Scott Thompson and Kurt Cobain



Stuff like this is the reason I love The Kids In The Hall. Who else besides boy-faced Dave Foley could take a somber topic like the death of a rock icon and say something in such poor taste to bring down the house? As is the case with Monty Python, another troupe that defined comedy in an earlier era, most of the stuff the members of KITH did after the end of their show does not hold a candle to their groundbreaking early work, but occasionally they can blow you away with something daring, like Foley did here.

Here is a favourite from their TV show:

More Campus Fascism... now Fascism comes clad in ersatz religious headdress!

Colby Cosh introduces us to Gilary Massa, who wants to choke off and suffocate the insolent pro-lifers on her campus:

It is certainly wrong to take money from some students and use it in a lopsided fashion to promote the opposite side in a legitimate, ongoing public debate. And what else is the executive of the York Federation of Students doing by meeting during the summer to sneak through a ban on funding and access to SU resources for pro-life groups? Properly understood, the YFS's actions are not so much a free-speech issue as a simple instance of theft.

This analysis depends upon the status of the debate over therapeutic abortion as a "legitimate" one. YFS vice-president Gilary Massa, reportedly the chief engineer of the YFS ban, hopes to win this point by denouncing pro-life groups as "sexist" and "demoralizing" to women who have had abortions, or who may wish to have them. This constitutes an obvious attempt to raise the poorly defined crime of "sexism" to the same level of social intolerability as racial prejudice or political extremism

Gilary is both a practicing muslim (presumably, given the pictures I have seen with her sporting a hijab), and apparently a hard-core feminist too!
Cognitive dissonance... head swimming... must sit down...

Ah that's better! Now where was I? Oh yeah, the devout member of the umma who happens to favour abortion-on-demand, and thinks pro-lifers are "sexist"... yeah, that's actually the position she appears to have staked out. The mote in thy neighbour's eye, the plank in thine own...

What about mainstream Islamic scholarship's rejection of unrestricted abortion, deriving from this sura of the Quran:

Kill not your offspring for fear of poverty; it is We who provide for them and for you. Surely, killing them is a great sin.
Qur'an 17:32

Yeah, I also know about the Shiite Zaidiva and their dissenting position, but I'm willing to bet Gilary ain't Shi'a --not too many of them originate in Africa. So suffice it to say Gilary and islamic scholarship do not appear to be on the same page on this issue. Is the evidently pious Ms. Massa actually advocating something that goes against what her religion teaches?

Ah heck, you know what? Screw it.

It is obvious that my association of islamic orthodoxy and the hijab is nonsense, because given her rather un-islamic position regarding abortion on demand, clearly this woman's hijab is not so much a religious garment signaling her adherence to the tenets of islam, as it is a political statement, so my whole point is moot.

Political statement you say?

Do go on...

Well, it just so happens that Percy Grainger provides an intriguing tidbit on the National Post Full Comment page for this article:

Here's the text of a letter that Ms. Massa wrote to the York University administration, dated February 21, 2008, which as of today is posted on the YFS website:

"The York Federation of Students (YFS), representing 45000 undergraduate students and the Graduate Students

(GSA) at York University representing 5,700 students, are shocked and dismayed to hear that your administration along with the McMaster Students Union has banned the use of the phrase “Israeli Apartheid” on campus. This strange and unprecedented ban is a blatant violation of democratic freedoms of speech and dissent, and an

attack on students’ right to organize. It is the position of the YFS and GSA that universities are sites where discussions and debates about difficult geo-political questions should be promoted, not stifled. International controversy about use of the phrase “Israeli Apartheid” cannot be resolved through repression, but through ongoing intellectual exchange.

The YFS and GSA strongly support the United for Students’ Rights (U4SR) coalition at McMaster in their demand that the disgraceful ban on the phrase “Israeli Apartheid” be rescinded in accordance with a basic commitment to freedom of expression and organization in the democratic context of the public university."

It is obvious - Ms. Massa only believes in "democratic freedoms of speech and dissent" where she agrees with the point of view being expressed. The level of inconsistency is astounding!

So, to sum up:

The abortion debate is settled.
Gotcha.

The Israel-Palestine debate is not settled?
OK.

So my inevitable question:

Says who?

Oh yeah, right: the growing ranks of the new campus Fascists. They are legion.

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Other Things Worth Checking Out:

What if we lived in Facebook?



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A Toronto Star profile of an Afghan Policewoman

"For men, it is particularly insulting to be arrested by a female officer. Too bad."

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Ten Countries Islamic Terrorists Avoid

Interesting as much for what countries are not on the list, as for which ones are.

"Dad, how come those old dudes call themselves New Kids On The Block?"



Hey, what do you know... it's a catchy tune!