Is Harper scared of the Premiers?

Stephen Harper said the era of bickering with the provinces and territories of Canada was over. But of course, he has no reason to bicker if he's not going to even bother meeting with them.

Care to guess how many times Harper has actually bothered to sit down with the Premiers -- all 13 of them -- since he took office seventeen months ago? Once. And it wasn't even a full blown First Ministers' Conference, just a working dinner at 24 Sussex Drive.

When he drops in on a province, no advance warning to the Premier. And even if they do meet, how long is it for? Fifteen, twenty minutes?

What kind of a Prime Minister do we have when it's a man who can't even be bothered to admit that Canada is a federal state, and cooperation with the provinces is essential to keep this vast nation going? Harper can't even be bothered to set aside just one day to meet with the Premiers? What's going on?

Could it be that Harper is just ... chicken?

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Back to the future for Latin Mass, sort of

Joe Ratzinger decided yesterday to allow greater use of the Latin Mass in dioceses, where a congregation demands it. In a way, that sounds like a good thing because it may help stem a growing revolt within the Catholic Church in such far flung places as The OC and Bavaria where some rebel congregations have set up under the breakaway Society of St. Pius X. (There's also another well known "independent Catholic" church financed almost entirely by Mel Gibson -- I think you might know where this is going.)

This doesn't mean the Catholic Church is going back to all Latin any time soon and that's a good thing -- most of those from Generation X (mine) forward don't know anything about Latin anyway. But that's not what worries me.

Rather than use only the Novus Ordum, the Vatican II Latin Mass that later became the basis for the vernacular Masses used worldwide, Ratzinger has opted to also permit use of the Tridentine Mass. And the Good Friday service pre-1960 contains some very inflamatory language about Jewish people -- that they are "perfidious" and need to be "converted." Many Catholics, who oppose any dialogue with fellow Christians, let alone Jews whom they absolutely hate, will probably celebrate this retrograde move. Including Mel Gibson and his even more anti-Semitic father.

I am not one of them. I have no problem with voluntary use of Latin provided it's the Novus Ordum, not the Tridentine. (I discussed why here.) The Jewish people are God's Chosen People, not the accursed. They do not bear collective guilt for the execution of Jesus of Nazareth; only the Quislings of the Sanhedrin of the day, and the Roman authorities they sold out to.

If anything, ecumenism has been a positive force for Catholicism. I don't just mean via dialogue. It would have been unthinkable to hear Reformation hymns (such as Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God") or Gospel music ("How Great Thou Art," to name just one) in a Catholic Church even 20 years ago, now it would be unimaginable not to have it. And many Protestant hymnals have returned the favour -- most include such Catholic classics as Cardinal John H. Newman's "Lead, Kindly Light, Amidst the Encircling Gloom."

And it's no longer a sin to be a friend to a Jewish person -- probably never was, actually, but there is no longer a stigma attached to the concept.

This announcement, in its present form, may be a huge setback and turn the Church into an "us against them" fortress. We have enough of that with Word-Faith evangelicals who scorn us as well as mainstream Protestants. We don't need something that will make things worse between Catholics and Protestants, let alone Catholics and Jews.

With all due respect to the Pope, the Tridentine is a relic of history -- a despicable history of church-sanctioned anti-Semitism that in part led to the Holocaust, and it's time to consign that form of the Mass to the trash heap once and for all. No matter what Mel Gibson thinks.

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One of these is not like the other, can you spot the difference?

When I read this article this morning derived from doing a Google, I thought my blood was going to boil. It was written back in 1998 but this is probably the best indictment I have ever seen of the Word Faith movement and in particular one of the greatest heretics the English-language world has ever known, Kenneth Copeland:

My Word of Faith Testimony by Tricia Tillin

Note the stark similiarities that have resounded through the last century or so -- the "New Thought" that we are little gods and can make ourselves like God which led to:

• Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science;
• E.W. Kenyon, the founder of the Word of Faith (someone who Kenneth Hagin later relentlessly plagarized);
• Rhonda Byrne and "The Secret";
• And of course, Tom Cruise.

There can be no greater heresy as far as Christianity is concerned. Jesus died physically, not spiritually as the Word Faith claims. Jesus' blood atoned for the sins of humanity, the Word Faith states it did not. Jesus promised the bandit executed alongside him that he would be with him in heaven -- not that he would be transformed into a god.

When St. John wrote God wanted us to prosper, it didn't mean financially. God cannot be manipulated. Sooner or later Byrne, Cruise, Copeland and the rest of them will get their just reward. I don't know if I'm going to heaven or to hell but I sure know those three aren't going to heaven.

The only difference between Byrne and Copeland is the plumbing between their legs. Nothing more or less.

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Brazil loses against USA, will still probably get wild card

Brazil backed itself into a corner last night, at the U-20 World Cup of Soccer. The normally swift and often enigmatic team was stumped in Ottawa as Team USA (of all teams) won a huge 2-1 upset. Both the Americans and Poland (which also shocked Brazil in Montréal last week) move on the Sweet 16, and Brazil must hope something happens in the other five groups to allow it to claim one of the four Wild Card spots.

If the team in the familiar yellow jerseys can't pull through it will be a huge shock. CONMEBOL, the South American conference, is supposed to be as strong as UEFA (the European conference) which is why it gets a disproportionate number of entries in the tournament. And unlike the US and Canadian all-star teams which only have a few weeks to practice most of the other teams have months, even years, to work together and know each other. But maybe that familiarity also breeds complacency.

Still, let's face it, the men's tournaments are rigged in the draw from the start to ensure either an all Europe or a Europe vs South America final since those are the two strongest conferences. And even when an underdog manages to get to the second or even third rounds the refs always conspire to ensure a Cinderella story doesn't happen (witness last year's dive by an Italian player that led to Italy beating Australia -- on the team's way to winning the World Cup).

So watch the remaining games this weekend ... and what the refs will do to keep Canada from scoring enough goals against Congo to make sure Brazil gets the final Wild Card. FIFA demands fair play from its players -- how about its referees for a change?

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Who gave Al Gore that permit?

Someone in the White House must be wondering who gave Al Gore permission to host one of the Live Earth concerts tomorrow, right at the Washington Mall. After all, isn't it a federal property; and isn't the Interior Department supposed to give the all clear?

Kind of reminds me when Jim Watt -- the worst anti-environment person ever to grace a Cabinet table until Dick Cheney came along -- refused to give the Beach Boys a permit to perform in the same place. Until, it turned out, Nancy Reagan went ballistic because she was a huge fan of the group and the concert went ahead. Watt later resigned over some unrelated issues but to get that kind of a glove slap was beautiful.

My guess is Dick and Dubya will be well away from da noise in da District -- and will be at Camp David tuned into Fox News all weekend long. Then again, even Fox is starting to come around on social issues like the environment and health care ...

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King Stephen mingles with the commoners in Nova Scotia

Yawn.

And to announce what? A $3.1 billion upgrade of the Halifax-class frigates that persistently list on the port side. Sure, the job has to be done. I am a progressive who also supports a strong military.

But after so cynically dismissing the people of the Atlantic as expendible both by words and deeds this can been nothing less than crass opportunism. Sure, any party leader would do the same but Harper didn't even have the decency to give the Nova Scotia premier 24 hours notice that he was coming.

Stephen Harper may be the Prime Minister of all Canadians -- but by his not walking the talk he's effectively the King from Alberta, by Alberta and for Alberta.

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Olbermann's "J'accuse" moment

In one 10 minute editorial, Keith Olbermann proved that he -- not Brian Williams -- should have gotten the anchor job at NBC. And demonstrated the kind of American patriotism that used to be admired however grudgingly by those outside the States and which has been so mercilessly tramped on by the Bush-Cheney-Rove cabal with the events of two days ago being the final straw.



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Does Canada need a Black Hawk Down to end the crap?

Maybe it's the numbers that don't make it look so bad compared to the carnage in Iraq, or perhaps there's something about Canadians being complacent as compared to citizens of other countries. But today's death toll of six in Afghanistan now brings the total to 67 (66 soldiers plus one diplomat) and there comes a point where even the most devoted supporter of military action must ask, to what end and what objectives are being carried out?

Nearly 3000 people, including 24 Canadians, were murdered on 9/11 which is why we fight. But I don't think we also agreed to a mission that would have the unintended consequence of starting another civil war, nor did we agree to a mode of encouraging economic development that included growing by magnitudes the opium crop.

I'm not quite yet ready to write off the mission. But it seems it's always a singular incident that puts an end to military missions, or at least causes a major rethink in planning. Think Dieppe, the Tet Offensive, the Beirut Baracks bombing -- or the incident in Mogadishu that has become known as "Black Hawk Down." When there's a massive one day toll, it makes people wake up and demand change. If 60 Americans were killed in a single bomb attack in Baghdad, that might be the trigger for even diehard elephants to tell Dubya, enough is enough, and pull the plug on funding. Yet that's the magnitude of what's happened today in Kandahar -- and since it's our fellow Canadians, they're seen as expendible in view of a greater mission.

That's unacceptable. We need to be planning for what will be the biggest anti-terrorist operation Canada has ever seen, the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Those troops -- our men and women -- need to be in the Lower Mainland, in the background of course but they need to be home. Stephen Harper needs to say we've pulled our weight more than enough -- and the March 2009 date is a date certain for either other NATO countries to pick up the slack or for Kabul to face the music and take care of Al Qaeda and the Taliban on its own. Perhaps it should be sooner.

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Just in case Dubya flunked civics ...

Happy 4th. Yes, I'm a Canadian but since I'm presently under contract to the US division of a Japanese automaker I get US holidays off. So I guess that entitles me to reprint the following -- the very first law in the United States Code:

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

• That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness;
• That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;
• That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
• For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States;
• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world;
• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent;
• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury;
• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences;
• For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies;
• For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments;
• For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

[Signed]

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

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Success!!

The demands and prayers of a record 200,000 journalists and bloggers have been answered -- the BBC's Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston, has been freed in just the last few minutes as I write these words. Freedom of the press lives on.

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BBB sets its sights on -- Peter Popoff

In yet another sign of the end times, the Better Business Bureau has filed a formal complaint against televangelist Peter Popoff -- you know, the guy who gave us "miracle spring water" from Chernobyl and who claimed to hear the voice of God when in fact it was his wife reading off prayer cards.

Not surprisingly, Popoff is not currently a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Neither are the other usual suspects -- a quick check of their membership as I wrote this article shows Benny Hinn, Robert Tilton, John Hagee, Oral Roberts and Robert Schuller (Sr and Jr) are AWOL. Billy Graham and his kids Franklin and Anne are members of the ECFA and so is Joni Eareckson; as are (oddly) Pat Robertson, James D. Kennedy and Charles Stanley. Also a member is the somewhat inconsistent Hank Hanegraaff (I used to respect him but he can't seem to decide what a cult is anymore, unfortunately).

Ministry Watch broadens its scope and probing to include non-evangelical groups. It gives unusually high marks to groups like Catholic Relief Services and the Salvation Army; while some of the above named telepreachers who refuse to make themselves accountable get red flags from the "watchers" also. Much to my not so big surprise, Popoff isn't even listed. He's so elusive in his financial dealings he can't even be rated one star, let alone five.

I therefore find it disconcerting that it has to be a secular group, such as the BBB, that must call the bluff of these con artists. Clearly the IRS isn't doing its job nor will it as long as Dubya -- whom 99% of the televangelists support -- remains in office.

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Scooter gets free pass

There is simply no excuse for any President to pardon someone for commiting perjury or to commute the sentence as has happened today, with Bush repaying an old favour to "Scooter" Libby. This, after an appeals court refused to grant him bail while his appeal is pending.

Technically, Libby still has a rap sheet and still has to pay a very substantial fine -- but this act proves more than ever that Bush knows who in the White House committed treason four years ago. It's a cover-up, plain and simple.

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Dick Cheney's Ten Commandments

Courtesy of the gang at Mother Jones. This one is an absolute cracker. (Flashplayer required for this one.)

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Bye Bye Bell

So the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan won the war for Bell Canada.

I am disgusted. This is one of our crown jewels. The only reason why someone would want to take a company private, or try to sell it to get it out of public hands, is if something untoward has been happening at head office. Even if there was nothing wrong done, it stops the snooping by ordinary folks. By getting it out of the public eye it gets out of the hand of securities regulators also.

I call upon the forensic accountants at the RCMP to go over the books before letting this sale to go forward. If there has been even the slightest evidence of malfeasance, those involved, including the executives at head office, should face indictments.

Besides that, this makes a mockery of "solidarity forever." As is the case with the meatpackers, you now have one union stacked against another. Teachers also owns Cadillac Fairview (a shopping mall developer), Canary Wharf (a hot business complex in London), and big chunks of Canadian and foreign banks as well as minority interests in Microsoft, Samsung and the US mortgage lender Freddie Mac -- just to name a few.

What does that say for the future of organized labour in this country where the efforts of the unions gave us reasonable working hours, maternity leave, and universal medicare and so many other things we hold dear?

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Democracy in Hong Kong? Prove it!

As we mark Canada's 140th birthday and 47 years of real democracy (it wasn't until 1960 that Aboriginals in this country finally got the vote) let us not forget that the fight for democratic choice goes on.

One of those places is in Hong Kong. As he began his second term as the city's chief executive, Donald Tsang stated he wants to bring greater democracy to the area, which already enjoys considerable personal freedom. That's all well and good except that's what China and the UK promised ten years ago and nothing has happened yet. Tsang, like his precedessor Tung Chee Hwa, was selected by an electoral college of just 600, most of them Communist Party hacks. "Democratic" elections to the city legislature are really anything but since residents there get to pick only half of the assembly members -- the rest are basically chosen by Beijing.

Although, it is worth pointing out that there may be some positive steps already under way. For instance, an actual US-style debate was held on HK television a few months back between Tsang and his challenger -- and interestingly, both men happen to be Roman Catholic. HK also remains one of only two cities in China, the other being Macau, where open criticism of the national capital remains tolerated; people there simply will not allow Tiannanmen Square to be forgotten, nor should they.

It's hard to gauge how sincere Tsang is. After all, air and water quality have worsened in HK since the handover ten years ago and the neighbouring province of Guangdong has simply refused to listen to Tsang's pleas to enforce existing anti-pollution laws. Also last year Tsang introduced a Canadian-style GST despite massive opposition.

However, I for one am for now willing to give Tsang the benefit of the doubt. He needs to democratize Hong Kong before next year's Olympics in Beijing or his words will mean nothing at all. There should be at least one place in Red China where people are truly free -- because if that happens, the urge to spread the fever to the rest of the country and finally liberate the Chinese from their slavery will become unstoppable. It only takes a spark to get a fire going.

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