What Occupy Should Learn From A Little Girl

"Anything that is wasted effort represents wasted time" -T. W. Engstrum

And so the great general strike is to take place on November 2.

I think that as much as anything else, it is the complete lack of an original idea coming out of the Occupy protest that is the most boring of all.

The tweets are frantic. Day after day, hour after hour they’re sent out into the great cloud reminding people to strike on Wednesday and if you can’t strike, call in sick and if you can’t call in sick, well then, don’t buy anything. Talk about leaving yourself some wiggle room for when the thing falls flat on its face.

The strike of course is against the 1% or at least that’s the slogan.

How much more stupid can you get than in believing that everyone works for the 1% and therefore a general strike is the way to go? More than half the country works for small businesses owned by members of the 99%. So just who is most likely to strike?

The self-employed won't strike, there's no point in striking against yourself. Most stockbrokers, lawyers, doctors and law enforcement are all part of the 99% and are unlikely to strike in great numbers nor will fire fighters or paramedics. Some teachers and university academics might but not all and I suspect there won’t be too many in minimum wage jobs who will risk losing their jobs to support some ridiculous call to action which has no real purpose either.

It stretches the imagination to believe that radio and televisions stations will shut down or that those who work behind the scenes at communications companies and the Internet will be out there walking the line either Government employees will go to work for the most part although some will take advantage of the call for a general strike to take the day off and go shopping.

Retailers, banks, hospitals, restaurants will pretty much stay open. Good thing too because hungry strikers need a place to get a quick coffee and some donuts or a burrito while they’re busy rallying to improve the world. In the end, a general strike is just one more mindless waste of time that proves nothing and accomplishes even less.

So who benefits from a general strike? Well, unions and the radical left benefit because it allows them to do a little muscle flexing. Those in Occupy who have never felt empowerment before will benefit because it makes them feel like they are doing something without actually pressuring them to think for themselves.  Those who need an excuse to bugger off for a day will benefit because a general strike kind of legitimizes being lazy and that is always a good thing for those who hate getting out of bed to go to work.

What will be achieved by a general strike? Occupy Oakland is convinced that if they successfully shut down the port, they will have scored a blow against the 1% although I'm not clear on how one arrives at that thought. /It seems to me that all that proves is that a mob can intimidate workers.

The simple fact is that nothing of value will be achieved. Even if the strike was 100% effective in that absolutely nobody in the country went to work, what happens on November 3rd? Does everyone just go back to work on November 4th like nothing happened? Fortunately, Occupy doesn't pressure it's organizers to think  beyond the event so they don't have to deal with November 4th until November 4th,

All that will be accomplished is that a bunch of footloose and pointless radicals will get to drown us in more empty rhetoric about how successful their one day of striking was. See the difference? The strike is the objective for Occupy, not a tool to be used to accomplish real and significant change. If the strike were to be successful, they have no clue what to do about it after the strike. It is the strike that matters, not the issues we are all trying to address.

What a waste of time and energy.

The really sad part of it is that for those within Occupy who are sincere in their desire to bring about change, the failure of a general strike will just be one more nail in the coffin of Occupy’s credibility. It is incredibly stupid to have risked what is left of the protest’s reputation on such a pointless venture.

But we didn’t really expect anything else did we? This is a protest movement that had the power of the Internet at its disposal. It squandered opportunity after opportunity to unite people and groups through effective use of the medium instead of falling back on the same tired and shopworn tactics of a thousand failed protests that went before it.

Calling for a general strike which will disrupt more in the 99% than it will harm anyone in the 1% makes about as much sense as the Occupy protester who defecated on a police car in New York City. In the end, it’s the same thing. It’s just a pointless protest masquerading as something important that leaves behind it nothing but dung .

In Buffalo NY, a ten year old girl went door to door in her neighbourhood and collected more than 1,000 lbs of donated food for the Western New York Food Bank. After she finished collecting and donating that half ton, she sat down and wrote and then hand delivered thank you notes to everyone who had donated. Contrast that effort with all the energy being used to call for a general strike and ask yourself which is the waste of time.

One little girl has achieved more on her own through a positive action than six weeks of posturing by thousands. It makes you wonder what could have been achieved if the self-indulgent protesters had redirected their efforts to something more productive. What this world needs is less Occupy's and more ten year old little girls who don't talk about making the world a better place, they just go ahead and do it.


© 2011 Maggie's Bear
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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others.

Happy All Inclusive, Politically Correct Halloween

"A world in which elves exist and magic works offers greater opportunities to digress and explore." -Terry Brooks

When I was a kid, life was full of magic. Santa Claus was a mysterious but benevolent being that was actually able to travel world-wide in less than one night. He brought us toys and really was able to climb down chimneys even when we didn’t have a chimney in our house. Pragmatism was never allowed to get in the way of magic.

But as magical as Christmas was with its bright lights, music and general spirit of good will, nothing said magic like Halloween.

Halloween was the stuff of legends.

Ghosts and goblins came out on Halloween. At school, our classrooms were decorated with cutouts of witches and pumpkins and ghosts. We got to dress up in costumes that we thought made us look heroic or scary. We went door-to-door in our disguises to get treats from our neighbours believing in our hearts that they didn’t recognize us. Always on the edge of where we trick or treated, in the shadows near the bushes were the “for real” ghosts and goblins. It was magical and we reveled in it.

Today is Halloween and it should be full of that same magic, that same fun and mystery that we all experienced as kids but it isn’t. Like so many other things, it has been captured by the politically correct and beaten into a pale imitation of what it once was.

I live in Canada, home of the free, the brave and the ridiculous.

In some schools, children are not allowed to wear costumes even as some retailers and even some banks are encouraging their employees to dress up. In one particular school, the children will be allowed to wear costumes but they must wear costumes that represent some form of caring. Ghosts and goblins and witches are banned. Only costume that are indicative of caring will be allowed. It makes me wonder how the politically correct will deal with a kid who shows up dressed as a hooker.

Another school has banned costumes but is encouraging its students to wear orange and black. It discourages the word Halloween and would like children to consider today “black and orange day”.

There is a small but oh so very sincere movement in the country to move Halloween to Saturday night regardless of the date. (It’s more convenient apparently). Isn’t that sort of like celebrating Christmas when the mood strikes you?

We live in a world gone mad but it isn’t those who protest, terrorize or criminalize our society that are the biggest threat, it’s the politically correct and their ridiculous ideas. They aren’t improving our societies; they are taking the fun and the magic from them.

Who cares if there is a little mystery and spookiness in Halloween? It’s All Hallows Eve, the night when the spirits of the dead come back according to legend. Pumpkins are carved to keep the spirits from our door and to keep us safe. Sure it’s legend and sure we’re civilized now but so what. It’s still magic and what is life without a little magic?

I’ll tell you what it is. It’s politically correct, pigeonholed ideas and it’s boring. It’s as boring as sitting in a human rights tribunal watching them agonize over how to penalize someone for saying something that hurt someone else’s feelings. It’s a boring as listening to a Canadian senator make a complete ass of herself by proposing to change Canada’s symbol from the beaver to the polar bear. It’s a boring as reading a PETA document and even more boring than filling out your income tax form. At least that has an element of danger to it.

We don’t need saving from the world by the politically correct, we need saving from the politically correct who have no magic in their lives.  We need to defend our institutions, our traditions and our language from those who see everything as a threat. Perhaps we should take a page from the current protest movement and Occupy Halloween or better yet, Occupy The Politically Correct.  We’ll camp on their lawns and chant terribly rude phrases until they give up and go away.

Until that time, Happy Halloween or as the politically correct would say: “Happy All Inclusive Black & Orange Celebration Day” Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?


© 2011 Maggie's Bear
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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others.

Courage. Honour. Dignity. The Words Speak For Themselves.

"The security of our nation depends on the men and women
who are willing to sacrifice their safety, 

and possibly their lives, to protect the freedoms

the rest of us enjoy." - Ben Nelson

Thirteen NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan today by a suicide bomber. This brings the total to just over 450 who died in Afghanistan defending the innocent from those who would oppress them. Tragically they are only some of those who have died in defense of what they believed in. They like those who have and who continue to serve, put themselves in harm's way to help others achieve the freedom we have. They serve with honour. They serve with courage and they serve with dignity.

These are words that nobody connected to the Occupy protests understand.

There is no honour in Occupy, merely self-aggrandizement. There is no courage, merely the empty bravado of a mob and there is no dignity, just selfishness.

I haven't seen whining tweets from the men and women who serve in the armed forces of their countries. I don't hear them shouting accusations and looking for excuses to justify their existence. They have no need. They have stepped up. They put their lives on the line each and every day. They overcome their fears in order to protect those who cannot protect themselves and they serve with a quiet pride in themselves and their colleagues because they know they are the first line of defense for those who cannot defend themselves.

They bring hope to those who are oppressed. They help others win the freedom from oppression that most of us will never have to experience and they understand the meaning of the words honour and duty. They are ordinary people who do heroic things every day.

Occupy has stolen the language of war to enhance the image of its protest but they haven’t earned that right. Having tents torn down and equipment confiscated is not the same as being shelled by artillery and rockets. Rubber bullets are not the same as real bullets and flash-bang crowd-dispersal noise makers are not the same as grenades and mortar shells. It takes no courage to face law enforcement ordering you to disperse. It takes nothing but courage to face an enemy who wants to take your life with suicide bombers, roadside bombs and the weapons of war.

People have the right to protest their government but Occupy is not about protest. It is a self-indulgent rabble with no respect for the rights of others. It is a mob of poorly informed, self-righteous hypocrites who cheapen our democracies and demean the sacrifice of so many who gave their lives to guarantee that we would live in freedom.

We are a free society and there is room even for those who are incredibly stupid and who abuse the rights we all share. I resent what they do but it is not them I am ashamed of.

I am ashamed of those who have allowed this squalid imitation of an exercise in democracy to continue.

I am ashamed of that handful of politicians who have voiced cautious support for Occupy in the hopes it might save them at election time. I am ashamed of those bright lights that never bothered to inform themselves about the issues and their underlying causes before shouting out slogans they barely understand. I am ashamed   (although not surprised) by those celebrities and others in the public eye who dropped by for a photo op without regard for what they were doing and who have already gone back to their estates and the next cause. I am ashamed of municipal governments that don't have the courage to defend their cities and its citizens from a squatting rabble. 

But most of all, I am ashamed of all those citizens and media who have chosen to ignore Occupy, who have not bothered to follow what they are saying and what they are doing. I am ashamed of them for complaining about the protests over coffee at work but do not speak out to defend their communities. 

We get the government we deserve by not bothering to inform ourselves when we vote and we are getting the disorder and disruption in our cities we deserve through our apathy. What offends me most is that it cheapens the meaning of the lives that were sacrificed to provide us with the rights we enjoy. I am ashamed of that most of all.

Men and women from democracies all over the world have served, and continue to serve, our democracies with honour, with courage and with dignity and too often with their lives. It is shameful that we do not have the same courage or the dignity to honour that service by how we use the freedom they gave us.



© 2011 Maggie's Bear
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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Occupy: A Revolution Of Tired Ideas

“The police evicted us because they said we didn’t have a permit. 

Our permit is the first amendment!” 

That quote, which was a tweet from a member of the Occupy protest, pretty much says it all. The rules don’t apply to Occupy; they make them up as they go along. If they don’t agree with a law, they ignore it and claim it is their constitutional right to do so. But when they don’t like something, like the police enforcing the laws of their city, then they turn around and claim the action is illegal. It's schizophrenic.

A society without laws is anarchy and anarchy is just another word for chaos. That’s what Occupy is now. Chaos! It is so out of control of its message and purpose that it tweets contradictions daily.

I saw a great tweet this evening from a bright young thing who was just terribly excited to be sitting with her friend at the OWS general assembly. She and her friend were discussing whether or not to do a block because they didn’t like the process the meeting was following. Besides the tragic indecision, what made me laugh was the oxymoron. They were discussing whether or not to block democratic free speech in a meeting of a protest movement that is supposedly all about democratic free speech.

But I understand. As Occupy continues to learn but doesn’t want to admit publicly. This democracy thing is complex and often messy.

As their own legal advisors are now telling them, there is a difference between protesting on public property and trespassing on property that is privately owned. The first is legal, the second isn’t. Oops! They’re now being reminded of the difference between peaceful protest and provoking violent confrontation and warned to tone it down. Within their own ranks, there is growing discontent between factions and even a few who are now admitting publicly on Twitter that they don’t support some of the methods of their own movement.

There is an incredible amount of back-pedalling going on now. Much of the "we shall overcome" rhetoric is being toned down. Family Fun and Kids Days are planned in some cities and tweets are being posted about being non-violent. The revolutionary war with the enemy language is quietly being shelved for a bit and it appears that there is a realization in Occupy that despite the bravado, they haven't got as much support as they claim. And that's true. I don't see very many tweets supporting the movement any more and an increasing number opposed to it.

Still, the quasi-leadership is trying to put a brave face on it all and you have to admire them for that if nothing else and there really is not much else for which to admire Occupy. 

One of the most interesting tweets today was from a woman who tweeted about getting ownership of big corporations into public hands. I guess she’s never heard of the stock market and is blissfully unaware of the fact that almost all large corporations are publicly owned and traded.  It betrays a complete lack of understanding of what she and the rest of the brain trust in Occupy are protesting. The big corporations aren’t owned by a couple of rich guys down the street, they’re owned by investors and here is the most ironic part. Many of those investors are unions and pension funds representing some of the very people supporting the Occupy protests, along with countless thousands of every day folk in the 99%.  

But then, that’s been the problem. Occupy hasn't got it from the beginning. It looks for simplistic solutions to complex issues and in the process ends up attacking the very people it claims to represent. It begs for financial support from the broader public and then disrupts their cities and turns their parks and civic squares into squalid KOA camp grounds. It intimidates innocent employees of banks, disrupts traffic and shouts down those with whom they don’t agree.  It has demonstrated a remarkable lack of respect for public order, respect for private property rights of others and overall has become a nuisance rather than a movement.

Occupy Oakland is calling for a general strike to shut down the port. Now there is a worthy objective although I’m still trying to connect the dots on how shutting down the port for a day will change corruption and greedy practices in the financial securities sector. It’s small wonder that so many look at Occupy now as nothing but a tired joke.

There is no thinking in Occupy, just rhetoric. The words come out without benefit of having travelled through the brain first. They're just words and said more to shore up weak arguments than to advance the debate.

There is no attempt to research facts and understand the real issues, just a constant parroting of the same tired slogans and half-truths among themselves. Saying something that is untrue repeatedly doesn't eventually make it the truth.

There is no respect for others because there is no self-respect, just arrogance and mindless posturing like guys trying to prove who has the bigger male equipment.

There is no accomplishment because there is no purpose to the protest. It is self-indulgent twaddle by a group of people with no real purpose in their lives.

We’ve seen it all before. We’ve heard all the same rhetoric and slogans and are watching again the same tired approaches to addressing the injustices in the world but here’s the thing. People aren’t poor simply because others are wealthy. Wealth isn’t unevenly distributed because it was never distributed in the first place. There isn’t a wealth distribution committee sitting somewhere deciding who gets what, it’s all about opportunity and if you want to improve things, you have to stop whining about the 1% and start looking for ways to increase opportunity for more people. A good place to start would be in simply taking the time to get some of the facts right.

In the 60’s people like Jerry Rubin who was one of the Chicago 7 that protested during the Democratic Convention riot in Chicago went on to become an entrepreneur and one of the early investors in Apple. He started out as an extreme left-wing radical who later acknowledged that a real revolution was in helping others achieve the American dream and be successful.

It is the politics of division and its stupidity and meaningless purpose simply helps those Occupy thinks it is fighting…..win. Even redneck hunters know that when you go deer hunting but keep shooting at rabbits, the deer don't feel too threatened, they just chuckle at you.

It's small wonder that there is a counter-revolution. Somebody has to bring some sanity back to the debate because Occupy has demonstrated more than admirably that it isn't capable of it. Occupy Occupy so we get on with making our societies more successful for all of us.


© 2011 Maggie's Bear
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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others.

The Weekly Stupidity Awards: 28/10/2011

"Think of how stupid the average person is and realize that half of them

are stupider than that."-George Carlin

In a world that is constantly in motion and full of change, the one thing you can always count on is the stupid things that stupid people do. This week was no exception and I’m pleased to report that stupidity is not constrained by nationality. It is an equal opportunity employer. So sit back, grab a coffee because here we go with this week’s awards for outstanding achievement in stupidity.

Gold Award: Man Accused Of Bestiality

A man in Zimbabwe was arrested and charged with bestiality for having sex with a donkey. In court, he told the judge that he had hired a hooker who transformed herself into a donkey overnight and that he had no idea he was having sex with a donkey when he was arrested. It’s one thing to have sex with an ass and quite another to make an ass of yourself in court. The whole story kind of takes the concept of a piece of ass to a whole new place doesn’t it?

Silver Award: Couple Check Back Into Motel Room To Retrieve Crack

A couple in Florida were arrested by the police after they attempted to check back into the room they occupied the night before in order to retrieve the crack they had left in the room’s refrigerator. Unfortunately for the couple, the motel cleaning staff had already found the drugs and notified authorities who were waiting for the couple when they arrived. Next time, they should try tying a string around their finger and perhaps the other end to the bag of crack so they don’t forget it.

Bronze Award: Man Arrested For Trying To Turn Poop Into Gold

In the middle ages, alchemy was all the rage and wizards and others spent their lives trying to turn base metals into gold. Following in the grand tradition, a man in Northern Ireland tried to take it one step further with his plan to turn his own feces into gold. His scientific theory (and we use that term loosely) was that sufficient heat would turn poop into the precious metal and make him wealthy. He was arrested after causing $4,500 damage by placing his steaming raw material on a heater in his apartment. Some people just don’t know jackshit apparently.

Honourable Mention:  Birmingham Prison Loses Keys To Prisoner Cells

Just after privatizing the prison, the new security firm now running the prison lost the keys to prisoner’s cells. Nobody is sure how or why the keys went missing but they are clear that all of the prisoners remained locked in their cells. When the primary thing prisons do is lock people up, losing your one set of keys is a pretty strong signal  that just maybe you’re in the wrong business. Isn't it sort of like Dunkin Donuts not having any donuts?

Honourable Mention:  Shame On The Moon

A frightened man in Hertfordshire, England called 999 to report that bright lights were flashing and flying over his house.  He explained that the UFO was now hovering above his home and he was afraid for his safety. He called back shortly and with some embarrassment told the police emergency operator that he had been mistaken. It wasn’t a UFO after all, it was the moon.  Wait until he gets his first look at the Northern Lights.  That ought to send him into a tizzy.

Congratulations to all of this week’s winners, they have reassured us that regardless of how much change goes on in our world, stupidity is a constant fact of life. No matter what happens there will always be stupid people doing stupid things. God bless ‘em, they help to reassure most of us that our lives aren’t so bad after all.

Honest folks, we don't make this stuff up. We're not that clever.


© 2011 Maggie's Bear
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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others.

Who Is Really Escalating The Occupy Movement Towards Violence?

"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is
only temporary; the evil it does is permanent." - Gandhi

So far this morning I’ve read tweets that call for civil war against the establishment, expanding the Occupy protest into the suburbs in some cities and calling for a general strike across the world. I’ve seen tweets and posts demanding the resignation of Oakland’s mayor, calls for more rallies and accusations that the Mayor of New York and the police have escalated the situation.

I don’t actually recall any statement, official or otherwise, from either the police or the mayor calling for more action and confrontation but as can be seen in the representative examples above, there is a lot of it coming out of the Occupy Movement.

Where there was once a peaceful protest established to draw attention to the unregulated and greedy practices of the securities industry, there is now a confused call to action. What action remains to be seen but clearly this protest has allowed itself to go into free-fall and is either drunk on the little bit of power it thinks it has or has been taken over by political activists with an agenda that goes far beyond the demonstrators’ original intent.

People on all sides are starting to get hurt. As I wrote in an earlier post, a woman in the Occupy movement was raped. Scott Olsen, an American vet, was seriously injured in the confrontation between police and protesters in Oakland while he was trying to help someone else who had been injured. And there are countless others who’s names and injuries we don’t know.

Hundreds have been arrested, primarily because they were deluded into thinking that the protest was for something worthwhile but is it?

What is Occupy’s real purpose? It clearly isn’t what was originally stated. People living in the suburbs are part of the 99%, why would Occupy start an occupation protest there? Originally, Occupy was about non-confrontational demonstration, why the change? What is the objective of all this increased confrontational rhetoric?

I don’t think anyone, including the Occupy protest itself, can answer that because I think it has been overtaken by events. Not having a real and defined purpose, it is constantly escalating events in an attempt to find one. Officials react and respond which leads to confrontation which only leads to more escalation.

Innocent people have been hurt and if this continues in the direction in which it is headed, there is a very real possibility of someone being killed on either or both sides of this protest. The only question everyone on all sides of this issue should be asking themselves right now is this. “Is this what we really want?”

If it is, the only other question each person needs to ask themselves is, “Do I want to be a martyr for the cause?”


© 2011 Maggie's Bear
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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others.

Occupy Can No Longer Justify Its Existence

I read an interesting document this morning about the Occupy Movement.  It was tweeted by Occupy England and while I don’t fully agree with the content, I respected the fact that it put forward a position in an articulate and thoughtful manner. Unfortunately for the movement, it also betrayed the fact that Occupy has not been anywhere near as successful in attracting the support it wants everyone to believe it has. The document attributes that to the fact that people who would support them are too busy working during the week and calls on them to protest on Sundays. Self-delusion is the cruelest delusion of all.

Occupy has become a parody of a protest movement. It has no real purpose now other than to feed its own existence. It does not represent anything meaningful, it is merely a rabble trying to defend its lack of purpose under old clichés about democracy, rights and freedom. Increasingly, it is overwhelmed by special interest groups, professional anarchists and those who find a sense of personal empowerment that is missing in their regular lives. There have even been reports that OWS has been paying homeless people to participate in some of its marches but who knows if that is true or not. Like so much else about Occupy, nobody really knows the truth any more, including the people in Occupy itself..

What started as a protest against greed in the securities industry has become a protest that shouts out the new enemy of the day. In a desperate attempt to attract members to the cause, it has added nuclear power, government policies, profit, student tuition and long list of other issues to the things to demonstrate against.

The rhetoric has been ratcheted up to the point where everything is a crisis. Everything is bigger than life and everything and everyone except Occupy is wrong. This is a protest movement that is protesting against a moving series of targets but when you protest everything, you stand for nothing. It is also a protest movement that has no respect for the rights of others, especially those with whom they don't agree.

In New York, the movement that demands the right of freedom of assembly holds flash mobs to shut down meetings of a school board and despite its claim to support freedom of speech successfully shouts down the CEO of Wal-Mart in his attempt to speak at an event later in the day.  In Canada, Occupy demonstrators trespass on private property by jamming into banks and leaving innocent tellers and other employees feeling threatened. 

In Oakland, Occupy was ordered to vacate the area they were occupying. They were given proper warning that they would be forcibly evicted if they did not comply. This was not police-state tactics, this was law enforcement giving advance notice to a group of people that they were in violation of a municipal bylaw and were being asked to disperse. Occupy Oakland was given a choice and they chose confrontation which ultimately led to violence and claims of police brutality. It didn't have to happen.

Later in the same day, Occupy escalated an already tense situation by holding a protest rally and march through the down town core. Ultimately it led to more confrontation and violence although I read in one of the Occupy tweets that the police only took action after some member of a rogue element in Occupy threw a bottle at the police. How can Occupy possibly think that most of us would believe it is credible when it can't even control it's own members.

What absolutely astounds me is that some people brought children to the second march. What level of lunacy has so little regard for the safety of their kids that they would bring their children to a place where there was a very real possibility of violence?

In Glasgow an Occupy demonstrator was raped. In Boston, members of Occupy's finance committee were fired. Occupy lost whatever credibility it ever had when it lost its ability to protect and control its own membership.

In the past decade, cities including Toronto, Vancouver, London, Manchester, Athens and a host of others have seen large groups of demonstrators turn into riots resulting in burned cars, smashed windows and significant destruction to property and personal injury. I am not suggesting that was Occupy's intent but the police have no recourse but to be prepared for a mob to become a riot. Anything less would be irresponsible and a threat to public safety. Whatever leadership exists in Occupy should have been cognizant of that possibility and considered other means to make their point. Instead, they reacted just like so many others have in the past by provoking confrontation which ultimately led then violence. In doing that they put themselves in the same category as those who went before them.

In a recent exchange of tweets with some member of Occupy "England, I indicated that I was part of the 99% but neither he nor his movement represented me. He tweeted back that Occupy represents me whether I like it or not. Now there is democracy in action. His tweet seemed more like the kind of message coming out of the mouths of people like Qadaffi and Assad than a peaceful, democratic protest movement.

The simple truth is that Occupy has not only been successful in uniting the lunatic fringe on the extreme right and left, it is now uniting the 99% to demand its municipal governments end the protest. People recognize that our societies have issues that need addressing but Occupy has failed to put forward solutions to those problems. It does not demonstrate in support of new ideas, it protests against things and holds rallies to try and justify its weakening existence and influence.

Camping is not protest, it’s squatting. Using flash mobs to deny others the rights of free speech and assembly you demand for yourself is not democracy, it’s hypocrisy. Demanding that government provide things like free tuition is not the demand for a right, it is greed and claiming to represent the people when you can’t pull together world-wide as many people as attend the Super Bowl is merely self-delusion.

Occupy does not represent the 99%. It only represents itself and increasingly is nothing more than a disorganized organization looking to justify its existence. The Occupy Movement is creating an increased level of confrontation by its very existence in the streets. It has accomplished nothing and the longer it hangs around the less it accomplishes and the potential for more violence grows.

The reason is because Occupy is about the very thing it protests. It is about winning rather than resolving things. It is about ego and the cost to our cities and to the quality of life of others has become irrelevant. When that happens, it is no longer about issues. It is its own form of greed and selfishness and means that Occupy has over-stayed its welcome and its time for it to go.

One thing is certain, it will end and soon. Winter is coming and when the temperatures plunge to below zero and the snow is two and three feet deep in many cities, principles and rhetoric will fall by the wayside. At that point most of the Occupy Movement will have vacated the parks and moved indoors to those warm places heated by equipment manufactured by the hated corporations.

© 2011 Maggie's Bear
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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others.

Behind The Headlines: The Impact Caused By Some Of Today's News

Some news days are bigger than others but there is always news to report. The past twenty-four hours have brought have seen development online, with the Occupy Movement and in Libya that are of concern. It’s a big world but sometimes it seems like these things are happening right next door. Perhaps it is because they affect us all in one way or another’s

Two Days Into The New and Free Libya

While many in the west are focusing on the fact that Libya, like Tunisia may be heading towards the formation of an Islamist government, it isn’t a concern for me. If we believe what we preach, then a people have the right to self-determination within their own country regardless of what the rest of us think. If the people of Libya want to replace one form of tyranny with another, it’s their business.

What bothers me about today’s Libya is that the interim government is allowing the rape of wives, sisters and daughters of former members of the Qaddafi regime.  Apparently Sahria Law permits this but it is barbaric. If a people want to live in a theocracy, that is their right to choose but it doesn’t mean they have to discard decency and respect for the lives of others. It is, after all, what they were fighting against when they rebelled against Qaddafi.

I think foreign governments should think carefully before providing aid to a regime that has so little regard for the rights and safety of anyone in their country, especially the defenseless. We may not approve of their developing theocracy but we don’t have to support it financially or in any other way unless they guarantee fundamental human rights.

Anonymous Attacks Child Porn Site

I’ve known too many people in my life who were the victims of child abuse. It’s a terrible crime that destroys lives and often leads to some form of mental illness and dysfunction. As one doctor put it once, child abuse is the gift that keeps on giving. The effects of it last a lifetime.

So I reacted to this story on two levels. ON an emotional level I was cheering for Anonymous but on a practical level, I was disappointed by what they did.

First, I don’t believe you can fight injustice by being unjust and I don’t believe that you can fight crime by being a criminal. Hacking is illegal and even if you occasionally hack a criminal site, it doesn’t legitimize what you do.

Secondly, Anonymous only shut the site down for 24hours which means that it didn’t really accomplish much in the war against pedophiles; it merely inconvenienced them for a short time. It would have been better if Anonymous had used its skills to track information that it could turn over to law enforcement so that he pedophiles behind this site and who use it could have been arrested and tracked down.

Grandstanding isn’t going to protect society, it is merely grandstanding and is one of the few things that politicians do well.

Honour Killing Trial in Canada

The father and mother of three girls are on trial with their son for the murder of their three daughters and their aunt. The four were bludgeoned and then drowned when the car they were in was pushed into a canal.

The world is a big place with many languages, religions and cultures. Some are more oppressive than others and some are difficult for others to understand but on this point there can be no compromise. Killing someone, especially your own children in a misguided attempt to protect the family honour just can’t be condoned in western society.

It’s time for the politically correct to allow immigration policies that  re direct in defining what is expected of new comers to our countries and what is not permitted. It is also time for the politically correct to stop hiding evil behind cautious language. There is no such thing as an honour killing. Murder is murder and if we are going to fight it, we need to call it what it is.

It’s Small Wonder People Are Declining to Vote in Increasing Numbers

Ontario is the largest province (state) in Canada and recently held elections to the provincial legislature. Premier Dalton McGuinty was running for his third term in office and went into the election with a significant deficit in the polls. He had become unpopular for many of his expensive policies and for his ongoing inability or unwillingness to keep his word.

During the election, one of his cabinet ministers found himself running behind the Conservative candidate. The issue in that riding was a gas-fired energy plant that the McGuinty government was in the process of building. The people of the riding wanted it out of their riding and to help change the flagging support for his cabinet minister, the premier promised to move the plant elsewhere.

Just as he did in his first election when he signed a pledge not to raise taxes and then raised them once he was elected, The Premier has once again failed to keep his word and construction on the plant continues.

Cynical politicians are the reason that so many are turning away from the election process but it is also true that it is the electorate that has trained politicians that they can say and do as they please. If people want real change in politics, they must vote but not for the people who lied to them the last time. Otherwise, you only get the government you deserve.

© 2011 Maggie's Bear
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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others.

Maybe It Isn't The 1% or The 99%, Wealth or Poverty. Maby It Is Something Else

“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.”  -Voltaire

The Occupy Movement has centred itself on the slogan, “We are the 99%” and has positioned itself as the champions in a battle with the privileged 1%. It’s confusing though because many in the 1% are not the same people or institutions that Occupy condemns.

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zukerberg to name three, all started from middle-class beginnings but grew to be among the richest in the world. All three were in the 1% income and wealth bracket but are not considered to be part of the enemy.

They acquired their wealth by creating something and then building on what they had created. With their financial success came great privilege and while the current protest movement tweets globally and shouts out slogans against the 1%, they benefit from the work and accomplishment of these three. I have never seen any message from, or heard anyone in, Occupy condemn any of these three men.

It got me thinking that maybe the enemy isn’t wealth or privilege, maybe it is something else.

We all strive to improve our lives in one way or another and when we are successful, it brings rewards including increased privilege. How you define privilege is quite varied and really depends on the circumstance in which you live.

A homeless person might consider those with a home, no matter how humble, quite privileged. Someone living in famine stricken parts of Africa might consider not having to walk miles to get a couple of buckets of potable water and a handful of food from relief organizations a privilege. Still others might consider it a great privilege to live in a democracy, no matter how flawed, where they could speak freely and not live in fear of oppression and violence from the totalitarian state in which they live.

In that way, we all hope, wish and strive for increased privilege in our lives.

I see nothing wrong in someone creating something and building it into a success that makes them wealthy. I see nothing wrong in them enjoying the rewards and privilege that comes with that success and I don’t believe that I, or anyone else, have the right to judge them for what they choose to do with their money or their privilege. That is between them and their conscience.

What I do have a problem with are those people who look for the short cut to a privileged life. That’s what many in the securities industry did when they created derivatives, junk bonds and sub-prime mortgages. It wasn’t the creation of something of value; it was the creation of an illusion of value in order to generate commissions and higher incomes for those doing the selling.

Gates and Jobs didn’t sit down when they were young and tell themselves that they wanted to do something to make themselves ridiculously rich. They created something they believed in and built on it. The wealth flowed from that. Securities companies came at if from the opposite side of the issue. They looked for ways to make more money and then developed junk to try and achieve it.

That isn’t an issue exclusively within the 1%.

Too many people lost their homes because of the sub prime mortgage fiasco but not all lost because of the banks. Some lost their homes because they bought more house than they could afford simply because credit was cheap. Others, in a bid to get rich quick, started buying properties as investments using sub-prime mortgages to finance them. Sellers of schemes on how to achieve this constantly advertised on info-commercials and thousands bought into it. When the sub-prime mortgage market collapsed, it brought down most of those who were over-financed.

There are no short cuts to being wealthy unless your parents are and they intend to leave it all to you or unless you are the one in one billion who wins the lottery. The fact is that most of the people who have wealth and privilege have earned it and if we were being totally honest, most of us wouldn’t mind having the wherewithal to achieve the same thing.

The enemy is greed and not all who are wealthy or successful are driven by greed. They are driven by a need to achieve.

Donald Trump is in the 1% but he faced bankruptcy a decade ago. The banks who had once lined up to give him credit wouldn’t talk to him but he didn’t quit. He fought his way back and earned again his current wealth and privileged lifestyle. He didn’t whine about his predicament on Facebook and Twitter the way julian assange is currently. He didn’t blame anyone but himself unlike Mr. Assange who is now blaming his current financial predicament on credit card companies, governments and pretty much anyone but himself.

In his own way, the founder of Wikileaks demonstrates more greed than Trump ever did.

Privilege and greed are not exclusive to the wealthy because they are not exclusively defined by money. Mother Theresa considered herself privileged to live in poverty and serve the poor of what was then called Calcutta. She also considered her life to be rich because she served the God in which she believed by serving the people she believed he loved.

Students think it is the responsibility of the state to pay for their education and to provide them jobs but what is the state other than you and me? Why is it your responsibility or mine to subsidize the education and advancement of someone else, especially when the cost of paying taxes to achieve that deprives members of my own family from the benefits my income might bring them?

The struggle to have our voices heard at the expense of others is a form of greed. When we begin to think our voices are more important than those of others, we exhibit a form of greed. Our opinions become more valuable to us than those of others and we are greedy to have them heard and the others dismissed. I have always found it odd that the Occupy Movement which prides itself on being democratic has a hand signal to be used in general assemblies that blocks others from speaking. What is that if not a form of greed?

There is much that is right about our democracies but on this I agree with Occupy, there are things that need fixing. Unlike Occupy, however, I don’t target a percentage of the population nor do I attack those who have been successful and earned the rewards that come with that success. I target something else.

For me it is about a lack of integrity in some business sectors, cynicism in politics and an unwarranted sense of entitlement by too many across all sectors of our society. These things contribute to a greed that affects us all and if we want a better society, we should be fighting to bring back integrity, vision and purpose to how we live, not just as a society but as individuals. I believe it starts with being responsible for ourselves because it is only through self-responsibility that we can ever hope to have the resources to help and be responsible with others.

The opportunity to rise up out our current circumstance and earn a better life for ourselves is often called the American Dream but it isn't exclusively American. Millions strive for it around the world because it is simply human nature to hope for something better. I think there is something not quite right in attacking those who have achieved it. When we divide ourselves into the 1%,the 53% or the 99%, we lose sight of what undermines our society. I believe we need to look beyond the privileges that others have that we ourselves don't and look at how those in all sectors of our society abuse our freedom to pursue the dream for their own selfish ends.

© 2011 Maggie's Bear
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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

The 53% vs The Ugly Cartoon That Occupy Has Allowed Itself To Become.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance

and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King

I started this blog to speak out against political correctness, cynical government and just plain stupidity and it doesn’t get much more stupid than what the Occupy Movement is degenerating into. It has successfully taken a principled idea and eroded it into a meaningless confusion of internecine fighting between factions, mixed messages, misinformation and an incredible lack of understanding of the real issues. I am embarrassed to admit that like so many others, I supported the initial movement. They had correctly identified a key issue in our society and had found a unique, if somewhat naive, way to draw attention to it. I don't support it anymore.

Occupy has become a cartoon of stupidity and hypocrisy almost elevated to the level of art.

It has done something, though, that almost no other group has ever done. It has successfully united the lunatic fringe on the extreme left and extreme right. Occupy now has the support of anarchists, communists and neo-Nazis. Lovely! None of those groups support Occupy’s original message and too often support things like racism nor are they representative of the 99% that the Occupy Movement claims to represent. But why quibble over those things when the involvement of these groups increases the number of people marching with the movement?

The seeds of the destruction of Occupy have already been planted but the sowing wasn’t done by the enemy’s of the movement.  They were planted by those within Occupy itself and ts eventual demise will come not from without but from within. Occupy is very much the author of its own failure.

In Australia, Occupy Sydney feeds the homeless, a commendable act. In Los Angeles, Occupy LA boots the homeless out of the park. I guess Occupy can’t decide if the homeless are part of the 99% or not. They’re having the same problem with other groups too.

In Canada, a country with the most regulated and safest banking system in the world the Occupy movement targets banks. It boycotts restaurants that are owned by corporations while handing around boxes of donuts from Tim Horton’s also owned by a large corporation.

So ineffective is the Canadian Occupy movement that yesterday, in Ottawa, the novelty Zombie Walk from Parliament Hill drew more than 2000 particpants while OccupyOttawa was only able to drum up a couple of hundred. There are reports that the Zombies were heard chanting, "We are now the 99%." and it is hard to argue with the math.

For the entire Occupy Movement, the wealthy are the enemy except those wealthy celebrities who support Occupy or make a financial contribution. Profitable corporations are the enemy too except, of course, the ones who make things for profit that Occupy needs and/or enjoys, like computers and cell phones, sound systems and video equipment.

The hypocrisy is embarrassing and the thinking too irrational to want to be associated with it.

Occupy Earth wants to keep the monetary system but eliminate and ban profit.  I gather that Occupy Earth is unaware of how successful that has been in the former Soviet Union and other places like North Korea. When I pointed out to one of the members of Occupy Earth that eliminating profit only resulted in institutionalized poverty for all, including food and housing shortages, the reply was that he’d eat his shoe before supporting the profit motive. I don’t know what he will eat after his shoes are gone in his new world order but one thing is certain; I won’t let him eat any of my shoes.

The defined 1% is being expanded so rapidly by Occupy that I can’t keep up. First it was the Wall Street securities and finance industry that undermined the world economy with derivatives and sub-prime mortgages. I could srelate to that issue because it was a real problem and needs serious regulation. Now, however, the 1% has grown to include: banks (but not credit unions…yet), corporations that own restaurants, nuclear power, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, museums and just last night, a call to occupy the board of education in NYC. The list also includes anyone who disagrees with the mindless twitter coming out of the movement. Free speech as defined by Occupy is only permited to those who flatter and aggree with the movement At the rate the list is growing the 1% will soon be the 99% and Occupy will find itself with no one to represent.

Government is also on the list but considering that 1 in 6 Americans work for some level of government or the public sector (with similar ratios in most democracies), that really is going to cause some math problems for Occupy in maintaining their “we are the 99%. I doubt that that are many bureaucrats, teachers, nurses and other public sector employees who are very sympathetic to a movement that considers them to be part of the problem.

Occupy is the embodiement of Animal Farm. All animals are equal but some are more equal than others. I fail to see how that is any different than what they claim to be protesting.

Another member of the Occupy brain-trust called on government to make all health and education free. He obviously fails to understand that government has no money except for the money it collects from its citizens. Nothing is free; you and I pay for it at some point. The issue is, do we pay directly or do we give it to government and let them pay on our behalf. Money doesn’t grow on trees. It’s earned by you and me and quite frankly, I don’t seem much difference between government taking a lot of my money for their purposes and some intellectually-challenged twit from Occupy taking it to pay for his education. In the end, it’s all the same. It’s taxpayers that end up financing the ambitions and wants of others.

Saying something that is inaccurate repeatedly doesn’t mean it will eventually become the truth nor does saying it loudly. That's just noise. Rejecting criticism by attacking those who criticize doesn’t accomplish much either. It is all simply mindless chatter designed to try and shore up weak arguments for weaker ideas to achieve an undefined purpose.

Another part of Occupy announced that the problem with the economy was that the rich were taking money out of circulation. Huh? How do you come up with stupidity like that? I sent him a text and asked if he thought the rich were hiding their money under their mattresses or in coffee cans in holes they dug in their back yards. No reply.

And that's part of the issue too. When you challenge anyone in Occupy to give you an answer about what they propose as an alternative or challenge some stupid statement that's been made, they either ignore you, send back more meaningless chatter or accuse you of being a 1% sympathizer. I haven't had one person in Occupy put forward a solid idea worth discussing, let alone work towards achieving. In fact, for all the rhetoric, there hasn't been an original idea come out of Occupy period.

Under the heading of, Some Greed Is Good, the New York Post reported that Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is in a bit of a pickle. They have successfully collected more than $500,000 which is in the bank (yes, safely tucked away in one of those hated 1% institutions) but are refusing to share it with other factions within the movement. So incensed were some participating drummers that OWS would not contribute to the repair of their drums that were vandalized in the park, they destroyed their own drums. (I'm still trying to figure out how you arrive at that decision)

The Comfort Group Committee within OWS was told to fill out paperwork when they requested funds for the work they do to provide essentials to protesters which means that OWS has now begun to institute the same bureaucratic procedures of the government they criticize. (So much for bringing about real and significant change to the world.)

Now, some of the people within OWS are calling on Bloomberg, the mayor of New York for an injunction to force OWS to open its books. Yes, that would be the same Mayor Bloomberg they castigated on Saturday for ordering police to evict OWS and arrest those who didn’t comply with the order to vacate.

In response, the Finance Committee has said that it can’t approve large expenditures without the approval of the General Assembly and a financial report would be forthcoming at some point. These guys have learned a great deal from government about double-talk and buck-passing (well, not literally of course, they’ve become very good at holding onto the bucks they have)

I find it particularly interesting that with a half million in the bank, OWS continues to beg for financial, food and other support. It’s institutionalized begging turned into quite a profitable little venture.

The hypocrisy behind all of this is almost mind altering. Members of OWS want the mayor they rally against to save them and force the Finance Committee within their own movement to come clean. They plead poverty while sitting on more cash than most of the 53% will ever see in one place and they implement the same bureaucratic procedures of the institutions they protest. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t just so hypocritally stupid.

And that is what is killing Occupy. Stupidity.

It abounds across the movement. While there are some within Occupy who are sincere and really do want to influence a change for the better, they have allowed their movement to be overrun and hijhacked by anarchists, extremists, unions, opportunists, fascists, the tragically pointless and the intellectually challenged. Occupy has become so intoxicated by the little bit of power they were granted that they have become an absurd characture of a protest movement.

Nobody speaks for Occupy; everyone does. Members of the movement say whatever they want to say whenever they want to say it. As a result there is no unified message, no discipline, no purpose or concrete solutions put forward. It’s protest turned into a self-indulgent orgy of mindless posturing. If it ever had a point, Occupy has lost it in the chaos it has allowed itself to become.

You can have all the general assemblies you want, form committees and post messages to the "proletariate" but if you can’t find real purpose behind what you are trying to accomplish beyond rhetoric and cheesey slogans, then your meetings like your protest are meaningless.

And that’s why Occupy will fail. Nothing of value was ever built on hypocrisy or stupidity and Occupy is now drowning in both. It dengrates the memories of people like Gandhi and Martin Luther KIng who initiated protest with purpose and focus. It tarnishes the memory of a sole Chinese citizen standing in front of a tank in defiance of oppresion in his country. It’s a damn shame for those of us who supported Occupy in the belief that it would lead to something better but it won’t. We have been failed twice; once by our governments and now by a protest movement that promised to draw attention to the issues but in the end simply turned itself into a pathetic, self-righteous joke.

Change will come but not thanks to Occupy.

 All that remains now is waiting patiently until if fizzles out (and it will) and then picking up the garbage in the parks. Once that happens, the rest of us who make up the 53% that work and pay taxes can get on with the business of trying to effect real change for the better.

Update: Since posting this, OccupySydney and Occupy USA, as well as others, have blocked me on Twitter proving once again that Occupy only believes in free speech for those that agree with it. "We are the 99%...well, at least that part of the 99% who agree with us." Personally, I'm flattered by the thought that my words are that intimidating to them. 

© 2011 Maggie's Bear
all rights reserved
The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others