Political Lexicon Decrypted

New Shiny Edition: You Can Look, but Don't Touch!

2006-11-17T22:02:00.000-05:00

BEHOLD! I have a new shiny edition of my blog! It is bigger, better and no longer located on blogger, which has a beta that makes a Microsoft beta look impeccable.

The Political Lexicon Decrypted is moving on in the world. But, don't fear, you can still read the bullshit that we're known to crank out for no price!

Come visit us at: Weasel Weekly.

Municipal Elections: Misunderstood and Signficant

2006-11-12T16:58:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, Monday November 13, 2006 is an important day for the city of Toronto and its outlying suburbs. It's the mayoral, as well as city councillor and school trustee election.

This is, fundamentally the most important level of all three governments because it is the one closest to the people, it affects is the most, and it does the most for us on a daily basis.

While we the people of Toronto are being neglected by the tax-cut happy Conservatives who will do nothing for the average Canadian citizen, the city council is doing more for us. They're sending out the snowploughs to keep the streets clear, they're sectioning off money to fund our public transit and much more to try and make do with what little we have.

The city has the most responsibilities, but the least amount of funds.

People are cynical and think the city is run by foolish, corrupt politicians.

This isn't true. While corrupt politicians exist at each level, the source of the city's funding woes truly lie with the provincial and federal government. They receive the biggest slice of the taxes from the city of Toronto, and give almost nothing back.

We're the busiest and the largest of all the Canadian cities, but we're taken for granted.

It's because people see the city as powerless that they refuse to go out and vote; they believe that nothing can be done to change the way the city looks and feels.

But, that's wrong. If you place your vote in the box, even for one person, you're making it known you care about the city just as much as the province and federal government.

I missed the last municipal election because I didn't give a damn.

I changed my mind since. Why? I read a book, an interesting one... I might have written about it in a previous blog, Speaking Out by NDP leader Jack Layon, a former councillor for the city of Toronto.

One thing that struck a note with me was just how much the city does for us compared to the provincial and federal governments in terms of social services, ranging from transit to upkeep of civil infrastructure.

There are so many services that the city funds that we just don't know about because we never hear about. We simply expect it to be there because it always has.

But, if they disappeared then we would more than notice.

Even if you don't think it'll make a difference, you should still vote. Why? Because we have the ability to do that.

Remembrace Day

2006-11-11T23:47:00.000-05:00

[Source Theo Moudakis of The Toronto Star]

Some people say we need to celebrate Remembrance Day by having a moment of silence to reflect upon the sacrifices that our veterans made in the two world wars. I don't believe that the moment of silence does this day justice any more. That sacred moment of silence has been copied and moved around to suit the occasion, thus losing its original symbolism.

I am replacing the moment of silence with something more profound. This blog entry. I am celebrating the freedoms that we were granted through the sacrifices of those who died overseas by using that freedom to post to the internet and express myself without worry of persecution because I have different thoughts and beliefs.

Instead of having a moment of silence to remember and reflect upon the actions of the soldiers who won us our much loved freedom, show your appreciation by doing something that you can only do with such freedom.

Be creative.

National Novel Writing Month

2006-11-03T12:58:00.000-05:00

November is National Novel Writing Month.

Or so it is according to:

The objective of this challenge is to in one month, write a 50,000 work novella.

You might be wondering what's with the word count above. Well, if you have a friend also doing it, you can watch their progress versus yours. As of the date and time this post goes up, I was leading (ScreechingWeasel); we'll see where my friend and I stand in one month's time.

Now, I'm off to write!

Customer Support Line: The Eteneral Headache

2006-10-25T11:23:00.000-04:00

There is nothing worse than having something you expect to work because you pay dearly for the service, for it to break down. This applies to anything, whether you bought it under a warrant, or you're paying a monthly fee for a service like internet or cable TV.

That alone is irritating, the worse part is having to make that dreaded call to the customer inquiry hotline, and plod through the clumsily developed system that requires you to speak to a machine that often doesn't understand what you say because it is poorly configured and the programming behind it is inherently flawed.

The days of simply pushing the corresponding number to get to where you want to go are gone; it's been replaced by voice recognition, which isn't nearly as useful as the button system.

One such example of this "technology", which is to make our lives "easier" is the system that Rogers uses. You call one number and you're greeted by a generic male voice which sounds distinctly mid-western American; that flat toneless accent. Listening to it is an insult to one's intelligence.

This says nothing of the range of support you get. It can go from scripted mediocrity to something that could be considered passable tech/helpdesk tech support, though it has failed to impress me.

The kind of support given to the average computer user seems lacking most days. The people they hire are lacking something as well - knowledge of the subject matter that comes from something other than a brief 15-minute orientation and a script that they can read off, in an attempt to pass it off as their own knowledge.

If you want to get anywhere, you've got to know how to by the first line; you've got to breech the line of ignorance. But, be prepared to face more waiting. Long queues are the company's way of getting people to be complacent due to impatience and willingly accept the first spoon full of bullshit that is shoved in our faces.

Often, they can give you the feeling that they just aren't listening to you, and try and force you to do it their way, even though it's clearly wrong.

I'm glad the only time I've ever needed to call in is when my external connection actually fails... Of course, if it happens, I can be prepared to deflect their condescending, patronisation that they use to give themselves a sense of self-inflated satisfaction from being able to "help" someone instead of just answering a question and letting the person be on their way.

By the Bloated Numbers

2006-10-22T14:32:00.000-04:00

In the year of 1915, two years before the United States of America knew thw reality of the Great War (World War One), the population of that nation hit the milestone of one hundred million people (100,000,000).

In 1967, at the height of an era that saw the rise of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and Detriot was plagued by the infamous race riots that killed many, the population of the USA hit a second milestone, it passed two hundred million (200,000,000).

Now, a short 39 years later, in 2006, this year, the population of the USA has hit three hundred million (300,000,000).

Yes, it doesn't sound like much when one considered the vast populations of India and China, which stand respectively at 1,110,000,000 and 1,313,333,000. China has 20% of the world's population, India has 16% of the world's population, while the US now has 4.5% of the world's total population.

Or, I could put it another way... for every 9 people in the USA, there is 1 person on Canada (pop. 32,654,500).

While it is a large population, it isn't as densely populated as many European nations, which while having tinier populations, have far less living space.

In this year's Congressional and Senator elections, which segment of the 300,000,000 US citizens will be represented fairly? The same number as always, because of the disfunctional electoral college, built on partisan politics, with no room for a third party option.

Source

TTC: A Broken, Flawed System

2006-10-19T14:41:00.000-04:00

The TTC, and other forms of public transportation, at least in North America are part of a greater system that broke many years ago due to the "Common Sense Revolution" in which the funding for such systems were massively clawed back, despite that the energy crisis of the 70s had served as a stern walk-up call for car owners, who switched from their large land yachts to smaller, more economy-efficiant vehicles for a short time. They threw aweay that idea in the 90s with the introduction of the "SUV" - the bane of the road!

The roads are crawling with over-sized inefficiant SUVs and mini-vans,which in rush hour are driven by only one person. These vehicles aren't alone on the road, there are also standard size cars and pick-up trucks. In the midst of the traffic jungle exists another type of vehicle that embraces a more "communist" way of getting around, public transit!

Buses, subways and street cars make up the types of vehicles in this particular class. They carry massive numbers of people, often crammed into a tiny space with no breathing room, giving the commuter the unmistakeable experience of being a "sardine" in a very tightly packed can.

One can get such an experience in Toronto rush hour, especially if they ride one of many "frequently" running buses that speed through the streets, ignoring stops because they're packed to the teeth with disgruntled workers and the like. But, don't fret, there will be another bus just behind it that has nobody on it. They prefer to pack one bus before using a more spacious one to accomdate the many bodies.

There is nothing quite like sitting on a bench seat in the bus and having some very LARGE person sit next to you, and be pushed to one side because their ass is unable to fit in the standard size bus seat. Matters are made worse if you're unluck enough to be seated between two people of this size. They seats are unable to contain the oozing masses of fat that seem to roll over the seat and into yours, making you not only extremely uncomfortable at the close quarters, but, it leaves you feeling like a breast in a mammogram.

The drivers, while some are friendly, I find that some are often surely and unhelpful. Or, they don't stop the bus when you clearly want to get on and they haven't even left the station.

No matteyr how much you run, it is often futile because these drivers refuse to stop once that foot feels the very tip of the pedal. What the hell is this, Speed? The bus can't go under 50km/h lest it blows up simply because there is room for one more person to get on?

Or, the subways. I find that often they don't give you any time at all to get on or off during rush hour. There is only time for the massive number of bodies to depart before the bells ding signalling that the doors will close, despite that people haven't got on yet.

The trains either run too close together or too infrequently...

Or... the drivers, whether of a bus or train wait at a station for a long period of time, making us people impatient, while they go do something other than their job.

I thought this was supposed to be the better way?

I doubt it is... it's just one more headache.

Cyber Nations - Another Way to Avoid Work!

2006-10-11T09:03:00.000-04:00

If NationStates isn't enough of a distraction for you, then, like me, you'll want something more! Something that lets you have more control over your nation other than picking an option in an issue that you find utterly asinine.

So, why not step on over to Cyber Nations and make your own nation! You get more control, and best of all, you can be really nice and have your people be happy or be a real asshole and make your people extremely miserable!

I have my own, and unlike NS it actually looks like a real nation, none of that 6+ billion population shit... Kousei.

Best of all, you actually get to declare war on your least favourite nation! Think of all the n00bs that get pwn'd!

Tim Hortons: The Assistant Manager from Hell

2006-09-11T13:10:00.000-04:00

The route from the bottom of the food chain to the top can be hellish.

One must start out at the bottom. The people at the bottom of the ladder are blamed for everything that goes wrong because it is easier. These people are simply just "pond scum" and are treated like that by those above them, whether due to being in a supervisory position, or having a certain amount of seniority.

As one rises, they quickly forget how it felt to be treated like a bottom sucker.

The sense of seniority quickly gets to them; a position of authority erases the last memory of being a bottom sucker. Power is a delicate mistress, who can be the harbringer, the deceiver. This little mistress entices her new arrivals.

This is no less true for the assistant manager I had to deal with in my short time there. Not only was she not the most diplomatic person I ever met, but, I often got the feeling that she hads no qualms singling out those she didn't like and accusing them very randomly.

If something went wrong, even if you were on break, if she didn't like you, I'm sure it is why you were blamed.

I remember being blamed because there were coffee grounds that had landed outside of the garbage bin. I had been on break, and when I got back, she was sweeping up and pointed it out to me. I hadn't been the only person using that trash can, but, she singled me out anyway and had me cleaning it up instead of actually helping with the customers (and then accuses me of being "slow"...) uh-huh...

Or... the customers have stopped coming for about one minute and you want to take a breather? HAH! Forget it, she was on my case about how I needed to make sure my stocks were full. While it's ok to point out this, there is such a thing as being overzealous.

Then there's the deli... not such a bad thing until you encounter peanut butter and sweaty hands. Yes, after you apply peanut butter to a bagel, you've got to remove your gloves because there is always someone who's hyper-allergic to peanuts. So, it's busy and you've got to work solo - damn hard if youi've got to change gloves and you get no sympathy because no one gives a damn that you need help.

Of course, she doesn't help matters. Her method of helping is to demean you and make you feel like you've done nothing, even though you've tried to ask for help, explaining that your hands are sweaty and the gloves won't go on...

The little things she picks on; it must make her feel like a big woman. After all, she's going nowhere in life. As is the fate with most people in managerial positions in the service industry.

She has no concept of how to treat people fairly.

It really showed through when a nice co-worker of mine found a cigarette butt that had wound up in the fridge. My co-worker didn't name anyone because she didn't think that anyone had actually put it there. She just happened to be working in the baking area the day the assistant manager was there.

The assistant manager called me into the back, and accused me without even asking me anything before hand. She came out and accused me of smoking during work hours and then allowing for the offending cigarette to wind up inside the fridge.

My co-worker seemed surprised.

I tried to defend myself. I don't smoke and this was a serious allegation, especially given the way the company deals with people who actually DO smoke on their breaks. I heard one story where a young man was fired and was arrested... it seems extreme, but, it really did happen.

I tried to explain to the assistant manager that I don't smoke, and that the only way it could've got into the fridge was for the butt to have been on the bottom of a container.

I then added that the previous shift I had been baking and I had been refilling the fridge with the supervisor and I was bringing the containers back and forth between the fridge and the freezer OUTSIDE. I explained that it must've got stuck on the bottom after I dropped a container on the ground.

She didn't like my story and never followed up on it with the supervisor (of course she wouldn't, damn air-tight alibi, since there was someone of autority with me at the time). She then had mused out loud that it must've been another worker. She decided to accuse some young kid of sixteen, who seemed too dazed to do his job, let alone light a lighter.

I don't know what happened there, but, I imagine she got the lynch mob and went after him.

She said said she wouldn't tell the manager...

I had explained to my supervisor what she had said and he was outraged. He had been with me and knew that I didn't do anything wrong. He thought she had been very unreasonable. So did other co-workers. They found it outrageous.

She has a miserable disposition, which showed crystal clear the day I was dismissed. Before the manager had dismissed me, the assistant manager had said to me that, "no one likes you, and no one wants to work with you."

What I find the strangest of all this? When the manager was dismissing, she was not happy about it. She had told me that she tried to fight so I could stay on board. From the way she spoke, I got the impression that she had been given orders from the general manager. The GM could've influenced by the assistant manager, since the manager didn't seem like she want to dismiss me...

Moral? Assistant managers are bigger assholes than managers.

...TBC...

Related Links
Tim Hortens: Blogger's Work Experience

Tim Hortons: A Blogger's Work Experience

2006-09-09T23:45:00.000-04:00

I normally refrain from mixing my personal life and my blog, and from there, my blog and work simply because it might compromise your position at work if you do. But, there comes a time when that invisible line can be safely crossed and it is when you've either quit or been fired.

I will go back to the beginning of my summer to write about this, since my work experience at Tim Hortens, a well-loved Canadian coffee shop chain, began at the end of June 2006.

I was hired in July after one interview with the general manager and a VERY quick interview with the manager the next day. The manager had hired me without actually asking me questions that might've changed my fate for the next couple of months.

Training

I had been hired on the spot, and I was to go into work the next day for my first day of training from 3pm-6pm, a nice short, three hour shift in order to get me accustomed to the store and its basic operations.

My first day wasn't too bad. I worked with the supervisor, one of the only few nice people there. I don't have the heart to say anything bad about him, since every shift I worked with him was a good one, even if he did make me work hard, and he pushed for results. I didn't mind that because I felt like I was treated with some form of respect, or at least like a human instead of like a machine that is expected to meet up to unreasonable expectations.

I had worked almost all entirely evenings for my entire there, so, I really only worked under the supervisor’s watch. I had few shifts with the manager and the assistant manager before my employment was subsequently terminated.

Evening Shift: Cleaning Up

The evening shifts are more cleaning than chaos.

All the day shift is really good for is making a mess for the evening shift to contend with. The evening crew then has to clean up everything, the deli area, front area and the baking area. This includes moping, sweeping and cleaning the tables and counters.

If we're lucky, that was all we had to do. There were days when there was more because it was a certain time of the month, so we had to clean the walls, the panels at the lighting fixtures and even the corners in the front areas on the floor.

Cleaning the deli is ok, so long as there isn't an endless barrage of customers clamouring for bagels and sandwiches, which the deli serves. The cleaning of the deli involves refilling the condiment bottles (yellow mustard, honey mustard, mayo and Tim Sauce (ranch dressing)). Cleaning out ALL the stainless steel containers.

These containers are home to: cream cheese (strawberry, plain, plain light, garden vegetable and herb-garlic), egg salad, chicken salad, tuna, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, cheddar and swiss cheese.

The only containers that never are cleaned unless the manager requested it were the ones for the swiss and cheddar cheese. The other ones were always cleaned.

When I was taught how to do this, I was taught by someone who did it rather hastily, so, I wound up adapting my own methods because theirs didn't suit me. I was told frequently by the evening supervisor one time that I was too slow having taken an hour to do it. He compared my speed to that of another girl, blatantly ignoring that it's hard to do something in half an hour when there is an endless line of customers all wanting to get food prepared.

It is also harder to do something fast when you have to take time and temperature and make sure that the water levels in the holding containers were adequate so that the soup, chilli, bacon and chicken breasts didn't burn. They would bur if the water underneath had completely evaporated. I learned this the hard way when I was working on my own on the deli on my fourth shift.

Baking is equally as obnoxious. In the evening you have to clean and the glazing station comes apart into two pieces and both weigh a lot and are damn hard to lift up, especially when you don't know how to do it.

It comes in two pieces, the top, which has three slots for resting a tray that has freshly glazed doughnuts or Tim Bits on it. This sits over a basin where the excess glaze drips back into. The basin has rather large and has a slope, a slight incline that allows for the glaze to congeal into a nice icky mess in a trough-like catch at the bottom.

This is hard to clean especially when the glaze has congealed on and won't give. It takes boiling hot water to loosen it, and an itchy sponge to clean off the excess and the excess is a lot because the station isn't cleaned until about 6:30pm during the evening shift and the glaze had been in there for at least ten to eleven hours at that point.

If you're lucky, the layer will be thin and you can scrape it off...

What is really annoying is being told that you're doing it too slowly and no one had previously shown you nor told you how you were supposed to be doing it.

As with most of the cleaning, I was never given any real guidance and then criticised because I didn't do something right.

Well, it's fucking hard to do something "right" when you've got nothing to work on except instinct, which isn't stellar at times.

Day Shift

Plainly? They suck. They are ten times worse than the evening shift despite having to not clean anything, other than the counter with a basic rag and maybe restock the supplies, which includes cups, lids, sugar packets, sweeteners, stir sticks and straws.

It is nothing short of chaos from 7AM through to about 1PM.

There is a non-stop wave of people. It's worse than other locations because it's part of an Esso station, so people stop to fuel up in more than one way. They come in for gas and rocket fuel, which we call "coffee".

These people are in a rush and the day staff has to go from being human to being robots, machines. People who can do nothing more than recite the robotic, pre-recorded statement of "next".

The day people are rather curt, and customers who may be used to more polite statements from service industry people are in for a rude awakening.

My Colleagues

While I never had to deal with them from the customer side of the counter, I found them to be rather cold. Even when the pace slowed down significantly, I didn't feel like I was working with colleagues but rather with mundane individuals who might as well have been robots.

I never felt truly comfortable around them. They didn't seem friendly to me. They didn't act human at all. I felt so out of place when I listened to them move the line along. They didn't show an iota of politeness to their words.

I remember early on my supervisor in the evening telling me that when you call a customer that you don't say "next", but rather, "can I help the next person/customer here?" and that you need to be polite in addressing them.

All the evening workers spoke like that; they were polite when they called the people over, even when it was busy. The day people were so different. It was literally night and day.

The evening people were so much nicer, even though we got stuck with the majority of the grunt work, which is the cleaning, stocking and the like. We still found time to be nice to each other. I managed to talk to most of the people in the evening shift at least once. They spoke to me.

I only ever really spoke with two or three of the day shift people, but they quit when it came time to return to school.

I hated the morning crew; they were not my type of people. The evening people were much nicer, even if we had harder tasks to do. They were among the nicest people there, the supervisor included.

The evening people didn't complain; we shared jobs, even spoke while we worked.

...TBC...

Related Links
Tim Hortens: The Assistant Manager from Hell

FREEDOM: As a Concept Works, in Practice is Flawed

2006-08-23T10:15:00.000-04:00

The concept is flawed because we aren't truly free.

We are bound by the law of man.

Others are not only bound by the law of man, but by the law of "God", which takes away other freedoms granted by the law of man. They are bound because they are convicted in their beliefs. By shunning the oppressive draconian nature of religion, one can gain freedom. Or, some level thereof, because we are still bound by the laws of man.

If we were truly free, the laws we had would allow for freedom. But, then, we'd have anarchy. So, we aren't truly free and never will be.

Think about it.

Church Fires Teacher for Being Female

2006-08-22T12:06:00.000-04:00

1. Corinthians, 14:34-35: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."

1. Timothy, 2:11-14: "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner."

These are from the New Testament, a book that is the focal point of Protestant Christianity, and where the majority of out-of-context quotes are derived.

Wiki: Books of the Bible

There is a biblical quote for any situation, provided that the person spouting the biblical non-sense takes the word of "God" out of context, as is the norm.

It is frequently done to justify actions that would otherwise in today's western world be deemed... "discriminatory", such as dismissing someone from a position because that person is a woman.

And one of the above quotes, Timothy, 2:11-14 was used in the letter given to the woman, Mary Lambert, who had taught at the United Baptist Church in Watertown, NY for 54 years, significantly longer than the time the pastor had been at this location.

Church Fires Teacher for Being Female

Sunday School Teacher Dismissed Because She's A Woman?

The letter of dismissal was signed by the church's clerk, Kendra Labouf, the wife of Reverend Timothy Labouf. The letter wasn't even signed by the pastor himself. However, he had endorse Lambert's dismissal.

"I believe that a woman can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that she desires to" outside of the church, LaBouf wrote Saturday.

It seems that the state doesn't endorse the church's position and unlike the church, the state is in the 21st century.

Mayor Jeffrey Graham, however, was bothered by the reasons given Lambert's dismissal.

"If what's said in that letter reflects the councilman's views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age," Graham said. "Maybe they wouldn't have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now."

Further proof why religion is a pox on the backside of humanity...

Interestingly though, while the context for Lambert's dismissal was around the gender issue, she believe that her dismissal wasn't for that reason alone and that perhaps internal politics were playing a significant role in the issue.

Either way, who would dismiss someone volunteering to spread the word of "God"? Especially in a day and age where people put little "value" on the morals that the church intends to impart onto the mass, and help guide people away from a life of "sin"? I guess they figured she was doing her job too well and needed a nice little misogynist

Defending The Polar Bears From the Yankees

2006-08-18T10:54:00.000-04:00

It seems that Prime Minister Harper thinks it's far more imperative to protect the Canadian north than to attend the AIDS Conference in Toronto, that the nation had the honour of hosting. It was an excellent opportunity for the administration to show it cares, but, it seems that this doesn't fit into its neo-con agenda, since AIDS is a gay disease... and it's best contained by making marriage between homosexuals illegal...

AIDS 2006 coverage @ The Toronto Star

Hopefully, like the inadequate response with the evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon, this will come back to haunt the Conservatives at the next election. Now, we just need for the Liberals to get their act together. Hell, leaderless Liberals are doing well in opinion polls right now... they're tied with the Conservatives and their incompetent leadership.

It seems that the Prime Minister fears that the polar bears won't be there next week. It is far more important to ensure that the Yankees don't impale a Canadian polar bear with their patriotism-laden flag than to show solidarity with the world in the uphill, stalemate battle against HIV/AIDS.

Bone-Chilling Reality of Oppressive Brutality and an Assault on Freedom of Speech

2006-08-04T10:17:00.000-04:00

In 1982, Liberal leader and then Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, repatrioted the Canadian Constitution and signed into existance the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Unlike the Charter's predecessor, the Bill of Rights, signed into existance by the Conservatives, under the leadership of John Diefenbaker, was entrenched.

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

a) freedom of conscience and religion;

b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

d) freedom of association.

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

The United States of America was founded on the principle of freedom and liberty because the people who made up the original thirteen states wanted to escape the oppressive nature of the English monarchy, where there was only a King and the parliament, which had no teeth, and the nobility, which had rights from the Magna Carta of 1215. The nation didn't grant freedom and liberty to its lowest citizens.

The American Revolution in 1776 resulted in the American colonies superceding English control and becoming a nation in their own right. Many lawmakers were there, including the man who would be the first president of the newly established United States.

When the people spoke, they included this as their constitutional preamble:

...of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

In the years following, Amendments were added to the original articles of the constition, the first being: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The Constitution of the United States of America

Now, before the Senate is a treaty. It is one that is going to sneak through the Senate. It would require the US to enforce laws in its nation against otherwise legal activities regarding the internet, should the activity be considered illegal in another nation.

The World's Worst Internet Laws Sneaking Through the Senate

The treaty requires that the U.S. government help enforce other countries' 'cybercrime" laws - even if the act being prosecuted is not illegal in the United States. That means that countries that have laws limiting free speech on the Net could oblige the F.B.I. to uncover the identities of anonymous U.S. critics, or monitor their communications on behalf of foreign governments. American ISPs would be obliged to obey other jurisdiction's requests to log their users' behavior without due process, or compensation.

The treaty came into force last year on the international front, but not in the US, where it needs to be ratified by Congress first. So far, ratification has been blocked thanks to a "hold" placed by conservative lawmakers. But Republican senators this week are now being heavily pressured by the administration to drop their objections, and let it fly.

Convention on Cybercrime, Budapest, 23.XI.2001

To make laws governing the use of the internet in one's nation, provided that it doesn't spill over international borders, even if oppressive, as long as it leaves another nation's internet use unaffected, it's fine. But, should a law supercede international borders when it contravenes a basic right to freedom of speech that a nation holds dearly, a nation's core laws should override that international law by default.

read more | digg story

A Name by By Any Other...

2006-08-01T15:20:00.000-04:00

Now, let's settle this, what exactly do you call a soft drink where you live?

Do you call it a "pop", or a "soda", or are you like those crazy Texans and insist on calling ALL types of soft drinks as "coke"? Which nice generic category do you fit into?

Well, this map of the US should paint a nice general picture of what you ought to think.

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La France : le beau et compatissant

2006-07-20T13:01:00.000-04:00

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

The above is the state motto for France (République française; French Republic). It means "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", all the characeristics the French citizens associated with their country during the French Revolution of 1789.

Wiki: France

France was the original founder of Canada, before it lost it to the English in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, during the 7 Years War. The English took over and created Upper and Lower Canada, which became Canada East and Canada West, before it finally went through its total evolution to become what is present day Canada, with thousands of its citizens stranded in the warzone that is Lebannon.

The Canadian government has been slow to respond and only got one ship in, with a total of 261 Canadians officially evacuated. This figure excluded the initial number of Canadians who held dual citizenships and use them to escape on vessels belonging to other nation.

The slow response from Canada has created chaos. But, in the midst of this chaos, a country has come through for Canada - France. France, under President Jacques Chirac, who has offically extended France's help to Canada in order to evaucate its citizens along with remaining French from Lebannon.

France offers Canada evaucation help

PARIS (AP) - French president Jacques Chirac on Thursday offered a helping hand to Canada - which has up to 50,000 citizens in Lebanon - to evacuate the country under siege.

I thought there was something nice about France when I went to visit the nation about three years ago.

It doesn't matter if people see it as weak because it hasn't won a war, or any of the other negative stereotypes, because it can do something better - it can help its fellow man in a time of crisis. At Dunkirk, there were French vessels in addition to English ones that assisted with the evacuation.

In Lebannon, it is offering its help and ships to Canada to help gets Canadians out of the warzone.

"(Chirac) was very generous and spontaneously expressed the wish that we collaborate and, if the need is there, if possible, he offered French collaboration so that we can move people out," said Quebec Premier Jean Charest, after a meeting with Chirac.

Bumbling Conservatives Leave Thousands of Canucks Stranded in Hell

2006-07-20T09:40:00.000-04:00

[Editorial cartoon by Patrick Corrigan of The Toronto Star]

[Editorial cartoon by Theo Moudakis of The Toronto Star]

Hours of tears and Frustration

Only 261 Canadians able to leave; Hundreds stranded at Beirut port

Oh, such a comforting opening line for a drearily-titled article, highlighting the plight of the thousands upon thousands of Canadians stranded still in Lebannon unable to get out because of the current administration's mind-bloggling blundering incompetance and willingness to sacrifice Canada's conventional neutrality in the Mid East in order to cosy up to the Americans.

BEIRUT - Ottawa says it will take up to two weeks to rescue Canadians trapped in Lebanon after 2,000 citizens had their evacuation hopes dashed by a chaotic and gruelling attempt that left them stranded overnight at Beirut's port.
...
Canada had hoped to evacuate 4,500 citizens a day, and then scaled that down to 2,000. Foreign Affairs officials had initially hoped to complete the rescue in three days.

Just 261 Canadians were evacuated yesterday when only one of seven ships leased by Canada managed to reach Beirut's port to ferry them to Cyprus. The other 2,000 spent the night sleeping on the floor of a cavernous port building with babies crying among piles of suitcases.

It's now Thursday. We barely got any of our fellow Canadians out of hell, forcing those who were lucky enough to hold dual citizenships to flee with other foreign nationals, or even risk their lives by taking a taxi cab to the Syrian border, on the nearly bombed out road to Damascus, and eventually over to Jordan and its capital.

Initially, foreign affairs officials estimated it would take three days to complete the evacuation, but yesterday that was revised to upwards of 10 days to two weeks.

This is precisely why I despise the Conservatives - they don't know shit about efficiancy unless it comes to religion! They should step down, go pray and leave the beureaucratic process to the Liberals who know how to evacuate Canadians effectively and still somehow screw up without endangering lives.

It's not known how many of the estimated 50,000 Canadians in Lebanon - at least 30,000 of whom have registered with the embassy - will want to be evacuated. But what may become the biggest evacuation of stranded Canadians in history began as the most disorganized and stressful.

Will want to be? What kind of asinine bullplop is that question? No, a handful will want to stay because they love the uncertainty of a bloody warzone! Stupid writer...

The first group of frightened Canadians hoping to flee Israel's bombing - which has killed 300 people, mostly civilians — found themselves pushing and shoving for hours under a baking Mediterranean sun, dehydrated and in some cases fainting.

Most were tourists with limited links to Lebanon. They jammed the gates of the port where foreign affairs officials had told them to gather at 8 a.m., only to feel sweat drench their backs while Canadian embassy workers read off names on a list in alphabetical order, letting only those called out into the port.

Mothers feared for the lives of their babies as the crush of bodies squeezed out the air. Several pleaded for help until men picked up their baby carriages, raised them over the crowd, and walked them away to safety.

Is this "Standing Up for Canada", Conservatives? Is this how you live up to your flimsey election promises? You're just lying down and playing dead as the Americans hold a little treat above your head and have you parade around, humiliating the nation and selling out our interests. This is not standing up for Canada, this is leaving Canadians to suffer.

How long before more Canadians are killed unnecessarily by Israeli fire?

As night fell on the lucky few who were set to leave, passports went missing, there were rumours the ship couldn't hold all of them, and then the ground started shaking as Israeli jets bombed Beirut's southern suburbs again. Panic spread back at the port as the Blue Dawn tried to dock.

"Will they kill us on the boat?" asked Christine Dasher, a Toronto physician. "What if they have a bomb, what are we going to do?"

Oh, right, nice going Israel. That's real smart. Bombing the city the foreign nationals are trying to evacuate from... That's not going to earn you any friends. Then again, who needs friends when you've got the US watchin' your ass...

Initially, embassy officials couldn't produce the official manifest the Lebanese immigration authorities needed to allow the ship to start boarding. When they finally eased restrictions, several passports were temporarily misplaced as officials tried to hand them out in the dark.

That just seemed to create more confusion and the officials decided not to bother with passports at all, telling people just to get on the ship and that they would deal with passports later.

Did they ask the evacuees from Dunkirk during World War II for their passports as they pulled them away from the onslaught of Nazi fire? No, they got both the French and the English out of there, and it didn't matter what the nationality was.

"It's quite irresponsible of Canada," said Montreal student Mark Chebla. "We're the last country to leave so you'd think they had enough time to work things out."

Yes it is...

Escape from Beirut

One Canadian's story about travelling by car to Syria then Jordan. Like some others, she was forced to find her own way out. Others weren't as lucky due to certain reasons beyond their control.

A mother's hope turns to anguish

Kohar Tcholakian has only one question for Prime Minister Stephen Harper while she waits for word from her daughter, Lara, who is stranded in Beirut.

"If it was your children what would you do?" she asks. "Would you act so slow?"

Of course, really, would one expect the Prime Minister to do such a thing? No, he'd act quickly. But, then again, it isn't his kin who's stranded in the cross-fire hurricane.

Born and raised in Toronto, Lara holds a Canadian passport. She has felt like anything but Canadian after the Canadian Embassy turned her away at the evacuation port yesterday morning.

"She called crying on my cell at 5 a.m.," said Lara's younger sister, Garine. "`I want Canada to know how the embassy here is treating me,` she cried out. She was frantic."

Nice to know that the Canadian Embassy is giving priority to those who need it. Pregnant women, elderly and those with children have been left out in the sweltering sun and heat as they wait to leave. And, in some cases, they're all-out rejected and forced to come back later.

"She registered one week prior to going and she was called the night before," says Garine. "Even if she was not on the list, how can you turn away a pregnant woman?"

Do you think the English merchantships turned away French soldiers during the evacuation of Dunkirk? No, they banded together as allies and just took everyone they could. They all lent a hand to the British navy to help protect those who were fleeing from Nazi fire.

Swedes show the way

The Europeans have a class act.

Canada is being thoroughly embarassed by the Conservatives' overall lack of experience and intelligence in handling anything beyond a legislation that wants to raise the age of consent.

While Canada left about 2,000 of its stressed-out citizens behind yesterday to sleep on the floor of a port building, Sweden evacuated the same number of its citizens on the same day.

The 261 sweat-drenched Canadians lucky enough to be evacuated after a draining 13-hour process watched at the Beirut port as the Swedes put their last batch of the day on a ship for Cyprus.

So, let me get this straight, Sweden got the LAST of its citizens out of Lebannon while Canada was JUST evacuating the first 261?

Something isn't right. Something's horribly amiss.

On display was a bureaucratically inflexible, poorly organized process that kept people baking in the sun for hours at the port gates with no water being distributed.

They couldn't even provide water?

So, my fellow Canadians are left stranded in the cross fire hurricane, being turned back and forced to go back into the hell that they're trying to escape because of utter incompetance and those who are allowed through are being deprived of water and subject to a "list", which isn't even allowing for families to stay together?

If the Liberals were in power, they've have just taken all Canadians out and then made them wait in an airport in a true Canadian fashion, or better yet, somewherw where its nice and frigid...

Harper's flight into the unknown

Harper makes a straightforward case. As he explained his abrupt change of plans here, timing and geography put him in a position to help Canadians needing help.

"It's more than a symbolic trip," he said. "There is real need for air support in Cyprus."

So why, then, are Harper, his wife, a skeleton staff including a photographer, as well as his public relations team and RCMP bodyguards, taking up needed seats?

Why aren't they maximizing the assistance by sending an empty aircraft across the Mediterranean to the island nearest Lebanon?

The official answer is that it is too dangerous for the Prime Minister to fly on commercial aircraft. He has no choice but to stay with the plane, detour to Cyprus and bring home to Canada about 120 of the thousands fleeing Beirut by ship.

That strains credibility. It's hard to believe that taking a scheduled flight - or waiting for a government plane to arrive here - would expose Harper to more danger than flying into a chaotic region and then out again with 120 very upset people escaping a war.

It's "dangerous" for the Prime Minister to fly in a commercial airliner, but, it's not unsafe to send him closer to a warzone?

If the PM's safety was really a concern, they could've very well left them back in Paris. It would've left room for more Canadians on the craft. There was no need for him to fly out to Cyprus. They should've only taken the pilots and the cabin crew, leaving everyone else who normally uses that craft in Paris.

Last I checked, Paris isn't Toronto, is it? It's a pretty classy city and it's got nice people and safe areas for a leader to stay in.

This is precisely why I hate the Conservatives - they don't stand up for Canada!

Reports from Beirut suggest Canada's late-starting evacuation was snarled and confused. Instead of greeting Canadians relieved to see their prime minister, Harper was likely to be meeting furious citizens asking embarrassing questions.

It would be surprising if they didn't want to know why Canada, with the largest number of citizens in Lebanon, trailed others in launching its rescue effort. Even stranger if they didn't have strong opinions on Harper's seemingly cavalier acceptance of the civilian dangers inherent in Israel's "measured" response to Hezbollah kidnappings.

Asking embarassing questions? I didn't realise that they would be so diplomatic. Most would probably just fire off the usual placate Canadian obscenities, followed by a vote threat and leave the embarassing questions to the media, who will be locked out...

Rot in Hell! - Israel is a Terrorist like Hezbollah

2006-07-18T10:34:00.000-04:00

On July 17th, the day before the mass exodus had truly begun, Israel displayed its standard disregard for human life when it launched an air strike on Lebannon killing a family of seven.

Seven Canadians, all members of the same Montreal family, were killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon yesterday.

Canadian family dies in attack

Members of Montreal's Lebanese community, attending a peace rally in Montreal July 18, gather around mock coffins representing Canadians killed in Lebanon.

How is killing Canadians putting pressure on Hezbollah?

The bombing of the Canadian family came hours after a salvo of some 20 long-range Hezbollah rockets descended upon the Israeli port city of Haifa, killing eight Israelis in the deadliest attack of its kind since hostilities flared on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed "far-reaching consequences" for the Haifa attack, Hezbollah's deadliest strike ever on Israel. The morning barrage of rockets came after Israeli warplanes unleashed their heaviest strikes yet on Beirut, flattening apartment buildings and blowing up a power station to cut electricity to swaths of the capital.

"Far-reaching"? So, this means you're killing EVERYONE in the way and only issuing a warnin for civilians to leave after you've killed them with your rockets. Disgusting, just disgusting.

Oh and how is the killing of Canadians revenge for the killing of Israelis from a Hebollah rocket attack? It's not! It's pure disregard.

As much as I despise terrorists groups, at least they haven't targetted foreigners as of yet, and Israeli who's supposed to be "compassionate" and the like has shunned the shackles of common sense and allowed for their bellicose policies.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered his condolences to the families of the victims but he refused to criticise Israel or question its use of force.

And, Canada's leading asshole of a Prime Minister won't even condemn the attacks or criticise them! He doesn't give a damn about Canadians who probably didn't vote for him...

Canada's shock at Lebanon deaths

But friends and relatives of the Canadians killed in the Israeli air strike have accused the Conservative prime minister of not doing enough to protect Canadians in Lebanon.

They also accused Mr Harper of not caring about civilian lives.

Who can blame them? Harper isn't worthy of the position of Prime Minister.

So, the lives of everyone else is worthless because two damn soldiers were kidnapped?

Yesterday's most destructive attack came in the southern port city of Tyre, where Israeli warplanes struck a Lebanese civil defence building with rockets, tearing off the top three storeys, killing at least nine civilians and wounding 42, security officials said.

Now, tell me that Israel is attempting to minimise collateral damage. They aren't! They're deliberately targetting civilians.

I'd expect it from a terrorists group, not from a "democracy"... So, I guess this makes Israel's army a state-sanctioned terrorist group like Hamas, Hezbollah and many others.

Ottawa prepares exodus

Prepares?? This is precisely why I voted for the NDP, or would even accept the Liberals being in power - the Conservatives are immature and have no idea what to do in a time of crisis! Bring back the Liberals and Dan Teague who did something right the last time we had to get Canadians home!

The damn government waited too long! It waited until seven fellow Canadians suffered at the hands of Israel's warplanes.

Oust the minority government!

As of 7AM local time: Canada has 16 (citizens) aboard Italian warship to Cyprus; Canada is chartering 6 ships to begin 4,500 evacuations tomorrow. At least 50,000 Canadians are in Lebanon.

Banned and Challenge Books: Best Excuses Known to Man

2006-07-09T13:49:00.000-04:00

Throughout time, various people in numerous societies have decided that certain pieces of literature should be banned or otherwise in some shape or form, censored so that it comforms to their perceived societal values. It continues even now, and there is no real end to it, since there are people who cannot tolerate the existance of literature that challenges their narrow perspective on the world.

Now, I present to you, a cross-selection of the best excuses for banning or censoring certain pieces of literature.

I'm taking the information directly from the site and bolding the parts I find amusing.

Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings D.T. Suzuki. Doubleday. Challenged at the Plymouth-Canton school system in Canton, Mich. (1987) because "this book details the teachings of the religion of Buddhism in such a way that the reader could very likely embrace its teachings and choose this as his religion." The last thing we need are a bunch of peaceful Buddhists running around. The horror.

Uh... huh...right... So, what were they smoking and where can I get some?

Where's Waldo? Martin Handford. Little. Challenged at the Public Libraries of Saginaw, Mich. (1989), Removed from the Springs Public School library in East Hampton, N.Y. (1993) because there is a tiny drawing of a woman lying on the beach wearing a bikini bottom but no top. Yes, but did they find Waldo?

Really. I mean, if they can find the woman, surely they can find Waldo... Or were the people banning it perverted old men who wanted to horde the books for themselves so they could masterbate to the cartoon drawing of this topless chick?

Twelfth Night William Shakespeare. Airmont; Cambridge Univ. Pr.; Methuen; NAL; Penguin; Pocket Bks.; Washington Square. Removed from a Merrimack, N.H. high school English class (1996) because of a policy that bans instruction which has "the effect of encouraging or supporting homosexuality as a positive lifestyle alternative."

There were homosexual references in it? I didn't realise that when Malvolio wore yellow cross-garters that it made him a homosexual... or that there were homosexual nuances to Viola's choice to cross-dress.

The Stand Stephen King. Doubleday; NAL. Restricted at the Whitford Intermediate School in Beaverton, Oreg. (1989) because of "sexual language, casual sex, and violence."

Uhm... but it's Stephan King. He's not exactly know for his upstanding, morally righteous fairy tales. What do you expect?

The Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie. Viking. Banned in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Malaysia, Qatar, Indonesia, South Africa, and India due to its criticism of Islam. Burned in West Yorkshire, England (1989) and temporarily withdrawn from two bookstores on the advice of police. Five people died in riots against the book in Pakistan. Another man died a day later in Kashmir. Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, stating, "I inform the proud Muslim people of the world that the author of the Satanic Verses, which is against Islam, the prophet, and the Koran, and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, have been sentenced to death." Challenged at the Wichita, Kans. Public Library (1989) because it is "blasphemous to the prophet Mohammed."

Of course, it also got outrage from the same people whose underwear got in a knot over some drawings of their precious phophet. Get over it! It's just literature... Then again, it does show God having a conversation with Satan... that can't be a good thing. After all, God would NEVER do such a thing and we cannot allow the human mind to think and imagine such things... right.

The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll Jim Miller, ed. Random. Challenged in Jefferson, Ky. (1982) because it "will cause our children to become immoral and indecent." They used to say the very same thing about polyphony.

Oh? So reading a book will but not hearing the music and watching the musicians strut around, caterwauling on stage with strobe lights flashing?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis. Macmillan. Challenged in the Howard County, Md. school system (1990) because it depicts "graphic violence, mysticism, and gore." I'm sure the school system would rather have its children reading something which adheres to "good Christian values." I cannot recommend the works of C.S. Lewis highly enough. The Narnia books, in particular, are great for readers of all ages.

But, ironically, it contains heavily-influence Christian themes within. Its author was a devout Christian and had slipped instances of his faith into his writing.

Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell. Avon; Macmillan. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel was banned from the Anaheim, Calif. Union High School District English classrooms (1978). The novel was challenged in the Waukegan, Ill. School District (1984) because it uses the word "nigger."

Oh, I didn't realise that during the American Civil War, people were politically correct when they referred to their slaves. If you're going to pen a historical novel, accuracies should be taken into consideration, especially in dialogue. If the author uses modern language in the rest of the writing, but time-accurate slang in the dialogue, how is it a problem? People spoke a certain way then, and we speak a certain way now.

Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury. Ballentine. Ironically, students at the Venado Middle School in Irvine, Calif. received copies of the book with scores of words--mostly "hells" and "damns"--blacked out. The novel is about book burning and censorship. Thankfully, after receiving complaints from parents and being contacted by reporters, school officials said the censored copies would no longer be used (1992).

Ironic, isn't it? A book about censorship is censored.

The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies Vito Russo. Harper. Challenged at the Deschutes County Library in Bend, Oreg. (1993) because it "encourages and condones" homosexuality.

Oh, so, it makes it ok to be comfortable with one's sexuality? Gee, isn't that an interesting concept.

For the full list, I highly recommend going to the website. I would've love to put more of them up, but there are far too many amusing ones that I'd be writing my list all day.

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Prayer doesn't work, largest study ever finds

2006-07-06T10:57:00.000-04:00

Prayer doesn't work? Really? Next they'll be saying the sky is blue and the grass is green. Honestly, this is one of the biggest wastes of money put into a study. Ever. Though it should and ought to take the wind out of the Religious Right's sails. They've been getting a little too high and mighty lately. This moral superiority of theirs... Tsk... Something was needed. I guess this study was it.

After all, what has prayer proven anyway? Even if you do pray and it comes to pass, the chances of it being as a result of divine intervention are slim to nil because God just doesn't give a flyin' hoot no more. His inbox is just too full and he can't take all the petty praying. Of course, this is on the condition that God does exist and he isn't a figment of human imagination design to justify age old superstitions and force people into submission through the fear of etermal damnation.

I have always believed in NOT praying for me. Of course, fundie Chrisitian think that everyone wants to be in their goddamn prayers. I had to forecefully request not to be. It's sad, really. I can't stand it, and yet, they think that people want it. Of course, if their prayers aren't working and I'm still a sinnin', Godless liberal hippie, you'd think they'd get the message that God ain't doin' jack about it.

After all, God did give humans freewill, did he not? So, it means that prayers can't change another, lest he taketh freewill. The Lord taketh and the Lord giveth. Of course, this refers to everything but freewill.

Further, if prayer worked, all homosexuals would be straight and all sinners would be smoted. But, that isn't happening and it has yet to happen.

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Double Standard: Government Denies Minimum Wage Increase In Order to Raise its Salary

2006-06-28T11:05:00.000-04:00

The all mighty and all knowing Congress had decided in previous days that an increase in minimum wage wasn't a profitable idea for the time and put the concept aside because it didn't think that Americans would want it. After all, it knows what Americans want because Americans elected them to think for them.

"The whole reason we have elected officials is so that we don't have to think..." ~ Homer Simpson

Now, Congress has decided that the savings that they gain from this move is more than enough to justify their own pay raise at the expense of the taxpayer. After all, Congress isn't earning enough and the backs of the average American aren't quite broke yet. Those poor Congressmen are suffering because the Lobbyist can't line their pockets as well any more following the Abernoff scandal...

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Disturbing Facts About Voting in the USA

2006-06-27T12:53:00.000-04:00

America was once the land of freedom and democracy. It was the beacon in the storm; the pathfinder who led the world to a greater, more open system of government based on policies of transparency and integrity. Politicians would hit the old campiagn trail, bringing promises of a ham on every table, and tax cuts for all, while promising to make life better.

People would line the streets and wave their little flags as the president's convoy would drive by; the open air refreshing for the leader of the free world, as he drove by his numerous supporters and lovers of democracy and freedom.

A single shot and it all died.

The ideas of the sixties died one fateful night in 1969 and the new era set in and it was followed up by some progress, but, the conservatives began to look favourable.

Corruption became normal. Long, drawn out wars were the downfall of presidents.

History repeats itself and the very values that America one held dear are shoved aside in the name of corruption and the seeking of power.

80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

Scary little thought, isn't it?

Your vote has no paper trail...

Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

...and depsite that you may have voted democrat even though you're living in Florida...

All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

Such a lovely system isn't it? It's so comforting to know that after all these years; after all the fights that America has fought in the name of integrity and freedom that the nation is no further ahead than it was many, many years ago. It tries to deny it, but, the flaws exist.

America is always at the forefront of any international effort to spread democracy and monitor the elections in other nations, yet...

None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

Ah yes, do as I say, not as I do.

There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

Nevertheless, Americans put their faith into these machines and wonder why many international people think that democracy is failing in America.

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Alcohol Is Now A Date Rape Drug in Wisconsin

2006-06-26T13:30:00.000-04:00

Here's a sobering thought, the top party school in Wisconsin is waking up with a blinding headache the morning after realising that alcohol is now being considered a possible "date rape drug". It isn't surprising though, seeing how it has the same inebriating effects that the common date rape drug does. The only problem is that alcohol is legal and people know that it IS an intoxicant.

While it is accepted that alcohol impairs one's senses, if you drink, it, you've consented to the effects of this drug. Alcohol is as much of a drug as Marijuana, Hash, Crystal Methamphetamine and Heroin. The only difference is that it is perfectly legal for consumption once one is of age of majority, in one's house or in a licensed pub.

Alcohol is now placed on par with other common date rape drugs such as GHB, Ketamine and Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) [Date Rape Drugs] following a case in which a date rape victim had been sexually assaulted after consuming enough alcohol to impair her.

The change, long sought by rape- victim advocates in Wisconsin, means that victims who are very drunk during a sexual encounter can be judged incapable of giving consent, triggering a possible second-degree sexual assault charge.

Prior to the change, which took effect in June, a victim who had been drinking typically had to be unconscious to be deemed incapable of consenting to sex.

With any sensitive issue like this, there are many considerations to factor in, especially time delays, which can infringe on the judicial process for both the defendant and the victim, especially since witnesses can be harder to track with a longer period of time having passed between the crime and the report.

Blanchard last week confirmed that his office declined to prosecute the case, which was investigated by campus police and forwarded to his office in May. He said it wouldn't be ethical for him to discuss his specific reasons for rejecting it.

In general, though, Blanchard said sexual assault cases involving long delays - Dunn waited 15 months to report hers - and alcohol use by victims and perpetrators can be harder to win in court.

"If jurors believe that inhibitions were down and everybody was drinking, it may be regarded as regretted but essentially consented sex," Blanchard said.

Unlike other convention date rape drugs, alcohol would've likely been consumed by both parties and thus, result in a case where neither party is guilty simply due to the fact that they consented through both being equally as inebriated.

There is one problem with a law like this and it is that if its a party and all people are consuming alcohol, how does alcohol become a date rape drug if both parties have consumed it? If they both have, then, both are liable for having sexually assaulted the other, since they'd have been legally too intoxicated to provide the necessary consent.

Of course, who's going to listen when a guy whines about getting drunk and being sexually taken advantage of by a girl?

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Fun At IT's Expense

2006-06-22T09:36:00.000-04:00

The previous blog entry I made about the top 10 mistakes interns make, list the mistake of "wasting time". I had written that it's not just interns who waste time. I finally got some proof of this.

The blooger for Demodulated has kindly regaled this tale for me. This is from today.

"I'd like to open a ticket - something's wrong with my burner" was the email subject...

I signed up for the new Windows Live Messenger yesterday with my work email address.

It sent a confirmation which was caught by the company's spam filter

So!! The spam filter sent me 4 emails to tell me about the 1 suspicious email! which was legitimate!! 4 friggin emails!

AND!!! Get this, I sent this email as a joke to the IT department who sits near me
it's from boingboing or something; about a Dell laptop that exploded at some conference. So I made a joke about my "burner not working", thinking it was funny since the computer was burning and they submitted it to help desk cuz they didn't click the link!!

So I got a call this morning from help desk, and I had to tell them I guess i'm not as funny as I think I am.

The helpdesk did eventually get it, though, they have to take everything seriously... though, I doubt they will for this loser any more.

...and the article that was supposed to be at the butt of the joke?

Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference

AN INQUIRER READER attending a conference in Japan was sat just feet away from a laptop computer that suddenly exploded into flames, in what could have been a deadly accident.

Guilhem, our astonished reader reports: "The damn thing was on fire and produced several explosions for more than five minutes".

Should you witness such an event, his advice is, "Don't try anything courageous/stupid, stay away, away, away!"

"For the record, this is a Dell machine," notes Guilhem. "It is only a matter of time until such an incident breaks out on a plane," he suggests.

Guilhem managed to catch all the action in these amazing pictures.

"Fire extinguishers leave a mess on your suit and belongings; pack your stuff (if you can) and leave, leave, leave!" he advises.

We don't have any further details of the model of the computer in question. In light of the evidence, however, we'd suggest you avoid actually using a laptop on your lap. Ouch.

Website taken down by Scientology after being dugg

2006-06-20T15:27:00.000-04:00

Codebot.org was given a takedown notice by the Church of Scientology after getting 2800+ diggs. Here's the discussion from the original link: http://digg.com/links/Amazingly_Scary_In-depth_Look_at_Scientology_

Further proof that Scientology is scared of knowledge. It is a Nazi-like organization which thrives off ignorance. As the Nazis burnt books, the Scientologists shut down those it deems "suppressive persons". It's only a matter of time before its bubble bursts.

| digg story

10 Top Goofs Interns Make

2006-06-20T08:51:00.000-04:00

"Internships are becoming more important as an entrypoint to the working world. Here are the top mistakes interns make, and how to avoid them."

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Normally, I don't put stories from digg on my blog, but, this one is interesting.

I, do, however, find that the title is misleading, as these are mistake that veteran workers in any company could easily make.

There are a few that I think apply across the board. I picked these ones because I rememeber one or both of my parents talking about the topics in relation to work and despite their years at the office, they seem to make these mistakes, as do their colleagues.

Think you're immune to these mistake types just because you're not an intern?

1. THE ENTITLEMENT SYNDROME - No matter how long you've been working, you still have to show up for work at the same time, take your lunch break at lunch and leave at the designated time. Of course, many people get lax here.

3. FORGETTING TO UNPLUGs - This asks for people to be more formal with emails, however, even older workers forget about that when they send distasteful forwards that may or may not wind up in the office circulation pool and wind up in the boss's email.

4. BEING A WALLFLOWER - Some people are just naturally shy and this can show easily when an older worker is switched to another department, where he or she may not know anyone.

5. DUCKING THE EXTRACURRICULARS - Some avoid these activities because they may hate the people they work with and hate being forced to spend more time with them... What's your excuse for being anti-social?

6. GRUNTING ABOUT GRUNT WORK - So, it's beneath you to do photocopying just because you're not hired as an administrative assistant?

10. WASTING TIME - Demodulated. The person who runs this blog is supposed to be at work and being productive, but, instead, this person chooses to blog. While this could apply to one of the other mistakes, this I feel is a good example of "wasting time". Take a look at the date and times for the blog entries. The majority are done when this person ought to have been working.

Sims 2: A Simulation of a Fucked-up Mind

2006-06-01T20:32:00.000-04:00

The Sims 2 is no ordinary game. It's a simulation game created by Will Wright, who has also created Spore. To some, TS2 is boring because there is no meaningful plot, and you cna't shoot the living snot out of a bunch of aliens who spew ooze when you hit them with a round of ammuntion from your plasma gun, nor are you racing down the street at breakneck speed preparing to use your nitro-turbo charge to give that egde to speed past the other guys in your modded Civic, nor are you a Half-Elf wandering around, pludering caves and doing heroic quests for gold. You're simply God and all you do in control the lives of a few sims at a time.

Boring really, having a bunch of little people at your mercy; little people whose whole lives depend on your decision and for that matter, your every whim and sadistic desire.

Who wants to play God when you can blow shit up?

Even sim babies have an active gag reflex

You may get stuck in a crib from time to time, but at least you can fly!

Girl games - Miss Mary Mack, an old time classic, even played by sims

All those days of boring homework paid off: A+!

Sibling rivalries, oh so real...

The simulated cram session; cool people do their homework on the floor!

The courtship; if only it were so easy.

A celebration of a good life...

Yep, sims think their lives are real; the stress seems real too!

Of course, a little smustlin' can fix any downtrodden mood

Total and utter chaos - why learning to cook is important...

Complete mental breakdowns...

The crowning glory - age!

And finally, closure.

Canada: It's Your Patriotic Duty to be an Asshole

2006-05-17T11:08:00.000-04:00

So, why the title, you might ask.

Well. The Harper government believes that we should be more friendly with the US and establish greater relations with them. In fact, integrate further with them and help the two nations become closer, through economic, foreign and domestic policy, all which seek to erode our basic right to national sovereignty, free of American influence. Our policies ought to be set for what Canadians want; not what a bunch of brainless hicks from the White House.

So, why be an asshole you ask.

Well, by being an asshole, you're being a true Canadian patriot. It is your duty to oppose any move to integrate the two economies, if not three, if you also taken into consideration the Mexicans to the south.

You can be an asshole by not wanting to join in such charades and speaking out against the government, which would love to engage in fearmongering tactics in order to fulfill its neo-conservative agenda, hellbent on dismantling the Canada we know and love, even if that relationship in recent years has been a little rocky.

Being a Canadian patriot means realising that NAFTA is a load of horse shit designs to screw over the average Canuck. Chapter 11 of NAFTA does just that!

NAFTA - Chapter 11 Part 1

And you know who greatly opposes NAFTA and increasingly this particular section? A sitting member of the Canadian House of Commons, Jack Layton, author of Speaking Out: Ideas That Work For Canadians. His books outlines his policies which are pure Canadian; ideas and theories that are thought of by a Canadian with Canadians in mind. And yet, his party doesn't get more support because we're led to believe that the NDP don't know what Canadians want, when in fact, they are the only ones who inceasingly seem to.

Being a Canadian patriot means being a complete tool when it comes to your census.

Yes, the due date past, but, if you're like me, you probably did something stupid on your census, like NOT fill it out online but stuck with the old pen and paper method, filling in the form creatively, while making it harder for the machine (provided by US arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin).

The Great Wall of Israeli Ignorance

2006-05-15T15:10:00.000-04:00

Court upholds Israeli spouse ban

You're Israeli; so, according to Israeli law, you're permitted to be the world's biggest racist asshole and no one can stop you because you're a Jew and your family was supposedly part of the Holocaust and you're now being threatened by those big scary raghead camel jockeys across over in Saudi Arabia.

While you're at it, forget about fostering tolerance; we can't have Arabs with the same rights because then we can't lock them away in West Bank, garnish their salaries and refuse to give them back their money that was taken under the guise of "taxation".

You cannot live in Israel because we all know that all Arabs are terrorists by birth.

The government says the law, passed at a time of rising violence in 2002, is based on security concerns.

Ok, so, if someone marries an Israeli, despite that they are showing that they don't care about the religious and ethnic differences, they cannot move into Israel because they are a "security" risk simply because of their ethnicity?

Or...

But the Israeli state says the recent election victory of the militant group Hamas strengthened its case that Palestinians were a security risk and should not be allowed into the country.

State-sanctioned discrimination at its finest.

So, just because the majority of the asshole in your country decides that they want to vote in some terrorist, it by presumed association makes everyone a terrorist, even that little zygote who was recently conceived; we can't take chances here.

So, because a segment the Palestinian population democratically elected Hamas, it must mean that they are all terrorists, just as all Americans are ignorant Bible-thumping rednecks who drive pickup trucks, pride themselves on being morbidly obese and answer to the name of either Bubba or Mary-Sue because 51% of the approximately 55% (122,293,720) voters who turned out voted to keep the Republicans in office. Despite this, there are 174,800,000 registered voters and 221,256,931 who are eligible.

Sure, voter turn out in Palestine was much higher; 74.6%-76.0% in the Gaza Strip and 73.1% in the West Bank, but, that doesn't mean anything, or does it? It could very well mean that the Palestinians are embracing democracy in a new form.

[Source: Wiki: Palestinian legislative election, 2006]

So, only ~44% (440,600) of the Palestinians, who are of voting age, actually voted for Hamas, versus the ~40% (410, 550) who voted for Fatah, and as a result, the population as a whole is viewed as a threat?

No wonder Israel and America get along so well...

Big Brother is Listening...

2006-05-11T14:12:00.000-04:00

'Big Brother' is a concept that was introduced in George Orwell's novel, 1984, that embodied the concept of a police state, in which no activity would go unnoticed because the state, or, big brother was always watching.

The concept has been applied recently to a number of activities that have been conducted by the current American Administration, under the watch of President Bush, who has admitted to "wiretapping", essentially violating the inalienable privacy rights of all American citizens.

Under the guise of protecting America in the post-9/11 era, in which the norm is to instil a culture of paranoia through the careful release of bin Laden tapes, and terror level warnings, with the liberal assistance of the misnamed and controversial 'Patriot Act', the administration has come to embrace the role of 'big brother'.

Many previously cherished rights have been eroded, or modified to suit the needs of an anti-libertarian administration that feels no moral remorse for its un-American-like actions.

Want to borrow a book from the local library? You can bet on the FBI or CIA knowing about it, since they could find out about this under the Patriot Act.

Want to get married? Better ensure that you conform to the level of impeccable moral standards of the religious right and ensure that your sexuality is nothing but pure and reflective of the Bible. If you're homosexual, you have no right to get married because in the eyes of God, you're a bloody sinner and there is only one place for you; a seat reserved for you and your fuck buddy in Cocytus, the ninth level of hell.

Believe in progressive environmental alternatives? Forget it, it's un-American and by not driving an SUV, you're supporting the terrorists. Buy homemade, not foreign! (well, this wasn't a right; just a bit of an attitude issue)...

It's not ok to insult Mr President, unless you're a Republican and now it's trendy because the newest election term is upcoming and the president's approval ratings are lower than Paris Hilton's neckline...

Oh, phooey, it seems we've gone off on a tangent, when we've been meaning to write about the latest trend of spying on Americans by listening to their phone conversations.

Yes, indeed Big Brother is listening. You may better know him as the CIA.

US spy agency 'monitoring calls'

The country's three biggest phone companies have been handing over call records to the National Security Agency (NSA) since 2001, [USA Today] says.

And these companies would be: AT&T, Verizon and Bell South.

And like pious corporations, they've vehemently declared that they've never engaged in such controversial activities.

Right. Whatever. You. Say.

"Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaeda and their known affiliates," [President Bush] said in a brief White House statement after the newspaper report appeared.

"The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected," he said, adding: "We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."

Have we so quickly forgotten about the American Taliban? The all-American white boy, who converted to Islam and had joined up with the renegade rank and file of the al-Qaeda network. Obviously... after all, anyone can be a terrorist and you don't have to be Middle Eastern or Arab. The only prerequisite: being a lunatic.

Further, if they were so concerned, they'd be more privacy orientated, and the Patriot Act wouldn't exist, not even in a mild form.

US senators reacted quickly to the allegation, saying they would order the phone companies to testify about it.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, reacted with anger to the report, brandishing the newspaper in committee meeting.

"We need to know what our government is doing to spy upon Americans," he said.

But Republican senators suggested Mr Leahy was over-reacting.

They pointed out that the story did not allege wiretapping, only the creation of a database in order to analyse calling patterns.
.
.
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The communications act of 1934 bars companies from releasing information about callers...

Here we go again; déja vu all over.

Democrats jump onto the bandwagon and say one thing, while the Republicans sink themselves on a ship to nowhere.

And are you honestly going to trust a government that has previously admitted to such endeavours?

The patriotic thing to do is to be sceptical and question the government. The government is there to serve the people and to help establish social order in order to create and maintain a republic wherein the people have the greatest voice, and not a obstreperous minority that seeks to override the rights of many simply because they are in contradiction with the minority's moral values.

An interesting comment from a previous blog entry seems to have some relevance to this enty. It seems that he wrote this without realising what today's rant was on...

"When the government and military can be thwarted by a single man - A HOBBYIST - on the other side of the planet, how can they fool anyone into thinking that their fascist republic keeps them safe with wiretaps and spies? The people really do have the power." ~ Brian Damage, Demodulated

Curiosity Indicted the Hacker

2006-05-11T00:24:00.000-04:00

We've all heard the proverb "curiosity killed the cat", well, this could be applied to any situation in which one's curiosity not only gets the best of them, but inevitably results in irreversible consequences.

Such as in the case of UK citizen Gary McKinnon, who is being indicted by the US military for causing damage to their equipment when he hacked into their network, which wasn't password protected, a tragic, fallible error on the part of the military.

They shouldn't be attempting to indict Mr McKinnon. They should be thanking him. What's worse? Getting hacked by a hacker who merely wants to satisfy his insatiable curiosity, or by a terrorist who could capitalise on that knowledge?

If you visit the third link, which is an interview between Mr McKinnon and Spencer Kelly from the BBC, you'll see he describes his program as:

Unlike the press would have you believe, it wasn't very clever. I searched for blank passwords, I wrote a tiny Perl script that tied together other people's programs that search for blank passwords, so you could scan 65,000 machines in just over eight minutes.

I bolded the blank password part. It's curious that he says he was using a program that seeks out blank passwords and not pre-existing ones. If he got in, it would then mean that the military's network security isn't totally l33t.

GM: Yes, I'd always be juggling different time zones. Doing it at night time there's hopefully not many people around. But there was one occasion when a network engineer saw me and actually questioned me and we actually talked to each other via WordPad, which was very, very strange.

SK: So what did he say? And what did you say?

GM: He said "What are you doing?" which was a bit shocking. I told him I was from Military Computer Security, which he fully believed.

What more, I find it very interesting that the decision regarding the fate of Mr McKinnon isn't being decided based on the evidence from the US military, but rather on whether or not it is democratically legal to extradite a UK citizen to be tried in the USA.

The understandable fear is that Mr McKinnon will have the fate of a "terrorist" and wind up in Gitmo. There have been assurances that he would be tried by a federal court in Virgina.

Mr McKinnon has been charged with breaking in to a series of US military and government computer networks between February 2001 and March 2002. The US alleges that during his hacking spree he caused $700,000 (£375,235) of damage. One network he damaged took more than a month to repair, says the US.

"If he really wanted to damage the US military he had ample opportunity to do that," said the editor of the Free Gary blog, pointing out that Mr McKinnon had access to the networks for a long time before he was caught.

However, said the blog co-ordinator, none of this evidence had been presented to a British court to scrutinise. Instead UK courts considering Mr McKinnon's case have been debating the legality of the US extradition request.

This will only sell out the UK's sovereignty rights. They aren't the subbordinate of the US; they had teeth at one time and if they still did, they'd try Mr McKinnon in his home country. He was on UK soil when he hacked into the US military network after all...

Free Gary McKinnon - Or, at least let him be tried in the UK, and I agree. Everyone has a right to be tried in their home country, unless there is reasonable grounds on which to try someone in a foreign nation.

McKinnon supporters fight on
Hacker fears UFO coverup

Hits & Popularity: Overrated

2006-05-04T15:32:00.000-04:00

Popularity and hits are overrated, when it comes to blogs and websites.

Yes, it's a good way of knowing how well you're known, but outside of that, it isn't that important. What matters more us reader loyalty and content. Having a blog that is nothing but blithering nonsense that gets a lot of hits isn't as satisfying as having a thought-provoking and sometimes ranty-blog that has a niche of loyal readers.

Google Analytics

I use Google Analytics. It is a way of tracking who comes to read my blog. I don't use it for the numbers because they're meaningless statistics. The only relevenat numbers are those which tell me the common browser platform and screen resolution. It helps me scale my images here to accomadate the common denominator.

The numbers are of no matter to me because I've always hated popularity contests and being popular because it says that I must conform, and I don't conform. I prefer to express myself freely rather than write what the majority would like to see me write.

That being said, no, I'm not abandoning this blog, I'm just making it clear why I don't care what negative people think. If they don't like what I have to say, then they don't have to come here and read what I write.

Yes, at first it's fun to see the numbers, but, after a while, they just become a blur.

I've learned something about some readers - people will praise total shit and ignore quality. Why? They don't know how to appreciate the finer elements of writing and so, thus, take to the lowest quality because it is all they can handle. This applies to almost everything, be it blogs, newspapers, news sites, novels, and even fanfiction.

I'm content with the reader who can appreciate quality rather than a gaggle who prefer mind0numbing drival.

Free The Arts: An Indignant Rant

2006-04-28T15:58:00.000-04:00

Often you hear about the RIAA and the Canadian equivalent and their numerous attempts to sue people for file sharing, whether they upload or download, but, are these two entities truly representing the needs of the artist, or the needs of the greedy corperations who can capitalize more on the artist's success more than the artist can?

The artists who truly benefit from this are those who are already swimming in a pool of wealth due to the fact that they enter the realm of "rap" and "hip-hop"; flooding the market with a good that is overused.

In a recent BoingBoing article, a backlash in Canada was reported that came from numerous Canadian recording artist, none of whom are known for their rap or hip hop. Similarly, six independant labels pulled out of this organization.

Canadian labels pull out of RIAA-fronted Canadian Recording Industry Ass.

The Canadian version of the RIAA (CRIA) has very little bite due to the strict and heavily enforced privacy laws and the liberal nature of the ISPs who have been reluctant to turn over data, out of concern for their own bottom line profit.

The musical artists are being "protected" by these two sister groups, but at what expense? These groups have no regard for the artist.

The next thing on the chopping board, should the law suits fall out of the style, is logically attacking the upstart radio stations who pay little or no "royalties"; those who use the internet to play music or, the tribute artists and bands; the upstarts who have the gall to mimick the lyrical and musical style of their musical idols.

But, wait, these groups admit that they are tribute groups, so, why aren't they being attacked? They are indeed "infringing" on the copyright property of recorded artists and they perform for a small profit, as tribute artists and bands.

After all, it's easier to attack the vulerable, isn't it? The people who will keel over to your demands. The young and elderly who haven't the means to fight back, or better yet, those who have done nothing wrong.

Since it's trendy to sue people for the downloading of music and movies, should they also be concerned with the artists who draw and write? What about the writers and artists?

There are all kinds of similar "infringements", the biggest one being the Star Wars fan base following. Many of the novels published aren't from Lucas Arts or Lucas himself. They are from fans; the fiction written is based on fan ideas and "what if" notions.

This is an entire culture that lives underground, free of the scrutiny from the peering, proding gaze of the RIAA and the CRIA. But, yet, they are also "guilty" of "copyright" infringement, even though they are also known to admit that they are basing their work on that of another.

The theft of ideas occurs every day in this cultural movement, and it is truly not any different from people downloading, or people who take original music and mix or remix it.

The material is being shared, even if it's not by the artist.

MP3s are music that has been encoded by fans who adore a certain artist and wish to share that music with others.

Fanfiction and Fanart (doujinshi) are fan-based versions of original works of fiction. They translate the author's original idea into the visions or ideas that the fan has in their mind.

Fanfiction Sanctuary

Whether they like it or not, the trend of "freeing" art is going to be here to stay. The capitalist keep trying to get rich off the back of the true artist and the fans who have tried to shown their appreication for the music by buying the track, but, there is a point where enough is enough.

The point of file sharing was to introduce people to an artist at no cost; fanfiction is to allow people a chance to view the original story in a different context.

Both infrige in a way on the original copyright, but, in reality, they are merely means of increasing publicity free of charge for the artists.

Japan has a whole industry notourious for just that; the fan drawn manga industry. The doujinshi artists take the original concepts by the manga-ka and translate it into their own visions. They sell these books for a small fee, but, the practice isn't widely condemned, as some artists, such as Watase Yuu have come out in favour of it, saying that it helps them.

For western nations, what helps fans are laws that don't make it easier for greedy entities to get richer off the backs of those who love music but can't always afford it.

After all, what's more damaging to profits?

Having one person buy a CD and whine to three of their friends about how bad it was and then in turn, those three talk about how bad it was... or... one person downloading an MP3 and deciding that they like it?

The CRIA and RIAA could learn a lesson from a place like Costco, which has various stands in the stores that give away free samples to promote the product, and in turn that free sample entices the consumer to buy the product.

Who then is smarter? The corperate entity that provides free samples to its customer base or that which seeks to "sue for lost profits" because the consumer has a desire to seek a free sample before purchasing the good?

Which would equal more long term profit and consumer loyalty?

The free sample or the heavy-handed tactics?

Art is a form of express, and simply because a few greedy artists who can't see beyond their lavish style that surrounds the need for bling bling doesn't mean that the mamjority has this need.

But, the laws to protect still need to be there; the laws that prevent people from taking credit for others' work.

The sharing of MP3s isn't theft in the way that plagerism is, in fact, it isn't theft. Is it theft when you play a CD for a friend and then you copy that CD for a friend?

Likely not because you've purchased the original CD and likely the burnable blank CD. Or, when you listen to the radio, blank tape cassetts and a recorder allowed for you, the listener to record hours of free music from a station paying pennies on loyalties.

It is theft when you own a CD that you never bought, that was given to you as a present? After all, you never did pay for it did you, someone else did. Does this mean you own the music illegally because someone else bought it?

Or...

If you're like me and you write fanfiction, is it theft when you've stated that you borrowed your ideas from someone else and you post your work for free?

Is it theft when music that you've "ripped" from your Cds and mixed it with other sounds to produce a unique version of the original and then share it for free?

Just how many artists out there are thieves of copyright property as are the sub culture of fanartist and tribute bands? Just who has one original idea that hasn't been thought of or done before?

Just what is the RIAA protecting when they are protecting the rap artists? Are they really protecting the "art" itself, or... just the wallets?

Humanity to the Six Nations: Get a Life!

2006-04-21T10:43:00.000-04:00

In case I didn't make it clear... ATTENTION NATIVES CONDUCTING A SIT IN AT CALEDONIA: we are not impressed. It's been 52 days since you've started and if the government gave a damn, they'd have actually tried to meet with you half way, but, they haven't because you're too damn intent on living back in 1740s, when you were supposedly granted this land. The government says that it got it back in 1841 in order to build a highway. You've had almost 200 years to protest this! It's asinine to wait until someone is developing the land for other people to use (yea, imagine that - other people actually using the land that is part of Canada!).

Trains halted as standoff continues in Caledonia

Don't complain about the police breaking the peace when they make an arrest or two after about 50 days of letting you occupy this area of land. There are many Canadians who don't even own land; they rent, or they're homeless. It's a fact of life. Just because it 'belonged' to your people before the 'white man' came, means squat now.

Demonstrators first occupied the site on Feb. 28 to stop construction by Henco Industries on land they say was stolen from the Six Nations more than 200 years ago.

The province says aboriginals gave up the land in 1841 to make way for a new highway, an agreement a Six Nations spokesperson said was only meant to be a lease.

You know, instead of squawking, you COULD legally by the land after the construction is done and have houses to live in that were built there instead of making a barricade of tents and burning tires.

Further, if you're going to complain about the police breaking up protests... they you haven't been paying attention to Belrus, in which protestors were arrested a mere two to three days after their protests following a questionable election result sparked.

Belarus police detain opposition leader
Canadian journalist leaves Belrus jail

USA: The Nuclear Threat

2006-04-17T14:29:00.000-04:00

In the case of The World vs The United States of America, the Crown Prosecution will now present its evidence that will not only overwhelmingly demonstrate that the US is not only hording massive stock piles of Nuclear Weapons and an array of WMDs, that it is an immediate threat to the world's safety with it's so-called 'War on Terror'.

Aside from the Former Soviet Union, which is now the Federated States of Russia, with its moderate nuclear strength there is only one other country in the entire world with a greater and extremely destructive nuclear capacity and it is the United States of America.

They are followed in the distance by China, France and The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With two stragglers at the end, barely having 100 nukes between the two of them.

The newest so-called threat, after Iraq, since Iraq has been "neutralised" following an "Accomplished Mission" in Iraq that saw the defeat of Saddam Hussein and his mystical WMD, is Iran.

Before the war, Iraq had been without weapons since 1991 and the entire program was demantled by 1996 and in an investigation by Hans Blix and the UN in 2003, they found no trace of any of the so-called WMD that the Bush Administration repeatedly contended exist in Iraq, much like the link between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

Three years later, there are terrorists running amok, no signs of the WMD and a country left in shambles, all because the USA suffered from a bout of small penis syndrome.

Next on their radar is Iran.

Even if Iran could develop the weapons, the US and Russia both have the capacity to keep the "rogue" nation in check. But, as it stands, there is no real sign that Iran intends to develop such weapons, but rather, they want to use nuclear power as an alternative to traditional fossil fuels.

Editorial cartoon by Patrick Corrigan

The US is worried about Iran getting nuclear weapons. I think we should be worried about the US having the weapons in the first place. They have the capacity to destroy the world and expect to be able to do so unopposed.

During the Cold War, the presence of such weapons in the USSR and the USA kept both nations in check. Just the knowledge was enough to fuel paranoia thnat could only otherwise be triggered by carefully calculated propoganda.

Further, as they are "worried" that Iran might attack Israel, we forget that Israel has an undisclosed nuclear capacity, which they have to this day, refused to comment on.

They were able to demonstrate their military strength during the 6 Days War.

Six-Day War

They not only held their own, but they took what are still known as the 'Occupied Palestinean Territories'. Then, surely if Tehran was such a threat and did point one of its nukes at Israel, Israel could certainly reply in kind...

So, why does the US hang onto its nukes? It's small penis syndrome. They're the schoolyard bully. It's state sanctioned terrorism that they accuse rogue nations of supporting. Bullying isn't physical, it's also psychological. Threatening action is bullying, just as conducting the threatening action is bullying.

As the 'insurgents' go out to suicide bomb military check points, the governments take their words out to accomplish the same objective.

Nuclear Weapon Programs Worldwide
List of countries with nuclear weapons

The victorious write the history.

God: Man, Woman or Asexual?

2006-04-11T14:42:00.000-04:00

With all the religions that exist today, there seems that there is growing uncertainty about which one has the ultimate and thus the right answer to the questions: who are we and why the hell are we here? And even more importantly - just who is God?

For the record: since I know more about the three major religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, I will solely be focusing on those, while acknowledging the existence of others and their doctrines. But, for the sole purpose of this tirade, we will leave out the others.

In the beginning...

All religions (and spiritual belief sets) have their own stories of creation, some a common factor that links religions. Genesis is the first book (Books of the Bible) for Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It states that in the beginning God created the heavens and earth.

1:1. In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,
1:2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
1:3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
1:4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
1:5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

There are slight variations on how this part is translated, whether you read the Tanankh, the Old Testament (Catholic version) or the King James version (this is typically found in Protestant places of worship). But, in essence they all have the same core.

What I find interesting is the part where we get to the creation of man and depending on what version you read, there is one stark inconsistency - Adam and Eve were NOT created the same way. In one version, Eve comes first, in another, they are created together and finally, the more widely accepted is that Eve was created from one of Adam's ribs in order to give him a companion.

1:26 Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
1:27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
1:28 God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

Notice the part I bolded. This is where the first inconsistancy occurs and this is important because people tend to put the man first as he was the first created by God.

But, it shows that they were created at the same moment.

Now, since there are many version (read: translations), we'll go with the above which we've cited. Or, we could ignore the above, since it is possible that Adam existed first, but, we'll never know (ah, yes, the beauty of ignorance in being lost in translation).

Adam is allowed to eat of all the fruit within it, except that of the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." (2:19)

Assuming that Adam came first, this is then singularly referring to Adam, or, if they were created at the same time, it could mean that God explicitly didn't trust Adam and believed that Eve wouldn't disobey.

So, if Adam wanted to eat from the tree, he could've allowed Eve to do the "sinning" so he could get to eat his forbidden fruits.

So? What's my point you're sagely wondering as you cast an ever-cursory glance over my non-sensual ramblings, to which you barely take note.

Well, if we consider that there are three entities in the Bible, Heaven, Hell and Earth, then, why are Lucifer and 'God' always taking opposite sides? And the Tree of Knowledge (alias, The Tree of Good and Evil), why was its forbidden?

We could go on the notion that since God created the Heavens and the Earth that Hell has existed long before the other two ever did.

What is my point?

Like any married couple, Lucifer and 'God' could've been in the middle of a nasty divorce and God said, "The hell with this place!" and walked out. Upon closing the door behind her/him, he/she realised that she/he had no place to go so created the Heavens and the Earth. The Heavens would be his/her new home and the Earth would be the court and hence, the battle ground for the divorce.

The female icon in any line of belief is usually associated with life, fertility, flora and fauna. Hence, since God created the Heavens and the Earth; the Earth being the place that was originally full of life and lush gardens could actually be the figure we refer to as Mother Nature. The female is associated with birth, and since God created these places and encouraged fruitfulness between Adam and Eve, God must've been a woman.

Why does the "be fruitful and multiply" line make God a woman? Most mothers are the first in line to encourage their children to have their own children when they are ready. God wanted her creations to have children.

Now, it is entirely possible that when God created Eve and Adam, She created Eve first then created Adam in order to balance out the world, thus, allow for the pair to be fruitful.

From this, we assume that God only created the male out of necessity and perhaps harboured a slight resentment towards men (as Lucifer would be her ex-husband). Why? Recall 2:19, which specifically cites Adam.

Further, we all know that God then banishes both Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.

They, especially Adam, who was explicitly forbidden, ate from the Forbidden Tree.

So, what knowledge did the tree contain besides their evident nudity?

Perhaps it held the sinister secrets as to the true nature of Lucifer and by eating that apple, Adam had it engrained in his DNA.

And of Eve? God perhaps was having some bad PMS and decided that since Eve was too intent on hanging all over Adam (despite that her mother explicitly said "no"), that She'd cast Eve out and curse her with PMS. And that whole pain thing? Who says they didn't have pain in Eden? Perhaps they just had a lot of Marijuana...

9/11 Conspiracy Theories, or... are they?

2006-03-27T01:16:00.000-05:00

September 11, 2001: 2 airliners crash into the WTC (World trade Centres) in New York City, 1 into the Pentagon and another into a field in Pennsylvania. The official story says that there were Saudi hijackers involved and that these hijackers were members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qeada terrorists network.

These men had worked undercover to gain the knowledge they needed to carry out the attacks that resulted in the tragedy that is 9/11.

But... is that the whole story? Some say that it is and that there is no doubt about it. These people primarily hail from the Bush administration. They have something to gain from people's fears. After all, in times of war, people don't like change and heavily rely on a government to protect them.

What a convenient way of holding onto power.

So, if there is the 'power' issue, does this mean that there is more than we're being told? Quite possibly. There is evidence that shows that it is near impossible for the Pentagon to have simply been struck by a Boeing. The damage is inconsistant with damage that would've been caused by a plane of such magitude. One theory is that it was a missile that went in, or a much smaller aircraft, especially given that the hole in the Pentagon wall wasn't big enough to show that it had been indeed struck by a airliner.

The twin towers? Isn't nice the way that they just fell into a nice tidy pile on the ground>

And Flight 93? Into a field?

911 Loose Change 2nd Edition with extra footage

Well, perhaps if you click the above, you'll see a video, a long but well constructed one that addresses these issues as well as others pertaining to the 9/11 attacks.

One might say that this blogger has fallen under the clever and misguided delusions of the liberal lefties who are out to destroy American values. However, I regret to say that I am sorry, but American values were being destroyed and continue to be destroyed by the conservative right.

Mind you, I am greatly intrigued by what the Loose Change documentary presents.

They do show quite the array of evidence that suggest government conspiracy.

Evidence.

They do outright state that while they have done their research, you should do your own and not take everything that say at face value. They're merely presenting the evidence that they have gathered.

Either way, their's is damn convincing...

Still stalling on clicking the links? Then perhaps here's a bit of enticing bedtime reading for you:

Strange Case Of The Black Box
And The Indestructible Passport

All four Black Boxes were supposedly destroyed and rendered unusable in spite of the fact that they are designed specifically for plane crashes which result in insurmountable conditions...yet one of the hijackers passports supposedly survives fire and heat of over 1,000 degrees fahrenheit and is found in perfect shape in the rubble around the WTC towers? What kind of idiots does the FBI take us for?

If you think this person is stupid, then perhaps you need to take a good long look in the mirror. After all, even if the boxes were destroyed, why would paper, an extremely flamable material not be destroyed? It is an interesting point, isn't it?

I suggest that you do click the last link and scroll down.

I find this information rather... fascinating.

So... You Wanna Talk Humane, eh?

2006-03-23T13:22:00.000-05:00

As everyone likely already knows, Canada has its national, annual seal hunt. It involves the beating and/or killing of a number of seals. The government insists that it is to help control the numbers, and no scientist has yet spoken up to defend the animal. If the numbers were much lower, then they might've actually called for an end to it.

Canada hunters head for seal cull

Yes, it seems inhumane, but it is it really that inhumane?

It seems that some of the people calling for the boycott and end to the hunt are from nations with track records that aren't known for their humane activities, whether towards animals or humans.

Britain has its long history of the 'Fox Hunt', and the US loves culling its population with the death penalty (oh and did I forget to mention the innocents in Iraq?)

And the French aren't so innocent either. They eat those poor helpless frogs! Why isn't anyone standing up for the little froggies when the French get that glint of hunger in their eye? And the snails? Those poor, poor sidewalk sliders...

Bring the Boys Home!

2006-03-21T18:53:00.000-05:00

"We will invite him again [to renounce Christianity] because the religion of Islam is one of tolerance," trial judge Ansarullah Mawlazezadah told the BBC on Sunday. "We will ask him if he has changed his mind. If so, we will forgive him."

Canada concerned over Afghan facing death for being a Christian

Ok, so, according to Shariah Law (based on the Qu'ran, the Holy Book of Islam), the Islamic faith is a tolerant one, so long as one is a Muslim. Thus, by this logic, if one has renounced Islam as a viable religion in favour of Christianity, which is the predecessor to Islam and the faith from which Islam gets its morals and some of its holy doctrines (among other elements), said person must be put to death, or return to Islam. Yet, this only furthers the argument that Islam is intolerant.

tol·er·ance n.
The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.

Leeway for variation from a standard.

The permissible deviation from a specified value of a structural dimension, often expressed as a percent.

The capacity to endure hardship or pain.

Medicine.

Physiological resistance to a poison.

The capacity to absorb a drug continuously or in large doses without adverse effect; diminution in the response to a drug after prolonged use.

Acceptance of a tissue graft or transplant without immunological rejection.

Unresponsiveness to an antigen that normally produces an immunological reaction.

The ability of an organism to resist or survive infection by a parasitic or pathogenic organism.

Definition of TOLERANCE

The man who has been sentenced to death, Abdul Rahman, is living in Afghanistan, a place where many western nations have sent their troops in an effort to help rebuild the nation and bring them the gift of democracy, liberty and freedom. But, instead, they have clung to their old ways, much like those that prevailed under the Big Brother watch of the Taleban.

So, if this is what is going to happen when we help, why should we continue to help?

After all, Germany and Italy have the right idea; they're going to pull their troops should Mr. Rahman be sentenced to death simply because he has choosen to be a Christian.

On Tuesday, politicians from Italy and German signalled they are unhappy that a man could be put to death merely for being a Christian.

If there was ever a case to bring home the boys, this is it. The Harper government has decided that we're not going to 'cut and run' from this mission and we're going to see it through to the end. But, why should we now? Our efforts are going to be in vain. There are many people who would rather not see us there and there is many of us who would rather we pull out.

Why should we waste our taxpayer dollars on an effort that will not see any progress in a nation that insists in staying in the damn 'Dark Ages'. If they want to; let them! Hell, if the whole MidEast wants to, why don't we just pull the hell out and let them kill themselves. While we're at it, do the same thing with Africa.

The only 'needy' areas of the world that shows their willingness to work towards a more human rights-friendly future are Central America and South America. They may have a long, rocky road ahead of them, but they are trying and they don't kill each other for simply mind-boggling reasons, nor do they kill each other in annual civil wars that spill over into neighbouring nations.

After all, Colombia is playing a role in the so-called 'War on Drugs' (which by the way, I don't endorse because the damn thing has too many people in prison because of Marijuana use; which ought be made legal). Other nations have showed their progress; Chile has a woman president and other nations are trying.

But there is no such willingness in the MidEast and Africa. They're too damn conservative and stubborn.

I say - let them kill each other and when they are done playing their little war games, then we'll go help, but, why should we clean up their damn mess, if they're going to use 'religion' as a basis for their judicial actions?

Mind you, there are other places, like China and Russia that need work, but even still, they aren't half as barbaric. But, I've purposely excluded them for very simply reasons; our troops are stationed in their nations and they aren't using religion as a farce to justify their actions.

Cynicism Brews Apathy

2006-03-14T12:33:00.000-05:00

Students dismiss promise

While the 9,100 faculty and staff continue their strike, the students are left out in the cold.

While the province sits on its hands and refuses to intervene, the students are left with uncertainty in their future.

The only voice for the students is the Canadian Federation of Students but even they are going unheard because politicians have their heads stuck too far up their ass. Queens Park is ignoring it like it always does and Ottawa won't stop this ethics issue for two minutes to make a national case of this.

There are students in the 24 colleges here in Ontario that aren't all from this province; many are from out of province and in some cases, even other countries, and our federal government isn't pushing the Ontario provincial government to get off its ass, which in turn needs to force the two sides back to the table.

There are still no talks scheduled to end the walkout by 9,100 faculty and staff that began last Tuesday.

Colleges and Universities Minister Chris Bentley has rejected calls to get directly involved to help end the dispute.

But it just isn't happening and what's worse is that we're now in week two and there is no end in sight.

And... adding pain to suffering, the striking staff and faculty receiving strike pay!

Having been through a teacher's strike when I was in grade 10 (thank you Harris for driving the teachers to that poibnt by ignoring their demands then legislating them back to work when they actually have legal grounds to strike), I can't say I'm thrilled about another strike...

But, I'm not going to worry about it, nor am I going to rejoice. There is no point in either because this is beyond my control. The most I can do is write to my local paper, my MPP and write here.

So Many Assholes, So Little Time...

2006-03-10T19:01:00.000-05:00

I don't know where to begin...

I mean, we've got 'Prime Minster' Stephan Harper telling the Ethics Commission, Ben Shapiro that he's going to 'not co-operate' with the investigation into David Emerson's choice to cross the floor, two days following the federal election.

He's up in arms because Scott Brisson who crossed the floor in 2003 didn't get investigated by the Ethics Commissioner. Mind you, the post was created in 2004, so, it would've been unconstitutional, unless there were viable grounds, to investigate his choice to switch parties.

And, then there was Belinda Stronach. She crossed the floor in 2005, when there was the Gay Marriage bill before the House of Commons. At the time, she was in direct conflict with her party's mandate and she didn't agree with Harper on many policies, and hence, joined the Liberals because she felt they better represented her views.

She then stood for re-election in the Aurora-New Market riding in the most recent election and her constituants voted to send her back to Ottawa for another term.

Meanwhile, we have Emerson who crossed the floor on a blatant offer from Harper and the Conservatives following a campaign in which they promised to end the 'culture of entitlement' and 'clean up parliament' and implement Justice Gomery's suggestions on how to make the system more 'accountable'.

It looks like 'accountability' only matters when you're trying to take down the Liberals...

NDP wants Stronach switch also probed

Harper has maintained an iron grip on his cabinet and caucus since the election, Easter noted, and Obhrai - as a parliamentary secretary - must be considered to be speaking for the government.

"This kind of character assassination can only be sanctioned by Mr. Harper himself."

The salvos are the latest in an unseemly dispute that outside observers say reflects poorly on everyone from Harper to Shapiro and a variety of MPs.

"Stephen Harper's hypocritical appointment to cabinet of the dishonest, party-switching David Emerson is being matched by hypocritical and dishonest criticism from the opposition parties," said Duff Conacher of the non-partisan Democracy Watch.

"Canadians should be disgusted by the prime minister's and Emerson's actions, but also by the opposition parties' defence of the incompetent, biased ethics commissioner."

The brouhaha began quietly enough a week ago when Shapiro announced a "preliminary inquiry" into both Harper and Emerson under the conflict of interest rules for MPs.

The investigation was prompted by Liberal and New Democrat MPs, who argued that Emerson's floor crossing worked to his personal benefit because of the increased salary and perks of a cabinet post and was therefore an illegal inducement.

"If it's wrong to offer somebody $50,000 to cross the floor, why is it not wrong to offer $50,000 per year plus a car and driver to cross the floor?" New Democrat MP Pat Martin said Friday.

"It's a simple question."

By that measure, Stronach and Emerson's sudden defections are "so similar that they just cry out for being dealt with in the same investigation," he said.

Just a nice little highlight of the new government we've got.

Paul Martin's Liberals were a far more ethic bunch than Harper's Conservatives.

Martin's Liberals were never involved in the Ad-Scandal any Liberal who was, was subsequently relieved of his duties. It was Martin who called for the inquiry and it was Martin who actually apologised to the Canadian public for the Liberals. Remember his little speech?

All Harper done is stuck it to the Canadian public.

To the 36% Canadians who voted for the Conservatives - I hope you're happy with yourselves. You made your bed, now you sleep in it!

Like a good Lemming...

2006-03-03T17:24:00.000-05:00

So... just what is that image above? Well... if you click this link, like nature compels you to, you'd know that it is an image of the most commonly appearing words in my blog outside of the 100 most common words (including everybody's favourite grammar type, the conjunction): Snapshirts Utility.

After you visit, you know what you've got to do next... post the image in your blog like the good lemming that you are. After all, when one of us jumps off a cliff, the whole pack has a natural compulsion to follow.

According to the Bible...

2006-02-28T01:46:00.000-05:00

Abortion isn't a sin.

When it comes to abortion, the Bible cannot be used to justify an anti-abortion position because the Bible is silent on the issue.

The Bible is Silent on Abortion.

Yes, you read it correctly, according to the Bible, Abortion is not a sin.

The first five books of the Bible have a great deal to say about sexuality and reproduction. For instance, Adam and Eve are expected to cling together, as though becoming one body (Genesis 2:24). In describing the first birth, the book of Genesis, though speaking euphemistically, wants us all to know that Adam and Eve actually had sex (Genesis 4:1)! In Egypt, Hebrew midwives report that the women of Israel recover quickly from their deliveries (Exodus 1). And the book of Leviticus (18) devotes many verses to its view of permissible intimate relations. This Jewish Bible that has so very much to say about sex is, nevertheless, totally silent about abortion.

So, it exists that there is no direct mention of it in the Bible.

Some might say that the notion of abortion is a 'modern concept', but not necessarily so. It might've existed for a long time... but then wouldn't it have found its way into the Bible?

Regardless, it isn't in any religious book, so the Bible Argument holds no water.

And on the quotes/passages frequently cited by the pro-life front? What are those all about? They seem like they are referring to the act, however...

But these verses simply discuss the fetus; they are not about abortion. They do not permit, proscribe, or prohibit abortion. They consider an accidental miscarriage but do not describe the willful termination of a pregnancy. And what if a woman wants to end her pregnancy? Let's say the fetus endangers her life or her physical or mental health. If she decides on abortion, the Bible is silent.

If you want to go further, the 'pro-choice' front may have a new and unorthodox tool in its battle, the Bible. Why? Nowhere in it does it mention that abortion is a sin. Therefore, it is no longer something they need to fight against, in fact, they ought to embrace it. It can help debunk the myths and ill-conceived notions that the Bible explicitly states that the act of abortion is a sin. And of course in the process prove that the pro-life front is deliberately misinterpretting their own dearly regarded scripture and that the pro-life front has been using deception to further its own agenda... (not that the pro-choice front hasn't known that for years).

Iran's Latest Crime Against Humanity

2006-02-23T15:39:00.000-05:00

Dear reader,

I am providing a news article in full because I do not have the written capacity to express what I felt as I read the article. Instead, I am going to post it as it was posted on the originating site, along with two links so that you the reader may go and see for yourself that I didn't make it up.

There are two version, I'm posting the one that I feel is better written as a news piece, but will still provide a link to both articles. The actiom in question has been condemn by Amnesty International but has sadly gone unreported because there is no media outlet in the Islamic Republic of Iran that would fairly recount the girl's story.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage rape victim to death by hanging after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man who had tried to rape both her and her niece.

The state-run daily Etemaad reported on Saturday that 18-year-old Nazanin confessed to stabbing one of three men who had attacked the pair along with their boyfriends while they were spending some time in a park west of the Iranian capital in March 2005.

Nazanin, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, said that after the three men started to throw stones at them, the two girls’ boyfriends quickly escaped on their motorbikes leaving the pair helpless.

She described how the three men pushed her and her 16-year-old niece Somayeh onto the ground and tried to rape them, and said that she took out a knife from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

As the girls tried to escape, the men once again attacked them, and at this point, Nazanin said, she stabbed one of the men in the chest. The teenage girl, however, broke down in tears in court as she explained that she had no intention of killing the man but was merely defending herself and her younger niece from rape, the report said.

The court, however, issued on Tuesday a sentence for Nazanin to be hanged to death.

Last week, a court in the city of Rasht, northern Iran, sentenced Delara Darabi to death by hanging charged with murder when she was 17 years old. Darabi has denied the charges.

In August 2004, Iran’s Islamic penal system sentenced a 16-year-old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, to death after a sham trial, in which she was accused of committing “acts incompatible with chastity”.

The teenage victim had no access to a lawyer at any stage and efforts by her family to retain one were to no avail. Atefeh personally defended herself and told the religious judge that he should punish those who force women into adultery, not the victims. She was eventually hanged in public in the northern town of Neka.

Iran to hang teenage girl attacked by rapists
Iran : A 17 year old girl is sentenced to death by hanging.
Iran: Amnesty International calls for end to death penalty for child offenders

Christianity is a Religion; Scientology is a Farce

2006-02-21T10:49:00.000-05:00

While I'm normally an outspoken person regarding my opinion of religion (in that is nothing more than a load of horse shit, and that the followers of religion are ignorant little twats with no backbone - especially the preachy 'moral' types), after much research, I've reached this conclusion: religion sucks; Scientology is worse than fundamental Christianity and radical Islam. It is funded by the naive and those who are 'enlisted' are coerced into life time memberships, signing away their very existance to the evillest of the religions. It is a religion that exists in the so-called Western World where human rights are held sacred and civil liberties are rampant.

Scientology vs Human Rights

Only non-aberrated individuals should be granted civil rights (Dianetics, page 486 in my 1992 edition)

Natasha: My Boyfriend Was a Scientologist

The major religions of the world all generally focus on creating a following of loyal sheep who all go 'bah', but they don't reach the same levels of extremism that some fanatical sects do. But, even so, there is still a level of freedom that is there; a freedom that is permitted within the theocratic laws of a nation.

All religions have their doctrines, which in many cases are hundreds if not thousands of years old. Scientology doesn't have that; it just has a bunch of writings by a crackpot fiction writer. Heh... sounds like the assertian that most Atheists have of religion? That the doctrine is written by some human...

In fact, one could easily say that any form of religion is a cult.

After all, they all portray similar characeristics.
- rituals
- chants/prayers
- doctrines that can be confusing
- dress codes/uniforms
- a hierarchy
- repentance systems
- promises of salvation and a chance to get into Heaven
- a call for 'donations' (ie: collection plates...)

"This new religion is nothing more than a pack of weird rituals and chants designed to take away the money of fools. Now let's say the Lord's prayer 40, but first, let's pass the collection plate." ~ Rev. Lovejoy, The Simpsons

"Scientology training is training for slavery" -- Justice Latey

Though most are voluntary, though the parental units of young religious members force this line of thinking onto their young, and it doesn't matter what the religion is because this holds true across all religious sects. The core of all religions is preservation and survival.

This is why Catholics marry Catholics and if a Jewish girl wants to marry a Baptist boy, the boy has to 'convert' or vice versa.

The survival of religions comes through being able to provide the kind of guidance that people seek, with the largest religion being Catholicism followed closely by Islam, which has almost all of its most ardent followers in the Middle East.

However, there is none of the dangerous cult mentality in these religions because they aren't taken in after a 'test'; the people go into their recognized religion because it is part of their ethnicity/cultural heritage.

However, with Scientology, people aren't brought in through heritage, but rather through coercian and shallow promises of nothing in exchange for them giving up their livelihoods. People are promised answers that only Scientology can offer and they are told that their shortcomings can be fixed with Scientology.

This is done first through the free personality test.

The Personality Test

And just how do they work?

People have commented frequently on the fact that the OCA always seems to point up hidden fatal flaws in one's personality which (surprise!) only Scientology can "cure". This is partly the result of the way the OCA is administered (of which more in a moment), but it also owes a great deal to the way in which the test itself works. The 200 questions asked in the OCA are subdivided into 10 categories (as already mentioned above) with 20 questions in each category. The answers - Yes, Maybe or No - are graded on a scale of 1 to 7, with the scores for each question being added up to produce a round figure of up to 115 points. Crucially, the answers for each question have a fixed points score set by Hubbard himself. As with much of the rest of Scientology, Hubbard seems to have assumed that his opinions and solutions would automatically be true for everyone else. Dr. Delvin's comments above that the questions were "of the type much favoured by women's magazines" is uncannily accurate, as they are marked in exactly the same manner.

How the Personality Tests Work

What Is Scientology?

Another Scientology site frankly states: "The Scientology religion is based exclusively upon L. Ron Hubbard's research, writings and recorded lectures -- all of which constitute the Scriptures of the religion." -- source: http://www.theta.com/goodman/religion.htm (emp. adddd)

Scietology-based Schools and tutoring groups

Scientology - a pack of rituals and lies structured around pseudo psychiatry on the grounds that the human mind is unpure and that we are constant under stress unless we can become clear and rid ourselves of pain from our past.

'Ministers' from the 'church' try and convince people of this...

The ideas stem from one man, L. Ron Hubbard, who had professed to being an accredited professional in his field. However...

Actual Scan of L. Ron Hubbard's grades

Hubbard himself claims a distinguished scholarly background with "many degrees" and "many honors" for his work. He claims to have been "trained in nuclear physics" and to have graduated from the Columbian College of George Washington University, with a degree in Civil Engineering. The first page of his book Science of Survival gives particular credit to "my instructors in atomic and molecular phenomena, mathematics, and the humanities at George Washington University and at Princeton." A request for confirmation from GWU brought the following response from J. L. Roames, Assistant to the Registrar:

"LaFayette-Ronald Hubbard has never received any degree whatsoever from The George Washington University." -

Hubbard's repeated claims to have attended Princeton apparently refer to a three-month seminar which he attended during the winter of 1949, as part of his training as a U.S. Naval officer.

Scattered throughout his books are occasional references to his Ph. D. from "Sequoia University." This is particularly puzzling, as there is no Sequoia University listed among accredited educational institutions. Of course, Hubbard's lack of traditional scholarly credentials does not automatically mean his theories are incorrect. However, a lack of personal integrity, if indicated, would mean that any and all claims must be given extra-close scrutiny. Such scrutiny will be given to Hubbard's theories and doctrine in later chapters.

And the purpose of Scientology?

"A world without insanity, without criminals, and without war." This seems to be an admirable ambition, until one examines closely just who it is that Hubbard considers to be criminal and insane. On page 131, he proposes that every individual in the U.S. be tested to determine their position on the "Hubbard Chart of Human Evaluation," a copy of which he included with the book. All who fall below a certain point should be "quarantined" and "processed" until they are "sane." Some of the definite indications of a low position on the chart's "tone scale" are: "Any slightly or greatly repulsive physical odor." Page 146 "nagging or forgetfulness or occasional gossip." Page 35 "carping, nagging and criticizing." Page 90 "pre-clears who want attention but not processing." p.41 To its members, the "Church of Scientology" represents "little "areas of sanity" in a world gone mad. 17 According to Hubbard's specious logic, because his movement's goal is a sane world.

"It would be stopped only by the insane." In fact, anyone who criticizes or opposes Scientology is automatically considered dangerously insane. Perhaps intending to reassure his readers, Hubbard concludes, "This does not propose that depriving such persons of their civil rights should obtain any longer than is necessary to bring them up the tone scale to a point where their ethics render them fit company for their fellows." History has shown that such assurances are not worth much after an authoritarian leader has gained the power he craves.

Now before I get into the horror stories I have found with my research, I'd like to take this opportunity to post this:

----------------------------

OFFICIAL SCIENTOLOGY POLICY:

-----

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex Remimeo HCO Policy Letter of 18 October 1967 Issue IV

ENEMY: SP Order ["suppressive person" declaration, declaring the subject to be antisocial and an enemy of $cientology]. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist.

May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.

LRH:jp L. RON HUBBARD Copyright (c) 1967 Founder by L. Ron Hubbard ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

World's Most VICIOUS Religion

And beneath this lies the human side.

A story of broken family, trashed dreams, forgotten careers and foresaken educations simply because of a forced loyalty to Scientology which encourages its members to 'disconnect' from family that may hold them back; from the ideas that one must be devouted to Scientology to be worth something and to find the answers.

Those trapped in the illusion can't get out and those who are ex-Scientologists and families of Scientologists all tell very similar stories. The pattern isn't hard to miss.

How Scientology Gets Its Hooks in New Recruits
Social Control in Scientology: A Look at Methods of Entrapment

Dear Amanda is one of such stories, as told by Mr. Steven Keller. He lost his daughter to this cult. This is his story of his attempt to get back something precious to him, but is still losing.

Of course, Scientology has both its critics and supporters and it is unfair to not let its supporters (aka, those naively roped into believing the bullshit preached by this entity of pure capitalist exploitation).

Testimonies of supporters and critics of Scientology and Dianetics - though I'd have to say, it's mostly critical.

Affidavits and personal stories of life in Scientology

One of the most valued elements in society is our children. There are numerous laws designed solely for the purpose of protecting these small people because they can't protect themselves from unscruplous adults who know no boundaries. This is no less true than in Scientology, which has little or no regard for the safety and welfare of each of its children.

This happens both in terms of overall welfare in the housing com,plexes at Sea Org in Clearwater, Florida, the 'religious' headquaters of Scientology, where children are often left in squalor conditions, off set from the seemingly pristine offices of the Sea Org members. They are cast aside; little emphasis on their wellbeing.

Their healthcare and education are also compromised in the name of Scientology...

[Adeline Dodd-Bova] left Scientology two years ago. I had been a teacher and word clearer in Scientology schools, including Delphi, for three years. I loved the children and was very dedicated to my profession. It was personal observation that provided me the first clue that Scientology placed a low priority on the welfare of children. A co-worker and I began to notice certain neglect and occasionally even abuse among the children we taught. We observed that many Scientology parents climbing the "Bridge to (their own) Total Freedom" assumed almost no responsibility for their children. Children often came to school with little or no food. Children, aged 3 and 4, had to pack their own lunches -- when they could find any food at home to pack. You can imagine what their lunches consisted of. Busy parents who were working and doing courses rarely had time to shop. Some children arrived at 7:30 a.m. and at times did not leave until 6:30 p.m. They often had been shuffled from house to house after school and had litfie sleep. This seemed to us to be a direct contradiction to the regimen the parents rigorously observed for their own Scientology auditing [counseling] and training to be well- rested and fed prior to session or course time.
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The children there also suffered from blatant parental neglect. I saw situations which got reported to the school's principal, but, in truth, the Department of Social Services should really have been called. One eight-year-old appeared to have been sexually abused; another child suffered, without handling, for dyslexia. One child wore the same clothes for two weeks. No one took notice of his lack of personal hygiene -- his parents had separated and the child had to fend for himself. All of the children I mention were in the same class of only 15 students. Another child exhibited extxemely disruptive and destructive behavior, including violent physical tantrums and swearing. He often disturbed the whole school. The "remedy" for this child was to have him sweep up around the school.

These were the children of dedicated Scientologists. Students' files revealed previous teachers' statements of incidents of physical and sexual abuse. All of these cases were reported to the principal. The reports were "handled" by Scientology alone. Teachers dared not report these crimes on their own outside the school for fear of losing their jobs.

Low Priority for Child Welfare

In the process, it seems that at least in the American state of Florida, the justice system is failing the average person in the fight against Scientology.

From: "Jeff Jacobsen"
Subject: Florida legal system sucks
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 05:23:09 -0000
Message-ID:

It's pretty clear to me that the Florida legal system has serious problems:

1. Lisa McPherson is essentially killed, yet no one will ever be criminally charged with it. The state attorney filed the weakest charges he could find against Co$, then even dropped those.

2. Dennis Clark of CCHR punches Mike Krotz on 2 different occasions, both being videotaped (once from 2 different angles). No charges ever pressed against Clark.

3. Bob Minton admits to perjury, then gets caught perjuring himself while testifying about his previous perjury. Yet no charges are filed.

4. A permanent injunction is placed against critics of Scientology based on one action by Bob Minton where Bob poked a guy with his picket sign.

Critics of Scientology are enjoined from speaking to Scientologists, from going certain places, and from protesting at certain locations.

Compare #4 with 1-3. Scientologists or those helping them get away with assault, killing, perjury. Critics not even in the state when the offense happened are severely restricted by Florida courts. What's happening?

Florida Legal System Sucks

Many people have been hurt because of the manipulative nature of Scientology's 'lawyers' and the inability of the justice system to adequately address the needs of those trying to escape the harassment and the threats that follow the departure of those who have become disenchanted with the 'religion' because they've returned to their senses.

The Woodcraft family is another example of how Scientology has torn families apart.

Or... Abuse and Neglect of Children in Scientology

Scientology puts little or no emphasis on family; a trait found in no other religion. All the other religions around the world (other than the pagan and its derivitives), place a high emphasis on family and its values.

Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, Judiasm, Hinduism and many other of their derivitives have a strong emphasis on the family and children's welfare. They put the family as the core of society and that the family is needed in order to survive. There is still a hierarchy but it comes from within the family environment.

By now, in any sentence in which I use 'Scientology' and 'religion', I tend to put religion in quotes simply because Scientology isn't actually a religion. It's a cult. Why? It fits the description of the 5 core characteristics that define a cult.

1. It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members.
2. It forms an elitist totalitarian society.
3. Its founder/leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma.
4. It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds and recruit people.
5. Its wealth does not benefit its members or society.

At this point, I'd like to refer you to the website that I found ALL the above links at and it is: Operation Clambake: Undressing The Church Scientology Since 1996.

This site has an excellent vault of information that I couldn't fit into this post. Consider this post to be a reference point.

Their site is a wonderfuk point from which people seeking information to help those trapped in the vice grip of Scientology can find what they need. The site also provides a good list of suggestions of what one can do in order to fight this evil.

How to support the fight against the Church of Scientology

And nothing makes a good statement like victim impact statements.

When it comes to the various accounts of abuse, neglect, broken families, lost careers, abandoned edcations, et cetera, nothing says "Scientology is evil and it must be eradicated" like a series of victim impact statements/first hand accounts. The scary thing about all these accounts is that there are various patterns.

Isabel's story
Chris's Story
Patrick's Story

But, these people aren't alone. There are millions of others who have been through the same thing, or they are people who have posted informative websites, or they are assholes like me who pick bits and pieces and post them in their blog. Either way, there is an extensive counter-propoganda campaign that is going on while Scientology attempts to poison the world with its mind controls and its ideas of 'clearing the world'.

Heck, even some cartoons have joined the fight in their own subtle ways.

The Simpsons have made their statement with their episode on the Movementarians and recently South Park came out with an episode that berates Scientology directly and indirectly calls one of Scientology's biggest supporters, Tom Cruise gay.

"Mom, Tom Cruise won't come out of the closet!" - Stan Marsh

The recent South Park TV episode - "Trapped in the Closet" - in which the South Park staff educates the global community through humor on the human rights abuses and other dangers of the destructive mind control cult Scientology has done a great service to societies and families everywhere their show airs around the world. This show is also a great educational tool for dangers of destructive cults in general.

In spite of Scientology’s infamous reputation for retaliation and lawsuits, it took a great courage to so accurately portray the brainwashed cult dependency of Tom Cruise and John Travolta as well as criminal-like nature of Scientology and its current leader David Miscavige. Because of this courage and its educational value to society on the dangers of Scientology and cults in general we at FACTNet name the entire South Park TV Show Staff our FACTNet Person(s) of the Year for 2005.

FACTNet
FACTNet Newsletter

And need a way to educate that young child of yours?

Well, they like Harry Potter, don't they?

Harry Potter and the Cult of Doom

I'd give you more links... but there are already a zillion extra links once you've clicked on the ones I've provided.

In closing - I still believe that religion is a whole whack of shit and Scientology is the worst of the bunch.

Old School Doesn't Always Mean Ultra Conservative

2006-02-16T13:48:00.000-05:00

China allows newspaper to re-open

The ones calling on it are...? No, they aren't the youths, nor are the the bloggers that use proxies to circumvent Chinese internet filters, nor are they the media moguls who seek to get out their 'message'; it is party elders who have called upon their government to curb the zealous censorship.

It is a reason that some people earn the title of elder, and it is for 'wisdom'; they have grown wise with their years and know a thing or two that they can teach the upstart generations.

The news comes two days after prominent Communist Party elders issued a rare open letter to protest about increased media restrictions and censorship.

The signatories - who included a onetime aide to former leader Mao Zedong and an ex-party propaganda chief - said strict censorship may "sow the seeds of disaster" for China's political transition.

This comes at a time when Beijing is incredibly intent on curbing media freedom and heavily censoring anything that it deems out of sync with adminitrative mandate (Google anyone?)

The Bingdian (Freezing Point) was shut down because it dared to publish an article that questioned the administration.

In his article on 11 January, Yuan Weishi wrote that Chinese history text books never acknowledged the culpability of the government, but blamed others instead.

"We were raised on wolf's milk," he wrote in the article, meaning a culture of hatred and violence.

Ah yes, another way of saying, "we're being brainwashed through government slanted propoganda.". The Chinese public is being very much influenced by theit government to not to speak out; the penalities are severe and the stakes are high.

A spokesman for China's foreign ministry on Thursday defended the closure of Bingdian.

Qin Gang told a news briefing that the historian's essay "gravely violated historical facts, gravely hurt the national feeling of the Chinese people, and gravely injured the image of the China Youth Daily".

In other words, the newspaper published the truth that the Chinese government didn't want the public to know.

This is also from the same government which is pressing down heavily on Japan for 'white washing' its history textbooks in regards to its crimes during World War II. Before the Chinese government starts to clean up its neighbouir's yard, perhaps it ought to take a gander at its...

It's All Just Window Dressing

2006-02-10T22:10:00.000-05:00

Whether it's a Liberal or a Conservative, election-time promises are all the same; they're geared to appeal to even the most apathetic of voters. They are desigend to get us out to the polls and vote for a party that can best appeal to the masses. They repeat the same old promises, but add an exciting twist to make it new and fresh for the masses, which sit in front of the glass teat, gawking and bitching because all politcians in general are scumbags and it is just different packaging for the same load of bullshit when it gets the leader side of the house.

One of the big election promises that got Stephan Harper (bloody conservative hypocrit!) elected as Prime Minister of Canada (though via a minority government with only 36% of the total vote) was to reform the hosue rules so if an MP (Member of Parliament) crossed the floor, they'd have to answer to their constituents. This was left over from the defection of Belinda Stronach from the Conservatives, as a backbencher to the Liberal Cabinet without so mcuh has having to stand a byelection for changing parties.

Martin decries Emerson's switchto the Conservatives

Emerson, industry minister under Martin's government, was re-elected as a Liberal in the riding of Vancouver Kingsway. He switched parties shortly after last month's election. He's now a minister in Stephen Harper's new Conservative government.

Opposition Cabinet

Opposition Leader Bill Graham says he's concerned by a number of Conservative cabinet appointments, including unelected minister Michael Fortier and former Liberal David Emerson.
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Layton, whose party holds 29 seats, said Emerson should resign and run in a byelection as a Conservative. He accused the former Liberal of turning his back on the people who voted for him.

Layton said the NDP had put forward legislation in the House that would have prevented MPs from crossing the floor by requiring them to sit as Independents and face re-election before they could join another party.

"If someone wanted to switch parties, they would have to go back to their voters – otherwise there's a feeling of deception."

Cabinet includes defector and senator-to-be

In changing parties, he followed the example of former Conservative MP Belinda Stronach, who crossed the floor last year to become a Liberal cabinet minister.

At that time, Harper said:

"We don't go out of our way to romance MPs to get them to cross the floor. Liberals will do anything to win.

"We are trying to create a principled party where people act in a principled way, and obviously we're fairly cautious about encouraging party jumping, because that's the kind of thing that generates cynicism.

"And frankly, when someone jumps, once you're not sure you can trust them the next time, so I would always handle that with an extraordinary degree of caution."

Well, at least we know where the Conservatives truly stand, and I would like someone to try and say that they don't have a hidden agenda, but, this proves otherwise. They came right out and without any hint of discretion, shit right in the face of the 36% of Canadians who voted for these assholes.

Well, at least the remainder of us saw through this and will be waiting in queue for the next election in order to punish this party, who has the hypocritical and corruption capabilities, previously only known to that of the Liberals.

Those Darn Danish Cartoons...

2006-02-09T14:12:00.000-05:00

** WARNING: This post isn't 56K sensitive. There are going to be a handful of images that will be loading. Please be patient while they load. Thank you. **

Well, since I'm a writer free of 'constitutional restrictions' and with the luxury of freedom of expression, I'm going to fully and freely express myself here. The Danish newspaper, Jyllands Postenm which is located in a country with a very free press had every right to publish the images.

There was only one remotely questionable one and it is one wherein there is an Islamic man portrayed as having a bomb for a turban. It could be Muhammad or it could very well be Ayatollah. But, it doesn't really matter since the outrage didn't start until these cartoons were brought over to the Mid East.

In fact, like I've mentioned in an early post, there are many drawings that exist with Muhammad, the 'sacred' prophet and founder of Islam. Why was there no outrage about it until now? For that matter, why is there only outrage when there is an 'offensive' cartoon or the Qu'ran, according to News Weekly, has been 'violated'...? Where is the moral outrage over the treatment of women and children? Outrage over the escalating violence and beheadings and everything else that goes against Islam's so-called 'peace'? How can these people call it a 'religion of peace' when they only stand up for something that is offensive and do so with violent actions?

So, for that reason, I'm willingly republishing the images in my blog as a statement that I stand behind Jyllands Postenm's democratic right to publish these cartoons. They may be offensive to some, but there have been plenty of Christian and Jewish cartoons published before with far less public backlash.

If it had been Christian or any other sensitive topic, I'd be posting it as well, simply because I don't need a bunch of conservative hyper-sensitive politically-correct assholes telling me what I can and cannot post.

Jyllands Postenm

Danish author Kaare Bluitken wrote a primarily educational children's book about the prophet Mohammed, but ran into problems trying to find an illustrator. Certain interpretations of Islam find it inappropriate or directly forbid pictures of the prophet. Eventually, an illustrator did agree to work on the book, but only under the cloak of anonymity.

Jyllands-Posten published several articles addressing this state of affairs. The newspaper took a position that it is untenable for non-Muslims to be bound by Muslim scripture.

In order to find out exactly how widespread self-censorship is, the newspaper asked a number of Danish illustrators to submit their own personal interpretations of how the prophet might appear.

Twelve illustrators submitted drawings, which the newspaper published on 30 September 2005 as a contribution to the debate about self-censorship amongst journalists, authors, and artists.

The Story behind the drawings
Egyptian Newspaper Pictures that Published Cartoons 5 months ago

Muslims Overract: It's just a cartoon, grow a thicker skin!

2006-02-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

In the US you have the Christian zealots who congregate to protest anything 'liberal' or that conflicts with their moral values. They gather to protest the rights of homosexuals and women's right to choose. They've been the lynch mobs that seek to detroy that which doesn't agree with ingrained and doctrined Christian values and morals.

They are merely a small breed of a greater movement that can only be best describe as Religious Extremism, a brand of fundamentalism that Americans have typically associated with the Mid Eastern Islamic countries, which embrace Islam as their (un)official state religion, whether through zealous enforcement (Saudi Arabia, Iran...) or through cultural pressures (Iraq, Syria, Jordan).

Freedom of the press is a foreign concept in some Middle Eastern and Far East countries. The media is just a mouth piece for the government to spout off propoganda in order to keep the masses blissfully ignorant.

Freedom of the press is normal in 'western' nations, where we haven't even the faintest notion why someone could not understand why we cherish this so.

Denmark, Sweden, France, Norway and Germany are just a few of the nations with such freedoms. They enjoy those freedoms. It is with those freedoms that the press can make a mockery of religion's fanatics and its fundamentalism. They stick it to the Jews and Christians on a regular basis with little or no back lash, while an innocent and yet stereotypical editorial cartoon sends some Muslims into a tirade of anger and indignation.

How the row unfolded...

2006

7 February: Several hundred Iranians attack the Danish embassy in Tehran as the country announces it is cutting all trade ties with Denmark.

6 February: Protests claim lives - at least five people are killed in Afghanistan, and a teenage boy dies after protesters attack police in Somalia.

5 February: Lebanese demonstrators set the Danish embassy in Beirut on fire. Interior Minister Hassan Sabeh resigns over the violent protests.

4 February: Syrians attack Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, prompting UN chief Kofi Annan to call for calm.

2 February: The editor of the French newspaper France Soir is sacked for printing the cartoons.

1 February: Papers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain reprint the caricatures, defying Muslim outrage.

31 January: The Danish paper apologises. The Danish prime minister welcomes the apology but defends the freedom of the press.

30 January: Gunmen raid the EU's offices in Gaza, demanding an apology over the cartoons.

26 January: Saudi Arabia recalls its ambassador to Denmark, while Libya says it is closing its embassy in Copenhagen.

10 January: A Norwegian newspaper reprints the cartoons.

2005

20 October: Ambassadors from 10 Islamic countries complain to the Danish prime minister about the cartoons.

30 September: A series of cartoons, some depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, are published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

But, who can blame the numerous free presses around the world for reprinting these editorial cartoons? After all, they are entitled to freedom of expression and they have frequently shown the same contempt for Christianity and other religions.

About 5,000 people take to the streets in Peshawar in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province

Several hundred Muslims protest in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir

Hundreds of Muslims gather in Cotabato, in the southern Philippines, demanding Denmark punish the newspaper that initially published the cartoons

Norway demands compensation from Syria after its embassy in Damascus is set on fire on Saturday

In Indonesia, protesters target the Danish and US consulates in Surabaya, the country's second-largest city. Protests are also held in the capital, Jakarta

Only they don't take to the streets in throes.

Sure, the government may have used propoganda and the clerics ignorance, but the people have to act on what they are given. They are told what to believe instead of educating themselves on worldly and cultural matters. These people are from parts of the world were education isn't as fundamental as family values and religious morality.

It is these people who have shown a lack of regard for property; they've taken out their anger against governments who have no control over the press because the laws of these countries permit freedom of the press.

A clash of rights and responsibilities

And yet it is the governments and not the press who is apologising? Why? No idea...

And of the protesters?

They have allowed religion to blind them; they have decided to let someone else think. The cycle continues because there is little education can do in the face of religious fanaticism.

All this over a series of editorial cartoon...

The cartoons offends the few who read the original paper.

The cartoon then offended an envoy of Danish Muslims who reproduced the images in the east and then the people react angrily.

And as a sign of maturity...

Iran paper seeks cartoon revenge

An Iranian paper is holding a contest for cartoons about the Holocaust, to retaliate against the publication of images of the Prophet Muhammad.

Now, normally I try and be unbias, but when it comes to religion, I can hold back...

GROW THE FUCK UP! It's just a bloody picture!

INLCP's "Grow a Thicker Skin" Rant

2006-02-03T10:14:00.000-05:00

It seems that political correctness these days is paving the way for extreme sensitivity of the most irrelevant issues. Anything that creates even the slightest annoyance/offence is enough to send many thin-skinned individuals into a snit fit and a tirade worthy of a princess who didn't get a good night's sleep simply because her pillow was too thick.

I'm speaking of course not of video games, as they are a scapegoat of modern religious over zealous paranoia and intent on blaming something that doesn't agree with their ingrained 'morals' and 'principles', but of issues that are springing up like weeds in a flower patch. Issues that could've otherwise been classified as 'irrelevant' have become forerunners in justifying 'righteous outrage'.

While there are many, IFLCP will pick its favourite three.

These are in no particular order despite that they are being numbered (this being, strictly out of convenience).
1. Anger grows over Muhammad cartoon

First off the top, the Arab nations' outrage to Danish editorial cartoons depicting their 'sacred' prophet, Muhammad. These cartoons were published in a Danish newspaper, in a primarily Christian nation, where freedom of the press is convetional and editorial cartoonist have exhausted traditional sources for their jabs and mockings.

According to Islam, caricatures, depictions, statues and other related forms equate to idoltry, and in this faith, it is anti-Islamic to have any images of the prophet Muhammad.

However, there was no instance of these cartoons being published in media that is directed at these people; it's designed for the Danish public. It was propogated into France and Germany, where the images were republished, sparking more 'outrage', despite that all three nations have freedom of expression and press on their books.

Letters of protest from LOCAL residents to the offending papers would've been far less deserving of INLCP's mockery than those of people who have likely never seen these publications in their life. The use of guns against officials unrelated to those who have made the publication and the burning of flags from those nations do no one any good; it especially bodes terribly for the so-called 'offended'.

Those who are protesting it need to stop and consider their position.

How can they protest this when they've violated elements of their own religion? After all, the Qu'ran doesn't directly call for women to wear any veil or even cover up; it merely calls for modesty on the part of the female and the male. The veil is a local adaptation. Women are considered equals in the Qu'ran, though not the same as men; this doesn't mean they are to be overruled by men, in fact, the only bing theyr are directly overruled by is Allah.

Holy Warfare, or Jihad was never endorsed directly; during the crusades, Muslim folk used slaves to do their fighting, because their religion and faith explicitly forbade such actions, as it never directly guaranteed a man many wives. It was done out of convenience after there was a shortage of men due to the crusades.

Those who were protesting this, need to grow a thicker skin and end the hypocrisy if they truly wish to be taken seriously.

Oh, while we're at here... Mohammed Image Archive

2. China ban for Memoirs of a Geisha

First it was anything with the following words: 'democracy', 'freedom' and 'liberty'. Then came the round in which they took the bloggers into the boxing ring, blind folded them and hit them below the belt. Any accurate details of Tiananmen Square massacre are taboo, as is anything homosexual - of course, in the name of protecting the people and the state.

The crusade doesn't end there. They've taken it to the next level and have directed their eyes and ears to the movie, Memoirs of a Geisha. The government and pressure groups have even led the movie industry to decline to release it. Gee, one less movie for the black market industry...

The decision to cast Chinese actresses Ziyi Zhang and Gong Li in leading roles as Japanese women has caused controversy in China.

Critics say it is insensitive because of Japan's atrocities during their occupation of China in the 1930s.
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Film company Sony Columbia Tristar Pictures said Memoirs of a Geisha would not be released in China "because of the negative social response to the film reflected on various media".

So... it's 'insensitive' because of Japan's wartime atrocities?

This is perplexing. After all, Germany has been forgiven by their European neighbours and have healthy relations with them, and they too committed many wartime atrocities.

Further, didn't The UK hold Hong Kong in 'occupation' longer than Japan held any of its wartiome conquests? Didn't the Brits commit some nasty crimes there?

Didn't Japan already apologise?

Further, the movie has no link toward the war...

Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it.

Memoirs of a Geisha

3. Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of the pay-to-play game WoW (World of Warcraft) in their inifite wisdom have decided that it's perfectly justifiable to allow the Jesus lovers and Bible thumpers to impose their views onto others and spam the local channels in WoW with their religious propoganda, but it is a big no-no if a GLBT guild to even exist.

Blizzard decries orc-on-orc gatherings (I won't bother to repeat what Demodulated has already said simply because I agree).

Online game warns gay-lesbian guild

In recruitment messages she posted on WoW, she wrote that the guild was not "'glbt only,' but we are 'glbt friendly.'"

To WoW publisher Blizzard Entertainment, however, Andrews' message was out of bounds. The Irvine, Calif.-based game publisher said her recruiting was a violation of the game's harassment policy, specifically the section of that policy regarding sexual orientation.

Ok, this is questionable, since, IFLCP isn't sure if this is a case of the publisher needing to grow a thicker skin, taking a lesson is not discrimination, or that the publisher lacks an IQ that prevents them from following the sheep mentality, but in either way, it's NOT harassment when it's a FRIENDLY place for people who are normally persecuted, and ironically, at the hands of those who are recruiting for the religious guilds.

If they're concerned about harassment related to sexual orientation, perghaps they ought to muzzle the religious movement that they're permitted to propogate in their cyberspace.

In an interview with CNET News.com, Blizzard public relations manager Gil Shif said that the company is reviewing the harassment policy and plans to modify it in the near future. The policy will likely be broadened, Shif said, to go beyond limiting prohibited language to that which is insulting and to include "any language that could result in situations where players are going to break down into harassing debate. It's just not appropriate for a gaming environment."

To Andrews, however, Blizzard's position doesn't hold water in a game that provides keyboard commands that allow characters to say things like, "Homogenized? No way, I like the ladies!"

"They state that they don't want mention of sexuality in their game, for fear it may cause people to harass others," Andrews said. "Yet they have things like this in the game already that (were) put there by them."

To some observers of online games like WoW, Blizzard's decision to warn Andrews gets harassment protection backward.

It seems that the player, Sarah Andrews who has created this guild isn't alone.

"We recognize that stopping harassment is extremely important," said Brian Chase, a staff attorney at Lambda Legal, an organization that promotes civil rights for the GLBT community. "But the way to stop the harassment of gay people is to stop the harassers, not insist gay people be quiet."

Interestingly...

Those rules state that players agree not to transmit language that is "unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, that may be invasive of another's right of privacy or publicity, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable."

So, it seems that advocating/advertising for a guild in WoW that is GLBT-friendly falls under these rules and is breaking the rules.

Yep, they really need to grow a thicker skin and return to school to learn what real harassment is.

Al Qaeda's No. 2 insults Bush on new video

2006-01-30T17:34:00.000-05:00

In a new video aired today, Al Qaeda’s No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri mocked U.S. President George W. Bush as a ``failure” in the war on terror, called him a “butcher” for killing innocent Pakistanis in a miscarried air strike and chastised the United States for rejecting Osama bin Laden’s offer of a truce.
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He said the air strike in Pakistan by an unmanned Predator craft targeted himself and four of his “brothers” in Al Qaeda. Instead, he said, it killed 18 civilians — “men, women, and children” — and he called Bush “the butcher of Washington.”

Al Qaeda's No. 2 insults Bush on new video

I have zero sympathy for the cause of the terrorists (well, save for the IRA, but that is another story - damn influential upbringing!), but it doesn't stop me from believing that they may not be so stupid. After all, if they can come out and declare that President Chimpbutt is a failure... amongst other things of course. It doesn't rule out that they are the epitome of hypocrisy when it comes to screaming bloody murder when the US attacks a village of innocents in attempt to kill al-Zawahri and his renegade brothers, (can we say 'collateral damage'?). After all, they did attack innocents. 9/11 is one (but very much overused and exhausted answer).

I find it further amusing that al-Zawahri has referred to President Chimpbutt as a butcher, given that it was previously assigned to disposed Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, who once held the less-than-flattering but truth beholding title of 'Butcher of Baghdad'.

Oh and before anyone says it, you do realise that the terrorist are winning?! They are winning because you, America, remains dependant on oil because the big names refuse to lose a battle in the name of the environment. You're losing the battle because you're paranoid about attacks. Yes, the threats are there, but we've seen little proof of a second strike on the US as a follow up to 9/11; they've only struck international targets (Madrid, London...).

They are winning because they have men who are willing to give their very lives for a groundless cause. They are winning because you, America have decided that because you're the only ones who can 'spread democracy' that you can invade other countries.

You've given them a reason to fight by continually occupying Iraq. Even those who would've never dreamed of such tactics see no way out. They take up the cause because it seems to work. After all, the other nations are pulling out.

The first rule of any revolutionary/terrorist movement is to attack your enemy everyday in any way possible. You never let them forget that you exist.

The American government says that they are winning. They tell you that they may need more time, but they will catch these guys. But, those they have caught they have done nothing with and the allegations and stories that have leaked out of the Gulag-esque walls of Guatanamo and other confinements for illicit CIA activities.

These stories fuel the heart of the movement; it is the oil off which the terrorism machines operates. As long as it has a ground, it has a cause, even if the cause may seem shallow to some. But, they know their kin are being tortured at the hands of foreigners. They remember Abu Ghraib; they aren't going to forget.

They need a cause. They need a reason, any reason is good and the occupation alone is a damn good reason. You, America see them as 'insurgents' and 'terrorists'. Don't forget, one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.

Democracy: Results May Vary

2006-01-28T11:08:00.000-05:00

With democracy on the march in the Mid East, one would've expected the US to welcome it with ecstatic delirium. After all, they did set out to 'spread democracy' to that region and they had chosen to start with Iraq, which has become a quagmire of a bloodbath that would have made the 1960s IRA proud. But, that doesn't matter because Saddam Hussein isn't in power any more and they had democratic elections!

And with democracy on the march, the Yanks weren't satisfied. They had to see it make to all corners of the Mid East; after all, there was incredible success in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, which saw Ukrainian-style oustings with a complimenting deep hue orange revolution.

There was no reason to stop there. The Palestinians, now without their authoritarian leader, Yassar Arafat have turned to democratic elections. After all, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. They gave it a good running attempt. But, of course, the will of the people isn't always apparent until after the ballots have been counted.

Polls are utterly meaningless. They are a mere sample of the opinion of voters and often due to their randomness aren't a decent representation of the opinions of the voters.

The west (aka, the US and the UK) were counting on the Fatah to win, so that they could continue to negotiate with their little lapdog, Abbas. Of course, the Palestinian people saw right through this facade and voted for Hamas, the notorious terrorist group, which made its name by bombing favourable locations throughout Tel-Aviv and various Jewish settlements.

Hamas sweeps to election victory

Preliminary results give Hamas 76 of the 132 seats in the chamber, with the ruling Fatah party trailing on 43.

The win poses problems for efforts to restart peace talks with Israel, say analysts. Israel insists it will not deal with an authority including Hamas.

So, being democratically elected isn't good enough any more...

Israel wanted no more terrorism and opted for democracy and not wanting to block the elections, allowed it to go forth, but has since changed its mind simply because it disagrees with the results?

It looks like history is repeating itself...

Sinn Fein (the political branch of the IRA) was democratically elected by the Irish people in the 1920s and the English government refused to recognize it even though they were allowed to run in the elections in Ireland. This led to the violent revolution that saw the Irish forcefully declaring their independance from the English...

DDR - It's Not Just for Fun! It's Now Part of Phys Ed!

2006-01-27T11:31:00.000-05:00

Phys Ed... many of us who weren't the athletic kids remember it as being burdensome and the class that we perfected out alibis and pathetic excuses in; the class where we learned how to fake injuries and weasel out of less than desireable activities because the athletic kids ran circles around us. In fact, many of us rejoiced when we arrived in high school because it was no longer mandatory! No more running to the sound of the buzzer drills, no more playing sports we sucked at, no more getting balls thrown at us during dodge ball and no wondering why we are the last ones picked for anything.

For this reason, we've reached the peak at which the newer and younger generations are now experiencing the negative affects of no physical education. But, what is the solution? After all, there will always be people who hate the class and find creative ways of getting out of it. These people will still feel inadequate in the face of more athletic classmates who enjoy the class as an alternative to the more academic environment that requires them to sit still and attentively listen to the teacher's lecture.

But, there is one thing that is constant through the newer generations and that is the desire to play games. Many of us wither away many hours in front of our gaming consoles and computers playing mindless games which usually don't result in better physical conditions, in fact, popular working theory is that this has contributed to the development of a lethargic generation of children who have wider asses en masse.

Surprisingly, despite its harsh stance towards certain genres of games, the US, particularly California and West Virgina have decided to capitalise on the children's love for games in order to get the flabby asses in motion.

US pupils to dance themselves fit

Following a pilot project the video game Dance Dance Revolution will soon be installed in all the state's public schools.

The game involves a player moving their feet on a special mat to copy dance steps shown on screen.

Pupils aged 10-14 that do not like other sports will be able to take the game as an option for getting exercise.
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Prof Linda Carson, who runs a project to study the health benefits of playing DDR at West Virginia University's School of Physical Education, said children aged 10 - 14 were being targeted because it was during those years that lifelong attitudes to exercise were formed.

Some schools in California were the first to use DDR, but the West Virginian project is believed to be the largest of its type.

So, even if you've got the pleasure (or displeasure) of being born with 2-left feet, at least this is one way that physical education doesn't seem so bad. At least you're not forced to run and touch lines; race against the clock, have a ball thrown at your head or worry about keeping up when playing 'soccer'. Plus, it's actually fun and who can complain about being forced to have fun?

Games: The Favourite Sacrificial Lamb in Lieu of Common Sense

2006-01-26T14:24:00.000-05:00

When all other options have been exhausted, what other better place to turn than to games when seeking a source upon which to place the blame to justify illegal actions on the part of a young member of this society? Or, better yet, use the games as a justification to heavily censor or even eradicate a certain genre from the shelves because some crackpot religious wank job has decided that it contributes to the inadequately named 'moral decay' and the destruction of the 'fabric of society' and that these games are sending us 'to hell in a hand basket'. (Are they any other euphemisms that I've forgot?)

Of course, there isn't just that side that likes to mention video games as a cause for one's actions or as a solution to prevent future actions because they have an odd asinine idea that because a youngster witnessed it in a game that it was a perfectly valid action that is legal in our society. There is also the media hype that surrounds it with plays a large role in helping to fuel the drive to censor games because of ideologies coming from certain media outlets based on their own pre-determined biases.

As it turns out, last night in a late night stint driven by the high levels of testosterone that make the male species prone to acts of gross stupidity, two young men, both 18 years old decided that it would be fun to take a pair of Mercedes and street race in Toronto on in a 50km/H zone going 140km/H.

In fact, here are two perfectly good articles we can use to compare how the media can hype up, based on so-called 'facts', the situation, or it can impartially report it as it was meant to.

CBC News: Taxi driver killed, teens arrested, after road race in Toronto
The Star: Cabbie killed by racing Mercedes

Toronto police have charged two teens after a Tuesday night collision that took the life of a taxi driver.

Investigators say two vehicles were racing through city streets when the accident occurred.

One of the racing vehicles collided with the taxi. The force of the collision slammed the cab into a light pole.

CBC provides a short and brief but adequate account of what happened. They made it clear about who is at fault while not mentioning any causes. If there had been a probably cause, the police who were at the scene would've provided the answer and if it was in stride with their impartial reporting policies, CBC would've included it in the news bit about the two young men who caused the death of another with their actions.

Racing north were two Mercedes driven by 18-year-olds, each pushing 140 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, police say. Next to one driver was the popular video game Need For Speed.

As the Mercedes rounded a bend, the taxi made a left turn on to Whitehall Rd. A loud crash shattered the still of Tuesday night.

One of the Mercedes, a silver 1999 model, T-boned the taxi, drilling it into a utility pole, police say.

Khan, 46, died instantly, and the driver of the mangled Mercedes escaped with just a few scratches. The driver of the other car fled, returning to the scene after ditching his car a few blocks away, posing as a bystander, police say.

Right away, it's obvious that the impartially of the reporter has been jeopardized by the need to mention frivolous details in their report. By including minute details that turn a report on a tragic death into a descriptive play-by-play.

In reporting, sometimes it's best to not quote any one besides those who have worked with the person if seeking a personal comment about the deceased for a need to add a touch of humanity to the death and to the police for their assessment. They've been trained to deal with these situations and are the best ones to give their opinion on the matter.

"It's a horrible irony," said Det. Paul Lobsinger about the presence of the video game, which allows players to choose high-end cars and race them through city streets while being pursued by police cruisers.

"Some have said this is life imitating art but I don't know, " said Lobsinger, adding "a game is a game, but when you get behind the wheel it's reality."

Lobsinger described the game as an "ultra-violent driving simulation, fighting simulation and criminal simulation."

"But are games the cause?" he asked. "Absolutely not. But, it is rather ironic."

Police say alcohol was not a factor, and that it's not clear if the video game was played before the two went out driving.

But, in choosing quotes, the reporters have the choice on what to include and what not to include and it can change the whole impact of the story and transform how it is received by the reader. If the reporter chooses quotes that are designed to not remain impartial, the reporter has a duty to counter balance it with another professional opinion, otherwise the article is skewed in favour of one argument over another.

Interestingly, the reporter from the Toronto Star had chosen to directly quote the doctor, while paraphrasing the police. Does this mean the reporter places less confidence in the words of a professional and more into the hands of an 'expert' simply because one has more of an academic background over the other? Or is it done out of personal preference, hence overlooking a core principle of reporting?

Jim Bell, manager of Diamond Taxi, said Khan had been with the company for three years and called his death a tragedy for everyone involved.

"Those kids must be feeling absolutely terrible and the parents of these kids who were racing must be feeling devastated."

And since when is a manager of a taxi company an expert psychiatrist? Sure it makes the reporter look good because they've done their 'research', but it discredits them. Then again, by making the game the centre caused based on opinion that hasn't been justified by the police.

In this case, extreme indifference and a will to stick to JUST the facts would've helped, but when there is hype and mention of anything other than stupidity and alcohol mentioned when there is an act of violence resulting in trauma, either physical or psychological, or in death, the media brings out any mention of videos when possible. That is, they have no regard for impartiality.

Virtual Borders & Censorship

2006-01-25T10:29:00.000-05:00

Some governments no longer content with good old fashion book burning and mass censorship of traditional media content such as television programming and newpapers have turned their ever-growing 'wisdom' to the internet, because as we all know, people elect their government because they're too stupid to make their own rational decision and rely on an elected official to do the thinking for them.

"Lisa, the whole reason we have elected officials is so that we don't have to think." ~ Homer Simpson

Sure it's a sufficient opiate for the mindless masses who refuse to use what intelligence 'God' has given them - Intelligent Design indeed! This is a fine argument against ID, but, that isn't the topic here, but, it was still a necessary evil to blast with the logic canon.

Censorship is a means of crippling the masses, bringing them to their knees through the use of government sanctioned ignorance and stupidity. An exemplary historic example comes from Nazi Germany, where the great minds were persecuted by the state for preaching 'UnGerman' ideas. Books were burned, intellectualism was curbed, and education as an academic pursuit was frowned upon.

Sure Nazi Germany produced one heck of a viable fighting force worthy of Spartan standards, but at a severe cost to their nation's future. When the allies arrived in Berlin in 1945, they had a generation of physically conditioned men and homely women who could survive on their wits, but they were intellectually bankrupt due to years of censorship and the mass exodus by academic professors.

This is from the same war that witnessed the development of technology, providing the gateway for the technological boom experienced less than fifty years later.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

The Japanese weren't giving up, so we invited the nuclear bomb.

We needed to decipher the German code, so we got the first computers, though rudimentary in their abilities, could perform basic tasks, which justified their existence.

No one could've phantom the computer's incredible evolution to the point of a simple desktop being available in many households and a laptop at the disposal of many young folks and in the hands of affluent businesspersons. But, the sheer numbers isn't enough to justify ownership, nor is the abilities of these machines a driving factor in ownership, but rather a virtual feature one can't touch - the internet.

The internet - a vast resource of knowledge databases, social gatherings, gaming options to escape reality and other endeavors to appease the diminutive attention span of the average human being.

The knowledge databases stem from the most basic of user-made pages on a topic they feel they are an expert in to the revered academic pages of the universities who have provided their academic theories for the betterment of the world. It includes and isn't limited to, news...

News sites like the BBC, CBC...

The BBC is one of the most popular and impartial new sources available on the internet. It isn't just news; it's more. It's a vast database of history, contemporary and academic information, intellectual discussions between readers, programmes and language options.

It has increased its longevity by providing services in a multitude of languages, including Persian, the language of Iran and surrounding regions.

But, this doesn't help. In fact, the Iranian government has decided on an arbitrary clamp down.

Iran blocks BBC Persian website

Objective? State imposed and sanctioned ignorance allows for the cruel and the extreme fundamentalists to rule with an ironfist because the hunger for knowledge on the part of the masses has been satiated by censorship under the guise of being liberal.

By shrouding the eyes of millions, you can lead them to believe what you do. Ignorance makes minds soft and malleable. These minds are clouded by naïveté rivalling that of an innocent child. The minds of children are 'pure' from influence and easy to mould into what is desired by parents and educators. Such objectives can be obtained with adults through censorship and propoganda.

The Chinese 'communist' government can espouse this. After all, democracy is affront to their manifesto and everything Chairman Mao fought diligently for, SARS (yeah, it happened, but it really didn't happen like that...) and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre is an exaggeration by western powers.

For thsi reason, they have barred the liberal search engine Google from supplying their citizenry with knowledge because it would be contrary to what they have been preaching all these years and it may expose their ignorance and shortcomings.

Google moves 'black day' for China.

Its e-mail, chat room and blogging services will not be available because of concerns the government could demand users' personal information.

The company argues it can play a more useful role in China by participating than by boycotting it, despite the compromises involved.

Even if they did give into censorship, they are providing a level of privacy that is consistent with their current policies that have stemmed from their fight against the US Department of 'Justice', headed by Alberto Gonzales (another right-wing prat without an ounze of common sense; his morality could fill a thimble).

Google defies US over search data

Conclusion? Governments are a waste of time; Anarchy and Libertarianism are looking more and more attractive these days as a viable complimentary alternative to my socialist views.

Caeci caecos ducentes

2006-01-24T13:00:00.000-05:00

Despite that we elect our leaders and politicians, no matter what happens, there is one truth that remains constant through this: politicians and leaders are retards unless it was your candidate who got into power.

Caeci caecos ducentes -- Blind are led by the blind. Leaders are not more knowledgeable than the ones they lead.

I say this given the very tragic fact that about 36% of 'Canadians' (since it's apparent they don't value the rich cultural and social heritage our nation possesses) have elected to squander their vote on the ignorance that is the religious right. They have foolishly allowed for the sheppard to herd the sheep down the path of "righteous" destruction.

The schism between voters is obvious in the numbers. The divisiveness wouldn't been such an issue if there was a more traditional party like the Progressive Conservatives around (back in a time when Clark was the leader of the PC and the modern Conservatives were the ragtag Reform/Alliance Party (alias CCRAP) under Preston Manning then Stockwell Day). The sheer audacity of the CPC to use the name of Conservative has demonstrated that they perceive the average voter to be a complete inept git who doesn't know the difference between left and right.

Given that the great rift between the common choice for voters, it seems that this temporary shift to the right will be short lived, despite promises from Mr. Layton and Mr. Duccepe that they won't force another election. The Liberals meanwhile really are on no position, despite their numbers to force it, as they are now without the most crucial element to any party, a leader.

Martin to quit as Liberal leader.

I hope you're pleased with yourself, Canada. Mr. Martin was a fine Prime Minister. He did what he could amidst the controversy shroding the Liberal Party that is a remanants of the Chretien administration legacy. Mr. Martin may have been a politician and not always the most honest, but, he had a certain level of sincerity and humanity to him.

But, that wasn't good enough. Instead you picked the leader who has the charisma of a plastic plate and the smile of a sheep in wolf's clothing, waiting on its prey; ready to pounce. That smile has hidden the right-wing agenda that has been denied for so long. That agenda includes the much despised Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system that the Bush Administration and its Neo-con Republican Congress and Senate is adamant about establishing on sovereign Canadian soil.

Folks who cherish the right to choose marriage regardless of sexual orientation are being out back into the fire because the religious right doesn't approve of equal rights for all unless you're a heterosexual couple procreating in the missionary position as dictated by the Bible....

And doesn't peace typically go hand in hand with religion, especially religions like Christianity, which the core centre for the beliefs that members of the Conservatives wrap themselves in as they appeal to the lowest common demoninator?

Of course, it isn't. It's even more Christian to go to war. Forget what Jesus said, he's just some dude who lived 2,000 years ago and was the founder of most of Christianity's core principles and beliefs. It's so dated; the new way for Christians is war and what better way to put this into practice than to wage war on some country that has what you want?

That Iraq War? We'd be losing our men and women to a worthless cause; on a groundless point because there was zero merit in the intelligence data to warrant this illegal war. The War in Iraq is a direct violation of the UN and the Geneva Conventions. It was never justified.

Which all parties in Canada are now aware of. It took 2 years for the 'Tories' to educate themselves on this and now they are saying that they wouldn't. Well, it seems that they've taken a page from the Liberal Red Book on hypocrisy.

Our rights? Come back when we have a real party that can protect us. But right now, we can kiss 'em goodbye 'cause they're going to be sent to the gas chambers for 'cleansing'.

Of course, that is if any of the other parties buy into the 'Tory' line of thinking. With the impending throne speech, I don't see much being accomplished, another than another round of petty arguing and other impediments that stop the democratic process. The 'Tories' don't really have enough seats to do any significant damage. Everything they do has to go through the separatist-liberal-social filter before it can even be considered for a vote.

I predict another election in less than two years...

The Faces of Future Voters

2006-01-20T12:43:00.000-05:00

You know, as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words and it is proven time and time again to be true when one takes a gander at election pictures from the photo-ops on the campaign trail.

All the pictures used are provided by CBC News, CBC - Decision 2006 and CP.

Our first in the set...

Four-year-old Connor pays attention to a photographer while Liberal Leader Paul Martin visits a day care in Ajax, Ont., on Thursday, Jan. 19. (CP Photo/Paul Chiasson; CBC News)

It's never too early to convert the young voters of Canada. Some, however aren't easily convinced, and it's hard to miss the young voters who are already irritated with the political process. He may be able to charm the ladies, but the men don't like it, and it seems like Mr. Martin is trying to charm this young fellow's first crush. Either that, or the kid is just plain bored. We knew politicians were boring, but...

Next in our offerings...

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper smiles at nine-month-old Jessica Weiss during a campaign stop in Waterdown, Ont., on Thursday, Jan 19. (CP Photo/Tom Hanson; CBC News)

This is smiling? It looks like this neo-con is contemplating a yummy snack with a side of chubby infant. Or, if it is a smile, this young lass isn't very impressed, in fact, one might be led to believe that this little one may be contemplating just how much she would like to projectile vomit her formula all over his 'casual' business attire. Irregardless, it's quite the puffer fish impression she's mastered.

Coming around to the left...

NDP Leader Jack Layton greets a young supporter during a campaign stop in Edmonton on Wednesday, Jan. 18. (CP Photo/Andrew Vaughan; CBC News)

A freshing change and indicative of the fresh ideas that the NDP are sporting this season, a young voter displays neither a desire to upchuck or sheer boredom. Perhaps charisma isn't just for wooing Canadian women voters any more. Or, it could be that this kid has a promise of a new X-Box 360 if he pretends he enjoys it. If he is acting, this kid has a future in either Hollywood or politics.

And last, separating himself from the rest...

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe speaks to a four-year-old boy during Berber New Year celebrations on Saturday, Jan. 14, in Montreal. (CP Photo/Jacques Boissinot; CBC News)

This kid might have a future as either a political pundit or a thinktank in the Bloc, because this kid is sparking quite the expression on Mr Duccepe's face. Even at such a tender age, this strapping young voter knows what he wants and has no qualms about telling an adult how to do his job. He may even have some fresh ideas, such as the four points he's telling Mr Duceppe about.

Dangerous Liaison

2006-01-13T09:21:00.000-05:00

Canadians know what they want and what they don't want and according to most polls, we don't want the debate on homosexual marriage re-opened and we don't want to join Missile Defense. In fact, we were quite relieved, for the most part when incumbant Prime Minister Paul Martin didn't prove to be weak-kneed to American pressure.

We thought that because of this we had heard the last of it, but it seems that we had been lulled into a false of security. Why? One of the candidates vying for the position of Prime Minister, Harper, has decided that he'll ignore what Canadians want, since he doesn't actually give a damn about popular opinion; after all, he did force an election through.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper says he's ready to reopen the debate over Canadian participation in the American missile defence system.

The missile defence initiative, combined yesterday with a Harper pledge to turn his back on the Kyoto accord and his refusal to endorse a $5 billion deal for aboriginal aid, could signal the type of major policy realignment Canadians can expect under a Harper government.

Reopen missile defense: Harper

Apart from the aboriginal portion (a position all parties ought to adopt, since none of the current/newer generations should pay reparations to those who were physically/mentally traumatised in 'residential school'. We had nothing to do with it, in fact, those of us under 25 likely couldn't have voted when it mattered, so it's pointless to make us pay.), everything else coming from the CPC is frightening. The Kyoto Accord, even if it is seemingly steep in its aims is for the betterment of the world, and should be kept, and Missile Defense is just a... bad idea to begin with.

His insistance to reopen it proves he has no consideration for the average Canadian...

Oh and the subheadline for the article I've linked is this.

Harper woos `working families'
Says he relates to middle class

Which doies nothing other than to highlight the sheer ignorace and mind-numbing hypcrisy of the CPC. Sure, some people are fooled, but, I'm sure the affair will be over once people witness the sacred democratic nation we have fall to shambles as the fundamentalists' agenda is put into practice...

But, then again... why vote for the Liberals? They had their chance and took too long.

The evil you know or the evil you don't know?

Or the third possibility - the NDP...? Or... even a fourth, the Green?

Revenge of the Attack Ads

2006-01-12T14:19:00.000-05:00

Well, it's that time; the time when we reach a critical point in the political campaign. It's the time when the parties decide that being civil just isn't enough to win over voters. This is when they bring out their AK-45s and replace their sling slots.

But, who can blame them?

Polls conducted by random companies via sampling are enough to create a panic in the eyes of any party, whether they are in the position of incumbant or rival candidate.

At this point, all parties need something to come out ahead of the others, then what better way is there than to to attack your opponants below the belt? After all, budgets are reaching breaking point and only cheap tactics won't make or break the party's fund.

The Star: Rate the Political Ads

Since the mute button is very popular during commercial breaks for a lot of people, most people wouldn't have heard nor would've felt an inclination to watch the ads that our political parties are squandering money on in order to buy our votes, I've provided a link for you.

It has most of the recent ads that have made their way, unfortunately, onto our televisions during prime-time.

The only ads which aren't offensive are the 2 NDP ones and the one in which the Liberals draw comparisons between the Ontario Harris Conservatives and Harper's Conservatives.

If anyone knows anything about the Liberal Party history and current history, then they know that the CPC's Gomery-based ad in which they used quotes from his findings, are inaccurate because the Liberal party under Chretien started this BS back in 1992, and Martin was Finance Minister starting in 1995. The job of the Finance Minister isn't to monitor HOW money is spent, but to figure how much to put into each section of the federal budget and balance the national budget. The accountability lies with the Auditor General, whos is supposed to check up on how the money is being spent when it reaches its destination. Of course, they also ignore that the Gomery Inquiry was started by Martin, that Gomery exonerated Martin and that Martin got rid of those associated with the previous Liberal regime.

If we really wanted to use smear tactics based on previous regimes, we could paint the CPC with the tar brush from the Mulroney era that saw the introduction of GST and NAFTA, as well as other ideas based on the concepts embraced by those who love the inappropriately named 'Common Sense Revolution'.

Christmas: More than a break from work or Caption the Pic!

2005-12-28T12:38:00.000-05:00

It is also a break from the election campaign mudsling fest that has embraced the entire nation, forcing us into a tangled web of inanity. Or so one would hope. It seems the Liberals have decided to use a nice picture to paint the Bloc and Conservatives with the same tar brush.

Harper says Liberal use of Holocaust event pic with Duceppe is 'beyond tasteless'

The photo shows Harper whispering to Duceppe during the Holocaust memorial last spring on Parliament Hill, suggesting he would work with the separatist party. The event was also attended by Liberal Leader Paul Martin and NDP Leader Jack Layton.

Well, it seems that the liberals have zero imagination. They ought to hire a new person to take over the creative mudslinging department.

Since it seems the Liberals will be needing someone to cap their blackmail pictures for the election, I'll provide a sample of the kind of inflammatory captions I can be best known for.

1) Harper: I don't know about you, but, I could really use a Moosehead right about now.

2) Harper and Duceppe conceive an evil plan - which bar to scare people from when they go for their drink.

3) Harper: will this guy ever shut up?

4) Harper: Did you see what Belinda did at the Parliament Christmas party? Keep her away from the interns!

5) Not even a solemn moment can stop the diabolical plans that Harper and Duceppe are hatching...
Harper: Mmmm...that bowl of poutine that person is holding looks good... five bucks says I could steal it and no one would notice.

Damnit! I need an exorcist!

2005-12-15T20:15:00.000-05:00

And no, there is no Conservative infestation in my house (though I suspect my cat of having jumped boat, fortunately for us, she can't vote); I'm talking of course about final exams.

You see, they are the very evil reason behind why I haven't been able to lambaste Stephan 'I can't get fucked up the ass by the gays because there is a stick tightly wedged in there' Harper and his neo-con American wannabe Conservatives. (Can we say American Lapdogs, children? Very good!).

My exams consequently prevented me from making my statements about the Neo...eerr, the Conservative's election campaign ad, as well as their stance on tax cuts (they only benefit the upper class), stricter sentences on all drug offenses (obvious the prat's never smoked a J, otherwise he'd be thinking twice about that); let us not forget the children daycare allowance (c'mon, what are the odds that EVERYONE who gets it will use it responsibly? Just because someone has a child, doesn't automatically make them responsible! The Liberals had it right with their Beer and Popcorn remark!). Oh and lastly, there is also the credit to families that enroll theuir children in out of school physical programs (this helps the fucking upper middle and well-off and not those who truly need it because the price of these programs are obscenely high).

There, a couple weeks of rants neatly summed up into one paragraph for your benefit.

Now, there is something that is more important than castrating the neo-cons over their flawed promises and policies and that is the two storms fronts that we're being hit!

Mother Nature has set her sights on me this week and specifically waited for today and tomorrow to drop a shit load of snow on us (and, it's more than the mere two inches that snowed in the wimpy folk in Europe, who have a snit fit over a few white evil snow flakes).

It seems her timing was impeccable, as my exams fall on December 15 (today) and December 16 (tomorrow), thus meaning that both storms hit on the two days that my exams are on!

Storm brings transportation chaos to southern Ontario

Oh, woe is me!

Election Day 3: Let the Mudslinging Commence

2005-12-01T10:37:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to be speaking about the impending Canadian elections which are set to take place on January 23, 2006. The big names to watch for are Jack Layton of the NDP, Stephan Harper of the Conservatives and incumbant Prime Minister Paul Martin and the Liberals.

An addum to yesterday's rant: The Gay Marriage legislation that was passed and put into practice during the summer is back under fire. It seems that Harper wants at it, and this time, it's personal.

Harper would allow free vote on gay marriage

However, if they passed it, he would restore the traditional definition of marriage being between one man and one woman.

Harper said his government would allow existing same-sex marriages to continue.

So, this would mean that gay couples would likely rush into marriage strictly for the benefits if this held true, pending the apocalypse should the CPC get its "wish". It would also mean that there would be different statuses for the different couples, which would create additional problems.

Hindsight is 20/20, and Harper has none. He also has a blatant disregard for equality and human rights.

On with today's rant...

Now, it is no secret that the mud slinging will begin shortly, and the first to admit this, is Jim Harris of the Green Party (and for those of you who don't know, they are the treehugging hippie party of Canada).

Greens won't fling mud: Harris

Green party Leader Jim Harris warned Wednesday that Canadians should brace for one of the "dirtiest campaigns in history."
...
"Sadly, we can expect one of the dirtiest campaigns in history," he said about the Jan. 23 vote. "And after the 2004 election, that's saying something.

"Mud will be tossed by the bucketloads. Some will be flung even at us."

Well, thank you Captain Obvious! Name me one election recently that wasn't rife with slander, libel and the various little anecdotes as provided by the spin doctors and speech writers for the imcumbants and challengers.

Canadians know from the last election that any election isn't going to be clean. The stakes are high and the polling numbers are close. Many key ridings were won by just a margin in many cases in the last election, and it is these ridings that are again in the spot light. They will be closely watched come election night by many nail biting pundits and candidates.

And further, what reason do the Greens have to sling mud? None whatsoever. They want to protect every last grain of mud and green little grass strand on Canadian soil. And don't forget those cuddly polar bears who'd never hurt... OW! Little bugger just tried to eat me! Damnit, where's a hunter when you need one? Anyway...

Not surprisingly, Harris focused on the environment, saying that the arctic climate is changing at twice the rate of any other region in the world and threatening Canada's polar bear population.

He said C02 emissions in Canada have risen by 24.4 per cent since 1993, and cancer cases are predicted to double in the next 30 years.

I'm concerned about pollution as the next Canadian, but I have more pressing matters on my mind, such as, why the hell do we even need a tax cut?

Well, we can turn to Harper for reassurance that we'll get a tax cut.

Harper vows to cut GST

I find this extremely...interesting, especially since it was the Conservatives who had introduced GST when Brian Mulroney was in power. Oh wait! That's not the same party; it was the Progressive Conservtives that had, not the new ones. But, who's really keeping track? After all, the PC and the Alliance Party had merged to form the Conservatives, which means both inherit the moral deficit from their predecessors.

The Tories have long been contemplating a cut in the sales tax as a campaign plank. Harper said cutting the GST would be "more effective in stimulating consumption than anything the government's proposing."

Meanwhile, PM Martin and his incumbant Liberals have decided that they don't want to slash GST. They feel it's not what Canadians want. They had bigger, more ambitious ideas, and it may be more in line with what Canadians want.

"I believe we should cut personal income taxes," Liberal Leader Paul Martin said on Thursday after Harper's announcment. "Canadians should keep more of their paycheque."
Martin said voters will be able to compare the parties' two plans for cutting taxes.

"I believe mine is more fair, especially for the Canadian middle class."

This would give Canadians more disaposable income. It would mean that there is more to save and spend to live comfortably. The GST level of 7% would remain the same.

It seems that Martin is more mindful of the Canadian general population than Harper is, as is evidenced by his governments most recent budget that saw cuts for the middle class families and finacial assistance of sorts for low income Canadians.

I'm sure many of you recall the first budget release by the Liberal minority government, in which the Liberals made a deal with the NDP so thet could avoid a motion of non-confidence. The budget didn't have the corperate tax cuts that Harper had originally liked and saw more socially minded spending.

And just for the sake of showing what an arrogant prat this twat is...

Pointing out on Thursday that he himself is an economist, Harper said: "I believe that all taxes are bad. It's always good to keep taxes down."

Isnt it convenient that he is more than just a politician?

And since when are all taxes bad? Oh right - they're bad if you're an American. You don't want taxes because then it means you can pay for social programs, which is bad because paying for social programs means you have little left for the military and the religious right agenda.

*ahem* Back on topic, tax reduction is good, but only if its done when the climate is right and there is adequate room to pay down the deficit and keep spending in the black.

And as it has been an issue in Canada since 1995 - national unity.

Martin warns of threat to national unity

"I can tell you right now we're not going to allow the separatists to divide Quebec families," added Martin. "We're not going to allow separatists to divide this country."

Martin has decided to fight fire with fire and has taken to having a prominent candidate try and secure a Bloc stronghold in the a stretch of land between Montreal and Ottawa. Marc Garneau, the first Canadian astronaut is posed to run in Vaudreuil-Soulanges for the Liberals.

It never hurts to have someone well-known on your side, especially when it counts.

We don't need the Bloc impending on a stable government. They are the only thing that stands between a minority and majority government at this point. Though, while they are a threat to national unity, the CPC remains a threat to national sanity.

Election Day 2

2005-11-30T12:40:00.000-05:00

I'm getting the majority of my election news from CBC and CBC Newsworld.

Federal leaders come out swinging as Jan. 23 election set

It didn't take long before the mud slinging began (especially here!)

At the forefront of this mud sling fest is Stephan 'I got a stick up my ass' Harper swinging and trying to go deep, but, can't quite make it because of his weak-kneed policies. He is also proving to be adaept at being a mindless twat...

"In the coming weeks we will unveil our plan for Canada," said Harper. That plan will include cleaning up government, reducing taxes and getting tough on crime.

"We need a government that reflects the greatness of this country," he said. "Canada need a national government that will focus on the future."

I find this ironic, because the government that Canada needs isn't the government that the Conservatives are offering us.

Further, I fail to see how the Conservatives, or rather Alliance (Reform Party, anyone?) plans to clean up the government, given that the Liberals are certainly doing a very good job cleaning up. They are also distancing themselves from their predecessor through means such as the Gomery Inquiry and cleaning up the cabinet by removing the pox that was Chretien's hand picked cronies.

Lastly, why would we want the Reform Party in power? They only have Republican-minded policies in head, which includes expanding the military and finding a way to fuck over Canada by putting us in bed with America and its screwed up, unpopular, international law violating policy. They are nothing more than ignorant rednecks who won't do the country any good.

Further, the last time we had a Conservative government at the federal level, we were given such lovely things. NAFTA which means fuck all given the lack of American willingness to oblige by an international treaty that they signed onto and ratified; GST, which was introduced to help eliminate the federal debt. It helped, but part of the promise was that it was only temporary, but it stuck.

Now take for example, the NDP, who are socially minded and have Canada's interests at heart, even if they don't have the same level of fiscal conservatism that the Liberal party has shown it can exercise when it comes to federal spending.

They also come off as being far less arrogant.

"Friends, this election is wide open," said Layton. "This election is wide open because Canadians have a real, a positive and a progressive choice, the option to choose a real alternative to the Liberal broken promises and Conservative wrong-headedness."

"Canadians can get Parliament working again. Here's how to do that: elect more New Democrats."

There is no lies here. The NDP were the only opposition party that even tried to make the government work. They had paired up with the Liberals to get something done. They had done what was needed to make Parliament work.

Yes, they jumped ship when the Liberals wouldn't give them what they wanted for healthcare. Though, let it be noted that the Liberals did make a counteroffer, which sadly fell short of NDP expectations.

Need more reason to consider the NDP? Look at the statement provided. Jack Layton does come out swinging hard for the NDP, but he's prepared to take whatever pitch is given to him. He's not just going for the homerun; he's going for whatever gets his party out there and in play.

Still looking for good reasons? What is a better reason that a socially minded one like education?

Invest in education, not tax cuts: Layton.

With education, we get more back and we can give more back than we can with a tax cut. A tax cut is only good in the short term; education is a lifetime investment and takes only a few years.

"We can't afford that kind of direction. It's the wrong priority right now," Layton said.

"What we want to see is those investments made in helping students to get an education."

Tell me how tax cuts are better and why the Conservatives would be better when they have come out swinging in favour of tax cuts and military spending, as well as attacking the Liberal mandate.

I'll resume mudslinging later when I get more information.

Homosexuality is now a culture!

2005-11-29T10:19:00.000-05:00

Or at least it is according to the Vatican.

You see, being the ignorant biased tools of Satan that they are, they decided that they had the authority to decide that they could do whatever the hell they please, and that includes deeming homosexuality to be a life style.

Vatican renews ban on gay priests

Now it's time for my favourite passtime - looking up the meaning of words!

Gay (Gā)
adj. gay·er, gay·est

Of, relating to, or having a sexual orientation to persons of the same sex.
Showing or characterized by cheerfulness and lighthearted excitement; merry.
Bright or lively, especially in color: a gay, sunny room.
Given to social pleasures.
Dissolute; licentious.

As you can see, it isn't defined as a just a lifestyle/culture, contrary to what the Vatican likes to think (oh gee, golly, they're thinking now? Careful, I think I see the apocalypse on the horizon! No, that's just an elephant, and there goes a baby driving a car). Back, a long time ago, it had a different meaning.

Now, onward with my Vatican bashing.

Like other religious freaks of nature, they have this very odd belief that homosexuality is by choice and not natural, and as such, it can be "overcome".

But it treats homosexuality as a "tendency", not an orientation, and says those who have overcome it can begin training to take holy orders.

At least three years must pass between "overcoming [a] transitory problem" and ordination as a deacon, the rules say.

Exactly how does one overcome such problems? I mean, it's not like these people woke up one morning and thought, "you know, I wonder what it's like to be gay?".

If one wanted to overcome those "unnatural" homosexual tendancies, they could always turn to: Hetracil.

Back on topic...

It seems that the Vatican needs a scapegoat to help itself redeem it's "good" name after the slew of allegations of abuse that took place primarily in the US. It seems that the scandal that arose from these was highly damaging. And like with any good lynching mob, they have found their scapegoat, however...

They are the outcome of a review ordered by the late Pope John Paul II following highly damaging abuse scandals in the US in which several men accused priests of having abused them as teenagers.

No link has been established between homosexuality and the abuse of children.

Ouch! That has got to hurt! It seems that there is no link between the molestation of these children and the presence of homosexual priests. That isn't going to stop them of course; why should it?

The Vatican document describes homosexual acts as "grave sins" that cannot be justified under any circumstances.

So, I'm guessing that this means that a man can't give a man mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That would be a homosexual act, because a man is putting his mouth against that of another man. Isn't that kind of like kissing? I wonder what they have to say about that...

"If a candidate practises homosexuality, or presents deep-seated homosexual tendencies, his spiritual director as well as his confessor have the duty to dissuade him in conscience from proceeding towards ordination," it says.

Given that most sexual practices are done in private, how does a candidate necessarily present such tendacies? What does the Vatican do to prove this? Do they take a homosexual guy and a straight woman, put the two in front of the candidate and see how the candidate responds to both?

And what exactly are 'deep-seated tendancies' anyway?

ten·den·cy (tĕnədn-sē)
n. pl. ten·den·cies

Movement or prevailing movement in a given direction: observed the tendency of the wind; the shoreward tendency of the current.
A characteristic likelihood: fabric that has a tendency to wrinkle.
A predisposition to think, act, behave, or proceed in a particular way.

An implicit direction or purpose: not openly liberal, but that is the tendency of the book.
An implicit point of view in written or spoken matter; a bias.

Now, since it's referring to human actions, it can't be a weather pattern, it can't be fabric, so it's got to be the third point about thinking, acting and/or behaving. Since it is predisposed, it was voluntary and not involuntary, due to being born in such a way.

So, it seems that a tendency towards homosexuality is wrong; it would be a sexual orientation because it is the way that someone is from birth, and it can't be changed, even via societal and familial pressures.

"Such persons in fact find themselves in a situation that presents a grave obstacle to a correct relationship with men and women."

Ok, that doesn't even make sense! I'm not going to touch this point with a ten foot pole!

I have to wonder, what makes a homosexual man any less deserving of priesthood than a heterosexual or bisexual man? They all share the same kind of pure love for the 'God' that they wish to represent. How does one's orietation necessarily change "God's" message to the masses?

In the same way that it does with a teacher... in no such way at all!

Non-Confidence Motion Flattens Government

2005-11-28T19:06:00.000-05:00

MPs topple Liberal government, trigger election

The Liberal minority government has been defeated in a motion of non-confidence tabled by the CPC (Conservative Party of Canada), led by the biggest asshole in Canadian history, Stephan 'I got a stick up my ass' Harper, who has about as much charisma as dry rotting fungus on curling linoleum.

According to the polls, it seems that the standings, amongst decided voters, are as follows:

So, it seems that this kind of voter opinion would lead us to another minority government, precisely what the bloody CPC didn't want. We all know that they want a majority; a CPC majority. Tough! It isn't going to happen!

And in this voter's less than humble opinion, I think this election is just an excuse not to do anything! We all know that Her Majesty's Official Opposition is only good at piddling around a dead tree and pissing on it! And as evidenced by their continual behaviour in Parliment, they are completely incompetant and unable to govern as a respectable opposition party. This means that they'd be the worst minority/majority party since Margret Thatcher's Conservatives.

Holodomor - Murder By Hunger

2005-11-25T13:13:00.000-05:00

In December of 1948, the United Nations passed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Within it, one of the articles clearly defines genocide as:

Article II.
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transfering children of the group to another group.

Many of us are not naive about the Nazi atrocities leading up to and during World War II. We also have come to acknowledge the genocide in Rwanda and the massacres under Pol Pot.

But many, like Darfur aren't being treated the same way. While people dye due to wide spread genocide, the world isn't acknowledging that it is truly genocide and won't take action.

Even in the case of a large massacre, very few have acknowledged it as genocide.

Stumped? I'm talking of course about Stalin's Forced Famine in which 7-10 million Urkranians died due to being stripped of their produced and forced to send their produce to motherland Russia.

This happened between 1932-1933.

Stalin's Forced Famine 1932-1933

Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, set in motion events designed to cause a famine in the Ukraine to destroy the people there seeking independence from his rule. As a result, an estimated 7,000,000 persons perished in this farming area, known as the breadbasket of Europe, with the people deprived of the food they had grown with their own hands.

There, a nice summary of the 'genocide' (and in quotes because it hasn't been given the UN designation of genocide yet).

And it wasn't like the world didn't know, and didn't care. Many tried to help...

By the spring of 1933, the height of the famine, an estimated 25,000 persons died every day in the Ukraine. Entire villages were perishing. In Europe, America and Canada, persons of Ukrainian descent and others responded to news reports of the famine by sending in food supplies. But Soviet authorities halted all food shipments at the border. It was the official policy of the Soviet Union to deny the existence of a famine and thus to refuse any outside assistance. Anyone claiming that there was in fact a famine was accused of spreading anti-Soviet propaganda. Inside the Soviet Union, a person could be arrested for even using the word 'famine' or 'hunger' or 'starvation' in a sentence.

And not even 1 million have died in Darfur and we're rushing to get it designated as genocide, and yet, in one day, about 25,000 people were killed in Ukraine. There are towns in Canada that aren't even a third that size! That would almost be entire towns. And yet, even now, it's still not called genocide.

Though, who can really blame the west and Europe? The Soviets did a damn good job covering their asses during those years. Just like with Bush's photo opts, the Soviets staged events that disguised what was going on.

The Soviets bolstered their famine denial by duping members of the foreign press and international celebrities through carefully staged photo opportunities in the Soviet Union and the Ukraine. The writer George Bernard Shaw, along with a group of British socialites, visited the Soviet Union and came away with a favorable impression, which he disseminated, to the world. Former French Premier Edouard Herriot was given a five-day stage-managed tour of the Ukraine, viewing spruced-up streets in Kiev and inspecting a 'model' collective farm. He also came away with a favorable impression and even declared there was indeed no famine.

This happens quite a bit doesn't it? Just when things start to look bad, the country in question holds a staged event to redeem its good name. Many modern countries still use this practice to cover up what is really happening. If it doesn't work, then they use heavy handed tactics like embargos and sanctions to make a point. Such as with the Iranians. They have their nuclear intentions but they aren't going to deny most of it; instead, they chose to let the UN's Nuclear Task Force take a look at the facilities (what are the odds that they weren't deceived).

Now, this brings me to my favourite question...

Why is it when 6+ million Jews died or were massacred under the watch of the Nazi regime, between 1933-1945 was the subsequent Holocaust called genocide, whereas when the 7+million Ukranians were massacred in the year span of 1932-1933, it isn't genocide, but rather a nation tragedy?

Nevertheless, a UN declaration - while recognising the famine as Ukraine's national tragedy - did not include the word "genocide" - to the great dismay of Ukraine which lobbied hard for the inclusion of the term.

Ukraine demands 'genocide' marked

End The Handouts!

2005-11-23T21:01:00.000-05:00

I have had it with the government handing out 'cash settlements' to every disgruntled douche that happens to think it was 'wronged'. Pardon my French - but... what the fuck? How were you necessarily wronged it it was your ancestors that were displaced by someone else's ancestors? Just because your skin is darker and you were once a member of a tribe who was here before 'white man', does NOT entitle you to any of the federal money any more than the rest of us blue collar no name slobs! Get over your fucking selves already!

Abuse payout for Canadian natives.

Canada has offered to pay more than C$2bn (US$1.7bn) compensation to indigenous people who were abused at government-funded residential schools.

Give me a fucking break! Just because someone's damn grandparent was abused in a residential school before even my parents' generation was born is no reason that their generation and mine ought to be paying!

Further, it wasn't the federal government that led these abuses, it was the damn Anglican Church, amongst others.

Oh and what; you're surprised that it's not the Catholic Church? Haven't you realised yet - the Catholic Church likes little white boys and the Protestant Churches much prefer to prey on anyone who isn't Protestant.

And guess what? The rest of us who never had a damn thing to do with it, are paying for the stupdity of those who weren't even, for the most part, our ancestors.

This sickens me! Now... any tips on tax evasion?

Early Morning Class

2005-09-05T22:57:00.000-04:00

I hate early morning class. I wouldn't hate it as much if I didn't have to get up so early to travel so far for so little reward. Sure, education is a wonderful thing, but, like the next average run of the mill asshole, I don't like early hours (unless you're one of those mentally ill people who get up at the crack of down just to spite the rest of us).

Now, I didn't choose to get up early, the class I wanted, a VoIP class, was only at this time, and the only other choice I had would've been to totally forgo that class, which I decided again. I needed to fulfill my time table. I hated most of the options, so I bit the bullet and opted for the class I wanted at the time I didn't want, as oppose to the class I didn't want at the time I wanted.

Which, brings me to my next point, if education is so great, why the hell do I have to pay for it? Why couldn't this country be a socialist one like one of those Scandanavian paradises, where everything is socialist driven and so delightfully left wing. They have that much right. A free education at all levels, even at the cost of sanity due to unreasonable class hours.

I'd take sleep over building character!

Camp Casey vs Camp Bushiviek

2005-08-21T13:01:00.000-04:00

Daryl Cagle

The body count in Iraq for American soldiers grows everyday, with the last count, putting the death toll at 1800+ - that is, 1800+ families who will never see their sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, husbands, wives... (I could go on) ever again. And why? Because of an illegal war built on a pack of lies and deceit. A war built around seething lies about fantastical WMD, which don't exist; about ties to 9/11 and terrorism.

I'll concede on the terrorism, and only for a simple reason, the insurgency is a form of terrorism, however, there was no terrorism in Iraq before the war; they had no ties to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, in fact, Saddam Hussein and bin Laden hated each other and their religious views differed severely.

But, aside from the growing insurgency movement (and no, Mr. Cheney, it isn't in its last throes, no matter what you seem to think).

So, this brings me to my point - there is a growing movement in the USA, the Anti-War movement and it's gaining quite some momentum. It started out with a few people here and there, but then when the deaths started to hit home, more people took it upon themselves to demand answers. One of such people demanding answers is Mrs. Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son Casey on 04/04/04 to the insurgency in Iraq; because of the illegal war being waged in Iraq.

Casey Sheehan enlisted in the Army in 2000 at age 20. The country was at peace. When he was asked to reenlist four years later, he knew that he would probably be sent to Iraq. He reenlisted anyway. In March 2004, he was sent to Iraq as a mechanic attached to the artillery division of the 1st Cavalry Division. When a convoy was attacked in Sadr City a month later, he volunteered to join the rescue mission — although he had no obligation to take part in combat. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

He went above and beyond the call of duty; he served his country and he gets the reward of death for his heroism. He wanted to serve his country; the country he loved and the God he believed in. But instead... he died.

And his mother grieved, but then took it to the next stage. Her grief fuelled her desire to make sure that no one else, would go through what she did.

For this, she has been painted by the right-wingers of America as a selfish women, who is dishonouring her son's memory by protesting the war. She has been demonised as an unpatriotic woman who is using her son's memory to push her own political agenda. This of course, is coming from the side that sought to exploit the case of Mrs. Terri Shiavo and push their own religious-based political agenda, in order to dispose of the so-called "activist" judges, who ruled in the late Mrs Shiavo's husband favour time and again.

Those opposed to President Bush's policy in Iraq have been painted as unpatriotic, and criticised for "letting our boys down".

What really amuses me is...

The one-woman show which has generated so much momentum is, however, in danger of running out of steam as Cindy Sheehan's mother had a stroke and she returned to California to be with her.

This "selfish" woman has taken away from her protest to go seek her ill mother. If Mrs. Sheehan was selfish and pushing her own political agenda, would she have so quickly left her own vigil and protest to be by her mother's side? She would've found a way to try and put it off and wait for a diagnosis and word from the doctor.

Fortunately, not everyone in Crawford Texas is an ignorant blockhead redneck who can't see two inches beyond his/her nose. There are some there who have sought to help the protest in anyway they can.

One man, who is a relative of a redneck who claimed he was practicing for "dove" season, allowed the protestors to make use of his property, so that they could move closer to Bush's Crawford ranch.

One resident was arrested on Monday for allegedly running over some 800 wooden crosses, dotted along a roadside, which bore the names of fallen soldiers.
A day earlier, a landowner reportedly fired a shotgun twice in the air.
....
[He] reportedly fired his shotgun twice into the air last Sunday, but was not arrested. He is said to have told reporters he was "getting ready for dove season".

What is really ignorant is the fact that someone had the gall to drive over the crosses and American flags set up in a small makeshift memorial to honour the memory of those who have fallen in the war.

I find it ironic, that the side who is calling the movement unpatriotic and a dishonour to the memory of the fallen, would've done such a thing. The crosses were set up to honour the memory of the fallen, and yet, the crosses were treated with contempt by a man who believed in the message of the right.

A few miles down the road in Crawford itself there's a "peace house" where bloggers work around the clock, a production line for meals and camp supplies is up and running and a small group of women cut, bolt and paint more white crosses to take up to Camp Casey.

If you have time, I recommend that you take a look at the first two links. They go to videos that relate to this. The first is a bit long, but it is shot at the site of the protest and it highlights the reason why people are there. The second is the message that the protest is trying to convey...

One Day at Camp Casey
Gold Star Families for Peace: Cindy's Message
Gold Star Families for Peace
Tensions rise at Bush range vigil
Texas protestpressure point
Who speaks for Casey Sheehan?

The Gaza Pullout: Further Proof Religion Makes People Morons

2005-08-17T10:22:00.000-04:00

The Israeli government is one government I have always been quick to criticise (That and the American one) because of it's stunningly asinine policies. However, there is one case in which I don't have an issue with this government and that is on the issue of withdrawl from the Gaza Strip and eventually West Bank (as well as Golan Heights and East Jerusalem - they are also illegally occupied).

Despite this while-intended step in the Road Map, there are plenty of right-wing religious wankjobs in Israel prepapred to grab their Torah and in a manner that would make their fanatical American Christian counterparts weep in joy, and preach about how this illegally occupied land is Biblical Land and rightfully belongs to the Jewish people. Anything to make the lives of the oppressed miserable.

The less fanatic people (and surely those who remember the 6-days war of 1967 when a young Israeli army and air force pushed back invading Arab forces and took Golan Heights, East Jersusalem, West Bank and the Gaza Strip) that there are more militaristic reasons for keeping the land. They seized it to defend themselves after being threatened.

However, a reasonable group of people would've followed the international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention and acknowledged that the Israeli Settlements were illegal. To establish these settlements, in 1948, Palestinean people were kicked from their home and land within the original 1967 Israeli borders, and forced to seek refuge and asylum.

Ok, now that we've covered history, I'm pretty sure that we don't have to touch on anything else, except this: if you believe that you have a piece of land ordained from god to you, you have a serious problem. Religion is a crutch for those who can't take reality. Religion was the creation of our primate ancestors who needed something to explain why their life sucked so much.

Nowadays, religion serves no real purpose, except to justify those narrow-minded beliefs that many people hold. Why else are the homosexuals being discriminated against; women and other people of other religions? It's all because of the interpretation of centuries-old doctrines that are often take out of context and warped to serve the purpose of the one twisting it.

So, just because the Torah says that Palestine is the land of the Chosen People (the Jews) and that it is their destiny to control it, doesn't mean jack these days. The land belongs to the earth. We belong to earth and not the other way around.

American Has No Respect For Foreigners

2005-08-11T11:30:00.000-04:00

Yes, you read the title correctly.

The American government has no respect for foreigners. Why? You're not a citizen, therefore, you're not a patriot and likely either a terrorist or a liberal; either way the government doesn't like you. Ok, so that is a slight exagerration, but, the lack of rights isn't.

The so-called land of the "free" and the home to "democracy" have no laws to protect those who pass through via airports. So it means, that if you even breath the wrong way, they can damn well do whatever they please, and that really isn't right, and it's a another nail driven into the coffin; another stain on their international image, which has hit a point lower than rock bottom these days.

Flyers passing through U.S. have few rights, Arar judge told

A senior lawyer for the U.S. government has told a judge hearing a lawsuit over Maher Arar's deportation to Syria that foreign citizens passing through American airports have almost no rights.

For those of you who don't know who Arar is, he is a Canadian-Syrian who was victim of America's wide-spread, ill-intended so-called "War on Terrorism". He was detained when travelling home to Canada from Syria via the US. He was detained on US charges and deported to Syria and NOT Canada, where he was held in prison for a period of time and subject to torture.

So it means, according to US lawyer, Mary Mason:

the U.S. government is interpreting its powers in such a way that passengers never intending to enter the U.S. connecting to international flights at U.S. airports must prove they are no threat and could be allowed to enter the country.

This applies to anyone of any ethnicity, religion etc passing through. It's really scary. Though, somehow is doesn't surprise me, since they did detain a cousin of mine (yes, a white all-Canadian girl), because she had dark eyes and hair (like her father). They did let her go after questioning her, but, that does scare me.

If passengers are deemed to be inadmissible, they have no constitutional rights even if later taken to an American prison. Mason told Judge David Trager that's because they are deemed to be still outside the U.S., from a legal point of view.

"Someone who's inadmissible is in the same category as the people that the CIA snatches and grabs from other countries," said Barbara Olshansky, a lawyer for the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which is suing a number of U.S. officials on Arar's behalf.

Ah, yes, the face of the world's greatest "democracy".

So, this means, that if border security (customs) is in a pissy mood, and you look at them the wrong way, they can do whatever they so please. This is a clear sign of the abuse of power and this isn't right.

You know, it's really time other countries adopted the same policy, but only targetted American citizens, that way the international pressure would mount and maybe the US would stop being so ignorant and adopt a more international-friendly policy, even if it starts at a domestic level.

They ought to deport the Republicans to Canada and subject them to various sins such as forcing them to watch homosexuals have a discrimination-free (or almost) live style, force them to play GTA:SA and just about anything else that they go against, including depriving them of religion! Now THAT'S torture!

Ok, so that's a little stupid, but so is their policy for dealing with travellers going through and never intended to even stop in their country in the first place.

Anabolic Steroids vs Marijuana

2005-08-05T11:10:00.000-04:00

[SOURCE: The Star - Theo Moudakis]

Take a moment to think about the meaning of the cartoon above and the message it's attempting to relay.

It seems rather trivial, but, it's pointing out a severe flaw with today's mentality and socially acceptable drug use versus that which has been stigamized.

Before taking any drug, one should be well aware of all the risks and side effects. For some drugs such as cannabis, their legal status poses more risk than use of the drug itself, as simple possession alone may lead to imprisonment.

Wikipedia: Drugs

One of those depicted represents the negative side of sports - the bad sportmenship. And yet, there is little stigma still attached to it and these athletes are idolised by many children today. But, yet, the original record setters never used the same performance enchancers to get into the hall of fame; many of them probably never dreamt of there ever being a hall of fame...

The Anabolic Steroids (not to be confused with Medical Steroids, which are used, even though rarely, to help the body, for example, accept a newly transplated organ) used by athletes have few positive effects. The drug is typically used to assist and foster muscle growth, stimulation of bone marrow (increasing red blood cell production rates), increased apetite...

Anabolic steroids are a class of natural and synthetic steroid hormones that promote cell growth and division, resulting in growth of muscle tissue and sometimes bone size and strength. Testosterone is the best known natural anabolic steroid, as well as the best known natural androgen.

However, the undesireable side effects are numerous...

Other side effects (some the opposite of intended effects) include elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels, severe acne, premature baldness, reduced sexual function, and testicular atrophy. In males, abnormal breast development (gynecomastia) can occur. In females, anabolic steroids have a masculinizing effect, resulting in more body hair, a deeper voice, smaller breasts, masculinized or enlarged clitoris (clitoral hypertrophy), and fewer menstrual cycles. Several of these effects are irreversible. In adolescents, abuse of these agents may prematurely stop the lengthening of bones (premature epiphyseal fusion through increased estrogen), resulting in stunted growth. Serious medical illness can result from extreme hormone use. Enlargement of the heart (the heart is a muscle and thus affected by the muscle-building qualities of the hormones) is a risk which increases the chance of an adverse cardiac event occurring in later life. Another health risk is long-term liver damage, particularly if the anabolic steroid compound is 17-alpha-alkylated in order to not be destroyed by the digestive system when taken orally.

Wikipedia: Anabolic Steroids

DISCLAIMER: The sources quoted are related to anabolic steroids and not medical. Do not let it influence your judgement if in the future your doctor suggests that you might need to take a medication which contains medical steroids. These are not the same as the anabolic form and do not induce many of the same negative side-effects

Cannabis Sativa (Marijuana), is a naturally occurring element in nature (read: plant). It requires, however, a delicate cultivation process to maximise the potency of THC in a recreational plant (hemp is derived from the THC-free marijuana plant).

Wikipedia: Cannabis [drug]

Like with any substance (or plant), marijuana does have undesireable side effects.

Contrary to the "information" given by the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics, marijuana does not make you insane, stupid (though it is temporary - read: while blitzed; any sober stupidity is naturally occurring)... The other warnings have also included that it can kill you and turn you into a murderer.

The negative side effects vary from user to user and depend on the potency of the dosage.

* Difficulty with working memory in some cases
* Dizziness
* Paranoia, agitation, and anxiety
* Irritability
* Tachycardia (Increased heart rate)
* Dry mouth

There are also a few very postive side-effects associared with smoking the plant. These side effects, however, are produced by the sativa cannabis plant (usually used recreationally).

* Mild euphoria, feelings of general well-being
* Relaxation or stress reduction
* Increased appreciation of humor, music and other art
* Holistic attention, introspection
* Enhanced recollection of episodic memory

There are some effects produced by the plant, which depend entirely on the situation.

* Increased awareness of sensation
* Initial wakefulness followed by drowsiness and lassitude
* Disruption of linear memory
* Increased awareness of patterns and color
* Increased or decreased verbalization

Marijuana is commonly associated with the Hispanic and Latino races of Central and South America. It is also associated with the Rastifarian movement and with Hindus. Ancient Jews, as well as Christians and Muslims, some historians believe, also made use of the plant for spiritual purposes.

Herb Hemp [for some interested facts]

And yet, marijuana is the evil here. What's wrong with this pciture?

Double Standard in Justice

2005-08-01T14:06:00.000-04:00

So it seems that if you're a girl, probably about 11 years old, and being pelted with water balloons by infantile-minded boys you can't do anything than get soaked and wail pitifully and wait for daddy to come out of the house and give the boys a good stern lecture and send them on their way. Self-defence is out of the question when being assaulted...

Self-defence is the usual answer, however, in this case, it got the local police on the case of a young girl, who in retaliation to having water balloons hurled at her, threw a rock (yes, as in a single; uno; one; un; ichi, eneo...) at one of the boys hitting her with one of several water balloons.

An 11-year-old girl who threw a stone at a group of boys pelting her with water balloons is being prosecuted on serious assault charges in California.

She must be real dangerous then...

US police pursue girl over stone

Maribel Cuevas was arrested in April [2005] in a police operation which involved three police cars and a helicopter.

So, they apprended a pre-adolscent girl who was demonstrating her abilities in self-defence, and yet, they didn't bother arresting any of the boys who iniate the assault. Of course, one rock did cause a gash in the forehead of one of the boys, who was the one of the instigators of the incident.

To make the situation even peachier; the boy who was injured in this incident was admitted to having started the fight. It seems the boy is very capable of throwing a balloon at a girl, but he can't accept the consequences of his actions, which is in this case, getting a stone thrown back at him.

Police say they had to investigate as the boy who was hit by the stone she threw suffered a deep gash to his head and needed hospital treatment.

He has reportedly acknowledged to officers that he started the fight in late April.

But yet the didn't act on this.

This only further proves that the American justice system doesn't serve those who it's supposed to serve. It's helping those who are the root cause of unlawful activity. In this case, the boys threw water balloons at the girl, who threw one stone back at one of the boys resulted in the girl being the victim of the law.

BC Marijuana Party Leader Target of US Ignorance

2005-07-30T09:14:00.000-04:00

Ok, between the Danes trying to get their sticky fingers on Hans Island and the bloody Yanks demanding the extradition of a Canadian man on "allegations", anyone would get irate over it.

I'll degress - the Danes have something of a legitiment claim, as the island doesn't actually belong to anyone (let's just divide it in half and call it a day). But, the US should just back the hell off. The man in question broke the law on Canadian soil and never did so on American soil, just because they've got a problem with grass south of the border.

U.S. seeks extradition of Canadian pot crusader

Vancouver police armed with a search warrant have raided a pot-seed store run by Marc Emery, the head of the B.C. Marijuana Party.

The warrant was executed on behalf of the U.S. government.

It seems that Emery is selling seeds... SEEDS! It's like charging a pharmacists who sells a lot of cough medicine to someone who winds up making Crystal Meth with a crime. The person didn't actually sell the drug; there is no solicitation involved.

The document alleges a conspiracy to produce marijuana and distribute seeds as well as alleging money laundering.

Conspiracy, eh? Between this and the GTA:SA investigation being launched on request of Congress, I have to muse over how much free time the damn American government has. They're going after a Canadian citizen, who probably isn't even any more guilty than many others who have helped in the actual exporting of the so-called contraband.

"Their activities resulted in the growing of tens of thousands of marijuana plants in America. He was involved, allegedly, in an illegal distribution of marijuana in this country [U.S.]. He is a drug dealer," assistant U.S. attorney Jeff Sullivan told CBC News.

Uhm...ok, and how much crack have you been smoking? That is the stupidest crap I've ever heard.

First - he sold the seeds in Canada, and if an American brought them back home and border security didn't stop them, it isn't our problem!

Second - the man sold seeds, how is this helping with the illegal distribution, since it requires growers, who can get their own seeds from the growing process, since plants have to produce seeds in order to continue the natural cycle of life.

Third - there are others who could've sold the seeds. The other sellers could've very well been in Vancouver. There are plenty available out there. The seeds could've been transported over there from another place in the country, from another grower.

U.S. officials allege that Emery has sold as much as $3 million in seeds.

This Canadian alleges that U.S. officials are blowing out their asses.

They don't even specify where the seeds have been sold! Many of them could've been sold here and they're bringing their unjust war on drugs north of the border.

Of course, this isn't as bad as some of the other crap they've done to Canadians and their land... I could list the offences, but, I'm sure that those reading this are informed of American atrocities across the world.

IRA Leads by Example

2005-07-28T08:24:00.000-04:00

It seems that while the IRA (Irish Republican Army), we've heard nothing about the Protestant-based militias offering up the same thing and their political arm whines and bemoans such; the incessant tone overtly infantile. This occurs while they forget about their past sins against the Irish Catholics and their lack of compassion.

The struggle has been going on since the middle of the Great War, or rather WWI (World War 1), when the Catholics finally grew some balls and decided that enough was enough. The original uprising, the 1916 Easter Uprising, which happened in Dublin (which is now in the southern part of the island and free from British rule), was the first time the IRA (then Irish Citizen Army) showed its teeth and defied the British.

1916 Easter Rising
Indepth: Northern Ireland

(Since there are a lot of details involved and my explanation will likely be partially inaccurate, the above link, while disgustingly British, it being the BBC is not too bias against the Irish Catholic plight.)

As a sign of progression, the IRA had made a statement, which comes into effect at 4pm GMT (11am EST), that while they are disarming to comply with a ceasefire and help foster positive conditions for peace, it won't disband. After all, if it's peaceful and political (like Sinn Fein), it has every right to remain in tact if it is unarming itself.

All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms. All Volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means. Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever.

The IRA leadership has also authorised our representative to engage with the IICD to complete the process to verifiably put its arms beyond use in a way which will further enhance public confidence and to conclude this as quickly as possible.

[Statement in full]

This had been observed by witnesses from both churches in NI.

Now then, there are unreasonable demands from the Protestant Parties, one in particular, the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party). They've not only zealously insisted upon the full disarmament of the IRA (as well as photographic evidence of the caches being destroyed) but the bloody wankers haven't even so much as told the Protestant militias that they must subjegate themselves to such humiliating actions.

Why should they? They aren't the IRA, despite that they are also the asshole who are those who march through the Catholic neighbourhoods of Belfast to incite hatred and spark conflict by rubbing a past victory in the face of the Catholics. It's just proof they're losing and they need to use history to make themselves feel like big men, instead of the petty arse-wipes they are.

"It has taken the IRA a long time to get to this point so nobody can expect us in a matter of weeks or a matter of months to say this is over," said a spokesman from the Democratic Unionist Party.

DUP leader Ian Paisley last year demanded the IRA show photographed proof of it destroying its arms caches, but the IRA objected to the "humiliation" and the issue unravelled the Good Friday deal's joint governing assembly.

IRA declared end to armed conflict

It seems he's not calling on the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) to do the same thing; making him a bloody wanker; a hypocrite of the nth degree.

Finicky Animals...

2005-07-27T20:41:00.000-04:00

Every good cat owner knows that their kitty is special in some way and has its own unique tastes. It is also commonly accepted amongst cat owners that the cat is a very picky and very finicky eater. Why? Because it's a cat! Well, at least that's always been the generally accepted explanation, until recently. Within the last while, scientists have taken it upon themselves to study our furry feline friends and have discovered the root of the cat's finicky nature - it lacks a gene that allows it to taste sweet food.

Geneticists find cats lack sweet tooth.

What do you know, science is starting to have the answer for everything! They know know everything, but if they can figure out why cats are just so damn finicky, they can crack the origins of the universe. After all, anything is possible with the continuing evolution of modern technology.

Cats may turn their noses up at eating sugary treats because they lack a working gene to taste the sweet flavour, geneticists have found.

Cat owners know felines will ignore a sugary snack unless it contains other ingredients, such as butter.

I can attest to the latter sentence. My cat will ignore anything sweet I leave out, but she will go after cake or donoughts. Those have lard and butter and a couple of other non-sweet ingredients that cats like the taste of.

She is the same cat that likes olive pits (and olives) as well as celery tips, and any kind of leafy vegetable... (I never knew cats could be omnivores!)

My mother had a female Siamese cat at one point. The cat ate just about anything she could get her little paws on, except sweet stuff. However, the cat had been known to on occassion eat donought (well, more like try and steal the one my mother was eating). This was also the same cat who liked to eat potato chips. I wonder if scientists have an explanation for that...?

I've also run into some cranky kitties...

"I say jokingly, no wonder cats are cranky," said Joseph Brand, one of the senior authors of the paper. "Not only do they have to hunt for their food, but they also can't enjoy a sweet dessert!" the biophysicist from Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Penn. added in a release.

..and you know, I never thought of it that way.

Of course, I don't object. As long as my cat isn't touching my dessert I don't really care. She knows her place and her place is away from my dessert (and hopefulyl away from my supper plate as well).

Felines including lions and jaguars have also been found to be indifferent to sweet foods. Yet other carnivores such as bears, dogs and raccoons have a sweet tooth.

There, is a good argument against owning a dog, and a good one for owning a cat!

Vatican is Operated by Arcane Laws

2005-07-26T07:55:00.000-04:00

And yet, many women, a couple of Canadian women in particular, feel that the Vatican's outdated policies are truly outdated and have decided it's more amusing to risk their hides than to fall into the traditional roles of submissive obedience. These obstinate bishops, priests and such frowned upon the ordination of women in the same manner they frown upon homosexuality, contraceptives and other issues which don't fall into perfect synchronous with church mandate.

Catholic women secretly ordained.

The women, including two Canadians, say the ordination will follow Vatican procedures.

But church officials have strongly objected to such ceremonies in the past. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, excommunicated seven women in 2002 after they were ordained.

Those excommunitions must've made him feel like a big man; one suffering from the throes of small penis syndrome. Either that, or the celibacy was really getting to him at that point.

We all know the true reason why women aren't ordained - the men would have to start behaving properly and the church would be forced to massively reformed. It would require a small reformation for allowing the entrance of women as something more than humble nuns. But for these men, this is one of the last remainig elements in the western world that permits such overtly blatant sexism without crying "FIRE!".

Michele Birch-Conery of British Columbia is also expected to be ordained Monday. She said Ratzinger's actions encouraged her to emulate women who have already taken part in the ceremony.

"To see how these women came to live with their faith while respecting the beliefs of others moved me deeply," said Birch-Conery, a former nun. "I immediately felt in solidarity with them. I have always practised my faith on the fringes. But now I realize that there is more and more of us on these fringes."

The Protestant divisions of the Christian church, have seen this as progression towards equality (one of the few good things I have been able to say in the recent months; then again, it isn't one of the wings therein associated with the radical fringe movement of Bible-thumpers of the evangelical genre). They've also permitted, in a few denominations, the ordination of women as priests.

Catholic women `ordained' amid Church disapproval

Mike Catanzaro, a pastor at a Presbyterian Church, drove from Canton, N.Y., to support Rue. "The world is about to change today," he said.

It seems like the world for the Presbyterians didn't end when women could be begin preaching.

Politically, such as in the case of the Sponsorship Scandal (Gomery Inquiry), that when just men are involved, the conditions are rife for rampant neptism and corruption. While women are equally as suseptible to corruption as men, in the poltical arena, it has been typically shown that with women present, the risk of corruption is reduced.

Perhaps the sex scandal within the walls of the Vatican could've been curbed... If only they had allowed women the same rights as men. If only they had loosened the steep genitilia requirements, perhaps they wouldn't be facing the same problems they are today.

Icy Relations Over Frozen Isle

2005-07-25T09:45:00.000-04:00

It seems that Canada and Denmark, while docile in their military affairs for the most part, picking not to fight over trivial matters, have continued to duke it out over a pitiful piece of land known as Hans Island. This little island is generally not habitable, or at least so for the average human being, and could be considered a frozen wasteland.

This island and some others are situated between the semi-automonous Greenland (which has a local Danish name) and Ellesmere Island (one of and very frozen desolate islands in the Arctic Ocean in northern Canada, along the Nares Strait.

[courtesy of CBC news: Diplomatic dispute over Arctic heats up.]

Canada, Denmark bicker over desolate, Arctic isle.

This makes it clear that our countries truly have too little time on their hands if they have to bicker over some little island in the middle of nowhere in the coldest, most inhospitable regions of the earth.

Denmark says it will send a protest letter to Canada over a minister's visit to an Arctic island off northwestern Greenland, which is claimed by both countries.

Canadian Defence Minister Bill Graham set foot on the 1.3-square-kilometre Hans Island last week, saying his country has always regarded it as Canadian territory.

Denmark also claims the island, which is roughly 1,100 kilometres south of the North Pole.

While we have yet to actually start a war using our militaries, a war of eloquant words have been sugar-coating the sentiments while expressing utmost discontent with the other's insistance that this puny island belongs to their country. Of course, that's not to say that neither country hasn't put its military presence in the area on occassion.

The Danes have sent naval vessels into the area and Canadian troops have been on that soil.

There have been separate incidents in which both countries have raised their national flag over the island, first by the Danes in 1984 and recently by the Canadians, preceeding a visit by Defence Minister, Bill Graham.

Canada and Denmark agreed in 1973 to create a border through Nares Strait, halfway between Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, and Canada's Ellesmere Island.

But they were unable to agree which country would have sovereignty over Hans Island and various other Arctic islands in the area. In the end, they decided to work out the question of ownership later.

This is truly pathetic; neither can agree on the sovereignty of a bunch of small insignificant islands. They ought to just flip a coin and the winner gets Hans Island and the rest are divied up between the two countries. Of course, then, we'd get the issue of which coin to use...

Oh hell, just give the bloody islands to the Danes; Canada has plenty of frozen islands to go around... After all, the Inuit can't inhabit ALL of these islands now, can they? They just aren't fit for human use.

Feminism isn't About Women's Superiority...

2005-07-24T09:57:00.000-04:00

There is a clear difference between the feminism of the 19th century and the feminism that is springing up around the modern world, and that which is rampant in many developed countries such as Canada and the USA. The militant version of feminism, best known as femini-nazism seeks to set women above men, where as feminism isn't about setting women above men, but rather making political and civil rights as well as equality available for both men in all aspects of life.

While men and women are different, their rights, under the feminist mandate accepts that while seeking to make a culture of acceptance, tolerance and equality. This seems elusive to many women (and some men, as both can be equally oppressed) in the rest of the world.

This concept has been embraced by the Umoja womenfolk of Kenya, who fled their male-opressors, after being shunned within the cold embrace of their own cultural ghetto. Upon fleeing they set up something of a makeshift shelter in the form of a village, making something of a gynocracy.

No men allowed in village of women.

While it is a haven for both girls and women of vicious circumstances, it is a matriarchy, with a female at the head of the village, and with no men around (except in a local village, which had been acting as a rival tribe, though of the same heritage - bloody male-egotism), they have allowed for females to come in and feel safe.

Rebecca Lolosoli, the matriarch at the head of this village was one of the origibal women banished from her home village on ludicrous allegations by the overbearing patriarch that presided with a head fist over the village and over the women.

What started as a group of homeless women looking for a place of their own has become a successful and happy village in northern Kenya. About three dozen women live here and run a cultural centre and camping site for tourists visiting the adjacent Samburu National Reserve.
...
With the money they collected from their ventures, the women were able to eat well, send their children to school for the first time and reject male demands for their daughters' circumcision and marriage. They even hired men to haul firewood, traditionally women's work.

They became so respected that troubled women — some beaten, some trying to get divorced — started showing up in Umoja. Then, Lolosoli was invited by the United Nations to attend a recent world conference on gender empowerment in New York.

The strength displayed by the ousted women enabled them to do more than they thought. Their popularity has allowed them to throw off the shackles of negative traditional values; such as forced marriage and female circumcision, which unlike the male, is generally unsafe and better known as female genital mutilation due to the lack of proper surgical procedure and safety.

They have begun a process of empowering the younger generation through education. Knowledge is power and with this power, the women have been able to steer their daughtes' future in a better direction, much to the dissatisfaction and irritation of the neighbouring all-male village (or patriarchy).

The men of the nearby village of course aren't happy. These are their women! And these women have rised up against them - sacrilege! Of course, the men didn't have the same ability to rise up from the ashes of death like the phoenix, so, there was a certain amount of jealous to be expected.

The men in the rival village also attempted to build a tourist and cultural centre, but were not very successful.

The men have been growingly unable to control what they've always believe what theirs. But, that's what happens when you push away something that you hold close to you; it changes and not in ways one would expect.

A package of new laws has been presented to Kenya's parliament to give women unprecedented rights to refuse marriage proposals, fight sexual harassment in the workplace, reject genital mutilation and prosecute rape, an act so frequent that Kenyan leaders call it the nation's biggest human rights issue.

The most severe penalty would chemically castrate repeatedly convicted rapists and send them to prison for life.

Of course, the government is always around to assist with the "betrayal" process. The Kenyan government has turned its back on the men and decided to take a radical step forward and provide women with the same basic rights many of their western counterparts take for granted and their local counterparts dream for but know it is just a fleeting dream, or is it?

It's just a window dressing on progression to appease the UN, or maybe not. It seems like it's the real deal. However, I won't put my money on it until I see it in practice. However, women who step outside of the long-arm of the law to make a safe-haven are making an impact on the rest of the society, by not breaking the law but showing that there is no turning back after a certain point, and that point was inthe 19th century with such trend-setting women as Nellie McClung, Suzanne B Anthony and many others.

There is hope...

Eleven years after the genocide in Rwanda, in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed, women in the country hold 49 per cent of the seats in the lower house of parliament. Many of them are war widows who have said they felt compelled to rise up in protest after male Hutu leaders presided over the 1994 slaughter of Tutsi tribal members and moderate Hutus.

...even if it takes genocide to bring about regime change. Rwanda has shown it is taking a step in the right away, even if there are numerous human rights violations. But, with women holding half of the seats in a lower house, change is inevitable and it'll be for the better. Both agendas are going to be equally represented.

Rationalising Ignorance

2005-07-23T11:34:00.000-04:00

We've all heard the standard bullshit run of the mill excuses for not wanting to marry homosexual couples (you know, that religious tripe being spewed by the Bible-thumping rednecks of the world), and the like that it'll wreck the institution of marriage... (see an earlier rant for a detailed covering on this).

But, never before has a province used the wording excuse to cleverly weasel out of marrying a homosexual couple. That was, until Prince Edward Island (PEI, Canada) was one of the two provinces (and territories).

P.E.I. at a loss for words over same-sex marriage.

So, the officials, being the lazy potato farmers they are, left the changing of the wording of the civil ceremony documents until the last minute and now are left scrambling because they can't fulfill their new obligations that have been given Royal Assention - in other words, legalised.

"We were consulting about whether or not we could just scratch out the words husband and wife, bride and groom, and maybe just put spouse and spouse," the province's attorney general, Mildred Dover, told CBC News.

"We're not even sure what words you'd use."

This is just an excuse to piddle around the tree and alienate the homosexual population. This is a very good tactic, though very different from that which has been employed by Alberta. Rather than refusing to marry homosexuals, since that is now illegal, the province is trying to get out of the marriage business and leave it strictly to the churches, whom under Bill C-38, are not legfally bound by law to unite in matrimony homosexuals couples. They, nevertheless, may do so voluntarily.

The only other two areas, the two northern territories of Nunavut (who while not allowing gay marriage in the territory have recognised out of territory licenses) and the Northwest Territories, are the only other ones before the passage of Bill C-38 to not have it on the books. The Yukon Territory did.

However, this piddling is very childish and infantile in the face of true intolerance, as currently being vehmanently displayed by the ever-religious hellhole of Iran.

There are no words to describe the horror of such intolerance...

Iran Executes 2 Gay Teenagers

"Homosexuality is illegal, those charged with love-making are given a choice of four deathstyles: being hanged, stoned, halved by a sword, or dropped from the highest perch"

This is the justification for their actions. This is giving every bloody bible-thumping redneck Christian wetdreams. My wager is that Conservative leader Harper would love nothing more than a chance to do that. He just can't come out and say it because it'll be political suicide. Then again, he already started to commit it when he made it publically known that he'd use the NotWithStanding Clause (from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) to overrule Bill C-38.

Back on topic; this is just the exact kind of intolerance that the neo-conservative thrive off of. Their base, equally as uneducated rubes, drinks up this tripe, and makes for a perfect breeding ground of discrimination; too bad Nazi policies of utilising eugenics couldn't be applied to the stupid half of the population (aka, those damn fundamentalist and born-again Christians).

But, it seems that there is new fuel given to their argument as kindly provided by PEI - the excuse that the books haven't been changed to reflect the new wording in order to marry people of the same sex. Seems harmless, doesn't it? After all, no one has come right out and made a statement of intolerance. This is just a window dressing on blatant discrimination and some are buying it.

And ESRB Aren't the only assholes...

2005-07-22T17:13:00.000-04:00

It seems that there is now an attorney from Miami, Jack Thompson who has taken it upon himself to go after EA Games, the makers of the extremely popular and best-selling game, The Sims 2 (they are affiliated with Maxis, who were the geniuses behind the original Sims).

Sims 2 content "worse than Hot Coffee"

Well, this only affirms what I said in my rant about the GTA:SA change in rating - American censors are ignorant assholes who have never played the game themselves, as well as those who avocate for the censor of the game itself.

So, this Thompson asshole has managed to prove himself to be extremely ignorant, even if he is seemingly "educated" and even then I question his qualifcations as a competant human being, as he seems to apparently lack a very key feature that is found in the standard non-deluxe floor model - a cognitive process.

Before I quote this loud-mouth ignorant feces-spewing malcontent, allow me to explain to the innocent masses what exactly is Sims 2...

It's a simulation game, in which you control one or more sims (whether as friends, family, etc...) in a house, or in a dormitory (as allowed in the university expansion). These sims are tailored to look as you wish (when you first use CAS - Create a Sim). But, since sims can have babies and adopt, the family changes appearance over the generations.

Sims depending on age can participate in a wide variety of activities. They can marry, have children, divorce, play games (such as and not limited to, pool, darts, MYSHUNO, chess, redhands), cook (the variety depends on cooking ability and age; children can only cook using a child's toy oven).

They also have their own little quirks like humans, and require food, fun, hygeine, socialisation and rest to be happy.

To be socially happy, they need friends, which can come from the family or close colleagues.

Adults can marry, have a common-law partner, many partners, work, write best-sellers, and eventually retire. They also get little fun things like woohoo.

Teenagers can go to school, work part-time, have a semi-intimate relationship (everything but woohoo), go out and even more sinister - sneak out! If they have a bad home life they also run away.

Children are more limited, but they like the teens and adults have friends. They also go to school, play, and make mischief.

Toddlers are taught by thoughtful adults how to walk, talk and use the body.

Infants are just little wailing diaper fillers whose only feature is that they are mildly cute.

The game is very innocent until you add mods (or hacks) which can alter the game play in very mild to severe ways (in some cases corrupting the files if one is not careful). These mods alter game play.

Now, without a mod, sims are generally, when nude, covered with the madatory "blur" grid, which in the case of males covers where the penis is, and for females, the breasts and vaginas.

With a simple piece of code placed into a start-up cheat file (placed in the Sims 2 directory in your My Documents, under config), you can remove the blur by setting the grid side to 0 (zero).

Now that I've explained this, here is what this blow-hard pulled out of the murky depths of his ass...

In the statement, Thompson says, "Sims 2, the latest version of the Sims video game franchise ... contains, according to video game news sites, full frontal nudity, including nipples, penises, labia, and pubic hair."

Uhm... I have to wonder how much crack this ass was smoking because that is the more farfetched piece of tripe I have read since...well, reading the reasons for censoring, removing and re-rating GTA:SA and making the developers redo the code to remove the portion that contains (without a mod) an UNPLAYABLE minisex game.

This shit-spewing loud-mouthed arrogant malcontent then goes on to say,

It's not just the adults that are liberated from their wardrobes. Sims kids can also be nudified, "much to the delight, one can be sure, of pedophiles around the globe who can rehearse, in virtual reality, for their abuse."

I'd like to see how since the worse thing that can be done to sim children, which is pure neglect (from failing to send the child to school to not feeding them), gets them taken away by SimState (and put into an adoption pool). This removal process, however can be circumvented with a mod. However, the only thing that mod does is prevent the social worker from making a housecall. There is another similar mod, but it doesn't outright stop the social worker; it makes the social worker more reasonable, and so, the social worker just doesn't show up at the drop of a hat if the baby cries for too long.

Naked sim children have very genric bodies (boys and girls look the same). The only thing that sets them apart is the face and any other features, such as hair, skin and eye colour and shape.

I've seen requests to allow children to have crushes on other children, but all the hackers and modders on all the forums I go to (such as Various Simmers and ModtheSims2) flat out refuse to touch that, and these are the same people who have developed such hacks like teen-woohoo, anti-social worker, flamingo of doom, and various others.

To even get someone to mod it so that pedophiles could play out their perversion in a game would require a very amoral modder to take up the request, but there is no such thing as non-conseual woohoo in the game. The behaviour would have to be modified, and then the global variables for that may be uneditable and if modded, would make the game unplayable.

I'd seen modders refuse to make a hack that makes a teen pregnant by chance if she sneaks out with a male friend...

This asshole then goes out and flatout draws parallels between The Sims 2 and GTA:SA.

Thompson doesn't buy it. "The sex and the nudity are in the game. That's the point. The blur is an admission that even the 'Ken and Barbie' features should not be displayed. The blur can be disarmed. This is no different than what is in San Andreas, although worse."

So it's worse than the sex minigame, in which the player can watch, while almost fully clothed, intercourse, and yet, Barbie and Ken doll-like nudity is worse?! What the hell rock has this retard been hiding under, because he better damn well return to it before all the angry gamers come out of their parents' basements (forgive the stereotype) and chase him lynchmob style!

DST - Worst Idea Ever!

2005-07-22T08:02:00.000-04:00

I don't mind jetlag when I travel. I expect that I'll have to go to a different time zone if I go beyond a certain point in the world, but to be one hour behind the assholeneighbours to the south for two months a year (and this is in the same time zone) is purely asinine.

Of course, it isn't stupid to the morons who dreamt up this so-called "energy" saving legislation top extend daylight savings from March to November - ugh! No way. I already hate getting up early; so getting up in the dark unless it's to go to the bathroom or get a midnight snack is very unappealing.

The projected savings was a paltry amount; meant to just blanket the true cost of hydro use. The original concept is dated as it was brought in by Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century as a means to reduce the usage of fuel for night-time activities requiring illumination. But with the invention of such ingenious modern conveniences like the light bulbs, switch and flashlight, the need for "daylight savings" is rendered obsolete at best. We don't keep expired food around, so why do we keep this? Old habits die hard...

U.S. backpedals on daylight saving.

Yesterday, in the face of mounting opposition, U.S. legislators scaled back their plans.

House and Senate negotiators now propose that the start of daylight saving be moved to the second Sunday in March. The end of daylight saving would be extended by only one week — to the first Sunday in November.

The U.S. legislators are also considering delaying the launch of their plan from this fall to 2007.

Though yesterday after making the rest of Canada and Mexico sweat the prospect of having to put our clocks in sync with theirs and automatically being able to know that daylight savings time has begun early. The US proposal had been cleverly hidden within the depths of another ill-thought out legislation (such as the renewal of the Patriot Act, basically giving it no due date; except on the two most controversial provisions, in which case, the date is ten years, which is still a hell of a long time).

As of now, the only "smart" Canadian province is Saskatchewan, who don't follow DST - as they actually think of someone or something beyond their human needs, wants and impulses. They don't use DST to prevent confusion amongst their skittish bovine population (which no doubtably probably out numbers them).

But in this age, "energy conservation" is a futile concept to enforce when there is such rampant use of street lights (and those in businesses), excessive use of central air-conditioning and of course, those gas-guzzling SUVs (which gum-up the works because the driver is suffering from egotism to boot).

If energy conservation was to be enforced, DST is not the way to go about it. It's just a window dressing on an otherwise futile attempt to curb our culture's excessive obssession and dependance on energy.

If we were concerned, we'd make SUVs a cardinal sin (well, what are you waiting for, Pope Benedict XVI? You've already condemned condom & contraceptives, violence, can't you do something smart and condemn SUVs? I'm sure given time, your predecessor would've).

Of course, that won't happen because the asshole who drive it are the rabid soccer moms (the same ones whose feathers were ruffled because of the hot coffee mod for GTA:SA), and the over-zealous narrow-minded right-wing Christians, and of course, the oblivious assholes who use cellphones while driving and believe that because they're in a "bigger" vehicle, it makes it safer (twats!)

[[DISCLAIMER: I'm not preaching about the need for anyone to use energy conservation because I'm not in the mood to power off my computer any time soon, but I will point out the flaws in the current logics before anyone decides to jump all over me for being uppity and preaching (aka - hypocritical).]]

ESRB is Run by Mindless Androids

2005-07-21T11:02:00.000-04:00

Ah yes, and here children we have another shining example of pure all-round American idiocy at its best:
San Andreas rated AO, Take-Two Suspends Production.

Porn Patch forces Grand Theft Auto rewrite

EDIT: So, now they're calling it a "porn" patch? Wow, how utterly ignorant! But, fortunately, I did chew them out on that. I sent a nice short letter to the editor of the Toronto Star, expressing similar views that I had expressed here earlier. Below is the letter I wrote to the editor. Hopefully I might finally get one published in the newspaper, even if it is a slightly scathing rant. (9:30am)

A 'patch' usually implies official status with the game. In the case of the article pertaining to the controversial mod that had been developed by a third part, which is against the EULA, (not mentined therein), the end user was exploiting code that was there and not removed because in later stages of game development, programmers leave in code to protect the rest. By removing large chunks of code, the rest of the program becomes prime season for bugs, and delaying the release. This is why they locked the code. The fact that a hacker exploited the code is not the responsibility of Rockstar. This third party violated the EULA, and therefore, since Rockstar never intended for it to be public and didn't wish to corrupt its code and send the code back to development. Further, the actual mod itself corrupts game files and when in use, the scene is hardly pornographic. The sex-scene (available with the hot coffee mod) is nearlY fully-clothed, and only a view of the girlfriend's chest.

Question: how many of these censors actually saw the hot coffee mod in use?

And, for your amusement, a slightly less scathing ranting about the same thing at another blog. This one is probably better informed than mine and less rampant with blow-out-my-ass opinion.

GTA:SA Controversy

ORIGINAL: I'm no fan of Grand Theft Auto, let alone its newest incarnation of San Andreas, but I really hate censorship of any material on any level (short of censorship of scathing blatant racism/sexism/discrimination - that's just an excuse to be malicious using entrenched rights). And this frankly pushes their lack thereof common sense over the edge of fantasitical existance into the nothingness of oblivion.

The game in its purest form - fill to the rim to boot with mindless violence, carjacking, and illegal use of sex trade workers and the killing of police and public officials only earned the game an M rating. But yet, an inaccessible part of the code without the Hot Coffee mod, in which their is a minigame involving nearly full-clothed sex is enough to push the rating over to AO. That makes absolutely zero sense. Then again, there is a vague chance than a child might see a pair of uncovered titties - oh dear heaven, no! Will someone think of the children!

This is nothing short of a victory for the under-qualified parents of America who are too damn lazy to bother to try with some real parenting. They'd rather put a scapegoat in the spotlight to sugarcoat their incompetancies and severe short-comings.

This is also a victory for the Bible-thumping cognitive-process-deprived "sheep" aka Christians, who while prefer to preach to the populance about how they're going to hell, proceed to break every rule in the book. In their prefect world, the only thing rated AO is their precious (piece of crap; irrelevant 'doctrine') bible, but even then, it retains it's G rating as every has to read it. Last I checked, there were plenty of parts that were extremely unacceptable by ERSB standards for young children, especially in the Old Testament.

Further, if you read, you'll also realise that the so-called democrats have jumped aboard this momentum gathering bandwagon of ignorance; notably the lovely New York senator - Hilary Rotham-Clinton. Her case against this is that GTA:SA is just as bad as alcohol and fags for children. Wow - such tripe! I'm impressed, Clinton - are you a closet Republicrap by chance because you certainly have the leanings for it, just like every self-hating Democrat that exists now; like every damn fucking spineless Democrat that is keeling over for that damn chimp!

It seems that Clinton has decided that it is now open season on all violent video games. Wow, I wonder which one's next? One of those WWII games? They've got plenty of violence; hell, those games are nothing BUT violence. GTA:SA has missions in which you can avoid killing people; you don't have to use the prostitutes (who aren't roaming the game at a time a dozen). And as much as the cut-scenes were boring, there were plenty. I wonder if any of these people took the time to actually look at them...

Now we come to the losers, the first of which is Rockstar.

Unless one is totally deprived of any thought process, they'd realise that late in the development of the game, the removing of code is often a trying issue. By removing large segments of code, the program may become ripe with bugs. Fixing those bugs can massively delay release on a game that is otherwise in prime condition for public release, which is why Rockstar locked that section of their code.

The EULA makes it clear that third party modifications to the game itself makes the game impure and no longer the same version as the pure unmodified retail one. So, when the hot coffee mod was developed and released, the hacker who developed it was in clear violation of the EULA. Irregardless of whether or not Rockstar left the code in, the code is unplayable without the mod that corrupts saved files (given the player has failed to back up his/her saved games).

Next - to the Republicraps, capitalism is an important concept. They've stabbed their best friend in the back. Capitalism - aka retail - as taken a severe blow by the change in rating. They're going to have to (at least the major retail chain stores) pull the game from the shelf, but yet, if it had retained its M rating, it'd be sitting right next to all the lower rated games; explain that one to me. Seems inappropriate to leave it in a section where young eyes may gaze longingly upon and whine and bitch about a mod that then exploits part of a code that isn't actually utilized in the first place.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's rant.

Canada Backs Gay Marriage

2005-07-20T10:17:00.000-04:00

Canada Senate Backs Gay Marriage

First off - HA! Take that you religious neo-conservative assholes! You guys wrecked marriage long before the gays came bursting flamboyantly out of the closet and into your face. The gays are now adding to the marriage statistics and rates, thus deflating the current rate of divorce...

So, exactly how is this violating the so-called "sanctity"of marriage? I don't know, but I know you guys did it when good old King Henry VIII decide that the Catholic Church was full of shit (which it is) and made his own to justify divorcing Catherine of Aragon. You see, the Catholic Church was being in character and NOT annuling the marriage...

Let's see - this woman was the widow of his brother, and during his 20 year marriage to this lovely wench from the Spanish court, he managed only to keep 2 mistresses... wow, such a good boy - no wonder many wish to emulate him.

Now then, let's skip back to current day, that's enough of a history lesson for now, unless you want me to go more into the 6 wives that this King of the Assholes kept...

King Henry VIII & His 6 Wives

You may consult the above provided link for further historical details about this.

Now, back to the issue at hand.

There are only 4 countries, who have seen the light and have fully acknowledged the human rights of gays and lesbians - The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada.

There are a handful of western European nations which have given similar rights to their homosexual population, short of marriage. These nations have provided the right to a civil union, adoptions and common-law partner benefits. While this is a step forward, it is still holding the carrot and dangling it; essentially saying "look, you want this?" and when they reach, it's take just out of their grasp...

It is still better than many other countries, for example, Niger. They've not only taken many steps back, but they've sentenced a a man to death for sodomy (for those of you who don't know, get out your bibles, or fail that, dictionaries). Or, even in the USA, where President Shrub is trying to outright ban homosexual marriage using a sacred document - the US Constitution. Oh how the Forefathers must be spinning in their graves on that one!

Then again, those Forefathers were the Quakers, Puritans and all the other so-called "persecuted" groups that came from England - though I'd be more inclined to believed sent into exile. After all, what country besides all those fucked up backwater countries, would've taken those religious zealots anyway? There was a good case made when the USA was cleverly dubbed "Jesusland" following the travesty of an election there.

Now, all that's missing is legalised marijuana - though it's nice to know that small amounts are ignored in this country. If the Netherlands isn't awashed in red-eyed hosers after passing a legilsation to legalise it, then, what exactly is the problem? Ah right; that damned feeding trough for the unprofittable and fiscally irresponsible so-called and failing "War on Drugs".

First Entry

2005-07-20T09:28:00.000-04:00

Good day all.

This is my first new entry in a decent online blog. I had been using livejournal previous to this and I have out-grown it, as it no longer suits my needs and is far too popular for my liking. Also, this one is free of the assholes that once read my previous blog.

LJ Blog.

I have made my last post there. I'm officially done with it.

Now then, since this is my first entry, I feel obliged to say one thing - if anyone is easily offended by really radical left-wing POVs and anti-religion rants, then any subsequent entries you read may offend your senses, as I do rant very much when in the mood and seek to offend those who have offended me.