Well, this was inevitable.

Should linking to copyrighted material be outlawed, as one American Judge Richard Posner has suggested?

Well, obviously I view this through the lense of being a blogger; a profession which would be made difficult, and in some cases nigh impossible if one were unable to link to sources. So I'm biased.

But really, does one need a bias to see that this is a dumb idea? Sure, it might help the more wheezing and bed-ridden of the newspaper biz to hold on to what little life they still have, but really, it would be at the price of mediocrity for everyone. Blogging is by no means a substitute for the papers - but that doesn't mean that it can't serve a damned good purpose. Why should the bloggers suffer just because the journos are going through a rough patch?

And furthermore, I would probably disagree with this just on principle, because I disagree with most copyright laws - I think that what we call a 'copyright infringement' is more something that should be dealt with by labor laws ( the labor of the person who created the 'copyrighted' material ) than by, in essence property laws. But that's something for another post, or perhaps even an article, if I'm able to summon the energy to put one together on the topic sometime.

Something the Artist never saw coming

Having to go through customs:

By Ian Randall Scott, via SFScope

Boom! Studios sends word that comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at Los Angeles International Airport this past weekend because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic miniseries Unthinkable. Sable was detained while traveling to New York for a debut party at Jim Hanley's Universe today.
The comic series follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type 'unthinkable' terrorist scenarios that now are coming true. (See this article for more on the series.)
Sable wrote of his experiences: 'Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley's Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for 'extra screening'. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then 'discovered' the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.'
'The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots, and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.'
'I cooperated politely and tried to explain to them the irony of the situation. While Unthinkable blurs the line between fiction and reality, the story is based on a real-life government think tank where a writer was tasked to design worst-case terror scenarios. The fictional story of Unthinkable unfolds when the writer's scenarios come true, and he becomes a suspect in the terrorist attacks.'
'In the end, I feel my privacy is a small price to pay for educating the government about the medium.'

H/t to Popehat.

What a bizarre experience - but in a way, it's a good thing, because it allows me to plug The Comic Book Legal Defence Fund.

What I'm reading: The Secret Ascension, by Michael Bishop

Yes, this particular recurring segment of the Blog of Walker is back up and running, after a brief hiatus, during which I wasn't reading much of anything that I wanted to blog about.

But today, I'd like to talk about The Secret Ascension, by Michael Bishop. First, a brief synopsis:

Michael Bishop has been producing in this decade some of the most original and important work in the science fiction field. In addition to winning the Nebula Award for short fiction, he was given a Nebula for his novel, No Enemy But Time, and he has regularly been nominated for major awards. His last novel, Ancient of Days, "a remarkable novel that will further solidify Bishop's reputation as a master of anthropological speculation" ( Publishers Weekly), was called "solid" and "absorbing" by Kirkus, "with intriguing speculations and thoughtful development." "An unqualified success," said the Austin American Statesman, and "a wonderful book," said the Richmond News Leader.

Now in The Secret Ascension Michael Bishop turns from anthropological speculation to an intensely imagined alternate universe, in which the U.S. has a permanent moonbase, Richard M. Nixon is in the fourth term of the "imperial Presidency," and an obscure novelist named Philip K. Dick has just died in California. Dick was the author of such well-regarded works as In Milton Lumky Territory and Confessions of a Crap Artist, but late in his life a number of strane manuscripts by him, unpublished, rejected everywhere, get into samizdat circulation, works of science fictional satire and social allegory that mean a great deal to their underground audience. Dick is a hero to them - and now he's dead.

And then he returns, lacking his memory, walks into a psychiatrist's office in small-town Georgia asking for helop, just in from the airport, with a cab waiting outside, meter running. Lia Pickford, M.D., is nonplussed, especially when Dick fades into nothingness and disappears, leaving the fare unpaid on the taxi. But Cal Pickford, a fan stunned by the news of his hero's death, is electrified when his wife tells him about it.

So begins a sequence of events that involves Cal in the repressive politics of the Nixon regime, the affairs of an aging movie queen, a hip but frightned Vietnamese immigrant and and old black man who works as a groom, leding up to a fateful meeting with Dick, Cal and Nixon himself on the Moon. The Secret Ascension addresses important questions such as the nature of good and evil and whose reality is this, anyway.

Michael Bishop, already at the top of the SF field, has surpassed his previous works and attained a whole new level of achievement in The Secret Ascension.

Now, the story behind me reading this book is only mildly interesting, but I'll give it to you anyway. I've recently found myself becoming more and more of a fan of science fiction author Philip K. Dick ( even though I haven't really read any of his stuff, other than essays and interviews - sort of a reverse fan process, really ), and in the course of reading up on him, The Secret Ascension, or, as it can alternatively be called, Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas, came up.

So I ordered it from the library, and started in on it, reading it over the course of the next few days. Sometimes it's a bit tough to just start cold on a writer, but Michael Bishop was up to the task. His style may not be quite what I would call elegant, but it's arresting, and it was good for the purpose that it needed to serve. In short, Michael Bishop deserves any acclaim as a writer which he recieves - and probably more on top of that. The way that the book laid itself out was rather strange, switching from person to person and narrative to narrative, but this served as a great nod to Philip K. Dick's own style of writing, and if anything only added to the book's wonderfully strange plot.

I also found that The Secret Ascension really captured a spirit of counter-cultural anger. Anger at the establishment, at the crimes of government, the pervasive sense of being watched, baited, and trapped, of being forced into a corner. Since this book was set in an alternate kind of reality, it served as a way of indicting a parody of Richard Nixon and his rather corrupt and eh...let's just say forceful style of doing things, without actually indicting Richard Nixon, which is really quite masterful when you think about it.

In the end,I think The Secret Ascension is more than suitable reading material for not only a scifi reader looking for a good old time, but also for fans of Philip K. Dick, nods toward and outright parodies of whom can be found throughout this book.

The Secret Ascension, by Michael Bishop. Check it out.

Oh yeah...

Tim Hudek won the race for leader of the Ontario PC Party.

Ezra Levant, as always, remains hopeful that this is a good sign for HRC reform. The boys over at The Shotgun Blog have all manner of coverage, with more here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, and a brief voter's guide here.

Meanwhile, Werner Patels says 'yawn', and Red Tory asks 'Tim who?'

[UPDATE: More at Russ Campbell's Blog. ]

The Obama records debate

Ok, I'll admit, I'm a sceptic. I mean, I just find it hard to believe that Barack Obama couldn't be an American citizen, and still have run for president - for which reason he is withholding most of his legal documents and the documents from his earlier years from public scrutiny. I just don't think anybody could be so arrogant as to do that.

In fact, I find it a far more likely explanation for this strange behavior that somewhere in the bowels of the Chicago body politik, something shady went down that necessitated that a lot of Obama's documentation be altered, in a way that would be obvious upon closer examination by the official opposition party of America.

And sure, by not releasing these files he's getting some flak, but surely what look like just a bunch of conspiracy theories can't be nearly as harmful as the suspicion of the feds if he were shown to have been engaged in some illicit activities in his past.

And I know that not all of the documents that his campaign is withholding can be adequately explained by my theory. But perhaps they can be explained by other means? For instance, perhaps the reason that Obama's college thesis has not been released to the public is that the Obama campaign saw what the opposition did with Michelle Obama's college-day writings.

Hell - maybe Obama's just a really private guy, who likes to play things close to the vest. I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I'm just not quite willing to accept that we've unknowingly stumbled onto the set of The Manchurian Candidate, just yet.

*Crossposted to Heartless and Brainless.

Blazing Cat Fur: Bad Ideas seem intrinsic to the culture of human rights commissions

Blazing Cat Fur: Bad Ideas seem intrinsic to the culture of human rights commissions

There's something inherently wrong with the government trying to actively find racism, as opposed to dealing with it when it should raise its ugly head - which is already debatable enough...

Google doublespeak

Somehow I can't quite follow the logic that 'Yeah, well, freedom of speech is so all-powerful and important that it doesn't really matter if I help China to stomp all over it'.

Christian extremism goes huge!

Yes indeed, extreme Christianity is an increasing threat in the Western world, against which we should all be on guard:

They were only seven protesters barricaded on a small fringe of sidewalk on Central Park West, but their anti-gay, anti-Semitic signs and slogans were earning them plenty of attention. A dozen police officers kept watch. Passers-by stopped and gawked in curiosity, disbelief and outrage.
“What is wrong with you?” yelled a woman from the window of a white Mercedes paused at a stoplight next to the group. One man raised his hand in a rude gesture as he strode by; another mimicked a Nazi salute. A young jogger turned to the protesters and declared, “I feel sorry for you.”
The protesters were members of the Westboro Baptist Church, a fundamentalist splinter group in Topeka, Kan., that travels around the country staging protests that reflect a long list of intolerances and a talent for offending.
The members arrived in New York on Friday, spending the weekend holding tiny protests at prominent Jewish institutions around the city, bearing signs like “Jews killed Christ” and “God hates Israel.” And, for the most part, the city shrugged it off.
“It wasn’t really a real demonstration,” said Sherry Kirschenbaum, a spokeswoman for the Jewish Theological Seminary, where five adults and one child protested for less than two hours on Saturday. “There were very few people and nobody really for them to engage with.”

So, umm...there were seven of you? With signs?

Sigh...

H/t to MooseandSquirrel.ca

Surveillance and Censorship Threaten Internet Freedom

By Gary Feurerberg, via the Epoch Times:

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Internet has expanded the opportunities of citizens to express their views that challenge the authoritarianism of repressive regimes, as seen, for example, in China, Iran and Burma. Other digital media, such as mobile phones, have also played a significant role in getting news and pictures out to the world as well as facilitating communications between critics of repressive governments.Applications like the social-networking site Facebook and Twitter, the video-sharing site YouTube, and the blog-hosting site Blogspot, are providing new outlets for expression, which can be highly threatening to totalitarian regimes.Repressive regimes have responded with increasingly sophisticated controls that censor online content, monitor Internet users and intimidate and punish their critics.To discuss the growing threats to Internet freedom in repressive nations, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing June 16 on Capitol Hill. Representatives from five human rights organizations voiced their concerns on the measures being taken by repressive regimes, and advocated for the Global Online Freedom Act of 2009, which if enacted would prevent U.S. internet companies from cooperating in the censorship and surveillance by repressive regimes. The methods being used by the repressive regimes are becoming more menacing and insidious. This was especially evident on the day of the hearing when the lead news story was about the huge protests in Iran over the June 12 presidential election.

Read the rest here.

H/t to the CyberLaw Blog

I'm starting up a new blog

Don't worry - I'll be keeping The Blog of Walker going. But I just started up a site focusing on Jennifer Lynch, and her list of 1200 names, called The Lynch Files - sort of a news/opinion aggregator and a place - hopefully - for some guest-posters to share their Lynch-related content.

Jennifer Lynch wants to compile a list of 1200 enemies? Well, I'd like this new site to be cause for number 1201. Help me with this, will you?

*Crossposted to Heartless and Brainless.

CHRC seeks more powers

Via the Calgary Herald:

B elieving perhaps that the best defence is a good offence, the Canadian Human Rights Commission has proposed the Canadian Criminal Code be stripped of the few common-law defences available to someone charged under its hate-crime provisions. In a paper advising Parliament --Freedom of Expression and Freedom from Hate in the Internet Age -- the commission appears forgetful of the embarrassing headlines swirling around it and other human rights commissions during the last 18 months. Rather than present a suitable humility, it instead recommended the Code be rendered as oppressive as the commission itself!
Indeed, we have always held it to be a peculiar pathology that Canada, though reflexively rejecting a two-tier health system, would tolerate a two-tier justice system. That is, as an alternative to judgment by the standards of the Canadian Criminal Code under which the accused citizen is availed of many rights, predictable procedural expectations and customary defences, Canadians will also allow their free speech and publication rights to be policed under a system of agenda-motivated provincial and federal tribunals, where none of those protections exist.
In these despotic forums, the vehicle of choice for those who wish to silence those whose opinions they don't like, what is conventionally called a human rights complaint is less accusation, than old-style Soviet denunciation. Not surprisingly, with no right to plead truth or fair comment, and with no obligation upon the prosecution to prove intent or follow rules of evidence--circumstantial evidence and hearsay is accepted in human-rights cases -- defendants hardly ever emerge victorious from these proceedings.
Last year's prosecution of Maclean's columnist Mark Steyn is a high-profile exception that proves the rule: Only when it became clear that they faced a rhetorically armed and solidly funded opponent did the censors back away from the stoning, leaving only the B. C. tribunal to excuse him on a nuance to avoid a complete public relations meltdown.

Read the rest here.

I see Bob Rae continues his long line of intelligent decisions

Via Liberal.ca:

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper must assure Canadians that he does not favour scrapping the Canadian Human Rights Commission in light of the fact that 20 of his MPs have endorsed plans to eliminate the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Liberal MP Bob Rae said today.
“We are very concerned, with such a large number of Conservative MPs supporting this idea, that the government could use this as a springboard to try and erode the role of the Canadian Commission,” said Mr. Rae.
Mr. Rae was responding to the fact that five Conservative cabinet ministers and 15 other Conservative MPs have endorsed candidates for the Ontario Progressive Leadership campaign who have called for the abolishment of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

That man should be the next Prime Minister. After all, he's totally in touch with the Canadian people.

[UPDATE: Ferreras J has had it with the Liberals' intransigence on the HRCs. More at Closet Conservative and Blazing Cat Fur. ]

[UPDATE 2: Scaramouche weighs in. ]

Saving human rights commissions

By Kevin Kindred, via the National Post:

I have a lot of love for human rights commissions in Canada. As an activist working toward equality on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, I know the human rights system. Without an accessible means of redress for cases of discrimination, we would be decades behind in achieving equality. And without such a system in the future, the cause of equality would be hopelessly rolled back.
So I offer the following advice to our lawmakers, with love: Don't let human rights commissions become censors. They're better than that.
"Hate speech" provisions, like section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, are an odd fit for human rights legislation. We started down this road in 1944, with the first legislation in Ontario designed to prohibit "Whites Only" signs from shops. Back then, the government wouldn't even pass laws against racial discrimination -- but they would make it illegal to admit that discrimination in print.
How times have changed.

Read the rest here.

My latest: Should we save CBC from sale block?

Here's my latest, via the Cowichan Valley Citizen:

Allow me, for a brief moment, to lament the potential passing of the CBC into private hands.
Okay, moment's over.
Just to re-cap, as Andrew Mayeda reported for Canwest, several crown corporations, including VIA Rail, Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. (of Chalk River fame), the National Arts Center, and the CBC are being considered for sale into private hands, in order to decrease government costs and generate revenue to offset our government's current, well, deficit puts it mildly. And although Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has stated that this consideration is just part of a "capital asset review," that explanation doesn't quite account for why, as NDP MP Paul Dewar and Macleans writer Paul Wells have both pointed out, the numbers for the '09 Federal budget already include expectations for revenue generated by the sale of Crown corporations. So, the CBC could find itself on the receiving end of a rather sharp stick in the near future, which has naturally upset the sorts of people who get upset at such things.
And I suppose I should be concerned too, really -- after all, as we seem to be informed by CBC apologists at nearly every opportune moment, the CBC is the only thing holding us back from the Dark Ages of television, when the private broadcasters, pandering to the majority, will rule the air-waves with the iron fist of junk television. And oh! Let's not forget the documentaries, the news, the radio. Why, without the CBC, we average Canadians might just revert back to our normal state of existence: catching re-runs of The Hills and Paris Hilton's New BFF in between throwing handfuls of poop at one another and remarking at the state of the guillotine in town square.
No? You mean we're not, in fact, low-brow, illiterate, ignorant hillbilly buffoons when not basking in the glow of our illustrious government broadcaster? If you say so, but which came first: the high-brow, or the CBC? And let's not forget the fact that the CBC has the honor of really being the first bail-out: it's expensive, it's over-budget (and costlier by the minute), and it's largely responsible for propping up a failing mode of operation. Score one for the high-brow, I guess. Don't get me wrong, I can definitely see the benefit to a public broadcaster. But that's just it: the CBC isn't a public broadcaster -- a real public broadcaster would actually be funded by the public by donation, rather than by proxy through tax dollars. Hey, NPR does it, PBS does it, and surely we're just as good as the Americans as far as sitting around and being entertained by noises and flashing lights is concerned.

Read the rest here.

Oh, how this brings back memories

I honestly really enjoyed the last Summer, when Canada's HRCs really became a beam in the public's eye - the excitement was palpable; a thousand bloggers and a hundred columnists rallied against the machine, if only once in a concerted effort.

There's nothing like being part of a counter-culture, if even a relatively momentary one, to make one happy.

And so, Mark Steyn's latest in Macleans, berating Jenny Lynch for her, frankly, statism, is a modern thing-of-the-past which has been a true pleasure for me to read. I especially liked this section:

By the way, lest you think I’m exaggerating about incipient fascism, consider that title: it appears to be “balancing” two “human rights,” but, in fact, it’s doing no such thing. “Freedom of” denotes a genuine human right: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly. “Freedom from” (with the exception of “freedom from government control”) denotes not a human right but a government right—the right to erect a massive enforcement regime in pursuit of some statist goal. “Freedom from want” or “freedom from inequality” sound, to Canadian ears, very benign, but they presuppose, at minimum, a giant government regulatory regime and a restraint on real, actual humans’ rights. “Freedom from hate” is an especially repugnant concept to a free society, since “hate” is a human emotion that beats, to one degree or another, in every human breast. To be human is to hate and be hated: see the scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers or The Stepford Wives or whatnot in which it’s patiently explained to the hero how much more smoothly everything operates once you’ve had all those beastly, turbulent, destabilizing things called “emotions” ironed out and you’re just wandering around with a glassy-eyed expression and a flat monotone voice, like Jennifer Lynch reading out the fraternal greetings from the Sudanese Human Rights Commissioner at the CHRC Christmas office party. A society “free” from “hate” is, by definition, totalitarian, because such a “human” right is fundamentally inhuman: it can only be granted and policed by the state. And the fact that Commissar Lynch attempts to make it one end of her balancing act to be weighed against “freedom of expression” is very revealing: for the chief commissar and her colleagues, “rights” are not inalienable, but something which is essentially in the gift of the state, and therefore which it is necessary for the state to constrain and “balance” until it achieves the appropriate degree of harmony:
“The modern conception of rights is that of a matrix with different rights and freedoms mutually reinforcing each other to build a strong and durable human rights system.”
Really? A Matrix as in the illusory world created to maintain a supine citizenry by secretive government agents? Or some sort of intricate biological sequencing very few people can understand? No matter. In the old days, “human rights” meant rights for humans. Now it means building a “human rights system,” which sounds a lot like just another government bureaucracy. Back in 1215, if you read Magna Carta Libertatum (my italics; I don’t think they had ’em back then), human rights meant the King was restrained by his subjects. Eight hundred years later, “human rights” CHRC-style means that the subjects get restrained by the Crown, in the form of Queen Jennifer. I liked it better the old way.

Bravo, Mark. Far be it from me to say, but I rather more enjoy his writing on freedom, tyranny and the like, than his writings on, say, Barack Obama's teleprompter. Not that both can't be enjoyable, but Mark seems to be more in his element on this particular topic.

That and demography. But everyone knows that demography is boring as hell.

[UPDATE: This doesn't make the article any less enjoyable, but I thought it was a tad ticklish:

In an op-ed for the Globe and Mail, Jennifer Lynch justified her report on the grounds that it would assist a “balanced debate.” That same day, CTV booked her and Ezra Levant, author of Shakedown, the bestselling book about Canada’s “human rights” regime, on to Power Play, to have that, er, “debate” she’s always talking about. When Queen Jennifer heard Ezra was to be on the show, she refused to debate him, and demanded he be bounced from the airwaves. As Kathy Shaidle put it: “Canada’s Official Censor Tries To Censor TV Debate About Censorship.”
Okay, if she won’t debate Ezra, I’d be happy to do it. All very “balanced”: Maclean’s can sponsor it, Steve Paikin or some such public-TV cove can anchor it. Name the date, I’ll be there. But, in the absence of any willingness to debate, reasonable people pondering Canada’s strangely ambitious Official Censor might object not just philosophically but on Professor Moon-like utilitarian grounds: if you’re not smart enough to debate Ezra Levant, you’re not smart enough to police the opinions of 30 million people.

I'm not sure if that's a back-handed compliment to Ezra Levant or not... ]

[ UPDATE 2: Welcome, Mark Steyn readers! ]

A disconcerting movement toward...something else. Part two

Alright, it's all part of the same movement. But I just love a two-parter.

Via CityNews: Proposed New Law Would Let Police Snoop On What You Do Online:

It's not exactly Big Brother and the overall intentions seem to have the public's best interests at heart. But many are very uncomfortable about a proposed new law introduced in the House of Commons on Thursday that could affect anyone using the Internet in Canada.
The bill, with the unwieldy name of "An Act Regulating Telecommunications Facilities to Support Investigations," would allow police to force your ISP to hand over any records of your emails, chat room conversations, website history or surfing habits to authorities without a warrant.
Police across the country contend it's a necessity because the Worldwide Web has become a haven for criminals, pedophiles, terrorists, drug dealers and scam artists, who use its anonymity and the current regulations to plot and commit criminal acts that take advantage of the public.
They point out the old laws were written in a time before the world had ever dreamed of something called "the Internet" and that new rules are needed to fight new enemies and the technology they employ.
"It makes crimes easier to commit but harder to investigate," explains Justice Minister Rob Nicholson

[...]

Under the current rules, cops can listen in on private conversations with a warrant, but they have no right to demand access from ISPs. The change would force the providers to let them see what criminals - or you - are up to online.

Interestingly enough, Rob Nicholson apparently didn't feel the need to expound on why, exactly, that is our problem. Other than our browsing habits and personal information being rifled through by the police, on, apparently, the whim of a suspicion. Lovely. Now they can tap our phones and read our emails. Justice in Canada certainly has taken a step forward thanks to the ministrations of its current resident Minister.

But wait, there's more:

What's in the bill? Here's a closer look.
The new law would:
Allow cops to get access to information on any Internet subscriber, including their name, home address or email, all without a warrant.
Force ISPs to keep a copy of the data generated by people under investigation on their company hard drives to prevent suspects from deleting anything incriminating or of evidence.
Make all Telecom companies invest in technology that allows for the interception of Internet communications. Critics worry this could prove a financial hardship for smaller ISPs.
Let police remotely activate tracking devices that may already be embedded in your cell phone or car without your knowledge.
Allow law enforcement to get data on where your communications over the web are coming from and who they're going to.
Make it against the law to arrange the sexual exploitation of a child with a second person over the web

Yeah, that's a winner. Kudos, by the way, for tacking in the 'sexual exploitation' thing on the end, to make sure that any opponents of this bill can be labeled as compliant in the act of pedophilia.

You can read the full article here, and you can read the whole bill here ( h/t CityNews. ).

Crossposted to Heartless and Brainless.

Well, this is interesting

Via the Victoria Times Colonist:

EDMONTON — Early riser or night owl? The difference may be less in your habits and more in your brain.
Scientists at the University of Alberta have found there are significant differences in the way our brains function, depending on whether we are people who typically rise early or sleep late.
Using MRI scans, the scientists studied nine people who were extreme night owls — those who stayed up until 3 a.m. and did their best work at night — with nine morning people who were sunshiny at 5 a.m. and eager to dive into work a few minutes later.
The admittedly small sample size suggested the brains of early risers worked better in the morning to get the muscles into action, while the brains of evening people hit the let's-get-active button later in the day.

[...]

"For evening people, it's almost a perfect storm of excitability in the central nervous system, where the brain is maximal in the evening and the spinal cord is maximal in the evening," said Collins, who says he's a morning person who typically wakes without an alarm at 5 a.m. "After dinner, I prefer to lie on the couch."
Such results could have implications for the ability of early birds to perform motor skills during a night shift, or of night owls to train for marathons as the sun rises.
Collins said while late-night people seem to get stronger and stronger throughout the day, the breakfast-clubbers may be more reliable over time: good in the morning, good in the evening.

Well, there you have it. I have an excuse now.

White supremacism goes huge!

My lord, who knew that there were so many white nationalists in this country?

A planned protest by a Winnipeg group linked to white supremacy fizzled Tuesday morning when only three of the group's supporters showed up.
They were vastly outnumbered by media and counter-protesters who gathered in front of the Law Courts building.

Quick! Where's Warren Kinsella when you need him? Or does his crusade against hatred mainly consist of photographing bathroom graffitti, and sharing a lawyer ( scroll down )with his friend the race-baiter?

The protest was organized by the Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFE). Director Paul Fromm issued a statement calling the seizure of the children "the state kidnapping of the children of dissidents."
In a telephone interview, Fromm said his group has 50 supporters in Winnipeg. He denied they are white supremacists, insisting they simply support freedom of speech. However, Fromm has been called a neo-Nazi due to his links with far-right political parties and Holocaust denial.

Yep. Fifty alleged supremacists the majority of whom can't be bothered to show their faces publicly sure sounds like a real threat to Canada's ideal of multiculturalism. Boy howdy.

The Weekly Mark Madness

I think I'm going to make Mark Madness a weekly feature, instead of an irregular daily feature. I know, I tried this before and it didn't really work, but I remain optimistic that I've figured out a way to get this off the ground this time 'round.

Bear with me.

Links Steynian:

Carnage and Culture

Andrew Sullivan

Let Freedom Rain, with more here.

BlackBookRaw

Diary Of A Legal Alien

The Calgary Herald

Media Matters For America

David Codrea

Wheat & Weeds

Conservatives 4 Palin

Eleanor Duckwall's Spotlight

Five Feet of Fury, with more here, and here.

Mad Minerva 2.0

Hyscience

Pelalusa

Werner Patels

No-Libs.com

Jack's Newswatch

Chalk Talk Toons

The West Coast Outpost

The Watertown Daily Times

Kathy Shaidle, with more here.

Ottawa Watch

Blogs For Victory

Dr. Roy's Thoughts

Instapundit

Winds of Babylon

Espy's Outpost

Pirika Pirilala

Silly Little Country, with more here.

Colonel Robert Neville

Right Side Politics Examiner

The New Ledger

WorldNetDaily

The Lancaster Eagle Gazette

Northern Tequila

Stephanie Miller

Lux Libertas - Light and Liberty

Annaz

The Ottawa Citizen

The Corner

The Shotgun Blog

Mike Lief

Threedonia.com

Christian Reader

Backwoods Mercantile

The Freedomsite Blog

Shopfloor

Political Truth and Fact

Peoples Press Collective

Pelalusa

Civil Liberties Examiner

Idle

The Globe and Mail

Going to the Mat

ACT For America, Northern Virginia, Richmond, VA and DC Metro

The Yeti Online

The Gormogons

Pundit and Pundette

Liberalguy

Content Steynian:

In NRO's The Corner:

Abortion Here and There

Re: Back from Stormy Bermuda

Orientation creep

The Chiller Chilled

The New 'Realism'

I Don't Know Much about Climate but I Know What I Don't Like

Re: A Boor and a Coward

Go with the Flow

Après Moi le Déluge

Ein Reich, Ein Yolk

Directed-by

A Fox Thought

Seasons Steynian: Happy Father's Day

On Pajamas Media's PJM Political: Will Soft Despotism Mean Lights Out For The West?

On books: The Upside of the Apocalypse

In the National Review, the OC Register, and the Washington Times: No real cause for concern?

On the world: Iran and Us

On the Hugh Hewitt show: Mark Steyn on Iran and North Korea growing crises

In the National Review and the OC Register: The smothering embrace of nanny government

Canada vs. Human Rights - State commissar disrespected by ingrate proletariat

In Macleans: So your bank account’s wiped out

Mark's request of the week: A Lack Of Followership

On the Hugh Hewitt show: Mark Steyn's sign you've flown the coop

On the Rush Limbaugh program: June 22

On America: Net Losses

In Macleans: Mark Steyn on why the fascists are winning in Europe ( and don't miss Paul Wells' response )

In Mark's blog:

Lynchwatch update

The strength of her convictions

"Canada's Holy Inquisition"

Lynch the context

A prayer for the Binksmeister

Jen X

Balancing act

"In the absence of Richard Warman..."

Full Moon and empty arms

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

Sounds like nice work, if you can get it

Tempting...

The "Millennial" generation serves as press secretaries and communication directors. Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney's director of communications, Alykhan Velshi, is 25. Ryan Sparrow, the Conservative Party's chief spokesman, is 27. Mike White, a media officer in the Prime Minister's Office, is 29. Dozens of others who play important roles in ministerial offices are in their 20s or early 30s.
For these jobs, a proven loyalty to the party is a must, but there are no competitions, no concrete hiring criteria or even the mandatory language requirements that other government jobs demand.
Unlike public servants, "exempt staff" enjoy no job security. They can be fired as easily as hired. If their party loses an election, they end up on the street.
And, as MacDonnell shows, at any time they may have to fall on their swords.
But the staff jobs come with rewards, not the least of which are the salaries. In few other fields can someone in their early 20s, just out of school, walk into a position that pays $120,000 a year.

Sending out an SOS

By Ian Robinson, via the Calgary Sun:

When something horrible happens to somebody, there's almost never a single cause.
There's a cascade of events that begins with something trivial -- such as the decision to ski out of bounds, for instance -- that is compounded by a series of macabre coincidences.
If a single link in the chain is broken, then the outcome is completely different and tragedy averted.
That's why things turn out ridiculously well for most people, most of the time, despite the fact we've all done really dumb stuff and lived to tell the tale.
Sometimes, though, things don't turn out well, as is the case for Gilles Blackburn, who skied out of bounds with his wife, Marie-Josee Fortin, last February behind Golden, B.C.'s Kicking Horse Resort.
They got lost.
They stamped out SOS signs in the snow.
Those were seen, reported and discounted. Blackburn's wife died of exposure. He was rescued after nine days.
The RCMP later apologized.
What sympathy the story generated is sure to be rapidly depleted -- particularly among those with experience going outside -- with the news that Blackburn has filed suit against the RCMP, Kicking Horse Resort and Golden Search and Rescue.
The later has suspended operations and volunteer SAR groups across the country -- dedicated lifesavers operating on shoestring budgets, unable to afford liability insurance to protect themselves from lawsuits -- are watching the case carefully.
As is the case with virtually every lawsuit ever filed, Blackburn told the Sun's Michael Platt: "The point is not money..." but rather that no SOS is ever again ignored.
However, Blackburn was the architect of his own tragedy. We can feel sorry for him without losing sight of the fact this is a man who threw common sense to the winds.

Read the rest here.

In defence of Stephen Maher

Dan Ferguson had an interesting article for the Toronto Star a couple of days ago, in which he takes Stephen Maher to task for his apparent lack of journalistic ethics in revealing what was on that Lisa Raitt tape.

Earlier this month, I spent a day in my car listening over and over to stories about the taped conversation between Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt and her aide, Jasmine MacDonnell – stories concerning medical isotopes and allegedly radioactive relationships between fellow cabinet ministers.
Is there some reason no one comments on the integrity of the media who released this story?
On the CBC, the author of the story, Stephen Maher of the Halifax Chronicle Herald, told his tale to Anna Maria Tremonti of The Current.
A colleague had told him that a someone he might know had left her tape recorder in a women's washroom on Parliament Hill. He listened to a bit of the content and recognized that it was MacDonnell. He said he "liked her."
He phoned her and told her the recorder had been found. She said she would pick it up but after five months she still had not done so. Meanwhile, the recorder lay in his desk drawer.
Then the media ran the story of how MacDonnell had accidentally left her minister's confidential files at a news conference.
Maher said that only then did it occur to him there might be something "important" on the tape recorder. Up until then he had been "a little bit squeamish" about listening to it. No kidding.
But that moral impulse seemed to fade.
When MacDonnell got some bad press, he was obviously tempted to look for some dirt to aggravate her and her boss's problems. So he asked his editors if he should listen to all of the content on the recorder. They agreed.
He then listened to the recording. Not just a few seconds. He listened to more than five hours. Anyone who heard the replay on the radio would realize that he must have listened several times to understand what was said.
When he found the comments of the minister that were to be broadcast so broadly across the nation, he and his paper "felt they had no choice" but to publish the tape's contents because it was a matter of life and death for cancer patients.
Really? I never heard anything in the story about that – just about personal foibles of the political players.

[...]

And this was not some green young journalist overcome with enthusiasm. Maher is the Ottawa bureau chief of his paper.
The next time he or someone from his paper appears in court arguing that they are prepared to go to jail rather than let someone get access to their notes which would reveal their source, I hope some smart lawyer reminds them of this tawdry bit of hypocrisy.
And there are multiple layers to the hypocrisy.
Maher knew it was a private conversation – "off the record" in his words. He believed it was accidentally taped – that is, it was recorded without the speaker's knowledge.
He not only revealed the identity of the source but published a national story revealing all that was said. And had the temerity to criticize the integrity of the source to boot.
It might give us more insight into his view of the ethics of the situation if he were to publish a verbatim account of the discussion he had with his editors before he listened to the tape.
But no doubt he would give up his personal freedom to protect one of his sources. Or would he?

But you know, I don't think I agree. Dont' get me wrong - journalists aren't exempt from displaying at least some sense of public decency, but I think that when we pay people to give us the news, it's a bit odd for us to all-of-a-sudden cry out when the methods of getting ahold of that news aren't what we would call 'kosher'. I think that to an extent, we have to give journalists a bit of freedom to be 'bad', to do things that aren't necessarily above-board.

That being said, Maher's revelation of the Lisa Raitt tape smacked a bit of opportunism. Fair enough. But then again, the fact that he would be able to think back to some tape that some aide had left behind and not picked up five months ago - that to me shows that he's on the ball, he's sharp, and I'd rather have that, quite frankly.

Journalists aren't exempt from displaying at least some common decency, but you know, if an aide leaves a - potentially - sensitive tape in the hands of a journalist for five months, I don't think she has any right to complain if the information on that tape gets leaked. And for all the people who have remarked that Stephen Maher's office is actually quite close to Lisa Raitt's, so why couldn't he just have walked it over there, can I just ask this? If they were so close to one another, why, over the course of five months, didn't Jasmine MacDonnel, you know, walk over there herself to get the tape? It's not Stephen Maher's job to be nannying government aides. It's not his job to be running tapes over to the offices of various government ministers.

So I guess the question becomes, why is it Stephen Maher's fault when Janice MacDonnell doesn't do her own job?

'Staying alive' the aim of human rights body

By Paul Schneidereit, via the Halifax Chronicle-Herald:

REMEMBER all that fuss about Canadian human rights commissions and charges that by trying to outlaw speech offensive to others, they’ve been trampling our fundamental right to free expression?
Seems that it was all just a misunderstanding.
OK, to be fair, that’s not quite what the Canadian Human Rights Commission said in its special report to Parliament last week, but it’s close to the mark.
The CHRC has looked upon its works and found them — surprise, surprise — to be good. But to clear up any confusion, and to deal with the avalanche of complaints hurled against the human rights industry in this country in recent years, the CHRC has recommended some changes to its controlling legislation, the Human Rights Act.
Critics have quickly poured scorn on the commission’s special report, finding it self-serving, which, of course, it is.
But what strikes me after reading the document online, under the title "Freedom of expression and freedom from hate in the Internet age," is that it represents a major — though still tactical and, at times, tortured — retreat in an effort that’s primarily about self-preservation.

Read the rest here.

Why censorship is impossible in a democracy

By Mark Mercer, via the Ottawa Citizen:

In a democracy marked by the rule of law, evidence against a person in a court or facing a board or tribunal must be available for public inspection. Within that fact lies the fundamental incoherence of censorship in a democracy marked by the rule of law.
Consider: The evidence before the censor includes the words or images themselves that are at issue. But as that evidence must be available to the public, those words or images can be reproduced by whoever wishes to reproduce them. (Indeed, news organizations are obliged by their mission to reproduce them.) And so the words or images stay inbounds, even should the censor rule them out of bounds.
This fundamental incoherence has entirely escaped the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC). In its new report to Parliament, "Freedom of Expression and Freedom from Hate in the Internet Age," released last week, the CHRC seeks to justify both its mandate to investigate complaints of hate speech and the power of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) to censor peaceful expression of thought and emotion. Nowhere in the report does it address the necessarily self-defeating nature of censoring something that will remain in full public view.
The report explains that Canada needs to have an agency to police expression, the CHRC, and one to remove from public view ardent and extreme expressions of hatred, the CHRT, because words and images can cause harm. Of course they can, though, unlike sticks and stones, they needn't.

Read the rest here.

Interviews with Tessa Dick

Tessa Dick was one of science fiction author Philip K. Dick's many wives ( many in the sense that he had a lot of relationships, not in the sense that he was a polygamist ), and since his death, a few interviews can be found with her, in which she discusses not only her own writing - as she is a wordsmith in her own right - but home life with one of science fiction's best writers ( in my opinion, at least ).

Anyway, I've dug up a few interviews with her from around the web; here's one, via Dickien.fr, two, via the very excellent Total Dick-Head blog, and three, via Self-Publishing Review.

You can also read her blog here.

Meanwhile, aren't you just a little curious to take a look at some of the letters in Philip's FBI file?

More Lynchpin lies

Joseph Brean, in the National Post, does his usual excellent job of covering the HRCs. I suggest you read his article in its entirety - although having to read Jenny Lynch's reasonable-sounding raving is a bit hard to take at times.

For me, though, one line stood out among the others. Well, O.K., two. The first one:

"Please, please, look. We have experienced 16 months of invective hurled at us, and at any time when anybody has tried to speak up and correct misinformation, gross distortions, caricaturizations, then the very next day there's been some full-frontal assault through the blogs, through mainstream media. I have a file. I'm sure I have 1,200, certainly several hundred of these things," she said.

She has a file? What kind of file? Is it official, or is it just something she's compiled in her off hours? I am very interested in this file, because if it is official, then that means that Canadians' tax-payer dollars are paying for some bureaucrat to keep tabs on her political opponents.

If this is the case, then I think we have further evidence that Jennifer Lynch is the worst thing to happen to Jennifer Lynch since Ezra Levant.

The second thing that stood out for me was:

Richard Moon, a University of Windsor law professor whose report to the CHRC last year recommended they leave hate speech to the police, agrees that critics are engaged in a "disinformation campaign" of exaggerating failures and making personal smears, rather than addressing the CHRC's real problems. But he also thinks those problems are not only real, but "grave" and fundamental. This is my larger concern," he said. "That they [the CHRC] continue to call for what they describe as a dual approach to the regulation of hate speech, that is to say the criminal code and the human rights act. And of course, in order to kind of justify that, they have to define a distinct sphere, and a distinct role for the human rights act and the commission and the tribunal. It's unclear what that is. The only thing that really gets emphasized is that the criminal code prohibitions are about wrongful behaviour and intent is a necessary element, whereas the human rights act is not about whether there was wrongful intent or motive, it's simply about the effects or the impact of this expression on members of the community."The problem is that, as a matter of actual practice, intent already is a requirement. The hate speech cases that have actually been pursued are "all so extreme in character that it is impossible to imagine that there is not wrongful or hateful intent," Prof. Moon said. I think that's actually what's going on in most of these cases anyway. We're not really looking at effects. We're looking at the nature of the speech, and how extreme it is. My concern is if you're not explicit about what you're doing, then who knows how it might be applied in any particular case? I still have grave reservations about the failure to include an intention requirement."

I think there are two things we can take away from this. First of all, the possibility of police prosecution for 'speech', no matter how hateful, is truly chilling - although it's already a political reality.

The second, and I think far more important, is that if we wish to truly undermine the HRCs, I think it would be good for us to focus on this line of thinking, and put aside our free-speech absolutism in the meanwhile. Hammer the HRCs for their every weakness, including this one, and attempt to ensure that they are put out of business. And in the meanwhile, the power to prosecute for 'hate speech' may fall toward Canada's criminal law, but technically that power is already there, and it is further tempered by the restraints of Canada's justice system - as opposed to the HRCs apparent revulsion toward due process, knowing who your accuser is, etc., etc., etc.

Furthermore, since we already have both impositions upon our freedom of speech, I think it would be best if we were to ignore the criminal prosecutions for now, and focus explicitly upon the HRCs. Then, if and when the HRCs have been undermined, we can focus our attention upon re-writing the part of our criminal code that deals with 'hate speech'.

It's an idea, anyway.

[UPDATE: Blazing Cat Fur has a rather novel idea - freedom of information requests, to find out who's on that damned list. My question is, though: would Jenny Lynch and her little mob of bureaucrats see fit to comply with these requests? And even if they did comply, would the documents received be, basically, all blacked out by marker? I highly suspect so, but my curiousity is piqued, so I think I'm going to be trying to get hands on those documents, by hook or by crook.

Oh, and while you're at it - let's talk about system failures. ]

An evening with Canadian Cynic

Wow - I didn't realize everyone else had gone on vacation:

For over five years, the blogger "Canadian Cynic" has railed against the appalling idiocy of the right-wing wankersphere. Alongwith his carefully-acquired co-bloggers "LuLu" and "Pretty Shaved Ape", "CC" (as he is known to his readers) has struck fear into the hearts of Canada's wanks from coast to coast, using a combination of awesome intellect, devastating logic and, sometimes, just calling people "douchebags" when the situation calls for it.
And for the first time, he comes out publicly ... at the Centre for Inquiry.
The evening's presentation will consist of some war stories from many years back during CC's anti-creation science years, plus some updates on how, depressingly, nothing seems to have changed.
There will be a subsequent Q/A session, during which outraged audience members will be allowed to vent until told to put a sock init, after which we will adjourn to a convenient pub that serves real beer, and you're buying.

You had me at wankersphere ( seriously, what the hell is the wankersphere? Because that sounds like a place I would not want to go to, what with all the wanking and all ).

No, I kid, but seriously - CC shouldn't have been outed like he was. I disagree with the guy, and I find him to be rather vile hard to take seriously, but the outing of an anonymous blogger is a pretty big blogging faux pas, as far as I'm concerned. Wendy's actions in doing so were understandable, but I can't rather help but feel that they were rather...premature.

Thank the Thought Police for this idea

By Mindelle Jacobs, via the Edmonton Sun:

Proponents of freedom of expression had their hopes raised last year when a report called for the repeal of the controversial hate-speech section of the Canadian Human Rights Act.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), dubbed the Thought Police by critics, commissioned the report by University of Windsor law professor Richard Moon.
Now the CHRC has dashed the hopes of those fighting to prevent freedom of expression from being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.
It has ignored Moon's key recommendation. Instead, in a report to Parliament released last week, the CHRC declared it still wants to go after hatemongers.
"The CHRA does not regulate offensive speech, nor should it," says the report. "While civility is to be desired, in the rough and tumble of democratic debate, offence will be given and feelings will be hurt. However, freedom of expression is not a licence to hate."
If human rights commissions aren't supposed to henpeck people over statements that are merely offensive, why were writers Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn put through the wringer?
We already have a formal way of dealing with people who wilfully promote hatred. It's called the Criminal Code. A courtroom is the proper place to adjudicate such cases -- not a Star Chamber of Thought Police.
In its report, the CHRC proposes several cosmetic changes to address "shortcomings" identified through its consultations.
The commission wants a legal definition of what constitutes "hatred" and "contempt" added to section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.
It would like to award costs in exceptional circumstances where the tribunal finds a party has abused the process.
As well, it would stop fining people (up to $10,000 currently) and would allow the early dismissal of complaints where the messages don't meet the hate definition.
(Are we to infer from this that the commission's investigators have been unnecessarily prolonging cases that should have been immediately tossed out?)

Read the rest here.

Rights revisited

Via the Ottawa Citizen:

After years of rancorous debate, there seems at last to be a consensus that human rights commissions, at both the federal and provincial levels, are in serious need of reform.
Even the Canadian Human Rights Commission admitted the need for change in its recent report to Parliament on freedom of expression. Of course, the reforms it suggests are much less sweeping than its critics would like. Still, it's a start. This is a conversation Canadians must have, because the current system is sowing acrimony and mistrust, and risks treading on the right to free expression.
The most dangerous part of the Canadian Human Rights Act is called Section 13, which governs communication through electronic means, including the Internet. It allows the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to investigate cases such as that of the Maclean's article written by Mark Steyn in 2006 entitled "The Future Belongs to Islam," which was of course posted online.
The Commission asked law professor Richard Moon in 2008 to have a look at whether the system was achieving the right balance between freedom of expression and what it calls "freedom from hate." Moon recommended the repeal of Section 13, arguing that the prosecution of hate speech should be limited to speech that incites, advocates or justifies violence. The Criminal Code, Moon rightly argued, can take care of that kind of speech. The rest should be protected.

Read the rest here.

Cyber Censorship Seen Tightening In Iran

Via CBS News:

(CBS) There are signs censorship by Iran's government is spreading and becoming more effective. Tehran has removed opposition Web sites and tried to block or slow down social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reported on The Early Show Thursday. But, Plante pointed out, information is apparently still flowing. Iranian protestors and sympathizers have been relying on social networking sites to get information out about what’s happening inside the country, Plante said. The impact of Twitter, he added, hasn't been lost on the U.S. State Department, which called on the company to put off planned maintenance to enable that Web site to stay up. "I wouldn't know a Twitter from a tweeter," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "but apparently, it is very important." Plante reported many Iranian protestors find President Obama’s careful endorsement of free speech as support of their efforts. CBS News Middle East analyst Reza Asian said, "Poll after poll has shown that it’s the people on the streets who are being encouraged by Barack Obama’s attempts to reach out to them."

Read the rest here.

Bonny Eagle High School Student Denied Diploma for Blowing a Kiss

By Jarret Martineau, via NowPublic:

Justin Denney, a student at Bonny Eagle High School student in Maine, was denied his diploma at a graduation ceremony on June 12th, for "fooling around" after his name was called. His alleged infraction? Denney simply took a bow, blew a kiss to his family, and pointed to his friends as he got up on stage to receive his high school diploma.
The school's Superintendent Suzanne Lukas ordered Justin Denney to return to his seat and then refused him his diploma to graduate.

Read the rest here.

Do you want to get some writing done?

Well, The Happiness Project has thirteen tips to increase your productivy, so you can't bitch and whine about how you don't get anything done anymore.

Now if only I can implement those ideas into my own life, I'd be almost freakin' unstoppable, man.

A rather troubling motion

Maybe it's just me, but I get a bit leery whenever a company, especially a company dealing almost strictly with personal information, is asked to further co-operate with the police on a regular basis.

But maybe I just have a suspicious mind, or something.

By Matt Hartley and Omar El Akkad, via the Globe and Mail - Tories seek to widen police access online:

Police will have sweeping new powers to collect information about Canadian Internet users without a warrant, and activate tracking devices in their cellphones and cars under legislation proposed by the Conservative government yesterday and criticized by privacy advocates as excessive.
If the government's latest shot at introducing “lawful access” legislation – something successive governments have tried but failed to do for the past decade or so – succeeds, Internet service providers will also be forced to install monitoring technology on their servers to keep track of their users' online activities.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan yesterday introduced two bills – the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act and the Technical Assistance for Law Enforcement in the 21st Century Act – just before the House of Commons empties out until the fall session.

Read the rest here.

H/t to Blazing Cat Fur. Crossposted to Heartless and Brainless.

Northern Tequila: Lynching the context

Northern Tequila: Lynching the context: "Mark Steyn"

Pete Vere doing that magic that he does.

Free society needs free speech

By Peter Worthington, via the Toronto Sun:

In an op-ed article in the Globe and Mail, Jennifer Lynch, Chief Commissioner for the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), says that "tolerance and open-mindedness ... are the foundation of the Human Rights Act."
She also cites other ideals, like equality, curbing hate, freedom of expression, fairness, natural justice, efficiency and so on. But "tolerance and open-mindness" are the central ideals to which the Human Rights Act and Canadians aspire.
Lynch then says she believes critics of human rights commissions and tribunals (Mark Steyn? Ezra Levant? Lorne Gunter? The Toronto Sun?) "are manipulating information and activities around rights cases and freedom of expression to further a new agenda."
Goodness! Where is Lynch's "tolerance and open-mindedness" here? It seems to evaporate when it comes to issues about which she has strong (perhaps dogmatic?) feelings.
It was the late news man Rae Corelli at a Couchiching Conference, maybe 40 years ago, who wryly noted that when people in the audience rose to address an issue, and opened with the words: "Something that has always worried me . . ." it was an indication that whatever they were addressing, they'd been "worrying" about it for about 20 seconds.
I suspect that what many people say they are "tolerant" of, or "open-minded" about, are in fact issues about which they have no opinion, or simply don't much care.

Read the rest here.

Lynch Mob

A la Point de Bascule.

Escape!

By Keith B. Richburg, via the Washington Post: U.S. Journalist Held Captive by Taliban Safely Escapes:

NEW YORK, June 20 -- A New York Times reporter who was kidnapped by the Taliban and held for the past seven months in the mountainous region near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border escaped, along with a Afghan reporter, by climbing over a wall and finding a nearby Pakistani army base, the newspaper said in a report posted on its Web site.
The reporter, David Rohde, 41, was taken captive Nov. 10 with local reporter Tahir Ludin and their driver, while he was in the early stages of researching a book on Afghanistan. News organizations, including The Washington Post, did not report on the abduction at the request of the Times, which feared that publication of the news could endanger the lives of the men.

[ UPDATE: More at Protein Wisdom. ]

By the way - is Richard Warman still rubbing shoulders with the guys in green?

This is sort of just an idle question, but perhaps somebody can answer it for me. Is Richard ( Lucy ) Warman still working as a lawyer for the Canadian military, as their 'Director of Special Grievances - Enquiries and Investigations'?

I'm just curious - since his proper dressing-down in at least quasi-court, it would be interesting to know if the military is still willing to have Lucy 'piece of work' Warman lecturing their soldiers on, you know, human rights.

Lynch-pin lies

As I sit here, listening to The Minutemen's excellent Buzz or Howl under the Influence of Heat, I thought I'd just direct your attention toward some of CHRC lynchpin Jenny Lynch's latest sitcom-esque antics ( in that they're almost painfully comical ).

First there was the speech.

Then the parliamentary ball, which saw her standing up David Langtry, poor fellow.

Now she's actually going to go mano-a-chicko with Ezra Levant on the Roy Green Show! Well...sort of. I guess the excitement would be too much for her delicate constitution, so she'll be on the show after Ezra's had his say, or even before - it doesn't really matter as long as she doesn't have to deal with that icky fellow who's been keeping her up at night with head-aches and upset stomach these past few months ( although I'm just guessing as to that ).

Oh yeah? Well I see your hatred and I raise you by one bigotry

With the fellow over at Canadian Pastor ( as pointed out by Binks' fine efforts )having reposted the Stephen Boissoin letter - the letter which sparked off Boissoin's descent into the seven circles of bureaucratic hell - I thought I'd also get my hate on, and re-post the letter as well.

I've done it in the past, and I think I've given my spiel about why I'm doing this - freedom of speech and the like, no government censor is telling me what I can or can not publish, etc., etc., etc. I'm too tired to give it all again - I think you can pretty much figure it out for yourself, eh?

Anyway, here it is:

Homosexual Agenda Wicked
June 17, 2002
The following is not intended for those who are suffering from an unwanted sexual identity crisis. For you, I have understanding, care, compassion and tolerance. I sympathize with you and offer you my love and fellowship. I prayerfully beseech you to seek help, and I assure you that your present enslavement to homosexuality can be remedied. Many outspoken, former homosexuals are free today.Instead, this is aimed precisely at every individual that in any way supports the homosexual machine that has been mercilessly gaining ground in our society since the 1960s. I cannot pity you any longer and remain inactive. You have caused far too much damage.My banner has now been raised and war has been declared so as to defend the precious sanctity of our innocent children and youth, that you so eagerly toil, day and night, to consume. With me stand the greatest weapons that you have encountered to date - God and the "Moral Majority." Know this, we will defeat you, then heal the damage that you have caused. Modern society has become dispassionate to the cause of righteousness. Many people are so apathetic and desensitized today that they cannot even accurately define the term "morality."The masses have dug in and continue to excuse their failure to stand against horrendous atrocities such as the aggressive propagation of homo- and bisexuality. Inexcusable justifications such as, "I'm just not sure where the truth lies," or "If they don't affect me then I don't care what they do," abound from the lips of the quantifiable majority.Face the facts, it is affecting you. Like it or not, every professing heterosexual is have their future aggressively chopped at the roots.Edmund Burke's observation that, "All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing," has been confirmed time and time again. From kindergarten class on, our children, your grandchildren are being strategically targeted, psychologically abused and brainwashed by homosexual and pro-homosexual educators.Our children are being victimized by repugnant and premeditated strategies, aimed at desensitizing and eventually recruiting our young into their camps. Think about it, children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.Your children are being warped into believing that same-sex families are acceptable; that men kissing men is appropriate.Your teenagers are being instructed on how to perform so-called safe same gender oral and anal sex and at the same time being told that it is normal, natural and even productive. Will your child be the next victim that tests homosexuality positive?Come on people, wake up! It's time to stand together and take whatever steps are necessary to reverse the wickedness that our lethargy has authorized to spawn. Where homosexuality flourishes, all manner of wickedness abounds.Regardless of what you hear, the militant homosexual agenda isn't rooted in protecting homosexuals from "gay bashing." The agenda is clearly about homosexual activists that include, teachers, politicians, lawyers, Supreme Court judges, and God forbid, even so-called ministers, who are all determined to gain complete equality in our nation and even worse, our world.Don't allow yourself to be deceived any longer. These activists are not morally upright citizens, concerned about the best interests of our society. They are perverse, self-centered and morally deprived individuals who are spreading their psychological disease into every area of our lives. Homosexual rights activists and those that defend them, are just as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities.The homosexual agenda is not gaining ground because it is morally backed. It is gaining ground simply because you, Mr. and Mrs. Heterosexual, do nothing to stop it. It is only a matter of time before some of these morally bankrupt individuals such as those involved with NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Lovers Association, will achieve their goal to have sexual relations with children and assert that it is a matter of free choice and claim that we are intolerant bigots not to accept it.If you are reading this and think that this is alarmist, then I simply ask you this: how bad do things have to become before you will get involved? It's time to start taking back what the enemy has taken from you. The safety and future of our children is at stake.

Rev Stephen Boissoin

A note on teh Binks

While I still enjoy on-line status ( I'm on and off all week ), let me point your attention toward Binks, of Free Canuckistan ( previously Free Mark Steyn ) fame, and who has experienced an unfortunate bout of severe being-under-the-weather-ing.

Get well soon, dude-meister.

Who needs a Lynch mob?

Jenny Lynch cannot, apparently, be bothered to attend the parliamentary hearing looking at her very own commission - she'd rather spend her time in Montreal.

Well, I'd love to spend some time in Jennifer Connelly's lap, but that doesn't mean that I can just circumvent the gritty reality of restraining orders and whatnot to do so ( just kidding - there is no restraining order ). One wonders whether Jenny Lynch even bothers to assume that the - generally adult - responsibilities of doing her own job in representing her commission apply to her person just as much as it would to the rest of the hoi-poloi.

But then, maybe I'm wrong, and Jenny Lynch is just special enough not to be where anybody else would have to be were they in her shoes.

Oh - while you're at it, why not mosey on over to Blazing Cat Fur to check out some more of Lynch's mob mentality, eh?

Will be away for a while

I'm going to be going off-line for part of this week ( house-sitting, you see ), and so I won't be supplying you with the regular updates that you all love so very much.

If you just have to read something by me, feel free to read my latest column, here, and to check out some of the other of my content that I've pasted into this blog's side-bar.

And while you're at it, why not check out some of George Orwell's writings, like I've been doing for the past couple of days? There's a lot of cool stuff in there. Also, don't miss the strangely addictive nature of a conversation with Philip K. Dick, as accompanied my music, parts one and two. ( And did you know that Alex Jones was in the A Scanner Darkly movie? Nor did I ).

Cheers!

Politics and the English Language

Instead of posting anything meaningful today, I thought I would just direct your attention toward one of George Orwell's classic essays: Politics and the English Language. For having been written so long ago, it still provides a set of loose writing guidelines that will serve any writer well.

Now if only I could muster the energy to apply that amount of discipline to my own writing...

What I'm reading: Surprised By Joy

As part of a recurring segment ( which has been neglected of late, alas ), I'm taking the time to talk a little bit about the books that happen to cross my path.

Well, as part of a course that I was taking for school, I've been reading my way through some of G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis's works. The course finished up just this week, and the last bit of reading was Lewis's Surprised By Joy.

Here's a brief synopsis:

C.S. Lewis tells of his search for joy, a spiritual journey that led him from the Christianity of his early youth into athiesm and then back to Christianity.

I think that this book, at first, isn't quite as engaging as some of Lewis's other works. But then, when you start to read onward, and get into it, it really is a kind of fascinating story. Not only from a biographical perspective - for instance, Lewis's accounts of going to some of the schools in his time and later going on to a tutor who would prepare him for college, and his accounts of fighting in the First World War - but from a philosophical perspective, as one follows Lewis's journey from a sort of rudimentary Christianity, through all sorts of doubts and beliefs, and then, finally, right back to Christianity again. Lewis really was one of the top Christian apologists of his day, and even ours, and so to read about how he reached that point of becoming an apologist, the thought processes which led him to reject other beliefs, is quite interesting.

I don't agree with Lewis on everything - I'm not even sure I agree with him in his faith - but I can certainly respect him, and all the more for the theological journey which he took over the course of his life.

But of course, this is not to mention the main subject of his book, the very title of the book: joy. Lewis provides a strange definition of joy; more longing for something which we do not have than any feeling of satisfaction or happiness, a restless desire. And even that definition which Lewis provides is indefinite and amorphous enough to leave one wondering what exactly it has been which he has experienced as Joy. In a way, this only makes the conversations one can have about this book even more interesting, as one has to balance Lewis's words with their own interpretations of what those words meant, and with their own feelings upon the matter. If you want to prompt some discussion amongst your Christian friends, then bring up this topic, that's all I'm going to say.

This book serves equally well for Christians and non-Christians alike, although non-Christians may find themselves at odds with Lewis's rather solid assertions at times. Surprised By Joy serves not only as a sort-of-biography of one of the better theologians and apologists to ever grace those genres ( in my opinion ), but will also serve as potential fodder for some quite interesting discussions amongst friends.

Check it out, eh?

Comfy livin'

The man who lives in a closet:

DELRAY BEACH, FL--Almost everybody has heard the phrase, "Home Sweet Home", but what about "Closet Sweet Closet"?
That's right, Sergio Santos' home is a closet. Five and a half feet wide, by 14 feet long, or 77 square feet, to be exact.
"I was really struggling to pay for the place I used to live. I decided to look for something cheap." said Sergio.
The rent is $150 a month and to furnish his pad, a whopping $64.
"I have just become very well-fitted here," he said.
The "room" is equipped with a small microwave oven and a mini-refrigerator. He shares a community bathroom with other renters on the same property. The closet is part of a living space above a restaurant.
All the work has been done with recycled materials and, upstairs, the loft bedroom.

Sounds not half bad, really.