Reflections on Boston

I've been abnormally silent about last month's bombing at the Boston Marathon. I apologize for that, and can't even excuse it with being tied up by school (I worked on some music and other projects, after all). Now that the dust has settled a bit, here are some of my thoughts.

1) It goes without saying that the bombing itself was horrible, and my heartfelt condolences go to the families of all of the victims, whether they survived or not. It was nothing short of a miracle that it wasn't worse than it was.

Incidentally, if you can spare it, please make a donation to The One Fund, for the survivors and families. Thank you.

2) My first thought was that the bombing was done by one or two lone psychos, but sadly that's not looking completely like the case. Then again...

3) Let's address the first elephant: the media's reporting on this has just sucked. HARD. It's not surprising that The New York Post and the right-wing blogosphere wrongly accused every brown man in Massachusetts of doing this, I expected better from CNN -- and every last one of those agencies should be apologizing LOUDLY for their screw-ups. Especially since at least one of the people they wrongly accused, was found dead in a river, last week -- possibly by suicide.

4) The same goes for the FBI, for apparently missing the obvious warning signs that the real bombers weren't exactly upstanding members of society.

5) But those of you who insist that this was a False Flag Attack (tm) just because you saw someone on a roof at a public event or you personally didn't see the severed limbs of the hundreds of victims... I have some great land in Antarctica for sale, if you are interested in buying some.

Now onto the really thorny one... the lockdown and raids. I'm bound to get some hate mail over this one... but to a point I can accept it. I am not a fan of withholding the reading of Miranda Rights (and those who say the suspects don't deserve them at all, should be careful what they wish for), and I openly acknowledge that ultimately the suspects were found by old-fashioned police work and tips. HOWEVER, it's probably safe to say that the lockdown did slow down the surviving bomber's movements. Furthermore, I wonder how some people would suggest the FBI and Boston PD should have dealt with people who were known to be heavily armed, multiple murderers. I hate to sound like the kind of asshole who would refer to civil rights fans as "bleeding heart liberals" (especially since I loathe that phrase), but REALLY?

Besides, we all know that if there WAS no lockdown, Obama et. al. would be getting a lot of shit for supposedly being soft on terrorism.

Would I be happy if a SWAT team stormed my house, out of the blue? Of course not. But with at least one known terrorist apparently in my neighbourhood, I would understand.

I'm not putting my foot down on this -- especially with more information still coming in -- but that is how I feel about it at this time. Please understand that, if and when you decide to give feedback.

Conservative Michael Sona charged in Robocall Scandal

So the man who once boasted on Facebook about trying to steal a ballot box, for the Conservative Party, has been criminally charged in relation with his party's apparent sabotage of the 2011 election. He had been a major focus of the investigation for some time, due to a huge chunk of the misleading robocalls (falsely claiming polling stations had been moved) coming from the Guelph campaign office where he'd worked. Suffice it to say hardly anyone believes that he acted alone, but at least someone has actually been arrested over this -- FINALLY.

Of course, more needs to be done. Emperor Harper -- if he has any of the moral and ethical integrity that he claims to -- should immediately apologize and resign for the serious transgressions of his party. The Governor General should give some serious thought to suspending Parliament until it has been ascertained that the government is legitimate. At the VERY least, Sona himself should tell Elections Canada and the RCMP EVERYTHING that happened -- given his history and previous statements, he has no credibility from simply denying he did anything wrong.

Will it actually happen? Personally I doubt it, but then again I'm a bit surprised that we've even gotten this far.

News Flash: Steubenville Rapists ARE NOT Heroes. Got It?

Do I seriously need to explain to people, what the fuck is wrong with the Steubenville rape case? Are we really so irredeemable as a species, that an entire town in Ohio TO THIS DAY shrugs off a 16 year old girl being gangraped while drunk and unconscious? Are the morals of the so-called Heartland of America so bankrupt that it's considered acceptable for the local high school football coach to NOT report this happening, when he knew full well about it? (something that is a FELONY in every civilized part of the world)

Don't even get me started on so-called journalist Michael Crook, who actually has written an article claiming that -- wait for it -- rape doesn't exist. That is not a misprint. He has actually written a book, about that subject.

I refuse to go on any further about this, because in my opinion -- having, you know, a moral compass and a working brain -- is that high school sports should NEVER take precedence over someone's basic right to have their physical space respected. Instead of teaching girls not to get drunk, or to -- for fuck's sake -- to carry A GUN to avoid getting raped, how about these chauvinistic cockscabs teach their sons TO NOT RAPE ANYONE. You know, TO BE A MAN!

And should Mr. Crook or anyone on his side STILL claim there's no such thing as rape... I personally know several people who were in this girl's position. Some were even younger, when they were raped. For that matter, American prisons ALONE have had countless PROVEN instances of rape. I fucking dare Crook and his supporters to claim to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE VICTIMS, IN PERSON, that their attacks never happened.

Or is it a lot more manly and decent for you to just keep the wool over your eyes?

Conservative Loves Child Porn

So if you haven't heard, a prominent Canadian conservative named Tom Flanagan, has been in some major shit lately. The University of Calgary professor, mentor of Stephen Harper and Danielle Smith, and once described "most prominent member of the Reform Party", wasvideotaped at a Q&A session, re-affirming an allegedly old position of his that people shouldn't be going to jail "for their taste in pictures"... referring to child porn.

Immediately after this went viral, even though some right-wing pundits (ie. Jonathan Kay of the National Post) and apparently deranged academics have been defending him, he did get ditched by Wildrose Leader Smith, the CBC (where he was a panelist on "Power & Politics"), and disavowed by Emperor Harper.* To those still stupid enough to defend him, I'd like to point out that not only has Flanagan stated that he himself has viewed such images, not only has he defended images that don't exactly depict children in happy times, but he has also said that he's on a mailing list for NAMBLA -- an organization that promotes sex between grown men and little boys. No, I'm serious, that really is what they do.

* (incidently, Harper being caught associated with multiple frauds, a spousal abuser/alleged rapist, and now self-admitted pedophile, probably shouldn't be referred to anymore as a political or moral genius)

BUT WAIT! It gets better. Today, this scumbag has actually whined on TV, that the real blame for this mess belongs to -- wait for it -- someone asking him a "curveball question" during the Q&A, and supposedly taping it in secret.

First Question: what kind of a professor isn't prepared for unusual questions, when speaking in public?

Second Question: what kind of high-profile figure, doesn't just automatically assume that he is being videotaped at public events?

Third Question: WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR HEAD AT, WHEN YOU DEFEND SEX ABUSE AND FEDERAL CRIMES, IN A BRAIN FART?

Honestly, I'm not sure it's possible to sink any lower, on the Piece of Shit Scale -- and I'm currently seeing millionaires who work part-time, blame the poor for needing welfare. This is absolutely indefensible, and frankly anyone who says otherwise, should probably have their computers checked by the RCMP. As long as the right-wing says or defends this kind of bullshit, they have no right to complain about the supposedly loose morals of liberals and the general gay community. By their own standards, Tom Flanagan should be on trial right now, facing a life sentence or worse.

Ted Nugent to "counter" the State of the Union

Okay, WHAT?

So, the Republican/Tea Party's rebuttal to the State of the Union address, will be delivered this year, by Ted Nugent.

A burnt-out rocker, who shit his pants to get out of the draft, who is an admitted pedophile, who can't open his mouth anymore without making the kinds of remarks that only get applause from the KKK, who brandished two MACHINE GUNS on stage at a concert, and who has personally threatened to kill the president.

In a little over a decade, the GOP has gone from George W. Bush, to Sarah Palin, to Mitt Romney, and now this? I know that conservatives don't believe in evolution, but this is nuts!

Idle No More

Despite (once again) crowning Stephen Harper the Douchebag of the Year, there was something I couldn't mention in the video, simply because of lack of time. It's not much of a secret that -- like most countries with an aboriginal population -- Canada treats its native peoples like third-class citizens. This is by no means unique to Harper; possibly the most shameful chapter in our history, involves the federal government pretty much abducting Indian children, from 1884 to 1948, and abusing them in boarding schools to try to wipe out their heritage. It's as close as we've ever come to ethnic cleansing -- and ironically, something that Harper once apologized for.

Beyond that, Harper's attitude towards the First Nations peoples of Canada has been.... to do pretty much nothing. At all. One of his first acts as prime minister, was scrapping a treaty that (theoretically anyway) would have done something to improve the Third World conditions of native reservations (including an almost total lack of education, infrastructure, clean water, adequate shelter, job opportunities, etc.). The only other thing that I can think of, that he's done, was effectively take over the administration of the Attawapiskat reserve... and charging the DIRT POOR VILLAGE thousands of dollars for that privilege.

Because of this -- among other things that I'm not qualified to comment on -- the reserve's Chief, Theresa Spence, has gone on a hunger strike. She's demanding a meeting with Harper, as well as Governor General David Johnson, to get to the bottom of the issues there. This has sparked SEVERAL protests nationwide, considerable media coverage, and INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION. So typically, Harper's response has been absolutely nothing.

Some Conservative lackies -- when they haven't been racist as hell -- have mocked Spence and asked that she stop the hunger strike. As many right-wingers do, they completely miss the point. This is on Harper and Johnson's heads, because they are effectively the leaders of this country -- and especially because the federal government has pretty much annexed Spence's village. Leaving aside the piss poor optics of REFUSING TO MEET WITH A LEADER ON A HUNGER STRIKE, this whole issue is Ottawa's responsibility (and these people say that liberals and natives are lazy -- pot calling kettle, anyone?), and it's not like Harper's got much going on during the holidays -- ONE MEETING is all that Spence is asking for. At this point, she might be happy with dropping in to wish her a happy new year.

It's a shame that Stephen Harper would never read this article, or personally respond to it, because here's a question I'd love to ask him, point blank: it's no secret that most Canadians hate your guts, and regardless of your rhetoric, Canada's reputation abroad is getting WORSE because of you. How do you think Canada and the world would react, if you become the only First World leader in ages -- if not EVER -- to be PERSONALLY responsible for the death of a peaceful protester?  And an Indian protester, to boot!

Probably the only thing that worries me at all, about the New Year, is how this might unfold, if Chief Spence starves to death, all because Harper can't be bothered to act like a human being. The people are angry right now, and the world is watching. You would think someone as power-hungry and politically savvy as Harper, would understand the dangers of creating a martyr -- if she dies, Harper may come to wish that he'd resigned a long time ago.

2012 Douchebag of the Year