Westerners penalized by western governments for preferring western civilization

How long will it be before America completely forgets that a bad idea, one poorly conceived or some slice of misanthropic, is to be countered with open criticism, including calling it what it is and explaining why, so that the truth can soundly box its ears in the public arena?

Not that long ago, Mark Steyn wrote an article for Maclean's saying that al-Islam and Western values do not play well together. One Muslim--or perhaps a professional behalfist --filed suit with the Canadian "human rights commission," demanding punishment for hate speech.

One should wonder how inflammatory just reading the charges against this guy in any detail would be; would it be sufficient to add caveats like "This jerk said thus-and-such intolerable thing," or will it come to the point where folks get offended for hearing scandalous topics discussed, the way some members of my college Bible study group acted as if I were nearly blaspheming by talking about blasphemy?

I'm curious to see what will happen if these self-appointed cultural vanguards screw up the courage to poo-poo folks who happen to mention in public how Sharia has dealt with homosexuals. If they thought the mere recognition of culture shock was uncivilized, they're going to be in for quite a rude awakening when the people they're tolerating get enough political clout to start enforcing intolerance in return.

Or maybe they'll be like the residents of Erik the Viking's Hy-Brasil island, denying that the ground on which they stand is sinking, right until their last breath. If the height of their political reasoning power is the alleged victim of any perceived oppressor is the friend to any other victim of any other oppressor, then maybe there will be no awareness of reality at the last breath, either.

CPCSM to Nienstedt: "Condone us or we'll scream loudly and stamp our feet!"

I think the folks who promote "gay pride" still have a lot of work to do. When I hear people talking about events like what was going to be held at St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis, I don't hear about great accomplishments or historical figures like George Washington Carver's many inventions or MLK's principled opposition to segregation and discrimination. Pretty much all I hear is rhetoric about being proud rather than ashamed of their sexuality, and pretty much all I see is public spectacles designed to desensitize us--and maybe them--to acts of perversion (and I'm including the publicity of acts which by themselves, in private, might not be particularly bad things).

I don't think that kind of behavior is is a result of healthy pride. There are plenty of things I'm not this-is-bad ashamed of about myself that have no need to be advertised, and publicizing them would have nothing to do with throwing off the societal yoke of bigotry. If I wanted to shock people I disagreed with into complacency, though, I might go out in public and show people how odd I could be, until everyone got used to it; maybe it's not positive approval, but it would be the tolerance of resignation, and maybe that's a good enough first step.

What would happen to gay pride parades when people reach that point? Would they still go on to spite the memory of traditional values, or just to accommodate people with exhibitionist fetishes?

I know the goal of these kinds of events is to wear down opposition, to get people to give up on opposing publicity and public approval of anything sexual. They might do a lot better if they also provided reasons for their virtue other than sentiments like "You're just like racists opposing the Civil Rights Movement from forty years ago," which is only true superficially and incidentally. As I've lamented before, we don't see gay evangelists going door to door in suits politely making their cases.

There is such a thing as self-esteem. You should value the good that is in you, regardless of whatever troubles or flaws you bear. It is also healthy to recognize the good things that you have accomplished. What do gay pride events usually celebrate? libertinism? Nothing special there; I can see that coming from people of all orientations on any college campus. Is it an inoculation against the disapproving words of people who believe that there is such a thing as sins of lust? Maybe, but homosexuals don't have the corner on that market, either.

They complain that their behavior isn't lauded by the Church and by much of society. Well, too damn bad. My bad behavior isn't lauded either. It just seems like they're picking on homosexuals because the question of homosexuality takes up so much bandwidth in our culture today.