Hacklab nerd caught in G20 security sweep

[Thomas Milne]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 5:44 PM, Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 3:53 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> But I have to admit a bias: I don't give the Harper government too
>> much benefit of the doubt.
>
> Of course, the more massive issue is the secret regulations passed by
> the Ontario Liberals.

Those regulations were passed back in 1990, they're called the Public
Works Protection Act. McGuinty's government extended the laws to cover
the 5 meters around the security fences, at the request of the Toronto
Police. It would have been political suicide for him to refuse the
police. You just don't do that.

Doesn't mean he's not a fascist, but Harper is the tyrant.

One thing I have not been able to clarify his who exactly introduced
the PWPA. 1990 was the year the NDP won in Ontario, but they won in
September (when I was drinking my face off in a campus pub), so it
could have been Peterson's Liberals.

> As much as Torontonians seem to like to imagine
> that Harper's a pinch-nez away from a Godwin argument, the entire
> political spectrum is quite clearly prepared to engage in the
> "Orwellian transform" as we assortedly witness:
>  - the special "G20 police powers" given out by Liberals
>  - England turned into a surveillance state *not* under "evil
> Thatcher," but rather Labour.

Keep in mind that Labour got elected by renouncing socialism.

> Fascism is traditionally imagined as a "right wing" thing, but, after
> all, the most criticized form ever was named "National SOCIALISM," not
> "National Capitalism," and it's eminently evident that pretty well any
> party that is sufficiently "central" to represent their nation is
> pretty capable of doubtful behaviour like this.  McGuinty has a lot to
> answer for :-).

Well, no, National Socialism has never had anything whatever to do
with Socialism. A lot of people are misled by that. Fascism is very
specifically, as Mussolini defined it, a 'merger between government
and corporate power'. The 'Socialism' of National Socialism has more
to do with the mythology of a pure society and all that bunk, not the
economics of wealth redistribution that is the central tenet of all
Socialist parties. Also, Socialism generally rejects Nationalism.

So, you might be right about McGuinty acting like a fascist, but he is
far away from being anything like a Socialist.

I agree with you in principle, that lots of people call themselves one
thing and do another. I certainly don't trust McGuinty any more than I
do Harper or Ignatieff. Anyone of any political stripe is capable of
anything when power and money are involved.

-- 
TBM
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists