New Media

My latest broadside in The Propagandist, The Bigotry of Low Expectations of Muslim Immigrants by an Imam. A note on honour killings, expectations of Canadian citizenship and some very weird comments by a Canadian Imam who the mainstream media loves to quote. The way this guy talks about his fellow co-religionists, you’d almost be tempted to accuse him of… well, Islamophobia.

NDP MP Pat Martin is getting some flack today for tweeting inappropriately. A big part of me thinks, “What’s the big deal?”

“This is a f—— disgrace…closure again. And on the Budget! There’s not a democracy in the world that would tolerate this jackboot sh–,” Martin tweeted.

He followed up with another comment asking “In these uncertain economic times, don’t you think our parliament should be debating our federal budget? Some due diligence?”

But that wasn’t all. Martin went on to tell off followers who criticized his post, telling one person to “F— off” and directing the Bart Simpson-coined expression “Eat my shorts” at another.

I’ve actually got a fair bit of sympathy for Mr. Martin. I’m a bit of a foul-mouthed guy, myself (particularly if I’ve got a couple of beers in me). I don’t recall if I’ve ever sworn on Twitter before, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that I had.

That said, elected politicians are presumably held to a higher standard of civics than non-elected pundits like me. They’re supposed to set an example about respectful communication, even, or perhaps especially, if pissed off.

Also, contrary to what one might infer from Martin’s overheated rhetoric, the Conservatives were not shutting down debate by some improvised fascist measure. Closure is just part of the parliamentary rules. Majority governments use it all the time to prevent filibustering USA-style. Not exactly “jackboot” stuff.

A few things to think about in the wake of today’s silliness.

• We live in a parliamentary democracy that is the envy of the world. Barring a surprise election victory by the Bloc Quebecois, it’s going to stay that way, no matter which national party gets in.
• The majority Conservative government is not going to throw their political opponents into prison camps or turn the country into a contaminated neo-con dystopia.
• If you think the Conservatives’ lack of a majority of the population’s vote is a problem for democracy, you might have raised the point when the Liberals were getting voted in by similar margins. Thank the first-past-the-post system. And if you don’t know what that is or don’t care, you’ve got no business being a Senate page.
• If you’ve got a beef with the Conservatives, organize. Protest. Tell your opposition MP what you want them to say in the House of Commons.
• Don’t make an ass of yourself and our democratic traditions.

Canadian Conservatives Win. Lefties Lick Wounds

You’ve got to be kidding. First, just about every hard-boiled secular (or at least non-Christian) political opponent of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already implied he’s some kind of nefarious theocrat with a hidden evangelical agenda that’s sort of modeled on Iran’s Islamic Republic.

But what’s the latest criticism of Steve-O? The PM is ignoring the will of God by making the census voluntary.

Our government is wrong-headed in its policy direction because it refuses to be influenced by cherry-picked verses from the Old Testament? What?

You can’t make this stuff up. Thanks, Globe and Mail.