Linda Crosses the Line, And more same-old, same-old

There’s stupid

There’s real stupid

There's offensively stupid

Then there is Linda McQuaig:

Did these men somehow feel their military affiliation entitled them to behave like thugs?

This raises the disturbing possibility that these young reservists considered the Rambo-like posture of Canada's top general, Rick Hillier, gave them a licence to behave aggressively.

Certainly Hillier – who announced his retirement last week to much fawning in the media – set a very different tone for the Canadian Forces, referring to the enemy in Afghanistan as "detestable murderers and scumbags" and suggesting the role of the Canadian military is to "be able to kill people."

Damn you Hillier! Damn you and your fascist kill-bots!

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Tarek Fatah is pissed!

And he doesn't pull his punches in this NP piece:

Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, however, said that for the Commission "to refer to Maclean's magazine and journalists as contributing to racism is bullshit, if you can use that word."

He said the Commission has unfairly taken sides against freedom of speech in a dispute within the Canadian Muslim community between moderates and fundamentalists.

"There are within the staff [of the Ontario Human Rights Commission], and among the commissioners, hardline Islamic supporters of Islamic extremism, and this [handling of the Maclean's case] reflects their presence over there," Mr. Fatah said, identifying two people by name.

"In the eyes of the Ontario human rights commission, the only good Muslim is an Islamist Muslim," he said. "As long as we hate Canada, we will be cared for. As soon as we say Canada is our home and we have to defend her traditions, freedoms and secular democracy, we will be considered as the outside."

Melanie Philips wrote about just this kind of thing, in the context of the British Government's acquiescence to islamist assertiveness in the public forum, in the conclusion to her book Londonistan:

The key issue is the inability to grasp that just because a problem has a religious character, this does not mean that all members of that religion suffer from that problem. There is a distinction to be drawn between Muslims and Islamists. Islamism is the politicized interpretation of the religion that aims to Islamize societies. Many Muslims in Britain and elsewhere would not subscribe to this ideology(....) the most bitter criticism of the government's subsequent appeasement of the Brotherhood has come from liberal British Muslims, who understandably feel betrayed as the ground is cut from under their feet.

As in the UK, in Canada, the well-meaning, the self-righteous and the stupid reinforce all the old victimhood pathologies with bunk about "racism" and "islamophobia". In doing so, they are making common cause with fundamentally illiberal islamists, and making life difficult for those muslims who rather than showing up with a list of demands, would work to bridge whatever supposed gap exists between the muslim worldview and that of Western democracies. The Phillips book is definitely worth a read, by the way.


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Theo Caldwell on why Obama will never be president.

God help us if they don't elect the guy! It seems that many people think America somehow owes the world Obama. It's quite certain that his supporters think that America owes itself Obama, but what is also becoming increasingly clear, if it wasn't already evident in the mentality exhibited by certain "advisors" and "mentors", is that racism will be among the many bugbears that will be dragooned into service to explain to angry people why America rejected Obama if McCain wins in November. It could get ugly, folks.

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Zawahiri: People! Listen, it was us... no foolin'! SHEESH Just what the hell does a jihadi gotta do to get credit for sticking it to the Great Satan?

Related:


9/11 Conspiracy Theories 'Ridiculous,' Al Qaeda Says

Brought to you by The Onion

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AQI: Endorsed by OBL

This post reminded me of the egregious Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) omission in the film No End In Sight. Just as one had to question the reasons behind the film's conspicuous exclusion of AQI -- after all they were active in Iraq since at least 2003-- one also has to ask why some journalists, when they are not attempting to deny its existence altogether, continue to represent AQI as an Iraqi-led movement. This is demonstrably not the case. AQI's leadership has come from outside the country: Zarqawi was a Jordanian, al-Masri, an Egyptian.

I think the problem with AQI is that its existence goes against the grain of the now-dominant narrative that “the insurgency” was and remains a spontaneous uprising by disaffected Baathists and Iraqi nationalists caused by ham-handed mismanagement by L. Paul Bremer and his cronies, a narrative that was so excellently laid out in NEOS.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq, it is posited, is basically an opportunistic "islamist cloak" worn by one of the multitude of militant groups which really just want to see the Americans leave Iraq so that Iraqis can get on with re-building their country.

But AQI continues to refuse to play its part in this neat little story, no doubt exasperating the media and experts with its apocalyptic ravings on jihad, its mosque bombings, its videotaped executions, its continued allegiance to OBL, and its gleeful, indescriminate butchery of innocent Iraqis, Sunni and Shi'a alike--the people they are ostensibly trying to "liberate" from the Yankee agressors.

Seriously, though... when you can't even keep the Sunni tribes onside for some good old fashioned Shi'a persecutin' --historically, a very popular pastime-- and its gotten to the point where the Sheikhs in Anbar are so fed up with your atrocities that they are actually teaming up with the Zionist Crusaders to kick your ass out of Iraq, it may just be time to revise your strategy!

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Some amusing stuff:

From across the millenia the Neanderthals speak. Spooky!

Company! To the foetus... Pre-sent ARMS!

Laughing Baby: Laughing for us sinners

Failure Pile In A Sadness Bowl

Patton Oswalt's riff on the most popular item at KFC:



"Yes, we can pile that in a bowl, but we can also arrange it on a plate like you're an adult with self respect and dignity"

Related: The AV Club does a taste-test

Punching in the Name of the Lord

Greek, Armenian Christians clash at Jesus' tomb on Orthodox Palm Sunday

Each denomination jealously guards its share of the basilica, and fights over rights at the church have intensified in recent years, particularly between the Armenians and Greeks.

Father Pakrad, an Armenian priest, said the presence of the Greek priest during the Armenian observances violated the status quo. "Our priests entered the tomb. They kicked the Greek monk out of the Edicule," he said, referring to the tomb area.

Pakrad accused the Greek Orthodox Christians of trying to step on the Armenians' rights. "We are the weak ones, persecuted by them for many centuries."

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch in the Holy Land, Theofilos III, told The Associated Press that the Armenians are pushing to change the rules, challenging what he said was the dominance of the Greek church in the Holy Land.

"This behaviour is criminal and unacceptable by all means," he said. "They wanted to trespass on the status quo concerning the order that regulates the services between the various communities."

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Bartian: We believe that God's last prophet, Bart Simpson preached a message of tolerance, and love.
Bartmanian: We believe the holy Bartman preached a message of understanding and peace, before he was betrayed by his follower, Milhouse! And pulled apart by snow-mobiles, until he died.
Bartians: Eat my shorts!!!
Bartmanians: Cowabunga!!!
(Both sides wage war)

from The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star