February 2008

By Nikko Snyder
Briarpatch Magazine
March/April 2008

Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity
By Robert Jensen
South End Press, 2007

In Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity, Robert Jensen asks readers to look unflinchingly at contemporary, mainstream, heterosexual pornography and reflect honestly on what it says about the culture we live in. Jensen argues that porn represents a masculinity so toxic that conforming to it requires men to sacrifice their very humanity. He points out that as mainstream pornography has become more degrading towards women, it has simultaneously become increasingly normalized in our society, a paradox that leads to his conclusion that we live in a “rape culture.” He is careful to clarify, “That doesn’t mean the culture openly endorses rape, but it does endorse a vision of masculinity that makes rape inviting.”

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By Sungur Savran
The Bullet

The celebrations by the Albanian people of Kosovo upon the declaration of an “independent and sovereign” state were aired on television extensively. Two flags were waved during these celebrations. One was the familiar U.S. flag. And the second one? This flag with a double-headed black eagle on a red background, which country might that belong to? Better not to be too rash and say that it is the flag of the newly “independent” state of Kosovo, for that would be misunderstanding the true nature of what has happened. In the newly “independent” state of Kosovo, the people celebrating on the streets were waving the flag of another country. This was the flag of Albania!

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“Yes We Can” vs. “Gonna Be Wars”

Press release
Ardoch Algonquin First Nation
Feb. 19, 2008

In a travesty of justice, AAFN Spokesperson Robert Lovelace was sentenced in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kingston to 6 months incarceration and crippling fines amounting to $50,000 for upholding Algonquin law within our homeland. An additional sanction of $2,000 per day will be imposed for every day that Bob continues to obey our law rather than the court order. In addition, our community was fined $10,000 and Chief Paula Sherman $15,000, and our statement of defense was struck out, which means that we are forbidden from challenging the constitutional validity of Ontario’s Mining Act. The court made it clear that First Nations’ laws do not exist in Canada’s legal system and anyone who tries to follow First Nations law will be severely punished.

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Call and Write Governor General Michaëlle Jean:
Demand that She Refuse Royal Assent to Secret Trials Bill

BRIEF BACKGROUND AND ACTION ITEM
February 12, 2008 — Following the shameful passage last week in the House of Commons of a new bill that will perpetuate secret trials, two tier justice, indefinite detention without charge, draconian house arrest control orders, and deportation to torture (thanks in large part to Liberal Party cheerleading), the legislation then rapidly moved to the chamber of “sober second thought,” the Senate of Canada.

Yet after hearing from eight hours of witnesses on Monday who unanimously informed a special Senate committee that the secret trials legislation was a human rights disaster that would not survive a court challenge and would condemn the secret trial five, their families, and their communities to many more years of fear and misery, the Liberal-dominated Senate acted more like the chamber of thoughtless, drunken irresponsibility and rushed the bill through on Tuesday, sending it on to the third and final piece of Canada’s Parliament, the office of Governor General Michaëlle Jean.

The Governor General has the power to grant Royal Assent, which makes Acts of Parliament law.

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This is the logical outcome of using fossil fuel inputs to grow food, and then turning that food into fuel.

As Evans-Pritchard points out, “energy and food have ‘converged’ in price and can increasingly be switched from one use to another,” which is just a polite way of saying that, in a time of scarcity, rich people’s ability to pay for fuel will quickly outstrip poor people’s ability to pay for food.

Why the price of ‘peak oil’ is famine

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
The London Telegraph
February 9, 2008

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By Alexander Cockburn & Jeffrey St. Clair
Counterpunch
February 6, 2008

“It’s becoming clear that as the economy tilts into recession prominent conservatives are coming to the conclusion that it might be no bad thing to have a Democrat win the White House this year, get stuck with recession and the mess in Iraq for four years, until the Republicans recapture the Congress in 2010 and the White House in 2012.”

Super Tuesday was planned by both parties as the coronation of a candidate, followed by six months furious fund raising to finance the fall race for the presidency. Such hopes were deliciously dashed on Tuesday as chaos descended on both parties.

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New Report Calls for Canada to Set Up Strategic Petroleum Reserves

EDMONTON - ­Canada is currently the most vulnerable country in the industrial world to short-term oil supply crises, and we need to establish strategic petroleum reserves to remedy the problem. This is the key finding of a report released today by Alberta’s Parkland Institute in conjunction with the Polaris Institute.

Freezing in the Dark: Why Canada Needs Strategic Petroleum Reserves points out the precariousness of current global oil supplies, especially given current tensions in the Middle East, and fact that Canada imports close to 1 million barrels of oil per day to supply the needs of central and eastern provinces.

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