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THE TYRANNY OF NICE
Out now! Kathy Shaidle and Pete Vere's must-read book on the Steyn case, the Canadian state's war on free speech, and what it means for America, too. This trenchant exposé comes with a rollicking introduction by Mark on his year in Canada's "human rights" hell. Order your personally autographed copy today - or double your fun with Steyn, Hewitt and The War Against The West in our War & Tyranny bumper bundle!
Exclusively from
the Steyn Store
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Steynposts
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Friday, 05 June 2009 |
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Ezra Levant has picked up on the Sock Puppet Five Four Three Two's latest missive, and Khurrum Awan's bizarre claim to have been the plaintiff in the Danish cartoons case. Ezra attributes Mr Awan's erratic relationship to the truth to taqiyya. Blazing Cat Fur suggests he has been possessed by a djinn. Scaramouche puts it down to delusions of grandeur.
I incline to the last explanation. My advice to Naseem would be to ditch him before he conscripts her to any more of his wacky self-aggrandizing.
In other freespeechy news, if Canadians don't like the idea of having the Internet regulated on "your" behalf by the CRTC, Commissioner Timothy Denton's observations (scroll way down) on free expression and the Dominion's legal inheritance may be of interest:
The history of the regulation of speech in this country does not engender confidence that such powers will be used wisely. Canada has experienced several instances in recent times where regulatory commissions of another type and armed with a different mission have challenged the right to say controversial things. The struggles of Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn and others have served as important warnings that regulatory authorities charged with combating racism, hatred, and other evils have consistently expanded their mandates, have abused their powers and eroded fundamental liberties. Wherever there is official orthodoxy, disagreement is heresy, and where there is heresy, there is usually an inquisition to root it out. After centuries ridding ourselves of thought control agencies, 20th century Canada re-invented them...
Nor is it difficult to imagine a state of affairs where "broadcasters" across the Internet could be subject to some of the existing regulations, for instance, those concerned with linguistic, religious or political balance that apply to those who use "scarce" public airwaves. Imagine Pat Condell, the acerbic British atheist, having to "balance" his views about religion and religions if he were subject to Canadian broadcasting regulation, for example...
If the Canadian portion of the Internet could be placed under the Act, and speech involving video, or sound, became a licensed activity, we would have reversed several centuries of constitutional evolution and gone back to the days prior to 1688 of licensed printing presses or, in our case, licensed video telephone transmissions as well as licensed computer users. Several important political revolutions have been fought to ensure freedom of the press and speech; it would be repugnant to nibble away at it in defence of anything as comparatively unimportant as Canadian broadcasting policy. Yet such a possibility does not lack for advocates.
I like the cut of this guy's jib. If the Government of Canada doesn't have the courage to scrap Section 13, why not at least get rid of Jennifer Lynch, QC and make Mr Denton Chief Commissioner of the "Human Rights" Commission?
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Wednesday, 03 June 2009 |
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Mohamed Elmasry, host of Canada's all-time record-breaking fundraiser, looks like he's even more Socks short of a drawer. If you're keeping score:
For his original case study on Maclean's and my "flagrant Islamophobia", there were five Sock Puppets.
By the time the suit was filed in Ontario, the Sock Puppet Five were a quartet: Ali Ahmed had gone missing.
Then Daniel Simard bailed and the Sock Puppet Four were reduced to the Sock Puppet Three - just Khurrum Awan and his fetching Sockettes.
Now, judging from this letter to The Toronto Star, Khurrum is down to his last Sockette. Muneeza Sheikh is strangely absent from the act, and it's now down to Khurrum Awan plus full supporting chorus of one: Socky and Cher.
The Muslim Sockernacle Choir is a very strange act: The same old song, but sung by fewer and fewer voices. Indeed, given that Mr Awan has spent the last year and a half saying the same thing over and over and over on stage, radio, TV and in print, you'd think he'd be a bit better at his shtick by now (see Blazing Cat Fur's review of his live performance).
As Scaramouche notes, today's plaintive whine is a reprise of their usual clubfooted sleight of hand. Mr Awan and Naseem Mithoowani complain:
Among other things, the articles imply that Islam condones sex with minors and animals, refer to Muslims as "sheep-shaggers" and allege that Muslims believe in drinking the blood of their enemies.
Well, if they've got a problem with the "implication" that Islam condones sex with minors they should work to get the Iranian, Saudi, Pakistani and many other Islamic marriage laws amended. "Sheep-shaggers"? Complain to the Ayatollah Khomeini's publishers. Blood drinking? Go argue the finer points with the prominent British Muslim Omar Brooks, who made the claim at Trinity College, Dublin. If Khurrum and Naseem seriously objected to any of the above, they'd take it up with their coreligionists. But what they really object to is non-Muslims even raising the subject.
We've been around this a zillion times, and my last word on ovine fornication and other critical issues can be found in Lights Out. But this little bit does seem to be new:
Ezra Levant accuses Canada's human rights commissions of censorship for investigating our hate-speech complaints about his publishing of cartoons depicting Muslims...
"Our" hate-speech complaints? Is that true? Did Khurrum Awan and Naseem Mithoowani file "human rights" complaints about The Western Standard? I wasn't aware of that. As readers may recall, I'm a little bit sweet on Naseem, and I'm sorry to see her stuck in her role as Tony Sockando's last remaining back-up singer. The key to the sock market is knowing when to get out.
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Monday, 01 June 2009 |
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Now that all his many cases against Maclean's magazine for running Steyn's "flagrant Islamophobia" have been dismissed, it's safe for the strangely retiring serial plaintiff Mohamed Elmasry to appear in public again. Elmo is launching a new magazine called The Canadian Charger, which I'd assumed was for Canadians who wish to charge the cost of their crappy grievance-mongering lobby groups to the taxpayer. But apparently Elmo is reduced to having to raise private capital for his literary venture. Blazing Cat Fur went along to watch the outpouring of support:
Elmo began his fundraising effort in earnest. He asked the crowd, which numbered possibly 200 at most; Who would be the 1st to pledge Ten Thousand Dollars? An awkward and prolonged silence was met by a revised supplication. Who would be the 1st to pledge Five Thousand Dollars? Barely a murmur was heard. Plaintively Elmo asked; Who would be the 1st to pledge One Thousand Dollars? At this point I hung my head in a sense of almost empathetic embarrassment.
Apparently, one hand did go up at the back. But it was just a minor Saudi sheik beating his fourth wife.
You'd think Elmo would be savvy enough to do as he did in his Maclean's suits and bring in some sock puppets to paper the room and run up the bids. As it happens, the evening was emceed by Head Sock Khurrum Awan but without the lovely Sockettes. He gave his usual winning performance:
Nervously, Khurrum Awan introduced himself as the evenings MC. Stumbling but brief in his remarks, he outlined the events schedule - it was his only official appearance. A lawyer this ill at ease speaking in public should be a concern to any potential client.
Oh, dear. Maybe Elmo needs to rethink his approach. Would you put your money where Khurrum Awan's mouth is? The star turn, by the way, was Talibanic totty Yvonne Ridley, never my idea of a non-stop laff riot, even before she converted to Islam.
Turning our attention to an even more spectacular fundraising debacle by Canadian "human rights" champions, the Black Rod's report on the titanic fiasco that is the Canadian Mausoleum - whoops, Museum - of Human Rights includes this cryptic aside on its new "Content Advisory Committee":
In January, the CMHR announced a new Content Advisory Committee of human rights scholars, specialists, leaders and acknowledged experts in their respective fields.
The group consists of the old advisory committee, minus two, plus six new names.
One of the two outcasts was Anthony Hall, the 9/11 Truther who was using his seat on the committee to bolster his credibility with his conspiracy-minded friends...
The other name missing from the new advisory committe is Ruth Selwyn, "former executive director, Canadian Human Rights Foundation". In March, 2008, she wrote to the editor of the Montreal Gazette attacking Mark Steyn, who you recall, fought a knock 'em down, drag 'em out battle with a human rights commission---and won.
Wrote Selwyn:
"It is a pity that space is given to Mark Steyn's self-serving campaign to ridicule human rights. Steyn's representation of marginal cases as the be all and end all of the work of human-rights commissions shows a lack of understanding of the system or, worse, a deliberate attempt to distort it.
Oh that we could move on and focus on the real issues such as the discrimination that people do face every day in Canada."
But now it seems it's Ms Selwyn who's moved on. Perhaps she could be an advisor to The Canadian Charger.
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Sunday, 31 May 2009 |
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I had a grand time sitting in for Wendy Sullivan and Mike Williams on the first anniversary edition of their Brass Balls radio show, and was rather chuffed (as they say in Britain) by the reaction. I don't play records on the radio very often these days, and a lot of folks seemed to enjoy it, several suggesting that I bring along some of the murkier contents of my music library the next time I guest-host for Rush.
Aside from our round-up of reaction here, Kathy Shaidle lists a few, er, highlights:
You giggled nervously at his tale of being tongue-kissed by Leonard Bernstein.
You cringed when he played that awfull Sinatra recording.
Oh, I don't know. It wasn't that awful - Frank's record, I mean, not Lenny's tongue. However, the downside, as Kathy points out, is that Wendy and Mike are now contemplating a rather severe clobbering on their next bandwidth bill. They put together a terrific show every week, so, if you're minded to chip twelve dollars - a buck a month - for a year's worth of great listening, please do so. Don't forget, you can stick it on your credit card and, under Good King Barack's new Obamatopian regime, never have to pay it back! How great a deal is that?
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Saturday, 23 May 2009 |
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A year and a half after its last intervention on the issue, The Nanaimo Daily News returns to the subject of Canada's "human rights" commissions and effortlessly maintains its dazzling standards of factual accuracy:
Lacking the clout or legal expertise of Levant, Mark Steyn was ordered to pay a fine, write a letter of apology and never to discuss gay marriage publicly or privately for the rest of his life.
Can't wait for that to show up in online biographies. Nanaimo readers with long memories may have difficulty squaring Darrell Bellaart's report with the paper's previous observations.
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ONE HARDBACK!
TWO HATEMONGERS!
The new book by Ezra Levant with a special introduction by Steyn
Shakedown
Ezra takes you behind the scenes in the Danish cartoons case, the Steyn/Maclean's case, and the Canadian state's war on free speech and real human rights.
Order your copy personally autographed by Mark exclusively from
The Steyn Store
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