The end of "progressive" soft power

A modified version of this column by Kelly McParland appeared in today's Post as an editorial entiled "The end of 'soft power'":

U.S. President Barack Obama’s sudden about-face on the Middle East has exacerbated the difficulty that self-styled progressives face in sorting out how to deal with the world’s many emerging threats. Mr. Obama came to office preaching a highly progressive approach to confronting rogue, terror-supporting states: dialogue, diplomacy, co-operation and brotherhood, along with a pronounced reluctance to commit U.S. military forces on any fresh foreign entanglement. But it didn’t work. Now he’s trying bombs. He has come to realize that the most problematic actors on the world stage don’t share his enthusiasm for reason, negotiation and peace....

Having contributed military advisors to the effort against ISIS, Canada has a direct stake in this battle. The campaign should be of interest to Canadians for another reason, too. With Mr. Obama’s renunciation of his touchy-feely approach to international relations, it makes it difficult to argue that “soft power” and “honest brokerage,” two of our own foreign-policy establishment’s favourite catchphrases during the Liberal years, ever had much value on the world stage.  

Since Stephen Harper came to power, his opponents have crafted the notion that Canada once was a widely respect middle power that now has squandered its reputation thanks to the Conservatives’ renunciation of soft-power shibboleths. ...

... People who cut off aid workers’ heads don’t call out for “honest brokers.” They call out for bombs and bullets.

In the comments behind the Post pay-wall, Stephen Boyling wrote:

 This Editorial, although significantly watered down from what most of us have been saying for years, will do, especially after the immoral mea culpa Obama splashed us with during his UN pirouette.  The prime minister of Israel gave the speech the president of the United States of America should have given.  That, tied to the speech of prime minister Harper and his focus on what it takes, what is needed to suffocate the madness that is born in backwater dictatorships and 5-star sand lots made for a more than compelling argument when it comes to standing up to Islamic madness.

Next year in Canada, God save us from Obama-lite.  A man trying to run a race without first learning how to walk.

Amen.

Google - sanctimonious, hypocritical, rent-seeking BIRD KILLER

In the Wall Street Journal, headlined "Google Kills Birds":

Our headline has the virtue of being true—as we will explain—unlike Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt's assertion this week that people who oppose government subsidies for green energy are liars. The real charlatans are businesses like Google that use climate change as a pretext for corporate welfare.

Google, whose motto is "Don't Be Evil," announced on Monday that it is quitting the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) because of the conservative outfit's putative denial of climate change.  "Everyone understands climate change is occurring," said Mr. Schmidt. "And the people who oppose it are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and making the world a much worse place. And so we should not be aligned with such people—they're just, they're just literally lying."

In fact, ALEC takes no position on the substance of climate change.  ...

 Consider Google's pledge to fund over $1.5 billion in non fossil-fuel energy. Yet Google derives most of its energy from non-renewables on the grid... It's no coincidence that Google's server in Iowa is located near one of the cheapest sources of coal-fired power in the Midwest. 

Also not a coincidence is that nearly all of Google's solar and wind farms are located in states with renewable-energy mandates, which create opportunities for politically mediated profit-making ... 

Google has invested about $600 million in California's solar plants such as the Ivanpah system in California's Mojave Desert. ... Ivanpah's "power towers"—which burn natural gas—incinerate about 28,000 birds annually.  ...

The $2.2 billion bird fryer was funded with a $1.6 billion federal loan, which Google and its business partners plan to repay by applying for a federal grant. ...

... Mr. Schmidt shouldn't disguise his company's mercenary motives behind false and trendy appeals to green political virtue.

... etc, etc, etc ...

Eric Schmidt - holier-than-thou, hypocritical, rent seeking bird killer.  No doubt about it.  It's what we might expect from any knee-jerk progressive crony capitalist.

 

Obama's "moderate Muslim" of the week

Roger Kimball:

Just yesterday, the president of the United States — that would be Barack Hussein Obama — stood before the United Nations and heaped praise on Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, a Muslim cleric who has endorsed a fatwa calling for the murder of U.S. soldiers. Yep, Bin Bayyah is Obama’s candidate of the week for the prize of being a “moderate Muslim.”

  [Via David Thompson referring to "that pernicious little tool in the White House" ]

Bill Maher on Islam

Bill Maher may hold an ugly, profane, intolerant disrespect for Christianity (and most other religions except maybe atheism, socialism and climate change) but at least he gets it right when he calls out his fellow "liberals" for their hypocritical defense of Islamism and their ideological (and cowardly) refusal to honestly condemn Islamist atrocities:



[h/t: The Blaze]

"Climate Science is not Settled" - former Obama science official

Physicist Dr. Steven Koonin, undersecretary for science in the Energy Department during President Barack Obama's first term, writes in an article in the Wall Street Journal:

We are very far from the knowledge needed to make good climate policy ...

 Dr. Koonin covers all the key issues, what we know and most importantly what we don't know:

...  the crucial, unsettled scientific question for policy is, "How will the climate change over the next century under both natural and human influences?" Answers to that question at the global and regional levels, as well as to equally complex questions of how ecosystems and human activities will be affected, should inform our choices about energy and infrastructure.

But—here's the catch—those questions are the hardest ones to answer. They challenge, in a fundamental way, what science can tell us about future climates. ...

Koonin's article should be compulsory reading for all climate policy makers, especially the government ones.

[via FOS

Wind industry - "one of the most corrupt enterprises on earth"

James Delingpole on an interview with Mexican ecology professor Patricia Mora:

... Though Professor Mora is talking specifically about Mexico, what she says applies equally well to supposedly more transparent democracies such as Britain, Australia, the US, Canada and Denmark. The wind industry is necessarily one of the most corrupt enterprises on earth because it depends for its entire existence on government favours, backhanders, dishonest environmental impact assessments and on regulators turning a blind eye to the known health problems caused by wind turbine noise. Without crony capitalism, the wind industry simply would not exist. ...

Vancouver's little "People's March" against climate change

Purely by accident (I swear) I saw the noisy, Big Green sponsored mob go by on W Georgia St.  Appropriately, it began at the CBC building.

The turnout was small.










Veronica Alice (pictured) expressed an opinion to the Vancouver Sun:
“It’s the system that got us in the mess,” said Alice. “It’s the system that needs to change. ..."

A sentiment straight out of the "Occupy" protest.  Mess? What mess?  These highly privileged ingrates protest the system that brought them (and billions more around the world) whatever wealth, freedom and and life expectancy they enjoy.  It is the best it has been in the history of mankind, and getting better.  They should be celebrating that system, not protesting it and advocating its demise.  If these foolish dupes and useful idiots have their way, their (and our) children's futures will be very, very bleak indeed.

Naomi Klein, the narcissistic one percenter who thinks she's Gaia

Naomi Klein has a new book out.  James Delingpole outlines what you need to know about it (and her).  A sampling of headings:

It's all about Naomi. ...

Naomi may possibly be under the illusion that she is Gaia ... 

Naomi Klein is a one percenter - and therefore happily cushioned from all the economy-destroying measures she proposes ...

The interview she gave to (a clearly infatuated, slavering) Vogue is both depressing and unintentionally hilarious ...

Needed: Clear thinking and honesty on the nature of Islam

From Daniel Greenfield's The Headchopper Next Door

 ... The current misguided thinking is that we can win a debate between a “good Islam” and a “bad Islam”. The good Islam will tell Muslims to refrain from joining ISIS, to work for social change, to embrace diversity and to champion democracy. But this “good Islam” is just a liberal’s conception of what religion should be. Its only real followers are liberal non-Muslims and it has little to do with what Islam really is.

Within the historical context of Islam and in the words of the Koran, our idea of the good Muslim is actually a very bad Muslim. And our idea of the bad Muslim is the best of all Muslims. When we argue that Islam is a religion of peace, we are pushing against the full weight of over a thousand years of history and religious ideas and counting on Muslims to be too ignorant of them to know any better.

Those who genuinely want to change Islam will not do it by lying to Muslims about their religion. Trying to convince the nice Jihadist next door that Mohammed would have rejected his expedition to rape and pillage non-Muslims in Syria is futile. The nice Jihadist may not be a scholar, but he knows his Koran.

If they want to change his mind, they will have to be honest about what Islam is. ...

[via Blazing Cat Fur]

New Brunswick Law Society bigots vote 137/30 to ban Trinity graduates

Today at a Special General Meeting of the Law Society of New Brunswick:

"...members of the Law Society of New Brunswick passed a resolution by a vote of 137 to 30 directing Council not to approve Trinity Western University’s Law school as a faculty of law."

 [via]

Update (brought forward from the comments):

When the BC College of Teachers tried to pull a similar stunt the Supreme Court of Canada ruled (8/1) in favour of Trinity. See para 35 of the ruling where it is stated:  

"... there is nothing in the TWU Community Standards that indicates that graduates of TWU will not treat homosexuals fairly and respectfully. Indeed, the evidence to date is that graduates from the joint TWU-SFU teacher education program have become competent public school teachers, and there is no evidence before this Court of discriminatory conduct by any graduate. ..." 

So, extrapolating that ruling to the NB case (there's no basic difference), the NB Law Society's anti-Christian bigotry is illegal, a violation of Charter Rights and Freedoms. For more discussion read this article.

Justin Trudeau - a waste of space and time

Justin (Buzz Lightyear) Trudeau this week told high school students that "... we have to rethink elements as basic as space and time ...".  It seems that Justin has used that theme before - to impress Owen Sound high school students back in 2008 ("The way we think about space and time needs to be re-thought," he said).

Ezra Levant, compares those "deep" thoughts to the marijuana addled ramblings of a prospective Trudeau voter:



Justin Trudeau, a waste of space and time.

 And.

Wayne Gretzky on "... one of the greatest prime ministers - ever"

The Media Party just loves the UN and its Agenda 21

The Media Party, like all dedicated leftist tools, are attracted to, defend and make excuses for any totalitarian organization or concept.  It's exactly what they're doing for Justin Trudeau and his radical crew.

The small minded battle for (and against) Scottish independance

As someone with Scottish heritage (my middle name is Fyfe) I appreciate John Robson's take:



Jimmy McGinnes, on the other hand, does a great job of playing the stereotypical Scottish numbskull:)



And here are James Delingpole's ten reasons he hopes the Scots vote 'Yes'. Sounds close to the way many of us feel about a Quebec referendum should there be another one.

UN Agenda 21 - global, totalitarian “sustainability”

To highlight Cheryl Gallant's excellent effort towards raising awareness of the threat posed by UN Agenda 21, I'm bringing forward (with updated links) my January, 2012 post on the subject:
 

******************************************************************************
A Democrat speaks to a Tea Party meeting about how UN Agenda 21 is being foisted on a largely unsuspecting public and subverting individual rights:



From the UN web page for Agenda 21:

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment. ... [Agenda 21 originated from the 1992 Rio Conference, thanks to Maurice Strong.]

Canada and Agenda 21:

Canada has signed or ratified at least 45 multilateral environmental conventions and agreements and is signatory to numerous agendas for action (e.g., Agenda 21, the Habitat Agenda, the World Summit on Sustainable Development [WSSD] Plan of Implementation, and the Kyoto Protocol) ...

Local community involvement:

Originally known as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), today the group simply calls itself “ICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability.”

In 1992, ICLEI was one of the groups instrumental in creating Agenda 21. The group’s mission is to push local communities to regulate the environment—and it’s having tremendous success. [Note that 30 Canadian member communities are listed]

British Columbia is using its carbon tax to bribe communities to get on its "Climate Action" programme:

“The Climate Action Revenue Incentive program will be a new conditional grant equal to what local governments pay in the carbon tax, with only one string attached – to be eligible, communities must sign onto the Climate Action Charter and commit to becoming carbon-neutral by 2012,” said Premier Campbell. “If communities do that, and publicly report on their plan and progress in meeting that goal, they will be eligible to receive a grant equal to 100 per cent of their carbon tax costs.” [Big surprise: all 176 BC communities signed on.]

Defining "sustainability"

Does anyone know what "sustainability" means?  Every eco-freak, NGO activist and city mayor and council attempting to brand their city as the greenest on the planet uses it with abandon.  A good way to get a handle on it may be to list those things that are considered unsustainable.  The chief global promoter of "sustainability" hysteria is the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In its Global Biodiversity Assessment it identified human activities it seeks to suppress or reverse, including:

337 – Ski Runs

350 – Grazing of Livestock: cows, sheep, goats, horses

351 – Disturbance of the Soil Surface (livestock)

351 – Fencing of Pastures or Paddocks

728 – Agriculture

728 – Modern Farm Production Systems

728 – Chemical Fertilizers

728  -Herbicides

728 – Building Materials

730 – Industrial Activities

....

....

....

And the list goes on and on.  If  the U.N. and it's global network of eco-radicals succeed in reducing or eliminating all that, what's left?  It's a very scary, profoundly anti-human agenda (and part of UN Agenda 21).

Exposing UN Agenda 21

It's good to see that someone in government is concerned about the subversive UN Agenda 21.
Cheryl Gallant's recent Report from Parliament outlines those concerns and the action being taken in some quarters to combat it:

... the [United Nations] has very specific land use policies they would like to see implemented in every village, town, city, county, province and nation.  The specific plan is called United Nations Agenda 21 Sustainable Development, which has its basis in Communitarianism.  Most Canadians have heard of sustainable development, but are largely unaware of the U.N. initiative Agenda 21. A non-governmental organization headquartered in Toronto called the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives, ICLEI, is tasked with carrying out the goals of Agenda 21 worldwide.

In a nutshell, the plan calls for government to eventually take control of all land use removing decision making from the hands of private property owners.  It is assumed people are not good stewards of their land and “the government” will do a better job if it is in total control.  Individual rights in general are to give way to the needs of communities as determined by the governing body.

Take the poll at the bottom of Gallant's report.

Elizabeth Nickson's excellent book "Eco-Fascists" (inspired by her personal experience on Salt Spring Island, BC) also deals with many of these issues.

The week in climate stupid

John Kerry's wasn't the only outburst of climate idiocy in the past week. James Delingpole reports four more in "Global Warming Jumps the Shark: the Week in Climate Stupid".

John Kerry - US Secretary of global buffoonery

Unethical journalism (a Canadian staple)

Hypocrisy and biased coverage (and suppression) of events have long been evident in Canadian mainstream journalism.  Two recent stories illustrate the problem: Canada's defence spending and Liberal rising star General Andrew Leslie's screwball comments on Israel's war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.  Brian Lilley, Michael Coren and David Aiken discuss:





This is the kind of crap the Conservatives are up against in the 2015 election.  It represents a  multi-multi-million dollar media freebee advantage to Conservatives' opponents (mainly Liberals).  And that's why I'll be contributing several times my normal political donations over the next year.