Anti-Racism Rally - Calgary

Canadian cities are generally not like European or even American cities in the sense that we do not have a long memory of conflicting ideologies waging bloody battles in our streets. During the Vietnam war and the Civil rights movement there was almost constant violence in American cities as protesters clashed with police, or political rallies got out of hand.

I went downtown today add my humble presence to an anti-racism rally not really knowing what to expect, but thinking that Calgary has generally been a really peaceful city. I knew ahead of time that there would likely be a clash between the anti-racism rally and the Calgary chapter of the Aryan Guard.

The anti-racism rally started at Calgary Hall with a strong police presence and a vibrant atmosphere. I would say the crowd numbered around 300 and was demographically quite young. In the meantime the Aryan Guard coalesced their members in the North East and came downtown shortly after 3pm. They began marching from 10st West toward City Hall but got pinned down at the C-Train station at 7th Avenue and 5th Street. At this point they had no where to go with anti-racism protesters and police on all sides.

Eventually the police broke a line for them and they headed north to 6th Avenue. This is when it turned ugly. There was throwing of objects and veteran Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell got injured with the end of a flag pole. A few arrests and other minor injuries.

A bus was brought in and the Aryans were shipped out of downtown.

At the end of it I'm left scratching my head as to where we are heading in our urban culture. And it comes at the end of a week when our buffoon of an Immigration minister thought out loud about how immigrants need to integrate. I cant help it - I think that mentality is a direct play into the hands of racists. Please recommend this post

Ed "AIG" Stelmach

An excerpt from David Swann's latest blog post:

Our member from Edmonton Goldbar – Hugh MacDonald – looked into pay bonuses this week and was shocked to learn that last year about $40 million was given out in bonuses! These bonuses were given primarily to senior government employees like Deputy Ministers and Directors of Boards and Commissions. These are people who are required to work on behalf of all Albertans, not just their Minister. How free can a senior official be if he is getting thousands of dollars in bonuses based on pleasing the Minister? Tens of thousands of dollars on top of salaries of $300,000 to $400,000 per year- and all this at a time when our economy was tanking!

While the AIG executive compensation scandal was dominating the news cycle the story of Senior Alberta Tories getting $40 million dollars in bonuses was floating beneath the radar.

Its probably worth noting that these civil servants are vetted very carefully for their loyalty to the leader and to the party. In other words, the $40 million in bonuses is really another form of partisan patronage. Not unlike the lotteries system apparently.

Bad timing when you just announced you can't seem to find a couple of million dollars to make the office of the Auditor General a bit more effective.

Its ok Ed, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I'll continue to pay my provincial taxes so you have enough money to play a third world big daddy. Please recommend this post

New Mini Dinosaur Species Found Etc.

It had razor sharp claws and its teeth may have been the terror of Alberta 75 million years ago — among animals smaller than a squirrel, that is.

The kitten-sized predator identified by paleontologists at the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta is the smallest carnivorous dinosaur ever found in North America. The next smallest meat-eating dinosaur ever found on the continent was about the size of a wolf.

Evolution seems to have produced mini versions of almost everything. It could be some kind of beta testing. Little men. Little dogs. Little Hobbits. Dinosaurs that nibble your ankles. You only get to go big if you can prove your design is effective.

Researchers have named the creature Hesperonychus Elizabethae.

In other evolutionary news, a large python ate a Maltese Terrier and flaunted it to the dog owner as a large coconut shaped bulge in its midsection. Snakes have midsections. While the bereaved women stared in disbelief a dingo made its way around the other side of the house looking for the baby. It surprised me that a Terrier could be taken down like this. This doesn't speak well for their ongoing evolution. I blame domestication. The Terrier probably thought the snake wanted to play.

Please recommend this post

The Palin for President Flash App

This interactive flash app that satires what it would be like if Sarah Palin was President has been making its way around the blogosphere. Its a perfectly good waste of time. Not many things crack me up these days but this is truly funny and creative.

Don't forget to click on the bridge to nowhere. Please recommend this post

Ask Me No Quesions

Wendy McNeil is my latest favourite artist. I love this video and the lyrics to the song which are dark and make me think of a few people in the news lately. She reminds me a bit of Leonard Cohen, although comparing one artist to another isn't always fair.

And she has wickedly toned biceps, probably from playing that accordion.

Please recommend this post

Sure I Read War and Peace...*Cough*

The BBC has conducted a survey of the books most people lie about having read. The top two are George Orwell's 1984 and Tolstoy's War and Peace.

It never occurred to me that people would lie about having read a book. It seems risky if the person you're talking to says what did you think about what Bolkonsky did on page 738? Then you're screwed.

I can sort of understand why people lie about War and Peace. Its one of those quantity over quality things. You read that huge book, wow your smart...lets have sex...

I tried to read War and Peace several times but I found it quite tedious and not a very engaging story. Sorry if you're Tolstoy fan. I generally dislike long novels, the exception being Lord of the Rings which I couldn't put down.

Orwell's 1984 puzzles me a bit more. You can read it in one sitting and its totally captivating. In Alberta most people had to read it in high school as I did. I re-read it a couple of years ago and found it far more interesting. Bush and Harper made it seem more prescient.

Other books on the list include James Joyce's Ulysses and Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. I tried to read Ulysses but got lost in the plot. Call me a plump stately Buck Mulligan. All that shaving... My excuse for not reading Madame Bovary was my promise to myself that someday I would read it in the original French. Also I read Woody Allen's short story the Kugelmass Episode which kind of ruined it for me.

Try not to lie about the books you've not read. That kind of thing makes me crazy. Please recommend this post

Polytechnique the Film

I was listening to Jian Ghomeshi interview Denis Villenueve about Polytechnique. The main thing I took away from the interview was that the movie will focus on the women and their families rather than the killer. This will probably be disappointing to MacLeans Magazine and Mark Steyn who would have preferred an emphasis on the Murderous Muslim Hordes® swarming on our demographic horizon. Or, how uppity women-folk are these days. Sorry, went off there a bit.

Its not an easy story to tell and the film wont make a lot of money since it won't be shown by many movie chains. There's something about the story of this tragedy that brings out the absolute worst in media commentary. For that reason alone it deserves to be shown widely.

Keep telling this story. Throw it in the face of the mainstream misogynists. Please recommend this post

Populist Twittering and Courtesy

You may have read the story. On tuesday the speaker of the Alberta Legislature verbally reprimanded six MLA's for use of Blackberry's during question period. The presumption of twittering was presumed.

By tuesday night and wednesday it turned into one of those stories that fired up the blogosphere for an interesting debate about new technologies and politicians.

I wasn't really surprised that a few people came out against the speaker and in favor of the MLA's being allowed to use their devices while in the session. At first I agreed then I disagreed. I think anyone who uses a pda or a notebook in a meeting is showing a basic lack of respect for their colleagues. Few companies would tolerate this in a boardroom meeting.

Some bloggers made the argument that the MLA's were consulting with their constituents therefore it was a valid used of technology. The idea that Tory MLA's are such enthusiastic populists that they would be so desperate to Twitter with them during a legislative session is improbable beyond reason. This is not a populist party. They may be talking to their hair dressers, their stock brokers, or perhaps tipping off insider land speculators on upcoming expropriations. Just don't tell me they're talking to constituents or advancing public interest.

They're being rude. Please recommend this post

Quick Brief Thought On Patriotism

There are times, admittedly rare, when burning a flag, refusing to sing the National Anthem, or vomiting on some famous public monument is this highest form of patriotism. Pick your spot carefully. Make it count. Please recommend this post

Alberta Minimum Wage Raised

Alberta will be raising its minimum wage, from $8.40 to $8.80 per hour effective April 1, 2009. This puts Alberta slightly above the mid-range mark but not by much, and Alberta will fall lower after at least four other provinces implement their planned increases.

This rate is a lot better than the wage during the Klein years. Back then the argument was that you could not raise the min without killing jobs and the economy. This argument was repeated ad nausea everywhere and was generally accepted.

The media in Calgary at least, tends to dwell on the cost of the increase to business without giving much attention to the social factors such as the high cost of living. I honestly don't know how someone would live in Calgary on $8.40 or $8.80 per hour.

I wanted to provide an example of what this increase might mean to a typical small business.

An employer with 10 full time employees at $8.40 per hour, all at minimum wage, will pay 375 hours per week. (37.5 hours per employee.) They will pay a gross payroll of $3,150. If you factor 1.5 for employees contributions to EI and CPP the payroll becomes $4,725.

The same payroll at $8.80 costs $4,950, a difference of $225. So for this company the additional payroll will cost them $1,000 more per month.

To the employee this will mean a wage increase of $60 per month, or about $45 after withholding taxes. It might not mean much to many of us, but if you're in this wage bracket it might mean being able to keep your apartment or not.

Every business is different. Some won't be able to cover the difference and will cut back hours or layoff. Others will cut in other areas. Keep in mind that wages are a business expense that reduces the amount of corporate taxes that are paid. So its hard to say what the final cost really is.

Ain't life wonderful in the big city. Please recommend this post

Curious About Harper's History Lesson

I'm curious to know when and how Stephen Harper arrived at this curious epiphany about not being able to win the war in Afghanistan.

Was it last Thursday at 3:14 AM? Was it in 1984?

I think it is an important question. When did he know this? Which books did he read? If he knew this before the Conservative Party came to power and escalated the Afghanistan mission then he traded ethics for politic posturing and death.

If he knew before the insufferable General Hillier went all jingoistic then he was negligent in not forwarding those history books to the General to read before he spoke.

I remember listening to General Hillier and thinking what it must have been like to have been a Soldier in 1914 listening to some General blather on about what a great adventure it will be and how you'll all be home by Christmas. It didn't turn out that way then our now.

Hopefully Harper's next historical epiphany will be about R.B.Bennett and the Great Depression. Can't wait. Please recommend this post

More Liberal Bashing of "Albertans"

The Calgary Herald reported today that the Alberta Government was giving about 1.5 Billion dollars in concessions to Oil & Gas Companies to stimulate drilling in these dark times.

In response to this story a liberal blogger wrote the following:

How stupid can Albertan’s[sic] get?

The government in perpetuity has now decided since they couldn’t afford the slogan change on vehicle license plates they would instead keep the oil drilling industry “STRONG” by making the oil and gas, FREE.

This is how common sense works in hillbilly, all conservative, Alberta.

I can't really defend Stelmach's plan's to roll out cash to the Oil Patch. But I do know that the decision wasn't made by Stupid Albertans. It was made like all decisions here are made, by the Premier behind closed doors. I don't know what's meant by hillbilly, obviously an insult to all of us Albertans, regardless of how hard we work to get Stelmach and Harper out of office. We're not all Conservatives here. A lot of us don't support the Tories and their dumb ideas.

When liberal bloggers write smears like this they sound just like Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter.

I tried to leave a comment on the blog but it was never published. Please recommend this post

Religious Literature In Public Libraries

I laughed a bit when I read this this Daily Mail article twisting a simple story about a Muslim society in the UK requesting that the Koran be placed on a higher shelf. Apparently Muslim scholars believe the Koran should always be on the higher shelf to show respect.

The Library responded by putting all religious texts on the uppers shelves. This caused a predictable counter-reaction from some Christian groups who now claim to be persecuted victims. Bet you didn't see that one coming.

I think the Library made an acceptable compromise, although it wouldn't bother me either if the Library just ignored the request. The Dewey decimal system works fine and there is a strong argument to be made for pragmatism.

If you made me the Librarian I just might slap warning labels on those books that they are not suitable for children. Some of the stories in ancient religious literature are violent and sexist. And its fairly obvious that religious texts nurture severe bigotry in some people

The story does show how a simple request from one group gets turned into a whole Christian vs Muslim war of Civilizations controversy. Mark Steyn would be proud. The rest of us find it tiresome.

I'm in favor of Libraries stocking primary religious texts and I'm in favor of people reading the Bible and the Koran at least once to complete their general education. My own Library has a fairly diverse collection of primary religious texts. I also know there is a subtle pressure to stock some fairly ugly religious literature.

I wouldn't want to be a librarian these days having to use public money to purchase materials, and probably getting angry letters and phone calls from unbalanced people who aren't seeing their kind of books. Or mad because they see something they don't like. Please recommend this post

Harper Less Classy Than Nixon

Is it just me, or do you agree that Stephen Harper is completely afraid of Canadians engaging in any kind of Barack Obama adulation. I'm not really into hero worship but it was hard not to notice that in the lead up to the Presidential Election Barack Obama was eliciting a certain kind of enthusiastic response that has been noticeably lacking in our politics for some time.

I can't remember an American President who was so widely popularized in foreign countries, except perhaps John F. Kennedy. Reagan did get cheered at that SS cemetery in Germany but I think those were mostly neo-Nazis. (Obligatory Reagan joke.)

Our photo archives are full of Trudeau and Nixon meeting and talking in front of the media. The two loathed one another but they did meet out in the open. My point is I think what Harper is doing is unprecedented and without class.

Can you think of any other democracy where the Head of State is not allowed to greet a foreign leader in the open presence of a free media?

Does Stephen Harper fear Obamamania will infect Canada? Please recommend this post

Ignatieff's US Connections and More Fake Patriotism

Joan Bryden via the Canadian Press gave us a Valentines Day present, another article about Michael Ignatieff. Ignatieff went to Harvard and met some people. Some of those people are now in the Obama administration and the relationships might prove useful in the future. What strikes me about the name dropping is the fact that Obama's team appears to have some brain power, unlike the previous team.

Of course you can't talk about Ignatieff without quoting some flack who reminds us that he worked outside Canada:

As for Ignatieff's connections to Obama's inner circle, Teneycke scoffed: "It is not surprising, given that he spent most of his professional life in the United States, that he would know more Americans than Stephen Harper, who's spent his professional life - in fact, his entire life - living in Canada."

Teneycke went on to ask the author if she liked his clown shoes.

It doesn't bother me much that Ignatieff taught at Harvard and worked in the UK. I think it is far more important where your mentality lives. Mr. Harper has spent his whole career living in an intellectual slum.

Peter Lougheed went to Harvard to get an MBA. After that he worked in the United States for some time for Gulf Oil. Yet most Albertan's considered this as part of what made Lougheed an historical leader for Alberta. Strange how that works.

Expect to hear a lot about Ignatieff's career path in the next election. Conservatives don't campaign on real issues. When you can use fake patriotism to divide people mission accomplished.

I also look forward to the day when political spokesmen can answer a question, any question with out obnoxious self-loathing snark. Please recommend this post

Bush Coming to Calgary

Media outlets are reporting that former US President George W. Bush will visit Calgary on March 17, 2009 to speak at a private function. All I really know about it is that it is co-sponsored by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and seems to have an aura of secrecy.

The secrecy part is in keeping with Bush's history of living in a bubble and only talking to friendly hand-picked, carefully screened audiences. If I remember correctly his campaign events were by invitation only and people had to sign loyalty oaths to get in.

I wouldn't pay to hear Bush speak. He is one of the dullest and least comprehensible speakers in an entire generation. What a waste of an evening.

Calgary has hosted many conservative icons in the past including Margaret Thatcher, George H.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, among others. Not to mention a whole bunch of other B-Circuit speakers. The City of Calgary with its subjective and arbitrary VIP protocol may or may not give Bush a White Stetson.

History has a way of judging its actors and I could care less is some people in Calgary want to have one last toke of Bush worship.

Cliff at Rusty Idols is suggesting that on March 17 we all take our old shoes down to the Telus Convention Centre and pile them up at the front of the building. That would be a cool thing to see. While I'm undecided about this type of action, it is a passive non-violent expression of protest against the Bush legacy. It would be a good if the world knows that not all Calgarians are ditto heads.

Aside: Spell check suggests replacing Calgarians with Vulgarians. Bush's communication style speaks to the original meaning of the word vulgar. Please recommend this post

Some Serious Pathology With Those Folks

via Pam's House Blend:

Take a look at who John McCain and Sarah Palin were palin around with:

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=9375

Schadenfreude is an overrated emotion. These stories make me sick. May we not forgot that there are real victims behind these creeps and it's not just politics.

But still, does the Party of God check references? Please recommend this post

On Getting Blown Off Course

This just in:

The federal government must "stick to the course" outlined in its massive economic stimulus plan despite the "bad news" of Canada shedding 129,000 jobs in January, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday.

The prime minister made the comment in New Brunswick when asked about Statistics Canada's report on Friday, which said the country's unemployment rate shot up by 0.6 percentage points in January to 7.2 per cent. Almost all of the job losses were in full-time work.

When you are a dull thinker, mean spirited, value ideology over facts, of course you would not change your plans in the face of changing evidence.

I'm starting to believe that Stephen Harper's personality and lack of intellectual agility will do us some long term harm. Please recommend this post

Terry Gilliam awarded Bafta Fellowship

Finally. The British Academy of Film and Television has awarded former Python and Director Terry Gilliam with a fellowship. This is the highest recognition the UK film industry can bestow.

The word genius has been devalued in our society, especially when it comes to popular culture. Yet Gilliam is a genius. I clearly remember sitting in my mother's basement watching PBS and stumbling on Monty Python's Flying Circus. It was Edmonton, I was always bored and we couldn't afford drugs. I remember the between skit animations like these ones and was hooked forever.

Even though I grew up on Mad Magazine, National Lampoon, Robert Crumb and the Golden Age of Hanna-Barbera cartoons there was nothing like Gilliam. His animations were slick, fascinating and made me pee.

Gilliam's list of movies that he either Directed or helped write is fairly long so I'll only mention my favourites:

Monty Python & The Holy Grail
Meaning of Life
Brazil
Fisher King
Twelve Monkeys
Jabberwocky

The rest on the list I either haven't seen yet, or didn't connect with.

Gilliam has had a fairly rocky relationship with main stream studios because he prefers big budgets and has an artistic vision that doesn't always translate into big revenue. Apparently J.K. Rowling wanted Gilliam to direct the Potter films but the studio vetoed. I would give several body parts to have seen Harry Potter directed by Terry Gilliam. Considering that the movies they made were utterly boring and unimaginative. Like Disney's disastrous production of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, a pedestrian director can ruin a perfectly good story.

I understood Gilliam a lot better after I watched the documentary Lost in La Mancha which chronicles the disaster of Gilliam's failed attempt to make a movie about Don Quixote. Its worth watching and perfectly captures the difficulties in translating a vivid imagination into a work of art. Please recommend this post

US Army Reporting Record High Suicides

CNN and other news outlets are reporting that 2008 and 2007 saw record highs for Military Personal killing themselves. The 2008 rate was 20.2 per 100,000 which is much higher than the civilian rate. This translates 128 suicides last year with a number of deaths still being investigated.

The deaths appear to be fairly evenly distributed among soldiers in the various stages of deployment and post tour.

It surprised me to learn that the US Military only started tracking this information around 1980. I imagine the rate during the Vietnam era was high as well.

In keeping with military tradition, the officials don't understand why their prevention programs are not working and promise to study the problem.

Some informal suggestions why soldiers give in to despair:

• Mental illness is ignored and regarded as a stigma, unamerican and unmanly.
  
• Their Command-in-Chief lied about the mission and created a deep social schism.
• Unable to get needed therapy because of neo-conservative attitudes to funding.
• Financial. Not enough pay. Not helping sick soldiers with their debt.
• Facing an enemy in Iraq who hated them and played dirty.

I'm afraid that most of these soldiers will end up being nameless victims. The military tends to not honor or talk about these types of deaths. In many ways society failed these men and it is an added injury that they are not honored. I think these same problems are emerging in the Canadian Military. Please recommend this post