News of the Restless

MerCHEdes? Of atrocities and apologies (still owing) from Mercedes-Benz

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Yes, the above is an atrocity, and a gross violation of rights. But not for the reasons the gusanos of Miami claim. Cubadebate explains what’s really horrible about it:

The luxury-vehicle company Mercedes-Benz apologized this week for having used the image of Che Guevara in a publicity campaign. Its apology, however, is for the wrong reasons.

The controversy arose last week, after the head of Mercedes-Benz, Dieter Zetsche, presented with much fanfare, in Las Vegas, a series of commercials for the luxury cars. One of these ads included a gigantic blow-up of the famous photo of Che Guevara in Havana, taken in 1960 by the Cuban photographer, Alberto Korda.

Zetsche’s idea was to promote a new Mercedes carpooling project, called CarTogether. The idea is to stimulate sales of the expensive cars with the idea that the owners transport multiple passengers, using the Mercedes as a kind of ostentatious free taxi.

The Mercedes-Benz director said in his presentation: “Some people think that car sharing is like communism. If that’s the way it is, long live the revolution.”

And at that point, he projected on a large screen the image of Che between two of the most luxurious cars offered to the consumer.

The use of the image of Che touched off a ferocious political campaign against Mercedes-Benz, led by a small group of Cuban-US citizens.

For example, a certain Ernesto Ariel Suárez launched a Facebook page, in which he wrote: “Tell Mercedes-Benz that it’s wrong to use the image of a mass murderer”. The ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation joined the fray, characterizing Che as “a psychopath…who killed for fun”. Miami-based publications and blogs also joined the crusade.

The criticisms worked. Mercedes-Benz apologized.

A company communiqué explained: “We were not supporting the life or the actions of this historic personage, or the political philosophy he was defending. We apologize to anyone who may have felt offended.”

To be sure, Mercedes-Benz has much to apologize for, but not because of the criticisms of the enemies of Che, that brave and pure revolutionary who gave his life so that others could live better. No.

The German car company must apologize for the unauthorized use of Korda’s iconic photograph. It should also apologize to the widow and children of Che Guevara for having associated his image with the buying and selling of luxury goods. The political philosophy Che defended with his life said that “man truly reaches his full human stature when he produces without the compulsion of physical necessity of selling himself like merchandise.”

It is a well known fact that the German auto company collaborated with the Nazi régime, and that its most famous employee was Adolf Eichmann, during the latter’s years of exile in Argentina. It is not so well known that the same company also collaborated closely with the Argentine military dictatorship during the Dirty Wars in the Southern Cone. The families of some of its victims, the disappeared workers of Mercedes-Benz in Buenos Aires — Oscar Alberto Alvarez Bauman, Miguel Grieco, Diego Núñez, Esteban A. Reimer, Alberto Francisco Arenas, Alberto Gigena, Fernando Omar del Conte, Jorge Leichner and Héctor Belmonte — have launched a lawsuit against the company in a US federal court.

The relatives allege in their suit that Mercedes-Benz had the unionists kidnapped in order to break a strike. The suit also includes the names of other unionists from the factory who survived the repression — Héctor Ratto, Eduardo Alasiregui, Ricardo Martín Hoffman, Eduardo Estivill, Alfredo Manuel Martín, José Barreiro, and Alejandro Daer. They alleged that they were kidnapped, held in secret prisons, and tortured with electroshock by the Argentine state security forces under the direction and control of Mercedes-Benz.

The crimes of Mercedes-Benz in its Buenos Aires plant took place between 1976 and 1977. Following an internal investigation, the parent company, Daimler AG, concluded in December 2003 that the factory directors in Argentina had given the names of the “subversive” workers to the military junta, and that the objective was, beyond any doubt, to break a strike in the plant that had paralyzed the production of automobiles.

Without the information given by Mercedes-Benz, the security forces could not have kidnapped, tortured and “disappeared” the unionists. Evidently satisfied with the extra-official methods used by state security in collaboration with Mercedes to break the strike of ’77, the company executives wrote an internal memorandum, dated March 22, 1977, in which they conclude: “The result of the government’s methods was favorable, and opened for us a good perspective for the development of the country.”

Uff.

The “methods” praised by Mercedes Benz’s executives are those of crimes against humanity: Torturing, kidnapping and murdering those who dare to demand a just salary, better working conditions, and the end of social inequality.

The lawsuit alleges that Mercedes-Benz of Argetina violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Constitution, the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention Against Torture, the Victims of Torture Protection Act, the Alien Tort Claims Act, and numerous Argentine and international laws, statutes and regulations.

It is true that Mercedes-Benz owes apologies, but not to those who hate Che and slander his name in the corporate media.

The apology is owed to Korda, Che’s widow Aleida, their children, and especially the families of the Argentine factory workers, whom Mercedes-Benz tortured, disappeared and killed during the 1970s. The lawsuit against Mercedes-Benz has been before Judge Ronald M. Whyte in the federal court of San Francisco for more than 7 years. The defense’s tactic is to slow down and delay the process as much as possible. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs continue to wait for justice to be done.

What would Che say to all that?

Translation mine.

Oh, I have a fair idea what he’d say, but I don’t think it would be printable, even on this potty-mouthed blog. Just translating that makes me feel soiled, and ashamed of my German ancestry. And especially embarrassed of the fact that my mom, before she met and married my dad in Northern Ontario, worked in New York City…for the local Mercedes importer/reseller and his wife; she was their au pair and governess. All this almost makes me feel as if *I* owed someone an apology, because if that despicable motor company didn’t employ a certain German-descended US executive, who in turn employed my mother because he wanted his kids to have a German governess, I probably wouldn’t be here.

Yes, that IS fucked up.

But what’s even more fucked up is the Argentine junta, and every bloody thing it ever did. And so is this blatant abuse of Che’s image, with the Mercedes logo in place of the red star on his beret. I mean yeah, his face IS practically synonymous with the whole concept of revolution. But the revolution he stood for was one blatantly at odds with the junta, with Mercedes-Benz’s Buenos Aires plant, and the fascist crackdown against auto workers everywhere.

And it is a revolution blatantly at odds with the use of Che’s face to sell a vehicle which he, on well-founded principle, would NEVER have driven.

So, Daimler-Benz bastards? You know what you have to do. Don’t make me cuss you out in my mother tongue. It sounds even nastier than Che swearing a blue streak in Spanish. Trust me.

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Posted in Confessions of a Bad German, Crapagandarati, Cuba, Libre (de los Yanquis), Don't Cry For Argentina, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Isn't That Illegal?, Law-Law Land, Morticia! You Spoke French!, Sick Frickin' Bastards, Spooks, The United States of Amnesia | 1 Comment

Music for a Sunday: Hut, hut, WHUT?

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Q. What do you get when you cross a certain sanctimoniously obnoxious quarterback with Ziggy Stardust?

A. THIS:

Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Ziggy Star-Crossed. Otherwise known as the Thick White Puke.

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Posted in Music for a Sunday, Pissing Jesus Off, Schadenfreude, The WTF? Files | 1 Comment

Wankers of the Week: Ridin’ the Pipeline to Nowhere

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Crappy weekend, everyone! Well, there goes another shitty week. Gitmo is ten years old now, and still no trials for any of the prisoners; probably because then it would come out embarrassingly in court that there were an awful lot of false arrests made, and that the whole exercise hasn’t done a damn thing to quell terrorism anywhere in the world, because it IS terrorism itself. And closer to home, we’re hearing an awful lot of hypocritical hot-air venting about a certain crude-oil pipeline or two that should not ever be built. Yes, that’s right, folks, the Wank Machine is cranking into high gear again after the merest whiff of a breather over the holidays. And here come its clanking cogs and squeaky wheels, in no particular order:

1. Rick Fucking Santorum. How low can he go? Well, how about as low as telling kids with gay parents that they’d be better off with their dads in jail. At this juncture, it’s safe to say his kids would be better with their dad in prison. That much stupidity all in one sweater-vest, warping the minds of the Next Generation, has got to be criminal! PS: Oh my, a major skeleton has tumbled out of the Santorum family closet…and it is Icky Ricky’s wifey-poo! Lived with the same abortion-providing doctor who delivered her, out of wedlock yet? And he used to be pro-choice? Wooooooo. Bet Icky Ricky is gonna spin this as himself coming in as her knight in shining armor, saving her from living in sin with a baby-killer 40 years her senior. If he’s smart, though, this will be his signal to bow out. He’s already got a big strike against him since the news broke that the missus also had the “only moral abortion”. Otherwise, watch this space, because the hypocrisies will be flying as thick and fast as the brown smelly eponymous froth. PPS: Ha, ha! (Read to the end. You will die laughing.) PPPS: And for some really big laffs, guess what Icky Ricky’s Italian relatives are, and what they think of him.

2. Ronald Fucking Weinland. Mark this down on your calendars, kiddies: May 27 is the fucking Apocalypse! That way, you’ll know when to laugh on schedule at yet another blustering God-botherer who thinks his word alone is going to give the doubters cancer. (And even if we all do get cancer, at least there are treatments for it. Stupidity and superstition? Not so much.)

3. Stephen Fucking Harper. Oh look! Harpo’s packing the Senate again. At this rate the floor of the Upper Chamber is going to give way. I don’t think it was built to withstand so many big, fat…um, what’s the phrase that Charlie Angus used again? Unelected boobs, I believe it is. Yes, exactly. They’re boobs because they support Harpo, and unelected because he appointed them. One hand washes the other. PS: And he’s willing to politicize Canada Day and co-opt the War of 1812 for his own gain? Fuck that shit! PPS: AND he wants to nullify legal same-sex marriages here if contracted between foreigners who visited Canada for the purpose, but claims he’s not “reopening” the matter? Cowardly bastard is trying to have his cake and appease his fundie base, too.

4. Phil Fucking Parkinson. Yes, let’s all trivialize the Holocaust by going to a gym in Dubai to “kiss your calories goodbye”. What could possibly be so bad about that? BTW, if you really want to get skinny in the Emirate, how about just drinking their lovely, grody water straight from the beach? That oughta make you look like an Auschwitz corpse in no time!

5. Jay Fucking Gray. Who the hell blows a .182 after only two beers? A liar, that’s who.

6. Chris Fucking Christie. Well, well — looks like the Greedy Oligarch Party’s macho man has himself some female trouble. And I doubt a helicopter will be coming anytime soon to extricate him from this one (at great expense to the taxpayers of Noo Joizey, natch).

7. Todd Fucking Palin. Endorses Newt Fucking Gingrich. No doubt to keep his own name in the news, not that it matters. Newty will soon be joining him in irrelevancy. Wish he’d join him in Wasilla, preferably on a lonely stretch of back road in the dead of the coldest winter in a hundred years, with no gas for the truck. PS: Ha, ha.

8. Bill Fucking Donohue. Either he’s a molester himself, or he’s as clueless as he is offensive. Because of all the words and phrases I might use to describe victims of pedophile priests, “pitiful malcontents” (his phrase) doesn’t even make the list. But I have plenty of choice ones for him, and top of my list is despicable disgusting motherfucking bastard of a pervert apologist.

9. Brenda Fucking Buttner. Job losses in the public sector are “positive”? Only if you work at FUX Snooze, where the sky is green, the grass is blue, and all the pigs wear lipstick and fly around uttering inanities before the camera. And really, are private-sector job losses “positive” too? Only if you work at FUX Snooze, honey…only if you work at FUX Snooze. Which deserves to lose viewers, as well as private-sector jobs, due to stupid-ass commentators like this one.

10. Tony Fucking Clement. It’s jackass, not “jack ass” — you fucking JACKASS! PS: Ha, ha.

11. Vivian Fucking Krause. Oh, so US anti-tar-sands money is fueling my environmentalism? Ha, ha, so sorry, but no. No money trail to follow here, this blog is financed by nobody, and the only motivator I need is a love of my country. Nice try at smearing all us Canadian environmentalists, though. Who’s financing YOU, I wonder? Oh wait, the article says it’s THESE people. AND you recently worked for a Tory MP? And my, what an extensive SourceWatch entry you have. Yeah, Viv, keep frontin’ for the right-wing special interests. You’re not fooling anyone. You’re no more an “independent blogger” than is your old pal, Ezra Fucking Levant. Who, I notice, has also referenced you. Quel surprise! PS: Pardon my Schadenfreude, but HA HA HA FUCKING HA!

12. Joe Fucking Oliver. And while we’re on the subject of tarry Tories smearing innocent environmentalists, how about this motherfucker? Bet I know whose oh-so-conveniently-timed “independent” Postmedia crapaganda HE’s been reading. *coughcoughNUMBER11coughcough* Damn! Is it polluted in here, or is it all those “ethical” emissions from the tar sands? PS: Teh Stoopid…he haz it.

13. Haley Fucking Barbour. Wow, what a way to leave office: By pardoning five questionably rehabilitated wife-killers! And hey, the ex-gubnor of Mississippi is a repeat offender! He did the same in 2008. PS: Ha, ha!

14. Mike O’Fucking Neal. He insulted Michelle Obama in an e-mail forward which I’m sure was NEVER meant to circulate, but somehow did? Insert tasteless, sexist, racially insensitive joke about his mama (who obviously didn’t raise him right) here.

15. Randall Fucking Terry. Between him and Tim Fucking Tebow, there is plenty to loathe about the Cult of Football, and the Cult of Male Dominance piggybacking on it. Meanwhile, Jesus called; sez he doesn’t give a good-daddy-damn about fetuses OR touchdowns, so stop using him as a prop.

16. Nikki Fucking Haley. She really takes the “let them eat cake” cake, doesn’t she? Somebody please get that woman a brocade gown and a powdered wig.

17. Bobby Joe Fucking Rogers. He has a “strong disbelief in abortion”, so he firebombed a clinic? Pfffft. I also have a strong disbelief…in drunken vagrant fuckassery. But you don’t see ME firebombing any homeless shelters, do you now?

18. Pat Fucking Buchanan. Oh boo fucking hoo, look who’s not taking last week’s ejection from mass media very well. This comes as a surprise to how many of us? Show of hands? Thought so. The old white supremacist blames a black man and Teh Queeeeeeerz! As for taking personal responsibility for his own odious views, which are the real problem…well, what were WE expecting? Of course that won’t happen. But hey, paranoid old fart, way to prove your detractors right. Do it some more!

19. Mike Fucking Miller. He doesn’t want to sound like a Repug, but he wants us all to know that they don’t have a monopoly on stupid, irrational, religiously-insane homophobia! Awwww, isn’t that just so pwecious?

20. Theodore Fucking Castine. Need a reason to NOT send naked pix of yourself to friends, girls? Watch out who “friends” you on Facebook, then. It could be a nasty, ugly pervert old enough to be your dad. Or your grandpa.

21. and 22. Taylor Fucking Wynn and Mackenzie Fucking Barker. Of course, sometimes the dirty, disgusting perverts really ARE underage girls…looking to bully a classmate on Facebook by generating fake obscene pictures with her face in them. It’s all just fun and games until someone goes to Juvie, eh girls?

23. Newt Fucking Gingrich. Yes, bigotry IS on the rise in the United States. Unfortunately, it’s the direct opposite of what Newty says. Every day is Opposite Day with him!

24. James O’Fucking Keefe. Doesn’t committing fraud in an effort to prove fraud mean that YOU are a fraud? Or is that too meta for ya?

(No, that’s not really him; it’s some nameless Russian pimp-wannabe with the poor sense to pose in tacky clothes beside an unimpressive car. But it sure looks like him, does it not?)

25. Stephen Fucking Woodworth. What is it with all these repugnant men who keep trying to legislate what goes on in women’s bodies, claiming it’s their “duty” when it fucking is NOT? If this one dares try to “reopen the abortion debate”, his political future is DOA. Because Canadians have a duty to make sure fascism doesn’t take root in our country ever again, and believe me, THAT is not up for “debate”.

26. Julian Fucking Fantino. Oh look, big tough ex-police chief can’t take a little criticism on the tweeter. So he goes and bullies Tony Fucking Clement’s critics. How the hell did someone so thin of skin and poor of judgment ever make it out of police academy?

27. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. The Pigman’s drug habit is definitely getting out of hand. Rick Fucking Perry in no way resembles Fidel Castro! That’s either an unwarranted compliment to Perry, or a terrible insult to Fidel, Cigar Butt.

28. Mitt Fucking Romney. Nobody fucking envies you, Mittens. We just want to see your class pay its fair share of taxes. Ain’t nothing envious about that. PS: Ha, ha. PPS: Yo Mittens, someone would like an explanation out of you. Are you going to give it to him, or not? PPPS: Don’t bother answering this one, though, we already know you ARE one.

29. Pamela Fucking Geller. Is anyone surprised that this crazy fucking bitch loves her some corpse-pissing yahoos? No? All righty then. I guess you also no longer need to ask why “they” hate “us”. Pamela Fucking Geller is why, y’all. And whenever she finally bites it, I hope someone from the other team is there to “wash” her scabrous corpse in the manner it karmically deserves.

30. Dana Fucking Loesch. Piss on HER, too. She has all the manners of a warthog sow, so she can fucking wallow. Hell, even the Fucking Pigman didn’t go there. And no, I don’t buy her “defending Marines” twaddle. They’re big strong guys who can damn well defend themselves. That is, if they’ve done something legally and morally defensible, which the corpse-desecrators in the video most certainly have NOT. The only ones succumbing to “overly-dramatic hysteria” are this one and #29. And little wonder: The war in Afghanistan is lost, the hearts and minds of the locals will always be against the Amurrican Empire, and all the crapaganda and corpse-pissing in the world won’t change that.

31. Allen Fucking West. Another wanker joins the circle-jerk over the corpses of dead Afghans, and dares to minimize the desecration with the “War is hell” shibboleth. Yo, Allen? SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND GO TO HELL.

32. Steve Fucking Womack. “Join the military!” seems to be the Repugs’ answer to everything these days. And no wonder: These chickenhawks have all built their careers on endless war. Their record for non-military job creation is shitty. Of course they’re going to tell the young, the poor and especially the non-white to sacrifice themselves. How else are they going to pay for all those baubles they shower on their trophy women? The Military-Industrial Complex only rewards those who keep that meat grinder going, after all!

33. Joran Fucking Van Der Sloot. Hey everybody, he feels bad! Yeah, I just bet he does. I bet he feels bad that he got caught. (And in other news, his first victim, Natalee Holloway, whose body has never been found, has now been declared legally dead. No word as to how bad he feels about that.)

34. Kim Fucking Kardashian. Need another reason to despise this talentless nonentity? Here ya go. Enjoy.

35. Kathryn Fucking Marshall. Another grating-voiced unEthical Oil shill has gone down in flames. And on national teevee, too! Just a pity she’s not out of the picture yet. But hey! At least her nervous breakdown has gone viral. And all of Canada is enjoying a good sardonic chuckle at her expense.

PS: Wanna play a drinking game? Take a swig every time she says “foreign special interests and their puppets trying to hijack the process”. She does it several times. Clearly she’s been well rehearsed…but not well enough to vary her bullshit and make it sound fresher with repetition.

36. Mike O’Fucking Neal. Yep, “Mrs. YoMamma” is a wanker again this week. This time, for circulating that horrible Psalm 109 — you know, the one that’s being used by the Religious Reich to wish death on Barack Obama? Yeah, that’s REAL “Christian”. I hope everyone who prays this, gets what they prayed for…THEMSELVES. Hey, Karma’s a bitch, and so are those who pray this shit. PS: And further to the “bitch” bit, he refuses to apologize. Dorothy, I think we’ve just found what’s wrong with Kansas.

37. Arthur Fucking Laffer. Surprise! The Reaganite prototype for Leisure Suit Larry (remember him?) is totally into Ponzi schemes. This should come as a surprise to precisely no one.

38. Arthur Fucking Brisbane. Reporting the truth and holding your interviewees accountable doesn’t make you a “vigilante”, it makes you a REPORTER. Speaking of which…when DID the NY Whore Times stop hiring those, and why?

39. All the fucking Penn State alumni who value Joe Paterno and their precious football program over the mental health and well-being of the at-risk kids molested by Jerry Fucking Sandusky. Have you no fucking perspective? JoePa was slated to retire before the scandal broke, and with his health problems, it seems unlikely he would have served out that last season anyway. This isn’t really about him, is it? Nope…it’s about the Fucking Cult of Football, as usual. The fact that the abused kids were there to LEARN football from a coach they should have been able to trust just doesn’t penetrate SOME people’s thick, cement-like skulls, I guess. So boos and hisses to those who are “protesting” the dismissals now by withholding donations. Learn from the past and present Penn Staters who are doing the opposite and standing up for abused kids, dammit.

And finally, to the as-yet unnamed wanker who threw the brick through the window of the Babylon Restaurant in Lowell, Massachusetts. Supposedly it wasn’t a hate crime. But what other motive would there have been, since the place prominently advertised, in writing on its windows, that it serves Iraqi food? Why not throw a brick through the windows of all the other restaurants on the street? Why pick on one run and staffed by Iraqi refugees? Happily, the local Veterans For Peace showed up to dine there, and filled the place twice in a show of solidarity. But the fear and doubt still must linger in the minds of those who work there, and no doubt they worry about the next time a brick — or worse — goes flying through their windows. Anyone who’d rob those people, who have already been through a war and so much trauma, of their peace of mind, has got to be a real motherfucker. And I can’t wait to see him in court.

Good night, and get fucked!

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Posted in Wankers of the Week | 2 Comments

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Chavecito’s back, beeyotches!

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Sabina Becker

And here he is, proving that his health is fully recovered from last year’s nasty cancer scare:

…and that he’s fit and ready for his re-election campaign. He looks and sounds it, all right. Nice to see he’s regained the weight he lost during treatment. He’s his usual burly self, not painfully thin, the way Jack Layton was at his last sad press conference. That alone is a good sign. So’s the fact that ExxtortionMobil has essentially lost its court case against him. (And, bonus: His hair’s finally coming back, too!)

Yeah, so much for those who said he was fixin’ to die, and that we’d see the end of him this year. Ha — Chavecito’s not going anywhere, beeyotches! You’re gonna have to dream up some other way to get rid of him, since he’s shaping up to win handily with at least 60% of the vote.

Or, in other words: Neener, neener, nee-ner!

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Posted in Barreling Right Along, Festive Left Friday Blogging, Huguito Chavecito, Schadenfreude | Comments Off

Shit Homophobes Say

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Notice that all of this is verbatim, no “Shit ____s Say” spoofage needed:

And as a side note, every one of these ‘phobes has previously been wank-listed here for those same words and many, may more. I guess that also makes this a “Shit Wankers Say” video.

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Posted in Crapagandarati, Fascism Without Swastikas, Not So Compassionate Conservatism, Teh Ghey, Teh Heterostoopid, The Hardcore Stupid, Wankers of the Week | Comments Off

When it doesn’t get better

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Via The New Civil Rights Movement, I found out a sad thing today. The young man who made this “It Gets Better” video…

…has taken his own life.

Eric James Borges, who took the time to remind bullied queer kids that life will get better, and whose own life was seemingly proof that it does, is gone.

So. Does this mean that it DOESN’T get better, after all?

Watch the video, and you’ll see that there was a lot Eric had to work through. A real shitload. I don’t know what therapy, if any, Eric sought for his problems, but obviously it didn’t get to the bottom of them. And maybe there was no way that it could. When you grow up with a constantly reinforced message that you are “unnatural”, “repulsive”, and all the other horrible things his own parents called him, it’s hard to hear anything that tells you that yes, there is a better world out there, away from all this. And by the time you do get there, it may be too late.

That’s what’s so horrifying about all this.

And that’s why I have to say this:

It won’t get better unless we all work to MAKE it better.

It won’t get better unless we speak out against bullying whenever and wherever we see it happening.

It won’t get better unless we talk back to the fundies and condemn their twisted, hate-based anti-gay ideology.

It won’t get better unless we make it a hate crime to mess with your kid’s head the way Eric’s parents messed with his.

It won’t get better until what happened to Eric, what drove him to take his own life after an unsuccessful struggle, is wiped off the face of our planet.

This is the only world we’ve got, and we’re all sunk in this shit unless we MAKE it better.

It won’t get better without a concerted effort.

Positive messages are good, but what really means something to a bullied kid is when the bully gets the message that bullying is not acceptable. For that, we have to intervene. We have to stand up in church, as it were, and holler BULLSHIT! when the preacher starts spouting homophobia. We have to stop the mental abuse of gay kids by fundie parents, and frankly, that means sometimes having to stand up on our hind legs and say FUCK YOUR SO-CALLED “FREEDOM OF RELIGION”.

Yes, you read that right.

When religion turns into mind abuse and child abuse, that’s where the freedom to believe ends, and the child’s right to freedom from abuse begins.

Eric James Borges was denied his rights. He was denied the right to be as Nature (that’s GOD, people) made him. His parents and teachers and peers, however, were granted the untrammelled right to abuse him. And in the end, their religiously motivated abuse killed him.

I’m not saying there should be no freedom of religion whatsoever. And I’m not advocating atheism. I’m saying that the right to swing your cross and thump your bible ends where a gay kid’s head begins. You may have the right to believe absolute bullshit, but you do not have the right to cram it down anyone else’s throat. And that includes the throat of your own kid.

I’m saying that trying to de-gay your kid in the name of religion should be made a hate crime, and that perpetrators should become pariahs. NOT their victims.

Right now, in spite of all pious rhetoric about how children (especially in the fetal form) are sacred, the Religious Reich in fact grants parents the absolute power and authority to abuse their children in the name of God. It in effect instructs them to PLAY God. It tells them to “pray away the gay” and to “spare not the rod”.

And when the holy, sacred child offends or disappoints the godly parents, the Religious Reich grants them the absolute power and authority to make that child’s life a living hell.

If we really want it to get better, and mean what we say when we say It Gets Better, we have to start by taking away all the absolute powers and authorities that the Religious Reich arrogates to itself and to the parents of queer kids. We have to take away the rod from the religiously-abusive parent and break it over our knees. We have to give kids the right to a safe place, away from bullies, and the reassurance that the bullying is NOT okay, because it is NOT the Word of God.

After all, a bullied kid who has no safe haven from the angry, punishing gods is a kid who will not live to see it get better.

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Posted in Fetus Fetishists, If You REALLY Care, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Law-Law Land, Not So Compassionate Conservatism, Pissing Jesus Off, Teh Ghey | Comments Off

Quotable: Jason Read on parasites

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Sabina Becker

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Posted in Economics for Dummies, Isn't It Ironic?, Quotable Notables, Socialism is Good for Capitalism!, The United States of Amnesia | 1 Comment

Chairman Mao rolls in his grave

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Sabina Becker

150 computer factory workers had to be talked down from a “suicide jump” in protest of lousy working conditions at the infamous Foxconn. This would not have made the news when Mao Zedong was in charge of China…

The workers were eventually coaxed down after two days on top of their three-floor plant in Wuhan by Foxconn managers and local Chinese Communist party officials.

Foxconn, which manufactures gadgets for the likes of Apple, Sony, Nintendo and HP, among many others, has had a grim history of suicides at its factories. A suicide cluster in 2010 saw 18 workers throw themselves from the tops of the company’s buildings, with 14 deaths.

In the aftermath of the suicides, Foxconn installed safety nets in some of its factories and hired counsellors to help its workers.

The latest protest began on January 2 after managers decided to move around 600 workers to a new production line, making computer cases for Acer, a Taiwanese computer company.

“We were put to work without any training, and paid piecemeal,” said one of the protesting workers, who asked not to be named. “The assembly line ran very fast and after just one morning we all had blisters and the skin on our hand was black. The factory was also really choked with dust and no one could bear it,” he said.

Several reports from inside Foxconn factories have suggested that while the company is more advanced than many of its competitors, it is run in a “military” fashion that many workers cannot cope with. At Foxconn’s flagship plant in Longhua, five per cent of its workers, or 24,000 people, quit every month.

“Because we could not cope, we went on strike,” said the worker. “It was not about the money but because we felt we had no options. At first, the managers said anyone who wanted to quit could have one month’s pay as compensation, but then they withdrew that offer. So we went to the roof and threatened a mass suicide”.

The worker said that Foxconn initially refused to negotiate, but that the workers were treated reasonably by the local police and fire service.

Isn’t that an outrageous bit of news to have escape the so-called People’s Republic?

And no, it’s not unthinkable because of freedom-hating communism and its evil press censorship. China’s not communist anymore, except maybe in name only. Foxconn is as capitalist a factory as you’ll find anywhere in the world. Or should I say, as capitalist a SWEATSHOP?

Most significantly, look who refused to negotiate — Foxconn. And who talked the strikers down? Perhaps the last real bastion of socialism in China: the police and fire department.

Foxconn is certainly no worker-run commune, and by the sounds of things, the government of China seems to have decided to look the other way on its bosses and their blatant abuses. Little wonder: It’s lucrative as all hell, serving several major foreign computer companies. Whatever happened to regulation?

If Mao’s not rolling in his grave over this, he damn well should be.

PS: My friend John has more here, plus a picture showing just how large this protest was.

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Posted in All the Tea in China, Economics for Dummies, Environmentally Ill, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Isn't It Ironic? | 2 Comments

Stupid Sex Tricks: Why real news doesn’t make the news anymore

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Any questions?

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Posted in Stupid Sex Tricks | 2 Comments

Keystone XL: Dirty oil barons threaten Obama

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Sabina Becker

The clearest, most concise explanation yet of why the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would ferry dirty tar-sands oil from Alberta to Texas, must not proceed. Yes, all this talk of “ending our dependence on foreign oil” is a LIE. Shocking? Wait, it gets worse. The pipeline would also threaten a geologically unstable area that happens to sit over the US’s biggest aquifer (also one of the largest in the world), and make the water undrinkable for about 23 million US citizens. AND, on top of everything else, it’s a job killer…and would make gasoline more expensive, not less so, for those still unfortunate enough to be driving locally made gas-guzzlers. Because the US is still a net petroleum IMPORTER, and most of that imported oil comes From Canada and the Middle East. And because the oil from that pipeline, from Canada, would not be going to serve US needs, but would be converted into gasoline for the lucrative export market. (I had to laugh at the part about shipping it to South America. They have more than enough of their own in Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile…and now, Brazil. All South American countries would be more than adequately served from South American oil, refined and supplied by state-run industries! What would they need Texas-shipped gasoline for? Even Mexico and Cuba have plenty for their own needs, and won’t have to rely on the US for that. And Cuba will have help from Venezuela in developing and refining its own offshore oil, so US corporations will be out in the cold there.)

Yes, folks, this is the “ethical” oil that Ezra Fucking Levant is shilling his putzy ass off for. Seems so very ethical now, doesn’t it?

Wait, it gets worse. Let’s go back to the oil-baron threat again. You think it’s nothing serious? It got one previous US president assassinated for daring to oppose the barons. And his vice-president and successor, who happened to be from Texas, and very much in the pockets of the oil barons himself, was a key suspect in his murder:

Pay special attention to the part about Clint Murchison Sr., the oil king with connections to LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, and other shadowy figures of the Kennedy assassination. He was so intimate with them that they partied, and plotted JFK’s demise, at his Texas mansion. Was this where the order went out to kill Kennedy? Quite likely. Between them, the CIA, the Mafia, and the anti-Castro ex-Cubans, it was a perfect storm of colluding, and corrupting, interests!

And let’s not forget, Obama’s predecessor is a Connecticut Yankee from Texas. And yes, Dubya is himself deep in Big Oil’s pockets…STILL. As a wannabe oil baron himself, he was a bust, but as their patsy, he made out like a bandit both as governor and later, as a two-term unelected president.

Anyone who thinks Big Oil has clean hands, and isn’t above assassinating non-compliant leaders, really should watch The Men Who Killed Kennedy in its nine-episode entirety…and bear in mind that very little has changed in US politics since then. It will certainly put the enormous pressures on Obama in a powerful new light. And it will make clear why it is imperative for common citizens to oppose Big Oil and its inordinate influence on the politics of all North America. It is not an exaggeration to say that our entire democratic system is in grave danger from it.

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