A Grand And Noble People

While we were busy this weekend, 32 children were slaughtered in Syria.

While we debated over whether or not we should get involved in Syria; while we fussed over the cost, the validity, the politics, the aftermath and the role that NATO played in Libya; while we patted ourselves on the back for committing another $350 million to Afghanistan…

…32 children, mostly under the age of 10 were killed by Syrian military artillery. They died never even seeing who cared so little that they took their lives with such violent indifference.

While Republicans and Democrats argued over who really has America's interest at heart...

...32 small children died in an explosive hell of terror and pain.

While students continued their arrogant and selfish grandstanding in Montreal over a fifty cent a day increase in tuition, supported by unions, academics, artists and other members of a clueless and sanctimonious intelligentsia…

…32 children died, caught in the middle of a civil war where thousands have died in a desperate attempt to win the fundamentals of democracy for themselves, that conceited fools and the self-absorbed take for granted here.

Who Really Has The Hidden Agenda - The Left or The Right?

Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper

For a very long time, the left in Canada has accused the current prime minister and the Conservative Party of having a secret, hidden agenda that they would implement  to the detriment of society and life as we know it once they were elected. He has been in office for six years now and aside from the usual careless mistakes, bouts of mean-spirited political campaigning and the odd bit of sheer stupidity that all parties seem to bring to office with them, it's all been fairly stable in the Great White North and pretty much been business as (except for the odd riot here and there of course).

It's hard to understand where this fear of a secret agenda came from until I read something posted on a friend's Facebook page this morning. For some reason, it reminded me of something my mother used to tell me. "Those with something to hide tend to be the ones who are quickest to accuse others of the same thing" or to put it a little differently,

"The thing we fear in others is the thing we most fear in ourselves."

I won't accuse anyone of having a secret agenda, I'll let the words below speak for themselves and you can decide for yourself what they mean to you.

The words are from “ The Naked Communist” and are part of the United States Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963.

The Tyranny Of The Minority

I had an online conversation the other day with a young man who is currently a university student. To his credit, he is working his way through university and while he finds it difficult he is meeting the challenge. He believes that a university education should be declared a right and asked me why I thought it shouldn’t.

It was a good question and while we didn’t come to an agreement, it was also a good discussion. It was respectful and thought provoking. In the end, neither of us changed the other’s mind but the mere fact that we could have the dialogue was encouraging.

I contrast that with the actions of Quebec students and others, like Occupy who seem to believe that the only good dialogue is mob violence.

We Are Drowning In Stupidity

There are two kinds of people in the world; stupid people and the rest of us and I think the rest of us are slowly being outnumbered.

One of my most-read posts is the satire I wrote on what government would do if it legalized marijuana. The article did not take a position on whether legalization was good or a bad thing, in fact it really wasn’t about marijuana at all. It was about how government bureaucracies overwhelm things with rules, regulations, taxes and fees until it all becomes so complicated and expensive, it’s hardly worth engaging in anymore.

Greed!

There is a lot of talk about greed these days. It’s all over social media and in our streets. Typically the fingers are always pointed at two main culprits: the wealthy and corporations. To be sure, there is greed in those high-flying realms but is it unique to them alone? I don’t believe so. In fact, I believe that greed is far more universal than we want to admit and it comes in many shapes and sizes.

Crossing The Line -Surfer Killed By Sharks & Reality TV

A few days ago, a young man in South Africa was attacked and killed by a Great White Shark. His name was David Lilienfeld and he was a champion body surfer with his life stretched out before him. He was only 20 years old and his death was the unnecessary result of the carelessness of others who crossed the line.

There is an old saying about crossing the line which refers to having gone too far in doing something. It means that a person has gone beyond what is acceptable and done something wrong. Robbery, for example, crosses the line from legal to illegal behaviour.

Psychotic Penguins

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

- George Carlin

Oh…we know alright. We talk among ourselves incessantly passing the fear along and we know the plague is here.

I just watched a video about employers now asking their employees and candidates for employment to provide their passwords to social media networking sites like Facebook. This is an unbelievable level of arrogance and invasion of privacy that is not much different than asking for the keys to your house so they can have a look around. Employers do not and should not have the right to demand access to personal social media pages and email and that needs to be nipped in the bud.

But here is the thing I find the most troubling.

Michael Moore - Discovering Society Also Eats The Heroes It Creates

I have come to the conclusion after watching and listening to Michael Moore on various television programs and interviews that for all of his success, what he most craves is to be accepted….by anyone or someone. He would like to be liked, to be picked for the team and to be admired for his intellect. How else can you explain his schizophrenic pandering to various diverse groups and his inconsistent approach to the issues?

Who Speaks For These Children?

Two weeks ago, two little boys were murdered by their father, hacked to death with an axe and then burned in the house he torched to take his own life along with theirs. Now it’s a little girl, who is dead and those responsible appear to be her own family.

Savannah Hardin, just 9 years old died after her step-mother and her grandmother forced her to run outside their home for three hours. It was punishment for lying about eating candy. The little girl became dehydrated and later died of a seizure.

Suffer The Little Children and They Do, Even In Death

Braedon and Charlie Powell

Charlie Powell was seven years old; his brother Braedon was only five. Their mother went missing and is now presumed dead, killed by their father. The same father who killed them this week in a murder-suicide. 

A memorial service will be held for them today.

You would think that a horrific tragedy like this would stop the world’s madness if only for a moment but you would be wrong. The funeral of these two little boys will be the scene of even more insanity in a world where too many people have no respect for anything beyond their extreme and twisted objectives.

Occupy - An Increasingly Desperate But Failing Attempt For Relevance

Initially it received a great deal of attention and no small level of support across all levels of society and not without good reason. There is clearly a problem with a democracy where those who have the most twist the rules in their favour; a society where banks and the financial securities industry treat a nation’s economy like a casino and where politicians become wealthy for violating the principles and values for which they swore to uphold and upon which they were elected.

It was this mess that gave birth to Occupy and many flocked to support the protest because it was on the right side of the issues but not any longer. Support is dwindling, plummeting actually and the precious movement has become increasingly desperate in its actions in attempt to reclaim some relevance.

Occupy Stands In Solidarity With No One

“Looks like march happening. Scooter patrol moving too. Someone says: We should march right into Trinity Church, squid and all” -OWS protester

'In a country where all people can vote and Trinity’s door to dialogue is open, it is not necessary to forcibly break into property.”  -Archbishop Desmond Tutu

OWS wasn't as critical of Christians when
it was getting what it wanted from them

Almost from its beginning, OWS received the support of the parish of Trinity Wall Street, an Episcopal church about a block form Zuccoti Park in New York. The church has and continues to extend support to OWS but today, it moved against the church in the ultimate hissy fit, a blatant example of mob bullying not in aid of social justice but simply because it didn’t get its own way.

Occupy Ports Action-Just One More Action Against The 99%

Occupy at Oakland Port

If it didn’t go quite as well as the pre-event hype promised, Occupy The Ports still enjoyed some moderate success in Oakland, Portland and Seattle. Of course the word success is a relative term and it depends on how you define it.

For Occupy, anything that disrupts others and calls attention to the precious movement is considered a success even if it doesn't quite meet the original objective. Here's the original objective of the Shut Down The Ports action.

How The Police Were Trained To Deal With Occupy - A Photo Essay

LAPD prepare to evict OccupyLA
photo: mercurynews.com

Over the past few weeks, many Occupy camps have been shut down in cities across North America and the occupiers evicted from the tent cities they've built. The most recent were Occupy DC and Occupy Boston.

Like the Occupy groups that were evicted before them, the language being used by Occupy and its supporters described the events as police-state tactics and the police action as brutality.

In Their Own Words - Occupy Responds To The Bear's Posts

In a democratic society, we all have the right to freedom of speech and I exercise mine by speaking out against those things that I believe are wrong or just plain stupid and in support of the things I believe in. I view my blog not only as a place to exercise that right but also as a forum for the exchange of ideas. Unless a comment from someone is profane or merely advertising, I leave all comments submitted for all to see and to evaluate for themselves, even those comments that don't agree with me.

Below are comments I've received from various Occupy supporters and represent only some of the broader communication I have had from this protest movement. They illustrate better than my own writings, why I continue to oppose Occupy. Some have been edited in this post, for brevity but the full comment is available in the appropriate blog post. The Occupy comments are in white.

The Three Reasons I Oppose Occupy

"The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself."  ~Jane Addams

I’ve often been asked why I concern myself with, and write so many articles about, the Occupy Protest and there are three primary reasons.

What I Saw At The Pseudo-revolution - by guest writer Jim Bellano

Today you get a break from the Bear's usual rant. After reading an article written by Jim Bellano who recently visited the OWS camp in Zuccoti Park for ctpost.com, I invited Professor Bellano to repost his article here and he was kind enough to agree. 

Occupy Protesters Bravely Face Another Night Of Tent Brutality

It was another night of Occupy evictions; another night of armed conflict and war.

LA police officer in the middle of the squalid tent city
photo by Reuters

Or at least, that’s the way Occupy LA, OWS, Occupy Philly and their rag tag band of online supporters tried to portray it. In both Los Angeles and Philadelphia, police gathered in strength but quietly to prepare to evict Occupy squatters from public property. In both cities, Occupy was given notice that they were to leave but refused to comply.

Some Of My Favourite Occupy Tweets

As I posted yesterday, I read thousands of tweets a week and yesterday’s post was a few of my favourites that made me laugh. Today, I’m posting some of the tweets from Occupy and its supporters. They don’t always make me laugh but they do cause me to shake my head sometimes.

Welcome To The Age Of Entitlement

Before I decided to leave the rat race earlier this year, I was the president of a small, national direct sales and marketing company. In May 2010, we decided to open a new operation in Miami and I spent six weeks setting it up. We had branch operations in other cities and had a fairly solid process for opening up a new one so I wasn’t expecting much challenge in opening up Miami. I was wrong.