George, Bill, and subversive knowledge

It's all so trite and obvious, the news this weekend. Who cares if a small group of sycophants with more money than brains are willing to pay to listen to Bush and Clinton lie to them and insult what little intelligence they demonstrate?

The two of them propping each other up remind me of Ollie and Stan in the Flying Deuces Suicide Scene, but not nearly so gentle and humorous. Clinton lies more creatively than most due to his skill at assigning different meanings to words than are commonly held - such as "sexual relations" and now "passports", and Bush lies instinctively about everything, just in case.

These guys, by virtue of having been called "president", will go on being paid to act out their surrealities in front of jaded audiences, while protesters feebly toss shoes at photos.

(Yes, I've accepted that protest must go beyond the limits of marching, chanting, symbolic retribution, and the hope that the media will report it in such a way that doesn't essentially mock it. It's time to focus on education toward non-compliance.)

Of course both of them knew about the passports. Of course the war in Iraq hasn't "made the world a more peaceful place". And of course they are not sorry about Rwanda, Darfur or the African AIDS epidemic - they want those populations reduced!

To support those last two words I went looking for a link related to the aims of the Club of Rome, and ended up going from this (now that's she's dead, suddenly Betty Friedan was a member of the Club of Rome? How did this happen? I have to suspect it's the work of "Christians" like Alex Jones and Real Women who believe that equality for women was a CIA/Communist plot to destroy the family - read: destroy male authority *) to this - a list of books considered by a panel of "15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders" to be harmful to the general population - meaning, naturally, counterproductive to the global agenda.

Betty Friedan's book, "The Feminine Mystique" is listed there, in full equality with Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Since so many of Hitler's ideas, for instance, are embodied in the aims of the New World Order, it wouldn't do for the proles to be too cognizant of them. It may well be that reducing global migrations with more rigid border controls and immigration laws, along with tolerance for agenda-friendly Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim states - with certain troublesome minorities being slaughtered or caged in huge refugee camps - is in the long run constructing an easier means of population identity and control by a single global authority. (We've seen Israel willingly wall itself into a ghetto and attempt to attract Jews from all over the world to come and live behind that wall, while further creating gated communities within that wall to avoid mingling with the nuisance minorities among them.)

And since those in "authority" don't wish us to understand their pathology, it's quite natural that this book would be verboten.

Talk about a red flag! I've provided links above to three of the bad books, and here's a place to find more of them. Let's get reading!

* On the subject of the destruction of the family - common sense tells us that there are many cohesive family units headed by couples who operate as a supportive team in child rearing (whether "married" or not) and allow each other space to develop and utilize their innate talents. Families break down because of the effects of poverty, racial and other forms of discrimination, the pressure imposed by the male mystique - that the male should head the household and earn more than the female - and above all because of the Hollywood-created fantasy of romance - the crippling fallacy of "You complete me; I can't live without you".

Each partner has to be a whole person to make a healthy family unit, not someone who expects someone else to make him or her "happy", or to be their "better half". That's just neurotic dependency. And by the way, there's a study entitled: "Who divorces?" which demonstrates with statistics that the family that prays together does not necessarily stay together.

Fractured Images and Downright Pathology

I won't have too much to say today. Others have contributed plenty and I thank them.

(1) Three myths about Israel blown out of the water

(a) From Ron, on the myth of a broad spectrum press:

Prussia on the Mediterranean?

Americans who don't read Hebrew or watch Israeli television news may get a skewed view of the spectrum, assuming that Ha'aretz, the smaller-circulation daily read mostly by intellectuals and the political classes--and foreigners, who devour its English-language edition online--is representative, and that critical columnists and reporters like Gideon Levy, Akiva Eldar and Amira Hass are sprinkled throughout the Israeli media. It isn't, and they aren't.

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(b) From Daniel on the myth of equality for Israel's Arab citizens:

Only state-run Jewish-Arab school threatened with closure

"There are too many Arab kids in this school. It's a Jewish school after all, and it's important for us that it stays this way."

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(c) From John on the myth of democracy:

Israel’s “Existential Threats”

The last few days have witnessed an inflection point in the history of Israel. It has effectively shed its democratic veneer and blatantly embraced its racist, fascist and colonialist ideology. I am referring to the passage of three bills in the Knesset. One would require loyalty oaths to maintain citizenship. A second states that citizens must recognize Israel as a Jewish state or else face up to one year in prison. And the third makes commemoration of the Nakba (Catastrophe – referring to the creation of Israel in 1948) a crime. (1) These come on the heels of PM Netanyahu’s demands that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a State for the Jewish People in return for “economic development.”

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(2) Doublespeak on North Korea

From John: Who Will Stand Up to America and Israel?

"Obama Calls on World to ‘Stand Up To’ North Korea” read the headline. The United States, Obama said, was determined to protect “the peace and security of the world.” Shades of doublespeak, doublethink, 1984.

YYC: Obama is a megalomaniac manipulated by a shadow government with a similar pathology. Just as Israel portrays itself a perpetual victim, the US sees itself as the greatest power in the universe, and both seemingly opposite yet paranoid, self-serving stances are justifications for brutality against anyone outside the pale.

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(3) More on the Seal Hunt: Remember the Newfoundlanders

Roman writes:

Your comments on the seal hunt [Of Spuds and Royalty - Item (2)] are very much on target. However, the Inuit (and the Madelinots) compose, in economic terms, only the collateral damage done by the anti-sealing forces. The most substantive victims are Newfoundlanders who formerly constituted (do they still so constitute?) the bulk of the commercial seal hunt.

The article to which you linked, A Sealer's Life, provides an interesting if very narrow ("we humans are predators") glimpse into such a life. But the comments appended thereto are for the most part shatteringly trite. They evoke an image of spoiled middle-class brats heavily into new-age enthusiasms and interested in looking no farther than their own respective navels.

The origins and early evolution of the seal hunt are grippingly described in Cassie Brown's classic, Death On The Ice. In it one learns the heart-rending story of the penniless Newfoundlanders (i.e., the bulk of them) who sailed out "to the ice" in hopes of earning a pittance from the rich St. John's merchants with which to sustain their families. There was much more than silly macho elements in play here. That book is a highly-recommended read: check out the comments at Amazon. It ought to be on the reading list of every high school in Canada.

Sure, Joey Smallwood eventually brought on welfare-state manna, but that didn't change things much. The poor stayed poor, the rich got richer.

Yes you are right: someone is making money out of sealing and it ain't the sealers. The early trade in North America, of mirrors and beads from the settlers in exchange for beaver pelts from the Indians, comes to mind. We now see Europeans, in righteous outrage, drawing a bead on the Indians.

Keep right on trucking!

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(4) Another TB scare on Greyhound

From YYC: Why is Greyhound under such persistent attack in the media? For pete's sake, you can get tuberculosis in a movie theatre or a grocery store. You can also be murdered in a shopping mall. Airlines are going under because the fun has been completely taken out of air travel; will Greyhound go under as well? What's next, the trains? Or are trains to be the only mode of travel left to us - the easier to keep track (yeah, I know, it's a pun) of our whereabouts?

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(5) CTV punished?

CTV lied to Stephane Dion, telling him they would not publish the false starts he made in an interview because he had trouble knowing how to respond to an extremely poorly worded question . "If you were prime minister now what would you have done ....?" It's an unanswerable question because it confuses a hypothetical now with a hypothetical past. Had they asked: "If you were prime minister then, what would you have done that Harper didn't do?" or "If you were prime minister now, what would you do that Harper failed to do?", Dion would have had no trouble answering.

I'm not fan of any politician, but CTV is beneath contempt for what it did to him.

Their only punishment, however, is that they "must run a statement saying they violated the Radio Television News Directors Code of Ethics".

We know that CTV supports the global agenda that requires a US-trained PM, whether Libcon, Allcon or NDP, in Canada, but do you get the feeling that the CRTC is in on it as well?

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(6) The NDP have lost their freakin' minds!

The NDP have sent me an email with the subject line: "Obama's fight for medicare. Be a part of it", soliciting dollars from me to pay for the Jackster's trip to Washington where he will enthusiastically support and learn from Obama's fake concern for health care. All for the good of Canada, of course.

Together, we can build a movement for change right here in Canada. Together we can build a real alternative to Harper’s Conservatives. And Obama’s inner circle will help. This summer, his top campaign leadership will join us in Halifax to share with us how they built their movement for change.

The pathology is all pervasive.

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(7) Shades of the 9/11 Commission

London 7/7 bombing investigation a “whitewash”

Survivor Rachel North: “... MI5 ran rings around the MPs”

The average MP is a babe in the woods; they will swallow any lie as long as it keeps them in lollipops. CSIS has pretty much brought that home in Canada.

CSIS: Nothing but trouble and shame

CSIS witnesses may have misled Harkat trial

May have? Given its history, it was just a matter of time before yet another example of CSIS chicanery oozed into the daylight.

This is exactly why Secret Trials should be abolished and why judges should long ago have refused to get involved in them. The Judges who have disbelieved Harkat in favour of what CSIS tells them behind closed doors have willingly buried their heads in muck, while many of us have watched the dirty dealings of CSIS for years and wouldn't trust them if they were the last source of information on earth.

The collaboration between the Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA) and CSIS is obvious. The brutal raid they carried out recently on the Harkat's home and privacy was a desperate attempt to find something, anything, that might save CSIS from the inevitable wages of their sins!

How many times does CSIS have to be caught in lies and cover-ups before they are disbanded as more trouble and shame than they're worth? At least the RCMP bring in some tourist revenue. What has CSIS done for Canada other than scrabble under rocks and maintain the myth of Al Qaeda for the benefit of US wars of hegemony? The Secret Trials have cost the taxpayers a mint and years of agony for the accused and their families.

It's good to know that Judge Noel is being seen to do his job in an ethical fashion to avoid our justice system falling into "disrepute", but the truth is that it hasn't been in repute since the Security Certificate trials began. If anything a smidgeon of repute might be recovered by freeing and generously compensating the victims of this travesty. Mulroney was made a millionaire by suing everybody and his sidekick, it's the least that could be done for the Harkats.

Globe and Mail: Reliability of secret source in terror case cast into doubt

Judge Noel scolded the government Wednesday for not supplying the information much earlier. He stressed that any government figure who has shown even the slightest disregard for fair process “must be held to account.”

Sorry, Judge Noel, but I hold you and your judicial colleagues responsible as well. The Security Certificate trials have never been a "fair process", not for one single second, and yet you all participated in it and made judgments based on "evidence" that could not be validated nor cross-examined.

The media are equally responsible. Take a look at this misleading headline:

Terror suspect Harkat admits talking with al-Qaida

If you read further you find that, suddenly - after 7 years - CSIS has brought into court a purported admission by Harkat that he knew Abu Zubaydah - despite the fact that Zybaydah's fake status as an "Al Qaeda lieutenant" and recruiter has already been downgraded to just another Guantanamo victim of torture. This "admission" is just a scribbled summary based on who knows what information, and only now added to the court record!

The CBC was no less pernicious when it sent Peter Mansbridge into the prison where Harkat was still suffering the nervous effects of his predicament, and proceeded to grill him about Zubaydah as if he, a "news" man, had a clue what he was talking about. That was back when Harkat's English skills were poor and he was overwhelmed by the presence of such a well-known figure. Mansbridge eventually broke him down by taking away his last hope that Canadians would support him. Nice work. And a nice job the camera men did also - with Mansbridge well lighted and Harkat in shadow.

I have a strong feeling that all five Security Certificate cases will be closed soon, and that their victimization on behalf of the global agenda will be replaced by even greater trampling of human rights under an altered paradigm based on some sort of new fake crisis that the media and the courts will scramble to support. I hope I'm right about the first and wrong about the second, but Joe Biden may well have been signalling it - and perhaps there was a longer range vision for the model of Guantanamo North than has yet to meet the eye.

Related:
Video - Unfair Dealing - The Toronto 18
YYC report: Who's the Terrorist? It might be you!

Of Spuds and Royalty

(1) Homegrown Errorists

Portly Peter says: Canada's home-grown terrorism doing well, while U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano apologizes for saying that the 9/11 terrorists got into the US through Canada, and then goes on to pay the bare minimum of lip service to the truth:

... but what you need to hear from me is all the things that we are doing with Canada and will continue to do with Canada to further our joint security because we share the same interest."

We hardly need to hear that we need to hear all the things the US is doing with Canada. But, in the absence of anything worth hearing, I am left to muse on whether or not Janet kissed Peter just before the press conference. Her lipstick looks smeared and his lips look a little too pink.

Sorry, but I just can't take these bloated, propped up caricatures seriously anymore. I've put Peter Van Loan into the same category as all the other scary Mr. Potato Heads (See Same Old ... 3rd paragraph - in which I forgot to include former PM Paul Martin and TV stumper for right wing "Christianity" Michael Coren).

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(2) GG wins Approval of Seal award

GG caught in seal-snacking incident

What's the big deal? She's royalty, ain't she? And hunting small game is the second sport of kings after horse racing, ain't it? I'm not saying that the folks in Nunavut don't have a right to harvest seal; I'm just saying that the GG is scarfing it (or pretending to) for an entirely different reason.

The big question is: if the sealers themselves don't make more than just enough to live on, who makes the real profit from seal hunting? Take a look at the products. Fat cats with money to burn buy them from other fat cats who rake in huge profits.

And that, my friend, is why no amount of protest will end the seal hunt; it will end only if and when seal products are no longer considered status symbols.

Both the EU and the US have banned the import of seal skin products. But this does not prevent ritzy-ditzy designers such as Gucci and Prada profiting from offshore manufacture and sales, for example, to Russia.

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(3) Flaherty in trouble, sort of

Soaring deficit undermines confidence in finance minister, say Liberals

NDP finance critic Thomas Mulcair also took dead aim yesterday at Flaherty's credibility. "He's wearing the dunce cap of all Canadian finance ministers," Mulcair said of Flaherty.

And everybody knows how the NDP yearn for a chance to wear the dunce cap.

Photo of Flaherty (another Mr. Potato Head, of course), practising a sermon for his next career as a televangelist:

"And man shall live in plenty according to my will, sayeth the Lord, but the time cometh when only the few shall prosper, and in that time what little a man hath shall be taken from him and given to the rich."

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(4) Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain (Wizard of Oz)

The Nanaimo Daily News may not have succumbed entirely to the type of lazy journalism that speed-dials the same people passing themselves off as "institutes" every time a quote is needed to pad out a lean "news" item. Surprisingly, NDN are actually warning against the reports from one of the most oft-quoted:

Don't take lists too seriously

[The Fraser Institute] describes itself as "an independent international research and educational organization" and its motto is "a free and prosperous world through choice, markets and responsibility."

The Fraser Institute has put out another one its report cards - assigning grades to hospitals - designed to strongly suggest universal health care should be abolished. It also grades public schools in order to prove that private schools are the better option. They are all about fundamentalist capitalism and privatization of everything, which alone ought to make one wary of their research.

If you've seen The Corporation, you've already witnessed seedy old academic big player wannabe Michael Walker (yet another Mr. Potato Head - don't you just want to pinch those chubby cheeks?) enthusing on how virtually every blade of grass and drop of water should be owned by somebody who would then have to take responsibility for it.

The plebes who own nothing because they can't afford to should be obliged to pay per use to visit a park, travel a road, swim in or drink the water. Meanwhile, we've already seen that unrestrained capitalism is not being held accountable at all for the destruction of Mother Earth. Instead, it's the plebes again who must cut back on vacations and water and energy consumption so as not to deplete resources that a few fat cats require to maintain an exorbitant standard of living.

Walker is a plebe who thinks he will survive by grooming the fat cats.

Strange, sad and predictable

(1) Strange bedfellows ...

Iran says close to gas deal with Pakistan

Iran and Pakistan appear to have reached a broad agreement on the deal on Sunday during a visit by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to Tehran for a three-way summit with his counterparts from Iran and Afghanistan.

With all the badmouthing of Iran, and considering the close cooperation between Pakistan and the US, it's interesting to see a little bit into what goes on behind the scenes while we're distracted by minor concerns blown up into huge ones by the media.

Zardari's counterpart in Afghanistan is Hamid Karzai, and regardless of whether it's true or not that Karzai was once a Unocal consultant, there is little doubt that he is CIA and knows how to play both the overt and covert games, and has done nothing since university other than agitate in Afghanistan and Pakistan for one thing or another - with the ultimate goal of getting Afghan resources into western hands.

Like Obama, Karzai is friends with everybody and that's a wicked sign in a politician. This deal between Iran and Pakistan has been in the works since at least 2000 when the Interstate Gas Systems was revived for that precise purpose.

The current gas pipeline in Iran extends from the Northwest to the Southwest - see the pink coloured line on this map - so presumably the new pipeline would come from the south of Iran heading east into southwest Pakistan.

It was reported that initially the natural gas supply would also extend to India, and then there was a report that India had pulled out of the deal, but now India says it is still thinking about it.

Thing is, Aghanistan has natural gas as well, and since at least 2003 it has been planning to supply Pakistan and India. The current pipeline coming from the Caspian sea (same as Iran's) heads south into Kandahar, continuing into Pakistan and then heading east to Multan which is very near to New Delhi, just across the border.

It seems there are plenty of tangled webs behind the bellicosity. We are not supposed to know it's all about money and control of resources; we are supposed to believe that "Al Qaeda" extremists are causing problems on the Pakistan border just because they hate America's "freedoms". We are not to suspect that they are ordinary Afghanis who hate the idea of the west getting fat off the backs of starving Muslims.

There is no threat to the US population at all; there is only a threat to the pipeline. And since Pakistan stands to get a good gas deal one way or the other, it can afford to turn a blind eye to missile attacks on its border.

From the Star:

... many observers believe the [Pakistan] government secretly agrees with the tactic and may provide intelligence on the targets, noting that Islamabad's admitting to assisting the attacks would be politically damaging.

So basically, the thing to remember when Obama talks about Al Qaeda and fighting for freedom is that it's still a crock, just as it was when Bush said it.

Remember all the dire talk and all the badmouthing the US did of Iran (through the media) before Iran announced its oil bourse in February 2008:

The transactions will be made in Iranian rial, yen, euro and other major currencies.

Since then there's been nary a peep out of the media to blame Iran for the failing dollar. The threats didn't work, and a lot of countries are very happy to be dealing in their own currency with Iran, so is it any wonder that the US is now tempering its language? It has nothing to do with Obama's perceived peaceful persona and everything to do with Plan B.

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(2) Poor Netanyahu, home alone ...

It's now left to Israel to stoke the fires against Iran. It provides an excellent excuse for putting a two-state solution on the back burner.

Says Netanyahu:

"we agreed with the US that the first and foremost goal must be preventing Iran from attaining nuclear arms."

Or did the US agree with Netanyahu? Obama is certainly known for being overtly agreeable.

Here's a telling report from a JPost journalist entitled Underestimating Iran's global reach:

[CIA Director Leon] Panetta was reportedly dispatched here to read the government the riot act. Israel, he reportedly told his interlocutors, must not attack Iran without first receiving permission from Washington. Moreover, Israel should keep its mouth shut about attacking Iran. As far as Washington is concerned, Iran's latest threats to destroy Israel were nothing more than payback for statements by Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials regarding Israel's refusal to countenance a nuclear armed Iran.

Over the past several weeks, we have learned that the administration has made its peace with Iran's nuclear aspirations.

Obama apparently has got the CIA openly doing his diplomatic work for him, so that he can continue to look like a nice guy.

As far as the administration is concerned, the only reason Iran would threaten US interests is if Israel provokes it. As far as the administration is concerned, if Israel could just leave Iran's nuclear installations alone, Iran would behave itself. But if Israel preemptively takes out Iran's nuclear capabilities, and Iran in turn attacks Israeli and US targets in the region, the Obama administration will hold Israel - not Iran - responsible for whatever losses the US incurs. That was apparently the message Panetta wanted to transmit to Jerusalem during his recent visit.

Poor Bibi. He has to go back home and continue talking up a good fight against Iran (and N. Korea too), and continue to mollify the extremists in the government about the threat of a Palestinian state, and try, all alone, to convince the world that Israel is a pitiable victim.

It's not true that the US has underestimated Iran's global reach, but it is true that Iran has officially entered the realm of powerful states that the US might mutter about but would never have the nerve to attack. So that's why the media are obligingly back on the Al Qaeda kick.

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(3) The Obama Three Step.

Obama in Bush clothing

If hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue, then the flip-flops on previously denounced antiterror measures are the homage that Barack Obama pays to George Bush. Within 125 days, Obama has adopted with only minor modifications huge swaths of the entire, allegedly lawless Bush program.

During the 2008 campaign, Obama denounced them repeatedly, calling them an "enormous failure." Obama suspended them upon his swearing in. Now they're back.

Of course, Obama will never admit in word what he's doing in deed. As in his rhetorically brilliant national-security speech on Thursday claiming to have undone Bush's moral travesties, the military commissions flip-flop is accompanied by the usual Obama three-step: (a) excoriate the Bush policy, (b) ostentatiously unveil cosmetic changes, (c) adopt the Bush policy.

Except that it isn't the "Bush policy"; it's the policy of the Big Machine - I refuse to call them the "elite" - the seedy wealthy globalists who pretend to know what's good for the rest of us while doing what's good for themselves. Obama just talks gooder than Bush.

Is it "Change" yet? Still nope.

Mark of the Beast

CBC: Ontario's high-tech driver's licences pose privacy risk: watchdog

Some watchdog. A sheep dog would soon be replaced if it snoozed until all the sheep had escaped and then merely reported them gone.

Meanwhile, we "alarmist" yap dogs have been warning about this for ages. It's worthwhile to read the comments that come with the CBC article. It's nice to know so many Canadians have been planning how to protect their own privacy. One or two people think it's all been predicted in the book of Revelation and presumably they are happy because it means they will soon be Raptured out of all this. The rest of us sinners will have to find workarounds.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why you need a licence to drive in the first place? Or a birth certificate even? The government has owned us since day one, and still calls it a democracy. It's all about money. Everything is always all about money. It's all about how your income gets depleted every which way from Sunday by taxes, tolls, parking tickets, licence fees ...

If you don't give the government what it seeks to extract from you, you may end up in court, but the court is one big magician's trick from start to finish. It has to be, because the government really doesn't have the right to interfere in your life, and it has to make you think it does.

Remember when I refused to answer the invasive questions that Stats Canada tried to slip under the heading Labour Force Survey? It was clearly implied that I could be fined or jailed if I refused to cooperate, but when I objected to being threatened in a letter to a Stats Canada employee she denied any threat other than that participation in the Labour Force Survey is "Mandatory". Thing is, I participated in the Labour Force Survey up to the point where they started asking me "supplemental questions" that were not part of said survey. I wonder who teaches government employees to be so cagey with language?

In the end, I simply held my ground and they gave up on me.

Before the last census I spent some time on the Sparks Street mall helping the Raging Grannies warn people about how our private information was now going to be in the hands of Lockheed Martin, an American weapons manufacturer that had diversified enough to be awarded the contract for providing and overseeing the digital processing system for our census forms.

I was impressed at the number of people who told me that they never submit their census forms. And they're walking around unmolested by government agents. That's probably because they've gone under the radar in other ways too.

All over the world, citizens are seeking and sharing information on how to stay free in a burgeoning global prison, knowing full well this could land them in court. And they are beginning to understand the differences among ordinances, statutes, rules, regulations and laws.

Visit thinkfree.ca to learn a Canadian perspective on how we have been fooled into thinking we have to comply with invasive government dictates. You might encounter some Biblical references, but the information provided is factual, non-hysterical, and I think true. Or you could go directly to Robert Menard's fascinating 2-hour Google video "The Magnificent Deception".

In the UK: Videos of the Freeman Conference 2008 might prove interesting, although, as you might guess, I prefer the term Free Human (after all this time, why is our language still so often not inclusive?).

A Freeman panel member refers to someone called The Anti-Terrorist, who also explains, from behind a black mask, the process of how a court establishes its jurisdiction over you by trickery and how to avoid being tricked.

If you prefer something to read, you can't go wrong with Mary Croft's entertaining and chock full of info book: "How I Clobbered Every Bureaucratic Cash-Confiscatory Agency Known To Man" (PDF Format), and you can also listen to Croft speak in a radio interview.

I didn't renew my driver's licence this time around. I forked over $87. and got a passport instead, to use when photo ID is requested. And even though I don't plan to travel, I can if necessary.

I've paid up my VISA card and will not renew it when it expires next year - because the next one will be microchipped. I wrote to VISA suggesting they might consider the environment at least, since those chips are pure toxic waste before, during and after manufacture. But like most corporations, VISA couldn't care less about the environment.

By the way, I'm astounded to learn that microchips are even embedded in some children's toys. From GreenYour's guide to healthy living:

According to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, electronic toys can be made from more than 1,000 toxic chemicals and metals.[1] The production of microchips used in electronic games like Gameboys requires an enormous quantities of resources. To make about 240 microchips, it takes 3,200 cubic feet of bulk gases, 22 cubic feet of hazardous gases, 2,275 gallons of deionized water, 20 pounds of chemicals, and 285 kilowatt hours of electrical power. Producing these microchips also creates a substantial amount of hazardous waste, including 25 pounds of sodium hydroxide, 2,840 gallons of waste water, and seven pounds of other hazardous waste.[2] Accidents at manufacturing sites do happen, and electronics industry accidents are responsible for several Superfund toxic waste sites.[1]

Disposing of electronic games can also be an environmental hazard...

Microchips are extremely hazardous to the environment and our health, yet the globe is being flooded with these things! The corporation that manages my apartment building was even considering using microchipped cards instead of coins in the laundry room! But they have recently got on a Green kick, and have been asking for ideas from the residents, so I didn't even need to broach the privacy issue with them, I simply pointed them to a few Green Guides, and so far they have not moved on the laundry card thing.

I haven't seen a doctor in well over a decade, so my health card has not been updated, and they've obviously lost track of me because I've received no reminders to go for a photo op. I have no idea whether my census form reached Stats Can because I sent it in care of Maxime Bernier who was minister of industry at the time, under which Stats Can operates. I told him this was my way of making him take some responsibility for the fact that my private information was being put into the hands of a foreign corporation. (I also omitted some information, and used names legally mine but not the ones that appear on my tax returns.)

I think Maxime may have left my form at Julie Couillard's house, because a card was slipped under my door saying I hadn't sent in my census form; but I ignored it and that was that. Mind you, I still screen my telephone calls with an answering machine, and I never the answer the door unless I'm expecting someone.

That's another thing that's hard for people to learn. That they don't have to leap up like Pavlov's dogs every time they hear a bell. If that doesn't prove how conditioned we are to obedience, what will?

Non-compliance can be fun if you approach it with a spirit of adventure. There ain't no power like the power of the people and the power of the people ... something or other, you get the picture.

Same old, plus some other stuff

Lately nothing in the news has got me fired up. It's all the same stuff repeating itself. So what if British politicians fudge their expense accounts? We've been all through that here in Canada with the Sponsorship Scandal, and since robbing the taxpayers blind is the done thing by most politicians, when a fuss is made about it it's really just infighting, vying for position, partisan backstabbing. The taxpayer will not see justice; but a few faces will fade from the political scene only to be replaced by different snouts at the trough.

There's no shame in stealing money unless your children are hungry. The more you steal the greater your support will be, since the fact that you are in a position to steal large sums proves you are a somebody. You can even write for a newspaper in support of a thieving, lying colleague and probably get paid for it.

It's getting so I automatically distrust portly, Mr. Potato Head men in suits. Have you noticed? The ones in the news are all either highly questionable politicians, media moguls, or rabble rousing TV evangelists.

I mean look at John Baird; look at Larry O'Brien, look at Jason Kenney, look at Harper and Mulroney; look at Conrad Black; look at Izzy Asper; look at Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, and the twit that boasts a direct line to Harper, Charles McVety.

Update on Mulroney hearings.

Update on Larry O'Brien trial - Baird claims innocence - naturally.

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Here's the kind of thing that can happen to you if you've ever been convicted of a petty crime:

A young man sentenced to 2-1/2 years for being sucked into another provocateur scam on the public has been set free for time already served. It was very important that somebody be convicted in these show trials, but in his letter to the judge he does not admit to having plotted to behead the PM or blow anything up - in fact the only thing he admits to is having shoplifted in the past. What he says it that he came under bad influences.

I'll tell you what the National Post admits to: that Canada has been under pressure from the US to prove it is fighting terrorism - in other words to prove to the public that Muslim terrorism is a big, big threat so that they could convince would-be cannon fodder to fight Muslims overseas, and the rest of us that we need to be surveilled, and that the whole immigration system needed to be overhauled:

His case was also the first terrorism trial to conclude in Canada since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, and was viewed by some as a test of the country's ability to ferret out and prosecute terrorists.

It's little wonder that CSIS keeps close to its sweaty chest the "evidence" against the secret trial victims of this pathological need to prove Muslims are dangerous. Look what happens when cases hit the open courts - people go free because the "evidence" is just too weak.

Moles, sting artists, seek out guys with petty crimes in their past. When the fake cases go to court, it's important to show these men are bad clear through. It's very important that we are told they have "lengthy criminal records", so that we can believe them capable of just about anything.

But as evidenced by the case of the "Newburgh Four" as the latest "terrorist" arrest in the US is now being called, the "informers" themselves are often petty criminals under pressure from the cops to get something going that they can turn into a terror case.

But, I don't know, the whole four of them still look like special task force cops to me. Here's one of our own who showed up at a rally in Ottawa in 2005:

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Other Stuff:

John in Manitoba sent this link: Doctors Warn: Avoid Genetically Modified Food

More and more doctors are already prescribing GM-free diets. Dr. Amy Dean, a Michigan internal medicine specialist, and board member of AAEM says, “I strongly recommend patients eat strictly non-genetically modified foods.” Ohio allergist Dr. John Boyles says “I used to test for soy allergies all the time, but now that soy is genetically engineered, it is so dangerous that I tell people never to eat it.”

Now if we can just figure out which foods are GM and which aren't, we'll be sailing.

... citizens in the United States and Canada are engaged in the largest feeding experiment in human history and most people are not even aware of the fact.

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Remember McGuinty telling the Tamil protesters to demonstrate where they wouldn't be disrupting traffic? Well, take a look at who's allowed to do just that.

Meanwhile, Zionists are shutting down free speech at a number of universities.

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Feeling throttled by Ma Bell? You might want to join a class action suit. Bell and TELUS are both making some pretty scary demands:

The Bell and TELUS proposals ask for latitude to raise prices, reduce competition, and control the content that users are able to access.

The Coalition calls on the Federal Government to roundly reject the Bell and TELUS petitions. Rejection of these petitions would send a clear message that Canada plans to be a leading edge innovator in broadband Internet, Ethernet and other next generation communications services.

The Coalition agrees with MTS Allstream that wholesale access to broadband Internet is an essential service as defined by the CRTC. The limited access that competitors have to Bell and TELUS last mile facilities has already greatly diminished Internet competition shrinking the total market share of independent ISPs from 64% in 1997 to 7.7% at the end of 2007.

If granted, the Bell and TELUS petitions would further shrink that share and could eliminate what little choice there is left for Canadian residential and business customers. This outcome would be completely out of step with Canadian government policy and action most recently taken by the Federal Government to promote competition in the wireless market.

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What's with Joe Biden, eh? One minute he's holding the Serbian president's hand (reminds me of Rumsfeld holding Saddam's hand) and the next minute there's a madman (or patsy) making a big show of trying to attack the Serbian president. They should call Biden Joe Btfsplk

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Homegrown Provocateurism

BBC: New York terror sting detailed

Four men have been arrested shortly after allegedly planting mock explosive devices and bombs outside a Jewish temple and community centre in New York, US authorities say. They are also accused of planning to shoot down US military planes using surface-to-air missiles in a simultaneous attack.

The arrests followed an investigation carried out with the help of an informer and detailed in an affidavit from an FBI special agent, which was obtained by the New York Times ...

When they received the shipment of "bombs" from the "informer" they all yelled, "Allahu Akbar", which is, like, proof they were terrorist, right? And wow, did they cover a lot of issues or what? They had their "anti-sentiments against Jews" as a police official said, they had their "hatred" of their own country, America, but most of all they had the Afghanistan/Pakistan thing, eh - showing how you gotta suspect people who want the wars stopped.

They've also got a Haitian thing going, to prove how foolish it is to let anyone but "white" Europeans into America.

And, hey, they've figured out that you don't need 19 people to carry out a good terror attack. For a while there all the sting arrests were in batches of 19. Now it's down to four, as in the 7/7 transit bombings in London.

They all look like cops to me, especially Cromitie. Somebody sure wants New Yorkers to be scared of living there, and the rest of us to be leery of visiting there. First the Air Force one thing, and now this.

The Police Commissioner says: “It speaks to our concern about homegrown terrorism". (New York Times) Which is why we have to give up our freedoms and be surveilled all the time and never lock our doors - to save them from being kicked down when the police want in.

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3 Dwarfs of Journalism

Today's theme image was borrowed from this website, which you should visit if you could use a laff.

(1) Dopey Journalism

The Toronto Star asks: Just where is PM taking us? (thanks to Brian H. of Toronto for the link).

Duh, same place as Ignatieff will take us. And, if the media have their way, Ignatieff will be the next PM of Canada.

The Star, for instance, has wiped out the whole premise of the Conservative attack ads by suggesting: so what if Ignatieff has lived elsewhere for decades, Canada has changed so much it's as if we've all been away.

So eager is the Star to assist Ignatieff's ascension to the PMO, it has no trouble accepting that Canada's "otherwise effective" (at what - taking orders, memorizing lines and performing rituals?) Governor General obediently acquiesced to the shutdown of Parliament last winter - a move designed to render the Coalition null and void by paving the way for Ignatieff to finally achieve the position of so-called Liberal Leader - the intended purpose of his return back "home" - but merely chides her gently for not explaining the mechanics of it all in terms that we not-too-bright voters could understand and be comforted by.

When you think of it, even our GG came from somewhere else originally, and apparently she supported Quebec separatism, so our media had plenty to play down on her behalf. Not to mention that she appears to have no qualms at all about the US/Canadian "intervention" in Haiti in support for the overthrow of the popular, democratically elected president Aristide, and for the wellbeing of the upper middle and business classes, to the great detriment of 80% of the population.

When Obama visited Canada GG Jean reportedly asked him do more regarding "the challenging conditions facing people living in Haiti". Well, how cryptic can you be? She could as easily have been referring to the terrible threat of the demands of the poor for a living wage. No doubt Obama understood what she was driving at even if the media preferred to play dumb.

It must be remembered that, as brutal as Duvalier was (in power at the time that Jean lived in Haiti with her family), his sympathies lay with the Black rural classes (the majority) so he was constantly under threat of coup from the Mulatto (US supported) professional and business elite to which Jean's family belonged, and he arrested, tortured and killed many of them, hence the need for her family to emigrate.

It's also interesting to note that a few years after "Papa Doc" died, his ineffective son having succeeded him, the US declared a swine flu infestation and killed all the pigs - the mainstay of Haitian rural Blacks - creating just the right amount of upheaval to warrant "intervention".

I suppose that couldn't have happened when Papa Duvalier was alive, since he was a medical man, specializing in contagious diseases, and he might have seen through a hoax.

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(2) Sleepy Journalism

The Montreal Gazette says, regarding the Swine Flu scare:

In retrospect, the warning comes across as over-the-top, even alarmist ...

In retrospect? For the mainline snooze maybe, but not for anyone who's stayed awake to the constant bombardment of all sorts of scares and other distractions from real events - such as the escalation of the Afghanistan war into Pakistan (Zardari: "Swat is just the start ..."), and the genocide of Tamils (Tamils Defeated) in Sri Lanka.

The Gazette mourns "productive years" lost by the flu ...

Epidemiologists who study pandemics use a measurement called disability-adjusted life year, or DALY for short, to gauge the “burden of disease” of a virus. DALY seeks to quantify how many productive years a disease robs from a population. An 85-year-old man who dies from the flu will have lost few productive years compared with a 22-year-old woman.

... but you never hear about productive years lost by war. No, we blithely send our future into war and take stock only of the dead, not the countless more maimed and psychologically damaged.

Here's a film called "Let there be light", originally banned after WWII but now in the public domain.

The special treatment methods shown in this film, such as hypnosis and narcosynthesis, have been particularly successful in acute cases, such as battle neurosis. Equal success is not to be expected when dealing with peacetime neuroses which are usually of a chronic nature. No scenes were staged. The cameras merely recorded what took place in an Army Hospital.

The hypocrisy of fake concern for human life is more sickening than any flu.

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(3) Grumpy Journalism

[Review of Documentary Film] Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action

There is a certain clique of unkempt, middleclass, predominantly white, Kensington Market-inhabiting, organic food preaching faux-artistes that will absolutely flip over this documentary... everyone else should stay far, far away.

When a review is as brief and hostile as this one, the subject film warrants close attention. I have yet to see the "activists" so aptly described in the above paragraph risk very much of anything at all, a failing which I've gathered elsewhere this film aims to correct.

The things at which activism has succeeded in the recent past were things that were part of the global agenda anyway. For instance, we pride ourselves on having kept Canada out of Iraq, but we didn't really - we played a supportive role there only because our major mission was Afghanistan. And the "successful" Earth Day protests fell right in line with the convenient myth? (who knows?) of climate change that is covering a lot of manmade mayhem.

Nevertheless,the National Post's headline for a review of the same film: "Overthrow it like you mean it." speaks volumes.

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There are more dwarfs of journalism, for instance "Doc" - the medical science baloney we are being fed every day - but maybe I'll deal with those at another time.

Secessionist, Political Pique

(1) A Secessionist Responds; (2) Symptoms of Canada's Terminal Illness; (3) You want me to protest on behalf of a career politician?

(1) A Secessionist Responds

It appears yesterday's musings on the secessionist movement struck a nerve in politician Sebastian Ronin, author of one (or more?) of the websites to which I referred.

He quoted from a couple of links, one of which goes nowhere, and another to an article that attempts to clarify the secessionist mission over the next several decades, at times in some pretty flowery language:

"Secessionists do not will secession; they merely pluck it off the tree of history like an overripe fruit."

Then he gets straight to the point with this personal comment:

"So you see, your type of stringent nationalist backlash has been anticipated. Within the current historical context, it is reactionary. Canada, as a nation, will not survive the century."

My goodness. The man thinks I'm a nationalist when all this time I, and most people who actually know me, thought I was just a chronic skeptic.

He apparently quite missed my "sheeple" comment in his hurry to counter any damage he worries I might have done to his political career, however minute. I also confessed long ago that I can't sing Canada's national anthem without changing the words to "Our home's on native land", and merely wondered why the government chose 1980 - the year of Ronald Reagan's election as US president - to unanimously make certain alterations to it.

Perhaps I was too subtle in implying that national anthems are merely incitement to wars. It's no accident, if you read the history links I provided yesterday, that the original of ours was born at the time of the first world war.

Here's a question I didn't think to ask yesterday - will there also be a secession from the current wars? If so, then I might go for it.

But I agree, and have said many times, that a backlash is anticipated - by larger fish than Ronin. I haven't seen any mention, so far in secessionist writings, of civil war. That would help to reduce population, and the big fish are fully expecting it and are prepared for it.

Sure, lots of people will die from "natural" causes now that the global warming scientists are given a louder voice than the global cooling ones. Heck, a mere exhorbitant rise in food prices blamed on "shortages" will get rid of quite a few.

I also agree that Canada won't survive the century. In fact, Canada took to its sick bed with a terminal illness when it began taking direct orders from the US regarding foreign and economic policy, and its justice system died the day the Security Certificate was thrown into full throttle.

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(2) Symptoms of Canada's terminal illness:

The Security Certificate and Bill C-6

Here's a video of Mohamed Harkat finally able to attend and speak at a rally on his own behalf. His next court date is Tuesday May 19, at the Supreme Court Building on Wellington Street a bit west of Parliament Hill. If you're in Ottawa, the family would appreciate your attendance to show support.

With regard to the freedoms of all Canadians, here's a video about Bill C-6 - the government's "big tool box" - that we all need to take a look at (thanks to John in Manitoba for the link).

Did you know that Bill C-6 actually moves away from the "rule of law" to allow, for instance, Canada's health inspectors to literally and legally trod all over your petunia patch and peer into your windows to ascertain what consumer products you're using?

Yeah, the Canada we thought we knew is pretty much dead.

Geez, where is the Council of Canadians on this, eh?

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(3) You want me to protest on behalf of a career politician?

Ottawans are being called out to protest on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese politician born of a long line of politicians, and who lived for a couple of decades in the UK, then suddenly - and auspiciously it turned out - ditched her husband and children to return to Burma with the excuse of tending to her ailing mother, but essentially because a window had opened in which she could try to re-establish her family's previously powerful political dynasty - but was thwarted when the military junta placed her in relative isolation in relative luxury.

This, Canadians can get worked up about, without even knowing what havoc she might actually have wreaked on Burma had she and her backers succeeded in wresting power away from the military. Rampant capitalism under the guise of "Democracy" - the kind Canadians are wilting under? Burma already has that under the guise of Communism. Whatever, it's simply enough that she's looked up to as some kind of would-be saviour - like Obama.

The woman's a politician for gawd's sake! In a New World Order century for gawd's sake! Out of Britain for gawd's sake! With the oil and gas companies itching to exploit Burma's supply, for gawd's sake!

I ask you - where is the common sense?

Suu Kyi is already receiving strong verbal support from "free market" governments of many nations, including Britain, the US and Canada, for their own nefarious reasons. But the sad fact is that the only reason the West aren't currently bombing Burma - pretty Suu Kyi and all, if necessary - to get at the oil - is because China would bomb us right back.

Suu Kyi or not, the Burmese people themselves will continue to be the pawns of free market capitalism.

Secession and the 19th State

A couple of days ago I received an invitation to join this movement. I've been bogged down ever since trying to figure out what the American secessionist movement is really all about. At first it seemed like a defiance (see all these positive sounding videos) but now it's beginning to seem like a capitulation to a redrawn map of North America that incorporates Mexico and Canada into the United States.

As a blogging colleague reminded me, as long as the sheeple cling to a national identity, the NAU (euphemised by pathological liars on all sides of the House as the SPP) cannot be accomplished. Therefore national unity needs to be surreptitiously discouraged, all the while that our leaders shower upon us like confetti the word "sovereignty".

Could it be that's why Canada's national anthem has been so messed with to the point where the older population stumbles through it, while the younger folk (well, at least our "sons" - and by the way the original poem was female inclusive) get the message loud and clear - that Canada must be "protected" from abroad, in wars that were planned long before 9/11 (except that Canada will be just a large state in the Union) ...

From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.

And did they throw in the word "God" to begin blurring the line between religion and state? ...

God keep our land glorious and free!

How many people are aware that those changes to O Canada were repeatedly presented to Parliament for several decades without success, until suddenly in 1980 they were unanimously approved - just in time to begin getting Canada on board with the doublespeak of Bilderberg- orchestrated Reaganism *...

From The Nation:

Defense spending is not a set of figures but a way of increasing militarization of America's political economy, and its cultural life as well. Taxes and deficits are tools for increasing the power and enriching the coffers of the corporate class. Family values refer to more rigid social controls, leadership means authoritarianism, school prayer and support for religious education are means of hastening the privatization of American society--a key strategy.

... along with the Moral Majority - which has since been revived as the Moral Majority Coalition and was very active in the 2008 US election?

And why are the lyrics in the French "O Canada" completely different from those in English? Hardly a way to promote unity.

Here's how it was sung in English throughout my life until middle age:

O Canada! Our home and native land
True patriot love, in all our sons command;
With glowing hearts, we see thee rise,
The true North strong and free
And stand on guard, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
O Canada
Glorious and free
We stand on guard, we stand on guard for thee
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Could it be that Quebec separatism was never a spontaneous popular movement at all, but rather the product of a few rabble-rousing New World Order enthusiasts - because in order for Canada to be properly sucked into the NAU vortex, Quebec must secede?

If so, it was supposed to have occurred before Bilderberg-annointed Steve Harper took office. Did Quebec's Premier Charest (an exemplar of the obliterated line between those calling themselves Liberals and others calling themselves Conservatives) only appear to have double-crossed Harper after receiving a lovely bribe, or was the whole idea to increase support for the separatist Bloc Quebecois, which did indeed win more seats in Parliament? It cost Harper a majority, but if the aim is to move Quebec toward secession, perhaps that possibility was factored in.

Too convoluted? Maybe not, considering how important it is to keep the idea of splitting up Canada far from the consciousness of the average proud Canadian - especially when a continuous supply of cannon fodder is needed to fight for "God and state ... er, country".

But nevermind, Ignatieff's LibCons will soon win a landslide (you can tell because the attack ads have already begun), and it will be his job to get serious about breaking up Canada.

What will finally make Quebec secede? I'm not sure, but maps are being drawn by people calling themselves secessionists to indicate how North America will ultimately be configured. We've so often joked about Canada being the 51st state, but when there are only 19 states what number will we assign to it?

Yes, I know they call them "nations", but it looks like one big USA comprised of 19 states. Take a good look at what used to be Ontario and British Columbia.

Those maps give a whole new meaning to the term "Atlantic Accord", and the Maritime Union/New Acadia concepts which has spawned the Atlantica Party who claim not to be "corporate shills for the Atlantica Free Trade Zone Sponsors", not to mention the Novacadia Alliance.

All of which makes the Tar Sands project look even more suspicious. If Alberta secedes (and Harper, who hails from Alberta, is reportedly a closet secessionist) it will need to survive on its own until the NAU becomes complete and stabilized, so it will need to allow the exploitation of its own resources, all other considerations bedamned.

On the subject of oil, it should be noted that the Secessionist idea is partly based on the Peak Oil theory, and according to an article on sustainability (I am growing to detest that word because of its duplicitous overuse) at the affiliated website "The Oil Drum", the survival of whatever the heck America turns out to be will require a serious population reduction, and you can bet it wouldn't be carried out by lottery but by who is arbitrarily considered not worth keeping alive.

Fortunately there is some good discussion about the validity of some the article's conclusions in the comments section.

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* If you feel you have the stomach for it, there's a half-hour Google video of Ronald Reagan announcing in 1964 his switch from Democrat to Republican in support of Barry Goldwater. He boasts at the outset that these are all his own words and ideas on matters that "cross party lines" (no kidding, eh?) and proceeds to pave the way with a mouthful of platitudes toward his own land-slide election in 1980.

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Something to uplift you

A reader named Frank emailed me - after my recent "sermon" about surviving the stress of global upheaval by remaining as much as possible in the "Now" - partly to inquire if I had gotten my ideas from Eckhart Tolle. But of course the concept is not a new one, is quite New Testament-ical, is what all those sitting and chanting Zen Buddhists are attempting to achieve, and was even championed by a parrot in Aldous Huxley's book "Island" ("Here and now, boys; here and now!"), but I had never heard of Tolle.

I'm not keen on gurus in general - I'm a firm believer in quickly slaying the Buddha - and certainly not on any kind of drug induced or ritualized kind of "awareness" - but thanks to a full-length lecture video, I am now more or less familiar with Tolle and his teachings. If you're not yet ready to accept the "Now" concept, you would still enjoy the video because Tolle is funneeeeee!

I laughed out loud when he said that the entire content of our lives is in the two inches between the date of birth and date of death on one's tombstone. It's true! That's just how important it all is in the grand scheme of the universe.

And the look on his face was hilarious as he repeated the words "peace process" - a process that goes on interminably as people continue to slaughter one another.

As Tolle keeps saying, the "Now" concept is "very simple" so I can't help wondering why he accepts money from the same followers over and over who return just to hear the sound of his voice. But he has to make a living, I guess,since he doesn't look like he'd be fit for much else. And I mean that sincerely.

Stating the Obvious

Military shooter has mental problems.

Contrary to media rumours, the shooter who killed his military colleagues did not turn the weapon on himself. He's alive and in custody.

From the New York Times:

The killings appeared to be the single deadliest episode of soldier-on-soldier violence among American forces since the United States-led invasion of Iraq six years ago.

The deadliest, perhaps, but not the only. As the article says:

About one in six soldiers returning from Iraq show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder or other emotional difficulties ...

The other five hide the signs, to come out later in spousal and substance abuse. Or else they come out against war.

The military knew this guy was in trouble, but instead of isolating him for treatment they "referred" him for treatment and claim to have taken away his weapon - in a setting that overflows with accessible weaponry!

What's also sad is that the shooter was on his third deployment, knowing full well himself the inner turmoil it was causing him.

Here's a guy who successfully refused to deploy simply by stating the obvious:

So I said fine, I can just quote it, and I quoted, "this Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land."

I said when we violated the U.N. Charter to invade and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, we had violated U.S. law and the Constitution, and that it is every Soldiers' responsibility to resists the crimes of our government for which we are ultimately responsible.

This is an example of why - although I don't mind at all if Canada wants to allow US war resisters to live here - I see escape as passive resistance and therefore of not much value. To be truly effective, potential cannon fodder should stay at home and actively resist. Even the Sarvanim in Israel are willing to take a risk for their beliefs!

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They call it "analysis" ...

Pakistan's Swat offensive risks wider backlash

By throwing up to 15,000 troops and heavy weaponry against an estimated 5,000 Taliban in Swat, a valley northwest of Islamabad, the Pakistan army may make short-term gains, but it increases the likelihood of terror-style attacks on targets in more stable areas of eastern Pakistan in the longer-term.

How terribly astute. Just as if it hasn't been said a zillion times about all of the wars!

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Sri Lanka - "a bloodbath" ...

Mayor warns defiant Tamils - Police 'will remove you'

No kidding, eh? Who do they think the Tamil protesters have been facing down for weeks?

"We don't care what happens to us," said Ghormy Theva, 21. She and other young protesters have run out of ideas for "extreme measures," but she said she's willing to risk everything to draw attention to the suffering in Sri Lanka. Hundreds were reported killed Sunday and Monday in artillery barrages that struck the narrow strip of territory controlled by the Tamil Tigers. A UN spokesperson called it a "bloodbath."

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Proving the obvious

Student hoax puts egg on media's face

An Irish university student decided to test whether or not the media are upholding accuracy in the Web 2.0 era. So he posted false information on Wikipedia to see what would happen.

I've been talking about the laziness of the media for a long time. Nice to see them so well exposed for it. I was gratified to know that Wikipedia deleted the quote forcing the student to repost it several times. Their editors are more savvy than those being paid to oversee mainstream media reports.

Little wonder that Mulroney felt free to blame the media he once courted for helping to create the impression he took a bribe for Airbus (see the video accompanying this article), in addition to painting his old pal Harper incompetent.

But then Mulroney, ruthless as ever, is prepared to take everybody and his brother down with him if it will give him a hope in Hades. Next thing you know he'll be telling us what a great guy Ignatieff is, just to hammer another nail into Harper's coffin. Once a hatchet man, always a hatchet man. The Bilderberger's - and the media - knew that when they annointed him.

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Everybody talking 'bout democracy ain'ta goin' there ...

Canadians (and Americans, obviously) still bask in the dream that the fact of elections indicates a democracy, closing their eyes to the truth staring them in the face. The trial of media-elected Larry O'Brien is just one indication of how farcical our elections really are, how out of the electorate's hands the running (into the ground) of a country really is. Fair competition gets in the way of certain aims and goals and is therefore seen as a "problem" to be worked around:

That problem, Kilrea told the court, had some "very prominent Conservatives" who were backing O'Brien's bid for mayor concerned. O'Brien said, according to Kilrea, that those Conservatives wanted the two men to come to a "business agreement" that would leave only one of them in the race so the right-of-centre vote wouldn't be split.

That's why you hear a lot more from John Baird's doppleganger Jason Kenney these days than you once heard from Baird. Kenney's the official bigmouth now that Baird has to lie low.

Background

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The ultimate rhetorical question ...

So, I asked the UN secretary general, isn't it time for a war crimes tribunal?

Oh, that, says the UN secretary general, my hands are tied on that.

But read his speech anyway (Please note: this is a satire). You might find comfort from knowing that at least somebody up there is saying this:

“Terrorism” has long since replaced “arms control” and “détente” as the focus of international security, yet the term defies definition. One country’s terrorist is another country’s revolutionary hero. Some insist that terrorists are opposed to democracy, but we have all seen democracies behave like terrorists...

After “Operation Cast Lead,” no person, no country, no democracy can look at Israel without thinking of the inhuman slaughter and destruction committed by the axis powers in World War II, though one could have said the same about numerous past massacres. What atrocities might the world have been spared if the UN had refused to admit Israel 60 years ago?

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From my mailbox:

EDMONTON: The Federal government standing committee on the environment and sustainable development has launched an inquiry into Tar Sands extraction and its effects on the watershed and water quality of Athabasca/McKenzie river. Let your voice be heard too. Check the link for whom to contact and how. If you're in Edmonton, there's a public meeting this evening, May 12, at 7 PM. Full details and background

TORONTO: May 15 - Hear KOLE KILIBARDA explain the military and industrial links and YVES ENGLER describe the political context of the Israel/Canada connection. Full details