My first thought on hearing that the ruling clique had finally called their pretend-election (no it's not quite as bad as the Diebold situation in the US, but in ways it's just as fixed) in Ontario was that I'd really like to see a debate about democracy in this country (HAHAHAHAHA - man I just realised how funny that was! - I'd like to see a debate about all KINDS of fucking things in this country! - and I'm more likely to win a billion grokkles in the Martian lottery than to see ANY of them in the current version of the Canadian anything-but-democracy-with-citizen-participation "Fox-north" "media"!!! - anyway - I'll do my side of them here....) - so - right - democracy - hit me this morning when I read the story about Eves calling the election, and immediately bad-mouthing McGuinty - and the next bit was a para about McGuinty bad-mouthing Eves, with both of them saying what the Ontario voters wanted (yeayea Hampton was in there too badmouthing everyone else) - and the fucking dog and pony show vOnt2003 is under way once again (they've already had one this year in Nova Scotia, and one is coming up soon in PEI as well - rumours of one in the old home rock soon as well - all the same!!! - and the national one here next year!!) - and no matter WHO wins the fucking election - the people of Ontario (or NS or PEI or Newf or fucking Canada!) lose!!!!!!!!!!

Think about that for awhile - if you're reading this site, you probably have some idea of what I'm talking about already -

- butbutbut - wait RM dear RM wait please said Alice with those big big innocent baby blues!! - you constantly disparage our great media!! - but they DO talk about all that stuff you know!! They do talk about democracy and elections and alternatives and all those things!! - well, yes and no - they do feature the ODD column, for instance, on something like PR - but admit it Alice, admit it!! - once a year does not make for a debate!! - and they do NOT present it in a way that makes people want to start debating it, but more in the sense of "Why look at these strange ideas! Isn't that funny! - like the Easter Island statues, or something (actually they probably get more coverage in the Canadian media!) - but think on it - what about something the media (or their behind-the-scenes owners, more correctly) WANTS to promote, WANTS you to think about and talk about - like, oh, just for instance, LOWER TAXES LOWER TAXES LOWER TAXES!! - how often in the last year have you seen THAT phrase in the Canadian media?!?!? - and therefore, what are you likely to think about as serious "topics of discussion in the election campaign"??? Something you hear on the news every day, or something you hear once a year?

The basis of the whole thing, the reason for the big circus, is to give the citizens of the place they are voting in - in this case Ontario - the crazy idea that they are somehow in charge of things - it's a complete illusion, carefully fostered (by the COMPLETE lack of any coverage pointing out how ridiculous the idea is) by the media, and of course the politicians who are fighting for the cushy jobs and the Elite who are really running the show. The whole deal with what has come to be known as "democracy" is that if things aren't going very well - well - hey!! - it's YOUR fault, Jack!! (Jill, whatever) - YOU elect the politicians, and they are doing what YOU tell them to do!! - and if you don't like it - well, hey! - throw da bums out next time!! - and that's the end of it. Of course, if you suspected the true story - that someone else was in charge, like maybe the banks or the CCCE, and THEY were directly responsible for all the crap that is happening today, and things really could and should be a whole FUCK of a lot better for EVERYONE (well - maybe not better for the elite, who might lose a substantial amount of their privileges) - well, a bunch of people might get it into their heads to do something really fucking drastic, like they did at the American Revolution, or the French Revolution, or the Fields of Runymede - all actions to get rid of, or at least put a few controls on, an elite that was running the locale in question for their own benefit, living lives of great luxury whilst the serfs lived lives of varying degrees of misery.

What a crazy fucking notion, eh?!?!?! - aren't we told from the very day we are fucking BORN that this is the GREATEST fucking country on the planet, and we are the LUCKIEST people in the world to be living here? It's GOTTA be true, man!! (very odd, it has happened again, it happens almost every week, when I start writing about something, I just luck into something on the net that says what I'm trying to say in another way that reinforces my rambles - here, for instance, is just such a piece - more about America - but hell, we're almost American anyway - Dumbing Down, American-style by one Herbert I. Schiller [[RM archive copy]] - one of the best explications of the situation I have come across - well worth a read - not too long to go over on your coffee break! (and a FUCK of a lot more useful than talking about whatever neat things your coworkers found at the fucking mall last night!). - anyway, don't take that bit the wrong way - Canada USED to be one of the great countries in the world, and it is that reputation the neoliars and conmen are using now to keep everyone (well - haha - not quite "everyone" - there are, of course, a few of us protesting the theft as LOUD AS WE FUCKING CAN!!!) quiet while they steal it away right from under our very fucking eyes. Whether or not we succeed is something the next few years will tell (and if you, my sweet grandchild (or someone else's), are reading this on some old CD or disc or (god forbid) paper! you found in the attic in a box of old junk, but have NEVER heard the word "neocon" in your schooling - well - we lost.)

Well geezuz h if I didn't get sidetracked again - must be getting late - anyway, where were we? - oh ya - Tweedledum-Tweedledee contesting the big democratic election in Ontario (getting all primed up for the biggie next year) - oh well, it's getting late - just a couple of quick thoughts - I'm sure there will be occasion for further comments on the situation over the next few weeks.

First - what a REAL media would do right off the fucking bat is haul out a summary of the promises of the PCs the last election, and put them front and center, and see how the promises stacked up with the reality. Immediately upon the heels of that, they would tot up a little list of things the PCs have done the last four years that they didn't bother telling people they were planning on doing (I certainly don't remember any talk the last time about 25% salary hikes for MPs, or privatising Ontario Hydro, for instance - I'm sure there are many others...) - and just take it from there. For starters.

A real media would also be asking questions like - if there is a 60% turnout at an election, and the party winning a majority of seats in a multi-party race gets say 40% of the popular vote, meaning that something like 25% of eligible voters in the province now have a majority government - exactly what does that have to do with the idea of democracies reflecting majority rule - and why in the FUCK do we not have some sort of PR system? (and a follow-up question - when the CCCE-elite want something (i.e. "free" trade) why can we go from first mention of it in the media to implementation of a huge treaty with the US in 3-4 years - but when most people in the country want something that would be good for everyone - i.e. PR - why is it dragged out for years and years and years and years??? (note - rhetorical question - you and I know the fucking answer - but getting someone in the government to admit it is something else altogether)

What is it with the Frasers? They're all over the fucking place the last little while. This week they're on about how public auto insurance would be a really, really bad thing for Ontario to do (I suppose this has nothing whatsoever to do with the election, and a lot of people being pretty fucking pissed off at the huge insurance rates they're being gouged for the last few years, and the NDP talking about Public Auto Insurance - naaaa!!! - what a silly conspiracy theory!! hahaha) - anyway - here's the story in the snotty Glob Car insurance: a mortality tale Ontario political parties promise lower costs for drivers, but a recent study shows that government- influenced premiums produce more deaths and injuries, says MARK MULLINS [[RM archive copy]]. The whole report is on the Fraser site if you want to look it up - I checked and it's there, but I don't need to contaminate this place with such shite. They cite a lot of stats about how deaths and injuries and accidents are higher in provinces with public insurance - I don't have time to check it all out, but I would basically guarantee that somehow they're fucking with the figures - it's how they make their livings, after all. Somebody at one of the good places like the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives will look into their misrepresentations soon enough, and I'll let you know. But what got me the most about this "report" right off the bat was their contention that MAYBE something like 50 whole additional lives would be lost in Ontario each year if the province switched to public auto insurance - really weasely worded, for starters, making one figure they're probably right on the verge of an outright lie - but - the thing is - at what point in time did the fucking Frasers become concerned about saving the lives of your average citizens?!?!?! I mean that is to say!! - they've been pushing for privatising the entire fucking health care system for years, and making it the same as the backwards US "healthcare-for-profit" system, which we've talked about before (probably more than once) - and last year there was a study done by some people at McMaster University (whose credibility rating would be CONSIDER-FUCKING-ABLY higher than anything coming out of the Fraser, guaranteed) (original May 28 2002 CMAJ article here - A systematic review and meta- analysis of studies comparing mortality rates of private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals) that found that there would probably be something like 2,200 MORE hospital deaths per year if Canada privatised the healthcare system - this was not a secret study, and is available to anyone writing about health care policy in Canada (although, of course, those writing propaganda would not be that interested in something like this, as we talked about last time) - so how is it that over 2,000 deaths don't even rate a mention in their push for privatising the health care system - but some suspicious looking self-done study (believe me, ANYTHING coming from the Frasers should be regarded with DEEEEEPPPP suspicion, as far as reliable research is concerned) indicating there "MIGHT" be a very small number of increased deaths from installing a public auto insurance system has them all of a sudden oh-so fucking piously concerned for the public weal?!?!?! This is really kind of like the snake-oil salesman whom you have never seen before suddenly showing up on your doorstep all concerned for your wellbeing - and just fucking coincidentally has JUST the potion you need!! hahahahaha - well, if you like that one, dear, drop us a line willya??? I just HAPPEN to have this GREAT fucking option on some beachfront property in Baffin Island, great swimming all year around (for fucking seals and polar bears HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA)....

Me, I gotta say, it sounds pretty far-fetched. Sorta like everything the Fraser does.

The Globe article is interesting in various ways (propaganda always has some interesting stuff behind the lines, as it were, for those who look...) - although the writer is identified with the Fraser at the end, the whole piece is presented like a normal news story, with the writer of the report even referring to himself in the 3rd person within the article.

He makes a few pretty one-sided statements - for instance, he says that public auto insurance penalises everyone who pays insurance for the actions of a few bad drivers, and, without actually saying it, implies that private, for-profit insurance has higher premiums for those bad drivers, and lower for better drivers. But true only to a point - for instance, even though only maybe 20% of all the teen male drivers are going to get in accidents, the private insurers assume that ALL teen drivers are a bad risk, and so a whole lot of safe-driving teens pay astronomical insurance rates even though they have not had and never will have an accident. Not all that fair to them, either. And let's not forget what happens to anyone's insurance rates if they ever dare to make a claim!!! - fucking ballistic!! Then there's the story I saw last week about a guy who had lived overseas for the last 10 years or so, clean driving record, but no record in Canada - so the insurance people (all of them - no fucking competition mind you!!! - which is supposedly one of the selling points of it all!!) put him in the highest risk category.

Anyway, no point in getting off on all that (one could, indeed, go on at length about the "insurance" industry - one of the major scams of our times, really), not the point of all this - but if somebody starts yapping in your presence about seeing this thought-inspiring story about how public auto insurance will mean more deaths and therefore should not even be considered - ask them how come the same standard of fewer deaths should not apply to the idea of privatising healthcare (it will for sure be someone who supports doing that). And maybe you could point out the source of it all, and get into a little talk about overall credibility, and why newspapers should be presenting propaganda from right-wing organisations as news stories, and a lot of related stuff like that.

The "What a REAL Journalist Would Do" file, just for the hell of it (thinking of Holmgren and the 911 bit from last time, I guess - or just one of those things that has been bothering me for a LONG fucking time now, the almost complete lack of any REAL fucking journalists in this country (aw c'mon RM, there are so! - yea???! - well, the benchmark for me is two things that you can read more on off to the side there somewhere - the 911 stuff that leads DIRECTLY to Washington but NOBODY (in the mainstream media - all over the net of course) is talking about - and also the National Debt Scam - of which there is a LOT more interesting stuff RIGHT FUCKING HERE!!!! (somewhere) this week - and we could work in a few lesser things as well, like how the electoral system in this country is COMPLETELY rigged for the banks and wealthy elite to control things, and although there are lots of options out there that would be a huge improvement, might even get dangerously close to some from of real democracy - again, no talk - some things are "beyond the pale" for mainstream media - and those are the most important things we need to be talking about, and we will continue to be drones or sheep or whatever your preferred term is until we stand up and get rid of these fuckers once and for all) - anyway, now where the fuck was I (man a "leftie" Fraser would be SO fucking nice, where I could get paid at least a pittance for stuff like this and have the time to do it half properly!!! - DREAM ON!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA) - ok, anyway, a REAL media would have been on the people who made the big "terrorist sweep" a few days ago - and been saying things like - ok, you guys at CSIS or whoever the fuck arrested the 21 Arab-looking guys a few days ago on suspicions of terrorist activities - we're watching. If those guys really were up to bad stuff, you guys are doing a great job and certainly to be commended for looking out for us all. And we certainly hope that is the case (that you're doing a really great job - not that they were up to something bad). But there better **be** the case. And you better make it public REAL quick - as Canadians, we are NOT at all happy with the idea of secret police making secret arrests under ANY pretence whatsofucking ever (well, I suppose I should qualify that - I guess you feel that, according to the apathy meters, a whole lot of people don't know anything and don't care - but SOME of us aren't very happy about it anyway. Know this. You show us your evidence in a few days - NO - we do NOT want to hear any shit about "national security secrets" - as we have seen too often the last century, those are the words of police states and police state secret police - complete unaccountability. It is not acceptable in Canada. You make your evidence public - and really, guys, I gotta tell you, it better be better than "the suspect flew over the Picton nuclear station" (and we don't want you misrepresenting this like you did originally as being something unusual or suspicious, only to have us find out later that flying over that particular place is regularly done by student pilots in the area, making it a normal occurrence, rather than an unusual one), or "he came from a place where terrorists are known to live". Trust me - it better be a LOT fucking better than that - christ, we'd have to close the American border, since the whole country is infested with terrorists - they've taken over Washington for god's sake.

Anyway, as I said, a REAL media would be doing that. We don't expect much from the Canadian media (although there are a couple of columnists such as Thomas Walkom on the Star, as mentioned last time, who are trying to keep an eye on it all) - but, as I said, this is the X-files section of RM.

Ok - THIS is THE site (so far anyway) for GREAT articles on monetary reform, laying out in detailed and easy to understand articles just what is going on with the debt-based money society we are living in, and WHY it is so bad for us, and even a bit about WHAT we can do about it - although that is of course the tricky question of the day. Take an hour (or more if you can!) and go through some of these - Prosperity Articles Index - if you have not thought much about economics (funny how they make everyone go to school for 12 years or so, and yet never get around to explaining what actually goes on in the national finances (that was sarcasm if you missed it - they don't do that quite intentionally - it isn't really all that difficult, most scams aren't the product of great brains, and if they tried to teach the lies they pass off to the non-questioning public in a school, some of your smarter, less well-trained (brainwashed) students might start asking some VERY difficult questions - and carry those ideas outside the school and into their adult lives and cause no end of trouble - much better altogether just to ignore it, and pretend it is some esoteric subject suitable only for geeks or brainheads or other intellectual types most students are trained not to want to be. It's quite awesome, really, when you think about it - the whole field of "economics" is primarily designed to take something relatively straightforward and make it so complex that nobody can really understand what the fuck is going on - it is a true Gordian Knot - and the solution to the problem is about as straightforward as Alexander's solution to the original problem. )

And they will keep fucking us all as long as they can keep most people thinking like that. If you want to be free, you gotta - GOTTA!!!!! - think for yourself. And that means doing a bit of learning about stuff like national economics (really, it ain't that hard!!! - they just pretend it is to discourage you - but do you believe everything the government or media tells you these days????) - of course they want to make it all seem as complicated as possible - it's the old story - bullshit baffles brains -

- having trouble with it all, believing our government and leaders could be SOOOOOO fucking corrupt for so long to start and carry out this whole huge scam for over a trillion fucking dollars?? - well, I understand that too - I used to feel that way - BUT BUT BUT BUT!!!!! - if that ain't the case - what else could it be? If you figure something out, let me know (but don't try to sell me that old swampland in Florida - really, I'm on to that shit.) Well wait - oh sure the bankers and shysters will say - so we just print up a few billion dollars to give to everyone then?!? - and the whole economy falls apart as people start a bidding war to get even the most basic stuff! - well sure, they'll go extreme like that - but tell 'em to fuck off or something. All that is being suggested is that instead of the GOVERNMENT going to commercial lenders and letting the commercial lenders create the Canadian money supply that the government then borrows at interest, is that the Canadian government, under responsible (to the people, not the fucking bankers!!) direction, creates more or less the same amount of money it was planning to borrow from the banks - it's hard to figure how it is inflationary if the government creates money, but not inflationary if the banks create the same amount of money and LEND it to the government - actually, the latter by definition has to be more inflationary, since when the banks loan money they demand 2-3 or more times that amount be repaid, so MORE money enters the economy than if the government just created it itself. There will still be banks (People's Banks) of one sort or another, but having "power" more in line with your average joe/jane businessperson, not the economy-controlling power they currently have. And you, joe average citizen, will still be able to borrow money if you want from such a place, perhaps at some nominal amount of interest - some people are always going to want to do that for various reasons, and there's no problem. The problem is letting the banks create the money supply instead of the government. How fucking perverse (for us anyway - sure fucking great for them!) - probably THE BIG LIE of the "modern" age. Well - that and this mythical creature called god that a small clique of clever people have invented to give themselves great earthly power.

The banks of course will do their best to make sure such a thing never comes to pass - they’ve been succeeding very well for quite a long time now (both Abe Lincoln and John Kennedy were assassinated very shortly after proposing that the government instead of private banks take at least some responsibility for the money supply - and ain't that just the goddamnedest conspiracy theory you ever heard?!?!) - but just imagine, if instead of "lower taxes lower taxes lower taxes" every fucking day for the last several years we had all been reading and hearing about "government issued debt free money - for the people not the banks - no national debt over your wee baby's heads unto the 20th (or more) generation!!" - oh well, there I go off into the realms of crazy sorrow again.

I've learned a lot from these articles myself, actually - some things a little clearer (and the more I learn the worse it gets!!!! - .

- the Calculus of Inflation - squeezing Joe Average - as more and more money is created through debt, there is more and more circulating, prices go up, and Joe's income goes up by some small amount - but always less than prices, so he slowly gets poorer and poorer - squeezed - we all see this by the fact that although everyone has a higher income these days, most families need two people working to keep up a half decent life, buy stuff for the kids, etc - this whole inflationary mess is made a NECESSITY by the debt-based money system - since, as more and more money is required to pay interest on the constantly expanding debt load of the country, more money is in circulation, and if prices stayed the same, then everything would become relatively dirt cheap - true inflation, of too much money chasing too few goods - imagine if a new house today cost 5,000, or a new car 2,000 like they did 30 years ago - but your income was whatever it is today - you could live - well - like the rich!! But in a society based on debt-based money, things CANNOT stay the same!!! It's impossible - think about it - they loan you or whoever the money for your house or whatever - but you have to pay that back 2-3-4 times including interest - and where is that interest money coming from? If they didn't constantly print new money and revalue it, soon - VERY soon! - the banks would have ALL of the money, and things would grind to a halt!! (look up some non-official accounts of what happened during the so-called Great Depression in the 1930s!!!! - probably the same for the earlier ones, although I haven't had time to check them all). It's all part of the whole "direct as MUCH money as possible upstairs" scam too, of course.

So it's just a never-ending treadmill - the "workers" (be they computer programmers or hamburger flippers) work and work and work, all week, all year, all their fucking lives, generating money that, as naturally as water flows downhill, flows upwards into the coffers of the banks and investors - whose "work" consists of clipping coupons and attending the occasional meeting at some expensive resort in some exotic country, stuff like that. Work - an "investment banker" trying to trash the economy of a third world country so his currency speculation makes him a fortune is said to be "working", as is the farmer who is making less in a year in the country whose currency is about to be trashed than that same investment banker will spend on his fancy lunch in a fancy New York restaurant. Mike Harris was said to be "working" when he cut the taxes for his wealthy friends and cut the amount of money the province would give to its down-on-their-luck citizens to try to survive, while demanding that those citizens "get a job" - go to work somewhere for minimum wage, which is not enough to survive on in Toronto. Work. So great for some, so - well - slave-like for others. Odd that the same word would be used to describe what the various people do with their time. Orwell knew about it.

Ok - I got another Letter - I really don't know why I do this - but they just get me so fucking MAD!!! with all their lies all the time - this one about an op-ed piece in the Globe Hide those unseemly snickers, gentlemen [[RM archive copy]], where we see the fucking Canadian media following faithfully along in the steps of the American media, gleefully rewriting history - if you can call something a few months old history yet! -

Editor -
Don't you people vet your writers at all? I've written before about how you allow your columnists to pretend to be offering "analysis" when they are writing nothing more than some combination of opinion and propaganda, but in this one - "Hide those unseemly snickers, gentlemen" by MARCUS GEE Friday, September 5, 2003 - you seem to be allowing your writer to embark on the Orwellian "Ministry of Truth" process of rewriting history. Of course, the White House-Pentagon-US government have been doing this regularly the last few months, but it is (as I have also noted before) somewhat disappointing, to say the least, to have the closest thing Canada has to a "journal of record" doing the same thing. You were at one time a good paper - it is a sad thing to see the depths to which you have fallen.

But specifically back to the Gee article - to say that the US only "reluctantly" engaged in this invasion is absolutely ridiculous, contrary to every fact - it was about as "reluctant" as, shall we say, a well-loved and spoiled 8-year old child racing down the steps on Christmas morning to get his/her loot (I won't bother getting into the loot the US expected from its self-declared Christmas - it's all evident enough, from control of the second largest oil reserves in the world through a secure military presence in an otherwise most important and strategic area of the world to somewhat more mundane considerations such as shovelling tens of billions of dollars to US corporations and "defence" industry contractors with close White House ties).

Most of the world has not forgotten - but have the Globe editors forgotten that almost the entire world spent months telling the US NOT to engage in this unprovoked invasion of another country - that the UN weapons inspectors were doing their job well, and there was NO threat to the US or anyone else from the Iraq government?

"Reluctant"? - have the Globe editors forgotten that the US lied, and lied, and lied repeatedly to try to justify its invasion, and belittled or ignored every attempt by the UN or others to mollify it and address its supposed concerns?? - and then, when most of the civilised world refused to accept those lies, it invaded anyways - and now that those lies are being exposed, the US government is itself trying to rewrite what it did and said leading up to their invasion?!?! (i.e. now they are trying to say that their reason for invading was that Iraq had a weapons "program" - a word which was NEVER used prior to the invasion, when they were so anxious to go bombing and killing?)

"Reluctant"?!?!?! What a terrible thing for the Globe to allow a writer in its pages to say. I quite understand there are wide-ranging parameters within which columnists write - but I also understand that there are certain things that are normally accepted as beyond the pale of, shall we say, acceptable discussion, things that have to do with Truth - you do not feature, for instance, columnists who deny the Holocaust, as you believe that to be an historical fact, and denying it is something you do not wish to be associated with through featuring a columnist with such a belief. But are we to conclude, then, from this Gee column, that you are going to join the revisionism the US is attempting to undertake now, and portray the US government as some kind of great Audie Murphy American hero, only "reluctantly" invading this other country to "save" its people from a fate worse than death, which is a completely false assertion?!?!?

There is more (there usually is, with revisionists - you may be familiar with the phrase - "Oh, what a tangled web we weave....").

Gee is not content with this somewhat sneaky (a single adjective stuck into an otherwise normal and relatively honest sort of sentence) introductory revisionism. He soon carries on and says "...Rebuilding a society as brutalised and run down as Iraq was under Saddam Hussein was always going to be hard...". It really is enough to make one angry, to see this kind of propagandistic nonsense spouted by a writer in the Globe. Iraq was indeed brutalised and run down earlier this year at the time of the US invasion - but conditions in the country had a great deal more to do with 10+ years of US-UN sanctions than it did with the regime of Saddam Hussein, as (again) most people in the civilised world are aware. I guess that I repeat again the part about "most people in the civilised world" is part of my anger - I used to regard Canada as part of the "civilised" world - but it is becoming more and more difficult to feel this way the last few years, as I watch my country, under the "leadership" of what could only be called Republican-North governments, becoming as shallow and stupid as the Americans seem to be.

Anyone with a wider knowledge of world affairs and history than is served up on American tv (which appears to include fewer and fewer Canadians, much to the detriment of our country, but apparently desired by our governments and media, who are promoting American entertainment-cum-propaganda over what used to be much better Canadian tv until the funding was cut) well knows that, prior to the invasion and bombing of that country under the first Bush, it was one of the most advanced of the Mid-eastern Muslim countries, with a secular rather than religious government, where the people enjoyed modern services and infrastructure comparable to most modern western countries, and the women were treated much better than under most Muslim fundamentalist governments (such as Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, for instance, which are still very non-democratic and women are treated as little more than chattels - Saddam was perhaps a harsh ruler, but no more so than every other mid-eastern leader, and let us not forget that while he was performing the worst of his "atrocities", he was doing so with the full backing and approval of the American governments of the day!! - part of the revisionism is, of course, "forgetting" such inconvenient facts). The infrastructure of the country was, of course, almost completely destroyed during the years of sanctions during which time, I suppose I need to remind you, over a million Iraqis - most of them children - died from fully preventable diseases due to those sanctions (which, again I remind you, the US government, through Madeline Albright, considered to be acceptable! - the hypocrisy of them, and Gee, is just too much!!). So again, I am MOST disappointed in your paper for allowing this type of attempted revisionist history to be appearing in your pages unchallenged. Mr. Gee is quite welcome to his opinion that the US is the world's John Wayne or whatever, but please try to exert a bit of editorial control over him when he tries, as in this piece, to make the Globe nothing more than some 1984-ian Canadian Ministry of Truth organ, rewriting history at will to support his fantasies of the way we are going to PRETEND the world is/was, rather than it actually is/was. We all, as children, enjoy our pretend games and our belief in Christmas and suchlike fairy tales - but George Bush and his Pentagon invaders ain't no Santa Claus with his little reindeer sleigh bearing gifts.

Your ever unpublished (are there no honest journalists left in your organization at all, who are even a bit embarrassed at what you have become, and how you refuse to allow intelligent, dissenting opinion in your pages?) - but ever watching, secure in the knowledge that the Canadian people WILL wake up some day and hold all of you people to account -

(my realworld name - ???? - well, just what is the "real" world anyway?!?!?!))

AND - Don't forget!! to think about buying John Kaminski's new book America's Autopsy Report - no shit, I got mine in the mail last week, and I felt like a kid with a Christmas present I'd been REALLY REALLLY hoping for! - and it is personally autographed!! - man, I don't usually get gushy about things, you may have noticed - but it is a great book, from a great writer and, more importantly, a great defender of truth and freedom in the modern world which is SO FUCKING CLOSE to being taken over by the fascists - and we get all kinds of stuff free on this net (which is of course what it is all about) but every now and again it's good, I believe, to show some tangible evidence that we support some of the people doing some of this free stuff (fuck I've even paid for software sometimes!!! - to support the people who are offering FAR superior alternatives to MS) - anyway, if you feel that things might be just a little FUCKING bit better in this world, and want to help people who are trying to achieve that end - you could send a few bucks along to John, and get a copy of the book.

More soon - somehow I suspect there will be much to write about - much more indeed than the time one will have to address the many things demanding attention. But as usual, we will jump in where the itch is greatest at the time.

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." —Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See