Person of the Year

Time wimped out and made Putin their Person Of The Year. All the right wing media in the U.S. is whining that it should have been Petraeus. But good old Bill O'Riley on Fox last night let the cat out of the bag. The real reason for Time's choice was that they made a choice of the lesser of two evils the real POTY should have been; Al Gore. But that would have driven the American rightwhingnuts even battier.

And Time's Canadian 'Person of the Year' was not a person but a coin; the Loonie. And again that was the lesser of two evils because their real POTY should have been Dion. After all they gave it to Harper last year. And because it has been annus horribulus for the Liberal Leader in Waiting, he should have made Times cover. After all the Liberals adopted a bird as their symbol this year.



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Harpers Other War

This is Harpers other war, though it shares something in common with his War in Afghanistan. The war on drugs. Well actually the war on Pot. The new anti-drug law Bill C-26 was announced the same week Karlheinz Schrieber was making headlines, so quietly the Harpocrites slipped their crime bill into parliament complete with mandatory sentences for marijuana growing and possession. And the media as well as the Liberal Opposition ignored this new draconian legislation.

While New Democratic Party (NDP) drug policy critic MP Libby Davies (Vancouver East) has already denounced the measure, neither the Liberals nor the Bloc Québecois have issued statements on it. Nor had either party responded to Chronicle requests for comment by press time.

Burnaby MPs say they will vote against the bill.

Bill Siksay, NDP MP for Burnaby Douglas, says similar laws have already failed in the U.S.

"They fill up the prisons, they disrupt families, but they don't solve the problem," Siksay said in an interview Thursday.

"We've given fare to many people's criminal records for marijuana use, and we've clogged the courts for way too long."

Instead, the government should decriminalize marijuana, Siksay said.

"We need to upset the apple cart when it comes to drug policy, he added.

Peter Juilan, NDP MP for Burnaby New Westminster, agreed, saying the federal government should spend more money on front line policing.

"The bill is the wrong approach to take," he added.

It's Harpers other war. And it is a dangerous one. For it would return us to convicting recreational drug users for victimless crime. And in creating harsh minimum sentences it attempts to duplicate the creation of a prison industry in Canada like that in the U.S.

With an eye on past complaints from the U.S. that Canadian chemical drugs and the country’s booming illegal marijuana industry are threats to America, the bill imposes a two-year minimum for possession of more than one kilogram of a schedule I drug for the purpose of export trafficking. Possession of cannabis and marijuana for the purpose of exporting – with no aggravating factors or minimum amount – would carry an automatic one-year minimum.

But, despite the political drumbeats about drugs and the image of public hysteria, Ertel says the legislation goes too far, too severely.
A conviction for producing from one to 200 marijuana plants for the purpose of trafficking carries a minimum jail sentence of six months. The scale rises to a two-year automatic sentence for the production of more than 500 plants. The maximum penalty for production of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking jumps to 14 years from seven.

“This is obviously crazy stuff,” says Ertel. “They’ve got a minority government and they’re playing cheap politics and the idea of the cheap politics is ‘go ahead and vote against us on this crazy bill and then we’re going to say you guys love drugs.’”

He argues the automatic jail time — no allowance for mitigating considerations — will inevitably prompt the kind of appeal that led to a 1987 Supreme Court of Canada decision striking down a seven-year mandatory-minimum sentence under the Narcotic Control Act as cruel and unusual punishment.

In R. v. Smith, the case of a B.C. man who pleaded guilty to importing seven and a half ounces of cocaine from Bolivia, Justice Antonio Lamer wrote, “The serious hard drugs dealer who is convicted of importing a large quantity of heroin and the tourist convicted of bringing a ‘joint’ back into the country are treated on the same footing and must both be sentenced to at least seven years in the penitentiary.”

Justice Lamer, though, included this obiter: “A minimum mandatory term of imprisonment is obviously not in and of itself cruel and unusual punishment.”
Ertel says the new Conservative bill may not only violate s. 12 of the Charter in certain circumstances, but it also targets the wrong problem, with the wrong weapon.

“Nobody’s putting anybody who’s making liquor into jail, and almost all violent crime, it’s above 90 per cent, is alcohol related,” he says. “I’ve never seen a case where somebody beat up their wife after they smoke a joint; it doesn’t happen.”

A Statistics Canada Juristat report shows drug trafficking accounted for four per cent of all cases in Canadian adult criminal courts in 2004, compared to 11 per cent for impaired driving. Common assault accounted for another 11 per cent, theft cases were nine per cent and major assault accounted for six per cent. Homicide, including attempted murder, accounted for 0.2 per cent of the cases.

Ertel says the mandatory minimums will mean more and longer drug trials because it will be impossible to bargain pleas: “The courts grind to a halt when there’s no incentive for pleading guilty.”

NDP MP Joe Comartin, a former criminal lawyer in Windsor, offers another twist. He says prosecutors will stay drug charges in an attempt to ration court time.
“They just can’t prosecute, they’ve run out of resources,” says Comartin. “They’ve got 100 more files behind them.”

SEE:

Contact High

Canada Goes To Pot

Canada's Prison Industrial Complex

Narco Politics

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Bernier Blows It

The MSM is all gushy over the fact that both U.S. President Bush and Condoleezza Rice mentioned Canada when talking about Afghanistan. I guess this is the big difference between the Conservative Government and the previous Liberal one. When the Liberals were in power Bush forgot to mention Canada. Wow what a victory for the Stephen Harper Party they got the U.S. to 'mention' Canada.

Bernier, Rice to discuss Afghanistan, border issues
Canada.com, Canada - 15 hours ago
Canada's deployment in Afghanistan is expected to be high the agenda at a meeting in Washington on Thursday between Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier and US ...
'Finish The Job,' Rice Says National Post
Canada praised by Bush for role in Afghanistan; seeks more US ... The Canadian Press
Rice praises Canada's role in Afghanistan CTV.ca

What Foreign Affairs Minister Bernier did not get was freedom for Canadian Citizen and teen ager; Omar Khadr still languishing in Gitmo, while the Brits have gotten their citizens released into British custody.

Ex-Gitmo detainee released on bail

Three Gitmo detainees return to Britain

Nor did he mention Mehar Arar let alone get him off the the U.S. terrorist list.

So as a foreign affairs mission it was a bust. It was simply cheer leading for Harpers War.



SEE:

Khadr -Canada's Shame

Cry Justice

Contradictions of the Security State

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Fiat Lux

Let There Be Light

The winter solstice — what many refer to as the shortest day of the year — arrives on Friday at 11:08 p.m. Of course, the day still has the same amount of time but the amount of daylight is at its least. Sunrise on the solstice is at 8:10 a.m. and the sun sets at 4:36

It is the longest night of the year but it has been celebrated by humans since the beginning as the rebirth of the sun. It fills this season with that most ancient human aspiration; hope.

SEE

Happy Solstice

Tannenbaum

Keeping the 'X' in X-MAS

The Monument Builders

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Humpback Victory

Japan halts humpback whale hunt
CNN International -
TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan has "temporarily halted" its much-criticized plan for a humpback whale hunt in the seas near Antarctica, said the chief Japanese government spokesman on Friday.
Japan removes humpback whales from Antarctic hunt Reuters UK
Whaling: The Japanese positionBBC News

Now lets end Japanese whale hunting period.

Stop Japan's Whale Hunt

Japan's Scientific Whaling Hoax

Japan's Whaling Outrage

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Lenin Was Right

"When we go to hang the last aristocrat it will be the capitalist that sells us the rope." Lenin.

As American Capitalism fails it will be Chinese State Capitalism that bails it out.

Kill the competition: China bails out Morgan Stanley,

The Times: Morgan Stanley reported the first quarterly loss in its 73-year history after taking writedowns of $9.4 billion (£4.7 billion) on mortgage-related investments. The bank was forced to agree a $5 billion cash injection from Beijing.

The reason is that they are sitting on trillions in Foreign Direct Investment funds that they have not expended yet. Allowing them to be able to come in and bail out their capitalist competitors.

Dr. Kathryn Dominguez of the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy presented her paper on this topic at the U of A School of Business annual Eldon Foote Lecture in October which I attended.

I recommend reading her paper as it will explain why China's investment in Morgan Stanley is not unexpected, and in fact is the beginning of their bail out of big banks and financial corporation which are suffering as the credit crunch expands from the subprime meltdown.

International Reserves and Underdeveloped Capital Markets

International reserve accumulation by developing countries is just one example of the puzzling behavior of international capital flows. Capital should flow to where its return is highest, which ought to be where capital is scare. Yet recent data suggest the opposite – net capital flows from developing countries to industrialized countries. This paper examines the role of financial market development in the accumulation of international reserves. In countries with underdeveloped capital markets the government’s accumulation of reserves may substitute for what would otherwise be private sector capital outflows. Effectively, these governments are acting as financial intermediaries, channeling domestic savings away from local uses and into international capital markets, thereby offsetting the effects of domestic financial constraints that lead to excessive private sector exposure to potential capital shortfalls.

SEE

China: The Truimph of State Capitalism

State Capitalism By Any Other Name

Petro Dollars Bail Out The CITI

Bank Smack Down

U.S. Economy Entering Twilight Zone

Sub Prime Exploitation

Wall Street Deja Vu

Housing Crash the New S&L Crisis

US Housing Market Crash

America's Debt Economy

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Abstinence Education Gets an F

On the popular kids' TV show Zoey 101, she plays a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her mouth goodie-goodie. In real life, her character was a little different. Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old sister of troubled pop star Britney Spears, announced her pregnancy to the world Wednesday.

In an "exclusive interview" with OK magazine, the younger Spears said she was "shocked" to be in the family way after having sex with her boyfriend, Casey Aldridge, the 19-year-old son of a papermill worker in her home state of Louisiana, whom she reportedly met at church.

So let me get this straight Lil ol teen ager Jamie Lynn has sexual intercourse and is shocked she got pregnant. She is not on the pill, her boyfriend did not wrap his willy and she is shocked she got pregnant. Her mother obviously failed to discuss the 'facts of life' with her, but she was planning on writing a book on parenting for a Christian publisher.

This is an excellent example of the failure of the right wing politically correct morality of abstinence and of abstinence education. It is also an excellent example, as if we needed one, of why family planning education/sex education/relationship education is needed in our public education system. Leaving sex ed up to parents means more teen pregnancies.

Now here is another point, Jamie Lynn told her family she missed her period back in November, why didn't she take the morning after pill? And while the white social conservatives condemn black American teen mothers, they will be gushing all over lil Ms. Spears. She well be redeemed in their eyes because given the choice of not being a teen mother,she chose to keep the baby. The fetus fetishists will embrace her 'choice' and forgive her the sin of teen pregnancy.

Janie Lynn Spears is a bad example to teens every where for the stupidity of having unprotected sex and sex without birth control, and for believing being a mother at 16 is a 'choice' when it is in reality a consequence of stupidity.

Fortunately the Spears family is a living breathing example of stupidity when it comes to children and child rearing. An example in the negative. And example of what is wrong when it comes to the real life consequences of the PC morality of Christian Social Conservative Family Values.


Every child a wanted child does not mean it's ok to have an 'accidental' child. We can see from Britney's predicament what happens when this family has children by accident.

SEE

Unsafe Abortions Continue

God Is Pro Abortion

Abortion, Adoption, or Abandonment

Procreation To Save The White Race

Britney Needs A Liberal

Miss Nevada

Feminizing the Proletariat

Kids Are Commodities

Abolishing Adolescence

Pro Life?



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Tasers Are Lethal

Tasers are supposedly an alternative to lethal force, right. So if the taser doesn't work......Winnipeg police shoot man dead after taser fails

And they say the death penalty is outlawed in Canada. In this case the police abetted a public suicide.

She said neighbours told her the man was yelling "shoot me" at the officers before police opened fire.

This is another case of the police failure to be able to deal with mentally distressed people in public, and in this case the victim was a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, suffering post traumatic stress. Another failure of the Conservative Law And Order Government to provide for our veterans leaving them to fend for themselves.

A delusional Roy Thomas Bell confronted police with an air pellet gun Monday night in a bid to get help for his mental illness, not to compel officers to shoot him, a woman speaking on behalf of the family said Wednesday.

"This man died trying to get help," she said. "Suicidal people don't do that. He was just not in his right mind at the time."

The woman said Bell, 44, had a history of mental illness that was getting progressively worse since his discharge from the Canadian Forces about three years ago.

Bell worked in the post office of CFB Winnipeg and was discharged after 23 1/2 years on a reduced pension. He was deemed unfit to serve in Afghanistan.

Matthew Gray, a retired soldier, told CBC News that Bell, known to many as Tom, had long struggled with mental-health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, following a training deployment overseas as part of his military service.

"Roy Bell was struggling — as many other soldiers I know — to try and get assistance for his PTSD, trying to get understanding as to why he got it and what it's doing to him, trying to get an understanding of the system and how it employs the help that we get, and, you know, it's the same thing with a lot of soldiers," Gray said.

SEE:

The Week That Was

Video Not Taser Creates Inquiry

Police Brutality

Ban Handguns From Cops

Policing the Police


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Bad Headline

This is a great example of a bad headline courtesy of Canada's 'National Newspaper', the Globe and Mail.

Suspect charged in Christmas-card killing

Read literally, it means the Christmas Card died.




SEE:
Headline Says It All

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Boy Soldiers, Boy Brides

In Afghanistan child soldiers, boys, are increasingly being used and abused.

Afghanistan's Child Soldiers

And in another old tradition child brides are not just girls in Afghanistan but boys as well, who are used by patriarchal warlords, police chiefs and other older men as boy brides.

Young boys are being sexually abused in Afghanistan

"Some men enjoy playing with dogs, some with women. I enjoy playing with boys," said 44-year-old Allah Daad, a one-time Mujahedin commander in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz

The practice of "bacha baazi", meaning "boy-play", is enjoying a resurgence in the North of Afghanistan where ownership is seen as a status symbol by militia leaders according to Afghan news site, e-Ariana.

While condemned by clerics and human rights groups, authorities are doing little to end it.Dancers, known as "bacha bereesh" or "beardless boys", are under 18, with 14 being the "ideal" age.

Owners or "kaatah" meet at bacha baazi parties in large halls where the boys dance late into the night, before being sexually abused.

Of course these manly he men are not gay, since there are no homosexuals in Islam. Nope of course not after all these are just boys dancing in drag.

This is not a new phenomena but a rather old one nor is it restricted to Afghanistan.


It was first reported on in the 19th Century by Sir Captain Richard Burton, who went undercover into the Hindu Kush and discovered the tradition of boy brides amongst the peoples of the region. He also discovered that British officers were using boy brides for their entertainment. His report got him summarily punished by the High Command who were embarrassed by his findings.

In revenge it is told that Burton held a dinner party and invited his commanding officers to attend. When they did they were treated to boy brides being present. Typical of Burton's rapacious wit and nasty sense of humour when the officers protested that they were scandalized by his use of boy brides, he assured them they were no such thing. He revealed they were in fact monkeys in drag.

Burton had actually worked on developing an early form of communication with the monkeys, which was lost when his collected notes and works were burnt posthumously by his widow.

Boy brides, child brides, child labour and child soldiers, the legacy of our war in Afghanistan.

It reveals the hypocrisy of the Conservatives claim we are there fighting for the rights of women and children.

This sobering image, showing a 40-year-old groom sitting beside his 11-year-old future bride in Afghanistan, brought Stephanie Sinclair top honors in the annual Photo of the Year 2007 contest sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

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