My family has lived in both Dallas and Calgary. Whenever people would ask me what the difference was between the two places, I’d usually say: “Dallas is Calgary with lots of guns.”

Thus the photo of the guy above, walking near last night’s Dallas protest. He was initially “a person of interest.” But let me stress that what he’s doing – walking around with an assault weapon – is totally legal down there. 

Every decent person deplores the terrible losses of life in Louisiana, Minnesota and now Texas. Everyone wants to stop this madness. 

But one thing should be very clear: guns are too readily available in the United States. And not every American understands that. 

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[The scene: corner of Woodbine and Danforth. After a movie. Red light. It’s hot. Two young girls cross the road. Guy in trucker’s cap pulls up and starts hollering something at the girls. Before I know what’s happening:]

My wife, rolling down window and yelling loudly at the guy: THEY’RE SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTERS, YOU SEXIST PRICK!

[Long pause. We drive South.]

Me: You are so totally awesome. 

THE END.

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Here:

And a new video of the murder of Alton Sterling has come out, this one shot by the convenience store owner in Baton Rouge. The store owner called the shooting of Sterling – who had both arms pinned when police claimed he was reaching for a gun – a “murder,” quote unquote. Because it is.

Why is all this happening? Two more murders of black men by non-black cops in 48 hours in the U.S.: why?

Simple:

1. Most non-black cops in the U.S. believe most young black men are gang members.  Period.
2. There are too many guns in the U.S. Period.

There will be plenty of protests, sure.  But nothing is going to change.  It’s just another day in the United States.

They can’t help themselves.

 

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If Warren Kinsella was still alive, he’d be making a Barney joke right about now.

Okay, that’s kind of mean, but I’m kind of a mean guy.  Besides, Kenney made it personal first, so I’m going to hound him into his grave.  (Reubenesque Richard Nixon lookalike.)

And, while we are on the subject of Jason’s quest to lead the third party in the Alberta legislature, I note that several columnists upended their bedpans, yesterday, in the bit of real estate usually reserved for their opinion columns.  If anyone can unite the Right, it’s Jason! He’s a contender!  And so on. A pantload does not begin to describe it.

How come? Well, here’s why, found – typically – at the very end of an entirely-missing-the-point Calgary Herald story about the PC’s Jason Kenney and Wildrose’s Brian Jean:

Though Jean said he’d listen to the wishes of the Wildrose membership, he added that he doubted the party wants him to step aside to unite under a Kenney-led PC Party.

“That is not going to happen,” Jean said.

Talk about burying the lede.

Anyway. As noted on this wee web site many days ago, why does everyone assume that Brian Jean is going to simply pull over, hand the keys to Jason, and walk off into the sunset?  He isn’t going to do that, but don’t count on the Herald to actually notice.

Now, where is that Barney?

 

 

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I knew that one line from Kenney's speech sounded familiar. Double-checked, and, sure enough… #ableg #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/bzfCUHqjBl

— Robson Fletcher (@CBCFletch) July 6, 2016

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Warning: it’s bad.

So, the Baton Rouge police killed a man selling CDs. That much is clear.

Also clear – in the absence of a mitigating factor, like Stirling somehow reaching for a weapon – is that it looks like an execution. This, like the murder of Michael Brown two years ago – a killing that I could not get out of my mind that Summer – has the characteristics of what the Americans call capital murder. It also looks like a violation of the U.S. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

It’s going to be another hot Summer down there. Based upon the video above, it should be.

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Let me you in on a secret. 

Next time you are in a political capital, take a good look at any political folks you happen to meet. Elected, unelected, in power or not. Doesn’t matter. 

They’ll have two devices clamped to their belt, or a couple in their purse. Or, they may have one device – but they will own it, and it will carefully delineate work and non-work accounts. 

Like Hillary Clinton – like every other politico on Earth – they will have at least two digital mailboxes, minimum. One personal, one political. 

Sometimes – usually when they’re in a rush, which happens a lot – the personal and political will get blurred. People will use their Gmail account instead of the government one. The instant they do that, however, the personal will (ultimately) become public. 

The notion that Hillary was ever doing anything “criminal” with emails was always frigging idiotic. Careless, sure. But criminal? How, exactly? 

Governments routinely stamp every document  SECRET, but most aren’t. Political and media people routinely regard every mistake as an indictable offence, but most aren’t. 

I still regard Hillary Clinton as the best choice for President. 

Because she is. 

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Right.

For what it’s worth, when some of us were conducting a comparatively low-visibility battle with actual neo-Nazis and white supremacists – who were, inter alia, circulating words and images like the ones below to tens of thousands of Toronto-area homes – here’s what the local chapter of Black Lives Matter were doing to help us:

Nothing.

We had a diverse group of people drawn from many faiths and skin hues. And Black Lives Matter did zero, zippo and zilch to assist us in fighting actual white supremacy. Anyway, no thanks to them, we won. The Trudeau government eventually agreed with us, and helped shut down the neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Black Lives Matter a lot, to be sure. And, to some folks, so does publicity, apparently.

From top, clockwise: fascist salutes and imagery from ad promoting anti-Semitic political party; skinheads and white supremacists pictured in article promoting neo-Nazi Heritage Font and holocaust denial; image of Hitler from page praising his environmental record; from article accusing Jews of genocide.

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Interviewing her on Thursday. Fits.

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