Barrel Strength

Would restricting free speech lead to increased safety, as some would argue either blatantly or implicitly? After the riots and threats of terror that emerged after the publication of the Danish cartoons, some of the chattering and governing classes have concluded that silence is a price worth paying for the “social peace”. They are content to believe that the causality flows in only one direction.

And dovetailing with this presumption is the shibboleth that Islamist terrorism is driven by grievances. Not so, says Melvin Lee, a US naval captain who serves as special operations officer for the commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, and commander, U.S. 6^th Fleet. Capt. Lee takes a long, hard and well-researched look at the origins of today’s jihadi violence.

 h/t to Michael Rubin, National Review Online

An elegant summary of conservatism:

The conservative movement constitutes an alliance of those who accept unchangeable facts rather than trying to wish fantasy into reality, remake human nature, or avoid economic tradeoffs. Traditionalists embrace timeless morals, even when they deny one immediate gratification. Libertarians embrace the sovereignty of consumer demand and the sometimes-disorienting effects of technological change, even when the result isn’t to one’s personal liking. And hawks embrace the reality that America lives in a dangerous neighborhood, one full of bullies, pirates, and fanatics who respond to gestures of good will with contempt, larceny, and brutality.

Use the federal government’s online pre-budget consultation process to tell them to cease funding the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The deadline for input is February 11, 2008.

h/t to SDA

The Richardwarman.com website has transcripts from the Commission hearings.
In this one, the good stuff starts at page 1377, line 10.

In this, the lack of documentation cited below seems to clap a stopper on one line of questioning. However, it seems highly probable that Warman did indeed make the Cools posting and it may be possible to prove it. As a member of the Rules, Procedures and Rights of Parliament Committee, Sen. Cools may be able to bring people to account in a real court.<!–[if !supportEmptyParas]–>

2 MR. WARMAN: Sorry, just in the<!–[endif]–>

3 interests of this issue, I can state right now that

4 paragraph 3 of the material that has been provided to

5 me, of the affidavit states that,

6 “The network security department

7 has conducted a search to

8 retrieve the customer account

9 information relating to the IP

10 address for the date listed, and

11 we found that the information is

12 no longer available. The length

13 of time has surpassed the

14 retention period of our laws.”

<!–[if !supportEmptyParas]–> <!–[endif]–>

One blogger serves up a detailed account of how proceedings under Section 13 of the Canadian Human  Rights Act are being conducted by unlawful means, to the extent of being unconstitutional.

Details of the complaint.  “He went to the only people who would accept this hand-scrawled crap from him.”  Guess who.

“And forthwith he turned into an establishment the window of which displayed a spirited lithograph of the Relief of Lucknow, depicting several bottles of MacCrimmon’s Very Old Liqueur Whisky being put to good use by the beleaguered defenders in the foreground. He found MacCrimmon’s Very Old to be distinctly creditable stuff — as good, in some respects, as The Laird’s Selected Relics, Clammarty Royal Tartan Blend and Dunleven Particularly Choice. But none of them, of course, could compare with Duggan’s Dew of Kirkintilloch — most gorgeous of all liquids that ever dripped golden from the nozzle of a still to mingle its perfume with that of the heather in the cold Highland mists.”

That was your selected reading for the day. To the point. Last night several of us heard a version of the Mohammed cartoons story that was flatly wrong. The broad purport of the lie, that Danish or western provocateurs somehow went far out of their way to inflame Islamic opinion, appears to be the exculpation of followers of the prophet from the orgy of death and destruction that followed. This Wikipedia entry better reflects my recollection of events. The truth of the events is so immediately and easily accessible that I was surprised the speaker had not devoted a couple of minutes and a few dozen keystrokes to seeking it out.

Ezra Levant is that man who published the notorious Mohammed cartoons in the Western Standard, and more recently, on his blog. For his pains he has been summoned before the Alberta Human Rights Commission to explain himself, why he should not be punished in some fashion for offending the sensitivities of Islamic militants, including being forced to apologize to the same bigots who want Canada to be subject to Shari’a Law.

You are a reader of a blog. I want to talk about the difference the Internet has made for empowering the literate person, namely you, against the organs of thought control, and persuade you – as if you needed any persuasion – that Levant’s fight is our fight.

Read the rest…