Beshpin, that's one re-action.  Another re-action might be a call to have an open mind and consider and investigate for yourself some of the things that are going.  It can take you to some crazy ridiculous places, but no more crazy or ridiculous than some of the things our politicians tell us.

For example, bill C-6 which died in proroguing of parliament.  It may have contained a lot of good things.  However, it also contained a tiny clause that if passed, made it perfectly legal for an agent of the government to come into your house, without the need of a warrant, without having to go to a judge to say why, without warning, just show up, come in and review all of your consumer products, which, is likely just about anything in the house and then decide if any of them have the potential to be harmful, (with no real definition given as to what that means).  And if it costs money to test the harm of that product, you have to pay for it.

Now, the reason we are told that this was put in there, was to protect people against schemers who sell holistic medicines that could be making dubious claims about their effectiveness.  That issue can be debated on its own - fair enough.

What the implication is, the government has made it legal for them to trespass.  Oh sure, the government would never use that power for reasons other than stated... we can believe our government would never abuse its power while we forgive their trespasses... right?

Hey, I don't know much about naziism cause I ain't real smart like Beshipin at least tries to be.Did the naziis have torture? arrest and imprisonment without charge or trial? Mass murder of Civilians? any people they were taught to hate on the basis of ignorant notions about race or religion? Did the naziis invade countries that had not attacked them? Did they have hired killers? Did naziis practice terrorism?

Do you know what terrorism means?

 Hey listen, male pattern baldness really freaks me out!

Ahh, where's this meshugganah I'm looking for

*digs through Wonderchest*

KAF! KAF! KAF!

Sheesh, I should clear that out more often I should clear that out.

Ah, here it is...yes, you might want to wear your sunglasses for this one.  The future's so bright, the future is now.

Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHMvknT_uk4&feature=player_embedded

LB, thank you for posting this. I, too, believe that the situation is becoming dire in terms of the warning signs. The fear is being generated by those who use it to silence people -- let's remember where that has led in the past and do everything in our power to direct our country and communities in another direction. Speaking out has its risks but not speaking out, as the famous poem describes, is much riskier.

Let us speak out for love and justice -- not the kind that is equated with vengeance, but, as Micah is reported to have said, "seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your god".

off you go, then. 

however, i'm not sure that you are ever going to find a country where you and everyone else will think exactly the same, so i wouldn't unpack my stuff too quickly.  i sense that with your attitude, you are going to be doing a lot of relocating....  you may just want to start living out of your suitcase. 

pack light, i say.

why?? 

if i am unhappy with the direction that the goverment is taking, why should i have to move someplace else?? 

again, why??  why not simply fight to change the party in power??  i'm pretty sure that when the liberals were in power, harper was against stuff they were doing too... why is it that harper didn't just have to leave when he didn't agree with what the government was doing, but anyone else should just look for the nearest exit??

i grew up in saskatchewan, went to school in regina.  i've only lived in ottawa for 10 years, and before that, i lived for quite a few years in wainwright, alberta... my son was born there.

so, you wanna think about your comment again, and get back to me???

no more than you are, besh.

really.  move out of canada. 

why??  why should someone have to leave canada simply because they disagree with the government??

i'm not seeing it either.  but i am not sure why that comparison means that you should have to leave the country.  heck, republicans south of the border have been putting hitler mustaches on pictures of obama all through the health care debate there, and i even saw one protest where they showed a picture of corpses from auchwitz.  crazy?  yeah.  but should they have to leave the country??  not at all.

well, if you can't stand it when someone calls you a nazi, then say so.

but to then say that person should leave the country??  i'd say that is just as vile, if not moreso.

yep.  but it still doesn't = leaving the country.

people call me all kinds of crazy stuff.  doesn't mean that they should have to leave the country.  i mean really, if you think that you can put yourself in the public spotlight and NOT have people fling insults at you, you need to get out more. 

NOT AT ALL. 

in fact, if we WERE down the road to the third reich, moving out and letting it go on would be the LAST THING i would do.  i'd stay and fight it till they killed me and i could fight no more.

i think that motivating people by fear is perhaps one of the most dangerous things we can do.  but you need to consider other avenues of standing against it.  telling someone to leave the country is simply responding in kind. 

and that is, well, we all know that two wrongs rarely make a right.

i think that this topic has shown you some of your hot buttons.  i'm simply pointing out to you that your response is no better.

imho, you have an opportunity here... you can learn how to calmly deal with people who push your hot buttons, which will serve you and your cause much better in the long run, or you can continue to tantrum and jump up and down like an idiot whenever someone says something that offends you, and come off as a redneck.

the choice is yours. 

As one reads the quote from Mayer's book, it is just that, five short paragraphs of a book.

Was there some newspaper article or news story or radio commentator who resurrected it recently that some have seen and I missed?

Because, for me, the quote from the book came with no commentary. It invited it. Yet, it was attacked for comparing Canada to Nazi Germany. What one compares those 5 paragraphs to or against is done by self.

One could look at it as commentary on Germany (note the title of the book). One could look at it globally or nationally. One could look at it as warning. One could look at it as accusation.... One could see McCarthyism or the Bush years. One could see Hitler and Germany.

I looked at it more through my ex-pat lens and saw America. Some saw Canada.

Mayer wrote about Germany.

If anyone or any nation sees themselves in it, they brought it there. Mayer wrote of Germany.

So, if someone sees Conservatives called Nazis or Harper called Hitler or teh government called facism ...from those 5 paragraphs.... they did that themselves.

If someone sees themselves or  their country or their leader, IMO whether they agree or disagree with the comparison they are making or that they think others might make there is a problem.

Resistance, protest, criticism and complaint are also parts of a free society.

Mayer wrote a compelling book offering how 'decent men' became Nazi's through biographies. He was an American journalist of German/Jewish descent.

We need to quit using as an epithet words like communist or facist... or being afraid of them or feeling they are inherently evil or inferior... If one looks at what makes a nation facist, many the world over are - some who call it as such and others call themselves other things. It is especially ironic hearing someone so upset with the possibility it is inferred their nation is and it be coming from one who speaks of ethnocentrism and even defends Uganda with it.

Beshpin, LB quoted a section in a book and made no reference to our country. Unlike you, what I read was a warning that the conditions here and in the "western" world are starting to look similar to the conditions that existed as described in that quote. When conditions begin to parallel another situation that had disastrous (on a massive scale) results, we can take it as a warning to change the direction or we can ignore it, possibly to our peril.

As well, the killing of Jews, gays and lesbians, people of colour, Roma people, those who were disabled were not the only egregious acts committed by the Nazi government of Germany. Several countries were invaded and huge numbers of people were killed by those acts of aggression.

This latter situation is happening now -- not by armies but by international corporations. They are supported by international bodies that have the acquisition of more, at the expense of many lives and the expense of the quality of life for many more, as their only goal. This has resulted in invasions of countries, such as many of the countries of Central and South America, much of Asis and of course, most of Africa as well.

Are you aware of the jailings and deaths of many people around the world who have and continue to try to defend their communities from invasion by mining corporations? What about those who try to organize unions where working conditions are deadly, such as Coca Cola plants in various parts of the world (google it and see for yourself)? Are you aware that the corporate media are largely silent on the reporting of these events? What about the hiring of so-called security companies in Iran and Afghanistan, instead of sending in military personnel -- although I don't agree with the wars, at least when the military is involved, there are international rules of engagement -- when companies such as Blackwater are sent in the name of the US government, they are subject to no-one and have been reported as committing atrocities.

Yes, it's horrible to think about how we play at being one thing (peacekeepers, people who respond to others affected by disaster, people who care about our neighbours, etc) but the grim reality is that our governments are involved, and have been for a long time, in organizations and practices that deny democracy (true democracy, not the facade that is being presented to us in the media) and human rights to many people of the world. We can hide behind rose-coloured glasses and deny this reality or we can acknowledged that the oppression that's being done in our name is not what we want. We now have the tools to connect with each other around the country, and even around the dominant countries of the world to give our governments the message that we will not tolerate this any longer or moving along the path of facism any further.

 That Rushkoff piece has some heavy lifting in it.  For me the awakening was a video I watched on google video called "The Money Masters..."

It would be worth another thread is anyone has watched it.  Let me know.

BTW, let me say that I find it offensive, diminishing, and trivializing of ALL involved... including, but not limited to, the German people.

Granton, I think that the antiSemite thing is harmful too. One of the groups I support is JATO, Jews Against the Occupation. So, I was wearing an old t-shirt that said A ghetto is a ghetto and Tear down the Apartheid wall.. I guess the person did not know JATO (they were not Jewish they later revealed) and he did not also read Honour the Warsaw ghetto uprising. So, this man comes up and starts calling me an antiSemite. So, I said Boker tov... ze be' seder.. whatever I rattled off. He must have thought I was speaking Arabic, because it did not help it made it worse. Finally, I said "I am a Jew". It still did not help, he called me a traitor and said saying anythign about the Israelis was antiSemetic.

I agree, Motheroffive. We can definitelytalk about ideologies and political patterns and government types.... all that.

One can even talk about Germany in those decades...