A few links, starting with this “must read” by Robert Sibley in the Ottawa Citizen ;
Sept. 11 was what the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel would undoubtedly call a “world-historical moment”; which is to say, the terrorist attacks forced a fundamental shift in the way we think (or should think) about the world. Simply stated: On Sept. 11, 2001, a half-hidden war against western civilization and all that it represents was finally made explicit for all to see. Only the most naive or ideologically purblind deny this. “Is there a war on?” asks Italian philosopher Marcello Pera. “My answer is: from Afghanistan to Kashmir, to Chechnya, to the Philippines, to Saudia Arabia, Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Palestine, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco, and elsewhere, in a great part of the Islamic and Arabic world, groups consisting of fundamentalists, radicals, and extremists — the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, the Armed Islamic Group, and many others — have declared war, jihad, against the West. They have said it, written it, diffused it in plain speech. Why should we not take action?”
[…]
“We should be confident of the superiority of our civilization, which consists of a value system that has given people widespread prosperity in those countries that embrace it, and guarantees respect for human rights and religion,” Mr. Berlusconi said in late September of 2001. “This respect certainly does not exist in Islamic countries. … We must be conscious of the strength and force of our civilization.”
[…]
To say one civilization or culture is better than another is one of the Great Taboos nowadays, at least if you subscribe to the postmodern shibboleths of multiculturalism, multi-racialism, egalitarianism, relativism, post-structuralism, etc. There is one exception, of course. If the civilization you love to hate has its roots in European Christian culture, well, that’s all right, then. You can have a nice career as a professor or a newspaper columnist denouncing the traditions and values of western civilization, even as you enjoy the best that civilization has to offer.
Nevertheless, Berlusconi was right — assuming you think societies that allow religious freedom, free speech, human rights, etc. are “superior” to those that forbid the open practise of all religions, denounce non-believers as less that human and impose death sentences of those who dare criticize the faith. If you don’t assume the former is better than the latter — if you disagree with Berlusconi — then you really need to ask yourself why you live in the West. To partake of its material benefits while denouncing its fundamental values is the life of a parasite. This isn’t to say you’re obliged to worship all things western. To the contrary, one of the secrets of the West’s vitality is its openness to rational self-criticism (at least until recent decades). But to be “anti-western” while partaking of the benefits of western society is, to say the least, to live with a false and hypocritical consciousness. But that perhaps describes the zeitgeist for many contemporary intellectuals in these early years of the Age of Terror.
Emphasis mine.
A CanWest poll reveals just how widely this intellectual rot has taken hold in Canadians – “More than one in five Canadians believe the events of Sept. 11, 2001, were orchestrated not by al-Qaeda terrorists but by Americans looking for a pretext for war in Iraq, according to a new poll.” .
Katherine Kersten Minneapolis Star Tribune; “Poisoned political atmosphere fuels conspiracy theories” and the poisoned minds behind them – you’ll find plenty of examples of that in the comments section here.
I was listening, coincidentally enough, to a U of Sask political science prof explaining in a radio interview that American foreign policy was the number one source of terrorism, as I clicked on this piece by Michael Ledeen;
There are many who are saying that we have lost that anger, that we have reverted to a 9/10 state of mind. I have my doubts.
Certainly nobody in my house has reverted, and my sense of the American people is that they have not either. But many of our opposition leaders, journalists, broadcasters, and editors, and, apparently, the overwhelming majority of the professoriate, clearly have. Otherwise it would not be possible for them to actively undermine the war.It is wrong to say they have forgotten the significance of 9/11, because they never grasped it. For them, patriotism has always been unworthy of sophisticates like themselves, and fighting enemies on foreign battlefields is something that rubes and rednecks do. They understand neither the world nor their fellow countrymen. They think we can achieve peace by being nice–did you hear Senator Biden prattling on and on about the need to talk to our Iranian enemies?—and they don’t know that our commissioned officers are college graduates, many of them from the best universities. I doubt more than a small fraction of leading journalists know that you need a college degree to get a Marine commission. Their ignorance about, and contempt for our military, fester beneath the surface of their reportage.
Terrorism and Market Preparation – “At 9:30 a.m. on September 17, a bell was rung on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and trading resumed as it has for 209 years.”. Submitted by reader “Emmanuel”, who writes;
Here is an article that reminds us that all those who died on the ground in NYC had one thing in common, capitalism. And, although many saw the rapid resumption of trading as a sign of greed, most saw it as the proof that the free world is far stronger than the strongest
terrorists.
Something terrible had happened. Life was reduced to its essentials. Time was short. People said what counted, what mattered. It has been noted that there is no record of anyone calling to say, “I never liked you,” or, “You hurt my feelings.”
David Frum – “Five years on—and how little we have learned”.
Clearly, some are incapable;
A year and a half ago I was walking down a residential street in Brooklyn NY. I think it was 15th St. near the Prospect Park subway station. I came upon a block where every lamp post, sign post, telephone pole, fire hydrant and I think even the trees were all painted red white and blue. They had literally painted the flag on everything on the street. The colours were starting to fade just enough that you could tell it was direct response to 9/11. When I looked at the houses I saw that many of them had memorials in the windows, teddy bears in fire, police and military uniforms with signs saying “we will never forget”. I concluded that the block must have suffered heavy casualties in the disaster and I acknowledged their grief even if I couldn’t fully appreciate it.
But I found the place to be really creepy, not because I found myself suddenly confronted with such a public display of mourning, but because as a Canadian I’m not accustomed to such blatant displays of patriotism and I’m certainly not accustomed to people expressing their grief through patriotism.
Disbelief, mine.
This is a dedicated readers tips post – share your own (9/11 related items only, please) in the comments. Links to your own blog posts are welcome, as always.
I will never forget 9/11, I worked at pearson Airport at the time. I had to work the night shift that night, and I had watched the whole thing on TV all day.
I remember getting to the parking lot and me and another friend, on my crew, looked up and ask the same question do you hear any planes? (we where not sure what was going on).
As we came into the Airport and onto the Ramp (it is where the planes dock I guess you could say) we looked out to the infield and could see every type of plane under the sun. It was the most wierd feeling I have ever had.
We where not allowed to go onto the ramp or near the planes that night. I remeber at the end of my shift standing up on this balconey just watching the sun come up, and just seeing all the planes in the middle of pearson was un real. It is somthing you would have to see to believe.
9/11 was a day I will never forget, I was only 21 at the time. Watching on TV one plane hit then both towers coming down. The emotions that where going through me from the first plane till the last tower drop was just a roller coster of emotion, to this day I will not forget. I will also not forget one of my friends call me and say “we are at war” and I just though to my self holly S***t dude we are.
Hassle,
I’ve already begun! Waiting around for Harper to do something is a pretty passive approach to the largest problem facing western civilization.
As the Greens say, think globally and act locally. That is the strategy we should all be applying. Contact local Muslim associations, befriend them and encourage them to muzzle the extremists in their midst. Let the clear thinking ones know they are supported by clear thinking westerners. Afterall it is their religion and way of life that is challenged as well.
The other thing is drop political correctness and call a spade a spade. We westerners are under seige because of our passiveness. My comments may be slightly racist in nature but they make a point and are there to motivate.
Sorry for spelling mistakes and grammer, I have about 2 minutes left in my break and spell checking gets lazy when I’m at work. So sorry.
I was linking to an item on a Canadian poll.
about american history. surely american attitudes are relevant to the discussion?
there was a time that the likes of Micheal Moore and Jack Layton would be kicking at the end of a rope.
Doogie, its now mirrored at http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/2006/09/project_2996.html
I couldn’t find the Canadians in the list – I was considered pulling out the Cdn tributes for a separate list to go with the lead on mmy blog page if I could sort them out.
Update -found them!
And at PETA HQ they will hold memorials for all the spiders,rats,mice,pigeons,flies and other little critters that died on that terrible day
Thanks for the link Penny. That’s quite an essay by Amis.
The part about Sayyid Qutb in Greeley, Colorado should be required reading for the “root cause” and “American foreign policy” crowd.
I have no links to share, or anything of the sort, no Canadian vs. American sort of spiel. However I can agree with the people who posted that Americans have become just as angry at this administration as the rest of the world. There is a lot of evidence to support the conspiracy theorists who say it was our very own government who perpetrated those attacks, which provokes one of several reactions, horror, icredulousness, anger, insecurity, or in most the tendancy to deny that it would even be a possibility.
As for myself, the war started initially because we were attacked by terrorists, at least to the best of the nation’s knowledge at the time. The anger Americans currently hold is for the unjust war that was begun in Iraq. Our brothers and sisters, sons and daughter, cousins, nieces and nephews… are being shot at for a war this nation shouldn’t be involved in. But now that it’s begun… we can’t go back. That is what makes Americans angry.
As to mourning through patriotism… I believe for most it is more an appeal to a higher sense of justice… we hold such a high opinion of this great nation, and the freedom and security it is ideally supposed to represent, that we would never believe such an act would never go unanswered. For the adults this makes sense I suppose.
I doubt, however, that the children who survived victims of 9/11, understand what comfort a sense of patriotism should be in the American citizen’s eyes when they think, “I wish I could kiss my mommy or daddy good night.”
Kate ma’am:
connect the dots morphs into the scientific method aka cause and effect.
well, for most people with a mediocum of common sense.
part of the learning process; analysing past events and matching up their causes with current conditions in order to predict outcomes.
mr bush hasnt got the foresight or capacity to do that, thus all manner of negative outcomes echoing past events.
I guess he’s one of the 5 year olds that never got to play connect the dots.
That poll is the most disheartening, poorly timed, juvenile thing I’ve ever read.
What kind of person would believe that in 2001, one would want to kill 2700 people to set up a war?
Granted we live in a country which saw a Prime Minister kill a Member of Parliament to hold on to power for six more months, but we digress.
But, I suppose when the Toronto Star had a column over the weekend of how Bush loved 9/11 because it allowed him to get re-elected, that’s the discourse we must deal with, sadly.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1157838637041&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724
Article there.
My own contribution:
-Where It’s 9-11 All the Time…–
mr penn lacks the fundamentals of reading skills:
mr penn, where did I say the americans sold weapons to iraq? ‘support’ comes in many forms.
the americans used the old ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ approach to that war and thus supported saddam. if your arguement hinges on the single word ‘staunchly’ then you are the propagandist. the fact remains the americans let it be known to iraq they had a free hand to paste iran. period.
also the term ‘islamofascist’ is a misnomer.
fascism of the nazi and mussolini type is the outgrowth of militarism married to right wing big business interests. very heavy handed government based on the supremacy of national interests and wealth acquisition by means including military conquest.
I’m not aware of any self serving economic objectives of the islamists. pulling down the economy of the opponent is vastly different from agrandizing and promoting one’s own.
the term fascism doesn’t apply to the jihadists.
so, again, you are the propagandist.
cal2:
regarding the rope kickers, indeed there was a time.
when royalty was supreme for instance.
jean valjean syndrome; punishment far and away outweighs the crime. 20 years for stealing a loaf of bread, and a death sentence for criticizing the government of the day.
would you we return to those barbaric times?
or are you just a frustrated murderous vengeful right winger that has found out you cant always have it your way?
“More than one in five Canadians believe
the events of Sept. 11, 2001, were orchestrated not by al-Qaeda terrorists
but by Americans looking for a pretext for war in Iraq,
according to a new poll.” .
Yes. But more than one in five Canadians have an IQ under 80.
penny, I’m not as keen on the Amis article as you are; the third part is the best; the first two parts, I have problems with.
He suggests we should respect Mohammed? Why? What was so remarkable about him? His ideology was tribal, his attitude to women beneath contempt, his strictures on social behaviour were feudal. So?
And Amis informs us that Islam provided ‘countless benefits to mankind’. Such as?? Nothing. Don’t tell me algebra and zero; those were both products of the Hindu mind. Islam hasn’t had a scientific thought since its inception – and Amis starts to point that out, with his outline of their lack of curiosity.
Amis informs us a a ‘hideous cataclysm in Iraq’ brought on by Rumsfeld. I disagree; the cataclysm is incited by Iran, Syria, SA, who don’t want an arabic democracy in their midst; they are behind the insurgency.
And Amis’ statement that Iraq is ‘not a real country’ is irrelevant. What’s a real nation? Is Britain, made up of Scots, Welch, English, Irish – a ‘real nation’? Belgium? Canada? The US? Ethnic homogeneity is not definitive of a ‘real nation’.
Then, Amis brings in the Palestinian-Israel situation, which I maintain has absolutely nothing to do with Islamic fascism, but has been taken over by that fascism.
Where Amis is ‘spot on’, is his analysis of Islamism as a death cult. That’s exactly right. When you realize that for Islam, the living and life are irrelevant; that they are not curious about the nature of life (they have no science); and that their focus on ‘the best’ is to be found only in The Land of the Dead. That’s psychotic, in my view. It’s a very sick ideology. To have living beings, producing lots of children, and yet, ideologically, dreaming only of death – that’s psychotic.
His view that the emancipation of women might be the ‘best solution’ to this psychosis, is very interesting and, I think, might be exactly right.
The men are lost; they are lost in their fictional world of jihad and death. The women, well, they might just be the key to saving those people.
I am adverse to preaching to the chior, so to the regulars at SDA please bear with me, to the lefties and trolls whom I seldom address please read this and consider your options. In light of the events five years ago whether you want to believe it or not Islam has crossed the Rubicon. This so-called religion of peace has butchered thousands of innocents in the last number of years. At the same time Western society has become complacent, especially Canada. After 50 years of predominantly liberal left-leaning leadership, we are no longer the country that we once were. We have allowed a succession of academics and intellectuals to change the fabric of our society. The Canada that emerged from WWII was on the brink of becoming an icon and inspiration for the future. Now we are but a sad footnote in History. We have stood by and witnessed the disintegration of our judicial system, the corruption of our political system, the abandonement of our social system, the decline of our Armed Forces,and the bastardization of our national media. Since 9/11 we have done nothing to rectify our situation. The Liberal party, from whom we inherited most of this mess, is in such disarray that it is indulging in a cat fight to appoint a new leader. The NDP, typically are opposing anything and everything and in the process are hiding their heads in the sand. (Note to Jack Layton, in a war situation if you bury your head in the sand you’re likely to get your ass shot off.) The new government has taken a stand and has come under severe criticism for it. So on this fifth anniversary we find that we in Canada have two options. We can accept the fact that Islam has crossed the Rubicon and will establish an ever expanding bridgehead that will ultimately destroy our society or we can oppose it. The choice is yours. There is no middle ground here. Islam makes that clear. It has brought and will continue to bring the war to us. Make no mistake, there is no more room for tolerance and understanding, fanatical Muslims see weakness there. If the governing powers of the Middle East are unable/unwilling to curb these zealots and we continue with our policies of the last fifty years we could soon be trading our microwaves for dung fires and bikinis for burkas.
see, the thing is, sorts of all political persuasion confuse correct analysis of events with *support* of those committing atrocities in the name of ideology/religion/capitalism/whateverism.
it just clouds the issues and thwarts understanding and consensus on remedy.
the first step to correcting wrongs is to acknowledge, recognize them and fully understand them. now, armed with knowledge, you can fast track getting things back on track.
without having to support the likes of george dubya in the process out of some hard-wired ring wing reflex.
I don’t see much search for the truth here, just pathetic bluster.
I get this all the time predicting outcomes of elections. the dumbos up and down the line confuse my accurate predictions with *support* of the predicted winner. not so!!!
I predicted for instance, the downfall of the liberals and ouster of paul martin. this had nothing whatsoever to do with my personal views on that party. or any other political party or philosophy or ideology or -ism.
but you right wingers cant cotten that can you? you are all so ‘if ya aint fer me yer agin me’ just like your hero george dubya.
Today for some reason,I am appreciating my freedom to think independantly a little bit more!I only wish more people would stop considering it a ‘given’.A shout out to those currently fighting the insurgents in Afgan’,a direct result of that day.
In the spirit of that freedom,I hope you will allow me the following rant…
To those who cry’no fair’when they are accused of abetting terrorism because of their anti-Americanism….
You abuse your freedom by undermining support for western troops in Afgan’.We are currently under-manned on this battlefield and that is the direct result of your political posturing at home and the resulting irrational ‘anti-war-at-all-costs’ sentiments.Our NATO allies also face this disgraceful partisanship from the left,inevitably undermining support and our ultimate success..How???..your politically correct little brain asks.This is directly compromising the numbers,strength and equipment our armed forces have to work with.They need these tools to complete the job we sent them to do so they can get the hell out of there and come home.They rely on these things for their very survival.
I always thought our mission there was quite clear….Remove the Taliban,help Afgan’with their infrastructure and to get some control of their own country and get out.I don’t even remember the Lib gov. themselves ever saying it would be easy.I certainly don’t remember them saying they would turn their backs on this mission.
You actively hamstring our forces THEN you have the blinded arrogance to turn around and shout’we can never win this war!’.
You label the right warmongers WHEN it is the liberals who sent our troops there.
You try to rewrite our long,proud military history into some kind of peacekeeping fairytail.
You support Martin in sending our troops,embarrassingly ill-equipped,to fight the Taliban yet scream ‘bring them home’ as soon as Harper is at the helm.
It’s no wonder so many otherwise rational people here cannot resist reacting to those trolls who know exactly what buttons to push with their stupid US=evil mantras.Perhaps the most bizarre thing is that of all the opinions I read here and elsewhere,the MSM generally filters the news to mimic the views of the most idiotic of the left.This country is indeed at war on the homefront too.A dangerous propaganda war.
t shmuck esq, your perverted view of history is not welcomed here so take a hint and bugger off. better yet, go steal a loaf of bread so we can have you swinging beside your heros, moore and taliban jack.
don’t bother with the indignated leftie retort either. It will fall on deaf ears today.
I’d like to know the actual poll question for that 1-in-5 number, because I know an awful lot of Canadians, and I know about *two* who believe Sept. 11 was orchestrated by Americans looking for a pre-text to war.
The one in five makes sense.That’s 20%,or roughly about the same number that vote for Layton and the socialists.
Nobody said the one in five had a brain.
As you can guess from my handle, I’m on the other coast. I remember being awakened by the clock radio at 6:30 am Pacific time, taking a shower, and lathering my face to shave, then hearing (from the classical music station in San Francisco), “we’ll have the news in ten minutes, including the unbelievable story from New York”, and wondering what it was. There are only a handful of major historical events for which I remember exactly where I was when I heard of them – JFK’s assassination, LBJ’s announcement of his decision not to run, Neil Armstrong’s first footsteps on the moon, and the terrorist takeover of the four airplanes. I’ll never forget. We must never forget. The attacks of September 11, 2001, were simply one of the earlier attacks in a war against freedom of speech, freedom of inquiry, belief in data rather than somebody’s version of divine revelation, and equal rights for all – women, men, people of all races and religions, among other things. I will defend the rights of others to think and say otherwise; I will also defend my right to think that those others are fools.
ET: “Islam is trying to prevent reform by attacking the West”
Well said, ET! I add further that maintaining the status quo at all costs regarding the continued victimization and repression (def’n of slavery?) of women is the main reason why reform is being prevented by the men that control Islam.
Theo Van Gogh’s documentary he was working on didn’t have anything to do with Jews…but the hatred that butchered him was plainly telling.
9/11 was the first anniversary of my father’s death. I was wondering how I was going to get through the day as I prepared for a morning meeting.
I was sitting in a coffee shop in Raleigh, North Carolina on that beautiful day, waiting for a colleague. My friend arrived, puzzled look on his face, saying a plane had hit the WTC. We carried on with our meeting, and I went home in time to see the towers fall on CNN.
One of my children’s classmates lost an uncle on one of the planes. My next door neighbors had dinner in the Windows on the World the night before.
I hung a large US flag in a large window in my house, and kept it lit at night. The mood in our neighborhood was very solemn.
When I saw the towers fall, I was reminded of Admiral Yamamoto’s thoughts after Pearl Harbor, when he learned that they didn’t get the US carriers: that they had awoken a sleeping dragon.
My parents had once lived in Saudi Arabia. Thanks to their insights, I knew instantly what the WTC attack represented. No Jack Laydown pussyfooting or LPC anti-America bashing is going to stop the Islamists. There is no sense mincing words about it either.
We are right to be in Afghanistan because we are attempting to kill a pathogen by denying it its necessary habitat. I believe it is prudent to be in Iraq to intermediate on the ground between Iran and Syria, and to be poised on other Iranian border.
The ‘war on terror’ may be as tattered as one of those makeshift parachutes the poor souls clutched when they leapt out of the WTC windows. Tattered yes, but infinitely more viable than trying to negotiate with the smoke and fire inside.
At some point during the event, as the smoke fire spread, the transition from hope to acceptance of the inevitable must have occured.
So today, five years later, we in the west are standing in our type of tower, which has been hit, and is on fire. However, unlike those souls trapped in the horror of the WTC that day, many of us still think the building will stand, and that by chanting the right incantation the fire will go out.
My father was an ardent defender of the Arabs of the Middle East. On September 11, my grief transitioned from my personal loss to the web of losses that wound through the homes of my American friends and neighbors. That overshadowing continues today. As I write this, it is the first time today that I am reminded that my father died on this day 6 years ago.
I have been voting Tory ever since I was able to vote, so you pretty much know my leanings. My brother in law, who is an engineering prof, got me to watch a “conspiracy” video about how the WTC1,2 and 7 came down. I don’t want to believe that this is posible, because I like the Republican party, for the most part. The 911 Commission Report can’t be correct. The laws of physics, visual evidence, eye-witness accounts, etc are hard to debate. 911 was horrible and my sympathies go to the familys involved.
Let me guess: “Loose Change”? That’s a vile piece of half-truths, misdirections, and flat-out bullshit put out by wingnut conspiracy theorists. I actually tried to watch it once but couldn’t get through more than about a half-hour of it.
Start here to purge your mind of all that garbage: http://www.lolloosechange.co.nr/
Then continue on to Popular Mechanics excellent conspiracy-debunking piece: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html?page=1&c=y
tex here does precisely and completely what Im talking about; he/she equates criticism of the failings of the most powerful man in the world, with me being ‘leftist’. not so !!
and then proceeds with the bluster capped with insult and clear expressions based on an uncontrolled frustration which clouds his/her ability to assess the realities of the dangers created by the heavyhandedness and self serving iron fistedness pouring out of washington.
you have to fight *hard* and *smart* in 2006. technology aint enough. the supremacy of air power was established in WW II, now the supremacy of fully understanding the motives and resources and support held by the opposition is paramount.
but naturally right wing despot supporters like tex can fume and rail at the very mention. you sir/ma’am, are strictly old school.
incidentally 4′ X 3′ flags of Israel, Canukistan and US of A hang prominently in my living room. I dont throw the baby out with the bathwater and george dubya certainly qualifies as bathwater.
and a gross perversion of the original impetus and justification of the american way.
Just saw Harper, with his short, pithy and realistic speech on why we are in Afghanistan – to prevent such ideological pathologies as 9/11 by fighting the Islamic fascists who want to set up repressive dictatorships.
My concern is that the Canadian people are not a practical, pragmatic people, as are the Australians, but live, and prefer to live, in a ‘Buffered Fictional World’. By this I mean that Canadians have not, since the world wars, faced any reality directly. Instead, they have lived buffered, indirect lives, protected and isolated from reality. And they prefer that. Will Canadians face hard reality?
Economically, Canada is the only nation in the world which does not compete on the world market and instead, our economy is buffered from such reality by our reliance almost totally on the US to purchase our goods. We don’t know how to economically compete. And we haven’t developed an investor class to fund industrial infrastructures; we rely on foreign money and foreign risk-takers. We won’t take the risks.
Militarily, we have only one border, with the US, and have never had to deal with massive illegal immigration, with war between our two nations, etc. Unlike any other country in the world, we are buffered from conflicts with ‘other peoples’. We think it’s because we are nice; that’s the fiction. The reality is because there aren’t any Other Peoples.
Internationally, we have withdrawn almost completely from the world, confining ourselves to the fiction that we are ‘peacekeepers’, ignoring that handing out candy and teddy bears, won’t stop rebels and terrorists. We’ve left reality and risks up to others, including the Aussies. Our international aid is one of the lowest in the world.
Intellectually, our research is not innovative but descriptive. We haven’t developed an investor class that can invest huge sums into long term research, with results far in the future. So, we copy inventions from elsewhere, and sell these cheaper; we inform ourselves that our cheap drugs etc are because we are ‘good’. The truth is, they are cheap because we don’t have to provide the years of research funds to develop them. Again, no risk.
We define ourselves as tolerant, ignoring that we have rejected differences by the simple method of not recognizing any. Rejecting the notion of differences doesn’t make us tolerant of differences; we don’t tolerate debate, dissent or differences – as is clear in our one-sided MSM.
Now, with a Canadian population living a buffered lifestyle, protected from economic, military and ideological realities and rejecting risk – can this population function within a Harper realistic and unbuffered reality – or will it fall back into the fairy-tale world, kept alive by the smooth, slick and false rhetoric of the Liberals, NDP and Bloc?
Craig Oliver just told us on CTV that we are actually losing the war in Afganistan. Because the Nato generals just asked for more troops, we must be losing. The fact that Taliban casualties are much higher than ours’ is misleading because there are more of them and we can’t afford to lose very many. We are losing and, to paraphrase, this is becoming just like Viet Nam.
I almost threw a book through the TV screen!! I shudder to think that anyone will believe this utter B.S.
Texas Canuck: On this solemn day, may I suggest that you please refrain from re-engaging with t. schmuck esq…its just not worth it. Besides, his postings are eerily reminiscent of “Robert J BSc Ba” or whatever and I’m sure you’ll recall the pointlessness of debating with that gentlemen…this one will unlikely be much different.
“poiniant”? “mediocum”?
If you’re such an intellectual wizard Schmuck, you’d think you’d at least be able to spell.
Go the the CTV link provided in the next post and leave your feedback. Then, call your local affiliate and complain.
Winston Churchill once said “Give us the tools and we will finish the job!” The leftists in this country have bled our military dry for fifty years and now that they have asked the military to deal with a situation that requires a military solution they want to “cut and run”. This is typical. The tanks sent by Harper are a start, let’s provide the rest of the tools to finish the job.
Unbelievable. “CTV’s chief political correspondent Craig Oliver told Newsnet the prime minister tried to emotionally link the events of 9/11 with current Canadian involvement in Afghanistan.” Uh, didn’t the 9/11 terrorists train in Afghanistan? I thought Bin Laden’s Al Qeada was based in Afghanistan before 9/11 with the cooperation of the Taliban government, the same Taliban Canadian forces are preventing from recapturing power in that country. That’s not an “emotional link” at all. Oliver’s another traitor trying to increase the death rate of Candian soldiers.
I am actually tremendously surprised that so many people in this blog still watch the CBC. A few months ago, I visited the blog, “Proud to be a Canadian”, and it was suggested there to give Fox News a try. Well, we live in Calgary and there you have to subscribe for an extra 6 channels in order to view Fox News, i.e., it is bundled that way by Shaw cable.
We watch it now everyday and we love it.
There is a fatal flaw in the conspiracy theory that the Bush govt. orchestrated 9/11 just so he could attack Iraq. If they went to all the trouble to stage 9/11 and kill thousands of Americans, then why wouldn’t they have just PLANTED SOME WMDs and connection to 9/11 in Iraq? It would have been so easy compared to the massive work 9/11 would have taken to set up and would have made thier lives a lot easier over the last few years. If they really are evil enough to set up 9/11 then that would have been a very small final step in their plan to do that, but they haven’t and have actually had to admit they were wrong about Iraq WMDs. Why is that?
truecanadianbeef,
So sorry to hear about your brother-in-law. Don’t take it to heart. Every family has one.
Given that we know the attacks were carried out by 19 Islamic terrorists and given the fact that we know the attacks were in the works for three plus years perhaps you might ask your brother-in-law why the Governor of Texas, who had to that point in his life shown no interest in foreign affairs, managed to hide within his bosom an overpowering passion to liberate 58 million Muslims.
Please also ask him how this man managed not only to get his co-conpirators to take credit for the attacks but to get them to keep quiet about the conspiracy even as he launched forces which have virtually wiped them out both in their former home in Afghanistan and their new home in Iraq. Quite a feat for a bunch of neo-con morons, don’t you think? And in the process he hasn’t left any evidence of DNA. My what a master criminal he is!
And as to the defiance of the laws of gravity, for every scientist who submits such claims there are one thousand who will convincingly gainsay such claims as fraudulent nonsense.
TJ,
You are of course absolutely correct but may I suggest that logic and reason will have no impact upon them.
Best to use ridicule and sarcasm- not that it will change their minds, which is, I’m sorry to say, an impossible task,-for they don’t have minds to change.
For those of us who manage to go through life without our heads stuck in our collective asses there are only the recorded facts of the matter.
For those others there are only conspiracy theories and other shit!
Terry Gain,
“Quite a feat for a bunch of neo-con morons, don’t you think? And in the process he hasn’t left any evidence of DNA. My what a master criminal he is!”
No doubt! Moron Bush pulled off the most massive and involved conspiracy in American history without anyone involved saying a peep, but brilliant Bill Clinton couldn’t even keep a blow job a secret. There is no cure for the depths of dementia infecting the Left.
More importantly, God bless the innocent souls who died five years ago, and those alive today who fight on.
Tom Penn,
Noted, brother.
The inimitable Steyn on conspiracy theories (“Call me crazy. I blame terrorists”):
http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/article.jsp?content=20060904_132517_132517
The conspiracy theory – applied with full moonbat vehemence to 9/11 – has inspired thousands of whackos with similar lame-O arguments as t.schmuck whatever; thankfully, though, most of these broadcast their ideology without schmuck’s misspellings, grammatical errors and general redolence of illiteracy.
To those on this thread responding in anger to this individual: don’t waste your typing time. At best, he’s a naive, irrelevant dolt and there’s little profit in trying to educate him or convince him of facts; it’s like trying to tutor a chimp in calculus: you’ll drive yourself mad in the process, and really – why bother, anyway?
At worst, he’s a boorish and unfeeling troll for broadcasting these particular thoughts on the anniversary of the deaths of nearly 3,000 innocent souls*: wholly deserving of everyone’s contempt, and should be rightfully ignored.
mhb23re
(email is above u/name at google webmail service)
* didn’t you also feel thus (or likely worse) on the 1st anniversary of 9/11, when slug Chretien had the nerve to go on national television and all but directly blame the US for the attack? One of the many occasions during the 13 year liberal reign when I was ashamed of my nationality, and my country.
While everyone blathers on about which side has it right… 🙂 I have confirmed and assembled the names and tributes (2996 Project) for the Canadians lost in New York on 9/11, and will leave the page up for the balance of the week.
I took the anecdotal path:
9/11 Also Showed Our Strength
The 9/11 situation was pretty clear before “politics” got involved – your fellow (non-combatant) citizens need your help so get out there and help them. It seems nearly everyone heeded the call before jumping into political analysis.
TJ(9.27) – exactly correct…and this is why the conspiracy theorists (and the left, more generally) go astray. They have a fractured and disconnected view of reality. Everything is isolated. They multiply possibility by possibility (each, oh so plausible!) until they get where they want to go.
Some of it is stupidity/lack of education: as in the manager who wondered why the 10-step manufacturing process was failing when each step had a 90% succes rate
But education (credentials, rather) is no prophylactic. Engineering profs (who ought to know better) fall prey to the mindset a well – because they want to.
Sibley is right.
Bruce McDonald Worlds most crazed blogger 2006
* Age: 4, hatched 2003 3am
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