all about america

maybe she's satan ???!!!!

Pilgrimage to Burns Bog

Meet Michaelle Jean, the Sarah Palin of Canada

photo: google.com/hostednews/ap/article/
ALeqM5jKKCrIpvS6RwoRtDDh7R8rNs5sUQD98E2VC80

May 26, 2009 7:36 PM

http://gawker.com/5269798/meet-michaelle-jean-the-sarah-palin-of-canada

So in Canada they have this thing called the "Governor General," which is some sort of viceroy or something appointed by the Queen of England, and her name is Michaelle Jean. Yesterday, Jean kicked off a tour of Canada's Arctic region by gutting a seal and eating its heart raw.

Jean, a Haitian refugee who fled to Canada in 1968, bears a slight physical resemblance to America's own Sarah Palin, as evidenced by the accompanying photo of her sitting on a throne sporting fashionable eyeglasses and gaudy patriotism "flair" on her lapel, and shares a few other similarities with the Alaskan Governor as well—-According to her Wikipedia page, Jean started out professionally as a journalist, just like Sarah Palin! Further, they both hold the title of Governor over frozen states. Sarah Palin likes to decorate her office with dead animals and shoots wolves from helicopters, while Jean, clearly the more badass of the two, prefers to butcher seals and eat their hearts in front of hundreds of onlookers:

"Michaelle Jean, the Queen's representative to the country, did it as a gesture of solidarity with the country's beleaguered seal hunters, the reports said, adding that Jean expressed dismay that people would call the traditional hunting practices inhumane.

After eating the heart during a stop in Nunavut's Rankin Inlet, Jean wiped her blood-soaked fingers with a tissue."

Well, at least she's sanitary!

Now, the question on everyone's mind has to be, "How will Sarah Palin top this one?" Maybe she can take down a polar bear to eat its heart AND its liver? She's got to do something, because as it stands now, it appears as though Canada is easily winning the "Who has the kookiest female Governor" sweepstakes, and couple that with the fact that they have health care for all their citizens, and it becomes increasingly clear that America is nothing more than Canada's bitch.

emergency averted .... thanks, laurie partridge!

photo: off the grid along the galloping goose cycle trail.

yesterday morning i panicked. i phoned some poor guy at shaw (sounded local, at least it wasn't far away in the philippines or something) and insisted they get over here and check the wiring because ever since they'd been here, to upgrade our cable (rent increase, cable upgrade) and change over our phone to digital (telus was so much better when it was publically owned) i've been experiencing some rather severe physical discomfort. over several days i'd had changes to my breathing, a heavy feeling in my chest, my heart felt like it was beating erratically, and the tinnitis ringing in my ears was like a train was whistling its way through my head. i tried desperately to think about what was new, what might be causing this, it couldn't possibly be that i was suddenly sensitized to the enormous power conductor things or whatever they are outside my balcony window. it must have been shaw's fault. the guy, adam, was sympathetic, but assured me they use coaxial cables which don't emit any electromagnetics and if they weren't connected properly the phone and tv simply wouldn't work.

what could it be? it was driving me mad. i woke up in the night about ready to grab my sleeping bag and go sleep in my friend's back yard. then, luckily, i remembered that partridge family episode where laurie partridge had to get a mouthful of metal braces and found herself receiving radio signals. maybe that's what's happening .... maybe my herbal/homeopathic detox was releasing huge amounts of mercury and lead and arsenic and all the other heavy metals we human accumulate as a consequence of being alive. i remembered that i had, the week previously, specifically asked the amazing patsy, acupuncture student extraordinaire, to focus on helping my mouth release the mercury from the amalgam fillings that had accumulated in my jaw. certainly my second abscess (the first having relieved itself in previous years) was leeching crap on a regular basis ... it sounds yucky but it's actually a good thing ... and i've been drinking lots of water and stuff with antioxidants like green tea and rooibos and organic vegan red wine ... maybe the stuff that's leaving my body is just reacting to the many and various waveforms that circulate around us on a daily basis. stuff like radio waves, and cell phone waves, and wifi, and tv signals, and all the other electricity based 'conveniences' of life in the industrialized world. maybe i had evolved some mystical ability to monitor electromagnetic energy.

there certainly is a lot of it. my flat mate suggested it'd be interesting to draw an image of what the air around us actually looks like, with the am and fm and ac and dc and wifi and all the rest of it. he's also experiencing some tinnitis, so whatever's going on with me isn't only about my detox, but i'm not feeling as panicked as i was yesterday. the symptoms have settled down somewhat, especially after a good yoga sweat session (also good for detoxification), and hopefully i'll just learn to live with the tinnitis and i'll survive it.

soon, on july 3rd, i begin my second annual adventure to cuba with the pastors for peace who are on their 20th annual. i remember, last year in cuba, feeling physically different. no tinnitis, for example. but things are changing -- they were talking about underwater cables for internet, and i hear that hugo chavez and the venezuelans have developed an affordable cell phone.

i guess change is the only constant. it's oddly amusing to consider that laurie partridge has been one of my (many) health advisors on this detox journey. unfortunately, canada's great health system hasn't provided any of the others. it's a good system if you need emergency surgery, or pharmaceutical drugs, but they're really not focussed on prevention. my friends with hep c tell me there are two options for their healing - a chemical treatment, or a herbal one. both work, the herbal one is better, and less expensive, but guess which one the government offers to low income people? gotta keep big pharma happy, i guess. still, we count our blessings while working for change - if we were american we'd likely be dead by now.

p.s. someone from shaw's customer service actually called me today, i guess adam had sent an email. this is why we support locally based businesses! they assure me they care, and that what they do is safe. they use radio waves, and they're federally regulated (not that that's any reassurance). i feel better, but still ... i can't help but wonder what impact all these frequencies might have in the long term .... maybe i oughta eat more seal heart (see next story i'm about to post!)

Little off-grid House on the Prairie

Now accepting letters of interest (or phone calls) from a few good people who would like the opportunity to visit or live and work in an off-grid home. Our place, in Craik, SK. is straw bale wrapped, equipped with solar electricity, low tech solar hot water, wood stove for when it gets chilly (hopefully we're done with that til fall), has nice soil and an organic garden, inhabited by myself, and a lovely cat (who thankfully hasn‚t yet discovered the nesting robin in front of the house.)

There‚s a community greenhouse next door, eco-village across the highway (with many other interesting build projects in various stages) eco-centre, Audubon certified golf course, regional park with outdoor pool, and a dynamic local organizing body co-ordinating most of the fabulous eco-initiatives.

For example, this summer solstice is the 3rd annual Solar Fair, cob oven workshop, and a Masonry workshop, and straw bale workshop, which may be at our place first week of August.

There's a ton of opportunity for people to experience off-grid
living, sustainable building, organic gardening and the awesome
summer weather (we hope).

If you are a good fit for this scene (activist, artist, free-thinker, dedicated environmentalist, etc), drop me a line.

Willing to trade, barter or otherwise negotiate an exchange of labour, expertise, enthusiasm, etc on your part for expertise, skill share, home grown organic food, and a very cool place to stay. Currently need help planting and tending garden, rebuilding roof, installing rainwater capture, and plastering the bale wrapped house.



cheers,

kelly reinhardt
306-734-5160
kelly@boilingfrog.ca

pls. note i'm only on email tues through friday.

PS. Craik is quite lovely, and there is a lot of great things going on, but it IS a small prairie town if you get my drift.

ac dc

there's definitely some wierd energy shit going down in my neighbourhood.

i've lived here for nine years, always appreciative of its central location, and its magnificent view. in the back of my mind i've lived with the awareness that the monstrous transformers, really too freakin' near the apartment and on the same level as us, are probably not the best thing to live beside. i haven't really noticed any ill effects, though --- i sleep through the night, i'm healthy and the extensive detox process i've been involved with these past few years appears to be having some healing affect on my hair and skin and nails. but lately i've noticed a sensitivity, and i think it's connected to the big grey cannisters just outside the balcony window.

my increased awareness began when, in between doggie minding jobs (which takes me to different neighbourhoods) i realized that my tinnitis was only apparent when i was at home. focussing more closely on how i feel when i'm at home as compared to how i feel when i'm living closer to the beach, or the forest, or somewhere other than here at home, i realize now that there's definitely an increased frequency in this apartment. i don't know how else to describe it. it happens most predominantly during the dinner hour, and into the early evening, i guess that's the high energy usage time. my breath becomes more shallow and strained, my ears begin to ring, and i feel a weight in my chest and abdomen that doesn't exist the rest of the day, and which is non-existent when i'm at other peoples' homes.

this is frustrating. i'm poor, i've lived here for nine years so the rent is still affordable. since the bc liberals were elected in 2000 rents in victoria have sky rocketed, and it's virtually impossible for poor people to move anywhere. i'm stuck. there's a slim chance i could take an apartment in the infamous view towers, i have a friend who lives in a bachelor suite where she pays over 600 a month, but that's considerably more than my half of the rent where i'm living. (though living in view towers would give my an opportunity to investigate the rumours i've heard about the police busting drug dealers when they should be looking into murders that go unreported ...)

i love my apartment. i've shared this relatively large space with my flat mate for over six years. we get along really well, and i'm settled here. i can walk to the beach, cycle downtown or to the university, and i'm close to several bus lines. not only do i not want to move, i can't afford to. i earn $1000 a month. where am i to go? what if the transformers malfunction and catch fire and explode?

i'd rather not think about it, but unfortunately that's becoming impossible. hurray for capitalism and the re-elected neo-cons and and their 'your on your own' philosophy. i wonder if anyone else in the neighbourhood notices it? i wonder if there's anything we can do about it?

Big Local Gardening a threat to Industrial Ag/Pesticide/Chemical Syndicate

there's an annoying ad at the beginning ... but it's a funny segment with canadian reporter samantha bee, about the obamas' controversial organic garden.

http://tinyurl.com/BigLocalGardening

PROTESTERS GREET “OLYMPIC TORCH PRACTICE RUN” IN DOWNTOWN VICTORIA

“OLYMPIC TORCH” CONFRONTED BY ANTI-OLYMPICS PROTEST AT ROYAL BANK LOCATION

VICTORIA, COAST SALISH TERRITORIES, MAY 21, 2009 – The Royal Bank-sponsored
“Olympic Torch Practice Run” was greeted at its first stop by a “Practice
Protest” in downtown Victoria this morning.

A prototype of the Olympic Torch is visiting five Victoria RBC locations this
week to “practice” for the Olympic Torch Relay, which will begin at Mile
Zero in Victoria on October 30, 2009. The “Olympic Torch Welcoming
Committee” wielded banners, signs, and noisemakers to “practice”
protesting the Olympic Torch relay.

“We’re here today because homeless people could be housed for a fraction of
what the Torch Relay is costing taxpayers,” said spokesperson Zoe Blunt.
“We’re here because First Nations peoples’ land rights are still violated
daily, social justice activists are facing increasing harassment and
surveillance, and our children and grandchildren will still be paying for this
extravagance years from now.”

Chief of Police Jamie Graham warned activists gathered inside the bank that
they would be arrested if they “defaced” property after one person wrote
“No Olympics on Stolen Land” on a banner made available for public signing.
Other members of the “Olympic Torch Welcoming Committee” were expelled from
the public celebrations inside RBC by Victoria police and private security
guards for carrying anti-Olympic signs drawn on cardboard.

On the street outside the Fort and Douglas RBC location, protesters were under
the close surveillance of uniformed and plain-clothed police.

“We’re quite surprised that a group of 30 Victoria residents with
hand-painted banners, signs and one megaphone merited such a hefty security
presence”, said No 2010 Victoria organizer Tamara Herman. “We could think
of better ways of spending the $1 billion security bill for the 2010 Olympics.
Then again, we could also think of better ways of spending the $500,000 that
the City of Victoria has put aside for the Torch Relay.”

RBC has received negative attention for its sponsorship of the 2010 Games and
its investments in Alberta's tar sands environmental disaster. No 2010
Victoria, a coalition of anti-Olympic activists and groups, is organizing a
campaign targeted the Torch Relay and its corporate sponsors.

For more information: Zoe Blunt, 250-885-8219
No 2010 Victoria

if you don't vote, complain more loudly than ever!

gotta love george carlin .... except, i wonder how babies feel about the dominant use of the word 'sucks' to infer something is bad?? i'm not a breeder, but i can see there's something strange about discouraging that ...

gotta love that british humour (it's how they stayed sane despite their imperialist governments/monarchs, i think)

Voting's Just Not Enough

Bill Tieleman's knee-jerk reaction to another Campbell government is to call for compulsory voting.

And just when I've discovered the joys of anarchy!

I didn't vote yesterday. My name is not registered as one who went out of their way to endorse the current system. I do democracy every day - publishing the Street Newz, organizing radio shows for CFUV, updating this blog (not that anyone reads it anyways), supporting my activist friends who climb trees, march in rallies, organize peaceful non-violent protests to express our outrage at the massive expensive elitist party next year in Whistler. I buy local, organic, non-corporate, and vegan. I chose not to endorse the dominant political scene because I'm tired of being disappointed, I don't like the rage and hatred it evokes in me and, most importantly, I do not want to be on record as one who endorses the current system.

The current system is founded on theft and murder. Plain and simple. Colonialist ancestors, not unlike those now invading Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc., moved to this land, decided the people here weren't doing it right, went about torturing and killing them, and then established a system of government designed to ensure their right to murder and steal , legitimizing their reign of terror.

Yesterday, I refused to endorse that system.

Nay-sayers will argue that people died for my 'right' to participate. Did they? I say that people died alright, but not for my right to change anything. They died, and continue to die, for a system rooted in, and which hasn't swayed far from, sanctioned theft and murder. Marking a piece of paper every four years, to endorse that system, does not a democracy make.

It's not democracy at all, in fact. It's a hierarchy - hierarchies are inherently undemocratic. It's a cult - cults insist on 100% participation, and denounce anybody who doesn't join as evil.

If i had time/resources, I think I'd create a documentary about why so many increasing people around the world refuse to participate. Are they just lazy? Don't they care? Or are they, like me, aware that it's all a farce, a trap, a way to ensure complicity in their imperialist game?

If we end up with compulsory voting, I'll likely end up in jail. I do democracy every day. Go climb a tree in an unprotected forest, blow the whistle on what's happening inside BC Hydro, organize a Health Cooperative, lobby for publically funded schools, and I'll do whatever I can to support you. But I will not sanction a structure founded on theft and murder.

Rafe Mair & Joe Foy Make Powerful Plea in Pitt Meadows

Top 5 UFO stories of 2008

From: "EXOPOLITICS.COM" (photo from NASA)

Discovery of life on Mars by Andrew D. Basiago chosen #1 UFO story of 2008

Alfred Lambremont Webre
Seattle Exopolitics Examiner

MARS: Andrew D. Basiago

The discovery of life on Mars by Andrew D. Basiago has been chosen as the #1 UFO story of 2008. EXOPOLITICSRADIO.ORG was notified of the award by veteran broadcaster Jerry Pippin in a May 10, 2009 email statement, “We made your broadcast story on the discovery of life on Mars the top UFO event of 2008.”

In a 41-page paper dated Dec. 12, 2008, Washington State trial lawyer and environmental scholar Andrew D. Basiago sets out analysis and photographs identifying 3 species of humanoid beings, numerous species of animals, structures and statues on the surface of Mars. These photographs are images isolated by Andrew D. Basiago from within NASA rover Spirit photograph PIA 10214 , a composite photograph taken in November 2007 in the Columbia basin on Mars, and released public by NASA on its website in January 2008.

Mr. Basiago’s landmark paper, The Discovery of Life on Mars, can be downloaded free in PDF format at www.exopolitics.com and by clicking here.

The top 5 UFO stories of 2008 as chosen by Jerry Pippin include:

1. Life on Mars? NASA [rover Spirit] photos seem to show statues, totem poles and other evidence of life.

2. Needles UFO Crash or was it something from Black Ops?

3. Death of Mr. X- UFO whistle blower, who did a series of shows on top secret papers involving military knowledge of UFOs dies mysteriously in December.

4. Gary McKinnon, the UFO hacker battles extradition to the US for cyber terrorism - He just received a judicial review slated for Mid-March in his fight to stay in the UK

5. The Stephenville, Texas UFO sighting - UFOs near the Bush Vacation White House, hundreds see them.

Continued ...

HOW STV WORKS

CLICK HERE FOR A SIMPLE VIDEO EXPLANATION OF HOW STV WOULD WORK, INCLUDING HOW THE VOTES WOULD BE COUNTED.

a walk in the forest - may 7 09

i sold my car in the early 90s. i bought it new, a decade earlier, after high school when i was working various office jobs and paid it off at some outrageous interest rate .... way over 10% as i recall. it was a good reliable car that got me safely back and forth from the acreage into my city job, through various alberta snow storms. when i moved to the big city of vancouver, and into an apartment walking distance from work, the car sat in the underground parking except for weekend excursions to visit my horses who now lived in maple ridge. i couldn't insure my car during my three years at college in california, because it didn't have a catalytic converter and therefore didn't meet their emission standards, so i loaned it to a friend who drove it periodically and kept it safe in canada until my return.

in california i walked or cycled to the school and grocery store, shared a car with a friend for longer excursions, even learned to ride buses on rather onerous journeys through the expansive silicon suburbia. when i returned to victoria, in 1990, i was a devoted environmentalist. i reclaimed my car, but parked it, and rode the long bus journey from sidney to the university. in california i had studied ecology, biology, anthropology (cultural and physical - the study of evolution), helped found the 'green future' environmental club which brough recycling and rainforest awareness to the campus and, awake and aware that human activity on the planet was incredibly detrimental to its wellbeing, was determined to living simply so that others might simply live. i drove the car for a few months when i lived in victoria but still worked at a pub near sidney and the buses just didn't serve that schedule, but i sold it in the early 90s and have had no desire to own one ever since.

the point is ..... i guess i'm feeling guilty because, this week and next, i'm in sidney looking after two doggies who love to run in the forest. i'm with them on that, the forest is enchanting and besides my arms and shoulders just can't take two strong-willed cat-chasing dogs on leashes. so i've been driving every day, to the forest and back. sometimes twice a day. i'm definitely using up all my carbon credits for this year, and especially if i get on that cubana airplane from tampico to havana later this year (after hauling humanitarian aid over ground through the usa). hopefully the rest of my life is green enough to make up for these small indiscretions.

i have a love/hate relationship with the automobile. when i'm on my bike trying not to be killed, i hate them. when i have a chance to load up a couple of doggies and go to a forest, i love them.

yesterday i went to john dean park, a place rather difficult to get to without a motorized vehicle, for a walk with the western canada wilderness committee. it was very pleasant, we found a douglas fir tree six feet in diameter (the ancient giants at cathedral grove are seven feet and more) and hiked to the summit, overlooking the inlet and the malahat from a beautiful arbutus grove. there were only a few of us, and i'm still a bit confused about why two local mla candidates, gary holman and tom bradfield, took time from their campaigning schedule to be there. maybe they thought there'd be a bigger crowd to pontificate to, or maybe they just wanted, like the rest of us, to get a bit of fresh air and learn something about the local ecosystem.

murray coell, the incumbent, was not there. no big surprise. i'm sure i would have taken a different hike if he had been.

i'm not sure what it is about this riding, who these people are who vote so strangely. they seem so nice, otherwise. but they vote consistently for right wing politics ... at least those who do vote, and those whose votes comprise the winning team. of course there are large numbers who vote otherwise, but unless we get some electoral reform, their votes just don't count and whoever gets elected doesn't really care about them except to win them over before the next election. although, locally they've voted out the pro-development folk, both in sidney and in north saanich (at least that's how i understand it, from my heresay derived, unresearched viewpoint). so why did they vote for gary lunn and the conservatives federally? i suppose the under-reported scandal about strange anonymous calls encouraging people, days before the election, to vote for the non-existent ndp candidate who had actually withdrawn from the competition may have something to do with it. plus, folks here are relatively comfortable.

a friend of mine has suggested that marx was wrong --- it's not religion that's the opiate of the masses (though apparently that's a bit of a misquote, but we get the point), it's comfort. i'm not saying people shouldn't be comfortable, just that i wish they'd think about how their levels of comfort compare, are influenced by, depend upon, the comfort levels of others in their communities and around the world. for the most part, people vote to protect their own interests, without thinking about what life's like for so many others. life in sidney, for many, appears to be very pleasant and comfortable. why change that? but surely there's a working class that's been affected by the bc liberals cuts to services - i remember one of the first things they took away from us was the ability for low-income people to have one free eye exam a year. it's not enough that our teeth are rotting and falling out, for lack of any form of dental plan, thanks to the bc liberals we're now blinded too. there must be people here who can see and feel the effects of the taxation without representation method of right wing politics, who care that, even if they're still comfortable, there are increasingly more each day who are rendered poor and/or homeless for the sake of maintaining their own 'status quo'. has the economic collapse of 'free market' capitalism taught them nothing? are we not canadians, who care about our neighbours? isn't this what distinguishes us from the 'every person for him/herself' americans?

i'm not necessarily a big fan of the ndp - their recent ancestors threw 800 of my environmentalist friends in jail in the 90s, including their own svend robinson. that's not to say this current bunch would do the same, but certainly they've strayed far from their socialist roots - a method of redistribution of wealth which, strangely and cruelly, so many americans think is evil (greedy buggers). back in the day the ccf (before they were the ndp) influenced the introduction of social security and welfare and old age pensions and health care and unemployment insurance. last time in power here in bc they held firm with a tuition freeze (since the bc fibberals deregulated tuition it's increased almost 100%), and we did own and had access to some accountability for the goings on at bc ferries and bc hydro back in the day. sure, there was the big 'fast ferry' scandal, but really that was nothing (mostly media hype) compared to what the formerly new york based hertz car ceo has done to our ferry access. and then there's the western forest products deal, the first of many cut and run real estate offerings, no doubt, if campbell and his goons have their way.

the bc liberals of today are the socreds of yesterday, regrouped after their own ship sank, and they hate us.

they hate us, the bc 'liberals'. they hate the poor and working classes, and most of all they hate the earth. they allow the slaughter of grizzly bears for tropies, and they want to clearcut the province, including the last ancient rainforests on earth, and sell it off as real estate to their ultra-rich friends. they set up a 'free trade' zone with alberta called tilma, so that oil from the tarsands wastelands can be shipped by oil tanker along our precious, pristine coastline. they're mean-spirited, murderous, self-indulged, greedy power mongers and they shouldn't be allowed to hold power of any kind.

so i walked through the forest yesterday with two other wanna-be politicians, listening to what they had to say, actually hopeful (despite my anarchist tendencies) that maybe the people of north saanich will wake up and elect one of them. or vote for them, at least. even if they don't get elected, it's a vote against the bc liberals (who aren't liberal at all). it's not a split vote, it's really not. if there were no green party getting votes there would be no green discussion from the other two parties. politics is a game, a vote-gathering game, and if the greens or ndp take votes away then the liberals must wonder why. they must, that's all they care about, getting votes.

i learned, while hiking in the rain, in the rainforest, with the beautiful lush green undergrowth - the trillium flowers and the vanilla and the ferns and all the rest of it, that ndp gary helped establish the very successful little bus onto salt spring island, and that tom's got native roots in the saanich nation and a mom who donated her reservation school settlement to his campaign. i'm not voting in this riding ... in fact i'm not voting at all (i'm tired of endorsing an old patriarchal system of oppression and colonization), but i did tell them that those of us who care deeply about the horrid and inhumane injustices being inflicted upon the palestinian peoples are very upset with both their leaders. carole james has stated that any criticism of israel is to be considered anti-semitism (a misnomer since all peoples from that region are 'semites), and elizabeth may said, on chris cook's gorilla radio show the other day, that she believes hamas is receiving depleted uranium from iran ... because they don't have any information that's not what's happening. (chris had asked if it's fair to evaluate both the palestinians and the israelis equally, considering the weight of the environmental weaponry they're using (depleted uranium and other awful stuff vs. small home-made rockets), and that elizabeth's response.) i realize that gary and tom are provincial candidates, and that palestine is a long way from a walk in the majestic forest of john dean park, but it's all connected. the truth is the truth, it's not something derived from what we don't know, and our ability to criticize a government ought to be encouraged, let alone permitted.

we talked about the ndp and the green party stance on forestry, the potential loss of jobs as we move away from cutting ancient forests. personally, i think it's time that people make a little personal sacrifice and think about alternative forms of employment. it's like the seal clubbers in the east, complaining that the recently announced european union ban of canadian seal products will put an end to their careers. oh, boo hoo already. if you can't think of anything better to do everyday than go club a seal over the head, then maybe you should apply for disability insurance because you've obviously got some rather severe mental deficiencies. again, if the government was about providing solutions rather than throwing big expensive elitist parties and lining their own pockets with the money they take from us, maybe they'd think about things like re-fitting the sawmills to handle second growth (or hemp!) rather than old-growth, and/or create and encourage some job-retraining that's not dependent on the destruction of the planet.

in the late 80s i learned that 'conservative' white-collar and tie scientists believed, from studying the evidence, that the human species has about 30 years to dramatically change the way we live and do business on this planet, or we're simply not going to be allowed to live here anymore. looking at the evidence myself, that made sense to me, and i changed my life. i quit eating my animal friends, started buying organic, and sold my car. and yesterday i walked in the forest with two guys who care enough to be there, in one of the last temperate rainforests on the planet. if i lived here, i'd take a big chance and actually vote for one of them if for nothing else then simply to send a message to the ruling party. collectively, we remaining humans are on the brink of extinction. it couldn't get any worse .... could it?

Did you know that British Columbia has no endangered species legislation?

Most people are unaware that although BC has the greatest biodiversity in the country, we are one of only two provinces in Canada – the other being Alberta – that has no stand-alone law to protect endangered wildlife.

Click here to help change that.

'You, Me, and the S.P.P: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule'

What do secrecy, police provocateurs, an assault on democracy and infringements on citizens’ rights have in common?

The Security Prosperity Partnership.

'You, Me, and the S.P.P' is a feature length documentary which exposes the latest manifestation of a corporatist agenda that is undermining the democratic authority of the citizens of North America. Two processes, the Security Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and the Trade Investment Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) are rapidly eroding and eliminating standards, civil liberties, regulatory systems and institutions put in place over generations through the democratic process.

Proponents of the SPP say that it is needed to keep trade flowing. Opponents say, not only will it undermine the democratic authority of citizens, it threatens the sovereignty of the three NAFTA nations through the integration of military, security structures and regulatory regimes.

This is a previous film by Paul Manley:

The Best Place on Earth? For Whom?

NEW Documentary Film: Our Living Legacy: The Threatened Ancient Forests of Vancouver Island and BC's South Coast

by Jeremy Sean Williams

26 minutes long, in 3 parts on Youtube:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This is a powerful new documentary by Jeremy Williams about the campaign to protect the last old-growth forests and forestry jobs on Vancouver Island and BC's South Coast.

The fight for ancient forests exploded in 1993 on Vancouver Island in Clayoquot Sound, where thousands of people joined efforts to save the old-growth rainforests, including Dr. David Suzuki and Australian rock band Midnight Oil. In recent years a resurgence in environmental concerns, partly triggered by Al Gore's climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", has also been accompanied by a massive expansion of the ancient forest movement again on Vancouver Island, as thousands of environmentalists and forestry workers join together in solidarity at mass rallies in Victoria organized by the Wilderness Committee.

See spectacular images of Vancouver Island's enormous ancient trees, giant stumps and clearcuts, protests, and the export of raw logs to foreign mills.

Interviews/ speeches by Arnold Bercov (Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada union), Gisele Martin (Tla-ook Cultural Adventures, Nuu-chah-nulth Nation), Eli Enns (Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Park Coordinator, Nuu-chah-nulth Nation), Ken James (Youbou TimberLess Society), Valerie Langer (Friends of Clayoquot Sound blockade organizer and ForestEthics), Jane Sterk (BC Green Party leader), Bob Simpson (Opposition Forestry Critic), Carole James (NDP BC Leader), and Ken Wu (Wilderness Committee). Also includes a little-known quote by Barack Obama.