OBAMA - "If he had a son..." Two killings in Florida

Damn... the trash in the news today is so painful. The media, especially the American broadcast media, is shovelling shit like there is no tomorrow. I couldn't begin to pick the creepiest, slimiest chunk of info-tainment oozing from from my computer this morning... but I guess it is a tossup between "The Hunger Games" becoming the latest box office smash (shades of TWILIGHT vampire dross!!!) or the news that schools in England are now banning elementary school students from declaring each other "best friends". SCHOOLS BAN CHILDREN MAKING BEST FRIENDS Being best-buds is now deemed elitist and marginalizing. Ouch! England is after all the country which invented the perfected dystopian future... BRAVE NEW WORLD and NINETEENEIGHTY-FOUR. The Brits are rapidly achieving double-plus newness, but the Yanks are only just behind them.

Likewise I thought we had already seen the label sewn to the bottom of the bag we know as media-sycophancy ... but this guy Barack Obama can do and say virtually anything he pleases and the media kiss his ass on both cheeks. It's astounding to witness. Worse, the Americans claim to reject the concept of Monarchy and yet the Presidential family has become nothing else but a Royal Family. All monarchs have Praetorian guards... our Queen does, and her successor surely must, because it is inevitable that one day a Muslim party will seize control of Britain's Parliament...

The Americans understand the concept of a dystopian future because THEY are creating one for themselves ... it's a highly militarized future... a shoot first - explain later future, when every killing will have a clearly defined purpose and also be as legal as a Presidential Decree. So the White House, which once made do with a Praetorian guard at Battalion strength, has now been reinforced to Regimental strength. Obama's security detail is now more than capable of defending his excellency from even a rogue U.S. military unit or the deranged pilot of a U.S. military aircraft. Nobody outguns the Presidency. Sad and sick.

Just last week one of Obama's daughters went off on an urban-safari to Mexico City... did the media carp about the White House dispatching a full platoon of Secret Service to provide defensive cover? Not a bit of it. (Nor did they carp with the Obama's recently took a full Battalion of Secret Service as escort on their Hawaiian vacation.) A sickening, Gucci wallet spectacle indeed. To my tired eyes the metaphor was a troop of U.S. cavalry heading out from Fort Apache for a sortie deep into hostile territory.

I always check out Drudge in the morning and the headline today is a direct quote from His Royal Highness Barack the First, the Lion of Chicago... who declared yesterday "If I had a son, he's look like Trayvon." He was talking skin colour... he was talking about good looks, talent and aspiration. But he also knows full well, that is NOT how it is going to play out.

This is politics, not parenting. Obama's staff has urged him to wade into the latest Florida killing of .... (to quote Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine) "a young black male... a young Afro-American...". If you are an American you already know every itty-bitty detail about Trayvon's life, or at least as much as you are ever going to know. So now the White House, in the run-up to the November national election, has embraced the Michael Moore image of the victimized young black male as its poster boy. Bad move slick! Trying to turn this into a race-thing is not something the Democratic Party is capable of handling with finesse and it's guaranteed to deep-six all those Republican cross-over voters who were willing to give a demo-crat a chance. The Demo-thugs are hogging the camera already and it makes butt-ugly politics.

I see something of interest in an outburst yesterday by Geraldo Rivera, who like everyone else, is seeking to explain the sad Trayvon Martin shooting . He pegged Trayvon Martin as a 'posture boy' NOT a political 'poster boy' as the Democrats will spin him. Millions of young people, including Canadian youth, choose to use fashion as a statement - too often the hoodie. Trayvon used a hoodie to frame his baby face, and it worked. He WAS perceived as threatening. Listen to what Geraldo had to say... LEAVE THE HOODIE AT HOME. Bear in mind that Rivera has already been FORCED to disavow his comments, or risk putting his own career in the crosshairs.

Now for a little juxtaposition - another story of a black youth in Florida. This is also from today's news, but it's unlikely you will encounter the tale, because Mr. Obama has NOT embraced Shawn Martin. If you are a Canadian Snowbird you may have read a little of the story of Shawn Tyson, the good looking 16 year old who executed two British tourists, but not before humiliating them them a little before pulling the trigger. Read the original story for yourself HERE. It takes just two minutes.

ANN COULTER - Vancouver SUN steals a car and does a Drive-By Hit

I know this is a sucker's game. Spouting off about what is published in the local paper is like shouting invective at the TV. Once they've got you mad, they win. So we put them on ignore. They become background noise. I've gone from buying three daily papers in the 90's down to buying NONE .... my tally is three editions of the Vancouver SUN in ten years. Just think of the trees I've saved, and the thousands of display ads I wasn't exposed to. Since my wife has left Chinese newspapers laying around, that explains why our house is full of stuff from Chinese owned shops. If whitey wants to sell us furniture he better advertise in the "non traditional" media.

That said, I Googled the current flap over Ann Coulter's invitation to speak in Ottawa. Just a few days ago I read a snotty, intimidating email (on display below) which a kook hackademic in Ottawa (Francois Houle) shot across Ms. Coulter's bow. His snot-gram caused a little buzz on the Net. That was his plan. Pre-emptive engagement. I guess it was too much to be hoped that Ms. Coulter would appear, stand her ground, and when Houle provoked her, kick the sissy boy in the nuts. Instead her event gets cancelled. Sissy boy wins.

Googling for an update, what do I find but today's colour splash on the VEE SUN page? Seven... count 'em, 7 photos of the lady smeared with good 'ole Canadian mud. "right-wing U.S. firebrand"... "Ultra-conservative", Blah, Blah, Blah. Coulter is best selling book author, but the SUN runners don't read books. They settle for Google search and double click on pages which promise to put bullets in their gun. Scrape and reshape pre-chewed nuggets of tasty invective. The Sun steals a car, does a drive-by, hides the gun for the next hit... and calls that journalism. They give Coulter the Sarah Palin treatment, and the public is well served?? Not!

Die Ann Die! What to make of the SUN pasting seven photos of Ann Coulter on their wall, like a collection of WANTED POSTERS. Wanted for expressing a non-conforming opinion.

This is the snotty email that Francois Houle launched in a pre-emptive strike against Ann Coulter's invitation to speak in Canada. Mr. Houle is the stereotypical Canadian sneak - the smiler with a knife, grunting and sweating as he cowers in the bushes for his next victim. "I therefore encourage you to educate yourself.." wrote Houle. Huh? "How many fingers do you see now Winston?" "Two? No Winston. In Canada that's three." If you like this, you will love Houle's email to Stephen Harper, critiquing the Tory Blue Paper addressing the Crisis in University Funding. "... I draw your attention to the Globe's editorial on the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan."

Dateline Toronto: March 1987 - A group of pod people swarm a university student who holds a dissenting view on foreign affairs. This is what was planned for Ann Coulter in Ottawa. This is what constitutes political "discussion" in the Canadian mobocracy. I have research binders filled with crap like this. Anyone who has read Nineteen Eighty-four will recognize this as a Canadian variant of Orwell's Two Minutes Hate.

What should Canadians worry about more - the rise of an intrusive Post 911 Orwellian police state, or the tenured hacks on university campuses who do the heavy lifting for the Thought Police? Remember the immortal words of Clarence Darrow - "There is no such crime as a crime of thought: there are only crimes of action." If you are willing to condone the public gagging of a woman who is law abiding, then why not just send your kids to an Iranian university? In Iran they will be taught to lynch or stone the non-conformers. Houle is not on record for denouncing Islamic fascists. That takes balls, which he ain't got.

POST TOUR UPDATE: Rex Murphy devoted his column to Coulter today. What startles is that he took the opportunity to take a shot at Michael Moore, making him the leftist foil to Coulter. "Both are agile in their approach — Moore being the slickest of slick pseudo-documentarians, a foil to Coulter’s Don Rickles conservatism. Absolute and deliberate attack on the preciousness of political correctness is Coulter’s main game, and she plays it with vicious relish. Guileful shaping of documentaries lambasting capitalism, and posing as an outsized champion of the little guy is Moore’s self-assigned beat, one he’s walked to fame and fortune since Roger and Me.

It doesn’t take much courage to be Michael Moore. For a while anyway, he owned near hero status with the activist base (and some of the leadership) of the Democratic party. He charms the trendy minds of the glitterati. I dare say there’s a statue, complete with candles and incense, of Michael Moore in Sean Penn’s living room."... Read his column (here).

Attention Vancouver Shoppers - John Candy and Michael Moore

Christmas shoppers are out in full force and some have that Don't mess with me! look. I find the best defensive posture is to restrict my reconnaissance of the major Burnaby shopping malls to early morning or well after dusk. It's not that we need that much to make me happy, but as a film buff I need to browse regularly. I find I must satisfy that itch at the back of the eyeballs and the only balm is a good movie.

As a newly minted documentary film maker I am keen to study the work of others. I constantly add to my library of non-fiction DVDs - an expensive genre to build in. Recently I stumbled on a cache of deleted titles in a store at Brentwood Mall in Burnaby. I scooped up ten DVDs including films by Errol Morris, Patrick Creadon, Michael Wilson, Marc Levin and others. My pick of the bunch is undoubtedly MICHAEL MOORE HATES AMERICA - a Mike Wilson film. The 95 minute feature is virtually unknown in Canada... Big Surprise eh!... and more is the pity. I love discussing good cinema but couldn't find anyone who'd seen it. A young friend at SFU film school told me today that he just couldn't get past the abrasive title. But the harsh title is integral to the story, and all is explained to the viewer. Even the elder statesman of Documentary film Albert Maysles approved, and his integrity is legendary.

Michael Moore Hates America - The title is provocative, the content eye opening, and the DVD now extremely affordable: $5 at WALMART and $6 at ZELLARS in the Vancouver area (very limited supply).

What Michael Wilson did was simple enough in concept - he chose to serve Mr. Moore a generous dose of his own medicine. Wilson made a study of every trick Moore employed in BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE and then he spent over a year following Moore's trail. The process of discovery exposes a pattern of outright fraud in Moore's technique and execution, but it is done with tact, wit and humour.

Don't fixate on the title. Wilson is not on a vendetta. He does however, mount an an assault for which there is no defence - and as a result Moore's production company went into lock down while Wilson was on the streets with a camera. Neither Moore or any his staff deigned to respond to an investigation of their film making tactics.
I emailed Michael Wilson to express my appreciation for his film and told him that MOST of Michael Moore's features have been broadcast by Canada's state owned television network - the CBC. I asked if his film had ever been broadcast in Canada. The answer was that it has never been broadcast ANYWHERE. And that, boys and girls, is morality tale in itself.

John Candy does a LIVE remote for CBC and entertains the shoppers at Brentwood Mall in Burnaby, B.C. It was Christmas 1976.

The comedy setup was to get some volunteers to gift wrap boxes, and then... well you know John. Out came the moose antlers, and much more. The six minute clip is an entertaining Blast from the past. Check it out at:

http://archives.cbc.ca/society/celebrations/clips/16149/

The CBC Archives website uses a software which prevents simple screen captures, so I used a digital SLR.

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A CHRISTMAS CARE PACKAGE TO KANDAHAR

JUSTIN is one of the efficient volunteers staffing the Military Family Resource Center at C.F.B. Jericho Beach on West 4th. MFRC - BC offers support to hundreds of military families in Greater Vancouver.

Since our daughter deployed to Afghanistan our family has taken advantage of the free parcel service offered by the Canadian Forces. We sent our third "CARE PACKAGE" on Monday and are amazed that it has taken as little as twelve days for small boxes to be delivered to her at Kandahar Air Field. Damn that's efficient! I guess the term is now universal for boxes of goodies sent to loved ones, often students at university, far from home. I was reminded of the origin of the term yesterday when I was riffling through a fifty year old copy of AMAZING STORIES magazine. The old advert reads:

"CARE FOOD CRUSADE - $1.00 sends a 22-lb. Food Crusade package to the world's hungry through CARE, New York 16."

22 pounds of food delivered for a $1 donation! Today it costs one dollar & tax just to send a two page letter as far as New York!