Thursday afternoon digest

- The Canadian government has decided to not recognize Hamas diplomatically because they refuse to renounce violence. This makes total sense. Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization in Canada under the Criminal Code. It's impossible to justify recognizing a political entity that is illegal in Canada because of its support for terror.

- A group affiliated with the president of the PQ has produced a textbook for use in Quebec's classrooms titled Let's Talk About Sovereignty at School. From the Globe, "Kindergarteners are asked to make decorations for Quebec's national holiday on June 24, and the book's illustration is a child's drawing of a Quebec flag on a pole with the Canadian flag beneath it, ripped in half." What's more, also from the Globe, "The publisher, Les Intouchables, says on the book's first pages that the company receives a subsidy from the Canadian Arts Council and support from Ottawa's Book Publishing Industry Development Program." Beyond the obvious tribal overtones and the sickening attempt to bring distasteful ethnic politics into kindergarten classrooms, what I love is how these guys will work to destroy Canada yet they'll take the money to fund their arts projects from a country that they don't even believe in. If they had any integrity they'd obtain private funding for their political propaganda.

- Speaking of Quebec, the feds are coming under fire because they aren't providing a $22 million dollar bailout to a zoo in Quebec City. That's right, a zoo. The less said about this, the better.

- No doubt men's studies courses in high school are also being advocated by these young ladies, all in the name of gender equality.

- I've always been suspicious of sanctions because as Margaret Thatcher would say, governments tend to "go wobbly".

- Ah, the statists of Europe and their follies ... always providing great material.

- This would also be comedic if it weren't so tragic.

- Finally, it looks like the West Wing is getting desperate for ratings. I never liked their preachy, moralizing, high and mighty big-L liberalism.