Canada now Accepts Info. Gained Through Torture…
By: James Burge
February 8th, 2012
So I just came across an article today, and wouldn’t you know it I have an opinion, although I will concede it is in a bit of a grey area.
So the article talks about how CSIS, Canada’s CIA basically, is allowed to use information extracted from suspects through torture which goes against earlier claims that they never use such information.
I have to say, unfortunately, this is a tough one, it seems cut and dry at first but it is very easy to talk yourself into accepting this practice under the guise that it may make us more secure. (Which in my experience tends not to be true, no security is gained through torture only the mirage of security)
First off, Canada should NOT torture under any circumstances, in my opinion this is not up for debate, this is the easy part. There is no credible excuse for such behaviour and since most information gained out of such techniques tends to be unreliable, there is little value added with such interrogation techniques and both our countries integrity and the safety of our armed forces to loose. Canadian soldiers will be in great danger of themselves being tortured abroad if Canada adopts torture. Period.
That being said, the issue here is of the use of information received from regimes around the world where torture is an excepted practice. I think first of all, I would assume it can be tough to get foreign countries to admit that torture was used to get the information, so in the case where CSIS is unaware that information was gained through torture, we will give them a proverbial pass on this although I think it would be in their best interest to discern if this is the case or not due only to its relation to the reliability of the information.
I’ve been over this a few times in my head, and I keep going back and forth. So maybe a quick thought experiment will help.
Okay so CSIS receives information from a foreign country, and after some consideration determines that the information was obtained through torture, oh wait enhanced interrogation techniques, there more PC right. Anyway, so we have information, we know was gained through torture, should CSIS be using that information? Some would say if they use the info they are only encouraging countries to torture and as the article puts it:
this directive is sending the wrong message to dictatorial regimes; you torture and we will return the favour by accepting and using your information.
Personally I think that information gained through torture requires a grain of salt (maybe two). I don’t think we can afford not to at least entertain the possibility that the information is true, but we have to treat any action taken as a result of such information is likely to be a dead end and a waste of resources. Publicly, we must refuse to use information such as this, due mostly to the fact Canadians consider ourselves civilized (whether we are or not remains to be seen) and no person deserves to be tortured by their government. Think about it the other way for a second. Canada decides you may have information seen as valuable to another country, for this example I will use the US. If they arrest you and torture you based solely on the charges against you from the US, I see this as equal to the US encouraging torture by proxy. However, if Canada arrests me for local crimes and through their locally approved interrogation, however much it resembles torture and they uncover a plot that has effects in the US, I think the US should be free to use that info as they see fit, although treating it as possibly suspect.
Letting it be known to the world that we accept information gained through torture we are not only embracing such techniques we are giving our approval of such techniques.Canada should take a public stand, saying we will not accept information gained through torture, but I think they will still need to at least hear the allegations raised by such information if for no other reason to be able to say its BS.
Although, I also want to say, after all that, I am amazed that I am able to convince myself that there are any cases where torture is accepted. A big part of me keeps saying “torture is not okay, no matter what” but then there is this other side that says, if some country says, hey this guy committed a crime in your country but he only told us when we tortured him, this would still require an investigation as torture wont hold up in court, which it shouldn’t but if you say that they can’t use the info at all, they would have to ignore the accusations of a foreign nation that it has evidence of a crime in Canada. I just can’t imagine a group, tasked with enforcing the rule of law would just ignore allegations just because they came through torture. Its like the idiot in the corner with fingers in his ears going “LA LA Can’t hear you!!” But that being said, if the country is uilty of crimes in Canada as a result of the torture, they should not be immune to indictments just because they gave us the info obtained.
So in the end, here is my stance:
“Torture is NOT okay, and there is never a reasonable justification for such actions. However, allegations from foreign nations, weather gained through torture or not, deserve an investigation to try to determine if we can confirm or deny those allegations. Military action should never be the result of information gained through torture alone, but can be justified by an independent confirmation of the allegations.
Clear as mud?? Thought so.
I would be interested to hear your views? Should we be accepting information gained from torture? is it a slippery slope? or should Canada grow a pair and start these ‘enhanced techniques’ at home?
Feist – The Bad in Each Other
By: James Burge
February 8th, 2012
Cannot stop listening to this new Feist song, beautiful.
Scientists are baffled; therefore it must be a delusion…
By: James Burge
February 7th, 2012
This isn’t really a new story. We saw this exact same thing happen when people started reporting symptoms of Morgellons, they called it pseudo–parasitosis, meaning that people were delusional, yet it explicitly talks of a parasite. Morgellons had numerous symptoms (many mental) and multiple cases, from all walks of life, mostly around the southern states concentrated near the coastlines. All report the same symptoms; the most obvious includes the body expelling what appear to be coloured fibers. Many have postulated that his is because of a parasite which lives in these individuals, most of which test positive for lyme disease, which of course comes from ticks, a parasite. But pay no attention they are delusional.
Now on to another story, with completely different symptoms, same explanation, although this time it’s “conversion disorder”, or mass hysteria.
Okay so 16 students in NewYork come down with an illness similar to Tourettes syndrome, most of which are female (although there are reports of a male who has started showing symptoms). As the numbers suffering continues to rise, medical authorities have come to the conclusion that all those suffering, may feel they have a legitimate illness, but it’s all in their head.
One expert from the University of Buffalo blames social networking sites like Facebook.
Give me an effing break, even if that is true, can you describe the way in which looking at Facebook leads to these symptoms, ohh they see it online and they mimic the behaviours, that makes sense, wait why doesn’t this happen more often with other things?? The only thing I can think of is yawning, although research has been done into why you yawn when you see someone else yawn (its actually quite interesting google it). You know that used to be what doctors did study symptoms and come up with a cause and treatment. But theUSis trying so hard to put legitimate doctors out of work, so this doesn’t really surprise me. Locals wonder if this has something to do with exposure, and the fact that there are six natural gas wells on the school campus. Local police recently denied (if you can believe it) representatives of environmental activist Erin Brockovich access to the site to collect soil samples. Has anyone heard about an Erin Brockovich sequel… anyone??
All Romney Voters need to see this…
By: James Burge
February 7th, 2012
And this is they guy some see in the White House?? Although, given the last few, this seems par for the course…
<iframe width=”425″ height=”344″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/BLWnB9FGmWE” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
Govt permission required to work; a slippery slope IMO…
By: James Burge
February 7th, 2012
As the US devolves further into tyranny, those of us watching see small clues along the way that illustrate how bad things have become. I came across one today that seems to be just the tip of the iceberg when you think about how far reaching such a tool could be to a tyrannical government. We have seen this before in the former Soviet Union andChinaalthough I’m sure there are more historical examples.
In a new attempt to marginalize those Americans it sees as a threat, the US department of homeland security is implementing a No Work List, meaning of course if you are on the list, you will not be able to find a (good) job. For now they are using it under the guise of security saying that you wouldn’t be unable to work in a secure construction site, but if this program goes unopposed or even embraced it is only a matter of time before people with anti-government views who make them known to the public, wont be unable to find an employer due to the pressures of government.
That is one way to strike fear into the hearts of bloggers the internet over and a great way to kill the alternative news revolution. One wonders if this could get far enough to include comments on blogs, and I guess, in some ways it would only be a matter of time and the level of public acceptance. If people don’t rise up to a government as it becomes tyrannical through small creeps like this, they are doomed once it gets to its destination.
Now I know how well the government has dealt with illegal workers in the southern states so I’m not sure how well such a program will work. But it is quite amazing to me that the land of the free, limits travel with a no fly list, (which is amazing in itself since air travel is a private industry yet the government tells them who they can and can’t transport), has the highest prison population in history (I heard the other day even the Russian Gulags didn’t get this bad) and now wants to limit ones ability to provide for themselves and their family, sickening. American Dream My Ass, more like the American Daze.
I know that people in support of this ‘directive’ cry for the need for increased security, which in exchange for liberty is a high price to pay.
Gardasil now recommended in Canada to prevent Cervical Cancer in Gay Males… wait what??
By: James Burge
February 2nd, 2012
Okay so I just read an article that said that Gardisil has now been approved for boys aged 9 – 26 inCanada. And I felt it important to inform my roommate who has a 6-year-old boy, to refuse such a vaccination (assuming of course they even let her know, there are many stories where they are forcibly vaccinating children without informing their parents), due to the fact that all the anecdotal stories I’ve heard talk about the side-effects. Here are just a few:
“seizures, strokes, dizziness, fatigue, weakness, headaches, stomach pains, vomiting, muscle pain and weakness, joint pain, auto-immune problems, chest pains, hair loss, appetite loss, personality changes, insomnia, hand/leg tremors, arm/leg weakness, shortness of breath, heart problems, paralysis, itching, rashes, swelling, aching muscles, pelvic pain, nerve pain, menstrual cycle changes, fainting, swollen lymph nodes, night sweats, nausea, temporary vision/hearing loss just to name some of them!”
http://truthaboutgardasil.org/
There have been over 100 deaths related to Gardisil and over 25,000 serious complications like those listed above. I know I heard one story about a girl who developed severe narcolepsy in the days after her vaccination. She was a straight A student, now she is only awake a little over an hour a day and requires 24 hour care. (http://www.patientsville.com/vaccines/hpv4/narcolepsy-hpv-gardasil-2010.htm)
So as I was doing a bit of research, as I tend to do when I see stories like this and I came across the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Website on Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Prevention and HPV Vaccines: Questions and Answers page and was greeted with information that blows this whole charade out of the water in my opinion. (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/std-mts/hpv-vph/hpv-vph-vaccine-eng.php#a3)
When I click on the question, “Who should get the vaccine?” after trying to sell me on the same old HPV cervical cancer BS I found this:
“Gardasil® is also recommended in males between 9 and 26 years of age, and in men ? 9 years of age who have sex with men.”
So let me get this straight (pun anyone?), you are trying to sell the story that boys need to be vaccinated against HPV because they might pass it on to girls, as it has allegedly been shown to increase the risk of cervical cancer, but then you say gay males would benefit?? I guess one thing we may need to point out to the drug companies, is that one requires a cervix to get cervical cancer. So unless gay men everywhere have started spontaneously sprouting a cervix (if so lets patent it and get transsexuals in on this). Vaccinating a man who will likely never sleep with a woman seems at best to be a waste of taxpayer money (because Health Canada will offer to pay, for the good of the people I’m sure) and at worst, clarification that the true intent of these vaccines is to pump this shit into anyone stupid enough (or young enough not to have a choice) to sit through the process. What ever happened to the idea of informed consent?? One may wrongly conclude that requires people to be adequately informed.
An Interesting parallel between LSD and 9/11 truth…
By: James Burge
February 1st, 2012
I was just reading an article that, interestingly enough, compares the process in which psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin, which are known to open the mind to previously unimaginable realities, compares with the process which occurs as one awakens to the breakdown of the official 9/11 narrative, in favour of what is referred to as 9/11 truth. So much occurs as your mind begins to accept this new reality and it has far reaching effects in our view of the world, how it works, and the various paradigms which we subscribe. This tends to destroy the hopelessly naïve view, which we are taught in school, that the government has the peoples best interest in mind and is here to help.
You will eventually come to the realization that governments are tragically self serving and will combat anything which they see as an obstacle to power, and will, if allowed to grow in size and influence, eventually become parasitic to the very citizens which originally gave the government their mandate. Then governments go through a period in which they attempt to marginalize citizens, starting first with minority groups, through incarceration, those citizens that society will accept as dangerous. The most common today being minor drug crimes with mandatory minimum sentences usually in great excess to crimes such as pedophilia or sexual assault which have terrible effects on the victims. Drug crimes only victims are those who become hopelessly dependent on these illicit substances which the government would prefer to lock up, only because the public has accepted this practice over time. (why else would elements in the government import drugs? see Iran contra, can you say entrapment)
I can only imagine how future generations will look at the punitive damages inflicted on minor drug offenders, as an obvious preference to drug counselling and attempting to deal with the ‘crime’ of substance abuse, which again has no external victims. This, in my opinion, is akin to locking up mentally challenged individuals in an attempt to ‘protect the public’ from what they might be capable of. To me this is a classic case of conflict of interest, where the government creates laws, which do not require a victim for the sole purpose of stripping a section of society of their right to vote through incarceration, and then flood the market to encourage sales, and throw anyone who gets in the way away for life.
There is a very interesting paradigm alive today where society looks to governments to provide them with the rights they are due and to save them from themselves. America’s founding fathers saw it the other way around, that society will demand their rights and government will abide or be replaced. This is the main reason why they didn’t worry about things like same-sex marriage in the constitution, because they couldn’t envision a government so far reaching that citizens will look to government to allow them to exert certain freedoms, like freedom of the press, and freedom of speech. The idea being, as in the case of same-sex marriage, if the government denied you a marriage certificate you would get married anyway and the government would just have to deal with it. Unfortunately, our generation and those after us will grow up learning that governments allow us certain freedoms, as opposed to those freedoms being universal, and inalienable as explicitly stated in the US constitution.
They lied (again), Iran is not our Enemy…
By: James Burge
January 31st, 2012
NBC Florida Debate Ron Paul Highlights…
By: James Burge
January 25th, 2012
Thyroid cancer on the rise… Duh…
By: James Burge
January 20th, 2012
Just stumbled across an article which admits that there has been a recent increase in Thyroid cancers. Which seems like a no shit sort of thing to me and anyone following what is happening in Japan, but the article says that this has happened over the last decade we have seen this increase. Well I can see the increase at least in the last year since the Fukashima disaster following Japan’s recent quake and tsunami, but it would be interesting to look at the data to compare the rate of increase over the 10 years, because the 10 year number could be a distraction. (I mean if you have an increase of lets say 5% every year for 8 years and then a 20% increase for the last two, we could say there was an increase of 80% over 10 years (we assume this is averaged to 8% a year), but the increase of 40% over two years would be more statistically significant)
During this crisis, we have seen large releases of radioactive substances such as radioactive strontium, caesium, plutonium, and iodine to name a few of the more common substances.
And now for a quick health lesson. The thyroid gland is sometimes referred to as the pharmacy of the body which is the source of chemicals and enzymes used to regulate the body’s energy and metabolism. One of the key ingredients required to create some of these compounds is Iodine. So if your body finds any iodine in the food you eat it will go straight to the thyroid gland.
The issue here is the unknown ingestion of radioactive Iodine-131 which, since the body still thinks it is benign iodine, it will also begin to concentrate in the thyroid gland. Thyroid cancers increased in the areas surrounding Chernobyl after the incident there due to the releases of Iodine-131. Many survivors of Chernobyl required the removal of their thyroid gland, and of course spent the rest of their lives supplementing the chemicals usually produced in the gland. (the large scar left on an individuals throat after thyroid removal became known as a Chernobyl necklace).
An interesting side fact, plutonium is not found naturally on earth. All of the plutonium that exists is as nuclear waste since the beginning of nuclear experimentation in the 40′s. Plutonium is also considered the most toxic substance to life on earth (levels of 0.1 micrograms or 1×10^-7 grams is enought for an overdose, to put that in perspective a release of just 1 gram of plutonium would be enough to kill 10 million people if widely dispersed)). This is mostly because we have evolved for aeon’s without developing any defences from radioactive substances. The human body is amazing at overcoming issues such as this; although it will take many generations, people would have developed immunity to radioactive substances if they were more common during our early evolution. One could theorize that our future relatives may develop radioactive immunities as exposure to these substances increase.
Of course the article goes on to try and confuse the issue, blaming the increase on better screening techniques, obesity and diet, although radiation exposure is mentioned as well.
The strangest thing to me though is that the treatment for thyroid cancer involves introducing more radioactive iodine. This of course comes from the concept of chemotherapy where radioactive substances are used because they kill cells that divide rapidly. Although cancerous cells fall into this category there are a lot of cells that also apply. Things like skin cells, which leads to the loss of hair, cells in the stomach, which leads to nausea, or cells in bone marrow which I believe plays a role in immune health. So radioactive iodine collects in the thyroid, causing cell mutations, requiring more radioactive iodine, sounds logical to me, right??
I’ve said it before and I’m gonna say it again, in the future I feel that Chemotherapy will be looked upon as we look at electro shock therapy (EST) today. At the time that shock therapy was big, health practitioners actually felt the procedure had benefits and I’m not sure we can blame them as that it tended to be the only therapy available for some conditions. But you don’t hear of many people getting EST that much anymore, although horror stories still exist as some physicians hold on to the past.
Newer cancer therapies target abnormal proteins in cancer cells called targeted therapy which does not involve the use of radioactive substances.
