Canadian Centre for Diversity (Previously Known as the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews) Suspends Operation

Oddly enough, the name change did nothing to prolong its life:

TORONTO — After 63 years as a going concern, the Canadian Centre for Diversity (CCD) is ceasing day to day operations.  

The organization, which began life as the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews (CCCJ), will wind up operations in the next 60 to 90 days, lay off 10 employees and seek out other charitable organizations to take on its primary leadership education function, said Janice O’Born, chair of the board of directors.  

Four hundred Toronto students who have signed up for the organization’s leadership training program will be told the program has been cancelled, she added. O’Born said the steps had to be taken now so that there would be enough funds on hand to ensure current staff receive a full severance package.  

The reason for the closure is purely financial, she said. In recent years, private sector donations have dried up and government grants have not been forthcoming. The organization faces a $1-million shortfall in its 2013 budget.  

O’Born attributed much of the problem to “donor fatigue,” as more and more high-profile charitable projects draw away available community resources. She also said previous management mishandled the change that led to the end of the CCCJ and the creation of the Canadian Centre for Diversity.  

Long-standing supporters were not consulted about the change, she said. Many were angry at being handed a fait accompli and decided not to support the new organization. The change, however, was necessary, she said. “The school system did not allow us in as Christians and Jews. They said we were not being inclusive.”...

Should've changed its name to the Canadian Centre for Dhimmis. 

What a Mess O' Potamia!

My son wants to see the Mesopotamia exhibit at the ROM. I was planning to take him, and, by coincidence, there's a full page ad for the show in today's Toronto Star. That's how I learned for the first time that Mohammad Al Zaibak and Family is "Exhibit Patron" and the Canadian Arab Institute is its "Community Partner."
 
Who the heck is Mohammad Al Zaibak? Apparently he's a rich dude who sits on the ROM's board of trustees. He is also in charge of something called the Bay Tree Foundation, a private charity. In 2011 Bay Tree gave $12,000 to the National Council on Arab-Canadian Relations. That organization aims to

build ties between Canadians and the people of the Arab world in order to develop stronger relations and cooperation between them as well as an appreciation of their common values.

Values such as anti-Israel propaganda, a desire for Palestinian statehood and an unfounded fear of Islamic fundamentalism, apparently.

As for the Mesopotamia exhibit's "Patron," the Canadian Arab Institute, it bills itself as

a not-for-profit, non-partisan policy think tank committed to Canadian ideals of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. 

CAI was founded in 2011 by a steering committee of committed community leaders, academics, professionals and activists. CAI aims to generate new, original discourse that engages Canadian institutions and the public, helps improve understanding between communities, and articulates a Canadian Arab perspective on issues of interest.

Part of that, er, "perspective": the CAI is delighted to report that Arab immigration to Canada has hit a record high:

According to data CAI recently acquired from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, in 2010, Arab immigration to Canada reached an all-time high, with the arrival of 34,657 citizens of Arab countries[1], Arab immigrants represented 12.4% of the total immigration to Canada, second only to the Philippines (13.0%) and, for the first time, ahead of China and India (at 10.8% each), long the top two source countries of immigrants to Canada. In 2011[2], Arab immigration dropped slightly to 12.25% of total immigration, remaining in second place behind the Philippines.

Immigration data between 1960 and 2011 shows that more than half of Arab immigrants came to Canada in the 11 years between 2000 and 2011, and more than 75% came in the 20 years between 1991 and 2011. That this is such a new community which is steadily and rapidly growing has potentially profound policy connotations.

Such numbers  have significance to service providers (immigrant settlement, social services, etc.) and community organizations that seek to help integrate, represent and protect the interests of these groups.   They have implications to policy makers at various levels of government, agencies of government and civil society. 

No kidding.

I will probably take my son to see the Mesopotamia show. That doesn't mean, however, that I have to be thrilled about some of the folks associated with it.

Obama Tells AIPAC to Jump. The Zionists Ask, "How High?"

Caroline Glick describes the pathetic spectacle here:

US President Barack Obama's rapidly changing positions on Syria have produced many odd spectacles.

One of odder ones was the sight of hundreds of lobbyists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee fanning out on Capitol Hill to lobby members of the House and Senate to support Obama's plan to launch what Secretary of State John Kerry called "unbelievably small" air strikes against empty regime controlled buildings in Syria. AIPAC officials claimed they were doing this because the air strikes would help Israel. 

But this claim was easily undone. Obama and Kerry insisted nothing the US would do would have any impact on the outcome of the Syrian civil war. This was supposed to be the strikes' selling point. But by launching worthless strikes, Obama was poised to wreck America's deterrent posture, transforming the world's superpower into an international joke.In harming America's deterrent capabilities by speaking loudly and carrying an "unbelievably small" stick, Kerry and Obama also harmed Israel's deterrent posture. 

Israel's deterrence relies in no small measure on its strategic alliance with the US.Once the US is no longer feared, a key part of Israeli deterrence is removed.

So if strikes were going to harm the US and Israel, why did AIPAC do all that lobbying? According to Glick, they did so because "Obama made them." Moreover, Obama issued the command

knowing that (AIPAC's) involvement would weaken public support for AIPAC and Israel. Both would be widely perceived as pushing the US to send military forces into harm's way to defend Israel. 

Then, with hundreds of AIPAC lobbyist racing from one Congressional office to the next, Obama left them in a lurch. He announced he was cutting a deal with Russia and had decided not to attack Syria after all.

What did AIPAC get for its self-defeating efforts on Obama's behalf? Obama is now courting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the hopes of making a deal that Iran will use as cover for completing its nuclear weapons program...

American Zionists get shafted again. Meanwhile, Obama rewards the J Street ZINOs:

 Monday, as Obama meets with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly in New York, Vice President Joe Biden will become the highest ranking administration official to date to address the J Street conference.

J Street was formed in order to weaken AIPAC, and force it to the left.

Sending Biden to headline at the J Street conference is an act of aggression against AIPAC. It also signals that Obama remains committed to strengthening the anti-Israel voices at the margins of the American Jewish community at the expense of the pro- Israel majority...

Update: "Our Time to Lead"? Dream on, ZINOs! 

Update: T.O. ZINOs are having a little confab, too.

Take That, Zion-Loathing BDSers!

Israel's Technion Institute of Technology has inked a $130 million deal with China for the purposes of a joint venture, the Technion Guangdong Institute of Technology.

"Obama's Day: A Government Shutdown and Israel"

Busy day. (I bet, all in all, he'd rather be golfing.)

The Zion-Loathing Turkeys of The Guardian Gets Their Birds Mixed Up

Bibi's a hawk and Rouhani's a dove? Ha!

Can Bibi Break Up the Obama-Rouhani Malign Bromance?

Malign bromance
With faux kisses.
Malign bromance,
Barack, this is.
A mod'rate isn't mod'rate
When he's Khomeinist.
And trusting him and his boss
Is really quite insane. It's
Malign bromance;
There's no Cupid.
Malign bromance,
You're so stupid.
They're playin' for time
And foolin' you with their stance.
You'll never stand a chance.
It's a malign bromance.

"Why Not Make It Simple?"

R.I.P. Marcella Hazan, whose approach to cooking was the antithesis of Julia Child's.

Meet Musa and Malik, Obama's Islamist, Sharia-Loving Relatives

And you thought the Carter mishpacha had a few nuts...

Obamacare "Exchanges" Dementia: The (Tiny) Numbers Don't Add Up

Obama has upended the ship of state so that every last American (of whom there are more that 319 million) can have access to "affordable" heath care. Given that, you would think that tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people will soon be signing up for health insurance listed on Obamacare "exchanges." In the following exchange, though, the actual number is revealed to be mega-puny:

SARAH KLIFF: It’s actually a very small group of Americans. The White House expects that about seven million people will buy insurance on these new exchanges where people who don’t have insurance right now can go and compare plans and potentially purchase an option. The people who are not affected are people who get insurance right now through their employer or people who are on Medicare or Medicaid or number of other government programs.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And that’s the vast majority of Americans?
SARAH KLIFF:  It is. We’re actually talking about a pretty small segment of the population for all the debate we’re having here in Washington. At their height the budget forecasters estimate that about seven percent of Americans will use these exchanges. So we’re talking about a sliver of the American population.

He turned the country upside down for seven million people? No wonder his middle name is a homophone for "Who's Sane?"

The Muslims of "The Muslims are Coming" Come to Ceeb Radio

They've come to show us that some Muslims are normal and funny, and any fears we may have about Muslims killing people en masse via incendiary devices and other methods are, like, way overblown.

Quelle relief, eh (and don't you now feel like a silly, bigoted jihadophobe)?

 

Update: Muslims non-threatening? Some Christians might beg to differ.

There Are Worse Ways to Go Than Being Gassed to Death

This way, for instance:

Mass gassing has now been replaced by a systemic ghetto eradication campaign to close off, isolate, starve, and pummel the inhabitants of rebel neighborhoods.

Good thing no "red lines" are being crossed.

Word Is Former TDSB Chief Chris Spence Has Lost His PhD Due to Blatant Plagiarism--Why Haven't We Heard About It?

A little birdie (an authoritative one) told me that Chris Spence, the former head of the Toronto District School Board who resigned in disgrace after he was revealed to be a serial plagiarist, has had a "Dr."-ectomy. That is, his PhD was quietly cancelled following an investigation which uncovered evidence of plagiarism in his doctoral dissertation.

Back in January, the Globe and Mail reported it had

learned that parts of Dr. Spence’s dissertation, submitted in 1996 for his Ph.D. from OISE appear to have been copied from unattributed sources. The 239-page dissertation is entitled “The Effects of Sport Participation on the Academic and Career Aspirations of Black Male Student Athletes in Toronto High Schools” and was partly based on interviews with student athletes and educators. 

However, passages are substantially similar to prior work which Dr. Spence does not attribute, and rely very heavily, in one section, on a 1991 book edited by Grant Jarvie, Sport, Racism and Ethnicity.

You would think that the cancellation of Spence's PhD would be big news, but so far the media have remained mum on the subject. Do they know about it? If so, are they manifesting cricket chirrups to spare the man and the TDSB any further embarrassment and/or because they feel sorry for the compulsive copy-cat?

A Clash of Authoritarianisms?

The Toronto Star's Harpoon Siddiqui decries the "authoritarianism" of Quebec's new secular Charter of Rights. I'm not terribly fond of this ill-conceived piece of papier either, but it seems to me that while Harpoon frets about authoritarians in Quebec, he had little problem with the sort of authoritarianism that was in place when Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood were doing the Islamist fandango in Egypt.

Margaret Wente Weighs In on the David Gilmour Faux-Scandale

Re Gilmour's faux pas in expressing his preference for teaching the works of male authors, she writes:

Frankly, I was surprised and glad to learn that there remains one small testosterone-safe zone at U of T (although I guess it’s not safe any more). As anyone who’s set foot on campus in the past 30 years ought to know, courses in guy-guy writers are vastly outnumbered by courses in women writers, queer writers, black writers, colonial writers, postcolonial writers, Canadian writers, indigenous writers, Caribbean, African, Asian and South Asian writers, and various sub- and sub-subsets of the above. But if you’re interested in Hemingway, good luck. No wonder male students are all but extinct in the humanities.

My Idea of Hell

Attending this conference, featuring Peter Beinart and other ZINO (Zionists in name only) dinos, is.

Ayatollah Factotum: Iran's Uranium Enrichment Is Non-Negotiable

Are you listening, Neville Hussain Obama? Because they aren't even trying to disguise the fact that they're playing you for a fool:

Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs has ruled out the possibility that the Islamic Republic may halt its uranium enrichment activities.

“We have been insisting for 10 years that suspending enrichment is impossible,” Abbas Araqchi said on Saturday.

He added, however, that “the frameworks, level, volume, form and location of enrichment, can be the subject to negotiations.”...

In other words they're willing to let the silly infidels sweat the small stuff as they get on with the business of creating an arsenal of A-bombs that will make them a really big player in global affairs.

Trudeau's Plan is to "Push Pot" at Youth, Top Conservative Says

Stoners 4 Justin? Hey, it just might work. (Maybe Iggy should have tried it.)

Do You Suffer From Phobiaphobia (a Fear of Fear)? "Experts" Say Your Fear is Overblown

Terrorists? Crazy "lone wolf" gunmen? Fear not, say professional professorial "experts":

"Vivid images and memories of these images are used to make judgments about the overall likelihood of dangerous events." says Robert Kraft, a psychology professor at Otterbein University. In fact, "these horrific events are no more likely today than they were yesterday or 10 years ago." 

Says David Schanzer, a Duke University professor who directs the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security: "Since 9/11, you are far more likely to drown in your bathtub than be killed by terrorists in the United States."...

Maybe so, but neither your bathtub nor your bathwater are intent on conquering the globe for Allah. And if you do nothing to confront existential threats du jour, you can be bloody well sure that they'll come back to haunt you; heck, they may even kill you.

Rouhani's Charm Offensive Met With Boos (and Shoes) in Iran

Iran's prez, who's been wildly successful at rebranding Ayatollahville--it's gone from "intransigent" to "amenable" in no time flat--has received mixed reviews back in Crazy Town:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has been met by hardline protesters chanting "Death to America" on his return from the UN forum in New York. 

During his trip, President Rouhani had suggested a shift in tone on Iran's controversial nuclear programme.  

This culminated in a phone call with US President Barack Obama - the first such top-level conversation in 30 years. 

Hundreds of people gathered at Tehran airport, with supporters hailing the trip and opponents throwing shoes...

No worries. His ability to con and beguile the West's infidels--first and foremost among them, Barack Obama--remains, yes, a shoe-in. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Update: They threw eggs, too. (Could it be that Obama has come up with a Machiavellian strategy--make kissy-face with Rouhani and thereby spark a civil war that will ultimately bring regime change to Tehran? I doubt it. More likely, Obama is completely sincere when he says he has no desire to effect regime change. If change does indeed come about, it won't be because of Obama's purposefulness. It will happen as it did in Egypt, where, as a direct result of Obama's Cairo speech, the Muslim Brotherhood had its greatest triumph, but the military ended up taking charge. In other words, events will unfold despite Obama.)

Update: The silly WaPo puts a positive spin on the shoe-throwing and egg-hurling.

Climatology Comedy

I would like to thank the UN climate "experts" for providing me with much mirth yesterday. The way they unpacked the latest "climate change" prognostications, downplaying both the unfortunate fact that there's been no discernible uptick in temperature for at least fifteen years and the utter failure of their own "scientific" computer models, and yet still had the chutzpah to call for immediate and drastic action to curb catastrophic carbon-driven "warming" (which, confoundingly and uncooperatively, appears to have curbed itself)--hilarious!

"Diplomacy Can Be So Powerful That It can Peacefully Defuse the Worst Weapons of War"

Poor, delusional John Kerry. He thinks a "binding UN resolution" is really, well, binding.

Stop the Presses. Canada's "Human Rights" Mausoleum (A.K.A. The Museum of Competitive Victimhood) Is Engendering Animosity Between Victim Groups, Not Bringing Them Together

I've been saying as much for years, and it seems the National Post has finally twigged to the fact that something's not kosher about our mega-pricey victimhood edifice. It also seems that someone has written an entire book on the subject--Hidden Genocides, by historian Dirk Moses. However, Moses's objections to the edifice and its contents are rather different than mine. Whereas I think the thing's a joke because the concept of "human rights" has become so degraded in our time, and because something that was originally conceived as a Holocaust museum has ended up becoming a locus for what Mark Steyn, in one of his most memorable turns of phrase, has called "bickering genocides," Moses derides it for "unfairly" highlighting one genocide in particular. He's also upset because, with the state funding it, the museum won't be nearly victim-y enough:

In a chapter in the upcoming book Hidden Genocides, Mr. Moses, a professor of history at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, said the museum’s handling of the story of Canada’s indigenous people gets at a fundamental problem with a state-funded human rights museum. (Ottawa has committed $21.7-million to annual operating costs.) “As a proclaimed ‘human rights leader,’ it is impossible for the state to admit to a genocidal foundation,” he writes. “This is a genocide whose name dare not be spoken in the museum.”

Actually, Professor Moses, what dare not be spoken here is how power-crazed leftists and Islamists have hijacked "human rights" and put it in service of their own demented agendas.

I'd love to see an exhibit about that in the museum, but it might be difficult to depict, and even if they managed to come up with something I'm pretty sure it would be relegated to some out-of-the-way nook where no one would see it.

Update: Now, here's an edifice that I'd go out of my way to visit--the Jihad Museum in Herat, Afghanistan. Not only does it have cool--albeit wooden--reenactments of holy war,



I hear the food in the restaurant is both halal and to die for.

The Scheme, the Meme and the Tattered American Dream: Obamacare "Is a Train Wreck"

Good night, America, how are ya?
Say, don't you know him, he's the president.
That old wreck'll cause incalculable damage.
In the end you won't believe how much you've spent...

Peas In Our Time

While some pea-brains at this stage may revel
'Cuz Obama is channeling Neville
It's easy to see
That atomically
He'd be making a deal with the devil.

"Common Words" in the Christian Bible and the Koran? As If!

A typically ill-thought through solution to an age-old enmity that's resurfaced in our time:

Far from leading us to an impending Armageddon caused by religion, we’re seeing faith-based peace-making wrestling toward solutions at the highest levels. In the Christian tradition, this is “turning the other cheek.” Because secular solutions have proved insufficient, ideas and voices from “Common Word” are being rediscovered. 

If allowed to flourish, this initiative would yank all suicide vests out of Islam. “Common Word” opens the Koran and the Bible side by side and declares: “The basis for this peace and understanding already exists. It is part of the very foundational principles of both faiths: love of the One God, and love of the neighbour.”

You know, I think it could work. If it weren't for all that jihad stuff in the Koran, of course.

Update: FYI, Islam's love-thy-neighbor rule does not apply to non-Muslims.

Heather Mallick: David Gilmour "Has Badly Damaged the U of T's Reputation"

Such piffle. Israeli Apartheid Week, which got it's start there prior to metastasizing worldwide, has badly damaged it. The Gilmour brouhaha is a silly sideshow that damages that august institution's reputation not a whit.

Update: It's hardly a shockeroo that the union representing Canada's university profs supports the wrong side in the Israel-Palestinian issue:

Palestine CAUT has formed a partnership with the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) a democratic and non-partisan union representing approximately 7,000 university teachers, researchers and staff. It is a federation of faculty and staff unions at Al-Azhar University, Al-Aqsa University, the Islamic University in Gaza, Brizeit University, Al-Najah University, Bethlehem University, Hebron University, Palestinian Polytechnic University, al-Quds University, al-Quds Open University, and the Arab American University. CAUT is assisting PFUUPE in establishing a permanent secretariat, developing a union training program, and building its communications and advocacy capacity. - See more at: http://www.caut.ca/issues-and-campaigns/international-solidarity#sthash.pB9pPFmJ.dpuf

By the Rivers of Abbas's Babble On

The babbler's babble is decoded here.

Bollocks Du Jour

Secretary of State Kerry has 'constructive' meeting with Iran, makes progress toward nuclear deal

What a Farce When Khomeinist Fars News Gets the Translation of Rouhani's CNN Interview Right and CNN Gets It Wrong

CNN's imperious broadcaster, Christiane Amanpour, who interviewed the faux-moderate, had a hissy fit via Twitter about the Wall Street Journal "siding" with the Fars News version:

According to CNN's translation, Rouhani, who was interviewed in New York where he was attending the United Nations General Council, said "whatever criminality [the Nazis] committed against the Jews, we condemn." That was in stark contrast to his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who infamously called the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews a myth.

 But the Journal insisted CNN had gotten it wrong, quoting Iran's semi-official news agency Fars as saying he did not say any such thing.

"Our independent translation of Mr. Rouhani's comments confirms that Fars, not CNN, got the Farsi right," the Journal reported.

"So what did Mr. Rouhani really say?" it continued. "After offering a vague indictment of 'the crime committed by the Nazis both against the Jews and the non-Jews,' he insisted that 'I am not a history scholar,' and that 'the aspects that you talk about, clarification of these aspects is a duty of the historians and researchers.'"

"Pretending that the facts of the Holocaust are a matter of serious historical dispute is a classic rhetorical evasion," maintained the Journal, adding, "Holocaust deniers commonly acknowledge that Jews were killed by the Nazis while insisting that the number of Jewish victims was relatively small and that there was no systematic effort to wipe them out."

"We'll leave it to CNN to account for its translation, and why it made Mr. Rouhani seem so much more conciliatory than he was," continued the Journal. "Meantime, points for honesty go to the journalists at Fars, who for reasons that probably range from solidarity to self-preservation aren't disposed to whitewash their President's ideological predilections."

That enraged Amanpour...

Take a chill pill, Chrissy, and quit yer hysterical tweeting, 'kay?

The U.S. and Turkey to Create Fund to Stem Extremism

That should work out well, what with Turkey's head honcho Artie Erdogan being a doctrinaire Islamist and all.

Free Speech Apparent and Acceptable on Canadian University Campuses?

Not so much. After all, free speech hurts peoples' feelings, especially if you mention something nice about, say, Zionists, capitalism or men.

Zionhass at Beit Zatoun

Read about it here.

David Gilmour Is Being Trashed for His "Sexist" English Course, But THESE U of T Graduate English Courses (Some Featuring Zealous Zion-Loather Judy Butler) are Okey-Dokey?

These ones:

• ENG6850HF
  Palestine/Israel; Israel/Palestine
  S. Salih
   
  Course Description
  In this course we will attempt some theoretical approaches to the question of the neighbour, the ‘other,’ mourning and melancholia through a focus on writings which deal with a highly contemporary situation: the conflict in Israel-Palestine. Although all our readings will engage to a greater or lesser extent with Palestine and Israel, the abstract philosophical questions we’ll discuss undoubtedly have a broad reach in theoretical and literary-critical analysis.
   
  The publication of Judith Butler’s Parting Ways. Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism in 2012 signals an increasing critical-theoretical interest in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Our discussions will begin with Hannah Arendt’s contentious book on the Eichmann trial, and we’ll read our way through Edward Said, Amos Oz and Jacqueline Rose to Butler’s engagements with Jewish and Arab thinkers and writers.
   
  As well as questions of neighbourliness and otherness, issues and concepts we’ll discuss in relation to our readings and viewings will include: literary and theoretical modes of representing contested and occupied territory; the ways in which one of the most intractable political situations of our time abuts on more abstract questions concerning ethics, violence, secularism and religion, as well as more literary questions concerning the representation and role of the intellectual; the impact of occupation on rhetoric, genre and style.
   
  In conjunction with our theoretical readings two comics and two films will provide the opportunity for us to discuss the narrativization and visualization of the Palestinian- Israeli conflict and its history, while our reading of Elias Khoury’s epic novel will permit us to reflect on how more ‘traditional’ modes of representation have engaged with the politics of dispossession and the numerous ethical challenges it presents for writers and thinkers.

• ENG5588HF
  Free Love?: Conjugal Politics And American Literature
  N. Morgenstern
   
  Course Description
  In May of 2012 President Obama publically announced his support for gay marriage, and two high-profile cases (challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and to California's proposition eight) will be heard by the Supreme Court in March of 2013. Are marriage rights progressive rights or do we need to tell a more complicated story? Are we now witnessing the beginning of the end of marriage, as some studies would indicate, or will marriage continue to be a crucial social and symbolic form? How does the marriage contract relate to the social contract? Is the contractual relation a democratic ideal? What is the fantasy of contractualism and what continues to trouble this fantasy? This course will look at selected moments in American literary history from the American Revolution to the present. The emphasis of our inquiry will be theoretical rather than historical, as we will attempt to understand the contractual subject and articulate a political philosophy of marriage. Topics for discussion will include marriage and the state, radicalism in relationship to marriage and anti-marriage, the sovereignty of the individual, marriage and racial difference, and anthropological and deconstructive considerations of the contract and the gift...

Readings may include: Charles Brockden Brown, Alcuin and Ormond; James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance; Edith Wharton, Summer; Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady; Abraham Cahan, "The Imported Bridegroom;" Nella Larsen, Quicksand; Carson McCullers, The Ballad of the Sad Café; John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government; Carol Pateman, The Sexual Contract; Jacques Derrida, Given Time; Peggy Pascoe, What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and The Making of Race in America; Elizabeth Freeman, The Wedding Complex; Judith Butler, "Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual?"

• ENG5047HF** 
  Class, Culture, and American Realism N. Dolan
  
  Course Description
  Sociological inclusiveness – serious mimetic attention to the middle and lower classes – is one of the hallmarks of modern realist literature. But what is social class as a subject of literary representation? What, in particular, is social class in modern industrial-commercial liberal-democratic society as opposed to its agrarian feudal-aristocratic predecessor? Is class a form of collective self-identification or just an academic descriptor? Is a class akin to a culture? How, if at all, do different classes interrelate? How has the nature and experience of social class changed over time? And what are the motivations and the special difficulties involved when the highly literate members of the educated classes attempt to sympathetically represent the less literate members of less educated classes? Why do issues of “culture” come up so frequently in such works?
  
  This course attempts to address such questions in relation to a selection of major works of American literary realism. In the first three weeks we will establish a set of shared conceptual reference points by recourse to some of the major sociological theorists of class, from Marx to Bourdieu. In all subsequent weeks the discussion will focus on a primary work of literature...  

Frankly, I'd much rather sit in on Gilmour's non-theoretical class featuring the oeuvre of robustly masculine authors (well, with the exception of that hothouse flower, Marcel Proust) than have to endure any of the above three courses, all of which appear to manifest a palpable hatred of the West, and which seem to emanate from the Antonio Gramsci playbook.

Update: A U of T English prof repudiates that "reprobate," Gilmour:

 “David Gilmour is not a professor of literature,” Syme writes. “He’s someone who teaches a couple of courses on an odd assemblage of texts. David Gilmour does not talk or think like a professor of literature. He doesn’t say the sorts of things professors of literature tend to say. He doesn’t seem interested in the sorts of things professors of literature are interested in. David Gilmour is not my colleague.”

You've read the theory-laden mumbo-jumbo of the three U of T English courses I've listed. That Gilmour doesn't think or speak like a typical professor of literature is to his credit, and like a breath of fresh air in the dank, dark corridors where Syme and his like-thinking, like-speaking colleagues dwell.

"The Obama Governement is an Epic Moral Failure"

I couldn't agree more.

One of the Toronto 18 Killed Waging Jihad in Syria

Can't say I'll miss him.

Harpoon Hearts Rouhani

The Toronto Star's in-house cheerleader for The Religion of Peace pens yet another pro-Rouhani piece. Back in June, Harpoon went into raptures over Iran's new prez. Today he insists that Rouhani is someone we--meaning we gullible Canucks--"can do business with."

I'm sorry. I don't for a minute buy the Grandiose Ayatollah's latest strategy--sending out his emissary as a sort of anti-A-jad to smile at the infidels and utter honeyed words about the Nazi 'crime'. All the while, of course, the nuclear enrichment for the atomic weapons that will make the Shias the strongest horse in Islam's stable and that would allow them to perpetrate a second Shoah continues apace.

If anything, that's even more diabolical than A-jad's a-world-sans Zionism palaver; at least the previous president was up front about his desire to eliminate the Jewish "tumor" from the pristinely Islamic landscape.

Update: It appears I've been too hard on Rouhani. In fact, the honey in question was poured by CNN in a mistranslation of Rouhani's actual language, which was in line with his predecessor's asperity and the true beliefs of the regime he serves.

"Anything to Keep Margaret Atwood Away"

Perhaps the best reason of all to take David Gilmour's U of T he-man literature course? (The quoted words are the thoughts of a commenter named "olonzac".)

Update: Oh, wait--now he's "under fire" for shunning Atwood and other chick novelists. I bet he'd rather quit than have to teach, say, The Handmaid's Tale.

Update: Ironically enough, Gilmour's plight is not unlike that of Coleman Silk, the protagonist of Philip Roth's The Human Stain, who is also blindsided by charges of sexism.

Khomeinist Press TV Gleeful as Canada Gets Dissed By UN's Odious "Human Rights" Racket

You know the world is completely cockeyed when totalitarian Twelvers deride democratic Canada for being deficient in the human rights department:

The Canadian government has come under fire for dismissing UN concerns over its human rights violations against the country's Aboriginals, Press TV reports.

This comes as UN Human Rights Council is conducting its Universal Periodic Review in which there have been calls for a national inspection into the disappearances, murder and sexual abuse of Aboriginal women.

Several member states including Iran, Cuba, New Zealand and Norway have all voiced concerns about the country’s human rights violations especially against the Aboriginals.

The Harper government received a total of 162 recommendations in the review on how to improve its country’s human rights record of which Canada dismissed a number of suggestions.

Critics say whenever the Harper government comes under criticism at the UN, they try to deflect attention from it by focusing on the alleged human rights records of the states making the condemnations.

In addition, critics say the international community should also scrutinize the controversial tar sands oil developments in Canada, as they have devastating impacts on the Aboriginal peoples and their lands...

Let's get real. "Critics" hate the Harper government for its staunch support of Israel, ergo these "critics" have their own agenda and absolutely no credibility.

Ah, Yes. The Old "The Joooos Have Nukes, Why Can't We?" Bamboozle

Iran tries to shine light on Israeli nukes

Israeli Embassy in the U.S. Spoofs Rouhani's "Charm Offensive"

Too funny!

Obama's Foreign Policy "Confused"

Well, that's one way to describe it. I'd say it's bemused, bollixed and befuddled.

Odd Sense of Humour

Sayyed "Nasty" Nasrallah: Chemical Weapons Campaign Against Hezbollah Funny



Why is this man laughing?

400 Killed In Terror in 5 Days and Obama Says 'World More Stable'

Gee, Barack, what would a less stable world look like?

Iran's "Moderate" Prez the Filling in a Rubin Sandwich

This Rubin took the "moderate" bait and swallowed it whole. This Rubin advises us to beware of faux-moderates bearing gifts.

Human Bombs Who Kill for Allah and Western Gunmen Are NOT the Same

One's a pathological lone wolf; the other's part of a group effort to wage jihad on behalf of a culture of death.

They Both Are Full of Hot Air

In itemizing all the traits her former boss and her ball-and-chain have in common ("They both love golf"; "They both are master politicians," etc.), wannabe president Hillary Clinton omits the most obvious one.

The most crucial way in which they differ: Clinton is hyper-empathetic while Obama's an iceman who never feels anyone's pain.

Update: Bono nails Bill (though not, you know, in a sexual way):

In the Grandiose Tradition of Stalin's Five Year Plans...

"Obama marketplaces." A concept that can only make one shudder.

Smile and Show Your Dimple/You'll Find It's Very Simple/You'll Be the Cutest Fella in the Jihad Parade...

Kathy Shaidle, despondent, posts Brian Lilley commenting on a Canadian reporter's tweet re our homie Omie's adorable dimples.

Gag moi!

Can You Fight Jew-Hate/Zionhass By Adulterating Your Message With Au Courant Theories About "Bullying" and "Inclusivity"?

It's obvious that the Wiesenthalers--who have retrofitted a "tolerance" bus and plan to take it on the road--think you can. Me? I have serious doubts about it:

TORONTO — The Tour for Humanity, an ambitious project that can be compared to no other, will help the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) bring its message of tolerance, inclusivity, justice and human rights to millions of Ontarians.  

A “mobile tolerance education centre,” The Tour for Humanity, is a $1-million, retrofitted, 42-foot Fleetwood bus that has been re-engineered to accommodate a 32-seat theatre.  

This initiative, for which FSWC has raised $2.4 million, is designed to bring its educational programs beyond the Greater Toronto Area to the entire province of Ontario.  

FSWC president and CEO Avi Benlolo said that while his organization offers classes about tolerance and social justice issues at their Yonge Street offices, there are many people living outside of Toronto to whom the classes aren’t accessible.  

“We thought about building a museum in the hope that people would come. Drawing people from outlying areas is a difficult problem,” Benlolo said, adding that small Ontario communities including Stratford, St. Jacobs, Orangeville and Dundas are underserved when it comes to programming that promotes tolerance and inclusivity.  

“The question was, how can we really project our influence much further and get to more people? The answer seemed quite clear: we take our program to them.”  

The Tour for Humanity will travel from town to town to offer workshops for students, educators and law enforcement representatives on topics including the Holocaust, genocide, bullying, heroes and leadership....

Sounds to me like the Kielburgers on wheels--with a soupçon of Shoah stuff.

Careful, Cliff. The Entity Formerly Known as CAIR-CAN and Graduates of the David Cameron/Baruch Frydman-Kohl School of Useful Idiocy Would Consider That "Hate Speech"

Have you noticed that we seem to be importing our anti-jihad speakers these days--Geller & Spencer and the chap quoted here, Clifford May?

Like Communism and Nazism, Islamism is a supremacist creed, he argued. “We have to wage a war against supremacist ideologies.” 

In a question period, May was asked whether an honest discussion about Islamic expansionism, on campus and elsewhere, was being inhibited by self-censorship and accusations of Islamophobia.  

“Islamophobia is a kind of jiujitsu,” May replied.  

Criticism of Islamic supremacy is called Islamophobia, while at the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, formerly the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), is pushing to ban criticism of Islam, he said.  

“We’re being fought with warfare, ‘lawfare’ and ‘jawfare’ – the whole idea of turning it around so that any frank discussion is one that can’t be done in polite conversation.”

Polite conversation = dhimmitude.

Obama Opens the Door to Jaw-Jaw With Iran's Atomic A-holes; "Moderate" Rouhani Slams It In His Face

It's official! Barack Obama is now the Rodney Dangerfield of American presidents. Despite groveling like mad to Iran before the world yesterday--he even referred to the wretched Khamenei as Iran's "Supreme Leader"--all he got in return was a kick in the pants:

President Obama will not meet with Iranian President Hassan Rowhani on the sidelines of the United Nations session after Iranian officials nixed the idea, senior Obama administration officials said Tuesday.

Despite Obama announcing in his address to the U.N. General Assembly that he was opening the door to new talks over Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials revealed that the Iranian government was apparently uncomfortable with the prospect of Rowhani chatting personally with Obama in New York.  

A senior administration official said a formal, one-on-one meeting was never on the table. But, the official said, "we indicated that the two leaders could have had a discussion on the margins if the opportunity presented itself."  

The official said: "The Iranians got back to us; it was clear that it was too complicated for them to do that at this time given their own dynamic back home."...

"Their own dynamic"--a euphemism for their dynamic screw-you nuclear activity, no doubt.



Update: John Hannah gets it exactly right:

Obama came to the U.N. to preemptively concede that regime change is not our policy in Iran — punctuated by his conspicuous failure to utter one word of concern for the freedom and human rights of the Iranian people.

 Rouhani came to NY to lure the leader of the free world into the humiliating position of chasing after him for a meeting — only to summarily diss the offer when it was eagerly tendered. And then he gave a defiant speech to boot that surrendered not an inch to U.S. demands.

Score: Rouhani 1; Obama 0.

Update: The NYT, as per usual, gets it exactly wrong. "Iran's New President Preaches Tolerance in First U.N. Appearance"--either that reporter has been smoking something wacky, or he's channeling the duplicitous (and dead) Walter Duranty. Or maybe both.

Some Other Graduates of the David Cameron/Baruch Frydman-Kohl School of Useful Idiocy

They include:

Karen Mock, representing Canadian Arab Jewish Dialogue, JSpaceCanada and the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims; United Church Minister Robert Oliphant; Balpreet Singh, spokesperson, World Sikh Organization of Canada, and Samira Kanji, president, Noor Cultural Centre.

NYT Op-Ed: "The West Need Not Fear Its Young Muslims"

Spoken by someone who has obviously never attended an Al Quds Day rally in Toronto.

Update: Or a Muslim Day parade in New York City.

"Obama Opens Door to Better Relations With Iran"

Obama's a blithering idiot.

UN "Human Rights" Racket's Top-of-Mind Issue: Arabs Deprived of Rights--By "Arrogant" Joooos

More evidence (as if it's needed, which, clearly, it is not) that the UN's "human rights" racket is mired in Zionhass:

The United Nations Human Rights Council met Monday in Geneva to discuss the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East al-Quds (Jerusalem). 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon gave a report to the Council that addressed issues of settler violence, forced evictions and excessive use of violence by Israeli Occupation Forces. Other speakers addressed the “illegal conduct” of Israel in Gaza and the West Bank, and most called for Israeli settlement building to cease, according to the Jerusalem Post. 

Israel’s representative was reportedly absent during the meeting, prompting Palestinian representatives to accuse Israel of “arrogance.”...

Gassings in Syria? Copts slaughtered in Egypt? No biggie for the odious body that makes a mockery of the once estimable concept of human rights. But Israeli "arrogance"? Now, that's beyond the pale.

Gypsies Said to Be Gaming Canada's Easily Gameable Refugee System? It Must Be a Case of OUR "Romaphobia"

How else to explain this most disconcerting report?

For those who prefer not to worry about such things, there's always this to make you feel guilty and disinclined to ask any questions about such disturbing matters. (It couldn't be, could it, that some of those intent on gaming the system do so by playing on the sympathy engendered by our knowledge that the Nazis exterminated them along with the Jews? No, such a thing is too awful to even contemplate.)

Little Footbaths on the Prairie: Sharia Makes Inroads In Saskatchewan Thanks to Useful Idiocy of an Evangelical Leader

This evangelical, a graduate of the David Cameron/Baruch Frydman-Kohl School of Useful Idiocy, high-fives the "accommodation":

An evangelical leader in Canada has expressed his approval of a Saskatchewan academic institute adding footbaths to a building on their campus for the benefit of Muslim students. 

Recently the University of Regina added footbaths at the Riddell Centre building to have an on-campus facility for Muslims to ceremonially wash themselves before praying. 

Bruce Clemenger, president of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, told The Christian Post that Regina's move was "a good example" of how to properly accommodate Muslim students. 

"It is important, where possible, to accommodate the specific religious observance needs of students," said Clemenger. 

"It also shows that the university affirms that deep religious belief and university studies are not incompatible. This is good news for students of all faiths." 

Clemenger also told CP that unlike in the United States, in his country there "is no legal barrier to accommodation." 

"In Canada there is no separation-of-church-and-state doctrine in our Canadian constitution, and there is no legal barrier to public facilities to be used for religious purposes, or accommodations being afforded religious groups," said Clemenger. 

"Campus associations of various faiths, including Christian clubs, are able to meet on campuses, to hold events, book rooms etc." 

Earlier this year, the University of Regina installed two foot baths in the Riddell Centre's restrooms for the benefit of the campus 700-plus Muslim students. 

The total cost for the baths was approximately $35,000 and the "official opening" for the footbaths will be held early next month, as reported by the Canadian publication Metro News...

Official opening? What are they going to do--officially cut the footbaths' paper hygiene strips?



Clemenger to Muslim students: Do do that wudu that you do so well...

Dennis Prager Calls for Muslims to Confront Muslim Evil

He writes:

With this weekend's massacre by Muslim terrorists at a mall in Nairobi, Kenya, and Muslim terrorists killing about 80 Christians at a Christian church in Pakistan, most people wonder what, if anything in addition to a continuing war on terror, can be done to minimize the scourge of Islamic terror.  

The answer lies with Muslims themselves. Specifically, it means that Muslim religious leaders around the world must announce that any Muslim who deliberately targets non-combatants for death goes to hell...

Sadly, it's never going to happen, Dennis, because it contradicts what's in the Koran, a holy book Muslims believe is "uncreated" and therefore perfect.

How Will We Know If Rouhani Is Scamming Us at the UN?

Israel's Intelligence Minister tell us what to look for:

“I will tell you what would be a serious speech,” he said, “The rhetoric will be different, that we know, but rhetoric is far from being enough or sufficient. Let’s wait and see if there will be something different in the substance.” 

“I will say that there is a real change in the Iranian attitude on the nuclear issue if Rouhani tomorrow will make one of the following declarations or better all of them,” he continued. “Either that he will stop enrichment totally, or that he will shift the already enriched material from 3% and beyond outside Iran, or that he will dismantle (the nuclear facility near) Qom and stop the building of (the heavy water reactor in) Arak. If he will do this or at least declare that Iran is going to do at least one of these immediately, this is a different attitude.” 

“If he will avoid any such declaration then it is just a show, it’s just rhetoric but no substantial change,” he added.

The Problem With Multiculturalism: You Have to Suck Up to Folks Who DON'T Share Your "Values"

In the wake of ISNA Canada losing its charitable status after a lengthy investigation revealed that it was funding jihad, Justin Trudeau uses a tu quoque argument to justify his visit to IC headquarters a couple of months  back. (This Daniel Proussalidis report is in the paper version of the Toronto Sun; I have yet to find it online.):

OTTAWA - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says he says no regrets about delivering a speech to a group that saw its charitable status revokes over its connection to Islamist terrorism.

"Part of my job is to speak with as many Canadians as possible and out and talk to people about the kinds of shared values we have," Trudeau said Monday in Halifax...

Here's the tu quoque part:

Instead of running from ISNA's controversial connections, Trudeau took a jab at Employment Minister Jason Kenney.

"Whether it's me speaking there of Jason Kenney having spoken there a number of times, for me (it's about) the support that we need to give as politicians to making sure that Canadian of all different backgrounds of all different religions understand that they are part of our shared country and our shared future," Trudeau said.

Dear Justin: what kind of "shared future" can you have with people who envision a future consisting of a global caliphate? I'll tell you what kind: a future of sharia and dhimmitude.

It was a bad idea for the Conservatives' Jason Kenney to try to ingratiate himself with these Islamists, and his doing so in no way excuses Trudeau for repeating Kenney's error.

Or does wee Justin believe that two wrongs do make a right?

Melanie Phillips Sets David Cameron Straight Re Jihadi Terrorism Being Part and Parcel of Islamic Doctrine

She writes:

In response to the Nairobi atrocity, in which the Somali Islamic terrorist outfit al Shabab murdered at least 62 people in a shopping mall and injured at least 170 after separating out the non-Muslims and then killing them, the British Prime Minister David Cameron said:

‘These appalling terrorist attacks that take place where the perpetrators claim they do it in the name of a religion - they don’t. They do it in the name of terror, violence and extremism and their warped view of the world. They don’t represent Islam or Muslims in Britain or anywhere else in the world.’ 

Oh dear. 

You know what he’s trying to say. He’s trying to make the necessary point that countless Muslims in Britain and elsewhere abhor such attacks. It is indeed important not to tar all Muslims with the same murderous brush. But the rest of his statement is simply false. Not just false, but also potentially lethal. 

All attacks by Islamic terrorist groups are very explicitly made in the name of a religion. The perpetrators may recite Koranic verses, scream ‘Allahu akhbar’, declare they are acting in the name of God, proclaim Islamic holy war or single out non-Muslims for slaughter. These characteristics are all clues that such people act in the name of a religion...

Apparently, Cameron is another politician who, like Senator John McCain, is prepared to believe that the age-old jihadi war cry is merely an Islamic way to say G'day, Allah.