Newsletter April 2007 #68

Table of Contents:

Editor's Remarks

Living and working in the heart of downtown Toronto, it is hard to miss all the demonstrations, marches and parades as they go by -- often literally under my windows. Frequently, they are quite enjoyable, sometimes a little pathetic, and often very informative in their own way. There is one group, however, that I have seen far too often; the shambling column of the living dead. Zombies who are lurching around by sheer force of habit: Too dead to live, and too dumb to die.

They came by again last month. I first heard some shrill harridans with megaphones leading the old chant of "Hey, hey! Ho, Ho! [Insert dial-a- cause here] has got to go!" Next I heard the not-quite syncopated percussion of people who had evidently neither learned how to march nor to dance. Then the signs and banners lumbered into view, lurching and shuffling down the street.

As usual, about 20% of the marchers hadn't brought the appropriate signs for the cause of the moment ("No to War with Iran") and turned up with placards from one of their more recent protests for other causes. The same old raggedy banners for sundry Communist parties were flying interspersed between condemned bed-sheets signifying that one or two people represented '[Insert town here] for Peace' -- or some other group whose existence could be measured in days.

Here it was, the Radical Left, doing what they always do, protesting something by reflex without benefit of reason, analysis and articulation -- the usual shortcomings of zombies. I thought about putting them out of their misery by showering them with salt or graveyard earth but by the time I Googled the solution to zombie infestations, they'd shuffled out of sight. Maybe next time...

-- JT

The Domination of Ideologues

As the world is increasingly forced to confront the crisis in Islam, one constant refrain is heard: "Send for the Moderate Muslims". The hope is that these – whoever they may be – can somehow confront the Jihadists, defeat their ideology and assert a kinder, gentler version of Islam that the rest of the World can tolerate. Don't hold your breath.

There are indeed "Moderate Muslims"; kindly, gentle people who are good neighbours and make excellent friends. The author has the personal acquaintance of a half dozen whose integrity and humanity is most admirable. There are Muslim reformers of intellectual and physical courage, and who are lucid communicators with skilled analytical minds and strong passion. Again, the author has met reformers like Irshad Manji and real moderates like Tarek Fatah, and has the strongest respect and admiration for them.[1] However, against the Jihad, they may have all the influence of a snowball in a steel mill.

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The Coming War with Iran

The recent kidnapping of 15 British sailors by Iranian Revolutionary Guards from Iraqi territorial waters has precipitated another crisis. However, for those who have been paying more attention to Iran in recent years than may be seen on the headlines alone, it is clear that this is not an isolated incident. In fact, it is another step on a looming path to a general war in the region, and one which may very well change the balance of power in the world and which might even result in the use of nuclear weapons. 

President Ahmadinejad is the president of Iran and is, even by the standards of the Middle East, an alarming man with an apocalyptic vision who is working to implement it. The question of how genuine his commitment is to this vision remains open to debate.[5] However, genuine or not, he has been a servant (with bloody hands) of the Iranian Revolutionary regime since 1979,and as president of Iran has laid powder trails to every keg in the Middle East; and is now playing with matches. 

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When does the Real Fight Start?

-- John Robson

Why aren't people fed up with barbarians at the gate and the enemy within? Six years ago I thought public opinion in the West had awakened to the Islamist threat. Today we mostly seem to have gone back to sleep. Our enemies attribute it to terminal decadence. I say one more major terror attack in North America will bring us to a snapping point.

The claim that we've gone too soft to have any snap left, sadly, requires an answer. I'm not too concerned about academics who say we don't deserve to win, journalists who say we can't win and judges and other government officials who don't seem to care. Intellectuals have always been like that, with less immediate effect than they suppose. What does worry me is the answer you'd get today to FDR's astonished question about the Japanese after Pearl Harbor: "What kind of people do they think we are?" Are Canadians and Americans still who we turned out to be in the 1940s? Or do modern youth see Iran's public humiliation of British captives as just one more cool weird meaningless thing on YouTube?

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Inspired by Hugo Chavez

Do you happen to be a senior military officer in a Latin American military? Now that the decades-long example of slow patient democratization is coming unraveled, do you think your country is in peril and needs your direct intervention to save it? 

Take this little test and see if you have the cojones to control a country…

1. Chance of Winning

A. Do you have sufficient control of adequate military resources to take power?

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Worth Repeating

Victims now outnumber oppressors in our victim culture

We have become a nation of victims, with officially protected victim groups adding up to 73% of the population (p.6). According to a new book by the independent think tank Civitas, victimhood today is a political status that is sought after because of the advantages it brings, including preferential treatment in the workplace, the possibility of using police power to silence unwelcome critics, and financial compensation. Some groups are claiming to be victims of multiple discrimination: if their claims are taken seriously, 109% of the population have victim status (p.7).

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Alexander Mackenzie's Bookshelf

Portrait of Mao as a greedy, cowardly, deceitful, manipulative egoist.

In the study of the monsters of the 20^th Century, Mao Zedong largely escaped the detailed scholarship that examined Hitler and Stalin. This is a pity because in many ways he was much worse than either. Hitler, at least, was known to have been physically courageous as a young soldier in the First World War. Mao never risked his hide in any way. Stalin cared (somewhat) for his wives and children; Mao seem untroubled by what befell several of his wives and children.

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The Mackenzie Institute

The Institute was formed in 1986 to provide research and comment on such diverse subjects as terrorism, organized crime, political extremism, propaganda, conflict and other such matters. It does not shy away from controversy.

The Institute holds to the proposition that our democratic institutions need to be defended and enhanced, and works to do what it can to protect the stability of Canadian society.

Those who support its purposes are invited to become Friends of the Institute, and those who contribute $60 (or more) to it, receive its publications for the next twelve months.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca