Borrowing Martin Niemoller's "First They Came For..." Quotation and Applying it to Muslims--Now, THAT's Chutzpah!

"First they came for the Muslims"?!? Give me a freaking break!

Egyptian Necro Fatwa a Hoax?

That's been the scuttlebutt of late, but Raymond Ibrahim seems to think the fatwa is completely legit.

Should Have Been Used as Evidence at Guy Earle's "Human Rights" Trial

Not that it would have made a difference, the kangaroos' verdict having been a foregone conclusion and all.

"Mr Cool: Obama and the Hip Factor"

Memo to Americans: "Hip" and "cool" got you into your current pickle; "hip" and "cool" are paving the way to your bankruptcy hell. Time to vote for the un-hip, un-cool, totally squaresville guy who doesn't care about "hip" and "cool," because they have nothing to do with effective presidential leadership. (Did "hip" and "cool" put an end to bin Laden--Obama's one true accomplishment: I don't think so.)

Saudi Chick Who Dared to Get Behind the Wheel to Be Spared a Licking

A chick victory of sorts--or at least what passes for one--in horribly repressive Saudi Arabia. (One has the sense from the story that the only reason she evaded her punishment was because Americans became aware of it, which made it something of an embarrassment for the Wahhabis.)

TDSB Eschews Jews, Celebrates "Asians" Instead

May has been designated Jewish Heritage Month in Ontario, and you know what that means--the Toronto District School Board has decided that, given its druthers, the heritage of Asians takes precedence.

What a shame! I was so looking forward to see how TDSB mosqueteria schools would be celebrating the Jewish month. (By planting trees around the cricket pitch? Reading The Diary of Anne Frank? Watching The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz? As if.) More here.

Despite Taking a Major Ribbing Due to His Dog Meat Days, Obama Still Plans to Use Family Pooch Bo as a Campaign Tool

Sure, the Romney-is-cruel-to-dogs strategy backfired big time due to Obama's childhood chow-down on Chow-Chows (or whatever the pooch du jour was in Jakarta back then). But that's not preventing the Democratic campaign geniuses from using Obama family pet Bo (who, confession time, is far and away my favourite Obama) to try to elicit warm 'n' fuzzy feelings from potential voters. Such a strategy may (or may not) be good for the campaign in the wake of all the embarrassing canine-ingestion jokes, but a savvy and tender-hearted Jonathan S. Tobin poses a far more crucial question: is it good for Bo?:

None of this will decide the election, but if I were Bo, I’d be worried. Contrary to all those jokes on Twitter, I don’t think he’s in any danger of being eaten by his owner. But pets that are kept principally for their political appeal are likely to be cruelly discarded when they no longer serve that purpose. Socks the cat was a major figure in the Clinton White House though not part of the 42^nd president’s re-election campaign (and to his credit he also didn’t figure in any of Clinton’s personal scandals). However, when the Clintons left the White House they dumped Socks, giving him away to a secretary. But better that than ending up as an Indonesian snack.

And let's not even mention what happened to poor Buddy, the Clinton's hyper-exuberant chocolate lab.




Bo meet Buddy; Buddy meet Bo

One Year Post-Osama Hit, the Rubber Meets the Road

On the occasion of the first anniversary of bin Laden's swimming with the fishes, the Globe and Mail has a loooong and quite boring piece about how maybe the hit wasn't the wisest move because it has put a strain on U.S.-Pakistan relations. Included is this colourful comment about the Pakistanis' hurt feelings re their perceived disposability:

“In Washington there was a realization that we have been taken for fools by the Pakistanis,” said Stephen Cohen, a senior fellow of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. “The Pakistanis think we’re still using them the way we would a Kleenex or a condom. We use them, then throw them away.”

Like a condom? Really? Well, if you say so, Steve.

As an antidote to the metaphorical prophylactic and silly hand-wringing, please read this.

Update: Al Qaeda is in "disarray"; no it isn't. Also--an example of A-Q's creative skulduggery: secret plans to wreak massive havoc were hidden/encrypted in a porno.

Song for Toronto Occupy/Beagle Mass Kvetch-o-palooza

When you are prone to moan
'Bout your student loan
Then you can always stream
Downtown.
If you are cussin' 'cuz there's
No "social justice"
Go blow off some steam
Downtown.

Just listen to the caterwauls of
Occupy Toronto.
They will get your dander up
And make a ruckus, pronto.
How can they lose?
The media think they're swell.
They get to bitch 'bout "apartheid"
There in Is-ra-el.
Just go
Downtown,
It's not illegal now.
Downtown,
No One's a Beagle now.
Downtown,
You're gonna feel really strong....

Update: From rabble.ca:

The call out for this year's May Day rally in Toronto is:

No Bosses
No Borders
No Broken Treaties

Frankly, I prefer Van Morrison's call out: "No guru, no method, no teacher":

"These Kids" Don't Need to Be Educated. They Need to Be Deprogrammed

Margaret Wente writes:

Students in Quebec are like no others, we’re told. We need to understand that tuition fees are not the real issue. The real issue is social justice. The real issue is the promise made during the Quiet Revolution that universities would eventually be free. The real issue is the fight against the ruling class, the greedy corporations, the tar sands, and the entire capitalist, neo-liberal elite. Of course, since universities actually do cost money, somebody will have to pay. Who? The greedy corporations!

The most militant protest group, the CLASSE (whose handsome spokesperson, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, has become a celebrity on French TV), has lots of other ideas about social justice. It wants a boycott of Israel’s “apartheid regime.” It wants courses, lesson plans and reading lists to be “feminized.” It wants an end to free trade. You get the idea.

According to Pierre Martin, a political science professor at the University of Montreal, Quebec’s students dwell in a world of their own. They neither know nor care what’s happening in the rest of Canada. “The Quebec education system is a distinct system in the sense that very few students would contemplate the option of going elsewhere,” he said on As It Happens. “The system is very self-contained.” Now I get it: The kids are on another planet.

They're on the planet Karl.

"Islamophobia Is an Illness"

If you call it "Islamophobia"--and make it about them, the "haters," and not you--you never have to address the problematic aspects of your belief system.