Being born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, in my youth I took forests, wildlife and clean air and water for granted. In Canada, they do a great job of insulating their citizens from reality – they keep a swath of forest up around every highway and town, leading you to believe that you live in a Nature Wonderland where bears and deer frolic and thrive. However, when I journeyed into the center of B.C. to start treeplanting at age 19, I discovered their dirty secret. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by death and destruction. I saw that behind our composting, recycling and cycling goodie-two-shoes backs, the Canadian government was giving permission to corporations (often American corporations) to lay waste to our backyard. I have stood in the middle of clearcuts, breathing in nothing but dust and decay, standing on what I can only describe as a mowed-down forest, the equivalent of a mass grave stretching for miles, and felt sick and depressed. “It brings jobs” they say; while what it really brings is massive amounts of profit that the management’s kids spend on champagne while their parents line the pockets of politicians.
One such project in the works across B.C. is the PTP, or the Pacific Trails Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline owned and operated by Apache Canada, Encana and EOG Resources, otherwise known as Enron Oil and Gas. Yes! Enron! Those motherfuckers are still being allowed to fuck the planet up!!! The people who are trying to stop them are the Unis’tot’en clan of the We’suet’en Nation, who have established an action camp on their land in direct opposition to the pipeline project. Our favorite Canadian new source, subMedia.tv, traveled up to their Action Camp to interview members of the clan and activists about the stance they are taking against the PTP. It is inspiring to see people standing against what can sometimes seem like the overwhelming power of the Evil Empire. But remember – if we stand together, we can take them down. Check out the subMedia.tv episode below, and one of their earlier reports about the PTP after the jump.

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Real hate mongers come in many different shapes and wave many different signs. Vice TV did a documentary entitled Brainwashed by the Westboro Baptist Church that focused on a group of truly hateful people and so-called Christians that I hope are burned alive by the hands of their own inner demons! This group of anti-human pond scum are so fucking backwards it’s almost like they are tragic comedy troupe. By the name of their website, “GODHATESFAGS,” you can tell that these people have marbles for brains. This film takes a look at how WBC followers live their lives by a strict set of rules set down by their leader, Pastor Fred Phelps. The way that these people hate homosexuals, I have a feeling that they are all closet gays and really hate themselves. I would never, or could never, believe in the same GOD that these inbred fucks pray to. On the other hand, it’s good to know how the real hate mongers think. Now watch Brainwashed by the Westboro Baptist Church after the jump!

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Written by: Michele Collet
via Environmental Graffiti

Set up as a top-secret biological and chemical weapons facility during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War Two, Unit 731 has been referred to as the Asian Auschwitz. Through the practice of lethal human experimentation, the unit is thought to have been responsible for the death of up to 200,000 civilians and military personnel – the vast majority Chinese and Korean nationals, but also South East Asians, Pacific Islanders and Allied POWs. In the sprawling six kilometer-square complex in the city of Harbin (now part of Northeast China) those behind the sickening ‘research’ developed some of the most cruel and sadistic experiments ever to be conducted on human victims. These included vivisection, amputations, germ warfare tests, explosive weapons testing, and much more.

Sheldon H. Harris, one of the foremost historians on Unit 731, explained in a History Channel documentary how the people tortured and killed were treated as objects: “These scientists had a weird sense of humor,” Harris revealed. “They referred to their victims as “matures”, which, loosely translated, is logs, and that’s how they thought about them, as pieces of wood, not as humans. They could cut them up; they could burn them in a fireplace… If they ran short of candidates, the secret police would just literally sweep the streets of the city and pick up enough candidates for the lab.”

D.O.A. gave a bunch of young punks in the 80′s a listen in politics that our schools were not giving us! These Canadian punks knew how to play their instruments and write fantastic songs that have stood the test of time. In a way, D.O.A. were like the North American version of The Clash. I remember when I got my copy of War on 45 not only was the cover rad as fuck but the tunes had me bouncing off the walls for weeks. I feel pretty lucky that I got to see them a bunch when I was younger, and I never remember them putting on a bad performance. In my book, D.O.A. wrote anthems for a generation to listen to and wake the fuck up! Joey Shithead and crew have given their lives to punk and everything it stands for. Now it’s time to check out D.O.A. Smash the State, which is a video full of vintage show footage, and the quality is outstanding! CVLT Nation salutes this band for all of their sacrifices – D.O.A. has helped pave the way for future generations!

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There was a time when the occult was in the mind’s eye of the public in a real way. The golden era of Satanism and Anton LaVey brought the occult and occult beliefs into the public sphere as lifestyles, and as a result, many documentaries were made in a effort to explain them to people. One such documentary is the 1969 Italian film Angeli bianchi…Angeli Neri, directed by Luigi Scattini and later renamed Witchcraft ’70 for the American release (they probably didn’t want “black” and “angel” in the same sentence). It purported to be a hidden camera view of occult rituals, with the byline “The Shocking Truth About WITCHCRAFT as it Exists Today in Our Cities and Suburbs!” enticing the masses into theaters. Scattini travels around the world giving us a glimpse into the rites and rituals performed in England, Brazil and the US, celebrating Satan, voodoo, black magic, exorcism and pagan rituals. He was inspired to begin the documentary by the occult-related grave desecrations in Highgate Cemetery in London in the late 1960s. He then continued to explore the ideas of magick and parapsychology in countries around the world, culminating in his 6th film, Angeli bianchi…Angeli Neri aka Witchcraft ’70 (the poster for which was the inspiration behind our Death Trip print). Despite it’s scandalous and voyeuristic marketing approach, it is a very interesting and intimate look at occult practices at the time. Check out the full documentary after the jump!

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Venice skaters can’t be fucked with when it come to style – maybe it’s something in the beach air. As a young skater, I knew that it wasn’t always doing the rarest trick, it was how cool you looked while you were doing it! I have been lucky enough to see some way beyond awesome skaters rip shit at the Break Water in the 70′s & 80′s. One stood out more than others, and his name was Christian Hosoi. When this dude came around, we all pretty much stopped what we were doing because all eyes were on him. At one point, it seemed like he was on top of the world and nothing and no one could fuck with him. That wasn’t the case – he did crash and burn, only to rise again. In 2006, a Venice local named Block directed a film about Christian Hosoi entitled Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboader Christian Hosoi. The documentary takes a hard and real look at this Hosoi’s life, and it is done with the right kind of emotional impact. So after the jump, you’ll see how Venice skaters know how to Skate & Destroy…CVLT Nation is now showing Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboader Christian Hosoi.

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One of the greatest hip hop groups to ever do it, hands down, is the WU TANG CLAN. Many people only saw the MC’S, but there were people in the shadows that helped create what we all saw up front. To be specific, Oliver “POWER” Grant was one of those people. He was behind the scenes from day one holding it down. The Avant/Garde Diaries recently caught up with him and he broke town the true chemistry of the WU TANG CLAN. So after the jump, peep the video and get your Witty Unpredictable Talent And Natural Game ON!

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a href=”http://www.cvltnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/soviet-union-russia-invasion-afghanistan-1979-history-pictures-images-photos-afghan-jihad-mujahideen.jpg”>BBC’s 1998 documentary, The Quran and the Kalashnikov, is incredibly surreal to watch in 2012. This documentary outlines the basis for the West’s – more importantly, the American – demonization of Islam and the Muslim faith in the context of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and the beginning of the Soviet/Afghan War. As many of you already know, this was also the beginning of the CIA training of Osama Bin Laden and the Mujahideen, which also coincided with billions in aid from the US and Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, The Quran and the Kalashnikov claims that the use of the term jihad as meaning an actual defensive war on a battlefield had not been embraced by the Muslim world until the Soviet/Afghan War. Furthermore, the US legitimized and supported the Afghani Mujahideen’s use of the term jihad, as well as the perception that this was not just a territorial war, but a war on the Muslim religion itself. The US strategically pitted the spectre of Communism against the righteousness of religion in order to win support from the Afghanis, the American people and from other Western nations. However, once the Soviets were defeated almost 10 years later, the Mujahideen were left without an ally in the US, and were told that any further attempts at jihad in Bosnia, Palestine, Chechnya or any other Muslim nation under threat were illegitimate and illegal.

What this documentary reveals, especially to a non-American who was not subject to anti-Muslim propaganda to the same degree in the 90′s, is that the War on Terror started long before Bush II came into power. There are numerous clips of the “peaceful” and “liberal” President Clinton talking about the threat of Muslim terrorist attacks in the US – it’s almost as if since the first Gulf War there have been a book of Terrorist quotes that Clinton, Bush II and Obama all read from during speeches. With all that has happened and continues to happen in Afghanistan and the Middle East over the past 11 years, it is really eerie to watch a documentary that lines up the course of history that has led us here, before the term al-Qaeda was invented and before 9/11 became the bastion for all suffering. What it makes me realize is that people want to be ignorant, they want to bury themselves in a false “reality,” because once you look away from the flatscreen what you see is dark, corrupt and evil. History repeats itself over and over again because of greed on the part of the powerful and baseline stupidity on the part of the masses they control. After the jump, watch The Quran and the Kalashnikov and stay wise to their bullshit.

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The San Franciso-based GRIME is a sick as fuck tattooist that has style for daze! His aesthetic reminds me of the sickest 80′s skate graphics on steroids through the lens of an ancient samurai. I’m totally intrigued with his vast imagination and use of color that almost give his tattoos a 3D quality. VICE TV created a documentary series entitled Tattoo Age, and this episode featuring GRIME is very informative and interesting! Today, CVLT Nation would like to celebrate the work of this tattoo wizard with a huge photo gallery of his work, plus we are showing the documentary after the jump as well!

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Aleister Crowley, aka The Great Beast 666, was an extremely complex individual who left his mark on society in a very big way. The documentary The Wickedest Man In The World examines the ups and downs of Aleister’s life. There is so much more that could be said about Crowley that could not be fit into this 45 minute film. Anyway, you have look at this documentary and be your own judge. After the jump peep The Wickedest Man In The World.

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