aka.alias

Happy Canada Day, Everyone!

2009-07-01T10:33:00.000-04:00

Doug Fleming and his Caledonia Shitshooters

2009-06-24T12:07:00.003-04:00

It seems that the aforementioned Fleming has decided to take matters into his own hands in Caledonia, and organize a citizens' militia that he wants to call the "Caledonia Peacekeepers". His group would consist of unarmed self-righteous types who would supposedly use citizen arrests and force to deal with "illegal" occupations in Caledonia. Fleming is quoted in the media as saying his group "is not for hotheads (or) for someone who will lose their temper and want to hurt someone".
News flash, Fleming, you feeble-minded moron. You yourself are saying your group will use force, and yet you're trying to say it will only include the most reasonable of the righteous. What a load of shit that is. If Fleming really wants to serve his community, he might do better to take some of the manure spewing from his mouth and spread it over the nearest flowerbeds, instead.
If Fleming were to look up "force" in the dictionary - if he knows what that is - he would find it defined as: strength used a person or thing, violence or constraint. Then he could try to explain exactly how he thinks setting up a group whose leader adverts it as out to use force is not setting up a group that will appeal to hotheads.
Fleming apparently came up with his brilliant idea earlier this month when a Mohawk man occupied a corner of a farm field on the edge of town and set up a shack to sell duty-free cigarettes to protest the state of land claim talks. The OPP said they wouldn't move in to evict the protester and that pissed off little Mr. Fleming. He's hoping his vigilante group will embarrass the OPP into action.
Interestingly enough, the farmer who owns the land where the shack was set up, doesn't want Fleming to stick his nose in here. He says the federal government, not local vigilantes, should solve the Caledonia land claim. "Outsiders, they stick their nose into it … because this is my problem," said Ernie Palmer. "Mr. Fleming, you are a publicity seeker and you should have stayed out of it as I told you." In accordance with Palmer is Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister Brad Duguid who called Fleming's plan a "dumb idea."
More than an outright stupid idea, Fleming's group is a dangerous precedent setter, an attempt by hotheads to take the matter into their own heads and circumvent the proper legal pathways to a solution to the problem. If this group is allowed to take any action at all, it could create a backlash of follow-up idiots who decide they know better than the judicial system how to handle others who don't fit into their grand scheme of things.
Kind of raises images of the post-war southern states when the civil war was over and the KKK was just beginning their trampling rides across the rights of others.

What Do You Call It?

2009-06-21T12:01:00.005-04:00

Let me be right up front about two things here.
First, I do think there is a place for abortion. It must be medically determined and properly carried out, if it will spare the health or sanity of the mother. For instance, I can not imagine carrying to full term and giving birth to a baby created during a vicious rape. And don't give me that bullshit about rapes not resulting in pregnancies. I have actually heard that nonsense forwarded by people who damn well should know better. They can, and do, result from rape, and I think that is one of times when the option should be available. They should not, however, be available simply as a form of birth control. There are more than enough products out there to forestall the creation of a human life.
An abortion should be done only if the mother agrees to it. For myself, I carried my first pregnancy when I was 32. Doctors advised me to have amniocentesis done, so that I could "best determine a course of action" if there was found to be a problem. Checking with them for clarification on that euphemistic mumbo-jumbo brought out the truth that the advised "best" course would be to have an abortion, if the test revealed the presence of Down Syndrome. I refused the test and let all and sundry know that I was having that baby, come hell or high water. That said, however, I think a woman whose health is threatened by the pregnancy should have the chance to make a different decision than I did.
The second point I would make in any discussion about abortion is that it should be done at an early stage, or not at all. I think the murder of Wichita's Dr. George Tiller is anything but pro-life and any pro-lifer who denounced the accused Scott Roeder is smart to do so, but I also think it was just plain morally reprehensible for Tiller's clinic to be offering the late-term abortions that it did. It should have been shut down on the very same day that it tried to open.
It is almost impossible to view late-term abortions as anything other than murder, especially when everyone knows that if circumstances were different, if the baby arrived prematurely in a maternity ward, it would be given every medical opportunity and assistance to survive that our society has to offer. Part of the reason why it is possible for some to view such termination of a life as other than murder is the word games used to skirt the whole issue. Using the words "mass of foetal tissue" to refer to the life being ended helps to blur the reality of what is taking place in a clinic such as that run by the late Tiller. Move all the people involved in a scene at Tiller's clinic to the nearest maternity ward, and the "mass of tissue" would become a "preemie", a baby.
Human life is created at the moment of conception. It does not somehow wait until the foetus can draw independent breath outside the mother's body. That's playing with words. That's indulging in euphemistic wordplay in order to avoid the truth. No-one bothers debating over whether or not two zebras, for instance, create a zebra when they mate. Neither do they bother with such nonsense when the animals in question are any other of the species with which we share this earth. They only cavil over the first moment of human life and the terms to be used in reference to it in order to facilitate making the termination of that life less open to the question of legality.
If Tiller and his ilk perform abortions of babies that could and would be saved were the circumstance of their arrival different, then surely they are indulging in what should be an illegal activity.

Happy Day, Everyone!

2009-06-21T11:47:00.003-04:00

Short and sweet - happy National Aboriginal Day to all my Canadian brothers and sisters.
Yes, it's an artificial construct, but then so is Mother's Day and Father's Day. It is, at least, an official day to proudly declare belonging to one of the First Nations.

Revisiting the Idiot Alert Files

2009-06-18T15:26:00.002-04:00

Today, two idiots more than worthy of inclusion in the Alert Files came to my attention. One is a retro-moron, Pope Pius IX, and the other, Jeffrey Stier, is still very busily involved in spreading inanity even as I write.
Let us deal with the late pontiff first, shall we? This particular nutcase was a contemporary of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, 1861-65. We all know Davis and his troops lost the war, and rightly so. What some of us may not know is what the pontiff did while Davis was held in prison for two years following the war's end. Seeking to show his solidarity with this good southern gentleman and slave owner, Pius sent a gift of a crown of thorns woven by the pope with his own hands and a portrait of himself autographed with the words from Scripture, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
What I find myself wondering when I read about this idiocy is how many like gifts were sent from the Vatican to the hundreds and thousands of slaves who were taking up their crosses in the southern states? I wonder how many such presents were posted to the blacks who found themselves having to deal with the damn near insurmountable problems lobbed at them like rocket fire after the war by the intolerant whites who still clung to the delusion of racial superiority?
Pope Pius IX is already somebody I had considered for membership in the Idiot Alert Files simply by virtue of his having been responsible for the declaration of papal infallibility, but I could never quite find enough inspiration to waste any time writing about this pea-brain. Coming across this little nugget today however tipped the scale in the numbnut's favour, and so, Pius IX. welcome to the rank and file of idiots incomparable.
Mentioning peas in any way, even as a measure of brain size, serves well as an intro to the second dork upon whom membership will be granted today. Jeffrey Stier is associate director of the American Council on Science and Health, a group that accepts corporate funding from Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s and PepsiCo and generally sides with industries’ positions on health and environmental hazards. He is one of the many vocalizing their grave concerns about the ramifications of Michelle Obama's irresponsilbe and thoughtless organic gardening habits. Really, what was the woman thinking about, to plant a garden with the help of school children and not deluge it with chemicals? Who knows what nasty vegetable aberrants could result from such wilful carelessness? She claims to have been motivated simply by the desire to highlight the importance of a healthful diet for children and how much easier it can be to get children to voluntarily ingest their least favorite food group, vegetables, when produce they helped to grow is pulled fresh from the garden.
Thank heavens the public has such staunch defenders of their best interests as Stier. Interviewed recently on the Jon Stewart show, Stier explained his fearful reaction to Michelle's underhanded failure to sprinkle chemicals on anything and everything that stood still long enough. Said Stier, “I think the Obama garden should come with a warning label. It’s irresponsible to tell people that you should eat organic and locally grown food. Not everyone can afford that. That’s a serious public health concern.” The great intellect continued delineating the parameter of his concern over what havoc the White House garden could wreak. “People are going to eat fewer fruits and vegetables. Cancer rates will go up. Obesity rates will go up. I think if we decide to eat only locally grown food, we’re going to have a lot of starvation.”
The last two sentences uttered by this great thinker are really the ones that provide food for thought. If obesity rates do go up, can starvation, indeed, be very far behind? Obesity and starvation stalking the land, hand-in-hand. It's a picture that could only form itself in the mind of someone with a brain no larger than a pea, whether it be one grown organically or not.
Yes, Jeffrey Stier, the rank and file of the Idiot Alert Files are proud to welcome someone of such stunted mental stature as yourself. You do the organization proud.

The Status Quo Ain't Good Enough

2009-06-11T13:40:00.002-04:00

Those are the words of John Kay, discussing his commitment to taking the world in a love embrace. Yep, it's the John Kay of Steppenwolf we're talking about here, and I just found out that he and his wife Jutta are giving back some of the good fortune life has blessed them with. I think what they're doing is totally wonderful.
Their decision to give back has taken the form of the Maue Kay Foundation, a not-for-profit that raises funds for schools in rural Cambodia and Tanzania. It also funds nature reserves in Kenya, among other places, helping such worthies as the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which shelters orphaned baby elephants and black rhinos until they are released in Kenya's Tsavo National Park.
Says Kay, in explanation of his philanthropic endeavors, "I realized that anything that I was really passionate about was rooted in the idea that the status quo ain't good enough and there's much to be done."
Being legally blind (20/200) and living in post-war Germany 'til his mid-teens, Kay saw many living "hand-to-mouth" as he says. Experiences and images from those years must have stayed with him and been part of what guided him when he decided to contribute to making the world a better place. His iconic Born to Be Wild is still stirring listeners. Recently used in the soundtrack of the kids' movie "Racing Stripes", the song is going on and on, reaching new generations. So is John Kay.

What To Do with Unwanted Electronics?

2009-06-05T13:35:00.002-04:00

If you live in Ontario, the WEEE program is the answer to that problem. This program is setting up collection points across the province where you can drop off designated electronic equipment and know it will either be reused, recycled or disposed of in an environmentally responsible way. At the moment, the program includes:
*desktop and laptop computers
*keyboards, mice and other peripherals
*monitors
*desktop printers
*disk drives
*fax machines
*TV's
Started up in April, 2009, the program is funded by fees paid by brand owners, first importers, and assemblers of electronic equipment. The program keeps old electronics out of landfills, as well as tackling the issue of consumer education. If you want to know more about how to rid of yourself of unwanted electronic products in an environmentally responsible manner, click here to visit the website dowhatyoucan.ca. Once you're there, you'll find you can also get the info you need about what to do with household hazardous waste, or "special"waste like unused paint. You can search for you nearest collection site by municipality, postal code or material type.
The site also includes a great list of teacher resources for individual instructors or whole schools who want to go green. There's E-Zone for elementary students and Obviously.ca for secondary level students, as well Green Teacher Magazine. The EcoKids Program is a free, environmental education program that offers curriculum-linked materials and activities specifically for Canadian schools. It doesn't get much better than free! School may be winding down for the summer break now, but spending a little time here during July and August could help a teacher go back in the fall ready to turn their whole school green
The industry organization, Ontario Electronic Stewardship is the group responsible for the launch of WEEE. They're doing what they can to make it easier for us. Now, it's our turn to step up to the plate.

Tell Me, Is It Safe To Use?

2009-06-04T17:15:00.003-04:00

I think by now most of us are aware that there is no guarantee of having the above question answered with complete honesty by product manufacturers. We are also becoming more and more aware of the proliferation of potentially harmful additives in so many of the products that come into our lives on a daily basis. Plastic bottles with their BPA are a recent example of what dangers blind trust in manufacturers can lead us into. Did you know, BTW, that BPA is not only used in plastic bottles? It's omnipresent in the linings of food cans, as well. If you want to get away from the noxious substance completely, you'll want to buy your own stainless steel bottle to carry water in, and but any canned foods you consume from EDEN, the only company at the moment that completely eschews the use of BPA in their products.
The problem is, of course, who wants to wait for the next big announcement that we are being gradually poisoned by some other additive the manufacturers just forgot to tell us about? Getting the facts before we buy on a range of products would allow us to make a more informed choice on just which goods we're willing to purchase and take home to out families. Where to get such info? Click here, and you'll be taken to "Skin Deep", a data base maintained by EWG, the Environmental Working Group. You'll find products listed there under eight categories - Makeup, Skin Care, Hair Care, Eye Care, Nail Care, Baby Care, Oral Care, and Fragrance. Each category will give you myriad entries, all listed under brand names and all rated on a hazard scale from 0 to 10 with 0 being no hazard and 10 being high, or "run screaming" before you buy this one! As you browse through each list, you can click on any product and see a complete list of its ingredients. You'll also see each ingredient listed separately on a hazard scale, and the health concerns with which it has been linked. Click on any ingredient and you can find yourself looking at a listing of dates and results of studies done on it to address health issues.
It can make for some damn interesting reading if you find yourself looking at suspected/known carcinogens in a previously favourite product. Pass the word around about this site. After all, an educated consumer is the best consumer.

Apologizing for Bataan

2009-06-03T16:46:00.003-04:00

On May 30, some of the 73 surviving Bataan Darth March veterans of the U.S. army and former army air corps met at the 64th annual convention of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. A visitor they may not have expected flew from Washington to be with them on that day. Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, came to offer an unusual, in-person apology for the death march. "Today, I would like to convey to you the position of the government of Japan on this issue.As former prime ministers of Japan have repeatedly stated: The Japanese people should bear in mind that we must look into the past and to learn from the lessons of history," said Fujisaki. "We extend a heartfelt apology for our country having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people, including prisoners of war, those who have undergone tragic experiences in the Bataan Peninsula, in Corregidor Island in the Philippines and other places. Ladies and gentlemen, taking this opportunity, I would like to express my deepest condolences to all those who have lost their lives in the war, and after the war, and their family members.”
Ex-POW, Lester Tenney, leader of the ADBC felt the apology was "momentous", but not all the survivors agreed. Some of them still carry far too many emotional scars from the barbarism they were forced to endure and witness. In what was ruled as a war crime after Imperial Japan's surrender, 75,000 American and Filipino POW's were forced by their Japanese captors in 1942 to march some 65 miles from the Bataan Peninsula to prison camps. Along the way, the prisoners were subjected to incredible brutality. Some incapable of keeping up were beheaded or disemboweled, while others had their throats cut for stopping to help a fallen comrade. Still others were attacked for no discernible reason at all. The death count will likely never be known for certain, but some historians think perhaps between six and eleven thousand men died on the march. These figures do not include the deaths directly resulting from the delayed effect of the deprivations and brutalization of the march that would have followed at the camps.
Perhaps one of the reasons that some of the vets there to hear Fujisaki were less than impressed could be the Japanese government allowing textbooks like the Fushosha text to be used in the country's classrooms. Okayed by the Ministry of Education and its affiliate Textbook Authorization Research Council, the text is published by the right-wing publisher Fushosha and it whitewashes Japan's actions during more than one of its aggressive periods, including the Second World War.
Although the majority of teachers in Japan have, apparently shies away from using the text, the fact that it was given the nod by Japan's powers-that-be is a bone that sticks in the craw of more than just the American vets. I realize that every country's authors would like to present their homeland in a rosy glow accompanied by the faint background sound of celestial choirs, and most do, glossing over whatever incident in their history tends to tarnish that glow. For instance, as a teacher here in the Canadian school system, I never did see a text that addressed the issue of conflict between the First Nations and the invading Europeans with anything other than a Euro-centric bias. Still, the reality of history events is often a far cry from what students are taught in the classroom. It's one reason why videos of survivor interviews would be such an incredibly powerful aid to the teachers of truth. Interviews with the Bataan survivors should be taped and used in classrooms in Japan. Doing that would lend credibility to Fujisaki's words. In like manner, interviews with Holocaust survivors should be taped before they succumb to old age. Interviews with survivors of Canada's residential schools should be taped and used in every Canadian classroom where a history class is examining our country's past. The list goes on, but perhaps the idea of rethinking the common approach to the recording of history is not such a bad one. At the moment, as the saying goes, the winner writes the history books. If we let some of those who survived being on the subjugated side of various conflicts speak to the children of today, maybe the adults of tomorrow would have a little more luck at not repeating history.

Helping Out at Habitat for Humanity

2009-05-31T17:15:00.003-04:00

i had the privilege just a week ago to put in a day at the Manse Road Habitat for Humanity site, here in Toronto. I was invited to go by my daughter who is a team lead there. She has been chasing after me for some time now, insisting that I would be up to it because I had expressed concerns about spending a whole day engaged in physical labour. My norm for a workday is one spent sitting at George Brown College.
Turns out - she was right. What a high the day was for me! I came home from it tired and more than ready to head to the couch, but it was a good tired. It was the kind of happy-tired that comes from putting yourself out to do something new and challenging, something that leaves you feeling like your day actually meant something. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that nothing was aching the next day, a bonus I put down to my regular workouts at the gym.
I spent the first little while involved in little things, like helping to clean up the site, walking around looking for stray bits of wood I could clear away, or dropped nails I could retrieve. In very little time, however, I found myself assigned to the chop-saw, a machine I had never before handled. I needed a little instruction, of course, but then I was on my own and feeling capable! A crew was skinning dimensional lumber with OSB (oriented strand board) and I was taking the orders for various needed lengths. I was really getting into manoeuvring that saw, I tell you.
After a lunch break, I got involved in sinking 2" nails home into the OSB, at a distance of about every 6 inches. I felt good first of all because I was able to swing the hammer with a single-handed grip while some other volunteers were strangling their hammers in two-handed vise-grips. It also felt good to challenge myself on the number of hits it took me to sink each nail. I was able to keep it down to 5 or 6 for most of them, although I managed a couple of them at just four. That felt extra good.
The camaraderie on such a site is a pleasant part of the day. People you've never met before are ready to share easy laughter and extra effort with you, and enjoy everything the day has to offer, side-by-side in a way that feels as though you had indeed known each other for much longer than an hour or two. Everyone was so accepting of everyone else.
Before we left the site, I was invited to write something on one of the houses on which I had worked. I wrote "Blessings on this house" on the rough opening of the patio door. That was another good feeling, just as pitting myself against the challenge of the required exertion had been, especially when I was wielding that hammer and when I was helping to dismantle some scaffolding.
The very best part of the whole day, though, came on the drive home with my daughter. This very capable young woman is so at home in that milieu, so obviously respected there and looked to for direction by many others. She graciously offered to allow me access to a special part of her life, to share her beloved Habitat workplace with me. I was concerned, very concerned at first, that she not find me lacking, not feel like she wished she had not invited me after all. In no time, I was too busy to give that worry a second thought, but it returned on the drive home while I waited for her comments on the day. What a feeling of pride she gifted me with; what a rush of happy relief when she said "Mom, you were awesome. I was proud of you."
She ended the day by inviting me to come back again. I think I might just take her up on that!

Bleeding Hearts, Everywhere

2009-05-27T08:21:00.004-04:00

Canada's Governor-General Michaelle Jean offered a gesture of solidarity to the Inuit people of Nunavut on Monday. She used a traditional ulu to slice into a seal during the preparations for a community feast in Rankin Inlet, but unless she herself declares that she did what she did in solidarity with seal hunters, then the interpretation that it was a gesture extended to the Inuit people en masse is valid.
After wielding the ulu, the GG asked if she could try the heart and was soon offered a raw piece of the delicacy. She accepted it, commenting after eating that it was much like sushi.
Paul Waye, the town manager in Rankin Inlet, said "She was a delight to have in the community and her participation in the community feast was very well respected by the whole community. To see someone, the head of state, come to Nunavut and participate in traditional activities it really strengthens ties and makes us feel a part of Canada again." His words carry the most significance in regard to the GG's actions. Absolutely, she was showing solidarity with a segment of Canada's population that has been too long devalued. Official recognition of these people and respect for their culture and traditions is desperately long overdue. If there could be any doubt about the woman's intentions, they should be cleared up by her using the trip to further urge the government to build a university in the North in order to help the Inuit be a part of the economic growth in their own region.
Jean's sampling of the raw Inuit delicacy has many up in arms. Her action was denounced Tuesday by the Humane Society International, which opposes the hunting of seals and supports a European Union ban on Canadian seal meat. There are accounts being written that talk in disgust of her using tissue to wipe her bloodied hands after eating the proffered morsel. Give me a break, people. What would have made you happy? Did you want to see her lick her fingers, or would you have better pleased if she had turned to Paul Waye, and wiped her fingers down his shirt sleeve?
When you get right down to it, all the fuss over the seal hunt is no more than an indulgence in looking askance at the goings-on in someone else's bailiwick while the same is happening in your own. The European Union might want to take a little look at bull-fighting before they draw too many more shocked breaths at the seal hunt. The killing of seals by the Inuit is no more horrendous than the merciless baiting and savagery doled out to the poor beasts ushered into the bull-fighting rings. Perhaps the seal hunt is just a little better, in fact, given that the flesh of the animal is used as food, and its demise is not greeted with frenzied cheers by a crowd of depraved types who gladly pay to watch an animal being tortured to death.
Of course, there is a possibility that not all those EU members who denounce the seal hunt go to the bull ring themselves, but I imagine there's a damn good chance the majority of them are meat-eaters. If they are, then once again they need to clean up the action in their own backyard before they dump self-righteous indignation on ours. Until they can give a written guarantee that not a single one of the animals whose flesh they ingest has been improperly/inhumanely murdered, they should not declare the seal hunt to be any more wrong than what took place in order to bring dinner to their table.
There have been far too many pictures in the media of seal pups with their big, black eyes looking at the camera, and not nearly enough of calves (veal) staring in mad terror at the mallet as it swings toward their heads or the blade as it swings toward their necks.
Maybe the problem here is that the description of "cute" has not been artificially assigned to cows in enough media releases. For that matter, neither has it been assigned to pigs, or fish, or chicken or ... the list goes on and on. Each one of these creatures dies in order to make a meal for humans. Many of them live lives of cruel confinement before they are sent off to eternity, but there is little outcry about it from the EU or anyone else who decries the seal hunt. Maybe the problem here is the arbitrary assigning of more worth to some animal lives than others. If the Eu really needs a cause to champion, why don't they slap some of the holier-than-thou condemnation on the makers and consumers of shark-fin soup?
Maybe, just maybe, the problem here is not one of cruelty to any animal. Maybe the problem is simply one of hypocrisy.

Beatboxing Canuck Girl

2009-05-13T16:18:00.003-04:00

From May 28th to June 1st, 2009, more than 140 international vocal percussion and beatboxing artists from around the world will travel to Berlin, Germany, to compete in the World Championship event on stage One of those taking part in the Online Battle is 17-year-old Julia Dales from Canada. She won the Beatbox Championship Wild Card with her beatboxing videoclip, judged by Kid Lucky of the USA, Roxorloops of Belgium, and Bee Low of Germany to be the best of all those who vied for the Wild Card. You go, Canuck Girl!

Honking at the Pope

2009-05-11T18:51:00.002-04:00

A statement was released on Sunday by the Generation to Generation Bearers of the Holocaust and Heroism Legacy organization, calling on Israeli drivers to honk their horns on Monday at 6 p.m. in protest of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Yad Vashem. The statement read, "With a short honk, Israeli citizens across the country will express their disgust for the visit of the pope who encourages Holocaust deniers and displays of anti-Semitism." I know if I had been there, I might have damn near worn my car's horn out honking out my derision for this backward-thinking waste of time currently holding the title of pope.
The funky-hatted one, formerly of both the Hitler Youth and the Wehrmacht, visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum as part of his visit to various sites in the middle east. The Legacy Organization wanted the horn-honking protest because they've got their collective shorts in a knot over one or two sticklers, like Benny lifting the excommunication from the Holocaust denier, Bishop Richard Williamson; Benny concluding the canonization of Hitler's Pope; and Benny's decreeing in 2007 that the rather anti-Semitic Good Friday prayer must be used in all celebrations of the Liturgy of Good Friday. This prayer, for those who may not be aware, has long been a bone of contention between Jews and the RC church. During its history, it has gone through various wordings, some of them more outright insulting and defamatory, but all of them asking the almighty to make the Jews aware of the error of their ways in not accepting Jesus as their saviour. It does seem a little contradictory to claim you respect the people you pray will be converted AWAY from their faith and into yours.
During his visit to the Holocaust Memorial, Benedict apparently spoke at length about the importance of remembering the victims of the Holocaust, as though he actually cared. He ended his speech, however, with an admonition to "all people of goodwill (to) remain vigilant in rooting out from the heart of man anything that could lead to tragedies such as this!" which one does he really want; Catholicism to continue mouthing the Good Friday invocation of almighty influence in effectively bringing to an end the practise of Judaism; or the peaceful tolerance of each for the other? You can't have both, Benny.

So What Are the Odds?

2009-05-09T07:40:00.002-04:00

Did you miss the day this week, or were you one of those in the know on 05/07/09, also called "Odd Day"? Apparently, three consecutive odd numbers make up the date only six times in a century. The last time the six Odd Days got on their way was back in 1905, on 01/03/05, just thirteen months after the Wright brothers ushered in the aeronautical age at Kitty Hawk. The Wright Flyer they piloted that day was the first heavier-than-air, powered aircraft to make a sustained, controlled flight with a pilot aboard. Gives you a feel for just how infrequent these "odd days" really are, doesn't it?
Of course, if you're into mathematical quirks, you'll want to be aware of Square Root Day as well. On such a day, the numbers representing a date's month and day are the square roots of the final digits for the year. A little more prolific than Odd Days, Square Root Days come around nine times in a century. Google either one of these occurrences and you're bound to bump into Ron Gordon, a Redwood City, California, high-school teacher who is deeply into such numerical patterns and is responsible for oddday.net .
While I realize this might be all just a big yawn to you, I also know there are some of you out there who are already beginning to plan big celebrations for the next numerical-pattern day that rolls around. Heck, why wait? Get all your math-loving buddies together some evening, serve some light refreshments, and just go crazy figuring out all the Odd and Square Root Days we can look forward to in the 21st century. Add an edge to the party by challenging your guests to predict what current science-fiction imaginings will have made their way to reality on the brave new horizon.

Hebetude in Parliament?

2009-05-06T14:59:00.002-04:00

This just in - only two-thirds of Canada's Members of Parliament have university degrees. Is our government dumbing down?
A Public Policy Forum report says that there have been changes made in the Members brought in by the last election. Along with the education stats comes the news that most of the current Members of Parliament made their way to a seat from business backgrounds rather than the more traditional lawyer-becomes-politician route. The last election also whitewashed Parliament, when ethnic diversity and the number of foreign-born Members decreased.
David Mitchell, president of the Public Policy Forum, says these changes are responsible for the "unprecedented level of partisan acrimony" currently displayed in Parliament. Have you ever turned the TV on to watch the doings in Parliament? It's like watching any teacher's worst nightmare-come-true of the class from hell. So many of our representatives act like they never learned any manners, never looked up the meaning of the word "civility". You have to wonder sometimes, with the spectacles Parliament has had to offer lately, how is our country supposed to continue functioning well?

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-06T14:37:00.002-04:00

If you find yourself looking for a last minute gift for Mom, you might want to consider giving her a gift that will keep on giving and giving, over and over. I'm talking about a Kiva gift certificate. Your Mom could even use it to help out another Mom somewhere in a less privileged country. Follow this link and you'll be able to select the gift value and get Mom's gift certificate right now. After all, why wait? You can give a basic amount gift of $25.00, or go just as high as you'd like. It's all going to give Mom a great feeling of satisfaction, as I said, over and over again. She can redeem her certificate and lend the funds to the entrepreneur of her choice, or the "Momtrepreneur" as the folks at Kiva are calling the mothers to whom Kiva loans have been given. Once that first recipient has repaid their loan, your mother can reloan her original amount to a new entrepreneur.
Kiva is appealing to a lot of people these days as just the right way to spend a little money. April 2009 was, in fact, Kiva's third record-breaking month in a row! This organization, only 43 months old, has generated loans to the amount of $71,063,885. and funded 167,782 entrepreneurs, so far. Between the lenders, and the loan recipients, Kiva currently represents 165 countries. Maybe it's time to get your Mom involved, too.

What Have You Got Planned for May 3rd?

2009-04-29T21:22:00.005-04:00

Hey Toronto, if you're up for a little free coffee and some good music to start your Sunday off this weekend, head over to the New Balance store at 1510 Yonge Street, near St. Clair. Be there from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and you can join the store staff in cheering for the 12,500 runners taking part in the 12th annual Sporting Life 10k run for kids with cancer. The run is in support of Camp Oochigeas, a summer camp that provides a little getaway fun each year to approximately 445 children living with cancer, at no cost to their families. You just can't get a better cause. The Starbucks Coffee right across the road from the New Balance will be serving up free cups of joe and music will be provided by the rock n' roll band "The Rivits". You don't have to work up a sweat, you can leave that to the 12,500. Gary Brum, über-cool store manager at New Balance, is hoping to have his corner of Yonge Street packed with the most vocal supporters of great causes that Toronto has to offer.
Of course, if this is sounding like something you'd like to be on the front lines of, you can check out the Sporting Life 10K website to learn more. If you do run this year, you'll be finishing up at Fort York with "a bang-up post-run celebration with red-coat soldiers, War of 1812 re-enactment, "live" band and more!" Not a bad way to end off "Canada's EASIEST and one of the fastest downhill 10k's"
Even if you don't actively participate this year, a trip to the party at 1510 Yonge St. on May 3rd might just be enough to have you marking the event for next year. It takes $3,500. to send a kid to Oochigeas for 2 weeks. Think of the fundraising you could do in 365 days! Start now for next year and you could singlehandedly fund the whole camp for one session!
Like I said, if you like supporting a great cause and enjoying a little free coffee while you do, you can't do better than to take yourself to 1510 Yonge Street at 8:00 a.m. this Sunday morning, May 3rd. It's going to be a great way to feel good.

Keepin' Out of Mischief!

2009-04-25T19:14:00.004-04:00

I knit and crochet a lot - a whole lot! I indulge in my love of these activities while watching hockey games, spending some spare time over lunch, passing an hour or two listening to music, etc. etc. It keeps me out of mischief producing baby blankets, afghans, scarves, cotton dish clothes, doilies and hats.
One of my favourite items to make is a good old Canadian toque. I make them frequently, so they pile up and I need to find homes for them before they take over all available spare space in my domicile. A batch of two dozen noggin-warmers that I finished back in January were done in much more subdued tones - plain blacks, heather-tone browns, and so on. They found their way to a downtown Toronto shelter for homeless men. The two colourful toques you see off to the right are part of a collection that will be making their way down to an orphanage in Jamaica. They'll be taken there by a friend's church group, and I 'll be happy to know my toques will be getting the chance to perch atop some heads, as they were meant to do.

Totally Happy!

2009-04-24T13:54:00.004-04:00

The reason for that total happiness presently plastering a big grin all across my face is the lady pictured below.
I am currently one of Kiva's lenders. They state their mission as being to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty, and describe themselves as an organization that "lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world - empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty." Kiva is the first person-to-person micro-lending website, and all it will take for you to get involved is $25.00. Skip a week or so worth of lattés, and you're ready to go! When your loan is repaid, you can take the money back, and you will have helped to make the world a better place without any expenditure at all. For me, and an increasing number like me, the money goes in and stays in. The good folks at Kiva send you regular updates on the status of your loan. Once it reaches full repayment, you can select another entrepreneur to reach out to, and the whole cycle starts all over again.
I've been waiting for a few months now to get to that magic figure where I can re-loan, and today, the news came that it was time! If you make a loan and get to the point of reloaning yourself, don't be surprised if you find no-one listed at that moment as seeking a loan. As they explain the situation, "at times we have more lenders visiting Kiva than we have loans available to fund. At these times there may be only a small number of fundraising loans. However this is always a temporary situation, as our Field Partners post new loans in need of funding on an hourly basis." Actually, that's what happened to me today. I first tried to reloan this morning, and wasn't able to do so. I came back to it this afternoon, and everything was good to go.
When I made my second attempt today to reloan, I found Santusa, a single mother of four who needs the loan to help her with the business she runs from a stall in the Santa Barbara market in the city of Juliaca, Peru. Santusa sells all sorts of things, but her main source of income is from selling a variety of vegetables at her stall. My money will be added to that given by others and used to increase the quantity of merchandise available at Santusa's market stall.
When you look at Santusa's face, it is not hard to tell that her life has not been the very easiest. She looks older than her 46 years, older than most western women would want to look at the same age. My hope is that the loan I and others have put together for her will help her to have a better life, an easier time of it than she has had before. I hope it will bring an extra smile or two to her face, and help her to feel some of the happiness with which I have been gifted in reaching out to her.

Totally Pissed Off!

2009-04-24T11:02:00.002-04:00

I was out driving recently, meandering through southern Ontario a little to the north of Toronto. I was about a kilometer from Highway 400 when I passed a sign that proclaimed, "Laskay: Settled 1832". That sign was like the proverbial straw loaded on the poor ruminant quadruped's back. I snapped when I saw it.
I am so sick of the ongoing, systemic euro-centrism of Ontario; hell, of all Canada, for that matter. The sign is all wrong. It should be immediately removed and the sign post left unused until a new sign that is accurate can be put up there. The area was not "settled" in 1832. It may have been moved into at that time by whites of European origin and/or descent, but they did not settle it. It was well and truly settled thousands of years before Joseph Baldwin and David Reesor arrived in the area and began constructing a dam, a sawmill, a grist mill - in fact, all the trappings of the arrogant whites who felt themselves to be the only people of any worth in the area.
In order to reflect the reality of this particular area, the sign needs to be much larger than the current falsehood-bearing plaque. It needs to be written in at least two languages - that of the area's indigenous people first, and then the English of the squatters who moved in on them, displacing them with little to no thought of their well-being; little to no acknowledgment of the fact that they were building on stolen property.
Prattle to me not of any land treaties that may have been signed. Half the time, they were nothing more than empty pretenses, if they were even signed at all. The date on the sign needs to be changed too. The first date listed would need to be phrased with the native equivalent of the word "circa" and the number following would have to be in the thousands B.C.E. The second date could be the 1832 that is currently the only one displayed. This is the case with every signpost anywhere in Canada that makes such announcements as though there were no people here until white people arrived.
When is Canada ever going to truly acknowledge the fact that her history began many long lifetimes before the first white foot ever trod her soil?

Wasn't This Child Abuse?

2009-04-19T11:26:00.001-04:00

There was a Saturday afternoon crash here in Toronto that raises an interesting question. Should parents who drive without securing their children in proper seats be charged with child abuse?
During this crash, which occurred at 3:34 p.m. at Yonge St. and Lake Shore Blvd., two children sustained serious injuries. Neither of them were restrained in child seats. The three-month-old, who was sitting in his mother's arms in the rear seat of the van, was thrown from her arms and into a side window of the family van. He also broke his leg. His three-year-old sister suffered head injuries when she was thrown from her car seat. Two other children in the van were in proper seats and suffered only minor injuries. That's almost like the parents playing favourites and deciding with whom they would take the chance of serious injury being sustained. Shouldn't that alone warrant a charge of abuse?
Toronto Police Sgt. Tim Burrows said there were only two child seats in the van, although there were four children in the van at the time of the collision. "It's unacceptable.", said Burrows."If you've got four children there has to be four seats that are available." Burrows also said investigators are holding off on laying charges until they see what happens to the two severely injured children and complete a reconstruction of the accident.
According to the police, the van carrying the children went through a red light at the intersection, and was then broadsided. Unless the driver was in the middle of cardiac arrest at the time, it is to be hoped that the book will be thrown at him or her for that alone. The fact that they police are awaiting news on the children's conditions would seem to suggest that direct fault for their injuries will be laid at the feet of the parents, and that is exactly where it should be. How unbelievably stupid does one have to be to actually carry an infant in your arms in a moving vehicle? To do so risks the child's death or life-altering injuries. Why would any parent do that? Is it to save some money on the purchase of proper car seats? You would think they might feel saving lives to be more important. If they literally can not afford the proper seats, then the answer to the problem would seem to be simple. They are not driving anywhere as a family. Period. That easy. Well, it should be that easy but it seems we are talking about parents who do not really care about their kids. Don't tell me about tear-streaked faces as the parents wait for news, either. Unless we are talking such severe mental impairment that the parents really should not be given the care of those kids anyway, they knew the risks they were taking with their children's lives, and they took them regardless.
Is that not child abuse?

Repatriating Cultural History

2009-04-06T12:51:00.005-04:00

I watched a movie a couple of weeks ago that spoke directly to this issue. Called "The Stone of Destiny", it portrayed the effort made by dedicated nationalist Ian Hamilton to reignite Scottish national pride. To achieve this end, in 1950 he made a daring raid on Westminster Abbey in order to steal back the Stone of Scone and return it to Scotland. Although the British police did retrieve the Stone and return it to England, the British Government decided to send it back whence it came in 1996. This symbol of their cultural history obviously meant enough to the Scots for them to continue demanding the return of the artifact until their demands were met. Why then do they seem unable to comprehend the fact that keeping the two Beothuk skulls in the Royal Museum in Edinburgh is just as wrong as they felt it was for the Brits to keep the Stone of Scone? The skulls of Beothuk chief Nonosabasut and his wife, Demasduit, were looted from their graves by William Cormack, a Newfoundland-born and Scottish-educated adventurer and transported to Scotland in 1827. It is more than time for them to be returned whence they came.
The case is the same for the Grandfather Canoe. One of the oldest birch bark canoes known to exist, this artifact of a people's cultural history was one of three crafted by the native American Maliseet community for British lieutenant-governor Sir Howard Douglas who arrived in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1824. Lieut Stepney St George, who was then serving with the British imperial forces in Canada supposedly bought the canoe (although First Nations people here say there is question as to whether or not the sale actually took place), and transported it to Headford Castle, Galway, Ireland. In 1852, it was donated to the National University of Ireland, Galway’s James Mitchell Museum, its "permanent home", where it was relegated to hanging from the rafters. Chief Candice Paul of the St Mary’s First Nation Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) community of New Brunswick says the canoe suffered more than 150 years of “isolation and neglect” and “served primarily as a home for pigeons in an institution dedicated to geological collections” at the university.
Similarly, the Beothuk skulls were originally kept in an area of the Edinburgh museum for bird and animal remains. Neither "permanent home" treated the skulls or the canoe with the respect due them as human remains and an icon of a people's cultural history.
Loaned two years ago to the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Saint John, New Brunswick, the canoe has been scheduled to return to Ireland after the loan expires in June. Paul has been appealing for the return of the canoe since it was put on display in Canada two years ago.
Chief Paul's appeals to the National University of Ireland in Galway, the Irish president and the Irish prime minister may be producing results, since it has been announced that NUIG agrees in principle that the canoe should be repatriated to the Maliseet. In a statement released to the Galway City Tribune last week, the powers-that-be at the university said, "In light of interest generated in Canada, the university is assessing the steps which it should now take." The university has, however, added that any decision in favour of permanent repatriation of the canoe "would require further approval at both national and EU level."
What I don't understand is why it should require any further discussion and dilly-dallying. Why can't they stop playing their games with this icon of Maliseet culture and simply say, "Keep it. After all, it is yours"?
I can give you one reason for all the game playing, and you tell me if I'm that far off the mark. True ownership of the canoe in question is being claimed by First Nations people. Repatriation is being sought by First Nations people. Chief Candice Paul and her band members are still not really given respect as full citizens of Canada. They are not yet far enough removed from the years of the government's assimilation policy and its legacy of neglect and prejudice. They are barely listened to as it is when they ask for the right to safe drinking water on reserves. Why should their voices be heard when they ask for the return of part of their cultural heritage and pride? It speaks volumes when you read the coverage given to the situation in the Globe and Mail and see reference made to Chief Paul more than once using a masculine pronoun.
It's damn near impossible not to think that nobody cares about Chief Paul or her people, let alone the repatriation of the Grandfather Canoe.

First-Year Students Lazy

2009-04-06T12:07:00.002-04:00

The results of a province-wide survey of university profs have just been released, and the news is that more than 55% of faculty surveyed feel that first-year students are a bunch of poorly prepared slackers who want maximum marks for minimum effort.
James Côté is a sociology professor at the University of Western Ontario who says that the survey confirms recent research. Says Côté, "It's a wider societal issue, where leisure is very much valued and work habits are not necessarily reinforced in the way that they were in the past. The work ethic is not what it used to be ... no pain, no gain doesn't seem to be prevalent any more."
This all comes as no surprise to me at all. As a teacher in the intermediate grades, I banged my head against this brick wall so often, I finally walked away from it all. I had principals who gave me a hard time for wanting to mark students accurately. More than one who had done dick-all in some subject and should by rights have ended up owing marks, never mind simply failing, was given a pass because I wasn't allowed to tell the truth on their report cards. The principal would admonish me for "discouraging" the up-and-coming idiot and insist I give them a pass because they knew how to spell their name correctly, or some other lame excuse for falsifying marks. Côté is right to say that it is all a wider societal issue. Parents expect their kids to be given an unending stream of A-plus results simply for handing in plagiarized, not necessarily relevant blather from Wikipedia when they "do a project". Unfortunately, there are too many teachers who are right there on the same page with them. I remember years ago sitting in a school staff room, marking some papers. Another teacher sitting there was watching me and after a few moments, felt obliged to show me the error of my ways. She told me I was making unnecessary work for myself by actually reading every word each student wrote, and by marking the papers for details like spelling and grammar. Her advice was to read the first paragraph and see if it was "sort of on topic". If it was, said she, I should then give it an A, and go on to the next. That way, according to her, I would be done in a fraction of the time I was making my self spend needlessly on the marking. Neither was that the only time I listened to such comments from colleagues.
I'm not quite sure how we're supposed to fix this problem of students poorly prepared for university, but I do know we can expect it to worsen before it improves.

2009-03-28T09:37:00.002-04:00

Most Saturday mornings I'm up early to accompany my younger daughter to the stable where she volunteers.
This morning I was up at six to drive my older daughter to the current site of Habitat for Humanity where she volunteers. We headed east on Lawrence and drove until we damn near fell off the map before we finally reached her destination. Then we parked and she gave me a bit of a guided tour around the site, pointing out some aspects of construction to me - from weeping tiles to party walls - explaining things as we went. Red-winged blackbirds and big machines played counterpoint to each other in an early morning symphony that provided a background for out roundabout.
She introduced me to people already there and I was able to put some faces to names I have heard repeatedly in her stories of the work site. There is a camaraderie there that you can feel right away; a fellowship that I think is probably there to a degree you might never get in an office setting. Maybe it's the physical aspect of the work. I don't know why exactly but I felt I could, in small part, get an understanding of why she likes so much to be a part of that world.
I was pleased to have her show me around. I came away feeling privileged to have had that time with her, and happy that she wanted to share a bit of her "world" with me.

Plastic Bottles Begone!

2009-03-25T10:00:00.003-04:00

The University of Winnipeg has taken a stand against the proliferation of landfill in the form of plastic water bottles by banning bottled water sales on campus. Last week's referendum showed three-quarters of the student body to be in favour of the ban in order to stop the flow of the 38,000 bottles sold on campus annually.
Each time there is a move to ban the sale of commodified water, the bottled water industry replies with the specious claim that -gasp!- such a ban will force people to buy unhealthy bottled beverages. Poppycock. People who have decided to buy a bottle of coke or whatever other less-than-healthy offering will do so. Water's presence nearby has little to do with such decisions. Similarly, those who have decided their craving is for the thirst-quenching, binary covalent compound will seek it out, or do without if all else fails. What makes the supposed pundits at the water bottling factories so sure that the rest of us have little to no functioning intellect? What convinces them that we have no ability to withstand the power of suggestion posed by the closeness of coke et alii when we find bottled water lacking? Get a grip, people. Actually, get a grip on the tap. Turn it and watch the water pour forth. Direct it into your ever-handy refillable water bottle like so many of us already do. That enables us to saunter right by your vending machines as though they never even existed. That enables us to keep in our pockets the money you would demand for a liquid that should be regarded as a free, basic right.
Tap water in the western world is just fine, thank you very much. Just think drinking water in so many locations in the developing world and you can see how ours is safe, safe, safe. Corporations who undermine public confidence in tap water need to be challenged. They need to be pressured to "Think Outside the Bottle". Our tap water is tested regularly, whereas many bottle water plants are tested infrequently, at best. Of course, there is the potential for deadly human error, as in Walkerton, Ontario, to come at us from our taps, but when you know the startling stats on how shaky the safety standards are for bottled water, you also know it's a case of six of one, half dozen of the other. That leads us back to the issues of the landfill, and the fact that water should be free.
To ensure the move to ban bottled water sales on campus has substance, every first year student at the University of Winnipeg will be given a free, reusable water bottle when they begin classes in the fall, and the university is going to install more water fountains and conduct audits of the water system to ensure its safety.
Since we can't all be first year students at the U of W, the rest of us can make a one-time investment in a reusable bottle, and then fill it at the tap each morning before we leave on our appointed rounds for the day. The price of the bottle will be recouped in no time, compared to the endless outlay of coinage needed to buy from vending machines. At the same time, our beleaguered planet will be saved from some of the deadly tonnes of needless garbage dumped on it each year.
You do have to wonder just how stupid and short-sighted these water vendors are, actually. Do they really not realize that they live on the same planet as the rest of us do? Do they really fail to grasp the reality that poisoning that planet with plastic refuse that could be avoided is a senseless act that will come back to haunt them as well as us?
Kudos to the University of Winnipeg and every other like-minded institution and public place. Honour and acclaim to the ordinary, average Joe who understands that bottled water is nothing more than a grab at our money. Criticism and complaint heaped in profusion on the multi-billion dollar industry that seeks to profit from creating fear around tap water and commodifying what should be free to all of us.