February 25, 2005
SPRING BREAK!
I'm outta here for a few days - first to Toronto (where I'll be at the blog bash, of course) and then Halifax. Back Thursday morning, March 3.
Later!
Vladmir poutin'
The President of Russia is miffed at his friend George W. Bush, who embarassed him at their recent meeting by mouthing off about that "democracy" stuff. Good.
President George Bush subjected Russia's Vladimir Putin to a public lecture on the fundamentals of democracy yesterday, injecting a chill into a relationship that has - until now - been characterised by bonhomie.
Meeting in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava, Mr Bush emerged from a three-hour meeting with the Russian President joking and smiling and full of warm words. But his frequent references to "Vladimir" and the "fella" were peppered with targeted criticism of the state of democracy in Russia with which the more hawkish members of his administration are said to have lost patience.
An unsmiling, visibly irritated Mr Putin squirmed as he listened to Mr Bush tell a press conference he had been told that Washington had "concerns about Russia's commitment in fulfilling" the "universal principles" of democracy. "Democracies always reflect a country's customs and culture, and I know that," Mr Bush said. "Yet democracies have certain things in common; they have a rule of law, and protection of minorities, a free press, and a viable political opposition."
Mr Putin had wanted to talk about the two countries' joint efforts to combat terrorism but was forced instead to defend his domestic reforms and his commitment to democracy.
For a man who is seldom subjected to such face-to-face criticism and is famously cool under pressure, he looked at times as if he was about to lose his composure. "I respect some of his [Mr Bush's ideas] a lot and take them into account. Others I won't. [Such issues] should not be pushed to the foreground. New problems should not be created that could jeopardise our relationship. We want to develop the relationship."
It's easy to dismiss the Bush Administration's commitment to democracy abroad, considering its close ties with some totalitarian "allies". (cough*Saudi Arabia*cough) But this is a very inspiring sign.
February 24, 2005
Maybe he'll reveal Dan Rather's home planet
Peter Jennings is hosting a special on UFOs tonight. Let me repeat that: Peter Jennings is hosting a special on UFOs tonight.
I'm a sucker for these flying-saucer shows whenever they come on FOX or the Discovery Channel, so I'll be watching it. (Well, it's on against Survivor and The Apprentice, so I'll be taping it.) But I'd have paid big money to see the look on Peter Jennings' face when the ABC management told him, "hey, Peter, we want you to host a show about UFOs." It sounds like something Kent Brockman would host.
It could be worse, though. I caught the first few minutes of a "Roswell: Startling New Evidence" special on the Space Channel a few months ago, and it was hosted by...Bryant Gumbel. Think he had that in mind when he left the Today show?
Update: a reader asks whether I "believe that Humans are the only and/or the highest life forms in the Universe". Actually, considering what we're learning about Mars, I'm quite certain there's other life out there somewhere. (Whether it's "higher" than life on Earth, I have no idea.) But these UFO specials are inevitably cheesy, which is what I like about them.
Mind changed
British MP Harry Barnes, who founded a Labour Party anti-war faction, says the election convinced him American and British troops should not withdraw from Iraq:
An MP who was a founder member of Labour Against the War has quit the group, saying that after last month’s elections in Iraq he now believed Allied troops should remain in the country, it emerged today.
Harry Barnes’ defection will be welcomed by the Labour leadership, which fears that many of the party’s traditional supporters will stay at home in the forthcoming General Election because of anger over Iraq.
The North-East Derbyshire MP, who is stepping down at the election, accused his former colleagues in the anti-war movement of retailing "simple-minded" claims about the extent of civilian casualties in Iraq since the war.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "I joined Labour Against the War from the start and was on the original platform next to Tony Benn and fully supported action to stop the war, but things have moved and changed."
He could no longer support the anti-war camp’s demands for withdrawal of troops of the US-led coalition, which he said should be a decision for the Iraqi people.
"The Iraqi people now have an avenue for expressing their opinion through their Parliament and the Government that has been established," he said. "The coalition should be there a little longer to hold the ring."
Too hateful for the French
The French government has banned two Iranian satellite TV channels, Sahar TV and Jaam-E-Jam 3, for broadcasting insanely antisemitic programming - most notably Zahra's Blue Eyes, a miniseries about Israelis stealing the organs of Palestinian children. The producer full of righteous indignation, as you might expect:
"We have presented only a small portion of the Zionists' crimes. During our work [on the film] we received information - even from Jews sympathizing with our point of view. They themselves were anti-Zionists. These were monotheistic Jews. They gave us information that made us regret the film had been completed. ["Technical advisor: Noam Chomsky" - Ed.] I wish we had this information before we made the film.
"Oh Zionists, you have occupied the homes of innocent people. You are killing them, making them face firing squads, and gouging out their eyes in front of their parents. In this film we treated you more than fairly, when we presented you as taking out their eyes in an operating room.
"There is a white ship sailing the oceans. It doesn't enter the territorial waters of Iran or similar countries. Our Arab brothers must look out for this ship. In it [the Zionists] hold children only one or two years old, who don't know anything. These are children no one cared for. They are kidnapped by various means under the pretext of wanting to take care of them. These children are held on this ship, and no one knows their fate. They become teenagers, not knowing what their fate will be. They receive the best medical care and are under constant physical monitoring and supervision. Why do [the Zionists] give them such care? To use them for medical purposes. They use the heart, the kidneys, and their other organs."
February 23, 2005
Tumbling dominoes
Walid Jumblatt, patriarch of Lebanon's Druze Muslims, says the recent Iraqi election is partly responsible for his country's anti-Syrian uprising:
The leader of this Lebanese intifada is Walid Jumblatt, the patriarch of the Druze Muslim community and, until recently, a man who accommodated Syria's occupation. But something snapped for Jumblatt last year, when the Syrians overruled the Lebanese constitution and forced the reelection of their front man in Lebanon, President Emile Lahoud. The old slogans about Arab nationalism turned to ashes in Jumblatt's mouth, and he and Hariri openly began to defy Damascus.
I dined Monday night with Jumblatt in his mountain fortress in Moukhtara, southeast of Beirut. He moved there for safety last weekend because of worries that he would be the next target of whoever killed Hariri. We sat under a portrait of Jumblatt's father, Kamal, who was assassinated in 1976 after he opposed the initial entry of Syrian troops into Lebanon. With me was Jamil Mroue, a Lebanese Shiite journalist whose own father was assassinated by Arab radicals in the 1960s. It was an evening when the ghosts of the past mingled with hopes for the future.
Jumblatt dresses like an ex-hippie, in jeans and loafers, but he maintains the exquisite manners of a Lebanese aristocrat. Over the years, I've often heard him denouncing the United States and Israel, but these days, in the aftermath of Hariri's death, he's sounding almost like a neoconservative. He says he's determined to defy the Syrians until their troops leave Lebanon and the Lahoud government is replaced.
"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq," explains Jumblatt. "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. "The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."
Lest you dismiss Jumblatt as some kind of American stooge, check out what he was saying up until last year.
A much smaller media circus
The Washington Post gives several reasons why the Michael Jackson trial won't be as big as the O.J. trial, and probably not even Scott Peterson's. One reason they don't mention: the dog-bites-man natures of this story. People were shocked and stunned by the lovable football legend from the Hertz ads and The Naked Gun being charged with a double murder - but in 2005, is anyone surprised by Michael Jackson being indicted on child-molestation charges?
Still, Jacko is probably the most famous person on Earth, so I wouldn't expect the trial to get bumped to page A18 anytime soon. (Could any other active entertainer go this long without a major hit, but still attract so much attention?)
Ted Rall Bawls
This is rich. Talentless Marxist asshole Ted Rall takes time off from attacking 9/11 widows to dismiss bloggers as "uneducated and with nothing interesting to say." (Does the word "projection" mean anything to you, Ted?) In particular, he takes aim at Captain Ed, who responds on his own site - and even got his own Day by Day cartoon for it. (Chris Muir, unlike Rall, can actually draw characters who don't look exactly alike. And disfigured.)
Rall is upset about the fact that eeeeevil right-wing fascists are saying nasty things about him on their sites. (Until extreme leftists are allowed to offend people without any consequences whatsoever, free speech is dead, dammit!) And then there's this gem:
My jaw dropped when gay GOP blogger Andrew Sullivan accused me in 2003 of "urging the murder of American troops in defense of Islamist terrorists." Of course I'd done no such thing, and he knew it. If I had had the ready cash I would have slapped the lying bastard with a richly-deserved libel suit. Incredibly, Time magazine hired Sullivan to write a column.
Rall had enough cash to sue "Dirty Danny" Hellman for defamation a few years ago. What happened? Did he give all his money to the nice lady who e-mailed him from Nigeria, claiming to be the wife of recently deposed President Sani Abacha?
What a tool.
How Christian of them
The producers of Jerry Springer: The Musical donated £10,000 to a Scottish cancer charity. Then a group called "Christian Voice" bullied them into turning it down. Harry's Place has details.
Anti-Americanism wins again
Just a day after Frank McKenna said Canada was already taking part in America's proposed Missile Defence program, the federal government is prepared to announce we won't be participating after all.
If our political and military leadership seriously thought about this and believe it isn't best for the country, that's one thing. But according to the Toronto Star, the decision was made primarily to head off the America-bashing festival set for the Liberal convention next month:
The federal government has decided to opt out of the controversial U.S.-led missile defence plan, sources say.
Prime Minister Paul Martin was expected to formally announce Canada's position this week — possibly as early as tomorrow in the Commons — although that plan was up in the air last night.
The deciding factor, sources say, is the Liberal convention in early March, where Martin was expected to face heated questions from within the party that opposed Canada's involvement in the missile defence program.
A poll earlier this month conducted for the Toronto Star showed 54 per cent of Canadians oppose participation in missile defence, and 34 say they support it.
The news came just hours after ambassador-designate to the U.S., Frank McKenna, said Canada had effectively signed on to the U.S.-proposed missile shield when it amended the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) agreement last summer.
[...]
Martin's announcement will come as an about-face for a prime minister who had repeatedly stated his support for missile defence when he was a Liberal leadership candidate barely a year ago.
Canada has set a number of conditions to approving an eventual deal, including a guarantee against the weaponization of space and the opportunity to put the issue to a vote in the House of Commons.
February 22, 2005
Miata makeover
Autoblog has photos of the new Mazda Miata. It took me a while to warm up to the new front end, but the rest looks terrific.
Anyone who would dismiss the Miata as a wussy "chick car" is criminally ignorant of automobiles and motoring. The car is an homage to (or copy of) the wonderful old British roadsters of the fifties and sixties, especially the Lotus Elan (a car forever associated with Diana Rigg as Emma Peel, but that didn't make it a "chick car", either). The difference is, a Miata will rarely leave you stranded.
A direct competitor set for release in 2006, the Pontiac Solstice, looks quite promising as well.
Update: more details here. It looks like the new Miata will have a little more power, too.
Denial
Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) is miffed that people would call Islamic terrorists "Islamic terrorists". (Mind you, the story's from Newsmax.com, so caveat lector.)
Top House Democrat Charlie Rangel said Tuesday that it was an act of discrimination to label groups like Hezbollah "Islamic terrorists."
Asked about the refusal by some European governments to declare Hezbollah an Islamic terror group, Rangel told WWRL's Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter, "To call it Islamic terror is discriminating, it's bigoted, it is not the right thing to say."
Rangel even questioned whether, in fact, a worldwide Islamic terrorist movement even existed, saying, "We just take for granted that there is an Islamic terror movement because we do have some fanatic people who come from Islamic countries."
The Harlem Democrat complained: "When we had the Ku Klux Klan we didn't call them Baptist terrorists. When Hitler was killing Jews, we didn't call it Christian terrorists."
A leftist is someone who believes Osama bin Laden isn't a "real" Muslim, but that Hitler was a Christian. (Hitler's relationship to the Christian faith is definitively discussed at The Straight Dope.)
Save Arrested Development
Things are looking very, very grim for the best show on television:
Production on "Arrested Development" has been arrested.
Fox is halting production after 18 episodes - four shy of the usual 22.
And that brings the season - and maybe the series - to a premature end on April 17.
"Arrested Development" has been honored all over the place with an Emmy as best comedy and a Golden Globe for Jason Bateman. But apparently, that's not enough to get people to watch.
During this second season, "Arrested Development" is averaging 6 million viewers a week. That's down from last season's average audience of 6.2 million.
Fox is notorious for cancelling great shows before they had a chance to find an audience (Andy Richter Controls the Universe, RIP), but you can't say they didn't give Arrested Development a chance. They renewed it for a second season, and even put in on after The Simpsons. Viewers either didn't get the show or just didn't bother to watch it. I don't get down on my knees and beg you guys very often, but I'm begging you to check out Arrested Development before it's gone.
This hasn't been a good year for shows I like. Drew Carey's Green Screen Show was placed on "hiatus" back in November, and Fox yanked the hilarious Apprentice spoof My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss before the "winner" was revealed. (They promised to air the remaining episodes on the internet, but no sign of them yet.) Losing Arrested Development is the last straw.
Hitch 'n Horowitz do London
I bet this trip would be a blast. Can you imagine hitting the pubs with Christopher Hitchens?
A tyrant's birthday
Robert Mugabe turned 81 yesterday. Sadly, he did not celebrate his birthday in prison.
February 21, 2005
Book review: No Crueler Tyrannies by Dorothy Rabinowitz
[originally posted to Blogcritics.org]
When I was in high school, I saw a TV movie called Do You Know the Muffin Man, starring Pam Dawber as a mother who discovers that the kindly old couple running her child’s preschool are conducting abusive Satanic rituals in the basement. (When the cops barge in and find the kids wearing dark robes and standing around a pentagram, one of the child-care workers tells them, “We’re rehearsing a play”.)
Do You Know the Muffin Man came out just a few years after two high-profile court cases – the McMartin trial in California, and the Fells Acres case in Massachusetts – saw several day-care owners and workers convicted for sexually abusing the children in their care. Only years later was it discovered that the convictions were based on coerced testimony, the evidence of quack “experts” who believed almost anything could be interpreted as a sign of molestation, and an absolute refusal to believe that children could possibly be telling anything less than the whole truth about such horrifying allegations. It was a witchhunt in the truest sense of the word, and it’s described in devastating, infuriating detail in Dorothy Rabinowitz’s No Crueler Tyrannies.
Rabinowitz has covered several such cases for The Wall Street Journal, most notably the notorious Fells Acres case, which saw three members of the Amirault family jailed for allegedly abusing children in a “secret room” at their highly-regarded daycare centre in Malden, Massachusetts. About half the book is dedicated to the Amiraults, and it would be almost impossible to envision to greater miscarriage of justice in recent American history.
Child witnesses were questioned for hours at a time, all the while bribed, coerced and guilt-tripped into giving the answers the investigators wanted. The most outrageous testimony – involving robots, circus clowns and people getting limbs but off – was accepted at face value. In one shockingly unethical incident, the prosecutors put up an expert witness to tell the jury about child pornography – even though the Amiraults were not even accused of making it. And when they were jailed, they were denied parole for refusing to admit to crimes they did not commit.
It would be bad enough if Fells Acres was an isolated incident, but No Crueler Tyrannies describes several other, no less shocking, cases in which innocent people were jailed, and lives ruined forever, by false allegations of child sexual abuse. The prevailing attitude in Wenatchee, Washington in the mid-1990s can be summed up by one resident’s furious, indignant insistence that a massive ring of sexual predators was operating in the community. The resident in question was head of the city’s Chamber of Commerce. (“It is not easy to recall when the world last heard a chamber of commerce insistent on the truth of such a claim,” notes Rabinowitz.)
The fact is, when “ritual abuse” hysteria was at its peak in the eighties and nineties, we wanted to believe this kind of thing was going on. People were becoming more and more obsessed about the safety of their children – culminating in the society in which we live now, where parents organize (ugh) “play dates” in which they know the kids won’t get hurt – and stories of abuse, violence and Satanic rituals were horrifying yet strangely compelling. (Come clean, folks: how many of you watched Geraldo Rivera’s mid-eighties NBC prime-time special about devil worshippers?)
It took many years for cooler heads to prevail, but it hasn’t helped Gerald Amirault, the sole Fells Acres employee still in prison. In an act of shocking political cowardice, former Massachusetts governor Jane Swift overturned the release he had been granted by the state’s Board of Pardons, tearing away an innocent man’s liberty just when he could touch it. (That Swift resigned rather than face certain defeat for the Republican gubernatorial nomination is small comfort.) A justice system is only as good as the flawed human beings who run it, and the system has failed Gerard Amirault miserably.
Witchhunts tend to backfire in the long run, as people start to assume the witches never existed in the first place. McCarthy’s anti-Communist buffoonery in the 1950s forever discredited anti-Communism (which explains all these execrable Che Guevara T-shirts), and “ritual abuse” hysteria has done almost incalculable damage to the fight against child abuse. It was only in the Fells Acres era that real stories of long-buried abuse were coming to light – notably at the infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland – and it would be an unforgivable sin if we start ignoring these hideous crimes again. But when so many police officers, child-welfare officials, prosecutors and “experts” have shown their willingness to lie and railroad innocent people, what are we supposed to believe?
The authorities should diligently track down abusers wherever they’re hiding, but they should not invent abuse where none exists. No Crueler Tyrannies is an important, compelling book, and it should be read as a cautionary tale by everyone involved in the fight to protect our kids.
Update: Gerald Amirault was released on April 30, 2004, after the book's publication.
It's not just Patty Bouvier
Now Shrek - or, more accurately, other characters in his movies - are gay and/or transgendered, according to the "Traditional Values Coalition":
Shrek 2 is the latest animated film title to be "outed" by Christian fundamentalists in the U.S.
On its website the Traditional Values Coalition (news - web sites) is warning parents about the cross-dressing and transgender themes contained in the hit DreamWorks feature, now on DVD.
"Shrek 2 is billed as harmless entertainment but contains subtle sexual messages," says the coalition, which describes itself as a grassroots inter-denominational lobby with more than 43,000 member churches.
"Parents who are thinking about taking their children to see Shrek 2 may wish to consider the following."
The article then proceeds to describe one of the characters, an "evil" bartender (voiced by Larry King) who is a male-to-female transgender in transition and who expresses a sexual desire for Prince Charming.
In another identified scene, Shrek and Donkey need rescuing from a dungeon by Pinocchio and his nose, which is made to extend as an escape bridge by getting the wooden boy to lie about not wearing women's underwear.
The TVC report, A Gender Identity Disorder Goes Mainstream', raps DreamWorks for helping to promote crossdressing and transgenderism.
How can you parody people like this, when they descended into self-parody so long ago?
Lebanon takes to the streets
A massive demonstration against the Syrians was held in Beirut today - and now the Syrian government says it will soon withdraw troops from the country. And this time, they mean it:
Syria will "soon" take steps to withdraw its troops from Lebanon as part of a 1989 agreement, according to the chief of The Arab League.
The League's secretary-general, Amr Moussa, made the statement after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday.
"Assad stressed more than once his firm determination to go on with implementing the Taif agreement and achieve Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in accordance with this agreement," said Moussa.
Moussa also quoted Assad as saying that "Syrian withdrawal is part of Syrian policy and we will see steps in this direction very soon."
I'll believe it when I see it. But there's no doubt which way the wind is blowing.
Nice work if you can get it
The Canadian insurance industry made a record $4.2 billion in profit last year, a figure the Consumers Association of Canada calls "obscene".
As a hard-hearted capitalist, I don't think there's such a thing as an "obscene" level of profit. But I do hope people keep this in mind when the insurance companies say the only way to keep rates down is to cap pain-and-suffering damage awards.
Duke is Dead
Hunter S. Thompson has taken his own life:
Hunter S. Thompson, a renegade journalist whose "gonzo" style threw out any pretense at objectivity and established the hard-living writer as a counter-culture icon, fatally shot himself at his Colorado home on Sunday night, police said. He was 67.
Thompson's son, Juan, released a statement saying he had found his father dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at the writer's Owl Creek farm near Aspen.
Thompson, famed for such adrenaline-packed narratives as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," turned his drug and alcohol-fueled clashes with authority into a central theme of his work, challenging the quieter norms of established journalism in the process.
He also cultivated an aura of recklessness, starting with the blurb on his book "Hell's Angels," in which he called himself "an avid reader, a relentless drinker and a fine hand with a .44 Magnum."
A longtime gun enthusiast, Thompson had a shooting range on his property.
"Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," said the statement released on behalf of Juan and Thompson's wife, Anita.
By his heyday in the 1970s, Thompson had distilled his style of invective-laced, outlaw journalism into a slogan: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
We may never know the reasons why he did this, but I wouldn't be a but surprised if he was driven to suicide by George W. Bush's re-election.
February 20, 2005
The Great American Race
I haven't watched NASCAR in years, but I checked out the last third of the Daytona 500 this afternoon - and the finish was an absolute classic, even if Jeff Gordon ended up winning.
My fellow F1 rans love to sneer at NASCAR, and in many ways it's easy to see why - interminably long races, monotonous oval tracks, arbitrary rule changes, "stock" cars that don't look anything like the Monte Carlos and Tauruses they're supposed to represent, and that ridiculous "playoff" system they brought in last year. (And the less said about neo-Nazis trying to recruit members outside the Speedway, the better.) But when was the last time you saw a Formula One race with four lead changes in the last nine laps?
TOON ARMY!
The Premiership season has been totally wasted, but this makes up for it.
Hariri's killer
While the Syrians implictly blame the Jooooooos for the murder of Rafik Hariri, the Sunday Telegraph reports that the killers were linked to Syrian-sponsored terrorist groups, and that they came to Lebanon from Iraq. And guess which country their leader comes from?
Assassins who killed Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, travelled from Iraq through Syria to carry out the attack, according to the Beirut judge leading the inquiry into the bombing.
Rachid Mezher, the senior investigator for the Lebanese military tribunal, said that the organisers had been recruited from Islamist groups linked to Syria and operating against the US-led coalition in Iraq.
Although no firm ties with the Syrian regime have been established, his comments suggest strong circumstantial evidence of a connection.
Investigators believe that a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives into the 60-year-old billionaire's convoy last Monday, killing him and 14 others. Judge Mezher said that a video in which a fanatic called Ahmed Abu Adas said the attack was the work of "Victory and Jihad in Greater Syria", an unknown group, was a genuine claim of responsibility.
Abu Adas, 23, a Palestinian Lebanese believed to have fled the country, attended two Beirut mosques known to be recruiting grounds for the Ansar al-Islam group, linked to the Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Investigators suspect that the mosques have ties to Sheikh Abderrazak, a Damascus cleric who has helped fighters travel through Syria to Iraq. The Beirut attack bore similarities to suicide bombings carried out in Iraq by al-Zarqawi, who has increasingly strong ties to al-Qaeda.
"We know that Adas had Saudi Arabian nationality and used his passport to travel to Iraq and Syria," said Judge Mezher in his only interview with a British newspaper.
"The man converted to strict Muslim beliefs two years ago and returned to Lebanon only recently." [emphasis added]
Update: meanwhile, the Canadian Islamic Congress isn't against all foreign occupations:
In a letter today to Prime Minister Paul Martin, the Canadian Islamic Congress said it endorses yesterday Martin's characterization that Syrian troops are in Lebanon as peacekeepers, not invaders. "The withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon should be left up to those two countries to negotiate," said the CIC.
CIC also urged the Canadian government to moderate Washington's aggressive and dangerous policies against Iran, Syria and Lebanon, warning that failure to do so will lead only to more death, destruction and human misery in the Middle East.
To date, the American-led invasion of Iraq has resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 Iraqis and thousands of Americans. Iraq has been transformed from country with 100% employment and a stable public service infrastructure, into an impoverished nation in disarray, with more than half of its adult workforce jobless. From being one of the leading Middle East states in administration, education and health care, Iraq has fallen to one of the world's most disadvantaged societies. [Guess those "genocidal sanctions" weren't so bad after all, eh? - DJP]
The CIC is charging that America's aggressive Middle East policies are designed primarily to shore up Israel's military power and economic advantages in the region, while attempting to divert world attention from Israel's territorial expansion into the West Bank through illegal Jews-only settlements.
(via LGF)
Springfield legalizes gay marriage
Tonight's Simpsons episode will feature a character coming out of the closet and entering into a same-sex marriage. (Presided over by Homer, of course.)
The character's identity is a closely guarded secret, but I think it's Marge's sister Patty, who was already caught visiting the burlesque house several years ago. Smithers? Too obvious. Regardless of which Simpsons character is gay, I just hope tonight's episode isn't as awful as last week's, in which Bart faked his kidnapping.
Update: spoilers ahead:
Yep, it was Patty. The episode actually wasn't bad - Springfield's TV commercial encouraging gay couples fo come and spend their money was hilarious - but that Crying Game-style plot twist was kind of labored, to say the least. Maybe the producers just couldn't bear to leave poor Selma on her own.
Is anyone else tired of the slams against the Fox network? They were funny in 1995.
February 19, 2005
Freedom on the march
After the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia and the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, a "Yellow Revolution" is percolating in the vowel-challenged former Soviet Republic of Krgyzstan:
Kyrgyzstan, like Ukraine, was hailed as a beacon of democracy after the Soviet Union’s collapse but had slipped into the standard post-Soviet habits of clan capitalism and authoritarian government.
After 15 years in power Askar Akayev, the President, now appears determined to pack the parliament with relatives and allies at elections on February 27 — and to install his chosen successor at a presidential poll in October. Kazbek, a young Kyrgyz democracy activist, had been an election observer in Ukraine and witnessed first-hand the tactics used to mobilise opposition protests there.
Returning to Kyrgyzstan, he co-founded a youth movement, Kelkel, (Renaissance) modelled on Otpor (Resistance), the Serbian group that helped to topple Slobodan Milosevic and spawned similar movements in Georgia and Ukraine.
“We decided on the lemon revolution, because yellow is a colour of change — like on a traffic light,” Nazik, another Kelkel leader, told The Times. The tulip idea was to match the Rose Revolution in Georgia.
So far, the protests that began in January have attracted only a few hundred people, waving yellow banners and handing out flyers with catchy slogans. But the demonstrations illustrate how the ripples of the Orange Revolution have spread all the way from the new frontiers of the EU to the borders of China.
Regional experts say that they could yet inspire a broader upheaval if Mr Akayev tries to change the constitution to prolong his rule or to install an unpopular successor.
Meanwhile, both Muslim and Christian Lebanese are turning against their Syrian occupiers in the wake of Rafik Hariri's assassination:
After his murder by bomb on Monday, and especially at his funeral two days later, Christians, Muslims and Druse came together in a vivid manifestation of unity rare in Lebanon's violent, sectarian-charged history. Christian and Muslim areas alike shut down during the three-day period of mourning.
"Maybe our great loss in his death will lead to the unity of the Lebanese people," said Abdul-Halim Shehab, a grocer in Beirut's Hamra district.
"His grave has brought people together. We hope that this national unity continues. Nobody likes to see his country divided," Shehab said as he sipped bitter black coffee.
Pessimists immediately predicted that Hariri's slaying would bring an explosion of sectarian violence but - at least so far - the Lebanese have proved them wrong.
Instead of turning on each other, they turned against Syria, which maintains 15,000 troops in Lebanon and holds sway over the country's politics through its allies in the Lebanese government. In an unprecedented show of defiance, reflecting a widespread suspicion that Syria was behind the killing, the hundreds of thousands of mourners marching behind Hariri's casket chanted "Syria out" and slogans against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
It may take a month or it may take 20 years, but Krgyzstan and Lebanon will be free. And so will every other country in that part of the world.
Who thought this was a good idea?
You mean people didn't want to see a sequel to The Mask, released ten years after the original, with Jamie Kennedy and the chick from Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place replacing Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz? I'm shocked too.
I haven't seen the movie (it didn't open on one of Corner Brook's three screens), but it looks like a first-ballot inductee into the Pointless Sequels Hall of Fame (along with Mannequin 2: On the Move, Another Stakeout, Blues Brothers 2000 and The Whole Ten Yards).
I still think that Deuce Bigalow sequel is going to do surprisingly well, though.
Update: Other members of the PSHoF (which aren't necessarily bad movies, just movies nobody except studio executives wanted to see - or were contractually obligated to make):
- Arthur 2: On the Rocks
- Caddyshack II
- Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
- Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (lengthy - and very funny - analysis here)
- Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
- Short Circuit 2
- Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow (never released in North America)
- The Jerk, Too (made for television, without Steve Martin)
- Splash, Too (made for television, without Tom Hanks)
- Smokey and the Bandit III
- Shock Treatment (sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show)
- Delta Force 2
- Braddock: Missing in Action 3
- Rocky V
- Conan the Destroyer
- Iron Eagle II
- Aces: Iron Eagle III
- Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold (filmed simultaneously with King Solomon's Mines, starring Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone)
- Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles
- Major League: Back to the Minors
- Son of Kong (sequel to the 1933 King Kong)
- King Kong Lives (sequel to the 1976 King Kong, an inductee into the Pointless Remakes Hall of Fame)
- The Chronicles of Riddick (sequel to Pitch Black)
- Elektra (sequel to Daredevil)
- Grease 2 and Airplace 2: The Sequel (both directed by The Newsroom's Ken Finkleman)
- Highlander 2: The Quickening
- Highlander III
- Highlander: Endgame
Places are being held for Be Cool (sequel to Get Shorty) and XXX: State of the Union (without Vin Diesel), both coming out later this year.
Season cancelled, nation yawns
Americans' indifference to the NHL is well-known. But when polls show Canadians refusing to care about the season being cancelled, well, that just shows how far the league has fallen since it decided to put expansion teams all over the Deep South:
Even if the NHL manages to put together an agreement to lure back its players, it seems the league will face another uphill battle -- winning back fans.
Ipsos-Reid conducted a poll with CTV and The Globe and Mail which found the majority of Canadians, 68 per cent, say they don't care that the 2004-2005 NHL season has been cancelled.
Those most likely to say they didn't care about the cancelled season are residents of Atlantic Canada (73 per cent), Quebec (71 per cent) and Ontario (69 per cent). Respondents over 35 years of age and women were also more likely to say they didn't care.
Interestingly, mourners of the 2004-05 NHL season are most likely to come from Western Canada -- British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. They're also more likely to be younger, male Canadians (aged 18-34).
The league and the players' union, perhaps realizing just how foolish they've looked for the past six months, are going to make one more attempt to salvage the season this weekend. But I think they should just fold the entire league and start from scratch. When you're paying NFL salaries but getting Arena Football TV ratings, something's gotta give.
There's no excuse for this
I can understand why some people are opposed to gay marriage, though I do not agree with their postion. I'd also question the wisdom of shoving political advertisements - for either side - in your face when you just want to sit back and watch Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. But death threats and bullying are always inexcusable:
As of this weekend, Famous Players, Canada's largest movie chain, will no longer run any "issue-driven advertising" in its 79 theatres after pre-film ads it's been carrying in support of same-sex marriage prompted a boycott of its theatres by opposing groups.
"We were starting to get e-mails that were threatening to our staff," Nuria Bronfman, the Toronto-based vice-president of corporate affairs for Famous Players, said yesterday.
The man who placed the ad, another Famous Players executive, said yesterday he'd received death threats.
Also, "the phone calls were starting to get abusive," explained Ms. Bronfman, "so we thought it's not fair for our staff to have to go through that sort of thing."
However, one of the groups opposed to the ads, the Calgary-based Canadian Family Action Coalition, thinks that even with the new policy, the boycott should continue at least until Famous Players agrees to run an anti-same-sex marriage ad "similar to what they ran for the other side."
February 18, 2005
Chomsky the liar
Oliver Kamm as another long - but rewarding - post on St. Noam's staggering dishonesty.
Kamm also has a link to Chomsky's denunciation of Vaclav Havel, which would probably be infuriating if it wasn't so clumsily written. Even more than his pro-tyranny politics, what amazes me about St. Noam is the fact that he's such a horrible writer. Like most academics, Chomsky won't use five words if he can say the same thing with ten.
Green on the outside, red on the inside
I've been busy this week - you probably noticed the relative dearth of postings - so I never had the chance to comment on this absolutely disgraceful column by David Suzuki, which portrays Cuba as an environmental paradise and praises the old Soviet Union for its technological advances. (He doesn't mention this masterpiece of Soviet technology.)
Fortunately, Bob Tarantino got around to it. (Check out this and this, too.) Isn't it amazing, how lefties used to praise the Communist nations for their rapid industrialization - and now praise them for their technology being so backward?
On the radio again
I'm scheduled for another appearance on Rob Breakenridge's World Tonight this evening at 9:30PM Eastern, to discuss the relationship between blogs and the mainstream media. You can listen live here. If you want to bribe me to promote your site, send me an e-mail.
I'll almost certainly be discussing this column by Peggy Noonan.
Update: this article, from Business Week, is worth a look as well. (via Power Line)
More trouble for the UN
A secret UN report found Ruud Lubbers, the High Commissioner for Refugees, guilty of sexual harassment - but Kofi Annan dismissed the allegations and just give Lubbers a "strong warning".
Business as usual, in other words.
One of the United Nations' most senior officials is likely to face fresh pressure to resign over allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation after The Independent obtained a confidential internal report into the claims.
Ruud Lubbers, the UN's high commissioner for refugees, was found guilty of misconduct involving sexual harassment by an official investigation carried out by the UN's watchdog, it can be revealed. The secret document has never before been released.
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, took internal and external legal advice after studying the 15-page report on the allegations, before deciding he was unable to take action against Mr Lubbers. Instead, he issued him with a strong warning about his conduct.
[...]
In its note to the secretary general, the report says: "Mr Lubbers did engage in unwanted physical contact with a subordinate female staff member. New allegations that came to the OIOS's attention during the investigation were also examined and indicate a pattern of sexual harassment by Mr Lubbers."
It continues: "OIOS is also of the view that Mr Lubbers abused his authority as high commissioner by his intense, pervasive and intimidating attempts to influence the outcome of this investigation."
As part of their inquiry, the investigators, led by Dileep Niar, the under-secretary general for internal oversight services, learnt of several other instances of alleged sexual misconduct. Four women subsequently agreed to be questioned on condition of anonymity, saying they were afraid of "retaliation and public humiliation". They declined to make official complaints.
Syria the peacekeeper
Paul Martin, it appears, is as ignorant about the Middle East as his predecessor:
Prime Minister Paul Martin yesterday mistakenly suggested Syrian troops in Lebanon are there to "keep the peace."
The blunder provoked a maelstrom of indignation on the opposition benches in the House of Commons.
[...]
The tempest began when Martin, standing before microphones outside the cabinet room, answered in French a reporter's question about Syria, suspected by some of involvement in the Beirut bomb blast that killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri Monday.
"Our ambassador is there, he has certainly expressed his point of view, and as far as the assassination goes, it's terrible to see loss of life like that, to lose a former prime minister in that way, a man I knew.
"It's clear that if the Syrians are in Lebanon it's because we have to keep the peace, there have certainly been some failings," he said.
Martin's aides stressed that the Prime Minister supports the U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Syria to withdraw its troops, estimated at 14,000, but that in the meantime, the country had an obligation to preserve the peace in Lebanon.
February 17, 2005
Bulldozers decommissioned
The Israeli government is going to stop tearing down terrorists' homes:
Israel has agreed to stop demolishing the homes of Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen after an army panel judged the practice to be ineffective in deterring attacks and recommended it be halted.
Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered an end to the demolitions on the recommendation of Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, the military said Thursday.
"The chief of staff clarified that if an extreme change in circumstances takes place, the aforementioned decision regarding the policy will be re-examined," the statement said.
Human rights groups have condemned the policy as collective punishment and have argued for years that it end.
[...]
The army panel's assessment found that house demolitions generally inflame hatred. It cited only 20 cases in which the threat of demolition deterred potential attackers or influenced their families to turn them in.
So, who will the "anti-Zionists" boycott now?
Why are we still paying attention to this woman?
Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, who lost Jessica Simpson during the first season of The Apprentice (unfortunately, she was found), says the show's producers are prejudiced against black women.
She may have a point. If I was going to deliberately cast a candidiate who'd make black women look bitchy and incompetent, I'd pick Omarosa.
Would you buy a Chinese car from this man?
I believe it's only a matter of time before decent-quality economy cars from China are common on North American roads. I do not believe they'll be sold by this guy:
It's difficult for Malcolm Bricklin to sit still, much less stop talking about his newest auto venture.
The 65-year-old founder of Visionary Vehicles has signed a contract with Chery Automobile Co. of China to become the first importer and distributor of Chinese- built vehicles in the U.S., beginning in January 2007.
He vows to sell 250,000 the first year through 250 dealerships. Those goals climb to 500,000 the second year, 750,000 the third and 1 million in the fourth year.
[...]
Bricklin insists he will introduce a new vehicle every two months for three years, ranging from an entry-level sedan at $6,900 to a performance sedan at $19,000 that will compete with a $30,000 BMW 3-Series.
All will have "Lexus quality," he says, referring to the brand rated tops in the industry.
And then he goes on about coupes, convertibles, pickups and gas/electric hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells. "All I need now is 250 dealers, and I've already had 1,200 apply," he said.
What makes the plan a bit difficult for many to accept is that Chery produced only 91,000 vehicles two years ago and now has to come up with a host of new vehicles in less than two years that meet U.S. safety and emissions regulations.
Bricklin is best known as the man behind these cars. I can only assume the man is an incredible salesman, because I can't understand why anyone would give him a nickel, much less $15 million for dealership rights.
Team Anti-America
Remember the first scene of The Naked Gun, in which all the world's tyrants and dictators - Arafat, Ghaddafi, Khomeni, Gorbachev - are meeting in Beirut to talk about how they're going to attack the United States? That's the first thing I thought of when I read this:
Iran and Syria announced a common front against the United States yesterday as Washington ratcheted up its pressure on two of the countries highest on its list of rogue states.
“We are ready to help Syria on all grounds to confront threats,” Mohammad Reza Aref, the Iranian VicePresident, said after meeting Naji al-Otari, the Syrian Prime Minister, in Tehran.
“This meeting, which takes place at this sensitive time, is important, especially because Syria and Iran face several challenges and it is necessary to build a common front,” Mr al-Otari said.
Neither country elaborated on what the common front would entail, though Iranian state television said that Tehran would share with Syria its experience of dealing with sanctions. But the two countries, positioned on either side of Iraq, have enormous capacity to deepen the chaos in that country, cause further trouble in Lebanon and sponsor terrorist attacks abroad.
[...]
Syria’s decision to stand so publicly shoulder-to-shoulder with Iran surprised no one in the Bush Administration. For years, US officials have accused Syria of complicity in Iran’s funding of, and support for, Hezbollah terrorists who target Israel.
Islamic fascists teaming up with secular Ba'athists? That will surprise no one except the "Bush is Hitler" crowd, who will almost certainly insist that the Bush Administration "pushed" Iran and Syria together. (Never mind that Hezbollah stuff.)
Bad Cops
Palestinian Cops are on the take
But what do you expect with the money they make?
Whether in a car or on a horse
They don't hesitate to use excessive force!
I want the new peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians to work. I really do. But the agreement is worthless if Palestinian "security forces" are not going to take action against Hamas and other terrorist organizations, and this AP story does not give me confidence:
Palestinian policemen, who have been given the task of restraining militants, say they can't or won't do the job. Interviewed at their front-line positions, some say they feel sympathy for the gunmen, while others fear getting shot at by Israeli troops.
The shortcomings of Palestinian police were evident last week when officers stood by as Hamas militants fired dozens of rockets and mortar rounds at Jewish settlements in Gaza. Officers also did nothing when gunmen broke into Gaza's central jail, killing two inmates and abducting a third who was later slain.
"This is all part of the state of chaos we have been living in," said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security adviser, Jibril Rajoub.
The poor performance is a result of years of rampant corruption, rivalries among commanders of numerous police forces set up by the late Yasser Arafat and a lack of discipline and training. After the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000, the deterioration accelerated when many policemen joined the battle and Israel targeted security installations in Gaza, leaving the security forces in tatters.
Abbas must now depend largely on the good will of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups to uphold a fragile truce with Israel. (emphasis added)
(via LGF)
Update: they might not be willing to take action against terror groups, but the PA still has no qualms about executing "collaborators".
February 16, 2005
Millions missing in Natuashish
63% of the people in that blighted Innu community have signed a petition demanding that the band council resign. And now, an audit shows that $3 million of council money - most of it provided by federal and provincial taxpayers, we can safely assume - has gone missing:
An audit of the band council in Natuashish obtained by the CBC shows $3 million has gone missing.
Ottawa is spending millions of dollars a year to fight addictions in the Innu community. Including the cost of moving the community from Davis Inlet, Ottawa has spent $350 million.
Now an audit of the band council shows $3 million missing. The audit says credit card spending is uncontrolled. An undisclosed amount of the money disappeared in bank transfers and blank cheques taken from the office.
Provincial Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Tom Rideout says the federal government needs to investigate how taxpayers' money is being spent in Natuashish.
Despite all the money that has been spent, the levels of substance abuse and child abuse have increased.
As I wrote last week, the Natuashish mess is even more deserving of a public inquiry than Adscam. Don't hold your breath waiting for one, though:
Rideout says months ago he called on the federal government to look into the spending in Natuashish, but Indian Affairs didn't respond.
Last week federal Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott would not respond to calls for an investigation after allegations that band council money was used to finance drug smuggling. He would only say that his department is working with the band council of Natuashish.
The evolution of antisemitism
Daniel Pipes on how the new Jew-hatred differs from the old:
Here are four of the most significant shifts:
- From right to left: For centuries, anti-Semitism was the hallmark of the right and merely episodic on the left. To take the ultimate examples of these trends, Stalin's Judeophobia was peripheral to his monstrous project, but Hitler's was central to his. Even a decade ago, this pattern still basically held true. But recent years have witnessed a rapid and global realignment, with the mainstream right increasingly sympathetic to Jews and Israel and its leftist counterparts cooler and more hostile.
- From Christian to Muslim: Christians developed the abiding tropes of anti-Semitism, (such as greediness and ambitions to world domination), and historically Christians killed most Jews. Therefore, Jews regularly fled Christendom for Islamdom. In 1945, this pattern abruptly changed. Christians came to terms with Jews, while Muslims adopted both the old Christian themes and murderousness. Today institutional anti-Semitism is overwhelmingly a Muslim affair. One result has been a steady reverse exodus, with Jews now fleeing Islamdom for Christendom.
- From religious to secular: What began as a rejection of the Jewish religion evolved over the centuries into a bias against the supposed Jewish race, (thus, our continued use of the nonsensical term anti-Semitism) and lately has evolved into anti-Zionism, or hatred of the Jewish state. An astonishing 2003 poll in which Europeans found Israel to be the leading threat to world peace indicates the depth of this new sentiment.
- The conflation of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism: Jews and Americans, Israel and the United States – they have merged in the minds of many around the world, so that one prejudice routinely implies the other one too. The two hatreds also share a basic feature: neither is susceptible to rational argument, so each is better understood as the symptom of a psychological disorder than of some arcane political logic.
Osirak 2005?
The Iranians say an "unknown aircraft" fired a missile at an area near one of their nuclear power plants this morning. No other details yet.
Update: Iranian state TV says a fuel tank may have fallen from an Iranian plane, causing the explosion.
Update II: and now they're saying it was caused by dam construction. Make up your mind, guys.
Worse than Mugabe?
Half the people in tiny Swaziland are unemployed, and approximately 40% of the population is HIV-positive. But the king certainly has his priorities straight:
There will be 10 cars and, according to the critics, each one is a German "sculpture in metal". All are BMWs, from the top of the latest "5" range.
The sumptuous vehicles will arrive in Swaziland, one of the poorest countries in the world, next week. With an appropriate fanfare, they will then be driven past a disbelieving populace. Bought for the 10 wives of King Mswati II, they are the latest purchases of the continent's last absolute monarch, the most fecklessly self-indulgent in the world.
When you are king of Swaziland, finding a new wife is not hard, although keeping them happy may require the odd outlandish expenditure.
The passing of each summer in the capital of Mbabane is marked by the Umhlanga, or reed dance. At that point, young virgins are summoned from all over the country to participate in a five-day festival held, naturally, in honour of the King.
Dressed in short, beaded skirts decorated with bright fringes and buttons together with anklets, bracelets and necklaces, and colourful sashes, the bare-breasted girls, some as young as nine or ten, dance for the monarch.
Giving the dance its name, the young maidens gather reeds from specially designated areas. Each sash has appendages of different coloured wool streamers that denote whether or not the maiden is betrothed. Each group has their own dance step or song to mark their respect for the monarch and his mother. Tradition dictates that Mswati's only task is to sit back, enjoy the show, and pick a new child bride.
Dissent is not tolerated in Swaziland, to say the least, but the purchase of ten news BMWs may be what finally brings the people into the streets to overthrow this guy. Here's hoping.
February 15, 2005
Another Tex classic
He has details about the way they're promoting the Spanish program at the Australian National University. (You have to scroll down a bit, but you'll know it when you see it.)
Another Steyn classic
Do I even have to tell you to read it all?
It's a good basic axiom that if you take a quart of ice-cream and a quart of dog faeces and mix 'em together the result will taste more like the latter than the former. That's the problem with the UN. If you make the free nations and the thug states members of the same club, the danger isn't that they'll meet each other half-way but that the free world winds up going three-quarters, seven-eighths of the way. Thus the Oil-for-Fraud scandal: in the end, Saddam Hussein had a much shrewder understanding of the way the UN works than Bush and Blair did.
[...]
But think about it: the merest glimpse of a freaky West Virginia tramp leading an Abu Ghraib inmate around with girlie knickers on his head was enough to prompt calls for Rumsfeld's resignation, and for Ted Kennedy to charge that Saddam's torture chambers were now open "under new management", and for Robert Fisk to be driven into the kind of orgasmic frenzy unseen since his column on how much he enjoyed being beaten up by an Afghan mob: "Just look at the way US army reservist Lynndie England holds the leash of the naked, bearded Iraqi," wrote Fisk. "No sadistic movie could outdo the damage of this image. In September 2001, the planes smashed into the buildings; today, Lynndie smashes to pieces our entire morality with just one tug on the leash."
Who's straining at the leash here? Down, boy. But, if Lynndie's smashed to pieces our entire morality with just one tug, Bush's Zionist neocons getting it on with Congolese kindergarteners would have the Independent calling for US expulsion from the UN - no, wait, from Planet Earth: slice it off from Maine to Hawaii and use one of those new Euro-Airbuses to drag it out round the back of Uranus.
But systemic UN child sex in at least 50 per cent of their missions? The transnational morality set can barely stifle their yawns. If you're going to rape prepubescent girls, make sure you're wearing a blue helmet.
The two Jason Kenneys
It's only mid-February, but we already have a strong candidiate for the year's most asinine comment:
Conservative MP Jason Kenney says gays have every right to marry whoever they want -- as long as it isn't someone of the same sex.
The Calgary MP made the remarks during a sometimes heated 40-minute discussion with members of the Toronto-area Punjabi language media, a recording of which was made available to The Canadian Press.
"The fact is that homosexuals aren't barred from marrying under Canadian law," Kenney said at the meeting of the Punjabi Press Club last month in Brampton, Ont. The group represents more than a dozen Punjabi-language newspapers.
Former NDP MP Svend Robinson -- an outspoken gay rights advocate and Canada's first publicly declared gay MP -- was once married to a woman, noted Kenney. He also said that NDP MP Libby Davies was once married to a man.
"Marriage is open to everybody, as long as they're a man and a woman," said Kenney.
"It doesn't say you can't marry if you're a homosexual. The fact is that homosexuals have been married and do marry."
So far this year, Jason Kenney has been better known for boldly speaking out against the Chinese dictatorship, much to the chagrin of Paul Martin and the Liberals. Makes you wonder if it's the same guy.
Bloggers on TV
Jeff Jarvis was on CNN's Reliable Sources this past weekend, while CNBC's Kudlow & Company had on Glenn Reynolds, John Hinderacker and Hugh Hewitt. All were discussing the Eason Jordan scandal, and video can be found here and here, respectively.
It got me thinking: are there any Canadian bloggers prominent enough to get on CBC Newsworld or CTN NewsNet? Rob Breakenridge has had a lot of bloggers (including myself) on his Alberta-based radio show, but it may take our own RatherGate or EasonGate to get us on television. (I once posted about Ralph Benmurgi taking part on a 9/11 conspirozoid conference, but that was about 15 years after people stopped caring about Ralph Benmurgi.)
Update: The Meatriarchy has been asking himself the same question.
The end for Red Ken?
Here's hoping. The Mayor of London (God, I hate using that term to describe Ken Livingstone) has spent his entire career pulling outrageous stunts, but his unprovoked comparison of a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard might be the last straw:
Ken Livingstone was facing a disciplinary inquiry last night after he refused to apologise for comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi prison guard.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews submitted an official complaint to the Standards Board for England, which - if upheld - could lead to Mr Livingstone being suspended or disqualified from office.
In a separate move, the London Assembly unanimously passed a motion censuring the mayor for the remarks he made last week to a reporter from the Evening Standard. Oliver Finegold had approached Mr Livingstone after a party held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith becoming the first MP to "come out" as a homosexual.
Mr Livingstone asked Finegold if he used to be a "German war criminal". When told that Finegold was Jewish, and that he found the remark offensive, Mr Livingstone said he was like a "concentration camp guard" because he was just following orders.
At a meeting of the assembly, Mr Livingstone defended his behaviour by claiming that Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail, had conducted a hate campaign against him ever since his time as the Left-wing leader of the Greater London Council in the 1980s.
[...]
At the meeting the mayor refused to meet three Holocaust survivors who delivered a petition accusing him of "belittling" their experience and afterwards they condemned him bitterly.
Gena Turgel, 82, who was chosen to lead the Queen to her seat in Westminster Hall at the Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony, said: "I am shocked. There is no comparison between what Mr Livingstone's family have gone through and what ours suffered." The assembly has no power to discipline Mr Livingstone, but the Standards Board for England, which is in charge of investigating complaints against elected office-holders in local government, could take action.
As mayor, Mr Livingstone is bound by a code of conduct that applies to councillors and mayors. One section says office holders "must not treat others with disrespect". Another outlaws conduct which would bring an authority "into disrepute". (emphasis added)
Update: Melanie Phillips is a Jewish conservative who lives in London and writes for the Evening Standard's sister paper. Needless to say, she has quite a bit to say about this.
February 14, 2005
Why didn't I know about this sooner?
For the past year, our friend Rick McGinnis has been writing a very funny TV column for Toronto's Metro paper. The archives are here.
Them stupid Ay-rabs ain't smart enough to have a democracy
I'm not the one saying that. Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson is the one saying that.
(via Eric the Unread)
Kicking Kinsella's Ass in Canadian Politics
The story so far:
- Andrew Coyne writes a column describing all the ridiculous things Jean Chretien and his cronies expect us to believe about Adscam.
- Warren Kinsella rants and roars and complains about Andrew Coyne defaming him.
- Andrew Coyne refutes all of Kinsella's allegations and then some, even throwing his legal-threat strategy back in his face.
- Warren Kinsella, in total meltdown mode, babbles incoherently about his punk rock days and writes, "I am declaring an armistice with Coyne/Spector/Wells/ white'n'right haters who I periodically torment for amusement."
- I laugh my ass off.
(By the way, is there anything more pathetic than a white man sneering at his political opponents for being white men? Also see: Dean, Howard.)
Mass murder in Beirut
A huge car bombing has killed at least 9 people, including former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri - who has publicly spoken out against the Syrian occupation of his country. (You know, the occupation that doesn't count 'cuz the Israelis aren't doing it.)
Robert Fisk, of all people, lives not far from the explosion scene. He's okay, thankfully (you know I'm no fan of Fisk, to put it mildly, but that doesn't mean I want him killed), but for now he seems prepared to give the Syrians the benefit of the doubt:
Without his presence, then we have a serious economic crisis here as well as a political one, because the question is: was he killed because he was believed to be opposing Syria. Would the Syrians dream of doing anything so crude and vicious as this.
Syria's Ba'athist government destroyed the city of Hama, killing 20,000 of its own people, in 1982. So, yes, I do believe the Syrians could do something as crude and vicious as this.
Thank you, Popular Mechanics
This month's cover story is a comprehensive debunking of the better-known 9/11 conspiracy theories, featuring several damning examples of ignorance, half-truths and blatant fabrications by the conspirozoid fringe. Essential reading.
Is this going to make Michael Rivero and Barrie Zwicker shut up? Don't be silly. If the Jews...er, neoconservatives control all the newspapers and television networks, it stands to reason that they'd control Popular Mechanics, right? Right?
(via Tim Blair)
Update: just as I predicted, the conspirozoids are dismissing Popular Mechanics as part of the conspiracy. This guy not only says that the magazine's experts are "suspects" in the 9/11 attacks, but even implies that the conspirozoid sites refuted by Popular Mechanics are themselves part of the conspiracy, to discredit the "9/11 skeptics" movement.
As Criswell said at the end of Plan 9 From Outer Space, "Can you prove it didn't happen?"
Nazis on the march
5,000 neo-Nazis marched in Dresden, Germany this past weekend. And if you didn't know better, you'd probably think they were affiliated with International ANSWER:
Thousands of neo-Nazis hijacked official ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the Allied bombing of Dresden yesterday in the biggest demonstration by the German far right since the Second World War. More than 5,000 neo-Nazis overran the east German city with a mass protest against "Anglo-American bomb terror".
The scale of the fascist turnout, although predicted, came as a major embarrassment to the city and the government of the Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder. Both had hoped that the anniversary would be dominated by gestures of reconciliation.
Instead, a crowd of neo-Nazis bused in from all over Germany gathered behind Dresden's rebuilt Semper Opera House to hold a "funeral rally and march". The British and the Americans were bitterly criticised for the raid in February 1945 which was described as a "bomb holocaust" and example of "Anglo-American terror".
Holger Apfel, 33, leader of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), which won seats in the Saxony state parliament in Dresden last October, appeared with other neo-Nazi leaders to denounce the British and Americans as "mass murderers and gangsters".
"They have left a trail of blood that stretches from Dresden to Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and possibly Iran," Mr Apfel told the crowd to enthusiastic applause and chants of "murderers". He added: "We must not allow Germany to become the accomplices of American gangster policy."
Waving black banners and black balloons, with the slogan "bomb terror", the neo-Nazis also accused post-war Germany and the Allies of deliberately downplaying the number of deaths caused by the bombing which officially stands at 35,000. On numerous placards written in Nazi-style Gothic script, they claimed that the figure was 350,000.
The leader of Germany's extreme-right NPD also praised Hitler in a newspaper interview this past weekend:
But National Democratic Party leader Udo Voigt, building on party claims in January that Dresden was a "bombing holocaust", told a German newspaper at the weekend that "Hitler naturally achieved fantastic things - he eliminated unemployment within just a few years".
In an interview published in Die Welt, Mr Voigt explained that the party, which sits in the Dresden-based Saxony state parliament, did not "refuse to pay respect to the victims but saw no reason to think one-sidedly about the dead of Auschwitz".
Ken Livingstone is a wanker
The Mayor of London recently called a Jewish reporter a "German war criminal" and "concentration camp guard" because he works for a newspaper Livingstone doesn't like. The transcript, available here, has to be read to be believed.
This would be bad enough, were it not being spewed by a consistent defender of Islamofascist thug Sheikh Yusouf Al-Qaradhawi.
Update: Eric the Unread:
So, if you are a bigoted, pro-suicide bombing extremist, the Mayor of London will invite you to a conference and spend £4000 pounds of public money on sugar-coating your reputation with propaganda.
If you are a gay Muslim, he will refuse to speak with you - lest he upset his new reactionary friends.
And now if you are a reporter just doing your job, who happens to be Jewish, you are condemned as a Nazi war criminal who worked in a death camp.
February 13, 2005
The Rube, the Rube, the Rubert's on fire
Rubert got an Instalanche. Seriously. Oh, and he's also threatening to crack our skulls open. Maybe he'll come after us at the Toronto blog bash in a couple of weeks, if his car isn't in the shop again.
My detailed analysis of the situation can be found here.
I'm back from Halifax
And Andrew Coyne is back from the blogging wilderness, with an abolsutely devastating post on Adscam (which was followed by the inevitable threat from Warren Kinsella, which Coyne bats aside beautifully). Hopefully he'll stick with the blog this time.
February 11, 2005
Gone to Halifax
Back Monday morning. Have a great weekend.
Have these people no decency?
A writer named Neil Clark actually believes the nations of Eastern Europe were better off under Communism. The Guardian actually thought this nonsense was worth publishing. Fortunately, blogger Tim Worstall thought it deserved a fisking. (via Blithering Bunny)
If you want to know what life was really like behind the iron curtain, this is a good place to start.
The seduction of Amar Ahmed Mohammed
The Melbourne Age has the sickening story of an Iraqi boy with Down's Syndrome who was used as a suicide bomber. This illustrates the kind of people to whom Gwynne Dyer and George Galloway want the Americans to lose:
Amar Ahmed Mohammed, 19, a Shiite with Down syndrome, was a perfect target for the ruthless men of the insurgency - unable to speak because of the severity of his condition, he could not tell anyone he was being groomed for death.
While the family buried his broken body in Najaf last week, a relative speculated that Amar's abduction was an opportunist snatch by insurgents while his parents were several streets away, celebrating their new-found right to vote at a family lunch.
But yesterday his mother revealed the brutality of an elaborately planned seduction in which her family was made to believe that Amar had finally found benefactors who could dramatically improve his life.
[...]
Accustomed to living on charity, they were not surprised when, 10 days before the election, two men arrived saying they were from the local Sunni mosque and wanted to help Amar. Ms Zubaidi was overjoyed.
"They said they would organise a sickness pension from the new government, that they were arranging with the Red Crescent for a block of land on which we might build a house, and they gave me $300 for stock for the shop.
"They said that they would take Amar to a special school, and each day they collected him and drove away. They gave him sweets and clothes and cigarettes - he loved them. Sunnis had helped us before, so I didn't think it strange."
Ms Zubaidi was particularly grateful because she thought that, with the downfall of Saddam, their lives were about to change - her first child, a daughter, had died at 12 because she says they had neither food nor medicine for her illness. She believed the Sunnis would save Amar from a similar fate. But she reveals that after voting early on January 30, she came home to be told by her other sons - Murtadha, 9, and Ali, 8 - that the men had driven away with Amar.
"That was normal; we had come to trust them like family. I wasn't worried and the rest of us went off to lunch at my sister's house. Then there was an explosion."
The Age, true to form, headlines the story, "Grieving family counts the cost of democracy". But was it democracy that took Amar's life, or Islamofascist terror?
(via Chrenkoff)
The sickness spreads
Physical attacks and threats against British Jews hit a record high in 2004:
British jews were subject to a record number of anti-Semitic attacks last year, including a huge increase in serious assaults. The increase has been blamed on "the Middle East factor", with a sharp rise in incidents rooted in hatred of Israel.
Jewish communities in London and Manchester were subjected to more than 400 attacks, and throughout the UK levels of anti-Semitism rose to the highest level since records began 20 years ago.
Jewish children on the way home from school and people returning from synagogue have been assaulted. In Southampton, a gang - whose leader collected far-right literature - assaulted a teenager so severely that his jaw was broken in three places, while a woman was beaten by her neighbours.
Anti-Semitic abuse rose by 42 per cent in 2004 to 532 incidents, including 83 assaults, mostly on visibly Jewish people. For the first time in five years, assaults outnumbered incidents of damage to property, including the desecration of synagogues and graveyards.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which advises the Jewish community on how to protect itself, said many of the attacks were "a reaction to events in the Middle East".
"Some British-based supporters of the Palestinians chose to express their opposition to Israel by attacking British Jews," a report published by the CST yesterday said. "This overspill of international conflicts on to British shores is not always a short-term reaction to a specific event, however; sometimes it reflects a more general ideological hostility to Jews." The assassination by Israel of the Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in March last year sparked the second highest number of attacks recorded in the UK.
February 10, 2005
Dyer chooses sides
Gwynne Dyer, in his new book Future: Tense, is openly rooting for the Iraqi "resistance". Yeah, I'm shocked too. (Hat tip: Rob Breakenridge, whose World Tonight radio show is reason enough to start using Sparks.)
The United States needs to lose the war in Iraq as soon as possible. Even more urgently, the whole world needs the United States to lose the war in Iraq. What is at stake now is the way we run the world for the next generation or more, and really bad things will happen if we get it wrong.
Okay, I haven't read the book. (Dyer's columns in my daily paper are more than enough. Trust me.) If this Amazon.ca summary is accurate, Future:Tense argues that America's policies are going to start a new World War, the U.S. economy is going to collapse, and global warming is going to drown us all. And that the Bush Administration is "fearmongering".
Jack Lassenberry of Detroit's Metro Times, who gives the book a rave review, says he's "willing to listen" if anyone can tell him why Gwynne Dyer is wrong. For the defence, I submit this Tom Friedman column (preferably without its remarkably naive paragraph about the Israeli-Palesinian situation):
I think there is much to criticize about how the war in Iraq has been conducted, and the outcome is still uncertain. But those who suggest that the Iraqi election is just beanbag, and that all we are doing is making the war on terrorism worse as a result of Iraq, are speaking nonsense.
Here's the truth: There is no single action we could undertake anywhere in the world to reduce the threat of terrorism that would have a bigger impact today than a decent outcome in Iraq. It is that important. And precisely because it is so important, it should not be left to Donald Rumsfeld.
[...]
What Iraq is now embarking on is the first attempt - ever - by the citizens of a multiethnic, multireligious Arab state to draw up their own social contract, their own constitution, for how they should share power and resources, protect minority rights and balance mosque and state. I have no idea whether they will succeed. Much will depend on whether the Shiites want to be a wise and inclusive majority and whether the Sunnis want to be a smart and collaborative minority.
There will be a lot of trial and error in the months ahead. But this is a hugely important horizontal dialogue because if Iraqis can't forge a social contract, it would suggest that no other Arab country can - since virtually all of them are similar mixtures of tribes, ethnicities and religions. That would mean that they can be ruled only by iron-fisted kings or dictators, with all the negatives that flow from that.
But - but - if Iraqis succeed in forging a social contract in the hardest place of all, it means that democracy is actually possible anywhere in the Arab world.
Democrats do not favor using military force against Iran's nuclear program or to compel regime change there. That is probably wise. But they don't really have a diplomatic option. I've got one: Iraq. Iraq is our Iran policy.
If we can help produce a representative government in Iraq - based on free and fair elections and with a Shiite leadership that accepts minority rights and limits on clerical involvement in politics - it will exert great pressure on the ayatollah-dictators running Iran. In Iran's sham "Islamic democracy," only the mullahs decide who can run. Over time, Iranian Shiites will demand to know why they can't have the same freedoms as their Iraqi cousins right next door. That will drive change in Iran. Just be patient.
Years from now, if I run into Gwynne Dyer while we're scavenging for food in the post-apocalyptic wasteland he predicts, I'll tell him he was right. Honest. But for now, I'm siding with the Yanks and their neocon masters.
The new Mumia
Lynne Stewart, who long ago crossed the line between defending Islamofascist terror suspects and actively supporting their cause, has been convicted:
Veteran civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was convicted Thursday of helping terrorists by smuggling messages of violence from one of her imprisoned clients -- a radical Egyptian sheik -- to his terrorist disciples on the outside.
The verdict left Stewart, 65, a firebrand, left-wing activist who has represented radicals and revolutionaries in 30 years on the New York legal scene, slumped in her chair, shaking her head and later wiping tears from her eyes.
About two dozen Stewart supporters followed her out of court, chanting, "Hands off Lynne Stewart!"
There, she vowed to appeal and blamed the conviction on evidence that included videotape of Osama bin Laden urging support for her client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who prosecutors said communicated with the outside world with Stewart's help.
"When you put Osama bin Laden in a courtroom and ask the jury to ignore it, you're asking a lot," she said. "I know I committed no crime. I know what I did was right."
Stewart, wiping away tears that she said stemmed from worries about how her family will do without her, continued: "We are not going to give up. We're going to fight on. This is the beginning of a larger struggle."
[...]
Stewart repeatedly declared her innocence during the trial, maintaining she was unfairly targeted by overeager prosecutors. She testified on her own behalf as well, saying she believed violence was sometimes necessary to rid society of evil -- even in America.
"To rid ourselves of the entrenched, voracious type of capitalism that is in this country that perpetuates sexism and racism, I don't think that can come nonviolently," she said.
Prosecutors said Stewart broke a promise to the government by letting outsiders communicate with the sheik, who was in solitary confinement under special prison rules designed to stop him from communicating with anyone except his wife and his lawyers.
(via InstaPundit)
No comment
Jurors and others in Judge Donald Thompson's courtroom kept hearing a strange whooshing noise, like a bicycle pump or maybe a blood pressure cuff. During one trial, Thompson seemed so distracted that some jurors thought he was playing a handheld video game or tying fly-fishing lures behind the bench.
The explanation, investigators say, is even stranger than some imagined: The judge had a habit of masturbating with a penis pump under his robe during trials.
The lurid allegations have brought an embarrassing end to a solid career and shocked many of his colleagues. The case could also lead to a wave of appeals from defendants claiming that the judge was not paying attention while presiding over their cases.
Royal Remarriage
Charles is going to marry Camilla:
The Prince of Wales is to marry his long-term companion Camilla Parker Bowles, it was announced today.
Clarence House confirmed the pair will finally wed more than 30 years after they first met - ending long speculation about their future.
The announcement of the heir to the throne's marriage to Mrs Parker Bowles comes nearly nine years after Charles divorced his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales.
[...]
The wedding date has been set for Friday April 8, at Windsor Castle, Clarence House said.
Mrs Parker Bowles will use the title HRH the Duchess of Cornwall after marriage. When Charles becomes King, Camilla will not be known as Queen Camilla but as the Princess Consort, Clarence House said.
The English have never warmed to Camilla (nor Charles, for that matter), so even if she doesn't become Queen, I think Charles will likely give up the throne to William. And I think he'll be much happier.
North Korea admits nukes
The world's worst-kept secret is out:
North Korea on Thursday announced for the first time that it has nuclear weapons and rejected moves to restart disarmament talks any time soon, saying it needs the weapons as protection against an increasingly hostile United States.
The communist state’s pronouncement dramatically raised the stakes in the two-year-old nuclear confrontation and posed a grave challenge to President Bush, who started his second term with a vow to end North Korea’s nuclear program through six-nation talks.
“We ... have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration’s ever more undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the (North),” the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Like most North Korean statements, the claim could not be independently verified. North Korea expelled the last U.N. nuclear monitors in late 2002 and has never tested a nuclear bomb, though international officials have said for years the country is believed to have one or two nuclear bombs and enough fuel for several more.
February 09, 2005
Betraying their own
CBC's latest report on the Natuashish mess accuses Innu band leaders of misappropriating badly needed funds, and smuggling drugs and alcohol:
Money from the band council in Natuashish pays for shipments of illicit drugs and alcohol, according to sources in the community.
As well, documents obtained through a CBC investigation show the Natuashish leadership is contributing to social chaos.
One Natuashish man, who spoke to the CBC on condition of anonymity, says drug smugglers finance shipments of pot and cocaine with band funds, even though Natuashish was founded so that residents could overcome well-publicized addictions problems.
A shipping bill obtained by CBC shows one band councillor recently took delivery of a large shipment of beer. The beer, sources say, was distributed to supporters leading up to recent Innu Nation elections.
As well, copies of affidavits recently collected in the community allege marijuana was traded for votes in the last band council election campaign.
A written complaint went to the federal government, but the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs responded that the allegations were not its jurisdiction.
[...]
Meanwhile, community residents say the band council is misspending millions of dollars it has been collecting from Voisey's Bay Nickel Co., which is close to finishing construction on its nickel and copper mine nearby.
The agreement with Inco, Voisey's Bay Nickel's parent company, stipulates that the money is to be protected in a trust fund, with the interest to be used for projects that promote Innu culture and health.
Pokue says the trust has not yet been established.
Instead the money goes into band council coffers, to be handed out as the council sees fit.
"That's our money – we can do what we want," says Pokue, who says money has been put in an emergency fund for the needy.
The band's spending decisions are secret, but Pokue says a public meeting will be held.
Sure.
Did we lose a war or something?
Until I read this, I had no idea the Pontiac GTO and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo weren't available up here.
But hey, those Yanks never had the chance to buy the Dacia 1300, right?
Three cheers for the Czechs
Once again, the Czech Republic reminds me why it's my favorite country in continental Europe. (As for Spain, I think its post-3/11 government is, if possible, even more French than the French.)
In their first foreign-policy victory since joining the EU, Czech officials in Brussels have blocked a proposed ban on inviting Cuban dissidents to receptions at European embassies in Havana.
The ban would have suspended a 2003 resolution that called on EU countries to support anti-Castro dissidents by inviting them to parties celebrating national holidays.
Spain proposed the ban as part of a package of measures -- including the resumption of EU missions to Cuba -- designed to ease tensions with Havana. It became a sticking point when the Czechs threatened to use their veto in the 25-member Council of Foreign Ministers, where unanimity is required on policy decisions.
The "Cocktail Wars," as one paper dubbed them, ended Jan. 31 when Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda convinced other ministers to remove the ban during a closed-door lunch.
"I consider this an unequivocal success," Svoboda later told reporters.
Debate over the ban touched a nerve here, where many former dissidents entered politics after communism fell in 1989.
Former dissident-turned-president Vaclav Havel wrote in the Jan. 28 edition of the French newspaper Le Figaro, "I can hardly imagine a better way for the EU to spit on [its] principles. ... We will start discriminating against free-thinking people."
(via Harry's Place)
Don't be so modest, Warren
After Jean Chretien showed off his golf ball collection at the sponsorship inquiry yesterday, Warren Kinsella called it an "out-of-the-park, over-the-back-fence, into-the-parking-lot Chretien home run," and said "