Quote of the day

"We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness - embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television."

Howard Zinn

Baking a Conservative Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup Arrogance
1 cup corruption
1 cup incompetence
1 cup self-righteousness
1 cup self-pity
2 cups dishonesty
Combine ingredients, mix well and bake in sunlight for all to see.
Be sure to bake well lest your concoction join other half-baked conservatives running loose. Serves: no one well

Death Penalty - English version

The media: By Noam Chomsky

Whether they're called "liberal" or "conservative," the major media are large corporations, owned by and interlinked with even larger conglomerates. Like other corporations, they sell a product to a market.
The market is advertisers -- that is, other businesses. The product is audiences. For the elite media that set the basic agenda to which others adapt, the product is, furthermore, relatively privileged audiences.
So we have major corporations selling fairly wealthy and privileged audiences to other businesses.........
The outcome is not, of course, entirely uniform. To serve the interests of the powerful, the media must present a tolerably realistic picture of the world. And professional integrity and honesty sometimes interfere with the overriding mission. The best journalists are, typically, quite aware of the factors that shape the media product, and seek to use such openings as are provided.
The result is that one can learn a lot by a critical and skeptical reading of what the media produce.
The media are only one part of a larger doctrinal system; other parts are journals of opinion, the schools and universities, academic scholarship and so on. We're much more aware of the media, particularly the prestige media, because those who critically analyze ideology have focused on them.........
The doctrinal system, which produces what we call "propaganda" when discussing enemies, has two distinct targets. One target is what's sometimes called the "political class," the roughly 20% of the population that's relatively educated, more or less articulate, playing some role in decision-making. Their acceptance of doctrine is crucial, because they're in a position to design and implement policy.
Then there's the other 80% or so of the population. These are Lippmann's "spectators of action," whom he referred to as the "bewildered herd." They are supposed to follow orders and keep out of the way of the important people. They're the target of the real mass media: the tabloids, the sitcoms, the Super Bowl and so on......
The goal is to keep the bewildered herd bewildered. It's unnecessary for them to trouble themselves with what's happening in the world. In fact, it's undesirable -- if they see too much of reality they may set themselves to change it.
That's not to say that the media can't be influenced by the general population. The dominant institutions-- whether political, economic or doctrinal -- are not immune to public pressures. Independent (alternative) media can also play an important role. Though they lack resources, almost by definition, they gain significance in the same way that popular organizations do: by bringing together people with limited resources who can multiply their effectiveness, and their own understanding, through their interactions -- precisely the democratic threat that's so feared by dominant elites.

Keith Olbermann deconstructs Bill O'Reilly

This is a journalist who tries to debunk the worst excuse for a journalist in America on the worst excuse for news in America

the TRUTH people the TRUTH

This is a great video: Combines the efforts we need to take and
who we need to take these efforts against

What the US Government won't talk about

What motivated the 9/11 hijackers? See testimony most didn't

Shortly after the 9/11 attack, CBC held a series of town hall meetings with ordinary Canadians. These Canadians generally expressed knowledge that these attacks are motivated by US foreign policy. The right wing immediately bashed our own citizens for blaming the victims, and the left shut up very quickly. But it isn't really going away. The Palestinian question must be addressed if there is going to be any hope for peace in the middle east

Final Stroke

Freedom of Speech

I made this video as a personal statement on the type of discourse that I see in the mainstream media. Everyone is so angry at one another, that no one wants to seem to listen to the other side. Extremism suffocates discourse, and we are witnessing this unabashedly. It's happened before, as this video shows, and it's never had a healthy result.

Stop This Crazy War

My Own Personal protest of the war in Iraq, which violates the UN charter, no matter what justification is used, and calls for indictments for war crimes against it's initiators in the same manner as those who were prosecuted for war crimes in WWII: That is, for waging a war of agression.

The Question of the Day: Should Newfoundlanders care about Lebanese Canadians?

On VOCM's web site today, their question of the day asked the following:

Do you think the federal government is doing a good job of getting Canadians out of Lebanon? Question Date: 7/25/2006

The comments were interesting, to say the least. Sadly, they displayed a side of Newfoundlanders that we'd rather not talk about, so if I have offended you, it is unintentional, however, it's something I think we need to talk about.
Let's start with the comments that had tones of racism in them. Yes that's right, I'm not pulling any punches here, even though the respondents tried to. The use of quotes around certain words in a clever attempt at the art of rhetoric. Indeed, a veiled attempt at connoting that these survivors of an illegal act of war in Lebanon are "less" than Canadian, indeed, less than human. Judge for yourself from the quotations below:

WE COULD STAY " HOME" AND NOT VISIT A WAR TORN COUNTRY TO TAKE A VACATION (Caps by author)

...let these "Canadians" find their own way home. Take care of your "own" first.

...why "we" are responsible for moving them anyway. They chose to go there to visit, and chose to be Canadian citizens

Sadly, I am of the belief that these comments represent an attempt to distinguish these Canadians as some sort of lesser type of Canadian. The question is why? Is it because they hold dual citizenship, or is it something else? Is it because they are predominantly of Arab descent? Does that make them less Canadian? Does that make them less human?

As of the posting of this blog, the question has 22 posted responses to the question of the day. 18 of these either agree that the government is doing enough, or too much (and include the comments posted in this blog).
Those of us who are fans of the question of the day (or rather read it every day) have witnessed time and again overwhelming votes and comments in favour of the government doing more to help the people in this province who work in the fishery (Government at both levels).
Yet the comments below provide interesting insight into the beliefs of the people who responded overwhelmingly in the negative, in terms of whether or not to provide assistance to Lebanese Canadians:

...is the question of what these people are doing there.

...I realize that most of them have families there but is that a good reason to go seeing the situation

...If they wish to return to the home lands when this is taking place let them return there and not expect out tax dollars to help them...

Wow! I wonder if these are the same people who hold out hope that the government will intervene and help with tax dollars if necessary to put a fish plant (ie low skill labour) in another small Newfoundland community!
We deride (and rightfully so) people from mainland Canada who refer to us as lazy, and being only concerned with staying home. Those of us who have had to move away freely admit we long for the day when we can return home, and if Ft. McMurray existed somewhere in Newfoundland, we all know Alberta would be deserted.
This is nothing to be ashamed of, it is something to be proud of! We don't leave this beautiful Island with the worst weather in the world willingly.
My question then, is this: Should Lebanese Canadians feel any less for their homeland? As inhabitants of an island that shares a common problem with Lebanon (forced outmigration)
we should hold empathy for these Lebanese Canadians, and yet today's comments certainly do not reflect this.
It all suggests to me tones of racism, as if because they are originally from the Middle East they are to be treated as less than we would expect for Newfoundlanders.
Please note that of course I fully realize that there are plenty of Newfoundlanders who feel similar to the way I do (According to the poll, 26 per cent of respondents do), however as I stated at the beginning, my cause for concern was both the tones of the actual respondents, and the lack of a dissenting point of view.
Comments?

Quote of the day

"To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men"- Abraham Lincoln

War protesters start two-week march outside Exxon

By Angela K. Brown / Associated Press
IRVING, Texas - About 50 war protesters rallied outside Exxon Mobil Corp.'s headquarters Saturday, saying that $7 billion of its record 2005 profits were earned from the war with Iraq and should be paid to injured veterans and those with health problems living near refineries.
After chanting "Boycott Exxon! Stop the war!" the group marched down the street in the rain, with a police escort for safety reasons. Some held banners that read "Spare the innocents" and "No war for oil."
The rally kicked off the "March to Redeem the Soul of America" that is to end up about 120 miles away in Crawford near President Bush's ranch on Easter weekend for a third war protest in less than a year.
"This two-week march is to bring attention to the sins of corporate America," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, who also is the director of the Dallas Peace Center.
Mark Boudreaux, an Exxon Mobil spokesman, said the company was offended by the way such groups claim to represent the public's interest by making "inflammatory statements" that he said were "blatantly untrue."
"They're living in a fantasy world," Boudreaux said, adding that the company has donated $3.5 billion to charities the past several years.
He also said employees and retirees gave $60 million to charitable organizations and volunteered 800,000 hours last year.
Irving-based Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, earned $36.13 billion last year, the highest ever for a U.S. company.
Economic studies show that about 20 percent of that can be attributed to the war that has sent oil prices soaring, said Nick Mottern, director of ConsumersforPeace.org.
He is compiling a list of people - including injured Iraq war veterans and Beaumont and Baytown residents with health problems living near Exxon refineries - who peace activists believe should receive some of Exxon's $7 billion.
Protesters plan to drive south to several cities, marching along part of the way each day, and will arrive the week of Easter in Crawford. There they will be joined by Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who camped in ditches near Bush's ranch last summer, demanding to ask him for what noble cause her soldier son died in Iraq in 2004. Two of his top aides met with Sheehan, but Bush never did.
Her August vigil galvanized the peace movement while drawing thousands of anti-war demonstrators to the tiny Texas town, but it also attracted scores of Bush supporters who said Sheehan was hurting troop morale.
Sheehan and a few hundred protesters returned to Crawford for a second protest the week of Thanksgiving while Bush again was at his ranch.


Well the Vietnam war started off with small protests that took years to gain momentum. It is my beleif that these protests against the Iraq wr are happening with a quicker pace, and thankfully, we are protesting directly in the faces of those responsible for the conflict: NO BLOOD FOR OIL!

Chris Rock Sums it up

If Iraq was so dangerous, how come we took over the whole country in two weeks? You couldn't take over Baltimore in two weeks!!!!!!

Mother of two vicitms of London Bombing

"That's some awfully distorted lies they've been told, that this somehow is doing God's work," Dudley Benton said. "It's awful to fill people with lies like that and hatred, and I certainly am not going to let my heart dwell on such things or let that kind of anger and hatred build in my heart for them."

This is how we will ultimately defeat terrorism, especially religious terrorism... We have to use our minds, not our force, in order to defeat this. This mother knows whay she is saying. If only the president of the U.S had half of her wisdom and courage.....