Life is Belief & Struggle - Ahmed Shawqi

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Nothing says presidential… like foul-mouthed, threatening old people


At best, I though the Lena Dunham election ad was vulgar and crass. Besides, any sitting president who has to rely on commercial endorsement utilizing cheap and sleazy to earn a second mandate from the electorate after 4 years in office; really has no grasp of what constitutes ‘presidential’,and ergo, does not deserve to win a second term. At best, I thought the Lena Dunham ads would go down as the worst ever political ad for 2012.

My bad.

I forgot about Move On. This has to be the all-time worst political ad of all-time.



And ‘cockpunch’? Talk about having your Depends wrapped too tight around your arse. This kind of adolescent stupidity does not play well outside of the arrested political development stage many hard core lefties get stuck in. These types of ads will probably do more to push independent voters to cast for Romney than any other single speech, policy paper, article or even commercial that the Romney campaign could produce.

Sign of the Times

The headline above a Toronto Star article read

Olympic mittens make a comeback with a brand new look
I thought it was about GOP candidate Mitt Romney...but no, who knew - it really was about the most horrendously ugly red Canadian olympic mittens.

..

Friday, October 19, 2012

Canada, a country where Joe Biden can always laugh


There is an arrogance displayed by Canadians in regards to our American neighbours. We often accuse the Americans of a deliberate willful ignorance of the wider world around America’s borders, but the same pious finger pointing could be just as easily used to stab the motes in our own Canadian eyes when it comes to understanding our immediate neighbors. Canadians often make the assumption that sharing a common language, a similar British historical root and a long undisputed border gives us special insight and understanding into the psyche of our neighbors to the south.

This often leads to Canadians being entirely befuddled by prevailing American political attitudes. This is why the re-election of George W. Bush was such a surprise to not only Canadian media, but the general Canadian population. How Americans, ordinary Americans, perceived the Bush presidency from 2000-2004 was so radically alien to what most Canadians believed Americans felt about President Bush. Partially, the main stream media in Canada was to blame for reporting nothing but its’ own anger and angst with the Bush White House, and then, labeling the reports a fair and balanced representation of American viewpoints.

The re-election of George W. Bush was not a surprise to me only because I spent a great deal of time reading and listening to what ordinary Americans were saying outside the rarified air of NY Times, Time, Newsweek or the LA Times. CNN was not ‘representative’ of middle America, and has not been for at least a decade – if not more – and this, in spite of the fact that almost every cable company in Canada carries CNN as part of its basic or plus basic cable package.

During election circa 2012 Canadians will be once again be utterly befuddled if the Republicans manage to take the White House. I have yet to see any Canadian MSM reporting that Romney is now leading in the Electoral College, and in fact, most of the mainstream polling is reflecting a Romney lead. I have not read any Canadian news articles reporting Obama’s support among women voters is dropping.


Instead, what we get from our media is this. Bruce Springsteen endores Obama. Barack Obama gets support from Canada’s small-business bosses and how can I forget Haroon Siddiqui’s latest? And I quote, ‘It’s more than his language that makes Mitt Romney yesterday’s man.

Until Canadians learn to view their neighbours through a thoroughly American lens - we will never truly understand our neighbours to the south. I am not suggesting or endorsing Mitt Romney for POTUS, but what I am saying is this; do not be surprised if the presidential race is much closer than Canadian media would lead you to believe.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Libya or Is Obama done like dinner?

Barry Rubin just may be on to something profound, and potentially a US electoral game changer.

The official story of what led up to the attack is just plain weird. Supposedly, the U.S. ambassador arrived back in the country and immediately ran off to Benghazi virtually by himself allegedly to investigate building a new school and a hospital there yet without any real security. His protection was to be provided by relatively untrained Libyans who a few months earlier had been rebels in the civil war.

It is quite true that the State Department and ultimately Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bear responsibility for the ambassador being in Benghazi and for ensuring his protection. The president would not be consulted on such a “minor” event. But the story hinges on why the ambassador was in Benghazi that day.

If he was, as accounts by sources in the U.S. intelligence community suggested, negotiating with a terrorist, anti-American group to obtain the return of U.S. weapons provided during the civil war, that would have been a much higher-priority matter. I have been asked by sources not to reveal the specific weapons system that was Washington’s highest priority to buy back, but the details make sense. The fact that the ambassador was not accompanied by a delegation of foreign aid experts to evaluate these alleged projects shows that the reason for the ambassador’s presence in Benghazi is being covered up. This situation transcends State Department jurisdiction and brings in the CIA and higher-level national security officials. The plan would have been in the presidential briefing and it is quite conceivable he would have been called on to approve of it.

I cannot see how any sitting US President could survive the backlash in an election if the US government supplied US weapons to an al-Qaeda affilated group.

The Cyber Bullies of Self-Righteous Moral Indignation



Justin Hutchings, a London retailer worker at a London, Ontario men’s wear store posted an online disparaging comment at a memorial page set up for expressing condolences for teenage suicide Amanda Todd.

According to the Toronto Star, Calgary mother Christine Claveau was so outraged at the ‘hate-filled’ comments directed at the Todd memorial webpage that she formed a cyber-posse of like-minder mothers to counter the online Todd ‘haters’. Claveau, in pursuit of ‘justice’ for dead, cyber stalked Hutchings down via his facebook profile and called his employer to vent her spleen at the alleged moral failings of Mr. Big and Tall for having such an employee with their firm.

Mr. Big and Tall fired Hutchings for allegedly violating their ‘company policy of tolerance, respect, fair and honourable treatment of all individuals, internally, with our customers and the population as a whole’. Apparently, what Hutchings does or does not do on his own dime is now in the realm of his employer’s business. Even from the Centre of the Universe, I can smell the lawsuit potential.

Anyway, Claveau, claims she never meant to get Hutchings fired, although this does rather seem remarkably short-sighted on her part and it makes me wonder what exactly did Claveau realistically assume would be the best case scenario for Hutchings given her actions? -- Hutchings’ would be given a ‘time-out’ in the store’s quiet corner for inappropriate behavior of retail clerks?

Claveau was a relative stranger to Hutchings at the time of her actions. She has no way to know anything about him or even his past personal situation. For all Claveau knows, Hutchings could have been raised in a family where his sister, brother, best friend, and/or parent committed suicide. He could have been left not only holding but having had to clean up the emotional baggage suicides leave behind. I have seen first-hand the wreckage suicides cause in the lives of those they leave behind - and it far, far from pretty. All Claveau can claim to know for sure, regarding Hutchings, is that she does not like his opinion, and is offended by his expressing his opinion in a forum she feels is inappropriate to express said opinion in.

I am not excusing Hutchings actions, and at the end of the day, Hutchings could just well be your garden-variety obnoxious twit…but even a twit has the right to an opinion, the right to express an opinion, and the right to make a living unmolested and hunted down by the self-appointed ranks of morally indignant cyber bullies.

And if I were Claveau, I would be fervently hoping Hutchings finds a compatible job relatively quickly, and failing that, I would hope my spouse and children are very understanding; when the process server comes to call.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Disgust


What I dislike about these so-called bastions of Liberalism is the mealy mouth double-speak. This Toronto Star headline:





When a 45 year old man plies a 13 year old girl with drugs and booze in order to coerce her into having sex with him; it is not a consensual act between adults. Just because Polanski is a darling among liberals does not give anyone the right to whitewash or trivialize a heinous act committed against a minor child. Shame on the Toronto Star.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Just Chop the Prison Chaplains

I really think the Prime Minister ought to appoint a public watch dog to safeguard the Canadian public purse from lawsuits brought against the government as the direct result of his Ministers making and implementing the stupidest possible public policy decisions.

Either that or the Prime Minister needs to demand all his Ministers kick into malpractice slush fund for conservative ministers.
The federal government is cancelling the contracts of non-Christian chaplains at federal prisons, CBC News has learned.

Inmates of other faiths, such as Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jews, will be expected to turn to Christian prison chaplains for religious counsel and guidance, according to the office of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who is also responsible for Canada’s penitentiaries. (CBC)
Maybe it’s me, but appointing a man who knocked up his babysitter as Minister of Public Safety just doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who is capable of making sound practical judgments in the public’s interest when he cannot even manage to do so in his home life…but such, is the quality of the Harper talent pool.


Don’t get me wrong, I am all for saving the $6.4 Million annually. This represents the total pre-purge salaries budget for prison chaplains; so it really does pay to fire them all. Besides, what Jew, Muslim, Sikhs or Buddhist would really want counseling and/or spiritual guidance by a ‘chaplain’ who thinks you made the wrong religious choices in the first place…