Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Bingo.2!

Mark Steyn:
Evidently, I've committed The Ultimate Canadian Crime: Questioning whether a state-funded CBC comedy show is funny.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Muslim is the new gay" elicited more of a chuckle from this reader. I regret not taking the time to document the insertion of overt Islamic religiosity into mainstream discourse over the last few years. I find it especially noticeable in international development and charity ads. The Muslim youth in the hijab is now as cuddly as a baby seal. Okay, part of this has to do with our own desire to save the world from itself; the western audience now sees the Muslim girl as a challenge, a project. Yet the embrace of a piece of backward religious garment as the iconic symbol for all the means diversity /goodness is perverse. [Huumm, I need evidence to illustrate my point. See, I wish I had been taking pictures.]
na

truepeers said...

Heh, I'm not contesting the best Steynism; but you know his inability to sufficiently appreciate Little Mosque on the Prairie is actually being used as evidence of his Islamophobia, before the BC Human Rights Tribunal! Humour under pressure to humour the nutters. Gotta love it. If I had half the charm, I'd consider a diversity project too.

Anonymous said...

My sense is that the Courts miscalulated here. They thought they had more power than they did. Societal power that is. There are a lot of people these thought police could go after with mild grunts of approval from a rather uninterested public. Neo-nazis and the like. With Steyn and Levant, they are taking on two sharp, well-connected authors with significant audiences. The law and process have been exposed and widely ridiculed. Steyn knows he's kicking the hell out of the Court:

I’m kind of modestly encouraged by the fact that almost all the commentary has been pro-Steyn. Or not exactly pro-Steyn, but they’ve tended to take the line, well, Mark Steyn may be an appalling, misguided, idiotic, racist buffoon. But on the hand, we still believe in free speech. And I think the plaintiffs have actually been a little rattled at the overwhelming support, and in fact, opposition, to the case they’re bringing. And they’ve been reduced, they keep changing their argument. Their argument now is that my insult of the Human Rights Commission process, I don’t believe that any court in Canada should have the right to decide whether any Canadians, whether free-born Canadian citizens are entitled to read my column. I was asked whether I wanted to get off the hook, and I said no. I wanted to take the hook and shove it up the collective butt of the Canadian thought police. And I was, and this was perhaps excessively magnificently robust.
http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/g/f4b06483-3f8a-482d-a96a-74f3ee530bad


The process is pathetic and an emabarrssment to the country but I have to admit being a little optimistic about the way things are going. The Courts could have picked out a real contemptible asshole to punish for his Islamophobic ways. They could have slowly built up some power and legitimacy on the blasphemy/Islamophobia issue. Thankfully, some groups overstretched and are being thoroughly trashed by a pair of writers that are quick witted and relatively media-saavy. Hopefully Canadians rediscover a respect for the rights of offensive jackasses. Even those that mock lame CBC programs.
na