As you know I hate bullies. Especially those who bully young people and seniors.
That's why I started blogging.
But I rarely have the opportunity to express how much I detest people who bully and torture animals.
Like this poor dog in BC...
I can't believe people could treat a sweet humble creature in such a cruel manner. It makes me so sad and angry.
But what really horrifies me, as it does in so many cases of human bullying, is that other people must have seen what was happening, but did nothing to stop it.
Oh well. Another good reason to hate bullies.
Another good reason to keep this sign on my blog.
Another good reason, as if I needed one eh?
To hug my old dog...
Sébastien says he doesn't know how lucky he is.
But when I think of that poor dog who only found love at the end of its life.
You can smell the stench of corruption all the way to Alberta or Alabama.
But you know what the most depressing sight was? The sight of the progressive blogosphere screaming in outrage. As if we didn't know that the Harper Regime is rotten to the core.
Did you really think things were going to be any different, after these clowns got a majority? Did you really think they would take it as anything other than a licence to do whatever shit they wanted?
Did you?
Personally, I can't imagine anything worse than spending the next five years screaming helplessly at every monstrous move the tyrant makes. Because there are going to be a lot of them.
And because at this point I'm only really interested in how we can eventually defeat him.
So yes I will keep attacking him like everybody else. Silence in a time of tyranny is complicity and moral death. But I'm also looking for something new and different to help me survive the next five years.
I don't think we need to prove that Stephen Harper is a rotten human being and a lousy leader. I think we need to prove that we can work together to drive him and his evil regime from power.
So that's what I'm going to try to do eh? Encourage new ideas, make videos about the Canada we lost, and how we can get it back. Join in street protests. Beat my drum.
Or just find myself a little seed in the rubble of what was once Canada.
You don't think because we're a country where a lot of people want to put more young Canadians in prison, and keep them there longer. For "crimes" like smoking marijuana.
A country where native teens are still disappearing or dying far from their homes.
Wabasse, 15, is one of seven native teens to have disappeared from the Thunder Bay area since 2000. All had come from remote northern reserves to attend high school because there was no suitable school for them back home.
A country where a mentally disturbed teenager was treated like an animal. Until she killed herself, while her guards watched and did nothing.
Known as a teenager who did not follow prison rules, and who participated in numerous self-injurious behaviours for attention, Smith was kept for most of her time in federal custody restrained in a segregated cell.
According to a number of psychiatric reports, Smith most likely suffered from mental issues but never received the adequate treatment while incarcerated.
A country where anti-gay bullying in our schools is out of control.
A country that shrugged its shoulders while a Canadian child soldier was tortured in Guantanamo.
A country that mocked the NDP's new MPs for the "crime" of being young. A country where the youth unemployment rate is twice the national average, and nobody gives a damn.
You don't think all of the above might explain why we never see videos on TV like this one from Ireland?
Are we a country that hates its young people? Have the boomers and older Canadians lost faith in the future? Is demography destiny?
Well I must admit it's looking bleak out there. It's been raining for days. The traffic cones are sagging like most of the population. And the Dark Lord of Canada is working feverishly in his castle preparing to unveil his zombie cabinet under a cone of silence.
The pieces of Stephen Harper’s cabinet shuffle are all in place and those on the move have been given their orders – but no one’s talking and the Prime Minister’s enjoying it.
Because he would eh? Before The Thousand Year Majority the message to the faithful hog hordes was: You talk, you fired. Now it's you squeal, you DIE. And he does so enjoy seeing fear in the eyes of others.
Meanwhile, in a hopefully secure location, the man who wrote Harperland, awaits his grim fate calmly. Trying to find a flicker of light in The Great Darkness.
Liberalism has become a bore. It dims the imagination. It’s mush. By contrast, the New Democrats have some ideological teeth. They can speak with authenticity of voice for social democratic values.
But not quite succeeding.
Just like the Liberals, the New Democrats are at a huge financial disadvantage. When the Conservatives feel so inclined, they’ll strike with brutal advertising that the NDP won’t have the resources to rebut. Does anyone think Thomas Mulcair’s outburst about Osama bin Laden won’t be aired countless times when the appropriate moment arrives? Or Jack Layton’s massage-parlour visit? Don’t put it past the Conservatives.
And who can blame him for feeling down eh? When his own colleagues in the corporate media are doing the Con's dirty work for them.
They suckle the hands teats that feed them. They know what their bosses want. The socialist conspiracy must be crushed and humiliated. So first it was Jack Does the Massage Parlour. Now it's Jack and Olivia do Disney World.
When they didn't do anything wrong. Or anything other MPs don't do. And their real "crime" was daring to address union members.
But so it begins. In The Thousand Year Majority there can be only one message: Big Daddy Knows Best. The Media is Mein. And anyone who doesn't submit will be destroyed by my mighty attack ads.
The good news? At least now even the dumbest must realize that this is an ideological war, a class war. And that Big Media is the enemy enema. So we can attack them, mock them, flush them out of our lives, and set up our own progressive new media networks.
The even better news? We've got four years to give the Cons a taste of their own medicine. Bombard them with our attack ads, and use the internet to encourage people to mobilize and protest in the streets.
And with the artists of Canada on our side, one thing is for sure eh?
A few days ago a foul smell had the good citizens of Toronto gasping and choking, and wondering where it was coming from.
Perhaps the smell was the ghost of the garbage strike, awakened by spring’s windy caress.
Or maybe it was more sinister, bubbling up from the bowels of Lake Ontario.
Whatever the case, when the citizens of the GTA awoke Wednesday to a crisp sunny day, they smelled crap.
The Ministry of the Environment finally declared it was just the smell of Spring in Hogtown.
Right.
But of course I blamed this Con hog...
Because you can't put lipstick on this one. It's an absolute horror show.
And ever since he came to power the stench has been overwhelming. A mixture of right-wing manure, stinky decisions, rancid gravy.
City council’s compliance audit committee unanimously voted Friday to order a full audit of Rob Ford’s campaign expenses, marking the first time a sitting City of Toronto mayor has had to undergo this kind of scrutiny.
And to make matters even more revolting, the pungent odour of homophobia. Which is where I leave Matt to pick up the story.
Can you believe it eh? A porker like that calling himself the Mayor of Toronto.
You know I've been a critic of the gay pride parade in the past. I'd like it to be less commercial and more political. But I've never felt like marching more than I do this year.
Please sign the petition. Send the crass bigot a message
This city belongs to ALL the people who live here.
I can't wait to see the group photo of Jack Layton and all his new and youthful MPs from Quebec.
Not just because they are young and will bring a new energy to the crusty halls of Parliament. Not just because by voting for them, instead of the Bloc Quebecois, Quebecers have reached out to Canada.
Far from being “one of us,” Members of Parliament often are lawyers, businesspeople, journalists or experts of one kind or other. Even when they are not, they often adopt lifestyles so widely different from the rest of us that too often they lose their common touch. In short, perhaps to the dismay of Adams, legislatures in Canada, as in other liberal democracies, are in no way an “exact portrait . . . of the people at large.”
For the first time, the party of common folk has emerged as the official opposition. Why then should it come as a surprise that a large part of its new caucus is comprised not of political players but of youth, students, waitresses and single parents?
Ruth Ellen Brosseau might not be a political expert but as a single mother and a waitress, she has shared the hardships and aspirations of millions like her that no lawyer or “small business person” could claim.
The increased number of young people and women is going to make our Parliament a better reflection of who we really are. And I'm happy, because that's good for our damaged democracy. No matter what progressive party you support. No matter what our ghastly corporate media says.
The mainstream media have raised a hue and cry in targeting the humble origins of all these new NDP Members of Parliament. After all the earlier fuss about low voter turnout, especially among youth, pundits now seem unhappy that young people actually have been elected to Parliament.
If only the suits in the MSM better reflected who we really are eh? Instead of polishing the butts of the rich and the powerful.
Here's to our younger Parliament. Fight the tyrant to the max like only you can. Speak up for those who have no voice. Defend the rights of the poor and the humble, and the oppressed. Tell them to stop torching the planet ...and YOUR future, and to put people before profits.
In short eh? Rock the rafters. Give them HELL. Shake up this old and smug country.
The next time some Con, or other porky tool of Big Business, says the only sure things in life are war, prisons, and tax cuts. And that we can't afford medicare.
This is a false straight-line projection of a future that will never happen. We used to worry that the world would run out of food in the 1970s or get giddy with anticipation that the Dow Jones index would reach 30,000. We used to call these “Malthusian projections” — false expectations that the past would look like the future, that human beings and technology couldn’t figure out different ways to do things.
When in fact medicare is perfectly sustainable, and all those tools want is to give Big Medicon the green light to turn human misery into profit. Just like David Cameron's Con Lib coalition is trying to do in Britain.
A senior adviser to David Cameron says the NHS could be improved by charging patients and will be transformed into a "state insurance provider, not a state deliverer" of care.
Mark Britnell, who was appointed to a "kitchen cabinet" advising the prime minister on reforming the NHS, told a conference of executives from the private sector that future reforms would show "no mercy" to the NHS and offer a "big opportunity" to the for-profit sector.
And the teabaggers are trying to do in the United States. Where war is freedom, medicare is slavery.
"If I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to healthcare, you have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free healthcare would be," Paul said.
Anyway, the truth is that older Americans really should fear Republican budget ideas — and not just because of that plan to dismantle Medicare. Given the realities of the federal budget, a party insisting that tax increases of any kind are off the table — as John Boehner, the speaker of the House, says they are — is, necessarily, a party demanding savage cuts in programs that serve older Americans.
Yup.The Con war on medicare is now a global one. Anyone who thinks it can't happen here is dreaming.
Anyone who thinks that an ideologue like Stephen Harper won't get involved in this war is delusional.
Prepare to take to the streets to defend medicare.
Probasco explained it was because he'd received a complaint from a parent. You see Freddie Mercury, the vocalist who had sung the original version of the song, was gay.
Oh boy. Thank goodness for the kids.
"I felt like the school was discriminating for sexual orientation and I felt it was wrong," Hight said Monday. "It's so stupid because there's nothing sexual in the song. There aren't even any cuss words.
And how fortunate that the Principal changed his mind. Sort of.
Let it not be said, however, that Principal Probasco is an unreasonable man. After much consideration, he decided to put the song back into the program! However, it will be an edited version of the song that omits "lyrics in one section about killing a man."
Because you know at Wasilla High preventing violence is a pressing concern...
And if he banned Freddie for being gay, who would be next I wonder? Cole Porter, Aaron Copland, or Peter Tchaikovsky?
Yes indeed. As I said before.
The kids are alright.
The Principal is an idiot. Who looks like Elton John.
And of course, whatever they say or whatever they do, they can't hurt Freddie anymore.
It's a depressing sight. The tyrant on the hill in the throbbing throes of his majority rapture. Canada burning below him. And out of the smoke slowly emerging, the shape of things to come.
A prison state, no more freedom, no more information. And a Supreme Court in his pocket.
His miserable minions in the corporate media are already going after medicare.
His religious rattlers are already preparing a bill to restrict abortions.
And his Blogging Whories are running around like horny hyenas calling for the CBC to be defunded.
And the sooner the better...
It is a depressing sight. But as I watched the rain come down today, I realized that it is also a great opportunity.
An opportunity to show how much we love this country.
For too long we have taken its institutions and its precious values for granted. We have sat on our apathetic asses, or quarrelled with others who share those values, instead of uniting to fight the common enemy.
Now we have no choice. If we want to save our country we must take our fight to the streets. We must march, we must protest, we must light bonfires from coast to coast to coast. We must use every creative way we can think of to send the tyrant a message.
We are the REAL majority. This is OUR country. And we want it BACK.
I can't think of a more exciting and fun challenge. Or a better cure for despair. Young and old, NDP, Liberal, Green or whatever joining together in common cause. And by so doing laying the foundations of a united progressive movement or party that will destroy the Cons one day.
Golly. I'm going to have to buy a new drum eh?
Here's a thought for a rainy weekend. The present may be dark and ominous.
