Happy Dependence Day! - Mark Steyn - The Corner on National Review Online

...If Barack Obama does nothing else in his term in office, this will make him one of the most consequential presidents in history. It's a huge transformative event in Americans' view of themselves and of the role of government. You can say, oh, well, the polls show most people opposed to it, but, if that mattered, the Dems wouldn't be doing what they're doing. Their bet is that it can't be undone, and that over time, as I've been saying for years now, governmentalized health care not only changes the relationship of the citizen to the state but the very character of the people. As I wrote in NR recently, there's plenty of evidence to support that from Britain, Canada and elsewhere...

Technically not a coup, and ultimately not bloodless...

Gaza Christmas War in Perspective

MARK STEYN
"Clashing Civilizations"

So how was your holiday season? Over in Gaza, whether or not they’re putting the Christ back in Christmas, they’re certainly putting the crucifixion back in Easter. According to the London-based Arabic newspaper al Hayat, on December 23rd Hamas legislators voted to introduce Sharia — Islamic law — to the Palestinian Territories, including crucifixion. So next time you’re visiting what my childhood books still quaintly called “the Holy Land,” the re-enactments might be especially lifelike....

....when President Sarkozy and other European critics bemoan Israel’s “disproportionate” response, what really are they saying? That they expect better from the despised Jews than from Hamas. That they regard Israel as a western society bound by civilized norms, whereas any old barbarism issuing forth from Gaza is to be excused on grounds of “desperation”. Hence, this slightly surreal headline from The New York Times: “Israel Rejects Cease-Fire, But Offers Gaza Aid.” For whatever that’s worth. Wafa Samir Ibrahim al-Biss, a young Palestinian woman who received considerate and exemplary treatment at an Israeli hospital in Beersheva, returned to that same hospital packed with explosives in order to blow herself up and kill the doctors and nurses who restored her to health. Well, what do you expect? It’s “desperation” born of “poverty” and “occupation”.

If it was, it would be easy to fix. But what if it’s not? What if it’s about something more primal than land borders and economic aid?.....

"Hopey Changemas"

...Steynism of the day!

Mark Steyn :

....General Motors now has a market valuation about a third of Bed, Bath & Beyond, and no one says your Swash 700 Elongated Biscuit Toilet Seat Bidet is too big to fail. GM has a market capitalization of about $2.4 billion. For purposes of comparison, Toyota's market cap is $100 billion and change (the change being bigger than the whole of GM). General Motors, like the other two geezers of the Old Three, is a vast retirement home with a small money-losing auto subsidiary. The UAW is AARP in an Edsel: It has three times as many retirees and widows as "workers" (I use the term loosely). GM has 96,000 employees but provides health benefits to a million people.

How do you make that math add up? Not by selling cars: Honda and Nissan make a pretax operating profit per vehicle of around $1,600; Ford, Chrysler and GM make a loss of $500 to $1,500. That's to say, they lose money on every vehicle they sell. Like Henry Ford said, you can get it in any color as long as it's red....

(h/t rightgirl)

Political Science 101 - Canada

with Prof. Mark Steyn...

....The difference between the US system and a parliamentary democracy is that, in the latter, events can turn on a dime (as Mrs Thatcher discovered in 1990). In Canada, in October, Stephen Harper's Conservative Party was returned to office - not with a majority in the House of Commons but nevertheless with an increased minority. By contrast, Canada's formerly "natural governing party", the Liberals, got their lowest percentage of the vote since 1867, shriveling away to their Toronto heartland with a few redoubts in the Maritimes and the Yukon. Stephane Dion, an unpopular eco-obsessive with an ascetic mien and poor English presiding over an impoverished party trying to sell the nation an unwanted "Green Shift", immediately announced his resignation as leader, and it seemed the Tories would have the luxury of watching the Loyal Opposition tearing itself apart all winter electing his replacement.

Now, a mere six weeks later, what David Frum calls "the Harper government"* is about to fall, and the fellow set to replace him as Prime Minister is the October flopperoo Dion, reborn as leader of a freakshow coalition of Canada's three opposition parties - the soft left, the hard left and the separatist left, all of whom have figured out that what they have in common (unbounded love of big government) is bigger than what divides them. Which is true. Quebec separatism is mostly one almighty bluff, a giant racket by which the francophone minority screws out of English Canada a hugely disproportionate share of the spoils. The Bloc Quebecois are separatists who have no interest in separating: no matter how wide you open the stable door, the flea-bitten old nag refuses to bolt. Granted all that, it's weird to see the Liberals, until recently the most electorally successful party in the western world, reduced to climbing into bed with separatists and socialists.

How this will all play out I haven't a clue. There are those who say Harper's a genius to allow himself to be temporarily dethroned in glum economic times by two unpopular Quebeckers (M Dion and the separatist Gilles Duceppe) who'll get stuck with the blame for everything that goes wrong. Maybe. But Quebeckers are to Canada what the Sunni were to Saddam's Iraq....

Nominations Open

For the INFIDEL BLOGGER AWARDS - the best in non-CHRC approved punditry!

(h/t FFoF)

A Steyn In Time...

If you are still undecided, one more stab at the potatoe with Mark Steyn's latest at the Washington Times:

..."I am no longer interested in three dimensions. I would even like to become a resident of the two-dimensional world," explained Taichi Takashita. "Therefore, at the very least, would it be possible to legally authorize marriage with a two-dimensional character?"

Get back to me on that tomorrow night. We'll know by then whether an entire constitutional republic has decided to contract marriage with a two-dimensional character and to attempt to take up residence in the two-dimensional world.

For many of his supporters, Barack Obama is an idea. He offers "hope, not fear." "Hope" of what? "Hope" of "change." OK, but "change" to what? Ah, well, there you go again, getting all hung up on three-dimensional reality, when we've moved way beyond that...

Don't Worry, Be Happy !

Mark Steyn at 'The Corner':

...if Aunt Zeituni had settled in Wasilla — say, in lodgings across the way from Bristol Palin's boyfriend's ex-girlfriend's uncle's sled dog's veterinarian's ammunition dealer — the fact that she's an "illegal immigrant" might have come out a lot sooner, even if only from the Atlantic Monthly investigative unit driving by and asking her whether Joe the Plumber had ever serviced Trig's real mother's double-wide.

On the other hand, what could be more American than an Undocumented First Family? If I'd known it was this easy, I'd have run myself.

I was away for much of the summer and, when I returned, the entire campaign felt like an absurd satire I wasn't quite up to speed on. But truly, in a world in which the many illegal foreign contributions to the leading candidate's unprecedented fundraising include his own deportation-ordered aunt, satire is dead.

By the way, one thing you can say for certain is that Aunt Zeituni's deportation order will never be enforced. Demanding proof of identity at polling stations, requiring address verification for credit-card contributions, getting hung up on foreigners donating to candidates, enforcing deportation orders . . . To raise such footling technicalities as "the law" is racist and so, in a squeamish politically correct culture, we let it slide, even as it corrupts the integrity of the democratic process and the defining act of a free society...

They just don't care....yet.

Almost Good News, Kinda

Good coverage on the latest chapter of CHRC 'doings' at 'The World Tonight':

"..This is a perfectly logical conclusion, but I'm not prepared to concede that the Canadian Human Rights Commission reached this conclusion for the right reasons. Obviously, the BC Human Rights Tribunal went to far as to conduct a hearing on the Steyn piece (verdict still pending), and the Ontario Commission clearly wishes it could have - so are we really to believe the federal commission is simply that much more enlightened that its provincial counterparts?"

Links to the complainant, the defendant and commentary by Ezra Levant.
(h/t The Black Kettle)

Meanwhile,Magic Statistics points out to the CHRC that Friday's Supreme Court decision clarifying the difference between 'fair' and 'fair comment' might cramp their style.

In other news, PM Stephen Harper won a Human Rights Award from the B'nai Brith! (I'm not sure how this is going to help..)

With Canada Day just around the corner, maybe Harper has a birthday present in mind?

About Time!

Apparantly some OTHER Canadian writers have realized that, in spite of how they might feel about Mark Steyn, Ezra Levant et al, and what they have to say, the HRC's are going to impact THEM ALSO! FINALLY!

PEN takes a stand here.

(h/t black kettle)

REAL MAN - Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn Live on The Al and Mike Showtoday:

"We want to lose here so we can appeal it in a real court...and restore freedom of speech in Canada."

"the phony complainants, the phony tribunal, the phony crime - none of this matters"

"some would argue they didn't actually go to a lawschool, they went to Osgoode"

"the hatred and contempt he's suffered has actually come about since he's launched his lawsuit"

"I feel sorry for him"

"I might be prepared to offer him some casual work as a joke tester"

etc.etc.etc...

Crying 'Uncle'

Mark Steyn on Obama and Jeremiah Wright:

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=ZjE3NDc3YTU0ZGM5NGEzZTdkNjcyZjBiNDVjMjU5MGQ=

MORE Steyn On Warman

Mark Steyn on Richard Warman's latest exhibition of near maniacal fascist vitriol:http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/924/128/

Funny, Funny , Canada

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2RlYzMzMjU1MjhlODYyNTczNGMzMmVkMWM2M2Y1ODA=

Mark Steyn's latest at 'The Corner'. Outlining the part of the HRC 'complaint' concerning 'Little Mosque'.

The whole situation is hilarious. Canadians, sitting idly with blank expressions watching CBC and nodding our (collective!) heads. Collectively burying our heads in the 'sand'.

HRC SCAM

Here is Mark Steyn's Jan17 Maclean's article on 'Richard Warman'. He's the most prolific filer of complaints at the HRC. (SUrprise!) He was a long time employee. He has never been turned down. He is their idea of perpetuating a need for the HRC. Aren't we all soo glad that the tax dollars get spent in such a relevant and meaningful way!

Come on parliament. Deal with this!


http://www.macleans.ca/canada/opinions/article.jsp?content=20080117_24131_24131&page=1