Segacs’s World I Know

Looks like Ray Kurzweil’s predictions are still quite a way off. Garry Kasparov beat Deep Junior in a chess game.

Kasparov made headlines in 1997 when he lost to Deep Blue, a supercomputer built by IBM. Deep Junior, an Israeli-programmed successor, was billed to be able to beat Kasparov, currently the ranking world chess champion, but so far that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Maybe there’s hope for us humans yet.

Janet Bagnall wrote an editorial in Friday’s Gazette defending Jaggi Singh. The thrust of her argument seems to be pretty much a parroting of what Singh himself loves to claim: that he’s an innocent victim being persecuted by the forces of evil.

Jaggi Singh is a test case for Canadian democracy. Can he exercise his right to freedom of assembly? Or his right to protest peacefully? Or speak freely? We’re not doing too well on the democratic front if Singh is anyone to go by. The answers to those three questions are no, no and no.

There are several problems with Bagnall’s argument, however. First of all, Singh’s right to “protest peacefully” is not in question. But as everyone knows, September 9th was anything but peaceful. All the people whining about the criminalization of dissent don’t seem to get that they can’t excuse criminal behaviour by calling it dissent. Protesting something doesn’t give you the right to beat people up, destroy property, or instigate violence.

Secondly, Singh is not a Concordia student, and the university is under no obligation to allow him to hang around campus. If every time he shows up there’s trouble, it’s perfectly reasonable to kick him out.

Thirdly, Bagnall is basing her opinion on the following claims:

I find it hard not to conclude that in some way university administrators and justice officials take Singh’s views, and his insistence on defending them in public, as a personal insult. This is genuinely worrisome. He has not physically attacked anyone. He has not damaged property. He has not led a riot or a protest. He has exercised his rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and here he is, once again, arrested. This comes a little too close to a police state.

However, the police had enough evidence to arrest him. So Janet Bagnall seems to be simply taking Jaggi Singh’s word for the fact that he didn’t lead a riot or a protest, or attack or destroy anyone or anything. Last I checked, his say-so wasn’t exactly credible evidence. He’s made so many ridiculously faulty claims in the past few months that anyone who chooses to take his word on anything ought to have their head examined. If the courts find enough evidence to convict him of a crime, then that is the true test – not Bagnall’s hero-worship of the man.

Singh was not arrested for the protest last Monday, which was mainly peaceful, but for his involvement in the disgusting riot of September 9th. This alone should prove an important point: Nobody’s trying to shut down protest, even when they disagree. They’re trying to shut down violence. And it is the rioters who are seemingly incapable of seeing the difference.

The NDP has elected Jack Layton as its new leader.

Do you care? I don’t. *Yawn*.

His scheduled speech was initially cancelled, but the university reversed its decision two days later.

Cim Nunn, a spokesman at York, said that while Mr. Pipes attracts strong opinions, and students likely would protest against him, the university is a place for free expression.

“We wouldn’t move forward with this event if we weren’t satisfied that we were going to be able to do so in a way that ensured that everybody participating was going to be able to do so safely,” Mr. Nunn said.

The public lecture was to take place at the Student Centre’s restaurant, the Underground, but it was cancelled when a number of student groups expressed concerns.

In other words, York was afraid of turning into the next Concordia. It wanted to avoid a riot. So it initially caved to pressure and cancelled the speech.

Granted, the Middle Eastern Students Association spokesperson claimed that he would urge students to protest “peacefully”. But then, the CSU and the SPHR claimed that the Netanyahu protest would be peaceful, too.

The tactic of the anti-Israel contingent to try to shut down any speech they disagree with is seemingly common. Daniel Pipes has been un-invited from several campuses across North America recently.

Pipes, best known for his site Campus Watch, where he monitors antisemitism on campuses, is persona non grata to many of Israel’s greatest critics. And, as with Netanyahu, they’ve decided that any speech that doesn’t fit with their politics shouldn’t be heard, and they threaten violence in every instance in effort to get most of them shut down.

Luckily, some universities are coming to their senses. Université de Québec à Montréal reversed a decision back in December and allowed a scheduled speech by journalist Gideon Kouts to go ahead, after initially shutting it down due to threats. And now, Daniel Pipes will be allowed to speak at York University after all.

It looks like universities are learning, albeit slowly, that caving to threats of violence is to let violence win. Academic freedom can only exist if everyone has a voice.

The instigators of the riot at Concordia back in September like to try to deny responsibility for their violence, by claiming that they were merely responding to Benjamin Netanyahu’s presence and that they had “no choice but to riot”.

There’s two things wrong with this argument, of course. The first is that their allegations against Netanyahu, calling him a “war criminal” or other such lovely names, are mainly founded on bullshit.

But leaving that aside, the bigger problem with their argument is their failure to distinguish between protest and non-violent protest.

Over at the Link’s site, commentator Bob has 198 suggestions of ways to protest nonviolently before throwing chairs.

Today is, of course, Superbowl Sunday. And as the dish seems to be working (for once), I’ll probably watch just for the commercials.

I must admit I’ve never really understood football. To me it’s a bunch of oversized guys jumping on top of each other, but with a lot more commercialization than, say, Sumo wrestling. Oh, I know there’s more to it than that, and I have no doubt that true sports fans would have a lot to explain to me about the intricacies of the game . . . but for now I’ll stick to watching the commercials cause that’s what interests me.

My heartfelt condolences to Damian Penny on the loss of his grandfather.

Regular reader Steve Brandon has a new blog worth checking out. (Plug, plug.)

Yet another reason not to vote ADQ.