I'm Canadian, but I don't see the point. Ten years ago, it would have mattered. Now, it's too late. He's a symbol to both sides, but a decade of occupation, drone strikes, guerrilla warfare, security state paranoia, friendly fire casualties, roadside bombs, IED's, government corruption, burning poppy fields, Private Military Contractors, foiled terrorist strikes and successful ones have taken their toll.
Maybe, just maybe, if all the troops stood down and came home, I could celebrate. But Canadian troops are overseas where we never should have sent them, not keeping the peace but fighting and dying for... what? What have we accomplished, by pouring out our treasure and the blood of our soldiers?
Has democracy suddenly broken out in Afghanistan? Is Karzai suddenly no longer criminal and corrupt?
Am I glad Bin Laden is gone? No, not really. He was an evil man, but you don't want to hear my list of evil men. I could go on for days without running out of candidates.
It's too late. The next few months, when American and Canadian troops DO NOT come home to return to peacetime lives will drive home that point.
Osama Bin Laden may be dead, but his 'children' are alive and well. Prospering, even, as distasteful as that may sound. Prime Minister Stephen Harper (and I taste bile every time I speak that name) was already on the news yesterday telling us that the "war is not over".
The War on Terror was lost a long time ago. It was over the moment the West decided that it was alright to resort to terror tactics, torture, extraordinary rendition, "precision" drone strikes, an ever escalating security state and a laundry list of other crimes and obscenities. We lost that war. They won.
The real war is still ongoing, and this latest news just shows that for every skirmish progressives and rational people win, we lose just as many. Last night my nation lost a catastrophic battle, and I fear we're going to be in the dark for a long, long time to come.
Showing posts with label Evil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Evil. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Fuck!!!
We, collectively, are Fucked.
I'm sorry if that seems harsh. It's still true.
Fuck you.
If anyone in this fuckwit country had been paying attention for the last five years, I wouldn't be watching this happening. Let me refresh your memories with a few choice images:
-an elderly man being arrested by helmeted thugs, his prosthetic leg forcibly removed.
-prisoners handed over into torture by Canadian troops.
-a three time convicted, disbarred lawyer working in the Prime Minister's Office while his prostitute mistress collects a salary he arranged through patronage.
-a Canadian General commanding an airstrike that ended with the death of several children under the age of twelve. Children murdered because a Canadian gave the order.
-the largest mass arrest in Canada's history, incarcerated women threatened with gang rape.
-one hundred and fifty five of Canada's soldiers dead in a mountain land where Empires go to die.
-twenty two Canadians dead of listeriosis because the Conservative government loosened regulations and procedures.
-a Prime Minister who is on record saying Canada is shameful for its socialized medicine.
-an environmental catastrophe so large that it can be viewed from space, shepherded by a Conservative government so disinterested in the environment that their environment minister resigned rather than make his annual reports.
Are you smiling? Do the memories cheer you up? The little people suffering as they should be while your life goes on so utterly unchanged? Good. You've finally gotten the government you wanted. You've finally got the government you deserve. The RCMP can do what they like, the CPC can do what they like, the Corporations can do whatever they like and so can you.
Without your government mandated medical care, public education, civil rights or human rights of course, but you weren't even using those were you? Everything will be just fine, business as usual, smiles and sunshine everywhere...
Provided you don't get in the way of the CPC, the Corporations and the RCMP.
What could be more delightful than this, you ask? Why, you get to pay them for the privilege. Oh yes, and don't worry, your loss is their gain and that's just how they like it.
Do you like it when people in authority they don't deserve lie to your face? When they break the law and laugh when you point it out?
Congratulations. We're all in this together now, and we will be for the next four years.
Fuck you.
And Fuck Me too.
Because with a Harper Conservative Majority, ALL of us are Fucked.
I'm sorry if that seems harsh. It's still true.
Fuck you.
If anyone in this fuckwit country had been paying attention for the last five years, I wouldn't be watching this happening. Let me refresh your memories with a few choice images:
-an elderly man being arrested by helmeted thugs, his prosthetic leg forcibly removed.
-prisoners handed over into torture by Canadian troops.
-a three time convicted, disbarred lawyer working in the Prime Minister's Office while his prostitute mistress collects a salary he arranged through patronage.
-a Canadian General commanding an airstrike that ended with the death of several children under the age of twelve. Children murdered because a Canadian gave the order.
-the largest mass arrest in Canada's history, incarcerated women threatened with gang rape.
-one hundred and fifty five of Canada's soldiers dead in a mountain land where Empires go to die.
-twenty two Canadians dead of listeriosis because the Conservative government loosened regulations and procedures.
-a Prime Minister who is on record saying Canada is shameful for its socialized medicine.
-an environmental catastrophe so large that it can be viewed from space, shepherded by a Conservative government so disinterested in the environment that their environment minister resigned rather than make his annual reports.
Are you smiling? Do the memories cheer you up? The little people suffering as they should be while your life goes on so utterly unchanged? Good. You've finally gotten the government you wanted. You've finally got the government you deserve. The RCMP can do what they like, the CPC can do what they like, the Corporations can do whatever they like and so can you.
Without your government mandated medical care, public education, civil rights or human rights of course, but you weren't even using those were you? Everything will be just fine, business as usual, smiles and sunshine everywhere...
Provided you don't get in the way of the CPC, the Corporations and the RCMP.
What could be more delightful than this, you ask? Why, you get to pay them for the privilege. Oh yes, and don't worry, your loss is their gain and that's just how they like it.
Do you like it when people in authority they don't deserve lie to your face? When they break the law and laugh when you point it out?
Congratulations. We're all in this together now, and we will be for the next four years.
Fuck you.
And Fuck Me too.
Because with a Harper Conservative Majority, ALL of us are Fucked.
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Lockheed-Martin
Lockheed Martin's corporate profile on Project On Government Oversight
It's a very long list, and that's 57 violations since 1995, so I'll just mention a few high points:
-Fraud
-Kickbacks
-Unlicensed Exports
-Arms Exports Violations
-Cost Inflation
-Bribery
-Nuclear Safety Violations (yes, that's plural)
-Federal Election Law Violations
-Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Oh yes, these are definitely the people Canada should be buying our next fighter aircraft from. I hereby withdraw my call for an open and competitive bidding process.
It's a very long list, and that's 57 violations since 1995, so I'll just mention a few high points:
-Fraud
-Kickbacks
-Unlicensed Exports
-Arms Exports Violations
-Cost Inflation
-Bribery
-Nuclear Safety Violations (yes, that's plural)
-Federal Election Law Violations
-Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Oh yes, these are definitely the people Canada should be buying our next fighter aircraft from. I hereby withdraw my call for an open and competitive bidding process.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
The Stephen Harper Vision of Canada
Warren Kinsella offers a glance.
These fine folk offer a retrospective.
This is what my nation has in store for it, if Stephen Harper is given a majority mandate. Take a good long look and ask yourself if that is the kind of Canada you'd like to live in.
I love my country, but I really don't recognize it anymore. We've fallen so far from the ideals I always pictured when I thought of Canada. We are better than Stephen Harper would have us, and we can be better than he imagines us. He is a vile, petty, vindictive controlling man and his vision is so limited and so broken that it drives me to rage.
What maddens me all the more is that for all his lies, for all his crimes, Canadians seem blinded. It baffles me that people will still listen to him and support him, after everything that he and his people have done. What is wrong with these people?
And if he wins a majority, what will we do then? Will the Liberals and the NDP have the moral courage to stop their petty, useless sniping at one another and form a coalition with the Bloc?
Is any one of the so called 'leaders' willing to set politics aside and act not for their own power and gain but for Canada's benefit?
Have the lies and the rot set in so deep that Harper's vision for Canada is what we deserve?
The day after the election we'll know. If Harper wins, will Canadians fight back and prove that we deserve something better?
Or will we sink back into our chairs and settle our blinders more comfortably on our heads and hope that it will all pass us by without affecting us directly?
These fine folk offer a retrospective.
This is what my nation has in store for it, if Stephen Harper is given a majority mandate. Take a good long look and ask yourself if that is the kind of Canada you'd like to live in.
I love my country, but I really don't recognize it anymore. We've fallen so far from the ideals I always pictured when I thought of Canada. We are better than Stephen Harper would have us, and we can be better than he imagines us. He is a vile, petty, vindictive controlling man and his vision is so limited and so broken that it drives me to rage.
What maddens me all the more is that for all his lies, for all his crimes, Canadians seem blinded. It baffles me that people will still listen to him and support him, after everything that he and his people have done. What is wrong with these people?
And if he wins a majority, what will we do then? Will the Liberals and the NDP have the moral courage to stop their petty, useless sniping at one another and form a coalition with the Bloc?
Is any one of the so called 'leaders' willing to set politics aside and act not for their own power and gain but for Canada's benefit?
Have the lies and the rot set in so deep that Harper's vision for Canada is what we deserve?
The day after the election we'll know. If Harper wins, will Canadians fight back and prove that we deserve something better?
Or will we sink back into our chairs and settle our blinders more comfortably on our heads and hope that it will all pass us by without affecting us directly?
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Lies and the Lying Liars who Lie Them
A note for Stephen Harper, a man both Wrong and Dishonourable, on his claim that he was not found guilty of contempt but was simply outvoted by the other three parties:
Acts of Parliament have the Force of Law!
Acts of Parliament have the Force of Law!
Friday, 1 April 2011
On the Nature of Evil
Allow me to share an idea. It is as close to wisdom as I have ever come. A realization I had, once upon a time, while thinking about good, evil, the nature of sin and what 'good' is.
It's quite simple, really. All evil, all sin, breaks down to two words. The seven deadly sins? Nope, just two: Selfishness, and Ignorance.
Whenever you hear of something wrong, criminal, vicious or evil, you can break down the act or the words down to their root and find Selfishness, Ignorance or the two together. Everything negative in the world that Man has perpetrated against Man, it all comes down to being selfish or ignorant or both.
Two sins, working hand in hand in our hearts and minds. Two sins that only become unforgiveable when they are willful. Everyone has moments when they are selfish or ignorant, when they unthinkingly do something vicious or stupid. But when someone consistently chooses the selfish, ignorant path, they make themselves a threat to the rest of our species.
All the Evil I have ever witnessed, just humans being selfish and ignorant. Refusing to care about others, refusing to think and ask and question. Selfish. Ignorant. All our problems revolve around those two words. Small minds unwilling or unable to do more than obey, to do more than think of themselves.
Simple, really. Isn't it?
It's quite simple, really. All evil, all sin, breaks down to two words. The seven deadly sins? Nope, just two: Selfishness, and Ignorance.
Whenever you hear of something wrong, criminal, vicious or evil, you can break down the act or the words down to their root and find Selfishness, Ignorance or the two together. Everything negative in the world that Man has perpetrated against Man, it all comes down to being selfish or ignorant or both.
Two sins, working hand in hand in our hearts and minds. Two sins that only become unforgiveable when they are willful. Everyone has moments when they are selfish or ignorant, when they unthinkingly do something vicious or stupid. But when someone consistently chooses the selfish, ignorant path, they make themselves a threat to the rest of our species.
All the Evil I have ever witnessed, just humans being selfish and ignorant. Refusing to care about others, refusing to think and ask and question. Selfish. Ignorant. All our problems revolve around those two words. Small minds unwilling or unable to do more than obey, to do more than think of themselves.
Simple, really. Isn't it?
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