- as I finish the following letter to Paul Martin about his promises to address the "democratic deficit" in Canada, another one of them goshdarn coincidences happens - the following "news" story appears in the Canadian press (ever noticed how ALL of the same stories hit ALL of the same major media outlets at the SAME time?!?!?! - interesting that ALL of the "editors" of Canadian "news providers" have such similar tastes... HAHAHAHAHAAAAA) - Martin freezes last-minute Chretien projects as part of wide spending review - struck me for some reason - there seems to be a rather cavernous gap between MY understanding of "democracy" and that of most others - that is to say - does it not strike anyone as even a bit odd in a DEMOCRACY - which means, in my poor understanding, that the PEOPLE are involved in making major decisions, one way or another, elections, reps, etc - and some other kind of understanding of that idea that says Paul Martin - PM or Emperor or Governor-in-waiting HAHAHAHAA as the case may be - just decides one day or evening or in the toilet or whatever the fuck that "OK! We're going to stop spending on this and this and this and this!" - picks up the handy cellphone or whatever, tells the appropriate second-in-commands to get with it, and that's it folks, spending stops! - no need to talk to the MPs, let alone the Canadian people, even ASK their input - nosiree fuckingBobsyeruncle - or Paulsyerpop I should say in this case I guess - and it will be done!!! (it's not new with Martin, of course, they've ALL been doing it that I recall, provincial or federal - and I have wondered equally about all of them - but in times past little letters of concern I might write to the media never got an airing for some reason - NOW THEY DO HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

And that's democracy?!?!?! Fuck, I better see what kind of dictionary they're using in Ottawa these days - in NONE of mine does it say anything like "Democracy means the PM of the country-province whatever unilaterally makes decisions about that country, whenever he wants, and His Will Shall Be Done... if he has time or is in a good mood or something he might let them have a little debate in the House of Commons, but His Will Shall Be Done in the end..." (hahahaa - seems that's where we end up getting it in the end HAHAHAHAAAA) - no, actually, those kinds of countries are usually called Totalitarian or Dictatorships or things like that. Not in one of those dictionaries do I find such a definition for "Democracy" - isn't that odd...... must be old dictionaries I have or something - the new ones are probably more accurate ....

Anyways - all Paul's talk about Democracy and the Great Democratic Deficit in Canada got me reading and thinking - for as anyone who has spent more than five minutes wandering around RM will undoubtedly appreciate, I do indeed feel there is quite a substantial democratic deficit here in the Great Democratic Free and White North - and since Paul is talking about it, I thought he might appreciate a bit of advice from "outside the box", as much of the following is.... HAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAA RIGHT RM RIGHT HAHAHAHAAAAAA - ol Paul's just been a-waiting for your 18 fucking page rant with all them long fucking words and sentences HAHAHAHAAAA

enough forechat.

Dear Mr. Martin -
I have listened with interest to your talk of the "Democratic Deficit" in Canada, and examined your proposed "reforms", and regretfully I must say, I think you are missing the boat bigtime - a lot of smoke and mirrors, as it were, with little of actual substance - sorry about speaking bluntly, but I know you prefer it that way. A couple of your proposals I might comment on directly, for instance - I must say that something like an "Ethics Commissioner" is something of a bizarre notion to me - the Canadian people should have a RIGHT to honest government, and not need someone to be watching our representatives - it should be a bottom line given, and is indeed a major sign of the depths to which we have sunk that such a thing even needs to be talked about - but if we have to have one, and it appears we do these rather sad days, wouldn't it be better if such an individual was elected by the people during an election rather than appointed one way or another by the very people he is supposed to be overseeing? Likewise the "free votes" that you are saying is such a big issue - again, we should have a right to expect our representatives to be voting as instructed by their constituents! - it shouldn't be presented as if you were doing us all a big favor of some sort!! These and other things you are proposing, I submit, however, are little more than superficial changes that will have little real impact on the way people feel about the current state of Canadian "democracy" (I use quotes because I am afraid I feel that, at this time in history, the word does not accurately reflect the Canadian political regime, which might indeed much more accurately be called an oligarchy, government run by and for the wealthy interests of the country) - that a "Democratic Deficit" that needs to be dealt with exists is clear, and has been for some years, by both the low and falling voter turnout, and the cynicism which Canadians express about their government in poll after poll after poll. If you are truly interested in rectifying this situation, and truly making Canada more democratic - that is, a government essentially of, by and for the people rather than the wealthy - Canadian Democracy as we enter the 21st century would be infinitely improved, and very quickly, were the following 6 measures implemented:

1) Proportional Representation
2) Full equality of ALL MPs (no 2nd-class "backbencher", "non-governing party" or "independent" MPs)
3) governing party obligated to keep election promises or face a new election
4) MPs obligated to consult constituents (and follow their wishes!) on ALL new issues and matters arising between elections that were not discussed during election campaigns
5) No signing of new "trade"-"investment"-whatever treaties and such like that amounted to amendments of the Canadian constitution without full and informed consent of Canadians through a referendum (requiring a much stronger majority than 50%+1 - the Constitution requires, I believe, 2/3s majority or something) (or because it was part of an election platform)
6) Fair and representative media

Please allow me to expand briefly on the above.

1) Giving "backbenchers" more free votes is an okay idea, if hardly earth-shattering - but what would be MUCH more useful - what indeed is really needed - is to see that Canadians get the mix and balance of MPs that they have actually voted for!! That is to say, perhaps the single greatest "democratic deficit" that those of us who pay attention to such things see, is that time after time after time Canadians, both federally and provincially, are saddled with strong majority governments, when only 25-30% of those of voting age (factoring in those who do not vote for whatever reason) have voted for the "victorious" party!! - and even when you consider only the people who voted (falling to rather pathetic levels lately, as you well know), due to our very antiquated FPTP voting system, almost no "majority governments" of the last couple of decades at least have actually had a majority of the votes that were cast. I won't bother taking space with a bunch of statistics, which others have done and I am sure you are well aware of (a very good website if you do want more information about this can be found at Fair Vote Canada), but this means, as I am sure you can appreciate, that a large majority of the people are being governed by a party they did not vote for (for the last 20 years, at least, usually the "majority" governments actually represent 25-30% of the voting-age population) - and that, Mr. Martin, does NOT translate to "democracy", by any realistic definition you want to use, and is the single most serious problem facing Canadian democracy today. Until Canadian MPs are elected through some form of PR (as they are in every western democracy in the world with the exception of the US, UK and here!), and the makeup of the House of Commons thus accurately reflects the political feelings of the people of Canada, the "democratic deficit" will not - indeed cannot - improve. In truth, nothing else you do will have any serious impact on the way people regard politics in Canada until this happens. I (and many others) were MOST disappointed only a couple of months ago when your Liberal government defeated an NDP motion calling for the Canadian people to choose, through a referendum, whether or not they would wish to change to such a system - in truth, Mr. Martin, that seemed like a most UN-democratic move, and sure to worsen rather than improve the "democratic deficit" you say you are concerned about.

2) Secondly, I mentioned "backbencher" before - the very name is insulting when you think of it, not only to the individual occupying that space, but to the voters who put him or her there. Why, that is to say, do SOME voters in Canada have MPs with special status, while MOST voters in Canada have only a low status "backbencher" to represent them - and even worse if the representative happens to belong to a small party or, worst of all, an "independent" or someone from a party which had not won the requisite number of seats to be granted "party status" - then the individual is verily treated like some sort of pariah, with a fraction of the resources available to him/her to do their work that "front-benchers" have. How, Mr. Martin, is this in any way fair to the people in the ridings of these "backbencher" or other low-status individuals? Why are not ALL MPs accorded EXACTLY the same privileges in the House of Commons, EXACTLY the same access to research budgets and staff and time to speak in the House? They are ALL supposed to be representing approximately the same number of voters, so why should they not all have the same rights and privileges in the House of Commons? To set up a tiered system such as we currently have, with the government members (and their 30% of voter support!) getting the lion's share of privilege and speaking time and everything else is most assuredly NOT democratic, and is a much more serious problem than this "free vote" stuff (that is to say, most citizens understand that, "free vote" or not, most MPs elected under, for instance, a Liberal platform, are going to vote for the things they said they would do in the election, their platform - so what is the big deal??? - bit of a red herring, it seems to me, as an old uncle of mine used to say at times, finger cannily tapping the side of his nose. And, as I argue elsewhere, when you bring up legislation in the House that you never talked about during an election campaign, the MPs - each and every one of them - SHOULD be democratically obligated to go to their ridings and constituents, and get direction from THEM on how they should vote - isn't that what Democratic Representation means?!?!?!?!!!???

3) I would say the third most important item involving the Canadian "Democratic Deficit" would have to be the matter of accountability, in the sense of simply being able to trust the people we elect to do what they say - what they have PROMISED - during the election campaign, and have received votes based on those promises!!! It is beyond disgusting to elect politicians time after time after time on the basis of certain promises they have made, only to have those promises unfulfilled, often within days or weeks of being elected (one might mention, as a major example, your predecessor's major campaign promise in 1993 to "abrogate or renegotiate NAFTA" which was never done as he signed the deal unchanged within a few weeks of being elected, or his promise to cancel the GST) - while seeing a whole bunch of NEW initiatives that were NEVER mentioned during the election campaign suddenly being sold through massive advertising and propaganda campaigns in the national media - people are not really that stupid, Mr. Martin, that they don't see what is going on, and insulting their intelligence like this, year after year after year, has a great deal to do with voter cynicism and falling voter turnout, and until MPs (and parties) are FORCED to honour their commitments, and FORBIDDEN to be doing this bait-and-switch with new policies, your reputation and the democratic deficit are not going to improve (one of the worst things you regularly do, although money-wise quite small but morally quite large, is to say NOTHING during an election campaign about MP salary-benefit packages - and then, within weeks of being elected, suddenly decide you all need more money - despicable, to say the least. If you want to do something to improve this, you should mandate that ONLY salary packages laid out as part of an election platform will be allowed - then people can themselves have some say in it - with most Canadians struggling to make ends meet in an increasingly insecure economy and job market, this kind of "look after me first and well" behaviour by their MPs is pretty much a slap in the face to voters everywhere, and people don't like it Paul they really don't!! (And please don't start with the "we need to pay them well to attract good people" - it doesn't really hold up, I am afraid - first, if the main objective of running for parliament is to make a lot of money, well that is NOT the kind of person I want representing MY interests as a citizen - if these people think they ought to be paid corporate salaries, then they ought to be working in the corporate sector, which has different goals and different modalities. You may recall the term "Public SERVICE" - and that is the kind of people we need, people interested in doing a good job for the PEOPLE of Canada - not people interested in their own gold-plated retirement packages - that is NOT the point (or shouldn't be!) of running for parliament - we see the problems with electing this kind of person all the time, when they gets stars in their eyes from the fancy trips the Bay St people offer them and so on - people interested in doing what was right for the PEOPLE of Canada would not be susceptible to such bribes as a holiday weekend at the Irving's lodge and a trip on their corporate jet. People should not impoverish themselves doing this work, but neither should being an MP for a few years be a path to the top 2% of Canadian income earners, as it is now, and a pension most Canadians can only dream of - if these people are going to represent the interests of "average" Canadians, then they ought to BE average Canadians - somebody who lunches regularly in corporate boardrooms in Bay St. does simply not have the same outlook on life as someone who might "treat" the family once a month or so to fish and chips at the local diner.

4. In a similar vein, but quite distinct in practice, MPs should not be voting on ANYTHING according to "their conscience" or "better judgement" or "party lines" or ANYTHING - these MPs are supposed to be REPRESENTATIVES of their constituents - and that word - representative - has a very clear meaning, Mr. Martin. It is fine for MPs of the governing party to vote for things they said they were going to do during an election campaign - but during the 4-5 years of the life of a normal government, as you well know, any number of issues arise, or new legislation is proposed - and when such things happen, except in cases of DIRE emergency, each and every REPRESENTATIVE MP should be OBLIGATED to go to their constituents, and spend whatever time is necessary at meetings or using other means to accurately determine what a solid majority of those constituents feel should be done concerning the new matter, and then return to the House of Commons and represent their constituent's point of view, whether or not it coincides with their personal view. It does not do to say this is a nuisance of some sort - it is, indeed, the very meaning of representative government!! - and to do otherwise is simply not democratic! Nor does it do to say representatives are "elected to lead" - unless I misunderstand all these English words, that is simply not the case - we call it a REPRESENTATIVE democracy, not an "Elect person A or person B, who will then do what he/she wants and tell you what to do irregardless of your wishes for the next 5 years" system, as far as I can tell. So there again we have a serious Democratic Deficit in Canada, and it is something that must be addressed - if, that is, you are serious about correcting the democratic deficit in Canada, as you have so often said you are.

5) Fifth, many, many Canadians are seriously concerned about all of this "globalisation" activity of the last few years (which concern, as I am sure you are aware, has NOT been dying down, as the recent protests in Miami and Cancun demonstrated clearly), and the "trade" treaties that are constantly being signed without our approval, turning over more and more of our sovereignty to unelected corporate-dominated bodies such as the WTO or NAFTA tribunal, which pretty much invariably decide controversial issues brought before them in favor of large multi-national corporate profits regardless of the impact it has on Canadian citizens or communities. Major trade treaties - such as the FTAA currently under negotiation - should NEVER be entered into without the full and informed approval of the people of Canada - whose lives and country and future and children's futures are, after all, at stake in such things! They should either be voted on in a referendum (and NOT a 50% + 1 sort of deal, but at least a 2/3s majority required to pass, since they do effectively amount to a Constitutional Amendment), or be offered as part of a party platform (in conjunction, of course, with a PR style of voting!!! - you will recall that Mulroney got a "big majority" government to implement his FTA - but only because 60% of the voters split their votes between the NDP and your Liberals of the day - and with the 70% turnout of the election, that meant that this major, major "trade" treaty which has had a huge impact on Canada was passed into law and imposed on EVERYONE with the approval of barely 30% of the Canadian people of voting age - and that, Mr. Martin, once again, is hardly definable as a meaningful democratic process!

6) The return of a much more inclusive and representative media in Canada - currently most of the Canadian media is owned by a very small number of wealthy people or corporations, and, reflecting the views of their owners, very heavily dominated by the right-wing/neocon perspective, and Canadians are NOT given a full and fair airing of all issues such as is necessary to make informed decisions on the issues of the day. The corporate viewpoint (i.e. lower taxes lower taxes lower taxes, privatisation, "free trade", closer ties with America, etc) is expressed widely and well and aggressively through the Sun chain, the Asper Canwest chain, and the Globe and Mail and others - but the more centrist or "left" perspective is hardly to be found outside of the Toronto Star and parts of the CBC radio - and even the CBC is under serious attack by the right-wingers to silence its balanced voice. It is, I fear, not clear to me at the moment how this problem might be adequately dealt with, since in a free and democratic society one can hardly presume to tell the owners of the Canwest or Sun papers how to run their operations or who to hire as columnists or how to spin their news coverage - but nonetheless the Canadian people are currently denied a decent selection of national media - or local ones for that matter - which reflects the majority centrist point of view on such things as health care, for instance (most Canadians fully support a decently funded national system, while most of the media is strongly pushing for privatisation and an American-style system, meaning Canadians are denied information supporting their desires), or world issues such as the FTAA or dealing with American aggressions around the world, and until this serious information deficit is met squarely and rectified, it will be problematic at best to call Canada a fully functioning democracy. There are many things that might be done both directly and indirectly were you interested in addressing this urgent aspect of the democratic deficit - as the letter grows rather long already I'll forgo a listing of them here - I'm sure you can write if you would like some more input on this aspect of addressing the Canadian democratic deficit.

Most of these things and others ought to be addressed through wide-ranging debate and referenda - the government could at the very least get an idea of the way people were thinking, even if the referenda were not necessarily binding - that is, if a referendum on some issue turned out to be 52-48 or something, then your options would be pretty open, and you could bring other factors into consideration - however, if something was asked in a referendum question and 80% of Canadians, in a big turnout, expressed a solid opinion, then I would think you would be pretty much forced to do as they wished. Questions that might be suitable for such a referendum would be things like legalising marijuana or implementing a national ID card, or perhaps joining George Bush in his next war or so-called "Missile Defence Plan" (about as "defensive" as Bush's little invasion of Iraq recently was). And there should be no rush for decisions on most things - full public debate through the media (OPEN debate, NOT the government and Bay St dominating everything trying to get Canadians to accept a certain policy as we have seen so often in the past and continue to see!!), searching for a consensus of Canadian citizens (not Canadian corporations!!!) - followed by a referendum at some point which really should simply confirm a consensus decision that has already become evident.... - the politics of confrontation and domination should have no place in a modern democracy. This will take a big shift in the way our corporate leaders view society, especially in their apparent belief that they have some special calling to set government policy - but these people are, after all, only a small special interest group, and they must be willing to give way as necessary to the majority of people in the country - if, that is, we wish to call Canada a Democracy rather than an Oligarchy. Canada should be leading the way PROGRESSIVELY into the 21st century, not heading backwards into the capitalistic dark ages - we should be following the much more progressive European model of social interaction between governments and ALL citizens rather than the American model of excluding average people and having government of, by and for the wealthy.

Well, I grow lengthy, Mr. Martin, and my apologies - but I do believe that in the great debates of modern society, sound bites just do not convey sufficient information, and I try to explain some of the reasoning behind the things I say. I hope some of it has set your head nodding in agreement - sometimes it only takes the smallest encouragement to actually do something we know we should be doing, and if I have contributed to such a small push I would feel my time in composing this small missive well spent.

-31-32-33-34-35-eleventy-eleven here I come ready or not HAHAHAHAHAAAA

As we go to press HAHAHAAA - another GREAT "Democracy in Canada" story - More labour protests in Quebec - read it or not as you like, just about the Quebec government (under their new savior Jean Charest!!!) cutting social spending all over the place (fuck haven't I heard that line somewhere before HAHAHAH!!!! ) and a bunch of people gathering in front of THEIR government place to let the government know they don't think they're doing quite the right thing (well - bad pun - of course it's the "right" thing to do, but not a "good" thing, if you see...) - but it's the photo that tells more than the whole story - I'm not reproducing it here (enough fucking headaches without coding for fucking photos all the time and trying to get them where I want them on the fucking page) - but the caption says what you need to know - as the protesters gather at their government house - "....Police in riot gear guard the doors of Quebec's legislature...." - and that is Democracy in Canada, circa 2003 and counting - a few citizens gather around to let the government know what they think - and they're INSTANTLY anymore met with "Riot Police" - in another era they were called Stormtroopers or Brown shirts - "SURE YOU CAN PROTEST CITIZEN - AND WE'LL POUND YOUR FUCKING HEADS TOO HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA - BE SURE TO COME BACK NEXT TIME - WE GOT LOTS OF PEPPER SPRAY AND BIG GUYS WITH CLUBS HAHAHAHAHAHA - GREAT FUN!!!!!". Hitler's 3rd Reich was a democracy too, you know - all them Nazi leaders called it that, and all their media - and the brownshirts were quick to have a talk with anybody daring to dispute the idea - heck, it's sure great to live in a country like Canada where we got real free speech like this (HAHAHAHAHAAAAA - man I need that dripping with sarcasm font bad!! HAHAHAAA - anyway, that was sort of a reference to a guy called Zundel, who has been in a Canadian jail for about 10 months, his ONLY "crime" being to say things that certain powerful people are bound and fucking determined we in this country are NOT going to talk about HEIL HITLER!!! - oh fuck, was that the wrong phrase?? for some reason I thought it appropriate HAHAHAAAAA - anyway, a very interesting report on the Zundel ongoing story here - Decisions Delayed In Zundel Case - Judge Afraid To Rule For Zundel, Knows It Is Immoral To Rule Against Him - it is somewhat interesting that NONE of the stuff reported in this story has made its way into the mainstream Canadian "news" media - I mean, when "bad" countries (like yer fucking commies and chinks and shit like that you know man) lock people up and refuse to allow them free speech we have lots to say about it HAHAHAHAAAA - hmmmm (did you ever stop to wonder why in places like Tiananmen Square the cops are the bad guys - but in places like Seattle and Quebec and Miami the cops (at least in the mainstream media HAHAHAAAAA) are always the good guys?!?!? - do you ever get a slight feeling that there is some sort of discontinuity in your world??? HAHAHAHAA ---- ANYTHING I CAN DO TO ENCOURAGE THAT FEELING?!?!?!?!?! HAHAHAHAAA ) - anyway - I guess, come to think of it, it's not all that bad to stop "free" speech when WE do it, or our "buddies" and what not - but it always does raise nagging sorts of questions, like just WHO decides what it is ok to say or not - hmmmmmm - HAHAHAAAA - and HERE for your viewing pleasure is the great American version of Justice and Free Speech - "This is not America" - and don't sit there getting smug and thinking "sure - but that's America and we know they're a bit more violent than we are anyway - that wouldn't EVER happen here!" - Big Paul and the Libs think we have to get closer and closer to America, and the national Pispot and Glob and Canwest and Suns think we need to get closer to America - and Tom D'Aquino and his gang - and what all those guys want, recent history indicates quite strongly, they get!!!! - and if YOU don't get up and stop it - well - by the time you get out in the street to say you're not happy about something, have another look at that picture and think about what's gonna happen to ya HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA MERRY CHRISTMAS GUY WITH HIS FACE IN THE PAVEMENT HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA

Fuck I've barely started and I'm losing it HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA - must be Leo time (that's the name of the cheap beer here HAHAHAHAAAAAA - fuck that was a joke - there used to be a beer in the US called Miller, and one of the big advertising campaigns of the last century or whenever the fuck was "It must be Miller time!" - and half the planet was going around saying that about everything - pretty broads hahaha excuse me ladies and all HAHAHAHAAAA - geez man how old IS that fucker ......HAHAHAHAAAAA)

AHHHHHHHHH.................. needed that ..............

TERRORISM BOGEYMAN BE FUCKING AFRAID FILE - New Public Safety ministry to handle security, threats and disasters RM archive copy

and

Murder Inc. - think on this - "soldiers" who are willing (likely eager - hard to figure otherwise) to be judge, jury and executioner, based on their own judgement, sneaking around like they do in the movies, shooting people from ambush like the big brave 'Mericun soldiers they are. And the US government is bragging about this great new plan. And not a fucking WORD from any government or mainstream media in the west that I've seen. Are they going to kill a bunch of innocent people by mistake? Of course they are. Imagine if the CSIS spies had of been under this kind of operation last summer when they rounded up that bunch of funny-looking people screaming TERRORIST CONNECTION TERRORIST CONNECTION!!!!! - and eventually had to let the fucking lot of them go when it turned out they had not a fucking SHRED of "terrorist" evidence to show.

Ah fuck, who needs constitutions and citizen protections anyway, eh? HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA

Where's the fucking outrage? Not only for what is happening, but for what is surely in the works! Don't people understand that maybe NOW this treatment is "only for terrorists" (sure!!! - like them 20 guys last summer, or Zundel!!!) - but can't they understand that by condoning this stuff now, for ANY reason, they are opening the door for its use right here somewhere down the road - and not all that far, either -

Murray Dobbin's latest, from Rabble - Did Paul Martin really revive the economy? RM archive copy - Martin talks a great show, covered pretty much verbatim with few questions in the major media - but in the NON-mainstream media, now, you get a little better perspective - isn't it odd that a writer of this quality can't find any place to write regularly in the "Left-lib" media Bob M?!?!?!?! HAHAHAHAHAAAA (oh - for those that might have been curious about the little letter to Big Bob MacDonald about the "left-lib" Canadian media - no response, no acknolwegement - as expected - they simply can NOT acknowlege the truth - so when it's pushed in their face like this, the ONLY possible response is to simply ignore it, and pretend it never happened - for now. Next year I do predict a little more - shall we say - emphatic denial of stuff like this - them "terroists" are sure spreading fast (just read the papers every day - they'll tell ya!!!! just lookee here for instance - - Anthrax fears prompt federal interest in bio- sniffers for ports ) HAHAHAHAAAA - Anthrax!!!!! Doesn't that just scare the living SHIT out of ya!?!?!?!?! - and the same story mentions in passing driving planes into the WTC, 911, Osama, and TERRORISM TERRORISM!!!! - man, anybody who DOESN'T get the message isn't watching enough tv HAHAHAHAHAAAA), and we gotta do stuff to stop em you know HAHAHAHAHAAAAA)

Judge orders man blinded for acid attack RM archive copy- well, this will probably lose half my readers, but I ain't running a popularity contest, and I do agree with this - some male asshole with balls bigger than brains (not saying much for either - a great Robin Williams line from his earlier days - God gave man a penis and a brain, but only enough blood to operate one at a time HAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!! - sorry, this isn't really a laughing matter - but in this world, ya just gotta.....) got in a snit at his girlfriend and threw acid on her face, blinding her - one of the most serious problems in our world today is violence like this (and not just in Arab countries, oh no we got lots of redneck asshole women beaters around our neck of the woods too (odd too I just thought of it you can pretty much be sure that most people of this bent will be rightwingers - think about it! - do you know anybody who is known to have this kind of aggressive personality who is a certifiable "leftie" to boot???? I don't - there may be exceptions, there are to most things, but in general..... thoughtfulness and respect for others tends to lead away from violence, I think, whereas authoritariansism "DO VHAT YOU ARE VUCKING TOLD CITIZEN!!!" shit always, inevitbly leads towards it - and rightwingers are certainly authoritarian - and other stuff), and as far as I can figure, one of the main reasons it is so prevalent is that most of the time there is no real deterrence - bullies beat up kids in schoolyards and rarely get called on it, let alone punished (school administration is too busy, among other useless pastimes, making sure their charges don't get any real education - an interesting story here - Free speech shut down at Toronto school), America goes around the world bombing the fuck out of smaller countries, and nobody says boo (outside of we small group of leftie-anarchist conspiracy-theorist whackos HAHAHAHAAA), and women are beaten constantly in great old Democratic Canada and the assholes doing the beating rarely get more than a tongue lashing or a "restraining order" that apparently impresses them about as much as a roll of asswipe for all that it stops them from going after their prey - but if these people got a bit of eye-for-an-eye kind of justice, I personally think that there would be a whole fuck of a lot less of it going on - ya gotta remember, most of these people are cowards at heart, else they wouldn't be going around beating on smaller people in the first place - and if they were aware - WELL aware - in their small reptilian brains that any damage they inflicted on someone else for no good reason was going to come back right at them in spades - well, their dicks that got so big and hard when beating on the woman would shrivel right up and they'd slink off into the night where they belonged. It would probably be ok to castrate them all as well - why should we let this kind of thing breed? Yeah, we need strength in the species, but we could do fine without the brainless aggression and stupidity.

It's a problematic sort of thing, I well know - the problem being the danger that this kind of punishment gets used in inappropriate situations when the wrong people take over the government. On the other hand, the problem of violence we have right now is very widespread, and ALWAYS in inappropriate situations (actually, there are NO appropriate situations I can think of offhand for aggressive violence) - so as long as we had a democratic control of the government (oh right - off through the looking glass again HAHAHAHAAAAA), and thus of the justice system, we should be able to keep it under control and NOT used as only another tool to maintain a repressive government. And if it cut down substantially on this terrible violence in our society, which, as I said, I am virtually certain it would, it would be serving a good purpose. Oh well - that kind of talk could grow into a book, and we ain't got that kind of time today HAHAHAA.

- it all of course needs to be taken much further back to first principles, with the goal of advancing somewhat beyond the very primitive stage we are at as a society, generally speaking, in terms of growth - that is, to allegorize societal growth with the growth of an individual human being, societally we would be somewhere in early, not-very-intelligent or well-raised, out-of-control hormone-stressed high on moonshine pissed at the girlfriend early malehood or something - that is, as a society, how is it we are raising so many people who have no better way to express their feelings than through this kind of violence, or are educated so poorly - and I do NOT mean fucking trained - I mean that in reality we do NOT educate our young people to be intelligent adults, with an intelligent approach to dealing with problems in their lives because if we did that, the capitalists would not be able to find simple-minded people to run their assembly lines - that they turn to this kind of behaviour in times of stress - another book!!!

- nor am I suggesting that we adopt all Muslim fanatic laws that have them, for instance, stoning women for nothing more than being accused of adultery - I am not suggesting we adopt Muslim laws at all - I simply said that this one particular aspect of justice seemed fitting....

- also, we have to remember that with the more intelligent perpetrators of violence (generally speaking in the modern world that would be your capitalist swine in cohorts with your sleazebag lawyers in control of the large dumbed-down male orc population trained and trained to DO VHAT YOU ARE VUCKING TOLD!!!!), we are dealing with predators - they do not respect weakness but only strength - when we let them away with their atrocities with nothing more than a "gosh darn you really shouldn't do that" - they just walk off laughing, not deterred in the least from carrying on the same in the future - witness George and his buds in Afghanistan, Iraq, threatening half the rest of the world......

Sort of related, another good read - The world hacked by a failed state "...It rather shows that the world is living at the mercy of a failed state, called the United States of America. The world’s helplessness before the illegitimate use of the US military might is no different than someone’s following every order from a psychopath at gun point...." - well - couldn't have put that much better myself!! - Canadian writer too - good stuff guy!!

- and - from Haroon again at the Star - Nine tales of a society scared into stupidity - pretty much speaks for itself - the whole point of the "TERRORISM TERRORISM BOGEYMAN shit we're being fed day after day - if we had a few more people like Haroon around I'd be less worried - unfortunately, most of the Canadian "media" encourage that kind of shit - wonder whose side they're on anyway HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA STOP IT STOP IT!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAAA.....

- so Saddam has been caught - what strikes me most are the "retrospectives" already flooding the media of his "brutal" reign of terror and what not, and what saviours the American invaders are for rescuing the Iraqi people. It's hard to know whether most people buy this shit unquestioningly, but it seems they do - one of the greatest accomplishments of the modern era, if ever looked at impartially by an intelligent species, will be this almost complete brainwashing of the populace, the way they have been trained to ignore history almost completely and nod their heads knowingly over the constantly rewritten self-justifying fantasies of the ruling class - man, Orwell had it right - actually, when you think of it, Orwell wasn't postulating some possible fantasy future, he was writing about what was happening in his own time - and has probably happened for centuries, if not as long as humans have been organising themselves into societies!!! - it's not hard to imagine Og the cave man, after bashing out the brains of Ig, telling everyone in the cave, through sign language or wall paintings or whatever, what a really bad dude that Ig fucker was, and how they were all doubtless FAR better off without him - when actually Ig had been a pretty good dude all around, grew or found the best cassava and shared it with his neighbours - but also had the prettiest woman that Og really wanted, so had to get rid of him - and by golly all the little Ogs and Igs ain't gonna say shit to Big Og with the Big Og Stick he is obviously so willing to use - our problems go right back to that fucker getting too many genes in the gene pool, I bet. Or something - fuck, I'm not plotting out a book here HAHAHAHAAAA - anyway - as far as the history of rewriting history goes, here is a recent piece that just cropped up on CRG by one of the great propaganda exposers Edward Herman (see it happened again!!!!!) - Propaganda System Number One: From Diem and Arbenz to Milosevic, in which he looks briefly at the American habit of justifying themselves and their theft of resources around the world by demonizing everyone they want to steal from - interesting read - more than interesting - if you want to understand what is going on in the world, you HAVE to know about this stuff - you HAVE to know how much the media lies to you, and that they are NEVER to be trusted - sure they tell the truth more or less sometimes, but only about things that don't really matter much to the people working the power levers - sort of like when "justice" gets dispensed - accidents happen HAHAHAHAAAAAA.

- and thus back to Saddam - prior to the Iraqi incursion into Kuwait in 1990 (which it seems pretty much proven the US basically gave the go-ahead to, and then betrayed Saddam once he started), Saddam was great buds with the US, and they supported him in the Iraq-Iran war - isn't it funny how NONE of the current stories about what an evil lad he was mention this history of less than 15 years ago - we are meant to believe that he has ALWAYS been an evil monster - and of course, since we would NEVER support an evil monster, we can't go digging around into things before 1990 or something that might lead reasonable people to wonder why he was such a great guy before that, and then sort of suddenly transmogrified into a HORRIBLE FUCKING MONSTER sometime around 1990 - gassing the Kurds (with American gas HAHAHAHAAAA) was no big problem in the late 1980s, so why later??? (really - the human brain is such a wonderful fucking thing - let people get a few hours sleep, away from that fucking brainwashing machine they sit in front of every night, and they really can think reasonable thoughts early in the day HAHAHAHAAAAA). You also got to remember that apparently the only "evil monster" story they could come up with at the time to justify the vicious US-led attack on Iraq during the "Gulf War" ("Gulf Massacre" would be more appropriate - the turkey-shoot war-crime slaughter of thousands of Iraqi soldiers after the Iraqi army was defeated by the Big Brave Americans in their big jets, somewhat underreported in our "histories" HAHAHAAA) was the "them monsters throw babies out of incubators ohmygod!!!" story - which later turned out to be completely untrue, and not only untrue but deliberately fabricated by a Madison Ave advertising agency for the sole reason to get people horrified enough at this "monster" that they would condone the US invasion - but if he really WAS such a monster, why couldn't they come up with some "true" stories about him (you always got to use quotes when talking about the US propaganda machine and the word "truth" in the same sentence) - makes you wonder, it really does, just how bad the guy was - I don't suppose he was actually some wonderful democrat, he probably was a bit of a harsh ruler - but most good US buds ARE harsh rulers, and that doesn't seem to bother them much - when they go after somebody, the "monster" stuff is only for public sale and more often than not, as in this case, bolstered with lies and/or exaggerations to get people to go along with their plans - concerning which the real reasons always lie elsewhere (but Archie, we really shouldn't be killing all those people and destroying that ancient civilisation just because we want their oil! we should buy it from them, like we buy your beer - we don't steal things we want, Archie, it isn't right you know!! Aw shaddap Edith - the man is a certified monster, and we're only getting rid of him for that reason! Geez - you KNOW about them babies his orc-soldiers, on his direct orders, threw outta their baby machines, don't ya? Geez - shaddap and get me another beer! HAHAHAHAAAAA)

- Bush says what a fine thing he has done by ridding the world of this terrible monster who tortured people - as Bush himself sends Canadian citizens and others off to Syria and other places to be tortured and maintains a modern concentration camp outside mainland USA and has people going around promoting torture for his own Gestapo freaks!!! Bush says that Saddam's life was based on lies - but whether or not that is true, Bush's entire presidency has been one lie after another, starting with a stolen election up to and including but certainly not finishing with his totally discredited reasons for invading Iraq!! - how can anybody credit anything this man says?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Yep. That's our world. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA - ol Archie was pretty funny sometimes - ya had to just watch and laugh - if ya thought about it much and how he actually represented middle America pretty faithfully (well - do 60% of them believe Saddam was connected to Osama and 911 and had nukes or not?), you'd go find a gun to eat.

- but again in the talk of this "monster" Saddam, there is NEVER any mention that before 1990 and the subsequent decade of terribly punitive sanctions (and we must never forget, when talking of monsters, that then-US SecState Madeline Albright said a few years ago, right out loud, it was recorded, that the death of half a million Iraqis, mostly children, from the sanctions was "acceptable" - odd that nobody has ever accused her or the US of monsterism...) - anyway, prior to this, almost all non-US-propaganda-machine commentators acknowledge that Iraq was one of the most highly developed and progressive Arab nations - such things as free universal health care and education, a non- Muslim-fundamentalist government, better women's rights than in the Muslim-fundamentalist-run mid-east countries, things like that. Now how or why in the fuck would a "monster" who supposedly tortured wee babies for a picker-up in the mornings turn around and treat his people like that? There's some kind of serious discontinuity going on here - and when that sort of thing happens, I first question people who are KNOWN to lie a great deal - the western governments and press, for instance - especially when they want to convince us, the public, that somebody else is an "evil monster" so they can justify some killing and looting they are planning - it's happened dozens of times - I don't have time to find a link but google William Blum if you want some very interesting reading. Maybe Saddam did indeed deal with his in-country enemies harshly - but personally, I'm not buying the US media stories about horrible torture of the citizens and "mass graves" and whatnot without a little more evidence than ten years worth of American media hysteria and propaganda to base it on - these people are proven liars - what puzzles me is why ANYONE would believe them about anything.

- and then, of course, we have stuff like this - US, Israel prepare mass killings in Iraq - no judge or jury, just a bunch of killers sent out by the US to murder people - just fucking imagine if the western media ever got word of somebody we didn't like doing this!!! - but murder is murder whether it's an American or an Iraqi or anybody else pulling the trigger - exactly WHO are we calling monsters here?!?!?!?!!!!

- and - even worse is, once again, the fact that apparently nobody in this country sees anything wrong with this!!!!! - oh, I expect there are at least a few others like myself running around out there who feel that it is wrong - but look in the papers, and harken to the words of our MPs and MLAs and government - not a fucking peep of protest - saying, by their silence, that they condone this stuff. This murder, this butchery, that is now official policy of the US government - has been for a long time, actually - we readily recall Big George bragging a few months ago about an American cruise missile taking out a car in Yemen or some such place that supposedly had some "terrorist" leader in it - that there were a few unidentified civilians also taken out didn't seem to be of much concern - to anybody. Monsters and murderers? I would have to say so.

The "alt press" does note this stuff - here is a good one from a guy called Chris Floyd The Inhuman Stain - Saying Yes to State Terror - "...There is no reaction. No outcry in Congress or the courts--the supposed guardians of the people's rights--beyond a few wan calls for more formality in the concentration camp processing or judicial "warrants" for torture. And among the great mass of "the people" itself, there is--nothing. Silence. Inattention. Acquiescence. State terrorism--lawless seizure, filthy torture, official murder--is simply accepted, a part of "normal life," as in Nazi Germany or Stalin's empire, where "decent people" with "nothing to hide" approved and applauded the work of the "organs" in "defending national security.... This is the scandal, this is the nation's festering shame...."
And one more quickie - this deserves a good read, FAARRR more truthful than ANYTHING in the US or Canadian media - Next US War Target: the Vatican? - guy called Lew Rockwell, Libertarian, I think, but one of the saner ones - he has the basic propaganda-authoritarian type of doctrine we live under pretty well pegged - "...The theme is always the same: we are to celebrate whatever the state does, and condemn its enemies as nothing short of incarnate evil. Only the details change...".
- put this together with the recent stories about the US shipping Canadian citizens off to countries abroad for torture, with denials and silence from the Canadian government until absolutely forced to acknowledge it, and then bend over backwards trying to make excuses for the CSIS people involved and Americans, and get it forgotten about, and the calls for National ID cards, and the same guy telling us we have to get used to the idea of torture, happening even HERE for FUCK'S SAKE!!!!!!!!!!!! - the ongoing efforts of the press to convince us that TERRORIST BOGEYMEN are all around us, lock your doors and stay home at night!!! - with, as I continue to note, NO FUCKING EVIDENCE AT ALL!!!!! - just rumours and hysteria - and you gotta start wondering what they're up to.

And if you don't - well - as the old saying goes, he who persists in ignoring history is bound to repeat it - the signs are all there - the problem for most people is, I guess, they don't talk about them in that 6.3 hours of tv they watch every night.

- another pretty good movie this week (runup to LOTR3!!!!!!!!!!!) - called K-PAX, with Kevin Stacey and Jeff Bridges - Stacey shows up one day in a train station and won't take his shades off when the cop starts harassing him for no better reason than that he is there and has shades on (why do cops think only THEY should be able to hide their fucking eyes?!?!?!))) so he gets arrested (Justice in America HAHAHAHAAAA) - and the shrink (Bridges) eventually finds he says he is from a far distant planet called K-PAX - and maybe he is - he does some neat things - but one great line - Stacey says they have no laws, and Bridges asks in puzzlement how they know right from wrong, to which Stacey replies something like "Every intelligent being knows right from wrong..." - which is so very true, and says so very much about our little human societies and all the killing and stealing and bad stuff we do - eh??? Well worth the buck's rental, anyway.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA

Winter solstice between now and the next of these (unless something REALLY gets me upset tomorrow HAHAHAHAHAAAA) - do something meaningful (which does NOT involve either malls or tvs HAHAHAHAAAA)

- just can't let this one by, from the New Republican Toronto Star - Saddam's capture brings Iraqis hope - first line - "...Saddam Hussein was a sworn foe of America and its allies, a mocker of the United Nations and a regional bully..." - well - volumes there, actually, of propagandistic assumptions - that is to say - a "mocker of the United Nations" - well, who was it just a few months ago called the UN outdated and irrelevant because they refused to endorse an American war of aggression, and has vetoed EVERY resolution (dozens of them) trying to get Israel to behave in an even semi-civilized fashion towards the Palestinians, and spied on the diplomats to see what they were thinking and sent the SecState Powell to lie egregiously to them??? right - and then "a regional bully"?!?!?!?!? - the mind boggles, it truly does - of course, that is not an unusual state in the modern world, but still - the US calling Iraq a BULLY?!?!?! - fuck - what do you do when someone looks you right in the eye and lies at you, laughing in derision at your stupidity in believing them as they do so???? - there is ONE bigtime bully in the world today - and you know it's initials are U S of A. It's just too obvious and crazy to write any more....

- we gotta have a little look at this whole idea of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" sometime too - once you get beyond the desired reaction (BOGEYMAN TERRORIST LOCK THE DOORS BE VERY VERY VERY AFRAID DON'T THINK JUST DO WHAT YOUR GREAT MASTERS TELL YOU AND DON'T ASK ANY FUCKING QUESTIONS THAT JUST AIDS THE TERRORISTS BOGEYMAN BOGEYMAN BOGEYMAN AAAAHAHAHAHHH HAHAHAHAHAAA) and think about it (WHAT?!?! I THOUGHT WE HAD THAT STRAIGHTENED OUT CITIZEN!!! YOU WILL THINK WHAT YOU ARE TOLD!!!) you start to realise it's just a Madison Ave advertising phrase to manipulate and scare people with, like bogeyman and TERRORISM!!! - but think about it for a minute - what does it actually mean? a "Weapon of Mass Destruction" ..... Well - something that will kill a lot of people, I suppose, at once, or quickly? Like a nuclear haha 'scuse me nukuler bomb being dropped on some Japanese city I guess, would be a legitimate WMD. Something like that. But what else? How do we decide? Well - how many is "a lot" - at what point does a - what shall we say - "ordinary" weapon graduate to WMD-status? That is to say - how many people qualify for "mass" destruction? 100? 1,000? 10,000? There HAS to be a place - that is, if the term is to have any meaning. Let's say it's 1,000 - does that mean a weapon that kills only 999 people is ok, but add 1 more and it's a TERRIBLE weapon rather than an ordinary one? Doesn't stand up to much reasoning, actually. I don't know much about this weapons stuff, preferring to do things to help people rather than hurt them, but I do read a lot, and had the usual adolescent male fantasies of being Spider Man or some WWII hero when I was absorbing the usual propaganda as a kid, so learned a bit - but let's say we have a normal bomb - 500 pounds of high explosive or something - and you drop it in the middle of Antarctica, where it doesn't kill anything. Or what about a nuke in the same venue? Does that qualify as a WMD even though it doesn't kill anything at all???? Hmmmm - but if you drop that little 500 pounder say strategically at the bottom of a modern office building with a lot of people working there, and the building collapses, it might kill a couple thousand - so is that 500 pound bomb thus a WMD? Or is it intent - but heck, that doesn't seem to work either - that is, the US has more nukes than everybody else in the world combined, but that doesn't seem to concern anyone (outside of we CTs on the web anyway HAHAHAHAAAA) - but apparently if somebody very high on the US shitlist like Saddam or that Korean guy even THINK about WMDs (at least in the Free World Press HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA - sorry! getting late!), that qualifies as a major panic situation about WMDs - kind of confusing.

- but also, let's keep all this stuff in context - that is, the world did not start last March when Bush all of a sudden decided that WMDs were bad things and we ought to go after someone he ACCUSED of having them, as a compelling excuse to invade them - let's see - poison gas, I guess, used in quantities and situations to kill a large number of people - well - does anybody here remember the "Great War" - that'd be WWI, not II - both the Germans and the "GOOD GUYS" killed fuck knows how many - at least 10s of thousands, maybe 100s - I'm not going to bother looking it up - but it's the first case of WMD use that comes readily to mind - and WE DID IT!!! (i.e. what fucking right do WE have to accuse others of something we have already done?) - or the "ALLIES" (that is "good guys") firebombed both Dresden and Tokyo in the later stages of that war - surely bombing in that way, for that purpose, could be called using WMD? We'll just mention Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the ONLY time nuclear weapons have ever been used on civilians - America again. What about Vietnam and things like Agent Orange? Closer to home - Saddam is accused of gassing his own people, thus proving he had (funny how when Bush and Blair and other psychotic warmongers talk about this, the "had" becomes "has" - funny how the sick mind works...) gas - anyway, funny how they NEVER mention that when Saddam "gassed his own people" (this is still disputed - there are evidently CIA reports kicking around that indicate this tragedy was actually from Iranian gas, not Iraq) - but this took place in 1988 - BEFORE the Americans first bombed the fuck out of Iraq, when Saddam was America's good buddy - so good, in fact, that they provided the gas that he used (if he used it for this purpose!!) - isn't it odd that this is never mentioned in those news stories about Saddam gassing people - that the Americans fully approved of it, and supplied the gas?? I mean, if Saddam is a "brutal monster" for doing that - aren't the people who provided the WMDs and money and intelligence equally to blame (if not even more! - think about a smaller case - if I buy a gun, and give you money and the gun to shoot someone - what will the courts think of my role? No problem?!?!?! HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA - well - if my name is RM I think I would be in big trouble!!! - on the other hand, if my name was "America" and I was being tried in the American or Canadian media - I suspect they would not even think the fact worth mentioning. For some reason. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA - hmmmmm - what about them really ever so brave American cavalry soldiers handing out smallpox blankets to the Indians 150 years or so ago - big time use of biochemical WMD there man - I wonder if we can take them to some international court to answer for that one???? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA just kidding George!!!

It's interesting that NOBODY ever defines this WMD shit - just like they really skate around any definition of "terrorism" (for the obvious reason that any realistic definition would immediately have anyone whose brain wasn't totally fried from 8 hours of tv every day saying things like -"Wow man - the US sure does a lot of stuff that sure looks like terrorism man wooow..." and stuff like that).

Fuck I don't get all this - at least in conventional terms. Maybe it's time to hop outside the box for a look at this shit - but it's late and I gotta go now - but we may have to have another look at that whole thing some day. HAHAHAHAHAAAA - maybe that ol hookah smokin caterpillar on the other side of that there looking glass will have some ideas on it all HAHAHAHAHAAAAA - or maybe I'll get inspired with another barley pop HAHAHAHAAAAA - fuck I don't even know any more which side of the looking glass I'm on!!! HAHAHAHAHAAAAA

Have a nice Winter Solstice wherever you are. Don't spend any money beyond the normal - it destroys the spirit of the thing - just grok stuff HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA

(like LOTR-III - just got back - can't add much to the praise out there - but next year it gets ALL the fucking Oscars and maybe they can invent some new ones - this one will really, as my Brit friends used to say (probably still do for that matter) take some beatin)


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!