Canadian Liberal MP Sponsors Petition Condemning Jihadi Violence and Islam's Supremacist Agenda

Just kidding. Of course, the dupe is sponsoring something that condemns "Islamophobia," the phantom menace/smoke 'n' mirrors that Islamists haul out when they want to fudge the Koranic underpinnings of jihadi violence.

Here's the petition (a link to which can be found on the Toronto Muslims Facebook page):

Petition to the House of Commons

Whereas:

• Islam is a religion of over 1.5 billion people worldwide. Since its founding more than 1400 years ago, Muslims have contributed, and continue to contribute, to the positive development of human civilization. This encompasses all areas of human endeavors including the arts, culture, science, medicine, literature, and much more;
• Recently an infinitesimally small number of extremist individuals have conducted terrorist activities while claiming to speak for the religion of Islam. Their actions have been used as a pretext for a notable rise of anti-Muslim sentiments in Canada; and
• These violent individuals do not reflect in any way the values or the teachings of the religion of Islam. In fact, they misrepresent the religion. We categorically reject all their activities. They in no way represent the religion, the beliefs and the desire of Muslims to co-exist in peace with all peoples of the world.

We, the undersigned, Citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the House of Commons to join us in recognizing that extremist individuals do not represent the religion of Islam, and in condemning all forms of Islamophobia.

"Infinitesimally small"? Try tens of millions of people around the world, more like.

Despite the fact that this petition is replete with outright lies, I would not be at all surprised if Justin Trudeau and his retinue of Parliamentary useful idiots are persuaded to follow it to the letter.

Update: On a personal note, I was in Seville, Spain the other week and happened to turn on the TV in our hotel room when some imam on an Algerian channel was in mid-rant. Since I don't speak Arabic, I can't tell you exactly what he was saying. I do know, however, that every so often he spat out the word "Yahud," a word which, for obvious reasons (i.e. being one myself), I did recognize.

I'm pretty sure he wasn't saying anything along the lines of "as Muslims, we desire nothing more than to coexist in peace with the Yahud."

How "Quintessentially" Clueless Is Obama's "Homeland Security"?

It's so clueless that Obama factotum Jeh (pronounced "Jay"; does not rhyme with "meh") Johnson saw nothing untoward about groveling before addressing an American Muslim Brotherhood-connected organization. And, even more outrageous, he told these unapologetic Islamists, who are inspired by the supremacist teachings of Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, that their "story" is "quintessentially American."

No it isn't, Jeh. Not unless being "quintessentially American" is rejecting such quintessential American values as liberty and equality and embracing the quintessential sharia values of inequality and totalitarianism.

But then, when it comes to the likes of the MuBros, the administration Johnson serves is quintessentially--and even unabashedly--stupid.

Day Two of My Empty Nest: Reality Starts to Set In

I woke up this morning to a "lovely" surprise--my dog had been sick (erupting from both ends) all over my sun room floor.
Fortunately, my floors are hardwood, not carpeting, so the mess was fairly easy to deal with (although I did have to keep my gag reflex in check several times during the course of the yucky clean up). 

So this, thought I, is my "new normal"--my kid away at his far-off studies, and the only "child" in the immediate vicinity the kind who doesn't use a toilet.

Lucky moi.

After dancing the samba at a brief pity party, I had to admit that, unpleasant as it was, there was some solace in the mopping up. It was so immediate, so real life, that it actually helped dispel a bit of the torpor, disorientation and overwhelming sense of loss I'd been feeling on Empty Nest, Day One.

Said I to myself, "Welcome to your 'new normal'. See, it isn't so bad."

And, eventually, I will get used to it. Even if, as I remarked to a good friend yesterday, the 'new normal' is still much too new to feel normal.

How To Create a Kid Who's a "Mensch"

An article in Tablet takes a "progressive" approach to the parental project, suggesting that these four steps will inculcate "menschlichkeit" (an untranslatable Yiddish word which can perhaps best be understood as "being infused with decency"):

Here are four strategies for teaching kids about tikkun olam and instilling the kind of spirituality that’s tied to giving, caring for others, and overall menschiness in your kids: 

1. When kids are small, make righteousness a commandment, not a choice. Take kids with you to visit a friend in the hospital (they can say hi and then sit outside the room playing on your iPhone). Have them help you make sandwiches for hungry people and hand them out in a park. Collect little bottles of shampoo and body wash from hotels and frequent travelers and donate them to a shelter (calling to be sure the shelter actually wants them first). Older kids can lead coat drives, make string or lanyard bracelets to sell to raise money for charity, walk an elderly neighbor’s dog when it’s snowing out. Demand that all children say please and thank you. 

2. Encourage children to bring peace between people. The Hebrew term for this is Hava’at Shalom ben Adam l’Havero. Help friends resolve an argument, choose not to throw a fit when your sibling borrows your jeans without asking, share the lone remaining cookie rather than grabbing it and running cackling through the house while your sibling screams in rage. (I am not familiar with this behavior at all.) 

3. Care for the planet. Kids love lecturing adults about environmentalism. God help you if you leave the water running while you brush your teeth. Channel your child’s desire to feel superior to you by teaching the value of Bal Tashkhit, avoiding wastefulness. Participate in park and beach cleanups, make sure everything is properly thrown away and recycled at home and at school, donate seedlings from your backyard to a community garden, take nature walks to appreciate the world’s wonders. 

4. Get involved in volunteer work, and let your kids know about it. Show kids that service is an essential stand-alone value, not just a way to suck up to someone, make yourself feel noble, or buff up your résumé to get into college. (I have been a Harvard alumni interviewer and I have sat in on a season of Columbia admissions for a magazine story, and if I see one more college essay by a privileged white child about how she learned perspective from her volunteer trip to Guatemala, I will hit someone with a hacky-sack.)

As a Jewish mom who has just sent her one and only child, a son of whom I'm immensely proud, off to university, my suggestions are somewhat different:

1. When kids are small, start sending them to a Jewish day school: There they will learn that what's central to Judaism is the Torah and not the feel-good "progressive" squish of "tikkun olam."
2.  When they're old enough, send your kids to a Jewish summer camp: It's one of the most effective ways to instill an ongoing pride in their Jewish identity/
3. Visit Israel as often as you can: It's an awesome country--and it's ours!
4. Go to synagogue on Shabbat as a family: If your kids grow up in a shul, they are more likely to feel comfortable there.
5. Don't fall into the "tikkun olam" trap:  If you do, you may or may not be able to raise a "mensch," but you may well raise a child who feels nothing but antipathy toward Israel and those who esteem and cherish it. 

By the way, if you follow all my suggestions, you have a pretty good shot at ending up with a an 18-year-old who is good and kind and has empathy for others; who loves spending time with his adoring grandmothers; who takes pride in being Jewish and who goes out of his way to defend Israel and the Jewish people.

Follow the first set of suggestions, and you may end up with a compassionate kid, but I wouldn't bet money on his having any feelings at all--save negative ones--for Judaism and Israel.

Trump's Tallit

The twitterverse is abuzz (achirp?) over the latest Trump "controversy"--his donning a tallit, a Jewish prayer shawl, during an event at a "philo-Semitic" Detroit church.

Personally, I am far more affronted (or "nonplussed") by the hateful theology of Barack H. Obama's ex-pastor/mentor Jeremiah Wright than I am by this admittedly incongruous sight.

Update: Funny how no one seemed to have a hissy fit over this similarly incongruous sight/fatuous notion:

Oddest Couple Du Jour

Voluble, seemingly ubiquitous gadfly Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and...Pamela Anderson?

Wishful Thinking on Khomeinist 'Zine's Cover

Here it is:



Also in this month's "Newsmagazine of the Islamic Movement": Zionist thought police wreak havoc on campus

As if. And if only 'twere so.

What Clinton/Obama Don't Want You to Know About Islam

The statement "Islam is a religion of peace" is about as accurate as the statement "Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are incapable of fudging the truth."

NBC's Gawdawful "Oliver" Twist

NBC is looking to put a new spin on the Dickens' classic, one in which the lead character is a "sexy" chick in her 20s who, along with her outcast chums, employ "their unique skills to take down wealthy criminals."

"So, Girls meets Mr. Robot, basically"--a pairing which, to me, sounds as ghastly as it does uninspired.

Andrew McCarthy: "Obama's Nuclear Deal Is a Fraud On the American People"

That is certainly true. But it is also a fraud on the Jewish people, since it poses an existential threat to the world's lone Jewish state.

Two Dimensional. Cartoonish. Unbelievably Banal

In other words, it's Justin Trudeau, Marvel comic book hero!