Hookah'd on diversity

Saturday's Globe (Sept. 29) is on a real roll. Now Rex Murphy:

Great news out of Vancouver.

The Cinderella city is about to enact one of the most comprehensive, ferocious, detailed and high-minded anti-smoking bylaws this side of Alpha Centauri.

[...]

But this is Vancouver. So let there be no surprise, as it approaches the sublime apogee of utter civic perfectibility, that it was mindful - that even here, in addressing its last plague - it had to consider its dues to multiculturalism, plurality and tolerance for all.

Vancouver will allow hookah parlours. That's "hookah," in case you stumbled. There are, I read, three hookah parlours, that offer their glass-bowls and water pipes to some of the city's newer citizens.

According to the World Health Organization, "a typical one-hour session of hookah smoking exposes the user to 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette." Now any trivial inconsistency that nitpicking libertarians, or the live-and-let-live extremists, might have with this is more than trumped by the consideration that an hour on the hookah will combat "the depression common for newcomers" to the city.

And if toking an hour on the hookah with 200 times the volume of smoke from a single cigarette chases away the newcomer blues, well, toke away I say...

Mark C.

Update: there's an interesting debate on this controversy in Jay Currie's comment section, with one notorious troll noting (rightly) that cigar clubs are temporarily exempt from the by-law as well. Currie has the final word, for now at least:

I would be absolutely delighted to let hookah smokers go at it so long as exactly the same accommodation is offered to vets in the Legions, working class folks and people like me who like to smoke while having a beer. But if the smoke police are going to ban it for the rest of us I have no time at all for a “cultural/ethnic/religious” claim for an exemption. Our hookah culture pals will have to join the rest of us lepers in the alley where I am sure we will all get along swimmingly in the thrall of Lady Nicotine.

Elephantheaditis

Margaret Wente examines the demeaning double standards of political correctness:

Are you offended by the jolly little object you see reproduced on this page? Do you think it's sacrilegious? Or do you just wonder what it is? FYI, it's a sculpture of the Hindu elephant god Ganesha, as interpreted by Edmonton artist Ryan McCourt. Ganesha, patron of artists and writers, is among the most beloved of the Hindu deities. You can recognize him by his elephant head and the pot belly, which signifies prosperity.

[...]

Soon after the pieces were installed, says Mr. McCourt, "I started getting phone calls." Over coffee at Tim Hortons - "very Canadian neutral ground" - he met with a four-man delegation from the Hindu Society of Alberta. He pointed out that the history of Hindu iconography is extraordinarily rich and various, and that Ganesha is sometimes shown nude or with a trident, and that other Hindus, including a priest he knew, were not offended. Besides, the installation was temporary, and would soon be gone.

His critics weren't appeased. Earlier this month they got 700 people to sign a petition demanding that the exhibit be shut down. Edmonton's mayor, Stephen Mandel, caved without a whimper. "We're quite disappointed that the event happened and it insulted the Hindu community," he said. He ordered the offending objects removed immediately.

[...]

Most of us don't think twice about mocking the more absurd extremes of Christianity. We are delighted to pour contempt and scorn all over the deluded idiots who think that dinosaurs strode the Earth with Man. Most of us roll our eyes at people who believe that every word in the Bible is the literal truth as revealed by God. But we're horrified of treading on the delicate sensibilities of people who worship elephant gods, to say nothing of people who believe the Koran was dictated by Allah to a seventh-century Arabian merchant.

Forgive me if I've been reading too much Christopher Hitchens. But there's a big difference between accommodating ethnic diversity and allowing the clamorous demands of conservative part groups back into the public square. There's a big difference between respecting different cultures and caving in to illiberalism and superstition.

[...]

This deference to the tender feelings of minorities (and minorities of minorities, at that) strikes me as a double standard of the most astonishing kind. And the idea that they have a right not to be offended strikes me as both dangerous and condescending. We treat them as if they're too fragile to endure the give and take of a robust democracy. The result is that, in the name of liberalism and tolerance, we give in to the forces of intolerance...

Mark C.

422 touchdowns

Just last month, some idiots were saying he should retire. Today, Brett Favre broke Dan Marino's record for career touchdown passes.

Elsewhere in the NFL, look for chants of "Or-ton! Or-ton!" to fill Soldier Field before long.

Damian P.

Metropolitans' meltdown

Not quite as bad as the Dodgers in 1951--if there is a playoff will there be a "Shot Heard Round The World"?

In fact unlikely to have been so heard then, except for those able to hear AFR[T]S.

I listen to WFAN, NYC, almost every night; the agony and anger are real. What about Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya? What bullpen? No Schadenfreude here, just comparative historical amazement. And to the Phillies? Ouch.

Mark C.

Update: No playoff.

Mets collapse is complete

Running him up the flagpole...

...and not Salutin'. [Arrrrrrgh - DP] Letter writer Robert Weiss takes on secular Saint Rick in the Globe and Mail, Sept. 29:

Congratulations to Rick Salutin for being wrong about so many things. George Bush would never be subject to such harsh criticism? The rhetoric directed at Mr. Bush far surpasses anything that Iran's President has had to deal with at home or abroad. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad chose to go to Columbia University (a hostile environment) to advance his political agenda. The university's president gave him a taste of what any Western politician would encounter.

The reaction was hypocritical? A Western leader who supports Holocaust denial, violently persecutes political opponents and homosexuals and threatens other nations with annihilation would receive a similar reaction (although it is doubtful Columbia would play host to a Western leader who held such views).

The reaction was an "overreaction" that had less to do with right and wrong than with the "civilizational playing field ... being levelled"? If only a platform to strut was all that Mr. Ahmadinejad sought. As the world generally recognizes, however, he seeks nuclear weapons to back up his policies and rhetoric. It is the combination of all of these incendiary elements that justifiably alarms many. It is unfortunate that there are some who are willing to underreact to the threat posed by this man and the regime he fronts.

Mark C.

The Chinese MG

A great old marque is revived again - but as one reader puts it, "if it's built in China, it ain't an MG. Period."

Some TF roadsters, at least, will still be made in Britain. A factory in Oklahoma, announced in 2006, seems to be in limbo.

Damian P.

Catholicism meets conspiracism

Absolutely vile conspiracy theorizing, from a Roman Catholic Archbishop in a part of the world devastated by AIDS:

The head of the Catholic church in Mozambique said on Wednesday he believed some European-made condoms were deliberately tainted with the HIV/AIDS virus to kill African people.

“I know of two countries in Europe who are making condoms with (the) virus on purpose, they want to finish with African people as part of their program to colonize the continent,” Archbishop Francisco Chimoio told Reuters.

“If we are not careful we will finish in one century.

“I also know some companies who are manufacturing anti-retroviral drugs already infected with the virus, also in order to finish quickly the African people,” Chimoio said.

He declined to name the European countries in question or the source of his allegations.

Right next door, in Zimbabwe, Archbishop Pius Ncube has been a stalwart, brave voice of opposition to Robert Mugabe's thugocracy. Ncube, despite being forced to resign after an adultery scandal orchestrated by the government, represents the best the Catholic Church has to offer. Chimoio represents the worst.

Damian P.

Karl Rove is working undercover in new Brunswick

He must be behind this, as an eeeevil scheme to discredit the anti-war movement, since I can't believe even the "Fredericton Peace Coalition" would be this stupid:

Fredericton's mayor is calling a peace coalition misguided as the group pressures local businesses to stop displaying yellow decals calling for support of Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

Mayor Brad Woodside says the group is focusing its criticism on local proprietors when it should be lobbying the government.

"When you ask people to take down the yellow ribbon that says support our troops, I think we're really going after the wrong people," Woodside told CTV Atlantic.

"If you have a problem with what the military is doing, then go after the politicians."

Tracey Glynn is a member of the Fredericton Peace Coalition and says that wearing a "Support Our Troops" yellow ribbon trumpets positive support for the war.

"I think by putting the yellow ribbon on or wearing the red shirt, you're being a cheerleader for the war," Glynn said. [Note what color Glynn is wearing in the photo accompanying the story - DP]

Glynn says members of the coalition have threatened to withdraw support of local businesses if they continue to display the decals. The group's intention is to reignite the debate over the war in Afghanistan.

"We'll be launching a take down your ribbon campaign in October, just before the sixth anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan," Glynn told CTV Atlantic.

Fredericton is not far from C.F.B. Gagetown, one of the largest military bases in the Commonwealth. This must be going over really well with the soldiers' families.

Damian P.

Federal tax madness

Cut them. Get the federal government out of funding provincial responsibilities. Is the government genuinely conservative?

And at the same time use some of the shudder-making surplus to fund some things the Canadian Forces need. Just to mention aircraft: maritime patrol; UAVs; fixed-wing search and rescue. Then there are the new icebreakers the Canadian Coast Guard desperately needs (think Northwest Passage).

The shame of Canadian federal governments (Conservative and Liberal) is that, in order to win votes, they consistently spend money in provincial areas while not spending money in truly federal spheres such as defence, foreign affairs, and the CCG.

Mark C.

But there's no need to do it to the Gray Lady

Honest. That really would be messing with freedom of the press.

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to condemn the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org for a recent advertisement attacking the top U.S. general in Iraq.

By a 341-79 vote, the House passed a resolution praising the patriotism Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and condemning a MoveOn.org ad that referred to Petraeus as "General Betray Us."..

Vote details here (via WSJ's "Best of the Web Today").

Mark C.

Another talk-radio scandal

On the heels of controversial remarks made by Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, this transcript reveals shocking, inexcusable comments by yet another member of the right-wing media machine:

HH: He may be the most well-known American over the last fifty years. He may have spoken in person to more people than any other person in history. His name, of course, is Billy Graham, and he’s the subject of a brand new book by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, The Preacher And The Presidents. He’s always in the headlines, really, but Billy Graham is very much alive in this book, and Nancy Gibbs, welcome, what a wonderful effort you’ve put out here. This is just grand reading.

NG: Oh, I’m so glad that you enjoyed it. It was quite a project for us. We had no idea what we were going to discover before we got into this.

HH: Just give the parameters quickly when you began it.

NG: We began after the 2004 election, really out of frustration with all the misunderstanding about the role religion played in that race, and we…

HH: And how timely is it now with the Romney issue coming? In fact, as I read the account of the 1960 campaign, I was stunned by the parallels of what’s going on right now, although Dr. Graham, of course, not playing a big role here.

NG: I found that fascinating, too, and we’v talked about that before, and you know, there are so many echoes, and because you have this fifty years sort of political ministry with so many presidents, which I always thought going into this was sort of just a public thing, that there is Billy Graham on Inauguration Day, I had no idea of all the private and very personal dimensions to it with all these presidents, Democrats and Republicans, and that was the real surprise to us. [emphasis added]

Alert Media Matters!

Damian P.

"Confessions of an Ex-Truther"

The founder of a "9/11 Truth" group loses his religion. (Via Screw Loose Change.)

Damian P.

Update: here's the kind of thing from which Metzger now wisely distances himself. (With Amy Goodman's shocking role in 9/11 revealed, that brings the total number of conspirators to 36,755,904, give or take an undercover Mossad agent or two.)

Real repression, fake photo

A picture purportedly showing an Iranian woman being buried alive is actually a still from a 1994 Dutch movie.

A Google image search turns up plenty of disturbing - and legitimate - photos of what goes on in that country, including public hangings. Using this one only discredits a worthy cause.

Damian P.

Murder in Rangoon

Japanese television has footage of journalist Kenji Nagai. being shot, at close range, by Burmese security forces.

The man who led the Velvet Revolution, meanwhile, is speaking up for the Saffron Revolution (not really an accurate name, since Burmese monks wear red robes, but calling it the "Red Revolution" would create its own problems).

Damian P.

The "League of Democracies"

John McCain moots the idea:

In a week in which the U.N. Security Council once again demonstrated its impotence by failing to halt the massacre of monks in Burma and the U.N. General Assembly became a pretext for a strutting performance by the Iranian president, Senator McCain refreshed his ideas for a more effective international body: what he calls "the League of Democracies."

The Arizona senator, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, has voiced increasing frustration with the shortcomings of the United Nations and its inability — through the intransigence of two Security Council members, China and Russia — to tackle a succession of major international political disasters. He has worried aloud that the world body will be inadequate to the task of heading off the threat to Israel and the Western world posed by a nuclear-equipped Iran, not least in the Islamist state's capacity to provide terrorists such as Hezbollah with a nuclear weapon.

Mr. McCain has spoken out against the persistent procrastination by China and its client state Sudan to allow an international force to stop the genocide in Darfur. And he has said he is appalled by this week's inadequate and belated response by the U.N. Security Council, and the obfuscating role that China has played, in preventing the current slaughter of monks and pro-democracy demonstrators in Rangoon, the Burmese capital.

[...]

He told members of the Hudson Institute meeting at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York yesterday that he believes the only reason the United Nations has any value at all — as the gambler said when explaining why he played in a poker school, knowing it was crooked — "because it is the only game in town."

Instead, he told a questioner, America should champion a new League of Democracies, a notion he first proposed earlier this year in a little-noticed address to members of the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He described his League of Democracies as "like-minded nations working together in the cause of peace."

"It could act where the U.N. fails to act, to relieve human suffering in places like Darfur. It could join to fight the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa and fashion better policies to confront the crisis of our environment," he told the Hoover audience. "It could bring concerted pressure to bear on tyrants in Burma or Zimbabwe, with or without Moscow's and Beijing's approval. It could unite to impose sanctions on Iran and thwart its nuclear ambitions. It could provide support to struggling democracies in Ukraine and Serbia and help countries like Thailand back on the path to democracy."

"This League of Democracies would not supplant the United Nations or other international organizations," he said. "It would complement them. But it would be the one organization where the world's democracies could come together to discuss problems and solutions on the basis of shared principles and a common vision of the future."

It would certainly be an improvement on the UN - anything would be an improvement on the UN - but it's no cure-all. Many of Zimbabwe's neighbours have successfully transitioned to democracy, but that doesn't mean they've done a thing about the man-made humanitarian catastrophe on their doorstep. Third World "solidarity" trumps everything else.

And would a country like Venezuela - whose leader was democratically elected but acts more and more like a dictator every day - qualify for membership?

Damian P.

America's stretched army

Forget any sustained ground action against Iran:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked Congress yesterday to approve an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the Bush administration's 2008 war funding request to nearly $190 billion -- the largest single-year total for the wars so far.

The move came as Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff and former top U.S. commander in Iraq, warned lawmakers that the Army is stretched dangerously thin because of current war operations and would probably have trouble responding to a major conflict elsewhere. "The current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply," Casey said yesterday. "We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies."

[...]

Casey, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee for the first time as the Army's top officer, expressed deep concern over the Iraq and Afghanistan wars' impact on the service. In an unusual move, Casey had asked for the hearing so he could explain the strains on the Army, according to Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the panel's chairman.

"Overall, our readiness is being consumed as fast as we can build it," Casey said, explaining that U.S. soldiers do not get enough time at home to train for full-scale combat operations and that equipment is wearing out "at a far greater pace than expected." He added: "I believe we can put this back in balance in three or four years."..

In other words the Free World (if I may be forgiven the phrase) essentially has no capability to fight any new major ground war for any length of time. Not good. Remember also that US Army soldiers are at the moment serving fifteen month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan; Canadians serve six months in the latter.

Mark C.

Kanada's Karzai puppet

Tony's Viewpoint summarizes an interview by Charles Adler with rather rich former NDP leader Alexa McDonough about our control of the president of Afghanistan.

The audio is here. Listen to it if you care to hear an ideologically-obsessed reckless unwillingness to deal with facts.

Mark C.

"Dialogue" with Ahmadinejad

Representatives of several "mainstream" Christian churches met with the Iranian President in New York, but no rabbi was willing to attend the meeting. (The Neturei Karta met him earlier, in case you were wondering.) Meryl Yourish responds:

...perhaps [Jewish leaders] didn’t want to sit down with the man who organized the Iranian Holocaust Denial Conference, and who threatens the massacre of another six million Jews. Or maybe our rabbis were smarter than this woman:

“My heart was broken that there was so little support from other religions to be here,” said Mary Ellen McNish, general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that helped sponsor the event. “If we don’t walk down this path of dialogue, we’re going to end up in conflagration.”

You know when dialogue works? When you’re actually having one. Asking Ahmadinejad questions and getting the same evasions and non-answers and outright lies as everyone else has gotten isn’t a dialogue. It’s yet another photo op, yet another propaganda moment, and yet another publicity coup for the Iranian president.

Amen.

Damian P.

The generals' final mistake

The increasingly desperate Burmese military government is firing on demonstrators:

Security forces in Myanmar have again fired automatic weapons to break up demonstrations by thousands of pro-democracy protesters, killing nine people and wounding 11.

A government spokesmen says security forces opened fire as tens of thousands of protesters defied the ruling military with a 10th straight day of street demonstrations.

Government spokesman Ye Htut says 31 government troops were also injured in the clashes in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.

Among the dead in today’s clashes is Kenji Nagai, 50, a journalist covering the protests in Yangon for Japanese video news agency APF News. He was confirmed dead after his father and company representative identified him in a photo.

Meanwhile, security forces also raided several monasteries overnight, beating monks and arresting more than 100. Monks, who are high revered in Myanmar, have been spearheading the latest protests.

AP video here. Reason's Kerry Howley wonders whether the Burmese thugocracy has finally gone to far:

Raiding monasteries and attacking members of the country's most high-status class will mobilize the Burmese in a way that shooting ordinary people would not have. A massive, violent show of force might have made sense; a targeted, limited warning attack on lay people may have made sense. Killing a monk and a Japanese expat is a sign of panic and disorder.

Say what you like about Andrew Sullivan, but he's been all over this story, highlighting blog and YouTube coverage directly from Burma.

In 1988, a similar rebellion was violently put down. Today, Burmese activists have the internet and cell phones - and hopefully, that will make all the difference.

Damian P.

Saddam into exile?

According to a transcript of an early 2003 meeting between George W. Bush and then-Prime Minister Aznar of Spain, Saddam Hussein was reportedly open to going into exile - provided he could keep his loot, of course:

Saddam Hussein was prepared to take $1 billion and go into exile before the Iraq war, George Bush, the United States president, is said to have told José WMaria Aznar, the then prime minister of Spain, a month before the 2003 invasion.

During a meeting at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, on 22 February, Mr Bush told Mr Aznar that Saddam could also be assassinated, according to a transcript of their talks published yesterday in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

"The Egyptians are speaking to Saddam Hussein. It seems he's indicated he would be prepared to go into exile if he's allowed to take $1 billion [£500 million] and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction," Mr Bush was quoted as saying. Asked by Mr Aznar whether the Iraqi dictator could really leave, Mr Bush replied: "Yes, that possibility exists. Or he might even be assassinated."

In February, 2003, there was probably good reason to be skeptical of this possibility. (And who would have taken over from Saddam? His famously sadistic sons?) But in 2007, there's no way you can read about this and at least wonder whether a lot of pain could have been spared.

Damian P.

Solicitor for the Plaintiff: Alex Jones

Federal inmate Jonathan Lee Riches is famous for his bizarre lawsuits, but this one is his magnum opus. (Via The Volokh Conspiracy.) Any process servers out there want to try effecting service upon the Eiffel Tower, Malcolm X and "Psychology Socialism"?

The Plaintiff's Wikipedia entry says he may be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Or maybe he's just bored.

Damian P.

North Korean insult of the day

"You politically illiterate reactionary, your accusation against the DPRK is no more than barking at the moon!"

(via the KCNA random insult generator)

Damian P.

The Burmese won't bend

The military junta has launched a crackdown against protesters and raided monasteries, but anti-government demonstrations haven't stopped:

Beginning the second day of their crackdown on nationwide protests in Myanmar before dawn today, security forces raided at least two Buddhist monasteries, beating and arresting dozens of monks, according to reports from the capital, Yangon.

Facing its most serious challenge since taking power in 1988, the ruling junta is attempting to contain the uprising by tens of thousands of monks who have been at the heart of more than a week of huge demonstrations against economic hardships and the political repression of the military junta.

On Wednesday, in a chaotic day of huge demonstrations, shooting, teargas and running confrontations between protesters and the military, many people were reported injured and half a dozen were reported to have been killed, most of them by gunshots.

The Associated Press reported that more shots were fired today at one of several monasteries raided early in the day, Ngwe Kyar Yan, where one monk said a number of monks were beaten and at least 70 of its 150 monks were arrested.

[...]

Despite threats and warnings by the authorities, and despite the beginnings of a violent response, tens of thousands of chanting, cheering protesters flooded the streets, witnesses reported. Monks were in the lead, like religious storm troopers, as one foreign diplomat described the scene.

In response to the violence, the United Nations Security Council called an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the crisis, but China blocked a Council resolution, backed by the United States and European nations, to condemn the government crackdown.

However, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that the United Nations was “urgently dispatching” a special envoy to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

[...]

Though the crowds in Yangon, formerly Rangoon, were large and energetic on Wednesday, they were smaller than on previous days, apparently in part because of the deployment of armed soldiers to prevent monks from leaving some of the main temples.

But it appeared that an attempt by the military to halt the protests through warnings, troop deployments and initial bursts of violence had not succeeded. Political analysts said the next steps in the crackdown might be yet more aggressive and widespread.

The foreign diplomat described an amazing scene on Wednesday as a column of 8,000 to 10,000 people flooded past his embassy following a group of about 800 monks.

This site features unofficial (and unsubstantiated) reports directly from the scene, updated in real time. (Via Andrew Sullivan, who has been all over this story.) More photos here.

Damian P.

Paint her Black

Black as night, no dawn of reason there: a comment thread at Milnet.ca on Afghan President Karzai's speech to Parliament last year and Canadian Forces' involvement in its preparation.

And no mercy for Citoyen Dion: "Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot?

Mark C.

Update: Audio of M. Dion being questioned on Afghanistan by the Globe and Mail's editorial board. Good on Editor-in-Chief Steady Eddie Greenspon (whom I have often disparaged) for asking a series of tough questions to which the Liberal leader has no good answers.

"You politically illiterate aggressor!"

The KCNA Random Insult Generator, using language taken directly from North Korean state news agency dispatches, is good for hours of fun. (Well, a few minutes, anyway.)

"You extra-large renegade, you will be dealt a thousandfold retaliatory blow!"

Damian P.

The Monks' revolution

The military junta in Myanmar Burma is starting to crack down on demonstrators, but the protests continue:

Myanmar moved Wednesday to crush the mass rallies that have erupted nationwide against the military regime, as security forces fired tear gas and warning shots, and beat protesters in the streets.

Even as witnesses reported dozens of people being hauled away by police, however, protest marches continued in what has become the strongest show of dissent against the ruling generals in 20 years.

Witnesses said thousands of onlookers cheered as around 1,000 Buddhist monks shrugged off the heavy presence of soldiers and police and kept marching toward the centre of the main city of Yangon.

The crowd roared approval for the monks and shouted at security forces: "You are fools! You are fools!"

Police and troops then fired a volley of warning shots and tear gas to try to break up the march, witnesses said.

It was one of several demonstrations in the city as thousands of monks and their supporters ignored a decree from the regime, which has ruled Myanmar with an iron grip for decades, that the days of mass protests had to stop.

London's Daily Mail has photos. Andrew Sullivan, meanwhile, explains why he isn't calling the country "Myanmar."

Damian P.

The Gray Lady betrayed itself

The paper's Public Editor denounces the publication of MoveOn.org's Gen. Petraeus attack ad:

FOR nearly two weeks, The New York Times has been defending a political advertisement that critics say was an unfair shot at the American commander in Iraq.

But I think the ad violated The Times’s own written standards, and the paper now says that the advertiser got a price break it was not entitled to...

More from Ed Morrissey:

...The Gray Lady screeches about how nefarious advocates hide behind "issues" to target politicians -- and yet subsidizes an ad from an advocacy group that attacks the honor of a military commander as an indirect attack on the White House...

While MoveOn.org has payed the difference and...

...continues, of course, to stand by the content of the advertisement and to urge citizens and their elected representatives in the Congress to focus on the continued dishonesty of the Bush Aministration and the American blood and treasure being lost in a war for which the Administration has no exit strategy. Certainly that issue is more worthy of the attention of the electorate and the media than the mistake of an advertising representative or the wording of an advertisement.

Mark C.

Damian adds: George Will piles on in today's Washington Post.

Ahmadinejad was right

There are no gays in Iran, according to the Columbia Queer Alliance:

...we would like to strongly caution media and campus organizations against the use of such words as "gay", "lesbian", or "homosexual" to describe people in Iran who engage in same-sex practices and feel same-sex desire. The construction of sexual orientation as a social and political identity and all of the vocabulary therein is a Western cultural idiom. As such, scholars of sexuality in the Middle East generally use the terms "same-sex practices" and "same-sex desire" in recognition of the inadequacy of Western terminology. President Ahmadinejad's presence on campus has provided an impetus for us all to examine a number of issues, but most relevant to our concerns are the complexities of how sexual identity is constructed and understood in different parts of the world."

When gay-rights activism (good) meets cultural relativism (not so good), this is what you get.

Damian P.

Quote of the Day

"God Bless man. It was great playing hockey with you."

- an entry on a website set up in memory of Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, killed in Afghanistan yesterday.

Damian P.

Seuss, J.

A court decision you can read to your kids at bedtime. (Background here.)

Damian P.

Talkin' 'bout future generations/No April Fool for Afghanistan

A post of mine at The Torch:

Afstan jaw-jaw?

Meanwhile, foreign affairs minister MacKay supplies at last a firm timeline for a decision on the future of the Canadian mission:

Canada will advise NATO whether it will extend its combat mission in southern Afghanistan by April of next year, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says.

[...]

"There is a NATO meeting in April, 2008," Mr. MacKay said in Orleans, an Ottawa suburb. "It will be necessary to communicate a final decision before that meeting."..

So, unless the Conservatives win an election in the meantime, or enough opposition members (Liberals?) vote against their party to support the government--most unlikely, our combat role will end in February 2009.

What if we do quit? Richard Gwyn of the Toronto Star provides an excellent analysis of the consequences of such a decision, and of a foolish reason to oppose the mission:

...noteworthy is the fact that one principal reason why many Canadians today oppose our involvement in Afghanistan will have vanished by the February departure date.

By then, George W. Bush will no longer be president of the United States. Ever-increasing media attention to the U.S. presidential contest will cause more and more Canadians to realize global power decisions will soon be made by someone else – perhaps by a President Hillary Clinton, but certainly not Bush.

Though it's relatively easy to argue that it's best for us to leave Afghanistan, it's difficult, if not impossible, to argue that our doing so would leave Afghans better off.

[...]

If we go, it's virtually certain the Dutch will go. If the Dutch go, the Australians have already said they will go.

In the words of a spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that has "consequences for the whole alliance and for the whole western world."

The solution of course would be a real contribution – a fighting one – by the major NATO nations like Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

A precondition for that solution to be possible would be for Canada to stay. No less so a precondition for Canada to stay would have to be for those nations, at last, to make serious contributions.

It's not about cutting and running. It's about standing back – we've more than contributed our share – and then watching, as the gap we'll leave behind turns into a huge hole into which the entire country eventually tumbles...

But I still can't accept the notion that we pick up our marbles and quit if more players don't join in. If the goal is worth achieving it's worth continuing unless our situation gets much worse and no realistic hope of achieving our goal remains at any reasonable cost.

Mark C.

Update: From Damian Brooks:

I wish I could get every single Canadian who argues we're fighting an imperialist war for George Bush and Haliburton in Afghanistan to listen to ordinary Afghans on the issue...

Read on.

No gaiety

A combination of genes and environment, I guess:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad skirted a question about the treatment of homosexuals in Iran on Monday, saying in a speech at a top US university that there were no gays in Iran.

"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country," Ahmadinejad said to howls and boos among the Columbia University audience.

"In Iran we do not have this phenomenon, I don't know who has told you that we have it," he said...

Elsewhere on the Iranian front:

"The Arabs are portrayed in ["Lawrence of Arabia"] as inept, stupid, and illogical facing technology and new inventions. This ploy fits the content of the fourteenth protocol regarding the non-Jewish nations...

Funny. I've always thought Prince Feisal was portrayed as the smartest and wisest person in the movie. Great music too.

Mark C.

Update: From a column by Anne Applebaum:

...it would have been wrong, once he'd been invited, to ban Ahmadinejad from speaking: To do so would have granted him far more significance than he deserves and played right into his I'm-the-real-democrat-here rhetoric. Instead, the university should have demanded genuine reciprocity. If the president and dean of Columbia truly believed in an open exchange of ideas, they should have presented a debate between Ahmadinejad and an Iranian dissident or human rights activist -- someone from his own culture who could argue with him in his own language -- instead of allowing him to be filmed on a podium with important-looking Americans. Perhaps Columbia could even have insisted on an appropriate exchange: Ahmadinejad speaks in New York; Columbia sends a leading Western atheist -- Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens or, better still, Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- to Qom, the Shiite holy city, to debate the mullahs on their own ground...

The best disinfectant

While I still question the wisdom of giving Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a platform, it sounds like his appearance at Columbia yesterday went about as well as could be expected. Thrown off guard by the university president's critical opening remarks, Ahmadinejad got a few applause lines, but embarassed himself by rambling, dissembling and making remarks that outraged even the Columbia students:

Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended Holocaust deniers and raised questions about who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in a tense showdown Monday at Columbia University where the school's head introduced the visitor by calling him a ``petty and cruel dictator.''

Ahmadinejad, appearing shaken by what he called ``insults'' from his host, sought to portray himself as an intellectual and argued that his regime had respect for reason and science. But the former engineering professor soon found himself drawn into the type of rhetoric that has alienated American audiences in the past.

He provoked derisive laughter by responding to a question about Iran's execution of homosexuals by saying: ``In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country ... I don't know who's told you that we have this.''

At times, however, he drew audience applause, such as when he bemoaned the plight of the Palestinians.

[...]

Appearing agitated at times, Iran's president often declined to offer the simple answers the audience sought, responding instead with his own questions or long discursions about history and justice.

Bollinger opened by aggressively taking on Ahmadinejad's past statements about the Holocaust.

``In a December 2005 state television broadcast, you described the Holocaust as the fabricated legend,'' he said. ``One year later, you held a two-day conference of Holocaust deniers.''

Bollinger said that might fool the illiterate and ignorant.

``When you come to a place like this, it makes you simply ridiculous. The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history,'' he said.

Ahmadinejad denied he had questioned the existence of the Holocaust.

``Granted this happened, what does it have to do with the Palestinian people?'' he said.

But Ahmadinejad went on to say that he was defending the rights of European scholars, an apparent reference to a small number who have been prosecuted under national laws for denying or minimizing the Holocaust.

``There's nothing known as absolute,'' he said.

Does that include his religious beliefs?

Damian P.

Update: Iranian-American blogger Pejman Yousefzadeh is happy Ahmadinejad got the chance to speak:

...For many, the issue was whether or not Columbia would observe "free speech" in inviting Ahmadinejad to come and speak. For me, free speech was never the issue. Rather, I wanted to see if the event would be a teachable moment. I wanted to see if Columbia would use the attendance of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to tell him off as he deserved to be told off. I withheld judgment and comment to see whether that would happen.

And by and large, Columbia did just that. ...

[...]

Now, I don't want to make it sound as if Ahmadinejad didn't have his fans at the event. He did. But here's the thing: If he were prevented from speaking at Columbia, barring a Presidential order that would have restricted his travel at the United States, it is entirely possible that he would have set up a meeting between himself and his fans in New York and won a propaganda victory. Even if his travel were restricted, he could have set up such a meeting at the Iranian mission to the United Nations. And he would have enjoyed and profited mightily from that gathering.

Instead, Ahmadinejad was forced to deal with boos, hisses, righteous denunciations and derisive laughter when he sought desperately to convince the audience that there are no homosexuals in Iran. And don't think for a moment that this is a temporary embarrassment. Quite the contrary; the pictures of Ahmadinejad being booed and lectured will somehow, some way, find their way to the satellite dishes of ordinary Iranians. They will see unedited pictures of their country's president being brought to account for his murderous and ignorant impulses. And the very sensible Iranians--the millions of them--that President Bollinger rightfully praised in his speech, will find themselves fortified against their and our common foe.

The "Saffron Revolution"

Major - and welcome - developments in Burma. (Sorry, "Myanmar.")

Damian P.

Protesting against Ahmadinejad

LGF has details. I wish I could be there.

My advice to the protestors: keep it civil. The Iranian media, obviously, will spin the demonstrations as violent (and Zionist-controlled) regardless of what happens, but the European media - not to mention more than a few American outlets - are just praying for signs demanding that Tehran be nuked, someone to scream "Death to Iran," or for someone to take a shot at the guy.

For comparison purposes, here's what happened at Columbia when the Minutemen, an anti-illegal-immigration group, tried to speak.

Damian P.

Gross, man

The quarterback wasn't the only reason the Bears were blown out last night, but everyone except Lovie Smith is wondering how long we have to put up with this:

Rex Grossman had another rough outing, going 15-of-32 with 195 yards. He threw three interceptions, did not have a touchdown and was sacked three times -- twice by DeMarcus Ware. That's why Grossman heard more boos from the home crowd.

If he's worried about his job security, Grossman wasn't letting on.

"I'm going about my business and not worrying about the things that I don't control," he said.

Would it surprise him if he lost his job? Grossman said, "Same answer."

Coach Lovie Smith continued to support the embattled QB.

"Rex Grossman is our quarterback," Smith said. "I know he's going to take a lot of the blame. We all will take a lot of the blame. We didn't get a lot done."

Steve and Jeff at NFL Rants & Raves have dubbed him "Interceptosaurus Rex."

Damian P.

Ahmadinebert

There are quite a few celebrities I could see bending over backwards to defend Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I didn't think the guy who created "Dilbert" would be among them, though:

I hate Ahmadinejad for all the same reasons you do. For one thing, he said he wants to "wipe Israel off the map." Scholars tell us the correct translation is more along the lines of wanting a change in Israel's government toward something more democratic, with less gerrymandering. What an ass-muncher!

Ahmadinejad also called the holocaust a "myth." Fuck him! A myth is
something a society uses to frame their understanding of their world, and act accordingly. It's not as if the world created a whole new country because of holocaust guilt and gives it a free pass no matter what it does. That's Iranian crazy talk. Ahmadinejad can blow me.

Most insulting is the fact that "myth" implies the holocaust didn't
happen. Fuck him for saying that! He also says he won't dispute the
historical claims of European scientists. That is obviously the opposite of saying the holocaust didn't happen, which I assume is his way of confusing me. God-damned fucker.

I can think of plenty of "European scientists" whose claims Ahmadinejad will accept. David Irving, Robert Faurisson...

Adams backpedals a little in this post, in which he says he's somewhat skeptical of the accusations against Ahmadinejad because of accusations against Saddam Hussein which didn't pan out. (Specifically, the WMDs.) Fair enough. But then he offers his thoughts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

I also support Israel’s actions in pursuit of its self-interest. I’d be a hypocrite to do otherwise, since I also support the United States, despite what it did to the Native Americans a few hundred years ago. At some point you have to release on the past and accept the present realities. Israel won. It isn’t going anywhere.

If Israel had an enemy that it could make peace with, then I might feel different. But it doesn’t, so Israel’s best interests dictate keeping the neighbors too economically weak to purchase expensive weapons, and to control as much territory as possible. I don’t begrudge any country that makes rational decisions in support of its own safety. I don’t even begrudge Israel’s influence on American foreign policy. I respect them for how well they do it.

Still, the bulk of my sympathies are with whatever group suffers the most, regardless of how much of the problem is their own damned fault. To feel otherwise would be inhuman. Sometimes it feels as if the Palestinians are only one Gandhi away from fixing their problems. But he’d need to be bulletproof. [emphasis added]

Yeah, Syria would be the new Singapore if it wasn't for these pesky Zionists keeping them poor. And Israel's need to control as much territory as possible explains why they gave the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt. Reverse psychology, you see.

As for a Palestinian "Gandhi," I'd like to think Adams is saying he's come under fire from Hamas or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. But I have my doubts.

Damian P.

No enemies on the left (or in the Iranian government)

The Columbia Coalition Against the War acknowledges that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad holds some "inexcusable" views. That doesn't mean they will, you know, confront him about it:

We fear the demonization of Ahmadinejad, because we think this demonization contributes to the likelihood of war. In the current climate, with many on the political right in the U.S. and Israel pushing for air strikes, a campaign against Ahmadinejad is dangerous, regardless of the intentions of most involved. A call to action, unless it prominently rules out war, implies military action.

A rally where each speaker denounces Ahmadinejad's reactionary policies and just a few call explicitly for military action will still be perceived, on campus and around the U.S., as pro-war. The right-wing media, from Fox News to the New York tabloids, has already jumped on the event, and will spin it to favor their cause. Conservative organizations with no affiliation to Columbia's campus, such as the David Project, have already signed on to the rally on Facebook, and are likely to distribute hundreds of warmongering flyers and picket signs. The rally will seem to be a sea of pro-war demonstrators -- and the more people who attend it and the more organizations that endorse it, the more powerful this disastrous message will be.

[...]

There are other means for engagement with Iran than war, and other means for disagreement with Ahmadinejad than the planned protest. [Maybe they can send him nasty thoughts, or something. - DP] We call on those who do not support a war with Iran to be wary of the vilification of Ahmadinejad, to avoid Monday's rally, and to express vocally their opposition to military intervention.

Yes, we wouldn't want to see this gentleman "vilified," now, would we?

Damian P.

Swinery: Said, Chomsky, Sartre (and Kleinery)

Robert Fulford excoriates the third in the triad of "public intellectuals" I love to loathe:

Once the public freely accepts that someone is "great," that conviction becomes impossible to dislodge. Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher, novelist, playwright and self-promoter, proved this axiom.

[...]

When faced with an ethical question, he was never overly fastidious. During the German occupation of France in the Second World War, he accepted a teaching job that was vacant because his predecessor was fired for being Jewish. For several years, he flourished as a novelist and playwright, producing work the Nazis chose not to censor.

After the war, he developed an affection for communist despots. Following an official trip to the Soviet Union in 1954, he came home to announce that he found more freedom in the U.S.S.R. than anywhere else in the world. "It's true that I thought well of it," Sartre recalled later, "but that's because I kept myself from thinking ill of it."

The mind of the fellow traveller has never been better articulated: Sartre gave himself a temporary lobotomy so that he could stay on Moscow's side in the Cold War. Had he told the truth, he would have lost friends and diluted his greatness in pro-Soviet circles. In Cuba in the 1960s, he met Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. When Guevara was killed, Sartre called him the most complete human being of the age.

[...]

Sartre's views changed sometimes, but only from one version of leftism to another. As he said late in life, "When I use the term 'right wing' for me it means dirty bastards."

[...]

Following the Munich massacre of 1972, in which the Palestinians killed 11 Olympic athletes from Israel, Sartre said it was wrong for journalists to treat the killings as a scandal. Great or not, he was capable of a certain swinishness...

I'm a Camus man myself. If one is driven by the oppressors to rebel then do not after victory end up behaving just as they did (if not worse--e.g. Lenin).

Mr Fulford is also not very kind to "the spectre of Naomi Klein". Thank goodness Canada still has the National Post, even as it now is. Jason Cherniak, for his part, is earnestly even-handed in his review of our frenetic little capitalism-slayer.

Mark C.

Damian adds: I saw several dozen copies of The Shock Doctrine on sale at Costco this morning, which got me thinking of a quote wrongly) attributed to Lenin: "The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them."

Update: Premises and conclusions regarding Jean-Paul.

Hurl to the max

I've just lost any respect for puffed-up, pseudo-hard-boiled Don Martin of CanWest News. His lead paragraph today:

Many Canadian soldiers were pledging a return to Afghanistan even before they left the last lethal rotation, tempted as much by combat pay premiums of about $3,000 a month as by the mission's merits...

And this climate change nonsense:

Defence Minister Peter Mac-Kay did a grin-and-go tour of our chicken-clucking allies in Europe, trying to scare up combat replacements for our troops this week from among those who deploy their soldiers for sunbathing duty in northern regions...

Not much sunbathing in Mazar (where the Germans mostly are) from, say, December through February.

What a mockery of journalism. And how Canadian.

Mark C.

Update: Some good journalism on Afghanistan, but from a professor.

Upperdate: Susan Riley, an Ottawa Citizen columnist who really does seem to think that PM Harper is a clone of President Bush, inadvertently (I am sure) identifies the sheer absurdity of opposition posturing on Afstan:

If we do have an election over Afghanistan, we would likely end up with another minority. Harper would campaign to send more troops, the opposition would prefer conflict resolution teams and social workers.

Meanwhile, new Foreign Minister Bernier gives a pretty decent defence of the mission and concludes:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said it several times in recent weeks: Any extension of our military mission past February, 2009, must be approved by Parliament. We must pursue this debate as realistic and responsible adults who are aware of our obligations to our allies and to the Afghan people.

Good luck finding "realistic and responsible adults" amongst the opposition.

The "homage hypocrisy pays to virtue"...

...and poisoned wells--excerpts from a rather muscular review, in the Times Literary Supplement, of The Price of Peace: Just War in the Twenty-First Century (Charles Reed and David Ryall, editors):

... Since the just-war tradition restricts war to the last resort, much depends on what this might mean in terms of waiting until a putatively determined enemy is in a position successfully to destroy you or involve you in a war involving appalling losses on all sides before victory is achieved. Of course that is a matter of calculation, not to mention effective propaganda claiming that it is indeed so, but it means there are cases where last resort requires a pre-emptive strike. This is where generational experience plays a role, because if the liberal democracies had been in a position and willing to strike against Hitler in 1936, appalling consequences would probably have been averted. On the other hand, one has to remember the democracies were crippled by guilt over the terms of Versailles, and would have had to face up to a critical barrage defining their action as typical capitalist war-mongering. The conclusions are obvious. First, disablement by guilt seems to be a Christian and liberal speciality. Second, the consequences of not taking armed action are a matter of speculation and there is, moreover, a well-attested likelihood that the conduct of operations will go horribly wrong. As one contributor points out, this is where moral luck comes into play.

More after the jump...

Mark C.

It is also where a great deal depends on one's estimate of the role of international authority and international law, and this is in part an empirical question as to the amount of chaos there is in the system. That in turn partly depends on the degree of international security experienced in particular regions, so that some argue Europe has been so effectively pacified under the wing of American power that it can afford the kind of functional pacifism willing to defer to the United Nations. This stance embraces the post-war papacy, and certainly includes the Anglican Church. What is at issue came sharply into focus when Rowan Williams made the possibility of regime change in Iraq turn on waiting for UN authorization. A Sunday Times commentator argued that this amounted to turning the morality of foreign policy over to the net result of interested power plays on the part of notoriously amoral and blatantly interested parties on the Security Council...On the other hand, it can be argued that long-term international chaos is exacerbated rather than ameliorated if major powers take matters into their own hands and act as judges in their own cause. One has to attribute greater moral status to the UN than it strictly deserves in order to set an example. That raises further questions, such as whether all international actors are to be treated as morally equivalent, a point underlined by the way rival ideologies deploy the idea of "rogue states" against each other. That in turn indicates that, in the low-intensity warfare of reputations, claiming the moral high ground is an important strategic resource. Morality has its political uses and can be ruthlessly deployed in propaganda. Though the international system may be semi-chaotic its discourse is morally saturated, which is the homage hypocrisy pays to virtue.

[...]

Perhaps the two contemporary issues that engage the contributors most are the moral problems raised by non-state combatants like al-Qaeda, and by humanitarian intervention. The problem of the latter turns on who decides, and on what basis intervention represents morally disguised interference. As for non-state combatants, they throw up the problem of whether states respecting just-war criteria may at the margin choose or need to violate their own principles to defeat those totally indifferent to them, given that terrorists hide in civilian populations in order to stimulate such violations, and thereby make the war for hearts and minds that much harder. That in turn raises the question of the just conduct of war in the transition from the industrial and high-tech war of the recent past to new modes of operation. There is clearly a major problem for any judgement about whether or not a war is just when most of the wells of information are poisoned, by government and media alike, including the BBC...

Iranian chutzpah

The mullahs have released a 70-page report savaging Canada's human rights record. I repeat: Iran has issued this report. It's for the UN summit, of course:

In a bid to discredit Canada at the United Nations, Iran is equipping world diplomats with a 70-page booklet on Canada's alleged human rights violations.

Written by Iran "in the name of God," the document asserts that the Canadian government denies its people food, clean water and the right to work.

"Routine unlawful strip and beatings by Canadian police has been a matter of concern for international community," notes the booklet, entitled Report on Human Rights Situation in Canada, adding that "the practice of police is alarming simply because ... it is functioning as if there is no need to have judges."

The publication, which claims its allegations are drawn from "objective and factual information released by authentic and credible international sources," alleges that a range of human rights violation occur in Canada, especially toward aboriginal peoples, refugees and immigrants.

"To the great dismay of the international community, it is a great concern that the rights of women are violated, and no serious attention has been paid in promotion and protection of women's rights in Canada."

[...]

Iran's anti-Canadian booklet signals that its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will also be in New York for the summit, will argue that Canada is guilty of hypocrisy.

"It may well (win Iran support), and Canada will have to stand in the General Assembly and explain its position," said Max Morrison, a former Canadian diplomat at the UN who is now president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies.

"After that, no one country can control what another country is going to do."

Other countries poor human rights records may also cite the Iranian publication.

"For those states that are only too happy to avoid closer examination of their disregard for such issues as freedom of speech and non-discrimination, the Iranian ploy provides an excellent opportunity to turn the spotlight elsewhere," said Anne Bayefsky, Canadian editor of the New York-based monitoring group EyeontheUN.org.

The Chinese Communists have been doing this kind of thing for years (against the United States, not Canada - as far as I know, anyway). And the Eastern Bloc was doing it even earlier.

Damian P.

International law and order

I prefer Dan Gardner's Ottawa Citizen critique of Fred Thompson's assertion of American exceptionalism to Ed Morrissey's support of it. I would indeed put the Empire and Old Commonwealth - especially Britain and Canada, and also the Aussies and Kiwis - up against this from Mr Thompson:

'You know," drawled Fred Thompson at a recent rally in Des Moines, Iowa, "you look back over our history and it doesn't take you long to realize that our people have shed more blood for other people's liberty than any other combination of nations in the history of the world."

Mark C.

Air force blues

It looks like the Canadian Air Force's fleet of Auroras may be done sooner than planned--an excellent post by Damian Brooks on military procurement, and a Milnet.ca thread on the Auroras. The USAF for its part seems headed for trouble (h/t to Chris Taylor).

Mark C.

Gingrich goofs

No, the New York Times is not hosting a dinner for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Damian P.

Sarkozy-lite?

Could our prime minister in fact not be a neo-conservative American clone? Citoyen Dion might pay attention to what the president of his other country is saying, and re-direct his rhetorical fire.

Otherwise, has anyone seen the Canadian government making any substantive statements about the Iranian nuclear problem?

Mark C.

Ahmadinejad at Ground Zero

The visit is off again. Maybe.

When Mad Mahmoud visits Columbia University, Andrew Stuttaford says someone in the Bush Administration should take up his offer to debate:

...it's worth making the more general point that agreeing to debate Ahmadinejad need not in itself necessarily be "appeasement". On the contrary, played properly, such a debate could be an opportunity to show him up for what he is.

Here, meanwhile, is a reminder of that self-confident time when the US was prepared to debate the bad guys, a link to an article on the Nixon/Khruschev "kitchen debate". Khruschev, it should be remembered, had, in the past, not only advocated mass murder, but, as one of Stalin's key aides, had also helped organize it. And was Vice-President Nixon right to debate this butcher? Yes.

Damian P.

Review: The Iranian Time Bomb by Michael Ledeen

"The Iranian Time Bomb tells the story of the terror war waged against the Western world by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the West's failure to respond effectively [...]

"Most people, even those who consider themselves well informed, do not realize that, for nearly thirty years, the Iranians continuously attacked us, and, aside from some harsh rhetoric from time to time, we never responded."

Thus begins Dr. Ledeen's analysis and evaluation of the Iranian situation, as we know it. His conclusion is most unconventional: That the proper US response isn't sanctions or even open warfare, but rather publicly and vigorously supporting pro-Western elements amongst Iran's educated, Westernized majority towards a new Revolution.

As Dr. Ledeen points out, the majority of Iranians are generally pro-American and pro-Western. They are proud, they are capable, and the mullahcracy is teetering. All the population needs is a bona-fide nod from us.

It's a great read, too, much like an outline draft for a great Tom Clancy scenario. Details, rich characters, clear and present dangers. In this 'novel', however, there is no fantasy. The West is in greater danger than it is willing to admit, and yet the solution seems anticlimactic. Then again, anticlimax is exactly Ledeen's point: This is a problem that truly has an internal solution that would require very little of the West beyond the West's embrasure of Iran's modern populace.

The Kurds, Iraq, Turkey and other considerations will play into our ultimate response, if any. (I pray that MoveOn's neurosis doesn't become one of them.) Yet...

"Revolution is our most lethal weapon against the mullahs. We should have used it years ago, and must use it now."

...before Iran's mullahs fulfill their promises.

Joseph Hayyim

Now who's got Monopoly money?

As I write this, the Canadian dollar stands at 99.73 US cents. But earlier today, it achieved parity:

The Canadian dollar came within a whisker of parity against its US counterpart, buoyed by broad dollar weakness and strong oil prices.

The US dollar hit a low of 1.0001 cad as the Canadian currency benefited from a broad rise in risk appetite after the Federal Reserve's 50 basis point rate cut earlier this week.

[...]

Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar has also gained a boost from the current very high oil prices. The currency typically responds to movements in the oil price given that Canada is a major oil exporter

A catalyst for the move through parity, which has not happened since November 1976, could come if any of the US data due today -- including US weekly jobless claims, leading economic indicators and the Philly Fed index -- come in on the weak side and spark further dollar selling, analysts said.

So, when will we Canadians start seeing lower prices?

"With the dollar going down, it should make the imports cheaper, and purchasing-power parity should say that the prices should drop in Canadian dollars," said Sean Cleary, a finance professor at Saint Mary's University and associate dean of the Sobey School for Business.

"But it's not happening, or it's certainly happening very slowly."

The numbers speak for themselves. I surveyed the Canadian and American websites of several major manufacturers yesterday to do price comparisons. I found few examples of Canadians receiving the benefit of near-parity.

Among the four cars I surveyed, the exchange value Canadians are receiving for the dollar varied significantly. The manufacturer's suggested retail price on a Mercury Grand Marquis offered us only 64 U.S. cents on the Canadian dollar, but for a Ford Focus, we got 91 cents. The loonie hasn't traded as low as 64 cents since January 2003.

[...]

Doug Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets, told The Canadian Press it's unrealistic for consumers here to expect prices to drop along with the exchange rate. He said retailers have fixed costs in Canadian dollars - including labour and rental costs, property taxes and utility payments - that are unaffected by currency fluctuations.

Fine, but that can't possibly explain all the discrepancies.

Cleary, though, said he doesn't suspect price gouging. He thinks Canadian prices for consumer goods will lower eventually.

"It's an adjustment that does take time," he said. "That 'purchasing-power parity' is the theorem that things should gravitate to the same price in different countries, but not necessarily immediately. It could be a little bit of a lag to adjust."

If the loonie stays this strong, Canadians will likely do more cross-border shopping (or, for those of us not massed along the American border, internet shopping) and Canadian vendors will have no choice but to lower prices.

Some historical background here.

Damian P.

ISAF is indeed a UN mission...

...that the Security Council wants strengthened. Though Canadians are unlikely to realize that, since our media do not seem to have reported this:

Security Council extends authorization of International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan as Russian Federation abstains from vote

I wonder what our opposition politicians have to say about the Security Council's...

Reiterating its support for the continuing endeavours by the Afghan Government, with the assistance of the international community, including ISAF and the Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) coalition, to improve the security situation and to continue to address the threat posed by the Taliban, Al-Qaida and other extremist groups, and stressing in this context the need for sustained international efforts, including those of ISAF and the OEF coalition...

And about this operative paragraph of the resolution in which the Council...

Recognizes the need to further strengthen ISAF to meet all its operational requirements, and in this regard calls upon Member States to contribute personnel, equipment and other resources to ISAF [emphasis added - MC]...

Why isn't the government doing all it can to highlight the paragraph above? Look at this mindless spew from Citoyen Dion today:

"Mr. Harper has given Canada a foreign policy that draws its inspiration from the American right, a foreign policy that does little to advance Canadian interests," he said.

By contrast, Dion said a Liberal government would return to a more multilateral approach...

Such as that for Afghanistan just authorized by the UNSC, M. Dion? If not, why not?

More on the Russian abstention (good ol' prickly Putin) here.

Mark C.

Sarkozy and the ten taboos

A French revolution? I certainly agree with Roger Cohen's conclusion: "...I’ll go on embracing Sarkozy while waiting to see if he’s a revolutionary in action as well as in words." But some say "Plus ça change..."

At least those damn' yankees can still be blamed for the latest crisis:

French parents, politicians and doctors are in a panic, believing that if they don't focus now on prevention and reverse the trend, particularly among children, rampant obesity will become another American import, worse even than McDonald's and Disney movies...

Mark C.

Update: The WSJ also sniffs things revolutionary.

This makes me like Fred Thompson more

He's not "Christian" enough for James Dobson.

Damian P.

This makes me like Barack Obama more

He's not "black" enough for Jesse Jackson.

Damian P.

The British Pacer

If you wonder what happened to the once-mighty British auto industry, this should tell you all you need to know.

Damian P.

The knives are out

Liberal organizers in Outremont are blaming their leader for this week's by-election loss:

Stéphane Dion spent six months searching for a star candidate to run in the Outremont by-election, a delay some Liberals suggest cost the party a safe seat in Quebec.

Two days after the Liberals' humiliating defeat in the Montreal riding, volunteers and others involved in the campaign talk of interference by Mr. Dion's senior strategists in the last three weeks and of a chaotic election day.

Outremont MP Jean Lapierre told Mr. Dion last December that he would resign the following month. He said he left $60,000 in the riding association's bank account, 1,000 members and a team of savvy organizers.

"The local organization was one of the best in the province and the kitty was full," Mr. Lapierre said yesterday. "She [riding association president Adrienne Lafortune] delivered everything the Dion people asked for. But they [the local organization] had nothing to do with the campaign strategy."

[...]

Mr. Coulon had approached Mr. Dion to run in Outremont the day Mr. Lapierre resigned. But he was told that they didn't want him, Mr. Lapierre said.

"For six months the riding association had asked for that supposedly star candidate he has somewhere in store," said Mr. Lapierre, a former cabinet minister and now a political commentator and broadcaster. "They begged to have a candidate ... they even went to the leader with that ... because they felt the pressure of having this guy [Mr. Mulcair] on the ground."

Mr. Lapierre said that Mr. Dion and his associates "went down the list and had nobody" so "they called him [Mr. Coulon] back and they offered him Outremont, on short notice but very, very late."

Mr. Coulon was finally appointed in late July - just days before Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the by-election.

The chaos continued right up to election day:

Yesterday, a Liberal who volunteered in the riding said that on election day, MPs and other officials, who were trying to help out, stood on street corners, urging passers-by to vote, but had no information to give to them about where they should go.

And another campaign official, who asked not to be identified, said that in the past three weeks, Mr. Dion's people in Ottawa began to insert themselves into the campaign strategy. At one point they insisted on the leader coming into the riding to make a controversial announcement. They were able to talk his people out of the announcement.

As well, the campaign worker said that Mr. Dion's people would often call at the last minute to tell them that he wanted to visit the riding. The problem was finding events for him to do in a summer campaign when no one was around.

"... Everybody is involved [from the federal party office and the leader's office] ... and that's the problem ... a lot of chiefs but not a lot of Indians," the worker said.

Mr. Lapierre said that local organizers, who had helped him win two elections, were excluded from much of the strategy. That was taken over by Mr. Dion's people, including Mr. Lemire, who works for the party in Quebec. Mr. Lemire is an experienced organizer, but he is not from Outremont.

Mr. Lemire denied that local organizers were cut out of the campaign. He chalks up the loss to implosion of the Bloc vote, which went to the NDP.

Damian P.

Will Bush attack Iran?

Steve Clemons, writing for Salon.com, is skeptical:

To date, however, nothing suggests Bush is really going to do it. If he were, he wouldn't be playing good cop/bad cop with Iran and proposing engagement. If the bombs were at the ready, Bush would be doing a lot more to prepare the nation and the military for a war far more consequential than the invasion of Iraq. There is also circumstantial evidence that he has decided bombing may be too costly a choice.

First, journalist Joe Klein documents a December 2006 meeting in which Bush met in "the Tank" with his senior national security counselors and the military's command staff and walked out with the impression that either the costs of military action against Iran were simply too high, or that the prospects for success for the mission too low.

[...]

One member of Cheney's national security staff, David Wurmser, worried out loud that Cheney felt that his wing was "losing the policy argument on Iran" inside the administration -- and that they might need to "end run" the president with scenarios that may narrow his choices. The option that Wurmser allegedly discussed was nudging Israel to launch a low-yield cruise missile strike against the Natanz nuclear reactor in Iran, thus "hopefully" prompting a military reaction by Tehran against U.S. forces in Iraq and the Gulf. When queried about Wurmser's alleged comments, a senior Bush administration official told the New York Times, "The vice president is not necessarily responsible for every single thing that comes out of the mouth of every single member of his staff."

We know Bush rebuffed Cheney's view and is seeking other alternatives. That is the most clear evidence that Bush is not committed to bombing Iran. Even if Bush wanted to make the Iranians believe that he could go either way -- diplomacy or military strike -- Bush would not so clearly knock back one side in favor of the other to the point where the "bad cops" in a good cop/bad cop strategy would tell anyone on the outside that they did not enjoy the favor and support of the president.

Bush is aware that America's intelligence on Iran is weak. Even without admitting America's blind spots on Iraq, the intelligence failures on Iraq's WMD program create a formidable credibility hurdle.

Bush knows that the American military is stretched and that bombing Iran would not be a casual exercise. Reprisals in the Gulf toward U.S. forces and Iran's ability to cut off supply lines to the 160,000 U.S. troops currently deployed in Iraq could seriously endanger the entire American military.

Bush can also see China and Russia waiting in the wings, not to promote conflict but to take advantage of self-destructive missteps that the United States takes that would give them more leverage over and control of global energy flows. Iran has the third-largest undeveloped oil reserves in the world and the second-largest undeveloped natural gas reserves.

Bush also knows that Iran controls "the temperature" of the terror networks it runs. Bombing Iran would blow the control gauge off, and Iran's terror networks could mobilize throughout the Middle East, Afghanistan and even the United States.

Via Outside the Beltway.

Damian P.

No visit for you

Ahmadinejad's proposed photo-op at the World Trade Center site, thankfully, isn't going to happen.

Damian P.

Update: he'll be speaking at Columbia University, though. I suppose a visit to Concordia is next.

Update II (9/20): the Ground Zero visit may happen after all. Unbelievable.

Da Doo Hung Hung

There is a Spector haunting Phil's trial. What does your Crystals' ball say? Will Phil be protected by his wall of sound?

In any event you can't accuse him of doing things little by little.

Mark C.

Damian adds: these puns make me want to drown myself in a River Deep or jump off a Mountain High...

Thousand dollar babies

Danny Williams, perhaps responding to the possibility that someone, somewhere in Newfoundland might not vote for him, has announced plans to pay the parents of every newborn child $1,000.00:

Newfoundland and Labrador's governing Progressive Conservatives are pledging to turn around the province's sagging population by cutting cheques to new parents.

Leader Danny Williams said a PC government will pay $1,000 for each child born or adopted "to promote higher birth rates and population expansion."

Newfoundland and Labrador's population has been dropping since the fisheries collapse of the early 1990s, and last year the province became the first jurisdiction in Canada to record more deaths than live births.

"We can't be a dying race," Williams said Tuesday, while releasing the Progressive Conservative party's platform for the Oct. 9 general election.

"We can't be in a situation where our population is shrinking, where we have more people dying than are being born."

I've seen the effects of "outmigration" with my own eyes. In rural Newfoundland, it's absolutely devastating. But never mind the fact that this won't do anything about the real reason people are leaving - that is, outside of St. John's, there's no work. If anyone will be encouraged to procreate by the promise of a $1,000.00 cheque, it's probably the people who shouldn't be having more children - and I fear many of these kids will end up in an already overburdened child-protection system.

Damian P.

Bad news for the Bloc

The Liberals' poor performance in Monday's by-elections got all the attention, but Andrew Coyne notes that the Quebec separatists had a rough time as well:

...The Bloc didn’t just give up nearly two-thirds of its vote in Outremont, contributing fully 18 of the 30 points the NDP gained. It also dropped 18 points in Roberval, and 14 points in St.-Hyacinthe-Bagot. All told, the BQ saw two-fifths of its vote go up in smoke [Monday] night, the only party to suffer a decline in all three ridings.

Damian P.

Maximum Fahrvergnügen?

Well, it all started with a Porsche. Now this:

Porsche is slowly taking over VW, and the benefits for both sides are numerous. But so far it has not been an easy courtship, with two radically different corporate cultures going head to head.

[...]

A Midget Swallows a Giant

The ownership relationship is relatively clear. Porsche owns 31 percent of VW shares. Currently, the so-called VW law is still in effect, which limits an individual shareholder's percentage of voting rights to 20 percent regardless of the stake. But that law is currently sitting in front of the European Court of Justice and observers expect it to be struck down. Once that happens, Porsche plans to increase its holding to 51 percent.

At that point, VW, a global corporation with close to €105 billion in sales and almost one third of a million employees, will become a subsidiary of Stuttgart-based Porsche, a much smaller company with sales of only €7 billion and 11,400 employees. Instead of the giant acquiring the midget, Porsche will be swallowing VW -- a rare occurrence in the history of corporate takeovers.

But it is potentially beneficial to both. Porsche can go a long way toward protecting VW from being bought out by hedge funds, while Porsche needs VW capital to help in the development of new models. Without VW, Porsche could also face difficulties with potential new environmental regulations as it doesn't currently have energy efficient models to offset its gas-guzzling performance roadsters...

Mark C.

What about the northwest passage made in 1944?

The ice comes and the ice goes. First the scare:

Arctic ice has shrunk to the lowest level on record, new satellite images show, raising the possibility that the Northwest Passage that eluded famous explorers will become an open shipping lane.

The European Space Agency said nearly 200 satellite photos this month taken together showed an ice-free passage along northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland, and ice retreating to its lowest level since such images were first taken in 1978...

Then the context from Lorne Gunter:

They started appearing last month: alarmist articles that claim the ice cover in the Arctic Ocean this summer would be the "smallest ever recorded."

Would be. By mid-September, when Arctic temperatures begin to cool.

I had one question, though, that went unanswered in story after story: For how long have reliable records of Arctic ice cover been kept? What is the significance of claims that this summer's ice pack is the smallest "ever recorded"?

[...]

...in 1944, the tiny RCMP patrol vessel the St. Roch (which can still be seen at the Vancouver Maritime Museum) sailed from Halifax to Vancouver through the passage in a single season --a first --because it met little ice.

In a report to the Admiralty in 1817, the British Royal Society noted that "the cold that has for centuries past enclosed the seas in the high northern latitudes in an impenetrable barrier of ice has been during the last two years greatly abated." The "Arctic Seas," it noted, were "more accessible than they have been for centuries past," making exploration and trade possible during the summer melt.

This has happened before.

Instead of warning that this summer's melt was the greatest "ever," perhaps the headlines should have read "Arctic melt this year biggest since last big melt."

Mark C.

When I die I'm going to Heaven

...because I've just gotten a glimpse of Hell:

In an interview with Access Hollywood last week, Manilow talked about his new album – and the duet he recorded with his pal Rosie.

The two recorded Elton John’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” however, the track didn’t make the new album.

Damian P.

Stalkers for 9/11 truth

A "movement" gets creepier and creepier by the day.

Damian P.

Wall torn down

As of midnight, the NY Times will end its experiment of charging for certain online content. Ed Morrissey rejoices that he now can read Maureen Dowd et al.

Mark C.

Hillary betrays us

What "politics of personal destruction"?

If there is a phrase more closely associated with both Hillary and Bill Clinton than "the politics of personal destruction," it does not come to mind. All the others -- "It's the economy, stupid," for instance -- are linked to one or the other, but "the politics of personal destruction" is a phrase both Clintons have used repeatedly -- so much so, it seems, that for Hillary it has lost all meaning. When, for instance, Gen. David Petraeus was slimed as "General Betray Us," Hillary Clinton looked the other way. This was the politics of personal expediency.

The swipe at Petraeus was contained in a full-page ad the antiwar group MoveOn.org placed in the New York Times last week...

It may seem unfair to single out Clinton in this matter when the bunker in which she took shelter was crowded with her fellow quivering candidates. But Clinton is the front-runner, quite possibly the next president of the United States, so it is reasonable to focus on her and wonder if, as some allege, she does indeed have a spine. In this