No Political Guts

becauee if you have you'll soon be gutted and filleted like a sockeye salmon by the staus quo media and political parties (all followers of growth and pushers of the addictive burning of fossil fuels)!

"Sheesh Glen Beck?"

"Sheesh Glen Beck?" Skywalker.

I see my point was made. :-)

This is so true

Time to wake up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd-SLRyuRq0

If it takes the gun registry

If it takes the gun registry to keep Harpo from majority, or even to banish him from politics into a sting of lucrative directorships, then I'll vote for the registry at any time.

The guy is a menace and a disaster waiting to happen. Come to think of it, it already has happened, when he left the anti medicare NCC to sell off Canada.

As far agreeing with the so called "conservatives", where are they? All I can see are the fascists of my childhood, enslaving people .

Ed Deak.

High Ground and Shape Shifting...

"I hate the self appointed guardians of the status quo with their petty bourgeois morals who detest violence blah blah blah but have no concept of the economic violence done by capitalism to each and all every day of the year. " Rockyracoon.

I don't share your view on the potential usefulness of the NDP corpse, but otherwise I think you are correct. The Trots and other sundry left wingers and progressives have been chipping away at this right wing social democratic entity, and trying to breathe new/old life into it over the entire postwar down to the present, to little lasting effect or consequence.

There comes a time, sometimes, when you have to cut your losses and move on. The NDP is one of those, the historical experience suggests to me. It is destined for a seat at the Liberal Party table in fact, I suspect... which is going to drive "the left", or that part of it with actual principles, out of the Party in any case. Sharing the political marital bed with the Liberal Party is the NDP wet dream now... that'x the sorry fact of life that has to be faced up to, I'm afraid.

It's wait and see, if one is still unconvinced, or start preparing the high-ground to retreat to now. I favour preparing the high ground now, and doing the necessary "shape shifting" en route.

And this can be done, even while continuing to cling to the old NDP apron strings, by those who just can't let go of the long ago dream now shattered, and stroking it for signs of life and a response. :-)

It's Code Blue time, kiddies. And the patient is comatose and cheyne stoking.

Harper (& Campbell) Governing by Fear

Closely related reading: Tony Judt's ILL FARES THE LAND and John Allemang's G&M column last Saturday. I would like to think Jack L. has the interest and energy to take on this crucial topic. But first the moustache has to go. If he did that it could be a signal of change!

I'll buy that...

"But first the moustache has to go. If he did that it could be a signal of change!" wrote haiga.

Laughing my ass off. Which successfully mimics the social democratic depth of analysis about spot on.

Shave your moustache off, Jack, and signal the coming change!

I'll buy that. :-)

Fear, faith & apathy

Murray D., either you have access to my e-mail or my brain waves. Three weeks ago I sent my family a message about the census, Stockey's unreported crime, super prisons, Harpo's appointments and dismissals, Kairos funding cuts, Yankee fighter planes (at least Laurier's "Tinpot navy" and King's "Arsenal of democracy" provided Canadians with jobs), ongoing power shift to the PMO's office, and so on. I don't put much faith in Murray's NDP solution.

The problem is these suburban relations in a different part of Canada don't seem to care much, so long as they can continue living their lifestyles. People and families who fail, disappear from those neighbourhoods. The worst are the born-again part of the family who think that Harpo can walk on water and do no wrong. The failures are accredited to a less than pure lifestyle in God's eyes.

I cynically suggested that the new fighters would be useless in the Arctic; short range with few airfields and they can't sink submarines. Besides, who do we want to go to war with, the Danes? Peter MacKay's statement about a fighter for the 21st century was incredibly erroneous, given technological change. Similar claims were made in 1911, yet fighter technology had soared by 1920. Given World War I, that might be expected, but technology changes far more rapidly today than 100 years ago. In the next few years, remote controlled Aerosondes with far greater, nonhuman maneuverability will become the norm. The only remaining purposes for these craft will be to patrol the tar sands from Cold Lake or sink refugee ships before they can land on our shores.

My fear is the loss of democratic process, begun some time ago, but accelerated over the last few years, a return to a sort of conservatism that never really existed.

coyoteman, I essentially agree with your capitalism bashing, but I don't see a coherent alternative. Armed revolution of a global nature is certainly not in the cards, especially with little support while times are reasonably good for most westerners and aspirations of "makin it" still abound elsewhere. What sort of revolution can be implemented in the near future? Besides, what do you think all those super prisons are being built for? Global change, be it political or natural catastrophe (eg. Pakistani flood victims), will increase, many will suffer, but the wealthy elite least of all, and the rapturerites won't care because all this was ordained to happen.

Not the mustache.

Good diversion but finally somebody who looks good in a mustache and you want him to shave it off? Let's see Harper and Ignatieff in one. That would be a good laugh.

@dorothy

With reference to a question you posed to me on another thread (which has now been closed)...

My point was in response to what Okanagan Orchardist had written - something I suggested was both illogical and lacking in empirical proof, I'll quote the passage for you:

That's why I wrote the line about the unknowable....not to mention the obvious extension of the idea to the unprovable. Which is, after all, from a refugee and immigrant point of view, the reason people 'get' second chances - or at least I'd have thought so.

Going through bureaucratic hoops to accumulate 'points' when there is a regime in place to short circuit that methodology for 'sports' stars and individuals with several hundreds of thousands of dollars seems rather to make mincemeat of the argument that refugees looking for another chance by 'crashing' a largely artificial queue are doing something particularly reprehensible...

And of course, that's why (among other reasons) the hypocrisy in this whole debate is, in my view, so thick and slippery on the ground - not least because the minister in charge is Vic Toews.

I think the point of what I wrote (and my specific references to Toews and what I feel is questionable about his record) is clear in the context and relative to the points Okanagan Orchardist had made about what I wrote.

I'll add only one other point about this debate and that's to suggest that I still think Seth's arguments are legitimate and worthy of both serious thought and discussion.

I and he, I think, like the idea and the record of Canada as a country with a compassionate nature...it's something that wasn't true of Canada between the wars and I think it's something we're fast losing sight of today.

More's the pity.

Kissing asses and hoisting pinkies i... OwlRol

"coyoteman, I essentially agree with your capitalism bashing, but I don't see a coherent alternative. Armed revolution of a global nature is certainly not in the cards, especially with little support while times are reasonably good for most westerners and aspirations of "makin it" still abound elsewhere. What sort of revolution can be implemented in the near future? Besides, what do you think all those super prisons are being built for? Global change, be it political or natural catastrophe (eg. Pakistani flood victims), will increase, many will suffer, but the wealthy elite least of all, and the rapturerites won't care because all this was ordained to happen." wrote OwlRol.

First, you have generally written a good and coherent piece OwlRol, much of which I agree with. Indeed, nothing I disagree with.

And your observations re "the alternatives", especially around "violent revolution", I think, are entirely appropriate and legitimate, and need to be seriously discussed by anyone seriously interested in meaningful, especially "radical" social change.

First, I think a "revolutionary alternative" is what the times and the character of current capitalist development are going to increasingly require and call for. And I speak here not "necessarily", indeed "preferred" by me, of "revolution" strictly in the context of radically transforming the social and economic order, rendering both profoundly "democratic" in their content, structure, style of management and manner of decision making. (For which all then similarly have to accept a shared consequence for the environmental and "other" results, to be sure.)

Now, in the not entirely distant past, Social Democracy argued that first, if you wanted to change capitalism, you had to do it from WITHIN its "limited" bourgeois institutions. A long history now, through and beyond what might be described as the post WW2 period did produce some immediate results in the form of the Social Democratic State, which even "most" capitalists formally if reluctantly accepted... under the threat of a perceived coming "communist revolution", that was a product of the Great Depression and postwar II fears that seemed real at the time.

.Continued next post...

Kissing asses and hoisting pinkies II... OwlRol

Continuing from previous post...

But once it had become clear by the early 80s that this was not on, and that indeed the working class masses had "bought into" the Social Democratic Capitalist State, including unions, and all were more preoccupied with "stuff" rather than "the working class cause", starting with the Reagan and Thatcher regimes, "the system" decided that this charade need continue no longer. Enter the neo-conservative political and neo-liberal economic structural and policy changes that have brought us down to the present, increasingly economically depressed and repressive ruling class State. (For more, see some of my comments above, in other pieces I've written here.)

And I know very well why the police actions of the G20 dress rehearsal, and the expanded prison building plans of the Harperite fascists.

The prolonged "Prosperity Capitalism, Social Democratic State" period of the postwar is clearly over. We are in a new, even if retrogressive period of capitalist social and economic development, characterised by pressures I predict that will more and more tend to drive contemporary capitalism and its working class in the direction of class war. (Inhibiting that right now are lingering inhibitions and illusions amongst the working class masses from the Old Order time, and the co-opting of the trade union movement itself into capitalism, over same the period described.)

It is now to be expected that this will all take a time to become crystal clear to everyone, of course, in the trade union movement and at the various levels of the wage slave system, to say nothing of professionals (Where illusions are even more tenacious.).

Still, I say, revolution is about to be increasingly back on the agenda, again purely in the context of the need for a radical socio-economic change. Now whether that will be peaceful, through channels, demonstrations on the streets, workplace occupations and the like etc, or armed conflict, or all of the above, depends entirely on the participants to it, on both sides, and I suppose, some on how it develops and is "engaged in".

For myself, I prefer and advocate for a "peaceful revolution", or at least one that will hopefully not involve outright and protracted armed conflict. What real life will deliver, time alone will tell however, and I do not likely fully control. :-) To say the least.

Continued next post...

Kissing asses and hoisting pinkies... OwlRol

Continuing from previous post. (Overlong, even for me.)

Certainly the history now being written of the ideologically social democratic period of capitalism, now past, says that the "work within the accepted ruling class processes" notion is now undone and fini, nada, defunct, a dead duck. It is too easily undone at will and their convenience by the ruling class.

In any case, even while "the system" is still unravelling and these conclusions are not clear to the mass of the working class, to be sure, those who do understand need already to begin to prepare a "revolutionary alternatve".... again, strictly speaking, in the context of building a "struggle for radical social change".

The time for kissing asses and hoisting pinkies is likewise passe, in my view

The End...

Radical...

radical: 1. of the root or roots; fundamental 2. far-readhing, thorough, going to the root. (From the Oxford English Reference Dictionary 1995)

There Will Always

be those who like the taste of ass-licking, Coyoteman, and those who hoist their pinkies just to draw attention to themselves and prove their superiority.

But the owner of the ass enjoys the massage, and the pinkie finger looks to be somewhat innocuous even as it sends the signal related to the same message of the third finger raised by the commoner. Class warfare may have gone underground, but it is still real. True democracy is practiced not in getting the vote but in influencing the rules and regulations that government imposes on its subjects.

A particular political party does not necessarily need to be "majority" in order to wield influence, but it does need to make its features well-known to the public. But if the public, like the present one, is functionally illiterate and almost brain-dead, it deserves to be governed by the whim of iron, also like the present one, rather than common interest.

You propose cutting off tentacles

of government but nothing proposed is a game changer. Heck, you aren't even transforming the landscape, merely cutting the lawn.

Canada is, arguably, in the enviable position of being an international game-changer. Instead of following the USA like the lick-spittle it is, it could be leading the developed world away from the US vanguard of fascist-corporatist dominance.

A Leader would declare Canada a neutral and peaceful nation, immediately remove Canada from all foreign interventions, revoke NAFTA, remove corporations from operating within Canada, pay all foreign debt quickly, return the ability to 'counterfeit' currency to the Bank of Canada alone, legislate against any austerity programs for private business, outlaw lobbying, and grant full democracy to the people (even classic democracy where it is government by lot would be a huge inroad).

Climate Change

I admire Murray Dobbin and approve of everything he says. But what about what he doesn't say. If we need leadership on anything in this country it is climate change. Soon we won't care where the deck chairs are; someone has to steer the ship to safer waters.

Des and Samuidave and Polar Opposites...

"But the owner of the ass enjoys the massage, and the pinkie finger looks to be somewhat innocuous even as it sends the signal related to the same message of the third finger raised by the commoner. Class warfare may have gone underground, but it is still real. True democracy is practiced not in getting the vote but in influencing the rules and regulations that government imposes on its subjects." writes Des.

I don't know if you are an NDPer Des, and it doesn't matter. The brief analysis you advance here however, is essentially an ideologically social democratic view of what you perceive to be realpolitik. And I certainly won't deny the ever presence of ass kissers and pinky hoisters, such as the CLC brass who host wine and cheese parties for MPs as part of their "lobbying" strategies. And numri other examples, of course.

That said, the "real" need or usefulness of these people as "leaders", certainly in the current period, I seriously question and reject. They are, in fact, a part of that process on what has to here passed for the left in this country, which has invited and encouraged the ruling class to treat it and the working class with contempt and evidence of their co-optation and class collaboration. They have helped to encourage the ruling class (and the working class) in their, what has turned out to be "correct" perception, that this labour movement and the working class is certainly NOT what it was at their founding, or anything that they need seriously fear. Hence, save where it was/is "useful" to them for pr purposes, they couod and do basically ignore the working class and its principle class organizations.

Hence, the mindset that emerged amongst the ruling class that they could with impunity, if with some tactical prudence, roll over and dismantle the Social Democratic State. Now, in large part already done.

No, in my view at least, the times call for something quite different... more prepared to challenge the "Rights" assumptions of Capital and Corporate Property.

Samuidave certainly offers a better starting and rallying point for my proposed "revolutionary alternative" to the "ass kissers and pinky hoisters", in his piece immediately above here, especially in his final paragraph. (I would only add to his sentence, in parenthesis, "...and grant full democracy (including economic democracy) to the people."

Frank

Did you see this:

http://www.thestar.com/article/855091--mallick-jack-layton-and-guns-i-ve-had-enough

This is becoming a serious wedge issue.

Then there's this:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/liberals-target-new-democrat-seats-over-registry-flap-101953678.html

Murray calls for open talk about a coalition. With who? Jack can't go out there as the underdog and beg for a coalition with the Liberals. The Liberals are going it alone and they've made that quite clear. The Liberals couldn't join with Jack and exclude the Bloc. Can you imagine how Gilles would trumpet that new 'slight' in a new version of Québec being excluded. Jack & the Bloc? I don't think so. Gilles is not interested in that.

Is Jack going to buckle and whip his caucus and risk losing the rural seats?

r'man

Although I think the gun registry should stay, god knows we paid enough for it, I don't think any party leader should force his MPs to vote for what he wants.

NDP MPs should serve the demands of their constituents first. Although I would like them to make a go of convincing those constituents why the gun registry is good policy.

As for wedge issue, there's lots of those already.

In regard to wedge issues:

That's what Harpo is doing - intentionally creating wedge issues/non-issues....eg. the gun registry and the census brouhaha.....an attempt to divert, distract, and control the agenda on his terms.

Fiat Lux nails it here when he writes:

"It would be quite stupid to see Harper gaining majority to sell Canada on the basis of a non issue, like the gun registry."

Step by step to a majority government... and the end of Canada.

What we need to end his little charade and put some serious cracks in those little contrived trendy camouflage spectacles of his is someone, man or woman, to challenge him that genuinely loves this country....

And isn't afraid to voice that love while articulating The Big Picture that our country is under serious threat by the traitorous likes of Harper and Campbell and the forces of privatization they serve.

Harper is trying real hard to pretend that love but his insular body language, his lack of grace, the sly furtive looks behind the spectacles designed to hide and disguise the falsity of his feelings all give him away.

He is a pretender, an impostor and a tyrant - as he recent off-the-cuff remarks reveal "I make the rules."

Canada appears to be merely an intellectual exercise for Ignatieff. Enough said.

Jack? He seems like a good man to me but he has disappointed through reticence, and his refusal, as the NDP seems want to do, both in BC and Ottawa, to voice The Big Picture. In this, his father's Conservative roots have betrayed him. He is somewhat removed and reticent. He needs to warm up to the fact that these are dire days for a sovereign Canada. If, again as Fiat Lux anecdote made clear, he does not see how devastating The FTA has been to our autonomy, or if he sees it but is afraid... or refuses to articulate that fact, then what is there to vote for?

But I would take Jack, (interpret how you wish) over Harper any day.

But as I wrote earlier, Poor Canada that its people have such low expectations for those they willing give power to.

So it is understandable, as coyoteman often articulates here, that with a dearth of real alternatives, that not voting is becoming a political act in itself. What to vote for? A stab-in-the-back quick death for Canada....or a vote for those that through lack of bravery and imagination would just delay the agony? Defended by the demure forces of sheer hesitancy, Canada falls. That's more than sad.

If....

( If you get a chance, and if you love this country, all this country, and if you love the Scot Billy Connolly, there is a great docu series on KCTS Seattle....we only get TV through satellite where we live so I don't know the cable channel but it comes on Thursdays at 9- 10 pm and Sundays, I think, at 11 pm. It's called Journey to the Edge of the World, and it's Billy Connolly's ten week traversing of Canada. He began last week in Nova Scotia (hope you caught that SIG), then went to NB and then Newfoundland. This week it is through the Northwest Passage, then the Yukon, down through BC and up the coast and Vancouver Island.

The reason I bring this up is because Connolly "gets" this country...he loves this land and the wonderfully idiosyncratic diversity of its people. Connolly captures the earthiness and the unique magic of Canada. He just somehow manages to reveal the real glory of this country. And when the hour is over, you won't want to lose that glory or allow some doltish dictator to dismantle it. Connolly is a lovely, lovely man. He loves being alive. If he was willing and a few strings could be pulled I'd vote for him. But something tells me he is not a party man....at least not that kind of party. Please watch this series if you get a chance...I know some of you will really enjoy it. Jack, you, too. Hope springs eternal. ;-))

Beyond Hoisting Asses and Raising Pinkos

One might argue that the Marxist revolution hasn't happened yet, despite Bolshevism and Maoism, because the proletariat were never literate during those revolutions, and they required an "educated vanguard" to lead them.

Some are true believers in economic determinism, including a lot of right wing economic pundits.

Is capitalism is creating the conditions for its own demise?

Is our current proletariat functionally literate enough to move toward any sort of revolution, violent or not? And would the capitalist elite, with their control of the media (ie. Texas social studies texts will no longer use the word "Capitalist" anymore, substituting it with "free market.") allow much of such discourse to foment?

Perhaps it will take a global catastrophe to galvanize a movement with more enlightened environmental and egalitarian principles.

Frank

Frank, you really should consider running for the NDP. Over the years here you have remained true to the original NDP principles, defending them in the best possible way.....with both self-effacing humour and grace. You rarely waver yet you always respect the views of others....so if Connolly decides to remain in Scotland ;-)....

OwlRol

"Perhaps it will take a global catastrophe to galvanize a movement with more enlightened environmental and egalitarian principles"

I think that's unfortunately right on.....

Most of the current proletariat appears to shopping there way through these times, despite being increasingly enslaved by debt.

End Fear?

Put an end to ruling with fear? MegaEarth Inc has invested resources and based it's strategy on ruling with fear. That will not change. Not unless you think we can educate enough voters. High ideals for sure, but I'm afraid we'll have to play their game even to compete. This is the mother of all David vs. Goliath battles!

Nothing I've seen or read or been able to dream has changed my opinion that we are on the road to self destruction. Actually they're twinning the road to make way for more consumers! I don't think we've had a real economy for over 150 years. You know when you exchanged services or traded goods instead of fabricating wealth from thin air: See Ed Deak. He says it better than any.

No doubt Harper is insane, as those who voted for him are. They walk among us just like regular people. They work with us and they are our neighbors. They seem normal enough and I bet you are close to one right now. Go ahead, take a look over your shoulder. That one. Looks normal right? Next company picnic or little league game go ask them who they voted for, not directly of course but work it in there... At some point they'll say Harper or Campbell then you'll know the insane walk among us. Solid evidence that my theory of the planets carrying capacity for toxins has been far surpased.

All of the worlds problems, the worst yet to unfold , and we're concerned with where one boat load of humans lands? Fuh....

Exlax Prescription...

"Is capitalism is creating the conditions for its own demise?

Is our current proletariat functionally literate enough to move toward any sort of revolution, violent or not? And would the capitalist elite, with their control of the media (ie. Texas social studies texts will no longer use the word "Capitalist" anymore, substituting it with "free market.") allow much of such discourse to foment?" asks OwlRol.

These questions, all entirely appropriate, are about to be asked and answered over the coming period, in my view. We are going to have to see. But there is no doubt that the central Big question of the time is, that of the current level of political understanding of the "modern" working class. And the early indicators to here are mixed and unclear I think... largely because of the very issue Lynn raises above... There has been and is no real articulated Big Picture and Love of This Country alternative. So there is no really good accurate reading opportunity, outside of those of us, perhaps, who just don't see anything worth getting up for, to go to the polls to cast a vote for, in the current crop of warm milk toasts with the vision of gnats or fascists.

The country is in desperate need of a real and inspiring firebrand, male or female, who has the big picture, the organization and access to the resources, and is fearless and capable of articulating it... with feeling.

Regrettably, at this particular place in time I can only echo Lynn and yourself above... "Perhaps it will take a global catastrophe..."

Something clearly needs to emerge as a hefty dose of Exlax to get the current period and the masses really inspired and moving.

Answering Myself...

Which is a bit like dancing with oneself. :-)

"The country is in desperate need of a real and inspiring firebrand, male or female, who has the big picture, the organization and access to the resources, and is fearless and capable of articulating it... with feeling." I wrote.

First, this needs some additional clarity. The sex of this person is unimportant. The qualities and skill set are.

As for organization, in the right social, political and economic climate, where "significant" numbers of people are prepared to come together and move, this can "potentially" be achieved relatively quickly. (Though here, I think that climate of which I speak is pivotal, as the motivator of "the people" and their ambition to build organization. In short, it need not necessarily be existing organization, though that should not be ruled out, out of hand either. (Hear that you activist NDPers and trade unionists?)

Second, on the "resources" issue, here too, "people" are the key over even cash, though clearly "cash" does sooner or later have to be present in "adequate" quantities.

Of it all however, organization, which means fairly large numbers of activist people, is primary. You have this, the cash can be begged, borrowed, stolen from the rich or in some manner be put together. :-)

And esprit de corps. Don't forget esprit de corps. :-) Nobody commits to the death without it. :-)

lynn

Thanks but a lot of others here, including you, have done a better job of always remaining polite.

That Billy Connelly show sounds interesting, I'm going to download the episode I missed and check it out.

Frank

ALL government are proponents of state intervention, one way or the other. In the case of right-of-centre governments, intervention consists of subsidies ($70 million in the case of BC Libs to O&G), and clearing the way for unrestricted access to and use of raw resources.

Frank

People shouldn't underestimate the importance of Bill C-391. Look at the Star's comments and editorial. Downtown Toronto considers this very important and Jack is not going to walk away unscathed if he helps it to pass.

Iggy is going to come out with all barrels blazing and it's the NDP that will be wounded.

G West

Thanks for your reply. I think that the disagreement between us is based on not really applying the same scope. You look at Seth's arguments and try to consider them fairly, but a little in isolation. I cannot help seeing them as an attempt from an intellectual to 'correct' the 'politically incorrect'. I think that what I see missing in the picture is the understanding of people's outrage, xenophobia, prejudgement, whatever you will, as a genuine and valid expression of real feelings that 'enough is enough'. Enough of what? Whatever it is that makes people feel more and more crowded/abused/overruled/trampled, in one word: 'nobodied'. You, and Seth Neither, cannot make that go away by telling people how naughty and uncharitable they are. The only thing one can do with it is channel it, and we all know examples of people who have been very, very good at that. Maybe we do not want to turn a blind eye again?

It reallhy is too bad, this barging into another column. But I have felt tempted more than once. Now you have done it. what other choice is there? If we post emails here, for the limited purpose of finishing a discussion, can we avoid them being inundated to the point of worthlessness? I see some people started a blog called 'life after the Tyee', but it appears to have petered out. Maybe a Yahoo group?

There's no changing the course we are on...

... until Canadians take the time to inform themselves. The problem is, they have no time and no interest, as a group, and the same problems haunting us today have been known and discussed for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years.

There is no making things 'right' with this capitalist system in place. Money controls the entire hologram we accept as reality. It's pretty common knowledge that philosophers over the ages change from pessimists to optimists and back again in response to their contemporary circumstances. This time, the reality of biological collapse is on the verge of being completely unleashed, and despite the fact no one dominates nature we carry on as if we will work it all out in the end.

The point here is this: we can make political changes moving us let and right, and we can even slow the consumer machine down, but what we need is reverse. And that is not going to happen until it is forced on us. We are too proud and too ignorant as a species to ever be bothered with how things play out for the people of the world, now or ever.

Jack Layton, good or bad, is just another politician without vision. And who can blame him? The people of Canada don't want vision. The people of Canada want to gain as much false wealth as they can acquire, at any expense necessary to others. And history offers ample proof that any charismatic flake or interest-specific demagogue has been able to provide that amount of direction, usually because it is also self-serving but that is another issue all together.

I recall reading Aristotle where he discussed real wealth being in the land, and unreal wealth being in trade and commerce; the worst of all unreal wealth was in banking and usury. Now do you want to tell me how 2300-odd years have passed by and we have gone from small city-state enclaves where wars were waged with a few hundred men, and in the course of that time we have not learned one bloody thing about the need for humanity to appreciate what the market place brings?

We are the problem. In particular, the we with the 'false' power over others and the planet we all share. We are a planetary community and must act as such or do so at our own peril. Too bad 'we' are a culture absolutely lost within the hologram of life created by the 'best and brightest' jackasses in the nation, decade after decade.

There would be more real leadership coming from our government if it imposed a birth limit of two live pregnancies per female. But these fools can't do grade 5 maths despite their establishment credentials. Go figure.

RickW

That's true, the economy is closely tied to the political sphere.

But Blakeney's overall policy goals were different than Campbell's.

r'man

I'm not "underestimating" the damage as you put it. But what can you do?

If the NDP and Layton get hurt and their popularity falls well so be it. Its not like the Toronto Star and most of Ontario support the NDP anyway, it was just a matter of time till they found another issue to support the Liberals on.

Meanwhile, MPs that thumb their nose at their constituents will lose their seats. Why risk that when the alternative is being demonized for something else by the Liberals anyway?

When the election comes the Liberals can attack the NDP on the basis of the gun registry and we can attack them over their refusal to distance themselves from Liberal provincial governments that are undermining medicare. We can also attack them on their support for the tar sands and a myriad of other issues.

Good times.

R'man

has learned well from the master of driving wedges between irrelevancies. Bill C-391 is the diversion that Harper is using to destroy the chance that any opposition will de-throne him, and could possible lead him to a majority rule. The long-gun issue is meant to distract the fickle public with a grand show of fireworks and acrimony, and R'man has used it successfully to denigrate both the Liberal and the NDP leaders, by blaming them for their political maneuvering around gun control.

There are issues of far more financial and regulatory importance in which Harper posts a failing grade and allows his personal animosity to flare like Lucifer himself. But he has been able, with sleight of hand, to magically distract the public attention from those political errors.

The most egregious distraction I have noticed up to now is the wild-eyed echo of Charlton Heston's declaration of dieing with his gun in his hand. But no one is advocating seizing all guns from farmers and hunters. Just as no one is promoting the Registration as a way to prevent crime, though you might think so hearing people like Toews or R'man and similar politicians, like Hoeppner.

As an Independent voter, I judge the issue involved rather than the position of the candidate who follows blindly either the politics of his party or the uninformed pov's of his electors.

Frank

No disagreement here. Blakeney had soul......

clubofrome

Not insane. But definitely fearful of change. It's a variation of the Stockholm Syndrome.

Lynn and Connelly...

What is it about that sense of humour and emotional depth of some Scots, eh? And how it all rolls out so full of fun in that brogue.

I saw the entire series on the Knowledge Network, Lynn. A thoroughly enjoyable series featuturing both this extremely interesting man and, of course, our gorgeous, beautiful country and people. (At least I think it was on the Knowledge Network.)

As Lynn, I highly recommend it as well.

@dorothy

That's actually a good idea. One that I suppose could be developed relatively easily - so long as there was, among the participants, a modicum of trust and a willingness to keep the 'personal' out of the equation.

What movie was it?

...of course the Stockholm Syndrome.. "As in Stockholm Finland..." Was that from Die Hard?

So if not insane then "brain injured?" Genetically predisposed to extinction? Born without the sense god gave goat? Certainly there seem to be other species with better instinct for survival than us? Large brain doesn't seem to be the prerequisite...

By the way... nice piece of writing there samuidave.

The Allfather in action?

"Answering Myself...
Which is a bit like dancing with oneself. :-)"

Here's a quote:

Odin's Quest after the Runes
137.
I trow I hung on that windy Tree
nine whole days and nights,
stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin,
myself to mine own self given,
high on that Tree of which none hath heard
from what roots it rises to heaven.

(Hávamál
The Words of Odin the High One
from the Elder or Poetic Edda
(Sæmund's Edda)
translated by Olive Bray
and edited by
D. L. Ashliman)

Just couldn't resist! Hope you're not miffed. The word 'Odin' means 'number one' or 'first' in Russian. He is now believed by many to be a heroic figure, composed of a whole line of tribal chiefs from the past. See, I'm complimenting you here...!