Ezra Levant, Canada's version of Henry Armstrong, has taken off his shirt, loosened up his joints and has climbed between the ropes to face a surprised Warren Kinsella.

He notes that in the last few weeks there have been five "baseless threats of defamation" directed at Canadian bloggers by Kinsella.

"They're not legitimate legal actions to remedy a real tort committed by bloggers. These threats are intimidations tactics -- bullying -- dressed up in legal robes."

Ezra's taken Blazing Catfur's case pro bono, and has contacted Kinsella to advise that he is now the legal counsel for said blogger.

Read about Kinsella's reaction, and about the nascent but incredibly worthwhile Union of Bloggers, at

http://ezralevant.com/2008/02/announcing-the-union-of-blogge.html

"That's Kinsella: all talk, no action. Lots of bullying when it comes to non-lawyers. Lots of self-contratulatory spin. But the first time a blogger...lawyers up, Kinsella falls apart."

"He's not used to a level playing field."

Safe injection site okay by Dion(from G&M)
The Lib.party has no intention of advocating the legalization of cannabis but stephane Dion made it clear(that's something new for him!)Friday that under a Liberal gov't,other Canadian cities could see safe injection sites like the one in Vancouver.
Dion was safely ensconsed at Loony Central (UBC)taking questions,like this dandy from a student:"if you get into power,how are you going to handle the way Canada kind of lies down when they want us to do something but when we want them to do something they kind of slough us off,right?
"For us Canadians,the United States is a friend,"Mr.Dion said.
"it is an ally,but it is not a model" he said to loud applause.'this difference between a friend and a model is not well understood by PMSH and it will be by me' He also told students,Canada must have it's economic sovereignty protected.But as a trading nation with the US,he said Canada's 'balance of trade is very advantageous for Canada'
"Our trade with the US must be effective but it must be open as well because we are making a lot of money trading with them"
Way to go Steffi...bet that really wound up the crowd!

Afghan motion a confidence matter

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080208.wcanafgh0208/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080208.wcanafgh0208

So, if the Taliban are reading this right now (as has been so often claimed by right wingers) and they decide to escalate attacks in order to sway Canadian voters, will Stephen Harper take the credit for the casualties?

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=432bd71e-950e-4fd4-968d-1406757e2fa2

"Alberta's energy riches belong to all Canadians, former prime minister Jean Chretien told an Edmonton audience Thursday night..."

I'm sorry, Jean who? Shouldn't you be rotting away in a jail somewhere?

"Alberta's energy riches belong to all Canadians" -- so would this same general principle apply to all provinces? Like shouldn't Quebec be sharing revenues from it's hydro sales to New York with Newfoundland -- just as an example? Chretien wouldn't dare give such an inflammatory speech in Quebec. If the Liberals get in again and I lived in Alberta, I would certainly be thinking about separation.

Bury Bilingualism and Multiculturalism in the PET cemetery.
...-

Bilingualism support worse since start of federal plan: public service unions
http://tinyurl.com/28ve2z (cbc)

When did Quebec ban "smoking outside prisons"?
...-
Que. reverses ban on smoking outside prisons
http://tinyurl.com/ynq5xk (ctv)
...-

Smokers cheaper to treat than healthy people: study
http://tinyurl.com/ypagtq (ctv)

"Alberta's energy riches belong to all Canadians"

...who have bought shares in energy companies.

Chug-Al-Lug Muslims? Didn't Al-Mo ban Al-K-Hol?
"as well as large quantities of alcohol.."
...-
Iraqi National Police destroy the headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq
Excerpt:
"seized large quantities of arms, ammunition and explosive materials, and a number of vehicles which were in possession of the armed men, as well as large quantities of alcohol.."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1967595/posts

The Archliberal of Ditherbury
Lorne Gunter, National Post

"Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had better hope shariah law never takes hold in Britain, otherwise, as the leader of an infidel faith, he’ll be among the first to be flayed alive in Ayatollah Khomeini Public Assemblage Area (formerly Trafalgar Square)."
http://tinyurl.com/36bjnd (NP)

Titian
The Flaying of Marsyas*
http://tinyurl.com/34u6xw (artchive)

what was obvious from the start.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080209/biofuel_crops_080209/20080209?hub=TopStories

The answer to an above question is, Dion and the liberals will be held responsible, in the eyes of many canadians, for any deaths from increased taliban activity, during an election. Layton wil also hold some blame. Tell your enemy that if they just wait, we will leave and allow you to slaughter women in stadiums, behead anyone who helped us, and what do you think they will do.
To make sure we turn tail, they will increase attacks. If our troops come home, all aid to agencies should be stopped and all aid workers also brought home.
Dion and Laytons request to the taliban, please don't hurt us will fall on deaf ears.

Finally, someone in Canada with balls beside Kate and Kathy. Go Ezra!

Yes, I'd like to see Chretien telling Quebec that it should share its massive revenues from Quebec hydro with Labrador-Newfoundland.

I commend Ezra Levant's setting up the Union of Bloggers - and his stance against Warren Kinsella.

Kinsella's fixation on stamping out any use of Nazi symbols as somehow akin to stamping out utter depravity is - well, it's weird. Does he think that someone's flippant use of the swastika also means that they are full-fledged guards at a concentration camp? He posts anecdotal letters on his blog from people who say they were taunted as children for being Jews. So what? Is that justification for barring the use of the symbol as a metaphor?

Is Warren going to bat for those who were taunted for being black, or Asian or wearing glasses, or speaking with a lisp or being Irish or..?

Warren, you can't legislate emotions.

As for the use of the symbol of the swastika or the imagery of the Third Reich, it was Warren who brought up the use of such analogies in his attempt to discredit the many criticisms of the HRAct and Section 13.1. He informed us that a neo-Nazi organization also criticized this section. Ergo, according to Warren, that meant that all people who criticized Section 13-1 are also Neo-Nazis.

Here's the logic in a syllogism:

We are against HRAct Section 13.1
Neo-Nazis are against HRAct Section 13.1
Therefore, We are Neo-Nazis.

The fallacy, Warren, is called the 'Undistributed Middle'. It simply means that although you can find something basically common between two things, it doesn't mean that the two things have anything else in common.

Here's another example.

Dogs are animals.
Cats are animals.
Therefore, dogs are cats.

All that the various blogs are doing, Warren, is spoofing your logical fallacy.
Is mocking someone's illogic now an action of defamation?

Hey, if you're a l/Liberal, anyone who says anything they find offensive is fair game for bullying and deriding. That's the L/liberal way: what wusses.

I see in today's TO Sun,that the polygamous welfare scam is causing some uproar.Wonder how those 'liberal' Torontonians will react,and if it will be investigated fully and shut down?

Liberal Citoyen Dion is a drug pusher.

He's a believer, he says: Free cocaine/heroin.
...-

"Safe-injection clinics are okay, legal cannabis is not, Dion says"
""It's not something we will campaign on in the next election,""
"Without being asked about it, he told the crowd of about 150 students that Canada's only safe-injection site - known as Insite and situated in the Downtown Eastside - "is something in which we believe."
http://tinyurl.com/yoahxn (G-M)

The ever cool WK,has link to Facebook site.."I give a sh*t Mr.Harper' over NOTHING!I see this whole fiasco is creating bit of rift between WK and Cherniyuck,against of all people Ms.Kitten O'Malley.The Site has all of 71 members(flocking in droves kinda like the other Facebook 'save Krista Erickson'that Jason started) Last I checked on that one it had under 100 members,and can't be bothered to check it again.These fools are becoming more irrelevant by the day.

I see Dion is now being criticized for his ditthering. We need a new name - Mr. Dithers is already taken by Martin. Mr. Dithers, Jr. or Dion-Dithers?

Oh yes lberia, we should always consider what the Taliban would do when we make decisions.

You're not making any sense, lberia. You are saying that

IF the Taliban increase attacks in Afghanistan.
THEN, the Liberals/NDP will 'cut-and-run'.

You are claiming that Harper will be responsible for these increased attacks.
No. Dion and Layton will be responsible. That's because the Taliban KNOW that IF they increase the attacks, then Dion and Layton will scream: 'Let's run away!'.

Try again, lberia.

This just in: The mayor of Toledo, Ohio, won't let the Marines do military exercises in his town because according to his spokesman: "they (Marines) frighten people."

Maz2 said,

When did Quebec ban "smoking outside prisons"?
...-
Que. reverses ban on smoking outside prisons
http://tinyurl.com/ynq5xk (ctv)

When I mentioned the ban a couple days ago here on SDA I had my doubts ...

And after only 4 days Liberals show us they are girly wimps as ever!

All prisoners have to do is throw a hissy fit and they get all they want.

Wimpy girly stupid idiot Liberals.

the top heirarchy of the Lieberal party will now be called "Dithering Heights"

Dion would be for safe injection sites, never mind the stuff they're injecting is illegal and kills them eventually. That's the part the Leftoid mind can't process. They're supplying the tools to do illegal drugs.

I watched a bit of Dr.(if you please), Carolyn Bennett, MP for St. Pauls debating on the subject.
What a painful experience it is to watch her stammering, jerking of head and hand gesturing while trying to make her points. She was pathetic. One would think a doctor would have more to offer.

It's along the same line of Leftoid thought process that's holding up the crime bill in the senate. Fatty Carstairs says raising the age of sexual consent to 16 would put all the 14 year olds underground and out of sight.

No ET, what I'm saying is that Cons/right wingers have been shutting down debate on Afghanistan by claiming that unless there is unreserved support for this war, we are undermining the troops by inviting increased attacks.

Using that same logic, the Cons have now set up situation where our supposedly internet-savvy cave dwelling opponents can possibly influence the outcome of an election by increasing casualties of Canadian troops. Harper set this scenario up; he made Afghanistan a possible electiion issue...will he take responsibility if casualties are increased?

What really happened at the Gates of Vienna from the book Wildfire by Nelson DeMille

"Polish king John had everything to lose and nothing to gain by coming to
the aid of his Christian brothers at Vienna. Because King John knew that if
he didn't stop the Turks at Vienna, then all of Europe would fall to Islam.
And remember, no one else in Europe came to the aid of the beleaguered
city - all of Europe chose to bury its head in the sand and pray they would
not be next."

Plus sa change, plus sais la meme chose

lberia, you are the one who isn't making sense. If all political parties were united in support for our continuing effort to eliminate the Taliban, their attacks would simply embolden us against them.

I'm not saying opposition supports the Taliban, but positions like leave immediately, or Dion's nonsensical notion that announcing to the Taliban we will cease offensive combat operations, provide these killers with propaganda points that will encourage to go for a big casualty count.

I agree with ET, your analysis is backwards, not all cats are dogs. Consider the Spanish election where the socialist parties demanded withdrawal from Afghanistan, then there was a terrorist attack, and lo and behold, the socialists got elected and took their troops out.

Question for ET.

From what I've read of your contributions to this blog you are an intelligent person.

Why, oh why, do you rise to the bait of a known troll? You know damned well he's a troll but for some reason you can't seem to resist the bait. Why?

All that the various blogs are doing, Warren, is spoofing your logical fallacy.
Is mocking someone's illogic now an action of defamation?
Posted by: ET at February 9, 2008 10:24 AM

Excellent post as usual ET. But I must report my latest epiphany from my current read The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer.
Excellent but, alas, pointless! I finally got this! Mass movements are not founded on logic and can't be defeated by it. Or as someone put it, "you can't reason someone out of a position that he didn't reason himself into".

Definitely read this book ET. It'll save you a lot of time and lead to shorter posts. :)
(which is not at all to suggest that I don't greatly appreciate your posts).

"Muslim Student Threatens Former Terrorist's Life at Air Force Academy Event"

from Mass Media Distribution Newswire (thanks to Hot Air):

Former terrorists Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zak Anani addressed cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, during their annual political forum. They shared their experiences as terrorists and helped cadets understand the Islamic fundamentalist mind set.
During the event a Jordanian college student, identified as Omar Khalifa of Metro International, approached Kamal Saleem and spoke to him in Arabic, "you are an enemy of Islam and you must die." The incident was reported to Military Police, who investigated Khalifa's threat.

"The men receive threats of this nature all of time and we take each one very seriously," said Keith Davies, Executive Director of the Shoebat Foundation. "That is why each of the men live in seclusion."

Numerous media outlets (New York Times, the Associated Press, The Colorado Springs Gazette, the Rocky Mountain News) did not report on the former terrorists' message, but instead focused on the [inaccurate] media statements distributed by CAIR (Council for American Islamic Relations), in an all-out campaign to discredit the speakers credentials and background.

"We have all been told that Islam has been hijacked by extremists,” said Walid Shoebat. "Yet CAIR, who professes to be ‘Moderate Muslims’ are the Three Ex Terrorists biggest critics, and pull out all stops to try and keep out voices from being heard. I beg to ask the question; if CAIR is indeed moderate as they claim, then WHY are they not supporting our campaign against 'extremists? If they are sincerely against the Fundamentalist Muslim agenda why do they appose us?"

According to the Air Force Academy's public affairs office CAIR spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, contacted them numerous times criticizing the scheduling of the three men, and requesting an opportunity to have a CAIR representative share with cadets information about the Islamic faith. The Academy informed Hooper that the event was not about religion, but about terrorism, and he denied CAIR's request.

Score one for the Air Force Academy.

(good points about the hissing snakes at CAIR. When will this Islamofascist organisation be shut down?)

Agreed, me no dhimmi, on the mentality of the mob.

I also apologize for my long posts. I type very fast (actually, in grade 10, when we girls were streamed out of taking math and science, I took 'secretarial'. Actually became quite useful)...and, I'm used to writing.

But Warren Kinsella isn't a mob; he's just one individual. Now, why is HE making such basic, grade one logical errors? Same with those Muslim law students - how could they write that Toronto Star article, filled as it is with illogical, erroneous statements? Heck, if I was still teaching, I'd clip it and use it in one of my Critical Thinking classes because it's so chock full of examples of No-Think.

BCer - lberia isn't a troll; he's just a leftist. Leftists usually 'argue' in emotive ways; that is, in fallacious ways. Take a look at his most recent comment.

He's making unsubstantiated claims, such as the Conservatives have 'shut down debate'; not true. Remember, genuine debate isn't partisan assertions such as made by Dion and Layton.

What IS true is that certainly, if there is dissent in the House about support for the war, the Taliban will try to increase casualties to strengthen the 'No' side. That only makes sense, lberia.

According to your premises, lberia, there shouldn't ever be any support for any war, because support will only increase the zeal of the opponents. So, the best thing, in your world, lberia, is to do nothing. Allow the Other Side, in this case, the Taliban, to win.

The problem with that, lberia, is that if the Taliban win, then the Afghan people are returned to slavery. I'm sure you remember what life was like under that short-lived regime.

And if all countries follow your ideology, lberia, and refuse to support any war because that will encourage the Other Side to fight, this means that Al Qaeda wins in the world. Is that your choice, lberia?

*
"iberia splutters... will Stephen Harper take the credit for the casualties?"

see iberia... free democratic speech is necessary... even for a
treasonous cur like you.

*

I believe now is the time to resist the urge to call people down with labels (I'm not referring to their arguments, but they as people). The Canadian people are thirsty for information on Afghanistan situation and are becoming engaged in the debate, which is fantastic, and a win win for free societies.

Pleae resist the urge to criticize the person, go after their argument. If you cannot do that please don't comment then, lest you give them justification to turn to emotional arguments.

ET: YOU, "streamed out" of math and science! LOL.
But as I said, no need for apologies at all.
You type fast ... and very well (surely you use a spell checker?).

A most interesting observation about secretarial skills. My oldest daughter (Queens, King's College, London) took secretarial in high school, was very good, is a demon on the keyboard, and in fact entered the BBC (after her MA in Philosophy) as, in effect, a "secretary", and shortly after moved into creative. I've never forgotten this life lesson.

Quibble: WK is a former mass-movement sub-leader! As is Warman: anti-racism = modern fascism. Da Canadian Values TM. Anti-racism is a facade. Power has it's very own logic and is not subject to syllogism.

Shamrock: makes a good point. I don't always succeed but I do try to avoid labels as they truly are counter-productive. Leftards, etc.

And Iberia is NOT a troll, but a potential convert. :)

ET, looking over your antagonist*s post near the top of this thread, something mentioned yesterday or previously is eating at him.

Clearly, if troops are withdrawn, there will be a genocide and the Liberals will suffer a severe backlash for the sheer inhumanity of Taliban vengeance on the people of Afghanistan.

There is no way to swing blame over to the Harper team.

As an agent of the opposition, he makes the effort anyway. = TG

Slimes at the Canadian MSM: voyeurs; peeping/listening at the keyhole.
"discreet encounter" "in a Quebec City hotel room" "Friday night".
It's "Jean Charest" and "Harper".
"But many observes[sic] say" "the real objective was to warm".
MSM: slimes.
...-

"Jean Charest is spending today 250 kilometres away in his home riding of Sherbrooke after agreeing to Harper's request for a discreet encounter in a Quebec City hotel room Friday night." http://tinyurl.com/2y89e9 (CP)

Diary of a Mad Al Qaeda Sector Leader
[...]
This is My Will:
I am Abu-Tariq, Emir of Al-Layin and al-Mashadah Sector.

There were almost 600 fighters in our Sector before the Tribes changed course 360 degrees under the influence of the so-called Islamic Army (Deserter of Jihad) and other known believer groups. Many of our fighters quit and some of them joined the deserters, and later on I will mention the names of Fighters who stood by us (faithful fighters), but things started getting worse ever since, and as a result of that the number of fighters dropped down to 20 or less which led us to move some of our vehicles to another location (Al-Muthanna Establishment Area) for security reasons where our brother [REDACTED] is stationed at (I will also mention the type vehicles at the end.)

There are many details known by brothers [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] regarding the spoils, buying and selling vehicles such as:

1-Lorry (6-wheeled) in Mosul sold later and we received some of the money for it.

2-[REDACTED] still owes us [$10,000] ...-
http://tinyurl.com/ys8cxq (cannoneer)

Shamrock:

The Spanish scenario is what Harper is setting up by making this making Canada's participation an election issue a non-confidence vote.

ET:

"He's making unsubstantiated claims, such as the Conservatives have 'shut down debate'; not true."

Come on...what about all the "if you don't support the war, you don't support the troops, therefore you support Islamofascism" rhetoric from the Right?

"What IS true is that certainly, if there is dissent in the House about support for the war, the Taliban will try to increase casualties to strengthen the 'No' side. That only makes sense, lberia."

That means we agree. Harpeer is highlighting this issue by making it a non-confidence vote.

And as for my ideology, you are speculating. I only posed a question, I didn't make a statement, However, if you must know I have no problem with supporting a war a long there is a goal and a proper effort made to achieve that goal as expediently as possible. It increasingly looks like this is not happening in Afghanistan. All we have now is a hobby war where the government can use scare tactics to justify taking our rights away, and where there are some unfortunate casualties, but not so horrific that it prevents a good photo op for leaders like Harper.

lberia: "The Spanish scenario is what Harper is setting up by making this making Canada's participation an election issue a non-confidence vote."

Huh? If the issue was not of confidence, then surely opposition would defeat extension. Is that what you mean? Again, you're telling us that we should let the Taliban dictate our foreign policy, that they will blow us up if we don't withdraw? What specious logic. The Spanish "scenario" was, the government ran for re-election partly based on the idea that their troops should remain in Afganistan. AQ then carried out murderous attack, and the withdrawal party won the election and removed the troops. IOW, AQ dictated Spanish foreign policy, if one accepts premise that government lost because they were attacked, which I can't say for sure is the case.

Anyway, government's job is to govern, to pass legislation. The Afghanistan issue is not the only one Tories have stated is confidence issue, in any event. I must admit I don't understand what your argument is - that we shouldn't have confidence issues in our house, that opposition parties have some sort of right to paralyze parliament, or that AQ might get mad and attack us.

I guess everyone was wrong to go after the Mafia in Sicily or the cocaine drug lords in Columbia, because they started asassinating politicans and judges. In the end, they were defeated, despite the intimidation, and the same must happen here.

To do otherwise, to not degrade, weaken and hopefully defeat the Taliban in the end - that's what will invite attacks.

Your idea that our government shouldn't take a strong leadership position, opting instead for the muddled Dion position, for which BTW a significant number of his own party disagree, because there might be some negative consequence makes no sense whatsoever to me.

me no dhimmi - No, I didn't, on my own will, move out of math and science. In my ancient beginnings, girls were put automatically into languages, and boys got all the good stuff (math and science). I had to, later on, teach myself algebra (love it but am only 'middle school level) and science (physics and biology).

No, I don't use a spell checker. I don't think power has 'its own logic'. It has nothing to do with logic; power is control over something. Logic is an Argument, in its many forms, it's basically a debate that presents a basic premiss, a current situation, and, a conclusion.

lberia - you are switching agency from Harper to the 'rhetoric of the Right'. Harper didn't say the above and didn't shut down debate. You are deviating from your original accusation!

No, we don't agree, lberia. Because we both say that IF we withdraw troops, THEN, the Taliban will reduce casualties (an oxymoron; no troops to kill), doesn't mean that we agree with such a decision. I don't. I pointed out why your argument for troop withdrawal was antithetical to the needs of the Afghan people.

Please explain why you consider the Afghan War a 'hobby war'. Frankly, I've never heard of the term! To my understanding, it has a clear goal and agenda: to ensure that the Afghan people control their own country rather than have it fall to tribal terrorist groups who want to insert a fundamentalist regime. Could you explain why you think it doesn't have a goal and agenda and why it is a 'hobby war'?

What rights are being taken away? Are you referring to the Human Rights Act - which was created many years ago, and which rejects freedom of speech?

I think your statement that Harper would want 'horrific casualties' for a 'good photo-op' is disgusting and malicious. Could you provide some proof, or is this just the way you think about the world and people?

"He [Canterbury] passes round what he believes to be the benign libation of tolerance. It is laced with arsenic."
...-

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: What he wishes on us is an abomination

'Sharia is nothing but a human concoction of medieval religious opinion

What Rowan Williams wishes upon us is an abomination and I write here as a modern Muslim woman. He lectures the nation on the benefits of sharia law – made by bearded men, for men – and wants the alternative legal system to be accommodated within our democracy in the spirit of inclusion and cohesion.

Pray tell me sir, how do separate and impenetrable courts and schools and extreme female segregation promote commonalities and deep bonds between citizens of these small isles?

What he did on Thursday was to convince other Britons, white, black and brown, that Muslims want not equality but exceptionalism and their own domains. Enlightened British Muslims quail. Friends like this churchman do us more harm than our many enemies. ...-
http://tinyurl.com/3xq6go (independentUK)

"is this just the way you think about the world and people?"

Remember, ET, lberia is taken from Lavrenty Beria, Stalin's most bloodthirsty assistant.

Me No Dimmi said,

Plus sa change, plus sais la meme chose

Here is the correct spelling,

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

although most would say,

Plus ça change, plus c'est pareil

Please don't take this the wrong way !
I learned French before I learned English and I can not help correcting people...

bad habit I know ...

Oops,

I forgot the H in Dhimmi...

that'll teach me not to correct other people's spelling!...

Fiend :) of the USA: Yeah, I copied that passage from a friend's e-mail and it didn't look quite right but I thought it'd slip by unnoticed. I really need to nail this phrase 'cos not being able to summon it on demand I miss quite a few opportunities to appear semi-sophisticated.

You have to admit though that my version had a certain Je ne sais quoi!

Great debate going on at jihadwatch.org or frontpagemag.com:

As the David Horowitz Freedom Center unveils its Declaration Against Genocide in Washington on February 9, we are inviting campus groups of all types to join us in condemning the genocidal impulse within Islamo-Fascism.
This Symposium discussion of the term “Islamo-Fascism” takes on a new urgency in light of that Declaration and of the upcoming second Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which will hit campuses nationwide the week of April 7.

The usefulness and accuracy of this term, and the general necessity of naming the enemy properly as a prerequisite for defeating it, became a subject of national debate during the first Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, and that debate is certain to continue this April. This Symposium is dedicated to many of the issues involved.

Our guests are:

Christopher Hitchens, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, the author of the new book god Is Not Great. How Religion Poisons Everything and the editor of the new anthology, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, the vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the author of My Year Inside Radical Islam , which documents his time working for the extremist Al Haramain Islamic Foundation.

Bruce Tefft, the Director of CRA's Threat Assessment Center. He retired from the CIA as a case officer in 1995 after 21 years, 17 working in Stations abroad. He was a founding member of the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center in 1985 and has been involved with terrorism issues since then. After his retirement, he continued studying Islamic terrorist techniques and training more than 16,000 first responders, law enforcement, military and intelligence officials in terrorism awareness and prevention. For a two year period following 9/11, he was the Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence advisor to the New York Police Department.

Khalim Massoud, president of Muslims Against Sharia, an Islamic reform movement.

Robert Spencer, a scholar of Islamic history, theology, and law and the director of Jihad Watch. He is the author of seven books, eight monographs, and hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism, including the New York Times Bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Religion of Peace?.

Donna Hughes, Professor and Carlson Endowed Chairperson of the University of Rhode Island Women's Studies Program.

and

Thomas Haidon, the Chief Legal and Policy Advisor of the Free Muslim Coalition and a member of its Board of Advisors. A commentator on legal issues surrounding counter-terrorism measures and Islamic affairs, he currently serves as an advisor to the New Zealand government and has provided guidance to parliamentary committees on counter-terrorism issues. His works have been published in legal periodicals, newspapers and other media.

- Make sure you check out the comments.

By "power has it's own logic" I didn't mean it's logical!!! Key word "own" not ET's.

But seriously: the assumption in many of your posts is that your target wishes the same thing as you and me and that the obstacle is merely a lack of better information and a firmer command of formal logic; and that when you deliver it, you'll get a "ah ha! now I get it." One example: The assumption that "global warming" is about the environment [and that when you deliver the valid scientific data you'll get a "ah ha, mea culpa".]

I had two 3-year e-mail correspondences with two old friends who have been converted into ex-friends. My shocking epiphany was that their views were "fact proof". I kept thinking, well this batch of facts will make a difference. Never.
Like you -- only you're a lot more skilled -- I'm a sucker for believing that my ideological adversaries can be persuaded by facts and good logic. I have since learned that it's a gigantic waste of time.

Look at the HRC -- which is about to collapse. Not from strong freedom of speech arguments but out of exposure of their Liberal-fascist methodology.

Heh... I've constructed a fake movie poster mocking Warren Kinsella:

http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2008/02/continuing-to-mock-warren-censor.html

What's Citoyen Dion's policy today?
Cut'n'Run; Surrender.
But, Citoyen has set a priority saying it was easy to set: ""Our priority is to see this parliament work,".

"Dion backs from election brink"
(canwest)

Meanwhile: the snidelys at CalHerald want to know:
"What's Harper really up to?"
Answer: the squashing of the Librano$.

Shamrock:

The mission in Afghanistan doesn't have to be a confidence issue. This was Harper's decision, not the opposition's. I have no problem with confidence votes. He could have just saved the confidence vote for the budget. If we go to an election on this issue then Harper has put us in the same position that Spain was in. Do you get the point now?

ET:

You are playing wordgames (again) and trying to be cheeky. (If the troops pull out, there will be no troops to kill...haha.)

If this wasn't a hobby war, it would be over by now, don't you think? Very soon this particular war will be longer than WW2. Whatever the stated goals are for the militarily powerful West, they seem to be having a tough time accomplishing them in the face of resistance from lightly armed tribesmen. But it sure makes our chickenshit politicians look brave by going to a safe place in a war zone and having their pictures taken wearing a helmet and flak jacket.

I suppose that as long as you're not being renditioned off to Syria, or prevented from flying on a plane because your name comes up on a computer, or you don't mind having your personal information being sent to a foreign country, etc., your rights are not being infringed.

And for pete's sake, I didn't write that Harper is hoping for horrific casualties. Please take the time to read things properly.

personally after reading anything with Dr.Bono Suzuki touting it , Id rather fight than switch.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/Suzuki/2008/02/06/4830821-ca.html

he grows strangely silent after his rant about politicians. I suppose he has hightailed it back to the glass mansion in vancouver or to the pulpit by the seashore on Quadra Island. the heck with staying in the cold of the interior of Canada.

lberia, no I don't get your point, mainly because you haven't made one - you've just stated your opinion, without justification or context. You can say the same thing about my opinion - I doubt either us will change the other's mind. So be it.

Whatever, so we don't agree. Debates are not necessarily about agreement anyway; sometimes people just disagree - that is the case here. Your comment about chickenshit politicians is ridiculous and prejudiced.

There are too many politicians to name who went to Afghanistan with flak jackets and helmets, including Mr Dion (and good for him for doing so). I wish Mr Layton would do the same thing.

And, lberia read the news - Dion has backed off already from his position. I suspect Ignatieff got to him and convinced him that the Grits should at least try to reach consensus with Harper, by suggesting amendments to the Tory position. IOW, Harper is prevailing for one of two reasons - Liberals have decided to actually enter some kind of meaningful debate, or are so afraid of an election they felt they had to get agreement with the government.

According to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the greenhouse forcing from man made greenhouse gases is already about 86 % of what one expects from a doubling of CO2 (with about half coming from methane, nitrous oxide, freons and ozone), and alarming predictions depend on models for which the sensitivity to a doubling for CO2 is greater than 2C which implies that we should already have seen much more warming than we have seen thus far, even if all the warming we have seen so far were due to man.

This contradiction is rendered more acute by the fact that there has been no significant global warming for the last ten years. Modelers defend this situation by arguing that aerosols have cancelled much of the warming, and that models adequately account for natural unforced internal variability. However, a recent paper (Ramanathan, 2007) points out that aerosols can warm as well as cool, while scientists at the UK's Hadley Centre for Climate Research recently noted that their model did not appropriately deal with natural internal variability thus demolishing the basis for the IPCC's iconic attribution. Interestingly (though not unexpectedly), the British paper did not stress this. Rather, they speculated that natural internal variability might step aside in 2009, allowing warming to resume. Resume? Thus, the fact that warming has ceased for the past decade is acknowledged.

A Case Against Climate Alarmism

Richard Lindzen

The link for Richard Lindzen's case is here:

http://www.ecoworld.com/home/articles2.cfm?tid=451

I wouldn't call it a "hobby war" but you have to admit that the accomplishments over the same time frame as WW2 when Nazism, Fascism and Shintoism were totally, brutally, unequivocally destroyed.
And recall that we didn't instal Shinto-based, or Nazi-based, or Fascism-based constiutions. We installed western style liberal democracy by brute force, no ands, ifs, or buts.
By WW2 standards, the utter destruction of the Taliban would be like using a fly swatter. A cakewalk.

Let's face it, the West has been engaged in a phony war -- pussyfooting around. AND playing "social worker" [hearts and minds: bridges, schools, and aren't we just wonderful] instead of destroyer. In WW2 we did "hearts and minds" but only after we utterly destroyed their systems and ideologies and made them regret ever signing on to to them.

But Iberia, would you favour the all-out-no-holds barred brutality of WW2? I suspect not. Nor would ET, I'm sure.
That will eventually be found to be necessary. Sadly, brutality deferred will be worse and the body count way way higher. Oh well.

Errata:

you have to admit that the accomplishments over the same time frame as WW2 -- when Nazism, Fascism and Shintoism were totally, brutally, unequivocally destroyed-- are pretty marginal.

Wow! It looks like they're going to have to get even more drastic when it comes to the drastic action needed to combat climate change!

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080209/biofuel_crops_080209/20080209?hub=TopStories

My guess is that it'll only take another five years or so before they start asking for retro-active abortion volunteers. After all, it is becoming clear that too many humans are their real root cause of this supposed problem.

MND wrote @ 5:53 p.m., "I had two 3-year e-mail correspondences with two old friends who have been converted into ex-friends. [What a concise way to say that!] My shocking epiphany was that their views were 'fact proof'. I kept thinking, well this batch of facts will make a difference. Never.

"Like you [ET]—only you're a lot more skilled—I'm a sucker for believing that my ideological adversaries can be persuaded by facts and good logic. I have since learned that it's a gigantic waste of time."

Silly me: I so identify with you! I have a number of lefty friends (and even conservative head-in-the-sand friends) and a whole lot of lefty ex-friends. In the case of those who are still friends of the lefty variety, in order to maintain the "friendship", it's usually necessary to avoid any discussion of politics—very difficult when nearly everything has been politicized in our society. Talk about diversity and tolerance.

For example, two of my very privileged lefty friends have lately opined that because “the majority of Canadians are now visible minority [sic], we should realize we have to [sic] accommodate them”. (Even Toronto is approximately 67% White and only 5% Black, Statistics Canada, 2001 Census. The large Chinese population doesn’t provide the same “difficult” profile that certain other groups do.) The other friend doesn’t want to discuss that the UN is an altogether discredited organization, where thug states now command a majority: “The UN was such a fine idea, I’m not willing to give up on it.” Facts? Don’t bother. There was no response to my kudos to the Conservatives for refusing to go to the Anti-Racism (sic) 2 Conference in Durban.

Of course, MND, I’m weighing the cost—avoiding discussing the truth—of continuing some of these friendships. It’s very painful to consider losing the company and shared good times of a person one cares for, but the energy to maintain a kind of fiction is very large. The integrity cost also figures in. (I apologize for offending—not for what I’ve said. Apologies from lefties? Are you kidding? This kind of courtesy always seems to be a one way street.)

Like you—used to—I often find myself all set to send off a batch of convincing argument/data. Sadly, like you, I’ve found “that it's a gigantic waste of time.”

So, here we are, besieged by more than a few enemies, with a large segment of the population in the thrall of invincible ignorance. Quite aside from the sadness of personal loss, I find this very scary.

Data from opinion polling of Afghans regarding the Taliban and al Qaeda, plus lots of nifty graphs, charts and maps:

(PDF warning) Anthony H. Cordesman, The Afghan-Pakistan War: Threat Developments

Video: Treatment of Christians in Egypt
Sat, Feb 9, 2008
An appalling look at what life is like for Coptic Christians under Muslim rule in Egypt.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=28894_Video-_Treatment_of_Christians_in_Egypt&only

Shamrock:

OK, agree to disagree. As for meaningful dialogue, I didn't get that impression.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080209.wafghan-canada0208/BNStory/Afghanistan/home

MND:

I agree. Quick and decisive is the way it should have been handled.

MND @ 7:29: Amen!

The Archbishop of Canterbury hits bottom and keeps digging:

Melanie Phillips, Dhimmi — or just dim?

The man doesn’t even have the courage of his lack of convictions. Far from defending what he actually said about sharia law, the Archbishop of Canterbury is fighting to save his job by frantically back-tracking and claiming he has been misunderstood...

[H]e has done great harm to his church and is a danger to his country (although through this furore he has also, unwittingly and ironically, set back the agenda of Islamisation by stealth which had been making such headway; hence the very carefully modulated support for him by such Islamist strategists as the Muslim Council of Britain). He should stand down and the courageous and sharp Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali — a man whose life is now in danger for having spoken the truth about Islam in a Britain whose religious and cultural identity he actually defends, but about whom Dr Williams has said not one word in support — should take his place.

Minister warns of ‘inbred’ Muslims

A government minister has warned that inbreeding among immigrants is causing a surge in birth defects - comments likely to spark a new row over the place of Muslims in British society.

Phil Woolas, an environment minister, said the culture of arranged marriages between first cousins was the “elephant in the room”. Woolas, a former race relations minister, said: “If you have a child with your cousin the likelihood is there’ll be a genetic problem.”

No, lberia, you cannot define a war as 'real' vs 'hobby' by its length. You are ignoring quite a few realities.

WWI and II were wars between legitimate states. The Afghan 'war' is not between Afghanistan and any legitimate state but between a democratically elected gov't and tribal terrorists who wish to overthrow that state - and who are funded by non-state forces in other countries. That's a completely different scenario.

It took years for communist insurgencies to collapse in various parts of the globe, because these weren't wars between states but between 'communist rebels' and states.

You wrote: "All we have now is a hobby war where the government can use scare tactics to justify taking our rights away, and where there are some unfortunate casualties, but not so horrific that it prevents a good photo op for leaders like Harper."

Our rights haven't been removed. Because Arar was returned to the US and Syria doesn't mean that all of us will share the same fate. Remember he's a citizen of Syria (and I still don't believe his story of torture). As for personal information being sent around - this is the age of the information network and it's already being done. My rights aren't involved.

You linked Harper to 'casualties'? You are saying that 'there are some casualties'...and link this to 'a good photo-op for Harper'. Why are you making this connection? Do you seriously think that warfare, the military and being a soldier must be without risk and without any chance of casualties? I've never heard of such a definition of a military force. Therefore, why do you link Harper with 'casualties'?

lookout:
nearly everything has been politicized in our society

NOW, see, there's the thing eh? Said to my wife over dinner the other night, "everything's poltical now ... even the purchase of a chocolate bar". She said, "Wow, yeah, just yesterday I went into a fine chocolate shop and was immediately asked if 'fair trade' was a concern and I told her, 'no I'm only concerned with the quality of the chocolate'".

In business, I've learned the hard way (once lost a customer expressing a view of his MP, Svend Robinson!) not to discuss poltics. But only a couple days ago joked with a customer over the phone, "man, that global warming is really bad eh?" and it was immediately clear -- from the pregnant pause the other end -- that, er, I'd gotten into politics.

One of my former friends is a rabid antisemite, of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion variety, and one day it hit me, "migawd, when I read Ahmadinejad transcripts, why that's R". And I pretty well made up my mind on the spot, "nah, I'm done with R".

But I will say truthfully, if you'll excuse the schoolyardism, I didn't start it. One started bashing Bush when I wasn't in the mood for it, and the other, quite literally -- at the end of a long dinner, too many martinis, too much wine, and oh yeah a 12-year old Scotch -- INSISTED I give a view on "global warming". So I did. The End.

But I'm very comfortable in my skin and really enjoy my own company, so I'm fine with it. And I've never enjoyed walking on egg shells.

MND, your account's got me smiling. Now, why don't I have more friends like you?!

Hobby War? You mean like Hobby LandMine?

Better not mention your hobby term in a bar or restaurant. Someone with one leg or the father of a missing child could send you packing in an ambulance. = TG

lberia

I got your point quite clearly (ET and a few others missed it), and you would be rite 'cept for one small point, the Tallibanners have already jacked up thier effort just to convince layton and dion to take thier present stance, so Arper's tactic would make NO difference

and as to dion's position on this, he wuz part of the "governing" party that sent the troops on this mission, thus he is only politicing, and Harper is forcing to eat his words, smart move by Harper( also smart in having a liberal,manley, do the report on the mission)

ET

you taught LOGIC, and aren't able to see a correlation between a country (geographic local) and a IQ curve shift,

you have me shaking my head here:-))))))

BTW; ET keep up the good posts

Due to my take on ExxonMobile, some cry *Leftist* or *Eco-***. Makes me no less a conservative.

No one questions Maggie Thatcher*s consrvatism, yet she was no *lockstep Lemming* either.

National Post February 7/2008

Extreme competition, but not extreme enough by Lawrence Solomon

Since Maggie Thatcher broke up the United Kingdom's dysfunctional energy monopolies two decades ago, costs plummeted, as did prices for consumers, as a wave of new entrants into the energy business led to a textbook example of the benefits of competition.

Today, the typical household has several thousand options in purchasing power that come to it courtesy of six dozen different licensed merchants. Compare that to the choices your local power monopolist provides you.

urban-renaissance.org/urbanren/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=18152
==============================

The UK has a helluva lot more electric vehicles and PEV truck fleets options than we do too. = TG

ET:

You're still playing games with words, so I think we're done for the night.

TG:

"Hobby war" is not meant to deprecate the soldiers that fight in it. It's the politicians that I'm deprecating.

OK, I just think it was not as good a term as it seemed to be at first. Don*t mind me. = TG

Jeez lberia... I agree with you for once... "quick and decisive" YES! The one thing I do fault Bush for was violating one of the most fundamental principles of strategy. Maximizing his efforts at the centre of gravity of the enemy (schwerpunkt). Iraq was not the schwerpunkt and never was. Secular Baathism didn't exactly resonate with Bin Laden.

Had Bush concentrated the US effort on A'stan instead of diverting it to Iraq in 2003, the A'stan operations would be over by now - or damn near, and effort wouldn't be divided as it is. If you want to blame Bush and Rumsfeld for one big, really stupid mistake, that one was it. Diverting your effort into secondary theatres really f**ks you up.

from the Chronicle Herald(link to story at Bourque):Dion faces uphill battle explaining Lib.position
At end of column,this gem: It is always difficult for the opposition leader to resist the frame of debate the gov't has imposed.If Mr.Dion's position is hard to explain,it's tougher still.If he's bad at explaining it,as Mr.Dion is,don't bet any money on him succeeding.
In QP on Wednesday,Dion's old leadership rival inadvertently illustrated Dion's weakness.
PMSH was giving Ignatieff a little lecture on Canada's responsibility in Afghan."We do not think there is cause,if NATO is willing to give us what we need,to abandon our commitments to the Afghan people"
Ignatieff seemed to forget himself.He jumped to his feet as if stung and stormed at PMSH."As usual,the PM gets it more than wrong." Then he stretched his long arm across the the floor toward the NDP."The party over there wants to pull out of Afghan,NOT this party"
Pandemonium broke out.The NDP applauded ironically.The Tories joined in,mocking Ignatieff,calling for,"More,more"
Beside him Dion wore an unconvincing smile.
"Look," said a reporter in the press gallery."Dion looks like he's going to cry!"

Almost makes me feel sorry for the poor sap..yet reminds me how incompetent and pathetic this man would be on the world stage representing Canada in a crisis.Would he cry?

Check out the flyer for Lib.fundraiser over at Stephen Taylor blog!

Right Sammy, Bob Rae... a politician, at least, should be appointed Dion*s front man.

Rae has an ability to avoid making us look hopeless on the opposition side. Not my politics, but I do recognize his skilled velvet tongue.= TG

Jan08 Northern Hemisphere snow cover: largest anomaly since 1966

There have been a number of indications that January 2008 has been an exceptional month for winter weather in not only North America, but the entire Northern Hemisphere.

We’ve had anecdotal evidence of odd weather in the form of wire reports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and China where record setting cold and snow has been felt with intensity not seen for 30-100 years, depending on the region.

From our remote sensing groups, we have reports of significant negative anomalies in both the RSS and UAH global satellite data for the lower troposphere. The there’s NOAA’s announcement that January 2008, was below 20th century averages, plus news that Arctic sea ice has quickly recovered from the record low extent of Summer 2007. Finally, there’s the massive La Nina said to be the driver of all this but may be a harbinger of a more permanent phase shift according to veteran forecaster Joe Bastardi.

Now to add to this, we have images and reports from NOAA and Rutgers University of large anomalies of snow cover extent for the northern hemisphere in January 2008.

First lets start with NOAA’s Snow and Ice chart for January 31st, 2008 ...-
http://tinyurl.com/2tqoga (wattsup)

When Chretien was in edmonton I did not see Marc Lalond along side him.Strange to me , as he was the architect of the N.E.P. To come here and tell Albertans that the 12+ BILLION they contribute to the ROC, is not enough, F-off. Out of power for three years and still trying to rip off Alberta.
Quebec makes huge $$$ off of Nfld's Power. Granted Nfld signed there own deal which turned out badly for them and good for Quebec. LindaL has it right. Chretien would never slam Quebec.
Beieve me when I say , Another Lib Majority and IMO Alberta would finally rally around the thought of secession. I am so sick of listening to Lizzy May, Layton spew baloney about Alberta's energy sector. News flash, you socialist retards. There are NO smog alert days in Alberta... EVER. I dont think we can say that in the GTA. As for GHG's 1% is a drop in the bucket, and not worth destroying our way of life for.

Tewchip,

If Alberta was to ever separate, it had better do it soon. I would imagine most of the new labourers moving there are not Conservatives.

Success is a bit of a double edged sword.