Miscellany

Stuff I wanted to post on but didn't until now:

Apparently Christopher Hitchens once praised Saddam as the next Nasser. He has apparently neglected to mention this ever since he started calling for Saddam's ouster.

Bill O'Reilly perfects the homophobia version of Reefer Madness. It is, as you may have guessed, unsubstantiated.

Who cares about the Red Ensign? It has not been Canada's flag in something like fifty years. Nonetheless, the Conservatives seem bent on fetishizing it.

Homophobia increases terror risk

"I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America...I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen."
-Jerry Falwell after 9/11

Falwell later retracted this statement, and its easy to see why. It's an idiotic thing to say, not mention tasteless. One's opinion on gays really has no impact on the likelihood that you will b e victimized by terrorists. Or does it? The interesting thing though is that if anything, homophobia is making this a more dangerous place.

How?

Well indirectly through the firing of gay linguists, something that is still happening in the US. Now the military says that it's just trying to uphold the law. I don't buy it, and moreover, I don't care about that particular law. Many of the gays that have been discharged have insisted that they were trying to be discrete. I don't care if those intercepting terrorist communiques are the gayest gays ever. It doesn't matter. Being able to speak the language of the enemy is simply too valuable a skill.

Don't believe me? Remember that here in Canada the Air India bombing could have been prevented if Canada's spy agencies had anyone who could speak Punjabi to translate the intercepts that had already been recorded.

Who are the "perverts" here?

Are they the gay activists who peacefully brought a petition to the mayor of Moscow requesting that they be allowed to hold a parade?

OR

Are they those in the leering mob who assaulted said activists as well as the police that beat up the activists and arrested them?

Can we just start calling the leader of Russia Czar Vladimir I?

I'm sorry - sorry that you're so stupid

The apology that some social conservative groups made to the world for Canada has been commented on in the blogosphere. There are variety of things about this stunt that merit comment, there is one though that I would like to point out here. The apology includes the lines:

"Our government and courts only considered adult 'rights', failing to consider the "impact on children's rights, children's education, parental rights, religious rights, adoption, the economy and family law."

It's nice to know that these groups asked every single judge, member of parliament, and government lawyer what factors they considered when they decided what they were going to do on the matter of same-sex marriage. But hold on a second, what impact do these groups fear there will be on the economy?!

One imagines that if all these people are coming to Canada to get married then there ought be a substantial boost to our often-moribund tourism industry. As a group, gays and lesbians statistically have higher disposable incomes, these are tourists that are good for the economy. Please tell me what dire economic scenario would counteract this kind of benefit. How on earth is same-sex marriage bad for the economy?

I'm all for debate, I'm all for freedom conscience, you can hold whatever beliefs you want on this issue, but don't pull stuff out of your ass to make an argument. Economy? Give me a break.