Quotable: William Gibson on mental health

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Sabina Becker

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Stupid Sex Tricks: What a boob!

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Sabina Becker

For anyone who doubts that erectile dysfunction is often just a state of mind, and a very strange one at that, get a load of this guy:

A man who has been drinking his wife’s breast milk, straight from the source, for over one and a half years says it cured his erectile dysfunction.

In the season three premiere of TLC’s Strange Sex, Jeff reveals how he is sexually stimulated by breastfeeding and impregnating his wife, Michelle.

Jeff, who lives in Ohio, says candidly on the show: ‘There are individuals out there that get turned on by feet, spanking, and cars. I get turned on by drinking my wife’s breast milk and getting her pregnant.’

The couple have one child, Ala, and it wasn’t until she was born and Michelle was nursing her that his fetish was ‘fully realised.’

He said: ‘Michelle was nursing her, and it was something I felt like, you now what, I’d actually like try it.

‘The first time I breast fed from Michelle, I just latched on and the milk started flowing. It was such a turn on, I had to stop, otherwise I would have finished right then and there,’ he said. ‘It was that much of a turn on.’

And how does his wife feel about her new role as a human cow? Well,

Michelle said she was unsure about Jeff’s fetish at first, but quickly realised it was something she enjoyed.

‘Ala was probably six months old the first time he breastfed from me. I told him if I don’t like it, you’re not going to be able to do it. But when Jeff started feeding from me, it was very erotic.’

She added: ‘If you have excess [breast milk], you might as well make use of it.’

Good that she’s so philosophical about it; others would be skeeved out. Now, what’s gonna happen when they, or rather she, are done having kids?

And is it just me, or is TLC turning less and less into a “learning” channel, and more and more into The Lechery Channel?

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Short ‘n’ Stubby: Ms. Manx paws at Paraguay

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Meow! Ms. Manx is back after a longish hiatus, and she and her stumpy tail have, as usual, been up to no good. Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, as anarcho-socialist cyberkitties are wont to do, the Manx has been pawing interesting things about Paraguay out of the hidden corners of the Internet. And here’s what she’s got for us:

From Venezuelanalysis, we learn what Chavecito’s sanctions against the Paraguayan putschists are: Round, sound condemnation, plus a cutoff of oil sales. That should hit big bad Brasiguayo agribusiness where it hurts!

Meanwhile, Global Research has a good backgrounder on Paraguayan history and the lead-up to the coup. Again, Ms. Manx would like to draw your attention to the fact that Paraguay’s economy is primarily agrarian, and disproportionately run by large land-owners. The same, incidentally, who wanted Lugo gone because he wanted to help all those uppity landless peasants. And also the same who fomented the palace coup against him. These things all hang together, saith the Manx. (Also notable: the silence from the Harper Government™, which says volumes about their fascist sympathies. They won’t condemn this clearly antidemocratic coup, which means they approve…and know it will look bad for them to do so overtly.)

And Wikileaks has an interesting diplomatic cable from Asunción. That’s the capital of Paraguay. Of special note: the (false) charges against Lugo (pure crapaganda, saith the Manx), and the special emphasis on the “red menace” angle (golly, it’s like the Cold War never ended!), and of course, the fact that putschists in the US embassy in Asunción have been plotting Lugo’s political demise for at least the past three years, if not the moment he was popularly elected in ’08. (The cable is dated May 2009.) What’s hilarious is their attempt to tar the rather mildly leftist Lugo (refer to the Global Research article above for a more accurate assessment of his politics) with the redder-than-red commie brush. Putschist they may be, but smart they most certainly are NOT. Maybe the real reason the US wants to charge Julian Assange with espionage is because he make their entire “intelligence” apparatus look stupid as fuck. And fascist as hell.

(Thanks to Cort G. for the Wikileak!)

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Posted in Fascism Without Swastikas, Huguito Chavecito, Paraguay, Uruguay, Short 'n' Stubby, Spooks | Comments Off on Short ‘n’ Stubby: Ms. Manx paws at Paraguay

Quotable: Walt Whitman on independence

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Sabina Becker

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I’m Miss Paraguay, somebody kill me!*

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Sabina Becker

“I want to thank the US government and Monsanto. Without them, none of this would have been possible. Come and put all the military bases you want here. Our resources are your resources. Also, all the land-owners who sell out their country, if your only knew how your children and your children’s children would bear the consequences! Thanks to the Colorado party for all the years of betraying the people…and of course the Liberal party too, and let’s not forget the media. Thank you!”

Ahem. And now, a real (and none too flattering) profile of the unelected beauty queen in the tricolor sash:

Federico Franco, a man of the right, who grew up in the shadows of Fernando Lugo, assumed the presidency of Paraguay on Friday, after the parliament voted for the dismissal of the head of state elected by popular vote.

This director of the Authentic Liberal Party (PLRA), 49 years old, has taken the reins of the country in an illegitimate manner.

In barely two days, the most reactionary sectors of the right organized a parliamentary coup d’état and opened the way for the vice-president to take over the Paraguayan executive.

A cardiologist, and governor of the Central province between 2003 and 2007, Franco is a representative of the Paraguayan right and a declared defender of the free market against progressive processes which are unfolding on the continent.

In confrontation with Lugo since 2007, during the pre-electoral phase of the campaigns which eventually elevated the ex-bishop to the presidency, Franco said, days later, of the deposed leader: “He ignored me”.

Although the now-head of state says personal issues distanced him from Lugo, it is well known that the director of the PLRA is the figurehead in power of the business sectors, big land-owners, and transnationals in Paraguay.

In the face of the measures set in motion by Lugo, aimed at reversing the difficult social situation in the country, the sectors which support Franco today gave a show of the response they had been preparing for months: the dismissal of Lugo and the accelerated nomination of the vice-president as head of state.

In an article published by the Associated Press, Liberal ex-senator Carlos Mateo Balmelli accused Franco of fraud, when the two were competing for the presidential candidacy within the PLRA.

Senator Balmelli called him “Fraude-rico” [fraud-rich] Franco.

As well, Luis Aguayo, leader of the Co-ordinating Table of Campesino Organizations (MCNOC), says that Franco “belongs to the Liberal Party of the right, just like the Colorado Party which was in power for 60 years.” For that reason, says Aguayo, “I don’t believe in any change, we have no hope of it.”

For 60 years, the PLRA and the Colorado party (PC) ruled Paraguay, and mainly supported the military dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner. His régime (1954-1989) committed countless violations of human rights and sold off thousands of hectares of land to the highest bidder.

As vice-president, Franco showed his dedication in 2009 and 2011, when he called President Fernando Lugo a “traitor” for taking governmental measures he did not share.

During the acclamation of Franco, there was a smile on the face of Lino Oviedo, a former military putschist and founder of the ultra-right-wing National Union of Ethical Citizens (UNACE) — which confirms that, despite the Paraguayan people’s rejection, the most reactionary sectors of the country have dealt a harsh blow to Latin American democracy.

Translation mine.

And finally, a bit of music, courtesy of Courtney Love back in the halcyon days when she was still lucid:

*Just so’s you know, the title is satire. Also a reference to the above song. Thanks for not freaking the fuck out.

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Posted in Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Isn't That Illegal?, Paraguay, Uruguay | 1 Comment

Music for a Sunday: Excuses have their uses…

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Sabina Becker

…but now they’re all used up:

One of my favorite ABC songs for when I’m angry and in a punchy mood. And yeah, I’m in it right now.

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Wankers of the Week: The Vagina Monotremes

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Sabina Becker

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Crappy weekend, everyone! Wow, what a week it’s been for the ladybits. We got vaginas coming out the wazoo everywhere, thanks to some stupid dicks with a big, floppy hate-on. And you know what happens when dicks see vaginas? Yep, that’s right…they wank. Because they don’t know what else to do when confronted with something that scares and confuses them so. And here come the wankers, in no particular order…

1. Glenn Fucking Beck. Oh looky, Biff’s piped up again with another snoozer of an idea. This time, he’s hoping to bury a certain TV show about an imaginary high school glee club. Why? Because it’s LIBERAL. And apparently gay people like it. Horrors! Let’s face it, if ideas really ARE a marketplace, then it should be manifestly obvious by now that conservatism is a money-loser. Nobody is buying. What’s the point in peddling that horseshit anymore?

2. Chris Fucking Wallace. His dad was a journalist; he, sadly, is nothing more than a ‘winger hack. And his use of ugly slurs is proof of that fact. If he were a real journalist, he’d know that “illegal” is not a noun, and the correct terminology is undocumented immigrants. But then again, what were we expecting of a FUX Snoozer? They know nothing of grammar, much less factual correctness. And their piss-dumb audience reflects that.

3. Sarah Fucking Palin. She’s ba-aaack…and she waa-aaaanked again! And isn’t she a fine one to accuse His Barackness of snorting coke and eating dogs? The town where she failed as mayor is the crystal meth capital of Alaska, and I seriously doubt she’s even capable of eating what she kills…assuming that she can actually shoot wolves, and isn’t just tagging along for the helicopter ride. Quitbull go home…and sit down…and shut the fuck UP.

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4. Matt Fucking Lewis. In case you wonder why I have no civil words for right-wingers, just look at what passes for “the right thing” amongst them. Heckling and getting way out of line is the “right thing”? In what fucked-up parallel universe? Oh right…one where wars build character, torture is A-okay, and dead children in bombed-out houses are just “collateral damage”, but birth control pills are for sluts, and you can’t say shit even when you have a bellyful. Silly me!

5. Rodney Fucking Moncur. He thinks women on the Pill should hang for it, and I think he should hang for proposing it. No baby tonight!

6. Frank Fucking Foster. Ah yes, those right-wingers are just keepin’ it classy down there in Michigan. Vagina is a dirty word there, but guess what’s apparently not? This one called a nurses’ union member a cunt. In front of his own young autistic son, whom he hoped (unsuccessfully) to use as a lever to launch a guilt trip on the woman, who was only mowing her lawn. Let’s hope that the next time he’s in hospital for whatever, a big, mean, unionized nurse remembers that smirky widdle punk-ass face of his, and treats him…accordingly.

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7. Salim Fucking Mansur. So, legislation against hate speech is a “stain on Canadian democracy” that has to be “removed”? Well, I’m sure Salim will remember that when the neo-Nazis start calling down death upon his own brown head. Just as I’m sure they’ll remember to thank him nicely for sticking up for their ugly shit.

8. James Fucking Delingpole. The only thing worse than an Internet troll is a shitty right-wing columnist who eggs them on, and then (a) disingenuously disclaims responsibility for his followers being, well, TROLLS, or (b) disingenuously claims that the climate scientists he makes a tidy cottage industry of slagging aren’t receiving nearly as much hate mail as poor widdle him, or (c) both. This all would be very funny if the objects of Dopingpole’s ire weren’t actual scientists doing actual science, and respected in their field for doing the very work which Dopingpole says he “hasn’t got the time to read”, but it’s really more like the fucking GONADS, Jimmy. Get some. Read the science. Learn it. Find out how very wrong you are. And STFU.

9. Brian Fucking Hillburn. This one’s a wanker, quite literally. And how far was he willing to go to fill his wank-bank? So far as to have Abercrombie & Fitch send him one of their underwear models, whom he persuaded to strip off and masturbate, and of course photographed the whole while. Because hey, if you’re gonna whack off to nude dudes, you might as well trick ’em into it. It’s not like there isn’t a buttload of gay porn out there!

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10. Charles Fucking Carreon. His client is a copyright infringer, and now he himself is an extortionist. Insert shark/lawyer joke here. Seriously, this shit just writes itself.

11. Rielle Fucking Hunter. Are you looking forward to finding her tell-all sleaze book on a sale table, very deeply discounted? Gosh, I am just counting down the days!

12. Courtney Fucking Stodden. Please, for the fuck of shit, stop trying to be famous. You have zero talent. Please just go the hell away!

13. Eric Fucking Hovde. Poor-bashing just reached a new height. Or hit a new low, depending on your taste in metaphors. One thing for sure, Wisconsin Repugs have Swiss cheese for brains. How else could they think that lower corporate taxes and spending cuts were a good idea? And have they ever figured their beloved Military-Industrial Complex into the equation? Because that’s a major drain on the public purse right there. And if you’re gonna protect and coddle the idle rich endlessly, you’re gonna need a damn big army for when the poor finally get their hands on pitchforks, tar and feathers, and run you shitheads out of town on a rail!

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14. Charles Fucking Marshall. It’s one thing to have a teddy-bear fetish. It is another thing entirely to indulge it in public. Please don’t do the latter, or you’ll be arrested like him. And, with any luck, barred from ever entering another toy store.

15. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. Did he just call Obama gay? Yeah, he totally did. Which makes me wonder what else is doing the Watusi in his closet.

16. Sam Fucking Wurzelbacher. Yes, Not-Joe the Non-Plumber has wanked again. This time it’s all about gun control…again. And about the Nazis, and that Big Lie that will not die. Namely, that the Nazis invented gun control, and that it was the reason for the Holocaust. Never mind that none of this is true. For the perfect takedown of this nonsense, I hereby refer you to the Gawker commentariat, which occasionally rocks. As opposed to Not-Joe the Non-Plumber, who constantly sucks.

17. Peter Fucking MacKay. He lies and he lies and he lies, and he doesn’t care who dies. But he won’t release information on military suicide rates and PTSD, even when legally required to do so. Meaning, he lies and he lies and he lies. And he doesn’t want US to care who dies, either.

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18. Robert Fucking Cattral. In case you were wondering if voodoo would protect your fraudulent enterprises from legal prosecution, the answer is no. And I doubt very much that being found in possession of a set of voodoo dolls representing the judge, crown attorneys, and police involved in your prosecution is going to help you at all in court, either.

19. Dean Fucking Del Mastro. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. And if you’re a parliamentary secretary, it’s a particularly disgraceful one to even attempt to fob off on the public. RESIGN! And go to jail, you fucking corrupto!

20. Mike Fucking Huckabee. Since when has the US EPA concerned itself with how much water the Southern-Fried Baptists use in their swimming-pool-sized baptismal fonts? Since NEVER. But don’t tell that to Hucky Fudd, he thinks they’ve got something against religion. Sounds more like the reverse to me!

21. Ron Fucking Paul. Just like his pet saint, Ayn Fucking Rand, he takes Social Security but wants to ban it for others. Oooooooo, what a hypocrite — which is to say, how typically libertarian!

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22. Vardan Fucking Aslanyan. WTF is “swag”? I dunno, but I suspect it’s a medical condition that causes some poor dude’s testicles to inflate to such ginormongous size that they bobble up around his ears with every step he takes, and beat the fucking shit out of his brain. There is simply no other explanation for such a boneheaded excuse for such boneheaded fucking driving. None that makes sense, anyway.

23. Peter Fucking Kent. The crappy ex-journalist turned really really REALLY FUCKING CRAPPY minister of the environment just sprayed his sploodge all over Rio, claiming that the poor widdle Harper Government™ is misunderstood, and must counter “misinformation” spread by people who actually give a shit about the environment…as opposed to people like himself and the entire fucking Harper Government™, who think the environment only exists to be shat upon.

24. Bill Fucking Donohue. Right-wing Catholics are no friends of the Jews, no matter what the hell they claim. When they presume to wag their fat fingers and tell progressive rabbis to keep their long Jewish noses out of the Catholic League’s “right” to interfere with women’s bodily autonomy (in the guise of “religion”, natch), and then throw that “but we’re your only friends in the world” crap at them, I think it behooves us all to remember what a certain right-wing pope did NOT do to save the Jews when it came to choosing between them and his devoutly Catholic followers, Hitler and Mussolini. Who, even to this day, have NOT been kicked out of the church, not even posthumously.

25. Patrick Fucking Dye. No, Planned Parenthood is NOT “targeting black babies”. If black women are coming to PP’s clinics, it’s because they need the affordable healthcare that others aren’t providing. And if those women are choosing abortion, it’s because they can’t afford to feed another mouth. Oops! Did I just destroy somebody’s vision of welfare queens in Cadillacs, reproducing like rabbits just to collect extra cash and spend it on dope? I guess I just did. Fucking racist pastors, gotta love ’em. They can’t stake out a consistent position to save their lives, unless you count “on the wrong side of everything”!

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And finally, to the Paraguayan Congress. Congratulations on your crypto-coup, you motherfuckers, you actually made the Repug-dominated US Congress look good by comparison. Feel proud of your isolation yet? Because no one in Mercosur or UNASUR is touching you shits with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole anymore. And no, I don’t think Washington or Miami is gonna do more than pay you lip service as “great friends of democracy”…if they say anything at all. (If they’re smart, they’ll keep their pieholes shut). Congratulations again, you just turned Paraguay into a banana republic…without the bananas.

Goodnight, and get FUCKED!

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“Constitutional” coup d’état in Paraguay. Film at 11.

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Sorry, folks, no Festive Left Friday entry this week. Your Aunt Bina is feeling more restive than festive tonight, because the shit has officially hit the fan in a certain landlocked South American country, famous for its maté and its wild and crazy soccer fans…and a certain popular leftist president who used to be a Catholic bishop, and who’s now in the fight of his political life:

The president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, announced that he will not resign, and that he will submit to a political trial, but asked for guarantees of a just and legitimate defence. He denounced that the will of the people “is being subjected to a pitiless attack” by sectors opposed to social change.

Everything appears to indicate that determined sectors intend to interrupt a historical democratic process just nine months shy of the next general elections, which are to take place on April 21, 2013.

The president was accused by the Chamber of Deputies of governing in a manner “inappropriate, negligent and irresponsible”, in a charge which seeks his dismissal, presented before the Senate.

The charge refers to the killing of 11 peasants and 6 police officers in an armed confrontation last Friday in Curuguaty, 250 northeast of the Paraguayan capital of Asunción, during the crackdown against an occupation of a ranch. The accusation also calls the Montevideo Protocol on Commitment to Democracy in Mercosur, popularly known as Ushuaia II, and signed by the four presidents of the Mercosur countries, Lugo among them, in the capital of Uruguay in December 2011, an “attack against the sovereignty of the Republic of Paraguay”.

The Ushuaia II protocol stipulates that “it shall be applied in the event of a rupture or menace to democratic order, a violation of constitutional order, or any situation that endangers the legitimate exercixe of power and the exercise of democratic principles”.

The charge against Lugo states that Ushuaia II has “the malicious purpose of obtaining a supposed support in its shameless march against the institutionality and the democratic processes of the Republic”, according to deputy Gustavo Cárdenas, who read out the accusation.

A mission of representatives of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) will be present in Lugo’s political trial, with the objective of guaranteeing that the rules of democratic order will be followed.

The general secretary of UNASUR, Alí Rodríguez Araque of Venezuela, indicated in declarations to the media that “the decisions of the country (Paraguay) will be respected, because they are decisions of a sovereign nature.”

However, he warned that “once the process is over, we will give an opinion”.

Meanwhile, in declarations broadcast by Telesur, the presidents of Colombia and Ecuador gave their viewpoints.

“We will defend democracy, democratic principles and sovereign will, and this position is fixed, concrete, and non-negotiable,” said the Colombian, Juan Manuel Santos.

Rafael Correa (of Ecuador) said that “the measure of a political trial is legal”, but called the political basis of it “illegitimate”.

For his part, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, assured that in Paraguay, “a coup d’état is brewing”.

Translation mine.

Well, of course, Evo would say that, wouldn’t he? After all, he’s been the target of some pretty underhanded shit in Bolivia, when a certain balkanizing US “diplomat” (note the quotes) tried to foment a coup there, unsuccessfully trying to pit the so-called “Media Luna” (Half-Moon) of opposition provinces against the government in La Paz. There was even a foiled assassination plot in Santa Cruz, in which the assassins came out on the shit end of the stick. So Evo knows what a coup smells like from personal experience, and has little problem saying as much in regard to his neighbor-friend and Paraguayan counterpart, Lugo.

And similar things can also be said of El Ecuadorable, who also survived a coup attempt in the guise of a so-called police revolt, a lie which I debunked here two years ago. So he too would know shit when he smells it, and has no problem saying as much.

But what about UNASUR as a whole? What’s up with them? Well, how about this:

Ministers of the 12 member states of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the general secretary of the organization arrived in Asunción and immediately headed for the presidential residence, where they met with president Fernando Lugo, who will stand a political trial before the Paraguayan Congress.

The president stated that the decision of the Congress to place him on trial “is an express coup d’état” and blamed it on businessman Horacio Cartes, a presidential precandidate for the Colorado Party.

The diplomatic chiefs of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, Paraguay’s partners in Mercosur, as well as those of Venezuela, Chile and Peru, were already present at the presidential residence in Asunción, and are currently awaiting the arrival of María Angela Holguín from Colombia, according to an official Paraguayan spokesperson.

At the meeting as well, was the general secretary of UNASUR, Alí Rodríguez of Venezuela.

The press was allowed access to film the meeting, in which various Paraguayan political leaders and the team of Lugo’s judicial advisors were also present.

The Paraguayan Congress decided today, and hours later initiated a judicial process against Lugo, who is accused of abuse of powers, among other things, over a confrontation between police and peasants which left 17 dead, during an eviction of landless peasants occupying a hacienda in Curuguaty on June 15.

[…]

Lugo maintains that the coup d’état was orchestrated on Wednesday night and early Thursday, during which time the parliamentarians agreed to stage a political trial without “a valid reason”. He blamed Cartes and conservative forces of the right as authors of the trial, which he called unconstitutional, with no respect for due process.

Translation mine.

Here we get a little more backgrounder, and it becomes clear that this is a politically motivated “trial” (note the quotes, kiddies, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that we need to put that word in ’em. I do not think it means what the Paraguayan rightards think it means!)

In particular, I think we need to watch the movements of this Horacio Cartes fellow much more closely, since it’s he who started the proceedings, and he has clear political motivations for doing so. He cannot be called a disinterested democrat who cares much for the lives of campesinos OR the police. He’s a precandidate for the old Stroessner-era right-wing party, the Colorados, and it’s obvious that they want back what they think is rightfully theirs — namely, the presidency itself. This is a long-entrenched oligarchy we’re talking about here, folks. Democracy isn’t high on their list of priorities; after all, they’re the party of the old fascist dictator of Paraguay. Whereas Lugo, a popular democrat, actually ran for office because he was urged to do so by the people, and even gave up his position as a bishop for their sake. And, as a friend and ally of the most popular, progressive presidents in Latin America — most significantly Chavecito, Evo and El Ec — he was in a fair position to actually start implementing some real democratic reforms in Paraguay, on the model of those three countries, who have all improved their socioeconomic standings dramatically in co-operation with each other and with Cuba, through the ALBA.

This, then, is the basis of all those hogwash charges against Lugo. It’s very unlike the man popularly known as the People’s Bishop to turn the police in fascist style against, of all people, a bunch of poor campesinos looking for land and occupying a ranch in some godforsaken bumfuck outpost in northeastern Paraguay. Remember, this is the man whose political base is those same poor folks, whom he served tirelessly as both bishop and president. It stinks to high heaven that he should be charged with the crimes he is accused of…crimes which are, in fact, MUCH more in character for his Colorado opponents than they are for Lugo himself. And which I venture to predict will turn out to have been ordered by those same opponents, very conveniently, given the suspicious timing of this whole kangaroo court charade.

Lugo is being very brave here, maintaining his post while undergoing trial; it’s the mark of a man who is confident that he will be found innocent. That speaks well for him, and bodes ill for his enemies.

Watch this space, kiddies, it is gonna heat up fast here. And don’t forget what I told you about who really ordered that disastrous raid.

PS: Courtesy of my good friend Otto, FUCK.

PPS: OMG, would you look at the headlines at Contrainjerencia!

“Cristina: ‘Argentina won’t validate the coup in Paraguay'”

“Ecuador will not recognize the president imposed by the Congress of Paraguay”

“President Chávez: Venezuela will not recognize new government of Paraguay”

“Dilma proposes ‘the expulsion of Paraguay from Mercosur and UNASUR'”

There’s more…LOTS more. I’m gonna be busy translating these next few days, I can see that.

And if the putschists thought that they’d have an easy time of it, voting Lugo out almost unanimously, now they’re going to see that their shit has consequences. HEAVY ones. That one about Dilma is especially satisfying. When even Brazil is proposing economic sanctions and political isolation against a country as poor and stunted as Paraguay, you know LatAm fascism is no longer the cakewalk it used to be.

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Posted in All About Evo, Brazil is the Bomb!, Don't Cry For Argentina, Ecuadorable As Can Be, El NarcoPresidente, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Law-Law Land, Paraguay, Uruguay, Spooks, The WTF? Files | 3 Comments

Dear Harper Government™: Chow down on THIS.

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Sabina Becker

That’s from here. And here’s what it’s all about:

Canada taking a beating from all sides at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro this week, but Environment Minister Peter Kent says the criticism is “unwarranted.”

The conference, dubbed Rio+20 as it takes place 20 years after the original Rio Earth Summit in 1992, will include 50,000 delegates and activists, as well as more than 130 world leaders. Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not attend.

Kent will lead the Canadian delegation. U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron are among other world leaders not attending Rio+20.

The summit is being panned before it even starts by environmentalists who say that its draft blueprint for sustainable development has no firm timelines or commitments, and they are pointing fingers at Canada for that weakness.

“Canada’s role has been at its best not engaging in the process, and at worst acting to weaken ambitious language and delete commitments,” said Cameron Fenton, director of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, in an email to the Canadian Press.

Critics also say that Canada played a part in weakening a new agreement aimed at protecting ocean biodiversity.

“It’s a big failure of Rio, especially since this was talked about as the ‘summit of the seas,”‘ said Susanna Fuller, marine conservation co-ordinator for the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax.

On CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said that Canada’s role at Rio+20 stands in sharp contrast to the leading role it took under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1992. May was an environmental lawyer, activist, and advisor to the Canadian delegation then. Now, she says, she can’t get on a government delegation.

“What Stephen Harper’s doing right now is going to destroy Canada’s reputation. The world community sees us for what Canada is right now: a country that’s gone rogue on its environmental commitments,” she said.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who was Canada’s environment minister at the 1992 Earth Summit, says that Canada must show more leadership at Rio+20.

“If we don’t make that demonstration to the rest of the world,” he said, “we put ourselves in a position where we’re vulnerable to markets, where the perception of our products can be criticized.”

But Kent says the criticism is “unwarranted” and “trivializes” the amount of work and negotiation that will happen at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

…where Peter Fucking Kent, acting perhaps on the orders of the Harper Government (and its Big Bidness puppetmasters), but not so much on behalf of Canadians, will no doubt continue to make an ass of himself and embarrass his country internationally as is his wont, lecturing everyone else on the evils of environmentalism and the virtues of running a government by, of and for the money. Which is grossly out of touch with a vast majority of Canadians, if the above poll result is any indication.

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Environmentally Ill, Filthy Stinking Rich, Good to Know, Isn't It Ironic? | Comments Off on Dear Harper Government™: Chow down on THIS.

Sad news from the literary world

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Thought and memory are a writer’s stock in trade, and when something happens to them, it’s particularly sad and terrifying. Especially in the case of a certain great Colombian, who feared his own memory loss more than most:

The great Colombian writer, Gabriel García Márquez, no longer recognizes his closest friends, with whom he has travelled, grown literarily, and shared decades of life, including Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza.

The author of The Fragrance of Guava (1982), a book about recollections of childhood and youth, friends and literature, along with “Gabo”, expressed great worry “because his mother died of Alzheimer’s and his brother too”.

Eligio García Márquez, a physicist, writer and journalist, younger brother of the Nobel literary prizewinner, died at age 53 in 2001. “It was a terrible blow for Gabo,” commented Jaime, another of his brothers.

Mendoza admits he has not been able to speak with García Márquez for the past five years, but he did speak with Rodrigo, his godson, who told him: “He has to see you because if he doesn’t, he can’t tell by the voice with whom he is speaking.”

“The last time we spoke,” said the journalist, Mendoza, “he forgot certain things, and he asked me: ‘When did you arrive? Where are you staying?’, and repeated that. By contrast, we went out to lunch and when it came to remembering very old things, remote, from about 30 or 40 years ago, his memory functioned perfectly.”

Translation mine. Linkage added.

This short-term memory loss is typical of senile dementia; it’s not unusual for those who have it to have difficulty remembering the immediate past — what was just said, what they ate for breakfast that day, etc. — while retaining clear memories of seemingly minor details from decades ago. And “Gabo” is 85, so his memory definitely isn’t what it used to be, and can’t be expected to be, either. In fact, a few years ago he expressed preoccupation because he “hadn’t written a line all year”. Perhaps that was when his memory was starting to go, and his energy to flag?

More worrisome, and telling, is his inability to recognize people by their voices anymore. It’s hard to say for certain that he suffers from Alzheimer’s, since other symptoms weren’t discussed here. Either way, it’s painful for a writer with a long and sociable history of literary friendships to find them falling by the wayside because his health is slowly failing.

I don’t expect a happy ending to this story.

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Posted in Artsy-Fartsy Culture Stuff, She Blinded Me With Science | 2 Comments