Mudpuddle

Photo Hunt: Road

2011-04-16T14:39:00.001-04:00

I am going to try uploading this week's posting here since Wordpress won't let me upload the images I want, for some silly reason. (I also tried importing my Wordpress blog here but while the posts appear in my dashboard, they don't seem to be appearing here...)

This week's Photo Hunt theme is Road.

Since I spend a LOT of time on the road, I tend to have a LOT of photos of roads or taken on or from favourite roads.

Since Mom can't drive any more and spends a lot of time sitting watching TV while am working upstairs, we go out as often as we can for drives in the country. We try to stick to that back roads as much as we can. And by "back roads" I mean BACK roads.... the old dirt roads and tracks. If the car can fit down the road, we'll take it. Although, because of Mom's health, I am a little more selective about some of the tracks I once used to attempt. We now avoid the ones where I don't know if we are going to be faced with a six-foot-deep hole in the road resulting in an 85-point turn on a track that is barely wider than the car, and deep, water-filled ditches on either side...

I have taken thousands of photos up and down most of these roads, of abandoned houses and farms and cemeteries; of swamps, cows, and electrical pylons (not necessarily at the same time); of gatepost lions and guard dogs (often at the same time); of duck binds and tree-houses.... Some are old favourites taken in all seasons. Others are spotted once on a road I haven't been able to locate again. And some have been photographed many times but have now disappeared...

And, of course... I like to fiddle with some of the resulting images. Here are a few of those.

Dashboard hula dancer

2010-07-25T02:13:00.004-04:00

"Turn Your Porch Light On"

2010-07-20T17:53:00.003-04:00

Forgot to mention

2009-12-01T12:50:00.000-05:00

I am now using WordPress (which I think is "okay" but limited but is never "broken").

You can find me here.

three minutes...

2008-12-31T18:27:00.007-05:00

In the mid 1970s, it was found that, because of synthetic materials and other combustibles in homes, it took just over 4 minutes for life to be insupportable in the average house fire...

That was 4 minutes from the time the fire was detected until you had not chance of surviving.

How many of us assume that working smoke detectors give us "more time" and that our houses are "safer" than they were in the 1970s?

In fact, our houses are less safe when it comes to fire. Our homes are filled with plastic children's toys, fabrics, cushion stuffing, clothing, upholstery, carpeting, electronics and a myriad of other materials and products which, in a fire, increase combustibility and release of toxic smoke and gases during a fire.

Experts now have determined that, in the average house fire, from the moment that a fire is detected until life becomes unsupportable, you have 3 minutes to get out of your house.

3 minutes before you die.

This means that, rather than trying to locate valuables... rather than trying to put out the fire yourself... you should be getting yourself and your loved ones out of the house.

Some facts:

In only 3 1/2 minutes, the heat from a house fire can reach over 1100 degrees Fahrenheit.
In rooms that are not even on fire the temperature can reach over 300 degrees; this is hot enough to melt plastic and kill the people in those rooms.

An excellent PDF on fire escape planning

While this video involves a Christmas tree, I think it amply proves how quickly a fire can become fully involved.

Take a note of the time from the start of the video and the time at the end of the film...

If you think this is unusual behaviour for people knowing that there is a fire, I can tell you it is not.

When I worked in the book store, we had two occasions when we had small fires in the ceiling lights and tried to evacuate the store while the fire department arrived. On both occasions, the customers insisted on being allowed to shop until the firemen arrived, even congregating directly under the lights which were dropping molten metal and sparks below.... in a book store crammed to the rafters with paper.

We quite literally had to threaten them with police charges is they did not leave the store.

What to do when a pan of grease catches fire

"Milk"

2008-11-26T21:57:00.002-05:00

Keith Olbermann on Proposition 8

2008-11-16T23:13:00.005-05:00

Thank you, Keith, for probably the best and most impassioned speech in support of the right for same-sex couples to marry.

It is offensive that on the eve of the final emancipation of African Americans, America chooses to embark on yet another campaign to not just deny but to destroy the civil rights of another segment of its population.

Transcription:

Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the passage, last week, of Proposition Eight in California, which rescinded the right of same-sex couples to marry, and tilted the balance on this issue, from coast to coast.

Some parameters, as preface. This isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics, and this isn't really just about Prop-8. And I don't have a personal investment in this: I'm not gay, I had to strain to think of one member of even my very extended family who is, I have no personal stories of close friends or colleagues fighting the prejudice that still pervades their lives.

And yet to me this vote is horrible. Horrible. Because this isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics. This is about the human heart, and if that sounds corny, so be it.

If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don't want to deny you yours. They don't want to take anything away from you. They want what you want—a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

Only now you are saying to them—no. You can't have it on these terms. Maybe something similar. If they behave. If they don't cause too much trouble. You'll even give them all the same legal rights—even as you're taking away the legal right, which they already had. A world around them, still anchored in love and marriage, and you are saying, no, you can't marry. What if somebody passed a law that said you couldn't marry?

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage. If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal in 1967. 1967.

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn't have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it's worse than that. If this country had not "re-defined" marriage, some black people still couldn't marry black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not "Until Death, Do You Part," but "Until Death or Distance, Do You Part." Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are gay.

And uncountable in our history are the number of men and women, forced by society into marrying the opposite sex, in sham marriages, or marriages of convenience, or just marriages of not knowing, centuries of men and women who have lived their lives in shame and unhappiness, and who have, through a lie to themselves or others, broken countless other lives, of spouses and children, all because we said a man couldn't marry another man, or a woman couldn't marry another woman. The sanctity of marriage.

How many marriages like that have there been and how on earth do they increase the "sanctity" of marriage rather than render the term, meaningless?

What is this, to you? Nobody is asking you to embrace their expression of love. But don't you, as human beings, have to embrace... that love? The world is barren enough.

It is stacked against love, and against hope, and against those very few and precious emotions that enable us to go forward. Your marriage only stands a 50-50 chance of lasting, no matter how much you feel and how hard you work.

And here are people overjoyed at the prospect of just that chance, and that work, just for the hope of having that feeling. With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division, and people pitted against people for no good reason, this is what your religion tells you to do? With your experience of life and this world and all its sadnesses, this is what your conscience tells you to do?

With your knowledge that life, with endless vigor, seems to tilt the playing field on which we all live, in favor of unhappiness and hate... this is what your heart tells you to do? You want to sanctify marriage? You want to honor your God and the universal love you believe he represents? Then Spread happiness—this tiny, symbolic, semantical grain of happiness—share it with all those who seek it. Quote me anything from your religious leader or book of choice telling you to stand against this. And then tell me how you can believe both that statement and another statement, another one which reads only "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

You are asked now, by your country, and perhaps by your creator, to stand on one side or another. You are asked now to stand, not on a question of politics, not on a question of religion, not on a question of gay or straight. You are asked now to stand, on a question of love. All you need do is stand, and let the tiny ember of love meet its own fate.

You don't have to help it, you don't have it applaud it, you don't have to fight for it. Just don't put it out. Just don't extinguish it. Because while it may at first look like that love is between two people you don't know and you don't understand and maybe you don't even want to know. It is, in fact, the ember of your love, for your fellow person just because this is the only world we have. And the other guy counts, too.

This is the second time in ten days I find myself concluding by turning to, of all things, the closing plea for mercy by Clarence Darrow in a murder trial.

But what he said, fits what is really at the heart of this:

"I was reading last night of the aspiration of the old Persian poet, Omar-Khayyam," he told the judge. "It appealed to me as the highest that I can vision. I wish it was in my heart, and I wish it was in the hearts of all: So I be written in the Book of Love; I do not care about that Book above. Erase my name, or write it as you will, So I be written in the Book of Love."

2008-11-05T00:40:00.002-05:00

First Snow

2008-10-31T12:50:00.028-04:00

Deja-vu all over, again....

2008-10-19T03:07:00.010-04:00

Dateline, July 24, 1967....

Charles de Gaulle, then France's President, gives a barely disguised pro-Quebec liberation speech and shouts "Vive le Québec libre!" (Long live Free Québec!) to a crowd in Montreal, setting off a media frenzy, outrage from most Canadians, frenzied delight from supporters of Quebec Separatism, and a major diplomatic incident.

"It is a great emotion that fills my heart to see before me the French city of Montréal!
In the name of the old country, in the name of France, I salute you! I salute you with all my heart!

I would tell you a secret that you cannot repeat. Here this evening, and all the length of my trip, I found myself in the same sense of atmosphere as the Liberation! And all the length of my trip, in addition, I have noticed what immense efforts of progress, of development, and consequently of empowerment that you have accomplished here, and that it is to Montréal that I must give this statement, because, if there is a city in the world exemplary of modern success, it is yours! I say it is yours, and I permit myself to say, it is ours!

If you knew what confidence France, waking up after immense troubles, now carries for you, if you knew what affection she has started to feel again for the Frenchmen of Canada, and if you knew to what point she feels obliged to further your march that is before you, to your progress.

It's why she has finalised with the Government of Quebec, with my friend Johnson here, the agreements for which the French on this side and the other of the Atlantic can work together towards the same French undertaking. And, of course, the aid that France brings here, each day a little more, she knows well that you will reciprocate because you are building the best factories, enterprises, laboratories, which will be an astonishment for all, and which, one day, I know you will allow to aid France.

This is what I have come this evening to say, and that I will bring back from this unforgettable Montréal reunion, an unforgettable souvenir! The entirety of France knows, sees, hears that which is happening here, and I would tell you, she is better for it!

Long live Montreal!
Long live Quebec!
Long live free Quebec!

Long live, long live... long live French Canada!
And long live France!"

Dateline October 18, 2008, French President Nicolas Sarkozy gives a speech at the Francophonie Summit in Quebec City which has Canadian officials singing his praises and many in the Sovereignty movement screaming bloody murder.

Sarkozy stressed that France has a special relationship with Quebec based on 400 years of history. "I first want to extend a fraternal greeting to all Quebecois," he said. "I say fraternal because history has made us, French and Quebecois, brothers, because you, Quebecois hold a special place in the hearts of the French." He ended his speech with a distant echo of General de Gaulle: "Long live the friendship between Canada and France, and long live the fraternity between the French people and the Quebecois people."

However, he spent much of his speech dealing with the international financial crisis and called for Quebec to join in an overhaul of the capitalist system. "We have to reintroduce into the economy ethics, principles of justice and a social and moral responsibility," he said.

Later, speaking at a press conference, Sarkozy said:

"I have always been a friend of Canada," he said.

"That has been a constant in my political life, because Canada has always been an ally of France, it is a member of the G8, and frankly, if there is someone who wants to say that the world today needs more division, it means we do not have the same reading of the world,"

Sarkozy also said that he doesn't see how love for Quebec "has to feed proof of defiance toward Canada."

What apparently has some Federalists (pro-Quebec sovereignty) upset was that, unlike de Gaulle, Sarkozy didn't intimate that if Quebec left Canada tomorrow France would be supporting them all the way. In fact, he downright supported a united Canada!

Sovereignists are divided on both the meaning and the import of what Sarkozy said.

Some, like former Parti Québécois leader Lucien Bouchard said it was "inspiring and beautiful", in the other hand, former PQ leader Jacques Parizeau described Sarkozy's remarks as an attack on the movement, a "very anti-sovereignist judgment of Quebec. It means, 'We don't agree with the sovereignty of Quebec.'"

While the night before, after Sarkozy's speech at the Legislature, she declared Sarkozy's words "music to my ears", PQ leader Pauline Marois was tight-lipped about Sarkozy's statement at the press conference. However, she is now telling reporters that "Mr. Sarkozy has perhaps misunderstood our project." "Did he want to talk about division owing to the financial crisis?" she asked. "Maybe he does not understand the Quebec people's sovereignty project, which, on the contrary, is a very inclusive project, open to the world and modern.

"People for decades around the world have given themselves countries, and I think Mr. Sarkozy rejoiced." Marois said that what was important during Sarkozy's visit was his speech in the National Assembly, where, she said, the president made a "solemn declaration" that he wants a privileged - one-on-one and equal - relationship with Quebec.

"In this sense, I think it is a very positive declaration that recognizes us".

Jacques Parizeau called Sarkozy's remarks at the Citadelle "astounding." "It is a very ancient judgment on the sovereignty of Quebec. This is to say, 'We do not agree with the sovereignty of Quebec. We accept other divisions around the world, but not this one.'.... I don't recall ever having seen a state leader say this during all the big debates on Quebec sovereignty, during the entire referendum campaign."

Former PQ [Parti Quebecois] leader Bernard Landry demanded a clarification of Sarkozy's remarks (not that he is likely to get one)....

"I hope the president of the republic expressed himself poorly and that it is not the way he actually thinks," Landry said. "If the president of the French republic came and interfered in our affairs and took a position against the independence of Quebec, well, then it is extremely serious.

"I hope this is not it. This same president of the French republic greeted - and enthusiastically is the least you can say - the independence of Kosovo and he recognized that of Montenegro. If he loves us, let us go toward our destiny.

"It is not up to France to decide - it's Quebec." Landry said he hopes Sarkozy didn't violate the traditional French policy of non-interference toward Quebec, and said "the burden of proof" rests on his shoulders."

Dear me......

Rebranding for charity

2008-10-18T13:20:00.012-04:00

Last night, I heard an interview on the CBC with Richard Humphrey, charity co-ordinator for "His Church", a Bedfordshire-based charitable organisation.

In co-operation with local Trading Standards authorities, legitimate brand-holders (such as Disney and the Manchester United football organizaton) and police, His Church "recycles" goods (everything from t-shirts to cds to toys to computers), which would have once been destined for the dump, into items redistributed to the needy in Europe and Africa.

Richard Humphrey of "His Church" with a Worcestershire
County Council official and seized goods

Counterfeit fabric labels on clothing are covered over with the His Church label, boots and shoes are literally branded using a branding iron, and larger printed logos on t-shirts covered with printed His Church logos. DVDs and videos are blanked and recorded with His Church promotional videos. Even items which cannot be rebranded have their use! CDs are granulated to be recreated into the plastic coating for pencils and clothing that cannot be rebranded is shredded to make labels for those that can be.

Richard Humphrey with a fake and rebranded shirts

Every step of the process from the moment His Church receives the material to its redistribution is carefully documented to ensure that no prodect ends up back in the market as "legitimate goods" and an audit is made available to the Trading Standards authorities.

The value in this sort of project should be fairly evident. Counterfeit and pirated material is confiscated and would normally be destroyed. Prior to destruction, it would need to be stored. Every seized product costs the authorities money. As well, they appreciate the fact that while products are off their hands, it is going to benefit charity.

[Trading Standards] Team leader Gina Green said: "We have a real win/win relationship with the charity. Not only do they solve a storage problem for us, but it's great to know that counterfeit goods will be used to help homeless and underprivileged people, rather than being destroyed."

In some cases, certain items may, working with the legitimate brand-holder, be distributed directly to recipients without rebranding. A shipment of Disney toys were given to children in an orphanage in Africa, with the permission of Disney. As well, Robbie Williams okayed the distribution of shirts with his name on them to orphans in Liberia, and Manchester United likewise permitted branded clothing to be given to orphans in Eastern Europe.

His Church's production centre is located in a former aircraft hangar and in the last six months (as of January 2008) processed 200,000 kg of food and thousands and thousands of kgs of clothing that would otherwise have ended up burned or in a landfill site.

Not all the product they handle is actually counterfeit. Producers who have overstocks of food items which would otherwise be destroyed are more than willing to have them taken off their hands. Items such as 20 pallets of margarine which had been ordered for a promotion that fell through ended up being given to the charity. Pasta which had been produced in the wrong shape and canned goods mislabelled have passed through the doors of His Church before being redistributed to the needy.

Although His Church is a Christian charity, it does not restrict who benefits from its giving.

His Church are fully accredited by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) to undertake the de-branding and re-badging process and will provide full disposal schedules, ensuring that the goods supplied to them are not fed back into the counterfeit supply chain.

A number of other organizations are finding benefit in the apprehension of pirated and counterfeit products.

An article in the BBC News profiles St. David's Foundation in Wales, which is involved with palliative care, has a program which involves prisoners in Usk Prison rebranding of goods seized by the Welsh Trading Standards authorities and selling the items in their 12 charity shops. Some items are rebranded -- clothing labels changed, while others are otherwise made saleable, such as CDs with are blanked and sold on a blank disks

"Charity worker Alan Devonald said it was an excellent way of recycling goods which had been confiscated from the black market.
"It is the first scheme of its kind in Wales and is a great way of utilising products that would otherwise have to be destroyed," he said.
"Not only are we recycling goods but we are able to make money for the charity."

The Children's Society, a UK-based childrens charity also worked with local Trading Standards groups to rebrand illegal items with their own logo "Subterfuge" for sale in its charity shops. "The project's been running for about 5 years and it's safe to say we have raised £120,000 for The Children's Society,"

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Illegal-goods-shipped-to-Africa.3620301.jp

http://www.lutontoday.co.uk/todays-choice/VIDEO-Pirate-goods-are-the.3727092.jp

http://archive.lancashireeveningtelegraph.co.uk/2005/1/15/449762.html

Sure, they TASTE good.... but REALLY!

2008-10-13T01:49:00.011-04:00

My dear friend az in a posting on her blog, alerted me to a blog which features truly horrific knitted "creations, called "Why Would You Knit That?"."Why Would You Knit That?" is dedicated to.... ermmmm... "unusual" and/or downright horrific knitted creations.

Being as I am a firm believer in following links, I found my way from "Why Would You Knit That?"to "Cake Wrecks".

"A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places."

Yowsah!

Now, not all the cakes are actual "wrecks" and the blogista sometimes features cakes which are actually kind of cool --the Super Mario wedding cake, ferinstance ( The one she originally intended to feature is shown at the bottom of the post and is... well... somewhat Wreck-ish) -- However, there are quite enough awesomely awful cakes to horrify and delight you. From the blog description, these are not "home made" cakes. These are "professionally" made cakes. That makes them all the more horrifying.

from "Cake Wrecks"

I am thinking that someone scraped all the icing off the "Rose" cake and created the "Ojai" cake. Just a guess....

from "Cake Wrecks"

Yeah... I held a party when I got out of jail and no one ordered me a cake....

The piece de resistance... so far, anyway... the wedding cake which was requested to look like this (but "all white with minor green accents"):

from "Cake Wrecks"

I won't spoil the story which is even worse than the resulting cake. Suffice to say that had I been Vicky the bride, the caterer would be sleeping with the fishes before the reception was over.

Click on the photo to go to the posting about this cake. You will be horrified you did.

Widgety thing from Fotki....

2008-10-12T04:44:00.001-04:00

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Sigh.....

2008-10-07T08:04:00.002-04:00

This morning, I was awakened at 7:30 am by a "tree pruning" company hacking away with chainsaws at the beautiful trees in our co-op.

Apparently, the chopping of 8 to 12 feet of branches from the ground up and rendering the trees a lot less beautiful is for "security reasons". The idea is that we can see anyone lurking about on the property. Of course, I can now see into the living room of the people opposite, now and there are less branches for birds to call home.

Some years ago, I was on the Board for the co-op and we had an on-going problem with kids hanging out in the open area behind our set of units and the community building, as well as vandalism and thefts from the community building and several units. At that time, we ordered that a motion-sensitive security light be installed which would hopefully stop this problem. The committee responsible made all sorts of excuses as to why this wasn't feasible and why they didn't want to do so. We finally ordered them to do it.... It was never done.

So, now, we are back to having our trees hacked up rather than spend a $100 or so dollars on a security light.

Meanwhile, on most summer evenings, groups of teens congregate at the end of one set of units across our parking lot drinking, partying, and breaking bottles until the wee hours or until the police are called. The one street light at that end of the co-op has been broken for years. A security light would solve that problem.

In my missive to the Board this morning, I almost suggested that we chop down all the trees, remove the fences, put up security bars and have roving bands of co-op members armed with baseball bats wander about the co-op at all times to provide "security".

In fact, one of our "security conscious" neighbours actually suggested a few years ago that we have a "security patrol" do night patrols. Oddly, whenever the kids are creating a ruckus requiring the police be called, I haven't seen this particular neighbour out and about "providing security".

Quite frankly, I am of the opinion that the "tree trimming" has less to do with "security" and more to do with a certain member's fetish for ensuring that all vegetation be removed with the exception of small, geometrically planted plots of annuals in front of each unit. This same member came over when my nephew was doing some yard work (preparing for the fence replacements) when I wasn't home and ordered him to yank out all my plants along the fenceline. This despite the fact that he wasn't on the committee in charge of preparing for the fencing and the person who was had visited and we discussed what should and should not come out.

The other member chopped down all the trees around our unit and ordered my nephew to tear up the entire garden, whether or not they would have in any way affected the work to be done.

It must really gall him that many of the plants, though displaced, grew back. Although my garden looks like Hell, I am letting the plants grow as they will and to Hell with him. Sadly, the trees are gone for good.

This is the same person who chopped down a tree rather than fix the retaining wall around our yard. The tree he chopped down wasn't the one causing subsidance... so, of course, the one that was had to be chopped down, as well.

An update on the hands, including some grossity!

2008-10-06T01:40:00.002-04:00

Wherein, you get to see actual footage of my stitches, and some fancy X-ray diagrams with arrows and coloured lines.... Educational! Three and 4 syllable words!!

A little behind on the news

2008-10-06T00:54:00.004-04:00

Because of all the things that have happened in the last week or so, I have been behind on the news.

Firstly, I was unaware, though I have been watching the court case off and on, that O.J. was convicted.

About fricking time. Sadly, I think he should have been convicted 13 years ago for the murder of Nicole and Ron Goldman. At least this set of convictions seems to have wiped the smirk off his face.

Secondly, I hadn't heard of Paul Newman's death.

Paul Newman was one of those men you just thought was, like the Energizer Bunny, was going to keep going, and going, and going, and going.....

I am very lucky....

2008-10-05T17:05:00.008-04:00

Several things have happened in the last while to impress upon me just how very lucky I am...

I don't mean that I have a great lifestyle or lots of money so am "lucky".

"Luck" often is used in the sense of "winning" something.... the lottery, having gotten a good job... things like that. In this case, I mean that in managing to survive thus far in life, I am lucky. To have the people around me that care for and love me... I am lucky.

We often take for granted what we have in life, either not appreciating just WHAT we do have and frittering it away or forgetting the fact that others don't have it so good. Occasionally, we are faced with the fact that a split second may well have been the difference between life and death. Occasionally, we come so close to death that it makes us step back and think.... "I could have died"....

Occasionally, it is the fate of someone we know or someone who shared an experience but did not survive that pulls us up short and makes us question "Why them and why not me?"

That "moment" for me was faced last Saturday.

As I have mentioned in this blog, I recently had an accident that could have been far, far worse than it was. For reasons I won't go into, it has been impressed (by others but also by myself) on me just HOW "lucky" I was to come out relatively unscathed. I have some broken bones and some pretty bad bruises but even though other people look at me and say "Man, what a horrible ordeal you went through!", I just laugh it off and say... "No. I am very lucky and I am not about to complain about the "inconvenience" of a few broken bones and some bruises".

Firstly, there is my dear friend, az. Az lives in Seville, Spain. Az and I have never met in person but in a very real way, I feel I know her very well. Az has been faced with a battle with cancer, firstly colon and now liver. Like most people with cancer, she is not braver or stonger than any other human being. She admits to having her fears and moments of anger. But like most people, she is fighting the battle in the way that it has to be fought.

In some ways, she is luckier than most in that she has a large circle of friends who are medical professionals who have been helping her with facts and the very real challenge of negotiating the medical maze. She is lucky, too, in that these people all know and love her and they are doing what they can in very real ways both to help guide her but also to support her emotionally. She also has a large circle of friends, many whom she has never met but many who she has welcomed to her home in Seville with open arms. All of us love her and hope for the best and want to see her come victorious out of this fight for her life.

For az, her "moment" is proving to be very long, indeed.

On Friday night, just before I was heading out to Smiths Falls to watch Rob, Ray, and Ken play, I got a call from my dear friend Robert. Robert called to ask if I remembered someone named Chris Davis from work.

I do, indeed remember Chris. Chris worked at Indian Residential Schools Resolutions Canada with me until he left to move to Austin, Texas. Dave was such a nice guy... Funny, articulate, intelligent, just a nice guy who was great to work with. He was also a very talented musician. Dave had undergone a transformation in his life, losing weight, getting fit, making some other major changes that eventually culminated in his moving down to Austin.

Despite the fact that I didn't know him well... we didn't socialize, it was hard to say goodbye to him because I was just getting to know this really great person, it was hard not to be excited for him because HE was so excited about the move.

I emailed him a couple of times when he got down there and mentioned him to a friend who lives in Austin (who works at the Alamo Drafthouse) but then he kind of dropped off my radar.

Robert's next words were one of those "pull you up short" moments. "Chris was killed last Saturday on his bike".

That means that on the day when I was nearly killed, Chris WAS killed....

It is useless to wonder "Why him and not me?". It is and it was. The fact is that whatever happened, but for a split second.... I might me dead and he might not be. But for a split second, we might both be dead... or neither. Our accidents weren't related. In fact, they were separated by thousands of miles. The coincidence is that both of us endured life-altering moments. Both of our moments are, in some way permanent, though his will affect all those who knew and loved him in ways my moment will not.

He doesn't have the luxury of viewing his moment and appreciating his luck. I do.

But for the grace of... God? .. whatever, here I am and there he was.

I can't say that the rest of my life will be dedicated to the memory of Chris but I will always be mindful that I have the luxury of, at least this time, looking back on that moment in my life with amazement and, hopefully, live better and clearer than I did up to that moment... not take so much for granted the feeling of entitlement to immortality that we humans often have.

My "luck" was also to know az and to have known Chris.

The bruise I can show, and the hands...

2008-09-30T14:33:00.005-04:00

My left leg

Accident

2008-09-28T12:24:00.002-04:00

I was walking down some stairs at a park and the woman behind me stumbled. She bumped into me but was able to grab the handrail. I wasn't and fell. I was carrying a juice bottle and it broke in my hand.

I have a broken middle left finger, a broken bone in my right hand (weird finger puppets result). I have 4 stitches in my head at the hairline (BUCKETS ' o blood but little real damage), 2 in my left knee, and 9 in my hand between my pinkie finger and ring finger on right hand where I cut it in a juice bottle I was carrying.

I am bruised and scraped and sore but okay. Of course, I am more sore today than I was yesterday. However, I can type, so can work which is good because I have no time off left.... The 1/2 cast and fingers hurt more than anything else but this, too, shall pass.

I am going to take off the cast and pad it a bit 'cause it is moving around and pressing on my wrist bone.

I can't dress myself except in jammie pants and a loose shirt and I feel dizzy because I was lying flat on my back all day.

Boooooo....

The Skull Bunny adds another band...

2008-09-09T00:17:00.003-04:00

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a huge fan of a local band called The Sunbleached Skulls. The Skulls are three guys who are now close friends and I go to every show. They play a mix of alt-country, traditional Rock n' Roll, Roots, and Folk music and I love everything they do.

I am their official "#1 Skull-Bunny".

The are also individually involved in their own projects and Ken Workman, the Skulls' bass man, has his own band called Ken Workman and the Union. He is in the process of putting out his first CD and he and his band have been doing a lot of gigs around town.

On Saturday night, Ken did a solo, opening for another band, the Rick Hayes Acoustic Trio. I intended just to hang about to hear Ken but decided to have a listen to Rick Hayes. Well, Was I glad I did!

Rick is from Newfoundland. While he is sort of "part-timing" the music while pursuing a degree in psychology, he has the potential of being one of the best traditional folk musicians to come out of the Maritimes.

Swiped from Rick Hayes' website...

He has a few of the songs on his MySpace page.

His CD, produced this summer without the trio, is great. I can see that with the trio, the next CD will be even better.

The trio, BTW, includes Sean Burke, the bass player from Ken Workman and The Union; and Rich Waller. Sean is another local musician who has an incredible talent who has played or opened for some of the biggest names in the business. All three on stage together are simply astounding.

Swiped, I'm afraid, from Sean Burke's MySpace... I hope he doesn't mind (just until I take a few of my own)

It goes without saying that I will be spreading myself pretty thin trying to get to yet another set of gigs!

Don Charbonneau "Backyard Rink" and "Overtime"

2008-09-01T21:23:00.004-04:00

Another friend, Don Charbonneau, has entered both a song and a theme in the Hockey Night in Canada theme song contest!

"This Is Our Game" Mike Plume

2008-08-27T22:39:00.003-04:00

My friend Mike Plume's entry to the Hockey Night In Canada Theme Song Contest

Vote Early, vote often....

100 Foods.... How many have you eaten?

2008-08-24T17:02:00.009-04:00

My dear friend, Az, posted this on her blog...

Copy the following list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
Bold all the items you’ve eaten. (I made the ones I haven't eaten red because I kept miscounting)
Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

I’ve tried 81 out of 100. How about you?

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or Head Cheese
26. ~~Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper~~
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam Chowder in Soudough Bowl
33. Salted Lassi
34. Sauerkraut [ick]
35. Root beer float [ick]
36. Cognac
37. Clotted Cream Tea
38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (not necessarily intentional but I figure if you've swallowed them, they count)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk [fresh off the hook, milked by moi]
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
46. Fugu (aka pufferfish)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. ~~Frogs’ legs~~
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. ~~Roadkill~~
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snails
79. Lapsang Souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom Yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu
85. Kobe beef
86. ~~Hare~~
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. ~~Horse~~
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose Harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole Poblano
96. Bagel and Lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Novi Sad Cats

2008-08-22T12:57:00.004-04:00

I came across this site via links from the Cats That Look Like Hitler site. Novi Sad Cats.

According to the mission statement for the site:

"The purpose of Novi Sad Cats is to raise awareness of (and eventually funds for) an independent animal shelter for homeless cats in the Vojvodina region of Serbia. We will also bring you true stories and lots of pictures of these charming creatures."

The blog is actually by someone who is in contact with Danica, the person who looks after the cats and gets them veterinary care.

Such sad cases but good to know that someone is looking out for them and doing what they can to ensure a future for these lovely cats.

Kitten found abandoned

Ciarra, found with a nail in her head

Garazni

Rather unfortunate phraseology

2008-08-20T23:09:00.001-04:00

From the Ning Social network blog.....

"If the following words describe you — Christian, creative, professional — then it’s a no-brainer: You should be a member of the Christian Fiction Network."

Casa Batlló

2008-08-20T21:49:00.005-04:00

My dear friend Az who lives in Sevilla had a wonderful travel blog on Wordpress. The following are a few photos from her entry on Casa Batlló in Barcelona. Amazing!

Living with Depression, Redux

2008-08-18T18:51:00.003-04:00

Last year, in mid-July, I made a video entitled "Living in Fear: Living with Depression".

I always hope that another bout will "be my last" and I will miraculously shed what has been pretty well a life-long illness. Unfortunately, there is always "one more time". In fact, I recently realized that more and more that mid-July and through August are particularly bad times for me. In fact, every late-July through the end of August, since 2000 when I had a major bout which I very nearly didn't make it through, I have gone through a major depression.

This last month or so has been no exception and I went through another firestorm which ended about a week and a half ago.

What exactly triggers it or what exactly makes it harder at this time of year to cope with difficult circumstances, I don't know.

Someone suggested to me that it might have something to do with the days becoming shorter. That may well be. I know that at the suggestion of my sister I started taking a daily does of Vitamin D. Whether this was the direct cause of the eventual dissipation of the anxiety and depression this time around, I don't know.

I do know that this year I noticed a distinct up and down in the mood patterns, sometimes from hour to hour, coinciding with a change in the weather, even if I wasn't anywhere I could see the change in weather. Since this summer the weather has changed on an almost hourly basis, with storm clouds rushing in and then the weather suddenly reverting to cloudless sky.... and my mood shifting almost simultaneously. It wasn't just me noticing it. Friends and co-workers could see it in my face and demeanor.

While I know that Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is common during winter months (in the Northern Hemisphere) but I don't seem to have as much of a problem during the winter as some people do. My bouts seem fairly restricted to the end of summer (although I do have bouts at other times, they are not nearly as serious as the ones I go through at this time of year).

I would be interested in knowing whether there are any studies which show seasonal problems OTHER than winter being a particular problem.

Another Beautiful Day

2008-08-15T18:47:00.005-04:00

Mom and I went for another one of our "exploration" drives. This time East of Ottawa, past Vars and South of Clarence Creek. We ended up on a narrow road in the La Rose Forest, beside a pond. There were turtles sunning themselves on the log platform in the water but they hit the water as soon as they saw me... camera shy... However, there were bees, and Blue Jays chasing each other through the trees, and frogs, and a deer, I think, in the bushes, although I couldn't see it.

If you don't liike snakes, you won't want to watch this...

2008-08-12T16:24:00.002-04:00

Recent Photos

2008-08-12T05:34:00.002-04:00

Some of my recent photos:

2008-08-12T04:41:00.003-04:00

This is a truly inspiring video....

In this 22-minute short film, "Celebrate What's Right With The World", Dewitt Jones (world-class photojournalist for the National Geographic) asks: "Do we choose to see possibilities? Do we really believe they're there?"

He assures us that there is always more than one right answer. Celebrating what's right with the world helps us recognize the possibilities and find solutions for the challenges before us.

This inspirational, best-selling film utilizes stunning photography and powerful dialogue to help viewers approach their lives with celebration, confidence and grace.

“As I celebrated what was right with the world, I began to build a vision of possibility, not scarcity. Possibility... always another right answer.” - Dewitt Jones

PLEASE VISIT THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE

The Beach of (not so gently) Used Ganeshes

2008-08-07T00:19:00.007-04:00

The aftermath of Anant Chaturdashi (from Ultrabrown). Don't forget to check out the prelude....

*Anant Chaturdashi is the last day of the Hindu festival of Ganeshotsav. It is generally the tenth or eleventh day after Ganesh Chaturthi, and all the Ganesh idols brought into homes and communities are immersed in the sea or nearby lakes and rivers. On this day, people travel to the waterfront with the idols, large and small, dancing and singing in large processions. Lord Ganesha is departed, only to be welcomed the next year with equal excitement. (Wikipedia)

You count your blessings

2008-08-06T13:05:00.000-04:00

I got a speeding ticket today... my first in 20 years driving... I was lucky because I was 20 over the limit but because of my attitude (pleasant, as usual, and not freaking out like 90 percent of the people he encounters) he dropped it down to 15 over the limit. That means that I don't pay $100 and lose 3 demerit points, I get a $52.50 fine and no demerit points.

Even so, I feel very lucky today because I had stopped on Hawthorne to get gas ($1.19!) and gone in to work for 5 (literally 5 minutes) to have something copied and scanned and headed back home and right in the intersection in front of the gas station, there were 5 police cars and at least two ambulances, glass scattered across three lanes of traffic, a car backwards on the median against a pole and something lying on the pavement under a plastic sheet... As there was a dump truck parked just ahead of the accident, I am surmising that it hit the car.

If I had been a few minutes earlier arriving back at the intersection or a few minutes later leaving the gas station....

A speeding ticket barely seems insignificant.

You count your blessings.

...an elephant never forgets.

2008-07-28T22:33:00.005-04:00

Shirley was just 5 years old when she was captured in her homeland and torn from her family. She was sold to the Kelly- Miller Circus, which forced her to perform for 25 years. In 1958, she and the entire circus were detained for weeks by Fidel Castro’s forces in Cuba. Several years later, she narrowly escaped death when she was evacuated just before the circus ship she was on caught fire and sank while docked in Nova Scotia.

In 1977, Shirley suffered a permanent leg injury from an attack by another elephant that ended her life with the circus. The Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo took Shirley. Fearing that her injury might put her at risk with the other elephants, they kept intelligent, social Shirley in solitary confinement for the next 22 years.

Then the Louisiana zoo curator learned about the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, the nation’s only natural-habitat refuge for Asian elephants.

At the time, the sanctuary was home to three other Asian elephants, Tarra, Barbara and Jenny. He contacted the sanctuary, which agreed to take Shirley, and arrangements were made for her journey to the safe haven.

Twenty-two years earlier, when Shirley was 30 and Jenny was just a baby, they had spent one winter together in the same circus. Although so much time had passed, they recognized each other instantly. Shirley and Jenny are inseparable now. Shirley is very protective, much like a mother watching over her daughter. After more than two decades apart, Jenny and Shirley are together.

Sadly, Jenny has died. This is the video tribute to her life.

For the story of Shirley and Jenny in their lives at the sanctuary.

2008-07-28T21:29:00.001-04:00

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend political boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, started dancing, and filmed the result. The video is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious -- few people are able to watch the above video without smiling.

2008-06-14T14:10:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Harper made a formal apology on behalf of the Canadian government, Parliament, and the Canadian people for the forced removal of Aboriginal children to Indian Residential Schools, and the attempts at forced assimilation through the schools.

Present on the floor of the House were representatives of the Indian, Metis, and Inuit peoples of Canada, as well as survivors of the Residential Schools. Amongst the survivors were Marguerite Wabano, (seen here in a video on her 103 birthday!) at 104 the oldest survivor, and Crystal Merasty, at 17, the youngest survivor.

Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, himself a survivor of both the schools and sexual abuse at the school he attended, received the apology on behlaf of the Indians of Canada.

Phil Fontaine

It makes me feel honoured and elated to have been part of the process of working towards compensating survivors of the schools, enabling them to have their cases heard, and to find, at least in some small measure, healing.

It will be interesting to see how the Truth and Reconciliation Commission unfolds.

Mollie, Metis child - died of Cholera at the Carcross Indian School in 1907

Toad

2008-06-14T12:27:00.003-04:00

I found this on my front walk last evening, after a torrential downpour...

Barely the energy it takes...

2008-06-13T02:57:00.002-04:00

A week or so ago, a friend asked me "When you walk out of your house in the morning is there a big, black cloud suspended over you?"

Yep.... more or less....

In the last month, I have had to rescue Mom from financial crisis (several times), rescue myself from financial crisis, had a car accident ($5000 damage which will inevitably cause my car insurance, set to be renewed in August, to skyrocket) and had to find the $500 deductible plus pay the extra insurance on the rental (insurance paid for the rental for the 21 days but their insurance had a deductible and Enterprise rental insurance has a zero deductible) and fork out another $400 for said extra insurance when I anticipated less than $200, get the "Drive Clean" emissions test before I could renew the plates on the car which had to be renewed on June 10th (another $70 for the renewal and $38 for the emissions test).

The accident happened when the car slid on wet pavement and I slid into the back of a 1991 Volvo
station wagon. Since sliding into the back end of a Volvo is sort of like sliding into a block of solid rock, there was much damage to my front end and nothing more than a strip of accent trim which fell off the back and two broken rear light lenses.

Mine required the replacement of hood, fender, grille, rad, front left quarter panel, driver side door, and a number of supports and trim for said parts. There would have likely been less damage had I not tried to steer into the empty right-hand lane which would have meant that instead of all the force being centered in the driver's side corner it would have been distributed across the whole front. There would have been a lot less damage. Hindsight=20-20, and all that.

The accident also happened 4 days after I made the final payment on my car. Typical!

Things can only look up from here.

BTW, I called the Wild Bird Centre to check on the little bird. It died....

On animals... At Canadian Tire, while sitting waiting for the outcome of the emissions test (passed), there was an announcement telling the driver of a car to get out to the parking lot because his dog "was going nuts". Some fuckehead had left their dog in the car with the windows rolled up (not that it matters if they were rolled up or cracked open... it is deadly, either way). They were warned to get out to the parking lot or their window would be smashed. I hope they did it anyway.

Even early in the morning it was hot. At the time of the announcement, the temp was above 32 deg. Celcius. It can be well over that in a closed car within minutes.

This evening, Mom and I went out to have Poutine in Richmond. There were two little girls with tiny kittens, barely 3 weeks old. They told us that their friend had found them tied in a bag on the banks of the Jock River. Another fuckhead who has no respect for the lives of animals. Instead of taking the kittens to the Humane Society.... Instead of getting their cat fixed like a responsible person would... tie them in a bag and throw them in the river. Fuckhead....

2008-05-28T23:51:00.000-04:00

I was in my office which is right down town in the busiest area of the city.

It is right around the corner from two homeless shelters and above a Second Cup coffeee shop. It is my eye on the world of the deranged and drunk.

I usually take only passing notice of what happens outside my window. Today, someone was yelling "Help! Help!" repeatedly so I looked out to see a tall, obviously demented man flailing his arms... and holding a bird.

He suddenly threw the bird down onto the gravel of a large planter beside the bus shelter and lurched away. Then he came back and pushed the bird around and walked away.

I immediately ran down found that is was a baby Starling, a fledgling.

They had been just doing work on a tree above the planter but the tree hasn't had a nest in it. It was more likely to have fallen from a niche in the wall of a building or an awning or something. I looked to see if I could see either a nest or a mother but even if I had, I wouldn't have wanted (as you are supposed to do) either put the bird back in the nest (the old wives tale the parents can "smell you on the baby and will abandon it" is wrong!) or leave the bird and watch to see if the mother comes around before taking it in.

I brought it upstairs immediately because I knew it wouldn't last long where it was. It was just a fledgling and probably couldn't fly, at least fly well enough to get out of danger. And there are crazies all around there.... When I brought it up, one of the girls in the reception told me that she had seen a man with a bird yesterday at McDonalds, almost two blocks away. If it was the same man and the same bird, I was sure I did the right thing.

I called Mom to come and pick me up and we drove it out to the Ottawa Wild Bird Centre. I will check in a few days to see if it is okay. It was very weak. I don't have high hopes but it has a better chance there than it would have stood at Rideau and Dalhousie in a cement planter with drunks and crazies.

The Wild Bird Centre has an amazing record of wild rescues, including... true story... a wayward Flamingo, named Elisha who migrated north for the winter (sensible if she had been living in Chile where she was originally from, not New England where she was living).

Mine had more feathers... but you get the idea.

"The Underneath" by Kathi Appelt

2008-05-16T23:55:00.003-04:00

What an amazing story!

Kathi Appelt has created a monumentally emotional painting with this story of love and friendship, tested and proven.

This is no hearts and flowers story, by any means. There is death and betrayal and harsh reality bound up in this story of an abandoned Calico cat, her beloved kittens, and their devoted guardian, an aging, abused Bloodhound. But the story, full of twists and turns and imminent danger draws the reader along.

Appelt has a gift with words and every page is resonates with the scents and sounds of the bayou ("The air was heavy with the scent of old bones, of fish and dried skins, skins that hung from the porch like a ragged curtain. Wrong was everywhere"). There is magic in every fibre of the forest and every creature is a kindred spirit ("And all around, the watchful trees, the oldest ones, shimmered. They knew that Grandmother Moccasin, when she awoke, would not be happy. The trees knew, but they also recognized the moment for what it was: a love so strong that there was no going back for either one. So for just a little while, the soughing trees used their own ancient magic to stir up the Zephyrs of Sleep.").

The story isn't straight forward.... It slips back and forth between the present -- the cat, her kittens, the dog, and the dog's cruel owner -- and the ancient but ongoing story of Grandmother Moccasin, a snake-being who lost her only daughter to true love, and Grandmother's unquenchable quest for revenge.

The stories are interwoven and ultimately intersect, with each character ultimately receiving what they deserve.... either in fact or by way of a lesson.

I was reminded, somewhat, of the book "Beautiful Joe" that I read in Grade 5. Unfortunately for me, the terrifying start of that story rendered me unable to recall further, though I know I read it through.

While "The Underneath" contains its own measure of cruel reality, Appelt has managed to portion it out in a way that doesn't overwhelm the reader. I would caution parents, however, that for a child who is very sensitive, there should be some discussion of death and cruelty, and an acknowledgment of the wrongness of some human actions.

I certainly think that Appelt has clearly shown how an act of cruelty can forever impact the life of a person and how one person can affect the lives of others, for good or bad.

A highly recommended read.

"The Underneath" by Kathi Appelt (For ages 10 and up)

Lean, green security machine!

2008-05-12T00:42:00.003-04:00

Tom Ballhatchet has designed this ingenious device!

A Hamster-powered paper shredder.

People are pinheads!

2008-05-11T23:08:00.002-04:00

So.... the CBC publishes this story about the Queen's grandson, Peter Phillips, marrying a woman from Montreal, Autumn Kelly, who has converted from Catholicism so he won't lose his place in the line to the throne...

If you read the pin-headed comments from people, you wonder what planet they live on. Firstly, every one knows that any self-respecting prince meets his women at a dance thrown by his father to which he invites all the eligible women in the realm for his son to pick from, not at the Grand Prix... So this woman is OBVIOUSLY a "gold digger".

Secondly, any woman who wears a hat like that has royal blood...

Thirdly, well... thirdly, people are pinheads and the pin-headed comments just prove it.

Personally, I think the CBC should go back to only publishing letters to the editor, not offensive comments from people who think that the ability to poke their fingers on the keyboard, even if they can't spell or make coherent sentences, means that they have have an opinion worth reading.

Take Back the Day!: Mother's Day: Not just an invention of the greeting card makers!

2008-05-09T18:24:00.006-04:00

Contrary to general opinion, Mother's Day was not the invention of the greeting card makers or floral industry.

In fact, Mother's Day originates circa American Civil War and was the brainchild of Anna Jarvis, in recognition of her own mother Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis' dream of one day having Mother's Friendship Day a nationally recognised memorial day for mothers.

Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis Anna Jarvis

Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis created the idea of Mother's Friendship Day as a way of bringing together families and communities torn apart by the Civil War, based on a shared love of their mothers.

By 1907, two years after the death of her mother, Anna Jarvis had organized the first memorial dedicated to her mother.

By 1914, she had succeeded in the dream and Mother's Day a national holiday. However, as the day became more widely recognised and celebrated, it became less focussed on peace and friendship and more directly related to celebration mothers.

By 1917, the day had become so commercially successful that the original meaning was lost and Anna Jarvis and her sister, Ellsinore, were actively campaigning to have it stopped. Anna Jarvis even incorporated herself as "Mother’s Day International Association", had been arrested for disturbing the peace during on protest, and had claimed copyright on the second Sunday in May. She and her sister spent their family inheritance fighting against the commercialization of the day, dying in poverty, as a result.

Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe, anti-war campaigner and author of the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" continued the effort to carry the Mother's Day tradition of peace and reconciliation through her "Mother's Day of Peace" campaign. By 1872, she was promoting the day to be celebrated on June 2, honoring peace, motherhood and womanhood.

By 1873, women in 18 cities in America held a Mother's Day for Pace gathering. In Boston, the day was celebrated for about 10 more years. Sadly, however, the tradition didn't last after Howe was no longer paying for them.

While some communities continued the tradition for another 30 years, the commercialized Mother's Day, held on the 2nd Sunday in May held sway.

Inter Pares, a Canada-based organization working with women world-wide to promote peace and justice, is doing their part to revive the day as it was originally envisioned by Anna Jarvis and her mother Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis. They are asking us to "TAKE BACK THE DAY by supporting women around the world working for better futures – for themselves, their communities, and their societies."

Coincidences....

2008-05-09T13:42:00.005-04:00

Funny how things seem to coincidentally happen.

The other day, I decided to have yet another search for a book I had read a LONG time ago, 1981 to be precise, and then promptly forgot the title for.

I have done Googles previously and found nothing. This time I was lucky and located it first try!

The book was non-fiction by a wilderness walker who comes across a cave in Nevada which had been inhabited, circa WWI. Intrigued by the mystery-man who had once lived there, he starts a search through records for the man. The title should have been easy to find... book about a man living in a cave.... the title was, as I discovered, "The Man From The Cave" (by the late writer and wilderness walker, Colin Fletcher). However, in the pre-Google days, the book eluded me.

I will be seeking out a copy to re-read.

Fresh from that success, I turned on the TV last night and came across a film called "The Group". This 1966 film is about a group of women who, in 1933, meet at college. They are members of "The Group", a sort of unofficial, exclusive club. Their friendships stand the test of time, more or less, and the film follows them past graduation and into the world and their adult lives.

Despite the time during which the film was made and the time in which it is set, it manages to touch on some serious issues, such as birth control, pre-marital sex, miscarriage, lesbianism, spousal abuse, and mental illness -- even breast-feeding -- in a remarkably forthright manner. There is no moralizing over some of the issues which usually suffer at the hands of Hollywood scriptwriting and the characters rise above the stereotypical social mores one would expect to prevail.

Memorable segments which from the first time I watched the film (some time in the 1980s) were

the depiction of the heartbreak of Priss (Elizabeth Hartman) in failing over and over to produce a child for her overbearingly critical pediatrician husband (after the second miscarriage he states that it will give him a bad reputation), her joy at finally making it successfully through a pregnancy, only to find that Sloan plans on using the boy for his "radical" theories on child-rearing whether it is good for either mother or child or not. His theories on breastfeeding, while noble and nutritionally accurate, for instance, not only render her so nervous as to be incapable of managing to do it, they endanger the baby and only encourage Priss to fall back on bottlefeeding. Poor Priss is saddled with actually putting into practice the unworkable "experiments" and every failure is seen as hers, not his -- watching weary Priss turning down an invitation for coffee while her son destroys the room behind her is excruciating
the frank heart-to-heart discussion between (cannot recall the character) and her mother over birth control --in the time period of the film it was illegal for unmarried women to obtain birth control-- and her angst over "the appliance" which she managed to obtain at her mother's insistence but left in disgust under a bench in the park. Her mother tells her that it strikes her that she doesn't really love her boyfriend, a revelation she hadn't actually considered
the discussion over women entering college in order to obtain their Mrs. (in order to find a husband)

The film, based on the Mary McCarthy book of the same name, has been called melodramatic, "shrill", and glossed-over. To my mind, however, as a portrayal of a period in history where women were beginning to break down social, economic, and professional barriers and succeeding, and managing to dare to break a few Hollywood conventions, it is a pretty good film. It may have dispensed with a lot of the political discussion (McCarthy threw in a lot about Republican vs. Democrat political commentary) as well as much of the discussion of Communism, it has not been entirely dispensed with. Perhaps, had the film been made more recently, it might have more astutely dealt with certain issues. However, I would argue that we would have lost some of the Feminist timeliness that the 1960s reflected and I doubt our jaded viewpoint would allow justice to be been done with some of the issues. I highly recommend seeing the film, if only for Feminist historical perspective.

20th anniversaries and rolling stones

2008-05-08T06:17:00.006-04:00

Twenty years ago, February 24 and March 24th, Hutch and Dad died.

Despite my intention to mark the anniversaries in some way, they sort of slipped by, what with Mom being sick, my being sick, my fall on the front stairs, and the financial fiasco(s) of the last three months. However, since there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about my fathers (birth and step), I guess the anniversaries are less meaningful as markers.

Still, I feel bad not having acknowledged Dad's death, at least. I use the word "Dad" interchangeably but only because I know who, or rather which, I mean when I am talking about one or the other. Dad, in this case, is my step dad, the real "Dad" in my life.

Hutch died first, in February. I took about a week off school (college) and mourned the man I really didn't know, in a rather perfunctory way, using the time off as a bit of rest from classes. A month to the day later, Dad died.... I was blown out of the water. I hadn't really expected that... being blown out of the water, I mean. I thought it would be "bad" but I didn't think I would be devastated.... wiped out completely. I don't think I am, even yet, really over Dad's loss.

Still, time passes and I am mindful that while I lost Dad back in 1988, Hutch was really gone back in 1959 when he walked away from us. I am also mindful that, had he not reappeared out of the blue in 1982, I wouldn't have realized just how important Dad was to me and what a "Father" really is.

So... there we are the rolling stone (Hutch) and Dad. Still part of my life, despite the passage of time.

Blocked salivary gland....

2008-04-21T21:54:00.004-04:00

The last two days, every time I eat, or even sometimes if I just THINK of eating, the side of my face swells up. Apparently, it is a blocked salivary gland. probably the side effect of some medication I have to take. It doesn't necessarily require medical attention unless it remains blocked or is a symptom of something else. It is, however, annoying, not to mention embarrassing if it happens when I am out.

If it remains blocked, you risk an infection and/or surgery to remove the blockage. Thank GOD it always goes down on its own.

This is what it looks like. That is the left and right sides of my face, side-by-side for comparison, You can't even see my ear!

If you've ever blown up a balloon and had the air backfire into your salivary gland, it feels like that only about 25 times worse,

The first time it happened, I thought I was having an allergic reaction.

Just gotta say....

2008-04-18T14:29:00.006-04:00

Mmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since I gave up pop (specifically colas ... I have had the odd citrus fizzy drink) I have found this to be my drink of choice....

OASIS Wild Berries and Pomegranate contains: Grape, Apple, Pomegranate, Cranberry, Blueberry, Elderberry, Blackberry and Lemon juice (from concentrate)... AND! No sugar added...

My next favorite, if I can't find OASIS, is TrueBlue Blueberry Pomegranate. However, it does have sugar added, though the sugar is half way down the list of water and juice.

In regards giving up pop. I was drinking several a day, at least and after seeing the empties pile up on the side of my desk every week before I took them to the recycle bin, I realized just how much sugar I didn't need. Since just after Christmas, 2007, I have had two Pepsis and a bout 8 Limonata, Orangina or Lemon-lime drinks. Not bad for someone who would down them like water. I now find I don't actually LIKE the taste of Pepsi, after 40-odd years of drinking it.

Luckily, when I am out and have alcohol, my drink of choice is Gin and Tonic.

Ah... The games children play....

2008-04-11T10:58:00.003-04:00

Lying to create a "pretext" in order to rationalize a state of war is a tactic with a long history. Here is an example....

"Operation Northwoods" was a set of proposals to "justify" US intervention in Cuba, at the time of the "Cuban Missile Crisis.

Written in response to a request from the Chief of the Cuba Project, Col. Edward Lansdale, the Top Secret memorandum describes U.S. plans to covertly engineer various pretexts that would justify a U.S. invasion of Cuba. These proposals - part of a secret anti-Castro program known as Operation Mongoose - included staging the assassinations of Cubans living in the United States, developing a fake “Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington,” including “sink[ing] a boatload of Cuban refugees (real or simulated),” faking a Cuban airforce attack on a civilian jetliner, and concocting a “Remember the Maine” incident by blowing up a U.S. ship in Cuban waters and then blaming the incident on Cuban sabotage.

In his exposé of the National Security Agency entitled 'Body of Secrets', author James Bamford states that "Operation Northwoods" “may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government.”

The various declassified memorandums are available on the National Security Archive, an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University.

Fading Art

2008-04-10T00:13:00.002-04:00

I have always been fascinated by the fading vestiges of the painted billboards. There are a few, here in Ottawa, which I have been meaning to capture before they disappear completely... Maybe this summer? Every so often I come across this site and love poring through the new additions.

It is run by Frank Jump. Most of his are in the New York City environs but he also has links to other sites and collections, including his Fading Art blog.

Sadly, more disappear every year, either painted over; the buildings supporting them knocked down, or, in some cases accidentally falling down; or simply fading into oblivion.

Easter Egg

2008-03-27T19:52:00.001-04:00

This is an Easter egg I decorated a few years ago for a friend's daughter. I scratched the design into the surface of the egg using an Exacto knife.

(Note: The brown is true to the colour of the egg but the green
of the drawing and the background was actually white.)

My favorite method of colouring the eggs is to get brown or red onion skins from the grocery store. They are all too willing to get rid of them but they tend to treat you like you have just escaped from somewhere when they find you rooting through the boxes of oinion and stuffing bags full of the loose skins. These days they remove them from the boxes every day, so invariably I have to ask them if they have any. They may produce three skins and I have to explain... "No! I need as many as I can get.... All you have of them!" ("Surrrre, Lady! You colour your eggs with them....").

I take the skins and wrap them around the eggs (You can soak the skins in water to soften them before you do this step). In the days before pantihose, we used thread to wrap around them to hold the skins on. Now, I wrap them in the skins and drop them into a length of pantihose, making a knot in between each egg, or place them in one of those net bags that come with the oinions. Using thread as well as placing them in the pantihose usually makes interesting lines on them.

For brown and yellow eggs, use brown onion skins, for red use ...errr... Red onions. You can combine the two but I would boil them in a separate pot.

I drop them in a pot of sold water, bring it to a boil and boil them for 7 minutes and then let them soak until the water is cool enough to retreive them.

When you unwrap them, you will find the most amazing stained glass patterns on your egg.

(Not my photos!)

My egg below was simply boiled using Variation 1, below.

To enhance the colour and pattern, wipe with a cloth and a drop of cooking oil.

Variations:

You can simply place the loose skins and eggs into a pot of cold water and boil them which gives the egg a more or less flat brown colour (or red, if you use the red skins). Nice, but the results using the other method is what I like. With the solid colour, you can do as I did below and scratch into the surface to make a picture.
You can also place flowers, bits of cedar greens, leaves or shaped stickers on the egg before wrapping the egg. This leaves either a stencil effect or a colored impression of the object you used. Just make sure you use leaves and flowers that are edible! (see image immediately below)

(Again, not my photo)

My egg....

Washing the Dishwasher

2008-03-25T16:42:00.013-04:00

The other day, we noticed that the dishwasher didn't seem to be actually washing the dishes. The food particles might have been a little cleaner, but they were still stuck on the dishes.

(artist's note: bears no resemblance in whole or in part
to my actual kitchen. This one is clean, for a start....)

Since we can't afford to have anyone in to repair it unless we really HAVE to, I decided to see what, if anything, I could do in order to prevent a repairman's visit.

Firstly, I looked at the lower spray arm to see if the supply tube was able to extend up to spray the middle of the machine. It was.

Then I noticed that the holes in the spray arm, itself were clogged with debris. With a pair of needle-nose pliers, I removed what I could from the holes themselves. It appears that there is more stuff stuck in there. I may have to replace the part itself.

Then I took a look in the back of the inside of the machine and saw that there was a lot of crud in behind filter housing and around the sump cover.

Since these were attached with bolts that I needed a ratchet set to remove, I borrowed one from my brother-in-law. Once I removed the filter housing, I removed a handful of what looked like handmade paper.... bits of paper, seeds, cat fur, and macerated bones. Ick....

However, as icky as that was, I had an ickier surprise waiting under the sump cover! The sump cover is held on with two long bolts. Once I got it off and flipped it over I was horrified by what it looked like. The entire underside (I really wish I had thought to take a few photos...) was coated with what looked like earwax... About a cup and a half of sticky, slimy, gummy, waxy crud --- and mold!

It took me about 20 minutes to clean the cover which has a grille around the sides and several baffles on the underside. I ended up resorting to using an old toothbrush and Ajax cleaner.

Before putting it back on, I used a big sponge to soak up the water that was in the bottom of the sump reservoir and then felt around to see if there was anything sitting in the bottom of it.

I extracted about 20 pumpkin seeds, a piece of vine (?), more of the papery residue, a bunch of labels - paper and plastic, what appears to be either a chopper blade (probably belonging to the dishwasher... I have to find out where from and if I can replace it) or a motor blade (again from the dishwasher --it resembles both items in the catalogue I posted the link to), and a bunch of the plastic backings from my mother's Nitroglycerin patches*

So, now all I have to do is try the dishwasher out and see if the cleaning helps. I think I am going to try and suction out the sump (gotta have some use for the turkey baster) first and then give it a go. If it doesn't... Time to get a :

Who Invented the Dishwasher?
The earliest dishwashing machines involved a dish rack on a spindle with a basin of water underneath. A hand crank rotated the dish rack, splashing it through the water [ref]. This was not an efficient or effective way of washing dishes.

Josephine Cochrane invented the modern dishwasher in 1886. Cochrane was a wealthy socialite whose servants kept chipping her fine china while hand washing it. She developed a rack and water jet system that debuted at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. The company she founded eventually became KitchenAid.

Josephine Cochrane's dishwasher

A safety tip: Never, ever... EVER... put a sharp knife pointed upwards in the dishwasher. If you should slip while loading or unloading the dishwasher, you could land on the knife. It has happened, with fatal results**.

* I wish they would make these shocking pink or orange or something. She is constantly leaving these on plates, dropping them on the floor, or on the counters. Since they are clear plastic she can't see them. I am constantly finding them sticking to my feet, getting stuck in the vacuum cleaner, finding them blocking the kitchen drain and, now, gumming up the works in the dishwasher....

Worse, I find the actual patches scrunched up on plates or stuck to the carpet. I am afraid one of the cats is going to eat one. It would kill them! One day, she dropped one in a bowl we use to drop burning matches in in the bathroom. I just about set fire to the house when it caught fire and I couldn't put it out.

** On 22 January 2003, a five-year-old Kentucky girl died of wounds received when she fell onto a knife exposed in an open dishwasher. The fatal accident befell Payton Michael McElroy during a visit at her grandparents' house in the company of her mother and brother. The two children were playing while the grandmother was unloading the dishwasher, and somehow during this play session the girl tripped and fell onto a knife housed on the open dishwasher's door. The blade punctured the child's heart and left lung.

Sighhhh....

2008-03-24T03:46:00.001-04:00

My dear friend, Elie's, cartoon. As always, his acerbic wit hits the nail on the head... so to speak.

CHINESE OLYMPICS

"Sweep the Leg" video

2008-03-01T04:36:00.003-05:00

You may recognise some of the actors in this. Directed by Billy Zabka, 80s "movie bully", who also plays a caricature of himself in the video. "Sweep the Leg" is a music video by the band No More Kings.

You haven't washed you hair in HOW long????

2008-02-29T21:10:00.009-05:00

^ The smell of unwashed hair = ^ The smell of blubber

I was sitting in the waiting room at my chiropractor's office the other day, reading a magazine.

I can't recall, now, whether it was McLean's or Readers Digest. The article that I read was about the new fad of "not washing your hair"... Not "washing it less often" (a good thing) .... Not washing it AT ALL..... Not washing it in several YEARS... EVER!

According to the mantra of these people hair "self cleans".

No.... It doesn't. Unlike an oven, your head does not have a self clean setting. The oil remains and your hair just gets dirtier and dirtier.

"You don't see rabbits or monkeys shampooing their hair and their hair is soft and fluffy so I don't have to shampoo, either".

I can't speak about monkeys but rabbits lick their fur (I had a rabbit so I am an authority on this point). Saliva has enzymes which cut through oils and grease, the same way shampoo does.

"The Edwardians and Victorians didn't have all the hair products we do and they prided themselves on their soft clean hair".

If you have ever seen any early photographs, the vast majority of sitters had greasy, oily hair. Trust me.... Besides, when they washed it, they used soap, plain old soap made from fat and lye, to wash their hair. Ever heard of an Antimacassar"? The Anti-Maccassar was a doily-like item placed on chairs to prevent the staining of furniture by Macassar oil which our forbears worked generously into their hair to counter the drying effects of soap and/or to cover the smell of the normal oils from infrequent washing.

I wish the article had been accompanied by photos of the poor souls, including, supposedly, a "model" (male) who outrageously claimed "No one can tell", just so I could judge for myself that their hair looked "okay".

Trust me, either you hang about with blind people or they are lying through their teeth when they tell you with "incredulity" that they "hadn't noticed". As well. someone must do a study on the vast number of your friends who have no sense of smell when they claim "they can't detect any smell" from your unwashed locks.

I'm judging that your friends suffer from the condition called "The Emperor's New Hair" when they assure you that the fact that you don't wash your hair is a complete surprise.

Sure, it is possible that they simply assume you have taken to "Greasy Kid Stuff" and that's why your hair LOOKS the way it does. But short of covering up the smell with "Hai Karate", your hair smells... and it smells BAD (Of course, it isn't going to smell any better with the Hai Karate but at least it will smell more of bad cologne).

Trust me when I tell you that hair left unwashed whether a week or a year, unless one has been out camping by a wood fire, smells exactly like seal blubber. I have smelled seal blubber and it smells exactly like unwashed hair.

Fact... the oil that coats your hair is fat... blubber is fat... and it doesn't smell like roses.

Here's a hint. WASH YOUR HAIR!

You might also want to get some friends who will tell you the truth.

Edible Arrangements....

2008-02-16T19:03:00.009-05:00

If you want something different from a traditional flower arrangement to send a friend or loved one, this is for you! I found out about this when I was at the hospital with Mom and a woman was bringing one to her mother. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Lots of different arrangements to choose from. So far only in the US and Canada.

However.... If you have a little bit of imagination, you could probably make your own arrangement fairly easily!

The East Texas Germ Warfare Standard Deviation (Where Can I Get A Surrogate Brain?) Biological Flu Blues

2008-02-12T19:27:00.000-05:00

By Jolie Blond

I'd gotten to feeling sophisticated,
secure in myself,

smug,

and then I learned humility
when brought down
by a bug.

The bug has got a hold of me,
the doctors cannot kill it.
My brain won't work,
my nose won't stop,
my throat burns like
a cheap, worn skillet.

I tried my mom's herbology,
I starved and stuffed and pilled it.
When whiskey failed
to do its stuff,
I hot tub tried
to cook it out
distillate.

As strong
and wise
and educated
as I had gotten to be,
I couldn't even defend myself
from this tiny viral flea.

So if you're feeling superior
to the day's circumstantial turns,
just remember all your best laid plans
can be altered by a germ

Deryk Houston

2008-01-29T03:42:00.001-05:00

Deryk Houston is an amazing artist. This is a video showcasing his work.

Oooops!

2008-01-27T15:21:00.000-05:00

A LOT of my posts are going to be missing their images... I went willy nilly deleting photos in my Google albums and only then did I realize that the album was cached photos for my blog.

I will replace the ones I can but some are gone forever....

When will I learn?

Edward Said "On Orientalism"

2008-01-26T04:35:00.000-05:00

Edward Said On Orientalism

Edward Said On Orientalism (Part2)

Edward Said On Orientalism (Part3)

Edward Said On Orientalism (Part4)

New Corpse!

2008-01-20T02:05:00.000-05:00

The first new Corpse that I participated in is up and ready for viewing! AND, my slice is on the top!

Cherry Blossoms | Eastern Egg Yolk | In Pandemonium | Ladybird

For those of you who are wondering what a Corpse is (I mean aside from a dead body...), you can find out about Corpsing here

Why do I love LiveVideo??? Case in point....

2008-01-17T02:26:00.001-05:00

How would I ever get to hear people like this?

Tarrega - Memories of the Alhambra

"Yearly Harvet"

2008-01-10T12:57:00.001-05:00

The trailer for a horror novel by Ryan Calloway. Some of my video is used in it! Very creepy!

2008-01-10T04:54:00.001-05:00

glitter-graphics.com

glitter-graphics.com

2008-01-10T04:47:00.001-05:00

glitter-graphics.com

glitter-graphics.com

glitter-graphics.com

glitter-graphics.com

glitter-graphics.com

Nick & Dix perform "Bohemian Rhapsody"

2008-01-09T02:27:00.000-05:00

Nick & Dix perform "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Christopher Myers, 27, pleads guilty to murder of Ardeth Wood

2008-01-08T12:37:00.000-05:00

A man has pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of 27-year-old Ardeth Wood, who went missing while cycling on an Ottawa bike path in 2003 and whose body was found days later.

Christopher Myers, 27, entered the plea Monday morning in an Ottawa courtroom after his lawyers reached a deal with the Crown.

As part of the deal, he will be sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 10 years, the soonest possible for a second-degree murder conviction. (full story)

Ardeth Wood

On Wednesday August 6, 2003, 27 year old Ardeth Wood was visiting her family in Orleans, in the east end of Ottawa. She was on leave from her PhD studies at the University of Waterloo. Shortly after twelve noon, she informed her mother that she was going for a bike ride and would be back in a few hours. After failing to return, Ardeth was reported missing that evening by her parents.

The largest search operation ever undertaken by the Ottawa Police Service began. Witness information lead the Search Team to the area of Green's Creek near the mouth of the Ottawa River. This area of Green's Creek is located near a highly traveled bicycle/walking path which runs parallel to the Rockliffe/Aviation Parkway from downtown to Orleans.

On Sunday August 10, 2003, the bicycle used by Ardeth Wood was found submerged in Green's Creek. On Monday August 11 2003, the concealed body of Ardeth Wood was discovered near the shoreline just meters from where her bicycle was found. An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be drowning. (Ottawa Police Services)

Your [insert website name here] experience is ultimately ALL about YOU.

2007-12-29T05:11:00.000-05:00

A netquaintance of mine at LiveVideo, answering a newbie question about the misuse of the bulletin board, especially during a recent round of name-calling and virtual fisticuffs, responded thusly....

This bulletin came about as a response to a new user for whom the squabbles and the mudslinging splattered all over the bulletins confused her. The bottom line question was "Arent the bulletins supposed to be used for News and Promoting videos? I'm confused...."

Technically, yes, that's how the bulletins are supposed to be used. But a lot of the time the bulletins get ABused, especially by some of the "gangs" at LiveVideo.

The real solution to the abuse of the bulletin boards is to unfriend those users who clutter up the boards with their petty squabbles. You can only see bulletins by people on your friends list.

You also have to be very vigilant about whom you add to your friends, or let add you to theirs. Check out their channel thoroughly. Look at their "Voted Videos" and "Favorite Videos" to see what they support. Look at the videos they channel to their "Our Videos" section, and look carefully at their crew. These will all give you clues as to whether the user is a serious earnest LV user, or one of the troublemakers. If you don't feel right about friending someone, then you are under NO obligation to do so.

You can still subscribe to one another if you wish to view each other's videos, but subscriptions do not show up on the bulletins. However, any negative video content they produce--and the gangs produce a LOT of them!--will show up on your "Subscription Videos" roster, so use extreme prejudice and discretion in your subscription choices as well.

Blocking is regarded as somewhat extreme by some LiveVideo users. Some even regard it as some kind of "attack" and will bawl very loudly about it! But I recommend using it as a PREEMPTIVE measure and an extra buffer against the aggression pollution perpetrated by the Gangs that infest LiveVideo and SticKam (Especially since these attention-craving parasites will never do you the courtesy of blocking YOU from consuming their electronic excrement.) The people on your Blocked List can always log out of their LV account and then surf to your channel and view your content, but they cannot contact you here.

Think of these practices as a NIELSEN RATING! If you were a company that had to pay for ad space on these channels and their videos, would you support their content, or would you wisely fear economic boycott of your products/services for your support of hate programming?

Six Most Common defensive excuses employed by the haters

1) more... "I am not a hater!" This is what the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis and other terrorist organizations say when they attack Jews and Brown People or anyone else who disagrees with them. The exact same principle applies here. Deny, deny, deny.

2) "I like you / I love you / I support what you do, BUT....." See that big "BUT" there? That cancels out everything that came before it. They don't support NUTHIN'!

3) "I should have the right to express my OPINION!" The battle cry of the bad-mouther. The milquetoast mealy-mouthed mating call of the misrepresenting miscreant. This laughable littany needs to be rapidly retired along with "MOAR", "LULZ" , "Owned" and the obscene overuse of "FTW", all of which are used with appalling regularity by the abusers of this site. It's practically a calling card!

4) "I'm just speaking my MIND!" Y'know?....Some things in the human mind are just better left UNspoken. They do not benefit the audience to hear them. What these "mind-speakers" constantly fail to realize is that if all they serve up for consumption is their own excrement, then WHO really wants to eat there??

5) "This is how I create my ART!!" This is what taggers say when they splotch their graffiti where people don't want it. That's called "Vandalism". And that "What IS art, really?" argument with which the Abusers feebly attempt to back up their claim and obfuscate the real issue doesn't ultimately hold water. Lots of people make art that's truly crap. The question is, do YOU really want to hang that crap on YOUR walls?

6) "You're attempting to CENSOR me!" Well.....yeah! That's the idea! LiveVideo is not a branch of the United States Government. There's no Constitutional "Freedom of Expression" here. LiveVideo is a PRIVATE enterprise, and as such, each CHANNEL is a private enterprise, subject to the rules of its user. "My channel, my rules. Don't like it? Unsubscribe!"

Temptation, Tempers and Temperance

It's VERY easy to get tempted to jump into the fray at counterattack the haters. It seems like great fun at first. Then you realize they are sucking your energy out of you by making you expend YOUR time and energy to help garner themselves more attention. Look at all the sycophants and hangers-on that they have in orbit about them. Tempers flare and it's so tempting to get online and let 'em have it. But DON'T. Fight that urge at ALL costs. Remember, the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference! Against the assault of apathy, nothing can stand. Instead, seek out the private counsel of someone you trust. Or if a hater attacks a friend of yours, reach out to them privately with words of love and support.

If you must make a video defending a friend, make it a positive shout-out to that one person, extolling their good qualities and why you recommend people subscribe to them, with absolutely NO mention of attacks or attackers.

The main goal here is to optimize your LiveVideo experience for as positive an interaction as possible. This means you have to "clean house" occasionally. Believe me it will help a great deal! You will get public and private protestations from the offended offending parties, but to make the perfect omelette of your personal LiveVideo experience you WILL have to break quite a few eggs!

Accentuate the POSITIVE

Now that you have effectively exiled the evildoers from your LiveVideo life, double your efforts to focus on all the really GREAT people here. They're not as noisy as the Hater Gangs, but they are definitely the Majority here! Let them inspire you to really use this powerful medium to maximum benefit.

Yes, it's effort and lots of vigilance, but in the long run you will experience the true joy of LiveVideo, and you will make some incredible friends here!
I most definately have!

Take care, my friends.
"Everybody be cool. YOU....Be COOL!"

If it looks like bullshit and smells like bullshit....

2007-12-28T19:02:00.000-05:00

"Interior Ministry spokesman Brig.-Gen. Javed Iqbal Cheema said that on Friday the government recorded an "intelligence intercept" from an "al-Qaeda leader," Baitullah Mehsud."

Of course,Cheema also said Bhutto had died from injuries caused by hitting her head on her car's sunroof as she came under fire, rather than from gunshot wounds or shrapnel. I guess I have been pretty lucky not to exploded myself when I have banged my head on the car roof.

Odd that most other major Taliban or al-Qaeda actions have been announced widely and loudly via al Jazeera .... while this one was quietly made through transmissions only captured by the Pakistan government. Next they'll be saying that Bhutto blew herself up to discredit the government.

Since al Jazeera hasn't had a communique from al-Qaeda, I'm going with the Pakistani government telling porkers (or the Muslim equivalent).

Oscar Peterson 1925-2007

2007-12-24T18:41:00.001-05:00

Why, in God's name, did it take 60-odd years, a blockaed, a death, and an inquiry....????

2007-12-20T12:32:00.000-05:00

The Province of Ontario has finally handed the land comprising the Ipperwash Provincial Park, expropriated in 1942, back to the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation. It is about bleeding time!

"The origins of the dispute date back to the Second World War. Ottawa expropriated land belonging to the Stony Point band in 1942 under the War Measures Act in order to build a military training facility called Camp Ipperwash.

Ipperwash Provincial Park was created in 1936.
(CBC)

The military camp is next to Ipperwash Provincial Park, which had been created by the province six years earlier.

The Department of National Defence offered to return most of the land after the war if it could lease the land necessary for the military base, but later withdrew the offer. In 1972, Jean Chrétien — who was then the minister of Indian Affairs — suggested that if the land wasn't returned, the band should be offered another piece of land as compensation".

The Conservative Government of Ontario, under the "leadership" of then-Premier Mike Harris, refused to negotiate the claims with the Nation, called in the Ontario Provincial Police and in the ensuing stand-off and police raid, Dudley George, a Native protester was killed.

The inquiry ruling by Justice Sidney Linden stated that the Ontario and Federal governments and Mike Harris were entirely responsible for the events that lead to Dudley George's death.

Mike Harris, despite testimony that he used racist terms and directed the OPP to get the protesters out at any cost, continues to deny any personal instruction or any responsibility whatsoever in the outcome.

Why is it that, time after time, successive Provincial and Federal governments refuse to act responsibly until AFTER a public inquiry and millions of dollars are spent to settle legitimate claims by First Nations?

Obviously, they never learn from their mistakes.

"A Child Is Born: a mother's love"

2007-12-17T16:04:00.000-05:00

This is my annual Christmas video.... for all my friends

The Dream Cycles: Of Telephones and Bombs

2007-12-09T20:17:00.000-05:00

Firstly, no kittens were harmed in the making of this video (is is just cunningly spliced to look that way) but if you are of a sensitive nature, you might want to avoid this video.

This is the first in a series called "The Dream Cycles", based on my dreams. A recurring feature of my dreams are telephones which I cannot seem to dial, misdial or have to go through a convoluted series of codes in order to dial... They also feature animals in need of help, in this case kittens. I was trying to call a vet in New York State to bring some kittens in to have them looked at. Why in New Yorks State, since I live in Ontario, Canada, is anyone's guess.

The dream:

Of course, it is very difficult to translate something as ethereal as a dream into film using available footage and images. In fact, the dream was a little less "dark" than the video and wasn't quite the same but had all the elements I included, including the chicken.... There were actually more farm animals and people in it. And the mother cat was not attacking the kittens. And it was all in colour...

I found these two kittens, one of which had a deformed back leg and the mother had been locked away from them for some time... I don't know how long. So I decided to call a vet. I had a number but instead of written on paper, it was impressed in some sort of clay... like Fimo or something and it was in two parts. You had to slide the second piece of Fimo away from the bottom of the other piece. They were held together with a little post, and you had to swing the first piece away to get the second part of the number.

As well, even though when you looked at it it looked like a number or series of numbers, it was actually this elaborate story in sort of a storybook fashion. You had to read the story and press on the different things in the picture to "dial" the number". Of course, I kept missing the correct things and had to completely redo the number. Finally I though "Why are you doing this? You can just dial the number!". It turned out that doing the number via the "story" was only sort of a fun way of doing it.... sort of a game. So I start dialing the number which, although it was supposed to be in New York State, had a 416 area code.

Even then, I kept making mistakes and couldn't complete the call. Also, I had to keep going back to try and put the cats into a cat carrier but kept getting pulled away to do something else. Meanwhile, someone blew up my house.... Terrorists, I think.

The Corpse is Dead. Long Live the Corpse...

2007-12-07T19:19:00.002-05:00

As some of you may know, for a little over a year I have been participating in "An Exquisite Corpse", a collaborative art "game".

Basically, 4 people collaborate in the construction of an artwork but none of the participants know what the other people have contributed to the whole, aside from a small strip from the bottom of the piece contributed by the player above them.

Unfortunately, the host has decided to move on to other things and we were in danger of losing what has become a terrific pastime for many of us.

Luckily, someone else has risen to the challenge and has started a new website called.... "The New Exquisite Corpse". She is in the first stages of rallying the troops and we should soon see some pieces appearing before long.

Some recent favorite Corpses include:

Trapped Inside / Torture-Induced Beatitude / Hunh, What / Sunk

Candy Mountain Lion / Staaaarving / Lobsters In Love / Has Rabies!

Full Fish / Simurgh Saves Her / Down South / In Orbit

"Waiting For The Guards"

2007-12-07T00:39:00.000-05:00

Warning: Some viewers may find this disturbing. Unsuitable for under 14s.

This film shows a performance artist undergoing, for real, interrogation techniques permitted in the CIA handbook.

"Waiting For The Guards" is the first of 3 films commissioned by Amnesty International to highlight the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA in the War on Terror.

The Directors approached the making of the film in a way that has never been done before, choosing to show the reality of Stress Positions in as authentic a way as possible. They filmed a person being put into Stress Positions over a 6 hour period. There is no acting on the part of the prisoner his pain and anguish is for real.

This powerful film shows without doubt that what the US administrations say is interrogation is in reality, torture and must be stopped.

We've released the film on the Internet before going to theatrical release in independent cinemas in early 2008. We believe this film is a great introduction to what the unsubscribe movement is all about, so we ask you to get the movie out there, in any way you can.

The more people see it. The more people will be compelled to unsubscribe.

You can download a large QuickTime version (28mb) of "Waiting for the Guards" or download a smaller (11mb) version or download a REALLY big (58mb) version.

You can use the video widget or use YouTube to share the video, it's your choice but do get the film out there if you can.

You can see interviews with the people involved in making this film.

"This may be a dumb question...." usually means it is a dumb question....

2007-12-05T21:02:00.000-05:00

Holy CRAP, some people are dumb....!

Norval Morrisseau

2007-12-04T23:08:00.001-05:00

Two New Videos

2007-12-03T10:04:00.000-05:00

Nan's Trifle

2007-12-02T10:52:00.000-05:00

There are tons of different ways of making trifle. Once you have the basics of Nan's trifle down, you can start trying your own variations. I've had some pretty awful trifles in my day but Nan's is usually the best.

Ingredients:

2 packs of Lady fingers or jelly rolls (or any light, white cake.... pound cake, angel food, etc.)
1 lg. pack Jello (raspberry or strawberry)
1 can fruit cocktail, drained (a good one with soft fruit) - canned peaches will do as long as you chop them a bit You can add the juice to the liquid you use for the jello
1 can custard or a pack of vanilla pudding (Jello brand is best, some of the others are "fake" tasting) OR, if you can make custard from the dried powder, that is better than vanilla pud.
1 container whipping cream (Don't use whipped cream substitutes, they are horrible)
1 teaspoon of sugar
Cake sprinkles

Making it:

- Layer a bowl with jelly roll, Lady fingers or slices of cake, lining the sides, as well
- Make your Jello (you can add the juice from the drained can of fruit at this point, reducing the water you use by that amount)
- Very carefully pour Jello into the cake in the bowl. If you put too much in the cake will float up. I pour it by the spoonful down the sides of the bowl to saturate the cake on the sides. If you do it too quickly or too much the cake on the sides will fall over. Once the sides are done and the stuff at the bottom is soaked you can pour an inch or so of the Jello into the bowl and add a bit of the fruit cocktail to it
- Let the Jello set
- If you are making your custard, do it now and let it cool in the fridge

- Once the Jello is set, you can add a layer of fruit cocktail and the custard or pudding layer and put back in the fridge.
- Just before serving, whip the cream with a tsp. of sugar and top the trifle

- Add sprinkles and serve

Variations:

For my own trifle, I use frozen unsweetened raspberries and add a little sugar. The sweetened ones are just a bit too sweet for my taste. If you are going to add your own sugar, reserve a little of the juice from the next step and heat it with a little sugar in the microwave and pour it back into the raspberries and let cool

Drain the raspberries and add the juice to the Jello.

Follow the instructions above for "Jello-ing" the cake adding the raspberries to the remaining to the bottom of the bowl and pour in Jello to cover the fruit.

Do the rest of the trifle as above.

Some people add bananas on top of the custard layer. It's all good.

If you Google "English trifles", you will probably find a lot of recipes. Take a look at them and you might come across some variations that you might like to try.

In the summer, you can add fresh raspberries and or strawberries instead of the cocktail

"Avec" Trifle

Mom, of course, usually makes one of hers "Avec" for the grown-ups. She pours a bit of sherry over the cake bit before adding the jello

2007-11-28T01:02:00.001-05:00

It is comforting to see officials do a thorough and lengthy investigation...

2007-11-26T14:54:00.000-05:00

Jail staff cleared after N.S. man shot with Taser: officials

"Corrections officers followed proper procedures while Howard Hyde, the man who died a day after being jolted with a Taser by police, was in their custody, officials said Monday."

....Hyde, 45, a paranoid schizophrenic, died Thursday morning at the Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth, 30 hours after police shocked him with a Taser to try to subdue him. The stun gun was used on Hyde at a police station where he was being booked on an assault charge."

Today is Monday. The investigation was ordered Thursday afternoon.

The RCMP continue to investigate Hyde's death.

Of course, the question of why someone suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia was in jail and not in a mental health facility, I suppose, is silly.

19 (at least) And Counting

2007-11-24T23:19:00.000-05:00

"A 36-year-old British Columbia man has died in hospital more than four days after being subdued by RCMP officers with a Taser and nearly every other available weapon except firearms." CBC (CDN)

In this case, I am willing to concede that the Taser might not have been the exact cause of death. I doubt it helped, though.

It seems that many of the Tasered people have had mental health issues. Police claim that they are "trained" to deal with people with mental health issues. However, given the number of people exhibiting signs of being in the midst of a psychiatric crisis who have been taken down by either a Taser or violent force (or both), it seems that their methods need reviewing.

It's easy to pass the buck on this and blame the person who is, because of a mental health issue, becomes violent for their own misfortune, Many of these events could have been prevented with better crisis intervention for people with mental health problems, better monitoring, better management of Canada's mental health system.

... and by extension, when the system fails, a better ability to recognise and respond appropriately to people in the middle of a crisis without it ending up with them ending up battered.... or dead.

We have SWAT teams in most cities, as well as hostage negotiators, and other specialty branches within most police forces. Surely to God, taking the extra two minutes to evaluate a situation and call in people trained properly to deal with the mentally ill would not be too much of a stretch, either in personal or in finances. Considering the cost of inquiring into every handling of a serious injury or death to someone who was clearly in crisis it seems to me a small price to pay to prevent rather than pick up the pieces afterwards.

Considering the fact that most of the recent deaths have involved people who were in crisis with either a long-standing mental health issue or some sort of mental health crisis, brought on by other circumstances, I think it is high time that consideration should be given to better train police and to reassess the mental health system.

(At least) 18 and counting....

2007-11-22T12:33:00.000-05:00

Nova Scotia's Justice Minister has ordered a ministerial review of police use of Tasers after the death of a man in custody early Thursday. Globe and Mail (CDN)

Meanwhile:

"British Police have been given the go-ahead to use Taser stun guns against children. The relaxing of restrictions on the use of the weapons comes despite warnings that they could trigger a heart attack in youngsters." Daily Mail (UK)

And:...
"RCMP in Manitoba are being sued by a former soldier with various mental disorders who says officers used a Taser on him while he was handcuffed." CBC (CDN)

This does not surprise me....

"Ontario's top cop yesterday blasted critics who rush to judgment after police used Tasers in the death of a man at a Vancouver airport but remain mute when police officers are killed.

"I'm really concerned about the rhetoric swirling around out there that's devoid of knowing all the facts," OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino, a former London police chief, said in London.

"The people who are doing all the screaming have no idea what they're talking about," he said." - London Free Press (CDN)

Gee, Could we possibly be screaming about things like this?

"The Utah Highway Patrol said the video, taken from Trooper John Gardner's pa[t]rol car, showed him Tasering Jared Massey when he started walking away after refusing to sign the ticket, Associated Press reported.." (AUS) (you will note that the officer has his Taser out and aimed at the driver before he has reached for his handcuffs and at no time did he say "Stop, or I will Taser you" as he claims to the other officer. I don't know about Utah, in Canada one doesn't need to sign a ticket for it to be valid. One only signs it when one is contesting the ticket and sending it in to state one is going to go to court over it .)

The Frank Paul Inquiry

2007-11-20T01:19:00.000-05:00

The Government of British Columbia has appointed an independent commission of inquiry to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of Frank Joseph Paul. Mr. Paul, a Mi'kmaq from New Brunswick, was removed from the Vancouver Police Department lockup at about 8:30 p.m. on December 5, 1998, and was left in a nearby alley by a police officer. His body was found in the alley early the next morning. An autopsy concluded he had died from hypothermia due to exposure/alcohol intoxication.

The sole Commissioner, appointed under the Public Inquiry Act, is former B.C. Supreme Court Justice William H. Davies, Q.C.

Backgrounder From the Inquiry website:

At 8:18 p.m. on December 5, 1998 Frank Joseph Paul, a 47-year-old New Brunswick Mi’Kmaq First Nations man living in Vancouver, was arrested in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver by two Vancouver police officers for being intoxicated in a public place. He was transported to the Vancouver Police Department’s jail facility at 312 Main Street. Several minutes later he was removed from the lockup, placed into a police van, and left in an alleyway in East Vancouver. Mr. Paul’s body was found at the same location at 2:41 a.m. the following morning.

According to the autopsy report, death was attributed to hypothermia due to acute alcohol intoxication. The coroner decided against calling a Coroner’s Inquest, choosing instead to conduct an Inquiry without a jury under s. 20 of the Coroners Act, and issued a Judgment of Inquiry.

In 2000 the Vancouver Police Department concluded disciplinary proceedings against two officers. One officer was suspended for two days for discreditable conduct, and the other officer was suspended for one day for neglect of duty.

In January 2002 the Police Complaints Commissioner advised the Chief of the Vancouver Police Department that, in his view, a Public Hearing under the Police Act would not be the appropriate vehicle to address the issues arising from the death of Mr. Paul, and that he would be taking no further action. He subsequently wrote to the provincial Solicitor General, recommending an inquest and suggesting a province-wide review of police response to circumstances where they detain or release people who are unable to care for themselves.

In June 2003 the new Police Complaints Commissioner released to counsel acting for Mr. Paul’s family portions of the police jail surveillance video depicting Mr. Paul’s arrival and departure at the Vancouver Police jail on December 5, 1998. Based on new information concerning the circumstances of Mr. Paul’s removal from the jail hours before his death, the Police Complaints Commissioner re-opened the Frank Paul file. In January 2004 he published Reasons for Decision in which he recommended a full public inquiry.

On several occasions the Criminal Justice Branch of the Ministry of Attorney General examined the circumstances surrounding Mr. Paul’s death. In each review, the Branch decided not to proceed with criminal charges against any of the police officers involved.

On February 22, 2007 the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General announced a public inquiry into the Frank Paul case. On March 9, 2007 he announced that William H. Davies, Q.C. would act as commissioner, and that the inquiry would be conducted under the proposed new Public Inquiry Act.

On August 10, 2007 the Attorney General published the public inquiry’s purpose and terms of reference. The Commission is to submit a final report to the Attorney General on or before May 31, 2008.

I will try to upload video of the testimony of his cousin, Peggy Clement. At this time, I cannot seem to upload it.

RCMP falsehoods on Dziekanski's death (Globe and Mail)

2007-11-17T01:09:00.000-05:00

"Canadians cannot believe a word the RCMP have to say over the taser death of Robert Dziekanski. The cruelty of the response by four Mounties to the Polish man's plight is a shocking example of police inhumanity. The disinformation campaign waged later can only further harm the reputation and credibility of the force. How, when an RCMP spokesman stands up in the future and calmly gives a version of events involving a member, can he be trusted?" (read the full editorial)

What is certain about this sad and tragic event is that the RCMP have shamed themselves and done more harm to the reputation of their own personnel than any smear campaign could ever do.

When, in the wake of a series of shootings which have taken the lives of officers who have striven to uphold justice and to keep citizens in their communities safe, a single event tarnishes the reputation of the entire force. It cheapens the lives and deaths of those officers killed in the line of duty.

For those spokespersons for the RCMP to continue to lie and distort what is patently apparent to most Canadians... who can see with their own eyes what transpired in the Vancouver airport isn't just ludicrous, it is criminal.

Obviously, they took a leaf from the SQ book on how to deal with public scrutiny of transgressions... Lie, lie, lie... Never admit a fault, even when faced with evidence which proves guilt. Lie, and it will all go away.

Clearly, none of them took to heart their mothers' advice that it is always better to tell the truth and admit a fault than to lie and risk the shame of being caught in a lie.

Meanwhile, the memorial service for Mr. Dziekanski will be held tomorrow in BC and, despite being invited, not a single of the invited MLAs or local politicians has chosen to appear at the service. Are they afraid of being seen to have concern or compassion for Mr. Dziekanski's grieving mother?

Shame on them.

2007-11-16T11:18:00.000-05:00

Award-winning American travel writer Rolf Potts (www.rolfpotts.com) is looking for Canadians to interview regarding the War of 1812. Rolf is doing a story for National Public Radio about Canadian views on the war, and particularly Canadian patriotic attachment to it as a victory over the Americans. He's looking for two groups of people: Canadians in their teens, 20s or 30s who may not know a whole lot about the war, but who might recall what they were taught about it in school or have a vague sense of pride about it, and Canadians of any age group who are maybe a bit more knowledgeable and opinionated. (As he puts it, "maybe a history buff or fervent Canadian nationalist.")

These aren't strict categories - just Canadian-ness and some sort of opinion about 1812 (preferably of the patriotic variety) are required. If interested in being interviewed (Rolf would do the interviews by phone) please let Eva Holland know as soon as possible. My home email is eva.jt.holland@gmail.com.

Judge for yourself...

2007-11-15T00:42:00.001-05:00

CAUTION: Video contains footage of a violent death.

Paul Pritchard, the bystander who vidoetaped the minutes leading up to the Tasering and eventual death of Robert Dziekanski by RCMP officers at Vancouver airport last month finally has his footage back and released it.

To my mind there is no question that the death of Robert Dziekanski would never have happened if someone had taken the time to do allow this man to speak to an interpreter or let him use their cellphone to reach his mother.

The RCMP story about the events keeps changing from "he was drunk and out of control"(according to the autopsy, he had no alcohol at all in his system. Nor were there drugs), to "he resisted the police" to "the footage doesn't tell the entire story". It certainly tells more than the police bothered to find out before they, within 25 seconds of arriving on the scene, Tasering him.

I think the video speaks very clearly about whether the police acted correctly and with appropriate force or went in half-cocked, Tasered an man who was agitated (twice within a few second and while the man was down), and caused him to lapse into a coma by kneeling on his neck and head (as witnesses and the video show).

Judge for yourself

2007-11-13T01:58:00.000-05:00

Photos from the O-Town Hoedown and a couple of other shows, set to "Outlaw Heart" (Tiger Army).

To see the photos in all their glory:
O-Town
O-Town Specials
The Windy Kilts

Bail for Alleged child molester.... $5,000

2007-11-08T22:57:00.000-05:00

A provincial court in Abbotsford, B.C., has granted bail of $5,000 to Orville Frank Mader, who's accused of sex crimes in Thailand, but he will remain in jail until he comes up with the money.

Mader, 54, also has to stay away from children unless he's under supervision of an adult appointed by the court — a condition of his bail.
Mader was nabbed at Vancouver International Airport on Nov. 1, after getting off a plane from Asia. He's is originally from Kitchener, Ont., and has lived in Surrey, B.C.

He was held by authorities under a protective order after a provincial court judge ruled he could pose a threat to children under the age of 14.

Thai police issued an arrest warrant for Mader on Oct. 31 in connection with alleged sexual abuse committed in the coastal city of Pattaya, known for its brothels and other sex industry venues.

Another example of the courts not taking seriously the risk of releasing child molesters, alleged or otherwise, without proper assurances they won't either disappear or offend. Obviously, this man poses a flight risk since he left Thailand to evade capture. The amount of bail and the fact that his family doesn't seem to think he poses any risk is cause enough to concern for both flight and offending.

If the "supervision of an adult appointed by the court" is anything like the one appointed by the court when my former brother-in-law* was given house-arrest for molesting a child (his wife who didn't believe that he was guilty, despite his pleading guilty), there is nothing to stop him from offending.

I wonder how soon we will be hearing about his escapades after doing a bunk or kidnapping a child. Of course, if the courts take as seriously any further offenses by him as they did those by Peter Whitmore.
________________________

*Who was reported for breaking the conditions of his release and the police and court did nothing, despite an automatic 3 year sentence for breaking the conditions.

Sighhhh.....

2007-11-08T20:09:00.000-05:00

A Winnipeg church prevented aboriginal dancers from performing at a Habitat for Humanity event this week, saying the performance was not an expression of Christian faith.

Habitat for Humanity invited Kim Houle and her children to perform at its annual volunteer appreciation night, which was held Tuesday in an auditorium Habitat had rented for the event inside the Church of The Rock.

But the afternoon before the performance, the church told Habitat it could not allow the dancing.

Pastor Mark Hughes said he was sorry for Houle and her family, but he agreed with his staff's decision to prevent them from dancing in his church.

"Native spiritual dancing has its roots in a different spiritual belief system that is incongruent with traditional Christian worship," Hughes said in an e-mail.

I'm sure there are plenty of other things worn, done, even part of the church's ceremonies which have their roots in something other than Christian worship. I'll bet the church has a Christmas tree or, let's face it, celebrates the birth of Christ at Christmas which has ITS roots in a pagan celebration.

"I don't think a Buddhist temple would allow a Christian pastor to speak about Jesus."

Actually, unlike this particular "church", most Buddhist temples would likely NOT have a problem with a Christian pastor speaking about Jesus if he had been invited either by the temple or someone renting space in the church.

Houle and her children, who live in a Habitat home, were allowed to attend the event, but not to perform.

Michelle Nyhof, spokeswoman for Habitat for Humanity in Winnipeg, said the church's position put the charity in an awkward situation because it had signed a contract.

"We have to respect it's their facility. There is a contract," she said. "According to their contract they have the … first right of refusal of performances, so we had to abide by that.

"Our option was to cancel the event, which we didn't feel was an option given the short notice."

Habitat is "heartbroken" by the situation, Nyhof said.

"What we do here is, you know, totally inclusive of everybody. We work with people from all backgrounds, all walks of life — it's part of our mission statement," she said.

"We build homes for families from every nationality and every religion, so for this to happen, it's quite upsetting to us."

Habitat for Humanity will try to hold future events in public facilities, Nyhof said, so the organization won't face such restrictions on performers.

Jesus is probably spinning in his grave over what this particular pastor and his ilk consider "unChristian".

Pinheads...

Snowball, the Cockatoo... Not just a pretty face!

2007-10-20T05:31:00.000-04:00

Watch your #*&@^$ language!

2007-10-17T01:07:00.000-04:00

For this week's most egregious abuse of police powers....

A Scranton, PA woman was cited for disorderly conduct after she yelled obscenities when her toilet... in her own house... overflowed. Dawn Herb was understandably upset when the toilet overflowed and started leaking down into the kitchen. She was yelling to her daughter to bring her a mop. Her neighbour, a police officer, heard her through the open window and told her to hold it down. When she continued, he called police. She could face 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $300.

"Mary Catherine Roper, a lawyer with the ACLU in Philadelphia, took issue with the citation.

"You can't prosecute somebody for swearing at a cop or a toilet," she said."

Nice neighbour... God forbid he should have offered to help her with her toilet instead of calling the police.

"Bubbles Make Him Smile"

2007-10-12T15:25:00.000-04:00

Educate yourself about Autism.
Early intervention is crucial.

Please 'Suggest to Friends' and get the word out.

References:
www.autismspeaks.org
www.autismsocietycanada.ca
www.actbc.ca
www.autismbc.ca
www.autismspeaks.org

Bubbles Make Him Smile

Straight, Inc.; One more reason the fear Republicans

2007-10-10T18:52:00.000-04:00

Some articles on Straight and its reincarnations:
NWI
Reason dot com
Alternet
WBNS story
The Hill
Huffington Post
Mother Jones

Republicans Torture Teenagers for Money

Breaking News! Actor and beloved children's toy in hot water!

2007-10-05T02:53:00.000-04:00

Harvest Festival, Wakefield, Quebec Sept. 29, 2007

2007-09-30T20:52:00.000-04:00

The Windy Kilts, at the Russell CeltFest

2007-09-26T00:52:00.000-04:00

This is a terrific band!

2007-09-26T00:25:00.000-04:00

I love this guy... He's been stealing bags of chips from a shop for some time. Regular customers have been paying for the "thefts". He shares them, too, ripping open the bag and sharing them with other birds.

Larry Zolf on the Mulroney "memoirs"

2007-09-24T22:21:00.000-04:00

Larry Zolf counters Brian Mulroney's vitriolic tirades against Pierre Trudeau with a few facts.

"He was born and raised in Quebec, but it seems Brian Mulroney does not now — and may never have had — a real understanding of Quebec ethnic nationalism.
How else to explain the raft of gaffes in his recently released autobiography, Memoirs: 1939-1993?"

Regarding Trudeau's (alleged) or Quebec's (apparent) antisemitism:

"It may come as a surprise to Mulroney, but nobody in Quebec — or anybody else in Canada — cared about the Jews being slaughtered in Europe, least of all Pierre Sévigny, war hero that he was." (read the full article)

In fact it should be pointed out that Canada's immigration policy on Jews and other non-white and non-Europeans was reflection on the general attitude of many Canadians, not just those from Quebec. The Bennett government's immigration policy was as antisemitic as that of the King government that followed it.

Any student of history knows that very little of the actual plight of the European Jews was known to the outside world. Any suggestion that Jews were being exterminated was treated with incredulity. Nazi propaganda and the general attitudes in the rest of the world about Jews at best left most unreceptive to rumours of extermination, and at worst unsympathetic. It could be said that none of those who went to war did so because of Hitler's Jewish policies.

Only after the war, when the atrocities became known, did most see and understand the full horror of it all.

Even so, many countries, including Canada, partly from guilt and partly from anti-Jewish sentiment, still resisted accepting "too many" refugees. Hence the avid support of the Israeli State. "Let them have their own state, as long as they don't come here".

The AIDS Memorial Quilt

2007-09-23T02:40:00.000-04:00

Lest we forget....

Record # 29 / Block #0013

Record # 1510 / Block # 01494

Coffee Art

2007-09-21T18:28:00.000-04:00