Words Fail : The change in "O Canada" lyrics is insufficient

The unfortunately-current Canadian government has put forward an incomplete bill that only addresses half of a problem, completely ignoring the other equally large half.  No doubt intentionally.

The bill proposes that Canada's national anthem "O Canada" remove a masculine noun in favour of a gender neutral noun. 

Current lyric: "In all thy sons command"

Proposed lyric: "In all of us command"

This is a start, but it is only half the job required.  A modern country that purports to be a democracy has no place promoting theocracy.  All promotion of religion should be purged from official documents and ceremonies.  When you promote one, you give it official status and discriminate against others.  You also allow them to argue for their religion in government.

Current lyric: "Mythical being keep our land glorious and free"

Proposed lyric: "Let us keep our land democratic and free"







A secular state is not an atheist state, no matter how many times the religious repeat the lie.

Should ‘O Canada’ lyrics be gender-neutral? Other countries have tweaked their anthem in the past

In 2013, Switzerland ran a public contest looking for more modern lyrics for its national song The Swiss Psalm, which critics said were too religious, (When the Alps glow bright with splendor / pray to God, to Him surrender,” for example.) A winner was announced on Sept. 12, 2015, but the Swiss government has not yet voted on the change.

Holocaust Recognized: Turkey livid after Germany calls it the Armenian genocide

In a long overdue move, the German government has officially recognized the mass murder of a million and a half Armenians as genocide.  It shouldn't have taken this long, considering how aware Germany is of its own history.

Denying the Armenian genocide is as appalling as denying the genocide of six million jews during World War II.  How strange that Israel has been one of Turkey's strongest backers in denying the Armenian genocide.
 Knowing better doesn't guarantee that people will do better.

German MPs recognise Armenian 'genocide' amid Turkish fury

The German parliament has approved a resolution declaring that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One was a "genocide".

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people died in the atrocities of 1915. Turkey says the toll was much lower and rejects the term "genocide".
[...]

In the latest response:

- Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed a "racist Armenian lobby" for the resolution

- Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said it was a "valuable contribution" to the "international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocide"

[...]

More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, as well as Pope Francis, have recognised the 1915 killings as genocide.

Money Talks: Tennessee kills its bigoted anti-trans law...for now

US state of Tennessee republican Susan Lynn has withdrawn her hateful anti-trans bathroom law, but not out of any sense of decency.  (She obviously doesn't have any, since she was the one who presented it.)  She withdrew it because her personal bigotry will cost Tennessee US$1.2 billion in school funding, something she would not be able to explain to taxpayers.

Tennessee Lawmaker Kills Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill, Leaving North Carolina All Alone

On Monday, Tennessee Republican Rep. Susan Lynn announced that she will pull her anti-trans bathroom bill, at least until next year.

[...]

In a defensive [read: indefensible] press conference, Lynn insisted that she was not responding to the widespread outrage her bill had provoked among major corporations and businesses, as well as from trans students and LGBTQ advocates. Instead, she seemed concerned by the attorney general’s (correct) assertion that the measure would cost the state $1.2 billion in federal education funding, since federal law prohibits public schools from engaging in gender identity discrimination. 

The last part of this story is interesting. 

Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, had also implied that he might veto the bill, noting that he wasn’t “hearing about problems” relating to trans bathroom use.

Is Haslam admitting to reality?  Police across the US have recorded ZERO instances of "transgender predators in bathrooms", though they have recorded countless instances of transgender people being harassed by cisgenders.  If there were even a single instance of transgender people harassing others, the rightwing media would have pounced on it and repeated it incessantly.

Or did Haslam realize what happened in Uganda would happen to his state?  For those who don't remember or don't know, Uganda attempted to put forward a "kill the gays" law which legalized murder.  It was only withdrawn when foreign donors threatened to withhold millions of dollars in foreign aid to the country.

Maybe Susan Lynn should be appointed ambassador to Uganda and sent their permanently.  I'm sure she would be very happy to live in such a christian-dominated nation.

Nothing But Net: The UN says 85 percent of global fish are in danger of extinction

This headline and story from Alternet do not surprise me at all, sad to say:

Global Fisheries Are Collapsing—What Happens When There Are No Fish Left?
 
According to the U.N Food and Agriculture Organization, 85 percent of global fish stocks are "overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion."

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 85 percent of global fish stocks are "overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion."

To see more stories like this, visit "Planet or Profit?"

Yet despite these alarms having been sounded loud and clear, life in the oceans is continuing to deteriorate at an ominously rapid pace.

Fisheries for the most sought-after species of fish have already collapsed.

I lived through the Atlantic Cod Moratorium of the 1990s, when the Canadian government enacted a complete ban on cod fishing for ten years.  Scientists had said just one more year of regular fishing could render the species extinct.  Some Atlantic fishermen and their advocates ignorantly claimed "There have always been enough fish and always will be!" Others said, "If you close the fisheries, how will we make a living?" completely oblivious to the fact that there would have been nothing to catch in a year anyway.  A ten year ban was enough to allow the species to repopulate itself.

Why are the oceans being overfished?  Because of an ever increasing number of humans demanding food to eat.  There are people who claim to be environmentalists and concerned about climate change, claim to be concerned about declining fish and animal species, who STILL think we don't have to do anything to control or address human overpopulation.  There are STILL people who think "Everyone should go vegan!" will solve this problem.

There are people who STILL falsely conflate voluntary birth control with forced euthanasia.  And their response to the messengers is, "If overpopulation is a problem, why don't you kill youself?"

Being Nickel-And-Dimed: The elimination of voters in the US

There are a plethora of news stories from the US that make absolutely no sense to anyone who lives in a functioning democracy.  This is only a partial list of such things:

A twelve year old child being bodyslammed into a floor.
Police threatening violence and arrest without any justification or crime. 
Adults threatened with jail time for loss of a library book.
Usury "fees" that goverments force people to pay before paying fines or tolls.
Nationalizing local incidents that do not merit the effort.
Militarism of civic policing.
Seizure laws that presume guilt until innocence.
Governments steal more private property than criminals do.

The goal of the 1%ers in the US is, and always had been, to turn the country into a Plutarchy or dictatorship.  But doing it overnight is unlikely to be accepted without a popular revolt.  The only way to do it is a slow, gradual elimination of the general populace from the voting lists and taking away their rights.  So how can that be done? 

By catapulting the propaganda about "getting tough on crime". 

By redefining minor acts into criminal acts. 

By creating a Soviet-style legal system ("Anything that is not explicitly permitted is forbidden."). 

By criminalizing as many of the population as possible.

By revoking the right to vote from people with criminal records.

With enough laws and enough time, the majority of Americans will no longer have the right to vote.  Only those with wealth and lawyers will have rights. 

The US is turning into a feudal society where the working poor pay taxes while the rich pay none.  The poor can be arrested, jailed or subjected to violence for questioning the hierarchy.

Hysteria Repeats: Like father, like son of a...

In February 2016, Justin Trudeau signed a law that falsely equates boycotts of Israel to be "anti-Semitism" and attempts to silence reporting of Israel's actions.  In doing so, he has proven he is his father's son, both overreacting and reacting with callous bigotry and denying human rights and free speech.

From 1963 to 1970, the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ, or in English, Quebec Liberation Front) was a political terrorist group active in Canada.  They engaged in various acts of terrorism across the province such as bombing railway lines, the home of Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, and bombing government buildings.  Their most well known acts were the kidnappings of British trade commissioner James Richard Cross and Quebec vice premier Pierre Laporte in October 1970, now referred to as the October Crisis.  (Cross was eventually released, but Laporte was murdered soon after being kidnapped.)

Then Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau enacted the War Measures Act, which was normally used only in wartime to do things like imprison Canadians of Japanese descent (and confiscate their wealth and property, for which they were never reimbursed).  This effectively turned Canada into a police state, giving the RCMP the authority to arrest people without charge and deny them access to lawyers or trials if they spoke or displayed any sympathies towards the FLQ.  Claims of torture by the RCMP were made but never proven (i.e. whitewashed by internal "investigation", not by independent eyes).

Little Trudeau's anti-BDS law is as morally repugnant and unethical.  It whitewashes war crimes and human rights violations of Israel (e.g. collective punishment of innocent civilians, the reporting of murders and illegal executions, illegal prisons where people are tortured and have no legal protections, the denial of food, water and medicine to civilian populations) and makes talking about and reporting such acts a crime.

No matter what each did or does to prop up their own image (i.e. national medicare or claiming to be a feminist), nothing is going to erase the taint of their unethical acts.  Like father, like son of a....

Liars and Bigots Colour: Whites More Likely Than Blacks to Use Drugs

In the least surprising news of the day, the same US government that made it policy to prevent black people from home ownership and wealth accumulation also intentionally targeted those least likely to use drugs with the most incarceration by race.

Stereotype Shattered as New Study Finds White Youth Are More Likely Than Blacks to Abuse Hard Drugs

By now we can all agree that the real target of Reagan’s enduring war on drugs was never drugs, it was African Americans. But if rising incarceration rates among black youth or the utter failure to curtail drug use is not enough proof, perhaps a new study from Northwestern University on racial differences among drug users will do the trick.

[...]

Researchers interviewed the participants in the study up to nine times through the course of their 20s. In that time, findings revealed that the odds of non-Hispanic white youths using cocaine were 30 times higher than African Americans. Hispanic participants trailed slightly behind, showing 20 times the odds of cocaine use compared to their African-American brethren.

They Gave Up: Call them "Desperation Bombers", not "Suicide Bombers"

Many people object to the term "Suicide Bomber" for those who engage in violence that cause their own deaths.  (If they aren't suicide attacks, what were the Japanese kamikaze attacks in World War II?)  Some have tried to use the term "Homicide Bomber", but that is a more apt term for those who kill and commit mass murder from a distance, like bomber pilots or drone operators.

A better term for those who kill themselves would be Desperation Bombers. They are people who no longer have concern for their own lives and living, who are willing to die for their cause because they have nothing else. The willingness of those who kill themselves for terrorist groups is no different than the willingness of soldiers to follow orders and die in combat. The only difference is their motivation.

People who have chronic and incurable conditions (e.g. terminal cancer, MS, ALS, etc.) sometimes choose to commit suicide because their quality of life is declining and will never improve. They have lost optimism and hope, choosing to end their own suffering. It is not a sign of mental illness.

The same is true of the kidnapped torture victims at Guantanamo Bay who attempt or commit suicide. It’s not a political statement or mental illness (though it is a sign of mental and physical abuse). And it’s definitely not an attempt to kill Americans since the victims have no resources nor the ability to cause harm. Their suicides are acts of desperation to end their suffering, the only means they have left.

There has been a sharp rise in the number of young Palestinians choosing to become bombers, and the reason is a lack of a future. Israel and its military intentionally bomb schools, demolish homes, cut off Palestine economically, kill people indiscriminately with no accountability, cut off access to water, food, medicine and other necessities. Desperation and lack of hope makes it easy for Hamas to recruit. It’s not because Palestinians are inherently violent. Jobs and futures are a scarce commodity in Palestine.

Who Are the New Hamas Recruits in Gaza?

Many of 15,000 applicants have no interest in police work or in politics – they just are looking for jobs.

When the Hamas rulers in the Gaza Strip announced recently plans to hire about 1,000 new policemen, 15,000 applied.

Only a few of those reporting for fitness tests one recent afternoon expressed an interest in police work or said they belonged to the Islamic militant group. Most just wanted a job.

Plagued by poverty for decades, Gaza’s private sector has been all but wiped out by nearly four years of closed borders and last year’s devastating Israeli offensive. In the meantime, Hamas has solidified its grip, making it Gaza’s second largest employer.

The same applies to young muslims in the Middle East (Iraq, Syria, etc.) and Europe (e.g. France, Belgium, England). Poverty, racism, high rates of unemployment and a lack of opportunities among young populations makes it easy for extremists to find recruits. When there is no future and nothing to live for, it’s easy to convince someone to die for a cause.

What Motivates the Suicide Bombers?

Study of a comprehensive database gives a surprising answer

[…]

In September 2007 when American forces raided an Iraqi insurgent camp in the desert town of Singar near the Syrian border they discovered biographies of more than seven hundred foreign fighters. The Americans were surprised to find that 137 were Libyans and 52 of them were from a small Libyan town of Darnah. The reason why so many of Darnah’s young men had gone to Iraq for suicide missions was not the global jihadi ideology, but an explosive mix of desperation, pride, anger, sense of powerlessness….

Neither increased policing, military presense, spying nor tracking people will stop extremist terrorism in Europe. Those will only exacerbate the situation. The answer is including minority communities in society and giving them work and educational opportunities, giving them a future. When people see themselves welcomed and included in society, they will have no reason to listen to, support or join extremists.

When they have a reason to live, they won’t be willing to die as desperation bombers.

Money Corrupts: Mossack and the Cossack

The illegal and unethical financial practices of white collar criminals worldwide have been exposed by one brave individual who has chosen anonymity for the person's own safety.  The person has learnt the lessons of Edward Snowden.  In the eyes of the corrupt, telling the truth is the criminal act.  In the eyes of those who want everyone to abide by the same rule of law, the person is a hero.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/live/2016/apr/04/panama-papers-global-reaction-to-huge-leak-of-offshore-tax-files-live

Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

Eleven million documents were leaked from one of the world's most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

They show how Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and avoid tax.

[...]

Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), said the documents covered day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca over the past 40 years.

"I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents," he added.

[...] 

One wealthy client, US millionaire and life coach Marianna Olszewski, was offered fake ownership records to hide money from the authorities. This is in direct breach of international regulations designed to stop money-laundering and tax evasion..

The question now becomes, will politicians save their own necks and stop protecting the corrupt by seizing assets and forcing people to pay taxes?  Or will they prove they are the puppets of such corruption, prove that they need to be overthrown by popular revolt?

Giant Leak of Offshore Financial Records Exposes Global Array of Crime and Corruption

Millions of documents show heads of state, criminals and celebrities using secret hideaways in tax havens

• Files reveal the offshore holdings of 140 politicians and public officials from around the world
• Current and former world leaders in the data include prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the president of Ukraine, and the king of Saudi Arabia
• More than 214,000 offshore entities appear in the leak, connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories
• Major banks have driven the creation of hard-to-trace companies in offshore havens

Trust Mistrusted: Once again, "Corrupt Cop" is a redundancy

Newark city's "settlement" with the US's Department of Justice settles nothing.  It does not reimburse victims of police corruption, not does it hold corrupt cops accountable for their actions.

Unlike most cases of police corruption, there is direct evidence of their misconduct that could be used to convict them.  Every time corrupt cops filed false reports, they put their names on them.  The US's DOJ is not charging those corrupt cops, and by not doing so they are condoning further corruption.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/nyregion/in-settlement-newark-agrees-to-a-series-of-police-department-reforms.html

In Settlement, Newark Agrees to a Series of Police Department Reforms

Federal officials announced on Wednesday that a sweeping settlement had been reached to reform the Newark Police Department after a three-year investigation uncovered a pattern of unconstitutional practices, including improper searches and stops and excessive use of force.

Opportunity Knocks: Will Washington DC grasp the chance to solve its problems?

The US is country obsessed with the cult of the car.  It is not "car culture", it is a car cult.  But now, thanks to the US's national unwillingness to pay for its failing infrastructure, there is an opportunity to break through the "brake lights matter" mentality of Americans. 

Washington D.C.'s metro transit system is in such dire need of repair that entire rail lines may need to be closed for six months to enact repairs.  Doomsayers with tunnel vision are calling this a "disaster", calling it "gridlock".  Instead, this is a chance for Washington to lead the way and become the first US city to promote and protect cycling as mass transit.  It is now the beginning of April, with six months of sunny weather ahead. 

If the city blocks off the rightmost lane on every major road with jersey barriers, cyclists could travel safely and quickly though the city in large numbers.  The number of motorized vehicles that could travel would be reduced, which would reduce air pollution and increase the safety of pedestrians and cyclists alike.  Drives could be encouraged to start car pooling.  It would solve every traffic problem all at once with minimal cost.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/2016/03/30/fba8ae0a-f688-11e5-9804-537defcc3cf6_story.html

Metro’s top officials warned Wednesday that the transit system is in such need of repair that they might shut down entire rail lines for as long as six months for maintenance, potentially snarling thousands of daily commutes and worsening congestion in the already traffic-clogged region.