Thursday, September 14, 2006

Car Registry Didn't Prevent This

We license drivers, we have a car registry yet it didn't prevent this....


Six children hit by car
A lunch hour hit-and-run accident in Scarborough sent six young children to hospital with minor injuries today after a vehicle jumped a curb in front of a public school.

Any more than a gun registry can prevent what happened at Dawson College yesterday.
The Gun Registry didn't save Anastacia DeSousa rants a Blogging Tory stating the obvious.

Well duh. So if I follow the logic of the blathering Rightwhingers we should get rid of driver licenses and car registration too.

See:

Right Whing Whines About Gun Registry

Gun Control


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Peter Heart Condi

Gone but not forgotten.

The day after Condi left Peter for important affairs of state and not just affairs of the heart, the media is all gossip about the romance of the Maritimes.

When has that ever happened, that reporting on a visit to Timmies and lobster dinner the night before took precidence over a terror attack in the Middle East........

Holding her Timmies coffee addressing the crisis in Syria as Peter looked longingly on, the media finally catch on to Le Affaire.

"She learned a little bit more about life in Atlantic Canada ... She learned about important things, like a double-double," MacKay said, raising laughter.

The media have finally noticed what we in the blogosphere already figured out, that after Belinda, Peter has found solace in the ocean breezes shared in his hometown with his favorite American gal. Rice warms to 'cool, Atlantic breezes'

Rice, MacKay have good 'professional relationship,' US State Dept

Rumour mill churning over the MacKay-Rice relationship

Playing 'Match Up' Diplomacy With Condi

When `stars' collide

Rice laughs off romance rumours

Rice keeps her cool as papers play matchmaker

Condi reaches accord with Canadian envoy

When Condi flies north, diplomatic gossips feel the earth move

Gossips match Rice with Canadian MP

Times has fun with Peter, Condi connection

Foreign affairs, indeed

Rice is above the clouds with Peter MacKay

Condi and the Bachelor

A DATE FOR PETER AND CONDI


To bad none of them got the obvious headline....Cougar spotted in Pictou County.

Though I think this headline says it almost as well;
Rice-MacKay romance 'good laugh'

Of course there are always spoil sports in the blogosphere that think more important issues should have been discussed such a softwood lumber, northern sovereignty, or global warming. But I say pishaw the warm relations between Peter and Condi are a lot more fun. Lighten up. Besides I am sure that Peter's mind was on wood but not the soft kind.

We Canadians are a nation that would rather make love than war, and in this case Le Affaire Peter and Condi certainly has warmed the cockles of our hearts. Especillay after the five year old belated thank you for 9/11. And this is very much different than how we see U.S. Canada relations between Bush and Harper....
Canadians Don't Like Harper's Romance with Bush

And though both of them are warmongers, this is Atlantic Canada afterall home of romance. Witness the success of gay marriage cruises in Halifax Harbour organized by Rosie O'Donnell. Indeed there may be actually something to all this since the Blogging Tories were noticeably silent abou it.

But Condi can be tough, indeed look at who Rice attacked on her visit with Peter; his arch nemisis Jack Layton....
Rice hammers NDP Plank , The cougar defends her boy. Bet it's not just the NDP she hammered. Payback for the Timmies, maybe?

GALLANT GESTURE: Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay reaches for his wallet yesterday before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice can pay at a Tim Hortons coffee shop in Pictou, N.S. But the cashier trumped MacKay's largesse: The beverages were on the house.
. Foreign relations? (2:32)
CNN's Jeanne Moos has a romantic take on Condoleezza Rice's visit with her Canadian counterpart (September 13)


Also See:

Peter McKay



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Malalai Joya's Speech at NDP Convention

Dear friends,

The USA is not concerned with the main cause behind terrorism in Afghanistan. That is why our people don't consider the US as "liberator" of our country.

Hope you have realized from the small parts of problems that I just shared, that my country is still in chains of bloody and terrorist fundamentalists. The situation in Afghanistan and conditions of its ill-¬fated women will never change positively, as long as the warlords are not disarmed and both the pro-¬US and anti-US terrorists are removed from the political scene of Afghanistan.

I think that no nation can donate liberation to another nation. Liberation should be achieved in a
country by the people themselves. The ongoing developments in. Afghanistan and Iraq prove this claim. .

I think if Canada and other governments really want to help Afghan people and bring positive changes, they must act independently, rather than becoming a tool to implement the wrong policies of the US government. They must align themselves to the wishes and needs of Afghan people and stop any kind of support to the warlords and reactionary and ignorant element within the system. Only by such policy, they can gain people's trust and will prove themselves as real friends of Afghan people.

We are deeply sorry for the deaths of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. If the Canadian government could not act independently rather than following Pentagon's. agenda, we are afraid the efforts of Canadian troops will first of all serve the US government and not the Afghan people.

We want the Canadian government must stress on the fact that criminals like Sayyaf, Rabbani, Qanooni, Mohaqiq, Fahim, Mullah Rakiti, the Khalqis and Parchamis should be removed from power and put on trial. The Canadian policy makers must know that warlords of the “northern alliance" are equally responsible for the plight of Afghani people and the current tragedy in Afghanistan.

I am well aware of the hardships, challenges, and death from anti-democracy forces, but I trust my people. One day they may kill me as they have gun and power and support of the US government, but they can never silence my voice and hide the truth.

Thank you

Malalai Joya



Also See:

NDP

Afghanistan



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Pride

Ignatieffs campaign slogan is Liberal Pride. Is this a clever take off on Gay Pride? Hoping to appeal to that huge demographic of urban gay voters? Is this because he has the backing of openly gay Ashley MacIssac? Is Ashley sober now?

And look at what he is auctioning off.

..
Lobsters, Cape Breton whisky, a $100 gold coin, and Ashley MacIsaac in your kitchen? Check out the new additions to Michael’s online auction just released today.

Ashley in my kitchen I would be careful about that you don't know what he might put in the food.

Ashley was considering a run for Liberal leader himself but now it appears he is backing Ignatieff. Is it a coincidence that Ashley released an album called Pride as part of his leadership campaign and now thats Ignatieffs chosen slogan?



Information on Ashley's new release, Pride

Why not throw his support behind fellow Maritimer and out politician Scott Brison?

I wonder if Cherniak and Kinsella know about this and how come they have been so quiet about Canada's favorite gay bad boy.

Wait actually Cherniak was thrilled that Ashley showed up at an Iggy thingee in T.O. And he was even tolerant of Ashley, considering it was youth for Iggy he didn't make any crusining comments about Ashley, unlike his smear campaign against DiNovo.....

As they say Pride cometh before the fall.

As always I try to be "fair and balanced."


Also See

Liberal Leadership Race




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Damn Fine Environmental Blogs


There are a couple of members of the Progressive Bloggers that focus on the environment and they are damn fine blogs. I reccomend them highly.

stolen moments of island time

Thoughts on Climate Change - a Canadian perspective



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Atlantic Canada Employment Strategy

Like the Liberals before them the Harpocrites are using the same old employment strategy for Atlantic Canada....Military ads target Atlantic Canadians

Except instead of job training the armed forces are aggresively recruiting for combat. I guess this is Harpers idea of helping Atlantic Canada overcome it's " culture of defeat."

However considering our current quagmire in Afghanistan the cynical mightbe forgiven for thinking that's the Tories way of also reducing the have not population of the Maritimes.



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Polski Ogorki

Which is a Polish pickle. And Poland announced it will provide extra troops to NATO for Afghanistan getting itself into a pickle of a predicament.....but before everyone starts cheering read on....

Poland will send at least 900 more troops to Afghanistan by early next year, the defense minister announced, but NATO officials said the deployment was part of a planned force rotation and would not alleviate the alliance's need for more troops.

Sigh, looks like more Canadian troops will have to pick up the slack.
All in favour sign up now.


Also See:

NATO

Afghanistan





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200 Taliban

I wonder if the two hundred Taliban NATO claims to have killed were these guys.....

US Forces Have Taliban Funeral In Sights - Hold Fire


Also See:

NATO

Afghanistan





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Life Is A Video Game


"Meet The Dawson College Shooter"

"Life is a video game, you've got to die sometime."

That sums it up...we are all becoming victims of Doom and other first person shooter games.

And this emotional plague is only going to spread wider as these games move to cellphones and IPods....
Nokia, EA team up to offer games

And those of you who think the emotional plague inherent in violent video games has no impact well remember Columbine, they practiced with first person shooters.

'Columbine' Game Was Gunman's Favorite



The mesmerizing impact of living in a video game is an expression
of alienation
in modern atomistic society.

I am arguing that children and teenagers are spending much of their time in simulations, rather than in the natural or “real” world. It is an argument, which if true, has serious implications for not only our children, but also for the future of our society. Essentially, I believe that the unreal, the simulation, the simulacra has been substituted for the real in the lives of our children. This occurs at many different levels: in the video games that are so much a part of the experience of contemporary childhood; in the shopping malls and “commercial civic spaces” where our children spend so much of their time; in television programs, advertisements and movies; in the theme parks where we vacation; in the online chat rooms and discussion programs through which we communicate and exchange information; and finally, in the images of beauty and sexuality that run as a powerful undercurrent through much of our culture and the lives of our children.
Let me begin by reflecting a bit on the information included on the recently released videotapes made by Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold shortly before the Columbine High School shootings last year.
It is very clear that Harris and Klebold wanted to tell the world a story whose script they seem to have learned through the entertainment media—particularly from ultra-violent films and video games. Harris tells his story in front of a video camera with a bottle of Jack Daniels and a sawed-off shotgun cradledin his lap
.

Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. Professor School of Education University of Miami


The result is not a mass cultural phenomena (each case like Dawson or Columbine appears isolated in itself ) which allows proponents of gaming to dismiss criticism. Rather it is an individual who lives in their game and acts out in mass culture. Something the defenders of gaming cannot account for. Even though they know full well these games originated in the military and are used for training the armed forces.

Those who would say that this is not so use statstical data on crime rates in relation to violent video games to dismiss the critics.

The North American research seems somewhat oblivious to the (mostly European) social science research on media effects that suggests the importance of particular context in explaining violent behaviour;

The reality is that those susceptible to the emotional plague will succumb to living these games out in reality.
This video computer simulacrum, as Baudrillard calls it, becomes their real life.

Canada Gunman Blogged on Violence, Murder

On a Web site filled with obscenities and hatred for authority, Gill posted a log and about 50 pictures of himself, many of them posing with a semi-automatic rifle and wearing a long black trenchcoat and boots.

In rambling and angry blog entries, using the identification fatality666, Gill raved about video games involving shooting, and said "I love guns. . . . I really do. The great equalizer. . . . wouldn't you say?"

His log entries often evoked scenes of random shootings. In one, predictive of the drizzly weather Wednesday when the shootings occurred, he wrote, "The disgusting human creatures scream in panic and run in all directions, taking with them the lies and deceptions. The Death Night gazes at the humans with an empty stare, as they knock each other down in a mad dash to safety. He wishes to slaughter them as they flee. . . ."

Kimveer Gill
A picture from Kimveer Gill's Blog



In the psychological system of Wilhelm Reich, the "emotional plague" exists as a sort of mental disease which spreads throughout societies whose members are genitally blocked, i.e., incapable of genuine, healthy sexual love or expression. Hating life, creativity and freedom, and terrified that their own frustrated drives could explode uncontrollably at the slightest provocation, victims of the "emotional plague" cope by seeking to control, punish, and censor others who are healthy.Emotional Plague


We see that the compass of the emotional plague coincides approximately with the broad compass of social abuse, which has always been and still is combatted by every social freedom movement. With some qualifications, it can be said that the sphere of the emotional plague coincides with that of “political reaction” and perhaps even with the principle of politics in general. This would hold true, however, only if the basic principle of all politics, namely thirst for power and special prerogatives, were carried over into those spheres of life which we do not think of as political in the usual sense of the word.

The Emotional Plague by Wilhelm Reich Originally appeared as Chapter 16 of Reich’s book ‘Character Analysis’

the emotional plague
A term initially proposed by Wilhelm Reich for the psychological syndrome
marked by irrational insistence on beliefs and ideas that depend on dissociation
of mind from body. Reich also refered to it as "the neurotic character in destructive
action on the social scene"
. Though this dissociation has plagued humanity for many
centuries, it wasn’t until the “The Age of Reason” that the abstract intellect was
exalted to god-like status with Newton’s theories and Descartes’ “Meditations”.
The current era of emotional plague has accelerated via the massive collective
projection of physical, emotional and sexual energy into mental, or virtual,
mediums such as the internet, VR technology, video games, mass media
advertising, and television. If emotional plague is caused by disassociating
mind from body, its confusion can be easily maintained by mistaking
the virtual for the real, by taking an image or an idea of a reality
for the reality itself; eating the menu instead of the meal, etc.

paratheatre manifesto, pt. 1


"The emotional plague is a chronic biopathy of the organism. It made an inroad into human society with the first mass suppression of genital sexuality; it became an endemic disease, which has been tormenting people the world over for thousands of years. [...] Epidemic outbreaks of emotional plague became manifest in widespread and violent breakthroughs of sadism and criminality, on a small and large scale. One such outbreak was the Catholic Inquisition of the Middle Ages; the international fascism of the 20th century is another.
If we do not look upon the emotional plague as an illness in the strict sense of the word, we would run the risk of mobilizing the police against it, instead of medicine and education. The nature of the emotional plague necessitates police force, and this is how it is spread. It does indeed represent a grave threat to life, but one that will never be eliminated by the police force.
[...]The ascetic, plague-ridden individual uses ethical odes to justify his sexual debility. The justification has nothing to do with the manner in which he lives, which is there before the justification. The healthy person will not want to impose his way of life on anyone but he will cure and he will help others when he is asked and when he is capable. [...] Thus, it is not surprising that truthfulness and straightforwardness, though highly extolled modes of behavior, are rarely encountered in human intercourse. [...] The fact that they are not, that they are looked upon with astonishment, that truthful and straightforward men and women are considered freaks, a bit 'touched in the head', all this cannot be explained on the basis of the ruling cultural ideology...we must turn to our knowledge of the organized emotional plague.
It cannot be assumed that any freedom movement will have any chance of achieving its goals if it does not sharply and clearly confront the organized emotional plague with truthfulness."
Character Analysis
Wilhelm Reich
Noonday Press 1972



Also See

Chris McKinstry

When AI commits suicide

Make Friends and Kill Yourself



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