A slow-burn bonfire of liberties[A BONFIRE OF LIBERTIES]

MaCleans.ca ^ | 13 May 2010 | Mark Steyn

[JLS]

Here’s what you get when the state hauls nobodies off to jail for quoting the Bible

At the time of writing, I have no idea who’s won the British general election. At the time of reading, you probably have. But, whatever the result, I doubt it will make much difference to the fate of the United Kingdom, which is in the fast lane of the not-so-slow-burn bonfire of the liberties consuming much of the Western world.

The official “defining moment” of the campaign was Gordon Brown’s unguarded post-photo-op dismissal of Gillian Duffy as a “bigoted woman.” Mrs. Duffy, a plain-spoken working-class granny and lifelong Labour voter, had made the mistake of asking Mr. Brown, her party leader, a very mild question about immigrants from eastern Europe. He got back in his car and wrote her off, forgetting he was still miked. So she’s a “bigot.” He’s not. That’s why he makes all the decisions for her, and she just makes the best of them. What part of that don’t you understand?

[JLS]

Steyn writes more on the decline of western culture this time using the UK election as his jumping off point.

[JLS]

Steyn ping opportunity.

[knews_hound]

Steyn opines on "free speech" in Canada .





Here is the transcript of Steyns weekly appearance of the Hugh Hewitt show also -

Mark Steyn: Hugh Hewitt Transcript


On or off, please FReepmail me.

Cheers,

knewshound

knewshounds blog

[Travis McGee]

Great essay, worth going to the link to read it all.

[bamahead]

Great Steyn Piece!



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[Mrs. Don-o]

"Real 'rights' are restraints upon the state: 'negative' rights, as constitutionalists have it; they delineate the limits of the sovereign’s power. But in the modern era 'rights' are baubles in the state’s gift, and the sovereign confers them at the expense of individual liberty."

I've never seen it put more accurtely or more succincttly.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Who knew that Steyn’s book “America Alone” would become archaic and obsolete so quickly?

His columns on the death spiral of western civilization in Europe in Canada used to be balanced with the optimistic observation that America was still resisting. He now lumps us in with Europe and Canada. Sigh.

[spodefly]

Orwell presented the end result of state domination of ideas.

We now see the incremental steps that lead us to what Orwell described, and for the past 30 or 40 years led us to where we are now — political correctness, multiculturalism, segmenting societies into victim identity groups, etc.

The “Thought Police” and “Idea Crime” are here, more so in Canada and Britain than the US so far, but the path is clear.

[Gritty]

Nobody says it more adroitly - or lately, more gloomily - than Steyn.

Liberty is being strangled in it's very own cradle.