And now ...

Feelings. The lounge ballad classic used judiciously.



This is the famously banned Durex commercial, back for a repeat showing.

Just thought the blog could use a little gaiety.

Shrieeek!!!! It's all in the spin.

Blob Blogging Wingnut often re-posts propaganda pieces from Lies-Site at HER place.

Facts about public events and occurrences tend to get varnished, twisted and distorted by The Fetus©™ fetishists in their attempt to provoke outrage and to get a good chorus of shriEEEks going.

That nifty little tactic was certainly on display as the zygote zealots milked the shooting death of Jim Pouillon as much as they could. SUZIE CAPS-ON even promoted the notion that Pouillon should be nominated for sainthood. Umm, yeah. Right up there with the white-washing canonization of Pius XII, it would seem.

Here's a recent example that occurred at Southwestern Women's Options.

The basic elements of the story are: a couple accompanying their adolescent daughter to a women's clinic were called out by anti-abortion activists. The patient and her parents went inside the building. The father then came out to tell the activists that he would act forcefully to protect his daughter and wife if they were approached again when they left the clinic. The activists claimed that he threatened to shoot one of them. Operation Rescue volunteers phoned police and said that they saw what they assumed to be a gun. The police arrived, took the man into custody and because they could not find a weapon upon him - as Operation Rescue volunteers claimed - proceeded to search the premises of the clinic. Firearms were eventually found locked in the vehicle owned by the father. No charges have been filed, pending a completed investigation of the event.

Compare these versions of the event, fed by Operation Rescue truthiness. It starts with the headline. In fact the father was not 'arrested', nor charged.

Here is a reality-based account.

My prediction is that Operation Rescue will exploit this tactic - claiming that they have been threatened by people accompanying patients to clinics, or by patients themselves. Given the US anti-abortion movement's history in promoting and supporting homicidal actions against medical staff, police have zero tolerance for any kind of perceived or real threat of violence around Planned Parenthood and other women's clinics. I expect that zygote zealots will report that they thought they saw a gun/knife/bomb and claim they were threatened in order to get the police to sweep down upon the location.

How many times will they pull such stunts before they get charged with mischief and sent the bill for abusing police resources?

Fox News North

I haven't been blogging much because I'm in despair over the level of political discourse going on. The bald-faced lies, endless spin and re-spin, ideology trumping sense every fucking time. I'm just so sick of it and it's going to get worse if the Harpies get Fox News North on basic cable.

There's an online petition to sign. The text reads:

To CRTC Chair von Finckenstein and PM Harper:
As concerned Canadians who deeply oppose American-style hate media on our airwaves, we applaud the CRTC's refusal to allow a new "Fox News North" channel to be funded from our cable fees. We urge Mr. von Finckenstein to stay in his job and continue to stand up for Canada's democratic traditions, and call on Prime Minister Harper to immediately stop all pressure on the CRTC on this matter.

There are almost 30,000 signatures now. When the total hits 100,000, the organizers will run a full-page ad in a major newspaper.

Please sign and circulate to your friends and associates.

And in a beauty little nutshell (snerk), here's a preview of what Faux News North will be like.

The Blogging Tories are spinning the petition as -- you guessed it -- media censorship.

Blogger posts two tweets, one from Margaret Atwood and one from a Liberal candidate, then says:

Turns out there is an on-line petition circulating (see here) to stop Sun TV and these two wingbats are actually publicly endorsing this attempt at media censorship.
. . .
Can’t wait to hear how the Canadian loonie left that worship Margaret Atwood will try to defend her coming out against freedom of the press.

And here's another ijit spouting the same crap.

When it's a ReformaTory cabinet minister spewing porky pies like this, I hope to hell it's because they toeing the ideological line not because they are actually that braindead. But with Blogging Tories, one wonders.

Just when you thought they couldn't sink any lower ...

Blob Blogging Wingnut defends DoDo the Dumbth.

From the comments at Dr Dawg:

"She didn't say all Jews were money loving Jews. She said that one was. There are money-loving Jews in the world, like there are alcoholic Irish Catholics, whiny French Canadians, etc etc. She doesn't think ALL Jews are money-loving Jews. She's saying some Jews are sell-outs to their own people. That's hardly antisemitism. It sounds like she's very concerned about the fate of the Jews."

Actually, if one ventures onto Blogging ReformaTory (or as Balbulican aptly names them "stool samples with keyboards") terrain and reads DoDo's post, all is illuminated.

It's purportedly about greed - however neither Berlusconi nor Blair are labeled "a money-loving Catholic who has sold his soul".
And then of course, there's the shrieeeking, invective-laced rant about the Italian bimbos:

"Women really make the worst dhimmis possible."

That is the reverse of a profoundly entrenched stereotypical obsession/fear that nubile Aryan women will be recruited for Ay-rab harems or the white slave trade. The gynophobia on display is classic; if women are not being forced to convert to Islam, then they must be doing it for the munnee.

Does DoDo know anything about the Marranos, Sephardim women and men who converted to catholicism in order to survive while the Inquisition ran roughshod through Spain?

Likely not; her alleged concern for the fate of the Jews doesn't seem to encompass much - it's all shrieeek and mishegas.

'Whitestock' Attendance

How many people turned out for Glen Beck's 'Whitestock' yesterday? (Go to the link for further links.)

So what was the attendence like? CBS says the rally drew 87,000, (with a stated margin of error of 9,000 either way). Attendees were tweeting 300,000, which was - coincidentally? - the number on the rally permit. Glenn Beck claimed 450,000, which will, no doubt, quickly become “up to half a million”, followed by “some say close to a million people." ...Oops! It’s already happened! The NY Times reports that “event organizers put the number of attendees at 500,000." And from the Washington Post we get this nugget of nuttiness, straight from the mouth of the Queen of Crazy herself:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), speaking soon after the Beck rally at her own impromptu event nearby, said: "We're not going to let anyone get away with saying there were less than a million here today.”

More fun with numbers.

Vienna Declaration in Toronto

And now for something completely different. Good and hopeful news.

Toronto has become the first city in the world – and the first government in North America – to formally endorse a declaration that advocates harm reduction over the war on drugs.

The Vienna Declaration, which slams the criminalization of illicit drugs as a major factor fuelling HIV infection rates, came to the fore during this year's AIDS conference. Its authors called on policy-makers around the world to refocus their approaches to illegal drugs and HIV-AIDS prevention – especially in light of new statistics that show HIV infection rates have climbed back to 1982 levels, largely thanks to infection in injection-drug users.

So, how will that sort with the ReformaTories' Stupid on Crime crusade?
Oooo, big surprise.

Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has said the Canadian government has no intention of endorsing the declaration, which takes aim at the Conservatives’ tough stand on drug use.

The motion passed council by a vote of 33 to 7. Guess who was among the seven troglodytes?

Toronto already has a successful Toronto Drug Treatment Court. Looky this from the Public Safety website:

Conclusion
The reduction in substance abuse and criminal activity among drug dependent offenders of the Toronto Drug Treatment Court can be characterized as promising, given the limitations of the evaluation, such as the small number of graduates, different response rates among groups, and the decrease in program's participation over time.
The evaluation of the TDTC adds to the growing body of research on specialized courts, and in particular, on collaborative justice and community responses to substance abuse by offenders in the criminal justice system.

Sounds pretty progressive. Does Vic Toews know about this?

Canadian Teabaggers

Wow. The Boston Globe takes note of the census kerfuffle.

Oh. Wait. Their census kerfuffle.

The Republican National Committee’s new attack on the US Census is so nakedly transparent that you almost want to avert your eyes.

The charge is being led by Teabaggers, you know, those intellectual giants who believe that Barack Obama is Muslim and not US-born.

Back here at home, not surprisingly, Canadian marketers are opposed to making the long-form census voluntary.

But somewhat surprisingly, the pres of the Canadian Marketing Association states that the census is less intrusive than other methods of information gathering -- and he'd know about other methods, wouldn't he?

Also, in an open letter written to Minister Clement, whose department is responsible for Statistics Canada, CMA president and ceo John Gustavson pointed out that “With respect to the suggestion that the long form is intrusive, this information enables marketers to reach consumers more effectively and reduce considerably the amount of communication an individual receives.”

“I would therefore respectfully suggest that the long form census does, in fact, limit intrusion into individuals' lives by reducing irrelevant marketing and market surveys that would otherwise be sent to consumers,” said Gustavson.

The article also quotes Jan Kestle of Environics, who notes the damage poor data does to business competitiveness.

“It is ironic that, in these challenging economic times, a decision that is ostensibly being made for the good of Canadians may very well have a severe impact on the competitiveness of Canadian businesses,” Kestle added. “Consumer marketers have invested significant resources during the past 15 years to tailor marketing to smaller and smaller segments; one-to-one marketing is on everyone’s agenda. Consumers expect products and services to be tailored to their needs. This decision will make it harder for businesses to meet the needs of the increasingly complex and discriminating consumer marketplace.”

So, when you're arguing with friends and co-workers or on-line strangers who want to scrap the long-form census, these are a couple of more arrows to your quiver.

Or you could just call them ignorant Canadian Teabaggers.

I think I'm going with the latter from now on.

To wit: Former BC deputy health minister Lawrie McFarlane: The census is torture.

“It's almost like the argument for water boarding: if you water board enough people, they will tell you something,” Mr. McFarlane said.

This is the best the ReformaTories could come up with?

BONUS: (same Globe link) Some Calgary talkshow host named Dave Rutherford was confused:

"I agree with the democratic process in this country ... and because I participate in democracy, I am here,” he said. “But other than that, I don’t know why I am here.”

Really.

His 'Just Watch Me' Moment?

This is the stuff that really really gets up Canadians' collective nose.

So up there on his annual northern photo op, King Stevie the Peevie surprises everyone, including his security detail, by hopping on a 4-wheel drive buggy and haring off at high speed onto the runway.

The rogue PM eventually returned to the aircraft where he was surrounded by reporters and photographers, one of whom wondered whether he had a licence to operate the vehicle — especially on restricted space such as an air strip?

“I think I make the rules,” the PM quipped.

Not for much longer, as more and more Canadians slowly wake to his mindless, asinine arrogance.

Post far and wide.

And go to the link to see the fat arse on the buggy. And read the comments.

ADDED: More hilarious comments here. We Canucks are funny.

Another Day, Another Desperate Spin

So, the Liberals have found some spare vertebrae and have a draft bill to reinstate the mandatory long-form census. John McCallum, point-man on this, said: 'A voluntary survey will skew the picture of what Canada really looks like as lower income minority Canadians will be less likely to fill it out,' which is pretty much what everybody who knows anything about this stuff has been saying.

When I read what Dimitri Soudas said, I actually laughed out loud.

Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister’s director of communications, was taken aback by Mr. McCallum’s statement about minority groups and low-income Canadians.

“It is blatantly outrageous that this (Michael) Ignatieff spokesman asserts that minorities and the poor should be threatened with financial fines and jail time in order to fill out the long form census,” said Mr. Soudas.

The Liberals “constantly look down on working class people and think they aren't as civic minded as liberal elites,” he said. “We believe that freedom is an essential Canadian value, and we don't think that it is right to try to frighten or intimidate people into surrendering huge amounts of private information to the government.”

After yesterday's (was it only yesterday?) 'The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!' laff-riot triumph of Cold War rhetoric, methinks the wheels on the ReformaTory bus are wobbling a bit.

Finally.

I fervently hope.