RUTHFULLY YOURS

And so it begins…

So I was reading about Oskar Freysinger of the Swiss People’s Party and the curious difficulty he was having in getting a hotel in Brussels when I got the news about certain, ah, last-minute changes to the venue of my speech in London, Ontario on November 1st. As The London Free Press puts it, “Author Denied Hall Rental“:

Controversial author Mark Steyn may be too hot a potato for one city-owned London hall…

Non-controversial reporter Kate Dubinski seems to have learned only one adjective at journalism school. Either that, or while I was sleeping some wag had my name legally changed to Controversial Author Mark Steyn. Whatever the reason, this is the way it is. All London taxpayers pay for the London Convention Centre, but the London Convention Centre apparently does not serve all London taxpayers. It won’t be too long now and, like Robin Hood and his Merrie Men, we’ll be having to hold our get-togethers in a clearing in the forest on the edge of town. Robert Spencer adds:

This is what they do to anti-jihadists: they compile a dossier of lies, distortions, half-truths and spurious refutations of their work, circulate it to overworked, careless, and ideologically compromised mainstream media reporters, and use it to pressure groups not to invite anti-jihadists to speak or refer to their work.

It’s fascinating to me how little you have to do to be a Controversial Author. Still, pending the next move by the Islamic supremacists, we’re booked into Centennial Hall, which is a 1,400-seater. What do I have to do to fill that? Deliver an apocalyptic head-for-the-hills speech and sing “Marshmallow World” (the extended remix)? Let’s go for it! London is about equally convenient (or equally inconvenient) for Toronto, Buffalo and Detroit. So, if you’re a SteynOnline reader in Michigan or western New York, we’d love to see you. It’ll be a rollicking night, I promise. And, whatever happens, I’ll be there on November 1st, and neither the Islamic enforcers nor their prison wives in the City of London bureaucracy can prevent that. More details here.

In related news of the Islamoleftist pantomime horse (in which the western left seems happy to play the rear end), my sometime Hannity & Colmes sparring partner Juan Williams has been defenestrated by NPR (National Peace-be-upon-him Radio). In the US, as in Canada, as in Belgium, they are not interested in winning the argument but in denying you the opportunity to have one.