"Hate 2.0: Combating the Radical Right ... "

If we needed another example proving that university humanities faculties are, at best, a waste of time and money here’s one proudly presented in the Summer 2012 Carleton University Magazine:

With a major grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, [Jennifer] Evans and her Carleton colleagues Christiane Wilke, a legal scholar; historian Shawn Graham; and communications professor Josh Greenberg have embarked on a two-year project called "Hate 2.0: Combating the Radical Right in the Age of Social Technology."

Evans and her collaborators will examine the ways social media are being used to combat neo-Nazism and other radical-right strains of thought in Germany and Canada.

The Carleton Department of History announcement of Evans’ grant last summer featured this National Organization of Women (NOW) logo along with these details:

From the perspectives of social and gender history, critical legal studies, and media studies, the research team will examine how local, state, and federal authorities, together with institutionalized anti-hate initiatives [e.g. the HRCs], social justice organizations, and avant guard movements, employ digital media to promote awareness, combat denial, and contest the rise of xenophobic sentiment.






In other words our federal government is ponying up real cash for far-left academic ideologues to investigate ways of combatting a handful of lonely neo-Nazis operating from their moms’ basements. Couldn’t they have at least targeted a real and present danger? Was Richard Warman on the committee that awarded that grant? So many questions.

Oh the humanities! What a colossal waste! Shut down the whole lot and save billions!

Update:  Some of the comments regarding the proper place of Nazism and Fascism on the political spectrum reminded me of this post on the subject a few years ago.

Tarek Fatah is "a breath of fresh air"

Tarek Fatah warns Glenn Beck about Islamists in the Obama administration





[Via Lilley's Pad]

The problem with Quebec is ...?

... the French. Barbara Kay:

... There are 43 francophone CEGEPs in Quebec, of which 28 are on strike. None of the five anglo CEGEPs are. None of those students will miss their year. There are four universities in Montreal: two francophone, two anglophone. At the Université de Montréal, almost a third of the students are officially on strike – 12,000 out of 40,000. Many of them will lose their term. At UQAM, more than half — 27,000 of 40,000 -– went on strike and the campus pretty well shut down.

... at Concordia, a much more politicized and left-leaning population than the generally more bourgeois constituency at McGill, almost a quarter –12,000 of 45,000 -– were out, but only a small number of actual classes were disrupted, unlike at the franco colleges.

... McGill estimated only 40 – yes, forty – students out of 38,000 were on strike and no classes had been disrupted.

... When political tensions arise, it’s all about culture. Guillotines were a French invention. There’s more than a little nostalgie de la boue in the Montreal air these days.

We mighta' known.

ICCC6 - a real climate debate

Of  the dozens of climate scientists from the warmist camp invited to the ICCC6 conference last year, Dr. Scott Denning was the ONLY one to accept.  This keynote debate between Prof. Denning and Dr. Roy Spencer is the kind of debate that should be routine:

Václav Klaus - one of a kind

Czech Republic President, Václav Klaus, is the only political leader not drinking (or pretending to drink) the AGW Kool-Aid:



[Via]

The United Nations exposed

'U.N. Me' a new documentary exposing the United Nations:

... In a film that exposes the incompetence and corruption at the heart of the United Nations, filmmakers Ami Horowitz and Matthew Groff show how an organization created to ennoble mankind now actually enables evil and sows global chaos. U.N. Me takes us on a harrowing and darkly humorous tour of the U.N.'s scandalous disregard for the people and principles it was founded to defend. ...

Via BC Blue where Dean Skoreyko is asking readers to suggest questions for his planned interview with the film's writer-director-producer, Ami Horowitz.

Apocalyptic Daze - secular elites prophesy a doomsday

Pascal Bruckner’s article in City Journal:

Horseman of the Apocalypse

... so many people in both Europe and the United States have recently convinced themselves that the End is nigh.

... Earth will be uninhabitable, natural disasters will multiply, the climate will bring us to war, and nuclear plants will explode ...

... My point is not to minimize the dangers that we face. Rather, it is to understand why apocalyptic fear has gripped so many of our leaders, scientists, and intellectuals, who insist on reasoning and arguing as though they were following the scripts of mediocre Hollywood disaster movies.

... Environmentalism has become a global ideology that covers all of existence—not merely modes of production but ways of life as well. We rediscover in it the whole range of Marxist rhetoric, now applied to the environment ...

An excellent piece. More on Pascal Bruckner from Robert Fulford.

[Via]

Wine wisdom

Ripped from hunter:

To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine...
And those who don't and are always seen
with a bottle of water in their hand.

As Ben Franklinsaid:
In wine there is wisdom,
In beer there is freedom,
In water there is bacteria.

In a number of carefully controlled
trials, Scientists have demonstrated
that if we drink 1 litre of water each day,
At the end of the year we would have
absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. Coli) - bacteria
Found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of
poop..

However,
We do NOT run that risk when drinking wine &
beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor)
Because alcohol has to go through a purification
process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember:
Water = Poop,
Wine = Health.
Therefore,
it's better to drink wine and talk stupid,
Than to drink
water and be full of shit.

UN Agenda 21 and environmental Marxism

Lord Christopher Monckton expounds:



[Via Brian Lilley's post (in the comments)]

The "human right" to free food

[via]

Stelmach to Smith: "You should have lied"

Ed Stelmach says Wildrose sealed its fate with climate-change doubts:

Danielle Smith’s position on climate change — not allegations of bigotry in the Wildrose party — killed her chance to end the Progressive Conservative dynasty, says former Tory premier Ed Stelmach.

... “These are serious matters,” he told reporters ...  “You’re going to go to Europe today and tell them you don’t believe in climate change? And you are going to sell them oil?” ...

First, all Danielle Smith said was that the science wasn't settled and would be monitored. 
Second, it's unlikely that many Albertans who were sold on AGW were going to vote Wildrose anyway.

Vancouver credit union caters to eco-loons and other flakes

Vancity may divest from Enbridge over pipeline:

A famously ethical Vancouver credit union may pull millions of dollars out of Enbridge over concerns raised by its members surrounding the Northern Gateway pipeline project.

...Vancity CEO Tamara Vrooman ... "We really think that there are risks that are being pointed out by our members, by First Nations, by the public, by people in the community ...

... The divestment might not mean much to Enbridge – the energy giant's pipeline project alone carries an estimated $5.5-billion price tag – but could satisfy Vancity members who hold its ethical investment guidelines dear.

Vancity is also backing an urban farm in downtown Vancouver:

... a two-acre urban farm ... the largest city farm attempted in Vancouver ... will be tended mostly by residents of the Downtown Eastside.

... funded by the Radcliffe Foundation, which donated $475,000, and a grant from Vancity.

... the boxes will be brimming with artisan varieties of strawberries, melons, baby carrots, spinach, salad greens, daikon, radishes and other trendy, value-added edibles.

I'm sure they mean well (don't all of the "famously ethical"?), but these efforts seem more than just a tad flaky.

Update: On today's (May 11th) Vancouver Sun front page

Sun News Network not yet profitable

Globe and Mail: 

Sun News Network received a $3-million investment from its co-owners in the last quarter, as losses accelerated ...

The television network’s financial information is reported through TVA Group Inc. ... It doesn’t break out the network’s revenue, but said that Sun News was not profitable.

“But the problem we have is with distribution. If you’re only reaching half of the population, it’s hard to get the numbers you need to get the advertisers.”

... in many jurisdictions the channel is located high on the dial, making it difficult for casual viewers to locate the subscription specialty channel.

News channels produced by networks such as CBC and CTV, meanwhile, have slots lower on the dial and are generally included in most cable and satellite packages without any additional efforts from a viewer.

“Those are the services we have to compete with,” Mr. Rozon said. “But as I said to the analysts on our call, we should not expect to break even in our first eight months.”

Climate facts

Do you discuss "climate change" with friends, relatives, acquaintances and warmists?  Here are some useful facts to help with their education: "Friends of Science – Talking Points"

Tarek Fatah: Cheryl Bormann is an American useful idiot

OK, "useful idiot" describes most leftists these days (Tarek Fatah being one of the few exceptions) but Cheryl Bormann, a Gitmo [alleged] terrorist's lawyer, is a special case:

Cheryl Bormann: "... I wear the hijab out of respect for [my client's] culture and religious beliefs. ..." [And she thinks other women in the courtroom should too.]

Tarek Fatah: "That's like a lawyer for the defence at the Nuremburg trials suggesting that we all give the 'Heil Hitler' salute because the people on trial will get offended [if we don't] ..."

Climate liars

Anthony Watts:

In the over 7,000 published stories here on WUWT, I have never used the word “liar” in the headline to refer to CRU and the Yamal affair. That changes with this story.

Blazing Cat Fur outs Islamic anti-semitism in Toronto high school

For nearly a week now, Blazing Cat Fur has been busy working a story about anti-semitic material being taught in an Islamic Madrassah operating from a Toronto high school:

Note the TDSB connection - the anti-semitic East End Madrassah is run from David & Mary Thompson Collegiate.

The East End Madrasah and the Centre Madrasah are affiliated with the David Duke loving Islamonazis of CASMO the favoured Muslims of Ontario Human Rights Commissioner Barbara Hall and Dalton McGuinty's Liberal Party.

This week the National Post caught up with the story (with no credit to BCF, the petty weasels).

Update: Jonathan Kay writes a dopey piece defending the East End Madrassah.  Blazing Cat Fur responds in the comments.

Climate change: "The lost debate"

Lawrence Solomon:

"... I concluded that Al Gore et al. had decisively lost the global-warming debate.

"Global temperatures had stopped climbing, hurricanes hadn’t materialized in abnormal numbers, the Arctic ice had largely recovered while the Antarctic ice had steadily grown, polar bear populations were on the increase, and on and on — in effect, every major global-warming scare had been debunked.

"... While most members of the general public by now realize that global-warming was overhyped, two groups lag behind: the large number who don’t follow the issue closely and the small number of true believers who do, but selectively and with outrage.

"... There is not a scrap of compelling evidence that points to man-made global warming representing a danger for society. The only scary “evidence” that exists, in fact, is based on computer models, none of which have been proven to work and all of which reflect the biases of the people loading in the data."

Maybe, but climate alarmism still has huge momentum in the Consensus Media and at every level of government.  The BC government web-pages are saturated with policy and regulatory references to the need for action on climate change.  Our carbon taxes have been incrementally doubled since 2009.     There may be dwindling numbers of noisy, deluded protestors but they are still plentiful and until politicians and government bureaucracies come to their senses huge amounts of money will be wasted on "climate action"  (or "LiveSmart BC", as our government likes to label it.)

"Our food system is broken"

Absolute bollocks:

Canada has the dubious distinction of being the first wealthy nation to face a probe by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food. ...

... "What we can say about Canada is that our food system is broken," said Diana Bronson, executive director of Food Secure Canada. ...

What nonsense! Why is the UN wasting valuable time and money on this?  Because that's what the UN does!

Canada's food system is as close to impeccable as one can find anywhere in the world. Food is cheap and plentiful in every conceivable variety and conveniently available in stores and markets everywhere. People can grow their own. Where individuals or families lack resources there are many food banks and other charitable sources of food to help out. It takes an extraordinary effort on the part of a very dysfunctional person to go without.

There must be some other agenda afoot here. Oh, I know, the GOVERNMENT needs to be more involved.  If the objective is to screw up the food system that's the best way to do it.

The tyranny of clichés

Jonah Goldberg's new book "The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas" was inadvertently given a boost by CNN's Piers Morgan's recent "interview" (more like 'petulant ambush') of Jonah.  Morgan proves Jonah's premise, in spades:

... Piers wasn't a host interested in his guest's new book, he was a bitter partisan who had a series of pro-Obama talking points to get out ...

...what was most ironic was watching the CNN host prove many of the book's central themes true. The Left isn't interested in honest debate. Instead they engage in all kinds of passive-aggressive rhetorical tricks to win the moment ...

... What happened last night is a symptom of CNN's bigger problem, and that's that they hide behind a dishonest shield of objectivity that only serves to insult the intelligence of the Left and Right.

Happy May Day! A day to celebrate Marxist mass murder

R.J. Rummel:

Marxism, the religion of communism ... is alive and well in many countries still, such as North Korea, China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, a gaggle of African countries, and in the minds of many South American political leaders. However, of most importance to the future of democracy, communism still pollutes the thinking of a vast multitude of Western academics and intellectuals [and other assorted idiots].

... Of all religions, secular and otherwise, that of Marxism has been by far the bloodiest ... In practice, Marxism has meant bloody terrorism, deadly purges, lethal prison camps and murderous forced labor, fatal deportations, man-made famines, extrajudicial executions and fraudulent show trials, outright mass murder and genocide.

In total, Marxist regimes murdered nearly 110 million people from 1917 to 1987.

[By comparison Marxism/communism's close cousins,Naziism and fascism, are pikers.]

Happy May Day!