11/26/2011

Harper and Crew Strongly Opposed to"Drugs"?

     Five Vancouver Mayors (past and present) are now on board to change the Cannabis  (Marijuana) laws in this country.

     Doing so would change quite a few things in this country. Everyone knows that it would pretty much cancel billions of dollars in the underground economy and put those billions into government coffers. I suspect trade for cocaine and guns would fall off as well.

     But Harper obviously has his head where the sun don't shine. His blunt statement of not supporting the legalization of "drugs" lumps Marijuana in with the hard "drugs" in circulation. This statement is misleading at the least.

     Let me be quite clear here. MARIJUANA IS NOT A DRUG. It is a herb. A plant. The only people who believe it to be a drug (and I suspect they don' really believe) are the lawmakers who think that criminalizing it will bring them lots of money in fines and property seizures. These folks are amongst the the "Harpers head where the sun don't shine " club. It's a no-brainer here people. The money saved by eliminating spying, smart meters, Lawyers, court appearances, and costs of incarcerated "criminals", I allege would pay off the national debt.

     This draconian law should be repealed. Harper should not be afraid to do so. The US DEA has found too much power and they should lay off the cash cow called Marijuana. It is the DEA that dictates how Marijuana is handled. They have found an easy way to inflate their coffers and they apply it with a vengeance. And the only reason Canada has this draconian law is due to pressure from The United States.

     Way back when I stated this blog I did a piece on Marijuana complete with a brief history of how it came to be outlawed. And that outlawing was fuelled by the power of the press led by non other than Randolph Hearst Followed by the Dunlop family.  Seems that Hearst was Pissed off at Poncho Villa for seizing his forests for the revolution and the Dunlops worried about what it could do to their businesses.

     There is plenty of information on marijuana or cannabis online. One of my favorites is Jack Herer
You could also read his book The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Check it out. Get educated.




    

11/12/2011

This Pretty Much Says What The 1% Is Doing To The Occupy Movement

 It is also telling in how the MSM wants to control your thought process.  
 
Sent via e-mail from Rafe Mair. The following lets the 99% know what the1% are doing to the Occupy Movement (and your thought process) through their corporate controlled Media. I believe it is time to start severely attacking that media and their advertisers. And read the op-ed piece in the G&M.


Don't let the corporate media define 'Occupy' ...

Media focuses on camps, ignores issues - as usual

The Corporate Media is the propaganda arm of Corporate Canada.  Right now the media is trying to 'define' the Occupy movement in a negative way.  And all of the rest of us 99% must remember that The Media is the mouthpiece of the 1%; it is not our friend, it cannot be trusted, and we must always watch the corporate media with an eagle's eye because it never stops trying to lie to us and mislead us about everything of importance. 

Since the big 'Occupy Protests' of a few weeks ago, the media has focused all of its attention on 'the camps' that have been set up across Canada.  Here in Victoria, the focus is on the camps around Victoria City Hall and in Vancouver.  It is relatively easy for the media to make the camps 'look bad', and now someone has died in Vancouver and the officials are saying that the camps have to go.  There may be trouble and it will all end with anger  which is what Corporate Canada wants.

But the camps are not the Occupy Movement, only a small part of it.  The media is focusing on the camps because that is where they want the focus to be.  They DON'T want the focus to be on what the movement is really all about, and that's because they want us to forget about that.  Occupy is about the lack of democracy in Canada, but there is little mention of that in the corporate media.  Occupy is about the corruption of our governments by the billionaires and the elites, and how those people are bankrupting entire nations and destroying our planet.  Occupy is about the 'free trade deals' the 1% have imposed on us; deals that have cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs and led to record corporate profits and record homelessness and record food bank use.  Occupy is about the nuclear disaster in Japan that is going to kill millions of us, and about how all the Big Media is corporate and how it lies to us and misleads us every day of the year.  All of that is what Occupy is about, and The Media's job is to make us forget it - if they can.

The media could be leading us in a discussion about how to improve our democracy and make it work better for us, but they aren't.
The media could be giving us information about how we can fix up our tax system, but they aren't.
The media could be telling us about climate change and fracking and how we can move towards a sane environmental policy, but they aren't.
Instead the media are focusing on a few dozen people living in tents.  Why are they doing this?  Because that is where they want the focus to be.  And until the rest of us come to grips with how corrupt and manipulative the Canadian media is, we are going to keep losing.   We've got to keep our eyes focused on our real enemies; and the real enemies are the corporations, their politicians, and their media.  And we have to keep some real solutions in mind, and in my opinion two of the best solutions are more democracy and a free press.  Let's Occupy That.
jack etkin
jetkino@yahoo.ca

11/10/2011

I Remember

 For the past few years I have been worried that the younger kids of today were not interested in what went on during the 20th century. But with the events in the world since 2000 I believe the latest generation has taken up the cry. It has been very nice to see some of the news reports showing children making statements about Remembrance Day. Formerly Armistice Day in Canada.

Tomorrow sometime after 9 AM Pacific Standard time  (about noon in my Hometown)I will begin my 68th year on earth. Being a holiday I was able to attend most of the services in the past. One I missed was memorable. I was in the RCAF and had severe ingrown toe nails and the day before I was to go on Parade the M/O removed the nails from both my big toes. I attended in full dress blues in a wheelchair and thought "well at least I don't have to march." But it was my birthday and what the hell, eh. It has sometimes been a stretch but I have survived. Many of my family fought in both of the Great wars and my Maternal Grandfather enlisted in the PPCLI in both the first and second worl wars. He survived. And some of my friends fought and died in Vietnam. I remember them all.My time was served during peaceful years in Canada.(except for the Soviet Union Problems)
The only poem I ever learned is reprinted below.

For those who have not read In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae I post it here.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Flanders Poppy on the First World War battlefields.