Western Standard Website Down - Was it Hacked?
February 13, 2006 · By Greg Farries
For some reason the website of the Western Standard is unavailable. Could it be the result of their decision to print the Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad?
Update: They’re aware of the problem and working to fix it.
It seems that our website has been overloaded by traffic this morning and our web provider has suspended our account temporarily. This won’t affect the blog.
We’ll be back up soon.
Kind of a strange reason for shutting the website completely down. Personally, if my host shut my account (website) down because of increased traffic, I’d be shopping for a new host immediately. It’s called scalability, and any quality host is capable of dealing with higher the expected traffic.
Update 2: I suspect this is the more likely culprite for the downed WS website.
Almost 1,000 Danish websites have been defaced by Islamic hackers protesting about controversial cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.
The attacks typically replace home pages with pro-Islam messages and condemn the publication of the images.
Update 3: It’s 4pm and the site is still down! Obviously this is more than simply a overload of traffic on a server. Overloaded servers, as far as I know, do not return “Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)” errors. Adventures in Bowling Green claims,
Kevin Libin, editor in chief of the WS, tells me that they’re working to get the web page back up. I asked him if it was too much traffic, or something else. He says it’s “something else.”
Confirmation of a successful net attack against the Western Standard? You be the judge. What I can’t figure out is why no one has bothered to explain the reason for this outage, or why it has taken this long to resolve this issue? With the Western Standard’s publication of the cartoons being one of the major issues of the day/week, you would imagine they would be alittle more prepared.
If anyone has any additional information, you can post it here or send me an email.
Update 4: It’s after 9pm and it looks like westernstandard.ca is back up and running. Still no word on what actually happend. Although, if it was actually hacked, you would have probably seen Ezra Levant spitting nails in every direction.
I think that it might just be traffic: both LGF and Michelle Malkin have linked to the site. (And if the big guys have, then probably several others also have.)
the Danish newspaper’s move may be chalked up to naivety, Levant’s actions are a clear case of wanting to offend and spread hatred. From that point of view, he and his publication ought to be charged under Canada’s anti-hate laws. The Politic has nowreported
[...] ANOTHER UPDATE: Has the web site of the Western Standard been hacked? [...]
The years have been good to Ezra and I have grown rather fond of his Levantish ways. He has come a long ways since his days as the Stockwell Day side kick. Good for a well honed sound bite anyway:
Although Islam forbids depictions of its prophet, “I don’t follow Muslim law, I follow Queen Elizabeth’s law,” Levant, whose magazines is published 24 times a year, said appearing on CTV Newsnet.
“I don’t follow the Koran, I follow the Canadian Constitution and there are two key parts to the Canadian constitution I’m relying on: one is freedom of expression and the other is cultural diversity (enshrined in) the Constitution.”
…
“Why are we making a special exception for one religion?” asked Levant, who is Jewish.
“I know why. Because Christians, when they’re upset, they write a letter to the editor. Radical Muslims, when they’re upset, burn down embassies.”
…
Added Levant: “I’m not Oprah Winfrey. My job is not to bring people together. I’m the publisher of a news magazine and I want my readers to have the right to judge for themselves.”
Keep up the good fight Ezra!
For further insight on why Ezra is fighting the good fight for civilization, read Victor Davis Hanson:
http://nationalreview.com/hans.....100920.asp
Hmmm… I noticed this earlier today. And suspected Muslim hackers. Sure enough, “1,000 Danish websites have been defaced by Islamic hackers…”, so perhaps.
George Freeman - I’m amazed how much non-sense your capable of spinning. No one wants to read a 40 sentence post. It’s a waste of space.
ok … but so what?
“ok … but so what?” At least you acknowledge that no one wants to read a 40 sentence post. Looks like your first moment of honesty on this blog.
I never read 40-sentence posts, but for George I make an exception. For Jason, I draw the line at 2.5 words.
Rempel - Good stuff. While you would learn much more in my 2.5+ lines than in 40+ with georgie freeman, you simply exemplify a typical conservative - tunnel-vision and averse to actual discourse. If you are reading this part, then you have actually made it beyond 2.5 lines - congrats, you’re that much smarter now.
Quick links Why Lincoln Stopped Blogging (via Relapsed Catholic) Liam’s last visit to Toronto (warning: graphic and disturbing imagery, foul language, and mature subject matter)Western Standard website hacked? Economics on campus . . . in the same store, actually
[...] Western Standard???????????hacked? [...]