Alphabet Soup.....

RRRRRRight....Now...Ha, Ha, Ha

IsSomethingRotten
InOttaWashVille?

Is this the MPLA?
or is this the UDA?
or is this the IRA?
I thought it was the UK
or just another country
another council tenancy?

The lyric above is one of the lesser known verses from the infamous Sex Pistols song 'Anarchy in the UK', which was released with Britain on the verge of its viscious and vengeful lurch to the far right under Dame Thatcher.

It was also a time of alphabetical abbreviations gone wild.

So now that we Canuckistanis are apparently on the verge of a lurch to the far right of our own it's hard not to notice the sudden outbreak of letter-based acronyms like the CPC, the SOW, and the dreaded SLA.

Which, of course, stands for the Softwood Lumber Agreement, not the Symbionese Liberation Army.

And the thing that bugs me most about the SLA is not just that it is a bad deal that was originally 'struck' when the Minister responsible, David Emerson, chopped his negotiators' legs out from under them just as the final ruling from the American Court of International Trade was about to come down in our favour.

Or that the Canadian lumber industry was bullied by the same Minister into accepting it.

Or even that this recently reported $450 million dollar Bush Administration slush fund was set up with Canadian money.

No.

What really gets me is that a deal like this, and I'm pretty sure others to follow (think oil pipelines out of Alberta, water pipelines out of the Manitoba, and massive, HMO-assisted P3 health care delivery cash-cows everywhere), appears to be signalling Messr's Harper and Bush's true intention.

Which, of course, is to turn Canada into just 'another council tenancy' of Fortress North America.

But will we go for it?

I, for one, sure hope not.

Then again perhaps I shouldn't set my hopes too high.

After all, returning once more to the words of Mr. Rotten et al., it looks, at least for the moment, like for our......

Future dream is a shopping scheme.

OK?

_____
And that OttaWash thing is no joke. The two cities were was recently inserted, together, at the top of a Globe and Mail piece on the, you guessed it, SLA.

.

Stamping Out Equality In The Name Of.....

......Equality?

WhatDoTheyReallyWant?
TrueAgendaVille

Alison over at Creekside, after pointing us to an excellent opinion piece by Heather Mallick on the efforts of the group 'REAL Women Canada' to eliminate the Federal Government's standing committee on the 'Status of Women Canada', asks the following:

"Dear REAL Women : How much clout do you think your little club would have in a world without feminism, given that even if you're a REAL good little chicken, Colonel Sanders can't marry each and every one of you?"


Why does Alison ask such a question, you might be asking yourself?

Well, if you go to the REAL Women website you will find that one of their stated goals is actually Equality for Women:

"The issue of equality for women is one with which few women would disagree. There are, nonetheless, different approaches to achieving it. The development of an alternate women's movement, therefore, with a different perspective should not be regarded as a threat, but should be regarded as an advancement for women, in that it reflects the great depth and diversity among Canadian women."

And what exactly is this alternate 'Women's Movement' and what is it's perspective?

Well, that is a little more difficult to discern by searching the website. In addition to the apparent fact that 'most women have children and want to nurture them' it appears that a 'diversity of views' and the 'individuality of women' are very important components of this movement. However, additionally it appears, at least according to the group's latest 'Action Alert' that this alternate women's movement has no room for feminists who write letters to the Prime minister about the Status of Women's support for women's shelters.

"The theme of these many letters is that "shelters for abused women and children protect them from the violence." (No mention of the studies which indicate that half of domestic violence is instigated by the women.) The letters also claim that women need the support of the Status of Women to work for pay equity, marital property and senior women's income, etc."

All of which leaves us slightly confused and wondering what REAL Women really want.

Clearly, the group is conservative. It has aligned itself with other conservative groups, including Focus on the Family (Canada), Home School Legal Defence Association of Canada, and the Canada Family Action Coalition under the banner of 'The Coalition For Family Automomy' in the past and still refers to these various groups in the present on the website. And just as clearly, again based on past actions and current statements on their website, they also believe in so-called 'traditional' family values and would like to see stay-at-home Mom's be more highly valued.

All of which is fair enough.

I mean, if you are a group that really wants to see the tax system modified to help out single income families with stay-at-home Mom's, make your case and openly push the government and public opinion alike for those changes.

I would have no problem with that because that is the way a liberal democracy is supposed to work.

But for the life of me I honestly cannot understand what this has to do with 'equality', especially given that the group has worked so hard to get rid of shelters for battered women and universal childcare that would have been universally equal for everyone.

Given all of this, a cynic might suggest that this is actually a strategy of obfuscation designed to co-opt the other side's (ie. feminism's) strongest asset (ie. equality).

Which makes it all the more curious that one of the members of the afore-mentioned 'Coalition for Family Autonomy', the 'Canada Family Action Coalition' last fall helped the 'Institute For Canadian Values' bring Ralph Reed to Toronto to energize the faithful to punch the ballot for Stephen Harper:

US political wiz, Dr. Ralph Reed, addressing a Toronto gathering of religious and other social conservative leaders Nov. 30, urged them to organize effectively and on Jan. 23 “usher in the greatest victory in the history of this country.”

Dr. Reed, was senior adviser for President George W. Bush’s election campaign and as executive director of the Christian Coalition built the most influential grassroots organization in recent U.S. politics. He was invited to address the Wednesday evening banquet of the three day 2005 Canadian Values - Embrace Democracy conference organized by the Institute for Canadian Values.

Again, on the face of it, there's nothing wrong with that, as long as one considers the source.

And when considering the source it's not just the ties to the current U.S. Administration that one should take into account, but also the fact that the doctorous Mr. Reed is a very fine fellow who once said:

"I want to be invisible," Reed said. "I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag. You don't know until election night."


Unfortunately, especially for those who, including conservative christians, really and truly do believe that obfuscation and hypocrisy are actually bad things, Mr. Reed also said the following very recently when he lost his primary bid to become the Lt. Governor of the State of Georgia:

"I'm proud of the campaign we ran," Reed, weary but ever positive, told TIME. "I'm glad we did it."


Why is this statement unfortunate?

Well, read on.....

He (Reed) didn't want to talk about why he lost, but those who know him say he blames the media--particularly the Atlanta Journal-Constitution--for their extensive coverage of his business ties to (Jack) Abramoff, his friend from their days running the College Republicans in the early 1980s. For a high-profile religious conservative like Reed, the stories of being paid millions by one Indian tribe to run a religious-based antigambling campaign to prevent another tribe from opening a rival casino made him look like something worse than a criminal--a hypocrite. He had once called gambling a "cancer" on the body politic. And the e-mails to Abramoff didn't help, especially those that seemed to suggest that the man who had deplored in print Washington's system of "honest graft" was eager to be part of it. "I need to start humping in corporate accounts!" he wrote Abramoff a few days after the 1998 election.


Hmmm.....that cynicism meter is now starting to red line. Guess Mr. Reed just figured that some tribes were more equal than others.


_____
And the sudden, REAL Women-assisted, swarming of the Status of Women by the right side of the Canadian Bloggodome has only served to increase my level of cynicism.
And how about the 'Christian Coalition' (these folks just seem to love names, names, names), well in the wake of Mr. Reed's latest 'difficulties' it seems to be splintering all over the place. Guess that means there will soon be a whole passel of new names to try and keep track of.

.

An Alternate Equality

WhatDoTheyReallyWant?
TrueAgendaVille

A million apologies.....I did something goofy and lost all my links.....this is an opinion piece on what I thought the real agenda might be with respect to REAL Women Canada's attempt to scuttle the standing committee on the Status of Women.

I'll try and fix it and get it up soon.

.

Who Is That Old Guy.....

.....In The Mirror

ThePastIs
Everybody'sPrologueVille


So there is this young kid from Saskatchewan named, appropriately enough, Saskboy,whose stuff I like.

Anyway, one time I wrote something about a TV show from days of yore that I thought was quite clever in a Canuckleheaded, prairie-wind, sort of way and left it on one of his comment threads.

His rejoinder was something to the effect that 'it sounded like something his parents might have liked if they'd watched that show at all'.

Which floored me, not because I don't think I'm getting older*, but rather because on the Internets it's really easy to forget, especially if you never visit myspace.com, how different everybody really is at a whole lotta levels.

Anyway, Saskboy and I did reach a kind of strange congruency this week over our shared experiences over the cancelled CBC show Street Sense.

Which is still kind of weird because his fond memories of the show were generated when he was a kid watching it, while mine were generated as an adult watching it with kids.

Sheesh.

And what is the point of all this?

Well, I guess I'm wondering, if I hadn't been blindfolded by the Internets, whether I would have dismissed and/or ignored the mutterings of a young whippersnapper like Saskboy out of hand if I had met him somewhere in the real world like, at say, a political fundraiser or something?

Hmmmmm.....

______
*The 'whose that old guy in the mirror anyway?' meme comes from, at least in my increasingly fuzzy memory of him and his words, Danny Finkleman.

.

Stop Making Sense!

NoMoreSmartHeads
TalkingVille

Sure, Softwood's a worry.

As is our new anti-Envrionmental environmental policy and the fact that we are making noises about throwing 10 year old kids in jail.

And then there's our final demise as a peacekeeping nation and our suddently non-existent reputation as an honest broker on the world stage.

There is also this business of giving all our billions to Boeing that signals the coming creation of the cretinous crony classes.

Not to mention the beating of the drums for increased private healthcare and the fullest use of the ultimate stratergy of dumb governance by even dumber tax 'credit' bribing.

But if you pay attention to the puffmasters of the punditry this is nothing to worry about because it is all just tweaking from a minority government that doesn't yet have the parliamentary clout to affect real change.

And I might be inclined, at least when half in the bag on a Sudbury Saturday Night, to almost maybe sorta, kinda, almost, but not quite, agree with them.

Except then I read this missive from the Teamakers*, who inhabit what's left of the increasingly atrophied guts of the CBC:

A quiet death Friday (Aug 18/06) for one of the remaining slivers of CBC-mandate programming. Street Cents, the cheeky consumer affairs show aimed at teenagers, was finally snuffed out. It wasn't much of a surprise as no commitment had been made to launch a new season. After 17 years of edgy and fearless programs, the Halifax-based production was killed because - according to the information passed on to staff from Sursberg via Atlantic Regional Director Ron Crocker - it's not attracting a big enough audience.

Why does this matter at all? Well, as Antonia Z. makes clear, this show actually did something that meant something which is why, in the eyes of most thinking people at least, a public broadcaster actually exists:

Yes, that's me screaming. Why? Because in TVland, which is all about selling as much crap as possible to as many eyeballs as possible, and which is also about suckering your kids into becoming consumeristic greed heads, Street Cents was, for 17 years, a boob tube oasis for teaching kids abou t what not to buy and why. The award-winning media literacy show -- seven Geminis plus an International Emmy -- had its roots as a regional production in Halifax and from there it grew and grew.

So, clearly, the hogs are now in the tunnel.

Or, put another way, Canuckistan is already in the frying pan and the fire is getting pretty darned hot.

_____
*And check out their slogan at the top of the page. One of the best bits of word image-induced 'Oh, now I get it!' lightbulb popping that I've come across in the bloggodome.

.

And The Winner Is.....

NiceGuysAndCountries
FinishLastVille


So, forget we the losers for a minute......

Who are the real winners in Little Stephen's Softwood Capitulation for the Nation?

Well, here's an easy one:

Canfor, which stands to get back 600 million of the 800 million dollars it paid in duties, supports the deal. President Jim Sheperd says it will give the industry stability.

Stability, sure.

But will it get the trains running on time?

Now, let's see......who else is a big winner, winner, winner?

.

The Wordsmith Wizard

What'sMyLine?
I'mHappyCleaningWindowsVille


How can anybody possibly match something like this, from Billmon, regarding France's latest diplomatic smart balm that has scored a direct hit on the dopey doctrine of disengenuous destructionism:

"Considering that the French basically invented modern diplomacy, and were pitted against the tag team of John Bolton, Madame Supertanker and the moron, we certainly shouldn't be surprised by the result."


Indeed.

.

History Means Something

Tommy,WeNeverReallyLikedYouAnyway
DoctorVille

Before everybody goes too far off the deepest of deep ends, as I'm sure certain media outlets south of the border will, about how the election of private healthcare advocate/proprietor Brian Day as president of the Canadian Medical Association represents a huge change in heart for M.D.'s in this country it might be worth considering things from a historical perspective.

And Tim from POGGE, in the comments to his excellent 'heads-up' piece, gave us a little of that perspective a few days ago when he handed us the link to this, from the Canadian Encyclopedia:

In 1959, Premier T.C. DOUGLAS announced his intention to provide medical care insurance, based on pre-payment, universal coverage, quality service and government administration, and through a scheme acceptable to both doctors and patients. The election of 1960 was fought on this issue, the doctors campaigning against it. A commission, established to recommend a plan, reported in Sept 1961. Members of the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons met with the government, stating that they could not work with a compulsory, government-controlled scheme.

The Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Bill was introduced in the Legislature 13 Oct 1961, and received royal assent 17 Nov 1961, after Woodrow S. LLOYD had replaced Douglas as premier. It was to come into force April 1, but this was amended, later, to 1 July 1962. While the bill was still being debated, the college emphasized its refusal to co-operate with the scheme, claiming that it would bring regimentation and would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. At a meeting in May 1962, the doctors resolved not to practise should the Act come into force.

In Regina, a group of mothers formed a committee to support their doctors. Similar committees were organized throughout the province, encouraged by doctors and joined by political opponents of the government. These KOD (Keep Our Doctors) Committees, with support from the media, launched a well-organized campaign against the government and the medicare plan. Rallies, petitions, panels and advertisements raised the emotional climate to a white heat.

On 1 July 1962, when the Act came into force, most doctors closed their offices, some took holidays or educational leave, while some staffed emergency centres. A few left the province for good. The Medical Care Insurance Commission brought doctors from Britain and encouraged others to come from the US and other parts of Canada to meet the emergency. Local citizens groups organized medical clinics and hired doctors to attend them.

By mid-July much of the KOD support had dissipated. Some doctors were returning to work; the force of the strike was spent. Lord Taylor, a physician who had been active in introducing Britain's health-care scheme, was brought to Saskatchewan by the government. He acted as mediator and the 2 sides signed an agreement in Saskatoon 23 July 1962.

Sheesh.

I mean, who even knew they had Astroturf in 1962?

.

Check All Their Passports

DrivingTheHardestBargain
WithOurselvesVille


Do you have to be Canadian to be the Canadian Ambassador to the US or the Canadian Trade Minister?

Why do I ask?

Well it has to do with this business of their bullying Canadian companies into accepting the softwood lumber capitulation.

At first I thought that the Glimmer Twins had just given up on the Lumber Co's when they started changing the rules at the end of the game:

Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson, facing growing opposition from lumber firms, is no longer requiring that 95 percent of the industry back the accord. Instead, he's only seeking "substantial" support, said the people, who spoke on condition their names not be used.

......

"It's (the term substantial) not an absolutely fixed number," (Ambassador) Wilson said.

But now I'm thinking that the 'substantial' gambit was all a ruse and that the following was the real hammer.

The government had also asked all firms to drop litigation in the dispute.

However, Wilson said on Monday (Aug 21st) that companies refusing to drop litigation wouldn't be able to veto the lumber agreement.


All of which makes it very difficult to not conclude that the hardest of the hardball bargaining by Messr's Emerson and Wilson has not, in fact, been done with the Americans, but rather with the Canadians.

Isn't there a name for people who screw their own country to advance the agenda of another?

.

The Lord Of The Bling

CaughtInTheCrossHairs
FitzVille

First it was the mansion.

Now, in a new indictment, Patrick Fitzgerald is going after the jewelry.

A grand jury has handed up additional charges against toppled media baron Conrad Black and three associates, alleging their fraud caused Hollinger International Inc. to file false income tax returns.

The third superseding indictment in the U.S. case alleges that Black, 61, and the others contributed to the underreporting of Hollinger International's corporate income by approximately $13 million to $16 million in 1999 and 2000.....

{snip}

The superseding indictment seeks forfeiture of a 26-carat diamond ring purchased by Black for more than $2.6 million as well as assorted antiques and jewelry for which he paid more than $600,000, all in 2000.


Pity.

_____
In related non-news: Wonder if, in their most private moments, Babs and the Marauder ever refer to former friend and now repentant felonious flim-flam man David Radler as......... Boo Radley?


.

Sometimes A Slogan.....

When MincedWords
MeanNothingVille

......Really Means Something

"I hate this stinkin' war!"

Neil Young, Aug 2006

OK?

.

Blinded By The Light

ThePhosphorousGetsInYourEyes
BigMoneyVille

C. and I first moved to Vancouver back in the go-go 80's just before Expo and Li Ka Shing came to town.

At the time, we lived in deepest Kitsilano while I went to gradual school* and C. worked at a Daycare a stone's throw from the lab where I toiled day and most nights.

Back then Kits, which is wedged between high density downtown and leafy Point Grey, was transitioning between the Hippietown it used to be and the Yuppieville it has since become.

Gordon Campbell was not yet mayor, the Soft Rock Cafe was still made out of wood, and there were peddlars and cheap places to eat and buy stuff up and down the entire length of 4th Avenue.

Which suited C. and me just fine because we had little money, very few possessions, and even fewer vices.

Although I quickly became hooked on the cheap-chocolate covered ice cream bars otherwise known as Revellos and C. soon developed a powerful Jones for the summer fireworks shows over English Bay.

Because tempation is a hard mistress for small town kids making their way in the Big City.

****

In the beginning the Fireworks Shows were orderly affairs and we took great delight in joining the boisterous, good-natured hordes just outside our apartment door that streamed down Cypress St. on their way to the waterfront.

Our favorite jumping off point, along with a few hundred others, was the little beach in front of the old Maritime Museum next to the Planetarium where we would spread out our blanket in the sand, lie down, gaze into the setting sun and begin chatting with our newfound neighbours as we waited for the show to begin.

C. loved the spectacle of it all, and she especially enjoyed the mass responses to each and every burst of burning phosphorous.

She still does.

Me, I actually found the fireworks themselves to be kind of anti-climactic. What's more I could never quite shake the feeling that we, the masses, were being played for suckers by the Barnum and Bailey Boys that were getting ready to sell us down The River.

Or The False Creek, as it were.

****

C. and I left town in the early 90's just as the NPA's backroom boys were setting their gigantic honeytrap for wayward developers while their designated outfront men (see: Campbell, Gordon and Puil, George) and women (see: Taylor, Carole and Clarke, Jennifer) did their best to protect the blackberry bushes of the Creme de la Creme while they simultaneously turned the rest of the city's public spaces, parks, institutions and events into a dysfunctional anti-collective that many soon began to call 'NoFuncouver'.

The NoFun moniker really began to stick after 1994's Stanley cup riots which, according to the magnificent Terminal City columns of the otherwise whacked-out merriest of pranksters Brian Salmi, caused things to spiral out of control as the unwarranted police searches and the incendiary words of VPD spokesmodels like Ann Drennan only served to goad the crowds at all public events into becoming scarier, surlier and inreasingly unruly.

Which is just another way of saying that Vancouver had changed when we returned not long after that in the mid '90's.

But C. and I had changed too; we had more possessions, a few more vices and our toddler, Tiny E., in tow.

I was however, still pining for Revellos, which seemed to have been banished from all of the city's corner store freezers by then, and C. still loved the Fireworks which we almost always watched from afar, often from the top of the hill at Trimble Park (see photo above).

****

These days Vancouver has gotten much of its public space groove back, thanks in large part to a short-lived, people-friendly civic government (see: Campbell, Larry; Green, Jim-notJames; Lewis, Tim; and Roberts, Ann) that re-opened the Libraries, invested in Parks and Neighbourhoods in all corners of the city regardless the thickness of their Creme, supported all manner of civic, arts and cultural events and, perhaps most importantly, got the VPD under control.

And C. and I and our latest neighbours in near East-side Kensington have benefitted from all of that.

Unfortunately, however, we were off travelling with the now Bigger E., and the younger, Vancouver-born Littler E., when the Fireworks came and went this year.

Which may not have been such a bad thing.

After all, according to SM Holman they are no longer designed to placate only the hoi-polloi.

Case in point, this year the new chairman of megaDeveloper Concord Pacific, Terry Hui, allowed all those who could afford it the opportunity to watch the show from his yacht while they no doubt sipped the bubbly and maybe even scarfed down a few high-end Hagen Dazs bars handed out by Mr. Campbell's current Minister in Charge of Paving, Kevin Falcon.

And the reported cost of this neo-atavistic excercise in creme-skimming?

Why, nothing short of a cool three thousand bucks.

Which would buy me a lifetime supply of Revellos if I could just find the darn things in this town.

Not to mention an actual, honest to goodness old time corner store to buy one in on my way home from the lab every day**.


_____
*Gradual school is a place you go forever and ever until you gradually realize, often at someone else's behest, that you might just have to stop going some day.
**And no, 7/11's, Mac's, and gas station convenience outlets designed to look like a cut rate Starbucks don't count.

.

Bye-Bye Bruno

TheCharacterMan
MovieVille

Bruno Kirby, the actor, is dead at age 57 of leukemia.

Most folks, if they can conjure him up at all likely remember the raspy-voiced Mr. Kirby as the sidekick in all those Billy Crystal movies like 'City Slickers' and 'When Harry Met Sally'.

And he was good in all that stuff and the Godfather movies too.

But I will always think of him as the faux Jan Wenner 'Marty Lewis' in the flawed but fabulous 'Where The Buffalo Roam' in which Bill Murray as HST tells Kirby as Wenner/Lewis not to worry because:

"You move like a cat, Marty."

And from what I understand, when he played softball with Mr. Crystal and Meathead (Rob Reiner), Kirby always did have the somewhat feline, yet slightly off-kilter, moves of a young Yogi Berra.

Darn.

.

Me Still Laughin'

SometimesSimpleThings
AreBestVille

If you need a good laugh, go check out scout's game of 20 questions for the blogaholic set where the category is always Stupid Famous People.

It's like an interactive, image-free, thought-crime-assisted version of 'GoFugYourself' for the snide set.

Only better.

Go.

.

Capitulation For A Softwood Nation

FoolUsOnce,ShameOnHim
FoolUsTwice,ShameAllOverAgainVille

First David Emerson thumbed his nose at his faux constituency (ie. the voters of Vancouver Kingsway).

But now, in a final demented attempt to push through his so-called 'deal', Mr. Emerson has decided to screw his real constituency (ie. the lumber companies).

Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson, facing growing opposition from lumber firms, is no longer requiring that 95 percent of the industry back the accord. Instead, he's only seeking "substantial" support, said the people, who spoke on condition their names not be used.

"Whatever percentage of industry buys into it, they'll call it a deal," said Bill Reedy, president of Gorman Bros. Ltd., a Westbank, B.C.-based wood boards maker.

By lowering his demands for industry backing, Emerson increases his chances of getting the deal in place. The proposed accord, reached July 1, would allow Canadian firms such as Canfor Corp. to recover about $4.3 billion in duties and end a dispute between the world's two largest trade partners.


Of course, folks who have been paying attention can't help but wonder what percentage 'substantial' is?

But not to worry, Mr. Emerson's former patron and present pension paymaster, Canfor, is solidly behind the deal.

Sheesh.

_____
And from the 'I was blind, but now I see' department, I now see the folly of my previous post. Clearly, I was delusionally euphoric and/or suffering from a case of severe case of Oregon coast-induced waterheadedness when I trumpeted Mr. Campbell's pre-Capitulation Insite diversion. Thanks to scout and Mary for shaking some sense into me in the comments. Finally, I can't help but think that we may be seeing the fullest impact of the ghost of John Turner on this one (ie. 'When the economic levers go......').

.

What The Heckfire?

ClearingTheDecksOfRedMeat
TheSSGordonCampbell


Jeepers creepers.

I go away for awhile, and when I come back I find out that British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell is making sense.

Real sense.

The B.C. government lent its weight yesterday to the campaign to keep the safe-injection site operating.

Weighing in on the controversy for the first time, Premier Gordon Campbell said he feels the clinic has done a good job of improving services to people. He noted that numerous studies, including one commissioned by the RCMP, have reported positive benefits from the site.

"We think it's a positive step, and we believe it should continue. We have let the federal government know that," Mr. Campbell told reporters, after announcing a mid-term cabinet shuffle.

Next thing you know, newly shuffled deck chair Tom Christensen will do something crazy like announce that all funding is being restored to the decimated Ministry of Children and Families.


_____
And special thanks to Q for keeping the little ship Gazette running full steam sideways while I was gone (I think). Best thing about it all is that he now has the monkey on his own back.

.

Keeping the Message Simple

Definition from dictionary.com: A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

A brilliant cartoonist like Mr. Fish can say that more succinctly.
Can the Democrats?

Christians Addicted to Porn!

The devil's winning this one friends. These folks are struggling I say, struggling with the pursuit of sexual gratification. 60% of women struggling with lust, 40% of women involved in sinful sex, in the last year! I can't believe I signed up with adultfriendfinder when there's a Baptist Church two blocks away!
I remember reading a Roy Rogers Playboy interview many years ago, Roy was saying he and his wife Dale Evans went to Church every Sunday and the sermons got him so 'excited' that when they got home he just had to fuck Dale right away. I thought that was pretty disgusting , then, actually I still do.
So, if any of Ross's readers, probably former readers by now, are between 35-49, female and belong to an Evangelical Church, please email me with your personal stories and I'll try to help ease your burden. Send to Q, northofcenter@yahoo.ca I will accept pics of course, if you think it will help explain your situation. Q friend to the faithful

Friday Christendom Bashing Day

What about cat blogging Friday you ask? Well, I just got home from work, the litter box needs changing and I need to vent, and no group is more satisfying to bash than Christians. Why not start my own blog for such miscreant vile? I think that's why Ross asked me to feel free to vent on his, knowing that soon I'd be posting on my own site .
So...we all wish that there was a saviour. It's noble to want to save our environment and stop suffering but what does Christianity offer in this lifetime? Well, God is coming back, but unfortunately in the last days when the world is fucked beyond reclaimation. Perhaps during Harper's tenure? Unfortunately, he's only taking a handful to heaven with him. God, not Harper. The rest of us, the billions and billions who have lived and died on this beautiful cruel world are going to hell for eternity. What a strange god to bring a saviour 2000 years ago when there was no global communication. Even the half billion on the planet when Jesus was here couldn't get the saving word. The billions who lived before Jesus...fucked. The billions since Jesus who didn't get the word...fucked. What about our many close human relatives, millions of Neanderthals, homo habilis, erectus , robustus...all fucktus I'm afraidus.
A religion of exclusion and intolerance. Given the choice, I'd rather spend eternity in hell with my fellow men than heaven with Pat Robertson, Falwell and all of the forgiven church pedophiles etc. As Nietzsche aptly noted, in heaven all of the interesting people will be missing.
Okay, I feel better. But what effect is all of this terrorism and violence having on our young people? The kids are alright Ross. Q

Compassion From Canada!

Well at least from two fellow Londoners. Glen Pearson and Jane Roy have travelled to Lebanon while everyone else is fleeing, to assess the humanitarian needs and get information back to Londons' concerned Lebanese community. Many people do want to help, despite our governments lack of leadership. They've been surprised at how aware Lebanese are of Canada's position and views. We're still thought of as a "balanced" country? There's hope but we must help soon. There are close to 1 million displaced people. Winter is coming and a crisis looms. Some diseases are starting to break out. Even if a ceasefire is called, there is so much damage to the infrastructuture, already eastimated at 20 years to rebuild, that they will need much long term assistance. I salute two brave humanitarians that only see people in crisis and feel compelled to help. Q

Q, The Anonymous Cat Blogger

Well it's friday and Ross is still vacationing, so we need cats to assuage the war weary. What's that you say, you don't like cats? Well, you're either allergic( acceptable excuse), you're just evil like Mrs.Q, or you're an unloved sociopathic fascist of sorts. Yes, in the old days they did use cats to root out conservatives, who would sweat and heave in their midst.
I love all animals and wonder if people would be marching in the streets protesting if Lebanon were a country of cat families being bombed? Absurd analogy yes, but I'm sure many who have died also loved pets and that connection makes it easier to relate to their humanity.
Loving our animals makes us more human, while killing each other for no noble cause makes us less than animals. Q