If you take the activists behind Idle No More at their word, you would simply accept that their movement – a grievance-based aboriginal movement demanding recompense for complaints that they haven’t fully explained – is going to change the face of Canada.

If you took them at their word, you would simple presume that their time has come.

Unfortunately, a lot of people other than just aboriginal protesters see Idle No More as their time to shine. And they’ve taken this as an opportunity to publicly peddle academic theories that essentially amount to little more than new age racism.

This is, of course, presuming that you actually consider White Privilege Theory – and its various bastard offshoots – to be an actual honest-to-goodness academic theory, as opposed to mere grievance-mongering.

Like virtually every idea favoured by the so-called “new left,” White Privilege Theory is in excess of 50 years old. It took its first recognizable form as a pamphlet penned by one Theodore W Allen. (Just for the information of those who tout...More >>

What's the solution in France to gangs of immigrant thugs setting fire to their own communities, hauling drivers out of their cars and shooting at cops?

Not more police intervention, that's for sure -- according to the Guardian, of course.

The commenters are treating the column by Matthew Moran like an unprotected sports car in Amiens. One worthy post:

I am naturally liberal and I hate unfairness in society. But I despair at the destructive contempt of the few who make their neighbour's lives hell. We are lost in confused thinking about what to do when these people ignore the difference between right and wrong. If we do not restore effective deterrents soon they will cause chaos and turn these communities into hell. I can already hear the murmur of apologists excusing the thugs. Before you respond, just have a think about what you would do if it was your home they were burning, your family terrorised.

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Venezuela's dictator-lite Hugo Chavez is telling his patriotic countrymen to drink locally-produced fruit juice instead of foreign soda. There is a disturbing subtext here that Ben Cohen discerns in Commentary:

In common with other forms of dictatorship, Chavismo is based on the idea that there is nothing more important than the relationship between the leader and his people — hence, Chavez believes it is his duty as well as his right to tell Venezuelans what to consume. No matter, then, that Chavez has yet to prove that the contents of "Uvita," whose manufacturer's mission is to "promote the socialist development of western Venezuela," are in fact healthier than the imperialist soft drinks he bemoans. Such detail is doubtless a bourgeois trifle.

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