The London Fog

U2 Berlin Wall double think

2009-11-05T23:41:00.004-05:00

Socialist Bono and friends erecting new walls in Berlin:

A U2 show marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has run into controversy - after organisers built a wall around the venue.

A two metre barrier has been erected around the Brandenburg gate to keep out people without tickets for the show.

Perhaps it's there to keep people from walking out on Bono's sermons about governments giving tax dollars to 3rd world nations while he dodges the tax man in his native land?

Act Now To Reduce Your CO2 Bullshit Footprint

2009-10-23T07:23:00.002-04:00

You've probably been watching your carbon footprint lately -- but what about your bullshit footprint?

Dear British Climate Propaganda Office

2009-10-12T07:02:00.001-04:00

I improved your video for you, no charge. Here you go!

"Sweetie, it's time you learned about our religion..."

Crossposted by the grace of the Harvest Demon to Mitchieville

No mind is good mind

2009-10-02T20:17:00.003-04:00

Rather than focusing on our mental energies on our differences, we need to chill, people:

Richard Davidson, one of the world's top brain scientists, believes mental exercise, specifically meditation, can literally change our minds.

"Our data shows mental practice can induce long-lasting changes in the brain," said Davidson, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

His startling scientific research on the impact of meditation on brain function has implications that go beyond the physical.

Buddhist monks believe mental attributes and positive emotions such as compassion, loving, kindness and empathy are skills that can be cultivated.

And science is beginning to back that up.

Ebonification o' dis here whack skoo system uh success

2009-09-08T15:54:00.003-04:00

Canada's first Africentric alternative skoo opened dis here morning wiff 115 students - 30 o' dem new in da past five days.

If enrolment continues ta surge - dere iz room fo' up ta 150 - da skoo may gots ta add another teacher an' will try hard ta find uh male ta join da current all-female staff, said skoo trustee James Pasternak, who represents da North York skoo hosting da program.

"We hire on da basis o' ability, but we's do need uh male role model, so we's iz going ta be actively recruiting male and shit," said Pasternak o' da Toronto District School Board, standing outside Sheppard Public School on Sheppard Ave. west o' Keele St.

Sporting da skoo uniform o' whitey shirt, black pants or skirt an' vests o' vibrant cloth from Ghana, chil'ns from kindergarten ta Grade 5 wuz led into da skoo by teachers wearing African-inspired fabric an' head scarfs. Inside da gym, west African drummers wuz warming up fo' da opening assembly, where chil'ns sang O Canada as well as da Black National Anthem, an' read out uh skoo pledge dat starts wiff uh vow ta be "the bomb possible me."

"I like seeing da posters o' Martin Luther King on da wall, an' other famous black peeps - an' I wants ta play da African instruments," said Asmaa Mohamed, 9, whose parents will cruize her in each day from they home in Mississauga ta take part in da historic program.

"Kids gots ta know they culture or dey won't gots uh feeling o' dignity - it'sda confusion many kids feel dat makes some o' da violence," said her father Omer Mohamed, who came ta Canada mo' than 20 years ago from Ethiopia.

Dorrell Stone brought her daughter Nickeshia ta start Grade 5 at da skoo "to learn about our culture, especially things done by da peeps o' Jamaica."

Long-time supporters o' da controversial skoo, which won approval by uh slim margin over critics' fears o' segregation, wuz clearly emotional taday ta see da skoo finally open its doors.

"It feels like all muh ma fuckin chil'ns iz here taday," said Donna Harrow, one o' two mothers who pushed fo' da skoo, first proposed in 1994 by Ontario'sRoyal Commission on Learning, as uh way ta combat uh 40 per cent dropout rate among black students.

"I remember da outrage when I suggested we's try it as uh pilot project back in 2005," said Lloyd McKell, da Toronto board'sexecutive officer o' equity, as parents, chil'ns an' media clustered outside da skoo.

Today'sopening assembly began wiff uh traditional African "libation" ceremony, where chil'ns watched water poured in memory o' they ancestors. They also learned ta respond ta statements wiff da Yoruba werd "Ashe!" (Amen!)

Audrey Nakintu iz sending her Grade 1 child ta da skoo, "because obviously da public system grossly under-educates chil'ns about da peeps o' da African diaspora. Black History Month iz just uh footnote; it'san insult."

Mothers Rebeckah Price an' Tamara Griffith gots organized bussing ta da skoo fo' families as far-flung as Mississauga an' Scarborough, fo' about $275 per month.

"We've had five mo' parents sign up in da last few minutes," said Price taday. The skoo iz open ta chil'ns o' all backgrounds.

"We're also starting ta organize uh parent council," said Price, whose great-great grandfather wuz uh runaway slave who established uh community in Jamaica dat continues ta dis here day, she said.

"I wants muh ma fuckin son ta dig' what black peeps gots contributed, not just in Canada but da world in general." Don't make me come ovah there bitch...

Translated from da original colonialist jargon o' da Toronto Star using da phat translator, Ya' dig?:

The eagle and the crow

2009-09-03T02:25:00.006-04:00

The eagle, whose expected life span was 30 years, asked the crow, whose life expectancy was 300 hundred years, what the secret of longevity was. The crow responded that it was a result of eating carrion rather than the fresh kill eagles prefer. The eagle tried carrion and decided a life of fresh kill was preferable.

Another psychosomatic meditation from the brother who cares:

Health Canada is considering ordering cigarette companies to put deathbed photos of an emaciated cancer victim on every [cigarette] package.

Didn't these guys get fired already?

In addition, the mass media budget of the tobacco program fell victim to the sponsorship scandal.

Hurricanes 2009

2009-08-29T13:20:00.000-04:00

I watched the course of Hurricane Bill with some interest. As it tracked towards the USA, there was the usual hype about more and bigger storms threatening our safety. All caused by global warming of course. Oddly, when Bill shifted course and beat the hell out of the Atlantic Provinces of Canada, the media in the states lost all interest. I guess if it doesn’t affect them, it doesn’t really happen.

The next hurricane in the pipeline, now dubbed Dan, looks like it too will turn north and possibly bash the Maritime Provinces. It too will be of little interest to big media if it does.

Don’t these people know that all that rain plays havoc with our igloos? ;^)

More dead Kennedys

2009-08-28T13:15:00.004-04:00

Ted is dead. 40 years after baptism by the Devil in a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island.

Call me callous but I really don't care.

Life's a bitch and then you marry one. Then you have kids and perpetuate the whole Goddamn mess all over again

2009-08-28T12:11:00.007-04:00

Does anyone really ever get cured of depression? I mean without pills or ongoing therapies? It's potentially as lucrative an industry as death. There will always be morticians because people will always need to be cremated/buried or ritualistically tossed in a swamp; there will always be drugs/religion/secular social services because, let's face it, life is a continuous, meaningless ongoing struggle against death.

And if they can be certified from the time they're five, that's a lot of lifetime consumers for the needy services industry. A life time of drugs and therapy awaits because, well, no one really gets over it, especially if one is reminded from an early age that it's who and what you are.

"Difficult temperament at five months was the most important predictor of depression and anxiety in the children . . . As early as the first year of life, there are indications that some children have more risks than others to develop high levels of depression and anxiety."

It has now been revealed that "15 per cent of preschoolers suffer depression". Wow, that's a lot of kids! That's near as many kids as adults who'll grow up to smoke cigarettes. Hell, maybe they're in the same demographic. These are probably the same kids who feel an early aversion to Disney and refuse to sing along with all the phony bullshit singalong songs they march to in daycare - these kids just ain't healthy. And rest assured those numbers will only get worse once these kids start school.

And if mom is depressed, well, time for a domestic intervention - best just move those kids to a home that's safe!

"We found that lifetime maternal depression was the second most important predictor of atypically high depressive and anxiety problems during preschool years," said Cote.

"Our study is the first to show that infant temperament and lifetime maternal depression can lead to a high trajectory of depressive and anxiety problems before school entry."

The new breed of foster parent will be required to pass a happy test.

Better get those kids into a social(ist) workers care before they get used to a life without interference. We must make them happy - or at least help them to not think.

Is there any correlation between intelligence and depression?

Crime Wave, Heat Wave

2009-08-14T14:08:00.003-04:00

The London Free Press is up to its' mission of social justice, again.

Of course, in the aftermath of some crazed criminals running amuck, who does the peoples fish wrap attack, why the police of course * .

How about having a little investigative reporting chit-chat with the 'alleged' felon's social worker. Maybe the proletarians who live in fear in this town would like to know why Comrade Social Worker failed in protecting the public interest. How about a few of the other highly paid, highly pensioned socialist social service workers who are supposed to turn riff-raff into taxpayers? How about his anger management coach? His anger management facilitator? His literacy tutor? His contacts at the needle exchange? His co-ordinator at the shelter where he eats dinner? Hmmmm?

Everyone who lives in the rough part of town seems to know this creep. A ticking time bomb, as they say. And as for the working Non-Hyphenated-Canadians who work the night shifts in the creative city, they are thankful to have police. But our left of reality paper sticks to the party line, ignoring the garbage mountain of failed social programs, incompetent paper pushers, non-ability collage of egg heads spouting fairy cake theory, and other concrete proof of the eternal failure of socialist thought.

The London Free Press edifice is located in the heart of the crime filled sector that this clay brick of the main stream media has nurtured. I pray to the Moon Goddess (we are not a Christian country any more, eh what), that when the useful idiots and time servers and ideologues and non-ability hires and invisible reporters and aristocrats who are children of talent go for their coffee, or walk to their cars in the parking lot, or just walk outside, that when some scum jabs them with a HIV needle-exchange needle, mugs them, robs them, or even keys their car, that there is no big meanie po-lice around to offend their world view. Let them face the same perils that the working proletariat face. Given the crime wave in London, this will be sooner (before the ice caps melt), rather than later (after the ice caps melt).

I, Fenris Badwulf, wrote this

Dopes in high places

2009-08-10T13:44:00.008-04:00

I have never voted for the Liperals and certainly did not want them to win the last election, but I was even more hopeful the Cons would not get a majority. Needless to say, I was pleased with the results of the election. That is up until I discovered the newest leader of the Liperals, What's His Name from that Ivy League school, backed Bill C-15, supporting the Cons. I've been left hoping that someone for some reason - any reason - would call an election to kill this bill before it grows. But no.

Ignatieff, just what the hell are you smoking? And, for that matter, where are all the poseur libertarians (who for reasons unknown think they can safely vote for the Cons) - or, at the very least, dope smoking journalists - condemning this piece of nanny state toilet paper? Is it because it's summer and everyone is too busy swilling beer at the cottage to think about dopes in high places?

The Cons pretend to be about less government and lower taxes but, after funding Government Motors under the presumption that a wasteful corporation can some how be improved by the National Bureaucracy, they now want lock up amateur botanists in costly government hostels where gangs thrive (and where new tenants may very well associate with one).

But, as Neil Boyd points out, it won't be the feds themselves who pay for this it will be the provinces (either way, it's you and me). While the Feds and provinces figure out who gets the bill, they'll still jail your hippie aunt for a plant and take the credit for being tough on gangs. But this just seems unwise:

Let's acknowledge that there are features of some large-scale marijuana grow operations that deserve a strong rebuke: The theft of electricity, the exposure of children to toxic moulds, and the presence of guns or other weapons at the site of a grow. Penalize these activities, not the growing of cannabis itself -- this activity can be engaged in safely, without risk to children, or the surrounding community.

At the end of the day, however, using the criminal law against cannabis is wholly counter-productive. It's criminalization that causes theft of electricity, violence in the cannabis trade, exposure to toxic moulds, and provides folks who are sometimes mindless thugs with millions of dollars in untaxed income.

Woe to you, Oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the
beast with wrath:

The Mad Bomber

2009-08-04T18:31:00.002-04:00

There is a firebug afoot at Adelaide and Huron.

Social Spending, anyone?

Those of us familiar with the tax and spend feeding spirial wonder about how it will manifest here in London.

Those poor victims. I can only speculate on how society has failed them. And how the public education system is underfunded, let alone the health care system. Collectively, we have failed little Ignis (the name I made up for this Looter-Canadian). And, of course, Ignis is a victim, even though he is a firebug.

Breast Feeding. Little Ignis was probably weaned from the tit too early. This trauma can be used (and has used, is used, and will be used) to pardon all sorts of crimes of people whose tribes vote Liberal. Perhaps little Ignis was weaned from the tit too late. It is a justifiable reason to go out decades after the fact and torch neighbours property. And for a member of a progressive-activist block, its a get out of jail and into an entitled handout card. And then again maybe Ignis was denied his rights to breastfeed and subjected to the bottle. No axe murderer was ever less guilty with such a background. Poor Ignis ... denied the breast, er, too much breast, er, denied the bottle, er, too much bottle. Regardless of how you spin it, society has failed.

This happens in Toronto all the time. No killer, robber, bandit, or rapist (provided they are non-white, non-christian, and non-taxpayer) is presented naked to the disproportionately leftist judiciary without a white-guilt defense. When a youth was murdered not far from the Science Center, the aristocrats rushed to build a community center. The same standards apply here.

The City of London should build a community center at Adelaide and Huron. The alienated expect no less.

Without an increased display of funding, the crime spree will not stop. It might not get better, but we will be told that it will not get worse as fast as it would have without another wheelbarrow of money stuffed into the rat hole of social spending. I saw the same thing in Toronto, and, given that all cultures are equal (etcetera etcetera) the equal treatment is called for.

Where is the community center? Until it appears, expect more angry, alienated youth off committing crimes that you, the taxpayer must both subsidize and pay for. And that community center better get built pretty fast. You would not want a crime wave in London would you?

I, Fenris Badwulf, wrote this.

Investing in traditional climate change remedies

2009-07-04T00:48:00.004-04:00

Iowahawk on the "virgin sacrifice" rider that was attached to the American Cap and Trade bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) defended the bill, saying that "it is critical that we do something immediately to show we are serious about solving this climate crisis. Without burnt offerings of taxes and virgins, Gaia will smite us all in her angry burning wrath. So let me just say to the corporate and virgin special interest groups -- don't come crying to us in 400 years, when our temperatures are up almost 1 degree celsius."

Pelosi denied the bill was anti-consumer, pointing out it contains specific infrastructure and job creation funds. It specifies 500,000 unionized positions to construct a planned 300-foot tall National Eco Pyramid and Virgin Sacrifice Altar in Youngstown, Ohio, as well as funds to train over 20,000 youth volunteer earth-priests in live beating heart removal.

Gaia Jugend

2009-07-03T22:55:00.005-04:00

Spotted at Belmont Club.

I don't know too much about this Climate Change thing that so many people have gotten into over the past decade or so. I know some folks say it is a religion of peace. Me, I've never had much of a religious/apocalyptic bent, so it's just never interested me enough to look into it any deeper than I have, say, Scientology or palmistry.

But, whatever the truth or falsity of their promises of salvation: I do know that I would far, far rather the earth spirits' wrath burn the planet to a crisp than see these people and their thoroughly fascist aesthetic succeed. Better to be slightly warmer on one's feet than be pressed into a chanting, letter-shaped mob of anonymous, faceless Action-Takers on one's knees.

Jet D'Eau: A Taxi Driver Speaks

2009-06-30T16:28:00.007-04:00

Thank God for the jet d'eau which has helped wash away the garbage and trash off the sidewalks. I'm working long hours now, six in the afternoon to six in the morning. Sometimes even eight in the morning, six days a week. Sometimes seven days a week. It's a long hustle but it keeps me real busy. I can take in three, three fifty a week. Sometimes even more when I do it off the meter.

All the animals come out at night - activists, professors, organizers, queens, fairies, journalists, dopers, junkies, teachers, sick, venal. Someday a real jet d'eau will come and wash all this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to White Oaks, Masonville, I take 'em to Western. I don't care. Don't make no difference to me. It does to some. Some won't even take public union members. Don't make no difference to me.

The Invisible Randy Richmond

2009-06-25T18:42:00.002-04:00

More reports of crime in London. Now the reporter who re-wrote the police press release is not mentioned. His tagline is invisible. Did the invisible Randy Richmond write this?

The criminals have no race. No street names, either. Although this time the London Free Press found the time to report that the miscreants wore blue bandannas. Which is to say Crips. The organized criminal gang, the Crips.

Now, the press is promoting racism. By not stating the race of the criminals, the people who read the paper are assuming that they are people of colour. This contributes to the perception that POC are disproportionately criminals, neer-do-wells, and parasites. Given that the POC are already disproportionately represented in prisons, this makes the challenges of the POC to recreate their lives, culture, customs, and language here in their host country that much more difficult. Of course, this is not fair. Progressives and activists like to blame anyone but criminals for crime. Perhaps the rapist did not get a prompt diaper change in his formative years. Perhaps the murderer was weaned from the breast too soon, too late, or not at all. Perhaps the thief was outraged over slavery three hundred years ago. Maybe someone (who is not an N-person) used the forbidden N-word. The crimes are henious, the excuses limitless, and the need for taxpayers money to provide services that are always inadequate, make the problems worse, and provide employment for progressives and activists, bottomless.

So when the urban proles have their racist world view reinforced by the Main Stream Media this is not good. Now activists and progressives are fond of using 'fund fascism to fight fascism'. Is the media here encouraging racism in order to have more racist incidents which can be reported (and increase circulation)? Perhaps the paper has rejected the oppressive 'advancement based on ability' of the oppressive white culture, and instead promotes and hires based on race? Perhaps the circulation of the paper has sunk so low that there are no longer vigilant readers to write letters to the editor Pierre Burton's son to bring this to attention. I guess that he does not read his own paper.

Subscribers should look to the actions of Pierre Burton's son, and not his words. They do not match. If Pierre Burton's son does not read his own paper, why should you? And if the invisible Randy Richmond can report on events that he does not attend, surely you can make his paper invisible, then they would match. The newspaper that employs invisible reporters should be, itself, invisible.

I, Fenris Badwulf, wrote this.

Is that a grow op in your basement or an old beer fridge?

2009-06-25T12:00:00.003-04:00

David Suzuki and his ilk are tightening the laces on their jackboots. If you thought kicking in doors to search and seize property because of little herb was silly, you better dispose of that old beer fridge.

Lorrie Goldstein reports:

In the original version of McGuinty's Green Energy Act -- applauded by the Suzuki Foundation and other environmental groups as "world class" -- Suzuki, or anyone designated by a government bureaucrat, could, in fact, under the "Inspection, Enforcement and Penalties" section of the law, conduct surprise search and seizure raids on anyone's home or business.

This to check out activities deemed suspicious by the government related to energy or water use.

In the case of a house raid, the government, uh, generously stipulated a search warrant would have to be obtained, presumably before grilling groggy homeowners at midnight about their electricity and water bills.

The Invisible Randy Richmond

2009-06-18T18:58:00.003-04:00

Yet another progressive coup for everybodies favourite newspaper person, the one with the super power of invisibility ... Randy Richmond.

This weeks episode: Street Swarmings in London Town

No mention of the race of perps. When my co-workers were discussing this at break (being working poor, that is white people with white privilege who still pay taxes and do not have access to the fast track to social benefits that the disadvantaged do; they live in the area of the crimes) they assume (like the good people of Toronto now do) that the perps are people of color. Indeed, this Toronto phenomena has come to London town. When the main stream media does not mention the race of criminals, public opinion assumes that they are some dusky hue. Now this has been a known thing for some years now. I would have assumed that the invisible Randy would have known this. Regardless of whatever personal standard of journalism he has, he has reinforced racist sentiments in a large number of people. Maybe next time he could mention the race of the criminals. Then again, maybe he is indulging in the 'fight fascism by feeding fascism' so popular with people who make a good living out of espousing hatred for fascists. Maybe it is a property of invisibility.

No mention of the street name or gang affiliation of the perps. Again, this is the pattern of our wiser, better paid, betters in the Main Stream Media. Having once lived in a safe area of Toronto (activist speak: area of white privilege)I know that the street swarmings are how it all starts. My once peaceful neighbourhood in Toronto (the Beaches) began its decline with street swarmings. Now they are in London. It would be nice though to know the street name of the perps and their gang affiliation. Back in Toronto, the soon wary population has learnt to avoid certain colours (especially in cars, clothing, or house trim), not to go out at night, not shop at certain stores, not shop at stores when gangbangers are inside the stores, not leave a new or shiny bicycle outside, even if locked up or hidden in the back yard, not use the nearby instabanks, do not flash cash, cell phones or ipods while on the street, to move in groups (especially if elderly, female, or young), avoid places where you can be mugged (alleys, parks, lawns, parking lots, school yards, and bus stops) and have a mail box that is secure from identity thieves.

It would have been nice for the invisible Randy Richmond to give us a clue as to which Bloods or Crips gang is setting up shop in London. But that sort of fact does not fit the progressive narrative, and might scare the off the taxpayers and lead them to develop a bias against the taxspenders that vote for progressives, provide jobs for progressives, and give heart rending anecdotes that provide the framework for the Ratheresque creative writing that is progressive journalism. When you know the gang, you know what colors to avoid, to watch out for; what type of hip hop the local tribe listens to (and that music that they listen to will foreshadow whatever street cred activity they will indulge in). Street names tell alot about the street behaviour of the oppressed and downtrodden and underfunded: do they prefer rape to robbery, or just public urination and painting over street signs.

One day I will meet the invisible Randy Richmond, hero and champion of our underfunded most vulnerable village peoples. Maybe I can tell him what the people who actually live in the area where the Toronto style urban crime is happening actually saw, heard, and say. Maybe he already knows, having used his invisible powers to see, hear, and ignore. Maybe his journalistic ethics, the textbook to which he keeps between his piggy bank and his copy of Marx, have some higher purpose in witholding, misshaping, and manipulating the news for the gain of the aristocratic class. I will find out. The invisible Randy Richmond is on my list.

I, Fenris Badwulf, wrote this.

Engaging In The Right Kind Of Dialogue With Iran

2009-06-15T05:22:00.007-04:00

Finally, the Iranians have given us a chanting mob we can all get behind. You'll cheer as a crowd in Teheran takes a "policeman" prisoner -- and burns his motorbike! Sweeet. More and faster and less gently, please, Iranians!

I think I got to this from the Corner but it's definitely at Gary's Choices.

Do you want relish with the super sized Denialism Combo?

2009-06-08T04:04:00.004-04:00

Yum! Here's one drive through I would love to idle in. I bet even the most inveterate vegetarian denialists among us might, just for a moment, be tempted to take up the practice of eating beef!

Me: But "Global Warming is Baloney" is certainly a different sort of message, a more political viewpoint?

McNelis: I would agree that it's a viewpoint, but not necessarily a political one. But we're not sheeple around here, and while Barack Obama would like to have you believe that no one is entitled to have a view other than his, if someone wants to stand up and say "Global Warming is Baloney", then I'm all for it. It doesn't matter to me, whether I believe in it or not. They have first amendment rights to say whatever's on their mind. And nobody dictates otherwise.

This is making me so hungry...

Да, это правда

2009-05-29T20:14:00.004-04:00

This is from fucking Pravda. (HT Corner)

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed...

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics...

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world...

These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

...The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

Music To Ban Bottled Water To

2009-05-26T03:10:00.000-04:00

Up With Cola

2009-05-25T06:01:00.014-04:00

Lead and other synapse-impeding heavy metals? In London's tap water? Get outta here.

There better be some sugar in the clear liquid in that bottle, boy, or you're coming downtown.

No. It can't be the lead we all drank for so many years that's making people think this way. Lead impairs learning, and this sort of thing just has to be learned. With an uncountable infinity of stupid ideas out there, the odds are against any one person thinking up something so retarded on their own. It would be a cosmically unlikely confluence of random events for 39% of the population to do so.

No; we all know that a hidden hand, a hidden mover, pulls these strings. Get your flaming torches and pitchforks ready, because I am about to name names.

Clearly the fundamentalist religious bigots at the United Church have been at work, spreading their hideous doctrines through our schools and media. It has gotten to the point where 39% of the population apes their nonsense -- most without even realizing its provenance.

It is time for the United Church and its dupes to learn to respect the rights of atheists and others who don't kowtow to their outdated, authoritarian, patriarchal theology. Hands off our bodies! Hands off our right to choose!

Yo dude, pass the torch

2009-05-21T00:50:00.004-04:00

Canada preparing to pass heroic doobie across the country.

Composed of stainless steel, aluminum and sheet moulding, the torch was designed to evoke snow, ice, skiing and skating, but to many, the metre-long white torch looks suspiciously like a marijuana joint, especially when lit.

The observation has become so common in this city that it's hard to know who was the first to say, "Hey, doesn't that look like ..."

But the torch's resemblance to British Columbia's biggest cash crop was evident right away to Jodie Emery, editor of Cannabis Culture magazine.

"A lot of people come to Vancouver because it's marijuana-friendly, so I think people who already enjoy a joint themselves will feel a little more kinship to the Olympics," said Emery, who ran as a Green party candidate in the provincial election this month.

Let the games begin!!!

Lunchtime Lockdown to Fight Obesity

2009-05-13T17:57:00.003-04:00

I grew up in the country, meaning I wasn't one of those fortunate students who could walk home for lunch. Instead, I had to sit in a dirty classroom and eat lunch with my classmates. Well, I didn't actually eat lunch. All those mingled smells from sandwiches and bits of food dropped on the floor rather spoiled my appetite. I might add it didn't make me feel particularly social either.

If the food fascists have their way in Toronto, arguably the socialist capital of Canada, all middle-school students might soon be locked in for lunch because of course, if kids aren't allowed to leave school property, they won't smuggle it in, nor eat crap after they get to leave for the day. Never mind that some of the schools don't even have cafeterias but only vending machines. Next the authorities will be checking everyone's lunchbox. Oh wait, that's already happening.

The Toronto District School Board is pondering a controversial plan to prevent middle-school students from eating junk food: lunchtime lockdown.

Trustees will vote today on a student nutrition report that suggests they will eat healthier if they are forced to stay on school grounds at lunch.

[..] Trustee Michael Coteau, leader of the nutrition task force, said keeping middle-school students, who range from Grade 6 to Grade 9, eating in the cafeteria will build a stronger community. “You can have extracurricular activities on lunch hour,” he said. “You create a culture of eating together and you broaden your choices. It’s just more participation.”

The policy is already in place at Valley Park Middle School at Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue. (National Post)

cp: The Broom