The Antisocial Socialist

On CBC right now, they're broadcasting a town hall in Regina about residential schools. It's some of the sickest shit I've ever heard, and I think I'm going to cry. I can't turn it off, though. I feel like it's my responsibility to hear this.

It's been another one of those mornings where I wake up and hear something on the news that makes me wonder where exactly the dividing line between "it's all going to hell" and "we're actually living in a dystopia" lies. Today, it had to do with water. As some of you know, Vancouver and the surrounding area are under a boiled water advisory after a bad storm turned up sediment in the municipal water supply, leading to a steady steam of ick flowing out of people's taps. frandroid posted a nice comment the other day from Brad Bellemare of Edmonton:

Boo-hoo..for all the complaints in BC. Go to many Reserves in Canada where boiling water is just a daily fact of life.

This is just a little taste of the third world conditions that the Canadian Government has allowed to happen on many reserves.

Perhaps this type of outrage should be reflected for all Canadians not just the ones that face this once every 20 years. (Source.)

Naturally, unsafe water is a reality for most of the world—and increasingly so.

On the radio, a fellow from the Polaris Institute and a woman from a bottled water manufacturers association were debating the virtues of bottled vs. tap water. She was wonderfully evasive (the host asked, "Is bottled water 'pure,' as the manufacturers claim?" and her response was, "Bottled water is regulated as a food product.") The phrase "public and private water supply" was tossed around quite a bit (*waves at Bolivia*), as was the line, "water is increasingly a luxury item."

Ummm...what? Since when? When did this sort of discourse become commonplace, and why are the challenges to it so fainthearted?


Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 2000:
Family members weep over the body of a
dead protester after a massive strike over
increasing water rates.

The story ended with a plug for something called BlingH₂0—water that sells for $40 a bottle. I thought it was a joke—this was The Current on CBC, and they've been known to air satirical ads and such. But Google is my friend, and thus I present to you something truly disgusting.

Two completely unrelated topics, by the way.

zingerella and I went to see Eric Bogle last night. For those of you who are asking, "Who's that?" -- you probably have heard his songs. He wrote two of my favourite anti-war songs, "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and "The Green Fields of France." Apparently a lot of folks (including some who write for newspapers) think that he's dead. Anyway, he's not, and fantastic show.

After the show, we got to talking about a 400+ comment flamewar on Making Light (check it out!), which is vastly amusing and includes a few well-deserved disemvowellings. If you don't have time to read such hilarity, it involves the murder of the Nielsen Haydens' downstairs neighbour and mentions, in passing, the blog entries of a group of conservative girls who were slumming at the strip club where said neighbour worked. The girls, and their friends, none of whom have heard of Making Light and who are under the impression that TNH was trolling for more traffic by linking to their oh-so-popular blogs, descended en masse to decry the hypocrisy of liberals, etc., resulting in a fine moment of Inigo Montoya-esque "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

Of particular note is this comment by Anarch about a brand of right-wing bourgeoisie with whom I have had very little real-life contact. By coincidence (okay, because I go searching for these things), I stumbled upon christianitysex. The majority of posters seem to believe in strict abstinence for everyone but themselves -- or rather, they claim to believe in abstinence for themselves, but then go into massive guilty contortions when they find themselves unable to actually live up to their own standards. The degree to which they openly struggle with their own repression is quite illuminating. These are primarily the old-school fundie types -- and I do see where they're coming from, even though I think it's sad and pathetic. What I find more befuddling, though, are the "Sth Prk Rpblcns" that show up in the Making Light thread and occasionally on conservatism. Is this really common -- people who want to control other people's sexuality (by aligning themselves with the Religious Right, by opposing reproductive freedom, etc.) but simultaneously flaunt their own? Or celebrate their own individualistic liberty (smoking pot, hanging out in strip clubs) while setting up structures that reduce the liberty of others?

Also, is it true that Young Republicans throw really good parties? Because I've heard from a firsthand witness that the Progressive Conservatives don't.

Discuss!

P.S. Dear CBC: I don't like the ELF any more than you do, but could you please restrict the term "violence" to describing acts of force against living creatures? Property destruction is not violence. It's property destruction. Kthxbye.

First, read this.

I'm glad the lockout is over. I'm also glad that CBC Unplugged isn't going anywhere (or if it is, it will go kicking and screaming) because it has become one of my favourite blogs during its short existence. A lot of the other CBC blogs are really good, too, so it'll be interesting to see which ones stick around.

In other news, I settled up with my landlord today. This guy really knows how to charm a girl, let me tell you. He really likes to talk. He launched into a monologue about the '67 war and how after all of that killing, Israel finally "gave up" Gaza, and what was the point of it all, apparently thinking that it was a very apt metaphor and very appropriate given that his tenant is a Jew. Man, if I'd wanted to cry anti-Semitism I could have had some real fun.

Anyway, he has some relative coming from Greece so he's happy to evict me. In turn, I informed him that I'd fight it. He informed me that the Rental Tribunal were all friends of his, which is probably true, given the complicity of such bodies in tenant exploitation. So after both of us threatening to make the other's life a living hell, he offered to swallow a bit less than half of what I'd withheld. He then went on to another monologue about people with mohawks, and while tuning him out, I contemplated the offer.

I could keep pushing for the whole thing, and legally, I might win, but if the Tribunal is all Greek-landlord mafia, I could get completely screwed, too. If I paid and then appealed to the Tribunal, I might have to end up paying the whole shot. So I went for it and made my landlord sign a note that we'd settled up and there was no money outstanding.

I figure I'll be out of here within six months. Moving will be stressful enough without having to go to court. And I did end up with some discount, at least, and maybe in the future he'll know better than to fuck me around.

In other news, Fearless Leader is two hours late. I don't think he's coming. Of course, if he called to say he was late, lost, etc., it wouldn't have done me any good because the stupid phone has been ringing off the hook all night and no single person in my life seems to understand the meaning of I don't like talking on the phone, I don't have call waiting, and I'm expecting to hear from other people.

EDIT: [The following morning.] Ooops, Fearless Leader did come by, exactly when he said he would. Apparently, my doorbell isn't working (or maybe I just didn't hear it because of the ringing phone). Sorry, Fearless Leader, for implying that you are flakey!

( cut for unadulterated moment of phone anxiety and CAPLOCKS OF RAGE )

Yeah, so I'm glad that's dealt with.

CBC lockout
It's into Day 28, with no end in sight. And it's still no fun. To make it a bit more fun (at least for someone), N. and I have decided to organize some picket-line solidarity. I know himy has already been down a few times (check out his photos!) and this is obviously a situation where the small but growing Toronto Wobs can be useful. I bothered a CBC worker on his blog to ask when the picket lines were up so that we could bring them coffee, samosas, and hopefully a bit of morale. He responded right away to say that they're up 24-7. We're probably going to make our first visit either Thursday night or Sunday. So if you're interested in coming along, drop me a comment and we'll figure out a time.

Someone else suggested e-mailing our local MPs, the PM, the CBC Board of Directors, and Robert Rabinovitch. His e-mail is Robert_Rabinovitch@cbc.ca.

Public memorials
I should know by now to listen to the e-saints who read crap so that I don't have to. When Teresa Nielsen Hayden says that there's an incredibly stupid and offensive discussion on Little Green Footballs about the planned Flight 93 memorial, her judgment should be trusted. She wouldn't make up something like that. So I don't really need to go read the disgusting commentary myself because someone else has already made that noble sacrifice.

Don't click on that. It's LGF, which means that it will make you angry and kind of disappointed with the human species.

But it got me thinking about memorials, and what sort of memorials I like and why. I gather from those comments that the LGF crowd would like something large and penis-shaped -- perhaps a fist (don't they know that's a commie symbol) or a nuk-u-lar missile or maybe just a big penis. I actually like what I've heard about this design -- although it's hard to tell from the images they show -- and I think it embodies the sort of qualities that make a good memorial.

My favourite memorial of all time is this one:

It's the Bebelplatz Memorial, outside of Humbolt University in Berlin. In 1933, the Nazis gathered books from the university library and burned them. The memorial itself is where the bonfire was. The glass covers an underground chamber lined with empty bookshelves -- enough space to fit every book that was burned that night. The square of glass is quite reflective -- I was there with a crowd, and we could see our own, faceless reflections, as though we were the ones standing around the bonfire.

You can see why this is conceptually brilliant, can't you?

A penis tower-shaped memorial does not convey loss. It conveys triumph of the phallus. With their puerile fantasies of macho revenge, some of the LGFers are trying to twist the Flight 93 story into that of a victory, despite the fact that a bunch of innocent people died. But I suspect they want something towering for the WTC memorial too, which makes less sense than the earlier (and brilliant) reflective pools that Maya Lin wanted.

Why do neo-conservatives hate good architecture?

GIP
chreebomb thought that Jabbar Gibson would make a good replacement for Brownie as the head of FEMA. I disagreed, arguing that he'd make a better replacement for Bush as head of the US. epilady got inspired to make an icon, so I looted it. By the way, rumour has it that our boy might be in jail and we are looking to confirm or deny. If any of you have any news as to Gibson's whereabouts, please let the folks at poor_planning know about it.

If you ever need to reach me...
Here's how.
( under here )

Okay, this CBC lockout thing is getting very old. For those of you who aren't in Canada or aren't following this crap, the lockout...I mean, "labour disruption" has hit Day 25. CBC Unplugged is the best source for information on the lockout, and is a much better source of information than the actual CBC, which is now being run by the bosses.

Boss Radio is a great source of unintentional hilarity, however. I require three things to get me up in the morning: coffee, a hot shower, and the CBC. I don't look at the clock to figure out whether I'm late for work or not -- when The Current starts, I know that I need to get a move on it. So the lockout has resulted in me being late for work at least once, as there's only pop songs and "human interest" snippets until 9 am, when they read whatever the BBC says happened in international news.

Our nice, fuzzy, liberal media outlet has taken a decided turn to the Right. To their credit, the NDP is supporting the CBC workers and refusing to cooperate with CBC management -- presumably, any sort of progressive group or individual in Canada is doing the same thing. So the interviews tend to be with other management types, usually in the US, and high school students and teachers who don't know any better.

Yesterday was my breaking point, though. They had an interview with a guidance counsellor about how schoolchildren in Winnipeg are coping from the trauma of watching Hurricane Katrina coverage on TV. No, seriously. She kept saying the words "curriculum outcomes." I died a little.

Among other realizations, I've decided that Susan Marjetti, who is one of the two morning hosts, is a tool of the Devil. For whatever reason, she thought it'd be funny to do a Top Ten List of Reasons Why Getting Up At 3 pm Was So Much Fun. It included "I'm in bed by 8 pm" and "I get to listen to car alarms go off when I wake up."

There's a political analysis here, as always. The ruling class is incapable of coming up with anything creative or productive. Left to their own devices, the foundations of civilized society will crumble, leaving us with Rod Stewart on repeat and the desire to ram pointy things through our ears.

I support them and all that, but I do hope the CBC strike ends soon. It's killing my mornings. It's bad enough that I have to get up with a hangover. But I have to listen to this:

Bad pop music
Bad pop music
30 seconds about Gaza
Bad pop music
Weather report for Nunavut
Bad pop music

Ugh.

Speaking of which -- here's a not-so-hypothetical situation. Imagine there's a Canadian factory with a contract to manufacture and sell bullets to the US Army. Those bullets are going to be used to shoot Iraqis. The workers at the factory go on strike; their demands do not mention the war. Do you:

a) Support them in their demands because they're striking workers?
b) Do picket-line support for sure, but make sure to discuss the war with them in some way?
c) Don't touch this situation with a ten-foot pole. You wouldn't do strike support for prison guards, either.

And why?