Greyson and Loubani's detention in Egypt shows the Canadian left are hypocritical colonialists at heart

After two weeks of a fruit juice diet they dubbed as a "hunger strike," John Greyson and Tarek Loubani have decided to resume eating solid food while remaining detained in a Cairo prison. It must have finally dawned on the pair of narcissistic activists that the Egyptian authorities don't really care if they were to starve themselves to death.

If anything, were Greyson and Loubani to die in prison, it could serve the Egyptians' purposes by providing an example to other activist dilettantes intending to come to their country to interfere in a volatile domestic political crisis.  But of course it would never have come to that. Greyson and Loubani are the type to make self-promoting, but not suicidal gestures.

To understand the antipathy Egyptians have towards Greyson, Loubani and foreigners like them, it helps to know a little about Egypt in the months leading up to their arrest. The Muslim Brotherhood is a totalitarian, misogynistic, homophobic, jihadist group that, during its brief time controlling Egypt under the government of Mohammed Morsi, attempted to snatch dictatorial powers for themselves.

The "anti-democratic" coup by the army denounced by western supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and their useful idiot accomplices was in fact a response to enormous demonstrations of millions of Egyptians calling for Morsi's removal. These protests were far larger than even those that instigated the end of Hosni Mubarak's presidency, with almost half of Egypt's voting population calling for new elections. 

Thought Mosri`s removal had widespread support from Egyptians, after a taste of power,  the Muslim Brotherhood is committed to seizing it back, by any means, including violence, though public opinion in Egypt remains strongly opposed to them.

During this time, the Gaza strip, controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood sub-group, Hamas, has been a staging point for terror attacks against Egypt in the Sinai.  Egypt has come to consider Gaza an enemy and has almost completely cut off links between them and that Palestinian territory.

It was amid all this that John Greyson and Tarek Loubani decided to enter the fray by ignoring a Canadian travel advisory about travelling to Egypt in order to ignore another Canadian travel advisory about travelling to Gaza.

Greyson and Loubani are hardcore anti-Israel zealots whose activism has lent tacit support to Hamas. The duo, individually, have cost the Canadian taxpayers large sums through their staged histrionics that required diplomatic service intervention.

But this time, instead of dealing with Israel, a liberal democracy which respects rule of law and due process, they provoked the authorities in a country where such protections are barely in place.

Unable to make their way to Gaza, Greyson and Loubani were stuck in Cairo for a few days. These two were by no means innocents abroad. Greyson is a leader of the fanatical, anti-capitalist nitwits Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and Loubani has worked with the International Solidarity Movement, a group that has voluntarily acted as human shields for terrorists and approves of "armed resistance."  On the day of their arrest, they had joined a Muslim Brotherhood `Day of Rage`demonstration, following which they were arrested and detained.

There are conflicting reports from the pair and their supporters, many of which strain credulity, but so far no cogent explanation of what would have possessed two Canadians waiting to engage in alleged "humanitarian work" to get involved with an Islamist protest that had been declared illegal by Egypt's government.

Remarkably, in advocating for their comrades Greyson and Loubani,  the Canadian radical left that professes "anti-colonialist" and "anti-imperialist" politics have engaged in condescending behavior that mirrors that of any contemporary so-called imperialist and colonialist.

Stephen Harper has declared that “in the absence of charges, Dr. Loubani and Mr. Greyson should be released immediately" which, coming from the Canadian Prime Minister, is a forceful statement. But hypocrites on the radical left who routinely decry Canada's "imperialist" interference abroad want what would be considered  their white-supremacist, hegemonic will in the `critical race theory` of which they are so fond, to trump Egypt's legal process.

Greyson's and Loubani's supporters in Canada, including perennial activists like Judy Rebick and the fatuous polemicist Naomi Klein, are demanding Egypt release their friends regardless of the circumstances.

On the far-left media outlet Democracy Now, Klein said, "in Stephen Harper’s statements, he’s left himself this very unsettling loophole, where he keeps saying, "In the absence of charges, these men should be freed." ...we haven’t heard our government say, "These men are innocent. They were doing their jobs. They must be released right now." And that’s what we’re waiting for. "

Foreigners are not at all popular in Egypt right now, thanks in part to Barack Obama's foreign policy blunders in dealing with the government, but also for their perceived interference in the internal affairs of a very proud nation. Another factor is that even a cursory survey of Egyptian news sources readily reveals that the Muslim Brotherhood, which Greyson and Loubani are accused of assisting, are widely considered by Egypt`s media and public to be a terrorist group. Compound that with the fact that the pair were en route to offer help to Gaza, controlled by another group the Egyptians consider terrorists and upon whom they are reportedly about to launch a large scale military strike.

Imagine how Canada's pompous declarations must sound to Egyptians. It would be as if two Jihadi terrorists planning an attack in Canada were arrested here and the government of Sudan demanded we ignore our own legal process and release them immediately.

Only a fool would expect Egypt to act any differently to such demands than we would under those circumstances.

Klein goes further, declaring that Canada should essentially declare a trade war and embargo on Egypt unless they accede to her demands to release Loubani and Greyson.

Greyson and Loubani are a pair of radicals who got in way over their heads, but did so of their own volition and against their own government's advice.

Two western fanatics decided to go to the Middle East to interfere in the internal affairs of other people in another country where they were not wanted . When Naomi Klein's friends do it, she calls them "humanitarians."  But if it were anyone else, one can safely assume the radical left would be denouncing them as "imperialists" and "colonialists" who got what they deserved.

Canada's best known anti-Israel fanatics see the light and boycott Muslim dictatorships?

Canadians to Boycott Arab and Iranian Goods*

                                       News Release

  

No. NR -  314,003

For Immediate Distribution

 

               OTTAWA,  July 29 (ARP News Service) --  Boycott campaigns against the Arab world and Iran that will require the cooperation of every lover of Middle East freedom have been launched by a group of outspoken Canadians, it was announced today by its leader Ehab Lotayef, a computer technician at McGill University.

            "It is high time we exposed the crimes against humanity committed by the modern pharoahs of the Muslim Middle East.  Hosni Mubarak and Col. Muammar Gadaffi, who enslaved the long-suffering Egyptian and Libyan peoples with 30-year old dictatorships unprecedented in modern history, have now been ousted, as has Mubarak's successor, but democracy is still not on the horizon.

             Meanwhile, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan are being ruled by hereditary fascist thugs and usurpers who are massacring their own people ," Lotayef stated.

            Speaking to hundreds of Muslim and Syrian Canadians on Parliament Hill, the Egyptian- Canadian activist who is a moderate member of the Muslim Brotherhood, blasted the Arab and Iranian regimes for plundering their countries' wealth and depriving their people of their basic human rights. He particularly upbraided Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iran for their entrenched system of apartheid against their Christian Copt, Maronite, Melkite, Palestinian, Berber, Sunni, Shia and Kurd populations.

             Lotayef, who has long sailed the seas for the seething Arab masses oppressed by their corrupt rulers, bewailed the thousands of civilians recently massacred by the Arab and Iranian security forces in the streets of  Cairo, Alexandria, Aleppo, Teheran, Manama,  Damascus, Deraa, Latakia, Homs, Amman, Jeddah, Gaza City, Taiz and Sanaa.

             "It is simply incomprehensible that these bloodthirsty governments are committing genocide against their own people," he exclaimed.

              As a consequence, his new organization -- Canadians for Boycotting Arab and Iranian Goods (CBAIG) --  will be demanding that Canadian importers immediately terminate their contracts for the purchases of petroleum, petrochemicals, plastics, cotton yarn and garments, rugs, fertilisers, majhool dates, taboule, figs, and sheet metal from these countries. In addition, all Canadian firms with investments and joint ventures in these tyrannies, including Atco International, SNC-Lavalin, Suncor, Bombardier, Caisse Desjardins and the Royal Bank of Canada, will be pressured to divest their assets from them.

              Of equal weight is our campaign for the Harper government  to implement sanctions by halting its arms shipments to the Nazi-like governments of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

                 

             "We are confident that the international community - and particularly the Canadian and Quebecois publics - is prepared to support our initiative until the vicious dictatorships of the Arab Middle East and Iran are overthrown and their civilian populations are finally endowed with classical democracy," Lotayef affirmed.

            "The welfare of the beleaguered Arab and Iranian people must be our number one priority," he stated.

  

            The new boycott campaign is supported by the NDP and Vancouver Caucuses, the Winnipeg Peace Alliance, Stop the War, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, York Federation of Students, the Tamil National Council of Canada,  CUPE Ontario Section, the Association of Arab Students and Professors in Canada, KAIROS Canada, the Canadian Postal Workers Union, the League for Iranian Democracy, the Federation des Enseignants du Quebec as well as dozens of Pentecostal and United Church of Canada ministers led by Thom Davies of Wesley Urban Ministries in Hamilton, Ontario.

              CBAIG co-founder Karen Devito, the recently-remarried Vancouver socialite, noted the illegitimate Muslim government leaders of the Middle East are being targeted by her followers with arrest warrants should they step foot on Canadian soil or seek asylum here. Under the international law of universal jurisdiction, war criminals and their genocidal ilk are liable to arrest upon the issuance of a certification by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

             She emphasized that her group's actions were in complete fulfilment of the treasured Canadian tradition of seeking justice for suffering humanity.  Moreover, it has the complete approval of her strategic adviser, the world-renowned author Naomi Klein, a veteran critic of Arab war crimes. 

              "We must lose no time in bringing  Assad and the Iranian mullahs to the gallows just as Bin Laden and Gaddafi were so quickly dispatched. These greasy rats must be torn limb from limb," she stated to tumultuous applause from the demonstrators.

 .

              "And let us not forget to overthrow the corrupt rulers of the Muslim Palestinians in the Hamas and Fatah movements who have immiserated their people by stealing their hard-earned wages to pad their Swiss bank accounts," Devito added.

              Casting aside her life-time enmity towards Israel, Devito pleaded with the Jewish state to invade Syria and Iran and wipe out their respective Palestinian-hating feudal Shi'ite ruling classes.

              A humanitarian gesture of this sort under the UN's Doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect can lead to the toppling of their authoritarian regimes and the implementation of the  Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all the Geneva Conventions,'' she posited. 

             "As for our myriad of friends among the general public, we sincerely hope they will be moved to embrace the boycott of Arab and Iranian goods with the objective of  liberating the oppressed Arab masses, " Lotayef and Devito concluded.

              CBAIG is also pleased to announce that its founder Ehab Lotayef and strong supporter, Prof. Diane Lamoureux of Laval University, will shortly be crossing the Turkish frontier into Syria where they will document for Canadians the Holocaust naqba that is being inflicted upon the Palestinians by their Syrian Arab brethren.

              Some 3,000 Palestinian children have already been slaughtered and gassed with the sarin nerve gas agent near Yarmouk, 65,000 adults and their families have been turned into refugees fleeing to Jordan and Lebanon, while 80 percent of the total 520,000 Palestinian population has been displaced from their homes.

              Horrific barbarism is occurring at 14 concentration camps where Syrian militias are daily ripping out the intestines of hundreds of Palestinians and eating their raw livers, kidneys and hearts as reported by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the recent G-8 Summit.

               CBAIG is extremely proud of the self-sacrifice of Ehab Lotayef and Prof. Lamoureux as should be all Canadians who are invited to massively boycott these outlaw countries.   

        

                                                                         - 30 -

  

 For Information:

 Ehab Lotayef

 CBAIG Founder and Spokesperson

 McGill University Computer Lab

 Montreal, QC

 lotayef@gmail.com

  

 Karen Devito, Co-Founder CBAIG

 Vancouver, BC

 devitokaren@gmail.com

 Prof. Diane Lamoureux

 Laval University

 Quebec City, QC

 diane.lamoureux@pol.ulaval.ca

     

Jesus T. Vasquez

Director, Comunications

Mississauga, ON

j.terrencevasquez@gmail.com

  

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*This Onionesque news release highlights the hypocrisy of the fanatics who fixate on trying to demonize Israel,  the country with the highest standards of human rights in the Middle East, while ignoring the barbarous abuses committed by its neighbors.

Of course this isn't real - and the people devoted to the idiocy parodied in it are likely too ideologically fixated, or just too plain stupid to get the irony... or their facts straight. 

This is evidently based on a similar parody to have emerged in the UK. There is also a New Zealand version. 

Amusingly, the humorless, conspiracy-obsessed radicals of the anti-Israel movement failed to comprehend the release was meant as parody and took it as some "hoax" and  misinformation campaign

Libby Davies & Naomi Klein poverty pimping in Vancouver

“Unlike those investments, projects like Sequel 138 don’t require grants or ongoing subsidies from taxpayers, Maxwell said.” 

Projects like this can also build healthy communities. Kids who live in mixed-use buildings aren’t stigmatized for living in ‘the projects’. Ideas and communities intermingle- people learn to better tolerate and accept each other. This isn’t a utopian ideal- it actually works in many cities. Sequel 138 won’t bring us salvation- but it’s an important step forwards.    

So, considering this- why are the radicals so hell-bent against this project? Is it just the jobs?     

Of course not, it’s about their base of power. Think about it- if developers build 20 Sequel 138′s in Vancouver-East they will bring a significant change to the riding’s demographics. Despite creating 360 high-quality (and low maintenance) social housing units, they’ll bring hundreds of less radical (and less malleable) home owners. 

Today's Top 10: You're probably an idiot if...

10.  You think Naomi Klein is brilliant

9.   You think the Occupy Movement's message will affect real global change

8.   You think the Occupy Movement had a message

7.   You have a home subscription to The Toronto Star

6.   You think the Arab Spring has brought social justice and democracy to the Arab middle east

5.   You think Canada needs an Arab Spring

4.   You want to ban Jews from teaching in schools but call other people "Nazis"

3.   You're still fighting for abortion rights more than two decades after that battle has been won.

2.   You're still fighting against the Viet Nam War more than three decades after that war ended.

1.   You're married to Naomi Klein.

Shallow Canadian polemicist is really, really mad about the term "ethical oil"

Naomi Klein is outraged that proponents of Canadian Tar Sands oil, which finances social programs and provides employment to indigenous peoples in one of the freest countries in the world, describe the product as "ethical oil."

You know she's outraged because she proudly announced it at a rally comprised of middle aged, middle-class white socialists in Washington D.C. last week where she advocated against Canada's economic interests while demonstrating her tenuous comprehension of economics and environmental science.  Klein also likes to use the word "ravages" a lot when describing the effects of Canada's Tar Sands oil. She repeats it so frequently, it makes one wonder what sort of fixations she has.

Ms Klein, who appears at so many protests as to give the impression of a camp follower of such things, doesn't seem to understand the use of "ethical oil"  refers not to its debatable environmental impact, but to the social and political outcomes of purchasing oil from a democracy that uses revenues to fund social programs. That is as opposed to purchasing it from tyrannical monarchies or dictatorships, which use revenues to finance terrorism or further enrich oligarchs.

Klein never really addresses that ethical component in her supposed "debunking"  of the term "ethical oil." In fact, she doesn't really address much of anything, except express her fury, sputtering out marginally coherent nonsense that rivals the Alec Baldwin marionette's speech at the end of Team America.

According to the author of The Shock Doctrine,  Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't represent what Canadians want. That's amusing coming from someone who has never held any elected office in her life suggesting that is it she who represents what Canadians really want.

Actually, that sort of puts things into perspective. It's no wonder Klein has so much trouble differentiating "ethical" oil from the other kind. Her instincts seem to indicate she has a lot in common with the unelected dictators and tyrants that produce foreign oil who, without virtue of being chosen by a democratic process, also claim to represent the 'true interests of the people.'

Another good election result: Anti-Israel Mountain Equipment Co-op Board candidate flames out

The results of the Mountain Equipment Co-Op Board election were announced last week. Dru Oja Jay, a harsh critic of Israel, who advocated a boycott of Israeli goods, was one of the candidates. He publicly said he wanted to "reopen the debate" about using Israeli products. Of course "reopen the debate" is code for wanting to change a currently established position. Dru's use of that term reflects the same context as those who say they want to "reopen the debate" about abortion in Canada. The people who say that are uniformly doing so to advocate against legal abortion.

Oja Jay's candidacy was endorsed by the usual cast of fanatical anti-Israel bigots including rabble.ca, Naomi Klein, Yves Engler, Boycott Israeli Apartheid Coalition, Tadomon and others.

Despite the full support of those prominent anti-Israel extremists, Oja Jay went down in flames, coming 8th out of 10 candidates, narrowly missing 9th place by less than a hundred votes.

The outcome is positive, and not only for the obvious reason that Mountain Equipment Co-Op's board won't contain an agent of bias against the middle east's only liberal democracy for the next year. It also demonstrates how little influence the voices of fanaticism have over the general public.

The anti-Israel zealots are weak and they know it, which is why they only choose what they think are the softest targets to attack. They think that a co-op would be naturally sympathetic to them. Though they won't see it, because ideologues seldom see outside their own obsession, this rejection of them is indicative of the bankruptcy of their ideas.

The people have spoken, and we've told the anti-Israel bigots that we aren't interested in their message.

An interesting Noam Chomsky interview

Noam Chomsky is an interesting fellow. He is a moral relativist, which of itself suggests hypocrisy and lack of insight, so he becomes an easy target for mockery.  But nonetheless, he is, by several orders of magnitude, more intelligent and nuanced than his acolytes, such as Naomi Klein and Norman Finkelstein.

He has done some very positive things, such has his campaign for East Timor, that helped draw attention to the situation there, and he was about as wrong as a person could have been regarding the Cold War and the approach to the former Soviet Union, which would still exist if Chomsky's counsel had been followed.

Here is an interesting interview where he discusses his take on aspects of the Israel/Palestine issue, boycotts and the legitimacy of states in general. I disagree with much of what he says, but this provides a good window into his mind:



A Conversation with Noam Chomsky on Palestine/Israel from Frank Barat on Vimeo.


h/t TVO's Agenda blog

Jews: "Sure! We'll take Leonardo diCaprio! Can we give away Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein?"

The Daily Mail reports:

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is thinking of converting to Judaism in what friends say is ‘the clearest sign yet’ he will marry girlfriend Bar Refaeli.

DiCaprio, 36 – a non-practising Catholic – has made several secret visits to Israel where Bar, his girlfriend of five years, comes from.

‘Leo’s sudden intense interest in Israel, its culture and religion is the clearest sign yet that he intends to marry Bar,’ said a source.

‘He has been staying with her in a hotel in Tel Aviv for a few days at a time recently so that he can avoid the photographers outside her apartment in a nearby suburb.

‘Now he is looking into converting for her.’

Mr. Naomi Klein does hack journalism job on Canada/Israel relationship

Avi Lewis, who is responsible for the worst peice of journalism a lot of people have ever seen, is so biased, he isn't even on the CBC any more.

Never the sharpest tool in the shed,  one has to feel a certain measure of sympathy for Avi. It must be hard to be the least intelligent member of a family known for being bright, articulate advocates for a cause. It must be hard being the least intelligent member of his own household.

But despite his many, many deficiencies, he still keeps trying. Here he is trying to paint a sinister picture of the Canada/Israel relationship for his employer, Al Jazeera.

With his typical lack of insight, Lewis suggests that the Conservative government's support for Israel is partially motivated by an effort to court the Jewish vote away from the Liberals. A simple look at the census would have told Lewis that Muslims outnumber Jews by a two to one ratio in Canada, so if it were a vote-gaining ploy, it's a terrible strategy. (He also keeps talking about BDS!) But it's Avi! I know better than to have high any expectations of him.

At least with the Al Jazeera gig,  Avi's found his natural home.

Professor Werner Cohn: Prolegomena to the Study of Jews who hate Israel - Not to Weep or to Laugh, but to Understand

Professor Cohn is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of British Columbia

"Broadly speaking, Jews who hate Israel fall into three categories: a) the famous, of which Noam Chomsky is about the only one; b) the well-known, like Norman Finkelstein and Tony Judt, and c) others who are not known beyond their immediate circles but who do lurk in various crevices of the Internet. Altogether, as I will explain below, it is not likely that there are more than a few thousand of these haters active worldwide, say fewer than 10,000 and probably no more than half that number. Considering that there are more than 13 million Jews in the world at the moment, the proportion of those who actively hate Israel, about 0.04 of one percent, might well be considered to be modest indeed. "

In Canada, we have one or two in the locally "well-known" category, such as non-credible players like Naomi Klein and her husband, what's-his-name, and Judy Rebick.

For more about this very interesting look at a sad phenomenon, read Professor Cohn's entire piece here.

There's a neighbour Eye on a Crazy Planet readers would like even less than Omar Khadr

The last Eye on a Crazy Planet poll asked:

Who would you least like to have as your next door neighbour?

The choices were:
 
Karla Homolka, Omar Khadr, Roman Polanski, Kristen Wong-Tam, and Avi Lewis.
 
I thought home-grown convicted and self-confessed terrorist and murderer, Omar Khadr, would be a hands-down winner.
 
But I was wrong. I forgot to take families into account. While the Khadr clan are generally considered to be Canada's most reprehensible family, Omar Khadr's parole conditions are expected to prohibit contact with the rest of Canada's "first family of terrorism."
 
Whereas, with Avi Lewis, you'd also get, in between bouts of camp-following protests, his wife Naomi Klein. All things considered, Khadr's not looking so bad after all.

Anti-Semitism among the regressive imbeciles at rabble.ca

rabble ca is not noteworthy for its ideas. That online clearing house for the ranting of humourless, paranoid Marxist stooges hasn't proposed a single idea worth serious consideration.

But rabble is noteworthy for providing insight into the mind-set of prominent individuals on Canada's far left. Naomi Klein, Rick Salutin, Maude Barlow, and Linda McQuaig are all regular contributors to the histrionic mouthpiece founded by Judy Rebick and currently published by Kim Elliott, the spouse of  NDP Deputy Leader Libby Davies.

One of the regular themes of rabble is a pathological institutionalized obsession with, and hatred of  Israel that verges on anti-Semitism. Now they are venturing further into that territory. Today rabble is promoting Michael Keefer's book Anti-Semitism, Real and imagined.

The show notes from their audio presentation describe it as:

In his book Antisemitism: Real and imagined, Michael Keefer details Canada’s history of real anti-semitism, and challenges attempts to equate political criticism of Israel with a “new” anti-semitism.  At stake is the right of Canadians to exercise free speech on the issue of Palestine and Israel.

It's natural that the fanatics at rabble want to sell the lie that single-minded focus on Israel that eliminates the context of the Israeli/Palestinian dispute and places all the blame on the Israeli side has nothing to do with its being a country of Jews.

They say it's racist for a country to have a Jewish character, but have absolutely no complaint about the Islamic character of countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, but that has nothing to do with them hating and singling out Jews.

They are concerned about colonization where it doesn't exist because the Jews are behind it, but have little to say where it does, as in the Chinese colonization of Tibet.

They talk about a "genocide" of the Palestinians, which is factually ludicrous, since the population of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories has tripled since Israel took over, while they ignore the actual genocide in Darfur. But this couldn't be motivated by their Jew-hatred.

And if anyone complains about the hypocrisy of the far-left, that's just more proof of the international Zionist conspiracy.

These bigots want to persuade anyone stupid enough to take their word that the Marxofascist left's single-minded focus on Israel not only isn't anti-Semitic, but that criticism of their bigotry is somehow an inhibition of free speech. This is part of a current regular theme of the nutcase left. They are pushing the absurd, McCarthyist claim that they are allowed to say anything the want without any basis in fact, but if you so much as criticize them, you are repressing free speech.  In other words, it's more of the totalitarian left's  "free speech for me, but not for thee."

And let's look at the credibility of Michael Keefer, whose book is also being heavily promoted by Mohammed "Elmo" Elmasry's The Canadian Charger.

Keefer is a 9-11 conspiracy theorist who has claimed that George W. Bush not only won the 2000 election by fraud, but that such was the case in 2004 election as well.  He is on the Editorial Board of Elmasry's The Canadian Charger, so it is not unreasonable to assume that he is in agreement with their recent printing of a column on "Jewish sensitivity" by nutcase journalist Alan Hart, who contends that Israel and Jews were behind 9-11.

These people are laughing stocks, but they are also bigots trying to cloak their prejudice in what they call a social justice movement. If mullah-controlled Iran is your idea of a just society, you will enjoy what the brain trust at rabble.ca would have in store for us if anyone descends to the point of taking them seriously.

The Klein Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Polemics

"The problem with her book is that it's 500 pages long and she absolutely fails to support anything." Johan Norberg



reason.tv presents Johan Norberg's debunking of Naomi Klein's incompetent polemic, The Shock Doctrine




In this next video, Norberg discusses how Klein got everything ass-backwards in her most emphasized example, the supposed introduction of "Disaster Capitalism in China" following the 1989 massacre in Tienanmen Square. Except it was the anti-capitalists who ordered the massacre and the Chinese Free Market Special Economic Zones were introduced 10 years earlier in 1979. Even the ultra-leftist Guardian observed her incompetent polemics.

"The only Chinese source she cites is the new leftist Wang Hui, who is interesting, but has a particular line to strike - rather like writing about America and quoting only Michael Moore." Jonathan Fenby in The Guardian

 

Norberg wrote a devastating critique of Klein's book for the Cato Institute which can be viewed here.

Linda McQuaig and the nitwits at rabble.ca's new great fear

The hapless nitwits at rabble.ca are quaking with fear about something. The advancement of peace talks in the middle east brokered by the hated Americans? The public's ongoing rejection of "Proportional Representation" which is the best hope for loser parties like the NDP to achieve some national influence?

Yes, but that isn't their most immediate fear.

The Marxist stooges' greatest fear of the moment is: Quebecor's conservative media network!

"The prime minister's office. In a first-world democracy. Controlling a major media network. We did not make this up."

Unlike the ephemeral "soldiers with guns in our streets," we have the very real and menacing prospect of a major national media chain being bulldozed into a blatant propaganda tool by and for the party in power.

"There's been a tendency in the Canadian media to dismiss the threat of a Fox News transplant on the grounds Canadians wouldn't fall for that sort of nasty, right-wing extremism," she[Linda McQuaig] writes. "But that comforting notion may be naïve." Most people don't have time to follow politics in detail, she continues. "If they hear constant sound bites suggesting global warming is a hoax or public health care just doesn't work, after a while the message starts to seem believable."

And further along...

She points out the media already blasts Canadians with a steady chorus of right-wing ideas. "A Fox-style network here - if Harper gets his way - would turn that into a deafening cacophony."

It all makes soldiers with guns on Canada's streets more plausible with every passing day.

"the media already blasts Canadians with a steady chorus of right-wing ideas" Linda McQuaig

I don't know what Linda McQuaig is mainlining, but it's doing strange things to her brain. The Toronto Star is the largest-circulation daily in Canada. The Globe and Mail, which simultaneously, along with rabble, publishes Rick Salutin is the next largest. And then there's The CB frikin' C. This is "a steady chorus of right-wing ideas"!?

Being continually marginalized at the fringes of society must be terrifying enough for the rabbleoids. Toronto is on the verge of throwing out a socialist city council and voting in fiscally-conservative Rob Ford. Stephen Harper has been Prime Minister for 4 years, being the most popular national party in the last 2 elections and the NDP has made zero headway, despite the Looney Left's all-out efforts.

And here comes another network that takes a different ideological position to rabble's and isn't going to be financed by Syd Ryan! How dare we have a marketplace of ideas and a free press that doesn't enforce only the ideologically approved dogma of the 3 witches (Judy Rebick/Naomi Klein/Libby Davies)!?

If you want a laugh, you can read the entire column here at rabble.ca

The Case for Vegetarianism: If you eat meat, your next meal might have been smarter than Avi Lewis

He's smug, he's anti-capitalist, he's anti-America and he seems to think he's smart. Unfortunately for Mr. Naomi Klein, he isn't bright enough to realize that he's being made a fool of by his interviewees.

These interviews are about 3 years old now but worth revisiting.



This interview Lewis did with Ayaan Hirsi Ali earned Lewis such contempt and ridicule, it may have single-handedly have been responsible for Lewis' move out of mainstream media over to his new career at his natural spiritual home at Al Jazeera. It is the most glaring example of ignorance, hubris and stupidity from a member of the news media I have ever witnessed.



Blazing Cat Fur did this media round-up of reaction to this interview. All of it unfavourable to Lewis and laudatory of Hirsi Ali.


I couldn't help but hope that Mr. and Mrs. Klein get a chance to watch this video - it'll send their blood pressure skyrocketing:

McCarthyism from Canada's Radical Left

Canada's favourite homegrown conspiracy theorist, Naomi Klein, made a surprise guest appearance and lectured last week at a fundraising event held by the anti-Israel group, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.

Maybe not such a surprise after all.

With her third "surprise" visit to a protest event within a month, Klein is running the risk of becoming the political equivalent of a camp follower.

Klein's speech at the QAIA's "Pride in our politics cabaret" was her typical tirade against the Harper government in general and in particular, towards those opposed to her darling 'Boycott Israel' agenda.

Her choice of words echoed those of her friends Libby Davies and Judy Rebick to the extent that their talking points seem coordinated.

Among Klein's claims were, "There has been a very powerful attack on freedom of expression in this country. A McCarthyite campaign against people who fall outside of the Harper government's version of what we should be saying or doing."

There was a lot of nonsense in Klein's speech but the most glaring and the most frequently parroted lie she and her comrades offer is that the criticism of groups like "Queers Against Israeli Apartheid" or politicians like Libby Davies falls into the category of "McCarthyism."

I'll give Klein the benefit of the doubt and assume she invented that ridiculous accusation to inflame feeling against her ideological opponents, since the alternative is that she has no understanding of the nature of democratic public discourse since the time of Solon 2600 years ago.

In politics and the political framework of shaping public opinion in democratic societies, part of the discourse, aside from putting forward your own position, is to criticize the ideas and the individuals opposed to them. Sometimes that criticism is harsh, but that it part of the political test of fire. If those who seek to sway the course of human events cannot withstand harsh criticism, their course may not be a fit one.

Ms. Klein, like Ms. Rebick and Davies have certainly not been shy in dispensing acrid and unsubstantiated criticism of Stephen Harper. Yet unlike them, he appears to be aware of the nature of democratic discourse and has not resorted to fatuous allegations of "McCarthyism" against his critics.

So looking at this, let's be clear about what McCarthyism is. It is defined as:

n. 1.The practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence.

2.The use of unfair investigatory or accusatory methods in order to suppress opposition.

(from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Regarding the first definition, whether "disloyalty" to Israel by a Canadian politician or political action group is relevant or had been brought up remains doubtful. Obviously there is no expectation of loyalty by Davies or QAIA to Israel nor should there be. While Israel is an ally of Canada, "loyalty" to a foreign country is by no means requisite to any Canadian. The issue regarding Israel and accusations of its being "apartheid" are essentially foreign policy questions which are always contentious and open to debate in Canada. Davies and groups attacking Israel are being criticised in the course of public policy and foreign policy debates.

So within the context of criticism in a public policy debate, what about the question of "insufficient regard to evidence" and "the use of unfair investigatory or accusatory methods in order to suppress opposition?" In this, the accusation of "McCarthyism" is preposterous.

What is the "evidence" being used against Davies and QAIA? Their own words.

Both Davies and QAIA have publicly stated that they support a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. This contravenes Canadian national foreign policy and in Davies' case, the policy of the political party of which she is deputy leader. Davies' videoed statement where she said, after being given a choice of dates, that the "occupation" of Palestine began in 1948, the year of Israel's creation as a modern state, clearly suggests she questions its legitimacy. If, as Davies later claimed, her use of that date was a "completely inadvertent error", she has made absolutely no subsequent retraction of her support for sanctions and a boycott of Israel. And QAIA, like Klein, very actively support that campaign against Israel.

Calling for sanctions against a country and offering one-sided criticisms without applying context, which in Israel's case is that of a country defending itself in an armed conflict, suggests that Davies, Klein, Judy Rebick, and QAIA in fact do not recognize Israel's legitimacy. They have a right to do so. What is striking is that they appear to believe that right, which they exercise in an effort to sway public opinion, exempts them from any criticism.

It is on the basis of their publicly stated positions that opponents, like Stephen Harper and for that matter, the leadership of the Canadian Liberal Party, have resolutely criticised Davies and her cohorts.

That is the nature of public policy debate in a democracy. People put forward their positions and opposing sides and individuals criticize each other. Sometimes in robust and acrimonious ways, but that is the nature of political debate.

It is a method that Klein, Rebick and Davies engage in routinely and yet hypocritically decry when the same methods are employed towards them.

If anyone is guily of "McCarthyism" in this debate, it is Klein, Davies, Rebick and QAIA, with their blatantly false accusations of, ""There has been a very powerful attack on freedom of expression in this country. A McCarthyite campaign against people who fall outside of the Harper government's version of what we should be saying or doing."

Other clear examples of leftist McCarthyism are Judy Rebick's absurd claims that Stephen Harper is an "autocrat" who has gotten "rid of almost all our democratic rights" and "The attack on Libby [by Harper] is a sexist attack as well as an anti-democratic attack, an attack on reducing freedom of speech in this country."  (Note the similarity of language used by Klein and Rebick.)
 
Another example Klein uses to support her allegations of "McCarthyism" and deprivation of "free speech" by Harper in his government's cutting off funds to certain agencies that have been deemed to promote goals which are not consistent with the government's foreign policy objectives.
 
Again, Klein betrays either a dishonesty or a lack of understanding about both "McCarthyism" and "free expression."

Cutting off government funding isn't an attack on free expression, it's the revokation of public financing for narrowly focused special interest groups whose agenda conflicts with government policy. We live in a democracy and we give those powers to our political representatives. If we don't like the way they use those powers, we as citizens in a democracy have the right to revoke them in elections and install a new government that enacts different policies.
 
Ms Klein's problem is not that Canada is without free expression. Her problem is that she has been and remains on the losing side of a public debate.
 
Klein is right about one thing.  There is, as she says, an "attack on freedom of expression in this country. A McCarthyite campaign against people.."
 
What she doesn't admit is that she is not the victim, but is actually the perpetrator of that "McCarthyite" campaign.
 
 

Anti-Israel NDP MP Libby Davies gets "Solidarity Award" award from National Union of Public and General Employees

Within two weeks of her statements caught on video, where she implied Israel's existence is illegitimate and voiced her support for sanctions and a boycott aimed at Canada's only democratic ally in the Middle East, The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) gave Libby Davies its "Solidarity Award."

NUPGE is comprised of 11 component unions, including some of the largest public service unions in Canada, such as the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and the BC Government and Service Employees Union as well as the Canadian Union of Brewery and General Workers.

Rather than focus exclusively on workers' rights, NUPGE has placed a significant amount of focus on the Harper government's approach to International Affairs and other policies that have nothing to do with labour conditions for Canadian union members.

Politics all paid for with union members' dues.

News like this reminds me that we pay way too much for public employees and beer in this country.