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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
And another...
The fabulous Marni Soupcoff has taken the plunge on the 'net.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:47 PM
Please welcome...
...my friend and colleague Adam Radwanski to the blogosphere.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:20 PM
Damn funny quote
"It was like watching a train wreck. If this woman stays around, we might lose the right to vote!"
-- Former Liberal Party MP Mary Clancy on Belinda Stronach's Conservative Party leadership candidacy.
(Via the mysterious "P A" at Rightwing.ca (Yes, guys, someone is reading.)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:03 AM
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Praise the Lord!!!
Paul Tuns and Sobering Thoughts are back in action!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:22 PM
Monday, March 29, 2004
The latest Conrad Black profile
"Black narcissi," a 7,000 word blow-by-blow account of the Conrad Black saga in London's Sunday Times by journalist Domenic Rushe is probably the best recounting of the whole thing I've read yet. Especially good considering it's published in a newspaper that Black has waged war with since he became the proprietor of the Daily Telegraph in the mid-1980s. Of course this piece isn't fair. Of course it is slanted against Black. Of course he quotes his enemies and even some supposed "friends" trashing him off-the-record. But that's par for the course these days. As far as a factual, chronological examination of what's gone on is concerned, though, this piece is well worth a read and seems reasonably straight up.
The main thought I have coming away from reading this is: What kind of "friend" is Hal Jackman supposed to be? This is about the third or fourth piece on Black I've seen where the former lieutenant-governor of Ontario is quoted. He's assailed Black each and every time with considerable gusto. Here are his contributions to the article:
-- "It was always going to end like this," says Henry Jackman, a former lieutenant general of Ontario. He has known Conrad Black for 30 years and the two are close. (Ed: I doubt they are now.)
-- "There is something very self-destructive about Conrad," says Jackman. "Why, I don't know. It's his central mystery."
-- "I think what we see is a pattern that caught up with him. He was a little too arrogant, too careless. He thought he was above all this pedestrian stuff, all these bloody lawyers. But he has a great sense of history — he should have known all this was predictable."
--"It's an odd thing to say," says Jackman, "but Conrad has all the characteristics of a parvenu. He needs to impress the people he is impressed by; everybody else can go hang. That, I think, is what has brought him down. Very odd, because, you know, he was not born above a shop."
-- Even now, said Henry Jackman, it appears Black believes there is a way out, a solution that will leave him on top. It's not a belief Jackman has much faith in. "Hitler in his bunker was moving around paper armies and talking about making a comeback," he says.
Hitler? Hitler? With friends like these...
Geesh.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:49 PM
A Tory is a Tory is a Tory
Thanks to big shot blogger Colby Cosh for his comments about my piece in Saturday's Post on nicknames for the new Conservative Party. Some very astutute observations.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:30 PM
From blog to print
My NP colleague, fellow blogger and friend J. Kelly Nestruck sums up nicely my feelings on the phenomenon of printing blog entries in newspapers and magazines days or weeks or even months after being originally posted (for free!) on the Internet. Crazy, yo.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 5:28 PM
Funding hate
I was glad to see Columbia University finally disclose publicly the list of names funding the Edward Said Chair, their professorship in Middle East studies currently held by radical activist Rashid Khalidi.
It's important to know who endows these chairs given the post-September 11 climate. For instance, a Harvard student raised a big stink last year when she found out that a position in Islamic studies at the institution's Divinity School was funded by an anti-Semitic think tank associated with the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-up (yes, that's the real name).
I worked on the Said Chair story last year and wrote the article that disclosed the original three donors (they were the only ones that could be confirmed at the time.)
One of the donors that I didn't disclose because I couldn't confirm it (but that I did know about) was the UAE. Officials in Sheik Zayed's office, whom I spoke with, were not interested in playing ball.
Now, Columbia only says the "United Arab Emirates" was the donor. That's very ambiguous and pretty unhelpful. The UAE's "government", much like the Saudi royal family, is very large, diverse and nuanced. Who knows who gave the money exactly. It would be interesting to learn more specifically who it was, and if the donation is at all linked to Sheik Zayed. See the blog of Martin Kramer -- who follows these issues very closely -- for more info.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:09 AM
"Axis of Evil" eviler than ever
Well, the remaining two that are still unfree, at least.
If the reports coming out this weekend haven't yet vindicated President Bush's prescient branding of these rogue states yet, I don't know what will.
North Korea -- Unsurprinsingly, the nutcases at Pyongyang are rejecting U.S. pressure to ditch is nuke program. "North Korean radio on Saturday explicitly rejected the formula the United States has put forward as its bottom-line position in talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear programs, raising doubts about whether the fitful negotiations are making even limited progress," says a report. The fact on NK is that they haven't budged an inch since the "diplomacy" to end this standoff started last year.How long has this footsie being dragging on? The Chinese won't put the necessary pressure on them to cave, and there's no incentive for them to do so. Sadly, and frighteningly, it's time to look at other options.
Iran -- A report from the Los Angeles Times quotes diplomatic sources saying that "Iranian officials are overseeing efforts to conceal key elements of the country's nuclear program from international inspectors." The report goes on: "Iran set up a committee to coordinate the concealment efforts after international inspectors uncovered evidence late last year that the Islamic republic had tried to hide aspects of its nuclear program, including secret research on advanced centrifuges that can produce weapons-grade uranium..."
When will the western world wake up and stop these ticking time bombs?
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:02 AM
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Are they the Tories?
There's a debate going on inside the new Conservative Party of Canada about whether their new party is actually the "Tory" party or not. Technically speaking, the old Progressive Conservatives were the Tories, meaning that the Tories are only one half of the new amalgam. But it seems like a lot of people, especially the press, are referring to them as Tories anyway. A lot of members are just accepting that fact -- check out my article on the topic, published in Saturday's National Post.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:29 PM
Damian Penny on The Passion of the Christ
Canadian blogging heavyweight Damian Penny has finally seen The Passion and has posted his thoughts on it here. He's slightly more positive about the film than I was, but he's not overly enamoured with it either.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:05 PM
Hello Neale News!
There is a God. After a short-lived hiatus, Neale News, Canada's best news portal, is back! I knew reports of its death were greatly exaggerated! He has teamed up with another site, tabloidcolumn.com, to help him, so I expect more gossipy/entertainment stuff, but that's OK. I'll take whatever I can get.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:58 PM
Saturday, March 27, 2004
Issam Abu Issa
Great to learn that this brave fighter for Palestinian democracy has set up a blog! This is a man who should be promoted as much as possible but he is quite shabbily treated by the Americans. It boggles the mind, really. Here's a guy who is openly supportive of Western-style democractic values for the Palestinians, who Arafat has tried to ruin, and the U.S. -- supposedly intent on bringing freedom to the Middle East -- is nowhere to be seen. Truly maddening.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:47 PM
Friday, March 26, 2004
Goodbye Neale News
What was easily the best news portal in Canada, Neale News, has unexpectedly and without fanfare shut down. I am actually really upset by this. This site was my first stop every morning, and where I found many of the stories I used for editorial ideas at work. The site was ten times better than its competitor, Bourque Newswatch. I hope Neale News will reconsider.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:24 AM
Thursday, March 25, 2004
I like this pic
Thanks to John Nunziata for forwarding this picture taken during a panel on the Conservative party leadership race at the Michael Coren show a few weeks ago.
L to R: Me, Line Maheux, Mr. Coren (wake up, Michael!), John Capobianco, John Nunziata
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:12 PM
Comedy Hour with Richard Simmons
This has got to be one of the funniest stories of the year. Sweatin' to the Oldies excercise freak Richard Simmons was arrested at an Arizona airport after he slapped a man (who happens to be a Harley Davidson salesman, he's never going to live this down) because the man reportedly said out loud: "Look, Richard Simmons. Drop your bags, let's rock to the 50's." Simmons responded with: "It's not nice to make fun of people with issues" and wacked him. Simmons has been charged and the man isn't dropping them. Read the full account of the incident in the above-linked report from the Phoenix police.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:56 PM
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
CounterSpin, RIP
This isn't new news, so you may have already heard, but CBC Newsworld is discontinuing its weekly debate show CounterSpin after this season. (Read a melancholy letter announcing the cancellation by the show's executive producer, Paul Jay, here.)
To be honest, I can't say I'm sad to see it go. CounterSpin today is a pale shadow of its original self. It has gone through three different hosts and numerous format changes in the six years since it began. The show was ferociously tilted to the Left, with panels often having 3 leftwing guests (plus the host, equalling 4) against one centrist or conservative guest. It is for that reason that by its second or third year most conservative-leaning pundits refused to even appear on the program. (Today, I can count the number of rightwingers willing to appear on one hand.)
I actually liked the show in the beginning. My friend Tasha Kheiriddin was a producer, and the original host, Avi Lewis, was the best of the three. Despite Lewis' pedigree (son of former Ontario NDP leader-UN Ambassador Stephen and retired Toronto Star columnist Michele Landsberg; husband of Naomi Klein) he is nice person and was a fair host. He made his own socialist views plainly known, but allowed others to talk and respected opposing viewpoints. In those days, the show was on (I think) 4 times a week (Monday-Thursday) and it was a half hour long. The producers like Tasha (now at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation) and NDPer Macella Munro used to actually participate in the panels. I was on the show a few times, and enjoyed the experience.
But after a few years the show format changed. Avi left and the new host, Sharon Lewis, was much worse. (The third and final host, Carol Off, was worse still.) They expanded the length to 1 hour and brought in a studio audience. It gradually shrunk in frequency to once a week - Wednesdays. The studio crowd, usually composed of socialist U of T students and a couple of token conservatives, participated by asking questions and debating for the second half hour. It made watching the latter half of the show nearly unbearable. Usually it turned into a giant screamfest with no thoughtful discussion at all.
The only real downside to the show being cancelled is that it means one fewer Canadian public affairs TV program, of which there are too few already. CBC is replacing it with an interview show. But I guess it can't be much worse than CounterSpin.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:33 PM
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Protests at home
I had a bit of an argument today with a friend about something, and wouldn't mind hearing what anyone out there reading this thinks of it. The subject is whether it is acceptable or not to protest an individual at their private residence. My friend says it is, I say it is wrong.
The reason I'm against it is simple: targeting a public person is fair game, but leave the family alone. If you go to their home, you are implicating their neighbours, spouse and children and that is wrong. My take on this is coloured by some examples from the past: two that come to mind that bothered me were during last year's Ontario election campaign when NDP leader Howard Hampton chose to make an anti-tax cut announcement on gold baron Peter Munk's front lawn, and the other was when students opposed to tuition deregulatrion picketed on the front lawn of Bill Leggett, the then-principal of my alma mater Queen's University. Apparently his wife got quite frightened -- I can't remember exactly but I think she had to call the police.
Why do this? It makes the people doing the protesting look really juvenile and cold. And it defeats the purpose: It might garner more media attention, but the press is more than likely going to focus on how a bunch of crazy zealots protested at someone's private residence. The message of the protesters gets lost.
So is it moral? Is it ethical?
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:55 PM
Specter vs. Toomey
I still try to watch American politics as best I can, although unfortunately I don't follow as closely as I used to. One race that I am watching is the Pennsylvania Senate Republican primary. It's an internecine battle between longtime liberal Republican Sen. Arlen Specter and conservative congressman Rep. Pat Toomey. (For an idea of how bitter and negative this race is, just check out either of the candidates' ads.)
National Review magazine and various conservative groups have been working overtime to push Toomey. I'm with them. Specter has no meaningful record of conservative accomlishment. His record since he was first elected to the Senate in 1980 is the same: he spends the first five years of his term voting with the Democrats, then in the sixth (when he's up for re-election) he throws some bones to the conservative Republican base. Great strategy, and it obviously works.
But now there's actually someone better. Toomey is a real conservative, unlike Specter. Just a sampling of "Republican" Arlen Specter's record of shame:
-- Travelling to Syria last year to meet and try to reason with the terrorist dicatator at Damascus, Bashar Al-Assad. (the most recent of numerous futile visits over the years.)
-- Voting against the judicial nomination of conservative Robert Bork to the US Supreme Court.
-- Voting against school choice measures
-- Voting against banning human cloning
-- Voting for racist affirmative action quotas.
-- Regularly voting against tax cuts of all kinds.
The choice in this race is pretty easy. Specter must go.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:35 PM
Monday, March 22, 2004
The Last Word
Occasionally I do a short commentary at the end of Global National with Kevin Newman on Global TV. Tonight I was on talking about what Stephen Harper must do to win the next election. You can read the text of the commentary here.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:26 PM
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Final results
HARPER 56%
STRONACH 35%
CLEMENT 9%
OK, so it was a pretty good prediction; I underballed Belinda slightly. No fixed vote, folks, and no clairvoyant powers were needed. In fact, the results mirror almost exactly the findings of the March 13 COMPAS poll, which found 59% Harper, 32% Stronach and 9% Clement. The Stronach and Clement campaigns were furious about COMPAS' findings and challenged the methodology of the poll. Turns out it was bang-on.
The convention was fun, but a bit anti-climactic. The party needs to do some rethinking about style/format to increase excitement levels. Ralph Klein gave quite possibly the worst keynote speech ever! For almost an hour he rambled incoherently about this and that; I don't even remember a thing he said except he pronounced "petard" as "petart." I thought Ralph had given up the bottle but after yesterday's performance you've gotta wonder.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:04 AM
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Conservative vote predictions
I'm going to be either very gutsy or very stupid (likely the latter) and make some vote predictions for today's Conservative leadership race. The speeches last night, which I saw live, were all good but are unlikely to really sway party members one way or another. So, here we go:
1st ballot results
Stephen Harper -- 58%
Belinda Stronach -- 30%
Tony Clement -- 11%
With 1% spoiled. Harper 1st ballot victory.
Back tonight or tomorow with a post-mortem.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:29 AM
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Curling tidbits
So at the Bobcat Donspiel charity event on Tuesday, our team, skipped by the FAN 590's Don Landry beat Bob McCown's team 5-1. It was quite a thrill, especially with curling titan Wayne Middaugh on the other team (in fairness, we had Middaugh's third, Graeme McCarrel, on our team, who's arguably just as good a shooter. I played second and Rogers Sportsnet's Darren Millard was lead.) A good time was had by all and some decent dough was raised for charity at Bayview Country Club. They're hoping to make it an annual event.
Also, I see that the Conservative MP for Portage-Lisgar, Brian Pallister, has qualified for the Ontario Mixed Curling championship next month. Pallister was the 2001 Manitoba provincial mixed champion. Good luck.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:28 PM
So glad to see another blogger...
...is a curling fan! My National Post colleague and ubiquitous newsman, Colby Cosh.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:27 AM
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
The future of the Daily Telegraph
The sage and recently-retired editor of the Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore, has an important essay in the latest issue of Britain's Spectator magazine (registration is required) about the inevitable sale of the newspaper he formerly edited by its owner, Hollinger International. Moore has banded together with four other senior editorial staff from the Telly to offer a gentle admonition to the investment bank handling the auction, Lazards. Their message: do not, in the rush to sell the print property to the highest bidder, forsake the historical political leanings, the unique editorial voice or the quality of the paper. I hope Lazards will heed that advice.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:49 PM
Monday, March 15, 2004
Good eyes
Paul Tuns points out the irony of US-based leftist rag The Nation using a Canadian writer to write an article bashing outsourcing. Good one!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:56 AM
Sunday, March 14, 2004
What a Brier final!
Well, it may have been a boring week of curling but the final was far from it. That might have been the best Brier final ever! What a comeback by the Mark Dacey rink. For those who didn't watch it or don't like curling, the underdogs (Dacey) were down four points with three ends to go against the three-time defending champions and favourites (Randy Ferbey) and they took three points in the 8th end, and then three in the tenth for a huge, shocking come-from-behind win. Great to see a new team hoist the tankard, especially after losing the final to the same team last year. Congrats to Team Dacey.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:35 PM
Rod Love calls the kettle black
If this isn't the biggest joke of a newspaper column I don't know what is. Rod Love, writing a puff piece promoting Belinda Stronach in today's Calgary Herald, writes of "The Club" that has overtaken Ottawa.
The Club's membership is made up of lifers -- people who have spent almost their entire adult lives playing the federal political game. Liberal MPs, entrenched bureaucrats, media conglomerates, lobbyists, and of course the constant parade of experts and analysts on TV and radio talk shows who comment endlessly on the Ottawa scene, but who are, of course, part of it....While the faces of the members in the Club change over time, the Club culture and its raison d'etre remain the same: to preserve and defend the Ottawa Way of Doing Things....That is why I am voting for Belinda, and have been proud to assist on her national campaign team....She is running against the Club.
Please. He's voting for Belinda because she's paying him the big bucks. Rod Love does not work for free. This is what he does for a living. The irony here is that if the Conservatives ever win power in Ottawa, Love will be (or will at least try to be) the Conservative equivalent of Earnscliffe Group. He's pretty much the Alberta version of Earnscliffe right now because of his closeness to Ralph Klein.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:16 AM
Saturday, March 13, 2004
Taki on Conrad Black in The American Conservative
I was most surprised to see that Pat Buchanan and his toadies at The American Conservative magazine allowed this piece heaping praise on Conrad Black by the Greek writer Taki Theodoracopoulos to see the light of day. Actually, wait a minute -- Taki owns The American Conservative. That's why it saw the light of day!
Anyway, it explains succintly why Lord Black is one of the world's greatest media proprietors -- maybe the best ever.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:22 PM
Libby Davies and Canada are not synonyms
The (still) best news site on the web, Drudge Report, is currently displaying a link "CANADA WORRIED BY NUKE MISSILE MISHAP." The link, leading to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article about a tiny hole that may have been inadvertently punctured in a missile, is grossly misleading. A more accurate title would have been "ANTI-NUKE, SOCIALIST MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT WORRIED BY NUKE MISSILE MISHAP." The MP in question is Libby Davies, a Vancouver New Democrat whose distinguished credentials include leading a "citizens weapons inspection team" to the U.S. last year to hunt for WMDs. She's the only person mentioned in the article who's "concerned." Be careful, Matt...
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:41 PM
Friday, March 12, 2004
Is Ann Coulter a bigot?
I'm afraid I can no longer answer that question "no." Until now I have always defended Ann Coulter against her detractors, many of them my own (often conservative) friends. I find her writing style crisp, original, and not to mention hilarious. I especially love her acerbic barbs at Ted Kennedy.
But I'm afraid in the last two weeks she's crossed the boundaries of good fun and good taste to the land of the indefensible/despicable. What really put me over the edge was this line from her column last week on The Passion:
Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity (as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of "kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed").
I mean, that is just unbelivable. It is beyond the pale. It crosses the line. She was always pushing the limits before, but she seems to have kicked it up yet another notch -- and her column this week, also on The Passion and tearing a strip off New York Times columnist William Safire, isn't much better. Maybe this is due to the fact that she isn't getting the same level of attention she did in the last two years, and she feels she needs to go overboard to generate buzz?
I guess most people have their tipping point with a rabid polemicist like Coulter, and I've just hit mine.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:35 AM
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Amateur hour continues at Conservative Party HQ
First it was the pathetic Barbados radio ad, and now this. If you click on any of these words right now, it should take you to the homepage of the Conservative Party of Canada. Instead it takes you to a parking site. If the site was just hacked into and this is not their fault, I repent entirely. But if they forgot to renew this domain name or they failed to pay the website hosting fees, that is yet another sign that the lack of professionalism in this new party is the same as it was in Reform and the Canadian Alliance.
UPDATE: At 9:00 am Wednesday, the site is now dead.
UPDATE II: It is 1:10 pm Wednesday and the site is now back up and fully functioning.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:14 AM
Monday, March 08, 2004
A great day for freedom in Iraq
Iraqi democrat Ahmad Chalabi signs Iraq's new temporary constitution
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:59 PM
Sunday, March 07, 2004
Ed Broadbent's blog picture
Coincidence? Not sure....
 
[Via JKelly]
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 4:33 PM
Sheila lost
I was only there yesterday for a few hours, from about 11:30am - 2pm. I saw the candidates' speeches. Sheila made a way better speech; more passionate. Her supporters are so passionate about her, too. No loyalty problems in her campaign. The thing that struck me about the Sheila campaign was how ethnically-based it was. 9/10 or more of her supporters were minorities -- a lot of Seiks, South Asians, etc... whereas Valeri's base seemed predominantly white and Italian. (Sheila even said "thank you" in about 10 different languages during her speech.)
It goes without saying that it's great to bring as many people into the political process as possible. But I do think it's a little unfortunate that this is how nominations are increasingly being fought -- candidates go out and activate specific ethnic groups, and drag them out to these meetings. These people often don't even know what they're getting into. Some people there yesterday could barely speak English.
Observing yesterday made me wonder about the "closed" system we use here to nominate candidates, which is the reason campaigns do what Sheila did. Perhaps we should look at opening these things up like the US primary system, which would open the system up to everyone and likely reduce the instances of these ethnic recruitment campaigns.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:34 PM
Saturday, March 06, 2004
Sheila Copps vs. Tony Valeri
I was at the nomination meeting today (still in progress). Some thoughts later.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 4:24 PM
The Passion of the Christ
I wasn't planning to say anything about this movie. Many gallons of ink have been spilled on the subject already. But after seeing it last night, I still feel so unsettled. I was hoping it was just post-movie shock, and decided to sleep on it. This morning, however, I feel just as unsettled. I did not like this movie. I don't think it was a bad movie, I just didn't enjoy it. That might be because I was going for different reasons than most (to learn) and nothing in this film was edifying.
The Passion is not just graphic, it is downright gory. It was two hours of blood splattering all over the place, and that's pretty much all I'll remember about it. Many of my Catholic friends love the film. I think I understand and appreciate why. But for a non-Catholic agnostic sort of person like me, it was just not something I enjoyed.
And I'm finding it difficult to agree with the contention that the movie is not anti-Semitic in any way. I won't go as far as to call it anti-Semitic, but Jews are depicted horribly in this film. I did not leave angry at Pontius Pilate and the Romans or sensing that they were responsible for the crucifixion. It seemed to me that Pilate caved into the will of the Jewish mobs. Gibson makes it seem that the real culpability lies with them. The Jews are shown in such an unflattering light; there is a Satanic figure that appears in the crowds a couple of times among the Jews, and the faces of Jewish children in one scene morph into something Satanic . (Although I'm not Jewish, I'm finding myself thinking along similar lines as Charles Krauthammer.)
So put me in the unimpressed category. Too bad, because I really, really wanted to embrace this movie. I wanted to buy into what my like-minded friends and the commentators I respect have been saying and writing, but I cannot.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 4:07 PM
Friday, March 05, 2004
Ugly: Adbusters jumps on the "neocon conspiracy" bandwagon
For a great example of the moral and political vacuousness of the modern Left, one need go no further than the latest issue of Adbusters magazine. In an outrageous article entitled "Why won't anyone say they are Jewish?," writer Kalle Lasn becomes the latest person to attempt to uncover who's behind the "neoconservative cabal" running American foreign policy.
Some choice clips from this bile:
-A lot of ink has been spilled chronicling the pro-Israel leanings of American neocons and fact that a the disproportionate percentage of them are Jewish. Some commentators are worried that these individuals – labeled ‘Likudniks’ for their links to Israel’s right wing Likud party – do not distinguish enough between American and Israeli interests. For example, whose interests were they protecting in pushing for war in Iraq?
-The point is simply that the neocons seem to have a special affinity for Israel that influences their political thinking and consequently American foreign policy in the Middle East.
-Here at Adbusters, we decided to tackle the issue head on and came up with a carefully researched list of who appear to be the 50 most influential neocons in the US...And half of the them are Jewish.
(Emphases added)
There are a few disturbing aspects to this piece.
One is that the Jews in their "top 50" neocon list have a black dot beside their names. I look forward to a sea of outrage from leftists appalled at these "McCarthyite" tactics.
Second, this "carefully researched list" is chock full of mistakes. It's the kind of list you know was written by some leftist who really knows nothing about neocons. (You know the type, the ones that call conservatives "neo-liberals" and think they are being smart or witty or funny.) Some examples:
1. Francis Fukuyama isn't considered a neocon. He is a foreign policy realist with Republican sympathies.
2. Richard Mellon Scaife, the wealthy financier of conservative causes, is thought of us as just a plain conservative.
3. Gary Bauer is a Christian/social conservative, but probably gets thrown on Lasn's list because he supports Israel, which seems to the principal criteria here.
4. Owen Harries, the ex-editor of the foreign policy journal The National Interest, which was founded by the original neocon, Irving Kristol. But Harries seems to be anything but a neocon; his work has recently been published in Pat Buchanan's neocon-hating rag The American Conservative. That should be a hint as to where Harries' views lie.
Third, the piece is totally amateurish. In fact, I can't seem to find a single accurate sentence in the entire article. No reporting was done. No effort was made to do any real research. (I mean, at least Michael Lind put some effort in!) And there is no real point to the thing, other than to bring us the Earth-shattering news that some Jews who like foreign policy support Israel.
I was torn about whether to blog about this, because I know it might mean a few more people will read the article and get it more attention. But this is beyond the pale. I've never really read Adbusters before; I just knew that it was a fave mag for the leftie/globaphobe crowd. I now have even more reason to not read it.
[Thanks to JKelly for the tip.]
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:28 AM
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Iraq, the constitution, Sharia law and Nina Shea
Now that's a mouthful. One of the most important columns yet on the building of Iraq's new constitution can be found here. Nina Shea, a tireless friend of freedom everywhere, has been raising red flags on this for months now. I'm with her: without appropriate interventions, the free Iraq President Bush envisions will not become a reality.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:28 PM
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Wayne Middaugh's on the other team?
OK, when I signed up to do this charity event I didn't know I'd be curling against the best shooter on the planet! Wayne Middaugh is the Tiger Woods of curling.
Seriously, it will be awesome curling against him in the FAN 590's "Bobcat Donspiel" in a couple of weeks. It's just for fun and to hopefully raise some serious cash for some great causes, like Sick Kids hospital and spinal research. If you're in Toronto on March 16, come out and watch at Bayview Country Club at 1pm if you can.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:58 PM
Thank you
For the first time since this blog's birth in October, it has surpassed the 100 average visits per day mark for one month. I know its not that high in the grand scheme of things, but for an amateur like me it's pretty cool!
According to my counter, the average daily visit count here has gone from 19 to 110 in five months.
October - 19
November - 29
December - 30
January - 53
February - 110
Thank you to everyone who visits this site. Makes me feel that it's not a total waste of time!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:48 AM
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