Conservative Conundrum

A less than impassioned criticism by the 'Prime Minister' of Ezra Le Rant and his Western Standard and the Jewish Free Press both of Harpers home town; Calgary.In fact it isn't a criticism at all it's a defense of Le Rant. Harper regrets publication of controversial Muhammad cartoons

"Free speech is a right that all Canadians enjoy; Canadians also have the right to voice their opinion on the free speech of others," Stephen Harper said in a written statement, his first comments on the incendiary cartoons since the furor erupted.

Well what did you expect, Le Rant is one of the young Turks who surround Harper, like Jason Kenney, Rob Anders, etc. all members of the Republican wing of the Conservative party.

Harper is in a conundrum, as is his Conservative party, as are Blogging Tories because Le Rant may have put Canadian troops in harms way with his publishing the cartoons. The rioting over the cartoons has seen assualts on NATO troops in Afghanistan. And his publishing the cartoons has made it into the world wide Muslim press.

Legal redress sought over cartoons Aljazeera.Net
Canadian PM laments publication of Prophet caricatures Malayala Manorama

Ezra Levant is an Idiot.

On Tuesday, Lt.-Col. Tom Doucette told CTV News that the decision of Western Standard, a Calgary-based magazine, to reprint the cartoons could endanger Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan. "What it might do is slow things down, i.e., in concentrated centres," Doucette told CTV. "If we get crowds gathering, then we will try to avoid that." His comments bolstered a similar warning from Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor. "It doesn't help. Radicals in Syria and Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq, they get people roused up because their religion's being offended," O'Connor said, the Ottawa Citizen reported Tuesday. "We don't need any more risk in the area than we have."PM 'regrets' publication of Muhammad cartoons

Uh oh now all those Blogging Tories that support our troops in Afghanistan will have to make a choice defend an idiotic provocatation that was unneccary and that will lead to endagering our troops, or denounce Le Rant for his deliberate and calculated attempt to increase his magazines circulation and his own profile. The later being more the case than a case for Free Speech.

Ezra Levant, publisher of the Western Standard, told CBC television the magazine decided to publish the cartoons because it considered them newsworthy. "We're not publishing them for their editorial merits," he said."They're boring cartoons. They're bland. They're not interesting. We're not running them because we share their views. We're running them because they're the central fact that caused Muslim radicals around the world to riot."

Ezra is all about Ezra being the news. The Western Standard has no more real circulation than Alberta Report before it. So this is all about Ezra in the news. Always has been. And Ezra ain't news.

And his publishing the cartoons is sheer opportunism not a question of fighting censorship. The Canadian media didn't censor the cartoons they just didn't run them because of good sense and good taste. Something that is lacking at the Western Standard.

But again as I said it's not about the cartoons or freedom of the press or freedom of speech its about Ezra. He thinks now that the Conservatives are in power he and his right wing pals should get more press and be referred to like his counterparts in the U.S. are.

It's a tempest in a tea pot feuled by faux right wing outrage.

And unlike Voltaire I cannot support Ezra's right to so called Free Speech.

As a right winger he has now shown himself as a fascist who would deliberately publish material he knows will provoke a negative reaction in order to prove his point that his self appointed enemies, Canadian Muslims, are terrorists and reactionaries. To Ezra and his Conservative pals all Muslims are radicals. He is practicing the Goebbels school of propaganda not Free Speech.

Levant, who is Jewish, had some harsh words for Elmasry. He described him as an "idiot" several times, and said he has no moral high ground to lecture him on journalistic integrity.
Levant pointed to controversial comments Elmasry made in October, 2004, when he said all Jews over the age of 18 are fair targets for suicide bombers. Elmasry made the comments on The Michael Coren Show, an Ontario program that runs on Burlington's Crossroads Television System.Elmasry later repeated the comments in a Globe and Mail interview, but eventually claimed he was expressing a widely-held Palestinian view, not his own personal belief."PM 'regrets' publication of Muhammad cartoons

Yeah Ezra is Jewish, so what. He is a perfect example of what he calls the self-hating Jew, he is Jewish when it is conveniant to be Jewish. Like now. Most of the other times he is just a regular WASP Right Winger like his other pals in the Calgary Conservative circle.

And yeah he uses a mistatement by his opponents to belittle them, like he has never done that and had to apologize. These are the debating tactics of a fascist. Never apologise never surrender. Ah, Dr. Gobbels would have been proud.

And Canadians deserved more outrage out of our PM rather than his weak tea 'regret'. Yeah we all regret your pal's in Calgary are idiots, but your job is not to defend them but to speak for Canadians whom they have insulted and outraged.





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