Gotta love the “compassionate Conservatives” over at “Blue Like You!” and their ceaseless campaign of malicious character assassination and personal destruction against this rather pathetic woman inadvertently caught up in the dysfunctional Mexican justice system (that Amnesty International has rather politely described as “gravely flawed”) for no reason other than the fact that her case reflects somewhat poorly on the Dear Leader and his hapless government when it comes to “getting things done” for Canadians in trouble abroad.
Imagine... the sheer temerity of this uppity strumpet (who we’ve learned from Joanne is an illegal immigrant, an alcoholic, and a really bad cook) asking for documents to be translated into English so she could actually understand the decision rendered by the presiding judge! And surely, as congenital idiot “Alberta Girl” suggests, there must be an “alterior [sic] motive to her rabid, over the top defense.” Oy.
Just as an aside, why are so many “Conservatives” so profoundly illiterate?
Friday, April 18, 2008
Friday Night Brenda Bashing!
China = Nazi Germany?
It’s somewhat curious that the CPoC would shuffle notorious loon and pro-Apartheid wingnut Rob Anders (who’s been studiously low-profile and clandestine over the past couple of years) to the front of the deck as their spokesman on the matters of Tibetan autonomy and human rights in China.
While the Liberals’ critique is obviously quite opportunistic, it’s also legitimate. Is it really helpful in any way whatsoever to think “absolutely 100 per cent” that the upcoming Olympics parallels the event held in Berlin 72 years ago and in the process effectively compare one of our largest trading partners and most promising export markets with Nazi Germany?
Anders, I suspect, is animated more by a deep-seated hatred of “commies” than by any abiding concern for the welfare of the Tibetan people, although his religious fundamentalism may have something to do with his sympathies in this regard. Which brings to mind the sniping of Christopher Hitchens about the “democratic” pretensions of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama…
Stephen Harper, fearless LEADER that he is, has deftly side-stepped controversy surrounding the Olympics by recusing himself from attending the opening ceremonies for unspecified and rather mysterious “personal reasons” while at the same time, indicating that high-level government officials will be present. So what gives?
It’s funny that this government, for all of its adamantly strident insistence on being absolutely different from the dithering equivocations of the Paul Martin Liberals, so frequently evinces the same sort of fatuous waffling, flip-flopping and hopelessly muddle-headed thinking when it comes to… well, pretty much everything.
Splat!
Ah, yes… the sound of kooky-Con conspiracy theories doing a faceplant. Ker-thunk!
Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE Kady O’Malley? (I do... She’s absolutely adorable.)
Terms of Endearment?
So… I’m wondering what your favourite term for Harper and/or the “Conservatives” is and whether you think these silly taunts actually serve any purpose or perhaps do they just reflect somewhat poorly on the people who employ them…
The Great Deceiver: A litany of “cretinisms”
“There you have it, Canadians. The CPC has essentially wiped its ass on three million of your dollars in order to send you infantile anti-Dion vitriol — thus expending a fortune on something dozens of slackwitted Blogging Tories offer us daily, for free.”
Sacrilege!
“It’s an absolute disgrace,” Donald Mates, an Iwo Jima veteran said. “Whoever did it is going to hell. That’s a mortal sin. God forbid he runs into a Marine that was an Iwo Jima survivor.” Mates also said making the comparison of World War II to global warming was erroneous and disrespectful.“The second world war we knew was there,” Mates said. “There’s a big discussion. Some say there is global warming, some say there isn’t. And to stick a tree in place of a flag on the Iwo Jima picture is just sacrilegious.”
Not surprisingly, I’m agnostic on the matter. Utilizing iconic images to make a point is nothing new and at the risk of pointing out the obvious, there’s more than a little irony to be found in the notion that somehow disgracing an “icon” is “sacrilegious” when you really think about it.
Update: If nothing else, this has certainly elicited some rather amusing reactions from the perpetually frenzied denizens of Wingnuttia. Five Feet of Bowel Obstruction™ is quick off the mark with the first comment at SDA: “Urge to kill... rising...” I really can’t be bothered to document the rest, but will guarantee there’s much mordant hilarity to be had if you’ve got the stomach for it. Do feel free to share.
Because we care…
Bonus Track: John Daly (aka Johnny Maudlin) is really too easy a target, no? Yo, dude, buy a clue. No one is looking for “positive vibes” on political blogs. Please don’t actually make me agree with the likes of Kathy Shaidle. (h/t: the usual suspect.)
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Bad Boys and “Trusty” Defamers
I have to confess to being a little flummoxed at being called a LIAR for stating the principals of Elections Canada are Conservative appointees. And yet, that’s what Harper knob-polisher and Kool-Aid® drinker extraordinaire “Trusty Tory” has done. “…isn’t it Elections Canada that does the appointing? Why don’t you start telling the truth?” he demands. When I pointed out that Elections Canada reports directly to parliament and its officials are appointed by the government of the day, it was countered with this: “I dare you to investigate your little ‘appointments’ claim. Go ahead! Look it up!” So I did.
The two officials in question are appointed by the Governor in Council which is defined as: “…the Senior Personnel and Special Projects Secretariat in the Privy Council Office, in support of the Prime Minister and his office” or, in other words, “the government of the day” just as I had said. When presented with this evidence, the response from the “trusty” one? “...you should look again at what you posted and what the truth is.” Huh… WTF?
After waiting in vain for over an hour for an explanation of this apparent disconnect from reality, it seems the deeply convoluted logic behind this ridiculous assertion can be found at Trusty HQ where, as usual, “truth” is the first casualty of shameless boosterism. As best I can tell from his Lie Exhibit “A” the assertion that Mayrand and Corbett are NOT Conservative appointees is the fact that: a) Mayrand’s appointment was approved by parliament on a unanimous vote; and b) a presser from Elections Canada in 2006 that announced the appointment of Corbett. Well, those indisputable “facts” may well be, but they’re also quite irrelevant. The two individuals in question are still appointed by the Governor in Council, which is… you guessed it — the Privy Council and the federal cabinet aka the government of the day. Of course Mayrand was approved by parliament; because as an independent, non-political agency, Elections Canada reports to them! Duh! And it’s normal protocol for a media release naming a new Commissioner to be issued under the name of the existing official in that position — it does not however mean that the officials of Elections Canada appoint their own successors.
Now, about your calling me a LIAR… Care to retract that?
Springsteen-Obama: Wrong for Pennsylvania
A wildly imagined Clinton attack ad to counter the recent Springsteen endorsement of Obama by the folks at Slate.
Politiks iz Hard... So ABC does this instead!
A deft swipe at ABC’s “debate” trainwreck last night by Andy Cobb and company.
The conventional narrative is that Hillary narrowly “won” the event and that Obama appeared “tired”… I prefer the implicit take-away derived from WP’s Tom Shales that perhaps Obama was just thoroughly exasperated by this pantomime idiocy.
Well, THAT didn’t take long!
One could almost have used an egg-timer to monitor what precise duration would elapse before some over-enthusiastic SoCon wingnut would spill the beans and disclose what everyone already knew to be the case — that if passed in its current format, Bill C-10 will indeed be utilized by culture warriors like Charles McVety as blunt instrument to enforce their retrograde brand of “morality” on society at large. Mound of Sound has more…
Papal Mass: The Crass Menagerie
The Comedy Stylings of… Dick Cheney!
Isn’t nice to know that the locus of evil in the Bush regime, principal of torture, and architect of one of the most disastrous wars in American history can take time out of this busy schedule of fucking up everything in sight to share a few belly laughs with the media that have served him so well.
“[radio and TV correspondents] can use a little good cheer, because these are tough times in your industry, in this age of YouTube and the blogs that threaten to overshadow the old media. At times, you must feel like you’re at the center of events, but no one’s really paying attention to you. You understand the world better than anybody, but no one wants to hear it. Now you know exactly what it’s like to be Vice President.” — Dick Cheney
A Sphincter Says What? (Part II)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The “Gotcha Debate”
The longer this seemingly interminable contest drags on, the less interesting these silly debates become (not that they were exactly scintillating or terribly edifying in the first place). Didn’t these two just debate the other week at the “Compassion Forum” or some such vapid charade of religiosity? I really couldn’t bring myself to suffer through it. Such displays of personal faith are dreadfully vulgar as far as I’m concerned. In any case, if you missed, all or part of this latest so-called “debate” (I elected to watch Futurama instead)
Via Huffington Post:
In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia. They, and their network, should hang their collective heads in shame.
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the health care and mortgage crises, the overall state of the economy and dozens of other pressing issues had to wait for their few moments in the sun as Obama was pressed to explain his recent “bitter” gaffe and relationship with Rev. Wright (seemingly a dead issue) and not wearing a flag pin — while Clinton had to answer again for her Bosnia trip exaggerations.
Then it was back to Obama to defend his slim association with a former ‘60s radical — a question that came out of rightwing talk radio and Sean Hannity on TV, but was delivered by former Bill Clinton aide Stephanopolous. This approach led to a claim that Clinton’s husband pardoned two other ‘60s radicals. And so on. The travesty continued.
More time was spent on all of this than segments on getting out of Iraq and keeping people from losing their homes and — you name it. Gibson only got excited complaining that someone might raise his capital gains tax. Yet neither candidate had the courage to ask the moderators to turn to those far more important issues. Talking heads on other networks followed up by not pressing that point either. The crowd booed Gibson near the end. Why didn’t every other responsible journalist on TV?
A Confederacy of Dunces
From the Jonah Goldberg entry:
ORIENTATION: Legacy-pledge conservative
TONE: Self-amused
FUN FACT: Son of Lucianne Goldberg, the Republican operative who got Linda Tripp to wear a wire in the Lewinsky affair; helped Mom spread the word in multiple TV appearances.
CANDIDATE: McCain, duh
STUPID/EVIL RATIO: 90/10
MODUS OPERANDI: Goldberg’s comical persona—once pretty much all he had—is now mainly a fallback position in his attempts at serious commentary. For example, he begins one Goldberg File with the observation that “God, unlike, say, North Dakota, has an uncanny gift for staying in the headlines”; then launches into an incoherent but apparently earnest defense of religion based on the obnoxiousness of scientists and Penn Jillette; then wraps up with a philosophical assertion—“whatever electrochemical signals my brain may be receiving, my awareness of their existence doesn’t diminish the fact that I love my wife or that I think love is something more than mere electrochemical signals”—and a joke about a turkey sandwich.
WHAT TO EXPECT: Comparisons of the Democratic candidate (whoever he or she happens to be) to amusing inanimate objects and Nazis.
Will Ferrell Does Bush
Via Huffington Post:
Will Ferrell dusted off his George W. Bush impersonation Sunday night to raise money for autism education. The cause, Comedy Central’s “Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Benefit For Autism Education,” was started by Saturday Night Live writer Robert Smigel, whose son is autistic. Ferrell, as Bush, shared reflections of his legacy with host Jon Stewart.
It’s not a RAID! (Updated)
Maybe semantics is the last refuge of a scoundrel (e.g., “It depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is.”).
It’s quite unbelievable that so many “Conservatives” have their shorts in a knot over initial reports in the media that the RCMP showing up at Conservative Party headquarters was a “raid” (they would have preferred it to have been called a “visit” or some such thing). Remember that the next time the Mounties unexpectedly turn up at your doorstep with a search warrant — they’re just paying you a friendly little visit, that’s all. Nothing at all to worry about.
Also pretty amusing are the desperate allegations that Elections Canada is “Liberal controlled” or somehow in the bag for the LPC. As noted by Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale today, the two men in charge at Elections Canada – Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand and Elections Canada Commissioner William Corbett – were both appointed by the current Conservative government.
Curse those pesky FACTS and liberal-biased reality!
Update: Rather than accept the obvious, the Dear Leader’s Kool-Aid® swilling partisans seem eager to follow Pierre Poilievre’s crackpot conspiracy theories about the “friendly visit” being a staged photo-op by those nefarious Liberals. Apparently, they’re undaunted by the fact that the Libs learned about it from watching Newsworld and, like many others, then rushed to the scene. Man, these people are such delusional mooks.
Just “Winter Camping & Paintball”?
It seems that habitual loon “Neo” is unconvinced that “winter camping and the paintball” aren’t simply “insanely popular Islamic activities”… Well, in this case, he may actually have some fairly good reason for his skepticism, although it’s a reasonable bet that the whole undertaking was a pretty hapless affair that posed little chance of ever materializing into a real threat. Still, one never knows… Check out this bunch of fanatical losers that were arrested in Britain in connection with a failed bombing attempt in London several years ago.
The World According to Monsanto
This excellent film by French journalist Marie-Monique Robin is subtitled “A documentary that Americans won’t ever see” which sadly, is probably quite true. Originally aired on French television (ARTE – French-German cultural TV channel) last month, the documentary describes how gigantic biotech corporation Monsanto exploited the deregulation craze of the Reagan administration to gain FDA approval for genetically modified crops and milk additives and explores in detail how its GM products are threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.
Colbert Report: Michelle Obama
“Why would you want to be first lady? As I understand it, the phone keeps ringing at 3 a.m.” — Stephen Colbert
NYT article.
Question for Dems: “What precisely is the point of you?”
Via New York Magazine:
That McCain’s political resurrection owed as much to the weakness of the Republican field—not to mention blind shithouse luck—as to his talent and grit makes it no less remarkable. Yet for all the hosannas being sung to him these days, and for all the waves of fear and trembling rippling through the Democratic masses, the truth is that McCain is a candidate of pronounced and glaring weaknesses. A candidate whose capacity to raise enough money to beat back the tidal wave of Democratic moola is seriously in doubt. A candidate unwilling or unable to animate the GOP base. A candidate whose operation has never recovered from the turmoil of last summer, still skeletal and ragtag and technologically antediluvian. (“Fund-raising on the Web? You don’t say. You can raise money through those tubes?”) Whose cadre of confidantes contains so many lobbyists that the Straight Talk Express often has the vibe of a rolling K Street clubhouse. Whose awkward positioning issues-wise was captured brilliantly by Pat Buchanan: “The jobs are never coming back, the illegals are never going home, but we’re going to have a lot more wars.” A candidate one senior moment—or one balky teleprompter—away from being transformed from a grizzled warrior into Grandpa Simpson. A candidate, that is, who poses an existential question for Democrats: If you can’t beat a guy like this in a year like this, with a vastly unpopular Republican war still ongoing and a Republican recession looming, what precisely is the point of you?
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Meanwhile, at Conservative Party HQ…
Heh. No kidding.
And the BT reaction? “But, but… ADSCAM!!!” Man, is that ever getting tired.
Update: You have to be more than a little amazed by the sheer arrogance and audacity of the “Conservatives” and their supporters. Can you imagine if the Liberal Party HQ was paid a visit by the RCMP? Why, the BTs would be shrieking from the rooftops about the corruption and criminality of the Liberals. Well, okay… they do that all the time anyway, but you know what I mean. But of course, when it’s the CPoC that gets the knock on the door from the Mounties (even though they were just there to “assist” Elections Canada in the serving of a search warrant), media coverage of the incident is casually brushed aside. “That slow of a news day, eh?” snorts our friend “Trusty Tory” without the slightest hint of irony. Quite telling is this passage:
That same Elections Canada who is currently being challenged in the courts by the Conservative Party over their little “rule” that they claim was broken.
How interesting that the word “rule” is placed in quotation marks. As we’ve seen so many times with this government, the prevailing attitude seems to be that rules are for other people. You know… the evil-doers... the lawbreakers; in other words, Liberals. There’s one standard for the CPoC and quite another for everyone else — when it comes to Harper’s gang, rules are made to be broken it seems.
Also amusing is this suggestion:
There are those out there who claim that Elections Canada is full of “professionals”, but I find that hard to believe when a well entrenched bureaucracy considers itself under attack by a Tory government that may be eyeing the privatization of crown corporations.
And yet again, we see the arrogant contempt for the folks at Elections Canada which is, as if a reminder was needed, an independent, non-partisan agency that reports directly to parliament. The notion that it would be privatized is ludicrous. I wonder who “Trusty Tory” has in mind for this task… Diebold? Good lord, what foolishness.
Pope Benedict XVI: “Guten Tag, Amerika!”
“Obviously it shows the deep respect that the President has for the Pope and also the recognition that there’s a lot of Catholic voters out there.”
— Father Thomas Reese
How thrilling to see President Bush rushing out to Andrews Air Force Base to kiss the Pope’s ring — now there’s some real Rat-on-Ratzinger action.
Speaking of Popes…
Frontline: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?
“We cannot continue to be a solvent nation as long as we pursue this current accelerating direction. Our company is firmly committed to the philosophy by buying everything possible from suppliers who manufacture their products in the United States.” — Sam Walton
That was then... in 1985, to be precise. In 2005, the PBS Series “Frontline” explored the relationship between U.S. job losses, the offshoring of manufacturing to China, and the American consumer’s insatiable desire for bargains in “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” Through interviews with retail executives, product manufacturers, economists, and trade experts, correspondent Hedrick Smith examines the growing controversy over the Wal-Mart way of doing business and asks whether a single retail giant has perhaps irrevocably changed the American economy.
Panorama: Scientology & Me
To anyone who thinks that Scientology is a creepy cult, this BBC documentary certainly won’t do anything to disabuse you of that impression. While making the film, journalist John Sweeney is repeatedly shouted at, spied on, and has his hotel invaded at midnight by his appointed “minder” from the church (who looks somewhat like Tom Cruise). He’s also denounced as a “bigot” by star Scientologists and even chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers. Back in Britain, strangers called on his neighbours, his mother-in-law’s house and someone even spied on his wedding. Little wonder that at one point Sweeney absolutely loses it in an embarrassing shouting match with his “minder”… Highly entertaining.
The Decline & Fall of Anthony Flew
Quite sad really.
I think if this was a legal examination, the term “leading the witness” would appropriately describe this interview. Note that the “integrated complexity” argument that’s apparently critical to his reconsideration of theism was thoroughly debunked in the Dover Area School Board case and yet Flew seems completely unaware of this.
PZ Myers has written previously about the shameless exploitation of this addled old man by unscrupulous religious nutters.
Correction: My bad. It seems that mistakenly confused “integrated complexity” with “irreducible complexity” which is another matter altogether. The latter assertion was the theory debunked in the Dover case. The former is more of a philosophical concept that’s complimentary to Flew’s “deistic” views and an Aristotelian first cause. Thanks to commenter Peter for pointing this out.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Will that be dishonest or stupid?
Lorrie Goldstein has a question: “How hard could it have been to predict that if you grow food to make fuel instead of feed people, eventually two things will happen? (1) You won’t have enough land to grow food. (2) There will be food shortages, rising prices, riots and starvation” he asks this morning.
The correct answer of course is that it wasn’t hard to predict such an outcome at all. Just check the Toronto Star from several months ago, or the feature above from ABC’s 20/20 program shown over a year ago. Actually, one could find any number of environmentalists and critics of food-based ethanol that predicted just such dire scenarios many years ago when corn ethanol first started taking off in the U.S. Midwest.
Perhaps this question would be better directed to the Harper government that last July announced an investment of $1.5 billion to boost Canada’s production of biofuels. “With leading-edge technology and abundant supplies of grains, oilseeds and other feedstocks, Canada is uniquely positioned to become a global leader in the production of biofuel,” said Harper at a photo-op in front of a grain terminal.
But never mind those pesky FACTS, because after all, Goldstein is a “Conservative” hack with an axe to grind against “global warming” and anything that smacks of lefty environmentalism. “Welcome to another unintended consequence of fighting global warming, or, more accurately, of panicking over global warming in a climate of political hysteria, thus rushing into decisions that may only make things worse,” he smugly crows.
Of course the only people even half-seriously touting the environmental benefits of ethanol were the politicians backing these programs and the agri-business conglomerates that stood to benefit from them. Remember the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association advertisements that ran continuously for months last year featuring Harper’s generous funding promise? One person who certainly wasn’t keen on the CO2 reducing properties of ethanol was Frederic Forge of the Library of Parliament’s science and technology division who concluded that regulations to promote biofuels would have “relatively minor impact” on reducing greenhouse emissions across Canada. Naturally, his pessimistic assessment was promptly ignored completely by the Harper government, what with it being all scientific and stuff. No surprise — we all know how this “walking with dinosaurs” crowd feels about that sort of thing!
MadTV: Barrack & Hillary
A bit of an exaggeration, but he did once get applause at a rally just for blowing his nose…
Why Do “Conservatives” Hate the Arts?
“The Philistine not only ignores all conditions of life which are not his own but also demands that the rest of mankind should fashion its mode of existence after his own” — Goethe
Here’s another question about so-called “Conservatives”… Why is it that so many of them appear to despise the arts and sneer with the utmost contempt at our culture? I realize that’s quite a sweeping generalization, but I can’t think of the number of times over the years I’ve heard something along the following lines (this particular tripe comes from BT “Hunter” who laughably claims to be “Climbing Out of the Dark… Into the Conservative Light”):
I disagree with funding any arts. They can stand or fall on their own, like any business. When my boys were little we gladly paid to go to the museum, the zoo, Fort Edmonton Park, and Heritage days, to name a few.What utter nonsense. While the business of art is conducted much like any other commercial venture in which something is bought, sold, or traded, a work of art is obviously not a commodity in the ordinary sense, and the laws of “supply and demand” aren’t necessarily applicable, especially in the realm of what could loosely be described as the “fine arts” where a body of works may well go largely unappreciated during an artist’s career for whatever reason, only gaining popularity and/or value much later on.
That is different from funding a movie, the movie industry is a huge money maker, if you can’t make money, your product is not necessary, it’s supply and demand, plain and simple. Why are the “arts” any different than any other industry? Shrills like Polley make us think they are supporting Canadian culture. Not true, we are supporting artists with our tax dollars who can’t make it on their own. Enough is enough.
Apparently, like many “Conservatives” who get righteously indignant about funding for arts and culture, “Hunter” seems unaware of the fact that while the federal government spends approximately $3.25 billion on “culture” per year, whereas cultural industries contribute over $43 billion to the Canadian economy, or almost 4% of GDP — and that’s only the direct impacts of culture. Excluded from that are the impacts of: 1) the re-spending of expenditures of cultural organizations (i.e., indirect impacts); 2) the re-spending of wages earned by cultural workers (i.e., induced impacts); and 3) cultural attendees’ spending on hotels, restaurants and transportation associated with cultural activities (i.e., ancillary impacts). According to a recent American study, the ancillary impacts of arts attendees was about one-and-a-half times the impact of the arts organizations’ own expenditures. That’s a pretty healthy return in terms of the contribution to the economy generated by culture for the comparatively modest expenditure involved. So what’s with this “enough is enough” business?
As for individual grants, the government through the Canada Council last year awarded $19.3 million to 2,037 artists (that includes all disciplines, such as writing, music, dance, and visual arts). The amount going to visual arts can be roughly estimated at less than half that amount. According to the Arts Policy Branch of Canada Heritage, the total market for original works of Canadian visual art is approx. $410 million. Well, that’s over $20 million in GST revenue alone right there on sales of visual arts alone. So what on earth is “Hunter” complaining about, exactly, and why is this grievance such a frequent refrain of right-wing demagogues?
Obama and the NWO Elite?
It’s kind of hard to figure out exactly what exactly the point of this video is; some kind of nefarious “New World Order” conspiracy, apparently. It also seems to be an attack on Obama, judging by some of the unfavourable clips selected, the fact that the other candidates aren’t featured at all, and on YouTube the title of it calls him “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
I just thought it was interesting to see how a lot of disparate clips taken out of context can be brought together through creative editing then laid down over an ominous soundtrack to conjure up a sense of menace and dread without actually saying anything definitive. Obama however seems like an odd target for the paranoia of these tin-foil types.
The Secret Life of L. Ron Hubbard
This short documentary for Channel 4 offers a revealing look at the life of founder and “prophet” (or is that “profit”?) of the Scientology cult, Lafayette Ron Hubbard. Good grief, how can anyone in their right mind actually believe that this kook was some kind of messiah rather than just a hack science fiction writer and cynical charlatan? It really beggars belief.
Anti-American Media Bias (Euro-liberal Edition)
Curse those Euro-liberals and their relentless America-bashing! Why are they all just so mean and unspeakably awful? The Christian Broadcasting Network investigates...
The “Bitter” Democratic Battle
If you’ve watched cable news at all over the weekend, you’ve no doubt heard the latest flap over some “controversial” remarks that Obama made at a fundraiser in San Francisco about working-class voters in Pennsylvania, and other small towns in the Midwest feeling bitter about having being ignored by various administrations over the last 25 years, turning to guns or religion, and explaining their frustrations through antipathy to immigrants and trade agreements.
The Clinton and McCain campaigns have equivocated in their interpretation of the word “bitter” and have described these remarks as “elitist” and “condescending.” Fox News dispatched a producer to get reactions from small town Pennsylvanians on Barack Obama’s comments re: the challenges of reaching out to voters who are “embittered” by the economic situation and distrustful of politicians. But uh-oh!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The Money Masters
The Money Masters is a fascinating documentary about the worldwide history of central banking and the practice of what’s known as “fractional reserve lending.” Although it was made in 1998, the information is still relevant – perhaps even more so now than a decade ago. Despite being three and a half hours long and obviously low-budget, it’s an extremely gripping film. (There are shorter segments available on YouTube, or you can just dip into the film pretty much anywhere and pick up the thread… it’s full of all sorts of intriguing information.)
The film opens by asking the following questions: What’s going on in America today - why are we over our heads in debt?; Why can’t the politicians bring debt under control?; Why are so many people working at low-paying, dead-end jobs and still making do with less?; What’s the future of the American economy and way of life?; Why does the government tell us inflation is low when the buying power of our paychecks is declining at an alarming rate?; Are we headed into an economic crash of unprecedented proportions? If so, can we prevent it?; and, What can we do to protect our families?
A good part of the film is just a history lesson, but a very interesting and necessary one which takes the viewer from the Roman Empire to the history of the Bank of England and to the American Revolution. The filmmakers’ opinion is the Revolution was caused by England sending the Colonies into financial ruin by taking away their ability to use their own fiat currency to pay taxes. It then goes on to detail the various incarnations of a private or quasi-private central bank in the United States, right up to the present when the U.S. economy is controlled by the Fed. One particularly edifying section describes the rise of the shadowy Rothchild family that played a key role in banrolling European governments and American industry over the last two centuries. The film explains in chilling detail how the Great Depression was orchestrated for the benefit of a handful of rich bankers and how we can expect a worldwide depression in the near future if the banking system isn’t reformed.
It should be noted that the situation in Canada is considerably different than that of the U.S. Although our central bank was established by the Conservative government of R.B. Bennett in 1935 as a privately owned corporation, in 1938, under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, it became a Crown corporation, fully owned by the government with the governor appointed by Cabinet. Even so, given that the Canadian and U.S. economies are so closely intertwined, the actions of the Fed in the U.S. quite obviously still have a significant influence over the monetary policies of the Bank of Canada.
A Rough History of Disbelief: The Final Hour
The last program of the series continues with the ideas of self-taught philosopher Thomas Paine, the revolutionary studies of geology and the evolutionary theories of Darwin. Jonathan Miller looks at the Freudian view that religion is a “thought disorder” and also examines his motivation behind making the series touching on the issues of death and the religious fanaticism of the 21st century.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Investing to Solve Global Warming
Why are so many of today’s so-called “Conservatives” completely out to lunch when it comes to the issue of global warming and the environment? Moreover, why are they incapable of appreciating the economic possibilities of green technology and alternative energy sources?
Witness the perennially dim-witted “Blogging Tory” Mike McGuire (he of the delusion that Pictou, Nova Scotia is a “Socialist Gulag”) who seems deeply offended for some bizarre reason by the fact that Al Gore actually stands to make money from his investments in various green technology firms. Imagine... the horror! Because rather than simply acting out of “magnanimous good will” he’s a free market capitalist who may quite shamelessly profit from putting his money where his mouth is, this presumably makes him some sort of nefarious hypocrite. Of course, if his investments were in traditional “non-green” companies (Exxon, let’s say) the same bunch of idiots would be shrieking about his hypocrisy. Perhaps Mike simply objects to him making money... period.
So what is it exactly that these “Conservative” deadbeats have against free enterprise, ethical investments, and making money anyway?
McCain Campaign: A Message to Seniors
Max Silvestri from 23/6.com offers some much needed advice for the handful of voters who happen to be older than John McCain, including various promises for the all-important “first 100 days” of “your next oldest president, ever.”
Stephen Fry: Guilty (Part 2)
“Swearing is a really important part of one’s life. It would be impossible to imagine going through life without swearing, and without enjoying swearing. There used to be made silly, prissy people who said swearing was a sign of a poor vocabulary. It is such utter nonsense. The people I know who swear the most tend to have the widest vocabularies, and the kind of person who says swearing is a sign of a poor vocabulary, usually have a pretty poor vocabulary themselves. The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest is just fucking lunatic.”
Take that, all you “faux civility” fascists.
Behind the scenes with “The Onion”
CBS News reporter Serena Altschul sits down with Scott Dikkers, editor-in-chief of The Onion for a look at the satirical paper’s history, favourite targets, and the winning recipe for fake news.
Via Wikipedia, the “fictional history” of The Onion:
Officially, the paper purports to be over 250 years old, having originally published in the mid 18th century. It was named “the Mercantile Onion” because those were the only two English words the paper’s immigrant founder, Herman Ulysses Zweibel, knew at the time. (Zwiebel is German for onion – note the difference in spelling.) The newspaper’s motto was Tu Stultus Es, or “You are stupid.”
In 1896 Zweibel’s 20-year-old son, T. Herman Zweibel became editor, a position he supposedly holds to this day despite being over a century old and largely senile. For much of the 20th century the paper was highly reactionary and violently opposed every social reform the century brought forward, from women’s suffrage to married characters sleeping together in the same bed on television.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Stephen Fry: Guilty (Part 1)
Stephen Fry reveals the things he considers his guiltiest pleasures. These include darts, ABBA, Led Zeppelin, romantic novels by Georgette Heyer, the work of Richard Wagner and TV game show Countdown.
“Simple pleasures are always the last refuge of the complex.” — Oscar Wilde
US and Iran Backing the Same Horse
Raed Jarrar, the Iraq Project Director at Global Exchange and activist with United for Peace and Justice on why both Iran and the US are supporting the same players in Iraq. Considering McCain seems incapable at times of even telling the difference between Sunni and Shiite, this should really be confusing for him.
TDS: The Rise and Fall of FOX News
I know it’s on like five times a day, but in case you missed last night’s special “tribute” to Fox News on The Daily Show here it is. Or part of it at least. Crooks & Liars has the whole thing.
“In the years to come this fearless network will continue to say to America with confidence and absolute certainty. Go FOX yourself.” — John Oliver
Bonus: Here’s another take on Fox from down under (“The Chasers War on Everything”).
For the Umpteenth Time…
“Red Tory, please, for the sake of clarity, remove Tory or any other symbol of Canada or Conservative from your name as you are nothing but a Canada hating, America bashing apologist. You would be best served in the mosque of a radical imam or the Communist party of Canada, which, it appears the Liberals have become.”
First of all, I’m anything but “Canada hating” — that’s an outrageous, blatantly absurd LIE plain and simple and if I was of a litigious nature I’d sue you over it. I have no idea what an “America bashing apologist” is because this is a meaningless slur. Given that I’m an avowed atheist, I doubt that I’d be “best served in the mosque of a radical imam” and if the truth be told, I wouldn’t even know where to find one. The same could be said for the Communist Party of Canada… apparently, they’re not listed in the phone book.
Look, as long as I have preeminent ranking on Google for the term “Red Tory” and in the absence of any truly compelling argument that I am in some respect unworthy of that estimable term, I’m keeping the name. In the meantime, allow me to draw your attention to what was said by many about one of my fondest personal heroes Oscar Wilde way back when…
“He thinks like a Tory, and talks like a Radical, and that’s so important nowadays.”
THIS is the very essence of my position on the matter. Now fuck off.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Kids Do the Darndest Things
People are so incredibly depressing sometimes.
“Loving children is a moral obligation. If a parent doesn’t like children, he should grow up and learn to do so.” — Suzie ALL-CAPS
Whatever. The world might just be a whole lot better off without the presence of folks like this in it. Maybe there’s something to be said for the old Spartan practice of tossing such rubbish off Ταΰγετος. Oh, and don’t send me letters… I’m just being grumpy.
1,867 words in search of a point…
Please, someone get this guy an editor, stat!
Here, I’ll save you the trouble of wading through that painfully tedious morass of self-righteousness. It’s Patrick’s contention that “Canadian Cynic” and his “sycophantic cohorts” aren’t “Progressives” because they’re big meanies. That’s it. Period.
There. I just saved you several valuable minutes of your time. You can thank me later.
“Holy Humdrum” Update: “Some may recall…” Zzzzzzz No. As a matter of fact, we don’t. Nor do we care. As W.C. Fields infamously said, “Go away kid, ya bother me…”
LIES and Fabrications Update:
Rayner’s response? “You can’t define what a progressive is, so you can’t tell us we aren’t progressives.”
This is an outright lie AND a complete fabrication. I never said any such thing, even though it’s misleadingly being passed off by this petulant jackass in quotes.
Having accepted Mr Rayner’s insistence (that one can claim to be something despite failing to meet the requirements), I’ve decided to indulge myself…
Quite aside from the horrific abuse of the English language involved, no such “insistence” was made on my part. Another complete LIE.
The rest of the post involves Patrick indulging himself — that is to say, polishing his own knob, in his typical, insufferably BORING and utterly humourless fashion.
Richard Warman — Scourge of Liberty!
From previous postings on this issue (here and elsewhere), readers should be aware that I’m adamantly opposed to the existing “hate-speech” provisions of the Human Rights Act, and for that matter, pretty much anything that infringes in the least on the right to free speech irrespective of how hateful or objectionable it may be. I have to part company with some of my “liberal” friends on this matter, but to me, such things are just an unfortunate consequence of living in a free society; a “necessary evil” in much the same way as is government itself, as Thomas Paine so rightly said. In my opinion, there are a number of much better ways of dealing with so-called “hate-speech”... Sunshine, as the old expression goes, is often the best disinfectant; simply exposing hateful sentiments to the light of day where they can be properly ridiculed, mocked, scorned and derided is usually all that’s needed to discredit them and ensure their banishment from the public discourse. By contrast, applying the heavy hand of government to suppress them by means of Kafkaesque tribunals quite perversely has the opposite effect of ennobling them (as aptly illustrated by Jonathan Kay). Once cloaked in the contentious argument over freedom of speech that almost inevitably ensues, the loathsome content of the actual message is often obscured completely, or at least is relegated to tertiary consideration. A classic case of the law of unintended consequences at work, I suppose.
The present state of Canada’s libel legislation is another bête noire of mine. Simply put, it’s archaic (quite literally medieval, dating back to the time of Henry VII in fact) and in desperate need of overhaul. Under the current legal regime, one can be sued for anything said about another person that allegedly damages their reputation. If sued, the onus is on you to prove the truth of your statements; the fact that you genuinely believed them to be true is not good enough. Even truth is not an absolute defense — if the court finds you told the truth but your intent was malicious, you might lose anyway. Little wonder that people come from all over the world to file libel suits in Canada, particularly in the province of Ontario.
As with the case of another highly litigious crank some may be familiar with, Wayne Crookes (also associated with the Green Party, curiously enough), who launched a sweeping libel action a while back against numerous individuals he alleged had made defamatory remarks on blogs and in various online forums, this latest action by Richard Warman is a matter that should be of legitimate concern to all bloggers and any self-respecting citizen worried in the least about protecting the right to freedom of speech in this country.
It’s important to note that one need not be in the slightest bit sympathetic with the likes of Kathy Shaidle, Kate McMillan, Ezra Levant, the proprietors of FreeDominion, or others named as defendants in the suit — goodness knows, they’d probably regard such drippy sentiments with utter contempt in any case — to realize that “libel chill” is most definitely in the air and freedom of expression, a core value of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is now under threat.
I may well be overstating the case here, but consider that simply calling him a “censorship champion” was regarded by Warman as defamatory pursuant to the libel action he filed against FreeDominion last year… Granted, there were plenty of other more highly creative epithets (e.g., a “felching fecalphiliac” being one of the more amusing ones) singled out for mention, but at the same time these were freely intermixed with other allegations that any reasonable person would likely deem to be fair comment. Quite ironically, one of them was that a commenter accused Warman of “attacking free speech” and another that he was “childish and looking for attention.” Hmmm. If such relatively harmless remarks are considered “libelous” then I’d venture to suggest that ALL bloggers are potentially at risk.
With regards to the actual substance of the latest complaint involving the infamous “Cools Posting” I have nothing to say one way or the other regarding the facts of the matter or the conduct of the parties involved, however, the aforementioned concerns with respect to the various comments made contingent to that matter on a number of different blogs are just as applicable. To me, they constitute fair comment and opinion, and as such, should be protected forms of expression. It’s truly unfortunate that what may well be a perfectly legitimate complaint on the part of the plaintiff has been conflated (whether deliberately or unintentionally) in such a hopelessly muddled fashion with expressions of opinion.
You might well ask why I’m writing this. Good question! Although I rather doubt it, I suppose the Google-happy Mr. Warman could conceivably take it upon himself to sue me, after all, I’ve repeated alleged libelous statements and have insinuated that he’s a “litigious crank” and furthermore have suggested by implication that he’s a self-appointed “Witch-Finder General” amongst other things. Well, all I can say to that is I wish him much luck in such a futile endevour — no blood will be forthcoming from this stone, I assure you. The reason is quite straightforward and perhaps rather naïve — it’s simply to express my concern as an individual about the state of free speech in this country. The inviolability of this particular right is something that I believe is absolutely paramount and is an issue that touches all of us in a quite direct manner. Debate on political issues cannot be robust and wide-open if the looming threat of a potential inquest under the Human Rights Act or a libel suit hangs over you. Is that really the sort of country we want to live in?
The time has come for legislative reform, not only of the Human Rights Act, but also of Canadian libel law in general. A good first step would be to reverse the burden of proof in lawsuits involving public figures: the plaintiff, not the defendant, should have to prove the statements in question are false. Furthermore, statements of personal opinion or belief should be exempted and the plaintiff forced to prove that the statements were actually made with malicious intent.
I wish the government, or the Liberal opposition if it ever manages to locate its testicles, would aggressively pursue these legal reforms with some vigor… but will they? Well, that’s very much up to YOU, isn’t it?
Update: Okay, maybe I’m not paranoid. The consequences are now becoming evident.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Lizards, Jews... and Richard Warman
I’ve wanted to post this video for a while now since inadvertently stumbling upon the gloriously fantastic whackjob that is David Icke for the sole reason that it also happens to shed some rather intriguing light on the character of “human rights” crusader Richard Warman. This latest incident involving Warman makes it seem like an appropriate time to do so. Fast-forward to about 17 minutes into the video...
Update: Somena Woman sums things up quite nicely.
Pennies are Bullshit
Pennies have to go. They’re completely and utterly useless. As for eliminating the nickel and changing the five dollar bill into a coin, those proposals are sure to be non-starters.
Meet the Mullets (Extended Play)
Some of the witty repartee behind the scenes of the Devine campaign that you may have missed in the abbreviated clips that have been shown ad nausea on the news. Who says that “Conservatives” don’t have an absolutely terrific sense of humour?
Rick Mercer: Harper-Cadman
I haven’t been following the domestic news all that closely of late, but was the “Cadman Affair” ever resolved to anyone’s satisfaction? Like so many of the mini-scandals surrounding this government it seems, there was an initial flurry of hysterical coverage in the media, then a furious barrage of denunciations/accusations by the opposition, followed by denial, stonewalling and several different versions of events, the obligatory threatened lawsuit and then… nothing. Like other stories (dubious campaign financing, for example), it just drops off the radar, fades from view, and presumably, memory too. In any case, looking back, it sounds even more patently ridiculous when viewed through the prism of one of Mercer’s rants.
Belgians prefer Obama over McCain by an almost five-to-one margin
Who cares? Precisely.
p.s. The video really has nothing to do with this other than the fact it’s from a Belgian show called “Boomerang” and features an interviewer who simply cannot help from laughing whenever his subject (and later an audience member) speaks. You’ll quickly discover why.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Thus Spake “Hunter”
“it’s like a shift is going on in this country, good governance is worming it’s [sic] way into our daily lives.”
Ah yes… good governance “worming its way” into our lives. What a delightful image.
Timing is Everything (Updated)
A speech John McCain delivered Monday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the National World War I Museum, highlighting a sharp drop in violence in recent months was suddenly interrupted by “breaking news” coverage of the latest round of bomb blasts inside Baghdad’s “Green Zone”… D’oh!
“Potty-Mouth” Update: It’s well known that McCain has called his opponents and colleagues “shitheads,” “assholes” and in at least one case “a fucking jerk,” but whatever will the pearl-clutching ninnies of the “family friendly” Right have to say when they find out that he called his wife a “cunt” in front of reporters and aides? Mind you, that was 16 years ago and he was only 55 at the time…
“Smear Update” — Funny thing… I took issue with ATY over the trope that McCain has actually seen/experienced war because he was a bomber pilot and look what’s just come over the transom… It seems that Sen. Jay Rockefeller has gotten into hot water for stating the fact of the matter that McCain “was a fighter pilot who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit.” Well, quite so.
“Dumb As a Rock” Update: He just can’t seem to get the whole sectarian thing right.
Stephen Harper = Robot Fish?
Aside from just being exceptionally cool, I thought it was more than a little funny that this clip of robotic fish equipped with autonomic sensor apparatus from Essex University in Britain appeared in the “related videos” section of PM’s YouTube account. The mysterious and ever-curious wonders of the Googlemind never cease to amaze…
The End of Suburbia
The suburbs, as described by the inimitable James Howard Kunstler in his book The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape:
“…depressing, brutal, ugly, unhealthy, and spiritually degrading — the jive-plastic commuter tract home wastelands, the Potemkin village shopping plazas with their vast parking lagoons, the Lego-block hotel complexes, the ‘gourmet mansardic’ junk-food joints, the Orwellian office ‘parks’ featuring buildings sheathed in the same reflective glass as the sunglasses worn by chain gang security guards, the particle-board garden apartments rising up in every city with their clusters of discount merchandise marts, the whole destructive, wasteful, toxic, agoraphobia-inducing spectacle that politicians proudly call growth.”
The film was released in 2004, when oil was still a mere $38 per barrel (it’s over $110 now) and its message is understandably even more powerful and relevant now. Currently it’s being shown at a small number of public screenings by environmentalists, “new urbanists” and others concerned about the future effects of “Peak Oil.” More at The Tyee about a recent event in Vancouver.
Monday, April 7, 2008
The Google “Master Plan”
The world must be a much more interesting place if you’re into conspiracy theories.
Here’s the top four related to Google, presented in a format that describes the problem with each along with why they just might work. If nothing else, it’s fodder for speculation.
Lying for Mohammed
You may never see a more astonishing collection of outright lies, distortions and pure fabrications than have been compiled in this film “The Collapse of Athiesm” by the Turkish creationist Adnan Oktar (aka Harun Yahya) who takes the rather novel approach of contending that scientific discoveries and political developments of the last century have not only proven the existence of God, but have also led to the collapse of atheism.
Here’s just one whopper to give you a taste of what’s included in the film:
“Scientists in many western countries, particularly the United States, today reject Darwinism in favour of the theory of Intelligent Design. The reason for that is that the scientific facts show that life emerged with design, not by chance. In short, science once again confirms the fact that God created all living things.”
Here again is something that the Christian fundamentalists have in common with their Islamic counterparts: they’re completely shameless liars.
According to Wikipedia, Oktar’s ironically-named Science Research Foundation (SRF, or BAV in Turkish) spearheaded an effort to attack Turkish academics who taught evolutionary theory. A number of faculty members were harassed, threatened and slandered in fliers that labeled them “Maoists” for teaching evolution. In 1999, six of the professors won a civil court case against the SRF for defamation and were each awarded a large sum of money. Nonetheless, the effect of the SRF’s campaign has been to discourage anyone in the Turkish Academy of Sciences to speak out against the creationist movement for fear they’ll be attacked by the radical Islamists and the BAV.
There’s something you’re not likely to hear from the folks behind the new film “Expelled”…
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Demoralizing Facts for Aspiring Authors
A Rough History of Disbelief: Noughts and Crosses
With the domination of Christianity from 500 AD, Jonathan Miller explores the ways in which disbelief began to re-emerge in the 15th and 16th centuries. Contrary to conventional wisdom, he discovers that division within the Church played a more powerful role than the scientific discoveries of the period. He also visits Paris, the home of the 18th century atheist, Baron D’Holbach, and shows how politically dangerous it was to undermine the religious faith of the masses.
Paul-Henrl Thiry Baron d’Holbach (“Good Sense”):
“When we coolly examine the opinions of men, we are surprised to find, that even in those opinion, which they regard as the most essential, nothing is more uncommon than common sense; or, in other words, nothing is more uncommon, than a degree of judgment sufficient to discover the most simple truths, or reject the most striking absurdities, and to be shocked with palpable contradictions. We have an example of it in Theology; a science revered in all times and countries, by the greatest number of men; an object regarded by them the most important, the most useful, and the most indispensable to the happiness of society. An examination, however slight, of the principles upon which this pretended science is founded, forces us to acknowledge, that these principles, formerly judged incontestable, are only hazardous suppositions, imagined by ignorance, propagated by enthusiasm or knavery, adopted by timid credulity, preserved by custom which never reasons, and revered solely because not understood.”
So It Begins, Teh Stupid!
Oh dear, not another crusade against the dreaded “MSM”… Is there ever a month that doesn’t go by when some witless right-wing goober doesn’t launch one of the dismally pathetic campaigns to expose the alleged vicious “liberal” bias against the pitiable, victimized “Conservatives”?
Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo!
Last time it was Sandy Crock… whose dimly lit quest into the “Dark Side” of media bias simply ended up being fodder for much hilarity. Now, it’s the even more phenomenally dense “Hunter” who’s off tilting at the big, bad media that are, she says, “too stupid to understand that they are awakening those that have slumbered.” Judging by her first effort, she’d be better off just going back to sleep.
How thick is “Hunter”? Well, if she’s going to be called a “knuckle-dragger” by Bob Fife (which she presumes refers to a “prehistoric monster” for some odd reason) then she wants to be analogous to the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Of course most reasonably intelligent people know that the expression refers to apes or cavemen, not dinosaurs. Even so, it obviously never occurred to her the T-Rex with its notably tiny forelimbs would be an especially poor choice for knuckle-dragging.
Her second example of “bias” relates to a story about Harper paying his respects at the Auschwitz concentration camp is laughably feeble. “CTV did not allow any comments, even though they allowed people to comment endlessly on the Lukiwski story,” she whines. Of course, she doesn’t point out that there are many stories that CTV doesn’t open up to comments. I have no idea what their policy is that determines which are or aren’t open to comments, and neither does “Hunter” I’m quite sure. She’s also ticked off that with regards to the same story, “The Globe and Mail, allowed only 43 comments then they closed comments, they also erased the picture of PM Harper kneeling to pray for the Holocaust victims.” So what? They close off comments arbitrarily and change pictures all the time; again, there never seems to be much rhyme or reason to it. Why doesn’t she write to them and ask why instead of jumping to conclusions?
And on it goes with even more feeble and tenuously supported examples that could easily be refuted but aren’t worth the time bothering. Maybe if “Hunter” truly wants to understand how “media bias” works she should watch the documentary posted above. But of course she won’t because it’s easier to just continue nurturing her paranoid conspiracy theories about the “liberal media” and moaning like a gut-shot dog. It’s what “Teh Blogging Tories” do best, it seems.
