tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57690400498227974392024-03-13T18:44:50.742-07:00Sister Sage's musingsMusings of current events,politics, pop culture & whatever else is on my mind of the dayCKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-47132616860591515202009-12-31T20:53:00.000-08:002009-12-31T20:53:10.212-08:00The Beatch is Back!<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yes, indeedy! The bitch is back. However, she now has a new home. She now resides at </span><br />
</div><div style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://sistersagesmusings.ca/">http://sistersagesmusings.ca/ </a></b></span><br />
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</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sister Sage's Musings is also sporting a new look. </span><br />
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</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I hope you will all continue to follow me there.</span><br />
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</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Happy New Year All! </span><br />
</div>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-66268690322690028182009-12-26T18:29:00.000-08:002009-12-26T18:29:54.902-08:00Getting There - Feel free to advise<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I had no idea how difficult it can be to upload a page to your own site if one is not that technically savvy. I had no idea how difficult it is to build a wordpress blog in your own domain. </span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Wordpress is installed, but nowhere near ready. I want to build my own theme from scratch in photoshop as I don't want to have another cookie cutter and end up with the same theme as bloggers I find excrutiatingly annnoying like Iceman. However, I'm somewhat discouraged after all the complications trying to install wordpress on my server. </span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have researched tutorials, but some argue one has to put all of this into Dreamweaver before putting it to wordpress. Plus, how to add the widgets afterwards (rss subscribe buttons, blogrolls, facebook and twitter links, etc. , etc.).<br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some suggested artisteer and am playing with the trial version, but up to date; not that impressed with it as I can't have the dimensions of my columns as I like, leaving lots of blank space on the sides. It all has the same layout types. I would have to purchase a version to be able to get full use out of it (there is a watermark and can't save with trial version). I'm not sure if it is worth buying. </span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Anyhow, back to the drawing board. Will post here when my show has moved once & for all.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Please, if anyone has advice, please leave it in the comments section to this post. <br />
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</div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oh, I hear Steve may prorogue again. Could he stay away for good this time? Or is that wishful thinking on my part?</span></span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-51620972306044634512009-12-24T04:08:00.000-08:002009-12-24T04:08:02.840-08:00Season's Greetings To All!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Forget poliical incorrectness or correctness. This is my standard greeting for all.</b><br />
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</div><div style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>I will be back sometime in January if all goes well. I will post then. </b><br />
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</div><div style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Had no idea how complicated it was to create your own blog. All that techie stuff. Learning as I go.</b><br />
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</div><div style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>I'm still smoke free. </b><br />
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</div><div style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>I wish all a Season's Greetings and all the best in 2010! </b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIKsIop0oHtMnJ0SfC1_iqv4IkDU0JptlgEW5dDylqxgYBqVT-BIJh75UL44uaoulGB4BihkzDEk2DB-mW3YMIoFIP0wN6RWorOzwSZQGYkpGROWIe5w0YXAG0VCGqwJC893DPLDJaic/s1600-h/x-mas2-copy.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIKsIop0oHtMnJ0SfC1_iqv4IkDU0JptlgEW5dDylqxgYBqVT-BIJh75UL44uaoulGB4BihkzDEk2DB-mW3YMIoFIP0wN6RWorOzwSZQGYkpGROWIe5w0YXAG0VCGqwJC893DPLDJaic/s640/x-mas2-copy.gif" /></a><br />
</div> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">The following video features "River" probably my favourite Christmas song as it is not cheesy like everything else contemporary music would have to offer during the holidays.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I like the song because unlike most of the usual cheesy fair, this song is a sad one, just like how Christmas really is. It represents how I feel this time every year: I too, want to skate or fly off somewhere or just get away from this holiday ambiance. <br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sara Mclaughlin would later sing a version of "River", but I prefer the Joni Mitchell version. I also like the slide show here. Enjoy!</span><br />
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</div><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GpFudDAYqxY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GpFudDAYqxY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-27712054258857281682009-12-09T19:25:00.000-08:002009-12-09T19:25:58.464-08:00A Short Hiatus from this Blog<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To Let the readers know I'm taking some time off. I'm hoping not too long, though. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps I will have a post here or there, but not as often, at least, for the next while.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First is, after over a month of having quit smoking, I'm really not me anymore. No creativity. No patience for research. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My job description changed along with a new schedule and it's somewhat tiring, particularly when not arriving home until way after 19;00 in a snowstorm.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to start making a dent in building my website; haven't even thought of a design yet; again, the creativity issue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Furthermore, my father is quite ill and thus, pretty much any project is on hold these days or at least, only short term commitments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope to be able to at least post something once a week; this will be my very short goal.</span><br />
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</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-26918233039124252592009-12-07T17:03:00.000-08:002009-12-07T17:03:50.186-08:00Time Flies When You're Having Fun...Or Not!<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">It is exactly a month ago today I quit smoking and I'm still around to tell the tale.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"> I have gained another 10lbs or so...so not good! I was already overweight to start off with. I certainly didn't need the added weight, now did I?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I have somehow managed to continue to keep my blog active, but with great difficulty. I find that creativity has wained off and so has my patience. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to design my own blog layout instead of being trapped on some site's cookie cutter. I used to love photoshop. Used to be soooo creative with it. Now I can't even come up with a design for it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I have, however, tapered off making fun of Romper Room. That's only because the Blogging Tories have become boring and predictable. They're all writing about the same fricken thing, it's uncanny: 'climategate', their now favourite subject. Even Dodo Can't Spell is starting to get boring.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Wouldn't all just love the irony if most try quitting New Year's Day as part of those New Year's Resolutions and I were to start again?? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Yah, still standing; still blogging such as it is...</span></span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-61372114522660368842009-12-06T19:52:00.000-08:002009-12-06T19:52:53.859-08:00Liberals Deja Vu: Will They Ever Learn?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was just scanning the Blogging Tories to see if anyone recently posted anything about the 20th anniversary of the Polytechnique massacre. They haven't. They're getting awfully predictable for the most part: most posting about their new favourite subject: Climate change, or as they like to call it: Climategate. However, I came across something different at </span><a href="http://unambig.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/bob-rae-for-leader-dare-to-dream-such-good-fortune/#comment-16789"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Unambiguously Ambidextrous</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. His posting not only caught my eye because it didn't discuss Climate change (climategate); but he discussed something that was questioned this morning on </span><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Question Period: </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where is Iggy? No one is really hearing from him these days but Bob Rae is certainly making quite a bit of noise these days. Oh this is disconcerting: can anyone say: "Deja-Vu"?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found the article that blogger refers to in the <span style="color: #990000;"><b><a href="http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/734749"><span style="color: #990000;">Toronto Star</span></a>. <span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Oh yes! This is Deja-Vu and it looks like Iggy is being pushed out the door and that he is pretty much alone in supporting the HST in Ontario and B.C.. Sound familiar? It should...it's exactly how the Liberals treated Stephane Dion. Dion had no support and then was kicked to the curb.</span></span></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's about time Iggy left. He pulled this shit with Dion; this would be Karma. Besides that and more importantly, he will never improve his numbers for the Liberals. He was never a suitable leader and certainly, not quite PM material. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stevie and Harpercon scandals, like checquegate/logogate and torturegate: Unpopular measures like the HST and their blatant lack of interest in the environment as well as failures like the unrolling of the H1N1 vaccine should not only have sent their numbers plummeting, but should have raised the Liberals' numbers. While the NDP made some gains, they certainly weren't significant enough to lower Harpercon numbers to well below majority territory. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Had the Liberals had a stronger, more suitable leader Harpercon numbers would most definitely have plummeted and the N.D.P. numbers would have remained more or less the same.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Angelo <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">Persichilli, the author of the above mentioned <i>Toronto Star</i> article even predicts that we will be hearing about Iggy resigning before the year is out. Already, Iggy has been incognito as of late. However, it seems that yet again, the Liberals are going to select another former runner up of 2006, simply because he's there. Although, to hear some party members tell it, <a href="http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/734749"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>they seem to honestly believe Rae is the only one they can trust in that party</b></span></a>. Oh boy, this is not going to turn out well for them; in fact, it would be suicide. No, they should take the time to find someone suitable; someone who can beat actually beat Stevie but actually get a majority; with or without the popularity of the Bloc Quebecois.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">If Bob Rae were to lead, he wouldn't be able to win Quebec or Ontario outside of Toronto; two provinces that actually make governments. Steve has proven to be quite effective with the art of attack ads against Dion and Iggy. The ad against Rae would be something along the lines of "Don't let him do to Canada what he did to Ontario" and other ads to remind Canadians of Rae's baggage.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">This would most certainly let Stevie loose with a majority.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">I saw that Persichilli also hints at other potential leaders like David McGinty and Justin Trudeau. If Rae, McGinty and Trudeau would be our only choices to lead the party and potentially become prime minister, I would pick Trudeau, simply because he would be lesser of the evils; the only one who could potentially send Stevie packing. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"> I had reservations about Justin Trudeau leading the Liberals and I still do, but I have to hand it to him: he did something most of us in Quebec never believed he would be able to do: unseat Vivienne Barbeau, the popular Bloc MP in Papineau riding, a riding made up of folks who either haven't a clue as to who his father was or those who still hate his father. My reservation is that he still hasn't passed enough tests and he still needs more political experience, but who knows? Maybe if the Liberals can unite and stand behind him, it might work. Unless he really screws up big time; worse than Iggy even, Trudeau would already be a step up.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">Also, if we were to follow Liberal tradition, they should pick someone who is French speaking from Quebec. Excluding Dion, this has proven to be a formula that worked for the Liberals in the past, like Louis St-Laurent, PE Trudeau and Jean Chretien. Hell, it even worked for stint under the former Progressive Conservatives with Brian Mulroney. Say what you will about him and yes, he was not a great PM but he was the most successful Tory PM for Quebec. Even Liberal PM, LB Pearson could only garner minority governments.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">I had read in the past various musings about Martin Cauchon potentially taking over. Someone with more experience than Justin Trudeau. He was justice minister and was instrumental in putting forward legislation legalizing same-sex marriage; something that should appeal to progressives. However, I can see two potential roadblocks: that Denis Coderre temper tantrum awhile back and he doesn't hold a seat yet and wouldn't be able to do so until the next general election. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">Forget Denis Coderre, his temper tantrum proved he didn't put the interests of his party first.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">I don't think the Liberals should shop for any outsiders at this time: no time for political experiments here. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">I only hope they do the right thing and there is competition to go up against Rae. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">Liberals, choose wisely this time: you can't afford another dud for a leader. Do this before Stevie and the Harpercons turn us into Bush era America.</span></span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-12763318207757659742009-12-06T17:57:00.000-08:002009-12-06T17:57:15.740-08:00Who's Pushing What Agenda on this Very Sad Anniversary?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">I had been reading the various articles about the anniversary of the Polytechnique Massacre. What really is catching my eye today is the comment board from an <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-survivor-speaks/article1390009/"><b><span style="color: #990000;">interview between Ingrid Peritz of the <i>Globe and Mail</i> and Nathalie Provost</span></b></a>, one of the surviving shooting victims from that horrific day at the Ecole Polytechnique on December 6, 1989; twenty years ago today.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">This year, I have heard that stale argument that the gun registry would not have prevented Marc Lepine from shooting those women.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">I have heard from some who believe the victims are being exploited for the gun control and feminist agenda.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Well, actually, those very same people are using this tragedy to push their racist agendas due to the fact Lepine was half Algerian. Even though Lepine was baptized a Catholic and his mother, Monique says that he was a <span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1260134077839"><span style="color: #990000;"><b> </b></span></a></span><span style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_L%C3%A9pine"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>"a confirmed atheist all his life"</b></span></a> No matter, many Canadians have and are still using this anniversary to promote the hatred of Muslims.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Here is a goody from ACsial:</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"There is also an unfortunate bit of Stockholm Syndrome at work, here. Gharbi was no poor, misguided little boy--he was a piece of human garbage and as good an argument for legalised abortion as any. 'Practicing Muslim', or not, he was raised in that culture's rotten misogeny by his violent father...and--like those Taliban who squirted acid on girls' faces--isn't getting 72 Houri in heaven."</i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Here is a racist not only promoting his agenda but also a very misinformed individual. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Lepine's mother separated when he was just 6 years old. He and his little sister Nadia were raised by his mother, a French Canadian all of their lives and never saw their father again. What part of Islam or Algerian culture could have influenced him? He changed his name to Marc Lepine at age 14, a sure sign that he renounced his father. More on Lepine <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_L%C3%A9pine"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>here</b></span></a><span style="color: #990000;"><b>.</b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see the likes of <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/spector-vision/anniversary-of-a-massacre/article1390447/"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Norman Spector publish racist drivel,</b></span></a> inciting the racists to make paralells between Lepine and the Taliban all the way in Afghanistan. Ol' Norm also has the gall to suggest that <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/spector-vision/anniversary-of-a-massacre/article1390447/"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>if reporters were less politically correct in reporting this massacre, we may actually know the 'real' reason behind Marc Lepine's rampage.</b></span></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 16px;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"In the wake of the Fort Hood massacre, there was considerable soul-searching in the U.S. media about politically-correct reporting on the murderer. I don’t have a satisfactory explanation of these horrific multiple murders in Montréal either, but perhaps we would have been closer to one had the mainstream media done a better job reporting on this incident over the years."</span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">I also find it amazing that these Islamaphobes tend to think that being a misogynist is reserved only for Muslims or anyone from that part of the world. I worked for two misogynists; neither one was Muslim or even of Middle-Eastern origin.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Perhaps it's just a slow news week for Spector. Most of his article was quoting the <i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1260134077861"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Montreal Gazette's</b></span></a></i><a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/todays-paper/%C3%89cole+Polytechnique+years+later+revolution+continues/2306341/story.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b> Janet Bagnall's column</b></span></a><span style="color: #990000;"><b>.</b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Last night, <a href="http://sistersagesmusings.blogspot.com/2009/12/two-anniversaries-never-to-be-forgotten.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>I said the anniversary should serve as a reminder that we need tighter gun control laws</b></span></a><span style="color: #990000;"><b>.</b></span> I pointed out another irony of those Harpercons to push to be tough on crime, while at the same time removing a tool from law enforcement to help them do their work.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Well, when I saw the comment board to the G and M interview with Ms Provost, I was shocked at how many Canadians were not only pushing for scrapping that long gun registry, but advocating for no gun control. They seem to envy Americans who walk around toting guns on the street legally.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-survivor-speaks/article1390009/"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Here's a goody from a redneck who calls himself Trozz: </b></span></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 16px;">Trozz: "Ms. Provost and women like her should learn how to defend themselves against a psychopath. Instead of wanting the power and confidence to be able to stop guys like 'Marc Lepine' from harming good people, they want the government to do it for them. And for some reason, these 'engineering graduates' actually believe a bunch of 0's and 1's would protect them from violence.</span><br />
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Instead, we should be focused on training these women to defend themselves against violence. That will ultimately lead to their safety."</span></i></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Oh, that is just wrong! I'm wondering if that was an American troll? Although, if one read the comment boards on the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, they would see that our friend, Trozz, is not alone. Frightening to say the least!</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">From that comment, I can only infer that he wants everyone to pack a gun. Teaching women to defend themselves? Am I the only one who sees how unintelligent that sounds?</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">I wonder if Nathalie Provost, who did attempt to reason with Lepine, would agree with that? She confirms that Lepine was obviously deranged: </span></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Are Trozz and those who share his beliefs suggesting that everyone in schools should pack a gun? </span></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Let's assume that someone at the school did brandish a weapon: What good would that have done? Lepine was a madman on a mission: to kill women. Someone like that would not be afraid of a loaded gun pointing at them, if anything, it would have made him crazier. They generally don't care about their own safety. This was a man who felt he had nothing left to lose; that life as he knew it was over. Does one honestly think pointing a gun at someone like Lepine that day, or even Kimveer Gill, the shooter of the Dawson College shootings in 2006 would have scared them away? Not likely. In fact, there would have been far more casualties. Do we really want our schools or even our workplaces and other public places turning into the OK Corral? </span></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">To say that women's groups and so many others are blaming men; all men for the Polytechnique Massacre is oversimplifying things to say the least. If this were true, many of those surviving women would never have gotten married or had children, like Nathalie Provost, herself. </span></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Pittsky: what are those real issues? The issue is violence. Another would be how those with mental health issues have fallen and still do fall through the cracks. Definitely more needs to be done about mental illness. More needs to be done to prevent violence: violence in general; not just against women. All have a right to be safe in their schools as well as anywhere else.</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">There are many who feel that Ms Provost is not qualified to talk about gun control. I think that staring at the barrel of a gun, watching your life flash before her eyes definitely qualifies her.</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Many speak of the militant feminists. Nathalie Provost never considered herself one. As she said, they were just women who were studying to achieve their chosen profession: engineering. This was exactly what she told Lepine when she was trying to reason with him.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Here's a doozy from Durward: It resembles Pittsky's comment, but goes nuttier. I was waiting for some right wingnut to somehow use the big bad 'S' word improperly. Here goes:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 16px;">"I'm so sick of hearing about this issue that was high-jacked by feminists and socialists to promote their warped views on guns and to name all men as mad gun crazed killers.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 16px;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Most Canadians have long since forgotten this crime committed by a deranged individual, but not the anti-gun crowd, they want to revisit it every yr as a tool to push their agenda, they don't care about these women's deaths, just how to use them for political gain.<br />
God how I hate socialists."</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">So now, 'socialism' is now going to play a part from those weird fringe groups<i> </i>on the anniversary of the massacres. I would be worrying about Durward's mental state right now. In fact, if any policemen are reading this, I would check to see if he has any weapons and then confiscate them. That kind of manic hatred is what leads to activities of the Kimveer Gills, Valery Fabrikants and Marc Lepines of this world.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">The rantings of a socialist hater. I seriously doubt he's actually met a socialist or has even lived under a real socialist regime; thus, another type of ignorant prejudice exhibited here. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">I wasn't aware that wanting everyone to be safe and having gun control to achieve this end was socialism. Even if it were: is it bad to want to feel safe in school, work or just walking from point A to Point B</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">They say that the best revenge is success. While many, understandably after such a traumatic incident would have quit school, and even given up life; survivors like Nathalie Provost and Heidi Rathjen have grown into successful women without wearing the badge of militant, man hating feminist as some rednecks would believe.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Ms. Rathjen would go on to complete her engineering degree, get married and have a daughter and fight tirelessly for gun control.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Ms Provost would not only graduate but stayed at Polytechnique to complete her master's degre. She is now the director of strategic planning for the Quebec civil service. Today, like so many career women, she is balancing career with raising four children. Like so many parents, she tells her daughters they can be anything they want to be. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Below are some statistics posted on <a href="http://thestar.blogs.com/broadsides/2009/12/the-fword.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Antonia Z's page</b></span></a> on how firearm homocides have </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">declined. Here is further evidence from <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-224-x/2009000/ct015-eng.htm"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Statitistics Canada</span></b></a> showing how domestic homocides by firearms have declined from 1974 - 2007. <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-224-x/85-224-x2008000-eng.pdf"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Here</b></span></a> are more statistics proving that the gun </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Yes, of course we must remember this horrific anniversary as well as those of the Dawson shootings and the Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings in the U.S. How are we supposed to learn if we don't remember the past?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">The reason the anniversary the Polytechnique massacre is of particular importance to feminism is that this particular gun man was motivated by his hatred of feminists. Here is a <a href="http://www.sooeys.com/blogs/sooeysays/2008/12/marc_lepines_suicide_note.html"><b><span style="color: #990000;">copy of his suicide note</span></b></a> proving as much.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Sorry to disappoint, Norman Spector, we already know that Lepine's blaming feminists for his own failings in life were the cause. No question of political correctness on the part of media here. And no, no Islamic influence here.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">As Heidi Rathjen pointed out, the <a href="http://www.cjad.com/news/565/1033524"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>gun registry really doesn't cost Canadians all that much</b></span></a>. Nine million is a small price to pay to keep everybody safe. <a href="http://thestar.blogs.com/broadsides/2009/12/the-fword.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Antonia Z points out here that is more expensive to not have gun control</b></span></a>, which the Harpercons are no doubt striving for.</span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Canadian Cynic and Antonia Z had noticed there were no postings commemorating the massacre over at the <i>Blogging Tories</i>. Should we be surprised? They're an uncaring group After reading from like-minded commentators at the Globe and Mail: do we really want read anymore racist, socialistphobe drivel? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">For those anti feminist, pro-gun nut, socialistphobics and racist anti Muslims: Who exactly has an agenda to push by commemorating the anniversary of the Polytechnique Massacre? It would seem that they're exploiting these victims as well as the victims of the other above mentioned school shootings to promote their agenda of hatred.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">In Memory of: </span></b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 16px;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">Geneviève Bergeron (1968-1989)</span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"> Hélène Colgan (1966-1989)<br />
Nathalie Croteau (1966-1989)<br />
Barbara Daigneault (1967-1989)<br />
Anne-Marie Edward (1968-1989)<br />
Maud Haviernick (1960-1989)<br />
Maryse Laganière (1964-1989)<br />
Maryse Leclair (1966-1989)<br />
Anne-Marie Lemay (1967-1989)<br />
Sonia Pelletier (1961-1989)<br />
Michèle Richard (1968-1989)<br />
Annie St-Arneault (1966-1989)<br />
Annie Turcotte (1969-1989)<br />
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (1958-1989)</span></b></span></span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-50808755618393010012009-12-05T19:56:00.000-08:002009-12-05T19:56:04.473-08:00Christmas: Another thing Wrong with Capitalism<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found this National Lampoon video on one of my Facebook friend's pages. It's humorous but sad at the same time. Some humor always has some element of truth behind it. This video is a great example of this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hate Christmas. Every year and Every generation, it gets worse, and no doubt, more expensive for families as technology evolves, as the above video illustrates. More excess, more self-indulgence and more commericalism. People flocking to the shops being fooled by so-called specials from store pamphlets and catalogues but really getting gouged more at the check out counter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also tend to be more gluttonous at Christmas. In addition to expensive gifts and trying to out do the neighbour's electricity bill, we eat a hell of a lot more and more of the types of junk foods we tend to leave alone for the rest of the year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instant happiness purchased from the mall. Hmmm. Sends folks, especially kids, the wrong message; that happiness can be bought; that we can only be happy if we have lots of stuff; particularly stuff we don't need and probably won't use.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Society has gotten not only more shallow but they do live in a bubble and they tend to forget that Christmas is the worst time of year for most folks. Lots of people are too poor to keep up with with what's being marketed. They're too poor to look after their kids adequately.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I get that most folks are either non-believers or just not that religious to commemorate the Birth of Jesus Christ, which I totally get. However, can it also be a time to remember to help our fellow man who is less well off than we are and less concentrated on self-indulgence and excess?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I remembered when I was really young, my family had me donate one of my presents to the local church's Christmas hamper to help less fortunate children. Yes, my parents taught my brother and I at a young age the importance of charity, to always remember that there are folks worse off, especially at Christmas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to say that in recent years, I have not been able to give much except for non-perishable food and cheap dollar store toys and mits and tuques (also on the cheap; from second hand store) here and there for various community center's and church's Christmas basket programs, due to unemployment (yes, I tend to have unemployment issues most around Christmas). I try to give something because I know there are families who need the help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't think most folks who are rich even consider teaching their offspring this or even putting this into practice. All just are racing to earn more money and have more material and monetary wealth than the neighbours. An endeavor for most to prove to be a colossal failure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anybody who is reading this post: I hope you will consider giving something or a bit of your time to help someone this Christmas. Hell, it don't even have to be Christmas. We should be thinking about helping our fellow man all year around.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year, since I could be let go anytime (so much for the myth of government jobs being secure to all you anti- public sector types), until another assignment comes up at the agency, I will only stay home with my husband and go to Christmas mass at the church where I was baptized, like I do every year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will, however, remain my cranky self, perhaps even more so. Christmas is truly a hateful holiday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bah Humbug!! Who needs it?</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-17329810472580792362009-12-05T19:15:00.000-08:002009-12-05T19:15:13.864-08:00Two Anniversaries Never to be Forgotten<span style="color: blue;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stevie Begged the GG to Close Up the Shop</span></span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It had been a year ago yesterday, the governor general allowed Stevie to close up the shop. Boy, was he afraid of the big bad coalition of 'socialists', separatists and the Liberals under Stephane Dion. An earlier indication of Stevie's running away when the going gets tough.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wonder if anybody dared to wonder what we would be looking at had the Governor General said no to closing up the shop. Would we have still been governed by this coalition led by Stephane Dion? Would Iggy have been long since gone from the picture?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I realize that a lot of Canadians didn't like the idea of this coalition, but I tend to wonder if we weren't better off with them? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Between Stevie running away from a crisis to be at some insipid event like Timmy's or gallivanting with the Royals to clearing a room at climate change talks to getting lambasted by Ban Ki Moon, secretary general of the United Nations and the Chinese Premier, he has got to be the most embarrassing Prime Minister Canada ever had. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I dare say, it must be embarrassing telling someone who lives overseas that we're Canadian.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Twenty Years Tomorrow Marc Lepine Shot up the Polytechnique</span></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, twenty years ago tomorrow, on December 6, 1989 was when Marc Lepine went and shot up the Ecole Polytechnique, the engineering school of Universite de Montreal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.rabble.ca/news/2009/12/reflections-on-the-montreal-massacre"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Here</b></span></a> is an article written by three former Polytechnique students; two of whom were shooting victims of Marc Lepine that fateful day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This anniversary should be a reminder as to why the Long Gun Registry should not be scrapped. Marc Lepine used a ruger mini 14, one such gun that would be on the list of rifles and shotguns to need not be registered if this registry is scrapped. The police used the registry every day to do their work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/redeye/2009/12/20-years-after-montreal-massacre"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Here is the podcast</b></span></a> where Daisy Kler of Rape Relief talks about where we're at today with regards to feminism, the attitudes toward feminism and violence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have we really moved forward? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Certainly not with regards to gun control if the long gun registry is scrapped. We will be headed to a society where citizens will be walking the streets with guns just like in the U S or A. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some may argue that only law abiding citizens register their guns. True perhaps, but we've seen too often law abiding citizens turn violent, go crazy, become mentally ill or start living a life of crime.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have to register our dogs with the city, but not guns which kill people?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the famous arguments in favour of scrapping the long gun registry is the costs. Harpercons and their groupies say it costs way to much to keep. Well, Heidi Rathjen, one of the survivors of the Polytechnique massacres, gun control activist and co-author of yesterday's <a href="http://www.rabble.ca/news/2009/12/reflections-on-the-montreal-massacre"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Rabble article</b></span> </a> about the reflections of the 20th anniversary of the massacre <a href="http://www.cjad.com/news/565/1033524"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>disagrees</b></span></a>: </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Well, it's true that it cost a billion dollars over ten years to implement, but not the registry. The billion dollars applies to the possession permits, which is what gun owners need to own guns. They had to screen two million gun owners."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">She also goes on to say that the <a href="http://www.cjad.com/news/565/1033524"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>registry actually costs Canadians nine cents per year to keep it going</b></span></a>. It is indeed a small price to pay to keep us safe.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Funny how the Harpercons talk of gettin' tough on crime, but they are willing to take away a crucial tool the police used everyday. I wonder how they can spin this one?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, the Zsa-Zsa wannabe just </span><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/23695421/KEYES-BARNETT-v-OBAMA-101-MINUTES-IN-CHAMBERS-ORDER-Denying-Plaintiffs-Amended-Motion-for-Reconsideration-gov-uscourts-cacd-435591-101-0"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>lost yet another motion </b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to get one of her many Birther cases before a judge. This time it was that Judge Carter from California who dismissed it. She must be crushed after going batshit crazy on steroids on various tv shows being so sure this judge would rule in her favor. Hope does spring eternal in these people's lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wonder if Orly and Sawah waved at each other when Sawah was, you know, watching Russia from her front porch?</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-21296993026770001892009-12-02T20:00:00.000-08:002009-12-05T19:58:42.749-08:00I Always Knew Chuckles Adler was a Yahoo and a Redneck<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't remember the name of that commentator of at Searching For Liberty's page, a conservative blog, from yesterday. I do remember him or her leaving a comment with a list of all that is so-called Left winged. Media was on his/her list. I responded that mainstream media was as slanted to the right these days. Well, here's an example of how rednecked some of these hacks can be. What holes do these media outlets crawl into to find these rednecks, anyhow?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I first caught this over at </span><a href="http://www.acreativerevolution.ca/node/2226"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Pale's</b></span> </span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Then I read <a href="http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/12/01/adler-monologue.aspx"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Chuckles' little ranting</b></span></a> and I am reminded as to why I nick named him the redneck of Winnipeg. Sooo glad CJAD no longer has him as a pundit. Yes, if Chuckles wasn't so damned ignorant and offensive, he might even be somewhat amusing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"The scenario is that our soldiers -- who have been in that hellish, brutish part of the world, where NONE of you want to spend one hour, never mind one year, two years, three years, how about the last eight years..." </i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-style: normal;">No we don't. Do you, Chuckles? Have you? What's your point? That no matter what, the Afghan insecurity forces can do no wrong? What do you think of <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Canadian+military+aware+abuse+boys+Afghan+allies/2009633/story.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>child molestation perpetrated by these very same insecurity forces,</b></span></a> and Canadian troops seeming to look the other way, Chuckles?</span></i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-style: normal;">He too, is not sympathetic to the allegations of torture, much like that useless shrew and chicken hawk, Christie Blatchford. </span></i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-style: normal;">Here's something else of interest. He blathers on about how those of us against the war in Afghanistan are elitist snobs sitting on our fat asses with our lattes in coffee shops.</span></i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-style: normal;">Gee, Chuckles, are the family members of the late Jonathan Couturier a bunch of elitest, latte sipping couch potatoes? <b><a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Canadian+military+aware+abuse+boys+Afghan+allies/2009633/story.html"><span style="color: #990000;">They're very much against the war, as was Jonathan, himself prior to going to Afghanistan. </span></a></b></span></i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If wanting our Canada who helps others in need and doesn't break international laws such as Geneva Conventions makes us quiche eating latte sucking elitests...then so be it. If that thinking makes you warm and fuzzy at night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although, personally, I'm more down to earth and certainly less pretentious than chicken hacks like you are.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Speaking of fat asses, Chuckles, have you weighed yourself lately? I don't see you signing up to the war effort. I don't even see you signing on with organizations like Reporters without borders. Your usual redneck language doesn't scare us so-called 'elitests', although, I do like a good latte from time to time; my work is near so many coffee shops.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chuckles is another Chicken Hawk who likes to talk the talk, but when it comes to putting his money where his mouth is; FAIL!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why should we expect more?</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Q9VyDjM_Ypbi7O1eGh3_wY_6YTdAKz-4M5tuUH7aBqUHShqBqgbXM90dgLCytb1Rwwly2QutRrRc9k08WSzRMlCcTYCNI0BVnhB8Ms8hswDOXL8FhG0DX3S1Ie-dZ-P-Ul5YIUfvRos/s1600-h/redneck_chuckles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Q9VyDjM_Ypbi7O1eGh3_wY_6YTdAKz-4M5tuUH7aBqUHShqBqgbXM90dgLCytb1Rwwly2QutRrRc9k08WSzRMlCcTYCNI0BVnhB8Ms8hswDOXL8FhG0DX3S1Ie-dZ-P-Ul5YIUfvRos/s640/redneck_chuckles.jpg" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's Chuckles trying to out elite Julian, Ricky and Bubbles. See? How can I be an elitist if I know the names of the <i>Trailor Park Boys</i>?</span><br />
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</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-71035204390246480582009-12-02T18:24:00.000-08:002009-12-02T18:24:27.129-08:00Kool-Aid and Teabags<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, it's official. Obama did drink Georgie's kool-aid. While his speech was not nearly as manic and psychotic as I've heard Georgie on the subject on those wars, he was reiterating him. Particularly when it came to the wording, according to </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/01/obamas-speech-by-the-word_n_376258.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b><span style="color: #990000;">Huffington Post</span></b></i></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously, he never read </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/01/obamas-speech-by-the-word_n_376258.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Michael Moore's open letter</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. He most certainly wasn't listening to his own constituents. I doubt even most of the Dems in his own party agree with this decision. All were probably thinking the same thing: neither Afghanistan nor the Iraq wars were his. He could have ended both of them right now; sign orders to bring the troops home; to cut their losses. All who voted for him and his fellow Democrats (with perhaps the exception of Blue Dogs and members of C street) would not only have let him go for pulling the plug on both wars but it would have been more welcome than this. Obama is now a 'war president', having taken ownership of Afghanistan war.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As with LBJ before him, </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6714110/Barack-Obama-criticised-by-Left-and-Right-over-Afghanistan-surge.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Obama is already taking hits from both the left and the right</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. The right, of course, say no deadlines should have been set and even his own friendly democrats are balking at the idea of sending 30 000 troops.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Imperialism is still imperialism, no matter who does it. Funny how Obama called the U.S. relationship with Pakistan a 'partnership'. Perhaps before making such assumptions, he should have checked some polls about the Pakistani people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Gallup poll in Pakistan last August showed that only 11% of Pakistanis felt that the Taliban were the biggest threat to their country. 18% felt India was the biggest threat and, you guessed it, the poll indicates that the U.S. is their biggest threat. That same poll also concluded that 67% of Pakistanis were against any Americans conducting operations in that country. That message to me is loud and clear; the Pakistanis never asked for our help and they don't want or need it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As for the Afghans, they too, no longer welcome us in their country. They never welcomed foreigners. The Soviets learned that the hard way. This is a country where democracy clearly doesn't work. The so-called elected Karzai government is corrupt and that will never ever change.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Taliban will never disappear completely as no one can really know who they are. The Afghan people seem to believe that Taliban occupation is the lesser of the evils. Yes, even the women believe this. Life hasn't changed that much for them. Karzai is still very much a misogynist, having made into law that husbands were allowed to rape their wives; the term 'rape' doesn't exist in their world. It's how both men and women over there prefer it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As for Al-Qaeda, most are from Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan. There is nothing to indicate that they would even still be in Afghanistan or Pakistan for that matter. After all those years, with all the intelligence the U.S. has to offer, such as the CIA, how come no one caught Al-Qaeda?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is with Obama anyway? First, it was the waffling on the public option for health care reform; a plan that will significantly be watered down.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, he is practically giving a carbon copy speech of Georgie's. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What the hell does he hope to achieve? He obviously hasn't learned that in trying to make all happy, you make everyone unhappy and this is what exactly is happening here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obama will never endear himself to Republicans, the ever-growing loud tea-baggers and of course, the Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Fox News machines. I expect it will get worse. Obama may have had a shot at a second term if he pulled the troops out now and just not taken ownership of this war. It will worsen as this time, he will have alienated his supporters and they won't be so quick to defend him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Below, is Michael Moore's reaction on the Larry King Show last night. His take is that he still believes Obama is a decent man with a good heart, but he is taking very bad advice that will cost him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since Obama is sure to be a one term president and his former supporters will either abstain from voting in the next election or vote for a fringe candidate like Ralph Nader, I dare say, Say hello to President Palin. I know, a gloomy outlook, but she will be the GOP candidate as they have no one near the star status of See Sawah run. Intelligence obviously doesn't matter here; like Ronald Reagan being the useful idiot to Don Regan of Merrill Lynch, Sawah will have a corporate puppet master running the country behind the scenes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, she won't win because she will end the wars, if anything, she'll probably expand wars all over Middle-East. She will win because the noisy minority of the growing popularity of the Tea-bagger movement will outshine the cynical and silent progressives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She will also win the same way Georgie did; scaring American voters into believing only she and the GOP and tea-baggers can keep them safe; to keep the Communist Muslim boogie men from hiding under their beds. This escalation has <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/12/02/afghanistan-taliban-obama-natio-reaction.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>already provoked the Taliban to strengthen their resolve</b></span>.</a> No doubt Al-Qaeda will be provoked into further attempts at attacks on U.S. soil. Obama will be blamed for that as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wish it were April fool or Halloween, but anything short of Obama changing his mind and withdrawing the troops immediately and cutting their losses, his presidency is over. I really hope he realizes this decision will ruin the U.S. by giving the keys to Sawah.</span><br />
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</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-11963940263485132382009-11-30T04:26:00.000-08:002009-11-30T04:26:49.748-08:00One More Night of Hope, Mr President, Pull the Plug<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One more night indeed and it doesn't look good. Depending what you read, it looks like Obama is going to be repeating the mistakes of Lyndon B Johnson in the 60s.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Johnson's fateful decision to continue to escalate the </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/lyndon_baines_johnson/index.html?inline=nyt-per"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Vietnam war is what costed him the presidency in 1968</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">The <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/weekinreview/23baker.html"><b><span style="color: #990000;">New York Times</span></b></a></i> as well as other pundits, including those in Canada like Craig Oliver are calling this Obama's Vietnam. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">After all, it has been proven by pretty much all, except for some war mongering wingnut chicken hawks on the Right, that this war isn't winnable. The Soviets had proven this much many years ago. They knew when to cut their losses, pack up the show and haul it on home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The Afghans don't want any more foreigners invading their homes and way of life. They have made this clear. Life has gotten worse for them since we began to invade. Even the women aren't noticing much improvement. Malalai Joya, who once served on Afghan parliament admits <a href="http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Rights-Justice/2009/11/13/JoyaBrings/"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>this</b></span></a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Women's conditions in some cities have slightly improved since the Taliban regime. But if we compare it with the era before the rule of the fundamentalists in Afghanistan, it has not changed much. Afghan women had more rights in the 1960s to 1980s than today. Rapes, abductions, murders, violence, forced marriages, and violence are increasing at an alarming rate never seen before in our history. Women commit self-immolation to escape their miseries, and the rate of self-immolations is climbing in many of the provinces. Afghanistan still faces a women's rights catastrophe.</span></span></span><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"The root cause of this ongoing catastrophe in Afghanistan is that the government is controlled by fundamentalists of both brands (jihadis and Taliban) who are constantly nourished by the United States and its allies. …People suffer from such extreme insecurity that many have stopped sending their children to school, especially girls, fearing that they might be kidnapped or raped." </i></span></span></span><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Why are we all there again? As I've pointed out <a href="http://sistersagesmusings.blogspot.com/2009/10/wheeling-dealing-hypocrisy-in.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>here</b></span></a>, this is not a war on terror, this is not about improving the lives of Afghans, particularly the women. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/brown-tells-karzai-to-sort-out-corruption-or-else-1816560.html"><b><span style="color: #990000;">PM Gordon Brown has even warned Karzai about corruption in his government</span></b>.</a> Every government knows this government is corrupt and no, it will never be able to sustain itself. As I've pointed out in the past as well as others, I'm sure, it doesn't matter when we leave: the Taliban will be back at the helm. The folks of Afghanistan seem to prefer life under them than with this war.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In the words of Michael Moore, it would seem that <a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/open-letter-president-obama-michael-moore"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Obama is about to drink Bush's kool-aid</b></span></a> and cave into the pressure General McChrystal to send about 40 000 more troops. </span></span><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i>“This is not a war of choice,” he told the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their convention in Phoenix. “This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the </i></span></span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/taliban/index.html?inline=nyt-org" style="color: #004276; text-decoration: underline;" title="More articles about the Taliban."><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i>Taliban</i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i> insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which </i></span></span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_qaeda/index.html?inline=nyt-org" style="color: #004276; text-decoration: underline;" title="More articles about Al Qaeda."><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i>Al Qaeda</i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i> would plot to kill more Americans.”</i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; line-height: 22px;">Except for one problem: Binladen and the other thugs who were behind 9/11 have not been caught. We've been at war for eight years, allowing a corrupt Karzai Government to continue, killing innocent civilians and cutting short the futures of many soldiers. Ouf! what a mess! How in the world continuing this senseless war; this Vietnam, going to accomplish anything it hadn't in the previous eight years? </span></span><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; line-height: 22px;">Gulp! He is indeed about to drink Bush's Kool-aid! How did he get sucked into it? If the GOP was pressuring him to send more troops as well, he doesn't realize that he's playing into their hands? The GOP and their pundits don't really care about the wars overseas, they see what can cost Obama the presidency.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; line-height: 22px;">It is time to end the war, Mr President. Make that move to start withdrawing. The Europeans would surely pull out as well, and yes, maybe even our war mongering, monkey-see; monkey-do PM will follow your lead and pull the show out. Let's just get out now. Take a cue from the Soviets before us and cut our losses. Continuing an unpopular and unwinnable war cost LBJ the presidency in spite of the good things he did implement in the U.S. Obama is pretty certain to meet this very same fate.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; line-height: 22px;">As Michael Moore says in a letter he wrote to Obama, he can show courage by ending this all right now. Here is the <a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/open-letter-president-obama-michael-moore"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>letter from Moore to Obama</b></span></a></span></span><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; line-height: 22px;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">Dear President Obama,</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea -- "Let's invade Afghanistan!" Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">There's a reason they don't call Afghanistan the "Garden State" (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has </span></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html" style="font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">his brother in the heroin trade</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;"> raising poppies). Afghanistan's nickname is the "Graveyard of Empires." If you don't believe it, give the British a call. I'd have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev's number though. It's </span></span><a href="http://www.greencrossinternational.net/contact-us" style="font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">+ 41 22 789 1662</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">. I'm sure </span></span><a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latest-news/gorbachev-obama-prepare-ground-withdrawal-afghanistan" style="font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">he could give you an earful about the historic blunder</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;"> you're about to commit.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">With our economic collapse still in full swing and our precious young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance and greed, the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the "war president." Empires never think the end is near, until the end is here. Empires think that more evil will force the heathens to toe the line -- and yet it never works. The heathens usually tear them to shreds.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">Choose carefully, President Obama. You of all people know that it doesn't have to be this way. You still have a few hours to listen to your heart, and your own clear thinking. You know that nothing good can come from sending more troops halfway around the world to a place neither you nor they understand, to achieve an objective that neither you nor they understand, in a country that does not want us there. You can feel it in your bones.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">I know you know that there are LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan! A hundred thousand troops trying to crush a hundred guys living in caves? Are you serious? Have you drunk Bush's Kool-Aid? I refuse to believe it.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you're doing it so you can "end the war") will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you've said and done in your first year. One more throwing a bone from you to the Republicans and the coalition of the hopeful and the hopeless may be gone -- and this nation will be back in the hands of the haters quicker than you can shout "tea bag!"</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">Choose carefully, Mr. President. Your corporate backers are going to abandon you as soon as it is clear you are a one-term president and that the nation will be safely back in the hands of the usual idiots who do their bidding. That could be Wednesday morning.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">We the people still love you. We the people still have a sliver of hope. But we the people can't take it anymore. We can't take your caving in, over and over, when we elected you by a big, wide margin of millions to get in there and get the job done. What part of "landslide victory" don't you understand?</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">Don't be deceived into thinking that sending a few more troops into Afghanistan will make a difference, or earn you the respect of the haters. They will not stop until this country is torn asunder and every last dollar is extracted from the poor and soon-to-be poor. You could send a million troops over there and the crazy Right still wouldn't be happy. You would still be the victim of their incessant venom on hate radio and television because no matter what you do, you can't change the one thing about yourself that sends them over the edge.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">The haters were not the ones who elected you, and they can't be won over by abandoning the rest of us.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">President Obama, it's time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, "No, we don't need health care, we don't need jobs, we don't need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, 'cause we don't need them, either."</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your grandmother do? Not send more poor people to kill other poor people who pose no threat to them, that's what they'd do. Not spend billions and trillions to wage war while American children are sleeping on the streets and standing in bread lines.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">All of us that voted and prayed for you and cried the night of your victory have endured an Orwellian hell of eight years of crimes committed in our name: torture, rendition, suspension of the bill of rights, invading nations who had not attacked us, blowing up neighborhoods that Saddam "might" be in (but never was), slaughtering wedding parties in Afghanistan. We watched as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of our brave young men and women were killed, maimed, or endured mental anguish -- the full terror of which we scarcely know.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">When we elected you we didn't expect miracles. We didn't even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn't even function as a nation and never, ever has.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God's sake, stop.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">Tonight we still have hope.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">Tomorrow, we shall see. The ball is in your court. You DON'T have to do this. You can be a profile in courage. You can be your mother's son.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">We're counting on you.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">Yours,<br />
Michael Moore<br />
</span></span><a href="mailto:mmflint@aol.com" style="font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">MMFlint@aol.com</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span><a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/" style="font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">MichaelMoore.com</span></span></a><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">P.S. There's still time to have your voice heard. Call the White House at 202-456-1111 or </span></span><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact" style="font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">email the President</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: blue;">.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">You can get the <span style="color: #990000;"><b><a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/open-letter-president-obama-michael-moore"><span style="color: #990000;">email link here</span></a>. </b></span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I sincerely hope that President Obama will lead and do the courageous thing. This war needs to end now (as does the one in Iraq, of course). It's about time the President concentrated on helping his own people recover from the recession and the damage that is Georgie jr and Dickie. Let's do what the Afghans want us to do: get the hell out!</span><br />
</div></span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-46550806095687164762009-11-29T16:32:00.000-08:002009-11-29T16:40:39.432-08:00Clucking Christie Blathering Blatchford<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't really have anything more to add to what has already been written.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end, though, why should anyone be surprised? She's a chicken war hawk. She is also a commentator on the afternoon drive show on CJAD with Ricky P. Just last week, she hinted she didn't believe in the torture or Richard Colvin. She also said that setting a withdrawal date is a bad idea, hinting the war should go on, until, I guess, the end of time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I decided to create yet another montage to commemorate her latest faux pas. I orignally wanted to put her head in my partisan toilet, but someone beat me to it (well, no logo, but you get the idea). Here is that image from the </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42553822887&ref=ts"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">facebook group</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, "Fire Christie Blatchford". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I did something completely different: I thought this clearly reflected her personality as well as her keen sense of style</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd5ttwdwKtowLbhaEM7LtUdpyHtq-a-E_8SmF5W5Sc84ZUb7u1DdXRsnkevdCxKOVYv9daTmFwrRogAVFrOyAZS8GSYyj6pz1iAxgMOoSN6injkwdTgAMQgjgXJeqilwTV9TRAOItwxJ4/s1600/blatheringblatchford.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd5ttwdwKtowLbhaEM7LtUdpyHtq-a-E_8SmF5W5Sc84ZUb7u1DdXRsnkevdCxKOVYv9daTmFwrRogAVFrOyAZS8GSYyj6pz1iAxgMOoSN6injkwdTgAMQgjgXJeqilwTV9TRAOItwxJ4/s640/blatheringblatchford.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-12159778448384104182009-11-29T13:51:00.000-08:002009-11-29T16:56:05.271-08:00Self loathing Neo-Cons and their Double Standards<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I first caught a snipit of Ezra Levant's latest rantings over at </span><a href="http://canadiancynic.blogspot.com/2009/11/none-dare-call-it-anti-semitism.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">C.C.'s</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. It just brought back one of those events not that long ago that continues to bother me today: the victory of Marc Lemire, homophobe, holocaust denier, bigot: ya know: Canada's newest version of a good ol' boy and yes, none other than ol' Ezra himself defended him before the Canadian Human Rights Commission.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides the fact that it was a dark day for me, the first thing that came to mind was; Gee, a self-loathing Jew.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's ok, like all good neo-con boys, he hates with as much vigor as the rest of them and he is paranoid. </span><a href="http://ezralevant.com/2009/11/calgarys-official-jews-as-stup.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Check his latest ranting</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, if you dare. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He's demonstrating hatred for Jewish organizations like Canadian Jewish Congress, B'nai Brith and Simon Wiesenthal Center, as he feels he must. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In short, he is ranting about a rally in Calgary following some swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti being painted on Jewish Properties. Levant seems to have more issues with the anti-hate rally than the crime itself. What's wrong with this picture?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He is now claiming that groups who organized the </span><a href="http://www.jewishcalgary.org/page.aspx?id=210880"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Calgary Says No to Hate</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> rally were being sponsored two Islamic Groups: </span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://islamicsupremecouncil.com/"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Islamic Supreme Council of Canada</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, a group that promotes interfaith dialogue and Muslim education among other activities. The other is </span><span style="color: #333333;"><a href="http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.com/iacw.htm"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Islamic Association of Canadian Women</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">an organization that promotes Islamic education for women among other activities. From what I've seen both organizations are not only harmless and don't seem to promote terrorism of any kind. According to ol' Ezra, both of these groups are run by Imam </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Syed</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> B. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soharwardy. I only found that the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada was founded by Soharwardy, I haven't found evidence that the second group mentioned above being linked with him. To Levant, the Imam is a </span><a href="http://ezralevant.com/2009/11/calgarys-official-jews-as-stup.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"</span></b></span><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a virulent anti-Semite"</span></b></span></a><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I googled Imam Soharwardy. He is known to be the first Muslim Canadian to walk more than 6,500 km, leading the multi-faith walk against violence. </span><a href="http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.com/soharwardy.htm"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is his bio</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Levant's links attempting to prove Soharwardy's wrong doings link to (surprise! surprise!) his previous postings. I attempted those links, turned out to be stuff that needed to be downloaded and for some reason, my computer wouldn't download them. Me thinks </span><a href="http://ezralevant.com/2009/11/calgarys-official-jews-as-stup.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ezra is still sore over a previous confrontation</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I know Soharwardy because he's the Jew-hater who hauled me before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for my high crime of publishing the Danish cartoons. "</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ezra sure knows how to hold a grudge. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He basically goes on about Muslim hatred over the Jews among others. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My big question is: How come it's ok for the likes of Marc Lemire to spout hatred, to the point of inciting violence, but it's not ok for Muslims or anyone who is Jewish or WASPy to do it? Why this double standard?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why is it that when Jewish properties are defaced or damaged proven (or even suspected) to be perpetrated by Muslims, it's automatically a hate crime. Why not so quick to call it a hate crime if there is no proof a Muslim committed the act or proof that white supremacists committed the act?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shouldn't such acts be conemned by all, no matter who does what against whom?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This kind of reminds me of </span><a href="http://sistersagesmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/dodo-cant-play-fair.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">an exchange I had with Dodo Can't Spell</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, where she basically called me looney for calling her, 'a brown person' (her words, not mine or anyone else's) a racist. Once again, implying only white people can be racist. I've caught her postings from time to time. She is indeed more racist than a lot of white folks. It is obvious that she too, has very low self-esteem, in referring to herself as 'a brown person'. Her fellow neo-con bloggers, like Girl on the Wrong use the term 'brown people' in a very hateful tone. I wonder if Dodo even realizes this?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salim_Mansur"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Salim Mansur</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">? The professor and Columnist who so often speaks against his own people. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lastly, those neo-con backward women bloggers, like Shiddle, Girl on the Wrong, and SUZY ALLCAPSLOCK. They appear to be more sexist and wingnuttier than their Male neo-con counterparts. Someone suggested to me that they're trying to impress the boys. The wrong type of boys. No question: sounds like a logical explanation. This too, would be a clear example of low self-esteem; they're trying to impress the wrong kind of boys.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are these neo-cons transferring their self-loathing onto others?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span></span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-39925004270451359662009-11-28T20:43:00.000-08:002009-11-28T20:43:01.930-08:00Online Petition to Demand Harpercons To Investigate Torturegate<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just found this over at </span><i><a href="http://thwapschoolyard.blogspot.com/2009/11/online-petition-for-public-inquiry-into.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Thwap's Schoolyard</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is the link for the</span><a href="http://www.ceasefire.ca/take_action/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #990000;"><b>online petition for Inquiry into Torture</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. It would appear that a whopping </span><a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.com/2009/11/hows-that-cbc-poll-on-colvins.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>94% of Canadians believe the testimony of Richard Colvin</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just because Stevie is going to Copenhagen to pretend to be interested in climate change doesn't mean he shouldn't face the music over torturegate. Enough already! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think most Canadians are tired of looking more and more like a disgrace on the world stage.</span><br />
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</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-71138190967671631472009-11-28T20:23:00.000-08:002009-11-28T20:23:30.949-08:00Canada Will No Longer be One of the Cool Kids<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A sad state of affairs, really. Canada used to be a player on the world stage, that is, until Stevie came on the scene, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://sistersagesmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/me-blog-and-i-got-mentioned-on-redneck.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>only to pull disappearing acts every time the going gets tough</b></span></a>. </span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It seems that folks,<a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091012/kyoto_091012/20091012?hub=Canada"><b><span style="color: #990000;"> including world leaders run away from Stevie and his people</span></b></a><b><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></b>or <a href="http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2735"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>they want to shun them</b></span></a><span style="color: #990000;"><b> </b></span>altogether.</span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right now, the two major bones of contention for Stevie and the Harpercons would be climate change and the torturing of the Afghan prisoners. It seems the more Stevie and his Harpercons attempt to white wash either, the more pissed off folks get.</span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We already saw how Stevie and his merry band of thieves can clear a room of 77 developing nations when they suggest <a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091012/kyoto_091012/20091012?hub=Canada"><b><span style="color: #990000;">replacing the Kyoto Protoco</span></b></a><b><span style="color: #990000;">l</span></b> (ya know that socialist scheme to suck money from wealthy nations) with some other insipid agreement. This was over a month ago in Bangkok. </span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For awhile now, we had heard Stevie come up with any and every excuse to not partake in UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Silly excuses for the most part like 'I won't until they do' type of things. Really! That does sound Romper Room-ish. Gone are his real reasons for not wanting anything to do with climate change, like Kyoto being too, uh, waz that nasty 's' word for it again? He is not daring to say anything about really protecting old Fossil fuel types of enterprises and the tar sands of Alberta. Heaven knows he can't admit any of those truths. </span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These days, it seems that Stevie doesn't want to own any of the crisis situations happening in Canada, nor any wrong-doings that occur anywhere around the world. Stevie and his merry band of thieves are still doing their damndest to cover up this latest scandal involving the torture of Afghan prisoners. Prisoners left with that same <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Canadian+military+aware+abuse+boys+Afghan+allies/2009633/story.html"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Afghan security force that was involved with child molestation and exploitation</span></b></a>; another thing the Canadian military never wanted seeing the light of day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The unfortunate truth is that Stevie is only going to Copenhagen because of torturegate. He not only wishes to avoid dealing with this latest scandal but <a href="http://www.acreativerevolution.ca/node/2213"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>he also hopes to deflect the corporatist media away from this latest nastiness toward something that looks nice and fuzzy</b></span>. </a> Don't be fooled: he still doesn't give a rat's ass about the environment. He may use the excuse that since President Obama and the other cool kids on the world stage are going to be there, but had it not been for torturegate, I venture that he would not be there with the cool kids, no matter the peer pressure. What a great leader! One whose favorite game is Monkey see: Monkey Do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stevie never did and still doesn't care what the world thinks of him, with the exception of course, of Georgie. That was obvious when he fucked off U.N. week in favor of Bloomberg and Timmy's. He only cares about not getting caught breaking international laws. Yes, Stevie has been lost without Georgie. Pres Obama is trying to move the U.S. in another direction: a direction Stevie doesn't like or believe in. He only cares about Obama when it comes to "buy American". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/26/canada-criticised-over-climate-change"><b><span style="color: #990000;">there are some folks who are calling for Canada to be suspended from the Commonwealth</span></b></a> due to its' attitude on climate change. </span><br />
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<span style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Countries that fail to help [tackle global warming] should be suspended from membership, as are those that breach human rights." <span style="font-style: normal;">says Clare Short, former international development secretary.</span></span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">Wait a minute: did she just mention ' breaching human rights'? Wow, Stevie, I believe this is a double whammy: I believe this also covers torturegate.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">Think Stevie would care about being ousted from the Commonwealth? Perhaps. Especially if he can't join the U.S. They're second choice. If Georgie were still running the show, I don't think Stevie would care about the Commonwealth kicking him to the curb. Right now, President Obama appears to have no interest in being Stevie's buddy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">Besides, the Royal Family do serve as a marvelous excuse to run away from responsibility. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">While he is going to Copenhagen and yes, apparently he just <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">bribed</span> <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/canada-agrees-to-contribute-to-10-billion-climate-change-fund/article1381653/"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>pledged 10 billion dollars to help poor countries deal with the consequences of climate change</b></span></a>. Still, he does not budge on reducing greenhouse gas emissions here in Canada. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://hellupsidedown.blogspot.com/2009/11/world-declares-canada-climate-criminal.html"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Here</span></b></a> are some videos on the subject of Alberta tar sands and opposition party leaders' take on climate change.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">Another thing I find puzzling: I read some of the posts of the Blogging Tories where they say climate change is a myth and a lie. One of them even beseached readers to write their MPs urging them to not do anything about climate change; that the scientists were bogus, basically. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">If Stevie really believed that, how come he just bobs and weaves around the issue instead of doing all he can to debunk the so-called lie? He knows that climate change is real. It's just that it ain't profitable and it is more challenging to change to greener technologies.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whatever happened to the good ol' days when Canada was a proud player on the world stage? We used to be known as a nation that cared. A nation of peace keepers. Canada used to be compassionate. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, we're a joke, thanks to Stevie and his merry band of thieves. We're becoming what the rest of the world had no taste for: Bush era America.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stevie doesn't like Canada or Canadians. He is still hell bent on turning it into Bush Era America. This is why he wants his majority. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The irony is that the wordly intellectual and unsuitable leader of the Liberal Party, Iggy had spoken of this in one of his ads awhile ago. Most scoffed at him either because they didn't believe him or they just didn't care. Maybe it requires somebody else to talk to Canadians about this and to call Stevie on it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unless some miracle happens, Canada is soon becoming the social outcast. I will no longer be one of the cool kids until we have an actual leader. Not one who plays 'Follow the Leader'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To quote Pale from <a href="http://www.acreativerevolution.ca/node/2217"><i><b><span style="color: #990000;">A Creative Revolution</span></b></i></a>: </span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just fuck the hell off Steve, and take yer nasty little friends with you. Canada needs grown ups to run the show."</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px;">Here! Here! Amen to that!</span></span><br />
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</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-18545587313585037682009-11-28T18:30:00.000-08:002009-11-28T18:32:45.210-08:00Some 70s Memories<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is a tune I had all but forgotten about. Lyrics had absolutely no meaning, but it was catchy without being cheesy.</span><br />
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<object height="364" width="445"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/lMLnDuzgkjo&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/lMLnDuzgkjo&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is a video from somebody known as useless director on YouTube. Restored from original 8mm his/her Father filmed orginally to this old Kansas song. It does look 'dusty' in more ways than one. Sometimes, I like that better than the modern, high tech, high def stuff of today. I think Kansas only had two hits. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other hit from Kansas. The sound isn't particularly great though.</span><br />
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<object height="364" width="445"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/CB17uWuBrL0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/CB17uWuBrL0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-9362036479051616402009-11-28T10:57:00.000-08:002009-11-28T10:57:01.073-08:00The Muppets Take on Queen<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I never was a big fan of Queen other than a few songs. One of their biggest hits, Bohemian Rhapsody was never a song I particularly liked. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, I've always been a fan of the Muppets and they do a really funny rendition of that old Queen classic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enjoy!</span><br />
<object height="360" width="580"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/tgbNymZ7vqY&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/tgbNymZ7vqY&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="580" height="360"></embed></object>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-90876536596411708552009-11-27T19:57:00.000-08:002009-11-27T20:02:55.451-08:00If You Must Shop--15 Toys NOT to Buy Your Kids! Also, 12 Days of Palin<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indeed, as soon as I saw the pics and captions of the </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/27/15-toys-not-to-buy-your-k_n_351369.html?slidenumber=mOUGXKuMGkw%3D"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">15 toys not to buy your kids, ever</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> in Huffington Post. I honestly can't believe there are twisted sociopathic minds at work when creating these toys. YIKES!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Violence, sexism and racism are the main themes. Even Elmo lost his innocence after you change his battery. Imagine my horror when I found that was made by Fisher Price. Yeesh!! What happened to those old FP education toys my generation grew up with? Toys that forced us to be imaginative.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No wonder susequent generations are becoming scarier, if they're growing up on toys like I just saw.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another reason to hate commercialism. Another reason to hate the holidays.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh wait! Here' s a new version of an old Christmas carol sure to upset the Blogging Tories and the Tea-baggers. Here are the <a href="http://swamijim-1.newsvine.com/_news/2009/11/22/3530249-the-twelve-days-of-palin?last=1259010204&threadId=730348&sp=0&pc=25#master"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>"Twelve Days of Palin"</b></span></a></span><br />
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</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-74509826181483241222009-11-27T18:55:00.000-08:002009-11-27T18:55:23.019-08:00Me Blog and I got Mentioned on the Redneck Radio Show Tonight (Talk about Real Discrimination)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, it was mentioned not even an hour ago; Ryan, dear, you should have mentioned my blog's name on the air. Damn, because I dare say if he did mention my blog by name or something like CK of <i>Sister Sage's Musings</i>, my readership would probably go up. I'd probably also have his fans bombarding my comments' section with even more wingnuttery; assuming my comments section worked! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been told by some that my comments section still doesn't really work. Unfortunately, I'm not that tech savvy to fix it. Plus, I'm planning to move the show in the new year to wordpress. Blogger has been a lot of trouble for me and I want my own url. I also have future projects and need certain flexibility I don't think I can have with Blogger.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One such wingnut fan who calls other shows on CJAD, known simply as Dr Jeff (I wonder if he's really that blubbery blogging tory-groupie Dr Roy Eappen?) who called Redneck Ryan's show to call me a bully and a hypocrite. Really Rich! Yah, is Dr Jeff even his real name? Is he even a doctor? Highly unlikely. Real doctors don't have time to call radio show hosts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The reason I don't call those radio stations is that most who oppose a host from Astral Radio stations don't get air time. Their calls are usually screened out by the screener or the host, him/herself will cut the caller off. Most of them are guilty for it. I had sent an email to one CJAD host who answered me back but it was feeble. A generic thank you for listening without answering my questions or directly addressing my points. I stopped emailing after that, but I digress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What set off his mentioning my blog on the air was tonight, I did something different. I tweeted him. He was spouting more racist views and whining about how white men are having a harder and harder time to find work. He was talking about some job opportunity advertised for some federal government agency. What pissed off the radio host was the ad gave the usual standard visual minorities, women, the disabled, aboriginals encouraged to apply. Nothing wrong with it. A non-issue really; it's standard on most help wanted ads. Apparently, reverse racism in Ryan Doyle land. He's in good company with <a href="http://dodocanspell.blogspot.com/2009/11/america-no-country-for-white-men.html"><b><i><span style="color: #990000;">Dodo Can't Spell</span></i></b></a>: I'm sure he'd just love the picture of that coin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I always knew he was racist. I mean, he even sympathized with that justice of the peace in Louisiana who refused to perform a marriage ceremony for an interracial couple. If that ain't racist. I pretty much let that slide; so did the rest of the world it would seem. I'm also guessing that most progressive bloggers don't tune into Astral Talk Radio shows neither, unless for the same reason some read the Blogging Tories and/or Asper papers: for the entertainment of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What made me decide to tweet him this evening was he was infuriating when saying things like white men need not apply; implying that the government (and other employers) was practicing discrimination--against white men. I started tweeting him, poking fun at him; getting nasty basically saying he has no clue about how discriminatory employers can be; that he had an easy life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First of all, I (as well as others I'm sure) barely pay attention to those equal opportunity captions in job offers, simply because they're nothing more than tokens; almost like they have to insert it. Particularly with government jobs. They're just words worth nothing more than the paper or screen they're printed on. A good example would be here, in the province of Quebec.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't get me wrong, I love living here and I work for a Quebec Government Social Services Agency; the only one that serves the Anglophone population of all of Quebec. It is the only agency that really hires the most diverse group of people. Just one of the reasons it's such a great place to work and I'm thankful everyday I was hired there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, that is not the case for the other Quebec Government jobs. No one talks about it, but everyone knows it, if one doesn't have a French sounding name, they don't get hired. The same is also for a lot of large Quebec companies. I'm sure that if one were to find an employee directory in any of those agencies or companies, one would only find French sounding names. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been discriminated against as recently as late last year/early this year. I had been out of work for five months. I was registered with every placement agency. I even joined La Passerelle, an organization that helped people over 40 with career transition and/or finding work. A very necessary service, because, folks over 40 are fucked when it comes to the job market. I speak from experience. It is a major reason why it took me so long to find work. Again, no one talks about it, but it happens. Otherwise, organizations like La Passerelle wouldn't need to exist. Every group workshop over there was packed, to the point they had to schedule two sessions of each workshop. And yes, Ryan there were plenty of white men there too having difficulty finding work because of their age; not their skin colour or gender.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have had several different trades. I have two professional certificates and went to University. I speak, read and write both English and French. With that, I have many skills and experiences to be an asset in any office. Unfortunately, I'm over 40 and as I've found, most office positions require one to be a young sex kitten. A slave to fashion. Nope, clean colour coordination just ain't enough anymore. Gotta have them designer labels. This is how shallow many employers have become.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I went to get my last professional certificate in 2007, an HR consultant came to give us tips on how to find work and how to write up that old resume, and of course, marketing ourselves. I was the youngest in the class at the tender age of 39; most were in their late 40s and 50s. The consultant admitted to us that employers practiced discrimination (and no, not against young white men, now). He admitted to us that we had to work a lot harder at marketing ourselves on the job market, because of our age. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For some in the group who had foreign sounding names, the consultant went in so far as to suggesting they change the spelling of some of the names. For example, someone's last name was 'Damas'; also the French word for Damascus, Syria. Something the consultant strongly believed would be problematic. I kid you not!!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm certain in the rest of the country, it's not much better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No Ryan, your white bread world has got it real good. You should be thankful for your blessings and try to empathize with others rather than condemn them the way you do on your show. Thus, one example as to why your show is an example of irresponsible media.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, Ryan, you once again exaggerated on your show. You said that I blogged about you everyday of the week. Well, no, I actually only have four posts ranting about your antics. Four out of 97 posts. This will be number five.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, you thought you could scare me, you fool? You thought you could insult me? The best you can come up with is that I never thought you would potentially at least hear or read about my blogs? That I underestimated your ability to use the internet? Congratz! Now, can you learn to improve that short attention span of your's so you can stop exaggerating? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides exaggerating on the content of my blog, you also exaggerated when talking about Michael Moore's last movie when you wanted the workers sitting in at the factory to get all locked up in jail and were disappointed when they won the right to have the wages that were owed to them. Exaggerated when you said that Moore praised Obama a lot when he did nothing of the kind. I'm sure there are other examples, but I don't hear you every night as you seem to think I do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reading my tweets on the air was a nice touch. Before you start reading blogs you don't get, start with something easy, some fiction like <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: line-through;">Romper Room</span> oops! I mean the Blogging Tories.</span><br />
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</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-64845298579558554102009-11-26T17:49:00.000-08:002009-11-26T17:54:24.799-08:00When the Tough get going: Stevie Runs Away<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a reason I left that little Stevie pic in that Carmen Sandiego theme on my sidebar. This just keeps on being a recurring theme with him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To summarize: when there are UN climate talks, he goes to have din din with Mayor Bloomberg. When Obama gives speeches at UN week; he comes home for Timmy's Donuts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Immediately following the leak of that video behind closed doors, he was incognito only to crawl out of his snake hole for 9/11 memorials a day or two later. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The height of the H1N1 crisis; the bungling of pandemic plans and vaccination campaigns gone haywire, Stevie pulls another disappearing act yet again: he's on the east coast trotting off with the Royal Twits Charlie and Camilla, leaving the clearly unqualified Agluquack in charge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He takes off for India for photo ops in for Bollywood reality TV to escape, yes, the tortured Afghan detainee scandal. He comes home briefly only to stifle testimony or other things to pretend the torture never happened or to actually attempt to justify breaking international law. He ain't stayin' long though.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember Copenhagen Climate change talks? That place he was never goin' to go? Don't get too surprised: he still don't care about the environment. He still has no plans to do anything about climate change. No, it isn't about giving the illusion that Canada cares on the world stage. Bingo! Keep in mind, would he really go to Copenhagen, Barack Obama or no Barack Obama presence; whether or not any world leaders showed up, if it weren't for that pesky Afghan detainee thing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That scandal is about to get worse for him. When even the likes of the Rush Limbaugh of Astral Media Radio, Ryan Doyle start condemning Afghan detainee torture and start demanding answers on his radio show; you kind of get the feeling, this ain't a goin' away so fast. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt__lkqg6j25ZDU2aCyrpfhHYqf49PyAfSsV4lP_bnmZe3EP7tkdIKESTMh0Oiztj9mLBt8MmEnVaHkq14gV6oBFSwriaRWYHcdHdBdnbFbAb7LxolK1CS4Nmihf52F1lbxCCc3UzIT6I/s180/stevie-intro.gif" width="593" /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Y</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">es, in my opinion, the above cartoon will best define the leadership of ol' Stevie. During any crisis or scandal or blunder from one of his flunky ministers, we shall all be asking: 'Where in the world is Stephen Harper?'</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Between allowing torture to happen and not even attempting to respect the Kyoto accord, Stevie could become a fugitive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end, perhaps the only place Stevie can go is here:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hopefully, before he flushes Canada into oblivion.</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-8192132254927235832009-11-25T19:58:00.000-08:002009-11-25T19:58:38.710-08:00Test and to move the showThis is a test. I have heard from some that they couldn't comment at the end of my posts. I changed the settings as some may have noticed. I would just like to know if the comments work. Thanks.<br />
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I am actually considering moving the show and using wordpress. I would like my own domain. I have other projects down the road that I would like on that new site, so...<br />
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I would like to hear from those who use wordpress; is this recommended? Also, at wordpress.org, they had a list of hosts with so many different prices and packages that are, of course, wordpress compatible. Anyone have any recommendations?<br />
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Thanks for any assistance!CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-65330794547284658122009-11-25T19:24:00.000-08:002009-11-25T19:24:09.342-08:00What's The Appeal with See Sawah Run? And Purity Pledge<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is the appeal indeed? Well, last night, I posted a video on <a href="http://sistersagesmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/ok-these-supporters-are-dumber-than.html"><b><span style="color: #990000;">my page</span></b></a> with fans waiting at a book signing in Ohio who's best answers to what I found to be questions that weren't hard, were uh, huh, uh, I dunno, some answered with a few actual sentences that sounded even dumber than than the 'I dunno's', the Uh's, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beware, Boys and Girls, this is another nicotine withdrawal bad day so not too many folks will be spared in tonight's posting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We know why boys like Justin with his raging tory hormones like her: he sees her in his wet dreams along with Carrie Prejean.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just visited SUZY ALLCAPSLOCK's page where <span style="color: #990000;"><b>s</b></span></span><a href="http://noapologies.ca/?p=5367"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>he wrote an article about the subject</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Long winded. Same as the comments she has on her BBW page; basically, Sawah's not dumb: it's just that us lefties don't like her. Wow, what a justification here! We don't like her; we never did and we openly admit this. How does this take away from the fact that she's still dumb?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ah, another wingnut from the Blogging Tories: Dodo! Here is something new and well, it does bring stupid to new heights. Read </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://dodocanspell.blogspot.com/2009/11/sarah-palin-one-can-love-her-or-hate.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>her post</b></span></a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> if you dare. As Fern Hill </span><a href="http://scathinglywrongrightwingnutz.blogspot.com/2009/11/perfect-cartoon-for-palins-book-tour.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b> from <i>Dammit Janet</i></b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> </i>pointed out, that Dodo does seem to have a certain fixation for extinct animals. Since she never allows my comments at her blog to see the light of day because, free speech is for her and not for me, I will comment here. Bottom line is, apparently, we on the left are very unhappy people; which is why we criticise See Sawah Run. Here is an exerpt which is a fave of mine: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>These haters of Palin are jealous of the woman. Palin has accomplished in her 40+ years what a whole lot of these empty headed feminist bimbos have never been able to, even if they are staggering towards their 6-foot underground dwelling within the next little while. Most of these feminist haters of Palin have never been mothers, having probably aborted their babies at least once during their lifetimes, never had a loving, strong, deep relationship with either a partner or husband, never had a proper family life, never had loving parents, never had a successful career, never known the joy of hunting, never even been on a single fishing trip and has never known a deep lasting friendship. There is nothing in their lives that is good and meaningful so when they see an embodiment of what a woman of character and substance is really like, they are burned with jealously and hatred of the worst kind. It hits them that they took the wrong path and now it is a bit too late to change their ways."</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;">OH NO! That Dodo just set my therapy back by three years or so. Hand me those cigarettes and that booze now, babe! All this, because I never knew the joys of watching Bambi get shot to death in the woods or sat in a boat to fish, an activity that is less exciting than watching paint dry.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ladies from Progressive Bloggers and other like minded female bloggers: WE'S DOOMED according to Dodo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh Dodo, I think it is you that is unhappy. Unhappy and paranoid; you seem to see evil lefties everywhere you look, including the pantry no doubt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seriously though: as amusing as speculating about See Sawah run for pres can be, it is serious: I dare to say she's even dumber than Georgie Jr. She may even need help from Dan Quayle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are some '<a href="http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/sarahpalin/a/palin-top-10.htm"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Palinisms'</b></span></a> : Some you already have heard and some you may have forgotten.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2008/10/05/in-slip-up-palin-calls-afghanistan-our-neighboring-country/"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Afghanistan is our neighbouring country</b></span></a> Ya know, I thought my geography sucked worse than my spelling, but that just don't sound correct.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about the time she was duped by the French language radio hosts from CKOI FM in Montreal into believing they were Nicolas Sarkozy?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She feuds publicly with a teen-ager. How dignified is that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My big question that no one seems to remember really or talk about and it is in Sawah's book (fiction I know): the GOP blamed her for the John McCain loss in 2008. It got to the point they went to her home in Alaska to claim the clothes she purchased for the campaign trail on their dime. Clearly, they regretted selecting her to run with McCain. Why on earth would the GOP endorse her to be president? Unless, of course she joins that new Tea Bagger Party; the Tea Party Party (TeePeePee? Great acronym).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, the nerve of Sawah! After hiding behind a security detail, <span style="color: #990000;"><b>S</b></span><a href="http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/11/24/11913396-cp.html?cid=rssnewscanada"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>he basically told Marg Delahunty/Mary Walsh</b></span></a> from <i>This Hour has 22 Minutes: </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>“Canada needs to dismantle its public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit.”</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yikes! Nice that she and others like her care more about the free markets and corporations to make profits rather than caring for actual sick human beings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I came across this at <i>Enormous Thriving Plants</i> this fine evening. It's a <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_11/021135.php"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>RNC purity pledge</b></span></a> for GOP members. Here goes:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(1) Smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill</span></span><br />
</blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Except, wasn't that Georgie's stimulus bill? Obama is just continuing where Georgie left off. </span></span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(2) Market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;</span></span><br />
</blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That has proven to not work over the years. Not very Christian of you folks to not provide health care for all, including the downtrodden </span></span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(3) Market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;</span></span><br />
</blockquote> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">(4) Workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check</span><br />
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<blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(5) Legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;</span></span><br />
</blockquote> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh Hell, why stop there? Oppose immigration of any kind!</span></span><br />
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<blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(6) Victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;</span></span><br />
</blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Well, it looks like Obama is about to follow that advice by caving in and sending 34 000 troops. Hey, this should make you happy; like Lyndon B Johnson's presidency was sunk by the Vietnam war, these wars will be Obama's Vietnams </span></span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(7) Containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat</span></span><br />
</blockquote> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">(8) Retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Yes, let's defend all marriage acts: heterosexual and homosexual</span></span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(9) Protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and</span></span><br />
</blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hmm! Is that what a public option among other things in the health care reform supposed to do? Also, as to the rationing and denying health care, isn't the market system already accomplishing those two items?</span></span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(10) The right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership</span></span><br />
</blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, of course not, there's just not enough gun tragedies going on </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And what does this have to do with Reagan? <i>"President Ronald Reagan believed ... that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent," </i>the resolution states. With that in mind, if a candidate strayed from the list on three more issues, the RNC resolution, if approved, would block him/her from receiving financial support and/or official endorsements.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Oh and don't forget, only watch Faux News because it's all you can trust. Take an interview with any other network and that's a mark against the purity pledge.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Well, I guess the idea of Centrists doesn't exist. I've noticed that most so-called American Centrists lean to the right anyway and they have no trouble leaning further to the right, just to avoid Evil Socialism! Most don't know the meaning of the word, but it's been so perversed and now considered such a bad word that the true meaning of Socialism is now going to need another word.</span></span><br />
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</span>CKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10762523064802036223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769040049822797439.post-30095604503155538252009-11-24T20:06:00.000-08:002009-11-24T20:06:23.767-08:00Ed Broadbent is on the Right Track, But Solutions Need To Go FurtherI<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'m talking about </span><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/how-to-end-child-poverty-tax-the-rich/article1374806/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Ed Broadbent's article</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> in the <i>Globe and Mail</i> regarding child poverty here in Canada. It was supposed to be eliminated by 2000, but of course this never happened. According to Broadbent, one of the main reasons for this is </span><br />
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"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">mostly it is the product of governments that have neither shared nor cared. As a Unicef report last Friday pointed out, Canadian politicians have failed our children. During the 1990s, the federal government abandoned a leadership role for Canada's poor. It unilaterally cancelled the Canada Assistance Plan with the provinces, eliminated all low-cost housing programs, ceased to set the pattern for minimum wages and failed to bring in a national child-care program. Perhaps most serious and unbelievable of all, it exacerbated the inequality that was emerging in the marketplace by changing the income-tax system to the advantage of the richest Canadians."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">His solution? To start taxing the rich. Obviously, a no brainer.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"For more than a decade, it is upper-income Canadians – not the poor or middle class – who have disproportionately benefited from globalization and deregulation. Therefore, I say that increasing their share of income taxes would be based on neither greed nor class envy. It should be called justice."</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">This <a href="http://choiceforchildcare.blogspot.com/2009/11/ed-broadbent-on-child-poverty.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Blogging Tory</b></span></a><span style="color: #990000;"><b>,</b></span> of course disagrees with taxing the rich because: </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Taxing the rich will just make them get more tax breaks in other ways, currently most people who are extremely rich do not pay an adequate amount of tax comparably to lower and middle incomes because of all the tax alleviations for them."</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">I agree with that statement, so instead of just leaving them alone, we need to go further: let's start plugging all those legal tax loopholes that the rich and the corporations rely on. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">More needs to be invested in job training so the unemployed can either gain or upgrade skills particularly if their trades are considered now obsolete due to the changes in technology and trends.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/how-to-end-child-poverty-tax-the-rich/article1374806/"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Countries like Finland, Denmark and Sweden have managed to almost eliminate child poverty</b></span></a><b>.</b> Countries under Socialist regimes (more or less, anyway), where taxes are much higher. A lot of folks would balk at this but the fact is those countries tend to enjoy a higher standard of living. Norway was rated #1 in the world recently by the United Nations.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">I also strongly believe that attitudes need to change. We are following the <a href="http://sistersagesmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/canadians-condemned-bush-jrs-america.html"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>greedy self-centered, self justifying ways of the U.S.</b></span></a><span style="color: #990000;"><b> </b></span>We need to stop relying on stereotypes that help us sleep easily at night like, 'oh, they're only welfare folks, siphoning off the tax payers' or finding some way to blame the poor families themselves.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">The G & M article points out that most of these parents of poor kids are workers. More often, than not, a two income family. The days of the luxuries of a stay at home parent is as obsolete as the typewriter, unless one parent is lucky enough to be able to work at home and even then, it is often at even less money. Fact is that salary increases as a whole don't seem to catch up with the rise of the cost of living.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Attitudes like those of folks like Kathy Shiddle, who admits to hating the poor and nothing should be done to help them, need to change. She is certainly not alone.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">It is even worse when a politician comes out with the same attitude. Yesterday, Gerald Keddy told <a href="http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1154284.html"><i><b><span style="color: #990000;">The Chronicle Herald</span></b></i> </a> exactly what he thought of the unemployed of Halifax: </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Nova Scotians won’t do it — all those no-good bastards sitting on the sidewalk in Halifax that can’t get work."</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">He has offered a rather hollow apology for that statement. We knew that he means it, because it's attitudes like that that contribute to child poverty. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">The fact is, most would like to work and would not be all that difficult. The problem is with a lot of employers, particularly in difficult times because they know they have their pick of the lot and yes, they do discriminate. That's what the selection process is all about. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">I'm saying, for example, the person who took a few years off work either voluntarily and involuntarily; like staying home to raise kids and then all of a sudden losing their spouse (and their income), the ex-convict (yes, it is a vicious circle for them: don't have to hire them in a bank or anything like that, but how would sweeping floors or washing dishes or even low level office work hurt anything?) or the person who was on welfare for a few years for whatever reason (be it for medical reasons or other). An employer sees a gap in the CV, they tend to discard it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">I have also heard of and experienced this myself while looking for work. As an administrative worker by trade, I had noticed that looks and youth were and still are as or even more important than qualifications. Particularly for a receptionist: they are viewed upon as more window dressing than anything else in a lot of industries. More evidence of society becoming more and more shallow.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">Instead of calling the jobless lazy or "no good bastards", perhaps try giving a chance to an unemployed person and hire them. They just may surprise you.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">The poor do need help of some kind in order to get out of their situation; not just by charity but also someone who is willing to help them help themselves.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">Sidenote: Here is a great program that helps provide breakfasts, hot lunches and snacks to poor school children if you wish to make a donation if you're from Montreal. <a href="http://www.generationsfoundation.com/execreport.htm"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>The Generations Foundation</b></span></a>. For those outside of Montreal, I'm sure they're must be similar organizations that help poor children and their families, please either volunteer or make a donation.</span></span><br />
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