Column in Evening Star, a Suffolk, UK newspaper.
We have a religious crackpot defying democracy and continuing to impose his twisted and treasonous will on the people of Canada, despite not having the support of 82% of eligible voters. This column is very apt for the situation we now face in Canada.
We have a religious crackpot defying democracy and continuing to impose his twisted and treasonous will on the people of Canada, despite not having the support of 82% of eligible voters. This column is very apt for the situation we now face in Canada.
04/02: Stock Market Creaks Again
Global stock markets took drops of between 2% to 5% today and the talk in some circles is ominous. In others, it isn't.
Click here for story from the Vancouver Sun
Click here for story from the Vancouver Sun
Category: Justice
Posted by: Patrick Roberts
An investigation by three Times Colonist reporters has found that there is a wide variation between BC Court registries as to what documents can be seen by the public and which can't. That's something you'd expect would be black and white, but that's far from the case. In the story linked below, the worst example is one in which a registry worker removes a document from public access because she says the Crown must have made a mistake and then, acting for the Crown, takes the document out of the file being viewed at the counter.
It is vital that the registry be indifferent between the Crown and the accused in criminal cases. This very serious incident shows that isn't always the case.
Here's the story reprinted in today's Vancouver Sun.
It is vital that the registry be indifferent between the Crown and the accused in criminal cases. This very serious incident shows that isn't always the case.
Here's the story reprinted in today's Vancouver Sun.
Category: War on Terruh
Posted by: Patrick Roberts
Clare Short is a former British cabinet minister under Tony Blair's Labor government at a time when Britain was contemplating sending troops to support the criminal invasion of Iraq by George W. Bush. In testimony before the Chilcot Inquiry into the legality of the war, Short said she and her cabinet colleagues were lied to by both Blair and then Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, who reversed an earlier decision that the attack on Iraq would be legal.
Click here for story in today's Guardian.
Click here for story in today's Guardian.
27/01: Murder By Proxy?
Category: Justice
Posted by: Patrick Roberts
Absolutely Insane.
That's how BC RCMP Inspector Tim Shields described the "outing" of Malakwa BC man Colin Martin. In a recently released Indictment, US justice officials have identified Martin as volunteering to serve as an informant to US law enforcement if he was given a 10 year license operate a helicopter smuggling business on the border.
It turns out Martin hasn't gone to the dark side, or at least has a fairly plausible story that he hasn't. Which doesn't in any way take away the insanity of actions that need to be examined very closely by BC and Canadian justice officials to determine if they form the basis for criminal charges. The one which rises quickly to mind is conspiracy to murder. Canada's Criminal Code makes it an offense to conspire abroad to murder someone in Canada. Revealing the identity of an informant is an act that the person who reveals the information would know would be likely to bring about that alleged informant's murder.
It's all a work in progress.
Click here for much more in a Cold Eye Special Report.
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For Rules and the Register links, please go to http://www.coldeye.org
That's how BC RCMP Inspector Tim Shields described the "outing" of Malakwa BC man Colin Martin. In a recently released Indictment, US justice officials have identified Martin as volunteering to serve as an informant to US law enforcement if he was given a 10 year license operate a helicopter smuggling business on the border.
It turns out Martin hasn't gone to the dark side, or at least has a fairly plausible story that he hasn't. Which doesn't in any way take away the insanity of actions that need to be examined very closely by BC and Canadian justice officials to determine if they form the basis for criminal charges. The one which rises quickly to mind is conspiracy to murder. Canada's Criminal Code makes it an offense to conspire abroad to murder someone in Canada. Revealing the identity of an informant is an act that the person who reveals the information would know would be likely to bring about that alleged informant's murder.
It's all a work in progress.
Click here for much more in a Cold Eye Special Report.
You have to register to Comment. Please read the rules and sign up. You're very welcome.
For Rules and the Register links, please go to http://www.coldeye.org
Former president of Brazil says hardline war on drugs 'has failed' Fernando Henrique Cardoso urges global decriminalisation of cannabis use
The war on drugs has failed and should make way for a global shift towards decriminalising cannabis use and promoting harm reduction, says the former president of Brazil, writing today in the Observer. Fernando Henrique Cardoso argues that the hardline approach has brought "disastrous" consequences for Latin America, which has been the frontline in the war on drug cultivation for decades, while failing to change the continent's position as the largest exporter of cocaine and marijuana.
Full Story From the Guardian...
The war on drugs has failed and should make way for a global shift towards decriminalising cannabis use and promoting harm reduction, says the former president of Brazil, writing today in the Observer. Fernando Henrique Cardoso argues that the hardline approach has brought "disastrous" consequences for Latin America, which has been the frontline in the war on drug cultivation for decades, while failing to change the continent's position as the largest exporter of cocaine and marijuana.
Full Story From the Guardian...
04/09: The Politics of Stupid
Simon Jenkins of the Guardian on the War on Some Drugs
The war on drugs is immoral idiocy. We need the courage of Argentina
While Latin American countries decriminalise narcotics, Britain persists in prohibition that causes vast human suffering
Simon Jenkins guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 3 September 2009 20.30 BST
Guess it had to happen this way. The greatest social menace of the new century is not terrorism but drugs, and it is the poor who will have to lead the revolution. The global trade in illicit narcotics ranks with that in oil and arms. Its prohibition wrecks the lives of wealthy and wretched, east and west alike. It fills jails, corrupts politicians and plagues nations. It finances wars from Afghanistan to Colombia. It is utterly mad.
There is no sign of reform emanating from the self-satisfied liberal democracies of west Europe or north America. Reform is not mentioned by Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy or Angela Merkel. Their countries can sustain prohibition, just, by extravagant penal repression and by sweeping the consequences underground. Politicians will smirk and say, as they did in their youth, that they can "handle" drugs.
No such luxury is available to the political economies of Latin America. They have been wrecked by Washington's demand that they stop exporting drugs to fuel America's unregulated cocaine market. It is like trying to stop traffic jams by imposing an oil ban in the Gulf.
The war on drugs is immoral idiocy. We need the courage of Argentina
While Latin American countries decriminalise narcotics, Britain persists in prohibition that causes vast human suffering
Simon Jenkins guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 3 September 2009 20.30 BST
Guess it had to happen this way. The greatest social menace of the new century is not terrorism but drugs, and it is the poor who will have to lead the revolution. The global trade in illicit narcotics ranks with that in oil and arms. Its prohibition wrecks the lives of wealthy and wretched, east and west alike. It fills jails, corrupts politicians and plagues nations. It finances wars from Afghanistan to Colombia. It is utterly mad.
There is no sign of reform emanating from the self-satisfied liberal democracies of west Europe or north America. Reform is not mentioned by Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy or Angela Merkel. Their countries can sustain prohibition, just, by extravagant penal repression and by sweeping the consequences underground. Politicians will smirk and say, as they did in their youth, that they can "handle" drugs.
No such luxury is available to the political economies of Latin America. They have been wrecked by Washington's demand that they stop exporting drugs to fuel America's unregulated cocaine market. It is like trying to stop traffic jams by imposing an oil ban in the Gulf.
Sometime between Saturday morning and the middle of Sunday the Vancouver Sun has a story about RCMP liars on the front of its online version. It accused the Mounties of lying over the Dziekanski killing and named names and made it very clear that it was accusing those names of lying. It was accompanied by a picture of the back end of a few red serged officers with gloves clasped behind their backs. I didn't notice if they had their fingers crossed, but I remember thinking "Wait until one of the Aspers sees this". I meant to preserve it for posterity on the Cold Eye, but due to a technical glitch, wasn't able to get into the Admin section until this morning.
Sure enough, not a sign of possibly the most truthful story ever written in the Sun when I went to link to it this morning. But when I did a search on "RCMP" and "liars", this piece by columnist Ian Mulgrew did come up.
RCMP Commissioner Gets It Wrong
It isn't in the big three of economy, environment, health, but the present Liberal government is currently negotiating a new contract for an illegitimate federal police force to continue policing this province, instead of doing what the majority of British Columbians want and show them the door in favor of a new provincial police force. What can we expect, a convicted drunk driving premier, supporting a reckless speeder as Solicitor General, negotiating with liars and killers to enforce the law in this province.
And we though the two Bills were wacky.
Sure enough, not a sign of possibly the most truthful story ever written in the Sun when I went to link to it this morning. But when I did a search on "RCMP" and "liars", this piece by columnist Ian Mulgrew did come up.
RCMP Commissioner Gets It Wrong
It isn't in the big three of economy, environment, health, but the present Liberal government is currently negotiating a new contract for an illegitimate federal police force to continue policing this province, instead of doing what the majority of British Columbians want and show them the door in favor of a new provincial police force. What can we expect, a convicted drunk driving premier, supporting a reckless speeder as Solicitor General, negotiating with liars and killers to enforce the law in this province.
And we though the two Bills were wacky.
But it won't happen because it would cost alcohol and pharmaceutical companies maybe 3 billion.
From today's Guardian...
Legalisation of drugs could save UK £14bn, says study
Duncan Campbell
The Guardian, Tuesday 7 April 2009
The regulated legalisation of drugs would have major benefits for taxpayers, victims of crime, local communities and the criminal justice system, according to the first comprehensive comparison between the cost-effectiveness of legalisation and prohibition. The authors of the report, which is due to be published today, suggest that a legalised, regulated market could save the country around £14bn.
For many years the government has been under pressure to conduct an objective cost-benefit analysis of the current drugs policy, but has failed to do so despite calls from MPs. Now the drugs reform charity, Transform, has commissioned its own report, examining all aspects of prohibition from the costs of policing and investigating drugs users and dealers to processing them through the courts and their eventual incarceration.
As well as such savings is the likely taxation revenue in a regulated market. However, there are also the potential costs of increased drug treatment, education and public information campaigns about the risks and dangers of drugs, similar to those for tobacco and alcohol, and the costs of running a regulated system.
The report looked at four potential scenarios, ranging from no increase in drugs use to a 100% rise as they become more readily available.
From today's Guardian...
Legalisation of drugs could save UK £14bn, says study
Duncan Campbell
The Guardian, Tuesday 7 April 2009
The regulated legalisation of drugs would have major benefits for taxpayers, victims of crime, local communities and the criminal justice system, according to the first comprehensive comparison between the cost-effectiveness of legalisation and prohibition. The authors of the report, which is due to be published today, suggest that a legalised, regulated market could save the country around £14bn.
For many years the government has been under pressure to conduct an objective cost-benefit analysis of the current drugs policy, but has failed to do so despite calls from MPs. Now the drugs reform charity, Transform, has commissioned its own report, examining all aspects of prohibition from the costs of policing and investigating drugs users and dealers to processing them through the courts and their eventual incarceration.
As well as such savings is the likely taxation revenue in a regulated market. However, there are also the potential costs of increased drug treatment, education and public information campaigns about the risks and dangers of drugs, similar to those for tobacco and alcohol, and the costs of running a regulated system.
The report looked at four potential scenarios, ranging from no increase in drugs use to a 100% rise as they become more readily available.
The Cold Eye in the coming weeks will be looking at probably society's most questionable tolerance, the tolerance of the superstition that is religion. We must reach the limit of that tolerance when crackpots such as those named in the linked article by Vancouver Sun columnist Douglas Todd can attain the highest levels in the administration of our democracy.
Much more to come, but for now here's the link to Douglas' column. No problem with him at all, an excellent and thoughtful writer and someone who understands that religion, when practiced as a private belief, is an acceptable part of our society and that when it attempts to impose its principles on those who do not accept them, is a threat to our democracy.
Link To Douglas Todd Column
Have a close look at the comments that follow, and particularly the lunatic commentator "MaryLou". Jesus!
Much more to come, but for now here's the link to Douglas' column. No problem with him at all, an excellent and thoughtful writer and someone who understands that religion, when practiced as a private belief, is an acceptable part of our society and that when it attempts to impose its principles on those who do not accept them, is a threat to our democracy.
Link To Douglas Todd Column
Have a close look at the comments that follow, and particularly the lunatic commentator "MaryLou". Jesus!
