A manifesto for the internet age

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What could possibly go wrong?

Arizona gun proponents launch free gun program

By CRISTINA SILVA, Associated Press – 6 hours ago 

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A campaign promising free shotguns for people in Tucson's most troubled neighborhoods has divided some residents in a community still reeling from a shooting rampage in 2011 that killed six people, left a congresswoman and several others wounded, and made the city a symbol of gun violence in America.
The nonprofit Armed Citizen Project is part of a national campaign to give shotguns to single women and homeowners in neighborhoods with high-crime rates. The effort comes amid a national debate on gun control after mass shootings in Arizona, Colorado and Connecticut.
While towns in Idaho, Utah, Virginia and Pennsylvania have debated ordinances recommending gun ownership, the gun giveaway effort appears to be the first of its kind.
"If you are not willing to protect the citizens of Tucson, someone is going to do it, why not me? Why not have armed citizens protecting themselves," said Shaun McClusky, a real estate agent who plans to start handing out shotguns by May.



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An early April Fool's Day prank?

Has up been declared down and black become white? How did this Toronto Star editorial end up in the Toronto Sun?

But it would be foolish to pretend the credibility of our police force has not taken a serious hit in recent years, due to repeated examples of wrong-doing by officers in the performance of their duties.Too many used excessive force on civilians during the G20.Too many removed their badges so they could not be identified.Too many have been caught on videotape beating up suspects and then lying about it.Too many have refused to co-operate with the province’s Special Investigations Unit, probing alleged wrongdoing by fellow officers.

That would be the same Toronto Sun that had this, this, this and this to say at the time of the G20 police brutality spree.
Credit where credit is due, Toronto Sun police stenographer Joe Warmington did question the police tactics of kettling people at Queen and Spadina, but seemed more miffed about the "parking enforcement vultures"


(insert blind squirrel/broken clock wisecrack here)

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What to watch when you're not watching TV

What if John Hughes directed Game of Thrones?





And speaking of Game of Thrones....




What if geek troubadours Paul and Storm took over a kids' show?






And speaking of naughty puppets...





and speaking of Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris and musicals about supervillians...




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I'm sure I'm not the only one...

Admit it, when you saw this picture on the front of the Globe and Mail yesterday, you too were thinking the caption should have been "Despite her busy schedule, Laureen Harper still cooks her husband's favorite for breakfast every morning. "

Especially when I got to this part of the article:

 "upward of 200 foster kittens have cycled through the residence under her watch"

I predict yet another sweater-vest offensive from the PM's image consultants. Expect to see him at a hockey game or playing piano or walking the kids to school sometime soon on TV.


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jack would be proud

Another good reason to vote NDP -- can you picture Stephen Harper leading the Tory caucus in song? I mean something other than "Deutchland, Deutchland, Uber Alles"?


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Dignity, always dignity

Take a good look at this photo of the soon-to-be-former mayor of Toronto. I don't think the Rob Ford bluster is going to be sufficient teflon this time. It isn't every day that the chief executive of the Canada's largest city gets hammered and starts grabbing ladies asses. I suspect you will be hearing a lot more about this in the coming days.


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A proud Canadian

RIP Stompin' Tom Connors






This commercial was filmed entirely in Port Dover, Ontario in 1989 or 1990. I happened to be a young reporter at the Port Dover Maple Leaf at the time and was lucky enough to be informed of the filming in the Norfolk Tavern one night. (I'm there in the bar on the right hand side of the screen at 0:06 and 0:10, blink and you'll miss me) They spent an hour dressing the bar with open packs of cigarettes, bag of chip and plenty of glasses of draft beer. Then in comes Tom. He stood around looking stern and soulful at the bar while they shot every angle. Then in came a production assistant with his guitar and sheet of plywood. He did a half a dozen songs and then visited every table in the place for at least long enough to sit and ask everyone's names. He parked himself at table with me and the bar manager and a few guys from the local folk and blues club I set up in town, slugging back Molson's Golden and smoking and telling stories. He claimed to have written a song about just about every city in the country, at least all the one's he'd visited. Most of them, he said, would get him run out of those towns on a rail had they ever been performed in public. The ones on the records were the "nice" ones, the "clean" ones, he told us.

Incidentally, my first full-time professional newspapering job started in December 1988 in Ingersoll, Ontario, working all the hours that there were for $220 a week and all the newsprint I could eat. The editorial staff consisted of the editor - a guy about two years older than I was just out of journalism school - and me. Between us we covered all the events, wrote all the copy, took all the pictures, processed all the film, did all the dark room work and occasionally sold or created an ad. I even delivered the damn thing in the snow one week when the kid on the route I lived on called in sick in blizzard. To top it all off, every week we had to drive across snowy backroads to a central office where all the little weekly papers in the chain were laid out using hot wax, a linotype machine, xacto knives and border tape. It usually took about 14 hours to get it all done.

That central office was in Tilsonburg. And my back still aches when I hear that word.





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At least that's what the unredacted part said

Harper government touts record on openess

By Dean Beeby, The Canadian Press

The Harper government is dismissing a report that ranks it 55th in the world for upholding freedom of information, saying it has a sterling record for openness.

But a four-page document outlining the federal rebuttal took five months to release after a request under the Access to Information Act.

A human-rights group based in Halifax has issued three report cards since 2011 on Canada's anemic standing in the world with regard to so-called right-to-know legislation.

The Centre for Law and Democracy used a 61-point tool to measure Canada's legislation against that of other countries, in co-operation with Madrid-based Access Info Europe.

Canada's standing in September 2011 was 40th of 89 countries, fell to 51st in June last year, then to 55th of 93 countries last September, after Mongolia and Colombia.

"While standards around the world have advanced, Canada's access laws have stagnated and sometimes even regressed," the centre concluded.

Canada's information commissioner, Suzanne Legault, said "the analysis that this group has done is going to be a really useful tool."

But an internal memo last summer to Treasury Board President Tony Clement cites the report's "weaknesses," saying the methodology "does not allow for an accurate comparison of the openness of a society and of its government."

Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Feds+tout+record+openness/8010725/story.html#ixzz2LwVLFOl0



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An old favourite

Some things just never get old. I first posted links to this little video back in 2005 (yes, I have been blogging since the internet was a series of strings and tin cans). But this CBC story and a subsequent twitter conversation about CSIS agents and the Jehovah's Witnesses brought it back to mind.



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all with two fingers

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"This self-delusion is more than ideology"

Not much of a surprise that University of Calgary political scientist and nut bar Barry Cooper brags about his friendship with Tom Flannagan,  Why do I call him a nut bar? Well, this is Professor Coopers take on the First Nations in Canada and presumably aboriginal people anywhere else that white Europeans decided they want to live. At first I thought the subhead was some editor's warning about the content of this op-ed piece.

Aboriginals have no claim to sovereignty

Opinion: This self-delusion is more than ideology
BY BARRY COOPER, POSTMEDIA NEWS

The behaviour of Indian leaders and the gestures of the Idle No More movement are expressions of the same pathologies found on so many reserves in Canada. Political pathology is more than the well-known corruption of so-called chiefs. Almost the entire discussion between Indians and the government is based on complaints, assumptions and assertions that have no basis in reality. They are projections of the imagination. Participants in the discussions, however, take them to be the self-evident structure of the common sense world.
Such self-delusion is more than ideology, because it combines the lowest emotions — guilt, fear and resentment — with the most exalted aspirations to rectify injustice and fulfil the wishes of God, the Creator. To put this problem into perspective, recall a classic study published in 2000 by my longtime colleague and even longer-time friend, Tom Flanagan, called First Nations? Second Thoughts.
The fantasy devoutly believed in by many aboriginals, bureaucrats and lawyers, both on the bench and at the bar, as well as by numerous academics, journalists and intellectuals, goes as follows: (1) Aboriginals are privileged because they were here first; (2) there are no significant differences between European and Indian civilizations so that (3) Indians are sovereign nations; accordingly (4) treaties were nation-to-nation agreements that (5) affirmed aboriginal sovereignty and ownership of the land. And finally, when Canadians acknowledge all the above, Indians will prosper. http://www.canada.com/news/Aboriginals+have+claim+sovereignty/7874774/story.html#ixzz2JCzxr2Tg

You'll want to read the whole thing to really get a taste for how completely idiotic and racist the piece is, but if you are short on time or have a weak stomach, let Eddie Izzard give you the "shorter"





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(hat tip to Alison at Creekside for reminding my of the Izzard bit)

trophies

One assumes that Stephen Maher is out shopping for a frame for this press release from the PMO. I'm sure, in time, it will look lovely hanging on the wall next to Dean Del Mastro's scalp. Glen McGregor must be so jealous.
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Shameless

So let me get this straight: Unless the government steps in and order private companies to pay money a service that no one wants, SUN-TV will be unable to keep up its brave, principled fight against socialism, over-regulation and government interference in private enterprise. Sounds like Ezra Levant's previous adventure in publishing, The Western Standard, which despite accepting massive federal postal subsidies while decrying wasteful government spending and socialism, eventual went out of business as a print magazine whose main function seemed to be to foot Levant's legal bills whenever he got sued for acting like a loudmouth douchebag or wanted to sue someone for pointing out that he was a loudmouth douchebag.
On the plus side, if SUN-TV continues to lose $17 million a year, eventually Pierre Karl Peladeau will run out of money to run his horrible chain of  right-wing scandal sheets. After all, even crazy reactionary wingnuts like Levant, Sue Ann Levy and Peter Worthington aren't going to work for free.Even grifters gotta eat.


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Shocked!

I'm shocked to learn that there is payola gambling going on at FOX NEWS in this establishment



Your winnings Capt. Renault 

"The arrangement was simply FreedomWorks paid Glenn Beck money and Glenn Beck said nice things about FreedomWorks on the air," Armey, the former House majority leader, told Media Matters Friday. "I saw that a million dollars went to Beck this past year, that was the annual expenditure."
Armey, who left the organization this past fall after a dispute over its internal operations, said a similar arrangement was also in place with Rush Limbaugh, but did not know the exact financial details.

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here we go again

Edmond Burke's famous maxim that "those who don't know history are destined to repeat it"appears to be a feature not a bug for the ascendent Japanese right-wing. Shinzo Abe seems to have moved on from the LDP's previous Fawlty Towers policy on dealing with the past, to a brave new embracing of George Orwell's notion that "he who controls the past controls the future, and he who controls the present, controls the past"

From the Economist

Consider the following. Fourteen in the cabinet belong to the League for Going to Worship Together at Yasukuni, a controversial Tokyo shrine that honours leaders executed for war crimes. Thirteen support Nihon Kaigi, a nationalist think-tank that advocates a return to “traditional values” and rejects Japan’s “apology diplomacy” for its wartime misdeeds. Nine belong to a parliamentary association that wants the teaching of history in schools to give a better gloss to Japan’s militarist era. They deny most of Japan’s wartime atrocities.
The line-up includes Hakubun Shimomura, the new education minister, who wants to rescind not just the landmark 1995 “Murayama statement”, expressing remorse to Asia for Japan’s atrocities, but even annul the verdicts of the war-crimes trials in Tokyo in 1946-48

From the New York Times (the Western newspaper that China reads)

In an interview with the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, Mr. Abe, a right-wing nationalist, was quoted by Reuters on Monday as saying he wants to replace the 1995 apology with an unspecified “forward looking statement.” He said that his previous administration, in 2006-7, had found no evidence that the women who served as sex slaves to Japan’s wartime military had, in fact, been coerced. 

With Japan wrapped up in war-time era territorial disputes with China, Taiwan, South Korea and Russia, Abe's eagerness to fan the nationalist embers into a full flame should be of serious concern to the United States. Abe is hoping his flag-waving militarism will distract from his party's corruption and inability to fix Japan's broken economy. He is also counting on the unquestioning support of the United States, which regards Okinawa as their largest aircraft carrier and has used Japan as its stable base in Asia since 1945.
While the U.S. has more pressing matters confronting it, unless it takes a firm line on Japan's provocative historical revisionism, it is liable to find itself dragged backwards into a confrontation with China.
China would happily play at brinksmanship with Japan over the Senkakus and would probably not even hesitate to seize the islands (possession being 9/10th of international law). Abe is counting on the Chinese not wanting to take on the U.S. Navy in the process, but the Chinese are probably well aware that no U.S. President is going to send U.S. sailors to die for Senkakus - especially when the U.S. military is already mired in Afghanistan, Iraq (and soon maybe Mali and/or Iran).

What could possibly go wrong?

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Former GOP honcho nets $8 million in armed robbery

headlines we should have seen:
Former House of Representative leader Dick "Dick" Armey pulls off $8 million gunpoint stick-up.

No, I am not exaggerating. Dick Armey walked into the Tea Party office with a gun-toting "aide" and six days later, he's paid $400,000 a year for the next 20 years, just to go away. That's $8 million dollars, just so some millionaire can make it look like his anti-public health care lobbying effort is some kind of  grassroots movement by bigoted yahoos. Read the whole story and ask yourself why anyone takes the so-called tea party seriously as a popular movement instead of a massive attempt by weathy crackpots to buy themselves a government. (Psst, guess what? The tea party now controls 26 state legislatures)

Also, too - scenes from the Voyage of the Damned aka the National Review Online at sea

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The real meaning of Christmas and Christianity

This is what real Christianity looks and sounds like: People trying to help those who are less fortunate than themselves. As an agnostic Internet clergyman, I give religions people a lot of shit, especially fundamentalist Christians whackjobs who think Jesus wants the United States to have a bigger defence budget and claim that God lets school shootings happen because the secular government has taken prayer out of public school. Those people are worthy of scorn because they ignore one of the central pillars of Christian philosophy. Phrase it however you like: The Golden Rule, Matthew 25:40 - my favorite reduction is Wil Wheaton's Law - but they all boil down to the same thing more or less: Be nice to each other, take care of each other, share.
All credit to the people who signed at the bottom of this piece and good luck to them throwing the moneychangers out of the temple.


from the Vancouver Sun:
(all bolding by me)

By Louise Mangan
President, Interspiritual Centre of Vancouver Society
on behalf of the 31 signatories named below
As leaders in communities of spirit and faith, we are concerned about the new normal in our society. Sights that should shock us to our core are hardly noticed anymore: a tiny, elderly woman rummaging through the garbage; a man sleeping on the sidewalk, shuddering from the cold; a young woman begging with a toddler clinging to her leg. At some point, as a people, we stopped noticing and caring. Now is the time to notice and care again.
B.C. has the highest poverty rate in Canada and, before this year, had the highest rate of child poverty for eight years in a row. Poverty here largely affects the working poor. Single mothers, Indigenous people, recent immigrants, refugees, and people with disabilities are especially vulnerable. More than half a million British Columbians lived in poverty in 2010, the most recent year for which we have statistics.
The gap between the rich and the poor is also growing. A report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) confirmed that the income gap in Canada is at a record high, which places Canada 26th out of 34 countries. Within Canada, B.C. has the largest gap between rich and poor.
The poverty and inequality that such statistics represent is altering and distorting our society. In 2009, British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett found that virtually every marker of wellbeing in wealthy societies — from wellness, academic achievement and life expectancy to illiteracy, violence and mental illness — is affected not by how rich the society is, but rather by how equal it is. Wellbeing for everyone improves with equality, whereas societies with a bigger gap between the rich and poor experience more social ills, affecting everyone, including the well-off.
The lack of comprehensive action from our provincial and federal governments suggests they have not heeded these findings. The OECD report confirms that poverty and inequality in Canada reflect intentional choices by governments. Prior to the mid-1990s, our system of taxation and social spending was as effective as in Nordic countries, stabilizing 70 per cent of the rise in inequality. Since then, the positive effects of redistribution have declined by 30 per cent. Current strategies are intensifying inequality instead of easing it.
These choices flow from a belief system that holds economic growth as the ultimate value and believes a prosperous business community produces growth that trickles down through society. Unfortunately, as the OECD secretary-general points out, the trickle down of wealth to the rest of society is just not happening. The theories behind the policies are “not working.” In fact, according to reports from the International Monetary Fund and the Conference Board of Canada, inequality can diminish economic growth.
Still, governments continue to invest public resources in efforts to entice business activity to come or stay here. They provide corporations with infrastructure, tax concessions, subsidies, favourable labour policies, and access to the natural resources of the commons. As corporate incentives expand, funds for targeted benefits and essential services shrink. The resulting re-allocation of public wealth into private wealth has measurable negative effects on equality, wellbeing, natural habitat and economic stability for all of society, and means poverty for those on the lower tiers. 
The OECD suggests remedies that echo the proposals of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition. Both recommend increased investment in integrated approaches to education, starting with quality childcare and early learning and continuing into adult years; well-conceived income support policies and government benefits for low-income groups; and freely accessible and high quality public services in health and family care.
To have the most impact, these changes should be part of a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy with legislated targets and timelines. B.C. is one of the last provinces without one. Other places are saving lives and benefiting their economies by tackling poverty directly, and are simultaneously improving the long-term health and wellbeing of whole societies. As leaders and participants in communities of spirit, we believe it’s time our province did too.
Instead of focusing on economic growth at any cost, we need to focus on the health and sustainability of our society by bolstering the caring sector and upholding the strengths we need to face the social and environmental challenges ahead. We seek leaders with the vision and courage to share with citizens the work of crafting an effective caring culture. The work of caring for one another is the work of healing persons, communities and our natural world. This is the kind of richness we really need.
We are now in the time of year when our hearts are strongly moved by generosity. We give because we care about those who would otherwise go without. In fact, B.C. is one of the most generous provinces in Canada if we compare charitable donations across the country. But consider the gift of a can donated to a food bank — and then think of how much more powerful the gift of justice and equality would be. Making sure that everyone can have an adequate standard of living is the kind of gift that truly keeps on giving.
We can give this gift together. Let’s make it happen.
Signed by:
Erik Bjorgan, Pastor, Deo Lutheran Church, Salmon Arm; Christine Boyle, Spirited Social Change, Vancouver Pastor; Carol J. Dennison, Faith Lutheran Church, Powell River; Dave Diewert, Streams of Justice, Vancouver; Susan Grace Draper, Faith in Action, Victoria; Steven Epperson, Minister, Vancouver Unitarian Church; Steven Faraher-Amidon, South Fraser Unitarian Church; Gary Gaudin, Ordained Minister, South Arm United Church, Richmond; Reverend Doctor Murray Groom, Minister, Sylvan United Church, Vancouver Island; Jonquil Hallgate, Surrey Urban Mission; Joyce Harris, Sisters of St. Ann, Victoria; Marianna Harris, Chair, Faithful Public Witness Community, Vancouver Burrard Presbytery, United Church of Canada; Reverend Doctor Sarah L. Harris, Director, Compassion Globally, Vancouver; Laura Holland, a founding member of the Aboriginal Women’s Action Network (AWAN), Vancouver; Hans Kratz, Chair, KAIROS Parksville/Qualicum; Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr., Four Worlds International Institute; Margaret Marquardt, Co-Chair of Eco-Justice Unit, Anglican Diocese of New Westminster; Ric Matthews, Executive Minister, New Way Community, Vancouver; Rev. Dr. Gregory Mohr, Bishop, BC Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; Barry Morris, Longhouse Council of Native Ministry; Reverend Doctor Harold Munn, Anglican Mentor-in-Residence, Vancouver School of Theology; Barry Nelson, Cathedral of Mary Immaculate, Development & Peace Committee, Nelson; Sergio Petrucci, Prince George Diocesan Council for the Canadian Catholic Organization of Development and Peace; Sandra Severs, Deputy Executive Minister, New Way Community, Vancouver; Mary Murray Shelton, Minister, Centre for Spiritual Living, Vancouver; Keith Simmonds, United Church Minister, Trail; Social Justice Committee, Pilgrim United Church, Colwood; Social Responsibility Committee, First Unitarian Church of Victoria; Eleanor Stebner, J.S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities, SFU; Rebecca Tobias, Global Trustee, United Religions Initiative, Vancouver; Peggy Wilmot, Faith in Action, Victoria.

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It is our game, not theirs

Jack Todd goes end-to-end and puts one right through Gary Bettman's five-hole (which is not anything like as dirty as it sound, get your mind out of the gutter, ya damned preeverts!)
Todd is entirely correct, the NHL owners cannot own hockey as long as players play the game.
As much as I love the Habs, I get most of my hockey fix from watching OHL and Jr. B games. Sure, I miss the NHL, but it isn't like I can afford to go to a game or anything.

(a tip of the CCM brain-bucket to my Dad for spotting the Todd column)
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Freedumb to own push-button death machines must never be curtailed!

• Apparently there are people in America who follow mass shootings the way some people used to follow the Grateful Dead.
• Another member of the "well regulated militia" is heard from in California.
• Just another law-abiding gun owner and firearms hobbyist in Indiana.
• Yet one more responsible gun owner .
• I couldn't agree more: "Fuck You, Guns"
• And fuck this guy, twice, sideways. This idiotic notion that the solution to gun violence is more guns is about as logical as saying the solution to a gas leak is more lit matches. Police responding to the scene of a shooting are not going to be able to tell the good guys from the bad by the black and white hats and just because you happen to have a gun handy in an emergency doesn't mean you can hit squat with it (innocent bystanders not included). Also, there is the chance that a backfiring car or a child pointing a stick at you is liable to spark a massive accidental firefight among the school staff. 
• And for sheer lack of self-awareness, the former Confederate Yankee, Gun Counter Gomer hisself, has this post sandwiched between his posts blaming Clackmass mall shooting on society and explaining how the AR-15 is just a tool ( but neglecting to mention that it is a tool purpose-built for killing people) and his post on the Newton school shooting blaming rap music, Hollywood and video games and the culture of "killing for pleasure."
• First there was the shit-fit thrown over Bob Costas mentioning that maybe guns might not be so wonderful during a holy football game, but now football fans have really show how kkklassy they can be.

From your "cold, dead hands," you say? Fine with me.

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