The Scourge of Political Correctness

So I received a little pushback on my post about incorporating guns in the Remembrance Day activities of an Ottawa high school. I wasn’t surprised; just as when Charles writes about his white poppy, being semi-critical of any aspect of a Remembrance Day ceremony is going to elicit some emotional responses. That’s just part of the deal.

The post brought up the topic of political correctness, and I’m confident in suggesting that a sizable chunk of our readership here at The Politic will claim an antipathy towards political correctness. Much of conservatism has prided itself in being politically incorrect, as have I, at times – which is why I wrote such a politically incorrect post. [Read more]

South African whites want to be compensated by blacks!?!

When I first read of Desmond Tutu’s appeal to tax white people to compensate the blacks, I was comfortable letting my anti-taxation sentiment rest. I thought: “Right on. Call it a tax but it really is just a reclaiming of stolen property.” [See my post on Free Trade to understand the truth about forced commerce on native inhabitants.] Now, I read this madness:

Soweto alone had more cars, taxis, schools, churches and sport facilities than most independent countries in Africa. The Blacks of South Africa had more private vehicles than the entire white population of the USSR at the time.

Today Soweto has modern shopping malls like, Dobsonville Shopping Centre. In 2005 the Protea Gardens Mall opened. This was followed by the Baramall Shopping Centre and the Jabulani Shopping complex and the Maponya Mall. Experts say that Soweto has as much as 25% oversupply of retail space.

— like, these are all universally good things?

So what if they have all the toys, the jobs, the schools and the playgrounds? This insane outlook from Chris Kritzinger seems to assume the unknowable. Namely:
1) the black people could not have done the exact same things for themselves
2) all of the black people want all of this stuff
3) forcing natives to conform to a western lifestyle of trinkets and gadgets is good
4) trinkets and gadgets are enough to ignore the hardship, misery and out-right theft endured by black South Africans
5) maybe the black people would be happy enough with the peace of being left alone all these years even without trinkets

This demonic idea that Blacks should be grateful to the Whites deserves to be smothered. It is insane. It is cruel. It is selfish. It is wrong.

Bring the soldiers home!

What the hell is going on in Afghanistan?

Hypocritical or Flip Flopping? Take Your Pick…

Ivison points out that the Liberal party has launch its own set of campaign attack ads to counter the Conservative’s attack ads:

The Grits released two new television ads Friday, with the tagline: “Is this your Canada or Harper’s?”

One takes aim at the Conservative government’s decision to sole source the new generation of fighter jets, at a cost of $16-billion. The other targets the government’s move to reduce corporate taxes.

Except of course it was the Liberal Party of Canada that first signed onto the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program in 2002.

In addition to that history lesson lets see what the Liberal Party had to say in 2008  about corporate tax cuts:

“We will accelerate and deepen the currently planned corporate tax cuts, reducing the general corporate tax rate by an additional one per cent within four years. That means the federal corporate tax rate in Canada will be only 14 per cent by the 2012.” – Liberal press release, June 19, 2008

Do tell! Do tell!

Straight from the horse’s mouth:

Now, with any change, there’s some apprehension. That’s natural. But as Commander-in-Chief, I am certain that we can effect this transition in a way that only strengthens our military readiness; that people will look back on this moment and wonder why it was ever a source of controversy in the first place.

I doubt it. Allowing homosexuals in the military probably will not make a difference. This will all go out like a whimper.

You have to wonder how it could be that for decades, so many young men were willing to run away from their friends and family to live in close quarters with complete strangers of the same sex while risking their lives.

“You should be shot.” because I wear my white poppy

The old lady at the check-out counter told me that I was the first person she ever saw wearing a white poppy. She asked me why I wear it and she said that I you should be shot. I told her that I have been wearing a white poppy proudly for a while now after I learned more about the history of war and how it seems to repeat itself.

I took the liberty of calmly telling her what I thought.

I told her that thousands of young men were sent off a hundred years ago to die in support of a lie. I told her that generations and generations of Canadians were taught that Canadians were under threat and that was a lie. I told her that Canadians were not under any threat in the First World War. I told her that I was tired of military history repeating itself. I told her that thousands of young women and families suffered grievously solely for financial gain of a select elite group of money grubbing liars. I told her that I have a lot of compassion for the military veterans and the ones who died in support of lies.

I told her that we continue those lies. I told her that we do not need as much oil as we pretend to need. I told her I will continue to wear my white poppy proudly. Then, she asked me if I wanted to pay 0.05$ extra for a plastic bag and I declined. I carried my loaf of bread out of the store in my hands instead of wasting a bloody recyclable petroleum product.

UPDATE (Wednesday, November 10th):
Last night, at the beer store, the kid at the counter asked me what the white poppy represents. I told him it means different things to different people and to me, it means that we have been taught a pack of lies concerning the First World War and that thousands of young men died for greed. His reply: “Yeah, well, we had to fight Hitler.” and shook his head. Yeah, well, I guess I missed that class in high school.

Let Khadr free!

I have said this before. Omar Khadr should be let free. His trial is complete nonsense or in Canadian terms symbolic.

I just do not understand what the big deal is about throwing a grenade at a soldier during a war. If killing a soldier at war is considered murder and a war crime, surely the Western world has gone mad.

Won’t back down

QOTW, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon, via Stephen Edwards.

“We will not back down from our principles that form the basis of our great country, and we will continue to pursue them on the international stage,” Cannon said. “Some would even say that, because of our attachment to those values, we lost a seat on the council. If that’s the case, then so be it.”

Also at Nat Po…

Kelly McParland: It’s Canada’s foreign policy, stupid!

Getting rejected by this lot is no embarrassment; if anything it’s something to be proud of. It illustrates exactly how the UN works: You start with a set of beliefs, and then you compromise them over time, currying favour with other countries. The mystery remains why the Conservatives took such a belated interest in the council in the first place. Its most recent display of international leadership was … uh … well, I’m sure we’ll think of something. Given the anti-Israel bias that pervades the UN, campaigning for a seat on the Security Council — if it requires the OIC’s approval — is the international equivalent of applying for membership at a club that bans Jews.

John Ivison: You can’t blame it on Ignatieff. (I agree.)

Canada’s foreign policy should not be held to ransom by attempts to bribe small countries into voting for us at the United Nations.

The Conservatives are proud of what they call their “principled” foreign policy — an agenda driven by “right-wing ideology,” according to the Liberals.

But the lesson from this loss is that you can be “principled” or you can be popular. The Prime Minister should have figured out much earlier that you can’t be both.

Lorne Gunter: a meaningless seat in a dysfunctional organization.

Too much to quote. Read it all.

Update Oct 20, 2010: Wall Street Journal – “Bravo, Canada”. And, Charles Adler, you need to run for office. H/T

Trade with the Jooos, risk your Security Council seat

Jew-hatred runs so deep and wide at the UN that trading with Israel is a negative. It’s like red ink on a soldier’s file.

International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan has announced a bid to strengthen the trade relationship with Israel — a move whose timing could affect Canada’s bid to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council. [...]

Since Arab and Muslim countries either control or have varying degrees of influence over a majority of the votes in the assembly, Van Loan’s announcement has the potential to lose Canada support in the ballot.

Well, pardon this lowly Canadian, but… if we have to tiptoe around and kowtow to xenophobic Muslims to get a Security Council seat then you can take your SC seat and shove it.

If Canada is to hold a Security Council seat then let us do it with our affiliations on our sleeves and sovereignty written on your chests. We’re pro-Israel. We’re pro-democracy. We’ll trade with whichever nations we want, and we will not abide anti-Semitism in order to garner support for a Security Council seat.

Dropping key standards for the Cyclones

Perhaps military personnel can set me straight on how leaving out key standards is a good thing, but right now this decision seems remarkably short-sighted.

OTTAWA is dropping key performance standards for navy helicopters due this fall in return for the manufacturer’s promise to guarantee another $80 million in work for Canadian aerospace companies over the next two decades.

The revised deal… means the first six Cyclone choppers that fly from frigates in November won’t be required to have a system allowing some encrypted tactical information to be exchanged between ships and helicopters. [...]

The helicopters will also no longer have to pass an endurance test for flying in warmer temperatures nor a test that requires one engine to keep going if a second engine fails in higher temperatures.

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