Sooey Says

Well, since she died in a hospital in New York, I guess American privatized medicine killed her.

Posted by Sooey at 12:06 PM | Permalink

Catholic teachers out in Calgary just cancelled some sort of fundraiser for Africa because one of the adults in the Catholic Church hierarchy told them it was "inappropriate".

Seriously, Catholics - what's it like to go through life a perpetual child?

Posted by Sooey at 10:57 AM | Permalink

I have teenagers, so, even though we're pretty low energy users (I live in an apartment) we participated in Earth Hour by turning everything off and playing Skip Bo by candlelight.

The usual things happened when the power goes off - the kids talked about stuff. During this year's "let's live like it's the olden days" episode, the main topic of conversation was what I would call a "line-crossing" teacher. But what I would call line-crossing, my kids would call hilarious - in that "he's such an asshole" way that teenagers find so endlessly amusing even while their parents' hair is rising from their necks.

These days, parenting is supposed to involve a kind of hyper-vigilance that requires such "assholes" be drummed out of the teaching profession (and make no mistake - you hear the word "inappropriate" a lot - too much - but this guy actually personifies it) and yet - enh. It sounded like he was just so generally "inappropriate" (with no real teaching going on, either) that it wasn't any one kid being affected by him - it was whole classes of kids - and I stood down. Because it's one thing to think of your precious little ones having a hard time by a teacher, it's quite another to picture a classroom full of teenagers being regularly subjected to the antics of a bonafide asshole. There's something almost, dare I say, reassuring about it. Something along the lines of, "thank gawd - they ARE learning something about what it's like out here in the work world".

But I live downtown where my kids join me every weekend and not out in the suburbs where they live with their dad and go to school. And even when I was a homemaker, and a classroom volunteer, I stayed away from any actual involvement with the school. I read to the grade ones - even after my kids were out of grade one - because it was fun. And that was pretty much the extent of my involvement with my kids' educations. By the time they'd reached high school, I couldn't have told you the names of any of their teachers - except for the assholes - and to tell you the truth, I was quite happy with that arrangement. It's probably genetic. My mother WAS a teacher and she didn't go to a single Parent/Teacher interview. Not one. She always took our side in any kind of dispute, but only to offer up such reassurances as, "he's an asshole - hope you don't get him next year" or "he's a drunk, don't let him breathe on you" or "she's a nut with bad judgment - her husband's an idiot".

I don't even offer up that because I have no idea who these people are. Sure, I hear stuff in my bookclub, which is based in my old life out in the suburbs, but it's like hearing about events that don't concern me - even though their kids and my kids are often in the same classes. And I've heard this teacher discussed - and it's not good. But there's not much for it beyond firing the fellow, either. Also, and only I think this is relevant, not one of my high school teachers would have passed the sniff test with my bookclub - not one. Not the one who necked with a student coming home from a field trip (and later became a bigwig in the Teacher's Federation), not the one who threw a chair at a student for falling asleep in his class, not the one who only ever spoke French and gestured a lot, including making boobs with his hands to describe another teacher. I could go on but I thought I'd only mention my favourite teachers.

Anyway, my second child is graduating soon and I'll only have one more high school educational experience to not be involved in. But you know what the parenting experts say - kids thrive on consistency.

Hm, maybe I'll shake that one up, too, and bring a transistor radio to the Skip Bo table next Earth Hour.

Posted by Sooey at 09:10 AM | Permalink

Here's Ezra Levant's blog in which he chronicles the success of his book: Shakedown.

Me,Me,AndMoreMe

I notice in one entry he acknowledges supporters of free speech of all political stripes (although, he refers to them as "his" supporters). Which is odd coming from such a narrow-minded and pompous twatface. But yeah - I'm a lefty Feminist and I support free speech in all its various manifestations. In fact, I go one better than Ezra Levant, and even support free speech from people I disagree with - a lot - which he doesn't, actually.

So fuck you, Ezra Levant.

Posted by Sooey at 07:50 PM | Permalink

Remember when New Conservative Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, told the world not to invest in Ontario?

Yeah. Me, too.

Posted by Sooey at 11:23 AM | Permalink

Today, David Warren agonizes over the "Slippery Slope" in a follow-up to the uber creepy Thomas Flanagan's column in the Globe about how marriage should be like it was when tv was black & white or we'll end up with Islamic polygamists running the CBC or somesuch and, of course, eventual enslavement under an Islamic theocracy, bowing to Mecca three times a day in our caftans and burkas, and reciting passages of the Koran on street corners - hopefully punctuated with cries of "Death to America!".

Interestingly, in his finger-wagging rant against our "Charter Rights" society, David Warren manages to cover the subject of child sexual abuse (which he calls "polygamy") out in Bountiful, B.C., without using the word "Christianity". It's quite something. A whole column about the perils of same sex marriage leading to polygamy and the forced acceptance of child sexual abuse such as what exists in the polygamous cult of Bountiful, B.C. - without once using the word "Christianity". There really should be some sort of Punditry Award for such agile tap-dancing, I think.

AnnunciateThis,Heathens!

Posted by Sooey at 10:51 AM | Permalink

The Minister of the Environment's new role in government is apparently to go along with the rest of the New Conservative crowd in government and say, "Fuhgeddabouddit" to environmental assessments (which used to be the responsibility of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency - an arm of the Ministry of the Environment) in order that any old wild and crazy polluter without a care in the world (for our world) can get a fistful of free money from the New Conservative government to build us some more infrastructure and create lots of jahbs!jahbs!jahbs!

Because, as you know, it's a longstanding Conservative belief that the government can create jobs.

Posted by Sooey at 09:44 AM | Permalink

For some reason those Pundits who vow to sabotage Earth Hour by: turning ON all their lights; running the refrigerator and the oven with their doors open; turning the air conditioning unit to the outside and running it while the furnace blasts away with all the windows and doors open; keeping the SUV idling in the driveway; remind me of that Billy Crystal/Kevin Nealon sketch on SNL about the olden days which started out, "We were poor and stupid and proud of it!" and got increasingly ridiculous in its rhetoric until, well, see above.

And why do these pundits not associate Earth Hour with real down home Conservatism when it's about energy conservation, anyway? How upside down has the bizarre world of punditry become? No unions, no Big Brother, just a little exercise in the grassroots taking of responsibility for their own individual energy consumption.

But Conservatives are going to sabotage it because they're mad as hell and they're not going to take anymore... reasoned attempts by energy conservationists to inspire individual actions to... conserve?

Posted by Sooey at 09:01 AM | Permalink

You know, it's interesting that everyone is focused on the good Senator's call to start shooting Canada geese, while ignoring her Dickensian notions of how to tackle poverty in Canada in 2009. I mean, how old IS Senator Nancy Ruth, exactly.

Posted by Sooey at 08:16 AM | Permalink

Well, I've finally done it. I've adopted the American dream. I, too, am now hoping that Obama fails. It may be the only way those dumbassed Rightwing pundits get their just desserts. Race riots, eating the rich, smashing the state - it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch.

Posted by Sooey at 08:09 AM | Permalink

Here's an interesting little article I lifted from Broadsides:

IfAngelinaJolieIs28,I'llEatMySupportHose

The author sees the usual Hollywood misogyny here, Antonia Zerbisias sees sales - as in teen-aged boys want to see sexy hot moms on the big screen, not old bag moms like... their grandmas. Or... Meg Ryan.

Me? I figure it goes a lot deeper. Hollywood is misogynist - in a sophomoric/gay way, but teen-aged girls, I'm guessing, want to see sexy hot moms on the big screen, too.

No, I think it's more a case of women being seen to grow up, mature, become adults - and the rest of us believing that to be the bad thing. Men, on the hand, stay young forever - like boys. So I take that back about Hollywood being just misogynistic. It clearly hates men even more.

But it's interesting that that's how conditioned women (and men) have become to assuming that age and aging is a bad thing and not what makes us human. Women need to stop caring about this stuff because it's not really our problem. Let men rise up against Hollywood's romantic pairing of Sean Connery with Dakota Fanning. They're really the ones being depicted negatively, if you ask me.

Posted by Sooey at 08:18 AM | Permalink

Refresh my memory - why do "we" care what a bunch of sophomoric dorks on Fox TV say about the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan again? I mean, didn't Stephen Harper make the military look even worse when he said we couldn't win in Afghanistan - well before it's scheduled to take its "breather"?

Posted by Sooey at 08:29 AM | Permalink

Now, why is no one in our government speaking up for the Palestinian citizens being murdered indiscriminately by the Israeli Defence Forces - particularly when they have no trouble speaking up for Israeli citizens indisciminately murdered by Hamas rockets. What gives? How is this "position" in any way morally defensible?

Posted by Sooey at 08:19 AM | Permalink

Marriage, now that we have divorce, is irrelevant - except to those people who want marriage to stay frozen in time (and by time I mean whatever time it was when "we" decided marriage was one man/one woman) to the extent that they would actively work to deny it to newcomers.

Look, just because we have Puritan hang-ups over here in the New World, as Christopher Columbus would say (except in Italian, I guess), doesn't mean we have any kind of moral superiority over other cultures. It just doesn't. Afterall, Americans believe they are morally superior to every other culture in the world - in spite of the fact that their government has dropped atomic bombs, defoliated forests, executed citizens with special needs - I mean, I could go on. And on. And, well, that's right - someone was wrong on the Internet this morning, so I'm up bright and early correcting the record.

Also, I've come to realize that Canadians can't make any claim to moral superiority over Americans. And that makes me mad, it really does. Alas, if there's one thing New Conservatives have taught me, it's that we're no better'n those dumbasses south of the border.

Posted by Sooey at 07:54 AM | Permalink

Apparently, Doug Benson, one of the sophomoric panelists on Fox's Red Eye segment featuring lame yuks about the Canadian army's plans to "take a breather" from Afghanistan was due to perform at an Edmonton comedy club in April, but that gig has been cancelled after threats were received about his performance.

Wow. So... his career has taken him from Red Eye to Edmonton. Almost.

Posted by Sooey at 07:45 PM | Permalink

Actually, what's odious (to use the word Jason Kenney and the Globe & Mail use to describe George Galloway's views) is that we have a government that has yet to speak up on behalf of Palestinians living in Gaza and against the Israeli Defence Forces who are indiscriminately murdering them.

And the argument over whether Hamas is a terrorist organization or the democratically elected government of the Palestinians is way way way beside the point now - which is, I guess, why it's still in use by the mealy mouth breathers who represent us in government these days.

Posted by Sooey at 07:33 PM | Permalink

Gosh, that Fox News video had "spring break" written all over it, eh? The thing that caught my ear, though, was the panel's notion that the United States is protecting the world from terrorism. Is this the kind of nonsense they're teaching American kids in school, do you think?

And clearly they need an update on Canada's national police force. Duuuuudes, they'll kill ya as soon as show you where the baggage pick-up is. And lie? Whoo-ee, our RCMP make your worst Southern cops look like Dudley Doright. You guys are living in the old Canada, man.

By the way - border security? Geez Louise, just ask British MP George Galloway about our new border security. Cripes, ask our government why it's not speaking out against the Israeli Defence Force's murdering of Palestinian civilians and you could end up on a no-fly list.

Check back in a year or two, and we might even be dumber'n you.

Posted by Sooey at 08:18 AM | Permalink

1. AIG executives getting death threats on account of the big bonuses they got via a taxpayer funded bailout. Fuckin' weasels are probably behind their own death threats, too

Posted by Sooey at 12:02 PM | Permalink

So, Obama, eh? I mean, Geez Louise, dude. Now THAT's inexperienced political leadership, making a quip that even has the word "special" in it - ON NATIONAL TELEVISION!

And when is he going to get those ears pinned? I mean, a joke's a joke. Dumbo for President. We get it. Now do something about those ears before you get caught in a wind.

Posted by Sooey at 11:55 AM | Permalink

I think blogging under your real name is a pretty shitty way to treat your family because you're actually just so full of yourself that you can't NOT blog using your real name - regardless of the impact it has on the innocents around you. And let's face it - if you're a blogger, you're probably QUITE an asshole. So it's not like you're doing your kids any favours: "Uh, yeah, he's my Dad. Sorry, eh."

There.

Suck that one up. And yes, I recognize the irony in labelling bloggers assholes. That's why I pseud. It's called "self-awareness".

Posted by Sooey at 10:05 AM | Permalink

1. How much proof do we need that Canadian banks have been giving people bad financial advice when it would clearly have been better to keep your money in a savings account than in any of the "retirement savings vehicles" flogged by those bastards (with help from our government) over the past few years?
2. Why isn't our government standing up to and telling off Canadian banks for still raking in profits instead of praising them for not being as unregulated as American banks and therefore less able to royally fuck everybody over?
3. Remember reverse mortgages? I wonder how the old people who got suckered into those scams are doing these days...

Posted by Sooey at 04:05 PM | Permalink

... But I certainly hope Jason Kenney isn't allowing the entry into Canada of officials from Saudi Arabia or Pakistan or any of those other ACTUAL terrorism funding countries.

Posted by Sooey at 10:23 AM | Permalink

Suppose for a moment you live in Canada and you've been in a coma since, well, before World War II, so you have no idea about Hitler and the Holocaust and the United Nations creating a country called Israel once upon a 1948. Then one day you wake up and after a bit of catching up you're home in your rapidly depreciating condo watching a news item on your flat screen tv about a country called Israel which is keeping itself busy bombing a civilian population trapped behind a massive wall built by their occupier - Israel. The people around you are either criticizing this country called Israel or they're defending it. You're kind of confused that people would defend such a seemingly brutal occupier so you ask - "why the hell are you defending Israel?

Well. Didn't you just wake up to be quite the Anti-Semite.

Posted by Sooey at 10:06 AM | Permalink

(If you're not an Internet insider, feel free to skip today's entry.)

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Well, that's just not a motto I ascribe to, mostly because I don't really have enemies - other than a handful of men on the Internet who: Just. Can't. Stand. Sooey. I don't take them seriously because if I did, I'd be afraid to blog - and I like blogging.

But because I'm a woman and a mother, with, as I say, male enemies on the Internet (one local yokel, who knows who I am, was once so consumed with jealousy that he posted my phone number and address on a chatboard and invited any lurking gunowners to "hunt" me down and sodomize me - you know, because I'm an ugly skanky hag), I prefer to blog - anonymously. It frees me up to really speak my mind about abortion, men on the Internet, the Middle East, even the workplace.

So, imagine my surprise when I caught one of my favourite haunts gloating over/cheering for another blogger (a particularly nasty operator, in my opinion) because he had just outted (two 't's?) a blogger with whom he disagrees politically, culturally and, no doubt, romantically. Whatever. The outter isn't exactly known for his principles or character - I'd say he has a distinct lack thereof (and I say this in spite of the fact that I, more often than not, agree with his views, ironically) - but there my fellow bloggers were, like flies on shit, as they say, engaging in back pats all 'round - almost as if their hero of the Internet wouldn't do the exact same misdeed to any one of them in a blackheartbeat.

Let me be clear, in case I haven't been quite enough. The outter in this instance isn't just someone I can't imagine anyone with an ounce of integrity championing - he's someone who should be mocked mercilessly and unrelentingly and kept on the fringes for as long as he witlessly, and yet with astounding moral certainty, stalks the earth. Call me Pollyanna Sunshine but wrong is wrong, usually, and it doesn't matter if it's Peter or Paul doing the wrong - but when you know fully well that either/or is the enemy of all that is good (and I mean "actual" good, not winning good, not Church good - actual good) you just don't give him the ball.

Because he'll either aim at your head, poke a hole in it, or throw it through Mrs. Grundy's window, all the while pointing at you and holding up his get out of jail free card.

Indeed, Dear Reader, if you're still there, the Internet is such a cesspool of "macho" dumbassery today, you should be embarrassed to be on it. Scram! Before you get any on you.

Posted by Sooey at 08:41 AM | Permalink

You'll remember recently Stephen Harper saying "we" can't win in Afghanistan (as if he'd been saying that all along) and Jim Flaherty saying no one saw the recession coming ("NO ONE!!"). Well Condi Rice just told Charlie Rose of PBS (it's on a YouTube video making the rounds) that "no one ever argued that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11 - not me, not my husb... er... the President - not even Dick Cheney".

We need a new statutory holiday. I suggest "Kick the Ass of a New Conservative Voter Day".

Posted by Sooey at 08:08 AM | Permalink

"We are evolving every year, every decade. That's a fact, whether it is to the intensity of the sun, whether it is to, as a chiropractor, walking on cement versus anything else, whether it is running shoes or high heels, of course we are evolving to our environment. But that's not relevant and that is why I refused to answer the question. The interview was about our science and tech strategy, which is strong."

Okayyyyy, so... mayyyyybe Gary Goodyear doesn't believe in evolution - because he doesn't know what it is.

Posted by Sooey at 08:09 AM | Permalink

1. My Rogers bill just went up $5.00. No explanation. Nothing. It was just $5.00 more than usual with no accompanying increase in service. The bastards know people like me have kids and won't cancel, I guess. I'll surprise them one day by doing just that but from all the horror stories told by people who continue to be billed even after they're dead, I'll have to be "firmer" than usual when I do.

2. A fellow tenant won a case against our landlord and the next day, we all got a notice that our rents would be going up. I mean, I'm looking to move at some point but, gawd, landlords can be awful pricks, real nasty fuckers. Big ones, small ones - they probably do more to perk up the home buying racket than any other factor out there in crazy Canadian businessland.

3. And always remember, Greyhound sucks donkey dicks. You can buy your round way ticket up front, just don't expect to go round trip. One way only sometimes, my friends, one way only.

Posted by Sooey at 07:43 AM | Permalink

There's a sort of poo flinging contest going on between rightwingers trying to see who can mock Rachel Corrie's death the most while leftwingers point out that they're mocking a young woman who bravely stood her ground fighting for a cause in which she believed passionately (there was even a Pancake Day joke making the rounds - I hate it when somebody says something funny when I'm being outraged...). Out of this came the contention that rightwingers want to be able to say anything (I'm on their side here) but without consequence - in the sense that they don't want others to call them on what they're saying (hm...).

While I abhor people who pretend to be so aggrieved by what other people say that they turn it into a crusade on behalf of society (those people are usually at the top of the hypocrite heap in punditry, I've noticed) - I think it's funny that the instigators get mad when the instigated do just that.

So, not to be left out, it struck me on the OC Transpo bus on the way to work (the company that allows Catholic advertising galore on its buses but nothing that even hints at the possibility of there being no God) that Rachel Corrie may have been The Second Coming. I mean, look at the similarities between her martyrdom and the martyrdom of Jesus Christ. Seriously.

Rachel Corrie may well have been The Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

And wouldn't that just be ironic to the max? So, on behalf of Jesus Christ, let me just say to the poo flingers, "Forgive them Lord, they know not what they do".

Gee, I love the sound of heads popping in the morning.

Posted by Sooey at 08:12 AM | Permalink

Just for laughs, switch the crazy talkin' Pope with... say... Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Can you imagine the outcry?

Posted by Sooey at 05:53 PM | Permalink

Wait for it... The one-dimensional kooks who can't see beyond their own propaganda about Israel (which is no longer merely a creation of the UN, but rather a creation of God) are now alleging, as they celebrate "The Death of Rachel Corrie Day", that Rachel Corrie's "Palestinian handlers" actually pushed her in front of the IDF bulldozer that then ran her over in an act of cold-blooded murder.

Funny how some people just can't handle the truth.

Posted by Sooey at 08:47 AM | Permalink

AndThenGodMade...TheDuckbilledPlatypus!

Okay. A creationist Science Minister I can handle - but a chiropractor Science Minister?!

Posted by Sooey at 08:15 AM | Permalink

You're either anti-semitic, or you're not. So, I have a question, Mr. Minister - why is/was your government funding organizations you say are anti-semitic - at all?

BeLessAnti-Semitic...OrElse!

Posted by Sooey at 10:57 AM | Permalink

This is a must read if only for the sense of pride you'll get knowing that our slacker generation has managed to stick it to an even slacker generation in picking up the tab for our future slacker society:

I'dGladlyPayYouTuesdayForAHamburgerToday

This is the biggest generational transfer of wealth in the history of the world. If you're an 18-year-old middle-class hopeychanger, look at the way your parents and grandparents live: It's not going to be like that for you. You're going to have a smaller house, and a smaller car - if not a basement flat and a bus ticket. You didn't get us into this catastrophe. But you're going to be stuck with the tab, just like the Germans got stuck with paying reparations for the catastrophe of the First World War.

Gee, Mark Steyn - but look at how getting stuck with the tab eventually paid off for German yout's. I mean, Germany's doing a lot better'n the U.S. these days Tsk, tsk. Big picture, my good man - big picture.

Posted by Sooey at 09:41 AM | Permalink

Why is it that it isn't enough that we are currently sending Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban? Why is it necessary to dress this mission up as something it isn't? Canadian soldiers are NOT in Afghanistan to defend our freedom. Our freedom has nothing to do with this mission except in how our own government has used 9/11 to restrict it. I mean, has it ever occurred to the propaganda machine for the mission in Afghanistan that it is the misrepresentation of what we are doing in Afghanistan and why we are there that is so troubling to Canadians? Because I can tell you, there is nothing more egregious than being told by Canadian armchair warriors that this mission is about our freedom when our government is busily ensuring it isn't. If we can't be honest about why we are in Afghanistan, than we shouldn't be there. Here is what I believe to be the truth:

1. The freedom of Canadians is not threatened by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
2. The Canadian government, not the Taliban, has restricted the freedom of Canadians.
3. Those who say the war in Afghanistan is being fought for reasons that have anything to do with the freedom of Canadians are either sadly misinformed or deliberately lying.

Posted by Sooey at 08:29 AM | Permalink

Apparently, our Prime Minister thinks Obama is the wrong man for these bad times. He also thinks New Conservative ideology is what saved Canada from being in the same sort of mess the United States is in - you know, the same sort of New Conservative ideology espoused by George W. Bush.

Luckily for us, he also admits that only by compromising (i.e. abandonning his beloved New Conservative ideology) can Canadians be spared economic devastation.

It's all here in: ReadMyHips

Addendum: I hope the Tom Long quoted in the article isn't responsible for operating heavy equipment...

Posted by Sooey at 08:16 AM | Permalink

Sooey Says: Most men want a woman who wants to have sex with him. Most women want a man who respects her - *even if she has sex with him. They just have to find each other in the crowd.

Posted by Sooey at 06:02 PM | Permalink

The dumber Michael Ignatieff gets, the higher his ratings in the polls!

Posted by Sooey at 06:30 PM | Permalink

Why aren't we boycotting countries that stone women to death? All of them. To hell with savages. I don't want my country doing business with Islamic theocracies.

Posted by Sooey at 09:10 AM | Permalink

Place sarcastic emoticon here.

Posted by Sooey at 03:21 PM | Permalink

All this talk about "fixing" the economy reminds me of all that talk about "curing" cancer.

Posted by Sooey at 01:53 PM | Permalink

CatholicChurchExcommunicatesMotherOfPaedophiliaVictim

Well done. It's high time the Catholic Church started living up to its medieval doctrines.

On the up side, maybe this woman will look back in a few weeks and realize excommunication was the best thing that ever happened to her. And then all the American talk shows can book her to tell her story. "I thought I had to listen to a bunch of misogynistic old men in ermine trimmed robes (which is pretty gay, now that I'm excommunicated and can really stop and think about it) tell me how to live my life, but it turns out - I don't. Thanks misogynistic old men! It's true - when the Lord closes a door, he opens a window."

Heheh - it's too bad Henry VIII isn't around to show Catholics how to deal with their Church.

Posted by Sooey at 11:07 AM | Permalink

Why is the Finance Minister always a man?

Posted by Sooey at 09:50 AM | Permalink

In each of the following groups of words, choose the one word from each group which is the least likely to be used in an Internet argument about Israel:

The Holocaust, Nukes, Palestinians, Feminists, Elephant, Iran, Chavez, Boycott, McCarthyite.

Nazis, The Left, Pie, Apartheid, Hitler, Rightwing Nut, Civil Rights Movement, Human Rights Commissions, Obama.

Rachel Corrie, Section 13, Anti-Semitic, Saudi Arabia, Fascists, Guantanamo, Support the Troops, Shoes.

Gaza, The Warsaw Ghetto, Iraq, Castro, Skipping Rope, Storm Troopers, Stalin/Mao/Pol Pot, Israel.

Posted by Sooey at 05:24 PM | Permalink

Who ARE all these scaredy cats who need MPP Yasir Naqvi's "Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act" passed all of a sudden. I mean, I'm a middle-aged woman living in downtown Ottawa in an unlocked apartment building and I don't feel even remotely unsafe. Or, at least, I didn't until MPP Yasir Naqvi came along with his "Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act". Now, that's some scary legislation, especially since the police are jumping up and down in anticipation of having it passed. I mean, this Bill is ALL about anonymous snitching and property seizures, fellow citizens. Who, other than the Not So Secret Society of Fascists, would want it passed into law?

Posted by Sooey at 02:41 PM | Permalink

We will make Parliament work ........................ Holy shit, Parliament is, like, fucked up!
The Canadian economy is stable .................... Holy shit, the economy is, like, fucked up!
Canada will do its part in Afghanistan ............ Holy shit, Afghanistan is, like, fucked up!

Gee, is it possible the New Conservatives are on drugs?

Posted by Sooey at 08:06 PM | Permalink

Remember the aggressive propaganda campaign led by the New Conservative Government of Canada and their friends in the corporate rightwing media (CanWest, come on down) against their fellow Canadians who suggested the government was entrenching itself deeper in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan? Remember all that Support the Troops stormtrooping? Taliban Jack namecalling? Remember Mark Steyn et al accusing Canadian feminists (who had done more to expose the Taliban BEFORE they were the Taliban than any Western government) of being Terrorist Stooges because we didn't trust our government to be on the up and up on Afghanistan? Remember how the New Conservatives would never mention Afghanistan on the campaign trail? Then remember how, after they won, they upped the ante on the now-called "Unwinnable Mission" that resulted in most of the Canadian soldier deaths in Afghanistan?

Now, personally, I don't think we should be leaving these "Unwinnable Missions" once we start them - but I'm Canadian that way. I wonder about these New Conservatives, though. I mean, ideologically, I always thought they had a lot in common with the Taliban - now I'm wondering if, well, I'd better not go there. New Conservatives play pretty dirty against Canadians who disagree with them, if I remember correctly.

Posted by Sooey at 08:07 AM | Permalink

Gee, maybe if Israel doesn't like being called an apartheid state, it should stop being an apartheid state.

What is it with Israel, anyway? Semantics, semantics, semantics.

And why is it so sensitive about being called an apartheid state, anyway? It's not like it wasn't BFFs with South Africa for a couple of decades while everyone else was boycotting wine and, uh, Boers.

So yeah - when Israel apologists point out that Israel non-apologists seem to hold Israel to a higher standard (than, say, Saudi Arabia or the United States), I suppose they have a point. I mean, why do we?

Posted by Sooey at 06:30 PM | Permalink

No. We can't, Stephen Harper. But, of course, most Canadians knew that already. So, having failed to even recognize what was possible in Afghanistan, such as minor improvements in the lives of girls and women (I'm a sucker for war-time propaganda) through the hard work of diplomacy backed up by a little muscle, we're going to abandon them instead, because war is too hard a sell at election time when the stock market is down.

Well, it's pretty clear to me the intent of your sudden reckoning is to paint Michael Ignatieff (i.e. the new Liberal dork in town) into a corner on Afghanistan - with the bonus track of making the new President of the United States look like a war monger and yourselves as the reasonable learners of the Afghanistan lesson.

Good one, New Conservatives. You've served your own interests well.

Posted by Sooey at 07:48 AM | Permalink

It's crazy, but RBC just posted a billion dollars in profits or somesuch. Meanwhile, if most Canadians hadn't invested their money with a bank, such as RBC, and had stashed all that cash in their bedroom closets instead, they'd have more money than they have now.

Posted by Sooey at 06:51 PM | Permalink

Ontario is about to get one step closer to being a police state thanks to Yasir Naqvi, MPP, and various other closet fascists at Queen's Park.

MadeInChina

Posted by Sooey at 09:54 AM | Permalink

Men make women pregnant, women do not make themselves pregnant. To have human rights even remotely comparable to men, women must at least be allowed to choose whether or not they wish to continue a man-made pregnancy.

Case closed.

Posted by Sooey at 08:36 AM | Permalink