Video Of The Week: Vienna Ditto

Electronic indie-rock act Heksagons have made a video for their friends in Vienna Ditto, one that is essentially a short film about a ring or team of killers-for-hire, which includes themes of treason and nods to 1970s spy films as well as a decidedly Quentin Tarantino-esque overall aesthetic:

Essentially, Vienna Ditto is a British trip-hop act that was a threesome and a foursome at some point but is now a duo; this song, however - Busted Flush - has them in a quasi-rock configuration.

''Fuck Your Breath'' As Nominee For Worst Sentence Uttered This Week

This is how bad shit has gotten in terms of police violence in the U.S.: we're happy that when one deputy murders a man with overwhelming evidence, he's at least getting charged with manslaughter and will have to face the justice system.

And this is how bad it's gotten for me, personally: I'm more outraged at the cop who responds to Eric Courtney Harris' plea of ''I'm losing my breath'' with ''Fuck your breath'' - you can see it at the end of this one-minute clip:



That's the guy who should be facing the harshest punishment, in my opinion.

The deputy was a 73-year-old former cop who paid his way into basically tagging along on joyrides and made a fatal mistake. That's involuntary manslaughter. It's bad, for sure; on a ''humanity needs to improve'' scale, it probably ranks a 7/10, but as a scale of a bad person, it scores pretty low.

The other cop, however, is heard justifying the shooting by saying ''you ran'', excusing a fatal gunshot by means of placing blame on the victim, then adding insult to injury with the order to tie his hands behind his back when he's clearly already incapacitated. On a scale of police corruption, it scores at least an 8/10, and hides a character that could possibly be a 10. Adding the famous last words ranks a 10/10 on the asshole scale.

At the very least, this guy should have internal affairs on his ass for two years, making sure he stays in line. He is the symptom and the reason why all citizens now have a low opinion towards those who are supposed to serve and protect us. If they find anything, he should be stripped of his badge, fired and tried.

The only way to change the culture of the locker-room... is to change the culture of the locker-room. You get rid of the bad seeds, you promote the good guys, and you remember to Hold The Line, 'cause love isn't always on time.

In Russia, Words Kill You

In a recent interview, Russian opposition leader (and former deputy Prime Minister) Boris Nemtsov said:

(My mother) is truly scared that (Vladimir Putin) could kill me soon for all of my statements, both in real life and on social networks. This is not a joke; she is a smart person.

Yes she is, and so was he.

He was murdered on the street, coming out of a radio station in which he asked people to come out to a protest march this weekend. 1990s style, with the Kremlin as the background of a gruesome, mafia movie-like scene.

Scarier still? Putin said he would personally overlook and lead the investigation. It's a plot twist you wouldn't have believed if it happened on House Of Cards...

Video Of The Week: Babes In Toyland

It was hard to find a video this week. I hesitated a lot. Today was the 25th ''anniversary'' of the Polytechnique killing, where one man murdered 14 women in a higher-education school in Montréal, in 1989. Because they were women, because he couldn't stand Equality.

Geneviève Bergeron (born in 1968), student in civil engineering.
Hélène Colgan (born in 1966), student in mechanical engineering.
Nathalie Croteau (born in 1966), student in mechanical engineering.
Barbara Daigneault (born in 1967), student in mechanical engineering.
Anne-Marie Edward (born in 1968), student in chemical engineering.
Maud Haviernick (born in 1960), student in materials engineering.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born in 1958), student nurse.
Maryse Laganière (born in 1964), school financial employee.
Maryse Leclair (born in 1966), student in materials engineering.
Anne-Marie Lemay (born in 1967), student in mechanical engineering.
Sonia Pelletier (born in 1961), student in mechanical engineering.
Michèle Richard (born in 1968), student in materials engineering.
Annie St-Arneault (born in 1966), student in mechanical engineering.
Annie Turcotte (born in 1969), student in materials engineering.

Fourteen women, most of which were to become engineers. Probably a lot of them would have been mothers. All with lives, families. In their 20s or early 30s. With some amount of time left to impact our society.

I tried to go with a soft song, something soothing. I thought of something political, with a direct message, clear.

But here's the thing, the way I look at it: 1989 in Montréal wasn't so bad in terms of equality, and it got better for a decade to include just about everyone by the turn of the millennium. BY LAW, and by obligation, on all fronts. In terms of rights and equality, not many had actual complaints, apart that things were slow at times (same-sex marriage eventually passed, and though pay equality was passed as law in the early-to-mid-90s, it still hasn't been made into effect completely even in government).

But it's been downhill for the last decade, so much so that 2014 feels like 1944, and it's like our parents' social gains from the 1960s and 1970s were for naught. And it didn't take a step back in more comfort to compensate for the loss of rights; equality was just stolen and wiped away.

And instead of looking at the bigger picture, everyone is just fighting their own little fight, looking at their own situation, trying to stop it from regressing too much (''I don't wanna pay fare on a bridge'' / ''the SAQ - i.e. voluntary tax on alcohol - is too expensive'') - but our whole social net is being taken away every day. Women's rights are under attack every day at the Federal level, with ''private bills'' regulating women's own bodies introduced my MPs narrowly defeated thus far but gaining support and traction, particularly in the places with the hundreds of missing and possibly murdered women, aboriginal and otherwise. (And every time I write or read a single sentence about these women, I think of the violence I witnessed in Winnipeg, and the bodies alongside the highways from Manitoba to Alberta, with vomit in my mouth and chills in my spine).

The government should be there to provide or at least help with 4 things when they take half our money from our pay cheques and 15% more on each purchase we make: health, education, infrastructure, and protecting (ALL) individuals' rights. If they can't, we don't need them and should be able to do what we see fit with that 65% of our money given back to us.

As usual, I digress.

The point is women's rights have stepped the fuck back way too much in the past decade, with the redneck-ification of North America. Anti-feminism and racism are back to levels I once thought would never be seen again - particularly the under-handed attempt at making women feel like lesser beings.

Granted, I see a lot of self-pity and victimization coming from their side, stuff I don't see or hear about when researching or talking to folks from the 1960s and 1970s - but a lot of it is warranted, and some of it seems like a crouch before delivering an uppercut. Or so I hope.

There is no reason in this day and age, on this continent - heck, on this side of both oceans - to not have human beings be equal in every single aspect of life. It goes for gender, it goes for lifestyle, it goes for race, it goes for tastes. As long as you're not impeding on someone else's rights, a human being shouldn't be bothered, attacked, or denied anything they have the right to have (food, shelter, respect, well-being, defining their relationship - or not - health care).

And so I went with Babes In Toyland, the punk band from Minnesota who fused feminism, punk rock and selling records the best, in my opinion, and with Bruise Violet in particular because it's from their superb 1992 record Fontanelle, co-produced by Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, and mixed by Skinny Puppy's Dave Ogilvie:



The song itself is less punk and grungier than some of their other stuff, but that's 1992 for you.

Headlines A-Cumin'

Some news stories are surreal, and others just happen in Florida. This is the latter.

First, the headline:

Already, your brain should be doing rounds imagining the adultery, and you should be thinking ''man, people in Florida, just... man!''

But wait, there's more:

When your wife catches you blowing a dude on a boat off a Florida nude beach, the correct response is to immediately apologize, and, once the situation has cooled, have a frank, open conversation about sexuality. Not recommended: throwing her off of the back of your jet ski and leaving her for dead.

Uh huh. Yeah. Please go on...

Michael Doster was arrested for domestic battery in Passage Key, Florida after his wife Pamela discovered him in an intimate moment with another man on a boat near the popular nude beach (he and the man were allegedly performing oral sex on each other, the Daily Mail reports). The couple allegedly began arguing whilst atop a Sea-Doo, and Doster threw his wife off the vehicle four separate times. Pamela Doster refused to re-board after hitting her head on the final toss, so her husband left her on a sandbar.

''Refused to re-board''. As in, uh, ''was fucking unconscious''.

I can just imagine the couple's friends getting up in the morning to read that news... wondering if their reaction was more ''WHAT?'', or ''oh, huh, it happened''...

R.I.P. Alain Magloire

If I had a hammer,
They'd shoot me in the morning
They'd shoot me in the evening
Despite being seven cops against one man

Yep, the Montréal cops killed another person earlier this month.

(Alain) Magloire had only recently ended up on the streets as a result of mental illness.

Magloire was the father of two daughters, and friends and family contacted by CBC News described him as charismatic and well-educated.

(He) had previously been employed in the field of molecular biology research and also worked for ten years as a monitor at Camp Papillon — a camp for disabled children.

A career criminal, obviously.

Officers shot Magloire on Monday after responding to reports of a man wielding a hammer and acting aggressively in the vicinity of Montreal's central bus station on Berri Street.

'' Kill first, defend your position later'' seems to be their motto, more so than ''To serve and protect'', for sure. One (admittedly distraught) guy with a hammer, versus seven trained professionals. They could have attacked three at a time and possibly not even had been hit once with the hammer - and subdued him with barely scratch marks for anyone involved -or shot him in the legs, or the hammer-wielding arm. (Officers with tasers could not make it to the scene on time)

I wish I could say something along the lines of ''you will be remembered and missed'', but the more people these fascists murder, the harder it is to remember them all. ''Missed'', though, yes, for sure.

There are calls for civilian oversight boards to investigate police shootings and, sure, that could be a step in some general direction. But I suggest each time a police officer badly injures (broken limbs, loss of an eye) or kills someone, they should be detained and tried in court, the same as civilians, no matter what the investigation says or does, so the incident is recorded in the public domain. And I stand by my life-long position that cops and politicians should be liable to twice the penalty for crimes compared to civilians because theirs also involve a breach of public trust that has to be accounted for.

Cop Kills Kid, Part 75

''To serve and protect.'' A motto dating back to the black-and-white days of yore, Pleasantville-type Utopian pasts of ''the way things were'', where the most rampant crime was underage smoking or forgetting to pay for your sundae at the drive-in diner.

Then again, there were less laws to even break back then, as cars didn't even have seat belts.

''Law enforcement'' has sure come  along way since then.

Wikipedia describes their job thusly:

Law enforcement broadly refers to any system by which some members of society act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering and punishing persons who violate the rules and norms governing that society. Although the term may encompass entities such as courts and prisons, it is most frequently applied to those who directly engage in patrols or surveillance to dissuade and discover criminal activity, and those who investigate crimes and apprehend offenders.^[1] Furthermore, although law enforcement may be most concerned with the prevention and punishment of crimes, organizations exist to discourage a wide variety of non-criminal violations of rules and norms, effected through the imposition of less severe consequences.

But in the past 10 years or so, what is most commonly referred to as ''the police'' have resorted more to the ''force'' part of the word ''enforcement'', using military tactics, weapons, vehicles and excuses to become what many conspiracy theorists once warned we were headed towards: a police state.

From the mass brutal beatings of tens of thousands of kids who thought a tuition hike was too high, to repeatedly sodomizing people they arrest even when under media scrutiny (a fact that happens way too often in itself, but it seems New Mexico cops in particular now have developed a taste for it), to having a double-standard regarding aboriginal women in Canada, to selling information to organized crime, to killing innocent civilians - perhaps the saddest, disturbing, recurring situation of all.

It seems to go over people's heads when it's an alleged criminal receiving the bullet, and things are usually forgiving when it's the result of intermediary force - for example the result of getting tasered (and we're lucky that in instances where Tasers are used on 80-year-olds they aren't always fatal) - but there are clear instances where death should simply have never occurred under any circumstance, and today's example is the strongest in a long time: a man wanted to teach his son a lesson after taking his truck without authorization, so he did what anyone born prior to 1980 would do: he called the cops, thinking they'd bring the boy home, he'd have a scare, and he'd have learned his lesson and be good to get on with his life.

But that's not how cops work nowadays. They have a licence to kill and use it, they shoot first and ask questions never, they seem to no longer have to nor have the training for using submissive and/or non-lethal force first and whenever possible. And they no longer shoot to maim or stop - they shoot to kill, period. Sometimes even on clearly homeless folks, a story found everywhere from Santa Clara (aged 22) to Montréal (aged 40, also dead: a 36-year-old innocent bystander).

Tyler Comstock, though, was a bright 19-year-old kid  on his way to getting his GED.

Ames Police Officer Adam McPherson eventually fired six shots into the truck, two of which struck Tyler who was later pronounced dead.

The official report claims the action was necessary in order "to stop the ongoing threat to the public and the officers."

Tyler's dad says he was unarmed at the time.

The saddest and most common part of that story?

McPherson is currently on paid leave pending the results of his department's investigation.

Of course he is. His friends and co-workers are investigating him and the tactics he used, which are the exact same ones they use all the time. How in hell are they going to bring the whole thing down by saying he did anything wrong? And from that point on, how are any of those murderers with badges ever going to be tried in a court of law like the rest of us mere mortals or, rather, the target practice we seem to be to them.

And there is a kicker:

An unidentified person on the Ames police radio dispatch twice suggested that police back off their pursuit of a teen who allegedly stole a pickup truck from the work site he and his father were working at on Monday.

Sounds a lot like what George Zimmerman was told when he shot and killed an unarmed teen. I wonder how that turned out.

Video Of The Week: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

In the wake of the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin debacle, one can't help but think back to 1999 Amadou Diallo murder. If you don't remember, here's a quick Wikipedia quote:

Amadou Bailo Diallo (September 2, 1975 – February 4, 1999) was a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea who was shot and killed in New York City on February 4, 1999 by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss, who fired a combined total of 41 shots, 19 of which struck Diallo, outside his apartment at 1157 Wheeler Avenue in the Soundview section of The Bronx. The four were part of the now-defunct Street Crimes Unit. All four officers were acquitted at trial in Albany, New York.^[1]

Diallo was unarmed at the time of the shooting, and a firestorm of controversy erupted subsequent to the event as the circumstances of the shooting prompted outrage both within and outside New York City. Issues such as police brutality, racial profiling, and contagious shooting were central to the ensuing controversy.

Outrage ensued, of course, and many artists spoke out, first against the shooting, then the verdict. Among the most vocal singers who recorded songs in response were Wyclef Jean (Diallo, featuring Youssou N'Dour), Le Tigre (Bang! Bang!) and Bruce Springsteen, who gets the honors this week.

The video was filmed during the E Street Band's 10-night run at Madison Square Garden by filmmaker Jonathan Demme (The Silence Of The Lambs), which also spawned a DVD.

Springsteen's intensity is best appreciated through live performances - you want to see his face struggling, his neck veins nearly exploding, his fist clenched when hearing the songs. You also get a better feel for his backing band, capable both of balls-out rock and incredible subtlety.

Killer Promotion

There is a huge difference between the American Justice system and the Canadian one, particularly in Québec, which has a large part of its law book inspired by the French. And there are tons of differences between the George Zimmerman killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Constable Jean-Loup Lapointe killing Fredy Villanueva in Montréal nearly five years ago (and whose case has yet to result in a ruling).

But there are also tons of similarities: both were unarmed teenagers from visible minorities, murdered by people who were under the impression that they were unpunishable representatives of The Law.

I don't know what the future holds for Zimmerman, though I'm fairly confident that if he is tried in a civil case, he will receive tons of donations from right-wing bigots, racists and Fox News viewers; I do know, however, that Lapointe will now be a member of Montréal's SWAT team, where he'll have more leeway into firing his weapon.

We're talking about a man who took all of 57 seconds to exit his vehicle, wrestle a kid (Dany Villanueva, Fredy's younger brother) to the ground to handcuff him, tell him to stop squirming, shoot three bullets into the deceased and two more in two other teens. All while his partner, Stéphanie Pilotte, never once felt the need to pull out her gun. Can you say ''trigger-happy''?

The article appeared in this morning's Montréal Gazette, and while it mostly goes into listing facts and does its best to not take sides, two passages struck me as journalist Sue Montgomery subtly denouncing the prevailing situation in these cases:

“This squad is called on more often to use their guns because they’re involved in high-risk interventions,” said Alain Arsenault, whose client was injured by one of Lapointe’s bullets. “I think it was a bad decision on the part of police force management (to give Lapointe the job).”

Montreal police spokesman Ian Lafrenière said that Lapointe applied for the highly sought-after job, and got it after undergoing rigorous tests. (...)

“He has never been found guilty of anything, so it would be hard for us to keep him in an office or something like that,” he said. “And we’re not going to say don’t take that officer on the SWAT team because some people might think it doesn’t look good.”

The spokesman's quote is particularly revealing in this first passage, because it brings light to the fact that cops get investigated by other cops who almost always clear them of any wrongdoing, and even in the rare cases where they are taken to court, they get off Scott free. And then they have the audacity to brag about their so-called ''clean'' records...

Then there's this:

SWAT, or technical response officers, intervene in special police operations such as hostage-takings, bomb defusings or disappearances under water, which require them to have diving skills. Montreal’s SWAT team was present during the student demonstrations last year.

Reading between the lines, it comes down to this: if discontent people get together to mass-protest - like in the mass-strikes part of the student movement last Spring - there will be more (actual) killers present to stop you than last year, and now they've perfected their kettle technique, so there'll be no escape...

''Not'' Guilty

I am just as angry as the next guy that the ''justice'' system has excused George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin. But unlike most of my friends, from what had transpired surrounding the case of late, I kind of knew that's where it was going to go.

But the shock is epic. Even The Huffington Post decided to get opinionated:

The Michael Moore quote up-top is quite true. Not just that, but Trayvon Martin's actions that night were scrutinized way beyond what normally transpires in ''normal'' murder cases. As a matter of fact, it was treated a little in the same way rape is, where they have more questions about the victim than they do the culprit (What was she wearing? Had she been drinking?), and the jury's fear of ''a Black man'' overshadowed the facts.

Because what this verdict means, pretty much, it's that since Black people appear more dangerous, it is excusable to kill them even if/when they're unarmed, teenagers, and coming home from the convenience store. Especially if they're wearing hoodies. A good lawyer could still get you off for killing one in a suit, but ''street'' wear is a no-brainer.

It has stopped being a ''Justice system'' and has become a ''criminal assessment system'' instead, where one type of victim is more complicit in their fate than others, and aggressors can be cleared of charges despite all evidence pointing to the contrary if they can arise enough suspicion on the victim.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for ''Innocent Until Proven Guilty'' - when the rules aren't rigged. This is exactly what I was referring to two weeks ago when I said:

with a legacy that lives on today in the disparity of the applications of the Law codes and how minorities are targeted most by the police and ''the system'' in general in the U.S.

And you can't ''just'' blame Florida, either. Case in point: this black woman mother who got a 20-year jail sentence for firing warning shots. WARNING SHOTS. At her abusive husband. And guess who's going to take care of their child now?

 There is a Mahatma Gandhi quote that goes along the lines of:

"There is a higher court than courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts."

But not only does it not apply to this situation, it doesn't even apply to this generation, because whenever shit like this happens, those in the wrong are convinced they're right. Say what you will about Barack Obama, he's always trying to choose between the lesser of two (or four) evils; Fox News, George W. Bush, John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, Rick Perry, Stephen Harper: these people either deliberately force the choice to be between two evils, or just create one themselves.

And there are too many of them with too wide a platform to spread their stupidity around to masses who are unable of critical thinking (or too blinded by their stance on smaller issues to change sides for the larger ones). And that leads to this. And the system once again proves it's fucked.

Guns Don't Kill People, Kids Do

Did you hear about the 5-year old who killed his sister in Kentucky Tuesday afternoon?

Cumberland County Coroner Gary White identified the girl as Caroline Sparks. He said the children's mother was at home when the shooting occurred, and the gun was a gift the boy received last year.

"It's a Crickett," he said. "It's a little rifle for a kid. ...The little boy's used to shooting the little gun."

White said the gun was kept in a corner, and the family did not realize a shell had been left in it.

He said the shooting will be ruled accidental. "Just one of those crazy accidents," White said.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/04/30/2621458/5-year-old-boy-accidentally-shoots.html#storylink=omni_popular#wgt=pop#storylink=cpy

So to Coroner decided the outcome before the autopsy... seems legit.

For those wondering what a ''rifle for a kid'' looks like, here is a screengrab from the company's website:

It's not the size of the gun that matters, it's the velocity of the bullets, and on all guns, they come out at a speed that can kill. I checked out their website, and nowhere did I find an age requirement for any of these. Yet, G.I. Joes are for ages 5 and up because a kid could choke on... the detachable, plastic guns.

I mean, fuck - can't you get them paint guns until they're 10? What the fuck kind of small, hick county has a Coroner who knows the victim and culprit enough to say such things as "The little boy's used to shooting the little gun"? How used to it was he that he decided pointing it as a 2-year old was a good idea?

But the real criminals are the parents. They're the ones who killed their daughter, by giving a weapon and training a child who could not possibly understand the consequences of not making sure the weapon is unloaded and under lock inside the house.

I don't care if owning guns is a way of life, or if you could be allowed to marry your fucking pistol - a kid, under 10 for sure, under 16 a best, should not own one. You want to train them to shoot, you take them to a firing range, rent a weapon there, go back home alive.

There should be background checks. Not just for owning guns, for having fucking kids.

Truth, Allegations, And Things Left Unsaid

The things that maketh murder...

There are many things fishy about the death of web programmer/activist/Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz, one of which being that he didn't get to see his court case (MIT was suing him for $1M and jail time for hacking into their computers and downloading millions of subscription-based articles from JSTOR, an online academic database, and distributing them for free) go through, where he could have made a very public plea for the advancement of a free internet despite having little chances of actual victory.

 Another was the way in which he died: by hanging. His father claims ''the government killed him'', but whether it's metaphorically or as a matter of fact, a noose around one's neck is, indeed, one of the easiest ways to make murder seem like suicide.

Then again, a web-savvy supernerd would know just how many questions would be raised should he be found hanging from a noose, and could have done it on purpose just to awake suspicions and ''get the people talking'', as Will Ferrell would say.

Even I'm talking about it, and I knew nothing of the case when I woke up yesterday morning. ''Touché'', said the priest to the boy.

Video Of The Week: The Boomtown Rats

Many folks know Bob Geldof as the old guy who gets U2 and/or Bono to play all these benefit events, but before that, he led The Boomtown Rats, an Irish New Wave band that had a few semi-hits between 1979 and 1985, among which She's So Modern and this week's entry, I Hate Mondays.

Now, like Garfield, I really do hate Mondays, to the point where in College and University, whenever I could, I would choose classes in order to have Mondays off and instead start my week off on Tuesdays, which was the greatest idea ever: not only did it make my weekends a day longer than everyone else's, it also forced me to be on the ball as soon as I did make my way to school, because everybody was already right into their week, so I couldn't afford to be in a ''Monday slump''.

The song itself, though, is inspired by a much more tragic story: on January 29th, 1979, Brenda Ann Spencer, then aged 16,  killed two and injured 9 (eight kids and a cop) while shooting at her neighbour school from the comfort of her own home. Not only did she not show any remorse, her explanation  for the crime was "I don't like Mondays; this livens up the day."

Enjoy.

Gun Ads

This senseless violence. Constant.

And the debates, which used to be solely about ''gun control'', for or against, the rest of the world failing to understand the United States were born out of gunfire and it would be damn near impossible to take them away, paranoid as people can get.

And now the new debate on mental health and health care.

It's all good, but it misses some points.

In the culture of violence we're living in, in the instant celebrity world we're in, there remain to this day automatic weapon ads in ''normal'' men's magazines and other places, and this website has tracked a lot of them down. Wow. Here's (an old) one:

''Accidental discharge impossible''; heck, I can't even say that about my own body these days, seeing as I have uncontrollable diarrhea every time I move a muscle located between my knees and throat...

R.I.P. Pascual Perez

In the midst of racism in the news, conspiracy theorist Tila Tequila, the American elections, and the continuing saga of corruption in Québec politics, one subject fell through the cracks: the death (murder) of Pascual Perez, one of my favourite Montréal Expos pitchers.

The former All-Star was found dead at his Dominican Republic home:

Some of the reported details of Perez's death are gruesome, but they also have yet to be confirmed. One report says robbers waited for Perez, a terminally-ill kidney patient with five children, to receive his $2,000 major league pension check before surprising him at his home.

I couldn't describe him better than this if I tried to:

A brother to Melido Perez and Carlos Perez, both of whom also had substantial major league careers, Pascual Perez could follow a 95 mph fastball with a sleepy eephus pitch — just for fun. Listed at 6-foot-2 and 162 pounds, Perez was all arms and legs on the mound with a Jheri- curl mullet hairdo on top.

His rainbow pitch was a marvel to witness. It flew 15 feet in the air and looked like an easy, Little League pitch that was certain to get knocked outside the park - except it never was.

He, like many Expos, had a pretty bad cocaine problem, twice going into rehab in his three-season stint in Montréal. His brother Carlos also played here, and Éric Gagné mentioned him in his autobiography, saying ''he always had two things on him: a million dollars in cash, and a loaded gun''. Freak family, but beautiful to watch play.

Inevitable Irony

Just hours after I'd posted the Vote With A Bullet video, a man erupted at the Parti Québécois' victory celebration, shot two people and started a fire with a molotov cocktail. One died, the other is in critical condition; someone else is treated for extreme shock.

Newly-elected (first female) Prime Minister of Québec Pauline Marois was escorted off mid-speech, but returned a few moments later, asking attendees to leave the place calmly, because ''that's how a Premier reacts''.

More to come as it develops, probably.

Today's Sign Of Our Civilization's Decadence

I'm not stupid; I know media organizations are way, way past ''trying to provide accurate, objective information'' as the Fourth Estate - the one designed to protect and inform the people about and from sources, mostly the government and the outside world.

But to actively demand the death of a person kind of crosses so many lines it makes me sick:

So far, the suspect is an alleged mass murderer. A trial will likely find him guilty, and the jury will probably think so even before the trial begins. These things happen. (They're wrong in theory, but with the prevalence of news sources and their choice of hiring commentators rather than journalists have led to this type of situation.)

But to ask for someone's death before even a single shred of evidence is put forth in what we, as a civilization, have agreed hundreds of years ago was the proper medium to do so is disgusting.

Not to mention that civilized countries no longer have the death penalty as an option, as the U.S. is the sole G-7 representative to have it, and the other countries where it is prevalent are China, Iran, North Korea, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Lybia, Syria, Bangladesh, Somalia, and Sudan. Countries the Western World sees as being governed by ruthless tyrants, some of which have been deposed, most of which are at war with their people.

The way I see it, if we're going to live in a world where we have the right to bear arms and an armed shooter kills a bunch of people in public, the only ones who are allowed to ''put him to sleep forever'' are people who were there and make that call. Anything beyond that is unacceptable.

If you're going to bitch about the State's right to tax your fucking ass, you'd better do everything you can to ensure it doesn't have the right to kill you; you'd just be asking for trouble...

Zombie Apocalypse Sign Of The Day

You know what? there are far too many Zombie/cannibalism stories in the news these days, and I seem to come across all of them - about a dozen so far.

This time, at a Sacramento motel...






Then again...

The Dangers Of Being Teachers

A teacher who survived a shoot-out a week ago was stabbed in her home.

Her husband, who teaches at the same school, found her body.

After the recent strings of zombie-attacks (at last count, 9 in the last month), we're down to same-victim violence attacks.

All things odds should be working against. So either buy a lottery ticket, or this impending Apocalypse shit that worried George W. Bush so much is on its way.

Hoodie Gate

It's been a month since the awful death of Trayvon Martin and his killer, George Zimmerman, is still free. And armed. And possibly racist. And probably retarded.

Here are 26 facts about the story. And tons of links for additional information about it.

It's a situation that's so fucked up that even Will Smith tweeted about it:

And today, New York State Senator Eric Adams sported a hoodie in support for his family and the cause:

The hoodie thing - or Million Hoodie March - has only garnered stronger support after douchebag ''newscaster'' Geraldo Rivera made a bunch of ridiculous tweets and comments on Fox & Friends.

I wear hoodies every day, so I can't say I'm ''making a statement'' by wearing my usual attire... but if I didn't, I would right now.