The Last of England ... Mark Steyn

Steyn Online ^ | 12 Feb 2015 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

On Monday I wrote about a curious British reaction to the Charlie Hebdo massacre:

The other day Wiltshire Police went to a local newsagent and demanded that, in the interests of "community cohesion", he hand over the names of every customer who bought a copy of Charlie Hebdo... This is Mother England in 2015: You can still read samizdat literature, but your name will be entered in a state database.

The Daily Mail's Amanda Williams reports today that this was not a one-off idiosyncracy by some bozo coppers in one county, but came from the very top:

National Anti-Terror Unit Handed List Of Charlie Hebdo Stockists To Local Forces Who Then Went Round Demanding To Know Who Bought Copies

The man responsible for this decision is Sir Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, who holds the additional responsibility of "national police lead for preventing extremism". A Chief Commissar for Preventing Extremism is a title that not so long ago one would have had to go to Eastern Europe or a banana republic to find. But it is now held by a British policeman.

[Lazamataz]

Exactly! The country and the west in general swirls around the bowl flushing straight to Hell and he giggles at his own jokes, to the point of almost being tasteless.

According to BBB, above, you hate fun.

[BBB333]

FYI, Lazamataz brought you folks in, here’s my full reply

(BTW, I think Steyn is THE BEST in radio):

You clearly are intolerant of people having fun.

Or intolerant of people who can take current events, make them funny, then informative...

That is what a good teacher does, make people WANT to learn.

Steyn would have a huge following on the radio, bringing in the ‘low information voters’ as Rush calls them.

And you ding him for ‘giggling’ too much.

[elcid1970]

I agree with Mark Steyn on about everything, but the way he says it on the radio with that Cockney accent, Mark sounds like Eliza Doolittle’s father in “My Fair Lady”.

Anyway, England is done for and Hitler is laughing in hell. A man is arrested for publicly quoting Churchill, and Muslim rape gangs run amok with the blessing of the same police who demand to know who’s been reading Charlie Hebdo.

Other than that, everything’s totally copacetic in Old Blighty.

[Lazamataz]

Stop embellishing what you wrote. You’re backpeddling.

[Lazamataz]

I love Steyn’s writing.

[TADSLOS]

[fr_freak]

I'm afraid Steyn falls into that category of conservative pundit who seems more focused on producing clever turns of phrase than on achieving real influence. His writing is brilliant, but it often lacks power because the reader becomes more engaged in the parsing of the language and doesn't feel the impact of the core idea. Too much floating like a butterfly, not enough stinging like a bee.

While I hate to give in to the dumbing down of the West, excessive erudition is not going to get the job done. We are fighting against people whose most advanced ideology fits on bumper stickers. One of the reasons for Rush's wide appeal is that he maintains a sort of folksy everyman approach when he's serving up his brilliance, allowing even left-wingers to understand his point.

[uncitizen]

I like Steyn on the radio too. He’s always well prepared while still sounding informal. His commentary is fresh and unique. “Unexpected” even. Best of all, hes hilarious and manages at least one quote that I laugh about all day because it’s clever and poignant. He’s not Rush, but its a welcome surprise when he does fill in.

[cuban leaf]

Every cloud has a silver lining. Europe is our canary in the coal mine.

It will not go well for them, but it will give us permission to fight them. And on US soil they don’t have a chance. Even Dearborn will be a hard place for Muslims.

[uncitizen]

If Mark Steyn is saying its over, it’s over.

[cuban leaf]

Thanks!

:-P

[BuckeyeTexan]

Laz intolerant of having fun?

Dude! You cracked your brain pan when you fell off that turnip truck yesterday.

And Steyn does giggle too freeping much.

[ArtDodger]

I LOVE to have fun! I tell jokes every day, on stage, in classes. I tell clean, stage jokes, jokes for kids, even adult ones with an age-correct audience. Love a bawdy Limerick and love to hear a quick,witty reply thrown off the cuff. But when I am in a serious situation, pall bearing, etc, I don’t do it. It just isn’t funny to me, anymore, how the country and our freedoms are dying. We are in a DEATH Spiral and I would LOVE to hear Steyn involved in a serious debate. With his knowledge and sharp mind, he would mop up. Listening to him on the radio is like hearing a doctor joke about my not needing my things anymore as I’ll soon be dead..

[Timocrat]

Shakespeare's Richard II seems appropriate at this point :

"That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself."

Actually they're probably going to have to ban Shakespeare for such passages as this:

Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought
For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field,
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross
Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens:
And toil'd with works of war, retired himself
To Italy; and there at Venice gave
His body to that pleasant country's earth,
And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,
Under whose colours he had fought so long.

[driftless2]

Another great Steyn column...but I did catch him in a mistake. He wrote “reigning in English liberties”....it should be “reining in English liberties.” I hope Mark is reading this and will send me the suitable amount of money for correcting his mistake.

[Gritty]

A society can survive losing this or that liberty as they ebb and flow across the centuries, but there are no easy roads back when it loses the spirit of liberty.

It appears it is all over except the official crushing and imprisonment of the lovers of the spirit of liberty - not the lovers of the liberty of Sharia.

[Chickensoup]

Steyn’s accent is anything but Cockney.

[elcid1970]

Well....it’s not all that Anglophone Canadian, either. Glenn Beck once asked Mark if he were English.

Would still like to hear Mark sing, “I’m getting married in the morning!”

;^)