of spreading falsehoods about residential schools, and joking about shooting those writing graffiti on churches, among other comments.
The statements were made over weeks of services at St. Emile Roman Catholic Church, and were included in videos on its Facebook page.
During a July 10 mass Father Rhéal Forest — who was temporarily placed at St. Emile while the parish’s regular pastor, Father Gerry Sembrano, was on vacation — said residential school survivors lied about being sexually abused so they would receive more money during the settlement process with the federal government.
Well that should set a few more churches alight.
What Is American Wokeness Really About?
Most Americans were as indifferent to the U.S. women’s soccer team’s recent loss to Sweden in the Olympics as they were excited about the team’s World Cup win in 2019. In between was the team’s nonstop politicking, from whining about compensation to virtue-signaling their disrespect for the United States. The celebrity face of the team, perennial scold Megan Rapinoe, is going the way of teenage grouch Greta Thunberg, becoming more pinched the more she is tuned out.
Three Americans create enough carbon emissions to kill one person says study … more if you’re Al Gore or John Kerry
The lifestyles of around three average Americans will create enough planet-heating emissions to kill one person, and the emissions from a single coal-fired power plant is likely to result in more than 900 deaths, according to the first analysis to calculate the mortal cost of carbon emissions.
The new research builds upon what is known as the “social cost of carbon”, a monetary figure placed upon the damage caused by each ton of carbon dioxide emissions, by assigning an expected death toll from the emissions that cause the climate crisis.
The analysis draws upon several public health studies to conclude that for every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere beyond the 2020 rate of emissions, one person globally will die prematurely from the increased temperature. This additional CO2 is equivalent to the current lifetime emissions of 3.5 Americans.
How come these studies never mention China and it’s coal plants?
Fighting the Blight of Durban
This week, Ronald S. Lauder, former US ambassador to Austria and currently president of the World Jewish Congress, sent an open letter to US President Joe Biden setting out his concerns about rising antisemitism. “Recently, American Jews have witnessed something we never thought we would see in this country,” he wrote; “…a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke cannot walk down an American street without fear of violence. Jews have been attacked by pro-Palestinian mobs in Los Angeles, New York and other cities. Antisemitic incidents have more than doubled in the past year. Hate crimes against Jews in America are twice as high as crimes against any other religious group”.
China ‘propped the doors open’ for criminals in Microsoft hack, Australian spy agency boss says
Australia’s top cyber spy says China’s actions in the hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software were akin to propping open the doors of thousands of homes and leaving them ajar for criminals to get inside.
Rachel Noble, the director general of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), drew the analogy as she said the Chinese government’s actions had “crossed a line”, prompting the Australian government to join with the United States and other countries to publicly point the finger at Beijing last week.