Waving the bloody shirt

Dystopian Boston in April 2013 - too creepy to be Believed

2013-04-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

George Orwell warned us that the common folk will surrender their Liberty to Big Brother, freedom by freedom, and quickly forget that those rights ever existed. It does amaze me that Americans are prepared to wage war on a global scale, in order to impose their notions of "Freedom" on other nations (exemplified by the Two-Party electoral system) but they willingly surrender even the most basic freedoms in their own backyard. Witness the stunning spectacle of an entire city - Boston U.S.A., staying home, simply because Law Enforcement told them to stay home. An entire city OBEDIENT to armed authority! And this was the city famed for resistance to the unlawful taxation of Colonial masters? Boston looked like the set of a Hollywood S.F. movie - you know. those movies which discuss a totally "impossible" dystopian future. Something like Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451, a future in which citizen's regularly inform on each other...in the name of "Public Safety". A movie in which we watch a manhunt coordinated by television, with all citizens participating in a vigilante style exercise of justice, hoping to be rewarded by the gratitude of their government.

In some creepy notion of "helping" the entire city of Boston was reduced to peeking out windows, volunteering all their recent cellphone photos and reporting the slightest "suspicious" movement in their neighbourhood to local, state and federal Law Enforcement. In fact it was a "tip" and not the patrolling helicopters that led to the shootout between the Tsarnaev brothers and the Watertown Police. Which will be the next metropolis to be shut down? New York, Chicago... Los Angeles?

THE REAL CULPRIT IN BOSTON - THE PEOPLE

It is truly amazing that in a city as diverse as Boston claims to be, and which prides itself as being 'ground zero' for advanced education (Harvard, MIT, etc) everyone fell into lockstep in both hating and needing vengeance on the Tsarnaev Brothers. It's as if all morality went out the window, and Bostonians were taking their cues about crime and justice from reading BATMAN comics. "Harvard Law", indeed! Not a single academic or news editor in Beantown was willing to raise the possibility that the smothering deployment of intrusive law enforcement in their city, was unwarranted and precedent setting.

Very late in life Ray Bradbury began to muse about his contributions to the ongoing discussion about America's future. Dystopian America it will surely be, but Mr. Bradbury did not wish to place all of the blame on oppressive government and thus let the public get away with its own contribution to the madness. I totally agree. Bad electoral choices are the fruit of a nation which is opinionated but cannot think. You can look up what Bradbury had to say, but here is a taste:

Television did not die. It simply shrank to palm size and became a fashion accessory. The current obsession with turning every subject, every issue, every school lesson, every exchange of information... into a visual experience, is screwing with millions of "modern" heads. Howard Fast summed up the danger more than fifty years ago: "Without words, thought becomes a process of pictures, which is on the animal level and rules out all, even the most primitive, abstract concepts." The reversion to animal-like response behavior we witnessed in Boston, will certainly spread to other American cities, and it will happen as soon as the next co-ordinated manhunt for "terrorists". You just know that in dozens of American cities, patriotic posses are laying out their gear, waiting for Government to call "Mount up!"

What is even creepier than "Black Helicopters" over Boston, is the American need to demonize the TSARNAEV BROTHERS. That calls for a separate blog article.

Boston Bomber - was Tamerlan Tsarnaev executed or just 'finished off' ?

2013-04-21T15:42:00.001-07:00

Was Tamerlan Tsarnaev executed or, to use the euphemism, just 'finished off' in the heat of combat?

Now of course law enforcement types will not accept the right for this question to even exist. They will bristle and take immediate offence. Well, my best reply is - You started it. Or to be more exact, the Watertown Chief of Police Ed Deveau started it, in a rambling interview he gave to Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Read edited portions of Chief Ed's long conversation, quoted in a CNN article HERE.

Watch - "Watertown police chief gives play-by-play account of Friday manhunt" on SALON HERE He said the two Tsarnaev brothers engaged six of his officers with handguns (although they had a rifle of some sort in one of the escape vehicles). The older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, he says, ran out of bullets and was heroically tackled by Watertown officers, who proceeded to cuff him.

At some point, either before or after Tamerlan ran out of ammo, he heaved one of the pressure-cooker bombs at Watertown officers. Chief Deveau said the blast left a chunk of metal lodged in a nearby car. Several photos exist of the street pavement scarred by the bomb blast. Somehow, in the melee, the younger brother escaped, and remained at large for the remainder of the day.

While the brother was on the run in Greater-Boston, someone leaked a photo of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's corpse to Internet news sites. TMZ posted a 'heads up" at 10:32 AM Thursday. TMZ also confirmed the authenticity. Here is a photo-scrape from the TMZ website:

The photo, (top of page) as you will note, is grisly. I don't like looking at it, but you will notice it shows the body after processing by a hospital team. There are scalpel strokes on the chest and a large section of tissue has been removed for examination. You will also note that he is riddled with bullet holes. The media rushed to the hospital AFTER the photo appeared online and demanded answers. The hospital insists that no staff member took the photo, implying that someone in law enforcement took the photo and leaked it. I don't really care who leaked it, but I took notice of what the examining physician had to say. There were so many bullet entrance wound that he didn't bother to count them.

What? But Chief Ed Deveau told CNN that his boys tackled Tamerlan and put him in custody. How did he end up so very, very dead? Did they tackle a corpse?

I wouldn't have cared enough to comment until the bullshit got deeper. Last night the media started peddling Law Enforcement disinformation that Tamerlan's own brother had killed him ! The story was that he ran over him with a car, in making good his escape. Does that mean that some trophy hunter cut the tire tread mark off Tamerlan's chest? Of course not. But it does indicate that Chief Ed Deveau's six heroes have collaborated on a story to explain how the younger brother got away alive. Here is a sample of the kind of story such police disinformation generates.

Here's another example, a story from Agence France Presse, A.F.P.

And yet another example:

I hasten to insist, that I am not advocating for these two criminals. But I do want to know the truth of what happened. Even a cursory inspection of the photograph of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body shows bullet holes which suggest he was shot from all points of the compass. Sorry folk's, but if this guy was tackled and cuffed by Watertown cops, the leaked photo indicates he was finished off where he lay. Perhaps that's gun shot residue - powder burns hacked off the side of his chest, close to where his heart once beat.

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Boston Bombers were Brothers - Blah, Blah, Blah

2013-04-19T08:34:00.003-07:00

Drudge 8AM - he leads with a shot of police infantry posing for a picture in Boston. It's going to be another one of those days in the news biz. The tongue twisting alliterative headlines are lengthening. Can you say "Brothers who carried bombs in black backpacks in Boston"? It's getting rather ludicrous. "Black hat man dead .... Bragged of Bombing".

As Drudge would write... "Developing"

Ah yes, a "BRIC" Bulletin:

"Boston bombing suspect was...a Muslim Boxer". Well of course he was. You just can't make this stuff up. His brother, the baby faced bomber, was a wrestler. But that's not alliterative.

Boston Business Disrupted, the Braintrust on Edge

My favorite snippet of B - Blah, Blah, Blah today, was published in The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper.

"Bucolic Cambridge, an iconic braintrust that includes Harvard University..." Nice!

Easter Egg Hunt

The Chechnyan-American brothers seem to have proven their American bonifides by doing what every other American youth does these days... record their day to day activities in digital images. In so doing, these rascals prepared themselves well for that popular media game - the EASTER EGG HUNT - a ritual search for pictures which follows every 5 STAR criminal event in the U.S.

This is the older brother, the "Muslim Boxer" who was gunned down earlier this morning. He was hit by multiple rounds fired from different directions. A photo of his thoroughly "ventilated" corpse is on the NET, if you have a taste for crime-porn. I don't. What's amazing is that police had the two brothers pinned down in a Boston suburb, engaged them in a sustained firefight, and then the 19 year old managed to slip the dragnet, for another 12 or more hours! Incredible. If the militant young boobs had spent some cash and set up a couple of safe houses, they'd be sitting back and watching the chaos on CNN. The entire city of Boston was shut done for the day. The next such national "event" is going to be amazing.

This is the younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, an image scraped from his Twitter account. [The family name is pronounced Joe-HARR tsar-NAH-yev]. I see that the Drudge Report has now (1PM), also labelled him the "Baby Faced Bomber". Satiric minds share commonalities. Drudge though, won't be the journalist to dissect the performance of the virtual army of law enforcement and military personnel it took to catch this young man. The media keep repeating the dubious figure, that "9,000" officers were involved. Nonsense.

TRAINING FOR INSURRECTION DAY

What is really interesting is that today's admitted deployment number is equivalent to two U.S. Army Regiments, with SWAT teams flown in from as far away as Maine and Ohio. All that for two homegrown terrorists with no assets. When a coordinated, well funded terrorist attack or the long-threatened incidents of insurrection finally happen, of the size and scope that the politicians keep insisting must happen, the U.S. Federal Government will have to deploy soldiers and paramilitary police contingents equivalent to several U.S. Army Divisions to contain it. Then the "War on Terrorism" will truly have come home, and Canada must generously open its arms to American refugee families. Boston was as much a dress rehearsal for suppressing insurrection, and the testing of new control methodologies on the public, as it was about catching a couple of bad actors. ... At least the American media gave North Korea a rest for a week. Small mercies, eh?

That Marathon Massacre - Hey kids! Can you say "Bomb in black backpack in Boston"

2013-04-17T12:15:00.004-07:00

Another "massacre" in Boston. There's a hubbub in the street outside, I hear the bells tolling... I dash into the TV room and turn on the box... adjust the rabbit ears just a bit to the right. Ah yes, there it is. That's nasty!

DAILY NEWS - "MASSACRE". Tabloid photo montage.
Much gorier than the broadsheet published by Paul Revere.

Modern journalism. Ah, yes. It's all about feeding the fetishes, telling the masses how to feel and think, and maintaining "Freedom" and the political status quo - that poisonous but perfected two-party system they call "De-moc-ra-cy".

And so to parody the reportage of that other "Boston massacre"... you know, the one in 1770 that played out five years before those same propagandists kick-started the American Revolution:

"The unhappy Sufferers were Martin Richard, Krystie Campbell and Lingzi Lu Killed. 173 were wounded. Some of them mortally." Engrav'd Printed and Sold by Paul Revere, BOSTON

A "PRESSURE COOKER" bomb? Damn, this terrorist understands metaphor. He's a maniac with a wit. A pressure cooker. That defines the state of American politics at the moment. Half of the country is gloating and the other half seething. Hatreds generated by political partisanship are driving Americans crazy. They didn't wait to learn if the latest heinous crime is of foreign or domestic manufacture. Fists came out of pockets and fingers pointed in all directions. I think they're going to pop.

Don't believe me? Look at this little travesty David Sirota posted on SALON this morning:

SOFT TARGET?

I almost choked on my morning toast yesterday, when I heard the Boston Police Commissioner describe the Marathon as a "Soft Target". What a sick joke! Watch the blast video for yourself and see how many armed policemen were patrolling the corridor where the two bombs were planted and detonated near the finish line. There were even techies on scene wearing "HAZMAT" vests. They pop into frame within minutes. In fact Boston, like all American cities post - 9/11, is heavily militarized and the halcyon days of concertina wire, baton charges and handcuffs are over. The supercops of today and tomorrow will not be taking many prisoners. Here, Blog space being limited, are just a few samples of what the photo-journalists saw in Boston yesterday:

Boston Fire Department "Medics"

Two Boston Police SWAT armoured vehicles

This one's a pip. FBI infantry.

INVESTIGATION TECHNIQUE?

We know that the FBI profilers will get their "man". You can't scratch your balls in Boston without some 7/11 CCTV lens recording your indiscretion. But this morning's news tells us that the Yanks learned some of their best moves from the...Gulp!.... Canadians:

Sure. Rat us out as collaborators in the great Orwellian Project known as "HOPE" and "CHANGE".

Call me a sentimental fool but I preferred America when Sheriff Andy Mayberry was still on the television set and when the FBI agents wore tasteful suits with nice shoes. Now they don't attend a crime scene, they deploy to suppress and neutralize. It's getting really crazy down there in those dis-United States! Some corner druggist needs to tell the American President that strychnine is no antidote to arsenic.
THE PRESIDENT IS AUTHORIZED...

UPDATE April 18- "SOFT TARGET" in Boston? Bull.

Here is a bulletin on Pressure Cookers as a bomb component, making the rounds today on the Internet. The document indicates that pressure cookers were put on the watch lists at least two years ago, and which means that all models, foreign and domestic are taggant indexed. Of course the bad guys probably picked up used items at their neighborhood Good Will store.

The F.B.I. just released photos of their pick of two faces they like for the Boston bombing. Not a lone "nut" after all. Two nuts, yes, but not very damning photos. You can't tell yet if these guys are Caucasian, Light skinned Blacks, Latinos, Arabic, or just sun tanned. And finally a teensy crumb of truth... a ranking police official, in interview on a CNN panel, admitted that police presence at the Boston Marathon was so heavy on the day of the bombing that the bombers were probably prevented from placing the devices where they preferred. So much for the Boston Commissioners burble about a "SOFT TARGET".

Maria Santos Gorrostetia Salazar - Mexican hero butchered by Demons from HELL

2012-11-19T15:04:00.001-08:00

Shock, horror, revulsion. These are just words I know, but they were my feelings when, on Sunday, I learned that my cherished Mexican Hero - Maria Salazar, had been executed by a Narco hit-squad and her body dumped in a field. Think of it... To contribute so much of yourself, to give all of your energy and spirit to your people, only to end up as an abandoned corpse in a grainy Youtube video! It is the ultimate indignity.

It's a rotten feeling to be left alone with your thoughts after learning such news. Quite frankly I would enjoy the assignment of joining a posse to lynch the perpetrators of this fiendish crime. I am a peaceful man but I've never flinched from touching shit, if shit had to be cleaned up. Shakespeare would describe them as "the legions of horrid hell," for in MACBETH one murder begat two, and suddenly the devil has fostered massacre upon massacre, until all of the major characters have learned that their wives and children have been slaughtered. The only medicine for it is "our great revenge". I believe that the demons who murdered this wonderful woman are human filth, and Mexico has become a cesspool of evil that sorely needs cleansing. The scant solace we might take from this murder, is that her killers will ultimately be butchered by their own kind, because narcotics traffickers ultimately turn on each other.

I have written about Maria in an earlier Blog article. Having just passed our national Remembrance Day, I am mindful that I come from a country which contributed to Victory in two World Wars - a nation from which soldiers wounded in battle received their return-ticket, back to the safety of Canada's shores. Such men had earned the right to stand down. And what of Maria? She was ambushed and very, very grievously wounded. Skilled medical professionals saved her from certain death. What did she do? She suffered through therapy, got her strength back, and returned to her duties - courageously working to provide a little security and progress to the people of her community. Ultimately she stepped down from office, but that did not satisfy the demons of the drug trade. Like Mao Tse Tung, who couldn't enjoy his bloody victory in 1949, but just had to corner and crush every "class enemy" in China no matter how defenceless, the Narco-thugs of Mexico cannot rest until they have eliminated every decent person who has spoken out against them. Why then does the United States media ignore this War on the border? Why did the Obama government not extend a hand and offer this gallant woman a measure of protection? The White House crows its electoral victory... it scooped up millions of Latino votes with scarcely an effort. Mr. Obama, don't repay that massive electoral support in token food stamps and and forgivable federal loans. Help Mexicans still at home, living under constant threat from the Drug menace. Choose to save the lives of innocent Latinas like Maria Salazar. Be a man, not a lawyer.

I realize that Obama's psychological profile doesn't position him in opposition to drug use, but at least he's a husband and a father, so he should accept our common stake in protecting women and children. He values his "Michelle." Good for him. Well I valued Maria Salazar, and I could give a god-damn about America's political interests in the Middle East. Maria was a casualty of a new flavour of genocide - the destruction of a free people by Narco-terrorists who seize territory and operate on a military scale. Mexico's war is a North American war and of far greater significance to those of us who share this continent, than the evils of distant continents. My sneaking suspicion is that because the Yanquis are incapable of suppressing illegal immigration from the South, that many of them take secret pleasure in watching the Mexicans rip each others guts out. What else could possibly explain the lack of will to unite American combat forces with Mexican troops, and quickly eradicate the drug enclaves?

This is what the Demons did to her a few years ago, and what they did to Maria Salazar on Saturday. Remember it. And below is how she looked in death. A good woman dumped like a piece of garbage.

And lest the judgemental among you decide that I am some sort of "Christian crank" spouting off about "demons, I hasten to add that I have no religious convictions whatever. But what I do believe in, is the presence of evil in this world. Their are criminal offenders, and their are hardened outlaws, and there are certainly DEMONS. These are the monsters who will cut off a dozen heads and arrange them for a photograph... men who would hang a dozen people from a city overpass... men who would saunter into hospitals and execute patients... men who machine-gun coffee bars ... these are DEMONS. You don't arrest Demons. You don't offer them one last cigarette. You take them to the gutter and you bleed them out.

This photograph shows Maria Salazar working to make her community a little bit safer... here handing out gear to a volunteer policeman.

It should not be left unsaid that the President of Mexico and the Mexican General staff did make an attempt to protect Maria's small town. An Army base was built and a garrison established. It was not enough to save Maria, but it is a start. (Go to Youtube to see the Presidential ceremony)

And below I offer a graphic which attests to the fact that there are other WOMEN WARRIORS in Mexico. They are unnoticed by the New York media, or the Toronto media establishment for that matter, but they exist nonetheless. (I scraped this graphic from the Internet about two years ago, and I regret not crediting the source. My apologies to the graphic artist.)

A MURDER TOTALLY IGNORED BY NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA - she was abducted Nov 14, her body found Nov. 15, and identified Nov. 16. I just did a Google News search (English only) and this is what I find. Nine stories. What an indictment of criminal neglect. Oh please tell me what Michelle Obama is wearing today!! Fracking morons of the media establishment!

What this world needs are more heroes and heroines and far fewer celebrities.

Breivik Report Released - July 22 Commission is brutal in its treatment of Norwegian Security Apparatus

2012-08-13T18:20:00.002-07:00

The Norwegian Prime Minister released the Report of the 22 July Commission today - in Norwegian of course. Within minutes electronic editions of newspapers worldwide were displaying the same wire story written by Bjoern H. Amland of the Associated Press, whom we must assume reads Norwegian and read the entire 500 page report. Among Canadian newspapers which ran the story, the TORONTO SUN headline was very typical - "Norway massacre could have been prevented, says commission". The New York Times was, as usual, very careful. The full report hasn't been published yet in English translation, so the paper chose to avoid claiming what the English version will contain. Instead the NYT ran a report on the Commission's press conference, but with the same basic headline as everyone else "Norway Panel on Massacre Funds Litany of Government Failures". What is available, for those who bother to look, is a 26 page summary of the Commissions findings, translated to English. You can download it here - SUMMARY.
The primary conclusions of the Commission: "The attack on the Government Complex on 22 July could have been prevented through effective implementation of already adopted security measures." More important, and this is something the Americans fail to understand - "The Commission realizes, among other things, that the democratic costs related to systems intended to eliminate every risk of terrorist attacks are too high. We have to live with a certain level of risk."

Only our local rag, the Vancouver SUN, chose to monkey with the AP story and attach a ludicrous headline - "Norwegian commission criticizes police response to far-right fanatic's bomb and gun massacre".

As usual THE SUN simply cannot pass on any opportunity to turn up the volume on examples of "far-right"or "extreme right" political violence, even if their sloppy headline hijacks another journalists story. If the SUN had even bothered to read the Summary of the 22 July Commissions Report (as NYT staff must have) they would have realized that the commission panel in Oslo did not trouble itself with the motives of Anders Behring Breivik. Page 9 - "We have foregone issues related to the perpetrators motive, childhood and state of health, and we have not explored the measures society puts in place for the early prevention of radicalisation." (Thankfully the panel also disdained reference to the meaningless "Left-Right political spectrum" - something which Canadian journalism is incapable of doing.) Fanatical Mr. Breivik certainly is, but his modus was not that of some beer swilling, racist skinhead of the "Far Right". He did not target immigrants, but rather the ruling party of his country who initiated and administered Norway's immigration program. That is why his crimes are so remarkable and worthy of analysis. Breivik chose to attack the apparatus of Norwegian State Power at its vulnerable core - the private island camp where Party Youth frolic and plan for future electoral victories. Breivik's was the most significant terrorist attack in the Western democracies since 9/11 in New York because it spread terror among the ruling elite, as much as it did the general population. For that reason it will likely be the template for militant attacks in Western Europe all through this century.

I happen to live in the murder capital of Canada - In Vancouver we hold the record for every category of murder for which records are kept, with the exception of murders within the health care system. The gruesome list begins with terrorist murders - the AIR INDIA Flight 182 Bombing, the serial killing of women, the serial killing of children, the serial murder of drug dealers, and on down to lesser known sprees, like the demon barber case (killing of native women by forced drinking of alcohol). All murder involves hate of one form or another, and yet the SUN is extremely selective when it pins "hate crime" labels on its political targets. The worst example are of course the Sikh butchers who blew an Air India Boeing jumbo jet out of the sky. Racist the Sikh murderers certainly were. Political they certainly were. Fanatical they certainly were. Untouchable they certainly were ... and still are, because they got away with it. Were the Vancouver Sikh terrorists "Far Right" or "Far Left"? Or is their hatred more racial than political? Perhaps their hatred is religious inspired and their politics cynical? Where should we turn for the answers? In a multicultural Vancouver such discussions do not take place because they are taboo. Who constantly reminds us of what is taboo? The media.

Political Theatre - ridiculous posing with firearm's is common within the para-military subculture, but Breivik took it up a notch by wearing fanciful insignia like this "Marxist Hunter" shoulder flash.

Keeping Obama (and Mitt Romney) out of the Kill Zone

2012-08-09T12:13:00.002-07:00

Pity poor America. All over the nation brooding men (and a few women) are pondering their limited options and a few will decide to do the unthinkable... commit mass murder. The most dangerous of them have been trained by the United States military and need but a few readily available tools to wreak havoc. Some covet the brass ring of notoriety and others just want to die with an Olympic sized audience watching.

The recent mass killing in Aurora, Colorado earned a large audience share because it tapped into existing and successful corporate advertising campaigns (owned by Warner Brothers, D.C. Comics, etc). But I find the fallout from last's weeks Sikh temple shooting a tad more interesting, because while the White House did its damage control with the Indian government (some of the victims were Indian nationals) the Obama re-election campaign did not send their man to Wisconsin, as they did following the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado. Undoubtedly the U.S. Secret Service would not allow it, because a troubling pattern has emerged in American politics - office holders rush to crime scenes. They do it because that's where the cameras are, and it is where large blocks of votes may be scooped up. The bad guys know this, and they may well set a trap for a candidate and his security detail. There will be further mass shootings in the U.S. before the November 2012 election, and it is entirely possible that one of them will be bait for a later more deadly ambush. During this federal campaign season, President Obama and GOP Candidate Mitt Romney must be kept out of the Kill Zone no matter how much their campaigns hunger to exploit human grief or respond to media baiting.

"Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not clean and strong you will hesitate at the moment of truth." - Gunnery Sergeant Hartman FULL METAL JACKET, 1987

It should never be forgotten that among the worst cases of murder in the U.S. are those which are politically motivated, and too frequently the crimes are pulled off by men who got their training in the military. The military is also the source of the only systematic indoctrination these men have ever undergone.

Much is made of, as it should be, Lee Harvey Oswald's service in the U.S. Marines. The USMC gave him small arms training, but more, it gave him the confidence that he could go up against a Presidential security detail, kill a president, and walk away from the scene.

John Allen Williams (AKA John Muhammad) also received his small arms training in the U.S. military. Sometimes known as the "Beltway Sniper" he came up with an innovation which the FBI call the "rolling sniper's nest", a car trunk modified with apertures for use as a shooter's blind. It is far more adaptable than Oswald's single elevated position along a motorcade route.

Even more dangerous potential bushwhackers are ex-servicemen like Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. Such men prefer explosives and in their delusional reality think infamy is an honour. (In his arrest photo Mr. McVeigh chose to use his trigger finger to give his government "the finger".) One could easily imagine a scenario in which another McVeigh type prepositioned a bomb near a target (say a mosque or temple), have an accomplice commit an atrocity, and then patiently wait for the real target to show up.

President Obama could only go to Aurora for a photo-op because his security people were certain that James Holmes (aka The Joker) was a loner. In the case of the the shooting of Sikhs in Wisconsin, Wade Michael Page (who also received his weapons training and indoctrination in the U.S. Army) was part of a network of of ex-military personnel and of an angry subculture. The S.S. could not be certain that his crime was not bait for a an attempt on the President... and are still not certain. So Obama stays away. Prudence would dictate that both Obama and Romney stay away from all crime scenes until after the election is concluded.

This press release just went out - and it announces that the upcoming DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION has been declared a "National Special Security Event". ie. this a blank cheque event as far the security aspects are concerned. What the authorities most fear is not foreign terrorists making a rush on the convention, but rather an American ex-serviceman (or a group) who might be convinced that they could pull off an Anders Behring Breivik type raid. Breivik is the fellow in Norway who set off bombs in the capital city to draw the attention of the security forces, and then proceeded to hit his primary target - the summer training facility of the political party that rules his country. North Carolina is teeming with heavily armed ex-military types, some possibly annoyed with their world, and more than a few who match the description of previous offenders. N.C. is probably a good state to stay away from, all of next month.

Romney and Ryan now receive a level of close-in protection that can only be described as the "smother treatment"and I strongly doubt anyone in the crowd can lay a finger on any of the candidates during the 2012 Campaign. (Romney for example, has stood virtually nipple to nipple with Secret Secret agents on several occasions this summer.) The danger will come from attackers who don't need to eyeball their target.

How Crazy are Americans? Start with the "Liberals" and work your way to the Conservative "Hawks" - remember "LET'S CREATE KOREAN NO MAN'S LAND - USING ATOMIC WASTE PRODUCTS"

2012-08-05T13:56:00.003-07:00

In case you believe that the wackiest thing that ever happened in Tennessee was the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, I'm here to challenge that thought. When I think Tennessee, I think "Gore"... as in Albert Gore, senior and "Al" Gore junior... stalwarts of the U.S. Democratic Party... "big thinkers".

At this very minute U.S. forces are deployed in attack positions bracketing Iran. U.S. Special Forces and spies are on the ground inside Iran and will assist the strike, when and if Obama signs off on the mission. Whenever I listen to politicians pondering U.S. "options" in Iran I am reminded of crackpots like Albert Gore, Sr. Read below his "big idea" for ending the stalemate in the Korean War. Gore wanted to protect Korea by by creating a modern version of HADRIAN'S WALL, using tons of atomic waste products.

In 1951 the Democrats had the White House. Rep. Albert Gore of Tennessee wrote to President Harry Truman with an urgent plea. Use "cataclysmic" radiation to "dehumanize" a belt across the Korean Peninsula, and repeat the process periodically so that the enemy (Communists) can never again harm Americans.

"Something cataclysmic, it seems to me, is called for. We have it. ... Please consider using it." And here we are again. The U.S. is supremely frustrated by the antics and maneuverings of the Iranian regime. Israel says it will strike if Obama has no stomach to deal with the Persians. And don't forget the super deep penetrating bunker busters are already deployed and ready for dropping by B2s. Wait... it's time to call Al Gore, Jr for some sage advice.

President Harry Truman did not heed General Douglas MacArthur. He did not "Nuke" the Red Chinese as he was advised. Truman also ignored Albert Gore, Sr in 1951. He did not order the deliberate contamination of Korean soil, and though North Koreans live in extreme poverty, at least its farmers are not producing hideously deformed children. That would have been the Gore legacy if Truman was weak minded.

The Gore's - a typical American nuclear family. [sorry, an irresistible pun] Al Gore junior was a baby boomer, destined to ~~invent~~ exploit the Internet.

The Gore's... one of America's governing families. A sad by-product of a mutant Democracy where only two political parties are allowed to live, and where all other parties are euthanized at birth. The Gore's are a "Mad Bad Line" but they're also just what the American people have grown accustomed to.

According to all credible sources - the U.S. will strike Iran in a matter of day, not months. ... "Last week alone, two intelligence insiders, Major-General Danny Yatom and Efraim Halevy, both former Directors of the Mossad, Israel’s main external intelligence agency, said a military attack on Iran was imminent." [news from Israel Aug. 6/12] USAF B2 bombers will strike at Iran's deepest bunkers and the USN will salvo launch hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iranian military assets. Let's hope that President Obama is not listening to the most rabid war-nuts in Washington. Busting open Iran's nuclear storage facilities is a great way to spread radioactive contaminants, and some of the Iranians are just crazy enough to store dangerous nuclear waste products inside the known target areas. That will ensure that explosions and fires loft contaminants into the atmosphere and the White House will be forced to deal with the international political fallout certain to result from unnecessary attacks which irradiate the Iranian countryside.

Gore Vidal's America - Neo paganism vs Orwellian Nightmare. Take your Pick

2012-08-02T23:18:00.005-07:00

I haven't had to attend a funeral for several years, but I am aware of the fact that people do die, and some are very notable deaths. I feel a loss when cultural icons pass on, and one of the more remarkable voices of our time, Gore Vidal, died just a few days ago. In Vidal's case I do mean "voice" because my first exposure was not to his books, but rather his late night appearances on the TONIGHT SHOW (Johnny Carson) in the 1970s. For a kid attending a Catholic junior highschool in a decaying Tory enclave - Saint John, N.B., staying up late to watch Carson was a desperate attempt to absorb some sophistication. At election time Vidal would share the guest couch with a bimbo plugging a movie and a stand-up comedian, merely to get in a few good zingers at the expense of the current Republican candidate. Even though I knew Vidal was also mocking my budding political values, I enjoyed every witty word. I often wondered if Vidal knew he was poking fun at the Canadian hinterland as much as to middle-America. Times change, people change, politics change - but I still admire Vidal's work.

I don't claim to have read many of his books. The man was so prolific that he wrote more in a lifetime than the average Canadian reads in a lifetime. Late in life he became a conspiracy theorist although he called himself a "conspiracy analyst". One of lesser known books is a collection of essays entitled PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE. I don't have it but I've heard him speak on the issues and I certainly agree with his thesis that much of America's problem is that it antagonizes the World, and it doesn't know how to stop. I also agree that America's commitment to a state of perpetual war, ("Defending Democracy" is the euphemism), has become an ideological constant very much akin to what the Communists call "permanent revolution" and which is fictionalized in Orwell's Nineteen-Eightyfour. Vidal was an "isolationist Democrat" - a very rare creature indeed.

PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE - if you want to check out what's covered in this book, the search page is at AMAZON.CA - HERE

Obama - this is a man you all know and may even love. He also wrote a book. Have you read it? As an antidote to carefully constructed autobiography might I recommend something a bit more honest? Try CONFRONT AND CONCEAL - Obama's Secret Wars And Surprising Use of American Power. You can use the "Look Inside" feature at AMAZON.CA - HERE.

Returning to todays subject... my favorite Gore Vidal novel has nothing to do with American culture. It is JULIAN, published in 1964, which I found time to read in 2003. Though dazzled by the story and the power of the prose, I felt I owed it to myself to compare fiction to conventional biography. A week later I bought a copy of JULIAN the APOSTATE, by Giuseppe Ricciotti and also petitioned Uncle Google. For too long I had carried in my head a simple construct of the reasons for the Fall of Rome - a decadent society with an economy dependant on slave labour and fielding mercenary armies to protect its porous frontiers. I now understand the insidious role of organized Christianity which laboured to destroy Rome from within, and then build the first Christian Empire atop and astride the ruins of what was Rome. JULIAN was raised a Christian but later rejected its doctrines and devoted the remainder of his life to an attempt to restore the pagan gods to their rightful place at the centre of national culture.

I can't help wondering about parallels in history. If we are truly, as some critics suggest, witnessing the "Fall of the American Empire," then it stands to reason that we may also be witnessing the fall of the American God. I grew up in a Canada where America's traditional values were freely mocked by opinion leaders - high school teachers, politicians, media celebrities and the like. It took only one drawling reference to "Godless Communists" or "My Lord and Savior" to make a roomful of urban Canadians roll their eyes and groan in disdain. Be patient Canada... American Christianity is a shadow of what it was. Be also prepared for the Shock of the New. We are perhaps only a decade or two away from a legal requirement for NPR to broadcast the Islamic Muezzim's Call to Prayer, I hope I am still around, just to witness Canadians who dare roll their eyes.

Vidal believed that the American government reaction to 9/11 did far more harm to his Nation than did the attack on New York by Bin Laden's assault team. That is a just and reasoned verdict and it will stand the test of time. It matters not whether the American President is Christian or Muslim because it is not religion which is dividing their country. It matters a great deal that the U.S.A. is polarized politically, and that it's people fixate on the two-party system as if it were Democracy Perfected. To rely on the ideas and base motives of only two parties... (or two "brands") for another hundred years, is madness. Some of Gore Vidal's ideas represent a heart felt slice of the alternative viewpoint which is derided by an arrogant media establishment, which has a vested interest in a two pony race. A country which professes peace but constantly practices war is already Godless, and far more pagan than it realizes.

"BOMB The Hell Out of ..." somebody. This was America in 1969. So what's changed? Last week we read the news about America's new SUPER - SUPER HEAVY bomb, now being readied to penetrate deeply buried nuclear bunkers in Iran... and to what end? How will they prevent the spread clouds of radioactive dust through the region? read "Mega-Buster-Bunker-Bomb" on Wired.

Incredible! - the Aurora Shooting Victims saw the GANGSTER SQUAD theatre massacre ... before THE JOKER executed them

2012-07-25T11:28:00.002-07:00

In a previous Blog article I mentioned that film goers in Australia had viewed the trailer for the Warner Brothers movie GANGSTER SQUAD, prior to watching the feature - THE DARK NIGHT RISES. That was significant because the "grabber" sequence in GANGSTER SQUAD is when four men fire through the movie screen into the faces of the unsuspecting audience. Well silly me! I learn this morning that the Warner Brothers teaser trailer ALSO played before the feature was shown in Aurora, Colorado on Friday. If James Holmes, A.K.A. "The Joker" was watching the screen instead of fumbling with his weapons, his Kevlar vest, and his gas mask... he might have witnessed the Hollywood version of what he was preparing to unleash upon his fellow citizens. How surreal is that!

I know of this because I read an Editorial in THE WASHINGTON TIMES this morning which skewers Hollywood in general, and the Warner Brothers - Sean Penn partnership in particular, for making mega bucks peddling violent moves, and then resorting to crocodile tears when they are caught with human flesh in their teeth. It will only take you five minutes to read the "Open Letter". You should, because it's a rare document. It's here - "HURT".

Canadian newspapers and Canadian TV News programs maintain a despicable symbiotic relationship with Hollywood, pretending that the release of movies in Canada, each one carefully scheduled and cunningly promoted is somehow "News". Movies and fictional screen characters have replaced real people and real events in the minds of an entire generation, and what used to be entertainment for the masses is now an integral component of public education. In Vancouver, B.C. high school students watch a dozen or more Hollywood films in the classroom each. Even Gym and Chemistry teachers, bored with the tedium of their daily grind, show DVDs to burn off paid teaching hours.

Some good news to share. In the aftermath of the "TDKR" murders (yeesh!), Warner Brothers is going to jettison the cinema massacre sequence in GANGSTER SQUAD. The whole premise was ludicrous to begin with... a Squad of Los Angeles policeman volunteer to form a hit squad to go after and eliminate California mobsters. These policemen walk into a Los Angeles movie theatre, stand behind the screen, and unload into the faces of a movie audience!! Sean Penn paid people to write and film that shit! No wonder The Washington Times decided to "unload" on him.

Are Americans Literally Going Crazy? The evidence mounts

2012-07-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

James Holmes, American college student, age 24 (A.K.A. "THE JOKER"). He had parents, money, an education, a car, an apartment and few if any complaints. Now he is accused of opening fire in a crowded movie theatre, killing 12 and wounding dozens more. Clearly he's nuts.

Casey James Fury, American shipyard employee, age 24. Casey fancies himself a poet:

"we agreed this city was like a morgue

you said we should liven things up around here

this is red when we paint the walls with fire and pools of cream

this is my mouth with sharp silver teeth and our implausible dream" Mr. Fury is charged with two counts of arson, having set fire to the nuclear submarine, USS MIAMI, and causing $400,000,000 damage. His reason? He was feeling anxious about his girlfriend and wanted to leave the job site, so he lit a fire in the subs torpedo room. The US Navy admits it may have to scrap the Los Angeles class sub, if it proves costly to repair. Clearly Fury is nuts.

It's not just American citizen's who are going nuts. The Government of the United States has begun to behave in a wholly irrational manner. Having recently had its balls ripped off in Iraq and its teeth kicked-in by the Afghanis, the U.S. administration is still hellbent on arming and inserting Syrian revolutionaries and with launching a strike on Iran - a nation which is on high alert, and waiting for the American attack. Clearly they're nuts.

This is a U.S. ARMY career advertisement for "INTERNMENT SPECIALISTS" In Canada "Internment" is a dirty word. If the Canadian Army created such a job classification, the Federal Government would fall in the next election and the Liberals restored to power. America is signalling to the world that Guantanamo type operations do not embarrass them in the least, and this is a permanent feature of U.S. militarism. The US ARMY ad is HERE.

While I have been pro-American all of my life, I confess that over the past few years I have found myself less inclined to support America when I hear Canadians bashing their political system and the American way of life. If Americans are misguided enough to allow Homeland Security to remain a permanent fixture, and to militarize the once reasonable system of law and order, then they deserve the Orwellian future they are crafting for themselves. Certainly the World will not accept American Imperialism to develop. "The World's Policeman" was an acceptable term as long as America's intentions were benevolent. American meddling worldwide is by now so instinctive, so predictable and so violent, that it seems nothing short of a mental illness.

The United States Marines have now activated and deployed three "Law Enforcement Battalions" which will feed prisoners into the camps run by Army "Internment Specialists". Not "Military Police," but military law enforcers. There's a huge difference, but only a fool or a lackey reporter would be drawn into a discussion of what is truly intended with these "innovations". I recall that three generations of American generals opposed the United Nations as a being a nascent "World Government", and yet U.S. military planners think it entirely appropriate to deploy expeditionary forces to impose the "New World Order" [the U.S. model two-party state] and displace the traditional role of civilian police in fostering democratic principles. Clearly they are nuts if they think they can afford to stay on this road to economic and political suicide.

UPDATE - July 29 - O.K., so now we know that James Holmes was being treated by a mental health professional at his university, an expert on schizophrenia. A reporter for the DAILY MAIL suggests the Holmes consultation is a dodge "...no one could be sure whether his bizarre behaviour in court earlier this week was drug-addled tiredness, psychosis or simply a cynical attempt by a clever but deeply wicked man to pretend he was mad." The DAILY MAIL article is HERE. I don't quibble with the Reporters' point, but I do note that the sneaky Brit takes this opportunity to link James Holmes to another mass-shooter, Norwegian Anders Breivik. Now that's a streeeeetch. Breivik was politically motivated and a militant. His target was the youth camp of a leftist political party, and Breviek has hated leftists all his life. Holmes showed no evidence of hate prior to his crimes in Aurora, and doesn't belong to a political organization.

Now, just as the DAILY MAIL reporter wants to get in a cheap shot, there are propagandists in the U.S. who will exploit the JOKER shooting. This photo of a digital billboard in Aurora, attempts to make points at President Obama's expense. It is certainly in bad taste, but it also makes a valid point. The Democrat did campaign on the lie... "Vote for me and I'll bring home the troops." He didn't do it, and he won't do it. In fact the U.S.A. has got as much firepower deployed worldwide as ever, and worse, America is drifting in Orwellian waters. And oh yes, Mr. Obama did not "earn" the Nobel Peace Prize. That too, was a tasteless joke.

AUGUST 7 - trickle, trickle, trickle... the facts seep out like molasses from a leaking barrel.
Now we learn, via an ABC News EXCLUSIVE REPORT that Mr. Holmes' campus psychiatrist reported him to the Campus Threat Assessment Committee and to an officer of the campus police. This tragedy was preventable and now seems to be a carbon copy of the Virginia Tech massacre where the shooter was known to campus cops and where there was legally actionable evidence he was nuts.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - 12 Dead on a movie house floor - as reel as it gets...pun intended

2012-07-20T09:12:00.002-07:00

Can it get any more obvious? The frequency of the bored and disaffected turning to violence to satisfy their craving for attention. Last night's massacre in Aurora, Colorado... a "Dark Knight" indeed. Kill as many people as you can in a highly dramatic setting [mid-night showing of a Summer Blockbuster movie] and then surrender yourself into the spotlight of celebrity. Not brilliant, but highly effective. The shooter James Holmes, a medical student who was "pursuing a PhD" in genetics. You can't make this stuff up. What next? A Professor of Chemistry, pissed off by some perceived slight, who decides to mix a batch of purple Kool-Aid and serve it to an American entire city?

Warmer Brothers is currently promoting GANGSTER SQUAD, and this is the sequence that should offend thine eyes. We witness four men armed with .45 calibre Thompson sub-machine guns fire through a movie screen, emptying their magazines into the faces of unsuspecting movie goers. Mr. Holmes used an equally powerful weapon, an ArmaLight AR15 variant, with a 100 round drum magazine. That's the kind of firepower reserved for the exclusive use of the Police in Canada, but available to private citizens in the U.S.

In spite of the lying teaser "Based on a True Story", no such incident ever happened in U.S. history. This cinema butchery is purely a cinematic creation. As it happen Warner Brothers is the producer and distributor of the movie DARK KNIGHT RISES, which just had its premiere. A movie which will last in infamy. Would you take my fifty cent bet that the shooter last night in Colorado, had seen the trailer for GANGSTER SQUAD? The irony is so thick you could lay it down with a trowel. [Update - it turns out that the baby faced Mr. Holmes, "the accused," has been planning this bit of violent theatre for a couple of months. He patterned his grotesque performance of violence after the character "The Joker" - Batman's nemesis.]

If you wish to view the trailer of GANGSTER SQUAD from which these screen shots were made, it here at HEADLINE HOLLYWOOD - GANGSTER SQUAD TRAILER.

Update: at 2:50 PMT the GANGSTER SQUAD cinema massacre link is still 'hot," but I imagine that it will be cut before long.
UPDATE, July 24 - the head honchos at WARNER BROTHERS met this morning and discussed Gangster Squad. The news is that the cinema massacre sequence will now hit the cutting room floor, and a new scene produced for insertion. It was an appallingly stupid scene to begin with. No such incident ever happened in Grauman's Chinese Theatre, nor in any other American movie house. The Joker Attack in Colorado three days ago is an entirely new category of mass-shooting.
Another odd twist - we learn that the Gangster Squad movie trailer ran in a few Australian cinemas, as folks waited to see the feature - THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Nobody appreciated it.

The Danzig Street Shootout - minute by minute on Twitter

2012-07-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

I was made aware of the Danzig Street shooting by a YAHOO News headline, as I accessed my email. Toronto news is of no particular interest to a Vancouverite so the shooting didn't really catch my attention until I gave the CTV News Channel ten minutes of my time, over the lunch hour Tuesday. The TV reporting was of the typical "I'm standing on the sidewalk where it all happened," variety. Ten minutes Googling the story gave me a far clearer picture, and resulted in my posting last night's Blog article. Scroll down for more on "The City, By Homicide" and NATIONAL POST graphic artists.

When I Googled the names of the four people listed as creators the NATIONAL POST graphic, this is what I found.

Ian Vandaelle describes himself as "Morally, socially & financially bankrupt." Does that make him dangerous? or just cute?

Samina Esha is a "shopaholic and bookie". It's starting to look like the POST team has "street cred".

Jonathon Rivait is the punster in the pack. "My rock is cock hard."

Richard Johnson is all about "Sarcasm, cynicism, skepticism - in monster proportions."

What an interesting posse of crime reporters! To be accurate, it is Jonathan Rivait and Richard Johnson who must take the lion's share of credit for the wonderful graphics the NATIONAL POST publishes on a fairly regular basis. Others contribute only research.

TWITTER REPORTING - the Danzig Street Shootout

The really significant thing about this shooting in Toronto is not the bombast and baloney spouted by the Mayor and Chief of Police. Rather it was the level of involvement by citizens participating in the mass crime, or reporting on it via their Twitter Accounts. An article written by Joshua Errett, editor at NOW Magazine in Toronto, is a good place to start.

Joshua's article is HERE.

Even now, two days after the shooting, you can get a far better sense of what went done on Danzig Street, by reading Twitter archives, than you can by reading commercial news accounts. There is a lesson in this. Should you ever be caught up in a big event... a natural disaster, a major crime, etc... task someone with downloading the Twitter chatter before it gets edited or truncated by deletions. It will later be a valuable resource for reconstructing chain of events.

DANZIG STREET TWEETS - The shooters "touched the wrong people". .."there is gonna be a war". On that point at least, the Street and the Mayor's Office agree.

Shootout on Danzig Street, Toronto - incredible grahics

2012-07-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

Trying to keep up with Canada... one crime at a time. You just can't make this stuff up. I dare you.

Dateline, Toronto: A multiple shooting amid the shrubs of a Welfare housing project on Danzig Street in Scarborough. Hours later the Chief of Police holds a press conference, and delivers one of the most deliciously asinine remarks ever made by a Chief Constable in this country.

"I’ve been a cop for 35 years and this is the worst incident of gun violence, in my memory, anywhere in North America." (Bill Blair, Toronto Chief of Police) Gee Billy... worse shootings take place on this continent every single day of the week. Take your medication. Calm down. Your scaring your troops.

Late in the day, after perhaps gobbling a box of his favourite comfort food - a large pizza, Mayor Rob Ford issued a press release. It begins "Toronto is a safe city. It’s one of the safest cities in the world." He drones on with the same old lines of B.S. worthy of any Toronto potentate, and then mid-way down the page this. "Some people have suggested there is a gang war brewing. I don’t know if that’s true. But, I do know it’s time for us to declare war on these violent gangs."

The Toronto Chief is peeing his pants and the Mayor has ordered the regimental bugler to blow the order to "Charge!" Don't panic Toronto! Your leaders will do it for you.

______________________________

GREAT GRAPHICS

In case you haven't noticed, the NATIONAL POST publishes the best Information Graphics of any Canadian newspaper, and the POST just happened to have a new one ready to run with the story on the Danzig Street shooting. The graphics are the work of two of Canada's most talented news artists, Jonathon Rivait and Richard Johnson. If your not familiar with their work, it's time you paid attention. Some of their stuff is simply brilliant. A stellar example is "Anatomy of a Stoning," published in November 2010. It describes the murders of women in Iran - the entire process, and it's chilling. My tear sheet is too big to scan but you can view it online here CLICK. And on July 13 the NATIONAL POST published a phenomenal graphic on the Mexican Cartels and a scorecard on the drug murders. (I guess Chief Billy Blair doesn't read the POST.) In which other Canadian newspaper will you find a bar graph labelled "Decapitations - 2012 Monthly" ? It's HERE. The POST calls these valuable employees "Graphics Journalists". I like that.

TORONTO - The City, By Homicide

Here is an interesting companion piece to the homicide graphic. In the NATIONAL POST today they included stats which profile the racial origin of both the killers and their victims in Toronto. (above) Now it is not my intention to compare newspaper graphics here, but merely to supplement the helpful information. A few months back the TORONTO STAR published this very detailed Infographic which breaks down all Toronto crime along racial lines. I had an inkling I might need it for a Blog in future, and set it aside. Today is that day.

This is half of what I prepared on the Danzig Street shooting. I will get Part 2 posted ASAP.

Luka Magnotta - Human Flesh is on EVERYONE'S Menu

2012-07-16T09:47:00.003-07:00

We are truly living in the "Age of Moral Relativism," don't you agree? We adopt or adapt our personal standards to fit the moment, and any community value that intrudes on our pleasure, we resent and resist. No two people seem to share the same set of values unless they live in a village where the wearing of veils or of a halo is mandatory. Here in Canada the right to walk around confused is protected by law. This is why I do insist that the Luka Magnotta case is the story for our times. Luka is us, and we are Luka.

Chapter next...

Last week an overheated story connected American porn star Ron Jeremy to the Luka Magnotta case. It was hustled first by the commercial news media and then played with by Bloggers. The NATIONAL POST had the best coverage of the story by any Canadian paper. "Ron Jeremy courted to Play Magnotta bait in 2011 sting" The Post article is HERE. The story got quite a chewing but it had no real taste. Still I did enjoy the Post's teaser headline, which had Ron Jeremy "courted" and not "pitched" as they say in the movie/tv business. Who said "There is no romance in porn films."?

Ms. Luka Magnotta - She's out there somewhere.

The essentials of the Magnotta-Jeremy story are as follows. Luka Magnotta is a wannabe porn star, and loves the lens. Prior to committing murder in Montreal he had also posted videos of himself torturing and "murdering" kittens, and by doing so he pissed off a very dangerous crowd... Animal Protection Activists. In fact one such group in the U.S. had decided to pull a vigilante stunt and capture Luka, while recording the whole caper for reality television. The vigilantes needed to bait their hook with something appetizing enough for Magnotta to consider crossing into the United States, where he would be vulnerable to a take-down. An attempt was made to seduce Ron Jeremy, the King of Porndom, into co-starring in the production, but in the end he backed out. Once Magnotta became the story of the moment, the vigilantes decided to get some press flogging a thin tale about how their Animal Rights efforts might have prevented a human murder.

The Master Chef of Ass Meat, Mr. Ron Jeremy recently appeared on "The Peta Files". Did you know that PETA uses pornography as a fund raising tool? The essential logic to the ploy is that the older Christian crowd doesn't give a shit about animal rights, but the younger generation is passionate about doing good... especially if you make it fun. In fact the Press Releases for Jeremy's spot endorsing People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was flying around at about the same time as news broke about the heinous butchering of Justin Lin in Montreal. Like every other video celebrity, Ron Jeremy must do charity work to build profile, maintain professional contacts and to help keep the jackals at the I.R.S. at bay. The putative posse of animal rescuers in the story was said to be the big bad boys of RESCUE INK, a 'reality television' program I had never heard of. Now that I have done my research, I never want to hear of them again.

The gimmick in RESCUE INK... every "reality" show has a gimmick... is a group of tough guys with a past, all of them heavily tattooed (inked) and all born with a soft heart for little animals. One is an ex detective, but the rest are... (well, read the details in an investigative story written by Long Island, N.Y. reporter Mark Harrington in 2009 MANY IN RESCUE INK HAVE A CHECKERED PAST.)

The story which we Canadians were exposed to last week was skimpy and didn't add up. Yes, RESCUE INK were the heavily tattooed vigilantes who approached Ron Jeremy through intermediaries, including a couple of ridiculous bimbos, but what you need to know is that Jeremy has "people". You have to pay for his appearances. RESCUE INK sold just six episodes to the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC channel in 2009 but the cable-caster has gotten cold feet, and the show isn't in production any more. (A website sniff detects stink. The dog lovers at RESCUE INK share fantasies of Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino or Dylvester Stalone playing their lives in a movie!) These bad boys were looking for a comeback and couldn't write Jeremy a check. Don't judge Jeremy by how he made his living. He's no Jethro Bodine. In fact before he got into the lucrative world of ass meat he was a teacher. (According to an old interview has "a Master's degree in Special Education and two B.A.s in Theatre and Education".) The gossip we read last week in the NATIONAL POST was nonsense, but the whole Magnotta story is so grotesque and ridiculous that factoids are piling up like popping corn.

One of the few "reality" shows which we do watch and enjoy is Anthony Bourdain's NO RESERVATIONS. Hell, my kids even read his books. Bourdain is shown in this photo quaffing some Ron de Jeremy rum. (No kidding, the sausage man also has his own rum label!) Bourdain is a man of genuine wit who tries hard to deliver lines we haven't heard 10,000 times before, and he discussed the naughty side of cuisine when he hosted Ron Jeremy in an episode of his show.

The point is that there will be no Main Event. The Magnotta trial next year is irrelevant. Everybody and his dog is trying to peel themselves a layer off the Magnotta onion before the trial, and clever little bastards are out there now, hatching schemes to surpass Magnotta's super low budget production. Magnotta is everything that defines the modern era... pornography, violence, celebrity, Facebook, gadgets, etc. The craze to do something, ANYTHING, to get attention. And we're watching.

Juxtapose 3 - Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta

2012-07-06T16:07:00.001-07:00

I would not presume to compete with the folks at FRANK magazine, but there is plenty of potential for satire in this country, and the truth is that many of you found this Blog using Google's Picture Search. You probably don't even know what a Runagate is, huh? Well, I invite you to enjoy this juxtaposition of two Canadian careers that give me the creeps.

Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta are both into body culture and love to strip for the camera. That's a thunderbird tattoo Mr. T is showing off. Luka has no skin art to exhibit.

Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta both love to stage events for the camera and grew addicted to being photographed every day of their lives. To keep from boring their audience, each changes his costume, hair style and venue CONSTANTLY.

Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta rehearse their gestures in front of mirrors and work with loyal and supportive photographers.

Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta have each made a study of Canadian tastes and conceits. They will spare no effort to capture and hold the spotlight. Each, in his own exquisite fashion, was bred for fame.

There is of course a BIG difference between the theatrics of Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta. One used politics to satisfy his ego and the other used pornography. Some difference!

Juxtapose 2 - Luka Magnotta and Colonel Russell Williams

2012-07-05T21:11:00.003-07:00

Two of Canada's most infamous killers have no ties to the Mafia, or to urban drug gangs, or even to any history of spousal violence. Yet Colonel Russell Williams and porn actor Luka Magnotta share many life experiences and personality traits. Here are just a few of the very obvious one.

Many Canadians were taken aback when the Federal government authorized a CC-150 Polaris to carry Montreal cops over to Germany to take custody of Luka Magnotta. The excuses were hollow but the interesting coincidence is that the bird, No. 15005, is the same VIP Transport once flown by Col. Williams, the former Commanding Officer of 437 Transport Squadron. One of Col. Williams female victims was a military flight attendant who had also served onboard Polaris No. '05

These two men are the of the new breed of Canadian killer ... more savage, far more savvy, and with a taste for documenting their killings in the minutest detail.

- Luka Magnotta, as the world knows, recorded every detail on of his killing and sodomizing of the body of Jun Lin. Wing Commander Williams recorded hours of tape of the rapes and murders he committed and he kept voluminous notes and trophies.

- both came from dysfunctional, broken homes, with parents who "called it quits" rather early.

- both have experimented with personal identity and were younger men under different names - Magnotta was Eric Newman in Ontario and Williams was Russ Sovka in Ontario.

- both enjoyed posing as women. Williams had a huge collection of women's underwear and enjoyed posing in bikinis and bras. Magnotta, as we know, relished makeup and could pass as a woman.

- both were very mobile, very social and skillful at deceiving their closest friends.

One important new twist - Luka wanted to join the "big league" of celebrity killers and was aware of the governments suppression of the Karla Homolka tapes and of the Russell Williams video. So he made sure his video testament got uploaded before he left Canada. This is the criminal novelty which we will see again in the near future.

So parents, as we are on the threshold of a "new age" in this great land, perhaps it is time to worry less about marijuana in your teens sock drawer, and focus more on who they believe they are, and who they fantasize becoming. Just a thought.

Canadian Idol Luka Magnotta now has a fan following, just as he had hoped to achieve. Some of the laudatory comments I've read on Facebook are almost beyond belief. Embarrassed by a crime which touched even Parliament Hill (body parts mailed to Federal Party offices) our government went so far as to apologize to China for Mr. Magnotta's crimes. The media rubbed it in, and his landing at Mirabel Airport got better coverage than the arrival of Royals. Come to think of it - some of the Royal Family have also flown on Polaris No. 15005.

JUXTAPOSE 1 - Bev Oda - the Fall from Grace

2012-07-05T15:57:00.001-07:00

My last article was rather lengthy and a tad intense, but I am convinced that Luka Magnotta's theatrics have opened a portal into something very dark and unfortunately, very Canadian. But I must take a breath and step back from Luka for a day or two.

The expression "One Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words" is certainly NOT a Chinese proverb. It is usually held to a "thousand" words, and in spite of what Wikipedia will assure you (ARTICLE), buttressed by plenty of Internet contagion, advertising executive Fred Barnard did not coin the phrase. The "proverb" should be the unofficial MOTTO of the Legion of Lazy Bloggers who scrape and paste pictures, rather than trying to write words.

In the proposition that a little humour is good for one's mental health, I'll be offering a series of Juxtaposed images - as a break between the longer articles in the Blog.

Canadian MPs waiting for carriages to arrive, circa 1875. It was Ottawa in the age of silk hats, walking sticks and horse drawn transportation. These dandies were conscious of the presence of the camera and of their image as members of a political elite.

[Coll. of the Runagates Club Blog]

Newly resigned M.P. Bev Oda, Minister of the Crown. In this photo she was caught in a sour mood and needing her nicotine - in front of the House of Commons. You could almost feel sorry for her IF you were not aware of the millions of dollars of media training Parliamentarian's get at our expense. Bev just does not give a shit. She's 68 now and ready to lay it down in the sunny Caribbean. [Photo taken by Chris Roussakis]

Editorial comment - While I'm not a Tory, I take no pleasure from Ms. Oda's fall from grace, although the ankle biters have just cause for listing her many excesses - epitomized by the infamous $18 dollar glass of orange juice. Today's updated burst of outrage is HERE.

Still, how is it that Ms. Oda gets kicked around but the truly odious Adrienne (Pon) Clarkson, the retired Empress of Canada - still gets to burn up our tax money from her elitist eyrie in France? Grrrrr! Bev Oda is a penny pincher compared to the wicked queen of the north, Madame Clarkson.

Luka Magnotta - Everything is an attempt to be human ...even murder

2012-07-03T23:36:00.001-07:00

For all of the month of June, we Canadians were force-fed large servings of Luka Magnotta, a young chameleon who has left a long trail of evidence he designed with the intent to taunt investigators and tantalize the media. As details emerged of his outrageous murder (by ice pick) and dismemberment (by steak knife) of a gentle Chinese immigrant student, I must admit I was half expecting the Magnotta story to end with another "suicide by police encounter". But he surrendered without struggle in Germany, and now we get to follow his multi-million dollar show-trial in 2013. I'm not the first to mention that the Magnotta story is a variant of another recent Canadian murder - the Mark Twitchell case. The FACEBOOK Generation is obsessed with drawing attention to itself and too often with turning its sickest fantasies into video productions which might achieve "Mickey and Mallory" style (NATURAL BORN KILLERS) celebrity in exchange for some cold blooded entertainment.

Actually what comes to mind when I ponder Magnotta's work... and it is WORK, is the poetry and art of William Blake. I'm not referring to Blake's Red Dragon paintings one of which gets ripped up and eaten by the serial killer Francis Dolarhyde in the movie RED DRAGON (2002). I refer to Blake's lesser known print and accompanying verse:

"Everything is an attempt/ To be human"

You don't have to be a philosopher or a psychologist to recognize the confusion and anxiety spreading in our culture. The generation behind me is, I think, rather disturbed and some of the evidence of that turmoil is the fragmentation of personality and widespread experimentation with all aspects of identity, lifestyle and kinship. If there is no God.... if Patriotism is bunk... if Family is a dying proposition...if nationality, sexual orientation, and community are matters of whim and wealth.... then what does it truly mean to be human? Isn't murder just a more dramatic form or expression than profanity? Luka Magnotta is a marvellous example of human adaptation in a changing environment. There are thousands like him living in every city in Canada. The 21st Century is just underway and already the U.S.A. has elected two presidents who started life with different surnames, and each of whom through force of will, forged new identities which proved attractive in the political marketplace. Most of us will recognize the callous killers who, like Magnotta (born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman), emerge from broken homes, but we should pay equal attention to the master manipulators who attain celebrity without resorting to to homicide.

I did not choose to write this article with the intent to provoke or to shock. In fact I am still reeling from a conversation I had with a 15 year old student just one week ago, and writing helps me deal with it. The boy, a Taiwanese immigrant, lives with his mother in an expensive home in Vancouver's wealthy West side. His father is "an astronaut" - meaning he attends to his business in far off Taiwan and returns to Vancouver now and then. The boy, I'll call him Randy, attended a big boozer with about twenty of his high school chums. There were five girls present. All are Asian and all come from money. The highlight of the party was watching and discussing the full-length video of the murder of Justin Lin, which one of the Vancouver students had downloaded from the Internet. I thought Randy was putting me on, but he was unwilling to be disbelieved so he ran me through the whole sequence ... from the killing, to Magnotta partially dismembering Lin Jun and setting his severed head to the side .... to his sodomizing a headless corpse. Imagine!

I haven't yet decided which is more ghastly, Magnotta's crimes, or the idea of twenty Vancouver teenagers crowding around a computer screen to watch the heartless destruction of a human life. Randy's girlfriend was present, and I asked him "Don't you think that part of being "a man" is to protect your girlfriend from that kind of horror? Do you think you acted like a man?" His bland reply to me was "Well I was sitting between her and the screen. She didn't see most of it." He insisted that wasn't the worst video he'd seen at a party. They had watched "Al Quaeda videos" downloaded from the Internet in which Westerners had begged pitifully to be spared, but had their heads cut off anyway. Randy said that listening to people beg for life was far worse than watching the Magnotta butchery, although his friends were "really pissed off" that he had killed a Chinese. I know that Randy has been flirting with the gang life, and his mother worries. I asked him if he understood that watching the Magnotta video and similar party tapes had changed him, and that he was more likely to use a baseball bat than his fists the next time someone "dissed" his girlfriend. He rejected my assertion and said that among his tight group of friends only one talks openly about killing, and is cold enough to kill. (A teen who lost his parents to an auto accident and is intensely angry.) One is enough.

...We are all quite used to homosexual imagery by now because it pops up on any unfiltered PC. When Eric Newman made this (photos) porno video for STREET BAIT of Vancouver in 2003 he had not yet legally changed his name to LUKA MAGNOTTA. It was early on established that he took the name from an old Computer game called RIPPER, which showcased a sadistic killer named Vince Magnotta, played by actor Christopher Walken.

ONE LUNATIC, ONE ICE PICK - produced, directed and starring Luka Rocco Magnotta Magnotta's last movie would be one which he would produce, direct and cast himself as the killer. He entitled his snuff film ONE LUNATIC, ONE ICE PICK and he began promoting it on the Internet ten days before he actually committed murder in Montreal. People did notice his moves.

BestGore.com of Edmonton, Alberta earned a visit from the police when they mirrored Magnotta "Lunatic" video, but in fact they had not done anything illegal. The Internet is awash with thousands of videos just as ghastly, if not worse than the Canadian made snuff film.

Our world is filled with so much bizarre, extreme and downright ludicrous violence that I think we have lost our perspective and we're not likely to recover it. A few weeks ago I downloaded a screen capture of Jun Lin's severed throat. (photo above) I didn't look at it for any longer than it took to file the image neatly away. Then a few days later later I found myself watching the re-runs of Season Four BREAKING BAD on AMC. Perhaps you recall the episode where Gus slits a throat with a box cutter and Walt and Jesse are forced to watch. We see the victim react .... with terror filled eyes, gasping for life, until finally the light goes out in his eyes... he drops to the floor and the red gore of his lifesblood spreads toward Walter White's shoes. I recall thinking "Jesus Christ, I wouldn't download that Mad dog Magnotta's video, but I just watched a killing equally brutal and totally convincing. Where is the boundary between fact and fiction.?" If you look closely at Luka Magnotta's life, and perhaps take an honest look at your own, you will probably realize we are living our lives without boundaries. I am convinced that Canada has ignored plenty of Magnotta's and one by one, they are going to demand that we pay attention.

adidas Shackle Shoes - the Internet stomps on Brand's product launch

2012-06-20T23:15:00.001-07:00

I've never worn an adidas product but I have to admit these Shackle Shoes in Inmate Orange are kick-ass. In fact if a pirate edition turns up in a local Chinese night market I will be tempted. Of course I would prefer my plastic shackles in Canadian Taxpayer Red. ... I'm acutely aware of who my masters are. I've never worn a prison jumpsuit but millions of Americans have, and that's the point. adidas was hoping to cash in on the bravado of inmates past and present, and make a bundle. On June 14th the foot-ware conglomerate began promoting a new shoe, the "JS Roundhouse Mid" on its Facebook page. (I'm not into sneaker semiotics, so I don't get any of that.) The teaser line read "Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?" The product is already manufactured, in China of course, and was slated for an August 2012 release. Then something interesting happened. A few shrill agitators (the likes of the felonious Jesse Jackson) mouthed off about the Shackle Shoe, forging spurious links between the gaudy foot ware and the American slave-holding era which ended 147 years ago. adidas lost its nerve. Read "Adidas 'shackle' shoes cancelled amid slavery controversy".

So where did the idea spring from? Credit is given to Jeremy Scott, the Tim Roth lookalike scowling at us in this photo. Mr. Scott and adidas were planning to cash in on the fact that more millions of U.S. citizens have done time in prison or jail than have served in the military. For a quick take on the staggering numbers read United States incarceration rate on Wikipedia. A D.O.J. report found that in 2006 over 7.2 million Americans were in prison on probation or on parole... that is 1 out of every 32 U.S. citizens! If you are a trend watching bunch like they are in the fashion sneaker biz, that is a juicy demographic. And don't you believe that inmates aren't consumers of trend-ware.

There are many articles I could point to profiling inmate fashion in the exercise yard, but for a one-minute taste, read "Croc-style shoes proving popular in local jails". It's HERE. In the past year inmates of just one jail bought 215 pairs, at $15.99, to match their issue jumpsuits. I'm reminded of the title of a book I read twenty years ago, IF EVERYBODY BOUGHT ONE SHOE. It is about doing business with the Chinese, and although the book is long out of date, the sentiment applies. If even a fraction of the American inmate population got the point (the joke?) and bought a pair of Shackle Shoes, adidas and Scott would make out like bandits.

Then there is the super-cheapo variety of shoe. The real thing - prison issue. Inmates housed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wear these slip-ons, imported from China and which cost that nearly-broke State less than a bag of birthday balloons at your local Dollarama.

Since the U.S. Government activated the infamous prison camp for Muslim militants at Guantanamo, Cuba the market has been flooded with an array of new-fangled restraints, masks and gags, some of which are produced in Inmate Orange. The Yanks force their Muslim detainees to wear Inmate Orange to emphasize they are CRIMINALS and not POW's. This photo shows a prisoner sporting felt-bottomed orange slippers and cushioned leg irons with non-pick locks.

These gals are wearing a similar type of slip-on footware into court. Notice that their legs are also shackled, a rather odious form of restraint which has become a matter of routine in many jurisdictions south of the border and, which will probably become routine in Canada before long.

And finally, a graphic borrowed from Wikipedia which shows another wretched statistic from 2006. That year nearly 5% of American Black males were in prison or jail. If you extrapolate these annual figures you come to understand that far, far more American Blacks have been imprisoned by the courts than were ever held in bondage by slave owners. "Inmate Orange" and shackle shoes are an obvious pairing and I was amused to discover that one author boldly discusses colour politics in her "Orange is the New Black - My Year in a Women's Prison". Check it out HERE on Amazon.com.

British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) boldly compared to an organized crime organisation

2012-05-17T09:34:00.005-07:00

I was about to toss out a month of unread local newspapers when guilt got the better of me. I did a quick traipse through the pile. It became a profitable five minutes when I found an editorial written by Mischa Popoff, described as a"Freelance political writer". It was published in the BURNABY NOW on April 13th, 2012 and since 99% of the copies have been recycled by now it deserves to live a little longer on the Internet. It's a gutsy piece.

Popoff describes the demands and tactics of the B.C. teacher's union as "organized crime, plain and simple". More, he discusses at length the intimidation process which renders taxpayers and parents helpless in the face of teacher power over their children, a chilling process he says is "a quite effective form of totalitarianism". In case any reader assume that he is just employing hyperbole for effect, he returns to his characterization "Mafia" in the concluding sentence. It's his thesis, and he sticks to it.

Now you have to live in Burnaby to understand what a sea change this guest editorial represents. The Burnaby Now is a union shop and when I arrived in the 1990s "editorial" was firmly in control of NDP flacks who learned their strategy and tactics while starting out on the organ of the provincial NDP. The NOW in the 90s didn't even pretend to be interested in free speech. The paper had "a mission". It is quite clear that attitudes have changed. Staff at the NOW actually work for their pay and have little sympathy for the greedy pigs of the BCTF who have become blood ticks sucking on the ass of the helpless BC taxpayer.

What next? How about starting a discussion on finally getting rid of "Big Box Schools" and an archaic system that was created to provide workers for a ballooning industrial economy? This is post-industrial Canada and frankly, soon to be post-literate Canada, and we need to transform the school system by investing in electronic delivery of instruction in multiple languages and skill levels. The only obstacle preventing progress in B.C. Education is, as Popoff says, "organized crime".

Hoodie Politics 2 - Trayvon Martin auto portrait is more revealing than over-wrought CNN journalism

2012-03-27T13:52:00.023-07:00

AUTO portrait, Trayvon Martin, from Twitter. CNN says Trayvon died with a bag of candy and a can of iced tea in his hands. Trayvon's momma says he was murdered because he was a black kid trespassing in a gated White community. Somebody is dysfunctional in all this. Maybe it was Trayvon? Maybe it's the media?

Damn! I'm starting to think Michael Moore's production company owns shares in CNN. Cable News coverage of the TRAYVON MARTIN STORY plays just like one of Big Mike's precious info-tainments, and today the voices are becoming more shrill. In spite of the evidence being unearthed by harder-working journalists, which effectively tarnish the temporary halo of the Florida youth (and Presidential adoptee) Trayvon Martin, the CNN "Situation Room" continues to carry water for the Democratic Party. This afternoon a CNN meat-puppette (all teeth and hair, and zero integrity) simply scoffed at the idea that lighter Black youth (Trayvon Martin) had enough man in him to sucker punch the older and heavier Hispanic George Zimmerman. (George's mother is Peruvian.) Ms. Media then delivered the demands of the mob... people "want that man arrested!"

" NO LIMIT NIGGA " - Unfortunately for Trayvon's momma, whom you'll soon witness tearing up and clasping hands with OPRAH, her son was not the "All American kid" the media have portrayed him to be. The man who shot Trayvon is not perfect either... which of us is? But George Zimmerman deserves the benefit of the doubt, and thankfully Spike Lee's criminal attempt to get him lynched failed. Trayvon called himself "NO LIMIT NIGGA" and his posturing at school and on Twitter, say much about where his head was. If you wish to read a collection of his Twitter ranting they are archived here - @NO_LIMIT_NIGGA Reading his nasties you soon realize that yes, he was spoiling for confrontation or simply to build "cred". You would not have wanted to encounter Trayvon in the middle of a dark night. All you would register is is tall unknown male in a hoodie, and he isn't whistling Broadway show-tunes!

Trayvon Martin posted to Twitpic a photograph of his sports shoes. He also posted photos of a girl he liked, a tray of food from his school cafeteria (humour perhaps) and one of the football team.

Actually the BLACK PANTHER Party has a $$$Bounty on Mr. Zimmerman, which is why the police have told him to remain in hiding for the time being. Many Black vigilantes are calling for blood and no doubt, this time around, there will be urban rioting associated with the U.S. Presidential election. The American news media is panting for it, and TV News usually has its way. Horrible as it sounds, Hollywood movie Director "Spike" Lee last week went so far as to Twitter (the mistaken) address of George Zimmerman, hoping to trigger a modern day lynching. I deem Lee's cowardly act [read details] an inter-state felony and the uber-mouthy "Spike" should be under arrest. Now THAT would be justice. I would like to see "Spike" served a dose of his own vicious medicine, but that will never happen.

Trayvon Martin's sketch of his own name "Tray", posted to Twitpic Jan. 18, 2012.

For a thorough account of the whole sordid mess you can read the Shooting of Trayvon Martin wiki. It is one of several thousand U.S. crimes which have their own article now on Wikipedia.

Hoodie politics - more tribal symbolism, more Madison Avenue branding

2012-03-26T13:33:00.009-07:00

The Presidential Hoodie on display. This woman displays Obama on a protest stick. Nice! The fellow in front of her doesn't even know how to wear his hoodie. It's supposed to cover the face, not the ears. I can still identify him in a lineup.

Trayvon's parents, Ms. Sabrina Fulton and Mr. Tracy Martin plan to lead all the hoodie's they can muster in New York City. American political theatre at its finest.

The Florida boy who posed in a HOODIE. In an era when people photograph themselves on a daily basis, it's not surprising that Trayvon Martin took the photo he will be remembered by. What is culturally significant is that millions of Americans now choose to identify with a garment and are making it symbol of the coming Black on White Presidential Election. I thought hoods went out of fashion with the notorious Ku Klux Klan?! When social equality is just NOT GOOD ENOUGH, revert to totems, costumes and other cheap symbolism. It's all so damned sad and so manipulative. "Let's march, then march some more, and then... let's march again!" For more on the famous garment read HOODIE on Wikipedia.

This is so sickening it beggars belief. Sabrina Fulton has applied for copyright on her dead son's name. "I AM TRAYVON" and "JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON". Is she going to spend the rest of her life feeding off this sad and senseless killing? Is that all she is capable of? Isn't it enough she's helping save a failed Presidency? Isn't that enough history to satisfy an ego?

OBAMA - "If he had a son..." Two killings in Florida

2012-03-23T09:41:00.013-07:00

Damn... the trash in the news today is so painful. The media, especially the American broadcast media, is shovelling shit like there is no tomorrow. I couldn't begin to pick the creepiest, slimiest chunk of info-tainment oozing from from my computer this morning... but I guess it is a tossup between "The Hunger Games" becoming the latest box office smash (shades of TWILIGHT vampire dross!!!) or the news that schools in England are now banning elementary school students from declaring each other "best friends". SCHOOLS BAN CHILDREN MAKING BEST FRIENDS Being best-buds is now deemed elitist and marginalizing. Ouch! England is after all the country which invented the perfected dystopian future... BRAVE NEW WORLD and NINETEENEIGHTY-FOUR. The Brits are rapidly achieving double-plus newness, but the Yanks are only just behind them.

Likewise I thought we had already seen the label sewn to the bottom of the bag we know as media-sycophancy ... but this guy Barack Obama can do and say virtually anything he pleases and the media kiss his ass on both cheeks. It's astounding to witness. Worse, the Americans claim to reject the concept of Monarchy and yet the Presidential family has become nothing else but a Royal Family. All monarchs have Praetorian guards... our Queen does, and her successor surely must, because it is inevitable that one day a Muslim party will seize control of Britain's Parliament...

The Americans understand the concept of a dystopian future because THEY are creating one for themselves ... it's a highly militarized future... a shoot first - explain later future, when every killing will have a clearly defined purpose and also be as legal as a Presidential Decree. So the White House, which once made do with a Praetorian guard at Battalion strength, has now been reinforced to Regimental strength. Obama's security detail is now more than capable of defending his excellency from even a rogue U.S. military unit or the deranged pilot of a U.S. military aircraft. Nobody outguns the Presidency. Sad and sick.

Just last week one of Obama's daughters went off on an urban-safari to Mexico City... did the media carp about the White House dispatching a full platoon of Secret Service to provide defensive cover? Not a bit of it. (Nor did they carp with the Obama's recently took a full Battalion of Secret Service as escort on their Hawaiian vacation.) A sickening, Gucci wallet spectacle indeed. To my tired eyes the metaphor was a troop of U.S. cavalry heading out from Fort Apache for a sortie deep into hostile territory.

I always check out Drudge in the morning and the headline today is a direct quote from His Royal Highness Barack the First, the Lion of Chicago... who declared yesterday "If I had a son, he's look like Trayvon." He was talking skin colour... he was talking about good looks, talent and aspiration. But he also knows full well, that is NOT how it is going to play out.

This is politics, not parenting. Obama's staff has urged him to wade into the latest Florida killing of .... (to quote Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine) "a young black male... a young Afro-American...". If you are an American you already know every itty-bitty detail about Trayvon's life, or at least as much as you are ever going to know. So now the White House, in the run-up to the November national election, has embraced the Michael Moore image of the victimized young black male as its poster boy. Bad move slick! Trying to turn this into a race-thing is not something the Democratic Party is capable of handling with finesse and it's guaranteed to deep-six all those Republican cross-over voters who were willing to give a demo-crat a chance. The Demo-thugs are hogging the camera already and it makes butt-ugly politics.

I see something of interest in an outburst yesterday by Geraldo Rivera, who like everyone else, is seeking to explain the sad Trayvon Martin shooting . He pegged Trayvon Martin as a 'posture boy' NOT a political 'poster boy' as the Democrats will spin him. Millions of young people, including Canadian youth, choose to use fashion as a statement - too often the hoodie. Trayvon used a hoodie to frame his baby face, and it worked. He WAS perceived as threatening. Listen to what Geraldo had to say... LEAVE THE HOODIE AT HOME. Bear in mind that Rivera has already been FORCED to disavow his comments, or risk putting his own career in the crosshairs.

Now for a little juxtaposition - another story of a black youth in Florida. This is also from today's news, but it's unlikely you will encounter the tale, because Mr. Obama has NOT embraced Shawn Martin. If you are a Canadian Snowbird you may have read a little of the story of Shawn Tyson, the good looking 16 year old who executed two British tourists, but not before humiliating them them a little before pulling the trigger. Read the original story for yourself HERE. It takes just two minutes.

The Big Bang, Fred Hoyle and Homicidal Maniacs

2012-03-02T15:38:00.014-08:00

I have more interests than I can count on my fingers and toes. Read my Blog profile and you will find a sampling of the distractions which take up my time.

Today I encountered a Blog Writer who is a master of the genre. I spell his name out in Bold Face, Italic type - arterial blood coloured letters... ADAM CURTIS He calls his Blog "The Medium and the Message". Its HERE.

"A MILE OR TWO OFF YARMOUTH" is the most recent article he has posted. Enjoy it here.

In the article, an essay really, Curtis pulls together diverse strands of 20th Century culture into a rope with which to hang his ideas on the gallery wall. It's quite an exhibit. He delves into British contributions to astronomy, including how the term "BIG BANG" was popularized by the Brit media. Would you believe that an obscure British movie about a group of people telling each other ghost stories, had a hand in it? Later he deals with the discoveries contributed by the (then) emerging field of Radio Astronomy.

Curtis delves into the life and public campaigns of Fred Hoyle, scientist and popularizer of science, who preceded Carl Sagan on the television screen by two decades. Hoyle believed that pure mathematics is the only true expression of God and that those scientists who clung to the "Big Bang" theory did so because of the influence of the Book of Genesis. The Big Bang was Genesis on a cosmic scale.

The Blog article discusses a great deal more, and has links to very unique video archives, including impossible to find British television. How about a film which "begins with an economist called Bill Phillips who built a giant computing machine run by water to demonstrate how to make an economy expand, yet not run out of control." Why? Because the article reminds us that the public are suckers for pseudo-science and alternating explanations for phenomena which baffle the common folk. When "Nuclear Winter" doesn't work anymore, try "Global Warming".

All popular culture exists to be cannibalized by even more popular culture. DEAD OF NIGHT (Ealing Studio 1945) was a prescient film with dramatic elements which may have inspired Rod Serling's thinking as he prepared TWILIGHT ZONE for production. It certainly impressed a group of astronomers who had been arguing the merits of the Big Bang theory even as Europe tore its guts out, from 1939-1945. The audience experiences a circular composition with no satisfactory explanation of behaviour - the scariest story involves a murderous stage performer who is possessed by the 'mind' of the puppet on his lap. Fred Hoyle, who walked with Britain's most brilliant thinkers, believed that man's brain is insufficient to ever understand and explain how and why the universe exists. Perhaps that is why I find his biography so interesting.

Curtis has much to say about movies and television and our instinctive need to sentimentalize everything. We crave simplistic explanations for everything, and black and white certainties are preferable to the rich potential of experimentation. (For example our Big Box schools and monolithic public education systems don't work, but we refuse to consider alternative models.) Curtis himself has made a study of modern experiments in which mathematical models are applied to real world scenarios. As we know the Holy Grail which all governments and corporations are seeking is a constant rate of expansion with reliable stability. I was primed for the Curtis message this afternoon after having a brief argument about the real estate market in Vancouver. I don't consider myself a "dissenting voice" but clearly there is something dark and very unpredictable going on here and it has nothing to with the "law" of supply and demand. I'm not waiting for the property market to collapse or even hoping for it to collapse, but I have a sense of a market driven by psychological factors which cannot be trusted, and of a price structure which will not endure.

Jump to Curtis' The Medium and the Message and read back through his archived articles. Use the links to videos which he provides. You will be glad you did.