Binks needs to get well soon so we can Free Guy Earle

I realize I've been dropping the ball lately on a number of developments on the "human rights" front. Yuppers, those are scare quotes.

Unfortunately, Binks over at Free Canuckistan is under the weather and we don't have our one-stop action central for all the threats to our liberties and way of life. Please head over and wish the Binks well, okay? We need him to get well soon.

I trust most of you know already that Ezra Levant is being sued by the Hairless Sock Puppet (that's Kathy Shaidle's useful description). Read about it here. Hairless took part in a lawfare jihad against Maclean's Magazine, using "human rights commissions" to make any criticism of Islamism too costly for publishers worried about their bottom line. Grab the popcorn as this will be the gift that keeps on giving, ensuring us hours of entertaining, vintage Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn posts. Head on over to Ezra's site and hit the PayPal button so he can "follow the money" in discovery.

And don't forget to Free Guy Earle. Remember him? He's the comic being dragged through the B.C. "Human Rights" Tribunal. Mark writes:

Different people react to "human rights" torture in different ways: Ezra Levant and I are oppositional by nature and by profession. You take a swing at us, we'll swing back. Go ahead, "human rights" punks, make our day. So is Marc Lemire, whose bloody-minded refusal to sit there and take it wound up inflicting more damage on the racket than anything else.

But most victims of Canada's thought police aren't like that: They're just regular folks trying to get on with their lives without catching the eye of the state enforcers, and, in that sense, Guy Earle is far closer to the gay guy with acute sinusitis forced to close down his b-&-b or the health-club owner taken to the cleaners by a pre-op transsexual who wanted to use the ladies' showers. These are fellows leading fully compliant Trudeaupian lives who nevertheless find they've managed to attract the attentions of an ever more whimsical tyranny. It would be interested to know what might have befallen Catsmeat Kinsella, notorious ethnic comic and Count Iggy's lead attack chihuahua, had he essayed his culinary jests in a Vancouver comedy club. That's the point: No matter how daintily you tiptoe on PC eggshells, it'll never be enough.

I feel very sorry for Mr Earle. The most interesting part of the Rob Breakenridge interview is when he muses on some of the website comments that appeared after news reports about the case: "This is the best thing that could happen to Guy Earle’s career", etc. "That is not how this works at all," explains the comic, recounting how he was being lined up for some event in Vancouver until the promoter got wind of the suit and decided he didn't need a lot of trouble from the gay community. "A lot of people don’t want to have anything to do with me," he says. "I don’t know what the silver lining is."

And he hasn't even been convicted of anything yet.

It's interesting to me how all those promoters who claim to be committed to producing "edgy", "transgressive", "provocative" comedy wilt like pansies in the face of one "human rights" complaint. But it's invariably the case that the self-congratulatory left, forever hailing itself for its courage in speaking truth to power, is never there when real courage is needed - even if, like Guy Earle, you're essentially one of their own.

Rob Breakenridge has more, including an interview with Guy.

Dear Guy,

Please write a new comedy routine about your battle with the "human rights" people. Make a CD of it. We'll buy it. Find the humor in this. As Omar Khayyam wrote in his famous poem the Rubaiyat: Make a game of that which makes as much of thee.

Have fun. Take your depression, turn it into righteous anger and put all your talent into making a mockery of these censorious clowns. Make a financial killing on their sorry arses. Next time you are before the Tribunal be watching for how you can impersonate the cast of characters. Take notes. Heh heh heh. I can see it already. Heh heh heh. In fact, you could get a blonde wig and some killer fingernails nails and do a Jennifer Lynch impersonation (with that Cheshire Cat smile) so easily. I know you're fight is before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, but hey, you have such a wide selection of easy targets to lampoon.

There is a whole audience out there that is tired of oral sex jokes and the other sexual fare that seems to be the "transgressive" humor in comedy clubs. Be genuinely transgressive and take on this travesty.

We're rooting for you, but you need to fight for yourself, too.