Arafish about to go belly up...

Yasser Arafat is reported to be suffering from stomach cancer.

Now, I really think we should be Christian about this.

Let us all pray for Yasser Arafat.

Citing Psalm 109:8-9.

Spare the rod, spoil the child...?

Guys, I think it's about time you met my boy, Stephen Geoffrey "Skip" Crager, Jr.

Cute li'l tyke, ain't he? (huge grin) Happiest little rugrat you'll ever meet, too. Smiles and laughs all the time, 'specially when he's around his old man - which, thanks to Her Doublewide Bitchiness, isn't often (HEAR THAT, STEPHANIE DAWN STEWART CRAGER???).

But, I digress. Most precious boy ever, IMO. I wish he could stay like that forever.

Sadly, though, he won't. He'll progress into his Terrible Twos, then on into toddlerhood, and so on. And along the way, he'll learn (heaven forfend) to deliberately misbehave.

When that happens - and, if he's anything like his old man, it will  happen (grin) - he'll need to be disciplined. His mother prefers the time-honored "wooden spoon" technique - applied to the fleshy part of the leg, so as not to cause permanent damage, but to remind him that there are consequences for misbehavior.

My preferred method is the palm of my hand to his derriere. :-) And make no mistake about it - if he misbehaves, or disobeys either of us, I will  spank him.

But Cthulu forbid that we live in Canada, if they have any plans on sucking up to SecGeneral Decaf and his minions at the UN:


A United Nations committee has ruled Canada should bar parents from spanking their children. 


The same guys who couldn't figure out how to discipline Saddam Hussein think they know better than Canadians how to discipline the Canadians' own children. Nice.


As a signatory of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Canada is obligated to make periodic appearances before the U.N.'s Committee on Rights of the Child, which said the country should "adopt legislation to remove the existing authorization of the use of 'reasonable force' in disciplining children," the National Post reported.

The U.N. body says Canada should "explicitly prohibit all forms of violence against children, however light, within the family, in schools and in other institutions where children might be placed." 


Because, you see, these children don't belong to the parents; they don't even belong to Canada. They belong to the UN.


The ruling cannot supersede national law, the Post said, but Ottawa wants to comply with the regulations to bolster the U.N.'s attempt to encourage international norms. 


Exhibit A as to why Canada is a nation of wusses. They have bupkiss to fear from the toothless tiger known as the UN, yet they'll splay themselves in what seems like tantric worship to SecGen Decaf and the boys.


The United States and Somalia are the only countries that have not signed the convention, which routinely tells members appearing before its committee to pass laws banning spanking. 


My estimation for Somalia just went up a few notches.


"This ruling is another example of the U.N. infringing on our own national concerns," said John-Henry Westen, spokesman for LifeSiteNews.com, an online monitor of family values, according to the National Post.

"When a child is young and cannot understand, a tap on the hand is essential for training," he said. "We have a wood-burning stove that gets very hot. It's ridiculous that I can't save my child from burning himself by tapping his hand away from it."

However, a member of the committee responsible for communicating with Canada argued, if the child "puts his hand on a hot oven, he will be burnt and he will not do it again." 


Denizens of the Realm, make absolutely certain you understand what the committee is saying. They're saying that they want  your kids putting their hands on hot stoves. In the guise of protecting  The Children™, these people are actually advocating doing harm  to them.

Which is, of course, typical UN logic.


The Post said Moushira Khattab of Egypt admitted she lightly disciplined her own two children when they were young, but says now she knows better.

"There are other means," she said. "Children are very smart, and even when they are as young as two or three months old, they will understand if you have a tough look, or change the tone of your voice, or turn away from them." 


No, Mousie, they're not. They are sponges, they are eager to learn how they are supposed to behave and what they're supposed to do, and all they know at two or three months is what's happy and what's scary. If what you're saying were the case, there'd never be any evil people, because no one in their right mind teaches someone to be mean on purpose.

Well, almost never - Hemorrhoid and UmmBop notwithstanding...


[...]

The Supreme Court of Canada also is considering a petition to repeal a federal law that lets parents, teachers or guardians apply "reasonable force" to discipline a minor. 


For Maitreya's sake, why???  The crumb-crunchers are already running the asylums anyway,  and now you people are gonna take away the one remaining means of keeping the tiny terrors in check?


At a hearing June 6, the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law argued the federal law violates the right of all Canadians to be treated equally.

"If you hit an adult, it is an assault, but if you hit a child in the context of discipline, it is justified under our current law," said Cheryl Milne, the lawyer who argued the case, according to the Post. "The U.N. committee ... agrees with that very strongly – that countries should be prohibiting all forms of corporal punishment of children." 


Oh, that's just pure BS. Most  adults - again, our guest trolls notwithstanding - already know right from wrong. Children need to be taught  this, and corporal punishment is the best way to implant into their young skulls full o' mush (a little Rush lingo, there) this very concept.


The Post said groups that regard themselves as children's rights advocates likely will ratchet up their calls for stricter laws against spanking. 


And who will they call when these misbehaving children grow up to be criminals who then take said advocates' lives and property, hmmmmmmmmmmmm???

Don't look at me.  Won't be my  problem at that point.

Wally George: 1932 - 2003

In trying to mock me this morning, guest troll Hemorrhoid inadvertently let slip the fact that Wally George, the father of the format known as "Combat TV" - and the predecessor to such notables as Morton Downey, Jr, David Gold, Emperor Misha I and yours truly, has died at the age of 71.

The kicker in all this is that I never knew about him, although I did know about Mort, and am most honored to be considered a friend of the Emperor. Wally was, apparently, all of us before it was cool to be all of us. :-)

Wally, we hardly knew ye. You'll be missed, sir. Good hunting.