Taking a Break

Due to family stuff I'll be away from the keyboard for the next few days. Back at it on Monday, I hope.

Have a great weekend!

Criminal Minds

According to an article in the Telegraph, Russia's move to prosecute "thought crimes" will made it more like the Soviet Union of old.

Or, of course, the Canada of new.

The Globe and Mail's Chicken Little Routine

"The earth is warming! The earth is warming!"

Makin' Whoopi

The American president, Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces, dropping by to gab with a bunch of yentas on a TV hen party? I think that's what's known as "slumming".

B.Y.O.B.?

Yale alum Diana West shares with us non-alums the invitation she received to an event on Martha's Vineyard:

From Yale Vineyard Alumni:

Please join the Yale family for our “Yale Day in the Sun on Martha’s Vineyard.”

GnT's? Boating? Croquet maybe? Not exactly.

Enjoy an afternoon of intellectual stimulation, reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones.

Yeah?

The afternoon begins with lectures from two of our esteemed Yale colleagues, Master Jonathan Holloway, Professor of History, African American Studies and American Studies presenting, “The Right Kind of People: The Silences in a Civil Rights Narrative.” And Omer Bajwa, Coordinator of Muslim Life at Yale presenting, “Muslim Life at Yale and Beyond: Engaging the Sacred & the Secular.”

Then have fun in the sun with a cocktail reception.

I don't know Master Holloway, but what could be more fun -- in or out of the sun -- than a lecture on "silences in a civil rights narrative"? As for Omer Bajwa, Yale's "Muslim victory" chaplain? A regular laugh riot as regular readers of this blog already know. Bajwa reportedly told an Islamabad audience "Muslims will win the final victory in the West if they conform to their beliefs and disseminate the message of Islam with wisdom and politeness"

Whatever will he say next?

I'm betting on something along the lines of "down with Israel," since "Allahu Akbar!"--which, though blunt, is at least honest re his true intentions--may not go over all that well with such a "refeened" crowd.

Cameron the Croc Feeder

The Jews of Canada have a friend in Peter Kent, the Conservative cabinet minister who says "We will never cease to stand by the Jewish people."

The Jews of the U.K. and the world have a foe in David Cameron, the British dhimmi weasel P.M. who says--during a visit to Erdogen's Islamified Turkey, no less--that

The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable," Cameron said. In a reference to the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory, he said: "Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.

And, further, that Israel's

commando raid in international waters "cannot be described in any other way but piracy" and wondered why the world acts against hijackings by Somali pirates but remains silent in the face of Israeli actions.

Way to feed the croc, Dave! But guess what? The Jews are but a mere appetizer--no, an amuse bouche--for such a hungry beast. And, unsatiated after consuming what is after all such a tiny morsel, you and yours are going to be his main course.

Shades of Shylock

Far be it from me to be hyper-sensitive to intimations of antisemitism, but when a judge hearing a case between two Jews--one a cardiologist, the other a matchmaker who failed to find him a spouse, but who wants to keep her fee nonetheless--disses both sides because he says they are seeking their "pound of flesh," the Judenhass alarm bells go off. I highly doubt the judge would have brought in that particular--and particularly offensive--literary reference had the case involved, say, two Chinese people.

Wanna Bet?

Pakistan cannot play both sides forever

Stone Apologizes for Holocaust Comment

Endeavouring to do damage control, Oliver Stone said via his publicist:

In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret.

He did not, however, apologize for saying the Jews controlled the media and had effed up America's foreign policy for years. Which makes his apology as half-hearted as it is half-assed.

Update: Roger L. Simon asks "Is Oliver Stone today's Walter Duranty?"

A Huge Victory for Free Speech

"Rachel's law" is about to become a reality. Kudos to the brave woman who inspired it by refusing to capitulate to a Saudi moneybags.

Other 'Brilliant' Ideas a la a 9/11 Mosque

How about a:

• Pearl Harbor Shinto shrine?
• Wagnerian opera house/schnitzel bistro at Auschwitz?
• shooting range next door to the Ecole Polytechnique?

TVO Celebrates Islamic Science

Your tax dollars in action: propagandizing on behalf of Islam funding the broadcast of a series devoted to Islam's contributions to science. (Did you know, for example, that we owe Muslims an incalculable debt for "inventing" the "scientific method"? Hey, it came as news to me, too.) Oddly enough, this early dedication to "science" seems to have waned/disappeared entirely when the Renaissance kicked in, and you will note the scant number of Muslims on the list of Nobel Prize winners in the areas of science and medicine. Mind you, they appear to have made great strides in at least one area: nuclear science.

Who needs NASA when you have TVO?

A Difference of Opinion

Melanie Phillips weighs in on David Cameron's "quite astonishingly stupid speech in Turkey." Eric Margolis, on the other hand, gives "kudos to Britain's new leadership team."

'Gaza Bleeds'

It's a blog on Arab News (where, go figure, you won't be reading about the shmancy new Gaza mall stocked to the rafters with consumer goods; hard to tug from the old heartstrings/engender outrage at Zionist infamy with that sort of thing).

The Pee in Paree

Ah, yes--who can resist Paris in the summer?  The sights, the tastes, the...pee. Paul Romer in City Journal tells all re the Parisians' unfortunate predilection for using city streets as their personal urinal:

When the Tour de France reaches the Champs-Élysées at the end of the month, the smell of victory won’t be the only odor in the streets. Public urination in Paris, particularly noxious in the July heat, remains a problem despite the considerable efforts of Paris officials. Of course, Paris is only one of many cities struggling to establish norms of public hygiene. New Delhi, a city where public spitting and urination present similar problems, is having better luck preventing such behavior on its new subway system. A recent New York Times story on New Delhi’s metro offers a nice illustration of how to establish new rules, particularly informal ones, enforced by norms.

Part of what people like about New Delhi’s metro is that the cars are clean and people are relatively courteous. Some riders are so pleased, in fact, that they volunteer their time to ensure it stays that way. They enforce rules against public spitting and urination. Though such rules are routinely ignored in the rest of the city, the volunteers appear to be winning the battle so far to sustain new norms among metro riders.

Even when cities enforce formal rules against certain kinds of behavior, creating a culture of compliance with the rules can be challenging. The Delhi metro monitors are simply trying to preserve a desirable equilibrium. Their task is a bit easier than that of a unique group of like-minded enforcers in Paris, the Bad Behavior Brigade. The Brigade successfully suppresses a host of offenses, such as littering, failure to pick up after dogs, and unauthorized flyer distribution. Yet the offense of public urination remains a persistent problem despite the Brigade’s ticketing efforts and an increase in the number of public toilets in Paris.

Obviously, some norms are hard to change. When I first traveled to France 30 years ago, I was astonished at the stenciled warning on walls: “Défense de Pisser.” Why would anyone old enough to read need to be reminded to use a toilet? Now the signs say “Défense D’Uriner.” At least the signs have become more polite, even if the behavior has not...

They don't pick up their dog poopy, either, which rather makes the entire city un grand W.C.

Burqa Wearers Back Bacon Ban

Er, make that "Bacon eaters back burqa ban." Works either way, though.

Update: Lefty scold/squish Gwynne Dyer (a.k.a. Grim Dire) thinks the face shmatta is just swell (and not unlike Nuns' duds when he was a wee one).

Neologism Alert

I just invented a new word--dhimmidiot--and I have the perfect chap to affix it to.

'Tolerant' G&M Pimps for 9/11 Mosque

This staggeringly ill-informed editorial from the Globe and Mail, a small masterpiece of cluelessness/dhimmitude, has to be read to be believed. And even then you may, like me, not believe that something this imbecilic could appear in Canada's "newspaper of record":

A proposed mosque near the World Trade Center site has exposed an ugly side of American politics that shows no signs of abating. Moderate political leaders should unite in condemnation of the attacks on the mosque.

The project, to be built two blocks from the site, is spearheaded by a moderate local imam and includes a cultural centre. Completion of the building is not assured: for one thing, the project needs to raise tens of millions of dollars.

This has not deterred some political aspirants from jumping into the gutter, hoping that the mere mention of “mosque” and “Ground Zero” in the same sentence will galvanize support. Sarah Palin said that “peaceful Muslims” should “refudiate” the project. One group is trying to stop it by running ads showing a person falling from a World Trade Center tower, with a voiceover saying the mosque is being built “to celebrate the murder of 3,000 Americans.”

To deny faithful people the right to practice their religion without impediment, would, one would think, be un-American. But in the new political calculation, apparently any Muslim can be argued to be a possible terrorist.

Many Americans see Ground Zero as a hallowed, consecrated space.

But New Yorkers, who will have to live with the results, have a more nuanced understanding, and they don’t seem to mind. The proposal was convincing enough to lead a community board to vote 29 to 1 in favour of the project, which is also supported by the city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg. Ground Zero will soon be home to another major office tower, and the area already includes churches, sex shops and department stores.

In any case, flirting with this kind of religious hatred is unacceptable. If America truly stands for religious freedom, a national push across the political spectrum to repudiate the intolerant opposition is necessary.

Incredible! Such claptrap could only be the work of someone who knows nothing about Islam; nothing about history, including its history of constructing humungous mosques to symbolize and crow about Islamic conquest; nothing about the Wahhabist ties of the bloke who's fronting the effort; who assumes that Islam is a religion like any other and that to balk at its supremacist dogma calling for global sharia is a form of "hatred"; who has quaffed so long and so deeply of the multiculti witches' brew that it has turned his brain into a squishy, useless mess.
 
Here--this letter to the editor says all of the above, only much more succinctly:

If this mosque were built, it would stand as an audacious, monumental “one-finger salute” to the victims of 9/11. It’s good to see that many Americans share my view and are protesting against this insult.

Barry and the Yentas

Can't wait to see O on The View.
Why, it's almost a dream come true.
Whoop' and Joy'll get giddy--
It sure won't be priddy--
I don't think I can stand it. Can you?

Barlow Hot and Bothered AND All Wet

The thing about "human rights" types is that they care nada about genuine rights--free speech, property rights etc.--and are ever more consumed with staking out a claim for fake rights--for example, the "right" to not be offended by someone else's free speech. Oh, and here's another good one--Maude Barlow's belief that "water" is a "human right". From the Barlow-friendly Toronto Star:

A United Nations vote to recognize water as a basic human right is a “historic” chance for the global community to ease human suffering, according to a Canadian activist in the thick of a last-ditch lobbying effort.

“We’re running out of water and the crisis is getting worse,” Maude Barlow said Monday from New York, on the eve of a vote expected as early as Wednesday at the UN General Assembly.

“If we don’t make a statement that we don’t want entire populations left behind, what does it say about us? About our humanity?”

Barlow, former senior adviser on water at the UN and chair of the Council of Canadians citizens group, is optimistic the resolution will pass by majority vote.

However, it appears powerful nations — including Canada — either will not support it or will push for a version that Barlow says would continue to allow water to be bought and sold as a commodity..

A "commodity"? How awful. You mean like, say, oil? (Why is it that the Barlows of the world never claim that access to fossil fuels should be a "human right". Must be because they're so keen on finding alternative fuel sources to stem calamitous climate change, right?)

Could somebody puh-leeze hose Maudie down with some of the wet stuff?  From the sounds of it, her alarmism is set to make her spontaneously combust.

Un'flag'ging Support for a Fantasy

Do you believe in fairies? Barry "Peter Pan" Obama does. Why, he thinks just by wishing things were so he can make them come to be. Case in point: that fantastical "two state solution," a non-starter if there ever was one due to the Arabs' Islam-inspired supremacism that cannot tolerate the presence of an uppity dhimmi entity--a Jewish one, no less!--on land claimed in perpetuity by and for the one true faith. Nonetheless, Obie thinks if he wishes really, really hard, and, oh, yeah, lets the Palestinians fly their flag in Washington as if "Palestine" is already a fait accompli, he can wish away reality. That is to say, he can wish a new reality into existence. Caroline Glick is rather dubious about the wishing and the flag flying, to say the least:

...From now on, the PLO will be allowed to fly its flag like a regular embassy.

Its representatives will enjoy diplomatic immunity just like diplomats from states.

Indeed the PLO delegate in Washington Maen Areikat claimed that the administration's move equates the PLO's diplomatic status in the US to that of Canada and states in Western Europe.

Some in the media have claimed that this is a symbolic act and essentially meaningless.

But this is not true. While this step does not constitute US recognition of a Palestinian state in the absence of a peace treaty between the Palestinians and Israel, it certainly sends a clear signal that this is the direction the US is heading. As such, it represents a dangerous step that will encourage continued Arab hostility.

TO PUT this move in perspective, it is worth comparing the PLO's new status to that of the US's firm ally and fellow democracy - Taiwan, the Republic of China. Whereas the PLO now has a "delegation general" in Washington, Taiwan has the "Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office."

Turns out that much-balllyhooed rapprochement between Barry and Bibi amouted to little more a copuious sprinkling of fairy dust, and that when it comes to the Israel-Palestine question Obama is as Khalidified as ever.

Me? I'm wishing that the duplicitous wisher will end up wishing himself into a single term.

Hands up all those who think my wish has the better shot at coming true?

Update: This flag song's for you, "Pete":

You're a grand old fraud.
You're a fatuous "god"
And forever in speeches you yack.
You're hubristical,
Not mystical,
Chicago political hack.
Every heart beats true
For the red, white and blue
Except you--don't you think that's odd?
And good riddance to
A false "friend" (that's you).
Keep your eye on that grand old fraud.

Stone's Judenhass

It's official! Oliver Stone, apologist for thuggish despots past and present (the man is a fan of Stalin, Hitler, Castro, Chavez and Ahmadinead) is a raving Jew-hater. Writes Ron Radosh:

...Next, Stone insists (in an interview in the Sunday Times) that Jewish deaths must be put “in proportion.” After all, “Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 [million killed].” Then Stone pulls out all the stops in an example of anti-Semitic vitriol not heard in our country openly since the days of the Gerald L.K. Smith, the World War II-era American anti-Semite. Here, in bold, is the key paragraph in the Long interview:

Why such a focus on the Holocaust then? “The Jewish domination of the media,” he says. “There’s a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years.”

 Stone’s revolting words turn one’s stomach...

The Binksman Cometh

Pull up a chair and readeth!

Every Age Get the 'Midget Girl' It Deserves

Okay, I admit it. I'm oddly fascinated by Snooki, the pint-sized, potty-mouthed slattern of "reality" show Jersey Shore. It strikes me that Snooki is, in fact, the Gidget of today. Let's do a quick comparison of the two gals, shall we, to see what it reveals about them--and us.

Looks:

• Gidget (1959 movie)--blonde hair, pony-tail, blue eyes, flat-chest, about as mangia cake as it gets
• Snooki (2010 reality TV show)--black hair, eyes, orangey skin (courtesy combo of tanning bed/spray tan) pronounced hair "pouf," pierced naval, so top-heavy she looks like she could topple over at any time, as "Guidette" as it gets.

Likes:

• Gidget--surfing, being the surfers' "mascot," Kahuna, Moondoggy, getting "pinned," remaining chaste until she's legally wed (or, as per the Gidget theme song, "although she's not kingsize, her finger is ringsize.")
• Snooki--getting drunk, puking, passing out, having sex with random guys she meets "clubbing," Mike "The Situation," Pauly D.

Clothes:

• Gidget--modest two-piece bathing suit, "just a doll in dungarees."
• Snooki--your basic skank wear--mini-dresses so tight the "girls" look like they're about to pop out; heels so high you're surprised she doesn't get vertigo.

Favourite saying(s):

• Gidget--"Honest to goodness, it's the absolute ultimate!"
• Snooki--"I'm not trashy."; "I smell pickles."

Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Friedman

New York Times pundit Tom Friedman is so bereft that Obama's energy/climate bill has been shelved for now--and so irate at the "deniers" who are trampling Ma Nature with their obnoxious carbon pedal extremities--that it's affected his ability to crank out his column:

When I first heard on Thursday that Senate Democrats were abandoning the effort to pass an energy/climate bill that would begin to cap greenhouse gases that cause global warming and promote renewable energy that could diminish our addiction to oil, I remembered something that Joe Romm, the climateprogress.org blogger, once said: The best thing about improvements in health care is that all the climate-change deniers are now going to live long enough to see how wrong they were.

Alas, so are the rest of us. I could blame Republicans for the fact that not one G.O.P. senator indicated a willingness to vote for a bill that would put the slightest price on carbon. I could blame the Democratic senators who were also waffling. I could blame President Obama for his disappearing act on energy and spending more time reading the polls than changing the polls. I could blame the Chamber of Commerce and the fossil-fuel lobby for spending bags of money to subvert this bill. But the truth is, the public, confused and stressed by the last two years, never got mobilized to press for this legislation. We will regret it.

We’ve basically decided to keep pumping greenhouse gases into Mother Nature’s operating system and take our chances that the results will be benign — even though a vast majority of scientists warn that this will not be so. Fasten your seat belts. As the environmentalist Rob Watson likes to say: “Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology and physics. That’s all she is.” You cannot sweet-talk her. You cannot spin her. You cannot tell her that the oil companies say climate change is a hoax. No, Mother Nature is going to do whatever chemistry, biology and physics dictate, and “Mother Nature always bats last, and she always bats 1.000,” says Watson. Do not mess with Mother Nature. But that is just what we’re doing.

Since I don’t have anything else to say, I will just fill out this column with a few news stories and e-mails that came across my desk in the past few days...

"I can't do my work because I'm too upset about the greenhouse gas situation"? And that really flies with Tom's boss?

It's great to be the king, eh?

Senseless Census

There's been an immense hue and cry over the government's move to scrap the long census; Canadians, it seems, adore being asked a plethora of silly, intrusive questions. Makes 'em feel helpful and all virtuous-like. As the Globe and Mail's Neil Reynolds writes, thought, completing the questionnaire is an empty ritual, and the form itself is "anachronistic, coercive and unnecessary":

Although anachronistically coercive, this cult aspect of the census helps explain the insurrection that took shape when the federal government decided to expand its voluntary census and get rid of the mandatory long form. This resistance demonstrates once again how exceedingly comfortable people can get with coercion and how dependent they can get on it. It has been fascinating, in a noir kind of way, to watch so many Canadians celebrate the compulsory census. For this squad, the use of force is necessary to determine the average number of bedrooms in the average Canadian home and other such essential truths.

Yet, as The Economist noted, the census is essentially recognized as obsolete in a growing number of countries – a conclusion that arises from the intuitive fact that the world is so filled with statistical data that it would be a greater public service to lessen the quantity than to increase it. Britain will hold its last census next year, as will Germany. Denmark hasn’t had a census for decades. Sweden, Norway and Finland retain only a rudimentary census. With its constitutional requirement of a room-by-room head count, the U.S. government spends $11-billion to count its population – $36 a head. Finland spends 20 cents a head.

People should, as a matter of principle, prefer a voluntary census to a mandatory census. But the reason to scrap the census has nothing much to do with coercion (which is, in fact, minimal) or with cost (which is, in fact, minimal, too). The reason to scrap the mandatory census is that it, along with a great deal of other government fact-finding, is simply not necessary. Indeed, the government should have made this argument. After all, if the most statist countries of Old Europe are abandoning the coercive census, why shouldn’t we get rid of it, too? From this perspective, the government could have defended its decision as, well, liberal and progressive rather than as, well, conservative and reactionary...

Oh, come now, Neil. Do you really think if the "scary" Conservatives had argued that getting rid of the thing was "progressive" anyone in the oppositition parties or the prog media would have bought it? Don't you know it would have been slammed--and dismissed--as sneaky Tory "spin"?

What's in a Spanish Muslim Name?

A mosque called Cordoba: That's got to be "good for the Jews," as they say, because it harkens back to the Golden Age in Spain when interaith amity was a fact of life for the three Abrahamic faiths, right?

Wrong. Andrew Bostom, scholar of Islamic Judenhass, documents the reality of life for Jews in those "golden" times--"hundreds of Jews slaughtered in Muslim Cordoba between 1010 and 1015; 4,000 Jews killed in Muslim riots in Grenada in 1066, wiping out the entire community..."

And that's just a small part of a long litany of Muslim pogroms, unleashed on Jews in Dar al Islam because of "the combined effects of jihadism, general anti-dhimmi, and/or specifically Antisemitic motifs in Islam." (FYI, a Jewess is said to have dished up poisoned mutton to Islam's founder, resulting several weeks later in his death. But then, we supposedly killed Jesus and all the prophets.)

No doubt Cordoba mosque-booster Imam Rauf and his manifold Wahhabi contacts are unaware of this distressing history and want to built a triumphalist mosque/community center on the site of a wildly successful jihadi attack so they can dish up plenty of humus and samosas to the kafirs their fellow Abrahamists at lively interfaith get-togethers.

Coming This November--Another "Human Rights" Industry Confab

Be the first on your block to sign up (although the idea of visiting Winnipeg in late November--not exactly a selling point, guys). Here's the announcement on the CHRC site, chockfull of crunchy delicious jargon about "stakeholders" and "best practices," etc:

2010 Discrimination Prevention Forum

Circle of Awareness, Cycle of Growth

Winnipeg November 23-24, 2010

The Discrimination Prevention Forum is an avenue for human rights stakeholders to share best practices on emerging issues of discrimination in the workplace. It gathers hundreds of leaders and decision makers from government, private sector and non-profit organizations across Canada.

Aboriginal Focus

This year, the Canadian Human Rights Commission's Discrimination Prevention Branch is teaming up with its National Aboriginal Initiative office to focus on the advancement of Aboriginal people in the workplace. The theme, Circle of Awareness, Cycle of Growth, conveys that knowledge and cultural sensitivity are key to fostering positive relationships in the workplace. Participants will interact with panel members and peers in an informal setting and put their skills to use in hands-on workshops.

Topics include:

- Strategies for removing barriers
- How to build positive mental health in the workplace
- Ways of accommodating religious practices
- Human rights in Aboriginal organizations

So in the pecking order of victim groups, would you say Aboriginals rank before or after Muslims (a subject which, confoundingly, the forum is not about to address)?

Quel Shockeroo (Not)

Pakistan's spy service is aiding and abetting Afghanistan "insurgents" (a.k.a. the jihadis).

"Righteous Muslims"? Heart-Warming But Irrelevent

Did you know that, during WW2, there were around 70 "Righteous Muslims" who went out of their way to save Jews? More to the point, do you believe that this history makes one iota of difference to what's going on today, when Iran, the Organization of the Islamic Caliphate and its lap dog, the UN, are doing their utmost to try to get rid of the detested Zionist entity? Fiyaz Mughal, who's compiled a booklet about the Righteous Muslims thinks it does, as the JTA reports:

Jews see Muslims as inclined toward violence and uninterested in engagement, discussion of the Holocaust or mutual understanding, Mughal said. And, according to Mughal, Muslims believe that Jews don’t want Muslims to be heard. Muslims, he said, “feel that there is an overwhelming desire to protect the Middle East, and that the Jews don’t want to discuss anything else.

By chronicling World War II stories in which Muslims went out of their way to help Jews -- 70 Muslims are named by Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations” for aiding Jews in North Africa, Turkey and Albania during the Nazi era -- the booklet aims to change those perceptions.

Aside from physically saving people, the Muslims whose stories are retold in the booklet helped preserve Jewish life and culture, helping Jews obtain kosher meat before the Saabbath or saving the famed Sarajevo Haggadah.

Mughal said he hopes the booklet will demonstrate to Muslims and Jews that “life is not black and white, straight and narrow.”

“The histories are different but are intertwined," he said. "Our shared histories can overcome feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.”

Life may not be black and white, straight and narrow, but sharia sure is. Thus, because of sharia, the "intertwining" of Muslim and Jew in the Muslim world put Muslims on top and Jews down low. Really low. Bottom of the barrel low. So, sorry pal. As nice as it is to read about the handful of Muslims who were prepared to help Jews in a part of the world that thought Hitler had the right idea Jewry extermination-wise, these warm 'n' fuzzy stories are largely irrelevent to the situation on the ground today; to the Muslim committment to jihad, sharia and Islamic supremacy that come straight from Islam's core texts and that underpin the desire--the need--to finish the job Hitler started.

Update: These words of Maimonides, spoken about the Muslim Jew-hatred of his era and the Jewish inclination to want to wish it away, are just as pertinent today:

We have acquiesced, both old and young, to inure ourselves to humiliation. … All this notwithstanding, we do not escape this continued maltreatment [by Muslims] which well nigh crushes us. No matter how much we suffer and elect to remain at peace with them, they stir up strife and sedition.

Anyone for Kipling?

Nine long years into the war to prop up Hamid Karzai's dodgy kleptocracy, the one with the sharia-based constitution, a top U.S. military official is warning that things are about to get a whole lot bloodier for NATO forces. This on the heels of a report that the Taliban have abducted two U.S. serviceman, killing one of them.

Rudyard Kipling would certainly have understood what's afoot here. Back in the days when the sun never set on the British empire he wrote:

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,

And the women come out to cut up what remains,

Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains

An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.

La plus ca change, eh?

Today's Run for Palestine

Grab your sneakers, your snacks, your highest dudgeon due to Zionist infamy and Run for Palestine! All proceeds go for "medical aid" for Palestinians.

Obama Crony Khalidi Floats 'Hope' Boat

This one--from lefty Israeli rag Ha-aretz--made me erupt in peals of dark, mordant laughter:

WASHINGTON - A fundraising campaign is currently underway in the United States to finance the purchase of an American ship in an effort to break the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip in the early autumn. The ship is to be named after U.S. President Barack Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope."

If that isn't enough to stir the ghosts of the 2008 American presidential election, one of the prominent figures to support the initiative is Columbia University history professor Rashid Khalidi, a well-known critic of Israel whose friendship with the American president from their days together in Chicago engendered criticism of Obama.

An email being circulated by pro-Palestinian activists in the U.S. said the goal of the fundraising campaign is to raise at least $370,000 next month to obtain possession of a ship that could accommodate between 40 and 60 people and for operational expenses. The e-mail said the ship will join a flotilla of other vessels from Europe, Canada, India, South Africa and the Middle East in an additional attempt to break the Israeli naval blockade.

Right-wing Internet-based blog columnists immediately seized on the involvement of Khalidi, whom they portrayed as a friend of Obama who was supporting Hamas. Khalidi said he does not know what the ship will ultimately be named, but said the White House should not be embarrassed by the name "The Audacity of Hope" and should instead call for Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory to be lifted...

The audacity of Zionhass is that it purports to be about humanitarianism when, in fact, it's about eliminationism. Not that Obama, who is thrilled to count the odious Khalidi as a close, personal pal, would have so much as a glimmer of a clue about that.

Update: Rashid isn't the only Obama buddy who's hot for the flotilla.

Update: Better hurry, Rashid. There's no telling how much longer Gazans can hold life and limb together in such belt-tightening times.

Elmo's Shangri-la

Past, present and future, it's Islamic, natch:

The foundation of Islamic civilization was a set of Qur'anic ideals which include family values, good governance, social justice, and human rights.

And, much as in the modern sense, human rights in the Qur'anic conception included: freedom of religion; law and order; the equality of all citizens before the law; international relations based on mutual respect and fair trade; a strong defense system; encouragement of and access to scholarship in every field; respect for knowledge; a pluralism embracing religious and ethnic differences.

And, importantly, the maintenance of a strong welfare state, providing to the utmost extent possible; free education; free health care; free old age pensions; and social assistance to the poor, the needy, the disabled and the unemployed.

This comprehensive package of Qur'anic ideals was included in the Divine Message received and taught by the Prophet Muhammad (570 - 632 AD) in a world fraught with uncivilized behavior among people and nations.

In fact, such brutal and callous behavior was the norm during the dark pre-Islamic ages: wars, death, destruction and aggressive empire-building were widespread, while the powerless and marginalized "others" were enslaved physically, economically, mentally, and spiritually.

The Qur'anic principles taught by the Prophet were not aimed at building a vast empire, either politically or culturally, but rather to build an ideal commonwealth for the benefit of all humanity - a family of nations and states working together to foster advances in the sciences, arts, literature, medicine, music, philosophy, religion, and spirituality.

Too bad it hasn't worked that way for many centuries, these "principles" acting instead as the stumbling block to progress that has mired Islamic nations in poverty and backwardness such that their citizens have felt the need to flee to the far more advanced infidel West. But I guess what Elmo is saying is that if they--if we--can return to the "true" Islam, the "real" Islam, the "ideal" can come to pass once again.

Gal-Bag Semiotics

It's not the burka per se that's the problem, writes Toronto Sun columnist Michael Coren. The problem is what the burka betokens:

The premise behind it is that once women reach the age of puberty they arouse men and so they have to be disguised and, in a way, disfigured. We are all products of appetite rather than taste.

Very few Muslim women wear the thing and the Qur’an does not call for full covering but for modesty. Yet burka-wearers are increasing in number and a headdress or something similar for women is becoming mandatory in many parts of the Islamic world.

Forget the politics for a moment. What it says about people is that we are animalistic, that we cannot master our desires and that we are creatures capable not of love, gentleness and grace, but of aggression, lust and violence. It degrades all of us and hurts society as well as the individuals involved.

Look through the thick cloth to the thick implication. If this woman is not hidden you will desire her, it says, and if you desire her you will take her. Also, it continues, it is not then the man who must change his ways, but the woman who must suffer so that he does not have to. That some women may embrace all this is not at all unusual in an abusive, power-perverted relationship.

It’s directly contrary to Christianity for example, which has taught equality of the sexes since the beginning of the faith. If you don’t believe me, read, intelligently, the New Testament and the church fathers.

We need to ask if this anti-human approach to sex and gender is any different from the anti-human use of people as bombs, the anti-human use of children as political tools and the anti-human use of religion as extreme political violence. We can ban certain types of dress as much as we want, but unless the heart and the mind change we will achieve nothing.

Exactly. Also in the Toronto Sun, Robin Anderson muses about the wisdom--or marked absence thereof--of driving while wearing a vision-obscuring shmatta on your face.

The Most Disturbing Commercial on TV?

Last night I watched, alarmed, as a bunch of adorable moppets--call them UNjungend--preached to me about how Canada must fulfill its committment to something called the UN Millennnium Project. The moppets trotted out the usual shibboleths the transnationalists like to talk up--"poverty," "empowering women," etc.--and insisted that kids their age must--must!--get together and do something to bring about, you guessed it, "change".

Chilling stuff. Frankly, I'd prefer if kids their age devoted themselves to kid stuff--going to school, playing games and sports, acting goofy, having fun. I'd also like the UN, an organization that pretends to be a fount of world virtue but that's in the hands of the bad guys for whom "Trash/Get Rid of Israel" is number one on their to-do list, to lay off our kids.

But, hey, that's just me. No doubt tons of Canadians think propagandizing children on behalf of a cockamamie UN project for the sake of "change" is a wonderful thing to do.

De Facto AND De Jure Sharia Law

In Snooki's stomping ground, of all places. Can wait to see her in a burqa.

Willful Clulessness as a Security M.O.

The U.S. security bureacracy is immense and growing huger by the day, writes Diana West. But you may as well take the massive expenditure and flush it down the loo because there's one key factor that the bureacracy is bound and determined to ignore. I'm pretty sure you can guess what it is.

Islam.

I will bet my bottom dollar that in all of the hyper-burgeoning bureaucracies there is no single office organized to study, in Pentagon parlance, the "enemy threat doctrine" of jihad, which has, whether it is admitted or not, driven this intelligence boom in the first place. Similarly, I will bet there is no program designed to investigate the historical, canonical goals of jihad movements: namely, the spread of Islamic law (Sharia), and the attendant condition of dhimmitude that Sharia imposes on Islamized and Islam-dominated populations, even as such dhimmitude is an enabler of jihad. Instead, what we see in this frantic, government-led explosion is an Orwellian study in mass denial, a hamster-in-a-cage approach to what was first masked as "terror" and is now disguised as "transnational violent extremists" despite the fact that the threat is precisely and guilelessly presented by perps the world over as Islamic jihad.

Such is life in the politically correct, multiculturally dictated (read: dishonest) world.

Yes, because to acknowledge the jihad as a jihad might hurt Muslims' feelings. And what excruciatingly sensitive multicultist would ever want to do that?

Spaced Out Shias

You know how Obama thinks NASA should try to make Muslims feel good about themselves so they'll want to excel in math and science, like they did back when they invented clocks and algebra? It looks like such self-esteem boosting efforts aren't needed--not with the announcement that the mullahs hope to put a man in space by 2019. (Although judging by the photo showing one of Iran's homemade rockets--which looks like something that came in a build-it-yourself-at-home-kids-rocket-kit--they might want to rethink that date and aim more for, oh, say 2119.

Update: They don't need any encouragement when it comes to nuclear fusion, either.

Kim's Jihad

Remember how those on the left poo-pooed Bush for packaging North Korea together with Iran and Iraq in a trifecta of evil? Remember how nay-sayers at the time said it was absurd to link a non-Muslim dictatorship with two Muslim ones?

Well, that was then; this is now. And now North Korea is threatening to unleash what it calls a "sacred war" against South Korea.

Hey, when you're angling for global domination, they're all "sacred" wars, right?

Vanity Fair Cheerleads for Ground Zero Mosque

There are only one or two discordant notes in Vanity Fair's round up of opinion from ignorant "ordinary" New Yorkers re the Ground Zero mosque. "It is completely inappropriate—a huge slap in the face to people from New York who lived through 9/11, like myself," says Anonymous Female from Brooklyn," who seems to be out of step with the "tolerant" majority. They are happy to identify themselves and sound more like this:

Mike Padilla, 45, Brooklyn--“I understand the sensitivity of the situation. A lot of people feel it’s a slap in the face. But I believe in religious tolerance. That being said—I can’t believe there’s no other mosque in the area and it seems strange that they have to build it here.”

Jeff Rice, 33, Queens--“I have no problem with it whatsoever. You can’t blame an entire religious group for the acts of a few psychotic individuals. If we did that, where would Catholicism be? Not to mention I think the perpetrators are the exception to the rule. They are brainwashed by folks like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. They’re promised 72 virgins in heaven if they martyr themselves. I’ve always wondered what a dead man has to do with 72 virgins but oh well. I would’ve had a problem with it if it was in the World Trade Center but it’s three blocks away. We have to respect people’s beliefs. This is America.”

Rafaa McRae, 40, Manhattan--“I think they should build it. It would demonstrate that we are mature, and true to our foundations. It would show that we are open-minded enough not to categorize an entire religion based on the actions of one small group of people within it. It would show our resilience, and that we are healed. That being said, I can empathize with the victims’ families and understand why they generalize. “

Kamal Wahad, 58, Bronx--“It’s an excellent idea. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s dream is to advance the brotherhood of mankind and bring all people together. It is him (sic) dream to make people understand that Islam has a lot of things in common with American democracy. The idea is not to hurt anyone’s feelings. Close to 300 American Muslims died in the world trade center—it was as much of a tragedy for us as for anyone.”

"The idea is not to hurt anyone's feelings"--m'kay. I thought the idea was to have a clue and a spine re Islam and its global ambitions, which were definitely on display on 9/11, and to do what's required to prevent sharia, Islam's totalitarian legal system, from setting up shop in the U.S. of A. But as we know only too well from the Canadian experience, harping on "hurt feelings" is an excellent smokescreen for hiding leftist malfeasance and the actions of those waging the quieter jihad (the one Mike, Jeff and Rafaa seem not to be aware of; no comment re Kamal "Taqiyyah" Wahad).

Update: Rick Lazio, who's running against Andrew Cuomo for the governorship of New York, opposes the mosque, telling CNN he believes

there should be an investigation into the sources of its funding. The main group behind its construction, The Cordoba Initiative, which is headed by the Imam, is a registered charity in New York state. It is the responsibility of New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to ensure the mosque's funding is coming from reputable sources.

The radio show comments were not the first time Imam Rauf has said troubling things or been associated with troubling activities. On CBS' "60 Minutes," less than a month after the attacks, he said American policies were an "accessory" to the crime of 9/11. "In fact," he added, "in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA."

Imam Rauf is also listed on the website of the Perdana Global Peace Organization as a "role player and contributor." This group was a financial backer of the Gaza flotilla, which attempted in May to break the Israeli's blockade of Gaza.

The Cordoba Initiative has reported less than $20,000 in assets. Where the $100 million for his project would come from is anybody's guess. Furthermore, it's fair to ask why, exactly, Imam Rauf has insisted on building the mosque so close to ground zero, and why he wants to unveil it on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. This not an issue of religious freedom, but rather, a question of safety and security.

New Yorkers deserve to be safe and to feel safe, and we have a right to know who's footing the bill for Imam Rauf's project. Are foreign governments or other organizations involved? And why is there such secrecy about the source of the money?

To review: Imam Rauf appears to be anti-America, anti-Israel, and is being funded by someone (identity unknown and undisclosed) with incredibly deep pockets who, like Rauf, is keen to see a triumphalist edifice rise on a site that's shrieking with symbolism. All indications are that "he wants to advance the brotherhood of mankind" alright--the Muslim brotherhood.

It's Like Buttah

Thought you might enjoy this one--a selection from My Name Is Barbara Hall! The Musical:

There is something that I'm longing to do,
It's for what's true,
It's for virtue--
Someone who'll watch over you.

I'm a commissar who means what she said,
Fill you with dread,
Get in your head.
Someone who'll watch over you.

Although I may well e'en be denser
Than Jenny, Queen Censor,
You'll still have to answer to me.

I will tell you please to watch what you say.
Don't disobey.
You'll have to pay
Someone who'll watch over you.

Pining for the Now Defunct 'Filthy Jewish Terrorists'? There are Plenty More Where It Came From

Attention Jew/Zion-haters: Are you suffering withdrawal pangs now that Salman Hossain's Filthy Jewish Terrorists site is no longer a going concern? Well, habibi, do I have a site for you (one, I'm sure, of untold numbers in this vein). It's called ziofascism (get it? 'Zion' plus 'fascism'? pretty clever, eh?) and it claims to have

compiled evidence of the overweening and deleterious influence of Zionism on Canada's foreign and domestic policies

That's because, as you probably already know

Israel is a terrorist, apartheid state that bombs civilian neighbourhoods and hospitals, and engages in ethnic cleansing against it's (sic) enemies and covert terror against it's (sic) 'friends'.

Unfortunately, here in Canada

the Israel Lobby - a web of organizations presided over by a handful of Jewish billionaires, who head the nominal "Jewish groups" that together with media that is owned by some of the same billionaires - has shaped Canada's policy to favour Israel's security interests at the expense of Canada's.

Every political leader of every mainstream party genuflects to these groups, and adheres to the falsehoods they perpetrate through their lobbying and media efforts.

But that's just the tip o' what you might call the Zion iceburg (or "iceberg," since it's Jewish):

"Wait," you say, "what of the Americans who outnumber Canadians 10 to 1 and are our biggest trading partner? Surely they have more influence over Canada than a tiny middle eastern country?"
If you do your research, you find that the USA is controlled by the Zionists as well...

Well, duh! Tell me something I don't know, haters.

One hate site down; a gazillion more to go.

Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue

David Solway writes re the Obami:

For there can be little doubt any longer that the United States is now governed by a rogue administration, founded not on the Constitution but on lies, one broken campaign promise after another and attempts to ignore or scamper around the principles of the Fathers. We are observing an establishment that is unwilling to defend the nation’s borders from drug cartel violence and illegal immigration, forcing unread bills through Congress in the dark of night, embarking on a socialized medicine program it cannot afford and which has not worked wherever else it has been tried, plunging the nation into bankruptcy with misnamed “stimulus spending,” unsustainable entitlements and exponential debt, refusing to drill safely on land to reduce its dependence on foreign oil supplies, utterly incapable of dealing with cataclysms like the Gulf oil spill, touting an impractical, premature and ruinously exorbitant Green Energy policy, considering cap-and-trade legislation when it has become undeniably clear that Global Warming research is a profoundly unsettled and perhaps even a false science, scrubbing all reference to Islamic terror from its official documents and pursuing a foreign policy that might accurately be described as geopolitically suicidal. Quite a list, but unfortunately an accurate one.

This is an administration that could just as well have been put in place by America’s most relentless enemies...

Loony Tunes

The Globe and Mail has a review of Stephen Harper! The Musical, which it calls "an entertaining romp." Since I haven't seen it, I cannot venture my critical two cent's worth. I would note, however, that it's no Jennifer Lynch! The Musical (if I do say so myself as the author of said Gypsy-esque confection).  Here's my favourite number from the show, a reworking of a Big Band standard.

And for my next musical comedy feat...Iggy! The Musical?

Update: Here's a bit of the theme song as sung by the show's protagonist:

I used to sit and glower
Up in my Iv'ry Tower
Occasionally deigning to descend.
An Iggy Ex Machina
I'm trying to begin a
New chapter here--
Trudeaupia without end...

Post Modern 'Suffering' in Gaza

In a letter to the National Post, Michael Bobroff of Edmonton directs our attention to civil engineering in "wretched" Gaza:

Forget the Gaza Mall -- Google "Al Deira Hotel in Gaza" if you want to truly pull back the curtain on the shameless propaganda of the "concentration camp," "Warsaw ghetto-like" or "humanitarian crisis" meme that so many wish to ascribe to the Gaza Strip, and of course blame the evil Jews for.

According to its website, the hotel is "...an architectural and artistic gem located on the sands of the Gaza coast ... Built in sun dried mud bricks, in a traditional style featuring graceful arches, vaulted and domed ceilings, hand crafted furniture and open interior spaces, the Al Deira brings to mind an contemporary palace overlooking blue Mediterranean waters." And just wait until you see the pictures.

Good to know the international media will now have a comfortable place to relax while they ignore the Gaza Mall story and write about how oppressive life is for the Gazans.

Thanks for the heads up, Michael. The hotel's site is indeed impressive: if Gaza's a "concentration camp," it certainly has tons of amenities that weren't available to Jews in Europe during Hitler's Final Solution (there being no spas and Farfour-like giant critters for the kids to romp with in, say, Auschwitz). And I have it on excellent authority--one Opera-loverOxford---that the hotel is "a haven of tranquility, with excellent service," which makes it ideal for exhausted flotilla members looking for some R&R and TLC post-floating.

This is of Interest to Canadian Jews? Really?

The first "C" in the CJC must stand for "Chad". That's the only reason I can think of why, pace Mama Mia Farrow, the Ceej would see fit to post this one on its site.

Memo to the Ceej: do not, I repeat, do not, put any stock in the UN and Human Rights Watch. They are far more likely to take definitive action re Israel's purported "war crimes" than Sudan's genuine ones.

Once In a Lifetime--Well, One Can Only Hope and Pray

Don't miss this song parody of a Talking Heads tune that pays "tribute" to Obama's ineptitude.

A Preview of Coming Queries?

A few questions that may show up on Canada's "long" census form at some unspecified point in the future:

1. Have you ever (check all applicable boxes):

• been a Zionist
• been a racist
• been a climate change skeptic/denier
• said anything Barbara Hall would find rude/mean/nasty/sassy/disrespectful
• been critical of the Prophet Muhammad or any aspect of Islam

2. Did you vote in the last federal election?

3. If you did vote, who did you vote for?

4. If you didn't vote, why the heck not?

• couldn't be bothered
• forgot
• didn't know who to vote for
• didn't like who was running
• other

5. 'Agree' or 'disagree' with the following statements:

• Islam is a religion of peace.
• Jihad is an internal struggle to follow in God's path.
• That Pierre E. Trudeau was a frikkin' genius.
• All is for the best in this the best of all possible Trudeaupias.
• Muliculturalism rocks!
• Samosas and falafels are equally dee-lish/Abrahamic 'interfaith' confabs are delovely.

6. The most dangerous person in Canada is

• Mark Steyn*
• Ezra Levant
• Rex Murphy
• Jason Kenney
• Stephen Harper
• Kathy Shaidle
• Blazing Cat Fur
• who can choose just one?/it's the lot of 'em

(*lives in New Hampshire but was born in Canada and writes a disrespectful weekly column in Maclean's)

Empower Play

Here's a portion of Barbara Hall's "message" to us, the little people, in the OHRC's annual report:

...Our work can be defined by three words: educate, empower and act. We worked hard to educate Ontarians about their rights and what to do when these rights are denied. And while we were educating them, they were also educating us – both about the causes and effects of discrimination and how we could assist in eliminating it.

We worked with sectors like education, police and local government to evaluate their operations through a human rights lens and make sure they were inclusive and welcoming to all. Thus empowered, municipal leaders are taking on racism and discrimination and police services are removing bias from within their organizations. Educators are striving to meet the needs of all the children in their communities.

And when education and partnership hasn’t been enough, we have taken other action. Examples include our intervention in the case of a woman who was ordered to remove her niqab before testifying in a sexual assault case, our work to ensure the Province of Ontario’s Special Diet Program does not discriminate, and our applications to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario to make public transit across Ontario accessible to people with visual disabilities.

Action is not just about taking a case to a tribunal or court; sometimes it involves speaking out. There is a decline in respectful conversation in our society, especially when it comes to “tough” topics like racism, religion and how we deal with what seems to be a conflict of rights. But we must have those conversations – and the OHRC will continue to both lead them and find safe places in which they can occur.

This annual report offers a brief look at what the OHRC did in 2009/2010 to educate, empower and act...

"Empower" is the operative word, alright. Only what's been "empowered" isn't the people. It's the people who have made it their business--their personal crusade--to micromanage the people (giving us "safe places" to "converse"--what bunkum!), and who could only do so under the guise of anti-discrimination, because what churl/"racist" could possibly object to that?

I say it's time to strip the mico-managers of their power and give it back to the people who should really have it--us. In other words: "EMPOWER" TO THE PEOPLE, NOT THE COMMISSARS!