It was one of the weirdest most surrealistic days in the long and dark history of Harperland. A day when all the voices in Stephen Harper's head seemed to be screaming at the same time. WAR !!!! PEACE !!!! EARLY ELECTION !!!! And in the House of Commons madness ruled.
He is not supposed to call an election until October 19, 2015 according to his own fixed-date election law. But everybody knows that Stephen Harper won't hesitate to hold one if and when it suits him. The question is what excuse will he use to trigger an election? And could it be a clash with the federal public service unions?
It's scary enough that the wonky nerd Stephen Harper should see himself as a Great Warrior Leader, a strategic genius on a par with Napoleon. Or that he is both an avid student of Stalin AND an ardent believer in The Rapture. Who is presently trying to trigger a superpower confrontation in Ukraine, by among other things comparing Putin to Hitler. And apparently hypnotizing Prince Charles into believing the same thing.
Just to win votes in Canada. But what makes all of this even more deeply disturbing, is that the Orwellian monster Stephen Harper is actually trying to rewrite this country's history.
As you know I'm a real romantic eh? And I'm usually a sucker for movies about two men in love. Especially if they're R-rated. But I think it's safe to say that with the Middle East on the brink of a war that could kill millions of people, the last thing I needed to see was Stephen Harper on his knees blowing Benjamin Netanyahu.
As I watch the torrent of Wikileak material pouring out of the darkness and into the light, I can't get one image out of my mind.
The image of the young soldier Bradley Manning, downloading the classified information, while listening to Lady Gaga.
"I would come in with music on a CD-RW labelled with something like 'Lady Gaga' … erase the music … then write a compressed split file. No one suspected a thing ... [I] listened and lip-synched to Lady Gaga's Telephone while exfiltrating possibly the largest data spillage in American history."
And then there's the story of why he decided to do what he did.
After arriving in Iraq the young soldier, who is gay, complained of feeling socially "isolated" in the military.
As he spent his time looking through classified information for up to 14 hours a day, he is believed to have become increasingly disillusioned by US foreign policy, once describing "military intelligence" as an "oxymoron".
How it all began when he was ordered to look the other way in the face of injustice.
“Everything started slipping after that. I saw things differently. I had always questioned the [way] things worked, and investigated to find the truth. But that was a point where I was a part of something. I was actively involved in something that I was completely against.”
And how it all caught up with him.
“I’m isolated as fuck. My life is falling apart, and I don’t have anyone to talk to.”
You know I don't think I'm brave enough to do what that young gay soldier did. I can't even imagine being caged like an animal, when I love freedom so much. And I find the cyber-world scary enough.
But I sure admire him for finding that courage. Because I'm tired of looking on helplessly while old men play games, and lie and cheat, even as the planet burns. And I believe the truth will set us FREE.
Just like the young soldier who set the truth free does.
"I want people to see the truth, regardless of who they are. Because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.”
Except that for him there will be no freedom. He's been held in solitary isolation for seven months, and faces a fifty-year prison sentence.
They told him to look away and lie. They told him don't ask don't tell. But he took the truth out of the darkness and told the whole world.
Oh no. This is THE END. Rosie DiManno thinks our new mission in Kabul is going to turn our macho military into latte-sipping metrosexuals.
For Canadian combat troops and their support divisions in Kandahar, these past six years, Kabul was that mile-high mirage in the distant rear, redoubt of bureaucrats, la-la DMZ for pretend soldiers. Not one I ever met pined to be posted there. Even those sickened of life outside-the-wire, the perilous patrols and wearying village shuras, had no stomach for a politically massaged Kabul assignment.
In the pecking order of combat virility, even deployment as force protection for Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar city was viewed dimly: that place with the pool, surf and turf dinners and circle-the-wagon ramparts.
As for Canadian soldiers turned into military metrosexuals: They make a nice latte in Kabul, guys.
OMG.Can you believe it? Rosie the Riveter? Once she celebrated the smell of musk in the morning. And all that sweaty manly manliness. Now she's calling them wimps. Golly. If that doesn't demoralize the troops, I don't know what will.
How could she? Does she really think that teaching Afghans to kill is easy ????
Doesn't she understand how easy it is to break a nail on a blackboard?
Doesn't she know that just getting to the office surf and turf restaurant in Kabul can be really challenging ????
Oh well. At least now we're getting a vote in Parliament.
And maybe we might have a debate. And maybe someone might ask why are we going to be spending $500-million a year, sipping lattes, and teaching Afghans to kill?
When we could be in a place much closer to home, helping these desperate people.
But then I guess Rosie would find that even less manly manly.
As we prepare to go to war for another four years, for no good reason, here's a reminder of the insanity it can trigger.
In a BBC radio interview last night, Blunt said: "I was given the direct command to overpower the 200 or so Russians who were there. I was the lead officer, with my troop of men behind us... The soldiers directly behind me were from the Parachute Regiment, so they're obviously game for the fight.
"Fortunately," Blunt recalled, "up on the radio came General Sir Mike Jackson [commander of the British forces], whose words were, 'I'm not going to have my soldiers start World War Three.'
And why decent people have an obligation to speak up.
"For me, if anyone wants to be labelled pro-war, they would be obscene," he said. "War is an absolutely terrible, ghastly thing."
So much for NATO. So much for those who would keep us in a war so easily.
Oh dear. This is the kind of story that can make life seem like a jungle.
You know how humans love to wage war, slaughter their neighbours, and steal their land?
Well now we know who to blame for those bad habits.
After years of field observations in Uganda's Kibale National Park, John Mitani of the University of Michigan and several colleagues have concluded that chimps wage war to conquer new territory.
But of course, sadly, we are also to blame. Because it takes two to tango.
And as I once explained, we really should have gone with the bonobos.
The Pan troglodytes chimps he studies are one of two subspecies. The other is called Pan paniscus, also known as bonobos, and, says Mitani, "the latter, as far as we know, aren't nearly as aggressive with respect to intergroup relations. Yet they're equally close to us."
Who prefer to make love not war. With everyone. All the time.
