At Home in Hespeler

One can’t help but wonder if Mrs. Mark Steyn lets her husband win the odd fight, lest a 900-page rebuttal in 3 parts be published, highlighting the ways in which she argued illogically over the course of their marriage. Likely not, but then who’d of thought suing the guy for libel would get you one of those.

Certainly not Michael Mann.

When Mann sued Steyn, I was one of those who thought he picked a dangerous sparring partner, and having read Lights Out, his response to an action against him in Canada, I knew Steyn wouldn’t just roll over and accept what Mann was giving. He would, at the least, make it uncomfortable for Mann. After all, he took on Ryerson Journalism Professor John Miller in Lights Out, and has not been afraid to absolutely skewer the occasional correspondent to his own website, steynonline.com. Even positive reviews that dare get the name of the next Bond movie wrong get their error highlighted. So it was a good guess that Mann v. Steyn would have its entertaining moments.

With A Disgrace to the Profession: The Worlds Scientists in Their Own Words – on Michael E. Mann, His Hockey Stick, and Their Damage to Science: Volume One, he doesn’t so much a make it uncomfortable for Mann as eviscerate his. The book is 300-pages of climate scientists, physicists and others with Ph.D. after their name, speaking ill of Mann and his work. With Steyn’s witty apercus throughout, A Disgrace to the Profession reads quite comfortably, not bogging down in technical details as a book devoted to science such as this is always at risk of doing.

A Disgrace to the Profession is a comprehensive take down. Mann may have thought he could sue Steyn into silence and he was wrong. But if he thought his reputation had been given a hit by Steyn, and he could regain it through the courts, he was as wrong as he’s ever been (and as Steyn makes pretty clear in A Disgrace to the Profession, that’s saying something). Win, lose or tie in the DC courts, it seems unlikely Mann’s reputation will survive his ill-advised fight with Mark Steyn.

For certified professional guitar repair in Cambridge Ontario: Brian Gardiner Guitar Repair

Hockey, Mark Steyn Mark Steyn, Michael Mann

As Newspapers cut back, editors are one of the easy places to cut, A good editor doesn’t just correct spelling and grammar, but they cut extraneous words. If it’s repetitive or unnecessary, out it goes. Case in point, The National Post article, Rachel Dolezal’s Fall From Grace, by Robyn Ur­back,

Her self-identification as black, thus, has basically no foundation in her biological reality.

See, a good editor would have trimmed this to the more accurate: “Her self-identification as black, thus, has no foundation in reality.”

Of course what Urback is doing is, to use Mark Steyn’s phrase, “a palpable bet-hedging.” The Steyn phrase is from a piece today called Tweet of Clay, and the bit about bet-hedging is not the highlight. This line is:

More and more levers of civilization appear to be in the hands of the clinically insane.

It’s a line I use nowadays when people start talking politics. Right. left, conservative, liberal, Party A, Party B, it’s irrelevant. I let people bitch from whatever side they argue from, and eventually I say, “It’s because they’re all nuts. Every one of them is actually, literally crazy.” It never fails, whatever they are complaining about, can be explained easily by “they’re all, literally, crazy.”

The reason it works is because, I’m becoming more and more convinced, it’s 100% true. Never mind Mark Steyn’s little “bet-hedging,” he almost right: More and more levers of civilization are in the hands of the clinically insane.

for certified professional guitar repair in Cambridge Ontario: Brian Gardiner Guitar Repair

free speech, Mark Steyn Mark Steyn, Rachel Dolezal, Robyn Ur­back

Here’s a question. Why has Mark Steyn never recorded Baby, It’s Cold Outside?* In two Christmas themed albums with Jessica Martin, Steyn has covered everything from Sweet Gingerbread Man, to It’s a Marshmallow World, from Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to Santa Clause is Coming to Town and Jingle Bells. Now with his latest CD, Goldfinger, Steyn adds Can’t Take My Eyes off You, the Very Thought of You and, implausibly, a slow jazz standard of Cat Scratch Fever (he think’s he’s got it some more, yea).

And can it be a coincidence that this CD shows up in my mailbox the same day they announce the latest Bond movie, Spectre?** His rendition of Goldfinger leads to an obvious choice to do the theme song for Spectre, and it’s not to let Madonna ruin another Bond intro. No, never mind the Mark Steyn for Senate petition that was floating around a year or so back, it’s time for a Mark Steyn for the Bond theme song movement.***

But still, Goldfinger, the seven-song CD, comes in at around 30-minutes so it seems like you could shoehorn one more in. And Jessica Martin, his favourite female foil, makes an appearance anyway, so why not drop Baby, It’s Cold Outside on to the CD? It is, after all, according to Steyn himself, the root of all Jihad. This from Lights Out: Islam, Free Speech And The Twilight Of The West, one of Steyn’s must own books:

What was so awful about Sayyid Qutb’s experience in America that led him to regard modernity as an abomination? Well, he went to a dance in Greeley, Colorado:

The room convulsed with the feverish music from the gramophone. Dancing naked legs filled the hall, arms draped around the waists, chests met chests, lips met lips…

In 1949, Greeley, Colorado was dry. The dance was a church social. The feverish music was Frank Loesser’s charm song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”… It’s a useful reminder how much we could give up and still be found decadent and disgusting by the Islamists. A world without “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” will be very cold indeed.

Wow, just think how bad the war on terror would be going if Sayyid Qutb had heard Cat Scratch Fever Mark Steyn style. So the jihadists would hate Baby, It’s Cold Outside and Steyn could add his name to what is probably the only list in the world to include Rod Stewart, Buddy the Elf and Hot Lips Page.

Fortunately we have Goldfinger to enjoy, which has plenty of it’s own abomination’s of modernity.

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Update: Dec 15

Hello to readers of Mark Steyn, who has linked here for the second time. Glad to have you stop by. A couple of notes that Steyn himself has raised.

* Last week, Mr. Steyn noted he had answered that question in his song of the week: “I gave a kind of an answer a week ago, but evidently Mr Gardiner is not satisfied.” Actually, it was not a matter of satisfied or no, it was a matter of I hadn’t read that particular article yet.

** Originally I referred to the title of the movie as Smersh. Steyn is, of course, correct, the movie is “Spectre”, not Smersh. At the time of writing the post, I was reading Ian Fleming’s From Russia With Love, in which SMERSH is heavily involved in a plot to kill James Bond. Apparently I had SMERSH on the mind. It is now corrected in the text, but noted here.

*** Let the record state, I agree with Mark Steyn (and Don Black) “that Shirley Bassey should sing them all”. However, far too often it is not Shirley Bassey, but Madonna or Duran Duran who does the theme, and a poor job they make of it too. I am merely submitting Steyn to get the gig in lieu of Ms. Bassey should she be unavailable.

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Track List

1. Cat Scratch Fever
2. On a Slow Boat to China
3. Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
4. De Quoi A-T-Elle L’Air Ce Soir
5. Roses of Picardy
6. Goldfinger
7. The Very Thought Of You

Mark Steyn Baby its cold outside, cat scratch fever, Goldfinger, James Bond, Mark Steyn, Spectre

There’s a bad novel out there somewhere that starts thus:

Like Houdini, I escaped again. I’m less optimistic than I used to be, and if my prediction of total civilizational collapse doesn’t come to pass, I’d be very happy to be proved wrong.

Mark Steyn, on the other hand, ends his new collection of his writing, The [Un]documented Mark Steyn, with more or less the above. It is much a more effective ending, and a strange book indeed that can be summed up by wishing that predictions of civilizational collapse is wrong.

More relevant perhaps, is this, from his 2008 column, The Limits:

I made the mistake of going to Europe to visit the famous banlieues of Paris and other Continental Muslim neighborhoods. And at that point… I began to see that it’s not really about angry young men in caves in the Hindu Kush; it’s not even about angry young men in the fast growing Muslim populations of the west – although that’s certainly part of the seven-eighths of the iceberg bobbing just below the surface of 9/11. But the bulk of that iceberg is the profound and perhaps fatal weakness of the civilization that built the modern world.

That’s a nice summation of Steyn’s writing since, and of The [Un]documented Mark Steyn.

The [Un]documented Mark Steyn is a comprehensive collection of Steyn articles spanning the last 20 or so years. From 9/11 to Japanese demography; Burkas to Viagra; James Bond to Doris Day, Steyn writes about it all with an eye on the big picture and humour. Total civilizational collapse has never been so much fun.

Book Review, Mark Steyn Mark Steyn, The Undocumented Mark Steyn

“What do you want for our anniversary,” my wife asked in mid-April. Number twenty-three was coming up, and as hasn’t happened in about twenty years, I had something I actually wanted: a $100 gift certificate to the SteynOnline.  I want to support his fight against that loon Michael Mann, and for free speech, (which took yet another hit in Toronto this weekend *). So by mid-morning on April 27th, I had already spent most of my $100, and bought 3 Steyn offerings, America Alone (hardback edition), Passing parade and Broadway Babies Say Goodnight.

While I worked through Passing Parade first, and having bought America Alone on my Kobo when it first came out, I am now about two-thirds through Broadway babies. I simply cannot say enough how much I am enjoying it. Steyn is, of course, such a good writer, but Broadway is an obvious passion, and his knowledge on the subject is frightening. For myself, I’m a big music fan who has lately grown to enjoy the musicals, show tunes, and jazz standards that are covered through the book. It is a book I looked at for years at SteynOnline and decided no, finally bought, albeit reluctantly, and is one of the best books I’ve read in ages.

One thing I keep thinking, I would love if Steyn updated the book, being more than 15-years out of date and things on Broadway have, naturally enough, changed since the mid 90’s. Or have they changed? It’s a question I’d like to see Steyn answer.

If you prefer e-books, Steyn has made his books available in various formats, more dead people than ever version of Passing Parade. But really, just go to SteynOnline, order some books and support his fight against big climate bully Michael Mann.

Mark Steyn

Re: this:

When it comes to the legal restriction of speech, or the legal coercion of dissenters, I’ll storm the barricade with Mark. It amazes me that any soi-disant free people tolerate that sort of thing.

The use of speech to criticize other speech is something else, and the distinction between state coercion and cultural coercion is one that Mark typically doesn’t acknowledge, to the detriment of his arguments…

Steyn responds:

I am sorry my editor at NR does not grasp the stakes. Indeed, he seems inclined to “normalize” what GLAAD is doing. But, if he truly finds my “derogatory language” offensive, I’d rather he just indefinitely suspend me than twist himself into a soggy pretzel of ambivalent inertia trying to avoid the central point — that a society where lives are ruined over an aside because some identity-group don decides it must be so is ugly and profoundly illiberal. As to his kind but belated and conditional pledge to join me on the barricades, I had enough of that level of passionate support up in Canada to know that, when the call to arms comes, there will always be some “derogatory” or “puerile” expression that it will be more important to tut over. So thanks for the offer, but I don’t think you’d be much use, would you?

What a pity it would be if, like McLeans before it, National Review rendered itself virtually unreadable.

Mark Steyn Mark Steyn, McLeans, National Review

… the community outreach officer tells the conservative bitch to shut up, or the rabbi gets it

York Regional Police threatened to remove a rabbi as one of the force’s chaplains if he hosted a controversial anti-Islamist speaker at his Thornhill synagogue.

Insp. Ricky Veerappan, of the force’s diversity, equity and inclusion bureau, confirmed he and officers from the service’s hate crimes unit met with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan of the Chabad Flamingo Synagogue on Tuesday.

They expressed concern about an upcoming talk to be given by Pamela Geller, a vocal critic of radical Islam…

As noted by Mark Steyn,:

When the York Regional Police Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Bureau show up thwacking their truncheons against their palms and saying, “Nice little multifaith advisory committee gig you got going, Rabbi. Shame if anything were to happen to it”, a prudent man gets the message

So the paramilitary arm of the Toronto Star (with apologies to Messrs. Steyn and John O’Sullivan) gets to decide what communities deserve outreach. I would have been much happier if the story ended with Rabbi Kaplan saying, “stick your multi faith advisory committee, I’ll take my freedom over your lousy sinecure every day of the week and twice on Saturday.” However, I can’t blame a guy for flinching when he’s staring down the barrel of a bully. In lieu of the right thing happening, second best is a new location for Pamela Geller’s speech:

Toronto Zionist Centre
780 Marlee Avenue
(Lawrence just west of the Allen Expswy.)

Tickets are $20 for general admission
$36 for reserved VIP seating.
(you can purchase tickets directly from the link above).

Meanwhile, Blazing Cat Fur has an open letter from Salem Mansur:

I am a Muslim, a tenured professor in a prestigious Canadian university, the University of Western Ontario in London. I am appalled that in this day and age we continue to hear regularly how the liberal democratic tradition of Canada and the West is being systematically shredded by institutions sworn to protect it. Free speech is the most fundamental right of a free society; constrain it, strip it, shred it, and then let us not be surprised our society will be turned into a society such as one from where I fled as a young man to find freedom in the West…

Geller herself will be on The Source with Ezra Levant today.

Mark Steyn, pimply minions of bureaucracy Mark Steyn, Pamela Geller, Radical Islam

I asked:

Mark, I have noticed Alex(is) de Tocqueville popping up in your work lately Is Tocqueville’s work significant in After America and if so, why? Also, what works of Tocqueville’s did you reference, and what of his would you recommend?

Mark answers.

Steyn’s new book, After America: Get Ready for Armageddon hits the bookstores today. Buy yours at Steyn Online or Amazon.

While your at Amazon, you can get the Alexis de Tocqueville book that Mark Steyn recommends you read just as soon as your done with After America, Democracy in America.

Mark Steyn After America, Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Mark Steyn

Canadian pundit Mark Steyn has filled in for Rush Limbaugh for three days this week. On Tuesday he used Rupert Murdoch as a springboard for an hour on government responsibility. It was a brilliant hour of radio, where Steyn made the point that citizens and journalists are not supposed to be answerable to government, but government should be answering to citizens and journalists:

When you’re looking at government hauling up citizens and pointing the finger at them it’s the wrong way around. Citizens should be holding government to account, and what’s happening with Rupert Murdoch and the pie throwing guy and the rest of the circus in London is exactly the opposite of what a healthy society of genuine citizen legislatures and accountable government would really be doing.

If you can find Tuesday’s Rush Limbaugh Show somewhere, have a listen to the first hour. It was Mark Steyn at his best.

Meanwhile, Steyn has a new book coming out in a few weeks. After America: Get Ready for Armageddon will be released on August 8th in America and here in Canada:

From budgets to the border, diversity to disease, manufacturing to manhood, Steyn looks at the American undreaming, and provides a glimpse of the post-American world. There’s laughs along the way, and a few suggestions as to how total civilizational collapse might be avoided.

Rumour is it will be available on paper, as well as in e-book format.

Mark Steyn Mark Steyn, Rush Limbaugh

Pretty self explanatory.

Mark Steyn on Free Speech at the IPA from Institute of Public Affairs on Vimeo.

Speaking of Mark Steyn, his latest book, After America: Get Ready for Armageddon, is listed at Amazon as having an August 8 release date. Hope that proves true.

Mark Steyn After America, Andrew Bolt, Institute of Public Affairs, Lights Out, Mark Steyn

I love podcasts. I listen to radio shows from all over Canada and America depending on my mood or who he guest is. If The Fans Bob McCown is being a tool one day, I move on or fast forward to what I want, then move on.

One of my daily listens is The Michael Graham Show out of Boston. This week, he had Mark Steyn on, always a worth while listen. Here’s the audio from the show.

You can subscribe to Michael Graham’s Podcast here.

h/t @kshaidle

Mark Steyn Mark Steyn, Michael Graham

it should be SteynTV.

The SunTV website has a page for recomending personalities for the new conservative news channel.

Who better than Mark Steyn? It doesn’t have to be a regular daily show, just a weekly appearance ala Dennis Miller on Bill O’Reilly’s show.

What’s needed is a campaign to get Steyn on the new channel. Click the link, let SunTV know you want to see SteynTV.

Mark Steyn Mark Steyn, SUNTV

Mark Steyn’s latest Maclean’s piece is about rocker Bono and his band U2’s decision to relocate business interests in the Netherlands.:

After playing the Obama inauguration a couple of months back, the pop star Bono flew back home to a rare barrage of hostile headlines. As you know, the global do-gooder wants us to send more of our money to Africa. So why is he sending his money to the Netherlands? From the Irish Times:

“Bono ‘Hurt’ By Criticism Of U2 Move To Netherlands To Cut Tax.”

As Steyn actually notes, U2 “… moved to the Netherlands a couple of years back, about 17 nanoseconds after the Irish finance minister removed the tax exemption on “artistic” income above 250,000 euros.” However, It’s only in the last few weeks that charities and NGOs and “justice groups” have decided to make an example of the unfortunate warbler.”

It’s only a story now, a couple of years later? Well everybody jump on my back, because I did this story back in the fall of 2006:

Gobsheit!

It’s an Irish term. Roughly translated gob means pile and sheit means excrement. As in you Pile of Sh*t. In common usage, it is preceded by the adjective fockin’. eg. “What are you doing with my wife, you fockin’ gobsheit?”

Which brings me to Bono, and his band of sullen men, U2:

After Ireland said it would scrap a break that lets musicians and artists avoid paying taxes on royalties, Bono and his fellow U2 band members this year moved their music publishing company to the Netherlands.

This would be the same Bono, of the same U2 that came to Canada to scold the Canadian government for not doing enough. Remember he was going to be Martin’s “biggest pain in the ass” if he didn’t follow through on his commitments.

The Dublin group, which Forbes estimates earned $110 million in 2005, will pay about 5% tax on their royalties, less than half the Irish rate.

The move is explained by U2 guitarist David Evans (The Edge) as a strictly business move:

“Our business is a very complex business,” Evans said Oct. 2 on the Dublin radio station Newstalk, breaking the band’s silence after weeks of public criticism. “Of course we’re trying to be tax-efficient. Who doesn’t want to be tax-efficient?”

Exactly! Tax efficient. That’s what I want to be too, except when I try, or when governments try on my behalf, busy body know it alls like Bono show up and spend the money on their own pet projects. They are, to paraphrase Mr. Evans, awfully tax efficient with my tax dollars.

I liked this line, however, from Jill Cassidy, presumably an ordinary citizen of Dublin:

“Among the wealthiest people, I suppose it’s the norm. In U2’s position, it does come across as quite hypocritical.”

Hypocritical indeed. Now, what was that poetic little Irish term?

Celebrities, Mark Steyn, The Media Following My Lead. Ireland, Irish Times, Maclean's, Mark Steyn, Netherlands, U2

Mark Steyn is back with more of what he does best. The follow up to America Alone, Steyn has a new book, Lights Out: Islam, Free Speech and the Twilight of the West.

An signed copy is available through the SteynStore. I’ll be grabbing my copy soon (memo to Mark: it would be easier to buy your stuff if you accepted PayPal).

*********

Update: Welcome readers of SteynOnline.

Books, Mark Steyn America Alone, Book, free speech, Islam, Lights Out, Mark Steyn, Twilight of the West

After a sabbatical from Canadian publishing, Mark Steyn returns to Macleans magazine this week:

Anything happen while I was gone?

Oh, yeah. The collapse of the global economy. Armageddon outta here. The ecopalypse is upon us. Down south, President Obama has abandoned the gaseous uplift of “the audacity of hope” and warns we’re on the brink of the abyss. In the old New Deal, FDR warned that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” For the new New Deal, President Hopeychangey says we have nothing but fear itself. Get used to it. In Russia, the nation’s wealthiest oligarchs have seen their net worth decline by two-thirds. They can’t steal it as fast as it depreciates. Even yard sales of Soviet nukes to chaps with Waziristani business cards won’t make it up.

Welcome back Mark.

h/t Dr. Roy

Mark Steyn