I am reading Alexander McCall Smith's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Scones. It's the fifth and latest in his 44 Scotland Street series, a thoroughly delightful set of books about the residents of an Edinburgh apartment building. I cherish McCall Smith for his erudition, civility, humour, prose style and the obvious pride and pleasure he takes in the particularity of Scotland and the Scots.
I thought I'd share the following passage. It's a conversation between Matthew, an affluent but somewhat unwordly young man who owns an art gallery and Angus, a cantankerous, older character, an artist whose best friend is his bulldog, Cyril: In some of his most amusing passages, McCall Smith gives voice to what Cyril is thinking. I know it sounds a bit twee, but, trust me, it's not.
Anyway, Matthew and Angus are on their way to a funeral when Angus pulls out a hip-flask, and this exchange ensues:
"Dutch courage?"
Angus smiled. "I always take a dram to these occasions, Matthew. They're so bleak otherwise."
Matthew understood, but politely declined the flask when Angus offered him a swig.
"It's Glenmorangie," said Angus. "I have a couple of bottles in the house. The old stuff. Have you seen the new bottles? They're making a whiskey called Nectal D'Or now. Apparently "or" is a Gaelic word. But the whole thing looks somewhat French to me. I don't know why. I just get that impression."
"Perhaps they want the French to drink it," suggested Matthew. "The whiskey people are very interested in their image. They don't want people to associate whiskey with people like..." He stopped himself, just in time. He had intended to say people like you.
Angus looked at him sharply. "With people like me, Matthew? Is that what you mean?"
Matthew smiled. "I suppose so." And then he added hurriedly: "Not that there's anything wrong with people like you, Angus. It's just that we can't continue to be all tweedy and fusty, you know. Not if we want to sell our whiskey."
"But isn't this meant to be a tweedy and fusty country?" asked Angus. Isn't that why they come to visit us and buy our whiskey and so on? Precisely because we're not like everyone else?"
Matthew did not reply. But Angus was warming to his theme. "That slogan that you see, 'One Scotland, Many Cultures.' If it's meant to be directed at tourists - and surely they don't intend to spend our money telling us what to think - then what a bit of nonsense! Do they seriously think that anybody is going to come to Scotland to see multiculturalism? What pious nonsense! People come to Scotland to see traditional Scottish things. That's why they come. They come to see our scenery." He pointed out the window. They were passing through Falkirk. "They come to get a sense of our history. Old buildings. Mists. All that stuff, which we do rather well." He paused, and took a sip from his flask. "They don't come to see our social engineering programmes."
Would that there were more Anguses around--in Scotland and throughout the West--to cut through the multiculti B.S. I know we could sure use a few here in "diversity"-crazed Canada.
America's first "Muslim college" is getting set to open, reports Islam Online (my bolds):
WASHINGTON – As interested students race to beat the fast approaching enrolment deadline, Muslims are turning their sights to the Zaytuna College in California to see if America's first ever Muslim college will live up to the high expectations.
"We’ve been waiting for this time," Imam Zaid Shakir, a scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute and a co-founded of the college, told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview.
"It’s been a long road to get here, Alhamdulillah, and to know that we’re in this final part to getting freshman class set is very exciting."
Zaytuna College, a brainchild of Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, Imam Shakir and Professor Hatem Bazian, will stop accepting applications for its first freshman class of 2010 on March 1.
With the application process coming to a close, a committee is readying to study the applications and admit between 20-25 students as incoming freshmen.
And although the college is seeking Muslim students, it is not exclusive to Muslims.
There will be no gender separation at the college and academic pursuits and freedom will be paramount.
Course subjects have been decided on, but educators are now writing syllabi and mapping out teaching methodology for the subjects.
Currently only two majors are being offered: Arabic language and Islamic law and theology.
As the class size increases and more educators are hired, other majors will be offered, Imam Shakir said...
Arabic and sharia, huh? Forgive me for saying so, but there's not a whole lot of choice there, fellahs. Reminds me of the old Peter Cook line about a restaurant called "The Frog & Peach" that had but two things on the menu: frog à la pêche and pêche à la frog.
Taxpayer-funded, Hamas-loving Palestine House has two exciting events coming up. First: the annual Smear-a-thon/propaganda extravaganza known as Israeli Apartheid Week. Second: "Land Day" (April 3), which, along with Naqba Day, is the other official Palestinian "holiday". The keynote speaker at the Land Day dinner is Abdul Bari Atawan, editor of the Hamastan rag Al Quds Alarabi. Mr. Atawan, a big fan of the Shia relandscaping project, has said, "If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight."
What a charmer. So nice of us Canucks to help subsidize such views, don't you think?
Melanie Phillips writes:
An immensely important and chilling analysis by the authoritative Intelligence and Analysis Information Centre in Tel Aviv highlights the shocking extent to which Britain has become the European epicentre of Hamas activity. Hamas, let us remind ourselves, is the genocidal terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organisation, now in cahoots with Shi’ite Iran, which is pledged to exterminate Israel and kill Jewish people everywhere, along with extinguishing human rights within the Islamic world. Its cause should be absolute anathema to the west, which should be doing everything in its power to stamp it out as the unconscionable threat that it is to life and liberty. Yet for the past decade, Britain has turned itself into the principal focus within Europe for the political, propaganda and legal activities of Hamas...
What's the 'Hamastan' of North America? I nominate Toronto.
Newfoundland's Premier Danny Williams didn't have to head stateside to get the heart surgery he wanted, according to some Canadians in the know. From the Ceeb (my bolds):
Canadian cardiac surgeons say there was no need for the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador to cross the border for world-class health care.
The treatment Danny Williams received in the United States is available in at least four Canadian centres including hospitals in Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, doctors told CBC News.
Williams has made no apologies for following what he said was doctors' orders in flying to Miami to have "minimally invasive" surgery earlier this month to repair a leaky heart valve.
However, Montreal cardiac surgeon Dr. Hugues Jeanmart finds that medical advice puzzling.
"I was very surprised, especially for the reason he [Williams] advanced, saying that we didn't have this kind of expertise in Canada, which I completely disagree with," he said.
Jeanmart repairs heart valves using the latest in robotic technology. Instead of open-heart surgery, the operation is performed through an incision under the arm, so there is no large chest scar and there are other benefits as well, Jeanmart said.
"There's less pain, less bleeding, less chance of infection and the main point is faster recovery after these kinds of surgery."
There are also risks, such as stroke, so some cardiac specialists are reluctant to recommend the procedure. But the procedure is still available.
There is a waitlist in Montreal of up to three months, but urgent cases can get the surgery right away, Jeanmart said.
Dr. Alan Menkis, a Winnipeg cardiac surgeon, was a pioneer in using the technology.
Canada can be slow to adopt technology that is expensive when cheaper options are just as effective, Menkis said...
Way to make Williams's case for him, Doc.
As the man-made climate change theory continues to melt down quicker than the Polar ice caps (much quicker, since, as we now know, the data on "the great thaw" was fudged), an American Thinker remarks on the strange absence of the guy who probably did the most to ramp up the eco-hysteria.
Where's Al? Laying low. Keeping quiet. Counting his billions.
Thomas L. Friedman says "Iraq's know unknowns" are "still unknown."
If you say so, Tom.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a post-modern sort of military commander, offers yet another abject apology:
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan went on national television Tuesday to apologize for a deadly airstrike, an extraordinary attempt to regain Afghans' trust while a mass offensive continues against the Taliban in the south.
In a video translated into the Afghan languages of Dari and Pashto and broadcast on Afghan television, a stern Gen. Stanley McChrystal apologized for the strike in central Uruzgan province that Afghan officials say killed at least 21 people. The video was also posted on a NATO website.
"I pledge to strengthen our efforts to regain your trust to build a brighter future for all Afghans," McChrystal said in the video. "I have instituted a thorough investigation to prevent this from happening again."...
Um, am I the only one who doesn't get this newfangled approach to warfare? And on the day when the American casualty rate rises to 1,000, isn't McChrystal's a recipe for lots more kafir deaths for the sake of a mind-bogglingly imbecilic ingratiation scheme that has failure written all over it?
From Arab News:
JEDDAH: A Jeddah court sentenced an Asian maid to 200 lashes and a year in prison after being found guilty of mixing her urine into the food of the family she works for. The maid’s sponsor complained and accused her of performing black magic. The maid reportedly claimed she was getting back at the family for bad treatment. The woman did not appeal the verdict.
More like "yellow magic," I'd say.
A chap of the Islamic persuasion who was pulled off a flight from Miami bound for Detroit after loudly declaiming "Kill all the Jews!" insists he was misheard.
