Frosty Friday

It's so damned hot in Ottawa these days that I cool off by reading right-wing blogs.

The following is a small sampling, for those who like to bite down on a sore tooth. Warning: not for the progressive faint of heart, this is hard-core conservatism at its finest. Rating: R.

Wintry blast: Angry in the Great White North. A couple of cool ones here: Harry Potter's "subtle seductions" and depravity at rabble.ca. The ideologues, urged on, it seems, by the current Pope (the quote was his), have indulged themselves in a little Soviet-style literary criticism, finding the Harry Potter books doubleplusungood because, inter alia, the magic wielded by the kids "seems to come from no particular source." A good introduction to the psychopathology of the extreme right.

Meanwhile, a couple of Babblers over at Rabble were incautious enough to refer to possible incidents that might befall a Conservative party cruise. Not in the best of taste, but political jokes seldom are, and you can find plenty of off-colour stuff on the right-wing blogs. It was a great excuse, however, for Angry to climb laboriously onto his high horse. "Depravity," he shrieked. And the dittoheads piled on.

February heat: RelapsedCatholic. A soothing blizzard of dry ice from the indefatigable Kathy Shaidle. I slam, you slam, we all slam Islam. Too many examples to choose from--you do it. There's stuff here on Islamofascism, Irshad Manji's shortcomings (lesbianism), "Islam: the West's Unmanageable Liability," "Putting the 'I' In Islam" (an apologia for the Muslim stomped to death in Birmingham a few days ago) and my personal fave (quite a while back, but it's memorable): "Newsflash: Arabs are Violent Retards."

Glacial warmth: The Cannuckistan Chronicles. Dick Evans revealed more than he knew when he voted to delete an entry for Progressive Bloggers from Wikipedia. While it is obvious that a strategic alliance between Blogging Tories and Progressive Bloggers would make some sense here, and to their credit some of the Tories recognized that, Evans' knee-jerk reaction--to shut down opinions he doesn't like--is all-too-typical of the book-banning, teacher-firing, Disneyworld-boycotting, pulpit-bullying of the ideological Right. Don't take my word for it--cruise the blogs yourselves.

Absolute Zero: Small Dead Animals. Blogger Kate McMillan, of "Canada needs institutions to lock up the Indian Activists and Apologists" fame, continues her racist campaign against Canada's First Nations. An excerpt from a news story about a recent judgement from the BC Human Rights Tribunal against a mall security firm for discrimination against Aboriginals amuses her:

It was mall policy to deny access to people who had dirty clothing, open sores and wounds, red eyes, and who were acting intoxicated. Lyster ruled that the policy created practices that had an unfair and discriminatory effect on aboriginal people.

"Some stories just tell themselves," she snickers.

In fact, Gladys Radek, who filed the complaint, did not meet any of these criteria. She was a disabled Aboriginal person, on her way to have a coffee at Starbucks with a friend. The two of them were accosted and verbally harassed by a mall cop, and chucked off the premises. After reviewing the sorry history of the mall in question, the numerous instances of racist behaviour against Aboriginals there, the Tribunal found in her favour. The Tribunal spokesperson did not mince words:

I have found the complaint to be justified. I found that Henderson and Securiguard discriminated against Ms. Radek, both on May 10, 2001 and on a number of earlier occasions. I also found that both respondents engaged in systemic discrimination on the basis of race, colour, ancestry and disability, throughout the period of this complaint.

Apparently, comparing national daycare to re-education camps and demanding the return of residential schools for Native kids, and now sneering about "stories that write themselves," aren't sufficient to ruin McMillan's reputation on the Right. She's vigorously defended by Angry today: "Kate's rhetoric can be harsh, but it is a tool for promoting discussion." Wow.

Time to go outside for a breath of fresh air. It's chilly in here.