среда, 30 сентября 2009 г.

Neguac, NB, Canada: "Pit bulls" banned

This has passed, and there is no grandfather clause–all “pit bulls” must go immediately.

Contact Neguac city council here to express your disappointment:
VILLAGE OF NEGUAC, 1175 rue Principale Suite 1, Neguac, N.B. E9G 1T1
Phone: (506) 776-3950
Tourist line (May to September): (506) 776-3838
Fax: (506) 776-3975
village@nb.aibn.com

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/newstoday/article/808506

Neguac bans all pit bulls

Community says bylaw will improve safety; pit bull advocates say measures ineffective

BY KRIS MCDAVID
Times & Transcript Staff
Published Wednesday September 30th, 2009

NEGUAC – The village of Neguac is hoping to rid itself of a number of dog breeds that fall under the pit bull label and owners are now required to surrender their pets, no questions asked.

The community, located about 30-minutes northeast of Miramichi, passed a bylaw banning the ownership of the breeds that are considered pit bulls.

Pit bull is a blanket term used to describe several breeds within the molosser family that share similar physical characteristics.

Typically lumped into the pit bull-type dog category are breeds like the American Staffordshire Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and sometimes the American Bulldog and the Bull Terrier.

Village administrator Denis Bujold told Canadaeast News Service that council’s decision to revamp its dog bylaw to include the enforced ban on pit bulls stems from a few incidents involving the dogs showing aggression towards people and other dogs.

Bujold said the new legislation allows the municipal animal control officer to seize any of the breeds covered by the ban.

Under the ban, even pit bulls with a perfect track record of non-aggression and a quality family life are required to be surrendered.

“He will seize it there and there will have to (be) some arrangement with the dog, whatever they want to do with it,” said Bujold. “That’s up to that owner what they want to do with it, but there’s one thing sure; he cannot own his dog in the municipality.”

Other facets of the bylaw include crackdowns on animal cruelty, rabies vaccinations and registration fees.

Multiple attempts to reach village councillors for comment on the issue were unsuccessful.

Donna Reynolds, executive director of the Oakland, California-based Bay Area Dog Lovers Responsible About Pit bulls (BADRAP), said the use of breed-specific legislation only reinforces preconceived stereotypes within certain breeds of dog.

BADRAP is a non-profit organization made up of pit bull owners, trainers and rescuers.

The organization is perhaps best known for taking in, rehabilitating and subsequently finding homes for the pit bulls registered to National Football League quarterback Michael Vick and used in a Virginia-based dog fighting ring.

Reynolds said targeting a specific breed creates a ‘witch hunt’ mentality, adding that the most effective means to curb dog-related public safety issues is to put the onus on irresponsible owners.

“Stereotypes have always had a negative effect on society. They victimize and alienate,” she said.

“And in the case of breed specific laws, we are victimizing good families and innocent pets and literally weakening our ability to deal with the core problem of irresponsible and reckless dog owners.”

Reynolds said part of the problem is that pit bulls are likely more misunderstood than any other breed and have been painted as naturally aggressive monsters in the public periphery.

She said any suggestion that pit bulls have locking jaws and are wired to be aggressive toward children, strangers and even their owners couldn’t be further from the truth.

Reynolds said pit bulls are just like any other breed of dog, in that ones that are well-socialized, trained, and treated like a family pet will behave accordingly while ones that aren’t are more likely to cause problems.

According to recent statistics from the American Temperament and Testing Society, an organization that tests a dog’s temperament by putting it through a series of confrontational situations, pit bulls are just as laid back and trusting as certain breeds that are labeled as more people friendly.

For example, the American Pit Bull Terrier received a passing grade of 85.3 per cent, placing ahead of the Golden Retriever (83.2 per cent) and the Beagle (78.2 per cent). The most ill-tempered breed of dog, according to the study, was the Bearded Collie, which received a grade of 53.3 per cent.

Even though pit bull attacks seem to dominate the headlines, Reynolds said that’s likely due to the breed being an attractive choice among irresponsible owners.

She said all dogs are equally capable of attacking and inflicting severe damage, even the ‘nice’ breeds.

“Some dog owners get a Labrador because they have the mistaken belief that the breed is so friendly and perfect that they don’t have to do a darn thing to train or manage their pet.

“And guess what? Labradors are still dogs and dogs will always need to be socialized and responsibly managed.”

Last September, two Labs were captured after mauling and killing a Pomeranian and subsequently attacking a pit bull.

In 2001, a Pomeranian attacked and killed a six-month-old baby in Los Angeles.

As for the dogs formerly owned by Vick, Reynolds said all are living in foster homes with children and, in some cases, other family pets.

“A few of the dogs are doing dog sports now. Some are working as therapy dogs. And all have the fine art of sofa surfing down to a science.”

Earlier this month, officials in the Village of Nackawic amended breed-specific legislation that featured restrictions on ‘dangerous breeds’ such as pit bulls and Rottweilers and a $250 vicious dog fee, after facing public scrutiny.

Nackawic’s bylaw now targets only individual dogs that have bitten, attacked, or aggressively chased a person or another animal.

* With files from CanadaEast News Service

Another article on the ban can be found here: http://miramichileader.canadaeast.com/front/article/808050

News From Around The Blogosphere 9.29.09

1. Egypt out to stop fake virgins -

A leading Egyptian scholar has demanded that people caught importing a female virginity-faking device into the country should face the death penalty.

That just says it all, doesn’t it?

2. R. Crumb’s Bible to be released soon – A while back, I blogged about subversive Cartoonist R. Crumb’s plans to release his own take on the Bible. Well now it’s about to be released:

“I grew to hate the Bible,” he told a press conference for the international launch of “Robert Crumb’s Book of Genesis”, which he called a “gruelling” four year project.

. . .

“The idea of millions of people taking this so seriously is totally nuts,” he added. “The Bible doesn’t need to be satirised. It’s already so crazy.”

3. SGU makes you smarter – My favorite podcast, the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, has been named among the 15 podcasts that will make you smarter, according to College Crunch website. Congrats guys!

4. Atheist bus ad goes up in Saskatchewan, Canada – It uses the “Don’t Believe In God? You Are Not Alone” slogan but looks a bit different from the one we’ve all gotten used to.

вторник, 29 сентября 2009 г.

Americas Rugby Championship entra na fase final

Neste final de semana, a primeira fase do Americas Rugby Championship teve seu desfecho. As quatro equipes canadenses se enfrentaram ao longo do último mês, e agora já sabemos as quais serão as duas semi-finalistas, que enfrentarão Argentina Jaguars e USA Select valendo a taça da primeira edição do torneio.

Na cidade de Markham, subúrbio de Toronto, o anfitrião Ontario Blues enfrentou o até então vice líder Atlantic Rock (ou simplesmente The Rock, equipe baseada na Terra Nova), em partida decisiva. Os azuis venceram pelo inesperado placar elástico de 32 x 5, e conseguiram a classificação, em segundo lugar.

O campeão do grupo canadense foi o BC Bears, da Colúmbia Britânica, que derrotou o Praire Wolf Pack por 52 x 14, em Vancouver, a capital do rugby no Canadá. Agora o BC Bears receberá o Ontario Blues pelas semifinais do campeonato. A outra semifinal será entre o USA Select e o Argentina Jaguars, em Glendale, Colorado (Estados Unidos).

O USA Select é um selecionado de atletas dos Estados Unidos que atuam no próprio país, enquanto os jaguares são um selecionado B da Argentina. Os dois jogos serão no dia 10 de outubro. A final será dia 17 do mesmo mês.

Cada equipe do Canadá representa o rugby de uma ou mais províncias. Vamos à tabela:

BC Bears – Colúmbia Britânica (British Columbia)

Praire Wolf Pack – Alberta, Saskatchewan e Manitoba

Ontario Blues – Ontario

Atlantic Rock – Newfoundland and Labrador (Terra Nova e Labrador), Nova Scotia (Nova Escócia), Ilha Príncipe Eduardo, New Brunswick e Quebec

Vamos a todos os resultados da preliminar canadense:

Dia 7/9: Praire Wolf Pack 23 x 21 Atlantic Rock, em Calgary

BC Bears 29 x 24 Ontario Blues, em Vancouver

Dia 12/9: Ontario Blues 13 x 14 Praire Wolf Pack, em Markham

Atlantic Rock 7 x 8 BC Bears, em Saint John’s

Dia 26/9: Ontario Blues 32 x 5 Atlantic Rock, em Markham

BC Bears 52 x 14 Praire Wolf Pack, em Vancouver

Classificação final:

1 – BC Bears – 14 pontos

2 – Ontario Blues – 7 pontos

3 – Atlantic Blues – 6 pontos

4 – Praire Wolf Pack – 4 pontos

Roman Polanski in 'good spirits' after arrest in Switzerland

Roman Polanski is in “good spirits” despite his arrest on a decades-old warrant relating to the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977, his agent said on Tuesday.

“His voice is strong … he’s very anxious to get this resolved and go home,” Jeff Berg told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Berg said the film director’s arrest on a 1978 US warrant as he arrived in Switzerland from France was a surprise because he has had a house in the country for more than a decade.

“It is surprising because Roman, for the last 12, 15 years, has lived in Switzerland, he has a home, he travels there, he works there,” he said.

“His presence there is well-known as it is through much of Europe, so this came kind of as a shock given the fact that he was invited to Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award.”

Polanski, the 76-year-old director of Chinatown and the Pianist had travelled to Switzerland to accept a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich film festival, the organisers of which expressed “great consternation and shock” at his detention.

He has hired the Swiss lawyer Lorenz Erni, of the Eschmann & Erni law firm, to fight any extradition charges.

His French lawyer, Georges Kiejman, told France-Inter radio it was “too early to know” whether Polanski would be extradited. “For now, we are trying to have the arrest warrant lifted in Zurich,” he said.

The Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda and other Polish film-makers today appealed to the US, Swiss and Polish authorities for the Paris-born Polanski to be freed.

Polanski has strong links with Poland, having moved to the country with his Jewish family when still a toddler shortly before World War II.

His mother died in a Nazi concentration camp, but he avoided capture and spent his youth in Poland before moving to the west.

In a letter posted on the website of Polish Filmmakers Association, the directors called on the US authorities to review the indictment in his 31-year-old case, asking the Polish government to help prevent any extradition.

Poland and France intend to make a joint appeal to Switzerland and the US to have Polanski released from his detention, the Polish foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, told the Polish PAP news agency.

Sikorski said he and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, also planned to ask the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, to offer Polanski clemency.

The director has had French citizenship for many years and is married to the French singer and actor Emmanuelle Seigner.

He has spent much of his life in France since fleeing the US in 1978, but regularly visits countries without extradition treaties with Washington.

The French culture minister, Frederic Mitterrand, said he was “stunned” by news of Polanski’s arrest, adding that he and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, wanted to see the director reunited swiftly with his family.

“[Mitterrand] profoundly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already known so many during his life,” a culture ministry statement said.

Polanski pleaded guilty to the assault in 1977 but jumped bail and fled the US the following year to avoid a lengthy jail sentence.

He has spent more than three decades in exile in Paris, refusing to return to the US even when he won an Oscar for the Pianist in 2002.

Zurich police said he had been detained at immigration in Zurich on Saturday night at the request of the US justice department and was in custody awaiting extradition.

“There was a valid arrest request and we knew when he was coming,” Guido Balmer, of the Swiss justice ministry, said. “That’s why he was taken into custody.”

The director was permitted to make one call to his wife, who left their two young children to travel to Switzerland, the British writer Robert Harris, who has been working with Polanski, said.

“This is a high-profile action designed to send out some sort of message to someone somewhere,” he added. “No one condones what happened in the 70s, but I think this is pretty appalling.”

A statement from the Swiss Association of Directors called it a “grotesque judicial farce and a monstrous cultural scandal”, while the country’s Association of Film Directors and Scriptwriters said it was “a slap in the face for the entire cultural community in Switzerland”.

Polanski was 44 and already a twice Oscar-nominated director when he had sex with Samantha Gailey, a 13-year-old model he had hired for a photoshoot, at Jack Nicholson’s house in Los Angeles in March 1977.

He claimed the sex was consensual, saying the girl was “not unresponsive”, but Gailey said he had drugged her with painkillers and champagne before carrying out a “very scary” assault.

In recent months, Polanski’s lawyers have been seeking, through the US courts, to have the rape charges against him dropped after saying new evidence had emerged in a documentary that showed he was a victim of “judicial misconduct” at his original trial.

The film showed a former Los Angeles deputy district attorney admitting discussing the case with the trial judge while it was ongoing.

In February, a Los Angeles judge agreed that “substantial … misconduct” had taken place during the original court proceedings, but said he could not drop the charges so long as Polanski remained a fugitive.

The director has since appealed against the ruling, insisting he would not voluntarily return to the US even to clear his name.

Gailey, now called Samantha Geimer, has spoken in support of his attempt to have the charges dismissed, accusing the district attorney’s office of resurrecting “lurid details” of her assault to distract attention from its own wrongdoing.

“True as they may be, the continued publication of those details causes harm to me,” she said. “I have survived, indeed prevailed against, whatever harm Mr Polanski may have caused me as a child.” – guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009

понедельник, 28 сентября 2009 г.

Entre les lignes: témoignages de la Première Guerre mondiale

Entre les lignes est un documentaire de Claude Guilman réalisé en 2008. A travers les témoignages de cinq soldats et d’une infirmière, on revit des pans de la participation canadienne à la Première Guerre mondiale (1914-1918).

Le film est basé sur les lettres écrites par ces six personnes à leurs familles pendant la guerre. Ces six personnes sont le capitaine Edouard Légaré, le sergent-major Napoléon Marion, Leo LeBoutillier, le major George P. Vanier (futur gouverneur-général du Canada), le sergent-major Claudius Corneloup, et Katherine Maude Mary Macdonald (infirmière).

Le site internet du film présente une courte biographie de ces personnes ainsi que des capsules documentaires qui constituent un complément au dvd. Ces cinq capsules portent sur les infirmières au front, le rôle de l’officier, la vie du soldat, l’espoir et la foi ainsi que les tranchées. On peut voir ces capsules ici (durée totale d’environ 45 minutes). Les capsules sont sous-titrées. Images et vidéos d’archives défilent pendant qu’on entend les narrateurs donner vie aux mots écrits il y a plus de 90 ans. La capsule Les infirmières au front est particulièrement émouvante, car on sait que Katherine McDonald est décédée le 19 mai 1918 dans le bombardement d’Etaples, en France. Difficile à regarder par moment.

Le titre, entre les lignes, est bien choisi , car les lettres des soldats étaient censurées. C’est lorsqu’on lit entre ces lignes qu’on saisit l’horreur de ce qu’ils ont vécu…

Adresse URL du site Entre les lignes: http://films.onf.ca/entre-les-lignes

Les capsules: http://films.onf.ca/entre-les-lignes/capsules.php

Billets reliés:

  • 1759: Du sentier de la guerre aux plaines d’Abraham

  • La mémoire spoliée: Les archives des Français, butin de guerre nazi puis soviétique

  • Journal du siège de Québec

  • Malcolm Fraser, de soldat écossais à seigneur canadien, 1733-1815

02. Painting and Kung Fu

The Video includes some Kung Futage

So now for the second of the pre fajigamatography Bio.  A little more about myself.

As mentioned before, I have a BFA, majoring in painting and drawing.  For elementary school and high school, and obviously through University I was 2 things in peoples minds.  1. A Painter and Drawer, and 2. The son of one of Saskatoons most famous people, Director and Order of Canada recipient Tibor Feheregyhazi.  Always being an artist in my own right, I strove to define myself as separate from my father.  Don’t get me wrong, I had great respect for him and loved what he did.  I have to say that live theatre in a large part was spoiled for me because I saw so many of his productions.  He accepted nothing less than greatness, and worked himself until they were great.  What I learned from my father was to strive for greatness in whatever you do, (although there was many a time that I let fun get in the way.)

Anyway, I think one of the reasons I pursued something he didn’t really understand is so that I wouldn’t be compared to him, and thus be a disappointment when they saw that I didn’t measure up.  So I tried to excel in another field.  In a field I loved.

Even though I had been drawing since I was… well since I could hold a pencil, when I hid university I thought I would try my hand at the non artist route.  In my first year I took all non art courses.  This was to see if there was something I wanted to do other than art.  Alas what happened was I would draw in my notebooks and on my desks while listening to my teacher speak.  So that summer I decided to test the waters with a Painting, and Drawing class.  I haven’t looked back since.

Here’s some paintings I did In university

In the Summer of 2000, half way through my University Career, I was sitting, sipping on some chocolate milk, discussing something quite profound, when one of my friends said “We should make a Kung Fu film.”  I turned to him and said “I concur my dear fellow.”  Then we gathered our friends and began.

The only problem was our friend who had both the video camera (an old VHS camera from the 80’s) and the Kung fu skills happened to be leaving in 2 days.  So we decided to get it written, shot, and edited before he left.  So with $10, 36 hours, and the hearts of lions, we ventured forth to create “Walking on Sunshine.”  We had problems, we had solutions, and we had a spray bottle of sweat.

The editing was done on a 2 VCR set up where you pressed play, then record and hoped that 1. you didn’t get the little play arrow in the corner (We were unsuccessful on that front) and 2. that you actually got the part you were hoping for. (A little more successful here.)  At the end of the 36 hours we had to complete it we ended up with a 25 minute pile of shit, left by a man who ate a strict diet of amazing every day.  And thus “Walking on Sunshine” was born.  Also known by it’s “year 2000″ name “Millennium Fist 2000, To the EXTREEME.”  This played on the trend of films that year to have references to the millennium in their titles.

Now we…well I submitted it to a University Film festival.  Since it was 25 minutes, it was way too long to be featured, but the committee enjoyed it so much (I’m assuming due to the sex scene in the middle) that they decided to play it as the intermission movie.  Now unbeknownst to me, they kept using it as an intermission movie at other USSU (University of Saskatchewan Students Union) showings.  Before long it had become a bit of a Cult hit at the University.  People would recognize me and my friends as “the Guys from that Kung Fu film.”

This was my first taste of making film…and I liked it.

If you want to see some short clips from “Walking on Sunshine” watch the video above.

Until next time

Andrei

воскресенье, 27 сентября 2009 г.

Sunday Salon: the Two-for-One

Since I was sick and slept right through last Sunday, I’ll be talking about books I’ve read during the last two weeks!

First I read The Knife Of Never Letting Go in one sitting-I got stuck in the library during a flash thunder storm (…darn…) and settled down in a comfy chair to read. I’m not reviewing it yet, though, since there’s a big group review in the works!

In a fantasy mood, I picked up my first read for the Canadian challenge: Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint. I’ve been making my way through his Newford series in the order recommended on his website, and I was excited to get to this one after two he’d originally published under a different name (that were more horror). Oddly enough, I didn’t love this one the way I expected. While I thought the idea of characters in paintings coming to life was really neat, reading the book felt a bit like deja vu. I found myself rolling my eyes at meeting more woman characters who were described as tiny, with lots of wild hair, expressive eyes, and bohemian dress. I know that sounds mean, and since I consider de Lint one of my new fave authors (I read him for the first time in 2007), I was taken aback by my own reaction. Perhaps it just wasn’t the right time for de Lint? I’ll definitely be reading the next in the Newford series to see how I react again.

I turned next to Marcus Borg’s The Heart of Christianity. I must say, I absolutely adored it. Brog is a progressive Christian, and I can completely envision myself as a progressive Christian as well. Like me, he argues that myths can still be true, a higher truth than any historical fact, and that therefore the Bible doesn’t need to be read literally to still affect us. Oh, and that there’s no need to believe that Christianity is the only ‘true’ religion in order to have a relationship with Jesus. And that’s just two examples of how he argues (quite elegantly-much more so than my little synopsis implies) for the relevancy of Christianity to twenty-first century life. I can’t wait to read the rest of his books, and I only wish that he included a list of recommended churches in the back! (I’ve found a gorup of progressive churches in Denver, but I think they’re hiding here.)

Then I finished the book-on-CD I’d been listening to: Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris. I chose this randomly off the library shelf because it was a mystery set in Saudi Arabia. I love mysteries and I love international settings, so it seemed like a good match. It turns out Ferraris is an American who was married to a Saudi-Palestinian and used to live in that community. I thought this book got better as it progressed; at first, the choppiness of Ferraris’ writing was quite jarring. And I wasn’t sure how authentic her main male character, a Saudi Palestinian was (that’s when I began to do a bit of research on her background!). But once I adjusted to Ferraris’ style, I enjoyed the peek into Saudi life. I think my favourite thing about the book was that Ferraris doesn’t pretend Suadi women have a ton of rights. At my college, there were several older male professors who were focussed on the Middle East, and after visiting Saudi they gave a panel talk about it. And they actually tried to imply that women are happy there. Or that wearing black robes and head scarves over all of your usual clothes in the middle of a desert wasn’t ridicuously hot. And that it didn’t matter that it’s illegal for women to drive, because they can hire drivers. You can imagine how I felt hearing this crap from men who couldn’t possibly know what it’s like. So I loved that Ferraris brought a woman’s perspective to the issue. Anyway, if I talk anymore about it, I’m going to end up with my post about it. But for me, the drawbacks in the book (writing style, somewhat muddle mystery in the first half of the book) were more than made up for by the rare setting and characters. If you too are always interested in reading books set in new places, give it a try! Ferraris has another book, City of Veils, coming out next year and I’ll be excited to see how she grows as a writer!

From Saudi Arabia, I moved on to South Africa with my first Spice of Life selection: A Time of Angels by Patricia Schonstein. I adored this book so much. It’s a fable-like story of Jewish emigres and their children in Cape Town post-World War Two. At the heart of it are two friends, Primo (a professional magician and psychic) and Pasquale (who can make the most marvelous fruit cakes and salami ever). They’ve always been inseperable, until Primo’s wife Beatrice leaves him for Pasquale. This sets off a chain of magical realist events-among other things, the Devil becomes Primo’s new roommate! And it turns out he has a love of embroidery. This is a slim book, almost a novella since it’s barely over 200 pages, but so much is packing into it! Schonstein provides the backstory of various relatives of Primo and Pasquale, from a woman who runs a bordello to Pasquale’s father learning the marvelous recipes for salami and fruitcake while locked in a small closet as a young boy with two Italian brothers hiding through WWII (this story was the most beautiful, and I think everyone should read the book simply for it). The book is about love and lust, survival and death, friendship and revenge. It’s about life, and how people react to tragedy and joy, but it’s never heavy-handed. When I saw fable-like, I mean in the lightest sense possible. Stories are left open-ended, Schonstein doesn’t force any life philosophies down your throat. But I know I’ll remember these characters forever, and I can’t wait for her other books to be released over here.

Then I turned to Half of the Sky, the new book about the rights of women in the developing world by the husband-and-wife, Pulitzer-prize-winning team of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Heather has agreed to do an interview review of this one once she’s read it (since she’s always reading marvelous feminist books!), so I’ll hold off on discussing it until then.

Which brings me to The London Scene, five essays by Virginia Woolf. (Apparently, there’s another edition published with a bonus essay, so now I feel like I’ve been cheated out of my Woolf!) This is a tiny book, significantly less than 100 pages, and the essays were originally published in Good Housekeeping. Basically, Woolf walks around various parts of London and writes her impressions. It’s beautiful. I’ll leave it at that, since everyone should go read these now. And for those of you who arne’t big fans of her fiction, her essays aren’t stream-of-conscious style, so you should give them a chance! The whole collection only took me an hour to read, but it’s one I’ll definitely visit again in the future.

Next up I read The House You Pass on the Way, my second experience with Jacuqline Woodson. This is another tiny book (while I was reading A Suitable Boy I wanted small books to keep me occupied), but it packs a big punch. The main character is a girl on the cusp of puberty, who doesn’t have any close friends because her mother is white and her black father’s parents were famously killed during the Civil Rights movement. Thus, kids her age tend to assume she’s a snob. Anyway, her cousin comes to stay for the summer, and the two immediately bond. I read this for the GLBT Challenge, because among other things they bond over both liking girls more than boys. What I love about Woodson is that while her book’s plot summaries might make them sound ‘issue’ based, they never are. The characters feel real and human, like friends you haven’t met yet. I’m excited to read more of Woodson’s backlist! And if you haven’t tried her yet, I highly recommend remedying that.

Are you still with me? Because then I turned to my sixth and final book for the Classics Challenge: Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. A couple of years ago I read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and loved it! So I wanted to read Anne’s other book. I can’t say that I’ve read The Nanny Diaries, or even seen the movie, but I imagine Agnes Grey is like the nineteenth century version of it. Due to her father’s unfortunate business skills, Agnes goes into service as a governess to help her family. Through two situations, she dishes on the horrible temperment of her charges, the immorality of her employers, and in general how awful it is to be a governess. Agnes is a clergyman’s daughter, and she’s pretty judgemental (although against herself as well). But I still liked her, and when romance begins to hint around the edges, I was excited to see how it would turn out. This book has definitely confirmed that Anne is my favourite Bronte! I’ve never gotten along well with Charlotte (don’t get me started on Jane Eyre-I know a lot of book bloggers love it, but I’m not one of them). And while Emily amuses me (and I plan on rereading Wuthering Heights soon), she’s a bit unstable to get close to. Anne’s the one for me!

I finally finished Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy-it will be getting its own post (1400 pages! it deserves it!), so we’ll jump right to You’d be So Pretty If… by Dara Chadwick. This is a book about body image among women, especially how mothers can pass along issues to their daughters. In theory, the main audience is women with daughters, since the book includes advice on how to give your daughters a strong body image even if you don’t have one yourself. But I think any women would profit from it; I certainly enjoyed reading it! It was more like a sleep-over with a bunch of intelligent women, from all different backgrounds, dishing about being a girl and our bodies. If that sounds interesting, I recommend picking this one up! Also, don’t you love that cover?! Chadwick also has a blog if you’re curious.

Another nonfiction read I really enjoyed was Creating a World Without Poverty by Muhummad Yunus. Yunus basically invented microcredit with his Grameen Bank in Bangaldesh, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because it’s made such strides in eliminating poverty. I love microcredit, and I’ve already read Yunus’ memoir of how it came into being, Banker of the Poor. This book outlines one of Yunus’ new ideas: social businesses. It’s really fascinating; the idea of creating businesses whose goal isn’t to make a profit but to improve the world. It’s quite inspiring, and even though I don’t usually care at all about business-y stuff (I’m more of a macro-economics girl), Yunus made me care! The only reason this didn’t get five stars is because there’s a large chunk in the middle that basically summarises Banker to the Poor that made me quite bored. Still, this was a marvelous pick for the World Citizen Challenge, and if you want to believe it is possible to change the world, go ahead and get it!

Then I got another fibro flare-up, and pretty much spent the whole day listening to the audio version of Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely. This was my second time reading the book, and I loved it just as much (this was also my final reread for the Summer Lovin’ Challenge)! I’m planning on doing a post about rereads soon, so I’ll expand on it then.

Once I felt better and could read again, I picked up Leaving Atalanta by Tayari Jones. I originally put this in my R.I.P. pool, but I don’t think it really works for that challenge (which doesn’t worry me, since I’ve already technically completed it!). Nevertheless, it’s a marvelous book-I was taken aback at how wonderful a writer Jones is. It’s set in Atlanta in the 70s, when someone was abducint and murdering black children, and is told in three parts, each narrated by a different fifth grader at the same elementary school. Jones perfectly captured what it felt like to be that age, and each of the children had a very distinct voice. The plot isn’t really the point of the book; it’s very much a character study. I loved how Jones brought me into the children’s world; each has a different background and family life, and I feel like my worldview was broadened. But mainly, I just adored living in a child’s world again…elementary school was definitely the highlight of my school years (until maybe college), and it was neat to revisit it through other eyes. Recommended for those who enjoy character- and writing-centric books!

We’re almost there guys! Just two more to go. It took me forever to read the next book, Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog, which was my ‘body part’ selection for the What’s in a Name? 2 Challenge. Krog is an Afrikaaner journalist who covered the Truth and Reconciliation trials for radio. She’s also a poet. This book is, in my opinion, quite experimental nonfiction, in which she attempts to capture as the subtitle says “guilt, sorrow, and the limits of forgiveness in the new South Africa.” I’m glad I read this book-Krog includes a lot of word-for-word testimony from the trials which helped bring home to me the horrors of apartheid. But at the same time, there were many sections that seemed random and unjustified, the book didn’t provide a lot of context for non-South African readers, and I was often bored. So I wouldn’t recommend this. Also if anyone has any suggestions for South African history, please share them!

And finally, I read A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong. When I asked for suggestions for Christian authors, her name came up again and again. Then when I looked her up in my library catalog, I was shocked at all of the books she’s written! I was a bit paralysed with indecision, until I saw the title of this book. I love mythology-I started reading about it in high school and I considered majoring in it in college. I haven’t read as much about it in the past few years as I used to, but it still holds a special place in my heart. And I’m happy to say I’d recommend this book to everyone! It’s a short, concise, but very intelligent examination of how humans have viewed mythology (and God) throughout history. It ends with a plea for the importance of mythology in modern times. While none of the ideas were new to me, Armstrong’s ability to present them simply while not dumbing them down definitely impressed me. I will certainly be reading more of her impressive selection of books in the future!

And there you have it: one of the longer Sunday Salons I’ve done in awhile. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope at least one book sounded interesting to you! I’m off to visit my fellow Sunday Saloners!

Libyan Leader Qaddafi not welcome in Canada

clipped from www.foxnews.com

Sept. 25: Libya's President Muammar al-Qaddafi arrives in Venezuela for a summit. AP

Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi has canceled a planned visit to Canada next week. Harper’s office said the welcoming constituted an insult to all the victims who died in that appalling act of terrorism — including Canadians. Qaddafi is attending a weekend Africa-South America summit in Venezuela. He was scheduled to stop in St. John’s, Newfoundland after that meeting. It was not an official visit to Canada.

суббота, 26 сентября 2009 г.

Part 4: Canadian Health Care and U.S. Health Reform Debates

Continuing my series of posts on Canadian health care in the United States health care reform debates, previous posts here from March, May, and August, respectively (also check out Mara’s posts in September on the same here and here), I thought it interesting that after my previous post noting the lack of Canadian political leaders defending our health care system there was one well known Canadian political figure that subsequently did step up and deliver a strong defense in the face of American reactionary criticism.

Former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Surprised? Maybe because current Conservative PM has been so silent on this point?  But, in any case, check out Mulroney’s defense of Canadian health care and President Obama.   Of course, when a former Conservative Prime Minister, mainly remembered in the U.S. for his close relationship with President Reagan, lauds a Democratic President, they take notice down south.  Read a post on the popular U.S. centre-left blog Talking Points Memo here and another popular blog Daily Kos takes note here.

Mulroney draws parallels between the tough criticisms he sustained for GST and free trade and the fierce criticism that Obama is facing today on health reform.  However accurate those comparisons might be, it is still pretty provocative for a former Prime Minister to wade into the middle of this deeply divisive American debate.

Yet, despite despite the divide and disinformation, slowly some information is finally getting out to American media about Canadian health care.  It’s not perfect, it has problems, but it’s not the “bogeyman”, and it seems to be doing just as well as the American system, at much, much less the cost.

“There is an image of Canadians flooding across the border to get care,” said Donald Berwick, a Harvard University health- policy specialist and pediatrician who heads the Boston-based nonprofit Institute for Healthcare Improvement. “That’s just not the case. The public in Canada is far more satisfied with the system than they are in the U.S. and health care is at least as good, with much more contained costs.”

(Quote Taken from this Bloomberg story)

Now, that may not be saying much; the American health care system is in dire need of radical overhaul– but it’s something.  Definitely something. But is anyone in the U.S. — in Congress or otherwise — actually paying attention?

I’m skeptical.

The Dickipedia Prize for Literature

If you’ve ever been to Dickipedia, a Wiki of Dicks, you’ll see a list of dicks in business, media, sports, and entertainment. I expect there may be one for literature quite soon. On the BBC World Service today there was an exchange between English biographer Victoria Glendinning, and Noah Richler, who has compiled a literary atlas of Canada.

Why? Well, two weeks ago, Glendinning wrote an unbelievably condescending piece in the Financial Times about her experience serving as a judge for the Giller Prize, which is like the Man Booker prize for Canadian novels.

Reading almost 100 works of Canadian fiction, as one of the judges for this year’s Giller, is a life-enhancing experience, and gives a glimpse into the culture. The Canadian for “gutter” is “eavestrough”, which is picturesque . Everyone is wearing a “tuque”, or “toque”, which in English-English suggests the lofty headgear worn by Queen Mary but is actually a little woolly hat. And in the holiday cottages among Ontario’s northern lakes and forests – evidently, the prime setting for emotional turmoil – they sit, brooding, on Muskoka chairs. (Look those up on the net.)

there is a striking homogeneity in the muddy middle range of novels, often about families down the generations with multiple points of view and flashbacks to Granny’s youth in the Ukraine or wherever.

Apart from brilliant Giller contestants, there are … “unbelievably dreadful” ones. It seems in Canada that you only have to write a novel to get grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and from your provincial Arts Council, who are also thanked…. If you want to get your novel published, be Canadian.

Not surprisingly, Richler (a Canadian) took umbrage at Glendinning’s sniffy dismissal of quaint Canadiansms, then got out of his Muskoka chair to fire a salvo back across the pond:

The bulk of English novels, even the good ones (Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes come to mind), are written by authors parcelling out their ideas frugally, a couple for the book at hand and others reserved for the next. This is the same sad way the English make fish pie: one piece of cod mixed in with many, many potatoes.

You want fireworks? You want literature that is invested with energy because every page is written as if it was the writer’s last chance? Well, don’t turn to English novels but to the political and cultural margins of a collapsed empire that started becoming parochial more than half a century ago – and is today to the point that the word “tuque” provides Ms. Glendinning such supercilious amusement. Canadian writers, along with Indian and Australian and Irish and African and Asian ones, have been writing the most exciting and original novels in, umm – oh, whatever kind of English it is, give the woman a lexicon – for decades. In these literatures, you will find a fervour and a generosity of spirit that is sorely lacking in the English, the dearth of which explains why most do not get North Americans even when they like us.

I have to side with Richler on this one.

There’s a nice bit in Bill Bryson’s book “The Mother Tongue” (about the English language) where he describes how 300 years ago, the English repeatedly bemoaned the American’s barbarian handling of the language … and how typically the words they took umbrage to were proper English terms that had merely fallen out of use, only to be revived in the States. Nonetheless, the English had self-appointed themselves as arbiters of the language, no matter what the colonies had to say.

Fast-forward to 2009, and what do you get? Victoria Glendinning defending the empire, haughtily trying to claim supremacy for “English-English.”

The BBC World Service had both of them on today, together, and it was great fun to hear a very prim English toff get shredded by a civil pit bull from the colonies (Alas, it’s not available on the BBC site.) She lasted maybe two minutes trying to explain and clarify (”But we envy you for getting grants!” etc.), then started backpedaling, and even called him “love.”

Speaking of self-appointing, I hereby nominate Glendinning for the Dickipedia short-list.

пятница, 25 сентября 2009 г.

A Special Guest is on his way...

That’s Right Kombat … Kru Mehdi is coming to help prep the Canadian National Team for Battle in Austria.

While he’s here you can arrange for private lessons.  Even better, you can split the cost between two, three or four of you.  The cost is very reasonable and the experience is well worth it.

Also, for all you aspiring coaches and corner men, Kru Mehdi will be holding a special cornerman course for a very nominal fee.  This will include taping hands and more.  So if you are interested book your spot now by either registering at the front desk or emailing Joey at info@kombatarts.com.

Kru Mehdi is the founder of the KB-One School in Vancouver and current World Muay Thai Champion, Kru of our Kru, and friend of Kombat Arts.

On se lance !

Bonjour à tous !

Je suis venue vous annoncer une grande nouvelle, ça y est ! Nous nous lançons ! L’an prochain nous partons en PVT au Canada !!!

Nous savons que les mois à venir vont être longs (et douloureux) avec les demandes et documents à remplir, mais ça devrait aller tout de même.

Les démarches ont commencées cette semaine, avec la tentative de récupération du formulaire de demande de passeport. J’ai noté que c’est à la mairie qu’il faut s’adresser maintenant, nous voici donc partis à 13h30 pour récupérer ce fameux formulaire. Après avoir attendu que quelqu’un veuille bien nous demander ce que nous désirons on nous apprend qu’il faut changer de bâtiment. Ok ok, nous traversons la rue, et là… fermé ! Hé oui horaires de fonctionnaires revenez lundi matin à 8h… Ca commence bien !!!

четверг, 24 сентября 2009 г.

Legalizing Marijuana the Best Way to Cut Organized Crime's 'Tentacles'

September 24, 2009 – Barrie, Ontario Canada – Daily headlines read “Marijuana grow-ops busted”.

What difference does it make?

The recent outdoor marijuana ‘eradication’ efforts by police are glaring examples of the futility of prohibition.

Law enforcement efforts are not ’stemming the tide’ (or ‘taking a bite out’) of drugs, nor will they ever do so. It is all just an expensive show at taxpayer expense to give the public the illusion that something is being accomplished.

Why aren’t journalists asking these important questions?

Is there evidence that these eradication efforts actually reduce the availability of marijuana on the street? The answer is a resounding No!

What percentage of the outdoor crops are police able to destroy?

How much do these annual eradication efforts cost (diverted police resources, overtime pay, helicopter use and fuel)?

Taxpayers have a right to know the answers to these questions.

This futile and expensive ritual will continue, year after year, until we finally come to our senses and end cannabis prohibition. Every major study on the cannabis issue has come to the same key conclusion as the 2002 Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs.

‘The prohibition of cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being of Canadians much more than does the substance itself’ (Cannabis: Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy, 2002- www.SenateReport.ca). Every day that we delay the end of this corrupting, harmful policy, the deeper the tentacles of organized crime infiltrate into our communities. Ending cannabis prohibition is definitely in Canada’s best interest. Source.

Eric Howell Ana's Playground interview

I had a great time chatting with Eric Howell, writer-director of the wonderfully made and heart-gripping short film Ana’s Playground: “an allegory about the moment when a child is forced to choose between ideology and humanity while living and playing in a dangerous war environment.”

Eric’s Ana’s Playground is screening this Friday (Sept 25) 7pm at Globe Theatre at the 2009 Calgary International Film Festival.

Here is a trailer,

The following are videos of my interview with Eric. Here is a link to Right To Play.

среда, 23 сентября 2009 г.

Canadians standing up for whats rightful theirs...maybe

Just a tad…

In this round Goliath (Microsoft) as nothing on David (Toronto’s i4i).  In a district court in Texas, three judges will bring a ruling to a patent case that may make or break the fabric of stealing another companies ideas.  Microsoft has had years of experience going to trial over patent infringement cases.  Usually paying off or buying out the companies that bring them to trial.  This case though happens to be a tad different.  i4i stood their ground and has fought back… Hard!

ROB Magazine preview An i for an i

Patent cage match! In this corner, from Toronto: i4i (head count: 30). And in this corner, from Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft (head count: 93,000). Good thing i4i has a pugilist for chairman

John Daly

From Friday’s Globe and MailLast updated on Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2009

Whatever the final outcome, Toronto software manufacturer i4i Inc.’s battle with Microsoft Inc. would make an entertaining movie—a computer-geek version of My Cousin Vinny. There’s the quaint rural locale: Tyler, Texas, one of a handful of towns that have made the eastern part of the state the epicentre of American—and therefore global—technology patent law. And there’s the climactic scene from the final day of the trial this past May: Judge Leonard Davis reading a note from the deliberating jury: “We need a whiteboard, two coloured markers and a calculator.”

When those words were uttered, it was obvious that i4i had won. The jury, which had only been deliberating for a couple of hours, had clearly concluded that Microsoft had infringed on i4i’s patents with some versions of its flagship Word software since the early 2000s. All that was left was to tote up the damages: $200 million (U.S.) for i4i, a 30-employee David to Microsoft’s Goliath.

Unfortunately, real-life courtroom conflicts are rarely as quick and colourful as My Cousin Vinny. There are often several sequels—messy, grinding, expensive and inconclusive sequels. As of early September, i4i, which is mostly owned by chairman Loudon Owen’s venture capitalfirm, McLean Watson, and i4i’s founder and chief technology officer, Michel Vulpe, still hadn’t collected a penny. But the company was on a roll. In August, Judge Davis increased the award to $290 million (U.S.). He also issued a permanent injunction—the first ever directed at Microsoft—ordering the company to, in effect, stop selling all current versions of its Word and Office software packages in the United States by Oct. 10. That’s no small hit: Office generated $17 billion (U.S.) in worldwide sales for Microsoft last year.

Read more at the Globe and Mail’s ROB Magazine ~ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/an-i-for-an-i/article1296011/

Encounters with Canada!

 

 

Encounters with Canada is Canada’s largest youth forum!  Every week of the school year, 120 to 138 teens from across Canada (ages 14 to 17) come to Ottawa. Here they discover their country through each other, learn about Canadian institutions, meet famous and accomplished Canadians, explore exciting career options, develop their civic leadership skills and live an extraordinary bilingual experience.

Each week there is a different forum topic. The topics range from arts and culture to health and sciences. There’s also a week in law and politics as well as sports and fitness. There’s something for EVERYONE.

You can register for this fantastic opportunity THROUGH YOUR SCHOOL.

вторник, 22 сентября 2009 г.

2009 Giller Prize Longlist

The 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury today announced its longlist of books in the running for this year’s prize. The jury selected 12 titles out of 96 books, submitted by 39 publishers from every region of Canada.

Celebrated American novelist and short story writer Russell Banks, acclaimed UK author and journalist Victoria Glendinning, and distinguished Canadian writer and professor, Alistair MacLeod made up the 2009 jury. Two thousand and nine marks the sixteenth year of the prize.

From a highly competitive field, the Scotiabank Giller jury has selected the following titles for this year’s longlist:

  1. Margaret Atwood for her novel The Year Of The Flood
  2. Martha Bailie for her novel The Incident Report
  3. Kim Echlin for her novel The Disappeare
  4. Claire Holden Rothman for her novel The Heart Specialist
  5. Paulette Jiles for her novel The Colour Of Lighting
  6. Jeanette Lynes for her novel The Factory Voice
  7. Annabel Lyon for her novel The Golden Mean
  8. Linden MacIntyre for his novel The Bishop’s Man
  9. Colin McAdam for his novel Fall
  10. Anne Michaels for her novel The Winter Vault
  11. Shani Mootoo for her novel Valmiki’s Daughter
  12. Kate Pullinger for her novel The Mistress Of Nothing

Read more at Scotiabank Giller Prize | Longlist.

Find titles by Russell Banks, Margaret Atwood, and Anne Michaels at GrendelBooks.com.

Polaris Music Prize winner is...

With the crazy twittering I did this year and watching it live on Much Music online.
F**ked Up is the 2009 Polaris Music Prize winner.
I didn’t put them on my predictions but mostly as a underdog.
Who knew they would win.

Off all the albums I’ve listened to.
This is one album I haven’t gotten a chance to listen.
Now on to the music shops and purchase.
I wonder how shocked the Harper Government will feel about this now???
Guessing they will totally sell out a show in Ottawa.
Let the F-ed up jokes begin or “Well isn’t that f**ked up?” comment.
Or let the dropping the F-Bombs begin.
More coverage go on to CBC Radio 3.

понедельник, 21 сентября 2009 г.

FIA anuncia calendário de F1 de 2010 com 19 corridas

O Concelho Mundial do Desporto Motorizado da FIA anunciou o calendário de F1 de 2010, com 19 corridas e o regresso do Canadá confirmado.

A entidade federativa confirmou igualmente que a Coreia do Sul irá receber pela primeira vez a Fórmula 1 no próximo ano, no mês de Outubro, mas sem data definida.

O campeonato de F1 do próximo ano começará no Bahrain, com o GP da Austrália a passar a ser o segundo a disputar.

O GP Canadá, ausente do calendário deste ano, regressará, sendo a prova em Junho, em data ainda a defenir pela conclusão do contrato com a FOM.

O GP Brasil encerrará a temporada, a 14 de Novembro.

Eis o calendário completo:

14/3 Bahrain 28/3 Austrália 04/4 Malásia 18/4 China 09/5 Espanha 23/5 Mónaco 30/5 Turquia 13/6 Canadá* 27/6 Europa (Valência) 11/7 Grã-Bretanha 25/7 Alemanha 01/8 Hungria 29/8 Bélgica 12/9 Itália 26/9 Singapura 03/10 Japão 17/10 Coreia do Sul 31/10 Abu Dhabi 14/11 Brasil

* Sujeito à conclusão das negociações do contrato com a Formula One Management. Se estas não forem completas, o GP da Turquia passará a 6 de Junho.

Nota: A corrida da Austrália começará às 17h00 locais; na Malásia às 16h00 locais; em Singapura às 20h00 locais; e em Abu Dhabi às 17h00 locais.

fonte: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78775

The Wonderful World Of Not Being Anonymous

Come get me Johnny. Me and all of my $60,000 annual salary:

Mr. Adrian Raphael Alexander MacNair
Vancouver, British Columbia

Dear Mr. MacNair:

We are the solicitors for Dr. John Baglow, who has instructed us to commence proceedings against you pursuant to the Libel and Slander Act of Ontario in respect of comments you posted about him on your public weblog site named Unambiguously Ambidextrous on September 1st, 2009. In order to facilitate matters and save unnecessary legal costs, we are requesting that you provide us with an address for service so we may serve you with his Notice of Libel as provided for the Act. We trust you will agree it is to the benefit of all parties to facilitate the orderly and cooperative compliance with procedural requirements. Should you not provided us with an address for service, we shall engage the services of a professional to locate you or obtain other appropriate relief from the Court. In either case, Dr Baglow will be looking to you to recover the costs involved as part of his claim.

We look forward to hearing from you by return e-mail or fax shortly.

Yours truly

Richard P. Bowles
Jones, Horwitz, Bowles, Burnet, Associates
Barristers & Solicitors
584 Somerset Street West
Ottawa, ON K1R 5K2
Ph. (613) 238-5074 Ext. 224
Fax (613) 230-3250

воскресенье, 20 сентября 2009 г.

Canada More Open to Same-Sex Marriage than U.S., UK

Canadians are generally more tolerant to the idea of same-sex marriages than Americans and Britons, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 61 per cent of Canadians say couples of the same gender should continue to be allowed to legally marry in their country.

In contrast, only 33 per cent of Americans and 41 per cent of Britons say that same-sex marriage should be made legal in their respective countries. 36 per cent of respondents in the United States say that such couples should not be granted any type of legal recognition, and 18 per cent of Britons agree.

Same-sex marriage is currently legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway and Sweden. At least 20 countries offer some form of legal recognition to same-sex unions.

In the U.S., same-sex marriages are currently legal in six states.

On Sept. 15, a group of Democrat lawmakers in the House of Representatives introduced a bill seeking to overturn a federal law denying recognition of gay marriage and giving states the right to deny recognition to same-sex marriages performed in other states.

Jane Harman, a Democrat representative from California, said that, “This bill is yet another chapter in the nation’s ongoing quest to live up to the ideals of equality and freedom embodies in the Constitution. (…) Fairness, tolerance, and social justice are principles that we must practice as well as preach.”

Polling Data

Canada

Which of these statements comes closer to your own point of view on the legal recognition of same-sex couples in Canada?

Same-sex couples should continue to be allowed to legally marry 61% Same-sex couples should be allowed to form civil unions, but not marry 23% Same-sex couples should not have any kind of legal recognition 11% Not sure 4%

United States

Which of these statements comes closer to your own point of view on the legal recognition of same-sex couples in the United States?

Same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry 33% Same-sex couples should be allowed to form civil unions, but not marry 25% Same-sex couples should not have any kind of legal recognition 36% Not sure 5%

Britain

Which of these statements comes closer to your own point of view on the legal recognition of same-sex couples in the UK?

Same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry 41% Same-sex couples should be allowed to form civil partnerships, but not marry 37% Same-sex couples should not have any kind of legal recognition 18% Not sure 5%

Source: Angus Reid Strategies

Methodology: Online interviews with 1,006 Canadian adults, 1,007 American adults, and 2,001 British adults, conducted from Aug. 27 to Aug. 30, 2009. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent in Canada and the United States, and 2.2 per cent for Britain.

I recently read articles in Canadian Newspapers stating that Jamaica was not exactly a most welcoming place for gay men either. I wonder if there are any readers from Jamaica who would care to comment.

LINCOLN SAYS UNCOOL pre-ripped clothes

Tad’s school recently invited me to come in and give a speech to the student body about the values of honesty. Mary Todd, who had just finished watching a segment of Dr. Phil about how married couples should try spending absolutely all of their time together, read this personal invitation over my shoulder, as she often does, and insisted that she come along as well. Even though she isn’t known as Honest Mary Todd and if I could be quite honest Abe about it, probably wasn’t going to add much to the presentation, I allowed her to accompany me to Tad’s school.

She then rolled around on the floor and sang “Rocket Man” in a continuous loop for forty-five minutes because, if I could be honest Abe about it again, Mary Todd is crazy.

Perhaps this is what she was envisioning?

Because we were going to be giving a presentation to a group of Tad’s classmates, Mary Todd felt she needed to appear as cool as possible in order to impress our son. After much internal deliberation, she decided that wearing pre-ripped clothes would be the coolest thing she could do.

Mary Todd- “Pre-ripped clothes are what all the kids are into now, right?”

Myself-  “No. Don’t do it.”

Mary Todd- “Oh you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Then Mary Todd jumped through the window yelling “No whammies!” and landed in the deep end of our neighbor’s swimming pool. I would have been worried, but this is pretty routine for her.

Also pretty routine for Mary Todd

We arrived at Tad’s school a few weeks later so that I could give my presentation on honesty. I wore my “casual but formal” attire (button up with the sleeves rolled up, black pants, and a tie without the top button buttoned) and Mary Todd, not having changed her mind, wore jeans and a tank top that were both severely previously ripped.

The way the stage was set up, I gave my speech standing near the front while Mary Todd worked the slide projector (Powerpoint wasn’t invented until the Spring of 2006. Computers weren’t even invented until the Fall of 2006!) standing behind me. As I get deeply emotionally invested into my speeches, and this speech to a congregation of my son’s school mates was no exception, I knew there would be no way for me to keep an eye on Mary Todd during the presentation. Although this worried me as she has a history with these sorts of things,* I realized there would be no other option at this point and therefore began the presentation.

The speech seemed to go pretty well. I believe I hammered the points to metaphorical home that I wished to be hammered to metaphorical home. Such as a list of de-untruthed, untrue facts that people have not been honest in perpetrating about me. Such as;

-I was not born in a log cabin. This was a lie created by the government to help the Canadians sell more maple syrup. The reasons for this are unknown, but I have my theory.**

-I am not freakishly tall. I am more of an above-average, or, attractive height.

-My beard wasn’t really that long.

When I had finally uttered the last words of my carefully crafted speech, I became aware of my surroundings and looked across the audience. Instead of the captivation or at least the mild interest I was hoping for, it appeared that most of the audience was either rolling in fits of laughter or holding a look of utter shock and disgust. Although, looking back I truly wish that this response was directed towards me, the general direction of the group’s attention seemed to be behind me, focused on Mary Todd.

The pre-ripped clothes that Mary Todd had come in were almost completely gone, with only a few threads still clinging to her body. The already and purposely un-seamed threads had unraveled throughout the show all by themselves, and now Mary Todd stood practically in the nude under glaring lights in front of an audience of our son’s classmates.

And so, knowing that we had greatly embarrassed our son, we shamefully walked off the stage while burying our heads (in shame!) and drove home in silence.

Later that night, I asked Mary Todd why she hadn’t just left the stage when she felt the clothes unraveling.

Mary Todd- “I wanted to be cool like Janice Jackson.”

Myself- “Janet Jackson. And that incident was a long time ago.”

Mary Todd- “Oh.”

And then we fell asleep.

For unraveling off of my wife’s body while she was spotlighted on a stage in front of my son’s classmates…

Apparently the FCC is reopening this case of exposed human anatomy, even though it was five years ago and hardly a deal at the time. Why don't they pursue the most worst television crime of television that is The Jay Leno Show, instead?

pre-ripped clothes are so uncool.

*

Mary Todd gave me a fiery surprise during my Oscar acceptance speech for the newly created category of "Most Enthused About Top Hats"

**Gerald Ford, the President who started this lie, was really a cat and was promised a large sum of money by Canada to create this myth about me. I suppose the theory that Gerald Ford was a cat is not grounded in anything and does not relate to why Canada would offer him a large sum of money, as a human would be more likely to be tempted by this offer, but, quoting Thomas Jefferson, “I would never tell a lie involving a Cat President.”

суббота, 19 сентября 2009 г.

More Canadian Flying

Enroute

Sorry about not posting for a while. I haven’t had a whole lot of time for flight simulation recently.

I flew another flight for my Canadian tour on Tuesday earlier this week. It was a very short, 18-nm flight from Ottowa, ON to Carp, ON. I flew it offline. It took .4 hours and was flown completely in the dark.

Today, I flew the next leg of the tour, continuing on from Carp to Toronto. I flew this flight on VATSIM. It was a 178-nm flight and took 1.9 hours. I did have ATC for arrival into Toronto.

Toronto

I enjoyed the flight a lot and I am hoping that I will be able to get back into flying on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I frequently don’ t have time to fly on weekdays because of school and other activities.

I don’t want to let this blog die though, so keep checking back for new posts.

GTA real estate market definitely back to normal

After the turbulent times on our housing market in June and July, things have calmed down a little. This is the brief summary of the August Toronto real estate board report. All the numbers confirm that the situation has stabilized and is much better than in the comparable period of last year.

Of course, there have been more positive economic news lately, and according to Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis, the healthy development on the real estate market has played a key role, as home buyers spent their money also in other sectors, such as financial and legal services, moving, renovations or furniture. More details and statistics are to be found on our main website (article GTA real estate lessens the pace (a little!)).

пятница, 18 сентября 2009 г.

Nova Scotia - Events & Activities September 2009 - Part 3

Events Sept 18th to Sept 25th 2009

Upcoming Events

Fall Fungi Foray, Chanterelle Inn Sept 18th to 20th, http://www.nsmushrooms.org/

Gaelic Film Festival Oct 2nd to Oct 4th Gaelic Singers Hall, info@feisfhiolmaicheannareul-iuil.com

Cabot Trail Writers Festival Oct 2nd to Oct 4th, North River http://cabottrailwritersfestival.com/

Celtic Colours International Oct 9-17thhttp://www.celtic-colours.com/

5th Annual Tourism Solutions for the Cabot Trail, Inverary Resort, Oct. 28th, Wine and food pairing education seminar cost ~$30 per person, Oct 29th Conference Cost $50 per person contact cabottrail.tourism@ns.sympatico.ca for more info….Registration will begin on Monday!

Top of the Island

Whale watching is still happening daily in Bay St. Lawrence contact Oshan at 383-2883, Capt. Cox’s 383-2981

Sun. Sept. 20th 1-4 pm Farm Day at South Harbour Farm, follow the straw bale signs….and tour the  three tiers of organic fruit, veggies and flowers, lots of kids activities

Celtic Colours Concert at the Octagon October 14th Travelling Tunes

North Highlands Community Centre and Culture Centre

Wed Sept 16thNorth Victoria Harbour Authority w/ Osbourne Burke of Tri Nav North Highlands Culture Centre Cape North

Wed. Sept 23rd Fur Harvesting in the Highlands Merrill MacInnis Historian

Sun. Sept 27th Youth Concert at the Culture Centre, 7:30pm

Sun. Oct 4th Erin Costelo in concert at the culture centre! Tickets available  at Museum or calling 383-2579

Ingonish & Area

Cape Breton Highlands National Park Visitor Centres, new hours 9 am to 5 pm….starting Sept. 19th

Hike the Highlands Hikes, Register on Line or at Trailhead www.hikethehighlandsfestival.com

Sat. Sept.19 10:00 am. Guided Wilderness Adventures , 10:00 am. Clyburn Valley

Sept 17th -18th Keltic Lodge Resort & Spa (285-2880 x 3279) Live Music with Derek & Melody Highland Sitting room 6-10

Sept 17th -19th Thirsty Hiker Pub (285-2049) Live Music Cyril  MacPhee 9 pm to 1 am

Fri Sept 18th Coastal Waters Restaurant & Pub (285-2526) Open mic w/ Jason & Deron Larry MacAskill, 9:30pm – 2:00am

Sept 19th-20th Keltic Lodge (285-2880 x 3279) Jerome Campbell Highland Sitting Room 6-10

Sept 20th Thirsty Hiker Pub (285-2049) Live Music Cindy & Shelley Allen 9 pm to 1 am

Sept 21stThirsty Hiker Pub (285-2049) Live Music Darell Keigen 9 pm to 1 am

Sept 22nd- 24thThirsty Hiker Pub (285-2049) Live Music Darell Keigen 9 pm to 1 am

Sept 21st – 24thKeltic Lodge (285-2880 x 3279) Buddy MacDonald Highland Sitting Room 6-10

Sept 25th Keltic Lodge (285-2880 x 3279) Buddy MacDonald and Duncan Wells

Sept 25th- 27th Thirsty Hiker Pub (285-2049) Live Music Jerome Campbell 9 pm to 1 am

Sept 26th – 28thKeltic Lodge (285-2880 x 3279) Robbie MacLean Highland Sitting Room 6-10

Sept 28th Thirsty Hiker Pub (285-2049) Live Music w/ Jason MacDonald 9 pm to 1 am

“Shirley Valentine” Theatre on the Hill Box Office. (902-285-1018) Thank you for your Support!

St. Ann’s Bay Area

Hike the Highlands Registration on line or at trailhead www.hikethehighlandsfestival.com

Sun. Sept.20 9:00am. North River Big Falls , 10:00am. Red Island.

Sept 18th to ? daily -9am -7pm Glass Artisans Studio and Gallery, 929-2585 Curtis will demonstrate glass blowing.

Gaelic College 295-3411  Festival Club 11 pm -3 am, Oct 9-17th Celtic Colours International

Sept 18th to 20th Fall Fungi Foray, Chanterelle Inn, http://www.nsmushrooms.org/

Oct 2nd to Oct 4th Gaelic Film Festival Gaelic Singers Hall, info@feisfhiolmaicheannareul-iuil.com

Oct 2nd to Oct 4th Cabot Trail Writers Festival, North River http://cabottrailwritersfestival.com/

Oct 9-17th Celtic Colours International http://www.celtic-colours.com/

Saturdays St. Ann’s Bay Farmer’s Market Every Saturday morning, 9-12, phone orders N River Organics 929-2955

Baddeck & Area Visitor Information Centre 295-1911

Sept  19th,23, 24,26,28, Oct 1, 3, 5, 8,10, 14,16,17 6-8pm Telegraph House Dining room (295-1100) Karen & Joey Beaton

Sept 20th , 27th, Oct 2nd, 7th6pm-8pm Telegraph House Dining room (295-1100) Jason Kempt

Nightly Entertainment, Thistledown Pub, Inverary (295-3500) Live Entertainment 9pm.

Nightly Entertainment Silver Dart Lodge in McCurdy Dining Room (295-2340) Live Entertainment 5:30-8:30pm

Nightly Entertainment at the Lynwood Inn (295-1995), w/ Warren MacIntyre

Baddeck Gatherings Ceilidhs Every evening St. Michael’s Parish Hall restarting Sept. 6th For line up visit www.baddeckgathering.com/schedule.html

Sept 19th, Harvest Home Celebration on the grounds of Beinn Bhreagh Hall, 10 am and 1:30 pm activities include Air Cadet Band, a Razzmatazz concert, gigantic bubble making, tickets available at Alexander Graham Bell Museum on 1st come 1st serve basis 902-295-2069

Baddeck Forks Golf Club-Ladies day every Wednesday 12:30 -3:00 pm. -Men’s day every Tuesday 9am open to the public/special rates on these times.

Bell Bay Golf Club, Fall Golf Scramble, Sat. Sept 26th, Deadline for Registration Sept 11th, 295-3396 for more detail.

“A Mad Hatter’s Tea Party with Garden Croquet” and “An Alice in Wonderland Feast”, on Sunday, September 20th. The tea party will run from 3-5 pm and the feast will commence at our usual time of 7pm.  You are welcome to attend one or the other or, for the gastro-intrepid, both.  The tea party will feature crumpets, cakes, chocolate truffles, flower sandwiches, homemade marshmallows, tea, lemonade, and a few other surprises, as well as The Queen of Hearts garden croquet (weather permitting).  Adults $15/ Children 12 and under $7.50/ Family $40.  The feast will be six courses that follow Alice’s adventures.  Monetary contributions of your own discretion. RSVP for both events by Friday, September 17th. Dancing River Sprite 295-2831

Margaree & Area  Visitor Information Centre 248-2803

Sept 20th, Duck Dove Inn Breakfast Brunch Buffet (235-2658) 8:30 am to 1 pm

The Barn at the Normaway (248-2068) Music & Dining Nightly until October 18th

Fri Sept 18thThe Barn at the Normaway (248-2068) Brenda Stubbert, Leanne Aucoin, & Megan Burke

Sat Sept 19thThe Barn at the Normaway (248-2068) Singer Song-Writer Andrew White

Fri Sept 25thThe Barn at the Normaway (248-2068) Carl MacKenzie, Anita MacDonald, Mary E. MacInnis

Sat. Sept 26thThe Barn at the Normaway (248-2068) JP Cormier & Hilda Chiasson

Island Sunset Restaurant fall hours 4 pm to 9 pm effective Aug 31stserving supper only

The Acadian Region Visitor Information Centre 224-2612

Whale watching is still happening in Cheticamp, they saw fin whales and humpbacks in the last few weeks.

Cape Breton Highlands National Park Visitor Centres, new hours 9 am to 5 pm….starting Sept. 19th

Fri Sept 18th, Le Gabriel Lounge (224-3685), Acadian Music Sylvia LeLievre & Gervais Cormier 7-9pm

Fri. Sept 18th Doryman Beverage Room (224-9909), Fiddle music 2-6 pm w/ Wendy MacIsaac, 9-1 The Band “Drafted”

Sat Sept 19th Le Gabriel Lounge (224-3685), Bandit 10pm to 2am

Sun. Sept 20th Le Gabriel Lounge (224-3685), Acadian Music Sylvia LeLievre & Gervais Cormier 7-9pm

Wed Sept 23rd, Le Gabriel Lounge (224-3685), Acadian Music Sylvia LeLievre & Gervais Cormier 7-9pm

Thurs. Sept 24th Doryman Beverage Room (224-9909), Talent Night with Maurice Poirier and Friends 9:30pm-1am

Fri. Sept 25th, Le Gabriel Lounge (224-3685), Benefit Dance with Local Talent

Sun. Sept 26rd, Le Gabriel Lounge (224-3685), Acadian Music Sylvia LeLievre & Gervais Cormier 7-9pm

Upcoming, Giant Pool Tournament at Le Gabriel, Sat. Sept 26th 1 pm

Tuesdays Kinsmen Club, Acadian Amateur Music Circle, everyone welcome 7 pm

Farmer’s Market Every Saturday Morning 10-2 pm at Quai Mathieu Boardwalk

Le Portage (224-3338) – Every Monday Ladies Night 4-6pm, Tuesday Men’s Night 12-6, Friday Couples night 4-6pm

Pleasant Bay

Whale Watching Daily, Whale Interpretive Centre 224-1411 open until at least October 15th… they have seen humpbacks in the last couple of weeks!!!!

Hike the Highlands Hikes in Pleasant Bay, Register on line or at Trailhead www.hikethehighlandsfestival.com

A thank you to volunteer guiding services!

Cape Breton Highlands National Park

Cape Breton Highlands National Park, (224-2306) enjoy Hike the Highlands! (new hours Sept 19th for VIC 9-5 pm)

Top of the Island

Whale watching is still happening daily in Bay St. Lawrence contact Oshan at 383-2883, Capt. Cox’s 383-2981

Celtic Colours Concert at the Octagon October 14th Travelling Tunes

Wed Sept 16thNorth Victoria Harbour Authority w/ Osbourne Burke of Tri Nav North Highlands Culture Centre Cape North

Wed. Sept 23 Fur Harvesting in the Highlands Merrill MacInnis Historian

Hike the Highlands Hikes, Register on Line or at Trailhead www.hikethehighlandsfestival.com

As special thank you to the volunteer guides at this years hikes

Hike the Highlands Festival Sept 11th to 20thwww.hikethehighlandsfestival.com

Off The Trail

Inverness County Centre for the Arts, Exhibits Sept 6th to 30th, Patricia Ellisor Gaines, Assemblages of Memory and Desire, Paintings, Outer Gallery

The Celtic Music Centre, Judique Lunchtime Ceilidhs 11:30am-1pm, until end of Celtic Colours

Pub Night, Fri. Sept 18th, featuring Jimmie Inch, 9:30 pm to 1 am $8.00

Sun. Sept 20th Celtic Music Centre Ceilidh 3-7 pm $7 Colin Grant and guest

Wed. Sept 23rd Ceilidhs Celtic Music Centre, Shelley Campbell 7-9 pm

Celtic Colours concerts, Oct. 15th Guitar Summit w/ J.P. Cormier, Jamie Gatti, Patrick Gillis, Clifford Carter

Oct. 18th 8 pm now on sale, Grand Finale J.P. Cormier, Howie MacDonald, Glenn Graham, Andrea Beaton +

Sat. Sept 12thWest Mabou Hall Square Dance Mike Hall and Friends, 10pm-1pm

Red Shoe Pub, Mabou (902-945-2996) Daily Live Cape Breton Entertainment

Sun. Sept 20th Inverness Raceway, Sunday Racing  Post time 1:30 pm, Wed Sept 23rd 7 pm Racing

Body Bag Blues

First the federal government decides not to ship hand sanitizer to First Nation reserves to help protect members from H1N1 (you know, the ‘i got fucked by a pig flu’.

Next the feds ship BODY BAGS and throw in language like ‘if, maybe, not necessarily’ while they grapple to save face over a big bad move or mistake (or not, maybe, if, not necessarily) .

Why did this take place in Manitoba?  Could it be revenge for the  chiefs who gave the o.k. to blockade the railroad a few years ago in  protest of Canada (read Stephen Harper) failing to honour the Kelowna Accord.

No wonder the federal government’s apology for the body bags was not accepted.  Ottawa is numb.  Ottawa, get stuffed!

четверг, 17 сентября 2009 г.

Drug czar slams Canadian government as he exits to 'next adventure'

The author of Vancouver’s ground-breaking Four Pillars drug strategy criticized the federal government’s “utterly failed” approach to drug use in his resignation notice this week.

Donald MacPherson said in an e-mail Tuesday to city staff: “[T]he approach to the drug problem that we have in Canada . . . [a] war-on-drugs approach has utterly failed over the past 40 years and must come to an end.

“The emperor truly has no clothes in this case,” said his e-mail.

“People who use drugs should not be criminalized, especially those that develop addictions and/or have mental-health problems or are vulnerable in some other way.” MacPherson said he was resigning after 12 years as the city’s drug-policy co-ordinator — the only municipal position of its kind in Canada — “for personal reasons.” “It is time for me to move on to the next adventure and to act on the strong desire to move beyond the municipal realm, build on what we have achieved here in Vancouver and work for policy change at the provincial, national and international level in the area of drug policy,” he wrote.

MacPherson blamed the criminalization of drugs for social ills and associated problems.

“Much of what plays out on the streets of Vancouver in the never-sleeping drug market — the selling, the using, the killing, the infections, the dying and the property crime — is a direct result of the criminalization of drugs,” said the e-mail.

“The nonsensical and seemingly never-ending struggle to keep a small program like Insite open for a population of seriously marginalized and at-risk injection drug users is another example of the counterproductive consequences of bad public policy at the federal level.” Four Pillars was struck as a comprehensive approach to reducing drug-overdose deaths and HIV infection caused by illegal drugs. It combines prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction.

The approach has involved much debate. Insite, Vancouver’s safe-injection site, has drawn particular heat. It operates under an exemption from federal drug laws from Health Canada, but has received little support from the ruling minority Conservative government.

Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang said MacPherson’s Four Pillars approach will remain central to Vancouver’s housing and social programs.

Jang said council has yet to decide whether to replace MacPherson. His resignation takes effect Oct. 2.

aivens@theprovince.com

Health care, schmealth care!

I hope I’m not showing my partisanship too much when I say I find it harder to complain about politics since Barack Obama has become president. He’s been in office three months short of a year if you can believe that. The BBC America homepage informed me it’s already been a year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. This is one of the many things that got us into the economic mess we’re in now. It arguably propelled Obama to the presidency.

Turning on any news program this summer seemed to lead to one of two things. Democrats hailing the president and Republicans demonizing him. Thank your respective gods for the return of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report after a three week hiatus. Yes, I am a journalism student and my favorite news anchors are comedians. The real anchors have become nothing but jokes.

We have a president who constantly speaks of bipartisanship, so why is it every so called respected person in politics is choosing sides like cliques in a high school lunch room? It’s like watching Revenge of the Nerds or one of the terrible sequels.

Obama’s health care address to congress was a great example of this behavior. The Republican’s, or as I like to call them; the Stubborn Party just sat there looking mean while the Dem.’s sprung up like whack-a-moles every time the president opened his mouth. America is built on dissenting opinions but come on; Obama even got John McCain to smile during the address. Let the record show McCain has the smile of an elderly, pedophile, jack-o-lantern but it was a sincere one.

How is it the Republican’s have become so good at the things they used to hate the Democrats for doing? No one ever yelled ‘You lie,’ during a George W. Bush address, except for me of coarse. I mean old George practically had ‘I’m a liar’ tattooed on his forehead. In 2007 Rep. Wilson’s outburst would’ve been called treason by Sean Hannity.

They’re even better at protesting then the Dem.’s were! Or they are at least as good at it; holding up signs of Obama portrayed as Hitler as Bush was previously. If it feels like I’m repeating myself here it’s because I said the same things when I wrote about Obama’s first 100 days in office four months ago. Basically mass political polarization is getting us nowhere slow. The real truth is if you ask everyday citizens for their views they are not nearly as extreme.

Our political representatives are setting a bad example for our country and portraying a less then admirable image to our peers across the globe. They are behaving like children.

There is nothing Obama can do to please the right. It’s amazing how the same people who admonished dissent for Bush on 9/12 are so quick to adopt what have been deemed liberal practices for so long. Great job Republicans, you’ve become everything you hated for so long.

Now as a journalism student I’ve been working hard to look at both sides of these things. The Democrats have also become everything they’ve hated for so long, the president’s patsies. Obama is like every Dem.’s cool black friend.

Everybody needs to grow up! Of coarse race is a factor in this political environment. Former Prez. Jimmy Carter knows this saying, “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.” It’s amazing how Obama dodges questions of his race whenever they come up. It’s a shame Carter is being admonished for his remarks.

To believe racism doesn’t play a role is just plain ignorant. I’m not calling the Republican Party racist, don’t get it twisted. I mean the party chairman is Michael Steele after all. But try telling the African-Americans whom were viciously beaten by white McCain supporters after the election results were broadcast that racism isn’t an issue.

Alright, let’s switch gears. No one else will tackle the race factor and I’m not about to be the one to do it. How about the hot topic crises of the day; healthcare?

I’m so glad Obama held the address and outright debunked pretty much all of the lies being passed around by the right. There has yet to be a perfect answer to this problem but Obama has offered a plausible solution.

In this debate there is also a need for collaboration amongst our congressmen. Obama is correct when he says we are the only one of our peers who does not practice national health care. It has worked arguably well in other countries.

Canada for example has what’s called a two tier system similar to the one Obama has in mind. Some people have private insurance and the rest have public health care. The two ends compete and those with private insurance receive arguably better care. However, everyone is still covered. One would argue this would be a step in the right direction. Of coarse it is truly hard to compare the U.S. and Canada if you factor in the population difference.

The Obama bill may not be flawless but congress is not being helpful. Our congressmen are allowing their party lines to define them more than the people they represent. The way things are going nothing will be solved.

среда, 16 сентября 2009 г.

Greve dos Correios. Logo agora?!

Até tu, Brutus!? Vi hoje cedo, no Bom Dia Brasil, que os mais de 116 mil funcionários dos Correios entraram em greve à partir das 22h de ontem. Putz, já estava na caça ao carteiro na esperança dos nossos pedidos médicos chegarem logo. Mas agora…

Como dependo dos serviços prestados pelos Correios para meus negócios, as notícias são ainda piores. Agora é torcer pra que os 26 mil carteiros não demorem tanto a voltar ao trabalho como na última greve, em 2008, que durou quase um mês.

Santa paciência, Bátima. Pra quem quiser saber mais, leia o artigo da Folha sobre o assunto.

Suspected Alberta Election Act violation by Mr. Paul Hinman in the Sept. 14th Calgary-Glenmore by-election

Sept 15th, 2009

Subject: Suspected Alberta Election Act violation by Mr. Paul Hinman in the Sept. 14th Calgary-Glenmore by-election

To: Mr. Drew Westwater

Director, Election Operations and Communications, Elections Alberta

cc: Ms. Lori McKee-Jeske, Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Alberta

cc: Mr. Marc Mayrand, Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

I am a Calgarian living in the electoral district of Calgary-Glenmore and I, like many other Calgarians, cast my vote in the Sept. 14th by-election in Calgary-Glenmore.

I have never doubted Elections Alberta’s ability to administer open, fair, and impartial elections until yesterday.

I was honestly shocked when I saw Mr. Paul Hinman and his agents actively campaigning and greeting voters at two different polling stations in possible violations of Alberta Election Act (section 135), after being warned it is illegal the first time.

Here are links to two videos I recorded of Mr. Hinman campaigning at polling stations in Calgary-Glenmore,

1) Mr. Paul Hinman campaigning at Nellie McClung Elementary School polling station at around 2:43pm (greeting and shaking voters hands).

2) Mr. Paull Hinman campaigning at Louis Riel School polling station at around 6:28pm.

While Mr. Hinman was campaigning at Nellie McClung Elementary School, I’ve been informed that Mr. Hinman was told by Elections Alberta officials that campaigning at polling stations were not allowed and Mr. Hinman left as a result.

The surprising thing to me was that Mr. Hinman was later found campaigning *again* at a different polling station, this time at Louis Riel School polling station at around 6:28pm, with another of his agent.

It lead me to question if political candidates and their agents in Alberta are actually above the law? Or if the Alberta Election Act is simply a powerless piece of “decorative paper” that candidates can totally disregard without any meaningful consequence or punishment?

May I know what is the penalty for breaking election law like what I suspect Mr. Hinman might have done yesterday? If there is a fine or punishment, is it meaningful enough that offenders cannot simply take it as “cost of election“? Small enough that some illegal street racers can treat the few hundred dollars fine in speeding tickets as a “cost of city street racing“?

The irony is that Mr. Hinman is now MLA-elect for Calgary-Glenmore and is joining a legislative body that is supposed to draft and update laws! Including laws like the Election Act which he and his agents seemed to have willfully broken.

I have copied Ms. Lori McKee-Jeske, Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Alberta and Mr. Marc Mayrand, Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada for their information and in hope their collective wisdom may assist in this matter.

Please kindly acknowledge and confirm receipt of this official complain to Elections Alberta.

And I look forward to hearing form you and reading the investigation report of the suspected Election Act violations by Mr. Hinman.

Please also kindly advise what will the appeal process be if I find I am unable to agree with Elections Alberta’s investigation report and/or decision.

Best Regards,

Kempton Lam

Calgary-Glenmore

P.S. Mr. Westwater, I am cautiously optimistic after reading what you said to Calgary Herald, Sept 14,

“You cannot talk to electors at the poll in any circumstance, whether they’re lined up inside or outside the school or wherever it is located,” Westwater said, adding that campaigning is also not allowed at entranceways or parking lots outside polling stations.

I will reserve my judgement until I read Elections Alberta’s official investigation report and decision.

P.P.S. The content of this post has been sent to the three recipients as an email and posted here as an open letter for the record.

вторник, 15 сентября 2009 г.

Grandpa Charlie's Medal

Distinguished Flying Cross

Trudging down Lynwood Lane on my way home from school one afternoon, something caught my eye.  Had I been engrossed, as usual, with watching for robins stalking worms I might have missed it.

 But this time, my attention turned to a curbside box.  Left out for the trash collectors, it sat, sagging slightly, its marker-scrawled side hinting at the contents within.

  My steps slowed as I approached, watchful for curious neighbors peering out their windows.  Sidling up to the box, I read, “Grandpa Charlie’s war stuff BASEMENT.”  The lid askew, likely from a gust of wind or perhaps a frustrated raccoon, I could see something twinkling inside.

  I stood there, a force drawing me to this nondescript container of old stuff.  Looking around again for anybody noticing, I finally ventured one hand into the box. 

 Grasping something metallic I quickly snatched my hand back to my pocket and ran home in the growing rain.

 I barely remembered to hang my raincoat on the hallway hook and shake my boots onto the mat as, with heart pounding, I darted upstairs to the safety of my room.  Shouting a greeting to my mother, I clambered up my bunk bed ladder to my bed.  I took a deep breath and unclenched my hand, revealing my booty.

 What dropped onto my pink floral bed sheet was the first icon of what was to become a lifetime of scavenging.  It was a World War II medal. 

 With its violet and white striped ribbon slightly tattered and pin bent, it was not much really to look at. Yet it held my attention for a long time as I read and re-read the letters, “RAF.”  The engraved date of 1942 on the back had been almost rubbed away, along with the recipient’s full name.  Stapled to the corner clung a tattered piece of paper reading, “Charlie’s medal.”

 Charlie.  So he must be the original owner of “Grandpa Charlie’s war stuff BASEMENT.”  I wondered about that for a long time, so long in fact that my mother had to send my brother in to see if I was napping and had not heard her call to come down for dinner.

 “Whatchoo got?” demanded my four-year-old brother, Jason, his grubby hands clutching a Hot Wheel.

 I stuffed the medal under my pillow.  “Nothing, just my pillow,” I replied.

 When I climbed down from the upper bunk my life had changed forever. 

 For the next few weeks I studied the medal, now carefully hidden behind a book in my room.  I’d sit up late at night turning it over and over in my hands, feeling the raised letters, sliding my fingers over the ribbon’s fibers, and occasionally poking myself with the bent pin.  I dared not show the medal to my family, preferring instead to keep it secret. 

(It wasn’t until years later that I discovered this was a Distinguished Flying Cross, an award given to officers for acts of valor, courage or devotion to duty done when flying in operations against the enemy. )  Apparently Grandpa Charlie had been a war hero.

I returned to the site of my discovery, often dawdling on the way to school, but the now-empty curb revealed no further trinkets.  Too shy to knock on the door, I’d linger on my rounds to and from Courcellete School, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever chose to discard such a treasure. 

 I wondered if it had been new homeowners who had found this box of war memorabilia and simply opted to toss it out rather than examine its contents.  Or had Grandpa recently passed away and holding onto his possessions had become painful to the family?  No further deposits of anything more interesting than a broken lampshade made it to the curb, yet each trip past the house always drew my gaze up the long driveway to the curtained windows.  I had so many unanswered questions, and dreams brought my imagination to a time of war and bravery, fear, and relief. 

 That following Remembrance Day, along with many other Canadians, I proudly wore my poppy.  I sat in the assembly at school, listening to our principal, Mr. Moult, reminding us to never forget the sacrifices our fathers, uncles, and grandfathers had made.  I committed to memory the poem by John McCrae, In Flanders Fields. 

 Pinned proudly next to my poppy shone Grandpa Charlie’s Distinguished Flying Cross.

 From: Second Hand Roses: Lessons From the Junktiquing Road, copyright 2009 Dawn Edwards

Guess who's coming back to Kombat....Kru Mehdi

Hi Kombat,

It is my pleasure to announce the return of a dear friend of The Kombat Arts Training Academy, The Kru of our Kru, World Muay Thai Champion … Kru Mehdi Pouroskoui!!!

Mehdi will be in town from September 27 to October 2, helping prepare our athletes for International Competition.  The best part is he will be doing private lessons and you can split the hourly cost with two or more of your training partners.  So if you are interested, please email Sifu Joey at info@kombatarts.com

Marc Mendoza and i split a private last time he came and it was very helpful!

понедельник, 14 сентября 2009 г.

Vancouver

Hoy para tenemos todo el dia para ver los alredores de Vancouver, empezamos por intentar llegar a Capilano Bridge que practicamente se ve desde el hotel en una montaña al norte de la ciudad, pero me paso de listillo e intento ir sin GPS y sin mirar demasiado el mapa, conclusión, terminamos saliendo por el sur y dando una vuelta por Kitsilano. Susana me convence amablemente y con el GPS llegamos finalmente al parque.

No esta mal, el puente es una pasada y el paseo por la parte alta de los arboles es como estar en el retorno del Jedi pero sin jubilados ya que todo esta muy bien adaptado. Lo malo es la visita solo nos dura unos 45 min ¿? se hace muy corto.

Los arboles son enormes:

El siguiente sitio a visitar es Groose Mountain que es como un pequeño parque de atracciones en el que extrañamente tenemos que pagar por aparcar ( en Capilano no lo hicimos pero ya teníamos sospechas ). Hay muchas actividades: restaurante, tienda, oso, espectáculo de leñadores, tirolina, parapente:

Queriamos dar una caminata hasta un mirador cercano pero al salir de las pistas hay un cuaderno para que te apuntes antes de iniciar la excursión, nos da respeto y decidimos subir al telesillas hasta la parte mas alta y listo. Eso si, las vistas sobre la ciudad son impresionantes:

Lo mismo sobre las montañas nevadas al fondo ( creo que es el mnt Baker )

Como hemos terminado antes de lo previsto tiramos de mapa ( esta vez si ) y vemos que hay una carretera que se llama Sea to Sky hwy, que buen marketing , decidimos hacer algunos kilometros y llegamos a Squamish. Aqui compramos algo para comer y nos vamos a la “playa” que resulta ser un aserradero y un puerto de mercancias. Al menos comemos tranquilos y la carretera esta bonita ( aunque la están arreglando para las olimpiadas de 2010 ).

Volvemos a Vancouver para dar un paseo por Stanley Park.

El parque nos gusta mucho, hay muy buen ambiente, playa ….

"Forty kilometres from nowhere and way beyond normal"

I got my first glimpse of this wonderful tv show when Chicago’s own, WGN, aired it following Scrubs every night (which is my all time favorite show). Of course, now WGN pulled it and replaced it with a televised version of the most horrible radio talk show ever.

I think Corner Gas still airs on WGN but not sure when. Corner Gas is a Canadian sitcom that normally air’s on CTV. It was created by Brent Butt who also is the main character and owns the gas station in the show. The show itself is set in a small fictitious Canadian town “Dog River”. I heard that in real life Brent is married to Nancy Robertson’s character “Wanda”. Wanda works as a helper at the gas station.

They just finished up shooting their 6th and final season.

Many people are quite sad to see this so end as am I. It’s pretty rare to see such a great wholesome show as this these days. You can check out their website Corner Gas for more info.

If you haven’t seen this show yet, I recommend checking it out online. Most all the episodes are on youtube believe it or not. I have found them posted in different channels in order of their seasons.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Just for the record, in my opinion Lacey is pretty damn hot and when Karen lets her hair down and is out of uniform, she is gorgeous too! Side note, Tara Spencer, who played Karen, can be seen naked in the movie Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy (2002).

The show was actually filmed in the town of Rouleau, Saskatchewan and the buildings the show was filmed at/in are still there sitting abandoned but without the Ruby and Corner Gas signs. The old grain elevator building still has the town name of Dog River on it though.

Corner Gas has the distinction of running for 107 episodes without a single major cast change, and all of the core cast members (i.e. those featured in the opening credits) appeared in every single episode.