This and That

I realize I haven’t posted in awhile, my focus has been off due to a sick doggie. Thankfully he is on the mend and my focus is returning.

I have to say this whole H1N1 chaos is amusing when on the sidelines but also sad and upsetting if this is what our feds consider an effective pandemic plan. Last week they complained that not enough people wanted to get to get the vaccine and this week they complain that too many want it all at once. Well guess what feds, you’ve had since March to come up with a plan and you failed… miserably.
When I look at clinic locations for Montreal (my area of Montreal, which consists of downtown, Westmount, Outremont and Mont Royal) there is NO CLINIC. NOTHING. We’re talking about an area of Montreal that has numerous CEGEPS, Universities and Hospitals, on top of a dense population and not 1 freaking clinic? And then you can’t understand why people are lining up in droves at the very few clinics that are open?

This is how they should have set it up:
Clinics set up at schools so that parents and their kids can go there
Clinics set up across the city (even if they move every few days to different locations) for people who do not have school-age children.

Yes that was hard. So hard. And why weren’t teachers on the priority list? They’re stuck in rooms with kids who do not cover up their sneezes and coughs, nor do they wash their hands on a consistent basis. This was very very poorly planned. As someone who is in the healthy group, I have to wait over 1 month to be eligible for a vaccine. I don’t mind the wait so that other people who are more at risk can get theirs, but I do mind that they started these vaccinations so late into the season, so that we have to go through most of the season without a vaccine.

To be honest, I’m not even sure if I’ll get the vaccine. The day H1N1 broke in March, I was actually sick at home with very, very similar symptoms. Was it H1N1? Most likely not but it was eerie to have the same symptoms. Plus since I reside out of province temporarily, I’m not even sure if they’ll give me one here. One more thing, I’m a bit leery of signing a consent form for a supposedly safe vaccine. If the government and the pharmaceutical company really stand behind this vaccine, why do I have to sign my life away?

I may regret my bitching in a few weeks if I get sick but to be honest, standing in line for 7 hrs with hundreds upon hundreds of people doesn’t seem like a good idea either, if we’re talking about prevention. Hell, I don’t even want to go see some friends’ band tonight because I don’t want to be in tight quarters with people unless necessary.

Yes we should all be taking extra precautions right now, but we shouldn’t be clogging the ER’s and clinics. The pandemic right now, is the culture of fear that has been propagated.

Coincidence? I think not.

Alright, I had to stop the Tactics of Truth Suppression posts because, well to be honest, I’m stuck. I can’t think of examples using any political party. So if anyone is reading this blog of mine and would like to discuss these concepts with me in the hopes of me getting over this writer’s block, then leave a comment.

So I leave you with this…
Remember Harper in his sweater vest stroking the cat (not a euphemism). It was pointed out to me that he sorta looks likes the villain from Inspector Gadget.
Here’s both pictures, what do you think?

Bye Bye Civil Liberties… it was nice knowing you

Civil liberties mean nothing to this Conservative government.
What I find very VERY interesting about right-wing religious parties is that they preach 2 things:
1) less taxes and no deficit
2) the right to your freedom, aka big brother is not in your bedroom

But here’s the kicker, they always, ALWAYS do the opposite. See for instance:
1) Harper’s deficit
2) Harper blowing our surplus to buy votes
3) their tough on crime laws that will restrict your freedoms
4) they are in the bedroom when they vote against things involving personal choice i.e. abortion, gay marriage, marijuana possession etc…

Well here’s the latest:

The federal justice minister is considering a new law that would allow police to conduct random breathalyzer tests on drivers, regardless of whether they suspect motorists have been drinking…
…The issue for civil libertarians, however, is that changing the law to allow random testing would be a violation of a person’s right to protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

“It has no real place in a democratic society,” said Richard Rosenberg of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.

“Giving police power to act on a whim is not something we want in an open democratic society.”

The House justice committee that recommended the amendment in June said such a change might be challenged under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but said it would be up to the courts to decide whether the search could be considered reasonable.

Wow… ok so it seems they’ve already implemented some legislation that makes it illegal to drive while high on pot and they can test for it but the tests are very inaccurate. And now we have this? So people who vote Conservative, are you getting what you voted for? Do you really want your freedoms taken away?
I mean hey, the Cons don’t believe in registering guns but it’s ok for the police to test your sobriety without any indication that they need to.
What the hell is wrong with the right-wing parties and those who vote for them? This does NOT make sense to me at all. They are so full of hypocrisy.

We have a Charter of Rights for a reason! The Conservatives are doing everything they can to take our rights away because of a few rotten apples. Why should the few bad people create the rules for the rest of us?
Stand up for your fucking rights people, because pretty soon they’ll take that away too.

Cons against Arabs… again

In case no one believed me that the Conservatives don’t like Arabs… well here’s your proof

The description provided w. this (that got cut off) said:The bottom of this says: Conservative MP Mississauga Erindale’s staff *accidentally* reply all. A fairly nasty reply about the Canadian Arab Federation and the University of Toronto Students Union.

I’m thinking of e-mailing this MP to let him know that racism and uninformed opinions make him a very irresponsible MP.  His e-mail address is at the top but in case you can’t read it  here it is:Dechert.B@parl.gc.ca

To my knowledge the CAF is not a terrorist organization of any kind. Check it out yourself and make your own decision.

Tactics of Truth Suppression #11

Number 11

Establish and rely upon fall-back positions. Using a minor matter or element of the facts, take the “high road” and “confess” with candor that some innocent mistake, in hindsight, was made — but that opponents have seized on the opportunity to blow it all out of proportion and imply greater criminalities which, “just isn’t so.” Others can reinforce this on your behalf, later. Done properly, this can garner sympathy and respect for “coming clean” and “owning up” to your mistakes without addressing more serious issues.

Health Minister – Body Bag situation
Here’s a quote from her apology:

“It was insensitive and offensive,” she said. “As minister of health and as an aboriginal, I am offended. To all who took offence at what occurred, I want to say that I share your concern, and I pledge to get to the bottom of it.”

Ok so the Cons got the first part of that right… now onto the blown out of proportion site by the Opposition?
Oh this is just making my writing too easy:

Aglukkaq said anyone suggesting body bags were the government’s solution to H1N1 was “sensationalizing this situation.”
The results of the inquiry will be made public, she said.

Look at that! They followed number 11 to a T. She apologized, made it personal, said the Opposition was out of line, and they’re going to make the results public. By her making it personal she garners sympathy. I mean come on, she’s a female rookie MP from Nunavut and she speaks quite softly for a politician, so getting sympathy is easy for her to do.

Another situation that shows this is the whole Raitt sexy isotopes issue.
She didn’t apologize at first, but when she did, she laid on the water works and made it personal by speaking about her personal experiences with cancer. She blamed previous Liberal governments for not doing anything for 10 years (even though the Cons had been in power for like 3 yrs at that point and could have acted) and she even fired the staffer who left the recording behind! Talk about garnering public sympathy!

One last example of this is John Baird apologizing to Toronto for telling them to fuck off. He really hit the nail on the head with this one. Let’s look again at the beginning of this tactic:
“take the high road and confess… it was an innocent mistake”
Now look at Baird’s apology

“I was speaking out of frustration, and I certainly expressed that,” John Baird said in the House of Commons on Tuesday. “This morning I phoned Mayor Miller and apologized. The mayor and I both agreed — let’s look to the future. Let’s continue to build on the important investments that we need to make in public transit and we committed to work with them over the next two weeks to make it happen.”

BANG!

The Conservatives really work with this one, which makes sense because they USE IT A LOT. They make a lot of mistake. There’s a reason why Harper controls what they say so much and this is why. Most instances where they do apologize it’s because a tape or some documents were leaked. So this is how they speak behind closed doors. I’m not saying the other parties aren’t guilty of it either but the Cons get caught quite a bit. Plus they make a lot of mistakes in public too.

Point being the Cons know how to work an apology to their political advantage while denying us the truth the whole time. Seems like a lot of the public falls for it hook, line and sinker.