Urban Vancouver

Some of us were led to believe that Howard Rotberg had decided to leave the blogging business, due to an ambivalent comment at the end of his series on Tolerism, Howard's term that makes an analogy between the pop culture concept of building up a tolerance for alcohol, and the ideology of building up a deadly "tolerance" for a moral and cultural relativism that embraces even the most barbaric behaviours if these are done in the name of opposition to Western (American, Israeli) "hegemony".

Happily Howard is still blogging and has up a number of posts on Iran and the need for Americans and the rest of the world to see that Iranian regime is not just an existential threat for Israel.

His latest post, presenting a column by Barry Rubin, is particularly effective in making this point.

Howard Rotberg: Second Generation Radical

Google wants to help stop you from sending emails you later regret, by posing math questions to test your mental stability late at night.

Math questions? They are surely not our best guide to serenity. Why not ask people about George Bush, or Ezra Levant, for example?

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret

The other day, Blazing Cat Fur linked to this post: Denmark: Street war between Hells Angels and immigrant gangs spreading » Balder Blog

This is the kind of news from Europe that you can these days usually only find in blogs. Today, Pamela Geller has more:

When the situation became hopeless in 1945 Germany, Hitler and his monsters retreated to his fuhrerbunker[; it is said] that in their last days any semblance of decency and morality was recklessly abandoned. Europe's political elites remind me of these desperate, bankrupt zombies, naked and screwing everybody. Strange metaphor I know but it came to mind when reading an email I received from Tomas Kierstein describing the disastrous disintegration of the basic fabric of Danish society (and many European countries). Tomas Kierstein is vice-chairman of The Danish Association (in Danish: Den Danske Forening - introduction in English) He wrote me after viewing my video interviews with Lars Hedegaard parts I(here) and II (here).

His account is frightening but less so than Hedegaard's mystification with America's inexplicable and almost deliberate denial, willful ignorance of the creeping sharia and stealth jihad descending over our great nation. At least, Hedegaard insisted, "we know what is happening in our country".[paraphrasing
[...]
[Kierstein writes:] On the other hand, if Europe becomes a failed Continent, you don’t have to consider whether or not to intervene. At that point you will simply not have the money to support your military efforts anymore, as both the Chinese and your domestic economies, which are heavily tied to each other and the European market, will probably collapse – as more than half a billion of what used to be among the wealthiest consumers in the World will leave the World economy and enter the abyss of perpetual hostilities.

At this point in time, it seems to me we don't have to wait for the perfect account of just how bad things are in Europe, or what hope there is for Western nations to renew themselves to face down the ethical chaos sown by those whose fear of national cultures, and the individual freedom that grows out of them, has encouraged them to foster, in the name of multiculturalism, all the conditions for a collapse of self-ruling democracies and a movement towards rule of the streets by tribal gangsters and warlords.

It is enough at this moment that we recognize and vote for the politicians that, despite their many faults, are at least somewhat aware of the Global Intifada being waged by the left-Islamist alliance:

Having lived 30 years in Pakistan and 10 in Saudi Arabia, Fatah knows intimately what constitutes "soft jihad" when he sees it. He expressed his sorrow, as a lifetime social democrat that after 17 years of engaged support for the NDP, he could no longer be affiliated with that party. He saw the doors opening to Islamists under Alexa McDonough and now, under Layton, he has seen them "flood" into the party.

It soon became apparent that the particular political focus of all three of the speakers is the NDP, which has shamelessly courted and integrated into its inner circles Islamist Muslims with views that are antithetical and even dangerous to the continued health of Canadian values. Fatah has watched in frustration as Islamists in the NDP pursue a relentless campaign to instill a sense of victimhood in Muslim youth. Yesterday an NDP candidate in Toronto Centre - an immigration lawyer, Farouk El-Khaki - accused the judiciary of being anti-Islam. He was not chastised by Jack Layton, and even more worrying, he was not held to account by any other party candidate. It is clear that no party leader wants Islamism raised as an election issue.

Jack Layton, Mansur said "has gone to bed with Islamists." He is running candidates in Ontario and Quebec who are closely identified with the push for Sharia law, which, all the panelists made clear is the litmus test for dividing real moderate Muslims from Islamists. Fatah also expressed his contempt for the Ontario Human Rights Commission which, he asserted is "infiltrated by Islamists": There are commissioners in the OHCR closely linked to the Canadian Islamic Congress and the Canada-Arab federation, both of which, according to Fatah, have "contempt for Canadian values." Anyone, he says, "who brings religion into politics should be suspect" because they "are a threat to western civilization." The NDP's failure to interrogate their Muslim supporters for fear of revealing their Islamism is the "racism of lower expectations."

Raheel Raza introduced herself as "the proud recipient of a fatwa" for having the gall to try to lead prayers. She shared her joy in having the freedom in Canada to be spiritually religious without fear of political coercion, something she could never have in a Muslim country: "No Muslim country would allow me the rights I have here." She knows she is being monitored from abroad, since she received her fatwa by e-mail from Saudi Arabia. How would they have known about her if she were not being informed on by Islamists here? She cannot fathom why politicians pander to the Islamists. Actually she can fathom it. "Political correctness" will not allow politicians to raise the question of allegiance in their Muslim supporters.

As for feminists, where are they? Also pandering. They have not spoken up about the Talibanist woman in Mississauga who teaches the virtues of polygamy to her female students, nor have they criticized a cleric who openly admits to performing polygamous marriages. Feminists seem to have lower expectations for Muslim women than for themselves: what Tarek Fatah calls "left wing racism." Ms Raza is, according to an Islamist website, #5 of the "most hated Muslims in the world." "My aim," she chuckles, "is to become #1."

Canadian tax-payers are on the hook again for some big bucks in support of hate-rants from the Left. One cannot escape it. You live here, you pay for the CBC-- regardless of what they write. Here's some winning analysis from Canada's thinkers on vandalism against Liberal Party workers. The CBC's platform gives much space to those who care to blame Conservative Party workers for it. below is the story and some selection of commentary on it. "Only in Canada?" Pitiful.
*************************

Vandals have cut brake lines on cars of Liberal supporters in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's, Liberal incumbent Carolyn Bennett said in her blog Saturday.

"The official agent for my campaign went through a stop sign and nearly hit a bus because he did not know that his brake lines had been cut," she said.

"I was sickened" by the vandalism, she said, which included graffiti, cut phone lines and cars keyed with a large L.

Toronto police said in a news release late Saturday night that some phone and cable lines in the area had been cut overnight Friday.

The release did not mention that Liberals were targeted, but Staff-Sgt. Shawn Meloche told the Toronto Star that "there appears to be a connection" between the vandalism and houses with Liberal lawn signs.

Police confirmed 10 cases of vandalism, but the riding headquarters said there were 14 by Saturday evening, the Star said.

****

"Just the kind of thing Mugabe goons do. Is this another desperate act of an overzealous Harper staffer?"

RichardChong

"I think this is the work of the Cons thugs who has no fear of the law. They have seen their leader can break his own laws (fixed election date), plagiarize and think it is ok. Given Mr. Harper complete disregard to ethics and morals, no wonder his thugs can do that."

Jerry Younge

"Been away for a while, is Vandals the new name for Harper's gang?"

GlenQuayle

"Wow, Harper has his gestapo all pumped up! Desperate times calls for desperate measures."

Mactator

[This one below seems to be a parody of those above, but with the CBC audience one cannot be sure.]

"This is what happens when you make Harper anger. He turns dark blue, rips off his sweater and becomes the Incredible Fraud then spreads death and destruction on Liberal supporters thru out the region...."

spacholka

"Harper speech-writers have to find something to do in their spare time. Shame [on] the Conservatives."

Hercules

[This might be what passes for intelligent reason at the CBC.]

"I'd like to believe that Harper ordered his hellpers (oops, typo? or Freudian slip?) to do this, but lets be realistic. It's an individual or a group of people acting on their own. Although it would be interesting to see how these 'terrorists' vote...."

Darren83

"Good heavens! Is that why Mr. Harper took the day off? Creative art-work with scissors?"

R5OZENCRANTZ

"Vandals have cut brake lines on cars of Liberal supporters in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's, This is what happens when the cons play negative In TV adds etc It creates a mind set that feeds the criminal distructive mind. Its a sad that we have come to this. Thanks Harper for your contributions to our society. It stinks of the US republican style."

buffordyork

This is what happens when a party leader targets nothing but hatred and slander against his opponents instead of presenting original thoughts and debating ideas on their merits. Inevitably, people take Harper seriously on more than a political level, and think that causing physical harm to opponents is appropriate.

An even bigger problem is that some Canadians haven't noticed the vandalism and mischief in Harper's plans for our future. Having no platform a week before the election - after the debates and advance polls - sabotages the democratic process.

Harper's campaign continues to run stop signs, and is going downhill fast. Let's avoid a big accident by voting Harper out of Canada's driver's seat.

Offenright

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/story/2008/10/05/vandals-cars.html#socialcomments

Former Australian PM, John Howard (via Weasel Zippers):

Most readers of this blog are probably familiar with Pat Condell's videos, criticizing Islamic thinking, in the name of freedom for all, including Muslims. As the above video explains, he has finally caught up to our own Charles and had one of his videos banned from Youtube, something that happens to many who criticize the left-Islamist worldview. Charles' banned video, as I recall, was merely critical of French politicians; as anyone who reads this blog knows, he's not one for outrageous hyperbole, hate, or vulgarity.

Anyway, while it is not news that Youtube often censors those who don't hold to a certain politically correct party line, the video above is a timely reminder of how those who criticize Sharia precepts, and all the violence Sharia does to people, can, outrageously, be considered something disreputable in today's West.

That's why we, the Covenant Zone bloggers, meet every Thursday and encourage you to join us, wherever you are, in keeping up the tradition of freely speaking your mind, somewhere in public, preferably where others will overhear you and whoever else you can find to talk. (It used to be that when you heard a lone person talking to himself, you figured he was crazy; today we don't have that problem; if you can't find anyone to join you, just pretend you're talking into a cellphone or bluetooth device.)

We meet in the atrium of the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library, 7-9pm Thursdays, in front of Blenz Coffee. Look for the blue scarves.

Here is the text of the above video:

Pat Condell supported the petition against Sharia law in the UK with his video Welcome to Saudi Britain.

As a result of his usual brave and dignified stand in favour of freedom of speech his video has been removed.

He merely criticised the Saudi-based Islamisation of the UK. He did not incite violence nor hatred of Muslims.

The email I received from Pat said this:

patcondell has sent you a message on YouTube:
My video has been removed
Just got this from dhimmitube:

The following video(s) from your account have been disabled for violating the YouTube Community Guidelines:
•Welcome to Saudi Britain - (patcondell)
Your account has received one Community Guidelines warning sanction, which will expire in six months. Additional violations may result in the temporary disabling of your ability to post content to YouTube and/or the termination of your account.

I want to ask you to do two things:

1. Continue to sign the petition to stop Sharia law gaining more ground in the UK - do this in honour of Pat Condell.

"WE THE UNDERSIGNED PETITION THE PRIME MINISTER TO STOP ISLAMIC SHARIA LAW BEING USED IN GREAT BRITAIN."
Deadline 4th October 2008.
Link:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/sharialawuk/

2. Leave a comment below that demands Pat's video Welcome to Saudi Britain be reinstated immediately - do this in honour of our greatest possession, freedom of speech, something that we will allow to slip a little more from our grasp if we do not do all we can to support Pat Condell in this instance.

I for one will cease to use Google as my search engine if YouTube (owned by Google) does not reinstate Pat's video within the next 7 days.

Use your voice on this video to persuade YouTube to overturn this lamentable decision.

We do not live in Saudi Arabia. We do not adhere to Islamic rules about non-criticism of Islam. We are free to criticise Islam. If Pat Condell's video is not reinstated, I will do all I can to peacefully but firmly fight YouTube and encourage as many people as possible to cease using their products for the foreseeable future.

My question to you is this:

If a voice as humorous and high profile as Pat Condell's can be silenced when asking people to sign a legal petition, who's going to hear our voices, we little people?

Thoughts on How the West was Lost, Jamie Glazov's interview of Hasan Mahmud, the Director of Sharia Law at the Muslim Canadian Congress:

I have argued here that our understanding of what Islam is should not be exhausted by orthodox interpretations of Islam's sacred texts, although it is very important that we know what orthodoxy and its power over people is. Not only is it a principle of religious studies in the West that we best understand a religion (and/or political ideology) by examining all the understandings, of both insiders and outsiders, that the reality of the religion's presence creates (a religion being understood as something paradoxical that generates much meaning, or meanings). But no matter how committed to following some orthodoxy a believer may be, he still has to interpret that desire for orthodoxy in relation to a larger reality that the religion cannot entirely block from sight, explain, or define away, no matter how much violence it is willing to do to people in trying.

For the thinking believer, this creates an inevitable conflict between the understandings of orthodoxy and the contrary realities of a world that the believer takes to be full of insight into the nature of God. This problem may be lessened in a religion like Christianity whose orthodoxy encourages followers to recognize that holy texts are "divinely inspired" but not the literal word of God, and to question worldly authority, such that successful clerics usually have to be leaders in thought and not mere dogmatists. But it is obviously a huge problem in Islam.

It is inevitable that thinking Muslims in the modern world are going to question much about Sharia orthodoxy. Will this lead them to reject Islam entirely or to develop a new modern form of Islam or "Islam" as some would prefer? I don't know what will be possible, what people will find a useful focus for their mental energy, what the core revelation of Mohammed actually is or can be reasonably interpreted to mean. But I think it important to pay attention to those who are trying to reconcile our God-given reality with their religious and humanistic faith in it. Their efforts may well turn out to be failures; yet this is how we will learn more of what our shared reality is.

I find it a little amazing that Hasan Mahmud, the Director of Sharia Law at the Muslim Canadian Congress can, essentially, 1) reject the entire tradition of Sharia law, explaining it away as the product of a conspiracy to corrupt the true faith as it must have once existed, and 2) still declare himself a faithful Muslim. But he simply cannot reconcile Sharia with the human reality he sees around him. So of what then does his Islam consist? He does not tell us in his interview at Frontpage Magazine and we have to imagine a largely privatized conversation between man and Allah.

Still, Mahmud shows the kind of thing that has to happen when one pays attention to our God-given reality. If the Creation that we can see working itself out all around us is indeed God's Creation, then the thinking believer has no choice but to question received understandings of the faith. But to some degree this must even be true of the minimally thinking person. Whether our instinct is to move towards orthodoxy or liberalization, no one can divorce himself entirely from the revelations that historical change forces on all of us. Eventually this will lead all of us to refine our understanding of the original revelations that found our religion, or our humanity more generally. I say all of us because even the most closed mind cannot be entirely closed to reality and still survive.

At the end of the day I am sympathetic to the thinking believer who recognizes that the truth of his religion cannot be at odds with the truth of human reality, and that study of the latter must be more of a guide to the proper or original nature of the former than any received orthodoxy. And if this questioner still says he is a Muslim, I am willing to respect his belief, even if that means we will have to rethink the various possibilities inherent in the word `submission'.

Of course, one might argue that this "Muslim" is so outside the meaning of Islamic tradition that he is mentally all askew in considering himself a Muslim. But ultimately the test of that is the historical laboratory itself. At present, we can only place bets on how he will be received. Will history judge him a nut, or not, or most likely just ignore him? But the question that tests our own faith in the nature and future of humanity is this: in what kind of marketplace do we want to make our bets?

The terrified pole-dancing daughter of radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed is in hiding after death threats from Muslim extremists.

Read about it all at Blogging for a Free World.
-----------

UPDATE: Reading more about this story, I see the UK paper, The Sun, reporting that:

HATE preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed paid for a boob job which launched his daughter’s pole dancing career, it was revealed last night.

He forked out £4,000 in CASH for 27-year-old Yasmin Fostock’s bust-boosting surgery — while living on BENEFITS in the UK.

The revelation will spark further public outrage against the fanatical Muslim cleric — now in Lebanon after being kicked out of Britain.

Bakri, 50, who rants about Western “depravity” and blasts women who flaunt their sexuality, secretly paid for Yasmin to increase her A cup size to a DD.

Sources close to the blonde beauty said the op set her on the path to the raunchy career which shamed her strict Muslim family.
[...]
“She played the daddy’s girl and said it would make her feel more of a mother when she was breast feeding her children.

“He went along with it and even went to the top London clinic with her where he paid for the surgery in cash.

“The rest of the family were set against it, but he insisted she should have her way if it would make her a better mother.

“But it backfired disastrously because her new figure encouraged her to go out and flaunt her new body.

Left religious fanatics want to control what and how much you eat, and they aren't going to be satisfied with merely lecturing you and demanding you conform to their dietary restrictions and food taboos: they want the government to control you at dinner time. The Left fascism extends this far so far, and tomorrow it will go further. There will be no end to the totalitarian longings of these people. They will devour the Earth and all its people in their rampage for the purity of poverty:

People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns.

The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates.

It urges people to return to habits their mothers or grandmothers would have been familiar with: buying locally in-season products, cooking in bulk and in pots with lids or pressure cookers, avoiding waste and walking to the shops - alongside more modern tips such as using the microwave and internet shopping.

The report goes much further than any previous advice after mounting concern about the impact of the livestock industry on greenhouse gases and rising food prices. It follows a four-year study of the impact of food on climate change and is thought to be the most thorough study of its kind.

Tara Garnett, the report's author, warned that campaigns encouraging people to change their habits voluntarily were doomed to fail and urged the government to use caps on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon pricing to ensure changes were made. "Food is important to us in a great many cultural and symbolic ways, and our food choices are affected by cost, time, habit and other influences," the report says. "Study upon study has shown that awareness-raising campaigns alone are unlikely to work, particularly when it comes to more difficult changes."

[....]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/30/food.ethicalliving

This is what we're up against. Sweet Reason? Maybe that won't be allowed under the new food regime.

September 25. My thoughts on this speech follow excerpts from Wilders' text:

...I am a lawmaker, and not a movie maker. But I felt I had the moral duty to educate about Islam. The duty to make clear that the Quran stands at the heart of what some people call terrorism but is in reality jihad. I wanted to show that the problems of Islam are at the core of Islam, and do not belong to its fringes.

Now, from the day the plan for my movie was made public, it caused quite a stir, in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. First, there was a political storm, with government leaders, across the continent in sheer panic. The Netherlands was put under a heightened terror alert, because of possible attacks or a revolt by our Muslim population. The Dutch branch of the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir declared that the Netherlands was due for an attack. Internationally, there was a series of incidents. The Taliban threatened to organize additional attacks against Dutch troops in Afghanistan, and a website linked to Al Qaeda published the message that I ought to be killed, while various muftis in the Middle East stated that I would be responsible for all the bloodshed after the screening of the movie. In Afghanistan and Pakistan the Dutch flag was burned on several occasions. Dolls representing me were also burned. The Indonesian President announced that I will never be admitted into Indonesia again, while the UN Secretary General and the European Union issued cowardly statements in the same vein as those made by the Dutch Government. I could go on and on. It was an absolute disgrace, a sell-out.

A plethora of legal troubles also followed, and have not ended yet. Currently the state of Jordan is litigating against me. Only last week there were renewed security agency reports about a heightened terror alert for the Netherlands because of Fitna.

Now, I would like to say a few things about Israel. Because, very soon, we will get together in its capitol. The best way for a politician in Europe to loose votes is to say something positive about Israel. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I, however, will continue to speak up for Israel. I see defending Israel as a matter of principle. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel. First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.

Samuel Huntington writes it so aptly: “Islam has bloody borders”. Israel is located precisely on that border. This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam’s territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.

The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.

Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything. Therefore, it is not that the West has a stake in Israel. It is Israel.
[...]
This is the most painful thing to see: the betrayal by our elites. At this moment in Europe’s history, our elites are supposed to lead us. To stand up for centuries of civilization. To defend our heritage. To honour our eternal Judeo-Christian values that made Europe what it is today. But there are very few signs of hope to be seen at the governmental level. Sarkozy, Merkel, Brown, Berlusconi; in private, they probably know how grave the situation is. But when the little red light goes on, they stare into the camera and tell us that Islam is a religion of peace, and we should all try to get along nicely and sing Kumbaya. They willingly participate in, what President Reagan so aptly called: “the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.”

If there is hope in Europe, it comes from the people, not from the elites. Change can only come from a grass-roots level. It has to come from the citizens themselves. Yet these patriots will have to take on the entire political, legal and media establishment.

Over the past years there have been some small, but encouraging, signs of a rebirth of the original European spirit. Maybe the elites turn their backs on freedom, the public does not. In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat to our national identity. I don’t think the public opinion in Holland is very different from other European countries.

Patriotic parties that oppose jihad are growing, against all odds. My own party debuted two years ago, with five percent of the vote. Now it stands at ten percent in the polls. The same is true of all smililary-minded parties in Europe. They are fighting the liberal establishment, and are gaining footholds on the political arena, one voter at the time.

Now, for the first time, these patriotic parties will come together and exchange experiences. It may be the start of something big. Something that might change the map of Europe for decades to come. It might also be Europe’s last chance.

This December a conference will take place in Jerusalem. Thanks to Professor Aryeh Eldad, a member of Knesset, we will be able to watch Fitna in the Knesset building and discuss the jihad. We are organizing this event in Israel to emphasize the fact that we are all in the same boat together, and that Israel is part of our common heritage. Those attending will be a select audience. No racist organizations will be allowed. And we will only admit parties that are solidly democratic.

This conference will be the start of an Alliance of European patriots. This Alliance will serve as the backbone for all organizations and political parties that oppose jihad and Islamization. For this Alliance I seek your support.

How "bad" is the situation? I went to Google News and entered: "Geert Wilders" "Hudson Institute" "New York" . This returned only three hits for the last month (the speech was given Sept. 25; you get one more hit if you omit "Hudson Institute"). And these hits are for a couple of Israeli news bulletins and a Quebec blog. Clearly, the Western Establishment believes there is absolutely nothing to Wilders' arguments, or they are scared stiff of them.

This situation should not demoralize people however. I would take it as a sign of an impending paradigm shift. Reality, however much of it Wilders grasps - and surely the answer is some, however much one might disagree with some of his characterizations of the European scene - cannot be denied forever. The world Orwell imagined cannot really come to pass, no more in this worldly world than the Kingdom Christ imagined, or the Umma Mohammed imagined. Things will break open sooner or later and people will have to face up to the need for new paradigms and forms of transcendence, if they are to avoid great violence.

I'm glad Wilders recognizes that the renewal of Judeo-Christian nation-state values can only happen with parties that are not founded on racial hate. But inevitably the opposition to a large Islamic presence in Europe will have racial aspects to it. Islam is not a race, but most Muslims in Europe will not see themselves, nor will they be seen, as of the same race as what Wilders awkwardly calls the "indigenous" Europeans. We cannot run from such questions whether in righteous and imperialistic "anti-racism", or in worship of an atavistic tribalism as Europe's last and only "hope".

We must find a way to talk about reality, e.g. of national cultures which are not tribal entities (the national should be defined as that which transcends the tribal by entering, in its own particular way and tradition, into open conversation with the universal) but as the guarantors of a strict, uncompromising defense of human freedom, of the individual, and of what must be restrained if the free-thinking individual, and the kind of family which can produce them, is to be reproduced in future. In short, individual freedom must be defended against claims that "human rights" or "freedom" can allow for deference to the anti-liberal claims of certain tribal and religious forms of the sacred. There is and can be no right for the free individual to buy into relative unfreedom.

The many who fantasize about the more compact "communitarian" societies of the past must be given endless kicks in the mental butt, or most of them will end up starving or killing in post-scientific, post-liberal, waste lands.

There will be, must be, many more than one way to make the future of free individuals; but today it can only begin by flooding the world with new forms of reason and faith to dissipate the fear that makes a Wilders speech unreportable. Those who would shut such people up in the name of "human rights" must be faced with a higher reason, and love for the human and the human's foundation in the sacred. For in any vicious conflict, that love is what will ultimately be key to motivating and organizing the more creative and winning side.

Without it Europe will be defenseless. There is no such thing as a successful tribe of nihilists. And presently, that's a rough approximation of what both the unsuccessful EU political class, and the more resentful and truly doomed forms of opposition to it, are.

But presently, it is impossible to get on the government website to sign up.
Canada's Do Not Call list to launch Sept. 30

While in America we see many young voters going infatuated over a sleazy hustler like Osama Barka, Austria's youth see a different political reality, and they voted the non-Osama ticket: No welfare hikes for their grandparents; no to inflation; no minarets in Austria. Good-bye previous regime. Hello "Rightwing extremists." When young people see their lives ruined by ageing hippies in government, and when they have a say in stopping said ageing hippies, out go the Bozos. If Osama Barka wins the presidency in America, give it four years and see what young people think of a bankrupt and destroyed nation that's not the easy kindergaarten they're used to. Tough times make some people tough. They make tough decisions. Sentimentality is easy for rich old hippies. Young Austrians obviously don't like supporting them.

Vienna - Austria's resurgent far-right Freedom Party was the most popular choice among young voters in Sunday's parliamentary election, winning above-average support among those aged 30 or below, exit polls found. Immigration and law-and-order were the most important election issues for supporters of the Freedom Party and the Alliance for the Future of Austria, which together won some 29 per cent of the vote.

[....]

Among 30-and-below voters, 25 per cent said they voted for the Freedom Party....

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/234489,extra-austrian-right-wing-party-captures-young-voters.html

VERONIKA OLEKSYN, "Far-right parties make big gains in Austrian vote."

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Austria's far-right made huge gains in Sunday's parliamentary elections in a sign voters were disenchanted with the two main political parties which governed in a coalition for the past 18 months.

Many Austrians were frustrated by squabbling between the governing parties, who were viewed as ineffective and distracted from public concerns over rising inflation and other problems. Analysts said the result was not necessarily a sign voters were becoming more extremist in their views.

"It's not a question of ideology," said political commentator Peter Filzmaier. "There's lots of disappointment among workers, and there are no left-oriented parties to pick up those votes and so the right-oriented parties are able to do so."

A total of 183 parliamentary seats were up for grabs. If preliminary results are confirmed, the right-wing Freedom Party will have 35 seats, up from 21 after the last elections in 2006. The Alliance for the Future of Austria, led by Joerg Haider, will have 21, up from seven.

The center-left Social Democrats and the conservative People's Party, which formed the governing alliance that collapsed in July, both made their worst showing since the end of World War II.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jpPSh_wJf1e3YfDhp9aDPWfk8NUQD93G47380

"[T]here are no left-oriented parties...."

That is as unbelievable as anything one can find in the MSM these days. As the established mainstream political parties continue to cling to their bell-bottom pants and love beads, and as they continue to chant mantras of peace, love, and multi-culti platitudes while the people are increasingly attacked financially and physically by the Death Hippies and their Muslim proxies, we will see a furthering of movement to the "right." It's called by most coming to ones senses and acting accordingly.

But shows it still doesn't quite get the concept of Sharia:

These Islamic tribunals were supposed to rule over religious issues only but are seeking to spread their influence wider into society.

Sunday Express | Express Comment :: Tories are right to target fanatical Islamic courts

Maybe the Sunday Express needs to play Trivia Islamia.

Two deaths and over twenty wounded: the latest butcher's bill from today's bomb attack in India. Once again, India's capital city of Delhi was targeted for terror, this time on a much smaller scale than the last horrific attack two weeks ago.

The bomb exploded at a crowded flower market at Mehrauli, south Delhi, early Saturday afternoon:

Mukesh Hans, owner of a paint and hardware shop that was right next to where the blast happened, was sitting in his shop at 2 pm. "There was a deafening sound and everything became dark. I came out and saw complete chaos with injured people on the street and blood everywhere. There were at least 12 persons being sent to the hospital by the local people. As I stepped out I also saw the body of a girl who was in her schooldress,'' he said.

For one family, the bombing brought about the epitome of terror; imagine their hopeless despair upon hearing that their child could have lived if only he had been raised to be as heartless as the demons whose bomb took his life:

According to eyewitnesses, the electronic goods market was packed with shoppers when a black Pulsar motorbike went through the narrow lane intent on its deadly business. It had two helmeted riders, who dropped the polythene bag with its deadly payload in the middle of the road, in front of a shop, Anisha Electronics.

Out on an errand, the nine-year-old boy, Santosh, thought the men had unknowingly dropped the bag. In a heartbreaking act of kindness to strangers, Santosh rushed to pick it up, running after them as he shouted for them to stop. It was then that white smoke began to pour out of the bag. The little boy dropped it, but too late to save his own life.

The young child was in the market in the first place because he was running an errand for his older brother:

... "My brother's head exploded with the bomb. The poor child didn't even have a chance because the explosion took place right next to him." Bumbum, a rickshaw-puller by day, runs an omelette-and-tea stall at night. He had sent Santosh to Sarai market to pick up a crate of eggs for the evening's business. "Before he left, we were joking about how many eggs he could carry, and within minutes, we heard he had died," said a sobbing Bumbum.
...
Rekha Devi, his grandmother could not even speak — she just howled and beat her chest. "My poor child, he did not deserve to die like this. May God take care of his soul."

How does a family get over an event such as this? I guess you never really "get over it" at all, you just commit to renewing the love you have for those who remain, and one day enough new affection can arrive to raise you out of the living death that is a life lived without hope.
Easier said than done... which is why it pays to strive to find each and any example of sacrificial love, however small, that falls within your orbit. Sometimes, the reasons to renew our hope can be found in the very shadow of the evil that caused our despair in the first place, such as the courageous passersby who helped the blast victims:

Standing in blood-stained clothes, some of them even waited till after the police reached to see if their assistance was still required and then, just quietly walked away.

... [While the rest of the people ran away from the spot fearing the possibility of another blast, having a fresh memory of the recent series in Karol Bagh and Connaught Place, [Tilak Raj and Sanjay Sherawat] ran towards the centre of all action and helped the local shopkeepers in moving the bodies.
...
"The scene was horrific. Initially, we thought around three to four dead bodies were lying around, but the police is saying only one child died. There was blood all around and we got plenty on our clothes as we carried the injured to the vehicles. The local shopkeepers acted immediately and got their cars ready. We then drove the injured to the hospital,'' said Sherawat.

Godspeed to the good people of India in their time of grief.

Just came across this (International Quran News Agency - from May 2008):

Sheikh Ghasem Al-Mazrooee , Kenyan Mufti and chief justice, in an interview with IQNA conducted at the sidelines of the 21st international conference on Islamic Unity said that constant barrage of insults by western media and politicians against the sanctities of Islam indicate serious intentions of enemies of Islam to undermine pillars and principles of Islam, therefore Muslims' response should be serious and strong.
[...]
Asked on the limits of the freedom of expression and justification of affronts under the freedom of expression by western countries, Kenyan chief justice said, "freedom of expression is an invaluable and advanced principle which is even enshrined in the noble religion of Islam but the point is that freedom of expression like every other positive thing shouldn’t be misused or exploited to serve certain purposes."

He further brought about a question, saying, "would those politicians who justify constant barrages of affronts against sanctities of billions of people tolerate smear campaigns and affronts against their families under the pretext of freedom of expression or freedom of speech? I am sure they won't."

Well, maybe he's learned something from the latest fits of American presidential politics.

I came across this as I was trying to figure out whether the man in the white hair and beard in the thirteenth photo on this page (second from last photo) is Canada's own "not too much" free speech warrior, Mohammed Elmasry. I'm still not sure.

I don't believe everything I hear. You have to show me. There is a report that a tv station in Missouri is making threats against those who slag Osama Barka. I'm not sure what to make of it. I'd like some input.

Watch the video: http://www.kmov.com/video/index.html?nvid=285793&shu=1

Link available at Free Republic.

Here's a text synopsis of O Soma Merica.

September 27, 2008

Missouri's Obama Truth Squads

Lee Cary

Last Tuesday, CBS affiliate Channel 4 TV News in St. Louis reported that some Missouri sheriffs and prosecutors have formed a truth squad to target anyone who engages in misleading ad or statements about Senator Obama.
Here's the transcript of the lede on the CBS story:

"Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign is asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading television ad during the presidential campaign."

The implied threat in the Channel 4 report is that prosecutors and sheriffs across Missouri will enforce "Missouri ethics laws" and conduct criminal investigations of "anyone who lies or runs a misleading television ad" against Barack Obama. Although the report did not directly state that intent, that implied message was clearly conveyed.
Two high-profile officers of the court spoke on camera: Jennifer Joyce, St. Louis Circuit Attorney, and Robert P. McCullouch, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney. No one was available at either of their offices on Friday to comment on the story.
Channel 4 mentions the expected support of Jefferson County Sheriff Glen Boyer in the truth squad efforts. Captain Ralph Brown, in charge of press relations for the Sheriff's Department, could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Scott Holste, speaking Friday on behalf of the Missouri Attorney General's office, was available for comment. He said he had already been contacted about the Channel 4 report, that the Attorney General's office was not involved in any way with truth squads, and that he found the CBS news item to be "a mangled story."
Also on Friday, Joe Carroll, Director of Campaign Financing, Missouri Ethics Commission, said that he is "not familiar with any campaign law that applies."
John Mills, the Channel 4 reporter, was unavailable for comment Friday.
Was the St. Louis CBS affiliate complicit in the attempt, by some elected Democrat court officials in the St. Louis area, to stifle free political speech in Missouri on Senator Obama's behalf?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/09/missouris_obama_truth_squads_2.html

Please feel free to leave a comment on this story. O Brave New World.

We link to a lot of writing at this blog. I think the following is really exceptional, brilliant in its lucid, straightforward illustration and explanation of basic questions - the nature of tolerance and freedom - we often muddle.

Pete Vere (co-author, with the equally exceptional Kathy Shaidle, of The Tyranny of Nice - the story of Canada's "human rights" commissions) tells a couple of stories to illustrate his keen argument. I'm not sure I believe the second story - Canada can't be that insane a place, can it? - but it doesn't really matter. Sometimes fiction is the best vehicle for clarifying truths otherwise muddled by our rhetorical habits:

...We talk about tolerance in Canada. More often than not, as our electoral choices show, Canadian tolerance is just an excuse to avoid discussing our differences. Thus Canadians stick to what’s comfortable, what’s least likely to offend the most people. We don’t want our differences to cause division and disrupt the social peace.

Americans, on the other hand, relish their differences. Tolerance is created by confronting their differences, then discovering that they share many of the same values and concerns. Americans understand, rightly, that tolerance is a product of free speech. The First Amendment allows them to get past their differences, correct misconceptions, and move on to more pressing issues.

As an aside, I recently spoke with a former neighbor who was even more segregationist than Bill. Yet he’s voting for Obama. I won’t repeat what he said about the Democratic nominee, “but at least he ain’t a Republican. I don’t have to visit the White House while he’s president.”

On the other hand, the folly of subjecting free speech to tolerance and multiculturalism was demonstrated to me during my undergraduate years at a small university in Northern Ontario. During multiculturalism and tolerance week, the university brought in a human rights ‘expert’ from Toronto. She worked for the government, if I recall correctly. She had come to address ‘lingering and systematic discrimination’ among the student body.

Her two prime examples? Two jewels of our Northeastern Ontario geography. Lake Nipissing contained the word ‘nip’ in it, this white woman said, which was a derogatory term for Asians. Obviously whoever named this lake was insensitive to the local Asian community. The other example was Manitoulin Island, which she cited as a misogynous reference to the first white males to settle the island.

Wrong on both counts, something she would have discovered had she brushed up on her local history before pontificating to us rubes living outside of the Greater Toronto Area. But as is so often the case, history and local culture are ignored by government bureaucrats seeking to impose by fiat their enlightened ideology.

In reality, both words are First Nations in origin. Nipissing is the Algonquin word for ‘big water’ and Manitoulin is the Ojibwe word for ‘spirit island’. In retrospect, it’s unfortunate our local First Nations communities did not lodge a human rights complaint over this. This is one complaint I would have supported.

The weeks following this incident were typical of Canadian tolerance and multiculturalism: Everybody avoided everyone different, for fear of giving offense. The Asians, who often visited the lake and who took no offense to the name, felt awkward around the First Nations students. The First Nations students felt persecuted by white people who had once again failed to understand their culture. And feminists and Caucasians didn’t disagree. The latter were horrified that this so-called ‘expert’ was one of them. But how to maneuver these tricky waters without further provoking the First Nations students or causing additional embarrassment to Asian students?

Everyone knew what the problem was. Yet nobody wanted to address it, less they be misinterpreted as intolerant. As for our human rights ‘expert’, she returned to Toronto, blissfully unaware of the division she had sowed among the student body.

Finally, two American students - both black, and both female - said what everyone else was thinking. “This is bullshit, and the only way to end it is to speak freely.”

Read the whole thing.

Pete and Kathy are releasing their new book on Canada's Human Rights Commissions/Tribunals next week. You can order The Tyranny of Nice, at this link.

I've had occasion to do a lot of thinking about the subject of personal initiative lately. Since it's on my mind anyway, maybe that's why I feel I keep encountering more of it than usual in my news reading.

You might have heard about this story, from a few weeks ago...

An Illinois Girl Scout troop leader took some initiative to teach her 2nd-grade girls about the current US Presidential election. She contacted both campaigns to ask for some free materials, like buttons or signs, to give to the 7-year olds as learning aids.

John McCain's campaign responded immediately, sending her several campaign stickers and signs. But the Obama campaign..?

The troop leader said she called Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters and explained why she needed the curios. Walsh said she was directed to Obama's Web site—where she could buy all the buttons and posters she wanted. On the Web, a packet of 50 stickers that say "Obama '08" goes for $5; a yard sign is $8. "Got Hope?" bumper stickers are $3 each, or two for $5.

Walsh found the prices a bit exorbitant her small group. She said she asked Obama's campaign worker again if she could get a few items for free. She pointed out that McCain's camp had agreed to send a box and, well, her 12-member Scout troop runs on a very small budget.

Walsh said the woman at Obama's headquarters put her on hold. After a few minutes, she returned with the same answer. The woman told her that she sympathized, but the Obama campaign needs every penny it can get, Walsh said. "She said, 'We're up against the machine and we just can't hand anything out for free,' " Walsh said. "She was very nice . . . but I wasn't getting anything.

She did eventually get something, to be honest; when the media started to report on the cold shoulder the scout leader had initially received, the embarrassed Obama campaign showered her with more than she asked for, right down to a personal letter from The One, Himself. Apparently it was all a terrible mistake.

It's interesting to note what happened, or should I say, what didn't happen, at the Democratic election headquarters during that fateful phone call.

1) The person who took the call apparently didn't think ahead and ponder the potential public relations consequences of her uncharitable response. A campaign that had succeeded in raising over $55 million in the month of August alone can't afford to spare ten bucks worth of pins and posters, for girl scouts? The campaign worker didn't think, "Won't the average voter think we're stingy unless we help the girl scout troup?" Doesn't the staffer believe in long-term thinking, that actions may have consequences?

2) The person who took the call brings the problem to her supervisor. Now, maybe it was or maybe it wasn't the official policy of the staff to honor all requests like this one for small donations of free stuff. Let's say the supervisor was sincere and he truly believed that it wasn't part of their policy to help people like this girl scout troup leader; why doesn't that supervisor simply say to himself, "You know, the stuff that we're being asked for only costs about $10 or $20, why don't I just pay for this out of my own pocket. My bosses will never know about it, but it would make the candidate look good if his supporters behave charitably... maybe I should just help her myself." Yet that didn't happen.

3) The person who took the call is told by her supervisor not to give a single penny's worth of free stuff to the caller. Why doesn't she then say to herself, "You know, maybe I can just send the campaign trinkets myself... I'm not making very much working here, but if I take up a quick collection from my pals on these phone banks, we should easily come up with enough to make a difference for these kids... it might mean one less coffee today, or tomorrow, but it's for a good cause, plus it will make the campaign look good...I can gather that stuff on my next lunch hour." That initiative didn't materialize, either; it didn't occur to her to take matters into her own hands and try and make a difference.

Today I read of another display of personal initiative. Columnist Dinesh D'souza had established a fund to collect donations for Barack Obama's half-starving half-brother in Kenya. He's raised $1,000 in contributions, and is adding an extra grand of his own money to that amount:

Here are the facts about George Obama. He’s in his twenties. He lives in a slum in a hut. He wants to become a mechanic but doesn’t have the money. He reports that he gets by on a dollar a month. ... He said when people notice he has the same name as Barack Obama, he denies they are related because he is “ashamed.” The Democratic presidential candidate, who made $4 million last year, hasn’t lifted a finger to help his half-brother.
...
I specifically asked people to send gifts of $5, $10 and $25. The reason is that even a relatively modest sum by American standards is a considerable sum by Kenyan standards. George Obama has said that he is living on a dollar a month. This seems an impossible sum to survive on, so I checked the poverty line in Kenya. According to United Nations estimates, it’s around $100 a year. By this measure, our little fund has provided for George for 20 years. Alternatively, George can move out of his 6 foot-by-10-foot hut and into a more comfortable dwelling. He can also get the training he needs to become a mechanic.

The Kenya newspaper The Daily Nation is outraged at the existence of the George Obama Compassion Fund, and in an opinion piece published over the weekend, they lash out at D'souza for yet another "low" in the US Presidential election. The writer (who is an editor for the United Nations) points to Obama's first of two autobiographies for evidence that he is not self-centered, and that he has room in his heart for others... room enough for everyone:

[Senator Obama] understands that the condition of being poor is not a crime, as some Republicans would have us believe.

But it is a result of global and national forces, which he is seeking to change, not just for the sake of young men like George (whose only fault, he writes, was that he was “born on the wrong side of our father’s cloven world”), but for all the world’s underprivileged people, who remain silent and ashamed of who they are because the world tells them they will never be good enough.

...Obama dared to think of family as all those, regardless of race, tribe or nation, who are committed to a particular “moral course”.

He sees himself not just as someone who can uplift the lives of his immediate family or the people of the US, but as someone who puts the world on a path where not just his half-brother George will have a chance to improve his life and expect justice, but where everyone on this planet will have a reason to hope for a better world.

... He realised early on his career that gaining individual power for himself was futile because “without power for the group, a group larger even, than an extended family, our success always threatened to leave others behind. And perhaps it was that fact that left me so unsettled – the fact that even here, in Africa, the same maddening patterns held sway; that no-one here could tell me what my blood ties demanded or how those demands could be reconciled with some larger idea of human association.”

So it doesn't occur to the man running as the Democratic party's Presidential Candidate that he could spare a hundred dollars and change his half-brother's life for the better, for a while? Must it be total change, for everyone, or else no change, for anyone? Why not spare some change, for some... for one?

Maybe Senator Obama believes in all-or-nothing absolutes, and wants to wait until he's in a position to help every single person before he begins helping any one person. Fortunately, not every American is paralyzed by such deferment of personal initiative. Thankfully for George Obama, and the uncountable millions of others like him around the world whose stories we rarely hear about, some Americans can imagine what it's like to live in a tragic and flawed world, and believe not just in good and bad, they also believe in better and worse... in progress.

These Americans have the hope that they can be agents of change, helping one life at a time, one chance at a time, instead of every life all at once, forevermore, with just one chance... Americans like this donor to the George Obama Compassion Fund:

"I wish I had a brother, or even a step-brother. George is not my relative and not my race or religion but I still want to contribute to his welfare."

The violence against Christians in the Indian state of Orissa grows in intensity; now the mobs have taken to attacking the police who try to shield Christians from further assault, burning police headquarters inbetween their torching of churches.


The police and state authorities seem completely incapable of maintaining any kind of order in that region. Yet, lawlessness is not an isolated occurence in India these days.


This week Noida [the "New Okhla Industrial Development Area"] saw a shocking story of absolute anarchy, right in the shadow of the nation's capital city of Delhi: an overwhelmed police force did little to contain an enraged mob of 200 former factory workers as they launched an attack on the plant that had employed them:

According to Graziano employees, the sacked workers rushed into the premises around 12:20 pm when the gates were opened to let in a car. "They smashed each one of the approximately 20 cars inside the compound. Hearing the commotion, our CEO, Lalit Kishore Chaudhary, came out to the building entrance. He was abused while trying to reason with the protesters. And, when he objected, they beat him to death with a hammer," said production supervisor, Udaivir.

... The violence left at least 50 executives and workers of the unit injured. Of the 44 staffers taken to hospital, 34 of them were yet to be discharged until Monday night. Of these, 10 executives of the company remained in the intensive care unit.
...
The unit also sustained heavy damage in the vandalism that followed. Five Italian technical consultants, who were visiting the unit, barely managed to escape injuries. Some of them had to plead with the raiders to spare them.
...
Shockingly, despite several Graziano officials phoning up a number of Noida police officials about the violence, only two police constables arrived at the spot after an hour. And, even at 3:30 pm, as the unit's security personnel and some other employees shut themselves up in the unit, only about half a dozen Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel were posted outside. And, there was no officer with them. Which meant that, in case of an emergency, there was nobody there to order any action. And, this was the state of affairs with the district reserve police lines being located half a kilometre away.
...
The bloodstained hammer, which was allegedly used to kill Chaudhary, was found lying in the premises, and had surprisingly not been seized by the police as evidence.
...
In the company guesthouse, visiting Italian technical consultant, Forettii Gatii, told TOI , "I just locked my room's door from inside. And I prayed they would not break in. See, my hands are trembling even three hours later."

It seems that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is not the only conservative being attacked by hackers seeking email addresses... it appears that up here in Canada, our Prime Minister Stephen Harper is suffering the same fate.

I'm signed up to be on the Prime Minister's Office email subscription service. For months now, I've been receiving the same official press releases, statements, transcripts of speeches and notifications of future appearances that journalists and media institutions are sent. It's not a closely guarded secret; just go here if you'd like to do the same. Every other day or so there's a new message, stating that it's from the "PMO".

Today, September 21, 2008, at 12:51:20 PM I received the following email, claiming to be from "Stephen Harper" this time, not the usual "PMO" label, with the subject heading "Why you shouldn't fear me", issued from the exact same address as the regular PMO official messages:

Hi The Average Canadian,

Stephen Harper wanted to tell you... My name is Stephen Harper. I am an ALBERTAN, here me roar! My goal is to make Canada America's 51st state and destroy health care that all Canadians cherish by infusing my propaganda with hard core ad hominem attacks. Please vote for me, because if you do, I promise you'll be able to vote for McCain 2012!

We are a tar sands level party, not a grass roots party. We consider anything with the word \"Green\" offensive, except for the almighty American dollar, which we hope to be able to implement in the coming months! We shall first have to make sure that American and Canadian jelly beans have the same standards, and then we shall proceed.

I hope everyone has a great weekend,

Take care,

Stephen \"I can lead you to Hell but not back\" Harper

The bottom of the message links to a site called "willyoubetricked". Who knows what damage visiting that site will do to computers, so visit at your peril. (there's ".ca" tag to add to the end to the above address, to reach it.)

What juvenile delinquency, coming from "patriots" whose idea of patriotism is not so much love of country, or love of much of anything, so much as it is envy of something else.

UPDATE: A second junk email has now been sent through the Prime Minister's email address:

Serbia's Southern province of Kosovo declared independence in February 2008. Harper's government recognized it's independence. Does this lead to slowly accepting sovereignty for Quebec? Here's why Canada must follow International Law, the UN Chart, UNSC Resolution 1244 and the Final Helsinki Act of 1975.

concerned citizen

Stephen Taylor explains what seems to have happened:

Somebody emailed the PMO listserve address sending this email to whoever signed
up on the Prime Minister’s government website for the email mailing list. ...

Also more at Kate O'Malley's blog at Macleans, and Steve Janke, who adds:

The email is absurd in its content, but the goal is to embarrass the Prime Minister by suggesting a major breach in security.

UPDATE II: At 9:48:19 PM, another email, this time seemingly from the government.

Subject: Unauthorized Messages Purporting to be from Prime Minister Stephen Harper
This message is being sent to you on behalf of the Office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Government of Canada.

As a subscriber to the Prime Minister's website (http://www.pm.gc.ca/), you may have received what appear to be two emails from Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Please be advised that these were unauthorized uses of the Prime Minister's email listserv and do not represent the views of the Prime Minister or his Office. We regret these unauthorized communications.

The circumstances surrounding this unauthorized use of the Prime Minister's listserv are under investigation.