Stephen Harper Swallows

...All the GWOT (Great War on Terror) rhetoric George Bush's government can produce.

When the opposition asks about Gordon O'Connor's lies regarding detainee treatment, he mentions all the wonderful schools that are being built. When people question Canada's increasing body count, it's time to speak in front of a Vimy Ridge memorial. All Harper needs is a flight suit, and aircraft carrier, and a "mission accomplished" banner in order to complete his tranformation into George Bush circa 2003

While it was the Liberals who brought 2,400 Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan, it's Stephen Harper's government that keeps Canadian troops there despite the fact that our NATO presence there is counterproductive. The response of the Government? Denial and suppression of the reality on the ground.

Susan Riley writes...

Rather than rethinking military strategy, however, the Harper government marches on, down the same explosive-strewn path. It talks more about reconstruction these days but, according to recent figures, of 36,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, only 2,000 to 2,500 are engaged in rebuilding. Only a portion of international aid money has been spent, either because there is no security or because there is confusion over who will supervise proposed projects.

Yet all we hear from senior ministers is happy talk. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay last week reported that "in the last few weeks, our provincial reconstruction team hosted an important human rights workshop" attended by Afghan army, security and police officials.

What's next? Gourmet cooking classes to help Afghan widows get back on their feet?

All the feel-good rhetoric in the world won't change the fact that Afghanistan is going the way of Iraq. Harper's government is attempting to shove an endless war down the throats of Canadians.


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Challenging Art

When Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal decided to sequester himself in a Chicago art gallery for 42 days with a paintball gun that people could aim and fire at him over the Internet, he thought he might get a few shots per day. He never guessed that by day 20, more than 40,000 shots would be fired and that hackers would program the gun to fire automatically.

His exhibit, “Domestic Tension,” shows the constant stress and fear under which his family and others in Iraq live. And it highlights the detached, remote way both the American public and soldiers experience modern warfare.


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Worst Album Covers of All Time

Here's my pick. Follow the link to find your personal favorite!


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Favorite Lines

Chorus:
Look ye, countrymen and Thebans, this is Oedipus the great,
He who knew the Sphinx's riddle and was mightiest in our state.
Who of all our townsmen gazed not on his fame with envious eyes?
Now, in what a sea of troubles sunk and overwhelmed he lies!
Therefore wait to see life's ending ere thou count one mortal blest;
Wait till free from pain and sorrow he has gained his final rest.

Oedipus the King

Frankenfoot

So Friday I went to the hospital for a biopsy of a nasty lesion on my foot that I brought back to North America as a souvenir. Somewhere in the bowels of South Asia,I contracted some sort of voodoo foot fungus that seems impervious to all modes of treatment.

I expected Dr. Kim to take a little shaving off the top since it's a skin problem, but she went to the trouble of freezing my foot, and much to my suprise, took out quite a chunk.

"Nice work, Shylock. I guess I can consider my debt repaid".

Five stiches later, I'm playing the waiting game and hobbbling around on my frankenfoot. There's a bunion on top of the knuckle of my big toe that looks like a carriage bolt, an ulcerous rash, and now a gnarly scar adorned with several stitches.

I'm halfway expecting more respectable feet to show up at the door with torches and pitchforks.

Hopeful Sign

What would the world look like if all the tyrannical dictators of this bleeding earth were held accountable for their actions? We may find out...

THEY are beginning to fall like ninepins. On Monday June 4th the trial began in The Hague of Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former president and Africa’s most famous warlord. He is accused of planning and financing horrific crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war in the 1990s. Mr Taylor showed his disdain for the process by boycotting the start of the trial. A few days earlier, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia announced the arrest on genocide charges of a former Bosnian Serb general, Zdravko Tolimir, one of the most wanted war-crimes fugitives in the Balkans. These are just the latest examples of a flurry activity by the institutions of international justice.

The next step: Extradite Cheney!

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