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Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 12:42 pm
The Toronto Star reports:
In investigators’ offices, an intricate graph plotting the links between the 17 men and teens charged with being members of a homegrown terrorist cell covers at least one wall. And still, says a source, it is difficult to find a common denominator.
We now cross live to the set of CSI Toronto, where filming is underway:
Sgt. Warren Bollard: (staring in bewilderment at an intricate graph) I just can’t find any common denominator! It seems as though these 17 men and teens have absolutely no point of commonality at all!
Staff Superintendent Pauline Tumble: I agree, Sarge. It’s a mystery unlike any other we’ve ever known in this peaceful multicultural paradise, to which millions of Americans emigrated following the Bush election thefts of 2000 and 2004.
(The pair continue staring at the intricate graph. Cleaner Gilles de Funt enters.)
de Funt: (sweeping) Dere names kinda all look de same.
Sgt. Warren Bollard: Shut up, ignoramus! Attend to your broom work in silence!
Staff Superintendent Pauline Tumble: Wait, Sarge! The stupid floorsweep may be on to something. Look at those names: Fahim Ahmad; Zakaria Amara; Asad Ansari; Shareef Abdelhaleen; Qayyum Abdul Jamal; Mohammed Dirie; Yasim Abdi Mohamed; Jahmaal James; Amin Mohamed Durrani; Abdul Shakur; Ahmad Mustafa Ghany; Saad Khalid. Do you see the pattern?
Sgt. Warren Bollard: (adjusts glasses, peers yet more intently at the intricate graph) Yes … yes, I think I do see something. Something that rather leaps out at one, once one strips away all the distractions surrounding this confounding and inexplicable case!
de Funt: (still sweeping) Dey is all …
Sgt. Warren Bollard: They’re all male!
Staff Superintendent Pauline Tumble: My God! You’re right!
Sgt. Warren Bollard: And look! Fahim Ahmad … Zakaria Amara … Asad Ansari … Shareef Abdelhaleen … Qayyum Abdul Jamal … Mohammed Dirie … Yasim Abdi Mohamed … Jahmaal James … Amin Mohamed Durrani … Abdul Shakur … Ahmad Mustafa Ghany … Saad Khalid. Staff Superintendent Pauline Tumble, are you seeing what I’m seeing?
Staff Superintendent Pauline Tumble: Yes! They’re all Canadian residents!
de Funt: Dat intricat gaf, dat’s where all the clues is, oh for sure. (leaving) Idiots.
Sgt. Warren Bollard: (lost in thought, deciphering new clues from the intricate graph) Good Lord! Four of their first names begin with A! Arrest all male Canadian residents named Allan and Adam and … and … and … Albert!
Staff Superintendent Pauline Tumble: Sarge, you’ve solved this mystery single-handed. Love me.
Sgt. Warren Bollard: Okay.
(For more on arrestee issue avoidance, visit Andrew McCarthy)
- This is excellent Tim. The only thing missing is Jeff Gannon.Posted by wronwright on 2006 06 06 at 12:22 PM • permalink
- The pair continue staring at the intricate graph. Cleaner Gilles de Funt enters.)
Shouldn’t this read: Ze pear continyew stearing at ze indrikut greph. Cleanaire Gilles de Clouseau enters ze rem.
And still, says a source, it is difficult to find a common denominator.
What a pity they’ve forgotten so much of their grade school mathematics.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 06 06 at 12:34 PM • permalink
- This must be fake. There’s no one named “McKenzie” there, and everyone knows all Canadians are named that.Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2006 06 06 at 12:36 PM • permalink
- Another clue – all 17 suspects hate pork.Posted by perfectsense on 2006 06 06 at 12:41 PM • permalink
- Where’s Columbo when you need him? I don’t know if anyone will ever get to the bottom of this puzzler.Posted by Randal Robinson on 2006 06 06 at 12:44 PM • permalink
- Update: Gilles de Funt was not the floorsweep.
The real floorsweep was one Barrett Wyatt, originally from Flemish Gut. His story, as told to the Catcher’s Pond Expositor:
I’s de one what noticed dey was all a lot of Mahometans. Den Warren Bollard ‘e comes up, ‘e does, an says to me, “Ignorant Floorsweep,” ‘e says, “From de mouths of babes and de great onwashed, ‘ere it is. Dey’s all…..in d’eir 20s! Except for de ones what ain’t!”
So I left, callin’ ‘em both eejits. An’ de rest, b’ye, is histry.
- #9 They won’t know that until they put the evidence through the masselectromagnetbaconenhancedspectromator and find no evidence of porklike substances in any of the accuseds’ houses. Then it’ll be up to specialist Sergeant Porker of the Ontario Pork Marketing Board to figure it out in Scene 4.Posted by andycanuck on 2006 06 06 at 12:52 PM • permalink
- Terror Suspects Not Motivated by Faith: Blair:
[Toronto’s Police Chief Bill Blair] told reporters that no police official involved in any public discussion since the arrests has made any reference to the Islamic faith.
Tumble and Pollard are likely to be promoted.
- Tim,
I think we can get this greenlit for Sundance if we fix one little problem: the names. Prospective producers will want to know if we can make the names more “American”-sounding. Hollywood studios generally feel that things like these South Asian names are confusing and will be a “turn-off” for American filmgoers. Like, Amir could be changed to Fred, Ali to Phil, Paul instead of Shareef. Same for the last names, of course. Muhammad could become Anderson, Khalid, Rowbottom, Dusani, Miller, etc. Like that. Any possibity you could make those changes? Could help the audiences identify with the characters more. Maybe leave in one Akbar for the South Bengali-American 7-11/Kwik Mart owners, but otherwise…
- “Okay, guys, we gotta look at allah the evidence. Allah the evidence… Guys, Anything? Oh, come on!”Posted by Jim Treacher on 2006 06 06 at 02:06 PM • permalink
- Rebecca is correct. Go through the photos accompanying the article. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, it’s right. Brrrrrrr.
Bloomberg, if you’re out there: no Geoffrey Blainey in circulation so can’t even order it. I got “The Fatal Shore” by Robert Hughes. A little concerned because it got great reviews from Susan Sontag and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. as well as Gore Vidal. Could be a red flag.
Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 06 06 at 02:11 PM • permalink
- Hell, screw television. This has feature-film blockbuster written all over it. For the terrorist leader, I’m thinking Alan Rickman or Jeremy Irons. For the Toronto cops, how about George Clooney as the team leader, with Michelle Rodriquez as a tough street cop and Alexander Siddig as the Egyptian-Canadian farm-store supplier who innocently sells them the ammonium nitrate and bravely joins the gang to help bring them down.
Rodriquez is too Rambina to be Clooney’s love interest. Who should we get? I got it! George Clooney!
- Maybe the “investigators” quoted in the article are from the Dudley Do-Right division; it’s hard to believe that the same law enforcement agency that grabbed this bunch includes another set of people who don’t see the common threads. One would gather, from reading the article, that this was almost total randomness.
- I dig that kind of writing. “Pauline Tumble,” is that somebody’s real name? Too perfect!
It also reminds me of the classic “A Deep Mystery For Deep People: A look inside the State Department as they try to unravel the riddle of the LAX shooting” by Larry Miller, Weekly Standard, July 15, 2002, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/451eprwc.asp
- Dave, do you think we can work in a cameo appearance by Maureen Dowd? I’d suggest Michael Moore, but I expect there’s a limit to the budget for the caterer.Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 06 at 02:40 PM • permalink
- Hmm. Just a bunch of typical Canadians, eating Canadian bacon and curling on the weekends. In fact, I think the reporters who wrote this will probably do a feature article for their Sunday magazine showing how these nice, average Canadian fellers just love their ice hockey.
Kathy from Austin: Fatal Shore’s a good read, except the writer kinda comes across as a commie.
- #32 from ‘Life of Brian’:
Alright, no one is to stone anyone until I blow this whistle. Even… and I want to make this absolutely clear… even if they do say, “Jehovah. ”
[Crowd stones the Jewish Official to death]Posted by daddy dave on 2006 06 06 at 03:27 PM • permalink
- Re Robert Hughes & ‘the Fatal Shore’
ushie: Fatal Shore’s a good read, except the writer kinda comes across as a commie
‘Commie’ is a bit strong, but Robert Hughes was Art Critic for Time Magazine. Need I say more?
Geoff Blainey should be obtainable; what are you after, Kathy from Austin?
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 06 06 at 03:30 PM • permalink
#17 Thank God you didn’t utter the “M” word. These baffoons might have had you extradited for such a blatant display of racism, religiousism? beliefism?
Oh good lord, not again. I hate riddles.
What “M” word? Mom? Michiganer? Missionary? Mimes? Yeah, probably mimes. I hate those sonsabitches.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 06 06 at 03:39 PM • permalink
- #37 SCD:
I’m looking for a history of Australia that is both readable and historically accurate. As with most histories, there are a lot out there that are riddled with BS and revisionism and I’m trying to avoid those particular beauties. Barnes and Noble said they couldn’t even order Blainey for me, though I should try Amazon. Local library got me nothing.
Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 06 06 at 04:17 PM • permalink
- Staff Superintendent Pauline Tumble: There doesn’t seem to be anything that can tie these suspects together. We don’t have a case.
Sgt. Warren Bollard: What do you want me to do, then?
Staff Superintendent Pauline Tumble: Nothing we can do but turn them loose and give them their things back.
Sgt. Warren Bollard: Detonators, too?
[Toronto’s Police Chief Bill Blair] told reporters that no police official involved in any public discussion since the arrests has made any reference to the Islamic faith.
Confidential to the Chief: And the great thing is not one person has even noticed so far, huh?
It reminds me of that sketch from “Fawlty Towers” –
Basil: “Whatever you do, don’t mention the war. I did once, but I think I got away with it.”
Of course his goose-stepping was a bit of a giveaway.
- There is a sort of link in circumstances between the Canadanian situation and Australia see http://weekbyweek7.blogspot.com/2006/06/canada-you-evil-imperialist-anti.html#linksPosted by WeekByWeek on 2006 06 06 at 05:47 PM • permalink
- Enough with the Freudian slips. single-handed?Posted by Pat Patterson on 2006 06 06 at 05:58 PM • permalink
- It’s worth reading Melanie Philips’ views on all this here and here.
Also, her Comment in The Times on Line identifies the problems with Western societies in dealing with Islamic terrorism.
As she observes, the same responses from government authorities to Islamic terrorists are appearing around the world but it doesn’t take much imagination to see the pattern. Do our governments and authorities, mainly the police, think people are fools? Sometimes I wonder if we have to have a civil war to settle the matter once and for all.
- Just as they might have started to find a common thread, they get thrown for a loop. Who does this sort of thing? Why, that could be anyone!!! ANYONE I tell ya!!!Posted by Not My Problem on 2006 06 06 at 07:07 PM • permalink
- It’s not the West that doesn’t want to win this war…although the coalition is fighting this war in as tidy a way as they can.
Of course some will scream holler and ejaculate, now that there may be a NEW My Lai, for them to self gratify themselves with.
It IS the LEFT that does NOT want the WEST to win this war.
See the dumb LEFTIST pricks STILL think they can deal with the Zarqawi’s, bin Laden’s, Zawahiri’s, just as they THOUGHT they dealt with Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Castro, Jong Il, Mugabe and NOW Chavez, Morales and on and on.
The Left would like nothing more then the obliteration of Israel, (root of all the worlds woes, you know…even the Leftist Jews think this way, read some of the shit the wired haired asshole, Soros drooled) and the powers that make up “the West”
The Left cannot think of these subhuman Muslims for what they are…VILE, BRUTAL, SINGLE MINDED ANIMALS, that need to be eradicated.
- #47 Wand,
Thanks for the links, excellent reading. Melanie will probably become the target of a smear campaign, or a bombing.Posted by Daniel San on 2006 06 06 at 07:30 PM • permalink
- OT (sorta)-
A report by the Canadian Broadcasting Company that its own building was one target in the “alleged bomb plot” meets with mixed reactions at Andrew Coyne’s weblog.Posted by Old Grouch on 2006 06 06 at 07:51 PM • permalink
- It reminds me of back in the mid-60’s, when shows like Mission Impossible and the various cop programs always referred to organized crime leaders by bland WASP names like Smith and Johnson. Not a Vito in the bunch.
Later on, it turned out the Mob had their hooks into at least one network head. What are the odds?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 06 at 08:24 PM • permalink
- Faheem Bukhari, a director of the Muslim Community Centre in Mississaugu, where six of the suspects are from, said: “These were very fun-loving guys, soccer-loving guys”.
Don’t ya see, these guys see all this beheadin on the tellies and it’s like watching a sport, ya know, like soccer or hockey, man, they wouldn’t do nothin but if they did it’s to save the country from the Zionists who control the coppers and the press and the tellies where these guys got their ideas on choppin the Zionist pig PM’s head off, so it’s all the Jews fault that the coppers are pickin on the MMMMMMmmmms so if parliament gets blown up, its askin for it. Up 9/11 and better games!!!
- Wow. From the BBC’s coverage you’d never guess there was any relation to the Religion of Peace at all. Two articles, one mention of the religion: Intelligence officers are also investigating possible ties between the Canadian suspects and Islamic militants in Europe and Asia, and the US.”
BBC News: Canada terror suspects in court
BBC News: Terror suspects seized in TorontoPosted by jabberwocky on 2006 06 06 at 08:32 PM • permalink
- Spectators and family members of some of the 17 Muslim men accused of plotting terror attacks in Canada were stunned Tuesday when they heard allegations of plans to storm Parliament, take hostages and behead the prime minister.
As I so ‘politically incorrectly’ stated VILE, BRUTAL, SINGLE MINDED ANIMALS, that need to be eradicated.
- Glad you caught ‘em.
If you had caught ‘em in the ‘40s ya would have hung ‘em already.
Unfortunately in this gentler world, you can only hang ‘em after 20 years of trials, 7 book deals, innumerable protests, and 187 conjugal visits.
It’s a game.
They know that we know that they know that we know that they are blood-thirsty worm food only deserving of a pig blanket in a hidden grave…but we ‘re not supposed to know that….but we do. And they do too.
It’s like a horribly encrypted insane game that you can’t win, can’t break even, and can’t stop playing.
62 years ago we had it right. Start on the 6th of June, kill Germans until there are none left who want to fight, stop fighting. Hell, there were still 70+ million Germans left at the end of the war. Here’s the plan.
Start on the 6th of June, kill Jihadis until there are none left who want to fight, stop fighting.
- “And Sarge, there’s one other damned odd coincidence: not a blue eye among ‘em, eh?”
“Hmmm… a society, almost a league, of brown-eyed men… The Brown-Eyed League, eh?”
“Every madrassah footie team’s joined up, I’m sure…”
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 06 at 09:12 PM • permalink
- #39 – Kathy, try ABE Books.
Caught Condoleeza Rice on Face the Nation talking about the Canada arrests (among other things). She didn’t mention word one about the oh-so-nebulous link, either (though she did set the interviewer back on his heels several times on other topics). My moderately-liberal mother was over for a visit and I’d just been telling her about the MSM’s non-coverage. I’m afraid she came in for several minutes of “You see?!?! You see what I’m talking about?! You see what we have to deal with?!”
- For more on issue non-avoidance, check out this three cheer-worthy opening sentence from an AP article, of all goddamned things:
Some of the 17 Muslim men accused of plotting terror bombings in Canada also planned to storm Parliament, take hostages and behead the prime minister and other leaders
Two ISLAMOPHOBIC HATE CRIMES in the opener! Are they finally filtering the water over at the AP offices?
- Scanned the names and looked through the pictures and nope, nothing really sticks out like greyhound nuts in the similarity department. Definitely a mixed bag of individual Canadians. However in a consolidated group sense there was some similarity with another group of 20 or so arrested in Australia recently (even though again, there were no easily identifiable similarities within that group).
It could be a furphy but are the Canadians aware of this? Should we tell them? Or wouldn’t it be right?
Posted by Whale Spinor on 2006 06 06 at 10:42 PM • permalink
- What is the difference between a demopath and an appeasing liberal?
the former uses the liberties of his own culture to attempt to bring it down, whilst the latter wallows in self guilt when his culture is attacked by official certified victims?
Loewenstein is a demopath.
Most of these Canadian journos seem to be appeasement liberals.
Until we face the moral and intellectual follies of victim/perpetraotr inversion which plagues our culture, we will never be able to deal with islamism.
- IMHO the politically correct language has an important operational reason. The Brit and Canadian planned attacks are not thought to be directly arranged from active terrorist organisations in the Middle East.
The way the media report this stuff decides whether no-hopers in our countries identify and start seeing themselves as potentially following into terrorist actions of their own initiative. This is the contagion model, and it is why we kept getting more shooting massacres after the first ones.
Some whiny middle-class youths – Muslim or not – can be expected to go all grievance-ridden and therefore susceptible. Smart to minimise the name-calling for that reason.
Do you want Al Quaeda recruiting from ALL Muslims, or just the whiny resentful ones? The kind of message the media sends can decide, and remember the media are not on our side.
- Will the Canadian authorities keep the families of the accused in health,wealth and happiness same as our aussie government is keeping our home grown terrorists.
Mrs Benbrika is pulling in $50,000 a year so I read.
Who wouldn’t want their old man stuck in stir while they get that much? It would be worthwhile dobbing the sods in.
- Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention. After the LA library building farce last year, the averted plot to take down the Brooklyn Bridge with welding equipment (that was a close call) and the plot to bomb the Man United soccer stadium (the smoking gun evidence being a poster of an aero plane one of the “suspects” had on his wall), no one is even batting an eyelid.
The RCMP carried on about averting this big plot, while conveniently failing to mention that they had been involved in delivering the fertilizer and then for their photo op, they provide a mobile phone and a non descript bag of fertilizer.
What was hard to ignore, and totally predictable, is the big injection of funding that was approved overnight to combat “terrorism”.
Incidentally, Harper has decided he wants to be just like Dubya and has decided important leaders like him should travel the country inside obnoxious convoys of black SUV’s with tinted windows. Perhaps he believes this will force the country to start taking him seriously.
- #68 darrinh,
Yup, that sums it up. Thanks.Posted by Daniel San on 2006 06 06 at 11:56 PM • permalink
- davo, I love that word, demopath. It’s perfect. Explains so much.
As to the idea that pc language is good because it doesn’t identify “Muslims” per se but disaffected youth, it doesn’t fly. There are Muslim disaffected youth, and then there are all the other disaffected youth. They do things differently. Regular old disaffected youth usually just burn shit and loot. Muslim disaffected youth, on the other hand, actually plan mass murders. It doesn’t matter whether they identify internally with their Old Country cousins or not, they have the same values and the same ideas, and these ideas are not part of the alienated black non-Muslim youths’ or the alientated Hispanic non-Muslim youths’ constellation of complaints and anti-social reactions. The way the press informs has little to do with it. It’s already set in their minds.The press will not push the marginal among them one way or another.
As Muslims, they will do the “Muslim” thing: kill as many people as possible regardless of who they are. That is the difference between terrorism and ordinary urban unrest. Bin Ladin himself is very rich. His alienation is not that of the inner city black or hispanic youth. It’s more cosmological and eschatological. All Muslims already share his cosmology and eschatology, so al Qaeda can recruit from all levels of Muslim life in foreign (i.e., our) countries. Who, among the Muslim population, will respond to al Qaeda’s siren call does not depend upon how the press describes wrong-doers, whether or not they use the word “Muslim” when describing terrorists. They could be rich boys living in Noosa and cheering for the Brisbane Lions or kids from Michigan who avidly support the Detroit Lions, It’s about our evil liberal culture and God’s commands regarding the kafir, not about having money or better jobs or better housing or whatever.
- #72 Addamo,
That’s right, it’s aaaaaall just one big conspiricy. Your govt. wants to kill you Addamo, because you’ve figured it all out. Where will you run to, where will you hide?. I hear Canada’s nice this time of year…..Posted by Daniel San on 2006 06 07 at 12:03 AM • permalink
- ChrisPer, which ones are not whiny and resentful?Posted by Harry Eagar on 2006 06 07 at 12:31 AM • permalink
- ‘It’s about our evil liberal culture and God’s commands regarding the kafir, not about having money or better jobs or better housing or whatever.’
That’s exctly right but the liberals will never want to admit that a “victim” group simply wants to destroy us for reasons based on their religion.
Such blatant Fascism is totally inadmissable in a minority which they regard as victims of western imperialism.
As long as Muslims retain their liberal sown mantles of victimhood they cannot be held responsible for any of their murderous intent or actions.
- Re. #72
And for those of you reading this who need a translation of the Fuckwit Canadian dialect:
http://tinyurl.com/edqvaBTW, the RCMP makes that decision, fuckwit, not the PMO (let alone the PM himself) as is made clear in the snarky, anti-Harper piece.
But, you’ll be happy to know, there are plans to change it:
http://tinyurl.com/jgjgoPosted by andycanuck on 2006 06 07 at 01:02 AM • permalink
- They found 17 guys in Canada who don’t like hockey?Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 06 07 at 01:10 AM • permalink
- its interesting to ponder that DEMOPATHS are actually liberal activists.
whereas the ordinary liberal is driven by shame and guilt over the perceived actions of his own culture, the demopath is driven by honour to motivate his hatred for his own culture. Its the next step along the line.
The Shame driven liberals need of course to create new heros and demons to relieve their frustrations.
And no better heroes can be found than those who have been deemed to have been oppressed by western civilisation especially Amreicans.
They are the new Saints that replace those of religion which they no longer revere.
When oppressed groups are found that have been attacked by NON western aggressors, they are of little interest to them.
Indonesian Christians, Darfur animists, Tibetans are only useful if they can be linked to western culture.
The demons they create are incapable of redemption from their status of pariahs.
Every insult, falsehood , unsubstantiated libel us hurled in their direction and no matter what hunanitarian acts they commit they are to be reviled ad infitum.
In the subject of this creation of demons it is relevant that canadian academics have divested themselves from relations with israeli academics. Recent events show their chickens coming home to roost.
Katherine Nastovski, chair of the CUPE Ontario international solidarity committee, had the temerity to equate Israeli policies with South African apartheid saying that “Boycott, divestment and sanction worked to end apartheid in South Africa.” Israel has Arab judges, diplomats, and Members of the Knesset. Arabic is an official language of the state and 20% of the student body of Hebrew University is Arab. Full and equal status. Jews however still cannot get a visa to most Arab Muslim countries because of their religion. And in those Arab lands , Jews lived under a secondary legal status called “dhimmitude”.
Don’t expect any admission of reverse morality for those Canadians either.
- This tippy-toeing around the fact of reality doesn’t protect us from would-be homegrown terrorists. It guarantees that we will have homegrown terrorists.
I will give the bastards this: they have studied the North Vietnamese strategies very carefully. They have gone to our universities, where they became acquainted with the weaknesses eating away at our foundations. They have studied the contradictions we have tried to impose on Enlightenment Individualism and seen just how to undermine us using those contradictions. Once you acceed to the idea of group rights, you’ve blown the premise out from under the idea that we are all equal before the law. Now some people, if they can qualify for the privileged group, are more equal than others. When your laws become completely subjective, where someone’s feelings constitute the basis for the use of force, and your society becomes one, not of individuals with the same rights, but of a bunch of separately privileged collectives, no one is safe. How is this any different than competing tribes? Or competing religious ideologies? Or the gangs of LA?
We’ve disarmed ourselves, and it wasn’t just the leftists who did it. Every group has seen some advantage of seeking that special legislation, usually based upon some type of victimhood, to give it a hand in the government till. Even religion, which used to understand why they ought to be strictly separated from government for their own protection, has allowed itself to enter into the game. If you give the proper argument why ignoring the fact that these people are a part of a religious ideology that is out to enslave us, you risk someone pointing out that the same arguement could be made against your own little group. All that had to be done for this to be accomplished is for the idea that the individual doesn’t necessarily own his own life, or his own home, or indeed have any rights at all if it can be shown to be detrimental to some group. Someone can always find some detriment to somebody, real or imagined. What else can follow but the same kind of gang warfare that typlified the Middle Ages.
So, we are now to the point where otherwise reasonable people allow themselves to be bullied into not stating the obvious – and who believe that it is the right thing to do. It is happening in the middle of a war that we’ll fight, but only so long as nobody names what it is we are fighting. We can talk about the method involved, but not who is using that method and why.The first article I read today was about Bush offering nuclear technology to Iran. Then I got a call from my sister that my nephew was killed in action today. I came here, thinking to take a break, and I see this article. The thing that allowed Bush to even consider such an obscene gesture, and the thing that told that policement it was “politic” to take care of his language, also killed my nephew. We’d better start asking ourselves why we won’t fight to win. Otherwise, all we’re doing is pissing in the wind. We are wasting precious finite resources in men and treasure that we are going to need down the road. We are wearing out our finely trained warriors by using them as policemen and social workers. They’ve done a splendid job of what they’ve been asked to do, and they’ve done it in the face of a losing propaganda war at home. How long before the Iraqi government starts demanding to have some kind of control over them, and what will we answer?
I apologize. I thought I could just visit and get my mind off of things for a bit. I can’t. Sorry.
- Kathy from Austin
History not my bag, but I’m not aware of any history of Oz that isn’t idealogical one way or another.
Overwhelming majority is from the “academic left” with themes mostly variants of:
British explorers/settles = invaders who systematically killed the Noble Savage indigenous peoples (genocide!!) and all white decendants must live with the guilt, apologise, give money, give land, give money, give land etc etc. Noam Chomsky on steroids.
Geoffrey Blainey is no doubt of the right but largely has not lowered himself to the recent ‘History Wars’ but has argued against the “black armband view of history” for many years.
Keith Winshuttle is a strong participant in the History Wars with his ‘Fabrication of Aboriginal History’ (2002) where he went back to the primary sources oft quoted by the left to support their thesis and he pointed out that the ‘major’ writers of Australian History re the Aboriginal peoples had, er….. shall we say not actually quoted the sources accurately. Ooops. Point by point he quoted the recent texts and then the original sources to show that the history had been er, fabricated. I think one of the left writers even conceded the point (shock, horror!!). ‘Fake but accurate’ was the rejoiner to Windshuttle.
Blainey’s recent ‘A Short history of Australia’ would be worth getting.
For balance, the left’s Donald Horne’s “The Lucky Country” would be worth reading. Published about 30 years ago, it was meant as an attack on Australian values from the left but to the author’s chargrin, was ‘misunderstood’ as a reasonable account of the nation’s psyche then (not now). “The Lucky Country”, meant by Horne as a denegration of the country (ie we only got where we have by luck, not effort or talent), has been happily adoped by the ordinary folk as an OK tag. You make your own luck!!
Apologies for the o/t and to people who actually know about Oz history texts (but no apologies for the accurate portrayal of the left’s treatment of Oz history).
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 06 07 at 01:38 AM • permalink
- 72 Addamo.
“Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention”Well mate, I am in Canada at the moment. How about the first 6 pages in today’s Globe and Mail and a feature inside?
Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention
The first ten minutes of EVERY news telecast I have caught on TV?
Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention
The single topic of conversation at the office?
Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention
It has knocked coverage of the Stanley Cup ice hockey finals right out of the arena – which in Canada really takes something.
Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention
And where are YOU located AddamsFamily, to make the assertion Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention?
Lakemba, Sydney?
What. A. Fuckwit.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 06 07 at 01:49 AM • permalink
- Sorry, this is just too good to give up!!
More from #72 Addamo at Harmony Headquarters, Lakemba Mosque.
“no one is even batting an eyelid”
The first 6 pages in today’s Globe and Mail and a feature inside?
“no one is even batting an eyelid”
The first ten minutes of EVERY news telecast I have caught on TV?
“no one is even batting an eyelid”
The single topic of conversation at the office?
“no one is even batting an eyelid”
It has knocked coverage of the Stanley Cup ice hockey finals right out of the arena – which in Canada really takes something.
“no one is even batting an eyelid”
– yeah, like no-one in Melbourne bats an eyelid over the Melbourne Cup of the AFL Grand Final.
Author! Author! We are but rarely treated to such genius. What other truths do you have for us AddamsFamily?
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 06 07 at 01:56 AM • permalink
- 74 -e kw
I think you are missing a fair bit in your masterful analysis.“As to the idea that pc language is good because it doesn’t identify “Muslims” per se but disaffected youth, it doesn’t fly. There are Muslim disaffected youth, and then there are all the other disaffected youth. They do things differently. Regular old disaffected youth usually just burn shit and loot. Muslim disaffected youth, on the other hand, actually plan mass murders. It doesn’t matter whether they identify internally with their Old Country cousins or not, they have the same values and the same ideas, and these ideas are not part of the alienated black non-Muslim youths’ or the alientated Hispanic non-Muslim youths’ constellation of complaints and anti-social reactions. The way the press informs has little to do with it. It’s already set in their minds.The press will not push the marginal among them one way or another. “
I DON’T say PC language is good. I say that there are millions of muslim youths who are doing no killing whatever, but getting on with living like they want. The media are pretty chaotic in their effeect, but there is no doubt that terrorist actions aim to USE the media to change the minds of supporters and enemies.
If the stronger comments at LGF and Tim Blair were adopted as the usual press style we would see a lot more western muslims being offended and identifying more with the ratbag terrorists. Right now these people are just our neighbours.
The media behaviour of the security agencies is an important component of the war on terror. We bag the Bush administration for sometimes screwing that part up, and the MSM for actively working against the WOT for their own reasons.
We should recognise that some people who matter are potentially able to be persuaded – either way. PC language can be employed as a response to that reality, and that is not a bad thing. It is only bad if they let it misdirect their actual police work.
- If you wnat to see the effects of years of “PC’ and duplicitous language by the media, visit and read the comments at BBC.
Osirak: Threats real and imaginedTruly they beg disbelief
Was Britain justified in denfending itself againts Adolf Hitler
- #83 Saltydog,
I’m sorry for your loss, Salty.
#87 Chrisper,
The term “dissafected Youth” is an invention of sociology profs, social workers and apologists. It’s one of the things that ensure criminals don’t have to take responsibility for their actions and I truly despise it. This isn’t an attack on you, I just start ranting when I hear it.Posted by Daniel San on 2006 06 07 at 03:58 AM • permalink
- #83 saltydog
Bad day mate.
Sympathies to you and yours.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 06 07 at 04:51 AM • permalink
- It is misleading of the Legacy Media to concentrate so hard on not saying what is obvious to anyone with half a brain. The fear of hurting the feelings of one group or another places the press in the situation of soft-pedaling the news, particularly whenever Muslims are the culprit. When they do that, respect for their reportage slips another notch. Now, with all the slippage, the Jurassic Media has lost virtually all its once great power to manipulate public awareness. In a way, this tiptoeing has contributed to the Tar Pits Media’s fall from grace. I am one of those who thinks that is a great thing, but only because the Media Ancienne has dug its own grave with biased reporting (which is what failing to name the culprits outright is, biased reporting) and arrogance (q.v., Dan Rather) for decades now. People, not just us rightwing deathbeasts here, are laughing (when they are not crying) at the reporting they see. The power to change opinions or to move a group of disaffected youths, or slices of the Muslim demographic, from one side – peaceful, working folk – to the other – militant fundamentalist reactionary mass murderers, is simply not present in today’s Superannuated Media. They no longer have the moral force to do so, and pc language is one of the reasons. Plus which, this same super-sensitivity does not extend to not naming the race or religion of whites or Christians whom the Doddering Media still happily attack and name by race and religion. That has caused great disaffection in the polity, and with good reason.
White Christian Jew Hooligan, ekw
Will, on short notice, dance, act all bashful, grin moronically, and bring 10,000 small inflatable British Spitfires to Germany for World Cup frolic, in exchange for column inches and/or kindly, paternal pat on the head
- Oops, Channel Nine Sydney’s main evening news bulletin described them as “17 Muslim men”. And there I was thinking the M stood for Methodist.
#70 – I don’t think the disaffected would tip into becoming terrorists because the media used the description “Muslim’, in the way that school or mall massacre gunmen weren’t prompted by the term “loner with grudge”. They’re more concentrated on the violence as a solution. In fact, not mentioning the whole truth sweeps it under the carpet where it festers unaddressed by the wider community. So those who should be directly disuaded, aren’t, as the issue isn’t tackled head on. There are others up the ladder to make excuses for them.
Facing facts can be like lancing an unsightly carbuncle, painful and messy, but is the right thing to do in the long run. The Cronulla riots here in Sydney showed what happens when authorities and the community let sensitive PC override the common sense dealing with ‘issues’.
#83 saltydog, my sincere sympathies.
- We’d better start asking ourselves why we won’t fight to win. Otherwise, all we’re doing is pissing in the wind. We are wasting precious finite resources in men and treasure that we are going to need down the road. We are wearing out our finely trained warriors by using them as policemen and social workers. They’ve done a splendid job of what they’ve been asked to do, and they’ve done it in the face of a losing propaganda war at home.
Thanks, Saltydog.
We are all hurt by the betrayal from our own media, and the “loyal opposition” they are loyal to. They are, or at least should be, one of our front line defences.
Many of them are preoccupied by tactics to support their political team, not the nation as a whole. In the endgame it matters little who governs if the government is rendered impotent in the face of an implacable and cunning adversary. Internal division is as deadly for the nation as it is for political parties. Fostering division in times such as we now live in, is indicative of a death wish. There are times when concerted, team efforts and the holding of one’s tongue until normal political activity can resume, are essential survival skills.
- #83
Saltydog, please accept my prayers, sympathies and condolences for the loss of one of your nation’s finest young men. I do not know his name, and do not need to: he’s a comrade in arms and that is all that matters. There will be a candle lit in Church this Sunday, for him, and I hope you do not think this presumptious.
God bless your family at this time.
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end they remain.For the Fallen. Laurence Binyon
Mark
- Saltydog, please accept my sincerest sympathy on your loss.Posted by wronwright on 2006 06 07 at 08:26 AM • permalink
If the stronger comments at LGF and Tim Blair were adopted as the usual press style we would see a lot more western muslims being offended and identifying more with the ratbag terrorists.
Uh-huh. Because we drive them to follow the text of the Koran. I read an article today about how the West can recruit Muslim women to our side—but only if we don’t push Western values.
So we shouldn’t say bad things about them, because that might tip them to the badguys. And we can’t say they should live under the same systems we enjoy, because that might tip them to the badguys.
We can’t openly support our way of life, and we can’t criticize theirs.
Just what the hell can we do?
saltydog—my sympathies. I don’t think anyone minds your venting. Do it all you need.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 06 07 at 08:29 AM • permalink
- Another great morning here in the land of seal population control. And still hardly anyone is paying attention to, or batting an eyelid about the recent busts of muslim men accused of planning attacks on Canadian institutions.
I can tell this because its still the lead story on Canadian Broadcasting Corp news (the second story is about CIA spy flights in Europe) and the ‘breakfast’ TV shows but only 5 pages in the Globe and Mail today (P1, 4, 5, 7, 8). This story has sunk completely out of sight here!!
After sleeping on it, I decided I was wrong in a post at #85. AddamsFamily probably isn’t so much a fuckwit as a simple liar.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 06 07 at 08:35 AM • permalink
- SCD, ADumbBugger is also incapable of logical thought.
“After the LA library building farce last year, the averted plot to take down the Brooklyn Bridge with welding equipment (that was a close call) “
Actually it was oxy-acetelyene cutting equipment.
The Brooklyn Bridge is a suspension bridge.ADumbBugger is a bit too thick to work out what happens if one cuts through one of the catenary cables on a suspension bridge with a gas axe.
Poor chap, what must it be like, going through life with the intellectual capacity of a cactus?
MarkL
Canberra
- EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS… Senator Bob Brown has attacked a minority religous group he considers the most dangerous in Australia.
I dont believe this has been done before, he is calling for a senate enquiry into their activities. No bull, here is the link from the ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1657859.htmPosted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 06 07 at 09:48 AM • permalink
- # Robert Hughes is crap.Posted by Susan Norton on 2006 06 07 at 09:58 AM • permalink
- 62 abc radio national at the very popular listening time of 6.20 a.m.
Idiot weepie presenter Steven Someone..and CBC presenter..
“one of them in particular wanted to behead Steven Harper -our prime minister.”
Idiot abc presenter -“right”.No expressions of surprise,horror,sympathy,disapproval..
I ABC P..“and parliament house was probably very well protected..”
CBC “Well no, actually,it has little barriers like to keep back crowds in a road race..”
I ABC p “and they didn’t have guns or detonators..did they have the MEANS..?”
CBC “Well we have extremely STRICT gun and explosives laws..”
You woulda thought talk of taking over CBC tv woulda sent a chill down Mr ABC’S back but no.
“are we talking about a FANTASY of televised beheadings?”
Stupid ABC Presenter Steven “And their lawyers are complaining about their treatment”.
A’course the ABC has been ordering that all its entrance doors be locked around the country for several years now.That’s to keep dangerous Strayans out.
- Saltydog:
My sincere condolences to you and your sister.
Elizabeth
Imperial KeeperPosted by Elizabeth Imperial Keeper on 2006 06 07 at 10:48 AM • permalink
- Paco- I must say that your son’s decision makes me proud, both as an American and a former marine (marine ‘not currently on active duty’). Being a father myself, I think that I can understand your mix of feelings.I hope that he fares well. Please let us know when he ships out. Perhaps we can send him mail. Receiving mail did me a world of good when I was in boot camp.
- #117: That’s extraordinarily kind of you, Blue Hen. He’s always been a bit of a “Bob- Mitchum-character-type” bad boy: basically good-hearted, but having what you might call a great gusto for life; a bit of a renegade, with a streak of larceny, but surprisingly level-headed about some of the more important things, street-smart and physically fearless. I think he’ll make a good Marine.
- I would like to thank everyone for their expressions of sympathy. You are all very kind and it is appreciated. I will tell my sister about them when I talk to her later today.
Paco, I hardly know what to say to you. I’ve thought about your son a lot since you mentioned he had caught the flu at an important time in his recruitment. I’ve meant to ask you about him….
I know what it is to send a loved one off to war. All the rhetoric become absolutely meaningless in the face of that reality. It is one of those times in life when everything becomes completely focused and clear and simple. There is only the loved one standing in front of you and the fact that he or she is leaving, deliberately going into harms way. All of that is clear enough. It is the clash and crush of your emotions that isn’t so clear; your pride and respect clashing with your fear and the fervent wish to turn back the clock. Then you learn to live with it everyday while getting on your life. And you will learn it, because the alternative is unacceptable.
I am so proud of the families who live with it and support their loved ones. They serve also. Some do it better than others, but most of them plow through.
Your son sounds like my kind of guy. There is nothing in the world wrong with being a Robert Mitchum-type rebel at his age. Now if he was a James Dean-type rebel, you’d have cause for worry. (I never did like that type, even when I was young enough to claim the angst.) I think he’ll continue to make you proud. My best to him and his whole family.
I’ll be off-line for a bit. You guys keep a keen eye out for both traitors and trolls while I’m gone.
And adammo, forcrissake grow up and learn to use your head for something else besides a tape recorder.
- #26 Kathy from Austin
Do NOT buy Stuart Mcintyre’s disgraceful, widely-available ‘A Concise History of Australia’.
Customer comment at Amazon (Harold Kaplan):
“According to the author, Australian history is 200 years of racism, sexism, oppression, dominance, exploitation. The victims are aborginal people, women, the early convicts—and the environment. The villains, of course, are white males. When the Australian economy dips, the fault lies with the U.S., world capitalism and neoliberalism. When the Australian economy thrives, it just means Aussies can waste more money on bourgeois geegaws. The tone is humorless, unrelenting, shrill, one-sided—a prime example of what one Australian referred to as “black armband history”.”
I cannot believe (well, maybe I can) that Cambridge University Press would put this propagandistic tripe between its covers.
The black armbanders’ melodrama, distortion and outright fabrication has driven more balanced history from the shelves. It’s absolutely standard that Australia was ‘invaded’ and the aborigines indiscriminately slaughtered and so on.
I’ve always liked reading John Hirst who teaches at La Trobe University but couldn’t find anything much at Amazon. Here’s something I think you will enjoy by him from Quadrant:
“The Distinctiveness of Australian Democracy”
http://www.quadrant.org.au/php/article_view.php?article_id=296His book, ‘Australia’s Democracy’ is out of print at Allen and Unwin … while Macintyre’s smear sit on shelves everywhere.
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