Spinor Info

I take it back. There are still some sane conservatives out there in America. Some even think that right-wing talk radio is destroying conservativism. I only wish they were listened to.

How Radio Wrecks The Right

There is ceasefire in Gaza. Perhaps it will hold for a while.

It may have been precipitated by Israel’s desire to wrap up its military operations before Obama is inaugurated, anticipating that the new administration in Washington will be a lot less sympathetic toward, well, if not necessarily Israel’s cause then certainly the methods that Israel chooses to advance its cause.

It may have been the result of rising doubt and anger among Israelis themselves, those who realize that the history of the Gaza strip did not begin with the Qassam rockets.

Or perhaps they began asking questions like that asked by Time Magazine: Can Israel survive its assault on Gaza?

Or maybe it was compassion. The other day, the assault on Gaza turned from an abstract litany of numbers (last I heard, over 1,100 killed, more than 4,000 wounded, many of them civilians) into something personal, as an Israeli-trained Palestinian doctor, peace activist to boot, who regularly reported on Israeli television via cell phone, was reporting the shelling of his own house and the loss of three of his daughters on live TV.

The biggest irony of any “war on terror” (not just that of Bush, not just that of Olmert) is how, contrary to the stated intent of the war’s leaders, such a war flawlessly serves the terrorists’ interests. Such wars are based on the blatant ignorance of their leaders, leaders who believe that the terrorist is motivated by hatred and a desire to kill. While they are not free of hatred and bloodlust, they are motivated by something else altogether: by a desire to change the political course through their acts of terror. When our leaders declare a “war on terror” in response, they accomplish precisely what the terrorist wants… which is why Bush and Olmert ended harming the interests of their own countries to an extent far greater than anything the terrorists could have accomplished by themselves.

Gavrilo Princip knew this. When he assassinated the arch-duke of Austria-Hungary in 1914, his hatred of a despised leader was outweighed by his the hope that the assassination will change the existing world order and free Serbia from Austrian rule. Princip became one of the most influential (and most successful!) persons of history, not so much as a result of his own actions, but as a result of the predictably stupid reaction of Vienna’s fossilized political leadership. Why are we—the U.S., the Western world, Israel—so bent on repeating that mistake?

That there’s a lunatic professor in Russia who thinks that soon, the map of the US will look like this is one thing:

The end of America (according to a Russian)

That Russian state media gives him credence… now that’s the frightening bit.

A candidate for the leadership of the US Republican party sent to several politicians a Christmas CD that contained, among other things, a song called “Barack the Magic Negro.” Many people are outraged, and many are surprised.

I’m not. After all, isn’t this precisely the kind of behavior one expects from Sarah Palin’s party?

It happened yesterday, but it took me a while to digest the news.

Our Prime Minister, gravely concerned about democracy, decided to shut down Parliament.

But wait. Canada is a parliamentary democracy. The government is not elected directly by the people, but chosen by members of the House of Parliament, and answers to that Parliament. These members of Parliament represent the people who elected them. If the majority of them no longer has confidence in the government, the government no longer has legitimacy. To pretend otherwise, to suggest that the shutting down or Parliament was done in order to protect democracy, is no different from that famous Vietnam-era explanation about destroying the village in order to save it.

Also, is it not the same excuse used by many despots around the world who tear down their countries’ democratic institutions in order to maintain their grip on power?

Of course I don’t think that Harper can be compared to, say, a Lukasenko. Nor do I believe that Canada’s democratic system of government is in danger of collapsing. But, doing what he did yesterday, Harper clearly demonstrated his contempt towards the very democracy that he professes to defend by this deeply undemocratic act. I hope the opposition will be able to maintain their resolve and unity and will get rid of Harper as soon as Parliament resumes, on January 26.

I am not necessarily a fan of the US system of government, but this incident underlines why, at least in one respect, it is superior to ours. In the US, the President is not elected by the legislature, but directly (well, technically indirectly, through the electorial system, but that is another issue) by the people. Nor can the legislature remove the President except under very special circumstances, if it is clearly proven that the President abused his office or committed a crime.

Perhaps the next time we consider constitutional reform here in Canada, we should consider the idea of a head of government that is elected directly by the people and does not require the confidence of the legislature to function.

I went for a walk tonight, and I walked all the way up to Sussex street. As I was getting near Sussex, I began to hear the faint hum of a generator. Sure enough, it belonged to a news media van, as I suspected. There were several of them parked near the entrance of Rideau Hall, waiting like vultures for any announcement that might come from the Governor General concerning the fate of Harper’s government.

I don’t like Harper, but I don’t really dislike him either. He likes cats, and that speaks well of him. However, what he has been doing yesterday and today is despicable. By bashing the separatists, he’s doing no favor to the country he professes to serve, and while it may be a smart tactical decision, it spells strategic disaster for the Conservatives in Quebec.

Why is it that conservatives around the world are resorting to such negative tactics? There was Palin in the US presidential campaign. There is Harper. I am also watching the politics of Hungary, where calling the Prime Minister a traitor or worse is commonplace among the followers of his political opponents. Even when I agree with them otherwise, I find such tactics revolting.

Are we going to have a coalition government in Canada? Perhaps not, now that the Conservatives backed off on their idea to drop federal financing of political parties. I’d have liked to see a coalition government. Sure, multi-party politics are inherently messier than a neat two-party or one-party system, but so long as we don’t end up like Italy or Israel, the result may very well be a more representative, more responsive government.

Anyhow, you just gotta love Chretien’s “Je ne comprends pas anglais” comment…

This sounds almost like a rallying cry for white supremacists and their crazy claims of reverse discrimination, but did Carleton U. really cancel Shinerama in an act of political correctness gone rampant because supposedly, cystic fibrosis is a “white male’s disease”?