So Obama's Won Again...

I'm going to do my best to NOT make this a "bad winner" rant, but I already know that the Tea Party is throwing conniptions over Barack Obama winning re-election, so I'm going to try to spell this out in as non-partisan a way as possible.

Formally, America has been around for 236 years. In that time, it has survived a full-blown revolution, harsh weathers and hard summers, smallpox, polio, cholera, bird flu, e coli. and AIDS. It has survived the Civil War, the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, and countless battles with Indian tribes (which I'll refrain from elaborating on, for these purposes). It has survived two World Wars (one of which nearly wiped out everyone outside of Germany), the Cold War, and various other conflicts of varying and debatable importance.

It has survived the Great Depression, and several other recessions that rivaled it. It has survived the 92 percent tax rate on the rich, it has survived Reagonomics, it has survived various labour crises and it has survived spikes in oil prices. It has survived 9/11, Pearl Harbour, Waco, Columbine, Virginia Tech, the Atlanta Olympic bombing, abortion clinic bombings, and more acts of domestic terrorism than I care to count. It has survived the divisions of the Vietnam War, talk radio, Fox News, and the sabotage of the economy for petty reasons.

It has survived Watergate, Zippergate, and multiple assassinations (don't get any ideas, though). It has survived the draft, the Patriot Act, the NDAA, Gitmo, and the TSA. It has survived the red and brown scares. It has survived Prohibition, legalized divorce, interracial marriage, interfaith marriage, and the War on Drugs. It has survived McCarthyism and the Monkey Trial. And it has survived the civil rights movement, the suffragette movement, the gay rights movement, and the so-called "Moral Majority".

Yet you guys are worried about one community organizer? Whose only "crime" is that he seems to genuinely care about everyone in America? And on top of that, it just seems to be because he's black, and his father was Arabic?
Are you serious?

America has already survived four years of Barack Obama, and will probably weather another four years just fine -- just because it's already survived MUCH worse. You don't have to agree with the guy, or like him personally, but if you honestly think that he's going to destroy the country, you REALLY need to see a psychiatrist -- and hey, it's more affordable now.

All sarcasm aside, the best advice I can give to the far-right is this: shut off the hateboxes, and step outside of your little corner of the country. See other points of view, and listen to the people around you, even if you'd otherwise disagree with them. Liberalism may not be the answer to all problems, but it's hardly the mental illness or capital crime that some of you think it is. At the very least, the more you learn to tolerate others' views, the better off you're going to be. Making the country -- or world -- a nicer place to live in, won't be easy work, but it's DEFINITELY something worth trying.

Do you have the nerve to?

Conservative Standards

I can't help but notice, lately, just how low conservatives like to set the bar for themselves -- and their peers. In Canada, the Conservative Party is just fine with having its move to strike hate speech laws, applauded by skinheads. The Republican Party -- with some exceptions -- has been perfectly fine with being taken over by incompetent wingnuts who are so livid with a black man being the President of the United States, that they have flat out stated that their first priority is not fix America's sagging economy, but to get rid of him at all costs.

For that matter, they have little apparent problem with hitching their economic hopes to a presidential team that was respectively near-to-dead-last in job creation, and whose only economic idea is to raise taxes on the middle class while cutting upper-class taxes even more. This goes against any kind of financial sense, never mind the overwhelming view of the people the Republicans are trying to convince to vote for them.

For that matter, Republicans -- by and large -- seem to have no problem with being associated with people who wear their utter hatred of blacks, gays, and women on their sleeves... and yet are so stupid and juvenile that they will still insist they aren't bigots. This is despite campaigning on voter suppression that targets blacks, revoking most gay rights, banning women from military service, and forcing impregnated rape victims to carry the offspring of their attackers (and probably give them visitation rights, as is already the case in many states).

This is the company that conservatives today keep -- either by their direct support, or by their compliance. It's true that not all conservatives are like this... but it begs the question of where they were, when the extremists were given the keys to the car. It also begs the question of why so many of them are still counting themselves among the number of these people who are not just offensive and inept, but borderline terrorists. Was there truly nothing you could do to stop it? Is there nothing you can do now?

If I were a member of any political group that engineered or condoned open bigotry, sabotage of the country for no good reason, election tampering, violence against people who simply want to help others, or even assassination of an elected leader... not only would I be putting as much distance as possible between myself and them, but I would be publicly speaking out about it. It's admirable that there are groups calling themselves "Republicans for Obama" -- but if it were me I wouldn't even want to call myself a Republican.
I would be far too ashamed.

The Far-Right Proves It's Not Christian

I've mostly avoided talking about the Republican candidates debates, partly because the front-runners are changing all the time, and frankly because they give people like me a little too much material (like, for instance, Mitt Romney campaigning with a white supremacist, on Martin Luther King Day). However, there is a new story that I really have to comment on, if for no other reason than it directly confirming everything I've been saying about today's conservatives.

In case you're new, I'll explain: I loathe the right-wing, particularly in North America. These are pundits and so-called leaders who are increasingly willing to boast a self-proclaimed morality one minute, and yet the next minute will do anything from scrap assistance for malnourished children, to literally encourage people to kill their own countrymen, over public health care. We've been seeing this in spades during the Republican rallies alone; candidates like Newt Gingrich openly vow to fire or arrest people for being liberal, Hermann Cain blamed the poor for being unable to find work (during the worst recession in nearly a century), Rick Santorum has based his whole campaign on bashing gays, blacks, and women (and wondering why he's being bashed back with extreme prejudice), and the less said about Michelle Bachmann, the better.

As a lower-case liberal, an agnostic, and a bisexual, it infuriates me that these people constantly say that people like me are the scum of the earth, and wear their supposed Christianity on their sleeves, and yet they themselves ignore Christ's teachings every chance they can get. Anyone who doesn't believe me, is perfectly welcome to find Gospel verses that have Jesus encouraging His followers to be selfish and bigoted hate-mongers -- but I suspect you're going to be as likely to find a recording of Aretha Franklin singing Marilyn Manson.

If you need any further proof, consider this clip of Ron Paul, at a recent debate aired on Fox News. I will say up front that I do not support Ron Paul at all (because quite frankly he's just a gentler version of these anti-rights twirps), but I have to back him up on this one because he's very much in the right.

For those who can't watch the video, here's a transcription:

RON PAUL: “My point is that if another country does to us what we do to others, we are not going to like it very much. I would say that we maybe ought to consider the golden rule in foreign policy. Don’t do to other nations what we don’t want them to do to us. We endlessly bomb these countries, and then we wonder why they get upset with us?”

AUDIENCE: [Boos]

These are voters who proclaim to all who listen, that they are TRUE Christians, and yet here they are ignoring words that allegedly came from Jesus Himself: Matthew 7:12 -- Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”

This incident alone, pretty much destroyed any claim they have ever made -- and ever will make -- to being righteous. It's bad enough when you deliberately ignore Jesus' teachings about peace, humility, selflessness, and immaterial living. It's bad enough when you totally pervert the teachings of your Lord and Saviour, to pretend that He called for the enslavement and utter annihilation of anyone different from you. But when you're flat out attacking people who recite Jesus' teachings... you're done.

2011 Douchebag of the Year

November's Morons of the Month

Please note: because of the Douchebag of the Year being announced next month, this will be the final 2011 "Moron" segment that covers an entire calendar month.

• Pennsylvania State University's Football Staff for apparently covering up severe child molestation, for several years, only for it to come out this month.


• Various Christian conservative groups (the most recent being the Hamilton Family Action Council) for crying that promoting tolerance of queer youth is a form of suppression, yet themselves promoting the kind of bigotry and violence that drives such youth to suicide.


• Mariah Yeater for falsely claiming (according to her friends and family) that pop singer Justin Bieber is the father of her baby, and demanding a DNA test in court.


• Herman Cain, his wife, and his fans for claiming that the sexual harassment claims against him are all false... even though there's no dispute that he paid multiple settlements to the women he allegedly preyed on.


• Republican Wingnuts for celebrating Halloween, with a graphic poster of a zombified Barack Obama, with a bullet wound in his head (particularly because similarly tasteless images probably sparked the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her supporters).


• The State of Michigan's Republican Government for legalizing any bullying/violence that is excused by the perpetrator's religion, which effectively legalizes the bullying of gay/Muslim/Jewish/atheist/pagan schoolchildren, and possibly legalizes religious terrorist groups.


• Stephen Harper's supporters for continuing to excuse a government that was convicted of election fraud, this month, and quietly admitted that it won't be able to keep its budget promises.


• Kim Kardashian for her crass dumping of husband Kris Humphries, barely two months after marrying him in an overblown ceremony that was broadcast for reality TV.


• The Duggar Family for keeping up their dangerous and disturbing circus-freak act, by having their 20th child.


• The State of California for continuing to slap Lindsay Lohan on the wrist... with a feather boa.


• Google/YouTube for "upgrading" the site to such an extent that no one without Chrome can upload a video, or leave messages anymore.


• Comic book artist Frank Miller -- himself barely employed, anymore -- for comparing the Occupy movement to RAPISTS. And if you're wondering, some of his more famous work, has actually attacked corrupt policemen, politicians, and the super-rich, so this is hypocritical in truly epic ways.


• Various conservative nutjobs who see nothing wrong with unarmed and occasionally frail Occupy protesters being pepper-sprayed and beaten by the cops, for no reason, yet refer to the movement itself as a bunch of criminals.


• The City of Halifax for forcibly evicting the local Occupy camp, during Remembrance Day ceremonies that commend the people who DIED to preserve our freedom of speech.


• Governor Mitt Romney for deliberately and shamelessly lying about Barack Obama in his latest campaign ad, by attributing to him a bad economic quote that actually came from John McCain.


• Every last person who made the "Twilight" books and films, and is obsessively devoted to it for creating, distributing, buying, and worshipping a sub-standard, morally appalling series that promotes sociopathic attitudes towards relationships, and glorifies teenage girls being sexually, emotionally, and physically abused by older and stronger men.

2011 Douchebag Finalists

September's Morons of the Month

• George Lucas for taking his sabotage of the Star Wars movies to such ridiculous lengths that the Blu-Ray versions of the classic films, look more and more like parodies of the Special Edition... made by a kid with Photoshop and Windows Movie Maker.
• Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Brother/Councillor Doug Ford for illustrating how well they can unite the city... but getting every last person in town enraged about their idea to turn prime waterfront land into a cheap casino resort, exclusively for the rich.
• Various Republicans/Tea Party Terrorists for shouting that a seriously ill person in America, unable to afford health insurance, should be left to die, and the so-called moderate majority of them doing NOTHING to challenge it. I'm not even exaggerating -- it was all caught on CNN during a Republican candidates debate. (and anyone who says that it was only a handful of people in the crowd shouting that... take a look at 99% of the comments on blogs and YouTube from Teabaggers and you'll find either the exact same words or the attitude behind them, being preserved in stone)
• Emperor Stephen Harper for not only trying to ram a really questionable "tough on crime" bill through Parliament, when our crime rates are at 40 year lows, but for marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11, by declaring Muslims to be the biggest threat to Canada. Well, more accurately, he said "Islamacism" is the biggest threat... but when A NATIONAL LEADER is using the tortured language of a white supremacist after a couple of beers, it's no wonder our global image is down the tubes.
• York University Student Sarah Grunfeld for falsely accusing her professor of making an anti-Semitic remark (nearly getting him fired), and refusing to recognize she'd made a mistake.
• Certain web site administrators (who will remain nameless) for dealing with racist users breaking the rules... by threatening to suspend the people that report them.
• The State of Georgia, its parole board, the US Supreme Court, and various conservative monsters for allowing and supporting the execution of convicted cop killer Troy Davis, despite there being not a shred of solid evidence that he'd killed anyone.

Some Republicans Love Dumb Laws

Did you know that in Florida, it's illegal for unmarried couples to live together? I didn't, until just a few minutes ago. Apparently it's punishable by a $500 fine, and up to 60 days in jail.

As you can imagine, a law that outdated, ridiculous and likely unconstitutional isn't enforced anymore. In fact, I just read a posting from someone claiming to be a Florida police officer, who says that his partner was laughed at by their supervisor, for trying to uphold it.

To give the Republicans some credit -- for once -- one of their Florida lawmakers is attempting to repeal it. Not surprisingly, he's running into opposition from Focus On The Family, Governor Rick Scott, and Rep. Dennis Baxley (the latter of whom, are also Republicans).

Rep. Baxley in particular -- former senior member of the Christian Coalition -- is quoted as saying “I’m not ready to give up on monogamy and a cultural statement that marriage still matters”.

This is a statement being made a lot, but I'm saying it anyway... for a party that claims to hate intrusive government and love the Constitution, it seems that many Republicans sure love to invade the private lives of American citizens.

That's to say nothing of how absurd it is to claim that this -- like, say, gay and interracial marriage -- is a threat to marriage as a whole. Most couples that live together, do so as a prelude to getting married (seriously, just how ignorant is the Christian Right?). Even the ones that don't eventually marry, are usually no less monogamous than the ones that do (and frankly, when conservatives speak out about the spousal abuse and infidelity in their traditionally married homes, then they may get on a high horse about the rest of us).

If Republicans really respect American values -- including FREEDOM -- then they need to prove it by either backing off of laws like these, or quitting office. The American way of life, does not allow for the kind of perversion that they wish to impose.

August's Morons of the Month

First a correction: Last month, I mistakenly identified Toronto Councillor Doug Ford (the brother of Mayor Rob Ford) as the Deputy Mayor. In actuality, he's just a close cohort.

ANYWAY...

• The Republicans/Tea Party for blaming Barack Obama for America's band-aid solution to the debt ceiling crisis, when the right wing went out of their way to obstruct Obama's more constructive plan, OUT OF SPITE.


• Toronto Councillor George Mammoliti for vowing publicly to hunt down all "communists" in the city. Yes, I'm serious.


• London Police for allegedly shooting dead an unarmed man, planting evidence to claim that he had shot at them first, regularly harassing and abusing coloured people and the lower class, and then wondering why the city rioted.


• London Anarchists for hijacking a major protest and using it as an excuse to burn everything to the ground, just for kicks.


• Michelle Bachmann for proclaiming that women must submit to their husbands (and people wonder why I compare the Christian Right to the Taliban), and being such an idiot that she thought that August 16 was Elvis' birthday... when it was actually the day that he died. (I'm not an expert on American pop culture either, but if I were running for president... I would look this shit up!!!)


• Hollywood for continuing its mission to remake every single film ever made... by announcing a remake of Dirty Dancing. This is particularly dumb when you consider that this is less than ten years after the sequel Havana Nights came out, which was almost a remake anyway.


• Christie Blatchford, The National Post, Michael Coren, and various conservative trolls for waiting mere hours after the cancer death of NDP/Opposition Leader Jack Layton, before calling him a manipulative opportunist, communist, and pedophile (even with no proof of any of those things), and attacking his family and supporters for having the nerve to grieve for a man who had just died on that morning.

Debt Crisis "Resolved"

Well it's official. With mere hours to spare, the debt ceiling compromise bill passed by Congress last night and this morning, got signed by President Barack Obama. It's definitely a good thing that this thing got settled, rather than letting America default on its loans, collapsing the country's economy and probably devastating most of the world as well.

But you know that I wouldn't be writing a Bored on the Corner article on it, if I didn't have some problems with it.

The particulars of this are over my head, but I'm very skeptical that this deal has done any real long term good, because it looks like the majority of the plan was to scrap trillions of dollars worth of social spending, over the next decade or two. Lots of truly innovative plans were touted, but every single one of them was shot down, usually by the conservatives in control of the House of Representatives. Particularly against meaningful action, were the Tea Party lunatics, who seem to think that defaulting on your loans is just a myth. It would be interesting to hear what their working-class constituents have to say about that, given how many people have been bankrupted in the last few years.

In my view, the most sane approach to this, would have been a mix of all of the major proposals. It goes without saying that spending needed to be clawed back, but my first target would have been the military (especially since the US has wasted tons of money on foreign wars that it has no business sticking its nose into -- Libya being a prime and contentious example, right now). Once America's troops are back on domestic soil, then we could talk about further cuts to other programs (though I wonder if any would be necessary, after a reduction that big).

It would also be utterly stupid to not address income, namely by taxing the super-rich. Now, I can already sense the conservatives reading this, itching to call me a communist (at which point I'll ask that you read this), so let me explain the point. The absolute richest people in America, make BILLIONS of dollars a year, regardless of the economy; so first of all, they have plenty of cash to spare, and I'm not convinced they'll miss a few million bucks. Second of all, while they are pocketing this insane amount of money, these same billionaires are very often cutting front-line employees; this is not only grossly unfair, but it further endangers the economy because companies need average-grossing customers, to sell anything. Finally, there are companies in the US -- like General Electric and ExxonMobil -- that pay NO INCOME TAXES WHATSOEVER, and yet are still moving jobs overseas! So excuse me if I don't feel a ton of fucking sympathy for these leeches -- especially when the people supporting them, are so cold-blooded that they would just as soon run over the homeless, as help them get decent housing.

Finally, on top of all of this, the debt ceiling did need to be raised. I know it sounds stupid to basically raise the credit limit of an entity that's trillions of dollars in debt, but to be honest with you America is so far gone that solutions are needed that cover all of the bases -- that includes giving it some room to work. So that's probably the only part of this deal that I did like (but again, I'm not convinced the signed deal has done a great deal of good over the long term).

Unless America is willing to make some major leadership decisions -- like rethinking its global actions, and representing the people instead of the corporations -- then all that this will do is delay the inevitable. Sadly, delaying the inevitable seems to be just fine to most of those suit-clad, middle-aged, wealthy sycophants in Washington.

July's Morons of the Month

There were some big winners this month, but let's start with a fairly local pest...

• Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, Councillor/Deputy Mayor Doug Ford, for not only being exposed as totally out of it when they claimed there was a lot of wasteful spending at the City of Toronto (turns out there isn't), but being so bound and determined to balance the books that they are cutting services and increasing taxes, despite promising not to in last year's election. Of particular stupidity here -- besides an incident where the Mayor flipped off a mother and child, when they pointed out he shouldn't be driving while using a cell phone -- are proposed user fees for walking through parks (I'm totally serious), and closing several of Toronto's libraries despite them signing out millions of items in the last year alone. Those supporting the latter, claim that they no longer serve a purpose that can't be met by the private sector, evidently unaware that there are a lot of poor people in Toronto!


• The Democratic and Republican Parties, for continuing to bash their heads against the wall, instead of doing ANYTHING about the fact that the American government is about to owe more than its allowed amount of money. This particularly goes to various conservatives who are totally against the super-rich paying their fair share of taxes (despite the obvious need to generate income... and the fact that even companies that pay no income taxes at all, are moving American jobs overseas), and to the Tea Party lunatics who actually insist that defaulting on debt IS A MYTH. Um... how about they ask the MANY unemployed Americans that they claim to represent?


• Sun Media, for backing out of the Ontario Press Council, because they think that the regulatory board is "too politically correct". Since a recent smear attack/interview on little-watched Sun News has set a record for the number of complaints lodged with Canada's version of the FCC, I can only guess that "politically correct" is now being used to describe "telling the truth" and "not kicking someone below the belt".

Now, onto the meat and potatoes.

• Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks, and News Corporation, for their part in the now-infamous British phone hacking scandal. Not only have the far-right tabloid wranglers been accused of (and often charged with) hacking the voice mails of celebrities, but they've apparently tampered with the voice mails of several British politicians (and leaking whatever they hear about, like what then-PM Gordon Brown's son was sick with), eavesdropped on the Royal Family, hacked the phones of dead soldiers and terrorist victims, and erased voice mails belonging to at least one murdered schoolgirl, whose killer remains at large. In other words, they have been accused of MAJOR felonies -- often with the assistance of British leaders and policemen, incidentally (the scandal has cost at least two top cops their jobs, and shaken the Prime Minister's Office). Not only that, but Murdoch's staff and their supporters claim that this has been MADE UP, and they did nothing wrong!


• The (hopefully few) supporters of Norway terrorist Anders Brevik, for openly praising the actions of a man who killed MANY children, but often trying to blame it on Brevik's victims. I personally have seen countless far-right pundits blame the mass murder on Muslims and liberals (who were the intended targets), which is akin to blaming the Jews for the Holocaust. Particularly disgusting was Glenn Beck stating on his radio show, that the children at the camp run by Norway's Labour Party -- a party founded to fight the Nazis, incidentally -- IS JUST LIKE THE HITLER YOUTH. Real classy, asshole.

March's Morons of the Month

Good God, so many to choose from... Let's start with someone who I didn't write about already, this month.

• The National Hockey League, its players, and its coaches, for refusing to take the epidemic of headshots and concussions seriously (take it from someone who's had two head injuries in my family, this is NOT something to be fucked around with). Case in point...


• Columbia soccer player Luis Moreno, for brutally kicking a wounded owl to death -- as it made eye contact with him! -- in the middle of a match... BECAUSE ITS INJURY INTERRUPTED THE GAME!


• Various members of the Republican Party for starting a full-blown witch-hunt on Muslim Americans, attempting to block young Americans from voting (because they tend to vote Democrat), and actually calling for troublemakers to start riots, disguised as striking workers.

And of course...

• Deposed Canadian Emperor Stephen Harper and The Conservative Party of Canada, for being the only government in Canadian history to be found in contempt of Parliament (which led to their defeat in a non-confidence motion, similar to being impeached), and viewing such a disgraceful milestone as "a distraction". Not only that, but during the federal election we are currently having, Harper has spent much of that time fear-mongering over a non-existent coalition of Liberals, NDPs, and Bloc Qubecois... despite the fact that such a coalition is not only valid under Canadian law, but that Harper himself tried to form a coalition with the NDP and Bloc, when he was the leader of the opposition.

Keep it up, Harpo -- put your head in the noose, please.

February's Morons of the Month

• The Republican Party, for their MANY attacks on women. Specifically, under the guise of restricting what kinds of abortion are funded by any health insurance, they attempted to re-define rape (essentially turning a blind eye to statutory and date rape). Then they tried to pass a bill that would have let pregnant women with LETHAL complications die, rather than be given an emergency abortion. Then, they tried to sneak in a law that would have made it legal to murder abortion doctors. And finally, at least one Republican is wanting to form "uterus police" that would have the power to arrest women for having miscarriages.

Thankfully, most (if not all) of these measures, DID NOT pass.

• "Reverend" Doctor Charles McVety, for filing a totally groundless lawsuit against former employer Crossroads Television (a conservative Christian TV station in Canada), for supposed political persecution. He was, in fact, fired for REPEATEDLY lying on the air, about homosexuals -- which got the station in trouble with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. Since this can make them lose their license, they -- quite rightly -- told McVety to cut it out, and he refused. In other words, he's suing his ex-bosses, for disciplining him when he didn't do what he was told to do.

I'll remind you, he's one of those blowhards who think that gay people, liberals, and non-Christians, lack any morals.

He also claims to be defending Canadian families, against said immorality.

• The Tea Party Terrorist Group (and Republican Representative Paul Broun), for (respectively) threatening to shoot Barack Obama, and taking it very lightly. I've already passed this on to the FBI, in Broun's home state of Georgia. If anyone reading this, can contact the Secret Service, please pass this along.

And these guys claim they are loyal Americans, and never EVER get violent? Please.

• Oh, and let's not forget the Tea Party-led government of Wisconsin, for grossly attacking unionized workers (apparently forgetting that they are officially in power to save the working-class American). This is especially rich, given that the Fox News gestapo who (quel suprise) are calling the unionists, communists and traitors, are THEMSELVES IN UNIONS.

• Emperor Stephen Harper and Minister of International Co-Operation Bev Oda, for thinking that's perfectly fine to forge a document that revokes a church group's funding (after it's been approved), and then lying to Parliament and the Canadian people about it. So much for all of that accountability, and law-and-order, that Harper promised when he was running for Prime Minister.

Finally, while I don't think it's very nice to attack imploding celebrities who have addictions, it's very hard to overlook Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen's recent antics -- one is facing the very real possibility of going to jail (apparently not getting the message), and the other's career is probably destroyed because he insulted his boss on the radio. Get better, guys -- but thanks for coming out.

January's Morons of the Month

In my last video, I already went after some of the bigger idiots and monsters we've seen in the first month of 2011 -- like Sarah Palin, The Tea Party, Fox News, and of course Jared Loughner. In this entry, I'm going to go on a bit about the other pissants and buffoons.

The mainstream Republican Party, for using an anti-abortion bill to REDEFINE RAPE. I'm completely serious. Of course, the so-called Pro-Life Robots are all kissing the GOP's boots for this bill, either not knowing or not caring that if you're underage or drugged and get abused, it sucks to be you (according to The Righteous Right _tm).

The Toronto Sun (and various conservative pundits/trolls) for telling Canadians who actually care about freedom, to get over what happened at the Toronto G20 summit. Isn't that a little like telling the survivors of 9/11 or The Holocaust to get over their pain? I don't care if police brutality is worse in other parts of the world, the fact is that 1,000 Canadians were essentially assaulted and kidnapped, for no reason whatsoever -- THAT'S FUCKING ILLEGAL, YOU MORONS. Furthermore, I'd love to know how the Sun reporters who were also wrongly arrested, feel about their co-workers and employers basically throwing them under the bus for doing their jobs.

Emperor Stephen Harper and his supporters, because they attack the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois for stoking the flames of an election, AFTER the CRAP Party unleashes its attack ads. And before anyone brings up the Liberal attack ads, I do flag all of them as spam when I see them, but I should also point out that at least the Liberal ads are attacking Harper's POLICIES, whereas the CRAP ads are attacking Michael Ignatieff PERSONALLY (and generally not telling a single bit of truth). The fact that people still expect me to think that a guy who spent MULTIPLE BILLIONS of Canadian tax dollars on projects that do no good whatsoever for Canada, and lets our industries be sold out from under us, is IN ANY WAY GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY, is outrageous. That's like saying that The Flat Earth Society should be in charge of the Smithsonian Institute, or the Aryan Brotherhood in charge of Amnesty International.

That's it for now -- give them hell.

A note to the Tea Party

So the Republicans managed to make some gains yesterday, and took back the House of Representatives. Good for them. But I would still like to say something to the Tea Party: prepare to be betrayed.

The majority of the Republicans elected into the new Congress, while calling themselves budget hawks, are the same old-school politicians you were supposed to be dead-set against. In other words, the same corporate-kissing fatcats that put the world into this recession, bailed out the banks, and have historically worsened America's economy since time immemorial. Not only that, but many of your more instigating and deranged candidates (like Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell) LOST their runs -- so will you now take the hint that running racists, lunatics, and religious fanatics isn't doing the right-wing any favours?

Anyway, in a lot of ways, this Republican victory is going to make no real difference. The same broken, corrupt system that you're complaining about, will continue to be there. And if you seriously think anything in the country will get better, I suggest you read about the budget surplus Bill Clinton passed on to George W. Bush, only for Bush to burn it at the first opportunity. I suggest you take a look at the history of the Great Depression, and how financial regulations enacted after that helped America survive most subsequent recessions with little trouble (that is, until Regan and the Bushes dismantled them, leading to the crisis we now have). These are the same regulations that Obama put back in, to protect common Americans from another collapse in the future, and which your Republican heroes are promising to get rid of. They will probably do that, by the way, not to satisfy your votes, but to satisfy the corporations that funded their campaigns.

The point is, in many ways you just wasted the last two years of America's time. The next time you want to really change the country, do it yourselves. Then, it might actually work.

The Ground Zero Mosque

Neo-Con Trolls

Election Bullshit

By now, not only is the American presidential election pretty much in high gear, but the Canadian government is making noises about wanting to pull the plug on itself and call an impromptu election (the excuse -- I mean, reason -- being that supposedly the opposition has made Parliament dysfunctional; in actuality, it's the government that's been doing that by muzzling and threatening the opposition every chance it could get).

I realize that elections are a key part of democracy, and that there's only so much that can be done to stop leaders from overriding their own laws, or to stop the kind of stupid infighting that we're seeing in the states (ie. McCain having a rather patronizing view of Barack Obama, especially considering that his newly minted V.P. nominee is a young and inexperienced governor... hmmm, sound familiar?).

In my view, governments who break election laws, block any judicial investigations, make a mockery of free elections... in general, have contempt for civil process, should automatically forfeit their stake in the election. In other words, Stephen Harper should be tossed on his ass immediately, and McCain should give up the Republican nomination to another person. But then again, that's because I have a low tolerance for stupid bullshit. That's because I was raised to have a mind of my own, and to behave like a mature adult in public.