Aptenobytes

London Riots

Interesting to see that there is a line beyond which people starting putting up with shit, and start causing shit.

The London riots are not a rational response to the conditions of poverty, or to the capitalist structure that produced it. However, most of the rational responses have been closed to the people affected, or have been proven worthless as responses.

Perhaps the rational responses will come later as the community comes together in the wake of the riots to heal itself and to clean up. The real community activists will see have something to point to, and say "If you don't fund our alternatives, this is what happens."

The kids that are rioting today are the spiritual heirs to the kids who rioted in the 80's under Thatcher, and the sad part is that they are rioting for exactly the same reasons.

No more Amazon for me

So, I've just deleted my Amazon wish list. I won't deal with a book seller that won't fight censorship. Period. Their cowardice on the wikileaks file makes them dead to me.

I was a teenage anarchist

Here's what protests look like with the black bloc:

Here's what protests look like without the black bloc:

Back in the late 80's, I was involved in a few protests when the Black Bloc form of protest was in it's infancy in North America. The concept as we understood it back then was that we would form a Bloc that would protect the protesters who weren't willing or able to face police brutality. In the second video, the Black Bloc would form a line facing the police and basically face the faceless cops on their own terms, and fight back. A couple of hundred protesters would be sufficient to stop the cops from starting police riots. Make no mistake, I'd seen the cops in Toronto and Ottawa provoke confrontations on more than one occasion.
I was young, angry and had very little to lose if I got arrested.
I'm not going to join a Black Bloc today, but I certainly do understand why young people, when faced by cops who are hell bent on intimidating peaceful protests, might decide to respond in kind.


http://maggieknight.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/the-world-is-watching-g20-media-summary-to-date/

Don't unite the centre.

Apparently some idiots are proposing to unify the Liberal Party of Canada with the NDP. Words do not describe how bad an idea that would be. Warren Kinsella has sworn an affidavit that there are talks going on.

There are two parties for a reason. The Liberals are the Canadian establishment, taking most of their income from corporations and people who have large holdings in those corporations. They are somewhat socially liberal, as far as the corporate hegemony in this country feels that social welfare saves them money.

The NDP is nominally a socialist party. They are supported by Union donations, and by small donations from supporters. They have traditionally been the conscience on Parliament Hill.

I have trouble supporting them, given that I don't really support any group that wants to hold power over people, but most of the time they are on the right side of any given issue.

As far as I can tell, this is a poison pill that the Liberals are trying to make the NDP swallow. The NDP is on the brink of becoming the number two party in the country as the Liberals continue to spiral downwards. By offering this poisoned chalice, the NDP would destroy any chance that the country will find a political balance that is anywhere near the left. It will put the battleground between the Liberals very centrist position and the CPC's right wing stance. Gone will be the balance of the NDP's moderate left position. That is very bad for the country, and especially the people whose voice will be silenced.

Bad idea.

Postmasters! Turn off the damned bounceback

OK. For the N-th time in the last year I've weathered a bounceback storm. Some satan forsaken spammer spoofs my domain and sends out a couple of million spams, and I get to deal with a few thousand bouncebacks from dumbasses who haven't figured out that spammers use dictionary attacks.

The feature is broken. Stop using it. I beg you. Today's little storm cascading to a Rogers Blackberry. Thanks to Rogers absofuckinglutely stupid data plans, it probably cost us fifty or sixty bucks in data overages.

Yup. I'm pissed.

Oh, Come on Supremes.

What the fucking hell is wrong with the Supremes?

Today's decision was a disgrace. Canada Customs has been out of control, and a bookseller that has been our 'point person' in fighting their homophobic and anti-freedom crap has been told that if they want to fight the Canadian government with it's bottomless pockets in court, they have to do it out of their own pockets.

Little Sisters during it's best year ever made a profit of 25,000$. A court case that goes to the Supreme Court can cost up to 2$ million.

Canada's New Government recently cut the program that once upon a time paid for challenges like this. The Court Challenges Program was a smart and useful idea. What killed it was the fact that it was based on a single ideology. Here's where I stop vilifying the Courts for a decision that was bad from a political point of view (I haven't read it, so it may be OK from a legal POV), and rip into the politics....

Save The Cheerleader, Save The World...

I am truly enjoying the new hit show, Heroes. It's subversive in a very cool way. It's not trying to be subversive. But, it's the first show that just assumes that it's normal for people to be poor, to be drug addicts, to be rich, to be privileged, to be unprivileged.

It's addressed the pervasiveness of date rape, the various types of sexism that permeate society from the overprotection of Heidi to the ongoing abuse that nearly destroys Niki.

It's shown people from the various stratas of society, and treated them all like humans. Rich, poor, middle class. No parodies, no pretending that they're innately different. From working class cop with severe dyslexia to rich and ambitious poltiician, they're all shown as flawed humans, as fucked up I am. As fucked up as you are. No nobility in poverty. No romance to a needle stuck in a vein. No No pretense that wealth brings nobility or venality.

Nope. It's a story about normal people from all walks of life. Basically, it's a story that has the subversive message that ordinary people matter, and are capable of being extra-ordinary.

It's true. Evolution or not, we're all extra-ordinary.

OK, that's enough of being a media whore.

That's just wrong on Sooooo many levels

Deep-fried Coca-Cola

Say that with me. Deep-fried Coca Cola.

*Shudder*

Urgh.

I'm getting a little frustrated in my personal life right now. I've kicked ass, I've worked pretty much without a break since February, and I'm a little isolated and a little depressed. What I don't need right now is a bunch of people giving me advice on how I could be doing better. I need some acknowledgment that I have done a fucking awesome job getting the store open on time and then actually selling a fair amount in the first couple of months... maybe even patting me on the back.

Oh well. That's not how the people in my life deal with things....

See, this is the problem with right wingers...

The coverage of the Toronto municipal election by the Western Standard includes this lovely line:


And that leaves the worst for last. David "I love marching in the Pride Parade" Miller.

.

See, they have to be bigots. The fact that David Miller is a typical nanny statist who has never met a government program that can't be expanded, and who has mismanaged the City of Toronto in spectacular fashion is undeniable. Does the right deride him for his all too many real flaws? Yes, in passing, but they can't help themselves. They just have to go for the bigot angle to start.