Incredible! - the Aurora Shooting Victims saw the GANGSTER SQUAD theatre massacre ... before THE JOKER executed them

In a previous Blog article I mentioned that film goers in Australia had viewed the trailer for the Warner Brothers movie GANGSTER SQUAD, prior to watching the feature -  THE DARK NIGHT RISES.  That was significant because the "grabber" sequence in GANGSTER SQUAD is when four men fire through the movie screen into the faces of the unsuspecting audience.  Well silly me!  I learn this morning that the Warner Brothers teaser trailer ALSO played before the feature was shown in Aurora, Colorado on Friday.  If James Holmes, A.K.A. "The Joker" was watching the screen instead of fumbling with his weapons, his Kevlar vest, and his gas mask... he might have witnessed the Hollywood version of what he was preparing to unleash upon his fellow citizens. How surreal is that!

I know of this because I read an Editorial in THE WASHINGTON TIMES this morning which skewers Hollywood in general, and the Warner Brothers - Sean Penn partnership in particular, for making mega bucks peddling violent moves, and then resorting to crocodile tears when they are caught with human flesh in their teeth.  It will only take you five minutes to read the "Open Letter".  You should, because it's a rare document.  It's here -  "HURT". 

 

Canadian newspapers and Canadian TV News programs maintain a despicable symbiotic relationship with Hollywood, pretending that the release of movies in Canada, each one carefully scheduled and cunningly promoted is somehow  "News".  Movies and fictional screen characters have replaced real people and real events  in the minds of an entire generation, and what used to be entertainment for the masses is now an integral component of public education.   In Vancouver, B.C. high school students watch a dozen or more Hollywood films in the classroom each.  Even Gym and Chemistry teachers, bored with the tedium of their daily grind,  show DVDs to burn off paid teaching hours. 

Some good news to share.  In the aftermath of the "TDKR" murders (yeesh!), Warner Brothers is going to jettison the cinema massacre sequence in GANGSTER SQUAD.  The whole premise was ludicrous to begin with...  a  Squad of  Los Angeles policeman volunteer to form a hit squad to go after and eliminate California mobsters. These policemen walk into a Los Angeles movie theatre, stand behind the screen,  and unload into the faces of a movie audience!!  Sean Penn paid people to write and film that shit!  No wonder The Washington Times decided to "unload" on him.

Are Americans Literally Going Crazy? The evidence mounts

James Holmes, American college student, age 24 (A.K.A. "THE JOKER").  He had parents, money, an education, a car, an apartment and few if any complaints.  Now he is accused of opening fire in a crowded movie theatre, killing twelve and wounding dozens more.  Clearly he's nuts.

Casey James Fury, American  shipyard employee, age 24.  Casey fancies himself a poet:

"we agreed this city was like a morgue

  you said we should liven things up around here

  this is red when we paint the walls with fire and pools of cream

  this is my mouth with sharp silver teeth and our implausible dream"    Mr. Fury is charged with two counts of arson, having set fire to the nuclear submarine, USS MIAMI, and causing $400,000,000 damage.  His reason? He was feeling anxious about his girlfriend and wanted to leave the job site, so he lit a fire in the subs torpedo room. The US Navy admits it may have to scrap the Los Angeles class sub, if it proves costly to repair.  Clearly Fury is nuts.

It's not just American citizen's who are going nuts.  The Government of the United States has begun to behave in a wholly irrational manner.  Having recently had its balls ripped off in Iraq and its teeth kicked-in by the Afghanis, the U.S. administration is still hellbent on arming and inserting Syrian revolutionaries and with launching a strike on Iran - a nation which is on high alert, and waiting for the American attack.  Clearly they're nuts.

This is a U.S. ARMY career advertisement for "INTERNMENT SPECIALISTS"  In Canada  "Internment" is a dirty word.  If the Canadian Army created such a job classification, the Federal Government would fall in the next election and the Liberals restored to power.  America is signalling to the world that Guantanamo type operations do not embarrass them in the least, and this is a permanent feature of U.S. militarism.  The US ARMY ad is  HERE.

While I have been pro-American all of my life, I confess that over the past few years I have found myself less inclined to support America when I hear Canadians bashing their political system and the American way of life. If Americans are misguided enough to allow Homeland Security to remain a permanent fixture, and to militarize the once reasonable system of law and order, then they deserve the Orwellian future they are crafting for themselves.  Certainly the World will not accept American Imperialism to develop.  "The World's Policeman" was an acceptable term as long as America's intentions were benevolent.  American meddling worldwide is by now so instinctive, so predictable and so violent, that it seems nothing short of a mental illness.

The United States Marines have now activated and deployed three "Law Enforcement Battalions" which will feed prisoners into the camps run by Army "Internment Specialists".   Not "Military Police," but military law enforcers.  There's a huge difference, but only a fool or a lackey reporter would be drawn into a discussion of what is truly intended with these "innovations".  I recall that three generations of American generals opposed the United Nations as a being a nascent "World Government", and yet U.S. military planners think it entirely appropriate to deploy expeditionary forces to impose the "New World Order" [the U.S. model two-party state] and displace the traditional role of civilian police in fostering democratic principles.   Clearly they are nuts if they think they can afford to stay on this road to economic and political suicide.

UPDATE - July 29 -  O.K., so now we know that James Holmes was being treated by a mental health professional at his university, an expert on schizophrenia.   A reporter for the DAILY MAIL suggests the Holmes consultation is a dodge "...no one could be sure whether his bizarre behaviour in court earlier this week was drug-addled tiredness, psychosis or simply a cynical attempt by a clever but deeply wicked man to pretend he was mad."  The DAILY MAIL article  is HERE.  I don't quibble with the Reporters' point, but I do note that the sneaky Brit takes this opportunity to link James Holmes to another mass-shooter, Norwegian Anders Breivik.  Now that's a streeeeetch.  Breivik was politically motivated and a militant. His target was the youth camp of a leftist political party, and Breviek has hated leftists all his life.   Holmes showed no evidence of hate prior to his crimes in Aurora, and doesn't belong to a political

 organization.

Now, just as  the DAILY MAIL reporter wants to get in a cheap shot, there are propagandists in the U.S. who will exploit the JOKER shooting.  This photo of a digital billboard in Aurora,  attempts to make points at President Obama's expense.  It is certainly in bad taste, but it also makes a valid point.  The Democrat did campaign on the lie... "Vote for me and I'll bring home the troops."  He didn't do it, and he won't do it.  In fact the U.S.A. has got as much firepower deployed worldwide as ever, and worse, America is drifting in Orwellian waters.  And oh yes,  Mr. Obama did not "earn" the Nobel Peace Prize.  That too, was a tasteless joke.  

AUGUST 7 -  trickle, trickle, trickle... the facts seep out like molasses from a leaking barrel. 
Now we learn, via an ABC News  EXCLUSIVE REPORT  that Mr. Holmes' campus psychiatrist reported him to the Campus Threat Assessment Committee and to an officer of the campus police.  This tragedy was preventable and now seems to be a carbon copy of the Virginia Tech massacre where the shooter was known to campus cops and where there was legally actionable evidence he was nuts.
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Update  June 20, 2013
OVER-MEDICATED AMERICANS

Matt Drudge points us to an interesting piece on over-medicated Americans, June 20, 2013
The article, "Study - 70 per cent of Americans on Prescription Drugs"  is reporting on work done by the MAYO CLINIC, and it is archived on the CBS - Atlanta website  HERE.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - 12 Dead on a movie house floor - as reel as it gets...pun intended

Can it get any more obvious? The frequency of the bored and disaffected turning to violence to satisfy their craving for attention.  Last  night's massacre in Aurora, Colorado... a "Dark Knight" indeed.   Kill as many people as you can in a highly dramatic setting [mid-night showing of a Summer Blockbuster movie] and then surrender yourself into the spotlight of celebrity.  Not brilliant, but highly effective.  The shooter James Holmes, a medical student who was "pursuing a PhD" in genetics. You can't make this stuff up.  What next? A  Professor of Chemistry, pissed off by some perceived slight, who decides to mix a batch of purple Kool-Aid and serve it to an American entire city?

Warmer Brothers is currently promoting GANGSTER SQUAD, and this is the sequence that should offend thine eyes.  We witness four men armed with .45 calibre Thompson sub-machine guns fire through a movie screen, emptying their magazines into the faces of unsuspecting movie goers. Mr. Holmes used an equally powerful weapon, an ArmaLight AR15 variant, with a 100 round drum magazine. That's the kind of firepower reserved for the exclusive use of the Police in Canada, but available to private citizens in the U.S.

In spite of the lying teaser "Based on a True Story", no such incident ever happened in U.S. history.  This cinema butchery is purely a cinematic creation.  As it happen Warner Brothers is the producer and distributor of the movie DARK KNIGHT RISES, which just had its premiere.  A movie which will last in infamy.  Would you take my fifty cent bet that the shooter last night in Colorado, had seen the trailer for GANGSTER SQUAD?  The irony is so thick you could lay it down with a trowel.  [Update - it turns out that the baby faced Mr. Holmes, "the accused," has been planning this bit of violent theatre for a couple of months.  He patterned his grotesque performance of violence after the character "The Joker" - Batman's nemesis.]

If you wish to view the trailer of GANGSTER SQUAD from which these screen shots were made, it  here at HEADLINE HOLLYWOOD -  GANGSTER SQUAD TRAILER.

Update: at 2:50 PMT the GANGSTER SQUAD  cinema massacre link is still 'hot," but I imagine that it will be cut before long.
UPDATE, July 24 - the head honchos at WARNER BROTHERS met this morning and discussed Gangster Squad. The news is that the cinema massacre sequence will now hit the cutting room floor, and a new scene produced for insertion.  It was an appallingly stupid scene to begin with.  No such incident ever happened in Grauman's Chinese Theatre, nor in any other American movie house.  The Joker Attack in Colorado three days ago is an entirely new category of mass-shooting.
Another odd twist - we learn that the Gangster Squad movie trailer ran in a few Australian cinemas, as folks waited to see the feature - THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.  Nobody appreciated it.

The Danzig Street Shootout - minute by minute on Twitter

I was made aware of the Danzig Street shooting by a YAHOO News headline, as I accessed my email. Toronto news is of no particular interest to a Vancouverite so the shooting didn't really catch my attention until I gave the CTV News Channel ten minutes of my time, over the lunch hour Tuesday.  The TV reporting was of the typical "I'm standing on the sidewalk where it all happened," variety.  Ten minutes Googling the story gave me a far clearer picture, and resulted in my posting last night's Blog article.  Scroll down for more on "The City, By Homicide" and NATIONAL POST graphic artists.

When I Googled the names of the four people listed as creators the NATIONAL POST  graphic, this is what I found.

Ian Vandaelle describes himself as "Morally, socially & financially bankrupt."  Does that make him dangerous? or just cute?

Samina Esha is a "shopaholic and bookie".   It's starting to look like the POST team has "street cred".

Jonathon Rivait is the punster in the pack. "My rock is cock hard."

Richard Johnson is all about "Sarcasm, cynicism, skepticism - in monster proportions."

What an interesting posse of crime reporters!  To be accurate, it is Jonathan Rivait and Richard Johnson who must take the lion's share of credit for the wonderful graphics the NATIONAL POST publishes on a fairly regular basis. Others contribute only research.

TWITTER REPORTING - the Danzig Street Shootout

The really significant thing about this shooting in Toronto is not the bombast and baloney spouted by the Mayor and Chief of Police. Rather it was the level of involvement by citizens participating in the mass crime, or reporting on it via their Twitter Accounts. An article written by Joshua Errett, editor at NOW Magazine in Toronto, is a good place to start.

Joshua's article is HERE.

Even now, two days after the shooting, you can get a far better sense of what went done on Danzig Street, by reading Twitter archives, than you can by reading commercial news accounts.  There is a lesson in this.  Should you ever be caught up in a big event... a natural disaster, a major crime, etc... task someone with downloading the Twitter chatter before it gets edited or truncated by deletions. It will later be a valuable resource for reconstructing chain of events.

DANZIG STREET TWEETS - The shooters "touched the wrong people".  .."there is gonna be a war".   On that point at least, the Street and the Mayor's Office agree.

Shootout on Danzig Street, Toronto - incredible grahics

Trying to keep up with Canada... one crime at a time. You just can't make this stuff up. I dare you.

Dateline, Toronto:  A multiple shooting amid the shrubs of a Welfare housing project on Danzig Street in Scarborough.  Hours later the Chief of Police holds a press conference, and delivers one of the most deliciously asinine remarks ever made by a Chief Constable in this country.  

"I’ve been a cop for 35 years and this is the worst incident of gun violence, in my memory, anywhere in North America."  (Bill Blair, Toronto Chief of Police)  Gee Billy... worse shootings take place on this continent every single day of the week. Take your medication. Calm down.  Your scaring your troops.

Late in the day, after perhaps gobbling a box of his favourite comfort food - a large pizza, Mayor Rob Ford issued a press release. It begins "Toronto is a safe city. It’s one of the safest cities in the world."  He drones on with the same old lines of B.S. worthy of any Toronto potentate, and then mid-way down the page this.  "Some people have suggested there is a gang war brewing. I don’t know if that’s true. But, I do know it’s time for us to declare war on these violent gangs."   

The Toronto Chief is peeing his pants and the Mayor has ordered the regimental bugler to blow the order to  "Charge!"  Don't panic Toronto!  Your leaders will do it for you.

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GREAT GRAPHICS

In case you haven't noticed, the NATIONAL POST publishes the best Information Graphics of any Canadian newspaper, and the POST just happened to have a new one ready to run with the story on the Danzig Street shooting. The graphics are the work of two of Canada's most talented news artists, Jonathon Rivait  and Richard Johnson.   If your not familiar with their work, it's time you paid attention.  Some of their stuff is simply brilliant.  A stellar example is "Anatomy of a Stoning," published in November 2010. It describes the murders of women in Iran - the entire process, and it's chilling.  My tear sheet is too big to scan but you can view it online here CLICK.  And  on July 13 the NATIONAL POST published a phenomenal graphic on the Mexican Cartels and a scorecard on the drug murders. (I guess Chief Billy Blair doesn't read the POST.)  In which other Canadian newspaper will you find a bar graph labelled "Decapitations - 2012 Monthly" ? It's HERE.  The POST calls these valuable employees "Graphics Journalists". I like that.

TORONTO - The City, By Homicide

Here is an interesting companion piece to the homicide graphic.  In the  NATIONAL POST today they included stats which profile the racial origin of both the killers and their victims in Toronto. (above)  Now it is not my intention to compare newspaper graphics here, but merely to supplement  the helpful information.  A few months back the TORONTO STAR published this very detailed Infographic which breaks down all Toronto crime along racial lines.  I had an inkling I might need it for a Blog in future,  and set it aside.  Today is that day.

This is half of what I prepared on the Danzig Street shooting. I will get Part 2 posted ASAP.

Luka Magnotta - Human Flesh is on EVERYONE'S Menu

We are truly living in the  "Age of Moral Relativism," don't you agree?  We adopt or adapt our  personal standards to fit the moment, and any community value that intrudes on our pleasure, we resent and resist.  No two people seem to share the same set of values unless they live in a village where the wearing of veils or of a halo is mandatory. Here in Canada the right to walk around confused is protected by law.  This is why I do insist that the Luka Magnotta case is the story for our times.  Luka is us, and we are Luka.

Chapter next...

Last week an overheated story connected American porn star Ron Jeremy to the Luka Magnotta case.   It was hustled first by the commercial news media and then played with by Bloggers. The NATIONAL POST had the best coverage of the story by any Canadian paper.  "Ron Jeremy courted to Play Magnotta bait in 2011 sting"  The Post article is HERE.  The story got quite a chewing but it had no real taste. Still I did  enjoy the Post's teaser headline, which had Ron Jeremy "courted" and not "pitched" as they say in the movie/tv business. Who said "There is no romance in porn films."?

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Ms. Luka Magnotta - She's out there somewhere.

The essentials of the Magnotta-Jeremy story are as follows.  Luka Magnotta is a wannabe porn star, and loves the lens.  Prior to committing murder in Montreal he had also posted videos of himself torturing and "murdering" kittens, and by doing so he pissed off a very dangerous crowd... Animal Protection Activists. In fact one such group in the U.S. had decided to pull a vigilante stunt and capture Luka, while recording the whole caper for reality television.  The vigilantes needed to bait their hook with something appetizing enough for Magnotta to consider crossing into the United States, where he would be vulnerable to a take-down. An attempt was made to seduce Ron Jeremy,  the King of Porndom, into co-starring in the production, but in the end he backed out.  Once Magnotta became the story of the moment, the vigilantes decided to get some press flogging a thin tale about how their Animal Rights efforts might have prevented a human murder.  

The Master Chef of Ass Meat, Mr. Ron Jeremy recently appeared on "The Peta Files".  Did you know that PETA uses pornography as a fund raising tool?  The essential logic to the ploy is that the older Christian crowd doesn't  give a shit about animal rights, but the younger generation is passionate about doing good... especially if you make it fun.  In fact the Press Releases for Jeremy's spot endorsing People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was flying around at about the same time as news broke about the heinous butchering of Justin Lin in Montreal. Like every other video celebrity, Ron Jeremy must do charity work to build profile, maintain professional contacts and to help keep the jackals at the I.R.S. at bay.  The putative posse of animal rescuers in the story was said to be the big bad boys of RESCUE INK, a 'reality television' program I had never heard of.  Now that I have done my research, I never want to hear of them again.

The gimmick in RESCUE INK...  every "reality" show has a gimmick... is a group of tough guys with a past, all of them heavily tattooed (inked) and all born with a soft heart for little animals.  One is an ex detective, but the rest are... (well, read the details in an investigative story written by Long Island, N.Y. reporter Mark Harrington in 2009  MANY IN RESCUE INK HAVE A CHECKERED PAST.)

The story which we Canadians were exposed to last week was skimpy and didn't add up.  Yes, RESCUE INK were the heavily tattooed vigilantes who approached Ron Jeremy through intermediaries, including a couple of ridiculous bimbos, but what you need to know is that Jeremy has "people".  You have to pay for his appearances.  RESCUE INK sold just six episodes to the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC channel in 2009 but the cable-caster has gotten cold feet, and the show isn't in production  any more. (A website sniff detects stink.  The  dog lovers at RESCUE INK share fantasies of Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino or Dylvester Stalone playing their lives in a movie!) These bad boys were looking for a comeback and couldn't write Jeremy a check. Don't judge Jeremy by how he made his living. He's no Jethro Bodine.  In fact before he got into the lucrative world of ass meat he was a teacher. (According to an old interview has "a Master's degree in Special Education and two B.A.s in Theatre and Education".) The gossip we read last week in the NATIONAL POST was nonsense, but the whole Magnotta story is so grotesque and ridiculous that factoids are piling up like popping corn.

One of the few "reality" shows which we do watch and enjoy is Anthony Bourdain's  NO RESERVATIONS.  Hell, my kids even read his books.  Bourdain is shown in this photo quaffing some Ron de Jeremy  rum. (No kidding, the sausage man also has his own rum label!) Bourdain is a man of genuine wit who tries hard to deliver lines we haven't heard 10,000 times before, and he discussed the naughty side of cuisine when he hosted Ron Jeremy in an episode of his show.

The point is that there will be no Main Event.  The Magnotta trial next year is irrelevant. Everybody and his dog is trying to peel themselves a layer off the Magnotta onion  before the trial, and clever little bastards are out there now, hatching schemes to surpass Magnotta's super low budget production.  Magnotta is everything that defines the modern era... pornography, violence, celebrity, Facebook, gadgets, etc.  The craze to do something, ANYTHING, to get attention.  And we're watching.

Juxtapose 3 - Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta

I would not presume to compete with the folks at FRANK magazine, but there is plenty of potential for satire in this country. You would agree that humour is the safe and sane way to deal with  the ugly side of our culture.  The truth is that many of you found this Blog using Google's Picture Search.  You probably don't even know what a Runagate is, huh? Well,  I invite you to enjoy this juxtaposition of two Canadian careers that give me the creeps.

Hey, it's only posing if it looks like posing.

Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta are both into body culture and love to strip for the camera.  Trud's thunderbird tattoo dates from his toking days in B.C.  Luka has no skin art to exhibit.

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Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta both love to stage events for the camera and grew addicted to being photographed every day of their lives.  To keep from boring their audience, each changes his costume, hair style and venue  CONSTANTLY.

Luka uses Photoshop. It's cheaper than aviation kerosene.

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Do you think Trud's seen one too many Riefenstahl films?

Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta rehearse their gestures in front of mirrors and only work with loyal and supportive photographers.

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The READERS DIGEST cover was a keeper, but Trud should

have flashed his thong for the boppers.  Remember how his mom

bought the cover of HIGH SOCIETY for the price of a

single untrimmed beaver pelt? You just know he wants to do it.

Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta have each made a study of Canadian tastes and conceits. They will spare no effort to capture and hold the spotlight. Each, in his own exquisite fashion, was bred for fame. 

There is of course a BIG difference between the theatrical styles of Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta.  Trudeau won't literally give head to get attention, but his brand of politics is pornographic.  There's no love in what he does.   And like another crass political showman I could name, the larcenous Svend Robinson, when Justin Trudeau crashes and burns, crocodile tears will not be sufficient to put out the burning makeup.

Juxtapose 2 - Luka Magnotta and Colonel Russell Williams

Two of Canada's most infamous killers have no ties to the Mafia, or to urban drug gangs, or even to any history of spousal violence.  Yet Colonel Russell Williams and porn actor Luka Magnotta share many life experiences and personality traits.  Here are just a few of the very obvious one.

Many Canadians were taken aback when the Federal government authorized a CC-150 Polaris to carry Montreal cops over to Germany to take custody of Luka Magnotta. The excuses were hollow but the interesting coincidence is that the bird,  No. 15005, is the same VIP Transport once flown by Col. Williams, the former Commanding Officer of 437 Transport Squadron. One of Col. Williams female victims was a military flight attendant who had also served onboard Polaris No. '05

These two men are the of the new breed of Canadian killer ... more savage, far more savvy, and with a taste for documenting their killings in the minutest detail.

- Luka Magnotta, as the world knows, recorded every detail on of his killing and sodomizing of the body of Jun Lin.  Wing Commander Williams recorded hours of tape of the rapes and murders he committed and he kept voluminous notes and trophies.

- both came from dysfunctional, broken homes, with parents who "called it quits" rather early.

- both have experimented with personal identity and were younger men under different names -  Magnotta was Eric Newman in Ontario and Williams was Russ Sovka in Ontario.

- both enjoyed posing as women.  Williams had a huge collection of women's underwear and enjoyed posing in bikinis and bras.  Magnotta, as we know, relished makeup and could pass as a woman.

- both were very mobile, very social and skillful at deceiving their closest friends.

One important new twist - Luka wanted to join the "big league" of celebrity killers and was aware of the governments suppression of the Karla Homolka tapes and of the Russell Williams video. So he made sure his video testament got uploaded before he left Canada. This is the criminal novelty which we will see again in the near future.  

So parents, as we are on the threshold of a "new age" in this great land, perhaps it is time to worry less about marijuana in your teens sock drawer, and focus more on who they believe they are, and who they fantasize becoming.  Just a thought.

Canadian Idol Luka Magnotta now has a fan following, just as he had hoped to achieve.  Some of the laudatory comments I've read on Facebook are almost beyond belief. Embarrassed by a crime which touched even Parliament Hill (body parts mailed to Federal Party offices) our government went so far as to apologize to China for Mr. Magnotta's crimes. The media rubbed it in, and his landing at Mirabel Airport got better coverage than the arrival of Royals.  Come to think of it - some of the Royal Family have also flown on Polaris No. 15005.   

JUXTAPOSE 1 - Bev Oda - the Fall from Grace

My last article was rather lengthy and a tad intense, but I am convinced that Luka Magnotta's theatrics have opened a portal into something very dark and unfortunately, very Canadian. But I must take a breath and step back from Luka for a day or two.  

The expression "One Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words" is certainly NOT a Chinese proverb. It is usually held to a "thousand" words, and in spite of what Wikipedia will assure you (ARTICLE), buttressed by plenty of Internet contagion,  advertising executive Fred Barnard did not coin the phrase. The "proverb" should be the unofficial MOTTO of the Legion of Lazy Bloggers who scrape and paste pictures, rather than trying to write words.

In the proposition that a little humour is good for one's mental health, I'll be offering a series of Juxtaposed images -  as a break between the longer articles in the Blog.

Canadian MPs waiting for carriages to arrive, circa 1875. It was Ottawa in the age of silk hats, walking sticks and horse drawn transportation.  These dandies were conscious of the presence of the camera  and of their image as members of a political elite. 

[Coll. of the Runagates Club Blog]

Newly resigned M.P. Bev Oda, Minister of the Crown.  In this photo she was caught in a sour mood and needing her nicotine - in front of the House of Commons.  You could almost feel sorry for her IF you were not aware of the millions of dollars of media training Parliamentarian's get at our expense.  Bev just does not give a shit.  She's 68 now and ready to lay it down in the sunny Caribbean.  [Photo taken by Chris Roussakis]

Editorial comment -  While I'm not a Tory, I take no pleasure from Ms. Oda's fall from grace, although the ankle biters have just cause for listing her many excesses - epitomized by the infamous $18 dollar glass of orange juice.   Today's updated burst of outrage is HERE.

Still, how is it that Ms. Oda gets kicked around but the truly odious Adrienne (Pon) Clarkson, the retired Empress of Canada - still gets to burn up our tax money from her elitist eyrie in France?  Grrrrr!  Bev Oda is a penny pincher compared to the wicked queen of the north, Madame Clarkson.

Luka Magnotta - Everything is an attempt to be human ...even murder

For all of the month of June, we Canadians were force-fed large servings of Luka Magnotta, a young chameleon who has left a long trail of evidence he designed with the intent to taunt investigators and tantalize the media.  As details emerged of his outrageous murder (by ice pick) and dismemberment (by steak knife) of a gentle Chinese immigrant student, I must admit I was half expecting the Magnotta story to end with another "suicide by police encounter".  But he surrendered without struggle in Germany,  and now we get to follow his multi-million dollar show-trial in 2013.   I'm not the first to mention that the Magnotta story is a variant of another recent Canadian murder - the Mark Twitchell case.  The FACEBOOK Generation is obsessed with drawing attention to itself and too often with turning its sickest fantasies into video productions which might achieve "Mickey and Mallory" style (NATURAL BORN KILLERS) celebrity in exchange for some cold blooded  entertainment. 

Actually what comes to mind when I ponder Magnotta's work... and it is WORK,  is the poetry and art of William Blake.  I'm not referring to Blake's Red Dragon paintings  one of which gets ripped up and eaten by the serial killer Francis Dolarhyde in the  movie RED DRAGON (2002).  I refer to Blake's lesser known print and accompanying verse:

"Everything is an attempt/ To be human"

You don't have to be a philosopher or a psychologist to recognize the confusion and anxiety spreading in our culture. The generation behind me is, I think,  rather disturbed and some of the evidence of that turmoil is the  fragmentation of personality and widespread experimentation with all aspects of identity, lifestyle and kinship.  If there is no God.... if Patriotism is bunk... if Family is a dying proposition...if nationality, sexual orientation, and community are matters of whim and wealth.... then what does it truly mean to be human? Isn't murder just a more dramatic form or expression than profanity? Luka Magnotta is a marvellous example of human adaptation in a changing environment. There are thousands like him living in every city in Canada.  The 21st Century is just underway and already the U.S.A. has elected two presidents who started life with different surnames, and each of whom through force of will, forged new identities which proved attractive in the political marketplace. Most of us will recognize the callous killers who, like Magnotta (born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman),  emerge from broken homes, but we should pay equal attention to the master manipulators who attain celebrity without resorting to to homicide. 

I did not choose to write this article with the intent to provoke or to shock. In fact I am still reeling from a conversation I had with a 15 year old student just one week ago, and writing helps me deal with it. The boy, a Taiwanese immigrant, lives with his mother in an expensive home in Vancouver's wealthy West side. His father is "an astronaut" - meaning he attends to his business in far off Taiwan and returns to Vancouver now and then.  The boy, I'll call him Randy, attended a big boozer with about twenty of his high school chums. There were five girls present. All are Asian and all come from money.  The highlight of the party was watching and discussing the full-length video of the murder of Justin Lin, which one of the Vancouver students had downloaded from the Internet. I thought Randy was putting me on, but he was unwilling to be disbelieved so he ran me through the whole sequence ... from the killing, to Magnotta partially dismembering Lin Jun and setting his severed head to the side .... to his sodomizing a headless corpse.  Imagine!

I haven't yet decided which is more ghastly, Magnotta's crimes, or the idea of twenty Vancouver teenagers crowding around a computer screen to watch the heartless destruction of a human life.  Randy's girlfriend was present, and I asked him "Don't you think that part of being "a man" is to protect your girlfriend from that kind of horror?  Do you think you acted like a man?"  His bland reply to me was "Well I was sitting between her and the screen. She didn't see most of it."  He insisted that wasn't the worst video he'd seen at a party. They had watched "Al Quaeda videos" downloaded from the Internet in which Westerners had begged pitifully to be spared, but had their heads cut off anyway. Randy said that listening to people beg for life was far worse than watching the Magnotta butchery, although his friends were "really pissed off" that he had killed a Chinese.  I know that Randy has been flirting with the gang life, and his mother worries.  I asked him if he understood that watching the Magnotta video and similar party tapes had changed him, and that he was more likely to use a baseball bat than his fists the next time someone "dissed" his girlfriend. He rejected my assertion and said that among his tight group of friends only one talks openly about killing, and is cold enough to kill. (A teen who lost his parents to an auto accident and is intensely angry.) One is enough.

  

...We are all quite used to homosexual imagery by now because it pops up on any unfiltered PC. When Eric Newman made this (photos) porno video for STREET BAIT of Vancouver in 2003 he had not yet legally changed his name to LUKA MAGNOTTA.  It was early on established that he took the name from an old Computer game called RIPPER, which showcased a sadistic killer named Vince Magnotta, played by actor Christopher Walken.

ONE LUNATIC, ONE ICE PICK - produced, directed and starring Luka Rocco Magnotta Magnotta's last movie would be one which he would produce, direct and cast himself as the killer.  He entitled his snuff film ONE LUNATIC, ONE ICE PICK and he began promoting it on the Internet ten days before he actually committed murder in Montreal. People did notice his moves. 

BestGore.com of Edmonton, Alberta  earned a visit from the police when they mirrored Magnotta "Lunatic" video, but in fact they had not done anything illegal. The Internet is awash with thousands of videos just as ghastly, if not worse than the Canadian made snuff film.

Our world is filled with so much bizarre, extreme and downright ludicrous violence that I think we have lost our perspective and we're not likely to recover it. A few weeks ago I downloaded a screen capture of Jun Lin's severed throat. (photo above)  I didn't look at it for any longer than it took to file the image neatly away. Then a few days later later I found myself watching the re-runs of Season Four BREAKING BAD on AMC.  Perhaps you recall the episode where Gus slits a throat with a box cutter and Walt and Jesse are forced to watch. We see the victim react .... with terror filled eyes,  gasping for life, until finally the light goes out in his eyes... he drops to the floor  and the red gore of his lifesblood spreads toward Walter White's shoes. I recall thinking "Jesus Christ, I wouldn't download that Mad dog Magnotta's video, but I just watched a killing equally brutal and totally convincing.  Where is the boundary between fact and fiction.?"  If you look closely at Luka Magnotta's life, and perhaps take an honest look at your own, you will probably realize we are living our lives without boundaries. I am convinced that Canada has ignored plenty of Magnotta's and one by one, they are going to demand that we pay attention.