After years of treating the Jewish Defence League as if they were a rogueish but loveable younger brother, Canadian Jewish Congress supremo Bernie Farber has finally said something about the JDL that's stronger than "they're not my cup of tea" or that he's "disappointed" by them. Farber's epiphany, in the form of an opinion piece in the Toronto Sun, is a response to the JDL's rally last week in support of Britain's extremist English Defence League.
extremism
The mainstream tolerance of right-wing extremism
While denouncing suicide bombers is the bread and butter of U.S. politics, there was barely a murmur of outrage last February when a suicide bomber flew a plane into a Texas office building, killing one office worker and injuring 13 others.
The extraordinarily muted response can only be explained by the fact that the suicide bomber, Joe Stack, had made it clear his anger was directed against U.S. tax authorities -- an anger shared by many powerful interests on the right.
Financial dogma and faith without religion
For a few days this week, my son and I had some Muslim Arab kids from the Mideast, ages 8 and 12, up at the cottage. They've been in Canada for two years. Since it was Ramadan, we decided to fast with them. It's not mandatory for children but lots do it.
Not Rex: Song of Norway
The Oslo terrorism was initially blamed on Al Qaeda. Then it was discovered to be the work of a homegrown, blonde, blue eyed, Christian zealot. So it really wasn't terrorism at all, but the work of a lone madman. But what is really going on is that unchecked Islamophobic rhetoric is morphing into actions. Ever see this happen before?
U.S. political extremism leads to violence
Anyone who follows the news knows that last month U.S. Congress Woman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Tucson. Those who follow a lot of news also know that this incident has generated a lot of finger pointing and other reactions (some might say overreactions) from both sides of the political spectrum. Given the degree of polarization and lack of civil dialogue in the U.S. at the moment, none of this is surprising.
Before the smoke had even cleared in the shopping mall blame was being laid on the Tea Party and their ilk for creating a poisonous atmosphere in the country that led to this sort of violence. Of course the TP types struck back with all sorts of rationalizations as to why they were in no way to blame for something like this. That, of course, is a fantasy.
Climategate's not evil. It's just unhinged
What does Climategate prove -- those e-mails hacked from the Climatic Research Unit at a British university that show a will to manipulate data to confirm the case for warming? I don't think it proves climate change is just a "global warming scare" (National Post). The Arctic ice is still melting, the polar bears are retreating inland, the Northwest Passage is opening wider. Nor does it simply establish that scientists are human (Paul Krugman), although I wouldn't dispute the point. I think it shows that politics makes people crazy.