Just got this email:

Glenn Beck is an anti-Semite. He says the “most dangerous people” are mainly Jews. He has described Jewish leaders as leaders of “shadow governments” and said they’ve “infiltrated churches.” He says that Jews alone killed Jesus. He is a Holocaust revisionist.  He’s tried to use tours of Auschwitz to make a buck.  He promotes anti-Semitic books.  He traffics in anti-Semitism all the time.

Why, why, why would ICEJ and Uptown Chabad play host to such an asshole?  Have they lost their minds?

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Nice tie, guy.

That’s Guy Giorno, speaking at a lobbyist conference thing in Toronto, just a few minutes ago. He’s a smart fellow; I happen to think he is an ethical fellow. As things turn out, Giorno was a long-time legal advisor to Ornge, along with many of his partners at the Fasken law firm. Fasken’s received millions and millions from Ornge, and got the work without competing for it.

Fasken’s folks who have helped Ornge, in the past, also included Lynne Golding (“proud” card-carrying Conservative, and spouse of Tony Clement) as well as Perry Martin (former advisor to Mike Harris, among others). Like Giorno, Golding and Martin are (or have been) associated with this little Fasken seminar lobby thing.

I’m listening to the proceedings at the conference as I type this. Here are two things Guy Giorno said this morning:

• “Never before has there been such a need for lobbying transparency.”
• “Lawyers must be registered [as lobbyists] like everybody else.”

Those are quotes. I agree with those statements.  Who wouldn’t?

But here’s the problem: when a former partner of Giorno, Golding and Martin also represented Ornge in dealings with government, he never, ever registered.  Details are here and here and here.  What I thought about that former partner is documented here and here.

To recap: Ontario Liberals, not Conservatives, called in the cops to investigate Ornge.  Ontario Liberals brought in forensic auditors and the Auditor General to probe the books at Ornge, top to bottom.  Ontario Liberals flushed the mostly-Conservative managers at Ornge who seemingly were indifferent to breaking every goddamned rule in the book.  Ontario Liberals want to see the bad guys go to jail for a long time, whether they are Liberals are not.  Throw away the key, we say.

That said, why didn’t Guy Giorno – or Lynne Golding, or Perry Martin – with all of their professed desire for transparency and registration and whatnot, ever saunter down the hall at Fasken’s, and suggest to their colleague that he be, you know, transparent?  That he register?

I didn’t attend the seminar in person.  There’s only so much lack of transparency I can stomach at a single sitting.

 

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Quote:

Kinsella isn’t just what draws listeners to Why Do You Hate Me?, it’s also the reason the album is so much fun. His delivery is snotty in the best, most genre-appropriate way possible, and his lyrics on songs like “The Truth” (which you can listen to by clicking the sample above) are surprisingly well thought out.

If you’re listening to Why Do You Hate Me?, you’re almost certainly doing so for the sheer novelty of hearing punk as interpreted by a political spin doctor. That’s fine, but don’t be surprised when you wind up liking it more than you wanted to.

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I bought Johnny Ramone’s posthumous biography a few days ago, in Belleville, on the way up to the cabin. I liked the cover, above, and the design. I’m a sucker for great design, which is why I loitered at the National Post longer than I should have.

I bought Commando because the Ramones made the greatest album in the history of the world, and because – for the first four LPs, at least – they were the greatest band on the planet.  They were perfect.

I read it in a couple of nights.  The book is a first-person account of the life of the Ramone’s one and only guitarist.  The project was overseen by Ramone’s widow and one of his closest friends, which is one of the main reasons why it is such an eminently dislikable book.

Being an Irish Catholic, all of you know how much I fear speaking ill of the dead.  It’s a really bad idea; it’s dangerous.  The subject of the criticism never hears about it, and the author of the criticism usually ends up looking like a creep.  So I don’t do it.

Commando, however, will persuade you to speak ill of the dead – in this case, the former John Cummins, who has been dead for nearly a decade.  In this slender tome, Johnny comes across as a bigot (people he doesn’t like are “faggots”), a Right-wing loon (he lionizes Ronald Reagan and John Wayne, and he calls anyone to the Left of George W. Bush a “commie”), and an asshole (he repeatedly smears Joey, Dee Dee and Marky Ramone, but never once apparently considered breaking up their profitable partnership, or even getting their side of the story).  He comes across as an unmitigated jerk.

Any of us who are into punk rock always knew that Johnny Ramone was a grouch, and a conservative.  But what I didn’t know – what a lot of punks didn’t know, I suspect – was what a crummy person he was.  And that he himself would provide the evidence of said crumminess.

If you love the Ramones, don’t read this book.  It always sucks to discover one of your heroes is a jerk, and that’s all you’ll discover in Commando.

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It is always amazing to me that one group, facing prejudice, will then turn around and subject another group to prejudice. Amazing and sad.

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Hey, Simon from Ugly Pop here. It was an honour to release this– one of my very favourite Canadian records ever! Glad you were happy with it, Warren. We made a new master from OG wax and the sleeve/insert were recreated by the entirely excellent Darrin Crosgrove. Locals, you can pick it up at Hits & Misses (799 Queen St West), Volume (588 Markham, just south of Bloor) or Rotate This (next to Hits & Misses). Elsewhere, mailorder is through our website (uglypop.bigcartel.com). If you like this, please check out our other Canadian reissues too.

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And it wasn’t even written by Paul Wells!

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Our pal Raymaker (and bandmate) founded it.  Now some other guys have run it out of existence.  Sucks.

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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Oh, the geniuses of capitalism at work, once again. I so love it.

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