Everybody else is out of step

An old joke goes like this. A proud mother is watching her soldier son marching past in the company of his fellow soldiers. She notices that he advancing - left-right-left-right - while his fellow soldiers are going forward right-left-right left.

She nudges the lady next to her and says, "Just look at that! Everybody is out of step except my Johnny!"

From Olivia Ward, foreign affairs reporter for the Toronto Star.

Palestinians win historic vote over Canada's objections 

On the podium of the packed, cavernous General Assembly before the vote, Baird said that Canada opposed a resolution to upgrade the Palestinians’ status “in the strongest terms,” insisting it “undermines the core foundations of a decades-long commitment by the international community and the parties themselves to a two-state solution, arrived at through direct negotiations.”

...[A]nd in a scolding apparently intended for the UN assembly, [John] Baird said that “as a result of this body’s utterly regrettable decision to abandon policy and principle, we will be considering all available next steps” — a hint that Ottawa could further reduce or halt its funding for Palestinian projects, or sever diplomatic relations.

...[O]ttawa’s vote drew mixed reviews in Canada. Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith, congratulated Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a statement, saying he had “once again . . . shown his government’s readiness to exercise leadership on the international stage. He has taken a principled stand and has refused to allow Arab reactionary actions and mass intimidation to move the Canadian government from its resolve.”

But Thomas Woodley, who heads Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, said the group “vehemently disagrees with the Harper government’s stance,” adding that UN backing for the Palestinians “was not a vote against Israel, nor a vote in opposition to negotiations” but in favour of an “independent, viable Palestinian state.”

And so, most of the world must be out of step except for the Harper government's "Johnny".

Humiliating and terrifying.