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Category: Commentary

My Little Christo-Fascist

Published by NiteMayr on October 1, 2008

Special Note: Yes, the title of this post is deliberately provocative.  Sometimes I just like to poke the bear and see if it really is asleep or just lying in wait.

I was raised Catholic and questions of faith and religion truly do enthuse me; I enjoy the debate and the conflict that surrounds religion. I willingly get into conflicts with my friends and family over religion and hope that my views on the matter have evolved over time in response to new information and my own personal growth as a person.  I also strongly believe that my brain wasn’t fully baked in place until my mid-twenties, and may still be cooling today.

Continue readingMy Little Christo-Fascist

Maybe Sarah Palin is Illiterate

Published by NiteMayr on September 30, 2008

“All of them”

I’m beginning to think that Sarah Palin might not be able to read; not at an adult level.  It’s looking more and more like the McCain/Palin ticket might be more special that one might first understand.

And yes, she gets more precious when she is cornered.  It’s amazing, this was not a compliment.

Updated: a transcript

COURIC: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this — to stay informed and to understand the world?

PALIN: I’ve read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media —

COURIC: But what ones specifically? I’m curious.

PALIN: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.

COURIC: Can you name any of them?

PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news.

The National Post Fails the "Truthiness" Test

Published by NiteMayr on September 30, 2008

In the past, we’ve been hard on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In many cases, our criticism of the Ceeb’s left-wing editorial stances has resulted in run-ins on these pages with such senior corporate executives as former CBC News editor-in-chief Tony Burman. These dust-ups have provided spirited entertainment for readers, but they have also served a serious purpose: Canadians who disagree with the world-view of CBC editors and reporters should not be forced, through their tax dollars, to subsidize our public broadcaster’s unremitting attack on conservative ideas they hold dear.

No Byline Opinion Piece in the National Post

I’ve been appreciative in the past of the National Post’s online component, especially their prediliction for publishing a vastly more robust version of the facts in a given story.  Their well-rounded coverage of stories have often allowed their readers a well-informed view of a given subejct.  Bravo.

Then there is their right-wing editorial staff who don’t seem to have the intestinal fortitude to sign a byline on their opinion spots.  Why?

I take responsibility for my opinion, why can’t the author of this fox-news snorting one?  It’s all well-and-good to love the Americans and their right-wing politicians, but you should put your name on your work, right?

The Moral Majority Never Cease to Amaze

Published by NiteMayr on September 26, 2008

FedUp Canadian Fri, Sep 26, 08 at 08:27 AM
Firstly – obviously she is not responsible, mentally stable and mature enough to take care of a child. Children having children. And who’s stuck paying the bill? Secondly, (3) hours! Come on people, use your heads!! Think for gosh sakes! Enough already. Yes everyone, it’s just that easy for the Police and RCMP – “Oh Please, can you give us the baby.” Get Real! What kind of a society are we living in when the average Canadian cannot see past their noses what’s really going on out there! For all you Smart As___ . why don’t you go out there and deal with what the Police and RCMP have to deal with. Good Luck. But then when it comes Your Turn and you need their help, don’t complain because they tasered the guy who’s holding you hostage and some of that shock may have inadvertantly transfered to your body. Rather that than they try shooting him and hit you instead. Or maybe they don’t respond immediately when your house is broken into because they are spending (3) hours trying to talk a 16 yr old into handing over a baby she shouldn’t have custody of in the first place. And where were the parents and grandmother when all this was going on? Never mind, where were they before the incident began? Why is it that in todays society, it’s always someone else’s fault? I was raised to take responsibility for each and every one of my actions!

oh please Fri, Sep 26, 08 at 08:17 AM
i am not sure what all the fuse is about. it is obvious from this story that a taser was used on the stun mode. they did not shoot barbs into her. there is an infant at risk in an out of control situation and this “poor” teen is refusing all direction given by the police officers to let the baby go. lets not forget that the mother defied a supervision order, refused to give the baby to the officers and now wants to play the victim pathetic

B. Fri, Sep 26, 08 at 09:00 AM
Sorry Ms. Peterson but you’re definitely in the wrong on this one. Do as a police officer tells you what to do and you won’t get hurt. You weren’t being reasonable at all. You seemed to have very little respect for what the officers were telling you.

This is the WINNAR!

The backstory on this post is over here; essentially a young mother (16) wouldn’t let the police take her sick baby away from her.  The police were (if the story is accurate) simply acting in the “best interest” of the baby, but that’s not the reason I’m interested in this story.  It sucks that the girl was tasered, it sucks worse that the baby is going to have all this turmoil in their life and be sick (for the rest of their life).  I’ll quote the article here so that the main thrust is apparent:

A teen who was Tasered by police as she clutched her one-month-old son just wants her baby back.

Misha Peterson, 16, said Vancouver police held her down on a bed and shot her with a Taser twice on Monday while she held her one-month-old son, Taige.

“Three or four cops were holding me down and they Tasered me twice in the neck until I let go of my baby,” said Peterson.

Peterson said social services were trying to take Taige because her 17-year-old boyfriend, Scott Michell, broke a supervision requirement.

Michell can’t see his child without adult supervision after an argument about Peterson moving back to her mother’s “got out of hand,” she said.

Some of the details in the original story are vague, it takes a neutral tone to a fault, making the whole situation kind of muddy and doesn’t really provide enough framing on an obviously emotional story to allow us to form an opinion either way.  It’s good news, but a smart editor should have caught the kind of emotions it would provoke and tossed in some detail about the mother, the police and the whole situation to allow for fully-formed emotional responses rather than the knee-jerk ones we are treated to by the anonymous trolls I’ve quoted above.

It’s these trolls that I wish to address; I’m not referring to them as trolls in the internet sense (as in trolling for newbs, yo!) I’m referring to them in the (excuse the term) biblical sense, real trolls.  They squat around the internet and look for their next moral target, blaming the victims of police or government over-exuberance for not “just laying back and taking it like a man”

This girl has done what the Trolls wanted, she birthed a baby when she clearly could not handle it and should have taken the sane option of simply aborting the fetus or giving it up for adoption.  She clearly loves and wants the child.  She has passed the “life is important test” which the right to life will tell you is the most important test of all.  Why then, is she in a situation like this?  Shouldn’t society be all over her?  Making sure that both child and mother are in good shape?  It certainly seems like the police are acting to enforce the will of society to “help” the child, but I would state that perhaps they were too exuberant.

It’s this very exuberance that the trolls on the page applaud.

Which makes me question their very humanity.

Psilons, in my campaign?

Published by NiteMayr on September 25, 2008

The debate on Friday was to focus on Mr. McCain’s perceived strength, foreign policy. Mr. McCain had not planned to devote large blocks of time to debate practice as did Mr. Obama, who was holing up with a tight circle of advisers at a hotel in Clearwater, Fla., on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to prepare. Mr. McCain had a preparatory session on Wednesday afternoon at the Morgan Library in Manhattan, but advisers said it had been interrupted by his decision, announced immediately afterward, to suspend his campaign.

If you are up on the whole “Clambake” then you must know what Clearwater, Florida is, right? Let me remind you:

If you’re still here and you didn’t watch the video and am still not clear on where Clearwater is, it’s practically the center of the non-celebrity world of Scientology. Demographically, it’s a strange choice for the Obama campaign to appear there, what with the CoS’s somewhat tarnished public image. I’m going to have to do a little digging to look to see if any well-known CoS members are in the Obama campaign.

It appears I’m not the first person to question this

This is troubling to me, as I’ve been more and more concerned about how the CoS goes about defending itself from criticism in very aggressive and/or paranoid ways.  In Fact, I’m sure that I’ll get a few hits over here just for this post.

So, what do you think, is there a CoS mole in the Obama campaign?

Why I Disliked Wall-E, Redux

Published by NiteMayr on September 24, 2008

To say that the movie lived up to my expectations is an extreme understatement. It completely blew my expectations out of the water. Everything about the movie was excellent. The animation was so flawless that I often found myself wondering whether we were watching real life landscapes. The only cartoon-ish aspect were the humans, but I think that was intentional. There were even lots of shaky, quick-zoom shots that gave certain scenes the look of being filmed with a handheld camera…and yet they were all animated. Mad props!

I don’t shy away from critics.  I engage the Tomoatoes when I am about to go check out a movie that I haven’t already declared “too wicked to avoid for any rational reason” so the reviews, like the one above, mislead me about the quality of Wall-E and lead me to believe that the overgrown manandwomen-children who wrote these bits of fawning praise have taken leave of the hormones that allowed them to leave bald armpits behind.

Pixar is rapidly becoming the Apple of movies (if I remember correctly, it already is) where droves of fawning fans will crawl over each other to obtain the next bit of stuff that is farted loose from the bowells of the beast and they will love it because it is in a cute, non-threatening container, which Wall-E embodies almost as much as his erstwhile gal-pal Eve the I-Pod.

Then there is the heavy handed story, which I complained about previously, so I will only tarry on long enough to say that any halfwit who goes through that much for a “kiss” is not a romantic, they are an insanely focused stalker with serious emotional problems.  Movies like this set me up for 5 years of emotional retardation and a firm belief that grand romanticism is what girls “wanted” (in truth they want to be treated like humans and occasionally like a princess or naughty slave girls or naught school librarians or naughty shop keepers … I’m getting off the topic here)

As I was saying, the critical response to Wall-E was overtly praise-laden and should have been reserved for the ressurection of Messers Einstein and Tesla in their all robot dancing girl review and kids fun-e-teria.

Dear Candidates, Please Contact me

Published by NiteMayr on September 22, 2008

This is my election district: London-Fanshawe; Londoners might refer to the majority of it as “The Scary East End” or som variation of it.  When I first came to London, I might have agreeed, having toured it while looking for a new home.  I settled here mostly out of necessity but have been constantly surprised and pleased by the hidden nature spots and “close to the countryside” living that I have found out here on the ragged-edge of the riding.

I used “The Undecided” to figure out which party I agreed with more in this election and was surprised to find out that the Greens were top of the list (mostly due to my paranoid desire to have Health Care funded at 100% with magical healing properties and Cancer Cures for all).  That aside, I contacted the Green Party Candidate in my Riding (Dan O’Neail) and asked for some information on his stances.  I think I may do the same for the candidates for the Liberals and NDP.  I won’t Vote Tory for any reason, no matter how great the local candidate is, if isn’t the party leader, one Candidate isn’t going to change a whole party.  I’m not required to give some sort of even-handed approach to this, I’ve never claimed to be totally open-minded.And let’s face it, I’m never going to vote for anyone who claims to represent “Christian Heritage”  I mean, seriously, “I take my lead from a 2000 year old Carpenter’s Son” that’s like advertising you really, really, really want to believe that local social problems can be solved through strong belief in Faries and Giants.

So, I’m going to ask the Liberal and NDP candidates the same question I asked Dan O’Neail:

Do you have a website where you discuss your platform?

I live in your riding and would like more information about your stance on Personal Freedom, Government Transparency, Nuclear Power, Culture and Entertainment, Unions and International Trade.

Thanks for your time,

Kevin Wardrop.

I’ll post the replies as they come in.

A Short Note about my previous attempts to speak with local government:

I’ve since deleted the email reply I received about “Recycling Containers”.  It was a brusque “You can find them in any hardware store”  which kind of blunted the question by being, well, blunt.  I decided this lack of candor would be met with total dismissal.

Perhaps this time, things will go well.

US Politics are Sexy: So Wrong that 'nuts will love her

Published by NiteMayr on September 18, 2008

Carney confronted Mayor Palin at a City Council hearing, and was shocked by her response.

“I braced her about it,” he said. “I told her it was against the law to make such a large expenditure without the council taking a vote. She said, ‘I’m the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can’t.'”

“I’ll never forget it — it’s one of the few times in my life I’ve been speechless,” Carney added. “It would have been easier for her to finesse it. She had the votes on the council by then, she controlled it. But she just pushed forward. That’s Sarah. She just has no respect for rules and regulations.”

Sarah Palin’s Wasteful Ways

This will somehow become yet another example of Sarah Palin being a Maverick, which means stubborn and willful to the point of illegality in this case.  Doesn’t it remind you of “If the President does it, it isn’t a crime”?   If the people who were so enamored, but now are not so in Love with their BFF Bushie Junior, cannnot see the same arc here that was in place with Dubya, they really do need their heads examined.

The Food Crises: Logic is not Required in Food Production

Published by NiteMayr on September 18, 2008

The company also said today that it would create a new position – chief food safety officer – among other measures it’s taking to restore consumer confidence in its brands.

Maple Leaf Foods Announces that they didn’t have an official in charge of caring for food safety until now.  –September 17, 2008.

Food safety concerns are as old as fire-baked ham.  Some societies had so much trouble with food safety that they placed cultural taboos on food that was difficult to handle safely in their enviornment (I’m looking at the middle east here).   In the “modern and western” world food taboos run more towards comfort than cleanliness; Westerners don’t eat “pet” animals like Dogs or Hamsters; where some societies do.  The actual safety of the food is expected to be sacrosanct, that food producers would act in their own best interests to ensure food cleanliness and safety.  If there is any lesson to take from the BES and Listeria crises, it is that food producers don’t really take more than a passing interest in food safety that can’t be done for cheap and that the governments don’t take it any more seriously.

If there is any evidence of the latter it is the utter lack of head rolling at Maple Leaf foods due to massive fines.  People have died due to  the [in]action[s] of the company and yet I have not seen a negligent homicide or manslaughter charge appear in the news headlines.  No Maple Leaf Food execs in handcuffs.  No real outcome save the loss of money.  The Federal Governmentappears to be so far in bed with industry that they simply can’t bring themselves to prosecute their friends, for fear of looking tough on corporations.  This is the standard falacy of modern governments, corporations exists to simplify relations between governments and business, instead it seems to make Governments fear to act towards the same with the same strength as they would against another individual.

During a late-August conference call with members of the Prime Minister’s Office and Health Minister Tony Clement’s office, Ritz made quips about the potential political impact of the tragic outbreak traced to a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto.

“This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts,” Ritz said.

And when told about a new death from listeriosis on Prince Edward Island, the Minister said: “Please tell me it’s (Liberal MP) Wayne Easter.”

Gerry Ritz demonstrating the level of candor one expects from the Tories

Once again Jack Layton & his Crystal ball say’s “Not the kind of change Canadians were looking for”.
Of course layton is refering to the cabinet shuffle, So once again Jack has stated that he knows what we are thinking. Unfortantly for jack he was not able to read my mind, & that is not what iam thinking of him this very moment.(One word begins with A ends with E, or is it 2)
Viewed on CanadaAm can be seen at CTV.ca

Posted by: bryanr at August 15, 2007 1:30 PM

Gerry Ritz is typical of the type of Government Functionary that leads to these kinds of problems, more concerned with “sticking it” to the “lazy, welfare addicted” farmers than with actual governance. This kind of thinking is part of the cause of the current economic downturn that the whole world is experiencing and appears to be an outgrowth of the Business over Governance mentality that has become pervasive in the Conservative movement since the sixties.

However, I think that the statement that I opened with sums up the problem with poor government oversight, there wasn’t already a person or persons responsible for food safety at Maple Leaf foods and one would imagine that food safety should have been job number one for a food production plant.