In which the Pope makes Siobhan’s irony meter explode

Favourite irony meter-breaker Pope Francis opened his mouth again, and this time I think I fainted.

Then in the plane ride back to Rome, the pope told reporters that he had intended only to be critical of teaching children in school about what it means to be transgender. He reportedly used the word “transgender,” and he compared it to being gay. The church acknowledges people are gay but claims it’s a sin to act on same-sex attraction.

“It is one thing for a person to have this tendency, this option and even to have a sex change, but it is another thing to teach this in schools in order to change mentalities,” said the pope on the plane, according to Catholic News. “This I call ideological colonization.”

Catholics. Lecturing on colonization. I just

Wat.

-Shiv, Annihilator of Man, Fashionable Communist, who can’t even right now

Freeman on the Land charged with terrorism

I’ll start by saying I am sympathetic in the vaguest sense of what the so-called Freemen stand for. My anti-authoritarian streak has definitely been inflamed by a new wave of fascism that makes me superbly suspicious of political structures, and the Freemen on the Land, defined loosely by a desire to reject those structures, attempts to live my suspicions out.

Where we diverge is rather simple: I still believe, perhaps naively, that between transparency and making sure to chop up as much government authority across differently appointed sectors as you can, whilst restricting the capacity of money in politics, should be able to create a functional socialist society that mitigates the impact of the entitled and aggrieved who always fuck everything up. The Freemen, on the other hand, like to claim that laws don’t apply to them because they never agreed to them, so they do things like refuse to pay taxes or follow speed limits.

Thing is, I like taxes–as long as they’re being spent on infrastructure, humanitarian aid, education, healthcare, that sort of thing. More importantly, the speeding Freemen do happens on roads that everybody else is paying for… meaning if you want to be logically consistent in properly rejecting the government’s taxation, then you should also reject the government’s services and stop using roads and sidewalks as your personal fender. Freemen will refuse to pay taxes but rarely, if ever, actually reject government services.

Such was the case of the first Freeman, at least in Alberta, to be charged with a terrorism act by trying to place a lien on a police officer’s personal property–because the cop gave him a speeding ticket.

Allen Boisjoli, 45, of Vegreville is charged with intimidation of a justice system participant.

Boisjoli is accused of attempting to place a $225,000 lien on a police officer’s personal property after the police officer gave him a speeding ticket. While others have been charged with intimidation before, Edmonton Police believe it’s the first time where an incident has involved simply filing paperwork.

Det. Rae Gerrard said the documents Freemen present have no legal force, but are meant to make people in the system want to drop the case. Freemen or Sovereign citizens reject the notion that current laws have any force over them.

“The Freemen, and Mr. Boisjoli in particular in this case, they use a plethora of documents that mean absolutely nothing. They’re just cutting and pasting from all over the internet,” he said.

The investigation took eight months to complete, but Gerrard said it was worth pursuing.

“When we look at people who are attempting to subvert our entire criminal justice system for their own ends, than we have to see that as very serious,” he said.

…Thing is, if a justice system is broken–which is increasingly becoming apparent–defying that system is a worthwhile goal. But, as I’ve come to learn, you really have to set your rhetorical sights for the leaders and institutions, not the little guys. Shooting individual cops does fuck all for you except get you into deeper shit, you gotta aim higher–and ideally not with actual guns or weapons, because all that does is piss everyone off.

I don’t like the Freemen. They’re hypocritical, and also fucking idiots if they don’t understand that some laws are good. Like speed limits. Those are kinda important. It is true that laws can be bad, as can systems that maintain them, but that doesn’t excuse ripping 200 km/h through a school zone. Unfortunately that means you have to do the smart thing and assess given laws for their merit, which takes more effort than saying “I DON’T WANNA PAY TAXES!!” and trying to game the system with made up documents to antagonize a cop who fined you for doing a stupid fucking thing.

But that suspicion of authority… we share that, at least. Little else, apparently, like a shred of reason.

-Shiv

Jason Kenney’s 38k cheque from grifting taxpayers “bittersweet”

My favourite and best ever of all time friend, Jason Kenney, describes his departure from Parliament as “bittersweet” …after collecting $38,000 from his federal salary to spend the entire summer campaigning for the leadership of a provincial party:

Kenny described his departure as “bittersweet” saying he has fond memories of his time in Ottawa and will miss the issues he’s worked on, and the people he has worked on them with.

Ah, yes, the “issues he’s worked on.” Trying to impose forced-birther policies on the entire country, denying climate change, running charities dedicated to himself, and pushing for “compromise” when it comes to queer rights. At long last, he leaves federal politics and narrows his focus to merely Alberta.

[Read more…]

Health Canada dun good

Ask any expert in public health what the medical consensus is on treating addiction, and the term “harm reduction” is bound to come up at some point. Some substances have fatal or otherwise extremely harmful withdrawal effects, so you have to ween off them; others, injected drugs in particular, can be flashpoints for HIV contraction, so harm reduction can involve needle exchanges to move addicts away from HIV risks. Historically, Conservatives oppose these measures, characterizing them as enabling addiction. In reality, those public health officials whose concern is to end the addiction problem understand that many addicts would simply die under a “tough love” policy, which is not the sort of solution that passes any reasonable ethical criteria. So when Health Canada announced that it would provide prescription heroin to recovering addicts who have already built a resistance to methodone, the Conservative response was–as usual–contrary to all evidence that this is the solution for heavy addicts.

Of course, not all Canadians believe that treating addiction with heroin is a move in the right direction. Ambrose told GlobalNews.ca in 2013 that giving addicts heroin is “not to treat an underlying medical condition, but simply to allow them to continue to have access to heroin for their addiction even though other safe treatments for heroin addiction, such as methadone, are available.”

According to Oviedo-Joekes, “methadone doesn’t work all the time for everybody. Methadone works very well as a first-line treatment.” Addiction, “like any other illness,” may require second-line or even third-line treatments.
Prescribing heroin to severe addicts who don’t respond to other treatments may not cure them of their habit, according to Oviedo-Joekes and her colleagues, but it can lessen their exposure to life-threatening health risks, such as drug overdoses, blood-borne viral infections and endocarditis, an inflammation of the chambers of the heart. Studies indicate thatprescription heroin reduces illicit drug use and so decreases criminal activity and health care costs, so the greater societal toll is lessened.

That last bit there is one of the reasons I would think Conservatives–who claim to be tough on crime–would support this measure. Gangs often use drug dealing as an income stream, and nothing undermines their market quite like government grade drugs, which users can be confident aren’t laced with something unexpected.

Then again, Conservatives rarely care about the things they claim to care about unless they’re talking about taxes, so.

-Shiv

Expert bloodsucking party talks bloodsucking

The Dickweeds Wildrose returns with a vengeance! Not content to go longer than a few days without saying something asinine, the Wildrose are seriously proposing that Canadian Blood Services ought to pay Canadians for blood. See if you can spot the irony:

Accusing Ms. Hoffman of “hypocrisy” and of wanting to “get in the way” of improvements to the system for ideological reasons, Mr. Barnes claimed “paid plasma is every bit as safe” as blood products donated by volunteers, and that paying for blood is a “safe, common, widely endorsed and crucially essential practice.”

Then…

The Wildrose push seems to be in response to intensive lobbying by Canadian Plasma Resources, a Saskatoon-based for-profit company.

Canadian Plasma Resources is now buying plasma from donors in Saskatoon for $25 a pop – paid with a gift card or a charitable donation to get around rules prohibiting cash payments for blood products. The company became controversial in Ontario in 2014 after its plans to profit highly off of plasma collection there became known.

“Ideology,” eh? Is that what we’re calling your wallet, now?

Yes, obviously the solution to poverty is to attach strings, like their blood, to hand-ups. That’s the crux of pay-for-blood policies. Nobody well off ought to be convinced by a $25 incentive, so the main people who would use this “opportunity” would be people struggling to make ends meet. Oh–unless you’re gay or trans, in which case, cooties. So instead of advocating for a functioning social safety net to actually take care of welfare problems, you want to coerce poor folks into giving blood for a bit of extra grocery money.

Priorities. The Wildrose have them.

PS. By the way, I’d happily donate, but you know, Spontaneous Cooties Syndrome.

-Shiv

Jason Kenney scores points by accusing others of scoring points

Jason “I don’t get caught up in the details” Kenney seems to have a rather peculiar idea of how lawmaking works. In what must be the understatement of the decade, Education Minister David Eggen described Kenney’s ideas as “poor counsel” when Kenney suggested the government “compromise” with the Baptist schools defying Bill 10:

With two Edmonton-area religious schools saying they will defy provincial law that gives students the right to form a GSA, Eggen has not ruled out withholding provincial funding to the schools if they don’t comply with the legislation.

Kenney told reporters last week that Eggen was trying to score “political points,” and said the NDP government must balance provincial law against freedom of religion and freedom of association, and should work out a compromise with the Baptist school association that oversees the private schools.

But Eggen said it’s “poor counsel” from Kenney to suggest the government compromise in following the law.

“I find it curious that someone would counsel the government to compromise on what is a very clear law that was created to protect vulnerable children, to create a safe and caring environment for kids in schools,” Eggen told reporters at McDougall Centre, where the NDP cabinet was meeting Tuesday.

Ah yes, Jason Kenney would be the expert on scoring “political points.” Just say something to the effect of “taxes bad” while collecting an MPs salary deposited into your Totally Not a Campaign Fundraiser organization for a provincial party’s leadership election. Throw in some religious feardumb and tadaa! Instant points.

Maybe I should run for the Albertan Conservatives. I’ve got their shtick figured out!

-Shiv

Tell me again about those ‘good apples’?

Jesus H Christ is it ever WTFland in the news today.

Content Notice: Human trafficking and corrupt police.

Oakland Police are caught up in a $66-million dollar lawsuit alleging 30+ officers perpetuated a minor’s human trafficking for two years:

The teenager had been selling herself for money since she was 12. She had been “exploited by pimps,” she says, and was in the act of running away from one when she met Brendan O’Brien, a police officer in Oakland, Calif.

But instead of helping the then-17-year-old prostitute, O’Brien and more than 30 other law enforcement officers “continued to traffic, rape, victimize and exploit a teenage girl who needed to be rescued,” according to a legal claim filed with the Oakland city attorney’s office. “Instead of helping [the teen] find a way out of exploitation, they furthered and deepened her spiral down into the sex trade,” the claim adds.

Now 19, the teen is seeking $66 million in damages from the city, its police force, its former chief and multiple officers — the latest twist in an astonishing sex scandal that has swept up several police departments in the San Francisco Bay area.

The scandal led to the resignation of Oakland’s police chief, as well as the two people appointed to replace him, neither of whom lasted a week. It also led to other firings and suspensions, numerous criminal charges — and an apology from Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.

“I am deeply sorry for the harm that this scandal has caused, particularly to community trust, which for many was already so tenuous,” Schaaf (D) said earlier this month.

The teen’s claim, filed Friday, implicates not just O’Brien and the officers accused of having sex with the teen, but also supervisors who “stood by with a blind eye” as the teen became a sex slave for the officers, her attorneys said.

O’Brien committed suicide in the midst of a growing internal investigation. A note he left behind named other officers who he said had sex with the teen.  

Investigators have moved ahead with their case against 10 officers — seven were charged last month, another three this week. Prosecutors say more charges are coming.

And leaders in Oakland and other municipalities have said they are cleaning house. “I am here to run a police department, not a frat house,” Schaaf said in June, according to the Los Angeles Times. She vowed to “root out what is clearly a toxic, macho, culture,” the Times reported. Schaaf did not respond to messages seeking comment this week.

What in the actual fuck is wrong with these police?

-Shiv

Out Magazine glorifies fountain of shit-spewing, Milo Yiannopoulos

ThinkProgress has an open letter addressed to Out Magazine over its soft-ball profile of the alt right’s deep-fried-awful-battered-in-bullshit posterboy, Milo Yiannopoulos.

We are all painfully aware that gay, white, cisgender male narratives have too-long dominated queer media, including those of us who are ourselves gay, white, cisgender men. Just this week, we saw our sisters at AfterEllen.com have to cease editorial operations because a company decided that lesbians were not profitable enough — oblivious to how many bi and lesbian women found important community there. The excess of this narrow branding of the queer community results in erasure of all those who are not highlighted, an erasure that allows stereotypes, discrimination, and abuse to continue unabated against those invisible intersections.

The Out profile of Yiannopoulos represents the peak of this harm. Here is awhite supremacist whose entire career has been built on the attention he can get for himself through provocation. His attacks against women, people of color, Muslims,transgender people, and basically anybody who doesn’t like him are as malicious as they come, and he catalyzes his many “alt-right” followers to turn on any target he deems worthy of abuse. This puff piece — complete with a cutesy clown photoshoot — makes light of Yiannopoulos’s trolling while simultaneously providing him a pedestal to further extend his brand of hatred. Indeed, he does so in the profile itself, openly slurring the transgender community, which Out published without any apparent concern.

As members of the LGBT media, we believe we all must hold ourselves and each other to a higher standard. Many of us are members of the LGBT community ourselves, and we all develop content that serves the LGBT community either directly as an audience, or on its behalf by educating broader audiences about our politics and our cultures. We thus have an obligation, at a minimum, to ensure that what we publish — no matter how crass or sensationalized it may be — avoids fostering harm to queer people. Out failed in this regard.

Add my name to the list of signatories. Fucker couldn’t lose access to his internet fast enough. May every microphone he bloviate into break before he gets the chance to speak.

-Shiv

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA No

One day I might have a reasoned response to this, but for now I mostly plan on mocking it mercilessly:

Minnesotans are the face of a new campaign by a national network of anti-LGBTQ organizations. The campaign, #askmefirst, features Christians imploring schools, businesses, and “transgender activists” to ask them for permission before allowing transgender people to use the bathroom.

Hey Christians:

#AskMeFirst before you start proselytizing.

#AskMeFirst before you open your Bible.

#AskMeFirst before you open your mouth.

#AskMeFirst before one of your priests goes to the washroom.

#AskMeFirst before you leave church. I’d rather you just stay there. 24/7.

#AskMeFirst before you broadcast the Pope.

Motherfucker, I don’t need your god damn permission fulfill basic bodily functions, you arrogant, sanctimonious self-righteous sacks of shit.

-Shiv