This was placed in comments in response to my post about the Edmonton shooting and the Freemen connection:
It is disgusting and – given the calls for violence – something that should be investigated.
All I can find is that this creep is a Shaw customer in Lethbridge (on Sixteenth Avenue?). The “freecandyvan99” email may actually be valid – I sent a test to it, and it did not immediately bounce back.
Anyone care to help on this one? This creep is potentially dangerous, and deserves to be checked out.
UPDATE: A reporter tells me YouTube and Google+ make oblique reference to one James Ritchie. But I emphasize that is a very common name.
In 1996, I was in Montana when the Freemen were in full revolt. They effectively paralyzed the entire state for weeks in an armed standoff.
Essentially, these guys (they are almost always guys) believe that they are “sovereigns” and that statute law – criminal law, by-laws, etc. – are contracts that they can opt out of. They believe they are only subject to “natural law.” Thus, their fixation on property and gun rights, and their disdain for human rights laws, environmental and animal protection, and so on. They’re nuts.
With a few notable exceptions, Canadian Freemen had in recent years contented themselves with tying up the courts with what one judge accurately termed OPCAs – Organised Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments. Until Edmonton last night.
Let’s remember Edmonton Hate Crimes Unit officer Dan Woodall, killed last night by a man reported to be Freeman Norman Raddatz. Woodall was a hero, and he and his family deserve our thanks, from coast to coast.
Here’s the Buzzcocks (who are here in Tee Dot in mere days!) doing their best-ever tune, from the Spiral Scratch EP. Devoto’s vocal was better than Pete’s, but the perfection of this version is why SFH needs to play it, too.
Now, what has this got to do with politics, you ask? Why, everything. Because, in just a few short days, legislatures national and provincial shalt rise for the Summer, and here’s what you will be thinking about politics:
Nothing.
Zero, zippo, zilch. Everyone will shortly be up to their arses in balconies and barbecues, and they (a) won’t care about politics and (b) won’t want to hear from any politicians.
That’s why incumbents always edge upwards during the Summertime, folks: the legislature ain’t sitting, politicians are neither seen nor heard, and everyone is therefore happy. Ever wonder, perchance, why there are so many elections in the Fall? Exactly.
Political boredom is already happening, too: columnists and editorialists are struggling, mightily, to find something to write about. And, soon, enough there will be nothing to write about. (The Senate is corrupt and waste of money? Not exactly front page news, Virginia.)
Here’s what all this political boredom means for the three main political parties:
For the NDP, it’s awesome. They are increasingly popular at precisely the right moment, and they haven’t had to spend much of their war chest to achieve it.
For the Tories, it’s similarly swell. They are competitive in every region, and they are about to start sending out tax cut cheques to Middle Canada.
For the Liberals, it is a disaster. They needed to define Trudeau, and get some policy in the window: they did neither. And, now, no one is going to be paying attention to them until the Fall – when it is likely too late.
Boredom, folks. It is upon us. And for two of the three political options, it’s a good thing.
This may have happened months ago, which will tell you how often I check out Liblogs. But it seems to have gone, you know, 86.
I think I was on there for a while, even though I didn’t ask to be or particularly want to be. They then removed me, I’m told, because someone threatened to sue them because they linked to me.
Anyway, I’m now completely bored talking about this. How about those Blackhawks?
www.warrenkinsella.com is now in its 15th year, with around 3,000,000 page views annually. Jason Cherniak is 106.
Harris has an interesting point, particularly given how much he hates Harper: that is, the Conservatives did their job too well on Trudeau. MacDonald, meanwhile, just seems to be marvelling at this dramatic Liberal decline. (Us, too.)
Me, I still think Trudeau is in the race. He has lots of money, lots of party infrastructure. If he has (a) effective paid in the writ and pre-writ, (b) superior GOTV, (c) the CPC turning their guns on Mulcair for a while, and (d) a smashing debate performance, he will do better than the polls currently suggest.
PS – He’s right on the Gardiner, too, BTW. When they tear that sucker down, do y’all think those Markham and Pickering and Oshawa and Ajax commuters are going to ride bicycles instead? They’re going to stay in their cars and snake through peoples’ neighbourhoods – as in, my neighbourhood.
