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mygif

You know, coming from Sri Lankan roots, I find it hard to even find your mockery funny. The entire thing is terrible, truly terrible. That people can prove themselves even more terrible, via the internet…goes without saying.

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NCallahan said on May 11th, 2009 at 11:51 am

I am disturbed by how many political arguments come down to, “If you just shut up about everything and work yourself to death without complaint, you’d be instantly vaulted to the Western middle-class and would have nothing to complain about.”

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mygif

I don’t know if I’m sad or relieved that it’s the Same Shit on a Different Day and that the United States hardly corners the market for this brand of jackassery.

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Screaming Yellow Zonker Harris said on May 11th, 2009 at 1:27 pm

The Internet: an immature place for immature people to say immature things for immature reasons. (This website being a very large exception.)

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mygif

I’m disappointed that you didn’t include any comments from the CBC articles.

Your selection is significantly less frightening.

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Zenrage said on May 11th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

And right-wingers wonder why any media outlet that requires a degree of intellectualism simply doesn’t respect them

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mygif

Now now, Screaming Yellow, there’s no need to underestimate us, we can be pretty imature too.
*BOOOOOOOOBIES*
hee hee
**POOP**
hee hee hee
***SMART RIGHT WINGERS***
hahahahahahahahaha
see?

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Screaming Yellow Zonker Harris said on May 11th, 2009 at 2:09 pm

Al: Heh, point taken. 🙂

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Katzedecimal said on May 11th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis denounced the highway blockade as “not the way to go.” He’s right, highway blockades are not the accepted means of political protest in Canada — pie to the face, people! Pie to the face! At least they got the ‘peaceful’ part right.

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malakim2099 said on May 11th, 2009 at 3:15 pm

(This website being a very large exception.)

Zonk, I’d have to say that this site is for immature people to say immature things for mature reasons.

That makes all the difference. 🙂

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Andrew W. said on May 11th, 2009 at 3:26 pm

I’m a little lost as to what the correct reaction is then supposed to be to this blockade.

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Gustopher said on May 11th, 2009 at 3:40 pm

Canadian racists and right wingers seem much more polite than the US racists and right wingers. Their impotent rage is a little less raging.

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mygif

If, as Gary says, to be a REAL Canadian you have to be fighting for Canada in Afghanistan (?!), I say fuck being Canadian. I’m pretty sure most Canadians would agree.

Perhaps Gary would like to establish the Independent Republic of Real Canada somewhere along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. I would drive him to the airport.

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dirge93 said on May 11th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

Neat article in the Torontoist. Not sure what the post here is about. I admit not knowing that much about Canada, but even I knew it had racists and idiots with internet connections.

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Omnibusboy said on May 11th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

I’m shocked that people would be pissed off that a group of terrorist supporters was blocking a major roadway.

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mygif

I’m torn because I think your commentary is awesome and yet somehow I still just want to throw up.

@Omnibusboy and @Andrew W — I think the point is that, in Canada, there is a right to peaceful protest, even or perhaps especially should such protest inconvenience the citizenry. Protests that are conveniently out of the way don’t really do a whole lot in the way of … protest.

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mygif

When did Stormfront change its domain name?

Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis denounced the highway blockade as “not the way to go.” He’s right, highway blockades are not the accepted means of political protest in Canada — pie to the face, people! Pie to the face! At least they got the ‘peaceful’ part right.

Amen to that, brother.

Seriously, though, protests in the middle of a busy intersection really don’t carry much weight. If you want to be effective, a protest in front of your Congressman’s / Parlimentarian’s office at least shoves the message right into the face of the person that can do something about it. An impromptu street protest will get you cameras, but it really does raise the question of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Get a bunch of people to run a food drive in front of a bunch of grocery stores. Bombard the local papers / call-in radio stations / tv news stations with letters and phone calls to get some light on the issue. But blocking traffic really just gets people pissed off.

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mygif

Dude, here in Chicago, back in ’03 (I think, I’m recounting this from my admittedly poor memory) there was an anti-war protest that spilled into a busy intersection and stopped traffic for several hours.
The cops got on a blowhorn and said, “In 5 minutes everyone blocking the street will be arrested.”
Ya know what happened? 61 (maybe 63….stupid crappy memory) people got arrested, three of whom were friends of mine. No violence, no resisting arrest, and no jail time. People spent a couple hours in lock-up and all got either a fine or community service or both.
Bottom line, if you’re at a protest and it turns illegal, you either need to leave or be prepared to get arrested. If you don’t feel strongly enough about something to get arrested for it, you shouldn’t bother protesting.
NOTE: I assume that Canadian right-to-assembly/peacable protest laws are the same as the USA’s. If not, consider this criticism respectfully withdrawn.

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mygif

Also,
SAD FACT ABOUT US NEWS COVERAGE #1128:
Our news media is completely ignoring this. I heard about it on MGK first, and so far I’ve only seen it here!
Nor was I aware of Canada’s apparently large Tamil population.
Nor is anyone I know (except me, hooray BBC online) even AWARE of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
….so….yeah….bad times.

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Slab Beefbroth said on May 11th, 2009 at 6:29 pm

No real Canadians were inconvenienced by these protests, because as everyone knows, REAL Canadians ride their horses everywhere, hitch them up outside their igloos, and go eat their poutine and Timbits in polite silence.

My hat (made of real Canadian beaver fur, from real Canadian beavers) is off to all those brave men and women in their cars on the Gardiner protesting the presence of the Tamil protestors.

I myself plan to immolate myself (or at least develop a very inconveniencing sunburn) in front of the Eaton Centre to protest this protest.

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lawnmower boy said on May 11th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

I want to see the LTTE crushed in a way I haven’t felt since the Shining Path were still “Maoist guerillas.” To take some political point and turn it into an excuse to kill and kill and kill and… I have a hard time not seeing the minds behind the LTTE as psychopaths who take more pleasure in seeing their own deluded followers die than in the slaughter they accomplish in the process.
That said, the LTTE drew support for a reason, and there’s no reason to think Sri Lankha will suddenly be a place of equal opportunity and tolerance for its absence.
And then there are all the civilians…

But Torontians being stuck on the Gardiner? That’s just funny. Especially when they “miss their flights.”

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mygif

1) As Panzer said, hadn’t heard much about the war in Sri Lanka or the Tamil presence in Canada. American media isn’t very good for international news unless it’s an ally or enemy of the US.

2) Thought Canadians were all tolerant liberals, good to know there are ignorant hicks over there too. Although none of them dropped any racial slurs. I don’t know what that would even be for Tamils.

3) If an ethnic minority were to block, say, the Jersey Turnpike near NYC, I think some people would die. Canadians are at least more peaceful than that.

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Andrew W. said on May 11th, 2009 at 10:46 pm

“@Andrew W — I think the point is that, in Canada, there is a right to peaceful protest, even or perhaps especially should such protest inconvenience the citizenry.”

But even Bird said the protest was illegal. So does the fact no one got hurt trump that it was against the law, and I shouldn’t think they did anything wrong, or what?

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mygif

“But even Bird said the protest was illegal. So does the fact no one got hurt trump that it was against the law, and I shouldn’t think they did anything wrong, or what?”

Sorry, badly phrased. What I meant was, I imagine the correct response to the blockade ISN’T “oh gee whiz I wish they’d all go home to Sri Lanka,” “peaceful protest is the greatest evil to face our society today,” or — perhaps most relevant — “my inconvenience trumps the fact that your families are being murdered.”

It may have been illegal but it didn’t HURT — and it’s arguably within the ethics if not the law of a democratic society. Being pissed off that an illegal protest made you late to work is not wrong, but it’s demonstrably different from what MGK lists above, which are largely things like “since they made me late to work they threaten the very fabric of our once-proud nation.”

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mygif

Dude, you only used that last one so you could rub in my face that you cut out my trenchant observation.

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Evil Abraham Lincoln said on May 12th, 2009 at 12:51 am

They blocked traffic, but noone was killed? Canada is sounding better and better to be, because that would never happen in New York. I fear for the protesters who would try to block Queens Boulevard (AKA, the Boulevard of Death). They’d get run over without mercy (and I’m including the people in the sidewalks) before the protest could even begin.

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mygif

Oh my god, your right-wing xenophobes’ spelling is light-years beyond our right-wing xenophobes’! And the grammar- why, that grammar was relatively impeccable! Can we trade?

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mygif

Also, Canadian right-wingers haven’t shown up to post (impeccably spelled) trollish comments here yet. Should we lure them with fresh poutine?

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mygif

Two things.

One, I thought Canadians were universally polite! Where is this tremendous vein of racism coming from?

Two, though I disagreed with 99% of what was spouted off above, haven’t we all wanted to see – and for a while now – a mob of Irish attack, throwing potatoes at passers-by? American or Canadian, I believe that this is overdue.

Also, poutine is gross, and an affront to most everything holy.

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mygif

Wow, that’s depressing.

CATS AND DOGS SLEEPING TOGETHER

Okay, that cheered me up a bit.

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mygif

“Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis denounced the highway blockade as “not the way to go.””

Well no, obviously if there is a blockade you should take a different route. That’s just sense! *eyeroll*

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mygif

I’m disappointed that you didn’t include any comments from the CBC articles.

Yeah, I didn’t recognize any CBCesspool formatting, either.

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mygif

Actually, the comments about how cowardly and terroristic it is to use children as human shields make perfect sense. At least if we assume that those comments are made by the same people who are being outraged that the police didn’t use water cannons etc to break up the protest.

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Jonathan said on May 13th, 2009 at 8:29 am

Dude, I’m not sure how healthy it is to be collecting news article comments and putting them in one place, let alone responding or even try to comprehend the thought process behind them. Everyone already knows those are the worst.

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Rob Brown said on May 13th, 2009 at 10:30 pm

I didn’t get all the way through those comments but some of them are really unbelievable. The worst one I got to (there may be something worse further down) was the guy who bragged about how “we white people kicked Native butt.” That is fucked up. As is the comment by the guy who called for “enforcement” and actually put quotes around the word so it’d be clear that he WAS calling for police brutality.

Back in February or March I was walking down Bloor and passed a Tamil demonstration on the sidewalk. It seemed to be loud, but peaceful, and wasn’t causing any problems that I could see. I think that’s the best way to protest.

Blocking the Gardner’s different. It’s pissing people off by inconveniencing them, and if you piss people off they aren’t going to be terribly inclined to help you. I don’t see how doing this helps their cause.

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Uber Geek said on May 15th, 2009 at 12:16 am

The way I see it is that the Sri Lankian (sp?) is using a crack down on the Tigers to conduct a genocide on the Tamil minority. They are trying to keep it on the down low, which is why they’re keeping aid workers and journalists away from the conflict.

I think the reason the Tamils are using the Tigers flag is because there is no official Tamil flaf and they’re using it as a symbol.

Finally, I believe that all racists should be beaten to the full extent of the law.

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[…] remember when I did that thing making fun of people commenting on the Internet about a given bit of news? Torontoist asked me to do it again after the end of the Toronto city […]

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