A Career-Killing Waste of Time?

It might be big news on the increasingly irrelevant Canadian political blogging scene that I've killed the blogging of Sooey of "Sooey Says." I told her that blogging was a career-killing waste of time and that she should work on her book. She responded with alacrity and announced she wouldn't blog until her book was finished.

Yet, I've posted twice (this post included) since then.

What gives?

Well, it's too late for me. I now have SEVEN YEARS of online "activism" done irresponsibly under a pseudonym. It was supposed to keep me sharp, pracktikin' my wry-ten skilz, but instead, it was a replacement for serious writing.

It was difficult getting my stuff into newspapers n' magazines ten years ago, but upon reflection, it wasn't impossible. Some of my stuff got printed. (It's far easier for one peddling right-wing drivel to become a paid columnist. For shit's sake, I remember the early days of Michael Taube's career. He seemed to me to be a useless air-head farting out a few status-quo generalities and he'd get semi-regular work as "a writer who comments from a conservative perspective.")

I threw my life away, but Sooey doesn't have to. ESPECIALLY since she complained a few times recently about how the online world could fuck a female person up with its misogyny and hatred, and about how she should stop procrastinating and work on her book and about how her boyfriend said she should work on the fucking book.

So, in case anyone's thinking it, ... I wasn't the devil whispering in her ear. Dear old "thwap" wasn't craftily neutralizing Sooey's blogging career so that he could have more of that sweet, sweet adulation and fame and fortune for himself.

Hey! Speaking of blogging, NOW Magazine has a great article by Scott Taylor of Espirit de Corps about how harper's moronic militarism is really moronic.

Use of force for any purpose other than self-defence requires a UN resolution or invitation from a recognized government. Some eggheads are arguing that we can legally extend operations into Syria by calling it self-defence, but that's just war-mongering gibberish. In order for Canada to legally attack sites within Syria's border, authority would have to be granted through the UN (as was the case in 2011 in Libya) or the Syrian government would have to request it.

The latter is, of course, impossible, because in the shortsighted headiness of the initial uprising in Syria, the Harper government declared the administration of President Bashar al-Assad "illegitimate." That was long before it became evident that Assad was battling evil ISIS. 

One might think that such previous blunders in judgment would give Harper pause before he extends and expands a military mission with no clear-cut formula for victory.

Read the rest.