Reddit Asked: What you believe happens after you die?

Updoot Everything is a youtube channel that collects responses to questions on reddit, and creates videos with computer generated voiceovers accompanying the text.

 

As the title suggests, a recent question was “Atheists, what do you believe happens after death?”  In a video posted on Saturday, the answers range from insightful, to poetic, thoughful, funny, honest or just mundane.  A few non-atheists, “spiritual” and silly answers took up space (e.g. “living in a simulation”, “reincarnation”, etc.), but most make for good reading.

 

Happy To Disappoint: It’s pie in the face time again for Anita Bryant

That well known bigot and cream pie target Anita Bryant is having conniption fits.

Sarah Green, Bryant’s granddaughter, is getting married soon to another woman.

Needless to say, the hateful bigots in the family aren’t taking it well.  Isn’t love grand?

Anita Bryant’s granddaughter is marrying a woman. Grandma isn’t happy for the bride-to-be.

The granddaughter of arch anti-LGBTQ activist Anita Bryant is getting married to another woman, and she doesn’t know whether to invite her homophobic grandmother to her wedding.

Bryant’s granddaughter Sarah Green said that her grandmother refused to even believe that she’s gay after she came out on her 21st birthday. The 81-year-old Christian conservative activist is still praying for Green to find a husband.

Now Green is getting married. Like many queer people, she’s not sure whether to invite her grandmother. But unlike most people, her grandmother organized one of the first major anti-LGBTQ campaigns in the country, accusing gay people of being pedophiles.

[. . .]

That didn’t stop her granddaughter Sarah Green from coming out to her on her 21st birthday.

Green said that Bryant sang “Happy Birthday” to her and told her that she would have a husband one day.

“And I just snapped and was like, ‘I hope that he doesn’t come along because I’m gay, and I don’t want a man to come along,’” Green said on the podcast One Year.

Bryant then told her granddaughter that homosexuality doesn’t exist.

Robert Green – Sarah Green’s father and Anita Bryant’s son – said that his mother’s “face froze” when his daughter came out.

“All at once, her eyes widened, her smile opened, and out came the oddest sound: ‘Oh,’” he said. “Instead of taking Sarah as she is, my mom has chosen to pray that Sarah will eventually conform to my mom’s idea of what God wants Sarah to be.”

As you might guess, I’m loving every detail of this story.

 


 

Here’s the famous pie in the face incident from October 1977.  Thom Higgins is a living legend, accomplishing more with one well placed and harmless pile of cream than all the anti-Anita protests before it.

 

Well, That Hurt: The pain, from A to Z

Finally, after much waiting, I got my first shot today.   The second will come in October.

My employer allowed for today and tomorrow off work, of which I’m glad because I need it.  Of the side effects from AstraZeneca, I have a few of the mildest and most common, and one of the less common:

  • feeling tired
  • tenderness where you had the vaccine injection
  • nausea
  • dizziness

One thing not on the lists I’ve had for the last two hours is flu-like symptoms, cold and chill along with the nausea.  Just none of the more serious ones.  At least the pain in the arm has subsided fifteen hours on.

The worst part was making the mistake of looking when the nurse spoke, seeing that three centimetre long needle aiming at my arm.  I was already nauseous before she had even stuck me.  That always happens, I’m a baby when it comes to needles such as when they draw blood for the annual medical checkup.

“What was that injection, Doc?  I think it’s going wrong.”

 – Lemmy Kilmister, from the Motorhead song “Back At The Funny Farm” (1983)

One thing that annoyed me: instead of injecting in the middle of a big black spot on my tattoo, she aimed for unmarked skin.  Now there’s a visible spot instead of being hidden by the ink.  I was also expecting a battle at the desk because I turned the chair around, though nothing happened.  I wanted the shot in the other arm, not my left.

 


 

I feel too off to write any more, even though I intended to (e.g. reopening measures that started on July 27).  We have a good shot of getting back to where we were in May, thanks to near total adherence to mask wearing and following rules.  Now let’s see the jerks who caused this be held responsible for 780+ deaths.

I also plan to talk about how China might be too busy all year to pull any nonsense.  The entire country’s infrastructure is at risk.

Annnnnd the poke-in-Beijing’s-eye that the olympics have been.

Math Rules: The Moessner Miracle is way cool

Mathologer recently published a video on the “Moessner Miracle”, a more advanced version of a known trick in number theory.

As we all learn in elementary or high school, if you take consective odd numbers and add them together, you get all the squares:

     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 . . . .

                1
     1+3     =  4
     1+3+5   =  9
     1+3+5+7 = 16

And so on. What you’re actually doing is skipping every second number. What happens if you skip every third number, add, skip the second number and add again?

     (A skip third )  1 2 3 4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12  13 14 15 . . . .
     (B add numbers)  1 3   7 12    19 27    37 48     61 75    . . . . 
     (C skip second)  1 3   7 12    19 27    37 48     61 75    . . . . 
     (D add numbers)  1     8       27       64       125       . . . . 

Congratulations, you’ve produced the cubes. And it turns out you can produce all powers of the first skipped number (x^2 and x^3 in the example cases above). He uses the fifth skip in the video to produce the powers of 5.  He also goes on to show how this also applies to Pascal’s Triangle, combinatorics, directional paths, and other mathematical concepts.

This is way too cool not to share.

Time Passes, part 2: We’ve finally turned the corner

As mentioned previously, Taiwan suffered a major COVID-19 outbreak in May.  There have been over 13,000 cases and 700+ deaths since then compared to the 1,300 and 12 in the first seventeen months of the pandemic.  This is what happens when you have selfish and arrogant people (read: rich jerks) who “think” rules don’t apply to them.  I really hope they’re held legally and financially accountable for the deaths they caused.

The good news: the CECC’s strict Level 3 measures and almost total public compliance have brought things under control.  We went from a peak of over 500 new infections per day to less than 30 per day for a week, and nearly all the newly reported infections are among those already in quarantine.  Things have improved enough that the CECC may drop the country to Level 2, allowing some businesses to reopen and activities to resume.

Taiwan’s level of vaccinations increased from 2% to 20% over the past seven weeks, thanks in large part to donations from Japan and purchased vaccines finally arriving, and despite PRC’s efforts to prevent Taiwan from obtaining vaccines. Beijing also failed to entice Taiwanese people to demand the mainland’s vaccine.

 


 

My employer helped me get on the waiting list and I expect to receive my first shot within the next three weeks.  Studies have shown that mixing different types doesn’t harm their efficacy at all, so I’ll take any of them except those from Russia or the PRC.  I’ll even take Medigen’s vaccine, now that the Taiwan CDC has given it approval.  It has been shown to produce the same anti-bodies as the Astrazeneca and other vaccines.  Approval for Medigen’s vaccine was delayed because of a problem with testing, another selfish individual.  An ex-politician found out he was getting the placebo, so he went out and paid for an actual vaccine.  This made the test data questionable, delaying its approval.

Taiwan approves Medigen’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate

TAIPEI, July 19 (Reuters) – Taiwan’s government on Monday approved the emergency use and production of Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp’s (6547.TWO) COVID-19 vaccine candidate, a major step in the island’s plans to develop its own vaccines to protect against the coronavirus.

The vaccine candidate has yet to finish clinical trials and no efficacy data is available, but Taiwan’s health ministry said studies so far have shown that antibodies created by the shot have been “no worse than” those created by AstraZeneca’s (AZN.L) vaccine.

Medigen has applied to do Phase 3 testing in Paraguay, one of Taiwan’s few allied nations in South America.  South America is currently the hardest hit continent, and an influx of affordable vaccines is direly needed.  Unlike last year when G7 nations wanted developing nations to take the risk of vaccine experimentation, a Phase 3 trial means most of the risk has already been addressed.  This is now about testing efficacy, not safety.

Time Passes, part 1: What I’ve been up to

It’s been a hectic July, two weeks of non-stop activity after two months of not working.  Sufficient savings made it tolerable, unlike many foreigners I know who bailed when their money ran out.  I’m not going to comment on their spending and saving habits; one of them is a friend who was here on an artist’s visa.  They (Non-Binary) were only making enough to get by, not get ahead, and was forced to leave.  There are many similar stories.

My school has finally started online classes.  It sucks because they take more preparation than regular classes do.  This is made worse by the fact that you can’t control kids when they’re at home: blowing into or hitting the microphone, placing it too near the speakers and causing feedback into everyone’s headphones (and NONE of them willing to listen and move it away, or they’re just rude).  Only also makes it hard to improvise and impossible to use my pre-made materials (my own or purchased).

I will really be glad when regular in-school classes start again.  In part 2, I’ll talk about that coming light at the end of the tunnel.

 


 

Last Thursday, July 15, it finally came: It’s been twenty years now since I left Canada.  What I thought would be a one year experience turned out to be a complete change and permanent upheaval.  Maybe September 2001 should have been a hint. (*)  Life is what happens when you were making other plans, so goes the axiom.  It also provided the opportunity to cut all ties with “family”, something I’ve never regretted for my personal growth alone.

(* Sidebar: On September 11, I was out window shopping at 9PM and passed by an electronics store.  At first I thought it was a movie or TV show, every TV in the place set to one channel.  Then I realized it was the news on every station, South Korean TV or foreign.  I hurried home to where my then roommate, an american who was ex-army, was freaking out.)

 


 

I also learnt on the day that July 15 marked Linda Ronstadt’s 75th birthday, born in 1946.  She was one of the great modern singers (until Progressive Supranuclear Palsy stole her voice), and a progressive activist, regularly speaking out on a variety of issues: human rights, immigration, US foreign policy, idiot presidents (her choice of words, not mine).  She was successful in multiple genres (country, rock, pop, Latin, etc.) and produced many artists.  She is the only woman solo recording artist with eight platinum albums in a row.  She has always been one of my heroines.

 

Now, We Wait: Or am I reading too much into this?

The marshmallow king Mike Lindell has gone on the record (more like a broken one) with an exact date that “Cheetolini will be reinstated as president!”

On August 13th.

Seriously?  Did they learn that it’s International Left Handers Day and they could rally the rabble with by saying “mark of the beast!” and “Obama is the anti-christ!” because he’s left handed?  They’re so unimaginative and peurile that it’s possible.

Did they assume all the rightwingnut ammosexuals would buy into it and will show up armed, ready to start firing?  Speaking (dismissively) about those ammosexuals and libert-aryans, why do they call themselves “three percenters”?  Because they’re as weak and frothing at the mouth as light beer?

August 13th is also “National Kool Aid Day” in the US, the second Friday in August.  That’s a much more fitting event for fanatics like them.

It’s also “National Blame Someone Else Day” in the US, the first Friday the 13th of the year.

Lindell can go cry into his product on Saturday. It ain’t gonna happen.

 

The only real question is how many show up to be arrested on August 13th. They’re too spineless to start a fight, especially if cops and military show up armed.  They only feel brave when they’re in large numbers and facing unarmed people, like when they carried guns at BLM rallies.

If they do attempt violence, it’s going to end up like Ruby Ridge (August 21–31, 1992) “the day the American militia movement was born” according to The Guardian.  Only this time, it will be on video so we’ll know who shot first.  Maybe that’s what they want, an anniversary of “martyrs” to white power.

Apply Now: Long haired freaky people welcome

I knew about the 50th anniversary (May 1971) of the Five Man Electrical Band’s song “Signs”, but I’m not a fan because of the religion in it.  But after seeing this image referencing the song and the US’s labour shortage, I couldn’t resist.  Ain’t it great that workers finally have the power to dictate wages?

Now the important question: does this apply to LGBTQIA people too?

 

“Signs” was a #1 hit at home in Canada, #3 in the US.

 

I Wasn’t Going To Weigh In, But….

I said enough about my own country’s shameful actions and disgust on July 1st that I was planning to leave the US holiday alone.  But since others are talking. . .

Red Rider’s second album “As Far As Siam” was released on June 30, 1981, turning forty last week.  The song “Lunatic Fringe” is an FM radio classic, written about the rise of rightwing extremism in the US, the “religious right and moral majority”.  Both of which were neither.

Lunatic fringe
I know you're out there
You're in hiding
And you hold your meetings

I can hear you coming
I know what you're after
We're wise to you this time
We won't let you kill the laughter

Lunatic fringe
In the twilight's last gleaming
This is open season
But you won't get too far

'Cause you got to blame someone
For your own confusion
We're on guard this time (on guard this time)
Against your Final Solution

We can hear you coming
No, you're not going to win this time
We can hear the footsteps
Out along the walkway

Lunatic fringe
We all know you're out there
Can you feel the resistance?
Can you feel the thunder?

 

Rush’s second album “Fly By Night” came out in February 1975.  “Beneath, Between & Behind” were the first lyrics Neil Peart wrote for the band.  It was written months after the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation.

Ten score years ago
Defeat the kingly foe
A wondrous dream came into being
Tame the trackless waste
No virgin land left chaste
All shining eyes, but never seeing

          Beneath the noble bird
          Between the proudest words
          Behind the beauty, cracks appear
          Once with heads held high
          They sang out to the sky
          Why do their shadows bow in fear?

Watch the cities rise
Another ship arrives
Earth's melting pot and ever growing
Fantastic dreams come true
Inventing something new
The greatest minds were never knowing

          Beneath the noble bird
          Between the proudest words
          Behind the beauty, cracks appear
          Once with heads held high
          They sang out to the sky
          Why do their shadows bow in fear?

The guns replace the plow
Façades are tarnished now
The principles have been betrayed
The dream's gone stale
But still let hope prevail
History's debt won't be repaid

          Beneath the noble bird
          Between the proudest words
          Behind the beauty, cracks appear
          Once with heads held high
          They sang out to the sky
          Why do their shadows bow in fear?

Well Deserved: Dr. Anthony Fauci wins AHA award

The American Humanist Association has named Anthony Fauci their Humanist of the Year.

He united and represented people, was the only person in Cheetolini’s white house to walk out with an intact reputation, and his efforts likely saved millions of lives and people’s health.  Was there a better choice?

How They Were Built And Folded: Like a house of cards

Like most people, I heard about the collapse of the high rise condominium in Florida, and about the shoddy construction and maintenance.  I didn’t have anything to add before now, but after seeing the security camera video of the collapse, I do.  It looks almost identical to the Sampoong Department Store collapse of June 29, 1995.  The Florida condo collapsed on June 24, five days short of the Sampoong collapse’s 26th anniversary.

Take a look at how the central part of the Florida condo collapses, leaving the end section.  The collapse looks like a house of cards or dominoes falling in on themselves.  I have little hope that there will be any survivors, not after a week under rubble with no water in the summer heat.

 

 

The ending section of the building temporarily left standing is nearly identical to the remnants of the Sampoong Department Store collapse in Seoul, Korea.  Watch the computer generated depiction of the building collapse from 1:30 to 2:00 in the video, based on the descriptions of witnesses.

Thankfully, unlike the Florida condo, the ending sections of the Sampoong building stayed upright, allowing the rescue of those still alive but trapped inside.

 

 

The Sampoong collapse had a different physical cause than the Florida collapse, but the human cause was the same: poor construction, lack of maintenance, and greed by the owners and construction companies.  The Sampoong building’s owners decided to cut corners on building and moving air conditioning system on the roof and in the building without consulting architects or engineers. The construction was as flawed as Florida’s, but with different materials (i.e. no use of rebar in Sampoong, rusting rebar in Florida).

From Interesting Engineering:

Death and Calamity: The Sampoong Department Store Collapse Explained

Initially, the Sampoong department store was set to become a four-story residential apartment complex, to be built by a company called Woosung Construction. Sampoong hired Woosung Construction to lay the foundation in 1987 and also to serve as project supervisor — an arrangement that can lead to abuse.

However, partway through the process, Lee Joon, the head of the Sampoong Group, decided to completely switch gears, and the blueprints were modified from an apartment complex to what would become one of the largest and most fancy department stores in South Korea. Although using a building of this size as a department store went against zoning regulations, Lee circumvented this by ordering the addition of a skating rink on an originally unplanned-for fifth floor. 

Here’s the thing about construction, you can’t just decide to change the basic function of a building without heavily modifying the design itself, including reducing the size and number of support beams to clear the way for escalators, Woosung refused to make the changes, so Joon fired them and decided his own construction company would take over. This proved to be just one poor decision of many.

The page goes on to list a catalogue of corruption and ineptitude.  Survivors of the collapse reported creaking and groaning in the building in the days and hours before the collapse.  Managers failed to call inspectors nor evacuate the building, all in the name of profit.  Capitalism kills again.

If there are any survivors of the Florida condo, not just the construction companies and inspectors we’ve already heard, I suspect we’ll hear more reports of building movement and noises before the collapse.

The Snowflakes Binge: They want to cancel “The Purge”

Beau of the Fifth Column reports that rightwingnuts are up in arms (figuratively and literally) over the latest film in the “Purge” franchise.  As he describes it, the film is an allegory about a political uprising and attempt to overthrow the US government on January 6th.  Rightwingnuts are lashing out about commercial entertainment being “woke” and adding political commentary, something BotFC addresses in the video.

The kicker is what BotFC says at the end about the film’s production, how life imitates art.

 

 

Except that it’s not limited to movies, it has been happening in music, and rightwingnuts don’t like it.  They expect bands to shut up and play.  They expect Black musicians to be “minstrels” with big, unthreatening smiles on their faces, only allowed in to entertain the whites, then go back to segregated neighborhoods.

In 2019, The Specials released a new album entitled “Encore”.  The lead off single and instant classic song is called “B.L.M.”  How did racists respond?

“Stop being political!  Make music like you used to!”

Excuse me?  The Specials’ and all the other Two Tone bands of the era were all political, all making social commentary and opposed racism.  The very name Two Tone was about Black and white being together, an anti-racist statement in an era of Margaret Thatcher.  Did they never once actually listen to or read the lyrics and the opinions of these groups?

 

More below the fold.

[Read more…]

Racism On Display Again: Marijuana is only for white people

I hate most sports now and haven’t watched any in years, especially not the profit-driven nonsense of the olympics.  But when these items appeared today….

In a blatant display of hypocrisy and possibly racism, US track runner Sha’Carri Richardson has been banned from participating in the 2021 Tokyo olympics because she tested positive for marijuana.

In 1998, Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati tested positive for marijuana after winning his event, and was thus disqualified.  The penalty was overturned because (at that time) marijuana was not listed as a banned substance, and he did not smoke it while in Nagano, Japan.

Part of Rebagliati’s argument was that marijuana was not a performance enhancing substance.  Quite the contrary, it is a depressant, and in a sport requiring quick responses to situations, marijuana puts the competitor at a disadvantage while using it.  And when not using it (i.e. Rebagliati smoked prior to the olympics, not at the games) any detectable amount in an athlete’s system has no effect.

After 1998, the IOC and WADA declared marijuana a “banned substance” despite the fact it doesn’t help athletes win, and it is legal to possess and consume in many countries.  This was not about “cheating”, this was governments and the IOC dictating morality, extending their “authority” into other nations.

Considering the USOC’s long history of covering up failed drug tests and giving preferential treatment to elite athletes (i.e. actually cheating that helped them win), I’m surprised they backed down so quickly and threw Richardson to the wolves.

U.S. hid failed tests, files reveal

The U.S. Olympic Committee “has something to answer for” says Richard Pound, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, after documents were released showing more than 100 U.S. athletes were sent into Olympic and world competitions after failing drug tests.

Among the athletes who were let off the hook with warnings rather than suspensions were Carl Lewis, track and field’s most decorated Olympian, and tennis star Mary Joe Fernandez, according to the documents dated from 1988 to 2000.

“It’s what many people suspected about the U.S. Olympic Committee, that it was being covered up,” Pound said.

[. . .]

Lewis and teammate Andre Phillips also received similar notifications. After they tested positive at the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials, they were told they’d get off with warnings.

All three won gold medals on the track at the Seoul Olympics, which they would have missed had they been suspended. Lewis was handed the 100-metre gold medal that was stripped from Canada’s Ben Johnson.

Racism in Richardson’s case may be arguable.  But in the case of “soul caps” made for swimmers, it definitely is.

Soul caps are a swim cap designed specifically for Black people with sizeable amounts of natural hair.  (I was unsure of what word is polite enough to describe people’s hair.) FINA, the world swimming body, has banned soul caps because they “don’t follow the natural form of the head”.

These caps are designed to contain Black people’s natural and voluminous hair, which no other cap will.  This means Black swimmers with natural hair will either be banned from competing, forced to cut their hair, or have wet hair weigh them down as they swim.

Translation: white people are policing Black people’s bodies again, declaring white as “normal” and everyone else must fit white body types.

Soul Cap: Afro swim cap Olympic rejection ‘heartbreaking’ for black swimmers

Soul Cap say the international governing body for swimming rejected an application for their caps to be certified for use at competitions.

They say Fina told them the caps are unsuitable because they don’t follow “the natural form of the head”.

Soul Cap makes swimming caps to fit over and protect dreadlocks, afros, weaves, hair extensions, braids, and thick and curly hair.

“Using the smaller swimming caps that everyone else would use – it would fit on my head but because I put [protective] oil in my hair, when I was swimming it would just keep sliding off and my hair would get wet,” said Kejai [Terrelonge], who lives in Birmingham.

It’s Hard Not To Laugh: It’s the tenth anniversary of Philip Contos’s Darwin Award

On July 3, 2011, motorcyclists in New York state partook in a “protest” against helmet laws, arguing for “freedumb”.  One of them was Philip Contos, 55 years old at the time of his death.

During the ride, Contos lost control and was thrown from his motorcycle.  His head hit the ground, causing a fatal brain injury.  The doctors and state troopers both said that Contos likely would have survived had he been wearing a helmet.

New York Rider Dies Protesting Motorcycle Helmet Law

July 4, 2011— — A New York man died Sunday while participating in a ride with 550 other motorcyclists to protest the state’s mandatory helmet law.

Police said Philip A. Contos, 55, hit his brakes and his motorcycle fishtailed. Contos was sent over the handlebars of his 1983 Harley Davidson and hit his head on the pavement.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“The medical expert we discussed the case with who pronounced him deceased stated that he would’ve no doubt survived the accident had he been wearing a helmet,” state Trooper Jack Keller told ABC News 9 inSyracuse.

The ride Sunday was organized by American Bikers Aimed Toward Education, known as ABATE, a group of motorcycling enthusiasts who lobby for motorcycle awareness and freedom.

“Mandatory helmet laws do nothing to prevent accidents,” it says on the ABATE of New York website. “The decision on when to wear a helmet while operating a motorcycle should remain with each responsible adult rider.”

As the old saying goes, it’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the sudden stop at the end.  I’ll agree with ABATE in that helmets and other safety devices don’t prevent motor vehicle accidents, but they do make it more likely you’ll survive.  I won’t get into a car that doesn’t have working belts, like some of the taxis here.

More below.

[Read more…]

And To No Surprise: More backlash against the catholic cult

On Thursday, July 1, paint and messages were splashed on eleven more churches in Alberta and one in Newfoundland.

To reiterate something I’ve said before, in case my intent is misconstrued:

I am not celebrating and cheering painted messages, broken windows, or catholic churches burnt to the ground.

I am saying actions against property should be investigated after the deaths and murders of thousands of children are investigated, after their families and communities are given answers and the killers arrested, if still alive.  Property is not more valuable than human lives.

From the Calgary Herald:

Calgary police investigate after at least 11 Catholic churches vandalized with orange and red paint

Calgary police are investigating after at least 11 city Catholic churches were vandalized.

The acts of vandalism discovered on Canada Day appear to be the latest in a series of recent protests against the church’s historic involvement in Canada’s residential school system.

The vandalism at the churches included spattered paint over a statue of Jesus Christ, painted handprints on doors and text reading “Charge the priests” and “Our lives matter.”

At one church, a window was smashed so paint could also be thrown inside.

[. . .]

“The recent discovery of these graves further supports the tragic and heartbreaking stories that Indigenous people have been sharing for many decades,” the Calgary Police Service release said.

“Given the harm this chapter of our history has caused to Indigenous people in our community, it is understandable that emotions and tensions are running high.”

Police said vandalism like this is illegal, however, adding it creates further division within Calgary. They said they are searching for those responsible.

And yet your focus is on property damage which can be repaired, not murders for which there is no statute of limitations?

The least shocking part is Alberta’s ignorant and racist premier Jason Kenney choosing to throw gasoline on the fire by inciting hate and violence against First Nations people.  The question is, will he suffer any splash damage from his own words?

“This scale of violence attacking a faith community is an attack on constitutionally protected freedom of religion, it is an attack on Canadian values,” Kenney said Wednesday, calling the attacks a hate crime.

That language led to criticism from Alberta’s Chiefs of the Sovereign Nations of Treaty No. 8, who said Kenney’s language will only promote hatred toward Alberta’s Indigenous populations.

“Kenney must recant his statement and apologize for perpetuating harm on Indigenous Peoples, and more specifically residential school survivors,” the chiefs said in a joint statement.

From the CBC:

Red paint smeared on doors, steps of Basilica Cathedral in St. John’s

Red paint was seen splattered over some steps and doors of the Basilica Cathedral in St. John’s Thursday morning, following a series of similar events across Canada after more than 1,000 unmarked graves were found on the grounds of former residential schools across the country.

Paint was seen across the door handle of the church’s parish, along with being smeared across the steps of the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese on Military Rd.

A cleaning crew was on the scene with a pressure washer Thursday morning.

CBC News has asked the Basilica and the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary for comment but haven’t received a reply yet.

The most galling part of this second news item is the caption after a picture:

It’s unclear when or why the paint was placed on the steps and door of the cathedral.

“It’s unclear why”?  If you can’t figure this out by now, how did you get a job as a reporter?  Or are you just a stenographer and an apologist?

 


 

The First Nations protesters have carried signs saying Every Child’s Life Matters.

Over the last eighteen months, there have been many attempts to demean, devalue, misuse and misconstrue the Black Lives Matter slogan (e.g. “all lives”, “cops lives”, “black labs”, “black flags”, etc.).

It’s unlikely anyone will object to use of the BLM slogan to protest against racist murders of innocent First Nations children.