On the day in 2004 that it happened, I was in Kennebunk, getting some stuff at Meserve’s. We all watched it on the TV they had there.  One of the older guys there said: “When you murder children, you aren’t human anymore.”  I still remember that.

Masterful account of the Beslan murders, here, H/T to Cathal Kelly, a fine writer himself.

When you seek out children to kill them, you indeed cease to be human, and deserve to be dealt with accordingly.

 

 

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I’m finding a lot of the reporting on what’s been happening in Boston pretty bad – lots errors, lots of speculation and rumours. The news media need to take a hard look at how they’ve done things, when the dust settles. It hasn’t been their best moment.

Anyway, here’s one report. Lord knows what’s right and what’s wrong.

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On all sides, too. Good luck to all the good ones.  Specifically, the honest ones.

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Quote:

“I’m so exhausted by this generation of watered-down, vaguely 60’s or vaguely folk, mid-tempo, non-offensive, cutesy indie music.  When I was 16 or 22 I wanted to break shit.  I was pissed off at an unjust world, at the indignities of high school, at my parents, at that ever-present dude who grabbed my ass at rock shows (I’m still pissed off at that dude, by the way).  I don’t get it, these kids grew up in a post 911, Patriot Act world where they will likely never make as much money as their parents or pay off their student debt and yet all they want to do is grow a beard, play the banjo, and hold hands.  What the fuck?”

My kids, and Lala, have been hearing me ranting on this subject for months, particularly after I stumble across the somnambulistic dreck that dominates at places like Alt Nation on Sirius XM:

“DON’T THESE KIDS HAVE PASSION ABOUT ANYTHING? DON’T THEY GET MAD ABOUT ANYTHING? DO THEY ALWAYS HAVE TO SOUND SO FUCKING BLASE AND BLAND AND BORING? P.S., WHILE WE’RE ON THE SUBJECT, HAVEN’T THEY EVER CONSIDERED IT WORTHWHILE TO HAVE DRUMS ON THEIR SONGS? MY GOD MY GOD THEY ARE DESTROYING MY SOUL!”

Seriously, I actually go on like that.

Anyway, when the likes of XX or Death Cab or (the aptly-monikered) Tame Impala are among the biggest bands in the world, it tells me that popular music has become BORING AND SHITTY again, and that we are in need of a great big cultural enema.

It tells me, in fact, we need something like this again:

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Here.

Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan, but what resident of Canuckistan cannot be proud of the trio’s achievement?

Thusly, in the words of the Bard, Peart:

We are the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx
Our great computers fill the hallowed halls
We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx
All the gifts of life are held within our walls

Hmmm.

If you wonder what the Hell that means, you’re not alone.

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And I am, by the way.  Didn’t know that about me, did you?  When the other kids were playing Pong and its succedents, Your Humble Narrator was whiling away the hours with the silver ball.

If any of you cared about me, which you don’t, you’d get me a nice pinball machine.  In the meantime, however, I want to attend this.

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The ever-charming Bea Vongduangchanh of the Hill Times asked me to assess the various federal parties’ strength and weaknesses, for next week’s paper.  I decided to share them with you, to kick-start endless debate and many hours of pointless speculation.

• Harper’s strength is he’s a known quantity; his weakness is people are starting to get sick and tired of him and his gang.
• The NDP’s strength is that they don’t seem all that radical anymore; their weakness is the guy they picked to replace Jack Layton. Picking Mulcair was a huge mistake.  He’s a dud with voters.
• Trudeau’s strength and weakness, paradoxically, are the same thing:  he’s an unconventional politician, and that’s helped him.  But it’s also his weakness – he says and does things that conventional politicians would never say or do, and those things make people wonder if he has what it takes to be Prime Minister.

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“Support the boys.”

That’s what a flyer says that is being distributed in and around Halifax this week. “Support the boys” who gang raped Rehtaeh Parsons when she was just 15 years old, circulated photos of her being raped, mocked and harassed her in her pain, and who still walk freely in Nova Scotia.

While Rehtaeh is dead.

Anonymous, as Rehtaeh’s Dad Glen Canning pointed out this week – and contrary to what Chris Selley, Dan Gardner, Parker Donham and their ilk have claimed – has done good work in this terrible case, and have helped to apply much-needed pressure on the fools who (for now) hold power in the Halifax Regional School Board, the Crown Attorney’s Office, the Nova Scotia RCMP, and the Dexter government.

I do not have any influence whatsoever over Anonymous (NYPA).  But I am confident they are already at work, attempting to identify whoever published and circulated the flyer about “the boys.”

There is something terribly wrong in Nova Scotia, these days.  And if the authorities cannot be counted on to do something about it, others will.

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Harper looks bad for recklessly politicizing a terrible tragedy. Trudeau looks bad for being completely out of his depth.

Advantage: Mulcair, for knowing when to keep his mouth shut.

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