Ever read O'Brien's Eclipse of the Sun?

Good stuff. A page-turner, it seems to be based on what Yanks would regard as a most unlikely premise--the development of an increasingly totalitarian Canada, with full-bore hatred of orthodox Christians. After what I read today in two major Canadian newspapers, it's making more sense now.

Mark Cameron (blogroll imminent) offers a couple samples of Grade A, Government-certified, 100% pure, blinkered pig-ignorance from the Great White North.

I'm not sure which is worse: Heather Mallick's demand for the "Jane, you ignorant slut" rejoinder or Hartley Stewart's Springer-ready revelation that "Daddy said sex with Mom sucked 'cause she was Catholic."

Decisions, decisions. I think I'll learn towards Mr. Stewart, who feels it necessary to spill embarrassing details about his parents' sex life, and sounds more authoritatively stupid throughout:

The Church has got nothing right in the area of sex since its beginnings. Its edicts on sexual issues have been hurtful and counterproductive. They have done nothing to make for a better world.

A trail of misery, guilt and destruction has followed closely behind the Church's intervention in the sexual lives of its adherents and its hierarchy. It has not fostered understanding and compassion among peoples of differing views. None of it has helped us resolve our difficult moral and social issues.

On the contrary. It has caused heartbreak and stress throughout society. Encyclicals in the field of marriage, sex and relationships have always been a century or two behind the moral standards adopted by society.

Short of medical advances that allow doctors to reverse a lobotomy, there's really no point in arguing with the mouth-breathing illogic and factual errors of Mr. Stewart.

At least Ms. Mallick (who strikes me as a Canadian Maureen Dowd without the intellectual rigor) confesses her pig-ignorance: "The fact is, I know nothing about religion." To which I reply: "Thanks for the heads up, toots." Though I pretty well had it figured out before, discerning it from the opening paragraph:

Canada is a secular nation. I love you for that, beautiful Canada. Secularism means great things. Churchy people of any brand have no say in government, and that's all she wrote.

Translation: if you have the bad taste to be religious, shut up about it, leave it in the pews on Sunday and never, ever bring it into your public life.

And you thought Soviet ideology was dead. Hardly. Now I know why Kathy Shaidle keeps talking about getting a green card to the States. Sheesh.