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Browsing my news feed I found this piece and decided it was scary enough to share with everyone. I think I’d like to read Papantonio’s book and see what she has to say. Here is a radio dealing with her premise and some related information from Raw Story.
“In her book, Papantonio explained, Jacobs found that more than 40 percent of Americans under the age of 44 did not read a single book over the course of the previous year. And their concentration had deteriorated to the point that politicians needed to condense their messages into 8-second soundbytes to grab their attention, leading her to conclude that the country was now “ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism,” compounded by schools’ increased emphasis on passing standardized tests instead of comprehensive education on subjects like civics and humanities.
“Chances are, if you are one of those corporate media-following bone heads who still believe that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, or Saddam Hussein blew up the Twin Towers, or Obama is a secret Muslim, or Obama wants to take your guns, or Obama has FEMA prison camps set up for Teabag Republicans, then search no further,” said Papantonio, who is also president of the National Trial Lawyer Association. “You truly are the undereducated, child-like, impressionable, irrational, dangerous cog in America’s political system that puts Democracy most at risk.”
Potentially scary stuff. This is the first I’ve heard of “ring of fire” radio broadcasting, so do take it with a grain of salt.
Fiscal conservatives give me a headache at the best of times. Having them opine about how availability of birth control is going to drive up costs and make every one sad, well…makes me sad. It would be nice, for once, if our conservative friends would base their opinion on something more than a dogmatic adherence to free-market wisdom. The air out here in empirical evidence land isn’t so bad, honest.
The last week or so my view of humanity world over has been severely soured. I’ve often expressed an attitude that Alberta is the ‘Texas of Canada’ when it comes to issues of equality and progressive society. Hidden in that stance is the inference that other places aren’t as backward, that in other civilized areas these issues are all but resolved. This inference, it turns out, is ill-founded. Hillbilly homophobia is running rampant even in “high culture” nations.
The French government in pushing through a bill that will legalize same sex marriage and allow same sex couples to adopt. It was one of the issues that got them voted in and, in a refreshing change of pace, they are taking steps to quickly make good on their campaign promise. Sounds great! Let’s celebr…what’s that going on outside?
On March 24th, hundreds of thousands of hateful French bigots (that’s pronounced bee-jo, the ‘t’ is silent) marched in protest of this bill. Police had to resort to using tear gas to keep the mob in control. Since then, things have not gotten better. Violence is rising. Notably a gay bar was attacked, windows smashed and patrons injured. Absolutely disgusting behaviour, a French red-neck horde branding monumental levels of idiocy and malevolence.
But surely, this is only the uneducated rabble, right? No such luck. In parliament, members of the opposition say this bill threatens children, one going so far as to say “You are assassinating children”. I would hope, even in our own ‘Texas of Canada’, such a disgustingly hateful statement would result in the immediate resignation/termination/ruination of any deplorable MLA that dared utter it.
Words failed me in the face of this level of soul crushing mindless hate. I was aghast. I started writing this article a week ago but could not finish.
The other day, however, I found a brilliant ray of hope from across the globe. On April 17th New Zealand passed a Marriage Amendment Bill which that defines marriage as a union between two people. This made New Zealand the thirteenth nation in the world to legalize same sex marriage. And how was this legislation toward equality met by onlookers? Unfounded hate, violent riots and tear gas? Nope. Instead the Parliament House erupted in applause. Then, in a fantastic display of humanity affirming beauty, the spectators in the house broke into song. A Maori song of love.
If you’ve ever witnessed the cut-throat farce that is question period in our own parliament, you may well appreciate my amazement that such a thing could happen. My heart swelled and my eyes got misty.
Props, respect, accolades, honour, acclaim and kudos to New Zealand for its monumental step forward and to New Zealanders for their wondrously appropriate reaction. May your shining example wake up a few French hate mongers to just how full of vile depravity their despicable conduct truly is.
Tariq Ali is one of the new left’s better thinkers. His writing is clear and often wittily incisive and thus has forced me to purchase several of his works. This is a interview snippet from Counterpunch on the legacy of Margaret Thatcher.
Q: What is Mrs Thatcher’s legacy?
TA: Her legacy is clearly visible in the state of Britain today. It is essentially a story of decay and ruin: A small, post-imperial vassal state dependent on nostalgia and, more importantly, the United States to keep itself afloat. On the economy the Thatcherite model (astonishingly, still being praised by blind politicians in denial) was effectively the deindustrialization of the country, the purchase of working-class votes by squandering the monies that accrued from North sea oil and laying the foundations for a financialised economic model that exploded with the Wall Street crash of 2008. We live in a world where it is convenient to personalize politics. Thatcher obviously pushed through the measures required by capitalism with a raw and ruthless energy that was her very own. She was a great believer in appealing to the lowest common denominator, to the animal instincts that remain present in the psychological make-up of individuals regardless of their social origins. Another politician could have done exactly the same things as she did using a less charged rhetoric. A number of old Conservatives were not shy in stating that their party had been taken over by English ‘poujadistes.’ She almost came a cropper. Had the Falklands war gone differently which it might have done if Pinochet’s dictatorship (pushed by Washington) had not backed Britain.
She outmaneuvered the once powerful Mineworker’s Union, forcing it to call a strike on her terms and then destroyed the union and in the process broke the back of a once powerful British labor movement. She had referred to the striking miners as the ‘enemy within’. Even as she neutered the unions, she effectively destroyed the old Labour Party. Thatcher’s favorite Chancellor of the Exchequer and cabinet colleague, Nigel Lawson, while reviewing a book in the Financial Times noted admiringly that the tragedy for the Tories was that Thatcher’s real heir was Leader of the Opposition. Blair’s policies were little more than a continuation of her policies with better PR and an aggressive control of the media. Blair was less lucky with his wars. Iraq finished him off. He was exposed as a simple and straightforward liar. The Scottish writer, Tom Nairn, was accurate in his assessment: “Like other flotsam on the ‘no-alternative’ wave of the nineties, they think that the essence of ‘modernization’ is adjusting society to fit economic and technological advances. Which means serving such changes, via a machinery of collusion between government public relations, a compliant legal system and a servile press.
Her service to the power elites made her noteworthy, being on the cutting edge of the neo-liberal push back does have its advantages.
Inequality is going to kick our ass if we don’t take measures to rectify the imbalances in your societies. The topic of this video is interesting; the presenter not so much. I recommend watching the video if you have a keen interest in how our world is working, but do not expect to be actively ‘entertained’. :)
The Right in Canada was bloodily united a couple of years ago under the banner the old, yet new again, banner of the Conservative Party. The two precursor parties were the Progressive Conservative Party and the (Wack-a-loon) Reform (Alliance/fascist/reactionary/etc) Party of Western Canada. Sadly, as I hail from Western Canada, I cannot but feel partially responsible for bringing the supernovae grade stupidity and fail into power. In my defense, I’ve done what I can helping elect, Federally, the only New Democratic Party candidate (woo!, Linda Duncan!) in this political backwater called the lovely province of Alberta.
Patience gentle readers, as I am setting up some background to better frame the insipid gurglings we are hearing from the backbenches of the Conservatives party as of late. Steven Harper, our beloved leader, essentially won his majority because our right-centre Liberal party, for the last seven years, has had a gargantuan case of cranial vapour lock and simply cannot get its shite together. Thus, traditional centerist voters rather than voting for the “scary” New Democratic Party (because social democratic values are Satan), voted for the the seemingly calm, stable monolith known as the Conservative Party of Canada.
Harper, whose child-eating smile still makes me cringe, is a backroom authoritarian who is more than happy to sell Canada’s people down the river to corporate and business interests. Harper though, the High King of the reform party, brought to the table all the false populist beliefs that makes the red-necks here in Western Canada bray with crazy-eyed delight. Tough on the poor, women and foreigners, family values and all that hoopla. It is the usual traditional nonsense that sounds fucking AMAZING to the poor feckless (read false populist) sobs that greedly eat that shite up come election day.
Fortunately, the regressive bullcookery of Western Canada doesn’t play well in Eastern Canada where most of the votes are, so all those gob-smacked, turd-streaked policies that Harper trumpeted in the West quickly got tucked away under his big ole cowboy hat. Then surprisingly(?) enough, he almost exclusively talked about a reasonably sane economic platform (admittedly ‘reasonable’ is a stretch) to the rest of Canada, winning him the election over the fractured parties of the Left.
Harper won the election by controlling and essentially muzzling the pack of socially conservative dipshites that were elected in Western Canada. The “S2 Directive” (sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up) has been an iron rule in the Conservative Caucus. The bug-frakking-nutz ideology is starting to bubble over Harper’s carefully crafted message. Now we are starting to see the rampantly bat-shite, wilde-eyed social conservatives come out of the rotten woodwork of the governing party and demand the regressive social platform that got them elected in (*sigh*) Western Canada.
Let me show you the abortion law in Canada:
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There isn’t one. That decision is left up to the woman. End of story. No legal restrictions and thus, none of the twelve different flavours of socially regressive bullshit that is happening down in the US at the moment. Hence, in Canada, Women’s autonomy and rights are (for the most part) being respected and this gentle reader, is officially a GOOD thing. Cue the clown-car entry of concerned male-white-dude Mark Warawa MP from Langley BC and his ‘thin edge of the wedge’ selective sex abortion tirade against women and their rights.
Mr.Warawa’s noble attempts to get women closer to broodmare status have been smacked down repeatedly in the Canadian parliament. Much to Harper’s chagrin Warawa is not sitting down nor is he shutting up, he’s calling the ‘waaaaambulance’ and faffing on about being repressed and going on histrionically about how democracy died on this day. The loopy-gnats representatives of the failosphere have clawed a hole in Harper’s big ole centrist-economics hat and are spilling out all over table spilling their garbanzo-bean crazy as far as the eye can see.
From the CBC, in this article Warawa has already been shut down once, but insane doesn’t know the meaning of the word stop (or deleterious to the party), so he warbles onward:
“Conservative MP Mark Warawa has lost his appeal to bring a motion condemning sex-selective abortion to the House of Commons for debate.
The procedure and House affairs committee upheld a decision by its subcommittee that Warawa’s motion, M-408, isn’t eligible to be debated by MPs, despite the advice of a non-partisan Library of Parliament analyst that the motion was in order.”
Like the fetid ramblings of Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth Warawa has had his shit-shutdown. I’m guessing that this is only the tip of the iceberg of stupid that is the socially regressive base of the Conservative party. Undaunted by opposition from within his party and common sense, Warawa plows on.
“Warawa has five sitting days to appeal to the House of Commons, but with MPs returning to their ridings for two weeks, that brings his appeal deadline to April 19. He says he’ll announce his decision when the House returns on April 15.
The MP for Langley, B.C., said Monday he has the backing he needs to bring the appeal, with the support of five MPs from two recognized parties. That appeal will lead to a secret ballot over whether the motion can be brought for debate.
Warawa said he’s “very disappointed” but was going to take a few days before deciding whether to appeal. He can also introduce another private member’s bill or motion instead of appealing the decision.”
It looks like Conservative back bench has cranked the stupid-o-tron to 11(!1!!11!!!), broken the dial off, and flushed it down the crapper.
“My conscience is my guide, but I also am proud to be a member of the Conservative caucus,” Warawa said.
You sir, are an arrogant, misogynistic, snivelling, cock-sweater of a human being. Take your conscience and ram it sideways into the brain-trust known as your arsehole. Women and women alone are best arbitrators of their reproductive systems(aka their bodies). Despite the abortion issue being settled, Harper’s backbench are threatening to go all Lord of the Flies on his ass, and are taking umbrage at their right to free-speech being trampled on. Funny my backbenchy friends, how you were comfortable with Harper’s hobnailed boots on your necks, while he was winning you the election. Just sayin’.
“New Brunswick MP John Williamson, who in 2009 worked for Harper as his director of communications, said blocking any MP from delivering a statement is “is a violation of privilege or right” and that the speaker recognizes MPs directly, not via their parties.”
“I believe there are limits that have been crossed that involve removing speaking rights and that suddenly now involve veto rights over who is able to be recognized as a member of Parliament,” Williamson said.
“This also involves our democratic principles. If we, that is to say, you, Mr. Speaker, reinforce the authority of members of Parliament by reaffirming their right to speak, [and] then your right to recognize them, we will together strengthen democracy in this chamber.”
I’m all for the wigged out cracker-jacks of the conservative back bench getting their regressive views into the limelight; then people can see the balefully retrograde, and decidedly icky ideas they have voted for. The next logical step for the electorate, like a satisfying peristaltic contraction, is to expel the pants-on-head-retarded, ass-clownage (see Conservative Party of Canada), from power.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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