Lickspittles in Lockstep

by Mark Steyn
Steyn on the Oakley Show
April 4, 2019

https://www.steynonline.com/9270/lickspittles-in-lockstep

On Wednesday, I kept my fortnightly date with John Oakley on Toronto's Global News Radio 640. We started with Justin the tarnished Boy King and his thuggish retaliation against two of his Cabinet colleagues, then contrasted the lockstep automatons of Canadian Liberals with the naked intra-party hatreds of UK Tories, fretted that global warming may be making the Yukon too balmy, and compared Joe Biden's hands to Nunavut alligators. Click below to listen:

We had a grand turnout from Canadians on last year's Steyn cruise, so we hope more than a few Oakley listeners will want to join us this September, sailing from Vancouver to Alaska, and with Dennis Miller joining our merry crew. But don't leave it too late - the staterooms are going amazingly fast.

See you tonight on the telly with Tucker, south of the border live at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific.

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49 Reader Comments

P. Gao • Apr 5, 2019 at 00:20

Hmm. Interesting topics. Will M. Mark be able to invite the two 'expelled' women on interview?
Hoping so! Have to mention our on-going high appreciation for M. Mark's independent platform - it isn't constrained by the demands of ads, which force all discussions on radio/TV to strict limits and rigid breaks, which is artificial, annoying, and actually unfair to the audience and to the persons (interviewer/interviewee) who provide the discussion, not to mention making all of it subservient to the advertiser's goals, not to informing the public.
Just some thoughts.:)

Sean Lowell Soderman

P. Gao • Apr 5, 2019 at 09:45

It's not very likely that these two expelled women--Raybould & Philpott--would be interviewed by Steyn, or other more "right-of-center" figures. This is an enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend situation, but I worry that Conservatives who are championing these women will find that this championing comes back to bite them in the butt when they come to criticize conservatives, which they certainly will given their ideological standing.

P. Gao

Sean Lowell Soderman • Apr 5, 2019 at 11:38

Discussing the deeper issue is the goal, not championing. Agree there is a real problem that people are encouraged to suddenly embrace this or that based on one instance that may or may not have been reported factually. This just stampedes people into the influence zones of manipulators. So, far, mercifully, there hasn't been 'go and fundme' money collection for the dupes, that NEVER gets audited. Even NGOs have to cough up a balance sheet once a year.

Barbara Stockwell • Apr 4, 2019 at 23:17

Enjoyed you both as you give me a little hope that common sense, good humor, right mindedness (Does this describe you?) still exist in the world. The evil and pure idiocy depress me. Thanks.

Thomas Gaydos • Apr 4, 2019 at 18:54

Justin will leave office like his father; giving the nation a one finger salute.

Roy A Crocker • Apr 4, 2019 at 16:08

The one issue that could propel a lunatic Democrat into the White House in '20 is health care. This was the sole issue that turned the house over to the dems in '18. Poll after poll that showed districts that Trump carried in '16 turning against republicans indicated the sole issue was health care. Whether we like it or not our populace has turned to the left on health care and the sticking point is how to insure those having pre-existing conditions. The ugly point of fact here is that republican plans will face the same problem Obamacare ran into. How can you insure these people? The fact is that you cannot 'insure' these people for the same reason that a 90 year old cannot purchase a million dollar life insurance policy at market rates. Obamacare solved the problem by grossly over charging younger healthy people to subsidize the old and the sick. Republicans have only one solution here that will fly with the public - a two tiered system of private health care for the healthy with direct subsidies for the old and the sick. To be sure it's going to look like a version of Obamacare to many conservatives. If they cannot resolve this issue by '20 then we'll be looking at medicare for all which is guaranteed to bankrupt America in short order.

Sandy Bottom of Boodjidup Beach

Roy A Crocker • Apr 4, 2019 at 21:06

One way to handle it is the Australian system where there is a seamless private public health system and a national health insurer - Medicare - and private health insurers such as HBF. As such I can walk into any surgery, see any doctor, use any specialist and pay in cash and claim from Medicare and from private insurers. The private insurers cover the gap and provide extra benefits. Doctors are paid on a per procedure basis. As such everyone is covered for everything and there is full choice and competition in the market place. It's not perfect but it works well.

Steven Payne

Roy A Crocker • Apr 4, 2019 at 22:45

Very astute observation, Roy. Direct hit on the old nails head!

Perry Pattetic

Roy A Crocker • Apr 4, 2019 at 23:26

"Obamacare solved the problem by grossly over charging younger healthy people to subsidize the old and the sick"
What?
I am not "the young". I am one of 20 million Americans forced out of my $250/month $1k deductible plan to pay for 20 million dem voting illegals and uninsurables. My policy went to $1600 a month and $30k deductible, for less coverage, in under 4 years.

Insurance is not healthcare. If health insurance was illegal, healthcare costs would fall 90%.

P. Gao

Roy A Crocker • Apr 5, 2019 at 00:31

erm- ermm, Obamacare spawned the grass-roots Tea Party protests against overlording-government which needs higher taxes the way vampires need blood. No one wanted it. Nancy Pelosi walked pass the protesting citizens who were begging "NO!!" with a custom-made giant gavel and with her head thrown back laughing so hard at the 'rubes' her tonsils were visible.
Obamacare also nationalised student loans which is a peculiar angle for 'a law that was just about 'healthcare'. Notice how many ex-students are living like indentured serfs thanks to crippling loans? The old days it was only seven years of sefdom, now thanks to greedy education and greedy education loan sellers it's a lifetime of indentured debt servitude.

P. Gao

Sandy Bottom of Boodjidup Beach • Apr 5, 2019 at 01:00

Just some inputs. Australia has a population of between 23 and 25 million. That's only equivalent to Metropolitan New York/New Jersey with a very little part of Connecticut that commutes to downtown NYC tossed in to round the figure to about 24 million. The US needs a system that can handle 300 million. Magnitudes.
Prior to all the artificial meddling, the decentralized US medical system worked so well, over 80% of the public had no complaint to change it. That's pretty impressive, for any health care system, including that it was the health care destination of choice for anyone in the world who needed the world best medical and who could pay to get there. US medical diplomas cost a fortune, unlike in other countries so this negatively torques the system by viciously burdening doctors with huge debts from education, then huge insurance costs if he or she wants to run a private practice.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Sandy Bottom of Boodjidup Beach • Apr 5, 2019 at 09:54

I would love to see such a system here in Canada. They have a similar system in Israel, private and public.

Walt Trimmer

Sandy Bottom of Boodjidup Beach • Apr 5, 2019 at 18:18

And the doctor walks into the exam room and says to the nurse, "hold my beer."

Kate Smyth • Apr 4, 2019 at 15:16

Why hasn't caucus dumped Justin already? Someone must be doing the numbers ahead of calling a leadership spill, surely? The Liberal Party could then have a new leader - and Canadians a new PM - before the weekend!

Laura Rosen Cohen, Nunavut Alligator Hunter • Apr 4, 2019 at 14:08

* *conversation starter* *

Anyone been following the story out of California where an Orthodox Jewish guy was publicly "shamed" for wearing a MAGA hat at a coffee store? The unhinged lunatic who was shrieking at him just lost her job and deleted her social media presence alas, screenshots were taken. Another leftist nut case with no self-control, and no ability to see what consequences belligerent actions may have.

Apparently, the appearance of a MAGA hat on an elderly Jewish guy with a yarmulke is sufficient "evidence" that he hates brown people/makes brown people unsafe and whatnot and it's therefore completely justifiable to act like a raving banshee harpy in a coffee shop.

Discuss!

Kate Smyth

Laura Rosen Cohen, Nunavut Alligator Hunter • Apr 4, 2019 at 15:20

This is probably the man who evaded arrest by Chicago Police. Along with one of his MAGA-hat-wearing (Jewish) friends, in the midst of the polar vortex...

James Steiger

Laura Rosen Cohen, Nunavut Alligator Hunter • Apr 4, 2019 at 17:00

Interesting, Laura. I simply haven't heard a thing about this! And what ever became of the "Berkeley Bully"? He was identified and I think he was charged.

Ken Costa

Laura Rosen Cohen, Nunavut Alligator Hunter • Apr 4, 2019 at 17:05

"... no self-control, and no ability to see what consequences belligerent actions may have."

Nor, it would seem, a sense of irony given that she is reported to have called the elderly Jewish man a Nazi.

Josh Passell

Laura Rosen Cohen, Nunavut Alligator Hunter • Apr 5, 2019 at 06:34

The moonbats openly declare they hate the MAGA hats more than they hate Trump himself. Let them explain why; I'd rather give the dark recesses of their dank minds a wide berth. But if you want to play a fun game, shop around for red caps of the same hue as the MAGA ones. Watch people approach you warily and stare at your forehead. Then enjoy their looks of bemusement and disappointment when all they see is "Vern's Grain & Feed" or "Batavia (NY) Muckdogs". Practice your best sh*t-eating grin first, for ultimate satisfaction.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Kate Smyth • Apr 5, 2019 at 09:57

Definitely likely!!

Fran Lavery • Apr 4, 2019 at 12:52

"There is no such thing as non-religious human society. We must believe in something to have any rational function at all." -Todd Lewis.

Precisely, this is what sets humans apart from the animal kingdom. Any other scenario means that we are the animals and a select few has us harnessed and leashed to do as they command. That's the path the Leftist elites are taking us down. You can't force a free people to do what they don't want them to do, so how can you make them less free so you are able to lead them down the path of totalitarianism? Answer: Take away all those things that are allowing them to function rationally, symbols of their faith, their bonds with their neighbors, their expressions of how government exists for them and not that they exist for the elite rulers. Why else would the government be planting wind turbine farms around North America against the will of the people who live in those areas? Why do they continue with this folly of forcing the people to pay higher prices for something they don't want, that they were promised would lower their energy bills and is making them sick, depressed, turning neighbor against neighbor and forcing them to leave their homes in some cases? Is it all about twenty-year contracts not being broken? No, it's just one of the many tools.

I heard a climate professor from Columbia U last night talk about human caused megadroughts at our local All Leftist city-owned theater. He was well-spoken. He showed a fossil of an alligator found at one of the poles on one slide and in the adjacent side, a slide of snowball earth. He asked how are we going to stop this from happening to us? He honestly admitted he himself had no answers.

Another very refreshing thing about this speaker, he was more knowledgeable about some of the cycles and rhythms of the earth's weather patterns and climate history than a couple of the recent speakers we heard, but still there was no presentation in a nice graphic of how 600 to 500 million years ago in the Cambrian, CO2 ppm was 18x's what it is today and nothing horrible happened. Then 50 million years later, CO2 jumped up another 500 ppm to 4,500 and we had the snowball earth at the end of the Ordovician. We're still here guys and gals.

These people are slick. They have answers for everything, but if you look at their graphs, they lie. They talk of models, hypotheticals and how on the cutting edge they all are. They cheat on the data. They show a graph of ice core values but they only go back so many centuries. The labels on the graphs are all legitimate looking research labs. So everything "looks" to fit their narrative. They show temps of North America and have a little peak at around the Dust Bowl years but then they show a a little dip into cooling for a couple decades when we were warned about the big icing coming, and then followed by the graph shooting up into a whopping 3 d change much higher than the recorded temps of the Dust Bowl years. I kept thinking some Canadians will go for that!

The people bought and paid for by the Leftists are the ones designing their computer programs to generate their wonderful models to buttress their AGW arguments when they go on these speaking tours, but do any of them ever wonder what the models would look like if they had unbiased scientists creating the models? They would give much different outlooks. Without exception, every graphic shown on the screen was meant to instill fear and guilt.

The Left is successfully leading large numbers of us like asses down into a big hole. They're working on the technology this very day to get excessive amounts of carbon emissions back into the earth. By George, I think they got it.

Daniel Kleitman • Apr 4, 2019 at 12:00

There are some things about the modern world I cannot understand.
Here's one example. As a child I suffered from acrophobia. That is, when I could look down and see empty space below or almost below me, I got very nervous, almost to panic. I guess I worried about the possibility that if I thoroughly panicked I could faint or lose control and drop into an abyss. I couldn't stand being at the edge of a cliff, or even climbing a rope.
I was aware of claustrophobia, trisadecaphobia and other phobias, and always considered them mental problems whose victims were those who suffered them, who were, like me, prevented by them from enjoying or living with whatever it was they were afraid of. I believe the technical definition of a phobia is an irrational fear of something.
Nowadays, I often hear of Islamophobia, usually shortly after some atrocity committed by an Islamist extremist. This is mentioned as if it were a problem of Moslems, who were harmed by it.
But doesn't Islamophobia represent a mental syndrome suffered by someone who has an irrational fear of Islam or of Moslems? This is an unfortunate ailment, like all phobias, and but I am sure that it is treatable.
The way phobias are usually treated, as far as I can tell, is to attempt to convince the victims that their fear is not rational, by building up small positive experiences with whatever is irrationally feared. Similarly the best way to try to cure Islamophobia is by demonstrating to its victims that fear of Islam or of Moslems is not rational.
Unfortunately that is not what seems to be urged by those who mention the subject. Rather they appear to want to suppress mention of such atrocities, in order to avoid stimulating Islamophobia by reporting about them. However, what they aim at, such suppression, actually makes people who have a rational fear of atrocities fear that such things are being hidden from them, which actually stimulates irrational fear of them.
In short, the people who invoke discussions of Islamophobia when a grisly horror occurs, are really exhibiting an irrational phobia to Islamophobia, and their approach to handling it makes Islamophobia more common. What they should instead do, if they are concerned with that ailment, is to express their own horror at the evil deeds, and to encourage protests by other Moslems against the atrocities. Such actions could suggest to victims of Islamophobia that most Moslems are angry and upset about Islamicist terror just as everyone else is.
Unfortunately such protests almost never happen. This is not because Moslems are monsters, though it looks like that to many observers. The actual reason is that most victims of the evil ones are themselves Moslems, and the bad guys have a habit of doing violence against those in their own communities who oppose them. They fear that denouncing Islamist terror will cause their own or their family's destruction. Thus, it is fear that inhibits good Moslems from protesting against horrors committed by ISIS or Hamas or the like, and that fear is rational and definitely not Islamophobic. It is experienced by Moslems.
Perhaps the people who bring up Islamophobia are really though perhaps unconsciously, trying to encourage it, so that they can justify the atrocities.

Walt Trimmer

Daniel Kleitman • Apr 4, 2019 at 12:39

Daniel,

Your talking about a phobiaphobia. This is an infinite loop. You can simplify your thinking. Take it from somebody who has seen the face of Islam between Pakistan and Morocco, there is nothing irrational about fearing Islam.

Go Crusaders!

Kate Smyth

Walt Trimmer • Apr 4, 2019 at 15:24

The Crusaders (NZ Super Rugby team) announced they'll be changing their name.

So Mark might be right about a name change for Christchurch, too.

P. Gao

Daniel Kleitman • Apr 5, 2019 at 01:50

Well, it's simply a blatent misuse of the suffix -'phobia'.
If schools/universities were teaching useful skills instead of 'educating.' if media wasn't promoting it for political cover, then this mis-use of the plain language wouldn't be tolerated.
Having witnessed Muslim on Muslim racial/ethnic cleansing, i.e. Muslim slave owners using their Muslim slaves against free Muslim blacks - yes in these 'modern times,' not impressed at all with the whinging about 'Islam'- a- 'phobic.' The hypocrisy is enough to drive an athiest to Christ.

Walt Trimmer

Kate Smyth • Apr 5, 2019 at 18:24

Islamabad is the name, I don't think calling a place Mohammedville is allowed.
I don't know what to think about NZ. Kiwis were once very strong birds with a keen sense of smell.

Kate Smyth

Walt Trimmer • Apr 7, 2019 at 23:11

I think the appeal must have something to do with a shared affinity for sheep, recalling a SteynOnline column from a few years ago.

CanCon • Apr 4, 2019 at 11:39

Trudeau is certainly "doing politics differently" if you compare him to Stephen Harper. Way differently. Faking a position that supports First Nations and women, yet casting them aside for daring to oppose him. Wilson-Raybould was at the helm for some terrible Justice bills so although I applaud her stance on SNC-Lavalin I won't canonize her but Philpott was one of the most accomplished and respected members of the caucus and she too was cast aside, apparently for the sin of being JWR's BFF. If I SMH much more it is going to fall off.

Scheer would be the same as Trudeau, given among other things his alignment with the dairy cartel to sell temp memberships to pack the vote and steal the Conservative leadership as "everyone's second choice". He will be lucky to be anyone's second choice in October. He will pander to anyone, anywhere if votes are at stake, because even with all the disgrace of Trudeau, Scheer isn't rising in the polls. Scheer's pandering would give Canada "Scheeria" law, with the help of Lisa Raitt and her Muslim immigrant constituency.

Go Max Go!

Ken Costa

CanCon • Apr 4, 2019 at 17:10

Maxime's appearance on the Mark Steyn Show alone should have won him Conservative Party leadership.

CanCon

Ken Costa • Apr 4, 2019 at 18:17

Agreed, it should have, especially since Max garnered close to half the votes in the first round. Many in the CPC are not truly conservative, they espouse only partisan values of "winning". Trudeau punting two top-tier ministers is reminiscent of Scheer punting Bernier even though 49% of CPC members voted for him as leader so his policies must resonate, but he dared question the fuhrer and there can be none of that!

There was a column in the NatPo today that referred to Scheer as "Dimples McCheery". I've never heard that one. Dimples McDullard, Dimples [email protected], etc., etc. Although I suppose the paper must keep it family-friendly.

Ken Costa

CanCon • Apr 4, 2019 at 19:05

Yeah, as much as I'm enjoying watching the Boy King self-immolate, I'm finding it very difficult to get excited about Ol' Dimples. Then again, I'm finding it hard to get excited about anyone in the "slightly to the right-of-left-of-centre" party these days.

Ken Costa

CanCon • Apr 4, 2019 at 20:19

About the only thing I'll say for Scheer is that the probability he'll ever get caught leaving his briefing book for Bucharest behind in the boudoir of a buxom biker babe... is extremely low.

CanCon

Ken Costa • Apr 5, 2019 at 06:54

Die-hard partisans love to bring up that decade-plus-old incident. It's a real eye-roller when you consider how many busy people bring work with them at the end of the day and how often something from work could be forgotten somewhere. I've done it myself, with a very sensitive laptop, but my date wasn't a money-grubbing opportunist who saw that as a way to quick riches. Unfortunately, Couillard's book didn't sell. Fortunately, Bernier has made better choices of who he gets in bed with, literally and figuratively, since then. Scheer hasn't.

I would far sooner trust someone who made an honest mistake and admitted it over someone who does backdoor deals for votes and then ridicules CPC voters afterward. Fool me once...

Ken Costa

CanCon • Apr 5, 2019 at 10:05

Absolutely. I was just having a little fun. Max handled that very well. He owned up, took his licks, so to speak, and drove on just as you would hope an honest, self-assured, adult man would. He didn't try to suggest that anyone experienced things differently.

Did you catch him on the Rubin Report? He was superb, and on a very unexpected forum. Got a hell of a lot of views, too. It would be great if he could get on Rogan now, but I guess politicians aren't really Joe's forte.

CanCon

Ken Costa • Apr 5, 2019 at 10:51

After I submitted my comment I thought that perhaps I would read as too strong on defense although I also thought that you were being lighthearted about it. Bernier's handling of that incident speaks to his character, he never avoids the repeated dredging and never throws shade on Couillard either.

I did see Bernier on the Rubin Report and thought he was excellent, can't wait to see him again on SteynOnline. Bernier is not getting a lot of Canadian mainstream press that I have seen so online forums are critical. His English has vastly improved, which is great too, as it is crucial to presenting a clear message across the country. I was at a forum last year where he gave a speech to a mainly English-speaking audience and noticed some in the crowd appeared to not understand a couple of things he said due to the heavy accent. But they got the overall message and seemed to soundly support it. Hope he never totally loses the accent though, a lot of women mention they find it charming and charisma is part of politics, like it or not.

PK33 • Apr 4, 2019 at 11:12

For the third Mark Steyn cruise consider welcoming Tucker Carlson aboard for a "Ship of Fools" theme. Satirically, of course.

BallBounces in PEI

PK33 • Apr 4, 2019 at 15:42

Great idea! (Sadly, Tucker will be tied up hosting the 2020 Bill and Hill Slickery tour. Rumour has it it will include mud-wrestling, but it's not clear who will be wrestling whom.)

PK33

BallBounces in PEI • Apr 4, 2019 at 16:19

The Dem 2020 primary race is a train wreck in slow mo. There should be a drinking game around the presidential hopefuls and the "freshmen" reps. Still a bit too scattershot to find the best memes and tweets to get thoroughly plastered, but enough to get a nice warm glow going. Just pick any topic and outrage or a ridiculous platform position is available.

Laura Rosen Cohen, Nanavut Alligator Hunter • Apr 4, 2019 at 10:43

The best comment in this interview is Mark saying "at least" the Conservatives of Britain hate each other. Just perfect.

Gotta love it. It's like Kathy Draidlebaum always says, we need more-not less hate.

Fran Lavery

Laura Rosen Cohen, Nanavut Alligator Hunter • Apr 4, 2019 at 11:52

The other memorable one was John's: in the UK, I believe they say, 'you can't whip a conservative Member until it's after hours, and they pay for it," Mark adds, " and they hang you upside down." (Unless I was just hearing things).

Lowell Walker

Fran Lavery • Apr 4, 2019 at 16:35

That's what I heard, too.

Laura Rosen Cohen, Nunavut Alligator Hunter • Apr 4, 2019 at 10:37

Hey Todd, I've changed my name in homage to your comment.

Todd Lewis

Laura Rosen Cohen, Nunavut Alligator Hunter • Apr 4, 2019 at 19:47

Thanks Laura. You are Steve Irwin to the clueless. Please don't let them kill you.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Todd Lewis • Apr 5, 2019 at 09:58

Gah! Thanks (I think?).

Todd Lewis • Apr 4, 2019 at 09:50

Quebec is not abolishing religious symbols. they've simply decided to make every symbol of state power a religious symbol. There is no such thing as non-religious human society. We must believe in something to have any rational function at all. We are, day by day, having the state tell us that it constitutes in full the new religious order and if you don't want to be burned at the stake you better get with it. You can look at old Nazi films and see them quite purposefully showing Christian symbols being superseded by Nazi symbols. This is not stupidity, it is spiritual warfare. "Secular" is really an oxymoronic concept. You would have to be a Nunavut alligator to be truly secular.

BallBounces in PEI

Todd Lewis • Apr 4, 2019 at 15:46

In Nova Scotia, you are now donating your organs (presumably after death), unless you opt-out. https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/nudging-the-dead-how-behavioural-psychology-inspired-nova-scotias-organ-donation-scheme

PK33

BallBounces in PEI • Apr 4, 2019 at 18:05

In Europe there is euthanasia-assisted live, beating-heart donation. Forget the slippery slope, we are in full tuck and race-to-the-bottom mode.

Walt Trimmer

BallBounces in PEI • Apr 5, 2019 at 18:33

So if I need an organ I could go out and shoot someone of the right blood type? If they didn't arrest me before the transplant I could keep it? Could they try me since one part of the defendant is the habeus corpus?
It's all very complicated but I can see the incentives.

Kate Smyth

PK33 • Apr 7, 2019 at 23:22

Cases of organ donation euthanasia have already taken place in Ontario and Quebec, PK. And "bioethicists" are pushing to normalise it. Super-fresh organs! Like organ donation executions in China, except it's "voluntary". What could possibly go wrong?!