junk and crap, amen

The Mangling of Logic pt. 13

2007-12-13T10:45:00.001-05:00

Alberto Gonzales, yes Alberto Fucking Gonzales, after having spent most of the last several years telling the US Constitution to go to hell, after resigning in disgrace after numerous scandals at the Justice Dept., has been named Lawyer of the Year by a journal published by the American Bar Association. I shit you not. Here's what Edward A. Adams, editor of the journal, had to say:

"Think about Time magazine's Person of the Year," Adams said in an interview. "In years past they've named people like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin. So we're not suggesting by these awards that these are the best lawyers in any sense of the word. We are saying they are the most newsworthy — and perhaps also the best."

So, Gonzales isn't necessarily the best, but then again maybe he is.

For clarity, here are a few of Alberto's greatest hits: inappropriate dismissal of US attorneys, marginalizing of the right to Habeus Corpus, NSA illegal eavesdropping program... to name just a few.

Congrats, Al. It couldn't have happened to a less deserving guy.

US Politicians Slightly Loonier Today Than Yesterday

2007-12-12T21:28:00.000-05:00

Why you ask? Two reasons mainly. Two standout wackos jumped into my fairly wide field of vision recently with these stories:

Republican Congressman Steve King, who believes the following:
I recognized that we're a Christian nation founded on Christian principles, and we're coming up to Christmastime. ... It's time we stood up and said so, and said to the rest of America, Be who you are and be confident.
That's right, Jesus Freaks. It's time y'all stood up to the heathens and blasphemers in your midst. It only takes a bit of extra inquisitiveness on your part to root them out.

And Republican Senator Bond, Kit Bond, who likens waterboarding, or torture as I prefer to call it, to swimming. OK, maybe swimming after a big pig out on caviar and chocolate truffles.... with someone holding your fucking head underwater. Asshole.

Black Day For Black, Selective Day For Justice

2007-12-11T18:48:00.001-05:00

Every body's favorite thieving, Canadian citizenship renouncing, power hungry, Machiavellian royal courtesan Baron Black of Crossharbour was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison yesterday after being found guilty of 3 counts of fraud and one of obstruction of justice earlier this year.

Proving once again; piss off the shareholders and face serious consequences, but kill innocent colored people in distant lands and have a nice day. Case in point: The Bhopal disaster in India in 1984, where a Union Carbide plant released 40 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, killing between 2500 and 5000 people. The fate of then Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson? Well...

Beginning in 1991, the local authorities from Bhopal charged Warren Anderson, who had retired in 1986, with manslaughter, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Anderson has so far avoided an international arrest warrant and a US court summons. He was declared a fugitive from justice by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal on February 1, 1992 for failing to appear at the court hearings in a culpable homicide case in which he was named the chief defendant. Orders were passed to the Government of India to press for an extradition from the United States, with whom India had an extradition treaty in place. He went missing for several years, until he was discovered by Greenpeace “living a life of luxury in the Hamptons”. The Bhopal Medical Appeal believe that “neither the American nor the Indian government seem interested in disturbing him with an extradition”. Some allege that the Indian government has hesitated to put forth a strong case of extradition to the United States, fearing backlash from foreign investors who have become more important players in the Indian economy following liberalization. A seemingly apathetic attitude from the US government, which has failed to pursue the case, has also led to strong protests in the past, most notably by Greenpeace. A plea by India's Central Bureau of Investigation to dilute the charges from culpable homicide to criminal negligence has since been dismissed by the Indian courts.

Bolton Oblivious to Iraqi Sovereignty, Thinks Employed Iraqi's Are "Inefficient"

2007-12-10T20:11:00.000-05:00

I recently ran across this great clip from On The Map with Avi Lewis. It's an interview between CBC Journalist Avi Lewis and the ninja master of obfuscation, John Bolton, famous UN hater and (curiously) former US ambassador to same. The subject is the new Plunder Iraqi Oil Legislation. Or new Iraqi Oil Law, however you want to put it.

Lewis opens with a "...word from [Bolton's] sponsor:" cue Donald Rumsfeld, 2005

...that you give credence to those who suggest that we're there for the oil or that we're there to occupy them in perpetuity.

Bolton repeats over and over that "frankly I don't care what happens to Iraq politically", and in reference to other developing nations having local employment agreements with multinationals so why not in Iraq now he laughingly says "Because those are highly inefficient requirements for the oil companies."

Former President of Italy Says 9/11 an Inside Job

2007-12-06T14:58:00.000-05:00

Francesco Cossiga, President of Italy from 1985 - 92, in a November 30th article in the Italian Evening Courier, lets loose this amazing quote (translated from the Italian by Babelfish, unedited):

[referring to the authenticity of a video confession for 9/11 by Bin Laden]
...all the atmospheres democratics of America and Europe, with in front line those of the centrosinistra Italian, by now know well that the disastrous attack has been planned and realized from the Cia American and the Mossad with the aid of the sionista world in order to put under accusation the Arabic Countries and in order to induce the western powers to take part are in Iraq are in Afghanistan.

Granted, the translation isn't perfect. But the meaning is clear. He's saying that western intelligence agencies (atmospheres democratics) know that the CIA, Mossad and sionista (Zionists?) were responsible for September 11 in order to demonize an entire culture, thereby justifying endless war and profit and power.

He would know.

The Mangling of Logic Pt. 12

2007-12-04T15:18:00.000-05:00

With reason seemingly being officially regarded as an enemy of the state, it stands to reason that appointing Paul Wolfowitz as the shiny new chairman of the International Security Advisory Board is the perfectly logical thing to do.

The 'board' is a prestigious State Department panel which has access to highly classified intelligence, and advises Condoleeza Rice on disarmament, nuclear proliferation, WMD issues and other matters.

To refresh our memories, Wolfowitz was one of the key architects of the illegal Iraq invasion, war, and continuing brutal occupation;

Meanwhile, reports continue to emerge of U.S. attacks on Iraqi civilians. Earlier today the Pentagon said U.S. soldiers mistakenly shot five civilians traveling in a car in the town of Tarmiya north of Baghdad. One passenger died while being taken to the hospital. Five Iraqi civilians, including a child, were killed in similar U.S. shootings last week.

...as the deputy secretary of defense under fellow war criminal Donald Rumsfeld. He resigned, as did Rumsfeld. Both distancing themselves of any responsibility.

He then was inexplicably awarded the job of president of the World Bank, where his outstanding contributions were cronyism, corruption and terrible socks. He was forced to resign.

And so, illogically, inexorably, his next job should be working for the US taxpayer. Of course, that's not really who he's working for. The reason he keeps popping up like a zit on the face of humanity is because he reliably does what he's told on behalf of his real employers; international bankers and corporations, who's own mangled form of logic demands this kind of ridiculousness.

Films You Need To See

2007-11-30T14:54:00.000-05:00

Does your brain feel empty? Feel the hankering for some elucidation? Is there an inexplicable urge to cut through the obfuscation with some straight up reality? Have some time to kill? Well then...

(this post is frequently updated)

"Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land"
Provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The Corporation"
In the mid-1800s the corporation emerged as a legal "person." Imbued with a "personality" of pure self-interest, the next 100 years saw the corporation's rise to dominance. The corporation created unprecedented wealth but at what cost? The remorseless rationale of "externalities" (as Milton Friedman explains, the unintended consequences of a transaction between two parties on a third) is responsible for countless cases of illness, death, poverty, pollution, exploitation and lies.

"The Power Of Nightmares"
Compares the rise of the American Neo-Conservative movement and the radical Islamist movement, making comparisons on their origins and noting strong similarities between the two. More controversially, it argues that the threat of radical Islamism as a massive, sinister organised force of destruction, specifically in the form of al-Qaeda, is in fact a myth perpetrated by politicians in many countries—and particularly American Neo-Conservatives—in an attempt to unite and inspire their people following the failure of earlier, more utopian ideologies.

"Orwell Rolls In His Grave"
Critically examines the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy, asking "Could a media system, controlled by a few global corporations with the ability to overwhelm all competing voices, be able to turn lies into truth?..."

"Why We Fight"
An unflinching look at the anatomy of the American war machine, weaving unforgettable personal stories with commentary by a who's who of military and beltway insiders. Why We Fight launches a bipartisan inquiry into the workings of the military industrial complex and the rise of the American Empire.

"Loose Change 2nd Edition"
A comprehensive and critical examination of events leading up to, including and immediately following September 11, 2001. This film at the very least provides overwhelming evidence as to why there needs to be another independent commission to honestly and realistically get to the truth of what really happened that day.

And Now Your Moment of Reason

2007-11-29T15:59:00.000-05:00

Today, a tale of two activists. One rational and one completely deluded.

Recently Noam Chomsky and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu were among the speakers at a conference in Boston sponsored by Sabeel, a Palestinian Christian organization.

(See Democracy Now for audio/video/transcript.)

Both of their talks focused on the Israel-Palestine conflict, coinciding with a US sponsored summit (or more accurately, a US sponsored exercise in hypocrisy) on the conflict attended by everyone involved except the democratically elected Hamas, who wasn't invited.

Prof. Chomsky, being the rational, humanist sort of guy he is, starts with eloquence:

Before saying a word, I’d like to express some severe personal discomfort, because anything I say will be abstract and dry and restrained. The crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere, particularly Lebanon, are so shocking that the only emotionally valid reaction is rage and a call for extreme actions. But that does not help the victims. And, in fact, it’s likely to harm them. We have to face the reality that our actions have consequences, and they have to be adapted to real-world circumstances, difficult as it may be to stay calm in the face of shameful crimes in which we are directly and crucially implicated.

At once humble, forceful, rational, scathing, responsible and compassionate. He goes on to draw similarities between apartheid South Africa and Israel, and recalls some history involving US support for the Israeli Apartheid State and repression of Palestinians.

he concludes with this:

...in the coming weeks and the longer term, there’s plenty of educational and organizational activity that will have to be carried out among an American population that happens to be largely receptive, though deluged with propaganda and deceit. And it’s not going to be easy. It’s never been easy. But much harder tasks have been accomplished with dedicated and persistent effort.

A fine conclusion to a presentation devoid of rhetoric, fantasy, delusion or arrogance.

Now for your dose of rhetoric, fantasy, delusion and arrogance. Enter Archbishop Tutu. He starts out well enough, graciously accepting an apology from St. Thomas University for having cancelled a speaking engagement of his because of comparisons between Israel and South Africa.
But then he gets loopy. At once reinforcing the fantasy of Israeli's being the chosen people of god and celebrating the violent nature of his god. Speaking of South Africa:

We were able to revive and sustain our people’s hope for their vindication and the ultimate triumph of good over evil, of freedom over injustice and oppression, by our references to our biblical traditions.

Which biblical traditions are those? The tradition of god the murderer? The tradition of god the genocidal maniac? The tradition of god the sociopath? No no, of course not. Instead he engages, like every other Christian leader in existence, in selective memory. Later he says god will come to save us:

Yes, our God will come down to open the prison doors and lead our leaders from prison and lead our leaders back from exile, for we had learned from our Jewish tradition that God, our God, is notoriously biased, forever taking the side of the weak, the oppressed, the downtrodden, against the kings and the powerful oppressors.

And God vindicated us. Apartheid’s rulers bit the dust, as all oppressors have done always, for this is a moral universe. Right and wrong matter. It cannot happen that evil, injustice and oppression can have the last word. No, ultimately goodness, justice, freedom—these will prevail.

So, god, the bloodthirsty god of the Bible, Koran and Torah is responsible for the end of Apartheid. Not human beings all over the world who took a moral stand and forced the South African government to change, but god. Gee, thanks big guy. Nice work. Funny how god is quite selective in who he saves. He never seems to explain why he lets things like the Holocaust or the Rwandan genocide to happen, or the Iraq War to continue. Luckily AB D. Tutu is around to clear things up.

His main point seems to be that faith and belief in a vengeful, irrational deity who has decreed the Jewish people above all others to be his chosen people will somehow set Palestinians free. This is completely absurd. Is this not one of the main reasons why the Israeli Apartheid State exists? Isn't this the common cry among Israelis, that they have a right to the land because god said so?

Granted, this sentiment is being exploited by military-industrial forces intent on power, and the segment of the Israeli population supporting the settlements seem unable to understand that they are being manipulated.

Chomsky's speech is conductive to justice and change because he places responsibility where it belongs: with human beings. Tutu simply perpetuates confusion and superstition and continues to unwittingly justify the very situation he claims to be speaking out against.

(post updated Jan 30)

Finally Proof that Canadian Cell Phone Service Sucks (or FIPOCACEPONESS for short)

2007-11-28T15:21:00.000-05:00

Contained within a report from the CBC about high cell phone rates in Canada is this information:

According to the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, a typical American uses about 800 voice minutes a month, double that of a typical Canadian. In 2006, the government-mandated Telecommunications Policy Review Panel found this is because of "a persistent and growing gap between the rates between the two countries."

If we look at the average cost of 1 year of service in both countries, about $570 for Canadians and $635 for the US (both in USD) , and factor in that we talk about half as much, we're paying almost twice as much.

And that's only comparing Canada with the US. When we go to Europe things get crazy.

What about oh, I don't know...say, Denmark? In 2006, the average monthly price was $6.10. Six bucks a month! About $73 USD a year. And with 95% saturation, the Danes probably aren't holding back on the airtime (although I couldn't find any data on this). I'm going to assume that Danes are talking lots more than Canadians, and extrapolate that we're paying at least 10 times more on cell phone fees than Denmark.

I hate Telecoms.

Put Away Your Plastic

2007-11-23T15:47:00.000-05:00

Today is Buy Nothing Day. So don't, unless you're out of weed.

For more info see Adbusters.

Futile Political Maneuver of the Day

2007-11-23T12:54:00.000-05:00

Members of the Commonwealth of Nations yesterday voted to suspend Pakistan's voluntary membership in the organization.

Futile? From Wikipedia:

In recent decades there has been a mutual decline of interest in maintaining active intra-Commonwealth relations, and the organisation's direct political and economic importance has declined. Realist critics have argued that in the 21st century the organisation is an inherently arbitrary alliance with members that are united only through a historical accident of British colonialism. They argue that the organisation lacks a balanced membership, and point out that it is very unusual for any international organisation to exclude highly important regions of the world such as most of Western Europe and South America from membership. Indeed, many Commonwealth members look increasingly to regional partners, non-Commonwealth as well as Commonwealth, to form their most important alliances.

Futile it would seem. Unless you're an athlete. The Commonwealth Games are the second biggest international sporting event after the Olympics, so maybe the strategy is that once Musharraf sees all those angry Pakistani weightlifters, he'll come around.

When Is A Taser More Than A Shock?

2007-11-22T12:24:00.000-05:00

In her latest article for the LA Times, Naomi Klein connects the dots between the horrifying death of Robert Dziekanski and method of what she terms The Shock Doctrine, where corporations and governments use the perception or the reality of a crisis or emergency to push through policies that in times of quiet reflection would never see the light of day.

Read the article and then buy her book.

The Mangling of Logic pt. 11

2007-11-22T01:00:00.000-05:00

Quote:

"Well, as I say, he has done more for Democracy in Pakistan than, than any modern leader has, and one of the reasons you’re seeing the blowback that you’re getting in Pakistan is because of the reforms that, that President Musharraf has put in place."

Jeebus. Musharraf is a dictator. D i c t a t o r.

His reforms are oppressive. O p p r e s s i v e.

Here's the first paragraph in his Wikipedia entry:

General Pervez Musharraf (Urdu: پرويز مشرف) (born 11 August 1943, Delhi) is the current Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army, military ruler and President of Pakistan. He came to power in 1999 by effecting a military coup d'état and has suspended the constitution of Pakistan twice; since then, he has been actively supported (through military and monetary aid) by western countries including the United States. He took power on October 12, 1999, ousting Nawaz Sharif, the elected Prime Minister, dismissed the national and provincial legislative assemblies, declared martial law, assumed the title of Chief Executive and became Pakistan's de facto head of government, thereby becoming the fourth Army chief of Pakistan to have assumed executive control. Later in 2001, Musharraf appointed himself to the office of President of Pakistan.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. 2+2=5. Your head will now explode.

Enough With The Fucking Tasers Already

2007-11-21T15:16:00.000-05:00

This is getting stupid. In Chilliwack, B.C. yesterday a man was wrestled, hit with batons, pepper-sprayed and tasered by Mounties. From the Vancouver Province:

RCMP went to the 45800-block of Airport Road after receiving complaints of a man acting erratically in a Chilliwack rental store on Monday.
The 29-year-old man, who is known to police, became "extremely agitated, aggressive and combative" at the outlet, said RCMP Assistant Commissioner Peter German.
"The pepper spray, the baton and the Taser were all engaged. To what extent any of them had any effect on the individual, again, we don't know at this point, but that's what the investigation will be looking at."

Well geez, mystery of mysteries. Pepper spray, taser, baton... critical condition. Connection? Too early to say.

Luckily for everyone involved, the victim isn't dead this time:

The man was "vocal and conscious" after the arrest, said German.
He could not say how many times the Taser was used and whether the other weapons also contributed to the man's injuries.

Commissioner German goes on to say:

"Any police officer, and I include myself in that, is always reluctant to use physical force and it's always a last resort to use physical force. You try to deal with people in a non-aggressive manner. But there's a reason why we are armed."

But that reluctance is exactly what having a weapon like the taser negates. You're reluctant to use a gun because you might kill someone. To use the baton because someone might end up bloody. But the taser doesn't kill most of the time, nor does it leave the victim visibly bloody or battered. It leaves marks, but usually under clothing where the cops, and any witnesses who happen to be around won't immediately see them.

Besides this incident and the one in which Robert Dziekanski died, there is this, and this, and this, and this.. and many more. In fact, in Canada at least 18 people have died after being shocked by a taser since they were introduced in 1999.

As far back as 2004, Amnesty International did a study on taser abuse by Canadian and US police. These abuses have been happening now for years. According to AI (referring to Canadian cops):

...there is currently a review by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police into police use of tasers...

And what was the conclusion of this review? Nothing, it seems. A search on the C.A.C.P. website of resolutions adopted in 2004, 05 and 06 for 'taser' and 'stun gun' turned up nothing. Zip.

Sweat Shops For Jesus

2007-11-21T12:27:00.000-05:00

Unlike the sisters in this picture, who have voluntarily (and inexplicably) given their lives to what they earnestly believe is god and embraced poverty (although not really, since the church provides them with all they need) and so happily toil away for no pay, the sweatshop workers in China who manufacture religious icons for sale in the US, slaving for 15 hours a day at 26 cents an hour (before deductions), didn't.

At the Junxingye factory in China, the mostly-young women—including several 15 and 16-year-olds—making crucifixes are forced to work 14 to 15 ½ hours a day, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 or 11:30 p.m., seven days a week. There are also frequent 18 and 19-hour shifts ending at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Before shipments of crucifixes must leave for the U.S., there are even mandatory, all-night 22 ½ to 25-hour shifts from 8:00 a.m. straight through to 6:30 or 9:00 a.m. the following morning. Workers are routinely at the factory over 100 hours a week, including being forced to work 51 hours of overtime, which exceeds China’s legal limit by 514 percent. Young women go for months on end without a single day off.

And:

Workers paid just 26 ½ cents an hour, less than half China’s legal minimum wage of 55 cents, which is itself set at below subsistence levels. Workers earning just $2.12 a day and $10.61 a week. After mandatory deductions for primitive company dorms and food, the workers’ take-home wage drops to a shocking nine cents an hour, 74 cents a day and $3.70 a week. Workers toiling 91 hours a week are paid just $30.61, which is only 43 percent of the $70.71 they are legally owed.

All so these guys (among others) can make a profit on the average christian consumer's braindead desire to collect as many icons as possible, cuz lord knows the more statues of Jesus and the virgin you've got, the fluffier your retirement cloud is going to be.

Ironically, these Chinese workers would be imprisoned or tortured or worse if found to be participating in the religion they slave for.

Ah, Christianity. Champion of the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden. Unless they get in the way of making some cold hard cash.

Is The Platypus A Cliché or Am I Just Opinionated

2007-11-21T03:27:00.000-05:00

I've just been reading some of my old posts and have to admit that I have a taste for the platitude. Not the Platypus (which may be edible but don't even try). He manages to generate his own banalities just fine.

No, I mean the fondness I seem to have of broad, generalizing and judgemental little sum up paragraphs at the end of many of my posts. Some examples:

The kowtowing Harper government needs to defend Canadian citizens' rights no matter who they are or what they are accused of. We are not subject to Orwellian US law. Omar Khadr has the absolute right to be tried by jury in Canada. (link to post)

It's time to outlaw these obviously lethal weapons. There is no way to prevent this from happening again except to prohibit their use completely. (link to post)

...at least that would give you lots of time to dream up clever new ways of saying "price gouging". (link to post)

OK, maybe it's not that bad, and really it's kinda fun. I mean, that's the point of these damn blogs isn't it? Being able to spew your junk and crap out into cyberspace and let it run free, just like the Platypus, running wild mocking god at this sexy state if its evolution.

The Tragedy of Omar Khadr

2007-11-20T15:58:00.000-05:00

Omar Khadr, a then 15 year old Canadian citizen captured in Afghanistan by the US in 2002, held at Guantanamo Bay and labelled an 'enemy combatant', will will soon face a Military Commission 'trial'.

The incidents leading to his capture: (from Wikipedia, links intact)

On July 27, 2002, 15-year-old Khadr was in a compound near Khost that was surrounded by US special forces. According to Master Sgt Scotty Hansen of Utah, "we [sent] a couple of Afghan interpreters to go in and talk to them because we didn't want to be storm troopers unless we had to." The two interpreters were shot "point blank in the face," however, according to Sergeant Layne Morris, after which "all heck broke out," according to Hansen^[6]. Sergeant Layne Morris was injured early in the skirmish. The Americans called in a devastating air strike, such that no survivors were expected. Khadr, however, survived and allegedly threw a grenade, which injured Sgt. Christopher Speer and led to his death, and injured three other members of the squad.^[4] Omar was shot three times, and left nearly blind in one eye.

Unlike most other inmates at Guantanamo, charges have been laid against him, first on Nov. 7th 2005 with conspiracy, murder, attempted murder and aiding the enemy. Then on Feb. 2nd 2007 more charges were brought: murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, spying, and providing material support for terrorism. These were then dismissed and then later reinstated. More...

Read the above account of his capture and tell me if these charges make sense. Conspiracy? To what, protect himself? Spying? On who, the Taliban? Murder? And what of the "...devastating air strike, such that no survivors were expected."?

He was 15 fucking years old, having been indoctrinated by his father into a militant mindset, in a country ravaged by war and colonialism for decades which had just been invaded illegally under false pretenses by the most powerful army on the planet. What's he going to do, tell his dad to go to hell, I'm joining the Salvation Army? Maybe, to fit with the circus of legal limbo he finds himself mired in, he should have been charged with 'the audacity not to have died on schedule'.

In 2006, Khadr was finally granted permission to see his lawyers. But subsequently this right has been redacted:

Omar Khadr fought for the right to consult with Canadian lawyers since his arrival at Guantanamo.^[32] In 2006 Dennis Edney and Nathan Whiting were given permission to visit him at Guantanamo. However, in late October, the new Chief Defense counsel barred Edney from visiting Khadr, or attending his trial.^[33] According to the Associated Press Edney was barred because he has criticized Lieutenant Commander Keubler's efforts.

From Edney:

"It's a travesty of justice. It's dark politics that's what it is. The office of the military defence counsel is giving the impression that it's working in Omar's best interest when they're denying his fundamental right to choice of counsel."

While detained, Khadr suffered inhumane treatment. From Amnesty International.:

...he says he has been beaten, “short shackled” (wrists and ankles chained together to a fixed point on the ground), exposed to extreme temperatures, held in isolation for prolonged periods and threatened with rape. An expert on the mental health of juveniles in correctional facilities... concluded that Omar Khadr’s symptoms were “consistent with those exhibited by victims of torture” and he had a mental disorder “including but not limited to post-traumatic stress disorder.”

And the official Government of Canada response to the whole situation? There is this inexplicable ruling:

In August 2005, the Federal Court of Canada issued an injunction barring Canadian officials from conducting any further interviews or questioning him on a variety of the grounds including that his rights were not being adequately protected.

And pathetically from then Defence Minister Bill Graham:

"It is an unfortunate reality that juveniles are too often the victims in military actions and that many groups and countries actively recruit and use them in armed conflicts and in terrorist activities. Canada is working hard to eliminate these practices, but child soldiers still exist, in Afghanistan, and in other parts of the world."

But strangely, Canada's involvement in Afghanistan continues unabated despite the prevalence of child soldiers there. What do you suppose 'working hard to eliminate these practices' means in this situation?

The kowtowing Harper government needs to defend Canadian citizens' rights no matter who they are or what they are accused of. We are not subject to Orwellian US law. Omar Khadr has the absolute right to be tried by jury in Canada.

I Laugh At Pain

2007-11-19T15:13:00.000-05:00

Well, I would if there were any. The gig on Saturday went great and my finger held up fine. No trauma.

I think the duct tape suit of armour I wrapped around it definitely helped with the discomfort level. That and sacrificing a bit of ghost note finesse. I barely felt a thing, although I can still feel the nerves repairing themselves when I put pressure on the cut.

Dealing with trauma is the forté of modern western medicine.

Ban Tasers Now

2007-11-16T13:10:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday a video was released of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, being tasered to death by the RCMP at the Vancouver airport.

Watch part 1: The guy is clearly pissed about something. Turns out he'd been waiting for 10 hours for his mother. But his mother couldn't get in to the secure holding area that he was in, consequently didn't see him come out with the rest of the passengers, waited a while longer and then left thinking her son had missed the flight. Robert, meanwhile, is freaking out because he apparently speaks no English (cheers to the woman who tries to communicate with him, but confuses Polish with Russian) and is wondering why his mother abandoned him in this foreign land. So he freaks out.

Watch part 2: He freaks out more, throwing a computer. Security comes but hangs back, waiting for the big guns. The RCMP make their entrance, walking into the room. As they enter, you can hear " say "They say something to Dziekanski, whereupon he throws his hands up in what seems to be a gesture of resignation and walks over to the right with his back against the wall. The police then surround him, something else is said, and then begin tasering. They do it at least twice, the second time sending him flying out the door. They then pile on top of him and hold him immobile. All through this he is screaming. Then, at 5:34 of the second part, watch the cop on the right. What is he hitting with his baton? Is it Dziekanski's head? Then you see the cops realize they've killed him.

Watch part 3: Code red. It looks to me like he was asphyxiated from behind, from force to the back of the neck. I don't think the tasering killed him.

From the Toronto Star:

Traveller Paul Pritchard, who shot the video, said officers seemed to come prepared to zap Dziekanski.
"As they ran in, I heard one of the officers say, `Can I Taser him, should I Taser?' before they actually even got to Mr. Dziekanski," said Pritchard, who lives in Victoria.

But why is this information missing from the Vancouver Sun's transcript?

And...

Surrey-North NDP MLA Penny Priddy said that the "screams of a dying man echo throughout the country" and that Canadians wanted answers before more lives were lost.
"Is it standard operating procedure for the RCMP to use Tasers when there is no obvious physical threat?" she asked Day in Parliament.

Good question. Put a supposedly non-lethal weapon in the hands of cops, give them free reign to use it, and sure enough non-lethal turns into lethal. Apparently they were acting in accordance with RCMP guidelines:

The four officers involved are still on active duty following an internal review, according to RCMP Cpl. Greg Gillis, a training instruction in the use of Tasers.
Gillis said the review did not show any concern that the officers acted punitively or outside their regular duties. If it had, he said, the officers would likely have been relegated to desk duty or suspended.

This is absurd. A man who was not resisting, had hurt no one, was unarmed and acting calmly when confronted by police was tasered long enough for him to die. So an officer's duty is to taser frustrated, impatient people to death?

It's time to outlaw these obviously lethal weapons. There is no way to prevent this from happening again except to prohibit their use completely.

update: In relation to the transcript of the event being scrubbed of the dialog between the RCMP officers, they've been withholding the video since July. Understandable, since it looks so bad. Their reason of tainting witnesses is rational. At least they didn't destroy it.

Badge + Evil Corporations = Bananaguns

2007-11-15T13:10:00.000-05:00

Man, I really like bananas. They're yummy, nutritious, convenient and a sexy yellow. They go great with peanut butter and chocolate, match my blog's color scheme, and there's no plastic packaging to deal with. Just a great food all around. But back in the spring the lovely banana and I parted ways when Chiquita admitted to hiring paramilitaries in Colombia to keep the local population properly in line with it's feudal operations.

In court documents filed Wednesday, federal prosecutors said the Cincinnati-based company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC for its Spanish initials.

The AUC has been responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia’s civil conflict and for a sizable percentage of the country’s cocaine exports. The U.S. government designated the right-wing militia a terrorist organization in September 2001.

Their punishment? A $25 million fine, irrationally payable to the US Government. Not the Colombian victims, but into the gargantuan red, white and blue money pit.

By the way, Chiquita used to be known as The United Fruit Company, a textbook study of corporate power, racism, exploitation and violence.

So unless I come across a non Chiquita branded fruit of the Musa, yes I have no bananas.

But yesterday a lawsuit was brought against Chiquita on behalf of victims of the paramilitaries. From Democracy Now:

The American fruit giant Chiquita has been hit with a new lawsuit on behalf of victims of Colombian paramilitaries. Earlier this year Chiquita admitted to paying one point seven million dollars to a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group on the U.S. terrorist watch list. On Wednesday, nearly four hundred Colombian plaintiffs filed a civil suit seeking almost eight billion dollars in damages. Plaintiff attorney Jonathan Reiter said Chiquita should be held accountable for the killings it helped fund.

Chiquita says it fell victim to an extortion attempt and made the payments only to protect its employees. But a private investigator hired by the plaintiffs disputed Chiquita’s denials. The investigator, William Acosta, says his findings leave no doubt over Chiquita’s complicity.

Chiquita is already facing another lawsuit from relatives of one-hundred forty-four people killed by Colombian paramilitaries. The company has paid a twenty-five million dollar fine to the U.S. government but none of the money has gone to the victims’ families.

So here we have a corporation who's operations in Colombia rely on co-operation with paramilitary groups to protect their assets. Coincidentally, Colombia is at the center of the US' s misnamed war on drugs, with billions flowing into that country to supposedly combat cocaine production. A cursory glance at the correlation between the rising cost of the drug war and the rising use of cocaine in the US indicates the futility of the program (unless, of course, the purpose isn't to stop the drug trade but to control it, then it makes morbid sense).

Do you think that maybe one of the main reasons that there are paramilitaries in the first place is because of the war on drugs?

The real results of the drug war and corporate agribusiness are the marginalization and exploitation of the local populations, pitting them against each other using manufactured and artificial crises as part of a program of control and domination.

Back In The Saddle

2007-11-14T16:11:00.000-05:00

So, for those that don't know, I'm a drummer. When I cut my finger requiring five stitches a couple of weeks ago, I knew I'd be out of commission for a while.

A few days ago, I tried playing for the first time since it happened. I jammed with some friends for an hour or so. My finger felt OK, but when I changed the bandage I could see that there had been internal bleeding. Not good, I thought. So I laid off the playing.

Last night, I got a call to do a few shows with Shane Phillips at Bar Italia, starting this Saturday. I decided to do it, mainly because Shane is real cool and the rest of the band is great. The bass player Tino and I used to go to music school together, and played in the same bands years ago when we both lived in Edmonton, and he's a blast to play with. I also reasoned that a few more days of healing will be enough for my finger to take a night of playing.

We'll see. You can too! Come to the show.

Holy Crap - A New Condo!

2007-11-14T12:43:00.000-05:00

A new condo development at Yonge & Bloor in downtown Toronto seems to be causing mass insanity. People waiting in line for up to 2 weeks for yesterdays opening of the sales office.

As people were standing in line, the price of the most expensive units actually rose $millions before their eyes. Many people at the front of the line were expected to flip their condo instantly to the people at the back of the line.

And for those too busy or without an umbrella:

The people lining up are mostly real estate agents or people being paid by them to hold their spot in line. Though they wouldn't say how much they were being paid, some hinted they were being paid between $2,000 and $3,000 for the week.

Here we are in Toronto with a housing shortage, with moderately priced rental units being hard to come by. According to this report, over 250,000 Torontonians spend over one third of their incomes on rent, and 71,000 families are on the waiting list for affordable housing.

Madness.

Canada's Arctic Another War Casualty?

2007-11-13T12:26:00.000-05:00

Late in 2006, Stephen Harper pledged to assert more strongly Canada's claims in the north after a US submarine was found travelling unannounced through Canadian waters. But last night, the CBC reported that most of the air force missions patrolling the north have been cancelled.

It seems that Harper is suffering from the same delusions that George Bush suffers from, namely that the military is inexhaustible and that he just needs to speak his desires and they will manifest themselves.

In reality, Harper is putting the sovereignty and safety of Canada at risk by committing our military so deeply in Afghanistan.

It's called the Department of Defence, remember?

1/4 of Homeless In US are Veterans

2007-11-12T17:23:00.000-05:00

A case study in willful negligence:

The Associated Press reports that veterans comprise 1/4 of the homeless population in the USA.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.

Extrapolate to 2007, with the war in Iraq becoming deadlier every day, the US economy in deep trouble and the chasm between the rich and poor growing to obscene proportions. Things aren't looking any better.

And yet Bush can say (and his speech writer can actually write, and his staff can actually sign off) this with a straight face:

All of America's veterans have placed the nation's security before their own lives. Their sacrifice creates a debt that America can never fully repay.

If you can stomach it, skim over his Veterans Day speech. It has approx. 8 paragraphs about veterans out of a total of, oh I dunno, lots. Over 50. The rest of it is ridiculous and mostly insulting to veterans.

Over the years these extremists have used a litany of excuses for violence: the Israeli presence on the West Bank, the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, the defeat of the Taliban, or the Crusades of a thousand years ago. In fact, we're not facing a set of grievances that can be soothed and addressed. We're facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world. No act of ours invited the rage of killers -- and no concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder. On the contrary, they target nations whose behavior they believe they can change through violence. Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response: We will never back down, we will never give in, we will never accept anything less than complete victory.

In one paragraph he rewrites history, denying veterans or their families accurate historical perspective, and insults their intelligence. GODZILLA IS COMING! Then he says he'll never stop sending people to die because there is no hope for any other course of action.

Nothing To See Here, Move Along

2007-11-12T12:45:00.001-05:00

OK kiddies, it's experiment time. Your mission: visit the Government of Canada website and time how long it takes you to find a mission statement about the war in Afghanistan.

Ready? Go!

...alright, I know it's Monday and this is a lot to ask, so let me save you some time. On the front page, there is nothing about Afghanistan. No links to any information. There is a big banner inviting you to join up with the military, but it's not clear why.

After trying a search for the words 'Afghan mission', this is what came up. No mission statement, no explanation of what the fuck we're doing there. Another search for 'Harper Afghanistan' reveals a little more info, with links to Harper speeches concerning Afghanistan, but again no mission statement.

Why is the government making it so difficult to find clarification on the war? Maybe because there is none.

Amexicanadica

2007-11-11T12:47:00.000-05:00

Lately the Loonie has been acting loony. As of the 9th, one Canadian dollar is equivalent to $1.06 USD. As a matter of fact, only the Euro and British pound carry more weight. In fact, the Canadian dollar has risen over 20 cents in value against the USD in less than a year! 'Holy crap!' you might say, 'There's deals to be had!'. And you'd be right. And you'd also be in harmony with your fellow Canucks. After watching news coverage for weeks, most of what I've seen is the consistently recurring story of how this affects shopping, with Canadians unanimously and gleefully crossing the border to cash in. There's a story here and there about the difficulties manufacturers and exporters are having, but that's pretty much the extent of the coverage.

But surely there's more to the story than this. What else is happening in the world of currency? Well, as one goes up one goes down. The US Dollar is in free fall as it sinks deeper and deeper into debt. Currently in debt to the tune of $9 trillion! That is a big fucking number. $9,000,000,000,000.00. Or as Hal Lindsay at globalresearch.ca puts it:

A million seconds is roughly 12 days, whereas a billion seconds is approximately 32 years.
We understand dollars. And we understand time. So it would take 12 days to pay back a million dollars at a dollar a second. But if you started right now, you'd pay back a BILLION dollars, at a dollar a second, in the year 2039.
A trillion seconds is roughly 32 thousand years. At a dollar a second, you'd pay back a TRILLION dollars in the year 34007.
The U.S. debt stands at $9 trillion. If my calculator is working, then at a dollar a second, the U.S. could be debt- free in the year 290007.
The point of that little exercise was two-fold. The first was to clarify the sheer volume of the debt; the second was to demonstrate the possibility that anybody in government really believes we can ever pay it off.
Each U.S. citizen's share of the national debt works out, according to the National Debt clock, to $29,947.50. That means the average American family of five owes, collectively, $149,737.50.
It also means that unless the average American family of five has a net worth of at least $149,737,50 in assets excluding liabilities (they don't), America is already bankrupt.

These two conditions when viewed separately don't immediately seem related. But when you consider that the US's astronomically accruing debt (add another$1.49 billion for today, and tomorrow, etc.) is to a large extent the result of it's thuggish resource grabs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Canada's soaring dollar is largely the result of soaring oil prices making the Oil Sands in northern Alberta ridiculously profitable, you start to see some connections.

It's unlikely that the price of oil would be so high without the wars in the middle east. The Canadian military isn't in Iraq but they are fully engaged in Afghanistan, fighting along with the US under the utterly ridiculous mantra of bringing democracy at gunpoint.

(By the way, try going to the Government of Canada website, doing a search for 'Afghanistan Mission' or something similar and see how far you get. Go ahead, try it.)

Now consider that The US Federal Reserve is 100% privately owned and the Bank of Canada is 98% privately owned, meaning that the money supply for both countries - the printing, issuance and ultimately it's value - is controlled by private individuals. What do private individuals who control large corporations do? Lots of things. They do compete but they'd rather not have to, a monopoly being much more efficient. They like to buy each other out, they like to merge, they like to enlarge their power, they like to grow, they don't like public scrutiny, they like to dominate. But unlike most other corporations, their growth is intricately tied up with government. Governments provide revenue streams, like income tax, which go to pay the interest on money lent to the government by the central banks. The interesting thing is, the goals of these central banks are diametrically opposed to the goals of democratic government: the former seeks more power, control and secrecy, and the ideals of the latter are freedom, justice and openness. However, since the government is in debt to the central banks and have given up the control of their own monetary systems, the democratic ideals are pushed aside in the interests of economic responsibility.

As Naomi Klein shows us, the conditions for corporate growth and governments implementation of policies to facilitate it are never as favorable as during a crisis or emergency, while people's attention is turned elsewhere. But mass media has proven that you don't need to shock people to distract them. Pacification works just as well, it just takes longer. It could be argued that pacification is required for the more stubborn dissenters, who may see past the shock.

Historically, Canada has tended to see itself as being in the shadow of the USA, and consequently Canadians have developed a strong sense of being different from Americans, particularly in areas of war, colonialism, shared public responsibility and political diversity. Americans, on the other hand, would be hard pressed to find Canada on a map. One population intensely aware of the other, and one virtually indifferent. One requiring pacifiers, the other shock treatment.

Why? For the creation of the North American Union, which our collective governments, along with Mexico, have been negotiating for a few years. One government, one monetary system, one set of laws and regulations, with all of them being reduced to the lowest common denominator (read efficient). All lorded over by one big central bank, privately owned of course.

The Torture Beat Goes On

2007-11-06T12:40:00.000-05:00

The baffling confusion that the US government displays over whether or not torture is a bad thing continues unabated. The latest chapter has the latest Attorney General candidate Michael Mukasey claiming that he's probably the only person in the world who doesn't know what waterboarding is or how it's done. Keep in mind that he's been nominated to replace Alberto Gonzales, who resigned in disgrace after, among a host of other illegal actions, enabling Bush & Co. to engage in torture.

Now to be fair, Mukasey can't really say that waterboarding is torture because if he did, he'd have to prosecute the people who nominated him for the post. Specifically, he'd have to prosecute George W. Bush for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

So the beat goes on. Waterboarding and other torture techniques continue to be used with impunity by the US and it's allies. So just for perspective, here are some members of the torture club that the US has so eagerly joined:
Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Augusto Pinochet, Pol Pot, The Chinese Communist Party, Ho Chi Min, Saddam Hussein, Benito Mussolini, Suharto.....etc, etc, etc.

Join The Army! Lose Your Mind! Have A Nice Life!

2007-11-04T12:27:00.000-05:00

After my last post, I came across this story in The Edmonton Journal about Afghanistan veterans not getting needed mental health care.

Jeez, do I ever feel guilty. Here I am, eating up precious health care resources for my measly little cut finger while returning soldiers, fighting for my freedom, safety and access to universal health care (because that's really what we're there for, not for pipelines or natural resources or because the US told us to), are left out in the cold.

OK, aside from the criminal actions of the Canadian Government inside Afghanistan, when will politicians learn that if you're going to send people to die or be injured or suffer a mental breakdown because they're job is to kill people with the supposed reason of promoting democracy, freedom and our 'superior' way of life, you've gotta take care of them and prove that our system is worth the death and destruction when and if they come home.

Once again the futility, injustice and inhumanity of war becomes clear.

Is this concept really so difficult to grasp? The US has shown over and over that they are incapable of caring for their veterans properly, and in fact purposefully put them in harm's way, which obviously is tied to the insurance and profit dominated health care system there. But here in Canada, with universal not for profit health care, this is absolutely inexcusable.

JunkandCrap Goes to the Hospital

2007-10-31T14:57:00.000-04:00

So, on Sunday morning while making breakfast I managed to cut my finger. Specifically the left pointer. And pretty deeply. Deeply enough to make me want to hurl the chunk of bread I was trying to cut across the room in a fit of rage. Fucking BREAD! Anyway, at first I didn't think it was so bad, so I bandaged it up and went and did some things for a couple hours.

Back home, I had another look it the gash. It didn't look too bad, but it was bigger and deeper than I had thought. After a debate about seeking medical attention with my house mates, me being strangely on the con side (probably because I knew a trip to the emerge would eat the entire day), I took the short walk to St. Michaels Hospital, downtown T.O., to seek stitching.

So, what's a downtown Toronto emergency room like on a Sunday evening after a Halloween party weekend? Fairly - kind of reassuringly - mundane. No big emergencies; no gunshots or stabbings, crazies or DOA's. At least not that I saw. So after around 4 hours of my head buried in "Slave Species of God" by Michael Tellinger (hey, why not something fantastical , improbable and yet possible while sitting congregated with the sick and wounded after losing a battle with a loaf of rye?), I and two others were ushered into private examination rooms where I waited some more.

After some time (10 minutes or so) a medical student came in named Sacha who had a look at my finger and told me maybe stitches, maybe not, the Doctor'll be here in a minute and tell me what to do. Apparently there's a time limit on getting stitches of around 6-8 hours. I was at 9 hours. Luckily the rule isn't hard and fast so the Doc gave the go ahead for some needlework.

Alright! Let me say here that this would be the first time I'd had stitches. Yes, I managed to grow up in northern Alberta, live in the subarctic, work with my hands my entire life and travel numerous ways and countless times across the country without ever requiring stitches (I played little organized sports however, which may be a key factor). So I was really looking forward to it. I felt kinda pumped, like I was having a required human experience which would elevate my consciousness. You know?

So Sacha, the med student (I hoped not a psych major, but he never really clarified) came in and prepped the wound for stitching. First cleaning, then freezing. That was really the most painful part to date; the needle for the local anesthetic. But by most painful, I mean in an unpainful, relativistic way. All in all a pain free experience, including the initial laceration.

I've never been squeemish about blood or needles, having gone through a childhood full of allergy shots and occasional hospitilizations, and getting stitched was no different. It was odd feeling the tugging of the needle and thread, but Sacha was steady and thankfully seemed to be staying away from the booze at the frat house.

After 20 minutes and 5 stitches, the doctor came back in, had a look and proclaimed everything hunky dory. I was then fitted with an expert dressing (which managed to pop right off later at home when I removed my sweater, but hey...) by two lovely ladies of mercy, who were devastated to hear that I did make my living (or at least part of it) with my hands and sincerely hoped and believed I would overcome this obstacle.

And so, after 5 hours I walked out of St. Mike's proudly brandishing my finger with it's dildo-sized dressing as testament of my elevated status as a human being, confident of my full and complete recovery.

So, Whats Fukin New?

2007-10-29T16:25:00.000-04:00

Seriously:
The FKN NEWZ is brilliant. Check out the video.

There's a bit about nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere, which got me to thinking about nuclear weapons testing in general.
I came across the Nuclear Weapon Archive website, and the Gallery of Nuclear Tests page, in which the disastrous public health effects are shown to be well known.

What is probably the most important study of the health effects of testing were announced by the National Cancer Institute in August of 1997
he basic finding of the report is that internal exposures to radioiodine (I-131) in fallout from continental nucelar testing was the most serious health consequence. Radioiodine concentrates in milk when consumed by cows when grazing, and then concentrates in human thyroid glands when contaminated milk is ingested. This concentration effect is especially strong in children. The NCI study estimates that the average American alive at the time received a thyroid radiation exposure of 2 rads, with some people receiving up to 300 rads. The effect of these exposures is to boost the chance of contracting thyroid cancer some time during a lifetime. This cancer is normally not very rare, and is highly treatable (as cancers go). It is possible to estimate the overall effect of the total radiation exposure of the American population. From the 380 million person-rads of total exposure roughly 120,000 extra cases of thyroid cancer can be expected to develop, resulting in some 6,000 deaths. For comparison, the worst industrial disaster in history (Bhopal, India; 3 December 1984) killed about 3000 people and injured 150,000.

Predictably, the study was stalled and hidden for years before it's release.

But I really wanted to know what the effects of nuclear explosions have on the atmosphere or stratosphere. I found this report made by the (currently completely ignored) US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in 1975. Some interesting facts:

A number of other surprises were encountered during 30 years of nuclearweapons development. For example, what was probably man's most extensive modification of the global environment to date occurred in September 1962,when a nuclear device was detonated 250 miles above Johnson Island. The1.4-megaton burst produced an artificial belt of charged particles trapped in the earth's magnetic field. Though 98 percent of these particles were removed by natural processes after the first year, traces could be detected 6 or 7 years later. A number of satellites in low earth orbit at the time of the burst suffered severe electronic damage resulting in malfunctions and early failure. It became obvious that man now had the power to make long term changes in his near-space environment.

The Earth's magnetic field is fairly important, it shields us from solar radiation that, if the earth were exposed to it, would make all life impossible. Earth would eventually look like Mars.

Probably the most serious threat is cesium-137, a gamma emitter with an half-life of 30 years. It is a major source of radiation in nuclear fallout, and since it parallels potassium chemistry, it is readily taken into the blood of animals and men and may be incorporated into tissue.

Sweet. No need for those costly mineral supplements anymore.

But seriously, when we hear discussions on global warming, nuclear testing is never brought up. But clearly it has had a devastating effect on the earth's ecosystem. With the US alone having conducted at least 1100 nuclear tests between 1945 and '92, with who knows how many officially uncounted, globally there must have been thousands of explosions, both on the ground and in the atmosphere.

Just for an exclamation point:

...the possibility of a serious increase in ultraviolet radiation has been added to widespread radioactive fallout as a fearsome consequence of the large-scale use of nuclear weapons.

Max Roach, 1924 - 2007

2007-08-27T19:33:00.000-04:00

Goodbye Max, and thanks for everything.

George Tenet Is A Weasel

2007-05-10T01:02:00.000-04:00

If you've seen the various interviews (and confused apologies for) with George Tenet making the rounds on TV, maybe you've been struck by an unexplainable lack of knowledge for the head of the CIA to have. And, come to think of it, a strange lack of knowledge for journalists to have.

He has a tendency, during virtually every interview I've seen, to insist one way or another that the information he had on Iraq was insufficient, and therefore he believed that Iraq possessed WMDs.
Which completely ignores the fact that the United Nations had been doing weapons inspections there since 1991. He would have us believe that he had insufficient information on a country he was at war with 12 years earlier and has been virtually at the center of the world's attention ever since. Insufficient information on a country with one of the largest oil reserves in the world, strategically located in an area of geopolitical importance.

Right. You're an incompetent boob.

Or you're a liar.

The rest of the US press has previously proven that their memories go no further back than 6 days, but the worst part is that not even John Stewart can muster the mental muscle to make any sort of connection between history and reality.

Happy Murderous Anniversary, USA

2007-03-19T12:28:00.000-04:00

Today, the US begins the 5the year of it's illegal, immoral and Orwellian occupation of Iraq.

Sigh.

And how best to commemorate this momentous day? How about a disingenuous debate involving a corrupt politician, an unelected policy maker who has been dead wrong about everything and a "journalist" who has been discredited.

Watch it and weep.

The Morality of Bell Mobilty

2007-02-10T02:53:00.000-05:00

Just an ugly little story within a story, concerning the system. Contained within a kind of sketchy report in the Financial Post concerning a Bell Mobility executive suddenly resigning, is this:

A source familiar with the departing executive, however, said he was working on a discount cellphone brand call Smartco, which was to be aimed at seniors.
BCE had spent millions and had a staff of 60 working on the brand, which even had television commercials filmed, before George Cope came on board as BCE’s chief operating officer in 2006. Mr. Cope scuttled the brand in favour of maintaining Bell’s “disciplined pricing” approach, the source said.

What you're saying, George Cope, is that your current pricing structure is just too damn profitable to change. So fucking profitable that you can throw away "millions" and fire 60 employees. Such a cash cow that you can disregard the obvious humanity of giving seniors cheaper ways of communicating.

I mean, they get discounts on a goddam bus pass..

Are you also the same twerpy little shit who came up with the pay as you go unlimited nights & weekends ripoff? Normally, the per minute rate is 30 cents a minute for the first two minutes and 5 cents a minute thereafter, for each call. Once you activate the night & weekends thievery, your regular per minute rate is suddenly raised to 35 cents. For every minute.

Was that your brilliance manifesting itself?

Of course, maybe I've got this all wrong. Maybe you're looking out for the best interests of the consumer. You know, the people upon which your entire existence is dependent. But hey, if the rest of us stop using Bell (which thousands will do as soon as Canada implements legislation allowing people to switch carriers and keep their numbers), at least that would give you lots of time to dream up clever new ways of saying "price gouging".

Fecal Fecundity

2007-02-08T19:13:00.000-05:00

At some point, you really have to start wondering if some people just didn't get enough vitamins when they were babies. Take the case of evangelical Christian leaders in the US. One after another, not unlike lemmings following each other off the cliff, they proceed to shove their heads entirely up their own asses, pull them back out and let shit fly from their mouths.

The newest facilitator of fecal fecundity is William Donahue.

To quote (click for audio - happens at 7:33):

"Just imagine if a white guy is performing oral sex on a statue of Martin Luther King with an erection. Do you need to see it to know it's ugly?"

That is some ugly shit.

John Pilger - The New rulers of The World

2007-02-04T19:13:00.000-05:00

Brilliant documentary from John Pilger, on the effects of corporate globalization on the third world and specifically Indonesia.

Highlights:

Between 39:10 and 44:00, Pilger interviews Stanley Fischer, a top IMF bureaucrat. Fischer squirms and twists, answering Pilger's questions about debt relief with the usual patent answers (I wish Pilger would have brought up the example of Solon of Athens).
At around 42:50, Pilger hits him with a UN report on the negative effects corporate globalization has had on human rights. "Globalization has caused global conditions of inequality and discrimination." Fischer actual grins while he says he can't respond because he doesn't understand the context. He appears amused at this silly little question, or baffled. "I'd have thought it was the opposite" he says.
Pilger then brings up the specific example of Indonesia, to which Fischer responds "...Indonesia grew throughout the 60's ... incomes rose ... there was a dictatorship ... some of their rights were, uh, where, uh, suppressed ... " (italics added) to which Pilger responds "Excuse me Mr. Fischer, you say some of their rights were suppressed. A third of the population of East Timor were killed under the Suharto regime." Fischer then gets indignant, saying "What are you asking me that question for? Do you think we supported the Suharto regime? Don't be ridiculous." to which Pilger responds "Well, did you speak out against it?". Beautiful.

Counter Reaches 666

2007-01-29T21:46:00.000-05:00

Comments? Anyone? Satan?

Arar Recieves Overdue Apology, Logic Contorts

2007-01-27T12:40:00.000-05:00

It's long overdue, but finally happened. Stephen Harper, Canada's version of Bushy the Chimp, has issued a formal apology to Maher Arar for the role the government and the RCMP played in his being 'rendered' to Syria and then tortured there.

From the CBC:

"On behalf of the government of Canada, I wish to apologize to you…and your family for any role Canadian officials may have played in the terrible ordeal that all of you experienced in 2002 and 2003," Harper said.

I, and the rest of Canadians however, are still waiting for our apology. The one where Harper says: 'And to the Canadian People, I would ask their forgiveness for our inept handling of public institutions, the flagrant disregard of Canadian Sovereignty, human rights and international law, and for wasting a hell of a lot of your money. Now I'd like to resign in shame.'

The Harper government also offered a $10 million compensation package, plus an additional $1 million for legal fees, obviously to try and derail any possible legal action.

One million in legal fees? WTF? What kind of absurd criminal justice system do we have where one has to have a million dollars to effectively defend ones name from false accusations of being a terrorist?

Maybe it's like a make-work program for lawyers. Guy gets falsely accused, kidnapped, shipped off, tortured, then set free. He then seeks justice and tries to clear his name, racking up a huge legal bill. Government that shipped him off knew it was wrong in the first place, is humiliated, apologizes, and pays for the guys legal fees.

Once again, logic becomes a wreck on the side of the highway.

FYI: Here's Maher Arar's full story.

Some Thinking Involved

2007-01-25T17:51:00.000-05:00

Or "So this is a very thought-out plan."

Well thought out? Poorly thought out? Whatever. These are the words of US Senator Joseph Lieberman, summarizing his explanation of Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq. (if you laugh, you'll feel guilty about it). I doubt Joe gave it much thought.

Via the Online Newshour:

GWEN IFILL: Let me ask Senator Lieberman actually to defend the policy that he supports, which is the decision to send these additional troops.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: It has military, 22,000 extra troops, but it also has economic and political components and clear demands on the Iraqis, benchmarks of what they've got to do, to basically deserve our continued involvement to protect them.

Why is that a good idea? Why do I think it will work? And, again, I'm listening to General Petraeus. There is a cycle of sectarian violence in Baghdad. It's not armies of Shia and the Sunni clashing in open civil war.

But until that stops in the capital city, there's not a chance either to create the economic growth that will tell the average Iraqi in Baghdad that they've got a chance to live a better life, nor is there the stability that will allow the Iraqi government to do what they want them to do, to begin to govern.

You know, there's a number of Iraqi government officials that just aren't in Baghdad anymore, and that's just unacceptable. You're not going to be able to build a government if that happens.

There's a second front in Anbar province, to the west of Baghdad. I visited there, as I did in Baghdad, in December. There we're in a different kind of battle. It's not sectarian violence. It is us and the Sunni leadership of that province against al-Qaida in Iraq, which has said that it wants to create the capital of a new Islamic extremist caliphate there in Anbar province.

We're making progress there. An additional 4,000 troops, which is part of the 21,000 that the president is sending, I think will turn that conflict in Anbar in the right direction, and actually it has the potential to achieve a victory for us.

So this is a very thought-out plan.

What a slimy bastard. Self serving, self righteous, self important asshole. "...deserve our continued involvement to protect them."

Fuck right off.

Once you get past his white supremacy, I challenge you to find even the slightest explanation of a plan in his statement, except the 4,000 troops thing. But, if you accept the premise that the US is actually fighting a war on terrorism (which I do not), and the principle enemy group involved is al-Qaida, then wouldn't you send all, or at least most of your troops to fight them? You know, the enemy? Who you're fighting? I'm no Alexander, but...

The best bit is "You know, there's a number of Iraqi government officials that just aren't in Baghdad anymore, and that's just unacceptable. You're not going to be able to build a government if that happens."

Man, that just cracks me up.

I am assuming here that PBS's Newshour attracts viewers, on average, above the age of 3.

Stephen Harper, Are You Watching?

2007-01-18T17:48:00.000-05:00

This is my vote for best picture so far this year:
A US senator investigating the Maher Arar fiasco and holding Alberto Gonzales responsible. YEAH!

Stephen Harper, isn't it about time you officially begged Mr. Arar for his forgiveness? And then please issue an apology to me for what was done to him in my name.

Congressional Doublethink

2007-01-18T16:04:00.000-05:00

So finally, finally there is congressional pressure against the tyrant's insane war policy. Bipartisan pressure, with elephants and donkeys both stepping up to criticize Bush's newest death dealing non sequitur, or "augmentation" as they'd have you think of it. (click for video)

After watching the video, you may ask yourself - yeah, but, see, isn't the US ultimately responsible for ALL of the fucking violence happening in Iraq right now? Was Iraq engaged in a bloody civil war before the US invaded? Was their water and power infrastructure a crumbling ruin? Had an occupying force been torturing, murdering, raping and imprisoning (sometimes all at once) it's citizens? Were gangs of unaccountable mercenaries roaming the streets with impunity, murdering, torturing, raping?

No.

So why then is there no talk of responsibility other than that required of Iraq to solve "it's own problems"? The USA created this entire mess. It's the US's responsibility. In an honest and moral debate this would be a fundamental point, upon which you build a a strategy to amend your ways and make things right.

Quick and easy Iraq exit strategy:

Get the US armed forces out.
Abandon all military bases.
Take your weapons with you

Long, painful and absolutely necessary strategy for fixing the horrible disaster Iraq has become beacause of you:

Apologize. Sincerely. Humbly. Ask the Iraqi's and the rest of the world what you can best do immediately to alleviate the situation, and then do it, because honestly you seem to have no idea. Money, engineers, police, construction, anything except military unless under Iraqi/UN control. Load up a thousand fucking cargo planes with everything from toothpaste to IT professionals, whatever.
Take Halliburton to court, find them guilty of a hundred different things, and sentence them to reconstruct Iraq's utility infrastructure to western standards, pro bono.
Place all assistance under Iraqi control.
Impeach Bush and Cheney.
Hand Rumsfeld over the the ICC, and allow Bush and Cheney and others to stand trial for war crimes.

I don't mean to be flippant, but if there is one lesson from Iraq that should be painfully obvious to all - the US military presence is the root of the violence happening there now. I realize that there are other factors, but the fact remains that 5 years ago, Iraq was a country at peace.

The Mangling of Logic pt. 10

2007-01-14T20:45:00.000-05:00

Alright, so US Senator Barbara Boxer points out to Condoleeza Rice during a Senate committee that neither of them have any immediate family in the armed forces, saying

"Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young, ...You're not going to pay a price, as I understand it, within immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families."

Really, she's just stating the obvious. There's no insult contained in the phrase. If anything she could be accused of wasting time. But in the fairy tale that is all Rupert Murdoch owned media it is transformed into a ghastly affront, with the New York Post telling us, without a trace of any sense of irony, that her comments are indicative of Democrat's having a propensity toward "vapidity ... mindlessness ... bitterness ... pettiness of spirit ... political self-indulgence".

Anyway, illogical though this may be, where it really gets mangled is, surprise, on FOX. Here we go:

"I think it was more than cheap -- it was degrading," said Fox News commentator Karen Hanretty "There's nothing more vicious than feminine politics, and Boxer proved herself a shrill harpy.''

From a woman yet! ...and then:

White House Fox contributor, Tony Snow said, Boxer's comments were "outrageous" and "a great leap backward for feminism.''

And just for good measure Rush Limbaugh, champion of women and minorities, educates us:

"Here you have a rich white chick with a huge, big mouth, trying to lynch this -- an African American woman -- right before Martin Luther King Day, hitting below the ovaries here."

You have to hand it to FOX for their unwavering belief in feminism.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Bush and Condi are sending 22,000 more troops to Iraq. When Boxer questions Rice about expected deaths amongst the 22,000 she responds "No, uh, Senator...I don't think there's any way to give you such an estimate."

Which is a lie. According to Jon Solz, an Iraq War vet who is co-founder and chairman of VoteVets.org:

"The Pentagon knows how many casualties they estimate for any of the actions the additional troops will be taking part of. It’s basic war planning. Depending on what happens, that number could go up or go down, but they know what they expect."

Of course, not a word about this from Murdoch media.

iPods Kill

2007-01-12T18:02:00.000-05:00

Greenpeace is calling for submissions to their campaign to pressure Apple into adopting environmentally responsible manufacturing methods, and I thought I'd have a go at it:

American Samoa, Where An American Isn't

2007-01-12T01:26:00.000-05:00

The US Congress, newly populated with people who seem to have souls, has voted to raise the minimum wage nationwide to the princely sum of $7.25 per hour of one's life.

Currently, the absolute lowest value that an hour of an American's life is worth is $5.15. Interestingly, if you go to any big city, you can find a small, inanimate rectangle of concrete and pay somewhere around $5.15 per hour to rent it. You could come out even!

Except for in Samoa (not sure about the parking). American Samoa, that is. Didn't even know it existed. I mean, I knew Samoa existed. I've even met some Samoans at the Harbourfront Center here in TO. Wouldn't have ever guessed to call them American.

Apparently Americans don't really call them that either. There are various minimum wages there depending on what type of work you do. If you're a stevedore, you're living large at $4 an hour. But if you stitch t-shirts or jeans an hour of your life is worth $2.64. Just be thankful you're not engaged in miscellaneous activities or you'd have to settle for $2.63. Oh wait, make that $2.70. It was raised 7 fucking cents in 2003. (Gee. Great. I'd thank you but the stench of your colonial racism is overwhelmingly motivating. I must go now and work doubly hard in order to further enrich you.)

The different minimums confuse me. Why is a someone cleaning hotel rooms worth almost $1 less than a guy unloading fish?

Anyway, this video of a Congressman (annoying voice though he may have) telling the lacky fronting for the criminals operating their almost-slavery ring in Samoa that no, Samoa won't be exempt from the minimum wage law and to please shut the fuck up is really quite heartening.

Just to be thorough, here's a link to the relevant US CODE: Title 29, Chapter 8, section 206, which basically says that the minimum wage in American Samoa is to be set by an administration committee and isn't answerable to the people of American Samoa.

A Ridiculous Amount of Great Music

2006-11-25T17:32:00.000-05:00

This weekend in Toronto is the Canadian Aboriginal Festival (turn down your volume before clicking!). I didn't post on it beforehand, but I was part of a great show that took place as part of the festival at Revival Bar on the 23rd. On the bill was Andrea Menard, Leela Gilday (who's new CD is now available and fantastic) and Tamara Podemski (multiple CAMA award winner! she's unstoppable), all of them dizzyingly multi-talented artists.

The night before at the NOW Lounge, I was treated to Leela and her sublime band's performance of her new CD, with the incomparable Rhonda Stakich warming things up.

This much beauty and talent over the course of two days really is quite ridiculous.

And in honor of the Canadian Aboriginal Festival, and just because, have a quick read of what the US and Canadian governments are trying to block: the UN's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Done? Now write to your MP or Congressman and set them straight.

FOX News' New Logo

2006-11-20T16:23:00.000-05:00

It just came to me.

Pinochet - Sane After All!

2006-11-18T19:52:00.000-05:00

For years Augusto Pinochet, former Dictator of Chile, puppet of the US, murderer, torturer, sadist, ... has been avoiding trial and prosecution for crimes against humanity for allegedly being mentally unfit to stand trial. (See articles)

Recent comments from his daughter tell a different story. They describe a man who feels remorse for what he's done, and therefore an understanding of what he's done. From Democracy Now:

Victims’ Families Reject Pinochet Meeting Request
In Chile, the daughter of former dictator Augusto Pinochet has announced her father is willing to meet with the families of victims tortured or disappeared under his rule.
Lucia Pinochet: "He feels very pained for this and he has told me, that he feels that if he would be able to meet with these people he would express to them a profound apology. And this is the truth because he has not announced this, he told me this in private."
The daughter, Lucia Pinochet, went on to say Pinochet is not willing to seek a national pardon. Her comments come two weeks after Pinochet was put under house arrest for overseeing kidnapping, murder and torture at the secret prison of Villa Grimaldi.

Expressing a 'profound apology' implies complete understanding of what you're apologizing for, no? This would then also imply being in possession of the mental faculties to stand trial for that which you are apologizing...no?

Meanwhile, some leading human rights lawyers believe Pinochet’s reported comments may undermine the former dictator’s repeated defense to avoid being brought to court.

This guy really needs to stand trial for what he's done. It's a criminal act itself to allow his obviously phony defense to shield him from justice.

Thing Are Looking Up

2006-11-12T16:20:00.000-05:00

At least someone is trying to hold these scumbags to justice. A criminal charge of war crimes violations is going to be served on Donald Rumsfeld (© Bush Inc), Alberto Gonzales and George Tenet, among others, for the torture carried out under their authority in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Here's the Time story.

This is one to watch. If this is successful, then Bush and Cheney have some worrying to do during the next 2 years, if they last that long. Now that the democrats control the house and the senate, the word impeachment takes on a whole new meaning.

IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH!!!!

But first get the fuck out of Iraq.

Privacy: Canada So-So, Britain Ridiculously Bad

2006-11-02T15:46:00.000-05:00

From the CBC today:

Privacy International, a watchdog group that studies government and business surveillance and privacy practices, rated 36 countries, including 25 EU member states, on 13 national practices.
The practices included statutory and constitutional protections, the use of ID cards and closed circuit TV cameras. The countries were given a ranking from one to five — five points denoting no invasive policies, and one point for extensive surveillance.

Germany (3.9) was ranked the highest, followed by Canada (3.6). They were the only two listed in the category of "significant protections and safeguards."
China and Malaysia (1.3) ranked at the bottom, followed by Singapore and Russia (1.4), and the U.K. (1.5).

The U.S. scored a 2, putting it in the "extensive surveillance society" category. In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the U.S. was ranked the worst in the democratic world.

It goes on to state some chilling statistics in Britain:

Every person, on average, is viewed by 300 cameras a day. Police use facial and license plate recognition technology to track anyone who looks suspicious.

British police are also allowed to demand DNA samples from anyone they detain, even if they haven't been formally arrested or charged with a crime.

Authorities hold more than 3.5 million sub-samples — the largest DNA databank in the world.

The British police can demand a DNA sample from anyone they detain? WTF? Does the word 'gestapo' enter anyone else's head?

But it gets way worse than that. The police also have the right to keep the DNA forever. In a case of mind boggling injustice, an 11 year old boy had his DNA taken after being arrested for attempted burglary. After being acquitted, his lawyers asked that the samples be destroyed and were denied. And so what do the British police do with all this unethically obtained genetic information? Well, what would you do with the most sensitive information on the citizens of your country whom you are sworn to protect - contract out to a private company to analyze the data of course!

From The Observer:

The security of the police National DNA Database is in question following the disclosure of confidential emails which reveal that a private firm has secretly been keeping the genetic samples and personal details of hundreds of thousands of arrested people.
Police forces use the company LGC to analyse DNA samples taken from people they arrest. LGC then supplies the information to the National DNA Database. Yet rather than destroy this afterwards, the firm has kept copies, together with highly personal demographic details of the individuals including their names, ages, skin colour and addresses.

Ok, so there's that, which is really bad. Unethical scientists with illegally obtained human genetic information. But...wait for it...it gets even worse:

In a separate twist, evidence has emerged that the Home Office has given permission for a controversial genetic study to be undertaken using the DNA samples on the police database to see if it is possible to predict a suspect's ethnic background or skin colour from them. Permission has been given for the DNA being collected on the police database to be used in 20 research studies.

Cool! Unethical scientists and corrupt politicians!

With almost 3 million samples, Britain's DNA database is the largest in the world, as police are allowed to retain DNA from anyone arrested whether or not they are found guilty of a crime. It contains more than 50,000 DNA samples taken from children. As the database has grown, ministers have reassured MPs and civil liberties groups that it is tightly controlled. But emails from LGC to the Home Office, seen by The Observer, suggest this is not the case.

Why children? What could the justification be for that. And then we come to the Coup de grâce:

One of LGC's directors is Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and it has several contracts with companies in the pharmaceutical, biotech and chemicals industry. Although there is no evidence that the firm has used the DNA records for other commercial purposes, opposition MPs are calling for the Home Office to launch an investigation.

Astonishingly, it's corruption right up at the very top. Again.

This is way too close to Brave New World for comfort.

Can Bush Please Be Thrown Into Prison Now?

2006-10-30T17:45:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Crooks&Liars.com for linking to this interview at Speigel Online of Ron Suskind, former writer for the Wall Street Journal. The subject of the interview is torture and "black sites", or secret prisons.

Here's a choice little excerpt:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So the average interrogator at a Black Site understands more about the mistakes made than the president?

Suskind: The president understands more about the mistakes than he lets on. He knows what the most-skilled interrogators know too. He gets briefed, and he was deeply involved in this process from the beginning. The president loves to talk to operators.

And this:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: With all your access to high-level sources, have you come across anyone who still thinks it is a good idea for the US to torture people?

Suskind: No.

And then this:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The government's tenor seems to be that...the system of Black Sites is ending.

Suskind: They were the prizes, the most significant of them. Are there others? Of course, they are in various places, in the sort of loose confederation of prisons that are housed simply within countries. The prisoners are farmed out but not beyond the purview of the United States, which is still interested in what they say. The Egyptians, Jordanians and others keep us informed. I assume there are still about 100 prisoners and that the system of Black Sites is continuing. The president has preserved his right to do that.

So...everyone thinks torture doesn't work, but Bush wants to keep doing it anyway. Why? "He was deeply involved in the process from the beginning." This is his baby.

Bush loves to talk to the 'operators', which clearly is a euphemism for torturer.

Bush "loves" to talk to the torturers.

Think about that for a millisecond. He's not talking to them about stopping. He's not talking to them about the morality of it, or he'd be talking about stopping. He's not talking about the ineffectiveness of it, or he'd talk about stopping. He's definitely not talking about puppies. Maybe they're talking about Nazis, we're not sure, but he's certainly talking to them about what they know - torturing people. Maybe getting a good belly laugh or two.

'Operator': Oh man Mr. Prez, you shoulda seen this one dude. Crapped his pants right there. Course, we'd been force feeding him through a tube 'till it started to come back up through his throat, and maybe that kick in the stomach might of had something to do with it. But geez.....

G.W.B.: Ha ha ha ha ha! Stop it! I'm gonna puke! I gotta tell this one to Alberto.......

When he drones on about staying the course, perhaps this is what he's really talking about. After all, he seems to be having fun.

Adam, Eve and You

2006-10-29T15:37:00.000-05:00

I'm currently working my way through the fascinating 'Escape From Freedom' by Erich Fromm. One passage struck me, concerning the Adam & Eve myth and how it relates to freedom, and organized religion's insidious use of it (from chapter II:The Emergence of the Individual):

The myth identifies the beginning of human history with an act of choice, but it puts all emphasis on the sinfulness of this first act of freedom and the suffering resulting from it. Man and woman live in the garden of eden in complete harmony with each other and with nature. there is peace and no necessity to work; there is no choice; no freedom; no thinking either. Man is forbidden to each from the tree of knowledge between good and evil. He acts against God's command, he breaks through the state of harmony with nature of which he is a part without transcending it. From the standpoint of the church which represented authority, this is essentially sin. From the standpoint on man, however, this is the beginning of human freedom. Acting against God's orders means freeing himself from coercion, emerging from the unconscious existence of prehuman life to the level of man. Acting against the command of authority, committing a sin, is in it's positive human aspect the first act of freedom, that is, the first human act.In the myth the sin in it's formal spect is the eating from the tree of knowledge. The act of disobedience as an act of freedom is the beginning of reason.

The myth speaks of other consequences of this first act of freedom.The original harmony between man and nature is destroyed. God proclaims war on man and woman, and war between nature and man. Man has become separate from nature, he has taken the first step toward becoming human by becoming an "individual". He has committed the first act of freedom.

The myth emphasizes the suffering resulting from this act. To transcend nature, to be alienated from nature and another human being, finds man naked, ashamed. He is alone and free, yet powerless and afraid. The newly won freedom appears as a curse; he is free from the sweet bondage of paradise, but he is not free to govern himself, to realize his individuality.

What an incredibly powerful tool to indoctrinate children. The message is clear; do as god says, as translated through the church, or suffer terribly. At the time of life when a child typically hears this, young enough that they're still part of the magical existence of the universe and just beginning to form an identity of their own identifying themselves as separate from it, this myth would have incredible potency.

But lessons on capitulating to authority aren't limited to religion. Our public education system is built on it. From the beginning of a child's tortuous trip through K-12, he is hammered with lessons in arbitrarily submitting to an omnipotent authority, wherein any deviation is punished and we're told will haunt us the rest of our lives. How can children develop a true identity in this environment? Where do they learn to think for themselves, to think freely and critically?

There was a recent study linking children 4 and under who are obese and diminished intelligence. According to research, approximately 15% of all children in the US are obese. When you start to think about these kids' identities getting ground up into hamburger while they go to church and/or school, and how many there are, and how many more there were and are likely to be, you start to understand why it was so easy for the global war of terrorism lie to work, and why Americans believe they live in a democratic garden of eden.

Divinely Decreed Ethics In Action

2006-10-29T12:27:00.000-05:00

Michael Chossudovsky, writing for GlobalResearch.ca, puts the Iraq war, US belligerence toward Iran and Israel's invasion of Lebannon into global perspective.

The war mongering, power hungry USA is on the path toward WW3, with Stephen Harper dragging Canadians along for the ride. And of course ultimately it's all about energy.

The logic behind it all is just so iron-clad. I mean, who could argue with choosing to spend trillions buying war, destruction and death, rather than trillions, or hell even billions on renewable energy, mutual respect and co-operation, and life.

We're just all so darn ethical.

And Now, Your Moment of Reason

2006-10-29T11:40:00.000-05:00

A fairly bright guy once said:

"I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it." - Albert Einstein

Well, sure. Since ethics apply strictly to humans, or human activity, it stands to reason that the impetus for the existence of ethics arises from humanity, or from the human need to impose restrictions on behavior for the ultimate purpose of ensuring our continued existence. The only means to immortality humans possess (currently) is collectively through procreation. Believing that a superhuman deity imposes it's own set of ethics on us also requires us to believe that they were forced on humanity against our will. Which ultimately leads to the conclusion, either consciously or unconsciously, that we're not responsible for them.

It's sort of like being tortured. One of the conclusions of the Geneva Conventions, and one of the reasons for the outlawing of torture, is that anything confessed to or said while under torture is unreliable because the tortured may not be in control of his faculties. You can force someone to say anything through torture. Therefore, the tortured can't be held responsible for what he says, and the whole testimony is void.

Today Is Video Day

2006-10-27T18:53:00.000-04:00

Is Waterboarding Torture?

Sure looks like torture to me. Also, remember that this guy isn't a detainee, nor does he really fear for his life, nor has been been held in solitary confinement for months, nor has he been subject to sleep deprivation or other "aggressive" interrogation techniques.

Enter Alan Dershowitz again, advocating torture. His argument falls flat. Instead of regulating torture, which basically codifies it into law and makes it's use legitimate, why not a law that states "The President, being the commander in chief during times of war, is hereby to be held responsible for instances of systematic torture, as defined by the Geneva Conventions, carried out by subordinates under his command."

There's responsibility for and a condemnation of the use of torture in one tidy little package.

Maher Arar In His Own Words

2006-10-27T16:36:00.000-04:00

Here is his acceptance speech after recieving the Institute for Policy Studies' 30th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award.

Transcript:

Hello my name is Maher Arar. Sorry I could not join you for today’s ceremony.

All Center for Constitutional Rights Staff and I are humbled to have been chosen this year’s recipient for the Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights Award. This award means a tremendous amount to us. It means that there are still Americans out there who value our struggle for justice.

It means that there are Americans out there who are truly concerned about the future of America.

We now know that my story is not a unique one. Over the past two years we have heard from many other people who were, who have been kidnapped, unlawfully detained, tortured and eventually released without being charged with any crime in any country.

JFK Stopover

My nightmare began on September 26, 2002. I was transiting through New York airport, JFK Airport, when they asked me to wait in a waiting area. I found that to be strange. Shortly after, some FBI officials came to see me and they asked me whether, I was willing to be interviewed.

My first immediate reaction was to ask for a lawyer and I was surprised when they told me that I had no right to a lawyer because I was not an American citizen.

Then I asked for a phone call, I wanted to call my family to let them know what was going on. And they just ignored my request.

Then they told me, we only have couple of questions for you and we’ll let you go. So I agreed. I had nothing to hide. And the interrogation started. Soon after, you know, they asked me about people I knew. It was deeper, until the interrogation was going deeper and deeper and deeper.

During this time, they played mind games with me. They would sometimes insult me; say to me something like you’re smart. Other times they would accuse me of being dumb.

And, I repeatedly ask for a lawyer, to make a phone call. They always ignored my question. The interrogation that day lasted about four hours with the FBI officials and another four hours with immigration. At the end of that day, instead of sending me back to Canada, they shackled and chained me and sent me to another, another terminal in the airport where I stayed overnight and in that place, in that room they kept me in, the lights were, were always on. There was no bed in that room and I could not sleep that night.

The next day another set of interrogations started. This time it was about, they asked me about political opinions—I answered openly, I didn’t try to hide my political opinions. The asked me about Iraq. They asked me about Palestine and so many other issues. And they also, if I remember correctly, asked me about my emails and some other questions.

Going to Syria

And they told me that day we are about to decide about your fate. At the end of that day, surprisingly, one of the immigration officers came and asked me to volunteer to go to Syria. I said to them: why do you want me to go to Syria, I’ve never been there for 17 years. And they say, “You are special interest.” Of course, back then I did not know what this expression meant.

But it was clear that the Americans, the officer did not want me to go to Canada.

When he insisted, I said, let me go back to Switzerland. That was my point of departure before I arrived at JFK and he refused. Eventually they took me into the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison, where they kept me for about 12 days. During this time I was interviewed for six hours by INS. It was a very exhaustive interview from 9PM to like around 3AM in the morning. When I asked them to, during this interview to go, to allow me to go back to my cell to
perform my prayer, they refused, completely refused.

Also during my stay at the Metropolitan Detention Center I could clearly see that I was being treated differently from other prisoners. For example, they didn’t give me toothpaste they would allow me to go for recreation for about a week. They always ignored my demand for making a phone call.

Eventually they allowed me to make a phone call. Up until that time, which was a week after I was arrested, no one in my family knew where I was. My wife thought I was
disappeared, I was killed. No one knew exactly what happened, until I informed my mother-inlaw that I was arrested.

Eventually on October 8th, against my will, they took me out of my cell. They basically read the pieces of document to me saying, that we will be sending you Syria. And when I complained, I said to them, I did explain to you if I’m sent back I will be tortured and they, I remember, the INS person flipped a couple of pages in this document, to the end of this document and read to me a paragraph that I still remember until today, an extremely shocking statement she made to me.

She said something like: The INS is not the body or the agency that signed the Geneva
Convention, convention against torture. For me what that really meant is we will send you to torture and we don’t care.

So they put me on a private jet, which I found extremely strange. I was the only passenger on that, on that plane. It’s a luxurious plane, with leather seats in it. My only preoccupation during this trip is how I could avoid torture. By then, I realized that they were exactly sending me to Syria for torture. And that became very clear to me. Then the plane flew to Washington from Washington it flew to Maine then to Rome, then from Rome to Jordan.

Shackled and Chained

And I remember on the plane I was most of the time I was shackled and chained except the last two hours when they offered me a shish-kabob dinner. Up until this day I do not, I cannot explain why they did that. If I was a dangerous person like they claimed in the beginning, why they would remove my chains and shackles the last two hours of the trip?

During also the trip, whenever I wanted to use the bathroom, one of the team members would go inside with me. Even though I complained that this was against my religious belief.

The plane landed in Jordan on three in the morning October 8th. And a couple of Jordanians were waiting, men, were waiting for me. They took me, they blindfolded me, they put me in a car and shortly after they started beating me on the back of my head. Whenever I complained about the beating they would actually start beating me more. So I just kept silent.

I stayed in Jordan for about 12 hours in a detention center. I still don’t know what that place is. I was always blindfolded whenever they took me from one cell to another or when they took me to see the doctor. But I felt something strange in that prison. I felt, what, that I used an elevator, which is quite strange for a Middle Eastern prison.

After 12 hours of detention, unlawful detention in Jordan I was eventually driven to Syria. And I just didn’t want to believe that I was going to Syria. I always was hoping that someone, a miracle would happen—the Canadian government would intervene. A miracle would happen that would take me back to my country Canada.

I arrived in Syria that same day, at the end of the day and I was able to confirm that I was in fact in Syria after my blindfold was removed and I was able to see the pictures of the Syrian President. My feeling then is I just wanted to kill myself because I knew what was coming. I knew that the Americans, the American government send me there to be tortured.

Sometime later the interrogators came in. They started asking questions, routine questions at the beginning, but whenever I hesitated to answer their questions or whenever they thought I was lying one of them would threaten me with a chair, a metallic chair with no seats in it, only the frames. And back then I did not understand or I did not know how they would torture people with it. I later learned that from other prison inmates.

But the message was clear: if you don’t speak quickly enough we will torture you. That day, the interrogation lasted about four hours. There was no physical beating; there was only verbal threats. Around midnight, they took me to the basement. In the basement, the guard opened a door for me, a metallic door. I could not believe my eyes. I looked at him and I said, what is that? He didn’t answer. He just said to me: Enter.

The Grave

The cell was about three feet wide, six feet deep and about seven feet high. It was dark. There was no source of light in it. It was filthy. There were only two thin covers on the floor. I was naïve; I thought they would keep me in this place for one, two, maybe three days to put pressure on me. But this same place, the same cell that I later called the grave was my home 10 months and 10 days. The only light that came into the cell was from the ceiling, from the opening in the ceiling. There was a small spotlight and that’s it.

Life in the cell was impossible. At the beginning—even though it was a filthy place, it was like a grave, I preferred to stay in that cell rather than being beaten. Whenever I heard the guards coming to open my door I would just think, you know, this is it for me that would be my last day.

The beating started the following day. Without no warning…(long pause as he fights tears) without no warning the interrogator came in with a cable. He asked me to open my right hand. I did open it. And he hit me strongly on my palm. It was so painful to the point that I forgot every moment I enjoyed in my life.

Torture

This moment is still vivid in my mind because it was the first I was ever beaten in my life. Then he asked me to open my left hand. He hit me again. And that one missed and hit my wrist. The pain from that hit lasted approximately six months. And then he would ask me questions. And I would have to answer very quickly. And then he would repeat the beating this time anywhere on my, on my body. Sometimes he would take me to a room where I could, where I was alone, I could hear other prisoners being tortured, severely tortured. I remember that I used to hear their screams. I just couldn’t believe it, that human beings would do this to other human beings.

And then they would take me back to the interrogation room. Again another set of questions, and the beating starts again and again. On the third day the beating was the worst. They beat me a lot with the cable. And they wanted me to confess that I have been to Afghanistan. This was a big surprise to me because even the Americans who interviewed me, the FBI officials who interviewed me, did not ask me that question. I ended up falsely confessing in order to stop the torture. The torture decreased in intensity.

From that moment on they rarely used the cable. Mostly they slapped me on the face, they kicked me, they humiliated me all the time.

The first 10 days of my stay in Syria was extremely harsh and during that period I found my cell to be a refuge. I didn’t want to see their faces. But later on living in that cell was horrible.

And just to give you an idea about how painful it is to stay in that place—I was ready after a couple of months, I was ready to sign any piece of document for me, not to be released, just to go to another place where it is fit for human being.

During this time I wasn’t aware that my wife launched a campaign with other human rights organizations like Amnesty International and others. My wife lobbied the media, she lobbied politicians and eventually I was released. The Syrians released me and they clearly stated through the ambassador in Washington that they did not find any links to terrorism. I was not charged in any country including Canada, United States, Jordan and Syria.

Since my release I have been suffering from anxiety, constant fear, and depression. My life will never be the same again. But I promised myself one thing, that I will continue my quest for justice as long as I have a breath. What keeps me going is my faith, Americans like yourselves and the hope that one day our planet Earth will be free of tyranny, torture and injustice.

How Many Civilians Will Die Tomorrow?

2006-10-26T12:51:00.000-04:00

From the CBC today:

NATO operations in Afghanistan's volatile south left dozens of Afghan civilians dead earlier this week, according to Afghan government officials and a village resident.

Bismallah Afghanmal, a provincial council member, told the Associated Press an estimated 80 to 85 civilians were killed in the operation, while Karim Jan, a villager, said 60 to 70 civilians died. Another government official, who declined to give his name, told the Associated Press that at least 60 civilians were killed.

Maj. Luke Knittig, a ISAF spokesman, said NATO forces used mortar and artillery backed by air support against militants who were trying to undermine efforts to stabilize the area for reconstruction.
Knittig said there were three clashes between insurgents and NATO forces west of Kandahar city, with troops using "precision strikes" against insurgents.
"Very sadly, civilians continue to get caught up in these engagements, with tragic results," he said.

Ah yes, very sad, very tragic, but not quite sad enough to stop doing it over and over and fucking over again.

What doesn't seem to be debatable is that some civilians were killed by NATO. This horrific report can be viewed a couple of ways:

We can view the report by Afghan officials as accurate and true. Between 60 and 90 civilians were slaughtered indiscriminately because they got in the way of the absurdly described "precision strikes" on areas which were obviously full of civilians. The question then is, what the hell are Canadian troops doing firing upon civilians? Has it now become an accepted practice to say 'well, our technology assures us that our strikes are precise, those pesky civilians just insist on getting in the way. What can we do? It's really all their own fault.' Does Stephen Harper really want to join the war crimes club? What's next, white phosphorous? Napalm? Mustard Gas?

We could also view it as a distortion from the warlord and former taliban controlled government in an effort to undermine NATO's efforts in the country, which would beg the question - why are we defending them? If this is a propaganda piece, why are Canadians killing civilians and being killed themselves to support a government that is obviously corrupt and doesn't want us there.

Either way you look at it, one has to conclude that the NATO prescence in Afghanistan is an exericise in imperial domination, with Canada acting as an enforcer.

CANADA OUT OF AFGHANISTAN NOW!

Toronto Terror Re-examined

2006-10-23T19:17:00.000-04:00

The recent "terrorist plot" in Toronto last June, which saved us in the nick of time thanks to the heroic prescience of the RCMP and CSIS, has been used by Stephen Harper to promote anti-democratic, imperialist policies which just may have been topics of discussion during one of his and George Bush's meetings, being the good buds that they are. Torontonians seem mainly to have forgotten all about the incident, but they shouldn't. Nor should any Canadian.

As this article by David Adelaide of Global Research.ca demonstrates, the Canadian government is just as Orwellian as the American. We're just as capable of fabricating a threat in order to impose a sadistic and tyrannical agenda.

It looks like the whole thing was a setup. The seller of the ammonium nitrate was an RCMP operative, two of the alleged terrorists were CSIS moles and the circumstances indicate that they were the instigators of the entire alleged "plot".

A Translation of 'Stay The Course'

2006-10-20T16:10:00.000-04:00

If you think about the phrase 'stay the course' the way it's invoked by the US government as their strategy in Iraq, you may come to realize that the phrase carries no strategic meaning. Beyond the obvious, that staying the course would involve a course to be on (when no course has been demonstrated), strategies, particularly war strategies involve action, reaction, and an outcome. But this phrase implies only the first; action, or 'carry on'. It's like the official strategy contains an opening paragraph and then skips to the index. If you thought too hard on it, perhaps eventually your brain would burst from the pressure of the absurdity.

Or perhaps not. Maybe a different possibility would confront you. The possibility of a real strategy, well thought through and orchestrated with success., but fundamentally not very complicated: marginalize the citizenry, create a perpetual war, and consolidate executive power. Simple as that. And when you've got the most powerful military in history at your command, armed with September 11 as your justification and a colluding media, it probably was quite simple.

In light of the unfolding of events in Iraq over the last several years, what other conclusion can be reached? There is constant, consistent failure by the worlds most powerful armed forces. Consistent failure by highly intelligent, highly educated, highly trained generals and politicians. Consistent failure in a region the US has had a magnifying glass on for 30 years. Don't know the difference between Sunni and Shia? Please. Maybe the average Congressman doesn't, but you can bet Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld do. The US intelligence machine has been all over Iraq at the very least since Desert Storm on the early 90's. They know precisely the differences between Sunni and Shia and have intricate knowledge of any other factors, and they are probably manipulating these two groups against each other.

Perhaps the failure is the success. Maybe failure is the plan. After all, try try again. If you win, well, the war has to stop doesn't it? If the war stops, the executive power grab stops, never mind that there might be questions and consequences about all those nasty things that were done to the Constitution and to liberty.

In these days of linguistic gymnastics, in which George Orwell would be a busy translator, the term 'stay the course' serves a double duty; an obfuscation of the truth and the laying bare of it.

Tyrant, Dictator, Despot - Take Your Pick

2006-10-18T17:47:00.000-04:00

Everyone looks to be taking their eyes off the prize, except for Keith Olbermann. The alarm level in the US over the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (pdf) should be through the roof. The idea of a nation governed by the people, based on the rule of law is gone. Everything it was founded upon and stands for is gone. America is ruled by a tyrant.

From Wikipedia:

In the original Greek meaning, the word "tyrant" carried no ethical censure; it simply referred to anyone who overturned the established government of a city-state (usually through the use of popular support) to establish himself as dictator, or to the heir of such a person.
Despotism is a form of government by a single authority, either an individual or tightly knit group, which rules with absolute political power.
Modern dictators have usually come to power in times of emergency. Frequently they have seized power by coup but some achieved office as head of government by legal means, most notably Benito Mussolini in Italy, Adolf Hitler in Germany (election or appointment) and once in office gained additional extraordinary powers.

This Is What Passes For A Law Professor at Harvard

2006-10-17T16:57:00.000-04:00

Alan Dershowitz, in his Op-Ed for the LA Times (Oct. 17) offers us a disingenuous, almost tortuous defense of his previous advocation for the use of torture using Bill Clinton as his vindicator.
Some choice quotations:

Although I personally oppose the use of torture, I recognize the reality that some forms of torture have been, are being and will continue to be used by democracies in extreme situations, regardless of what we say or what the law provides. In an effort to limit the use of torture to genuinely extreme "ticking bomb" situations, rather than allowing it to become as routine as it obviously became at Abu Ghraib, I proposed that the president or a federal judge would have to take personal responsibility for ordering its use in extraordinary situations.

The ultimate pragmatist, he would have us believe. Since torture is going to happen anyway lets try to control it, try to hold someone responsible, thereby limiting it's use. But actually he is capitulating to authority. He is acknowledging the right of his masters to take him away and torture him if his 'situation' was deemed 'extraordinary'. That's OK with him as long as the President takes responsibility for it. Indeed, a flippant word to the press by Bush or his successor, which is the likely form any sort of responsibility would take, would make everything all peachy with me too.

For suggesting this approach to the terrible choice of evils between torture and terrorism, I was condemned as a moral monster, labeled an advocate of torture and called a Torquemada.

Why are the choices exclusively torture or terrorism? It's not clear. Perhaps there are other choices which aren't so monstrously immoral. It is clear however that he is advocating the use of torture. To work towards integrating the use of torture into law is advocacy. Geez, almost by definition. The Torquemada reference seems a little harsh, although that was a society which had codified the use of torture into it's laws, which most likely required advocates to bring about, so perhaps Mr. Dershowitz would've found a role for himself in 15th century Spain.

Now I see that former President Clinton has offered a similar proposal. In a recent interview on National Public Radio, Clinton was asked, as someone "who's been there," whether the president needs "the option of authorizing torture in an extreme case."

See? It's cool cuz Bill thinks so too! My colorblind friend ernestly believes that blue is red, and his colordblind friend agrees with him, but I'm not colorblind. Red is red. Blue is blue. Torture is torture. Violations of fundamental human rights aren't supported or made more legitimate by someone agreeing with them. They are still the same crimes. What's made more legitimate is the thought of them being legitimate, which reduces the citizenry - indeed humanity - to the status of objects who can be abused by the state at will.
Quoting Clinton in the article:

"We have a system of laws here where nobody should be above the law, and you don't need blanket advance approval for blanket torture. They can draw a statute much more narrowly, which would permit the president to make a finding in a case like I just outlined, and then that finding could be submitted even if after the fact to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court."

Or to paraphrase: 'Nobody is above the law, except in cases of torture where we'd like to write into law that some people are'. What he's absurdly suggesting is a process like the FISA courts, where the Executive can obtain a warrant to wiretap or spy on someone after the fact, after the spying was done. Clinton is completely ignoring the fact that the Bush administration has disdained the FISA courts openly and without apology or responsibility taken for years , which sets a clear precedent on how they would view a similar court for torture. He also fails to consider the new Military Commissions Act of 2006 about to be signed in by Bush, which gives the President the powers of a tyrant, allowing him to deem you an "unlawful combatant" arbitrarily and then deny you any right of due process and finally give the thumbs up to torture you. Arbitrarily because he answers only to himself. Read it and be afraid. How this defends Dershowitz's views on Presidential responsibility isn't clear.

Clinton quickly added that he doesn't know whether this ticking bomb scenario "is likely or not," but he did know that "we have erred in who was a real suspect or not."

I'm surprised he included this in the article, because he completely ignores it and it's implications for his entire position. The high probability that innocent people will be tortured should be enough to negate his entire argument. I suspect it's in there just for effect, to give us the impression that he's duly considered this possibility and found it wanting, in his eminent professional opinion of course.
Quoting Clinton again:

"But I think if you go around passing laws that legitimize a violation of the Geneva Convention and institutionalize what happened at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, we're gonna be in real trouble."

But that's exactly what you are doing. Are you mentally deficient? Basic concepts like this are easily understood by children.

I offered my controversial proposal as a way to stimulate debate about a difficult choice of evils. I hope that the silence following the Clinton interview does not mean the debate has ended. The problem persists. Torture will continue. Let's not stop thinking and talking about whether the evil of torture is ever a necessary evil.

Again with the two evil choices. Why frame the debate this way Mr. Dershowitz? Do you really believe that the only choice is to let terrorists run amok or to torture people? Do you discount evidence that definitively say torture does not work? Do you discount evidence that definitively says that torture breeds more of the very same people who are likely to be targeted for torture? Can you not see the endless loop that is being created? Can you not understand that torture breeds hatred among the tortured and psychosis among the torturers? Your position (and Clinton's for that matter) is absurd and misinformed with rationalizations that don't withstand scrutiny.

Heres to the day when we do stop thinking about whether torture is a necessary evil. The day we all agree that it's not.

The Mangling of Logic pt. 9

2006-10-07T17:41:00.000-04:00

You can't make this stuff up. Quote:

Homosexuals reproduce sexually by molesting children.

This absurd statement was written by Jason Jones, Director for Public Relations for Human Life International, which is, according to their website: "Founded in 1981, Human Life International is the world’s largest pro-life, pro-family organization that is dedicated to defending life, faith and the family, with branches and affiliates around the world."

Apparently it's also the worlds most confused organization regarding human reproduction. Does anyone have to take responsibility for what they say anymore? Hate filled garbage like this needs to be called out and the people who utter it should be called on to explain themselves. I'd love to hear the arguments Jason would use to defend this statement.

Unhappy Columbus Day, USA

2006-10-07T12:25:00.000-04:00

Ah, Columbus Day. A celebration of exploitation, murder, rape, terrorism and imperialism. A celebration of the white man's triumph over savages. A celebration of colonialism, and a way of legitimizing it in the minds of the population.

A celebration of Christianity's triumph over the godless heathens.

A celebration of racism.

A celebration of the white man's "right" to invade, occupy and dominate any territory that strikes his fancy. A celebration of sadism and cruelty.

In Columbus' own words:

Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and Princes who love the holy Christian faith, and the propagation of it, and who are enemies of the sect of Mahoma and to all idolatries and heresies, resolved to send me, Cristobol Colon, to the said parts of India to see the said princes, and the cities and lands, and their disposition, with a view that they might be converted to our holy faith; and ordered that I should not go by land to the eastward, as had been customary, but that I should go by way of the west, wither up to this day, we do not know for certain that any one has gone.
-from the Journal of his First Voyage

Now there's a man with a mission that George Bush could understand. Iraq and Afghanistan are continuations of the exact same ideology updated for modern sensibilities. The USA is still mired in 15th century thought and continues to engage in "Indian Wars" around the world; Iraq, Afghanistan, Columbia, Cuba...etc, etc, etc.

America the Tyrannical

2006-09-29T11:50:00.000-04:00

Today is the beginning of the death of the USA. The ship of fools is sinking.

The US Senate has passed a law that wipes out 800 years of history and basic human rights. The USA has passed a law condoning conduct that was one of the catalysts towards the creation of America; the rejection of king-like powers and the embracing of rule by the people, for the people. They have given the president (or anyone in the executive) the power to arbitrarily kidnap you, suspend your rights of habeas corpus, and torture you, according to his definition of torture, and they never have to tell you anything while doing this to you.

The land of the free and the home of the brave, the USA has joined the ranks of every two bit dictator it's ever professed to despise. George Bush and his criminal, cowardly, pathetic cronies have become tyrants, they can count Saddam Hussein as a brother, or Pol-Pot, or Pinochet.

The reason this law was initiated, and passed, was to insulate the Bush administration from prosecution for torturing people during the farce that is the war on terror. They are spending their time not trying to make their country safer or help make life better for their citizens (whom they work for) but passing laws pardoning themselves for crimes committed against American citizens and non-citizens. In the process they are destroying democracy.

This is so fucking goddam outrageous on so many levels, I feel like throwing up. Where are George's shoes?

Justice for Maher Arar!

2006-09-22T19:58:00.000-04:00

Maher Arar is a Canadian citizen who was kidnapped at J.F.K. Airport in New York on September 2002 while returning home from a family vacation. He was held in solitary confinement, was refused access to a lawyer, and rendered to Syrian intelligence authorities where he was brutally tortured for 10 months.

From the Center for Constitutional Rights:

On February 16, 2006 a federal judge dismissed the Center for Constitutional Rights lawsuit brought on behalf of Maher Arar. The judge ruled that 'national security' and 'foreign relations' concerns made it impossible to hold liable the government officials who sent Maher to Syria to be tortured.

This is a travesty. Mr. Arar deserves justice. The USA is our supposed ally. We're fighting under their goddam command in Afghanistan. I demand the Canadian government take action and secure justice for Maher Arar, and while they're at it - reaffirm Canada's commitment to the Geneva Conventions.

If you are Canadian, I urge you to contact your MP and tell them to pressure Stephen Harper for action.

The Geneva Suggestions?

2006-09-20T11:56:00.000-04:00

Colin Powell, former US Secretary of State and (unwitting?) Bush propagandist, in one of the understatements of the century, has said he believes the world is beginning to doubt the moral basis for the war on terror.

Actually, the world has firmly stated it's belief in the war's immorality. From the moment the US invaded Iraq the world has been opposed to it, and with each new horror story about torture, cluster bombs, white phosphorous, civilian deaths, corporate corruption, war profiteering...etc...the world gets more sickened and angered by the actions of the USA.

Since the end of WW2, the Geneva Conventions have served to guide the conduct of nations engaged in war in an attempt to make war more humane, with the ultimate goal of doing away with war completely. There has been no confusion, no ambiguity over their meaning. And every signatory nation and it's citizens is obliged by law to follow it's guidelines. Not to do so would make one a criminal.

In the 1990's, the USA passed a law criminalizing violations of the Geneva Convention, making it a crime not only under international law, but US federal law as well. This would hold many currently serving in the US government criminally liable for their conduct during the last five or six years, including Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and a host of other high ranking elected officials, political appointees, military officers, intelligence officers, civilian contractors, etc. And so we're treated to the spectacle of the USA suddenly explaining that the Geneva Conventions are 'vague' and need to be clarified. That they need to be 'reinterpreted' in order to apply to the new world order they seek to impose.

They're scared shitless that they might be held accountable.

Here (part 1) and here (part 2) is the comedy and tragedy of men who believe themselves to be above the law coming to realize that maybe they aren't, and so, holy crap, they realize the real world still exists along with accountability, and they better re-write and redefine those 'vague and outdated guidelines' before they are put on trial.

To give you an idea of the US's selective support of the Geneva Conventions, here's what the right wing think tank (and co-architect of the war on terror) The Heritage Foundation had to say about them in 2003 in reference to Saddam Hussein and justification for the Iraq War:

The laws on war have a long history. In 1907, the international community convened the first of a series of diplomatic conferences that endeavored to codify the "laws and customs of war." The first of these conferences was the 1907 Hague Convention on the Conduct of War. After World War II, the international community met again to expand these customary laws of war to meet with the changing times. The result was the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, which introduced the concept of individual criminal liability and "universal jurisdiction" to try individuals responsible for "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions.

The article goes on to thoroughly list the violations committed by Saddam Hussein, including this:

Videotape that aired on Iraqi state television and Al Jazeera on March 23 showing deceased U.S. soldiers also included footage of U.S. prisoners of war (POWs) being interrogated by Iraqi officials. Some of the captured soldiers appeared to be disoriented and badly injured in the video. One of the female POWs was shown lying on the ground with a bandaged ankle. The POWs were identified as members of the 507th maintenance company who were ambushed in Nasiriya after taking a wrong turn.

Something as minor (and inconclusive) as a bandaged ankle is seen as proof of Geneva violations, in accordance with article 17:

Every prisoner of war, when questioned on the subject, is bound to give only his surname, first names and rank, date of birth, and army, regimental, personal or serial number, or failing this, equivalent information. If he wilfully infringes this rule, he may render himself liable to a restriction of the privileges accorded to his rank or status.
Each Party to a conflict is required to furnish the persons under its jurisdiction who are liable to become prisoners of war, with an identity card showing the owner's surname, first names, rank, army, regimental, personal or serial number or equivalent information, and date of birth. The identity card may, furthermore, bear the signature or the fingerprints, or both, of the owner, and may bear, as well, any other information the Party to the conflict may wish to add concerning persons belonging to its armed forces. As far as possible the card shall measure 6.5 x 10 cm. and shall be issued in duplicate. The identity card shall be shown by the prisoner of war upon demand, but may in no case be taken away from him.
No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.
Prisoners of war who, owing to their physical or mental condition, are unable to state their identity, shall be handed over to the medical service. The identity of such prisoners shall be established by all possible means, subject to the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
The questioning of prisoners of war shall be carried out in a language which they understand.

But near drowning (I hate the word waterboarding, it sounds like a sport), sleep deprivation, humiliation, rape, beatings, mental anguish, and on and on....are not.

When it serves their purpose, the Geneva Conventions are legitimate and without ambiguity. When it doesn't they are vague and irrelevent.

The immoral basis for the war on terror is perfectly clear to the entire planet. All 6 billion.

Back To Afghanistan...

2006-09-18T11:44:00.000-04:00

I just read an outrageous article by Brian Cloughley on the Counterpunch website which really reinforces my belief that Canadian troops should not be involved in Afghanistan.

It seems that American officials are imposing tolls on roads they deem to be in need of tolls. In this country of abject poverty, starvation and violence, they are demanding a $20 toll on the Kabul-Kandahar highway from every driver that uses it. $20 in a country where the average schoolteacher earns $70 a month is not pocket money, it's everything.

And - surprise - Coca-Cola rears it's ugly, destructive, exploitive head in the third world once again. A new Coke bottling plant, worth $25 million, was just opened in Kabul (the owner of which lives in Dubai). For a little perspective, here is the state of public nutrition in Afghanistan today, according to the Senlis Council:

"After five years of intensive international involvement in Afghanistan, the country remains ravaged by severe poverty and the spreading starvation of the rural and urban poor. Despite promises from the US-led international community guaranteeing to provide the resources and assistance necessary for its reconstruction and development needs, Afghanistan's people are starving to death. . . . . More than 70% of the population is chronically malnourished, while less than a quarter of the population has access to safe drinking water."

So...reconstruction? Nah, screw that. We'll keep robbing from the poor to give to the rich, because what do starving people need more than anything? A multinational corporation stealing their water, transforming it into poison and selling it back to them! It's all very logical in the framework of colonialism. It makes reports of Canadian troops handing out candy to Afghan children sound even more absurd.

CANADA OUT OF AFGHANISTAN NOW!

The Free Press and ADD

2006-09-15T18:51:00.000-04:00

Project Censored has released their top 25 censored or under-reported stories of 2006, and quite a list it is.

Among stories on Canada's planned military subordinance to the US, the US military's contracting of human rights abusers, and the continuing rape of Iraq, story #5 really caught my eye: U.S. uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia. To quote:

At the same time that U.S. aid was widely publicized domestically, our coinciding military motives were virtually ignored by the press. While supplying our aid (which when compared proportionately to that of other, less wealthy countries, was an insulting pittance), we simultaneously bolstered military alliances with regional powers in, and began expanding our bases throughout, the Indian Ocean region.

With all the entertainment news, politiclone punditry and speculation on who's tit will pop out next, I guess there's just not enought time in the day for the press to get around to the important stuff.

Bah...Who Needs Credibility?

2006-09-15T16:33:00.000-04:00

It looks like the proverbial flying crap is about to hit the thermantidote. Someone in American mainstream media has finally said what the rest of the world has known for years, that the Bush administration has no-zero-nada credibility. From Keith Olbermann:

"If the Iraq debate seems especially exhausting, it may be due to the steady erosion of the foundation for any productive debate, facts."

But hey, who needs credibility when you can count on the rest of the media to stand slack jawed with their brains oozing out of their ears. The following is from an interview between Bush and David Ignatius, Washington Post Sept 15/06, concerning Iran:

The Khatami visit "said that the United States is willing to listen to voices," Bush explained. "And I hope that sends a message to the Iranian people that we're an open society, and that we respect the people of Iran." Clearly, the White House wants to reach out to segments of Iranian opinion beyond the hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Aside from the inane nature of this statement (and proveably false), a search of the White House web site on Middle East policy turns up only this on Iran (about 3/4 down the page):

The World Faces A Grave Threat From The Radical Regime In Iran

This Summer's Crisis In Lebanon Has Made It Clearer Than Ever That The World Faces A Grave Threat From The Radical Regime In Iran. The Iranian regime arms, funds, and advises Hezbollah, which has killed more Americans than any terrorist network except al Qaeda. It interferes extensively in Iraq, denies basic human rights to millions of its people, and is pursuing nuclear weapons in open defiance of its international obligations. We know the death and suffering that IranÂs sponsorship of terrorists has brought, and we can imagine how much worse it would be if Iran were allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.

Many Nations Are Working Together To Solve This Problem. The UN has passed a resolution demanding Iran suspend its nuclear enrichment activities.

Today Is The Deadline For Iran's Leaders To Reply To The Reasonable Proposal The International Community Has Made, Yet So Far They Have Responded With Further Defiance And Delay. We'll continue working closely with our allies to find a diplomatic solution, but there must be consequences for IranÂs defiance, and we must not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

It ends on a rather threatening note, and no mention of any programs or initiatives, other than the UN's, towards a peaceful resolution.

Ignatius' article quotes Bush as saying:

"I would say to the Iranian people: We respect your history. We respect your culture. We admire the entrepreneurial skills of your people. I would say to the Iranian people that I recognize the importance of your sovereignty -- that you're a proud nation, and you want to have a positive future for your citizens," Bush said, answering quickly and without notes.

(Ooooh, without notes!)
Here's some US/Iran history for both Bush and Ignatius to mull over. Here's some more (CIA overthrows democratic govt. in 1953)......and more (US backs Saddam Hussein in Iran/Iraq war). There's lots more, enough to to keep their collective (ha!) brains busy for a while.

Bush goes on to say:

"I know that the more we can show the Iranian people the true intention of the American government," Bush concluded, "the more likely it is that we will be able to reach a diplomatic solution to a difficult problem."

They know the true intention of the American government, it's being demonstrated quite clearly right next door.

Father: Well son, what are your intentions with my daughter?
Suitor: Well, first I'd like to beat her. When she's all softened up I'll probably rape her repeatedly, and when I'm done with that I'll drain all her blood.

The article ends on a happy note, with Ignatius being unable to frame any sort of perspective other than fawning obedience:

I came away with a sense that Bush is serious about finding a peaceful solution to the nuclear crisis, and that he is looking hard for ways to make connections between America and Iran.

He can make no sense, apparently, of history; that what George Bush says is rarely (never?) what he means.

And Now, Your Moment of Reason

2006-09-11T12:15:00.000-04:00

An architect of rational thought:

"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."
- Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959), Architect

...and he spent his career trying to reflect the beauty and harmony of nature in his work.

Nature is our god, whether we want it to be or not, because that is the force we are all subject to. We are animals living on a planet which we share with other animals, all of us affected by the same laws of nature and the same consequences if we ignore those laws.

If that belittles you, think of it this way; since nature is the omnipresent force in all our lives, and since we are an intrinsic part of nature, then it follows that we are god, along with the mosquitos.

God is a maggot.

I Guess I'm A Conspiracy Nut

2006-09-10T12:20:00.000-04:00

Alexander Cockburn, in his latest article writing for Counterpunch, takes to task all those who believe that there is more than meets the eye concerning 9/11. He rails against the "fundamental stupidity" of conspiracy theorists.

While he raises valid and important points regarding incompetence and cronyism, his rebuke to conspiracy falls short.

His first point, that the non-existent military response to the attacks on that day was purely a result of incompetence really takes a stretch of logic to agree with. I can understand a few instances of ineptitude, but all? Nothing worked right on that day, except the civilians on flight 93 overpowering the hijackers. So the entire homeland defense system of the US military failed miserably, but a few civilians were able to show them how to do it right? While I agree with him that military history is plump with incompetence, he cites history as proof that militaries have always been incompetent and we really should expect them to fail miserably all the time, in spite of the intense, specialized, rigorous training they recieve.

He ignores the fact that all video footage of the hit on the Pentagon has been seized, with only a few blurry, inconclusive frames having been released. Eyewitnesses are great, but 100 different people are going to see 100 distinct versions of what happened. Show me the video to show me the truth.

He then brings up the JFK assasination in an attempt to further his point, saying:

Anyone who ever looked at the JFK assassination will know that there are endless anomalies and loose ends. Eyewitness testimony – as so often – is conflicting, forensic evidence possibly misconstrued, mishandled or just missing. But in my view, the Warren Commission, as confirmed in almost all essentials by the House Committee on Assassinations in the late 1970s, had it right and Oswald fired the fatal shots from the Schoolbook Depository. The evidentiary chain for his guilt is persuasive, and the cumulative scenarios of the conspiracy nuts entirely unconvincing. But of course – as the years roll by, and even though no death bed confession has ever buttressed those vast, CIA-related scenarios -- the nuts keep on toiling away, their obsessions as unflagging as ever.

This is just ridiculous. There is conclusive evidence that Oswald couldn't have acted alone, which by definition is a conspiracy. Apparently Mr. Cockburn believes in magic.

His take on the collapse of the WTC's:

The demolition scenario is classic who-moved-the-stonery. The WTC towers didn’t fall down because they were badly built as a consequence of corruption, incompetence, regulatory evasions by the Port Authority, and because they were struck by huge planes loaded with jet fuel. No, they fell because Dick Cheney’s agents methodically planted demolition charges in the preceding days. It was a conspiracy of thousands, all of whom –- party to mass murder –- have held their tongues ever since. The “conspiracy” is always open-ended as to the number of conspirators, widening steadily to include all the people involved in the execution and cover-up of the demolition of the Towers and the onsslaujght on the Pentagon, from the teams acquiring the explosives and themissile, inserting the explosives in the relevant floors of three vast buildings, (moving day after day among the unsuspecting office workers), then on 9/11 activating the detonators.

He ignores many facts. To name a few:

that no other steel framed building in history, anywhere in the world, has collapsed due to fire, in spite of some of them burning hotter and much longer than the fires on 9/11.
video evidence of demolition-type explosions occuring as the buildings collapsed, and the demolition-like speed at which they collapsed.
the steel used in the buildings could not melt in the temperature that jet fuel burns at.
that weeks after the incident, there was molten metal found deep underground on the site.
seismic evidence of numerous explosions happening just prior to the collapse.
building 7, for which absolutely no credible reason for it's collapse has ever been offered.

I certainly agree with him concerning Giuliani's corruption and incompetence, but in my view, to not consider the possibility of a conspiracy within the US government, in light of all the evidence and unanswered questions, in light of all the subsequent acts of the Bush administration, is nutty.

The Pope Pipes Up

2006-09-09T21:41:00.000-04:00

Pope Benedict has scolded Canadians for being fag loving baby killers.

This line I particularely like:

In the name of tolerance, your country has had to endure the folly of the redefinition of spouse...

Damn. We missed our chance at intolerance. Don't worry though, I'm sure we'll have another shot at it. But until then it's darn trying with those queers running around shouting definitions in everyone's face.

No word on how P. B. feels about falling in love, equal rights for women, or Nazis for that matter.

NDP Lives Up To It's Name

2006-09-09T20:59:00.000-04:00

I knew there was a reason I voted NDP. From CBC news (full story here):

Members of the federal New Democratic Party on Saturday overwhelmingly endorsed party leader Jack Layton's call to pull Canadian troops from Afghanistan.
The vote came during the national party's convention in Quebec City, where the mission in Afghanistan has dominated discussions and debates.

Although a number of delegates rose to speak strongly against the motion, it easily passed when put to a vote, which means it is now official NDP policy.

An estimated 90 per cent of delegates voted in favor of the resolution from Layton.

"Delegates, I urge us all to stand together and reiterate our support for the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces and bring them home," said Layton.

I applaud the NDP for listening and responding to Canadians' concerns, the majority of whom want out of Afghanistan. At the very least, Canadians can say that there is a viable opposition to war mongers in Parliament. This seems to be one of the major differences between Canada's and the US' political scene, where the Democratic party can't quite live up to it's name.

There's Not Supposed To Be a Post War Iraq

2006-09-09T11:30:00.000-04:00

This from the Washington Post today:

Long before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld forbade military strategists to develop plans for securing a postwar Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said.
Brig. Gen. Mark E. Scheid told the Newport News Daily Press in an interview published yesterday that Rumsfeld had said "he would fire the next person" who talked about the need for a postwar plan.
Scheid was a colonel with the U.S. Central Command, the unit that oversees military operations in the Middle East, in late 2001 when Rumsfeld "told us to get ready for Iraq."
"The secretary of defense continued to push on us . . . that everything we write in our plan has to be the idea that we are going to go in, we're going to take out the regime, and then we're going to leave," Scheid said. "We won't stay."
Planners continued to try "to write what was called Phase 4" -- plans that covered post-invasion operations such as security, stability and reconstruction, said Scheid, who is retiring in about three weeks, but "I remember the secretary of defense saying that he would fire the next person that said that."

But the evidence leads one to a different conclusion; that the Bush war criminals never intended to leave Iraq. The war was planned to be indefinite. Rumsfeld's statement above, about going in, taking out the regime and then leaving, was simply what he told his underlings to keep them in the dark, so they wouldn't question his 'superior' military knowledge and tactical skills. The plan, from the beginning, was to occupy Iraq. Why else is the US building up to 14 permanent military bases there?

From the New York Times, April 20/03:

the U.S. is planning a long-term military relationship with the emerging government of Iraq, one that would grant the Pentagon access to military bases and project American influence into the heart of the unsettled region.

The Iraq war started on April 19, 2003. At the exact same time they were carrying out plans for a long term occupation.

Still don't believe me? Lets examine history. What does the USA do after it's stated mission for a war is complete?

Japan - Following the end of World War II and the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, for 27 years Okinawa was under United States administration. During this time the US military established numerous bases on Okinawa Honto and elsewhere. On May 15, 1972, Okinawa once again became part of Japan, although to this day the United States maintains a large military presence there.
Korea - A mile or so outside of Yongsan U.S. Army Garrison in central Seoul is one of the 180 GI camptowns that exist outside of every significantly sized military base in South Korea. Source
Kosovo - Camp Bondsteel
Cuba - Guantanamo Bay

The US military, as of 2003, owned or operated 702 military bases in approximately 130 countries. This doesn't include the 6000 or so bases in the US itself. For a more complete picture, read this excellent article by Chalmers Johnson of Common Dreams.

And none of these places has anywhere near the natural resources of Iraq.

Consider this little tidbit of information; the US Department of Defense is the largest purchaser of oil in the world. In 2004, annual US Military fuel consumption reached 144 million barrels of oil, making them the worlds largest consumer (the entire UK uses around 650 million barrels per year). Since the start of the Iraq war, up to 2005, the US military has burned 2.1 billion gallons of fuel.

The occupation of Iraq is intrinsic to the dreams of empire floating in the villainous minds of the men behind the American war machine. Without it their planes, tanks and hummers sit idle.

From the beginning, the plan has been never ending war. A war straight out of the pages of Orwell's 1984, the vade mecum of the Bush administration.

The CBC's Israeli Bias

2006-09-08T11:07:00.000-04:00

From the CBC:

Israel lifted its eight-week-old naval blockade of Lebanon Friday after European warships started patrolling the coastline to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah.

Israel said the blockade was aimed at preventing the arrival of arms shipments to Hezbollah during the conflict, which started after eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two seized during a July 12 cross-border Hezbollah raid.

These statements are based on the dishonest assumption that Israel is the victim in this conflict, when actually they are the aggressor. The question of why Israel, the invading nation, the aggressor nation, has the right to impose a naval blockade to prevent Hezbollah from arming itself in defense of this aggression is completely ignored. In a reality based world, Lebanon would have the unequivocal right to impose blockades on Israel, who invaded their country. But no, Israel is apparently free to continue arming itself with happy fun-time weapons like cluster bombs, with which it blanketed Lebanon during the final few days before the cease-fire.

Further in, the story contradicts itself:

When Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation, the UN-drawn international line did not put Shebaa Farms in Lebanese territory, but in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967, and later annexed.

So lets get this straight; Hezbollah started it by killing eight soldiers, even though Israel has been illegally occupying southern Lebanon for 18 years. Uh huh.

Lets change a few names around and see how this would go over in a different time and place:

NEWS FLASH: The UN has successfully brokered a ceasefire between The USA and Vietnam today. The ceasefire follows a concentrated effort on the part of the US to plant as many land mines as possible around the Vietnamese countryside before the end of hostilities. The US, citing unprovoked Vietnamese aggression, has demanded the right to impose a blockade of all weapons shipments to the tiny country. The US, meanwhile, is currently occupying Cambodia, placing strategic assets within easy striking distance of Vietnam.

Come to think of it, the press accounts probably wouldn't have been much different.

The War on Dissent

2006-09-08T10:57:00.000-04:00

I came across this story at Crooks & Liars. The US Department of Homeland Security is filing a criminal complaint against Greg Palast in relation to his filming of a documentary about Hurricane Katrina.

Since Palast is one of my favorite journalists, I immediately tried to access his web page to get the full story, but there seems to be a problem accessing his web site.

Coincidence? Maybe. We'll wait and see.
UPDATE: 12:40 pm...still no access.

UPDATE: 6:00 pm and the site is accessable.

A Disservice to Self Sacrifice

2006-09-06T14:36:00.000-04:00

The organizers of the Halifax Air Show have decided to not feature the same airplane, an A-10 Thunderbolt II or 'Warthog', that shot upon Canadian soldiers, killing one in Afghanistan. Citing "...sensitivity to the emotions that this type of incident invokes...", they decided to replace the Warthog with the Eagle.

Airshows are little more than military propaganda. Sure, they have some non-military aspects, but the big ticket items, what really brings people in are the F-16C Fighting Falcons and the Stealth Bombers. At the Halifax show, there are 12 Canadian military aircraft, 17 American and 7 civilian, or around 20%. That the majority are military (and American at that) leads me to believe that the purpose is to glorify war.

The decision to not use the Warthog smells like a continuation of war propaganda. What the organizers are implying is that the attendees shouldn't have to face the negativity of war, only the shiny, gleaming illusion of it. That there's no place for reality at an event where the public could actually take stock of what it's tax dollars are paying for.

It's dishonest and unethical, and I believe does a great disservice to the life of Pte. Mark Graham and the other soldiers wounded in the attack. The aircraft that killed them, aptly named Warthog, should be on display prominently as a reminder that death. period. is the consequence of war.

And Now, Your Moment of Reason

2006-09-06T12:37:00.000-04:00

In light of my previous post, here is my first ode to rationality without an atheistic theme:

A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both. - James Madison, 1832

Farce and tragedy. Two words that sum up the state of politics in North America today.

Secrecy only serves to enable misdeeds and foster corruption, and the proliferation of it reinforces the idea (among all sectors of society) that we the people are unable to govern ourselves.

The Mangling of Logic pt. 8

2006-09-06T11:59:00.000-04:00

Condoleeza Rice is today's spokesperson for all that is inane. The following exchange is between Rice and 9/11 Commissioner Ben-Veniste (video here):

BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?
RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."

She goes on to explain, with a slightly impatient tone in her voice, that this PDB (presidential daily briefing) contains absolutely no warning of any sort of impending terrorist attack. It was simply an attempt by the FBI to give some historic perspective on Bin Laden's activities.

Lets examine the title (which she confirms) again. ""Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."

What it doesn't say is Bin Laden Historically Determined to Attack the United States. Nor does it say Bin Laden Was Determined to Attack Inside the United States. It does not imply has been, or could be, or might, or did or tried to.

What it does say, through the use of strong, clear language, is that Bin Laden Is Determined to Attack Inside the USA. There can be no confusion, unless you are purposefully sowing it.

Of course, this could all be cleared up if the PDB in question would be declassified. But, because secrecy is their only refuge from justice and the truth, they refuse to do so.

Harper's Adumbrative Aptitude

2006-09-05T19:57:00.000-04:00

From today's Toronto Star:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was chided by critics over the weekend for failing to properly explain to Canadians why this country is fighting in Afghanistan.

The story goes on to list several of Mr. Harper's quirky personality traits including:

Declare Victory even if the problem isn't solved see this
Surround yourself with symbols and props see this
Keep the opposition divided see this
It is not a lie if you tell it to the media see this

Seems as though Steve and George have the same advisors.

Or maybe they both receive signals from the same aliens.

Canada Out of Afghanistan Now!

2006-09-05T11:40:00.001-04:00

With Prime Minister Stephen Harper deciding that the Canadian Military should no longer concern itself with peacekeeping, and instead should focus on waging wars of conquest, lets examine what's happening in Afghanistan today.

According to the International Herald Tribune, the Taliban are still going strong nearly five years after the US invaded:

When the Taliban fell nearly five years ago, Lashkar Gah seemed like fertile ground for the United States-led effort to stabilize the country. For 30 years during the cold war, Americans carried out the largest development project in Afghanistan's history here, building a modern capital with suburban-style tract homes, a giant hydroelectric dam and 300 miles of canals that made 250,000 acres of desert bloom. Afghans called this city "Little America."

Today, Little America is the epicenter of a Taliban resurgence and an explosion in drug cultivation that has claimed the lives of 106 American and NATO soldiers this year and doubled American casualty rates countrywide. Across Afghanistan, roadside bomb attacks are up by 30 percent; suicide bombings have doubled. Statistically it is now nearly as dangerous to serve as an American soldier in Afghanistan as it is in Iraq.

Wait a minute. The Taliban fell? They were beaten? Well, sort of. It seems that they ran away - to Pakistan, where they found safe harbor. Pakistan, of course, is one of the US's key allies in the war on terror, in the words of G. W. Bush (Feb 22/06):

The second stop on my trip will be to Pakistan. Pakistan is a key ally in the war on terror... Five years ago, Pakistan was one of only three nations that recognized the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. That all changed after September the 11th. President Musharraf understood that he had to make a fundamental choice for his people. He could turn a blind eye and leave his people hostage to terrorists, or he could join the free world in fighting the terrorists. President Musharraf made the right choice, and the United States of America is grateful for his leadership.
- my italics

One other nation that recognized (unofficially) the Taliban regime was the USA, who had the Taliban over for a chat:

We have stressed in particular to Mr. Ramatullah the importance of Taliban's compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1333 and to the international community's concerns, including handing over indicted terrorist Usama bin Laden to a country where he can be brought to justice, and closing the terrorist camps.

Interestingly, any links that I've come across that point to official transcripts of these meetings turn up 404 document not found errors (go here and click on the 'transcript on-line here' link. It takes you to the US State Department website and the 404 error). The rewriting of history continues.

And then there is poppy production. In the 1990's, the Taliban had virtually eradicated poppy cultivation, but by August, 2002 - after the US invaded, while the country was occupied by an invading army, poppy production inexplicably surges back. Today they produce 6100 tons of opium, enough for 610 tons of heroin, the major benificiaries of this being not evil drug lords but financial institutions, probably your trusted bank.

So what, exactly, are Canadian troops accomplishing in Afghanistan? The Taliban is stronger than it's been since 2001. The trade in opium is more vibrant than ever. Violence is up, political stability is down, and basic services are sporadic at best (and only if you live in Kabul).

From a newspeak, war is peace sort of perspective, things are going just fine.

And Now, Your Moment of Reason

2006-09-04T21:43:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite Authors:

"Religion is a byproduct of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?" - Arthur C. Clarke, Author of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Yeah Art, it is. Killing someone in the name of an imaginary deity, whom you invented because you're afraid of dying, is insane.

War!....What's It Good For?....More!....War!....Wha

2006-09-04T17:12:00.000-04:00

Americans are having a hard time believing that the Iraq war is a nightmare.

According to a CBS New/NY Times poll taken two weeks ago, 32% of Americans believe the Iraq war is going well, and 5% believe it's going very well (I guess five percent of the US population are vampires), and a mind boggling 43% believe that the US did the right thing invading Iraq. 43 percent of the adult population in the USA believe that the right thing to do was to invade a country and destroy it, just for the hell of it, because no one at this point can claim there has been a coherent and consistently justifiable reason for this war. The big three: Saddam involved in 9/11, WoMD, and The Unclesam-o-liscious Democracy Constructor Set have all proven to be false.

At the same time, never has there been more news about just how horrifyingly bad it is going in Iraq. On FOX news even, you hear occasional mention of the chaos and inhumanity and absurdity happening on a daily basis. But I believe that, at least in mainstream, corporate controlled media, the situation is being framed in a way that downplays the full responsibility that the US should bear for the horror show and reinforces the manufactured notions of Iraq's (and the people of the middle east in general) inability to govern itself and the perceived intrinsic tendencies toward violence contained within the souls of middle easterners; that they're a violent, chaotic people who will slaughter themselves and others at the drop of a hat. And that frightens Mr. or Ms. 43%.

The favorite tool of war mongers is fear. A frightened populace will overlook or forgive actions by their government that, under conditions without fear, would cause outrage. Mr. and Ms. 43% watch TV and listen to the politiclones endlessly and confidently interpret the powerful images and video footage of the hell Iraq has become, and perhaps conclude that these people need to be destroyed in order to ensure the safety of the rest of the world.

In other words, the tragedy and chaos in Iraq, rather than dissuading them, strengthens their belief that their government is doing the right thing. And this, of course, plays right into the war mongers plans; cultivate fear and confusion to justify endless war.

When major media outlets are owned by the same companies that manufacture the tools of war, and when the most powerful politicians are little more than mouthpieces for the same corporations, when most people are struggling to make ends meet while working for these same corporations, can you blame the 43% for their confused fear?

Now...read this and imagine the same people and systems in power 20 years into the future. How confused and afraid will our children be?

Death Is Good Business

2006-09-02T15:51:00.000-04:00

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has conducted a study which shows that nicotine levels in most cigarette brands has risen an average of 10% in the last 10 years. With the sharpest increases in nicotine levels appearing in brands which are marketed towards young people (who may be more susceptible to severe addiction than fully developed adults) and (surprise!) minorities.

Nicotine is what makes cigarettes addictive, (some say as addictive as heroin) so more nicotine means more addictive. More addictive means more customers means more death means more profit. More on addiction...

And how is government dealing with this situation? One would think that the logical thing to do would be punish the dealers of death and disease. Maybe hold the cigarette manufacturers liable for the gargantuan strain on public health they are responsible for? Maybe, oh I dunno, make them stop?

Well, no. They seem to be free to carry on as they have been, while their victims - smokers - are punished. As the habit of smoking becomes ever more difficult to stop (more nicotine = more addictive), smokers are punished more and more with ever higher taxes on cigarette sales, which affects the poor disproportionately.

While the CEO's sit back and watch their bank accounts get fatter with every new victim while paying less and less in taxes, minorities, youth, the poor and you are left to pick up the tab and pay for the consequences.

In Canada, we are constantly bombarded with stories of how the universal healthcare system is in jeopardy, and how the only solution is to introduce some sort of half-privatized two tiered system. This is madness when you consider the facts. Could it be that all we need to do is outlaw the addition of nicotine and other chemicals to cigarettes (of which there are many)? Give the victims a fighting chance to quit, and make it less likely that a kid having a smoke for the first time will become addicted, and I'll bet that public health becomes a much smaller and drastically cheaper industry than it is now.

One More Reason to Blow Up McDonald's

2006-09-02T12:42:00.000-04:00

As if the rise in obesity and it's consequent health problems wasn't alarming enough, we have this report from Dr. Daniel Driscoll, a professor of pediatric genetics at the University of Florida:

"We're postulating that early-onset morbid obesity and these metabolic, biochemical problems can also lead to cognitive impairment..."

In other words, if you're a fatty when you're a child, you'll be dumber as an adult.

Studying three control groups; 18 children under four who were at least 150% of their ideal body weight; 19 children and adults that had Prader-Willi syndrome (a terrifying genetic disorder that causes one to eat non-stop until morbidly obese), and 24 normal weight kids; he found that:

Children and teens who were obese as toddlers for no known genetic reason fared almost as poorly on IQ tests (average score of 78) as people with Prader-Willi (average score of 63). "It was surprising to find that they had an average IQ score of 78, whereas their control siblings were 106," Driscoll said.

78 to 106? That's not a minor difference. We're talking the difference between someone who might be able to finish elementary school and someone who might be able to complete a college degree. Or the difference between someone who may be able to think and reason for themselves and one who most likely can't.

The future George Bushes, Stephen Harpers, and Tony Blairs of the world are waiting with bated breath.

Also, it seems as though racism rears it's ugly head once again, with Black, Hispanic and Native American children being more likely to be obese (a connection between socio-economic demographics and nutrition - the poorer you are, the less likely your diet is sufficiently nutritious). In the not too distant future (according to this information), approximately 20% of the Adult North American population will be borderline mentally retarded. Not because of genetics or anything intrinsic, or even from pollution or contamination, but as a direct result of the corporatization of the world's food supply and the prevalence of processed 'food'.

And Now, Your Moment of Reason

2006-09-02T12:05:00.000-04:00

Today we hear from a Scotsman:

"The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one."
- David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian (1711-1776)

In order to believe in Christianity, one must also believe in magic. One must believe that Jesus, who taught love, peace, humility, charity, and forgiveness was also some sort of wizard who, when faced with a problem, resorted to magic to solve it and impress people.

It's like believing that DaVinci's genius was simply received instruction from aliens, and he was really only any good at drawing.

And they were probably gay aliens at that.

Ridiculous? How About Absurd

2006-09-01T12:23:00.000-04:00

And to support my previous post, I give you this video clip of a Republican 'debating' a Democrat on FOX news. The host, a rude, confrontational twit, a politiclone with an agenda, practically jumps out of his seat in his efforts to frame the debate, to control the flow of ideas, and both guests eagerly play along. The last part, about Amnesty International calling Guantanamo a gulag, is exactly what I'm talking about, and neither the democrat nor the republican will - or is allowed to - examine this clearly and honestly.

"The Whole Government Has Become Ridiculous"

2006-09-01T11:34:00.000-04:00

Words spoken by a member of the government that is ridiculous. Howard Dean, Chair of the Democratic National committee, uttered this on the Keith Olbermann show. Of course, he was referring to the Bush Administration and their obvious ridiculousness but his comment applies to him, and the entire political system in the US.

What is ridiculous is that two political parties can accurately reflect the diverse opinions, cultures and values of 300 million people. Think about it. Think how narrowly the debates must be framed, how the issues need to be defined by power in order for this to work. In terms of debate, if it's not an official talking point of either party then the issue is not raised.

Two parties, both comprised of the same classmates from college days (Bush & Kerry, both members of Skull & Bones at Yale) taught the same things by the same professors, both of whom raise campaign funds the same way, both of whom deal with lobbyists the same way, both of whom require you to be wealthy before you can even consider running for office, and both are deep in the pockets of defense contractors, corporations and wealthy individuals.

I like Howard Dean. He seems to be sincere and passionate about what he believes, doesn't look to be a war monger (although would probably have no choice but to be) and he most definitely would have been a better choice than Kerry for the 2004 election. But the disingenuousness remains. He's a political veteran and certainly knows how the system works and so must be aware that the system doesn't work, that the majority - the vast majority of Americans have no voice in the government that is theirs, that should be them, unless they can scrape some cash together.

And Now, Your Moment of Reason

2006-08-31T18:06:00.000-04:00

Here is another clear thinking figure of some historic import who reinforces my belief in the theory of Ernest Becker - that god and religion are invented by societies in order to soothe the fear of dying -

"I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul.... No, all this talk of an existence for us, as individuals, beyond the grave is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life – our desire to go on living … our dread of coming to an end." - Thomas Edison, American inventor (1847-1931)

He could easily have added '...our belief that we are in dominion over the earth'.

The Mangling of Logic pt. 7

2006-08-31T15:14:00.000-04:00

One word.

Monsanto.

The company of death. The corporation that manufactures, packages and sells death.

Here's a little rundown of a few of their products:

saccharine - causes cancer
Dioxin - birth defects, diabetes, cancer, etc...
Agent Orange - used in the Vietnam War, dropped on the countryside in order to defoliate the jungle, in the process poisoning women, men, children, the elderly, wildlife, fish, soil, etc....
Bovine somatotropin - causes infertility, birth defects, cancer and immunological derangements.
Sterile Seed Technology (aka The Terminator Gene) - a genetically modified seed that cannot reproduce, so farmers can't save seed and must buy from Monsanto new seed every season virtually enslaving them.
Operated the Oak Ridge National Laboratory - where the US Govt. conducted the Manhattan Project and developed nuclear weapons.

A fun little list.

What defies logic, no - what rips logic to shreds, burns it and dumps junk and crap (amen) over the ashes is that this company, which looks to be run by Satan, has virtually been put in charge of the global food supply. Their genetically modified seeds cover the planet, threatening biodiversity, public health and the existence of independent farmers.

The corporation of death with control over the stuff of life.

How could this be? What madmen could possibly have planned and approved this corporate criminality on such a huge scale? Turns out that Edgar Monsanto Queeny (CEO of Monsanto, 1940) has a Republican history, and in 1985 Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle & Company, of which Donald Rumsfeld™ (© Bush Inc., 2006) used to be CEO.

I'm getting too disgusted to continue. Feel free.

The Leaders of the Free World!?

2006-08-31T12:31:00.000-04:00

The most powerful men in the free (sort of) world (at least publicly) are...George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

None of whom have their full mental ablilities avaliable to them (none can remember what they do, why they did it or when). All are demonstrated liars. All are documented criminals in regards to the US Constitution, the International Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention, conflict of interest, corporate misconduct, and if tried in front of an impartial jury would be found guilty and, under US law, executed.

Unbelievable.

2006-08-31T10:28:00.000-04:00

What do you think they have on him? I mean, no one acting of their own free will would continuously say things publicly which make them look like a fool. Literally over and over and over again. It's like being trapped on the funhouse ride in an endless loop.

Either he is unable to remember, from one day to the next, what he's doing or saying which would make him mentally handicapped - or - someone owns him. Someone - some very powerful someone - has either bought him outright or is blackmailing him.

I mean, he was a respectable guy. Not to say he was a good guy, far from it, but when he took this latest stint as Sec. of Def., he had some credibility...he was respected. He was a congressman, an ambassador, a businessman. So he's not an idiot. He knows what he's saying.

So lets have a look:

While he attended Princeton his roommate was Frank Carlucci, former tool of the CIA in the Congo where he helped assassinate Patrice Lumumba, and former Sec. of Def. under Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and the current Chairman emeritus of the Carlyle Group, whose primary business is selling weapons to the US Gov. and various other tyrants.
Rumsfeld served in the United States Navy from 1954 to 1957 as a naval aviator and flight instructor, and then in 1964 was elected to Congress in Illinois' 13th district (which looks to be the suburbs of Chicago) and was re-elected three times. While a Member of Congress he served on the Joint Economic Committee, the Committee on Science and Aeronautics, and the Government Operations Committee (PDF), as well as the Subcommittees on Military and Foreign Operations. He then resigned from Congress to work for Richard Nixon as the Director of the United States Office of Economic Opportunity, and later Counselor to the President in December of 1970, Director of the Economic Stabilization Program; and member of Nixon's Cabinet (1971-1972).
Nixon, in case you didn't know, was a creation of Prescott Bush, a Nazi sympathizer who actually did business with Hitler during WWII, George H. W's dad and little George W's grampa. A search for 'Nixon Bush connection' turns up this - references to The Kennedy assassination. Hmmm.....
Rumsfeld was Gerald Ford's Chief of Staff in 1974, and then his Sec. of Def. in 1975. As part of the Ford administration, Rumsfeld helped formulate the White House response to the death of CIA scientist Frank Olson , a sordid tale of biological weapons experimentation and human rights abuses. This also where Dick Cheney rears his ugly head.
From Wikipedia: From 1977 to 1985 Rumsfeld served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and then Chairman of G.D. Searle & Company, a worldwide pharmaceutical company based in Skokie, Illinois, whose products included, among others, the oral contraceptive pill Enovid. During his tenure at Searle, Rumsfeld led the company's financial turnaround that in turn earned him awards as the Outstanding Chief Executive Officer in the Pharmaceutical Industry from the Wall Street Transcript (1980) and Financial World (1981). Rumsfeld is believed to have earned around $12 million from Searle's sale to Monsanto. It was under Rumsfeld that Searle got the Food and Drug Administration's approval for the controversial artificial sweetener , aspartame, which it marketed as NutraSweet. Some believe that aspartame's approval was influenced by conflict of interest and that persons involved in the aspartame approval process were rewarded with high-paying jobs or consulting positions.
He spends the next 15 years he holds various government posts, serving under Reagan, Bush I and Clinton, until being appointed Sec. of Def. again by Bush 1 1/2.
Upon researching this, the name that pops up repeatedly in association with Rumsfeld is Bush. First Prescott, then George I, and now George 1 1/2.
He was intrinsic to the creation of Saddam Hussein and the nightmare the Middle East has become. He is a college chum of Carlucci, an arms dealer who is also a good chum of George I and II. He's a member of the Project for A New American Century, was a chairman of the RAND Corporation, sold Nuclear Reactors to North Korea, and got wealthy off the suffering and exploitation of others. He helped orchestrate the militarization of the US economy, their aggresive, illegal foriegn policy, and probably the clandestine surveilance being carried out on the US population in direct violation of their constitution (with the most likely purpose being to gather information in order to blackmail people).

Donald Rumsfeld is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bush Inc., and will do and say anything they tell him to.

Stopping The Spread of Misery

2006-08-30T12:37:00.000-04:00

In reference to my previous post, I'd like to propose a solution.

Allow the Government to become drug dealers.

Really.

Set up a facility wherein crack is made available to anyone who wants it. The only stipulation being that it must be consumed on the premises, with none being allowed to leave with any. Maybe every half hour or hour, the attendants would distribute another dosage and observe it being smoked. Make it so cheap that addicts would have no reason to buy from a dealer on the street, and no reason to resort to crime or prostitution to raise funds.

Could this be any worse than the situation now? No. The war on drugs has been a monumental failure (unless you own a prison, are corrupt, own a chemical company, have a racist agenda or run a financial institution).

Now the situation is in the control of organized crime, who aren't exactly known for their concern over their customers' health and safety.

Take the control from the criminals and give it to the people.

Exporting Misery - Franchise Opportunity Avaliable

2006-08-30T11:22:00.000-04:00

I live in a drug abusing neighbourhood. There are crackheads walking the street in front of my house all day and night. There are prostitutes who stand on the sidewalk at the end of my walkway, and I've caught them with their clients in my backyard. I've seen a woman, in broad daylight, pull down her pants, bend over and let fly her urine from about 15 feet away, not caring in the least if anyone sees her, and then, still in sight, get picked up by a john. People regularly urinate or defecate (defecation not as much, to be fair) around the property I rent with three other musicians, and our neighbor's property. Hell, the house right next door was a full blown crackhouse for six months of last year. I've seen women and women, women and men, and the elderly violently fighting with each other over crack. I've seen the progression of a normal person into a full on crack addict. I've seen police brutality. I know people who've been shot at.

I've seen kids, younger and younger, selling crack to other kids.

I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I live in a country with one of the best social safety nets of any in the world.

I live right next door to a country with one of the worst social safety nets in the world, and they are exporting their shit here, to my neighborhood, like a skin rotting disease.

Let me explain that statement. There is this one drug dealer who's been around for a few years, regularly pacing up and down the street, making himself easy to find for his enslaved customers. Lets call him Dick. Dick is only around in the summer. He makes his first appearance around May, engages in his murderous business until September or October, and then disappears until next year, nowhere to be seen all winter.

This year, one of my roommates decided to try and find out what was going on with Dick, and so approached him in a casual, non-threatening sort of way and asked him where he was from. He replied that he was from the US. Nothing specific, just from the US. What he does is sell crack down south in the winter, probably somewhere warm, and in the summer he comes here to practice his aberration of entrepreneurship.

It seems as though it's worth it for him to risk crossing the border twice every year to come to my beautiful city and kill people. Apparently Dick's Canadian operations are more profitable than his US activities, or why would he bother? Because of people like him (drug dealers I mean, not Americans), good people move away and abandon their neighborhoods to this scourge. Is the fate of Toronto to be that of Detroit?

Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Little Italy, Little Portugal, Little India, Korea Town, China Town, Little Ethiopia, etc.....all cultures of the world are represented by large communities. And it works. People live, for the most part, in peace. Toronto is one of the safest cities in the world. You'll see little old ladies alone on the subway at 1:30 in the morning, and women on the streets at night, walking without fear (but maybe with a little caution).

I'm not trying to imply that the US is responsible for the crack problem in Toronto, but Dick and his ilk (he couldn't possibly be the only one) are speeding this city's disintegration. Crack use is spreading daily, as is the crime and violence that is intrinsic to it, and the last thing we need is Americans setting up franchise operations here.

Dick, get the fuck out of my city. And don't come back.

I Will Live Forever!

2006-08-29T19:47:00.000-04:00

Just surfing around and I came across this (no pun intended...really) from back in '03.

Yeah....I think my son's sons will be safe.

...gotta go.

'Politiclone' Enters the Lexicon!

2006-08-29T17:57:00.000-04:00

I seem to have invented the word 'politiclone' in a previous post. I just did a search for it online and the only reference is to this blog (and once on an Italian forum, but that's a different language so I'm not counting it).

I rock!

I hereby coin the term:

politiclone (puh-LIT-i-klohn), adjective
def: a political pundit or commentator who is unable to think for her/himself.

...and order it's usage forthwith.

I know it's not quite on par with 'suiciders' or 'misunderestimate' or 'embetterment', but then, I didn't go to Yale.

And Now, Your Moment of Reason

2006-08-29T17:34:00.000-04:00

"All religions bear traces of the fact that they arose during the intellectual immaturity of the human race - before it had learned the obligations to speak the truth. Not one of them makes it the duty of its God to be truthful and understandable in his communications." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Religion is the obfuscation of truth, the discouraging of understanding, the demonizing of free thought and the propaganda of ideology.

The Mangling of Logic pt. 6

2006-08-29T15:38:00.000-04:00

A word or two on abortion, rape, religion and the morning after pill. This one's a doozy.

The situation, in a nutshell, is this; Some men exist who are sub-human. Because they exist and because they act, and because their actions prove them to be of a different genus, there exists rape. A brutal form of torture. Sub-man rapes woman. Woman fears becoming pregnant, and as a man I can't realistically conceive of what kind of nightmare that would be. Luckily for her, society has deemed her to be of equal status to men and to be the master of her own body and a drug exists which would prevent her from becoming pregnant. A drug which levels close to horizontal the balance of power between men and women and would eliminate the need for a likely abortion in the near future - eliminating the possibility that weeks later, she would endure another violent physical assault undertaken voluntarily as a consequence of the first. Possibly even more humiliating, and the antithesis to any sort of healing.

So, upon hearing of this drug, the woman decides to use it. But when she asks her doctor for a prescription, he refuses on the grounds of ignorance and religious belief. He refuses, because his religion tells him that he would be murdering an unborn baby. That he would be murdering a potential life, one conceived in a frenzy of rage and torture and humiliation and terror. One whose mother did not want. His religion forces him to curse this woman, who has come to him in desperation as her only hope. He denies her her right of equality. He humiliates her, and really rapes her a second time. Not physically, although one could count a future abortion as that, but mentally. He tells her that god, acting through him and the rapist, are her masters. What she believes and what society has deemed to be so don't matter.

Should one conclude that god is pro-rape? Or anti-woman? Should we surmise that doctors are the chosen deliverers of god's will unto humanity and we are obliged to obey? Perhaps women are simply too feeble, unable to fend for themselves, and require male domination in the name of a masculine god?

Or should we conclude that the refusing doctor is a criminal, or at the very least a sociopath, not too far removed from the rapist himself, and should be treated as such? And also, should we not conclude that the idea of god is ridiculous, invented to soothe our fears of death, and leads humanity down a path of self-hatred and destruction?

You can think about it for a while.

The morning after pill is available in Canada without a prescription (because there is no need for one) to any woman who asks for it.

Thank Zeus. Wait...make that Venus.

Volunteer or Conscript?

2006-08-27T17:42:00.000-04:00

Talk of reinstating the draft in the US is making the rounds again.

While I wouldn't wish military service on anyone, at least in todays world (except maybe Howdy Doody and Dracula), I have to wonder. In the volunteer system the US uses now, the majority of recruits come from lower income households, with many using the military to try and escape their likely economic fate. If there were a draft, and if, if it were done transparently, then recruits would represent all portions of society in equal amounts according to demographics. I contend that, if the politicians and corporate executives stood as much of a chance of having their son or daughter killed in a war, there would be far less of them, even with the militarization of the economy. Actually, potentially this could start a reversal of that.

There is also the question of what the armed forces could ethically ask a soldier to do if he/she were serving involuntarily. For example; in an army of volunteers it would be easier, I think, to dismiss soldiers' concerns and to justify unethical orders - " Hey, you volunteered remember? Shut the hell up." Whereas under conscription, the onus is on the military to justify itself to it's members, which is potentially everyone in that society (after a few generations).

But I think there is a third option. Why not a draft in which draftees have a choice of service? Germany, for instance, requires two years service to their country from their youth. But they have an option of choosing two years of community service in varying capacities instead of military service. I learned of this through my Parents, who regularly volunteer at a home for the mentally disabled. The organization is called L'arche, and exists across Canada and Internationally. A large portion of the full-time staff (people who spend most of their days helping the mentally disabled live a fulfilling life) are Germans who chose community service over military.

Maybe not a bad idea.

Can You Hear The Sucking Sound?

2006-08-25T20:18:00.000-04:00

The Royal Bank of Canada reported profits of 1.18 Billion in the third quarter of 2006.

...and money's upward mobility continues. In Canada, the gap between the rich and the poor is wider than any point in history (PDF). Croatia, Pakistan and Rwanda (just to name a few) have more equitable distribution of wealth than we do.

Chomsky on Israel & Lebanon

2006-08-25T18:53:00.000-04:00

As usual, Noam Chomsky puts things into an historical perspective.

He contends that Hezbollah was attacked because of the support they provide to the Palestinians. He also reminds us what the conflicts in the middle east are really all about, and debunks the "we (Israel) attacked them because they kidnapped two of our soldiers, so it was justified" obfuscation swallowed by the media (but unraveling every moment).

Here is another of his articles, from 1996, on virtually the exact same thing.

And another from 1993.

-not to say he's redundant, but that Israel is.