The shame of elite Canadian self-hate

In their own museum. In their own country. In front of their own children.

This is going to be nasty, brutish, and short.

The Canadian veteran and the Canadian people have been violently, viciously, mindlessly attacked by a group of self-hating, snarling, selfish, ungrateful, cowardly, spoiled, moral-relativist ingrates. The Canadian government allowed their martial history to be turned over to a PC group of self-important narcissists who are not ignorant; therefore they are evil.

In the face of the huge sacrifice Canadian people have made throughout history for others, what greets you when you come in. This paint-by-numbers (yes, I called it paint-by-numbers; like a lot of the crap they have for paintings in their collection. But you say, "But that's a value judgment!" Like Catherine Seipp said, "Yes, and since I have values, I'm making the judgment.").

Yep. One idiot on one day represents all of Canadian valor and sacrifice. Kate at SmallDeadAnimals is right. The Leftists in power in Canada have turned what should be a place of calm reflection into the "Canadian Shame Museum." Her quote is worth repeating here, and she is talking about the folks involved in the museum, not the Canadian military.

These people are pigs. Absolute pigs. I don't think I've ever been as ashamed of my country as I am today.

While we are on the subject of art. The people who pick their collection's "paintings" should be fired or at least ridiculed in proper company. Are you telling me that is the best they could do for WWII? And is an accident that 2 out of 31 were from the Andrew Sullivan "men in the military collection?" These 2?

While I am being a petulant child right now; let's talk about the building proper. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: It is ugly. Just ugly. I mean, look at that thing.

What happened? Get a foreclosure on Spacely Sprockets buildings?

Why is it so ugly? Check out the verbiage here, and here.

In order to ensure that we heard the voices of Canadians, Joe Geurts, Director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum and I traveled across the country to listen to and learn from Canadians. The thoughts and opinions that were voiced were surprisingly varied, and the greatest divergence was evident between the male and female perspectives. We realized that if the Canadian War Museum was to attract a larger audience, its architecture and its exhibitions would have to speak to women, youth, new Canadians from around the world, and Canada’s First Peoples.
...............
The new Canadian War Museum presents a thrilling yet complex challenge: the planning, design and construction of a new national museum dedicated to telling, interpreting, and presenting historical events that have shaped the very character of Canada.

The designers didn’t want to create a pale of bland experience, but an intense, emotional, memorable and , above all, honest presentation of the moments which have helped define Canada’s national identity.

What a load of self-important, post-modernist crap. There, value judgment again. Here is a war museum. The Imperial War Museum.

If you ever want to read what passes for enlightened thought, read The Ottawa Citizen. Here is how they get the patriotic blood boiling in respect for Canadian sacrifice.

War, unvarnished

There are few heroes in the new Canadian War Museum, just an honest portrayal of suffering, pain and sacrifice, writes Elizabeth Payne.

Well Elizabeth kiss my ass. Canada, you get what you vote for. Where did the problem start? Here's a hint.

"If you can find a more controversial subject than war and what it does to human beings, I don't know what it is," says senior historian Dean Oliver.

And yet military museums have long been criticized for sanitizing war -- portraying more guts and glory than brutal reality.

"They defined warfare as basically tales of derring-do and courage on the part of individuals, oftentimes for quite patriotic reasons -- to help recruit people to fight for the country."

Not quite propaganda, Mr. Oliver says, but almost.
...
The museum reflects a new take on heroes in several ways:

- Gen. Isaac Brock's death at the Battle of Queenston Heights during the War of 1812 is described in simple terms through the eyes of a teenage soldier: "The general was shot, fell down, and died." An ordinary death on the battlefield.

- Laura Secord, the iconic heroine of the War of 1812, comes to life through the eyewitness account of two Iroquois warriors who escorted her on her famous walk to warn the British of an American ambush, a reminder that there are many forms of courage, not all of them recognized.

- Louis Riel is presented as others saw him and visitors are challenged to reach their own conclusions about whether he was hero, traitor or something in between.

Yea, well Olie, you can kiss my ass too.

There are some reports that Canadian veterans tried to stop this rolling box of FOD, but failed.

Controversies tend to circle around museums and even before it opened, there were complaints about this one.

Some veterans complained that after all their lobbying and fundraising, they were ignored in the planning. Others said the stress on the horrors of war ignores the positive contributions made by soldiers who helped destroy Nazism.

Cliff Chadderton, former head of the War Amps and a strong voice in veterans' circles, complained that two paintings hanging in the new museum portray Kyle Brown and Clayton Matchee, Airborne soldiers who were implicated in the beating death of a teenager in Somalia in 1992.

Brown served a prison term for manslaughter. Matchee suffered brain damage in a suicide attempt and remains in hospital, judged unfit for trial.

Chadderton said the two, and the Somalia incident, don't deserve a place in the museum.

The museum and artist, Gertrude Kearns, said the military should be seen warts and all. They refused to take down the paintings.

The sad thing is, the rest of Canada and the ruling Mandarins in Ottawa didn't care. Gertrude and her friends won the day.

When a Southern boy like me has more respect for your veterans, things are in a sad state up north. I'm not about to loose my religion, but I am loosing my education over this. Being that I try to keep thing PG-13 and somewhat adult....Everyone to the left of Kate in Canada: KISS MY ASS.

OK, this wasn't short.


Hat tip to All AgitProp and Arrggghhh! for making me take this out of the draft folder from this weekend.