Saturday, April 23, 2011

Is this a Human Rights Museum or a Holocaust memorial?

A nice bit of holocaust denial appeared in the form of an "advertisement" on page A5 of the National Post in their Apr.23, 2011 issue. Apparently, Izzy Asper's vision for a Human Rights Museum for Winnipeg has devolved into a holocaust-focused museum - which is fine, as long as we understand which "holocaust" is being focused upon here.
It appears to me that the holocaust deniers who signed this "ad" want to portray this holocaust as a Jewish-only horror - in other words,  no other WWII victims can be included in that definition for their narrative to work.
If so, then this version should be trademarked as a capital-H "Holocaust TM ", so people can differentiate that they are talking only and specifically of Jews - to the exclusion of all others - who died from nazi atrocities. Karen Silverstrim clearly emphasized this very sensitive and extremely nuanced point in her detailed article "Overlooked millions: Non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust".
Millions of non-combatant Jews were part of the holocaust, as were millions of other non-combatant victims (labelled by the nazis as 'subhumans'); eliminated under a pre-planned, politically-motivated, state-run agenda. Manipulating the narrative to exclude non-Jewish victims of nazi atrocities is a frankly distasteful denial of this holocaust.
Unfortunately for those today trying to peddle a type of  'exclusionary' capital H trademarked view, Jews WERE NOT the only ones to be targeted, gassed and burned in Hitler's ovens: the real holocaust was not exclusively Jewish - it was a shared monstrous fate. Acknowledging this fact should in no way demean nor undermine the extent of Jewish suffering.
Anyone who understands this context will then see the disingenuousness of this National Post "ad", which purports that the Ukrainian community is illegitimately agitating against Jews, by inflating the number of people killed in Stalin's earlier Holodomor genocide to artificially supersede that of the Jewish-only victims, part of  Hitler's holocaust several years later.
The hypocrisy of this "ad" is that this demeaning accusation is made against the Ukrainian community [specifically vis a vis the Holdomor: feh: 'only three million' died...(and weren't any of those victims also Jewish Ukrainians?)] while in the very next moment, this "ad" then talks of how many more Jews perished in the holocaust - thereby justifying their top place in the pantheon of victimhood - and deserving a permanent HRM exhibit!
This duplicitous "ad" is exactly what it pretends not be be: this "ad" is all about establishing and maintaining the hierarchy of suffering; about placing Jewish suffering above all others, as if WWII  had had no other victims, at least, none worthy of elevated 'permanent status'... I dunno: how many more Ukrainians should have died for Kaganovich, Stalin, Hitler and the holocaust-denying holocaust-deniers to be happy? How many more Ukrainians should have been murdered by marauding Polish paramilitary while under nazi occupation? Too bad for the victims of the holodomor that Stalin's murderous commies weren't as meticulous record-keepers as Hitler's murderous fascists...
This "museum" should instead be appropriately renamed as a center of Holocaust Remembrance, funded privately, and allowed to pursue its selected (and selective) narrative agenda.
*
As the UCCLA notes, it is unfair and unacceptable that HRM exhibits with privileged partiality be funded from the public purse.
The HRM's 12 proposed galleries "should all be inclusive, comparative and thematic in their treatment of the many episodes of genocide and crimes against humanity that have befouled human history - before, during and since the Second World War."
*

Monday, April 18, 2011

Another Ice Bridge has formed in the river at Niagara Falls

Today (Apr.18, 2011) another Ice Bridge has formed on the Niagara River; this is the second Ice Bridge to have formed in 2011. The first Ice Bridge formed on Jan.14, 2011, and finally disappeared on Mar.19, 2011.
Now, a second, massive Ice Bridge has appeared, quite literally overnight: just yesterday (on Apr.17, 2011) the Niagara River here was completely free of any floating ice - see my photos of the new second Niagara Ice Bridge of 2011 here, scroll to Apr.18.
*

Friday, April 15, 2011

More McGuinty lies and deceptions: Don't ask MPP Jim Bradley for an explanation

The Apr.15,2010 St.Catharines Standard published Jonathan Sher's QMI story, "Ontario won't punish hospitals that won't cut costs",  which noted that "...Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan won't penalize hospitals or other government-funded entities that fail to reduce executive costs by 10% in the next two years - a target announced in the spring budget."

So here we have, merely weeks after the Ontario budget, yet another example of pure, predictable, Liberal healthcare duplicity: fraudulent Liberal promises, followed by bald-faced Liberal lies.
And we know that no-one at the St.Catharines Standard will ever dare ask Good Ole Liberal MPP Jim Bradley about that latest Liberal health-care lie!

Just as Don Fraser (writing his front page St.Catharines Standard story on Apr.13, 2011 "Gasoline price increases in the fast lane") managed to completely avoid any mention about Jim Bradley! {...what's Good Ole Jimmy got to do with any of that?!!}

{...update: turns out that by Oct. of 2012, Fraser would reveal that he was a water-skiing student of the Great Kahuna himself, none other than Dalton McGuinty... so... umm....  yah: lookin' back at Fraser's pantheon of "reports", it now makes sense why Liberals would conveniently not be mentioned if whatever story at the moment couldn't be made to make them somehow look good. No personal spin or bias there, eh ?! What we saw in the St.Catharines Standard's pages was basically just Liberal-friendly commentary/propaganda, politely but nevertheless disturbingly disguised as "reporting". Took years for this bias to be revealed, though.}

Amazing, isn't it: Good Ole Jimmy for years blustered and outright lied about how his Liberals would control and regulate gas prices!

A smug Jimmy - in opposition - made all kinds of smarmy, squawking, disingenuous statements about  gasoline-price-fixing and collusion and his Liberals' ability to control and regulate the price of gas!

But strangely - now that Good Ole Jimmy's Liberals are in power (for two majority terms, btw...) - the St.Catharines Standard mysteriously CAN'T FIND lyin' Jimmy to comment on gas prices!!
Reporter Don Fraser couldn't be bothered, for some reason, to find and to ask Jim Bradley about his years of deception about gas prices!

Did the St.Catharines Standard bother to contact the Liberal MPP in their own city for a comment?! Or was Jim Bradley conveniently, um... overlooked, and excused from scrutiny, by the local press?!
Why, back on Feb.13, 2003 [when Harris was in power...] the Standard easily managed to find Jimmy [!], eagerly reporting how Bradley "doesn't remember gas prices ever being this expensive" ! (and, remember, that was when gasoline was at 80 cents!)

Funny, eh, how now (with gas pushing $1.34.9 (as seen in St.Catharines on Apr.18, 2011) - after eight years of McGuinty Liberal majority rule - NO-ONE is asking whether Jim Bradley 'remembers gasoline being this expensive' in Ontario - under his own Liberal watch!

Certainly no-one at the St.CatharinesStandard's JimmyBoy Fanclub.
It was hilarious to hear Dwight Duncan during Question Period on Apr.19, 2011, "answering" a question about controlling gasoline prices from the NDP's Horwath. Duncan told the dippers that it was "mindless grandstanding" for cheap votes to pander the illusion that the province can control gasoline prices!
 
Yeah: did ya hear that?

THAT'S McGUINTY'S LIBERAL FINANCE MINISTER saying it!

And yep: that's the same Dalton McGuinty - along with Good Ole Crapbag Jimmy Bradley - who were saying THE EXACT SAME THING when they were in opposition, as Horwath is saying now!

Yep: McGuinty and Bradley's Liberals were accusing Harris of being in bed with the oil barons, bla, bla, bla... yet now, lookit that, Ole Dunco has come to the SAME conclusion as did Harris and Chretien!

Dwight Duncan has finally revealed the truth: Liberal Dalton McGuinty and shitbag Bradley in fact were "mindlessly grandstanding" when they were blabbing about gasoline  "gouging" and "price-fixing" and "collusion" a decade ago, just as a clueless, shamelessly pandering Jackoff Layton is still doing in 2011.  

[ohhh... and hey, why aren't the St.Catharines green teamsters asking Jim I'm-Saving-The-Planet Bradley about the, umm, "carbon footprint" of the province busing thousands of prisoners in the Sarnia-Windsor area, because of McGuinty's super-prison-building plans?! Gosh: no Van Dongen kissy-face interview with Bradley about how his Liberals are polluting the planet... funny, huh?
*