Romney’s Snake handlers

“they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:18

If Romney wins or should I say steals the 2012 election, then you should know about his posse of crazy fundamentalist snake handlers which he will bring into his administration.  In the area of education, a former Republican organizer who is touted to have the inside track into a high profile Department of Education position is Dr. Gary Cass, currently head of the Christian Anti-Defamation league after being an executive member of the San Diego Republican party. His book, “The Bible and The Blackboard: Biblical Solutions for Failing Schools” is required reading for conservative critics of the present educational system.

“Suicide, drug abuse, promiscuity, teenage pregnancies, and abortion are all linked to the morally bankrupt public education philosophy that prevails in our nation's schools. The Bible and the Blackboard provides a profound look at the public school system's fall from a time when, in some cases, the Bible was a textbook, to the present, where Christian worldviews are outlawed from the classroom.”

I sure that Clarissa and Z are unaware that they are working in “perverted factories of unfaithfulness” as his lecture in the video states but in the event of a Romney victory they’ll soon find out.  Better watch out for the Kool Aid too but at least the healthcare cost overruns will be solved. There have been so many flavors of rape expounded by Republican candidates this year that everyone is confused so fortunately Daily Kos has put out a handy chart of rape types which is free to be copied and placed on your fridge door.

 

And all you Satanic pro choice Obama lovers are going to burn in hell!

 

World’s Worst Hotel

  The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel in Amsterdam has won the travel agents’ award again as the world’s worst hotel. A typical comment from the Tripadvisor website:

We stayed in this hostel in April 2012 on a Topdeck tour of Europe. I'd read other reviews of the hostel before we got there, so was a bit nervous. Unfortunately most of the reviews I'd read were completely true. The rooms were like prison cells, with rickety old beds and metal lockers that didn't close properly. Walking down the hallways was like walking through an abandoned old hospital. I could have forgiven the barren, echoing rooms if they'd been super clean, but they weren't. The shared bathroom was the kind that you wear thongs in just to wash your hands. Luckily the bed sheets were clean (or so they looked). The breakfast was minimal and gross. The only saving factor was that it was within walking distance to the main tourist attractions in Amsterdam, very close to a bike hire store and down the street from a cafe that makes potent brownies. I would recommend that, if you have a choice, go somewhere else!

        Room Tip: Choose a good room...at another hostel!

View Larger Map

 

If you check their website, you’ll find the following legal notice posted.

Legal note: The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel does offer cheap accommodation in Amsterdam but cheap accommodation herein describes ‘inexpensive relative to others in the sector’ but not (under hotel regulations & guides the Netherlands brief #4569. 67887. 89) ‘good’ accommodation or indeed ‘pleasant,’ ‘hygienic’ accommodation or any derivation thereof. Those wishing to stay at the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, Amsterdam, do so at their own risk and will not hold the hotel liable for food poisoning, mental breakdowns, terminal illness, lost limbs, radiation poisoning, certain diseases associated with the 18th century, plague, etcetera.

Why go? It does provide relatively cheap accommodation close to some well known tourist attractions in the city and the clientele mostly stoned on legal pot after a night of debauchery in Amsterdam’s red light zone usually don’t notice the lack of amenities. Also if I get a thousand hits on this post then the hotel will pay me ten Euros (really!)

P.S.

The hotel was named after a character in a novel by American author Mary Mapes Dodge entitled, “The Silver Skates” who wants to win a prize of silver skates by winning the Dutch speed racing  competition but only owns a pair of wooden skates.



  

Moving to Canada

I saw this article in Business week today about Americans planning to move to Canada after the impending US election. One section states:

 

Randolph McTavish, Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, also warned Americans against trying to slip across the border in the hopes of passing as Canadians: “It is very difficult, if not impossible, to pretend to like hockey.” Mr. McTavish said that he was sympathetic with those who might flee across the border in search of a new life and socialized medicine, but added, “At the end of the day, forty-seven per cent of Americans is more than Canada can handle.”

 

—Andy Borowitz, “Canada Tightens Border,” The Borowitz Report, The New Yorker, October 9, 2012.

The question that  the article raises is who will be the ones leaving because for the first time both the Obama and Romney camps have their bags packed if the other side wins. Usually the story is the tree hugging liberal hippies are the only ones planning to leave and the Google trend chart below demonstrates how in November 2004 when the Bush side won (the large peak on the left) the disappointed Democrats planned to leave for Canada but in November 2008 when Obama won there was no peak.  This time is different. In a Guardian news story in June of 2012, Republican Americans threatened to leave if Obama care was passed. As one pundit in the article said, “That’s like saying you’re moving to Hogwarts because you don’t believe in magic.” The meme is in full force on the web right now but will it really happen? According to a CTV news piece, it’s all about high unemployment in America and lower college tuition in Canada.

I think that one reason American right wingers consider relocating to Canada is the governing Conservative party of Stephen Harper having a majority in parliament. They don’t understand that conservatism in this country is a far cry from the Republican brand. On July 11, 2012, the finance minister, Tony Clement dedicated a new 2.5 million dollar visitor center in Gravenhurst, Ontario for the birthplace of Marxist hero and martyr, Norman Bethune.  An article in the Globe and Mail said:

Norman Bethune, who died while tending Mao Zedong’s troops in 1939, is an unlikely Conservative hero. But Bethune’s ideological impurity is offset by his value to Ottawa’s strategy in China – where the colourful Canadian expatriate is a national hero, memorialized by Mao himself for his “spirit of absolute selflessness.”

This is equivalent to one of Romney’s retainers celebrating the dedication of a statue to Fidel Castro and calling him a great hero of the Cuban people. This center’s construction cost was paid by the Harper government’s economic action plan.

 

Directions:

Putin says Group Sex is Better

Is Putin losing it? First he puts on a fake crane mask to help the birds fly to their breeding grounds by flying a motorized hang glider in the shape of a giant crane and now says group sex is better than one on one because you can take a break.  Last Friday on an interview at RT, the Kremlin supported English language network, he said that orgies like all collectivist activities allow the participant to go to the sidelines and recuperate. I wonder how all those kids in Nashi, the russian youth organization will take it. Although I'm not a fan of Putin, I have to admit that it's a refreshing break from the perfect family genre of the current American election cycle where it appears that the participants have twin beds like the TV shows of the fifties, children appear to be conceived by immaculate conception and the spouses of the candidates act like June Cleaver clones.

WWJD is now succeed by WWLD - What Would Jesus do replaced by What Would Lenin do. A new dialectic of relationships where the traditional family withers away. Although Lenin officially had a puritanical relationship with his dowdy wife and comrade in arms, Nadya, a lot of his biographers suggest that he also had an extramartial relationship with the exotic and beautiful Ineesa Armand during his exile. A revisionist template for the New Russian Man. Next item on Putin's agenda is to model naked on the cover of Russia's equivalent of GQ magazine with the hand of a member of Pussy Riot around his throat. Now I would buy that edition.



Other News

  On Friday September 7, 2012, Canada closed its embassy in Tehran and ordered all Iranian diplomats to leave the country within five days. The travel and warnings section of the Canadian federal government website ordered all citizens to avoid travel to Iran. Many neutral observers in the world have concluded that military action by Israel against Iran is imminent and this is a pre-emptive decision by Canada as a close ally and confidante of Israel in anticipation of military conflict. Last week, General Hossein Salami, Deputy Chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, said that any attempt to attack Iran would expand the warfare to the enemies’ land. “Any aggression against Iran will expand the war into the borders of the enemies,” he warned. “They know our power, and we won’t allow any aggression against our land.”

  Israel has made no secret of its desire to attack Iran before the November 6 American election date in order to maximize its leverage on the Obama administration which would be forced by the pro Israel stance of the Republicans to show that it’s tough on the “Muslim threat”.  While Israel by itself or with American collusion could deliver a significant attack on Iranian infrastructure, the expected Iranian military response perhaps by one of its “silkworm” anti shipping missiles against a tanker or naval vessel in the Strait of Hormuz would certainly draw America into a protracted trillion dollar budget busting, Middle Eastern war.

I’m amazed at the lack of coverage by American mass media that seem fixated on the 2012 election cycle with its outlandish character attacks and ignore obvious global events. The situation is deteriorating rapidly and events are moving along at a fast pace. Today the Toronto Star stated:

  At a news conference Monday, (Canadian immigration minister)Jason Kenney told reporters

Officials have been told to comb through applications from Iranian nationals to ensure anyone deemed allied with or part of the Iranian government — declared last week a state sponsor of terrorism — is barred from entering Canada.

“Many in the Persian community in Canada have been concerned that people who have been close to or members of the regime and their relatives, they believe, have in too many cases been able to establish residency in Canada and we want to ensure that people who may be inadmissible, that is to say those who perhaps are associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the Al Quds force, the Basij, or senior members of the regime are not admissible to Canada under s. 34-36 of the Immigration Refugee Protection Act,” Kenney said.

UPDATE (Today):

Twenty five countries led by the US will hold a 12-day long naval exercise (starting Sept. 15, 2012) nearby Iranian waters, said sources in the British military .

During the maneuvers, participants will practice securing traffic in the Gulf of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf in hostile environment of an opponent. Western military makes no secret, the latter is Iran.

The US delegated three carrier strike groups. Presently, American nuclear-powered aircraft carriers USS Enterprise and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower are deployed in the region. Third carrier USS John C. Stennis will arrive in the area in the nearest time.

Great Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates dispatched large naval forces as well. Some episodes will be held with participation of NATO command authorities.

Except for securing and mine clearing activities in the Strait of Hormuz, the exercise includes strikes upon opponent’s warships, coast-based air defense batteries, missile and gun positions located near the Strait of Hormuz.

Learn about data visualization software.

Legitimate Rape

Everyone has been talking about Todd Akin’s concept of legitimate rape but if you really want to know about the legitimate rape of women’s rights then all you have to do is observe the voting record of the elected officials in the Congress. It’s been a banner year for the Congressional Conservative’s aim to push women’s rights in America back to the fifties with an average of more than one anti-women vote per week in the 112^th congress according to a new report released today. The executive summary of a report prepared by U.S. House of Representative’s committee on Energy and commerce (minority staff) says the following:

The House of Representatives have voted repeatedly for an extreme anti-women agenda in the 112th Congress. Since January 2011, the Republican-controlled House has voted 55 times to undermine women’s health, roll back women’s rights, and defund programs and institutions that provide health care and support for women.

House Republicans have voted to strip women of access to preventive health care and contraception, to eliminate federal support for reproductive and maternal care services, to cut funds for important nutrition programs for pregnant women, nursing mothers, and families, and to allow insurers to discriminate against women and charge them more than men for health insurance policies. They have voted against passing, improving, and funding important programs like the Violence against Women Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. They have voted to end the basic guarantees that the Medicare and Medicaid programs provide to low-income women or women who are seniors. They have voted to increase the exposure of pregnant women and women of childbearing age to dangerous toxic chemicals. And they have voted numerous times to restrict women’s access to legal abortions.

The House of Representatives averaged one anti-women vote for every week that the House has been in session since Republicans took control in January 2011. Almost 5% of all House legislative floor votes since the beginning of 2011 have been anti-women votes. During these roll calls, 95% of Republican members voted for the position that was harmful to women, while 90% of Democratic members voted for the pro-women position.

This analysis, prepared at the request of Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman, Subcommittee on Health Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Ranking Member Anna G. Eshoo, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Ranking Member Diana DeGette, and Committee members Lois Capps, Jan Schakowsky, Tammy Baldwin, Doris O. Matsui, Donna Christensen, and Kathy Castor, provides a summary of the 55 times that House Republicans have voted against women in 2011 and 2012. Among these votes are:

• Seventeen votes to allow health insurance companies to discriminate against women by charging women higher premiums than men or denying women coverage based on “pre-existing conditions” like being pregnant.

• Eleven votes that cut women’s access to preventive care, including votes to repeal Affordable Care Act provisions that provide free preventive care for women and votes to eliminate the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which is used to support breastfeeding and immunizations and is budgeted to pay for breast and cervical cancer screenings for hundreds of thousands of women in 2013 and beyond.

Ten votes to restrict or roll back abortion rights or access to legal abortion, including votes to ban the use of federal funds to train medical students in the provision of abortions, votes to allow hospitals to deny emergency abortions to women’s whose lives are in jeopardy, and votes to prohibit the District of Columbia from using local funds to pay for abortions.

• Seven votes to cut funding for key nutrition programs for women, including votes for significant cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) that provides nutrition, food counseling, and support for more than nine million low-income pregnant women, new mothers, and infants each month.

• Six votes against protections for women from violence and discrimination, including votes against protecting the confidentiality of domestic violence victims, votes to oppose additional funding for grants under the Violence Against Women Act, and votes to place new restrictions on the citizenship rights of legal, foreign-born women who are victims of domestic violence.

• Three votes to block access to reproductive and maternal care services, including votes for a budget that prohibits funding of Planned Parenthood and eliminates funding for the Title X Family Planning Program, which provides family planning services for millions of low-income women every year.

• Three votes to undermine Medicare and Medicaid programs, including votes to end the basic Medicare guarantee and votes to turn Medicaid into a block grant, slash $800 billion in existing federal support for state Medicaid programs, and repeal $640 billion of new Medicaid funding from the Affordable Care Act over the next ten years.

• Fourteen votes to weaken environmental laws that protect pregnant women, including votes to block EPA regulations that would protect pregnant women and women of childbearing age from exposure to mercury, a potent neurotoxin that poses particular risks to the brain and nervous system of unborn children.

 

 

 

"The English are waking up!"

A historic Quebec election that returned the Parti Québécois to power ended in tragedy Tuesday when a gunman killed one person and wounded another, then tried to start a fire at the Montreal venue where PQ Leader Pauline Marois was celebrating her minority mandate.

Police said a suspect entered a vestibule at the back of the Metropolis nightclub and fired shots, wounding two people critically. The suspect then started a fire and ran away on foot.(Globe and Mail)
 

 An unidentified man wearing a balaclava, shorts and a bathrobe was heard to say in broken French, “The English are waking up, the English are waking up ... It's payback ... Yeah, yeah, that’s enough." as police detained him. Too early for more information (He was armed with a handgun and an assault rifle as well as an incendiary device. Police have identified the shooter as Richard Henry Bain, 62, from La Conception, Quebec who owns a hunting & fishing lodge in Mont Tremblant, PQ. He has a facebook page under this name but the website for the lodge has been taken down.) but this is a dangerous beginning to a separatist government. The new premier of Quebec began her victory speech with "As a nation, we want to take ourselves the decisions that affect us. We want a country. And we'll have it." The Canadian Prime Minister, Steven Harper, has consistently ignored the feelings of Quebec and appointed Anglophone members to traditionally bilingual positions. In Alberta, Quebec is considered to be a cesspool of indulged,spoilt complainers who would be better out of the country and the tar sands wealth have given Albertans a sense of superiority to the hated Easterners. They compare Canada to a cow that eats in the west, gets milked in the center and craps on the maritimers.

The Quebec Liberals deserved to lose with their corrupt, lazy and entitled sense of political power but the PQ is going to indulge its fantasies of an independent Quebec again without dealing with the realities that have come up in previous incarnations of being in power.

1) Quebec is indivisable. Unfortunately the native people of Quebec disagree and they hold vast tracts of the province. If an independent Quebec sends the police, then the natives have treaties with the federal government going back to confederation to stop them.

Native tribal regions of Quebec in red(Wikipedia)

2) Quebec will have successor rights to Canada's international treaties. In the last separatist referendrum, United States made it clear that any treaties with a newly independent Quebec would be negotiated from scratch with Quebec in a much less favourable negotiating position.

Professor Peter Russell has pointed out,"(Aboriginal peoples) are not nations that can be yanked out of Canada against their will by a provincial majority.... With few exceptions (they)wish to enjoy their right to self-government within Canada, not within a sovereign Quebec." International human rights expert Erica-Irene Daes warns that to deny the right of self- determination to indigenous peoples "will leave the most marginalized and excluded of all the world's peoples without a legal, peaceful weapon to press for genuine democracy...." This concern is connected to the fact that if Quebec were to be considered its own autonomous nation-state then it need not honour the treaties and agreements that were formed between Aboriginal peoples and the British and French monarchies and is now maintained by the federal Canadian government. This is a concern for many Aboriginal peoples in Quebec, whose rights, which include among others, the right to protect their Indigenous culture, would be without the legal or constitutional protection which is currently provided for in Canada. Concern for this may stem from what Aboriginal peoples perceive as neo-colonial or eurocentric attitudes which persist in the leadership of contemporary separatist leaders, such as Robert Bourassa, former Premier and self-proclaimed "Conqueror of the North".(Wikipedia)

3) Quebec is sustainable. The province can't feed its population with the local food production nor can it supply the energy it requires for heating or transportation. The balance of payments would soon bankrupt the country. Also a lot of the hydro Quebec electrical generating capacity lies in the tribal regions and the natives would expect compensation which would be a long term financial issue.

4) Quebec residents would keep their Canadian passports. With the Anglo backlash, this is highly unlikely and if they did then they would be responsible for the obligations of all Canadian citizens. I don`t buy Souveraineté-Association or in more defined terms an independent Quebec within a united Canada which some separatists have tried to sell as part of the ``le beau risque."

5) Quebec would have an independent monetary policy. Not a chance. If Quebec adopts a Canadian or American dollar then it gives up any monetary levers and would lack any input into monetary policy of the country whose currency it adopts. It would be in the same situation as Greece with the same consequences.

I was involved in the vote over the Meech Lake Accord of Conservative Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, during the last separtist outbreak and I don't want to go through that again.

The failure of the Meech Lake Accord—an abortive attempt to redress the constitutional problems brought on by the adoption of the 1982 amendment without the Quebec government's approval—strengthened the conviction of most sovereigntist politicians and led many federalist ones to place little hope in the prospect of a federal constitutional reform that would satisfy Quebec's purported historical demands (according to proponents of the sovereignty movement). These include a constitutional recognition that Quebecers constitute a distinct society, as well as a larger degree of independence of the province towards federal policy.(Wikipedia)

Quebec is losing its political influence because of most immigrants which represent the majority of Canadian population increase settling in other parts of Canada. Also Quebec which used to have the highest birthrate in the country and bragged about the "revenge of the craddle" now has the lowest birthrate. This has lead to a resurgence of separatism due to fear of the future decline which has been encouraged by the Prime Minister's actions. On the other side, Quebec commentators like Gilles Proulx have a great time unloading on the têtes carrées or block heads as they call Anglos and he will have a field day with this shooting incident involving an Anglo so be prepared for some tough times if you live in Quebec.


Canadian Immigration Infographic by