Grover Norquist is a fake conservative

If Grover Norquist isn’t a fake conservative then the “c” word means nothing. From Scott Magill,the executive director of Veterans in Defense of Liberty in The Washington Times:

Mr. Norquist serves on the GOProud advisory board and also has advocated legalization of drugs, open borders and amnesty for illegals; supported closing the detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay; opposed aspects of the USA Patriot Act; and supports the construction of the Ground Zero Mosque.

Some libertarians just like to whine

Leon H. Wolf says conservatives have a right to be conservatives and attend conservative meetings. This will come as a shock to Melissa Clouthier and GOProud, my guess:

Many conservatives (including myself) live their lives surrounded by combative liberals, whether in the work place or in our social circles. We are constantly on the defense of our principles. The very reason we attend CPAC is that it is healthy once a year to be around like minded individuals and recharge our batteries for the fight in the upcoming year. It is not the Free Exchange of Ideas and Debate Club Conference. It is the Conservative Political Action Conference.

For more reality read on.

We are all Islamophobes now

Damn.  I missed Rod Liddle’s excellent speech (hat tip Andrew Bolt):

My speech expressed a profound dislike of the ideology of Islam because it lends itself to a) homophobia, b) the subjugation of women, c) anti-semitism d) viciousness towards so-called apostates, e) authoritarianism and f) a somewhat medieval approach towards crime and punishment. And then there’s the barbarism of female circumcision, forced marriages and the notion that those who are not Muslims are not quite human, that their lives are worthless. These last three manifestations of Islamic thought are not universally present throughout the Islamic world, for sure. But the ideology facilitates them, offers them a weird sort of legitimacy.

Oh, well. I’m sure there’s more from where that came from, but not on the BBC, mind you.

My new opinion piece is posted

“Why Is There a C in CPAC?” The Patriot Post (Chattanooga, Tennessee), January 31, 2011. Read more.

Another witch-hunt (without witches)

From Melanie Phillips:

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote here about the witch-hunt in Denmark against Lars Hedegaard, President of the Danish Free Press Society and The International Free Press Society. Along with a Danish MP, Jesper Langballe, Hedegaard has been prosecuted for ‘racism’ after he drew attention to ‘honour’ violence among Muslim families.

On gun control and emotionalism

 Turning to the cold facts (John Lott is in fine form):

Supporters blame those gun ban failures on the ease of getting guns in the rest of the country. They claim that unless the ban covers the entire country, it isn't a fair test of how well a ban will work. Still, that doesn't explain why gun bans actually increase, rather than decrease, murder rates. As I demonstrate in my third edition of "More Guns, Less Crime," even in island nations such as Ireland, the U.K. and Jamaica -- with easily defendable borders -- gun bans have failed to stop drug gangs from obtaining both drugs and guns (see the figures here). In Australia, murder rates were flat after many types of guns were banned in 1996.

Fortunately, polls indicate that voters have become more educated about the problems surrounding these knee-jerk, quick-fix solutions. A new Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll found that a slim 9 percent believe the Tucson shootings could be blamed on lenient gun control laws.

I connect

When you’re feeling down….there’s always:

The Rainbow Connection

My new opinion piece is posted

“America, don’t repeat Australia’s gun control mistake,” The Daily Caller (Washington D.C.), January 19, 2011. Read more.  

They “forgot” Christmas – not Ramadan?

Militant European socialists hate Christianity but love lying for some reason:

A student calendar for the 2011-2012 school year, published by the European Union, has conspicuously omitted Christian holidays, while retaining Jewish and Muslim holidays, reports the Catholic News Agency.

Holiday mainstays such as Christmas and Easter don’t appear on the more than 3 million copies printed by the EU, for free-of-charge distribution to students across the region.

Despite the omission of Christian holidays, the European Union has made an effort to include “Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese holidays and festivals,” reports Examiner.com’s Kevin Whiteman.

Dutch Deputy Foreign Minister Ben Knapen has slammed the decision, according to Radio Netherlands, demanding an explanation for what he refers to as “an absurd omission.”

More here.

Time to question Portugal’s drug culture

So Portugal went soft on drugs and now life is honk dory. Or at least that’s the propaganda spouted by drug-first libertarians and harm minimization socialists. The other side of the story:

Studies show Portugal is a classic example of what not to do. Drug-induced deaths in Portugal climbed to 314 in 2007 - significantly more than the 280 deaths recorded when decriminalization started in 2001. While heroin accounts for most overdose deaths, consumption rates for amphetamines and cocaine doubled. Cocaine seizures increased sevenfold between 2001 and 2006, making Portugal's cocaine-seizure rate the sixth-highest in the world.

The claim that HIV cases have dropped couldn't be further from the truth. Portugal remains the country with the highest incidence of intravenous drug-related AIDS, and it is the only country recording a recent increase. The number of new cases of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C in Portugal recorded among drug users is eight times the average found in other member states of the European Union.

Canada, the capital of political correctness?

Free speechlessness 

Sure. Their ski fields are great. “But” maintains James Allan in Quadrant Online, Australia, “Canada is also the capital of political correctness run rampant, to an extent few Australians would credit as plausible. You get the newspaper columnist Mark Steyn taken before various Canadian Human Rights tribunals not for the fact what he wrote was false but rather simply because people were offended.  And then there’s the stand-up Canadian comedian taken before these same officious bureaucrats for hurting the feelings of a lesbian member of his audience.” To foreigners that’s the joke.

Ramadan-sensitive police

Still unconvinced? Canada too is home to both thought police and Ramadan-sensitive police (although it isn’t always easy to tell them apart). Recently, for example, the feminized cops have been apologizing to Ottawa Muslims for arresting them during Ramadan, a Muslim fasting period. (Seriously.) From the Vancouver Sun: “There is no reason for police to explain or apologize to the Muslim community when they arrest a Muslim, Siddiqui said. The notion that Muslims need special treatment or that their religious sensibilities need to be addressed is both patronizing and condescending, and effectively sets Muslims apart from other Canadians.”

Bedwetting adults

“In Canada especially, where hurt feelings are now specifically compensated in human rights law, taking offence looks like a growth industry,” explains the National Post’s Joseph Brean. “Tom Flanagan, a former aide to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, learned this recently when police investigated him for counselling CBC viewers to commit murder, after he quipped in a CBC interview that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be assassinated.” He concludes: “But

when the urge to complain is enabled and encouraged, and every humourless butt-inski has a global audience, the danger is that Canada becomes a nation of prudes....” Sad, really.

Overprotected students 

Even the education system (if that’s the right term). In Canada Free Press, Dr. Tim Ball writes, “The concept of classifying results as negative is part of the practice of not allowing failure. Students are imbued with the idea that a negative result is a failure. For example, in universities they write research papers or carry out lab experiments. They only pursue positive results. For example, if they research a topic they will only consider evidence that supports their original hypothesis. Some will abandon a topic rather than consider the null hypothesis.” No wonder “climate science” is felt.