Priorities on crime - Harper Style

Here's an interesting overview of what our esteemed Prime Minister is pulling with his 'crime' bill that is now being forced onto Canadians, sans meaningful debate (as is his style):

http://www.care2.com/causes/potheads-fare-worse-than-child-rapists-in-canadian-crime-bill.html

Why don't the Conservatives just change their name to the Frightened Little Boys Club?

Hubris at work

Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com, had this interesting thought regarding the situation unfolding in Libya:

"The “responsibility to protect” doctrine, the banner unfolded as we went into the Libyan battle, represents the complete descent of the ruling elites of the West into madness. If insanity requires a certain unselfconsciousness, an inability as well as an unwillingness to see one’s actions objectively, then surely this describes the Western mindset as we hail Libya’s chaotic “liberation.” To look at what is happening in that country and declare it a “success” – or, indeed, anything other than a catastrophe – is clear evidence of mental disability. The blinding madness of our ruling elites has them lurching from one disaster to the next, and proclaiming it a great success – without any awareness of how close the whole imperialist project is to collapse."

Canadian politician and self-proclaimed foreign policy guru Lloyd Axworthy was very much involved with the development of the 'responsibility to protect' doctrine. It's interesting to see how well that concept is working when applied in the real non-western world.

Maybe we should demand that our governments stay home and just let those who feel the need to intervene in other people's business to do so with all their own resources, rather than allowing them to usurp taxpayer's moneys to pursue their dreams of glory in foreign lands.

Cynical old me, however, thinks that all of these disasters are driven by the corporate kleptocracy that is looking to steal the resources of places such as Iraq, Libya etc. These guys always manage to hide behind patriotic, religious or do-gooding pretences to get governments to do their dirty work.

Further to the '"9/11 Roundup of Results" post

For those interested, here is what Osama bin Laden said about what he wanted to happen as a result of the 9/11 event:

As Osama bin Laden put it in a videotaped message broadcast by al-Jazeera on November 1, 2004:

“All that we have to do is to send two Mujahedin to the farthest point East to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qa’ida in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human economic and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note.… So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.”

The late terrorist leader went on to point out that

“Al-Qa’ida spent $500,000 on the [9/11 attacks], while America in the incident and its aftermath lost – according to the lowest estimates – more than 500 billion dollars, meaning that every dollar of al-Qa’ida defeated a million dollars by the permission of Allah besides the loss of a huge number of jobs. As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record, astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars. And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the Mujahedin recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq which is evidence of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan with Allah’s permission.”

and

“So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah is willing and nothing is too great for Allah. That being said, those who say that al-Qa’ida has won against the administration in the White House or that the administration has lost in this war have not been precise because when one scrutinizes the results, one cannot say that Al-Qa’ida is the sole factor in achieving these spectacular gains. Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations – whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction – has helped al-Qa’ida to achieve those enormous results.”

So, I guess the smart government just keeps dancing to Osama's tune, eh? That approach has been so effective in achieving Osama's goals so far, why stop now?

Things could have been so different ...

Here is an interesting scenario for the post 9/11 world if our governments had not bought into the blood lust exploited so effectively by the military/industrial complex:

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/2011910115157366771.html

Imagine, using our laws to solve our disputes! Quel concept!

... ... but then we wouldn't have had all that neat torturing, groping, spying, assassinating, bombing of civilians, and religious nuttiness to entertain us, would we?

... and who needs habeus corpus anyway? All government/police types are just cuddly good time folks out there to protect us from ... .... ... what?

9/11 roundup of results

Glenn Greenwald again has it correct:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/09/06/war/index.html

bin Laden will be seen as one of the effective purveyors of violence of all time. For his modest financial and human investment, he essentially has destroyed the United States and much of the western world as examples of liberal democracies flourishing under the rule of constitutional law and human rights.

In case you missed it, we are now living in a fascist, corporate-controlled thugocracy with no interest in the well being if its citizens except as sources of cannon fodder, slave labour and tax revenue to support the armies and police.

... but we are "secure" ...

Rah rah rah!