When I saw that Great Strategist , Economist , Loser Leader had taken his family to New York and the G20 Summit . So they could go shopping while he sat on the pot, I knew something was up. But I just thought he was giving them a farewell tour , fling , thrill at the taxpayer's expense. Who knew he was using our money to look for a new job?
Maybe he was just happy to receive softball questions from anchors that couldn't find Canada on a map, but here's a wild theory -- Stephen Harper could be sending out job applications. But then who can blame him eh? It's all going so terribly wrong.
And so soon after his Finance Minister Jimbo Flaherty declared it would only be a "mild" recession. That incompetent callous Con garden gnome. What does he use to make his forecasts? The Wheel of Fortune?
Although you know I do find this ghastly spectacle MILDLY entertaining. It's a bit like listening to a really good tune....played by the band on the Titanic.
And I especially love the way the Cons are plotting to push Great Poopy leader off his...um...throne. First his rabid redneck base came after him for turning into a Liberal and not loving guns or Jesus enough. Now the Mulroney mob is after him for showing da boss no respect. And being a strategic idiot.
Quite apart from rescuing the Liberals from the incompetent Dion, and sparing them a divisive leadership campaign, Harper's actions renewed suspicions in the country of a certain meanness of spirit, to say nothing of hidden agenda. Ouch. That must hurt. That'll teach him to fuck with The Bloater. Golly. I am SO looking forward to the Con leadership convention. Will it be a pig fuck? Or a rat bite-athon...where they try to chew off their tails? Or will it just be an unseemly scramble for control of a dying party? Or a last ride on the Wheel of Fortune. You know like these guys....
Hamsters? Hamsters? I asked for RATS !!!!! Oh well never mind. Will they squeal and grunt a lot ....and look really RIDICULOUS? Gosh I hope so. Muahahahaha...
For the last few weeks Andrew Sullivan has been running a series of posts called the Cannabis Closet. Like this one. I'm in my mid-twenties, and without reservation I’d say that, at minimum, half of the people I know like smoking weed. Also, many people my age and younger, including myself, say they'd often rather have a joint than go out drinking; we consider it to be an edifying way to have an altered consciousness, as opposed to amnesic destructor of our mental and physical health and a ruiner of countless Saturdays. And this one. We need credible people to stand up and say "I contribute to society, I work hard, I love my family, and I smoke pot. This is the only way I break the law. The law is wrong." And we need a lot of them. There are a lot of people that could make this argument. Unfortunately, society being what it is, a lot of people, myself included, are (excuse the metaphor) in the closet. Which depresses me because I hate any kind of closet. And because it reminds me that Stephen Harper and his wretched Reform Cons are preparing to launch another ridiculous War on Marijuana. If passed into law, Bill C-15 would, among its other provisions, throw people caught with one marijuana plant into the slammer for a minimum of six months. If growing a single plant is done on a property that belongs to another person or in an area where it may present a hazard to children, minimum jail time is nine months. The only time I ever grew a marijuana plant was entirely by accident.Sébastien and I had rented a place in the McGill University Ghetto. On a dilapidated porch in the back was a baby's plastic wading pool full of mud. And one day out of the middle of it a single marijuana plant started growing like a beanstalk. So fast in fact I became paranoid, cut it down too soon, and dried it in the oven. Which turned out to be a DISASTER. The only thing we got out of it was a mild buzz....and a headache. But we still laugh about it today. So the thought that we could have gone to prison for six months for something like that gives me the creeps. And makes me really angry. Which is why I was glad to read about this step in the right direction. This bill would decriminalize the simple possession of marijuana under 30 grams and the possession of two or fewer plants. It would sever the ties between the casual user and organized crime gangs. It would eliminate demand for their product and significantly undermine the financial underpinnings of organized crime gangs in Canada. Exactly. How dumb to you have to be not to understand that simple truth? When will governments stop treating law abiding pot smokers like CRIMINALS? When will the hypocrisy end? When will all those Canadians have the courage to come out of the cannabis closet? When will we just LEGALIZE IT ?
I see that days after the G20 protests in London they're still trying to figure out what happened. Was the isolated violence the fault of a small group of anarchists? Was it a spontaneous assault on capitalism? Or was it a police riot? Diane Francis tries to defend both capitalism AND the anger. I'm not condoning street violence but it will be helpful if political leaders understand that economic ruination by others -- whether a foreclosure in Detroit or a laid off worker in Cincinnati, Delhi or Bristol -- is also a violent act. It damages victims, not only financially but psychologically and socially *Gasp* Diane Francis? Can The Abyss be far off? While Johann Hari wonders why MORE people aren't angry. We are facing a collapsed economy and a rapidly warming world because an extreme ideology has dominated world affairs for decades. It is the belief that markets aren't just a useful tool in certain circumstances; they are an infallible mechanism for running human affairs. The climate is currently going the same way as the banks...Unless we swerve fast, we are soon going to hit global temperatures that no human being has ever lived through.
By 2015, we will have belched so much carbon into the atmosphere that we will cross the Point of No Return: the climate will start to unravel as all its natural cooling processes breaking down one by one, guaranteeing we become hotter and hotter. Once we hit an increase of 4 degrees, much of the world will become uninhabitable, and there will be vast wars for what remains. And so do I. All the G20 leaders did was slap a band aid on a gaping wound. Coddle the bankers and all but ignore the planet.
When it should be obvious by now that both problems killing this world are caused by the same system. And that unless we change that system sooner or later we're doomed.
Am I ready for The Revolution ? Not really.
But I do know it's coming.
And I do love The Clash...
"Nobody understands it can happen again, hurrah, tala
The sun is shining and the kids are shouting loud
But you gotta know it’s shining through a crack in the cloud..."
The way I figure it a little anger can go a long way. Because we've got a world to SAVE.
You know I don't expect the nasty little garden gnome Jimbo Flaherty to be a towering intellect. I mean how could he be? And as our Con Finance Minister all I can hope is that he knows how to count to ten...even if he has to use his fingers.
But does he really have to sound like Jimbo in the time of Cholera?
Canadians who are hurting from the economic slump should remember that, relatively speaking, it's only a "mild" calamity, says Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
When Canadians compare their current situation to the hardships faced by forebears who braved disease and death to come to Canada "with nothing" many years ago, they will see that "this is a mild economic recession," he told a business audience here yesterday. Or such a callous idiot ? I know this wretched Con gnome once called for the homeless to be jailed, but doesn't he have any idea how many Canadians are suffering? For them it's not a mild calamity... it's a catastrophe. And one Jimbo and his HarperCons are only making worse by refusing to make it easier for the unemployed to get Employment Insurance. So more people will be forced on to welfare rolls until the whole safety net collapses.
And more and more of the most vulnerable and the poorest of Canadians will fall through the cracks. Like the man they called Dirty George did
The question is not why George died. We all die. Why was George allowed to live so long in squalor? And the short answer is our social services can't keep up...so nobody can even measure the misery. But I see it everywhere I go. I see and hear it at work. This week we were handing out pamphlets on how to cope with stress...so more people don't KILL themselves. I see the growing misery in the streets.
So why doesn't Jimbo Flaherty? Why is he so callous when so many Canadians are suffering? And the answer is most garden gnomes live in gardens. But Con gnomes thrive in JUNGLES. They don't give a damn about the pain of others. Or the lives of poor Canadians like George. As I've said so many times before, if we don't get rid of these incompetent callous HarpoCons. It won't be long before we wake up, in a country we don't recognize...
Although My Own Private Idaho is one of my favourite movies of all time, I'm always calling it My Own Private Iowa. But not anymore. From now on I'm sure I'll be calling it My Own Perfect Iowa. About several hundred people gathered Friday evening on the Pentacrest to celebrate the Iowa Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to legalize gay marriage — cheering, waving rainbow flags, blowing noisemakers and carrying signs with phrases such as “Victory for family values” and “Iowa is for lovers, really.” Oh boy. I could say something about how a candle of hope is becoming a bonfire.
I could say so many other things. About struggle and loss. And what victory means to me. But maybe I'll just run this video of a lesbian taking off her ring nine months after the death of her partner....
And let Andrew Sullivan say the rest. If you believe her grief is worth less than a man's grief for his late wife, then you should oppose marriage equality. I support it in part because this widow's grief is as real as her love, and because the kind of commitment that marriage means transcends the boundaries of gay and straight into the zone of being fully, awfully, human:
Because that's what gay marriage is all about. Not a piece of paper. Not a statement. Just LOVE fully, awfully, human. Like it is for everyone else. How hard is that to understand? Oh never mind. Not tonight. Tonight the bonfire burns brightly. In my own perfect Iowa...
As if the trial of Omar Khadr wasn't already a Kafkaesque farce, now the Pentagon has dismissed his lawyer. Claiming he didn't represent Omar well enough. Kuebler was dismissed for the improper supervision and management of Khadr’s defence team, according to an email sent Friday night by Guantanamo’s Deputy Chief Defence lawyer Michael Berrigan. Kuebler’s re-assignment was “in the best interests of Omar Khadr, and necessary to pursue a client-centered representation.” When in fact he was the best friend Omar ever had. And defended him too well. And that's why he's been fired. I have to admit he's not exactly the kind of guy I usually admire. A conservative, a Republican, a born again Christian in a military uniform. The New York Times likened him to a 1960s radical lawyer, calling him an "apple cheeked William Kunstler in uniform" in a front page profile. "It is a powerful way to be a witness for Christ," he told the Times in describing his defence of Khadr. "By demonstrating your capacity to not judge the way everybody else is judging and to serve unconditionally." But while so many Canadians have covered themselves with shame. William Kuebler is my hero. I can only imagine how our poor child soldier feels tonight about losing his brave American friend William. Who did more to help him than any Canadian ever did. I can only hope that by being fired Kuebler will be able help Omar one last time. By showing the world what a sickening travesty of justice these Pentagon trials are. Close down that disgusting evil kangaroo court. Bring Omar Khadr home TOMORROW....
I'm glad to see the angry reaction over the Afghan government's plan to allow men to rape their wives. But why are so many Canadians surprised? The truth is that this particular law is the unremarkable outgrowth of an ideology, Islamic fundamentalism, that devalues women and still holds sway in Afghanistan. Why are some still prepared to accept this outrage?
Some argue that, whatever law emerges, we have to respect traditional Afghan values. Would that hold if it were Jews who were being confined to their homes, or blacks prohibited from going to school? Restrictive dress codes, sexist rituals, inequality in the job market: these have been struggles for women in every culture and can only be resolved within those cultures. But forcing unwilling women to have sex, and imprisoning them in their homes constitutes abuse -- anywhere.
Why are some still peddling this garbage? Now is not the time for Canadians to lose our heads over Afghanistan. Mindless panic on the one hand, and bubbling righteous indignation on the other, are bad guides to foreign policy. A better life for women and for all who promote a more moderate Islamic society there is not just frosting on the cake. It is essential to the success of our overall project. To waver in our support of it would be not only wrong but foolish. When the War in Afghanistan has NEVER been about the human rights of women. We haven't done a thing to end horror stories like this one. And no matter how much we wish we could, we never will. There is only so much that well-meaning, well-funded, outsiders can do if the dominant culture is irremediably tyrannical. As this realization dawns, public opinion will dictate our next move: out of Afghanistan. The ugly truth hurts. Idealism dies hard.
But in a place like Afghanistan self delusion is worse...
Oh no.I see Great Economist , Statesman , Poopy Leader missed the call for his group shot with the other G20 leaders...because he was too busy answering the call of nature.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper had, the Toronto Globe and Mail later reported, lost track of the time "while being briefed by an aide", though sources close to the summit lavatories suggested he had been responding to an altogether more primal call. Then as if that wasn't embarrassing enough, his PMO flunkeys flushed what's left of our reputation abroad down the proverbial toilet..... by denying that El Poopo was having a dump.
And crapping all over the BBC !!!
The PMO says it is sticking to its story, has tracked down the BBC reporter to straighten her out, and expects a correction. A subsequent BBC story made no mention of the comfort break and reported merely that Harper was called aside by an aide when he missed the first photo. Gosh. And I thought it was Harper who called the flunkey ....to come and wipe his bum. And BTW where was John Baird when he NEEDED him? But seriously....can you imagine what that correction is going to sound like? You'll be able to stick your head out of the window and hear the whole world LAUGHING. And who to believe? The BBC or Great Lying Leader?
You know the loser liar who goes around claiming he saw the recession coming, when everyone knows he didn't ? Or the absurd liar who claims credit for our regulated banking system when he had diddly squat to do with it. And is, and always will be, a fanatical Bush Con DE-REGULATOR. Or the shameless liar who still claims that the GST cut was good for the economy....when he knows it was only good for buying votes. “Despite economic evidence to the contrary, in my view the GST cut worked...It worked in the sense that by the end of the ’05-’06 campaign, voters identified the Conservative party as the party of lower taxes.....It worked in the sense that it helped us to win.”
Golly. I don't know about you but I can't help but believe the BBC more than I believe Great Lying Leader....and his scummy PMO.
Just like I truly believe that if Harper doesn't stop embarrassing us abroad. We'll all soon have to dress like this when we leave the country.
On the other hand I suppose it could be even MORE embarrassing eh? We could be Stephen Harper. Great Loser Leader has finally found his THRONE. Fuck the world....cue the progressive blogosphere. Muahahahaha....
It looks as if the homophobic zombies of Jamaica are finally going to pay for their bloody war on gay people. And all I can say is it's about time. Because this cruel war is too big and brutal to be ignored any longer. "The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG) continued to report human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, mob attacks, stabbings, harassment of homosexual patients by hospital and prison staff, and targeted shootings of homosexuals." The world has looked away too long while gay people are hacked to death, beaten, threatened, driven from their homes. The time for action is now. Why boycott? Because Jamaica is on a downward spiral and suffers from collective cultural dementia on this issue. There is clearly a pathological panic and homo-hysteria that has infected this nation at its core. Infected it so badly that it isn't just killing gay men and lesbians....it's killing straight men as well. Isn't that PATHETIC? And what makes this ignorant homophobia so disgusting is that they wrap it up in hypocritical Christianity and BRAG about it:
"We are not going to yield to the pressure, whether that pressure comes from individual organizations, individuals, whether that pressure comes from foreign governments or groups of countries, to liberalize the laws as it relates to buggery." So if their disgusting homophobic leaders won't yield to reason and humanity maybe they'll yield to this...
You know it's too bad.As I've mentioned many times before, the island is one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited. I like a lot of Jamaicans. I LOVE their music.
So I can't wait for the day when I can go back. When people aren't being murdered just for who they are. When the hate is gone and I can really FEEL ALRIGHT. One day. Soon come. No more killing.
Uh oh. I see the Catholic Church in Australia is going to have a test to screen out gay priests.Because gay people are the problem. Not pedophiles. Right?
Gawd. How low will those old homophobes in the Vatican go in their anti-gay Jihad ? And what kind of "Gay Test" do these priestly perverts have in mind?
Will they attach rubber thingies around the penises of the virginal seminarians...and expose them to provocative pictures like this one?
If so good luck. Just don't blame Michelangelo if it doesn't work. He was gay and worked for a Pope, so he was forced to use Baby Jesus' pee pee as his model. That's what religion does to gay art. But back to the Gay Test... since it's Australia will they ask the novices what they would do if they came across these hunky lifeguards?
Would they:
(a) Be overcome by the burning desire to get SAVED? Or wear a thong... or a funny hat like Pope Benny does?
(b) Wonder with mounting excitement how many bottles of beer it would take to get the lifeguards drunk and naughty ...after they've polished off the communion wine?
(c) Be filled with the holy urge to get down on their knees and PRAY for their safety ?
Anyone who answers (c) is of course immediately DISQUALIFIED. Or will the sexual inquisitors get down on THEIR knees, and closely examine all those young assholes with a magnifying glass? Like they do in other divinely enlightened places ....like Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Golly I hope so. Because nothing could symbolize the sad state of Pope Benny's Church better than that image. My advice to all those gay seminarians seeking to avoid detection? Pucker your holes into the rough shape of Jesus in a Tortilla and you'll be alright. Which still leaves me shaking my head. And agreeing with PZ Myers.
This isn't about correcting the problems of the church at all. It's more about finding another opportunity to discriminate against gays.
Yup.The more that twisted old homophobe in the Vatican tries to exorcise his demons.
The more evil and RIDICULOUS his church becomes.....
