Vancouver Pride float protesting Sharia law acceptable in 2011, but banned in 2017

...Iranian exile and activist Alinejad frequently talks about being silenced.

“It doesn’t matter where I am whenever I want to talk about women’s rights, there are a lot of people saying ‘Shhh, not now here in the West,’” she said recently.

“‘Shhh. Islamophobia. Donald Trump is around.’ ‘Shhh. This is not the right time now to talk about extremism and the restrictive laws, the Sharia laws.’”

In their small way, that silencing is what Shirazi and his group, who have their own experiences with oppression, thought they could highlight...

James Taranto: The Authoritarian Media

After the horrific shooting spree, the editorial board of New York Times offered a voice of reasoned circumspection: "In the aftermath of this unforgivable attack, it will be important to avoid drawing prejudicial conclusions . . .," the paper counseled.

Here's how the sentence continued: ". . . from the fact that Major Hasan is an American Muslim whose parents came from the Middle East."

The Tucson Safeway massacre prompted exactly the opposite reaction. What was once known as the paper of record egged on its readers to draw invidious conclusions that are not only prejudicial but contrary to fact. In doing so, the Times has crossed a moral line.

Here is an excerpt from yesterday's editorial:

It is facile and mistaken to attribute this particular madman's act directly to Republicans or Tea Party members. But it is legitimate to hold Republicans and particularly their most virulent supporters in the media responsible for the gale of anger that has produced the vast majority of these threats, setting the nation on edge. Many on the right have exploited the arguments of division, reaping political power by demonizing immigrants, or welfare recipients, or bureaucrats. They seem to have persuaded many Americans that the government is not just misguided, but the enemy of the people.

That whirlwind has touched down most forcefully in Arizona, which Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik described after the shooting as the capital of "the anger, the hatred and the bigotry that goes on in this country." Anti-immigrant sentiment in the state, firmly opposed by Ms. Giffords, has reached the point where Latino studies programs that advocate ethnic solidarity have actually been made illegal. . . .

Now, having seen first hand the horror of political violence, Arizona should lead the nation in quieting the voices of intolerance, demanding an end to the temptations of bloodshed, and imposing sensible controls on its instruments.

To describe the Tucson massacre as an act of "political violence" is, quite simply, a lie. It is as if, two days after the Columbine massacre, a conservative newspaper of the Times's stature had described that atrocious crime as an act of "educational violence" and used it as an occasion to denounce teachers unions. Such an editorial would be shameful and indecent even if the arguments it made were meritorious...

AYAAN HIRSI ALI: Why Is the Southern Poverty Law Center Targeting Liberals?

Since the violence in Charlottesville 10 days ago, when white supremacists left one young woman dead and 19 others injured, the Southern Poverty Law Center has hit the jackpot. The Alabama-based nonprofit is set to receive millions of dollars in donations from some of the nation’s deepest of pockets. Apple pledged $1 million. JP Morgan Chase & Co.: half a million. George and Amal Clooney even got in on the action, promising to donate another $1 million.

Like every other decent American, I was outraged that the president of the United States equivocated in condemning neo-Nazi activity in this country. Nazism — not to mention white supremacy and racial bigotry — has no place in a civilized society.

But is donating money to the S.P.L.C. the best way to combat this poison? I think not. If Tim Cook and Jamie Dimon had done their due diligence, they would know that the S.P.L.C. is an organization that has lost its way, smearing people who are fighting for liberty and turning a blind eye to an ideology and political movement that has much in common with Nazism...

Debra Soh: The left is alienating its allies by shutting down free speech

...The risk in all of this, for the left especially, is in polarizing once-allies who might abhor the views espoused by controversial speakers, but still value the right to free speech and appreciate the role of the university as a venue for debate.

Those promulgating censorship, however, argue that it is in the best interest of marginalized and targeted groups to shut down these speakers, based on the notion it will protect them from further oppression and harm.

But a solid perspective doesn't need to be insulated from criticism in order to stand. And contrary to what these groups would have you believe, many of the folks advocating for free speech are not racist, sexist, alt-right zealots, but often people who are left-leaning and questioning the cause. Take, for example, the plea by CNN host Fareed Zakaria — who is generally viewed as a liberal — to so-called progressive university students, urging them to listen to opposing points of view instead of silencing them.

Many "progressives" on the left often call anyone who criticizes it "far-right" and "fascist," including those who, by many people's standards, would be considered liberally minded...

Leftist fascists pretending to be anti-fascist

An anti-fascist group whose members assaulted two Global News journalists at a demonstration in Quebec last weekend defended their actions Thursday and threatened more violence against journalists covering future protests in order to, according to the post, “make demonstrations safer” for the group.

In an anonymous statement posted online titled “No face, no case: in defence of smashing corporate media cameras” the group said it wanted to “offer an explanation” for why a Global News camera was smashed and reporter Mike Armstrong was assaulted and pushed down a staircase.

“Sometimes, it is necessary to go against what the mainstream considers ‘acceptable,’ to break the law in order to do the ethical thing,” the post read. “Those who mask up to fight the racist far-right have decided, at great personal risk, that they will use any means necessary to shut down fascist organizing.” 

The group also accused “corporate media” of regularly handing over “their footage to police without even waiting for a court order”...

The true path to world peace is more porn and video games

The Chinese military says excessive masturbation and too many video games are among the reasons its physical-test failure rates have reached an “alarming high.”

The People’s Liberation Army is now dishing out advice after one city saw more than half its candidates — 56.9 percent — fail their physicals, according to the BBC.

PLA found that 8 percent of candidates failed because of abnormalities found in their scrotum from sitting too much. Another 25 percent flunked because of blood and urine tests.

It recommended that candidates follow 10 basic principles, including exercising more, cutting out fizzy drinks and booze, limiting computer games and masturbation, not getting a tattoo and drinking clean water...

Completely UNcompetent - US says UN Lebanon commander ‘blind’ to Hezbollah arms

The United States blasted the commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon on Friday, accusing him of turning a blind eye to Hezbollah weapons smuggling.

US ambassador Nikki Haley said the 10,500-strong UNIFIL force was “not doing its job effectively” and singled out its Irish leader, Major General Michael Beary.

“What I find totally baffling is the view of the UNIFIL commander General Beary,” Haley told reporters, accusing him of ignoring Hezbollah’s arms dumps.

“He seems to be the only person in south Lebanon who is blind. That’s an embarrassing lack of understanding on what’s going on around him,” she said.

Asked about Haley’s sharp criticism, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said of Beary “we have full confidence in his work.”...

#TheResistance's new theme song

#TheResistance new theme song pic.twitter.com/Wlo3spj0li

— Tricialynn_withnoe (@30daysof) August 24, 2017

Safe spaces and ‘ze’ badges: A bewildering year at a US university

As a child in Glasgow, I learned that sticks and stones might break my bones but words didn’t really hurt. I’m now at New York University studying journalism, where a different mantra seems to apply. Words, it turns out, might cause life-ruining emotional trauma.

During my ‘Welcome Week’, for example, I was presented with a choice of badges indicating my preferred gender pronouns: ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘they’ or ‘ze’?

The student in front of me, an Australian, found this hilarious: ‘Last time I checked, I was a girl.’ Her joke was met with stony silence. Later I realised why: expressing bewilderment at the obsession with pronouns might count as a ‘micro-aggression’. Next stop, ‘transphobia’...

Antifa and the Alt-Left are evil fasicts

Racism and antisemitism from Canada's Alt-Left "progressive" rabble.ca

It promotes Marxism conferences, Hitler-admiring antisemites, and publishes pro-Leninist articles.

It promotes singling out Jews as the only ethno-national group in the world who should not have national self-determination through its entrenched editorial policy and status as "official media partner" of antisemitic "Israeli Apartheid Week."

It survives only through funding from radical union leaders throwing money at it and it's the go-to place for Alt-Left news and opinion.

It's also racist and antisemitic. It's rabble.ca.

Rabble has a long history of odiousness, so today is no surprise, but it is blatant.

In an anti-Israel article by a fanatic named Yves Engler, rabble had to include the addendum:

Note: The original version of this piece stated that "younger and darker NDP members/sympathizers  largely oppose the current NDP leadership's de facto support for Israeli expansionism/belligerence." This has been changed to "younger NDP members of colour." We apologize for the oversight.

These are Canada's alt-Left racist "ant-racists."

 

Noam Chomsky: Antifa is a 'major gift to the Right'

..."As for Antifa, it's a minuscule fringe of the Left, just as its predecessors were," Noam Chomsky told the Washington Examiner. "It's a major gift to the Right, including the militant Right, who are exuberant."

Many activists affiliated with the loosely organized Antifa movement consider themselves anarchists or socialists. They often wear black and take measures to conceal their identity.

Chomsky said, "what they do is often wrong in principle – like blocking talks – and [the movement] is generally self-destructive."

"When confrontation shifts to the arena of violence, it's the toughest and most brutal who win – and we know who that is," said Chomsky, a professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "That's quite apart from the opportunity costs – the loss of the opportunity for education, organizing, and serious and constructive activism."...

Jerry Lewis dies at age 91

Jerry Lewis, whose irrepressible zaniness and frantic creativity vaulted him to stardom as a comic movie star who wielded unparalleled green-light power at Paramount in the 1960s, died Sunday. He was 91.

Lewis, who teamed with Dean Martin in the 1950s as one of the most successful tandems in the history of show business, died at 9:15 a.m. at his home in Las Vegas, John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, citing a statement from Lewis' family.

At the peak of their popularity, Martin & Lewis ruled nightclubs, radio and then the box office with their breezy yet physical comedy act, reigning as the top draw at theaters from 1950-56.

After an especially acrimonious break-up with his partner, Lewis remained as the No. 1 movie draw through the mid-1960s on the strength of such classics as The Bellboy (1960) and The Nutty Professor (1963). As Paramount’s biggest star, he had the creative freedom to make the moves he wanted to make.

Lewis also was known for his efforts as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. He devoted more than a half-century to fighting the neuromuscular disease, hosting an annual Labor Day telethon — and raising nearly $2.5 billion — from 1955 until he was ousted before the 2011 telecast. Lewis was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for his efforts...

Andrew Lawton: It’s fair to call out violence on the left and right — but make sure to do both

...There is a clarity to the goals of the Unite the Right protesters — terrible people standing up for terrible things, and thus easy to condemn. The groups opposing them have more shades of grey. Many, perhaps most, showed up to unite against racism and white supremacy — but many didn’t.

Antifa in particular, with its network of bandana-clad agitators, has a history of violent and hateful rhetoric and actions, from shutting down disagreeable speakers to shattering store windows to dousing people with urine.

Former dictator Benito Mussolini saw the rejection of individual identity and liberty as a hallmark of fascism, rendering Antifa, which seeks a singular worldview, the very portrait of what it claims to oppose.

These protesters, who often shroud themselves in Communist regalia and symbols, are at odds with history, the rule of law and free speech itself.

There is no moral high ground for Antifa’s pursuit of silencing dissidents and creating chaos.

How are they at all superior to the alt-right types seeking a white ethnostate?

They’re fascists, yet are rarely criticized as such by the mainstream left or media..

Scott Adams: How To You Know You’re In a Mass Hysteria Bubble

1. The trigger event for cognitive dissonance On November 8th of 2016, half the country learned that everything they believed to be both true and obvious turned out to be wrong. The people who thought Trump had no chance of winning were under the impression they were smart people who understood their country, and politics, and how things work in general. When Trump won, they learned they were wrong. They were so very wrong that they reflexively (because this is how all brains work) rewrote the scripts they were seeing in their minds until it all made sense again. The wrong-about-everything crowd decided that the only way their world made sense, with their egos intact, is that either the Russians helped Trump win or there are far more racists in the country than they imagined, and he is their king. Those were the seeds of the two mass hysterias we witness today.

Trump supporters experienced no trigger event for cognitive dissonance when Trump won. Their worldview was confirmed by observed events.

2. The Ridiculousness of it One sign of a good mass hysteria is that it sounds bonkers to anyone who is not experiencing it. Imagine your neighbor telling you he thinks the other neighbor is a witch. Or imagine someone saying the local daycare provider is a satanic temple in disguise. Or imagine someone telling you tulip bulbs are more valuable than gold. Crazy stuff.

Compare that to the idea that our president is a Russian puppet. Or that the country accidentally elected a racist who thinks the KKK and Nazis and “fine people.” Crazy stuff.

If you think those examples don’t sound crazy – regardless of the reality – you are probably inside the mass hysteria bubble.

2. The Confirmation Bias If you are inside the mass hysteria bubble, you probably interpreted President Trump’s initial statement on Charlottesville – which was politically imperfect to say the least – as proof-positive he is a damned racist.

If you are outside the mass hysteria bubble you might have noticed that President Trump never campaigned to be our moral leader. He presented himself as – in his own words “no angel” – with a set of skills he offered to use in the public’s interest. He was big on law and order, and equal justice under the law. But he never offered moral leadership. Voters elected him with that knowledge. Evidently, Republicans don’t depend on politicians for moral leadership. That’s probably a good call.

When the horror in Charlottesville shocked the country, citizens instinctively looked to their president for moral leadership. The president instead provided a generic law and order statement. Under pressure, he later named specific groups and disavowed the racists. He was clearly uncomfortable being our moral lighthouse. That’s probably why he never described his moral leadership as an asset when running for office. We observe that he has never been shy about any other skill he brings to the job, so it probably isn’t an accident when he avoids mentioning any ambitions for moral leadership. If he wanted us to know he would provide that service, I think he would have mentioned it by now.

If you already believed President Trump is a racist, his weak statement about Charlottesville seems like confirmation. But if you believe he never offered moral leadership, only equal treatment under the law, that’s what you saw instead. And you made up your own mind about the morality.

The tricky part here is that any interpretation of what happened could be confirmation bias. But ask yourself which one of these versions sounds less crazy:

1. A sitting president, who is a branding expert, thought it would be a good idea to go easy on murderous Nazis as a way to improve his popularity.

or…

2. The country elected a racist leader who is winking to the KKK and White Supremacists that they have a free pass to start a race war now.

or…

3. A mentally unstable racist clown with conman skills (mostly just lying) eviscerated the Republican primary field and won the presidency. He keeps doing crazy, impulsive racist stuff. But for some reason, the economy is going well, jobs are looking good, North Korea blinked, ISIS is on the ropes, and the Supreme Court got a qualified judge. It was mostly luck.

or…

4. The guy who didn’t offer to be your moral leader didn’t offer any moral leadership, just law and order, applied equally. His critics cleverly and predictably framed it as being soft on Nazis.

One of those narratives is less crazy-sounding than the other. That doesn’t mean the less-crazy one has to be true. But normal stuff happens far more often than crazy stuff. And critics will frame normal stuff as crazy whenever they get a chance...

A new trainwreck at The Rebel has nothing to do with the alt-right

Charges and counter-charges  regarding The Rebel.

"It's not you, it's Donald"

According to an August 11 article published by Harper's Bazaar, anyone who is married to a supporter of President Trump needs to file for divorce immediately. That's the advice given by the article's author, Jennifer Wright, who cites two recent high-profile divorce cases in which a wife filed for divorce on grounds of irreconcilable political differences...

Muslims In Calgary Website: Jewish Controlled Media Denigrates Beneficial Practice Of Female Genital Mutilation

From Blazing Cat Fur:

I have written about the virulently anti-semitic Muslims in Calgary organization before. In a bizarre bit of politically correct madness the Local Hate Arbitrator decreed that publishing excerpts from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion among other equally vile and widely held Muslim beliefs about Jews wasn’t a hate crime at all! Nor was their more recent hate screed against the Ahmadiyya. 

With that background it’s no surprise that they would publish an article extolling the benefits of Female Genital Mutilation and of course find room to blame the Jewish controlled media for bad mouthing this barbaric practice. But then again this is Justin’s Canada and this is mainstream Islam...

More HERE 

185,000 Ontario Jobs at Risk from Bill 148: Independent Economic Impact Analysis

TORONTO, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Today the Keep Ontario Working Coalition (KOW) released the first and only independent economic impact analysis of Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces Better Jobs Act. Conducted by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis (CANCEA), the study revealed that if the legislation is implemented as currently drafted, there will be significant, sudden and sizable uncertainty for Ontario jobs, economy and communities.

The study concludes that these vast, unprecedented reforms will put about 185,000 jobs at risk in the first two years, greatly impacting Ontario's most vulnerable workers.

"The changes presented in Bill 148 will have dramatic unintended consequences that include putting close to two hundred thousand jobs at risk and seeing everyday consumer goods and services increase by thousands of dollars for each and every family in Ontario," said Karl Baldauf, Vice President of Policy and Government Relations at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and spokesperson for the Keep Ontario Working Coalition. "We've run the numbers and it's clear that this is too much, too soon. If the Ontario government chooses to proceed with these sweeping reforms too quickly, all of us will be affected, and the most vulnerable in our society chief among them."

CANCEA was commissioned by the KOW coalition to measure the potential impacts of six key areas of change in Bill 148, including changes to minimum wages, "equal pay" provisions, vacation, scheduling, personal emergency leave (PEL) and unionization.

Data from the economic impact analysis shows:

• $23 billion hit to business over the next two years alone
• 185,000 Ontario jobs will be at immediate risk over the next two years
• 30,000 of the jobs at risk are youth under 25
• 96,000 employees at risk are expected to be women
• 50 per cent increase to inflation for this year and the foreseeable future. The cost of everyday consumer goods and services will go up by $1,300 per household on average each and every year
• The Ontario government would need to borrow $440 million more to cover the increases in new costs from this legislation. If the government were to provide offsets to businesses, as they have indicated, the province's treasury will take a bigger hit
• Municipalities will be forced to increase employee wages by $500 million without additional offsetting revenues...

For condemnation of right-wing extremism to be credible, we also must condemn left-wing extremism

We must remember this truth: No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are ALL AMERICANS FIRST. pic.twitter.com/FesMiQSKKn

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

No responsible person on what's considered the mainstream right has ever condoned or defended Nazis, white supremacists, or the Ku Klux Klan. They are vicious, stupid, odious, racist hatemongers who deserve nothing but contempt.

Many conservative Republicans, including Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, explicitly condemned white supremacists yesterday in the aftermath of a vehicular homicide committed by a despicable white nationalist. President Donald Trump, in what is widely considered an error of communication, condemned "hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides" which, while a proper thing to do, did not single out the white supremacists for particular denunciation. It was only belatedly that he did explicitly name white supremacist groups. For Trump to have immediately identified white supremacists would have been appropriate, both to the circumstances of yesterday's atrocity and the uniquely monstrous character of these cretins who hold on to an ideology that has caused the killings and oppression of millions of people over time.

But, from a purely logical standpoint, Trump was not wrong to condemn bigotry and violence on many sides. Indeed, it was necessary, since the failure of the political left to condemn the violence and hatred perpetrated in the name of its causes has emboldened neo-Nazis and their ilk to rear their ugly heads in greater numbers and has led to street battles between left and right wing extremists.

During the 2016 American election campaign, Antifa, so-called "anti-fascists," whose methods and ideology are as fascist as anything Benito Mussolini dreamed of, physically attacked innocent people for the 'offense' of attending Trump rallies or even for wearing Make America Great Again baseball hats.

During the last few years, far-left activists have violently attacked and shut down talks at publicly funded universities by conservative speakers.

Yet where was the condemnation of Antifa from the political left? Leftist mealy-mouthed denunciation of violence always seemed to be equivocated with an expression of understanding of why Antifa and their fellow travellers would be triggered by the likes of harmless gadflies such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Charles Murray.

Black Lives Matter is a hate-filled movement of Black supremacist, racist, anti-semitic, anti-capitalist extremists who have shut down thoroughfares, putting peoples lives at risk and which has inspired and praised the murders of police officers. Where is the condemnation of Black Lives Matter from the political left? Instead, left wing politicians and leftist groups clamor to give awards and seek photo-ops with that organization of vicious hatemongers.

The fact is that while neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists may be the most reprehensible, detestable, violent hatemongers, they are not the only reprehensible, detestable, violent hatemongers. There needs to be condemnation of all such evil in our society if our institutions hope to maintain credibility.

It's time for the center to speak out forcefully and act to take the momentum away from extremists before the extremes are all anyone has to choose from.

Former NSA experts say DNC hack wasn’t a hack at all, but a leak—an inside job by someone with access to the DNC’s system

This is from The Nation, which usually is about as anti-Trump as you can find in US media:

...There has been a long effort to counter the official narrative we now call “Russiagate.” This effort has so far focused on the key events noted above, leaving numerous others still to be addressed. Until recently, researchers undertaking this work faced critical shortcomings, and these are to be explained. But they have achieved significant new momentum in the past several weeks, and what they have done now yields very consequential fruit. Forensic investigators, intelligence analysts, system designers, program architects, and computer scientists of long experience and strongly credentialed are now producing evidence disproving the official version of key events last year. Their work is intricate and continues at a kinetic pace as we speak. But its certain results so far are two, simply stated, and freighted with implications:

• There was no hack of the Democratic National Committee’s system on July 5 last year—not by the Russians, not by anyone else. Hard science now demonstrates it was a leak—a download executed locally with a memory key or a similarly portable data-storage device. In short, it was an inside job by someone with access to the DNC’s system. This casts serious doubt on the initial “hack,” as alleged, that led to the very consequential publication of a large store of documents on WikiLeaks last summer.

• Forensic investigations of documents made public two weeks prior to the July 5 leak by the person or entity known as Guccifer 2.0 show that they were fraudulent: Before Guccifer posted them they were adulterated by cutting and pasting them into a blank template that had Russian as its default language. Guccifer took responsibility on June 15 for an intrusion the DNC reported on June 14 and professed to be a WikiLeaks source—claims essential to the official narrative implicating Russia in what was soon cast as an extensive hacking operation. To put the point simply, forensic science now devastates this narrative.

This article is based on an examination of the documents these forensic experts and intelligence analysts have produced, notably the key papers written over the past several weeks, as well as detailed interviews with many of those conducting investigations and now drawing conclusions from them...

David Brooks: Sundar Pichai Should Resign as Google’s C.E.O.

#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/EaD4tKoH21

— James Damore (@Fired4Truth) August 10, 2017

...The coverage of the memo has been atrocious. 

As Conor Friedersdorf wrote in The Atlantic, “I cannot remember the last time so many outlets and observers mischaracterized so many aspects of a text everyone possessed.” Various reporters and critics apparently decided that Damore opposes all things Enlightened People believe and therefore they don’t have to afford him the basic standards of intellectual fairness.

The mob that hounded Damore was like the mobs we’ve seen on a lot of college campuses. We all have our theories about why these moral crazes are suddenly so common. I’d say that radical uncertainty about morality, meaning and life in general is producing intense anxiety. Some people embrace moral absolutism in a desperate effort to find solid ground. They feel a rare and comforting sense of moral certainty when they are purging an evil person who has violated one of their sacred taboos.

Which brings us to Pichai, the supposed grown-up in the room. He could have wrestled with the tension between population-level research and individual experience. He could have stood up for the free flow of information. Instead he joined the mob. He fired Damore and wrote, “To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not O.K.”

That is a blatantly dishonest characterization of the memo. Damore wrote nothing like that about his Google colleagues. Either Pichai is unprepared to understand the research (unlikely), is not capable of handling complex data flows (a bad trait in a C.E.O.) or was simply too afraid to stand up to a mob...

Tristin Hopper: CBC Comedy is the worst crime against humour this country has ever committed

f there was ever a textbook example of the terrible, bone-chilling things a government can do to humour, it’s CBC Comedy.

To be clear, I’m not talking about the general phenomenon of comedy appearing on CBC. I’m talking instead about cbc.ca/comedy, a section of the CBC website devoted in part to publishing satirical news headlines.

Although it’s existed for three years, chances are you’ve never heard of it. Because while CBC doesn’t publicly release its website analytics, all signs point to the site having utterly dismal traffic.

CBC Comedy’s social media accounts are embarrassingly devoid of attention. On Twitter, posts will commonly fail to attract a single retweet or like — meaning that they aren’t even being promoted by the writers who created them...

Jonathan Kay: The Google Manifesto contained truths that we're not allowed to say

...Read James Damore’s now infamous manifesto, and you immediately can tell that the ex-Google engineer—who was laid off this week following outrage over his views—is a product of the modern, more progressive culture. His very first full sentence is, “I value diversity and inclusion, am not denying that sexism exists, and don’t endorse using stereotypes.” And later: “I strongly believe in gender and racial diversity, and I think we should strive for more.” Not exactly hate speech. 

In fact, a significant portion of his manifesto consists of strategies for retaining female employees. To wit: “Women on average look for more work-life balance… Allowing and truly endorsing (as part of our culture) part time work… can keep more women in tech.” I’ve heard diversity consultants say exactly the same thing.

But Damore’s critics focus instead on his thoughtcrime, which was to suggest that “differences in distributions of traits between men and women may in part explain why we don’t have 50% representation of women in tech and leadership.” Many scientists—including Canada’s own Debra Soh, who holds a PhD in sexual neuroscience—will attest to the truth of this. Still, as the popular kids all know, you’re not supposed to actually go out and say it.

I’m no neuroscientist. Unlike Soh, I’ve never studied human brain scans. But over careers in engineering, law and journalism, I’ve met plenty of smart people. And I’ve observed a lot of anecdotal evidence that suggests men and women have—on the level of population means—subtly different intellectual and behavioural strengths. Which in turn encourages some of them to pick one field over another...

Jordan Peterson interviews James Damore (the Google Memo guy)

Oh crap...Glen Campbell died

He was 81

The ‘Anti-Diversity Screed’ That Wasn’t

The first thing to know about the instantly infamous “anti-diversity screed” written by an anonymous Google software engineer is that it isn’t anti-diversity or a screed.

The loaded description, widely used in the press and on social media, is symptomatic of the pearl-clutching over the memo, which questions the premises and effectiveness of Google’s diversity policies.

The document was meant — before getting splashed on the Internet — as an internal conversation-starter. The author posits that innate differences between the sexes might account for the disparity between men and women in the male-dominated world of high-tech. 

He states repeatedly that he believes in diversity, and there’s no reason to doubt his self-description as a classical liberal. His exclamation-point-free memo is hardly a rant. He expresses the hope that “open and honest discussion with those who disagree can highlight our blind spots and help us grow.” 

How naïve. The witless and inflamed reaction to his document instead underlines his point about “a politically correct monoculture that maintains its hold by shaming dissenters into silence.”...

Some fascinating photographic art on display at Toronto's Matter Gallery

Returning from an excursion one evening med-last week, I rollerbladed along newly-trendy Geary Avenue, in Toronto's west end.

As Toronto's soaring real estate prices have increased commercial rental costs, hipsters and artsy types must sometimes relocate to affordable digs close enough to downtown to be accessible to the types of patrons they want to attract, and still embedded in a community that provides enough critical mass to support them locally. Geary, which runs from Ossington Avenue on the east to just west of Dufferin Street, is an industrial street just north of the railroad tracks where many old storage facilities, wholesale businesses, and car repair businesses are now being repurposed as galleries, micro-breweries, and coffee houses.

Turning north from from Geary onto Westmoreland Avenue, I noticed a gathering of people, many dressed in loud colors and ostentatious jewellery so as to, it seemed, conspicuously attract attention. If that was their intent, it worked on me, and I stopped on the street to take a closer look. What I was seeing was clearly an opening party for an art exhibit.

Being curious about such things, I edged closer to get a look inside when, from within the gallery, emerged a slight, thin man, wearing a sports jacket, a patterned dress shirt and a swanky, colorful, loosely tied polka-dotted bow tie. With my rollerblades on my feet, I had been hesitant to enter, but the gentleman, after inquiring whether I was interested in art, invited me in. With his unusual get-up, long, straight, blond bangs brushed over half his forehead, and a distinct Central European accent, I felt like was was having an encounter with the spawn of a union between Andy Warhol and Bela Lugosi.  It was Zack Pospieszynski, the curator of Matter Gallery, where the art in question was displayed.

Zack is an eminently charming man who explained to me that his gallery is devoted exclusively to exhibiting the work of international artists from everywhere outside North America. The current show, which had opened that evening, is of the work of a Turkish photographer named Aydin Buyuktas.

The ironic name for the show is Flatlands. The photographs of expansive landscapes are indeed of level plains and the structures and features on them. But through digital manipulation, Buyuktas has transformed them into vastly curved scenes which make them appear to be seen as if from the crest of an immensely tall rollercoaster just prior to a lengthy descent.

Without the metamorphosis, the photographs, some of which you can see below, would have been quite encompassing; with the artificial transmutation, they are indeed fascinating works of art.

The exhibit, at Matter Gallery, at 344 Westmoreland Avenue,  runs until September 15.

Niall Ferguson: The biggest threat to free speech? The left

...Freedom is rarely killed off by people chanting “Down with Freedom!” It is killed off by people claiming that the greater good/the general will/the community/the proletariat requires “examination of the parameters” (or some such cant phrase) of individual liberty. If the criterion for censorship is that nobody’s feelings can be hurt, we are finished as a free society.

Where such arguments lead is just a long-haul flight away.

The regime of Hugo Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, in Venezuela, used to be the toast of such darlings of the American Left as Naomi Klein, whose 2007 book “The Shock Doctrine” praised Venezuela as “a zone of relative economic calm” in a world dominated by marauding free market economists. Today (as was eminently foreseeable 10 years back), Venezuela is in a state of economic collapse, its opposition leaders are in jail, and its constitution is about to be rewritten yet again to keep the Chavista dictatorship in power. Another regime where those who speak freely land in jail is Saudi Arabia, a regime lauded by Women’s March leader and sharia law enthusiast Linda Sarsour.

Mark my words, while I can still publish them with impunity: The real tyrants, when they come, will be for diversity (except of opinion) and against hate speech (except their own).

Every day is a Day of Rage for pro-terrorist, anti-Israel protesters in Toronto

They're really, really furious with Israel, but too worried about revealing how idiotic they are to speak to The Rebel's David Menzies: