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The recent group grope at the library in Vancouver, Canada during the Irshad Manji lecture showed a good cross-section of middle-aged white lesbian ladies turning up for some old-fashioned feel-good about the charms of feminism and the way of Islam when women had power and Mohammed stood back and let the gals run things right.
I have tears in my eyes.
Canadians are nice people, especially middle-aged lesbian ladies. Some of my best friends happen to be middle-aged lesbian ladies. I'd like myself too if I were a middle-aged lesbian lady. But hey, there is more to the world of the living than that. Not everyone is so generous as I in tossing about the milk of Human kindness as if the cow were golden. Nor do all of us mix our metaphors as if they were a dime a dozen. Some people are sensible, such as the writer below.
Jonah Goldberg: The price of 'nice' for Canada
Our northern neighbor thinks being all multicultural and sucking up to the United Nations will keep the terrorists away. Think again.
June 8, 2006
A FEW YEARS AGO I wrote a cover story for National Review with the subtle and nuanced title, "Bomb Canada: The Case for War." It caused quite a stir up there. My argument at the time was that Canada needed to be slapped out of its delusions and forced to stand up for itself in ways other than the Potemkin courage it shows in "standing up" to the United States.
Had I thought of it at the time, maybe I should have had American bombers stand down and suggested instead that Islamic terrorists plot to behead the Canadian prime minister and blow up a few important buildings.
Canada is arguably the most deluded industrialized nation in the world. Because elite Canadians think the U.S. is the font of the world's problems, they think being different than the U.S. and sucking up to the United Nations will buy them grace on the cheap. They claim to be "a nation of peacekeepers," but they rank 50th among U.N. peacekeeper nations in the number of troops sent. They've bravely contributed to the war in Afghanistan, where 2,300 troops still serve, but refused to join the effort in Iraq, believing that jihadists would honor such fine distinctions. That was awfully nice of them. Too bad nice has nothing to do with it.
The presence of a profoundly evil, homegrown terror cell in Canada has understandably provoked a lot of soul-searching to our north. As one Canadian editorial put it: "We are Canada, peacekeepers to the world, everybody's nice guy. Who would want to harm us, and why?" Or as Audrey Macklin, a University of Toronto law professor, confessed to the L.A. Times, Canadians "picture themselves as being thought of as nicer than the United States."
Why on earth would terrorists want to hurt a "nice" country? Well, for starters, nice isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Indeed, there's good reason to believe that niceness is part of the problem, not the solution. Many Canadians (and Americans and Europeans) cling to a deep-seated belief that more multiculturalism, more interfaith dialogue, more "understanding," more Western apologies, more acceptance of Sharia, more "niceness" will fix the problem.
As the American Enterprise Institute's Reuel Marc Gerecht and the French intellectual Olivier Roy have suggested, multiculturalism in many ways breeds Islamic radicalism among deracinated "born-again" Muslims in the West. It foments the climate of grievance and honors the quest for radical authenticity. Indeed, jihadism imports any number of Marxist and anti-colonial bugaboos into its worldview and then spits them back out at the West.
But if Europe and the U.S. are any guide, it's doubtful Fleras and his confreres will have any epiphanies about the failures of multiculturalism. The Danish cartoon controversy was a perfect example of appeasement. A host of Western leaders indulged jihadist outbursts and threats to behead cartoonists and journalists by denouncing, in Bill Clinton's words, "these totally outrageous cartoons against Islam." Sen. John Kerry joined in the moral equivalence: "These and other inflammatory images deserve our scorn, just as the violence against embassies and military installations are an unacceptable and intolerable form of protest." And French President Jacques Chirac tut-tutted that "anything liable to offend the beliefs of others, particularly religious beliefs, must be avoided."
In Canada, the retreat into denial was instantaneous. At the news conference announcing the arrests, officials said the alleged plotters came from "a variety of backgrounds" and the "broad strata" of Canadian society because "some are students, some are employed, some are unemployed." They might as well have said the accused plotters were diverse because they all liked different ice cream. The relevant fact was that they were all Muslim and nearly all attended a single radical mosque. But it would be rude to mention that.
In a meeting with Muslim leaders the day after the news conference, Toronto's chief of police reportedly boasted that the government never mentioned the alleged terrorists' religion. Well, isn't that sweet. I'm sure the next time Islamists set out to chop off lawmakers' heads or murder the staff of the Canadian Broadcasting Co., they'll keep in mind how nice you were about all this.
http://www.latimes.com/newsHad I thought of it at the time, maybe I should have had American bombers stand down and suggested instead that Islamic terrorists plot to behead the Canadian prime minister and blow up a few important buildings.
Canada is arguably the most deluded industrialized nation in the world. Because elite Canadians think the U.S. is the font of the world's problems, they think being different than the U.S. and sucking up to the United Nations will buy them grace on the cheap. They claim to be "a nation of peacekeepers," but they rank 50th among U.N. peacekeeper nations in the number of troops sent. They've bravely contributed to the war in Afghanistan, where 2,300 troops still serve, but refused to join the effort in Iraq, believing that jihadists would honor such fine distinctions. That was awfully nice of them. Too bad nice has nothing to do with it.
The presence of a profoundly evil, homegrown terror cell in Canada has understandably provoked a lot of soul-searching to our north. As one Canadian editorial put it: "We are Canada, peacekeepers to the world, everybody's nice guy. Who would want to harm us, and why?" Or as Audrey Macklin, a University of Toronto law professor, confessed to the L.A. Times, Canadians "picture themselves as being thought of as nicer than the United States."
Why on earth would terrorists want to hurt a "nice" country? Well, for starters, nice isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Indeed, there's good reason to believe that niceness is part of the problem, not the solution. Many Canadians (and Americans and Europeans) cling to a deep-seated belief that more multiculturalism, more interfaith dialogue, more "understanding," more Western apologies, more acceptance of Sharia, more "niceness" will fix the problem.
As the American Enterprise Institute's Reuel Marc Gerecht and the French intellectual Olivier Roy have suggested, multiculturalism in many ways breeds Islamic radicalism among deracinated "born-again" Muslims in the West. It foments the climate of grievance and honors the quest for radical authenticity. Indeed, jihadism imports any number of Marxist and anti-colonial bugaboos into its worldview and then spits them back out at the West.
But if Europe and the U.S. are any guide, it's doubtful Fleras and his confreres will have any epiphanies about the failures of multiculturalism. The Danish cartoon controversy was a perfect example of appeasement. A host of Western leaders indulged jihadist outbursts and threats to behead cartoonists and journalists by denouncing, in Bill Clinton's words, "these totally outrageous cartoons against Islam." Sen. John Kerry joined in the moral equivalence: "These and other inflammatory images deserve our scorn, just as the violence against embassies and military installations are an unacceptable and intolerable form of protest." And French President Jacques Chirac tut-tutted that "anything liable to offend the beliefs of others, particularly religious beliefs, must be avoided."
In Canada, the retreat into denial was instantaneous. At the news conference announcing the arrests, officials said the alleged plotters came from "a variety of backgrounds" and the "broad strata" of Canadian society because "some are students, some are employed, some are unemployed." They might as well have said the accused plotters were diverse because they all liked different ice cream. The relevant fact was that they were all Muslim and nearly all attended a single radical mosque. But it would be rude to mention that.
In a meeting with Muslim leaders the day after the news conference, Toronto's chief of police reportedly boasted that the government never mentioned the alleged terrorists' religion. Well, isn't that sweet. I'm sure the next time Islamists set out to chop off lawmakers' heads or murder the staff of the Canadian Broadcasting Co., they'll keep in mind how nice you were about all this.
****
Grrrr.
There must be some Canadians who aren't so nice. You might find some of them at the library. Yes, on Thursday evening in the atrium from 7-9 p.m. That would be us wearing blue scarves and kercheifs. Join us. Madam, feel free to bring you girlfriend. Our concerns are about jihad and Left dhimmi fascism.
8 comments:
They understand our psychology far better than we understand theirs. I came across this excellent link which explains how being 'nice' to them will destroy us:
http://www.sullivan-county.com/immigration/rob_nothink.htm
Dag, I have a skill testing question for you.
According to Irshad Manji's website:
"In 1990, she earned an honors degree in intellectual history from the University of British Columbia....After graduation, Irshad became legislative assistant to a member of parliament, then press secretary to the Ontario Minister for Women’s Issues. In 1992, at age 24, she entered the media as National Affairs Editorialist for the Ottawa Citizen....She left to take up the post of speechwriter for the first female leader of a Canadian political party."
Who was the first female leader that she worked for?
I guess it would be Alexa McDonough of the federal New Democratic Party.
What's your guess? Don't look it up. That's cheating and you won't win the all expenses paid trip to Afghanistan to see the Taliban.
Second skill testing question: Why does Manji, on her website, conceal her association with what I assume is the NDP at both a provincial and federal level? What is it about the NDP -- the party of Birkenstocks and burkas - that would make her want to hide her association with them? Is she afraid that people would vomit before they would buy a book from a Canadian social democrat?
I made a mistake, Dag.
McDonough couldn't have been first. It would be Audrey McLaughlin I guess.
Who was the first female leader that she worked for?
The only Canadian female political party leader I'm familiar with is Kim Campbell, Conservative in the 1980s. One of her advicers was an old philosophy profs I had as an undergrad in the 70s.I mention that to show that the Conservatives were interested in having aboard a man who was a committed libertarian sort-of Leftist. Campbell, who went down in flaming defeat, hasd the good sence to pick and choose those she felt were honest and decent people regardless of their personalities and agendas so long as they were committed to personal freedom. I think Campbell had the integrity to hire on Manji if she found the girl worthy of the postion, regardless of what would likely have been a dyed in the wool socialist opporunist. Beyond that, I have no idea.
What is it about the NDP -- the party of Birkenstocks and burkas - that would make her want to hide her association with them?
Manji is one clever girl, one who I wouldn't be surprised to find is working all sides of all fences in the light of future political shifts. I would assume her to be a socialist at heart but one who does love the lime-light to the extent that she's grovel for anyone who provides the beam. She's an obviously talented and smart girl, one I'd like to
What was I writing?
Manji is a smart girl. If she's the political animal she seems to be she'd do well to hide her liking for a party that has zero future. She plays up the "non-political" side of her spiel by emphasising the feminist side of things. I don't trust her sincerity at all after having seen her performance.
Having made those points, I like her very much as a person of ability. She's smart and talented and given her personal circumstances I admire her rise to these great heights. For whatever that's worth.
Dag,
I forgot to space my comments properly and spell check so I'm re-sending it. Just delete the first one.
CANADA IS NOT 'NICE' AT ALL. In fact, the Canadian state polices its own people with an army of social workers.
When I read in the Vancouver Sun yesterday that "alienated youth", not multiculturalism, was identified as the problem underlying the planned terror attacks by speakers at a conference at U of T, my first thought was: Social Workers.
"Alienated youth" is code in Canada for, "Hire more social workers." When there is a problem in a Canadian city, more social workers is the formulaic solution.
Alienated Muslim youth are the current flavour of the month for the social work establishment. But a couple of months ago, it was alienated Indo-Canadian youth shooting each other in Vancouver. And a few months before that it was black youth with Jamaican accents shooting at each other on Yonge St.
This social work solution doesn't work. It has proven to be an Orwellian nightmare on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where I live. The DTES has a high population of native people, poor people, and drug users, all considered alienated enough to warrant a social work extravaganza. Social workers, nurses, and street workers roam the streets. These workers must constantly manufacture case files to attract public funding and keep their good union jobs. The result is a 'case file economy'.
Everyone is a potential case file. Even when people speak up about political issues, they may find themselves targeted for a “well being” assessment by one of these psych/social worker types. They literally show up at people's homes in police "Car 87", the psych/social work car used to harass people against whom there is no evidence (a service implemented by the NDP, incidentally.) One woman criticized United Way’s practices on the DTES and got targeted. Four people who independently spoke up about a violent teacher, shut up when one of them was targeted. Even when a targeted individual is “cleared”, the case file remains permanent.
This case file drive is so out of control that a former Board member of the DTES Women’s Center complained that people were being approached on the street by social work/psych nurse types eager to generate a case file. My friend Louis got targeted for a psych assessment for merely raising questions about the side-effects of blood pressure medication he was prescribed at a DTES clinic. He yelled at the Car 87 nurse, "Who the hell gave you my private cell phone number?!" They left him alone then, but I told him he should get a copy of the report because they probably got even there.
It has been confirmed from copies of police reports that street workers and nurses are even sharing medical files with police without the necessary court orders. One cop, Const. J.P. St. Amant, was dumb enough to admit in his written report that a medical file of an individual who had criticized a social service organization had been read to him over the telephone by a nurse.
Just last week, DTES resident Bill Simpson stood on the steps of the Carnegie Community Centre handing out pamphlets about how social 'service' workers were eroding human rights of residents to make a buck. He, like many people, had been barred from the Center for daring to exercise his right to freedom of expression.
Canada's Social Work Solution is a failure. And it is certainly no match for terrorists. It's a scam to match liberals with pay cheques and to keep union coffers filled with dues. But it steals civil liberties from everybody else. It's enough to make you want to jump off the Peter Mansbridge.
Jane, when the world at large understands the facts on the ground of scialism as you experience it, then perhaps they'll stop financing the police-state as it now is.
Here's a bit of trivia that one might find relevant to the topic at least obliquely:
There is a schol of thought that the Witch Trial period of the 17th century was a female holocaust in which a million or so women were murdered by reason of rampant misogyny. I went to Salem, Mass. to find out the truth. The details are avbailable through a google search of salem and nodhimmitude. The point is that the witch hunts were not specifically to do with women, that the numbers were realatively few, and that of those who were murdered, many of the women murdered were those who were resented as beggars. One thisis is that the beggar women created a resentment among the well-off because the well-off were not well off at all, and they resented having to give up their own to those who had nothing. Eventually there was a backlash against the beggars who shamed the better-off. If they couldn't provide for the beggars they felt morally inferior to their previous state of moral superiority, and they set upon the widows and crazies and killed them.
Socialism in the West will lead, in my opinion, to something similar, that the West will quarantine the Third World people and in three weeks the immiserate masses will implode and starve to death in the billions. I refer to this as "death by socialism," and I've written about it often as the bifurcation of Humanity.
As harsh as I might seem to some, I am not in favor of mass exterminiation. Those who criticise my postion are uninformed about the nature of socialism, think that they do the world's poor a favor by propping them up and by infantalising them. This is murder in effect.
The social workers you refer to are a menace as one can see clearly in so-called Palestine in which the entire nation is on the dole and ruled by a police state of foreign aid workers and the UN. Eventually, every Muslim in the place will starve to death because the world will sicken of them and walk away to let them die. Perhaps contrary to public opinion, I don't hate Palestinians. I know some few as friends to a degree, and of the rest I still do not wish them dead. I do insist that those who are a manace to the entire nation of people must be killed like rabid dogs to save the majority if it's not already too late to save them.
In Canada, socialism is murder. In the greater world, socialism is genocide. There is nothing moral about it.
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