Assassinations are effective silencers

“In dictatorships like Russia and Argentina when individuals become troublesome for the administration they are shot dead. Assassinated! Or made to seem to have suicided.
In what we call democracies like Ontario they use character assassinations to discredit and silence dissenters.
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In Moscow where the Putin people put short-work to another challenge to the president for life they have marched in remembrance of Boris Nemtsov,  an effective orator who had been scoring political points against Vlad the Impaler.  It was around Boris Nemtsov that  many Russians felt they could rally  in support of a better life.   And then they buried him.
Naturally, the Putin police have been put on the job to find the killer and bring him to ‘justice’.  The aftermath is of little consequence because the problem, ‘Nemtsov’ has been solved.
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In Argentina, a prosecutor who was to testify against the president for alledged crimes against the people of that country, was found dead of a “self-inflicted” gunshot to the head the day before he was to reveal in court his charges which he claimed would put President Cristina Fernandez in irons. Instead he went to an early grave, his demise timely insofar as the President was concerned
putting an end to the critical challenge facing Ms.  Fernandez.  And, as they did in Moscow, thousands marched in Buenos Aires with tears and lighted candles.
Here again the immediate problem in a country famous for “helping dissenting citizens disappear”) was made to disappear.   The secrets of Alberto Nisman were buried with him.

Reminds one of the untimely, embarrassment saving journeys to an early grave of Ron Brown, a U-S cabinet secretary. He died the weekend before he was to testify to a committee of the Congress about Bill Clinton’s nefarious schemes. Plane crash. Or, George de Mohrenschildt who was on track to testify to members of the U-S House Select Committee on Assassinations. “Suicide.” Or Vince Foster whose “suicide” saved (BOTH) Bill and Hilary trouble. Dead men and women tell no tales.
The Mafia chieftain of New Orleans for years Carlos Marcello had a favorite saying, “three people can keep a secret, if the other two are dead!”
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In Ontario, the provincial parliament was the scene of an assassination. Absent guns and bullets,  words were the weapons of choice.
During a debate on the floor of the parliament on the updated sex-education curriculum the Honorable member from Chatham-Kent-Essex  Rick Nichols said he thought “opting out of teaching students evolution “was not a bad idea.”  We  understand that in the political arena, debates on one subject can morph into irrelevance in the twinkling of an eye…..that’s how  “..teaching evolution” got thrown into this back-and-forth over Sex-Education.  This happened on a Tuesday.

Anyway by Thursday  we witnessed a full Liberal frontal assault on Rick Nichols.  Led by the deputy premier, and other members of the Kathleen Wynne government  they pounced to deflect

“a steady barrage” of questions from the Conservatives and the New Democrats about allegations of bribery in a recent by election in the city of Sudbury.  The scorn heaped on Rick Nichols came from not only the Liberals, but the New Democrats too!  But the Liberals took it a step farther showing off copies of the latest National Geographic called “war on science.”

Deputy premier Deb Mathews rose to say, “I really do want to take this opportunity to congratulate the Ontario PC party on being the cover story of the current issue of National Geographic magazine.  Rick Nichols was not in the House Thursday probably warned off by the Interim leader of the Tories.  But his absence didn’t diminish the ridicule.

Rick’s statement, ” I don’t believe in evolution”  inspired a cartoonist for Toronto Star to deliver a vicious frame that clearly suggested Rick Nichols was a crackpot.   Then, the crippling words of ridicule spooked the Conservative hierarchy into declaring Rick’s opinion about “evolution” were his and definitely NOT  representative of Ontario Tories.  Not much comfort there Rick!

While I am not surprised that a backbench Liberal might be allowed to vent spleen over the Conservative member’s statement, “…I don’t believe in evolution” , I would not expect the Deputy Premier and the Premier to fully embrace the blatant attempt to make Rick Nichols look and sound small and deranged and unworthy of his position as part of the political fabric, no matter the party.   His religious conviction became the reason for a scurrilous attack approved of  by the Premier, Kathleen Wynne.  And it came from someone who is the beneficiary of the pluralist society in which we live. It elected her to be our Chief Executive without so much as a whisper of dissent relative to her sexual orientation.  And you know many people have held their tongues because their religious beliefs do not coincide with her lifestyle.

And rather than suggest in no uncertain terms that Rick Nichols is absolutely entitled to ‘not believe in evolution’ because this is a society is tolerant of ALL,

she said, she was very surprised and “taken aback” to hear Nichols confirm his belief, not to believe in evolution.

Furthermore she added, ” I would have expected, quite frankly, that everyone in the legislature would have a firm belief in the science that we teach in schools, and certainly that I believe in.”

What science is that Premier Wynne?  You mean the “theory of evolution” is now the Science of Evolution?  Just because National Geographic says evolution happened doesn’t mean it did.

Is it now a prerequisite of seeking a seat in the Provincial Parliament that you belong to the vast majority of non-thinkers who say they believe in evolution!

Is it not possible to suggest that theory, not matter how plausible to some is still a THEORY?  Synonyms include conjecture,  speculation, assumption….even Einstein, whose theory of relativity has stood years of testing said if there is ONE mistake in my theory it is history, literally!  Last summer there was some speculation that his theory was toast but the speculation was premature.

And then someone said if evolution is proved what do we do about where all the subjects of evolution came from.  That gave rise to the incredible theory that the Universe came from nothing.

It was suggested by Lawrence M. Krauss that Quantum Mechanics may be the answer.  His theory was welcomed by many who felt that at last you could put God out of the equation.

One of the problems of course, his theory copied from several scientists before him violates the First Law of Thermodynamics.  That’s the law that  says nothing in the Universe(matter or energy)

can pop into existence from nothing.  The debates may never end and I must, so I will leave with two points.

For those who continue to struggle with where it all began remember these words:

“the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God…….for in six days the Lord created Heaven and Earth and the SEA and ALL that in them is and rested on the seventh day wherefore, he Blessed  the Sabbath Day, and hallowed it.”

And (2), for those who believe this statement and the rest of the Bible are the ravings of the deranged, writing mythological nonsense, try and get your evolutionary mind around the miracle called  the eyeball!

Help is on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What the world needs is a………Xylitol

Xylitol could save your teeth!
So what is…Xylitol?
It’s a sweetener derived from the fibrous parts of plants. Similar in taste to regular sugar but with a significant difference—-the Xylitol molecule contains five carbon atoms rather than 6 found in most other sugars.
This molecular difference is the key to Xylitol’s beneficial qualities of taste and functionality.
Significant among the various benefits of Xylitol relate to chewing gum and toothpaste. Toothpaste needs Xylitol, and you need toothpaste with Xylitol and here’s why:
the larger molecule in Xylitol means bacteria cannot stick to your teeth as it does when using toothpaste with sugar. This difference is crucial to cavity prevention.
While fluoride is said to help prevent cavities and should be in everybody’s toothpaste, the sugar in the toothpaste must cancel a good deal of the fluoride advantage.
Dentists who stump for fluoride might agree with this!?
Melaleuca I believe is one of the first companies to use Xylitol in it’s tooth polish. I’ve been using Melaleuca’s tooth polish for just about a year and my visit to the dentist in January for a teeth cleaning served me with a couple of surprises: (1) my teeth were cleaner than they had been the last time I was in for a cleaning, time lapse of 12 months(missed my 6 month visit) and (2) my gums were stronger, and less prone to bleeding when encouraged to do so.
There was no hint of a cavity even though in my life BM(before Melaleuca) cavities caused me trouble continuously .
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If Xylitol was only good for toothpaste that would be a large positive but it is also excellent in the substitution of sugar in making muffins, pretty good in making cookies and I haver never tried it in bread.
Xylo-sweet, one of the several companies now marketing Xylitol, says Xylo-sweet can be substituted for most common sweeteners without compromising taste or texture and I have found this to be true although I used it to make Nutmeg-mousse and it didn’t work. In this case the Xylitol did not bind with the eggs and that was that!
But another Xylitol positive is one that will be cheered by more than even the tooth polish crowd….IT’s LACK of AFTER-TASTE! There is none! I’ve found every other sugar substitute I’ve ever tried Stevia, Aspartame,….going back to that dinosaur-Cyclamates came with after-taste.
But not Xylitol. And according to the sellers it is 25% lower in calories than regular sugars, but with the same sweetness. The substitution is 1.1.
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Major problem to some is the cost.  Xylitol is expensive but that may help focus your attention on how much sugar you consume.
It’s all about cost versus benefits.

It is the best of all the non-sugar sweetners but without much of a CV to date although it is rapidly gaining wider acceptance.