Category: Rants

You just keep hearing it over and over again. The incessant, high-pitched, whining, drone warbled out by the looney left as they gleefully get their gotchies in a Gordian gnot over Guantanamo Bay’s Camp X-Ray. On and on the somnambulant sheep bleat away over what a Godawful gulag has been created in Cuba where poor, defenseless, followers of the Religion of Perpetual Outrage Peace are locked away from the all-wise eyes of the compassionate capitulators to be subjected to tortures so unspeakable that even Mel Gibson wouldn’t make a movie about it.

Over and over, we hear that the treatment of the detainees in Gitmo is the cause of Islamic hostility towards the West and its culture. As if the Gitmo prison existed before September 11. The truth of the matter is somewhat more simple:

The other favourite lie from the left is that Gitmo is in violation of the Geneva Conventions. This is simply not the case, as Salim Mansur pointed out in the TO Sun today:

Those being held at Guantanamo Bay are not regular prisoners of war who would automatically be protected by regulations provided under the Geneva Convention now ratified by 194 member countries of the United Nations.

[…]

These detainees do not fit any category of prisoners of war as defined by the Geneva Convention which does not anticipate the dilemmas of war resulting from hostilities precipitated by non-state entities such as al-Qaida.

The fact of the matter is that the Geneva Conventions never anticipated a conflict like the one we find ourselves in now and, as such, they are woefully inadequate in dealing with such enemies in any meaningful way. The Conventions are utterly meaningless unless both sides agree to play by the rules. While terrorists are eager to accuse us of ignoring the Conventions, they rarely, if ever, pay any heed to those same rules themselves. Groups such as Hezbullshit, to name just one, frequently target unarmed civilian populations in preference over military targets. They also take great pains to locate their own military assets within the midst of as dense as possible a civilian population (in order to maximize collateral damage and resulting PR) and then cry out in the name of humanity when these assets are targeted. Both tactics violate international law and both continue to be favoured by terrorists, yet Western media remains as silent as a tomb in its lack of criticism.

There is a nagging (and unignorable) notion that is beginning to dawn on more and more people as the war on terror goes on: the Conventions are not just useless in this conflict, they are a hinderance that could prolong the conflict at a cost of thousands (or possibly millions) of lives and, as such, they should be abandoned. As Peter Worthington has put it in the latest installment of his series on Guantanamo:

I would argue that if this war against terrorism is to be won — and it can be won, but not by genteel treatment — for starters the United States should withdraw from the Geneva Conventions, which no longer hold the relevance they once did. Canada, Britain and Australia should also abandon the conventions…

If America backed out of the Geneva Conventions there would be no need to provide every Gitmo detainee with a Koran — which in many cases is their only reading matter and is misinterpreted or distorted by extremists who pervert Islam.

After all, al-Qaida doesn’t provide Bibles to American (and other) prisoners before cutting off their heads as video cameras whirr.

As I’ve said many times before (till I’m blue in the face, it sometimes seems), we are at war, no matter what some choose to call it and whether the appeasers on the Left want to admit it or not. And there are a few unpleasant realities of war that need to be remembered:

• Wars are won only by the side willing to do whatever is needed to gain victory, no matter the cost (especially the cost to the enemy).
• The side that loses must change and start living by the winning side’s rules, whether they want to or not.
• History is written by the victors.

First things first: a flip o’ my chapeau to the Relapsed Catholic for beating me to the punch on this one.

Some people will look at the issue and think that I’m referring to Xeno in the usual “xenophobia” context. Not so.

I’m referring to Xeno of Elea, the Greek pholosopher famous for, amongst other things, his paradoxes. You know; those bothersome little questions that, by their very nature, seem to have no possible answer at all. Perhaps the most famous of all of them was the question which has so often been paraphrased like this:

What, exactly, would occur if an immovable object were to be struck by an irresistable force?

What, indeed? It is beginning to seem as if this very question is, as you read this, being played out in Regina.

Bill Whatcott, a “long-time pro-life and family campaigner” from the Big Flat, has recently been slapped to the tune of $17,500 by Saskatchewan’s Human Rights Tribunal for… wait for it… hurt feelings.

Yup, that’s right. We’ve gone from “sticks and stones may break my bones” to “BOO HOO, he hurt my feelings, your honour; WHERE’S MY CHEQUE?!?!”

Okay, let’s examine this, shall we? First, in my opinion: yeah, he went a little overboard and crossed the line of decent debate (kinda hard to look reasonable strolling down the street holding a sign saying “Bare Bottomed Pitifuls are Celebrating Buggery in Regina. God Help Us!”), but it is still damned hard to slap down the very logical points that he does make:

If you can find factual inaccuracies in my flyers or if you can find that I said something in bad faith, at that point there should be civil penalties […] I’d be the first one to agree with that. […] If I’m lying by saying that homosexuals are predisposed to sexually transmitted diseases at a rate greater than the general population, by all means find me liable for slander. If I’m wrong in saying….that there is a predisposition in homosexuality towards the sexual abuse of children, if that can be factually proven to be wrong, find me guilty of libel. But don’t tell me that I can’t say something that is true.

In other words: “prove me wrong and I’ll take my medicine.” Sounds reasonable to me. Also sounds like the best way to deal with any disagreement, debate or what have you.

But the problem here (and a chilling one it is) is that the SHRC doesn’t seem to give a damn about bothersome little things like facts or truth. According to Janice Gingell (a lawyer for the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission):

Sexual orientation is a protected category under the code and you are not allowed to say things that will cause other people to feel hatred or ridicule or belittlement towards members of those protected categories.

Yup, you got it. Thou Shalt Not Speak Against The Priviledged Group. Period. Truth? Lies? Doesn’t matter. Just sit the hell down and shut the hell up. Forget freedom of reli… aw, screw it. Forget any freedoms you think you have. None of them matter. You aren’t one of the Protected Ones. So you’re screwed.

Orwell himself couldn’t have done better.

Getting back to Xeno….

…he will not pay a $17,500 fine ordered by Saskatchewan’s Human Rights Tribunal […] Whatcott has vowed to continue distributing his flyers with about 3,500 more to go out on Thursday.

Wow, what are the odds? Who could have ever imagined that of all Canadians, it would be the French that would get grumpy about antismoking laws? As a lot of people (especially smokers in la Belle Province) already know, Quebec hopped on the anti-puffing hypocrisy hayride earlier this year and became the latest in the lineup of regions to ban a perfectly legal substance from just about everyplace in public.

It now seems that a motley crew of bar owners, employees and patrons have taken up the idea that the Quebec antismoking laws are… hmm… how should I put this?

Complètement plein du merde? Pardon my French.

Not being content to merely sit around puffing away in the rain and griping, about 150 owners and employees turned out for a bit of a noisy demonstration outside the provincial courthouse in Montreal. Meanwhile, inside the courthouse:

A Quebec Superior Court judge will be asked today to repeal the province’s anti-smoking law in time for the holidays.

Maintaining they have suffered irreparable financial damage since Quebec banned smoking in bars and restaurants May 31, Quebec bar owners are scheduled to appear in court to ask for an injunction that would temporarily overturn the tough new law.

The injunction is a stop-gap measure while bar owners wait for the Supreme Court of Canada to hear their case challenging the constitutionality of Quebec’s anti-smoking law.

Seriously, folks; just how long did anyone think it was going to take for this to happen?

First things first, let’s get my own bias out of the way. Yes, I smoke; yes, I know it’s a bad habit; and no, I don’t want my kids doing it. But I am also sick and God damned tired of all the hypocrisy from the second-hand-smoke finger wagging crowd. The same frigging idiots that tell me that I can’t sit down and enjoy a stogie in my favourite pub are the same nattering nannies that trumpet the virtues of letting junkies shoot up in comfort and now, giving potheads their own toking pit at work! No, I’m NOT making that up:

TORONTO (Reuters) – The use of medical marijuana has given two Toronto professors the right to something that many students could only dream of — access to specially ventilated rooms where they can indulge in peace.

So, let me get this straight: if I want a butt at the bar with my buddies, I’m either SOL or getting fined (or both), but if I wanna get stoned, I’m not only fine and dandy, I’m going to get a nice little space set aside for me at public expense.  I’m not the only one smelling the bullshit here, am I?

And don’t bother with any of that “second hand smoke” or “burden on the healthcare system” crap, either. The main toxin that you suck back every day is vehicle exhaust and, at over eight bucks a pack, I’m putting a lot more money into the health care system than a nonsmoker is, so don’t try to pretend we aren’t paying our own way.

Another thing that irks me is the “with smoking banned in bars, more nonsmokers will start coming out” nonsense. If there were a market for smoke-free pubs, the free market would have jumped on that bandwagon long ago. How many smoke-free pubs did you ever hear of before it was enforced by Big Nanny? None. But, just in London alone, dozens of small pubs have gone belly up since the Ministry Of Knowing What’s Best For You declared that their patrons had to take their habit out into the elements. That’s a bunch of lost jobs.

You can’t encourage junkies out of one side of your mouth while condemning us out the other. We aren’t doing anything illegal, we pay our own damn way and we are getting damned tired of being treated like second class citizens by holier-than-thou wannabe architects of the future.

As for me, I think I’m gonna go have me a smoke now…

Well, well; isn’t THIS just a big God damned frigging surprise? Need any more proof that the courts (and more particularly, the pussyass leftist, social engineering judges that preside over them) need to take a good one upside the head and get put in their place right quick? Okay, then, here it is.

First, he shoots four people in downtown London on Thanksgiving weekend. Then, some punkass judge lets him just stroll out of jail free as a bird. Now, Ahmed Moalin-Mohammed has just up and disappeared. That’s right: the son of a bitch hasn’t been seen in over two days. Let’s all take a moment to have another look at some of the highlights of this latest asshattery of our criminal-coddling injustice system, shall we? Here goes:

1. He shot FOUR damn people in the middle of a crowded parking lot, fer chrissakes.
2. He had himself NO FIXED ADDRESS. For those not familiar with that term, it means that he didn’t live anywhere.
3. Despite being charged with over a dozen offences, including aggravated assault and ATTEMPTED MURDER, dumbass Justice of the Peace Jack Carroll lets him bugger off, as happy as a lark (and no doubt giggling out his arsehole at the impotence of our justice system and the gullibility of the eunichs that preside over its courts), because he crossed his heart and promised to stay at his mommy’s house.
4. Just to put a nice little cherry on top of all of this, the prick somehow had security clearance at Toronto’s Pearson International airport.

Cue the usual suspects to come out of the woodwork and tell us that locking up criminals solves nothing. Has anyone else noticed how that crowd seems to be made up exclusively of people that have never been the victim of a crime themselves? Just wondering.

The fact of the matter is that the courts are out of control. The rights of the guilty mean everything and deterrence, denunciation, punishment, the rights of victims and the security of society as a whole mean less than nothing. Sure, if there’s a big enough public outcry, they might, maybe, unf#*% themselves and fly right for a while. But as soon as the ruckus dies down and John Q. Canadian goes back to sleep, it’ll be right back to business as usual, with the revolving door on the jailhouse running overtime to make up for the “backlog.”

Just what the hell is it going to take before judges in this country pull their heads out of their backsides and start treating crime like the serious issue that it is? The answer to that question is simple. It’s crass, cynical and more than a little vulgar but it’s still simple:

• Judges will get serious about theft when enough judges’ cars get stolen.
• Judges will get serious about violence when enough judges get beaten up.
• Judges will get serious about murder when enough judges’ brothers or sons get killed.
• Judges will get serious about rape when enough judges’ wives or daughters get raped.

Disgusting, you say? Of course it is; but try and prove me wrong.

Go ahead; try it. I dare you.

It begins. Personally, I was wondering not if it would happen, but only when and where. It now seems that the Aussies’ collective bullshitometer has now hit the redline over the turd typhoon currently swirling around Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly and hanging in the air like a bad fart.

Hilaly, as some of you already know, is the misogynist dink that stirred decent Australians to uproar when he said that immodestly dressed women were like “uncovered meat” and that they invited rape. Specifically:

“If one puts uncovered meat out in the street then the cats come and eat it, is it the fault of the cat or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem.”

The comments sparked a thunderous “just who the hell do you think you are?!” across Australia. Hilaly, like seemingly all bigoted Muslim leaders who manage to finally rouse the outrage of the non-Islamofascist populations that they manage to infiltrate, promptly developed timely chest pains, did a faceplant, and had to be whisked away to hospital.

Right on cue, all the apologists and other usual suspects popped up to wag their fingers at the rest of us and regurgitate the old tried and true “moderate Muslim majority” bullcrap. Well, the Muslim community did come out to voice their opinion this time… in support of the bigot. And Australians, it seems, have had just about enough of this bullshit:

Excuses over. The disgraced mufti of Australia set Muslims a test last month and they failed.

That test couldn’t have been easier: make Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly pay for preaching that unveiled women invited rape.

Prove that Muslims can’t be led by a man who says raped women must be “jailed for life”. Prove we have nothing to fear from your faith.

Simple? Yet yesterday 34 Muslim groups signed a petition backing this bigot, while others plan a big rally for Sydney tomorrow, denouncing not Hilaly but the non-Muslims who criticise him.

The results are in: Islam here — as represented by many of its leaders — is now a threat.

Welcome to the real world, ladies and gents. As I said at the beginning of this post, it has begun. The only question is: just what is “it?” Are we going to continue to behave like some abused child, continually asking what it could have been that we did wrong, while our enemies strive relentlessly to undermine the very foundations of our civilisation? Or will we, the West as a whole, finally lose our patience with all these lies and say, “either get rid of your medieval machinations, or we are going to start getting rid of you.”

Islam is a bully. And there’s only one way to deal with a bully, isn’t there?

War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which they are willing to fight, nothing which is more important than their own personal safety is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than themselves.
– John Stuart Mill

Just what the hell is wrong with some people? We live in an allegedly enlightened and educated society but nonetheless, some people still insist on making the most assinine assumptions possible. And among the worst are the bunch that try to make “apples and oranges” comparisons in order to justify their gutless stances, especially the avoid-war-at-any-cost crowd. The one that seems to be making the rounds the most lately (in my neck of the woods, at least) is the old “kicked over a bees’ nest” analogy. We’ve “kicked over a bees’ nest” in Iraq (Americans). We’ve “kicked over a bees’ nest” in Afghanistan (Canucks). We’ve “kicked over a bees’ nest” with Iran/DPRK/Danish cartoons. We’ve kicked over a bees’ nest, we’ve kicked over a bees’ nest, we’ve kicked over a bees’ nest, we’ve kicked over a bees’ nest, we’ve kicked over a bees’ nest, we’ve kicked over a bees’ nest… Every damned time I turn around, it seems like some lummox is punting some poor, innocent entomological commune and it’s (you guessed it) gettin’ on my nerves.

Where the hell did this come from all of a sudden, you ask? Well, it all started over my cup o’ joe this morning when I cracked my daily Freeps (why the hell do I keep doing that?). I have a habit of turning to the opinion pages first (yeah, yeah, BIG surprise, I know) and as I did so today, lo and behold, there was this asshattery:

Lessons of bee attack apply to Afghanistan

When I was a kid, I knocked down a bee’s nest with a stick, unaware that bees will defend their nest with unequalled ferocity.

After knocking down their nest, I was immediately attacked by a swarm of bees that I attempted to beat off with my cap. Despite killing some of the bees, they were relentless and undeterred by the death of many members of their colony. After suffering some stings and realizing these bees would never quit their attack, I decided to cut and run rather than die from bee stings. Hence the lesson is leave their nests alone and they will leave you alone.

This lesson, which I learned as a kid, applies equally to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. If we invade their territory, they will defend it with equal ferocity to those bees.

Therefore, we have the choice of staying and being stung to death or to cut and run and save a lot of lives.

Just leave these folks alone and they will leave us alone.

Robert W. Stewart

London

If anybody’s wondering what the low-level seismic activity near Perth is, no, the Scots haven’t tested a nuke. It’s this guy’s namesake spinning in his grave. Where the hell do I start dismantling this little ramshackle sanctimony shack? Well, I guess the beginning is always a good place to start.

When I was a kid, I never knocked down a bees’ nest, but I did carelessly end up stumbling over a nest of ground wasps once; a big one, too. Nasty buggers, those things are, and unlike bees, they can sting more than once (seems they lack the bees’ bothersome barbed bum). And yes, like little Bobby above, I made like a chicken and got the cluck outta Dodge. I ran home doing the usual 6-year old tears & ouchie thing, covered in stings and looking like a cross between… well, I don’t know really. But it was pretty ugly.

Oh, those mighty wasps! Sure showed the world who was in charge of that little patch of ground, didn’t they? Just one little problem with that line of thinking: As Mom was distracting me with fudge and dabbing vinegar on my collection of stings, Dad strolled out, tossed a bucket of gas on the nest, and you can pretty much guess what happened next. Thus came about the fall of the First Wasp Caliphate. Now, what I’d like to ask little Bobby, if I ever met him, is this: Sure, those wasps came out bold as brass but what do you think they would have done if, in their little bug brains, they had actually comprehended what they were getting themselves in for? Do you think they would have still swarmed out or do you think they would have stayed snug in their nest, praying to their little bug gods that that damn bumbling skyscraper that just kicked them square in the house would just keep on going to wherever the bughell it was headed in the first place?

Now, before anybody drops a log in their levis and starts whooping that I’m advocating nuking the world: I’m not (although, as Michael Coren pointed out recently, the idea of a controlled strike against Iran is not without merit). I grew up in the time when NATO and the Warsaw Pact had each other in their crosshairs and the thought of nuclear war, quite frankly, still scares the living shit out of me to this day. Must be because I’m sane. My point is that we, the West in general, have a bucket of gas. It’s just that the little Islamofascist wasps don’t believe that we’ll use it, so it’s not a deterrent at all, is it? Carrying a big stick means nothing if nobody thinks they’re going to get hit with it. Either way, nukes are dreadful things so we must deter by other means while it’s still plausable. If we get backed up against the wall, however…

Bobby says that his childhood lesson applies equally to the adult realities of Iraq and Afghanistan. Um, Bobby? Bees don’t fly planes into buildings, blow themselves up in marketplaces and nightclubs, behead hostages, etc, do they? I rather think that my lesson applies more: Terrorists, like those wasps, will do what they think they can get away with. The time may come when the most reasonable course is, in fact, to persue what James Wolfe called “a deterring and dreadful vengence.”

Bobby finishes off with the old “leave these folks alone and they will leave us alone” canard. Well, guess what? No, they are not going to just leave us alone. They will not stop until they have reached their global caliphate and reduced every non-Muslim on the planet to dhimmitude. No, this isn’t bigotry talking; I didn’t come up with this on my own, this is what they say themselves! They say it in their speeches, in their indoctrinational ceremonies, in their little Al-Jazeera press releases, and every other damn place that they get the chance to spout off from the safety of the midst of a compliant, if not complicit, population. The difference is that I take them at their word and Bobby doesn’t. These bozos aren’t going to mind their own business any more than Hitler was going to mind his.

Bobby and I do agree on one thing, though: don’t bug bees and the bees won’t bug you. That’s bees, Bobby; bees.