Midler: Glenn Beck could cause genocide

Midler on Beck:


Wow! That's just completely nuts! Midler has to have an insanely dark view of her fellow Americans if she thinks that Glenn Beck, or anyone else, could provoke them into a Rawandan style genocidal rage.

American liberals, from Bill Clinton to wacko Hollywood, are going completely round the bend. Say, maybe that's what Midler means - it's liberals of her own nutty ilk who are on the verge of committing genocide. Watch out, Glenn!

Beck.

“Vast right wing conspiracy” resurrected

Things must be going very badly for the Obama Dems if Bill Clinton thinks it’s necessary to drag out clapped-out paranoid conspiracy bullcrap :

Former President Bill Clinton said Sunday that the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that worked against his presidency is alive and well ...

"It's not as strong as it was, because America has changed demographically. But it's as virulent as it was," Clinton said on NBC’s "Meet the Press."

... Clinton went on to say that the things being said about President Barack Obama are "like when they accused me of murder." [Oh, my!]

And, news flash:

Clinton said that, despite their politically motivated tactics, Republicans ... blah, blah ...

Republicans "politically motivated"? Who’d have known?

I wonder if any reporter thought to ask Clinton what he thought of the left’s relentlessly vicious attacks on GW Bush during his two terms? Oh yeah, I forgot, that was all legitimate "dissent" which, after all, was the "highest form of patriotism".

Dems! Idiotic wusses!

New Tory director of communications

John Williamson, former director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has been appointed as Harper's director of communications:

We wish Williamson luck. He’ll need that trying to explain federal Conservative positions on corporate welfare, global warming, massive deficits, over-spending and a whole host of other indefensible Tory policy....

...followed by a bunch of quotes reminding us of Mr. Williamson's past statements on various issues.

Sinking Copenhagen

Good news from Terence Corcoran:

... In the great public policy battle between global economic growth and global climate change, the G20 is going for growth. And if growth trumps climate at the G20, that spells the end of any hope of a major climate agreement in Copenhagen in December.

... Copenhagen was essentially sidelined yesterday at another event, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s Climate Change Summit in New York.

... At the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, the most Mr. Obama committed to was “to work with my colleagues ... to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.” Good idea.

... Obama may have sealed his fate in Europe and other places as The Big O — as in zero.

... leaders at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh will pay little more than lip service to climate policy and will instead focus on the immediate business of being seen to be doing something about the immediate problem of economic growth.

The socialist roots of the global meltdown

Capitalism has been under heavy assault since the global financial meltdown (see Foster and Corcoran). And adding to the obfuscation, as usual, most of the political class of all stripes are only too ready to assign blame anywhere except government.

So it’s worth a reminder that the meltdown had its roots in government intervention. The following video is a replay of the actions of some key figures (including Barack Obama) in their own words:


That’s not capitalism at work, it’s heavy handed (but, as they always try to tell us, well intentioned) government intervention in the capital markets. It’s a classic example of why socialism does not and cannot work.

Also here’s Corcoran on Michael Moore’s new movie Capitalism:

... Bank robbery is a theme of the movie. In the latest issue of Vanity Fair, however, two veteran financial reporters tell a different story of how the banks were ordered to a meeting by Paulson who staged what they call a reverse bank robbery. "It was basically a reverse holdup, with Paulson holding the gun and forcing the banks to take the money." That’s statism, not capitalism. ...

Sunday poltoons

Obozo
USS Ted Kennedy














[h/t: Vinney]

Obama’s capitulation on missile defence

Charles Krauthammer:

... What just happened ... is that the United States unilaterally abrogated the security agreement with two close East European allies [Poland and the Czech Republic] — so close that they had troops in Iraq and Afghanistan that supported us — at the behest and because of the pressure of the Russians.

... Now, number one is the timing. Apart from the merits of all this, the idea that we should renounce, on the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland, a security agreement that we had with Poland [because] of Russian objections is scandalously, indescribably amateurish.

Now, on the merits. If there is a secret agreement between us and the Russians ... in return for our capitulation on this issue… The problem is there is not a shred of evidence of a deal. And if not, what this is is a capitulation to Russia....

And imagine if the Poles and Czechs are upset about this, how the feeling is in Ukraine and Georgia. The Russians announced earlier in the week that if a Georgian ship is found in Abkhazian waters, which was a province of Georgia, it will be seized. So it has annexed part of Georgia and it has escalated the war of words on Ukraine.

Belmont Club:

... Eastern Europe has been Finlandized. But the withdrawals have not been reciprocal so far. Even as the US was exiting Russia’s former "near abroad",
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez continued to approach the Russians for nuclear power and weapons assistance....
　
... Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was to meet Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on Friday after Russia risked Washington’s wrath by offering the fierce US foe help developing nuclear energy.

... Putin made the nuclear offer after Russia this week delayed talks with the United States and other powers on fears Iran is developing nuclear weapons, concerns critics say have been exacerbated by civilian nuclear technology provided by Moscow....

This view from Europe seems just a little over-optimistic given Russia’s belligerent attitude. But the contribution from the American in the comments seems about right.

Appeasing hostile adversaries and throwing friends under the bus? Wasn’t that Neville Chamberlain’s "strategy"?

Bruce Bawer on the threat of Islam to Western values

Bruce Bawer, a gay, Christian, expatriate American moved to Norway seeking a more tolerant society. Before long he discovered, to his dismay, that Norway and many other European nations were caving in to a much greater threat to his values. Bawer’s new book, Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom, documents that threat.

Pilfered directly from Blazing Cat Fur here is Bruce’s speech in Montreal this week:


Q&A:


Also, here’s Part I (of three) of Bawer's earlier interview with Bill Moyers on PBS:


The advantage of having a gay man like Bruce Bawer take up this issue is that ultralib purveyors of the Multicult like Bill Moyers are more likely to take him seriously. Good show Bruce!

Jimmy plays the race card

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American," Carter said. They don't call him the "dumbest president" for nothing.

This ought to generate some interesting commentary:

Update: Yup, lots of fine commentary. To highlight some of it:

NRO editorial - "Georgia Pharisee":

Jimmy Carter now has done to his ex-presidency what he did to his presidency, which is to say that he has, through his incessant moral preening, converted mere incompetence into something more unseemly. ...

... The facile accusations of racism are both banal and cynical. And they are right on cue: Wolf-cries of "racism!" are a way to smother debate, which is something that Democrats, who are losing the health-care debate, must find appealing right about now.

...This showy self-righteousness is of a piece with Mr. Carter’s other forays into political controversy ...

...The inescapable conclusion is that Mr. Carter has defective judgment. We already knew that: We’ve known it since he clenched his fist and proclaimed energy conservation the "moral equivalent of war" while clad in a sweater....[Read on...]

Mark Steyn.

Victor Davis Hanson.

Kathy Shaidle.

Your body, your health, your choice - government butt out!

Xanthippa highlights Thomas Sowell’s excellent four-part series on the hazards and deceit underlying Obama’s plans for socializing American healthcare - part of the debate Canadians never had.

The snotty, inbred Canlit establishment

Today’s installment of the Post’s series on the state of Canadian literature has one of my favourite crime/mystery novelists, William Deverell, taking some good shots at the cultural establishment:

... a common notion: A properly brought up Canadian is expected to feel guilty about reading a book that claims no pretension but to entertain.

This priggish attitude toward popular fiction is deeply imbedded within our cultural establishment.

... "Popular fiction" has become a term of vulgar connotation, but it reeks of ironic paradox: obviously we sobersided Canadians ought to be reading unpopular fiction.

... I gave a workshop in popular fiction ... during which I was instructed by a Canada Council spokeswoman, in severe tones, that it does not support writers of crime fiction.

... It is to Canada's utter shame that William Gibson, with his vast trophy case of awards, has not been honoured in this country with a Giller or a G.-G. Meanwhile, Margaret Atwood is acclaimed for her speculative fiction.

... Douglas Coupland's scathing critique of Canadian literary pretentiousness: "There is a grimness about CanLit," he wrote, in which typically authors are supported by the government "to write about small towns and/or the immigrant experience." Coupland refuses to accept Canada Council money.

... the Brits knight their genre writers, the Yanks lionize them, but the Canucks (or at least our persons of letters) continue to treat them like unwashed in-laws tracking mud into the parlour. So sad.

And earlier in the series Barbara Kay observed:

... a numbingly familiar pattern of CanLit fiction: "Me, me, me and my
extraordinary capacity for sadness. Welcome to the unrelenting self-regard of
CanLit, where it's all about nobly suffering women or feminized men."

For this to persist in a country of 32 million suggests a good deal of intellectual inbreeding among the cultural establishment. Sad indeed.

DC Tea Party in time lapse

Wow! See also Climbing Out Of The Dark.

[via sda]

ABC news anchor John Stossel on media AGW hype

WUWT reports that John Stossel, former co-anchor on ABC News "20/20" and global warming realist, is moving to Fox News. Via the comments here’s Stossel speaking at the New York International Conference on Climate Change, March 2008, about the mainstream media's AGW hype:

"... really we’re not all evil. We just are dumb ..."


Also in the comments is this interesting note from former Victoria Times Colonist columnist Paul MacRae (12:09:08):

The editor of the Victoria, BC, Times Colonist has laid down an explicit policy that she will not allow skeptical climate stories to appear–they cause too much fuss with green readers and consensus climatologists. I also know this is true from personal experience. For eight years I wrote editorials and columns for the TC (I now teach), so obviously I am a professional writer by journalistic standards, but my last four skeptical freelance opeds on climate change were rejected, as are anyone else’s. ...

On the other hand, for every claim (no matter how lame) from AGW fanatics the TC seeks out commentary from local alarmist Andrew Weaver.

Because they’re putzes?

A 'symposium' at Commentary’ has six prominent Jews taking a stab at answering the question posed in Norman Podhoretz’s new book "Why are Jews Liberals?":

Since 1928, the average Jewish vote for the Democrat in presidential elections has been an amazing 75%—far higher than that of any other ethno-religious group.

It all looks like an interesting read and may help answer the more general question: Why is anyone a liberal? The short answer, of course, is: Because they’re putzes! But it could be deeper than that.

[via BCF and CZ]

Segregating Canada - the first Africentric school

Enrollment is up at Canada’s only "Africentric" school (from 85 to 115):

... west African drummers were warming up for the opening assembly, where children sang O Canada as well as the Black National Anthem ...

"West African drummers"? "Black National Anthem"?

The Black National Anthem is of African-American origin and, along with expressions of hope and faith, recalls the harsh experience of black American slaves:

[...]
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; ...
[...]
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past ...

...Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
[...]
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
[...]

That song may be relevant in American schools. It may even be a worthwhile element of Canadian school courses covering the history of American slavery. But it makes no sense at all to sing it in Canadian school opening ceremonies on an equal footing with the Canadian national anthem.

Also:

Today's opening assembly began with a traditional African "libation" ceremony, where children watched water poured in memory of their ancestors. They also learned to respond to statements with the Yoruba word "Ashe!" (Amen!)

I shudder to think what the school curriculum looks like.

How are these kids supposed to develop a cohesive Canadian identity? How much Canadian history will they get?

And what’s next, [your ethno/racial identity here]-centric schools? How about a whites-only school for those who feel their whiteness is under-appreciated?

If people of whatever ethnic origin want to study "their people’s" history and culture, fine. If it’s important enough to parents and/or their "community" they should provide it at home or in community sponsored courses and activities. It happens all the time in other ethnic communities. But setting up segregated schools pandering to specific ethnic identities will just further Balkanize the country.

Let’s face it, the segregated school concept is just nuts - it's asking for trouble.

Repudiating "the false god of money”

An Adbusters magazine article ‘Confessions of a Radical Economics Prof’, by Wellesley College tenured full-time economics professor, Julie Matthaei, discusses the content of her courses:

... My classes on radical economics presented the neo-Marxist view that large corporations dominated the economic landscape: oppressing workers, brainwashing consumers through advertising to keep them enslaved ...

... I teach them ... to repudiate the false god of money and the prevailing economic religion of the market.

And in 2007 the top 10 liberal arts colleges in Average Salary for Full Professor were?

1. Wellesley College $130,800
2. Pomona College $127,200
3. Amherst College $125,900
[...]

Repudiate that professor!

Victor Davis Hanson has some fitting words:

What is strange about all this chic-radicalism is how would-be revolutionaries that wish to dismantle America as we know it and/or emulate failed systems abroad, always do so from comfort, security, affluence, and freedom of choice unique to America and Europe, suggesting that radical politics and those who agitate for them are sort of a fashion statement, aimed to resonate among particular elite leftist audiences and to bring dividends from them, but not to be taken too seriously as guides in their own lives.

Keep up the pressure to repeal Section 13

With the recent CHRT ruling on the Lemire case what’s next for HRA Section 13? Mark Steyn thinks "nothing":

I expect nothing of the Government of Canada in particular, or of the political class in general, never mind the vast herd of statist suck-ups like ... Professor John Miller ...

... Because the Canadian establishment is divided between (a) Trudeaupian social engineers and (b) wimps, Section 13 and its provincial equivalents will stay on the books for the forseeable future.

And who cares anyway?

... I'm not waiting for the Supreme Court to strike down Section 13 or for the Government to repeal it. I've repealed it myself. I do not regard myself as within its jurisdiction. I've opted out.

... I don't feel "chilled", I feel liberated. After all, under BC pseudo-law, Ken and I are guilty. Yet we got away with it. On to the next hate crime!

Screw the HRCs, screw Section 13, screw the government - keep on truckin’! Deep down, I like the sentiment. But I’m not too sure to what extent they "got away with it" considering the time and money spent defending themselves. Who was it that said "the process is the punishment"? Mark says he doesn’t feel chilled, but how about Maclean’s and others?

I agree with him about the likelihood of official (in)action on amending the "Human Rights" Act. However, the war for free speech won’t be won until Section 13 is history.

The beginning of the end of political correctness?

Yesterday we had good news on the free speech front. Then, via Edward Michael George, came good news about a counter-revolution against political correctness. Newly elected Mayor of Doncaster, UK, Peter Davies, has begun some seriously un-PC cutting:

...First he cut his own salary from £73,000 to £30,000

... the "diversity" portfolio has been abolished from the council’s cabinet.... no more funding will be given to the town’s "Gay Pride" event... Black History Month, International Women’s Day and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month are similarly destined to become history.

... 'Going on about diversity causes racial tension, it doesn't improve it,' he says... I want every citizen of Doncaster to be equal.'

... He has written to the Electoral Commission asking them to scrap two-thirds of Doncaster's 63 council seats in order to save the town £800,000 a year. 'If Pittsburgh can manage with nine councillors, why do we need 63?' he asks.

... Deeply sceptical of 'green claptrap', he must be the only mayor in Britain who wants more traffic in his town. He says it will boost business ... on climate change: 'I'm not green and I'm not conned by global warming.'

... wants to cut all 'non-jobs' in his 13,500 workforce - such as platinum-pensioned 'community cohesion officers' - and aims to shrivel future pay deals for council executives.

Much as he likes his chief executive, Paul Hart, he says his £175,000 salary is 'a joke' and that any successor can expect half.

... he is in the process of 'de-twinning' Doncaster from its five twin towns around the world. Twinning, he says, is all about free holidays for councillors and their staff.

Says Telegraph columnist Gerald Warner: "If it is good enough for Doncaster, it is good enough for Britain. Our effete, corrupt, politically correct politicians must be compelled to follow suit. "

And if it’s good enough for Britain, it’s good enough for Canada!

More power to Peter Davies - may a lot more like him and his voters rise up everywhere!

As EMG's post title says it: Viva la contrarevoluciòn!

Green on the outside, red on the inside

James Delingpole wrote an article on his much greater concern for the real threat of power cuts over hypothetical ‘climate change’. It drew lots of good comments including this particularly astute one from Amanda [Sep 1st, 2009 at 4:15 pm]:

I don’t think I could cut my carbon footprint — goofy phrase, really, and is already a substitute for thinking among the ecos — by 10% without ceasing to live like a human being. I don’t live that high or that well.

Delingpole is absolutely right. Willingly throwing away our standard of living will be just Part 19 in the saga of how the West was lost; the earth will continue to turn as we fall on our own swords. For politicians or anarchists or celebrities (nice company) to suggest that we go down that road is not just absurd, it’s obscene.

One further point: the public has been bamboozled into thinking that the debate is all about being kind to animals and plants and having good air to breathe. It isn’t. At the core of polemics about climate change is the ferocious drive to beat down capitalism, and, I think you’ll find, what we fondly call democracy, in favour of statism and top-down social control (i.e. Leftists know best; the rest must shut up and do as they say). In short, climate campaigners are, as the saying is, like watermelons: green on the outside, red on the inside. We need to confront this fact before we do anything.

[via EMG who has a great Gortoon, "The science settles"]

A big victory for free speech

Today a decision by a Canadian "Human Rights" Tribunal acquitted Marc Lemire of hate crimes concluding that the Human Rights Act, Section 13 (Hate Speech) contravenes the Charter's freedom of speech provisions.

Blazing Cat Fur has it all!

That's good news - a defeat for Richard Warman and his ilk and the first real 'hate speech' acquittal by the CHRC. But will a pronouncement from a "Human Rights" Tribunal carry enough weight to get the ball rolling on changing a law which was upheld in a prior Supreme Court ruling? Will it stiffen the Justice Minister's and the PM's backbones sufficiently to get them leading the way on changing the law? We'll see.

Fall election? Go for it Iggy!

A Lib Star poll:

Preston Manning goes for the green

In today’s Post is an article written by Preston Manning and Andrew Heinzman shilling for:

Sustainable Prosperity, a national policy and research network dedicated to the development of a green economy in Canada.

Geez! There must be some real green in going green. Anyway the article is loaded with the usual baffle gab on "low carbon" "green economies", "energy", "climate change", "sustainable development", "balance" ...etc, etc, which, of course, as a nation we have to get on top of quick (throw a ton of gubm’nt policy and money at) or else.

The first thought that crossed my mind was: "I sure hope Peter Foster jumps on this soon!" And sure enough, he had a column written before the end of the day. Bravo Peter!

What set off initial alarm bells was that one of its authors was Preston Manning, sometime leader of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition, who has for some time been transitioning to the policy dark side.The piece, co-authored by Andrew Heintzman, who runs "the first Canadian investment company to be exclusively focused on investing in environmental sectors," was pretty much a stock "Canada needs to get out in front of the green revolution" piece of the type so beloved by policy wonks.

... they recommend, specifically the grand Pigovian conceit that market prices are all "wrong" and that, with a little judicious intervention, we shall be on the way to "sustainable technologies."

... Sustainable Prosperity is a political organization right down to its Orwellian moniker. It is filled with the tendentious notions about "footprints" and "food miles" and subscribes to the fatal conceit of expansive and competent policy.

Fall election? Go for it Michael Iggy!

CTV poll today: