Seattle protesters...hurting their own cause?

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I am as far left as one can SENSIBLY be(That is I am not proclaiming the innocence of Mumia Abu Jamal or O.J. or Pelletier, nor am I a vegetarian/vegan(anymore) or a fan of PETA) and nobody is a bigger fan of free speech than I am. NOBODY!

But this is getting ridiculous. Where I live(WA. State) the hot trend for people calling themselves liberals is to protest everything except protest itself and to try and make oneself look as completely stupid as possible while doing so.

Yesterday we had members of the CANADIAN Rainforest Action Committe or somesuch, climb up on a construction crane to hang an anti-Weyerhauser banner. Thee stunt cost taxpayers well over $1 million dollars, cost construction workers a days wages and get this...the message they were trying to get out there(Don't cut down old growth forest) was one that Weyerhauser AGREES with! They do not harvest Old growth forest anywhere in the US adn have only done so to a very limited degree in Canada.

We are STILL saddled with the anti-WTO protestors who are taking a stand for their right to block traffic and cut off emergency medical services to people in need when they have something to say. Their position seems to be that cops are bad and should never take action against anyone if that person is acting in protest of something.

Orwell's name is invoked with tired regularity.


I promise you, if I go into an insulin reaction/diabetic siezure and an ambulance cannot get to me because of protestors, I will go team up with Ted Nugent and start taking the bastards out with a crossbow(and I HATE Ted Nugent!).

 

First off, while I certainly don't mind people publically expressing their views I detest those who use rowdy mobs and/or any other form of direct disruptive action to achieve their agenda. These people should devote themselves to expresing their opinions and trying to resolve things within the law.

I can't say that I have heard of the Canadian oganization but if that is their actual name all I can do is Why is it that Canadian groups are so stupid about their names? What kind of idiot would name ther organization CRAC? Would you mind keeping them south of the border? We really don't want them back!

But then again, what can expect from a country who briefly had the official opposition party using a name with the initials CCRAP.

 

Heh, a year or plus a half ago in New Zealand we were having a big Genetically Engineered/Modified (I will call it GE Food throughout the rest of this post) issue. A 'minority' group (i.e. 20% of the population) were against GE, research on it and the idea of it being in New Zealand.

Most of these people who were against GE are supporters of the 'Green' party. Incredible left wing side - their party leader has dreadlocks, yes dreadlocks people. They protest against GE for various reasons such as it not being God's will that we fiddle with the makings of nature but most simply argue that GE could possess unknown side effects. However, the Green party is also a party trying to leagalise marijuana (a substance that has proven negative side effects, oh the irony).

Anyway. A group of protestors broke into a lab, wielding signs such as 'keep it in the lab' and 'GE it's bad' etc. etc. only to break into the containment centre. After pulling out some GE fruits and veges, kicking them around and generally showing their already obvious distaste for the product, they left. The irony is they just 'contaminated' New Zealand and were responsable for the first case of GE being outside of a labratory enviroment (something the protestors were protesting against happening).

This only went to prove that the protestors had no idea what they were truely protesting about (an arguement presnted time and time again). That they don't know exactly 'what' GE is and 'what' it does. Obviously they don't listen to the scientists who have been studying this concept for about hmm-5 years, thinking they're all untrustworthy and the enemy. The irony is that the conservatives are being more liberal than the liberals... what fun.

 

Abomination, that sounds like the plot of "12 Monkeys"!

Anyway, the same is the case in London where the anti-capitalism protests were 95% made up of work-shy layabouts who saw it as a fun day out.

And I remember every time the Auckland university students went on their 'lower fees' rallys that it was just an excuse to get drunk and dodge lectures (well, it was for everyone that I knew who went on them).

I think for a certain section of the population, protesting is just a cool thing to do.

 

I was living in Portland, OR for the Seattle WTO protests, and we got our fair share of the fallout. What totally shot these folks down in the credibility department for me was their complete inability to answer a direct question. They got plenty of media time but never managed to come up with any justification for their actions beyond "Corporations are evil." The impression I was left with was that they were nothing more than vandals.

If there was any coherent thought behind the protests, it was very well-concealed behind the brats who wanted vent their angst.

 

Rainforests? For the 5 years I lived in Canada, I swear there are no rainforsests there.

 

There are several rainforests along the west coast of Canada, they are just not rainforests in the stereotypical tropical jungle sense.

Given the annual rainfall on the west side of the Rockies you are pretty well guaranteed that any forest there qualifies as a rainforest.

 

In fact, there are two classifications of rain forests: tropical and temperate. Most of the time when people think of a rain forest, they are envisioning the tropical kind. Canada and the northwest part of the U.S. are the temperate kind.

 

Well, there are actually a few more classifications than that (e.g. semi-tropical) but I think we have made our point.

 

The thing I hate about the extreme liberals is they sit here and protest every power plant in existance. Wind mills kill birds. Masers might miss the target. Nukes generate waste. Coal pollutes. Natural gas warms the planet. Geothermal cools the planet. Dams kill the fishes.

And then. AND THEN.

When the power goes out during their son's/daughter's kidney transplant, and the hospital runs out of backup diesel because they've been using it off and on for the past year, they sue the state and the federal government.

For their own dumb ass doing.

Now, Natural Selection has taken the care to see they don't breed. But in the short term, the people that should be breeding have to pay this individual money, because no one uses even a tiny mediocre of logic or critical thinking when the jury goes to verdict. Mostly because the defense tries to get an "impartial" jury, all of whom don't read the newspaper or even keep track of their own cholesterol. At least, in California, anyways. There's basically no southern border in California.

It's like, everything just happens out of the clear blue sky. There's no warning. There's no reason. The Earth Mother just willed it that way.

It's ok to be sheep. If you choose to be sheep. If you go in, knowing that you're sheep, and there are wolves hunting your *** all the time.

 

Man, I was AT the WTO riots. Seattle gets crazy now and then.

We're a liberal city with nothing to say.

 

We get the crazies down here in Sacramento too! The protests over the GMO conference were quite entertaining.

 

Good point, I could not agree more. I know that there are things I do that are just following the pack and that I would be better to do something else. But I don't and I am prepared to accept the consequences and not blame anybody else, or look for a handout or try and get something for nothing.