News of the Restless

Lady Gaga comes to Venezuela!

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Sabina Becker

Actually, this is the current Miss Venezuela, Marelisa Gibson, wearing her “national costume”–which looks NOTHING like the traditional dress of any Venezuelan region, but sure does look an awful lot like a shattered disco ball. Or one of Lady Gaga’s rejects. It’s hard to tell, eh?

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Posted in The Nausea, The WTF? Files | 4 Comments

Quotable: Carol King on abortion rights in Argentina

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Sabina Becker

“I’ve often heard anti-choice mourning about the prevented birth of another Einstein or Gandhi. But what about the loss of a talented woman who dies from an illegal abortion? Or what happens to a young woman who can’t continue her education due to an unplanned pregnancy and is doomed to a life of poverty or trapped in a violent relationship because she’s economically dependent on a man? How many of these women could have been president (albeit with better politics than [Argentine president Cristina] Fernandez), doctors, ministers of health, teachers, composers or scientists? Of course they couldn’t have been priests, but that’s another issue.”

–Carol King, at Ms. Magazine

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Posted in Don't Cry For Argentina, Quotable Notables, Uppity Wimmin | Comments Off

Short ‘n’ Stubby: Ms. Manx goes to Afghanistan

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Sabina Becker

Lately, so many stories on Afghanistan have been landing in my tab bar that it’s getting hard to keep track of them (not to mention scroll past them all!) So, Ms. Manx has obligingly meowed at me, urging me to make ’em as short as her tail so I can share them with y’all:

The Nation takes on the infamous TIME cover, the one showing the noseless Afghan woman who’s become a posterchild for warmongers. Key sentence: “It’s all part and parcel of a campaign, by some well-meaning people and some not so well-meaning, to justify America’s failing counterinsurgency policy in that devastated nation by raising the banner of women’s rights…” BINGO.

The Calgary Herald also (surprisingly) attacks this propaganda campaign, and exposes the CIA’s role in it. The source of the info? Wikileaks, and the brave leaker, Bradley Manning–whom Eric Margolis devoted his last Toronto Sun column to, correctly calling him a hero. Margolis, too, notices something: “WikiGate provoked a flood of bombastic pro-war propaganda from America’s mainstream (read: Government guided) media, its rent-a-journalists, and Canada’s wannabe Republican neocons.” Surprise! Guess where that awful TIME cover fits into all this. I’ll give you a hint: Project Mockingbird never died.

Rethink Afghanistan digs deeper into the CIA aspect of things, showing how the Taliban (those evil woman-mutilators!) rose from the loins of the CIA-sponsored mujahideen. If anyone is to blame for the Afghan women’s suffering and suicidality, guess what–it’s the good old freedom-and-democracy-bringin’ US of A.

Another Nation article criticizes the whole TIME premise, pointing out that there has been a “creeping Talibanization” of Afghanistan under Hamid Karzai, and that Bibi Aisha lost her nose (and earlobes) literally under the nose of the US, Canadian, British and European troops who have been in Afghanistan nonstop, supposedly fighting for her freedom not to be disfigured by a Taliban-crazed husband. The last paragraph is absolutely key, so read it all and realize that war is not a feminist act.

But you know what IS a feminist act? Making art that explicitly links female exploitation with acts of war. Since so much war is perpetuated on the bodies of women (and beautiful women are shamelessly exploited in pro-war propaganda as well), a female artist, Rosemarie Romero, thought it worthwhile to explore the subject by making montages of models in seductive poses, with parts of their bodies replaced by scenes of war. The response of viewers to these pictures seems to indicate that her efforts are paying off: “Romero, who’s 24-years-old and an MFA student at the University of Florida, says that when people first see the photomontages at a distance, they’re titillated and drawn to the women’s faces or spread legs or exposed breasts. When they get closer and realize what they’re looking at, the party’s over. They’re disturbed, repulsed.” A good and logical response, I’d say.

And while we’re on the subject of things disturbing and repulsive, be warned of the next front in the War on Terra: the use of human rights as (bogus) grounds for the ultimate in human rights abuses. Actually, it’s already happening, and if you’ve been following what I blogged on Venezuela and Bolivia in particular, you’ll see that there’s been quite an expanse of Astroturf already unrolled there as pretext for the staging of fascist coups. But hey, why should the women of Afghanistan have all the “fun”?

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Posted in Angry Pacifist Speaks Her Mind, Short 'n' Stubby, The War on Terra, Uppity Wimmin | Comments Off

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Sabina Becker

…but reading this makes me glad I’m not married:

Study author Christin Munsch, a sociology PhD candidate at Cornell University, wrote the paper to explore the factors related to infidelity for both sexes. In the paper’s abstract, she argues that for men, making less money than their female partner may be a threat to their gender identity “by calling into question the traditional notion of men as breadwinners.”
The study relied on the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth which includes questions about work status and experience, income, dating and marital history and sexual behaviour.
The research drew on data from 2002 to 2007 and examines respondents aged 18 to 28 who were married, cohabitating and in the same relationship for more than a year.
There were a total of 1,098 men in the sample, of which 6.73 per cent reported cheating at least once during the six-year period. Of the 1,559 women in the sample, 3.33 per cent reported being unfaithful at least once during the same period.
The study found men who completely relied on their female partner’s income were five times more likely to cheat than those who contributed an equal amount of money in the relationship. Men were also more likely to cheat if they made significantly more than their female partners.
Men were least likely to engage in infidelity when their partners made about 75 per cent of their incomes.
As for women, those who were economically dependent on men were less likely to cheat than those who made the same or more than their partners.
“The data seems to show there is a relationship between economic dependency and infidelity for both men and women,” said Munsch in an interview from Skaneateles, N.Y.
“For men, it appears like the relationship is prevalent or U-shaped, meaning at one end of the spectrum if you’re extremely dependent on your partner, you’re more likely to engage in infidelity. At the other end of the spectrum, if your partner is extremely dependent on you, you’re also more likely to engage in infidelity.”

So, ladies, it seems we’re damned if we do make more money than our men, and damned if we don’t. The odds seem best if you make a measly 75 cents to his dollar. Either way, it seems to give them the power to cheat on us, AND to trap us in a relationship where we’re forced to accept his shenanigans because we can’t afford to strike out on our own.

Sadly, this research was done by a woman. But at least she gives us a caveat:

Munsch cautions that this is what the relationship dynamic is like without controlling for things like highest grade completed, age, income and relationship satisfaction.
“You put some of these other controls in the model, the economic dependency — particularly on the side where men are dependent on their spouses — that relationship is no longer significant.”

It would be interesting to see this study repeated, this time with controls for the factors mentioned. I have a sneaking suspicion that younger couples, those with more education, and whose relationships have more give-and-take, will probably fare better than older, less educated and more traditional ones as far as relationship satisfaction and fidelity go.

But what really saddens me most is this part:

But why is there a gender divide when it comes to female and male breadwinners and their fidelity?
“I think one of the things is it’s not threatening for women to make less than her partner. That’s the status quo,” Munsch said.
Even if it was threatening to a woman, it’s very unlikely that she would compensate by engaging in sex with other people, she noted.
“I think gender identity operates in both sexes, but the way that gender is threatened is different for each, and the way that men and women compensate is different,” Munsch said. “It’s based on our sort of cultural idea of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman.”
Registered marriage and family therapist Marilyn Barnicke Belleghem said for men, a lot of their sense of personal power comes from their sexual prowess.
Belleghem said she’s had many clients where the woman either earns more money than the man in the relationship or inherits it. Since money is power, a woman having it can give the man a sense of powerlessness, she noted.
“She can buy things, she can make decisions about what happens, and for him, how does he get power and feel potent and manly but by doing something that’s manly,” Belleghem said from Burlington, Ont. “And what’s more manly than seducing a woman?”

Well, I can think of a thing or two, but those things aren’t built into our collective culture, and therein lies the rub. Our culture shames unfaithful women (even when they have every good reason to be) as sluts, and glorifies men who do the exact same things (and worse, and more) as studs. There is no sense bending over backwards, forwards or sideways to accommodate this, because women will lose out no matter what psychological contortions are currently trendy. Until our culture changes, women are going to be stuck not only earning less for equal (or greater) amounts of work, we’re also going to be stuck married to ungrateful wankers. Guys who don’t know how good they have it…until we work up the collective backbone to walk out and never look back.

Just leaving one individual man is hard enough, but how about an entire culture?

It’s not enough to not marry a wanker; women have got to band together and change our culture, instead of clawing each other’s eyes out over a conceited-but-worthless man.

In other words: Feminism isn’t dead yet, because the need for it most certainly is not. And at the rate things are going, who knows when it ever will be?

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Posted in Teh Heterostoopid, The "Well, DUH!" Files, Uppity Wimmin | 3 Comments

Surprise! G20 “security” law is nothing of the sort!

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Sabina Becker

How on Earth does an anti-German war-measures act from 1939, which effectively became null and void at war’s end, get dug out again for use against peaceful protesters–nearly 30 years after our Charter of Rights and Freedoms was formally enacted to prevent just such things? Well, apparently it’s just for show, because any charges laid under it go poof when it’s time to take it to court!

I guess Pierre Trudeau’s good old Charter trumps Harpo and his sneak-thievish drive for supremacy after all (and along with him, Dalton “The Enabler” McGuinty.)

Be sure to watch it all. You’ll get a chuckle out of the flustered police spokesman, who clearly wasn’t expecting any reporters to challenge the official version of the bullshit–much less forearmed with the facts, as Paul Jay clearly was.

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Cops Behaving Badly, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Good to Know, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Law-Law Land | 1 Comment

In which a persistent hasbara troll gets pwned…again.

Posted on August 15, 2010 by Sabina Becker

Hey! Remember how a few weeks ago, a wanker calling himself Jamie, and using a spoofed hotmail address, outed himself here? Well, he’s ba-ack…and seeing as he’s apparently also a masochist, I think I’ll play with him a bit before I feed him to the spam eater for good:

An unapproved comment has been posted on your blog News of the Restless, for entry #2928 (Surveillance society tug-of-war in Berlin: a small but significant victory). You need to approve this comment before it will appear on your site.
This is also the Germany where police stood idly by as pro-Palestine
protesters broke into a house to rip down an Israeli flag in the
window.
Palestine is an apartheid society towards Jews and women –
pro-Palestinians are supporters of apartheid. Long live Israel!
Commenter name: Jamie
Commenter email address: binathebith@hotmail.com
Commenter URL:
Commenter IP address: 85.211.199.190

Needless to say, I’m not approving any more comments from this chicken-shit troll; after this, you’ll never hear from “Jamie” again. Anyone who doesn’t have the guts to post a real e-mail address doesn’t deserve the dignity of being treated like a real commenter. But since he thought to “educate” me earlier about things I already know (and frankly don’t give two shits about), I think it’s time we educated HIM, yes?

So, with that in mind, I googled for the incident which he claimed took place. I wasn’t expecting it to be real. But apparently, if all the pro-Israel whore media sites are to be believed, mirabile dictu, it was. Only, as you can probably guess, “Jamie” got the details grievously wrong. Here’s the JTA on the incident (emphasis added):

Berlin police remove Israeli flags
January 12, 2009
BERLIN (JTA) — Police removed two Israeli flags from the window of an apartment building along the route of an anti-Israel protest in a German town.
The incident in the city of Duisburg occurred toward the end of the Jan. 10 rally.
Demonstrators, mostly of Turkish background, were on their way home when they apparently spotted the two flags hanging in the fourth-floor window. Until then the two-hour demonstration had proceeded “without incident,” the brief police report read.
Demonstrators stopped and “threw snowballs and other objects until the police removed the flags.”
The young couple living in the apartment reported the incident in a blog entry. According to Sebastian M., he and his girlfriend hung two Israeli flags out their window, which was along the route where some 10,000 anti-Israel demonstrators were to pass.
“During the demonstration which went through our street, the police broke into our flat and removed the flag of Israel,” Sebastian M. wrote, adding that the police said they were concerned that demonstrators would break into the building.
“We both were standing on the other side of the street and were shocked by seeing a police officer standing in our bedroom and opening the window to get the flag,” he added.

So…no protesters broke into the house. The police–the same Berlin police whose chief wants to film peaceful protests (including, no doubt, Palestine supporters)!–came and took this little attempt at provocation (and pathetic try at victimhood) down. In so doing, they saved the little idiot provocateurs’ necks. The incident was nipped in the bud, and no one got hurt.

And Jamie the ingrate doesn’t even thank the Berlin police for doing their job correctly and keeping the peace between two angry factions. Instead he defames them, with the classic (and patently false) “Good German” smear, no less, saying they “stood idly by”. Nice, eh? Tells you something very unflattering about his character, and why he feels he has to hide behind a fake e-mail address. Jamie is a crapagandist, and not even a very good one, since even the smelly hasbara-media contradicts him.

Now, about that Palestinian smear. Isn’t it funny that Jamie feels the need to claim that Palestinians do…what Israelis themselves do, namely discriminate against Jews and women?

While the Knesset focuses on legislation pertaining to Muslim veils, it ignores processes the continuously reinforce the exclusion and humiliation of Jewish women.

We already saw women being pushed to the backs of buses (an ongoing affair despite the High Court’s ruling on the case,) women confined to one side of the streets in Jerusalem’s haredi neighborhoods, and the humiliation of Mizrahi girls in Emmanuel. Earlier this week, we were told about the violent removal of girls from a go-karting facility at the same community.
At the end of this process we can expect to have a state managed by haredi men who discriminate against and humiliate women.

We’ve become accustomed to taking for granted political parties who disqualify women from taking office. These parties are nonetheless allowed to run in the elections, join governments, and lead the country despite their discriminatory conduct. Indeed, the State of Israel permits open, explicit, and legal disqualification of and discrimination against women; many women in this country are deprived of the basic civilian, democratic right to be elected.

Note that this is from an Israeli news site also.

BTW, Jamie is also full of shit when it comes to Palestinians in Gaza and their attitudes toward Jews and women:

Edith Lutz, a German Jewish member of the organization, said to Ynet the vessel is already anchored in Mediterranean waters, and that the organization had received many requests from Jews and non-Jews to take part in the flotilla.
“We began in Germany,” she said, “but many have called us from England, Sweden and the US. There may also be another boat accompanying us, mainly carrying reporters.”
Lutz explained that the Jewish flotilla aims to convey a message: Lift the siege.
“Our vessel can open a window between Israel and Gaza residents,” she said. “Two years ago I took part in the Free Gaza flotilla and wore a Magen David (Star of David), and the kids said, ‘Look, she’s Jewish,’ and they all accepted me very well. When we met (Hamas leader) Ismail Haniyeh and they told him about me, he turned to me and said they have nothing against Jews or Israel, only against the occupation.”

Emphasis added.

German Jewish women are welcome in “apartheid” Gaza when they come in the name of peace! Who’d of thunk? Bueller?

There’s only one bitch here, Jamie, and it’s you.

PS: Jamie, I’m serious–post shit like this, and it’s no wonder no one will “debate” you:

Oh “kiddie rockets”? Did a “kiddie rocket” cause this, Sabina – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/Beersheva_kindergarten_ after_rocket_attack_from_Gaza.jpg/170px-Beersheva_kindergarten_after_rocket_atta ck_from_Gaza.jpg It’s some “kiddie rocket” that can do this much damage – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Grad_Beersheba.jpg/220p x-Grad_Beersheba.jpg Try explaining to this guy of the little “ki
ddie rockets” that cause this – http://www.allworldwars.com/image/057/Gaza021.jpg It’s very annoying when jumped up little trolls like you get blogs and read a few articles on Electronic Intifada, then think you know everything about the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Well get this you piece of pig-shit – YOU DON’T. You don’t know jack-shit you stupid whore, so stop pretending you do, give up your stupid commie blog and sink into a life of loneliness and misery like you deserve. It’s funny that you always claim any criticism of Israel is struck-down as anti-Semitism (which is, of course, a malicious lie, no doubt invented so you lot could cover up real anti-Semtism), but any debate to the bullshit you blog about is called “trolling” and anyone who dares question of the screed of ‘Bina is a “masochist”. Go fuck yourself you hypocritical piece of shit. (Oh, PS, that court rulling on the buses has been enforced and the whole situation came about not through state-sanctioned sexism, but from the intolerance of the Orthodox community. As for the women Knesset members – there are many. The State of Israel has no statutes banning women or Arabs from becoming members of the Knesset – it’s just that some parties don’t run them as candidates and those parties get voted in. Such is democracy. It would be wrong to ban these parties – fascist, even. You’ve got to stop equating the State of Israel with private establishments.) If you hate that some people say every criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, then why do you actively call every supportive statement of Israel “hasbara”? – That just highlights your inadequacies as a debater.

See why I don’t want this turd coming back, and why anything else he writes will not be acknowledged, just flushed? This was his third strike; baseball rules. I have standards, and this is definitely lowering the tone of the discourse. (In fact, his mere presence does that.)

Now, let’s get a few things straight: This is MY blog (which I’m definitely NOT giving up), and I don’t bow and scrape to fascist idiots of ANY stripe here. I also don’t take abuse in the form of ANY “jumped-up troll” (nice bit of projection there, Jamie, that’s YOU) trying to “educate” me from the viewpoint of one who only reads rightard crap. As if he had anything of worth to impart. He probably knew he had nothing of value to say. Why else would he come on here all nasty, snotty and aggressive, calling me a bitch from the get-go when spouting his simplistic shit, using his spoofed (and poorly spelled) e-mail address as a vehicle for the limp-dicked insult?

And then he goes on doing it. Not once more, but twice. He comes into my house three times, each time leaving a steaming brown pile on the floor, and still expects me to treat him with tolerance, while not according ME the same dignity. Cognitive dissonance, thy name is Jamie.

And then he thinks he can lecture ME on debating? Bwahahahaha. Check out his masterful screed above–doesn’t he have have a brilliant future ahead of him in the British House of Lords? (Whenever his testicles decide to drop, that is?) “Hypocritical piece of shit”–project much, again? Pretending to care about women, and then turning around and calling them ugly names when they don’t simper and go “Oh, I’m sorry, you were right, don’t mind me, I’ll slink back into obscurity now like a good little woman”? Yep, winning gambit there, dude. (Snort.)

No wonder you’re anonymous, Jamie–if I were as inept at this debating thing as you, and got my ass kicked good and hard for it by some leftist chick I thought I could batter into submission, I wouldn’t want the world to know who I was, either.

And you even got pwned with material from your own side! How painful is that? Pretty damn painful, judging from the venom of the response. I thought using the pro-Israeli press to refute your nonsense would make an impression, but apparently it made no more impact on your little leaden skull than a Hamas rocket.

Free advice, Jamie, not that you’re likely to take it, seeing as your reading comprehension is terribly poor: If you want to be respected, be respectful. LEARN TO READ, DAMMIT. (And make it something other than your silly wingnut blogs, fergawdsakes, they’re nothing but a godforsaken echo chamber full of feces-flinging howler monkeys and rabid bats.) Stop your infantile whining. Dump your damn hypocrisy. Quit hating women. In fact, just quit hating, period. Use a real e-mail address, learn to apologize when you’ve been rude and wrong, and keep a civil tongue in your head–how hard is that? I don’t think it’s too much to ask.

And I don’t have to tolerate anyone who “thinks” otherwise. Baseball rules…

Adios, “bith”. And don’t bother replying on anything else here, either.

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Confessions of a Bad German, Crapagandarati, Fascism Without Swastikas, Gazing on Gaza, Isn't It Ironic?, The Hardcore Stupid | 3 Comments

Music for a Sunday: Leave a message with the rain

Posted on August 15, 2010 by Sabina Becker

Here’s the first Jefferson Starship song I ever heard, back in the summer of ’81:

I had forgotten just how gorgeous the instrumentals of this one were. It’s been too long since I last heard it!

And here’s the second, in an excellent live recording:

Love how everyone is all happy and exuberant at the end, singing together. They used to be Jefferson Airplane in the ’60s, and clearly they carried that collaborative, collective hippie vibe forward into the hard-rocking ’80s, even if the sound changed quite radically.

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Posted in Music for a Sunday | Comments Off

Short ‘n’ Stubby: Ms. Manx’s must-reads, a two-fer

Posted on August 15, 2010 by Sabina Becker

Before I decided to knock off for the nochy, Ms. Manx meowed at me. That’s a gentle reminder that there’s a couple of things she wants you to read, so here they are:

Mi amigo Orwell’s Barstid has a thoughtful treatise up on his site about how conservatism–formerly honorable–has lost its mind in the age of crapitalism and corruption. Ms. Manx concurs heartily that it is a shame that right-wing radicals of all stripes have thrown out a lot of babies with the bathwater, and wants you all to know that back in the day, she really liked Ontario Premier Bill Davis–a truly Red Tory who made public education his main priority. Sadly, as far as the HarpoCons are concerned, the Red Tories are Dead Tories.

And then there’s this other guy, Alex Himelfarb, whom I don’t know from Adam’s housecat, but DAMN, he ties together some seemingly unrelated issues in a dynamite post on bargain-basement citizenship. Ms. Manx wants out of the bargain basement; she’s seen what’s on offer down there, and she says it smells musty and is very ill-fitting and beneath the dignity of man and beast alike.

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Short 'n' Stubby | Comments Off

Wankers of the Week: Tea-totaled and no sympathy edition

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Sabina Becker

Oh, what a theme I picked for this week. Just as I’m about to put this entry to bed, wouldn’t you know, I come down with yet another summer gut bug. I get two or three of them every year. This one just has me wiped out, running to the bathroom faster than you can say Trotsky. I need tea; sympathy would also be nice (I don’t expect it.) But you know what’s worse than having the shits? Being one…like these shits, for whom I have neither tea nor sympathy:

1. David Fucking Brown. The Dallas police chief thinks facts are, you know, too intuitive. Dallas has reported a 25% rise in rapes. So instead of being pro-active against men who rape, what does he do? Tells women to quit drinking. Y’know, chief, the problem might be better alleviated by banning sleazy guys from bars, but maybe that’s just my two X chromosomes talking.

2. Ann Fucking Coulter. The right’s Judy Garland? Sorry, not even close. The Coultergeist can’t sing, can’t dance, can’t act, isn’t pretty, and doesn’t look that way. Not only that, but with “friends” like her, the gays don’t need any enemies. Remember, she’s the one who routinely and unironically derides men she dislikes as “faggots”.

3. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. How pathetic is the Pigman? So pathetic that William. Fucking. Shatner. can. own. his. fat. sorry. ass. in. a. debate. on. healthcare!

4. Sarah Fucking Palin. She’s all wee-wee’d up over being seen as a celebrity, not a political figure.The question is, what’s she famous for? Scandals, quitting, more scandals, more quitting, and still more scandals (including two gooey, lie-laden books she didn’t even write). Yep, by current US “reality” standards, she’s a celebrity, all right. Any serious political figure would be toast with a record like that. But the Ditziest Dame in Alaska is still winkin’, grinnin’, rollin’ her eyes, and droppin’ her Gs in true fake down-home celebrity fashion.

5. Ashton Fucking Kutcher. Max Blumenthal calls him a “himbo for apartheid”; I say he called it just about right.

6. Anne Fucking Milton. Yes, Britain still has milk-snatching Tory women. Let’s hope this one never makes it as far as Maggie Fucking Thatcher.

7. Rand Fucking Paul. Even at college, he was more than a little bit loopy. A prankish kidnapper who messed with women’s heads? Say it ain’t so. (And maybe it ain’t. Or maybe it is. Who knows, if the victim won’t come forward?) And yeah, membership in a liberal secret society is really a great way to burnish those conservative credentials, eh? This guy is so bent, it’s impossible to know what’s real about him and what isn’t. I think it’s safe to say he’s not a serious candidate for anything except obscurity. (Or is it? See what I fucking mean???)

8. Norm Fucking Coleman. “Who put that charge on my card?” Gee, I wonder. You forgot something, dickweed–DUBYA’S DEFICIT. (And we wonder why you lost to a wrestler, a comedian–and barely beat a dead man? We can stop wondering now.)

9. Paul Fucking Blankfield. Assaulting a father because his son is autistic and makes noises because public places (also noisy) upset him? Hello, toilet bowl, something is circling the drain. Please flush, and don’t forget to wash your hands.

10. Melodi Fucking Dushane. Are Chicken McNuggets a breakfast food? No. Are they worth throwing a hissyfit over? Depends who you ask. But if you ask me, the answer is also a big fat resounding NO.

11. and 12. Pamela Fucking Geller and John Joseph Fucking Jay. If they could only fuck each other, instead of messing with people’s heads. It sounds like both of them could use a good lay, which, paradoxically, they are unlikely to find in each other. Maybe this crazy-dumb dickweed could help them there, lending his head for use as a dildo and/or buttplug. PS: Scrap the sexology, this pathology goes much deeper. Get this woman to a shrink, stat.

13. Newt Fucking Gingrich. Most hypocritical asshole of the last century, and possibly this one as well, if what his second wife, Marianne, has to say is true:

She called a minister they both trusted. He came over to the house the next day and worked with them the whole weekend, but Gingrich just kept saying she was a Jaguar and all he wanted was a Chevrolet. “‘I can’t handle a Jaguar right now.’ He said that many times. ‘All I want is a Chevrolet.'”
He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.
He’d just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he’d given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.
The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, “How do you give that speech and do what you’re doing?”
“It doesn’t matter what I do,” he answered. “People need to hear what I have to say. There’s no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn’t matter what I live.”

Yep, that sounds like Newty, all right. And now he wants his country to tolerate his bullshit? I’d say they moved on more than a decade ago and want nothing more to do with him now. Marianne’s assessment of his chances there also rings true. (And if I were his current wife, I’d shop for a new husband, and not ask for a divorce until my wedding plans were firm.)< P />

14. Tony Fucking Clement. Some of us eat, sleep and breathe; some of us lie, lie and lie. Guess which category he falls into. BTW, he’s also really pig-fucking ignorant.

15. Gary Fucking Korkuc. Who the hell tries to marinate a live cat (his own pet, at that), THEN kill and eat it? A fucking psychopath, that’s who. Good thing the cat now has a new family.

16. Trade Fucking Martin. The only thing you’ve got to stop, dude, is sucking ass. And writing music. But I repeat myself. Gawd, you stink.

17. Chris Fucking Ortloff. Yay, another Republican pervert! Just what the world needs! Because really, who’s more entitled to sex with underage girls (11 and 12, in case you wanted to know)?

18. Hal Fucking Turner. A one-man case for handgun (and other gun) bans. Saying judges who uphold the law “should be killed” is reason enough to take away the means for killing ANYONE. Especially from a blatant racist loser like this piece of shit. In fact, this guy should lose all access to the Internet, too…his “free speech” is NOT protected, seeing as it consists mainly of hate and death threats. That’s another means to murder that should not be allowed.

19. Norberto Fucking Rivera. Congratulations, Mexico, you have sanity on your supreme court, and thanks to that, same-sex marriage is now legal throughout all 31 of your beautiful states. I’m sure that there will be many happy couples formalizing their relationships there in the weeks and months to come, and I wish all of them the very best. But–lo siento mucho, Mexico City, your cardinal archbishop sure is a regressive dick. I suspect he’s pissy not because it’s really “aberrant” to be gay (less common, yes, but one person in every ten is hardly an aberration against nature!), but because it means that fewer gay men will be coming to seek refuge in that great drafty closet that is the Roman Catholic priesthood. And if the church doesn’t want to recognize their unions, fine–I’m sure the civil authorities will gladly pick up the slack, as they do here in Canada. Where the sky hasn’t fallen, and rates of pedophilia haven’t risen, since our own supreme court made equal marriage legal in all ten provinces and three territories, five years ago.

20. Terry Fucking Nichols. Spoiled widdle princess wants what? A hot-pink sparkle-pony with a purple tinsel mane and tail? Sorry, pwincess, no can do. You’re gonna have to make do with the same prison chow as all the rest of your fellow inmates–most of whom are not in there for “Christian” terrorism like you.

21. Ben Fucking Quayle. The son of the second-worst VP in US history thinks His Barackness is the Worst President Ever? Damn, he’s even dumber than his old man, and that’s really saying something. Remember that ol’ Murphy Brown kerfuffle? This is about on a par with that for idiocy, only Murphy was fictional and this shit is real. Dan can’t spell potato, and Ben can’t recall who left the mess for Obama to clean up. And some people actually think this dink’s throw-away opinion is worth printing. That’s what being the stupid scion of unearned privilege does for you, kiddies.

22. Chuck Fucking Colson. Excuse me, but shouldn’t you still be in prison, incommunicado? Why does anyone place any worth at all on what a Watergate felon has to say, still, after all this time–much less about a community centre that is not even within sight of Ground Zero? Oh. I get it…you’re desperate to maintain some loose semblance of relevance after all this time in obscurity, no decent workplace will hire you, and besides, there’s a whole bandwagon-o-stoopid passing by your window, and you’ve just got to jump on. Makes sense!

23. Lawrence Fucking Cannon. No, of course sanctions against all of Iran won’t hurt its people, nor will they strengthen its nasty-wasty government. Perish the thought! Cheap political points are worth scoring at any cost, right?

24. Marg Fucking Baker. The age of concentration camps is once again upon us, thanks to this particularly stinky old teabag from Florida. If these people are trying to convince us they’re not Nazis, they’re doing a damn poor job of it. (And if prostitution is a problem, Marg, try not letting Glenn Beck pimp you out.)

25. Aryn Fucking Baker. Who stands to profit off the TIME reporter’s sensationalistic (and blatantly false) interpretation of female abuse in Afghanistan? Her own damn husband, that’s who. Meanwhile, be it known that “What Happens When We Leave Afghanistan” happened while “we” were IN Afghanistan, it happened the whole time unabated, and it’s not going to matter a pin whether “we” leave or when. It is happening, and this bears repeating, BECAUSE “we” were in Afghanistan, starting with the CIA financing and training of those cuddly Talibs-in-waiting, the “Arab-Afghan” mujahideen. Remember them? I do, but TIME’s editors and reporters apparently don’t. And they don’t want YOU to, either. Because if you did, you’d want that war to end, and with it would go the profits that certain people stand to make a heap of.

26. Laura Fucking Schlessinger. Now we know–she is a bigot through and through. A RACIST bigot. When she tells a black caller that some clearly racist comments aren’t, that’s just really fucking asinine. And then she gets bullying in defence of what is clear and obvious racism on her own part. The use of the n-word isn’t the real problem here, it’s what follows: “Don’t NAACP me”–what a hectoring bitch. Oh, and “D
on’t marry out of your race” isn’t RACIST? “Nice try…actually, SUCKY try”–yeah, that was a sucky try on your part, for sure, “Doctor” who-is-not-one. “Hypersensitivity…is being bred by black activists”, uh-huh. Actually, it’s being confirmed, however inadvertently, by conservatives on the radio, preaching hardcore stupidity to a primarily white, out-of-touch audience. I’m surprised a black woman was unwary enough to bother seeking advice from this one (who is NOT qualified to give it, the most important qualification being CARING, which she lacks); most of the ones I’ve known are a helluva lot smarter. PS: Your “philosophical” non-apology “apology” doesn’t wash, either.

27. Rob Fucking Ford. Srsly, this man should NOT be the next mayor of Toronto. He is not mentally stable. I can just see him going postal.

28. Sharron Fucking Angle. Crazybitch must really not want to get her crazybitch ass elected, because only an unelectable crazy-ass bitch would approvingly cite a miserable totalitarian failure like Augusto Pinochet as making the case for privatizing Social Security. (Item: Social Security–UNPRIVATIZED–has saved at least 20 million US citizens from poverty. Why does Sharron Fucking Angle hate US citizens?)

29. Robert Fucking Gibbs. If there really is such a thing as a “professional left”, I wanna know where to go sign up and collect my paycheque. I’m tired of doing it for free. PS: I love you, Alan Grayson.

30. Pat Fucking Buchanan. Evolution just called, Pat…sez your time on this planet is up. Man was just not meant to walk with the dinosaurs, and that’s all there is to it.

31. Erick Fucking Erickson. I still can’t believe the Chicken Noodle Network lets this idiotic hack wet his bed on their dime. Where was his fear of satanism before the “Islamofascists” came to New York to build a community centre, I wonder? Oh, and Erick: I am a Witch, and I am fully prepared to hex thee. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. Boogaboogabooga!

And that’s it for this week. I’m off to make myself a cup of stomach-soothing tea and guzzle some Angostura for my beleaguered intestines. If any of you traditional trolls feel like outing yourself here this week, as you’ve done for the last three, you know the drill. Let me just say to you, in advance of your shenanigans:

Good night, and get fucked!

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Posted in Wankers of the Week | 9 Comments

Surveillance society tug-of-war in Berlin: a small but significant victory

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Sabina Becker

If you need any evidence of how far Germany has come since the end of World War II, and how far by comparison Canada has sunk, look no further than this interesting little report in the Berliner Tagesspiegel (“Daily Mirror”):

Berlin police president Dieter Glietsch wants police agents to go on videotaping the participants of peaceful demonstrations, despite a court verdict.
He will appeal the court decision, he said on the RBB evening newscast on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, a panel of judges declared the filming of peaceful protesters to be a violation of the protesters’ rights. The police may only make videos in the event that a protest turns violent or results in vandalism. The judges based their decision on the contention that such measures would constitute an attack on freedom of assembly, as well as the right to informational self-determination.
Should his appeal fail, Glietsch plans to urge the Berlin House of Representatives to pass a by-law to allow the police to film peaceful demonstrations.

Translation mine.

This fight isn’t over yet. But the fact that the court has ruled in favor of protesters over police indicates something important: The Germans have pulled ahead of Canada in allowing peaceful assembly over the clamor of the police/surveillance sector.

Granted that police are all alike, here and there–this one insists he’ll get the law remade in his own favor. But still, the court has ruled in favor of freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.

Viewed in light of what happened at the G20 summit in Toronto two months ago, this should tell you something, nicht wahr?

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