Aptenobytes

McGuinty, the deaths of thousands of innocent dogs will be on your hands.

CANOE -- CNEWS - Canada: McGuinty defends pit bull ban:


The second part of the ban means all pit bull puppies born from now on must be destroyed, given to a research facility, or shipped out of the province.




You bastard. You smug bastard. Words fail me.

Remembrance Day

Every year on Remembrance Day I play The Pogues tune "Waltzing Matilda". Every year it brings me to tears.

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the war to end all wars was ended.
Or so the story goes...
Several years later, thousands of Canadians and Americans joined the International Brigades in Spain to defend the emergent democracy of Spain. They failed.

We have two duties to those who died in the wars and conflicts of all continents. One is to remember them. The other is "Never Again". To stop war. To stop the needless deaths. To find another way.

Today, in Canada is the day we've set aside to remember. I will do that, and I make no apologies for it. Every year, I will pull out the Pogues, and play that song, and tears will run down my face as I remember the sacrifice that those who came before me made. Whether it was in a noble cause, or in the service of evil, these young men and women have died in the service of something, something that they may or may not have believed in. They were people like myself, who were put into circumstances I hope that I am never put into, where it was kill or be killed.

Some people refused to go. Some didn't even if in their heart of hearts they didn't believe in the cause. Some went willingly, even joyously. I honour them all, even those who I didn't agree with.

Today, and every November 11th, I put some time aside to remember them, and say to myself, Never Again. There is a better way.

More on the gun grab in NO

Looks like I'm not the only one to be upset:
Volokh Conspiracy addresses the legal issues
Glenn at Instapundit quickly posts a Volokh link

For a bit of discussion, join in at AR15.com or at Packing.org

For the reactions from the gun rights organizations, a typically tepid post from the NRA, a stronger one from GOA, and JPFO. 'Course the ACLU is absent as always.

Even, or even especially if you don't like the fact that gun ownership is a right in the US of A, you should be upset that the government is acting like your Bill of Rights are suggestions, not ironclad. The First could be next

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It's not incompetence.

I just read several postings, on anarchoblogs, and elsewhere lamenting how surprised they are at the incompetence being shown in the response to the Katrina aftermath.

It's incredible.

As in, it is not credible that the world's richest, most technologically advanced nation is not capable of even setting up a centralized communication centre by the end of Day 3.

Sorry, I just don't buy it.

Someone in this administration, or several someones should be going to jail. If it is incompetence, it's criminal incompetence and depraved indifference. If it isn't, it's murder.

Read between the lines folks...

"If I had a gun, I swear to god, I would have shot someone."

Not how I expect my mom to start a conversation. Bear in mind that my Mom is strongly against violence, and is a Christian in the true sense of the word, a believer in a working class carpenter who turned the other cheek, and hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors. Someone who has spent the majority of her life fighting for peace and social justice. A woman who didn't want me to play with even play guns as a child. She'd been watching the news, and had seen footage of a child being forced to give up his dog before he could get on the bus out of New Orleans. She said the child cried until he threw up. The video had made her shake with anger, and she wanted to cry and kill someone at the same time.

I've been watching the coverage too. I've been wondering where the good stories are. Where are the stories of people helping each other. We all know that those stories exist. The ones that give people hope. The stories that pull people together in times of tragedy. The ones that remind us that people, together, can overcome pretty much everything. Stories of Doctors and Nurses working non-stop since the hurricane hit. Stories of fishermen coming in on their boats to save people stranded on their roofs. Stories of people banding together to pool their resources. Stories you can find if you look for them.

Then I remind myself that the media is selling us a very specific story. I begin to wonder why they are telling us this particular one. A story where the mob descends into violence and chaos when the state is absent. One where the state is simultaneously the only source of order, and also one where the state needs to be brutal. One where black people 'loot' and white people 'find' things. One where the people who are left were 'too stupid to leave', that is leave behind everything they have and know, when the alternative was turned out to be imprisonment in a sports arena under armed guards.

If you look at my previous posts' conspiracy musings, you see where I'm heading. We are being provoked. The state is being brutal to provoke us, but at the same time, the state is the positioning itself as the only source of order. They seem to be very keen on making this the story.

Buses submerged in New Orleans - why weren't they used to help get people out?

I've seen some very smart people in the last few days question the intelligence of the people who stayed behind, or their foresight. Look at yourself and ask if you could pack everything you have or leave it behind on a day's notice. Could your mother? If you were able to, how willing would you be? I'll be honest. I'd have stayed behind (of course, I'm armed and would lay in some supplies, but I'm not without financial resources). No matter where you live, there is a potential for a disaster of similar scope. We, on the west coast face the possibility of 'the Big One', the earthquake that could wipe us off the map. Hurricane's threaten the southern atlantic states, and floods, cyclones and ice storms threaten elsewhere. Nobody is ever safe. Some people always stay behind. It's always happened, no matter how dire the warnings, or predictions. I remember watching the lead up to the volcanic eruption at Mt. ____ in the late 80's. I couldn't understand why some people were refusing to leave. I do know, but it's not something that you can explain.

It's interesting contrasting this disaster with the tsunami last winter in south east Asia. The tales of looting in New Orleans stand in stark contrast to the perception of communities pulling together there. People are people, and I refuse to accept that what actually happened then, and what is happening now is that dramatically different. Do I believe that there wasn't looting taking place in the luxury resorts of Thailand? No. That tale however was not told, because nobody cared. Let's face facts, anything getting stolen after this disaster was no longer saleable. Nobody is going back into New Orleans for months. Food will go bad, electronics will get water damaged.

Bush's speech today was so bad that I have to believe that it was intentional. He's dumb, but he's surrounded by some very smart, devious people. It had to be intentionally bad and uninspiring.

Read between the lines. Don't accept that we're getting the whole story. Try and decide for yourself what the purpose is of any particular video or audio being presented on the news, and try and figure out why are they showing me this. Why are they telling me this?

We aren't even getting half the story. We're watching New Orleans through a straw, and some very nasty people are holding the straw. People who cut the funding for repairing the levees around New Orleans by over 40% in order to fund a war over Iraq. People who stand to make a lot of money as the price of oil rises. People who stand to make a lot of money when they get government money to reconstruct New Orleans.

If the neo-cons weren't indicted over their role in the thousands of needless deaths in Iraq, they damned well had better be over their role in killing thousands in New Orleans. And for their part in taking a child's dog from him in the middle of the most tragic event of his young life. And not least, for making my mother so angry that she was willing to take arms up against them. 'Cause that makes me want to take up arms, and I and people like me won't be their cats' cradle. We also will never forget the crimes of this administration. We're keeping a tally, and there will be a reckoning at some point. That'll be me in the front row... knitting.

I really, really, really fucking hate Monsanto.

From Greenpeace:No More Patents on Life
Monsanto has filed several patents on breeding herds of pigs. The only "invention" is a particular combination of natural breeding methods and ways of screening for particular genetic characteristics. But they are claiming patent on the resulting pig and its genetic makeup, meaning anyone raising pigs with similar characteristics will be violating their patent.

This is only the latest attempt by Monsanto to monopolize a food source -- other examples being their relentess attempt to create global hegemony around single genetically-engineered seed species that they own, without regard for negative environmental and biodiversity impacts.

Tell Monsanto to stop using patents to try and control our world's food supply. It's time for a moratorium on patents on life.

Gives new meaning to the term Capitalist Pig.

This is a great line

Drublood::


Freedom IS free. But the road to freedom has been invaded by pernicious robber-barons who want us to pay a price for what is inherently ours...all of ours...to enjoy.

Weasels. Government Weasels I tell you

Have I mentioned recently how much I abhor, despise, detest, and loathe Liberals? Looks like they're going to fuck us on the excise tax again. BASTARDS!

Violence against women....

... It's pervasive.

I was thinking this morning about something remarkable. My girlfriend isn't afraid of me. That simple fact makes me so incredibly happy. I am 6'4", 225 lb, and have worked as a doorman at some of the toughest bars in Canada. I am potentially a very dangerous person. I am also very aware of that. It has caused problems for me in relationships. I have yet to be in a relationship with a woman who has not been abused by a man at some point in her life. Almost inevitably, at some point in a relationship, there gets to be a point where emotions boil over, and you end up screaming at each other. When the woman is afraid of the man, this turns into a very nasty power dynamic. There is that sick feeling in my stomach when I realize that the argument terrified her, that the woman I love is afraid of me. That although I would never harm her, somebody in her past has, and that the memory of that abuse has been brought out. So the next time I get to the point of argument, I shut myself down. I stifle my feelings. Eventually, I stifle my feelings too much and for too long, and realize that the feelings aren't there anymore. Once again I've lost a relationship. That happened to me over and over again. Until I met the current love of my life. She isn't the least bit scared of me. We've had some big blowouts, and the only time she gets upset is when I walk away. It's a nice change.

I realize that my experience is not universal, that the subset of women who have been attracted to me may have been more likely to have been abused (that subset being primarily composed of women who are willing to date a nightclub bouncer), but I still get appalled when I think of the near universality of abuse. I think about it more on December 6th. There is a commonality to the abuse and the actions of Marc Lepine fifteen years ago. There are so many men who need to control the women around them. Whether it's due to their upbringing, or societal conditioning, I don't know. I do know that it is wrong. That it is the direct cause of abuse ranging from emotional abuse to batterings and rapes, straight up to the use of rape as a tool of genocide.

We have to, as a society, come to terms with this problem. As men we have to come to terms with the fact that our actions can frighten the people we love, and especially if we we aren't the root cause of the fear, we have to deal with it. I don't know of any solutions besides the trite and obvious ones. Calling people on sexist bullshit. Stepping in when you see abuse and saying and/or doing something about it. Helping women feel more empowered (you can't empower women, they have to empower themselves, but you can help facilitate that). Shutting the hell up at meetings (work, community and social) and letting the shy people get a word in edgewise, most of the time they're women, but even shy men get shut down, and women see that too... it creates an oppressive culture.

Another case in point. Years ago, I was in the habit of hugging people a lot, friends, strangers whoever... At one anarchist gathering in Vancouver (1991 I think), I got pulled aside and told to cool it. Apparently I had scared a woman because she wasn't prepared for it. I got very defensive because (I thought to myself) I hadn't done anything wrong. Hugging is good, right? Human contact, all that stuff. Well, in a perfect world, yes... but the fact is that I was acting in a dominant way... pushing my wants and expectations of human behaviour onto other people. That woman pointed all this out to me. That although I was acting in what should be an acceptable manner, it wasn't actually acceptable in the space that we were in. That was a difficult lesson for me to learn, but it's one that I've tried to internalize. That even good intentions aren't enough, that as men we have to accept that even if we as individuals aren't completely to blame, we have to take responsibility. We have to not only do no harm, but try and make up for some of the harm already done.

I'm still learning how to not be a sexist bastard. I'll probably still be learning the day I die. I'm a tall white male. I have a lot of privileges handed to me based on those things. I am perfectly aware that I take advantage of those privileges. Sometimes I'm aware of it, and other times I don't even realize that I've taken advantage of a privilege. The reality is that some of those privileges shouldn't be privileges, they should be rights, like the ability to walk down a downtown street at 3:00am without fear. Like the ability to enter a relationship without a trace of fear of the other person...

Tomorrow is December 6th - Part 2

On December 6th, 1989 a madman stalked the hallways of L'École Polytechnique in Montréal. He shot and killed fourteen women. He singled out women. While he stalked these women down, he was screaming "I hate feminists". He was born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian immigrant man who was an alcoholic and abusive to Gamil's mother. When his parents divorced, his name was changed to Marc LePine.

This tragic event shocked Quebec, Canada, and the world. A cry went up in certain corners to ban guns, something that resonated here in Canada. This event led to a series of gun controls that ended up costing over $2 billion dollars, yet the coroners report had this to say:

The issue of firearms control has intentionally not been addressed. With the unlimited ammunition and time that Marc Lépine had available to him, he would probably have been able to achieve similar results even with a conventional hunting weapon, which itself is readily accessible. On the other hand, the importance of the questions raised in respect of pre-hospital care and police emergency response are matters that are worthy of our full attention.

So, today I read an article. It was talking about how women's shelters were running out of money. I think to myself, what the hell is wrong here?

We've spent $2billion dollars on a gun registry, and can't afford to keep our shelters open. That's fucked up. Really. That is tremendously, and horrifically twisted.

The gun registry has been called a memorial to those fourteen women. It isn't. As a licensed gun owner which he was, Marc Lepine could walk into a store today, and walk out with the exact same semi-automatic firearm that he did that day over fifteen years ago. In actual fact, the system as it stands today is even less likely to stop people who shouldn't get firearms from getting them.

I have been fighting for years to destroy that memorial, because I don't see it as such. I see it as a continuation of the attitudes that led to their deaths. These women have been portrayed as victims of Marc Lepine. The sad fact is that Marc Lepine was a victim of poverty, an abused childhood, and a twisted religious upbringing. He didn't stand a chance. They were victims of a system that has systematically told women that they can't defend themselves. How many times could those women have fought back and won? How many of them would have died if we had CCW in Canada.

The reality is that too many people were killed and injured that day because they trusted the system to protect them, and the system can't protect them. There are going to be other mass murders. We really have to change our attitude towards self defence, so that the next Gamil Gharbi runs into women who will fight back.

I am not blaming those women for not fighting back, for being Too Canadian. It's how we as Canadians have been trained to be. It's how we've been taught. Our government has made us believe that it's the Canadian way. The same reason that not a single man stepped forward to grab Gamil, despite there being opportunities to do so, but instead they docilely walked out of a classroom with a crazed armed man, leaving the women behind.

So what would I like the legacy, or the memorial to be? For one, I'd like to see some of the $2 billion spent on programs to help women who were abused. I'd also like to see programs aimed at the chidren of families that are dysfunctional. I'd like see that we stop future Gamil Gharbi's from ever getting created. Ultimately I'd like to see a society where neighbours see a man in crisis who's about to go postal, and step in to help him. I'd like to see CCW implemented in Canada so that if those programs fail, women won't have to hide under chairs and helplessly hope for someone else to come and help them.

Ultimately I'd like to see a society where people actually give a shit. Where people who are insane get the help they need, where people who are in danger can not only help themselves, but also count on the help of the people around them.



Nef pour quatorze reines - Memorial to the women who died