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Only in Alberta does the the electorate consider ending the 40 year term of the staunchly right wing Progressive Conservatives with a party that is, you guessed it gentle reader, further to the right. It is only the false populist veneer of the Alberta Wild Rose Party that makes it appear palatable to the people of Alberta.
My progressive bones shudder with the thought of electing a party that is considered the fast-track to completing the journey to the dark-side of corporatocracy. Make no mistake, the WRP party was spawned by the Conservative effort, namely the Royalty Resource Review, to give the people of Alberta a more reasonable deal when it came to the extraction of resources from this province. The Royalty Review, even in its gutted state, cost Ed Stelmach his job as premier and cries rang out through the oil patch of ‘never again’; cue the WRP resurgence – a party for the oil companies people of Alberta.
Fortunately, for sanity’s sake, the WRP is made up mostly of dyed in the fool social and fiscal conservatives. These conservative-clowns have now been unleashed on the public and have been busy finding ever larger calibre of guns to shoot themselves in the foot with as the election draws near. Let’s begin with Allan – Homos Will Burn – Hunsperger’s thoughts on sexual orientation –
“Musing on the Lady Gaga song ‘Born This Way,’ which preaches tolerance, Allan Hunsperger wrote that: “You can live the way you were born, and if you die the way you were born, then you will suffer the rest of eternity in the lake of fire, hell, a place of eternal suffering.”
Wow, now that is Christian bigotry Love in action. All the stupid fuckwittery of religion and intolerance on display, you would think the leader of the WRP would kick this sack of bug-frak crazy out of the party. It would be the rational course of action…
Time to burn homos. Love Jesus. How can you believe in shite like this in the 21st century?
“At a campaign event in Calgary, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith refused to condemn Hunsperger’s views. From Postmedia:
“When a person is making personal statements in their capacity as a pastor, which he was, I don’t think anybody should be surprised that they’re expressing certain viewpoints,” she said outside a Wildrose photo opportunity at the Calgary Hindu Society’s temple.
“It was a year ago when he was talking in his capacity as a pastor. He now understands, we’ve spoken, we’ve communicated on this, that we will not be legislating on contentious social issues. He understands that. He accepts that.”
Hey, in the WRP upfront religious delusion is A-OKAY. Nothing like this will go into making secular public policy…honest..we swear on the very tears of Jesus!!! Oh and there is bonus material as well apparently Captain Crazy also has his pastor mojo on over another great evil in society – The public school system!!1!!11! In his own frothy words:
“This includes those students, staff, and families who identify or are perceived as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two- spirit, queer or questioning their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. The Board expects all members of our diverse community to be welcomed, respected, accepted, and supported in every school.” Why this from our public educators? Because they believe people were “born this way” and have a right to die this way. The blind leading the blind! Now every Christian school that has come under the Edmonton Public School board will have to adopt this as well. Trapped! For years I have warned Christian educators that you can’t partner with public education because public education is godless. As far as public education is concerned, there is no God“
Yes, there you have Admiral Nut-Butter Von Douche-Bigot of the good ship Homophobia whinging on about the anti-bulling policy of the school board. How dare it be tolerant of the devil children and all their evil! Frak me jebus, why isn’t this man running the party!
Religious delusion aside, the Wild Rose Party of Alberta also happens to be chock full of privileged while males…
And Everywhere the Wild Rose Party is as well.
“I believe that for the people of Calgary-Greenway they need a change. They need someone who has a passion for their community, someone who will represent their community and I believe that as a Caucasian I have an advantage that for the Punjabi community I am able to speak for the whole community and to lift the community up in our region,” CTV reported Leech as saying on the video.
“I believe when I come to our community here I am very concerned that the Punjabi community have not been esteemed, lifted up. When a Punjabi leader speaks for the Punjabi, the Punjabi are listening but when a Caucasian speaks on their behalf everybody is listening.” The host of the program then said he agrees with Leech’s statement.Wildrose officials said the video was recorded about two weeks ago, before Leech made similar controversial comments to Fairchild Radio on Sunday.“I think as a Caucasian I have an advantage,” Leech said during the radio interview. “When different community leaders such as a Sikh leader or a Muslim leader speaks they really speak to their own people in many ways. As a Caucasian I believe that I can speak to all the community.”
Leech, a long-time a pastor, apologized earlier this week for his radio comments, […]”
This is lobe exploding material – Ron Leech who honestly believes that by default White is RIGHT when it comes to representing a constituency. Because isn’t it superobvious that the white man represents all people much better than any of those colour folk. Amirite? Y’all?!?
Damn, you would think that bigots and racists would have learned by now to keep this kind of shit holstered until after the election. And unfucking surprisingly, we get these progressive words from yet another kindly loving Man of God. The vile duplicity of religion is being put on glorious display, you would think that our news media might mention that fact somewhere… but no we get the lukewarm saccharine mewings from our media about candidates questionable behaviour.
Certainly now, Denial Danielle Smith (The science is still out on whether or not Danielle Smith has more than two neurons to rub together) would apologize for this carnival of crazy and boot these loons out of the party. Instead we get a rancorous “Oh Hell No!” from Danielle Smith –
“EDMONTON—Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith on Friday headed into the final weekend of the Alberta election campaign on the defensive, insisting that a candidate who said a white politician was better able to represent the community had simply misspoken.“
Ah yes, let us NOT hold Mr.Lake of Fire and Mr.White Power accountable for their reprehensible actions, just STFU Albertans and elect them already; the WRP has a province to run in the interests of the Oil companies.
Vote for the WRP party! Embrace Corporatism!
To comprehend any issue it is important to have a understanding of key terms base principles at work. Two very different narratives of how racism works are identified by John Stoehr in this excerpt from his article on Al-Jazeera.
“[…] Everyone agreed the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager killed by a neighbourhood watch volunteer, was tragic, but liberals and conservatives disagreed on what caused it. On the left, racism was ultimately to blame. Why else would the shooter, George Zimmerman (who was recently arrested), spot Martin walking around a gated community, call the police, follow him and then later shoot him? On the right, race had nothing to do with it. This was a case of horrible judgment, bad policy and a tragic wrong that should be righted.
These are two views of racism. In one, racism is a concrete social force that exerts power over individuals. In the other, racism is an abstract universal human failing like any other that can be overcome with the right attitude. While the liberal view is often exaggerated, the conservative view does not account for who is doing what to whom. In this case, a half-white man killing a black boy.
The conservative view of “racism” is ambivalent, unmoored from history and freed of its long association with white violence. This has given rise to laughable locutions like “reverse racism” of which conservatives regularly accuse blacks whenever they rage against the racist machine, as Al Sharpton and others did in the wake of Martin’s death and the fact that justice did not prevail.
Yet when conservatives say race doesn’t matter, what they are saying, hopefully without meaning to, is that white violence doesn’t matter – and obviously white violence matters. In US history, blacks did not lynch whites with the blessing of the establishment, but whites did lynch blacks in the name of white supremacy.
Conservatives rightly say blacks kill more blacks than whites kill blacks. But that’s another one of those false equivalencies that hides what’s really going on. Black violence, even on those very rare occasions when whites are its victims, is scary and unjust, but white violence, especially when the victims are black, echoes through the web of history and can terrorise African Americans into submission. That’s been the historical purpose of white violence. If explicit laws and pernicious social norms didn’t control you, then the threat of violence did. That’s why racism is not about race so much as power – who has it, who doesn’t, what’s done with it and why.
And power is often above the law. Zimmerman and the man who killed Jake England’s dad are equally protected under a similar law that allows you to “Stand Your Ground” when facing life-threatening situations. Neither man was changed, because both claimed they acted in self-defence. But that’s where the similarities end. Trayvon Martin’s family has appealed to public opinion for justice. Jake England appealed to his gun. The present is a product of the past. To take white supremacy out of racism is to willfully ignore that reality.”
I’ve seen some of the arguments that more conservative commentators put forth regarding racism, and it seems they miss the key point (as they often do)- as highlighted from Stoehr’s article – the imbalance of power in society and how power is used and misused by those in control. The discussion of racism needs to be framed around this idea of the misuse of power in society and how we can best redress the imbalance that is the cause of much racial violence.
A great Gumbo story oh, and an interesting lecture to boot.
Oh and epic quote of the day – “Responsibility is what you take because of who you are.”
Homemade Canadian Fail Incoming.
Some people who express racist sentiments just don’t know any better, their peer groups are racist and the sentiments are a shared group meme that is still wrong but at least understandable. The educated though, should just fucking know better. This half-wit brings the supernovae like stupidity with her critique of Handel’s Messiah. As this article was posted on Pharyngula, I’m going to screen shot her lovely quotes; I have a feeling this post may be disappearing fairly soon.
Racism and stupidity, now all in one place!
Wow.
“I don’t think this is simply a cultural phenomenon (as in misunderstanding the Messiah’s content, message, meaning, etc…). I think it is a physio/cerebral problem. I’ve seen it happen in art and design, and even in science – a friend of mine was a Korean PhD student.”
Oh, you’ve got a Korean friend, it must be totally true. Did you share the first little fun fact with your friend that you find them cerebrally challenged as well? Did you put it into small words so they could understand your sane rational discourse?
“So this is what multiculturalism is bringing us. I think it is a mixture of aggressive Asians pushing their way in everywhere, and a liberal white public that wants these multi-culti influences to dominate in its cities and institutions.”
Damn those aggressive Asians for being so darn talented and ruining Western Classical Music Forever!1!!.
No, Camera Lucida it is you who need to go away and stop ruining the world the rest of us.
Media lens is currently calling another Independent reporter on their uncritical treatment of Tony Blair and his sentiments toward the Palestinians. Go to the Media Lens website for the entire deconstruction.
A snippet from John Pilger caught my attention, I will repost it here:
In similar vein, Macintyre made a cryptic reference in his article to the “tragically abortive peace talks at Camp David in 2000”. This “tragic” episode is “Israel’s most important contemporary myth”, John Pilger writes. The myth states that Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians the return of “90 per cent” of the Occupied Territories and that Yasser Arafat turned him down. Arafat’s alleged rejection of this “unprecedented act of generosity”, to quote the myth once again, became the launch pad for renewed abuse of the Palestinians, including the building of an apartheid wall.
Pilger writes of the peace talks in 2000:
“There was no ’90 per cent’ offer. At Camp David, Barak promised a token military withdrawal from no more than 12 per cent of the Occupied Territories. He also made it clear that Israel had no intention of giving back any part of Greater Jerusalem, which covers some of the best Palestinian land and is the administrative and cultural heart of Palestine. Most of the illegal settlements, which controlled 42 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza, would stay, leaving the Palestinians with fragments of their original homeland, or 15 per cent of pre-Israel Palestine.” (John Pilger, Freedom Next Time, Bantam Press, London, 2006, pp. 107-108)
“In practice,” wrote Barak’s chief negotiator at Camp David, Shlomo Ben-Ami, before taking up his negotiator’s role, “the Oslo agreements were founded on a neo-colonialist basis, on a life of dependence of one on the other forever.” (Quoted, Pilger, ibid.)
It is nice to see we are giving the Palestinians a fair shake with our obvious generosity.
Israel is basking in the glow of yet another effective public opinion campaign, but this time rather than brutalizing the Palestinians it is the Bedouins turn.
“Israeli authorities have demolished the homes of about 300 Bedouins in a village in the southern Negev desert.
The entire village of al-Arakib was bulldozed on Tuesday, with many of the former residents’ cattle, trees and belongings lost.”
I wonder what would happen if the Palestinians decided to bulldoze an illegal Jewish settlement?
“Haia Noach, director of the Negev Co-existence Forum, was present at al-Arakib during the demolition and said that at least five Israeli bulldozers arrived around 5:30am (0230GMT).
“It took them about three or four hours to destroy all the houses,” she said, describing the scene as “appalling.”Scuffles erupted as the villagers and around 150 rights activists tried to stop the police from carrying out the demolitions, with several people wounded and a handful arrested, activists said.”
At least no one tried to get in front of a bulldozer.
“Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld confirmed the early-morning operation, saying the homes had been “illegally built” and were destroyed in line with a court ruling issued 11 years ago which was never implemented.
Around 30 shacks were removed and several hundred people were taken back to the Rahat area where they originally came from,” he said, referring to a nearby Bedouin town in Israel’s arid south.”
Well at least they deported them back to where they came from. No mention of compensation or any sort of help from the government, just the police and the ‘dozers. How nice.
“Noach said Israeli authorities had first given residents of al-Arakib a notice to evacaute on June 15, but that no action had followed, so the residents began to doubt that the demolition would occur.
But this morning, Israeli police arrived and forced residents to leave their homes within minutes, Noach said.
The demolition team destroyed water tanks and removed generators.
“It’s like a declaration of war. They don’t want you here,” Noach said. “It’s unthinkable.”
Unthinkable is in the eye of who is behind the bulldozer. Is this issue as cut and dried as just the courts taking 11 years to get moving on a decision? Where there other motivations present, did this group of Bedouins piss off the wrong people? Just speculation of course, but I would not be surprised if there were other less savoury aspects to this story.
Israeli continues withe bulldoze first and answer no questions later policy, although full marks to them for not contravening international law on this one.
Marginalized Native Canadians protesting for radical reforms; like School!
I’m not sure where Al Jezeera was going with this piece but I do find it interesting to get a non-official look at how we treat our Native Canadians.
“In 2007, the Mohawk community at Tyendinaga, 200 kilometres east of Toronto, blocked the trans-continental rail line and Canada’s largest highway in protest at the government’s failure to address land rights and basic issues of survival within First Nations – including safe drinking water, which the community lacked.
That episode was a hint of the leverage indigenous peoples in Canada possess, as hundreds of millions of dollars in cargo was stalled by simple barricades placed across a rural stretch of the Canadian National railway’s mainline between Toronto and Montreal.
They are referring to the standoff at Oka, I did not realize that it qualified Canada to become home of insurgents.
“In recent years in particular, Canada’s indigenous communities have shown the will and potential to grind the country’s economic lifelines to a halt through strategically placed blockades on the major highways and rail lines that run through native reserves well outside of Canada’s urban landscape.”
You tend to forget about things that are not happening directly to you. I was stirred by the power of Shawn Brant’s words:
“The message resounded,” said Shawn Brant, a high profile Mohawk activist involved in the 2007 blockades.
“We are not going to live in abject poverty, to have our children die, to have our women abducted, raped and murdered without any investigations. We are not going to live with the basic indignities that occur to us daily. We would bring them to an end.”
Yah, good ole’ Canada. We keep our Native Canadians in a deep dark memory hole, we bring them out to apologize once and awhile, but once we are done with them; back to the hole.
Oh and while you are in the hole, we will forget about nasty little statistics like these:
“These root causes, these abysmal conditions for some of the aboriginal people are serious.”
There are more than 800 outstanding native land claims held against the Canadian government. And in many First Nations communities there is deep crisis, with poverty, unemployment and overcrowding the norm.
According to figures from the Assembly of First Nations, more than 118 First Nations lack safe drinking water and some 5,500 houses do not have sewage systems.
Almost one half of homes on native reserves are in need of “major repairs”, compared with 7 per cent of non-native homes.
Natives suffer a violent crime rate that is more than 300 times higher than Canada’s non-native population, while natives represent 18.5 per cent of the male prison population and one-quarter of the female population, although natives only constitute 4 per cent of the total population.”
If my people were being systematically mistreated like this, I would be mighty annoyed as well. The sad thing is that I’m betting most Canadians have little idea what life is like for many Native Canadians. The lack of information or curiosity is a hallmark of imperial populations who are fed only the happy news about their great empire and how amazingly benevolent they are.
Hurrah for privilege! Hurrah for the subtle racism that continues to marginalize our Native Canadian populations!
Hurrah for the invidious status-quo indeed.
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