Sure they support his right to bash dark skinned immigrants, but they're conflicted. For one thing, his last name apparently sounds a bit fishy. And of course there are those like Paul Fromm, who are a bit pissed that the Steyn's and Levants of this world--the far Right's elite class--didn't come to their aid during previous scuffles with the CHRC:
The neo-Cons are now being bitten in the butt. It looks good on them.
We've been warning of the gagging power of human rights censors for 20 years. Few would listen as long as the tyrants took on small defenceless and media-defamed victims.
I laugh at the consternation of some of these outraged neoCons. "But, we're not disreputable letter writers. We're 'respectable.'"
They don't get it. Censorship is like a narcotic. The bully and the thought controller is never satisfied. It was never about "hate".
It was about silencing anyone who dissents from the minority agenda.
Yesterday, it was Doug Collins, Ernst Zundel, Tom Winnicki and Terry Tremaine. Today, it is Rev. Boissoin, Bishop Fred Henry and Mark Steyn.
Wow! Mark Steyn's gonna join Ernst Zundel and Doug Collins in the halls o' history. It'll be just like Valhalla, but with more Nazis!
Toronto Lawyer Garry Wise has a couple of other excellent posts on this issue. Here he writes:
While the comments attributed to Steyn may indeed have offended certain sensibilities, Charter protection will clearly supersede any discrimination remedy.
I do want to note, however, taking the complaints at face value for the purpose of discussion only, that if the comments attributed to Steyn had been repetitively uttered in a workplace by an employer, rather than having been published online by a clearly legitimate journalist, there may well have a strong reason for a Commission to act on a complaint of racial toxicity and discrimination in the workplace.
It is the entitlement to press freedom, rather than any savoury quality of his expression, that will protect Steyn and Macleans.
Exactly, and personally, I would be more inclined to grant the Maclean's the right to print hate speech if they were willing to admit that that is what Steyn's column amounted to.
And here Mr. Wise agrees with me that Kenneth Whyte has led MacLeans steeply down-market into National Post territory:
...shall we just concede that the magazine is no longer to be considered journalism, and leave it at that.
Poor Andrew Coyne. Out of the frying pan and into the fire! I wonder how his wan elegance can hold up under the barrage of hacks schlepping ideological porn to the goobers?
More evidence of your growing dementia.
ReplyDeleteMore evidence of your growing dementia.
ReplyDeleteIt only looks like dementia because dissecting right wing discourse is almost always an exercise in uncovering dementia.
Good points made by Garry Wise. Thankfully there are enough people like him to provide the hate-mongers a realistic unalysis of freedom of expression so I don't have to (and which is way I never do). I've long complained that Steyn's writing is abysmal on terms of good journalistic and op-ed practices alone. But that, apparently, doesn't stop him from getting work, as glaring incompetence for the rest of us surely does.
Just a pet peeve, BCL: hoi polloi doesn't mean the upper class or the elite. It means the opposite...the masses.
Ti-Guy,
ReplyDeleteI've been using it wrong for years, apparently.
why are you ignoring the giant wallop of global warming that snuffed Toronto.
ReplyDeleteFear of the truth no doubt.
here's global "warming" for ya . . .
NOTES ON STORM”S IMPACT IN CANADA
By Dr. Madhav Khandekar
The Toronto Winter Storm ( I am inclined to call it a Blizzard) that paralyzed the entire city for most of Sunday December 16 2007 brought:
Snowfall amount: 26 cm (near record, highest recorded snowfall for December in Toronto was on December 11 1944 with 28 cm of snow)
Highest snow accumulation in GTA (Greater Toronto Area): 30 cm about 3 km east of the Downtown core
Number of flight cancellation at Toronto International Airport: 397
Number of roadside accidents (fender-bender and more serious); 800 (as reported by CAA)
Number of snow ploughs operating in Toronto at the height of storm: about 600 (a tragic accident with a snowplow killed one woman who was adjusting her car windshield wiper blades)
CAA handling 1600 calls from stranded motorists this morning, minimum one-hour wait time to get road-side assistance
Temperature: -8 to -10C with wind chill -17C or below
Morning commute on the Day After (Monday December 17 2007) is very slow in many places till 10 AM , several cancellations of school buses and school events, but overall most schools are open
Snowfall elsewhere in eastern Ontario and eastern Canada: Ottawa ~ 23 cm, Montreal Sunday & Monday could be over 30 cm, Nova Scotia & New Brunswick Provinces, up to 25 cm in many locals
This powerful winter storm has affected more than 60% of Canada's population OR about 20 Million people from Windsor Ontario to Halifax Nova Scotia. (total population of Canada ~ 33 Million)
In two eastern Provinces of New Brunswick & Nova Scotia the same winter storm is affecting most of the residents; 20 thousand people without power in the two Provinces ( Total population of the two Provinces ~ 2 Million)
Add to this the number of people affected in eastern USA from Buffalo to Boston to Portland (Maine) and I think we have about 50 Million people affected by this winter storm.
I've been using it wrong for years, apparently.
ReplyDeleteI did for a long time too...it's a common mistake.
I wonder if there's a way in Blogger to permanently collapse "Biff" comments so the flow of discourse isn't so brutally interrupted with pedophilically obscene interjections of wingnut crap?
ReplyDelete"It only looks like dementia because dissecting right wing discourse is almost always an exercise in uncovering dementia."
ReplyDeleteI don't see any "dissecting", all I see are Ad Homs.
From Wise: "Charter protection will clearly supersede any discrimination remedy."
ReplyDeletePure fucking bullshit, as evidenced by the tens of thousands of dollars collected by Richard Warman and others who abuse the system as their personal casino.
Rogers Media is a multibillion dollar conglomerate that buys ink buy the barrel and Steyn The One Man Global Content Machine will make a million this year, easy. That's what will get them off this rap. Other Canadians, and I'm being generous calling Steyn a Canadian, aren't so well positioned to take on these kangaroo courts.
"Poor Andrew Coyne. Out of the frying pan and into the fire! I wonder how his wan elegance can hold up"
The money and benefits must be good. So far he's being a good Liberal and milking the Muldoon/Schreiber circus for all its worth.
I think the difference is the people Warman has taken to the CHRC are not journalists. If I am reading wise correctly, the charter protections apply to them.
ReplyDeleteWhile I haven't read Mark Steyn and don't know who Winnicki and Tremaine are, I see no clear difference between Doug Collins, Ernst Zundel, Stephen Boissoin and Fred Henry.
ReplyDeleteEvil twisted hate-spewing warped fucks to a man. I wouldn't let any of them anywhere near an impressionable mind.
I don't see any "dissecting", all I see are Ad Homs.
ReplyDeleteDidn't you hear? Rightwingers are no longer allowed to use the term ad hominem since they don't know what it means. Name-calling is only the logical fallacy known as ad hominem when it invokes personal characteristics of the interlocutor that are irrelevant to the issue at hand. Calling nazis "nazis," and gobbers "goobers" does not necessarily constitute ad hominem. If you think they are, you have to demonstrate that those epithets are based on qualities that are not germane to the discussion.
Fine. Call Mark Steyn who is Jewish a nazi but what exactly in the specific article he is being persecuted for is a lie? Or is your argument that everything anyone you call a nazi says or writes is a lie?
ReplyDeleteCall Mark Steyn who is Jewish...
ReplyDeleteNo he isn't. And I don't think anyone has called Mark Steyn a nazi, although I'm sure I must have hundreds of times in the last few years...
Or is your argument that everything anyone you call a nazi says or writes is a lie?
What is it with you wingnuts and your endless questions? That's the way you all argue; you demand everyone respond with regard to assertions no one has really made or made with any great conviction.
Only psychopaths on the defensive dialogue like that.
I've said this before...if someone asserts something with little or no substantiation and who, on the balance of evidence, has a habit of asserting things one suspects he or she has no way of knowing and rarely issues corrections or clarifications, then my default assumption is that person is a liar.
And that is my prerogative. If you want to argue that, submit the evidence to convince me otherwise.
Ti-Guy,
ReplyDeleteIt seems he IS Jewish (or was at least born Jewish on his dad's side). That was behind the "fishy sounding name" crack. Its also why some of the lads at Stormfront have been re-evaluating their support.
It seems he IS Jewish (or was at least born Jewish on his dad's side)
ReplyDeleteWell, I think we have to get an expert on the "who's a Jew" controversy, but I always thought it was only inherited on the mother's side.
I don't recall Steyn calling himself Jewish, which as far as I'm concerned, is the only thing that counts in that respect, if it counts at all (which it doesn't).
He also has Afrikaans heritage, does he not? Now there's some serious nazi doings for the rest of us to start shrieking about.
For me, Steyn will never be anything more than an entertainment critic...and a Conrad Black-fellating ponce.
These idiots have a "Jewdar"? LOL. That's the best laugh I've had all day.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, what does global warming have to do with whether Steyn makes it to the Valhalla of bigots. Don't these trolls have bridges they should be clearing of snow?
"why are you ignoring the giant wallop of global warming that snuffed Toronto."
ReplyDeleteHa ha.
Another twit who can't tell the difference between weather and climate.
Don't mean to burst that bubble of fart gas your livng in but its above freezing here now and the snow is melting quickly.
Apparently it will be gone before the December 23 just in time for a green christmas.
How does that fit into your imaginary Weather Change/Global Cooling model?
Braindead twit.
Yikes, the Tosspot Triumvirate has followed me to my new haunt! Well its back to the G&M comment pages for me; wider readership, way fewer trolls. Way to kill the blogsphere guys!
ReplyDeletebtw, anyone know where you can host files for downloading?
ReplyDeleteI am putting together a "no Climate Change Guarantee" where wingnuts like Biff and the like can put their word where their mouth is and sign away property (not taking any beach front property) and other valuable goods (oil stocks and proceeds made from them) when the the destruction starts to occur.
I would say a one foot increase in sea level would be a good indicator. That would sink a few islands of people in the south pacific. All seized goods go to those who suffer loss due to idiots who refused to acknowledge the truth.
Can't you hear the patter of feet rushing to sign off on this? I doubt anyone of these twits would sign on. I'd love to see a family of new Guineans living at Biff's place.
jay - (sigh) yet another young impressionable mind turned fanatic. Why don't you get a real religion like buddhism or something and leave well enough alone. In a few years from now we'll all be laughing at this sky-is-falling drivel which has been with us since mankind has frequented this earth. Chill out man.
ReplyDeleteI think I have my first signee.
ReplyDeleteHow old do you think I am? You must be 60 to think I am young.
Mid 30's here.
Try again. Got any other labels to discredit me?
Been involved in studying and working with the climate change issue for 15 years now.
You?
What are your credentials to make you an expert?
Willing to sign my "No climate Change Guarantee"?
Holy Fk Jay are you a pompous ignoramus. Perhaps you can cite some published papers of yours?
ReplyDeleteEinstein had it right. The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits. Keep studying .
As for the term hoi polloi...you guys are either outing yourselves or you are really chicks. Man up already.
you guys are either outing yourselves or you are really chicks. Man up already.
ReplyDeleteWill do, Dainty...I mean Dante.
The blinding hatred for those on the right is palpable.
ReplyDeleteIf you get this worked up about Steyn, I can only imagine how much it eats at you knowing that Harper and his "neocons" will be running this great country for the forseeable future.
ReplyDeleteThe blinding hatred for those on the right is palpable.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Anon,
ReplyDelete"The blinding hatred for those on the right is palpable."
Just returning the favour. The right has blamed liberals and the left for pretty much everything under the sun, including your own shortcomings. So Bite me.
Dante,
I've seen your comments around the blogosphere, you wouldn't understand anything I've published anyway. Nor would I expose any of my personal information to such a creep.
anonomymous wishful thinker said...
"I can only imagine how much it eats at you knowing that Harper and his "neocons" will be running this great country for the forseeable future."
Is Harper planning to pull a Musharef and bring in marshal law or something? Thats about the only way that pitiful fool well ever last past this sad minority.
Oh and it's s ONCE great country. The right has made sure of that. Forget about Bali already? Majority of Canadians haven't
From Dante,
ReplyDelete"Moderate your language and engage in civil debate instead of calling people "denyers". You can't win that way."
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
"Denyer"
Like I said you wouldn't understand what I have published.
We call people like you deniers (note the spelling) because you don't have a valid viewpoint. There is no truth to the other view, just paid hacks, non peer reviewed research, distortion and/or a vested interest in polluting, be it oil money, gas guzzlers, or an excessive lifestyle.
Doubt if you understand what that all means but it means leave these topics to the people who know what they are talking about and you can stay at home eating Cheeto's and watching reality TV.
I really blame all this on the coddling people get in education these days. No one fails and they graduate thinking they are genius' when they are just "special".
Jay - so you're an expert on global-warming? Where did you get your theology degree Jay?
ReplyDeleteI know you're not trying to be ironical here but you may wish to re-read your last sentence - "I really blame all this on the coddling people get in education these days. No one fails and they graduate thinking they are genius' when they are just "special".
I couldn't have said it better myself and we agree on one that at least.
Please bring a little more critical analysis to bear on this discussion. Give me science not apocalyptic religious fanaticism.
Toronto just got walloped with a mega snow storm, even by Canadian as opposed to Toronto standards.
ReplyDeleteWhen are we going to realize the inanity and the over-the-top rhetoric of the global warming prophets of doom and gloom?
Oh, did I hurt your feelings? Give me a break. Your the one talking out of you ass acing as though you know what your talking about. Just because you have an opinion doesn't mean its true. Thats the problem with the right these days. Just because you feel this away about something doesn't mean its true.
ReplyDeleteYou proved my point by quoting my comment. It went over your head. I was referring to dimwits like yourself and the rest of the anonymous righties. The only proof you have for your arguments is that Harper said it or someone else told you so.
Like I said before, what are your credentials that makes you even able to give a valid viewpoint?
You don't have any in IMHO. Just quoting some news story or press release from CPC central.
Your a joke.
BTW, no theology here, I am a person of reason. I rely on evidence not imaginary sky gods. But that reference makes a lot of sense.
You have faith not facts. Big mistake.
Shivering on the prairies,
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify because you seem to be having problems with this level of discussion, but university education is usually referred to as "higher education" or post secondary education. There are entrance exams, so you have to have a certain level of intelligence to get in. Regular state education is for the most part a joke these days as it has been ruined by all the baby boomers in admin position siphoning off cash for the multitude of vehicles and cottages. You know them. The "god is love" crowd and hippie leftovers. Everyone has to pass in their minds and as such its made a regular education (high school and lower) a joke. Parents whine about their kids getting homework and how they are unable to do extracurricular things like hang out with ma and pa. Thats the problem I am speaking of.
Oh, and by the way my husband is a teacher so I hear the frustrations day in and day out how these old farts have ruined it.