Hey, guess where Stephen Boissoin just popped up?

Found this in my Google News Alert ( seriously, is there anything that Google can't do? ). Stephen Boissoin, the pastor who can't say anything disparaging about homosexuality under penalty of quasi-law, is going to be on the Roadkill Radio podcast today.

You're boring

This song should be played by everyone at some point in their lives during a pointless rambling conversation.

And while you're having a chuckle at that, why not take a gander at some Talladega Nights bloopers?

Your Handy Dandy Reference Guide to the CHRC complaint against RadicalPress.com (Updated)

Via The Radical Press:

Your Handy Dandy Reference Guide to the CHRC complaint against RadicalPress.com plus the CHR Tribunal process and hearing
Dear Radical Reader,
In the process of preparing some type of index of the related articles, etc surrounding this case for use with the media I decided to put together an easy to use list of urls that one might use to access most of the information pertaining to my case with the CHRC and the upcoming CHR Tribunal hearing. Hopefully it will be useful for those interested in the outcome of this struggle for freedom of the Internet and for free speech.
If you discover that any of the urls are malfunctioning I would appreciate hearing about it. Thank you.
Shine your Light for Love & Peace & Justice for All,
Arthur TophamPub/EdThe Radical PressCanada’s Radical News Networkradical@radicalpress.comhttp://www.radicalpress.com“Digging to the root of the issues since 1998”

Read the rest here.

Who goes to university? A clue: Have a dictionary?

By Jeffrey Simpson, via the Globe and Mail:

A good old-fashioned dictionary. If you want to know who goes to university – and this is the time of year when prospective students are thinking about fall education possibilities – check whether the family home has a dictionary.
A dictionary is not literally the ticket to university. It's more like a symbol of what's going on in the family, and what kind of family the prospective student comes from.
More research is now available suggesting that family income, while important, isn't the major determinant of who goes to university. It turns out that parents' own education levels – and, by extension, the importance they place on education – are more critical than income, and that what we might call “cultural” factors are more important than money.
And that poses a real dilemma for governments, because their ability to influence “cultural” factors is very limited.

[...]

If one or two parents have university education, the attendance figure jumps to more than 60 per cent for males and the mid-70-per-cent range for females. (Females now greatly outnumber males among all university students.) Prof. Finnie looked at things in the home as indicators of what kind of situation might produce university students. Having a dictionary is the most powerful indicator – and they don't cost much – followed by the Internet, which does. The presence of some classical literature helps, as do the number of books around. The larger the number of books, the greater the likelihood of someone going to university – just as success in reading tests is a good indicator of heading to university or not.
Immigrants, especially from Asia, get the importance of higher education. Overall, immigration participation rates are higher than for those who are Canadian by birth. Intact families help, too, with children from two-parent families about 10 points more likely to attend university than those from single-parent families.
This being said, what are governments supposed to do about these “cultural” factors? Not much. They can try to ease the path financially for students, but these “cultural” factors extend beyond governments' ability to do much.

Read the rest here.

Graphic artists condemn plans to ban erotic comics

By Jerome Taylor, via The Independent:

A coalition of graphic artists, publishers and MPs have condemned Government plans to introduce a new set of laws policing cartoons of children, arguing that the current broad wording of the legislation could lead to the banning of hundreds of mainstream comic books.
This week Parliament will discuss a new Bill which will make it a criminal offence to possess cartoons depicting certain forms of child abuse. If the Coroners and Justice Bill remains unaltered it will make it illegal to own any picture of children participating in sexual activities, or present whilst sexual activity took place.
The Ministry of Justice claims that the Bill is needed to clamp down on the growing quantity of hardcore paedophilic cartoon porn available on the internet, particularly from Japan. But critics of the legislation say the current definitions are so sweeping that it risks stifling mainstream artistic expression as well as turning thousands of law abiding comic book fans into potential sex offenders.
One of the books likely to fall foul of the new law is The Lost Girls by the graphic artist Alan Moore. The world renowned British writer is the creator of critically acclaimed comics such as Watchmen and V for Vendetta, and is regarded as one of the finest writers of his generation.

Read the rest here.

I wish I could say I was surprised. I certainly hope that a) this bill does not become law, or b) this bill does become law, but collapses in upon itself, exposing it for the needlessly cloistering process which it truly is.

H/t to Neil Gaiman

Irony totally sucks

Via the Suspicious Berean:

When James Brewer suffered a stroke and realised he was dying, the church-going Oklahoma factory worker decided it was time for an extraordinary death-bed confession. Local police were summoned to his hospital bedside where he lay after suffering a stroke. Brewer is alleged to have then told them he shot dead a man he believed was trying to seduce his wife more than 30 years ago. Detectives said Brewer, 58, told them he wanted to "cleanse his soul" and go to meet his maker with a clear conscience. But in a bizarre twist of fate, Brewer survived the illness and now faces a new murder trial over the 32-year-old death of Jimmy Carroll in Tennessee - where the death penalty may await him.

That's pure irony right there, that is.

Michael Jackson Wants to Be Plastinated

Via SermonAudio.com:

According to media reports, Michael Jackson is considering having his body "plastinated" by Body Worlds founder Gunther von Hagens. The controversial doctor says he could give the wacky pop star "the gift of immortality."
In the music video for his 1983 hit "Thriller," Michael Jackson famously appears as a zombie. Now the eccentric music star could join the ranks of the undead for real: According to media reports, he is considering having his body posthumously preserved by plastination pioneer Gunther von Hagens.
The British tabloid the Daily Star reported that Michael Jackson was planning to have his body "plastinated" by von Hagens, who has himself achieved considerable fame through his successful -- and highly controversial -- "Body Worlds" exhibitions. The paper quoted a source close to the pop star as saying that the singer was "definitely up for undergoing the procedure when the time ...

Read the rest here.

When cremation is just too boring.

British students could have the opportunity to study Twitter and Wikipedia

We don't need no education.

Terry Glavin: In Vancouver Magazine, on the Tsawwassen treaty: I Want from Now and Everlasting

Terry Glavin: In Vancouver Magazine, on the Tsawwassen treaty: I Want from Now and Everlasting

Alberta's law to embrace gay rights

By Sheila Pratt, via Canada.com:

Alberta Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett wants to include sexual orientation in the province's human rights laws, possibly as early as this spring.
His proposed reform package will also include a new "parent's choice" provision, enshrining parental rights to withdraw their children from parts of the school curriculum that conflict with their religious beliefs.
As part of the changes, the Alberta Human Rights Commission would lose the power, acquired in 1996, to adjudicate cases of free speech, which are better handled by the hate laws in the Criminal Code, said Blackett, whose department is responsible for the commission.
Changing the act to bring gays and lesbians under the commission's protection is a "long overdue" step, Blackett said in an interview Thursday.
The Supreme Court read those rights into Alberta law more than a decade ago, and he said it's "just common sense" to change the wording of the provincial act to bring it in line with that court decision.
Since that 1998 decision, gays have had the right to refer complaints about discrimination in employment, rental accommodation and access to services to the commission for investigation.
Details of the new parental rights provision are still vague. But Blackett doesn't think it will change current practice, whereby parents can opt out of having their children attend sex education classes.
"Our curricula are pretty staid, so I doubt there would be many things there that would ever cause a parent to have to worry. It's more of a symbolic acknowledgement of what really exists in practice."
The right for parents to have final say in their children's education is already part of the provincial School Act, but Blackett said he wants to see it enshrined in the human-rights code.
"It's not new, it's in the United Nations charter, and the UN is not controversial," said Blackett, noting that some parents chose not to have their daughters receive the recent controversial HPV vaccination.

Read the rest here.

Plus:

Proposal to enshrine human rights for gays welcomed ( CBC )

Calgary MLA urges Alberta to enshrine human rights for gays ( Calgary Herald )

Alta. embraces gay rights in law ( Canada.com )

A good week for tolerance ( The Edmonton Journal )

Blazing Cat Fur: Ghostnet

Blazing Cat Fur: Ghostnet


Cool.

Today's Levant-Jaunt

Links Levantian:

Vanpopta.ca

Terahertz

Five Feet of Fury, with more here.

Weather Station 1

Post-Darwinist

Full Comment

Heartless and Brainless

Canadian Cynic

The International Free Press Society

The Hill Times

Blazing Cat Fur

World Magazine

The Happy Ottawan

MouseandSquirrel.ca

Scaramouche ( different link )

Post-Darwinist

Andrew Potter

Robert Sibley

Samizdata

The Shotgun Blog

Daniel Keyes

Book Levantian: Wally Keeler , The Redwing Report, Scaramouche, Denyse O'Leary, Father Raymond J De Souza, and Rex Murphy give respective reviews.

Plus: at the Rideau club - Dr. Roy has thoughts and pics.

Blog Levantian:

Ezra's latest:

Selected Shakedown appearances

Shakedown book tour, week two

U.S. Christian magazine comments on HRCs

Chapters book signing sold out in 45 minutes

A visit to the Ottawa Citizen

Rex Murphy's review of Shakedown in the Globe

Shakedown book review: "dousing [HRCs] with gasoline"

Shakedown book tour, day three -- and a book signing tomorrow at Chapters

Shakedown on the Michael Coren Show

Shakedown book tour, day two

Shakedown book tour -- day one report

Today's Mark Madness

Links Steynian:

Truth vs. The Machine

The Paragraph Farmer

The Blogometer

The Anonymous Liberal

The Casper Star-Tribune

Gunslinger's Journal

U.S. News

Ziofascism

SC Club For Growth

Radioactive Communist Zombies

Post-Darwinist

No Compromise When You're Right!

Robert Sibley

Where Is John Galt?

Roger Kimball

Right Wing Radio Review

Rebel Yid

directed-by

Neal Boortz

Content Steynian:

In the OC Register: Government's grasp going global

One year ago: The post - "post-racial" candidate

On America: The Europeanization of America, and But serieusement, folks

On culture: If only

Mark's request of the week: Every shroud has a silver lining

Mark's song of the week: All Or Nothing At All

On the Hugh Hewitt show: Mark Steyn on 90% taxes and tea parties

In NRO's The Corner:

Missing the Point

The Dying of the Light

The Marriott and Me

Marriott, Me, and More

Home and Abroad

The Health of the State

The World Just Loves the New President!

In Mark's blog:

The show must go on

Shaken and stirred

Shakedown!

Plus more links Steynian, Levantian, and Freespeechian, over at Free Canuckistan.

The black car ban

Quite appropriate concern has been made about California's supposed consideration of a ban on black cars ( because black cars take more energy to keep cool ).

But apparently, it's just a rumor, so no harm done:

Respectable news organisations, including the Washington Post, yesterday ran a story saying that the state of California is planning to ban black cars as they absorb too much heat and make people use their air conditioning too much. Outrage and righteous indignation abounded and spread from blogger to newsdesk and back again.
Which would be fine if the story wasn't almost completely bunk. The California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board Cool Cars project does seek to reduce the amount of fuel burned to run air conditioning systems in the Dodges and Buicks of the golden state, but it has nothing to do with colour.
So-called 'cool paint' has a coating that is transparent to visible light but reflects infra-red, so less heat is passed to the interior. Tests carried out showed that it reduced the temperature in some parts of the car by as much as 30F and cut the amount of fuel used to maintain the same temperature by almost 30 per cent on sunny days, of which California has many.
The initial presentation, before the tests, contained the words 'jet black remains an issue', but the tests did not show it to be a problem and the regulations are all about reflectivity, not colour.

To be fair, a ban of black cars sounds like something which California would attempt. Sadly enough.

YouTube blocks UK... then China blocks YouTube: diplomatic mess

By Zack Whittaker, via Igeneration:

For those who have been entirely unaware of the freedom movement in China, let me tell you now - it’s a tricky one. China has once again blocked access to YouTube, due to videos emerging of soldiers attacking Tibetan nationals.
This is part of a long history of China blocking and repressing anti-government or politically unacceptable material.
The Chinese government has been widely quoted as “not afraid of the Internet” by Reuters; if anything quite the opposite. They are confident in their ways of blocking sites and blogs which fail to support or endorse the government’s ways.
YouTube and Google have both confirmed the site is blocked in the country and are working towards enabling it again.
United Kingdom and YouTube
Closer to home (for me anyway), YouTube has given up trying and thrown in the towel by blocking music videos in the United Kingdom.
The Performing Rights Society, which deals with the legislation policy with UK music and collectors of royalties for artists, failed to reach an agreement with YouTube over licensing agreements.

Read the rest here.

Today's Mark Madness

Links Steynian:

ScrappleFace

Prairie Tory

Ed West

"An Eclectic Array of Topics"

Conservative Outpost

The Ottawa Citizen

The Johnsville News

Canada Free Press

Media Matters For America

The National Post

The Vancouver Courier

Content Steynian:

Speaking to the Collegian Online, here, and here.

Mark's Request of the Week: Every shroud has a silver lining

In the OC Register: AIG execs the new 'enemy combatants'

On culture: Educational experience

On the Hugh Hewitt show: on AIG Freddie's Congressional nightmare on Elm Street

On America: Regional power

On the Rush Limbaugh show: Mark Steyn's Stack of Stuff

Mark's Song of the Week: Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

On the world: The American "Era"

In NRO's The Corner:

Closing Tim

Cry Me a Toxic River

Resigned

Re: Obama the Solver

Government Health Care

But Sérieusement, Folks . . .

In Mark's blog: Shakedown!, and "Human rights" commissioner jailed

Plus more links Steynian, Levantian, and Freespeechian, over at Free Canuckistan.

The best job application ever written

I don't know if this is real or not, but it made me laugh out loud.

Today's Levant-Jaunt

Links Levantian:

Gather

No Apologies

Hot Air

Five Feet of Fury

Prairie Tory

The Black Kettle

The Ottawa Citizen

Red Tory

Dr. Roy's Thoughts

Canada Free Press

Daniel Keyes

Conservatism.ca

EuropeNews

The Shotgun Blog

Covenant Zone

The International Free Press Society

Book Levantian: Father Raymond J. de Souza on Shakedown in the National Post

I've also been following Ezra's book tour, over at Heartless and Brainless, here and here.

Content Levantian:

In Ezra's blog:

Shakedown book review: "dousing [HRCs] with gasoline"

Shakedown book tour, day three -- and a book signing tomorrow at Chapters

Shakedown on the Michael Coren Show

Shakedown book tour, day two

Shakedown book tour -- day one report

Today is the official launch of Shakedown

George Galloway

Denormalization

US urges Iran to give access to jailed journalist

Via Reuters:

* U.S. asks Iran for access to jailed journalist
* Father says freelance journalist has become "suicidal"
WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday urged Tehran to grant consular access to an Iranian-American journalist jailed in Iran, whose father said she had become "suicidal" since her January incarceration.
"We are now are pushing for, through the Swiss, consular access, which we feel is particularly necessary at this time," State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said at a briefing.
Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Tehran as Washington does not have diplomatic ties with Iran.
Duguid said the State Department had spoken to jailed freelance journalist Roxana Saberi's father on Tuesday after he talked earlier in the day via telephone with his daughter.
U.S.-born Saberi has worked for National Public Radio, the BBC, ABC News and other international media outlets.
"As you can imagine, her father's very concerned about her well-being, as are we, as certainly is Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton," Duguid said.
Clinton has called for the reporter's immediate release. She was jailed on Jan. 31 and is being held in Tehran's Evin prison.
On Tuesday, Reza Saberi told Reuters he was "very worried" about his 31-year-old daughter after speaking to her via telephone.

Read the rest here.

Judge slams human rights commission, quashes complaint

By Don Macpherson, via the Daily Gleaner:

A judge has quashed a decision of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission to refer a complaint against the province to a board of inquiry.
The province applied to the Court of Queen's Bench for a judicial review of a human rights commission decision, and a hearing was held in court last month.
The commission decided in 2008 that a discrimination complaint based on mental disability had sufficient merit to be dealt with by an official board of inquiry.
The complaint stemmed from the care of an adult male with autism and other mental disabilities that led to aggression problems.
His parents alleged the province discriminated against their son by failing to provide suitable care for his issues.
The man was transferred in September 2000 to the Department of Family and Community Services' (now Social Development) long-term care program, designed to help families provide long-term care for disabled adults.
The man was placed in a provincial residence on a part-time basis. He later became a permanent, full-time resident after the man's mother was injured during an outburst at his parents' home.
After a couple of months, it was determined the man's needs exceeded the facility's capacity to care for him. In early 2002, he was placed in the Centracare psychiatric facility in Saint John.
The parents filed a human rights complaint in December 2002 against the province.
The parents alleged the province improperly institutionalized their son rather than placing him in proper care in the community.
In seeking a judicial review, the province maintained the commission wasn't fair in its handling of the complaint, dragged its heels and ignored key information the province provided to show it was doing all it could to arrange for the man's care.

Read the rest here.

60-foot penis painted on roof

You just can't make this stuff up.

This almost killed me laughing

Worst. Criminal. Ever.




H/t to Warming Glow

I think Raphael Alexander gets it

In the National Post's Full Comment, I think Raphael Alexander nails the CHRC's newest pressure upon the RCMP, just in the headline: Racial profiling to prevent racial profiling

Racial profiling to prevent racial profiling.
Now, bear with me here, because this reminds me of a Jerry Seinfeld episode. You see, the idea that the social engineering types are trying to prove, is that people of certain races don’t commit crimes, but rather criminals commit crimes. A simple enough explanation. As such, the logic that follows is that if we apply a universal humanist approach to crime fighting, we arrive at the conclusion that people should not be treated as suspects based upon their physical appearance. And in a Bizarro world, I might agree.
In the real world, however, physical appearance does play a factor. What the HRC is asserting is that there is a bias or preference for law enforcement officers to select certain people for greater scrutiny based on their race. But I would argue that first, this isn’t true, and second, that demographic statistics are different than the reasons for selecting a suspect. If it turns out that a disproportionate number of black citizens are chosen by police for scrutiny, it may be because police officers don’t tabulate a quota of how many black citizens there are as a percentage of the amount of suspects they stop in order to be sufficiently sensitive to the subject of racial profiling. The kind of people they stop are those who might be acting curiously, or rouse their suspicions in one manner or another.
For instance, I’ve been stopped by the police while walking before, despite being in the preferential demographic of the white male. How did such a travesty against my personal liberties occur? Well, once I was running home from work in Parkdale, a poor neighbourhood of Toronto, at 2 o’clock in the morning. That generally gains some notice from police. Another time I was walking through a park in Toronto to make a shortcut at 1 o’clock in the morning after having gone to the store for a post-midnight snack craving. Both times I was stopped because my actions seemed suspicious to trained law enforcement officers. Perhaps if I had been black, or a visible minority of some kind, I might have thought that the police stopped me because they wanted to harass me. But then again, I can’t speculate on that. All I can say is that I don’t blame the police for stopping me, and ensuring I was not taking part in some kind of illicit activity.

Indeed. To be honest, I think our poor police officers have enough paperwork to file already.

Cool

Warner Bros is putting their archives on DVD - by request only.

The twist: None of the titles are actually in stock. Instead, Warner Brothers (or rather, an independent disc-pressing facility) will burn individual DVDs as orders come in (DVDs will take about a week to arrive). You'll also be able to download copy-protected Windows Media versions of the movies, although as of Monday morning, I was having a hard time finding any downloadable titles.Of course, the custom-made DVDs won't come cheap—they're $19.95 each, according to BusinessWeek (downloadable versions will go for $14.95). BusinessWeek blogger Stephen Wildstrom reports that the discs come devoid of extras, although the video quality was good, with transfers that looked like they'd "been made from the original negatives or very good prints," and with "clean" sound.If the idea of buying a made-to-order DVD sounds pretty archaic, well … that's because Warner Brothers isn't targeting its "archive" service for the likes of you and me. Instead, the site "aims squarely at the over-40 set who enjoy building up physical collections of DVDs and will be familiar with the titles," notes the Wall Street Journal story.

It's petition time, folks

Yep, the time has come. Recieved an email this morning about two anti-pork ( not the meat kind ) campaigns making their rounds on the web.

The first, Cut The Fat.ca, is, well, I'll let them explain:

We demand that during this time of crisis that our Members of Parliament, our Senators our Members of Cabinet, and our Prime Minister...

Take an immediate 5% pay cut, freeze the civil service, and complete a full examination of all federal expenditures.

And the second, No Bailouts.ca, is all about, you guessed it, bailouts.

We the taxpayers of Canada work hard, pay our taxes, and play by the rules. We demand that the Canadian government stop throwing good money after bad and refuse to bailout the failed automakers.

Feel the anger? Feel the rage? Good, because I don't, particularly. But if you do, feel free to sign either of the petitions, or both. It's quite easy. And it's for a good cause. And if you think that I haven't given this enough research, and that there's some dark undercurrent of something sinister going on, then let me say this: I haven't researched this at all. It just landed in my inbox, and I thought I'd blog about it because I thought it was interesting and rather relevant to the times. Take it up with the site admins, not with me, if you've got a problem.

Politicians slow to protect free speech

By Paul Schneidereit, via the Chronicle Herald:

ANYONE who’s followed the controversy over Canada’s repressive, Orwellian-sounding "human rights" commissions and their attacks on free speech – and, too often, common sense – can be forgiven for wondering why governments haven’t yet acted decisively to rein in these destructive ideologues.
For several years now, we’ve seen the federal human rights body, along with its provincial counterparts in Alberta, B.C. and Ontario, attempt to bypass the bedrock Western traditional value of freedom of expression in favour of politically-correct, touchy-feely prohibitions against offending certain groups of people.
Even in the cases where free speech was vindicated – such as the Maclean’s magazine/Mark Steyn or Mohammed cartoons/Ezra Levant complaints – the process itself has served as the punishment.
Ezra spent three years and a reported $100,000 defending his right to print the infamous cartoons in 2004, while those who lodged the human rights complaints against Levant sat back as the state investigated, all on the taxpayers’ dime. In the end, the case was dismissed. A victory for free speech? Tell that to Ezra, who shelled out big-time to defend his Charter right to publish commentary, while the commission acted, at no charge to them, on behalf of his accusers.
The high-profile examples of Levant and Steyn, however, have drawn attention to the ugly attempts at censorship going on under the "human rights" banner in this country.
How ugly? Let me put in a plug for Levant’s new book, Shakedown, which lays out, in example after example, how government-appointed human rights bodies warped the noble mission for which they were created. Inspired by the government-backed attack on his basic rights, Ezra dug into the work files of human rights commissions across the country. What he found should disturb every Canadian. In case after case, many of which go beyond attacks on free speech, Ezra shows how human rights bodies have put purported grievances of single individuals ahead of the facts, the public interest and even common sense.

Read the rest here.

So, the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency is becoming a TV show

To be honest, I've not read one of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, and it'll probably be a while before I ever do - if I ever do. But I've heard good things about it. And perhaps I'll take the time to watch the TV show - HBO tends to do good work, right?

And if it's as good as Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, or Weeds, then maybe I'll take the time to get into it, too.

Free speech trumps religious protection

By Alan Shanoff, via the Edmonton Sun:

Convicting Galileo for stating the Earth is not the centre of the universe. Stoning women for adultery. Death sentences for writing blasphemous books. A jail sentence for naming a teddy bear after a religious figure.
Four simple illustrations of how religious beliefs have been used to curtail human rights. It's not difficult to find examples.
If religious beliefs can be used to curtail human rights, it seems obvious the right to criticize religious beliefs or certain aspects of religious beliefs would be integral to the human right of free expression.
Yet there are disturbing developments that seem to place protection of religious beliefs above human rights and would diminish the right to criticize religious beliefs and practices.
Exhibit 1 is the patchwork of human rights legislation across Canada. Each province has its own legislation, as does the federal government. Inconsistency in language may mean different results in different jurisdictions.
As an example, section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits web postings of "any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination," such as religion.
B.C. legislation covers any publication. Ontario legislation only covers signs.
Our patchwork of inconsistent laws and the prospect of having to defend oneself in more than one jurisdiction makes it dangerous to criticize any religious belief or practice for fear of being accused of exposing another to hatred or contempt.

Read the rest here.

Our enemies sense weakness

By Frank J. Gaffney Jr., via the Jewish World Review:

President Obama's stewardship of the national security portfolio to date amounts to a wrecking operation, a set of policies he must understand will not only weaken the United States but embolden our foes. After all, the communist agitator Saul Alinsky, a formative influence in Mr. Obama's early years as a "community organizer," made the following Rule No. 1 in his 1971 book "Rules for Radicals" — "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have."
According to this logic, the various steps Mr. Obama is taking with respect to the armed forces, the foreign battlefields in which they are engaged, our allies as well as our adversaries will not only diminish our power. They will encourage our enemies to perceive us as less powerful - with ominous implications. Consider some illustrative examples:

Read the rest here.

Rex Murphy in the Globe and Mail on Jon Stewart, Jim Cramer, and Barack Obama

Just read it, folks:

So Jon Stewart has taken down Jim Cramer. Everyone knows Mr. Stewart, the late-night host of The Daily Show, but for those who do not troll the outer regions of the cable badlands, Mr. Cramer plays host to CNBC's Mad Money - a "stock picking" half hour that combines the subtlety of Jackass with the depth of Knight Rider.
Going against his Wall Street genes, Mr. Cramer voted for Barack Obama, but he got picked out by Robert Gibbs, Mr. Obama's press secretary, for a public blistering. Nonetheless, I expect it was Mr. Gibbs's tagging him as an "adversary," something he has been doing with some regularity from the White House podium - impresario Rush Limbaugh and CNBC market commentator Rick Santelli (a mere gnat to Mr. Limbaugh's condor presence) are recent examples - that called Mr. Cramer to Mr. Stewart's attention.
To the satisfaction of all right-minded people, Mr. Stewart, the smirking gladiator, demolished Mr. Cramer, the zany market man, in the so-called anchor war and was roundly celebrated on the blogs and in the wider media. "Ripped him a new one" was the term of art most frequently employed.
Some years ago, Mr. Stewart did a like number on a bow-tied pundit named Tucker Carlson - a calmer adversary than Mr. Cramer, it is true, but one with an equally low-tide profile. Mr. Stewart is getting very good at bringing down small game with cheap shot. Pretty soon, he'll work up from smirk to full grimace and take on, I dunno, that dour laptop ninja George Will.

Read the rest here.

Today's Mark Madness

Links Steynian:

Media Matters For America

JGus

The Investigative Project on Terrorism

Lucianne.com

Winefred's Well

Maggie's Farm

Shooting Star

The Edmonton Sun

Paul Schneidereit

AlterNet

Content Steynian:

In the OC Register, and Jewish World Review: The first two months of the Age of the Hopeychange have been unexpectedly inept

On the Hugh Hewitt program: Mark Steyn's Stack of Stuff

Five years ago: Both of the above, if not more

On culture: Educational experience

On America: Healing the planet

In NRO's The Corner:

But Sérieusement, Folks . . .

Government Health Care

If Only

It's Frank's World. We Just Live in It.

On the Hugh Hewitt show: Mark Steyn on AIG Freddie's Congressional nightmare on Elm Street

On Canada and the Commonwealth: The stories we tell

Mark's song of the week: Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

On the world: The American "Era"

In Mark's blog:

Shakedown!

"Human rights" commissioner jailed

The New Denormal

Plus more links Steynian, Levantian, and Freespeechian, over at Free Canuckistan.

Former NRC scientist targets ex-boss in rights complaint

By Andrew Duffy, via the Ottawa Citizen:

A National Research Council Canada scientist says he was humiliated and harassed by his former boss, Chander Grover, who, he alleges, hired an all-Chinese photonics team in the belief they would quietly tolerate abuse.
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal will next month hear the racial discrimination case brought by scientist Ming Zhou against Grover and the NRC.
Grover won a landmark discrimination case before the same human rights tribunal 17 years ago.
In an interview with the Citizen, Grover, 66, flatly denied Zhou's allegations, which date from 2003 and 2004.
He said they were "trumped up" as part of a campaign to oust him from the federal research organization.
"It is very clear from both our submission and Ming Zhou's submission that NRC is behind this," he said.
At the time the complaint was filed, he said, NRC management was desperate to remove him and appeared "willing to go to extremes" to do it.
Grover said he was fired from the NRC in July 2007 due to what the organization termed medical incapacity.
But those health problems, Grover said, were largely the product of a poisonous work environment that the NRC created and failed to fix. Grover has since launched a human rights complaint that alleges his firing was the culmination of an unjust campaign to remove him. That complaint is still being investigated.
Grover and the NRC have a bitter and litigious history.

Read the rest here.

PM appeals to Ont. hunters, anglers to help scrap gun registry

Via CBC News:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper set his sights on the federal long gun registry Saturday, asking a meeting of recreational sportsmen to help him build enough support in Parliament to scrap the registry.
Harper urged members of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters to contact opposition MPs and pressure them to support legislation that would target the six-year-old program.
"We are looking to unite a majority of MPs in repealing the long gun registry," Harper told the group in a speech in Mississauga, west of Toronto.
"The leaders of the opposition parties continue to be against this. But there are MPs in all these parties that know what we know, that law-abiding hunters and farmers are not part of the crime problem."
"I challenge you to press these MPs to follow their consciences."
In its entire lifetime, Harper's minority government has never brought a bill to abolish the registry to a vote, fearing there would not be enough support in the House of Commons.
Instead, the Tories have reduced the registry's budget and brought in fee waivers and amnesty for gun owners who haven't registered.
"[The registry] really should be abolished. He's absolutely correct," said Frank DiRocco, an avid hunter and angler from Woodbridge, Ont., who was attending the federation's 81st annual general meeting where Harper spoke.
"Hunters are not the ones on the streets breaking the law — they're enjoying the sport and the country," he said, adding he wants to teach his 12-year-old son to understand nature and respect the nation's resources, but feels the registry makes this very difficult.

Read the rest here.

Cool. Hope it goes forward.

EDITORIAL: Death to bloggers

Via the Washington Times:

Iranian blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi died March 18 under mysterious circumstances in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. The official word is suicide, but close observers strongly suspect foul play.

[...]

American bloggers can snark with impunity, but in many countries blogging is hazardous to your health. Take Syria, which Reporters Without Borders recently named an “enemy of the Internet” along with Iran and 10 other countries.
Syrian blogger Tariq Biasi was arrested in June 2007 by Syrian military intelligence for “undermining national sentiment” and “publishing false information.” His crime: a six-word comment he made on the site “I am a Muslim.” For this Biasi was sentenced to three years. We've heard of being paid by the word but this is ridiculous.
The expression “morality police” is a cliché in this country but a sad fact of life elsewhere. American freelance journalist Roxana Saberi, a native of Fargo and former Miss North Dakota, is being held incommunicado in Iran under a secret arrest order, though her father says the pretext was that she bought a bottle of wine. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has registered an official protest and Tehran said she would be released “soon.”

Read the rest here.

Today's Levant-Jaunt

Links Levantian:

Chris Selley

Devin Johnston

Webloggin

Paul Schneidereit

Twitter Levantian: You can follow Ezra on Twitter here.

Content Levantian:

In Ezra's blog:

Shakedown on the Michael Coren Show

Shakedown book tour, day two

Shakedown book tour -- day one report

Today is the official launch of Shakedown

George Galloway

Denormalization

Michael Coren Live

Why I decided to fight back

French citizen prosecuted for expressing his opinion on website

Via the International Free Press Society:

On July 17, 2008, French citizen Fernand Cortes de Conquilla was taken into police custody over the contents of his website “Pilori.” On January 13, 2009 he received a suspended 3-month sentence and 2,000 Euro fine for expressing his views on Islam and immigration in his native France. He has appealed his conviction with a hearing scheduled for June 9, 2009.
The following is the story of his prosecution in his own words. Great thanks to Gaia for translating from the original French:

I am the founder of Pilori, an internet site which is what it is and is moreover very honourable. This site is hosted abroad since February 2003.
On July 17, 2008, I was taken into police custody under the fallacious pretext that Pilori 2008-07 of July was considered an apology for racism and incited racial hate and I was thus ordered to appear at the correctional tribunal of Montauban in connection with this on September 30 and on November 18, 2008. After several postponements of verdict on the 6 and December 16, 2008 and January 6, 2009, I was condemned on January 13, 2009 to 3 months of suspended sentence and 2000 euros fine, which I immediately appealed (this hearing has been scheduled for the Appeal Court of Toulouse on June 9, 2009).
On November 18, 2008, the gendarmes rendered me unable to attend the Magistrates Court to explain my case, by molesting me, throwing me to the ground and roughing me up. I sustained several head injuries which required my immediate hospitalization for several days and the after-effects remain to date. An action against the State is in hand against the actions of the Gendarmerie.
The most important and interesting points are:
- what is said, written or stored on the Pilori site (both my own writings and from other contributors) is a negligible part of reality: Pilori is like the tip of an iceberg which shows only approximately 10% of what is happening? Pilori reflects less than 1% of reality relating to the misdeeds of islamist immigration afro-asiatic in particular!
- Pilori is simply a mirror of this reality without any influence on the latter which is the actions of the individuals concerned, named, mentioned or designated: they are what they are from their own will and not mine or that of Pilori;
- the facts reported on Pilori are moreover already public knowledge and accessible on various media both in France and abroad;
- the reality described in July 2008 on Pilori has worsened each month since, and it will continue to worsen unrelentingly as long as drastic measures are not taken against the immigrants in question whatever their recent nationality of kindness;
- Pilori does not propagate anything. It is simply information stored in a site abroad and it does not transmit towards any place or Net surfer. It is up to each Net surfer to initiate and make the effort to connect itself to this server and seek Pilori there. They have to make the effort to search pages of the most effective web directories and search engines such as Google for example to discover the facts and the important objective information contained on Pilori!
- until July 2008, Pilori was moderated by me from my portable PC. This was seized by the gendarmes at the request of the authorities of Montauban. From then on all its contents were on the server. I was therefore no longer able to moderate Pilori which was radicalized as from August 2008 by the operators abroad;
- if Pilori fulfills a necessary task of reporting objective and wholesome information on the Net surfers and thus non reprehensible information unless the truth is declared guilty; many independent and patriotic politicians, civil servant and magistrates say the same thing just as do many citizens. Thus these legal proceedings simply results from the manifest will to stifle my freedom of expression, of opinion and thought as recognized by the universal declaration of the human rights signed in Paris in 1948 and regularly ratified by France and this probably at the request of a very influential town Councillor because of his membership of the hidden masonic mondialist cabal. It is obvious that the political regime that I am fighting tried to silence me under the most fallacious pretexts and even prevented me from returning to the hearing of the magistrates’ court of Montauban on November 18, 2008 thanks to a gendarmesque operation involving serious trauma and a hospitalization of several days;
- Pilori is not concerned whether one race or ethnicity is superior, equal to or inferior to another. This is not Pilori?s concern and does not interest it. In fact the only reason for Pilori to evoke and point out the problems of immigration lies in the impact which results from it against the government and the republic, tyrannical, of torture and liberticides;
- this is why my computer was seized on July 17, 2008 in order to prevent me from expressing myself and to allow me to prepare my defense and it has still not been restored to date; - it is also why I was violently handled and thrown to the ground by the gendarmes on November 18, 2008 resulting in head injuries and several days of hospitalization in the hospital at Agen;
- Pilori is a place of plurality of opinions and thoughts where both French and foreigner express themselves, Christians, Jews and Moslems, in all confidentiality.
- As regards the follow up and legal operations, you will see what it is advisable to do. I draw your attention however to the fact that the search for alleged offences extends over very a long period going back to the beginning of January 2007 with in particular a well-known document lodging a formal complaint against well-known individuals which the Gendarmerie have not followed up. But there exists a statement dated September 27, 2007 drawn up by the OPJ Adjudant Isabelle FORGUE of BT of Valence of Agen indicating that the remarks made on Pilori do not represent any penal offence made relating to racial hate, or racist, homophobic or abusive remarks. Consequently it is strange that this letter known since January 2007 and reported on Pilori 2007B should only become problematic in July 2008? is 9 to 18 months later.
Moreover, it is proper to continue actions against the State because of the behaviour of the gendarmes of Valence d’Agen on November 18, 2008 for compensation for physical and moral damage sustained.

The following is the URL that instigated Fernand Cortes de Conquilla’s arrest and summons to court (in French):
http://www.midiassurancesconseils.com/Lepilori2008-07.htm

Read it here.

What a shocking and disturbing thing to read about. And especially in a Western nation, such as France, which seeks to deem itself as at least a moderately free nation.

Apparently not anymore.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. That the State, any State, feels like it needs to patrol the speech and thoughts of its citizenry is not only a blatant violation of the citizenry's freedom of speech, but it also shows a complete and utter disregard for the sensibilities of the citizenry. Only children are incapable of handling the words of others. Are they all children in the eyes of the French government?

And the element of police 'force' which was used seemed rather out of hand. I'm somewhat inclined to read accounts of police brutality with a grain of salt, but no matter where you look in this case, from confiscating the man's computer, to preventing him from reaching his trial - it seems a bit much.

( Although, recent reading has led me to question the role of police officer in society ).

I sincerely and completely hope that this is not a repeat occurance in France.

Hell, it's not like they don't have other things to worry about.

Watchdogs want police to log who gets scrutiny

By Jessica Hinds, via The Montreal Gazette:

Two organizations are urging Canadian police and security agencies to record why they make such decisions as pulling people over.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation recommend in a joint statement that Canadian policing and security agencies record such characteristics as race, age and gender after they make such decisions as sending someone to a secondary search or pulling someone out of a line at a border crossing.
This would be done to understand whether profiling based on such grounds as race is occurring, and to prevent profiling by making police and security forces responsible for recording their decisions.
Such data is already collected in several countries including the U.S,. the organizations report.
The statement came after a Universite de Moncton study commissioned by the organizations found there is insufficient evidence to prove that profiling based on the prohibited grounds in the Canadian Human Rights Act is an effective policing tool.
These prohibited grounds include race, national or ethnic origin, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability and conviction for which a pardon has been granted.

“The idea behind collecting data is that every time that there is a discretionary decision made by a police officer, by a border agent, that they identify what that discretionary decision was. So for example if they’re stopping somebody, or sending them to secondary search at the border they identify . . . who they are sending, and the reason why they’re sending them to secondary search,” said Maciej Karpinski a senior research analyst at the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Ayman Al-Yassini executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation said that the specifics of how police and security agencies go about collecting the data would be up to them.
“Some may say that it’s time consuming, well the answer to that is compared to the benefits we will be getting out of it as a society as a whole, as agencies, the time factor really is not a major one,” he said.
“We will be looking at how to respond appropriately to this request,”_said the RCMP_in a statement. “In our Mission, Vision and Values statement the RCMP declares its commitment to unbiased and respectful treatment of all people. We also developed a bias-free policing policy in 2005 that specifically instructs employees not to engage in racial profiling. The RCMP does not target communities or people, it targets criminal activity.”

Read it here.

On the surface, this sounds fine. Great even. I mean, who wants police discrimination? But I get a bit leery whenever I hear the words 'collect', 'information', and 'police' in the same sentence, I must admit. It sounds innocent enough, but who's to say this information couldn't be abused at a later date?

Today's Mark Madness

Links Steynian:

E3 Gazette

Power Line

Pundit and Pundette

Jack's Newswatch

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Content Steynian:

Five years ago: Both of the above, if not more

Ave atque vale: Ron Silver

On the world: The American "era"

Mark's song of the week: Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

In the OC Register: AIG execs the new 'enemy combatants'

In NRO's The Corner:

Re: I guess it's official

"Cartoon hyperbole"

It's Frank's World. We Just Live in It.

Tally Me Bananas

Be kind, rewind

Special Olympshtick

No Laughing Matter

Ron Silver

It's Frank's World. We Just Live in It.

Healing the Planet

On Canada: The Stories We Tell

On the Hugh Hewitt show: on AIG Freddie's Congressional nightmare on Elm Street

In Mark's blog: "Human rights" commissioner jailed, and The New Denormal

Plus, more links Steynian, Levantian, and Freespeechian over at Free Canuckistan.

Also, be listening for Mark as he guest-hosts today's Rush Limbaugh program. Unfortunately, I awoke too late to get a listen ( it was on nine-to-noon Pacific time ). Ah well. Thanks to Charles for letting me know though. Sleep beckoned, alas...

Canada should let British MP speak

By Lorne Gunter, via the Edmonton Journal:

I don't like George Galloway. I don't like his politics. His tactics are too showy and deliberately designed to provoke authorities and offend ordinary people whose views are opposed to his own. He gives aid and comfort to terrorists and is not shy about supporting their causes.
Still, I would not bar him from Canada for a speaking tour he has planned later this month.
Galloway is an elected British MP. That doesn't excuse him if his purpose is to break Canada's anti-terror laws. But until he has broken them, until he has stood on a podium in this country and asked, directly, for donations to Hamas or Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad, we have no reason to bar him from entering the country.
In Canada, it is against the law to solicit donations to any one of three dozen terrorist organizations outlawed by the federal government over the past decade or so. It's the same in Britain, where Galloway has raised several hundred thousand British pounds since Christmas for aid and trucks for the people of Gaza.
Galloway is clever. He often walks right up to the line of the law and peers over the edge. He comes close to raising money for banned groups, but always manages to avoid clear law-breaking.
British authorities may yet charge him for raising funds to buy and supply an aid convoy that arrived in Gaza from Britain earlier this month, but I doubt it. The convoy's cargo and trucks were left with Gazan government officials to distribute, and Gazan government officials all happen to be from Hamas (a banned terror group), but by raising money for aid to the Gazan people and leaving that aid with their elected representatives, Galloway probably skirts the laws here and in the UK against raising money for terrorists.

Read the rest here.

The dark side of Pink Floyd

Via the Times Online:

Pink Floyd fans are an optimistic lot. A year ago the band’s blogging followers were talking up a putative tour in 2009 that would reunite the so-called “classic” 1970s line-up — the one responsible for their 40m-selling magnum opus The Dark Side of the Moon — for their first proper concert since 1980.
To a large extent, this represented the triumph of hope over experience. Of the many attempts to get the four members of Pink Floyd back on stage together, only Bob Geldof’s had come off. After the fractious foursome re-convened for an historic 18-minute slot at Live 8 in 2005, the world’s largest concert promoters, Live Nation, offered them a record $250m — pure profit, net of all production expenses, which the promoters would cover separately — to tour North America. This figure valued Pink Floyd as a bigger live draw than the Rolling Stones, and was more than twice what Live Nation shelled out to sign Madonna to an inclusive concert-and-albums deal in 2007.
True to form, the Floyd declined, mainly at the behest of David Gilmour. The band’s guitarist, who compared their Live 8 performance to “sleeping with your ex-wife”, was planning his most ambitious solo tour yet, to run from 2006 until the end of 2008. Prominent in Gilmour’s band was the Floyd’s keyboard player, Rick Wright, whose ejection from the group in 1979 led to years of discord in which the three remaining squabbled over who owned the band’s name.
It was Wright’s rehabilitation as Gilmour’s new buddy —coupled with the conciliatory noises emanating from drummer, Nick Mason, and the previously hostile bassist, Roger Waters — that helped to raise hopes of a 2009 Floyd tour. Once Gilmour’s solo tour had wrapped at Gdansk in November 2008, the feeling among the Floyd faithful was that the long-awaited reunion might be back on the cards.
Sadly, it wasn’t. Rick Wright died of cancer last September, a tragic loss which, like the death of Pink Floyd’s prime mover, Syd Barrett, in 2006, inspired an avalanche of obituaries unusual for the passing of a pop musician. It also brought to light aspects of the shifting alliances that have characterised the career of Pink Floyd, one of rock’s most complicated soaps.

Read the rest here.

Good band, that was.

CSIS seeks to clear up its role in Sudan arrest

By Isabel Teotonio, via the Toronto Star:

The head of Canada's spy agency is seeking an independent investigation into allegations it played a role in the imprisonment of a Montreal man in Sudan.
In a letter released yesterday, Jim Rudd, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, asked the Security Intelligence Review Committee to examine the case of Abousofian Abdelrazik, who was jailed in 2003 while on a visit to Sudan to see his ailing mother.
"The Service has stated for the public record that it does not, and has not, arranged for the arrest of Canadian citizens overseas," Judd wrote in a letter to Gary Filmon, chair of the committee, which has a mandate to carry out independent, external reviews of CSIS.
"In this matter, CSIS employees have conducted themselves in accordance with the CSIS Act, Canadian law, and policy," said Judd, pointing out the case has garnered extensive media coverage alleging Abdelrazik was arrested by the Sudanese authorities at the request of CSIS.
Sudanese authorities have released Abdelrazik, a 46-year-old whom the United States had named as an associate of Al Qaeda. He is camped out in the weight room of the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum.
The RCMP says there is no information linking him to criminal activities. Supporters have bought him an airfare but he's been unable to fly home from Sudan because he remains on a United Nations security blacklist.
Abdelrazik's lawyer, Yavar Hameed, said he believes the CSIS letter is an attempt by the agency at "damage control," adding, "there's the implication that they're being transparent, but I don't think they're being transparent at all."

Read the rest here.

H/t to Dawg's Blawg

More sex, less work in British Columbia politics

By Parminder Parmar, via CTV:

B.C. politics have always been a bit peculiar. After all, it's the province that shortly after Confederation elected a premier who had changed his name to Amor De Cosmos, a loose Latin translation of "lover of the universe."
"Amor's" eccentricity wasn't an impediment for votes back then, and it likely wouldn't be a drawback for him today. He would probably find a home among the more than two dozen registered parties that could end up fielding candidates in B.C.'s upcoming election. The mushrooming of political parties in recent years appears to be drawing on a wider populist tradition that's now fostering an array of parties outside the mainstream.
The parties fall across the social and political spectrum, many of them being concerned about little more than a single issue, if that. Take, for example, the Work Less Party of B.C. It wants a shorter work week, more leisure time, and a more relaxed citizenry. It's a party that takes its platform so seriously that in the last election its candidates didn't have enough energy, time or inclination to file the papers necessary to run.
"We're hoping to this time," one of its potential candidates says.
Voters will be forgiven if they don't miss the party's name on the ballot box because there will be plenty of others to choose from. While some voters may want to work less others could opt for a more politically pensive agenda like that of the "Party Of Citizens Who Have Decided To Think For Themselves And Be Their Own Politicians."
Those who believe B.C. needs more foliage may cast their ballot for the province's "Planting Seeds Party." Like sex? There's now the "Sex Party of B.C." And the "Herb Party" may fill the void left by the B.C. Marijuana Party, which, according to its website, has decided to back the Greens this time.
Finding the right party is hard work in B.C., says Kesten Broughton. The Work Less Party's candidate in Kamloops doesn't like that at all. But luckily, he says, when the right party came around it hit him like a bolt of lightening -- or rather more like a slow moving turtle. The turtle was part of a party protest telling Vancouverites to slow down their pace when they walk to work.
"(Work Less) seemed to have a different approach to politics that I found refreshing," he says in a phone interview from Kamloops.
He admits it may sound counter intuitive to run as a candidate when what he really wants to do is spend his life working as little as possible. But he adds the party has assured him it will try to work around his naps.
"I'm going to get a good ten hours of sleep every day during the campaign," Broughton says.

Read the rest here.

Welcome to my political landscape. Hell, some of these parties sound like they'd be fun to work for.

A review of the CRTC's mandate?

The dastardly Keith Martin strikes again:

Esquimalt - Juan De Fuca Member of Parliament Keith Martin is calling for an urgent review of the role of the CRTC.

Martin has written an open letter critical of the restrictions placed on electronic media by the commission, that make it difficult for those media to be finacially viable.

Martin urges that increasing concentration of ownership in the media has "Restricted the traditional public arena, where ideas are debated"

With the CRTC, I tend to think that any change is good change. I'm somewhat interested though, in that Keith Martin seems to have spoken to something similar to this before. Not sure I agree with him on concentrations of media outlets ( I tend to think that such logjams unclog on their own over time ), but it's interesting to see the man's thought processes on the subject.

While you're at it, via the Vancouver Sun: Little new so far in CRTC's new media hearings

Mandatory retirement doesn't violate human rights: ruling

I found this via the New Brunswich Business Journal:

HALIFAX - A Sydney man's age discrimination complaint has been dismissed. William Talbot filed a complaint in 2004 with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. He alleged he was discriminated against when he was forced to retire at 65 from his job at the Cape Breton Regional Municipality because of his age. The board of inquiry concluded that the mandatory retirement under the pension plan is allowed under the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act.

Read it here. You'll have to scroll down a bit.

I think I've commented on whether age is a discriminatory factor before. My basic conclusion? Since age is not constant, it isn't a discriminatory factor like race, sex, or sexual orientation are. And it's not a choice like religion is, either. In short, it's just something that happens, and being qualified for a job can require a certain mental and physical fitness which is lost with age. Some are gracious enough to accept that. And some, apparently, are not.

That Galloway...thing

Yeah, I know, I know. Galloway. Turned away at the gates. I get it. And some people are kind of upset about it. Some... not so much.

But to be honest, I just can't work myself up over it. On the one hand, it starts up the whole debate on whether one has a right to enter any country's borders ( which in my mind opens up the concept of natural rights versus societal laws, but that's a whole 'nuther story ). I don't see it as a freedom of speech thing, but then again, some might.

Meanwhile, Galloway intends to appeal the decision. No surprises there, I suppose. He's pulling a Geert Wilders all the way, huh? Fella has a double standard though.

Ezra Levant has also given some commentary, but I think Terry Glavin has probably put together the best response that I've read so far:

Galloway is a thug, a collaborator with totalitian Baathism, and one of the most sinister champions of a global Islamist reaction that has resulted in the jailing, torture and execution of tens of thousands of Muslim democrats, women's rights leaders, socialists and liberals. A proper left-wing debate about what to do about someone like George Galloway might focus on whether he should be summarily executed as a counter-revolutionary, allowed to serve out the remainder of his miserable life in prison, or allowed to remain at large so that the people could laugh at him, insult him, or ignore him to their heart's content.But when we turn in Canada for left-wing leadership on the question of what to do about George, we are summoned to rally to his cause, and instructed to subscribe to a conspiracy theory.Worse - to give you an idea just how degenerate certain sections of the "Left" in this country have become - Galloway is routinely celebrated as an "anti-war" hero. And not just by lunatic-fringe elements who show up at demonstrations with embarrassing placards, either.The first time Galloway visited Canada, he was warmly welcomed by Olivia Chow (who is taking up his cause again), Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton and MP Joe Comartin. Then he returned to Canada for a 74th birthday celebration for the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, which has its own stylized swastika, sings its anthem to the tune of Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles, and dreams of a greater Syria from the Nile to the Euphrates.To shed further light into the depths of this degeneracy, both the Canadian Peace Alliance and the Toronto Stop The War Coalition are run by the Canadian affiliate of the formerly left-wing sect that formed Galloway's 'Respect Coalition' activist base, in alliance with far-right Muslim fundamentalists, after Galloway was ejected from the British Labour party for counseling the murder of British soldiers.Galloway says he is going to sue Canada for denying him entry. I hope he wins. Not because of some dizzy libertarian argument about his "right" to visit Canada - he has absolutely no such right - but because the Immigration Act section under which he is being barred entry needs to be scrapped, and a wholly-rewritten section put in its place.Canada can bar a foreign national for security reasons, such as spying, engaging in an act of subversion against a democratic government or institution or process, engaging in or instigating the subversion by force of any government, engaging in terrorism, being a danger to the security of Canada, or if there are "reasonable grounds" to believe a foreign national will engage in this sort of thing.The "subversion by force of any government" is the problem. The effect of the law is to close Canada's doors to any freedom fighter engaged in armed struggle, or even advocating armed struggle, to overthrow precisely the tyrannies Galloway can't stop himself from sucking up to.We should be allowed by our own laws to determine the company we keep. Much of the Left in Canada may well be too far gone to be able to recognize a dirty little blackshirt like Galloway for what he is. But that doesn't mean that the rest of us should not be entitled to live in a country with laws sufficient to welcome our friends in the struggle for democracy and against tyranny, and to deny safe harbour, of any kind, to any of their sworn enemies.

Read the whole thing.

And meanwhile, I think Jonathan Kay has come up with a right sensible answer to the Galloway conundrum: let the bastard in, then sic the dogs on 'im.

I respect the underlying motives of immigration minister Jason Kenney (who has become Canada's most vigorous and effective opponent of Islamist and Islamist-inspired anti-Semitism). That said, I believe that our country should be open to anyone — even people with such loathsome views as Galloway — whose speech is not (to borrow a phrase) "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action." Otherwise, we are effectively engaging in censorship of speech whose message we simply don't like. And we all know where that leads.
A better solution would have been to let the guy in, but then have police on hand to apprehend him as soon as he violated Canada's anti-terror laws — say, by fund-raising for a banned terrorist group (something he's done before).

Indeed.

Rowan Atkinson: seriously cool dude

And not just for his comedy. The man is to be respected for his sensible approach to hate-speech laws, as well.

Good on ya, Rowan.

IRAN: Crackdown on cyber-dissidents continues

Via Babylon and Beyond:

Maybe it was just a coincidence.
But two concurrent incidents shed light on Iranian authorities’ crackdown against blogs and opinion websites.
On Wednesday, Iran’s official news agency announced that the Islamic Republic had crushed a network of allegedly anti-religious websites.
On the same day, international human rights groups said that a young blogger -- Omid-Reza Mirsayafi -- had died in jail, where he was serving a sentence for “insulting authorities” on his website.
In the statement, officials said that they had “succeeded in identifying and destroying an organized anti-religious and anti-cultural Internet network through a smart and accurate tracking operation.”
Describing the so-called intelligence operation as if it were an achievement worthy of James Bond, the statement said that authorities had put an end to these websites “through a set of complicated technical-intelligence operations.”
The Web pages in question were characterized as:
“... insulting religious sanctities and desecrating religious beliefs, insulting the Holy Koran and the innocent imams, promoting very deep ethical deviations in individuals and family members, advertising prostitution of Iranian girls, breaking the privacy of individuals, preparing hidden films and encouraging Iranian users to produce obscene and anti-religious contents.”
Authorities accused “intelligence services of foreign countries” of supporting the vicious network in order to carry out a “soft coup.”

Read the rest here.

Plus: Appeals For Arrested Journalist's Release

Today's Mark Madness

Links Steynian:

Fuzzy Logic

The Jewish Week

Shecky Magazine

Jay Currie

Scaramouche

The Jewish World Review

The Patriot Post

Pundit and Pundette

Samuel at Gilgal

American Power

Unconsidered Trifles

The Hotline

Writerspleasure

Mitchieville

The Shotgun Blog

Five Feet of Fury


Closet Conservative

The New York Times Opinionator

Blazing Cat Fur

Culture11

Rush Limbaugh

The Corner

Media Matters

Liberty, Mine

Geoffosphere

But As For Me

Content Steynian:

On Canada: The stories we tell

In the OC Register: AIG execs the new 'enemy combatants'

Five years ago: Both of the above, if not more

In NRO's The Corner:

Re: I guess it's official

"Cartoon hyperbole"

It's Frank's world. We just live in it.

Tally me bananas

Be kind, rewind

Special Olympshtick

No laughing matter

Ron Silver

Healing the Planet

Mark's song of the week: Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

On America: O Broder, where art thou?

On the Hugh Hewitt show: Mark Steyn on AIG Freddie's Congressional nightmare on Elm Street

In Mark's blog:

"Human rights" commissioner jailed

The New Denormal

Cycle of violence

Is Section 13 now an unenforceable law?

Plus, more links Steynian, Levantian, and Freespeechian, over at Free Canuckistan.