MacLean’s plagiarism?

MacLean’s ‘World’ articles are often a rehash of stuff from elsewhere, but is this one plagiarism? Jane Switzer's 188 word MacLean’s version adds nothing to Helen Pidd’s earlier Guardian article. Compare side-by-side passages (not necessarily in order).

MacLean's: Overrun with stray cats, the German city of Bremen wants to take drastic action

Guardian: City of Bremen to take drastic action to tackle out-of-control feline population

MacLean’s: …the city’s cat shelter used to look after around 120 cats at any one time, but now has 378 on its books and fears that number will soon reach 500. In addition, an estimated 1,000 cats roam the streets, threatening the local songbird population.

Guardian: … threatening local songbirds. The local cat shelter used to look after around 120 cats at any one time. Now it has 378 on its books and fears that number will soon reach 500. In addition, at least 1,000 stray cats roam the streets, chasing birds…

MacLean’s: … a number of small German towns which already advocate the compulsory neutering of stray felines, including Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was home to 40,000 stray cats before it introduced forced castration three years ago.

Guardian: A number of small German towns already advocate the compulsory neutering of stray cats, including Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was home to 40,000 stray cats before it introduced forced castration three years ago.

MacLean’s: Wolfgang Apel, chairman of the Bremen Animal Protection Society, said the government should take responsibility for the growing problem: “There are so many [cats] that the situation has got out of control,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “They are becoming a burden to the public.”

Guardian: "There are so many that the situation has got out of control," said Wolfgang Apel, chairman of the Bremen Animal Protection Society... "They are becoming a burden to the public," he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

MacLean’s: Anyone with an outdoor cat would be forced to pay to have it neutered.

Guardian: …anyone who allowed their cat to run free would be forced to pay to have it neutered.

Guardian: … if the law is passed in Bremen, it will lead to nationwide legislation.

MacLean’s: If the law is passed in Bremen, it could lead to nationwide legislation.

***

A discrepancy – while the passage is otherwise almost identical, in the Guardian the line about the "government taking responsibility" reads, “MP Undine Kurth said the government should take responsibility for the growing problem”.Where in MacLean’s it reads, “Wolfgang Apel... said the government should take responsibility for the growing problem”.

Mark Steyn, New Criterion, self-plagiarism again?

Steyn’s recent article in the New Criterion is actually pretty old, and seems to again cut and paste chunks of previous columns from a variety of sources, including Maclean’s and the National Review. (Some links are via third sources and/or behind a pay wall).

New Criterion 2011:

“Just as we do not today differentiate between the Roman Republic and the imperial period of the Julio-Claudians when we think of the Roman Empire, so in the future no-one will bother to make a distinction between the British Empire–led and the American Republic–led periods of English-speaking dominance between the late-eighteenth and the twenty-first centuries. It will be recognized that in the majestic sweep of history they had so much in common—and enough that separated them from everyone else—that they ought to be regarded as a single historical entity, which only scholars and pedants will try to describe separately”.

If you step back for a moment, this seems obvious. There is a distinction between the “English-speaking peoples” and the rest of “the West,” and at key moments in human history that distinction has proved critical. Continental Europe has given us plenty of nice paintings and agreeable symphonies, French wine and Italian actresses and whatnot, but, for all our fetishization of multiculturalism, you can’t help noticing that when it comes to the notion of a political West—one with a sustained commitment to liberty and democracy—the historical record looks a lot more unicultural and, indeed (given that most of these liberal democracies other than America share the same head of state), uniregal. The entire political class of Portugal, Spain, and Greece spent their childhoods living under dictatorships. So did Jacques Chirac and Angela Merkel. We forget how rare on this earth is peaceful constitutional evolution, and rarer still outside the Anglosphere.

Steyn, 2007:

http://lighthorse.blogspot.com/2007/03/steyn.html

“Just as we do not today differentiate between the Roman Republic and the imperial period of the Julio-Claudians when we think of the Roman Empire, so in the future no-one will bother to make a distinction between the British Empire-led and the American Republic-led periods of English-speaking dominance between the late-eighteenth and the twenty-first centuries. It will be recognised that in the majestic sweep of history they had so much in common - and enough that separated them from everyone else - that they ought to be regarded as a single historical entity, which only scholars and pedants will try to describe separately”.

If you step back, this seems obvious… There is a distinction between the "English-speaking peoples" and the rest of "the west", and at key moments in human history that distinction has proved critical. Europe has given us plenty of nice paintings and agreeable symphonies, French wine and Italian actresses and whatnot, but, for all our fetishization of multiculturalism, you can't help noticing that when it comes to the notion of a political west - a sustained commitment to individual liberty - the historical record looks a lot more unicultural and indeed (given that three of the four nations on that cover share the same head of state) uniregal…The entire political class of Portugal, Spain and Greece spent their childhoods living under dictatorships. So did Jacques Chirac and Angela Merkel. We forget how rare in this world is sustained peaceful constitutional evolution.

New Criterion 2011:

Within a decade, the United States will be spending more of the federal budget on its interest payments than on its military. According to the cbo’s 2010 long-term budget outlook, by 2020 the U.S. government will be paying between 15 and 20 percent of its revenues in debt interest—whereas defense spending will be down to between 14 and 16 percent.

America will be spending more on debt interest than China, Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, Italy, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, Turkey, and Israel spend on their militaries combined. The superpower will have advanced from a nation of aircraft carriers to a nation of debt carriers.

Steyn, October 2010:

http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2010/10/campaign-countdown

Within a decade, the United States will be spending more of the federal budget on its interest payments than on its military. You read that right: more on debt service than on the armed services. According to the CBO’s long-term budget outlook, by 2020 the government will be paying between 15 and 20 per cent of its revenues in debt interest. Whereas defense spending will be down to between 14 and 16 per cent. …

… America will be spending more on debt interest than China, Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, Italy, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, Turkey and Israel spend on their militaries combined. The superpower will have evolved from a nation of aircraft carriers to a nation of debt carriers...

New Criterion, 2011:

What does that mean? In 2009, the United States spent about $665 billion on its military, the Chinese about $99 billion. If Beijing continues to buy American debt at the rate it has in recent years, then within a half-decade or so U.S. interest payments on that debt will be covering the entire cost of the Chinese military. This year, the Pentagon issued an alarming report to Congress on Beijing’s massive military build-up, including new missiles, upgraded bombers, and an aircraft-carrier R&D program intended to challenge American dominance in the Pacific. What the report didn’t mention is who’s paying for it. Answer: Mr. and Mrs. America.

Within the next five years, the People’s Liberation Army, which is the largest employer on the planet, bigger even than the U.S. Department of Community-Organizer Grant Applications, will be entirely funded by U.S. taxpayers. When they take Taiwan, suburban families in Connecticut and small businesses in Idaho will have paid for it.

Steyn, October 2010:

http://chrisadamson.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/republicans-post-election-and-decline/

What does that mean? In 2009, the US spent about $665 billion on its military, the Chinese about $99 billion. If Beijing continues to buy American debt at the rate it has in recent times, then within a few years US interest payments on that debt will be covering the entire cost of the Chinese military. This summer, the Pentagon issued an alarming report to Congress on Beijing’s massive military build-up, including new missiles, upgraded bombers, and an aircraft-carrier R&D program intended to challenge US dominance in the Pacific. What the report didn’t mention is who’s paying for it. Answer: Mr and Mrs America.

By 2015, the People’s Liberation Army, which is the largest employer on the planet, bigger even than the US Department of Community-Organizer Grant Applications, will be entirely funded by US taxpayers. When the Commies take Taiwan, suburban families in Connecticut and small businesses in Idaho will have paid for it.

New Criterion 2011:

…most of us aren’t quite sure when it took place. Andrew Roberts likes to pinpoint it to the middle of 1943: One month, the British had more men under arms than the Americans; the next month, the Americans had more men under arms than the British.

The baton of global leadership had been passed. And, if it didn’t seem that way at the time, that’s because it was as near a seamless transition as could be devised—although it was hardly “devised” at all, at least not by London. Yet we live with the benefits of that transition to this day. To take a minor but not inconsequential example, one of the critical links in the post-9/11 Afghan campaign was the British Indian Ocean Territory. As its name would suggest, it’s a British dependency, but it has a U.S. military base—just one of many pinpricks on the map where the Royal Navy’s Pax Britannica evolved into Washington’s Pax Americana with nary a thought: From U.S. naval bases in Bermuda to the Anzus alliance down under to Norad in Cheyenne Mountain, London’s military ties with its empire were assumed, effortlessly, by the United States…

Steyn, National Review, January 2010:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229381/tattered-liberty/mark-steyn

If you’re not quite sure when that took place, the British historian Andrew Roberts likes to pinpoint it to the middle of 1943: One month, the British had more men under arms than the Americans. The next month, the Americans had more men under arms than the British.

The baton of global leadership had been passed. And, if it didn’t seem that way at the time, that’s because it was as near a seamless transition as could be devised — although it was hardly “devised” at all. Yet we live with the benefits of that transition to this day: To take a minor but not inconsequential example, one of the critical links in the Afghan campaign was the British Indian Ocean Territory. As its name would suggest, that’s a British dependency, but it has a U.S. military base — just one of many pinpricks on the map where the Royal Navy’s Pax Britannica evolved into Washington’s Pax Americana with nary a thought: From U.S. naval bases in Bermuda to the ANZUS alliance Down Under to NORAD close to home, London’s military ties with its empire were assumed by the United States.

New Criterion 2011:

…Obama moved in, he ordered Churchill’s bust be removed and returned to the British. Its present whereabouts are unclear. But, given what Sir Winston had to say about Islam in his book on the Sudanese campaign, the bust was almost certainly arrested at Heathrow and deported as a threat to public order.

Steyn, National Review Feb. 2009:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229381/tattered-liberty/mark-steyn

President Obama has removed Winston Churchill’s bust from the Oval Office and returned it to the British. Given what Sir Winston had to say about Islam in his book on the Sudanese campaign, the bust will almost certainly be arrested at Heathrow and deported as a threat to public order.

New Criterion 2011:

from The Daily Telegraph:

“A leading college at Cambridge University has renamed its controversial colonial-themed Empire Ball after accusations that it was “distasteful.” The £136-a-head Emmanuel College ball was advertised as a celebration of “the Victorian commonwealth and all of its decadences.

Students were urged to “party like it’s 1899” and organisers promised a trip through the Indian Raj, Australia, the West Indies, and 19th century Hong Kong. But anti-fascist groups said the theme was “distasteful and insensitive” because of the British Empire’s historical association with slavery, repression and exploitation. The Empire Ball Committee, led by presidents Richard Hilton and Jenny Unwin, has announced the word “empire” will be removed from all promotional material”.

The way things are going in Britain, it would make more sense to remove the word “balls.” It’s interesting to learn that “anti-fascism” now means attacking the British Empire, which stood alone against fascism in that critical year between the fall of France and Germany’s invasion of Russia.

Steyn, NRO, 2009:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/177307/sun-sets/mark-steyn

“A leading college at Cambridge University has renamed its controversial colonial-themed Empire Ball after accusations that it was “distasteful”. The £136-a-head Emmanuel College ball was advertised as a celebration of “the Victorian commonwealth and all of its decadences”.

Students were urged to “Party like it’s 1899″ and organisers promised a trip through the Indian Raj, Australia, the West Indies and 19th century Hong Kong.

But anti-fascist groups said the theme as “distasteful and insensitive” because of the British Empire’s historical association with slavery, repression and exploitation.

The ball Committee, led by presidents Richard Hilton and Jenny Unwin, has announced the word ‘Empire’ will be removed from all promotional material.”

The way things are going in Britain it would make more sense to drop the word “Balls”.

PS Interesting that “anti-fascism” now means attacking the British Empire, which stood alone against fascism in that critical year between the fall of France and Germany’s invasion of Russia.

New Criterion 2011:

… point out the most obvious fatuity in those “anti-fascist groups” litany of evil—“the British Empire’s association with slavery.” The British Empire’s principal association with slavery is that it abolished it. Before William Wilberforce, the British Parliament, and the brave men of the Royal Navy took up the issue, slavery was an institution regarded by all cultures around the planet as as permanent a feature of life as the earth and sky. Britain expunged it from most of the globe.

It is pathetic but unsurprising how ignorant all these brave “anti-fascists” are. But there is a lesson here not just for Britain but for the rest of us, too: When a society loses its memory, it descends inevitably into dementia. As I always try to tell my American neighbors, national decline is at least partly psychological—and therefore what matters is accepting the psychology of decline.

National Review Feb. 12, 2009:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/177322/loss-societal-memory/mark-steyn

…I point out the most obvious fatuity in those “anti-fascist groups”‘ litany of evil - “the British Empire’s association with slavery”.

The British Empire’s principal association with slavery is that it abolished it. Thanks to William Wilberforce and the brave men of the Royal Navy, an institution that hitherto had been regarded by all cultures around the planet as as permanent a feature of life as the earth and sky was expunged from most of the globe.

It is pathetic but unsurprising how ignorant all these brave “anti-fascists” are. But there is a lesson here not just for Britain but for the rest of us, too: When a society loses its memory, it descends inevitably into dementia.

New Criterion 2011:

As I always try to tell my American neighbors, national decline is at least partly psychological—and therefore what matters is accepting the psychology of decline.

National Review, 2009:

But, more important, national decline is psychological — and therefore what matters is accepting the psychology of decline.

New Criterion 2011:

Hayek’s greatest insight in The Road to Serfdom, which he wrote with an immigrant’s eye on the Britain of 1944:

There is one aspect of the change in moral values brought about by the advance of collectivism which at the present time provides special food for thought. It is that the virtues which are held less and less in esteem and which consequently become rarer are precisely those on which the British people justly prided themselves and in which they were generally agreed to excel.

The virtues possessed by Anglo-Saxons in a higher degree than most other people, excepting only a few of the smaller nations, like the Swiss and the Dutch, were independence and self-reliance, individual initiative and local responsibility, the successful reliance on voluntary activity, noninterference with one’s neighbor and tolerance of the different and queer, respect for custom and tradition, and a healthy suspicion of power and authority.

Within little more than half a century, almost every item on the list had been abandoned, from “independence and self-reliance” (some 40 percent of Britons receive state handouts) to “a healthy suspicion of power and 
authority”—the reflex response now to almost any passing inconvenience is to demand the government “do something.” American exceptionalism would have to be awfully exceptional to suffer a similar expansion of government without a similar descent, in enough of the citizenry, into chronic dependency.

National Review March 2010:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229381/tattered-liberty/mark-steyn?page=2

Hayek’s greatest insight in The Road to Serfdom is psychological: “There is one aspect of the change in moral values brought about by the advance of collectivism which at the present time provides special food for thought,” he wrote with an immigrant’s eye on the Britain of 1944. “It is that the virtues which are held less and less in esteem and which consequently become rarer are precisely those on which the British people justly prided themselves and in which they were generally agreed to excel. The virtues possessed by Anglo-Saxons in a higher degree than most other people, excepting only a few of the smaller nations, like the Swiss and the Dutch, were independence and self-reliance, individual initiative and local responsibility, the successful reliance on voluntary activity, noninterference with one’s neighbor and tolerance of the different and queer, respect for custom and tradition, and a healthy suspicion of power and authority.”

Two-thirds of a century on, almost every item on the list has been abandoned, from “independence and self-reliance” (40 percent of people receive state handouts) to “a healthy suspicion of power and authority” — the reflex response now to almost any passing inconvenience is to demand the government “do something,”.... American exceptionalism would have to be awfully exceptional to suffer a similar expansion of government and not witness, in enough of the populace, the same descent into dependency …

New Criterion 2011:

When William Beveridge laid out his blueprint for the modern British welfare state in 1942, his goal was the “abolition of want,” to be accomplished by “cooperation between the State and the individual.” In attempting to insulate the citizenry from the vicissitudes of fate, Sir William succeeded beyond his wildest dreams: Want has been all but abolished. Today, fewer and fewer Britons want to work, want to marry, want to raise children, want to lead a life of any purpose or dignity.

National Review 2009:

http://www.centrulemin.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=485:their-welfare-state-has-produced-millions-of-work-shy-brits&catid=49:society&Itemid=105

When William Beveridge laid out his blueprint for the modern British welfare state in 1942, his goal was the “abolition of want,” to be accomplished by “cooperation between the State and the individual.” In attempting to insulate the citizenry from the vicissitudes of fate, Sir William has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams: Want has been all but abolished. Today, fewer and fewer Britons and Europeans want to work, want to marry, want to raise children, want to lead a life of any purpose or dignity.

New Criterion 2011:

…look at what lbj’s Great Society did to the black family and imagine it applied to the general population.

National Review, March 2010:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229381/tattered-liberty/mark-steyn?page=2

Look at what the Great Society did to the black family and imagine it applied to the general population

New Criterion, 2011:

The statistics speak for themselves. The number of indictable offences per thousand people was 2.4 in 1900, climbed gradually to 9.7 in 1954, and then rocketed to 109.4 by 1992. And that official increase understates the reality: Many crimes have been decriminalized (shoplifting, for example), and most crime goes unreported, and most reported crime goes uninvestigated, and most investigated crime goes unsolved, and almost all solved crime merits derisory punishment. Yet the law-breaking is merely a symptom of a larger rupture. At a gathering like this one, John O’Sullivan, recalling his own hometown, said that when his grandmother ran a pub in the Liverpool docklands in the years around the First World War, there was only one occasion when someone swore in her presence. And he subsequently apologized.

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” But viewed from 2010 England the day before yesterday is an alternative universe

Maclean’s, 2007:

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20071128_27878_27878&source=srch&page=2

…the statistics speak for themselves. The number of indictable offences per thousand people was 2.4 in

1900, climbed gradually to 9.7 in 1954, and then rocketed to 109.4 in 1992. Most crime goes unreported,

and most reported crime goes unsolved. Yet the law-breaking is merely a symptom of a larger rupture.

"It is my biased opinion," declared Alan Jay Lerner, writer of Gigi, Camelot and My Fair Lady, "that

British society is the most civilized on the planet earth." Heigh-ho, he's just a sentimental Yankee

anglophile. But, recalling his own hometown, John O'Sullivan, one of the founding editors at the

National Post, said that when his grandmother ran a pub in the Liverpool docklands in the years around the First World War, there was only one occasion when someone swore in her presence. And he subsequently apologized.

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there," wrote L. P. Hartley in his famous

opening sentence to The Go-Between. But to read how the English themselves wrote of England the day before yesterday is to visit not a foreign country but an alternative universe.

New Criterion:

Last year, the “Secretary of State for Children” (both an Orwellian and Huxleyite office) announced that 20,000 “problem families” would be put under twenty-four-hour cctv supervision in their homes. As the Daily Express reported, “They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.” Orwell’s government “telescreen” in every home is close to being a reality, although even he would have dismissed as too obviously absurd a nanny state that literally polices your bedtime.

Maclean’s September 2009:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/09/03/your-family-is-being-watched-24-7/2/

This month the “Secretary of State for Children” (another Orwellian touch) announced that 20,000 “problem families” would be put under 24-hour CCTV supervision in their homes. As the Daily Express reported, “They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals. Orwell’s government “telescreen” in every home is close to being a reality, although even he might have dismissed as too obviously absurd a nanny state that literally polices your bedtime.

New Criterion:

For its worshippers, Big Government becomes a kind of religion: the state as church. After the London Tube bombings, Gordon Brown began mulling over the creation of what he called a “British equivalent of the U.S. Fourth of July,” a new national holiday to bolster British identity. The Labour Party think-tank, the Fabian Society, proposed that the new “British Day” should be July 5th, the day the National Health Service was created. Because the essence of contemporary British identity is waiting two years for a hip operation…. They can call it Dependence Day.

National Review, September 2009:

http://americasintegrity.blogspot.com/

In a nanny state, big government becomes a kind of religion: the church as state… In Britain, after the Tube bombings, Gordon Brown began mulling over the creation of what he called a "British equivalent of the U.S. Fourth of July," a new national holiday to bolster British identity. The Labour party think-tank, the Fabian Society, proposed that the new "British Day" be July 5, the day the National Health Service was created. Because the essence of contemporary British identity is waiting two years for a hip operation. They can call it Dependence Day.

Maclean’s, Mark Steyn and Québec

Speaking of the Québec/Maclean’s controversy, I don’t know if a version of Steyn’s recycled story about Montreal’s 9/11 celebrations ever ended up in one of his Maclean’s columns, but these are interesting to read side by side. Steyn’s journalistic method at work. Spot the “source”.

1. Chicago Sun Times, 2001: … the students at Montreal’s Concordia University who openly celebrated the attacks on the World Trade Center.

2. National Post, 2002: “To the Muslims who celebrated openly in Ramullah, in Copenhagen, in Yorkshire and at Concordia University in Montreal, it was the most spectacular blow yet…."

3. UK Spectator, 2002: “smoke billowing from a pile of rubble on Pennsylvania Avenue, just like the money shot in Independence Day. Those delirious Palestinians and Danes and Montrealers would have danced all night.”

4. UK Spectator, 2004: “Three years ago, I got a flurry of emails from Yorkshire, Oslo, Marseilles and elsewhere recounting incidents of gangs of Muslim youths enthusiastically celebrating the glorious victory of 9/11 by swarming around cars, banging on the windows, intimidating the drivers, yelling Osama’s name. If you tried that in Texas, the guy would reach in his glove box and blow your head off”.

5. Western Standard, 2004: “On the night of September 11, 2001, a gang of Muslim youths rampaged through the streets of Bradford, England, celebrating Islam's glorious victory over the Great Satan. They pounded on the hoods…of cars, hammered the doors and demanded the drivers join them in their chants of ‘Osama bin Laden is a great man.’ Try that in Texas, and the guy will reach into his glove box and blow your head off.”

6. National Review, 2004: On September 11, they celebrated in the streets of Copenhagen and at Concordia University in Montreal. In Bradford, Yorkshire, they roamed the town, banging on the hoods of passing cars, forcing them to stop and making the drivers shout, ““Osama is a great man.”

7. America Alone, page 46: “On the night of September 11th Muslim youths in northern England rampaged through the streets cheering Islam's glorious victory over the Great Satan. They pounded on the hoods of the cars, hammered the doors and demanded the drivers join them in the chants of 'Osama Bin Laden is a great man.'"

8. National Review, 2005: “…the Muslim mobs in Yorkshire, who on the night of September 11 rampaged through the streets banging on the hoods of cars and demanding the drivers join them in cheering Osama bin Laden… If you tried to do that to a pick-up truck in Texas, you’d get your head blown off.”

9. Chicago Sun Times, 2006: “on the streets of Ramallah, people filled the streets and cheered and passed out candy. They celebrated at Concordia University in Montreal, and in northern England and in Scandinavia, too, but I didn’t find that out until e-mail from readers began coming through later in the day.”

10. The Australian, August 2006: “I don't mean the, ah, unfortunate business with the planes and buildings and so forth, but the open cheering of the attacks by their co-religionists in Montreal, Yorkshire, Copenhagen, and elsewhere.”

11. America Alone, page 4: “I don't mean the, ah, unfortunate business with the planes and buildings and so forth, but the open cheering of the attacks by their co-religionists in Montreal, Yorkshire, Copenhagen, and elsewhere.”

12. Interview, 2007: “on the night of September 11th, in several European towns, they demonstrated and chanted in support of Osama bin Laden. Who knew, until they were on the streets of Oslo and other Norwegian cities, that Norway had a big Muslim minority, that was celebrating September 11th? You couldn't get a taxi in certain towns in northern England, because the Muslim taxi drivers were all partying that night…They were banging on the hoods of cars and demanding that the drivers say Osama bin Laden is a great man. Well, if you try that in most American jurisdictions, the guy will just reach into [the] glove box and blow your head off”.

Referring to version #7 (one of two which end up in America Alone) Johann Hari writes:

After the 9/11 massacres, in his Daily Telegraph column (Steyn) repeated as fact preposterous claims that Muslim children all over New York had warned their favourite teachers not to go to the World Trade Centre that day. Here, he says, ‘On the night of September 11th Muslim youths in northern England rampaged through the streets cheering Islam's glorious victory over the Great Satan. They pounded on the hoods of the cars, hammered the doors and demanded the drivers join them in the chants of 'Osama Bin Laden is a great man.'" There is no record of these events on Lexis-Nexis; Steyn has not replied to a request for the source.

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.

http://198.109.220.40/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2008&month=08

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.

http://www.macleans.ca/columnists/article.jsp?id=7&content=20080103_113631_1360&page=2

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:

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20080214_96039_96039

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:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/04/09/we’re-in-the-fast-lane-to-polygamy/

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:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTU5MDI1YTA2YTY1NmFiZDI0ZTExYjRkNDAzNmY5NjE=

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:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3588310/Genius-on-the-run.html

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.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3616032/Why-progressive-Westerners-never-understood-John-Paul-II.html

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.

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20080220_83043_83043&source=srch&page=2

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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.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGE2OWE0ZDdmNWQ1NTg5MGNmM2FkNjJlY2RjMzA0MzY=, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/oct/15/ideologically-beside-the-point/

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.

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20071128_27878_27878&source=srch

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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

http://www.proconservative.net/PCVol11Is119SteynLiveFreeOrDie.shtml

http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2009&month=04

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”.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/10/15/thinking-about-the-old-ignatieff/

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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:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110008231

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, 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.