The Pause That Recharges

FYI, I'll be away from the old laptop for the next week 'n' a bit. In the meantime, please visit any and/or all of my pals listed under "OF NOTE" on the right.

Salutin the Ideologue

The definition of an ideologue is "An adherent of an ideology, esp. one who is uncompromising and dogmatic." That certainly describes Toronto Star opiner Rick Salutin, who for many years has been a vocal and opiniated ideologue on/of the left. But go figure--Salutin doesn't see it that way. To him an ideologue is someone on the right--someone like Anders Breivik and the Republicans, say:

The most chilling phrase in the Norwegian horror was the killer’s statement, through his lawyer, that it was “atrocious,” or in another translation “gruesome,” or even just that he was sorry — but it was necessary. I’ve never seen anything that expresses the toxic potential of ideology so eloquently. It’s especially in that note of regret. Rage and hate do terrible deeds but they may falter. An idea that you know with certainty is true can be put into action no matter what your state of mind or feelings. You might even have tears in your eyes as you shoot.

So the Nazis depended on dull-minded bureaucrats to implement their final solution for Jews. They weren’t seething with hate or emotion. It doesn’t matter whether the ideology is religious, anti-religious, left or right. The film clip from The Town that U.S. Republicans in Congress are showing each other to stiffen their resolve about killing off services that people need has the same quality.

So you mean people "killing off" Obama's out-of-control spendaholism/inept handling of the ship of state is essentially the same as a crazed fundamentalist pagan opening fire on a bunch of kids at a summer camp?

And that's not "ideological" (not to mention downright ridiculous)?

Baird to Visit 'Palestine'?

The Toronto Star wants to know if Foreign Minister John Baird accepting Hanan Ashrawi's invitation to visit Palestine signals a change in Conservative policy or is merely an exercise in P.R.

Me too.

Judge Strikes Down Proposed Frisco Bris Ban

He says it's unconstitutional.

Oh, That Bloomy!

A funny flub--but all is quickly forgiven:

(JTA) -- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg accidentally addressed Muslim leaders at a Ramadan gathering with a "Shalom."

Bloomberg apparently had intended to say “Salaam aleikum,” a traditional Arabic greeting, to those gathered at the Wednesday event at New York's police headquarters. But instead the mayor said, "Shalom alaikum."

“Well, it's common to both religions," Imam Omar Abunamous of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York told the New York Daily News. "They are the same thing. The same idea."

Like its Arabic counterpart, the Hebrew phrase "Shalom aleichem" is a greeting that means "peace be upon you."

We said it first.

Meet the 'New' Egypt

Same as the old pre-"Spring" one.

Friday Floptilla Fans

Found this one in the Canadian Islamic Congress's Friday Magazine:

TDSB Appreciation Society

The Muslim Students' Association (a Muslim Brotherhood creation) encourages folks to send this missive to Toronto Dhimmi School Board trustees (H/T MH):

Dear TDSB staff,

As a Canadian Muslim, I would like to pass on my deepest appreciation to you and your colleagues for allowing Friday prayers to be accommodated at the Valley Park Middle School. Your firm stance on appropriate religious accommodation is an affirmation of my human rights, the Muslim community, and every Canadian.

The five daily prayers, including the Friday prayer, are central, indispensable tenets of the Islamic faith, and I want to believe that my country, province, and city can respect that!

Again, it is a extreme joy to see you and others in the TDSB stand up for the rights of students to appropriate accommodation within public schools. It makes me proud to be Canadian today! Thank you!

Regards,

Well, at least we know what it takes to make them "proud" Canadians--transforming a Toronto public school into a Saudi-style house of worship.



Update: Here's another letter to a compliant dhimmi from an appreciative Muslim:

Pandit Roopnauth Sharma

President, the Hindu Federation

C/o 270 Export Boulevard,

Mississauga Ontario L5S 1Y9

Dear Pt. Sharma;

I am writing to you on behalf of the Canadian Islamic Congress to convey our sincere appreciation for the Hindu Federation’s support of the Toronto District School Board in its recent positive statement regarding prayer time and space given to Muslim students at Valley Park Middle School.

Along with your organization, CIC recognizes that the TDSB has acted not only in a humane and generous way toward strengthening interfaith understanding, but also upheld its constitutional responsibilities by ensuring that all students are allowed free access and opportunities to take part in worship as their respective religious traditions require.

It is inspiring and gratifying that people of different faiths and cultures can come together with a unified, positive voice to support what is best for our children and our communities.

Thank you for giving public attention to this very important issue.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Wahida Valiante,
National President, Canadian Islamic Congress
Chair, Islamic History Month Canada

Update: Wherein a letter recipient replies--in song:

Give me a tribute for my dhimmitude.
Ain't got time to sit there and brood.
Sha-ree-ah is here,
Please give it a cheer.
Wahida, she wrote me a letter.

I don't care if all of us go and submit.
Long as we're "nice" you know won't hurt a bit.
Sha-ree-ah is here,
Please give it a cheer.
Wahida, she wrote me a letter.

Well, she wrote me a letter
Said she thinks Islamic law is constitutional.
Missus is so thrilled to see
The TDSB's made it institutional,
Hip hurray!

Give me a tribute for my dhimmitude.
Ain't got time to sit there and brood.
Sha-ree-ah is here,
Please give it a cheer.
Wahida, she wrote me a letter...

HuffPo Ramadan Puff Piece

Just in time for the fasting:

NEW YORK -- In a crowded dorm meeting room last week, Khalid Latif posed an unusual scenario to dozens of students and young professionals gathered for a weekly Islamic studies class.

"A girl walks into a (mosque) and she's wearing a miniskirt," the 28-year-old Muslim chaplain proposed to the group at New York University. "What do you think?"

Some participants giggled. Others looked perplexed. Traditionally, women and men are expected to wear conservative clothing in mosques. Most women who do not typically cover their heads will wear headscarves in a mosque. But the idea of a girl in a miniskirt entering an Islamic house of prayer? Absurd.

The answer, Latif suggested, was not to scold or ignore the woman, but to welcome her to pray.

"Your tongue has been given to you as a way of being closer to others and closer to the divine," he told the group. "Think of how you use your tongue."

The lesson is one of many the 28-year-old Muslim chaplain at the university has imparted in recent weeks as part of a popular series of classes and discussion groups he launched ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, which begins Aug. 1...

The holy month of Ramadan? If you say so, HuffPo puffer.

Canucki Eco-Artist Bites the Hand That Feeds Her, Then Whines When the Hand Cuts Her Funding (To Which She Thinks She's Entitled In Perpetuity for Being So "Edgy" and "Satirical")

A Canadian "artist" was turned down for yet government handout, er, sorry, grant, to subsidize her politico-eco-vanity project, er, sorry, her "art." She and others of her entitlement-suffused ilk (including the Toronto Star, which details her tale of woe) consider that to be "pay back" for her views:

OTTAWA—Franke James is a visual artist, storyteller and environmental advocate who believes in the power of one to effect change.

You might remember her: the north Toronto woman fought city hall and won permission to un-pave her driveway and sow grass and plants instead.

She sold her family’s SUV. She paints, delivers speeches, blogs and tweets, urging people to do what they can to save the planet.

But James fears that at a time when Canada is negotiating a free trade deal in Europe and trying to combat moves overseas that could label Canadian oil sands exports as “dirty,” she’s one voice that’s become too loud for the Harper government.

And the sudden cancellation of Ottawa’s support for a European tour of her work this summer is payback, she says. James was told this month that support was no longer available from embassies across Europe, and the fate of the tour is now in limbo.

James is author of a critical visual essay about Alberta’s tar sands. She has publicly challenged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to fight climate change. But she has taken aim at other leaders too. In the 2006 and 2008 elections, she and her husband created a satirical “whack the PM” game online to prompt voters to “smack some sense” into federal party leaders on the environment.

James says she’s voted for and donated to all parties in the past “except the Bloc Québécois.” In the 2008 campaign, she endorsed a carbon tax, a Liberal policy. In the 2011 campaign, she endorsed Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

Her visually bright artworks and provocative essays came to the attention of a Zagreb, Croatia-based environmental group called Nektarina Non Profit...

Great. Maybe Croatia can help finance her "art".

Update: Here's an example of her "artistry."  I'm no artist, but I think--no, I know--I can do better than that.

This Just In--Palestine House as Pure as the Driven Snow(job)

Taxpayer-funded Palestine House (which last evening played host to the lovely and talented Hanan Ashrawi) has denied being involved in any immigration hanky panky. From mississauga.com:

Officials at Palestine House in Mississauga say they aid newcomers, but they're not involved in human smuggling or helping people obtain Canadian citizenship illegally.

The Erindale Station Rd. language and cultural centre responded today to claims that it helped some of the 1,800 new Canadians who are set to be stripped of their citizenship because they were obtained fraudulently.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney confirmed last week that "we are in the process of notifying (the 1,800 people) that we will be revoking their citizenship because Canadian citizenship is not for sale."

Kenney said some of the individuals are believed to have used "unscrupulous" immigration consultants who submitted fraudulent applications on behalf of people who did not meet qualifications for citizenship.

The 1,800 were identified following a three-year investigation by the RCMP, other police forces and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

About 300 of those identified used an address located in the same building as Palestine House, claiming to live there in order to fraudulently obtain citizenship when instead they were living outside Canada.

Samir Jabbour, media officer for Palestine House, said a tenant who worked as an immigration consultant elsewhere in the building was investigated by the RCMP.

Jabbour denied any wrongdoing on the part of Palestine House.

"We have some tenants in the building, but we are not involved in any of the business of these people," Jabbour told The News. "People are trying to accuse us of dealing with fraudulent immigration issues. We're surprised by this. We never violated any law and I'm adamant that we had nothing to do with any of this."

If Palestine House was involved in the fraud, it would have lost its government funding, Jabbour noted. Furthermore, he said, staff helped police with the investigation.

How, er, helpful of them.

"Jack not only lives full-on. He draws his energy and stamina from others, which is why he leaves himself open – more vulnerable, surely, but with more energy transfer"

The cancer thing sucks, and so does NOW Magazine's kooky hagiography.

Where's Maggie Thatcher When You Need Her?

The old girl wouldn't have stood for any of this nonsense. From the Daily Mail:

Islamic extremists have launched a poster campaign across the UK proclaiming areas where Sharia law enforcement zones have been set up.

Communities have been bombarded with the posters, which read: ‘You are entering a Sharia-controlled zone – Islamic rules enforced.’

The bright yellow messages daubed on bus stops and street lamps have already been seen across certain boroughs in London and order that in the ‘zone’ there should be ‘no gambling’, ‘no music or concerts’, ‘no porn or prostitution’, ‘no drugs or smoking’ and ‘no alcohol’.

Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has claimed responsibility for the scheme, saying he plans to flood specific Muslim and non-Muslim communities around the UK and ‘put the seeds down for an Islamic Emirate in the long term’.

In the past week, dozens of streets in the London boroughs of Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets and Newham have been targeted, raising fears that local residents may be intimidated or threatened for flouting ‘Islamic rules’.

Update: The Brits sure have their priorities in order, don't they? Sharia "no-go zones" are okey-dokey, but airbrushing in ads--now, that's gotta stop, pronto, mate.

Aurora Bore Re: Phyllis

Aurora, Ont. Mayor Phyllis Morris was asking for $6 million in compensation because some anonymous commenters hurt her feelings. The judge said no dice, honey. The NatPo's editorial board comments about it here.

Rodney, Is That You?

Who knew that a slim, chill, dapper narcissist had so much in common with a fat, sweaty shlub? James Taranto writes:

Obama has turned into President Rodney Dangerfield: He doesn't get no respect. (For readers too young to remember Dangerfield, that's not litotes. He used the double negative as an intensifier.) "So we're left with a stalemate," he said last night. "At least that's what Michelle tells me."

OK, we made up that punch line. But it's true that lately Obama hasn't been getting much respect from his friends, either...

Strangest First Line of a Song--EVER!

I nominate Bruce Cockburn's "My name is Richard Nixon only now I'm a girl" ('cuz I'm now listening to it on Ceeb Radio 2):

Got Another One!

The Ceeb reports that a fourth alleged war criminal has been apprehended, no thanks to the Ceeb.

Don't Try This at Home, Kids

Man operates on self with butter knife

2+2=4, Even If Anders Breivik Says So

Muslim extremism festers in Canada, U.S. Congressional committee told

Censorship Buddies Harpoon and Bernie Together Again in the Toronto Star!

There's no agenda to spread Islam and establish the global primacy of sharia, says Harpoon Siddiqui (who's been very busy of late trying to persuade the EU to open up and swallow the Ottomans). Such a notion is nothing more than the "warped" (Harpoon's word) product of the fevered dreams of hateful kafirs such as Geert, Mark--and Anders Breivik as the Beaver (H/T BCF):

Those [Breivik] quotes include Dutch politician Geert Wilders and Canadian author Mark Steyn. And he talks admiringly of the leaders of the English Defence League. He shares their fear-mongering that Muslims and Islam are basically incompatible with the West, and that Muslims cannot be trusted as fellow-citizens because many may be hell-bent on imposing sharia and waging jihad.

Wilders has fans in Canada. So does Stephen Lennon, leader of the English Defence League, a.k.a. Tommy Robinson, a convicted soccer hooligan.

Those Canadian fans invited Wilders for a speaking tour of Toronto, Ottawa and London in May.

Lennon was invited by the Jewish Defence League to address a Toronto audience through a video feed on Jan. 10. He was quoted as telling them: “Canadians wake up — the Islamicization of your country is on the way.”

This prompted Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, to say that while Islamic fundamentalism is a threat, “fighting it with generalized hatred against Muslims … is only a recipe for fuelling more conflict.”

As for Steyn, Maclean’s magazine ran in 2006 a 4,800-word excerpt from a book of his about Muslims posing a demographic, cultural, ideological and security threat to Europe. The editors of the Rogers-owned publication refused to carry a substantial rebuttal by a group of aggrieved young Canadian Muslims, who complained to the human rights commission in frustration. For that they were vilified in a vicious right-wing campaign, rationalized as a defence of free speech.

Damn right! The "aggrieved young Canadian Muslims," a.k.a. the sock puppets, were fronting for Mohamed Elmasry, (dubbed Elmo by Steyn) then the head of the Canadian Islamic Congress. Elmo couldn't complain to Canada's "human rights" bodies himself due to his spot of bother with egregious Zionhass. (He had told TV viewers on the Michael Coren Show that every adult Jew in Israel deserved to be liquidated; rather a Breivik way of approaching things, come to think of it.) Hence the need for the young, fresh-faced sock kids who put a far more pleasant, less overtly Islamist face on the pro-censorship battle. And a battle royale it was, for had Elmo indeed triumphed, free speech as we know it would be effectively dead in Canada. As it was, Steyn and Maclean's had to endure the punishing, punitive "human rights" process, which cast a chill on discourse that continues to this day.

So Harpoon's warped peroration on their behalf--as well as his failure to mention that others Breivik cites include lefty icon Naomi Klein and even Mark Twain, for heaven's sake--goes to show what a duplicitous scallywag he is. And the fact that he once again quotes his pro-state censorship compadre Bernie at a time when the former Ceej chief is running like mad for political office--well, that's just the icing on the feces cake.

Update: BCF has a Toronto Star oopsy.

Going Native

CBS reports on a unique "dress up" program in Afghanistan:

Jim Crawford may not look like it, but he's a U.S. Army major, and part of a program called Afghan Hands, designed to mentor government officials to break down barriers. He wears local clothing and a full beard like most Afghan men.

When we visited Kandahar earlier this month, Crawford was anxious to introduce us to the city's mayor: Ghulam Haider Hamidi.

Good thing they got a chance to visit him back then, because as of this morning, Hamidi is toast. (He was blown up by jihadis in incendiary hats.)

To try to get in on the "Afghan Hands" fun, the CBS gal reporter had a go at playing dress up:

We went for a walking tour of Kandahar's markets, Crawford advised I'd be safer wearing a burkha. Crawford said he is finally used to wearing local clothing.

Although the outfits helped for a while, eventually a crowd began hurling stones at Crawford and the CBS News team in the market.

It can be a painful process, but working through cultural misunderstandings is part of the job. In this case, the crowd may have mistaken a female foreign news correspondent for an Afghan woman walking with foreign men. This is a very conservative, segregated society."

No kidding. But it's hard to see how U.S. military personnel dressing up like the locals is likely to change that.

Oh Great--Yet Another Unfree (Non-Free?) Nation Joins All the Others at the UN

Read this (from the Washington Times) and ask yourself whether it's time to curb the "Juba-lation":

JUBA, South Sudan — Harassment, arbitrary detention and beatings come with the turf for journalists in South Sudan who dare to question the government’s actions, expose corruption or report the opposition’s point of view.

An atmosphere of intimidation has some reporters worried that Africa’s newest nation is replicating the intolerance for a free press that is pervasive in Sudan, the nation South Sudan officially separated from on July 9.

Nhial Bol, the editor of the Citizen newspaper, regularly faces death threats. He was arrested three times in the past four years, during a transition period under an interim government that included many of the same officials with the new administration.

He said it was no coincidence that each arrest followed a Citizen report on corruption in the government. In February, police raided the newspaper’s office in the capital, Juba, and ordered its journalists not to write about misconduct by the South Sudan armed forces.

Mr. Bol was part of the panel that helped draft media-freedom legislation for South Sudan. The legislation has yet to become law...

Isn't that swell? Sounds like the place is shaping up to become another Zimbabwe. (The Mugabe-in-the-making is the dude in the oversized cowboy hat.)

Another Sign of the Looming Apocalypse

Charlie Sheen's former procurer Heidi Fleiss and her feathered friends (she has 20 parrots) are getting their own reality TV show.

The Visual of the Chick in the Bag About Says It All, No?

Oslo Massacre Reignites Immigration Debate

Mark Steyn, Islamophobic Misogynist or Misogynistic Islamophobe?

Both, really, opines the Daily Beast's Michelle Goldberg. She now joins the demented Halleluiah chorus, the one that's singing "Halleluiah, we finally have a 'right-wing Christian fundamentalist' nutter!" with great gusto and jubilance and that's blaming Mark Steyn, the anti-jihad's funny Jeremiah, for the Norway massacre:

Conservatives worried about the Islamization of Europe often blame feminism for weakening Western societies and opening them up to a Muslim demographic invasion. Mark Steyn’s bestselling America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It predicted the demise of “European races too self-absorbed to breed,” leading to the transformation of Europe into Eurabia. “In their bizarre prioritization of ‘a woman’s right to choose,’” he argued, “feminists have helped ensure that European women will end their days in a culture that doesn’t accord women the right to choose anything.”

This neat rhetorical trick—an attack on feminism coupled with purported concern about Muslim fundamentalist misogyny—is repeated again and again in Islamophobic literature. Now it’s reached its apogee in mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik’s 1,500-page manifesto, “2083: A European Declaration of Independence.” Rarely has the connection between sexual anxiety and right-wing nationalism been made quite so clear. Indeed, Breivik’s hatred of women rivals his hatred of Islam, and is intimately linked to it. Some reports have suggested that during his rampage on Utoya, he targeted the most beautiful girl first. This was about sex even more than religion...

Er, if you say so Michelle. Personally, I thought it was more about a deranged Charlie Manson type wanting to leave his mark (his spoor) on history. Speaking of which (derangement, that is), I'd say that your drawing a direct line between Steyn and Breivik is--now what did you call it?--oh, yeah, a "neat rhetorical trick".

I think we should give the last word on this one to George Jonas. In today's National Post, he observes re a mass murderer's "inspiration":

Some lament that Breivik is a rightwing nutcase; others rub their hands in glee. Both are wasting their time. Misdeeds don't invalidate ideas any more than ideas validate misdeeds. When people who are wrong try to discredit people who are right on the basis of something the lunatic Norwegian said in the days when he was only shooting off his mouth, remember that 2x2=4, even if the Unabomber says so.

Religion of Peace and 'Sploding Headgear

Remember how hot and bothered the zanies got when a Danish 'toonist drew a "blasphemous" picture of Islam's founder with a bomb in his bonnet? Well, here's a report about that 'toon come to life:

KABUL, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Militants fighting Afghan government in a new tactic, hardly imagined by security forces, targeted and killed the mayor of Kandahar city, 450 km south of Afghan capital Kabul, in his office on Wednesday.

To target government officials, the militants had often in the past strapped explosive devices in their bodies or wore explosive vests and hunted the prey.

However, this time they organized turban bomb suicide attack in Taliban former stronghold Kandahar, officials confirmed.

"Ghulam Haider Hamidi, the mayor of Kandahar, was in meeting with some people when a man placed explosive device in his turban entered the meeting hall and blew it up, killing the mayor and injured another,"a statement released by kandahar's provincial administration said...

I wonder if they were inspired by the infamous 'toon.

Stealth Jihad in Action

The National Post has an op-ed piece by Amira Elghawaby, an individual it bills as "an Ottawa writer who teaches at a faith-based school." That latter part is crucial, for Ms. E. is arguing in favour of faith--and, more specifically, the Muslim faith--having a place in our public schools. She writes that 

In Britain, where similar fissures around faith and schooling appear, the argument for a more positive attitude towards religion was stated quite bluntly on the BBC by Reverend Janina Ainsworth, the Church of England's chief education officer. "I pay my taxes," she told a radio presenter firmly during a panel discussion earlier this year. "I support the public-education system. Therefore, it seems to me that the views that I hold and what I want for my children ought to be reflected in the public-education system."

For some reason this is considered blasphemous to the motley of faith groups who have vowed to fight against the Toronto board's decision to allow Muslim students to hold Friday prayers during school hours. But is the indignation really about religion, or is it simply fear-mongering against Muslims?

Actually Ms. E. the indignation coheres around the remorseless Islamization of public spaces in the West, a matter about which you should be fully up to speed given that you're affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, a credit which, lo and behold, the Post seems to have left out of your brief and far too sketchy C.V. This post from last year by Quebec anti-jihad blogger Pointe de Bascule details some of the writer-teacher's  previous activity on the Bros' behalf. It involved two Ottawa universities and Bro scion Tariq Ramadan:

On March 18, 2010, the authorities at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, welcomed Ramadan to their campus, where he addressed an audience of 200 who paid $75 each for their tickets. Amira Elghawaby herself, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood network and a journalist for the Ottawa Citizen, wrote that the money collected would go toward the development of an Islamic Studies Centre at the university. She also reported that the university had promised to match the donations made by Ramadan's supporters dollar for dollar. Needless to say, when the Muslim Brotherhood is involved in an academic project, it is their founder Hassan al-Banna's doctrine that will be taught and promoted.

Elghawaby announced Ramadan's visit in Ottawa without giving a hint regarding the guest's controversial past. The following day, though, the Ottawa Citizen provided a correction, allowing its journalist Robert Sibley to discuss the links between Ramadan and the Muslim Brotherhood. Sibley quoted Ibn Warraq, Caroline Fourest and other experts on radical Islam who have exposed over the years how Tariq Ramadan wages his jihad in the West.

He seems to wage it in the same way Ms. E. does--using subterfuge and bafflegab and by exploiting the sympathies and guilt of non-Muslims. In view of the writer-teacher's association with an organization bent on Islamizing the West in its trademark stealthy manner, will the National Post provide a correction about Ms. E. in tomorrow's paper?

Et Tu, Hitch?

You can count Christopher Hitchens among those who deplore the "rush to judgement" which saw jihadis initially being blamed for unfolding events in Oslo. How dare we make such assumptions, writes Hitch (who should know better), when even as we speak Arabs in places like Egypt and Syria "want to know if they have been naive to place their bets...on democratic transition"?

How dare we? Well, it didn't help that a jihadi racket stepped right up to claim credit for the bombing. And there's the reality that most terrorism in our time is of jihadi provenance. And then there's that Mullah Krekar dude, who mere days ago had been threatening to launch just such an attack.

A "rush to judgement"? You bet. But one that was grounded in reality and not, as those deploring the rush would have it, malice.

Why Abbas Cannot Recognize Israel as the Jewish State

David Meir-Levi writes that Abbas can't--and won't--because Israel's very existence is, in a word, un-Islamic.

Update: According to a new poll, the Palestinians prefer a one-state solution.

How Smug Lefties Deal With People/Speech They Don't Like

They censor them/it. The Ceeb's Mark Kelly--a real smuggles--gleefully touts two apps that alert you when you're about to open a link on the 'Net emanating from a media outlet owned by "Darth" Murdoch (Kelly's uber-droll characterization)--and then blocks it lest you soil your Simon pure leftist inclinations by venturing into eee-ville empire territory (which includes Fox, the WSJ, and countless others).

See, if you're a control freak, you block and censor. If you're not, you merely change the channel--or avoid watching the insufferably smug altogether, or if you do watch them, laugh and wonder at their awfulness. One move is something a freedom-derider does, the other is...what I do.

A Bright Spot in a Bleak Time

Mark Steyn parses my all-time favourite entry in the American songbook.

Our Bad

In the wake of the massacre in Norway, right-wing bloggers are "suddenly demanding nuance."

How dare we?

Question of the Day

If CAIR is supposedly so "moderate," what the heck is it doing on Iranian TV, slamming the U.S. (Great Satan to the Ayatollah and his mullah minions) every chance it gets?

CSM Still Suffering From Head-Up-Buttitis

The Christian Science Monitor is under the impression (wishfully thinking?) that because the Norway nutter happened to be anti-jihad and didn't think too highly of multiculturalism that that forevermore discredits everyone who's anti-jihad. It's wrong, wrong, wrong.

Update: An argument against and antidote to the CSM bollocks--Fouad Ajami and Charles Hill discuss the origins of the collision of Islam and the West.

NDP Shockeroo!

Just heard on AM640 that Jack Layton has announced that he's stepping down from the NDP leadership for now because he's battling cancer.

Update: From the Globe and Mail:

In a strained voice, and appearing to have lost weight since the election, Mr. Layton told reporters he was taking some time off for treatment so he can return to Parliament to fight on behalf of Canadians.

“I'm going to fight this cancer now, so I can be back to fight for families when Parliament resumes.”

Mr. Layton said he intended to be in his seat when the House returns from its summer break on Sept. 19.

The 61-year-old NDP Leader did not divulge what type of cancer he was diagnosed with, but he said the prostate cancer was no longer a threat. The new disease was something he noticed in the final days of the last session, Mr. Layton said Monday, when he began to experience stiffness and pain.

“I am as hopeful and optimistic about all of this as I was the day I began my political work, many years ago,” he said. “I am hopeful and optimistic about the personal battle that lies before me in the weeks to come.”

I'm no Layton fan, but I do wish him well with his recovery. That said, I can't fathom how he plowed ahead with his political campaign despite experiencing the warning signs of "stiffness and pain." I can't help but think it was rather foolhardy--as well as downright irresponsible--for him to do so.

Farber Gets a Smackdown From the Rabbinate

They say (in a letter to the Toronto Star) that he's using the Holocaust innappropriately, thereby demeaning the memory of the murdered. (Hey, it wouldn't be the first time. In his previous guise, as Grand Poobah of the now defunct Ceej, the man in question used the Holocaust to justify state censorship):

Re: Jews and gays: Taking the road less travelled, July 2

The Holocaust was a singular human catastrophe. For many of our congregants, it was a personal tragedy. As rabbis, we invoke the Holocaust with reverence for those martyred.

For this reason, Bernie Farber and Glen Murray’s article is of grave concern. They write: “It is imperative that Jews, the most numerous of the victimized communities, pay respect to the murder of gays and lesbians during the Nazi period.”

We acknowledge that the Nazis did not only kill Jews. Yet using Farber and Murray's logic, it would be demanded of us to respect other ideologies, as well. The Nazis killed Communists. As Jews, must we pay respect for the Communism of these victims?

We respect all victims of Nazism as human beings, no matter their life choices. We demand respect for Jewish victims of the Holocaust as human beings. We ask for nothing more.

The Holocaust teaches us to recognize the divine within all people; it does not demand that we respect the politics of each of its victims. It demeans the memory of those martyred to use the Holocaust as a political tool of the moment.

Rabbi Yaakov Hirschman, Rabbi J. Immanuel Schochet and 11 other members of the Vaad HaRabbanim of Toronto

Meanwhile, Bernie still has at least two fans, neither of them Jewish (although one was so empathetic to Jews' "feelings" that he complained--many, many times--to the Canadian "human rights" racket on Jews' behalf--and got an award for his efforts from Farber's Ceej; the other one got an award from Khomeinists).

UNESCO Fiasco

Doing its part to hasten the effacement of Jewry, the UN's cultural body has summarily declared that Moses Maimonides, one of Judaism's pre-eminent sages is--wait for it--a Muslim.

Anders' 'Helter Skelter'

Apparently, the Norway nutter thought his mass murder of young people at a local summer camp would spark a war in Europe between Left and Right. It says so right in his "manifesto," a hodgepodge of ideas cribbed from many different sources and incorporating a large, undigested portion of the Unabomber's ravings. This murderous maniac's high hopes reminded me of another murderous maniac: Charles Manson. He had hoped that his acolytes' murder of some of L.A.'s beautiful people would be blamed on the city's black residents, thereby sparking a race war between black and white. He called this hoped-for war "Helter Skelter," the name of a cryptic Beatles song on their White Album.

One maniac was Nordic, "right-wing" and "Christian" who had been involved in the military; the other was a creepy yet oddly charismatic California lowlife who had tried and failed to break into the music biz. The common denominator: both were in the throes of deranged thinking and maniacal blood lust; both had grandiose visions of the carnage they could unleash. Tragically, both succeeded, one on a far larger scale than the other.

But guess what? One could no more blame the Beatles for inspiring Charles Manson's bloodthirstiness than one can blame, say, Mark Steyn for inspiring Anders'. However, one cannot make the same observation about the jihadis' inspiration. In their case, they are following specific instructions in sacred texts commanding them to wage holy war on unbelievers until such time as they feel themselves subdued. The difference between lone nutters and religious fanatics heeding a sacred call to arms should be obvious to all--but won't be. It will be muddied and fudged beyond all reason in the days ahead.

Columnist Asks "Where's the Usual Media Disclaimer"?

Sherman Frederick writes:

The headline this [Sunday] morning in the NYTimes exclaimed "Norway Charges Right-Wing Muslim" in the aftermath of the bombing and massacre there.

Oh, I'm sorry. It wasn't a Muslim at all. It was some blonde, white Christian guy, hence the headline: "Norway Charges Right-Wing Christian."

So, may I ask, will the Times now treat its readers (as they did after 9/11 and the many other terrorist acts at the hands of "right-wing" Muslims), to story after story about how we shouldn't blame all Christians for the event. How about a dozen major takeouts on how most "right-wing" Christians are misunderstood and actually are peace loving great people?

Somehow, I don't think the Times will be going to any length to give Christians the same kind of clarified treatment. In fact, how long do you think it will take Times writers to find a way to compare this Norwegian right-wing Christian with the Tea Party movement and warn us of the dark dangers embedded into that political movement?

I'll bet it's in the works now.

Pretty safe bet.

Muslim Prayer in Public Schools More Widespread: Letter in the Toronto Star

A teacher in the Toronto public system wonders (in a letter to the Toronto Star) why only one Toronto school has elicited so much attention, his way of spilling the beans about what's really going on in our schools:

Re: Accommodating religions is best approach, Letter, July 20

In the controversy over prayers in school I don't understand the focus on Valley Park Middle School. Are people not aware that this practice is taking place in other schools as well? It is happening, for example, at Jarvis Collegiate, where I taught until one year ago. About 150-200 Muslim students are excused from classes for 25 minutes every Friday to gather in the cafeteria for prayers. Supply teachers who joined us in the lunch room reported that it is also happening in a good number of other schools.

David Schreiber, Scarborough 

I don't think it's too much to ask that the Toronto District School Board--which, after all, is funded by us, the public--come clear re how many schools and students are involved in an "accommodation" that breaches the mosque-state separation, a core Western value. Do you?

Opportunism Knocks

Mark Steyn comments on the Norway nutter (who appears to be a Loughner/Unabomber/McVeigh rolled into one) and how his actions—which are being blamed on Steyn himself, among other freedom-minded writers—are leading to a new hysteria about "Islamophobia" (the links are Steyn's):

So, if a blonde blue-eyed Aryan Scandinavian kills dozens of other blonde blue-eyed Aryan Scandinavians, that’s now an “Islamophobic” mass murder? As far as we know, not a single Muslim was among the victims. Islamophobia seems an eccentric perspective to apply to this atrocity, and comes close to making the actual dead mere bit players in their own murder. Yet the Associated Press is on board:

Security Beefed Up At UK Mosques After Norway Massacre.

But again: No mosque was targeted in Norway. A member of the country’s second political party gunned down members of its first. But, in the merest evolution of post-9/11 syndrome, Muslims are now the preferred victims even in a story in which they are entirely absent. A Tweeter thinks that “turning this scumbag’s atrocity in Norway into a lesson about how Mark Steyn and his ilk are douchebags seems… opportunistic“, but that’s the least of it. Even by the elastic definitions of “Islamophobia”, the angle being pursued is bizarre and profoundly tasteless: A rambling Internet pdf is trumping the facts on the ground – trumping the specifics of what occurred, and the victims. This man Breivik may think he’s making history and bestriding the geopolitical currents and the clash of civilizations, but in the end he went and shot up his neighbors. Why let his self-aggrandizing bury the reality?

Why? Because the opportunity to do so has finally presented itself, and because they are nothing if not "opportunistic."

Do you really think the control freaks who want to shut down our freedoms, starting with free speech, would let an opportunity such as this go to waste?

Happy 50th, Dear Leader

FFF wonders when America turned into North Korea. (When they elected Kim Jong Il-bama, I think.)

The NY Times' Nicholas Kristoff Identifies a Group That's Even More 'Threatening' than Iran and China

Risibly and irrationally, it's the Republicans.

Farber Fumbles

Oh, look--someone in the legacy media has noticed Candidate Farber's desperation/duplicity (H/T BCF). The Toronto Sun's Christina Blizzard writes re the MPP-wannabe's using a dead family member to score points for political gain (and being shot down by the family member's husband):

In a telephone interview, Farber told me he often speaks from personal experiences.

“I was writing about something that affected me. My sister-in-law’s death had a huge impact and I am trying to say that it is important,” he said.

“I would not say I am using it for political purposes.”

That’s a relief — because this is a cautionary tale.

The last thing we need in this election is for aspiring politicians to take the personal tragedy of the death of a young wife and mother and try to use it for their own political gain.

Something (her withering sarcasm, perhaps?) tells me Christina is dubious.

Still Shillin'

The Toronto Star's resident shill for Islam Harpoon Siddiqui says "Booming Turkey belongs in Europe." Since Turkey is now undergoing an Islamic revival and ditching its secularism, following Harpoon's advice would pretty much put the finishing touches on an Islam-dominated continent and sound the death knell of Western civ.

Some 'Cure'

Those wily Wahhabis have a remedy for the Muslim world's ills, one that will also effectively tackle the problem of violent jihadis who are waging a holy war so that, eventually, Islam will prevail worldwide. It's--wait for it--more Islam (so that, eventually, Islam will be in the driver's seat worldwide). Arab News 'splains how it would work:

MAKKAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah urged scholars on Saturday to help government establishments in Muslim countries find solutions to various problems faced by the people so that peace and unity could be achieved.

“Learned men and government establishments in Muslim countries should jointly strive to solve the issues of the people and bring about reforms to improve their conditions,” King Abdullah said in an opening speech read out by Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal in the conference organized by the Muslim World League (MWL).

The conference, called “Issues and challenges of the Muslim world,” took place at the MWL conference hall in Makkah.

On behalf of the king, Prince Khaled opened the three-day conference.

Attributing the current issues in the Muslim world to attempts at destroying the unity of Muslims, the king said solutions to problems could be found in “familiarizing the right approach of Islam in every walks of life, implementing Islamic moderation and laying out practical measures to achieve Islamic unity."

The king added that rapid changes and developments accompanying globalization have impressed on the Kingdom the need to protect the Muslim community from deviating to terrorism...

About protecting the non-Muslim community from the, er, "deviation" the Wahhabis are eerily--though understandly--mute.

Bruce Bawer on the Nightmare in Norway

I was hoping that Bruce Bawer, a longtime critic of jihadism who lives in Norway, would comment on Friday's events, and, indeed, he has. Here he is on the "rush to judgement" that's now being criticized (especially by angry, affronted Muslims):

Those of us who thought, in the first hours after the blasts in downtown Oslo, that we were witnessing yet another act of jihad can be forgiven. In a way, it made sense. 9/11, London, Madrid, Beslan, Bali, Mumbai — why not Oslo? Then again…Norway, although a member of NATO with troops in Afghanistan and Libya, was not exactly in the forefront of the struggle to defeat jihad. On the contrary. Norway calls itself “the peace country.” For years, the Norwegian government and cultural establishment have striven to communicate to even the most extreme elements of international Islam that they want to be friends. They’ve shown their good faith in a number of ways:

• They’ve made a great show of treating Jews very shabbily. Jostein Gaarder, author of the international bestseller Sophie’s World, published an op-ed a few years back declaring his contempt for Israel and the Jewish people. When Gaarder came in for some criticism, many high-profile members of the Norwegian cultural elite rushed to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. If the cultural elite in Norway is more anti-Semitic than its counterparts in any other country in Europe, it has a great deal to do with the recognition that the more you like the Jews, the more you’ll antagonize the Muslims.

• They’ve been extremely gentle with Mullah Krekar, Norway’s resident terrorist. While some government officials have (admirably) labored to get the founder of Ansar al-Islam returned to his native Iraq, the system has repeatedly protected him, allowing him to stay in a very nice flat in Oslo, where he is supported by the state. Over the years the Norwegian media have churned out countless profiles of this murderous, child-torturing monster, invariably depicting him as a charming, grandfatherly type and allowing him plenty of space to bash the United States.

• They’ve squelched criticism of Islam. In January 2006, Vebjørn Selbekk, editor of a small evangelical publication called Magazinet, reprinted the Danish Muhammed cartoons — and sent the Norwegian establishment into a tailspin. Politicians at the very highest level pressured Selbekk to apologize for his offense. He withstood admirably — for a while — but eventually buckled, and on February 10, 2006, appeared before a gathering of Norwegian imams and begged their forgiveness for having exercised his freedom of speech. Top government officials looked on in satisfaction, and a delegation led by a bishop of the Church of Norway traveled to Yemen to deliver the happy tidings of this capitulation to the theologian widely viewed as the closest thing to a Muslim pope, Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

• They’ve dropped displays of Islamic totalitarianism down the memory hole. Two years ago, on two separate nights, a small army of Norwegian Muslim youths rioted in the heart of Oslo, turning a usually placid quarter into something reminiscent of Sarajevo or Beirut at their worst. The alleged motive for this explosion of violence was displeasure over the situation in Gaza; the real intention was to mount a display of power — to intimidate, and to communicate to Norway that their time had come, and that they had better be listened to with respect, or else. And in February of last year, another small army of Muslims, this time not rioting boys but sullen-looking men in long coats and full beards, gathered in downtown Oslo, in the same square where Vidkun Quisling once held his Nazi rallies, and listened with apparent pleasure while a young speaker named Mohyeldeen Mohammed threatened Norway with its own 9/11. Both of these events came and went, and the people who make decisions about this sort of thing plainly decided that it would be best to pretend that they had never happened.

• They’ve openly supported terrorist groups. In the last few days, one of the major stories out of Norway has been the declaration by Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of his country’s support for the effort by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state. This stance scarcely came as a surprise, given the Norwegian government’s longstanding effort to “build bridges” to Hamas. It was Støre, after all, who — when a couple of dozen Western diplomats walked out on a rabid anti-Israeli speech by Mahmoud Ahmedinejad at the 2009 UN conference on racism — was the only Westerner who chose to stay and hear him out.

• And the way they’ve talked to Norwegian Muslims about Islamist terrorism has been — well, consider this. A couple of years ago, when Jørn Holme, head of security services for the Norwegian police, showed up at a meeting sponsored by the Muslim Students Association, supposedly to discuss terrorism, surveillance, and the Muslim community, his main goal seemed to be to bond with the Muslims in attendance by putting down ethnic Norwegians (who, he said, were “too stupid to understand that there is no connection” between Islam and terrorism) as well as white American Christians (“In the United States in the sixties,” he told the audience, “blacks were raped by whites who went to church the next day”). Holme called the United State “human-rights-violation-country number one” and said that his greatest fear, when he contemplated a possible terrorist act in Norway, was that such an act would inflame anti-Muslim prejudice.

You can see, then, that while an Islamic terror attack on Oslo was a possibility, it would’ve been just plain dumb for Islamists to make an enemy of Norway.

The deranged killer (who was clearly too off his nut to think it through) just did his bit to push his countrymen ("peaceniks" who are among the world's most egregious Zion-loathers) even further into the Islamists' open arms.

Not Blaming Dexter

When Kimveer Gill walked into Dawson College in Lachine Quebec and opened fire there back in 2006, the media blamed it on the shooter's fondness for Megadeth and other heavy metal music. Reading excerpts from the Norway shooter's deranged "manifesto," one could easily blame his murderousness on his enthusiasm for Dexter, the TV show about a psychopathic serial killer who's sort of a good guy because he only kills people who really deserve to die. But since the Norway nutter happens to be a right-winger, why blame Dexter when you can blame, say, Geert Wilders and "far-right Zionism"? (Not that Dexter is to blame, just that, wait and see, it won't be blamed when there are other juicier targets).

Update: You'll be hearing more of this type of derangement in coming days--It's the Irgun!

Update: A USA Today opiner blames it on "Islamophobia." Um, she does know that not a single Muslim was targeted and killed in the shooting spree, right?

In Defence of Zionhass

An Al Jazeera opiner (with the Harlequin Romance-y sounding name of Jillian Kestler-D'Amours) bristles at a Canadian inquiry which pegged Zion-loathers as Zion-loathers. She claims in so doing Canada has signalled its intention to curtail free speech for the sake of Israel (which, come to think of it, is evidence of her Zionhass, no?):

In its final report, the CPCCA made about two dozen recommendations on how best to fight anti-Semitism in Canada. While the report states that "criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is wrong", it also found that "singling Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium … is discriminatory and hateful" and many of its recommendations deal with combating this "new anti-Semitism".

A major recommendation issued by the CPCCA was that the Canadian government should promote the working definition of anti-Semitism used by The European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). This definition categorizes "applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation" as anti-Semitic.

In other words, the CPCCA is supporting a definition whereby individuals who focus their attention on Israeli human rights violations, yet don't level an equal amount of condemnation on other states for their human rights violations, can be labeled as anti-Semitic. This is obviously problematic since Palestine solidarity activists - like any other people - have commitments that make it impossible to engage with every issue they are otherwise interested in. They shouldn't be labeled as anti-Semitic due to their inability to participate in every single human rights struggle happening around the world.

Another dangerous recommendation made by the CPCCA was that Canadian university administrators should condemn "discourse, events and speakers which are untrue, harmful, or not in the interest of academic discourse, including Israeli Apartheid Week". Even the use of the word "apartheid" in relation to Israel is anti-Semitic, the CPCCA found, since it amounts to the "denial of the Jewish people their right to self- determination ... by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor".

This clearly violates freedom of speech and an open exchange of ideas at Canadian universities, and also unfairly and inaccurate labels Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) as anti-Semitic. In reality, IAW has since 2005 brought together respected activists, academics, journalists and cultural figures from around the world, including Judith Butler, Ronnie Kasrils, Noam Chomsky and Ali Abunimah, among others, to openly discuss ideas related to Israel/Palestine.

The Zion-loathers who, after all, drape themselves in the mantle of "humanitariasm" and "social justice" and even, heaven help us, "tikkun olam," hate when you point out that their love for "Palestine"/loathing of Israel is excessive, obsessive and downright kooky. A great reason to keep it up, I think.

There Are Shmucks, and Then There are Ubershmucks

The Ubershmuckitude of Juan Cole

Who's he? Shmucky academic/professional Zion-loather, that's who.

Hegemon-Wannabe Channels Its Inner Hitler

The only thing missing here is a tirade about the onerous burden of the Versailles treaty:

BANDAR ABBAS - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said that the Iranian nation has recognized its potential and is capable of imposing its will on hegemonic political and military powers. 

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks during a meeting with Iranian Navy commanders and personnel on Saturday in the port city of Bandar Abbas on the shores of the Persian Gulf.

Commenting on the presence of the hegemonic powers’ military forces in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, he said, “The situation is completely different compared with the past.”

“A long and continuous coast of this region is under the control of an independent government, and a glorious and vigilant nation, which has recognized its power and national will, and with reliance on God, will impose its will on any political and military power that wants to rule over nations high-handedly and force them to retreat,” he stated.

The Leader also said that the presence of Western countries’ warships and aircraft carriers in the region is “harmful and undesirable,” adding, “The era of determining nations’ destinies through maintaining a military presence in the region has come to an end.”

Regional nations have woken up and regard the presence of foreign forces in the region as a “cause of insecurity,” he noted.

The security of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will be maintained through cooperation between regional countries, he said.

He went on to say that the Islamic Republic of Iran has never been in favor of war and will try to avoid engaging in any accidental or planned confrontation, “but those who want to make progress through bullying and treating others high-handedly should face a strong nation in their path.”...

An "accidental confrontation"? How would that work, exactly? The Ayatollah "accidentally" pushes the button (oops!) and "accidentally" incinerates the Little Satan, perchance?

Looking For Logic in All the Wrong Places

Remember how after the shooting of Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords, the media pointed a bony finger (metaphorically speaking) at Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh? This time, predictably, in the wake Norway's bloodbath, they're blaming another slew of non-lefties, including Robert Spencer. He writes:

For that matter, no one has explained or can explain how this guy's supposed anti-jihad views have anything to do with his murdering children.

Scenario #1:

1. Islamic preachers and texts preach violence and hate.
2. Islamic jihadists kill people.
3. Media and Islamic spokesmen say that only Islamophobes think #1 is even happening, or if it is, that it has anything to do with #2.

Scenario #2:

1. Freedom fighters preach free speech, freedom of conscience and equality of rights for all people, against Sharia and Islamic supremacism that denies those rights, advocating only legal means of protest and dissent.
2. Some nutcase who allegedly expressed allegiance with the freedom fighters kills people, none of whom are preaching Sharia or Islamic supremacism.
3. Media assumes that #1 caused #2 and blames freedom fighters.

Alas, looking for logic and expecting the media (which mostly tacks left) to embrace it is futile. We live in the age of squish 'n' jihad, an age of delusion, and as I observed yesterday the horror in Norway will enable those whose mental well being depends on putting a happy, multiculti face on everything to further retreat into dreamland.

Amy Winehouse Dead at 27

Her talent was as huge as her appetite for self-destruction. Given that, it was only a matter of time before the former was extinguished by the latter. FWIW, here's my favorite Amy song:

Update: The rise and fall of Amy Winehouse

Guess What? Defecating on Israel Won't Spare You From Terrorism

Ironic, that.

Right-Wing Ratfink Killer Boosts Jihadi Cause

It's looking more and more like the bloody events in Norway are the work of a right-wing nutjob and not jihadis. If so, this Norwegian Timothy McVeigh did the jihadis and their apologists a huge favour. He gave them another kafir to point to when the word "terrorism" is mentioned, enabling people to conclude--inaccurately--that the jihad is no biggie. He provided the ammo dhimmis will use to argue that what's needed is more accommodation, more unfettered immigration from Dar al Islam, more genuflection to the multiculti/diversity bollocks, more acceptance of sharia in the West, because otherwise xenophobes like this dude will go ballistic. The irony here: an anti-multicultist has single-handedly set back his own cause and boosted the one he apparently despised. What a horrible, stupid, short-sighted, bloody brute!

Update: The killer isn't anti-jihad writer "Fjordman," but, oh, how a formerly reputable blogger wishes it were.

Update: Vlad Teppes has screen shots of the killer's facebook page (which has been taken down by facebook). Oddly, the page was set up only five days ago.

Update: Someone added "Christian" and "Conservative" to the killer's facebook page in the past day. The question is: Was it the killer or somebody else?