Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark, told the Danish newspaper Politiken that the issue had gone beyond a row between Copenhagen and the Muslim world and now centred on western free speech versus taboos in Islam. He said: “We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work.”
telegraph
And a block of Halvarti and time to play with some Lego. Various whacked out Islamists - not content with trying to ban Piglet - have got their knickers knotted over a bunch of Danish cartoons. Boycotts, a day of anger, “a clash of civilizations”.
OK, here’s the deal. In Western, non-medieval, liberal, democratic countries you can publish cartoons which are, frankly, offensive. We are grown ups and we can deal with it. Note to the Islamists - you are not grown ups if you are going to have a tantrum when your sky God or his Prophet take a hit. However, you have a choice: leave.
The rest of the Muslim population are very welcome to stay. But on our terms, not the terms of a misty caliphate or some lunatic in a cave or illiberal Koranic interpreter who believes that the 13th century was as good as it got.
Update: A Muslim who gets it Kamal Nawash Thanks Kathy.
Written by jay on February 3rd, 2006 with 9 comments.
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But Canadian conservatives — or liberals — shouldn’t be under any pressure to move to the centre to save themselves from anything. There are progressive conservatives — Red Tories — who are probably down with the direction things are taking. Power to them, but let the party be what it was created to be: a conservative voice that blends conservative ideologies, but excludes none. They should do what they do, believe what they believe, move on the issues that are important to them.
They need a Margaret Thatcher, not a Tony Blair.
anchorlink
Dead right. What will be interesting is to see which way Harper jumps. There are, after all, real attractions to being the Brian Mulroney of your generation. And, realistically, there is nothing so badly broken in Canada that a few years of CPC run Liberal government would be the worst thing in the world. It would simply be dull and rather pointless.
For Harper and the CPC business as usual - but better run and scandal free - could be the ticket to anything from a slim majority to an overwhelming victory in a couple of years. But for what?
The argument is that the CPC has moved from the Reform’s populist roots to a more mature, responsible, worthy of trust, brokerage role. Which means that the “consenseus” of the Liberal era will remain intact.
This will leave us with the CRTC, advocacy funding, the Department of Canadian Heritage, Indian Affairs in all its glory, the CBC, official bilingualism, the pleasures of an unreformed (but improved) Canada Health Act, regional economic development and a government which, while it does not grow much, certainly does not shrink. Tax reduction will be incremental, debt reduction will be the work of generations, competitive position will gradually erode, family class immigration will remain a “good idea”: nothing fundamental will change.
Of course, some very fundamental things will and are changing and the steady as she goes policy will become increasingly detached from any larger, global, reality.
Here are three major changes which are in train.
1. Conventional oil reserves are running down if not out at the very same time as world demand for oil is increasing.
2. World fresh water resources are shrinking fast relative to population.
3. The Canadian birthrate is below replacement level.
Blairite, win the next election, thinking (and I have a lot of time for Blair on other fronts) is predicated on ignoring any longer term issues. It insists that management is all which is needed to deal with issues of public policy large or small.
Harper is in the position of the heir to a successful family business: he can go on making the buggy whips or film cameras which made his grandfather and father wealthy men or he can look around and try to devise a plan to make his grandchildren just as wealthy. The old family retainers assure the young man that all is well and the key thing is to make enough of the old reliable products to earn a decent living and keep the pension plan topped up.
The measure of the heir is not, of course, his ability to manage the gentle decline of grandad’s business - by that measure the last generation of Eatons were a success; rather it is is ability to take the company into the new world, his new world, which matters.
Politically, it is always easier to push a few more miles down the middle of the highway hoping to hell that you are going in the right direction, praying that there are no unmarked washouts and trying very hard to ignore the overtaking semi-trailer which does not seem to notice you. But it is rarely right.
Written by jay on February 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
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One of the unexpected pleasures of living in Victoria has been to get to know and very much like Kevin Micheal Grace, aka The Ambler.
In a properly ordered universe Kevin would have either a fellowship in some form of think tank, a university sinecure or the editorship of a small but well respected magazine of opinion. The universe is not well ordered and so Kevin has no source of steady income.
As regular readers know, I have no time at all for social conservatives in their happy clappy fundy mode. None. But I have a great deal of time for humanists, secular or religious.
Kevin is, at root, a humanist in the broadest sense of that word. From a deep love of classical music to a knowledge of punk which would shame Mr. K, the ability to make a convincing case that Looney Tunes are the fulcrum of modern American culture, an understanding of English literature which can place with great precision the exact references in Kingsley Amis or measure the extent of Orwell’s influence, an understanding of NFL football and a passion for the nuance of rock video iconography, Kevin takes the total cultural output of the West as his potential field of study.
He also writes about politics with a perspective which is 90 degrees askew from the left, right or center. It is not so much that Kevin disagrees with the Liberals or Tories or NDP; rather he cannot imagine what sin Canada could possibly have committed to have been plunged into the purgatory of such mediocrity and mendacity. He is equally perplexed by the American’s willingness to elect George Bush - twice - and the English embrace of Tony Blair.
All of which makes Kevin a very hard sell in a media culture dominated by left/right pidgeon holing.
Which brings me round to the pitch: it is Ambler Preservation month. I know ffrom bitter experience that it is difficult if not impossible to do good work with not the slightest clue where your next dollar is coming from. Kevin does brilliant work powered mainly by re-used teabags and very, very old bread.
In Kevin’s situtation $5.00 or $10.00 makes a real difference and $50.00 is a gift of the Gods. Go make a difference and preserve The Ambler.
(And, if you run a blog, please think about mentioning Ambler Preservation. )
Written by jay on February 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
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