Please don’t taser me.

We all remember the lethal taser incident that happened at the Vancouver Airport. A Polish man, just arrived in Canada, was waiting in a holding area  for his mother, who was also in the Airport. No one spoke to him in his own language, and he obviously had no idea where he was and how to get to his mother. He asked for help, being clearly upset, and was promptly tasered to death. The video is here in case anyone forgets this incident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6nx0Cx3uMk

I don’t want to forget this incident, and while Julian Fantino, the current fascist of police heads, thinks all police should have tasers, it is extremely important that you, as a person, a citizen, should never forget either.

Any of us could be tasered by the police. It all depends on what you look like, how you move your hands, what you say..

Does anyone really believe tasers will not be misused? Does anyone still harbour the delusion that police react only when threatened? And what defines “threatened”? Why the police do of course.

There is a good piece of satire in the Toronto Star today by Slinger. Just a few quotes:

<blockquote>”Based on a variety of incidents, the following scenario becomes appallingly possible.

The cop says I’ve been speeding.

To show how much I disagree, I throw my hands skyward and say something like “Jesus Christ Almighty!”

As I lower my arms, I step toward the officer so we can speak in normal tones. He concludes that I’m about to attack him, pulls his Taser, and zaps me.

The cop’s action is in keeping with the policies and procedures of the Toronto department. He possessed, in the words Superior Court of Ontario Justice David Brown used in a recent case, “the honest subjective belief that he was about to be assaulted.”

“The RCMP’s Lightfoot says, “I can tell you there are many accountability systems in place with regards to police actions. You have the courts, you have coroners’ inquests, you have a multitude of oversight bodies. There is a complaints process that can be followed.”</blockquote>

Read the rest here:

http://www.thestar.com/GTA/Columnist/article/409453

In a democratic society, no arm of the government should have the right to carry tasers. These tasers will be used against protestors (which is our right as enshrined in the Charter of Rights), they will be used against anyone police think is threatening, and that last word, threatening, will be used to justify a whole onslaught of tasering incidents against citizens. Tasers result in death and severe harm. They should not be in the hands of power hungry police out to get “the other”.

In the police world, we are all “the other”.

Spread the word against the use of tasers for police.

Romney - A Mormon and a Moron

So, Mitt Romney decides he’s going after the “black vote” and to show his clear understanding of black issues and black people, Romney let’s it all hang out on MLK day, better known to the GOP as “Monday”. Sporting a nice white collar shirt and funny looking tie, Romney works the predominately black crowd by dropping little nuggets like, ‘ all right!” and “cool” while shaking hands and trying not to look too much like a guy who really has no clue. Kind of impossible coming from anyone in the GOP, especially Romney. I mean, this dude makes Huckabee look like Snoop Dog.

Romney works the crowd like only a stiff necked white dude can, by looking way out of place and trying to be as cool as he can, which means not cool at all. He saunters up to two women who want to pose for a photo, puts his arm around the shoulders of the closet woman and says, “who let the dogs out?” followed by a rather low “woof, woof”. I mean, this guy expects to get black votes by quoting some lame 5 year old rap lyrics to two middle aged women? This is pretty funny stuff. But not to be outdone, he eventually meets a woman with a small child and says, “I see you have some nice bling bling” then says, “that’s Michael Jordan”. Because we all know, all black kids wear bling bling and not necklaces, and they all look like or want to be Michael Jordan. Damn, I was waiting for Romney to get down with some good break dancing and then tell everyone about his favourite episode of American Gangster yo.
Stay tuned next week for Romney’s attempt to gain the Latin vote by eating tacos and putting furry dingle balls on his limo while playing the Gypsy Kings at 11 on his amp.

Wow, it’s really 2008

I know, usually I never really pay attention to a date rolled over into another year. It’s really just another day right? I used to be so sure it was. Now? not so much. Sure, I’m no longer wanting to go out to a club, get hammered and dance my ass off (although I wish I still wanted to do those things….I think). Instead I spend this New Year’s going for dinner at Vegetarian Haven and then watching a horror flick at home, having some hot sex with my boyfriend, and now writing here, about this new year.

How to put this year in perspective without going over the highs and lows of last year? Impossible I say! Plus, last year was the year I truly believed this world may be doomed. Let’s look at some of the highlights of last year.

George W. Bush…there. I have ruined and sullied my blog with theses three simple words. Yet how can the year 2007 not be discussed without looking at GWB aka, the murdering chimp, aka butcher boy, aka sadistic fuck. Lest we forget, his sidekick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Baker..hell, the entire CIA, almost all of Congress, including Democrats. 2007 was the year of torture, the “surge” in Iraq, the further erosion of the American Constitution, women’s rights, God Hates Fags, the outing of the twisted, hypocritical Rethuglicans, no health care for poor kids, the threat of WW3, the “Iran problem”, Chavez (the one shining light!), The fall of the American dollar, the 57 percent rise in oil prices. Last but not even remotely least, the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children. The blood on the hands of every single American.

For Canada it was the rise of the Harpercrites, the neo-cons, the Canadian equivalent of Bush. Harper, that slimy man with bad hair and shifty blue eyes. We watched and did nothing as he took a minority government, elected only to punish the Liberals, govern as if they had a mandate from the Canadian public. Taking a page or few right out of the Bush handbook. Talk of Death sentences, stiffer jail terms, the forging of the SPP, the erosion of Canadian sovereignty. The gullible, and greedy public, who decided 100 dollars a month was better than Universal Child Care. 2007 was the year Canada went from being a shining beacon in the western world (lax drug laws, pro-Kyoto, anti-war) to be the American stooge. We have men and women killing over in Afghanistan. Harper et. al. have made marijuana a bad thing - again. Canada was a laughing stock and bully in Bali on Climate Change. We have been changed as a nation by the actions of a few ideologues who do not hold the same beliefs as the vast majority of Canadians. I shudder to think what this man will do if given a majority. And let’s not forget Dion, that wimp who decided it is best to let us all sink than to potentially lose an election. Either way, we are fast becoming a place I no longer want to live in.

There is an American election coming up. Oh yeah, the world rejoices. Sure they do, only if they are silly enough to believe it will change a thing. Hillary? Please. A war monger and corporate hack. Obama? Great that he may be the first black president but America? electing a black man? Not going to happen. And let’s not forget the Right’s attempt to (successfully) paint Obama as a Muslim terrorist. America has only one man running for office that is acceptable to the world, and that man is Dennis Kucinich. But, America being America, (you know, Christian Fascists and the pious) will never, ever elect a decent and moral human being. After all, too many Americans relate too much with the idiot talking pundits on TV. No Dennis for you! No world peace for us. On the Right we have a bunch of freaks. Huckabee, a religious woman hating nutbar who will do more to damage America than even that monster Bush. If you think America is loaded with Jesus Fish freaks now, wow Nelly! Just wait to see what happens if Huckabee gets elected. The Ten Commandments will be back in vogue, women will be losing their jobs, and underground repressed perversions will run rampant (oh, yes sorry, that is already happening). Romney? Perfect! Another religious whack job. Not to mention anti-Muslim and a massive bigot. Mccain? Gripes, this guy is so old I have no idea how he remembers to do up his shoes. Ron Paul? God, Ron Paul. The man the left has been suckered into thinking is some saviour. He’s a 70 year old protectionist, racist piece of crap. let’s get real here. This man is a joke. So, to wrap up - yes America, you’re still screwed, and thanks to you, so is the rest of the world. Since y’all want to have something to say and do in everyone else’s country, I say let us all vote in your elections. Americans, stop your whining. You don’t have the market on pain. The rest of us do as we watch your men in charge destroy this world we all inhabit. If I hear one more time about America’s “lost innocence” I’ll scream. Face the facts you all have been bombing the shit out of people since your inception. hell, your country was founded on genocide and slavery. Spare us the bullshit. You guys have been the rogue nation for 50 plus years.

That’s the world’s lows. There are a lot more - Haiti, Rwanda, Abstinence only programs, Big Pharma..you get the picture. Shit is bad people. And no, it really isn’t going to get a whole lot better.

Personally I’ve had to struggle with agoraphobia, body hatred, the fallout from sexual harassment and rape, a move, mental instability.

But, the good news is, I am working on all of the above and 2008 will see the changes I am making. Just as I did in 2007, I will stick to my goals and accomplish things in my life. There isn’t much I can do about the world stage except write about it and talk about it and combat bigotry when I hear it. This is something I wish we would all do. Stop thinking about our own little tiny selves, and start thinking globally. Let’s get a move on that, and maybe we can all get this world back on track and stop some people in other countries from getting killed. Isn’t that something worth working toward? I think so…

On and up with life. To a better physical and mental self. 2008, you will hear me (you know who you are). Let’s be awesome to each other. <br>

The People Who Live Downstairs

It’s almost like The People Who Live Below the Stairs. It’s got elements of horror and suspense. It’s about love, hate, vilification, more hate, pregnancy and white trash. Mostly it’s about white trash and who knows what else comes from ‘the people downstairs’ (doom, doom, doom). Let me tell you about the people downstairs. He’s a burly short man, gone to flab in his mid to late 20’s. She’s a tall, could be pretty woman but doesn’t know her beauty, in her late 20’s. They live downstairs from me, they smoke a lot, they have no curtains, they don’t intend on paying the rent here ever again.

As I sit at my computer reading the morning news and surfing my favourite sites I am awakened by the sound of lungs being coughed and hacked up. The sounds of someone’s health gone horribly wrong. These sounds fill me with disgust and make me thankful I don’t smoke (although I still crave cigarettes). After he has coughed up a lung, I generally can’t hear a thing from downstairs but I sure do smell them. Their weed lifts right up, masking my house in it’s smell. It is all over my room, in my sheets, coming up through the vents. It makes me sneeze every morning, that combination of cigarettes and weed. It leads me to become more dependent on my asthma meds. I tell myself, what can I do that I haven’t already done to get them to stop this? It doesn’t matter. He says he killed someone at Queen and Sherborne. I asked him if he felt bad about that, as I assumed most people would. I was wrong. He is the bragging, tattooed neck kid who plays with bikers to be tough (and I’m guessing they would not want much to do with them either.) He doesn’t care that he took the life of a homeless man because that man touched his bike. I don’t know what bike, I haven’t seen a bike. I don’t know what bikers, as I haven’t seen bikers. He doesn’t work, I don’t think she does either. They smoke weed from day break until they fall asleep in their barely furnished apartment. Sometimes, like today, he beats her. Well, they fight, then he beats her. I hear she is pregnant - this from the whispers of Uncle, who has the misfortune of sharing a direct wall with them.

Today is New Year’s eve and they are yelling. Well, she is yelling because I hear her more. He yells, then speaks calmly, like all cold hearted men do when they beat a dog. He’s telling her to leave. She just wants some numbers out of his phone so she can sleep somewhere. I hear things smash and more yelling. Finally I hear her leaving and the door slamming. Mostly I wonder what will become of this woman lost in this short fat disgusting killer and what is to become of this baby born from a woman who does not value her self because no one has ever valued her? All I can see is no good.

I try to stay away from even seeing them. The unfortunate part is, I still have to hear them. And I worry about this woman/girl whose parents deserted her and who is dependent upon this horrible fat man who brought her here from the country. She is no shrinking violet, I know this, but he has a chance on his own. She, well, she stands no chance alone and pregnant with no where to go. Does it matter?

The weed wafts up through the vents and the stairs to my place. I realize, it doesn’t matter to him. Does it matter to me? Not enough to help her and get involved. That makes me a bad person I think. But this is a woman who lives with a tattooed neck killer and woman beater. She had a black eye. I don’t know. I can’t tell anymore. Frankly, they both scare me, but he scares me more because he is like a punk ass kid who is still trying to prove he is tough and never quite figured out the late 80’s and institutionalization are way way over.

Majesty Crush - Music Review

I had promised myself that when my new site was set up, I would blog and continue to do music reviews when I felt the need and the inclination. Knowing that this need would only arise when I was moved enough by specific music to do so took off a lot of pressure, which allows me to be free with my words and my thoughts. So here is my first review of what I consider to be the new year - “Majesty Crush - The Best of….”

I haven’t been on MySpace for awhile (seriously, this will all make sense soon so bare with me) so when I was on about a month ago I received a friend request from Full Effect Records. I like to take time to visit the sites of those who request friendship, mainly to hear the music or to see if their personalities, likes and dislikes etc. fit with mine. Well, I spent some time on Full Effect Records simply enthralled by what I heard from a band called Majesty Crush.

I consider myself quite up on new and underground music (okay well, mainly underground and indie) and was vastly disappointed when I listened to a band that was quite possibly the best find in a long time. Why had I never heard of Majesty Crush before? I suspect the answer lies in what I was listening in the early 90’s and sadly, although I loved the music I was listening to (Soundgarden, MotherLoveBone, NIN) I was not yet into the beautiful lush soundscapes like Majesty Crush were producing. I was still a die hard rock and roll/metal queen. If only I knew what I had been missing out on. You know, tastes evolve, and things change and where I am today music wise, is vastly different and much more diverse than where I was 10 years ago.

So here I am, listening to “No.1 Fan” by this new discovery, and I find myself sinking into that emotional pit of yester year. Longing for something and not being able to put my finger on it. Love? Lost youth? I don’t know, but I do know that great music drives me to emotional highs and lows like nothing else can. And here was this band making me weep, yet also sending that sexual thrill down my spine I always get when listening to such lush, breathless and beautiful vocals. There is nothing in the world quite like the feeling of something beautiful such as this music was providing. I wanted this man, this singer, to sing to me in the shower, to whisper these lyrics so sweet and sensual into my ear. I wanted these feelings to stay forever. Majesty Crush was able to get deep down into that spot reserved for lovers and beautiful music.

Part shoegaze, part psychedelica, Majesty Crush create lush and rich soundscapes which you can reside in as long as the sound remains. They are now defunct, and I read that the singer has gone on to for a band called “P.S I Love You”, and that is sad for the many fans this band had. And like a lot of bands, the fan base came much too late to save them. I hear there is talk of a possible reunion, although all the band members have their lives to deal with. One can hope this is true for those who loved them before and those, like me, who love them now.

Have a listen to the beauty of Majesty Crush here:

www.myspace.com/majestycrush

You can purchase their Best of… (and other goodies) from Full Effect Records. Good luck finding any of their other albums. I have looked on Gemms, Ebay and Amazon - all to no avail.

Majesty Crush will leave you breathless. Sing to me in the shower David. I love your voice.

Visit Full Effect Records at: www.fulleffectrecords.com