Peel For the Police

Those whacky cops with the Peel Police Department are at it again.

Transsexuals facing a strip search by Peel Region police should be allowed to choose the gender of the officer conducting the search, the Human Rights Commission has ruled.Peel police have also been ordered to produce a training video on transsexuality after the commission ruled the force violated the rights of a person undergoing a sex change. Transsexuals given choice on search

You have to wonder about macho he-men wanting to strip search she-males.

Of course there are those that contend that the authoritarian male urge to power, nifty uniforms and phallic weaponry is a form of repressed homosexuality. Such as Klaus Theweleit.

He wrote his dissertation about a literature produced by former soldiers who during the Weimar republic had organized in "Freikorps". i.e. paramilitary right-wing death squads ("Freikorpsliteratur und den Körper des soldatischen Mannes"). Nobody had cared to analyse this literature before Theweleit. His book Männerphantasien (1979), in english "Male fantasies" (1987), a study of fascist consciousness and the bodily experience of these former soldiers was well received. Theweleit used Wilhelm Reich, Felix Guattari and other theorists and discussed his findings with his wife who had clinical experience. He formulated his insights in a voluntarily nonacademic personal style. Klaus Theweleit: Information From Answers.com



Both of these folks are wearing uniforms one for gender bending and one for enforcing fear. Uniforms, costumes, etc. are social constructs, just as gender defininitons of masculine and feminine are.

Self fear and self loathing is the source of power over the other that makes up the authoritarian personality (cops, fascists, military, etc. armed and dangerous men). The police see us as the other; civilians if we are good, bad guys if we are not. But they are never of us. We are the other, and they are a power over us and are a power unto themselves. Which is why they do not so much enforce laws, as view themseleves as being the law. Which is why they feel they can break the laws or are above the law. Cops and Tasers

Hypermasculinity or the "macho personality constellation" is an example of extreme adherence to the masculine gender role. Mosher and Sirkin (1984) indicated that macho men believe that "violence is manly" and "danger is exciting," and they have sexually calloused attitudes toward women. They devised a scale to measure adherence to the macho personality and found that men high in hypermasculinity had a higher self-report of SA against women (Mosher & Anderson, 1986; Mosher & Sirkin, 1984). Mosher and Tomkins (1988) used script theory to discuss the development of the macho personality. They proposed that feelings such as excitement and anger are socialized to replace "inferior, feminine" feelings such as distress and fear. Macho men are taught such rules as "Don't be scared. Be brave. Be tough. Be daring. Become excited by the danger. Risk injury or death. Be proud of fearlessness. Be contemptuous of danger and cowards." Adolescent rites of passage in male peer groups and various aspects of American culture p erpetuate the macho script. According to this model macho males are more susceptible to peer influence because of rejecting parents. Fighting, seeking out danger, and calloused sexual encounters that are shared with peers help perpetuate this script. If "boys will be boys," then girls will be victims? A meta-analytic review of the research that relates masculine ideology to sexual aggression

Self fear and self loathing is also the tragedy of the personal life of many Transexuals and Drag Queens.

SUSAN SHAH Died Oct. 10, 2004

Yet another cautionary tale from the world of Porn. Transexual porn actress Susan Shah apparently committed suicide at age 36. Ms. Shah fell 20 stories from a New York apartment building. She had suffered from AIDS for 10 years. Ms. Shah was born a man and underwent sexual reassignment surgery. She appeared in several porn films under the name Princess Shah. She recently directed the PG-13 short film "A Step Ahead," which dealt with her sex change. She recently enrolled in film school at NYU. Prayers of comfort for her family and friends.

Transexuals on TV and in the Movies

• Showtime's "Soldier's Girl" (2003) revealed the true tale of how a GI was beaten to death in 1999 by other soldiers who were enraged by his relationship with Calpernia Addams, (a.k.a. Scottie) a transsexual nightclub performer. The movie tagline read: "She was the only man he ever loved."

  
  Lee Pace stars in
  'Soldier's Girl' on Showtime

Living in a heterosexist society, means that they fail to fit the norm. The personality and psyche is thus forced into a dualistic form of social schizophrenia, which means that as members of an erotic minority, they must conform to a norm which is not normal for them.

Guardian | Boys will be girls

Boys will be girls. What do you do when your child wants to be the opposite sex? Naomi Coleman examines the rise of gender identity disorder.

This is the real meaning of the sexual revolution, the freeing of erotic minorities from the oppression of social schizophrenia created by heterosexism.

PARADISE BENT

Screenplay: Heather Croall. Cinematography: Tony Wilson. Editing: Mark Atkin. Sound: Des Kenneally. Music: Andrew Hillam. Producer: Heather Croall. Video Colour 51'

When it comes to gender, there is a truly Samoan way of seeing the world. Paradise Bent tells the story of the Samoan fa'fafines: boys who are raised as girls and play an important domestic role in the Samoan culture. Although the anthropological spotlight has shone on Samoa many times this century, fa'fafines have never been mentioned. Is it possible the anthropologists just didn't notice them? The traditional role of the fa'fafines is now under threat, as the western drag scene filters into Samoa. The older fa'fafines are not impressed. Through our main character, Cindy, we see the complexities of life facing the modern day fa'fafines in Paradise.

Redefining Fa'afafine: Western Discourses and the Construction of Transgenderism in Samoa

Wife 'didn't realise husband was a woman' -- FOR 17 YEARS!!!!



Also See:

Metrosexual

Mirror Mirror On The Wall

Nazi Gay Killer Wanted to be a Cop

The Real Crime In Canada

The Sexual Revolution Continues

Whose Family Values?

SOME REMARKS ON WAR SPIRIT

HeShe Said

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CD, TV, transexuals, police, Ontario, Peel, human-rights, Canada, sexuality, gender, Reich, theweliet, gays, lesibans, bi, LBGT

Blog Spam

Our old pal Werner Patels is at it again.

Lets see he trolls and he spits venom, against his favorite straw man; The Left.

He attacks Scott Tribe, (because Patels was kicked off the Progressive Bloogers while Tribe was a moderator there).

He whines about James Bow and his blogroll. And sees conspiracies in the blogosphere, aimed at...wait for it...him Which could simply be good sense on the part of those who are removing his multiple blogs from their listings.

For the past two years he has produced multiple blogs, as he went from running for the Alberta Liberals and supporting the Federal Conservatives and Greens, to finally settling on becoming a Federal and Provincial Conservative.

Now he lists himself as a MA. As in; It's Alright MA (I Am Only Bleeding)
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

While having finally decided not to hide behind anonymous blogs, well except for this one, he has gone on to create a new field of blogging. Spam blogging.

Yep thats when you have more than six blogs, which repeat themselves over and over and over and over......his assertion is that the Left is intolerant. And by left he includes everyone this side of Attila the Hun.

The Left is not intolerant it is pseudo-right wingers like Patels who reveal themselves to be intolerant of others opinions. Which is of course why he blogs. Not that he has anything to say.

Here are a listing of his blogs, all of which should be avoided. Blogs are subject to change at Herr Patels whimsy.

	Werner Patels on Politics & Society
	Werner Patels on Media
	The German-English Translator: Werner Patels on Translation
	Werner Patels berichtet aus Kanada
	Musings about This and That
	En Français
	My Opinion

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The Bush Blair Show

On the end of the special relationship

Bush: Hmmm. I'll miss those red ties, is what I'll miss. I'll say one thing - he can answer the question - don't count him out. Let me tell it to you that way. I know a man of resolve and vision and courage. And my attitude is, I want him to be here so long as I'm the president.

Blair: Well, what more can I say? Probably not wise to say anything more at all.




Photo courtesy Madame Tussauds Wax Museum



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Cherry Picking Conservatives

The Harpocrites cherry pick which Liberal Government policies they will abide by. Let's see they support the War in Afghanistan, but will close the Gun registry, end funding to the provinces for day care and now this.

Kyoto deals abandoned?
OTTAWA - The federal government appears set to walk away from agreements worth millions of dollars that the Liberals had negotiated to help provinces cut greenhouse gas emissions

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Inside the Beltway

No one is interested in stories coming from inside the Belt Way is how the Bush regime south of the border justified its years of cherry picking who could ask questions at the White House Press Briefings . Sounds just like this.

Mr. Harper was challenged to produce specific evidence that the Ottawa press corps is biased. He didn't do that. Instead, he said the whole issue is so "inside Ottawa stuff" that the public is not interested in it. PM presses on in his feud with the news media



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Ken Lay and Son of Sam

What is it with criminals that once convicted of henious crimes they find Jesus? Or is this becoming Born Again Christian God stuff just their excuse for having been bad boys but now they are good. Honest. Honest to God we are nice guys.

Or is it that since the jails are full of guy's named Jesus, that they find God watching them in jail, more than he was when they committed their crimes.

Such moral self righteousness is enough to make one an athiest.


Judge orders prison interview for 'Son of Sam'
Heller said his client, who was born Jewish but claims to have become a devout Christian in prison, objected to the people he victimized being further exploited by Harmatz

Ken Lay is surrounded by police after the verdict

Lay and his family, who are members of one of Houston's largest Baptist congregations, remained in the courtroom, their hands joined in prayer. He was heard trying to comfort weeping relatives, saying: "God's got another plan right now."

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Stephen Trudeau Pierre Harper

Gallery dinner looks like a bust as GG declines
"We already know that Mr. Harper doesn't want to go. Gilles Duceppe hasn't been in years, and CTV has found out that the Governor General won't go to the dinner either," Thompson told CTV Newsnet. Pierre Trudeau was the last prime minister to boycott the dinner.

Oh this is rich. It took a couple of years for Trudeau to dis the media and the media to dis Trudeau. In three short months Harper has managed to Fuddle Duddle the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Ah well I am sure Jack would want to attend.

Experts weigh in on the Conservative media ban

Luc Lavoie, former communications director for Brian Mulroney, dismissed the notion that controlling the media is a Conservative tendency, arguing instead that it has a Liberal precedent.

"If a page was torn from anyone, it was torn from Pierre Elliott Trudeau," he said.

"The years of Pierre Eliot Trudeau Elliott Trudeau were years when Trudeau never spoke to (reporters). There were fights all the time and he couldn't care less about the media."

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Trudeau, Harper, GG, Canada, Press, Gallery, Ottawa, Politics, Media, Layton

On the Diotte

Kerry Diotte whose passion for privatization is only matched by his passion for sports is the city hall columnist for the Edmonton Sun. On rare occassions do I find myself agreeing with him. Yesterday was just such a case. He wrote a column about the failure of the Eastern Canadian Media to give the Oilers their due. Oilers getting short shrift

Comments I have seen in some blogs and in some press reports from folks in Toronto Canada attest to this. In fact the paucity of cheering for the Oilers by non-Edmonton bloggers even appears in the hockey column of the Canadian Blog Exchange.

Too bad sore losers. The Oilers are after all Canada's team. Not unlike the Blue Jays if they were to make the World Cup. But no for some folks in Toronto if the Leafs ain't in it, or Montreal, well we will move on to cheering the perennial losers the Raptors.

So now I find myself agreeing with Diotte two days in a row, yoiks. Wake up, Don! You're in Edmonton

I was downtown at a Quiznos and who should I line up behind but a gaggle of American sports reporters including Fox Sports Network, ABC, ESPN, etc. here to cover the game on Tuesday. Why? Because this is the real playoff game, Canada versus the U.S. Let me repeat that Canada versus the U.S.

It's time that the rest of the country joins in celebrating Canada's team cause we are going to the Stanely Cup.

Even this die hard Calgary Flames Fan is cheering for Edmonton.
Go Oilers Go!


Premier Klein holds up an Edmonton Oilers jersey in support of Alberta's team in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Now when will the Harper wear the Oilers jersey in the House?! Any day now would be good.

Also See: Hockey


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hockey, Edmonton, Oilers, Sun, Diotte, media, sports, Cherry, TSN, CBC, NHL, FSN, EPSN, Stanely=Cup

You Are Here

REDMONTON

edmonton - Google Maps

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Blogging Freedom in the Middle East

As blogs grow in numbers and influence, Arab states have become worried. A number of bloggers have been arrested in Bahrain, Syria and Tunisia. Throughout the recent conflict between the Egyptian government and the judiciary, bloggers have expressed their solidarity with the judges on the internet. When the security forces arrested a number of protestors who took to the street in support of the judges, six of those detained were renowned bloggers. They included Alaa Ahmad Said al Islam, who started a blog with his wife Manal. Governments vs. Bloggers: The Battle Continues… : Diana Mukkaled


Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Battle of the blogs

The arrest and then release of an Alexandria blogger has pushed the vibrant Egyptian blogosphere into the limelight. Amira Howeidy talks to some of its stars




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blogs, blogging, blog, blogger, Egypt, Baharain, Syria, Tunisia, Iran, freedom, arrests, censorship, WWW, internet, Mukkaled, Howiedy, Al-Aharam

More Alberta in Ottawa

Ah more evidence of the practices of the Conservative Government in Ottawa mirroring the practices of the Conservative Government in Alberta, again. In this case the Official Government of Canada Web Site morphing into the Conservative Party of Canada website. Yep just another little treat from Alberta for all you folks.

Ralph Klein Premiers Page

Ralph Klein PC Leaders Page


Also see: Ottawa, Alberta


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Calgary Fraud Funds Dubai Boom

A criminal cell operating across Canada is funnelling millions of dollars to Dubai to fund terrorist activities through a sophisticated credit/debit card fraud scheme, says the head of Alberta's Integrated Response to Organized Crime unit.''For one of the groups, it (cash) goes straight to terrorism in Dubai and some of the other countries. They live on nothing and send all their money to fund terrorist activities.'Canada fraud scheme linked to terrorist activities

This is idle speculation, with no factual basis to say it is going to terrorists. Or she would have named the guilty parties. Sure they know its going to Dubai, but it is just as likely to end up here.

Or considering the booming economy of Dubai, being hot money invested into this;

Dubai’s building frenzy lays foundation for global power The Gulf emirate is spending £140bn to transform itself into a capitalist powerhouse that will be a model for its neighbours.

Terrorism indeed. Obviously someone here is trying to get more funding for their department.

After this week's budget, taxpayers as well as voters and concerned citizens have even more reason to demand a full exposure of RCMP actions. Those reasons are only reinforced by a national capital consensus that, for a policeman, Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli is an usually skilled and determined politician. Budget renews concerns about RCMP

Terrorism is so much sexier than saying White Collar Crime which the RCMP have failed to prosecute effectively. The RCMP's IMET has little to show for itself


Also See:

The Joys of Telemarketing

Credit Card Fraud

Free Trade: Primitive Accumulation of Capital

White Collar Crime

Criminal Capitalism

Ponzi Schemes

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Time Stands Still

On Parliament Hill. We knew that. The Conservatives in an attempt to turn back the clock on thirteen years of Liberal rule, have somehow created a cosmic conundrum with the horology of the Peace Tower Clock. It has stopped for the first time since it was installed during the last Trudeau reign. Shocked perhaps by the antics of the Harpocrites, even the Peace Tower is protesting our new war mongering, law and order government.


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He Won't Share

Klein issues warning on sharing the wealth heck he won't share with Albertan's why would he share with the rest of Canada. Besides the fact that the only folks who really share in Alberta's wealth are the Petro Chemical Industry Cartel in Calgary. Come to think of it they are the Party of Calgary that Klein speaks for. And so does the Harpocrite.

Poll queries royalty

Albertans want a public review of the oilsands royalty system because they don't think the province is reaping maximum revenues, according to a new Pembina Institute poll.

The survey suggests 84% of Albertans want a review of the program that allows companies to pay a 1% royalty until their capital costs are paid.

Pembina economist Amy Taylor said oilsands production rose 88% between 1997 and 2005, but royalty revenues increased only 14%.

'DECLINING AMOUNT OF REVENUE'

"We're getting a declining amount of revenue from each barrel we're pulling out of the oilsands."

She said the royalty scheme, which requires companies to pay 25% only after paying off project costs, was created when oil prices were lower, costs were higher and oilsands technology was in its infancy.

"We think the regime should be updated to reflect current developments," Taylor said.

The Pembina findings are based on a phone survey of 500 Albertans between April 7 and 13, with a margin of error of 4.4%, 19 times out of 20.

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Canada, Provinces, Alberta, Oil, Energy, Klein, Royalties, Tar-Sands, Harper, Equalization, politics, wealth, surplus, economics, PC, Conservatives, Calgary, PetroIndustry

ACLU Hypocrites

They purged founding member and free speech fighter; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the IWW Rebel Girl, from the ACLU Board in the Forties for being a communist.

Today they demand their board take an oath of silence. ACLU May Block Criticism by Its Board

Typical liberals.

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Love Me I'mA Liberal, by Phil Ochs


A tip o' the blog to Alberta Ardvark


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Elizabeth-Gurley-Flynn, ACLU, IWW, Communist-Party-USA, Communist, Phil, Ochs, Liberal

Happy Birthday Bob

Bob Dylan turned 65 yesterday.

He obviously survived.

Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

And now he is a DJ on Sattelite Radio.

Even wierder; Australian actress Cate Blanchett has confirmed that she will play a young Bob Dylan - the name Zimmerman is slightly more familiar as across the globe -- in I'm Not There, reportedly the first Hollywood film the iconic and eccentric singer-songwriter has authorised on his life.

"It's horrible," he told Playboy 40 years ago, on one of the countless occasions when he was asked if being a folk hero was a position of great responsibility. "I'll bet Tony Bennett doesn't have to go through this kind of thing. I wonder what Billy the Kid would have answered to such a question."

Billy the Kid didn't engage in a book's worth of verbal showdowns with the press. But Dylan has, and now those interviews have been invaluably collected. In an irresistible new anthology edited by Jonathan Cott, one of the original editors of Rolling Stone and arguably the most simpatico writer ever to converse with Dylan, the interview format remains eminently readable through more than 400 pages.Bob Dylan and The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia

For fans of Bob see My Back Pages and Bringing It All Back Homepage

And what goes around comes around, Dylan the protest singer seems just as relevant today as he was waaay back in the early sixties.

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

Masters of War

Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build the big bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks You that never done nothin' But build to destroy You play with my world Like it's your little toy You put a gun in my hand And you hide from my eyes And you turn and run farther When the fast bullets fly Like Judas of old You lie and deceive A world war can be won You want me to believe But I see through your eyes And I see through your brain Like I see through the water That runs down my drain You fasten the triggers For the others to fire Then you set back and watch When the death count gets higher You hide in your mansion As young people's blood Flows out of their bodies And is buried in the mud You've thrown the worst fear That can ever be hurled Fear to bring children Into the world For threatening my baby Unborn and unnamed You ain't worth the blood That runs in your veins How much do I know To talk out of turn You might say that I'm young You might say I'm unlearned But there's one thing I know Though I'm younger than you Even Jesus would never Forgive what you do Let me ask you one question Is your money that good Will it buy you forgiveness Do you think that it could I think you will find When your death takes its toll All the money you made Will never buy back your soul And I hope that you die And your death'll come soon I will follow your casket In the pale afternoon And I'll watch while you're lowered Down to your deathbed And I'll stand o'er your grave 'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

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Bob, Dylan, music, protest-songs, Sixties, birthday

CBC on Bolivia

Once again the CBC shows why it is more like the BBC than CNN. In this 'fair and balanced' report by long time international reporter; Joe Schlesinger; EVO-LUTION!

The Bolivian revolution is explained and not spared coverage of its blemishes. The reality is that there is a social revolution occuring here, one that is part of a larger transformation in Latin America that offers all of us hope that the Struggle Continues. Real revolution, by real people, combating American Hegemony and global capitalism.


More on Bolivia


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CBC, Bolivia, Morales

It's My Party

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to
Cry if I want to, cry if I want to
You would cry too if it happened to you

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he'll no longer give news conferences for the national media, after a dispute led a number of journalists to walk away from an event when he refused to take their questions. Harper says he's finished with Ottawa press corps

Welcome to Ottawa, Alberta. As I predicted here the Harpocrite is using the tried and true tactics of the Alberta PC's in making the media feel small.

Also see:Ottawa, Alberta

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Da Vinci Vatican

The Vatican reviews the movie version of the Da Vinci Code and concludes it is long and boring.

Gee just like the Bible.










Also see:

Judas the Obscure

My Favorite Muslim

Antinominalist Anarchism

New Age Libertarian Manifesto

The Morning Star

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The Job Creation Myth

Precarious labour describes those whose work is part time, home work or based on outsourcing. Often described as "self employed", it produces an illusion of the private consultant, home based worker, self employed trades-man, etc.

The reality is much different. With the move by the Neo-Liberal State in Canada to Reinvent Government, large numbers of public sector jobs were contracted out. In some cases this meant those whose expertise was vital to a partiuclar department were allowed to contract back to the Government, or under legislation now sell their services in place of a government department.

In most cases though it meant contracting out and outsourcing, creating a vast army of temporary or replaceable contract workers, who have no beneftis and suffer under low pay regimes. It saved the government millions in benefits and wages. It save corporations and small employers the same. They are not obliged to pay benefits to contract workers, nor do these workers have the right to unionize.

As self employed consultant, and Career Activist Mark Swartz points out;

"The illusion of growth is most evident in the private sector, which
misleadingly counts self-employment as full-time, private sector jobs," says
Swartz. This grossly distorts the employment picture. Of this year's 80.7M new
private sector positions, fully 51.2M, nearly 2/3rds, are self-employment, not
real jobs. He notes "Historically self-employment has hovered around 15% of
total employment. Recent statistics suggest a growing deficit in genuine jobs
masked by inflated rates of self-employment."

Which means that with the increase in precarious employment, those jobs are here today and gone tommorow. And of course give us another reason to quote; "lies, damned lies and statistics"


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The Joys of Telemarketing

Telemarketing is big business in Canada. We are second behind India in outsourced telemarketing services for U.S. corporations. But of course with the growth in this precarious labour market of outsourcing comes another Canadian specialty; White Collar Crime.


Massive fraud sting leads to 400 Canadian charges

Canada is notorious as a source of boiler room rip off operations. It has expanded from being a small room with phones to the Internet. And it is a natural for telemarketing.

Of course we should not be surprized since captialism is by its nature a criminal enterprize and we do celebrate entrepreneurial spirit.


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Lucky Number 7

A drop in the Canadian dollar in the past two weeks gave the Bank of Canada just enough breathing room to deliver its seventh consecutive - and likely final - interest rate increase Wednesday morning.

Seven rate hikes and of course David Dodge and the Bank of Canada do it again.

Bank of Canada raises overnight rate target by 1/4 percentage point to 4 1/4 per cent

And of course they just can't help themselves. Since the Bank no longer controls money production in Canada nor the Banking establishment, it has to do something to justify its existence.

Such as practicing the ancient art of prestidigitation.

" Recent Canadian data confirm that domestic demand remains solid, and that both CPI and core inflation are evolving largely in line with the Bank's expectations."

Oh how prescient of them, reading entrails again I suppose. As the dismal science this is right up there with weather reporting and astrology.

Except that their expectation is to keep inflation at 2%, while in April it was was reported at 1.6% . Below the Banks expectation, perhaps they are upset it was lower than expected so the rate increase is to get it UP to 2%. Yep that makes a lot of sense.

The result is that the Banks have increased their prime lending rate to 6%.

Some wags have reported that the Bank is signaling a pause in its Long March of increasing interest rates, though again one has to peer into a glass darkly to read that out of their press release. I guess the experienced prestidigitator could see this in their reading of the entrails.

The fact is that our advantage is our Flexible Exchange Rate meant that there was no real need to up the interest rates. But the Bank already made up its mind that's what it was gong to do and by gawd they did it. And the reason all this concern for inflation?

Well you can blame the last Conservative government which introduced the GST.

The key objectives of Canada’s inflation targets,
when they were originally announced in 1991, were
to prevent inflation from accelerating in the short
run in the face of the introduction of the new Goods
and Services Tax (GST) and a sharp rise in oil prices
and, in the longer run, to bring inflation down to a
level consistent with price stability.

Over time, the importance of other favourable
characteristics of inflation
targets as a permanent operating framework for
monetary policy has become increasingly apparent to
us at the Bank of Canada. The most notable of these
characteristics are increased transparency, better accountability,
improved internal decision making, and
a mechanism for responding to demand and supply
shocks that reduces potential fluctuations in output.

I would not argue that explicit inflation targets are
the only way to achieve good macroeconomic results.
Indeed, the worldwide reduction of inflation in the
1990s across countries with different frameworks for
monetary policy clearly indicates that there are a
number of ways to achieve low inflation.

GORDON G. THIESSEN
Governor of the Bank of Canada

Say wouldn't a deline in the GST by 1% have been good news for the Loonie and avoided this rate increase? Guess not.

And you know who else rolled a Lucky Number & why the Banks, well the BMO anyways.

Bank of Montreal Q2 profit up 7.1% at $644M; dividend boosted

And while shareholders will celebrate, us peons, the folks that use the banks, well we sure do get the shaft, low interest on our savings, and service charges out the wazoo. See; Bank Charges

Not all the banks made big bucks with the rise in the Loonie. The financial sector was the biggest sectoral decliner as Royal Bank (TSX:RY) lost 47 cents to $46.58 and Scotiabank (TSX:BNS) fell 72 cents to $44.70.

Which will be excuse the Royal Bank will use to justify their proposed increase in service rates to be introduced on, wait for it....July 1. Canada Day. Gives ya something to celebrate.




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Revolt of the Fifth Estate

His Majesty King Stephen the First has ticked off the fifth estate. Journalists boycott Harper news conference as media battle heats up Now if only the other four Estates would follow suit, we good bring back public executions of the autarch. After all the King is in favour of Law and Order, something the French Revolution executed quite well. And why pray tell is the Fifth Estate ticked off, well because King Stephen is using King George the Second's play book, again.

The Prime Minister's Office insists on choosing who gets to ask questions based on a list it compiles.


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A Critique of P3's From The Right

As regular readers will know I have been critical of P3's, public private partnerships, from the Left. Now here is an interesting critique of them from the Liberaltarians around the Von Mises (pronounced by Sylvester as von meeses) Institute.

Unfortunately the author misses the point that it was the neo-cons who promoted the Reinvention of Government the liberaltarian ideal of getting the State out of business and business to take up the slack of the state, in other words his arguement is upside down. In fact it is the folks at Von Mises and others like the CATO and Fraser Institutes that promote the so called free market ideology that promote P3's.

His critique of sustainable development suffers from a similar misunderstanding of the political economy of the neo-liberal state. The State has been run by the neo-cons for more than twenty years and sustainable development is their way of creating a Greener capitalism without actually investing in industrial ecology or social ecology.

Once again the Liberaltarians fail to understand the simple fact that the State is a manifestation of Capitalism. In their efforts to create a mythology of a pure and simple capitalism, they view the State as somehow apart and separate from its birthmother, modern capitalism. It is not the State that hinders capitalism, on the contrary it is the State which abets and promotes capitalism. Their argument is based upon a percieved American exceptionalism and thus remains a-historical and a flight of fantasy.

While their key argument that big business and its state hinder markets, competition, free association remain cogent, it not a question of either or but rather the elimination of both. See: Libertarian Dialectics

Public-Private Partnerships, The Undermining of Free Enterprise, and the Emergence of “Soft Fascism”

There are now thousands of public-private partnerships in place throughout the country, engaging in activities ranging from building roads and neighborhoods to providing waterand wastewater services to renovating government schools to overseeing the management
of real estate to providing health care. This number seems destined to grow in theimmediate future.

It is fair to say that public-private partnerships have been accepted
without question by the ‘mainstream’ of both government and business. This is because a new ‘paradigm’ for the relationship between the two has emerged, verygradually, over the past few decades. This ‘paradigm,’ of course, is that of sustainable development, which combines the power of the purse, one might call it, with the power of
the sword. The resources of business (the power of the purse) are utilized to do the work of “governance” (the power of the sword)—with the former’s full cooperation and support.

The reports we cited noted several examples of what appear to all intents and purposes to be successful public-private partnerships—successful, that is, in achieving the ends wanted within government.

Expansionist or interventionist government—the idea that government should undertake responsibility for managing huge portions of a country’s economy and infrastructure—is taken for granted, but limits on the capacity of government to effect change by itself are acknowledged. The solution to the problem of the limits on the capacity of government, in the new paradigm, is to employ the resources of business, in a way that brings business fully on board and enlists it as collaborator—or partner.

Of course, the larger the business the better, because bigger businesses tend to have deeper pocketbooks than smaller businesses. The critics of public-private partnerships usually cited in the favorable literature are not those who do not trust government but those who do not trust business.

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Bilderburger

Over 200 Billion controlled. That would be the motto of the Bilderberg Conference if this secret society of the ruling class was branded like MacDonalds, the other burger baron.

Apparently one of our favorite 'secret' ruling class conclaves will be meeting in Canada, north of Ottawa, in June.

The secretive group known as Bilderberg will hold its annual secret meeting at the posh Brook Street Resort a few miles from Ottawa, Canada, June 8-11.

The location and part of the agenda was disclosed to American Free Press by a source inside Bilderberg’s inner circle.

High on the Bilderberg’s secret agenda this year are oil prices and the political upheaval in Latin America. When meeting last year in Rottach-Egern, Germany, Bilderberg called for dramatic increases in the price of oil. Oil prices started climbing immediately from $40 a barrel to $70.

Whether Bilderberg will call for still higher prices is unclear, but Henry Kissinger and others had gleefully anticipated ultimate prices at $150 a barrel a year ago. Bilderberg is certainly concerned about supply, which is related to the “Latin American problem,” as one insider said.

Approximately 120 international leaders in politics and finance will also discuss the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has caused a rare breach between American Bilderbergers and their European counterparts since the United States Iraq invasion in 2003. Whether the United States should invade Iran is also high on the agenda.

Media coverage of the Bilderberg conference is extermely limited as many of the ruling class media barons and their syncophants attend. See Aaron Bratens Open Letter to the Bilderberg Steering Committee

For more on ruling class conspiracies see: Conspiracy Theory or Ruling Class Studies

For more on the Bildgerberg Conferences

We all know of the Davos meeting of the Ruling Classes but before that there was the Bilderberg Conference. Davos too was a secret meeting till after it was exposed during the Seattle Protests, and the creation of the mass democratic alternative World Social Forum.

When the ruling class gathers to hold its secret meetings to plan our futures we should all be worried. It proves that the Executive branch of capitalism, view democracy as only convinient if it is representative of their interests, which is why they dominate all of the political parties that vie for parlimentary power.

the bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of Modern Industry and of the world market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative state, exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie. THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO

Now those that see conspiracies everywhere might be forgiven for thinking that this meeting is coincidental with Canada's economic dominace with the petro-dollar and the election of the Conservatives, since Harper has attended previous Bilderberg Conferences.

Steven Harper and the Bilderbergers Secret Meeting : Thunderbay IMC


Your Exeutive Committee of the Canadian Ruling Class:

The ruling class has many coordinating committees, and like most corporations they share interlocking boards of directors.

Ralph Klein attended the 1995 Bilderberg meeting while floods ravished the south of the province and forest fires decimated the North. It was a good time for a trip abroad. He was invited by long standing Bilderberg Steering Committee member and international corporate criminal; Conrad Black.

Alberta is also home to members of the Trilateral Commission, another executive committee of the ruling class; Ron Southern of ATCO-Frontenac. Meetings are held at Southern's Spruce Meadows equistrian ranch in Calgary. Bill Graham is also a member as is Allan Gotlieb The international importance of Ron Southern cannot be underestimated last year the Summit of the Americas held a closed confernce at Spruce Meadows.

The Head of the Carlyle Group is a member of the Trilateral Commission. It is well known that ex-Premier Frank Mcekenna is a member of the Carlyle Group, but so is another Ex Premier. Peter Lougheed is a member of the Carlyle Group along with the political king maker Paul Desmarais of Power Corporation.

And of course we would be remiss if we did not mention the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the ultimate executive committee of the ruling class in Canada of which David Emerson is a prominant member as is Derek Burney.

The fact that Burney was Harpers advisor and a corporate colleague of Emerson's may have helped when Harper got Emerson tocross the floor.

Ladies and Gentlemen these are your Board of Directors of the Canadian Ruling Class.

Also See:

Bilderberg

Conspiracy Theory or Ruling Class Studies

Conspiracy Theories



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Quebec Hydro Created Kyoto

Charest to go it alone on Kyoto climate accord is the headline in the Globe and Mail.

Nothing surprizing with this, since it was the Chairman of Quebec Hydro, political scion of the Power Corporation, Maurice Strong who chaired the Rio round of talks on the environment, when petit Jean Charest was Environment Minister in the Mulroney government. Kyoto was Canada's creation. Before Jean Chretien ( another Quebecois aligned to Power Corp) signed it, Kyoto was the creation of Strong and Hydro Quebec.

It is the reason Mulroney was given the Greenist PM award by the environmental movement. Kyoto was his legacy. Ironic it was a Conservative government that created Kyoto and now it is a Conservative government that wants to destroy it.

The difference between the Conservative Party of the Past and today is that the Mulroney government was dominated by Quebec and its capitalist ruling class, todays Conservative party is dominated by the interests of Calgary and its petro-industry ruling class.


See: Harper Has Already Abandoned Kyoto

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