Not a good start to the New Year.
(h/t Drained Brain)
More – “why does this guy seem to be channeling Jean Chrétien and Maurice Strong?”
Not a good start to the New Year.
(h/t Drained Brain)
More – “why does this guy seem to be channeling Jean Chrétien and Maurice Strong?”
Great to see you are on top of your game to start the new year Kate.
What a pathetic comment/opinion/editorial from a supposedly national newspaper.
Between this moonbat and the fossil awards at Bali it is enough to make one puke.
HNY!
Funny stuff Kate…
Happy New Year!!!
WTF mate.
The only way to describe this editorial is naive. Or is it something worse?
Kate. Are you implying that this column might not be a parody?
Heh.
Maybe all the grown-ups were hung over, and this editorial was written by a child?
“He has also picked unnecessary quarrels with China over human rights”
Unnecessary? China?
Is this for real?
It sounds like it was done up by Jack Layton.
Maybe the Libranos have infiltrated The Star along with the CBC.
I’d really, really like to see someone with some bucks start up a Fox News North or reasonable facsimile. I think it would make a killing in this country.
Is this a New Year’s Day article, or did someone stick an April Fool’s Day one in by mistake? Possibly the most ridiculous writing I’ve read to date in a major Canadian newspaper. I knew the Star could be bad – but this bad?
This is what I expect from sophomoric left wing “Arts” weeklies. Do they hand out joints to the reporters at The Star? How does someone this stupid get a job writing for a major newspaper?
There is so much wrong with this article I don’t know where to start.
Good post Kate!
Wiki lists Byers as . . a regular commentator on CBC on programs such as The Current and The National, . .
Nothing to add.
The Libranos infiltrate the Red Star and CBC?
It’s the otherway around, given their weakness. The Red Star and CBC are setting Librano policy.
JohnboyI have been saying that very same thing for years. Fox news would do very well economically, in short order it would run that detestable commie cbc and its sweet ass liberal reporting out of business, then soon this rag called the star would feel the heat of honest reporting and this country might reach its potential under a majority Harper govt.
Well, if PMSH is a “neo-conservative”, by contrast that would make Byers a neo-loonie-leftard. What an unmitigated piece of absolute puke journalism. He probably thinks of himself as a “professional”. He is a delusional idiot.
Richard Gwyn’s column saying democracy is only for rich white people is equally strange.
Funny, I find that Gwyn IS strange.
“…how does it feel to be ‘the’ [sic] citizen of a rogue state?”
Feels great! My country’s finally starting to strap on a pair in the international arena, instead of pretending that our every act of obeisance to the collective will of the demagogues and totalitarians running the UN somehow portrays us as “independent.”
I’d much rather be a citizen of a Rouge Nation than a sheeple in one pretending to be a world leader.
And then there is this genius bit of writing in today’s Star, where one of this country’s most celebrated economists (Doug Peters) attempts to make the argument that America is a third world country:
“Welcome to Third World, U.S.A.”
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/290065
Is The Star like this every day?
I’d much rather be a citizen of a Rouge Nation than a sheeple in one pretending to be a world leader.
Rouge?
Do we really need to introduce Canada’s wide gay-marriage stance into this discussion?
Byers is really Naomi Klein in drag.
Canada is finally growing some balls. It had to be done. Everyday Canadians are chalk full of testosterone, ready to fight for our way of life. Our way of life is democracy for all. Someone has to lead the barbarians kicking and screaming towards civilization. They will be thanking us for it later. As for the red star? They might as well face up to the fact, communism ain’t going to be happening here.
How can you tell when an election is coming soon?
The Red Star and CBC-Pravda start full time featuring of articles like this.
Election’s coming!!!
Was there any left-wing boilerplate that was left out of that pathetic little screed? — Oh yes! . . . stolen elections, he forgot to mention “stolen elections”. Hah, he’s slipping; ten years in a re-education camp for that oversight pal!
Why is regime change OK in Zimbabwe, but not OK in Iraq?
And he would propose to do this by applying what leverage exactly? Cut off aid? Wouldn’t that hurt the poor? Trade embargo? Wouldn’t that also hurt the poor? Fund “dissidents”? Write huffy opinion pieces until the regime breaks down and cries? Regime change is a dirty business. I am shocked he would suggest such a thing in such an off-hand, facile manner. That’s what I call being a rogue columnist. Thugs use, laugh at and then dismiss fools like this columnist
In his next column, let’s hope he redeems himself by laying out for us his plan for bring about that regime change he espouses.
Tangentially-related, further to the Stephen Taylor fisking of the letter from CBC to the CPC (regarding the fund-raising letter claim of anti-CPC bias), I checked the CBC blog entry and found ZERO comments this morning. I find it hard to believe that NO ONE has submitted any comments.
I submitted the following:
“Using your own words, I believe that in your defense of your organization’s inaccuracy, innuendo, exaggeration and expressed malice towards the Conservative Party, your response contains inaccuracy, innuendo, exaggeration and expressed malice towards the Conservative Party.
Echoing your offer to Mr. Findlay, I would be delighted to sit down with you and watch CBC News broadcasts and political shows, so that I can point out to you the bias contained in your broadcasts. Your bias is not usually overt, but is like death by a thousand cuts…inaccuracy, innuendo and exaggeration.
Your organization’s news coverage is damaging public faith in journalism and in our political process.”
Let’s see if they actually post it.
The Star and others have gone Tabloid. Check-out-counter Tabloid.
Sick, but they have no choice —- the Internet and blogs have rapidly taken over the news and information market.
Wow! This is amazing. I was just reading that article over at nationalnewswatch and was thinking I sure wish Kate would do something about this…then I go to sda and there you have it! New Year’s resolution… go to sda first!
The Socialist International is becoming increasingly desperate.
Red Star’s attempt at dividing Canadians into the superior class who care about the planet against the great unwashed who do not is classic Marxist rhetoric.
Do these people not understand the Soviet Union fell nearly two decades ago? The fact it’s being replaced by an even more thuggish dictator, Putin, may demonstrate to them strength is needed to quench those who oppose them.
They kill journalists, don’t they?
Eeyore – can you post the link to the site you are referencing. Thanks.
Google Michael Byers, keep a bucket handy
“Michael Byers holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Global Politics and International Law (UBC).
Dr. Byers’ work focuses on the interaction of international law and politics, particularly with respect to human rights, international organizations, the use of military force, the Arctic, and Canada-United States relations. He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, The Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star.”
Amazing how a young man with so much “world education” could understand so little about it…
But then, I suspect he’s more about Michael Byers, than about truth in the world.
This sort of crap as seen in this example of the Star’s drivel is actually quite common at the Star.
The Star would be better off being used as lining for kitty litter boxes or rolled up and tossed into one’s woodstove.
Maybe the Star and the MSM would be better off leaving the communist propaganda to the moonbats with blogs. Oh, wait… those who work for the MSM are most often moonbats, and some actually have blogs…
I guess the Star hates Canada, just like the New York Times hates America…
Why do those rags continue to exist? What, are there dirty pictures in them, making them their break-even money by pushing smut? Why else would anyone actually pay for one of those things, unless they like to have their heads filled up with B.S.?
*
well, that’s the last straw.
i’m packing my bags for yemen…
right now.
*
Michal Byars is a moron, plain and simple. This same idiot started the accusations, without any evidence whatsoever of war crimes by our soldiers.
This fool has the world flipped upside down. China is a good guy? Let’s see, adding more emissions than four developed countries combined, with resultant pollution, sends lead laden toys around the work, and has no freedom insitutions(elections, free press) whatsoever. That’s what I mean about upside down.
He and many other twits of his ilk see the world through the “USA leading pariah nation” prism, and everything they say has to support that. So, they have to ignore the fact that US (and Canada too) are among the freest in the world (Oooooh, Buh stole an election, apparently with the help of SCoUS).
I wonder what reaction Byars would have gotten if he were a Chinese citizen and managed to get a “China is a rogue state” article like that published. He wouldn’t and would surely, and pre-emptively, be put in jail for life.
Yes, the Torstar is a moonbat newspapaper, addled by being in Toronto, which thinks it’s the centre of the universe, so the moonbat/leftie/marxist orientation of that city is supposed to represent some kind of elite wisdom for Canadians. It’s simply not so and Byars et al don’t get it.
BTW, Byars talks about new Aussie PM in his article – that he understands climate change. Perhaps he could explain why Rudd and Harper share the same position on emission hard caps. No answer to that – hmm, not surprised.
In a likely election year, it’s going to be fun watching the Red Star flop around, like a dying fish on a beach, trying to convince Canadians the way to go is to sign on to a collectivist, already corrupt, Kyoto and carbon credit trading system, where Canada, at 2% of emissions, is a rogue and China, the number one polluter and emitter (one week of emissions likely is greater than our annual output)is a good guy. The voter, outside major cities will see it for what it is – a big lie.
Byers personifies the dream world of the moonbat cloud dwellers.
Bono is a bonafide Leftoid. Who cares what he thinks and what makes him an expert? He can go off and toodle his flute. We won’t likely see him fly into Ottawa to prop up Dion as the great environmentalist after being let down by Martin and ignored by Harper.
He’d be much too important for that since he’s been given an OBE, Knighthood or whatever.
It’s the settled and absolute, definite, one side only, no questions need be asked attitude that permeates the Global Warming craze which gives it the earmark of the perfect scam. We need only look at the behaviour of Albert Gore, he will not appear with anyone with an opposing view. This is not what a knowledgeable person would do.
“But the Irish rock star meant a particular kind of Canada – a Canada that is sovereign, compassionate, committed to peace, willing to co-operate, yet also prepared to lead.”
He means a Canada that is gay, effete, immaculately coiffed and starring in its own cooking, dancing and reality show.
Like these 2 guys:
Who do you most admire?
CH: Oprah
SS: Philip Stark – he can design anything from the perfect corkscrew to a hotel.
http://www.flare.com/celebrity/asks/article.jsp?content=20031210_134503_3152
I’d rather be known as a rogue state with ‘Thatchers’, than one without them. Canada isn’t a pussy nation – I’ve seen men, real live ones.
The Toronto Star – WE Decide – We Report
Adjacent to the editorial was an article about a poll on Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. The Star dutifully reported every negative poll result, though they chose of course to omit this key finding:
The Afghan people are clearly benefiting from Canadian efforts in their country.
Agree 57% (up a significant 18% from July)
Disagree 26%
Not sure 17%
Instead of regurgitating negative poll results, perhaps the Star should be trying to explain the paradox that if Canadians think Afghanistan is benefiting from our efforts, there are so many that want us to pull out?
C’mon, the guy’s attached to UBC. ‘Nuff said.
Kevin Steel over at the Shotgun has done a little digging on Michael Byers, the author of the screed. The usual suspects, Mo Strong and Lloyd Axworthy, make an appearance.
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2008/01/shilling-for-mo.html
But hey – at least we’re lovable rogues…
“In September 2003, the cover of The Economist showed a moose in shades under the banner Canada is `cool’. Can anyone imagine us earning the same accolade today?”
My good god!
This “journalist” should be working for a “Teen” magazine, he could meet lots of “cool” people, Britney, Paris, Lindsay, etc., and feel right at home among his intellectual peers!
He missed a few of the usual left wing points:
-criminalization of private property and fiscal speculation
-legalized pot, coke and heroin
-legal brothels
-completely open borders
-disarmed police
If this is what ‘Toronto’ thinks then I can see why Toronto is becoming irrelevant within Canada.
Yes, I loved that line too dmorris. Actually,almost every line in the piece is quotable, if not memorable. It’s a laugh-a-minute at the Star.
And, as others have mentioned, when you tire of this opinion piece you can slide your mouse over to Welcome to Third World, U.S.A. or The Bush administration failed ….
It’s unintentionally almost as funny as The Onion or Scrappleface.
I’d close with a “Happy New Year” but that would be demeaning and exclusionary to those cultures celebrating the new year according to their own alternative calendars and I’d hate to see Kate in the docket with Mark Steyn.
Michael Byers, with his Canada Research Chair at the UBC, funded by the federal government’s research system (SSHRC) is typical of the Canadian academic establishment.
They are, almost 95% of them, cloud dwellers, unattached to reality, isolated within the security of the seminar room, where they can pontificate their empty sophisms to their students. They are ‘stuck in stupid’. Their platitudes are untested, unworkable and empty.
They are secure in their positions and self-certainty. Secure in Canada’s economy which is primarily dependent on the American consumer; secure in Canada’s safety, which is primarily dependent on the American military; secure in technological benefits, which are primarily dependent on American inventions; secure in medical health, which is primarily dependent on American medical research.
So, as perpetual dependents rather than mature and responsible activators, the Cloud Dwellers can irresponsibly spout utter nonsense. Rely on the UN as peacekeepers? What a joke – try that in Rwanda, Somalia, Darfur, Bosnia or anywhere else. Rely on the UN for moral decisions? Heh – how about their enriching Saddam Hussein’s Oil-For-Fraud. How about their currnt Kyoto scam.
The vapid, empty circular sophisms spouted by these people, are, however, heavily rewarded in Canada. They receive the research funding, they receive the key positions in Canadian universities. BUT, BUT, Canadian research, empty and filled with platitudes, is invisible in world research. Because it’s empty. That’s what these people have done to Canada – mired us in stupidity and arrogance.
We need a voice to combat them; they have the CBC, CTV, the Star, the Globe, etc. That’s why Blogs are so important in Canada. Unlike Canada, the US is filled with dialogue, arguments, debates. That doesn’t occur in Canada.
In Canada there is only one perspective permitted – that of the Cloud Dwellers. They are protected by government induced censorship – the Human Rights Commissions. They are protected by the CRTC and a government broadcasting system, the CBC. They are protected because our small, incestuous research field permits only one voice to be funded, promoted and heard. These Cloud Dwellers refuse to debate; they refuse dialogue.
Blogs are vital in exposing this reduction to dogma in Canada.
The Star has an article on public opinion towards Afghanistan, that a majority of Canadians feel Canada is shouldering too much of the burden, that others have to do their share. We have Byers echoing Dion’s “Canada is a leader” mantra on Kyoto/Bali. Is it just me, or is this just another example of the Left’s massive hypocrisy? We must LEAD by example on climate change, destroy our own economy if necessary in order to shame the US, China, and India into cutting CO2 emissions, but it’s just too much to ask of Canada to let our soldiers do their job in Afghanistan. Canada should lead, apparently, when there is no cost and no chance of actually doing anything. Words are so much easier.
The Star continues to narrow its demographic – appealing to the irrational, illogical and immoral abominations that can’t afford to purchase a newspaper – and hence, its ever faster decline into abscurity and bankruptcy.
Canada is a rogue nation?
Omar Khadr is the new Che?
China is a beacon of human rights?
The purpose of foreign affairs is to successfully negotiate with and bring back the Taliban?
Using our resource rich (read, Alberta, Saskatchewan) base as a means for the liberal/left to renegotiate our contract with Nazi America?
Incredulous.
It seems the war against stupid is heating up for 2008.
For anyone who is interested in commenting directly to Mr. Byers UBC lists his email as michael.byers@ubc.ca. Takes a lot of typing to list all the errors in his opinion piece though. A quick bit of research shows he did indeed co-author an article with Jack Layton on the Inuit.
As well as the war against my spelling mistakes.