April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Politics

Parading Ignorance

by

The gay pride parade in Jerusalem has been cancelled due to the actions of the god fearing.

Dear god deliver me from your followers.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders agreed to the compromise proposal following a meeting held Thursday between Jerusalem police commander Ilan Franco and a delegation of ultra-Orthodox leaders headed by Rabbi Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss.

The ultra-Orthodox leaders requested clarifications regarding the parameters of the demonstration, and asked Franco for assurances that the event will be held in a closed and defined area and that the participants will not display any symbol of gay pride outside of the event area.

In addition, the delegation asked that all anti-parade protesters who have been arrested in recent days be released.

According to sources in the ultra-Orthodox community, the sides have reached agreement on all issues with the exception of the release of the protesters and the dropping of all charges against them. The sources said that on that point, the understandings have yet to be finalized.

The delegation was in contact throughout the talks with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Lithuanian community in Israel, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, both of whom support reaching a compromise on the issue.

Following the compromise, the High Court of Justice on Thursday rejected the petitions calling for the parade to be cancelled, and authorized the rally. Representatives of the Open House promised the court they would not hold any form of parade.

On Thursday afternoon, ultra-Orthodox leaders in Jerusalem began dispersing leaflets throughout the city calling for an end to the public demonstrations against the march.

Nonetheless, police anticipate there will be protests as well as attempts to disrupt the rally. Far-rightists led by Baruch Marzel are planning to protest against the rally. Additionally, police some ultra-Orthodox Jews who are not followers of the rabbis involved in the compromise to protest as well.

It always seemed to me a bit pointless to disapprove of homosexuality. It’s like disapproving of rain. ~Francis Maude

Wednesday Winners and Wackos

by

(todays winners brought to you by America)

Winners:

Bernie Sanders

Hundreds of supporters chanted “Bernie! Bernie!” at a victory party that welcomed the maverick independent congressman who calls himself a “democratic socialist” into the U.S. Senate.Sanders handily beat businessman Richard Tarrant in an expensive race to succeed retiring Sen. James Jeffords, an independent.

“The people of Vermont have told America they are sick and tired of right wing extremism!” Sanders told the crowd, which punched red balloons into the air. “This election tonight may be the end of a campaign, but it is the beginning of a grassroots movement across America!”

Three wins for common sense

n a triple setback for conservatives, South Dakotans rejected a law that would have banned virtually all abortions, Arizona became the first state to defeat an amendment to ban gay marriage and Missouri approved a measure backing stem cell research.

First woman speaker

Democrats have partially taken back control of the U.S. government from Republicans after winning enough seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to take secure a hold of one or both houses of Congress. With the change in tide Rep. Nancy Pelosi is poised to become nation’s first woman Speaker. The expected first Madam Speaker has promised a series of “discrete deliverables” in the first 100 work hours after the Democrats take control, which includes boosting minimum wages, improving fiscal discipline, research on new embryonic stem cells, improving upon the prescription of drug coverage program for seniors and many other issues.

Background on Ms. Pelosi

Wackos

and Wackiness

War on Women their REAL intent

by

However, it was M.P. Belinda Stronach, (Newmarket – Aurora) who got down right rude and insulting when she stated:
The Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Ian Brodie, has said that the organization, REAL Women, raises, interesting points that warrant close inspection. This is a group that is anti-choice, anti-gay, does not support equality for women and wants to obliterate the Department on the Status of Women. This group’s website even has links to sites that suggest that day cares do not care and homosexuality is a psychological disorder.

With budget cuts on the horizon, who is the minister listening to, Ian Brodie, the right-wing organization, REAL Women, or will she stand up and defend the rights of Canadian women?

I want to add that promoting equal rights for Canadian women is never a waste.

In response to Ms Stonach’s remarks the Conservative MPs pounded their desks and called out “hurrah for REAL women”

On September 25, 2006, the Conservative government announced long overdue cuts to a number of government departments including the Status of Women. The latter’s budget was cut by $5 million out of a budget of 23 million. It is an excellent beginning on what we hope will be the eventual elimination of the Status of Women.

This is from REAL women’s Sept/Oct. newsletter.

I’m just going to deal with this small section of it.

Belinda Stronach was rude and insulting with what she said?

She only repeated their platform. Are they embarrassed by it? (they should be)

Here is a group which supports violation of human rights, which would have us all governed by their religious beliefs, and whose members seek to force women to carry a pregnancy to term regardless of the circumstances of conception, danger to the woman’s life or psychology ability of the woman to continue on.
In response to Ms Stonach’s remarks the Conservative MPs pounded their desks and called out “hurrah for REAL women”

And we have a party fully supportive of this type of platform. Do we want our country to be known for intolerance, bigotry, sexism and denial of human rights? That’s not what my parents fought for.

The views expressed by this party and their support of a group of sexist bigots need to be repeated loudly, widely and constantly to remind people of the how the conservative government views women, gays and those who support reproductive choice.

Finally this last sentence is chilling and wraps up the conservative stance on women, and women’s rights in a nutshell;

It is an excellent beginning on what we hope will be the eventual elimination of the Status of Women.

Yes, they hope for the elimination of the Status of Women and the status for women.

These are people who would happily return to the days of Father knows best, women in the kitchen, and biology is destiny.

I am not willing to allow the Conservative Party, the fundamentalist religious wingnuts, or the fake progressive men who can talk a good game but get testicular shrinkage when asked to walk the talk, to determine what opportunities are available to my daughters and granddaughters.

We will not be silenced and we will not go back!

…did I do that?

by

I suppose you can’t expect much from people who think the internet is a series of tubes

Still you would hope that a government which regularly uses THE WAR ON TERROR as their go to for every right killing bill they pass would have some sense that posting how-to manuals on chemical weapons and atomic bombs on the internet just might possibly be a bad idea.

(is it an oxymoron to use sense and republican in the same sentence? I think it might be.)

But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.

Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access to the site had been suspended “pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.”

Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, fearing that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the agency, according to European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. One diplomat said the agency’s technical experts “were shocked” at the public disclosures.

A primer on Hezbollah

by

After seeing this quote pasted into a story about Canadian citizens being brought home from Lebanon

His appearance came on the same day that the White House warned it had evidence that Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are trying to destabilize and overthrow Lebanon’s government.

Echoing the U.S. warning, the minister said Lebanon could again erupt into violence.

“Hezbollah are a terrorist organization armed to the teeth. They are like the Taliban on steroids,” he said. “They are a very dangerous organization.”

I decided to educate myself a little more on the Hezbollah.

The Dominion has a very informative article

Interestingly, both Jean Chretien and Bill Graham, then Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs respectively, resisted placing Hezbollah on the terrorist list. Chretien met with Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, in Beirut in October 2002. On November 28, a new set of groups was banned–and Hezbollah was still not among them. Irwin Cotler denounced the omission as “inexplicable and, given their [Hezbollah’s] murderous ideology, unconscionable.”

B’nai Brith responded the next day, on November 29, with a press conference in which they announced a lawsuit against the government, brought on the grounds that the government was failing to protect Canadians by refusing to ban Hezbollah.

The following day, November 30, the National Post picked up a story from the Washington Times claiming that, at a Beirut rally, Nasrallah had condoned and encouraged suicide bombing. Nasrallah was alleged to have said: “Suicide bombings should be exported outside Palestine”; and “I encourage Palestinians to take suicide bombings worldwide, don’t be shy about it.”

Two weeks later, after going to Beirut to investigate, CBC journalist Neil MacDonald exposed the story as a fabrication.

snip

MacDonald reported on CBC on December 11 that, “Ottawa now knows that the Nasrallah quotes in the Washington Times about exporting suicide attacks were almost certainly never uttered.”

However, the alleged comments by Nasrallah had already received enough attention to force the government’s hand; a special Cabinet committee meeting was held the evening of December 10, 2002, in which it was decided to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. The Canada Gazette, official newspaper of the government, reported, “The change has been made on the basis of the close connection between the organization as a whole and the Hezbollah External Security Organization, and the recent statement by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, encouraging suicide bombings.”

Misogyny epitomized

by

So the little ladies have their skirts in flap again and it’s all due to the presence of estrogen in the press galley. Good to know. I thought maybe it had something to do with misogynist bullshit flying every direction, glad to hear it’s just a bunch of hormone challenged press types blowing things out of proportion.

Has Canadian society really sunk this low? Are the majority of Canadian men really this stupid? Well I did read one comment by a blogger that was less intelligent than what Spector said but I would hate to taint all men by comparing them with him.

I suggest you have a bucket handy and something to kick.

“You know, I’m not in politics, I can say it, I think she’s a bitch and I think that 90 per cent of men would probably say she’s a bitch, for the way she’s broken up (former Maple Leaf) Tie Domi’s home and the way she dumped Peter MacKay. She is a bitch.”

snip

Spector also told CTV News he thinks the reason the Tory foreign affairs minister’s reported reference to Stronach as a dog got major coverage was because of the number of female journalists in Ottawa.