Drug Addict Attacks Fox

Drug addled, drug addict; Rush Limbaugh on Michael J. Fox: ‘I Take Back None of What I Said’





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Money For Nothing

Is a song by Dire Straits. And it is the way oil companies and their partners in Africa do business. It's called Free Trade. And in Russia it's called Mafia Capitalism. Corruption by any other name....

African minister took cut of oil contracts

In an unusually frank admission about the mechanics of business in oil-rich West Africa, a top Equatorial ­Guinean official has said that companies owned by ministers often bid for ­government contracts with foreign groups and, if successful, receive “a percentage of the total contract the company gets”.

Teodorin Nguema Obiang, the 37-year-old son and likely successor of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, made the statement in a sworn affidavit to Cape Town’s High Court, where his lawyers will today oppose the seizure of two luxury houses he owns in the city. Equatorial Guinea is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer.

However, in an extraordinary admission in his affidavit, the president’s son ­testified that ministers and public servants in Equatorial Guinea were allowed to own companies bidding for ­government contracts with foreign groups which, if ­successful, would receive “a percentage of the total contract the company gets”.

This, he told the court, “means that a cabinet minister ends up with a sizeable part of the contract price in his bank account”.

Non-governmental groups campaigning against corruption in the oil industry have long contended that officials in Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo-Brazzaville, and other oil-rich West African states have made untold sums by profiting from foreign business contracts, often in contravention of local laws.

However, statements to that effect by African officials themselves are rare.

And of course its not limited to just Guinea...

Nigeria’s Faltering Federal Experiment

Nigeria’s federal system and politics are deeply flawed, contributing to rising violence that threatens to destabilise one of Africa’s leading countries. Failing to encourage genuine power sharing, they have sparked dangerous rivalries between the centre and the 36 states over revenue from the country’s oil and other natural resources; promoted no-holds-barred struggles between interests groups to capture the state and its attendant wealth; and facilitated the emergence of violent ethnic militias, while politicians play on and exacerbate inter-communal tensions to cover up their corruption. The government has been quick to brand many of the symptoms, especially the rise of militancy, as simple criminality to be dealt with by more police and more troops. But unless it engages with the underlying issues of resource control, equal rights, power sharing and accountability, Nigeria will face an internal crisis of increasing proportions.

See:

Africa

Oil





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Alberta State Capitalism

As the Government of Ralph Klein sleepwalks on until a new party leader is chosen, it begins to look like the old Getty government. Gone is the mantra Government has no business being in business as it gives millions to Cargill the global agribusiness giant to expand its beef processing plant in Spruce Grove. Of course Gargill and Tysons and other big beef processors already reaped millions during the BSE crisis.

And will reap millions more as the Federal Tories hand them taxpayers dollars to develop their ethanol and biodiesel programs here in Canada. Both the BSE program of the Alberta Tories and now the Federal Tories Hot Air plan are toutedto be helping farmers, when in reality it is big agribusiness giants like Tysons, Cargill and Archer Daniels Midlands (ADM) that really benefit.

This is another reason for the destruction of the Wheat Board, to open up Canada's grain market to Cargill and ADM. It all began way back with the last Conservative government.The Ethanol Scam: ADM and Brian Mulroney


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Polygamy is NOT Polyamoury

Polygamy or as it is sometimes called plural marriage, is one man with many wives. It is an extension of monogamy and approved of in the old testament, along with holding of slaves. It is inherent in the Judeao-Christian-Islamic patriarchical religions. It is also a key element of Mormonism, which is a psuedo-Christian sect, one that is the largest fastest growing religions in the United States. While the Mormons today renounce polygamy, it is in Utah where it is practiced the most, as it once was in Canada.

It is not the communist polygamy that Engels speaks of as existing prior to the privatization of property relations. That form of common property holding was held by women, and was the basis of matrilinear descent.

Nor is it polyamoury the movement begun in the sixties with the writings of Robert Rimmer and Robert Heinlein. The new ployamoury movement is about equality, and open marriage, a recognition that monotheism=monogamy. While real human relationships are communal, cooperative and voluntary. It is the libertarian ideal of Free Love taken to its logical communist conclusion.

See my aticles: Marx on Bygamy and What Has Love Got To Do With It.

So polygamy is back in the news again..... Whats interesting is that it is being discussed in the context of rights. Womens and childrens rights versus religious rights (of the religious right, since Mormons are strong supporters of the neo-con right). The B.C. government avoids the religious issue by dealing with it as a criminal case of abuse.

Polygamy violates rights: Ottawa

Study says Canada breaking international law by turning blind eye to polygamist communities
A Canadian report says that the country's laissez-faire attitude towards a polygamist community violates its obligation to protect women and children.

The practice of polygamy is illegal. But men in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints have been allowed to have multiple wives without prosecution, Canwest News Service said.

"Polygamy is a violation of international law," Rebecca Cook, a University of Toronto law professor who wrote the report, said. "Canada has an obligation as a matter of international law to take all appropriate steps."

Her report was commissioned by the former Liberal government.

BC attorney general says he's more worried about sex assault than polygamy

But what about the boys eraised in polygamous marriages?

Global Televsion does a documentary on the fact that patriarchical religious polygamy replicates the pack tradition of other species like male lions, where the old men chase away the younger men to keep their pride to themselves. As it is written in the Old Testament. All the patriarchs who had multiple wives were the old men of Judah.

'Lost boys' of polygamy tell their stories
It's simple arithmetic in polygamous societies such as Bountiful, B.C. Some men get many wives, others get none.

It's usually older men who get second, third and sometimes more wives -- brides who are usually teenagers.

Left behind are angry, frustrated young men. Not only can they not choose their mates, they have been told that it's against Church rules to date or even socialize with girls their age.

A few lucky young men do get wives. But it can feel like entrapment. One day they wake up and are told they're marrying a stranger for "time and all eternity" in the words of the fundamentalist Mormon faith's marriage ceremony.

There was one exception, to David and the patriarchs practice of polygamy. Solomon who was crowned by his mother and who practiced a different kind of polygamy, one that recognized the power and prestige of the priestesses of the Goddess cults that surrounded Jerusalem. Solomon was a matriaist, and followed matrilineal descent for his power base, hence Israel was finally at peace with its neighbours and Solomon could build the famous temple that would become the icon for all time for the power of Israel within Jewish and Christian mythology. See my article: Historical Revisionism

Back in February the right wing neo-cons were outraged over the initial report that found polygamy did not violate Canadian laws because of the contradiction between religious freedom, something of course they demand we practice as long as its their brand of Judeo-Christianity, and criminal civil law. Hence the Cook report.

They used the inital report to denounce Canada's liberal same sex laws as leading to the decline of Western Civilization, that is the acceptance of polygamy. Except that they avoided dealing with ther simple fact that polygamy is based on the Old Testament testament teachings, whether it is practiced by Mormons, who like them are social conservatives, or by Muslims, who like them are Abrahamic patriarchs.

In the case of Stanley Kurtz he deliberately confused polyamoury with polygamy. His purpose was clear, to attack open marriage as advocated by the polyamourists, to attack free love, just as his predecesors did a century ago when they attacked the free love movement that was about allowing women the right to choose whom they married and the right to divorce. See my Happy Birthday Mrs. Satan.

February 03, 2006, 8:05 a.m.
Dissolving Marriage
If everything is marriage, then nothing is.

Ultimate Goal

Bailey may not openly flog her ultimate goal of abolishing marriage in this report. Yet what Bailey’s up to is clear enough when she carefully describes a 1998 report by the British Columbia Law Institute in which a “significant minority” of members favored a “multiple domestic partnership” system detached from the patriarchal “baggage” of traditional polygamy. This is exactly what Bailey is hoping to establish. Yet she brackets the proposal by saying that at the moment there is “no demand” for such a system.

Not so, as this 2005 Macleans article on Canadian polyamory explains. According to Macleans, polyamory “seems increasingly common” in Canada. And as organized polyamory groups proliferate, there has already been discussion “about creating a system of legal contracts around issues such as child custody and family rights.”

Since polyamory is free of the “patriarchal baggage” attached to traditional polygamy, most of the arguments against multi-partner unions in the four just-released polygamy reports would not apply. Of course there are arguments against polyamory, it’s just that liberal law professors don’t know how to make them. In any case, Bailey is shrewd enough to see that, if she can only get Canada to set aside its laws against polygamy, the goal of supplementing (and eventually replacing) marriage with a modern domestic partnership system (allowing any combination of number or gender) would be achievable.

I’ve focused on Bailey, while touching only lightly on the three other polygamy reports. Yet taken together, these four extraordinary documents launch a serious public debate about polygamy. (I’ll have more to say about the other reports in time.) The four Canadian polygamy studies are a time-capsule from the future, a preview of the argument we’ll be having should same-sex marriage be fully established here in the United States. Once we’re there, we’ll be well on our way toward “removing conjugality as a marker for determining legal rights and obligations.” Translation? By now I think you get it.

A marriage of many?
Is gay marriage a slippery slope toward legal polygamy, or are conservative warnings a red herring?

By RYAN LEE
Friday, February 24, 2006

Each time Dani Eyer attends a forum to advocate marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples, she knows the first question to expect at the end of her speech.


A 'Conservative' Shows Her Liberalism, Opposing Polygamy Rights
Date: Feb 16, 2006
Word Count: 3000 words
Cross-Reference: Debra Saunders, "same sex marriage", polygamy rights


Three's a crowd, four's a marriage
*HBO's "Big Love" probes the polygamists next door. It's family values of the provocative kind.

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Tax The Social Conservatives

Here we go again tax free charitable associations violating the Revenue Canada Act which says they cannot engage in "partisan" political activities such as endorsing specific political parties or candidates for public office, making contributions to political parties and candidates, or participating in fundraisers for such individuals.

So when will that happen to these creeps who ran McVety against Garth Turner with the tacit support of the Harpocrites.

Same-sex supporters, opponents battle

Brian Rushfeld of the Canadian Family Action Committee, said the same-sex law poses a danger in schools, because teachers are being forced to teach students that gay marriages are the same as heterosexual marriages.

“Bill C-38 is now being used as a hammer to hammer homosexual teachings into public education.” he said. “That’s a great concern to us.”

Charles McVety, president of Canadian Christian College and a member of the executive committee of Rushfeld’s committee

See:

Tax The Churches

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Whose Family Values?

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Begging Bowl

Oh this is rich, pardon the pun, Cherniak is begging online for folks to pay his way to the Liberal Convention.

I thought there were laws against panhandling.

But of course he is not a poor person........


Private Needs and Public Space: Politics, Poverty, and Anti-Panhandling By-Laws in Canadian Cities" by Damian Collins and Nicholas Blomley,
examines the recent rise in anti-panhandling regulations in Canadian cities within the greater context of a North American movement to purify public spaces. Being geographers, their focus is the interaction of geography and law. Their stated aim in this essay is to spatialize anti-panhandling by-laws. They are intrigued that the individual transaction of begging for money is politicized and regulated because it occurs in a space that is public. Their argument focuses specifically on Canadian downtown spaces, highlighting as dynamics in this contemporary situation the great financial investment in urban spaces, growing economic disparities between the inhabitants of city cores, and moral apprehensions about how the homeless spend this money. There is fear that allowing certain marginalized people to pursue their lives in our streets will promote socio-economic decline, and prevent the majority from being able to engage in legitimate public activities. The authors suggest that this regulatory movement is more than a further privatizing of public space. The private actions of the panhandlers have become enmeshed in public values regarding the appropriate use of public space. Examining the interaction of law within society as well as the space it occupies is key to a greater comprehension of the issue.

See:

Cherniak


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Voodoo Doll

This is just what everyone needs. The ultimate Voodoo Doll of the Self-Righteous Right Wing. Unfortunately you can't tell it to STFU. Because like the real Dr. Laura it just keeps on talking. But you can stick pins in it

Also available the Ann Coulter Love Doll.

Our Price: $29.95 Product Details: Type: Book and Doll Item#: c6766 ISBN#: 0

Brand New: Listen to Dr. Laura Preach, Teach & Nag! Preorder now and be among the first to own a "Dr. Laura Talking Action Figure" when they ship in early November! "Dr. Laura Talking Action Figure" Dr. Laura Schlessinger is not only one of the most popular radio personalities in America, she is also a best selling author of 14 books, including 4 children's books. Best known for her no-nonsense approach to parenting and her unwavering commitment to children, Dr. Laura always believes everyone should "go do the right thing". Now you can share Dr. Laura’s wit and wisdom with your friends and family with the "Dr. Laura Talking Action Figure".

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China Needs Free Unions

I was taken to task for being quick to denounce the new China Labour Law. Apparently I was another one of those cheerleaders on the left who apparently did not give the American Chamber of Commerce their due, according to China Law Blog. China's Proposed Labor Law:Going After Capitalists Like China, 1967

Dan Harris the blogger does praise one union blogger saying;

"I did come across a single blog post, however, that actually engaged in some thought and analysis on these issues. In a post, entitled, "Unions in China," on the decidedly pro-union Peter Levine blog, Mr. Levine actually seeks to discern what is going on with China's labor laws and with the American Chamber's (AmCham) opposition to them.

Levine then goes on to say in an addendum that he is "beginning to think" that the New York Times article was misleading because the proposed law would not in "any way increase the independence of unions in the PRC. It would impose some new labor laws, but they might not be enforced fairly. Workers would have no voice in their enforcement. There would be no increase of pluralism or democracy."

Bravo, Mr. Levine for starting an important discussion that just about everyone else in the blogosphere seems to want to avoid.

Well gee Dan, I said that too. "The restructuring of China from a State Captitalist economy to a mixed economy forces it to liberalize its labour laws. This does not yet mean that there will be independent worker controled unions, but it is a step forward.What China needs, is a new workers movement and free unions not State unions."

Dan's concern and that of the American Chamber of Commerce is that China labour laws will not allow employers to fire shiftless, lazy workers. This is a surprising admission from a lawyer who should know better. The fact is that union grievance procedures also mean that employers cannot just fire workers without 'just cause". It's the trade off for management rights in a contract. And it is to the benefit of employers, because otherwise they would be sued under common law. Which is far more costly.

See:

China

State Capitalism

Unions


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Lyle Oberg Is Scary

Lyle Oberg is scary. As the guy who is running second for the PC leadership, we should all be worried. While the self identified social conservatives in the Tory leadership race such as Ted Morton and Victor Doerksen are seen as such, Oberg is just the same.

When he was Minister of Social Services he wanted to kick the disabled off AISH. He denounced the report critical of the Governments failure to provide safe long term care for seniors.

What makes him scary is that he has downplayed his social conservatism by focusing on infrastructure, taxes and other 'safe' populist issues, rather than moral issues. That makes him more dangerous than either Morton or Doerksen.

See:

Alberta

Ted Morton

Lyle Oberg



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Cardston Home of Bigots

Cardston Crazies Still At It They want to ban same sex marriage in their town.

Cardston was the first Mormon settlement in Alberta. The irony being that while Cardston today opposes Same Sex Marriage, it's original settlers were polygamists.

While no longer polygamist, Mormon Cardston continues it's white only seperatist culture.


The Mormon Way
By Bruce Serafin
How wonderful it must be, I thought, to grow up Mormon and blonde in Cardston! A similar idea came to me the next day when I went to eat my lunch in Cardston's municipal park. Four Mormon families (each of the young women in long skirts, tight around their hips and rear ends) were sitting at the park's tables; a Native family sat far from them at at the edge of the park. People go where they’re comfortable; and in Cardston, Mormons and Natives didn't mix.

The Alberta Temple, located in Cardston, in southern Alberta, and dedicated in 1923, was the first LDS temple built outside the United States and its territories. Constructed of handhewn white marble from British Columbia, it won architectural acclaim.

Mormonism is a political as well as relgious movement, as a political movement it is Republican and socially conservative.

LDS lobbying efforts in several states against the ERA in the 1970s threatened to reawaken major apprehensions of priesthood influence on LDS voters.

In Canada that means it is the base for the Reform/Alliance/Conservative party federally and the Tories provincially.

Cardston is represented by the Alberta Alliance, a right wing rump party that was created by Randy Thorsteinson.

Former Social Credit Party of Alberta leader Randy Thorsteinson was selected as the first leader of the party. Thorsteinson, a devout Latter-day Saint, had quit the Social Credit Party in April 1999 in protest of an internal party proposal to limit the involvement of Mormons.

Th AA Party Leader and MLA for Cardston, Paul Hinman supports Republican Ted Morton for leader of the P.C.'s. Morton is famous for his bill C-208 which would have done what Cardston wants but for the whole of the province. Morton is also notoriously anti-native. He would feel right at home in Cardston.


A tip o' the blog to A Slap Upside The Head for this.

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