And why not?
Meanwhile, one of Warren's ex-employees pens a wonderful take down of Ezra and Mark and the whole Speechynista gang. I don't think you can link directly to the blog post, but go there and read the entry "The "Right to Offend" Movement". In my favorite bit, Mr. Omar Soliman points out Mr. Levant's rather tortured relationship to the Canadian Charter of Rights. From Ezra's remarks to the AHRC:
In 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed, quote: 2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: a) freedom of conscience and religion; b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
Those were even called “fundamental freedoms” – to give them extra importance.
But here's Ezra from 2005. I guess Freedom of Speech means freedom to contradict yourself whenever convenient.
Isn't that a hoot? Ezra believes his Charter right to freedom of expression guarantees his right to denounce the Charter.
ReplyDelete...which it does. But it also shows he's incoherent.
Like the anti-abortion crusaders who call pro-choice people "pro-aborts," I think I'll just start calling these free speech warriors "pro-genocide" or something.
Hey...I have a right to say whatever the fuck I want.
By this logic anyone who has made any criticism of health care (which is to say seven out of three Canadians) shouldn't be entitled to health care.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has criticized the police shouldn't be entitled to police protection and service.
Anyone who has criticized the Highway Traffic Act shouldn't be allowed to drive on the roads.
Etc.
We have a word for this type of thinking. And that word is stupid.
There is no contradiction whatsoever in criticizing the Charter and defending one's Charter rights. Have a nice day.
Hmm... if one right-wing extremist nutbar wants to abolish the HRC, and another right-wing extremist nutbar is filing complaints with the HRC...
ReplyDeleteHow about we settle the matter by giving Levant and Chandler each a baseball bat, lock them in a room...
Sorry for the OT, but check out National Newswatch.
ReplyDeleteIt's all election all the time.
It's also all Afghanistan all the time. Looks like things are coming to a head.
Take a click on the Afghan' articles. Notice that there's always two Liberal positions quoted: one from Iggy and one from Dion.
Which position do you guys support, Iggy's or Dion's?
By this logic anyone who has made any criticism of health care (which is to say seven out of three (sic) Canadians) shouldn't be entitled to health care.
ReplyDeleteDepends on the content of the critique. If someone is opposing single-payer insurance and the principle of universality, then such a critique reveals incoherence and lack of principle if that person nonetheless continues to benefit from what he or she opposes.
People still have the right to do that (because freedom of expression restrictions in Canada are narrowly-focused on hate propagands) but it doesn't say much for that free speech warrior's character.
Again, it's not the principle the warriors are supporting that I'm objecting to as much as the warriors' conceit that their third-tier minds are capable of arguing the issue sensibly or persuasively.
We have a word for this type of thinking. And that word is stupid.
You took the words right out my mouth. I'll never trust authoritarians, miscreants and morons to boldly support my rights. They'll screw you (or it, up) the first chance they get.
My question as a Liberal and I'm with Scott Tribe on this, does Dion have the cojones to vote against the government on a confidence issue. He should not hesistate in my view but he's making a career, or so it seems, of hesitating. He needs to stand up for liberal values.
ReplyDeleteWhat's that got to do with HRC's, Biff...er..."Liberal Supporter?"
ReplyDeleteLS:
ReplyDeleteDon't get your hopes up too high. This is what Dion is quoted as saying last night in Victoria:
"We are facing a government who wants to go into an election at any cost," Dion said." That doesn't sound like someone who is pining to go to the polls. There are serveal reasons this conservative minority is the longest-serving conservative minority since confederation, and one of the most important of those is named Stephane Dion. I agree with Jim Travers, columnist for the Toronto Star and general advice-giver to the Liberal Party, he's done too much dithering and not enough doing.
Ti-guy, I'm not Biff BTW, I'm just sayin' every time there's serious talk of an election Dion turns tail and runs away.
ReplyDeleteHe has trouble making basic decisions, pulling the plug on the government? Not from what I've seen of this man. He's an all talk no action sort of guy in case you haven't noticed. Action for him is penning a letter.
The guy has no credibility as a leader. Everyone, as the polls on leadership ability consistently show, knows it. It's the elephant in the room on Liberal Blogs. Everyone knows it, no one talks about it.
Your last comment was a load of bullshit, "Blue Liberal."
ReplyDeleteLying doesn't help your credibility.
I think the Liberals should wait until it becomes undeniable that the Harper Party's masters, the Republicans and their think tanks and righty astro-turf organisations (all of which have infected Canada) can no longer save them by transferring resources to private citizens who then donate them in kind to the CPC. Of course, it's a real race now for Harper to get that election before that happens. Hence the hysteria and all the "no confidence" motions.
It's not up to Dion to provide a convenient "out" Harpy's anxiety attack.
Ti-Guy,
ReplyDeletenot only are your allegations unsubstantiated,
you are in fact wrong. I'm not those other posters.
A good case can be made that it is in fact you who are creating false sock puppet positions so that you can smear.
Smearing for you is like breathing is for the rest of us.
It sustains you. It fills nearly every hour of your day, it seems.
Tell me Ti-Guy, what do you do in those brief few moments of the day (if you even have such moments) when you are not spewing venom at all of us boogey men you are convinced are out to get you?
Have you tried watching a little more television? There's some really good documentaries and such out there now.
Nice, calming documentaries, like nature shows.
Go watch the pretty birds fly ti-guy, it might bring you a little peace.
Ti-guy, I don't know if you consider yourself a Liberal. I'm not sure consider yourself one. All I know is that we have to unite on the issues and a game plan. Tory trolls should generally be ignored but I think there is truth to Jim Travers' view that the campaigning for the leadership hasn't stopped since the convention.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing like an election to unite the troops. If Dion does what he did last fall and abstains his credibility as a leader will suffer. He has to take a stand and ALL Liberals, including you Ti-guy if you're one of us, has to fall in line. United we stand, divided we fall!
* The following rights are excluded.
ReplyDeleteFreedom to be Christian.
Freedom to be proud you are white.
Freedom to own guns.
Freedom to be conservative.
I know it's the basics, there are more.
I'm proud I'm white. We got it made in the shade. Especially white males. God I love being a white male. It means a life of luxory.
ReplyDeleteWhite males have it made? Someone forgot to tell me :(
ReplyDeleteCan I get a rain cheque on the white male privilege?
Link to the Soliman article: http://www.soliman.ca/2008/02/right-to-offend-movement.html (just open it in its own window to get the specific link)
ReplyDeleteIf Dion does what he did last fall and abstains his credibility as a leader will suffer. He has to take a stand and ALL Liberals, including you Ti-guy if you're one of us, has to fall in line. United we stand, divided we fall!
ReplyDeleteI don't vote for a party to win. I vote for the platform that makes sense to me. On Afghanistan, I want combat operations to end in 2009. If Harper won't accept that, and an election is called, so be it.
But it'll be grand waste if all we end up getting is another Harper minority...the CPC's policy incoherence is so unappealing to sensible people. And all Conservatives are liars, which I find irritating.
Hey, check out My Blahg! Ezra's forming a union!
ReplyDeletehttp://myblahg.com/?p=2291
Your buddy photographs bathroom walls that kids wrote on. He's a lawyer who photographs bathroom walls. Impressive.
ReplyDeleteDo you photograh bathroom walls, Ti-guy? Is that the new Liberal crusade? Kids who write on bathroom walls?
This is why I'm conservative.
blue liberal:
ReplyDeleteIt is simple political strategy.
Generally speaking, if your political opponent wants something you deny it to him unless you can benefit from it as well.
So, if the Conservatives are so horny to have an election now the obvious reaction is to ask why and then decide if you can turn it to your political advantage.
If not, then deny them what they want.
After all, part of the whole dynamic of a minority government is the government trying to engineer their defeat on the issue of their choosing while their opposition tries to make it fall on one of their choosing.
It is not all that complicated really.
This is why I'm conservative.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I was all this time thinking it was because you're a moron.
So Matalu objects to the making of generalities, and Matt applauds him then resorts to generalities. Which suggests that Conservatives include stupid people who have learned to use a mouse.
ReplyDeleteWell, it is a weak to call all Conservatives liars because I personally can't tell whether the ranting lunatics online actually believe the crap their spewing. But, from personal experience (I know a lot of Conservatives), I've come to realise that an essential quality of small-c conservatism is to express what you want others to believe you believe, not what you believe yourself.
ReplyDeleteHence, all the grandiloquence and overblown sentimentality that causes the rest of us to think they're either lying or recreating on their pain killers all the time.
It'd be the easiest thing in the world for me to be a conservative of convenience (as opposed to the true conservative I in fact really am): all I'd need to do is to adopt a morality from the Catholic Church, beliefs about the economy from Milton Friedman, thoughts on government from the Republican Party and voilà...instant conservatism. No critical thinking required.
...and when that proves incapable of dealing with reality when it asserts itself, blame everyone else...including other conservatives, if need be.
It's dead simple.