Rose's Place

Bang!  Boom!  Shriek!   Owwwww! Progressive Bloggers exhibits all the signs of a collective nervous breakdown as it spins into a frenzy of partisan rage over the long gun registry, with Liberal bloggers hammering Jack Layton and NDP bloggers returning fire.   Check it out, but keep your head down and don’t get caught in the crossfire! Ironically, most of the people slugging it out on the progressive blogs sort of want the same thing — to keep the registry happening. Layton himself will vote against the bill that would kill it… he just won’t crack the whip and dictate … [Read more...]

… didn’t come from Brother Beck the Mad Monk, it came from NAACP president Ben Jealous: “They were told not to bring signs. Can you imagine Martin Luther King telling his marchers not to bring signs?” Amen. … [Read more...]

June 30th: The cops are brutal, jackbooted, not-to-be-trusted thugs who abuse civil liberties, make up their own laws, conduct mass arrests and random searches without cause and generally stomp all over dissent and democracy. August 26th: Mr. Policeman is our Friend who has only our very best interests at heart, therefore everything he says must be True. Go on vacation and look what happens:  you come back to discover that Mr. Policeman has undergone rehabilitative therapy of such intensive magnitude as to render him virtually unrecognizable! … [Read more...]

Hey kids, remember this?: And this?: And this?: Remember how we laughed and laughed and laughed at the feverish teabagger imaginations that produced such lurid spittle-flecked hyperbole? Obama, a nazi?  A Stalinist?  Hahaha! Yes yes, and you might also remember that while we were leaning over the fence pointing and laughing at the lunatic fringe to our south, in our own back yard progressives just couldn’t seem to catch an electoral break.  Sigh. Over 4 years and another election since Stephen the Corpulent first waddled to power, resplendent in the Blue Sweater-Vest … [Read more...]

Few things exemplify the brainless white noise of howling human dumbness and tyranny of the majority better than “Proposition 8“, the 2008 ballot initiative that banned marriage equality – by majority rule, no less — in California.  Prop 8 is infamous for many reasons, among them putting a twisted, ironic shit-stain on an election day that was being heralded as a “transformative” civil rights landmark. But not for everyone. So there is much to celebrate in the wake of a scathing decision yesterday by California’s district court to overturn the vicious … [Read more...]

If you can make an issue out of the Census, you can make an issue out of anything.  But in the Season of Dumb all things are possible: The Tories’ indulgence in this melodrama shows we have more cause to worry about the ninny state than the nanny state. Indeed.  And what’s next on the Ninny State agenda? Phone Books:  Convenience?  Or naming names?  (Ma Bell:  Agent of the State?) Food Inspection:  Health?  Or an infringement on your right to host the parasites of your choice? I doubt it’s a coincidence that the Harper government went full-metal Freedom Fighter on the Census … [Read more...]

I have said it many times over the last couple of years, and unfortunately I’m sure I’ll have occasion to say it again: something rotten is happening in the frenzied nation to our south.  For the most recent proof, look no further than this week’s systematic sliming of an innocent and honourable public servant, Shirley Sherrod. American politics, a blood sport to say the least, has always been entertaining to observe from afar.  But thanks to glaringly dishonest citizen *cough* ” journalism” and a TV channel that does shit-mongering and character assassination with … [Read more...]

This is what’s got Canadians all fired up today? Like some kind of virulent high-tech rabies, a little Minnesota Madness may have seeped through our porous border, because otherwise the Census is about the last thing I would have guessed would end up on the table of hot-button political topics in Canada.   But it is the Stupid Season, so why not? Whether you think it’s an invasion of privacy or an excellent source of data that gives government a better idea of how to spend our tax dollars (for the record, I think it’s a little of both), as an information source the Census has … [Read more...]

Sometimes I despair of the Human Condition. Why is it that given the choice, people who are ostensibly on the same side of a particular political issue but disagree on others will almost always choose to ignore their common ground and focus on their differences?   That way lies Failure, and it’s always depressing to watch it play out. I recently joined (and subsequently left) a Facebook group supporting a certain political issue, and was dismayed to find one of these brainless pissing contests in progress.  And I wondered if our self-destructively inflated egos might be kept somewhat in … [Read more...]

In this part of the world coal exists in abundance, or at least did until we mined the shit out of it, and where there’s coal, there’s usually the Whiff of Sulphur. The mineral permeates the water tables, and since we’re all on well water, the evil-smelling Whiff of Sulphur slithers in through open taps and toilets and washing machines and makes buildings smell like the finish line at a bean-eating marathon, at least to those unaccustomed to it.   I’m lucky: my home has a deep well and the water is generally untainted by sulphur.  (Or maybe I just don’t notice it … [Read more...]

Time sure flies when you’re having fun.  It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since I discovered the disturbing spectre of creeping Canadian theocracy, personified in an ominous-looking website banner and its equally creepy site: {{{Shudder}}}  Brings to mind visions of door-to-door Morality Checks by the State Virtue & Vice Police.  Well, we had our fun with it and other than the occasional slap or poke of a stick through the cage, moved on.  But while researching another matter this morning, “Christian Government” popped up and I noticed it seems … [Read more...]

This week the speculation about who our next Governor-General would be (and whether it would be some ideological appointment like Preston Manning or some Totally Cool appointment like William Shatner) was officially put to rest: David Johnston, an academic of lengthy credentials who is president of the University of Waterloo, will succeed Michaëlle Jean as governor-general. Mr. Johnston spoke to reporters at a news conference after Thursday morning after the announcement was made official. The reaction in the Progressosphere might be summed up as: “SHOCKA! Bland old white guy PM appoints … [Read more...]

This is too good to miss:  at the Maple Syrup Revolution this week, the Rev and Dave of the Galloping Beaver discuss the G20 demonstrations last weekend. The Rev could not have chosen a better interview in the confusing week following the G20:  with his experience in the Military and security fields, Dave can see angles of the story that might escape the average person.   I at least finished listening to the interview with the feeling that I’d learned something, and in this day and age of 7-second sound bites and moronic partisan talking points, that is impressive.  Have a listen. Excellent … [Read more...]

Stand back: according to an Angus Reid poll taken earlier this week, the majority of Canadians (and an overwhelming majority of Torontonians) are onside with the police response to the G20 demonstration – – Surprise!  Not really. Even if the question had been framed as Kateland suggests in the comments here – If AR had asked ‘were the police justified in violating most innocent citizens charter rights’ – it might have come out differently. – I doubt it would have significantly changed the results.  People generally have trouble with the concept that … [Read more...]

If it was enough to bring Chet back to the keyboard, it is certainly enough to prompt a little mid-hiatus commentary from me. The apocalyptic combination of sweltering heat, thunderstorms, earthquakes, floods and tornadoes was a fitting meteorological accessory to the past shitstorm of a weekend in the city formerly known as “Toronto The Good” (though “Toronto the Cowed” might be more appropriate at this point).  The buildup of manic hyper-security ahead of the G20 Summit reduced downtown Toronto to a grim and fearful shell and fomented much resentment among city-dwellers … [Read more...]

BOOM!  A few days ago it was as if someone had set off a stink bomb as the Canadian progressive blogosphere roiled and recoiled with revulsion and dry heaves at the prospect of a Canucki version of Fox News. Obviously, the purpose of this sinister new channel would be to poison the innocent minds of credulous Canadians too dumb to discern Truth (seemingly the exclusive preserve of the CBC) from the regurgitations of right-wing propagandists.   Do not adjust your set, but maybe adjust your tinfoil hat: Quebec billionaire Pierre Karl Péladeau is attempting a major shakeup of television news in … [Read more...]

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…just took a turn for the better: The fate of the gun registry rests with a dozen New Democrats, who are in the position to cast the deciding votes after the party signalled Friday it will not crack the whip by forcing the caucus to support the federal database. Imagine that, allowing MPs to break from the party line and vote as per their constituents’ wishes.  This whole “breaking ranks” thing, that’s new and different, eh? Not really.  The supposedly “unofficially pro-choice” Liberal Party does it whenever their socially conservative contingent votes … [Read more...]

Find a sunny spot and kick back with a friend And with that, I think I’ll kick back for awhile myself.  Later… … [Read more...]

She was for it before she was against it! Damn those burdensome regulations that might have saved a few lives on April 20th.  Not to mention those damn bureaucrats, keeping oil companies from drilling the shit out of everywhere with reckless abandon. So the Palinator was disheartened by the cancellation of offshore leases… well, who wouldn’t be? “Drill baby drill” is rapidly becoming “Spin, baby, spin“. *WINK* drool, slobber … [Read more...]