Sunday digest

- Silence this weekend during a convention of left-wing bloggers in Las Vegas at the mention of al-Zarqawi's death, while Jerry Springer and Randi Rhodes of Air America can't bring themselves to applaud the progress made in Iraq this past week. No, Zarqawi's death will not solve all of the coalition's problems, but is it too much to ask for Democrat supporters to just once acknowledge a hopeful development, or at the very least, do a better job of hiding their desire to see American-led forces fail?

- On CTV's Question Period today, three MPs - Tory Jason Kenney, Liberal Wajid Khan and NDPer Peggy Nash - discussed next steps in the wake of the Toronto arrests of last weekend. I have to say, I really find it hard to take the NDP seriously. The only comments their panellist had to offer centred around the possibility of racism, which she seemed to be convinced was an inevitability (see here).

If the only thing the NDP can offer on this most crucial of public policy debates is insinuating that Canadian society is full of anti-Muslim reactionaries, perhaps they ought to just butt out and leave it to those who have given this issue a little bit of serious thought rather than just regurging their usual talking points, which, by the way, sound like they were written by someone who just got laid off from the local alternative weekly.

- Carleton University in Ottawa (my alma mater) is coming under fire for awarding an honourary degree to Jewish community leader Rabbi Reuven Bulka their concovation ceremonies this week, reason being he is an advisor to a controversial US group which believes that homosexuality can be "cured".

I am of two minds on this issue. First, I think that anyone who thinks that homosexuality can be "cured" needs to give their head a shake. I also wouldn't like to be a gay person who would be receiving my degree from a guy who thinks I have some kind of disease. At the same time, however, I don't like the idea of stripping an otherwise stand-up guy like the Rabbi of recognition because of his views on sexual politics. That smacks of bringing in the thought police.

I think instead of calling for his honourary degree to be stripped from him and trying to prevent him from speaking, those who are uncomfortable with Bulka's position should respectfully try and show him the wrong-headedness of his views. After all, isn't the competition of ideas supposed to be what a university education is all about, not to mention the values of understanding, tolerance and the celebration of diverse perspectives, which we hear so much about from those who would seemingly bar Bulka from taking the podium?