In the aftermath of Vancouver’s recent RCMP taser killing tragedy, the rug-sweep press extravaganza has taken full charge. If you haven’t seen this yet, see video below.

We begin with the Vancouver Airport Authority attempting to divert any blame towards management or personnel responsibility. Why didn’t anyone offer help, support, or translation? We all know how frustrating the airport can be… imagine 12 hours of delay, confusion, getting lost, and a complete inability to communicate. Think you might get a bit agitated?

Apparently the problem is infrastructure. According to Chief Executive Larry Berg,

“I think that we’ve lost a little bit of the human touch, the ability to reach out to people, individuals who may have different, unique circumstances, such as this individual did.”¹

No shit. When a foreign visitor gets lost for 12 hours in a major international airport that is preparing for the Olympic Games, I would expect some concerns. But despite the god-awful absence of systemized customer assistance - it is a sickening realization that the airport personnel did not step up to diffuse the situation. Anyhow, the Vancouver Airport Authority, in all its divine wisdom, decided to throw some consumer money on the issue in hopes of concealing this rather ugly scar. I’m sure $1.3 million will give their hollow apologies a voice.

On to the RCMP, who, do indeed have a tough job. Which is exactly why such a job shouldn’t be taken lightly. A few days ago Big Shot Mounties announced new regulations to restrict the use of tasers for individuals who are “combative” or “actively resistant”. Well ummm… do you really need a regulation that says that?

While admitting that tasers have been used inappropriately in the past, no clear indication was given whether the death of Robert Dziekanski was one of those circumstances. Hard to get greedy I suppose; its difficult enough to have the RCMP admit they make mistakes, let alone point one out in particular.

The simple answer to all this hubub is responsibility. Questions about whether tasers should even be used or whether they are torture are ludicrous. If you want a proper police force then they must be equipped to enforce… but if you want them to make sound judgments, you have to equip them with training and responsibility. The attitude of superiority and the mindless reflexes of these officers should be our prime concern.

But nobody wants to talk about that. So let us move on. Let us sweep these grains of infuriating incompetence beneath us. Sweep it away. Now repeat after me “the government and RCMP is only there for my protection.”

Good.

Feel better?

You won’t after watching this:

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1. Vancouver Airport Authority spending $1.3 million in wake of Polish man’s death. Canadian Press. 7 December 2007. [↩]

Many people believe that 2000 years ago, a child was born. This child was the offspring of the God of the Old Testament and of a Virgin woman. He was crucified, killed, and resurrected a few days later. All of course, as a plan. The plan was to ‘rescue’ humanity from a single sin, perpetrated by our original ancestors.

Now I will not get into the finer details about this story because quite frankly, I don’t have time. What I would like everyone to keep in mind, is that this story is based on the testimony of individuals who claim to have seen this event or who heard about it (nevermind the delicate controversy about whether or not first-person testimony actually exists). It is on the basis of this testimony, coupled with some very loose ‘logic’, that one third of the human race currently believes this story is true.

Michael Persinger, a Canadian neuroscientist, has conducted experiments which ’simulate’ religious experiences using electro-magnetic waves. He also notes, that a substance called reserpine will elicit a “death-like” state in animals when they are restrained, only to seemingly “resurrect” after about 3 days. The Celts performed similar ceremonies, citing the experience as proof of an afterlife.

Did a Jesus truly rise from the dead and destroy every shred of evidence suggesting its impossibility? Or was it just a performance, acted out by a jewish sect, in hopes of attracting members in a religiously competitive culture? Do you ever wonder why there is not a single eyewitness testimony or historical reference near the date Jesus’ death was supposed to have occurred?

Do you wonder why the earliest gospel was written a minimum of 40 years after the fact? Could this be the most successful Hoax in human history? “No!” you say, “I have experienced the power of Jesus’ resurrection personally”. A visit to your local faith healer will demonstrate the power of suggestion. What happens when an entire culture proposes a particular idea? Did you experience Jesus before you knew about him?

But maybe people are too honest to do such things.

Here’s the relevant clip from Michael’s lecture:

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Michael Moore appears on CNN to rip correspondent Wolf Blitzer a new one… Thank God someone has to guts to confront these lopsided hypocrites and expose their own ‘fudge’ tactics. CNN later apologized for getting some facts wrong in their ‘report’ on Sicko.

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and part 2….

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There is a lot of bad logic in this world.

Some things are held as vicious, life-threatening, menaces while others are claimed to be necessary for the salvation of humankind. Some religions receive special privilege that is above the law and others are denounced as cults or even criminal groups. How much of the decision making process behind these labels do you think is political and how much is reasonable? I hesitate to even use the word reason…

Presumably we designate things illegal because of their potential harm to society. Drunk-driving causes accidents, chemicals can be used to make explosives, drugs influence addiction and crime, etc. We hold this standard in our society that when something is associated with a particularly harmful behavior or event then we should ban it. In fact, often we do not even consider whether there is a causal relationship; association is often all that is required. In the spirit of our culture’s logic and aim towards safety, I would like to present a case to cleanse our society of a common ill that may indeed lead to our destruction. May I present the Mindinclined case to Criminalize Christianity:

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Music By Linkin Park entitled “No More Sorrow”.