Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW

Categories: Capital Read, Inkless Wells

Hey look: The communist takeover of Maclean's accelerates

by Paul Wells on Friday, August 20, 2010 9:49am - 0 Comments

In my column on the not-at-Ground-Zero more-than-a-mosque, Andrew Coyne’s column on Tamils in a boat, and Andrew Potter’s own mosque piece (hosted offsite at the Ottawa Citizen, his home-away-from-home emeritus), one begins to see why I have been getting anxious inquiries about how soon Mark Steyn can get back from vacation.

Tags: bunch of wets, self-promotion

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Joe You

Little known fact: Mark Steyn vacations at a gay yoga retreat/commune in Cuba.

NiceGuy

Someone has to keep tabs on the NDP and Bloc.

Mulletaur

Ain't that the truth.

wsam

No fair. I wanted firsties. James Halifax hates the troops.
Stewart_Smith

Wow, stellar commentary on this thread!

A beer to James and his two equally articulate buddies.

[youtube iBPueVC7T_g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBPueVC7T_g youtube]

John D

Why I oughtta…
ColdStanding

Do you have some sort of affiliate deal with YouTube or are you just tired of typing?

Mandatory Jedi

Maclean's, a happy place for Liberals to prattle and bray. Woe to any nasty Conservatives that happen to venture onto their politically correct boards! Their ears will bleed from the shrill cries of the mighty left!

Down with Emperor Harper!

Long live Jar Jar Ignatieff!

alexb

I don't know why, but the idea of a conservative Star Wars fan really bugs me.

But then again my favourite character was Obi-Wan, and with a beard like that, he must have been a communist.

CDN

Let's see – Star Wars uses weapons (gasp), believes in 'right' and 'wrong' as
identifiable without an extensive social justice system to support (rehabilitate) the 'wrong'
side, believes in some mystical power called 'the force' to support the right side
and counter the 'dark side'. That sounds liberal…I haven't seen any issues with
mandatory light saber registration yet – maybe in the next movie…..
Peter

It's practically a stereotype that Star Wars fans are conservative and Star Trek fans are liberal.

And having argued on both Star Trek and Star Wars boards before, lemme tell ya, the level of visciousness from both types of hard-core nerds is the same, but in general, the Star Wars nerds are infinitely more banal and stupid.

Oliver

I'm a fan of both Star Trek and Star Wars. I do like Star Wars more however.
I hate liberals and conservatives. I ****ing hate consertives but I think hate liberals even more.

Steyn takes the cake however, what a complete tool he is.

brooster

My gawd, you must be one of them moral relativists! Poor lost soul…

hosertohoosier

I thought the stances were relatively consistent with the ideology of Macleans (Globe and Mail conservatives – fiscally conservative, but socially liberal*). I suppose Coyne is pretty fiscally conservative, but he criticizes nobody more than Harper on that front. Similarly, while Potter is (I believe) a dipper, much of his work is about exposing the hypocrisies that abound on the progressive left.

*The kind of people who like to say they would have voted PC. This is a way to indicate that while they are conservatives, they wear hip rectangular glasses and are cut from a different cloth from the knuckledragging, semi-moron proles of the new Conservative party.

Jan

Perfect description of Tony Clement, including the glasses.
TedTylerEzro

Semi-moron prole? That hurts me. Right here.

LeftWingTeaBagger

Go Communism!

NorthernReflections

Yes, Go Communism…back to your trash heap of history.

john g

He's practicing his pose to try and score with the space chicks when they get here?

Olaf

Let's try this again. Fingers crossed!

Does anyone else find Potter's picture a little unnerving. It's like he just said something he thinks is funny or profound and wants me to respond, but I just don't know what to say. It's awkward.

Nestor

No wonder the magazine has been pretty readable this past weeks. Can you guys get rid off that pseudo-coy soccer mom that mumbles in a sensless column about her asinine daily life?

Mike T.

But enough about Barbara Amiel :)

NiceGuy

Nothing better than well off, middle-aged, white socialist dudes from the Canadian 'burbs prattling on about their deepest, darkest desires to make the world a better place. Kinda has a 'Dockers for Che, sponsered by Viagra' feel about it. I wonder what the readership outside of Canada is? Is it more than zero?

PS Please come back Mark…they have been more insufferable than usual…

CDN

Makes you think Mark might be outnumbered – possible tokenism?
In any event – he should cut his vacation short.
MostlyCivil

Indeed. It's been a while since I've had a triple digit thumbs down rating.

Kelvin

I want whatever Ezra Levant was smoking when he sent those complimentary subscriptions when Western Standard folded (I got one of them!)

It's not just you, though. Even the Posties have gotten all wonky: Tasha with her the-census-is-not-evil and Selley's you're-not-really-for-freedom-unless-you-say-it-for-assholes positions.
Twisted_Mentat

Oh.

And there I was thinking he'd been part of the MACLEAN'S stylistic overhaul.

STEYYYYYYYYYN!!!

*shakes fist in air*
s_c_f

Yeah, lately it's been a little leftist around these blogs. The census was another issue where we needed someone to counteract the pile-on. Steyn is sorely needed.

WRT the census, 30% of Canadians agree with the government, and another 20% were indifferent. 100% of Maclean's writers were opposed to the government.

MostlyCivil

Were your samples weighted using the long-form data?

ddd

Actually the whole thing was a ploy to figure out who to send the long forms to. There seemed to be ample takers. The rest of us can go about our business while you folks/suckers spend your time poring over some absolutely necessary and beneficial form.

colbycosh

I think we can beat the "communist" rap on the evidence presented above. If someone wants to bring a "smug-ist" charge, on the other hand? One of the accused boasts about the "strength and robustness" of liberal democracy without adding the useful caveat "Unless you want to print a cartoon of Muhammad, translate the Satanic Verses, etc., etc."; another appears to propose that a well-designed obstacle course could entirely replace immigration policy tout court; and the third seems to suggest that since the downtown Manhattan mosque is probably run by friendly moderates, there can be no possible interest in the question "What if it weren't?" (or "How would we know?") Irrespective of whether these pieces are ultimately on the side of the angels, I would suggest a grovelling, unconditional appeal to the mercy of the Smugness Tribunal.

Gaunilon

I was wondering if someone would say it.

I actually agree with most of the positions held by Macleans columnists of late, but the smug superiority could really use some Steynian cutting down o size.

ColdStanding

I don't think you can under take to criticise without assuming a superior standpoint. Those so indisposed to the produce of the critic often attempt to tar with smugness what is mearly superiority. Smugness is an unforgivable broach of the social order. Superiority (as in to be above and viewing) is a necessary component of criticism.

It is entirely possible to be smug and to be criticising. For some it is an irresistable temptation.

Can you think of any of the posters on this board that can't resist the temptation to be smug when criticising, Gaunilon?

http://www.robedger.blogspot.com/ Robin_E

I don't understand why what you point out makes the authors 'smug'. The examples you cite seem to point toward incomplete articles, but that seems like a different matter.

colbycosh

Their problem isn't "incompleteness", and certainly not incorrectness, so much as it is not working hard enough to anticipate the strongest possible rebuttals.

ColdStanding

So, you do you ask yourself "What would Steyn say?" after having writen your piece? If you are feeling a little slouchy, do you insert another slightly less caustic critic in his place? Maybe that Colby fellow? Sorry, that's you, don't take that the wrong way. Hmm… who else could I suggest? Well, you get the idea.
http://www.robedger.blogspot.com/ Robin_E

not working hard enough to anticipate the strongest possible rebuttals.

Right, that's exactly what I meant when I said 'incomplete'. That's what you meant when you said 'smug'?

I also thought they were good criticisms, by the way.

http://dredtory.blogspot.com/ Sir_Francis

…without adding the useful caveat "Unless you want to print a cartoon of Muhammad, translate the Satanic Verses…

…or declare that the Holocaust never happened, a caveat presumably far less "useful" than the former two.

…there can be no possible interest in the question "What if it weren't?" (or "How would we know?")…

…or "What if the intended building were an evangelical mega-church run by distinctly immoderate Millenarian Islamophobes? Would that be more consistent with the "holiness" of Ground Zero (a holiness which appears, moreover, to have extended its aura two blocks away from the actual site)?

ddd

the only problem is that they didn't try it. Odd that. The enemy who isn't.

Gaunilon

Hey look, the columnists' quality quotient really does suffer a bit when Steyn isn't around.

So when is he getting back, anyway?
Kyle

Speaking of Steyn, is he worried about all that readership developing over at The Canadian Charger?

I just checked and they've had 500 unique visitors over the last month.
Tony

No offense to Comrade Wells or Brother Potter, but their mosque articles are not revolutionary – I can Google the subject, and read the same article (different authors) a thousand times. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Oh well, Fantasy Football returns