Welcome to Medary.com Sunday, November 24 2024 @ 03:48 PM CST

Steyn on the U.N.

  • Contributed by:
  • Views: 1,296
Mark Steyn, one of Medary.com's favorite columnists, on the U.N.:
If you think—as the media and the left do in this country—that Iraq is a God-awful mess (which it’s not), then try being the Balkans or Sudan or even Cyprus or anywhere where the problem’s been left to the United Nations.
Via Instapundit.

You Are Being Lied To

  • Contributed by:
  • Views: 1,253
Ralph Peters, in the New York Post: " You are being lied to. By elements in the media determined that Iraq must fail. Just give 'em the Bronx cheer."

It's not just the "Iraq is on the brink of civil war" lie. Gateway Pundit calls BS three times in one day on Old Media:
Bush Job Approval at 34% . . .
Toll in Iraq's Deadly Surge: 1,300 . . .
US Troops in Iraq 72% Say End War in 2006. . .
Not one story of which appears to be factually accurate. Go to Gateway Pundit's site to read further.

Until Old Media drops its panting orgiastic need to see the world through America/Bush-hating glasses, you simply can't believe anything they report without considerable independent fact-checking. Remember that when you turn on the evening network news tonight, or open your newspaper tomorrow. Old Media is no longer in the business of reporting the news, but in the business of manufacturing and shaping the news.

Via Instapundit.

We Stand Here

  • Contributed by:
  • Views: 1,678
Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper at the center of the storm over the Mohammed Cartoons, has published a letter from twelve notables:
After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.

We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.

We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.

We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

12 signatures

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq

Via Little Green Footballs and Agora.

Upgraded . . . Finally!

  • Contributed by:
  • Views: 1,243
I've spent a lot of yesterday and today trying to update the software here at Medary.com. Would have gone quicker if I could both read and understand instructions. Oh, well, I'm a guy, what can I say.

Intellectual Diversity: DePaul edition

  • Contributed by:
  • Views: 3,170
John Ruberry over at Marathonpundit has a story, featuring what appears to be administrative censorship of a campus newspaper, stifling of conservative student's protests, AND Ward Churchill. It doesn't get much better than that. To top it off, David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine is in the middle of it. This would be exactly the kind of intellectual argument which a truly liberal university should encourage. Sadly, it does not seem to be so at DePaul.

As a courtesy to John, Medary.com is pleased to host for him the ad that DePaul wouldn't run.

Technorati tags
[DePaul] [Ward Churchill] [Illinois] [Chicago] [Academic Freedom] [David Horowitz] [Colorado]

Censorship as a Network Failure

  • Contributed by:
  • Views: 2,916
There's an old saying about the Internet: It treats censorship as a network failure and routes around it.

Here's my contribution to that routing: the web site BoingBoing, a blog before weblogs even existed, is being blocked by countries, companies, etc., etc. I think that's silly. So, I'll give our friends at BoingBoing a hand with this snippet from their web site:

  • First, we're publishing a guide to evading the SmartFilter censorware. There are hundreds of ways to defeat these censorware apps, and we're going to catalog as many of them as possible.
    Link to "BoingBoing's Guide To Evading Censorware."
  • Next, we're compiling a list of SmartFilter's dumb classifications. Send us your misclassified SmartFilter sites so we can add them to the list.
  • Finally, we're producing a guide to convincing your employer to ditch SmartFilter. It consists of parts one and two above: a list of bad SmartFilter classifications and a list of ways that SmartFilter can be shredded like wet kleenex. Why spend money on bad technology that doesn't work?

Signed, the BoingBoing team:
- Cory Doctorow
- Mark Frauenfelder
- Xeni Jardin
- David Pescovitz
- John Battelle

My old pals in the network security business are going to hate me for this . . . but it's just the latent libertarian in me, peeking out from the conservative veneer . . .

The American Restaurant - makes good

  • Contributed by:
  • Views: 4,092
Our story 'til now can be found here. We received a response from Mr. Melesse, the General Manager of the American Restaurant in Kansas City . . . as you'll see, the results were quite acceptable:

February 6, 2006


Thank you for your letters dated November 22, 2005 in which you described a less than satisfactory experience at The American. I am disappointed that your experience was any thing but satisfactory.


As discussed on the telephone, your input has allowed us to review our service timeline and share your experience with the service, culinary and valet team.

Thank you also for your letter dated January 11, 206 please accept my sincere apology, I had every intention of writing to you after our conversation, I have no excuse for not following up on this.


To express my sincerity and encourage you to come back, I am enclosing a dining card for $100.00. Feel free to make arrangements and share with me your experience next time. I look forward to seeing you soon and many thanks for taking the time to report the service defect. We will work hard to be worthy of your continued patronage.


Sincerely,

-s-

Solomon Melesse

General Manager

American Restaurant

Coming soon to a University near You

  • Contributed by:
  • Views: 2,287
South Dakota narrowly failed to pass the Intellectual Diversity Bill this past Legislative session.

The issue, however, isn't going away.

Witness the harassment that Professor Adams is suffering at UNC Wilmington:

Dear Jonathan (Garthwaite): I am writing to submit my letter of resignation as a regular columnist for your conservative website. My decision comes in response to the following letter, submitted by a professor in my department to all the other professors in my department (myself excluded):
… When Adams puts his place of employment and his job description at the bottom of his (Townhall.com) articles, he is drawing on his professional reputation and the reputation of this university (UNC-Wilmington) to convince readers of his argument. If I was [sic] his employer (Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo), I would interpret the below article (“NOW and THEN”) as sabotage, given the graphic nature of his language and obvious contempt for 4/5 [sic] (it is actually closer to 3/5) of our student population.

Regards,
Lynne (Snowden).

Snowden’s letter raises a number of points that have been crucial in my retirement decision. The main points are enumerated below:

1. This letter was forwarded to me shortly after I checked my mail in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. In the vicinity of the mailbox, there is a sign reading “Dumb F**k Mountain.” The poster – which shows a picture of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney below the title - was placed there by another professor. Despite the fact that it is actually stapled to the wall of a university building, Snowden has voiced no objections. After all, it’s private speech. But my articles have a by-line (attached by the editor) mentioning my professional affiliation. Therefore, this constitutes “sabotage.” It is unclear whether “sabotage” is merely a tort or, if an actual crime, a felony or a misdemeanor.

2. The second sentence of this missive begins with the words “If I was his employer…” Snowden is not my employer and she never will be my employer. In 2001, she filed a report with the UNCW police alleging that I helped spray tear gas in her office. After the accusations were found to be false, her dreams of becoming my boss were pretty well destroyed. The only real question is whether filing a false felony accusation against a colleague is “sabotage.” I’ll leave that for the chancellor to decide. Given that a) the chancellor is a feminist and b) feminists never condemn fellow feminists, Snowden may well be falsely accusing her colleagues of terrorism for years to come. This is funny, given that she actually teaches a course in counter-terrorism.

3. The suggestion that I have contempt for 4/5 of the student population raises another interesting point. Since women constitute the majority on our campus, it is perplexing to see us continue to treat them like a minority with special services like a “Women’s Resource Center.” After all, they not only outnumber the males but also outperform them in the classroom.

4. Recently, the university Christmas tree was dubbed “offensive” by the administration, which resulted in simply renaming it “the tree.” Now, my columns have been dubbed “graphic.” Well, what about the phrase “Dumb F**k Mountain”? Isn’t that a graphic and offensive phrase? And what exactly is “Dumb F**k Mountain”? Is it the place where they recruit college administrators? Or is it where they train people to teach “counterterrorism”?

So, Jon, you can see why I’ve decided to call it quits. These hypocritical university leftists are just too easy for me to handle. Since none present a remotely interesting challenge to me intellectually, I must simply move on to greater challenges. That is why effective March 1st of the year 2016, I am retiring as a columnist for your website.

Between now and my official retirement date in ten years, I will write no more than 1000 columns mocking university feminists, administrators, and assorted leftist screwballs. If anyone has a problem with that, there is no part of my backside I do not cordially invite them to kiss.

In the meantime, enjoy the latest addition to the Adams arsenal by clicking here. It was funded by the graphic hypocrisy of my would-be saboteurs and the generous contributions of my loyal readers.

Mike Adams is a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is a regular columnist for Townhall.com.

Well, you see, Mike, intellectual diversity is only for leftists.

Please report to Room 101. You are to be re-named Winston. Mr. O'Brien will see you now.

War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.

But, in case wrongthink suits your fancy, here's Dr. Adams' web site.