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Thank you for your kind (and unkind) letters from the Canada, America, the French West Indies, Britain and Australia. Mark reads all the letters, but especially enjoys the vicious ones. Drop a line to Mark's Mailbox and if you're chosen to be the one and only Letter of the Week you'll join our roll of winners from four Continents and receive a copy of "Mark Steyn From Head To Toe". It would help if you could indicate your city or town, or, at least, your state, province or country. Failing that, your continent or hemisphere would do.
Letter of the Week
BLOGS OF THE FUTURE?
Hello Mark, I dig your stuff, but the Canadian political "blog culture" sucks. I just spent some time on your site, went around the horn, and it's all about lawsuits these days. On one right wing blog I saw the words, "actionable I suspect," or something like that. So it isn't just lefties with lawsuits on the brain.
This is why I like American political stuff. People can scream and shout and it's all fine. In Canada it's libel-notice this and lawsuit-that. It's pathetic.
Don't let me down. If you ever sue somebody instead of just telling them where to stick it, I'll have to stop reading your stuff. Later.
Sean Berry
Re: Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
AND HE'LL CURE CANCER, TOO!
Great column. Mark forgot one thing that Obama said Statezilla would do: cure cancer! Yup, he said that in the speech. I was laughing out loud at that one.
Janine Wenzig
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE
I just read your article "The Six-Trillion-Dollar Man" on NRO and I am sending it out to as many people as I possibly can. Not only is it exactly on point, it made me laugh out loud for the first time in quite a while. Please keep up the excellent writing!
Private sector regards,
Genye Hawkins
STICKING IT TO US
Excellent, and funny article, as usual. As I read about President Obama's promise to do it all, I was reminded of Steven Wright's line: "You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"
In the case of the Stimulus Overload, all we know is where the Democrats are going to stick it.
Bill Rambo
Landmark, Manitoba
LOCAL HERO LOSING HIS POWERS
I'm no superhero, but I have managed to start a restaurant business (15 years ago) that now (for the time being, at least) employs almost 50 people. I need your help, intellectually not monetarily (at least, not yet). Please answer this question: Why should I not despair?
Jim Gilliece
Chez Nora, proprietor
P.S. Oh, how I enjoy reading your work!
HUMOR MAN
Thank you Conservative Humor Man!
Haven't laughed this hard in a while - and that was no small super-feat when the market dropped another 300. Stay away from the tights, though.
Kevin Grant
Dallas, Texas
48 PER CENT DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS
I am shocked to read that our President has declared "I didn't come here to do the same thing we've been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November." Wasn't Obama's margin of victory 52% vs. 48% of the popular vote? Where does one find demand for sweeping change in those numbers? Eleanor Clift seems to think "millions of liberals" put Obama in the White House. But as Jennifer Rubin points out in her Commentary blog “What about the other 78%”, "contrary to what Nancy Pelosi would have us believe, liberals don’t make up a majority of the country. Exit polling in 2008 showed they made up about 22% of the electorate. That’s why Obama didn’t run on a platform of remaking our entire economic system or spending more in a month than George Bush did in seven years on two wars and Katrina. Instead, he ran on “going line by line” through the budget, a net decrease in spending, tax cuts and lots of mushy, soothing rhetoric." Mushy soothing rhetoric morphs into impenetrable Statezilla. Why do I keep thinking that we’re stuck in the middle of a very bad nightmare?
Jeri Brown
ECONOMIC ICARUS
I'd like to take a whack at explaining how big a trillion is:
A dollar bill is 6" long. Two of them are 12" long. The sun is 93,000,000 mi away or nearly 500 billion feet. Times two equals a trillion. So, if you layed a trillion one dollar bills end to end they would reach the sun.
I had a complicated dream the other night where Stan Laurel was a store clerk and Obama came in and wanted to cash a cheque. Naturally, it was for one trillion dollars. Stan says he only has $200 in cash and he would have to give Obama the rest in quarters. Only he doesn't have enough. He starts crying and his supervisor (Oliver Hardy) comes over, apologises to Obama, hits Stanley with his hat and tells him to go to the bank and get more. I woke up in the morning thinking: how big a truck would Stanley need to cart away a trillion dollars worth of quarters.
OK, here goes:
Start with a dump truck. They carry about 15 tons or 30,000 lbs. Each lb has 454 grams. Our dump truck can carry 13.5 million grams. Each American quarter weighs 5.7 grams. Therefore, our dump truck can carry 2.4 million quarters with a value of $600,000. This is a long way from a trillion dollars. We need more trucks.
How may trucks do we need? Divide a trillion by 600,000 and we get 1,666,666 trucks. Let's remind ourselves here that each truck has 15 tons of quarters worth $600,000.
That's a lot of trucks. If each of our trucks was 30 ft long and they were parked bumper to bumper, it would take 176 of them to equal a mile. Our 1,666,666 trucks would form a line nearly 10,000 miles long.
Poor Stanley, he has no idea.
M. McGlenister
P.S. I am looking forward to a new era when federal budgets will not have any zeros. Instead they will have exponents, e.g.
"Congress approved a budget today of 1 x 1012 dollars. Congressional leaders promised to keep the increase in the size of the exponent in next year's budget to one. Pelosi said that an increase to 1 x 1013 from 1 x 1012 was only an 8.3% increase and applauded her fellow Democrats for their restraint."
HE IS THE NANNY HE’S BEEN WAITING FOR
As a "community-organizer", Obama was accustomed to hitting various levels of government - municipal, state, and federal - for taxpayer bucks to fund his and his pals' pet projects.. As president, he has merely eliminated the middle-man. He is now the main mouth at the trough. Sharpton and Jesse must be "green" with envy (right colour, but different lefty twist).
In fairness to this president, and given his background, it should not surprise anyone that he would envision a utopian nanny state; here is a man who was, effectively, abandoned by his parents at a very young and impressionable age. That is heavy baggage indeed, even though his maternal grandparents spared him the poverty which often accompanies that situation. Small wonder, though he would be tempted by the exagerated virtues of the "egalitarian" state "family" , where everyone is equally nurtured fron cradle to grave. The state as hearth.
The American people are in for quite a shock -for they are not socialists at heart. But they bought his baloney during the campaign. For this they are about to pay a very heavy price. And they deserve it. If a "salesman" sells the Brooklyn Bridge to Mr and Mrs Smith, the transaction tells us more about Mr and Mrs Smith ...than it tells us about the salesman. The salesman I can "understand", but the U.S voters of November '08 ......??
John Gross
Quebec
SAVED BY THE BASEBALL
The beginning of Spring Training means baseball will soon be upon us and I can turn my thoughts to things more meaningful than the Federal deficit and the depths to which the stock market can plummet. But until the glory of Opening Day arrives, I find myself with these thoughts:
The United States has a government that is convinced its superior intellect can change economic cycles just as it can change environmental cycles.
I have Citibank shares in my IRA. I have accepted the fact that that investment is a total loss. Meanwhile the powers in DC debate the fine points of nationalization. Why? Citibank has been poorly managed, made bad bets and, under the rules of capitalism, should be dead and buried. The same goes for Bank of America. Deposits are safe. So Citi and BOA are shuttered and the depositors take their money to Chase or Bank of the West or wherever and the banking system continues. Sure, employees of Citi and BOA lose their jobs, but the surviving banks will need more employees to handle the increase in their customer levels and will hire.
The same goes for insurance. If AIG and The Hartford fail, Chubb, CNA, Travelers, etc. will pick up the insureds and will need to hire to handle the work.
The same elected representatives who think we need to save the banks believe we need to save Earth from its natural cycles. Average temperatures are warmer than they were thirty years ago? We'd better enact laws to stop it. And if they're not warmer, well let's pass a couple of bills just in case.
There is irony in the fact that the same people who believe legislation can stop events beyond their control are also the great proponents of evolution, which at its most basic is a belief in survival of the fittest. If they truly believed in evolution, they would accept that it applies to the economy and Earth.
DH
Evanston
DISHING UP PORK
Dutch researchers are trying to grow pork in petri dishes, which explains Obama saying ...
"I'll change the posture of our federal government from being one of the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that embraces science and technology."
I'm just not sure what kind of scientific method he will be using.
Dexter Turner
Re: Which side of the war would you like to be on?
PALLING UP TO AHMADINEJAD
Another anti-Zionist appointment…which makes at least ten. What is the numerical threshold Obama must cross to end the pretense that he is not also anti-"Zionist"? Maybe people will awake if he french kisses Ahmadinejad at DurbanHolocaust Denial II. Maybe not.
podvin
HUME SWEET HUME
Would you consider Hume Horan an exception to the rule? Years ago, before September 11, I would listen to former ambassadors from Saudi Arabia on the talk shows and wonder, what's with these guys? (OK, so maybe I'm a slow learner). Then one night I caught an interview with Hume Horan and it was the first time that I had heard any former ambassador criticize the place, harshly.
Colleen Stamos
Brooklyn Heights, NY
IDIOCY FROM ‘DEEP THINKERS’
You wrote:
"Being on the House of Saud's payroll, directly or indirectly, should render one ineligible for subsequent government service."
Funny, I never heard you voice this concern vis-a-vis President G.H.W. Bush or his idiot son. But of course, in general I don't expect much from theater critics pretending to be deep thinkers. Keep up with your idiocy Mr. Steyn, it is always good for a laugh with my morning coffee.
Steve Hach
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PS. I always have positive feelings towards Canada, except when you are spewing your particular brand of neo-con bullshit.
MARK REPLIES: As it happens, I believe I was one of the first two columnists on the planet to finger the malign US-Saudi relationship as the cause of our woes, circa September 20th 2001, and, if you'd bothered clicking through to the seven-year old Spectator column I linked to, you'd get a sense of my general line. As for specifically attacking the Bush/Saudi cosiness, I wrote at length on the unhealthy relationship with Prince Bandar, Barbara Bush's closeness to Bandar's terror-subsidizing wife, GWB's hand-in-hand walk with Prince Abdullah, etc. You could buy my book from 2002, which I'd be happy to autograph for you. But, if you don't want to toss $19.95 my way and realize that I've been writing on the Saudi subversion of the US governing class, Republican and Democrat, for eight years now, and that's why hostile quotes about me from Prince Turki and other bigshot Saudis appear on the front of my books, you could always look up my Nov 30 2002 column in the London Spectator or a 2003 column on Saudi influence in the US from The Chicago Sun-Times. I even wrote a (UK) Telegraph column agreeing with the anti-Saudi bits of Michael Moore's movie.
It's not always about dreary parochial partisan politics, you know.
Re: The problem with not having kids
EMBITTERED, PARANOID SMART-ASS
Ah, but Maclean's brings back Mark Steyn's embittered, paranoid, self-absorbed, smart-ass ramblings. I parsed his article for anything new or interesting, but found only used, recycled Steyn ‹which is ironic considering his antagonism to anything "green." To be fair, his antagonism is fairly widely spread. The sperm and egg photo subtly hints that this is mainly a tirade against birth control. Because I know Mr. Steyn to be such a francophile, I wish him to know that recent statistics show a marked increase in the fecundity of French women. There, that should offer some comfort... Of course, they could be Muslims.
G. Alan Taylor
Ottawa
MORE OF THEM LIKE YOU
Congratulations to Mark Steyn for having courage to write this article on over- population. We need more people like him to start this movement or at least talk about it. Bravo, bravo...hope Mr. Suzuki reads your mag. We use to get US Time mag, and it is Maclean only, keep on being brave and provocative.
Ilona Fiser
THE BABIES CAME IN, TWO BY TWO
I strongly believe Mr. Kotler is right. Two billion people are all this plant (sic) can healthfully support. We keep hearing "end poverty" all the while poverty is growing worldwide. In the next 100 years we must reduce our population to have only two billion human inhabitants! How to achieve this number?
Worldwide couples can only produce a maximum of two children. Single moms can only have one child.
In the democratic nations, government have no "right" to tell people how many children they can have. BUT AT THE SAME TIME parents do not have the "right" to demand others support their extra children. Parents get government financial support for only two children or one if a single parent: that includes education and medical care. No extra tax deductions for extra children. This policy will make people rethink how many children they will bring into this world. For various reasons, the population will then decline as not all will reproduce or those produced lived to reproduce.
Now at the end of life.
We all must die. As long as a person maintains a normal intellectual capacity they can request medical treatment to maintain their standard of life. Those who must depend on others for basic living are not eligible for flu shots, antibiotics or any other life extending treatments. Their treatments are painkillers and TLC to allow them to leave this world comfortably.
If we don't take this intelligent path, hell will do it for us. We will have riots, war and pandemics--as has happened in the past. Just think: if the Black Death didn't decimate Europe, there would be standing room only and then on one foot! I prefer a pandemic as that takes primarily the old, the very young and the sick, leaving the healthy to repopulate. Wars take the strong and healthy plus the infrastructures.
The whole world is at a turning point and we must rethink how we want to go forward or we'll just repeat the past.
At the time when we broke the sound barrier, my grandmother said I (age 12) would see man land on the moon. Her father invented the two-wheel cart that no store could do without in Ireland to better move bags of flour at his father's mill. Wheelbarrows were too awkward. He brought his family to the U.S. and patented the idea and at his death, his company was making locomotives. She talked of all the developments she had seen in her lifetime (1865-1957) and wished to come back 100 years upon her death. I wish I could say the same. I see a bleak period ahead.
Ardra Fradinger
Ottawa
RENEWED
Thank you for returning to Macleans, I will now renew!
rc
Re: South and Souther
IT'S TRUE, AMERICANS TRUST WASHINGTON!
Excellent analysis as always, Mark. And as if on cue, CNN has a "poll" finding that Americans trust Washington more than Wall Street to solve the crisis. First the coronation, now the opposition research to defend Obama, Dodd, Frank and all the rest that created the problem in the first place.
Scott McKimm
MANY, MANY ACTUAL ECONOMISTS AGREE WITH OBAMA
"That sounds right"? Is that conclusion based on work you did while pursuing your macro-economics PhD at Princeton? You're aware, perhaps in a casual way, that many, many actual economists agree with the approach? You've perhaps heard that Rush is an entertainer? Look - there's a good chance Obama's plan will fail because the situation is bad and there's a good chance that any plan would fail, but what makes you think a 'cultural critic' like you can toss off comments like 'that sounds right'?
An irritated Corner reader
IT DOESN’T COUNT
If Obama looks at the stock market the same way he looks at the deficit, he'd say that if you don't count the days it went down then the market is up since his inauguration.
Blake Krass
Pflugerville, Texas
Re: APSA-lute Freedom
CHRISTIANS NEED NOT APPLY
Let me know if you haven't seen the petition circulating within the American Philosophical Association that means to delegitimize colleges that might impose moral standards on their faculty. Apparently it's now dangerous to disclose to one's career to reveal one in teaching philosophy in the US to reveal that you are a Christian prior to receiving tenure.
Jim
POLITICAL-SCIENTISTS-DO-SOMETHING SHOCK
I am a graduate student in Political Science. In a Survey of the Discipline seminar this semester we have been discussing the relevance (or irrelevance) of political science as a discipline. As I began reading your post on the APSA convention I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that the political scientists would be writing in support of the Canadian Human Rights Court. I was relieved that they took a stand against the suppression of free speech in Canada. It is probably the most relevant thing to come out of my future profession in a long time.
By the way, you are one of my favorite columnists. Thank you for adding some humor into the generally depressing current events.
HM
LIBERTY IN CANADA
As a former Foreign Service Officer, I observed first-hand how our diplomats abroad compile and write an annual report on civil liberties in their host countries. The resulting report is mandated by Congress and is always a very tricky issue with bilateral relations. While the petition of the American Political Science Association is very interesting, and raises some obvious points of concern regarding the state of liberty in Canada, I thought you might like to know what the United States Government's official position on this matter is.
You may find the full report here.
Kevin
Re: Wingin’ in the reign
HE’S NEVER DONE ANYTHING
Obama can't be positive because he's a liberal, and his speciality is vicitimization, criticism of the status quo, being cool, and pessimism. He has no accomplishments of any importance, so he lacks the credentials to say "We can do this." How would he know that? He's never done anything. And playing Dad is not cool. FDR wasn't afraid of expressing his paternal side. He had zero interest in being cool. He had accomplishments, so he had alternative avenues for appealing to the listener other than just being cool. Look, we've been analyzing this guy for years. We know everything about him. What we know that he doesn't know is the problem.
Ezra Marsh
Baltimore
BOTH OF THE ABOVE
Re Obama as bumbling incompetent versus Machiavellian schemer, I tend to the compromise view: I think he dearly desires to be America's very own Hugo Chavez but lacks the nous to accomplish it (let's hope!).
Barbara Fisher
North Marston, England
EVERYONE’S WINGING IT
The messiah would have to be the Messiah not to be winging it. Only the insane or the seriously deluded believe that we mere mortals have the faintest idea of what to do. Witness Geithner's pathetic speech of a few days back. His problem is that he's not a world class liar like his boss.
Chris Barr
WAY OVER HIS HEAD
At least Jimmy Carter had run a peanut farm. This guy is best known for getting apartments built that the toilets didn't work.
I don't know why this is even a question. His opponents self destructed. He had a vast army with unlimited money ready to define him as they wanted.
But when he opened his mouth, what did we get? Inflate tires as energy policy?
How often did he take questions from the press? Once?
Remember the health policy discussion where he said he was best at 40,000 feet. You can't see anything at 40,000 feet.
The guy is way over his head. He has no track record of attracting smart people, rather the opposite.
He has extraordinarily thin skin. He still is popular, and gets the benefit of the doubt. What happens when that runs out?
Derek
SCARY EITHER WAY
Your bit on “The Corner” about whether B.O. is wingin' it or is a machiavellian genius, gave me the willies. I'm hoping for 'wingin'it', but B.O. reminds me (creepily) of the villain in "Father Elijah" by Michael O'Brien. (New World Order, creepy worldwide charismatic appeal, US Pres....)
Either way, it ain't good.
Loretta Westin
Re: Loss of Societal Memory
COLLECTIVE DEMENTIA
This notion that you threw into NRO's corner is begging to be made into a book! Please write it!
“When a society loses its memory, it descends inevitably into dementia. Allowing the cultural relativists to annex the education system ultimately destroys the grown-up world, too.”
One of your biggest admirers...
Ray Cleveland
Saint Paul, Minnesota
SLAVERY’S COMEBACK
Great point re: the British Empire role in ending slavery. But I'd point out that slavery had not been accepted as permanent by all cultures around the planet, but had been abolished in most of Europe shortly after its Christianization in the early middle ages. It re-emerged in European society once the sea routes were opened for trade with cultures that practiced it, but even then it was mostly relegated to the distant colonies - out of sight, out of mind. Its re-introduction never really caught on in Europe itself.
Eric C. Bohnet
Indianapolis, Indiana
THE PARTY’S OVER
I'm a post grad at Cantab (American) and got the Emmanuel College invite----check out their website. They've issued two apologies/statements/explanations already in the last few days. I was just counseled by a Cantab alumn that Emma's balls are no good - last year was Rodeo. I am unsure if Peta mounted an anti-fascist protest.
Sean
THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPIRE
I've often wondered about this historical counterfactual: what if decolonialization and the dissolution of the British Empire had occurred earlier, before the Second World War. Could Britain have possibly survived standing alone against Nazi Germany without the benefit of the men, material, and strategic bases of its vast Empire? The reality is that if it weren't for the British Empire there could be no "anti-fascists" at Cambridge today and no one would be speaking English.
Rick Hutcheson
NOT IN MY BACKYARD
You might also recall that slavery was never permitted in England itself.
Bill Quick
Re: And the Oscar goes to
…THE PIG
Today I saw the Oscar nominated short film The Pig and was literally blown away that a film that shows the truth about Islamic immigration in Europe would be nominated by American liberals.
In the film a Danish man goes to the hospital for intestinal trouble. Once in his room he is charmed by an amusing picture of a pig, which offers him great comfort through the various colorectal procedures that may or may not find evidences of cancer.
After surgery he wakes to find a Muslim roommate surrounded by a huge family and his "guardian angel" pig missing. The hospital staff ignores his requests to bring the picture back, so he makes a pencil drawing of a pig and puts it on the wall. His attorney daughter visits and at first ignores her father's complaints, but when she sees the Muslim patient's son tear down her father's drawing she jumps to her
father's defense.
Mr. Steyn, you have to see this film and write about it. I doubt you'll ever find something like it again. It can be downloaded for $1.99 from ITunes. If nothing else downloading it will help fund the director's next project.
Frank Keesee
Re: Song of the Week: A Presidential Medley Part II
CLOSER TO DISASTRO
In Tim Curry's Rocky Horror days he recorded a tune called "I do the rock" which contained this bit:
Carter, Begin, and Sadat
Brezhnev, Deng, and Castro
Every day negotiate us
Closer to disastro.
In toto, the lyrics are a who's who of 70s icons.
Jon Thiele
PS-- Loved "Broadway Babies Say Goodnight"
THOSE WERE THE DAYS
I was hoping that for Herbert Hoover you'd use the theme song to 'All In The Family':
"Those Were The Days" by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse
Boy, the way Glenn Miller played. Songs that made the Hit Parade.
Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days.
Didn't need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee, our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days.
And you know who you were then. Girls were girls and men were men.
Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
People seemed to be content. Fifty dollars paid the rent.
Freaks were in a circus tent. Those were the days.
Take a little Sunday spin, go to watch the Dodgers win.
Have yourself a dandy day that cost you under a fin.
Hair was short and skirts were long. Kate Smith really sold a song.
I don't know just what went wrong. Those Were The Days.
Wanda Sherratt
Ottawa, Ontario
DON’T ANYONE LEAVE THE ROOM
Regarding presidential songs, I recall a line from a Mark Russell song shortly after the remains of Pres. Zachary Taylor were exhumed in the early 1990's to investigate (ultimately disproved) rumors that he was assassinated. It went something like:
Who killed Zachary Taylor?
Who brought the man to his doom?
Who killed Zachary Taylor?
Don't anyone leave the room ...
Good stuff, which I nominate for addition to your list.
Richard McDermott
Chicago, Illinois
Re: The Obamateur Hour
INVASION OF THE NEST-EGG SNATCHERS
I spent 27 years in the Federal bureaucracy - U.S. Dept. of Ed., Office for Civil Rights. I entered a liberal and exited a conservative. I enjoy your columns and know how hard it is to "get the message across." The Obama adminstration to me is "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers II." Please don't scream when you read this!
Jim L.
THE NEW MEMBER
The most pressing question facing the Obama administration this month:
"Will the 'Axis of Evil' accept our membership application?"
John
$13 A WEEK, BEFORE TAXES
I glanced through the so called details of this thing my government hath wrought. I appears to me that those in poverty (not specified what poverty is) will get more food stamps and $25, more in their.... er...uh..paycheck? No, no, benefits check. Also a $2,500 one time pay-off. The unemployed will get a boost and will be able to collect longer. Now us stupid working folk, we get a generous $13 a week from a $400 credit (that's how it reads from the $400 credit). But this is AP so who knows what is fact. That generous $13 a week will drop to a still generous $7.70 a week. Haha. God it is difficult to throw up while laughing. All of the weekly bonus of course is before taxes. Of course, I am probably all wrong since the world is upside-down and backwards and I am still viewing the world like it was when it was real. This is a huge union payback. Gov. unions, labor unions.
Doug Nathaniel
Ohio
BRING ON THE WORLD WAR
FDR used spending to get us out of the Great Depression. And it only took seven years and a world war for it to work! Cannot wait for your next great book. Sometime, can you explain your rather unique accent?
Jeff, Sparks
Nevada
Re: Headless body in gutless press
A LITTLE CULTURAL PROBLEM
Although it's clear that the founder of a US-based Muslim TV station who beheaded his wife raised at least some if not most of his money in the Middle-east and not America, the AP paints him as the very image of modernity. That's expected. But this other disconnect in the story is mind-boggling.
"What you have is a cultural problem our communities have been silent about too long," said Wajahat Ali, a journalist and playwright who helped drive the effort. "What people with an agenda are trying to do is say this is an example of a barbaric religion. This is an example of barbaric misogyny and domestic violence."
How can one characterize critics of Islam as per above as having an "agenda" when in the very same article it suggests that maybe one day Imams will stop asking the Mrs. what she did wrong when she reports physical abuse? Doesn't that mostly prove that the critics are correct?
"This is a horrible tragedy, but it gives us a window," said Abdul-Ghafur, editor of the anthology "Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak." "The next time a woman comes to her imam and says, 'He hit me,' the reply might not be, 'Be patient, sister, is there something you did, sister? Is there something you can do?' The chances are greater the imam will say, 'This is unacceptable."'
Ya think?
Dan Riehl
DAY PASS
When I read your NRO post I immediately checked out the NYT. They're featuring a gruesome slaying, all right, but it's a much better angle, don't you think?
Besides, what's your beef? In Canada, as I recently posted to smalldeadanimals, he'd undoubtedly get meds and a day pass due either to "major mental illness," or simply for carrying out a well-known cultural tradition.
Brian Warner
Blaine, Washington
NOTHING TO SEE HERE
I live in Orchard Park and I thought that was odd considering we've got national press 10 miles away covering the plane crash. Add another 5 miles and you're in Lackawanna.
No story here. Hell, it didn't even make Drudge.
Terri
OBAMA WILL FIX IT
I live in Orchard Park where the Hassan’s lived. This would have been the biggest story of the day had a plane not crashed 20 miles away 4 hours after the murder. My daughter went to high school with the Hassan girl, now a freshman at college (university at Buffalo) . She is a normal kid in an upper middle class town. I can’t imagine what kind of culture breeds this type of behavior. I wonder about our own culture too. I am sure Obama will fix it all by being nicer. Love your work. Gave my brother an autographed copy of your book for xmas last year.
Richard
Orchard Park, NY
FERTILE GROUND
Western NY was the home of the Lackawanna Six. Their parents willingly allowed them to attend terrorist training in Afghanistan prior to 9/11.Their cell leader, Kamal Derwish, was the one taken out by the CIA predator drone in Yemen a few years back.
That a western NY Muslim beheads his wife comes as no surprise to me. I believe the Arab population in that area has become radicalized enough to at least passively support sharia. The proximity of Toronto and the open Canadian/US border facilitate contact between cells and makes it an ideal location to place and operate an AQ style cell.
BTW, in some intelligence circles, there is a theory held by a few that the Lackawanna 6 were being groomed to hijack a fifth plane, but the plan came to naught as four of the six washed out and were unable to satisfactorily able to complete their training.
I love your writing!
Bill Conway
TROUBLE AT WORK
I don't understand why there is such incredulity over the theory that Muzzammil Hassan beheaded his wife because business was going badly at his moderate Muslim TV channel. After all, we all remember how, on July 4, 2002, Mohammed Hadayet shot up the El Al counter at LAX because he was worried about his limousine business.
Ken Krantz
Williamsburg, Virginia
HASSAN CHOP
I don't know if you watched many Bugs Bunny cartoons growing up, but that headline on the telegraph story "Hassan Chop" is reference to a hilariously non politically correct cartoon "Ali Baba Bunny."
If you want to see:
David Putney
A TRADITIONAL WEDDING
I enjoyed the rehash of your old movie (Film!) review, but truth be told the headline was FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL.
I thought you were writing about a typical Muslim household.
Take no prisoners,
Kip Frasz
Kleowna, British Columbia
MARK REPLIES: No, you're getting it confused with another film, Four Weddings And An Honor Killing.
Re: Windmills of your mindlessness
A REAL MEMORIAL
Why not just purchase land nearby and set up a real memorial that's privately owned? I'd contribute. Is there any move for such a thing?
Nicholas Jost
EXCUSENIKS
I appreciate your comments on NRO today as to the Flight 93 memorial. I have no personal connection whatever to the events of 9/11, but as a business consultant I fly a lot and I was easily able to see myself in such a scenario. Watching the Flight 93 movie was really tough.
One of these days, a quiet, thoughtful American is going to simply, wordlessly punch one of these mamby-pamby excuseniks into next week. Think John Wayne in McClintock ("I'm not gonna hit ya…the hell I'm not…").
Lileks is exactly right…but that 150-story building would have been the taller middle "finger" of a five building center of commerce.
Michael A. Davis
DISGUST
The quote from James Lileks that you posted in The Corner completely sums up the disgust I have felt for the past 7 and a half years over our collective response to what happened on 9/11. I've always ranted that the day the last piece of rubble was removed from the site should have been the first day that reconstruction began. Only one story higher with a sculpture of a middle finger on top.
I grew up in New Jersey, (thanks for your condolences) and currently live outside of Philadelphia, (again, thanks for your condolences). New York was always "The City" to me. To this day I specifically avoid going there. I can't stand looking at the empty skyline. It makes me sick. What's become of us?
Anthony Leone
BTW, great exchange regarding the "fire in a crowded theater" nonsense. Keep up the great work.
Re: Taking it literally
WINDS OF CHANGE
Hey, Mark, it sure does look like dissent is unpatriotic, now. Remember when Hillary offered that rant about how no one was going to tell her that it was unpatriotic to criticize the Bush Administration? Didn't take long for the "winds of change" to shift, huh?
And, by the way, I love you on that right-wing talk show. You know the one? -- EIB. Excellence in broadcasting conducted by El Rushbo. He's the greatest and I do so enjoy it when you are the substitute host.
David M. Bethune, Ph.D.
Newport, Rhode Island
THANKS, HILLARY
Check out the comments on that rag, every one supports you. And I really have to thank Hillary for her comment on dissent and patriotism. Shuts em up every time now.
Boris Berejan MD
Wimington, North Carolina
‘UNPATRIOTIC AND RIGHTWING’
By the use of the singular "is" The Reporter would seem to equate political opinion to patriotic loyalty, so that any political stance not lined up with theirs is automatically treasonous.
JasRandal
FACT CHECK
Ed Eusebio is a rock head for not getting Amity Shlaes' name right; it's a real Steyn on his escutcheon.
Warmongery, Obama failing, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it regards,
Mike McDonald
New Hartford, NY
KEEPING UP
I'm a big fan of your work.
Given that you are Canadian, is it even possible for you to be an American patriot (since you aren't American)?
Maybe he is questioning your Canadian patriotism. Maybe he means that it is not patriotic for a Canadian to be so pro-American.
One thing that is clear: to dissent is no longer patriotic. It is hard to keep up with this stuff.
Steve
THE OLDEST HATRED
I think you had more than your patriotism questioned. Note that Eusebio doesn't specifically mention patriotism, but "patriotic loyalty."
Not only does he believe you to be "one of the most extremist warmongers in our country," but, I think, also assumed that "Steyn" could be read as a synonym for "Stein," which, taken together, naturally mean that your "loyalty" lies elsewhere.
As you wrote a couple of weeks back, it's not for nothing that they call it "the oldest hatred," and the far left has done its damnedest to amplify that hatred in connection to those who wish to see the jihad defeated. In Eusebio's mind, you are a twofer -- a conservative and a Jew -- despite the fact that you are not. The name is close enough for him, and therefore you are to be despised as one whose loyalties
are first and foremost to a foreign nation.
Steve Soukup
Re: Nine Lives Watch
THEY’RE ONLY FEELINGS
Like so many who reside in the antipodes I have been following your travails in the Tribunals for Hurt Feelings. Your courage and that of your colleague Mr. Levant contrasts with the timid nature and antipathy of the majority of mainstream media representatives in English-speaking countries.
One aspect of these so-called human rights laws that doesn't get a mention in any discussions that I've read is the logical aspect. What I mean by that is simply that any credible psychologist will tell you that you are not responsible for another person's feelings. You are only responsible for your own behaviour. Reading others' minds is an impossible feat unless, of course, you believe in tarot cards, crystal balls and mental telepathy. Rational people don't.
I'm not an expert on legislation and its interpretation in the Canadian "human rights" jurisdictions, but I suspect that the laws there are cut from the same mold as those in Australia. One illogical aspect of the local laws is the assertion that what matters is not what you've said or written, but how it offends the other party. This presumption is illogical by any reasonable, scientific standard and is the most common denominator for why these laws are bad.
Gerry Murphy
Sydney, Australia
EQUAL SPACE
The name of Elmasry's new project is perhaps an exercise in plainspeak: the first multimedia website devoted entirely to "charging" people with things? They will have some job competing with Warren Kinsella in the hyperlitigious-blogger niche, but I wish them luck.
From their home page:
"In The Canadian Charger, we are committed to presenting a diversity of views and counter-views on issues of importance to Canadians, written by journalists, academics, outstanding professionals, award-winning experts, social and political activists, literary essayists, novelists, poets and artists."
I presume you plan to take them up on their offer by demanding equal space (and of course full editorial control) in response to their first criminally libelous piece about you.
Robert Craigen
Winnipeg, Manitoba
FAMILIAR FACE
Looking at the list of Canadian Charger board of contributors, I see a familiar name: former Mississauga MP Carolyn Parrish.
Birds of a feather, I suppose.
Jeff M Burke
SHOUTING RAPE IN A CROWDED HUMAN-RIGHTS HEARING
I rather enjoyed the link you had to Sean Berry's website wherein he meticulously debunked Cheri DiNovo's contention that 51% of Canadian women had suffered from abuse or assault. Question: if one knowingly makes up data merely to stir up public sentiment, isn't that kind of like falsely yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater? Just asking.
Scott H. Jones
Waterville, Maine
Re: What’s it all about, Alfie?
PENIS SIZE
In a way, your post reminds me of something from my own public school sex education, back in the 1970s ...
I didn't know I supposed to care how big my penis was until they told me not to worry about it. And they only compounded the problem they created by telling me the "average" penis size.
Like ... "Despite ongoing penis size education efforts, 14-year-old boys continue to worry about their penis size."
Not that I have anything to worry about, of course, but please don't use my name.
Anonymous
SENSE OF DECAY
I just read your "What's it All About, Alfie?" entry in the NRO Corner and it reminded me of the feeling I got when I recently watched the final installment of the BBC Mystery series "Prime Suspect", which was filmed a full 2 years ago. Having lived in England in the late 60s and still having friends there, it depressed me greatly to see the probably-accurate depiction of the current state of English society. The entire atmosphere, human and material, had a sense of decay about it. The children were devoid of any humanity and didn't even recognise it. It wasn't too far from the land depicted in "Children of Men".
So sad, so sad.
Paul Ashley
Wheaton, Illinois
TWIT IN CHIEF
Of course you've been saying the same thing as the Archbishop for a long time now, re the Islamification of England and Europe. The difference is that this twit looks forward to it, all the while using this mealy-mouthed language ("seems inevitable") to gloat and emote over his vindication. I can just picture him proudly turning up his nose at his critics as Great Britain gets a little more multicultural about private things like beheadings, the kill-all-the-Jews parades, and revoking VISAs of filmmakers.
Douglas Johnson
Chicago
THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERDHIMMI
His Grace may actually be on to something here (but for the wrong reasons, of course).
By all means, let's entangle the English bureaucracy with every facet of Islam and let's do it quickly. If the Anglican church is any model, within a generation or two, Islam in Britain will be so blanched and vapid that we'll see the Archimam glowingly urging the implementation of Canon law within His Majesty's Caliphate. And let's face it, that would be a marked improvement over today!
Stu Gittelman
Fort Knox, Kentucky
TIRESOME-PRIEST TIME
Not that she'd ever do it, but can the Queen fire this guy? He's truly a dolt! Every time I read anything from him it makes me glad that I left the Episcopal church at 16 and never looked back.
Mark Rylander
SENSE OF PREMONITION
The warning is published today by the Royal United Services Institute, Rusi, a think-tank at the heart of Britain's defence and security establishment.
"Some may believe that we are already at war; but all may agree that generally a peacetime mentality prevails," it says. In "our social fragmentation, the sense of premonition and the divisions about what our stance should be, there are uneasy similarities with the years just before the first world war", it adds. It continues: "The country's lack of self-confidence is in stark contrast to the implacability of its Islamist terrorist enemy."
Peter O'Keefe
St. Barthelemy, French West Indies
Re: Lazy Man Yawns
SCARY SWAMPLANDERS
Ouch.... Somebody better tell resident dumb ass Mark Steyn that Swamplanders not only stick together but we ALSO go to source links. Let's provide some context to the quote from Mahathir bin Mohammad who is the former prime minister of Malaysia.
.
Here is what he went on to say in the article Steyn quotes and appropriately it pretty much addresses Steyn and other ass holes just like him.
“In addition to poverty, ignorance and instability have become such common features in the Muslim world that its detractors assume these afflictions are the natural consequences of following the teachings of
Islam,” Mahathir said.
.
“Yet it is a historical fact that Muslims were at one time the world's most advanced people in all fields of human endeavour. When European Christians were wallowing in the Dark Ages and Jews were wandering rootless all over the world, Muslims were the biggest traders, producers of goods, strategists, navigators and defenders of their faith…”
.
“Christians and Jews lived freely under the success of the Muslims; many people embraced Islam so that much of the world became Muslim, he said. Muslims were respected and no one dared to desecrate the Qur'an or insult the Prophet and his teachings.”
Now understand this is from the VERY SAME ARTICLE that Steyn uses for his justification. Now I wonder if he agrees with the rest of Mohammed's statements or does he instead just give weight to the parts of the story that HE wants to pervert. Well Mr. Steyn, your turn. Try to squirm your slimy ass out of this one. Are you agreeing that the world was at one time Muslim and that Christians and Jews didn't have a clue and we all were much inferior to the Muslims? Buehler?
Paul
MARK REPLIES: I think Mr Klein and his chums have missed the point. His commenter, a self-appointed "language cop", prissily pronounced it "offensive" to imply that the Muslim world was not part of the developed world. I responded that Dr Mahathir had stated explicitly that not a single Muslim nation can be regarded as "developed". Is he being "offensive", too? As to Mr Klein and his readers' sudden enthusiasm for the former Prime Minister's other remarks, I wonder if they realize what a truly pathetic argument that is: "Sure, the place is a craphole now. But, boy, you shouldda been here in the ninth century." That lame-ass defense is far more insulting than anything I've said.
PREENING MORALISM
Joe Klein's update to his post was weak and evasive. As soon as you pressed back, Klein immediately retreated a few centuries to find what he only thought was secure ground. He's apparently altogether unaware of his reply's irrelevance: The war between the free and the submitted isn't a game being played for points, and no reasonable man cares about Klein's historical score-keeping. His knowledge of histories would be meaningful only if he were willing to face Islam today and use what he claims to know,
to defeat what Islam has become.
The available information is on your side, and Klein has little on his except preening moralism and red herrings. If you keep hammering Klein, you'll wreck him utterly in the eyes of any reasonable reader. You have the Maxim Gun, and Klein has not. I think you know what you want to do.
Doug Wingate
New Orleans, Louisiana
THANK ATTATURK
I'm a US Air Force officer stationed in Turkey (Ankara, not Istanbul or Izmir unfortunately). So, what about Turkey? Free--yes, developed, yes if you are west of Ankara roughly. Are they Muslim??? Of course, but they can thank Attaturk (at least until AKP ruins everything) for their progress IMHO.
I was taking a group of officers on a tour around the states for some Air Force business. In DC we stopped at the Turkish Embassy--next door to the big Islamic center. The center is likely Saudi funded and all that... It had flags of all the muslim nations flying in front (no UK yet). I made the dumb statement of asking where the Turkish flag was and the General told me "They consider us, and we are, a secular country." Anyways .... keep up the great work and drop me a line if you are ever in Ankara.
Curt
‘EXCITING AND HOPEFUL’ …
How ridiculous that Klein uses Iraq as the most "exciting and hopeful" indication that radicalization is on the decline. Iraq is the starkest example of your point that if you stand up to extremists you have a chance against them.
Klein claims that given a choice Muslims will reject extremism. So, the West should relax and get out of their hair. But isn't that the whole issue: by the West sitting on its hands it deprives so-called moderates of real choice. If the West doesn't advance itself, the extremists will surely take over.
Pavel
Pleasanton, California
….OR STUPID AND BLOOD-SOAKED?
I also thought this part of Joe Klein's analysis deserves attention:
"This is not only crude religious bigotry, it also ignores recent indications that the jihadi tide is ebbing. The most exciting and hopeful example is in Iraq, where Sunnis thoroughly rejected Al-Qaeda style extremism, first via the Awakening Movement and more recently in elections"
"Exciting and hopeful?" It wasn't long ago that Iraq was the "stupidest foreign policy decision ever made by an American President" and a hallmark of "one of the worst, and needlessly blood-soaked, presidencies in American history". How exciting and hopeful would Iraq be if we had heeded the Joe Kleins of the world in those days?
Carr Taylor
TOP UNIVERSITIES
Regarding the relative underdevelopment of the Muslim world, a few years ago Shanghai Jiao Tong University did a list of the top 500 universities in the world. (One assumes a Chinese source would be relatively free of Western bias.) Not one of the universities was in a Muslim country. Israel, with seven million people, had seven universities on the list.
The list is here.
Kevin O'Meara
Portland, Oregon
REAL MEN DON’T SAY ‘OFFENSIVE’
As a woman, I can speak to this with some expertise. A man’s propensity to use the word "offensive" or the phrase "I'm offended" is in direct proportion to his lack of testosterone.
Trust me.
Carolyn M.
Setauket, New York
LOVE IS IN THE AIR
No disrespect to your wife….
"Bonus round: Even in the harem of PC eunuchs, isn't calling something "offensive", like, totally "utterly lazy"?"
. . . but I think I love you.
Athena Runner
Carlsbad, California
LIBERALS ATTACK THE MESSENGER
If I may be so bold as to proffer an observation after reading Paul Dirks response to your recent rebuttal on the corner, I offer you this:
It would seem that Mr. Dirks is very much like a postman sorting mail into cubbies to prepare them for delivery. The only difference is, his cubbies are labeled with the usual nonsensical categories liberals always use to avoid having to deal with any real substantive discussion. Apparently you've been filed in the religious bigot box and nothing further need be said. I note that you're in good company as he just as casually tosses Sir Winston Churchill into the same cubby.
Conservatives engage in ideas, liberals engage in ad hominem. Much like Muslim extremists seem to do by the way. Don't like an idea? Attack the messenger for delivering it! Far easier than offering a rebuttal, no?
A fan and friend,
Don "Scottie" Scott
The Heartland Patriot
Terre Haute, Indiana
Re: “This just in”
STIMULUS STUDY
Being a gapped-tooth Neanderthal, I too like to see women in bikinis. Princeton could have saved it's money and just asked a few real men on the quad. (Does Princeton have a quad? Does Princeton have real men?) As to your supposition that Prof. Fiske must be hot, she's not. I looked her up. I see why she is so concerned. Likely no man (well few, anyway) would be distracted by her in a bikini. She probably hates the hotties!
Michael Hutter
Orlando, Florida
ONE-PIECE WONDER
You're a genius. Love your work.
Former bikini-wearing mother of 4
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
I'm guessing "scantily clad women" from the "Women's Studies Department" of most universities would trigger the "flight or fight reflex" more than any high desire goal-related response.
How's that for hostile sexism?
Brad Horst
Re: Ah, now I get it
WHAT LIBERAL DEBATES?
I suspect Professer Richard Lindzen and other global warm ... er, I mean, climate change "deniers" are thrilled to learn of liberals' "inclination to deliberate."
Brian Rehder
PEOPLE LIKE US
“Celebrate diversity with ruthless conformity: We won't tolerate anyone who questions our commitment to tolerance.”
When will the T-shirts be available? No need to offer student discounts, as anyone who dares wear one on most campuses will be saving a bundle in tuition after being expelled.
Clay Arceneaux
Baton Rouge, Lousiaina
THE CHANGE WE HAVEN’T BEEN WAITING FOR
You said recently that the Iranian ICBM is named "Hope." Will the nuclear warhead be named "Change"? (Credit my wife for that one.)
Thanks for all that you are doing. You are both frightening and hilarious.
Like Elsa Lanchester with a beard.
Randy and Karen Earley
Naperville, Ilinois
STEYN INFLECTS HIS ACCESSES
Perhaps you should look into why some of these Moslems are up in arms.Lets start from that so called great leader Churchill who lived in Malakand for 2years, may be you should read his writings and how much contempt he had for the local Moslems.Now come back to Iraq and Afghanistan, how many innocent civilian has been killed by the brave soldiers of USA and Britain.Lets talk about Israel, what kind love they are spreading in Middle East and especially toward the Palestinians. Perhaps you forgot to mention the lovely treatment of majority of the prisoners at Gitmo and Abughrab, sure we civilized people don't torture people.Some how I remember Gilyawala Bagh in Amratsar,India reminds me the civilized treatment of the locals by General Dyer.I am sure you will be proud of him and the likes.
I am from Mardan nearby Malakand, we spent our summer vacations at Swat in the 50s, they had Islamic law then and we did not feel any threats from anyone that time.If the people want Islamic law, then they should have it.As far as that corrupt Zardari is concerned, he should amass wealth as he did before by stealing it from the Pakistani State.I am amazed how Brits and Americans always find their satraps in those countries.
I will bet my life on it as a Pakhtoon that the west will never win in Afghanistan unless they kill 40 million Pakhtoon on both side of the Durand Line.Remember Vietnam?
I will say in the end to look in your own atrocities which has been inflected on Moslems around the world, these Moslems are just standing up to your accesses.
Naeem Khan
Manhattan, Kansas
THE FLARENESS DOCTRINE
I sent you an email with a cold war video. After I did that, that video is now offline. Hm. I will try again. Here is a video that presages all future music videos.
Based on my history, every time I send you a video, it gets pulled from youtube. Next time, I am going to send you an Elvis video. Let's see them pull that.
Have a great day.
George
AMMO, AMAS, AMAT
I'm sure you've noticed the mass purchases of guns and ammo these past months, right? I, for one, am having a lot of fun with a Mini-14, and assorted mods. Just in case Barak I, or his men should come to the door.
So, much of this country is not, oh, the Mother Country, nor the Cold Dominion.
Hope, or wossname.
Patrick
LAST WORD
Some activists invoice black taxpayers for the cost of bailing out Citibank, confront Schumer and Snowe, and throw cash at Tim Geithner.
A must see video for you to post!
James O'Keefe
One of your local readers
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