Wow….what a documentary!!! Everyone, everyone needs to watch this.
November 26, 2007
November 25, 2007
Excuses, Excuses
New version of “the dog ate my homework”.
Welcome to File Destructor 2.0
Want to play games on your Playstation but got a deadline for an exam or report that didn’t match your gaming ambitions?
Then you have come to the right place.
Send trashed files and blame your faulty computer, instead of confessing that you are a lazy bum who just wants to play videogames.
Universal Medicine
For all those dip-shits who think that USA has a world class medical facilities, here is something you need to read.
Dial, a 23-year-old truck-stop waitress who earns $17,000 a year plus tips, suffers from Type 1 diabetes. Sudden drops in her blood sugar level have sent her to the emergency room four times in the past three years. In September she spent three days at Hot Spring, including two in intensive care, fighting complications from her ailment. The bills came to more than $14,000. Dial’s job offers no health insurance.
Until recently her mother, Carolyn, who waits tables at the same roadside diner, sent Hot Spring $100 a month under the nonprofit hospital’s longstanding zero-interest payment plan. Dial says she couldn’t make payments herself because she spends more than $150 a month for other treatment and insulin.
In October she learned that Hot Spring had transferred her account to a company called CompleteCare, one of the many small firms fueling the little-known medical debt revolution. Enticed by the enormous potential market of uninsured and poorly insured patients, financial giants such as General Electric (GE), U.S. Bancorp (USB), Capital One (COF), and Citigroup (C) are rapidly expanding in the field or joining the fray for the first time. CompleteCare informed Dial that under the complicated terms of her newly financed debt, her minimum monthly payment had shot up more than fourfold, to $455. Dial says she doesn’t have anywhere close to that amount left over after rent, food, and other doctor visits: “Every extra dime I have goes to paying medical bills.”
Read the rest. It will truly astound you all.
The Transformer
Congratulation Prime Minister Stephen Harper!! Congrats!! Your transformation to Bush is almost complete.
KAMPALA — Commonwealth leaders agreed to a much watered-down agreement on climate change after Prime Minister Stephen Harper resisted any reference to binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions.
But Mr. Harper said that he could not agree to the original proposal which put binding commitments on some large greenhouse-gas emitters and not for others.
“We will not agree to a framework that binds some countries and not others because that is a recipe for failure on the issue of climate change,” he told reporters. “We already have a protocol like that and it doesn’t work. We need a protocol that involves everyone.”
The earlier resolution would have committed developed countries to binding targets but not developing countries. Canada argued that the deal was unfair because it excluded India, a Commonwealth member and one of the world’s biggest polluters.
And here is Bush saying the exact same thing in 2001.
As you know, I oppose the Kyoto Protocol because it exempts 80 percent of the world, including major population centers such as China and India, from compliance, and would cause serious harm to the U.S. economy. The Senate’s vote, 95-0, shows that there is a clear consensus that the Kyoto Protocol is an unfair and ineffective means of addressing global climate change concerns.
Hence, until the poor countries do the same thing the first world countries are need to do, no matter how much it might cost these third world countries in the short term, the fierce leaders of the first world countries will not care a fuck about the future.
November 20, 2007
The Torture Policy
So, there is a huge debate on torture going on
in the USA (1).
The side For torture, constitutes mostly the
republicans and the 101st Keyboard fighting
brigade (2) who say that torture is completely
acceptable in the "war on terrah". After all a
lunatic might be ready to detonate a suitcase
nuclear bomb right now so let's extract the
information any way we can! Bring on
waterboarding (3), sleep deprivation (4),
etc, etc.
The side Against torture, mostly the progressives,
say that torture is totally against the nature
of the United States of America. The country
was founded on the principles of humanity and
torture does not fit in any where.
IMHO, torture will never go away. It has existed
for thousands for years and will continue to exist
for the next thousand. So to pick at details of
what constitutes torture and what does not, is
an utter waste of time. What must be done is
to come down hard against mis-use of a military
"torture policy" and this can only be done by
the people in charge.
And here lies the entire problem with the current
debate in the US of A. The people in charge are
actually ADVOCATING a proactive torture policy!
These poor fools cite study after study and
experts after experts on how it is totally
acceptable and necessary to torture. What they
must be doing is to make public statements
against the torture incidents and hold very
public inquiries on the deaths 100s of people
(I refuse to use the word terrorists as the charge
is never laid out). The interrogation techniques
should be reviewed by the military (and only by
the military) with clear indication that
interrogators responsible for deaths or serious
mental disorder of the people being interrogated
will be facing nothing short of a court marshal.
And to all those who say that in times of a war
when critical information is time sensitive (5),
then "niceties" can be thrown to the wind, you,
my friend, have just become a terrorist yourself.
(1) http://blogrunner.com/snapshot/news/6/3/debate_over_torture/
(2) http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/101st_Fighting_Keyboarders
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation
(5) http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/015994.php
November 15, 2007
The Amazing Super Stupid Conservative
From CC we have the crazy dumb conservative of the day. This woman has an article that clearly illustrates why the insanely crazies come from the right.
So, because there have been a few accidents with wind turbines, it’s time to declare that the whole experiment was wrong. She, of course, does not come out and say it but it is clearly in tune with this wingnut blog (and her comrades come out and say what she is not saying).
Tasered man’s last moments (Updated)
Stole the title from Globe and Mail.
I saw the video and believe me that there was nothing 4 professional mounties with flak jackets could do to restrain an out of shape man who clearly looked like he was mounting an attack….well it was mostly a verbal attack and using chairs and stools to create a fort around him. None the less it seemed really, really dangerous and the 4 professional police officers had to taser this rambling man twice with 50,000 volts.
Great work RCMP, great work. Now let’s all tune into Globe and Mail and see our police force in action.
The footage, shot by Victoria resident Paul Pritchard, was released to the news media yesterday and widely broadcast, providing a raw look at events that have prompted a furious debate in B.C. about the police use of tasers.The release comes exactly a month after the incident that ended in the death of 40-year-old Mr. Dziekanski, who had come to Canada on his first-ever airplane flight to begin a new life here with his mother, who lives in Kamloops and had been eagerly awaiting his arrival.
He began acting erratically after more than 10 hours being processed — the footage picks up as he was positioning chairs and a table in a manner that caused the automatic doors to remain open. Security guards look on.
When four Mounties arrive, they briskly move up to Mr. Dziekanski. He calls out “policia, policia” as they approach. One bystander is recorded saying that he is speaking Russian.
He appears to turn and move away from officers, putting up his hands in frustration. He appears to pick up a stapler on a counter. He is then tasered with a 50,000-volt shock, and jittering he drops, screaming in pain.
Someone yells “hit him again.” He was tasered twice. Police pile on, seeking to restrain him. One officer places his knee on Mr. Dziekanski’s neck.
Mr. Dziekanski went into medical distress and died there. The footage shows officers attending to him. One man in a suit checks for a pulse. It is impossible to tell from the footage whether he is dead at that point, although he appears non-responsive.
An autopsy later found no sign of drugs or alcohol in Mr. Dziekanski’s system, but failed to come up with any specific cause of death.
Updated : Every Canadian needs to go here and check the links to their perspective MPs and let them know what you think. After all, MPs work for us.
November 14, 2007
India Shinning?
All those people who claim that India and it’s citizens are on their way to prosperity, here is a dose of reality :
A low-caste Indian man has been killed for shooing away cattle belonging to upper caste people in the western state of Madhya Pradesh, police say.Kailash Bagri, 40, was beaten to death and his body was then burnt in the district of Dhar, about 290km (180 miles) from the state capital, Bhopal.
Police say Mr Bagri objected to oxen being tethered in front of his house.
He was then beaten for his “insolence”, say police, who have yet to make any arrests in the case.
The body of Mr Bagri was so badly burnt that police had been unable even to recover his bones, district police chief Chanchal Shekhar told the BBC.
Villagers were also threatened not to report the matter to anyone, but Mr Bagri’s son managed to slip out and report the matter to the police the next day.
November 13, 2007
The Reagan Years
Do you want to know what the Ronald
Reagan years were like?
Go here :
<http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/innocent-mistakes/>
November 11, 2007
Rachel Marsden
How is it that I can wish someone who looks like this die an horrendous death.
An excerpt from her article :
According to the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war are afforded certain protections. But contrary to what some folks might believe, we’re not talking about prisoners of war here. In the war on terror, we’re dealing largely with “unlawful enemy combatants” — unaccountable freelancers who dress like they’re coming out of philosophy class at UC Berkeley.
If you want full legal protections that come with engaging in legitimate warfare, then go join an army and put on a uniform so that Western forces can spot you before you head into a civilian centre with a bomb strapped to yourself and blow up innocent people
I’m not sure how folks who are critical of the CIA’s interrogation techniques would suggest eliciting intelligence from guys like this. Perhaps by offering him some tasty snacks and the love and understanding that he lacked as a child?
The CIA doesn’t do what they do for kicks. As CIA Director Michael Hayden explained the other day, interrogation techniques serve a purpose.
So now that we’ve established that the detainees in question aren’t even protected by the Geneva convention, and that they often have crucial information that can save lives, what about the idea of waterboarding as “torture”?
When asked about it during a recent CNN appearance, I suggested that “one man’s torture is another’s CIA-sponsored swim lesson.” In case anyone thought I was being facetious — I wasn’t.
I suppose that those who object to terror suspects getting water up the nose would say that, as a young competitive swimmer, I was also tortured. It was called “hypoxic training” — swimming underwater and holding our breath until we passed out. Our coaches didn’t call it torture, just an exercise in “mental toughness.” So think of it this way — terror suspects are getting some free mental toughness training courtesy of the U.S. government.
I am glad you were fired Ms . Marsden. It is imperitive that shit like you flows to were it belongs…..in the sewer. Here is her latest crap after she was fired. Waah Waah Waah.
Why? Please Explain To Me, Why?
Two Taliban rockets struck a forward operating base west of Kandahar Tuesday during a visit by Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
MacKay was conducting private meetings at Forward Operating Base Wilson, about 20 kilometres west of Kandahar city, when the attack occurred.
“I do not believe he was targeted,” Gen. Rick Hillier told reporters on Tuesday. “I think these are things that have occurred (coincidentally) in time and space. I think it is less dangerous now during any time we’ve been there for the last 18 months, for ranking Canadians to go out there and to move around in the vicinity.”
So, I guess it means that there is still some danger (even though we and the NATO has spent millions and millions of dollars) to the politicians and generals (and, hence, the Canadian soldiers). Okay, if there is danger then there is danger. Insurgency will continue for a while and we will continue fighting it back even though insurgents probably are smart and sophisticated as this bit tells us:
Bill Graveland, a reporter for The Canadian Press who was at the forward operating base with MacKay, told CTV Newsnet the attacks were likely spurred by the increase in helicopter activity at the base.
……………..
Military analyst Sunil Ram said the Taliban tend to keep a “very sharp eye” on the day-to-day activites of the troops.
“The minute they notice a change, it generally will trigger an attack. Albeit a rocket attack is incredibly inaccurate, and as a direct targetting of the minister, I think it’s unlikely,” Ram said on CTV Newsnet’s Mike Duffy Live.
But why do our politicians and high ranking officials insist on making absolute crappy statements like this :
Hillier said the attack is a sign of how desperate the Taliban have become since being pushed back by coalition forces.
“What was subjected to attack was one of our forward operating bases and that has been consistent because the Taliban have been driven back so they have to resort to long-distance attacks,” he said.
This is just a rehash of statements of Dick Cheney and President Bush
November 9, 2007
Press Freedom In Canada
To be 16th On the World Press Freedom Index (1)
was quite a shock to me. After all, Canada is the
one of the G8 countries. However, I never knew
this (2) :
“Canada is one of the most concentrated media
markets in the world. Only four corporations distribute
70 percent or our dailies, three control most of the
tv news market and one company owns the
majority of all our radio stations. So what does this
mean? A 2006 Senate committee said it best when
they stated the “concentration of [media] ownership
has reached levels that few countries would consider
acceptable.” A recent CRTC hearing on media
diversity has recognized that our media market is so
concentrated that it is seriously damaging Canadian’s
access to more than one opinion. “
This is really shocking!! That’s way too much power And the reason for that maybe in hidden in this report
in the hands of a few. And I have always wondered
why no newspaper in Canada has really grabbed
a hold of my imagination (only Globe And Mail has,
to an extent). And the reason maybe because of
such lacklustre and weak opinion pieces and editorials
which don’t really have much impact on my thinking.
But why? I mean, this is Canada. What I most
expect from Canadian journalism and editors are
hard hitting reports
by COMPAS (3) :
“Journalists see press freedom as thriving in
Canada. They give press freedom an extraordinary
81 score on a 100 point freedom scale. Furthermore,
press freedom is not perceived as declining. The
level of freedom is the same as 10 years ago,
those polled say. Journalists do nonetheless see
threats to their own freedom.”
“When respondents comment on the performance
limitations of their profession, they offer a
diversity of thoughts. Several journalists attributed
the limitations of their profession to declining
resources in the newsroom. “There is a distinct
shortage of investigative journalism in Canada,”
said one respondent. “I attribute this to the
large number of editors and managers who
don’t actually know what investigative journalism
is for, and why it adds value to news
organizations.”"
And there you have it.
All the executives and managers do not know
what journalism is!! Well, of course they don’t.
They are after the mighty dollar. They don’t
care how advertisement space is sold as long
as it is sold and of the cost cutting. And if an
editorial piece hits too close to home, it must be
squashed.
And I found it quite interesting in the report that
the journalists were blaming of apathy from readers.
From the report :
“When journalists comment on audience threats
to press freedom, they tend to think in terms of
two themes-apathy and lack of interest on the
one hand, or intimidation by a small audience
segment on the other. One respondent said that
the press freedom benefits from too little support
among the public, which does not understand
“how vital it is in a democracy.” The media need
to do a better job of “explaining what it is and.
defending its importance.”"
How convenient!! You don’t know how to sell a
product, so you blame your customers. That is a
really head-up-the-ass attitude.
<Links>
(1) http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19388
(2) http://blog.thismagazine.ca/archives/2007/10/canada_takes_wo.html
(3) http://www.compas.ca/data/060226-FreedomOfThePressPrt2-PC.pdf
November 6, 2007
The Handbook Of Denying Torture Allegations
I had thought that this was over (1).
(2) The federal government is dismissing an incendiary
newspaper report about the continued abuse of detainees in Afghanistan.
Prisoners at an Afghan jail in Kandahar are being bashed
with bricks, having their fingernails ripped out, getting electrocuted,
being forced to stand up without sleeping and are whipped with electric
cables, Montreal La Presse reported on Monday.
The newspaper cites interviews with three prisoners and
independent sources including a spokesman for the Afghan Human Rights
Commission and a prison boss.
But here is the classic response from politicians, you know the one who have
a hand book from the Americans
"We do expect these kinds of allegations from the Taliban,"
said Tory House leader Peter Van Loan.
What an impeccable argument!! There is no way to refute what he said because
it is the Taliban who are disseminating that information and since Taliban
are known to be liars, this new piece of news must be a lie. No matter that
it came from investigative journalists backed by Human rights'
organisations. What the hell are the conservatives up to?
Links
(1)
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070430/afghan_detainee
s_070430/20070501?hub=SEAfghanistan
(2)
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/10/29/qc-afghanreport1029.html
November 2, 2007
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
A few weeks ago a man was tasered at the Vancouver airport, and passed away as a result.
But this story has gotten bigger and hasn’t gone away as i am sure the RCMP would like it to. So many different accounts and conflicts, mostly with the RCMP version.
The footage taken on a cell phone by a Paul Pritchard, is (maybe) going to be released by the RCMP in the next couple of days. He is going through with his court appearance to ensure that they follow through with their promise.
I have the greatest of respect for the police. In fact I am going through a phase with my daughter who has been taught (I will not name the person(s)) that police is someone to be scared of.
In India that is true. Police in India are pure bastards. But here in Canada they are there to help us. And that’s what I am trying to teach my kid. When in trouble, get help from police. But when you read something like this and the Maher Arar case. You really begin to doubt the police’s credibility.
I mean, I have been pulled over a couple of times and have been told it’s a random check authorised by the city for drunk driving but I wonder what would happen if I say “nope I refuse to be subjected to these random checks”?
Noooooo, I am not going to try a stunt like that. But I was just wondering. Here is a list (from the above post from A Creative Revolution (highly recommended site)) of a few fuck ups by the RCMP with the help of a taser :
TASER-RELATED DEATHS IN B.C. AND POLICE FORCE INVOLVED:
- April 19, 2003: Terry Hanna, 51, Burnaby RCMP.
- July 22, 2003: Clayton Willey, 33, Prince George RCMP.
- May 1, 2004: Roman Andreichikov, 25, Vancouver police.
- June 23, 2004: Robert Bagnell, 44, Vancouver police.
- June 30, 2005: Gurmeet Sandhu, 41, Surrey RCMP.
- Oct. 14, 2007: Man in his 40s, Richmond RCMP.
