Sunday, February 27, 2005

Technology - canada.com

after tell the 'world' my hopes and dreams for purchasing an ipod mini, an act of narcissism, I decided to comment on this article. I read in the paper this past week and truly wondered what Paris Hilton, Blogs and the President for Life of Turkmenistan have in common.

this is an interesting article for a few reasons, one, it talks about Saparmurat Niyazov and it quotes Sam Vaknin, who has submitted a number of essays and short stories to aovegroundtesting my ezine. Actually I have written the President of Turkmenistan in an attempt to get some of his poems for my publication.

I suppose this is a form of narcissism, but then again, we kept pictures of ourselves in albums, or shoe boxes and that wasn't considered narcissistic? I realize rarely were they pictures of ourselves naked making out with other women, but still we did keep photographs of ourselves. I have to confess I have googled myself and have discovered that the RealPaul Gilbert is a guitarist of renown. Which is not me by the way.

Yes I do have a blog and I do have a ezine, so what. Am I grandiose, well through these endeavours I am, but again, so what? Is it narcissism to express your opinion. Honestly do we think thousands of people read our stuff? Besides in MSM they pay people to give their opinion and usually their opinion is just as off the way as your average blogger.

Narcissistic? Probably, but then again, so what.


Peace

I came soooo close to getting a blue apple ipod mini for $206.00 at BestBuy yesterday. If I had been about 5 minutes sooner, it would have been mine. I had thought about purchasing one before, but the cost was a big item. Apple has now lowered the price by $100.00 and suddenly it doesn't look all that expensive. They did have pink ones, but I'm just not sure about that colour. I mean, pink is okay , it's just not my favourite colour. Now I have made an offer on ebay and I have to wait.

Friday, February 25, 2005

TheStar.com - Voice vote approves same-sex marriage

Well so it is, Ontario joins Belgium and the Netherlands in allowing same sex marriage. Yes I always wanted to be in the same catagory with the Netherlands and Belgium.

I am glad they allow clergy the right to refuse. That is a right they have always had. You see just because one calls a preacher and asks to be married, he or she has always had the right to refuse. Now what is hoped is that some nob doesn't decide this is a violation of 'their' charter rights. Freedom of thought and expression are far greater rights that must be protected because that goes to the core being of an individual. The State has no right to judge the thoughts and opinions of another. Yes I know it does but it shouldn't. You are allowed to think and believe as you wish and so long as it doesn't endanger another you are free to believe.

How far have we come from the ."Friends of Voltaire who believed that, I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Nowadays its, believe what we say you are to believe, otherwise you will be marginalized. Yes this is a tolerant and progressive nation, as long as your thinking is in step with the elite and the MSM.


It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.


Peace

Thursday, February 24, 2005

BBC NEWS | Technology | Iran jails blogger for 14 years

I placed the label and link on my blog and now he's been jailed for 14 years.

Follow the link to Committee to Protect Bloggers, and read. Also take the time to write to the Iranian Ambassador to the UN, and express your opinion. As the site suggests, be polite but tell them you believe in the freedom of expression and that it is in the best interest of the Iranian Government to let Arash Sigarchi go free.

Freedom of Expression, it's freedom to express your humanity.


Peace

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Straight Goods - Canada's independent on-line source of news, analysis, information and fun

First of all, subscribe to Straight Goods. It's the source of information you won't get anywhere else.

Second, Linda McQuaig makes some very good points. We need to invest in social programs that help all Canadians. Linda talks about education and that should be one of the top priorities. The talk is competitiveness, what better way to ensure competition then having an educated healthy population? There was a bumper sticker which once said, 'in a perfect world, schools would have all the money the needed and the military would have to have bake sales'. Well in Canada the latter is true, the former isn't.

Now the talk is a national day care program. I oppose this for a few reasons, one, it will be a typical government boondoggle. In other words a lot of money will be thrown at a ill-thought program and very little resources will go to the people who actually need it. Think ad-scan for the preschool set. Second, there is nothing for parents who choose to stay at home and raise their children. I know that sounds old fashion, but many want to do just that. Why not make it possible for them to do so without punishment?

I have children in post-secondary education, they will get two things when they graduate; one a degree, the second, a large debt load. Great way to start a life. Only in Canada.

Peace
Committee to Protect Bloggers: THE COMMITTEE TO PROTECT BLOGGERS ANNOUNCES ITS FIRST CAMPAIGN: Free Arash and Mojtaba

Today, remember Mojtaba Saminejad and Arash Sigarchi. Their crime according to the Iranian authorities was to print the truth and be critical of the government.

Freedom is still precious, their right to think is still an important one. Their freedom to share their thoughts must be protected.




Peace

Monday, February 21, 2005

Girls Gone Wild Invades Canada - Nationwide Tour Kicks off This Monday; Notorious U.S. Series of Naughty DVDs Travels North in Search of the Hottest Women Canada Has to Offer

I was reading my local paper when this article caught my attention. Just what we need in Canada, "Girls Gone Wild". Now we all remember when the female fans of the Calgary Flames decided to flash themselves. I supposed it is to show that you are a liberated person not afraid of yourself or your sexuality.

Here's the reality ladies, your pix will now be part of the public domain. Quicker then you can say, 'My gosh what was I thinking', it's on every computer on the planet. Yes, that a great legacy.

Tell you what, and here is some fatherly advice, keep your shirts down and if the GGW group approach you, instead of showing your breasts, show them the door.

Peace

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Yahoo! Sports - NHL - With NHL season on the brink, NHL presents players its final offer

Yahoo Sports had a poll asking the question, will there be hockey next year? I answered, "I don't care". Now I hear that the players have decided to accept a salary cap, although not the amount for the cap. Now the NHL says, 42.5 million or no season. Well, I suspect the players will crumble and accept this. After all, they accepted what they said every day for the past 153 days of the lock-out, so what's a few more million down. 52 million, 42.5 million, it doesn't matter.

Will the League survive, who honestly cares?


Peace
FT.com / Home UK - McDonald�s libel case goes to Euro court

Just appears to be the trial that Will Not Go Away for McDonald's. They at one time thought they could sue activists into silence, at one time a standard act by multinationals. Officially McDonald's won, but the publicity and embarrassment the company went through made it a very hollow victory. You can read more here.

Now the two have decided to appeal their 'conviction' to Strasbourg and according to one news source the two won a reversal of the decision.


Good for them.


Peace
I know everyone thinks that today is Flag Day here in Canada. About 10 years ago the then PM Jean Chretien declared February 15th as 'Flag Day', the day the Maple Leaf was adopted as the flag of Canada.

Truly it is a day for Canadians to stop and consider what a beautiful flag we do have. It is a flag that unites our nation and gives us a feeling of pride.

However, today is another special event, one that was also established by the then PM Jean Chretien. You see today is also "Choke a Homeless Person" day. . It was the day the Poutine wandered into the crowd of well wishers and confronted a person who was heckling him. The man was reminding the PM of the Red Book Promise ( the Liberal's campaign material) to restore funding to social programs. Of course like every other promise given by the Federal Liberals it was quickly broken. Seems this man didn't like what was happening to the poor of Canada and felt he had to say something. Silly fool, doesn't he realize that people like Chretien don't care about the needs of the poor.

As I was looking for the photo, I came across this

article. Keep it all in the proper perspective.

Peace

Friday, February 11, 2005

metronews: news

Let's put the last couple days of testimony into the proper perspective. Both the sitting and the former PM knew all about the purpose of the program, they knew money was ear-marked for the program and they all thought it was a great program.

I'm talking about the Sponsorship program.

What neither of them knew was where the money went.

Just think about it for a while. They didn't know where the money went.

I'm not talking about the coffee money here, I'm talking hundreds of millions of dollars, some of which ended up in the pockets of people who worked for the various ad agencies.


Before the Gormley commission people knew there was something crooked going on.

But the sitting PM, who was the Finance Minister during this period, and the former PM, knew nothing about the money.

Let me repeat, they didn't know where the money went.

Meditate on this, they didn't know where the money went.

So, what do we have, either two of the biggest crooks Canada ever produced, or two of the most incompetent leaders Canada has ever entrusted to run this country.

They didn't know where the money went.


Wednesday, February 09, 2005

CANOE -- CNEWS - Canada: Liberals cheer Chretien, Martin lauds his service: "and used a briefcase full of golf balls as a devastating stage prop"

Seems M. Chretien likes to use props and make jokes in dealing with scandals. Let's remember a few. There was the APEC summit in Vancouver a number of years ago, in case you forget one of the visiting dignitaries was Suharto of Indonesia. He was a nasty little dictator who invaded East Timor and oppressed people. What he also had was a very delicate condition, he didn't like to be criticized. Now in Canada, unlike his nation, dissent and protest is part of the fabric and protected, allegedly by the Charter. While in Vancouver one of the events was to take place in the Museum of Archaelogy on the campus of the University of British Columbia, a place where Protest 101 is a required course for all freshmen. Many of the students were upset over the fact that a blood thirsty tyrant was coming to their home and decided to protest, calling him all sorts of names. Of course this couldn't happen for reasons that are now unclear, still the result was a lot of students were pepper sprayed and arrested all under orders of the PMO ( Prime Minister's Office). During a press conference when asked about the pepper spraying of Canadians, Chretien laughed it off with "Pepper is something I put on my steak". Gosh what a comedian.

The next time his true comedic genius was on display was at the height of the HRC scandel. Apparently the Auditor General of the day reported s/he couldn't track a billion dollars of money that had been earmarked for the HRC department. The government of the day denied any knowledge of this and said it couldn't be tracked. During the ugly time and let's remember we're talking one billion dollars here, he stood up to address the Parliament and had this big old binder of documents and he started to read all the places the money had gone. He was having a good old time and his then right hand weasel Don Bordreau, a man who had to resign in disgrace by the way, was either giving him the pages or taking it from him. Again, a billion dollars lost of taxpayers money and Chretien thinks it's hilarious.

Now the AdScan, same thing money, lots of money goes missing and to defend himself Chretien uses some cheap props, in this case golf balls to prove his point. What was his point, that the golf balls are not cheap because other world leaders have them. Right. There is one slight point about his comments, and this is it HE DIDN'T ANSWER A FREAKING QUESTION!!!!!

The golf balls are a devastating prop, they sure are, because they should remind all Canadians that money that could have gone to education, or to hospitals, or to fixing infrastructure went to his buddies. You know what, every Canadian should during the next election, chuck golf balls at their local Liberal candidate and ask them, if that's a funny enough prop.

Disgusting. Chretien may be the most corrupt Prime Minister this nation has ever had.

Peace and practice your aim.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Sympatico / MSN : News : CTV.ca

Oh good, he's now off the hook. Former PM Jean Chretien 'regrets' any sponsorship mistakes. After all, it was all done in the name of 'national unity'. Yes all that money that went to Liberal friendly firms was to preserve the Dominion. I guess those were the only firms you could trust, after all you couldn't trust any PQ friendly firms could you.

Just a couple of questions before you leave M. Prime Minister, why did you send your henchmen to cast doubt about the integrity of the Commission? Why have you taken so long to even admit this? You say it is your ultimate responsibility, if so how will you bear this responsibility. Why is it you send A. Gagliano to Denmark after the scandel broke?

Just how much did you know, when did you know it and why didn't you act upon it?


Just answer those questions, okay?


Peace

Monday, February 07, 2005

I was away last week, so I think I missed a lot of things.

Let's get to the news. The Pats win Superbowl xxxix, or 39 for those of us who are roman numeral illiterate. Good game, both teams were very nervous in the first quarter. I don't know what Philly was thinking about regarding clock management. Very bad.

It's very damp and cold today. Miserable weather.

Have to find more for tomorrow.

Peace