Hiroshima Day was yesterday. This great Canadian song from yesteryear comes to mind:
Watch the video closely and you’ll see some real live World War II vets marching in.
News of the Restless A door at the end of a dead-end street…
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
July 3, 2011 — Sabina BeckerA Canadian documentary that starts with the CIA’s failed, lame attempt to develop LSD as a truth serum/mind-control agent. Instead, it became the catalyst for thousands of old beatniks and young hippies, formerly staid scientists and political activists to all come together in a radical questioning of authority. Isn’t it funny how as soon as the genie was out of the bottle (so to speak), it suddenly became illegal?
And even funnier: Isn’t it amazing how you don’t actually NEED LSD to open your mind and expand your consciousness? I’ve never taken a single dose of it, not even a tiny one, and yet I clearly identify with everything the Merry Pranksters, Wavy Gravy, the hippies and Yippies and Abbie Hoffman and all of them are saying and doing here. You don’t need the influence of a drug; as Timothy Leary said, all you gotta do is QUESTION AUTHORITY. Seeing as I grew up with the generation that got the shit scared out of it by AIDS, and had to watch Nancy Reagan smirking on TV and telling us to Just Say No, and I was very straitlaced at the time — well, let’s just say I didn’t have the opportunity to learn it any way but COLD.
And oh yeah: All you cops who keep flying your little planes low over my veggie garden, trying to catch me in the act of growing something I shouldn’t? Hope you like nettles. From a certain height, they look just like pot. Make great fertilizer, too. Sorry to waste your airplane fuel!
Short ‘n’ Stubby: Ms. Manx attacks the Vancouver Riots
June 20, 2011 — Sabina Becker
What’s that I feel pawing at my legs? What’s that meowing I hear? Oh, it’s our calico Stumpie friend, with a whole new batch of links. Whatcha got for us, Ms. Manx? The Vancouver riots, you say? Okay…
First off, says the Manx, remember that police chief who got wank-listed here last Saturday? The one who claimed that the rioters were “criminals, anarchists and thugs” who had planned to riot? Well, guess who back-tracked on that statement today? Yep, Jim Chu was wrong. And boy, is his face RED. Because it turns out that there was not a single anarchist in the lot. There were, however, a lot of suburban kids with no prior criminal record, no radical politics, and no understanding of precisely why they did it. One of them is a rising young star in the world of water polo, of all things. Now, says the Manx, if only the chief would admit that the “instigators” were not anarchists either. In all likelihood, they were the same group as the joiners. Real anarchists, remember, neither lead nor follow nor get out of the way.
Of course, the media, like the cops, are all too eager to blame a group they know nothing about for everything they can’t be bothered to analyze more deeply. Instead of anarchists, how about Don Fucking Cherry and his rockum-sockum hockey from the Neanderthal era? Brawls on the ice, riots on the street — connect the dots, y’all. It’s not rocket science!
And here’s something else that’s not rocket science: Street riots as emblematic of something amiss within our larger culture. Something that certainly can’t be facilely explained away with “anarchist”-blaming. The Georgia Straight has some cracking good analysis of our atomized society, the granfalloons that take advantage of us in our weakened state, and the collective action that is our best hope of overcoming…so long as we apply it to something beyond just plying the broom and dustpan to sweep up the debris, of course.
While we’re on that topic, here’s the kind of collective action Ms. Manx absolutely abhors: Electronic lynch-mob activity. The police need your help…to do what, exactly? Is it prosecution, or persecution? Either way, it’s fucking ugly to ask people to turn one another in publicly, especially on the giant fishbowl that is the Internet. Whole lives are going to be ruined even more than they already are in our crapitalistic, atomized society, where an artificially hyped interest in granfalloons replaces fellow-feeling so inadequately and status symbols (looted, in this case) stand in so poorly for the actual achievements which crapitalism and atomization have made impossible. (And, BTW, James Moore, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for violating the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Very unministerial conduct. You should step down for that.)
And finally, on a snarky note, Ms. Manx notes that the riots have made Michael Bublé very, very unhappy.
“I’m disgusted by how they made us look, but I’m more disgusted by how they destroyed the privileges that we deserved to have. We should be able to have television outside during the playoffs, and have viewing parties, and people hanging out, being peaceful. They took that away from us.”
Oh noes, a homogenized, pasteurized pop icon is upset about PRIVILEGE! This as a sneaking, cowardly stripping of rights is underway in another big brawl that was blamed, also wrongly, on “anarchists”. Someone has been living in the land of privilege for wayyyyy too long if a few people’s loss of privileges upsets him more than our collective loss of rights.
Ms. Manx cattily adds that she doesn’t give a turd in the litterbox about the loss of Lord Stan or the bygone privilege of a JumboTron on every street corner and a two-four of beer in every potbelly. She’ll party in the streets the day we get Tommy Douglas’s peaceful, prosperous Canada back from this mean-spirited crapitalist imperialist police state that’s taken over. And not one day sooner.
In Toronto this weekend?
June 20, 2011 — Sabina BeckerThen you might be interested in attending this:
From Hands Off Venezuela’s e-mail list, the details:
Subject: Please on the the 24th show your solidarity with Venezuela!
Sent by the Louis Riel Bolivarian Circle/Hands Off Venezuela
DEAR FRIENDS OF THE VENEZUELAN BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION,
THESE LAST 12 YEARS, THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL OPPOSITION TO THE BOLIVARIAN REVOLUCION AND VENEZUELA’S PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ HAS NEVER LET UP.
NOW, WHEN THE EFFORTS FOR LATIN AMERICAN INTEGRATION IN UNASUR, CELAC, PETROSUR AND PETROCARIBE ARE GIVING FRUIT, THE SINISTER FORCES AT WORK HAVE TAKEN AN EVEN GREATER STRENGTH.
THE USE OF NATO AGAINST LIBYA IS A HORRIFYING EXAMPLE THAT INTERNATIONAL LAW HAS BECOME INTERNATIONAL LAWLESSNESS WHERE OIL IS CONCERNED.
THE ORGANIZATIONS BELOW, SINCERELY INVITE YOU TO COME AND CELEBRATE AND SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH THE BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION ON THE DATE OF THE KEY BATTLE OF CARABOBO THAT SEALED VENEZUELA’S FREEDOM FROM THE SPANISH EMPIRE.
WE WILL HAVE GOOD FOOD, MUSIC AND LIVELY TALKS.
WE SHALL OVERCOME
FRIDAY JUNE 24
6 PM
341 BLOOR ST. WEST, 2ND FLOOR
(ST. GEORGE & BLOOR)
If you’re there, it might be worth attending. (Wish I could afford the train fare right now…)
Le Snog
June 16, 2011 — Sabina BeckerAn enigmatic image from last night’s post-hockey riots apparently has CBC in a twit-storm:
Actually, I like this image a lot better than the ones of rioters jumping on cop-cars. It’s a much truer reflection of what Vancouverites (and Canadians in general) are normally like.
And no, rioting is NOT due to anarchy OR “just part of hockey culture”, as some ignorami from the Kommentariat are suggesting. Rocker Matthew Good has perhaps the best possible analysis of what the fuck really happened in Vancouver last night and what it says about the city:
There is a vast difference between gathering in such numbers to protest something deemed politically unacceptable and burning cars after the loss of a hockey game. To put it in the clearest context possible, if the people of Egypt were able to gather in much larger numbers and force the Mubarak regime out of power without acting like idiots, then what does that say about a city in the land of milk and honey in which people riot because of the loss of a sporting event? The Egyptians faced persecution for their actions, not to mention uncertainty as to whether the movement would succeed. That’s bravery, and something to be applauded. And yet, here we are on the other side of the world acting like buffoons, lighting police cars on fire and causing such distention that emergency service vehicles can’t even access the downtown core to deal with people that have sustained injuries.
What do you want me to say? That it doesn’t represent the city as a whole because everyone from the downtown core to the Wally exchange wasn’t directly involved? That’s a nice thought, though wondrously short sighted. What do you think the national media is saying? Or, for that matter, foreign media? That it was just a small group of rabble-rousers? Or that, once again, Vancouver rioted after a Stanley Cup loss as if it’s tradition.
The last thing I care to hear is some 20-something that’s lived downtown for four months lecture me on the “realities of the city.” I lived in the downtown core for almost two decades, I’m quite familiar with it — and unlike some naïve scenester that can’t find their own ass with two hands and flashlight most of the time, I know full well what tonight’s unrest will ultimately cost taxpayers. You can think what you will about Greater Vancouver, but its core mentality hasn’t changed all that much. No amount of trendy eateries, hip night spots, and upscale retailers is going to change the fact that if you give most of the idiots around here enough rope, they’ll hang themselves and think it cool.
Basically, rioters riot because they are fucking idiots. Get enough beer into ‘em, and they get bold, and shit happens. Get ‘em in a crowd with lots of cover, and they get bold, and shit happens. Give ‘em an excuse, any excuse, and shit happens. But they are not “anarchists”, and they are not revolutionaries, and they are not real hockey fans, either. Get it?
What happened last night in Vancouver should never be seen as an excuse for a draconian crackdown. Especially not against peaceful protests, which happen here all the time…and as long as the cops don’t get too bold themselves, peaceful is how they stay. (Yes, cops can be hooligans too. Get ‘em in a crowd, give ‘em uniforms and heavy armor and weaponry, and shit happens. Same as with the non-uniformed rioters. As I so often like to say, it’s never a riot until the cops show up.)
Blaming “anarchy”, like blaming hockey, is a cop-out. Chaos, which is what happened in Vancouver last night, is not the same thing as refusing to be either a leader or a follower, which is what REAL anarchism is all about. Canada is kind of short on actual anarchists. And growing shorter all the time. We live in an increasingly policed state, and that’s something we SHOULD be protesting against.
There’s another problem I notice growing: Our society is increasingly militarized, as well as increasingly policed. Do we really need that? Especially when it’s not guaranteeing or safeguarding our own democracy, but taking things in exactly the opposite direction? People in Afghanistan and Libya are being oppressed because of us and our meddlesome false notions of what a “democracy” is supposed to look like. I can tell you one thing — THIS is not it:
Personally, I’d rather see these kids making out in mid-street than all those other ones breaking windows and taking stuff. Seems like a lot more fun, and if the cops are sensible, they won’t arrest two lovebirds just for rolling around in the road. As long as they didn’t frighten the horses of the mounted unit, who cares? The traffic was already backed up for blocks, so no harm done there. As long as they weren’t rolling in stolen loot (from local boutiques or someplace halfway around the world), ain’t love grand?
Vive le Snog!
PS: The young couple in the picture have now been identified. She was injured by a cop with a riot shield; her boyfriend is trying to comfort her while they wait for help to arrive. It’s a very sweet story, so clicky the linky and be prepared to go AWWWW.
Collateral Suicide
June 11, 2011 — Sabina BeckerWhat do I have against the “humanitarian intervention” of NATO in Libya? Lots of things. This video contains a clue as to some of them:
So, let’s recap: So far, no Gaddafi. Their main target (as declared by NATO) remains strangely elusive, considering all the “smart” weaponry they’ve supposedly deployed against him. All this for just one man? They’ve tried to bomb him before, 25 years ago in fact, and succeeded only in killing one of his daughters. Is this “humanitarian”? Funny, but another of Gaddafi’s daughters doesn’t think so…and she’s laying war-crimes charges.
But I guess this latest round of slaughter will also be casually written off as more “collateral damage”, that hateful and meaningless phrase. Isn’t it funny how the same allies who succeeded (supposedly) in capturing and killing Osama bin Laden without a bombing raid are instead falling into the same old Bush-league quagmire in Libya as in Afghanistan and Iraq? Gee, don’t you wonder why that is?
Also, note what the father of the girl who tried to kill herself says. NATO is not needed, in Libya or anywhere. He is absolutely correct. NATO is a Cold War relic that should have been scrapped, along with ALL the existing nuclear weapons everywhere on Earth, the day the Berlin Wall was torn down by the German people. Yet here it is, more than two decades later, still clanking around like a “walker” from Star Wars, unable to achieve its stated objectives of removing one rogue leader (and its covert one of installing a tame dictator in his place. What, you think they support the Arab Spring, in its Libyan incarnation? Naïve child. If they seriously did, would they be bombing the country to hell and driving frightened girls to suicide attempts? And do you think they’d have sat around twiddling their thumbs and wringing their hands over Egypt, Tunisia, etc.?)
I predict they will not deliver a penny in the support they promised the rebels, either. That billion dollars US is just Monopoly money until the cheque clears the bank. (Actually, of the two, I’d prefer Monopoly money; at least it has tangible substance and will buy you little plastic houses you can plant from Baltic Avenue to the Boardwalk.)
In short, this “humanitarian intervention” is a load of khara.
Music for a Sunday: Gil Scott-Heron, RIP
May 29, 2011 — Sabina BeckerThis great underrated gem comes courtesy of a man who left us far too soon, this past Friday, aged 62. We need him more than ever, especially when stories like this terrible one about Bradley Manning come out. It’s not enough to not send mentally fragile people to war; we shouldn’t be sending anyone, as it makes even healthy people crazy and sick.
Sleep well, Brother Gil. Gonna do my damnedest to keep your message going, keep people awake and working for peace and justice.
Short ‘n’ Stubby: Osamarama
May 5, 2011 — Sabina Becker
Hey, everybody…Ms. Manx is meowing, and you know what that means: She’s found us some stuff! And sure enough, she’s found plenty about the death of Osama. Lead on, O Stump-Tailed One…
First off, the Manx is confused by all the different versions of the Osama death story circulating out there. Something’s been changed, she says–and sure enough, several things have. Memo to the White House (and all you hero-makers in the media): Your story would be a lot more credible if it didn’t keep mutating!
At Global Research, Paul Craig Roberts ably dissects the “fog of war” bullshit. Uruknet does likewise, noting that Osama was taken prisoner first, and then killed — according to the testimony of his wife, who contrary to the mutating official version, was not among the dead. The heroic narrative of the “double tap” that Osama got from the US Navy SEALs while holding a woman as a human shield is as much a fairy tale as Rapunzel or Sleeping Beauty, it seems.
In fact, more and more, it looks as if they were the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. The raid was so full of bungles that it’s a wonder they pulled any of it off. It appears that the first tweeter from Abbottabad to report the incident, Sohaib Athar, who talked of hearing a helicopter crash, was right. One of the “hero” team’s choppers did, indeed, go down, and its wreckage was abandoned at the scene.
Meanwhile, not only the narrative of the raid itself, but the legality of the whole operation, is under question. For all that he has been crudely likened to Adolf Hitler, Osama has not gotten the due process that the Nazi war criminals tried at Nürnberg got. He was taken prisoner, then shot and his body dumped in the sea. Team America, World Police — judge, jury and summary executioner? That’s illegal under international law, and the “war” cover is no excuse. Even a terrorist wanted for nearly two decades does not deserve to become the victim of a war crime, says the Manx. Otherwise, “we” are no better than “they”.
At AlterNet, Joshua Holland makes the case against heroic narratives and triumphalism, tying it in with the doubtful legality of the whole shebang. He also dares to ask the question that will bring a shitstorm of criticism down on his head: Did Osama win, after all, even by losing? After all, those who will be outraged at his death, and consider him a martyr, don’t need photos of his blown-up head to stoke their anger, or a graveside to turn into a shrine. They will claim him no matter what, and they will probably use his death as justification for other terrorist murders still to come. In which case, this “major” victory could become very, very Pyrrhic indeed.
And finally, Jon Stewart makes the case for releasing Osama’s death pix with his usual, inimitable truthful humor. Ms. Manx adds that there is one thing Jon neglected to mention…
…yep, those gory death-pix. Which DID eventually see the light of day, many years after JFK’s assassination. And some of which were found, oddly enough, to have been altered in several ways, as was the body of the slain president before it was photographed. Ms. Manx doesn’t know what, if anything, the death pix of Osama will show that may also contradict the much-mutated official version of the story, but she thinks, based on the lingering controversy surrounding JFK, that knowing the truth is better than being “protected”. And who can blame her?
Four dead in Ohio…
May 4, 2011 — Sabina BeckerThe Kent State Massacre — the logical outgrowth of a militarized society, addicted to imperial wars, that could not brook protests against bad public policy. As Simón Bolívar said: “Cursed is the soldier who fires upon his own people.”
Forgetting is forbidden.
Ding, dong, Osama bin Forgotten is dead.
May 2, 2011 — Sabina BeckerHooray. I guess I’d be more jubilant about the death of Osama bin Laden if only what this Pakistani interviewee says were not so damn true:
Zero transparency, the body conveniently disposed of at sea (to prevent martyr-worship at his grave, or so the official story goes), and of course, the annoying triumphalist “heroes” narrative dominating the media over here yet again. These are just a few of the things that are already starting to bug me. (I’m sure I’ll be able to think of more as they emerge.)
The Pakistani angle, however, is good to have, especially this part:
According to his Twitter stream @reallyvirtual, Sohaib Athar moved from Lahore, Pakistan to the resort town of Abbottabad to take a break from the rat race. It seems he didn’t move far enough. On Sunday, Athar found himself smack in the center of one of the year’s biggest news events.
[...]
A 33-year-old IT consultant, Athar was on Twitter when the sound of a helicopter flying overhead drove him to write a series of frustrated notes. Over the next few hours, he compiled rumors and observations about an event that would soon have the world riveted: Athar tweeted the secret operation that killed Osama bin Laden. “I am just a Tweeter, a guy awake at the time of the crash,” he wrote after the world noticed he had a front seat to history and inundated him with questions and messages.
So of course, I hied me over to his twit-stream, and found…
Start reading from the bottom and scroll up. That’s what he tweeted at the time of the attack on the compound where Osama was lodging. Here are some of his later ones:
Unidentified helicopter; probably not Taliban, because they don’t have any (good to know!). Not Pakistani military, either. CIA? Well, of course. Who else?
Then comes a slightly confusing (confused?) part:
Very interesting. He notes that it’s not a a drone; too noisy. The “purposeful” circling is also a dead giveaway: the ‘copter was homing in on its target. Later, he talks about a second one being shot down:
The link to the news story of the “crash” is here. Map of the “crash” site here. This may have been a cover story, to keep the lid on until Osama’s death could be confirmed. Still, it’s useful to help us see just how disinformation can be used, especially as an incident is just going down (no pun intended.)
And here, things really start to get interesting:
“Rumors”. I predict we won’t be hearing as much about that “second helicopter that went down” now…
…that the truth has at last leaked out. Some of it, anyway.
Meanwhile, it sounds like poor Sohaib Athar is overwhelmed by all the media attention he has inadvertently drawn to himself. Follow him on the tweeter if you like (I certainly will), but give the guy a break; he’s only a messenger by accident. Don’t pester him. If there’s anything new he can share with you, I’m sure he will.
BTW, I see by my ClustrMap that I have quite a few readers in Pakistan. I would really like to hear from you, whether there is any additional information you care to share (especially about that rumored second helicopter), or whether you just want to give your point of view (let’s face it, the major media over here probably won’t cover THAT angle!). Whatever you want to say, I’m all ears. Please feel free to drop a comment in the slot below, and welcome!
