Fatah and Hamas are in Bed Together. Why are We Still Sending Them Our Dough?

Canada invested a whole lot of money in Mahmoud Abbas's PA "justice" system and to train his police. That looks to have been a waste of good money, though, now that that Fatah has hooked up with terrorist/jihadist/eliminationist Hamas. In light of this marriage made in Hades, is Canada planning to cut off the cash?

Good question, one of many, in fact, posed by Rhonda Spivak which the government refuses to answer.

CBSC Rules: Get Yer Fatwa For Nothing and Yer Jihad For Free

Reversing an earlier fatwa, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has ruled that the 1984 Dire Straits hit "Money For Nothing," which has the word "faggot" in its lyrics, is fit for public consumption. The broadcasting caliphs have decided that, on second thought and in the context of song, the word is not intended as a slur against gays. So all you Canucki broadcasters out there can now spin the song to your heart's content, knowing that you won't be penalized for your "hate crime."

However, Canadians should realize that the CBSC ruling which held that it's okay for a Holocaust-denying Pakistani imam to beseech the faithful to wage jihad in the context of the Koran (there was a humongous one open on a desk in front of him when he spoke the words) because he didn't really mean for them to, you know, go out and actually wage actual jihad--well, that sucker still stands.

Update: Hilariously, the CBSC has ruled that this song (broadcast by the York University radio station) does not stereotype but contains "an offensive word."

Guess Who's 'Reponsible' for Americans' 'Islamophobia'?

The witch-hunt notwithstanding, it sure ain't the Wiccans

Mouthy Chicks Speak Out Against Islamism

Islamism's War Against Women

Canadian Women Speak Out

An Important Topic...An Impressive Panel

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 7 PM

HELICONIAN HALL

35 Hazelton Avenue

Toronto

Moderator: Barbara Kay, Opinion Columnist, National Post

Special Guest Speakers: Raheel Raza, Natasha Fatah, Marina Nemat

Our distinguished speakers will address the issue of gender apartheid in the Middle East, and how it impacts Canada.

Honour killings, domestic abuse, forced child marriage, and the enslavement of women is a barbaric 6th Century philosophy that has emigrated to our country.

Please join us to learn more about this phenomenon, and to enhance awareness about what we can do to prevent it.

Raheel Raza is a Muslim Canadian journalist, author, and anti-racism activist.

Marina Nemat is the best-selling author of two books chronicling her experience as a teenager, imprisoned in Tehran during the Iranian revolution.

Natasha Fatah is a Muslim Canadian journalist and producer.

Admission, $10, Students, Free

Space is limited.

Only pre-registered guests will be admitted to this event.

Enquiries, email: meryle@advocatesforcivilliberties.org

Or phone: 416 966 0722

Presented by the Advocates for Civil Liberties and
the Canadian Jewish Civil Rights Association

Zionhass Thinks Globally, Acts Locally

When you witness a rally held on the grounds of the Ontario legislature--a Seethe-a-thon invented by the Ayatollah Khomeini to cast aspersions on the world's one and only Jewish state--and when you hear calls for Israel, a "cancer," a "parasitical" entity, to be "dismantled" interspersed with shouts of "Allahu Akbar," you understand to the core of your being that Zionhass is the latest manifestation--mutation--of Jew-hate: the Jew-hate of our time. And yet it isn't at all clear that Jews understand that. Here, for example, is former CJC chief Keith Landy telling the Toronto Star how miffed he is that the Ceej has been superseded by a new, overarching Canadian organization for Jewish advocacy. (The Ceej's most recent former chief, Bernie Farber, declined to comment because he said he was running for political office and didn't want to alienate potential Jewish voters):

Landy agreed that, after 1993 and the Oslo Accords, both the Jewish community and Israel had become “complacent,” believing that anti-Semitism might finally be on the wane.

But he said it still made sense for the CJC to deal with domestic Canadian issues while the Canada-Israel Committee handled events affecting the Middle East.

When a Canadian synagogue gets sprayed with graffiti, “it’s something that affects the community directly here in Canada,” said Landy. “There needs to be a voice that speaks for local issues and the local community without tying it to issues related to Israel.”

Actually, Keith, as these Queen's Park Seethe-a-thon demonstrates, these days it all relates to Israel.

Who do you think is scrawling "Islam will rule" on local Jewish property--Nazis?



Update: Here's BCF's footage of daffy Zaffy Bangar at the Seethe-a-thon. But don't worry--it isn't "hate" because Zaffy assures us he loves Jews in general and loathes Zionists in particular--and only because they stole the Palestinians' land and thus have no right to be sovereign over it. (Can't you feel the love? Doesn't it make you feel all sick to your stomach warm and fuzzy inside?)

Designating Iranian Products Kosher...Ain't

My mom was enjoying one of her favorite treats the other day, some delicious dates, when she happened to look at the package to see where they were from. Written in the teensiest letters such that she had to squint to read them: product of Iran, packaged in Canada. And even though the tasty morsels came from the nation which even as we speak is enriching the uranium to build the nukes to follow through on its promise to obliterate Israel (a "cancer" and "parasitical," according to the trash-talking Khomeinists), the dates had been designated COR, that is, super-duper Canadian kosher.

Whassup with that?

Gaddafi's Crush

Who knew--Condi Rice was the Tripoli peacock's Justine Bieber?

It seems that Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi was hot for Condi. Rebels ransacking his Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli discovered an odd photo album consisting of “page after page” of snapshots of Rice. And he’s demonstrated his affinity before: in a 2007 Al Jazeera interview, he referred to her as “my darling,” saying, “I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders,” he said, adding, “Leezza, Leezza, Leezza...I love her very much.”

The State Department rightly called it “deeply bizarre and deeply creepy.”

Nah. Condi was kind of cute. Now, if you told me he was crushin' on Hillary--that would be deeply disturbing.



Update: I knew it reminded me of something:

Shaikhin' All Over

An item from Dubai:

His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Wednesday received at Zaabeel Palace Their Highnesses Supreme Council Members and Rulers of the Emirates, Crown Princes, Deputy Rulers, senior officials and UAE citizens, who came to greet him on the occasion of Eid Al Fitr.

Shaikh Mohammad exchanged greetings with Shaikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi of Ras Al Khaimah, Shaikh Hamad Bin Mohammad Al Sharqi of Fujairah, Shaikh Humaid Bin Rashid Al Nuaimi of Ajman, and Shaikh Saud Bin Rashid Al Mualla of Umm Al Quwain.

Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince, and Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, were present.

Shaikh Mohammad also exchanged greetings with Shaikh Mohammad Bin Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah, Shaikh Mohammad Bin Hamad Bin Mohammad Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah, Shaikh Ammar Bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Crown Prince of Ajman, and Shaikh Abdullah Bin Salem Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah...

Wow. That's a lotta shaikhs. Tell me, is there anyone in the oily emirate who isn't shaikhy?

Bangladesh Bests Canada: Toronto Star

According to this article in the Toronto Star, Canada compares unfavourably to Bangladesh when it comes to the number of chicks who are interested in pursuing post-secondary education in science and engineering:

It is tempting to be smug about the state of gender equality in Canada, particularly when we compare ourselves to a country like Bangladesh.

After all, most Canadians endorse statements supporting gender equality and the World Economic Forum ranks Canada in the top quartile of countries globally on gender equity. In contrast, far fewer Bangladeshi agree with principles of gender equality and Bangladesh ranks 82nd out of 134 countries on gender equity. Yet, paradoxically, Bangladesh has been more successful in recent years than Canada on one front in the gender equality battle — recruiting more women into STEM education.

STEM is shorthand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. It is an area where women are significantly under-represented. In Canada and the United States, female enrolment in university engineering programs peaked at 19 per cent in 2000, but has declined since to 17 per cent in Canada in 2009.

In contrast, female enrolment in engineering in Bangladesh has risen from 14 per cent in 1999 to over 20 per cent in 2009. Increased female enrolment in STEM fields has also been observed in other Asian countries such as India, China, Taiwan and South Korea.

Educators and policy-makers are concerned about STEM fields because technology is an important driver of economic growth and can play, as we have seen in recent events, a critical role in political change. When these fields are not drawing on one half of our talent, it represents a significant loss to all of us.

There are at least two possible kinds of explanations for the differences we observe between Western and Asian countries — individual choice and the influence of context. Our research suggests that both are relevant.

In a survey of over 800 engineering students in Bangladesh, we found that young women were less likely than their male colleagues to say that they chose engineering as a major because they have been interested in it since childhood, but more likely to say that they chose engineering because of their grades and admission test scores. These results highlight fundamental differences in how our education systems deal with choice.

In Bangladesh, students are offered university places according to their marks on standardized admission tests. The students with the highest scores are offered the most prestigious opportunities including places in engineering programs. In Canada, students choose their field of study based on personal interests and vague notions of fit.

Unfortunately, concepts of fit are notoriously subject to the influence of stereotypes. Other research in North America has indicated that young women perceive technology careers as boring, nerdy and not cool. Our research indicates that this is not the case in Bangladesh, where technology careers are viewed as challenging and creative by both women and men. These perceptions are critical as our research shows that perceiving technology careers as challenging is the most important determinant of interest in a high-tech career for both women and men in Bangladesh.

Ideas about the suitability of careers come from a variety of sources including parents and friends but the media also plays an important role. Previous analysis of media portrayals of high-tech show that gender stereotyping is pervasive globally.

Women are either absent or portrayed in passive roles in high-tech advertisements...

Oh, please. Why does it never occur to these "progressive" types that if women in Canada are more inclined to go into law, medicine and veterinary science it's not because of "gender stereotyping" or "high-tech advertisements," but because those are the careers that women find most appealing?

And the fact that fewer men than women want to become, say, teachers or dental hygienists--is that, too, a matter of "gender stereotyping"?

Of course not.

As for the idea that Bangladesh--Bangladesh!--should be looked to as some sort of exemplar of women's rights: well, that's about as nutty as it gets!

Er, the Toronto Star Does Know What 'Jihad' Means, Doesn't It?

I had to ask, because after reading this, it isn't at all clear to me that it does:

TRIPOLI—They prepared sharba — a soup of meat, tomato, oil and water.

Collected clothes and money from trusted friends.

Called anyone of influence outside the country to tell their side’s story, disposing of the SIM card after each call.

And prayed.

Seated in a row, six women, most of them engineering students, say they did their part to help the men take Tripoli from Gadhafi in their jihad, or struggle, against the regime.

“Jihad was made for men and women. There is no difference. But we are not warriors,” says Randa Al Alam, 26.

Auhood Elkhabule, 25, adds: “Most of the women went out and tried to help the men. But many of them say, ‘We are men, we do it ourselves.’ I couldn’t just sit and say let them do it. Many of my friends have been killed.”...

“I was in a group trying to gather money, food, trying to get them to the revolutionaries,” said Sanaa Eljerbi, 25. “We are already under the eyes of the regime, and it was hard to do. We used simple codes, without telling (anyone who might overhear) why we need it.”...

Could they have done more? Handle a gun if asked?

Narjes Elshaksto, 28: “I had jihad in a different way: praying for them.

Farah Al Mohalhel, 25: “Some women wanted to handle guns.”

Auhood Elkhabule starts shifting on the couch, eager to get a word in.

“Many girls, they can’t kill an insect, even a simple fly. For what Gadhafi did, I want to choke him, burn him alive.”

That, or: “Put him in a cage and put him in a zoo.”

“I am a rebel.”

More than a week since the fight for Tripoli began, the women are asked how it feels to sit and talk freely with a foreign reporter.

“I am speechless,” Auhood says, then laughs when she realizes she is, in fact, not.

Her sister Khulood, 29, says: “This is a proper jihad. You don’t choose what you want from the Qur’ran. It’s fixed, it’s right.”

You said it, sister. Too bad clueless "progressive" types—like the Star scribbler—have no idea what you're talking about. For the truth about these "rebels" and their "proper jihad," one must turn to a non-clueless, non-prog—like, say, Diana West.

OnIslam Uses Spectre of 'Islamophobia' to Pimp for Sharia in the U.S.

That new Pew poll may have shown that American Muslims are "satisfied" with their lives in Obama's America, but you'd never know it from reading this onIslam piece. It claims that U.S. Muslims, who are "toning down" their Eid celebrations because of the 9/11 anniversary, are worried that they will be targeted by vengeful/hateful kafirs, a spectre of "Islamophobia" that onislam does its utmost to gin (or jinn) up:

...Other Muslims were worried of possible attacks against their mosques during `Eid celebrations.

"The anti-Muslim wave we are witnessing is really affecting the Muslim community," said Naeem Baig, vice president for public affairs at the Islamic Circle of North America. 

Since the 9/11 attacks, US Muslims, estimated between 6-8 million, have complained of discrimination and stereotypes in the society because of their Islamic attires or identities.

The anti-Muslim frenzy developed widely over the past months over plans to build a mosque near the 9/11 site, resulting in attacks on Muslims and their property. 
Adding insult to injury, Republican Senator Peter King fuelled anti-Muslim sentiments by holding a probe into what he called "radicalization" of American Muslims.

Worse still, lawmakers in at least 15 states have introduced proposals to ban Shari`ah.

Banning sharia is "worse" than "possible attacks on mosques"? Worse than "discrimination and stereotypes"? Worse than "the anti-Muslim frenzy"?

That one assertion prettty much tells you all you need to know about this Islamist website.

It's Alive!

Lest you think the CJC has been "reorganized" out of existence, a Ceejer (quoted in the National Post) says its executive is waiting in the wings for the "new" Jewish advocacy outfit to fail:

Mark Freiman, president of Canada’s oldest Jewish organization, maintained in an interview from Florida that the congress still exists, adding that its executive is still in place. And one of the congress’ regional chairs went so far as to criticize the make-up of the new centre’s national executive, saying it “does not reflect the socio-economic diversity of the Canadian Jewry” or the “political spectrum of the community.”

“Do I support [the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs]? I can’t really answer that at this point,” Frank Bialystok, the congress’ Ontario region chair, said in a telephone interview from Madrid, Spain. “I have to wait and see what happens as CIJA rolls out. What I can say is that I have not been contacted by the new CIJA. No one from the board, nor the CEO, has contacted me.”

Although there is “some merit to the reorganization of Jewish advocacy in Canada,” he said he is concerned that the CJC’s basic principles — including “broad representation in the community, a commitment to human rights and a strong connection to other religious groups” — will soon “fall by the wayside.”

A commitment to squishy leftism, state censorship, dhimmfied interfaithy encounters ("mmm, your samosas are dee-lish, imam") and our cockamamie "human rights" apparatus, more like--things which should "fall by the wayside," and a big reason why the Ceej was defunded.

Nancy Grace? George Clooney's Italian Ex? Chaz Bono?

Worst. DWTS lineup. Ever!

Muslims 'Satisfied' With Obama's America

It looks like Obama's Muslim outreach is beginning to pay off. Oh, not in the larger Muslim world: they still hate the U.S. like crazy in that domain. Inside America, though, it's a whole 'nother ball game. According to a new Pew poll

The vast majority of Muslim Americans - 79 percent - rate their communities as either "excellent" or "good" places to live, even among many who reported an act of vandalism against a mosque or a controversy over the building of an Islamic center in their neighborhoods.

They also are now more likely to say they are satisfied with the current direction of the country - 56 percent, up from 38 percent in 2007. That is in contrast to the general U.S. public, whose satisfaction has dropped from 32 percent to 23 percent.

Andrew Kohut, Pew president, said in an interview that Muslim Americans' overall level of satisfaction was striking.

"I was concerned about a bigger sense of alienation, but there was not," Kohut said, contrasting the U.S. to many places in Europe where Muslims have become more separatist. "You don't see any indication of brewing negativity. When you look at their attitudes, these are still middle-class, mainstream people who want to be loyal to America."

The latest numbers come amid increased U.S. attention on the risks of homegrown terrorism after the London transit bombings in 2005. The problem has been especially pressing for President Barack Obama, with federal investigators citing a greater risk of attacks by a "lone wolf" or small homegrown cells following the 2009 Fort Hood shooting and the Times Square bombing attempt last year.

Such terror warnings have stirred raw emotions as the U.S. struggles to talk about religion in the context of terrorism.

Tensions erupted last summer over plans to build a mosque near the Ground Zero site in New York City after critics assailed it as an insult to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., held House hearings earlier this year to examine whether American Muslims are becoming "radicalized" to attack the U.S., declaring that U.S. Muslims are doing too little to fight terror.

The Associated Press reported last week that with CIA guidance, the New York Police Department dispatched undercover officers into minority neighborhoods, scrutinized imams and gathered intelligence on cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs often done by Muslims.

It is now common in U.S. mosques for Muslims to preface public remarks by saying that they know the government is eavesdropping but Muslims have nothing to hide.

Still, one factor behind the somewhat upbeat sentiment of Muslim Americans is the 2008 election of Obama, who pledged to improve relations with the Muslim world. Muslim Americans who vote largely identify themselves as Democrats, and fully 76 percent of those surveyed say they approve of Obama's job performance, compared with 15 percent in 2007 who approved of Bush's performance...

You mean all those mosques funded by the Wahhabis (the primary source of mosque/madrassah funding in North America) have bowdlerized sharia's primacy right out of their teachings?

You mean global jihad is finished, kaput, sleeping with the fishes?

And here I was thinking denial was a river in Egypt when in reality it just keeps rolling along in Obama's America.

Ixnay on the Aria-shay

Obama's Department of Justice refuses to disclose the results of its investigation into some hanky-panky by Islamist bankers who have ties to terrorist outfits. So much for that promised "transparency."

You Know Things are Seriously Effed Up When Hamid Karzai Is the Voice of Reason

From AP:

The Afghan government deliberately leaked details of the United States’ secret meetings with a Taliban emissary, scuttling the U.S.-Taliban talks and sending the intermediary into hiding, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

The U.S. met at least three times with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar’s personal intermediary Tayyab Aga, who has now gone into hiding in Europe fearing for his life. The Afghan government, angry at Washington’s decision to confer secretly with the Taliban emissary, intentionally leaked the details of the talks, a U.S. and an Afghan official told the AP.

The leak, the officials said, stemmed from Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s fear that U.S.-Taliban talks would leave him on the sidelines and undercut his authority. The officials said someone in the presidential palace, where Karzai’s office is located, intentionally made the information public.

No one in the presidential palace returned calls for comment from the AP.

A U.S. official told the AP that the talks collapsed because of the leak, but said Washington will continue to pursue negotiations. The U.S. has not had direct contact with Aga in months, the AP reported...

Videos From Yesterday's Zesty, Zany Zionhass Rally in Toronto

Found 'em on Shia TV (which calls upon the faithful to "cleanse al Quds of Zionists"). First up, "Sister Karen" of the United Church of Canada. A useful idiot of the first order, she gushes to the Khomeinists that, "We need you. We need you." (Yeah, like a hole in the head--ba dum pum.) Next, here's a rep from the Canadian Arab Federation (eliminationists of a feather flock together, eh?) And, of course, what would an Al Quds Open Mic Day be without noted Khomeinist and former editor of ex-pat Khomeinist rag, Crescent--ladies and jellybeans, put your hands together for the comedic stylings of daffy Zafar Bangash! What a tough act for Ayatollah loyalist Sheikh Hamza Sodagar to follow, but he gives it that old (really old) school try. (Get a load of the dude standing to his right, the one in the red Che Guevara t-shirt holding up a photo of Khomeini--priceless, no?)

As a bonus, here's United Church Minister Bruce McIntosh speaking at the Khomeinists' Al Quds Day Seminar held (on city property) on the 26th. (Boy, those UCCers are thick as sludge.)

Update: The rally was supposedly all about the poor, suffering Palestinians, and yet there was nary a word about what Syria's Assad is doing to them. 

Odd, that. (That's sarcasm, of course. It would be odd only if Al Quds Day were really about the Palestinians--which it is not--and not about eliminating Israel--which it most definitely is; Israel, that insult to Islam, was described as a "cancer" yesterday by the "eloquent" cleric and as "parasitical" by daffy Zaffy--echoing the sentiments of a Third Reich eliminationist.)

Negative Review of 'My Idiot Brother' Weirdly Positive

Toronto Sun film critic Liz Braun objects to the flick on political grounds:

It's slow, vaguely preachy and filled with characters who are impossible to like. And it's weirdly Republican, if a movie can be so described -- everything about the left-leaning sister's values and parenting style are mocked, for example, and there are funny little details throughout that are worrisome. The villainous ex-girlfriend loves the Dixie Chicks? An ill-advised pregnancy has a fairly tale happy ending? Handing a wad of cash to a stranger on the subway is funnier if the stranger is a black guy? These are the questions you'll be asking yourself in the dark.

Somehow I doubt it. And, actually, I had no intention of seeing the movie until Liz described it--enticingly--as "weirdly Republican." How did that manage to get past Hollywood's de facto blacklist?

Ee-ville Zionists Crash Khomeinists' 'Al Quds Day' Seethe-a-Thon (Doo Dah, Doo Dah)

CASMO crazies whinge and seethe
(A-jad! A-jad!)
Zionhass the air they breathe.
(Khomeini; yeah!).
G'wine to vent and rant;
G'wine to spew and wail.
They'll use "Palestine" to crush the Jews.
Twelvers'll soon prevail.



Update: Elsewhere in Hogtown, some chicks who don't know how good they have it and who apparently had nothing better to do took part in an altogether different kind of protest. What a hoot it would have been had they gotten their signals crossed and converged with the Al Qudsniks in the same place at the same time! (Sure, the Toronto Star sent a reporter and photographer to the titty protest, but was nowhere in evidence at the Seethe-a-thon; nor, for that matter, was any other mainstream media outlet.)

Update: Speaking of Zionhass, this toxic piece of pro-Palestinian propaganda (Naqba! ethnic cleansing! "Guilt about Holocaust reason for West's support for Israel," Israelis "kill women and children!") is now showing on OMNI TV.

Update: Guess who showed up at the Seethe-a-thon and got caught on film by BCF? Why, it's that "brave Muslim girl" who confronted the anti-mosqueteria folks. You sure get around, sister!

Update: Mega-barf! Just caught the credits of that OMNI doc which revealed that it was funded by--wait for it--Canadian Heritage!

Hey, I'm all for free speech, but I don't see why Zion-loathers/pro-jihadists should get government hand-outs to produce their venomous diatribes.

Here's a promo for the doc--in Arabic.

'Ground Zero' Mosque a Bust?

Barry Rubin writes that the structure will likely never get built--but not because of kafir opposition to it. No, it appears to be a no-go because the rather dubious characters behind it failed to convince the moneybags of the Arab world to cough up the dough-re-mi.

Harpoon's Kind of Jew

In his hatchet job on Ron Banerjee, the vocal anti-jihadist Hindu who helped spearhead the anti-mosqueteria protest, Harpoon Siddiqui once again uses his favorite Jew as his go-to guy:

In January, when the JDL made common cause with a racist British group, the English Defence League, Banerjee was at their Toronto rally, which was opposed by the Canadian Jewish Congress. Bernie Farber, then CEO, said: “When extremists come together, we all too often get a combustible reaction. . . . Using the tactics of hooligans, whether from the right or the left, is appalling.”

Yes, it's far better to sit down with "friends" (like Harpoon, a hooligan with words) at a convivial interfaith repast of falafels and samosas (or at a convivial anti-hate confab). Just make sure not to mention that pesky Jew-state if you don't want the amiability to melt away before your eyes--like an evil, green-faced broad encountering a bucket of water.

Bernie Farber: Official Jew emeritus, political candidate, pal of Harpoon--and pre-eminent "sha, shtil" Canucki Jew of our time.

St. Jack the Cynicism-Slayer?

He "vanquished the cynicism that corrodes our political life," claimed Stephen Lewis in his heartfelt if sick-making eulogy for a fallen Socialist warrior-saint. (Did you catch the part where Lewis quoted novelist Arundhati Roy, a fire-breathing hard leftist who loathes both the U.S. and Israel--how perfect was that?)

Sure, Jack was an affable bloke, but did he really, as his lugubrious eulogizer asserted, slay the "corrosive" behemoth?

Well, no. That's a bunch of swoony bombast. Thankfully, our political life remains more or less the same as it ever was. For that matter, so do Socialists and the media jackals who reverence them. To paraphrase another litterateur--Oscar Wilde--re cynicism: An NDPer is a person who knows the price of nothing and the "value" of the government doing everything.

Placenta Cookbook

Er, no thanks.

CAIR Report Smears Anti-Jihadists as "Islamophobes"

Well, it would, wouldn't it? The question is: why are the kafirs of Salon so receptive to the old bait-and-switch?

Also in Salon--Why won't American embrace the left? (as if that Obama thing never happened at all) and hot Sapphic action in, of all places, Tehran.

Remembering Jack in 'Suitable' Ways

Toronto Star readers suggest some "fitting" memorials for Jack Layton:

• Many readers like the idea of creating a network of commuter bike paths. It’s something the city needs, and would speak to Layton’s long-standing interest in cycling. Lou Ciotoli proposed bike lanes and paths throughout the central core, to be named the “Jack Layton Trail.” Aaron Duncan, a former Toronto cyclist now living in Guelph, endorsed the idea and added: “Bike lanes are something Jack long advocated for. He would have enjoyed using them himself and he would have been elated to see his fellow cyclists enjoying a healthy way to navigate about our beloved city.”

• Rename a street or park. Some suggested Broadview Ave., home of Layton’s constituency office. Others nominated Riverdale Park, in his riding of Toronto-Danforth, or a space in the new West Don Lands neighbourhood. Irene and Viggo Zingenberg suggested putting Layton’s name on the new Portland St. pedestrian bridge over the downtown rail lands

• Rename Dundas Square “Jack Layton Square.” A Facebook page devoted to just that has attracted more than 2,000 fans. A few readers think it’s an overly commercial spot, but others said the busy, downtown feel of the space is just right.

• Memorialize the words of Layton’s final letter (“Love is better than anger . . .”) in stone or concrete.

• Create a fountain fed by rainwater and filtered so all can drink from it. Wrote Eva Ziemsen: “It will symbolize that we must always think of the glass as full — of ideas, of nourishment, of reusable resources and pureness of optimism.”

• Mark Kim suggested encouraging people to participate in “a larger social action (let’s call it the Layton Collective Project for now)” that would involve improving their community, school or neighbourhood in accordance with principles Layton supported.

• Don Stevenson, a former Ontario government representative to Quebec, proposed an annual Montreal-Toronto festival in honour of Layton, with each city alternating as host. “The festival would focus on innovative ways in which Jack’s two cities — and communities within them — have been dealing with urban issues and how they could learn from each other.”

• A Jack Layton Foundation or think-tank to promote his ideas, and a Layton chair at Ryerson University, where he taught for many years.

• A Jack Layton chair next to the mayor’s spot at city hall, “to which anyone could refer when an aura of civility is ever needed during meaningful discussions,” wrote Ted Tyson. The chair, he added, might be even more useful in the House of Commons.

Well said, Ted. But I think you and your ilk are thinking way too small. I say we should think big--that's what Jack did--and rename the whole freaking country for him!

I think "Laytonstan" has a nice ring to it.

Obama Politicizes 9/11 Anniversary

Disgusting! But not at all out of character:

President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday to recall the spirit that united the country after the Sept. 11 attacks and take part in a national day of service to mark the anniversary next month.

In remarks acknowledging the "great challenges" that confront the US economy, and could hurt his reelection chances next year, Obama also sought to rise above the partisan political rancor that has divided Washington all summer. 

"As we mark this solemn anniversary, let's summon that spirit once more. And let's show that the sense of common purpose that we need in America doesn't have to be a fleeting moment; it can be a lasting virtue," Obama said in his weekly radio address...

One had hoped that the solemn anniversary would be an occasion to summon up a clue about global jihad, and would not be turned into an entirely inappropriate wannabe-JFK "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" moment, but I suppose that's too much to hope for.

Mourning Becomes Electric

Watch the funeral of year (decade? century?) here.

Toronto's "Diversity" Gatekeeper Has Her Head Up Her Arse

Uzma Shakir is a much-honoured community activist (and rabble rouser) who's in charge of Toronto's Office of Equity, Diversity and Human Rights--an august position, indeed. In that capacity, she's the one who signed off on--who saw nothing untoward about--our local Khomeinists convening an annihilation celebration in a city-owned venue.

No surprise there since she's one of those "diversity"-mongers--the ones who've ingested (and become heavily invested in) the Marxist mumbo jumbo such that they can belch it out ad nauseum. Here she is, for example, in '08 writing about how Toronto sucks because of rich white people (a thought that's not considered racist in her circles because a non-white, non-"hegemon" has expressed it):

A closer look at the communities of the wealthiest city in Canada paints a disturbing picture. Multiple reports show that the middle class is increasingly disappearing and income polarization is growing. A small group of rich people is getting richer while the larger proportion of the population is getting poorer. Even more alarming is that this income disparity is manifested in two critical ways in the city: the spatial and ethnoracial divides. Wealthier white people live in the center of the city surrounded by a sea of poorer ethno-racial communities. Between 1980 and 2000, while the poverty rate for the non-racialized population (i.e., those of white, European or Caucasian heritage) fell by 28 percent, poverty among racialized families rose by 361 percent. This is happening at a time when, on average, immigrant skills and education are higher than the Canadian average.       

Indeed, Torontonians today are virtually all bilingual (if not trilingual or “quadlingual,” as my son calls himself), but they don’t always just speak English and/or French. For many Torontonians, the shores of Africa or fields of Asia shape their history and nostalgia and language more than the landscape of Europe. They are highly educated, skilled and mobile, and internationally experienced, just not in Canada. By 2011, according to the 1999 report Immigration, Labor Force & Age Structure of the Population by Human Resources and Social Development Canada, an incredible 100 percent of net labor market growth is expected to be through immigration, yet today, the systemic non-utilization of this immigrant labor costs the Canadian economy approximately CAN$4.97 billion.

What kind of future are we hoping to build, and what is the role of planning in Canada’s global cities in making that future real? Are we trying to build a future that takes the diverse resources of the globe and hammers them into a mythical Canadian bilingual/bicultural shape? This mythical Canada never really existed except as a colonial construct. The fantasy of bilingual, bicultural Canada never acknowledged Aboriginal peoples’ multiple identities as part of the national lore. Or are we trying to build a future that deconstructs and then reconstructs Canada in the interest of equity? Canada is worth investing in, but we must remember that Canada is not a final product but rather an experiment unfolding where we must all have an equal opportunity to write the national story or else we will perpetuate historical absences while creating new voids well into the future...

"New voids"--ooo, scary. But not nearly as scary as annihilationist-minded Khomeinists getting thumbs up to spew their Zionhass from the city's "diversity" Grand Poobah.

Hey, Mayor Ford, unlike Usma, I can tell the difference between fake fears and real ones. Let me be your gatekeeper!
 

"DIVERSITY OUR STRENGTH"--our city motto ranks right up there with "Four legs good, two legs bad," and "Arbeit Macht Frei"

The Merry Prankster of Canadian Media

The orange wig is killer.

A Man Who Gets It (Salim, Not Jack)

Salim Mansur unpacks a central organizing principle that the late Jack Layton (peace be upon him) could never grasp:

The constraints, as state-engineered regulations, are put in place always in the name of some good, yet the effect, intended or not, is diminution of individual freedom.

Whenever freedom based on individual rights is traded for some other good for advancing equality, fairness or some other politically correct state-directed policy, such as multiculturalism, it paradoxically enhances the power of the state over individuals.

The cumulative enhancement of state power and diminution of individual freedom eventually leads to turning an open society into a closed one. This process, as it advances, represents the decay of an open and free society.

F.A. Hayek called it The Road to Serfdom; Jack Layton, on the other hand, called it progress.

Update: Another man who gets it--Mark Steyn--writes:

As I point out in my book, in the last six decades the size of America's state and local government workforce has increased over three times faster than the general population. Yet Obama says it's still not enough: The bureaucracy needs even more of our manpower. Up north, Canada is currently undergoing a festival of mawkish sub-Princess Di grief-feasting over the death from cancer of the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Jack Layton's career is most instructive. He came from a family of successful piano manufacturers – in 1887 H A Layton was presented with a prize for tuning by Queen Victoria's daughter. But by the time Jack came along the family's private-sector wealth-creation gene had been pretty much tuned out for good: He was a career politician, so is his wife, and his son. They're giving him a state funeral because being chair of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative is apparently more admirable than being chairman of Layton Bros Pianos Ltd.

Indeed. But the real reason he's getting a state funeral, as Steyn well knows, is that Stephen Harper knew that if didn't agree to one he'd be pegged (and pilloried) as the Queen, with Layton taking on the role of the suddenly dead Diana.

Whether in German, Farsi or English, the Meaning of "Annihilate the Jews" Comes Through Loud and Clear

The only difference between the Khomeinists' Al Quds Day hyperventilations and Hitler's pre-Holocaust hyperventilations is that Khomeinists are hairier and have nukes. From the L.A. Times:

Establishment of an independent Palestinian state would not stop efforts to wipe out Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday.

Palestinians are expected to present a petition to the United Nations General Assembly next month for full U.N. membership, which would confer international recognition of an independent Palestinian state. The United States is seeking to block any action on the bid.

Creation of a Palestinian state would not satisfy those intent on "annihilating" Israel, Ahmadinejad said, speaking at Iran's annual Quds Day rally in support of the Palestinian cause.

"Do not think that your existence will be recognized with the recognition of the Palestinian state," the Iranian president said, addressing Israel. "You have no place in our region and among our nations, and you will not be able to continue your ignominious life on even a small part of the Palestinian territories."

Ahmadinejad also renewed his previous characterizations of the World War II Holocaust as a "lie."

Tens of thousands of Iranians marched Friday in Tehran in Quds Day events; some observers said the crowds were smaller than those of last year. Authorities provided free bus and subway rides for attendees...

Gee, I wonder if CASMO, our local Khomeinists (whose annihilation celebrations take place at Queen's Park this afternoon), did the same for its supporters.

Christie's Inarticulate Critics

Christie Blatchford writes about some of the missives she received from overwrought (and barely-articulate) Layton mourners when she dared to point out that the object of their veneration, like the emperor in the old Andersen tale, wasn't fully clothed:

Many were obscene, the epithet of choice the four-letter C word. Astonishing to me, most of the half-dozen folks who invoked this one used it in the subject line ("You Are a C---") and had addresses that appeared to contain real names.

There were countless vague threats. "I Hope Someone Blows You Away," one man wrote. "I hope to run you out of the city," said another. A third, a fairly well-known playwright in Toronto, said he was looking "forward to writing your obit." One fellow said if he recognized me on the street, he would pelt me with fruit. (I thanked him for using his full name and said "I look forward to our meeting," at which point he backed off and said he hoped that would never happen.)

Curiously, many people, having offered savage assessments of my worth or rather lack of it, also summoned up a bewildering righteousness. As one guy said, managing to be both prim and coarse, albeit a bit funny, "I would call you a c---, but you sadly lack the required warmth and depth."

Whereas those who partake in the mass boo-hooing are demonstrating that they're profoundly "warm and deep" (or so they think).

Update: Hate to break it to you, blubbering beautifiers, but he was A politician, not a saint.

No Kidding. What Was Your First Clue, Jimmy?

Jimmy Carter says recent Cairo protests threaten Israeli-Egypt peace treaty

While Their Guitars Gently Weep

A chapter of Mark Steyn's After America deals with cockamamie regulations and the cockamamie bureaucracies that enforce them. Steyn cites as an example the little girl who was hounded and made to cry by state enforcers when she, as per an age-old American tradition, put up a lemonade stand outside her home. Here's another example--from the Wall Street Journal: musicians will now have to live in fear that government regulators will hunt them down and confiscate their "forbidden" instruments:

Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson's chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company's manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company. "The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier," he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle.

It isn't the first time that agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service have come knocking at the storied maker of such iconic instruments as the Les Paul electric guitar, the J-160E acoustic-electric John Lennon played, and essential jazz-boxes such as Charlie Christian's ES-150. In 2009 the Feds seized several guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both sides have been wrangling over the goods in a case with the delightful name "United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms."

The question in the first raid seemed to be whether Gibson had been buying illegally harvested hardwoods from protected forests, such as the Madagascar ebony that makes for such lovely fretboards. And if Gibson did knowingly import illegally harvested ebony from Madagascar, that wouldn't be a negligible offense. Peter Lowry, ebony and rosewood expert at the Missouri Botanical Garden, calls the Madagascar wood trade the "equivalent of Africa's blood diamonds." But with the new raid, the government seems to be questioning whether some wood sourced from India met every regulatory jot and tittle.

It isn't just Gibson that is sweating. Musicians who play vintage guitars and other instruments made of environmentally protected materials are worried the authorities may be coming for them next...

Famed guitarist George Harrison is lucky he won't have to worry about these "swooping" officials (his being dead and all).

The Ballad of Jackie Layton

Born on a mountain top in Montreal.
Lean and smart and tough and tall.
Thought real big and never small.
He became the very best of all.
Jackie, Jackie Layton,
King of the NDP.

Fought for the pure and the poor and good.
Wanted to do whatever he could.
Wealth distribution? Yes, we should!
Do it for love and peace and brotherhood!
Jackie, Jackie Layton,
King of the NDP.

He went off to Ottawa and served a spell.
Fixin' up the government and laws as well.
Took over from the Liberals, gave Harper hell.
Now he's a saint (the media's hard sell).
Jackie, Jackie Layton,
King of the NDP.

The Jetsonians?

Thomas L. Friedman (who likes the way they do things in China) wants to start a new political party.

"Aani and the Tree-Huggers," "People Who Hugged Trees," "The Last Polar Bear," "Rachel, the Story of Rachel Carson," "S is for Save the Planet" and "Sandy's Incredible Shrinking Footprint"

Those are just a few of the books on the TDSB's "Ecobooks" book list--"Great Books for Teaching Kids In, About, and For the Environment."

Kids "in" and "for" the environment? Er, I'm not sure--is that even proper English?

No matter. As long as the moppets are indoctrinated in the religion du jour (one of them, anyway), everything's copacetic. (Rachel Carson--oh, puh-leeze: her anti-DDT efforts led directly to deaths of millions of Africans who succumbed to malaria. How great would it be if the kids were taught that lesson?)

The Definition of Insanity--and the Road to Oblivion

The problem with Israel's left, writes Caroline Glick, is that it reviles sincere friends and embraces genuine enemies. That's a recipe for annihilation, no?

Talk About Unwatchable

Stephen Lewis will deliver the eulogy at Saint Jack's funeral. (He calls Layton's death "a staggering loss.") Ick!

Update: More wretched excess, from CTV News:

There will also be musical performances by singer Steven Page, formerly of the Barenaked Ladies, and Lorraine Segato of Toronto's Parachute Club.

Segato was a close friend of the late NDP leader and his wife, Olivia Chow.

Layton's death has left her mourning the loss of a man whose optimistic outlook inspired others around him.

"He's the enthusiast, he's the dreamer, he's the visionary, he's the guy who is unfailing and unwavering in his belief that this world is simply going to be a better place if we're all open and ready to move to it," Segato told CTV's Canada AM from Toronto on Friday morning.

Segato said she will be performing a gospel version of "Rise Up," a Parachute Club song that was among Layton's favourites.

"What I'm hoping for is that Jack is going to hear me," Segato said...

Gag moi.

CASMO Wins--For Now

The CASMO Khomeinists, like Khomeinists back in Iran (same Khomeinists, different venue) long to expunge "Zionism" (that is, Jewish Israel) from the map; that's what their Al-Quds Day is all about. And yet, the City of Toronto is allowing them to go ahead and hold one of their A-Q celebrations on city property, over the mayor and his brother's stong objections. Is this, as Eye on a Crazy Planet writes, a "pyrrhic victory" for the CASMO creeps, or will their utterly risible claim to be anti-anti-Semitism (a clear-cut case of downright, outright taqiyyah) enable them to be seeming to comply with "the City's updated anti-Discrimination Policy, which requires that groups using city property comply with the principle of promoting respect, tolerance and diversity," and will the cunning ones, the Mahdi mavens, the Ayatollah's a-holes, thus get
carte blanche to continuing spewing their Zionhass in city-owned venues? Time alone will tell.

Update: Don't expect CASMO to get the heave-ho--not with Usma Shakir as the city's gatekeeper. (She's "Director of the City's Office of Equity, Diversity and Human Rights"--good grief and heaven help us!)

9/11 Stockholm Syndrome

You would think that the 9/11 terrorist attacks would have the effect of causing Americans to be turned off by Islam. In fact, as onislam reports, for more than a few souls the attacks were a real turn on:

CAIRO – Shaken by the 9/11 attacks and the ensuring hostility against Muslims, the curiosity of many Americans to know more about Islam have led them to embrace the faith.

“It seemed kind of crazy to do,” Johannah Segarich said, the Huffington Post reported on Thursday, August 25.

“I was a middle-aged professional woman, very independent, very contemporary, and here I was turning to this religion, which at that point was so reviled."

Segarich was stunned by news that the 9/11 attacks, which were claimed by Al-Qaeda group, were carried out by some Muslims.

“What kind of religion is this that could inspire people to do this?" Segarich recalled her first reaction to the news.

Seeking answers, the American woman decided to have a deeper look into Islam by studying the Noble Qur’an.

"I came to the realization that I had a decision to make," she recalled.

A few weeks later, the Utah-born music instructor began studying Islam...

Oddly enough, I pretty much asked the same question that Segarich did back then, only my deeper look in to Islam by studying the Noble Qur'an resulted in an entirely different transformation.

Today's Fun Photo Quiz

Is that Gaddafi or a hotel doorman?

Remember When...

...the Saintly Jack of blessed memory got his CASMO clock?

Keeping Your Hard-Earned Shekels In Your Pocket and Not Having It Picked By Sanctimonious 'Social Justice' Types Is Best of All

What CASMO's Al-Qud's Day Is All About

See it in plain English on the Shia TV site:

QUDS IS OURS!!

O' Allah, please cleanse Al-Quds from the Zionists!

A Lesson for A-jad

One day you're a distinguished leader of your nation, invited to address the world from a podium at the UN. The next, your power is gone and you're hunted down like a rabid bat in an attic.

Ah, the fickle finger of fate.

Orange You Glad the Jack Layton Tributes Are So Tasteful and Low-Key?

The latest instance of over-the-top Layton grief kitsch--the mighty Niagara Falls are to be turned into a promo for Jack's political party (h/t BCF).

Why stop there? I say we mix the world's supply of orange Kool Aid into the Great Lakes.

Kooky Truthers Confab Set for T.O. on 9/11/11

You better watch out,
You better all doubt,
Start watchin' the Ceeb
And hearin' 'em spout--
Kooky troofers comin' to town.

They've sussed out the "facts,"
Connected the dots.
They say that that Bush was callin' the shots.
Kooky troofers comin' to town.

They know it wasn't Atta
Though he was jihadi.
They know that it is something else
That people couldn't see, so.

You better look out,
Suspend disbelief,
'Cuz Dubya and Co. created this grief.
Kooky troofers comin' to town.

Sharia in Public Schools a Charter "Right"?

That's Harpoon Siddiqui's story (and he's sticking to it):

There is clear tension between the Charter’s guarantees of freedom of religion and gender equality. This is one of the most difficult balancing acts of a secular democracy. But school boards cannot resolve it for us. As [TDSB director Chris] Spence says: “We do not have the authority to tell faith groups how to pray.” Nor can the board prefer one faith practice over another.

Implementing the law equally for all is a sacred secular democratic principle.

Too bad it isn't a sacred sharia principle (since sharia, the one true law for all, is a political/religious system that enshrines the superiority of Muslims over infidels, and men over chicks--the reason many are alarmed to see it popping up at a Toronto public school).

John Moore Adds to the Kitschy Hysterics

You know the cutesy-poo, teddy bear-filled outpouring of kitschy emotion that now seems to accompany the death of gone-too-soon public figures (Princess Di in the U.K., Jack Layton in Canada)? John Moore wants you to know that, pace Christie Blatchford, when it comes to Jack, the grief isn't kitsch, it's the real McCoy:

I agree entirely with Christie that we now live in a society overflowing with misplaced sentimentality. On a downtown Toronto street I used to live on, residents left teddy bears and heart shaped balloons outside the rooming house of a murdered woman whose name they didn’t care to know in life. When Princess Diana died the U.K. lost its mind and the global lamentations reduced the passing of Mother Teresa five days later to the status of a retired Hollywood B-lister. But Layton’s death has rung a few gongs I don’t think Christie is taking into account.

Even though Layton looked like a dying man on July 25, I don’t think many thought he would be consumed by cancer in a matter of weeks. Unbeatable, terminal cancer is something we live in fear of for ourselves and our loved ones. To watch a man be felled by the disease before our eyes in such a short time is jarring and humbling. Layton’s death is also testimony to the fact that no-one “fights” cancer. If not stopped by medicine, no amount of grit or positive thinking can prevent the disease from hollowing out a person and extinguishing the spirit. Jack Layton was the soul of positivity … and cancer took him, anyway.

Another layer of grief is added when you consider how wrenchingly unfair Layton’s passing is. He grasped but never pulled on the brass ring. Not to put an entire nation on the psychiatrist’s couch, but let’s face it, most of us live under the presumption that when our toiling is done there will be enough remains of the day to enjoy reflection, laurels and the company of those we love. Having just reached a new height in his career, and with exciting times ahead for him and his party, Layton was struck down in a few weeks.

And lastly, there is Jack, and yes, I will call him Jack. He wasn’t the only nice guy in politics, but he was one of the few to ever achieve such heights. He was on a permanent charge fuelled by an eternal optimism. At the core of the public’s reaction to his death is the recognition that he had a vision of Canada and of a society, and he was unwavering in his advocacy for it. Other politicians might pander with foolish and populist policies, or denounce things they actually believe in for political gain. Jack stayed the course. Is principal now so rare that a man who stands firm for those things he believes in is seen as vainglorious, self-serving and stubborn?

I decline to comment on the man, but those like John who have inflated a "working politician" into some sort of puffed up Social Justice Saviour (is it just me, or are these hyperventilations reminiscent of the Obama swooners' hot air?) are certainly vainglorious, self-serving and stubborn.

Also peripatetic, poetic and chic.

What next? Renaming Valley Park Middle School the Jack Layton Memorial Middle School (to go along with the TDSB edifice named for Dr. Norman Bethune, another gone-too-soon Canadian "hero")?

Update: A letter in the Globe and Mail has some other suggestions:

A suitable tribute

Why don’t we build a lasting tribute to Jack Layton’s memory? Flowers fade and kind notes disintegrate. A permanent project close to his heart might be a low rental apartment building in Toronto’s downtown core. Another suggestion might be a home for the homeless complete with a social administrator and a nurse on duty to monitor resident needs, including drug compliance for the mentally ill. A kitchen serving healthy food would be a loving touch.

Pauline Carrick, Port Hope, Ont.

The Jack Layton Memorial Soup Kitchen and Needle Exchange--perfect!