Why Is Eliminationist Palestine House Still LINC-ed In?

It is beyond disgusting that, knowing what we know about Palestine House (that it's a Jew-hating, eliminationist, undeniably shady racket), it remains a member in good standing of LINC, the federally-funded program that offers free ESL lessons to newcomers.

What more does PH have to do to show that it does not merit public funding in any form--call for another Holocaust? Toss pennies at a bunch of "greedy" Jews?

Oh, wait...

In Other News: Dog Bites Man, Pope is Catholic

Islamists leading in Egyptian election.

At What Temperature Do Kindles Burn?

Fahrenheit 451 has been released as e-book.

Feds to Money-Squandering "Human Rights" Mausoleum: Not a Single Dime More For You

About time.

A Headline That Tells You Everything You Need to Know About the Vapid, Kooky, Celeb-Besotted, Let's-All-Wallow-In-Someone-Else's-Misfortune Times We Live In

Demi Lovato Sings at Kardashian's Anti-Bullying Rally on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

So many tropes (former Disney teen queen who went to rehab! Bullied gay kids! Kardashian skanks! The Queen for a Day of our day!) rolled into one devastatingly self-important/soul-shriveling event.

In the Muslim World, Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose

In other words, it's synonymous with sharia.

Who Are You Choosing Voting Day?

One of the songs (Frank Loesser's plaintive "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve") on Mark Steyn's new Christmas CD brought out the parodist in me:

Maybe it's much too early in the game.
Here comes the jackpot question all the same:
Who are you choosin' voting,
Voting day?

Wonder who'll win on that November day.
Will it be O though the swoon has gone away?
Who are you choosin' voting,
Voting day?

Maybe it's crazy to predict
A GOPer'll be the one they've picked
Out of the sev'ral candidates still
On the scene.

Ah, but there's hope he'll be like Jimmy C.
One term for him, then gone a.s.a.p.
Who are you choosin' voting,
 Voting day?

Satellite Image Shows 'Extensively Damaged' Iranian Missile Site

Heh.

U of T Prof Thinks "Free Speech" Is About Being Allowed to Crap in the Park

David Schneiderman, a U of T law professor, is terribly upset about the abridgement of free speech in the land. Oh, not, of course, the free speech that's been trampled on by Section 13, the state censorship provision of Canada's federal "human rights" code. No, Professor S. is concerned about how Occupy Toronto squatters' "free speech" was violated by the judge who ordered them out of the park they had thoroughly trashed:

Though lauded among press and pundits, Justice Brown’s ruling is decidedly disappointing in terms of its contribution to Canada’s developing free speech practice. Protesters were exercising constitutional rights under the Charter, even by physically staying put in the park, Justice Brown rightly held (a proposition that the city had resisted).

Because constitutional rights are not absolute, but can be reasonably limited, much of the judge’s focus appropriately was on the question of whether the governmental restrictions — prohibiting structures and use of the park overnight — were well-tailored to serving the purpose of sharing a common resource with minimal disruption to those living nearby. In cases such as this one, Justice Brown was inclined to apply a deferential standard of review. This was an inquiry that would give the city some room to manoeuvre.

But there was little if any scrutiny of the measures. They were just fine. It was, instead, the protesters who were blameworthy. They are described as “rigid,” “absolutist” and “unilateralist,” exhibiting “not what one would call a sharing attitude.” Justice Brown, nevertheless, was required to ask whether there were alternatives to ejecting the occupiers from the park.

Here again, it is the occupiers who were being unreasonable. They employ several methods to convey their political message, Justice Brown concluded, including signage, web postings and demonstrations and marches. They remain free to engage in those expressive activities for up to 19 hours a day in St. James Park. From this perspective, the government’s response is measured. In the course of his reasons, Justice Brown redefines and reprioritizes the principal means the occupiers have chosen to convey their message, which is (wait for it) . . . to occupy.

Justice Brown could have imagined other ways to accommodate the constitutional rights of occupiers while taking into account the interests of the park’s neighbours — allocating a part of the park for protest purposes, requesting protesters to remove tents that were not occupied, or insisting that noise bylaws overnight be respected, to name a few. He preferred to do none of this. The judicial role mostly was abdicated in order to apply what Brown called “common sense.”

The city policy represents a “reasonable balancing of the rights of all who wish to use the park,” writes Justice Brown. The “rights” of neighbours are never quite specified. There are no property rights in the Canadian Constitution. The right to be free from physical insecurity and threats surely is important and is usually protected by the Criminal Code, not municipal park bylaws. Dog walking, we know, is not a constitutionally guaranteed activity. Freedom of expression is written into the Constitution. This must mean that it receives some sort of priority.

Instead, Justice Brown prefers that solicitude be given to dog walkers. They should not be expected to go to an alternative park because, if the occupiers are correct, the “next protest group espousing a political message” will occupy that park. A hypothetical slippery slope provides cover for the subordination of constitutional freedoms...

Anyone who thinks "free speech" is about allowing squatters to sh*t in a park for as long as they want but has nary a qualm about Section 13 obviously hasn't a clue about what constitutes"free speech"--or about freedom in general.

Whatever Happened to Climate Change Hysteria?

Victor Davis Hanson says that once GWB and BDS were no longer in the picture, it folded its tents and went away.

Sick. En. Ing.

There are no words for this: a woman thought to be pregnant is savagely beaten, and no one intervenes because they are far too busy filming it. From the Toronto Star:

Toronto police arrested a teenage girl Tuesday morning in connection with the vicious beating of a woman captured on video outside a downtown Burger King.

The young suspect’s name cannot be released because of her age.

Det. Debbie Harris said two other female suspects in the video have also been identified.

The video shows a woman, originally reported to be pregnant, being beaten by at least three other young women.

Harris said they spoke to the victim Tuesday morning and confirmed she had not been pregnant.

Toronto police were alerted Sunday to the three-minute video, titled “Preggo Dope Fiend Gets Jumped By Hood Chicks In Toronto For Talkin Mess,” by two people who saw it posted on a website...

We have the misfortune to live in truly sick times.

Syrians Torturing/Killing Moppets Galore. Where's the al Dura-esque Outcry?

Remember Muhammed al-Dura? He's the adorable Palestinian moppet who was at the centre of a Palestinian stage-managed frame-up (a.k.a. a blood libel). Remember the massive hue and cry that attended his purported death? How those already predisposed to hate Israel were provided further impetutus to do so? And, even when the whole hoax was revealed for the pathetic Paliwood photo-op/agit prop that it was, how the name al-Dura and the iconic photo of his faux-murder continued to fuel Zionhass?

Compare that to the reaction--the non-reaction--that accompanied the death of Hamza al-Khateeb:

In May 2011, Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, who was only 13 years old, was among the many Syrian children to have been killed by the Syrian security apparatus. After his death, he became the symbol of the Syrian regime's brutality. It was revealed that the young boy was killed after being tortured, "suffering numerous fractures and broken bones." The Globe and Mail wrote: "His jaw and both kneecaps had been smashed. His flesh was covered with cigarette burns. His penis had been cut off. Other injuries appeared to be consistent with the use of electroshock devices and being whipped with a cable." A video of his mutilated body circulated on the Internet, raising criticism from all over the world against the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

And he's far from the only youngster who has been tortured, raped and murdered by Assad's thugs.  According to a UN report there are plenty of others whose names we don't even know. For example:

Several male detainees testified that they had been anally raped with batons in detention facilities, and that they had witnessed boys being raped.

One man said he saw a 15-year-old boy being raped in front of his father. Another saw three security service officers raping an 11-year-old boy.

“I have never been so afraid in my whole life,” he said in the report. “And then they turned to me and said, ‘You are next.’”

Such charmers! No wonder UNESCO deemed 'em fit to sit on its "human rights" committees.

"Moderate" Hamas-Loving Islamist Does D.C.

Martin Kramer writes (on facebook):

Rachid Ghannouchi, Tunisia's "moderate" Islamist who's in deep with Hamas, is headed for Washington, if he isn't there already. This item says he's being honored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, but they aren't commenting, and I doubt it's true (although he's speaking at a closed session there on Friday). He's also doing other think-tanks. More to come.

Update: How are things going in "moderately" Islamist Tunisia? From the sounds of this, not so well:

The dean of the University of Letters, Arts, and Humanities of Manouba is being held hostage along with several other professors by a group of Salafists who have been protesting all day against the ban of the niqab at universities and demand a prayer place.

One of the professors who witnessed the protest said the group threatened him and verbally abused other professors. The professor called on the protection of the army, but no security forces had yet been confirmed arrived.

Observers reported more demonstrators still joining the protest as of this evening, arriving by car equipped with mattresses to spend the night.

Contacted by telephone, Mohamed Bennour, press secretary for Ettakatol, a major secular party in Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly, said, “This is not acceptable, this is not a way to express or defend freedom in this country. It will only lead to chaos.”...

No kidding.

Save the Date for Babsy's "Accommodation" Fest

Oh, great. The Ontario Human Rights Commission will be hosting a workshop next spring devoted, in part, to the thorny matter of our "Duty to accommodate religion belief and practice."

Donning my Nostradamus cap, I predict the legal wizzes and "human rights" types will conclude that mosqueterias and other similar accommodations should definitely be, er, accommodated. (My favorite line in the communique: "How have ‘non-traditional’ religions been approached in the law, e.g. Wicca, Satanism, spiritually infused cultural practices, self-professed belief systems?" Prophet's hat on once again, I predict they'll conclude they haven't been approached well/properly/in keeping with Canada's sacred "rights" charter. After all, "Satanists" have rights, too.)

Update: Found on the OHRC Twitter feed--a tweet with a link to a "human rights" film festival sponsored by kooky, Zion-loathing Amnesty International.

Arabs May (or May Not) Be Thawing, But Their Zionhass Remains Stone Cold Solid

If you think that the warming breezes of the so-called Arab Spring are melting the region's demented Judenhass/Zionhass, Jeffrey Goldberg invites you to think again. (H/T: FK)

Update: Yoram Ettinger has some thoughts on it, too.

JDL's Meir Weinstein a "War Criminal"?

That's the accusation masquerading as fact that popped up when I googled "Palestine House":

Details

At a glance: meir weinstein - war criminal - jewish defence league - palestinian - globe and mail

Who supplied these "details"--the Jew-haters/baiters of Palestine House? Whoever's responsible, I'm pretty sure their assertion is actionable.

Norway Shooter Anders Breivik Declared Insane

Local shrinks have concluded he's "paranoid schizophrenic," but you can bet that the usual suspect will continue to claim that his lunacy was fueled by the works of Mark Steyn et al.

Canada's National Shrine to Victimhood Ponders Its "Contents"

Lemme guess--it's going to be full of "stories" of victimhood:

With both fundraising and construction moving toward completion, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is turning its attention toward the exhibits it will put on display.

Museum officials met Sunday with representatives from across the country from the Chinese Canadian community to begin discussions how to tell their story.

Joseph Du, president of the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre, where the talks were held, said he'd like to see a pair of human rights issues that are close to his heart addressed at the museum -- the head tax, a fixed fee charged to each Chinese person entering Canada starting in 1885, and the Chinese Exclusion Act, a U.S. law that banned immigration from China.

"It's about education. People will learn from history and hopefully won't make a similar mistake," Du said. "We hope (the discussions) are the beginning, like a seed that will flower and turn to fruit."

It's important to realize there are three distinct groups of Chinese Canadians, said Jan Walls, professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University, who taught Chinese history and literature for 40 years. There are the first immigrants to come to Canada as carpenters and millwrights in 1788 and their descendants; there are those who worked on building Canada's national railway in the 1880s and their descendants; and those who came across the Pacific Ocean from Hong Kong, Taiwan and more recently from the Chinese mainland, as university graduates and experienced business people.

"These are three different categories with very different impressions of what being a Chinese Canadian means to them," he said. "A very important part of being a Canadian is our sense of harmonious diversity. Diversity without harmony is cacophony and harmony without diversity is monotony."

Angela Cassie, the museum's director of communications, said it has been working with a New York-based research team, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, on its content, both for its opening and beyond. She said such dialogue is an important part of the content development process and will ensure the exhibits are accurate.

"We have professional researchers and academics at the museum. If you think of the hundreds of stories we need to research, we're working with contractors who are experts in their fields to help us refine them. It's important to touch base with the communities (to be represented at the museum). It's a human rights-based approach, you're not just studying people as subjects," she said...

That's because you're also studying people as victims. (And you can be sure that political correctness will preclude certain victim groups--women in Saudi Arabia, for example--from having their "stories" told.)

As an aside, don't you think "Diversity without harmony is cacophony and harmony without diversity is monotony" sounds deliciously and clunkily Sovietesque? The perfect message, in fact, to put on museum tchotschkes.

Varsity Scribbler Freaks and Shrieks That "Racial Profiling" in the U.S. is Joe McCarthy Redux

According to a semi-hysterical observation in U of T student rag The Varsity

Muslims in the US face a new McCarthyism, with second-class rights to privacy, widespread racial profiling and paranoiac reporting on home-grown terrorism.

Take a deep breath there, boy. If anything, authorities bend over backwards so as to not racially profile. And if you don't believe me, I suggest you tune in to a few episodes of TLC reality series All-American Muslim. If that shows "a new McCarthyism" in action, believe me when I say there are untold numbers of Muslims living in awful places in the Muslim world who would give anything to flee the horrors at home and move to idyllic Dearborne, Mich.; FYI, getting mowed down in cold blood by the local Barbarian-in-Chief is a lot worse than being subjected to a fictitious "new McCarthyism". Heck, compared to living in, say, Syria, even the old McCarthyism--which amounted to being blacklisted but not tortured and/or killed--isn't so bad.

You're Invited to Celebrate Palestinian Victimhood

Rats! I have a prior committment. (H/T: BCF) 

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People requests the pleasure of your company at the opening of an exhibit entitled “A Palestinian Vista - By Renowned Canadian - Palestinian artist Ibrahim Shalaby Uprooted from our homeland… We rooted the homeland in ourselves” and a musical performance by Simon Shaheen on Tuesday, 29 November 2011, 6 p.m. in the Public Lobby of the General Assembly Building to be followed by a reception RSVP (Regrets only) United Nations Secretariat (212) 963-8231 1st Avenue at 45th Street Please present this invitation at the entrance

B.Y.O.K. (bring your own keys)?



Update: Ibrahim Shalaby (who's from Jordan, but who calls himself a "Jerusalemite") is quite the artiste. Not only was he twice been awarded the coveted "Best Muslim Artist" prize at the Muslim Festival in Ontario, he also designed the memorable horsey-on-the-move logo for zany Islamo-lefty website thecanadiancharger.com. (By co-incidence, the site's current editorial fits in rather well with this post. It asks: "Is criticism of Israel anti-semitic?" That query can be answered quite easily. "Criticism" ain't; Zionhass is.)

Update: The U.S. taxpayer funds this UN Zionhass.

"Human Rights" Diva Babsy Get a One Year Reprieve

Ontarians will have to endure one more year of bossyboots Babs, alas:

Former Toronto mayor Barbara Hall has been reappointed head of the Ontario Human Rights Commission to an abbreviated one-year term.

In a move apparently paving the way for a new chief commissioner to be named next year, the Liberal government did not award Hall a longer-term extension.

Attorney General John Gerretsen praised her for making a “good contribution” to the cause of human rights in Ontario.

“She’s been an effective chief commissioner,” Gerretsen said in an interview Monday.
The order-in-council approving the appointment was signed Friday.

Hall, who was the last mayor of the old city of Toronto from 1994 to 1997 prior to amalgamation, has helmed the commission since October 2005.

In 2008, she oversaw a long-awaited revamp of the cumbersome complaints process, making it easier for Ontarians to navigate the system and enabling them to take concerns directly to a tribunal.

Those changes led to the commission focusing on systemic discrimination issues rather than just individuals’ problems.

Sources say that by giving Hall an extra year at the commission, the government can ease the transition toward her successor...

Anyone wanna bet that a certain former Official Jew (not mentioning names) is in the running to replace her?

Occupy Toronto Now an Inside Job

From the ever-so-supportive Toronto Star:

A hulking man with his hair in a bun and face partially shielded by a flower-print scarf marches down a dark alley in determined strides.

As Antonin Smith approaches the city-owned St. Patrick Market building a few feet from Queen St. W., just east of John St., he stops abruptly and snaps his head from side to side.

With covert gestures, Smith ushers his confederates through an unlocked door and down the stairs at 238 Queen St. W., to an abandoned basement he hopes will represent the next phase of a stifled movement.

Occupy Toronto is moving indoors.

And it’s illegal.

“This whole basement is barricaded,” said 34-year-old Smith.

“We’re squatting this space.”

He bolts the door behind him. There are thick silver locks installed to keep police away until Smith and his crew of about 25 — the “Squat Squad” — can come up with a plan...

In that case, I guess they'll be there until the undertaker undertakes to take them under.

Update: The voice of the Occupy (bowel) movement is...Miley Cyrus?!? (See what happens when you smoke too much weed?)

Daffy Zaffy (Bangash) and His Enemies List

When last we heard from Zafar Bangash, he was ranting and raving at Queen's Park during the Ayatollah's annual Zionhass seethe-a-rama. More recently, he seems to have moved on to rant and rave about the "super rich" and the "right wing" who gave rise, he says, to Occupy "protests." Here's how he concludes his rant:

A combination of factors — unending wars, a foreign policy managed by Israel, the massive culture of corruption, refusal of the super-rich to pay their fair share of taxes and the loss of America’s manufacturing capacity — have brought the once mighty US economy to its knees. Ordinary Americans including its youth have finally realized who their enemy really is: the Wall Street banksters and executives, hence their movement Occupy Wall Street.

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, whether they will succeed in their quest or not in changing the system is an open question. What is not in doubt is that even the American people have finally realized that their own rulers, not some unknown foreign groups, whether Muslim or others, are the real enemy. This can be considered an achievement of sorts.

Got that? The "enemy," according to Bangash, is the Zionist string-puller, the super rich and those on and of the right wing (three categories which are by no means mutually exclusive).

Which rather lets the Ayatollah and his kooky nuke-makers off the hook, enemy-wise, no? (which is probably the whole point of Bangash's exercise).

Slippery Semantics Disguise the Real Power Dynamic

Coming next month--a conference in Toronto for Muslim chicks only. It's theme: Muslimas "empowered."

By coincidence, the next item I happened to read on the 'net was a column by Peter Worthington. It concludes with an observation made in 1899 by Winston Churchill:

The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until Islam has ceased to be a great power...

For all those who think the conference is a sign of progress, realize this: being "empowered" (to be the best Muslima you can possibly be) is definitely not the same as having power. And that's unlikely to change as long as sharia is heeded. (Might we call those who quibble about the difference between being "empowered" and having power anti-semanticists?)

Proof That When It Comes to Arabs and "Democracy," Delusions Plague Infidels on Both Ends of the Political Spectrum

Here's what George W. Bush who, sadly, isn't any less delusional in hindsight re Hamas's election than he was at the time, has to say on the subject in his memoirs. He writes that

Fatah was still tainted with the corruption of the Arafat era. The main alternative was Hamas, a terrorist organization that also had a well-organized political apparatus. I supported the elections. Whatever the outcome, free and fair elections reveal the truth.

In Jan. 2006, the truth was that Palestinians were tired of Fatah's corruption. Hamas won 74 of 132 seats. Some interpreted the results as a setback for peace. I wasn't so sure. Hamas had run on a platform of clean government and efficient publi service, not war with Israel.

Maybe so, but its Charter makes its intentions perfectly plain: the destruction of the impudent, wicked Zionist entity as both raison d'etre and ultimate goal.

Equally delusion: the New York Times. In today's paper you can read this re Egypt's "historic" elections:

In interviews, many Egyptians were already looking past the election, which will take place in stages over the next few months. Some said they feared its failure could give the military an excuse to keep power, perhaps under a reshuffled council.

But others argued that even a flawed election would lend the Parliament more legitimacy than street protesters could muster against the power of the military council, and the very act of voting would carry Egypt one step further from dictatorship and closer to democracy.       

It can't; it won't. To suggest that is could or would is as irrational/delusional as hoping against hope and all common sense that Hamas will amend its ways and drop its genocidal plans once--no, because--the trappings of democracy have brought it to power.

See the "New" Mosqueteria, Same as the Old Mosqueteria

The Toronto Star reports that the "geniuses" of the Toronto District School Board have "solved" the mosqueteria problem. Since people were objecting to a middle school cafeteria being transformed into a Saudi-style house of worship, it will now be...tranformed into a Saudi-style house of worship. The only difference is that now the service will be led, Saudi-style, by a fervent male student from the near-by high school who takes his marching orders from the local mosque which used to supply the imam:

So far the students have led only one service since they resumed for the winter, which drew some 300 Valley Park students. Stefanoff noted they “were actually pretty quiet and orderly.”

Khoda said the prayers begin with a sermon in Arabic from a book provided by the local mosque. He said the student leader wears a robe and female students sit behind their male classmates — a point that drew fire this summer for violating gender equity.

See--problem "solved".

Israeli Composer Wows 'Em (the Israel-Haters) With Musical Gaza Agit-Prop

It gets a rave review from Qaradawi's onislam:

The title track, an 11-minute melody, transmits the host of emotions that engulfed many of us when Israel began mercilessly pounding the resilient and hostage Gaza Strip late in 2008. First there were the simultaneous strikes, which killed hundreds. Some of us woke up to watch the dreadful images of poor police cadets in Gaza reeling under the ceaseless bombardment in a heap of human flesh.

Body parts of young men and their families scattered across burning buildings and pulverized concrete. Those still alive were hauling whatever remained of their bodies across the sea of the dead, mostly in their graduation uniforms. It was a moment of disbelief, of questioning much of what we had previously held to be true. It came as a shock and awe to our collective consciousness, and it was further bolstered by endless days of constant shelling and tragedy.

And the tide began to change as if the moment of death, of release, was the very moment of liberation. Gaza's thousands of victims may have produced the nudge for millions around the globe to begin to finally confront their inner fear, their subtle sense of shame for allowing a tragedy of that magnitude to continue for all of these years.

As Gaza held strong, proving once and for all that unspoken values — human spirit, the will of the people, the collective dignity of a nation — were stronger than all that military genius can possibly generate, millions went to the streets in a most disorganized, chaotic, and yet genuine expression of human solidarity witnessed in many years. The tide has changed, then, and continues to change. The frenzied and disorganized, yet real, sentiments have become an unwavering and well-articulated commitment to justice.

The shift cannot always be validated by numbers or demonstrated in charts, but it is nonetheless felt widely. Israeli researchers refer to it as a global movement aimed at delegitimizing their state. They are laboring to link it to anti-Semitism somehow, but to no avail. Palestinians and their friends vary in their own reading of what happened during and after those fateful days, but they contend it was Israel's murderous acts that incepted and cemented the process of its own delegitimization...

I smell H-I-T (in the killing--not the popularity--sense)! As for me, I'm waiting for the "musical essays" Boy Assad, the Demon Ophthamologist of Damascus and No, No Hezbo. Here's snippet from the former's theme song (which I wrote just this second):

Attend the tale of Boy Assad
(Attend the tale of Boy Assad).
He mowed 'em down in lakes of blood
(He moved 'em down in lakes of blood).
And though he was a big fat dud
Whose name was mud,
Caused a flood of blood,
He hung on,
He hung on fast
The demon ophth' of Damascus...

Scarlett Goes Slumming

Don't you love it when stinkingly rich Hollywood airheads think that their own good fortune equips them to weigh in on complicated stuff like looming environmental catastrophe and G.D.P. inequities? Here, for instance, is the bodacious Scarlett Johansson, a Tinsel Town one percenter, enlightening a rich-as-Croesus Greek chick about poverty and how awful she feels that there are, like, you know, poor people.

Scarlett Johansson may be a major movie star with a multitude of big films to her name, but the 27-year-old actress does some of her most important work far, far away from Hollywood.

Johansson is politically and charitably active both within the United States and abroad; she campaigned for Barack Obama during his run for the presidency in 2008 and has served as an Oxfam Ambassador since 2004. In a discussion with Arianna Huffington for Interview Magazine, Johansson spoke about her passion for helping to make progressive change.

"There are people in America who are absolutely desperate right now, who have no means to support their families, who have no opportunities to better themselves or their education -- and they're not that different from the farmers and working-class people that I visited when I went to Kenya with Oxfam," she said.

Johansson took a trip this year to East Africa to raise awareness of drought and famine in the region, which she chronicled in a series of video blog posts for HuffPost.

"Whether they're in America or in Africa, people want to work," she continued. "They want to have purpose. They want to provide for themselves and their families. They don't want handouts. They don't want to be completely dependent on their governments -- even though there's usually no opportunity for that anyway. But they want to be self-sufficient and have a sustainable lifestyle.".

Johansson also spoke about some of her upcoming films...

Of course she did. And the irony--not to mention the bad taste--of conflating others' suffering with publicizing her own flicks, hugely expensive products of "unprogressive" capitalism, is obviously lost on her, alas.

Stephen Harper's Overt Agenda--He's Making a Name For Himself as the Most Principled, Most Competent Politician in the West

This one--from the Daily Mail--is likely to make more than a few noggins explode:

Stephen Harper is a gold standard politician. In a world run by political pygmies, he stands out as a true statesman. It may be more than the Canadians who give thanks that he is up there on the world stage in the terrifying months ahead.

I'd stand back a ways so as not to get hit by rabble/Canadian Islamic Congress/Liberal/NDP/Sid Ryan flying brain gunk.

Messed Up Modifier

It occurs to me as I read yet another report about "moderate" Islamists coming to power (this time in Morocco), that "moderate" as a modifier of the word/concept "Islamist" makes about as much sense as, say, "moderate" Communist.

Israeli Lefties Royally P.O.'d, Mortified, That Israeli Capitalism Is a Roaring Success

From the lefty point of view, it must really suck that Israel is flourishing at a time of Arab chaos, EU debt calamity and the Occupy "movement" (which, considering the iffy hygiene of the squatter community, might be summed up as a bowel movement) . The reason we know that that's so: Israel's "social justice" cretins are emphasizing the negatives and kvetching up a storm:

Had a foreigner arrived here and listened to the revolutionary milieu headed by our social protest leaders or by the media, he would have no doubt that Israel's citizens are no less than slaves; that the local middle class has been destroyed; that nobody can make ends meet around here unless he was fortunate enough to be born to a wealthy family compensated endlessly by Steinitz and Bibi; that Israel never faced such diplomatic isolation; that our higher education and research are maligned by backward, Third World standards; that racist and discriminatory laws are pulverizing Israeli society; and that the Bibi-Lieberman government is at fault for everything.

Had this foreigner paid some attention to some tedious archives, he would discover, for example, that the “country that reached a scientific nadir” is third in the world in terms of per capita scientific articles; that the number of academic researchers per capita is second in the world; that Israel’s share in the global science production is almost 10 times greater than its relative share in the global population; that the country is third in the world in research investment in universities in relation to its GDP; and that it’s the first in the world in national expenditure on civilian research out of total GDP.

If we dig deeper, we shall discover that Israel’s economy is 17th on the list of developed economies (according to the Swiss IMD); that in recent years it has grown more than all other Western states and that unemployment here is lower than in all these countries; that according to American journal Atlantic, when adjusting the calculations to various economic and technological innovation and development indexes Israel is ranked fourth in the world; that in 2010 this country climbed to 15th place in the United Nations’ standard of living index; and that this state boasts the fifth highest life expectancy among OECD countries.

Every time I read one or another Israeli leftist whining about how everything's falling to pot, I can't help but think of Mark Twain's famous quip about (false) reports of his demise having been greatly exaggerated--and grin.

Authorities in Philippines Nab Jihadis' Mercenary Hacktivists

Well, it sure beats trying to harm the kafir by booby-trapping your tighty whiteys:

The FBI and Philippine law enforcement officials arrested four people in the Philippines this week who were allegedly paid by terrorists to hack into AT&T's system, but the company said its system was not breached.

The four, who were arrested Wednesday in Manila, were paid by the same Saudi Arabian-based terrorist group identified by the FBI as funding the 2008 attack on Mumbai, the Philippines' Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said in a statement. The coordinated attacks in India's largest city claimed 164 lives and wounded at least 308.

"The hacking activity resulted in almost $2 million in losses incurred by the company," the CIDG said in a statement.

The suspects hacked the trunk-like PBX (private branch exchange) phone lines of different telecommunications companies, including AT&T, the CIDG said. Money stolen in the hacks was diverted to bank accounts belonging to the terrorists, who paid the Filipino hackers on commission, the group said.

The four allegedly worked for a group originally run by Muhammad Zamir, a Pakistani arrested by the FBI in 2007 who was associated with Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant group with links to Al Qaeda...

Desmond Tutu Set to Battle "Huge Enemy"

No, it's not the Jews (this time, at least).

With No Apologies to Woody Guthrie

There once was a union brute
Who wasn't too astute.
He roughed up gals
Who weren't his pals
And was a shmuck to boot.
He hated Zionists,
Loved those who would "resist"
Conservatives and others who were
Eee-vil cap'talists.

Oh, I can't stand him
He's stinkin' up the union,
He's stinkin' up the union,
He's stinkin' up the union.
Oh, I can't stand him
He's stinkin' up the union.
He's stinkin' up the union with his cries.

Oh, Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel, I Made It Out of...

Paper.

Adbuster's Lasn Laments Occupy Toronto Lassidute

One of the self-righteous anti-capitalists who inspired the "youts" of the Occupy "movement" laments (in the pages of the Toronto Star) that Occupy Toronto didn't have the same get up and go as, say, Occupy Wall Street. And Kalle Lasn thinks he knows who's to blame for the lack of pep (and, good news, this time it isn't the Jews):

Lasn is quick to lay much of the blame on mainstream media, which he accuses of depicting the protesters as lawless rebels and their camp sites as dens of iniquity.

By zeroing in on incidents of drug use and crime — which take place in staggering numbers every day — Canada’s news outlets failed to communicate the key message of the movement, he said.

“The Canadian media really dropped the ball on this one,” Lasn said. “Instead of seeing it as a movement of young people fighting for a different kind of future, which is so beautiful and so valid, they basically saw it as a pesky irritation that had to be got rid of.”

That negative coverage may have motivated authorities to crack down on occupation sites in recent weeks and forced protesters themselves to lose focus as they fretted about when eviction notices would be handed down, he said.

Nah. I'm pretty sure that the Toronto movement, such as it was, didn't need the media to make it "lose focus." Given that the government of Canada didn't bail out any banks or Wall Street firms, it hadn't much focus to being with. In fact, the only thing that ever seemed to provide focus was when one or another of the "youts" called for "Mic check," and, lickety split, all the drones focused on repeating the words yelled out at 'em verbatim.

Now, that's what I call focus. (I also call it creepy and cult-like, but that's another story.)

Anyhoo, one of the Occupy Toronto campers is scads more hopeful about the future than Adbusters' Debbie Downer:

Protesters themselves concede that putting an end to the urban occupations may revitalize the dialogue at the heart of the movement.

[Nikos] Kapetaneas, who split his time between St. James Park and his job at an environmental non-profit, said the next phase of the movement will allow Occupy protestors to focus on ideas.

“We still have a lot of energy. This is not an end to occupy,” he said.

Well, I guess if you despise capitalism and the inequities it breeds, working part-time for a "non-profit" environmental outfit is pretty much your ideal job.

FYI: I'm Taking a Breather

It's only for the weekend, though, so I hope to see y'all Monday.

Free Speech in West Being Snuffed Out Due to Bellicose Anti-Blasphemy Thugs, Timorous Dhimmis

Read about it here.

Dr. Quick's School Daze

Here's a way to prevent the young'uns from coming into contact with kafirs who might be a bad influence--never let 'em out of the house. And with folks like Dr. Quick on hand to tell you how it's done, you know they'll be kept on the right track.

Harpoon Siddiqui Sides With Our Enemies. Why Does He Still Have His Order of Canada?

If you ignore the fact that the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad are fanatical "Twelvers" who are looking forward to the imminant arrival of their messiah, the Mahdi; if you discount Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial and World Without Zionism conferences; if you forget about Hamas and Hezbo and Syria, lapdogs, all, of the evil Ayatollah, then maybe, just maybe, the following words of the Toronto Star's resident shill for all things Islamic/ist make a modicum of sense:

You don’t have to be a nuclear engineer to know that much of what’s being said about the Iranian nuclear program, including by the Stephen Harper government, is humbug.

• Iran admits to enriching uranium — for producing energy. But neutral observers are certain it is racing to acquire not so much a bomb as nuclear capability as a tool of regional supremacy.

Iran has not attacked a neighbour or invaded another country for ages. It only fought back ferociously when Iraq under Saddam Hussein waged war on it (1980-88). He did so with American and European arms, while Iran bought Israeli arms. Now the calculus has changed.

Iran may be violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but it’s a signatory that must open up its nuclear facilities to international inspection. Israel, India and Pakistan, which also developed the bomb on the sly, refuse to sign the treaty and don’t show a thing to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Yet they get rewarded by the U.S. while Iran is subjected to illegal covert actions — contamination of its nuclear computers with viruses and assassination of its scientists...

Poor babies. 

Is speaks volumes about Harpoon and his mindset that his mission here is to elicit sympathy for what is perhaps the most despicable, disgusting regime on the planet, and that he does so whole-heartedly and with no worry at all that, in going to bat for the Ayatollah, he has situated himself squarely in the enemy camp.

David Ahenakew was stripped of his Order of Canada for uttering a few ignorant things about "the Jews". In siding with the Ayatollah and the zany, overtly genocidal Shias, Harpoon Siddiqui has done something far, far worse; something, in fact, that verges on treason.

High time to divest the sneaky one of his O of C, no?

Egypt's Junta: Sounds Like Oprah, Acts Like Assad

Egypt's "kinder, gentler" military junta apologizes for killing people and kvetches about how awful it is to be "cursed" with power.

Hateful Lefty Jewish Academic/BDSer Slams Pro-Israel "Pinkwashers"

She claimed--in the New York Times, natch--that those who point to Israel's tolerance of gays and Muslims' lack of the same are guilty of "pinkwashing" (get it?) Israel's "crimes."

In fact, she and her ilk are guilty of something far worse—"stinkwashing." That is, demonstrating their lefty bona fides by slandering Israel and trying to make it smell worse than rotten garbage.

Death Becomes Him

Speaking of turkeys, Yasser Arafat is sure looking in the pink these days, no?

Obama Flunks "The Israel Test"

Barack Obama, who's heart is with the Occupy crowd (where his brains are is anyone's guess), gets an "F" in Israel (and free enterprise), writes Ken Blackwell on the Townhall site:

[George] Gilder [author of The Israel Test] sees a direct link from attitudes toward Israel, attitudes toward Jewish excellence, and attitudes toward free enterprise itself. Occupy Wall Street today is protesting against income inequality. They have been embraced by President Obama, whose stated goal is to “spread the wealth around.” Asked by an interviewer if he would seek tax increases on the wealthy even if that meant lower tax revenues for the government, Mr. Obama said he would, for the sake of “fairness.”

From each according to his abilities to each according to his need: that’s the standard Marxist formulation. Left unsaid is that it is Mr. Obama and his administration that decide whose needs are met and how much to take from those with abilities.
Gilder challenges us to ask ourselves what we think about excellence—that of Jewish achievers and all those others who excel. Do we resent their achievement? Do we attribute it to some evil conspiracy? Do we want to drag them down? Or do we want to emulate them, study, work hard, invent, create, and share our own ideas?

Gilder writes: “With wealth seen as stolen from the exploited poor, the poor in turn [are given] a license to dispossess and kill their oppressors and to disrupt capitalist economies. This is the foul message of Franz Fanon, Hamas, al-Qaida, Hezbollah, and the academic coteries of Chomsky, Zinn, and a thousand Marxist myrmidons across the campuses of the world. But no capitalist system can sustain prosperity amid constant violence. The idea that suicide bombing is a tolerable policy that can be extenuated by alleged grievances is preposterous. It is the violence that makes necessary the police measures that render economic progress impossible, particularly for the groups associated with the attacks. By justifying violent attacks on a civilized democracy -- and then condemning the necessary retaliatory defense -- leftists would allow no solution but tyranny.”

Gilder’s “Israel Test” is not one our Ivy Leaguer president can pass. Of course, Mr. Obama does not support terrorism. But he is giving $500 million this year to the PLO—which has simply deconstructed and re-defined its support for suicide bombers and stone throwers. The president simply shares the worldview of the academy—in which Israel is much to blame for “Mideast turmoil” as her attackers are. He believes that fairness requires redistribution of what he terms “the nation’s wealth.” He sees our Judeo-Christian heritage not as the bedrock of American Exceptionalism, but as merely one part of the broad tapestry of American life.

Barack Obama’s intellectual world is one in which Fanon, Chomsky, Zinn, and those neo-Marxist thinkers hold sway. Only free societies can create enough surplus wealth to support such dissident scholars and their “myrmidons” in the Occupy Wall Street Movement in their midst. But such societies—in the U.S. and Canada, in Western Europe and in Israel--will not survive if they do not understand and protect the very foundations of their own freedom.

 

Update: He fails the Canada Test, too.

London Tube Bosses Accused of Adding Insult to Injury

If you're hankering to end it all, I urge you not to do so by jumping onto subway tracks in London. Not if you don't want your battered corpse to end up being stored like rubbish in the janitor's room (they call it the "cleaner's mess room"), that is, where, for the second time, Tube bosses have been accused of stashing dead bodies.

It rather brings to mind Lady Bracknell's famous line in The Importance of Being Earnest. To paraphrase: To stash one dead body in the cleaner's mess room may be regarded as an oversight. To stash two looks like carelessness.

UNESCO's "Human Rights" Turkey

Of all the despotic, murderous regimes in the world, which would you say is least suited--and should be last in line--for a spot with UNESCO's "human rights" racket? (Who even knew it had one?)

Iran?

Sudan?

North Korea?

If you said Syria--yes, Syria!--you win an extra helping of stuffing in honour of the American Thanksgiving. (Hat tip: EY)

Watch Out For 'Sploding Pastry

A TSA mouthpiece clarifies what foods you can--and can't--carry on an airplane this Thanksgiving:

"A raw turkey, of course, is still a solid," Riley said. "Food items like pies or cakes are permitted, but the issue is that if they're more liquid or not as solid as other items, they may require further inspections. When people ask me for my personal recommendation, I say get away from it if possible."

Pies or cakes are okay, eh? In light of that, I wouldn't be at all surprised if some jihadi looking for a one-way ticket to Paradise boobytraps his carry-on strudel.

The Crazy, Mixed-Up World of NOW Magazine

In the bass-ackwards world of the Left, censorship is freedom, and the effort to preserve free speech smacks of--wait for it--fascism:

Call it convergence. Call it a vast right-wing conspiracy. Or, call it a further descent into fascism. I think I hear the thump of jackboots in the distance. Before you call me crazy for dropping the f-bomb consider, if you will, Alberta MP Brian Storseth’s private member’s bill to repeal sections 13 and 54, of the Canadian Human Rights Act – in the name of free speech, no less.

He hears the thump of jackboots in the distance. I hear the cry of the loon in the foreground.

Brrrrrr!

The Arab Winter Approaches

Hygamous, Pygamous, Is Canada About to Become a Haven for the Polygamous?

Depending on the way a court ruling goes today, it's a definite possibility.

Update: Looks like the polygamous will have to find another haven.

The Real Greening of America

Wily Wahhabis are conspiring with eco-freaks to further their own ends, writes Daniel Greenfield in FrontPage Magazine:

Saudi Arabia has no better friend than the Sierra Club, and the Emirates have no better salesmen than the environmentalists who keep the country hooked on conflict oil. The administration’s sabotage of the Keystone XL project through delays aimed at killing the pipeline is a cynical act of cowardice, and it’s a shot in the arm to the very regimes that it claims to oppose.

The Islamist Spring has mainly hit Arab governments without a huge oil industry, leaving them dependent on patronage, whether from the United States in the case of Egypt, or Iran in the case of Syria. The economic downturn tightened belts and drove mobs into the streets where Islamists and socialists funneled them into anti-government rallies for their own benefit.

Qatar has been smugly stirring up trouble for the rest of the region through Al-Jazeera and laughing at its enemies from behind a shield of oil barrels and Western public relations firms. Libya, the one oil power to fall to the Islamists, would have still been ruled by its cross-dressing madman if NATO aircraft and special forces had not come to the rescue of the Al-Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

Saudi Arabia has an even bigger stack of oil barrels, and on top of that black pyramid is a degenerate royal family wearing crowns of terrorism and tyranny. Iran has its own pyramid with hanging women dangling off it and the corpses of murdered student protesters floating in the crude. And if the environmentalists really cared about any of that, at least to the extent of wanting to end the wars, then they would be laying a pipeline that would funnel money out of the House of Saud​ and the Mullahs back to the United States of America.

Instead billions have been poured into the People’s Republic of China, which lends us the money to pay for the solar and wind power components that we buy from them, and after the handful of watts from green power have been exhausted to spread joy and peace across parts of Vermont and Oregon, the country goes back with hat in hand to the grinning petroleum plutocracies...

A win-win situation for Wahhabis and eco-freaks; a lose-lose one for the rest of us.

The Perils of Inbreeding: Cousins Marrying Cousins Brings Down IQs in Denmark

Their progeny are filling schools for the mentally challenged.

Frontline Investigation: Indian Authorities Had a Heads-Up About Mastermind of Mumbai Attacks, But Failed to Act on It

Systemic failure seems to be the theme of the day. In this video, a clip from a Frontline doc, the failure resulted in a horrific terrorist attack.

Film Fest at TDSB School Indoctrinates the Young'uns in Leftist "Social Justice"

From the TDSB site:

A film festival featuring student-produced documentaries drew an enthusiastic audience of more than 200 to City View Alternative Senior School recently. Reel View is the culminating project for students who were in the 2010-11 grade 8 Media Studies program under the direction of teacher David Stocker.

The films were screened in three locations at the west end school on November 3. Three themes that represent City View’s commitment to social justice provided the framework for project development: Local Politics, The Personal is Political, and Sacred Cows. "Education for peace and social justice has been the cornerstone of the curriculum at City View Alternative School for more than 13 years," said Stocker.

Students wrote, researched, filmed and edited each documentary. Stocker said that the project involved students interviewing three experts in the field that they were researching and filming. Those interviewed included Marg Morrison from Freedom to Read; Pearce Carefoote, noted author of Forbidden Fruit; Rosario Marchese, MPP for Trinity Spadina; Bruce McCuaig, CEO of Metrolinx; Dr. David McKeown, Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto; and Michael Schmidt, raw milk activist and farmer, among many others.

The students' work made a strong impression. Parents, staff, students and guests such as TDSB Ward 9 Trustee Maria Rodrigues applauded the stellar filmmaking and commitment of the students. One the many notable guests that attended the screenings was Lawrence Hill, acclaimed author of The Book of Negroes. Hill took a particular interest in filmmaker Lily Shields-Anderson’s film about censorship, Banned & Burned. Hanan Paxton-Harding Riggs’ film Dirty Diesel, about the Metrolinx diesel rail corridor expansion in the Greater Toronto Area, resonated with guest and newly-elected MPP Jonah Schein.

Other documentaries screened included: The Island Airport by Theo Harley and Christian Mittelstaedt; Pound Seizures: the Ultimate Violation by Brittney Johnston and Ines Valente; The Forgotten: Alzheimer’s Disease by Margaret Rose and Clara Pottie; Ready, Fire, Aim: ADHD by Soleil Decaudin-Prendergast and Kiyomi Coburn; What’s in That Syringe? (a critical look at vaccinations) by Hannah Hart and Sophie Antonyshyn; Raw Milk: Right to Choose by Lucas Zambonelli and Hannah Mittelstaedt; and An Olympic Choice by Sasa Popovich. The student film makers, now attending various high schools, were poised and articulate in Q & A sessions that followed each screening. In keeping with the spirit of City View Alternative, the students also used the event to collect more than $350 in donations to support The Stop Community Food Centre.

This is the first year that the school has formally screened films. However, the Media Studies program has facilitated student documentaries for the past 13 years. The current school staff working collaboratively to support students with film and festival development, including Stocker, Principal Sheena Matheson, Shawna Watson, Christine Saraceno, Michelle Munk, and Carolyn Jankovskis, are already looking forward to the next screening. "This year's group of grade 8 students are busy working with the team on new documentaries that promise to keep up the tradition of excellence and social justice advocacy," said Matheson...

"Social justice advocacy"--it may not be terribly educational, and it probably has about as much business in public schools as, say, a fundamentalist mosque, but it is a perfect way to plant a whole new crop of little leftists: If there's one thing the TDSB understands, it's that you reap what you sow.

Systemic Failures Fail Canadian Muslimas

Two separate articles in the National Post detail how systems put in place to protect the vulnerable and serve the interests of the larger society have utterly failed, in no small part due to the obeisance we feel we must pay to the dark gods of political correctness. The first instance of system failure--recounted by Christie Blatchford in her superb ongoing coverage of the Shafia trial: authorities investigated the dysfunctional Shafia family, found clear signs of abuse, but did nothing substantive to protect the four who were ultimately (allegedly) murdered by their abusers.

The second instance of system failure: the role the Toronto District School Board is playing in serving the interests of sharia and its repression of young women. Chris Selley attended a fraught meeting of pro-and-anti-mosqueteria types. He writes:

After a long back-and-forth, one astute gentleman sliced through the debate like a hot kirpan through holy water. The issues as laid out by [TDSB coordinating superindent Jim] Spyropoulos, he said, had nothing to do with religion at all.

"Students were going to religious instruction," he said. "The issue was safety and the instructional time they were losing."

"If the issue is transportation and safety and the intersection, get crossing guards," he suggested. "Get a bus. Get the community to provide transportation there and back."

Eureka! Islamophobes and secularist jihadis aside, this would address everyone's concerns. It would ensure the pub-lic school day remains free of religious proselytization and the perceived negatives that go with it. And it would eliminate the question of choice.

One Grade Eight Valley Park student insisted students face no pressure to pray and no consequences if they don't, that gender segregation "just makes sense," and that not praying during menstruation is a welcome "exemption," not an insult.

This girl kicks ass and takes names, by the sounds of it.

"We are not stupid and we are not weak," she fumed.

But as yet another very astute attendee noted, the fact so many children weren't making it to mosque on their own raises doubts. Attendance is up since the prayers were moved. 

It's not a public school's place to facilitate children's attendance at religious services - that's private family business. The very idea of a student feeling pressure to fulfill an unwanted religious obligation on public school property, during the school day, turns my stomach.

The TDSB seems not to care about any of this.

The TDSB--like those who failed the Shafia quartette--is obviously far more concerned about being accused of "Islamophobia" than it is about doing what's right.