Snort! This really is awful…But hugely fun.
The bien pensant have nothing…nothing…
The doubtful Mister Ford has a really awful bit of rock and roll.
I call it a draw.
While it is always delightful to see political Islam in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood take one in the eye the military coup does not really solve anything.
As Spengler pointed out two days ago, “Egypt needs about $20 billion a year in external subsidies; a smaller amount would forestall the worst effects of the economic crisis.”
The economics of Egypt have gone from awful to dire in the last ten years. Political Islam has pretty much destroyed the tourist industry which was, more or less, the only currency generator Egypt had. And the politics of subsidy – both food and fuel are heavily subsidized – mean that no one who hopes to get elected is going to inflict the pain necessary to turn the Egyptian economy around.
Spengler again, “Egypt remains a pre-modern society, with nearly 50% illiteracy, a 30% rate of consanguineal marriage, a 90% rate of female genital mutilation, and an un- or underemployment rate over 40%.”
Unfortunately, all of these are cultural rather than economic variables. Politically, from Nasser onwards, the Arab nationalist secularists were largely concerned with suppressing Islamic fundamentalism rather than offering alternatives to it. And, to that end, they were willing to largely ignore the rural and the poor in Egypt, silencing them with subsidy but offering very little else.
Various commentators have pointed to the weakness of Egyptian vivil institutions. The Army being the only relatively stable institution in the country. But, parallel to the Army, the Muslim Brotherhood provided what the government could not – hope.
Today’s coup is being celebrated. But it will solve nothing until and unless the Muslim Brotherhood’s institutional challenge is met with a deep commitment by the secularists to the creation of civil society.
Which is the best case scenario; the worst case is either a hight or low intensity, potentially three way, civil war between the displaced Brotherhood, the secularists (of all stripes) and the Army.
I was down at the Canada Day celebrations with my two boys to watch the fireworks. Half of Victoria, and all the pretty girls, were there in red and white, wearing flags, singing “Oh Canada” with more enthusiasm than skill.
Pressure cooker bombs, the same type used in the Boston Marathon atrocity, would have maimed and killed tens, maybe hundreds.
I just finished watching the tail end of the RCMP news conference. Two arrested. Anglo names: Amanda Marie Korody, 30, and John Stewart Nuttall, 39 but, according to the Horsemen, “inspired by al-Qaeda ideology”.
Looks like the Mounties were on to them from the go. But the self radicalization process is, in itself, deadly dangerous.
More as it happens.
UPDATE: Interesting how a) the RCMP at their news conference worked so hard to avoid mentioning Muslim or Islam and now “al-Qaeda” is an “ideology” rather than an extremist wing of Islam, b) comments at the CBC are closed.
Sure we have a logo for a flag and Pride has taken over the festivities in TO but, what the heck, Canada is a pretty amazing country and I am proud of her.
There is always room for improvement. There are always busy bodies who want to impose their version of “the good” at the cost of our freedom. But, far too gradually, we are pushing back.
We won on s. 13. And now the feds are making it more difficult for rent a protestors to hijack critical resource projects. We are winning – largely by default – on the global warming scam. (When was the last time you heard a Canadian politician actually do anything about the not very scary AGW file?)
At the federal, though not the provincial, level politicians are coming to grips with the fact that fiscal prudence is actually sensible in even the middle run. No, Harper has not moved quickly enough to reduce the size and cost of government. Perhaps he will as the Opposition falls further into disarray. (What is to be done about the profligate provinces is intractable. BC seems to have some clue but Alberta seems determined to blow its natural advantages. And what is going on in Ontario? Racing Quebec to bankruptcy is not a very clever strategy.)
Where Harper has really shone is on the foreign affairs file. If you begin with the position that Israel is, realistically, the only nation in the Middle East with which Canada has any affinity, the rest is straightforward. Stay the Hell away from disasters like Syria, stand up to Islamic bullies, provide safe haven to the victims of the more medieval Muslim elements.
But here is what PM Harper said today on Parliament Hill:
They’ve set an example for the rest of the country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.
“When floods forced so many from their homes, communities dug deep, neighbours helped neighbours and people sheltered complete strangers,” he said.
“That’s the spirit that makes Canada the best country in the world. The best, bar none.”…
“Canada is not just any country, but a people determined to do right — a fact that makes me proud as we approach the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of our country,” he said.
“Compassionate neighbours, courageous warriors, and confident partners, a bastion of freedom in an un-free world, a standard-bearer of goodwill, in a time when too many choose to hate, a land of hope in a sea of uncertainty.”
Jay Currie 