How Crazy are Americans? Start with the "Liberals" and work your way to the Conservative "Hawks" - remember "LET'S CREATE KOREAN NO MAN'S LAND - USING ATOMIC WASTE PRODUCTS"

In case you believe that the wackiest thing that ever happened in Tennessee was the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, I'm here to challenge that thought.  When I think Tennessee, I think "Gore"... as in Albert Gore, senior and "Al" Gore junior...  stalwarts of the U.S. Democratic Party... "big thinkers".  

At this very minute U.S. forces are deployed in attack positions bracketing Iran. U.S. Special Forces and spies are on the ground inside Iran and will assist the strike, when and if Obama signs off on the mission. Whenever I listen to politicians pondering U.S. "options" in Iran  I am reminded of crackpots like Albert Gore, Sr.   Read below his "big idea" for ending the stalemate in the Korean War.  Gore wanted to protect Korea by by creating a modern version of HADRIAN'S WALL,  using tons of atomic waste products.

In 1951 the Democrats had the White House.  Rep. Albert Gore of Tennessee wrote to President Harry Truman with an urgent plea. Use "cataclysmic" radiation to "dehumanize" a belt across the Korean Peninsula,  and repeat the process periodically so that the enemy (Communists) can never again harm Americans.

"Something cataclysmic, it seems to me, is called for. We have it.  ... Please consider using it." And here we are again. The U.S. is supremely frustrated by the antics and maneuverings of the Iranian regime.  Israel says it will strike if Obama has no stomach to deal with the Persians.  And don't forget the super deep penetrating bunker busters are already deployed and ready for dropping by B2s.  Wait... it's time to call Al Gore, Jr for some sage advice. 

President Harry Truman did not heed General Douglas MacArthur. He did not "Nuke" the Red Chinese as he was advised.  Truman also ignored Albert Gore, Sr  in 1951.  He did not order the deliberate contamination of Korean soil, and though North Koreans live in extreme poverty, at least its farmers are not producing hideously deformed children. That would have been the Gore legacy if Truman was weak minded.

The Gore's - a typical American nuclear family. [sorry, an irresistible pun]  Al Gore junior was a baby boomer, destined to invent exploit the Internet.

The Gore's... one of America's governing families. A sad by-product of a mutant Democracy where only two political parties are allowed to live, and where all other parties are euthanized at birth. The Gore's are a "Mad Bad Line" but they're  also just what the American people have grown accustomed to.  

According to all credible sources - the U.S. will strike Iran in a matter of day, not months. ... "Last week alone, two intelligence insiders, Major-General Danny Yatom and Efraim Halevy, both former Directors of the Mossad, Israel’s main external intelligence agency, said a military attack on Iran was imminent." [news from Israel Aug. 6/12]  USAF B2 bombers will strike at Iran's deepest bunkers and the USN will salvo  launch hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iranian military assets.     Let's hope that President Obama is not listening to the most rabid war-nuts in Washington.  Busting open Iran's nuclear storage facilities is a great way to spread radioactive contaminants, and some of the Iranians are just crazy enough to store dangerous nuclear waste products inside the known target areas. That will ensure that explosions and fires loft contaminants into the atmosphere and the White House will be forced to deal with the international political fallout certain to result from unnecessary attacks which irradiate the Iranian countryside. 

Gore Vidal's America - Neo paganism vs Orwellian Nightmare. Take your Pick

I haven't had to attend a funeral for several years, but I am aware of the fact that people do die, and some are very notable deaths.  I feel a loss when cultural icons pass on, and one of the more remarkable voices of our time, Gore Vidal, died just a few days ago.  In Vidal's case I do mean "voice" because my first exposure was not to his books, but rather his late night appearances on the TONIGHT SHOW (Johnny Carson) in the 1970s. For a kid attending a Catholic junior highschool in a decaying Tory enclave - Saint John, N.B., staying up late to watch Carson was a desperate attempt to absorb some sophistication.  At election time Vidal would share the guest couch with a bimbo plugging a movie and a stand-up comedian, merely to get in a few good zingers at the expense of the current Republican candidate.  Even though I knew Vidal was also mocking my budding political values, I enjoyed every witty word.  I often wondered if Vidal knew he was poking fun at the Canadian hinterland as much as to middle-America. Times change, people change, politics change - but I still admire Vidal's work.

I don't claim to have read many of his books. The man was so prolific that he wrote more in a lifetime than the average Canadian reads in a lifetime. Late in life he became a conspiracy theorist although he called himself a "conspiracy analyst".  One of lesser known books is a collection of essays entitled PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE. I don't have it but I've heard him speak on the issues and I certainly agree with his thesis that much of America's problem is that it antagonizes the World, and it doesn't know how to stop.  I also agree that America's commitment to a state of perpetual war, ("Defending Democracy" is the euphemism),  has become an ideological constant  very much akin to what the Communists call "permanent revolution" and which is fictionalized in Orwell's Nineteen-Eightyfour.  Vidal was an "isolationist Democrat" -  a very rare creature indeed.

PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE - if you want to check out what's covered in this book, the search page is at AMAZON.CA  - HERE

Obama - this is a man you all know and may even love. He also wrote a book. Have you read it?  As an antidote to carefully constructed autobiography might I recommend something a bit more honest? Try CONFRONT AND CONCEAL - Obama's Secret Wars And Surprising Use of American Power.  You can use the "Look Inside" feature at AMAZON.CA -  HERE.

Returning to todays subject... my favorite Gore Vidal novel has nothing to do with American culture.  It is JULIAN, published in 1964, which I found  time to read in 2003. Though dazzled by the story and the power of the prose, I felt I owed it to myself to compare fiction to conventional biography.  A week later I bought a copy of JULIAN the APOSTATE, by Giuseppe Ricciotti and also petitioned Uncle Google.  For too long I had carried in my head a simple construct of the reasons for the Fall of Rome -  a decadent society with an economy dependant on slave labour and fielding mercenary armies to protect its porous frontiers. I now understand the insidious role of organized Christianity which laboured to destroy Rome from within,  and then build the first Christian Empire atop and astride the ruins of what was Rome.  JULIAN was raised a Christian but later rejected its doctrines and devoted the remainder of his life to an attempt to restore the pagan gods to their rightful place at the centre of national culture.  

I can't help wondering about parallels in history. If we are truly, as some critics suggest, witnessing the  "Fall of the American Empire," then it stands to reason that we may also be witnessing the fall of the American God.   I grew up in a Canada where America's traditional values were freely mocked by opinion leaders - high school teachers, politicians, media celebrities and the like.  It took only one drawling reference to "Godless Communists" or "My Lord and Savior" to make a roomful of urban Canadians roll their eyes and groan in disdain. Be patient Canada... American Christianity is a shadow of what it was. Be also prepared for the Shock of the New. We are perhaps only a decade or two away from a legal requirement for NPR to broadcast the Islamic Muezzim's Call to Prayer, I hope I am still around, just to  witness Canadians who dare roll their eyes.

Vidal believed that the American government reaction to 9/11 did far more harm to his Nation than did the attack on New York by Bin Laden's assault team.  That is a just and reasoned verdict and it will stand the test of time. It matters not whether the American President is Christian or Muslim because it is not religion which is dividing their country. It matters a great deal that the U.S.A. is polarized politically, and that it's people fixate on the two-party system as if it were Democracy Perfected. To rely on the ideas and base motives of only two parties... (or two "brands") for another hundred years, is madness.  Some of Gore Vidal's ideas represent a heart felt slice of the alternative viewpoint which is derided by an arrogant media establishment, which has a vested interest in a two pony race.  A country which professes peace but constantly practices war is already Godless, and far more pagan than it realizes.

"BOMB The Hell Out of ..." somebody.  This was America in 1969. So what's changed?  Last week we read the news about America's new  SUPER - SUPER HEAVY bomb, now being readied to penetrate deeply buried nuclear bunkers in Iran... and to what end? How will they prevent the spread clouds of radioactive dust through the region?  read "Mega-Buster-Bunker-Bomb" on Wired.

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.