VIDEO: Squirrel fills Antenna with Acorns

VIDEO: Ahmadinejad speech at UN

I'm american and I totally agree with him. I never voted for these politicians and I apologize for their ridiculous behavior. I'm really glad Iran has the guts to stand up to our fascist govt. good for them.

I'm not a big fan of this guy, and I certainly don't agree with everything he says or his world view. However, that doesn't hold me from applauding the many truths he dares to speak openly.


All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

VIDEO: Occupy Wall Street: Just the Beginning?

To watch this video in full-screen mode click here.


Occupy Wall Street: Take the Bull by the Horns


In a world where media set the public agenda and drive the dialogue, those things media ignore may as well not exist.

Mayor Decoux's address to the Chamber of Commerce

In this week's Pass Herald there is the following letter to the editor from one of our own in the community for whom I have nothing but the deepest respect and admiration.

It very well maybe that we have only succeeded in replacing one autocrat for another...


Dear Editor:

I attended the Chamber luncheon yesterday and would first comment that this is a very worthwhile way to spend an hour once a month: Those in attendance are in a relaxed, congenial mood with good opportunities to touch base with someone on an issue that has been nagging unattained on your to do list; As well, in short bursts of consolidated information, several guests speakers bring timely attention to affairs of interest in our community.

The last speaker at yesterday's luncheon was our mayor, his Worship Bruce Decoux. He deserves high accolades for his cerebral leadership in bringing profound righting-of-the-ship administrative change: He has engendered efficiencies in management, is bringing about budget reform, assured that the new Council was given training and direction to function cooperatively and constructively for the community.

Mayor Decoux has only started and he has already succeeded in accomplishing much, but was it really necessary for him to defile the people's voice by denigrating our local media: "they only provide an interpretation" of Council proceedings, he pontificated.

One councillor raised a question and got cut off at the knees. I raised a question and got snot on my face. We don't need a pompous autocrat.

I would encourage his Worship to reassume some of the Joe Citizen joviality that characterized him before turning into the stern captain of HIS ship - after all, we the citizens still own the ship, pay the crew - including the captain - and expect the cargo to be delivered on time and the produce not spoiled.

Tim Grier


Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

Blogging is getting harder... is it worth it anymore?

For days now I have been wanting to write something but have been unable to bring myself to do so, as it seems more of a chore and obligation lately than a healthy, useful exercise in expressing ones inner convictions and beliefs and thereby releasing the tensions and frustrations of living in a time and place where everything seems so fucked up.

I guess I'm annoyed with the lack of meaningful dialogue of like-minded individuals working together to try and understand where we are and where we should be, and how we plan on getting there. Most people seem to know how to bitch and complain (including me) but not too many know how to express themselves (other than the few simpletons who go around trying to push people's buttons but then won't follow through with a constructive discussion) in a meaningful and constructive manner.

Oh well, if anybody has something on their mind spit it out as I think I need some help here in order to keep going. Otherwise, I will have to continue being a slave to my wife who insists I refinish the deck that never seems to get finished. Or, if everything stays according to plan I could find myself on firewatch again tomorrow. Both of which will be easier to do as blogging is getting harder to do... especially when it seems of late, I have more gawkers than commentators.


The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time.

Cochrane: Prettiest little western town I've ever seen

Well last night I got released from doing fire watch up in Cochrane. I must say Cochrane is the prettiest little western town I have ever seen; rich in history and a growing concern. Seems sub-divisions are springing up all over the place. Not surprizing, I guess, with Calgary being only a short half hour or so commute. Community is very family oriented with plenty of playgrounds, parks, golf course, etc. and very clean as well with little to no 'eye-sores' such as we have here.

All in all, I really enjoyed my stay there and my partner and I took every opportunity before work and after to explore this pretty little town from one end to the other and from side to side, while taking advantage of some great eating opportunities and shopping. Good camaraderie too amongst our group who just happened to be mostly from the Pass or surrounding area with plenty of laughs and the occasional tall story. :-) One of the guys even got some roping done with his bale of hay and plastic horns.

My only regret is that it didn't last longer... not only for the money but for the easy, laid back, lazy hazy crazy days of summer.

Never know, might get called out again before the season ends, as it's still pretty dry out there.

Note: Interesting side note. While in Cochrane yesterday I got a call from back east on my cell from a reporter with the Globe and Mail who found me through my blog, wondering if I could share any information with her regarding the capture of Randall Hopley who as most people know is the guy who allegedly kidnapped three-year-old Kienan Hebert. Unfortunately, I couldn't help her but did give her a couple leads as to people who might be able to (chose not to share with her what some of the boys thought should be done to this guy, although I'm sure if she's a good reporter she is plenty aware of most people's sentiments with respect to this matter). However, I did find it interesting that while in Cochrane of all places I was contacted over this.

Some times you never know what life is going to bring you, do you?


The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

VIDEO: How People are Manipulated by Fear and Propaganda

What David Icke says here, so say I.

"David Icke is not full of shit. He may not be fully correct but his ideas of consciousness are right on."

* Make special note of what the speaker says at 3:25. Very profound and very relevant back then, and even more so today.



To watch this video in full-screen mode click here.


Think with logic, speak with compassion and act with courage.

The Day the Middle Class Died

‎30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died ...a letter from Michael Moore...

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Friends,

From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house, and this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.

Young people have heard of this mythical time -- but it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981."

Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" -- to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves.

And they've succeeded.

On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike for just two days.

It was a bold and brash move. No one had ever tried it. What made it even bolder was that PATCO was one of only three unions that had endorsed Reagan for president! It sent a shock wave through workers across the country. If he would do this to the people who were with him, what would he do to us?

Reagan had been backed by Wall Street in his run for the White House and they, along with right-wing Christians, wanted to restructure America and turn back the tide that President Franklin D. Roosevelt started -- a tide that was intended to make life better for the average working person. The rich hated paying better wages and providing benefits. They hated paying taxes even more. And they despised unions. The right-wing Christians hated anything that sounded like socialism or holding out a helping hand to minorities or women.

Reagan promised to end all that. So when the air traffic controllers went on strike, he seized the moment. In getting rid of every single last one of them and outlawing their union, he sent a clear and strong message: The days of everyone having a comfortable middle class life were over. America, from now on, would be run this way:

* The super-rich will make more, much much more, and the rest of you will scramble for the crumbs that are left.

* Everyone must work! Mom, Dad, the teenagers in the house! Dad, you work a second job! Kids, here's your latch-key! Your parents might be home in time to put you to bed.

* 50 million of you must go without health insurance! And health insurance companies: you go ahead and decide who you want to help -- or not.

* Unions are evil! You will not belong to a union! You do not need an advocate! Shut up and get back to work! No, you can't leave now, we're not done. Your kids can make their own dinner.

* You want to go to college? No problem -- just sign here and be in hock to a bank for the next 20 years!

* What's "a raise"? Get back to work and shut up!

And so it went. But Reagan could not have pulled this off by himself in 1981. He had some big help:

The AFL-CIO.

The biggest organization of unions in America told its members to cross the picket lines of the air traffic controllers and go to work. And that's just what these union members did. Union pilots, flight attendants, delivery truck drivers, baggage handlers -- they all crossed the line and helped to break the strike. And union members of all stripes crossed the picket lines and continued to fly.

Reagan and Wall Street could not believe their eyes! Hundreds of thousands of working people and union members endorsing the firing of fellow union members. It was Christmas in August for Corporate America.

And that was the beginning of the end. Reagan and the Republicans knew they could get away with anything -- and they did. They slashed taxes on the rich. They made it harder for you to start a union at your workplace. They eliminated safety regulations on the job. They ignored the monopoly laws and allowed thousands of companies to merge or be bought out and closed down. Corporations froze wages and threatened to move overseas if the workers didn't accept lower pay and less benefits. And when the workers agreed to work for less, they moved the jobs overseas anyway.

And at every step along the way, the majority of Americans went along with this. There was little opposition or fight-back. The "masses" did not rise up and protect their jobs, their homes, their schools (which used to be the best in the world). They just accepted their fate and took the beating.

I have often wondered what would have happened had we all just stopped flying, period, back in 1981. What if all the unions had said to Reagan, "Give those controllers their jobs back or we're shutting the country down!"? You know what would have happened. The corporate elite and their boy Reagan would have buckled.

But we didn't do it. And so, bit by bit, piece by piece, in the ensuing 30 years, those in power have destroyed the middle class of our country and, in turn, have wrecked the future for our young people. Wages have remained stagnant for 30 years. Take a look at the statistics and you can see that every decline we're now suffering with had its beginning in 1981 (here's a little scene to illustrate that from my last movie).

It all began on this day, 30 years ago. One of the darkest days in American history. And we let it happen to us. Yes, they had the money, and the media and the cops. But we had 200 million of us. Ever wonder what it would look like if 200 million got truly upset and wanted their country, their life, their job, their weekend, their time with their kids back?

Have we all just given up? What are we waiting for? Forget about the 20% who support the Tea Party -- we are the other 80%! This decline will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in Wisconsin). Some of you need to run for local office next year. We need to demand that the Democrats either get a spine and stop taking corporate money -- or step aside.

When is enough, enough? The middle class dream will not just magically reappear. Wall Street's plan is clear: America is to be a nation of Haves and Have Nothings. Is that OK for you?

Why not use today to pause and think about the little steps you can take to turn this around in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your school? Is there any better day to start than today?

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Here are a few places you can connect with to get the ball rolling (in the U.S.):

Showdown in America
Democracy Convention
Occupy Wall Street
October 2011
How to Join a Union, from the AFL-CIO (They've learned their lesson and have a good president now) or UE
Change to Win
MoveOn
High School Newspaper (Just because you're under 18 doesn't mean you can't do anything!)

---

In Solidarity


The Military-Industrial-Financial Complex is like "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money"

Global revolt of the have-nots

By Dow Marmur
Columnist

The Arab Spring that turned into a bloody summer; protests in Europe culminating in riots in London and elsewhere in Britain; demonstrations across Israel; unrest even in faraway Chile and India. Though it’s possible to point to causes unique to each country, they all seem to have in common a revolt against the ever-growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. As Thomas Friedman put it in a recent New York Times column, anger is being globalized.

Those who fight for freedom in the Arab world believe that exposing the powerful elites and their ill-gotten gains is essential to the success of the revolution. Commentators about the looters in London have pointed to the massive wealth of the few and the growing needs of the many. Israelis are rebelling against the high prices of food and housing, against the dozen families that own most of the country’s wealth and against the disproportionately high subsidies for the Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Though the latest twists to the ongoing economic crisis in the United States haven’t yet led to demonstrations, the frustration is palpable there, too. Unemployment and the volatile stock market are ominous manifestations. Don Peck, a features editor of The Atlantic, has adapted his new book into an article in the journal’s September issue in which he cites some alarming statistics:

“All the action of the American economy was at the top; the richest 1 per cent of households earned as much each year as the bottom 60 per cent put together; they possessed as much wealth as the bottom 90 per cent; and with each passing year, a greater share of the nation’s treasure was flowing through their hands and into their pockets.”

The countries in turmoil are ruled either by ruthless dictators or governed by conservative politicians. Even the United States, despite its Democratic president, is at the mercy of the Tea Party-dominated House of Representatives. The evasions of conservative governments, tellingly articulated by Britain’s prime minister, include ascribing the unrest to greed, gangs and the failure of parents to control their children.

Merlin Emanuel, a black British social activist, has another take: “We call them criminals and they look at the bankers. We call them violent murderers and they look at the police. We say they are void of morals and integrity, they look at the politicians.” His references are, of course, to the money managers who’ve misappropriated billions entrusted to them yet only occasionally ended up in jail, to instances of police brutality and to the British MPs who cheated on their expenses.

As blacks are often among the angriest, also in Britain, Emanuel writes magnanimously that he understands the fears articulated by the far right. But then he asks: “Do blacks own poppy fields and gun factories?” And later: “Is it black people who outsource your jobs to foreign territories and then open up borders to immigrants who will compromise your right to earn a decent living by working for peanuts?”

Mercifully, Canada has so far been spared much of the unrest that has bedevilled other countries. It may even escape much of the economic upheaval that continues to threaten the United States and Europe. But we’re by no means immune to their problems. The gap between rich and poor is not diminishing here and the continuous onslaught by all levels of government on the funding of welfare agencies is bound to punish those most in need.

Prudence, humility and social responsibility, not smugness, are called for as we think of our own vulnerability manifest in the unrest in Toronto a year ago and in Vancouver last June.


Sometimes a riot is the ‘language of the unheard’.

Fuck the South

Came across this today (WARNING: graphic language) that says lots about how U.S. states are divided, with ery similiarities for us here in Canada as well (between our Westeners (excluding B.C.) and our Easteners).

Fuck the South

The above rant is from the website www.fuckthesouth.com. The author is a member of the Northeast Liberal Elite and is fucking done being a scapegoat for the Republican Party.


Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.

POLARIZATION IS NOT A GOOD PLAN FOR CANADA

Goodale Commentary:

Both the Conservatives and the NDP claim that Canadians would be better off with only two political parties (them, of course) dominating our system of governance – one on the right and one on the left, just like the Americans.

They contend such polarization would make politics so much simpler. Every decision would be a straight two-way choice: Black or White? Good or Bad? Right or Wrong?

Simpler? Maybe. But better? Not necessarily!

Proof of the havoc caused by simplistic polarized politics, is obvious in the economic chaos battering the United States.

The world watched in disbelief this summer as the Americans took their country to the brink of defaulting on their debts – risking another global recession – because sterile ideologies locked them into reckless confrontation. There was no search for creative ideas or sensible common ground.

With divisions so deep, one prominent financial rating agency downgraded America’s credit-worthiness – “due to a lack of credible leadership in Congress”. That triggered wild and costly gyrations in global currency and stock markets.

These are the fruits of polarization!

The carnage didn’t stop at the US border. The pensions and savings of millions of Canadian families took a huge hit, because they rely on stock market growth and stability, which polarization undermines.

Thousands of small businesses (Canada’s best job creators) are hurting, because a frail American dollar and worried American consumers make it tougher for us to export.

With the US economy staggering and their polarized political system incapable of finding effective solutions with broad-based buy-in, the prosperity of millions is jeopardized.

A Conservative/NDP push for ideological polarization in Canada is self-serving and wrong.

Balance, inclusion and accommodation. Fairness and innovation. Not the wedge politics of division, but public policy that recognizes strength in diversity and tries to pull people together. This approach will serve Canada better.

Ralph Goodale, M.P.
goodale@sasktel.net

Fred Poirier: Defender of the Faith

My loyal blogging buddy and defender of the faith "more Democracy and less Hypocrisy" Fred Poirier has a new blog. Check it out here or you can get to it from my side bar under 'Sites of Interest'.

I admire those who stand up (under their own name and all, especially) and speak out. Whether the person is right or wrong on what he/she is talking about, at least you heard their opinion, while at the same time allowing them to be heard. After all, we all want to be heard... it's part of human nature and at the very core of what a democracy is suppose to be all about. Right? But when the media try to control the conversation by limiting what is allowed to be said... well then, democracy is being challenged and therefore like Fred, we should all stand up and be counted in defending it.


You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.