Stephen Harper on Zombies

No. Not that Stephen Harper. But I did interview a Stephen Harper on the subject of zombies. I'll let him explain....

“It’s worth clarifying that I’m a British media studies academic, and not your Prime Minister. Then again, inviting him to discuss zombies might not be such a bad idea: world leaders aren’t exactly known for their humanity, but yours seems to have more in common with the living dead than most...”

See, what happened was, for the zombie article I wrote for our decade-in-review issue, I tried to arrange an email interview with Professor Stephen Harper of the School of Creative Arts, Film and Media at Portsmouth University. He'd written a piece I enjoyed called "Zombies, Malls and the Consumerism Debate" for the journal Americana. And, considering his name, I figured he'd be a doubly perfect source for an article looking back on zombie film in the Zero Decade. But, due to holiday celebrating getting in the way, the interview didn’t come off until after the issue went to press.

Still, Harper’s insights into the zombie genre are pretty damn impressive so I’m running the whole interview here on the blog.

But first a few highlights....

“Humanity is living through apocalyptic times – war, famine and disease blight the planet and even the ability of the environment to support human life is being undermined at an alarming rate. Such developments aren’t natural or inevitable (in fact they are all more or less preventable); they are the excrescences of a mode of production that is in terminal decline – in fact, a system that can only be described as necrotic. Especially in the wake of the recent economic crisis, it’s become more and more apparent that capitalism is a rotting corpse. Although a dead system, it blindly staggers onwards. Having enjoyed a fruitful life, it has now exhausted its potential and is now no longer advancing the cause of human progress in any way, but cannibalising humanity. ”

“Perhaps more than any other type of monster, zombies condense ideas about power and its abuse. As you know, the zombie has origins in the Haitian voodoo tradition and insofar as they are seen as slaves, zombies invite a degree of sympathy, opening up a space in which we can see ourselves, as it were, in them.”

"More terrifyingly, of course, the undead can also represent the ‘return of the repressed’, resurrecting unpleasant histories or reviving reactionary values. In many films, zombies figure forth the ‘dead weight’ of archaic or conservative ideologies, recalling Marx’s famous observation in The Eighteenth Brumaire, that ‘the tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living’."

Here is the complete interview with Dr Stephen Harper on the subject of zombies. It is a very good read.

Draw your own conclusions

Look, if Wall Street is comfortable having a galactic despot with an abysmal record on human (and non-human) rights, labour relations, and planet-crushing perform their creepy ritualistic bell-ringing, that's really between them and their Masonic overlords.

It's hard to tell which disgraced institution is trying to piggy back on the supposed good image of the other. Is it the one that recently destroyed millions of Americans' dreams and hopes for the future, or is it Wall Street?

We're so screwed -- economically speaking

Well, if the world economy really does implode at a yet-to-be-determined date in the not so distant future, we can't claim we weren't warned.

And make no mistake, it will. Why? Because apparently we've some how lost our ability to take in new information and form new beliefs based on this new information. I believe they called it “learning” before it completely went out of fashion.

The always interesting, and usually quite right nobel laurete in economics, Paul Krugman, offers an excellent take-down of the alternative reality that the hard right finds themselves stuck in these days.

As he explains, they continue to delude themselves that all is well, despite the fact that their beloved business mavens have been the recipients of the largest and most shocking display of public largesse, um, ever, because their utterly unregulated business transactions blew up in their faces and their first reaction was to go running for the shelter of the welfare state.

Which, to recap, remains a bad thing for individuals, but apparently a good thing for companies and the wealthiest individuals the world has ever seen.

Oh, and he doesn't spare what passes for a left in American politics either, pointing out that the utter lack of meaningful reform by the bought-and-paid for by finance Democrats pretty much guarantees a repeat because, in the words of philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

And, as an added bonus, enjoy Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi's well-deserved drubbing of the Obama administration's craven cave-in to big finance, delivered in the fine form of a first class polemicist.

Greed is God

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi takes down Wall Street yet again with an entertaining and easy-to-understand explanation of what when wrong.

A shorter version: a group of borderline sociopaths exploited weak regulations to ensure that the playing field is so tilted that your average mom-and-pop investor never stood a chance.

And when they ran out of innocent victims this pack of jackals began to eat each other last fall, with the unintended consequence of consuming all our pension plans.

The American Dream

Right. The American Dream has been demonized, says John Thain, former head of Merrill Lynch.

Umm, now, as a Canuck, perhaps I'm wrong about this, but I always thought the American Dream was where anyone could have a good idea, work hard, act ethically and become a success. Guess I was all wrong about that.

Apparently the American Dream is really about moving up the banking oligarchy, coming damned close to bankrupting your own country, going on the hook for up to $17 TRILLION WITH A 'T" taxpayer dollars, then bitching that the plebes aren't treating you with due deference because they're a tad pissed about the whole thing.

Holy crap. These people haven't learned a damn thing. I've been more than a bit bearish on the States over the past few years, but I was hoping against hope they'd keep it between the ditches and figure it out like they always have before.

But if they can't bring people like this to heel, it's official. They've jumped the shark.

Michael Moore: Jesus Was A Socialist

In a column posted this a.m., Michael Moore points out the contradictions between Christian values and American social and political reality:

I have come to believe that there is no getting around the fact that capitalism is opposite everything that Jesus (and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha) taught. All the great religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what's left for everyone to fight over. Jesus said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into heaven. He told us that we had to be our brother's and sister's keepers and that the riches that did exist were to be divided fairly. He said that if you failed to house the homeless and feed the hungry, you'd have a hard time finding the pin code to the pearly gates.

I guess that's bad news for us Americans. Here's how we define "Blessed Are the Poor": We now have the highest unemployment rate since 1983. There's a foreclosure filing once every 7.5 seconds. 14,000 people every day lose their health insurance.

Full thing here. (Huffington Post)

And Americans are concerned that there are so many atheists nowadays. Well guys, don't be surprised that the hypocrisy, stupidity, insanity and general viciousness of your nasty little fairy tales are offputting to those of us who value decency. But hey, give us a call when you finally get this "though shalt not kill" thing figured out.

Well duh...

What I can quite believe is that this guy was naive enough to actually believe any of that horseshit about Warren Buffet.

It just proves, once again, that the French have it right. Or more specifically, Honor de Balzac had it right...

"Behind every great fortune is a great crime."

Could someone please explain to me, slowly and in short words, exactly how these bailouts are anything but corporate welfare?

And since that's clearly what it seems to be... if companies get to run for the safety of the welfare state, shouldn't we all have that option.

Business to Planet: Survival First, We'll Go Green Later

We are so screwed. Today's Business Incubator on the Globe and Mail website considers the question of how important the environment should be to your business. Considering this is being taped and put on the web for anyone to see, you have to assume this group of business owners and consultants are putting their best face forward. And as it turns out, the consensus Canada's business people want the world to see is that the public doesn't really care about the environment so why should they? Moreover, as we're in a recession, business people have to worry about their own survival before concerning themselves about anything as abstract as the planet's.

In other words, if you and I, as consumers, don't stop buying over-packaged, toxic products shipped from the four corners of the globe (because we have sooooo many options), companies won't stop making them. In fact, they'll make more.

Sounds like yet more evidence that the only way to get anything accomplished for the environment is through strong federal legislation. But, hey, that's just me.

Urge to kill... rising...

What a douchebag. Nothing like being an apologist for your clients, I suppose.

Memo to Wall Street: We hate you because you're double-standard promoting pricks. You spent the past generation telling the rest of us we're the problem because of our insistence on things like basic labour standards, living wages, and so forth. So wear it, assholes, now that you've so totally screwed the pooch that people have started to wake up a bit.

Poor l'il rich boys. Sell a few fucking apples on the street corner, then we'll talk. Or better yet, jump out of your fucking office windows. It's like the congressman said. Do the right thing and kill yourselves.

Oh, and a personal message to Dough Hirschhorn: Coach this, you bald prick.

Is California Boned?

Remember this post from a few months ago? Well, things are sliding from bad to worse to doomed.

As the Governator declares a state of fiscal emergency over legislator's inability to balance the California budget without raising taxes or brutally cutting programs, pundits say the state has no one to blame but itself.

This is going to keep getting worse before it gets better. The situation is bad.

The state that begat anti-government governor (and later U.S.president) Ronald Reagan is reaping its long-sowed karma. And it's more proof that the crazy, get-rid-of-government right-wing politics popular for the last 40 years--which go far, far beyond what used to be considered conservative--don't work.

Once again, I'm glad I live in Canada.

Links: Dog Blog, San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Wall Street Journal.

Flaherty Needs to Stop Channelling My Grandfather

I remember, as a child, my grandfather explaining to me how our nation got out of the Great Depression because of the Second World War. All that money invested in the war machine jump started our economy, he would argue, slamming a fist on the kitchen table. My grandfather had a fifth grade education and became a lovely man after the stroke, but years later after I did some reading on the subject, I discovered our recovery from that economic catastrophe was more complicated than simply "war breeds wealth." The ideas that developed out the New Deal had a lot more to do with our post-Crash recovery and our prolonged post-War prosperity than my grandfather ever gave them credit. (And, we can thank their post-Reagan erosion for the economic pickle we're in now.)

Well, judging by comments from Peter MacKay, (Leader Post) it would seem the Conservatives have been taking economic advice from my dear departed grandfather. Perhaps the PM has been getting messages from my grampy -- Mackenzie-King style -- through his cat.

Before a gathering of the "defense industry elite," MacKay was proudly declaring today that the recession will not slow military spending. In fact, according to the Post article, he claims, "the Canadian economy as a whole will be buoyed by the sustainable economic benefits that accrue through domestic and global opportunities in and beyond defence and security."

Personally, I find it ominous when a government links the word "sustainable" with anything to do with the military.

Note to Conservatives ...

You're going to learn just how crappy you made the economy. (Hill Times via Warren Kinsella)

21st Century American Capitalism ...

as explained by Calvin and Hobbes.

h/t to Crooks and Liars

One Set Of Rules For CEOs, Another For Everyone Else

Here's a great article (Salon) by author, blogger, columnist and constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald on the double standard of giving bonuses to AIG CEOs while demanding concessions from union workers. To recap: AIG paid out $165 million in executive bonues to its economy-destroying executives that it would not have been able to pay out had the United States government not bailed their bankrupt asses out with the rapidly dimishing wealth of its citizens, who must wonder how their taxes get blown on this kind of shit. AIG's excuse? "we have to pay them, it's in their contracts, it's the law, wah wah wah." (New York Times)

Greenwald points out unionized autoworkers had legal contracts too, but the U.S. goverment demanded those get changed as a condition of the bailout. He also points out that the United States has once again been implicated in torture (as recently as today, in fact), which oh by the way is against international law. (Washington Post)

As Greenwald so elegently puts it:

"Apparently, this "we are a country of law" concept means that hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money must be transferred to the AIG executives who virtually destroyed the financial system, but it does not mean that something must be done when high government officials get caught plainly breaking the law. What an oddly selective application of the "rule of law" this is."

Good, anger-making, bullshit-cutting-through stuff. In case you missed it up top, the link's here.

Canwest Death Watch Continues

The Globe and Mail's business blog may not be the most unbiased source of information on Canwest's troubles, but I doubt Canwest would be just as forthcoming.

Read this blog, and if you work for Global Regina or the Leader Post, be worried. Very worried.

Tip of the cap to Ottawa Watch

Canadian Content Is Toooo Harrrrrd

Meanwhile, CanWest wants Canadian content regulations eased, if I read this correctly, so that they can invest in Canadian content. Hmm. (Globe And Mail)

Layoffs At CTV!

One-hundred eighteen jobs just got whacked at A-channel. (Globe And Mail)

Brother Can You Spare a Dime?

Gee, I guess things are tougher in the U.S. than was initially reported.

Alas I Have No Camera HandyTo Document The Sheer Awesomeness Of This Feast

Just got home after taking three hours to figure out how to write a complicated e-mail that people needed me to send out last week and not surprisingly, was starving. But whatzuh to eatz? Editor don't rememberz how to cook.

What was needed here was simplicity and improvisation.

So I fired up the rice machine and got some premium organic basmati going. Then, I chopped up two fat onions which I fried to slimey, carmamelized perfection in a quantity of olive oil far exceeding two tablespoons. I added some habanero sauce, a mountain of salt, two cloves of garlic (minced) and a can of garbonzo beans, then simmered the amazing mixture to glistening, gooey spectacularness before adding some awesome broccoli (to defray some of the inevitable cardiac damage). Needed a secret weapon though, and aha! A splash of lemon juice and about three pounds of fresh ground black pepper (recently discovered scientific "fact": not possible to over-pepper beans).

Served on the now-ready rice, eating...Mmmmmmf, ghub.Vry vry ghub.

Mmmmmfmmfff!

In other news, California is really, truly, totally fucked. Turns out you can't cut taxes relentlessly and make it next-to-impossible to raise them in an emergency, then expect to breeze through a cataclysmic economic meltdown. Layoffs, program cancellations and copious suffering to doubtless follow.

Yep, far-right conservative small-government delusions just don't work. They break economies and ruin lives. Kinda like communist delusions used to do back in the Cold War era, ironically. Funny how extremism, intransigence and bullheaded devotion to ideological fairy tales always seems to cause trouble.

But maybe after electing a break-the-mold president Americans are, finally, ready for change? For centrist ideologies and policies based on reason, realism, co-operation and sustainibility?

Nah.

(First link to the New York Times, second to Fox.)

Is Too Much Schadenfreude Bad For You?

It would appear that the denizens of Richistan are starting to figure out that things are screwed and they may not be able to afford the new solid gold deck chairs for their yachts.

"Money" (if you can call a runaway credit bubble that) is evaporating, China and Russia are threatening to bail on the U.S. dollar and things are unravelling as they should... or perhaps must is more like it.

The money quote:

"Forty percent of the world's wealth was destroyed in the last five quarters. It is an almost incomprehensible number," said Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the leading private equity company Blackstone Group. "Business will be very different."

Read the whole thing here.

This makes me almost as giddy as reading about the Madoff scam.

Oh, and Linda McQuaig lets the banksters, as FDR dubbed them way back when, have it here, in a really interesting piece that ponders the immortal question: "Would the reaction be any different if unions had blown up our economy?"

And... it's always fun to watch a terrified neo-con sell his "convictions" down the river.

This really is better than Christmas. And I didn't even have to rack up the ol' credit card.