Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

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The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

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2:57 PM
What do you get when Canadians try to jump on the reality TV bandwagon? A hockey reality show.

Yes, we're proud of living up to our stereotypes.

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4:19 PM
Let the games begin...


The Athens 2004 Summer Olympics kick off today with the opening ceremonies airing on TV tonight. And, as usual, I find myself getting caught up in a bit of Olympic Fever.

My favourite Olympics are the Winter games. That's where Canadian athletes really shine, and where we get to see cool sports like fixed-judge figure skating, pot-a-rific snowbording ("awesome, dude!"), or loonie-lucky hockey that gives us 4 years of bragging rights over the Americans.

The Summer sports I most enjoy watching are the gymnastics, the diving, and the swimming. I'm also looking forward to seeing the games hosted in Athens; despite the countless problems that the Greeks have had in preparing for this moment, there's something to be said for the historical implication.

Go Canada!

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3:53 PM
The Personal and the Political

Just back from a couple of days in New York on business. While there, I noted that the news that was most consuming people's minds tended to be about one of four endlessly-discussed subjects: The Scott Peterson trial (who cares?), the election (on which I've promised no mention on this blog until September), the Republican National Convention (mostly about how inconvenienced they would all be because of it), and the weather (hurricanes in Florida = badness).

Then the Governor of New Jersey, Jim McGreevey, resigned - he claimed - because he is gay and had an extramarital affair. And that became front-headline news.

I watched a bit of the media circus with increasing distaste.

I must confess, I had hardly even heard of McGreevey before. So my initial reaction when I watched him was admiration for his willingness to take responsibility, and disgust that his stated reasons for stepping down should - in 2004 - force anyone out of politics.

Then I started seeing the reports about the alleged real reasons McGreevey resigned: he's facing a sexual-harassment lawsuit from a former security advisor (an Israeli, of all things), and allegations of widespread corruption in his office.

I'm disgusted that personal lives continue to be fair game for political attack.
I'd like to see it stopped. After all, knowing a man had an affair means I'd be wary of dating him, not of electing him. And knowing or learning he's gay wouldn't affect my political opinion of him at all.

But by giving these personal, irrelevant excuses for a resignation clearly motivated by indiscretions that are relevant to office, McGreevey essentially told the public that it's okay to make sexual orientation or marital fidelity into political issues.

We should be working to firm that line, not to blur it. After all, this is 2004, not 1904. The number of gay men and women who have achieved success in public life tells us that it's time for this to stop being an issue. The Clinton years showed us that most voters will even forgive someone for having an affair, assuming - correctly - that this is a matter between spouses, not fodder for public consumption.

The fact that gay groups are supporting McGreevey simply compounds the absurdity. If I were them, I'd have nothing but contempt for a man who is essentially telling voters that it's okay to resign in shame for being gay, while trying to use the issue to cover up real problems.

That's the kind of abuse that happens when the personal and the political become one and the same. And that's what makes this story so sad.

Update: Wonkette on the subject (via Damian Penny):

McGreevey's speech was stunning, inspiring and perhaps even profound. . . It's too bad he's so corrupt.

Well put.

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1:42 PM
Where's the Wizard of Oz when we need him?

Maybe he could grant the European Union some courage, cause after once again refusing to call what's happening in Darfur "genocide", I think they could sure use a shot of it:

An EU military-civilian team that visited the region last week reported Monday that atrocities were being committed on a large scale, but declined to classify them as genocide. Team leader Pieter Feith stressed, however, that his trip was only five days and was not an expert mission.

"It's up to the United Nations ... to make this decision," an EU official said Tuesday on customary condition of anonymity. "The aim of his mission was not to see if this was genocide or not. The aim was to see how the EU could further support" resolving the crisis.

So what else would you call 30,000 dead people, all of one background, being systematically murdered by people from another?

Oh wait, in Europe I believe they call that "Monday".

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1:02 PM
It doesn't get much more disgusting than this:

A group of Jewish university students were attacked while touring Auchwitz by three French tourists:

Evidently incited by the presence of an Israeli flag wrapped around the shoulders of Tamar Schuri, an Israeli student from Ben Gurion University, the first assailant ran at the group while its members were being guided through a model gas chamber and crematoria and began swearing and hurling anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli insults.

"He told us to go back to Israel and said that we were stupid and should be ashamed to walk around with an Israeli flag," testifies Maya Ober, a 21-year-old Polish student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan and member of the Polish Union of Jewish Students (PUSZ), which organized the 16-day summer learning program along with the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS).

After the initial altercation, a second assailant grabbed Ober by the arm. "One of the guys held me by the arm and wouldn't let go," says Ober, who lost several members of her family at Auschwitz. "I was afraid. I couldn't move and I didn't know what he was going to do.

"I was shocked. Although I have met anti-Semitism many times, I never expected to meet it at Auschwitz, where so many of my relatives were killed," she says she spoke to the assailants in French and that in addition to being "brutish and vulgar," their sentiments "made absolutely no sense."

That's the thinh about antisemitism. It "makes absolutely no sense". But that hasn't helped it disappear in the last 2000 years.

(Via Damian Penny, who astutely points out that we're about to hear some lame excuses as to why this is "anti-Zionism, not antisemitism").

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