Off to Daytona!

Of all the weeks I could have taken as vacation time, I don't think I have picked a better one. No more Emerson, no more Danish cartoons, no more Muslim hypocrisy, no more headaches and anger. No politics, just beer, friends, parties and horsepower! What more can a man ask for?

I fly down to Daytona in a few hours with my buddies to attend the Daytona 500 festivities. (Yes, my secret shame: I love NASCAR) We managed to get a package deal to the Budweiser Shootout, The Gatorade Duel, the Hershey 300 and finally the Daytona 500. Blogging will be non-existent until I return on the 20th. (And thank god for that!)


On another note, if anyone can tell me how I can catch Team Canada games for the Olympic Games in the U.S. (what channels? what radio station?) it will be greatly appreciated.

Look who's talking!

What I'm about to describe reflects EVERYTHING that's wrong with the Muslim Community in Canada and worldwide. Key word to keep in mind here: Hypocrisy.

The CIC released a pathetic press release regarding Stephen Harper's cabinet positions. Key Quotes:

With yesterday's new federal Conservative cabinet appointments, the Canadian Islamic Congress fears that police-state politics which began under the former Liberal regime will soon emerge in an accelerated and enlarged form.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Just for the sake reasoning, let's assume that the Conservatives have a secret plan to turn Canada into a police state. (I know! I know! but let's just try to get into their mindset). Let's assume the worst: The Conservatives will accelerate the police state.

But one tricky question arises in all this. Why does the CIC urge caution to one "police state" threat, while urging people to embrace another?

A few days after the Canadian federal election, you probably remember the Canadian Islamic Congress' "warning" to Harper to respect the democratic decision in the Palestinian territories after he hinted that he won't recognize the results over there until Hamas renounces terrorism.

Let's have a look into what Hamas' domestic policy has in place for the Palestinian people:

1. The implementation of Sharia Law.
2. A "Supervised" policy to monitor the press in order to edit out "un-Islamic" theory.
3. Requiring all Women to be veiled.
4. Imposing a Dihmi Tax on Palestinian Christians and Druze.
5. The banning of certain leisure's such as Music, Dancing, Art, Movies, etc...


In other words a mechanism to control every aspect of Palestinian society into their own image. The suppression of individual freedom in the name of "Islamic Values". Does this sound like a Police State to you? I sure as hell do think so.

So why, in the name of everything that's holly, do they encourage people to embrace this "Police State" (A Hamas dominated Palestine) while warning us to be vigilant to another (Supposedly under a Conservative-Led Canada)?

Right there you see the moral bankruptcy many Muslims in the world suffer from nowadays.
-Go into a panic mode against Harper, but embrace Hamas.
-Throw a murderous fit when a cartoonist draws an unflattering picture of the Prophet Mohammed, but laugh at a cartoon depicting Jews as Nazi murderers.
-Demand economic sanctions against western countries, but hyperventilate when others demand one against a Muslim country.

....

You know what? I laid out the facts. Draw your own conclusions. I'm way too pissed to conclude this post with a worn-out cliché that's been repeated by almost every sane person who is monitoring current world events.

On a final note to my fellow Muslims:

QUIT BEING RETARDED!

Was Assad behind the Embassy torchings?

There were rumors floating around in the Mid East that the embassy torchings in Beirut and Damascus of several European Embassies. Initially it started with the accusation by Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party. Now I ignored this at first because Jumblatt, while he was an idealist, was also known to be a loose cannon at times. However, some details are emerging which may compliment his theory of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad engineering the chaos.

Al Hayat reported that among those who were arrested in the Beirut riots, the breakdown was as follows:

76 Syrians arrested
35 Palestinians arrested
About a dozen Lebanese arrested.

Olivier Roy, a respected French specialist on Middle Eastern Affairs, reached a similar conclusion:

"It is evident that these demonstrations are entirely manipulated by the authorities. It's revenge for the European pressure on the Syrian presence in Lebanon."

(h/t Accorss the Bay)

Finally there’s one last thing to consider. Lee Smith in the Weekly Standard makes an excellent point which I completetly overlooked when the riots occurred.

“Syria is an authoritarian state where nothing happens on the street unless the regime permits it to happen.”

Exactly! Syria’s iron grip hold on the Public is truly remarkable. There’s not a street corner where the mukhabarat (secret police) is not present. There’s barely any phone line that’s not tapped. Nothing gets published in the newspapers that doesn’t go through review by the authorities. Dissidents of the regime have a tendance to dissapear. I’ve personally heard stories of people being arrested in cofee shops 2 minutes after mentioning some criticism of the Syrian leadership. Protests against government policies get crused before they even begin. And we’re led to believe that the Syrian authorities could’nt have done anything to control those proetsts? Bullshit! Either the Syrian authorities allowed this to happen, or they played akey role in them. Either way, we see Bashar Al Assad has already began to panic about his grip to power.

Not cool Stephen.

So I watched the last bit of the swearing in ceremony during my lunch hour, and I can honestly say it was a HUGE disappointment. Harper made three unbelievably dumb moves already:

1. Accepting the David Emerson defection. Geez Stephen! I mean couldn't you have waited at least one year after you were sworn in? This right after the election is a terrible message to send to the voters, basically what you stated with this is that you didn't mean dick when you said you wanted democratic renewal.

I remember how pissed I was when Belinda defected from the party during her days, so for the first time in 13 years, let me just tell any Grit who is reading this today: I understand your frustration and in no way do I approve of this.

2. Michael Fortier as Public Works minister? Patronage? Unelected Senate?

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO END ALL THAT

3. Gordon O'Connor as Defense Minster? After the Federal Accountability Act would forbid lobbyists from entering politics until a 5 year cooling period?
What a disgusting sell out of values.

Dumb Dumb Dumb! My god! I can't even begin to describe how disappointed I am with all this. I think for the sake of my blood pressure I won't pay attention to politics from now until I leave for vacation on Friday.

Update: Thanks goes out to Japnaam Singh who cleared up the O’Connor mess:

The Accountability act is actually the opposite.

It is designed to prevent public servants, bureaucrats and politicians from leaving government service in order to lobby the government (as a registered lobbyist) for a few years after their service in government.

O'Connor had left a private post in order to join the government.

It isn't the same thing and there's nothing (as far as I can see) that's wrong with it.

Looks like he’s in the clear. Still a little too close for comfort in my opinion, but that’s life.

The death of Libertarianism within the Republican party?

Like many political junkies I watched the State of the Union Address last Monday, in where President Bush. One of the many subjects he raised, this one I loved:

Every year of my presidency, we've reduced the growth of non-security discretionary spending, and last year you passed bills that cut this spending. This year my budget will cut it again, and reduce or eliminate more than 140 programs that are performing poorly or not fulfilling essential priorities. By passing these reforms, we will save the American taxpayer another $14 billion next year, and stay on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009.

Unfortunately the Republicans are still spending on many pork-barrel programs. Worse, many of those programs are places which the government has NO BUSINESS being in, like this one:

Congress approved a $750 million, five-year plan aimed at building healthier marriages Wednesday as part of its deficit reduction bill.

The measure now goes to President Bush. It includes $100 million a year for marriage-related programs and $50 million a year for fatherhood programs. This is the first time Congress has earmarked money for marriage programs, says Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution's Center on Children and Families.

I really thought this was a joke! The words "Deficit reduction" and 150 million dollars in new spending a year for a social program in one bill one hell of an oxymoron.

The government of Quebec is a clear cut example of how the more the government spends money to "strengthen" families, the worse the situation gets. I have to be honest, I have no idea how any self-proclaimed "Fiscal Conservative Libertarian" in the U.S. can vote Republican with a straight face in the upcoming mid-terms this fall.

(H/T Andrew Sullivan)

Even a broken clock is right twice a day

I had a good laugh when I read this:

Outspoken Respect MP George Galloway has finally been allowed into Egypt after being detained and spending the night in a cell.

The Bethnal Green and Bow MP had been detained "on grounds of national security" on arrival at Cairo airport.

He was stopped and detained all night in a cell with several others, a spokesman for his party said.

...

The MP has now contacted his supporters and he accused Egypt of being "undemocratic police state", his spokesman said.

Of course the main irony here is that he was in Egypt for a mock trial accusing Blair and Bush of "War Crimes and Human Rights abuses". Just to give you an equivalent, it would be like me heading over to Saudi Arabia to protest that Paul Martin and the Liberal Party are against "the democratic process".

There's also this bit:

He added: "Mubarak of course enjoys very warm relations with George Bush and Tony Blair.

Well gee-wiz George, how come I don't hear you denouncing your government for that?! You know if actually spent more time blasting the west's warm relations with Middle Eastern tyrants instead of playing a pussy on t.v. people might actually take you seriously.

No turning back now.

God dammit! Its the issue that won't go away! The issue has really spread like wildfire and is exposing the many poisonous mindset that well grounded within the Muslim World.





Out of all that's been said on the matter, I think Mark Steyn said it best on the Hugh Hewitt show:

And at some point, Muslims living in Western Europe have to decide whether or not they're prepared to be offended, because that's what it involves in a free society. Every day of the week, you, I'm sure...every morning, I wake up to hate mail on the e-mail, and I shrug it off. And I'm sure you do, too. And that's what Muslims have to learn to do in the Western world, if they're going to be citizens of the Western world.

(H/T T.L.M.E.P)

We've really reached a dangerous point. And unfortunately, its a point of no return as everybody involved in this whole brouhaha has already apologized and yet the morons are not backing down. But what the western world should do right now is STAND FIRM. To back off right now is the equivalent of appeasement to the hardliners who are behind all this. Basically, it sends a message that their intimidation, calls for violence and unacceptable behavior can yield results to their favor. Which in turn sets a dangerous precedent, what if they decide to this to any media that writes a pro-Israel article? What if they decide to do react the same way to a study that challenges the theory of Islam? What if they decide to do the same thing to MTV (yes, its diffused in the Middle East) because of its content?

If the western world keeps backing down whenever some maniacs like this decide to ruffle the feathers, then we're putting the concept of free press in danger worldwide.

Because I can guarantee you that should the press and countries involved chicken out on this, then the mad mullahs will simply use it to their advantage and rally their jackass followers towards another target in the future. This is the bitter medicine the Muslim world must taste in order for it to live in the real world.

Sidenote: Head on over to PomoChristian for some much needed comic relief on the whole matter. Cause God knows we need it!

Possible shadow Liberal cabinet?

Chris Vanoostveen has some suggestions for Bill Graham on who to name for his shadow cabinet appointments.

*SHOCKER*: some rational thinking in the Middle East.

Well well well, it appears that not everyone in the Muslim World has fallen for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rhetoric (as they did with Saddam and Arafat during their reigns of power). ABC news has picked up some interesting opinions from people on the streets in Jordan and Egypt:

Many Arabs interviewed by The Associated Press said Ahmadinejad's rhetoric and defiance remind them of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, and worry they will result in violence and turmoil for the Middle East.

They say the Iranian leader's comments against Israel are meaningless, especially without a common Arab stand on the issue. They find his insistence on developing a nuclear program worrisome because he may use the technology against them. And many say Ahmadinejad's focus should be redirected toward Iran's foundering economy.

(emphasis mine)

Put this in safety box somewhere people! This might be one of the rarest moments where some shred of common sense is sweeping my ancestral region. And there's more!

"The Iranian president is beating his head against the wall. He is as foolish as Saddam," said Hussein Kadhim Thijeel, a teacher from the Iraqi city of Karbala. "He will make his people go through the same suffering that Saddam brought to the Iraqi people."

Mohammed Ahmed, a 30-year-old Jordanian electrician, agreed: "Ahmadinejad is speaking irresponsible and nonsensical words. He is repeating the Iraqi president's mistakes."

I just want to remind our constipated pessimists out there that this attitude would never have been brought out had it not been for Saddam's fall. Right there we see that the Iraq war has brought some change of psychology in the Arab world.

(Hat Tip: WND)

Man...Canadians are electing Conservatives, Arabs are thinking logically, what's next? The Venezuelan people launching a coup on Chavez? *knock on wood*

A study finds the "progressive" daycare program is bad for children.

Last month during the election campaign, we discovered that the Quebec Daycare program (which the Liberal party and the NDP wanted to emulate nationally) was
Costly, benefited the wrong people and was easily politicized by the public sector unions.

But there was one VERY important detail which we overlooked and simply didn't study. That is: the effect of daycare centers on families. The C.D. Howe Institute released a study that laid out many disturbing findings among the kids who went into the Daycare program in Quebec.

Key Points:

• increased use of childcare was associated with a decrease in their well-being relative to other children.
• reported fighting and other measures of aggressive behavior of the children in daycare increased substantially compared to the kids who were not in the program.
• Anxiety for children in daycare was 3 times higher than those who were not.

Equally disturbing was the findings among the behavior of their parents:

• mothers of the children in daycare were more depressed, as indicated by the significant rise in their depression scores relative to the average.
• A deterioration of the quality of their relationships with their partners was almost 4 times as likely.

So...unless your a divorce lawyer, a psychological therapist or a salesmen of anti-depressant drugs, you know this will not benefit any of us in the long run.

Quick Notes

I promised myself I wouldn't blog anymore about the Danish cartoons and the retarded reaction this has sparked in the Middle East as it just keeps the storey going. But I just want to thank all the Danes who e-mailed me (4 e-mails woo-hoo!) with their kind words of support after yesterday's post urging people to Buy Danish. So on that note I just want to say: Tak

Again, Buy Danish.


Buchanan Flip-Flop

Pat Buchanan, the ex-presidential candidate and famed America-Firster, has managed to flip flop on the issue of the Foreign Aid. Now I like Pat (I don't agree with his views on trade or foreign policy, but he's an interesting read nonetheless). But this is very disappointing. I don't know how you could go from this:

Foreign aid "can only be spent in countries committed, I repeat, committed, to the road to free-market reform," declared McConnell. But, according to the excellent Index of Economic Freedom -- just released by the Heritage Foundation -- neither Israel nor Egypt really qualifies. Economically, both nations are ranked in the Index as, "Mostly Not Free."

to this:

In defense of foreign aid
– for Hamas

So much for Buchanan the Isolationist.

The last refuge for the Arab Totalitarian dickhead

Notice a trend here? In 1990 when Saddam Hussein was about to have his ass handed to him by NATO, he tried to unite all Arab nationalists by bringing up the suffering of the Palestinian people. After the 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden also invoked the Palestinian struggle as one of his determination for "justice".

Now...with Syria feeling the heat from the international community regarding the death of Harriri are invoking a familiar tune, can you guess what it is?

Stand up for Free Speech, Buy Danish

The whole Danish cartoons controversy has really gotten out of hand. With all the so-called outrage from Middle Eastern governments and Muslims worldwide, your almost tempted to laugh at their logic and stupidity. Especially considering that political cartoons should be the least of their worries nowadays. If their is any good that can come out of this is that Europe and the International community doesn't seem to be bending over as usual to the demands of the Mid East tyrants. Maybe this backlash will result in some soul-searching from the Muslim world, but I'm not holding my breath.

I don't want to sound like a broken record on the matter, so for my last post on the subject all I'm going to do is join forces with a growing list of Mid-East bloggers who are urging their readers to buy Danish products to counter the sorry ass boycott many nations in the Arab world have taken against Danish products.

So far here are the businesses that I know of:

Danish Porcelain

The Danish Foodshop

LEGO

Danish Deli

If there's anymore Danish companies that sell online internationally, please let me know, I'll add it to the list, or you can visit this site which has continuous updates regarding the matter.

I brought some Lego online and sent it to my Nephew in Jordan. Again I strongly encourage you to do whatever you can to make this boycott turn into a backlash and stand up for Free Speech and hopefully some rational thinking in the Middle East.