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.

adidas Shackle Shoes - the Internet stomps on Brand's product launch

I've never worn an adidas product but I have to admit these Shackle Shoes in Inmate Orange are kick-ass. In fact if a pirate edition turns up in a local Chinese night market I will be tempted.  Of course I would prefer my plastic shackles in Canadian Taxpayer Red. ... I'm acutely aware of who my masters are.  I've never worn a prison jumpsuit  but millions of Americans have, and that's the point. adidas was hoping to cash in on the bravado of inmates past and present, and make a bundle.  On June 14th the foot-ware conglomerate began promoting a new shoe, the "JS Roundhouse Mid" on its Facebook page. (I'm not into sneaker semiotics, so I don't get any of that.) The teaser line read "Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?" The product is already manufactured, in China of course,  and was slated for an August 2012 release. Then something interesting happened.  A few shrill agitators (the likes of the felonious Jesse Jackson) mouthed off about the Shackle Shoe, forging spurious links between the gaudy foot ware and the American slave-holding era which ended 147 years ago.  adidas lost its nerve.  Read "Adidas 'shackle' shoes cancelled amid slavery controversy".

So where did the idea spring from?  Credit is given to Jeremy Scott, the Tim Roth lookalike scowling at us in this photo.  Mr. Scott and adidas were planning to cash in on the fact that more millions of U.S. citizens have done time in prison or jail than have served in the military. For a quick take on the staggering numbers read United States incarceration rate on Wikipedia.  A D.O.J. report found that in 2006 over 7.2 million Americans were in prison on probation or on parole... that is 1 out of every 32 U.S. citizens!    If you are a trend watching bunch like they are in the fashion sneaker biz, that is a juicy demographic.  And don't you believe that inmates aren't consumers of trend-ware.    

There are many articles I could point to profiling inmate fashion in the exercise yard, but for a one-minute taste, read "Croc-style shoes proving popular in local jails". It's HERE.  In the past year inmates of just one jail bought 215 pairs, at $15.99, to match their issue jumpsuits.  I'm reminded of the title of a book I read twenty years ago, IF EVERYBODY BOUGHT ONE SHOE.  It is about doing business with the Chinese, and although the book is long out of date, the sentiment applies.  If even a fraction of the American inmate population got the point (the joke?) and bought a pair of Shackle Shoes, adidas and Scott would make out like bandits.

Then there is the super-cheapo variety of shoe. The real thing - prison issue.  Inmates housed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wear these slip-ons, imported from China and which cost that nearly-broke State  less than a bag of birthday balloons at your local Dollarama.

Since the U.S. Government activated the infamous prison camp for Muslim militants at Guantanamo, Cuba the market has been flooded with an array of new-fangled restraints, masks and gags, some of which are produced in Inmate Orange. The Yanks force their Muslim detainees to wear Inmate Orange to emphasize they are CRIMINALS and not POW's. This photo shows a prisoner sporting felt-bottomed orange slippers and cushioned leg irons with non-pick locks.  

These gals are wearing a similar type of slip-on footware into court. Notice that their legs are also shackled, a rather odious form of restraint which has become a matter of routine in many jurisdictions south of the border and, which will probably become routine in Canada before long. 

And finally, a graphic borrowed from Wikipedia which shows another wretched statistic from 2006.  That year nearly 5% of American Black males were in prison or jail. If you extrapolate these annual figures you come to understand that far, far more American Blacks have been imprisoned by the courts than were ever held in bondage by slave owners.  "Inmate Orange" and shackle shoes are an obvious pairing and I was amused to discover that one author boldly discusses colour politics in her "Orange is the New Black - My Year in a Women's Prison". Check it out HERE  on Amazon.com.

British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) boldly compared to an organized crime organisation

I was about to toss out a month of unread local newspapers when guilt got the better of me. I did a quick traipse through the pile.  It became a profitable five minutes when I found an editorial written by Mischa Popoff, described as a"Freelance political writer".  It was published in the BURNABY NOW on April 13th, 2012 and since 99% of the copies have been recycled by now it deserves to live a little longer on the Internet. It's a gutsy piece.

Popoff describes the demands and tactics of the B.C. teacher's union as "organized crime, plain and simple".  More, he discusses at length the intimidation process which renders taxpayers and parents helpless in the face of teacher power over their children, a chilling process he says is "a quite effective form of totalitarianism".  In case any reader assume that he is just employing hyperbole for effect, he returns to his characterization "Mafia" in the concluding sentence. It's his thesis, and he sticks to it.

Now you have to live in Burnaby to understand what a sea change this guest editorial represents. The Burnaby Now is a union shop and when I arrived in the 1990s  "editorial" was firmly in control of NDP flacks who learned their strategy and tactics while starting out on the organ of the provincial NDP. The NOW in the 90s didn't even pretend to be interested in free speech. The paper had "a mission".  It is quite clear that attitudes have changed. Staff at the NOW actually work for their pay and have little sympathy for the greedy pigs of the BCTF who have become blood ticks sucking on the ass of the helpless BC taxpayer.

What next?  How about starting a discussion on finally getting rid of "Big Box Schools" and an archaic system that was created to provide workers for a ballooning industrial economy?  This is post-industrial Canada and frankly, soon to be post-literate Canada, and we need to transform the school system by investing in electronic delivery of instruction in multiple languages and skill levels. The only obstacle preventing progress in B.C. Education is, as Popoff says, "organized crime".