Category: Thought

Random thoughts occurring to a random bloke…

The Same Standard?

What’s with people? You’d think with the debacle of the “War On Terror,” and Iraq specifically, American “Conservative’s” would scrutinize what they have to say a little harder before talking their shit, eh? I know, how dare I.

So it’s been 10 days since WikiLeaks released 76,000 classified Afghan war documents — and yet some 15,000 additional documents have been deliberately withheld, for the very reason they’re being accused of disregarding already, that being security — that describes the war as something other than what the Imperial Propagandist’s wish us to believe. For the record, I think it’s reprehensible! For attempting to hold Barack Obama to his “promise” of transparency? Where does WikiLeaks and its founder and “editor-in-chief,” Julian Assange, get off? Don’t they know the American Government is not responsible to anyone? Least of all its citizens? I mean, fuck, right?

But what’s done is done. And we now have what has been described as a “game changer” by some, but the American Government itself, up ’til last week at least, has labelled it as “nothing new?” Yet their attacks on WikiLeaks and Assange, have increased? All led by the irresponsible Right-Wing Douche-bag’s who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground, on the best of days? Am I missing something? I can’t believe I’m typing this, what happened to the American Government? It wasn’t that long ago where they, while under the rule of George W. Bush, chose a stance and, rather arrogantly, stuck with it all the way into the ground!

I’ve said this before, here goes one more time, is this what hope brought us?

Continue reading The Same Standard?

The Shoe and The Other Foot

Would you get a load of this? This is my 300th post. And as it just so happens I got something pretty interesting — well I think — to write about, too. Huh.

Yesterday a friend forwarded me a link to a BBC article about a “Locked-in” man’s right-to-die. She was interested in my take. Seeing how I was once in nearly the exact same predicament — although Tony Nicklinson’s “syndrome” sounds like the Cadillac model of the “syndrome” I experienced, he can eat and nod, I couldn’t. However the more I contemplated the story, and the complex issues seemingly at hand, the more convoluted my stance became.

I’ve written about this issue previously, at the beginning of February of last year Eluana Englara, an Italian woman in the throws of a “17 year coma, as a result of a car accident,” and was having her “fate,” if you will, decided by people other than herself. Simply because she wasn’t in the position to make her wishes known. I’ll say it again, this was, and always will be, a very complicated issue. One for which there is no easy answer…

Continue reading The Shoe and The Other Foot

Better Late Than Never, I Hope

In recent weeks I’ve really taken to reading The Dissident Voice. I’m nearly caught up, speaking from when I first subscribed to their feed, ’til now — with special thanks, in large part, to Mac OS Xs Voice Over Utility. And given what I’m writing about today, it’s somewhat ironic that technology is so beneficial.

Yesterday, on the aforementioned website, I came across a particularly compelling article, labelled Earthbound. Which ended;

“As the oil age recedes in the mind’s rear view mirror, science fiction will become a genre about the past. Pondering those who needed machines to do just about everything, from brushing their teeth, to writing, to self pleasure, future readers will be amused, disgusted and only seldom envious. Imagine a world where music was a nuisance because it had become repetitive and could not be silenced! Imagine people who could barely walk, yet flew!”

Which got me thinking. About many things, but the current state of the economy and our environment, in particular…

Continue reading Better Late Than Never, I Hope

Incredibly Damning

Three points of interest I’ve stumbled upon concerning the G20 Summit, happening in Toronto, this weekend…

  1. First the sweeping power police have been “temporarily” granted. According to The Toronto Star, “[t]he province has secretly passed an unprecedented regulation that empowers police to arrest anyone near the G20 security zone who refuses to identify themselves or agree to a police search.”
    But not only that, this regulation “was made under Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act and was not debated in the Legislature [yay democracy!]. According to a provincial spokesperson, the cabinet action came in response to an “extraordinary request” by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. […] The regulation kicked in Monday and will expire June 28, the day after the summit ends. While the new regulation appeared without notice on the province’s e-Laws online database last week, it won’t be officially published in The Ontario Gazette until July 3 — one week after the regulation expires.”
  2. The Security wall erected to “protect” the world “leaders” from protestors. I think the much more relevant question is, where the hell is our protection, from them? But beside the point.
    Stephan Christoff (in his interview on today’s Democracy Now broadcast) said that the “three-layer massive security fence around downtown, [was] constructed by a corporation, SNC-Lavalin from Montreal.” The very same Canadian corporation who “produced millions of bullets between 2003 and 2005 for the U.S. Army at the same time of the invasion of Iraq.” Shocking. That is if you’ve never read Yves Engler’s book The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, where he details this (I believe), and a number of other instances, where Canada’s was and is, most definitely, involved in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
    And, “bringing it home,” Stephan went onto say “[s]o this is a corporation that’s inherently tied to the military-industrial complex internationally and also has been tied to the clampdown on dissent here in Toronto.”
  3. And, lastly, the emphasis on violence, and its condemnation in relation to the protests, by my Government, specifically. This is something I made passing reference to in my previous post, the absurd irony of it all. Let’s see, it’s perfectly acceptable for the G20 to turn around and use the very thing they “deplore” to implement the same policies people are protesting?

I don’t know about you, but this is so very interesting, not to mention incredibly damning…