ninme

Here’s the video of Mark Steyn forcing the “sock puppets” into finally actually debating him (on live TV!). And yes, though it took till nearly the end, they did generously say that they wouldn’t say Adolf Hitler was representative of Christians. Ah, that notable Christian-gone-wrong, Adolf Hitler…

Anyway, it’s truly hilarious. But he says on his website:

We didn’t go for dinner, but we did have a relatively pleasant conversation after the broadcast that I thought was much more productive than the show. Khurrum was a bit chippy but the two ladies, Muneeza Sheikh and Naseem Mithoowani, are rather cute, even when they’re damning me as a racist and hater. (Years ago, the BBC used to keep putting me up against humourless Marxist feminists only to find that on air I’d go all sweet on them and just make goo-goo eyes.) One confessed to finding me “mildly funny”, which I took as a tremendous compliment until she remarked that she found “Little Mosque On The Prairie” funnier. Evidently by “mildly funny”, she sets the bar down at world-champion limbo level. Heigh-ho. Still, even with dear old Khurrum, if I’d met him in an airport lounge on the other side of the world and we were stuck waiting for a flight, I think the conversation would go okayish. The post-show chit-chat was a useful reminder that everybody’s media image is a reductio.

That’s why I hate debating formats (Oxford rules or whatever they’re called). They’re pointless and just get everyone angry at each other and the audience gritting their teeth saying “Why don’t you say such-and-such!?!?” as they shake their televisions in an iron death-grip. Why couldn’t they have had some cameras trained on the conversation afterwards? I think shows like The View are the biggest pain in the ass (”Oh, let’s dispense with all these stuffy rules and just have a chat on camera”) but that’s because the idiot women on that show are a pain in the ass and have no reason to be discussing anything they discuss on that show (except perhaps the best hair & makeup team in the ABC building). But anyway:

There’s some talk on TVO’s part of getting us together for a more civilized discussion, so we’ll see how that works out. My only real objection was when Naseem said “Mark Steyn wants to be a martyr.” Actually, that’s more of a Muslim problem. (Whoops, Islamophobia alert!) But it’s not true for me. I’d love to do as this alleged Islamic terrorist does and shout, “I’m outta here!” I’d like nothing more than never to appear on a single TV or radio show in the deranged Dominion ever again. But the “remedy” they seek for Maclean’s “Islamophobia” is incompatible with a free society. This is a point of principle. Here I stand. I can do no other. So on we go.

Maybe if the Osgoode Hall students had bothered meeting him before hand the other night’s discussion wouldn’t have been “less” civilized.