Yesterday, Marc Emery saw the light and apologized for calling Justice Minister Irwin Cotler a “Nazi-Jew”. Better late than never, as they say, though his preamble goes out of its way to lay the blame on others…

“When I was in jail, I was immersed in alot of reading. I was studying forced sterilizations in Alberta, the Nazi regime in Germany, all these books and pamphlets on Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X. I was surrounded by natives and attending their sweats. I was forced to work cleaning toilets & janitorial duties for my jailers (I cleaned and maintained the main administration building) for many weeks as part of my time there.

He doesn’t elaborate on which of these influences led to his flirtation with anti-Semitism.
(full statement)
For all the outrage my publication of Emery’s statements caused among his supporters (who apparently have problems discriminating between message and messenger) it seems my advice that he get a new campaign team has gone unheeded. A post by Cannibis Culture assistant editor “JodieGR” calms the devoted;

Marc is just making a statement to put an end to a media sensation that does nothing to further our cause, or to spread our message, or to persuade non-believers, or to educate the public. When the media controls what they want to print and show, we have to choose our words and comments carefully.
But remember, we still know this is a holocaust on cannabis users and believers. WE know this. People who do the research know this. But the media, and the general population, do not. Therefore, we have to present our argument in a better way, and using “hot-button” words eliminates any possibility to put forth a discussion on this topic.

Glad that’s been straightened out.

Along with the caption of the week.
Update: Thanks to a tip in the comments, this is the version from Associated Press.

Yesterday, after being asked twice to confine his remarks to the appropriate thread devoted to Marc Emery’s statement, Chris Bennett of Pot TV chose to ignore my warning. Apparently, heavy marijuana use dimishes respect for private property. His comments were deleted (as were several that replied) and I banned him from posting to the site. This arrived this morning;

From: Chris Bennett
To: kate@katewerk.com
Subject: Censorship and Racism
You Kate are guilty of both.
Tis is going to get out,…

Followed by a lengthy cut and paste of items posted at an unidentified forum. These are, of course, the vocal supporters of the same Marc Emery who was so careful to clarify that he really does consider Justice Minister Irwin Cotler a “Nazi Jew”.
Now, as longtime readers know, SDA is no stranger to so-called “smear campaigns” and misrepresentation. All I can say in reply to Mr. Bennett about his threat to “discredit” me is this;
Take a number. Line forms on the left.
Marc Emery, wherever you are, I hope you can read this. I have some sincere advice for you.
Get a new campaign team. Because frankly – if you and your “supporters” keep up this communications strategy you’ll find that “groundswell” of Canadian support you’ve been seeking over your possible extradition to the US will come from those willing to chip in for the plane ticket.

“Prince of Pot” Marc Emery addresses the controversy swirling around his “jailhouse blog” remarks directed at Justice Minister Irwin Cotler*;

In one diary entry, I refer to Irwin Cotler as a Nazi Jew or Jewish Nazi. This has had some people very distracted. I want to explain these remarks and the circumstances under which these diaries are written.
When you are in jail for behaving peacefully and honestly, as I always have, it’s very legitimate and rather predictable to resent the authority that has put you there. Jail is no place for peaceful, honest citizens who behaviour has harmed or threatened no one. Who is the Attorney-General of Canada? Irwin Cotler. He is the chief political officer of the prohibition, of the courts, and he is directly responsible for any Canadian who is incarcerated under his watch as Justice Minister.
So Irwin Cotler has done this to me, make no mistake.
So at one point in my jailhouse ruminations, I use the term Nazi Jew and Jewish Nazi. Let me explain what I meant.
A Nazi is a person who inflicts pain, punishment, incarceration or death on any human who is behaving peacefully & honestly. However, a thug on the street who beats you and robs you, is not a Nazi because another precondition is that a person who inflicts pain, punishment, incarceration or death must believe in an ideology that gives moral permission to behave that way.
The Nazis not only inflicted pain, punishment, incarceration or death, they believed in an ideology that specified the use of pain, punishment, incarceration or death to achieve their desired social control goals.
Anyone who inflicts pain, punishment, incarceration or death for peaceful & honest behaviour, and believes idelogically it is permissable to do so, this is Nazism, no matter what label this person puts on their own behaviour.
Mr. Cotler is Jewish. As I said earlier, I have higher expectations from people who shared a background of persecution. Mr. Cotler knows extremely well the perniciousness of governments in meting out punishments for peaceful & honest behaviour. He understands history.
Yet his ideological belief in inflicting pain, punishment, incarceration or death for the good of the state is identical intellectually to the Nazi philosophy, and a betrayal of his persecuted roots. Now he is the chief political officer in charge of a massive pogrom against the cannabis people, and that is why I was enslaved in a jail for 62 days. There can be no doubt, that when I was in jail, Mr. Cotler’s authority of me, and his sanction of my imprisonment, and his ideological belief as expressed by his actions, that inflicting pain, punishment, incarceration or death, Mr. Cotler is living & breathing his duties with a profound philosophy of Nazism permeating everything.

Well, I’m glad he cleared that up.

This Attorney-General wants to send me to jail for the rest of my life. And I have every confidence that if I am put in a US jail, no one in Canada will ever see me alive again. The DEA/USA is not going to make it possible that I’ll ever get out to rouse the world’s conscience. I am a permanent enemy of these Nazified forces that are surging through North America these very anxious days for all of us in the cannabis culture.
So if you see remarks about these diary blogs in any newspaper story, please set them straight as to what our struggle is about. And our struggle is one of worldwide peace, love & understanding in an anxious age of state barbarism. The menacing forces of government are waging this vicious war against our beloved people. Make no mistake, its a war. Thats how the DEA sees it all. A War.
When they capture the leader of the enemy, what do you think they do to him?

I’ve not seen many Marijuana Party members in “action” so it’s perhaps unfair to draw conclusions from a small sampling. Still , there seems to be a pattern of self-obsessiveness and paranoia that pops up frequently enough among declared party members that one wonders – does heavy pot use have this effect on personality? Or are those with personality disorders simply drawn to organizations of this type?
And then, there’s the question of logic impairment and its impact on decision making. Quite apart from one’s views on marijuana legalization (I’m more or less ambivalent) – you would think that someone who attaches himself to a cause that could result in lengthy imprisonment would pick something a little more profound than the right to inhale fumes from a burning twig.

…for the medical profession to refuse lawyers as patients.

The time has come to give Cindy Sheehan what she’s been asking for.
h/t

“Allah be praised”

Scott Johnson has seen The Great Raid, and has a lengthy post up at Powerline reviewing the reviewers. He features a quote from NYT reviewer Steve Holden;

Its scenes of torture and murder also unapologetically revive the uncomfortable stereotype of the Japanese soldier as a sadistic, slant-eyed fiend.

An uncomfortable stereotype? Perhaps Holden should spend a little less time in the theatre and a little more in the history section of his library.
Update “Next93” in the comments;

If you read the Holden quote again, you’ll see a favorite rhetorical trick of the left (or, as the Italians say it, �la sinestra�). Look at the phrase “the stereotype of the Japanese soldier as a sadistic, slant-eyed fiend”.
First, why �slant-eyed�? Is someone claiming that the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army DIDN�T actually have epicanthal folds? Is someone claiming that these folds somehow caused or excused certain behaviors? Would the actions depicted be somehow less sadistic or fiendish if the perpetrators had, say, both eyes on the same side of their heads like a flounder?
No. Eyes (in quantities up to but not exceeding two and uniformly distributed) are expected on fiends and friends alike. I�ll go out on a limb here and say that�s pretty much a norm that we�re all comfortable with. Same for the eyelids. So why bring it up?
Precisely because it IS an ethnic slur, and one of the worst sort possible in 21st century American culture � it�s a slur based on a visible ethnic difference. White Americans have a massive guilt complex when it comes to �visible� ethnicity, and any phrase that reminds them of that complex is therefore extremely uncomfortable. We�ve been trained for four decades to automatically reject any phrase or concept that implies that a visual ethnic difference is an indicator of character or ability.
Stupid as it sounds, some people may be willing to call a sadistic fiend a sadistic fiend, but not if it involves throwing in an ethnic slur. I�m not saying this is a Bad Thing, I just resent it�s being used gratuitously to manipulate opinion.
Now, if Holden had simply referred to �the stereotype of the Japanese soldier as a sadistic fiend�, most people would have recognized the other trick he used � using the word �stereotype� as a synonym for �reputation�. Most of us Boomers were trained starting in high school that �stereotypes are Bad�, and ethnic stereotypes are the worst; we automatically reject anything that perpetuates harmful ethnic stereotypes, except, of course, for stereotyping all Americans of Italian descent as being murdering, sadistic, racist Mafia thugs � which is nothing more than good TV.
So, there you have it, the phrase �the reputation of the Japanese soldier as a sadistic fiend�, which would have conjured up an indisputable historic fact, is replaced by a phrase that somehow makes the reader feel that any suspicion about the behavior of the Japanese soldier during WWII must be the result of western (American) racism.
Amazing what a few well-placed words can do, isn’t it?

Via Murray Wood (Rawlco Radio) … a rambling stream-of-consciousness attempt to liveblog the mind-altered narcissism of Marc Emery, on his threatened extradition to the US to face drug and money laundering charges.
*******
“it’s not about saving my ass…. (in the US) I’ll even qualify for the death penalty… for anyone who sells 60K plants or 60K seeds, I’ve been selling seeds every day of my life for all my adult life…”
he’s collected “millions and millions” and given it to charitable groups and addiction centers all over the globe… he has no money.. as soon as he gets it he gives it away.
Jack Layton came to his home to implore him to get “his people” to suppoort the NDP.. given thousands and thousands to poltiical parties..
Every member of parliament has had a subscription to his magazine for the last 10 years….
No politicain ever said to him that he was doing something wrong.
No politician ever turned down a dollar of his money.
He’s paid $600K in tax, and Revenue Canada has consulted him, asked him how they could get more marijuana tax money. Apparently a Revenue Canada rep will testify in court on his behalf.
Health canada told him that they’ve told people can get their seeds for med marijuana from him..
[This man NEVER stops for a breath)]
He’s had a profound effect on the landscape on how people across the world view marijuana [no kidding – he sounds like a lunatic]
… on a mission to promote human rights activisim to get marijuana convicts out of jail around the world, a terrible holocaust, a tragedy, and if the US wants to prosecute him for that he’s proud to go.
Though, he’d rather not, so call Irwin Cotler, everyone, he needs a groudswell, his fate is in your hands, Emery has served you all his life…. if he’s going to be a martyr and spend the rest of his life behind bars, it will be great to know that there are people out there who love him.
Trivia in defense of marijuana:
…the food they serve at McDonalds kills tens of thousands of peple every year
…people don’t like pot because it makes people loopy, or critical
… parents don’t like pot because their children smoke it
… teacher don’t like it because students “lose respect for the lessons they learned ” and they should lose respect.
In response to a question about his hypocrisy over funding drug addiction clinics; He never had any one on pot “apply to his clinic” because they were addicted… if they have a problem with the drug, stopping ends it the very next day. (He says he’s treated 65 people?)
A (supportive) caller describes a friend in detail who has usedj since highschool, can’t keep a job, etc. lost his family because he will choose the drug over everything –
Emery: no person who grew up in a stable 2 parent home has ever become addicted to anything – but people who become addicted to drugs shouldn’t go to jail and that “doesnt mean we put people in jail who facilitate their addiction”.
He’s ready to “sacrifice himself” to speed up legislation … there are forgotten people in concrete cells in the American gulag… pot users are just like the Jews, the blacks, the natives, rounded up and put in camps. Like the Chinese persecute the Falun Gong… what’s the difference between smoking pot and finding enlightenment and doing Ti Chi to find enlightenment?
Closing sentence; “If he can bring any light on this war on all human beings has been sponsored by thiis rogue organization called the United States”.
*****
So, colour me convinced. Today, in the name of legalizing (-)-(6aR,10aR)-6,6,9-trimethyl-3-pentyl-6a,7,8,10a -tetrahydro-6H-benzo[c]chromen-1-ol, I join the millions of Canadians who are dedicated to Marc Emery’s attainment of martyrdom.
Godspeed, Mr. Emery.
Godspeed.

Hans Bricks;

These are naked Europeans celebrating sensual European art in a European museum, yet they still managed to turn the event into a rally against America!

David Terron hauls fourth year University of Waterloo political science student (and director for the Liberal Party of Canada in Kitchener-Conestoga) Mark Johnson back to class – by the ear.
(A sequel to “I Used To Be A Communist, But I’ve Since Woken Up”)

“Further, I’m angry [Jack Layton] did not even offer any message to me as someone who gave the NDP thousands of dollars in the last election – possibly up to about $10,000” – Marc Emery

Via a reader, who writes;

The interview was done for and broadcast POT-TV network in 2003, owned and funded by Emery, who now faces serious money laudnering chargers. POT-TV is an important plank of Emery’s illegal seed sale operation currently under investigation by the DEA. Rotating ads preceding Jacks sit down interview can often be seen with Emery in a full blown grow room boasting of his high quality marijuana seeds available for sale via his website.

video

More.
The Elections Canada unofficial search tool doesn’t support Emery’s claim – but in light of his alleged cross border sales, perhaps they’d be interested in where he found nearly $18K for the Marijuana Party.
Personally, having listened to him in a live interview, I think “Martin Luther” Emery is less effective as a marijuana advocate than he is a poster child for the argument that long term use of pot can result in serious cognitive impairment.

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure
about the former.” — Albert Einstein

One hopes that one of these days the Canadian media are going to smarten up and start headlining these stories with Carolyn Parrish Furiously Seeking Attention.
(Sure, I just did the same. However, I figure that she’s likely to hang around in the news for a few days, so it’s worthwhile to provide a Parrish bashing comments thread to corral the inevitable discussion.)

Call the UN. Now those hegemonic Bushitler-votin’ Christian fundamentalists are forcing the good people of Toronto to shoot each other.

Globe writer and “political pundit” Jane Taber either has a very poor memory, or she’s on board with Paul Martin’s aversion to the taste of crow in his efforts to bring Carolyn Parrish’s “independant” vote back under the control of the party whip. She writes in the Globe&Mail;

” Carolyn Parrish, the former Liberal MP who stomped on a doll bearing the likeness of U.S. President George W. Bush and was kicked out of caucus for her anti-American statements,”

Except, Parrish wasn’t kicked out of caucus after her anti-American statements – the Liberals ran a campaign that used anti-Americanism as an underpinning, after all. She was excommunicated for dissin’ the boss.
The Hill Times, from November 22nd, 2004

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister last week turfed Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish (Mississauga-Erindale, Ont.) from the Liberal caucus. Her expulsion became almost imminent after she blasted the Prime Minister and his advisers in an interview with The Canadian Press. Ms. Parrish said that she “wouldn’t shed a tear” for Mr. Martin if he failed to win the next election and that his advisers “can all go to hell.”
[…]
“What it was, in the end, defiance of the control of Mr. Martin and his backroom and that’s what it was, ultimately. If it was my position on the United States or my language or my boldness, they wouldn’t have signed my nomination papers,” said Ms. Parrish.

Speaking of revisionist history … Carolyn Parrish was born October 3, 1946 so it’s possible she’s never heard of World War II.

“I’m totally offended by him. . . . We are also not a country that is going to easily throw away 100 years of peacekeeping reputation and noble reputation in the world by a testosterone-filled general, and I think somebody should put a clamp on his mouth.”

Still… you’d think she’d have stumbled across it during her career as a teacher.

(Updated – who needs pundits when you have “Drained Brain” checking the facts for free in the comments?)

Carolyn Parrish argues passionately for the suspension of Canadian democracy and the right to vote, so that the results of public opinion polling may be duly upheld.

Continue reading →

J.K. Rowlings has a very clumsy publisher. Her Harry Potter books have a habit of slipping out of their boxes at an alarming rate, sometimes stolen, sometimes found in fields – always mere days before their official release dates.
You’d think people would catch on.

A gagging order has been issued by a Canadian court after a handful of lucky Harry Potter fans snapped up the new book ahead of this Saturday’s release date.
JK Rowling’s highly anticipated sixth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was inadvertently sold to 14 people at a supermarket near Vancouver. Its contents have been kept a tightly guarded secret and the subject of mounting speculation. Even publishers and critics have been barred from glimpsing a copy until it is unveiled at midnight parties being held at bookshops across the globe this Friday night.
The offending shop quickly realised its mistake and whipped the wizardry tale off the shelves.
“It was an inadvertent error on behalf of one of our staff,” said Geoff Wilson, a spokesman for the Real Canadian Superstore.
Justice Kristi Gill at the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered customers not to talk aboaut the book, copy it, sell it or even read it before it is officially released.

The injunction notice
So, there we have it.
It’s not enough that the courts in this land feel they must shield Canadians from testimony at “public” inquiries. It’s not enough that they protect the identities of virtually every sex offender who is clever enough to assault members of his own family.
Now the courts are using gag orders to help book marketers generate hype.

Even Harry Potter and his gang couldn’t have conjured up a better potion for a marketing campaign than the accidental leak of the latest Potter book from a suburban Vancouver store, a marketing expert says.
[…]
“Not in his magic spells could he work one this effective,” said Lindsay Meredith, a Simon Fraser University marketing strategies professor. “My straight-up hunch is this is some of the best damned PR I’ve seen in a while. They didn’t pay a penny for it and it’s way more powerful than advertising.”

Nope. The taxpayers did.

Kurt Leavins has been pontificating strenuously for the past several minutes that “air shows should be banned” because of the risk. Nevermind that more spectators have been killed and injured in Canadian hockey arenas than have ever been maimed at air shows (I believe the death toll in North America currently stands at 0) – Mr. Nanny State has nonetheless decided he deserves the right to be ultimate determiner of what other adults may do with their leisure time.
As his (Rawlco radio) show is currently interrupted by a news conference (with family members of the two pilots killed at the Moose Jaw yesterday), would one of you kind folks who work there at the Rawlco building please do me a favour?
Walk down to his booth and kick his ass for me.
I’ll write more on this later, but right now, I’ve got a set of leathers and a nastly little two-stroke motorcycle calling me.

But for the ultimate in obsequiousness, check out the newspaper pic of Martin and Bono from Gleneagles last Thursday. They are shaking hands and our main man is literally pawing the rocker’s leather jacket. Fawning describes Martin’s demeanor perfectly. He has on his face a grin so false and fake-hearty it triggered, in me at least, a giant gag reflex.

Maybe it’s his taste in hats.

“So Secretary Rice suggested to Kofi Annan that if he wanted scarier troops she would be more than glad to help him get the French and Canadians.”