Canada
We learn from the New York Times that a group of singers performed a virtual concert of Frederic Handel’s “Messiah,” giving it a thoroughly modern interpretation. One self-identified gay Chinese-Canadian “struts through the streets of Vancouver” singing “ev’ry valley shall be exalted” as a coming-out anthem as the camera “focuses on his six-inch high stiletto heels.” A Tunisian-Canadian sings about Jesus as a Muslim woman in a head scarf, referring to Him as a she. The project was put together by Joel Ivany of the Against the Grain Theater in Toronto in collaboration with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. (We are genuinely shocked this was not a CBC production.) The Times says this version of the Messiah “mixes the sacred and profane” while engaging “in a bit of high camp.” One participant, Reneltta Arluk, an indigenous theatre director from Alberta, said the dead, white, European male composer is obviously problematic, “But we can claim Handel’s work in our voices.”
As of Feb. 24, the Delta Hospice Association will be defunded by the B.C. Ministry of Health, and the Irene Thomas Hospice will essentially operate as a euthanasia centre by the Fraser Health authority. The battle between the hospice and the government has been raging for several years. The government ordered the Irene Thomas Hospice in Ladner B.C. to accept patients who were scheduled for euthanasia. The Hospice refused. The Delta Hospice Association, backed by the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association and the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians, insists that palliative care — end-of-life, life-affirming care that treats the whole person with dignity and respect — is at odds with, and contradicted by euthanasia, which is the active killing of people, who have, in many instances, been convinced that dying is in their best interest. It may be assumed that governments in other provinces will use the same tactics to force hospices in their jurisdiction into collusion with euthanasia. Therefore, hospices and their supporters will have to take action to protect their palliative care service. One comment by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has suggested that “hospices in Canada will have to return to a partially volunteer form of functioning as well as returning to the non-profit donation-based method of funding their services” or else the long arm of government will continue to control services over which they should not be involved.
United States
Republican Ohio Governor Mike De Wine signed into law The Unborn Child Dignity Act which ensures that aborted babies are given a respectful burial or cremation, with penalties for violating the act. In addition, abortionists must pay for the burial or cremation. It is expected that the legislation will also guard against body parts from unborn children being bought and sold. The President of Ohio Right to Life said that “no longer will the tiny bodies of babies whose lives have been tragically taken by abortion be treated like trash.” A similar law was passed in Indiana when Mike Pence was governor.
Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has asked state lawmakers to introduce a bill banning abortions based on a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome: “The Declaration of Independence summarizes what we all know in our hearts to be true—that God created each of us and endowed all of us with the right to life. This is true for everyone, including those with an extra chromosome.” However, a bill to protect children from hormone and transgender surgeries was defeated in a Senate health committee.
The House of Representatives has set new rules for the 117th Congress. They include banning gender-based words like mother, father, son, daughter, he, and she, among many others. The Speaker of the House, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi says that these new rules “reflect the views and values of the full range of our historically diverse House Democratic Majority.” But there is deeper meaning to this action. In his excellent New Discourses article “Psychopathy and the origins of totalitarianism,” (Dec. 25), James Lindsay discusses the destruction of society by pseudo-realities which he says “will always generate tragedy and evil on a scale that is at least as proportional to the reach of the grip on power by those enforcing these pseudo-realities—which is their chief interest—whether social, cultural, economic, political, or (particularly) a combination of several or all of these.” Let that sink in. Simply put, pseudo-realities are false constructions of reality, they are cultish and they cater to and affirm people who “suffer pathological limitations on their ability to cope with reality as it is.” Lindsay warns that when these pseudo-realities take hold by those in power, they can result in “socio-political calamities—up to and including war, genocide and even civilizational collapse leading to the death of millions of people.” It is noted that Pelosi broke her own rule when she spoke in the House about impeaching President Trump: “I stand before you as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a daughter; a daughter whose father proudly served in this Congress.” Is this a rule for thee but not for me? Or is she rescinding her own order?
Then, on the same day we have the House of Representative’s prayer of blessing given by a pastor which he ended as “Amen, and Awomen.” (described by the National Post’s Rex Murphy as “The woke joke of the year”). Amen is a Hebrew word meaning “So be it.” But what does “Awomen” mean? At best, it can be described as politically correct gobbledygook. Speaking of words, the Democrat-controlled House also changed the title of Office of the Whistleblower Ombudsman to Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds. Perhaps Pelosi and her minions are unaware that the word ombudsman is Swedish for “legal representative” which seems to have no gender connotation. But crimes against language are more than amusing episodes. As Kurt Mahlburg wrote for Mercatornet, language is collectively owned, not run by politicians, and “to control language in this fashion is to undermine truth-seeking: ultimately, it is to change the very way we think and perceive the world.” The assault on language is every bit as important as the laws and budgets that garner much more “serious” coverage.
Massachusetts has voted to pass the Roe Act. The pro-life conservative columnist Patrick J. Buchanan describes what the Roe Act is and how it will impact Massachusetts. “Drafted and adopted to protect a woman’s right to abortion, should Roe v. Wade be overturned by the Supreme Court, (the Roe Act) guarantees 16-year-old girls the right to abort their children without their parents’ consent, through the first 24 weeks of pregnancy,” when the unborn child has a 60-70 per cent chance of survival. It also allows midwives and nurse practitioners to perform abortions. The Catholic League has blamed Catholic religious officials and Catholic organizations for failing to rebuke lawmakers who routinely vote for abortion rights. Buchanan pointed out that, in the ‘50s, abortion was regarded as shameful, and abortionists were social outcasts, often prosecuted and punished. Today, abortion is a human right, and women, including celebrities, extol their abortions publicly to the praise and applause of the public. Former New England Patriots star Benjamin Watson, who has participated in the March for Life in Washington, commented that a teenager needs her parents’ permission to get a Tylenol from the school nurse, but no permission from anyone to kill her child. Republican Massachusetts Governor Charlie Barker vetoed the bill, but the state assembly had enough votes to over-ride his veto.
Lila Rose of Live Action tweeted “abortion is violence.” Leah Torres, a former medical director at West Alabama Women’s Center, an affiliate of Planned Parenthood, responded online by accusing Rose of “domestic terrorism” by inciting “others to commit crimes.” Of course, Rose did no such thing. She was stating a fact. There was no direct or implied call to action. The irony is that Torres has had her medical license suspended while a criminal investigation is going on in her role in the death of an abortion patient.
International
In October, the End of Life Choice Act became law in New Zealand through a binding referendum where 65.2 per cent of voters supported the act. However, polling during the advance poll indicated that 80 per cent of New Zealand adults did not understand that the Act they were voting on would legalize euthanasia. Voters thought that the act was making it legal to turn off machines when they were only keeping people alive artificially. That was already legal. What the new law did was make it legal to euthanize a person who may be terminally ill but in no pain; also, there is no independent witness to verify that a request for euthanasia is actually understood and agreed to by the requestor. Just as there was massive misunderstanding when people voted for euthanasia, now there is the potentially lethal misunderstanding when requesting one.
On Jan. 7, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), through its U.S. Embassy, tweeted out the following: “Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uyghur women in Xijjiang (Province) were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent.” What the tweet does not say, nor the CCP admit, is that Uyghur women as well as many other women under the control of the CCP have been “emancipated” by forced sterilization, forced abortions, and forced birth control. If you eliminate the word “forced,” the message could have been sent out by Planned Parenthood, the Democrat Party, or a host of other organizations that rejoice over the killing of babies. We could add to that list, those promoting the Great Reset, whose totalitarian aims include the reduction of world population. How better to do it than by adopting the CCP’s tactics?