CBC tried to downplay 9-11, and desecrated the memory of victims

The CBC, one of the worst news outlets north of the border, has really dug a hole for their reputation by telling their staff not to refer to 9-11 as a terrorist attack:

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) sent a memo to its reporters and editors this week instructing them not to refer to the September 11, 2001, attack on America as a “terrorist attack.”

The memo, first reported by an astonished Warren Kinsella at the Toronto Sun, used boldface type to emphasize the directive to CBC employees.

“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” the memo said bluntly.

“The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center was destroyed,” the memo continued, by way of explaining why the atrocity seen by most of the world as the textbook example of a “terrorist attack” should not be described as such.

According to Kinsella, the memo originated with Basem Boshra, the Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust at CBC News. [...]

By the time Kelly got around to Canada’s National Post, she was engaging in Matrix-level reality distortions by claiming it was “wholly inaccurate to state our journalists have been urged to declare that this was not a terrorist act” – even though the memo said literally, exactly that, and in boldface type to boot. The CBC spokeswoman was effectively arguing there is a difference between refusing to call 9/11 a terrorist attack, and definitively stating that it was not one.

Kelly also tried to justify the memo by pointing out that CBC refused to call the October 7, 2023, atrocities perpetrated against Israel by Hamas “terrorism,” an argument that did not exactly provide the escalator ride out of the moral basement that she was hoping for. [...]

Outrage quickly boiled over on both sides of the border. Conservative MP Rachael Thomas pronounced the CBC memo “absolutely shameful,” and accused the outlet of “choosing to redefine terrorism in a way that downplays the atrocity of 9/11.”

“Refusing to call it an act of terrorism dishonors the victims, their families, the survivors, and the first responders who witnessed the horrors of that day,” Thomas wrote on X.

“9/11 was an act of terrorism. Full stop. Trying to sanitize or rewrite that history is deeply offensive and does a disservice to everyone who was affected by the attacks,” she concluded.

“What possible motive could there be for sanitizing the worst terrorist attack on American soil?” asked the social media account for the U.S. House Republicans, perhaps insinuating that Canada’s public broadcaster was behaving badly due to the trade dispute between the U.S. and Canada – although, in CBC’s defense on that point, it has clearly been working on whitewashing terrorism for many years now.

What this horrific info makes clear is that, if a news source like CBC's not willing to refer to October 7 as a terrorist attack, then it's a foregone conclusion they don't consider September 11 one either, and that a news channel that's anti-Israel is more than fully willing to be anti-American. If that's what their staff believes is "justified", that's exactly why they don't deserve an audience at all. A most repulsive channel that only gives Canada a bad name.

The Muslim Brotherhood has an agent in the Ohio assembly

Benjamin Baird reminds everybody that the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Trump administration's identified as a terrorist organization, has agents in USA politics, with one disturbing example being a Democrat representative of Columbus, Ohio:

In a highly anticipated move, the Trump administration designated factions of the global Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations last month, an executive action with profound implications extending beyond the Middle East to America’s heartland. Astonishingly, a Somali-American legislator from Ohio, State Rep. Munira Abdullahi, D-Columbus, continues to serve as a national leader for the Muslim American Society (MAS), a registered nonprofit that federal prosecutors have identified as the “overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.”

Abdullahi’s involvement with MAS dates back to at least 2012, when she served as a youth director in Columbus and later as a national program director. The organization’s youth programs have been marred by scandals nationwide, including an incident in Philadelphia where children were taught songs about beheading Israeli Jews, and a fundraiser selling merchandise glorifying Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. Upon her election to public office in 2022, Abdullahi appeared to distance herself from MAS, updating her LinkedIn profile to indicate she no longer worked for the group.

However, her ties persisted and deepened. Now heading MAS-Columbus and part of the organization’s national leadership, she leverages her elected status to host events featuring ultra-conservative preachers and pro-Hamas activists. Though MAS officially claims independence from the broader Sunni Islamist movement, a 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation exposed how its early leaders decided to conceal their Muslim Brotherhood affiliations while aiming to “convert Americans to Islam and elect like-minded Muslims to political office.”

Campaign finance records underscore this connection: in 2022, Abdullahi received a $1,000 contribution from an MAS colleague and later donated $2,400 from her campaign to MAS-Columbus.

I'd written about this Abdullahi myself in the past 4 years, and it's clear she doesn't belong in politics anywhere. It remains to be seen if the Trump administration will take any action against her and other such interlopers who don't belong in the USA or any other civilized country.

More about DC's hiring an extremist as a writer

A few months ago, horrific news came up that DC was hiring a transsexual activist named Gretchen Felker-Martin, despite the man's chilling record of incitement against Israelis/Jews and even J.K Rowling. Now, here's more info provided by the Stop Antisemitism website (which unfortunately went by female pronouns):

Meet DC Comics’ newest author: Gretchen Felker-Martin. Her record?
- Defended Hamas on Oct 7
- Praised Bin Laden’s 9/11 attack
- Called for Israel’s destruction
- Issued violent threats against Jewish journalists & public figures

This isn’t “edgy” writing. It’s dangerous… pic.twitter.com/9YY48bal1e

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 31, 2025

And here's more from their main site:

Despite her professional achievements, Felker-Martin is equally known for her antisemitic rhetoric. She has a long record of glorifying terrorism, promoting violent extremism, and engaging in antisemitic attacks. While many of her most inflammatory statements have since been deleted, they remain preserved in screenshots and widely discussed across literary and entertainment circles. This disturbing history raises serious concerns as to why DC Comics, one of the most influential publishers in the world, would employ an individual who openly promotes terrorism and antisemitism – a decision that is not only deeply troubling but emblematic of the dangerous normalization of hate within mainstream publishing and pop culture.

[...] Furthermore, Gretchen Felker-Martin has a disturbing history of threating Jewish journalist Jesse Singal by detailing gruesome details of his death. In one post, she expressed her desire to “bind Jesse Singal with strong rope and bring him to the quarry at the end of town… Leave, and no matter the sounds you hear, do not look back”.

More recently, Felker-Martin posted on X (since been deleted) that Singal – alongside Helen Joyce and J.K. Rowling – should have their throats slit, writing: “Blood on Jessie Singal’s hands, blood on Helen Joyce’s, Rowling’s … If they all had one throat, man.”

These are not isolated incidents. As far back as 2017, Felker-Martin threatened a Massachusetts city councilor by saying, “we’re gonna bury your lonely corpse in the overgrown lot behind State Liquors, Michael.” Her repeated use of violent imagery shows a consistent pattern of targeting and dehumanizing those she disagrees with.

This is very serious, and there's got to be legal grounds for filing police complaints about. Stop Antisemitism's website provides a contact for DC publishing, and all concerned should contact them to object to employing this extremist. And make clear they're not going to buy their output with the way they're going here. Of course, this is precisely why DC and Marvel should've folded over 2 decades ago, and if they did, chances are the damage would've been minimized in more ways than just the plummeting artistic quality.

As the latest example of the Big Two hiring insane, racist mental cases to do writing/drawing/editing for them, this is one of the most repulsive by far. Particularly stupefying is how Marie Javins, who once worked at Marvel, which was also founded by Jewish publishers, would be willing to employ such a creep. I think it's about time Ms. Javins resign the position she doesn't deserve any more than her predecessor, Dan DiDio.

Transexual who murdered 2 children at Catholic school in Minnesota was also antisemitic

Another horrifying tragedy where a transsexual committed a terror attack at a Christian establishment, similar to Tennessee's recent tragedy, has occurred in Minnesota:

A senior administration official confirmed to Breitbart News that the alleged shooter at a Minneapolis Catholic school changed from a male name to a female name at 17 years of age and identified as a female.

A document posted on social media was confirmed as authentic by the official. The document describes the name change as occurring in 2020 when the alleged shooter was a minor, and required parental sign-off on the change.

FOX News correspondent Brook Taylor reported that his mother signed off on the name change from “Robert” to “Robin.”

Breitbart News reported that police indicated the alleged shooter used a pistol, a rifle, and a shotgun to carry out his attack on the school Wednesday morning. From outside the church, he shot through windows, striking children as they sat in pews during mass. Two children were killed and 17 other individuals were wounded.

Making matters worse is that the man pretending to be a woman was also antisemitic:

A trans-identifying gunman who attacked a Catholic school on Wednesday railed against Jews in multiple antisemitic journal entries.

The gunman, identified by authorities as 23-year-old “Robin Westman,” made numerous disturbing videos, journal entries, drawings, and other materials before carrying out the attack that killed two young children on Wednesday.

In part of his writings, Westman, who previously went by the name Robert before identifying as a woman, lashed out at Jews, according to The New York Post, which published translations of some of Westman’s entries that were written using the Cyrillic alphabet.

“If I will carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist jews,” Westman wrote.

“I hate those entitled, penny-sniffing k***s,” he wrote elsewhere, using an antisemitic slur.

Westman also wrote a number of antisemitic and hateful messages on his firearm and magazines, including phrases like “6 million wasn’t enough,” “Israel must fall, release the files,” and “Destroy HIAS,” which refers to a Jewish aid organization.

Westman attacked Annunciation Catholic School’s church in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning as students attended mass, according to authorities. The gunman killed two students, ages 8 and 10, and wounded 17 others. Westman later turned his gun on himself, police said.

Westman’s weapons carried numerous other messages, such as “Where is your God?” “For the children,” “Kill Donald Trump,” and “Why so Queerious?”

Making matters worse, the monster also wrote racist comments about Indians and even used an Arabic word on his weapons:

...the 23-year-old shooter who stormed a Minnesota Catholic school had scrawled 'Mashallah', "Nuke India" and "Israel Must Fall" on the weapons used in the mass shooting.

[...] "Minnesota shooter had Mashallah and Nuke India written on his gun. He also wrote Israel Must Fall. Clearly influenced by anti-Indian and Anti-Jewish Islamic propaganda. Not really a shocker to see a person like this living in Ilhan Omar's district kill Catholics. Another example of the Red-Green alliance," Laura Loomer wrote in a post on X along with pictures of the weapons used in the mass killing.

Some will find it stupefying how LGBT practitioners are more than willing to support the Religion of Peace and do the dirty work for the ummah, even though Islam is hostile to LGBT ideology. But that just shows how some far-left LGBT practitioners are otherwise only in the business for the sake of serving as a 5th column against civilized values, and this terrible horror is yet another clue to how LGBT activists can be antisemitic, misogynist and racist as well. Condolences to the families of the victims. Trump, from what I read, has ordered flags to be set for half-mast in memory of the victims.

This horror also makes clear we can't stand for this kind of ideology any longer, seeing what damage it's wrought upon society, mental or otherwise. If nothing's done, a synagogue/ulpan/yeshiva could be the next to fall victim to these LGBT terrorists.

More severely problematic statements made by Miriam Libicki

The Comics Journal, quite a leftist periodical for many years, interviewed artist Miriam Libicki, whose own far-left viewpoints continue to be display here, and a number of her comments regarding the VanCAF scandal are, at this point, quite stupefying. First, let's take another look at Libicki's description of events, which continue to be rather ambiguous:

The statement that VanCAF put out alludes to the first of two incidents that happened in 2022. Do you know what that incident was? And can you describe it for me?

I do know what it was. It was an incident at the end of the show where two people walked by my table. They just saw some of my book covers: they saw the cover of Jobnik!, and they saw the cover of Toward a Hot Jew, which was then still in print, and both of those depict Israeli soldiers on the cover.

Without picking up the books, they pointed at them and they said, “Is this anti-Zionist?” And I started to try to explain my work and myself, but all I got out was “No, it's not anti-Zionist.” And then they said, “That's good,” and they ran away. And then later I found out that immediately after running away from my table, what they had done was they went to a volunteer and started screaming about, “How was somebody like me allowed to exhibit that; It was a Zionist propaganda; that it was like having the KKK at the festival,” and numerous other things. And they were screaming and cursing at a young volunteer. And then the festival directors stepped in and they screamed and cursed at them also. And then a couple more people were screamed and cursed at by them before they left, but they never screamed and cursed at me. It was a very, very quick interaction that I had with them in which they did not pick up the books or look through them or anything. So that was 2022.

So you found out about all of that secondhand? Somebody else told you about it?

Yeah, somebody else told me about it.

Who was it that told you?

One of the festival organizers who had been screamed at, they told us about it at the show. One of [the festival organizers] came by our table and said, “You are going to need to submit copies of your book to the board.” But I didn't even know that they were serious. Like, I had copies of the book on the table, but they did not try to take the copies of the book that were on the table. They just said this thing. And then kind of smiled and walked away.

So then, another one of the guests of the con who had nothing to do with me, but for some reason had also been screamed at – I went up and talked to them at the end of the show, and introduced myself, and was like, “I heard somebody screamed at you about me.” And I had a nice but confused conversation with that person. So I did hear about it from multiple people at the show, but I didn't see it myself.

It sounds an awful lot like the offenders - who curiously continue to go unidentified - employed some kind of psychological warfare strategy to turn the managers they screamed at against Libicki, in another example of victim-blaming. Simultaneously, it also strongly suggests the managers and their board of directors are sorely lacking in confidence, one more reason why they initially took such a pathetic approach before reversing. That's hardly the kind of example that would suit adventure comics of decades past emphasizing heroism. As for how Libicki handled all this more recently, here's where it gets disturbing when they discuss more about the staff's request to review her books:

What happened at that meeting in February?

First they told us that, because the people who made the complaint hadn't read the book, it wasn't our fault [and that] those people have actually been banned from the festival. But they were saying that it's a very sensitive time and that those weren't the only complaints. And we said, okay, what were the substance of the other complaints? And they wouldn't tell us. They were like, “Times are just very sensitive, and Israel is committing war crimes.”

And we were like, okay, but I'm not responsible for what Israel is doing. I didn't try to argue back that Israel's position was okay. That's not something that I can do anything about. And I told them that the one book that was already out of print, so I wouldn't have that at the table anyways. And they were like, “Well, we would like you to not display Jobnik!, and not display any IDF imagery. We didn't realize that you were promoting this book about a Holocaust survivor, because actually we didn't read your application.” Like, during that meeting, they told me that they didn't read my application for 2024.

Just to clarify, they had rejected your application and they were now saying that they didn't read it?

Yes. So then they were like, “We do think that is an important book.” Basically they offered me a deal. They said, we will give you a half table if you don't have Jobnik!, and if you don't display any IDF imagery, which I guess there is one background backdrop I have that is based on the book cover. So that could be construed as displaying IDF imagery. So again, it seemed like I was being singled out, but on the other hand, my partner and I had already discussed maybe retiring Jobnik! from shows for a while, because it is an older book. And we also did know that people are rightfully very sensitive. They're seeing terrible imagery of IDF soldiers, and these things that Israel is actually doing. So we understand why people are upset by that, especially now. So we were like, yeah, we're okay with that. We're okay with not selling the book. We want to focus on the newer book. We don't want it to be a distraction. We don't want to have confrontations at our table. So we agreed, and then they agreed that we could have a half table.

I'm sorry, but excuses are unbecoming. The staff apparently took a position favorable to Hamas, and adding insult to injury, Libicki was perfectly okay with censoring her book? That's pretty much what they did and she went along with, certainly initially. And to make matters worse, in all her unadulterating leftism, she wouldn't even defend Israel and make clear it was the Hamas who attacked first on October 7, 2023, graphically raping and murdering over 1,200 people that very day. If any specific staffers at VanCAF favored Hamas, they do not belong in the comics medium, period, and those who resigned couldn't have done so soon enough. Their positions desecrate the memory of past Jewish comics creators like Siegel, Shuster, Lee and Kirby. For the record, as this Tablet article indicates, such blacklisting as Libicki nearly encountered isn't new, and only the tip of the iceberg. Are we to assume the VanCAF staffers who caused this whole scandal are also among the leftist deniers of the sexual violence that took place? To make matters worse, the convention's attendants this year sure seem pretty creepy:

So tell me about the confrontation that happened in 2024.

At the show, two days minus one half hour of the festival went by very unevenly. I sold almost all the copies [of my book]. There were plenty of people wearing Palestine pins, wearing keffiyehs, and slogans on their shirts. And I had no problem with them because I don't have a problem with people protesting, and they had no problem with me. Nobody questioned me about my identity or my politics.

And then half an hour before the end of the show, two people came by my table, and first they started asking about screen prints. And I talked to them about the process of screen printing. They thanked me for my advice, and they started to walk away. And then one of them turned around and said, “Aren't you Miriam Libicki who does Jobniki?” Which is not the name of my comic, but I knew what she meant. And I said yes. And then this person started on a new attack, and was asking all kinds of leading questions about why my army comics weren't out. And when I kind of admitted that VanCAF had asked me not to [display them], they were kind of trying to draw me out: “Didn't I think I had been censored, didn't I think I had been silenced?” And I really didn't know where they were coming from. I thought perhaps they were a Jewish person who was more right wing than me or something.

But I was kind of just trying to give polite answers without committing to anything they were saying. And they were like, “Do you know there's a table in the other room which is, like, covered with Palestine flags and stuff?” And I was like, okay, that's fine. And they're like, “But they're taking people's signatures, and they're taking people's names.” And I said, okay – like, I really don't know what this has to do with me. I was trying to be like, “I guess if that disturbed you, I understand why you're disturbed by it. It's a tough time for people who have ties to Israel. I kind of think that for me, the best thing is just to keep my head down and hope things get better.” And that's what I said to them. And then they smiled and walked away. And then like five minutes after that, Robin McConnell comes up to my table and he says, “What did you tell those girls, Miriam?” And that is when I realized it was the same two people from 2022, and that I hadn't recognized them. But then when he said that, I made the connection.

Before we get to more on how the 2 disgusting troublemakers showed up again despite claims they'd been thrown out 2 years prior, that anybody would show up at a festival like this carrying Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flags and scarves similar to what the horrific jihadist Yasser Arafat wore leaves a very bad aftertaste, and compounds my decision that, were I traveling to Canada today, I would not set foot in VanCAF even if they offered me free bags of money along with comics. Whoever the staffers are who allowed this are truly disgraceful people, especially if it turns out Israeli flags aren't allowed there, nor Armenian flags, recalling they're another country that's been persecuted by the Religion of Peace, and a victim of the Ottoman Islamic Empire during WW1. As I may have mentioned before, based on what Libicki's telling here, it's doubtful she'd ever agree to participate in developing a GN about Medz Yeghern, and she likely won't collaborate on a GN about October 7, 2023 either. Not even a GN project about September 11, 2001 and its victims, Betty Mahmoody, or even the Ajmer serial rape case in India back in 1992. The way Libicki describes people at a table with PLO flags "taking names" is ambiguous, but it could be what was meant was that they were signing anti-Israel petitions, which makes this whole affair additionally chilling. And when Libicki didn't provide the answers the infiltrators wanted, that's what the 2 or 3 creeps used as their excuse for repeat offending. Yet exact identities are kept concealed, and Libicki seems driven by anti-conservative ideologies.

Also fascinating - she thought the creeps were right-wing Israelis?!? I get this weird feeling she's distorting and covering something up here or telling the magazine something they'd want to hear from a leftist viewpoint; I don't know. It sounds like her apparent hatred of right-wingers and/or patriotic Israelis is getting the better of her, and if they really were pro-Israeli passers-by, why would they take any positions that're hostile to Israel? Simply bizarre.

So at this point, do you have any idea who those people are?

No, and in fact, I still don't. It's something I'm kind of trying to figure out, although I don't really want to dig around. I don't know. I feel digging around might make me insane.

Basically what happened is after they left my table, they did the same scene as 2022. They went to organizers, they went to the staff of the convention center, which is why that location is mentioned in the statement. And again were just screaming and cursing people out – not me, screaming and cursing other people out, to the point where they were becoming really aggressive. Apparently they were cursing in front of one staffer's small child, and they were physically removed by security. So again, I didn't witness this, but was told this afterwards by different people who had seen it.

What did Robin say to you then when he came to your table?

He said, “What did you say to them?” And then I was like, oh my God, it was those two. He was angry at me, as if I had fallen for something. And I was just trying to rack my brain for what I might have said that was incriminating. And so I told him that the festival told me not to display things. And at one point I might have said I'm pro-Israel and pro-peace. I don't think I would even necessarily have said I'm pro-Israel. To somebody who was coming from the left, I wouldn't necessarily describe myself that way, but I thought I was talking to someone who was a lot more right wing than me and maybe Jewish. And so I said pro-peace, but pro-Israel, and that was the closest to some sort of Zionist statement that I could have gotten. And he seemed angry that I had said that. But when I asked him what happened, he just walked away and he wouldn't answer me.

My spouse [Mike Yoshioka] went to go talk to Robin, and then Robin just screamed and yelled at him, and was saying that he [Robin] got yelled at because of me. And he was saying, “If Miriam doesn't have the proper responses to these things, then this is going to keep happening.” But Mike said, “You told us that those people were banned and they couldn't come back to VanCAF.” And Robin's like, “Well, we can't watch the doors. Like, we can't check everybody coming in.” So he was blaming me for speaking to them, but not not saying that the show had any responsibility.

Mike also found Jarett and tried to ask Jarett what happened, and Jarett said, “I can't talk to you right now.” So Mike talked to staff at the Roundhouse, and that's when he got more details. And then I later heard from other people who had been nearby and had seen the scene.

Interesting. It sounds like the staff never made any attempts even before this to have the majority of entrances closed, so they could conduct security checks more easily. Put another way, they're lazy, plain and simple. Is that a good example of management? I don't think so. And the left-wing viewpoints continue to be espoused. Later, when Libicki talks about the embarrassment of the announcements VanCAF made, she said:

Did you try to reach Robin or Jarrett after that statement came out?

No, I didn't send an email. I keep Shabbat, so it was almost sunset at that point. All I did was send a DM to the Instagram account of VanCAF and I said, “Please stop people tagging me and saying my name in your post.” And then took my Instagram to private, because I was just really frightened – like, people were already naming me and I was being tagged by people I didn't know. On that day I texted Mike. That's the only person.

I read in another article linked here that she's ostensibly religiously observant. Pretty weird for somebody who's supposedly reading the Torah/Bible - if she actually does - to be taking standings hurtful and delegitimizing to Israel, laced with the moral equivalence of a "two-state solution" that absolves Islam of anything wrong, and quite possible any religious observance on her part is all for the sake of virtue-signaling, which she seems to revel in regardless.

What's your sense of where things stand now? I mean, do you consider this an apology, or are you trying to do more at this point?

I think that it's a start. I think it's a necessary start, but that more definitely has to happen. This amount of transparency is not going to work. At least I need to know who's on the board.

But on the other hand, I think that a lot of people I wasn't in touch with were calling for VanCAF to lose their city funding and federal funding. And I really object to that, because I remember before VanCAF existed there wasn't a really great indie community in Vancouver, and there is quite an indie community [now]. And VanCAF in its inception, for the first eight, 10 years it ran, was a wonderful show. It was one of our favorite shows of the year. We really consider it our home show. I really fear that if people are going after the funding of VanCAF, once you take that away, it's really hard to get it back.

So to be clear, you’re not calling for any kind of protest.

No, I don't think a protest or boycott is the way to go. I think that they've shown that they're willing to reform, and so we're waiting to see if they really are able to be accountable and to prove that they have changed their ways so that VanCAF can continue, so that we can continue to have a good indie show in Vancouver.

I think her forgiving the VanCAF bunch has what to do with her leftist loyalties, and despite what's emphasized here, the chances VanCAF's staff will reform to the point they'll be willing to welcome right-wingers, pro-Israeli sources, 9-11 Families for a Safe America, cartoonists like Charlie Hebdo's in France, openly Republican supporters and maybe even Salman Rushdie, if it matters, are close to zero. Libicki certainly doesn't make the case for them, and continues to be quite the leftist.

So your goals at this point – you would like to have more transparency to the extent of at least knowing who's on the board. What else are the outcomes that you're trying to get?

Well, I think that I would like them to take some public actions showing that they've learned from this and that even if they are brigaded and dogpiled again, that they'll know how to deal with it, and why what they did was not the right action. They'll have plans for what to do instead, and they'll be open with the community about what mistakes were made and how they will operate differently in the future. I think that has to be a public process now. And because I think there probably will be backlash in the so-called activist left community, they'll have to be able to show that they can deal with that, that they are able to stand up to a backlash if they want to have a comic festival in this day and age that truly represents the community.

Unfortunately again, the chances they'll be willing to work with openly right-wing creators is next to nothing, and if Chuck Dixon isn't invited, that's yet another example of where they continue to stand. So is she talking about the whole community? Not really. But interesting that she mentions leftist activists, because that's actually those who've been responding to the scandal based on Libicki's politics being more aligned with theirs.

Is there anything else you want to add at this point?

I feel like I need to get the word out that my IDF service happened 24 years ago. It happened from 2000 to 2002. Indeed I was not drafted. I did volunteer because I had received my citizenship after my 18th birthday. So I did volunteer for the service, but the service I did was the same service and I was the same age as Israelis who were drafted. And my reasons for joining the Army at the time – I was already in the pro-peace camp. I already believed that Israel and Palestinians needed to both have human rights and self-determination in that land. But at the time, it was more about having a sense of belonging and proving that I could belong. A way to prove that I could be a real Israeli, too if all of the real Israelis had to go into the draft.

And when I joined in the summer of 2000, there was still a peace process in place. It was during the Oslo peace process which, you know, wasn't perfect, but it was the negotiated peace process between leaders of Israel and leaders of the Palestinian people. And then Second Intifada started two months into my service, and that's kind of the backdrop of Jobnik! I was never a right winger, I never planned to be part of an occupying force. For some people, military service anywhere in the world is beyond the pale. And that's fair. But if I can set the record straight about when and what my army service was, I want to get that out there.

Do you feel in general that your Army service or your position on Israeli and Palestinian politics are valid grounds to decide whether you should be at the festival?

I think that if my IDF service in 2000 is grounds for barring me from a festival, then anybody who served in any military in the world ... because all militaries commit violence and injustice. Canada was part of the invasion of Afghanistan. The US invaded both Iraq and Afghanistan, and other places. Unjustifiably, many places in Central America. So if when you served doesn't matter, and your current politics doesn't matter, then that disqualifies a lot more people than me.

Yikes...is she saying there was no justification in any way whatsoever for raiding Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban, despite the totalitarian regime they practically reestablished after the Biden government's disastrous pullout 3 years ago? This has to be the most mind-numbing part of the whole interview. At least she admits she's not a right-winger, but she apparently believes anybody with such politics is nothing more than barbaric conquestors, while blotting out the bigger pictures, with the worst part being she strongly implied she believes Israel is evil. What this means, worst of all, is that she has no concerns about Islam's own atrocities that she accuses the west of. I guess this also means she's got no issues with the huge disaster for women's rights the botched Afghanistan withdrawal resulted in, among other horrors. And what's this about "real" Israeli? Even that's jumbled up, as is the part about her service. Does she also believe the invasion of Panama in 1989 to depose the despot Manuel Noriega was wrong, ditto the defeat of Saddam Hussein? And she doesn't seem to actually mention or address the issue of October 7, 2023, if at all. No wonder I'd rather not spend money on her GNs, and no sensible person should work with her either.

Now, coverage of this incident in the comics specialty press has been rather unsurprisingly muted, but the far-left Comics Beat did write about it, and predictably, their approach is hostile to Israel, and favorable to sources siding with Islam like the BDS movement (or PACBI, another acronym used here for Palestinian Campaign to Boycott Israel). For example:

The specific public safety concerns were unclear in the Accountability Statement but the other references relate to Libicki’s past voluntary service in the Israeli military as a teenager, which were the subject of her self-published graphic memoir jobnik!. Libicki, who comes from a religious Orthodox Jewish background would have been technically exempt from service – which is compulsory for most Israeli citizens on graduation from high school – but volunteered. The period in which Libicki served would later coincide with the outbreak of the Second Palestinian Intifada – also known as the Al Aqsa Intifada – which took place between 2000 and 2005. This period of violent upheaval saw the deaths of over three thousand Palestinians and a thousand Israelis. While her position in the Israeli army was a secretarial one on a remote base, her association with the institution, voluntary enlistment, and it being the setting of her debut work has incensed pro-Palestinian activists.

And this effectively erases any clear understanding of what went on in the early 2000s, like Islamic terrorist attacks. Making things more ambiguous is that they don't even actually make use of the word "terrorists" when referring to "palestinians". This is exactly why Comics Beat is worthless, and it's a wonder their writers are even into the whole medium to begin with, if they're going to make it sound like Israel did worse for no reason, and in doing so, they devalue the lives of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Israeli brethren by obfuscating the seriousness of the issues involved, not making any clear distinction between ordinary Arabs and those who commit terrorist attacks. What even Libicki may not understand is that there's Moslems who don't care whether a book by Israelis sides with their beliefs or not, they'll be hostile even to a left-wing Israeli. It reminds me of recent news of a left-wing IDF soldier named Naama Levy, who sided with the Palestine-fabrication, and was kidnapped and tortured by the Hamas regardless. Point: jihadists like them are completely indiscriminate in whom they attack, including other Moslems, and it makes no difference what the victim's political standings are; what matters is that they're Jews and other "infidels", along with anybody they consider a traitor to the cause of the Religion of Peace.

The CB article also highlights several people who defended Libicki, and who, most unfortunately, are as leftist as she is, and likely only came to her defense because of her politics:

Shortly following VanCAF’s Accountability Statement being issued, members of the comics community spoke out including Derf Backderf, Nate Powell, and MariNaomi – many of whom implied this ban may be considered anti-Semitic.

Backderf, if anybody, is a sadly bad lot himself politically, but what really takes the cake here is when CB's writer downplays the seriousness of any antisemitism involved. Hugely disappointing, but not surprising they'd do that.

According to Powell,

“Their published statement is knowingly incomplete to the point of being misleading & disingenuous – I know this because the blacklisted creator is a good friend of mine, and I’ve been aware of all information & context regarding the last year’s worth of discussion with VanCAF as it developed in real time, including prior to the attacks of Oct. 7th.”

He added,

“The blacklisted creator…discussed and complied with all requested VanCAF concessions (importantly, removing all books & imagery featuring IDF depiction – very reasonable concession in 2024 context, and which I support). Organizers received digital versions of the creator’s recent award-winning work (first person comics narratives directly from Holocaust survivors’ experiences) – but did not download or read the requested work before trying again to deny her a table – still intending to blacklist creator many months ago.

“Even with no IDF-related imagery at the creator’s table, the outbursts of a couple of misguided attendees was the “public safety concern” serving as pretext. The creator had nothing to do with a public safety concern, and the disruption was not even at her table (which had none of the content originally cited as the objectionable issue). VanCAF’s action, including knowingly incomplete & misleading statement afterward, has a hint of antisemitic aftertaste to it – and I know this is likely not their intent. But it is one of the takeaways.”

Well the politics expressed by the staffers who resigned certainly provides evidence something's terribly wrong. Now here's more, and at least 3 more names most should be wary of, who took part in a letter that's otherwise hostile to Israel too:

A letter of protest was submitted by indigenous Canadian creator Alina Pete, and was signed by a number of creators including Alex de Campi, David Brothers, and Reetta Linjama. It said:

“We, the undersigned comics arts professionals, would like to state that we also oppose the current genocide being perpetrated upon the Palestinian people by the state of Israel. However, we see and affirm that there is a clear distinction between the Israeli state and the Jewish people as a whole—even those who have previously served as part of the IDF.”

Adding:

“These guidelines are not a call to boycott all Jewish forms of expression. The PACBI’s guidelines specifically call to “comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions” —i.e., state-sponsored sources of pro-Israeli propaganda. Ms. Libicki is not an Israeli academic, and her publications are not sponsored by the Israeli state. Thus, the PACBI guidelines do not apply to her works.

“It is unconscionable, and frankly anti-Semitic, to bar someone from your convention for simply being Jewish and having personal ties to Israel.”

And what does that mean? That it's okay to be antisemitic towards anybody who does live in Israel? Or that because Libicki doesn't live in Israel and is left-wing, that's why antisemtism should be avoided? That aside, this letter indicates de Campi, already known as quite a far-leftist, and even Brothers is a leftist, who turned against another leftist, C.B. Cebulski. These are most decidedly not people worth supporting, and their approach to the subject is very disappointing too.

So in the end, while VanCAF's initial approach to this whole affair was indeed reprehensible, it's very sad simultaneously that people like Libicki are a very bad lot themselves too, and beyond what happened, it's just not worth supporting their comics. The politics people like her support are offensive and insulting to the intellect, and completely disregard any and all common sense, suggesting that beyond certain topics, she won't address others convincingly, which makes her writings about the WW2 Holocaust unconvincing, because if she doesn't take the issue of Islam seriously, how can we be sure she does take Germany's evil deeds during WW2 seriously? Or even the Viet Cong's during the 1960s in southeast Asia? Such leftists as Libicki are only undermining the ability to confront serious topics clearly, and that's why there's no point in supporting her products.

OneFamily, much like 911 Families, is something Europe needs

This article talks about the Israeli support group OneFamily, which has a similar purpose to movements like 911 Families for a Safe and Strong America:

On Monday, May 13, sirens will sound again in observance of Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Remembrance Day for the fallen soldiers and victims of terror, reopening the wounds of the thousands who are reeling in the aftermath of the horrific October 7 massacre and ongoing war with Hamas. For Shira Mark-Harif, this day symbolizes the endless cycle of loss and pain that she has endured for more than eight years.

In 2016, at the age of 24, Shira was a new mother of two living in Har Hevron, surrounded by her large, enveloping family, 9 siblings and loving parents, when her entire world came crashing down. On July 1, 2016, Shira’s father, Rabbi Miki Mark was driving his car along Route 60, along with his wife and two of his children, when terrorists opened fire, killing Miki and injuring Shira’s mother and two siblings. Her mother suffered extensive brain damage, leaving Shira, the second oldest child, to assume the role of the primary guardian for her younger four siblings.

With her life shattered and faced with the impossible task of now caring for six children, along with her mother, Shira began to lose herself.

“My father was my entire world, but because I was over the age of 21, I fell through the cracks,” Shira shares, just ahead of Yom Hazikaron, adding that aside from basic support as a foster parent and emotional therapy, she was not entitled to any other support from the Israeli government, “It was through the support of OneFamily that I felt that there was somebody to check on me, to feel connection and that community has helped me build strong lifelong friendships.”

Founded in 2001 by Marc and Chantal Belzberg and inspired by their daughter after the Sbarro Suicide Bombing, OneFamily steps up where others do not bring together Israel’s victims of terror into one, national, self-supportive family. For Shira, like the more than 7,200 families supported by the organization since 2001, it helped her find herself again.

Understanding the emotional complexities of the families of the victims of terror, OneFamily took the initiative to gradually reach out to Shira and her siblings, first attending the shiva of her father, and then over time developing a budding relationship that has turned into the central force that has allowed the Mark family to continue living.

“At first, it is just chaos,” she recalls. “I had no idea what I needed, but OneFamily continued to reach out and provide us with everything we needed.”

“My mother and I began to attend ceramics classes in Jerusalem and group activities with other families of victims of terror,” Shira explains, adding that her mother continues to travel two hours to Jerusalem from their new home in the Golan Heights each week just so she does not miss a single ceramics class. “They truly see you, and give us strength, the ability to breath and a connection with the larger community.”

But unfathomable tragedy struck again, just two and a half years after the death of her father, as Shira’s oldest brother, Shlomi, was killed in a traffic accident while on his way to work at the Prime Minister’s office in 2019.

That's absolutely terrible more tragedy occurred. And people like her should have the backing of the government considering what they've been through.

While OneFamily has created a model for national support in the face of terrorism, a stark reality that many Western countries do not share, more than 60,000 Israelis have joined the list of victims of terror will statistically leave thousands to fall through the cracks, just as Shira would have without the immediate response of the organization.

Well this is something European countries need to emulate, not to mention Latin American and Asian countries that could've been struck by similar tragedies too. So let's hope somebody in said countries will draw some ideas from this, since there's only too many there who've suffered enough and need a good movement's backing for a change.

Chechnya taking in Muslims from Gaza

Well, this is most intriguing. The autocrat of a region circa Russia that's Muslim-majority is taking in Mohammedans from the Gaza strip:

Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov announced this week that his majority-Muslim Russian republic will construct a "Palestinian village" for refugees from the Gaza Strip.

Kadyrov, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, laid the cornerstone for the establishment of the village that will accommodate the refugees. The hamlet will be built in Chechnya's capital Grozny, in the vicinity of schools and kindergartens, and will include five residential buildings with 35 apartments each with a total living space of roughly 45,000 square feet.

Family members of refugees who do not hold Russian citizenship received a passport and citizenship upon arrival. Kadyrov also announced that each family will receive 100,000 rubles (1,100$) in financial assistance.

According to Russian-born Israeli social activist Alex Tenzer, about 1,124 refugees have arrived in Russia from Gaza so far since the start of the war, with most of them settling in Muslim-majority areas, such as Chechnya and Dagestan.

The first group of refugees has already been taken in by Chechnya, which has announced that it is ready to take in about 250 more refugees. Kadyrov himself met with some of them, and said that 30 refugees have already been accepted for employment in the health sector, while the rest are now taking courses to learn the Russian language.

Last month, Canada announced that it intends to ease the criteria for accepting relatives of Canadian citizens and residents living in Gaza. However, Canada made it clear that the exit from Gaza depends on Israel's approval, and warned that leaving the area could be dangerous. According to Canadian Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Mark Miller, hundreds of people will be able to resettle in the country under the program.

Whatever one thinks of Canada, they're certainly less lucky. As is the public in Russia proper, recalling it may have been reported there's some Muslims who went directly there as well. One can only wonder if Putin's preparing a poison "gift" for the Russian populace for after he's gone.

This news does give an idea of what European and other countries who're more realist might want to encourage their own Muslim populations to do, and move to places like Chechnya and Dagestan instead. And who knows, that might be just what'll happen in the future. If the Gazan Muslims move to those areas in the meantime, it's quite fine. We do not need any of the worst Islamic-influenced bigots dwelling here, as Ron deSantis would surely agree.

Here's more on this news at the Jerusalem Post and Jewish Press.

A so-called comics historian sides against Lois Lane's Jewish creators

Tim Hanley is a Canadian comics historian of a most left-wing leaning who's written books about Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, and other such comic women, but apparently out of some kind of male feminist belief system. And guess who's side he chose to take at a time when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Israeli/Jewish brethren around the world are suffering horror stories at a time when antisemitism arose during the Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza, and Islamic riots in cities like Lod? It wasn't Siegel/Shuster's ethnic relatives:

Here's some info on the mission and the charities @books_palestine supports so you can learn more! #BooksForPalestine pic.twitter.com/RpcE0QGVeA

— Tim Hanley (@timhanley01) May 27, 2021

He's dedicating his work on a Betty & Veronica history book to a cause going against any and all of comicdom's Jewish creators? Well...this is certainly telling. Some gratitude he shows there alright, after all the problems comicdom's Jews went through, and tried to address in their time. Now, some charlatan desecrates their memory by taking a position that's hurtful to their Israeli brethren. Even Archie had their share of Jewish contributors decades before, and these repellent promotional posts are a slap in the face to their memory as well. He even posted the following:

Just signed this petition, and wrote the library directly. There should be no place for anti-trans rhetoric in our library system. Remove Anti-Trans Hate From Halifax Public Libraries - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/L9lhqGqm7H via @CdnChange

— Tim Hanley (@timhanley01) May 30, 2021

So he buys into this transsexuality propaganda too, and what next, will he throw his full support behind allowing men claiming to be the opposite sex into bathrooms reserved for the ladies? This is why Israeli-American columnist Ruthie Blum once lamented the failure of schools to teach boys to defend a woman's honor and dignity these days.

I've taken a look at a few other subjects on Mr. Hanley's own site, and he sure does offer a lot of telling clues what's wrong with his thinking. His site, with entries spanning at least a decade, is a stunning goldmine of absurd social justice propaganda. Here's an early entry, where he blabbers about underrepresentation of women in the industry:

Women account for half of all human beings on the planet, but in terms of making comic books they are seriously under-represented. This shouldn’t be a shocking piece of information to anyone… we all know that comics are a male-dominated industry. But we know this anecdotally, not with solid numbers behind it or breakdowns of what women are doing where. Thus, this women in comics statistics project.

Comic books come out every Wednesday, and for all of 2011 I will examine the comics released each week by the industry’s two biggest companies, Marvel and DC Comics, and chart the credits along gender lines. [...]

And movies and music aren't male-dominated in any way? Let's put it this way. It's not like the industry never did anything wrong. I've commented on their most greivous errors for over 15 years now. But the problem with his arguments is that, despite any attempts to persuade to the contrary, he largely refuses to consider talent and merit important factors for hiring, and past lady contributors like Marie Severin and Ann Nocenti don't seem to mean anything to him. Yet what does is the Big Two:

Why Marvel and DC: Ideally, I’d look at every comic from every company, but a) that’s a TON of comics, and b) full credits are really hard to find for smaller companies (but if you are a non-Marvel or non-DC company that would like to send me all their credits pages each week, I would gladly chart them up!!). Plus, together Marvel and DC account for nearly 70% of the comics sold in a given month, along with well over 80% of the top 300 comics sold. So yes, there’s going to be a mainstream, superhero bias to these stats… but the vast majority of the comic books people are buying will be accounted for.

He fails to understand a]not many women may want to work for them even now because of the shoddiest examples they published at the time Quesada/DiDio were in charge, where a number of items they put out were full of reprehensible mistreatment of women through violence and such, b]they may feel there's no creative freedom, and the universe wide crossovers are no improvement, and c]in addition, the job just doesn't pay much money any more than animation studios do. Yet I can't say that in what I've read, I've seen him arguing women should get into the gigs for the glory more than the money either. So his statistics for ladies' employment over the past decade are meaningless if he's going to be so fluff-coated. He also said:

So there you have it. I think this will be very interesting… I’m not trying to call out publishers, or suggest they go start hiring women just to look better or anything. I’m just trying to provide numbers for something that we all know is anecdotally true. Frankly, comic books have been aimed at males for decades now, and most of the people working on them today were the boys to which they were marketed. The industry hasn’t created an environment where one should expect a fair number of female creators… it’s very much a boy’s club. And gender isn’t the only divide; it’s very much a white boy’s club too. But charts are fun, and I am curious as to what the current status of women in comic book industry actually is, not just anecdotally. Ultimately, perhaps seeing how the data breaks down will lead us to think about why the numbers are the way they are.

My my, this is also telling. If we take the Big Two's superhero output as an example, what's so wrong with Stan Lee for one forming a boys' club? Besides, if anybody wants to form a publisher that can promote a girls' club, they're quite welcome, yet socialist mentality's dictated that established franchises must be exploited almost entirely to push the shoddy agenda Mr. Hanley has for over a decade now. Big problem: from what I've checked on his site, I've never seen him complain why Joe Quesada and Dan DiDio should be fired from the publishers, as the latter was last year. And that's one of the reasons why they were able to hold onto their positions as long as they did, or still are: nobody's willing to stand up and boldly say why those truly accountable must be giving the pink slip. Here's another post he wrote that's quite insulting, where he implied something was wrong with "60-year old white guys" like the late Len Wein being hired to script miniseries for DC 6 years back:

I fail to see how a group of men with an average age of 62.3 years old are, to quote DiDio, “the best writers for these characters” when the task is to freshen up and contemporize them. All of these men are certainly talented writers and I respect their work and, for several of them, their legacies, but the last thing the superhero world needs more of is old, white guys reintroducing characters and trying to make them relevant and interesting. That rarely goes well. Especially when so many of them have such close ties to past incarnations of the characters. This is where you introduce new voices and new talent, find the NEW Marv Wolfman and the NEW Len Wein, not bring back the same old creators. This would be a KILLER lineup in 1987, but it’s not 1987 anymore.

It's not a time of sanity anymore either, and Hanley was only precipitating a terrible situation where whites, no matter their age or sex, are discriminated against. Would he have said this about veteran black writers like Christopher Priest? I doubt he'd be that stupid, but then, why is it okay to say Wein and Marv Wolfman are obsolete because of their age, merely because they're white (and Jewish)? Again, I can't say I've noticed much criticism leveled by Hanley against DiDio for more valid reasons, like the obnoxious misogyny he injected into comics during the mid-2000s, and however he was handling the DC output around this later time, it was no improvement, artistically or otherwise. Hanley got some pushback about this post, and he attempted to minimize the damage with the following:

I certainly didn’t mean to suggest that guys like Wein, Wolfman, et al. shouldn’t be getting work. They’re legends. However, a line written primarily by white men who’ve been in comics for decades sends, intentionally or not, a bad message about diversity.

I understand that comics is a rough industry for older creators, and my problem isn’t with them for doing the gigs. But it’s also a tough industry for women and POC who have been rarely afforded the opportunity to break into the Big Two in the first place.

My issue is with DC for not putting together a more diverse and representative line. Hire some old white guys, sure, but ALSO hire woefully underrepresented folks getting their first shot at superheroes. Doing just the former doesn’t send a great message.

And for everyone going “But DC’s June #DCYou books!” Yes, ONE TIME DC put together a slightly more diverse lineup. SLIGHTLY. That doesn’t mean they can stop doing that now, or that it’s cool to even things out with these new minis.

Gee, he sure was pretty frantic to offer an alleged apology. Since when hasn't the industry been hiring "underrepresented folks" like Blacks/Asians/Latinos? I've written before about Matt Baker, the guy most famous for illustrating Phantom Lady of the Freedom Fighters. And DC practically has a man of Asian descent, Jim Lee, in a prominent executive role, even if his politics are sadly reprehensible. Also, considering how bad the Big Two became artistically and in terms of creative freedom, what's the use of working there at this time anyway? Nobody creative will benefit, no matter their racial background. And turning back to Hanley, a big problem with his argument is that, despite any attempts to sound otherwise, he's putting diversity entirely above artistic talent and merit. If such are lacking, what's the use of hiring a particular writer/artist at all? Here's some examples of the replies he got on the page proper, including:

Ageist Bigot

And then:

I get that you’re trying to take a “progressive” look and stance to modern comics, you just seem a little misguided here. Not to mention that focussing so much on the age of the writers involved makes you look completely ageist. A balance needs to be found between modernisation and classic, and judging by their current line up of monthlies and these new minis announced, DC look to be doing a great job in the regard. As I said, DC You is for everyone, not just young new readers.

The line was a failure regardless, and Hanley's "progressive" ideology is exactly what's wrong with him. It practically led him to take the PLO's side at the expense of Siegel/Shuster's Jewish brethren. Another reply:

That was an absurdly ageist take on this.

And:

Ageist racist bigot.

And then, better still:

You are incredibly racist. How many more times could you mention “white guys”? How did this medium start out? Oh yeah, white guys. I’m tired of the white male being singled out. Do there need to be more women and people of other colors in comics? YES. Do the people who have established themselves need to be kicked to the side like leftover meatloaf? NO. Stop usurping the past and trying to replace current writers/artists and the heroes they created. Bring in fresh talent of all colors shapes and sizes. Create new characters. Enough with the whining and wimpering. You are not entitled to erase the past. Create your future.

Sadly, we're 6 years past this moment and Mr. Hanley's still plying his loathsome, petty ideologies at the expense of classic creations. Here's another good one:

“Old white guys.” Because there’s nothing fresh and contemporary to be found in the works of 60-year-old white guys. Wait, how old was Steve Jobs again?

As a Hispanic 30something man, I am sick and tired of the “White old men” boogeyman.

I am sorry, Wolfman -created- Raven. Made the Titans THE best selling book in DC during the 80s. If someone deserves to write a mini on Raven, it’s going to be goddamned Marv Wolfman, especially since Pfeiffer and Lobdell have made such a terrible spectacle of the Teen Titans.

You know, I understand that you are trying to advocate for diversity, but I thought that diversity meant inclusiveness, and that means *everybody*- not simply brown people like me and people with a strict cutoff at the age of 30something, brandishing a “Go Away” sign being waved in the face of any pale old dude.

As much as I respect your very insightful book on Wonder Woman, I am going to have to call you out and say- no, Tim, you are acting like a total ass right here, right now. Part of being actually diverse and individualistic includes listening to people who are often discarded and disregarded, people whom idiots and fools consider not worth anyone’s time because they assume they have nothing of worth.

Like “old” people. You assume they cannot create anything fresh, you assume they cannot find new angles, you assume they cannot tell new stories, that they cannot possibly have anything into which they can pour their considerable experience that could possibly fascinate anyone.

Because old people are only good for sitting back on their laurels and do nothing except ushering in the next generation gracefully, while tending to their gardens, kittens and tea kettles. Old me-

Wait.

What is that?

Over there- yes, I do believe it is the shadow of Sir Terry Pratchett, Tim.

He’s staring at you with such a look.

I cannot fathom what words he would say to you, but I imagine they are the kinds of words that would leave very strong scorch marks in the air.

You are a disappointment, Tim Hanley. For someone who allegedly admires Wonder Woman for her message of compassion and acceptance, you have demonstrated a very ugly side of yourself.

On that, I fully agree. Hanley's a hypocritical leftist who even goes out of his way to support the wrong sides of an issue, and whether he's uninformed, it's still no excuse. Mainly because well before this, he was already pandering to Islamophilia, and gushing over some of G. Willow Wilson's worst propaganda, here being Alif the Unseen:

I also really liked that not only is the strongest and bravest character in the book a woman, but Dina’s a woman who’s chosen to wear the niqab, the black veil. Lately debates have raged about veiling and whether or not it should be outlawed, and most of these conversations seemed to ignore the issue of choice for a woman herself. The decision to veil or not became her father or husband forcing her to wear it OR the state forcing her not to. Now, of course many women are forced to wear a veil who don’t want to, but there are also women who DO want to. Dina chooses to wear the niqab even against the wishes of her family because it means something to her, and she’s no weak-willed wallflower. Being devout to Islamic law and being a strong woman aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, and Dina was a great character who walked that line.

SIDENOTE: Veiling is a super complex issue, even if you agree that it should be a matter of choice for the woman. For example, sure a woman might choose to wear a veil, but is the religion and culture that encourages veiling so inherently patriarchal and oppressive to women that choosing to wear the veil is actually just participating in your own subjugation? And even if it is, I suppose you should have the freedom to so subjugate yourself, right? I don’t have any answers… I just very much appreciated how Wilson addressed the issue in the novel and made it Dina’s choice.

As somebody who finds the Haredi/ultra-Orthodox lifestyle demeaning to women, even if it's not going as far as Islam's belief a woman should be veiled (although there are some clans who made use of it, and even a cult called Lev Tahor made use of similar outfits), I find it repellent Mr. Hanley would take such a lenient position on the whole notion such self-isolation from society is acceptable, and his ostensible admittance there's women forced against their will to wear such denigrating outfits does nothing to alleviate concerns. It goes without saying I cannot accept such outfits in any religion, not even Catholicism's concept of the nun's wimple dress, because it all makes women's sexuality and beauty out to look like the worst thing that could happen, and is insulting a woman's body. Or, put another way, it's insulting God by extension, since God gave women their physical attributes, and now, look where things have wound up by extension in an era where the left is denigrating both women and men, and indoctrinating them into sex-change operations that can do serious harm, along with encouraging rejection of the opposite sex for the sake of homosexuality. That Mr. Hanley lacks a clear answer on whether women should be encouraged to accept the degrading idea of veiling themselves is another serious problem with his approach. It's no better than an inability to express a clear opinion on whether punk lifestyles like mohawks and noserings are healthy for the mind and body, let alone cocaine abuse. Mr. Hanley is shameful. He doesn't even consider apostates from Islam who find that abandoning the Religion of Peace gives them a much better perspective on life.

Here's also something he said about Frank Cho:

This weekend, artist Frank Cho announced on his Facebook page that he’ll be drawing variant covers for Wonder Woman when the series relaunches this June as part of DC’s “Rebirth” line. Several sites are reporting that he’ll be on the book for a year, and since it’s shipping bi-monthly that means 24 covers. Cho is an artist best known for doing sexy pin-ups and while his work isn’t really my jam, he’s certainly very good at what he does. He’s also drawn some cool, non-hypersexualized stuff when reined it, and hopefully he brings some of that restraint to Wonder Woman. Cho’s got definite skills. However, he’s also a real twit.

It all started a while back when Marvel inexplicably decided that it would be a fun idea to hire famed erotica artist Milo Manara to draw variant covers starring their female characters. He did a Spider-Woman cover that had the character bizarrely positioned with her butt poised high in the air, and the cover drew a lot of criticism. It was poorly drawn, and the sexualized pose wasn’t a good reflection of the contents of the new Spider-Woman series. Marvel eventually decided not to release the cover.

Umm, they did release it, but with a large Spider-Woman logo over the supposedly offending part, whose only mistake was that it just wasn't very appealing artistically. By the way, is that good manners to call somebody a "twit", just like that? For somebody who'd surely consider himself a public figure, Hanley's setting a pretty poor example.

For some reason, Frank Cho decided that this was the hill he wanted to die on. He did a commission of Spider-Gwen on a blank sketch cover, mimicking the Manara pose. When folks were all, “Come on, man,” Cho blasted the “small group of angry and humorless people ranting against my DRAWING of a pretty woman,” telling them that they should “just grow a sense of humor and relax.” He then doubled down on the pose, drawing Harley Quinn in the same position. Over the past year, he’s done several of these pieces, reveling in the controversy he’s causing and proudly posting them on the internet like he’s some sort of brave rebel (he’s not).

The reaction to Cho’s pieces have brought him some vocal defenders, many of whom are the sort of men (they’re all men) who use the term “social justice warrior” unironically. They see Cho as a defender of free speech, a valiant hero saving the comic book industry from the scourge of evil feminists who are ruining their funny books. Cho tried to capitalize on the support of these dopes by following the posting of one of his sketches with a campaign where he sold “Friends of Cho” t-shirts. The ad for the shirts asked, “Are you outraged by the outrage?” and offered his fans the opportunity to stand with him (he only sold 21 one of them online).

So what he's saying is every artist of Cho's caliber has no female fans? I'm think that's disputable too. Does this also mean Hanley believes Spider-Man, for instance, isn't their funnybook? I guess that sums it up. It's too bad that since this was written, Cho had to go and attack Comicsgate using the F-word, and alienated a lot of people when he could've avoided causing trouble. But speaking of Comicsgate, look what Hanley said the other year about Blake Northcott:

...Elsewhere, Blake Northcott is co-writing Catwoman this month, which I am less excited about. She’s been ComicsGate adjacent for a while now, and I’m not terribly thrilled when anyone associated with that hate group lands a mainstream gig.

Strange, aside from her being a leftist, I don't think she ever said she supported the campaign. I guess her refusal to actually come out against it is why he decided she was. But look at that - when ideological divides come into the picture, suddenly, a man who writes sugarcoated takes on many items related to lady writers decides he's against her. In any case, she's largely disappeared from comics over the past year, possibly because now, she's working on films and TV.

Here's more on Hanley's predictable gushing over the Muslim Ms. Marvel book:

While Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez are set to relaunch Captain Marvel this March, a new character is taking over Carol Danvers’ old identity of Ms. Marvel in February. Kamala Khan is an American teen girl of Pakistani origin, and when she discovers she has super powers, including the ability to change shapes, she takes the mantle of her hero Ms. Marvel.

The book is written by G. Willow Wilson, who has done some fantastic comic work including the Vertigo graphic novel Cairo and the recent CrossGen/Marvel mini-series Mystic. Her novel Alif the Unseen is also absolutely fantastic. Kamala is Muslim, and Wilson is a convert to Islam, giving her a unique perspective for writing the character. The art is by Adrian Alphona, best known for his great work on Runaways. He’s also Canadian, which makes him extra cool. The cover above is by Sara Pichelli, who I hope is the regular cover artist for the series because she’s super good.

This book sounds interesting, boasts a stellar creative team, and is a new and original direction for a superhero title. It’s also exactly what Marvel needs given some recent unfortunate trends at the company.

And by that, he means "too sexy" for his political/ideological beliefs, right? This guy is truly disgusting with his leftism, and of course, his automatic support was a precursor for his recent pro-Hamas, anti-Israeli propaganda, that, interestingly enough, ignores what another famous woman, Golda Meir, said regarding "palestine".

Now, another item prior to release of the first Wonder Woman movie with Gal Gadot, where he attacks Fox News for all the wrong reasons:

First, they got upset about Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman costume because it didn’t have the halter top and short shorts that they liked, or the patriot markings of the classic outfit. Then, somewhat bizarrely, they also took issue with the dark colour scheme and the fact that Wonder Woman has to share her movie debut with Superman and Batman, which was an odd moment for me to say the least. Hearing people on Fox News say things I actually agreed with made me re-evaluate my entire life and every decision I’ve ever made, but after that life crisis I continued on with the video and things got ridiculous again.

Nowhere near as ridiculous as Hanley's politics. And at the end, he let slip what's really wrong with his visions:

Anyway, that was some great work by Fox News, getting outraged about a comic story from four years ago in the most offensive and sexist ways possible. I don’t understand why these people have a network. Why do you let them talk, America? I mean, I understand free speech and all, but they’re just so goddamn dumb.

Gee, if you don't like their alleged rightist leanings, don't watch them! I'm not fooled by Hanley's supposed insistence he "understands" free speech values either, and his accusations of sexism are pathetically cheap. If I were an artist and created a rabbi's daughter wearing a bikini, and he made accusations of sexism, I'd be furious. He's giving a very bad impression of a Canadian leftist, that's for sure. But, he sure does reveal quite a bit more what he thinks of men who love women in the following review of a WW comic by Wilson from 2019:

I’m very much enjoying this identity crisis of the gods. First, we have Ares wanting to give up war for justice. That’s gone quite poorly so far, of course, due to his engrained toxic masculinity more than anything else, but it’s been a very interesting turn for the character. And now, Aphrodite wants to separate herself from love. She doesn’t seem to have a plan of where to go from there, what new cause to champion, if any. She’s just tired of being’s love representative.

It sounds like we have quite a double whammy here. On the one hand, Ares embodies that atrocious anti-heterosexual propaganda called "toxic masculinity". On the other hand, Aphrodite doesn't want to represent the concept of love anymore? But then, it's long been apparent many far-leftists are thrilled to stuff as much propaganda into their stories as possible.

I'm glad I don't own any of Hanley's history books. Disgraceful people like him with such loathsome politics tend to be the least reliable on these pop culture subjects anyway. If they could spout all this reprehensible tommyrot, why should we expect them to be the most accurate on any subject since their ideology could play into their approach? Why should we even believe they supposedly don't approve of Fredric Wertham, who had similar positions? If this is how men like Hanley intend to ply their trade, nobody with common sense should waste their money on his publications. Again, let's be clear, he's desecrated the Jewish originators of the industry, including, but not limited to, Siegel, Shuster, Lee, Kirby and even Wein, among others. Why, now that I think of it, the worst part of Mr. Hanley's propaganda is that he's engaged in otherizing the people who made superhero comics possible in the first place.

Yesterday's Train Crash In New Jersey An Act of Terrorism?

Tommy Gallagher - Train Engineer, Cooperating, Released

There are three pieces of odd news that might lead us to believe yesterday's train crash was, indeed, an act of terrorism.

First, Governor Cuomo openly mused about the possibility:

NY Governor Raises Possibility NJ Train Crash at Hoboken Terminal Was Work Of ‘Our Enemies’ 

Speaking to reporters at a Thursday press conference, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo raised the possibility that Thursday’s horrific train crash in Hoboken, New Jersey was somehow the work of “enemies” of the United States of America. 

“I would like to take this opportunity to say that these are difficult times over these past weeks and months between terrorist attacks and natural disasters,” Cuomo told the gathered crowd of reporters. 

“We have had our hands full in this country. We have had our hands full in the Northeast.” “I want to thank the linden police who did an extraordinary job in apprehending Rahami in connection with the Chelsea bombing, and they did a fantastic job,” he continued. 

“I want to thank the coordination and the cooperation of our neighbors and partners in making that happen.” 

“Today is another situation for us to deal with, but, I also believe as many challenges as Mother Nature sends us, or our enemies send us, we are up to handling them,” he noted. “We’ll handle them one at a time, but when we work together, there is nothing that we can’t accomplish and nothing that we cannot over come.”

Second, there was a very odd warning the day before the Train Crash, which appeared in the form of an apparent hack of a Television News Scroll at the bottom of the TV screen:

Warning For The United States: "Would You? Could You? On a Train? Wait for Further Instructions"


And finally,

Tommy Gallagher, the Train Engineer, was released from Hospital custody, said to be fully cooperating

Tommy Gallagher, of Morris Plains, New Jersey, was hospitalized in critical condition after the crash, WABC-TV reports. A passenger said he was “completely bloodied,” when he was taken out of the train, according to the New York Daily News. But he had been released from the hospital by Thursday night, ABC reporter Josh Margolin reports. He is cooperating with authorities as they investigate what caused the train to crash into the station. He has not yet commented publicly about what happened. The NTSB said they have not yet interviewed him.

I think this means officials KNOW it is not his fault.

The fact that the train was traveling at a rate of only 30 MPH when it entered the station would indicate he meant no harm. The fact that the brakes didn't work at all, means either,

1) the brakes broke down suddenly for no reason at all, or

2) the brakes were tampered with.

Emergency Plan For Islamic Terror Attacks

How the West deals with these attacks, no matter how frequently they occur and no matter how horrific they are:

UPDATED - Priest Slaughtered Inside Church In Normandy, France

The church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray

This morning, we have reports that an octogenarian priest was murdered inside a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy. Two attackers wielding knives took five hostages, including the priest. The attackers have been killed by the police.

Some reports state that the priest was beheaded; other reports state that the priest's throat was cut.

Fr. Jacques Hamel

As of this posting time, this attack is being investigated as a terror attack.

Additional information at Zero Hedge.

The sons of Allah doing what the sons of Allah do? Probably. The story is still developing.

UPDATE - PASTORIUS CUTTING IN:

Headlines and stories at Drudge provide some clarification:

MUSLIMS 'BEHEAD' PRIEST IN NORMANDY CHURCH
STORM MORNING MASS
ISIS CELEBRATES

Elderly priest, 86, is 'beheaded' by two ISIS knifemen shouting 'Daesh' after they took nuns and worshippers hostage at French church: Police shoot both attackers dead then search for bombs

Priest had throat cut while another hostage is fighting for life after knifemen burst into Normandy church at 9am 

Reports that one of the attackers shouted 'Daesh' before launching the attach at Gambetta Church near Rouen 

Vatican has condemned the 'barbaric' killing of the 86-year-old priest and an anti-terror investigation is underway 

French President Francois Hollande said the men both 'claimed to be from' ISIS as they carried out the attack

AN ANONYMOUS COMMENTER SAYS:

Quote===>"Reports that one of the attackers shouted 'Daesh' before launching the attack at Gambetta Church near Rouen".<===

one of the attackers shouted 'Daesh'???

We were told that Western powers-that-be preferred the derogatory term 'Daesh' as it removed any clear indication of Islam being related to terror and the group otherwise known as IS/ISIS/ISIL. 'Daesh' allegedly is a term IS/ISIL/ISIS hates because it is an acronym for an Arabic phrase ‎
ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah al-Iraq al-Sham which means Islamic State of Iraq & Levant and is very similar to the derogatory word 'daes' which means someone who sews discord. 

Here in the latest horror reported from Normandy, France we read that the terrorists themselves shouted "Daesh" prior to launching this attack? 

Anyone else find this peculiar?