Saturday, January 30, 2010

Mark Steyn - Déjà vu, déjà lu ?

For someone who slags environmentalists, there seems to be a whole lot of recycling going on in Mark Steyn’s writing. The same chunks of text in one article (at times identical, at times slightly rephrased) seem to be repurposed in one or several columns on (ostensibly) different topics. I’m sure this occurs to some extent with all writers, but this much, and so easy to find?
1. An article published by Imprimis in August 2008 (the same piece appeared in New Zealand’s Investigate Magazine on October 2008) contains a section from a 2002 National Post column, along with paragraphs found in three separate Maclean’s columns on a variety of topics, two of which were published earlier (January and February 2008), and one later (April 2009). The American version appears as Copyright © 2008 Hillsdale College.
From “Lights out on Liberty”, Mark Steyn, Imprimis/Investigate, 2008:
For example, a recent poll found that 36 percent of Muslims between the ages of 16 and 24 believe that those who convert to another religion should be punished by death. That’s not 36 percent of young Muslims in Waziristan or Yemen or Sudan, but 36 percent of young Muslims in the United Kingdom. Forty percent of British Muslims would like to live under Sharia—in Britain. Twenty percent have sympathy for the July 7 Tube bombers. And, given that Islam is the principal source of population growth in every city down the spine of England from Manchester to Sheffield to Birmingham to London, and in every major Western European city, these statistics are not without significance for the future.
From “Here's what offends this writer”, Mark Steyn, Maclean’s, Jan. 3, 2008:
For example, a recent poll found that 36 per cent of Muslims between the ages of 16 and 24 believe that those who convert to another religion should be punished by death. That's not 36 per cent of young Muslims in Waziristan or Yemen or Sudan, but 36 per cent in the United Kingdom. Forty per cent of British Muslims would like to live under sharia, in Britain. Twenty per cent have sympathy for the July 7 Tube bombers. And, given that Islam is the principal source of population growth in every city down the spine of England from Manchester to Sheffield to Birmingham to London, these statistics are not without significance for Britain's future.
From “Lights out on Liberty”, Imprimis/Investigate, August, 2008:
Last month, in a characteristically clotted speech followed by a rather more careless BBC interview, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that it was dangerous to have one law for everyone and that the introduction of Sharia to the United Kingdom was "inevitable." Within days of His Grace's remarks, the British and Ontario governments both confirmed that thousands of polygamous men in their jurisdictions are receiving welfare payments for each of their wives.
From “Sharia in Britain? Taxpayer-subsidized polygamy in T.O.? Yawn. Nothing to see here”, Mark Steyn, Maclean’s, February 14, 2008:
The other day, in a characteristically clotted speech followed by a rather more careless BBC interview, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that it was dangerous to have one law for everyone and that the introduction of sharia — Islamic law — to the United Kingdom was "inevitable."… Last week, the British and Ontario governments confirmed within days of each other that thousands of polygamous men in their jurisdictions receive welfare payments for each of their wives.
Note: Like Steyn’s earlier error about the number of “polygamous” unions blessed by Toronto imam, Aly Hindy, Steyn’s claim that “thousands” of men receive welfare benefits for their multiple spouses is contradicted by reports. These note that “hundreds” of men may claim for benefits, and claim to be in a polygamous union. But since polygamy is illegal in Canada, the men are unable to claim benefits for more than one spouse.
From “Lights out on Liberty”, Imprimis/Investigate, August, 2008:
I see British Muslim nurses in public hospitals riddled with C. difficile are refusing to comply with hygiene procedures on the grounds that scrubbing requires them to bare their arms, which is un-Islamic. Which is a thought to ponder just before you go under the anaesthetic.
Macleans, Feb. 14, 2008:
I see British Muslim nurses in public hospitals riddled with C. difficile are refusing to comply with hygiene procedures on the grounds that scrubbing requires them to bare their arms, which is un-Islamic. Which is a thought to ponder just before you go under the anaesthetic.
From “Lights out on Liberty”, Imprimis/Investigate, August, 2008:
Sharia in Britain? Taxpayer-subsidized polygamy in Toronto? Yawn. Nothing to see here. True, if you'd suggested such things on Sept. 10, 2001, most Britons and Canadians would have said you were nuts. But a few years on and it doesn't seem such a big deal, and nor will the next concession, and the one after that. The assumption that you can hop on the Sharia Express and just ride a couple of stops is one almighty leap of faith. More to the point, who are you relying on to "hold the line"? Influential figures like the Archbishop of Canterbury? The politically correct bureaucrats at Canada’s Human Rights Commissions?
Macleans, Feb. 14, 2008:
Sharia in Britain? Taxpayer-subsidized polygamy in Toronto? Yawn. Nothing to see here. True, if you'd suggested such things on Sept. 10, 2001, most Britons and Canadians would have said you were nuts. But a few years on and it doesn't seem such a big deal, and nor will the next concession, and the one after that…. The assumption that you can hop on the Sharia Express and just ride a couple of stops is one almighty leap of faith. More to the point, who are you relying on to "hold the line"? Influential figures like the Archbishop of Canterbury? The bureaucrats at Ontario Social Services?
From “Lights out on Liberty”, Imprimis/Investigate, August, 2008:
Kipling wrote that East is East and West is West, and ne'er the twain shall meet. But when the twain do meet, you often wind up with the worst of both worlds. Say what you like about a polygamist in Waziristan or Somalia, but he has to do it on his own dime. To collect a welfare check for each spouse, he has to move to London or Toronto. Government-subsidized polygamy is an innovation of the Western world.
From “We’re in the fast lane to polygamy”, Mark Steyn, Macleans, April 9, 2009:
In fairness to your big-time polygamist in Yemen or Waziristan, he has to do it on his own dime. If he wants to get the taxpayer to pick up the tab, he has to hop a flight to Toronto. East is east and west is west, and these days when the twain meet you usually get the worst of both worlds, of which government-funded polygamy would appear to be a near parodic example.
Imprimis/Investigate 2008:
… large numbers of British Muslims marched through English cities openly calling for Rushdie to be killed. A reader in Bradford wrote to me recalling asking a West Yorkshire policeman on the street that day why the various "Muslim community leaders" weren’t being arrested for incitement to murder. The officer said they’d been told to "play it cool." The calls for blood got more raucous. My correspondent asked his question again. The policeman told him to "Push off" (he expressed the sentiment rather more Anglo-Saxonly, but let that pass) "or I’ll arrest you."
From “A Fatwa of one’s own”, Mark Steyn, National Post, December 5, 2002:
… large numbers of British Muslims had marched through English cities openly calling for Rushdie to be killed. In the last few months, several readers have e-mailed me with their memories of those marches. One man in Bradford remembers asking a West Yorkshire police officer why the "Muslim community leaders" weren't being arrested for incitement to murder. The officer said they'd been told to play it cool. The cries for blood got more raucous. My correspondent asked his question again. The police officer told him to "F--- off, or I'll arrest you."
Imprimis/Investigate, 2008:
Mr. Rushdie was infuriated when the then Archbishop of Canterbury lapsed into root-cause mode. "I well understand the devout Muslims’ reaction, wounded by what they hold most dear and would themselves die for," said His Grace. Rushdie replied tersely: "There is only one person around here who is in any danger of dying."
“A Fatwa of one’s own”, Mark Steyn, National Post, December 5, 2002:
Rushdie was infuriated when the Archbishop of Canterbury lapsed into root-cause mode. "I well understand the devout Muslims' reaction, wounded by what they hold most dear and would themselves die for," said His Grace. Rushdie replied tersely: "There is only one person around here who is in any danger of dying."
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2. A 2009 article in National Review Online about Roman Polanski’s recent legal troubles contains sections virtually identical to Steyn’s 2003 UK Telegraph article on Polanski.
From “Beyond Transgression”, Mark Steyn, Oct. 3, 2009, National Review:
In a movie, the father would either die or survive for a tearful reunion with his boy. But after the war Polanski's dad remarried, and the new wife didn't want young Roman around. By the age of 13, the pattern of his life was set: That hurried escape through the wire of the ghetto would be only the first of a series of hasty exits.

In Swingin' London, he made his name with "Repulsion" (1965), in which Catherine Deneuve descends into schizophrenia and kills a man she believes has come to rape her. He hit Hollywood with "Rosemary's Baby" (1967), in which Mia Farrow is impregnated by the Devil. You could make the case that these films reflect the psychological burdens of his childhood — if it weren't that they're almost freakily literal pre-echoes of the violence in his adult life.
In 1969, Sharon Tate and four others were murdered at Polanski's house by a group called "Satan's Slaves." "I remember," wrote Joan Didion, "that no one was surprised."
From “Genius on the run”, Mark Steyn, March 2, 2003:
In a movie, the father would either die or survive for a tearful reunion with his boy. But after the war Polanski's dad remarried, and the new wife didn't want young Roman around. So he became an actor. By the age of 13, the pattern of his life was set…That hurried escape through the wire of the ghetto would be only the first of a series of hasty exits…
In London, he made his name with Repulsion (1965), in which Catherine Deneuve descends into schizophrenia and kills a man she believes has come to rape her. He hit Hollywood with Rosemary's Baby (1967), in which Mia Farrow is impregnated by the Devil. You could easily make the case that these films reflect the psychological burdens of his childhood if it weren't that they seem instead almost freakily literal pre-echoes of the violence in his adult life.
In 1969, while Polanski was filming in London, his wife Sharon Tate, eight months pregnant, and four others were murdered at the couple's Hollywood home by a group called "Satan's Slaves". ….Joan Didion, "…I remember that no one was surprised."
National Review:
He is the only movie director to have had three generations of his immediate family murdered — his mother, by the Nazis; his wife and unborn child, by Charles Manson's acolytes. The only reason he didn't wind up with his parents in Auschwitz is that, when he was 8, his father cut a hole in the barbed wire of the Warsaw ghetto and pushed his son out.
Telegraph:
He is the only movie director to have had three generations of his immediate family murdered - his mother, at Auschwitz; his wife and unborn child, by Charles Manson's acolytes….The only reason he didn't wind up with them in Auschwitz is that, when he was eight, his father cut a hole in the barbed wire of the Warsaw ghetto and pushed his son out.
National Review:
…Towne found it hard to concentrate at the director's pad, what with "the teenyboppers that Roman would run out and take Polaroid pictures of diving off the f***ing diving board without tops on. Which was distracting. With braces."
Telegraph: Towne found it hard to concentrate at Polanski's pad, what with "the teenyboppers that Roman would run out and take Polaroid pictures of diving off the f***ing diving board without tops on. Which was distracting. With braces."
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3. Similar paragraphs from a 2005 UK Telegraph article reappear in a 2008 Maclean’s article:
From “Why progressive Westerners never understood John Paul II, Mark Steyn, UK Telegraph , April 5, 2005:
…the creepy suck-up letters Gerhard Schröder wrote to the East German totalitarian leaders when he was a West German pol on the make in the 1980s. As he wrote to Honecker's deputy, Egon Krenz: "I will certainly need the endurance you have wished me in this busy election year. But you will certainly also need great strength and good health for your People's Chamber election." The only difference being that, on one side of the border, the election result was not in doubt.
When a free man enjoying the blessings of a free society promotes an equivalence between real democracy and a sham, he's colluding in the great lie being perpetrated by the prison state. Too many Western politicians of a generation ago - Schmidt, Trudeau, Mitterrand - failed to see what John Paul saw so clearly.
From “Love with the perfect dictator”, Mark Steyn, Feb. 20, 2008, Maclean’s:
Back in the eighties, Gerhard Schröder was a fairly standard West German pol on the make.... Here's one of the many creepy suck-up letters he wrote to the leaders of the East German prison state — in this case, to Erich Honecker's deputy, Egon Krenz: "I will certainly need the endurance you have wished me in this busy election year. But you will certainly also need great strength and good health for your People's Chamber election."…
…When a free man enjoying the blessings of a free society promotes an equivalence between real democracy and a sham, he's colluding in the great lie being perpetrated by the prison state. A generation ago, to their shame, almost every Western politician did it — Trudeau, Mitterrand, Carter, Helmut Schmidt.
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4. Sections from an October 2007 National Review article (also published by the
Washington Times) and a November 2007 article in Maclean’s:
From “The ideologues have it”, Mark Steyn, National Review, Oct. 14 2007:
… on CNN the other night Anderson Cooper was worrying about the homicide rate in Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love is the murder capital of the nation, and CNN had dispatched a reporter to interview the grieving mother of a young black boy killed while riding his bicycle in the street. Apparently, a couple of cars had got backed up behind him, and an impatient passenger in one of them pulled out a gun and shot the kid. Anderson Cooper then went to commercials and, when he returned, introduced a report on how easy it is to buy guns in Philadelphia and how local politicians are reluctant to do anything about it. This is, again, an argument only the expert class could make. In the 1990s, the number of guns in America went up by 40 million but the murder rate fell dramatically. If firearms availability were the determining factor, Vermont and Switzerland would have high murder rates. Yet in Montpelier or Geneva the solution to a boy carelessly bicycling in front of you down a city street when you’re in a hurry is not to grab your gun and blow him away.
From “When it’s no country for old men”, Mark Steyn, Maclean’s, Nov. 28, 2007:
On CNN a week or two back, a reporter in Philadelphia, the murder capital of America, was interviewing the grieving mother of a young black boy killed while riding his bicycle in the residential street outside his home. Apparently, a couple of cars had got backed up behind him, and a tetchy passenger in one of them pulled out a gun and shot the kid dead. Inevitably, CNN followed this with a report on how easy it is to buy guns in Philadelphia and how local politicians are reluctant to do anything about it. This is an argument only the experts could make: in the 1990s, the number of firearms in America went up by 40 million but the murder rate fell dramatically. If gun ownership were the determining factor, Vermont and Switzerland would have high murder rates. Yet in Montpelier or Geneva, the solution to a boy carelessly bicycling in front of you down a city thoroughfare when you're in a hurry is not to grab your piece and blow the moppet away.
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5. A section of a May 2009 article appears almost verbatim in an October 2009 Maclean’s column about Michael Ignatieff.
From "Live Free or Die", Mark Steyn, Imprimis, and also published in: THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis, Volume XI, Issue # 119, May 8, 2009:
"... In Britain, a land with rampant property crime, undercover constables nevertheless find time to dine at curry restaurants on Friday nights to monitor adjoining tables lest someone in private conversation should make a racist remark. An author interviewed on BBC Radio expressed, very mildly and politely, some concerns about gay adoption and was investigated by Scotland Yard’s Community Safety Unit for Homophobic, Racist and Domestic Incidents. A Daily Telegraph columnist is arrested and detained in a jail cell over a joke in a speech. A Dutch legislator is invited to speak at the Palace of Westminster by a member of the House of Lords, but is banned by the government, arrested on arrival at Heathrow and deported..."
Copyright © 2009 Hillsdale College
From “Thinking about the old Ignatieff”, MacLean’s, Oct. 15, 2009:
“In Britain, a land with rampant property crime, undercover constables nevertheless find time to dine at curry restaurants on Friday nights to monitor adjoining tables lest someone in private conversation should make a racist remark. An author interviewed on BBC Radio expressed, very mildly and politely, some concerns about gay adoption and was investigated by Scotland Yard’s Community Safety Unit for Homophobic, Racist and Domestic Incidents. A Daily Telegraph columnist was arrested and detained in a jail cell over a joke in a speech. A Dutch legislator was invited to speak at the Palace of Westminster by a member of the House of Lords, but was banned by the government, arrested on arrival at Heathrow and deported”.
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6. A section which seems to come from the introduction to America Alone appears in a February 2008 Maclean’s article:
From America alone, introduction, Mark Steyn:
What does it mean when 57 percent of Pakistani Britons are married to first cousins and 70 percent are married to relatives? At the very least, it tells you that this community is strongly resistant to traditional immigrant assimilation patterns. Even in New York...in 80 percent of Pakistani families, the parents determine whom and when you marry....Of course, in any society, certain groups are self-segregating: the Amish, the Mennonites, and similar types [who themselves have well-known inbred recessive disorders]. But when that group is not merely a curiosity you point out as you're driving through Intercourse, Pennsyvania, but the principal source of population growth in all your major cities, the challenge posed by that self-segregation is of a different order.
In northern England, Pakistanis aren't assimilating with 'the host community;' the host community has assimilated with Pakistan. Again, if you had told a Yorkshireman in 1970 that by the early twenty-first century it would be entirely normal for half the kindergarten class to be the children of first cousins, he would have found it preposterous...
From “Sharia in Britain? Taxpayer-subsidized polygamy in T.O.? Yawn. Nothing to see here”, Mark Steyn, Maclean’s February 14, 2008:
What does it mean when 57 per cent of Pakistani Britons are married to first cousins and 70 per cent are married to relatives? At the very least, it tells you that this community is strongly resistant to traditional immigrant assimilation patterns. Of course, in any society, certain groups are self-segregating: the Amish, the Mennonites and whatnot. But when that group is not merely a curiosity on the fringe of the map but the principal source of population growth in all your major cities, the challenge posed by that self-segregation is of a different order.
There are now towns in northern England where cousin marriage is the norm: Pakistanis aren't assimilating with "the host community"; the host community has assimilated with Pakistan. Again, if you had told a Yorkshireman in 1970 that by the early 21st century it would be entirely normal for half the kindergarten class to be the children of first cousins, he would have found it preposterous.
7. A questionable quote (and in some cases, varying amounts of surrounding text) appears in four different contexts in 2006 and 2009. No report can be found as a source for the quote. Its only (online) appearance seems to be in material by Mr. Steyn, or those who in turn quote him.
From “Facing Down Iran”, Opinion Journal, April 19, 2006:
Or as a female Muslim demonstrator in Toronto put it: "We won't stop the protests until the world obeys Islamic law."
If that's a little too ferocious, Kofi Annan framed it rather more soothingly: "The offensive caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were first published in a European country which has recently acquired a significant Muslim population, and is not yet sure how to adjust to it."
If you've also "recently acquired" a significant Muslim population and you're not sure how to "adjust" to it, well, here's the difference: back when my Belgian grandparents emigrated to Canada, the idea was that the immigrants assimilated to the host country. As Kofi and Co. see it, today the host country has to assimilate to the immigrants:
From America Alone, pg. 74:
During the Cartoon jihad, a Muslim demonstrator in Toronto spelled it out: “We won’t stop the protests until the world obeys Islamic law”. Or as Kofi Anan framed it rather more soothingly, "The offensive caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were first published in a European country which has recently acquired a significant Muslim population, and is not yet sure how to adjust to it."
If you've also "recently acquired" a significant Muslim population and you're not sure how to "adjust" to it, well, here's the difference: back when my Belgian grandparents emigrated to Canada, the idea was that the immigrants assimilated to the host country. As Kofi and Co. see it, today the host country has to assimilate to the immigrants.
Chicago sun Times, Feb. 26, 2006:
Something very remarkable is happening around the globe and, if you want the short version, a Muslim demonstrator in Toronto the other day put it very well:
''We won't stop the protests until the world obeys Islamic law.''
from a September 7, 2009 issue of National Review, which appears to have disappeared from their online archive:
In 2006, during the original cartoon jihad, a Muslim demonstrator in Toronto spelled it out: “We won’t stop the protests until the world obeys Islamic law.”

Maclean’s Corrections?

Talk about “weasel worded corrections” (as Maclean’s Paul Wells described a Globe and Mail retraction). Maclean’s has finally decided to apologize for its claim that “10 million Finns died under Lenin, almost half due to starvation”. Appended to the online version, it reads:

CORRECTION: In the original version of this story we said that 10 million Finns died under Lenin in the 1917 civil war. The correct figure is 37,000. We regret the error.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/05/21/finns-still-haunted-by-lenin’s-ghost/

Just a couple of problems with this: the original article did not say that 10 million Finns died under Lenin “in the 1917 civil war”. In fact, even the closing paragraph correctly places Finland’s civil war in 1918, not 1917 (and at any rate, Lenin did not rule Finland - formerly a protectorate of Sweden and later Russia, one of Lenin’s first acts when he took power in October 1917 was to grant Finland independence in December 1917). The 1918 civil war was therefore not fought “under Lenin”.

Maclean’s editor Mark Stevenson appeared to acknowledge that the article confused events in Finland with the Ukrainian Holodomor, under Stalin, decades later, or at least that what he seems to suggest when responding to the controversy on the Canadian Magazines blog. He describes a letter to the editor which he initially said served as sufficient correction:

“’When we've run a letter that points out an error we don't then typically run another correction’.

(The letter said, in part, ‘The writer must have mixed up Finland with Ukraine, where some six to 10 million were starved to death in the 1930s. Finland's population was less than four million at the end of the Second World War, when Russia attacked Finland on Nov. 30, 1939.’)”

http://canadianmags.blogspot.com/2010/01/finnish-paper-criticizes-macleans-for.html

So which is it?

Better late than never, and better this than nothing, but Maclean’s should do better.

As for Mark Steyn, Maclean’s declined to run a correction for Steyn’s false claim about the U.S. Cap and Trade Bill, opting for a letter instead. Letters, of course, are neither searchable online, nor appended to the online versions.

Reputable publications, like the Washington Post and others, have clear policy in that regard:

“Letters to the editor are not a substitute for corrections by the editors”.

"A reader’s letter to the editor is not a substitution for a correction".

"The retraction... should appear on a numbered page in a prominent section... It should not simply be a letter to the editor".

The letter in Maclean’s, from the January 25th issue reads:

“In his column “Gullible eager-beaver planet savers” (Steyn, Oct.29), Mark Steyn suggested environmentalism is akin to world government, and claimed the cap and trade bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives requires that all homes sold, “whether built in 2006 or 1772”, must comply with national energy-efficiency standards including a 50 percent reduction in energy use by 2018. He writes: “Fail to do so and it would be illegal for you to enter into a private contract with a willing buyer”. This urban myth is patently false: efficiency benchmarks apply only to new homes built after the law’s passage, not existing structures – a point that was made by Factcheck.org and other non-partisan groups, including the National Association of Realtors, months earlier”.

Still waiting for Maclean’s to address this one:

In “We’re in the fast lane to polygamy” (April 9, 2009) Mark Steyn claims that gay marriage leads to polygamy, and that there are “many more takers” for the latter. To support this he provides numbers: “Last year, Aly Hindy, a Scarborough imam, told the Toronto Star that he’d performed 30 polygamous marriages just in the last few weeks”.

This is false. The Toronto Star report from May 24, 2008 reads: “In the past five years, Hindy said he has officiated or ‘blessed’ more than 30 polygamous marriages; the most recent was two months ago.”

It appears to be Steyn who has his foot on the accelerator.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Maclean’s, Mark Steyn Fact check

We're used to warnings about European demographic collapse from Maclean's magazine. But who knew the entire population of one northern European country (plus several million extra invented nationals) had succumbed already? Apparently not even Mark Steyn, who covers that beat when he's not writing about movies, music, comics, and “free speech” or, Mark Steyn. In May 2009, a Maclean’s report claimed that “10 million Finns died under Lenin, almost half due to starvation” - remarkable, given Finland's 5 million current inhabitants numbered only about 3 million during the lifetime of Lenin. And he didn't even get to rule the small country.

Occasional corrections for minor errors or spelling mistakes lead us to believe editors are scrupulous about the truth. So why wouldn’t accidentally losing an entire ethnic group - an extermination almost twice as big as the holocaust - be worth as much as a dropped apostrophe in the corrections box of a major news magazine?

Finns I spoke to while there recently were surprised to hear about their demise. Steyn has already apparently claimed that 40% of neighbouring Malmo, Sweden, had been taken by the Muslims (this despite the city's website listing the 171 different national groups comprising Malmo’s 27% foreign-born population, the largest of which comes from Denmark). But Nokia country was not just going, it was gone. The author of the Finland piece seemed to disappear from Maclean's World section for a while, before re-emerging in the Winter Travel Guide area. In her new beat, she might check out Finland. Skiing’s good, and I hear there’s not many people.

The Globe and Mail and a few other outlets still seem willing to acknowledge errors, though Maclean's Paul Wells, writing recently about a Globe retraction, slammed it for “inaccuracy” and “weasel wording”. But he's consistent. Wells also penned an article addressing earlier inaccuracies in the work of Mark Steyn. Steyn himself, in another publication, rebuked those who don't “fact-check our own reporting”, outraged over one unconfirmed and (retracted), racist quote by Rush Limbaugh. “Where's the audio? Where's the transcript? Name the year!” he demanded. But neither his editors, nor Mr. Steyn, seem willing to deal with similar problems.

Here’s one:

In October 2009 Steyn wrote about environmentalists secretly plotting world government. “In the name of ‘the environment,’ the state gets to regulate everything you do", he reported. "The cap-and-trade bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, for example, is a bold assault on property rights: in order to sell your home—whether built in 2006 or 1772—you would have to bring it into compliance with whimsical, eternally evolving national ‘energy efficiency’ standards, starting with a 50 per cent reduction in energy use by 2018. Fail to do so and it would be illegal for you to enter into a private contract with a willing buyer”.

That claim was shown to be false by Factcheck.org, along with the U.S. Homebuilders and Realtors Associations months before Steyn’s article was published.

"There’s no such requirement in the bill", they report, addressing an erroneous chain email. "It’s true that the bill sets new national efficiency standards for new residential and commercial buildings…But those efficiency benchmarks apply only to homes constructed after the bill becomes law, not currently existing ones. We found no requirement for energy audits or energy-efficiency inspections in the bill".

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/07/energy-bill-and-existing-homes/

Weeks later, Steyn writes of Nidal Hasan: “barely had he got to Texas when he started making idle chit-chat praising the jihadist murderer of two soldiers outside a recruitment centre in Little Rock. 'This is what Muslims should do, stand up to the aggressors,' Major Hasan told his superior officer, Colonel Terry Lee. 'People should strap bombs on themselves and go into Times Square'. In less enlightened times, Colonel Lee would have concluded that, being in favour of the murder of his comrades, Major Hasan was objectively on the side of the enemy. But instead he merely cautioned the major …'You need to lock it up, major,’ advised the colonel”.

Those words are used to condemn Colonel Lee for "political correctness" - the "enabler", Steyn says, in Hasan's killing of 14 soldiers. Trouble is, Col. Lee is identified as “retired” in interviews he gave to Fox News, and all other reports, not as Hasan's "superior officer". And in the interview, Lee himself makes quite clear that the words Steyn claims Hasan said to him in Texas – “People should strap bombs on themselves and go into Times Square”, are unconfirmed, third party anecdote from some other time and place. Lee describes it as: “from a third source, so I can’t confirm that”, and as “comments to other individuals” “6 months ago”.

“Six months ago” would also be before July 2009, the date at which Hasan was posted to Texas (according to reports). So the unconfirmed comment appears to have been overheard by someone else, before Hasan arrived in Texas, not while he was there, as Steyn claims, and not by his “superior officer”, Col. Lee. Taken together, it would seem that the exchange Steyn reports did not take place as Steyn wrote it. A correction? Mark Steyn himself demands no less - for other writers.

Offering something other than music trivia, or cultivated ethnic resentment wrapped in prurient humour, is tough, and maybe not as entertaining as Muslim "sheep shagging" jokes and the scatological stuff, which, were you to simply quote Steyn in the comments section, disappears into the offensive language filter. What one might expect from someone who truly believes that civilization hangs in the balance is intelligent, workable solutions to real, complex problems - come to think of it, the things we might expect of any columnist. But if you're not up for that, there’s Barbie.

“Resisting terror is exhausting. It’s easier to appease it”, Steyn writes in “What signal does Barbie's burka send?” taking a brave stand against the plastic doll, and showing us he's no wimp (like the guys on that Greyhound Bus, or at L'Ecole Polytechnique). First Europe falls to the Islamists, now full-scale invasion by girls' toys.

Given 1,500 words in which the doll is linked to a list of Muslim atrocities (including Barbie’s missing clitoris) Steyn might have mentioned that there is no Burka Barbie on the market.

One of several reports: “'Burka Barbie' is part of a collection of 500 Barbie dolls previewed Friday in Florence, Italy, for an auction to benefit Save the Children. The exhibition and auction are backed by toy-maker Mattel, but the dolls were dressed by Italian designer Eliana Lorena... Three dolls are dressed in traditional Islamic dress”.

Let’s count those invading Barbies again: three. Three ordinary Barbies on which an idividual placed an ‘Islamic dress’, to be displayed on one occasion with 497 differently dressed Barbies, perhaps wearing her S&M look, Harley Davidson biker get-up, any of hundreds of other ethnic outfits, or posed in a wheelchair. (Orthodox Jewish Barbie is also available from someone in the U.S.) The answer to Steyn’s rhetorical question is that Barbie’s burka sends no signal, except the one Steyn has created for it by withholding that information, and linking her with rampant North American "honour killings".

On April 9, 2009, Steyn wrote about the slippery slope to polygamy that gay marriage has brought about, claiming: “Aly Hindy, a Scarborough imam, told the Toronto Star that he’d performed 30 polygamous marriages just in the last few weeks”.

I can’t find anything in the Toronto Star to support this. But a Toronto Star report (from May 24, 2008, a year earlier) reads: “In the past five years, Hindy said he has officiated or "blessed" more than 30 polygamous marriages; the most recent was two months ago.”

While the inflated numbers might be consistent with Steyn’s one-note theme or repeated reprise about the Muslim menace, there’s a pretty big difference between “30 polygamous marriages just in the last few weeks”, and 30 polygamous marriages “in the past five years”. (Steyn also neglects to mention that reports describe the unions as illegal). That looks like a slippery slope alright, but not to polygamy. Next thing you know, figures for demographic decline in newspapers and magazines could be inflated. Whole countries could disappear. Oh wait...that already happened… to Finland.