The Homophobic Bigots of Bothwell, Ontario

It's the dream of so many gay couples I know. Get married. Find an old home in the country...fix it up... settle down. And hopefully live happily ever after.

Just like this couple in Bothwell, Ontario was hoping to do.












Until the homophobic zombies made their lives hell.

Hate drove Terry and Ryan Hamilton out of Bothwell.

The Hamiltons fled the East Kent hamlet after nearly six months of being targets of blatant gay bashing and constant harassment.

The couple said their plants and shrubs were uprooted, lawn furniture was smashed and their pond was destroyed.

They said they heard countless anti-gay comments and their vehicles were tampered with and damaged.

And then there was the night the lights went out....

There was a blackout in Bothwell that night that would last nine hours.

As darkness fell, their fear grew.

And then it started.

They said people ran around their house, hitting windows, throwing rocks and screaming slurs.

"We figured they were coming through the window that night," Terry Hamilton said.

He said the people were yelling "die faggots" and at one point someone spray painted that message on the house.

The Hamiltons huddled inside, armed with a rake and a lawn hoe.

The Hamiltons said they called police and when an officer finally arrived, he wasn't sympathetic.

They said the officer asked them what they wanted him to do about the spray paint before pointing out that "I have a community to protect."

Isn't that scary? Doesn't that say it all? No wonder nobody has been arrested.

That poor gay couple with their home in the country, their shrubs , their lawn furniture and their little pond. Their dream may be this gay boy's nightmare...but nobody had the right to destroy it.

Or chase them out of town like dogs.

Just like nobody has the right to call for gay people to be killed and their blood smeared all over their heads.

While hatred like this goes unchecked and unpunished.

Canada in the Time of the Cons.

It just keeps getting better and better...

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P.S. Something tells me if I ever see this really bad movie again...I'm going to think of the homophobic zombies of Bothwell Ontario...

The Bad Sex in Fiction Awards

When you see an author being humiliated for writing about sex like this:

“Her hand opened me. Then her hand became a wing. Then everything about me became a wing, a single wing, and she was the other wing, we were a bird. We were a bird that could sing Mozart."

You know it's time for the Bad Sex in Fiction Awards. My faves!!!

And how DELIGHTED I was to see the late Norman Mailer take home the piggy biggy...for this priceless shite:

Uncle was now as soft as a coil of excrement. She sucked on him nonetheless with an avidity that could come only from the Evil One - that she knew...The Hound began to come to life. Right in her mouth. It surprised her. Alois had been so limp. But now he was a man again! His mouth lathered with her sap, he turned around and embraced her face with all the passion of his own lips and face, ready at last to grind into her with the Hound, drive it into her piety.

He so richly DESERVED it. For everything the sexist lout ever wrote. Although after looking at this year's short list....

I thought Christopher Rush's impersonation of young Shakespeare deserved an especially dishonourable mention.

O glorious pubes! The ultimate triangle, whose angles delve to hell but point to paradise.Let me sing the black banner, the blackbird's wing, the chink, the cleft, the keyhole in the door. The fig, the fanny, the cranny, the quim - I'd come close to it now, this sudden blush, this ancient avenue, the end of all odysseys and epic aim of life, pulling at my prick now, pulling like a lodestone.

For daring to suggest that the glorious bard would ever write poop like that.

And that if there was any justice... Gary Shteyngart should have SHARED the prize with Mailer:

Her vagina was all that, as they say in the urban media - a powerful ethnic muscle scented by bitter melon, the breezes of the local sea, and the sweaty needs of a tiny nation trying to breed itself into a future. Was it especially hairy? Good Lord, yes it was.Mountains of kinkiness black as the night above the Serengeti with paprika shoots at the edges - the pubic hair alone must have clocked in at half a kilo.

"Yeah, do me," she kept saying, after issuing a few grunts so male and assertive they startled me into a brief homosexual fear, a fear compounded by one of her sharp nails digging into my tight rectum. "Do me, daddy," she said....

You know...... the more I read that hairy prose....the more I believe that if Mailer didn't have the "coil of excrement" ....Gary woulda WON. Isn't life shitty?

But then could ANYTHING this year beat some of last year's entries like this ode to culinary sex from David Mitchell?

If Dawn Madden's breasts were a pair of Danishes, Debby Crombie's got two Space Hoppers...Tom Yew got on her and sort of jiggled there and she gasped like he was giving her a Chinese burn and wrapped her legs round him, froggily.....
Now her grubby soles met like they were praying. Now his skin was glazed in roast pork sweat. Now she made a noise like a tortured Moomintroll.

A tortured Moomintroll? Moominmamma...how AWFUL.

Or how about this lyrical orgasm by Julia Glass?

And then before her inner eye, a tide of words leaped high and free, a chaotic joy like frothing rapids: truncate, adjudicate, fornicate, frivolous, rivulet, violet, oriole, orifice, conifer, aquifer, allegiance, alacrity ... all the words this time not a crowding but a heavenly chain, an ostrich fan, a vision as much as an orgasm, a release of something deep in the core of her altered brain, words she thought she'd lost for good.

Hmmmm....

Violet....oriole.....orifice..... CONIFER?

Sex. A bird that can sing Mozart? Not.

But isn't it GREAT to see decent authors making asses out of themselves? I can hardly wait until next year!!!

In the meantime my advice to anyone thinking of writing about sex is just DO it instead.

It's much more fun and a LOT easier....

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Speaking of authors....a great Canadian one has died.

Jane Rule. Proud, independent, prickly, brilliant, annoying, but always inspiring.

Her contribution to gay culture and gay liberation in Canada will never be forgotten. Before everyone else arrived she was there...the lesbian they couldn't ignore.

Sleep well sweet Jane. You earned it.

Thank you...

A Prairie Afternoon in Toronto

The Snowbirds..... and the prairie party..... rocked.

And the Roughriders are champions.

Finally...

Internet Brownouts and the Lesbionic Woman

Up until now I've always assumed that the internet would just get faster and faster. And that if blogging is all about words today...one day it would be ALL about videos.

But now I'm not so sure.

"Overall, transmitting over a saturated broadband link will feel a lot like the bad old days of dial-up: Long pauses between request and response, with some applications just too painful to bother with."

The biggest problem for the internet itself is that it could strangle competition and innovation.

"The next Google, YouTube, or Amazon might not arise, not because of a lack of demand, but due to an inability to fulfil that demand," the report said.

The biggest problem for users? Many could be squeezed out along with smaller companies.

And as internet service providers move to ration bandwith ... the issue of net neutrality will become even more critical.

The carriers say they would never discriminate based on content. But, they are starting. And, more to the point, they have also consistently denied that they throttle bandwidth and target peer-to-peer sharing. We now know they do. We have the smoking gun. So, when it comes to net neutrality, they're not to be trusted. And, they've only just started.

And what would a slower internet mean for the WAY people blog?

Will bloggers be forced to cutdown on pictures and videos? Will aggregators force them to do that. Will people read blogs that take a long time to load?

Will we be forced to go back to just.....words? What a bore.

And what will I do with my time? According to the study three quarters of American internet users spend about two and a half hours a month watching videos. But I spend much more time than that...and so do all my friends.

From music videos....to the real war in Iraq and Afghanistan....to Paris Hilton's latest fuck fest and the guy who fired a rocket out of his ass while riding upside down on a bicycle...I depend on viral videos to know what's REALLY going on out there

And communicate with my fellow monkeys.

I just don't know WHAT I would do if I couldn't share viral videos like this one...



OK....so I'm dum....

But smart enough to know that even if they do come up with all those billions they need to fix the internet traffic jam.

The one THEY should have fixed long ago.

WE are going to pay for it.

One way or the other....

Corbin's Story: Bully Victim Canadian Hero

As Anti-Bullying Week continues....the story of 12-year-old Corbin Linklater. Bullying victim and Canadian hero.

Not because of what they did to him.

The video shows 12-year-old Corbin Linklater being stopped on the stairs by a larger teenaged girl who says "I'm gonna' have to break your neck," while several others laugh and videotape the bullying. The abuse goes on for about five minutes as Corbin calmly expresses his right to be himself and not be bullied. It eventually ends when Corbin goes back down the stairs, instead of get involved in a physical confrontation.

But because of the way he reacted.

"I think if I were Corbin's parents I would be very proud of that young man," Karpenko said. "He showed he was not going to get involved in a fight, he stood up for his rights, ultimately he walked away with his dignity and spirit intact. He did everything that he could have to rise above and he did."

And how he insisted on going back to school to face his tormentors.

"He said 'I want to be in class, sir, I've got things to do. I'm here to go to school, sir.' I was impressed. I was impressed before, and now even more so."

What disturbs me is that the Principal needed to watch a YouTube video to understand the horror of what was going on in his own schoolyard.

Like so many other Canadians who seem to have a blind spot for bullying. Or think it isn't their problem. When of course it's Canada's shame.

Canada has one of the highest rates of children in welfare care of all industrialized countries, PEER VIOLENCE AND BULLYING is prevalent...Compared with other industrialized countries, our children are suffering from unacceptable rates of poverty, obesity, mental illness and violence...

And EVERYBODY'S problem.

Sixty percent of those categorized as bullies in school have criminal records by the age of twenty-four.

If you don't stop them when they go after other children.

When they grow up they'll come after you.

The good news is that the kids get it. They're standing up for bullied kids like Corbin.

Corbin stood up for himself.

I'm taking a stand against bullying.

Are YOU?

Is This the Worst Music Video Ever Made?

Sunset on the waterfront. The sky lights up like gold. But it's only four fucking-o-clock in the afternoon. The horror. The horror. The darkness of Canada in November is closing in on me. Help!!!!

It's so hard to be my cheery self. If the gloom doesn't get me down. The news does...

The prospect of living in a fascist country can be soooooo DEPRESSING.

So I thought I'd try to lighten things up by looking for some new videos to add to my awesome collection.

Starting with the oldies on Andrew's list.

But I didn't like any of them...except for the gay classic Smalltown Boy....and that's hardly the song you want to listen to at this time of the year. Unless you're planning to commit suicide.

And then there was the video of the guy who burns his balls trying to light a candle with a flaming fart. But it didn't do it for me either. What an idiot. Didn't anybody tell him you're supposed to use a Bic lighter or a match.....not a Zippo?

Until....just as I was about to give up.... I hit the mother lode.

I stumbled across a buried treasure that I honestly believe MUST be recognized as perhaps the worst music video ever made!!!

But you be the judge....




Ooga chakka... Ooga chakka. What a feeling. What a hoot. It's so bad....... it's TERRIBLE!!!!

But it did make me forget the gloom and my troubles....for at least five minutes. While I changed my underpants.

Until I remembered that Stephen Harper and his neocon thugs are STILL in power.Tomorrow it will get darker sooner that it did today.

And on Thursday it's going to SNOW.

November in Canada.

Isn't life a BEACH?

Should the Conservatives Change their Name?

Now that the Conservatives have announced plans to scrap the gun registry, and signalled their intention to bring back the death penalty.

Now that they have launched a new War on Drugs.

With mandatory jail sentences that will turn our jails into overcrowded gulags just like they did in Amerika.

As a result of the "war on drugs" officially initiated by President George H. W. Bush (R, 1989-93) in the late 1980s, and mandatory sentencing laws that have spread across the country, the U.S. has become the world's leading jailer. With just 5% of the world's population, the U.S. holds 25% of its prisoners

Now that Peter MacKay has denied allegations of torture and rape in Aghan jails.

By saying this:

"You know what is pathetic, Mr. Speaker? What is pathetic is the absolute fixation and this feigned moral indignation from the member opposite about the transfer of Taliban prisoners.... While we understand fully the need to uphold international obligations, while we understand fully the need to help bolster Afghan capacity with respect to these transferred prisoners, what is absolutely abhorrent is this member's fixation, knowing that the blood of Canadian soldiers and innocent Afghans are on the hands of the Taliban."

Just like Dick Cheney would.

Can we now call the Harper Conservatives the Harper Republicans?

I thought so.

The longer these filthy Cons stay in power.

The more piggy they are....

Anti-Bullying Week and Canada's Forgotten Kids

In case you hadn't noticed...and I don't blame you...this is Anti-Bullying Week.

In places like Britain it's a big deal.

The government takes bullying seriously.

And YouTube has even created a beatbullying channel.

Good for them.

And in Canada?

Er....not so much. As in practically nothing. Nada. Fuck all.

Even though bullying is a huge problem in this country... and kills so many Canadian kids.

In the immediate aftermath of Joshua's death, Melo painted anti-bullying messages on the side of his white van. The main messages were, "Bullying kills" and "Where are the teachers and parents?"

But what do you expect? Our disgusting SoCon government doesn't do anything to stop bullying...because the religious fanatics who make up their base and demand the freedom to preach hatred against gay kids...would be really angry if they did.

And apart from a dedicated few practically nobody even writes or blogs about the problem...or does ANYTHING to help bullied kids...especially gay ones.

Although while doing a little googling today I came across this trailer for a new short movie from this guy in Saskatoon...about what can happen when bullying is ignored.



Good for him. Anything is better than nothing.

But oh boy. Does it really have to come to that? First the bully. Then the bullied kid with a knife or a gun in his hand. And blood EVERYWHERE.

Wake up Canada. Don't be so retarded.

Do we really have to find out the hard way...with dead kids scattered like broken dolls....

That bullying is EVERYONE'S problem?

Japan's Disgusting Humpback Whale Hunt

I see the Japanese pirate fleet is off on another mission to turn the sea red with whale blood. And this time they're also going after the magnificent humpbacks.

Japan says such research is vital to understanding the size of whale populations, the age and reproductive status of the creatures and the effects of environmental damage, but critics denounce it as commercial whaling in disguise. Most of the meat from the scientific hunts is sold to markets and restaurants, and the profits are used to fund future expeditions.

Outlaws.... liars.... greedy gluttons ......monsters.





Some studies of Japanese and Norwegian hunts indicate that fewer than 30% of whales are killed instantaneously by the harpoon, with wounded animals surviving up to one hour.

The IWC permits "Secondary killing methods" to be applied to an injured whale, including towing it to the side of the boat and electrocuting it with an "electric lance", and shooting it with a rifle.

Unlike other mammals, whales are conscious breathers - their breathing is a voluntary action. Therefore, it has been suggested that an injured whale which continues to breath is awake, and potentially suffering high levels of pain and stress.

I hope something can be done to stop this criminal slaughter. Personally I'm hoping for a perfect storm....or a lucky iceberg.

But just in case that doesn't happen....I think sending the Japanese embassy an e-mail ....and urging them to recall their fleet or we'll boycott the hell out of their Made in Japan products.....might be a good idea.

I think we should tell them what most of the civilized world already knows.That it doesn't matter how many humpbacks there are out there singing to each other.

Those gentle giants should NEVER AGAIN be hunted.

Except with a camera....


Now imagine a harpoon exploding in their backs...and then go tell the Japanese what you think of them.

If we don't stand up for these magnificent, gentle, smart and sentient, but defenceless giants...

Who will?

Nicaragua Dumps its Anti-Gay Law

When I heard that Nicaragua had scrapped its anti-gay law at first I was surprised.

Consensual gay sex will no longer be a criminal offence in Nicaragua under a new civil code due to come into effect on March 2008.

Under old legislation passed in 1992, "anyone who induces, promotes, propagandises or practices sexual intercourse between persons of the same sex commits the crime of sodomy and shall incur one to three years' imprisonment."

And then I thought of Alvaro.












So I e-mailed him to find out how he's doing and get his reaction.

He was happy but he did point out why the NIcaraguan government did what it did. Not because it was the right thing to do. But because of the almighty buck.

The reality is the government of Nicaragua doesn't want tourists to stay away so the only way for them to improve their image in the world is to abolish the anti-gay law.

And that because of the power of the Catholic Church it will take a long time for homophobic attitudes to change.

It will take many many years for people in Nicaragua to accept gay people. The homophobia will still be there. And now it could be even more dangerous as gay people now have the right to speak.

Alvaro is also proud that along with Amnesty International and other human rights groups around the world his case helped make the change happen. Although it won't happen until next March.

And his personal situation remains bleak.

The last eight months have been hard....depression, stress, and other bad symptoms. Thanks to my family doctor , my councillor, and some spiritual orientation I am doing better. But it still is a big challenge to confront this sad reality.

The hope for now is that the Minister of Immigration will respond to the online petition and stop the deportation....the last chance is the appeal in Federal Court that my new lawyer Mr. Lorne Waldman is doing...I just hope that my supporters don't give up to continue helping me.

I hope they won't either.... so our hideous Immigration Department won't deport Alvaro back to a country where his case is well known. And his enemies could be waiting.

So if you haven't done it already please use the link in Alvaro's website to petition the Minister.

Nicaragua may be joining the 21st Century. Time marches on.

But Alvaro still needs us...

Scotland's Bitter Eurocup Defeat

I haven't been able to do anything all weekend because like this young Scottish football fan....and so many others all over the world... I was gutted by this loss.

They had their hearts broken only for them to be patched up. Then, with seconds to go and hope springing eternal, those same brave hearts were broken again and tears flowed at Hampden.

Scotland's fans did their country proud before, during and after the devastating 2-1 defeat by Italy, whether among the throng at Hampden Park or clustered around TV sets from the deserts of Afghanistan to the sports bars of New York

But even though I was bitterly disappointed...and angry about how we were robbed by the ref... I was also really moved by the way the Scottish people and the Tartan Army reacted. Before and after the game.

My friends tell me they've never seen so many blue and white or yellow and red flags flying everywhere. Or so much pride. Or so much good behaviour in a place like Glasgow. Even after the bitter loss.

Sebastien tried to console me by saying it's just a game. But of course...just like his own Quebec...it's a little more complex than that.

It's about regaining your pride and self confidence... centuries of history and bad blood. And about standing up for who you are.

So when I heard the fans at Glasgow's Hampden Park singing "Flower of Scotland" before the game my heart soared across the Atlantic.

Here's a version of the same song sung in the same park...



O flower of Scotland
When will we see
Your like again
That fought and died for
Your wee bit hill and glen

Those days are passed now
And in the past they must remain
But we can still rise now
And be the nation again

Now it's a soccer anthem.

With that kind of pride awakened.

One day it will be the anthem of an independent country...

Global Warming: Last Chance to Avert Catastrophe

How fitting that we should receive this picture of our beautiful blue and white planet setting over the barren moon.

Just as a panel of climate change scientists warns that we are in danger of destroying it.

Global warming may have “abrupt and irreversible” consequences and could cause the extinction of almost a third of all plant and animal species on the planet, the UN’s climate science panel will say today.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, the former US Vice-President, will tell world leaders that they have only a decade to curb greenhouse gas emissions and prevent catastrophic warming.

Only a decade.

And the scary part is the situation could be even worse than they describe it...

The IPCC has considered only work published up to last year, and so has ignored several alarming recent studies, such as research that suggests that the Southern Ocean and rainforests are soaking up less carbon dioxide than before.

Which means that the worst effects of global warming could hit us sooner and more abruptly than anyone predicted.

The saddest part?

Canadians aren't doing enough to save this beautiful planet.









While Stephen Harper and his neocon thugs, climate change deniers, and oil pimps are doing all they can to destroy it.

Which means that if we want to save Canada AND the world...we're going to have to bury these Cons in the garbage can of history. And the sooner the better.

In the meantime...if you could jump out of a balloon in outer space....with a surf board on your back.... and hug our planet....

Wouldn't you?



It may be just a little blue and white ball sailing through the darkness of space.

But isn't it BEAUTIFUL?

Afghan Horror and the Death of Private Couture

A lot of bloggers were writing today about the latest horror story out of Afghanistan. How Stephen Harper's Cons lied to us.

And about the shit, the blood, and the boots.

I think we call this the banality of evil. I have to walk through blood and fecal material, so I need better boots. This is the road to Nuremberg, folks. And this is being done in our name. Everyone happy to sit here quietly and be a "Good Canadian"?

But I thought I'd write about a smaller but no less tragic story.

The death of Private Couture.















He was the first soldier from CFB Valcartier to be wounded in Afghanistan. So when he came back to Quebec he was a home town hero.

Even though he had lost his leg, he seemed happy, proud to have served his country, and confident that everything could still be like it once was.

"My life is not finished. I'm going to have a prosthesis," he said. "And all the things that I was doing, I'm going to do it in the future. It's not because I lost a foot that I can't do anything."

But when his optimism subsided...














And he was alone in his small town...depression set in.

"We are supposed to be somewhat invulnerable, invincible. And when you come to terms with yourself, realizing you're just a human being like everybody else, it's pretty hard to swallow knowing that all your friends will shun you and put you aside because you are sick."

And although people knew something was wrong.

In his home town of Roxton Pond, neighbors said they were shocked to hear about Couture's death, although some said he appeared to be having a hard time and hadn't left his home in a while.

Because he didn't ask for help...he didn't get any.

His condition should have been closely monitored because ....as I pointed out in this post.... Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can take while to develop.

But it wasn't... because as the video in that post shows... the Canadian Armed Forces don't have nearly enough resources to deal with the magnitude of the problem.

So when Heritage Minister Josée Verner says this:

.... the Canadian military offers all possible support to soldiers returning from Afghanistan."

She's either lying .....or doesn't know what she is talking about.

Which is par for the course when it comes to this crazy government....and our chickenhawk Generals. They'll say ANYTHING to please the Americans.... and put lipstick on this pig of a doomed mission.

But we deserve better. The Afghan people deserve better.

And so did Frédéric Couture...

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P.S. Suicide isn't just a problem for soldiers who have been to war...it's an epidemic.

And when Josée Verner was asked by a French reporter why our army doesn't monitor the health of our veterans she replied: "Nous ne sommes pas la police."

"We're not the police."

Which I guess says it all...

Iran: Gay Sex Execution Halted

About two weeks ago I wrote a post about how the Iranians were planning to hang another young gay man...for having sex with a friend when both of them were thirteen.

And I asked everyone to write to the Iranian authorities.... like people all over the world were doing. Even though I didn't think it would do any good.

Well I was wrong.

The Chief Justice of the Islamic Republic of Iran has intervened in the case of a 21-year old found guilty of multiple counts of anal rape (ighab), allegedly committed when he was 13 years old.

Makvan Mouloodzadeh, a 21 year old an Iranian Kurd, had been sentenced to death in the city of Paveh, following his conviction for an act of sodomy that he committed while still a minor, aged 13, with another minor, also aged 13.

"This is a stunning victory for human rights and a reminder of the power of global protest,"

Isn't that great?

Of course you can't trust the Iranian religious fanatics as far as you can hork....

Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference...

He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce.

Or stick a fork in them.

But any good news out of Iran is something to celebrate.

Thanks to those who helped put pressure on the Mullah regime.

As the old Jewish sage said....save a life.

And you save the world...

The RCMP and the Killing of Robert Dziekanski

I don't know what exactly happened in that Vancouver airport lounge, but from what I've read, and from what I saw .... and heard.....on that ghastly video, it looked to me like legalized murder.

The dying screams of Robert Dziekanski will be heard around the world. Many people will be shocked to see such well known symbols of Canada acting like brutal thugs.

But we should know better. We should know that the reputation of the once revered force has been going south for a long long time..

From the days when they hunted homosexuals with their so-called fruit machine.

Or looked for communists at the CBC.

To more modern times and other scandals.

And let's not forget how they completely bungled the Air India investigation. The biggest mass murder in Canadian history.

Or their disgraceful role in the deportation and torture of Maher Arar.

Or the sleazy way the high command handled the pension fund.

Or the way they all but elected Stephen Harper and his Conservatives by publicizing a dubious complaint against the Liberals in the middle of an election campaign.

The cold hard facts are that the RCMP is a ridiculously old fashioned force with anachronistic military style training, a corrupt and cliqueish command structure, and an antiquated mentality that needs to be completely overhauled and brought into the modern age.

It's not a question of rotten apples....the whole tree is twisted and sagging of old age. The problem is systemic. And many ordinary officers are also victimized by it.

And I'm not saying that there aren't many good and dedicated ones trying to do their best. Because I know there are.

But as for the RCMP as a whole...surely what happened in that airport lounge to a poor, hungry, tired and confused man like Robert Dziekanski ...whose only crime it appears was that he couldn't speak English and was feeling lost and desperate....has to be the last straw.

Because if the Mounties are going to be a national symbol, not just here but all over the world, we better make damn sure that the force can live up to our Canadian standards and values.

If we want to be proud of them.

Instead of ashamed of them as I am now..

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P.S. Dr Dawg and Chet Scoville, Unrepentant Old Hippie and Bruce at Canuck Attitude have more on the story.

So does the Western Standard. And so does Aaron Unruh.

Isn't it nice to see people put aside their differences ....if only for a day.... in these hyperpartisan times?

And faced with a shocking act of violence.

Just act like....um....Canadians...

Mind Battles and the Hidden Wounds of War

The other day I wrote a post about the hidden wounds soldiers can suffer from when they fight wars like this one....



The toll is already heavy.

Now comes a new report that suggests it could be even worse...because many of those hidden wounds can be like ticking time bombs.

Soldiers who have served in Iraq are suffering substantially greater mental distress several months after leaving the combat zone than when they first return home.

"When you come back . . . you're almost euphoric . . . you don't have any problems in the world," said Brig. Gen. Stephen L. Jones, an Army assistant surgeon general. But after a few weeks, he said, "the stress starts to resurface."

If you want to know what that feels like you should watch this great CBC story about a young Canadian soldier and his moving Mind Battle.

Good for that young soldier for being brave enough to talk about a problem many still consider shameful.

Good for his mum for standing up to the military.

He lives with his wounds.

We live with ours.

Isn't war wonderful?

Rudy, John, the Bitch and the Ferrets

I've tried to stay away from writing about the Presidential race in the United States...because as a humble hoser boy from Canada what do I know about that scary mixture of madness and money?

But when I see that Rudy Giuliani has old friends like this thug.

“I am a hunter of men,” Mr. Kerik said, according to several people who were present. He spoke of employing a management style akin to that of Attila the Hun and promised to destroy the career of anyone who crossed him.

And new ones like this wingnut homophobe.

And that the senile warmonger John McCain is trying to capitalize on this tacky video....



All I can say is that if the crazy Republicans hate the Witch that much....if I was an American I'd vote for her.

And that when it comes to Rudy.

The ferrets knew a nut when they saw one...



Although the ferrets are lucky Dick Cheney doesn't like to hunt them.

You know if we didn't have a neocon thug for a Prime Minister.

I'd be so GLAD to be a Canadian...

Stephen Harper and the Wrath of Brian Mulroney

As I watched Stephen Harper getting pounded pretty by the opposition today, I couldn't help thinking how much he must hate Brian Mulroney. NOW.

Once he loved him. Once he was useful. But now he's poison. Now he's told his Con sheep not to even TALK to him.

Which some in Montreal tell me has made Brian boiling mad. He feels betrayed and humiliated. And he's REALLY upset that all those Conservatives who were supposed to be attending a big event on Thursday to honour him...are cancelling out.

Cabinet ministers and Conservative MPs are abruptly bailing from a health research gala this Thursday in Montreal, where Mr. Mulroney is scheduled to speak after receiving a "rarely awarded" medal of honour.

That's why he decided to call for a public inquiry...without even calling the PMO to give them a heads up.

Apparently the Blarney Bloater believes you ALWAYS dance with the ones that brung ya. Or else...

Which means that Stephen Harper will not only have to deal with the question of those embarrassing letters from Herr Schreiber.

Harper aides say it is "unlikely" he would have seen the letters, which were processed by the Privy Council Office, the Prime Minister's bureaucratic arm, and never forwarded to the Prime Minister's Office.

But, as Dion says, such an explanation strains credulity. Given Harper's controlling nature, it is hard to imagine the Privy Council Office would deliberately keep him in the dark about a letter that contained a political bombshell, especially when the office is run by savvy Ottawa veterans, picked by the Prime Minister himself to serve his interests.

He's also going to have to deal with the wrath of Brian Mulroney.

The bottom line: the inquiry could be a PIG FUCK.....that could go on FOREVER.

The good news? If accountability was one of the Harper Party's strengths.....it soon won't be.

As more and more Canadians take a good look at all those Cons squirming in the witness box.

Day after day. Week after week. Month after month.

And can't help but be reminded of these guys...





Ewwwwww....how disgusting.

I mean EXCELLENT!!

Bring the popcorn.....AND the cheese.

This ratty Con Con show is going to be BIGGER than Gomery...

Chunky Chickenhawk and the Great White North

Remember when Stephen Harper started making noises about defending our Arctic sovereignty? And posing as Chunky Chickenhawk in the Great White North.

Remember how a few weeks ago our ridiculous Prime Minister announced that from now on he wants his neocon thug government to be referred to as the "North Star?"

....in the speech, Harper told why "Canada's New Government" now wants to be known as the North Star.

He explained the celestial moniker suits the new Conservative mission because it suggests charting a direction for the future.

Well the porky nerd may be a star in his own bizarre universe.

But as for defending our Arctic sovereignty....forget it.

The Canadian air force has cancelled its surveillance flights in the North for the next several months even though Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said protecting Canada's Arctic sovereignty is one of his government's top priorities.

In the past, the Auroras made between 12 and 16 surveillance flights over the Arctic every year. But the closest Aurora crews will get to the Arctic for the next five months is practising Northern flights in a high-tech simulator.

Dan Middlemiss, a defence expert and professor at Dalhousie University, speculated that Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan is taking huge amounts of money and squeezing missions at home.

Isn't that great? We're fighting and dying in Afghanistan to protect Canada from the Taliban...who couldn't find us even if they could read a map. But we can't even protect our Great White North....because we won't have a clue about what's going on up there.

Or do anything to stop all those foreign nuclear subs from routinely violating our sovereignty.

Unless these guys get lucky...












Chunky Chickenhawk and Canada's "North Star" government.

How pathetic.

What a farce...

Remembrance Day and the Other Victims of War

A Canadian soldier crawls to safety after being wounded by a Taliban shell.

In Kandahar families visit the place where their loved ones died.

And all across the country the bagpipes wail.

But how do we honour the dead...and not glorify war?

How do we remember that for every dead hero...there are many others who died but are still alive?

Living with nightmares.

Hundreds of Canadian soldiers returning from Afghanistan are suffering from a range of mental-health problems linked to their deployment, according to new data.

About 28 per cent of the 2,700 Canadian Forces soldiers who were screened after serving in the war-torn country were found to have symptoms of one or more mental-health problems, including depression, panic disorders and suicidal tendencies

Or worse.

Like Baby Bamm Bamm.

Over and over, Reyes screams "Mom!" at the top of his lungs. He asks for milk, and he wears a diaper. He plays with plastic figurines of such characters as Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Undertaker from WWE. He's 25 years old and needs his mother now as much as he did as a young boy growing up on the Bronx streets, maybe more. She's begun to call him "Baby Bamm Bamm"—two years ago, his comrades called him Red Dog.

How do we remember Red Dog? When his country has already forgotten him.

How do we remember that many battles don't need to be fought?

Take it from me and the fighting Frasers. Honour our war dead. Salute the brave. Weep for the young lives lost.

But don't forget all those other victims.

And if you're young and idealistic, or naive or stupid.

Always remember that war is hell.

No matter what they tell you...