Ghost of a flea

I was part of that thread over at the "prominent Canadian "conservative" blog". I hope I did not come across as a half-baked wingnut with my suggestion for less state involvement in marriage, but I suspect that I did.

The anger apparent in many of the posts over there was surprising and disturbing. I expected better from the posters there, for some reason.

If the majority of westerners -- I'm assuming most of posters there are in Alberta or Sask -- are like that, then I fear that within 10 years of Alberta gaining independence, we'll see headlines like these:

"17 of the 19 highjackers carried Alberta passports"

There has been so much bile out there lately that I actually do not know if we are talking about the same blog at all, let alone any argument you might have made. I wrote a long anguished reply to your comment, Lickmuffin but mainly wanted to say I laughed out loud at that Alberta passport line. I hope it forever remains an exaggeration.

When I was a goth teenager I got into some trouble with a gang of idiots who decided to have a go at me. They were real brave as a group. Still, they were teenage guys and thus could be excused some of their need to conform to each other, to some idea of masculinity and to avoid ever being singled out like the creepy kid. What I will never forget, and never forgive, was the busload of Ottawa civil servants on their way to work who shared the bus with me, saw everything that was happening and did nothing to stop it. It seems to me that this is at the root of how fascism works. The silent, propertied folks let the skinheads and the bully boys do the dirty work for them. I saw this in Vancouver during Expo86 when most people I knew believed the police gave the skins a blank cheque to go after the punks and the metalheads and worst of all the homeless who had no prayer of defending themselves.

I realize I moderate comments more than many blogs and this has been a pain to some folks. I have certainly offended some people I did not mean to by deleting materials I believed to be off-topic or vulgar. I cannot say I always get the balance right. One thing you will never see me do, however, is post something and rely on an unmoderated comments section to voice the opinions I am too sly, too cowardly to take responsibility for myself. What I read at that blog was so ugly I will not link to it. It left me ashamed of this country and with a feeling of pity for the person who hosted it.