57 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. meanwhile, the good law students teach students respect
    The Globe and Mail’s Margaret Wente writes
    “Shortly after the shooting death of Jordan Manners, the 15-year-old Toronto student, eighth-grade students at nearby Oakdale Park Middle School were called to an assembly. The subject: relations with the police. It’s a hot issue in that part of town. The community is in an uproar over the shooting and allegations are flying that police have been heavy-handed in their hunt for Jordan’s killer.
    But the group invited by the school to address the students weren’t interested in improving relations with the police. They were there to fan the flames. Their message to the 12- and 13-year-olds was simple: Don’t trust the cops. They are not your friends. They deserve to be hated and feared, because they are bullying, brutal and racist. For good measure, they handed out an offensive little leaflet called “Survival Tactics: Dealing with Police.” It kicks off with a reference to Rodney King, the black man who was beaten up by the Los Angeles police several years before these kids were born. “Although it may be difficult, be polite when they are insulting and bullying you,” the brochure reads.
    Who were these anti-cop propagandists? They were law students from nearby Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. They are volunteers with an outfit called Community and Legal Aid Services Programme, CLASP.
    Glenn Stuart, who directs the program, told me that CLASP works with many local schools, starting as early as Grade 5. Its goal is to teach the kids their “rights.” In these sessions, students are encouraged to relate incidents of police harassment and alleged brutality. Each kid gets a wallet-sized reminder entitled “Know Your Rights.” It has an illustration of upraised fists – presumably representing the masses rising up against their oppressors.
    Needless to say, the police aren’t included in these programs. That’s because they’re the enemy.
    In fact, Toronto’s police have made admirable efforts to expand community policing and outreach programs. Some officers spend hours of their own time volunteering with youth groups. And yet the cone of silence remains an tough obstacle to solving crimes and protecting the community from thugs.”

  2. “About $16,000 has vanished from a London federal Liberal riding association, triggering a police investigation.”
    Evidently old habits are hard to break.
    Poetic justice, perhaps?

  3. thanks, maz2 for that post. That’s exactly right; the situation in the ME is about Islamic fascism, which is fighting to retain tribalism rather than move into democracy in the ME.
    It is extremely useful for the Islamic fascists to define their battle as that of Israel-Palestine – a different situation that has absolutely nothing to do with tribalism, fascism and democracy. [My views against Israeli occupation, settlements and deprivation of basic economic and social rights of Palestinians are well known on this blog and not the issue here].
    But, to hide and divert from the real problem – the emergence of democracy and an industrial economy in the ME – and the fight against this by tribalism – and make it into a fight ‘on behalf of the Palestinians against Israel’ actually enables and promotes Islamic fascism and tribalism.
    That’s because it encourages the West to move in, and the Muslim people to move backwards, retreating into their tribes, feeling that they are fighting for ‘their way’ against the West. The real fight is against Islamic tribalism; it’s an internal fight. It has nothing to do with Israel-Palestine. Nothing to do with the West. It’s internal.
    But, making it an Israel-Palestine battle, and reducing it to the naive simplicity of Good Vs Evil (read the posts on another thread here) and bringing in the west – strengthens ME tribalism as the people retreat into their isolation, old beliefs and warring tribes.

  4. ET, I would add one thing, irreconcilable hatred of Jews by Islamosfascists. When we help Israel, because it is legitimate and pluralistic, we are automatically positioned with the blood libel of Judaism. This undermines any efforts, economic or military, the West makes in that region.
    We cannot abandon Israel either; that would embolden the Islamofascist in the most dangerous way. If we did, Israel would no doubt be more inclined to military options, the situation would then spiral out of control.
    What, then can we do. Ironically, we need common cause with moderate environmentalism and reduce and then eliminate reliance on ME oil. This would deprive their regimes of hard cash to export their legitimacy problems.
    Israel is not going away, and neither are the Islamofascists. No amount of force either way will change that, except to increase misery. Above all, we must deprive AQ and its derivatives any nation state base to plan and execute mass destruction attacks.
    Invading Iraq was a monumental blunder that may eventually hand a great victory to AQ. Afghanistan, on the other hand is honourable and winnable, provided necessary forces are in place to seal the Pakistan border and buy the poppy crop.
    They aren’t there now and it doesn’t seem they will be by 2009 either, so Canada will likely be out. That’s too bad, because we are the best in the world at the velvet and iron glove approach.
    Pretending this is all about Israel is fatal to our thinking.

  5. ET, I would add one thing, irreconcilable hatred of Jews by Islamosfascists. When we help Israel, because it is legitimate and pluralistic, we are automatically positioned with the blood libel of Judaism. This undermines any efforts, economic or military, the West makes in that region.
    We cannot abandon Israel either; that would embolden the Islamofascist in the most dangerous way. If we did, Israel would no doubt be more inclined to military options, the situation would then spiral out of control.
    What, then can we do. Ironically, we need common cause with moderate environmentalism and reduce and then eliminate reliance on ME oil. This would deprive their regimes of hard cash to export their legitimacy problems.
    Israel is not going away, and neither are the Islamofascists. No amount of force either way will change that, except to increase misery. Above all, we must deprive AQ and its derivatives any nation state base to plan and execute mass destruction attacks.
    Invading Iraq was a monumental blunder that may eventually hand a great victory to AQ. Afghanistan, on the other hand is honourable and winnable, provided necessary forces are in place to seal the Pakistan border and buy the poppy crop.
    They aren’t there now and it doesn’t seem they will be by 2009 either, so Canada will likely be out. That’s too bad, because we are the best in the world at the velvet and iron glove approach.
    Pretending this is all about Israel is fatal to our thinking.

  6. shamrock – I agree with much of your comments. I’ll disagree on one point. I think that invading Iraq was the right thing to do; it has been the catalyst to move the system-of-tribalism and the system-of-democracy into direct confrontation with each other in the area where it should be fought – the ME.
    What was happening before, was that the confrontation was being externalized into the West, so the bloodshed was being borne by the West – when it has to be borne by the ME. The reality of oil revenues has enabled the tribal dictatorships of the ME to continue long after the functionality of tribalism – and has enabled these dictators to divert the fight – out into the West. AND – to divert the fight to that between Israel and Palestine – which is a completely different issue.
    If the US/allies hadn’t gone into Iraq, my view is that the terrorism within the West would have escalated enormously. ..while the ME dictators would have continued to retain their control over their peoples within their totalitarian regimes.
    As for Israel-Palestine, my views are well-known and have to do with the Israeli occupation, settlements, refusal to compensate and refusal to acknowledge a Palestinian state, etc. What Israel refuses to acknowledge – is that the Palestinians are equally not going to go away, and have as much right to a state as the Israelis. As for the rest of the Arab States – they don’t give a damn about the Palestinians and are using them as a convenient cover to hide their real agenda- the retention of tribal dictatorships.
    The current thread on this blog dealing with Israel-Palestine is, in my view, despicable in the majority of its comments. Reality isn’t reducible to simplistic fairy tales of Pure Good and Pure Evil – though to read the comments on that thread, you wouldn’t know this.
    The Arab States have to stop relying on the West to protect them, to maintain their ‘stability’ in their tribal dictatorships – which they’ve bought by their hold on oil. They have to stop trying to prevent democracy and empowering their people. It isn’t up to the West to force them to do so; we only had to do so, because the Arab States had very cleverly exported what should have been a civil war – outside into terrorism against the West. The ‘ball’ is in the hands of the Arab States – and the real threat – is Iran.

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