New Media

The Canadian nation endured an awful, endless sleep occasionally punctuated by vicious nightmares of Taliban thugs running wild across a blood-soaked plain. Finally, injected with some new serum, the chief ingredient being a healthy dose of political courage, this nation wakes with a start.

But now that they’ve woken, will they take action? Perhaps…

Segal commended Harper for staying true to the 2008 parliamentary motion that set the 2011 end-date for the military mission. But what’s needed now is “vision and renewed commitment” to the country and the international effort.

This is the time to examine all possible Canadian contributions to the Afghan mission, not to close the door on allies the country has been fighting beside for nearly a decade, Segal said.

“I’m making the case for consideration … that it’s wrong for all Canadians to withdraw, it’s wrong for us to only have a civilian presence, because who’s going to provide security for them?” he said in an interview.

The future is looking a bit brighter.

Certain faculty at the University of Regina have brought shame to their institution in asking for withdrawal of support for the Project Hero scholarship program. From the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee blog:

There is something perverse in faculty of a university calling for the end of education supports for those whose families have given so much for this country. Even worse, the ludicrous and buffoonish characterization by supposedly educated people that our engagement is a wicked “imperialist” venture calls into question these critics’ abilities as critical thinkers and as educators.

Their uninformed analysis ignores the views of Afghans on the matter, and their extremist, relativist views make a mockery of scholarship. An embarrassment to Canada, they are sending out the message that human rights, security and peace are only for those in the West.

See the original embarrassing statement of the faculty here.

Readers of this site will have noted that blogging is light these days. No, I have not abandoned my website. I’ve just been sick.

As such, I’ve had to prioritize my activities over the past few weeks. Sleeping, eating healthy stuff, doing just enough actual work to meet the regular deadlines of my copywriting clients and finally, attending to social media.

A fog seems to have lifted from my feverish brain today. Looking forward to rejoining the universe once more. Cheers.

I Should Have Taken Contact

For the record, I’m not a fan of Ann Coulter. My contempt is not based primarily on her politics — I just think she’s an idiot, for saying stuff like this: “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”

Context is everything. Ann seems to get off on a big technicality here in that there is no global Christian movement to subvert nations around the world in order to unite a Christian empire that aims to put all subjects under “Christian” law — whatever that would be. The Crusades have been over for centuries and there simply is no modern example of Christian nations going to war to spread their faith by the sword — mostly because outside of the Vatican, there are no countries left that one could identify as Christian. As such, Coulter’s words are pretty much meaningless.

As offensive as she is, she ought to be ignored as anyone would be if they said, “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Zoroastrianism.” Or Keynesianism. Or collective-agrarianism.

Of course, if you had a speaker at a Canadian university that substituted “Islam” for “Christianity” in that quote, heads would have to roll in the university establishment. There undoubtedly is an active global jihadist movement that is killing people (mostly Muslims) every day. In this case, the quote has contextual meaning. But Coulter’s? Her jibber-jabber quotes are made solely for the purpose of boosting book and ticket sales by pubescent-minded Rush Limbaugh fans.

That said, I’m deeply embarrassed for my country thanks to this sad tale of Soviet-style shenanigans emanating from the University of Ottawa:

“Dear Ms. Coulter,

François Houle.”
‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑
Vice-recteur aux études / Vice-President Academic and Provost
Université d’Ottawa / University of Ottawa
550, rue Cumberland Street
Ottawa (ON) K1N 6N5
téléphone / telephone : 613 562-5737
télécopieur / fax : 613 562-5103
www.uOttawa.ca/vr-etudes-academic

H/T to Blazing Cat Fur

UPDATE: How embarrassing is it for us that we seem to require an American right-wing nutcase to defend Canadian freedom of speech? Good luck with the CHRC complaint, Coulter.

UPPERDATE: The humiliation just doesn’t stop. Canadian thugs stop angry Ann from speaking. Freedom of speech in the True North takes a hit along with our international reputation. Even Warren Kinsella’s embarrassed.

Social media is not and cannot be a sort of backup system for when “traditional” (and paid) journalists seem to fall down on the job. With few exceptions, bloggers tend to be gatekeepers, promoters and pundits — not writers of the first draft of history. Besides, the symbiotic relationship between newsmakers and social media practitioners benefits both sides.

My look back at the “Lessons from the Olympics” Social Media Club panel where I spoke earlier this week:

Social Media Is Not Supposed To Pick Up The Slack of Traditional Media

Sure, we create all kinds of original content, from photos and videos to really thought-provoking essay-type blog posts. But as a rule, we don’t pick our themes from whatever the newsmakers have deemed unworthy of their attention — at least, not if we want people to actually see what we’re creating.