A Dime a Dozen Blog

A comment on another post reminded me of an article I read ages ago about one of the cornerstones of the neo-fascist resurgence – gay fascists.  Now before you start thinking I mean something I don’t – I’m not talking about some “gay agenda” you may not like, I’m talking about real foreigner-stomping, cold-blooded, gay fascists:

Scratch the homophobic surface and there’s a spandex swastika underneath … when the British National Party – our own home-grown Holocaust-denying bigots – announced it was fielding an openly gay candidate in the European elections this June, dedicated followers of fascism didn’t blink. The twisted truth is that gay men have been at the heart of every major fascist movement that ever was – including the gay-gassing, homo-cidal Third Reich. With the exception of Jean-Marie Le Pen, all the most high-profile fascists in Europe in the past thirty years have been gay. It’s time to admit something. Fascism isn’t something that happens out there, a nasty habit acquired by the straight boys. It is – in part, at least – a gay thing, and it’s time for non-fascist gay people to wake up and face the marching music.

The late Austrian fascist leader, Jorg Haider

Just look at our own continent over the past decade. Dutch fascist Pim Fortuyn ran on blatantly racist anti-immigrant platform, describing Islam as “a cancer” and “the biggest threat to Western civilisation today.” Yet with two little fluffy dogs and a Mamma complex, he was openly, flamboyantly gay. When accused by a political opponent of hating Arabs, he replied, “How can I hate Arabs? I sucked one off last night.”

Jorg Haider blasted Austria’s cosy post-Nazi politics to rubble in 2000 when his neo-fascist ‘Freedom Party’ won a quarter of the vote and joined the country’s government as a coalition partner. Several facts always cropped up in the international press coverage: his square jaw, his muscled torso, his SS-supporting father, his rabid anti-Semitism, his hatred of immigrants, his description of Auschwitz and Dachau as “punishment centres”. A few newspapers mentioned that he is always surrounded by fit, fanatical young men. A handful went further and pointed out that several of these young men are openly gay. Then one left-wing German paper broke the story everybody else was hinting at. They alleged Haider is gay…

On and on it goes. If you inter-railed across Europe, only stopping with gay fascists, there aren’t many sights you’d miss. France’s leading post-war fascist was Edouard Pfieffer, who was not batting for the straight side. Germany’s leading neo-Nazi all through the eighties was called Michael Kuhnen; he died of AIDS in 1991 a few years after coming out. Martin Lee, author of a study of European fascism, explains, “For Kuhnen, there was something supermacho about being a Nazi, as well as being a homosexual, both of which enforced his sense of living on the edge, of belonging to an elite that was destined to make an impact. He told a West German journalist that homosexuals were ‘especially well-suited for our task, because they do not want ties to wife, children and family.’”

Read the rest

American Greens that is:

In March of this year, [American Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney] attended a conference in London on the Gaza crisis organized by a foundation established by Mahathir Mohamad, who was prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and has a long history of anti-Jewish rhetoric. In a 1970 book, Mahathir wrote that “Jewish stinginess and financial wizardry gained them financial control of Europe” and that Jews “are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.” In a 2003 speech at an international summit of Islamic leaders, he said: “Today, the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them. They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy to avoid persecution and gain … control of the most powerful countries.”

McKinney commented about the London conference in two postings on the Green Party’s website in which she praised Mahathir (“one of my heroes”) and also a man named David Pidcock, whom she called “my London friend.” A British-born convert to Islam, Pidcock is the author of an extensive collection of conspiracy-laden anti-Semitic works, including the 1992 work Satanic Voices Ancient & Modern, which blames most of the world’s current and ancient problems on a centuries-old conspiracy whose participants include Freemasons, Illuminati, “Luciferian Zionists,” the Rockefeller family, big oil companies and the Council on Foreign Relations ….

At the conference, McKinney was photographed with Pidcock and Michele Renouf, a former model and socialite who is considered one of Britain’s leading Holocaust-denial activists.

Our whole strategy for victory in Afghanistan is to wait for a country that we conquered in 3 weeks to be able to defend itself.  For god’s sake, we took that country out with a few hundred special forces troops on horseback.

Just look at them.

We are so going to lose.

Between an animated crapping bird and this picture below, I’d give the edge to this pic as being the new low in juvenile partisan stupidity – the PM fisting a cow (NB: read the fine print, he’s not wearing any pants):

Where is it from?  Liberal.ca the official website of Michael Ignatieff’s Liberal Party.  It’s up there as part of a photo contest put on by the Liberals.  The contest is to mock Stephen Harper for his reluctance to go to the Climate Summit in Copenhagen:

Last week Stephen Harper finally agreed to follow world leaders like Barack Obama to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

We know that there are many, many places that Harper would rather be than Copenhagen next week—and we want you to use your mad Photoshop skills to illustrate them for us!

Now, this wouldn’t be a challenge without a winner. That’s why we’ve lined up these exciting prizes for the 3 best entries:

One other entry jumps out too – not so much for being juvenile, but for being unbecoming of a major federal party.  In this picture you can see the PM apparently shouting out in pain as he’s being shot.

The Liberals posted these pictures today – December 14th.  Not that there’s a good time to publish things like this, but to do it today, right after that attack on Berlusconi – the one attributed by many (left and right) to an atmosphere of poisoned political discourse – it’s shocking.

What’s more shocking though is that the Liberals and their supporters think it’s ‘ok’ to mock or threaten the Prime Minister like this, just because he’s not up to their standards on the environment file.

Update : Here are a few of the other pictures the Liberals just pulled off their site:

Updater: The Liberals have made an “apology” of sorts:

“We apologize for any offence these images may have caused, and continue to strive to present a progressive and dynamic web experience for our site visitors.”

Kady O’Malley at the CBC notes:

this particular web offence would seem to merit a more direct apology — as in, one directed at the prime minister, personally, from the Liberal leader than an update to the webpage. Also, comparing the kerfuffle to “Attila the Hun complaining about the Romans’ table manners,” as A Senior Liberal Official did this morning, according to the Globe’s Jane Taber? Not really helping sell the sincerity.

Contrary to what some on the blogosphere are saying – let me be clear: Elizabeth May and the Greens don’t hate Israel, hate Jews, and love Hezbollah.

That would involve forming an opinion and taking a moral stand on something other than spotted owls or water use.  To quote the Green candidate from York South-Weston “the Green Party’s international policy is not their strong point”.  Nor is their economic policy, their first nations policy, inter-governmental affairs policy, etc… etc…

The point I was making in the posts in question – was that any politician, hell, any moral person – if they are standing in front of a crowd pock-marked with fascists, should take a few minutes to say a word or two about that.  It’s not enough to condemn terrorist missiles being fired overseas when you’ve got actual walking, chanting, goose-stepping fascists 10 feet from the podium.

The Liberals and Bloq took a lot of grief over the same rallies – from both the Israeli Ambassador and B’Nai Brith.  Why should the Greens be let off the hook?

Now I know some certain unnamed knee-jerk reactionaries might want to look at the pictures on that Elizabeth May post and run with it.  But to say she’s Anti-Israeli, that kind of interpretation is like a millimetre deep.  Politicians from every party have been sandbagged at rallies where pro-terrorist fascists have shown up – what separates serious parties from those in the fringe, is how they react.

This is how the Greens react.

On any issue other than the environment, the Greens can’t be taken seriously – and that’s the main point.

Vancouver’s own Hedy Fry has spotted it again – no, not more burning crosses – but the pernicious meddling of the Conservative party.   They have, it seems, coerced the Canadian Olympic Team to ape their party logo for the Canada ‘Olympic Retail’ logo:

Opposition MPs are alleging that “crass politics” have resulted in a Canadian Olympic retail logo that mirrors the federal Conservative party logo.

Vancouver Liberal Hedy Fry told the House of Commons that a new logo for February’s Winter Games “bears a striking resemblance” to that of the governing party.

Gary Lunn, the minister for amateur sport, responded that the federal government was “not involved in any way, shape or form in the design of any of the Olympic clothing.”

The clothing and logo was developed by the Hudson’s Bay Co., in consultation with the Canadian Olympic Committee and an athletes panel, and the minister says he first saw it on Wednesday this week.

The logo, unveiled Thursday by HBC, includes a red Maple Leaf surrounded by a black C-shaped arrow.

The Conservative party logo is a red Maple Leaf surrounded by a blue C.

Fry accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of “trying to politicize” the Games.

Lunn shot back that Liberals seem to delight in undermining Canadian retail institutions such as Tim Hortons and the Bay.

New Democrat Charlie Angus said outside the Commons that the two logos are very close.

“It is very clear, if the Conservative Party had nothing to do with this, then it would be suing the Olympic team for trademark infringement,” he said.

And they have a point – just take a look at the Conservative logo (boo, hiss) and compare it with the Olympics logo at the top of this post.  Here it is:

Oops, that’s the logo for Cypress Mountain – venue for the freestyle ski and snowboard events during the 2010 Olympics.  Here we are – the Tory logo:

Very similar-ish.  A ‘C’ and a leaf  – who would ever think of that?  How unique in a country that begins with a ‘C’ and has a leaf as its national symbol.  They’re right, the only way for them to have come up with that logo is if the Tories forced them to do it.

Well, either that, or some lazy designer took the old airforce logo and added an arrow to it.  It is after all, like the identical leaf, and the relative proportions are virtually the same as in the old airforce roundel:

I’ve heard it said that politicians are like shit.  I.e. – a small minority of people are fascinated by them, but the vast majority would like to flush them down the toilet and never see them again.

When it comes to senators, I’m with the majority.

I don’t want to see those hacks, I don’t want to hear them, and most of all, I don’t want them popping up – Mr Hankey like – and saying ‘hiddey-ho’.

Case in point:

The new personalized Tory ads staring ‘The Old Duff’ (Senator Mike Duffy) are so totally creepy and cringe inducing.  First off, isn’t the party suppossed to be embarassed by the appointed senators?  As part of the disaffected base, I know I don’t like to be reminded that these people exist.  Second, the Romper Room antics of personalized messages is c-r-e-e-p-y.  Don’t you remember how all those Jewish people got freaked out when the PM sent them personalized Hannukkah cards?  Finally, ‘the Old Duff’?  Are you sh*tting me?  The Old Duff?  What were you* thinking?

As I’ve said before, death is too good for the Tory tech team.  Their lame pooping penguins, their yabbering senators and their embarassing party homepage.  You people suck so much.

You can see the full ad here.

[* FYI - I mean 'you' the idiot communications team, not 'you' the Senator, who had my favourite politics show.]

This is the second anniversary of this list thing.  I may procrastinate, but you can’t say that I’m a quitter.

The summer has ended with about 50 fast rising blogs just barely above an Alexa rank of 1,000,000 – meaning that at least 3 or 4 of them are set to crack the list next month, which should give a bit more diversity to what we see here.

Anyhow here is the list – feel free to steal the graphics etc… .  FYI – I suspect I’ll be revising the methodology for next month.

1. Michael Geist PR7      Alexa:173,171
2. Matthew Good PR6      Alexa:250,715
3. The Shotgun Blog PR6      Alexa:263,670
4. James Bow PR6      Alexa:318,218
5. Colby Cosh PR6      Alexa:732,022
6. Steyn Online PR5      Alexa:106,044
7. Ghost of a Flea PR5      Alexa:158,225
8. Calgary Grit PR5      Alexa:217,868
9. Ezra Levant PR5      Alexa:249,144
10. Five Feet of Fury PR5      Alexa:271,748
11. Warren Kinsella PR5      Alexa:367,467
12. GenXat40 PR5      Alexa:404,529
13. Blazing Cat Fur PR5      Alexa:468,891
14. MADinosaur PR5      Alexa:470,894
15. SlapUpsidetheHead PR5      Alexa:487,091
16. Quebec Politique PR5      Alexa:631,390
17. Stephen Taylor PR5      Alexa:649,059
18. Canadian Cynic PR5      Alexa:669,488
19. Jay Currie PR5      Alexa:747,995
20. BeneDiction Blogs On PR5      Alexa:847,534
21. Vive Le Canada PR5      Alexa:850,069
22. Dr Dawg PR5      Alexa:870,782
23. Law is Cool PR5      Alexa:882,802
24. David Akin PR5      Alexa:937,333
25. Free Canuckistan PR5 Alexa:965,165
26. Small Dead Animals PR4      Alexa:150,055
27. Chinese in Vancouver PR4      Alexa:382,940
28. Maple Leaf Web PR4      Alexa:416,980
29. April Reign PR4      Alexa:599,998
30. StageLeft PR4      Alexa:765,009
etc…

Canada’s Top 25 Political Blogs are coming out on Wednesday Saturday.  I’ve got a list of new blogs to check out – but as always I totally suck at finding blogs east of the Ottawa River – so if you know of any sites that I’m missing out on please let me know in the comments section to this post.

FYI – this will be the second anniversary of the rankings.

In the Canadian blogosphere there are … 2?  Maybe 2 examples of bloggers joining the mainstream media (MSM) – Raphael Alexander and Steve Janke – both co-opted by the National Post.  There might be more.  But those are the only ones I know of.

Were I a bored MSM reporter in late August – I suspect I’d see a trend.  The Toronto Star’s David Olive saw one, and elaborated on it in one of the dumbest newspaper reports:

A funny thing happened on the way to blogosphere dominance of the global conversation. Many of the most prominent bloggers have hitched their wagons to the traditional mainstream media (MSM). Yes, the same MSM that bloggers, or Internet diarists, ceaselessly ridiculed as slaves to conventional wisdom.

If the struggle to “monetize” online readers is the chief priority of MSM proprietors from Rupert Murdoch to the Sulzberger family of The New York Times, venerable newspapers and TV networks are at least deriving some revenue from their online products, despite the current, unprecedented advertising drought.

Yet even the best-read bloggers, the ones who break news and whose analysis is of must-read value to specialized audiences, are in far more dire financial straits. And they are coming in from the cold.

So who are these needy Canadian bloggers who have so long scoffed at the MSM?  According to the Star – Andrew Coyne, David Frum, and Mark Steyn.  Andrew Coyne, former member of the Globe and Mail’s editorial board, former columnist for the National Post, current editor of Macleans and mainstay of MSM chat fests like the CBC’s regular ‘At Issue Panel’.  David Frum, Bush administration speech writer, spawn of ‘the Journal’s’ Barbara Frum, and long time columnist for the National Post.  And Mark Steyn, best selling author and columnist for – well, if it’s in English, he wrote for them.  The last at least has some credible claim as a blogger.  But the other two couldn’t be further from the caricature of the pajama-clad, MSM hating, political blogger.

Besides money, what could have tamed these wild-eyed renegades?  Numbers – the massive numbers you get writing for a big Canadian MSM outfit:

It turns out that traditional media remain unrivalled in audience reach. More than anything, bloggers and other “opinionators” want a vast audience. But blogs reach their saturation point quickly, a big audience being 2,000 or so. There is little “stumble upon” factor in blogs – strangers who come across a website by accident and become fans. You won’t stumble across the website of prolific blogger Mark Steyn at the dentist’s office, as you will Chatelaine. Opinionators want to change the world, and only a tiny fraction of it is tuned in.

That phrase ‘unrivaled audience reach’ is dubious … I put a post up on this last year- comparing the relative traffic of blogs with the opinion pages of Canadian newspapers:

Interesting fact – 37% of Canadian newspaper readers read the editorials.  If a political blog is like anything, it’s like the editorial section of a newspaper.

This blog gets an average of 564 hits per day – or 3,948 per week.  Seeing as this is editorial only, that would be the equivalent of a newspaper with a readership of 10,670.

In other words, this blog gets more editorial readers, more politically engaged readers than the Flin Flon Reminder, or the Whitehorse Star.  Hah!

Ok, I admit, that’s not that impressive.  But I run an HR firm, not a newspaper, so I think it’s respectable for a hobby.

But some blogs out there are impressive.  For example, Kate at SDA is Canada’s 36th largest newspaper, beating out Montreal’s Le Devoir.

Darcey at DustmyBroom beats out Fort McMurray Today and comes within a hair of overtaking Conrad Black’s first newspaper, the Sherbrooke Record.

It’s totally pointless time wasting, but what the hell – have a passably successful blog?  Which newspaper’s ass do you kick?

Newspaper circulation numbers are here.

Outside of maybe the top 10 or 15 English Canadian dailies – it’s not all that hard to beat them out for traffic, influence and quality.

So, are Canadian bloggers being co-opted by the MSM for money and influence?  We wish.  99% of us would sell out in a heartbeat.  But I suspect that 99% of us also believe that it’s a racket and our ‘work’ isn’t deserving of the pay cheque.

In my mind, the criticism that I, and many other bloggers have for the MSM is not that they’re ’slaves to conventional wisdom’ (who isn’t?) it’s that what they do isn’t a real job.  Excepting no more than a dozen reporters on your average mid-sized daily, there’s next to nothing on there you can’t get for free from a hobbyist blogger.

…………………

FYI – Slate.com put this to the test recently – the MSM vs. the web.  It’s an interesting debate, available as an MP3 here.  [fyi - it's Parkinson's.  When you hear the podcast, you'll know what I mean.]

Literally.  They solved homelessness with chicken sh*t – or ‘leavings‘ if you will.  How innovative:

The City of Surrey and RCMP lined a Whalley social service building with chicken dung to keep homeless and vagrants away, The [Surrey] Leader has learned.

On Aug. 14, witnesses saw City of Surrey staff pull up to the Front Room Drop In Centre in the 10600-block of 135A Street and line the building with putrid poultry manure. The desired effect was to create a smell so repugnant that it would repel vagrants who were hanging out around the building.

Keith Smith was touring the drop in centre and surrounding services on Thursday as part of his schooling in drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

He was astounded to see and smell the chicken dung around the building. And he was shocked to hear from front line staff that it was city crews and RCMP that put it there to deter the homeless from settling.

“The stench of the chicken manure in the surrounding area is unbearable,” Smith said in a letter to Mayor Dianne Watts.

“If the South Fraser Community Services (which runs the Front Room) were located strategically as a front line service to aid recovery of people in the active disease of addiction, why would the City of Surrey spread chicken manure along the perimeter of the vacant, rock covered lot, which separates the two South Fraser Community Service buildings?” Smith asked. “Our neighbors in Vancouver seem to have a little better approach to the problem of dealing with the disease of substance abuse.”

One local on 135 Street said on Saturday that there were at least two visits by city trucks dumping the manure in the area. There is also evidence of the same substance on the base of large trees in the park west of the Surrey Food Bank on 135 Street.

Coun. Barinder Rasode said the manure plan was hatched by the Mounties.

“Our understanding is the RCMP initiated it,” said Rasode, who was “deeply troubled” by the strategy.

An e-mail to the mayor from Deputy City Manager Dan Bottrill says that “Surrey RCMP initiated this in order to dissuade individuals from loitering against the buildings bordering the lot.”

Rasode insists elected officials did not know about the initiative.

Besides just dealing with addiction – this building they’ve bathed in chicken sh*t is a drop-in centre for homeless people to take showers and do laundry*.  If you’ve ever been in an enclosed space like a bus or train with homeless people you’ll know that anyone who helps them clean up is doing God’s work.  Of all the places they could bathe in chicken sh*t – and gosh is that fun to say – of all the places, why the showers?

Finally, and most importantly, where did the Mounties get the chicken sh*t?  Did they spend taxpayer money on it?  Seriously, did they?  I mean think about it – your hard earned money spent on some Mountie’s chicken sh*t project?  As an occasional rate payer, I’m offended.

I lost last month’s rankings on Cathy’s Mac.  So this is the ‘Summer’ edition for July and August.  No comment, no pretty formatting – as I type this it is … 12:51 am. I have a meeting in Richmond at 10:30am tomorrow.  So there you go:

1. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/ – pr7 – 182,020
2. http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/ – pr6 – 169,602
3. http://westernstandard.blogs.com/ – pr6 – 266,842
4. http://www.bowjamesbow.ca/blog.shtml – pr6 – 407,334
5. http://eaves.ca/ – pr6 – 497,336
6. http://www.steynonline.com/content/blogsection/14/128/ – pr5 – 113,788
7. http://www.ghostofaflea.com/ – pr5 – 187,193
8. http://ezralevant.com/ – pr5 – 233,767
9. http://calgarygrit.blogspot.com/ – pr5 – 257,639
10. http://www.fivefeetoffury.com/ – pr5 – 297,502
11. http://www.genx40.com/ – pr5 – 396,743
12. http://marginalizedactiondinosaur.net/ – pr5 – 423,669
13. http://www.warrenkinsella.com/ – pr5 – 459,838
14. http://www.slapupsidethehead.com/ – pr5 – 469,717
15. http://smalldeadanimals.com/ – pr4 – 146,236
16. http://mitchieville.com/ – pr4 – 364,324
17. http://www.chineseinvancouver.ca/ – pr4 – 413,946
18. http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/ – pr5 – 562,358
19. http://www.quebecpolitique.com/ – pr5 – 618,950
20. http://www.stephentaylor.ca/ – pr5 – 656,682
21. http://canadiancynic.blogspot.com/ – pr5 – 737,860
22. http://jaycurrie.info-syn.com/ – pr5 – 825,913
23. http://lawiscool.com/ – pr5 – 874,663
24. http://www.benedictionblogson.com/ – pr5 – 929,232
25. http://www.vivelecanada.ca/ – pr5 – 988,928

Exit question – is this political enough for the list?  http://shamelessmag.com/blog/