It's the Contempt culture!

According to a news report in the French media, the G20 currently taking place in Cannes has a budget of 20 million euros - roughly 28 million Canadian dollars.

Yes. You read that correctly.

In June of 2010, PMSHithead's Contempt Party government spent $858 million on security alone for the G20.

Joe Wormington provides a chilling update on the most contentious aspect of that security: the illegal detention of hundreds of men and women who were rounded up by police, deprived of their basic human rights and never charged.

Past DJ! posts about the police actions, here and here.

This is what a *fiscally prudent, transparent and accountable* minority Con government did.

Now that the ReformaTories have flim-flammed themselves a slender majority with a minority of votes, all bets are off. Stevie Spiteful will sell off our natural resources and will spend our tax revenues on consultants who will advise them on how to slash government services.

From here:

Occupy Montreal protesters joined an anti-G20 protest organized by the anti-capitalist group known as CLAC Thursday night.

Hundreds of people marched through downtown after gathering at Phillips Square just after 6 p.m. The protesters expressed frustration with what they described as a focus on big business, not financial inequality, at the G20 summit in Cannes, France. Before dispersing shortly before 8 p.m., someone lit an effigy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper ablaze.

Smells like bacon frying, no?

The Better Catholic

Dean Del Mastro, or as Warren Kinsella styles it, Dean Del Scumbag, the Catholic Pentecostal religion critic for the Contempt Party of Canada, offered an alternative to Justin Trudeau as a more suitable Catholic speaker.

Dean Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, said on Facebook last month that it was “outrageous” the Catholic school board in Peterborough, Ont. had invited Trudeau to speak for a second time in three years.

“If they are looking for a truly great speaker, who also happens to be Catholic, perhaps they might invite [Immigration] Minister Jason Kenney,” Mr. Del Mastro wrote on Oct. 12. “Are there any tenets of the Catholic faith that Justin supports?”

Hmm. Jason (Promoter of Catholic Sharia Law) Kenney?

Yeah. Him.

Wait for his appearance in this vintage vid from his (USian) Catholic university days.



My co-blogger has a particular, er, interest in Min. Kenney. Search DJ! for her gems on the subject. Here's one of them.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

I hope my caveat in my last post wasn't what jinxed it.

If this is true, then faster than you could say "boo", and as though we needed any more proof, we are once again being shown that we live in a global dictatorship of finance. Not finance, really, but simple kleptocracy. Woe betide anyone who thinks that the people should ever have an opportunity to say no to being fleeced!

They know it too. They spit on us. The contempt is undisguised.

The bailout will not work. Papandreou might have brought about a momentary respite for his career. But Greece will not take a decade or more of poverty to satisfy the entitlement of the undeserving rich masked as ECB inflation fetishism.

I have a faint hope that this "national unity government" will collapse. Faint.

Humpty Dumpty Initiative in Mississippi

The Humpty Dumpty Initiative is up for a vote next week.

A fledgling movement that seeks to add fuel to the national debate over abortion appears poised to score its first major victory Nov. 8 in Mississippi, where a constitutional amendment would declare that human life begins the moment an egg is fertilized.

The so-called personhood proposal—also known as Amendment 26—is backed by both Republican and Democratic leaders in the conservative state and has substantially outraised its opposition in funding. Mississippi is considered favorable ground because it is dominated by socially conservative Republicans, already has some of the U.S.'s strictest abortion laws, and has only one abortion clinic serving its population of 2.9 million.

The proposed amendment, one paragraph long, says any reference to a person in the state constitution will be defined as "every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof."

It is intended to challenge Roe v. Wade, but its immediate effects will be devastating. There are no exceptions for conception resulting from rape or incest. It would ban common sorts of contraception -- the morning after pill, IUD, even the pill itself. It would deny abortion to women with life-threatening illnesses. It would open the door to the criminalization of miscarriage. It would threaten in vitro fertilization. It would necessitate every state law that contains the word 'person' being reviewed and perhaps rewritten.

And so on.

Here's Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for Choice for 25 years, on the irony that it may be the great state of Mississippi that inflicts this travesty on its people.

Mississippi is perhaps the last state with any standing to extend personhood to fetuses. A fertilized egg in Mississippi, should it be born, has one of the worst prognoses for a dignified life in the United States. What will that fertilized egg, once it is born, discover about how Mississippi treats persons?

The state ranks last among all states in health and third for the highest rate of diabetes and high blood pressure . It has the lowest per capita personal income and an unemployment rate of 10.6 percent. It is the last in academic achievement. More than 1 out of 5 people live in poverty. The state is second in the nation in terms of the imprisonment ratio (749 prisoners per 100,000 people.) If you are black, your chances of dying at birth or shortly thereafter are pretty high: fourteen out of every 1000 black infants ( 6.8 for whites) born die in childbirth or the first year of their lives. Your mother is more likely to die delivering you than mothers in 44 other states. If fertilized eggs could be afraid, surely the thought of being born in Mississippi would be traumatizing.

And now meet the nutbars men behind Mississippi's initiative.





More on the 'Conceived in Rape' tour.

On November 8, keep your fingers crossed, because there are at least 30 other USian states crafting or considering this kind of virulently misogynist legislation.

How Low Will They Go?

In today's instalment of 'How Low Can They Go?', we have weeping fetus fetishist Dean Del Mastro calling Justin Trudeau a 'a bad Catholic'. Trudeau is rightly pissed.

Liberal MP Justin Trudeau says he is upset and offended by a Tory MP who publicly questioned his adherence to the Catholic faith and his suitability to speak to students at a Catholic school.

Dean Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, said on Facebook last month that it was “outrageous” the Catholic school board in Peterborough, Ont. had invited Trudeau to speak for a second time in three years.

And what is really rich is that Del Mastro is not just tasteless, classless, and crass, he's a flaming hypocrite. (Yeah, I know, you're gob-smacked.)

Two years ago, Deanie got smacked down by a top honcho in the Catholic church. Thus:

A Roman Catholic in “good standing” must attend mass every Sunday and holy day of obligation, says the vicar general of the Diocese of Peterborough.

“There is nothing to stop a Catholic person from attending services elsewhere if he or she chooses to do so. However, Catholics are still required to attend Catholic mass every Sunday and holy day of obligation,” said Father Raymond Rick.

“You’re either a Catholic who is practising his faith or you’re not.”

Seems that while Deanie likes to parade his Italian Catholic heritage and play kneesies with Pope Maledict, he's a not very closeted fundy.

Del Mastro told The Examiner he’s been confirmed, and got married, in a Catholic church, but now attends Calvary Pentecostal Church. He said he attends Catholic mass “from time to time.”

“I bear no ill will to anyone at the Catholic Church,” Del Mastro said.

Yeah. Except Justin Trudeau.

Like I said: Asshat.

h/t for old story @CometsMum.

I Come Not To Praise Tiller But To Bury Him

I'm definitely not sure what the slander/libel laws are in the US, but I can hope someone gets out a legal brickbat and wings it in the direction of Troy Newman of Operation Rescue in the US.

This upstanding defender of the pre-born has apparently boldly gone where many forced pregnancy cultists have gone before, down the 'free speech' route of Lyinggggg forrrrr Jesusssssusssussssss in his visit to an uncritical media platform. He appears to be attempting pre-emptive damage control before an HBO series airs on Dr. George Tiller, the physician brutally murdered by a Christian fundamentalist terrorist for medical dedication to providing women safe, legal, pregnancy termination services.

I also love this nerfball question from the 'interviewer'.

"Mefferd: When you talk about these clinics, and we’ve seen this so many times before, that these abortion clinics are just gross, they’re dirty, they’re poorly maintained, why do you think that is? I mean, they seem to have enough money coming in from abortions to be able to get some Clorox, why are they so gross?"

The rest of the piece is here, tagged by the iron-stomached site, Rightwing Watch.

These fetus exploiters are blase in their moral turpidity, false-witnessing their faces off and then fantasizing even more as their faces flop about on the floor. This is the 'free speech' their Canadian fellow travellers long to have, the ability to completely and deliberately misrepresent reality to the public forum, smug in their certainty they have power and influence enough to avoid repercussion.

And Brutroyus is an honorable man, here to defend the pre-Caesarean against the ravages of ambitious selfish women preternaturally lusting for the Imperial feminist purple.

Vatican Taliban lobbies politicians in US via its bishops.

Just in case you thought the innumerable attacks on reproductive rights for women in the US were all - you know - *accidental*, Laura Bassett delivers a splendid investigative piece about the blatant lobbying war the Catholic Bishops have waged on state and federal politicians.

From here:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is currently considering a list of insurance coverage guidelines that would mandate that all health plans under the Affordable Care Act cover birth control at no cost for women. The rules have a religious exemption for churches, but many Catholic-affiliated organizations such as charities, schools and hospitals would still have to offer plans that cover birth control for their employees.

The bishops argue that the exemption is too narrow.

"You have to hire and serve primarily people of your own faith [to qualify for the exemption]," Doerflinger said. "Jesus himself would not be exempt, because he treated Samaritans and Roman soldiers. It's absurd."

Absurd indeed.

What Would They Do to Jesus? They wouldn't let Him have access to healthcare-provided contraceptives, according to the man leading the catholic jihad against women.

Oh. Wait.

Just imagine if the Vatican Taliban had invested all that lobbying money and energy on a campaign to prevent priests (and other Catholic men in positions of authority) from sexually abusing girls and boys.

But then, its ideological imperative is to control women's sexualities and reproductive capacities and to *save* the pre-born. Children are required, to supply a target-rich environment to Church sexual predators aka pedophile priests and clergy.

To paraphrase Mark Steyn, it's sure convenient to have a tax-exempt religious institution to justify your pathologies.

Finance to Greece: elect a new people, or else

I note with some happiness and satisfaction for the future of the human race that the Greek government has decided to put the latest "bailout", handed down from on high by non-Greek politicians in the thrall of big finance, to a referendum. I note with further satisfaction the howls of outrage represented in the "market reaction", and the absolute naked hatred for democracy demonstrated thereby. Exposed and ugly as ever.

Prepare for massive application of shock doctrine tactics to the Greek people. I wouldn't be surprised if the Greeks were eventually to vote yes, even though I am firmly hoping for a no. Make no mistake: the brutal confidence fairy's insatiable thirst for the well-being of the old and the future of the young will not be slaked by another austerity package.

This is the lesson: you cannot have free trade without political union. One is the other. All supranational free trade (protected investment) zones are political unions. Most of them are hidden corporate dictatorships. Now the Greek government---as part of a gamble for the political capital that they would get on a yes, notwithstanding the fact that the situation had become untenable in Athens---has done the unforgivable and exposed this reality. Europe will have to decide whether it is going to implement democracy or abandon the project (or resort to corporatist military coups in noncompliant states...).

I for one am with you, Hellas. Here's hoping that they'll retain the strength to say no, and to force the rest of Europe to stop trying to pass the buck. The truth is, a referendum is far preferable to what would follow if the world is forced to feed the vampire squid another decade.

I don't believe in fairies. Unicorns, maybe. Fairies, no. Especially not confidence fairies.

Shocking New Poll: Canadians Fine with Status Quo on Abortion!

So, LifeShite is SHRIEEKING about its latest poll under this headline: Canada: Poll Shows 72% Want Pro-Life Protections for Unborn.

(One wonders, in passing, what 'pro-life' protections are. As opposed to what other kinds of protections? Helmets? Identity theft?)

As usual, there is some flummery in how they get that number. Basically they throw out the protection 'at birth' and the 'don't give a shit' numbers, add the rest together and get 72%!!!!!11!!!

Here's how the numbers break down.

Human life should be protected:
at conception: 28%
from 2 months on: 17%
from 3 months on: 17%
from 6 months on: 10%
at birth: 20%
don't give a shit: 9%

Of course, the wording of the question is always interesting. There's a link at LifeShite to the PDF where I found this.

Q.5 This question concerns the development of human life before birth. According to medical research, a fetal heart begins to beat about three weeks after conception. Brain waves can be detected within two months after conception. By two months all organs and body parts are in place. In your opinion, at what point should the law protect human life?

Throw some misleading 'medical research' at people and ask them to pick a point in time. Say nothing about fetal viability, which is the stage that some sane people think is worth considering. But it's tricky.

There is no sharp limit of development, age, or weight at which a fetus automatically becomes viable. According to data years 2003-2005, 20 to 35 percent of babies born at 23 weeks of gestation survive, while 50 to 70 percent of babies born at 24 to 25 weeks, and more than 90 percent born at 26 to 27 weeks, survive. It is rare for a baby weighing less than 500g (17.6 ounces) to survive.

I wonder how the answers would have gone if the question had been something like this: 'Medical research shows that very premature babies cost the medical system boatloads of money, and even then, premies have poor survival rates and high risk of lifelong health problems. In your opinion, at what point should the healthcare system be on the hook for bazillions of dollars?'

Who came up with that bullshit question? Oh. Look. From Environics' PDF:

QUESTION DESIGN
The questions were designed by senior Environics researchers in conjunction with representatives from LifeCanada. The questions were pre-tested as part of the overall survey, prior to being finalized.

Translation: We put our top people on this 'fleecing the fetus fetishists' gambit.

Fetus fetishists were probably less happy with the legality question. A whopping 68% think abortion is fine in the first three months, which, not surprisingly, is within the timeframe of over 90% of abortions.

In other words, a solid majority of Canadians are A-OK with the status quo.

As we said back in April 2010, despite the Manning Centre's and abortion criminalizers' wishful thinking, Canada remains pro-choice and socially liberal. A fact that has remained virtually unchanged for the past decade.