Advice For Mark Steyn: If You Are Serious

...lose the beard and ditch the fruity, fake Brit accent.  Yankees don't want to hear that shit.  Its OK when you're playing an intellectual come to lecture them on their colonial inferiority.  But if you want to lead 'em, you'll have to learn to talk white.  You'll also have to learn to eat "fritters" and maybe even squirrel brains.  Good luck with that.

Your Daily Nazi: Late Coda To Hechme Case

Richard Warman is still having to tell people it's lies:

The "Hechme allegation" was one of the stranger incidents in The Speechy Wars--the epic political battle over section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act  that began in 2008 and still grinds on in the Senate.  Two  Neo-Nazis managed to convince a good portion of the Canadian media establishment that government employees hijacked the wifi network of one Nelly Hechme in order to spy on said Neo-Nazis.  it was a lunatic assertion, for many reasons, and the various investigations that followed cleared everyone involved.  More than once, in fact.

But here's the interesting thing. At the time Macleans Magazine was one of the prime media suckers.  They let Mark Steyn defame one of the government employees in question on their website; they let Steyn accuse this man by name (not Richard, incidentally) of criminal acts that he did not commit.  The story still appears on the Macleans website!   Now, the fellow didn't sue them because, I am told, he doesn't do that kind of thing.  But Macleans has been asked many times by bloggers like myself and, I think, Dr. Dawg, to pull down the defamatory piece, for decency's sake.  Clearly that kind of plea cuts no ice with the crew over there.

Suck On It Mark Steyn

Climate scientist Michael Mann has finally filed his lawsuit:

Today, the case of Dr. Michael E. Mann vs. The National Review and The Competitive Enterprise Institute was filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Dr. Mann, a Professor and Director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, has instituted this lawsuit against the two organizations, along with two of their authors, based upon their false and defamatory statements accusing him of academic fraud and comparing him to a convicted child molester, Jerry Sandusky. Dr. Mann is being represented by John B. Williams of the law firm of Cozen O'Connor in Washington, D.C. 

Mark Steyn's piece was the one in The National Review.  His defense, as far as I can parse it, is that when he accused Mr. Mann of committing fraud, he was not accusing him of committing fraud.  As I wrote at the time:

Frankly, I know of nowhere that a reader, be they careful or careless, could interpret the term "fraudulent" when applied to a scientist's work as implying anything less than that they were guilty of scientific misconduct (the kind of thing they discuss here) or straight out fraud.  I am unaware of any place the term has been used  merely to state that the scientist's work is incorrect.  This is quite a bit different than the situation with "blackmail", where there is an established colloquial sense that is weaker than the more precise legal sense (the colloquial sense does not entail criminality where the more legal sense does). 

I will try and find out if there is a method of donating to Mr. Mann's cause.  As most good Canadians, I would love to see Mr. Steyn tarred and feathered, but a successful lawsuit is likely to be the best result attainable.

Noted Climate Scientist Michael Mann Threatens Legal Action Against Far Right Scuzzbag With Fake English Accent Mark Steyn

The facebook entry is here, screen-capped below:

I'm not going to link to the defamatory stuff; it compares Mike Mann to Jerry Sandusky.  You can find it through the link.  Its about time somebody sued Mark Steyn.  He's an evil shit, and his writings served as a philosophical foundation for mass murderer  Anders Behring Breivik.  

Krista Erickson Looks Like Ann Coulter, And Other Things We Learned About Mark Steyn's Toronto Appearance Without Actually Going

Last night, Mark Steyn--the U.S. author whose writings served as the inspiration for Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik--performed in Toronto for a small crowd of mostly white geezers:

A good time was had by all, and several people laughed so hard their dentures flew out.

Randy Hillier showed up:

And I must say I'd never noticed that gap in his teeth before.  Looks like he got it pulling the cork out of a bottle of moonshine.  And, as noted in the header, Krista Erickson from Sun TV was there:

Every day she looks more and more like a brunette Ann Coulter.

Gruending On The Breivik Killings And "The Right"

 Dennis Gruending weighs in elegantly here.

My view: if right-wing pundits like Steyn, and Tarrek Fatah, and Pam Geller aren't nuts, then Brevik's actions are sane.  If dark-skinned Islamo-fascists really have infiltrated all levels of society--the police, the armed forces, the various political parties, the media, the public school system--then why wouldn't staging some sort of armed revolt be perfectly in order?  If "leftists" like those kids on that island, or folks like myself, really are covering up for such terrorists, then isn't a bullet pretty much what we deserve (as indeed Michael Coren suggested)?

Now, of course these "thinkers" are nuts.  And, at some level, Mark Steyn (for example)  probably realizes he's spooning up boob-bait for the yokels that purchase his books.  But I suppose the coin is good.  The problem is with readers--like Breivik--who take Steyn's various theories more seriously than he does, and have the "courage" to act from Mr. Steyn's apparent convictions. 

Steyn, Fatah, Geller, Coren, Mansur--these people "set the table" for folks like Brevik.  That is their measure of responsibility.

Whither Mark Steyn?

It was pointed out to me yesterday that Mark Steyn hasn't produced content for Macleans in quite awhile.  So I fired off an email to Senior Columnist Paul Wells.  He responded:

Feel free to quote me but I won't be very helpful. Mark hasn't written for us for about a year. I don't know whether that's permanent; he normally deals only with senior management.


So I fired another one off to Ken Whyte asking whether Steyn was still on the payroll, but have received no response as yet.  In any case, "about a year" puts us in the vicinity of Steyn's April 12, 2010 column True North Strong Not Free.  In the course of this column, which was otherwise Steyn's typical Muslim bashing, railing against censorship, and etc., Mr. Steyn attributed comments to the Canadian Jewish Congress that were in fact from an item in the Mississauga News that was hosted on the CJC website.  This screw-up triggered a nasty letter from the CJC headBernie Farber and,  eventually (about April 18th), a grovelling apology from Macleans.

Since then, it would seem, nothing more from Steyn in Macleans.  Has Bernie and the Ceej chased him out of the Canadian jounosphere?  That's a bit speculative, but in any case its nice to see him gone.

PS. Unless he's gone because of poor health, obviously.  Although I thought he had resolved all of those issues.

Mark Steyn Fails To Meet

...expectations:

About 900 people — mostly an older crowd — filled the hall, with no pre-speech protests or demonstrations.

As the lads from ARC point out:

Keep in mind that, after what we believe was a contrived controversy to drum up more publicity, the organizers believed that there would be 1000 tickets sold and that the balconies might also be filled.

Although to be fair, the LFP article says that the speech was at London's Centennial Hall, which means it was moved from the University of Western Ontario at what must have been the last minute. Which might have confused Mark's elderly fans.

Mark Steyn And That Flat In Marseilles

Think of Germany as that flat in Marseilles...
Think of the European Union as that flat in Marseilles...
Think of France as that flat in Marseilles...

What will that flat in Marseilles be next?

Steyn Cancellation Con?

Here's the time-line Ari, Andrew and Co. from Strictly Right are giving for the events behind the London Convention Centre's refusal to book Mark Steyn into their facility for his November 1st speech:

A trio of bloggers who run the site StrictlyRight.com inquired on Monday about booking a Nov. 1 speech for Mr. Steyn at the London Convention Centre. The group announced on Thursday that it had received a phone call from the centre saying it would not be allowed to make the booking. The Convention Centre said it was a business decision, but organizers of the speech said they were told otherwise.

“The reason offered by the LCC [in a Tuesday morning phone call] was that they had received pressure from local Islamic groups, and they didn’t want to alienate their Muslim clients. It’s interesting to note that the LCC is owned by the City of London, and is therefore a government operation,” wrote Strictly Right’s Andrew Lawton at the website.

The Monday they are referring to is October 18th; Tuesday is October 19th; and Thursday is the 21st.

Also, my Michael Coren debating buddy Andrew Lawton tells the Voice of Canada that Strictly Right first contacted the LCC on Thursday, Oct 14, 2010. Now, there are no posts on SR between October 14th and the 19th that mention the LCC as their new venue. In fact a post on the 18th shows an image of a Mark Steyn t-shirt with the venue still listed as the University of Western Ontario. Which makes sense, because we also know that the lads from SR only received the "client profile" document from the LCC on the evening of the 18th, and were never able to fill it out before next morning when they got word their booking had been rejected.

So how did these "local Islamic groups" noted above find out about the venue change and know who to pressure? I don't see how they could have.

And I would just point out how much difficulty Canadian Conservatives typically experience when they attempt to rent a room. It seems beyond their capabilities.

Mark Steyn = Public Enemy For White People

...He's like the white Chuck D, and he wonders why his venues cancel him all the time.

PS. Does this make Ezra the white Flava Flave?

IFPS Leader Faces Racism Charges

Lars Hedegaard, a frequent & prominent commentator in the right wing Danish newspapers, also serves as director of the International Free Press Society (IFPS).

And, if you recall, it was the Canadian-wing of the IFPS that arranged the infamous "Ann Coulter in Canada" tour, which I have written about on numerous occasions.

In fact, the IFPS-Canada's Ezra Levant (he is on their Board of Advisers) was there with Ann during her disastrous appearance at the University of Ottawa, when organizers failed to secure an appropriately sized venue, bungled the process of registering and admitting attendees, and then blamed "The Left" when things got out of hand and they were forced to cancel the speech.

In any case, Mr. Hedegaard is, as they say, in dutch with Danish authorities:

The chairman of the Freedom of the Press Society, Lars Hedegaard, has been charged with making racist remarks by the Public Prosecutor for Copenhagen.

The charge comes after Hedegaard on the blog site Snaphanen in December 2009 described rape as common in Muslim families, especially girls by their uncles, cousins or fathers.

The Copenhagen Post notes that numerous prominent members have abandoned the IFPS in the wake of Hedegaard's remarks; we'll see if the Canadian contingent is up to a similar display of class.

Incidentally, also on the Board of Advisers for the IFPS are Mark Steyn, and our own Kathy Shaidle, whose attempts to organize Canadian tea-baggers in London was similarly unsuccessful.

C'mon folks: step up and denounce!

Who Got The Snowflake?

A full list of Order of Canada recipients here.

Incidentally, I would have no problem with Don Cherry being so honoured; he qualifies as a Canadian treasure, if only for his outfits (and believe me some have been given the award for less). However, the notion of Mark Steyn getting any kind of prize (except maybe for gayest facial hair) is repulsive. I know he doesn't live in the country anymore, but can't we deport him in advance as a precautionary measure?

Jewish Defense League To Mark Steyn: Stop Attacking Friends Of Israel!

The following letter is from the JDL mailing list. I obviously have issues with the JDL, which I have documented on numerous occasions. I republish their letter only as part of my ongoing efforts to make Mark Steyn cry:

Dear Mr. Mark Steyn,

It pains me to write this letter to an important friend and ally. It is critical to reduce infighting and to focus on real threats.

JDL has not always agreed with Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) but one thing we do know, CJC is not the enemy far from it. It is for this reason that we are very disappointed with the May 3rd column you wrote in Maclean's.

Mr. Steyn, you have written and spoken about the demographic problems in the world and the spread of the Muslim Brotherhood Ideology. I get it. And I work for unity and have seen concrete results in the battle to expose and confront all groups that support the Muslim Brotherhood Ideology.

Mr. Steyn you are an important friend and ally who has defended our beloved Israel as has CJC and its CEO Bernie Farber.

And yes from time to time we can all make mistakes. A few weeks ago you made a mistake by attributing words to CJC that it never said. Indeed you did it in a manner that was disrespectful. MacLean’s apologized, sadly you have not only remained silent but chose to go on the attack against both Bernie Farber and CJC. And there is no need for that action.

Mr. Steyn, you responded to a CJC letter to the editor and attacked Farber for his work on behalf of Israel when last summer he led over 100 Jews both gay and straight in the Pride march in support of Israel. He did this to counter the anti-Semitic, pro Hamas, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. [Note: Antonia Zerbisias has suggested that this bit from the JDL letter was defamatory, and I have removed it] Despite this Mr. Steyn, you decided to attack Farber and even claiming in your article that you supported Antonia Zerbisias [same with this bit] over Bernie Farber who defends Israel! I am writing this on behalf of JDL Canada to ask you to Stop! Stop attacking those who defend Israel and continue pointing your well known wit and critical faculties at those who would deny Jews, Israel and the free world legitimacy. Our energies must remain focused on the proxies of Radical Iran.

Thank You,

Meir Weinstein National Director Jewish Defence League of Canada

Please, on this one occasion, be nice to Mr. Weinstein in the comments. We must all stand together in our efforts to bring Mark Steyn to tears.

More Steyn Bashing

I am not an agent for the CJC (Canadian Jewish Congress); its just that somebody has to put the boots to Mark Steyn and his editors at Macleans, who have turned an icon of Canadian publishing into a rag, and Bernie Farber has been going after them with both feet lately. Quite justifiably, too. Here is a letter from him that will be appearing in their print edition, and this my favorite bit:

I would also note this statement from the CJC website:

Mr. Steyn has neither apologized nor even acknowledged his error and continues to post the fallacious column, without any clarification, on his private website.

Oh well! The Ceej must think they're special! Steyn never apologizes, no matter how big the screwup. For example, this column still remains on the Macleans website. In it, Steyn accuses CHRC investigator Dean Steacy of illegal acts, based on the say-so of a couple of Neo-Nazis. When the RCMP cleared Mr. Steacy, what did we get out of Macleans or Mr. Steyn? Nada.

And speaking of illegal acts, it look Shaidle's husband, in the context of his endless Muslim bashing, is down to publishing kiddy-porn. I'm not going to link to him, but it seems to me that he has gone to a very dark place, and then decided it wasn't dark enough.

The Most Important Part

...of Mark Steyn's latest, True North strong not free, was not actually written by Mark. It's this bit added at the end by an appalled (one would hope) editor:

Editor’s Note: In this column, “True North strong not free,” (April 12, 2010), quotes were attributed to the Canadian Jewish Congress that came from The Mississauga News. The CJC had posted the quotes on their website under the heading ‘Articles of Interest.’ Subsequent commentary and satire in the column was linked to those quotes. Maclean’s regrets any confusion they might have caused by attributing certain positions directly to the CJC.

The Mississauga News article, if you want to read the whole thing, is here. Steyn's reference came through Scaramouche, who was operating under the assumption that if the CJC posted something on their website, they must be in agreement with it. Steyn either accepted that assessment or, more likely, didn't give a shit. One wonders, though, what Macleans thinks of its editorial staff having to follow this guy around like a dog owner with gloves and a baggy.

In any case, you don't really need to read the Steyn piece. Its his typical Muslims blah blah, political correctness blah blah blah, with a bit of trash talking re the CJC thrown in for good measure. He really needs to find a new minority groups to bash; his schtick is getting tired.

And while we're on the topic of Mark Steyn, the folks at Media Culpa have turned uncovering the man's many instances of self-plagiarism into a cottage industry:

Whatever it’s called, there are more identical or similar (and apparently interchangeable) paragraphs. You can be chugging along through the same 500 words or so, and bump into Lloyd Axworthy in one version, and Bill Gates in the other.

[...]

And copyright? It’s nice that his publishers are willing to share (and maybe pay twice), but isn’t all this communal property stuff a bit - well, leftist?

Finally, a bit OT (but not much), I swapped a few emails this week with Isabelle, Poirier of the Gatineau police. It turns out I was right: there was indeed a third person with Nick Bergamini and Mark Klibanov the night they were allegedly attacked by a mob of machete wielding Arabs outside Le Volt. As of Friday, though, there was no more further information on the incident to be had. Updates, when they become available, should appear here but perhaps, since the "attack" seems to already have passed into the realm of legend, they don't matter.

Dead Finns And Recycled Steyn

One of my favorite crusader's for truth over at Media Culpa has finally convinced Macleans to correct their story about the "10,000,000 Finns who died under Stalin". Its taken months for them to do it, and they probably wouldn't have bothered if a Finnish magazine hadn't called them out. Here's the correction:

CORRECTION: In the original version of this story we said that 10 million Finns died under Lenin in the 1917 civil war. The correct figure is 37,000. We regret the error.

Except that too is a bung-job:

Just a couple of problems with this: the original article did not say that 10 million Finns died under Lenin “in the 1917 civil war”. In fact, even the closing paragraph correctly places Finland’s civil war in 1918, not 1917 (and at any rate, Lenin did not rule Finland - formerly a protectorate of Sweden and later Russia, one of Lenin’s first acts when he took power in October 1917 was to grant Finland independence in December 1917). The 1918 civil war was therefore not fought “under Lenin”.

Alas!

And here: Mark Steyn's wholesale re-purposing of Mark Steyn articles.

Steyn On Hasan: Largely Bullshit

Carol Waino fact-checks articles by right-wing columnists for a hobby. In Mark Steyn's case, somebody's got to do it; Macleans sure won't. Here is her take on Major Nidal Hasan had an enabler. A shorter version was "removed" from the Macleans comments section.

There are errors in Mark Steyn’s article “Major Nidal Hasan had an enabler” (Nov. 26). Castigating Hasan’s “superior officer” Colonel Terry Lee, for fatal “political correctness”, Steyn writes:

"barely had he got to Texas when he started making idle chit-chat praising the jihadist murderer of two soldiers outside a recruitment centre in Little Rock. 'This is what Muslims should do, stand up to the aggressors,' Major Hasan told his superior officer, Colonel Terry Lee. 'People should strap bombs on themselves and go into Times Square.'

In less enlightened times, Colonel Lee would have concluded that, being in favour of the murder of his comrades, Major Hasan was objectively on the side of the enemy. But instead he merely cautioned the major …'You need to lock it up, major,' advised the colonel."

To begin, no reports list Col. Terry Lee as Hasan’s “superior officer” at Fort Hood. Col. Lee is instead clearly identified as “retired” when interviewed by Fox News, and in all other reports (certainly, it would be both foolish, and undoubtedly against military policy, for Hasan’s current or former “superior officer” to phone Fox with self-incriminating comments of the sort Steyn reports). Further, it is not clear that this individual was even a colleague at Fort Hood. Reports state that Hasan was only transferred to Fort Hood in July, a couple of months before the shooting, and Lee is described (in reports more credible than Fox) as having worked with Hasan as a colleague at Walter Reed, not Fort Hood, prior to his retirement.

But even in the Fox interview, Col. Lee makes clear that the quote which Steyn claims Hasan made to his “superior officer” Lee in Fort Hood – that “People should strap bombs on themselves and go into Times Square”, is unconfirmed, third party, material from another time and place. Lee says: “that was from a third source, so I can’t confirm that”. Further, he says that the unconfirmed statement was suggested by a third party at a conference at Walter Reed Hospital “6 months ago” – that is, before Hasan was posted to Fort Hood, not while he was there, as Steyn claims, and not directly to Lee (who did not personally receive it, and who, at any rate, was apparently not Hasan’s “superior officer” at Fort Hood).

If Mr. Steyn is going to try to throw more individuals under the over-used bus of “political correctness”, he might try and avoid further errors of the sort earlier directed at the CHRC, and for which MacLean’s recently published a retraction. In that regard I note that no correction has yet been offered for MacLean’s fictional May story which first inflated the population of Finland by about 6 million, before killing them all off several times over at the hands of a leader (Lenin) who never ruled the country. Does MacLean’s employ fact checkers or editors? Or is factual error now “politically correct”?

Carol Wainio

Mark Steyn: The Pieces Are Interchangable

From his Macleans Oct 15 column on Michael Ignatieff:

In Britain, a land with rampant property crime, undercover constables nevertheless find time to dine at curry restaurants on Friday nights to monitor adjoining tables lest someone in private conversation should make a racist remark. An author interviewed on BBC Radio expressed, very mildly and politely, some concerns about gay adoption and was investigated by Scotland Yard’s Community Safety Unit for Homophobic, Racist and Domestic Incidents. A Daily Telegraph columnist was arrested and detained in a jail cell over a joke in a speech. A Dutch legislator was invited to speak at the Palace of Westminster by a member of the House of Lords, but was banned by the government, arrested on arrival at Heathrow and deported.

From a May 8th piece in The Progressive Conservative, on the decline of America under Obama:

In Britain, a land with rampant property crime, undercover constables nevertheless find time to dine at curry restaurants on Friday nights to monitor adjoining tables lest someone in private conversation should make a racist remark. An author interviewed on BBC Radio expressed, very mildly and politely, some concerns about gay adoption and was investigated by Scotland Yard’s Community Safety Unit for Homophobic, Racist and Domestic Incidents. A Daily Telegraph columnist is arrested and detained in a jail cell over a joke in a speech. A Dutch legislator is invited to speak at the Palace of Westminster by a member of the House of Lords, but is banned by the government, arrested on arrival at Heathrow and deported.

Sweet. Paid twice for the same anecdote.

H/T CW

Macleans Retracts, Will Steyn Apologize?

Something Dawg and others have already picked up, and
...something Maclean's would have realized months ago if they had only been paying attention. Of course, the first article Mark Steyn wrote on the topic, in which he accused CHRC Investigator Dean Steacy of criminal wrong-doing, is still up. So I will be sending Mr. Steyn yet another email suggesting that he apologize to Mr. Steacy and have Macleans put the article down. We shall see what kind of man he is.