Nazis...

They're freakin' everywhere, man! They could be your neighbor, your twin brother, your cat trainer. And you'd never know.

Or, for those who don't watch the CBC, they're the occasional sad loser who sits at the back of his class every day and then spends the rest of his time in his mother's basement listening to death metal and chatting online with other, similar losers in the bowels of Winnipeg.

Take your pick.

Ahem...

Is this man being serious? Seriously? From the Ceeb ( h/t to Scaramouche ):

Two Ontario men wanted by the FBI for alleged involvement in a radical Islamist group were arrested after police went to homes in Windsor, Ont., Saturday morning.

[...]

Patrick Ducharme, the lawyer for the two men, said he was shocked to learn that a police tactical squad had surrounded two houses in the same area to make the arrests.
He said officers showed up with guns drawn in the presence of "terrified children" outside at least one of the homes.
"This could have been done very easily without any gunpoint arrest," Ducharme told CBC News…

Hmm...that particular tactical squad might have had something to do with this:

Abdullah, 53, of Detroit stayed true to his word as armed FBI agents raided a Dearborn warehouse at Michigan Avenue and Miller. Authorities said he refused to surrender, opened fire and then died in a shootout in which an FBI dog also was killed.

But, you know. Whatever.

By the way...

Have you heard of Chick Tracts? 'Cause they're pretty funny - in the sense that they're so bad, they're good for entirely different reasons than they were intended for.

And who needs the bother of democracy, really? Round two

Islam4UK's attempt to show the folks how Shari'ah is done is put on hold, thanks to some nasty right-wingers and anti-Islamist groups. For shame. Read all about it over at Heartless and Brainless.

Chesterton's Return

By David Paul Deavel, via Christianity Today:

A prophet is never welcome in his own hometown. For a long time after the tumult of the Sixties, G. K. Chesterton's writings seemed to have lost a welcome anywhere, except, perhaps, among the detective fiction enthusiasts who have kept the Father Brown tales in circulation continuously on both sides of the Atlantic. According to Denis J. Conlon, an English literary scholar who has specialized in Chesterton for many years, much of Chesterton's work is still out of print and hard-to-get in his own merry England. A friend of mine studying in Rome a few years ago told me that the English and Irish Catholic seminarians he met almost universally regarded Chesterton a pre-modern, pre-Vatican II embarrassment. The situation was about the same in America for a long time. As of 1985 there were probably fewer than ten of Chesterton's books in print, and those were, aside from his detective fiction, mostly published by small and often obscure Catholic presses.
The situation was bound to change, however, as this particular prophet still had his faithful remnant, about thirty-five of whom (at most) met throughout the Eighties and early Nineties in Milwaukee every year and exchanged news and views in a little rag called the Midwest Chesterton News. On the more scholarly side, Ian Boyd, a priest and literary scholar, had since 1974 been running the Chesterton Review, a literary quarterly that printed forgotten pieces by Chesterton as well as scholarly essays on his life, thought, and interlocutors. Ignatius Press, a small but growing outfit run by Joseph Fessio, SJ (one of Joseph Ratzinger's doctoral students), decided to publish a collected works with scholarly introductions and footnotes that will eventually number roughly 50 volumes. And newly emerging publications like Crisis, New Oxford Review, and First Things quoted Chesterton incessantly and sometimes ran articles about him. He even began popping up in Christianity Today, where he had fans in Philip Yancey and Charles Colson.

Read the rest here.

Don't believe gun-registry hype

By Lorne Gunter, via the National Post:

If you hand out enough parking tickets, occasionally you're going to nab the odd car thief in the process. But it would be wrongheaded to imagine you could make a dent in the total number of auto thefts by increasing your enforcement of parking bylaws.

Yet, this is about what Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair would have us believe about gun registration.

Since the summer, as part of "Project Safe City," Toronto police have been rousting firearms owners who have failed to renew their gun licenses. The other day while performing a search on one such owner's home, officers stumbled across an impressive cache of weapons. Instead of the 25 registered firearms they expected, they found 58 firearms and 6,000 rounds of ammunition: one machine gun, one submachine gun, 17 handguns, 35 rifles and four shotguns.

That sounds like an impressive haul -- and it is -- but its discovery is coincidental to the usefulness of Ottawa controversial rifle and shotgun registry. Finding these guns was like stumbling across a stolen Lexus while writing its driver a ticket for parking in front of a hydrant.

Read the rest here.

Well, that's not good

From Yahoo News: Canwest says it must shift National Post to holding company, or shut it down:

By David Friend, The Canadian Press
TORONTO - Canwest Global Communications will tell an Ontario court Friday that it will be forced to shut down the National Post, which has lost $62 million in the last four years, if the newspaper isn't shifted into a company that holds its other dailies.
A hearing is scheduled for the matter on Friday afternoon at the Ontario Superior Court, only hours ahead of a deadline the restructuring media giant suggests could determine the fate of its biggest newspaper by circulation.
The company said in court documents that its creditors refuse to keep funding the Post, which continues to suffer significant operating losses.
A number of Canwest divisions, including the Post, are operating under creditor protection. The company said without court approval to move the Post under the umbrella of the Canwest Limited Partnership - which owns daily newspapers including the Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen and Edmonton Journal - it would be forced to shut down the Toronto-based national paper and lay off its 277 employees immediately.
The limited partnership of daily papers is not under creditor protection and continues to operate profitably.
"Since its inception in 1998, the National Post has never generated a profit and it continues to suffer significant operating losses," Canwest said in the documents.
It's expected that the court will approve the shift of the Post from the holding company, Canwest Media, to Canwest Limited Partnership, partly because both the company and its creditors agreed to it earlier this week.
Separate from the transaction, the court documents also provide a rare glimpse into the 11-year-old newspaper's finances, which have often been tied to rumours the paper was struggling to turn a profit.

Read the rest here.

I mean it when I say that I feel absolutely no sense of shadenfreude at hearing this bit of news. Bloggers and journos may be in somewhat of a competition, but it's been my opinion thus far that a healthy partnership between the two trades isn't out of the question. It's sad to see one side of the equation falling into disrepair, especially for so un-romantic a reason as bankruptcy.

[ UPDATE: From the Ceeb: Court OKs new National Post ownership structure. H/t to Scaramouche. ]

[ UPDATE 2: The post speaks! National Post editorial board: The rumours of our demise… ]

What is up with Dearborn Michigan today?

So, um...this is an interesting headline: FBI kills leader of radical Muslims; 12 charged. Wanna bet where it comes from? Dearborn Michigan, of all places. Readers may remember Dearborn as the town that banned a Christian ministry from handing out pamphlets at a Muslim festival. So clearly they've got a bit of a problem with Muslims in their town. I'd say that problem's gotten a bit worse, now. From the Detroit Free Press:

The leader of a local mosque who authorities also are calling the head of an Islamic fundamentalist group was killed in a shootout with federal agents this afternoon during a series of raids that resulted in charges against a dozen men.
Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, leader of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit, is accused in a federal complaint of heading a Sunni Muslim group with a mission of establishing a separate Islamic nation within the United States.
Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was gunned down after firing on officers as the FBI raided a Dearborn warehouse, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. An FBI canine also was fatally shot. Raids also were conducted in Detroit.

Ah, yes. Christopher Thomas. Named after the great prophet...Chris, I guess. Mark Steyn had an interesting post up on the Corner today, in which he wrote:

Two U.S. residents, one an American citizen, one a Canadian citizen, educated and assimilated, and enjoying a nice enough living to be able to afford to fly to Denmark to kill a couple of guys over a cartoon. In the long run, Afghan cave-dwellers and Waziristani goatherds are less of a threat than fellows like Messrs Headley and Rana. The company name — "First World Immigration Services" — is a rather droll jest.

So, just plug in the name Christopher Thomas, and you've got another chapter in the saga. At any rate, the main story continues:

"The eleven defendants are members of a group that is alleged to have engaged in violent activity over a period of many years and known to be armed," a joint statement from the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office said.
A 12th man was arrested late Wednesday in connection with the investigation. Three of the men charged were at large Wednesday night.
Abdullah and the others were charged with conspiracy to commit several federal felony crimes, including illegal possession and sale of firearms and theft from interstate shipments.
Abdullah spoke of attacking Super Bowl XL
Abdullah believed he and his followers were soldiers at war against the government and non-Muslims.
"Abdullah told his followers it is their duty to oppose the FBI and the government and it does not matter if they die," FBI agent Gary Leone said in an affidavit unsealed today. "He also told the group that they need to plan to do something."

Abdullah, 53, of Detroit stayed true to his word as armed FBI agents raided a Dearborn warehouse at Michigan Avenue and Miller. Authorities said he refused to surrender, opened fire and then died in a shootout in which an FBI dog also was killed.

( Read the rest here. )Well that's not very nice. On a whole, I'd say that Dearborn Michigan's got some problems with its religious community. It's too bad that it's devoted so much of its energy already to making sure that Christians can't hand out pamphlets at a festival...

H/t to Xanthippa for the story.

[ UPDATE: From Blazing Cat Fur: 3 Ontario men sought in connection with Mad Mullah Shot in Dearborn Michigan ]

Train in vain, Iggy

This is what one unknown, bright, and no-doubt handsome contributor had to say today, over at Nobody Likes Michael Ignatieff: Train in vain, Iggy.

Today's easy listening

Today's easy listening is The Misfits, playing Halloween:




Classic. Not that the sequal, Halloween II, isn't also pretty awesome.

My latest

Alright, here's my latest material.

First off, at the Lynch Mob, things got busy today, as Jennifer Lynch, Richard Moon, Bernie Farber, and Mark Frieman testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, on the contentious issue of Section 13(1). I've got coverage of that here: Testimony in session; here: Video’s in!; and here: [ Updated and reposted ] Post-testimony. Plus: Today’s Shorter Lynch List, and all sorts of other guest-posts and suchlike that you should totally check out.

Meanwhile, at Heartless and Brainless: When Facebook comes around to bite you in the ass; and for this fine blog: Reviews on the run: People For A Free America.

Binks is in the house

With another heaping pile of links and commentary: Steynian 393. Check it out.

Reviews on the run: People For A Free America

People For A Free America is a new site that comes highly recommended from my blogging pal Xanthippa, over at Xanthippa's Chamberpot. First off, here's what she had to say about the site: A new voice for Freedom of Speech:

Before I started my blog, I joined a debating site (ConvinceMe) to improve my skills in presenting my point of view.
OK – so I never learned how not to be long-winded…but, I did meet some interesting people there, of all backgrounds, viewpoints and ages. One of them was a kind teen who went by the name of LoneWolf. As the years went by, I have watched LoneWolf grow from a promising, idealistic teenager into a fine, responsible man.
People like LoneWolf give me hope for our future! Recently, LoneWolf has been in touch with me through another channel. With his permission, here is a message he sent me (I inserted the links for clarity):

About the free speech arguements, great!! I have been leading a small, yet pretty effective underground within my community. Basically, anybody who feels the way America is forming is BAD for America has joined. Once I get proper funding, I’m hoping to make it into an interest group which can effectively lobby at congress and get RID of the corruption which plagues my fine country.
One of the things thats been on my mind as of late is the controversy of Obama bringing the fairness doctrine back into effect.( I don’t know if ever was in effect?) Anyway, me and a few friends got together in front of our city hall building and gave a few speeches, about the freedom of speecha nd what our founding father’s reallt intended for this country.
It amazes me that people feel that the best way to be safe is give more power to the government. Agh! I’m called a Christian Neo-Conservative because of both my religious beliefs and my political beliefs, but I’m really not. I’m actually a 18 year old male who really wants life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Call me a freedom fighter but without the violence some bring with the title. America’s first amendment does give us the right to assemble but peacefully.
Which reminds me! Did you hear about the college in Pittsburg that had a protest in which they vandalized shops to get the point across that our government was being unfair and should put caps on how much a person can make?! I was amazed at this. Sadly, I feel America is falling more and more down socialist avenue, and our new Captain, Barrack Obama, is the most ideal candidate to bring that sort of change to the fray.
When it comes to my studies, I’m at a crossroads with what to do. My biggets calling is the seminary. I love to preach and try to make the Word clear and understandable. However, I love law. I love understanding and practicing law. I would love to be a lawyer or even a judge. Then the final branch of the crossroads is I love politics. I really believe the current state of our government is full of old familiar corrupt faces that really need to get out of office. (I do in fact believe in term limits of senators and representatives). However I believe its time to put Sara Palin’s words last election campaign into action when it’s time to clear out the government corruption that has been stagnating within the government.
Anyway, I rant too much when I’m in the mood of a political discusion, but I really must be doing work so I’ll talk to you later.
Take care Xanni!
Lonewolf, or Will…(this really isn’t convinceme lol)

OK – I cannot help myself but to feel proud…even though I know the accomplishment is not mine, but LoneWolf’s. Reflected glory, and all that…
Now that I found out that LoneWolf – I mean, Will – has started a blog of his own, I am glad to share it with you. The opinions in it are honest, heart-felt, and well thought out – and not even a little bit cynical.
A breath of fresh air!
Without further ado, I give you ‘People For A Free America’!

( Again, you can read it here ). Now, on to the site itself. People For A Free America has just started, so obviously there isn't a lot of content just yet. In fact, there are only three posts. But, after reading through them I have to say: it's a little rough around the edges, but it shows definite promise.

The blog focuses on topics such as political correctness, gun control, and abortion ( so far ), from a conservative/libertarian perspective. And in all of these cases, the core thinking behind the posts is solid and definite and of substance. The language used to express those thoughts is vivid and engaging. But both could use a little polishing.

I'm not using this as some sort of snobbish criticism. This is Will's first blogging effort, and my own first blogging efforts were just as rough around the edges. It just takes time, as one gets used to blogging and writing, to polish your style and your way of getting thoughts across and making your arguments. Will's got the substance and a voice all his own. Now he just needs to hone it a little bit. That would be my main criticism.

But, that being said, People For A Free America shows promise as a voice for freedom in the West. If that topic is of interest to you, then I would suggest that you follow this blog and its author as they develop, because both show some definite promise. And we could definitely use some of that, these days.

Today's easy listening

I thought today I'd go back to a classic; something that I believe I've posted before. But it's worth the repeat. The Blues Brothers cover of the Peter Gunn Theme:



Bonus track: and speaking of the Blues Brothers, here are Sam and Dave with Hold On, I'm Comin'.

Right-wing women rock

By Ian Robinson, via the Calgary Sun:

The recent election of Danielle Smith as leader of the Wildrose Alliance reminded me that among the many things I love about the libertarian/right wing are the women.
Could be our slogan: Come for the culture war ... stay for the chicks.
Right-wing women rock.
Not for us the sturdy, honest calves of the New Democrat/Green Party female, honed on eco-tourist rainforest hikes.
Those legs are often on unfortunate display, extending from a knee-length tweed skirt as hairy as the legs themselves, and end in a pair of Birkenstocks.
I have yet to see a pair of Birkenstock women's shoes that didn't look like part of the required uniform for police SWAT teams. Sensible shoes are one thing ... quite another to don a pair that look like they're meant for rappelling down the sides of buildings with a Heckler & Koch sniper rifle slung over your shoulder.
The primary reason our womenfolk are at war with the looming spectre of the nanny state is because you can't buy Jimmy Choos in a socialist paradise.
The only sensible footwear you'll find in a right-wing woman's closet are the Nike cross-trainers that go with her gym membership.
Everything else has a three-inch heel. Minimum.
Left-wing drabs recycle. Right-wing women shop -- and the government measures how much they shop every month to find out whether we're still in a recession. Basically, the world economy depends on right-wing women buying shoes.
You never hear a right-wing woman break out statistics pointing out that only 25% of elected offices in Canada are held by women, and then whining about it.
No. A right-wing woman wants to get elected, she runs for office.
If she wins, great. If she loses ... well, there's always more shoe shopping.

Read the rest here.

900 grand in hope

The funny thing about hope is that it's so damned expensive. From Public Eye Online:

Press gallery members had some sport with Minister of State for the Olympics Mary McNeil today. Here's the setup: yesterday, the provincial New Democrats revealed the government would be buying 2010 Winter Olympic Games tickets which MLAs and cabinet ministers could use "for the purposes of hosting business leaders and dignitaries." But the number and total cost of those tickets was suppressed when that plan was released in response to a freedom of information request. Under questioning in the legislature, Minister McNeil said 3,000 would be purchased at a cost of more than $900,000. But what will happen to the tickets that aren't used? That's what reporters wanted to know earlier this afternoon - which is when things started to wrong for Minister McNeil.

Take their word for it, please.

My latest

Alright, so here's my latest content. I told you I'd get around to it, didn't I?

Over at Defend Geert Wilders, I've put together another helping of Geert Wilders-related news: The Weekly Wilders Round-Up.

And at the Lynch Mob, aside from all sorts of coolio updates, and today's Lynch List, I've put together a post on Richard Moon's rather amazing bout of confusion about why we can't have a 'debate' about regulated speech: Wake up and you’ll see the Moon.

Tonight's easy listening

Wow! It's been forever since I put this segment together. Well, I'll try and keep up with it when I can.

Anyway, tonight's easy listening is She Got Me, from the Masters Of Reality:



That's some classic video, that is. By the way, a bonus question: has Ginger Baker ever been young?

What I've been doing today

Today's Walker content will be coming, I promise. The only thing is - I haven't actually gotten around to putting together today's Walker content - aside from some coolio updates at the Lynch Mob that you should totally check out. Why? Well, because today's Saturday, and I've been watching movies, that's why. So, before today's Walker content, here's what I've been wasting my time watching today:

1) Zombieland

I caught this movie online, so the sound quality wasn't that great, and the video quality left a little something to be desired. But I still caught the main gist of it. I would say that this movie is a lot like Sean of the Dead meets Arrested Development, really. It had Sean of the Dead's zombie spoof quality, although it took things more seriously and darkly, and it had Arrested Development's classic phobic character, although he eventually learned to overcome that tendency - to an extent ( and over a girl, no less; go figure ). I'm simplifying things to a great extent, but the combination certainly worked, and I would say it's worth the price of admission ( if I had paid it ). And besides, Woody Harrelson's character is just great - although I've got a bit of a soft spot for Woody Harrelson, ever since I saw him in A Scanner Darkly.

2) Observe and Report

Again, I caught this movie online, but the quality was pretty good, so I think I got the full picture. Personally, I think that Observe and Report is basically a study in psychosis and emotional attachment and vulnerability; I think it's got something more serious going on in the background as the movie rolls along. That being said, while it's not laugh-out-loud, I'd say it's got a sort of dry quality, like one long, dark joke. It's probably worth the price of admission ( again, if I had paid it ) or rental, but it's also got some fairly dark stuff in it, so don't expect it to be a light-hearted comedy. Prepare to laugh at things that, odds are, you shouldn't be laughing at.

I'll be back with my regularly-scheduled writing before you know it.

'Principled Anonymous Blogging'

Matt Wardman lays out a very fine defense of what another blogger calls "Principled Anonymous Blogging":

(This article has been developed from a comment I left on Nick Baines’ blog, where there was a good debate about the rights and wrongs of anonymous blogging.)
Good Reasons for pseudonymous blogging
I think the right of bloggers to post anonymously/pseudonymously is important, for a number of reasons, but I like the term coined by Nick – “principled anonymous blogging”. Some bloggers have good reasons to conceal their identity, and that should be respected. Here are a few justifiable reasons for bloggers to use a pseudonym:

I like the term, and I like Matt's defense, and I think you should go check it all out here.

Personally, I used to write under a pseudonym, mainly because I kind of liked the anonymity. But after a while, once I started to write elsewhere under my true name, I decided that I much rather liked having a wider group of people know who I am, and who are able to tie my writings here with my writings elsewhere.

No sign so far that I've made a huge impact, but then again, I've only been in the game for...two years? Hmm...it seems longer.

Steynian 392

Binks does it again: Steynian 392. Check it out, eh?

My latest for Heartless and Brainless

ACORN, ACORN, ACORN, a little bit of an ACORN news round-up.

Polygamy does not abuse make, about polygamy, Canadian values, and focusing on the wrong thing entirely.

So un-racist it’s racist, about the US Justice Department's Civil Rights Division's rather strange approach to municipal politics.

Meanwhile, over at Defend Geert Wilders: Student Thuggery. Plus all sorts of fun updates at the Lynch Mob.

Three degrees of separation

Fun fact: Elsie Alexander ( the one with Bush's arm around her ) is an old, old friend of my Mom's. So, in a way, I know somebody who knows somebody who's met President Bush. What's that, like three degrees of separation?

Twenty-five years have gone by

And things seem largely the same. Eerily so, perhaps.

Geert Wilders Syndrome, and so much more

Speaking of my latest material, well, here's some more of it:

In Heartless and Brainless: So who, exactly, is Benjamin Gifford?; and The Ministry of Student Loans.

For the Libertas Post blog: Geert Wilders syndrome, in which I talk about the media's rather strange form of political labelling when it comes to one, lone Dutch MP. I also posted that piece to Defend Geert Wilders, since it seemed relevant, and I wanted to.

Ah, the furthering of little minds

My latest for Heartless and Brainless, where I talk about one principal's rather unique approach to the abortion debate in the classroom - namely, to stifle it: Ah, the furthering of little minds.

Now you too can have a chance to laugh at Cheryfa MacAuley Jamal

Yay.

American Pie

By Jim O'Quinn, via TheBurningPlatform.com:

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”
Bertrand Russell


Don McLean was born in 1945 and grew up in New Rochelle, New York. He was one of the earliest Baby Boomers. He was born at the beginning of America’s last High, as described by Strauss & Howe in their book The Fourth Turning. America’s victory in World War II began a new 80 to 100 year cycle consisting of four turnings of 20 to 25 years. The four cycles are a High, an Awakening, an Unraveling and a Crisis. These cycles have been recurring throughout history due to the generational mood changes as people age. Don McLean grew up during a High. This was an episode of safety and security. He basked in “Dr. Spock permissiveness, suburban conformism, Sputnik-era schooling, Beaver Cleaver friendliness, and Father Knows Best family order.” His idyllic life changed on the morning of February 3, 1959 when he read the headline in the newspaper he was about to deliver.

Read the rest here.

One last Free Maziar Bahari update

I got this from the Free Maziar Bahari Now! Facebook group today:

Good afternoon everybody, By now you probably heard the good news. Maziar was released from prison last Saturday and is now safely back in the UK, in time to be by Paola's side for the birth of their first child. A big, big thank you to everyone for caring and taking the time to help. This Facebook group was part of a blended effort to help free Maziar. Needless to say that Maziar's family, friends and colleagues are deeply appreciative of everyone's efforts. Now begins a new chapter for Maziar and Paola. Let's wish them health, joy and a full recovery from this ordeal. Sincerely, Arthur Tarnowski & David Piaia"Free Maziar Bahari Now!" FB Group Admins free.maziar.now [ ED NOTE: at ] gmail.com

---Annika Gustafson's freemaziarbahari.org posted the following today:Maziar is back in London. I want to thank everybody who signed our petition (+9,200 signatures), linked articles or helped in every other way to help secure Maziar’s release. As you might have heard in the news, Saturday he was finally released from ...prison in Iran after almost 4 months in solitary confinement. Today he reached London and his wife Paola, and on Monday their first child will be born by C-section. I’m so deeply grateful to all who lent their voice to this cause. Know that your voice counts. While we celebrate Maziar’s release, please let’s not forget all those still in jail in Iran and elsewhere who don’t have stubborn, international friends to push their cause. Best to all, Annika For all media inquiries, please contact Frank De Maria, Newsweek 212 445 5887.

[UPDATE: From CTV: Freed journalist returns home in time for child's birth. ]

Too true, sadly

From Mark Steyn's site:

Government is simple provided two conditions are met: You do it locally, and you do it without unions.
The first is the reason America is one of the few large countries that hasn’t disintegrated. If it were as centrally governed as the USSR or Yugoslavia, it would have bust up in the early 19th century. And, while the Obama Administration is certainly testing that proposition to the limits, they’re hardly starting from scratch. I’m a big fan of Laura Bush, and found her utterly charming on the one occasion we met, but I can think of no good reason why taxpayers should fund a “Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program”. Sample disbursement: $420,000 to the State Library of Illinois to fund a program to help its employees master “social networking” tools such as Facebook and Blogger. Across the land, every illiterate and innumerate Third Grader can master Facebook and Blogger without getting the best part of half a million taxpayer bucks. But apparently it would be unreasonable to expect a state library to get the hang of it without a massive federal program.

Sigh...yeah, Blogger and Facebook are pretty elementary, which would explain my familiarity with them. Now Wordpress, on the other hand - that's sort of the high-school of blogging. Ditto Typepad. I'm not sure if there's a university of blogging...

Oh - the kindergarten of blogging is, of course, livejournal, just so everyone knows.

Pick a position, Iggy, any position

Some smart fellow has posted an update to Nobody Likes Michael Ignatieff: Andrew Coyne: pick a position Iggy, any position. Do go and check it out.

My latest for Heartless and Brainless

The tyranny of the majority of stupid, in which I talk about the bourgeois and escalating stupidity.

And who needs the bother of democracy, really?, in which I talk about the rather short-sighted trend of a day in the life of a radical Islamist.

Check it out. Meanwhile, all sorts of super coolio updates over at the Lynch Mob.

In the media...

Partially as an excuse to post a link to another forum pick-up of my latest article, I thought that I would solve a relatively minor problem related to that self-same article: it can't be found online...officially. It's posted up on Free Dominion, which is the copy that I have linked to so far, but there is a lack of an official online copy.

Well, no longer, thanks to the wonderful miracle of Google Cache. From Global Calgary: Questionable conduct of CHRC:

The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) is in a lot of trouble these days.
It all started last year, when a web administrator named Marc Lemire was taken before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (the Commission's kissin' cousin, where CHRC complaints are seen if they're deemed Tribunal-worthy) on behalf of Richard Warman, who is a former Commission employee.
Warman's complaint before the Tribunal was filed under Section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act; indeed, Warman has filed all but two of the Section 13(1) complaints that have gone to Tribunal in the past 10 years. He's the kissin' part of the familial relationship.
Needless to say, I come down very strongly against Section 13(1). It's a censorship act, and the human rights system presiding over it is too easy to game in one person's favor, and too open to corruption to be trusted with the task besides. In short, it's the perfect combination of bad law and bad handling of the law: a sort of perfect storm of incompetence and illiberalism. And it's time for it to be put to an end.

Read the rest of it here. Also available via cache at the Cowichan Valley Citizen.

[ ED NOTE: A Clarification:

In the article mentioned, linked to, and quoted from above, 'Questionable Conduct of CHRC', I alleged that investigations were begun by the RCMP and the Privacy Commissioner into a complaint that the CHRC had hacked into a private individual's internet account, and that a Parliamentary Review of the CHRC's activities has been conducted. I did not make it clear that these investigations and the review were into the CHRC, and not Richard Warman. Also, I did not make it clear enough that the criminal investigation has not been concluded, with no charges having been laid and that the Privacy Commissioner has determined in reply to the hacking complaint that no breach of the Privacy Act has occurred, and that the privacy complaint was "not well-founded". I have no evidence that Richard Warman was subject to an RCMP or Privacy Commission investigation, or to a Parliamentary Review, and wish to clarify my words. If they were misconstrued by any readers, let this serve as a clarification. If they were misconstrued by Richard Warman in a damaging way, or in any way led to needless damage to his reputation, and if any other of the things which I have said in this article are found to have done the same in the future, let this serve as both a clarification and an unreserved apology. ]

My latest

I know, it's been a couple of days. But I've been a bit busy/distracted, so sue me.

Here's my latest:

In Defend Geert Wilders: The Weekly Wilders Round-Up – special ‘Geert Wilders in the UK’ edition.

In Heartless and Brainless: Psst! Wanna know what's wrong with New York?; Nuthouse for sale, sold!; and See, this is what a campus speech code is supposed to look like.

Oh - and while you're at it, why don't you check out this smart fellow posting over at a site called Nobody Likes Michael Ignatieff: Ignatieff lacking his old rhetoric on freedom of speech.

A Maziar Bahari update

From CTV: Canadian journalist freed from Iranian prison:

Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari has been released on bail after more than three months inside an Iranian prison, according to official state media.
The Islamic Republic News Agency said Bahari was freed from Tehran's Evin Prison after posting bail of 3 billion rials, or about $300,000.
The 42-year-old Newsweek reporter was arrested on June 21. He was among more than 100 people accused of being part of a plot to spark a revolution and topple Iran's clerical leaders.
The arrests came during massive public demonstrations against the Iranian presidential election. Activists said the results were rigged and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should not have won.
Bahari's employer also reported that he has been released. Newsweek published a statement late on Saturday afternoon saying that Bahari "is home with his family today."
"We would like to thank all of those who supported Maziar through this long and uncertain period," the statement continues.
According to the magazine, no reasons were given for his release but it may have been based on humanitarian considerations. Bahari's wife is eight-and-a-half-months pregnant and has been experiencing serious health complications.
She was rushed to hospital last Monday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said in a statement that Canadian officials were aware of the media reports.
"We will provide further information when his release has been confirmed," the statement reads.

Read it here.

Until next time, Iran...

[UPDATE: From the Free Maziar Bahari Now! Facebook group:

We're being told to hold the applause, some of the published reports might be premature. Please DO NOT circulate the previous message/info [ ED NOTE: ther had been a previous message. Heh. ] at this time. We do not want to compromise Maziar's release.Update(s) to follow.Thank you for your help and cooperation.

So, um...yeah. Don't get your hopes up, I guess. ]

And now, sports

You know, I think the Blog of Walker ought to have a sports section. After all, why not? If it's not your cup of tea, then feel free to just scroll on past this post. But I figure I might as well introduce a little bit of something new to this site.

And so, without further ado, here is Montreal Mystique interviewing Rejean Houle. Enjoy!

"It's not funny, it has nothing to do with the environment, and Elizabeth May should be called to account on it."

Indeed.

*

Steynian 390

Binks does that thing that he does so well.

High Society: A Pot Boiler, now available

Got this in my inbox today:

thought you and your readers might like to know that ³High Society: A Pot Boiler² is now available on iTunes. I've included the synopsis and direct link below.
Crafted in the rich stoner tradition, ³High Society: A Pot Boiler² is a dialogue and character-driven, rapid-fire, unrelenting comedy about three roommates during the course of a long evening. The focus is uniquely upon comically insulting and provocative dialogue as each of the heroes and heroines struggle to retain their dignity and protect their innermost insecurities. This film takes the viewer on a hazy journey with very stylish smoking imagery set to a world-class music soundtrack.

High Society: A Pot Boilerhttp://www.itunes.com/movies/HighSocietyAPotBoiler
To link to any movie via the iTunes Button using HTML:http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/itmsLinkMaker
For larger iTunes Buttons, you can download these:http://www.docurama.com/digitalassets/ituneslogo.zip

I have to say, it sounds pretty interesting.

Mark Steyn's fascination with bestiality continues...

I've commented before on the darker side of Mark Steyn's writing. Here's another example:

Can anyone play this game? Bryan Burwell says, "I like to have sex with donkeys." What's that? He didn't actually say it? Fine, let's play along for the time being and take him at his word that he was inaccurately quoted...

Hmm....

My latest

Alright, here's my latest content:

At Defend Geert Wilders: The Weekly Wilders Round-up – special ‘Wilders allowed into Britain’ edition.


For the Libertas Post blog: Those evil insurance companies...

At Heartless and Brainless: This is my signal, and nobody else's!; and Rachel Ehrenfeld: libel tourism bad.

Publius writes on the FTC's wacky new regulations

From Gods of the Copybook Headings:

It's an open question which is more obnoxious, that a government agency is blatantly interfering with free speech, or that a government agency is sufficiently conceited to treat its own citizens as babes in the woods. I say obnoxious, not surprising. The assumption here is that the average blog reader is too stupid to be able treat what bloggers write with due care. A century ago American jurisprudence began to abandon the principle of caveat emptor. That trend has steadily spread from commercial law to aspects of daily life. The typical citizen simply cannot deal with the "vain, fluctuating state of human empire." Some bureaucrat must do it for them.

Read it all here.

Scientology in chaos?

I'm not friendly to Scientology; in fact, I think it's a scam, bilking people out of large amounts of money in exchange for...well, I don't really know what for. Perhaps simply for the feeling that you've donated large amounts of money in exchange for something.

At any rate, a Facebook acquintance of mine, who is a member of the Anonymous movement, Scientology's bane, has gotten his hands on this internal analysis document, which would indicate that the Church of Scientology is starting to fall on dark days.

Good.

*Snort*

F**k you too, mates.

More on FTC regulations

Patrick at Popehat asks: Do LINKS Constitute A Violation Of Federal Trade Commission Regulations?

Read through the post - it's actually quite interesting.

My latest

Alright, here's the latest from my finger-tips to your eyeballs:

In Heartless and Brainless: "[n]o student shall engage in lewd, indecent or obscene conduct or expression, regardless of proximity to campus."; ACORN in the news; Parallels; and Sweet, tolerant Iran.

For the Libertas Post blog: An unwilling defence of Warren Kinsella

Plus updates to the Lynch Mob, which you should check out.

Rats in a cage

By Jim O'Quinn, via TheBurningPlatform.ca:

The world is a vampire, sent to drainsecret destroyers, hold you up to the flamesand what do I get, for my painbetrayed desires, and a piece of the gameeven though I know-I suppose I'll showall my cool and cold-like old jobdespite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cagedespite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cagesomeone will say what is lost can never be saveddespite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage
Smashing Pumpkins – Rats in a Cage

Americans throw away close to $100 billion per year gambling in casinos and playing lotteries. This only includes the amount spent legally. Illegal gambling accounts for billions more. This is the net amount spent. In reality, $60 billion is spent on lottery tickets or $600 per household annually. Another $100 billion is squandered in gambling casinos. This amounts to $950 per household. The $160 billion spent on gambling each year is indicative of the get rich quick without hard work attitude of Americans. Even worse, households with income under $13,000 spend, on average, $645 a year on lottery tickets, about 9 percent of all their income. Our government feeds this addiction by siphoning off billions in taxes from these gambling revenues to redistribute as they see fit. Government sponsored gambling is a regressive tax on the poor and is immoral. Politicians have become addicted to the tax revenues being drained from the deprived in the country.

Read the rest here.

My latest

Here's my latest content.

For Heartless and Brainless: The survival of art

For the Libertas Post blog: Teaching them how to eat?

Meanwhile, all sorts of super coolio updates over at the Lynch Mob, which you should check out if you know what's good for ya.

Calling all McGill alumni

Not here. At Heartless and Brainless. Check it out.

More on FTC blogger disclosure requirements...

...From Overlawyered. Worth the read.

[ UPDATE: ...and from Popehat. ]

Follow the bouncing article: my latest

Well, I was going to inform y'all today that my latest article for the Cowichan Valley Citizen is published, but, interestingly enough, even though the article was up on the Citizen website earlier today, it no longer is, and it is no longer available at Canada.com, or on the Global Calgary website, which had picked it up.

Wierd, huh?

But never you fear, my pets. Free Dominion's got my back, with a copy of the article, and Blazing Cat Fur was kind enough to email me with a screenshot of the article's first page. Just to prove it exists:




I'll follow the developments as they, you know, develop.

[ UPDATE: While we're on the topic of, well, me, CanadianChristianity.com has picked up my latest article on Anglicanism for its news aggregator, and my article on the BC NDP that got picked up by so many different venues was picked up by a couple of venues that I missed at the time, just so's you know: the Windsor Star and Calgary Herald's respective ( I'm assuming ) online editions. ]

[ ED NOTE: A Clarification:

In the article, 'Questionable Conduct of CHRC' linked to and mentioned above, I alleged that investigations were begun by the RCMP and the Privacy Commissioner into a complaint that the CHRC had hacked into a private individual's internet account, and that a Parliamentary Review of the CHRC's activities was conducted. In this article, I didn't make it clear that these investigations and the review were into the CHRC, and not Richard Warman. Also, I did not make it clear enough that the criminal investigation has not been concluded, with no charges having been laid, and that the Privacy Commissioner has determined in reply to the hacking complaint that no breach of the Privacy Act occurred, and that the privacy complaint was "not well-founded". I have no evidence that Richard Warman was subject to an RCMP or Privacy Commission investigation, or to a Parliamentary Review, and wish to clarify my words. If they were misconstrued by any readers, let this serve as a clarification. If they were misconstrued by Richard Warman in a damaging way, or if they in any way led to needless damage to his reputation, or if anything else that I wrote in this article is found to have done the same in the future for any reason, let this serve as both a clarification and unreserved apology. ]

Final rites

My latest post for Heartless and Brainless, in which I defend the most vile form of pornography known to man.

Enjoy!

My latest material

I've been pretty busy at the Mob - check out the latest updates - but here's my latest material elsewhere throughout the blogosphere.

In Heartless and Brainless: A good ol' ACORN round-up, and A new White House program: ACORN for the arts, in which I talk about, well - I think that's pretty obvious.

For the Libertas Post blog: Laughin' all the way to the (blood) bank, in which I talk about Kyle Freeman, cheating Canadian Blood Services, gay rights, and a transgendered person named Kimberley Nixon. Doesn't that sound like a fun mix?

A Free Maziar Baharia update

Got this in my Facebook inbox from the Free Maziar Bahari Now! FB group:

Newsweek is appealing for Maziar's immediate release on humanitarian grounds.Excerpts from an ABC News report:"[Maziar] who has been imprisoned in Iran for more than three months, got troubling news: His wife is having a difficult pregnancy and will be delivering their first child without him.Paola Gourley could hear the shock in her husband's voice when she told him she would be having the baby two weeks early during a rare phone call Sunday from Tehran's Evin Prison."'What's wrong with you?' he kept asking," Gourley told The Associated Press on Monday from her home in London. She has been placed on bed rest by her doctor and is scheduled to deliver by cesarean section on Oct. 26.The call— only their second since Bahari, 42, was arrested on June 21 — was short, just a few minutes. And even with the relief of talking to him, it was bittersweet. [..]"http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=8758247Please help us break the 10,000 signatures threshold by this Friday!http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free_maziar_bahari/signatures.html Thank you.

Ummm: shove off, please

From Yahoo Finance:

By Deborah Yao and Emily Fredrix

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday took steps to make product information and online reviews more accurate for consumers, regulating blogging for the first time and mandating that testimonials reflect typical results.
The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. The commission also said advertisers featuring testimonials that claim dramatic results cannot hide behind disclaimers that the results aren't typical.
The FTC said its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines, which had been expected. The guides are not binding law, but rather interpretations of law that hope to help advertisers comply with regulations. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could result in various sanctions including a lawsuit.

Read the rest here. So...the FTC takes the leap into Ministry of Truth territory. The Internet's dangerous waters. Get used to it. If you believe everything you read online about a product without actually testing out the product yourself - prepare for some nasty surprises.

Final guidelines? F*ck you.

McMaster U: a Jihad petri dish?

Blogging ally Binks sent this to me a couple of days ago, but, unfortunately, I've been rather busy with some recent developments over at the Mob, so I'm only getting to it today. Y'all understand. Binks has compiled this handy list of, um...interesting relationships:

• American author and award-winning journalist Dr. Paul L. Williams is being hauled into a Canadian court over allegations he made about al-Qaida terrorists at an Ontario university. Williams is being sued by McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, over his claims that Islamic terrorists stole 180 pounds of nuclear material from the school's nuclear reactor. The defense fund for Paul will be called the "The Paul L. Williams Defense Fund", to help Dr. Williams fight the lawsuit McMaster University
• Another McMaster student is one of the 17 men and youths accused of plotting a bombing campaign in downtown Toronto
• Iran trying to get nuclear materials via Canada
• McMaster has harbored leading al Qaeda operatives, including Adnan el-Shukrijumah, Jaber A. Elbaneh, Abderraouf Jdey, and Amer el-Maati. When the operatives left McMaster, 180 pounds of nuclear material was reported missing. The story of the missing waste was first reported by John Loftus of WABC News on November 7, 2003
• One-Man “Dirty Bomb” Cell Sought in US and Canada
• Osama's 'American Hiroshima' field commander studied at Hamilton's McMaster University
• GOOGLE-- "McMaster, 180 pounds of nuclear material"

Interesting, eh? Read all about it over at Free Canuckistan:

~ ONCE UPON A TIME– like many Canadian universities– McMaster of Hamilton, Ontario, was a religious foundation: partly about spreading the faith, and learning the truth and all that pre-modern stuff.
Secularization took place for most of these institutions, and with varying results. As detailed over at Canucki Jihad, some Canadian Universities are now hotbeds– or at least warm beds– for Islamism, pro-Jihad activities, stealth jihad, and much more. With the YorkU SockPuppets, we’ve seen how teh liberal stupid overlaid Muslim grievances leads to legal activism; and how anti-Jew/ Israel activity is rife.
It was news a 6 years ago, that McMaster had some jihadi-minded volk buzzing about their research reactor, and some possibly like-minded profs and students involved. That’s on the public record. A couple of the students– and some of the faculty, perhaps– were very very bad scary people.

[...]

Bet On Stuff

By Jim Quinn, via TheBurningPlatform.com:

This article originally appeared in the July, 2009 edition of the Casey Report.
In 2008, prices of oil, natural gas, gold, silver, copper, corn, wheat, and most other commodities reached multi-year, and in some cases multi-decade, highs. They’ve fallen sharply since then, but commodities aren’t going out of business. Another peak is coming, and it will be far higher, especially for oil. The price run-up to 2008 came as a debt-induced economic acceleration in the developed countries sucked in imports from the emerging economies of Asia. Virtually all the world was gobbling up commodities, but supplies were still choked by the preceding decades of underinvestment in mine development, processing plants, pipelines, railroads, and other elements of the industrial infrastructure needed for producing and transporting raw materials.Faster consumption and static production capacity had an unsurprising effect -- prices rose. Then they rose some more and kept on rising. And in the later stages of the commodity price boom, investors, especially hedge funds, joined the bidding as a way to bet on a growing world economy. More bidders, more price push.But not forever. When the credit bubble that had been overstimulating just about every industry became unsustainable and financial markets everywhere collapsed, commodity prices collapsed along with them in anticipation of a deep recession or worse.

Read the rest here.

Today's content

Yep - I've been relatively busy over the past couple of days.

For the Libertas Post blog: See? This is what healthcare is supposed to look like.

For Heartless and Brainless: Olympic fever, and A fond farewell to Vox Rationis.

Mark Steyn issues a challenge

To Polanski apologists:

Polanski, explained the producer Harvey Weinstein, "is a man who cares deeply about his art and its place in the world." And if its place is occasionally in an involuntarily conscripted 13-year old, well, you can't make a "Hamlet" without breaking a few chicks. France's Society of Film Directors warned that the arrest of such an important artist "could have disastrous consequences for freedom of expression across the world".
Really? For the past two years, I've been in a long and weary battle up north to restore "freedom of expression" to Canada. On Monday afternoon, in fact, I'll be testifying on this very subject at the House of Commons in Ottawa, if France's Society of Film Directors or Debra Winger would like to swing by. Please, don't all stampede at once. Ottawa Airport can only handle so many Gulfstreams. If only I'd known how vital child rape was to "freedom of expression," my campaign could have taken off a lot earlier.

You know, between child rape and bestiality, is it just me or does Mark's mind travel down some very dark paths? Combined with his commentary on the state of the porn industry...

Get out of New Hampshire, man!

Required reading

Here's a letter from an actual school librarian to an actual patron. Read the whole thing - it's worth it.

Recently, a library patron challenged (urged a reconsideration of the ownership or placement of) a book called "Uncle Bobby's Wedding." Honestly, I hadn't even heard of it until that complaint. But I did read the book, and responded to the patron, who challenged the item through email and requested that I respond online (not via snail-mail) about her concerns. I suspect the book will get a lot of challenges in 2008-2009. So I offer my response, purging the patron's name, for other librarians.

Uncle Bobby's wedding June 27, 2008

Dear Ms. Patron:Thank you for working with my assistant to allow me to fit your concerns about “Uncle Bobby's Wedding,” by Sarah S. Brannen, into our “reconsideration” process. I have been assured that you have received and viewed our relevant policies: the Library Bill of Rights, the Freedom to Read, Free Access to Libraries for Minors, the Freedom to View, and our Reconsideration Policy.The intent of providing all that isn't just to occupy your time. It's to demonstrate that our lay Board of Trustees –- which has reviewed and adopted these policies on behalf of our library -- has spent time thinking about the context in which the library operates, and thoughtfully considered the occasional discomfort (with our culture or constituents) that might result. There's a lot to consider.Here's what I understand to be your concern, based on your writings. First, you believe that “the book is specifically designed to normalize gay marriage and is targeted toward the 2-7 year old age group.” Your second key concern is that you “find it inappropriate that this type of literature is available to this age group.” You cite your discussion with your daughter, and commented, “This was not the type of conversation I thought I would be having with my seven year old in the nightly bedtime routine.”Finally, you state your strong belief, first, “in America and the beliefs of our founding fathers,” and second, that “marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman as stated in the Webster's dictionary and also in the Bible.”You directed me to the SarahBrannen.com site, which I also reviewed. I got a copy of “Uncle Bobby's Wedding” today, and read it. I even hauled out my favorite Webster's (the college edition, copyright 1960).First, I think you're right that the purpose of the book is to show a central event, the wedding of two male characters, as no big thing. The emotional center of the story, of course, is Chloe's fear that she's losing a favorite uncle to another relationship. That fear, I think, is real enough to be an issue for a lot of young children. But yes, Sarah Brannen clearly was trying to portray gay marriage as normal, as not nearly so important as the changing relationship between a young person and her favorite uncle.Your second issue is a little trickier. You say that the book is inappropriate, and I infer that your reason is the topic itself: gay marriage. I think a lot of adults imagine that what defines a children's book is the subject. But that's not the case. Children's books deal with anything and everything. There are children's books about death (even suicide), adult alcoholism, family violence, and more. Even the most common fairy tales have their grim side: the father and stepmother of Hansel and Gretel, facing hunger and poverty, take the children into the woods, and abandon them to die! Little Red Riding Hood (in the original version, anyhow) was eaten by the wolf along with granny. There's a fascinating book about this, by the bye, called “The Uses of Enchantment: the Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales,” by psychologist Bruno Bettelheim. His thesis is that both the purpose and power of children's literature is to help young people begin to make sense of the world. There is a lot out there that is confusing, or faintly threatening, and even dangerous in the world. Stories help children name their fears, understand them, work out strategies for dealing with life. In Hansel and Gretel, children learn that cleverness and mutual support might help you to escape bad situations. In Little Red Riding Hood, they learn not to talk to big bad strangers. Of course, not all children's books deal with “difficult issues,” maybe not even most of them. But it's not unusual.So what defines a children's book is the treatment, not the topic. “Uncle Bobby's Wedding” is 27-28 pages long (if you count the dedication page). Generally, there are about 30 words per page, and each page is illustrated. The main character, and the key perspective, is that of a young girl. The book is published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, “a division of Penguin Young Readers Group.” The Cataloging in Publication information (on the back side of the title page) shows that the catalogers of the Library of Congress identified it as an “E” book – easy or beginning reader. Bottom line: It's hard for me to see it as anything but a children's book.You suggested that the book could be “placed in an area designating the subject matter,” or “labeled for parental guidance” by stating that “some material may be inappropriate for young children.” I have two responses. First, we tried the “parenting collection” approach a couple of times in my history here. And here's what we found: nobody uses them. They constitute a barrier to discovery and use. The books there – and some very fine ones -- just got lost. In the second case, I believe that every book in the children's area, particularly in the area where usually the parent is reading the book aloud, involves parental guidance. The labeling issue is tricky, too: is the topic just homosexuality? Where babies come from? Authority figures that can't be trusted? Stepmothers who abandon their children to die?Ultimately, such labels make up a governmental determination of the moral value of the story. It seems to me – as a father who has done a lot of reading to his kids over the years – that that kind of decision is up to the parents, not the library. Because here's the truth of the matter: not every parent has the same value system.You feel that a book about gay marriage is inappropriate for young children. But another book in our collection, “Daddy's Roommate,” was requested by a mother whose husband left her, and their young son, for another man. She was looking for a way to begin talking about this with son. Another book, “Alfie's Home,” was purchased at the request of another mother looking for a way to talk about the suspected homosexuality of her young son from a Christian perspective. There are gay parents in Douglas County, right now, who also pay taxes, and also look for materials to support their views. We don't have very many books on this topic, but we do have a handful.In short, most of the books we have are designed not to interfere with parents' notions of how to raise their children, but to support them. But not every parent is looking for the same thing.Your third point, about the founders' vision of America, is something that has been a matter of keen interest to me most of my adult life. In fact, I even wrote a book about it, where I went back and read the founders' early writings about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. What a fascinating time to be alive! What astonishing minds! Here's what I learned: our whole system of government was based on the idea that the purpose of the state was to preserve individual liberties, not to dictate them. The founders uniformly despised many practices in England that compromised matters of individual conscience by restricting freedom of speech. Freedom of speech – the right to talk, write, publish, discuss – was so important to the founders that it was the first amendment to the Constitution – and without it, the Constitution never would have been ratified.How then, can we claim that the founders would support the restriction of access to a book that really is just about an idea, to be accepted or rejected as you choose? What harm has this book done to anyone? Your seven year old told you, “Boys are not supposed to marry.” In other words, you have taught her your values, and those values have taken hold. That's what parents are supposed to do, and clearly, exposure to this book, or several, doesn't just overthrow that parental influence. It does, of course, provide evidence that not everybody agrees with each other; but that's true, isn't it?The second part of your third point was your belief that marriage was between a man and a woman. My Webster's actually gives several definitions of marriage: “1. the state of being married; relation between husband and wife...; 2. the act of marrying, wedding; 3. the rite or form used in marrying; 4. any close or intimate union.” Definitions 2-4, even as far back as 1960, could be stretched to include a wedding between two men. Word definitions change; legal rights change. In some parts of America, at least today, gay marriage is legal. If it's legal, then how could writing a book about it be inappropriate?Finally, then, I conclude that “Uncle Bobby's Wedding” is a children's book, appropriately categorized and shelved in our children's picture book area. I fully appreciate that you, and some of your friends, strongly disagree with its viewpoint. But if the library is doing its job, there are lots of books in our collection that people won't agree with; there are certainly many that I object to. Library collections don't imply endorsement; they imply access to the many different ideas of our culture, which is precisely our purpose in public life.As noted in our policies, you do have the right to appeal my decision to the Board of Trustees. If you'd like to do that, let me know, and I can schedule a meeting. Meanwhile, I'm more than happy to discuss this further with you. I do appreciate many things: your obvious value of reading, your frank and loving relationship with your child, your willingness to raise issues of importance to you in the public square, and more. Thank you, very much, for taking the time to raise your concerns with me. Although I suspect you may not agree with my decision, I hope it's clear that I've given it a great deal of thought, and believe it is in accordance with both our guiding principles, and those, incidentally, of the founders of our nation.Best wishes to you and your family,

Read it here. H/t to Neil Gaiman.

My latest

Yep - I've been busy today.

Over at the Libertas Post: When freedom ain't free.

At the Lynch Mob: This one pulled at my heartstrings a little, plus all sorts of cool updates that you should check out.

Meanwhile, over at Heartless and Brainless: That's an interesting vote to pander to

Scary...

OK, this is a little bit creepy:

I got a new iPod Touch today and one of the first things I did was fire up wi-fi and launch google maps. I noticed a button that allowed the system to automatically zoom in to my “current location”. Because the iPod does not have a GPS chip, I was expecting it to use my IP to narrow me down to a city or even a province. Imagine my surprise when it narrowed me down with an accuracy 30 meters (~100 feet)!
The first time I tried this, I was at the university. I was not too surprised by this because I know that the university has static IPs that may well be in some geo-locator database. I was more surprised (and concerned) when this worked at home. My IP is dynamic, so there is no way it could be stored in a central database. For curiosity, I looked my current IP up in a geo-locator database and it pointed me to Kingston, ON, which is 500km off, but it makes sense because my ISP operates all over Canada.

Technical Explanation (With Limited Amounts of Geekiness)

So how did the iPod do it? A few minutes of googling took me to a company called Skyhook Wireless. Without getting too technical, what this company does is it sends out about 200 cars in all cities in North America and they do what is known as “wardriving”. Essentially, they take a unique ID (MAC address for the technically inclined) from all wireless routers and log the physical location of those routers in a central database. The MAC address is freely available, even from protected networks. To be perfectly clear: you do not need to connect to a network (and thus do not need any passwords) in order to get a MAC address.
Once the location is in a central database, it is available for triangulation. Say I’m walking down the street with my iPod and press the “locate me” button. The Wi-Fi radio on my iPod sends Skyhook the MAC addresses of all the routers around me in a 80-200 meter radius. If three of those are in Skyhook’s database, I am triangulated, and skyhook knows where I am (give or take a few meters). The data is sent back to me and I get a google map of my surroundings.

Read all about it, over at Law Is Cool.

The Weekly Wilders Round-up is in!

Over at Defend Geert Wilders. Man I lead an exciting life.

Meanwhile, lots of fresh material over at The Lynch Mob. Check it out.

Want to become an online writer?

Then read this article.

Anglican dissident, I

My article on the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia's recent problems has been noted over at the Anglican Essentials Blog. Although to be fair, I was the one who submitted it to them, it still feels nice to know that I'm still fit for Anglican print.

[ UPDATE: Not submitted to, but picked up by AnglicansUnited.com and Virtue Online. Coolio. ]

Michael Moore continues in his campaign to be both fat AND annoying

Because you have to be both to make it in the entertainment biz, let's face it. One of the two isn't enough. Annoying will get you only so far - and even then, mainly in politics. Fat only gets you so far - and then, mainly on reality shows. But if you've got the perfect combination, then you've got it made: people will remember your name.

After all, you remember Jiminy Glick, now don't you? ( I know he wasn't a real person. So sue me - I'm on a roll ).

Anyway. Michael Moore seems right on track as far as the fat part of the equation goes, but apparently he just wasn't quite annoying enough for his taste. Hence this latest statement: that capitalism never did him any favors.

From CNS News:

Documentary film director Michael Moore, who has become a millionaire thanks to the profits from his movies, told CNSNews.com that “capitalism did nothing” for him. CNSNews.com spoke with Moore on the red carpet at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night before the premiere of his upcoming documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story." CNSNews.com asked: “Critics may say, when they see this movie, Michael Moore has amassed a fortune of over $50 million, some have said and –” Moore said: “Really? Are you kidding me? Seriously? Wow. Where did it go?” CNSNews.com then asked Moore: “Critics would say he’s [Moore] been very successful under a capitalist system. How would you justify making a movie where you paint capitalism as evil?” Moore said: “Well, capitalism did nothing for me, starting with my first film.”

Umm....excuse me? What makes you say that, Mr. Moore?

“You know, I had to pretty much beg, borrow and steal,” he said. “The system is not set up to help somebody from the working class make a movie like this and get the truth out there.”

Ahem. Well, if you consult a different source:

Warner Bros paid an estimated $3,000,000 for the acquisition of "Roger & Me" which also included providing $25,000 for homeless families affected by the closing of General Motors.

Not bad, for a first-time documentary film-maker. But let's see what else Mr. Moore had to suffer through:

“In fact, in Fahrenheit 9/11 if you remember, capitalism, the Disney Corporation, tried to kill that film--tried to make it so that people couldn’t see it,” said Moore. “My book Stupid White Men--Harper Collins tried to kill that book so that people couldn’t see it. It's only because I put the light of day on it and told people what was going on did people get the chance to see these things.”

Um....Michael? That's called competition. It's what grown-ups do, when people threaten to ruin their business.

But let's move on:

According to Fortune Magazine, Moore’s films have grossed over $300 million worldwide. His highest grossing film was “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which critiques the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq and earned over $200 million worldwide. Moore reportedly was paid $21 million by Disney for producing, directing and creating the film. Moore also earned 50 percent of the profits of his 2007 film “Sicko,” totaling $25 million plus DVD sales, according to Vanity Fair. The Los Angeles Times reported that Moore would receive all of the profits made from DVD sales of “Sicko,” sales of which have been estimated at over $17 million.

“Look, you know, I mean, I make documentary films,” said Moore. “So, clearly, I’m not loaded in the way you described. But I do well, obviously because my films do well.”“So, that means I have an extra responsibility to make sure I spend my time trying to make things better for the people that don’t have what I have, right? I mean, everybody should do that,” he said. Moore’s newest film, “Capitalism: A Love Story” opens in theaters October 2.

Oh, shove off.