Here is an important message from Britain’s Morning Star.

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We’re ambitious at the Star, but we need your support to help us survive and grow. Unlike the capitalist press, the Morning Star doesn’t pander to wealthy individuals and corporations for subsidies.

Our Fighting Fund is crucial to allow us to provide a quality socialist alternative to the half truths and wealth-watching that fills the wider media.

Each month, the Morning Star’s supporters and readers join forces in order to raise the £16,000 we need to ensure that the paper - and this site - continue to project a left-wing perspective amid a sea of right-wing voices.

Our target is…

£11,655

We’ve got 23 days

Donate online

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Other ways to donate:

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Some days it can be a sad job opening the Fund postbag, and Monday was one of those.

Not because it was a slow day - far from it, with £536 to report - but because so many of the letters were in memory of comrades and supporters who passed away in the last few weeks.

But the sadness is tinged with defiance too - because all these tributes to stalwart fighters are a reminder that the Star and all its readers are part of something much older and much bigger than any of us alone.

And in our 80th anniversary year they’re an inspiration to keep fighting harder than ever before, on behalf of all those who have gone before us and all those to come.

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Here is yet another entertaining socially inappropriate gaff made by the semi-retarded Pope Benedict (Nazi Ratburger).

Read the story below

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By Martin Beckford
Published: 1:13AM GMT 02 Feb 2010

January 7, 2010

For Immediate Release

Communist Party Condemns Proroguing of Parliament… Harper out of office now!

The decision of Stephen Harper’s minority Tory government to prorogue Parliament for the second time in twelve months demonstrates profound contempt and loathing for both Parliament and the millions of Canadians who are demanding genuine action to end the economic crisis and the occupation of Afghanistan. Harper is escalating his attack on democracy to a new and dangerous level.

The Communist Party of Canada condemns this action, and urges all Canadians to take part in the January 23 protest rallies across the country. With the strong participation of the labour movement and all progressive forces, this movement to “get Parliament back to work” can help spark a powerful campaign to block and defeat the Harper Tories. Such a movement can lead the fight policies to defend the interests of working people and move Canada in a fundamentally new direction.

Imposed during the holiday season, the prorogation of Parliament until March is a machination to escape further public scrutiny of Canada’s complicity in the torture of Afghan detainees, and more broadly the disastrous failure of the imperialist war and occupation in Afghanistan. The fabricated pretext of a “breathing space” to craft updated economic and social policies is absurd; the Conservatives intend to slash social spending, leaving millions of Canadian workers and their families facing another desperate year during the worst capitalist crisis in decades. Instead of “working,” the Tories will be posing for the cameras at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, which have taken over $6 billion from people’s needs to host this massive party for the rich on stolen native land.

Carried out by a far-right government – one rejected by nearly two-thirds of voters – the prorogation is a direct attack on Parliament itself, wiping out the work of an entire session and halting the work of parliamentary committees.

Even more significant, this is not an isolated step. It is part of a deliberate, conscious strategy by the Harper Tories to impose the deeply unpopular corporate agenda by undemocratic means. Their goal is to transform the Canadian state, using every possible measure to wipe out the achievements of past struggles by working people, and instead to transfer ever more wealth into the coffers of the corporate rich and to strengthen the oppressive state apparatus: the military, prisons, police and spy agencies.

Democracy in Canada has already been gravely weakened by ‘free trade’, capitalist ‘globalisation’ and the erosion of Canadian sovereignty, by the tight corporate grip on the mass media, and by an electoral system which restricts any serious debate of progressive alternatives to the neoliberal agenda.

In pursuit of this agenda, the Harper Conservatives are using the levers of power to stack the Senate, the courts and public service with their supporters. They have stifled dissent within the civil service, violated laws, ignored resolutions adopted by the majority of MPs, gutted accountability laws and promises, and further concentrated power in the Prime Minister’s office. At every stage, they hurl McCarthy-style accusations to vilify and terrorize critics. It is no exaggeration to warn that these demagogic, dictatorial tactics are designed to block any possibility of eventually reversing their right-wing policies.

Unless the Harper Tories are defeated by a powerful movement of opposition, they pose a real and present danger to the future of Canada. The duty of all Canadians who support civil rights, democratic liberties, universal social programs, equality, peace, sovereignty and environmental sustainability is to join the struggle to drive this government out of office, the sooner the better.

All out on January 23rd! Bring the troops home from Afghanistan NOW! Drive out the pro-corporate Harper Conservatives, and step up the fight for a People’s Alternative!

Issued by the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada. For more information, contact Miguel Figueroa, Communist Party leader, at Figueroa@cpc-pcc.ca.

This year should be a year of one triumph followed by another.  We will commence with the serving of court papers to Booksurge this year. Not for money, but to enforce them to re-release the book Viamund the Boy-love Vampyre says… Poetry and Haiku’s on all Global Amazons as it had originally been.

” The proliferation of Christian Fundamentalist organizations such as the Council for National Policy and it’s umbrella groups like Focus On The Family and their techniques of using BOYCOTT threats and other forms of intellectual terrorism is no grounds to cancel contracts. Their guilt (Booksurge) is shown by their utter disrespect in not replying to any e-mails or other inquiries made directly by me or on my behalf. I retain their uncashed cheque. Free speech will be defended by me.”   Octaevius Altair

We are considering the use of targeted press releases in order to expose this disgraceful practice of Blackballing currently being employed by many in the publishing industry as well as expose the illegal methods used by Christian Fundamentalist groups and their scumbag supporters - intellectual terrorism -.

After our triumph over Booksurge in Court we hope to see the Boylove Community begin to produce more honest volumes of human sexuality and expression and see these made readily available to the common public.

Project Freedom Canada

” The age of sexual consent increase contained within the forced passage of Bill C2 is a direct violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and as such is entirely illegal. There is no good rape and bad rape, all  rape is the same. There are no good victims and bad victims, all victims are the same. There is no good consensual sex and bad consensual sex, all consensual sex is the same. Any who try ro make you believe otherwise are telling you lies.”

Although we were not granted standing of behalf of public interest last year we shall wait through 2010 to determine if the supreme court judge’s words prove true by being reflected in action.

…In other words, the test says you have got to show to the Judge there is no other effective way for this issue to be brought before the Court, unless I, Mr. Altair, get standing to litigate this on behalf of concerned citizens. Here, you are in the Criminal Code. Here, everyday across our fair land, sadly, people are being charged with criminal offences and sadly, especially under the sexual offence category, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of men and women that are being arrested everyday for various transgressions, various violations of the Criminal Code and that’s why they say in paragraph 39. The prosecutions under many of the offences in question occur on a regular basis. The validity of the provisions, as amended in 2008, will no doubt be questioned in the course of future prosecutions and Courts hearing these Charter challenges in future prosecutions will have the benefit of actual factual disputes featuring specific circumstances of actions accused persons and victims.”  THE HONOURABLE, MR. JUSTICE BELOBABA

If any are  charged for engaging in consensual sex with 14 or 15 year-old adults it is imperative that their legal counsel contact me here - viamund@hotmail.com - in order to arrange for all material to strike all provisions from the Criminal Code of Canada that rely on an age of sexual consent of 16 years.

If we are not contacted in 2010 we will make arrangements to bring this matter back before the courts in 2011.

So have a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 everyone.

Click on this link just FOR FUN.

It’s that time of the year.

“With us well on the way to a 600 view a day, 10,000 unique visitor a month average, our totals for 2010 may go well above $200 USD. So for the first time, we need a way of raising money from an external source. $250 is our target.

All money (except for a 20% cut for the personal use of our collector - a long-term supporter, and a very good cause) will be spent on Newgon.com’s host account, and we will not ask for any more money for such a purpose, until this lot has been used.

If we intend to send gifts to volunteers in the future, we will disclose that this is our intent.

Any excess will be split and used in the same way, until another fund-raiser is required.”

Money should be sent in notes (any currency) to the following address:

WWW Fundraiser,
Postbus 259,
NL 7400 AG,
The Netherlands.

Please enclose a note, confirming that the money is for the Newgon.com fundraiser.

Please do contribute if you are able.

Many of you have noticed that the Modern Boylover magazine is no longer available. This is a small part of a greater calamity that has befallen Boylover.net and all of their work. ” The departure of many senior members of the Boylover.net bulletin board management staff. This departure had been prompted by the return to senior staff of a member who had previously taken control of the website. Senior staff exodus compromised the site and made it vulnerable.
Since then, concurrent with a number of arrests in different countries on November 24, 2009, the Boylover.net site has been shut down. Boylover.net has been for over eight years one of the biggest and busiest such community website in existence. The common assumption is that it’s server in the Netherlands was seized under a court order.”

Please make a note of this fact for your security.

For those who wish to make a donation in show of support for the Communist Party of Bangladesh may do so with the following information.

Donation can be sent directly to the Central Fund through the Central Bank Account of CPB. The Bank Account of CPB is: ‘Communist Party of Bangladesh, Savings Account No. 73195, Janata Bank, Purana Paltan Branch, Dhaka, Bangladesh’.

Please do consider making a donation to the World Socialist Website (WSW)

See the information for a donation HERE.

For those who currently do not subscribe, please also consider subscribing.

Here is a sad but true and somewhat amusing story about what makes a Sex Offender.  It shouldn’t take too long before the majority of the population will be classified as Sex Offenders.

By Marsha Burns HERE

Or read it below

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Look Who’s a Sex Offender Now!

It’s easy to be complacent about sex offender laws — until one of them comes crashing down out of the blue on top of you or someone in your family. Unfortunately, it’s becoming easier and easier all the time for that to happen — with behaviors that most people consider perfectly healthy and acceptable, like breastfeeding or taking innocent pictures of their own babies in the buff. Here are some heartbreaking examples.

Contents

• If you allow your teenager to have sex.
• If you discipline an unruly child.
• If you kiss your naked baby.
• If you breastfeed your baby.
• If you take pictures of your children naked.
• If you’re a teenager taking naked pictures of yourself or your sweetheart.
• If you win custody in a nasty divorce.
• If you get caught taking a pee.
• If you have consensual sex in prison.
• If you kiss a student on the cheek.
• If you take pictures of children in public.
• If you look at children in public.
• If you have consensual sex with a teenager.

Okay for your teenager to have sex? You’re a sex offender.

Detroit, 2004. Michael Schrake was arrested, jailed, registered as a sex offender, and forbidden to see his three children because he allowed his 15-year-old daughter to sleep with her boyfriend. He at first believed that the boy was only 18, but when he found out he was 20, he went to the police to complain. But the police arrested both the boyfriend and the father, charging the latter as an accomplice. As far as the police were concerned, the age of the boyfriend didn’t matter because it is a crime to allow a minor to have sex at all.

See Father Faces Charges For Allowing Teen Daughter To Have Sex: Report — Man Apparently Provided Condoms To Daughter, Boyfriend — WDIV-TV (Detroit, Michigan), January 7, 2004 and Local Dad Shocked By Sex Charges Against Him — Man must register as sex offender — WDIV-TV (Detroit, Michigan), February 18, 2004. His name is not in the registry as of December 2007. This might mean that his case was overturned. Still, according to the news reports, he spent time in jail for this and was for at least some period of time not allowed to see his own children!

Georgia, 2002. When Janet Allison’s 15-year-old daughter got pregnant, she allowed her 17-year-old boyfriend to move in with the family. For this, she was convicted of being a party to child molestation. Even though the couple later married, she remains a registered sex offender for enabling their relationship. Because of this, she has had to move out of her four-bedroom home, which was too close to a church, and now lives in a trailer.

See Absurdity Breakout: Laws end up targeting not-so-dangerous ’sex offenders’, GateHouse News Service, August 20, 2007.

Discipline an unruly child? You’re a sex offender.

Chicago, 2005. Fitzroy Barnaby had to swerve to avoid hitting a 14-year-old girl who walked in front of his car. He got out and grabbed her arm to lecture her on safety. The girl complained and the man was convicted of unlawful restraint of a minor — officially making him a sex offender.

See He grabbed girl’s arm — now he’s a sex offender, Chicago Sun-Times, July 1, 2005. His name is not in the registry as of December 2007. In a phone call, his lawyer explained he is not yet on, pending a ruling from the US Supreme Court. The Illinois Supreme Court declined to hear the case, saying that the issue was decided in another case, in which a kidnapper was determined to be subject to SO registration even though there was no sexual activity with the victim. It seems astounding that the court was willing to take a kidnapping as analogous to this case!

Kiss your naked baby? You’re a sex offender.

North Carolina, 2005. Charbel Hamaty spent six months in prison for kissing his naked baby on the belly button. His wife was also arrested and she was denied contact with their children for several months for taking a picture of the “abuse.”

See Parents Cleared of Child Abuse in Photo Flap, Associated Press, July 27, 2005.

Breastfeed your baby? You’re a sex offender.

Dallas, Texas, 2003. Jacqueline Mercado and her boyfriend were arrested on felony charges for a photograph of her breastfeeding her child.

See 1-Hour Arrest, Dallas Observer, April 17, 2003.

Take pictures of your children naked? You’re a sex offender.

Georgia, 2006. Jody Jenkins “took some photos of my kids naked on a camping trip. A drugstore employee called the police — and my family’s life became a living hell.”

See They called me a child pornographer — I took some photos of my kids naked on a camping trip. A drugstore employee called the police — and my family’s life became a living hell. — Salon, July 18, 2006.

Canada, 2006. Paramjit Singh was charged with attempting to smuggle child pornography into Canada and was denied entry into the country to join his wife and son because he had a naked baby picture of the boy on his cell phone.

See Nude photo labelled porn, Toronto Star (Toronto, Canada), April 14, 2006.

USA, 1990s. There was, throughout the 1990s, an average of about one case per year that made it into the news of photo lab customers being arrested for taking innocent naked photographs of their children.

See Is this child pornography? — American photo labs are arresting parents as child pornographers for taking pictures of their kids in the bath. — by James Kincaid, Salon, January 31, 2000. Five example cases are briefly described in the article.

Boston, 1996. Toni Angeli was confronted and arrested by police in front of her four-year-old son when they went together to the photo lab to pick up photographs that included some innocent pictures of the child naked.

See No Excuse: Zona Labs and its legal allies should have known better, Boston Phoenix, February 9, 1996 (More on the case).

Teenager taking naked pictures of yourself or your sweetheart? You’re a sex offender.

Tallahassee, Florida, 2004. A 16-year-old girl and her 17-year-old boyfriend took pictures of themselves naked and engaging in unspecified “sexual behavior.” One of them e-mailed the photos to the other. They were arrested on child pornography charges. Florida law allows teenagers of that age to be sexual with each other, but recording it is still illegal.

See Police blotter: Teens prosecuted for racy photos, CNet News, February 9, 2007 and A.H., a child v Florida, First District Court of Appeal, Florida, January 19, 2007.

Pennsylvania. A 13-year-old girl is on the sex offender registry for life because she took pictures of herself naked.

See Absurdity Breakout: Laws end up targeting not-so-dangerous ’sex offenders’, GateHouse News Service, August 20, 2007.

Virginia. Two teenage girls are on the sex offender registry for life because they took topless photographs of each other.

See Absurdity Breakout: Laws end up targeting not-so-dangerous ’sex offenders’, GateHouse News Service, August 20, 2007.

Win custody in a nasty divorce? Watch out! You might be a sex offender.

Charleston, W.Va., 2007. Melissa Hicks did not mention any sexual improprieties during the divorce proceedings against her husband, David. But after she was not granted custody of their two daughters, he became the pariah of the neighborhood and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for alleged misdeeds with various little girls.

See West Virginia Man Sentenced To 30 Years In Prison On Child Pornography Charges, US Department of Justice, November 2, 2007 and Letters in support of David Hicks, US District Court (Charleston, West Virginia), April 12, 2007.

Got caught taking a pee? You’re a sex offender.

Florida, 2007. Juan Matamoros’s charge for public urination was in Massachusetts in 1986. But it makes him a sex offender to this day, which means he has to move his family because he’s not allowed to live within 2500 feet of a park, and the house they’ve been living in is near three of them.

See Florida Banishes Man for Public Urination, MSNBC, March 2007.

Chicago. A construction worker who relieved himself behind a garbage can in an alley was spotted by a police officer, arrested, and convicted of public urination and indecent exposure. As a Mexican immigrant, he was later rounded up for deportation by Homeland Security’s “Operation Predator.”

See Immigrant sex offenders targeted, Chicago Tribune, February 24, 2005.

See more examples of people on the sex offender registry for public urination and other types of “indecent exposure” in Q&A # 6

Have consensual sex in prison? You’re a sex offender.

Ohio, 2001. Tammy Welton used to work at a state prison, where sex is illegal for inmates or with inmates. Consent being irrelevant, she was convicted of sexual battery and spent six month back in prison on the other side of the bars. That conviction now makes her a Tier III (highest risk level) sex offender for the rest of her life.

See Next Comes Burning at the Stake: Is Ohio getting too tough on sex offenders?, City Beat (Cincinnati, Ohio), August 15, 2007.

Kiss a student on the cheek? You’re a sex offender.

England, 2006. Alan Barrett resigned from the school’s board of governors after he gave a 10-year-old girl a kiss on the cheek in the course of publicly congratulating her for improving her performance in arithmetic.

See Vicar steps down for cheek kiss — A vicar has stepped down as a school governor after kissing a primary pupil on the cheek to congratulate her. / A police inquiry found the Rev Alan Barrett had no case to answer. — BBC News (United Kingdom), July 13, 2006, Kiss goodbye to innocence, Times (London, England), July 16, 2006, and You must remember this . . ., Times (London, England), July 18, 2006.

Take pictures of children in public? You’re a sex offender.

Troy, New York, 2006. Jean Hetman was forbidden to take pictures of her daughter figure-skating because of a new policy instituted by the arena to protect children from pedophiles.

See NYCLU threatens to sue city over new photo policy, The Record (Troy, New York), May 9, 2006.

England, 2005. Alastair Macaulay went for a walk on the beach on a beautiful summer day. He had his camera with him and photographed a group of children making sandcastles. An hour later, he was reported to the police and arrested.

See ‘The CCTV recorded me taking two photographs: one of a group of children’ — On an idyllic summer’s day, a theatre critic goes for a walk on Scarborough beach. He has a camera with him and photographs a group of children making sandcastles. An hour later, he is reported to the police and arrested. Here, Alastair Macaulay relives the horror of that moment and of the years of pain and paranoia that followed — Telegraph (United Kingdom), March 19, 2005.

Look at children in public? You’re a sex offender.

Florida, 2007. An unidentified man was questioned by police after he spent more than an hour watching a children’s karate class.

See Creepy incidents at Collier karate class - not so creepy, WBBH-TV (Fort Myers, Florida), July 17, 2007.

New York City, 2005. Sandra Catena took a break from her dance lessons and sat down in the park. She was given a ticket by police for violating a law designed to keep out pedophiles — that adults are not allowed in the park without children.

See Ticketed For Sitting on a Park Bench?: Law Designed to Keep Pedophiles Out of City Parks, WABC-TV (New York, New York), September 27, 2005.

New York City, 2005. Nicholas Stix was walking in his neighborhood when he found that a schoolgirl was eyeing him suspiciously for looking at her. When he smiled to try to assure her he was friendly, she seemed even more afraid.

See Child Molester Hysteria in New York, Men’s News Daily, February 1, 2005.

And, of course, the big taboo:
Have consensual sex with a teenager? Obviously, you’re a sex offender.

Maine, 2002. Nineteen-year-old Bill Elliott had sex with his girlfriend days before she turned 16, and he served four months in jail for it. Five years later, his and another man’s names were pulled at random from the sex offender registry by a Canadian vigilante, who shot them to death in their homes before taking his own life.

See Sex Offender Registries: Putting Lives At Risk? — Double Murder of Maine Men Sparks Debate About Online Sex Registries — ABC News, April 18, 2006.

Illinois, 1998. Kristin Perk was just shy of 15 when she “came on” to her 35-year-old guitar teacher, Mark Perk, whom she married five years later in 2003. They now have two children, whose father is a registered sex offender because he had sex with their mother when she was too young.

See The witch-hunt continues: House Bill 5523 by Mark Zorn, Chicago Tribune blog, March 27, 2006 and Murders Put Focus on Sex-Offender Registry Policies, NPR News, April 21, 2006 (Audio report).

For more examples

For a similar list of cases, most of them different from the ones given here, see You Might Be a Sex Offender If … by Derek Logue.

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Soon enough there should be more people in prison than out of it here in Canada if the Conservatives and their sick Christian Fundamentalist (Council of National Policy backers), get it their way.

Here is a great story about the Conservatives for all the world to see.

November 24, 2009 8:00 a.m.

National Report by Lawrence Martin

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When in doubt, check the track record.

If that is done on the question of diplomat Richard Colvin’s testimony on the Afghan detainees, the Harper government’s side of the story doesn’t make it to the dance floor.

The Conservatives have a long history of trying to shield embarrassing truths from the public and of smearing anyone who challenges them. It’s one of the reasons critics were quick to pounce on Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s attempt to undermine Colvin last week.

In the same week, the Tories were distributing flyers to various ridings trying to paint the Liberals as anti-Jewish. The charge is ludicrous. Michael Ignatieff, one of the most right-wing leaders on foreign policy the Liberals have ever had, is decidedly pro-Israel. But that’s the way the Tories operate.

We recall how they went after Linda Keen, the former president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and how they slandered Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour, calling her a “national disgrace.” They smeared NDP members as being pro Taliban. As for their  record of secrecy and concealment, they may well exceed any Canadian government before them. They’ve muzzled their own ministers, shut down a giant government information registry, and made a mockery of access to information regulations.

No one should be surprised, therefore, if in fact they tried to cover up the Afghan prisoner abuse and are now forced into trying to discredit the whistleblower.

The Conservatives keep using smear tactics for a good reason. They work. Take the personal attack ads they launched against Liberal leaders Stéphane Dion and Ignatieff. Those leaders, who came out of the soft ivory tower of academia, had no response. Dion didn’t have the money to run counterattack ads. The party was broke. Iggy’s team had the money. But what did he do? After being belted by Conservative commercials labelling him a just-visiting, power-hungry, carpetbagger, he turned the other cheek. In a series of commercials he stood in front of a forest mouthing platitudes and bromides. Looking on, Stephen Harper was probably laughing his butt off.

The Grits, hovering at historic low levels of 23 per cent in the polls, desperately need a new strategy. They’ve got to throw out the kid gloves and start responding to the Tories in kind. Ignatieff hasn’t wished to be front and centre on the Afghan allegations because of his past controversial remarks on the use of torture.

But the torture allegations are only one element of this story. There’s a bigger one. It’s the alleged cover-up. Iggy should smear the Conservatives with that. Unlike most Tory charges, it might even be true.

Lawrence Martin is a journalist and author of 10 books who writes about national affairs from Ottawa

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Actions will ALWAYS speak louder than words.