Rogue US Solder killed 16 civilians

Another bizarre tragedy in Afghanistan. A rogue US solder snaps. He went AWOL and killed 16 civilians including nine children. Words cannot convey how strange and how sad this event really is. Why on earth would he do that? Obviously he snapped but to kill allies, civilians at that, clearly is treason.

There should be a fair trial but this is not a civil matter. It is a military matter. It should be determined if there really was just one shooter or multiple shooters. If found guilty then they should face the firing squad. Sorry if that sounds extreme but that kind of treason in a time of war puts all of his fellow soldiers at risk not to mention the outrageousness of the atrocity all on it's own.

Justice is not possible. There is no way to bring back the lost loved ones. Some might argue that 16 Americans should be executed not just one, to which I respond, which ones? 15 random Americans should be lined up and murdered? That would not be just. It would perpetuate the injustice until we are all blind.

If one person committed murder than that person should be put to death, not 15 random people. Clearly something went wrong that needs to be addressed. There was a rogue shooter at a US Army Base in the States. Instead of shooting fellow soldiers or fellow students at school, this lunatic shot foreign civilians. Equally shameful.

Without minimizing the atrociousness of the tragic event, I will add that the Taliban have also murdered many more than 16 civilians in many of their suicide attacks. We should recognize the seriousness of the tragedy and remember the enemy has done worse. That in no way minimizes what this solder has done. It just reminds us that there isn't one good guy and one bad guy in this conflict. Mistakes are made but evil does perpetuate and we are morally bound to resist it.

Suicide attacks kill 20

Bombing toll hits 78 dead

Taliban bomber kills nine people

12 dead in three Afghanistan bomb attacks

As for the tragic situation in Afghanistan, I will note that the current president who would not be president if the allies hadn't invaded, just endorsed a law that allows husbands to beat their wives and forbids women from leaving home without a male escort. That is not the sign of an enlightened moral nation. It is an extremist defiantly bragging about being a neanderthal. That has nothing to do with God or Islam.

It makes us wonder why we went to Afghanistan in the first place. A mission isn't wrong because it's hard or because there are many casualties. If Bin Ladden was responsible for 9/11 then it would have been the right thing to do. I just don't believe Bin Ladden was responsible for 9/11. I think the invasion was really about reversing the Taliban's decision to give the contract for the Central Asia gas pipeline to an Argentina firm named Bridas instead of the UNICOL.

Letting girls attend school is a basic right in a civilized society. Yet returning Afghanistan into the world largest producers of Opium after it was almost completely shut down has been a tragic bi product of the invasion.

More Mexican drug violence

More violent drug related murders in Mexico. These dismembered bodies belong to four youth ranging in age from 14 to 21 in school. There have been a few series run recently about the drug related violence at the hands of the cartels in Mexico. All the images are disturbingly graphic. I realize that when someone gets shot they bleed. I just don’t understand every time we see a picture of a shooting in Mexico that there is so much blood involved.

I keep talking about the sanctity of life. Obviously, when the greed of cocaine trafficking takes over, there is no respect for life at all. It’s all about pouring blood on the golden calf of the almighty dollar. It’s even more disturbing when it involves youth.

Stratfor on Wikileaks

WikiLeaks has announced they have released millions of confidential e-mails from Texas based intelligence firm Stratfor which provides intel for large corporations. I’m not a big fan of releasing confidential military documents that reveal the position of your troops to the enemy as that clearly is treason. Yet exposing wrong doing is a civic duty. Especially when it involves quasi military organizations funded by large corporations that are committing invasive atrocities and trample the Constitution.

Kony Con 2012

I am told the Kony videos have gone viral on Twitter. I don’t know much about the situation other than it’s not new, he’s not as much of a threat as he once was and that the opposition fund raising to oppose him have been accused of committing the same atrocities they dramatically accuse him of committing.

The one thing I do know is that US troops have moved in and pushed him out of the country. Which in itself is somewhat surprising because after the likes of Sudan and Rwanda, the West don’t normally care about atrocities in Africa unless they have oil.

Guess what. They have oil. That makes the presence of US troops suspicious. It’s like those Farmed Salmon commercials. Two guys are having a conversation at the office. One turns to the other and whispers that he just received an e-mail saying someone is trying to get a million dollars into the country and that if he gives them a thousand dollars and his bank info, they will deposit it right into his bank account.

The other guys says, hey I got one of those e-mails too. Instead of saying hey this might be a scam, they smile and say, we’re both gonna be rich. It’s a humorous commercial concluding that we shouldn’t believe everything we hear. We need to use our brain and think because scams are unfolding all around us.

Joseph Kony is not in Uganda and hasn't been for six years. The LRA is not in Uganda but now operates in the DRC, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. The Ugandan military has been accused of committing the very same atrocities of murder and sexual trafficking that Invisible Children works to end. Invisible children? That sounds a lot like another front, the Children's Defense Fund.

Russians protest against Putin and voter fraud

There have been a lot of demonstrations in Russia these days filled with allegations of voter fraud. Vladimir Putin has admitted there were violations of electoral law during his recent presidential-election win but brushed off claims of a 10-per-cent boost to his vote, saying the malpractice was too insignificant to influence the result.

This is rather bizarre. Putin admits rigging but sluffs it off by claiming it is insignificant. Vote rigging is significant. It is illegal and immoral. Back in the day, dictators would rise and oppress the people. Now the snakes in the grass enter from within and steal democracy through fraud. Buyer beware. Our freedom is still at stake.

More than 500 protesters jailed by Russian police

Police said they arrested 250 people in Moscow and 300 in St. Petersburg after moving in roughly to break up rallies claiming that Sunday's polls were rigged.
Some 20,000 anti-Putin protesters had turned out in Pushkin Square in central Moscow chanting "Russia Yes! Putin No!" Most of the rally dispersed peacefully but police moved in to disperse hundreds of people who refused to leave the square.

Canada unwelcoming to apartheid heroes

On the subject of racism, there’s a concerning article of the front page of the Epoch Times. It claims Canada unwelcoming to apartheid heroes. Seemingly there is an effective visitor visa ban on members of the apartheid-era African National Congress (ANC).

The ban seems to be related to criminal convictions handed down by apartheid South African government for membership in the ANC, which was outlawed for decades in South Africa.

OK let me get this straight. We all remember apartheid. That was when a corrupt group of racist pigs took over the government of South Africa and discriminated against Blacks in their own country. The world put them under sanctions as a result. We’re going to take their word on anything? That’s like the current dictator in Syria outlawing any opposition and us denying any of the protesters visas to enter Canada. It is absurd. It's like banning the armed rebels in Libya the allied forces helped overthrow Gaddafi from entering Canada.

Nelson Mandela was a political prisoner for years. He was a member of the ANC. After Mandela’s 1990 release from prison, he was elected president of ANC and went on to become South Africa’s first black president after the historic 1994 election. Does that mean Nelson Mandela is not allowed to get a visa to enter Canada? This is both bizarre and offensive. Obviously it’s an oversight but it needs to be corrected immediately.

How about those racist pigs who supported apartheid in the first place? Have they been banned from getting visa to enter Canada? I think not despite the fact that ban would be far more appropriate.

I know two white South Africans living in Canada. Aside from being arrogant, they are racist. All they do is complain about how Africa has gone down hill since they let Mandela out of prison and gave blacks the right to vote. That is totally offensive.

If you don’t like black people then stay the fuck out of their country. If you don’t like black people then leave them alone. Done invade their county and exploit them by turning them into slaves. That is so wrong.

We need to completely reverse this precedent. We need to allow members of the NAC visas to get into Canada and give them our most sincerely apologies while we ban the racists apartheid supporters who enslaved and exploited them for so many years.

Nelson Mandela: as they used to say in West Belfast, Happy Birthday comrade.

Kevin Gregson's murder trial

Another former RCMP officer on trial and in the news. This time for the murder of an Ottawa police officer. Obviously we can’t blame this one on the entire police force. Surely they don’t train their officers to kill each other. Clearly this was one wacko with problems. Yet there are elements of the case that I find disturbing.

During interrogation he claimed that there was a struggle and his training took over and he instinctively killed the other officer. He made the same claim in court arguing that he should be charged with manslaughter not murder. Rather bizarre.

The officer who was interrogating Gregson asked him what he meant by it was part of his training. He asked what training he was referring to because he wasn’t trained to kill in police training. After all he is not a special forces commando engaging the enemy in hand to hand combat where he would be trained to kill the enemy. The police are trained to use reasonable force in arresting suspects. Not to kill them.

Gregson said it was part of his police training. The officer said no it’s not. I’ve been a police officer longer than you and my training wasn’t to kill people. Gregson said well you’re not RCMP. I see. Another dingledorf playing the superior training of the RCMP card. Which would reinforce the stereotype about the abrasive arrogance associated with the RCMP wherein they think their training is far superior to other police force training making them better. Or at least less accountable.

Somehow we need to get over that glaring false stereotype. That the RCMP is the most respected police force in the world and is so much better than other police forces. All we have seen in the past ten years of disclosure is sexist unprofessionalism, rape, abuse and excessive force. Obviously there are good police officers out there. Yet the unending documented complaints of sexual inappropriateness on the job from top officials has made the force the laughing stock of the world and carries with it the stigma of being unprofessional.

Which leads us directly back to Depot. Depot is abusive. If that training was so much better than the other police forces’ training then it would be effective at teaching officers to have self control when it comes to dealing with verbal abuse. Instead it clearly teaches that abuse is ok and since we are so much better than everyone else, we should report to abuse and excessive force to remind people that we are so much better than everyone else. The logic is very flawed.

Some hecklers on the blog think I’m a police officer. I have no desire to prove them wrong my trashing the police. Hecklers will be hecklers and criticize everything I say simply because most criminals don’t want the exposure.

I do support law and order. I do have an idealistic and possibly naive image of what the police should be like Paul Gross in the TV series Due South. When I trash talk gangs selling crack, and the hecklers claim I sound like a cop, then it would appear that on some issues, I totally agree with some officers. Frustration with the judges would be another.

Yet I believe in the sanctity of life and the dignity of humanity. I believe the police are civil servants and that their mandate is and always has been to serve and protect. Civil servants means it is their role to serve the public who they protect and who pay their wages. Lawyers think they are better than the public because they are learned in the law. They use the term my learned friend. Likewise some police tend to think they are better than the public because the public don’t understand what the police have to put up with on the street.

Clearly what the Williams Lake police officer did to that young girl was wrong. Clearly. Clearly there is something wrong with a man punching a woman in the face repeatedly. Reasonable force means using a restraining hold not punching them in the face over and over to let you vent your anger issues built up since Depot. Clearly we do need to aspire to something higher.

Williams Lake Police Officer accused of assault

An assault charge has been recommended by police probing a Williams Lake Mountie who allegedly punched a teenage girl repeatedly last year while she was handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser.

Obviously there are several concerns here. The girl was allegedly running away from a street gang and asked a bystander to call 911. Her mother gets a call and rushes to the scene. All of a sudden the girl running from the gang is arrested and thrown into the back of a police cruiser. She starts kicking the window shouting out Mom.

Couple things... if she was the one that asked for the police to be called, why was she arrested? Why was she so afraid of being taken away by them? One would think that if you are innocent of nay crime that you have nothing to fear and will sit calmly waiting for the misunderstanding to be reveled. Perhaps she was afraid she wasn't going to be believed.

There are two questions that arise. First is if a prisoner starts kicking the police car window from inside the vehicle, what is the police officer supposed to do? One could reasonably argue that letting the kid freak out and have a temper tantrum would be fine as she would eventually tire. Just like a kid in time out.

The whole concept of a grown man punching a woman, any woman, especially an underage woman in the face is very disturbing. Punching her multiple times in the face causing that much physical damage is very disturbing.

It makes me think of a youtube video I saw of a police officer in the States arguing with a woman on the street. All of a sudden he winds up and punches her in the face. I'm like where on earth did that come from? What part of the police training manuals says when a suspect doesn't obey you command at the snap of your finger, you are justified in punching her in the face?

The first thing I'm forced to ask is does he beat his wife and kids? Evidently Const. Andy Yung has past history. Seemingly this story was first published in The Province Sept. 28, 2011 and it's taken this long to consider doing anything about it.



Violence against Native Women

Another thing we need to talk about is racism. This whole issue of violence against Native women needs to be addressed. I do not understand how people can think that using violence against a native woman is ok because it’s not.

Discussing it is timely but also relevant since the last lawyer representing First Nations women has just withdrawn from the Pickton Red Herring Inquiry. Not all the women found on the Pickton farm were native but a large number of them were. There continues to be a large number of Native women missing and mistreated in the DTES.

Yet their mistreatment is by no means limited to east van. There was that horrific case of a court Judge in Prince George who was convicted of violent sexual abuse of under age Native girls. That is somewhat bizarre. Historically we’ve heard about the abuse that Native children suffered in the early school system. Physical abuse as well as sexual abuse. Tragic and bizarre. This still needs to be addressed.

Corporal Punishment

The next thing we need to talk about is discipline. When I first had kids, I wanted to be a good parent. I took a series of courses called discipline without shouting or spanking. There was a lot of talk about how corporal punishment was wrong but not a lot of talk about healthier forms of discipline. You can’t just say to a parent spanking is wrong without giving them tools to replace it with. The last thing we want to do is raise a generation of spoilt brats.

My father was big on fences. He said we all have fences. Even as adults. As a child we are placed in a virtual fenced area. You’re allowed to play in the yard or the street but if you go beyond that you’ll have your freedom restricted. Sure enough I learned that lesson well. My father used to say as a kid demonstrates he can handle the rules within a fenced area, then he is given more freedom and his fences expand. As he shows that he is unable to keep the rules within his fenced area, then his freedom is restricted and his fences shrink. It’s simple cause and effect.

Yet it’s not a police officer’s role to punish suspects. That role belongs to the courts. If a kid is chained in a cell or handcuffed in a police car and they throw a temper tantrum, let them vent. Eventually they will tire. You can say, if you don’t stop doing that, you are going to spend the night in jail. That is totally reasonable. Parents know that following up on a consequence is essential. If you say don’t do that or this will happen, then you better be prepared to do whatever you said the consequence was or chaos will be the result. That is as long as the consequence is reasonable. You can’t say stop kicking the car or I’ll punch you in the head until I cave your face in. That is not an appropriate consequence. You can say stop kicking the car or I will shackle your feet. Ooo scary they laugh. Shackle the feet and they can’t kick any more. Problem solved. The goal is to solve the problem not to punish the suspect.

Sure it takes more time to use the fence model but it is a better way. It doesn’t provide the same venting of displaced aggression beating a child does but that is a good thing. Don’t kick the cat. If you have anger issues deal with them don’t take them out on someone else. Tasering someone after they have been hogtied is a crime in itself.

Allen Stanford guilty of $7bn Ponzi scheme

Here's the other Potsie. I mean Ponzi. Allen Stanford, the Texan financier, knight of Antigua, Washington power player and billionaire benefactor of English cricket, has been found guilty of orchestrating a $7bn Ponzi scheme. US politicians, the authorities in Antigua and the England and Wales Cricket Board were all left red-faced by their associations with Stanford.

With investors still reeling from the revelations about Bernard Madoff's historic Ponzi scheme, Stanford had become a media sensation. Billions were said to be missing and investors were panicking in cities from Houston to London, Caracas to Switzerland.

$7 billion - that is significant. Did those investors get 50cents on the dollar? I think not. Deregulation opens the flood gates wide open for massive investment fraud that steals life savings and pensions, destabilizes the market and crashes economies.

Earl Jones

Speaking of fraud, another couple of Potsies are in the news. I mean Ponzis. The Royal Bank of Canada, RBC, settled for $17 million with the victims of convicted Montreal fraudster Earl Jones. Jones had his accounts at an RBC branch.

Unfortunately the little old lady doesn't win, she just recoups less than half of her losses. Jones is currently in prison in Ste-Anne-des Plaines, Que. Convicted for theft and fraud, he was sentenced to an 11-year term in February 2010.



Restitution is a fundamental aspect of justice. 50 cents on the dollar is better than nothing but these fraudsters need to be held legally liable for the money they steal.