Monday digest

- So Stephen Harper's a bad guy for not attending the Toronto AIDS conference, sending his Minister of Health, Tony Clement, instead. However, if, as Bill Gates suggests, the key to combatting AIDS in the Third World is to empower women, what difference is it going to make if Canada's PM shows up or not when gender equality in Africa is a pipedream because of a patriarchal culture that considers violence, sexual assault and subjugation to be completely acceptable? I suspect the activist crowd wants him there to help assuage their white guilt more than anything else, because when success requires changing cultures, do-gooding Westerners can't really accomplish a lot. I'd also suggest that the activists know that, but they can't admit it because it would require coming to grips with their infatuation with such lofty concepts as "cultural affirmation", whereby you blame the West first and gloss over the ugly faults of other belief systems and ways of life around the globe. To me, success in fighting AIDS requires an (unlikely) change in attitudes among African peoples, and as much as kind-hearted liberals would like to pretend otherwise, Stephen Harper can't do a damn thing about that if he wants to or not.

- Hezbollah's leader is claiming victory. Can't say I disagree. The sooner Netanyahu is back in power, the better, considering that Hezbollah's state sponsors clearly seek the destruction of Israel. It IS fascism, as much as some may try to wish that political correctness and other methods of appeasement will win the war on terror.

- Good times right here.