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no words
- Thursday, July 02, 2009 at 20:44:27 (PDT)
- Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 09:57:37 (PDT)
No, don't worry, Jeff Goldblum didn't die along with Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett yesterday—and as it turns out, he's not the only actor to have supposedly plunged off a cliff in New Zealand. Blame it on a user-generated fake news net-site.
- Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 20:40:20 (PDT)
Wailing fans of Michael Jackson are slowing the internet to a crawl and fucking-up Net-Servers abilities to function. Absolutely out of this world.
- Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 15:28:55 (PDT)
R.I.P.: Michael Jackson 1958-2009, he passed away yesterday -- A tragic end to a powerful career.
- Friday, June 26, 2009 at 06:06:26 (PDT)
R.I.P.: Ferrah Fawcett dies of cancer age 62. She put up a brave fight.
Born Ferrah Leni Fawcett
February 2, 1947(1947-02-02)
Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Died June 25, 2009 (aged 62)
Santa Monica, California, USA
- Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 13:08:55 (PDT)
Ballade des dames du temps jadis.
François Villon.
Dictes moy ou n'en quel pays
Est Flora le belle Romaine
Archipiades, ne Thaïs,
Qui fut sa cousine germaine,
Echo parlant quant ruyt ou maire
Dessus riviè ou sus estan,
Que beaultè ot trop plus qu'humaine.
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?"
In English,
Tell me from where I could entice
Flora the famous Roman whore,
or Archipiada or Thaïs
who they say was just as fair;
or Echo answering everywhere
across stream and pool and mere,
whose beauty was like none before -
where are the snows of yesteryear ?
- Friday, June 19, 2009 at 01:07:10 (PDT)
At dawn of day, when falcon shakes his wing.
François Villon.
Mainly from pleasure, and from noble usage,
Blackbirds too shake theirs then as they sing,
Receiving their mates, mingling their plumage,
O, as the desires it lights in me now rage,
I’d offer you, joyously, what befits the lover.
See how Love has written this very page:
Even for this end are we come together.
Doubtless, as my heart’s lady you’ll have being,
Entirely now, till death consumes my age.
Laurel, so sweet, for my cause now fighting,
Olive, so noble, removing all bitter foliage,
Reason does not wish me unused to owing,
Even as I’m to agree with this wish, forever,
Duty to you, but rather grow used to serving:
Even for this end are we come together.
And, what’s more, when sorrow’s beating
Down on me, through Fate’s incessant rage,
Your sweet glance its malice is assuaging,
Nor more or less than wind blows smoke away.
As, in your field, I plant I lose no grain,
For the harvest resembles me, and ever
God orders me to plough, and sow again:
Even for this end are we come together.
Princess, listen to this I now maintain:
That my heart and yours will not dissever:
So much I presume of you, and claim:
Even for this end are we come together.
- Friday, June 19, 2009 at 00:57:44 (PDT)
Ootip ayim sowak (The People Nobody Owns).
"I, myself, am a question which is addressed to the world, and I must communicate my answer, for otherwise I am dependent on the world's answer." C.G. Jung.
cheers, Joan Haydon.
- Friday, June 19, 2009 at 00:05:38 (PDT)
Real `Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' gravely ill.
They were childhood chums. Then they drifted apart, lost touch completely, and only renewed their friendship decades later, when illness struck.
Not so unusual, really.
Except she is Lucy Vodden — the girl who was the inspiration for the Beatles' 1967 psychedelic classic "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" — and he is Julian Lennon, the musician son of John Lennon.
They are linked together by something that happened more than 40 years ago when Julian brought home a drawing from school and told his father, "That's Lucy in the sky with diamonds."
Just the sort of cute phrase lots of 3- or 4-year-olds produce — but not many have a father like John Lennon, who used it as a springboard for a legendary song that became a centerpiece on the landmark album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
"Julian got in touch with me out of the blue, when he heard how ill I was, and he said he wanted to do something for me," said the 46-year-old Vodden, who has lupus, a chronic disease where the immune system attacks the body's own tissue.
Lennon, who lives in France, sent his old friend flowers and vouchers she could use to buy plants at a local gardening center, since working in her garden is one of the few activities she is still occasionally well enough to enjoy. More importantly, he has offered her friendship and a connection to more carefree days. They communicate mostly by text message.
"I wasn't sure at first how to approach her. I wanted at least to get a note to her," Julian Lennon told The Associated Press. "Then I heard she had a great love of gardening, and I thought I'd help with something she's passionate about, and I love gardening too. I wanted to do something to put a smile on her face."
Vodden admits she enjoys her association with the song, but doesn't particularly care for it. Perhaps that's not surprising. It was thought by many at the time, including BBC executives who banned the song, that the classic was a paean to LSD because of the initials in the title. Plus, she and Julian were 4 years old in 1967, the "Summer of Love" when "Sgt. Pepper" was released to worldwide acclaim. She missed the psychedelic era to which the song is indelibly linked.
"I don't relate to the song, to that type of song," said Vodden, described as "the girl with kaleidoscope eyes" in the lyrics. "As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, 'No, it's not you, my parents said it's about drugs.' And I didn't know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself."
There's no doubt the fanciful lyrics and swirling musical effects draw heavily on the LSD experiences that were shaping Lennon's artistic output at the time — although many of the musical flourishes were provided by producer George Martin, who was not a drug user.
"The imagery in the song is partly a reflection of John's drug experiences, and partly his love of `Alice in Wonderland,'" said Steve Turner, author of "A Hard Day's Write," a book that details the origins of every Beatles song. "At the time it came out, it seemed overtly psychedelic, it sounded like some kind of trip. It was completely new at the time. To me it is very evocative of the period."
Turner said his research, including interviews with Vodden and Julian Lennon, confirm that she is the Lucy in the song. He said it was common for John Lennon to "snatch songs out of thin air" based on a simple phrase he heard on TV or an item he read in the newspapers. In this case, Turner said, it was the phrase from Julian that triggered John's imagination.
Veteran music critic Fred Schruers said Julian Lennon's reaching out to help Vodden as she fights the disease is particularly moving because of the childlike nature of the song.
"It's enormously evocative but with a tinge of poignancy," he said. "It's the lost childhood Julian had with that little Lucy and the lost innocence we had with the psychedelic era, an innocence we really cherished until it was snatched away."
Vodden was diagnosed with lupus about five years ago after suffering other serious health problems. She has been struggling extreme fatigue, joint pain, and other ailments.
"She's not given up, she's a fighter, and she has her family backing her, that's a good thing," said Angie Davidson, campaign director for St. Thomas' Lupus Trust, which funds research. "We need more people like her, more Lucys."
Davidson, who also has the disease, said it affects each person differently, typically causing exhaustion and depression. When the disease kills, she said, it does so by attacking the body's internal organs.
It has become difficult for Vodden to go out — most of her trips are to the hospital — but recently she and her husband went to a bookstore and heard the song playing over the store's music system. When they went to another shop, the song was on there as well.
Arctic Monkeys Live At The Apollo DVD cool stuff. And also check out Arctic Monkeys Live At The Apollo DVD is now available for pre-order in USA. The DVD is released on Tuesday 5th May 2009.
Cheers Maureen Jackson.
http://www.arcticmonkeys.com
- Monday, April 27, 2009 at 18:09:49 (PDT)
- Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 09:51:24 (PDT)
"The people that are trying to make the world worse never take a day off, why should I? Light up the darkness." Bob Marley.
cheers, James
- Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 22:55:52 (PDT)
A long time ago I played AD&D in highscool and I wondered whatever happened to it and Gary Gygax. Well the game is still around kind of, but its composer unfortunately has passed away last year. So I say salute to you Gary Gygax, SHINE ON!!!
best regards, Travis Williams. Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Salute to Gary Gygax …. R.I.P. Gary Gygax March 4th, 2008 (1938-2008).
On March 4th, 2008 GM's Day, the first GM, the first DM, Gary Gygax passed away. Father of the modern R.P.G. Rest in peace. He was the first DM ever, may there never be a last.
March 4th’s obituaries for Gary Gygax described him as a game inventor. That description sells the man short. Monopoly and Scrabble are games -- with winners and losers and rule-books. The experience offered by Dungeons and Dragons, Gygax's signature creation, is very different. Don't let the goofy 20-sided dice and nerdy culture fool you: D&D is an existential trip, one that teaches very basic lessons about the nature of human consciousness and identity.
A D&D game unfolds as a dialogue. On one side is an omniscient "dungeon master," who controls the world in which the action takes place. On the other side are the dungeon master's (real-world) friends, whose fictional "characters" roam through the dungeon-master's artificial milieu.
Most of the game experience consists of simulated exploration -- with the characters going down this or that passage, and the dungeon master telling them what they see and feel. During my years as a D&D player, I always found that fighting monsters -- which is what all the dice and charts are about -- was actually the least interesting part of the experience. What I enjoyed most was simply living, for a couple of hours at least, in a different world, one entirely separate from the tedium and social agonies of my own schoolboy life.
Like most serious D&D players, I eventually grew bored with isolated forays into dungeons. I cared about my characters, and wanted them to have back stories. I wanted their adventures to have meaning within a coherent alternate universe like Tolkein's Middle Earth. As a 12-year-old dungeon master, I started to create a master-sketch of my own imaginary world, complete with new types of creatures and magic. I even gave a thought to areas that Tolkein ignored completely -- like agriculture and trade.
And here is where my frustrations with D&D began. For all the work I put into Jon Kay's own Middle Earth, it was a very boring place. I tried hard to invent the sort of sweeping back story that Tolkein produced, but everything I came up with seemed contrived -- just a random series of events. The whole world was so dull that I didn't even bother showing it to anyone else, and I eventually drifted out of D&D and into games such as Chess, which were governed by ironclad technical rules.
In retrospect, the reason for my frustration seems obvious. Fictional worlds are useless to us unless they supply the drama and excitement lacking in our own -- complete with the sort of conflict and resolution we get in our favourite stories. Like all D&D players, what I was essentially trying to do in the game was create a novel through other means. But as I learned, not all of us are good novelists. In fact, very few people are -- which is why Scrabble, Monopoly and chess are so popular.
In the wake of Gygax's death, various commentators have argued that his influence lay behind the explosion of Medieval-themed video games that have largely replaced D&D in the lives of adolescent boys. That may be true in terms of the sword-and-sorcery atmospherics. But in a larger sense, there's no connection at all. The world Gygax created was a free-for-all that participants were expected to colour in with their own imagination. But in computer games such as World of Warcraft, players compete in artificial worlds constructed entirely by professional programmers employed by video-game conglomerates. From a creative point of view, these games are really nothing more than high-tech monster-killing simulations.
Does this mean Gygax's revolution has failed completely? Not quite. In recent years, Internet-based virtual worlds such as Second Life have created somewhat Gygaxian fantasy universes -- where 3-d "avatars" controlled by real-life players build homes and communities, create relationships, hold public events, and otherwise simulate the fullness of human existence in electronic form.
But even here, Gygax's vision remains unfulfilled. Spend some time on Second Life and you notice that the people there aren't exploring dungeons, or slaying dragons, or even exerting themselves much. Instead of trying to live out the story-line of a novel, they're just kind of ? hanging out, aimlessly mimicking the activities they enjoy in real life. Writing the next Lord of the Rings is hard. Lounging around a virtual cafe and flirting with other disembodied folks, it turns out, is a lot easier.
Gygax was a visionary who persuaded millions of people to engage in an extended out-of-body experience. The lesson for most of us, though profound, was not what Gygax himself likely intended: Indulging imagination has its pleasures. Truly, Gygax was a kind man who loved games and loved what people made of games and even more, what games made of people.
Jack O`diamonds
Jack O'Diamonds, on the move
Jack O'Diamonds, one-eyed knave
On the move, hits the street
Bumps his head, on the ground
Well, he's a scout, you're born to lose
Shouldn't stay Jack O'Diamonds is a hard card to play
Jack O'Diamonds, yeah Jack O'Diamonds
This one-eyed prince, wears a ?single love?
Oh sure, he's not that lovely
Jack O'Diamonds broke my hand
Left me here to stand
Jack O'Diamonds is a hard card to land
Jack O'Diamonds is a hard card
Jack O'Diamonds is a high card
Jack O'Diamonds is a hard card But it ain't hard enough
Jack O'Diamonds can open for riches
Jack O'Diamonds but then it switches
Colour by picture but it's only a ten
Jack O'Diamonds, yeah Jack O'Diamonds
Jack O'Diamonds is a hard card to play
Jack O'Diamonds, yeah Jack O'Diamonds
This one-eyed prince, wears a ?single love?
Oh sure, he's not that lovely
Jack O'Diamonds broke my hand
Left me here to stand
Jack O'Diamonds is a hard card to play
Jack O'Diamonds is a hard card
Jack O'Diamonds is a high card
Jack O'Diamonds is a hard card
But it ain't hard enough
Jack O'Diamonds can open for riches
Jack O'Diamonds but then it switches
Colour by picture but it's only a ten
Jack O'Diamonds
- Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 20:56:42 (PDT)
Kewl stuff Krista! Thanx! cheers, Ilona Jackson.
Egypt to search 3 sites near Alexandria for Cleopatra's tomb.
Rebecca Santana, Associated Press.
CAIRO - Archeologists will begin excavating sites in Egypt next week in an attempt to solve a mystery that has stymied historians for hundreds of years: Where is the final resting place of doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony?
Archeologists looking for the tombs of the celebrated queen of Egypt and the Roman general, who committed suicide in 31 BC, will begin excavating three sites at a temple where tombs may be located, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement Wednesday.
Cleopatra and Mark Antony, whose relationship was later immortalized by William Shakespeare and then in a movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, could have been buried in a deep shaft in a temple near the Mediterranean Sea, the council said. Archeologists last year unearthed the alabaster head of a Cleopatra statue, 22 coins bearing Cleopatra's image and a mask believed to belong to Mark Antony at the temple.
The three sites were identified last month during a radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna, the council's statement said. The temple is located near the northern coastal city of Alexandria and was built during the reign of King Ptolemy II (282-246 BC.)
Teams from Egypt and the Dominican Republic have been excavating the temple for the last three years. They found a number of deep shafts inside the temple, three of which were possibly used for burials. The lovers could be buried in a similar shaft, the statement said.
The lovers committed suicide after being defeated in the battle of Actium. Mark Antony is said to have killed himself with his sword, while Cleopatra is believed to have clutched a poisonous asp to her chest.
However, John Baines, an Egyptologist with Oxford University in England questioned why Augustus, who defeated Antony, would have chosen such a distinguished burial place.
"I don't really see why there should be a particular connection between that site and Antony and Cleopatra," Baines said. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's top archeologist, said the Cleopatra statue and coins - which show an attractive face - debunk a recent theory that the queen was "quite ugly." "The finds from Taposiris reflect a charm ... and indicate that Cleopatra was in no way unattractive," said Hawass, according to the statement.
Academics at Britain's University of Newcastle concluded in 2007 that the queen was not especially attractive. Their conclusion was based on Cleopatra's depiction on a Roman coin that shows her as a sharp-nosed, thin-lipped woman with a protruding chin.
Excavators at the site near Alexandria have already discovered a large previously unknown cemetery outside the temple enclosure. They have also discovered 27 tombs, including a total of 10 mummies.
According to the statement, the style of the tombs indicates they were built during the Greco-Roman period. The presence of the cemetery also indicates that an important person - possibly royalty - could be buried inside the temple.
La grande illusion (1937), yes yes, I agree Nikko it is a fantastisk filmen! Tack så mycket för att ge denna film att titta på. Det var en charmig och insiktsfulla arbete konstverk.
Oui, filmen är fantastisk!
Krista Jobstrom.
Skål för er.!
- Monday, April 13, 2009 at 20:00:00 (PDT)
Happy Easter!
Cindy & Mom (DOORS music always goes better with milk and good cookies).
Cheers.
Spoon Cookies: Lusikkaleivat (Easter Cookies from Finland).
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch fine salt
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 to 1/3 cup jam, such as a berry, plum or cloudberry
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Melt the butter in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Continue to cook, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter browns lightly and smells slightly nutty, about 15 minutes.
Transfer the butter to a medium bowl -- be sure to get all the tasty brown bits -- and cool slightly. Meanwhile, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in another medium bowl. Whisk the egg yolk, sugar and vanilla into the cooled browned butter. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture to make a uniform but crumbly dough that looks like wet sand.
Scoop out dough with a small teaspoon (the kind you set the table with, not the ones you measure with). Rock spoon gently back and forth against the side of the bowl, packing the dough into the spoon, then scrape/slide the spoon against the inside of the bowl to make spoon-shaped cookies.
Trim excess dough with your fingers and slide out onto the prepared pans, preserving their shape. (Try to make sure you form an even number of cookies, since these sandwich together.)
Bake cookies until just browned, about 12 to 15 minutes. Cool almost completely on the baking sheets, and then transfer cookies to a rack to cool. When cool, spread 1/2 teaspoon jam on the flat side of a cookie, and then sandwich together with a second cookie. Repeat until all cookies have met their match. Lightly dust the cookies with the confectioners' sugar. Serve.
Busy baker's tips: The dough can be prepared several hours ahead and stored at room temperature. Freeze baked cookie halves wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, followed by aluminum foil for up to 2 weeks. When ready to serve, defrost at room temperature and assemble as desired. Store sandwiches in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Do not store with crisp cookies, as moisture from the jam will soften the texture of other crisp cookies.
- Sunday, April 12, 2009 at 19:58:40 (PDT)
Ezekiel 26:16.
- Thursday, April 09, 2009 at 08:52:50 (PDT)
Troll kalla mik tungl sjötrungnis,
auðsug jötuns,
élsólar böl,
vilsinn völu,
vörð náfjarðar,
hvélsvelg himins – hvat's troll nema þat?
- Wednesday, April 08, 2009 at 21:19:34 (PDT)
“Good poetry walks that razor’s edge between comedy/tragedy, understanding/ambiguity. The yin and the yang.” Catherine Graham.
Kom og giv en lytter Jim Morrison ville nyde disse bards' kunstfærdighed.
Skål!
Brynja.
- Friday, April 03, 2009 at 22:26:58 (PDT)
Wild Geese.
Mary Oliver.
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
best regards, Jack Williams.
- Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 17:30:55 (PDT)
- Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 15:38:10 (PDT)
- Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 18:42:27 (PDT)
Happy Spring Equinox!
- Friday, March 20, 2009 at 13:39:22 (PDT)
Haapy Spring Equinox!
- Friday, March 20, 2009 at 13:38:23 (PDT)
Happy Ériu Day!!!
- Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 11:11:16 (PDT)
Aye I likes Me Pirate Songs.
To the mast nail our flag it is dark as the grave,
Or the death which it bears while it sweeps o'er the wave;
Let our deck clear for action, our guns be prepared;
Be the boarding-axe sharpened, the scimetar bared:
Set the canisters ready, and then bring to me,
For the last of my duties, the powder-room key.
It shall never be lowered, the black flag we bear;
If the sea be denied us, we sweep through the air.
Unshared have we left our last victory's prey;
It is mine to divide it, and yours to obey:
There are shawls that might suit a sultana's white neck,
And pearls that are fair as the arms they will deck.
There are flasks which, unseal them, the air will disclose
Diametta's fair summers, the home of the rose.
I claim not a portion: I ask but as mine
'Tis to drink to our victory - one cup of red wine.
Some fight, 'tis for riches - some fight, 'tis for fame:
The first I despise, and the last is a name.
I fight, 'tis for vengeance! I love to see flow,
At the stroke of my sabre, the life of my foe.
I strike for the memory of long-vanished years;
I only shed blood where another shed tears,
I come, as the lightning comes red from above,
O'er the race that I loathe, to the battle I love.
- Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 10:43:59 (PDT)
I LOVE TO READ JIM'S POETRY TO TANGERINE DREAM as I relax.
cheers, Nicole Morgan.
ride the liquid hwy
into sunset eyes
into smoke rising in the distant sky
light groans a prayer
solemn dogs await their master's cry
as fast as light
across the sky
as fast as summer
left behind
the music takes &
shakes the ground
in an erotic night of
colored sound
- Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 18:53:08 (PDT)
John McDermott - By Yon Bonnie Banks
By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomon'
Where me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomon'
Oh, ye'll tak' the high road and I'll tak' the low,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
For me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomon'
'Twas there that we parted in yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep sides o' Ben Lomon'
Where in a purple hue the Heilan' hills we view,
An the moon comin' out in the gloamin'.
Oh, ye'll tak' the high road and I'll tak' the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomon'
The wee birdies sing and the wild flowers spring
And in sunshine the waters are sleepin'
But the broken heart it kens nae second spring again
Tho' the waefu' may cease frae their greetin'.
Oh, ye'll tak' the high road and I'll tak' the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love will never meet again.
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomon'
- Monday, March 02, 2009 at 22:26:41 (PST)
Happy Birthday, Friedbert Stieber. You broke on through, to a new birth, to the other side...where it's not dark at all.
Bonker
- Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 11:13:10 (PST)
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!”
”Gone where?”
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: ‘Here she comes!”
And that is dying.
Henry Van Dyke
Sources
The Hospice Foundation of America: The Dying Process: A Guide for Caregivers
Barbara Karnes: Gone From My Sight: The Dying Experience
Sherwin Nuland, M.D.: How We Die
- Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 21:38:42 (PST)
Yeah, you'rright Tony Mahwêwa means Wolf. Wolf people are freedom-loving and sincere, for sure. And they often have a very strong artistic streak.
Mahwêwa / Wolf.
Shelby
- Friday, February 20, 2009 at 00:47:51 (PST)
For Michael...
Ships Without Sails
Well you asked how much I love you
Why do ships with sails love the wind?
And will I be thinking of you
Will I ever pass this way again
I'll be returning some day
Until then, please don't ask me my direction
Let my tracks be buried in the sea
'Cause to wander is my infection
'Till the four winds bring you back to me
Don't count your memories
Think of me as just a dream
Just like this melody, I sing
- Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 23:37:53 (PST)
I saw her sitting in the rain
Raindrops falling on her
She didn't seem to care
She sat there and smiled at me
Then I knew (I knew... I knew... I knew... I knew)
She could make me happy (happy... happy)
(She could make me very happy)
Flowers in her hair (in her hair)
Flowers everywhere (everywhere)
(I love the flower girl)
Oh I don't know just why; she simply caught my eye
(I love the flower girl)
She seemed so sweet and kind; she crept into my mind
(To my mind... to my mind)
I knew I had to say hello (hello... hello)
She smiled up at me
And she took my hand and we walked through the park alone
And I knew (I knew... I knew... I knew... I knew)
She had made me happy (happy... happy)
(She had made me very happy)
Flowers in her hair (in her hair)
Flowers everywhere (everywhere)
(I love the flower girl)
Oh I don't know just why; she simply caught my eye
(I love the flower girl)
She seemed so sweet and kind; she crept into my mind
(To my mind ... to my mind)
Suddenly, the sun broke through
(See the sun)
I turned around she was gone
(Where did she go)
And all I had left was one little flower in my hand
But I knew (I knew... I knew... I knew... I knew)
She had made me happy (happy... happy)
(She had made me very happy)
Flowers in her hair (in her hair)
Flowers everywhere (everywhere)
(I love the flower girl)
Was she reality or just a dream to me
(I love the flower girl)
Her love showed me the way to find a sunny day
(Sunny day... sunny day... sunny day)
(I love the flower girl)
Was she reality or just a dream to me
MULTI DIMENSIONAL WARRIOR is a unique project, with every track personally selected and sequenced by Carlos Santana to create an engaging journey through a soundscape of moods and feelings. In an unprecedented concept, disc one comprises 14 vocal performances chosen from albums spanning the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s, while disc two comprises 14 instrumental performances from albums covering the same years. MULTI DIMENSIONAL WARRIOR is the first anthology to include tracks from the band’s three major label associations: Columbia, Polydor/ PolyGram, and Arista/BMG. Carlos supervised new overdubs to five tracks on the set and personally added guitar to “Spirit” and “Right Now,” Chester Thompson contributed piano to “Let There Be Light,” and Barbara Higbie added harp to “Praise” and “Let There Be Light.”
Track listing:
Disc 1
1. Let There Be Light
2. Brotherhood
3. Spirit
4. Right Now
5. Life is For Living
6. Saga / Right On
7. Somewhere In Heaven
8. I believe It’s Time
9. Serpents And Doves
10. Your Touch
11. I’ll Be Waiting
12. The River
13. Bailando / Aquatic Park
14. Praise
Disc 2
1. Curación (Sunlight On The Water)
2. Aqua Marine
3. Bella
4. Love Is You
5. Full Moon
6. Blues Latino
7. Samba Pa Ti
8. Europa
9. El Farol
10. En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor
11. Luz, Amor U Vida
12. I Love You Much Too Much
13. Blues For Salvador
14. Victory Is Won
Santana: http://www.santana.com
- Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 15:22:45 (PST)
Musa, mihi causas memora -- Tanto fortior: To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large— this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone and especially to the intellectual. Ooh yes, the man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend. Yet, the poet and bard may walk on in the their Civilization's rush and clash, timelessly flushed with wild knowings in so many lost moments. Yes,words turn to the things of measured reasonings are more unfathomable in mysterious convulsions crossed in bliss. Life's a dance of amoral mercies, that the mind better revels in freely.
- Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 17:09:31 (PST)
-==** MAGIC CARPET RIDE **==-
by John Kay & Rushton Moreve.
I like to dream yes, yes,
right between my sound machine
On a cloud of sound I drift in the night
Any place it goes is right
Goes far, flies near,
to the stars away from here
Well, you don't know what we can find
Why don't you come with me little girl
On a magic carpet ride
You don't know what we can see
Why don't you tell your dreams to me
Fantasy will set you free
Close your eyes girl
Look inside girl
Let the sound take you away
Last night I held Aladdin's lamp
And so I wished that I could stay
Before the thing could answer me
Well, someone came and took the lamp away
I looked around, a lousy candle's all I found
Well, you don't know what we can find
Why don't you come with me little girl
On a magic carpet ride
Well, you don't know what we can see
Why don't you tell your dreams to me
Fantasy will set you free
Close your eyes girl
Look inside girl
Let the sound take you away.
- Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 05:59:14 (PST)
May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.
May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.
May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.
- Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 22:42:42 (PST)
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me.
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.
- Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 22:33:40 (PST)
"In one day of President Obama being in power he has made more correct and proper decisions than 8 years of the debacle of the right wing administrators."
was said in: Obama to sign order to close Guantanamo within 1 year: aide
by Bob Lobblaw
- Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 10:11:30 (PST)
For Joe, a lil song, I think he really howl sweet like in doing.
Sarah Renards. Cheers.
The Red Rooster.
Howling Wolf
I have a little red rooster, too lazy to crow for day
I have a little red rooster, too lazy to crow for day
Keep everything in the barnyard, upset in every way
Oh the dogs begin to bark,
and the hound begin to howl
Oh the dogs begin to bark, hound begin to howl
Ooh watch out strange kind people,
Cause little red rooster is on the prowl
If you see my little red rooster, please drag him home
If you see my little red rooster, please drag him home
There ain't no peace in the barnyard,
Since the little red rooster been gone
Willie Dixon
- Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 11:28:47 (PST)
Happy Birthday, o' dark one...
~Ravenshadow
- Monday, January 19, 2009 at 17:02:27 (PST)
Happy 200th birthday, Mr Poe.
Lookin' good, too, Joe ;)
- Monday, January 19, 2009 at 01:20:52 (PST)
- Monday, January 19, 2009 at 01:17:15 (PST)
- Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 19:38:56 (PST)
GRAPEFRUIT by Yoko Ono.
A PAINTING TO BE CONSTRUCTED IN YOUR HEAD
Go on transforming a square canvas in your head until it becomes a circle. Pick out any shape in the process and pin up or place on the canvas an object, a smell, a sound or a colour that came to your mind in association with the shape.
Peace out,
Nicole Williams.
- Monday, January 12, 2009 at 06:43:41 (PST)
"The most merciful thing in the world . . . is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
-H.P. Lovecraft
- Friday, January 09, 2009 at 23:31:25 (PST)
Drove up to Hillside Manor
sometime after two a.m.
And talked a little while about the year
I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower,
Makes you talk a little lower
about the things you could not show her
And it's been a long December
and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times
I tried to tell my myself to hold on to these moments as they pass
- Friday, January 09, 2009 at 23:24:13 (PST)
* A long December
and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember
the last thing that you said
as you were leavin'
Now the days go by so fast
o A Long December
* The smell of hospitals in winter
And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters,
but no pearls
- Friday, January 09, 2009 at 23:22:19 (PST)
* All my sins...
I said that I would pay for them
if I could come back to you
All my innocence is wasted on
the dead and dreaming
I dream of Michelangelo
when I'm lying in my bed
Little angels hang above my head
and read me like an open book
o Angels of the Silences
* Waiting for the moon to come
and light me up inside
And I am waiting for the telephone
to tell me I'm alive
o Daylight Fading
* Daylight fading
Come and waste another year
All the the anger and the eloquence
are bleeding into fear
Moonlight creeping
around the corners of our lawn
When we see the early signs
that daylight's fading, we leave just before it's gone
o Daylight Fading
* I will wait for you in Baton Rouge
I'll miss you down in New Orleans
I'll wait for you while she slips in something comfortable
And I'll miss you when I'm slipping in between
If you wrap yourself in daffodils
I will wrap myself in pain
And if you're the queen of california
Baby I am the king of the rain
- Friday, January 09, 2009 at 23:20:55 (PST)
* When I think of heaven
(Deliver me in a black-winged bird)
I think of flying down into a sea of pens and feathers
and all other instruments of faith and sex and God
In the belly of a black-winged bird
Don't try to feed me
I've been here before and I deserve a little more
o Rain King
* I belong in the service of the Queen
I belong anywhere but in between
She's been crying, I've been thinking
And I am the Rain King
o Rain King
* These train conversations are passing me by
I don't have nothin' to say
You get what you pay for, but I just had no
Intention of living this way
o Raining in Baltimore
* I dreamt i saw you walking, on a hillside in the snow. castings shadows on the winter sky; as you stood there counting crows.
o A Murder of One
- Friday, January 09, 2009 at 23:18:30 (PST)
* Step out the front door like a ghost
into the fog where no one notices
the contrast of white on white.
And in between the moon and you
the angels get a better view
of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.
o Round Here
* Says she's close to understanding Jesus
She knows she's more that just a little misunderstood
She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous
Round here we're carving out our names
Round here we all look the same
Round here we talk just like lions
But we sacrifice like lambs
o Round Here
* Then she looks up at the building
and says she's thinking of jumping.
She says she's tired of life;
she must be tired of something.
o Round Here
* Omaha Somewhere in middle America
Get right to the heart of matters
It's the heart that matters more
I think you better turn your ticket in
And get your money back at the door
o Omaha
* We all want something beautiful.
I wish I was beautiful
o Mr. Jones
* Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales
Stare at the beautiful women
"She's looking at you. Ah, no, no, she's looking at me."
Smiling in the bright lights
Coming through in stereo
When everybody loves you, you can never be lonely
o Mr. Jones
* I want to be a lion
Everybody wants to pass as cats
We all want to be big big stars, but we got different reasons for that
Believe in me because I don't believe in anything
and I want to be someone to believe
o Mr. Jones
* Mr. Jones and me staring at the video
When I look at the television, I want to see me staring right back at me
We all want to be big stars, but we don't know why and we don't know how
But when everybody loves me, I'm going to be just about as happy as can be
Mr. Jones and me, we're gonna be big stars....
o Mr. Jones
* Believe in me, help me believe in anything, I want to be someone who believes"
* Mr.Jones
* It does not bother me to say this isn't love
Because if you don't want to talk about it then it isn't love
And I guess I'm going to have to live with that
But I'm sure there's something in a shade of grey,
Something in between,
And I can always change my name
If that's what you mean
- Friday, January 09, 2009 at 23:16:58 (PST)
"One's real life is often the life that one does not lead."
-Oscar Wilde
- Friday, January 09, 2009 at 23:03:30 (PST)
Bonne Année!
- Monday, January 05, 2009 at 01:05:38 (PST)
Bonne Année!
Happy New Year! Hyvää Uuttavuotta!
Bonne Année! Happy New Year! Hyvää Uuttavuotta!
- Thursday, January 01, 2009 at 16:53:13 (PST)
it's a brand new year. yep.
- Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 22:12:29 (PST)
Our Bird Aegis.
Ray Young Bear.
An immature black eagle walks assuredly
across a prairie meadow. He pauses in mid-step
with one talon over the wet snow to turn
around and see.
Imprinted in the tall grass behind him
are the shadows of his tracks,
claws instead of talons, the kind
that belong to a massive bear.
And he goes by that name:
Ma kwi so ta.
And so this aegis looms against the last
spring blizzard. We discover he's concerned
and the white feathers of his spotted hat
flicker, signalling this.
With outstretched wings he tests the sutures.
Even he is subject to physical wounds and human
tragedy, he tells us.
The eyes of the Bear-King radiate through
the thick, falling snow. He meditates the loss
of my younger brother--and by custom
suppresses his emotions.
- Monday, December 29, 2008 at 19:29:23 (PST)
Imagine: Lennon in TV ad 28 years after his death.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Imagine, John Lennon makes a television commercial for charity -- 28 years after his death.
Through the use of digital technology, the former Beatle urges people across the United States to support a campaign by "One Laptop per Child" to deliver tough, solar-powered XO laptop computers to the world's poorest children.
"Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want," a voice and video image of Lennon has been created to say.
"I tried to do it through my music, but now you can do it in a very different way. You can give a child a laptop and more than imagine, you can change the world," says the musician in a play on one his best known songs -- 1971's "Imagine."
Lennon was shot and killed as he and his wife, Yoko Ono, arrived at their Manhattan apartment building on December 8, 1980.
Ono approved the "One Laptop per Child" commercial, which was launched on Thursday and will be shown on donated broadcast and cable time. It can also be seen at www.youtube.com/olpc.
The "One Laptop per Child" Foundation, created in 2005, is a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and started producing the XO laptop late last year at a manufacturing cost per machine of less than $200.
- Saturday, December 27, 2008 at 18:13:38 (PST)
Imagine: Lennon in TV ad 28 years after his death
Module body.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Imagine, John Lennon makes a television commercial for charity -- 28 years after his death.
Through the use of digital technology, the former Beatle urges people across the United States to support a campaign by "One Laptop per Child" to deliver tough, solar-powered XO laptop computers to the world's poorest children.
"Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want," a voice and video image of Lennon has been created to say.
"I tried to do it through my music, but now you can do it in a very different way. You can give a child a laptop and more than imagine, you can change the world," says the musician in a play on one his best known songs -- 1971's "Imagine."
Lennon was shot and killed as he and his wife, Yoko Ono, arrived at their Manhattan apartment building on December 8, 1980.
Ono approved the "One Laptop per Child" commercial, which was launched on Thursday and will be shown on donated broadcast and cable time. It can also be seen at www.youtube.com/olpc.
The "One Laptop per Child" Foundation, created in 2005, is a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and started producing the XO laptop late last year at a manufacturing cost per machine of less than $200.
Fama est, illum adeo praestigiarum usu calluisse, ut ad traicienda maria osse, quod diris carminibus obsignavisset, navigii loco uteretur nec eo segnius quam remigio praeiecta aquarum obstacula superaret. Ýdalir heita þar er Ullr hefir sér of görva sali. Ullar hylli hefr ok allra goða hverr er tekr fyrstr á funa, því at opnir heimar verða of ása sonum, þá er hefja af hvera. Svá gangi þér, Atli, sem þú við Gunnar áttir eiða oft of svarða ok ár of nefnda, at sól inni suðrhöllu ok at Sigtýs bergi, hölkvi hvílbeðjar ok at hringi Ullar. Ullr heitir einn, sonr Sifjar, stjúpsonr Þórs. Hann er bogmaðr svá góðr ok skíðfœrr svá at engi má við hann keppask. Hann er ok fagr álitum ok hefir hermanns atgervi. Á hann er ok gott at heita í einvígi.
- Tuesday, December 23, 2008 at 20:19:12 (PST)
HAPPY Winter Solstice ... Back at ya kiddo.
Chi'Meegwetch, Thomas St.George.
- Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 20:58:39 (PST)
HAPPY winter Solstice ... Back at ya kiddo.
Chi'Meegwetch, Thomas St.George.
- Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 20:58:27 (PST)
Man with bullet in head goes to work
The real estate agent says the slug hurts, but not enough to stay home
updated 3:37 p.m. CT, Thurs., Dec. 18, 2008
RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. - A man who was hit by a stray bullet in the back of the head is back at work — with the slug still stuck in his skull. E.T. Strickland, 74, a commercial real estate seller, said the bullet hurts, but not enough to keep him from his job.
Strickland was told by his doctors not to have the bullet removed unless it was pressing on any arteries or causing health problems. He does plan to see a neurosurgeon though because he wants it taken out if possible.
Police said Strickland was hit by a bullet Tuesday night from an attempted robbery outside a Walgreens store. A second person was also shot, several times, as he was leaving the store. Police said that person was listed in stable condition Wednesday.
- Saturday, December 20, 2008 at 14:27:40 (PST)
Natural Blues.
Moby.
oh lordy, trouble so hard
oh lordy, trouble so hard,
don't nobody know my troubles but God
don't nobody know my troubles but God
went down the hill, the other day
my soul got happy and stayed all day
oh lordy...
went in the room, didn't stay long,
looked on the bed and brother was dead
From the King of the Animals,
Who in his cave was sick,
Was let know with its vassal
That each species in embassy
Sent people to visit it,
Under promise to treat well
Deputies, them and their continuation,
Faith of Lion written very well.
Good passport counters the tooth;
Against the claw as much.
The Edict of the Prince is carried out.
Of each species one appoints to him.
Foxes keeping the house,
One of them says this reason of it:
Steps impressed on dust
By those which from there will be made to the patient their court,
All, without exception, look at its den;
Not one does not mark a return.
That puts to us in mistrust.
That Its Majesty exempts to us.
Large thank you of its passport.
I believe it good; but in this cave
I see extremely well like one enters,
And do not see as one leaves there
Ole Kris Kringle is a merry old soul that has roots that rock!
One can not begin to talk about the modern Santa without first aknowledging the most ancient traditions we know. Before Christianity, the peoples of the North worshiped many gods and the most powerful and influential being Odin. Odin is often depicted as a wizened man with a full, impressive beard. Each year on Yule, Odin would hold a great hunt with his fellow gods and the warriors of Valhalla.
Children would fill their boots with carrots, straw, sugar as treats for Odin's flying horse, Sleipnir, near their chimney. Odin would reward the thoughtfullness by replacing the treats with gifts, candy, or treats. Odin at the same time a very frightening character. He would fly on his great horse and he could bestow great posterity or great visit peril upon humans.
Then there is Joulupukki (Yule Goat aka Odin's Yule Goat). Pagans had many festivals and celebrations meant to ward off evil spirits and encourage good fortune and blessings for new seasons. Joulupukki was an old Scandenavian tradition. Literally translated Joulupukki means Yule Goat (or Yule Buck) and is probably connected to the god Thor who rode through the sky in a wagon drawn by a pair of goats. In Finland, dark spirits wore goat skins and horns and were frightening figures who demanded gifts and offerings.
As with many customs, Joulupukki transformed into a more benevolent creature as it was influenced by different folk customes, beliefs, and traditions over the centuries. Until the 19th century, children would go from house to house in Finland singing Yule Goat songs with one of the people in the group dressed as Joulupukki. By the end of the century, Joulupukki in these groups were completely replaced with Jultomte (Santa Claus).
The Yule Goat was also made into statue made out of straw or wood and in old Scandinavion socities it is a popular prank to place the Yule Goat in a neighbor's house without them seeing. The family who was pranked had to get rid of the Yule Goat in the same way. The modern version of the Yule Goat is decorative and is usually made out of straw and decorated with red ribbons as a popular ornament unter the Christmas tree. Larger versions are erected in towns and cities and tend to be lit on fire before Christmas (a practice that is popular but illegal--fire hazard and all).
Today's Finnish Joulupukki is much more like the modern American Santa Claus or Father Christmas. Popular radio in the late 1920s popularized the modern Santa costume, reindeer, and Korvatunturi (Mount Ear, near the Polar Circle) as his home. Reindeer, of course, are Caribou and since Finland live up north the American idea about reindeer actually came from Finland. Finland is one of the few countries in which children actually see Father Christmas delivering presents. An adult male in the family (usually a father, uncle, or grandfather, but there are Rent-a-Santas to hire) dresses up as the deliver of gifts and knocks on the front door during a Christmas eve party. Once invited in, Jouloupukki (Father Christmas), says ""Onkos täällä kilttejä lapsia?" (Are there any nice children here?). Depictions of Jouloupukki have him dressed in warm red clothes with a walking stick. He travels by slight driven by several reindeer. American influence has added Rudolph as part of the Finnish mythology. Jouloupukki, incidentally, has a wife Joulumuori (Old Lady Christmas) but there is little said about her.
Amy Nicholson.
- Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 21:24:40 (PST)
McCain Stares At Screen, Attempts To Write Family Christmas Letter
December 11, 2008
SEDONA, AZ—After procrastinating for several hours by watching It's A Wonderful Life and old John Wayne movies, former Republican presidential nominee John McCain finally sat down at the computer to type his annual "Christmas Bulletin" to friends and family early this afternoon, but found himself completely blocked. "They say you're never too old to learn," McCain slowly typed before pausing, reading the sentence over, and tapping the backspace key until it was deleted. Forty-five minutes later, after two aborted attempts to compose the letter from the point of view of the family cat, Oreo, and another about what 2009 held in store for the McCain clan, the Arizona senator took a break to make a cup of hot cocoa and listen to the grandfather clock ticking in the background. "Jesus," McCain mumbled. "Jesus Christ." McCain returned to the den around 5:30 p.m., at which point he placed a fresh stack of candy-cane stationery in the printer, stared at the screen for another 10 minutes, and finally decided to go to sleep for a long, long time.
- Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 01:36:02 (PST)
Bush's Eyelid Accidentally Nailed To Wall
December 8, 2008
WASHINGTON—President George W. Bush sustained a perforation injury to his right eyelid when a pneumatic nail gun malfunctioned and shot a 12-centimeter-long iron nail that entered Bush's superonasal sclera, exited through his upper eyelid, and then penetraed the wall of the White House Blue Room. The president remained pinned to the wall for a period of 27 hours before help arrived. According to witnesses, Bush was found passed out with blood dripping from his right tear duct. Doctors confirmed that the intraocular foreign body was removed during a four-hour operation Sunday, and reported significant damage to Bush's supratrochlear nerve, likely caused by the president's unsuccessful attempt to forcibly rip his eyelid in half to escape. It is unclear whether he will ever regain sight in his right eye. Bush is resting comfortably at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
Nonfiction: Autobiography, The Military, War 160 pages$15.956" x 9" Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-895900-96-5ISBN-10: 1-895900-96-4
As a mother and grandmother, Andria Hill-Lehr writes about her eldest son's decision to join Cadets, then Reserves, and then to be deployed to Afghanistan in 2006. From the time she learned of his decision, throughout his deployment and after his return home, whether speaking publicly or privately, Hill-Lehr has emphasised that unconditional love and support for her son is not synonymous with support for the political agenda behind Canada's presence in Afghanistan Ð an idea that is gaining momentum through an organization that Hill-Lehr co-chairs, called Military Communities Speak Out.
The author explains what inspired her to become a peace activist. She reflects on the influence of her mother, a writer who recalled with painful accuracy how she endured the London Blitz, and her father, who was a World War Two veteran and an inspector with Metropolitan Toronto Police. Both raised her to challenge authority Ð which presented some challenges of its own.
Her son's path inspired Hill-Lehr to scrutinize Canada's military culture and the influence of the American armed forces. She writes of her own experience with the military while the spouse of an Armed Forces officer. With clarity and insight, she examines the practices used by Canada's Armed Forces to cultivate children as young as twelve to become future recruitment prospects or loyal supporters of the military through schools, co-op education programs, military displays, advertising and marketing, and video games.
From Cadets to Reserves to Regular Forces, the Canadian government engages in endeavours that are, at times, questionable. The author hopes those who read this book will think critically about the proclaimed virtue of military programs for youth, and that Canadians will challenge the government of Canada's policies, particularly how they determine the deployment of Canadian troops abroad.
Andria Hill-Lehr is a mother, grandmother, writer and counsellor/therapist. She has been an increasingly vocal opponent of Canada's mission in Afghanistan, giving interviews on radio and television, and writing articles about it throughout her son's seven-month deployment to Kandahar. As a counsellor, she belongs to the Social Justice chapter of the Canadian Counselling Association.
She is the Nova Scotia representative on the national board of the Voice of Women (VOW) for Peace.
- Monday, December 08, 2008 at 19:04:02 (PST)
OLD BRIDGE, NJ—In what many are calling a complete bullshit move, Riverside High School algebra teacher Mrs. Trella, 34, assigned her sixth-period class an assload of math homework due Monday.
The homework, which included a number of impossible to solve word problems, several stupid equations, and a bunch of other pointless crap, was assigned at the end of class on Friday. According to sources, Trella handed out the homework at approximately 2:43 p.m., even though it was a completely unfair thing to do and would totally screw over everyone's weekend.
"She assigned it right before the bell rang," said ninth-grader Kenny Riley, who claimed that the last thing he needed was to spend all day Sunday looking at some retarded math book. "I was packing up my stuff to go when Mrs. Trella comes out of nowhere and gives us, like, four huge pages of work to take home."
Added Riley, "Fuuuuuuccck."
In addition to its poor timing, students expressed outrage Friday over the length of the math assignment, which some estimated would take fucking forever to complete, and was even more tedious than that lame history project from Mr. Shepard's global studies class.
Students also cited the need to show one's work, circle final answers to get full credit, and use the quadratic formula—whatever that is—as leading indicators of how hard the homework sucked.
"We did so much work in class already," said Michelle Siringano, who still plans to go to the mall with several friends on Saturday. "Mrs. Trella just wants us to be as miserable as she is."
According to a recent survey, Trella pulls this kind of stupid bullshit all the time. In November, the 34-year-old announced a surprise math test that wasn't even about stuff that made any sense, while earlier this year, Trella reportedly lost her mind and assigned homework on the very first day of school.
Sources still have not confirmed what the fuck that was about.
Some students have warned that if classmates did not complete last week's assignment on polynomials there was no way in hell they were going to understand Friday's work. Making matters worse, students said, was their math textbook, which reportedly doesn't even have any of the freaking answers in the back.
So far, various attempts have been made to get out of doing the required work. Many students, such as Daniel Gill, have considered leaving their heavy-ass bags in their lockers and coming in early on Monday to copy the answers from that douche Brian Raffel.
Still others planned to come up with some kind of genius excuse before Monday, such as forgetting their assignment on the bus, getting food poisoning, or maybe having their grandmother pass away over the week- end and being way too sad to think about doing math.
Despite being a total nut-job who hates her life and probably never gets laid, Trella claimed that assigning the weekend work wasn't something she wanted to do.
"We were falling a little behind," the conniving bitch said. "I just wanted them to catch up so they wouldn't have any extra work to do over the break."
- Monday, December 08, 2008 at 00:33:03 (PST)
"This Machine Kills Fascists."
Woody Guthrie.
- Friday, December 05, 2008 at 08:06:39 (PST)
Bush Dragged Behind Presidential Motorcade For 26 Blocks
December 4, 2008
KANSAS CITY, MO—President Bush sustained serious head injuries, massive internal bleeding, and a broken left leg Monday morning after being accidentally dragged behind the presidential motorcade for a period of 15 minutes. According to Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan, Bush's necktie became caught in the trunk of the motorcade's second vehicle at 4:13 p.m., shortly before the driver accelerated. The president was dragged down 175th Street for 26 blocks and through four stoplights, leaving a trail of blood more than a mile long. Upon hearing shouts emanating from behind his vehicle, the driver abruptly applied the brakes, causing the third car in the motorcade to run over the president's left leg at a speed of approximately 25 miles per hour. President Bush is resting comfortably in Bethesda Naval Hospital.
- Thursday, December 04, 2008 at 20:21:55 (PST)
American Airlines Now Charging Fees To Non-Passengers
FORT WORTH, TX—Cash-strapped American Airlines announced a new series of fees this week that will apply to all customers not currently flying, scheduled to fly, or even thinking about flying aboard the commercial carrier.
American Airlines has promised never to raise its fees for not printing a boarding pass.
The fees, the latest introduced by American Airlines in a continuing effort to combat its financial woes, will take effect on Monday. According to company officials, these charges will include a $25 tax on citizens traveling with any other airline, as well as a mandatory $30 surcharge for passengers who decide to just stay home for the holidays instead.
"Tough times unfortunately mean tough measures," American Airlines president Gerard Arpey said. "It's never an easy decision to ask our loyal customers, as well as thousands of people chosen at random out of a telephone book, to pay a little extra, but that's just the reality of today's economic climate. We hope all Americans will understand this when receiving one of our new bills in the mail."
Arpey said that non-passengers of American Airlines should expect to pay a small fee when making Greyhound bus reservations, choosing to drive to their final destination, or simply being a citizen of the United States with a valid Social Security number.
Arpey went on to note that some additional charges would also apply, including a $15 fee for every piece of luggage customers have inside their bedroom closet, and a one-time payment of $40 for any American whose name is Greg. (LMAO)
"We are confident that these new measures will not discourage customers from flying with American Airlines," vice president Margaret Wilkinson said. "However, we'd like to remind our customers that there is a 'discouraged-from-flying-with-American-Airlines' charge if they do in fact choose not to fly with us."
American Airlines, which posted a $1.45 billion loss in the second quarter of 2008 alone, claimed that the new fees—including the Taking A Shower Fee, the Knowing What An Airplane Looks Like Fee, and the Eating E.L. Fudge Cookies While Watching A Rerun Of House Fee—will help the company rebound. According to internal projections, the airline will recoup $500 million in the next three months alone, with nearly 80 percent of that revenue coming from citizens asleep at home.
"Watching television last night cost me $250," said Baltimore resident Michael Peterson, one of many Americans now forced to pay high airline costs for folding their laundry and going to the ophthalmologist. "It's ridiculous, but what can you do? I guess that's just the price of not flying these days."
"American Airlines charged me for cleaning out my attic," said 74-year-old Samantha Pratt, a New Jersey resident who has not left the state since 2005. "Sure, I didn't have to wait in any long lines, or go through invasive security searches, and I got to clean out my attic, which is something I've been wanting to do for weeks, but come on now."
In response to American's move, other airlines have begun offering more competitive rates. United this week unveiled a new $99 "spend the weekend quietly reading indoors" offer, while Southwest is introducing a $125 round-trip fare for those walking to their corner store for some groceries.
JetBlue, a commercial carrier known for its thrifty rates, has come out ahead of the pack, however, and is being lauded for its decision not to charge non-passengers not to fly.
Despite reduced offers such as these, many remain concerned over the new fees. Some have even expressed doubt about whether they'll be able to afford to see family members they currently live with during Christmas.
"It's just not worth it anymore," said Caroline Huza, an Ohio native and mother of two. "Plus, every time I stay at home, I always get trapped next to some kid who won't stop crying."
- Thursday, December 04, 2008 at 20:14:12 (PST)
Hyvää Talvipäivänseisaus n vuodenaikojen siunausta. Happy Winter Solstice's seasons blessings.
Marga Jenssen.
- Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 08:27:59 (PST)
DEC 1 Rally - Nous comptons sur vous/ We are counting on you - City Hall at noon.
regards, Suzanne Butterfield.
Power to the people!!
Rally, Monday, Dec 1, noon at Ottawa City Hall.
The Alliance to End Homelessness encourages you to be part of the public rally organized by People for a Better Ottawa (PBO) on Monday, Dec 1, noon at City Hall where community leaders will express their views on the proposed cuts in the City’s 2009 Budget.
The Alliance to End Homelessness will make a submission on Dec 3rd but the rally on the 1st is will set the stage to fix the better budget.
Remember – investing in affordable housing is good for people and for the economy!
Bringing Back Balance:
Three Simple Steps To Fixing A Broken Budget Ottawa’s proposed budget is unbalanced – in every way. By making three simple, principled decisions, Council can pass a good budget instead of one that does harm to our city.
BRINGING BACK BALANCE FOR LESS THAN $10 A MONTH:
THREE SIMPLE STEPS TO FIXING A BROKEN BUDGET
Ottawa’s proposed budget is unbalanced – in every way. By making three simple, principled decisions, Council can pass a good budget instead of one that does harm to our city.
SHARE THE LOAD FAIRLY…DON’T TARGET PARENTS, TRANSIT USERS AND THE ELDERLY
Instead of having all of us pay the cost of city government through our taxes –businesses, landlords, homeowners and the crown – this budget piles the entire burden almost exclusively onto families with kids, transit users, the elderly and others on fixed incomes. Reversing all cuts and eliminating all fee increases would cost only $9.61 a month, if we all pitched in.
FIGHT THE RECESSION … DON’T ATTACK YOUR RESIDENTS
At a time when our economy is hurting, many of the cuts in the budget will simply multiply the bad news. Many of the dollars city staff want to cut trigger more investment by private companies, other governments and individuals. The city budget should be encouraging others to invest in Ottawa at this troubled time, not chasing investment away.
MAKE PEOPLE MATTER AS MUCH AS ROADS AND SEWERS
Three-quarters of all the cuts in this unbalanced budget come from one-quarter of city operations. That’s just wrong. Services for people bear the brunt of reductions and future revenues are slated for infrastructure only. It’s wrong to cut back services for you and me in order to build sewers and roads.
A balanced city needs to support both its people and its pipes; the proposed budget misses that mark.
Budget Message Brought To You By People For A Better Ottawa Dec 1 ... To find out how you can help, please visit the PBO website at: http://www.betterottawa.ca/english/about.
"Those who do not feel pain much, seldom think that it is felt. And yes, to wipe all tears from all faces is a task too hard for mortals; but to alleviate misfortunes is often within the most limited power: yet the opportunities which every day affords of relieving the most wretched of human beings are overlooked and neglected with equal disregard of policy and goodness."
~ Samuel Johnson.
- Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 07:22:50 (PST)
- Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 07:15:52 (PST)
PALM DESERT, Calif. - Two people were shot to death in a crowded toy store on Black Friday in a confrontation apparently involving rival groups, city officials said.
Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson said police told him two men with handguns shot and killed each other. Ferguson said he asked police whether the incident was a dispute over a toy or whether it was gang-related. He said police told him they were not going to release further details until the victims' relatives were notified.
"I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys "R" Us?" he said. "I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper."
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City spokeswoman Sheila Gilligan said police told her the shooting broke out between "two groups of individuals that have a dispute with each other."
Still investigating what prompted the gunshots
The Palm Desert Police Department received calls of shots fired around 11:35 a.m., Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said. He said officers were still investigating what prompted the gunshots.
Immediately after the shooting, about 20 people rushed into the World Gym across the street from Toys "R" Us, the gym's assistant manager Glenn Splain told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
"They were crying, tearing and shaking," Splain said, adding that one woman came in cradling a baby.
"Some people got into a fight," said Splain, who spoke with some of the customers. "One of the guys here thought it was over a toy, but it got louder and louder and then there were gunshots."
Sarah Pacia of Cathedral City told The Desert Sun newspaper she was in the store with her two boys, ages 4 and 6, looking at coloring books when she heard a commotion in the next aisle. She thought it was people rushing to get a sale item. Then she heard three or four shots.
She said she froze, and store employees calmly escorted her out of the store.
"This is Toys "R" Us. There are kids shopping in there," Pacia said. Her son Jayden, 4, was clinging to her leg. He told her he didn't want to die, she said.
Toys "R" Us officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Palm Desert is a resort town about 120 miles east of Los Angeles.
- Friday, November 28, 2008 at 14:34:03 (PST)
NEW YORK - A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday after an "out of control" throng of shoppers eager for post-Thanksgiving bargains broke down the doors at a suburban store and knocked him to the ground, police said.
At least four other people, including a woman eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.
Nassau police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the store doors at the mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the man to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.
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"This crowd was out of control," said Nassau police spokesman Lt. Michael Fleming. He described the scene as "utter chaos."
Shoppers stepped over man
Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help the man were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Witnesses said that even as the worker lay on the ground, shoppers streamed into the store, stepping over him.
Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."
"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling 'I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."
The 34-year-old man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 6 a.m., police said. The exact cause of death has not been determined. He was later identfied as Jdimytai Damour of Jamaica, Queens.
- Friday, November 28, 2008 at 14:29:33 (PST)
Kyllä, kaikki tulevat kuuntelemaan suomalainen musiikki. Lordi.
Violet dusks I bear within me from my origins,
naked maidens at play with galloping centaurs...
Yellow sunlit days with gaydy glances,
only sunbeams do true homage to a tender woman's body...
The man has not come, has never been, will never be...
The man is a false mirror that the sun's daughter angrily
throws against the rock-face,
the man is a lie that white children do not understand,
the man is a rotten fruit that proud lips disdain.
Beautiful sisters, come high up on to the strongest rocks,
we are all warriors, heroines, horsewomen,
eyes of innocence, heavenly foreheads, rose masks,
heavy breakers and birds flown by,
we are the least expected and the deepest red,
stripes of tigers, taut strings, stars without vertigo.
c/o Bob and Doug via Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc and their gooood friend Obama.
ps.: I'd rather have dhem Doors luv'in, activist Canadians doing their thing making a better world than some sloshed puke upchucking so much maudlin irrationality. Enjoy your hangover kid.
Canada you Canucks ROCK!!!
never mind that mudhen.
'ave'a good one, Ziggee Macquarie from New South Wales, Tamworth, Australia.
- Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 06:09:24 (PST)
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc.
c/o Bob and Doug via Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc and their gooood friend Obama.
ps.: I'd rather have dhem Doors luv'in, activist Canadians doing their thing making a better world than some sloshed puke upchucking so much maudlin irrationality. Enjoy your hangover kid.
Canada you Canucks ROCK!!!
never mind that mudhen.
'ave'a good one, Ziggee Macquarie from New South Wales, Tamworth, Australia.
c/o Bob and Doug via Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc and their gooood friend Obama.
ps.: I'd rather have dhem Doors luv'in, activist Canadians doing there thing making a better world than some sloshed puke upchucking so much maudlin irrationality. Enjoy your hangover kid.
Canada you Canucks ROCK!!!
never mind that mudhen.
'ave'a good one, Ziggee Macquarie from New South Wales, Tamworth, Australia.
- Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 06:06:39 (PST)
ya know ...........I'm sure I'm a lil too drunk to be scrawlin here tonight, but I really don' give a shit about the problems of fuckin Canadians on here tonight .....it seems every time I come on here in an state of .........well drunekeness (sp?) .......I see some 2500 word essay on the plight of our northern neighbors ( sp ? ) ..........and I really don' give a shit ............I don' come on here every fuckin day posting my personal beliefs or problems on this DOORS site and I really have a problem reading this shit from the north like it means anything to us down here .........we have our own problems right now ......keep yers up there .........sorry Poe .....keep in mind ......I know I'm drunk ........*grin* ......our new Prez iz gonna fix it all anywhoooo ........BANK on it !!
- Friday, November 21, 2008 at 22:12:43 (PST)
DENVER—After dropping a chili dog in his lap Tuesday, area resident Marcus Nielson addressed the food-related blunder, calling it but another example of how history, marred by the inevitable folly of man, repeats itself. "Will mankind never learn?" asked Nielson, gazing into the middle distance, his outstretched palm holding a limp and sodden paper plate. "Sausages, ground beef, onions, garlic—oh, what blind and obstinate fools we've been!" According to friends, Nielson has previously compared the spilling of macaroni salad to "the inexorable march of time: its conclusion already a certainty," likened the tipping over of various beverages to the "age-old dance between balance and chaos," and once, after falling down an entire flight of stairs, remarked, "Jesus fucking Christ."
- Friday, November 21, 2008 at 14:00:27 (PST)
CINCINNATI—According to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Labor, skyrocketing consumer prices coupled with stagnant wages have forced many Americans to work a fourth shift in another dimension in order to make ends meet.
The extra-dimensional shift, which occurs on a time axis at right angles to that of normal reality, allows American workers to supplement their incomes, while still maintaining the morning, afternoon, and overnight shifts they need in order to stave off bankruptcy.
"The maximum 24 hours of possible work time offered by our plane of existence is simply not enough to provide a living wage in the current economic climate," Labor Secretary Elaine Chao wrote in a letter introducing the report. "These difficult circumstances have compelled 76 percent of the American workforce to seek additional hours in an alternate space-time dimension, where more competitive pay can help them to avoid years of crippling debt."
Many cash-strapped citizens such as Glenn Vernacini, a master welder at the GE aviation plant in Evendale, OH, have welcomed the opportunity to pad their income by working extra shifts in lateral time, only to return at the exact same moment they left. Vernacini, however, admitted that his regular trips to the alternate universe have taken their toll.
"It's hard, but what other option do I have?" Vernacini said. "Having every atom in my body split and retranslated into a different form of matter just to make a few extra bucks isn't exactly my idea of fun, but my family needs to eat."
"I age an extra eight hours every time I work the fourth shift, and it's really starting to wear me down," Vernacini continued. "And having to buy a new shirt every time my body is flattened out to 4,000 times its usual surface area is one more strain on my budget that I don't need."
Some businesses have already installed a rip in the space-time continuum in their break-room areas so that employees can report for work in the other dimension as soon as their Earth shifts end. People who regularly work the fourth shift have reported that the tasks they perform are more or less exactly the same as during their other shifts, though they have to contend with frequent plasma storms and occasionally meet themselves leaving for one shift as they arrive for another, which can be demoralizing.
"The worst part about my job in the other dimension is trying to digest the silica-based food product they serve in the cafeteria," said Thomas Kinney, a line inspector who takes on a fourth shift three days a week at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in alternate Atlanta, GA. "It's probably the most painful part of working a fourth shift. That, and not getting to see my kids grow up."
People across the country have reported similar problems associated with working extra hours in another dimension. The biggest complaint arises from the fact that work time continues in the fourth shift when the employee is not working there. This often results in workers arriving to find that they are far behind in their labor and have to stay longer in the alternate dimension in order to catch up.
"This is just another big 'screw you' to hardworking Americans," said single mother Laura Tanner, who often works concurrent fourth shifts as both a cashier at an area Citgo station and a nursing home caregiver. "Did you know my employer doesn't cover my health insurance while I'm in the other realm? And just yesterday I arrived at my alternate work and, looking at the schedule, discovered that I had somehow convinced myself to pick up my own fourth shift the following evening. What am I supposed to do about that?"
An economic stimulus package from the other plane of existence is expected to provide some relief to those who work the extra-dimensional shift. However, most American workers remain skeptical that the plan will provide any real help, as it is slated to arrive just after it is spent.
- Friday, November 21, 2008 at 13:54:28 (PST)
ne1 no a B'klyn. garage band from da 60's called Sea Fever?
In the chilly hours and minutes,
Of uncertainty, I want to be,
In the warm hold of your loving mind.
To feel you all around me,
And to take your hand, along the sand,
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.
When sundown pales the sky,
I wanna hide a while, behind your smile,
And everywhere I'd look, your eyes I'd find.
For me to love you now,
Would be the sweetest thing, 'twould make me sing,
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind.
When rain has hung the leaves with tears,
I want you near, to kill my fears
To help me to leave all my blues behind.
For standin' in your heart,
Is where I want to be, and I long to be,
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind.
Chords:- C,F,G
- Friday, November 21, 2008 at 06:06:43 (PST)
Economic cost of poverty in Ontario - report came out today!
For you and your friends George, out there ... look it up. See you at Wild Oat and the Green Onion for coffee. Its a very important chunk of data and the costing for all who work to help homeless people and those at risk of losing their home. It was reported in Metro Ottawa today. If the attached is too large it can be download at http://www.oafb.ca/assets/pdfs/CostofPoverty.pdf
peace out,
Haruko Mathyssen.
THE COST OF POVERTY Ontario CDN Today:
Poverty has a price tag for all Ontarians.
Poverty has a significant cost for governments. The federal and Ontario government are losing at least $10.4 billion to $13.1 billion a year due to poverty, a loss equal to between 10.8 to 16.6 per cent of the provincial budget.
Poverty has a cost for every household in Ontario. In real terms, poverty costs every household in the province from $2,299 to $2,895 every year.
Poverty has a very significant total economic cost in Ontario. When both private and public (or social) costs are combined, the total cost of poverty in Ontario is equal to 5.5 to 6.6 per cent of Ontario's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The cost of poverty is reflected in remedial, intergenerational, and opportunity costs.
The remedial costs of poverty related to health care and crime are substantial.
In Ontario, poverty-induced costs related to health care have an annual public cost of $2.9 billion. The national added cost to health care budgets is much greater, at $7.6 billion per year. The poverty-induced costs related to crime in Ontario have a relatively small annual public cost of $0.25 to $0.6 billion, split between federal and provincial governments.
The annual cost of child or intergenerational poverty is very high. If child poverty were eliminated, the extra income tax revenues nationally would be between $3.1 billion and $3.8 billion, while for Ontario, the additional (federal and provincial) taxes would amount to $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion. The total economic cost (private and social) of child poverty Ontario is $4.6 to 5.9 billion annually.
Opportunity costs or lost productivity due to poverty has a great economic cost.
Federal and provincial governments across Canada lose between $8.6 billion and $13 billion in income tax revenue to poverty every year; in the case of Ontario, Ottawa and Queen's Park lose a combined $4 billion to $6.1 billion.
PS: Ooh yeah, bring your guitar and spoons, so we can jam!!
- Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 23:33:23 (PST)
drat! I miss out on all the wine, men, and song....*sigh*....
- Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 00:32:05 (PST)
University of the Streets Café. Thursday, November 20th - 7 to 9 p.m. Room Change! EV Building 2nd Floor Arts Lounge (Mackay Street Entrance), Concordia University, 1515 Sainte-Catherine O. Admission is free. Donations are appreciated.
Building a culture of sustainability: How do we begin to understand the issues?
“The idea of sustainability is simple: an arrangement is sustainable if it can go on indefinitely; it is unsustainable if it cannot.” Kent Peacock. We may drink our coffee from re-usable mugs, lug around our own shopping bags and even drive a hybrid car, but deep-down we know that this is not nearly enough to call our lifestyle sustainable. The very idea of sustainability is a much more complex issue than we sometimes want to believe and the amount of change required to re-route our current lifestyle into a sustainable one is staggering. In this conversation we will explore both the hope and despair that our current reality generates. How can we move to a point of action and continued reflection that will translate into a sustaining and sustainable reality?
Guest: Janice Astbury is a grantmaker, educator and engaged citizen who has spent a lot of time thinking about sustainability.
Moderator: Jasmine Stuart is coordinator of the Sustainability Action Fund, a working group of Sustainable Concordia, which uses a multi-stakeholder approach to creating a culture of sustainability at Concordia, making it an ecologically aware, economically responsible, and socially equitable institution. In her spare time, foodie Jasmine likes to explore the gourmet side of Montreal.
This conversation is organized in collaboration with the Sustainability Action Fund.
The death of drummer Mitch Mitchell, aged 61, marks an unwanted milestone in rock mortality. Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, all have suffered fatalities over the years. However, with the passing of Mitchell, all three members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience are now dead. This is especially poignant since, with 1968's Electric Ladyland, the three of them created a double album of such sheer volume, incandescence and pyromaniac creativity that it remains unmatched and undimmed. It still has the power to knock you off your seat and Mitch Mitchell's percussive ferocity is a significant contributor to that.
Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding were selected for the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966 as much for their ability to look the part for the psychedelic novelty act the band were being promoted as. They were two kooky, pseudo Afro-sporting innocents standing alongside the Wild Man of Rock, and critics have occasionally been condescending towards Redding and Mitchell as a result. Writers like Nik Cohn suggested that they were uncommonly lucky to be playing alongside a genius like Hendrix, while biographer David Henderson wrote of the "strange contempt" he divined in Mitchell towards Hendrix. However, Mitchell deeply resented these remarks and, while he may not always have been happy with the lack of attention or remuneration he received in comparison with Hendrix, all of this was channelled as grist to his percussive mill.
Mitchell had been a child actor, a skill he brought to bear in the spoken word intro to Axis: Bold As Love, and at ease with the extroversion of rock showmanship. He had the same boundless, manic qualities as Who drummer Keith Moon – it seemed at times that he was not so much playing his kit as trying to smash it to smithereens. However, he really could play. He was steeped in jazz and particularly indebted to the post-bebop drummer Elvin Jones.
Playing with Hendrix was no second-fiddle indignity for Mitchell but a challenge to be risen to, time and again. On a track like Manic Depression, it's as if he's about to be pitched off his drum seat over the top of the kit, propelled by the sheer tsunami of his drumming. He is almost the dominant force. By 1968, as Hendrix really began to experiment, bassist Noel Redding found himself marginalised and eventually jettisoned. Mitchell, however, rose again to the occasion, holding his own in the jam session with Hendrix and Steve Winwood that gave rise to Voodoo Chile. Even when Hendrix went the way many of his black followers had hoped he would and formed the African American trio Band of Gypsys, Mitchell was never out of the loop. On the last Hendrix recordings, he was part of a trio that included bassist Billy Cox. He worked with him to the end, and beyond. For on October 19, 1970, it was Mitchell's grievous duty to go in and lay down the studio drum part to Angel, over the guitars and vocals of his colleague who had died tragically just a month earlier, aged 27. The rising swell of cymbals that concludes the track feel like a final embrace with the ascended soul of his old friend.
Although he played in a supergroup involving John Lennon, Mitchell never
really found a major role for himself following Hendrix's death, and towards the end of his life he had been playing on the Experience Hendrix tour across America. However, rock historians should always remember to open their ears beyond Hendrix's dazzling playing and recall that Mitchell was, then and forever, an indispensable part of the Experience.
- Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 21:39:06 (PST)
Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell found dead
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Mitch Mitchell, the drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience in the 1960s and the group's last surviving member, has been found dead in his US hotel room.
Erin Patrick, a deputy medical examiner, said Mitchell, who was found yesterday, apparently died of natural causes.
Briton Mitchell, 61, was a powerful force on the Hendrix band's 1967 debut album Are You Experienced? as well as the trio's albums Electric Ladyland and Axis: Bold As Love. He had an explosive drumming style that can be heard in hard-charging songs such as Fire and Manic Depression.
Mitchell had been drumming for the Experience Hendrix Tour, which performed on Friday in Portland, Oregon. It was the last stop on the West Coast part of the tour.
Hendrix died in 1970 and bass player Noel Redding in 2003.
An employee at Portland's Benson Hotel called police after discovering Mitchell's body.
"He was a wonderful man, a brilliant musician and a true friend," said Janie Hendrix, chief executive of the Experience Hendrix Tour and Jimi Hendrix's stepsister.
"His role in shaping the sound of the Jimi Hendrix Experience cannot be underestimated."
Bob Merlis, a spokesman for the tour, said Mitchell had stayed in Portland for a four-day holiday and planned to leave yesterday.
"It was a devastating surprise," Mr Merlis said. "Nobody drummed like he did."
He said he saw Mitchell perform two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and the drummer appeared to be healthy and upbeat.
Mr Merlis said the tour was designed to bring together veteran musicians who had known Hendrix - like Mitchell - and younger artists, such as Grammy-nominated winner Jonny Lang, who have been influenced by him.
Mitchell was a one-of-a-kind drummer whose "jazz-tinged" style was influenced by Max Roach and Elvin Jones, Mr Merlis said. The work was a vital part of both the Jimi Hendrix Experience in the 1960s and the Experience Hendrix Tour that ended last week.
"If Jimi Hendrix were still alive he would have acknowledged that," said Mr Merlis.
During his career Mitchell played with the best in the business - not just Hendrix, but also Eric Clapton, John Lennon, the Rolling Stones, Jack Bruce, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters and others.
Mitchell was a member of a later version of the Jimi Hendrix Experience that performed the closing set of the Woodstock Festival in August 1969 - where Hendrix played a psychedelic version of The Star-Spangled Banner before the band launched into Purple Haze.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1992. According to the Hall of Fame, Mitchell was born on July 9 1947 in Ealing, west London.
Hendrix, Redding and Mitchell held their first rehearsal in October 1966, according to the Hall of Fame's website.
In an interview last month with the Boston Herald, Mitchell said he met Hendrix "in this sleazy little club".
"We did some Chuck Berry and took it from there," Mitchell told the newspaper.
"I suppose it worked."
- Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 21:42:10 (PST)
Longtime coming ....Viva President Obama. Viva la revolution -- Positive change for America! Imagine working for peace in Our WORLD!! Peace in Our Time.
Go Obama.
cheers Janet Nisu.
Lay Down (Candles In The Rain).
(As recorded by Melanie)
MELANIE SAFKA.
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown.
We were so close, there was no room
We bled inside each other's wounds
We all had caught the same disease
And we all sang the songs of peace.
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown.
So raise the candles high
'Cause if you don't we could stay black against the night
Oh raise them higher again
And if you do we could stay dry against the rain.
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown.
We were so close, there was no room
We bled inside each other's wounds
We all had caught the same disease
And we all sang the songs of peace
Some came to sing, some came to pray
Some came to keep, the dark away
So raise the candles high
'Cause if you don't we could stay black against the sky, oh
Oh, raise them higher again
And if you do we could stay dry against the rain.
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown, you gotta
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down, you gotta
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown.
Summer 1974.
Viva President Obama .... Viva la revolution -- Positive change for America! Imagine working for peace in Our WORLD! Peace in our Time!
Go Obama!
- Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 18:34:12 (PST)
In Flanders fields.
Lt.-Col. John McCrae.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
- Monday, November 10, 2008 at 21:54:56 (PST)
Ambitious project finds myriad new marine species, octopus origins.
By Alison Auld.
HALIFAX, N.S. - Scientists have discovered hundreds of new species and traced the origins of certain animals in an ambitious project that aims to create a detailed catalogue of every marine life form on Earth.
From a thick carpet of crustaceans in the Gulf of Mexico to an octopus identified as the progenitor for most deep-sea octopuses, international researchers say they're getting a better handle on what's in the oceans, where species travel and what state they're in. "What we're trying to do is synthesize all of these different pieces of the marine ecosystem and put them together into a coherent story that connects from the top to the bottom and from the Arctic to the Antarctic," says Ron O'Dor of the Census of Marine Life.
On Tuesday, scientists will meet in Spain and highlight the discoveries they have made. Around the world, 2,000 scientists from about 80 countries are closing in on a deadline of 2010 to produce the first census, almost seven years after beginning the project. O'Dor said some of the discoveries that will be presented at the conference on marine biodiversity include areas where white sharks and sturgeons congregate, molecular evidence of the origin of the deep-sea octopus and what lives around the deepest hot vents.
They have documented about 120,000 species so far and expect that to more than double to about 250,000 by 2010. Of those, they estimate there could be thousands of new species.
Paul Snelgrove, a deep sea biologist based in St. John's, N.L., said they've already found new bacteria in the Black Sea that form four-metre high "chimneys," sea spiders the size of dinner plates in the Southern Ocean and giant oysters 20 centimetres long.
"We're finding these very key species that are major players in ecosystem," said Snelgrove, who's responsible for compiling the census information. "This shows that there's still plenty of opportunity for discovery and that's really exciting."
But the research has also created a bleak picture of what's happening in marine ecosystems that have been hammered by human pressures like fishing and pollution, and climate change.
They've seen, for example, how the depletion of large predators like sharks is having a spiral effect on smaller animals down the food chain in ecosystems throughout the world.
And for the first time, scientists have been able to present a global perspective on what's happening in the oceans by sharing information on various species that span international boundaries and might require joint management.
"That's really been one of the real achievements of the census is bringing scientists together from around the world to solve a common problem," Snelgrove said.
"We can get this very large scale view of things, which I think is going to be very important in terms of ocean management."
The scientists say the information could be critical to fisheries managers who could get a better understanding of where tuna migrate, where sharks congregate and what's happening to food sources.
Snelgrove said the reams of material will be compiled in books to be released in 2010 and online. The census is also feeding information to other projects like the Encyclopedia of Life, which is documenting all life forms.
- Monday, November 10, 2008 at 18:47:40 (PST)
this is what you missed sat night poe .......and a buncha wine ...*wink*
- Monday, November 10, 2008 at 14:23:27 (PST)
MP3 player headphones may hinder pacemakers.
WASHINGTON (Reuters)- Headphones used with MP3 digital music players like the iPod may interfere with heart pacemakers and implantable defibrillators, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.
The MP3 players themselves posed no threat to pacemakers and defibrillators, used to normalize heart rhythm. But strong little magnets inside the headphones can foul up the devices if placed within 1.2 inches of them, the researchers told an American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans.
Dr. William Maisel of the Medical Device Safety Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston led a team that tested eight models of MP3 player headphones, including clip-on and earbud types, in 60 defibrillator and pacemaker patients.
They placed the headphones on the patients' chests, directly over the devices. The headphones interfered with the heart devices in about a quarter of the patients -- 14 of the 60 -- and interference was twice as likely in those with a defibrillator than with a pacemaker.
Another study presented at the meeting showed that cellular phones equipped with wireless technology known as Bluetooth are unlikely to interfere with pacemakers.
A pacemaker sends electrical impulses to the heart to speed up or slow cardiac rhythm. The magnet, however, could make it deliver a signal no matter what the heart rate is, possibly leading to palpitations or arrhythmia, the researchers said.
An implantable cardioverter defibrillator signals the heart to normalize its rhythm if it gets too fast or slow. A magnet could de-activate it, making it ignore an abnormal heart rhythm instead of delivering an electrical shock to normalize it.
The devices usually go back to working the right way after the headphones are removed, the researchers said.
"The main message here is: it's fine for patients to use their headphones normally, meaning they can listen to music and keep the headphones in their ears. But what they should not do is put the headphones near their device," Maisel said in a telephone interview.
So that means people with pacemakers or defibrillators should not place the headphones in a shirt pocket or coat pocket near the chest when they are not being used, drape them over their chest or have others who are wearing headphones rest their head on the patient's chest, Maisel said.
Most of the headphones had magnetic field strengths more than 20 times higher than the threshold for interfering with pacemakers or defibrillators, he said. They were made by Sony Corp, Philips Electronics and others.
MP3 players like Apple Inc's iPod are popular consumer electronic devices. In January, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration researcher said the iPod is unlikely to interfere with pacemakers because it does not produce enough of an electromagnetic field to interfere with the devices.
Brian Markwalter of the Consumer Electronics Association industry group urged consumers to inform themselves about proper use of products with magnets, and encouraged people with pacemakers to understand how headphones can be used safely.
- Monday, November 10, 2008 at 13:26:11 (PST)
Glow little glow-worm, glow and glimmer.
Johnny Mercer & Paul Lincke.
Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer
Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer
Lead us lest too far we wander
Love's sweet voice is calling yonder
Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer
Hey there, don't get dimmer, dimmer
Light the path below, above
And lead us on to love!
Glow little glow-worm, fly of fire
Glow like an in-can-des-cent wire
Glow for the female of the species
Turn on the AC and the DC
This night could use a little brightnin'
Light up you little ol' bug of lightnin'
When you gotta glow, you gotta glow.
Glow little glow-worm, glow
Glow little glow-worm, glow and glimmer
Swim through the sea of night, little swimmer
Thou ae-ro-nau-ti-cal boll weevil
Illuminate yon woods primeval
See how the shadows deep and darken
You and your chick should get to sparkin'
I got a gal that I love so
Glow little glow-worm, glow!
(a little music )
Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer
Hey there, don't get dimmer, dimmer
Light the path below, above
And lead us on to love!
- Friday, November 07, 2008 at 10:50:35 (PST)
Cow Cow Boogie.
Andwer Sisters.
Out on the plains down near santa fe
I met a cowboy ridin the range one day
And as he jogged along I heard him singin
The most peculiar cowboy song
It was a ditty, he learned in the city
Comma ti yi yi yeah
Comma ti yippity yi yeah
Now get along, get hip little doggies
Get along, better be on your way
Get along, get hip little doggies
He trucked em on down that old fairway
Singin his cow cow boogie in the strangest way
Comma ti yi yi yeah
Comma ti yippity yi yeah
(chorus)
Now singin his cowboy songs
Hes just too much
Hes got a knocked out western accent with a dixie touch
He was raised on local ways
Hes what you call a swingin half breed
Singin his cow cow booogie in the strangest way
Comma ti yi yi yeah
Comma ti yippity yi yeah
(repeat chorus).
- Friday, November 07, 2008 at 10:45:52 (PST)
Into each life some rain must fall.
Ink Spots.
Into each life some rain must fall
But too much is falling in mine
Into each heart some tears must fall
But some day the sun will shine
Some folks can lose the blues in their hearts
But when I think of you another shower starts
Into each life some rain must fall
But too much is falling in mine
SPOKEN:
Into each and every life some rain has got to fall
But too much of that stuff is fallin' into mine
And into each heart some tears gotta fall
And I know that someday that sun is bound to shine
Some folks can lose the blues in their heart
But when I think of you another shower starts
Into each life some rain must fall
But too much is fallin' in mine
Wowzers, I always thought Sarah Palin was nothing more than a trippy little cheer-leader. Just goes to show what the GOP and old boys in red wanna feed Joe the Plumber's head, times the rest of America -- Gggeeeessshh.
Bob Jackson, Boston.
- Thursday, November 06, 2008 at 18:55:49 (PST)
Knives come out for Sarah Palin; McCain aides tell tales of an ill-informed diva.
Lee-Anne Goodman.
WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin wasn't aware that Africa was a continent and she and her brood behaved like a band of "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," aides to Republican John McCain are telling prominent news organizations. Less than 24 hours after McCain lost the presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama, those close to him apparently wasted no time burning up the phone lines to dish the dirt on Palin, the Alaska governor who portrayed herself as a sensible hockey Mom when she was chosen the Arizona senator's running mate in late August. If the anonymous McCain insiders are to be believed, Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, was unaware that Africa was a continent, arguing that South Africa was simply a region of the larger country of Africa.
She also didn't know the three countries that are in the North American Free Trade Agreement, namely Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. A call last week by a Quebec radio prankster pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly became a fiery source of tension between the already feuding McCain and Palin camps. An aide to the Alaska governor, Steve Biegun, OK'd the call without discussing it with McCain's people or the U.S. State Department. The Los Angeles Times reported that an outraged Steve Schmidt, McCain's top strategist, organized a conference call after the prank - which revealed Palin to be ill-informed and naive - made international headlines and brought further ridicule to the campaign.
He demanded to know who had arranged the Sarkozy call and questioned why anyone would have agreed to such an unusual request without clearing it with top staff. Biegun immediately took responsibility. "I was fooled," he told the L.A. Times in a report published Thursday. "No one's going to beat me up more than I beat myself up for setting up the governor like that." The leaked stories about Palin's alleged antics throughout the campaign are appearing in publications that include Newsweek magazine and the New York Times just as Republicans gather Thursday in Virginia to discuss the future of the party. Many in the party's ultra-conservative wing are enthralled by Palin and her socially conservative views, and hope to make her a presidential candidate in 2012. "I'm not doing this for naught," Palin said recently when asked about her aspirations.
Yet soon after she was chosen McCain's running mate with very little vetting, his campaign insiders say they became queasy with the growing knowledge that Palin was desperately unqualified and ill-prepared to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. They attempted to bring her up to speed on the issues of the day, but she refused any efforts to prepare her for a string of disastrous interviews with CBS's Katie Couric that proved extremely damaging to the McCain campaign. The McCain insiders have told various news organizations that Palin nonetheless threw angry temper tantrums over their mishandling of her when the Couric interviews went badly. The most salacious of the stories leaked - with many more supposedly still to come in the days to follow - involve Palin's infamous US$150,000 spending spree at some of the most expensive stores in the United States. Despite her self-styled image as a down-home working mother opposed to big government spending, the aides told Newsweek she behaved like anything but: she spent tens of thousands of dollars more than the US$150,000 originally reported on clothing, accessories and luggage for herself and her family. One senior aide told the magazine that she was told to buy three suits for the Republican National Convention and hire a stylist, but instead, the vice-presidential nominee began amassing costly goods from stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. At one point during the campaign, Palin's youngest daughter, seven-year-old Piper, was photographed carrying a US$790 Louis Vuitton bag. Two sources told Newsweek the goods were bought by a wealthy donor, who was flabbergasted when he saw the bills. Palin also allegedly instructed low-level staffers to buy her new clothes with their credit cards, something the McCain campaign only discovered last week when the aides tried to get reimbursed.
Palin aides had a different version of events, with several telling the Los Angeles Times that she was outraged by the amount of money being spent on her clothing, adding she was naive about what the clothes cost. "The very first day of shopping, there was a $14,000 price tag and . . . she was absolutely shocked," one of the Palin insiders said. Another told Newsweek: "Gov. Palin was not directing staffers to put anything on their personal credit cards, and anything that staffers put on their credit cards has been reimbursed, like an expense." On Wednesday in Phoenix, Palin said: "There is absolutely no diva in me."
Nonetheless, a Republican party lawyer is reportedly heading to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in Palin's possession.
The tensions between the two camps reportedly continued even into election night, when Palin met up with McCain at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix with a concession speech in hand that she wanted to deliver before he took to the podium to address his crestfallen supporters. Much to her chagrin, she was told by senior McCain aides that such a speech would be inappropriate since vice-presidential nominees do not traditionally speak on election night.
The relationship between Palin and McCain, in fact, had deteriorated in the final days of the campaign to the point that they were seldom talking. "I think it was a difficult relationship," one top McCain campaign official told the New York Times. "McCain talked to her occasionally." On Wednesday, Palin disputed suggestions she contributed to McCain's loss, but said she was apologetic if she had. "I don't think anybody should give Sarah Palin that much credit that I would trump an economic time in this nation that occurred about two months ago," she told CNN. "If I cost John McCain even one vote, I am sorry about that because John McCain, I believe, is the American hero."
- Thursday, November 06, 2008 at 13:17:37 (PST)
Knives come out for Sarah Palin; McCain aides tell tales of an ill-informed diva
Lee-Anne Goodman.
WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin wasn't aware that Africa was a continent and she and her brood behaved like a band of "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," aides to Republican John McCain are telling prominent news organizations. Less than 24 hours after McCain lost the presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama, those close to him apparently wasted no time burning up the phone lines to dish the dirt on Palin, the Alaska governor who portrayed herself as a sensible hockey Mom when she was chosen the Arizona senator's running mate in late August. If the anonymous McCain insiders are to be believed, Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, was unaware that Africa was a continent, arguing that South Africa was simply a region of the larger country of Africa.
She also didn't know the three countries that are in the North American Free Trade Agreement, namely Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. A call last week by a Quebec radio prankster pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly became a fiery source of tension between the already feuding McCain and Palin camps. An aide to the Alaska governor, Steve Biegun, OK'd the call without discussing it with McCain's people or the U.S. State Department. The Los Angeles Times reported that an outraged Steve Schmidt, McCain's top strategist, organized a conference call after the prank - which revealed Palin to be ill-informed and naive - made international headlines and brought further ridicule to the campaign.
He demanded to know who had arranged the Sarkozy call and questioned why anyone would have agreed to such an unusual request without clearing it with top staff. Biegun immediately took responsibility. "I was fooled," he told the L.A. Times in a report published Thursday. "No one's going to beat me up more than I beat myself up for setting up the governor like that." The leaked stories about Palin's alleged antics throughout the campaign are appearing in publications that include Newsweek magazine and the New York Times just as Republicans gather Thursday in Virginia to discuss the future of the party. Many in the party's ultra-conservative wing are enthralled by Palin and her socially conservative views, and hope to make her a presidential candidate in 2012. "I'm not doing this for naught," Palin said recently when asked about her aspirations.
Yet soon after she was chosen McCain's running mate with very little vetting, his campaign insiders say they became queasy with the growing knowledge that Palin was desperately unqualified and ill-prepared to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. They attempted to bring her up to speed on the issues of the day, but she refused any efforts to prepare her for a string of disastrous interviews with CBS's Katie Couric that proved extremely damaging to the McCain campaign. The McCain insiders have told various news organizations that Palin nonetheless threw angry temper tantrums over their mishandling of her when the Couric interviews went badly. The most salacious of the stories leaked - with many more supposedly still to come in the days to follow - involve Palin's infamous US$150,000 spending spree at some of the most expensive stores in the United States. Despite her self-styled image as a down-home working mother opposed to big government spending, the aides told Newsweek she behaved like anything but: she spent tens of thousands of dollars more than the US$150,000 originally reported on clothing, accessories and luggage for herself and her family. One senior aide told the magazine that she was told to buy three suits for the Republican National Convention and hire a stylist, but instead, the vice-presidential nominee began amassing costly goods from stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. At one point during the campaign, Palin's youngest daughter, seven-year-old Piper, was photographed carrying a US$790 Louis Vuitton bag. Two sources told Newsweek the goods were bought by a wealthy donor, who was flabbergasted when he saw the bills. Palin also allegedly instructed low-level staffers to buy her new clothes with their credit cards, something the McCain campaign only discovered last week when the aides tried to get reimbursed.
Palin aides had a different version of events, with several telling the Los Angeles Times that she was outraged by the amount of money being spent on her clothing, adding she was naive about what the clothes cost. "The very first day of shopping, there was a $14,000 price tag and . . . she was absolutely shocked," one of the Palin insiders said. Another told Newsweek: "Gov. Palin was not directing staffers to put anything on their personal credit cards, and anything that staffers put on their credit cards has been reimbursed, like an expense." On Wednesday in Phoenix, Palin said: "There is absolutely no diva in me."
Nonetheless, a Republican party lawyer is reportedly heading to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in Palin's possession.
The tensions between the two camps reportedly continued even into election night, when Palin met up with McCain at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix with a concession speech in hand that she wanted to deliver before he took to the podium to address his crestfallen supporters. Much to her chagrin, she was told by senior McCain aides that such a speech would be inappropriate since vice-presidential nominees do not traditionally speak on election night.
The relationship between Palin and McCain, in fact, had deteriorated in the final days of the campaign to the point that they were seldom talking. "I think it was a difficult relationship," one top McCain campaign official told the New York Times. "McCain talked to her occasionally." On Wednesday, Palin disputed suggestions she contributed to McCain's loss, but said she was apologetic if she had. "I don't think anybody should give Sarah Palin that much credit that I would trump an economic time in this nation that occurred about two months ago," she told CNN. "If I cost John McCain even one vote, I am sorry about that because John McCain, I believe, is the American hero."
- Thursday, November 06, 2008 at 13:17:27 (PST)
no thankz ......i'm not interested in moving to any country that tells me when i can have heat and when i can't .......thanks anyway tho .......
- Thursday, November 06, 2008 at 04:01:22 (PST)
I don't tink Obama's vision of things is going to be the death of small business. There are lots of small business owners in Canada and [PM] Harper's vision is more Ruepooplican than John Mcain ever was -- and Canada keeps getting attacked for being the bastion of social welfarism, witch is not true. At any rate Canada will take you if things go sour.
kate Wiseman.
- Wednesday, November 05, 2008 at 14:36:01 (PST)
***** Yeah!!!! Barack Obama Wins The Presidency!!!! it's just wild here in Toledo *****
Cheers c[_] Fred Kelley, Toledo, Ohio, USA.
- Tuesday, November 04, 2008 at 22:14:52 (PST)
***** Yeah!!!! Barack Obama Wins The Presidency!!!! it's just wild here in *****
Cheers, Fred Kelley, Toledo, Ohio, USA.
- Tuesday, November 04, 2008 at 22:14:19 (PST)
congrats to the new prez of US ...........i hope he doesn't kill my dream of my owm business ..................but I'm bettin ' he does .......I've seen enuff of the health care deal to know I'm doomed ....
- Tuesday, November 04, 2008 at 20:56:02 (PST)
(My deepest respects. My own son was raised by a single mother and my parents. Today is my son's 31st birthday.)
Barack Obama's grandmother dies
Madelyn Dunham, 86, was ill with cancer
updated 20 minutes ago
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Barack Obama's ailing grandmother died Monday in Hawaii, a day before Obama was to stand election for the presidency, his campaign announced.
Madelyn Payne Dunham was 86.
The Democratic presidential candidate announced the news in a joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng. The statement said Dunham died peacefully after a battle with cancer.
Obama last saw her on Oct. 23-24 when he took a break from campaigning and flew home to visit her.
"She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances," Obama said in a statement. "She was proud of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and left this world with the knowledge that her impact on all of us was meaningful and enduring. Our debt to her is beyond measure.
The candidate learned of her death Monday morning while he was campaigning in Jacksonville, Florida. He planned to go ahead with campaign appearances.
- Monday, November 03, 2008 at 14:22:36 (PST)
Québec comedy duo talks porn and politics with oblivious Sarah Palin.
Jess Murphy, Canadian Press.
MONTREAL - In an over-the-top accent, one half of a notorious Quebec comedy duo claims to be the president of France as he describes sex with his famous wife, the joy of killing animals and Hustler magazine's latest Sarah Palin porno spoof.
At the other end of the line? An oblivious Sarah Palin. The Masked Avengers, a radio pairing notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state, notched its latest victory Saturday when it released a recording of a six-minute call with Palin, who thought she was talking with Nicolas Sarkozy.
Throughout the call, which was making the rounds in U.S. political circles by day's end Saturday, Palin and the pranksters discuss politics, pundits, and the perils of going hunting with Vice-President Dick Cheney.
"We have such great respect for you, John McCain and I, we love you," Palin gushes, evidently unaware she's speaking to an infamous Quebec comedian named Marc-Antoine Audette.
At one point, Palin even comes close to confirming her intention to one day run for president, when Audette slyly remarks he can see her taking over the big desk in the Oval office.
"Maybe in eight years," she replies with a nervous chuckle. Over the course of the interview, Palin doesn't seem to realize she's being tricked until Audette comes clean near the end of the call.
"Ohhhh . . . have we been pranked?" she says, in her inimitable style. Seconds later, Palin's aide can be heard taking the phone before the line goes dead.
Throughout the conversation, Audette drops plenty of clues that something's amiss. He identifies French singer and actor Johnny Hallyday as his special adviser to the U.S., singer Stef Carse as Canada's prime minister and Quebec comedian and radio host Richard Z. Sirois as the provincial premier.
"We should go hunting together," Palin offers when Audette professes a love of hunting - or, more precisely, killing animals. "We can have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done. We could kill two birds with one stone."
Audette then jokes that they shouldn't bring Cheney on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot and injured a friend while hunting quail.
"I'll be a careful shot," responds Palin, who praises Sarkozy throughout the call. "I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally - and your beautiful wife, oh my goodness," she says.
"You've added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours." Audette then tells her his wife, Carla Bruni, a singer and former model, was jealous to hear Sarkozy would be speaking to Palin. "Give her a big hug for me," Palin responds.
Audette goes on to describe Bruni as "hot in bed" and claims she's written a song for Palin, the French title of which translates as "Lipstick on a Pig." In English, Audette says the song is about Joe the Plumber.
Finally, he mentions a notorious Hustler video titled "Nailin' Paylin," describing it as "the documentary they made on your life."
In an interview Saturday, Audette told The Canadian Press it wasn't easy setting up the interview with Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, and described the accomplishment as the pair's biggest triumph to date. "It really took a lot of work," he said.
"We had to go through the Secret Service, the people in her entourage. It's the biggest coup so far. We're proud to add (this prank) to our top hits."
It took the pair, known for securing surreptitious interviews with celebrities, politicians and heads of state, five days to set up the call, Audette said. The secret to getting powerful people on the line? Time and persistence. "I wanted to see how (Palin) was on an intellectual level," Audette said, comparing the latest prank to the duo's crank call with pop idol Britney Spears.
"You can see that she's, well, not really brilliant." In a statement Saturday, Palin's team said the vice-presidential nominee was "mildly amused" to learn she was the victim of a prank.
"Gov. Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy, and other celebrities in being targeted by these pranksters," said spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt. "C'est la vie."
Audette, too, was contrite afterward. "I hope we won't have a one-way ticket to Guantanamo Bay."
The well-known radio prankster duo of Audette and Sebastien Trudel have most recently tricked Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger. Other celebrity victims include Spears and Bill Gates.
In 2007, they conned Sarkozy himself by impersonating Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And their 2006 call to former French president Jacques Chirac was rated by the BBC as one of the top 30 all-time best moments in radio history. Known as the "Masked Avengers," they've been popular on the Quebec comedy scene for a decade.
- Sunday, November 02, 2008 at 10:21:18 (PST)
uhhhhh ......uhhhh.......plaaaaaayin ......w/out the guitar .......*grin* ....comin down ta see Tony Campanella at the 1860's in Soulard baby ..
we should get together ......and tap the vino'
- Sunday, November 02, 2008 at 05:13:42 (PST)
ewww, please don't cut that cheese!
um, btw, Schtevie...what are ya doin' in St. Louie on the 8th? Playin' or...playin'?
- Sunday, November 02, 2008 at 01:11:51 (PDT)
Eek! Family finds dead mouse in cheese.
Thu Oct 30, 2008.
What's this PRINCE.EDWARD.ISLAND (CBC) - While slicing some cheese for his children, a father in western P.E.I. recently uncovered a dead mouse in the middle of the block.
"This would have been the very last thing I would have expected to find... in a block of cheese, which I buy every time I do groceries," Deborah Atkinson of Miscouche, just west of Summerside, said of her husband's discovery.
Atkinson said her family loved Maple Dale's Caribbean brand cheese from Ontario, which has hot peppers and sun-dried tomatoes in it. A couple of weeks ago, while her husband was cutting slices from the last block he bought in Summerside, he gave his four-year-old daughter a couple of pieces to munch on.
He made the unpleasant discovery a few cuts later.
"Obviously he cuts it in little squares because our children are three and four," said Atkinson.
"He kind of got to just about the middle and as he cut, he noticed what looked like fur."
He immediately took the cheese, a few pieces already gone, from the children. They hadn't eaten any of the cheese from near the mouse, and they didn't get sick.
The Atkinsons gave the cheese to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The CFIA immediately recalled about 300 blocks of the cheese from stores in eastern Canada. It did not issue a public recall, because it did not believe there was a health risk to the general public.
The agency believes the mouse did not originate inside the cheese factory, but rather was brought in with some of the added ingredients, perhaps the jalapeno peppers.
Maple Dale Cheese owner Keith Henry told CBC News on Wednesday that employees are now triple-checking all ingredients coming into the plant.
"Thank heavens it is a rarity, but we do live in a real world and it happened, and it is extremely unfortunate that it has happened," said Henry, from the company's office in Plainfield, in eastern Ontario.
CFIA officials acknowledged finding a mouse in cheese has a very high "ick" factor, but said it is not likely to cause any health problems.
- Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 08:50:18 (PDT)
Feast of the Mau Mau.
By Screamin' Jalacy J. Hawkins.
OUH OUHH
WOAH! HOAHH
WOAWOAH!!
Cut the fat off the back of a baboon
Boil it down to a pound in a spoon
Scoop the eyes from a fly flying backwards
Take the jaws and the paws off a 'coon
Take your time,
ain't life for good cookin'
Cause the rest of this mess ain't good lookin'
Take the fleas from the knees of a demon
Tell your pals and gals and come screamin'
To the feast with the beast of the Mau Maus
They make wine from the spine of a bulldog
It's a test for the best for who stays
And the feast with the beast of the Mau Maus
Brush your teeth with a piece of a goose toenail
After death steal a breath
from a drunk in jail
Pull the skin off your friend with a razor blade
And tonight change tomorrow bring back yesterday
Shake your hip, bite your lip,
shoot your mother-in-law
Put on your gorilla suit, drink some elbow soup and have a ball
Get it straight, don't be late,
it's time for mad fun
Feast of the Mau Maus has begun - HAW!
At the feast with the beast of the Mau Maus
They make wine from the spine of their bulldogs
And spread some spread on it,
you knowIt's a test for the best for who stays
And a feast with the beast of the Mau Mau
And a feast with the beast of the Mau Mau..
How they talk, man?
They go like this
WADEE? HUMDEE MWLADEE
And how do the women talk?
OU UH! DEWAH! OU UH CACKLE
What you want when you wanta tell 'em
You want some more to eat, man?
Well how 'bout gimme some more of that meat there
And pass me some of the inside of that thigh
And spread some spread on it, you know
In between the toes, yeah, sock it to me there, ooh
Sure tastes good, man
Gimme some more of that inside soul, yeah
That, what you mean you ain't got no more soul?
You won't eat that,
WAH
Feast of the Mau Mau
They make wine from the spine of their bulldogs
They stick their thumb in their eyeballs
And make...
olives
Yeah, that's what's happenin'
Reach into his chest and pull out his ribs, man
Let me bite on that cat's bone
Sock it to me one time
Evil, fellow
EVIIIL!
Inside...,
please
Can I have a fried ear?
- Tuesday, October 28, 2008 at 16:16:27 (PDT)
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:29:22 -0400
From: Barbara Pagano
Subject: 8 Congo African Greys Stolen in CT
At 5:15 am this morning I was with my father as he passed away. Moments later I was notified that 8 of my Congo African Greys, were stolen.
Many of which I raised myself and interacted with daily. They are my soul, my heart & refuge. After caring for my father throughout his long painful illness, I only wish to return to my birds. None of these birds were breeding or in breeding cages. They were in one flight cage for playing together. Now another part of my heart is missing.
A very generous reward is being offered for information resulting in the recovery of any or all of these stolen African Greys.
State Police are investigating and taking this very seriously.
No additional information is being offered at this time.
Please cross post all over the nation!
Flyer will be posted on this web in the next couple days for downloading.
www.ConnecticutParr otSociety. org
Please download the this flyer and post where ever possible. Pet stores,veterinarians, Bird and Grey forums as well as on Internet Online Classified selling pets.
If anyone has knowledge of or information about any suspicious procurement or acquisition of CAGs please contact Barbara Cosgrove, President,
Connecticut Parrot Society at 860.621.5790
Thank you
Barbara
- Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 23:22:03 (PDT)
Hey Tony I got a longer one for you, the longest Ojibwe word I know is, Miin-aan baash kimini-sij-i-gan bitooyin sij-i-gan-i bukwayszhiigan it means blueberry pie.
Have a good one,
Hattie.
- Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 20:49:51 (PDT)
i'll be in STL on the 8th poe birdy.......we should hook up for some wine and friendly banter .......*wink*
- Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 20:19:15 (PDT)
Some cool musik by Mari Boine called Goaskin Viellja/Eagle Brother. Its genre is World-Musik. Its undern the Label: Polygram International Limited, 1993, 2004.
Marji
- Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 19:40:40 (PDT)
Yea a RollingStone with long hair and a Siamees Cat on his arm. Gotta be a tune or lyric there somewhere, or its been done, but be fun to scribble up a verse or two. ;)
- Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 19:03:02 (PDT)
Yea a RollingStone with long hair and a Siamees Cat on his arm. Gotta be a tune or lyric there somewhere, or its been bdone, but be fun to scribble up a verse or two. ;)
- Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 19:02:40 (PDT)
.......'nuther schtevie ?! .......kinda scares me ......btw sweetie ........I have grown my hair back out long .......halfway down my back right now .....*g*
- Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 16:58:18 (PDT)
*pssst* schtevie! I thought I saw you in Schnucks a couple of hours ago....nope, I was sober. If it wasn't you, there's an identity thief out there :)
Either way: *wolf whistle*
Poe
- Friday, October 24, 2008 at 22:16:37 (PDT)
damn .........'n ah had mah heart set on winnin one o' them awardzz ..............*sip* .......
- Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 04:42:15 (PDT)
Jimbo & Zeppelin, that'd be a huge blowout concert.
- Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 20:54:27 (PDT)
Communication Breakdown.
Led Zeppelin.
Hey, girl, stop what youre doin!
Hey, girl, youll drive me to ruin.
I dont know what it is that I like about you,
But I like it a lot.
Wont let me hold you,
Let me feel your lovin charms.
communication breakdown,
Its always the same,
Im having a nervous breakdown,
Drive me insane!
Hey, girl, I got something I think you ought to know.
Hey, babe, I wanna tell you that I love you so.
I wanna hold you in my arms, yeah!
Im never gonna let you go,
cause I like your charms.
* chorus
I want you to love me all night...
* chorus
I want you to love me all night
I want you to love me
I want you to love...yeah! I want you to love!
- Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 20:53:24 (PDT)
Led Zeppelin win outstanding achievement gong at GQ awards. Wednesday, Sept 03 2008
Led Zeppelin awarded outstanding achievement prize at GQ awards Led Zeppelin have been awarded an outstanding achievement prize at the GQ Men of the Year awards.
The legendary rockers reformed for a one-off concert at London's O2 Arena last December, with more than one million people applying for tickets to the charity gig.
Producer Mark Ronson was named the maverick of the year while Primal Scream and the Killers' frontman Brandon Flowers took the best band and most stylish man awards, respectively.
Other winners at the ceremony, hosted by Sir Elton John and Lily Allen, included actor Josh Brolin - soon to be seen as president George Bush in W - Gavin and Stacey star James Corden and London mayor Boris Johnson, who was named politician of the year.
Sir Elton and Allen drank wine throughout the ceremony, with the former joking: "What, are you going to have another drink?" after his presenting partner had announced that a "very special point in the evening" had been reached.
TV chef Gordon Ramsay was named entrepreneur of the year while Manchester United and England footballer Rio Ferdinand won the magazine's editor's special award.
The winners of the GQ Men of the Year awards are for Outstanding achievement:
Led Zeppelin
International man
Josh Brolin
Politician
Boris Johnson
Sportsman
Joe Calzaghe
Alfred Dunhill's Maverick
Mark Ronson
Comedian
The Mighty Boosh
Lifetime achievement
David Bailey
Woman
Sam Taylor-Wood
Band
Primal Scream
Actor
Steve Coogan
Most stylish man
Brandon Flowers
Inspiration
Tony Bennett
Chef
Mark Hix
Designer
Christopher Bailey
TV personality
James Nesbitt
Writer
Joseph O'Neill
Breakthrough talent
James Corden
- Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 18:59:00 (PDT)
För Gud ikke gi oss en ånd av timidity, men en ånd av kraft, kjærlighet og selvtillit disiplin. Kathleen Bowen.
- Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 20:43:02 (PDT)
För Gud ikke gi oss en ånd av timidity, men en ånd av kraft, kjærlighet og selvtillit disiplin.
- Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 20:37:53 (PDT)
Here is an offer you certainly can refuse, but I hope at least of few of you will gamble $.99 for a PDF or $2.99 (free shipping) for a DVD version of Wrong World’s Halloween 08 collection.
It includes one of my stories, with a really really weird 60 second recorded message by me at the end. (All 24 authors end their stories with a personal message. Quite fun.) You can get a 10% discount on anything you buy on the site if you use my name (Jane Gwaltney) as a “coupon.”
here is the URL: www.wrongworld.com
Happy Halloween, kiddies....
Poe/Jane
- Saturday, October 18, 2008 at 02:23:09 (PDT)
Four Tops frontman Levi Stubbs dead at 72
Oct. 17, 2008, 5:10 PM EST
DETROIT (AP) -- Four Tops frontman Levi Stubbs, whose dynamic and emotive voice drove such Motown classics as "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" and "Baby I Need Your Loving," died Friday at 72.
He had been ill recently and died in his sleep at the Detroit house he shared with his wife of 48 years, said Dana Meah, the wife of a grandson. The Wayne County medical examiner's office also confirmed the death.
With Stubbs in the lead, the Four Tops sold millions of records and performed for more than four decades without a change in personnel.
"Levi Stubbs was one of the great voices of all times," former Motown labelmate Smokey Robinson said. "He was very near and dear to my heart. He was my friend and my brother, I miss him. God bless his family and comfort them."
The Four Tops began singing together in 1953 under the name the Four Aims and signed a deal with Chess Records. They later changed their names to the Four Tops to avoid being confused with the Ames Brothers.
They also recorded for Red Top, Riverside and Columbia Records and toured supper clubs.
The Four Tops signed with Motown Records in 1963 and produced 20 Top-40 hits over the next 10 years, making music history with the other acts in Berry Gordy's Motown stable.
"It is not only a tremendous personal loss for me, but for the Motown family, and people all over the world who were touched by his rare voice and remarkable spirit," Gordy said Friday. "Levi was the greatest interpreter of songs I've ever heard."
When he and others at Motown first heard "Baby I Need Your Loving," Gordy remembered: "Levi's voice exploded in the room and went straight for our hearts. We all knew it was a hit, hands down."
Their biggest hits were recorded between 1964 and 1967 with the in-house songwriting and production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland. Both 1965's "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" and 1966's "Reach Out" went to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart.
Other hits included "Shake Me, Wake Me" (1966), "Bernadette" and "Standing in the Shadows of Love" (both 1967).
- Friday, October 17, 2008 at 22:35:42 (PDT)
Bottled Water has contaminants too, U.S. study finds. Jeff Donn.
The findings challenge the popular impression - and marketing pitch - that bottled water is purer than tap water, the researchers say.
However, all the brands met federal health standards for drinking water. And most of the detected contaminants are common in tap water, too.
Lab tests detected 38 chemicals in 10 brands, with an average of eight contaminants found in each kind of bottled water. Tests showed coliform bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium.
The two-year study was done by the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, an organization founded by scientists that advocates stricter regulation. It bought bottled water in California, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
Researchers tested one batch for each of 10 brands. Eight of those did not have troubling levels of contaminants. But two brands did, so more tests were done and those revealed chlorine byproducts above California's standard. The researchers identified those two brands as Sam's Choice sold by Wal-Mart and Acadia of Giant Food supermarkets.
The other eight, which researchers didn't identify, carried legal levels of many contaminants. Some of those chemicals, like arsenic and the solvent toluene, have been tied to health risks. Some of the contaminants apparently came from pollutants often found in tap water, and others probably leached from plastic bottles, the researchers said.
In the Wal-Mart and Giant Food bottled water, the highest concentration of chlorine byproducts, known as trihalomethanes, was over 35 parts per billion. California requires 10 parts per billion or less, and the industry's International Bottled Water Association makes 10 its voluntary guideline. The federal limit is 80.
Water researcher Dr. David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment of the University at Albany, who had no role in the study, singled out trihalomethanes as the biggest concern because of strong research links to cancer.
"These are levels that should not be in bottled water," he said. Giant Food officials declined to comment. Instead, company officials released a brief statement asserting that Acadia meets all regulatory standards.
Acadia is sold in the mid-Atlantic states, so it isn't held to California's standard. In most places, bottled water must meet roughly the same federal standards as tap water.
The researchers also said the Wal-Mart brand exceeded California's limit by five times for a second chlorine byproduct, bromodichloromethane. The Environmental Working Group said it notified California's attorney general of its intent to sue Wal-Mart. The group wants the company to label its bottles in California with a warning of cancer-causing chemicals. Wal-Mart did not respond to a request for comment.
Joe Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, said he would not defend any company that is exceeding the standard in California. "If they have exceeded it, they should meet it," he said.
The chlorine byproducts, which studies have also linked to birth defects, presumably come from chlorine used as a disinfectant, which ends up in public water systems. Tap water is often repackaged and sold as bottled water, and the researchers say that was true of these two brands.
"In some cases, it appears bottled water is no less polluted than tap water and, at 1,900 times the cost, consumers should expect better," said Jane Houlihan, an environmental engineer who co-authored the study.
The researchers recommend that people who are worried use a carbon filter for their tap water.
Tests on leading brands of bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants, including cancer-linked chemicals three times higher than California's health standard, according to a study released Wednesday by an environmental advocacy group.
- Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 15:00:48 (PDT)
Mike Duffy has a love crush on Stephen Harper -- and hopefully they will get a room and spare the Canadian public their torturous details. Geee-wizz, Duffy you really are quite the suck-up.
For dhat group of Scarey Old Hippies.
Cheers, Murray Kelley.
Don't Fence Me In.
Louis Armstrong & Cole Porter.
Well, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above
But don't fence me in
Let me ride through that wide open country that I love
Don't fence me in
Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze
Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees
Send me off forever but I ask you please
Don't fence me in
Just turn me loose, let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the western skies
On my cayuse, let me wander over yonder
Till I see the mountains rise
I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences
Gaze at the moon till I lose my senses
I don't like hobbles and I can't stand fences
Don't fence me in
(instrumental break)
Just turn me loose, let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the western skies
On my cayuse, let me wander over yonder
Till I see the mountains rise
I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences
Gaze at that ole moon until I lose my senses
I can't stand them hobbles and I don't care for fences
Don't fence me in
Ooh no...don't you fence me in
- Monday, October 06, 2008 at 14:17:59 (PDT)
The World sure needs more Hippies!
- Monday, October 06, 2008 at 13:26:29 (PDT)
- Sunday, October 05, 2008 at 07:41:18 (PDT)
Soul Kitchen
Springfield , IL Based BluesRock / Jam Band
- Sunday, October 05, 2008 at 07:40:30 (PDT)
BREAKING NEWS
updated 53 minutes ago
LAS VEGAS - O.J. Simpson, who went from American sports idol to celebrity-in-exile after he was acquitted of murder in 1995, was found guilty Friday of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room.
Simpson, 61, could spend the rest of his life in prison. Sentencing was set for Dec. 5.
A weary and somber Simpson released a heavy sigh as the charges were read by the clerk in Clark County District Court. He was immediately taken into custody.
The Hall of Fame football star was convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and 10 other charges for gathering up five men a year ago and storming into a room at a hotel-casino, where the group seized several game balls, plaques and photos. Prosecutors said two of the men with him were armed; one of them said Simpson asked him to bring a gun.
The verdict came 13 years to the day after Simpson was cleared of murdering his ex-wife and a friend of hers in Los Angeles in one of the most sensational trials of the 20th century.
- Saturday, October 04, 2008 at 01:29:57 (PDT)
Nec temere, nec timide.
- Friday, October 03, 2008 at 05:56:12 (PDT)
A lil Rum and Coca-Cola for Jimbo, my main man. Shine on you crazy cat up there on high. Yep, a fine fine Fall day today, kicking back.
Sam Alvarnez.
Rum and Coca-Cola.
If you ever go down Trinidad
They make you feel so very glad
Calypso sing and make up rhyme
Guarantee you one real good fine time
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola
Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter
Workin' for the Yankee dollar
Oh, beat it man, beat it
Since the Yankee come to Trinidad
They got the young girls all goin' mad
Young girls say they treat 'em nice
Make Trinidad like paradise
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola
Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter
Workin' for the Yankee dollar
Oh, you vex me, you vex me
From Chicachicaree to Mona's Isle
Native girls all dance and smile
Help soldier celebrate his leave
Make every day like New Year's Eve
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola
Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter
Workin' for the Yankee dollar
It's a fact, man, it's a fact
In old Trinidad, I also fear
The situation is mighty queer
Like the Yankee girl, the native swoon
When she hear der Bingo croon
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola
Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter
Workin' for the Yankee dollar
Out on Manzanella Beach
G.I. romance with native peach
All night long, make tropic love
Next day, sit in hot sun and cool off
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola
Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter
Workin' for the Yankee dollar
It's a fact, man, it's a fact
Rum and Coca-Cola
Rum and Coca-Cola
Workin' for the Yankee dollar
- Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 12:49:28 (PDT)
Man Paul Newman crossed over -- He was a real regular Jo. And I loved that line from Cool Hand Luke: "HEY GOD! Let me know you're up there, eh! Come on..! LOVE ME, HATE ME, KILL ME -- ANYTHINING, JUST LET JUST LET ME KNOW IT!" Paul Newman As Luke, in Cool Hand Luke, 1969.
Big Tony.
- Monday, September 29, 2008 at 07:50:02 (PDT)
"Hey God! Let me know you're up there, eh! Come on! Love me, hate me, kill me. Anything, just let Me know!" Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman.
Rest in Peace: Paul Leonard Newman. Born January 26, 1925, Passed away September 27, 2008 (aged 83). A GREAT ACTOR and HUMANITARIAN.
Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good, one of Paul's books,a great read.
Paul Newmanand A. E. Hotchner. Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good. Doubleday Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0385508026.
- Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 06:22:31 (PDT)
"Hey God! Let me know you're up there, eh! Come on! Love me, hate me, kill me. Anything, just let Me know!" Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman.
Rest in Peace: Paul Leonard Newman. Born January 26, 1925 .... passed away September 26, 2008 (aged 83). A GREAT ACTOR and HUMANITARIAN.
Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good, one of Paul's books,a great read.
Paul Newmanand A. E. Hotchner. Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good. Doubleday Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0385508026.
Three years ago Apologies To The Queen Mary established Wolf Parade as major indie players. Since then, though, the core members' various other projects and collaborations, including Handsome Furs, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, and Sunset Rubdown (especially), became the main focus. In fact, at times we wondered quietly and to ourselves if there ever would be another Wolf Parade album. Well, of course, there would be, we just had Sunset Rubdown hype on the brain -- it's here, and it's very good. The Montreal band's nine new songs arrive under the At Mount Zoomer moniker, which as we mentioned, is named after drummer Arlen Thompson's studio Mount Zoomer, where it was recorded. Those devils.
Even folks without torrents have had some time to mull "Call It A Ritual." It's a solid, shadowy, at times Spoon-y rollick, but when you become familiar with some of the other songs, it's maybe not the most likely first single (or whatever we call those things these days). Whatever the case, the collection feels more cohesive as a whole. It's less about individual tracks or the Dan Vs. Spencer thing than Apologies. The earlier album felt like it alternated between the two vocalists in a sort of SD, SD, SD rhyme scheme. This time, we don't find ourselves charting the shift between the songwriters, the increased teamwork creating a more meshed, powerful ebb and flow.
Standouts? There's Dan-fronted opener "Soldier's Grin" with its Boss-y swagger, airy breakdowns, and descending keyboard hooks. Actually, on Mount Zoomer, the Dan-fronted songs are the best of his career, and often steal the show: Listen to the last-minute build up and bursts of "Fine Young Cannibals" (and its swankier, clamped-down, post-punk shuffle) and "Language City" (and its "we're not home" versus the insularity of "This Heart's On Fire" ... until you realize...). There's a train-hopping, new-world-rush throughout "The Grey Estates" as well -- a call to ignore new inventions and instead pay attention to the blood coursing through your veins.
Which is not at all to say the Spencer songs lag, just that Dan's really come into his own as a writer. Krug's "Bang Your Drum" and "California Dreamer," which are both good, but not great (OK, the last section of "California Dreamer"'s great); it's "An Animal In Your Care," though, where he gets his Bowie on and tears the roof off the place: "I fell for you because you're the one who cared," "You will remember me most by my funeral," etc. Yeah, he's wielding the pen mightily. And in some ways, Wolf Parade brings out the best of Spence: We've already called him one of the better songwriters of this indie epoch, but where Sunset sees him unchecked in brilliant yet indulgent excess, his fellow Wolf Paraders contain his eccentricity in just the right ways, leading to a songs more pop in form, stamped with that Krugian singularity. So singular, in fact, we just coined "Krugian" in his name.
Of course, after all of our discussion of the album's cohesion, we describe the songs separately, but the two truly come together on the 11-minute, Jonathan Carroll-referencing duet "Kissing the Beehive" (remember this was the original title for the album, before copyright issues arose). It's a spiraling epic that might as well have a Greek (or French Canadian) chorus. The lyrics involve holy grails and lines like "you held your cup in the air and you called it a guitar" and shouts of "fire in the hole," etc. The band's growth and control is exemplified in the topsy-turvy rising/falling of the instrumental passages. And, when you think it's over, there's a brief pause and then a proggy reprise.
We haven't been listening enough to tease out all the themes, but the first lines of the album ("In my head is a city at night...") and its idea of running away form the city, cities crumbling, and rushing into a new world pick-up threads from Apologies and continue throughout (there are less ghosts this time). But it's the idea of keeping a compass in your heart and escaping the pitfalls of numbness at the hands of the "Modern World." We have to "tear down" "Language City," ignore the incessant telephones and get to living, etc.
But whatever, we have plenty of time to figure all that out. In the meantime, charts and graphs put aside, we're enjoying it for what it is: great rock 'n' roll.
I found the Great Pumpkin for you little Tony. Have lots of fun at school today.
See you soon,
Janet.
The Great Pumpkin is Coming to Town!
Oh, you'd better not shriek,
You'd better not groan,
You'd better not howl,
You'd better not moan,
Great Pumpkin is coming to town!
He's gonna find out
From folks that he meets
Who deserves tricks
And who deserves treats.
Great Pumpkin is coming to town!
He'll search in every pumpkin patch,
Haunted houses far and near
To see if you've been spreading gloom,
Or bringing lots of cheer.
Oh, you'd better not shriek,
You'd better not groan,
You'd better not howl,
You'd better not moan,
Great Pumpkin is coming to town!
- Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 07:08:36 (PDT)
For little Tony, sorry I couldn't find the Great Pumpkin for you and your Dad, but here's Snoopy and the Red Baron.
Love'ya,
Janet
Snoopy vs the Red Baron.
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,
[Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree]
du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
[Of all the trees most lovely]
The news had come out in the First World War
The bloody Red Baron was flying once more
The Allied command ignored all of its men
And called on Snoopy to do it again.
Twas the night before Christmas, 40 below
When Snoopy went up in search of his foe
He spied the Red Baron, fiercely they fought
With ice on his wings Snoopy knew he was caught.
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ring out from the land
Asking peace of all the world
And good will to man
The Baron had Snoopy dead in his sights
He reached for the trigger to pull it up tight
Why he didn't shoot, well, we'll never know
Or was it the bells from the village below.
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to man
The Baron made Snoopy fly to the Rhine
And forced him to land behind the enemy lines
Snoopy was certain that this was the end
When the Baron cried out, "Merry Christmas, my friend"
The Baron then offered a holiday toast
And Snoopy, our hero, saluted his host
And then with a roar they were both on their way
Each knowing they'd meet on some other day.
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to humanity
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to humanity.
- Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 17:17:07 (PDT)
For little Tony, sorry I couldn't find the Great Pumpkin for you and your Dad, but here's Snoopy and the Red Baron.
Love'ya,
Janet
Snoopy vs the Red Baron.
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,
[Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree]
du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
[Of all the trees most lovely]
The news had come out in the First World War
The bloody Red Baron was flying once more
The Allied command ignored all of its men
And called on Snoopy to do it again.
Twas the night before Christmas, 40 below
When Snoopy went up in search of his foe
He spied the Red Baron, fiercely they fought
With ice on his wings Snoopy knew he was caught.
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ring out from the land
Asking peace of all the world
And good will to man
The Baron had Snoopy dead in his sights
He reached for the trigger to pull it up tight
Why he didn't shoot, well, we'll never know
Or was it the bells from the village below.
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to man
The Baron made Snoopy fly to the Rhine
And forced him to land behind the enemy lines
Snoopy was certain that this was the end
When the Baron cried out, "Merry Christmas, my friend"
The Baron then offered a holiday toast
And Snoopy, our hero, saluted his host
And then with a roar they were both on their way
Each knowing they'd meet on some other day.
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to humananity
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to humanity.
Liverpool 8 is the fourteenth studio album by Ringo Starr. It was released worldwide on January 14, 2008 is the collaborative effort of Mark Hudson and Starr. It’s a full of rollicking fun listening!!
Ringo Starr Lead Vocals, Drums, Percussion, Organ,
Keith Allison Background Vocals,
Gary Burr Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Mandolin,
Brent Carpenter Background Vocals,
Jesse Davey Background Vocals,
Steve Dudas Electric & Acoustic Guitar,
Mark Hudson Background Vocals,Bass Guitar & bongos,
Sean Hurley Background Vocals,
Suzie Katayama Bass Guitar,
Zac Rae Conduction Orchestra Arrangement,
David A. Stewart Keyboards
Bruce Sugar Guitars, Orchestra Arrangement
Dave Way Background Vocals.
Liverpool 8 is the fourteenth studio album by Ringo Starr. It was released worldwide on January 14, 2008 is the collaborative effort of Mark Hudson and Starr. It’s a full of rollicking fun listen!!
Ringo Starr Lead Vocals, Drums, Percussion, Organ,
Keith Allison Background Vocals,
Gary Burr Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Mandolin,
Brent Carpenter Background Vocals,
Jesse Davey Background Vocals,
Steve Dudas Electric & Acoustic Guitar,
Mark Hudson Background Vocals,Bass Guitar & bongos,
Sean Hurley Background Vocals,
Suzie Katayama Bass Guitar,
Zac Rae Conduction Orchestra Arrangement,
David A. Stewart Keyboards
Bruce Sugar Guitars, Orchestra Arrangement
Dave Way Background Vocals.
PEACE,
JeFF
- Friday, September 19, 2008 at 00:48:58 (PDT)
So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.
- Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 00:32:09 (PDT)
Pink Floyd mourn keyboardist Wright
6 hours ago
Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour paid tribute to his "musical partner and friend" Richard Wright.
Gilmour said the band's keyboardist, who died of cancer at 65, was "gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.
"Like Rick, I don't find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously. I have never played with anyone quite like him," he said.
Wright played the keyboard with the guitar group and wrote music for classic albums The Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here.
In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright was seen as the group's dominant musical force.
The Great Gig In The Sky, and Us And Them were his best-known compositions.
"Without Us And Them and The Great Gig In The Sky, what would The Dark Side Of The Moon have been?" Gilmour said.
"Without his quiet touch the album Wish You Were Here would not quite have worked. In my view all the greatest PF moments are the ones where he is in full flow."
London-born Wright mastered the trombone, saxophone, guitar and piano in his teenage years, and had hoped to emulate Miles Davis and John Coltrane, before enrolling in architecture at the Regent Street Polytechnic.
There he met fellow band mates Roger Waters and Nick Mason, and they went on to form the Pink Floyd Sound in 1965.
- Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 00:25:57 (PDT)
Aanii Hallo Universe,
My favourite DOORS tune is Wild Child.
And where do We go from there as a people?
Megwiitch, Suzanne Spotted Eagle.
Wild Child.
DOORS.
Wild child full of grace
Savior of the human race
Your cool face
Natural child, terrible child
Not your mother's or your father's child
Your our child, screamin' wild
An ancient rulage of grains
And the trees of the night
Ha, ha, ha, ha
With hunger at her heels
Freedom in her eyes
She dances on her knees
Pirate prince at her side
Stirrin' into a hollow idols eyes
Wild child full of grace
Savior of the human race
Your cool face
Your cool face
Your cool face
Do you remember when we were in Africa?
- Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 19:50:17 (PDT)
Neil Young ROCKS!!
Suzanne Spotted Eagle.
- Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 19:40:10 (PDT)
ARTIST: Lovin' Spoonful
TITLE: Daydream.
Lyrics and Chords
[ F#dim7 = ]
What a day for a daydream
What a day for a daydreamin' boy
And I'm lost in a daydream
Dreamin' 'bout my bundle of joy
/ C - A7 - / Dm7 - G7 - / :
And even if time ain't really on my side
It's one of those days for taking a walk outside
I'm blowing the day to take a walk in the sun
And fall on my face on somebody's new-mown lawn
/ F F#dim7 C A7 / / / Dm7 - G7 - /
I've been having a sweet dream
I been dreaming since I woke up today
It's starring me and my sweet thing
'Cause she's the one makes me feel this way
And even if time is passing me by a lot
I couldn't care less about the dues you say I got
Tomorrow I'll pay the dues for dropping my load
A pie in the face for being a sleepy bull toad
{Whistle}
And you can be sure that if you're feeling right
A daydream will last long into the night
Tomorrow at breakfast you may prick up your ears
Or you may be daydreaming for a thousand years
What a day for a daydream
Custom made for a daydreaming boy
And now I'm lost in a daydream
Dreaming 'bout my bundle of joy
"Freedom is music, and the Blues is the sweet life blood of people under the gun and when its gone -- there won't be no singing no more, 'cause the freedom aint gonna have no note to sing by." Neil Young One World.
Jake
- Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 01:11:51 (PDT)
That's a bummer about Richard Wright!
Jake.
- Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 01:03:14 (PDT)
Founding member and Keyboardist Richard Wright of Pink Floyd died today ............sad, very sad ......
- Monday, September 15, 2008 at 14:18:57 (PDT)
WTF ?? !! .....is this the DOORS site or the canadian crybaby politics site ?! ........jeeezuz ..anyone who drops here would think its a canadian politics site .......definately NOT a doors site ........get a fuckin grip whoever ....this is NOT a political site ..........it's a doors site ....have you moved to canada poe ? .........
- Friday, September 12, 2008 at 23:54:08 (PDT)
Secret government study belies Harper’s claim that carbon tax will cause recession.
TORONTO – The Green Party is releasing a secret report to the federal government from one of Canada's leading economists, obtained under the Access to Information Act in 2007. The report supports a carbon tax as an effective way to make significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and concludes that a $50/tonne tax on carbon would have an insignificant impact on the Canadian economy and would open tremendous economic opportunities. The model estimates this carbon tax shift would cut emissions by about 36 megatonnes (MT) by 2010, 59 MT by 2015 and 114 MT by 2030 (Table 3).
Green Party leader Elizabeth May May diverted from her intended remarks at a campaign event in Toronto today to point out the hypocrisy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and thereby kicked off the leaders’ debate.
The study, undertaken for Natural Resources Canada by M.K. Jaccard and Associates (MKJA), calculates the impact of carbon taxes of between $10 and $250 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) beginning in 2006 and applied throughout the economy at a single rate.
The report – Cost Curves for Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction in Canada: The Kyoto Period and Beyond – concludes that the GDP impact of a $50/tonne tax shift is less than 0.1% of GDP per year until 2010, is virtually zero during the next five years and is then positive after 2015 (see chart below).
Further, the report projects net financial savings to those who take action as a result of the tax shift, after taking into account the investment in emissions reductions. At $50 per tonne, that windfall comes to $13.8 billion by 2010 and climbs from there (see chart below).
“Mr. Harper’s ridiculous claim that taxing carbon will bring about economic ruin and a recession is starkly contradicted by his own research,” said Ms. May. “In fact, this report shows a positive impact on GDP beginning in 2015. With this in the public domain it is clear that Mr. Harper is deliberately distorting the evidence. Mr. Harper’s fear mongering on a carbon tax is a deliberate and premeditated effort to demonize a sensible plan.
“The government’s own analysis proves that a $50 carbon tax shift will benefit businesses and individuals, and will achieve deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The Prime Minister should now explain to Canadians why, in the face of this compelling evidence, his government stubbornly refuses to consider the carbon tax option and continues to viciously attack those who do. Mr. Harper must bring some honesty into this debate.”
In remaining doggedly opposed to even considering a carbon tax and attacking those who do, Conservatives are ignoring a growing international consensus among leading economists and a government-commissioned study contradicting its warnings of economic meltdown.
The Green Party of Canada would implement a $50 per tonne carbon tax shift – with matching cuts in income and payroll taxes – as the cornerstone of a comprehensive plan for a green energy future that will reinstate Canada as a leader in the global campaign to prevent catastrophic climate change.
“When we first released our plan to put a price on carbon, Environment Minister John Baird saw fit to deride our plan as ‘the mother of all tax increases’ even though we propose a tax shift with no net increase in revenue,” said Ms. May. “It’s another example of the government’s willingness to deliberately mislead Canadians in support of its ineffective and widely discredited climate change policies.”
wow! Soul Kitchen is AWESOME w/Back Door Man on myspace...whole band is fantastic, but that lead geeetar player just plain curls my toes...heh ;)
- Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 22:37:21 (PDT)
God love Danny Williams and his firey way with words -- it was like a rock concert as he lite up our community's issues like a Rockstar. It was a totally fearless moment, that rocked the Rock today. Wow... Go Danny Go!! Vote ABC anything but conservative.
"I can only say this, and I say it with all sincerity and genuine concern for our great country: a majority government for Stephen Harper would be one of the most negative political events in Canadian history." by Danny Williams Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Marie kelly, Corner Brook, Newfoundland.
http//:www.anythingbutconservative.com
- Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 22:12:46 (PDT)
God love Danny Williams and his firey way with words -- it was like a rock concert as he lite up our community's issues like a Rockstar. It was a totally fearless moment, that rocked the Rock today. Wow...Vote ABC anything but conservative.
Go Danny Go!!
"I can only say this, and I say it with all sincerity and genuine concern for our great country: a majority government for Stephen Harper would be one of the most negative political events in Canadian history." by Danny Williams Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Marie a Harper-led majority would signal dark era in Canadian history, indeed. Premier Danny Williams.
Marie kelly, Corner Brook, Newfoundland.
http//:www.anythingbutconservative.com
- Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 22:03:22 (PDT)
i most always stay out of political discussions....they serve no purpose except for a good argument.....i have found that most people who fervently discuss and defend they're political views tend to be very narrow minded people and are not very objective .....they tend to want to force they're views on whomever they are tryin to sway or convince that they know more than that person and are very insistant on that person to see it their way or are looking for someone to agree that they are right and anyone who stands on the other side is an idiot......
i believe that neither side has my interest at heart and neither side gives a shit about my troubles no matter what they say in front of a camera..and they only say what they believe will further their desire to be placed in an position of power ......ex; Bush, Obama, Pelosi, McCain, Clinton, Cheney, etc,etc,etc.....and ANYONE who thinks that any one of em are gonna do whats best for you or have your best interest at heart needs to put the pipe away, coz it's fuckin your brain up now ......NONE OF EM CARE ABOUT YOU !! .......please pass the Crown baby .....i needz a stiff drinkie.....*g*
- Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 19:59:28 (PDT)
Another famous James Morrison from the pages of history.
James Morrison was a bosun's mate on HMS Bounty and a key figure in mutiny on the Bounty. A small world indeed.
Josh Youngson.
- Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 16:01:40 (PDT)
www.myspace.com/soulkitchenrocks ......check out the doors tune and let me know what ya think .....S
- Monday, September 08, 2008 at 18:24:43 (PDT)
Stephen Harper is a Bush clone and so is this election. Help save Canada and vote Harper out and shatter the dark looking glass and break free of the Big Blue Neocon tentacles griping Canada. 2008 Canadian Election Polls.
Eric LaDuc, Saskatoon Saskatchewan.
- Sunday, September 07, 2008 at 23:21:11 (PDT)
Here's a little Willy Porter to go, he's an awesome American Folk musician from Mequon, Wisconsin -- he's good energy, give'em a listen. Enjoy.
The Trees Have Soul — 1990
Pancake Day — 1995
Dog-Eared Dream — 1995
Falling Forward — 1999
Willy Porter — 2002
High Wire Live — 2003
Available Light - 2006
http://www.willyporter.com
- Thursday, September 04, 2008 at 01:54:12 (PDT)
"When the institutions of money rule the world, it is perhaps inevitable that the interests of money will take precedence over the interests of people. What we are experiencing might best be described as a case of money colonizing life. To accept this absurd distortion of human institutions and purpose should be considered nothing less than an act of collective, suicidal insanity." --David C. Korten, When Corporations Rule the World, pg. 247.
'When Corporations Rule the World" is a wild read. I found it held much lyrics within its pages. Let your musik reflect what you see.
cheers poets, Jacques Guadet.
- Wednesday, September 03, 2008 at 22:47:45 (PDT)
"Courage my friends, 'tis not too late to build a better world". Tommy Douglas.
What happened to all the home page poetry and fiction? its all blank.
- Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 20:29:09 (PDT)
got "Back Door Man" up on the page...the recording quality isn't good , but the song sounds alright ....check it out ....S
- Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 09:36:33 (PDT)
Poe Etiquette
I implore, Lenore!
Had we not met before,
would this dreadful bird
be bludgeoning my door??
- Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 02:08:01 (PDT)
"Sex-rehab? And here I thought sex was good for you." interview with David Duchovny.
- Friday, August 29, 2008 at 23:11:24 (PDT)
And here I thought sex was good for you.
- Friday, August 29, 2008 at 23:09:54 (PDT)
om'g'dness!!
ET: David Duchovny in Rehab For Sex Addiction
David Duchovny has entered a rehabilitation center for sex addiction, People.com reports.
"I have voluntarily entered a facility for the treatment of sex addiction," the "Californication" actor tells People.com in an exclusive statement, according to his lawyer, Stanton "Larry" Stein.
The 48-year-old "X-Files" star has been married to actress Téa Leoni since 1997 and the couple have two children together.
- Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 19:46:07 (PDT)
Les flammes d'Etna sur ses laves antiques
Ne cessent de verser des flots plus dévorants.
Des monstres couronnés, les fureurs despotiques.
Ne cessent d'ajouter aux forfaits des tyrans.
S'il en est qui veulent un maître,
De rois en rois dans l'univers
Qu'ils aillent mendier des fers,
Ces français indignes de l'être,
Ces français indignes de l'étre!
- Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 09:06:15 (PDT)
Natural Blues.
Moby.
{Refrain}
oh lordy,
trouble so hard
oh lordy,
trouble so hard,
don't nobody know my troubles but God {x2}
went down the hill,
the other day
my soul got happy
and stayed all day
{Refrain}
went in the room,
didn't stay long,
looked on the bed
and brother was dead
{Refrain}
Sing it LOUD -- Sing it soul-full YEAH!!!
- Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 21:37:54 (PDT)
"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be left whole or unmarked by its tide." ~Fredrick Douglass, American abolitionist and writer.
- Monday, August 25, 2008 at 18:59:19 (PDT)
... En plein forme ...
- Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 23:19:11 (PDT)
A very COOL sweet tune/lyrics for ya *g* yeahzz..! ;)
Goodbye Daughters Of The Revolution.
the Black Crowes.
Cut a rusty engine outta sawdust town
Better deal with the man who shook 'em all down so
Put a little grease on my axle now, yeah.
I been from Antioch to Alcatraz
I can roll you one from an empty bag, but let's
Take it easy to avoid any snags.
Chorus: Goodbye daughters of the revolution
Open your eyes and see your solution.
Hallelujah come join the jubilee.
Keep on runnin' through the gates of the city
To give up now would be such a pity
Don't you wanna see the ship go down with me?
Well...
I'll come to you hungry I'll come to you sore.
I'll come round midnight to your back door.
I'll drag my tail across your floor.
Gonna run you ragged till you act your age.
Gonna circle the wagons gonna storm your stage.
If we all plead guilty will the charges be the same?
Chorus
Bridge
I've been restless, baby, I've been wild.
Caught up in a fever dream
Well, come on and save me, child.
Chorus
- Friday, August 22, 2008 at 15:03:10 (PDT)
kewl .....sumbuddy remembered me ....*g* ........gonna have sum music up on the page shortly.....not very good quality, but dorrs jus th' same ....we be in the studio soon hopefully .till then a rough recording live will have ta do ..* grin* .......
- Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 22:49:18 (PDT)
HIYA SCHTEVIE!!!!
- Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 21:06:26 (PDT)
« Il est à peu près le même jour et traiter la société et vulnérables sur la pauvreté et des sans-abri, que ce soit ici au Canada ou en France. Douleur et la misère. Il est d'autant néo-libéralisme en marche les citoyens les terres noires.» François Valmy.
Sunday is Pride Day in Ottawa, a great opportunity to celebrate diversity, acceptance and the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and Intersexed people in our community (see http://www.capitalpride.ca/2008 for more details). Organizers like to say it's Ottawa's most colourful festival!
As in years past, YSB will be proudly participating in the parade and we'd like you to come along. Bring your friends, co-workers and family - it's always a fun day. You are most welcome to join us at the Downtown Drop-In at 147 Besserer Street for a Pride BBQ, this coming Sunday the 24th, starting at 11:30 a.m. We'll head from the BBQ to the starting point of the parade - so you're welcome to join us there, if that's more convenient. The parade gets going at 1 pm, starting on Wellington Street, just opposite the National Library and Archives; please meet us there a few minutes before 1 pm.
YSB is well-respected in Ottawa as a champion of social justice. Our commitment to the dignity of our LGBTTI-S clients is a hallmark of those values. Please join us Sunday as we celebrate with pride and enjoy a great party!
Alex Munter Executive Director Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa.
- Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 15:31:27 (PDT)
“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.” Robert Louis Stevenson.
- Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 08:03:16 (PDT)
Soul Kitchen fourpiece Blue-Jam-Rock outta Springfield, IL -- SWEET!
- Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 17:28:22 (PDT)
http://www.myspace.com/soulkitchenrocks .....ya know ........jus incayse anyonez fergot me ......S
- Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 16:06:30 (PDT)
THE HOBBIT.
The Hobbit movies will be made with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh as producers! New Line and Jackson have reached agreement, the dispute between New Line boss Shaye and Jackson seems to be settled. Jackson and Walsh will produce two Hobbit movies, a director isn't named yet. Both movies will be shot simultaneously, like The Lord of the Rings movies were. Production will start in 2009, the movies are scheduled to come to our cinemas in 2010 and 2011.
Big news Tuesday for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and "Lord of the Rings."
New Line Cinema has patched up its differences with director Peter Jackson. The result is a two-picture deal for "The Hobbit," plus a sequel. Jackson will executive produce the films with partner Fran Walsh, just as he did on the gazillion-dollar Oscar-winning "Rings" trilogy.
Getting "The Hobbit" to this point was a huge effort, because Jackson and New Line were really at loggerheads over "Lord of the Rings" money.
New Line co-chief Bob Shaye told me Tuesday morning he conceded a lot of the trouble had to do with his "personal rancor" over Jackson's comments.
But he also said, "When there's a lot of money involved, there are a lot of intermediaries who say things. We had to be responsible to the millions of [Tolkien] fans."
So will Jackson direct? So far Shaye and Michael Lynne are sticking to the story that Jackson will be executive producer. But the Oscar-winning director of the "Rings" trilogy has creative control over all of "The Hobbit."
"We're going to sit down in January and talk about possible writers and directors," Shaye told me. "He's not going to hire just anyone. This way Peter can oversee this and all his other projects," such as "Tin Tin" and "The Lovely Bones," which he's shooting.
But my guess is that Jackson and Walsh will wind up writing and directing. The stakes are too high, and the legacy after the "Rings" is too important. Shaye and Lynn didn't deny it when I asked, they just diplomatically skirted the issue.
By the way, why is MGM involved? It turns out its United Artists division had the rights to "The Hobbit" following Saul Zaentz's 1978 animated Ralph Bakshi feature.
"Once we resolved our issues with MGM, and then Peter, we were set to go," Lynne told me.
- Monday, August 18, 2008 at 02:03:12 (PDT)
THE HOBBIT.
The Hobbit movies will be made with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh as producers! New Line and Jackson have reached agreement, the dispute between New Line boss Shaye and Jackson seems to be settled. Jackson and Walsh will produce two Hobbit movies, a director isn't named yet. Both movies will be shot simultaneously, like The Lord of the Rings movies were. Production will start in 2009, the movies are scheduled to come to our cinemas in 2010 and 2011.
Big news Tuesday for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and "Lord of the Rings."
New Line Cinema has patched up its differences with director Peter Jackson. The result is a two-picture deal for "The Hobbit," plus a sequel. Jackson will executive produce the films with partner Fran Walsh, just as he did on the gazillion-dollar Oscar-winning "Rings" trilogy.
Getting "The Hobbit" to this point was a huge effort, because Jackson and New Line were really at loggerheads over "Lord of the Rings" money.
New Line co-chief Bob Shaye told me Tuesday morning he conceded a lot of the trouble had to do with his "personal rancor" over Jackson's comments.
But he also said, "When there's a lot of money involved, there are a lot of intermediaries who say things. We had to be responsible to the millions of [Tolkien] fans."
So will Jackson direct? So far Shaye and Michael Lynne are sticking to the story that Jackson will be executive produce. But the Oscar-winning director of the "Rings" trilogy has creative control over all of "The Hobbit."
"We're going to sit down in January and talk about possible writers and directors," Shaye told me. "He's not going to hire just anyone. This way Peter can oversee this and all his other projects," such as "Tin Tin" and "The Lovely Bones," which he's shooting.
But my guess is that Jackson and Walsh will wind up writing and directing. The stakes are too high, and the legacy after the "Rings" is too important. Shaye and Lynn didn't deny it when I asked, they just diplomatically skirted the issue.
By the way, why is MGM involved? It turns out its United Artists division had the rights to "The Hobbit" following Saul Zaentz's 1978 animated Ralph Bakshi feature.
"Once we resolved our issues with MGM, and then Peter, we were set to go," Lynne told me.
- Monday, August 18, 2008 at 02:01:49 (PDT)
DeGeneres and de Rossi wed in Calif.
Aug 17, 2008.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- There was much dancing: Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are married, according to reports.
In the biggest celebrity union since California legalized same-sex marriage, DeGeneres, 50, and de Rossi, 35, wed Saturday night in an intimate ceremony at their Beverly Hills home, People and Us Magazine reported.
A publicist for DeGeneres didn't immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press on Saturday.
After the California Supreme Court's ruling in May, the talk-show host announced that she and de Rossi would wed after four years together.
The ceremony was attended by 19 guests, including DeGeneres's mom Betty and de Rossi's mother Margaret Rogers, who flew in from Australia for the occasion, People.com reported Saturday night.
DeGeneres said after winning her fourth consecutive Daytime Emmy for talk show host in June that a date had not been set, and that she would show "a tiny bit" of the nuptials on her show.
While opponents in California have gathered signatures to put a measure on the November ballot for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, Hollywood was throwing it support behind the newlyweds.
"One of my favorite people of all time is Ms. Ellen DeGeneres," Katherine Heigel told AP Television at a Hollywood charity event on Saturday night. "So I wish all the best, all the happiness, all the joy that comes with that certificate ... just the joy of being able to stand up and say that. In front of everyone you love and care about in front of each other and to walk away legal is huge."
Tila Tequila, whose dating reality show fame is built somewhat upon her affinity for both men and women, passed along her good wishes -- with only one small complaint.
"I love Ellen (DeGeneres) I watch her show all the time," Tequila told AP Television. "I just want to say congratulations and I am really sorry you didn't invite me to your wedding."
- Sunday, August 17, 2008 at 17:27:56 (PDT)
"Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit." Baltasar Gracian.
- Saturday, August 16, 2008 at 19:28:33 (PDT)
Lament for Confederation. Chief Dan George.
"How long have I known you, Oh Canada? A hundred years? Yes, a hundred years. And many, many seelanum more. And today, when you celebrate your hundred years, Oh Canada, I am sad for all the Indian people throughout the land.
For I have known you when your forests were mine; when they gave me my meat and my clothing. I have known you in your streams and rivers where your fish flashed and danced in the sun, where the waters said 'come, come and eat of my abundance.' I have known you in the freedom of the winds. And my spirit, like the winds, once roamed your good lands.
But in the long hundred years since the white man came, I have seen my freedom disappear like the salmon going mysteriously out to sea. The white man's strange customs, which I could not understand, pressed down upon me until I could no longer breathe.
When I fought to protect my land and my home, I was called a savage. When I neither understood nor welcomed his way of life, I was called lazy. When I tried to rule my people, I was stripped of my authority.
My nation was ignored in your history textbooks - they were little more important in the history of Canada than the buffalo that ranged the plains. I was ridiculed in your plays and motion pictures, and when I drank your fire-water, I got drunk - very, very drunk. And I forgot.
Oh Canada, how can I celebrate with you this Centenary, this hundred years? Shall I thank you for the reserves that are left to me of my beautiful forests? For the canned fish of my rivers? For the loss of my pride and authority, even among my own people? For the lack of my will to fight back? No! I must forget what's past and gone.
Oh God in heaven! Give me back the courage of the olden chiefs. Let me wrestle with my surroundings. Let me again, as in the days of old, dominate my environment. Let me humbly accept this new culture and through it rise up and go on.
Oh God! Like the thunderbird of old I shall rise again out of the sea; I shall grab the instruments of the white man's success-his education, his skills- and with these new tools I shall build my race into the proudest segment of your society.
Before I follow the great chiefs who have gone before us, Oh Canada, I shall see these things come to pass. I shall see our young braves and our chiefs sitting in the houses of law and government, ruling and being ruled by the knowledge and freedoms of our great land.
So shall we shatter the barriers of our isolation. So shall the next hundred years be the greatest in the proud history of our tribes and nations. "
- Saturday, August 16, 2008 at 16:16:30 (PDT)
The Media a mutual coercion that is mutually agreed upon.
- Saturday, August 16, 2008 at 15:40:25 (PDT)
The Media mutual coercion that is mutually agreed upon.
Ooh my kingdom for a poet or a wordman -- a Birdman? Soulful rueful?
- Friday, August 15, 2008 at 03:09:17 (PDT)
Crystal?
- Friday, August 15, 2008 at 03:08:18 (PDT)
Janey Bird?
- Friday, August 15, 2008 at 03:07:58 (PDT)
This place used to be so jumpin'?
- Friday, August 15, 2008 at 03:07:31 (PDT)
Hmmm, I wonder where the old crew got to????
- Friday, August 15, 2008 at 03:06:47 (PDT)
? Purple Ronnie ?
- Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 23:58:21 (PDT)
The best days are not planned by common sense, but by lack of time, and you just happening to be where everything feels fine within the moment, just because.
- Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 20:31:27 (PDT)
The best days are not planned by by common sense, but by lack of time, and you just happen to be where everything feels fine withi the moment.
- Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 20:27:27 (PDT)
Inflatable dog turd sculpture escapes Swiss museum, wreaks havoc.
A powerful gust of wind recently swept a house-sized sculpture of dog feces from its display outside a Swiss museum, an art official in Berne said Monday.
The incident took place on the night of July 31, but details of the artwork's escape — and the havoc it caused before its eventual landing — emerged just this week.
The massive inflatable sculpture, created by U.S. contemporary artist Paul McCarthy and titled Complex Shit, is part of the Paul Klee Centre's exhibit East of Eden: A Garden Show.
McCarthy's piece was displayed outdoors, among "weird and wonderful objects [forming] an animated kind of front garden," according to the museum website.
The sculpture is usually contained by a safety system that deflates it during instances of bad weather. However, the system failed on this occasion and the work escaped from the Klee Centre's garden, museum director Juri Steiner told Agence France-Presse.
The wind carried the work away, knocking down a power line and breaking a window at a nearby orphanage before falling to the ground about 200 metres from the centre.
The museum had yet to contact McCarthy about the incident, Steiner said. Officials are also contemplating whether to return the piece to display.
.... Hmmmmmm I know that art is supposed to be subjective and in the eye of the beholder but an inflatable house sized sculpture of dog feces floating free wreaking havoc sounds like George W Bush running for a thrid term or he is trying to take over the UN or Canada yet again.
- Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 08:50:21 (PDT)
Invisibility cloak one step closer, scientists say.
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have created two new types of materials that can bend light the wrong way, creating the first step toward an invisibility cloaking device. One approach uses a type of fishnet of metal layers to reverse the direction of light, while another uses tiny silver wires, both at the nanoscale level. Both are so-called metamaterials -- artificially engineered structures that have properties not seen in nature, such as negative refractive index.
The two teams were working separately under the direction of Xiang Zhang of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center at the University of California, Berkeley with U.S. government funding. One team reported its findings in the journal Science and the other in the journal Nature.
Each new material works to reverse light in limited wavelengths, so no one will be using them to hide buildings from satellites, said Jason Valentine, who worked on one of the projects.
"We are not actually cloaking anything," Valentine said in a telephone interview. "I don't think we have to worry about invisible people walking around any time soon. To be honest, we are just at the beginning of doing anything like that."
Valentine's team made a material that affects light near the visible spectrum, in a region used in fiber optics.
"In naturally occurring material, the index of refraction, a measure of how light bends in a medium, is positive," he said.
"When you see a fish in the water, the fish will appear to be in front of the position it really is. Or if you put a stick in the water, the stick seems to bend away from you."
These are illusions caused by the light bending when it moves between water and air.
NEGATIVE REFRACTION
The negative refraction achieved by the teams at Berkeley would be different.
"Instead of the fish appearing to be slightly ahead of where it is in the water, it would actually appear to be above the water's surface," Valentine said. "It's kind of weird." For a metamaterial to produce negative refraction, it must have a structural array smaller than the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation being used. This was done using microwaves in 2006 by David Smith of Duke University in North Carolina and John Pendry of Imperial College London.
Visible light is harder. Some groups managed it with very thin layers, virtually only one atom thick, but these materials were not practical to work with and absorbed a great deal of the light directed at it.
"What we have done is taken that material and made it much thicker," Valentine said.
His team, whose work is reported in Nature, used stacked silver and metal dielectric layers stacked on top of each other and then punched through with holes. "We call it a fishnet," Valentine said.
The other team, reporting in Science, used an oxide template and grew silver nanowires inside porous aluminum oxide at tiny distances apart, smaller than the wavelength of visible light. This material refracts visible light.
Immediate applications might be superior optical devices, Valentine said -- perhaps a microscope that could see a living virus.
"However, cloaking may be something that this material could be used for in the future," he said. "You'd have to wrap whatever you wanted to cloak in the material. It would just send light around. By sending light around the object that is to be cloaked, you don't see it."
Jack
- Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 01:35:24 (PDT)
Yoko Ono Fights Mark Chapman's Release.
Yoko Ono believes it would be safer if her husband's murderer stays in jail.
John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, advised prison officials not to free the murderer, Mark Chapman, and insisted that he would be killed if he were to be released, reports Starpulse.com.
Ono believes that Chapman could be pursued and killed by Lennon's loyal fans if he were to leave prison.
She pleaded with parole officers to not give Chapman freedom when his court hearing takes place later this week. The late musician's wife stated, "It's dangerous for him to come out. Not only for us, but for himself. There are so many people out there who dislike him. It's safer for him to stay in jail."
Chapman shot John Lennon outside his New York home in December 1980.
- Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 12:12:05 (PDT)
Sexualities, Cultures and Identities: New Directions in Gay, Lesbian and Queer Studies
(17th January 2003). The theme of the conference
marked the publication of "Handbook of Lesbian and Gay Studies" by Diane Richardson and Steven Seidman (Sage). Its a good read.
Johanne Flurstrom.
- Monday, August 11, 2008 at 21:20:15 (PDT)
Well-preserved 2.5 million-year-old mastodon skeleton found in Romania.
Well-preserved 2.5 million-year-old mastodon skeleton found in Romania BUCHAREST, Romania - Miners in Romania have unearthed the skeleton of a 2.5 million-year-old mastodon, believed to be one of the best preserved in Europe, a local official said Friday.
They stumbled on the remains of the mammoth-like animal during excavations in June at a coal mine in the village of Racosul de Sus, around 170 kilometres northwest of Bucharest, according to Laszlo Demeter, a historian and local councillor.
"This is one of the most spectacular finds in Europe," paleontologist Vlad Codrea, who examined the skeleton, told The Associated Press. "For Romania it is unique."
The mastodon became extinct in Europe two to three million years ago. Codrea, of Babes Bolyai University in Cluj, said 90 per cent of the skeleton's bones were intact, with damage to the skull and tusks.
He also said that he hoped the find would help paleontologists to form a better image of the animals and vegetation present in the area 2.5 million years ago.
"(This find) will open up an area of (paleontological) research in the area," said Alexandru Andresanu, a professor at the Bucharest Geology Faculty in a telephone interview.
"It is sensational. To discover a near complete skeleton (like this) is unique in Romania and a rarity in the world," said Marton Wentzel, a researcher of vertebrates at the Three Rivers Land museum in Oradea, western Romania. "It is important because it can give us complete information about the flora and fauna or the era."
The animal - three metres high and seven metres long - was a forefather of today's elephants. It is related to the mammoth, but fed on leaves instead of grazing and had straight tusks, instead of curved ones. The reason it died out was probably due to climate change, said Codrea.
The skeleton will be fully dug out in two months, Demeter said. Research will be conducted on the bones and the skeleton will then be displayed in the nearby museum of Baraolt.
Funny’s funny, right? Well, when you’re shooting a comedy about the making of a Vietnam war movie that includes an actor in blackface, one with drug problems, one who plays a “retard” in another movie – all based on real actors with indeterminate abilities to laugh at themselves – “funny” may be the only thing standing between you and an angry mob.
The actors involved in ‘Tropic Thunder’ – and that includes director Ben Stiller and his cowriter/executive producer, ‘Mulholland Drive’ star Justin Theroux – seemed confident they won’t seriously offend anyone when interviewed last weekend in Los Angeles.
“It was never really a worry for me,” says Theroux. “Keeping the joke on the actors was paramount, so as long as we were doing that, I was happy. There are no jokes on retarded people, no jokes on black people.”
But just the word “retard” has already offended groups representing individuals with mental challenges, and the movie hasn’t even opened yet. Earlier this week, the Special Olympics and Down Syndrome Association persuaded Dreamworks to shut down a website promoting ‘Simple Jack’ -- the fake movie in ‘Tropic Thunder’ that Stiller’s aging action hero character stars in -- because of its tagline, “Once upon a time … there was a retard.”
Steve Coogan, who plays the director of the film-within-the-film, thinks that joke was misunderstood. “The fact that [Stiller] plays the guy with learning disabilities – some people will see it as [in bad taste] but he’s not laughing at the disability; he’s laughing at the propensity for Hollywood actors to want to play people who are damaged in the hope of winning awards. That was the point of that.”
Coogan doesn’t believe that “there’s anything off limits in comedy.” “It’s the way you do it,” he says. “Sometimes, you can have someone disapproving of the joke within the scene. That can legitimize it because you register that this is not something that is supposed to be acceptable.” Ironically, Coogan’s theory explains why the “retard” humour in ‘Tropic Thunder’ remains vaguely offensive. There’s nothing in the film to suggest that calling people retards is wrong.
It also explains why Robert Downey Jr. wearing blackface in the movie shouldn’t get him in too much trouble. He plays an acclaimed Australian actor who dyes his skin black to play an African American. Stiller and co. wisely include a real black actor in the troupe, played by Brandon T. Jackson, to provide an hilariously miffed counterpoint.
Alberta – B.C. Deal Makes a MASH of Local Democracy.
Edmonton - Using the acronym MASH to represent numerous sectors in a simple word, the Alberta government announced last Friday that under the controversial Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) with British Columbia, restrictions will be made on how municipalities, academic institutions, school boards and the health sector engage in contracts for their organizational requirements. The provincial government stated that when TILMA comes into full effect on April 1, 2009, any MASH contracts beginning at $75,000 for goods and services tenders and $200,000 for construction projects must be opened up for outside contract bids.
"Under TILMA, if any of the 'MASH' organizations chooses to privilege a local Albertan provider for a contract over the amount outlined, an outside organization from B.C. would be able to sue from the provincial tax base for compensation of up to $5 million," says Sheila Muxlow, prairie regional organizer for the Council of Canadians. "This is a direct assault on small businesses within Alberta and threatens local industries from developing sustainable local economies."
"The B.C. government seems unwilling to warn its citizens about the dangers of TILMA and unable to recognize why a growing number of municipalities are opposed to this anti-democratic agreement," says Carleen Pickard, B.C. regional organizer with the Council of Canadians.
Pickard notes that TILMA entrenches a dispute settlement mechanism within a private court system, similar to the Chapter 11 of NAFTA that enables big business and powerful individuals to sue the provincial government if a MASH sector organization does not comply with the requirements of the agreement.
"Although TILMA is consistently heralded by the B.C. and Alberta governments as a beneficial agreement, the deal poses a clear and present danger to local policies that protect the health, well being and unique interests of their constituents," says Muxlow. "TILMA will create a chill effect on communities and municipalities taking policy leadership on issues like pesticide bans and healthy school initiatives, because of the possibility of lawsuits."
The B.C. government seems to be aware of these dangers and, in its latest announcement, said it would consult with municipalities.
"Nevertheless, the B.C. government is pressing ahead with a deal that offers no real benefits and a good many dangers to local communities," says Pickard.
- Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 16:39:15 (PDT)
Oui, an overzealous Joker is so classic.
- Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 02:15:11 (PDT)
LOL The JOKER seems not so good a criminal.
- Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 11:35:37 (PDT)
*LMAO*
Three Rivers police apprehend 'The Joker' at local cinema
THREE RIVERS -- An overzealous Joker fan was taken into custody Sunday morning after attempting to steal movie posters and other items, police said.
Spencer Taylor, 20, of Three Rivers, was arrested on felony larceny and malicious destruction of property charges after trying to steal memorabilia of the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight" at the Three Rivers 6 theater.
Taylor was dressed in a full costume and makeup resembling the "Joker" character from the movie.
He was trying to pull the posters off the walls and take other items when he was restrained by theater staff until police arrived, Three Rivers Detective Mike Mohney said.
- Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 00:35:20 (PDT)
Kakisimowin
- Monday, July 28, 2008 at 14:36:04 (PDT)
---
------- __@
----- _(\<;_
--- (*)/ (*)
- ------------- Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with Me....!
Jack Bike Courier.
- Monday, July 28, 2008 at 14:28:34 (PDT)
The Pope, *LOL* I wonder if he eats McCain's French Fries.
Pope Decries Materialism During a visit to Australia, Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against the "sense of despair" that accompanies material prosperity. Onion News went out and asked Americans what they thought. Here are three all American voices that support the Pope's findings. David Okupniak,Unemployed: "Yeah, I remember when I had a job. I was miserable." Nataile Eis, Air Traffic Controller: "I agree with the pope's remarks about an 'interior emptiness' and a 'sense of despair,' which is why I stopped going to Mass." And so too Kevin Sidorov, Night Watchman: "Then the Pope must be the saddest person in the world." Thank you and Good Nite, this has been Onion News The 6 O'clock Edition.
- Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 15:59:37 (PDT)
John McCain's Disaster Economics.
By Frank Rich, The New York Times.
July 22nd 2008.
If voters got a fair presentation of John McCain's economic plan, the idea of him winning the White House would cause mass panic.
The best thing to happen to John McCain was for the three network anchors to leave him in the dust this week while they chase Barack Obama on his global Lollapalooza tour. Were voters forced to actually focus on Mr. McCain's response to our spiraling economic crisis at home, the prospect of his ascension to the Oval Office could set off a panic that would make the IndyMac Bank bust in Pasadena look as merry as the Rose Bowl.
"In a time of war," Mr. McCain said last week, "the commander in chief doesn't get a learning curve." Fair enough, but he imparted this wisdom in a speech that was almost a year behind Mr. Obama in recognizing Afghanistan as the central front in the war against Al Qaeda. Given that it took the deadliest Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul since 9/11 to get Mr. McCain's attention, you have to wonder if even General Custer's learning curve was faster than his.
Mr. McCain still doesn't understand that we can't send troops to Afghanistan unless they're shifted from Iraq. But simple math, to put it charitably, has never been his forte. When it comes to the central front of American anxiety -- the economy -- his learning curve has flat-lined.
In 2000, he told an interviewer that he would make up for his lack of attention to "those issues." As he entered the 2008 campaign, Mr. McCain was still saying the same, vowing to read "Greenspan's book" as a tutorial. Last weekend, the resolutely analog candidate told The New York Times he is at last starting to learn how "to get online myself." Perhaps he'll retire his abacus by Election Day.
Mr. McCain's fiscal ineptitude has received so little scrutiny in some press quarters that his chief economic adviser, the former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, got a free pass until the moment he self-immolated on video by whining about "a nation of whiners." The McCain-Gramm bond, dating back 15 years, is more scandalous than Mr. Obama's connection with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Mr. McCain has been so dependent on Mr. Gramm for economic policy that he sent him to newspaper editorial board meetings, no doubt to correct the candidate's numbers much as Joe Lieberman cleans up after his confusions of Sunni and Shia.
Just two weeks before publicly sharing his thoughts about America's "mental recession," Mr. Gramm laid out equally incendiary views in a Wall Street Journal profile that portrayed him as "almost certainly" the McCain choice for Treasury secretary. Mr. Gramm said that the former chief executive of AT&T, Ed Whitacre, was "probably the most exploited worker in American history" since he received only a $158 million pay package rather than the "billions" he deserved for his success in growing Southwestern Bell.
But no one in the news media seemed to notice Mr. Gramm's naked expression of the mind-set he'd bring to a McCain White House. And few journalists have vetted the presumptive Treasury secretary's post-Senate history as an executive at UBS. The stock of that banking giant has lost 70 percent of its value in a year after its reckless adventures in the subprime lending market. It's now fending off federal investigation for helping the megarich avoid taxes.
Mr. McCain made a big show of banishing Mr. Gramm after his whining "gaffe," but it's surely at most a temporary suspension. When the candidate said back in January that there's nobody he knows who is stronger on economic issues than his old Senate pal, he was telling the truth. Left to his own devices -- or those of his new No. 1 economic surrogate, Carly Fiorina -- Mr. McCain is clueless. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, a supporter, said that Mr. McCain's latest panacea for high gas prices, offshore drilling, is snake oil -- and then announced his availability to serve as energy czar in an Obama administration.
The term flip-flopping doesn't do justice to Mr. McCain's self-contradictory economic pronouncements because that implies there's some rational, if hypocritical, logic at work. What he serves up instead is plain old incoherence, as if he were compulsively consulting one of those old Magic 8 Balls. In a single 24-hour period in April, Mr. McCain went from saying there's been "great economic progress" during the Bush presidency to saying "Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago." He reversed his initial condemnation of mortgage bailouts in just two weeks.
In February Mr. McCain said he would balance the federal budget by the end of his first term even while extending the gargantuan Bush tax cuts. In April he said he'd accomplish this by the end of his second term. In July he's again saying he'll do it in his first term. Why not just say he'll do it on Inauguration Day? It really doesn't matter since he's never supplied real numbers that would give this promise even a patina of credibility.
Mr. McCain's plan for Social Security reform is "along the lines that President Bush proposed." Or so he said in March. He came out against such "privatization" in June (though his policy descriptions still support it). Last week he indicated he isn't completely clear on what Social Security does. He called the program's premise -- young taxpayers foot the bill for their elders (including him) -- an "absolute disgrace."
Given that Mr. McCain's sole private-sector job was a fleeting stint in public relations at his father-in-law's beer distributorship, he comes by his economic ignorance honestly. But there's no A team aboard the Straight Talk Express to fill him in. His campaign economist, the former Bush adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin, could be found in the June 5 issue of American Banker suggesting even at that late date that we still don't know "the depth of the housing crisis" and proposing that "monitoring is the right thing to do in these circumstances."
Ms. Fiorina, the ubiquitous new public face of McCain economic policy, adds nothing to the mix beyond her incessant display of corporate jargon, from "trend lines" to "start-ups." Before she was fired at Hewlett-Packard, its stock had declined 50 percent during her five-plus years in charge. She missed earning projections -- by 23 percent in one quarter -- much as she now misrepresents both the Obama and McCain records. This month she said Mr. McCain wanted to require insurance plans to cover birth control medications along with Viagra, when in fact he had voted against it.
Ms. Fiorina received a $42 million payout (half in cash) from H.P., according to a shareholders' subsequent lawsuit. With this inspiring rsum, she now aspires to be Mr. McCain's running mate. So does the irrepressible Mitt Romney, who actually was a business whiz before serving as Massachusetts's governor. Beltway wisdom has it that the addition of such a corporate star will remedy Mr. McCain's fiscal flatulence.
But Mr. Romney, while more plausible than Ms. Fiorina, is hardly what America wants at this desperate time. His leveraged buyout dealings as co-founder of Bain Capital induced plant closings, mass layoffs and outsourcing. If Mr. McCain truly intends to "put our country's interests" above politics and reach across the aisle to move the nation forward, as he constantly tells us, why not go for a vice president who's the very best fit for the huge challenges at hand?
The obvious choice would be Michael Bloomberg -- who, as a former Republican turned independent, would necessitate that Mr. McCain reach only halfway across the aisle, and to someone who is his friend rather than a vanquished rival he is learning to tolerate. Romney vs. Bloomberg is not a close contest. Bloomberg L.P. has roughly three times the revenues and employees of Bain & Company, where Mr. Romney ultimately served as chief executive. Mr. Romney rescued the Salt Lake City Olympics while running it in 2002, but Mayor Bloomberg revitalized New York, the nation's largest metropolis, after the most devastating attack in our history. The city he manages has more than twice the budget of Mr. Romney's state.
Yes, Mr. Bloomberg is a closet Democrat and an alpha dog who doesn't want to be a second banana. And his views on gay civil rights and abortion would roil the G.O.P. base. But Mr. Romney shared some of those same views before he flip-flopped, and besides, these are not ordinary times. Millions of Americans are losing their homes and jobs. Whole industries are going belly up. The national crisis at hand, not yesterday's culture wars, should drive the vice-presidential pick.
Mr. McCain reminds us every day how principled he is. That presumably means he'd risk a revolt by his party's dwindling agents of intolerance and do everything in his power to persuade Mr. Bloomberg to join his ticket in the spirit of patriotic sacrifice. The politics could be advantageous too. A Bloomberg surprise could impress independents and keep the television audience tuned in to a G.O.P. convention that will unfold in the shadow of Mr. Obama's address to 75,000 screaming fans in Denver. But this is fantasy political baseball, not reality. Mr. McCain, sad to say, hung up his old maverick's spurs the day he embraced the Bush tax cuts he had once opposed as "too tilted to the wealthy.”
- Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 10:58:38 (PDT)
Octopus Books. Octopus Books is a cool place to hang out.
Jakob McEvoy.
Sounds like a family spatt that is more Press-based gossip than substance. The Press in the UK behave more like a pack of rabid Truffle-Pigs than civilized creatures that one might name -- Pitty.
Charlie Carr.
- Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 15:15:12 (PDT)
Holy batguano, Batman!
Bale arrested and released; denies assault
July 22, 2008, 2:52 PM EST
LONDON (AP) -- Christian Bale has denied allegations of assault made by his mother and sister, hours after he was arrested, questioned by London police and released.
The 34-year-old star of "The Dark Knight" spent four hours at a police station, but was not charged. British media had reported that Bale's mother and sister complained he had assaulted them at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Sunday night.
Representatives for Bale released a statement today denying that an assault took place.
- Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 13:01:42 (PDT)
ImaginAction is a traveling theater arts company that dazzles the heart and awakens the spirit through the performance of ancient folk tales and original works. We offer storytelling, full length plays, theatre of the oppressed workshops and intercultural ceremonies that are based in respect for personal stories and traditional ways. We delight in cultivating empathy among youth and elders, the human family of cultures, nations and religions by forging a dynamic arena where people listen to and tell stories that can transform fear into friendship, despair into hope, doubt into understanding.
Hallo, Annette ici est en train de lire vous m'avez demandé de partager avec vous en ce qui concerne l'esprit de la communauté conférence sur le développement de Juin à Montréal. Il est très profonde et agréable rencontre. J'espère que Kim Klein le discours serviront à inspirer vous et vos amis à la bibliothèque. Et aussi, j'ai beaucoup apprécié le festival Blues musik avec vous. Le Doors Tribute bande était génial, trop!
À bientôt et bonsoir, Phillipe Cassel.
- Friday, July 18, 2008 at 13:57:00 (PDT)
Hallo, Annette ici est en train de lire vous m'avez demandé de partager avec vous en ce qui concerne l'esprit de la communauté conférence sur le développement de Juin à Montréal. Il est très profonde et agréable rencontre. J'espère que Kim Kline le discours serviront à inspirer vous et vos amis à la bibliothèque. Et aussi, j'ai beaucoup apprécié le festival Blues musik avec vous. Le Doors Tribute bande était génial, trop!
À bientôt et bonsoir, Phillipe Cassel.
- Friday, July 18, 2008 at 13:55:23 (PDT)
why so serious?
the JOKER
- Friday, July 18, 2008 at 00:38:20 (PDT)
Citizen Engagement and Movement Building as a Force for Social Transformation (Keynote Address), for Open University, June, 2008.
By Kim Klein Resident Resource Person,
Institute in Management and Community Development.
I am very grateful to have this chance to share some of the thoughts I have been developing over the six months of my residency on this topic of citizen engagement and movement building as a force for social transformation. I want to look at this topic from the point of view of the nonprofit sector. And in the beginning I want to say that I believe keynotes are supposed to be provocative—to provoke conversation over the next several days. So I don’t expect you to agree with me on every point—disagreement is healthy.
Let me start by telling you a little bit about how I came to be here as the Resident Resource Person at the Institute. I first came to Montreal and to the Summer Program about 14 years ago and have come almost every year primarily to teach fundraising. I have been in fundraising for 32 years, and so almost half of that time I have been influenced by what I have learned here every summer. During these past fourteen years, when I wasn’t in Montreal, I was teaching, consulting and writing about fundraising. During most of those years, and for most of the years before I started coming here, I was completely confident that if the small nonprofits I worked with did what I said they would raise money. I had ample evidence that this was the case.
But starting in the mid-90’s, I began to see organizations that were running their fundraising programs almost flawlessly, yet they were not able to raise the money they needed. Plus the chances of running a program flawlessly were slim. So those organizations that had any internal conflict, or tried something creative which failed, were really not able to raise money. The devolution of government is of course much further along in the USA than here in Canada, and it is fascinating to come here and experience what it is like to be with people who expect their government to do its job, and who have a fairly well developed sense of what that job is. But even here, we seen cutbacks and changes in government policy that are threatening to swamp social service agencies or take much of strength out of existing arts and culture programs. I worked with a large number and variety of social change nonprofits while I was here, and all were experiencing cutbacks or no increases in funding from both the government and private sources. Yet they were expected to handle more and requests for service, to pay higher and higher rent and other costs. Being asked to do more and more with less and less is an all too familiar feeling.
So this led me, a fundraiser, to be very interested in taxes. What is the role of taxes? What should be taxed? Who or what should pay taxes and how much should they pay? One summer here I tried out the idea that taxes should be a part of fundraising and those of us in fundraising must take this seriously. This went well, and so I went back to the USA and began developing workshops to help people understand taxes, and to help people think taxes were interesting. Those who favor lower taxes always maintain that the private sector—corporations, foundations and individuals, will make up for these cuts. But it is abundantly clear and has been demonstrated over and over that the cutbacks in government spending cannot, and should not, be made up by the private sector.
But thinking about public money and private money inevitably leads to thinking about an even bigger concept, which is that the most important assets we own are collective and social in nature. Out most valuable wealth we must hold in common. Water, oceans and wildlife as well as libraries, parks, museums, access to high quality educations are community resources which must be actively protected and managed for the good of all. They must be treasured and passed on, undiminished, to future generations. These things are variously called our common wealth, the commons, the common good.
Learning to see and understand the dozens of commons in our midst is one of the preeminent challenges of our time, as David Bollier notes. And it was my experience here in Montreal that the culture of this city, this province, was one that inherently valued the commons, and where people would go to some lengths to protect and enhance the public good. So I wanted to come here for a longer time and experience all of this in more depth, and have some time to expand these ideas, read more and reflect more.
I’d like to return to the title of the speech and look at some definitions.
Citizen Engagement and Movement Building as a Force for Social Transformation
I resisted the word ‘citizen’ when we were first giving the speech a title. In the USA, the racist and anti-immigration forces have seized this word and use it to define an “us and them” reality. “Us” who belong in the United States because we were born there, and “them” who do not belong and are not wanted except as a source of cheap and exploited labor. Many nonprofit organizations which had the word citizen in their name (Citizens for Justice, Citizens for a Better Environment) have changed it to “community” or “people.” But my colleagues here helped me realize that you really should not give away good words to the other side. And citizen is such a word. So when I say “citizen engagement” I mean in the sense of a “citizen” of the world. I don’t know if I will be able to bring the word ‘citizen’ back from the slimy toxic mud it has been dragged into south of the Canadian border, but I will try.
What does it mean to be an engaged citizen? Paolo Friere, the great Brazilian educator, said that we have a vocation, a calling, to be fully human. I think this is a good summary of engagement. I am citizen of the world—I have rights and responsibilities to myself and others.
Let’s look at social transformation. Someone said to me, on reading the title of my speech, that what else would be a force for social transformation besides citizen engagement? I wish what this person said was true, but as we see all around us, society is transforming constantly and mostly without involvement of citizens. In fact a good deal is done to dis-involve people. Social transformation is not automatically positive or progressive.
Friere puts in front of us a very important question. He says, “What if we discover that our present way of life is irreconcilable with our vocation to be fully human?” Can we live easily, for example, knowing that 3 billion people in the world live on less than $2 per day? Or that if we don’t act dramatically and immediately, by 2011 it may well be too late to save our planet from the ravages of human created climate change? For those of us who are American, how many minutes of the day can we ignore the fact that 40 cents out of every tax dollar supports our military and that we are the most militarized nation in the world, with a military capacity that exceeds the next nine most militarized nations put together? Can you who are Canadians live easily with the increasing numbers of statistics coming out of every province showing that poverty in not only increasing quite dramatically, but that is also increasingly racialized?
That a United Way study showed that poverty in communities of color across Canada increased by 360% from 1981 to 2000, while among the general population poverty decreased by 28% in the same time period? Our two countries are transforming into places that are irreconcilable with the values that truly engaged citizens would espouse.
And what is most puzzling is the role of nonprofits in any of this. So pausing there, let’s look at the nonprofit sector in the world in Canada.
-Canada has the largest nonprofit workforce in the world, with 12% of Canadians working for nonprofits (compared to 10% in the USA).
-Canada has the second largest nonprofit sector, with the Netherlands being the largest, and Belgium, Ireland and the USA coming in third, fourth and fifth respectively.
-The nonprofit sector in Canada is 7% of the Gross Domestic Product
--There are 161,000 nonprofits in Canada; 56% are registered charities.
--28% of all nonprofits are in Ontario
--29% of all nonprofits are in Quebec
Canadians as Givers
About 30% of all the income of all nonprofits is provided by various levels of government, about 50% of the income is what is called “earned income”—fees for service, products for sale, small businesses that support non profit work, etc. The remaining 20% of the money comes from foundations, corporations and individuals.
In the most recent study to come out of Statistics Canada, which can be found on the Imagine Canada website:
--85% of Canadians made a financial donation in 2006.
--This totaled almost $9 billion.
--Although higher income households gave more money in absolute amounts than lower income households, donors with household incomes of $20,000 gave a greater percentage of their income than any others.
--the 18% of Canadians who are landed immigrants gave 20% of the total value of all donations.
--93%, more than 9 out of 10 people living in Newfoundland, Labrador and Prince Edward Island gave away money.
So we have an interesting problem to solve here. If you think of giving money as one element of citizen engagement, Canadians are very engaged, far more than Americans, where about 70% of Americans give money. Canadians are more likely to give money than to vote, or to volunteer (45%) or to attend any house of worship (19%). In fact, if you were to say what is one thing Canadians have in common, giving away money would be in the running. Canadians also volunteer in huge numbers: 45% of adult population, but when you consider how many people could not volunteer because they are too old or disabled or working several jobs to make ends meet, a very high percentage of people who can volunteer actually do.
The sector is huge, the engagement of people is huge. The sector grows every year, giving grows every year, and what else grows every year? Social problems, environmental degradation, racism, gap between rich and poor. And all of this is just as true and more so in the US. There is something very wrong in that picture. A thriving growing nonprofit sector should be correlated to a decrease in problems and an increase in the quality of life. And the fact that it is not is a question that has bothered me for quite some time.
Not all of them are in our control and new problems arise all the time. But I want to explore just a few of these reasons.
The first is in the notion of social transformation. We want a better, a more just society, but we rarely take the time to articulate a clear and detailed vision of what that means. And when someone does suggest a plan, the first response will be, “can we get it funded?” So often fundraising has been portrayed as the reason why something didn’t happen. “We would have ended sex trafficking but we couldn’t raise the money.” That notion has to be abandoned. When the question of funding is the first one raised, we are already not headed in the right direction. We must be willing to set big goals. We need much bigger goals.
In fundraising people love big goals. People are more likely to give to something big than something small. I see over and over organizations set fundraising goals, and then fall short of them. Their board doesn’t rise to the challenge, their development efforts don’t yield enough, the Executive Director is pulled in a million directions and can’t make the time to raise the money. So the next year they set the same goal, or possibly a lower goal. And you know what happens? They have the same experience. But what is the problem? The problem is that meeting the goal, raising the money they said they needed would only give them the organization they have now—overworked, underpaid, poor infrastructure, old computers, too much to do and too few people to do it. Small victories, large losses. What is the incentive to meet a goal like that? We must think much bigger.
Because it not money that stops us from transforming our society—it is time. So I took the time here to think about this. I was given this time by my residency, which turns out, on reflection, to be a very radical gift. Meg Wheatley says, “If we want our world to be different, our first act needs to be reclaiming time to think. No one will give us this time because thinking is dangerous to the status quo. Those benefiting from the current system have no interest in new ideas. We can’t expect those few who are well served by the current reality to give us the time to think. If we want anything to change, we are the ones who have to reclaim time.”
Or as the Buddha said, “We have so little time, we must proceed very slowly.”
Over the last 30 years, we have been worn down, and our ability to think big has been effected. For example, I started my fundraising career in domestic violence. I worked at a shelter for battered women in San Francisco. At that time, many of us believed that domestic violence would end in our lifetime. Now we see domestic violence programs that start endowments and plan to exist forever. Homeless shelters, which should exist, if they exist at all, as a temporary solution to a temporary problem, now implement planned giving programs. I saw a brochure the other day, “Your bequest will insure that homeless people will always have shelter.” But I want my bequest to insure that their will no longer be homeless people.
Our first task is to create a vision of the kind of society in which we wish to live and pursue that vision. The social activist Dorothy Day, who started the Catholic Worker Movement quoted her teacher, Peter Maurin, as saying that our job is to create a society in which it is not that hard to be good. What would make it not that hard to be good? I am not going to answer that now—those of us participating in the rest of this program will have a chance to work with questions like that for the next three days.
The important thing here is that we each have time to reflect and create a vision, and then to share with each other, to develop perhaps a collective vision. The prophet Joel said, “Without vision, the people perish.” Those of us who look closely at Bible verses note that Joel deliberately makes this plural. “the people perish”—not a person. Progressive social change requires people. And how do we each share our vision? This is the engagement part. We need space and time. Individual people can take time, but we also need to create time in our organizations-collective time. Can we have a staff meeting every couple of months that doesn’t have a dozen things on the agenda? Can reflection be one of the items at our board meetings or Annual General Meetings?
At one time, and perhaps in some places still, this would have been the job of religious institutions. Sometimes, this happens in a family, but that is too scattershot to count on.
The place where it should happen, and when it does, is most successful, is in the university. Holding open space and time for people to think together, to read and reflect, to research and to come back and talk some more.
The space must be peopled with engaged citizens. And this kind of space can be easily privatized. David Bollier, who writes a great deal about the “commons” says in his book, “Silent Theft: Private Plunder of our Common Wealth:, “Any sort of creative endeavor—which is to say progress—requires an open “white space” in which experimentation and new construction can take place. There must be the freedom to try new things. There must be an unregimented work space in which to imagine, tinker and execute new ideas.” When all the space must be funded in order to exist, with imposed quantitative indices and pressure for outcomes, creativity is bureaucratized into narrow paths.
So the first reason non profits don’t live up to their promise is lack of vision. And the second reason is lack of reflective physical and mental space. The Summer Program here at the Institute has been that space. And those of us who have been coming over all these years have been blessed to find it. Looking at time and money, I reaffirmed that time is so NOT money.
But on reflection ourselves, we at the Institute decided to go one step further in creating the space that is needed. The Open University that we are experimenting with this week, is such a space. There has been a lot of discussion and some controversy about not charging fees for this Open University. And it is important to bring this controversy into this talk, and to this week because it is an example of another reason why nonprofits don’t live up to our promise, and that is that we are privatized ourselves. We are monetized everywhere. So that even the notion of “free” comes to mean only that an event will be accessible to people who cannot pay.
Sometimes it is very important to monetize the value of the people who can’t pay so highly that we decide not to charge in order that they can come. But this cannot be the limit of the word free, or it all becomes part of a bottom line—did we make money, did we break even, did we lose money? I am in the money business so these are important questions. But sometimes it is important to refuse bottom line considerations altogether. We claim here at the Open University, a space that is not monetized at all, money is not present here—either present by its presence or present by its absence. This is an open free space, limited only by time. This space is a commons. And those who want a nonprofit sector that will be a force for progressive social transformation must support this kind and this definition of free space.
Finally, I come to movement building. One of the most pernicious and damaging myths that accompany societies that place a lot of emphasis on individual achievement is that idea that one person can make a difference. This is simply not true. Individual people can do amazing things and can be extraordinary leaders, but true change is always brought about by a group. Even individual choices are not what they seem. For example, people who don’t vote will often say, “One vote cannot make a difference.” But if you don’t vote, you are not one person not voting. You are part of the group that doesn’t vote. If you shop at a store where you know the products are produced using sweatshop labor, you may think, “My one t-shirt doesn’t make a difference.” But you have joined the group that shops at that store and you have joined the group that makes the store profitable. One of the most famous stories of the American Civil Rights Movement is that of Rosa Parks.
The story, as is often told, is that Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery, AL on Dec 1,1955, suddenly got fed up with the racially segregated bus system in Montgomery and sat down in the front of the bus, in the white section. She was arrested and suddenly people mobilized to create bus boycott that led the desegregation of buses and started a whole new phase of the civil rights movement. An amazing person. And she was. But the real story is that Rosa Parks had been a civil rights activist for many years by 1955. She was active in the NAACP, and she had recently been at the Highlander Center in Tennessee for a two week training in community organizing. She was there with Myles Horton, the founder, Martin Luther King and a number of other leaders. They were looking for an opportunity to challenge the segregation of the busses because it was one of most galling aspects of segregation. Blacks had to buy a token at the front of the bus, then get off the bus and re-enter through the back door. Sometimes the bus would leave before everyone had a chance to get back on. When the busses were crowded white people could ask blacks to give up their seats in the black section of the bus.
King, Parks and others prepared themselves to be ready to seize an opportunity to boycott the busses. Many people, including dozens of white women, were ready to drive black people to work, fliers were designed waiting for the moment to be printed. Rosa Parks returned to Montgomery and sat actually in the front of the so-called “colored” section of the bus. She was asked to give up her seat by a white person, which she refused. She was arrested. The next day the boycott started. 52,000 fliers were distributed in 24 hours calling for a boycott, which ultimately lasted 381 days.
The real story is much more exciting than the myth. It is a story of movement building, and when the story is revised to make the action of a heroic individual, spontaneous and unsupported, devoid of context, it serves to obscure the power of collective action and it makes all of us feel bad that we don’t think of such amazing actions or that we are not brave enough to act alone. Plus, nonprofits are all over this story— they made it happen. And we need to be much more conscientious about teaching each other our many stories—famous and not so famous, and not let those stories get re-told in ways that undermine our collective engagement.
When we look at nonprofits through the lens of movement building we ask ourselves what is the government is doing while we are doing our work. As Eric Schragge, who is a professor here at Concordia, notes, “As government devolves more and more responsibility to nonprofits, government itself becomes more and more a vehicle for suppression of dissent.” This comes about through anti-terrorism laws, which I spoke about several years ago in this very place, and by making government funding increasingly difficult to manage because of strings attached and reporting requirements, but in much more subtle ways by nonprofits having too much to do to even pay attention to suppression, by increasing competition for funding, and by nonprofits fear of losing funding or tax status. I will start with the last one on that list. Getting charitable status here in Canada is not easy, and so nonprofits go to some lengths to protect it.
But the problem is that we are fetishizing our status to the point where I have had many Executive Directors here in Canada tell me that they cannot speak out on this or that issue for fear of losing their charitable status. Their charitable status becomes more important than telling the truth. This fear abounds with no evidence for its basis. When you look at Revenue Canada and you ask experts what you are and are not allowed to do and say when you have charitable status, you could drive a truck through the law. IT is very broad. Nonprofits cannot endorse a candidate for office. But we absolutely can speak out in favor of some policies and against others, we can condemn or praise actions of officials in the government, we have far more flexibility than we are using. This enclosure is self-made and has no basis in fact.
And, worst case scenario, supposing Revenue Canada were to crack down on a nonprofit for something they said or did that they felt was related to their mission. Who will win in the war of public opinion on that? But our fear is partly of Revenue Canada, but also because of increasing competition for funds, increasing reporting requirements and bureaucracy and lack of time to discuss what all this means, nonprofits here do not have any confidence that if one of us were to be picked off by a hostile government action, that the rest of us would stand up for them. We are too busy protecting and building our organizations and we are not in the movement building business. What would it take for us to guarantee each other that we will stand up for each other?
As government devolves, the tendency of many nonprofits on both sides of the border is to turn to foundations. Because of the rising gap between rich and poor, there are an increasing number of very large foundations. Canada has only a handful at this point. In the USA, we have quite a few. I hear groups here all the time wishing there were more of the really large foundations like the Gates Foundation or the Open Society Institute which is funded by George Soros. In both countries, the very large foundations are influential in setting public policy by what they fund. If the Gates Foundation were a country, what it gives away would put it ahead of the gross domestic product of 48 countries. Their board is unelected and unaccountable. Many foundations on both sides of the border do not accept unsolicited applications. Some of them even start their own programs because apparently they can’t find any existing program that is satisfactory.
So what do nonprofits do? We scramble around trying to figure out who we know who could get us in to this or that foundation. But what we should do is first raise the question, “How does a society allow anyone to accumulate this kind of wealth, and then having accumulated it, give them enormous tax breaks for giving a tiny fraction of it back without using any known democratic process for making those decisions?” Why won’t we ask this question? Because we are frightened of losing our funding, which I might point out we are losing anyway.
I have stood here and been very critical of the nonprofit sector. I believe I am allowed to do that. The nonprofit sector has been and will continue to be my life. But now I want to turn the what I will take back with me to the United States: a number of very important ideas and beliefs.
I love the willingness to engage in conversation, consultation, to really pull people together. In order to make sure that as many people get to speak as possible, we have to take the time for meetings and discussion. Some people will have to have the same conversation several times in order that some other people get to have it for the first time. The places for doing that, the extent to which it is done, is much more developed here than in the USA.
I love the questions people start with. For example, a very large organization that has an endowment of a few million dollars looks at how that money should be invested and starts with the idea that investing in the stock market is immoral. They are not invested in the market at all because they do not believe in that kind of economy. Yet, they know they must use their endowment properly and so they struggle with what to do with that money.
I met with a group of artist run centers, of which I learned there are 22 in Montreal. They have, for the most part, been funded by the government and are now thinking about different options for fundraising. But the first question we discussed is what happens to art, to the definition of art and artists they have developed over the years, when you start seeking funding from other than the government? What happens to the government’s sense of its responsibility to art and artists?
These questions set a very high bar, and I want to bring back with me the idea that we can start with big important questions.
The University of the Streets Café program helped me develop some thoughts that had brought me to Canada in the first place. Many people are so alienated from public life that they don’t really have any opinions. The fact they have a right to an opinion is meaningless when they have no reason to think that anyone will ever be interested in what they think. People need space to form opinions in the presence of other people, not just alone, and to test their thoughts in a safe environment. They need to be asked questions they haven’t thought of, but which make sense once presented. People need to be heard, and they need to practice hearing.
I am in the “answer business” I am a teacher and a consultant. People don’t want answers from me—they want me to ask them questions and help them find their own answers.
I would like to leave behind these thoughts:
I’d like you to imagine that nonprofits can become more self-reliant without letting government off the hook. That self-sufficiency and an entrepreneurial spirit are not inherently bad, but can actually be quite creative.
Having a behemoth neighbor to the south with huge social problems can make you a little too sanguine about your lack of problems here. For example, racism is far larger problem that many white people are willing to acknowledge. Here in Quebec the ongoing struggles around language and identity obscure the fact the thousands of people are arriving here whose first language is neither French nor English. By 2017, almost the entire service labor force in Canada will be newcomers. Even now, poverty is increasingly racialized and it will get much worse, if you don’t act soon.
The reason I have raised these issues with you is because I believe, in spite of all our problems, we of the nonprofit sector are the last best hope for change. We have the money and we have the people to build the world we imagine. We must not be talked out of it or talked down from it. It will take time, more than my lifetime certainly, but possibly not more than some of yours. We want joy from our work. Those of us who have made social justice work our lives entered it because it gave us strength and excitement.
The set up now often just makes us exhausted. The biggest piece of work to be done in our communities is creating community. Not returning to some 1950’s and 60’s idea of it, homogeneous and rule bound communities of my childhood in which no one was gay and no one married outside their race or their religion, full of stereotypes, where questioning authority was forbidden. Not returning to the 1970’s of my coming of age, where everything was questioned, but root problems still were not addressed, such as racism and sexism. And certainly not returning to the “me” decade of the 90’s. We will not return to any previous way of life—we will take what worked and lessons we learned, but we will give ourselves permission, particularly our young people, to create, for the first time, a community that works, and then the work of citizen engagement will be continuing to build on that work.
- Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 13:34:18 (PDT)
"Tristan Corbiere And The Poetics Of Irony" -- Est un puissant et impressionnant en lecture poétique et d'ironie.
Suzanne.
- Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 09:35:51 (PDT)
Hey... i am really surprised to see this thing up and going..you folks are crazy. ;) well..This is Anna Blomqvist looking for Quemby Prater. I thought it would be cool to facebook her but i dont know if Prater is still her last name, maybe she got married..who knows? anyway.. should you see this.. facebook me. anna blomqvist of the Swedish network..(if not italian or australian).
Paul McCartney will help Quebec City celebrate its 400th anniversary by performing in the French-Canadian province on July 20th. The former Beatle will perform at the city’s Plains of Abraham. QUEBEC CITY, Quebec - On July 3, 1608, French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded a fur-trading post on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. Yes, iIt all started July 3, 1608, for the French-speaking people of the Americas. When Samuel de Champlain decided to settle in Kébec, “where the river narrows,” little did he suspect that it would mark the beginning of the great transatlantic French adventure. All previous colonization attempts had failed – meaning lost at sea (sunk). However, Aall in all, after much struggle and arduous work Champlain’s fur-trading post is now one of the oldest cities in North America. And so this summer, Quebec City celebrates four centuries of French heritage with many inspiring series of exhibits, festivals and performances.
I think by the fire under the starlight about things that I saw about flowers of the field and butterflies in summers that went quickly
About gossamer strands and yellow leaves in autumns past
With mist and silver sun and winds upon my hair
I think by the fire in shadow, how the world will be when the winter comes without a spring that I shall not see
For many things there are yet that I never saw
In the wood in every spring there are new green things
I sit by the fire and think about people in old times
And people who will see a world that I will see on no day
But when I, by the fading fire, think about ancient days
I listen for returning feet and voices at the door.
- Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 08:53:57 (PDT)
Hobbit Like Human Ancestor Found in Asia.
Hillary Mayell, National Geographic.
Scientists have found skeletons of a hobbit-like species of human that grew no larger than a three-year-old modern child. The tiny humans, who had skulls about the size of grapefruits, lived with pygmy elephants and Komodo dragons on a remote island in Indonesia 18,000 years ago.
Australian and Indonesian researchers discovered bones of the miniature humans in a cave on Flores, an island east of Bali and midway between Asia and Australia.
Scientists have determined that the first skeleton they found belongs to a species of human completely new to science. Named Homo floresiensis, after the island on which it was found, the tiny human has also been dubbed by dig workers as the "hobbit," after the tiny creatures from the Lord of the Rings books.
The original skeleton, a female, stood at just 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall, weighed about 25 kilograms (55 pounds), and was around 30 years old at the time of her death 18,000 years ago.
The skeleton was found in the same sediment deposits on Flores that have also been found to contain stone tools and the bones of dwarf elephants, giant rodents, and Komodo dragons, lizards that can grow to 10 feet (3 meters) and that still live today.
Homo floresienses has been described as one of the most spectacular discoveries in paleoanthropology in half a century—and the most extreme human ever discovered.
The species inhabited Flores as recently as 13,000 years ago, which means it would have lived at the same time as modern humans, scientists say.
"To find that as recently as perhaps 13,000 years ago, there was another upright, bipedal—although small-brained—creature walking the planet at the same time as modern humans is as exciting as it was unexpected," said Peter Brown, a paleoanthropologist at the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia.
Brown is a co-author of the study describing the findings, which appears in the October 28 issue of the science journal Nature. The National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration has sponsored research related to the discovery. The find will be covered in greater detail in a documentary airing early next year on the National Geographic Channel.
"It is totally unexpected," said Chris Stringer, director of the Human Origins program at the Natural History Museum in London. "To have early humans on the remote island of Flores is surprising enough. That some are only about a meter tall with a chimp-size brain is even more remarkable. That they were still there less than 20,000 years ago, and [that] modern humans must have met them, is astonishing."
The researchers estimate that the tiny people lived on Flores from about 95,000 years ago until at least 13,000 years ago. The scientists base their theory on charred bones and stone tools found on the island. The blades, perforators, points, and other cutting and chopping utensils were apparently used to hunt big game.
In an accompanying Nature commentary, Marta Mirazón Lahr and Robert Foley, both with the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at the University of Cambridge, England, describe Homo floresiensis as changing our understanding of late human evolutionary geography, biology, and culture.
The discovery shows that the genus Homo is more varied and more flexible in its ability to adapt than previously thought. (The genus Homo also includes modern humans, Homo erectus, Homo habilis, and Neandertals—all of which are marked by relatively large braincases, erect posture, opposable thumbs, and the ability to make tools.)
"Homo floresiensis is an addition to the short list of other human species that lived at the same time as modern humans. I think people will be surprised to learn that not so long ago, we were not alone," said Brown.
Lost World of Tiny People
Despite its smaller body size, smaller brain, and mixture of primitive and advanced anatomical features, the new species falls firmly within the genus Homo. The researchers speculate that the hobbit and her peers evolved from a normal-size, island-hopping Homo erectus population that reached Flores around 840,000 years ago.
"Physically, they were about the size of a three-year old Homo sapiens [modern human] child, but with a braincase only one-third as large," said Richard Roberts, a geochronologist at the University of Wollongong, Australia, and one on the co-authors of the research paper. "They had slightly longer arms than us. More conspicuously, they had hard, thicker eyebrow ridges than us, a sharply sloping forehead, and no chin."
"While they don't look like modern humans, some of their behaviors were surprisingly human," said Brown, the study co-author.
The Flores people used fire in hearths for cooking and hunted stegodon, a primitive dwarf elephant found on the island. Although small, the stegodon still weighed about 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds), and would pose a significant challenge to a hunter the size of a three-year-old modern human child. Hunting must have required joint communication and planning, the researchers say.
Almost all of the stegodon bones associated with the human artifacts are of juveniles, suggesting the tiny humans selectively hunted the smallest stegodons. The Flores humans' diets also included fish, frogs, snakes, tortoises, birds, and rodents.
"The hobbit was nobody's fool," Roberts said. "They survived alongside us [Homo sapiens] for at least 30,000 years, and we're not known for being very amiable eco-companions. And the hobbits were managing some extraordinary things—manufacturing sophisticated stone tools, hunting pygmy elephants, and crossing at least two water barriers to reach Flores from mainland Asia—with a brain only one-third the size of ours.
"Given that Homo floresiensis is the smallest human species ever discovered, they out-punch every known human intellectually, pound for pound."
Both the tiny humans and the dwarfed elephants appear to have become extinct at about the same time as the result of a major volcanic eruption.
Mingling of the Human Tribes
There is no evidence of modern humans reaching Flores before 11,000 years ago, so it is unknown whether the hobbit intermingled with modern humans. The researchers found hobbit and pygmy stegodon remains only below a 12,000-year-old volcanic ash layer. Modern human remains were found only above the layer.
Still, rumors, myths, and legends of tiny creatures have swirled around the isolated island for centuries. It's certainly possible that they interacted with modern humans, according to the researchers.
"Looked at from a regional perspective, we definitely have modern humans in Australia from at least 40,000 years ago, and in Borneo from at least 43,000 years ago," Roberts said. "So there was temporal overlap between the hobbits and ourselves from at least 40,000 years ago until at least 18,000 years ago—more than 20,000 years minimum. What was the nature of their interaction? We have absolutely no idea. We need more sites and more hard evidence, and that's the next phase of our investigation."
Island Dwarfing
Researchers are also anxious to investigate how and why the hobbits came to be so small. When scientists discovered the hobbit remains, they thought it was the skeleton of a child. There was no record of human adults that were that small. Modern pygmies are considerably taller at about 1.4 to 1.5 meters (4.6 to nearly 5 feet) tall.
"H. floresiensis presents an intriguing problem in evolutionary biology," Brown said.
The most likely explanation is that, over thousands of years, the species became smaller because environmental conditions favored smaller body size. Dwarfing of mammals on islands is a well-known process and seen worldwide.
Islands frequently provide a limited food supply, few predators, and few species competing for the same environmental niche. Survival would depend on minimizing daily energy requirements. But there is no absolute proof that this is what in fact happened with this small human.
"While there are stone tools dated as far back as 840,000 years ago, no fossils of large-bodied ancestors have ever been found" on Flores, Brown said. "There is some possibility [Homo floresiensis] arrived on the island small-bodied."
"I could not have predicted such a discovery in a million years," said Stringer, of London's Natural History Museum. "This find shows us how much we still have to learn about human evolution, particularly in Southeast Asia."
- Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 08:41:08 (PDT)
Comedian George Carlin dies at 71
Anti-Establishment icon gained fame with his ‘Seven Dirty Words’ routine.
- Sunday, June 22, 2008 at 23:50:12 (PDT)
The Countdown Has Begun!
June 4th 2008
Email Wave Countdown Campaign.
300 DAYS to the end of federal homelessness funding!
As of June 4th, the Homeless Partnering Initiative (HPI) ends in 300 days on March 31st, 2009. We invite you to participate in the first wave of a Countdown Campaign asking the Conservative government to make an announcement NOW.
Send it to the Prime Minister at Harper.S@parl.gc.ca and to the Minister responsible for HPI, Monte Solberg at Solberg.M@parl.gc.ca.
300 days is very little time to prepare and announce a new program, to get the funding in place, to insure a renewal for projects that are currently funded and/or to develop new projects. Communities across Canada desperately need these funds to help homeless people and those at risk of homelessness.
In Ottawa from January 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009, federal funding will provide a total of $ 8,261,000 to 24 organizations. In spite of the current combination of federal, city and provincial funds, there were 8,915 individuals who stayed in an emergency shelter last year and an additional 9,567 households who were helped to remain housed in 2007. The latest census found that 12% of the Ottawa population or 95,691 individuals live on low incomes after tax which puts many of them at risk of becoming homeless.
Imagine what the loss of federal dollars will mean to our community's ability to end homelessness.
The Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa hopes the Prime Minister will listen to concerned people in Canada and in the meanwhile we are calling on the federal government to act to:
1. Create a National Housing Strategy that clearly defines direct federal responsibility for funding affordable housing and supportive and supported housing.
2. Put in place long-term and sustained funding to support our community's capacity to end homelessness.
3. Increase significantly the rates of and access to federal income support programs:
Employment Insurance, Canadian Pension Plan, Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement.
Thank you for you support.
- Tuesday, June 03, 2008 at 12:31:26 (PDT)
Conservatives fail Canada's Aboriginal peoples.
Canada's First Nations gathered on Thursday to stage a Day of Action - the second in two years - to draw attention to the broken promises of the Conservative government regarding the Kelowna Accord and the government's failure to build a relationship with Canada's Aboriginal peoples.
Since coming into power, the Conservatives abandoned the Kelowna Accord and left First Nations people with few alternatives to address the issues of health, education and infrastructure that confront their communities. They also reduced the capital budget for on-reserve schools and indefinitely delayed the construction and repair of schools in communities across Canada. Last year, they voted against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
As a result, this year's Day of Action puts a strong, clear focus on the plight of First Nations children who are paying a very high price for this government's failures.
The Conservatives need to wake up and understand that the time for action is now. Both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians deserve more from their government than the Conservatives' lackadaisical attitude.
On the eve the of the Day of Action, Stéphane Dion met with Phil Fontaine, Assembly of First Nations' National Chief, to discuss issues facing Aboriginal Canadians.
- Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 08:20:15 (PDT)
Dearest readers,
(title of a poem or open stereotyped editorial?)
For an indeterminate length of time, I have not addressed an audience of magnitude. My seeming indifference is none but a defensive ruse, I suspect. Within this mortal casing, dual entities wage a fierce, then wearied, battle.
If you dare, grasp a fleeting moment from the toils of the hour to ponder a timeless question with me:
At precisely what point does the human spirit perceive that the sledgehammer subtleties of progressive loss have reached the incalculable torment wrought by abandonment in total?
Abandonment by whom...or what, say you?
Ah...therein lies the real question.
The answers provoke; they gnaw the slumber from nerve endings. They soak, simmer, and seethe--do they eventually and finally consume?
Ah. Another question!
Kindest regards, (a cheery tune hummed to the rattle of chains)
Edgar Poe
PS: Eureka--have I lost it?
- Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 22:15:52 (PDT)
Anima mundi: The constant state of Being by which this world is indeed a living Being endowed with a soul and intelligence ... a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related.
Plato, Timaeus, 29/30; 4th century BCE.
- Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 11:16:58 (PDT)
- Saturday, May 17, 2008 at 07:25:49 (PDT)
2181 Rue de Bordeaux, Delorimier, QC
- Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 19:12:37 (PDT)
Jeudi le 8 mai, 19h à 21h
Café Culturel Volver, 5604 Parc. Montréal.
Art et Oppression: À quelles fins utilisons-nous l’art?
À quelles fins utilisons-nous l’art? Est-ce dans un but divin et pour adorer Dieu ? Ou pour nous libérer de l’oppression ? Ou encore pour faire de la propagande ? Aujourd’hui et à notre âge, que signifie la création pour nous? Est-ce que l’art existe, tel une force capable de modifier le cours de l’histoire ? Ou l’art est-il simplement devenu un autre bien de consommation que nous produisons, consommons et dont nous débarrassons après usage ? Venez discuter du rôle de l’art dans notre société.
Invités: Pascal Contamine partage son temps entre l'écriture, la mise en scène, l'interprétation, les arts multidisciplinaires et l'enseignement. Il est le fondateur et directeur artistique du CIRAAM, www.ciraam.info. En parallèle, il a développé un grand intérêt pour le mouvement (kalaripayattu, wushu, capoiera, danse, mime...), participé à divers projets multimedia et réalisé deux court métrage.
Ilona Dougherty est directrice exécutive de Apathy is Boring www.apathyisboring.com, un organisme national non partisan dont le but est d’utiliser l’art et la technologie pour réinsérer les jeunes dans le processus démocratique. Elle a récemment été nommée l’une des cinq femmes qui contribuent à changer le monde et est à l’honneur dans le livre Notes form Canada’s Young Activists, publié par Severn Suzuki.
Modératrice: Lynne Cooper sort du lot de par son histoire tout à fait originale: celle d’une immigrante polyglotte chilienne-trinidadienne-britannique, elle est aussi une artiste de scène et de guérilla théâtrale. Elle surfe aux commandes de Santropol Roulant, s’amuse follement dans son rôle de directrice artistique de Sunk in the Trunk et ne se tient plus de joie lorsqu’elle découvre d’autres façons d’utiliser les arts comme outil de développement communautaire.
- Monday, May 05, 2008 at 07:44:26 (PDT)
Mis U lotz Rob!
- Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 10:08:49 (PDT)
Miss U lotz Rob!
- Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 10:08:00 (PDT)
Change the World.
Michelle Spottedhorse.
hey wats up all people out there my name iz michelle and im 14 years old nuttin to say so mabey comment me and ill tell you more but if you a h8a then get the fuck off my page..oh also
Roses are red NATIVES are brown
That's my race so don't fuck around
My NATIVE pride I will not hide
My NATIVE race I will not disgrace
My NATIVE blood flows hot & true
My NATIVE peeps I will stand by you
Thru thick & thin till the day we die
Our NATIVE flag always stands high
I yell this poem louder than all the rest
Cuz every1 knows NATIVES ARE THE BEST!!!
NATIVE pride in my mind
NATIVE blood is my kind
So step aside and let me through
Cuz it's all about the NATIVE crew
Life sucks and then you die
But if you're NATIVE you die with PRIDE!!!!
IF YOU NATIVE AND YOUR PROUD OF IT
SEND THIS TO ALL YA HOMIES THAT YOU KNOW
WHO ARE DOWN WITH THE NATIVE YOU KNOW I BE REPPEN CRIPS CUZ BLOODZ ARE A PIECE OF SHYT
Michelle Spottedhorse says, "I really wish that I HADNT LOST MI BESTEST CUZN ROBERT BETO MANUEL RAMON HE WILL NEVER BE 4 GOTTEN !
- Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 10:04:29 (PDT)
Jeudi le 24 avril • 19h à 21h Café Culturel Volver, 5604 ave du Parc, Montréal.
Art et Oppression: Est-ce que l’argent modifie notre façon de créer?
Nous vivons dans une société où l’art est consommé rapidement. Comment cela influence-t-il la façon dont nous créons? Est-ce que le type de subvention (privée ou gouvernementale) change quelque chose à notre façon de faire de l’art ou au résultat final? Sommes-nous libres de créer ce que nous voulons lorsque l’argent investi dans le projet ne provient pas du créateur lui-même?
- Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 07:01:32 (PDT)
EARTHQUAKE! gimmie that bottle, Schtevie--whole lotta shakin' goin' on--AGAIN.
- Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 23:55:11 (PDT)
- Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 07:15:59 (PDT)
a dark heart burns
celestial sun
- Friday, April 18, 2008 at 20:48:29 (PDT)
.....FREE MY CROWN BOTTLE !!! .........puhleeeezz
- Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 18:57:06 (PDT)
Every once in awhile just let go of the steering
wheel and trust there will be someone to help drive.
Fly on, Little Wing...........
- Saturday, April 12, 2008 at 11:14:16 (PDT)
Hi George that Richard Gere film in "Spring Break in Bosnia" or The Hunting Party" is a cool movie.
Change the World in a Café.
Soufia Bensaïd, via The Metro (Presse papier). 07 April 2008.
Thinking on the University of the Streets Café via Concordia University is about people communicating their Life journey’s knowledge to one another in a free flowing way, that opens us to new awareness. And giving his views in a public place, like a garden of learning, is the formula of a university and it islike no other. The University otherwise: In cafés proposes a new way of learning by participating spontaneously in public conversations in cafes.
"These meetings, everyone can participate. They teach us to commit ourselves with others, to talk and listen to other opinions, "says the fiery coordinator appointments, Elizabeth Hunt, in an interview at Subway. They also learn to demystify the idea that we have to be an expert to give his opinion on a matter that concerns us. "
A concept Montreal: This concept, now widespread in cafes in Vancouver, has sprouted in Montreal in 2003 at Concordia University. The formula is simple: a social issue important, a veteran, two or three special guests who transmit knowledge theoretical or practical, a friendly atmosphere and the world in coffee. All those present can react and embarking on the conversation.
"I emerged from this meeting more informed," said Hani Patric,
Participating in a public conversation about what is on your plate. I changed the way I eat since, I buy more "responsible". Moreover, when the "lay" confront me in relation to it, I am more able to explain the real issues involved, I am more convincing. "
Transforming society ...
When the Institute for Community Development at Concordia University has launched another way: In the cafes, the goal was to create spaces that allow citizens to learn and participate voluntarily to the social dynamics. These exchanges are in fact perceived as part of the process of social transformation of the community.
In a society where people from diverse backgrounds, with bold different cultural baggage, University otherwise: In cafés inspired by the popular education which is transmitted through the floor. "The idea is to give the opportunity for people to talk together and see what kinds of visions and perspectives are issued each other," says the coordinator of these meetings.
Like pubs of yesteryear where members of a group gathered to remake the world, the university differently: in cafes offering Montrealers to continue learning, to go further in their commitment and " deepen their reflection.
"The other side of the coin is that we do not know the impact of these conversations in the community and what people pose in the future," says Mme Hunt.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper slammed for refusing to discipline MP over homophobic slur. The Canadian Press.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is subtly condoning bigotry by refusing to discipline a Conservative MP over a vulgar anti-gay slur, say the Liberals.
Liberal MP Scott Brison, one of several gay MPs, said Harper's refusal to strip Tom Lukiwski MP of his duties as a parliamentary secretary "debases" the institution of Parliament.
The prime minister's "tepid" response to the affair also suggests that "hate prejudice and bigotry are just fine in his Canada," Brison told the House of Commons on Friday.
Lukiwski was caught on videotape during a boozy party at Progressive Conservative campaign headquarters during the 1991 Saskatchewan election. He pontificated about the difference between himself and "homosexual faggots with dirt in their fingernails that transmit diseases."
The Regina MP apologized Thursday and repeated that Friday to the House. In particular, he sought the forgiveness of gay friends and colleagues whom he acknowledged must have been aghast at his comments.
"To them I say, I'm truly sorry . . . To the entire gay and lesbian community, I also want to extend my deepest and most abject apologies."
He said the remarks were "stupid, thoughtless and insensitive," and do not reflect his personal beliefs.
MP Peter Van Loan, the government's House leader, said the government is satisfied that Lukiwski's apology was "quick, complete and unequivocal" and declared the matter closed.
Lukiwski made no attempt to rationalize his remarks or explain the context in which they were uttered. Indeed, he said the gay and lesbian community is justified in being furious with him.
"The comments I made . . . should not be tolerated in any society. They should not be tolerated today, they should not have been tolerated in 1991, they should not have been tolerated in years previous to that."
Lukiwski insisted he is not anti-gay and the comments don't reflect his personal beliefs either then or now.
"Which lends itself to the obvious question . . . if I didn't mean what I said why did I say those things to begin with? The only explanation, Mr. Speaker, that I can give to you and the members of this House is that I was stupid, thoughtless and insensitive."
Lukiwski concluded: "I will spend the rest of my career and my life trying to make up for those shameless comments."
Saskatchewan New Democrats found the videotape of Lukiwski, Premier Brad Wall and others, which contains sexist, racist and homophobic comments.
- Sunday, April 06, 2008 at 06:31:30 (PDT)
The Framing of Immigration.
By George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson
(c) 2006, 2008 The Rockridge Institute.
Framing is at the center of the recent immigration debate. Simply framing it as about "immigration" has shaped its politics, defining what count as "problems" and constraining the debate to a narrow set of issues. The language is telling. The linguistic framing is remarkable: frames for illegal immigrant, illegal alien, illegals, undocumented workers, undocumented immigrants, guest workers, temporary workers, amnesty, and border security. These linguistic expressions are anything but neutral. Each framing defines the problem in its own way, and hence constrains the solutions needed to address that problem. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we will analyze the framing used in the public debate. Second, we suggest some alternative framing to highlight important concerns left out of the current debate. Our point is to show that the relevant issues go far beyond what is being discussed, and that acceptance of the current framing impoverishes the discussion.
On May 15th, in an address from the Oval Office, President Bush presented his proposal for "comprehensive immigration reform."
The term "immigration reform" evokes an issue-defining conceptual frame - The Immigration Problem Frame - a frame that imposes a structure on the current situation, defines a set of "problems" with that situation, and circumscribes the possibility for "solutions."
"Reform," when used in politics, indicates there is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed - take "medicare reform," "lobbying reform," "social security reform." The noun that's attached to reform - "immigration" - points to where the problem lies. Whatever noun is attached to "reform" becomes the locus of the problem and constrains what counts as a solution.
To illustrate, take "lobbying reform." In the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, "lobbying reform" was all the talk in the media and on Capitol Hill. The problem defined by this frame has to do with lobbyists. As a "lobbyist" problem, the solutions focused on Congressional rules regarding lobbyists. The debate centered around compensated meals, compensated trips, access by former Congressmen (who inevitably become lobbyists) to the floor of the Senate and House of representatives, lobbying disclosure, lobbyists' access to Congressional staff and the period of time between leaving the Congress and becoming a registered lobbyists.
Indeed, if the reform needed is "lobbying reform," these are reasonable solutions. But, the term "Congressional ethics reform" would have framed a problem of a much different nature, a problem with Congressmen. And it would allow very different reforms to count as solutions. After all, lobbyists are powerless if there's nobody to accept a free meal, fly on a private plane, play a round of golf in the Bahamas and, most importantly, accept the political contributions lobbyists raise on their behalf from special-interests with billions of dollars in business before the federal Government. A solution could, for example, have been Full Public Financing of Elections and free airtime for political candidates as part of the licensing of the public's airwaves to private corporations. The "lobbying reform" framing of the issue precluded such considerations from discussion, because they don't count as solutions to the "lobbying" problem. Issue-defining frames are powerful.
"Immigration reform" also evokes an issue-defining frame. Bush, in his speech, pointed out the problems that this frame defines. First, the Government has "not been in complete control of its borders." Second, millions are able to "sneak across our border" seeking to make money. Finally, once here, illegal immigrants sometimes forge documents to get work, skirting labor laws, and deceiving employers who attempt to follow the law. They may take jobs away from legal immigrants and ordinary Americans, bear children who will be American citizens even in they are not, and use local services like schools and hospitals, which may cost a local government a great deal. This is his definition of the problem in the Immigration Reform frame.
This definition of the problem focuses entirely on the immigrants and the administrative agencies charged with overseeing immigration law. The reason is that these are the only roles present in the Immigration Problem Frame.
Bush's "comprehensive solution" entirely concerns the immigrants, citizenship laws, and the border patrol. And, from the narrow problem identified by framing it as an "immigration problem," Bush's solution is comprehensive. He has at least addressed everything that counts as a problem in the immigration frame.
But the real problem with the current situation runs broader and deeper. Consider the issue of Foreign Policy Reform, which focuses on two sub-issues:
* How has US foreign policy placed, or kept, in power oppressive governments which people are forced to flee?'
* What role have international trade agreements had in creating or exacerbating people's urge to flee their homelands? If capital is going to freely cross borders, should people and labor be able to do so as well, going where globalization takes the jobs?
Such a framing of the problem would lead to a solution involving the Secretary of State, conversations with Mexico and other Central American countries, and a close examination of the promises of NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank to raise standards of living around the globe. It would inject into the globalization debate a concern for the migration and displacement of people, not simply globalization's promise for profits. This is not addressed when the issue is defined as the "immigration problem." Bush's "comprehensive solution" does not address any of these concerns. The immigration problem, in this light, is actually a globalization problem.
Perhaps the problem might be better understood as a humanitarian crisis. Can the mass migration and displacement of people from their homelands at a rate of 800,000 people a year be understood as anything else? Unknown numbers of people have died trekking through the extreme conditions of the Arizona and New Mexico desert. Towns are being depopulated and ways of life lost in rural Mexico. Fathers feel forced to leave their families in their best attempt to provide for their kids. Everyday, boatloads of people arrive on our shores after miserable journeys at sea in deplorable conditions.
As a humanitarian crisis, the solution could involve The UN or the Organization of American States. But these bodies do not have roles in the immigration frame, so they have no place in an "immigration debate." Framing this as just an "immigration problem" prevents us from penetrating deeper into the issue.
The current situation can also be seen as a civil rights problem. The millions of people living here who crossed illegally are for most intents and purposes Americans. They work here. They pay taxes here. Their kids are in school here. They plan to raise their families here. For the most part, they are assimilated into the American system, but are forced to live underground and in the shadows because of their legal status. They are denied ordinary civil rights. The "immigration problem" framing overlooks their basic human dignity.
Perhaps most pointedly, the "immigration problem" frame blocks an understanding of this issue as a cheap labor issue. The undocumented immigrants allow employers to pay low wages, which in turn provide the cheap consumer goods we find at WalMart and McDonalds. They are part of a move towards the cheap lifestyle, where employers and consumers find any way they can to save a dollar, regardless of the human cost. Most of us partake in this cheap lifestyle, and as a consequence, we are all complicit in the current problematic situation. Business, Consumers and Government have turned a blind eye to the problem for so long because our entire economy is structured around subsistence wages. Americans won't do the work immigrants do not because they don't want to, but because they won't do it for such low pay. Since Bush was elected, corporate profits have doubled but there has been no increase in wages. This is really a wage problem. The workers who are being more productive are not getting paid for their increased productivity.
A solution to the "immigration problem" will not address these concerns because they are absent from the "immigration frame."
Framing matters. The notion of this as "an immigration problem" needing "immigration reform" is not neutral.
Surface Framing: We now turn from conceptual framing of the current situation to the words used and surface frames those words evoke.
The Illegal Frame: The Illegal Frame is perhaps the most commonly used frame within the immigration debate. Journalists frequently refer to "illegal immigrants" as if it were a neutral term. But the illegal frame is highly structured. It frames the problem as one about the illegal act of crossing the border without papers. As a consequence, it fundamentally frames the problem as a legal one.
Think for a moment of a criminal. Chances are you thought about a robber, a murderer or a rapist. These are prototypical criminals, people who do harm to a person or their property. And prototypical criminals are assumed to be bad people.
"Illegal," used as an adjective in "illegal immigrants" and "illegal aliens," or simply as a noun in "illegals" defines the immigrants as criminals, as if they were inherently bad people. In conservative doctrine, those who break laws must be punished - or all law and order will break down. Failure to punish is immoral.
"Illegal alien" not only stresses criminality, but stresses otherness. As we are a nation of immigrants, we can at least empathize with immigrants, illegal or not. "Aliens," in popular culture suggests nonhuman beings invading from outer space - completely foreign, not one of us, intent on taking over our land and our way of life by gradually insinuating themselves among us. Along these lines, the word "invasion" is used by the Minutemen and right-wing bloggers to discuss the wave of people crossing the border. Right-wing language experts intent on keep them out suggest using the world "aliens" whenever possible.
These are NOT neutral terms. Imagine calling businessmen who once cheated on their taxes "illegal businessmen." Imagine calling people who have driven over the speed limit "illegal drivers." Is Tom Delay an "illegal Republican?"
By defining them as criminal, it overlooks the immense contributions these immigrants subsequently make by working hard for low wages. This is work that should more than make up for crossing the border. Indeed, we should be expressing our gratitude.
Immigrants who cross outside of legal channels, though, are committing offenses of a much different nature than the prototypical criminal. Their intent is not to cause harm or to steal. More accurately, they are committing victimless technical offenses, which we normally consider "violations." By invoking the illegal frame, the severity of their offense is inflated.
The illegal frame - particularly "illegal alien" - dehumanizes. It blocks the questions of: why are people coming to the US, often times at great personal risk? What service do they provide when they are here? Why do they feel it necessary to avoid legal channels? It boils the entire debate down to questions of legality.
And it also ignores the illegal acts of employers. The problem is not being called the Illegal Employer Problem, and employers are not called "illegals."
The Security Frame: The logical response to the "wave" of "illegal immigration" becomes "border security." The Government has a responsibility to provide security for its citizens from criminals and invaders. President Bush has asked to place the National Guard on the border to provide security. Indeed, he referred to "security" six times in his immigration speech.
Additionally, Congress recently appropriated money from the so-called "war on terror" for border security with Mexico. This should outrage the American public. How could Congress conflate the war on terror with illegal immigration? Terrorists come to destroy the American dream, immigrants - both documented and undocumented - come to live the American dream. But the conceptual move from illegal immigrant (criminal, evil), to border security to a front of the war on terror, an ever expanding war against evil in all places and all times wherever it is, is not far.
It is this understanding of the issue that also prompted the House to pass the punitive HR 4437, which includes a provision to make assisting illegal immigrants while they are here a felony. It is seen as aiding and abetting a criminal.
But how could this be a "security" issue? Security implies that there is a threat, and a threatened, and that the threatened needs protection. These immigrants are not a physical threat, they are a vital part of our economy and help America function. They don't want to shoot us or kill us or blow us up. They only want to weed our gardens, clean our houses, and cook our meals in search of the American Dream. They must be recognized as Americans making a vital impact and contribution. And when they are, we will cease to tolerate the substandard conditions in which they are forced to work and live. No American - indeed, no person - should be treated so brashly.
Amnesty: "Amnesty" also fits the Illegal Frame. Amnesty is a pardoning of an illegal action - a show of either benevolence or mercy by a supreme power. It implies that the fault lies with the immigrants, and it is a righteous act for the US Government to pardon them. This again blocks the reality that Government looks the other way, and Business has gone much further - it has been a full partner in creating the current situation. If amnesty is to be granted, it seems that amnesty should be given to the businesses who knowingly or unknowingly hired the immigrants and to the Government for turning a blind eye. But amnesty to these parties is not considered, because it's an "immigration problem." Business has no role in this frame, and Government can't be given amnesty for not enforcing its own laws.
The Undocumented Worker Frame
By comparison, the term "undocumented worker" activates a conceptual frame that seems less accusatory and more compassionate than the "illegal" frame. But a closer look reveals fundamental problems with this framing.
First, the negative "undocumented" suggests that they should be documented - that there is something wrong with them if they are not. Second, "worker" suggests that their function in America is only to work, not to be educated, have families, form communities, have lives - and vote! This term was suggested by supporters of the immigrants as less noxious than illegal aliens, and it is, but it has serious limitations. It accepts the framing of immigrants as being here only to work.
Temporary Workers
"Undocumented workers" opened the door to Bush's new proposal for "temporary workers," who come to America for a short time, work for low wages, do not vote, have few rights and services, and then go home so that a new wave of workers without rights, or the possibility of citizenship and voting, can come in.
This is thoroughly undemocratic and serves the financial and electoral interests of conservatives.
This term replaced "guest worker," which was ridiculed. Imagine inviting some to dinner as a guest and then asking him to pick the vegetables, cook the dinner, and wash the dishes!
Frames Not Taken
Most of the framing initiative has been taken by conservatives. Progressives have so far abstained.
Progressives could well frame the situation as the Cheap Labor Issue or the Cheap Lifestyle Issue. Most corporations use the common economic metaphor of labor as a resource. There are two kinds of employees - the Assets (creative people and managers) and Resources (who are relatively unskilled, fungible, interchangeable). The American economy is structured to drive down the cost of resources - that is, the wages of low-skilled, replaceable workers.
Immigration increases the supply of such workers and helps to drive down wages. Cheap labor increases "productivity" and profits for employers, and it permits a cheap lifestyle for consumers who get low prices because of cheap labor. But these are not seen as "problems." They are benefits. And people take these benefits for granted. They are not grateful to the immigrants who make them possible. Gratitude. The word is hardly ever spoken in the discourse over immigration.
Now consider the frame defined by the term "economic refugee." A refugee is a person who has fled their homeland, due to political or social strife, and seeks asylum in another country. An economic refugee would extend this category (metaphorically, not legally, though it might be shifted legally in the future) to include people fleeing their homeland as a result of economic insecurity.
Refugees are worthy of compassion. We should accept them into our nation. All people are entitled to a stable political community where they have reasonable life prospects to lead a fulfilling life - this is the essence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
To frame the debate this way is to advance a progressive understanding. While immigrants are here, they should be integrated into society either temporarily, if conditions improve in their home country, or permanently, if they can integrate and become productive members of our nation. It will focus solutions on US foreign policy to be about people, not profits. The only way the migration of people from the South to the North will stop is when conditions are improved there. As long as there is a pull to the North and a push from the South, people will find their way over, no matter how big, how long or how guarded a border fence is. (As an aside, who will build that fence if all the undocumented immigrants leave?) Increased security will force people to find ever more dangerous crossings, as has already happened, without slowing the flow of immigrants. More people will die unnecessarily.
Even if we could "protect" ourselves by sealing the border and preventing businesses from hiring undocumented immigrants by imposing hefty fines or prison sentences for violations, progressives should not be satisfied. This still leaves those yearning to flee their own countries in search of a better life in deplorable situations. The problem is not dealt with by making the United States a gated community.
While these refugees are here, they must be treated with dignity and respect. Indeed, if they cannot return home, we have a responsibility to welcome them into ours. And we must treat them as Americans, not as second-class citizens, as they are currently. If they are here, they work hard and contribute to society, they are worthy of a path to citizenship and the basic rights we are entitled to (a minimum wage, education, healthcare, a social safety net).
Currently, the undocumented immigrants living amongst us are un-enfranchised workers. They perform all the work, pay all the duties, and receive many fewer of the benefits - especially voting rights. They must be given an opportunity to come out of the shadows and lead normal lives as Americans.
The answer to this problem isn't an "open-border." The United States cannot take on the world's problems on its own. Other affluent countries need to extend a humanitarian arm to peoples fleeing oppressive economic circumstances as well. How many immigrants the United States should be willing to accept will ultimately be up to Congress.
In presenting these alternative frames, we want to inject humanitarian concerns based in compassion and empathy into the debate. The problem is dealing adequately with a humanitarian crisis that extends well beyond the southern border. The focus must shift from the immigrants themselves and domestic policy to a broader view of why so many people flee, and how we can help alleviate conditions in Mexico and Central America to prevent the flow in the first place. Only by reframing of the debate can we incorporate more global considerations. Immigration crises only arise from global disparity.
Why It's Not a Single Issue
The wealth of frames in this debate has made it confusing. The frames within the debate have been divisive. But the absence of frames to counter the idea of the "immigration problem" has also been divisive. Since each frame presents a different component of the problem, it's worth noting who stresses which frames, and which problems that frame define.
Conservatives
The conservative views:
* Law and Order: The "illegal immigrants" are criminals, felons, and must be punished - rounded up and sent home. There should be no amnesty. Otherwise all law will break down.
* The Nativists: The immigrants are diluting our culture, our language, and our values.
* The Profiteers: We need cheap labor to keep our profits up and our cheap lifestyle in place.
* The Bean Counters: We can't afford to have illegal immigrants using our tax dollars on health, education, and other services.
* The Security Hounds: We need more border guards and a hi-tech wall to guarantee our security.
Progressives
* Progressivism Begins at Home: The immigrants are taking the jobs of American works and we have to protect our workers.
* African-American Protectionists: Hispanic immigrants are threatening African-American jobs.
* Provide a path to citizenship: The immigrants have earned citizenship with their hard work, their devotion to American values, and their contribution to our society.
* Foreign Policy Reformers: We need to pay attention to the causes that drive others from their homelands.
* Wage supports: Institute a serious earned income tax credit for Americans doing otherwise low-paying jobs, so that more Americans will want to do them and fewer immigrants will be drawn here.
* Illegal Employers: The way to protect American workers and slow immigration of unskilled workers is to prosecute employers of unskilled workers.
We can see why this is such a complex problem and why there are so splits within both the conservative and progressive ranks.
Summing Up
The "immigration issue" is anything but. It is a complex melange of social, economic, cultural and security concerns - with conservatives and progressives split in different ways with different positions.
Framing the recent problem as an "immigration problem" pre-empts many of these considerations from entering the debate. As a consequence, any reform that "solves" the immigration problem is bound to be a patchwork solution addressing bits and pieces of much larger concerns. Bush's comprehensive reform is comprehensive, but only for the narrow set of problems defined in the "immigration debate." It does not address many of the questions with which progressives should be primarily concerned, issues of basic experiential well-being and political rights.
Ultimately, the way the current immigration debate is going - focusing narrowly on domestic policy, executive agencies and the immigrants - we will be faced with the same problems 10 years from now. The same long lines of immigrants waiting for legal status will persist. Temporary workers will not return home after their visas have expired, and millions of undocumented people will live amongst us. Only by broadening the understanding of the situation will the problem, or, rather, the multiple problems, be addressed and adequately solved. The immigration problem does not sit in isolation from other problems, but is symptomatic of broader social and economic concerns. The framing of the "immigration problem" must not pre-empt us from debating and beginning to address these broader concerns.
The Rockridge Institute is a tax exempt research and educational institution organization operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code. We partner with advocates, activists, and policy professionals to articulate the system of American values and ideas and reframe public debate. We do not endorse or oppose any particular candidate or party.
- Friday, April 04, 2008 at 07:12:14 (PDT)
University of the Streets Café, Montréal.
Thursday, April 10 • 7 to 9 p.m.
Art and Oppression: Do we need oppression in order to create?
Guests: Sami Al-Kilani, Rachael Van Fossen
Moderator: Lynne Cooper
Venue: Arts Café, 201 Fairmount O.
Monday, April 14 • 7 to 9 p.m.
Youth Citizens: How does media help young people have a voice, even if they can’t vote (yet)?
Guest: Paul Shore
Moderator: Miriam Verburg
Venue: Café Pera, 2055 Bishop
Monday, April 21 • 7 to 9 p.m.
Ego Trippin’: If we’re all making media, then who is watching?
Guest: Isabella Salas
Moderator: Miriam Verburg
Venue: Café Ciné-Express, 1926 Ste-Catherine O.
Tuesday, April 22 • 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Earth Day 2008: with CBC Montreal:
Should we worry about water?
Guest: To be confirmed
Moderator: Geeta Nadkarni
Venue: Centre St-Ambroise, 5080 St-Ambroise
Thursday, April 24 • 7 to 9 p.m.
Art and Oppression: Does money change the way we create?
Guests: Émilie Monnet, Guilaine Royer
Moderator: Lynne Cooper
Venue: Café Culturel Volver, 5604 ave du Parc
Tuesday, April 29 • 7 to 9 p.m.
Does public education benefit the public?
Guests: Noel Burke
Moderator: Michal Gomel
Venue: Coop La Maison verte, 5785 Sherbrooke O.
Monday, May 5 • 7 to 9 p.m.
University of the Streets Café 5th anniversary!!
Conversation Space: How do we build a conversant community?
Guests: Thomas Haig
Moderator: Elizabeth Hunt
Venue: Arts Café, 201 Fairmount O.
Thursday, May 8 • 7 to 9 p.m.
Art and Oppression: What are we using art for?
Guests: Pascal Contamine, Ilona Dougherty
Moderator: Lynne Cooper
Venue: Café Culturel Volver, 5604 ave du Parc
Tuesday, May 13 • 7 to 9 p.m.
The Ethical Engineer: How can small decisions in design lead to socially and environmentally responsible solutions?
Guests: To be confirmed
Moderator: Mario Ciaramicoli
Venue: Coop La Maison verte, 5785 Sherbrooke O.
Wednesday, May 14 • 7 to 9 p.m.
University of the Streets Café 5th anniversary!!
Conversation Space: How is a conversation a community?
Guests: Eric Abitbol, Janice Astbury
Moderator: Elizabeth Hunt
Venue: Café Sarajevo, 6548 Saint-Laurent
- Thursday, April 03, 2008 at 12:36:28 (PDT)
O then, tell me Sean O'Farrell,
tell me why you hurry so?
"Hush a bhuachaill,
hush and listen",
and his cheeks were all aglow,
I bear orders from the captain:- get you ready quick and soon
For the pikes must be together at the rising of the moon
By the rising of the moon,
by the rising of the moon,
For the pikes must be together at the rising of the moon
O then tell me Sean O'Farrell where the gath'rin is to be?
In the old spot by the river,
right well known to you and me.
One more word for signal token:- whistle up a marchin' tune,
With your pike upon your shoulder, by the rising of the moon.
By the rising of the moon, by the rising of the moon
With your pike upon your shoulder, by the rising of the moon.
Out from many a mud wall cabin eyes were watching through the night,
Many a manly heart was beatin, for the coming morning light.
Murmurs ran along the valleys
to the banshee's lonely croon
And a thousand pikes were flashing at the rising of the moon.
At the rising of the moon, at the rising of the moon.
And a thousand pikes were flashing at the rising of the moon.
All along that singing river that black mass of men were seen,
High above their shining weapons flew their own beloved green.
Death to every foe and traitor!
Forward! Strike the marching tune.
And hurrah my boys for freedom; 'tis the rising of the moon.
Tis the rising of the moon, tis the rising of the moon
And hurrah my boy for freedom;
'Tis the rising of the moon".
Well they fought for poor old Ireland, and full bitter was their fate,
Oh what glorious pride and sorrow, fills the name of ninety-eight!
Yet, thank God, e'en still are beating hearts in manhood burning noon,
Who would follow in their footsteps,
at the risin' of the moon
By the rising of the moon,
By the rising of the moon
Who would follow in their footsteps,
at the risin' of the moon.
O Paddy dear, an' did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground;
St. Patrick's Day no more we'll keep,
his colour can't be seen,
For there's a cruel law agin the wearin' o' the Green.
I met wid Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand,
And he said,
How's dear ould Ireland,
and how does she stand?
Her faithful sons will ever sing
The Wearing of the Green.
- Thursday, April 03, 2008 at 07:07:17 (PDT)
"Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible." Maya Angelou.
I'd like to dance and tap my feet
But they won't keep in rhythm
You see, I washed them both today
And I can't do nothing with 'em
(Chorus)
Ho hum the tune is dumb
The words don't mean a thing
Isn't this a silly song
For anyone to sing?
I chased a polecat up a tree
Way out on upon a limb
And when he got the best of me
I got the worst of him
(Chorus)
(Yodel, etc.)
- Tuesday, April 01, 2008 at 11:27:08 (PDT)
Combien de conservateur porcs faut-il pour fixer une ampoule électrique? Néant. Premier Ministre Harper et son Tory guerre-porcelets aiment travailler dans le noir.
- Tuesday, April 01, 2008 at 05:22:38 (PDT)
Two good ol' boys in a West Virginia trailer park were sitting around talking one afternoon over a cold beer. After a while the 1st guy says to 2nd, "If'n I was to sneak over to your trailer Saturday & make love to your wife while you was off hunting and she got pregnant and had a baby, would that make us kin?"
The 2nd guy crooked his head sideways for a minute scratched his head and squinted his eyes thinking real hard about the question.
Finally, he says, ......"Well, I don't know about kin, but it sure would make us even."
Adam Fallon's CD "Slightly Used" is a great listen!!
It’s dusk, it’s cool, and the stadium lights are on. About 50,000 concert-goers are singing a song back to Adam Fallon, the headline act.
This is Fallon’s ultimate musical goal. Based on the rapid growth of his audience throughout North America and his new EP, Slightly Used, he could achieve it very soon.
From his base in Chicago, Adam Fallon is building a following throughout the Midwest, Ontario and across the continent. Audiences are opening up to his style: his own unique take on the tradition of singer/songwriter, but with an intangible quality that makes listener feel that, deep down, he knows what they are feeling. Fallon moves effortlessly from ballads to upbeat pop to full-out rock.
The 26-year-old Canadian singer and songwriter has been, at various times, a performer, producer, promoter, and roadie. Fallon is something of a local legend around Belleville, Ontario, where he pulled up to an A&W --former band Pickseed aboard a flatbed truck-and drew 300 people for an impromptu concert.
It may be his knack for producing and promoting that keeps him so connected to what his fans expect. “The typical person at my show tends to be laid back, casual and looking for good live entertainment,” Fallon says. “They just want to close their eyes, listen to the story, and be carried away.”
He’s been there himself: Fallon learned at an early age that music could take him away from problems at home and school. He started with clarinet at age 12; and really developed a deep appreciation for music at age 14, when he got his first drum set. “I’d go into the garage four hours a night,” he says, “and just put on a CD and headphones and play along.” He credits those early sessions with Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, and Foo Fighters with honing his skills and helping him feel good about himself. (He also includes Led Zepplin, The Beatles, The Who, the Matthew Good Band, Our Lady Peace and the Tragically Hip among his influences.)
As he finished high school and pursued a degree in radio broadcasting at Loyalist College, his songwriting style crystallized. Fallon considers himself a free-association writer. “The majority of my songs are written off cuff,” he says. “I get an idea in my head and then put the pen to the paper and just start writing, because if I think about what I want to say, I overthink and censor myself.”
Many of his songs spring from experiences with his wife, Kim, who has a profound influence on his art-she’s his Muse, you could say. Fallon credits her with keeping his creativity on track. “She’s not afraid to tell me if something stinks or needs to be better or if it's perfect,” he says. “I can sometimes come up with an idea that I've played before; she has a great memory and will step in very quickly to let me know that I’m re-using stuff that I've already done.”
Despite his extensive musical experience, Fallon understands the power of collaboration. His five-year co-writing relationship with guitarist Kyle Defreitas, whom he considers a “guitar genius,” is a good example “After developing the original idea for a song-the lyrics and basic musical structure-Kyle and I work on the progression and harmonies and then build the song from there,” says Fallon. “Two songs on the new EP, “Someday” and “Ignored,” are examples of what we can do together.”
When the new EP, Slightly Used, is released on NYOC Records this year, it will be Fallon’s fourth recording. He recorded a 3-song solo EP with Defreitas in March 2002 titled The Power of the Voice of One Vol. 1; followed that up with a full-length album with his former band, Pickseed; then re-teamed with Defreitas for The Power of the Voice of One Vol. 2. Scott Juba of the-trades.com said Vol. 2 “demonstrates his tremendous versatility as an artist and proves why he is beginning to earn radio airplay in select US and Canadian markets.”
Back to the stadium: the song is over, the crowd is roaring, and Adam Fallon lets the sound wash over him. Big dream? Sure. But this artist, who backs up the dream with talent, enthusiasm and a relentless drive to succeed, will soon be stepping onto a larger stage. Give'em a listen (http://www.adamfallon.com).
- Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 16:05:35 (PDT)
Five questions for Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan MPP.
As Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan rises in the Ontario Legislature today (Tuesday, March 25, 2008) to deliver the 2008/09 provincial Budget, here are five key questions from the Wellesley Institute on housing and homelessness issues:
ONE: Will Minister Duncan commit the funds to close Ontario’s billion-dollar housing deficit? In 2001, the Ontario government signed the Affordable Housing Framework Agreement with the federal government and all the other provinces and territories. Under this deal, Ontario agreed to increase provincial housing spending by $352 million, but actual provincial housing spending has actually dropped by $731 million, according to Statistics Canada. This has created a billion-dollar housing deficit. The huge gap between the promise of increased funding and the reality of funding cuts is one major reason why the province has failed to deliver the 20,000 new affordable homes that were supposed to delivered under the 2001 agreement. As of February of 2008, the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing says that it has developed 7,234 new affordable homes. It says another 3,719 are under development.
Ontario hasn't released any details so we don't know the rents / ownership costs of these new homes and cannot assess whether they are truly affordable to low and moderate-income households.
The Wellesley Institute’s National Housing Report Card of February, 2008, notes that Ontario has the worst housing spending record of any province or territory.
TWO: Will Minister Duncan ensure that the $150 million or more in unspent federal housing funds are allocated before the funding expires this fiscal year? Parliament authorized $1.6 billion in affordable housing funding in 2005, and the federal government in 2006 assigned $312.3 million to Ontario for an affordable housing trust fund, and an addition $80.2 million for an off-reserve Aboriginal affordable housing trust fund. The 2007 Ontario budget announced plans for this spending, but as much as half, or more, of the dollars remain uncommitted. The single biggest spending envelope for the affordable housing trust fund was a housing allowance program that was supposed to benefit 27,000 households and cost $185 million. It is estimated that only half the funding has been committed.
Not one penny of the Aboriginal funding has been committed, and it is estimated that as much as $80 million of the other fund remains unspent. If the money is not committed by the end of fiscal 2008, then it will revert back to the federal government.
THREE: Will Minister Duncan complete the uploading of the cost of social housing programs back to the provincial level? In the 2007 budget, the Ontario government uploaded housing and other costs from the 905 municipalities to the provincial level, but left Toronto and the rest of the province to continue paying the costs for programs that properly belongs at the provincial level. In recent days, the provincial government has announced a $100 million capital repair fund for social housing and a $500 million loan program. There are reports that as much as $300 million in additional repair funding may be announced in the Budget or soon after.
All this is an important down payment on the billion-dollar-plus province-wide capital repair bill for former public housing projects, but it is only one part of the huge financial burden that the province downloaded on municipalities starting in 1998.
Municipalities may be well-placed to take on the administration of housing programs, but they cannot the financial costs - which properly belong at the provincial level.
FOUR: Will Minister Duncan ensure that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and other provincial ministries, have the capacity to fund and deliver critical housing and homelessness programs? The 2007 Ontario Budget reported spending cuts for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing in 2006 and again in 2007. Some experts have suggested that the difficulties in delivering housing programs at the provincial level (including the housing allowance, Aboriginal trust fund, affordable housing and other initiatives) is related to the limited capacity within the Ministry to develop and effectively administer programs.
The Ministry was gutted in the 1990s to suit the political interests of the government of the day. Housing programs were fractured as they were downloaded to municipal service managers.
Supportive housing - which provides a home with special physical and / or mental health supports -was transferred to the Ministry of Health.
Recently, supportive housing programs have been downloaded by the Ministry to the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). LHINs, like municipal housing service managers, may be effective administrators at the local level, but they need the funding and program support from the province.
FIVE: Will Minister Duncan use the 2008 Ontario Budget to make a major down-payment on a comprehensive Poverty Reduction Strategy, as promised in the government’s last Speech from the Throne? Housing insecurity and homelessness are critical health issues, leading to increased illness and premature death. The links between poverty and poor health are recognized by the World Health Organization at the international level, and confirmed by countless research reports, including research funded by the Wellesley Institute.
Some politicians, including federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, have called on Ontario to make additional corporate tax cuts in the hope that the benefits of these cuts will somehow trickle down to benefit those who are suffering from poverty, poor housing and poor health. But corporate tax cuts don’t create the social investments in housing, health, education and other fundamental determinants of health. While it make take the Ontario government a number of months to fully develop its Poverty Reduction Strategy, the 2008 Ontario Budget is an excellent place to start with a significant down-payment in the form of increased investments in housing and other fundamental determinants of health.
sincerely,
Michael Shapcott Director of Community Engagement.
The Wellesley Institute,
45 Charles Street East - #101
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, M4Y 1S2
- Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 11:35:16 (PDT)
On Days Like These.
Quincy Jones.
Questi giorni quando vieni il belle sole
la la la la la-la-la-la la la la la
On days like these when skies are blue
and fields are green
I look around
and think about what might have been
and then I hear
sweet music float around my head
as I recall the many things we left unsaid
its on days like these that I remember
singing songs and drinking wine
while your eyes played games with mine
on days like these
I wonder what became of you
maybe today you are singing songs
with someone new
I'd like to think you're walking
by those willow trees
remembering the love we knew on days like these
its on days like these that I remember
singing songs and drinking wine
while your eyes played games with mine
on days like these
I wonder what became of you
maybe today
you are singing songs with someone new
Questi giorni quando vieni il belle sole
la la la la la-la-la-la
- Monday, March 24, 2008 at 11:48:07 (PDT)
No end to Ontario's child tax benefit clawback: People on social assistance will still have the child tax benefit taken away by the Ontario government. The Liberals and their local supporters the very people in your neighborhood who voted for the liberals have broken yet another promise.
Attacking children by reducing their portion and removing them from the parent's benefits will not eliminate child poverty but may eliminate the child
OW and ODSP will receive the Ontario Child benefit of $50.00 but the McGuinty Ontario Liberals will continue to clawback the NCBS and reduce monthly payments.
Seems like a pretty clear and easy-to-understand policy, right? WRONG!
The McGuinty government is trying to confuse people by claiming that the new Ontario Child Benefit will end the current clawback of up to $121 per child per month from the NCBS but fails to tell the media or people that the amount of assistance will be reduced.
$523.00 Basic Allowance for parent with 1 child
-$168.00 Clawback of Child`s Basic Allowance =$355.00 -$121.00 = $234.00
$234.00+549.00 Shelter Portion = $784.00 this is the amount you will seen on your cheque
For each additional dependent 13 years and older: subtract $147.
For each additional dependent under 13 years old: subtract $109.
43.00 added for child over 13 or subtract from the above
Minus $128.00 Back to school ended 2007
Minus $111.00 Winter Clothing Ended 2007 Total Loss $239.00
Yes, Jesus Returns to Earth, Breaking Easter News: Is March 2008 the second coming? And is there a connection between our saviour's appearance and the supreme court's gay marriage ruling?
"Hello everybody! How's everybody doing? My God it's cold down here! Well, I'll keep this brief-as my assistant Larry just said, this is the second coming, and I'm very happy to be here. Right after I get myself a latte, I will commence with the judging...of the quick...and the dead. I'll now take your questions"
Listen to Hammer News Network's live coverage of Jesus Returns to Earth. Watch HNN on http://www.thehammer.ca
- Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 17:14:39 (PDT)
May I be so bold as to offer my own pitifully biased opinion on the matter presented below? I, for one, would prefer a sharpened stick to the eye socket in exchange for the opportunity to purchase the house of Usher!
Regards,
Edgar Poe
- Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 23:59:10 (PDT)
let's see now...I have a stack of ancient VCRs, the latest in thrift store fashions, mis-matching dishes, artwork and writing someone might suddenly declare ingenious after my death....hmmm, not much else.
Bite me, Ebay ;)
- Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 23:49:27 (PDT)
SYDNEY, Australia - A painful breakup with his wife has prompted a man to put his entire life — his house, his car, his job, even his friends — up for sale online in an effort to start over.
Ian Usher, a British immigrant to Australia, said Tuesday he would auction everything he owns and more on e-Bay starting June 22.
"On the day it's all sold and settled, I intend to walk out of my front door with my wallet in one pocket and my passport in the other, nothing else at all," Usher says on his Web site.
Story continues below ↓advertisement
Up for bid is Usher's three bedroom house in the western city of Perth and everything inside it, his car, motorcycle, jet ski and parachuting gear.
Usher says he is also selling a one-time introduction to his friends and a trial run at his job — a plan endorsed by his friends and his employer.
In media interviews, Usher said he wants a fresh start after realizing that most things in his current life remind him of the relationship he had with the wife of five years whom he broke up with more than a year ago.
"Everything that I have — the furniture in the house — all has memories attached to it," Usher, 44, told Seven Network television. "It's time to shed the old, and in with the new."
Usher said his life will be sold in one lot, and that bidders should expect to pay more than $390,000, which is the upper end of a realtor's valuation of his house that he posted online.
- Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 23:37:42 (PDT)
- Monday, March 17, 2008 at 12:32:45 (PDT)
Èirinn gu bràth!! Slanj Maa!!
Slàinte Mhath! Happy Paddy's Day.
- Monday, March 17, 2008 at 07:36:59 (PDT)
Èirinn gu bràth!!!!
- Monday, March 17, 2008 at 07:30:51 (PDT)
um...it's BLUE! wha?? hahahaaaaaaa*hic*
- Monday, March 17, 2008 at 00:49:53 (PDT)
Happy St. Pat's Day!
- Monday, March 17, 2008 at 00:48:55 (PDT)
"I have attended dinners among white people. Their ways are not our ways. We eat in silence, quietly smoke a pipe and depart. Thus, is our host honored. This is not the way of the white man. After his food has been eaten, one is expected to say foolish things. Then the host feels honored." Four Guns, Oglala Lakota (Sioux).
- Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 07:08:05 (PDT)
Cadman affair and NAFTA-gate: the Conservatives' growing list of controversies.
The Conservative government is facing a growing list of controversies including the Cadman affair and NAFTA-gate, yet is still refusing to give Canadians the answers they seek.
NAFTA-gate, the latest controversy, is the fall-out from several alleged government leaks which media reports have linked to Mr. Harper's Chief of Staff Ian Brodie and Canada's Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Wilson. The leaks of this sensitive diplomatic information may have had a direct impact on the US Democratic race and risk having a lasting negative impact on Canada-U.S. relations.
As well, Canadians deserve answers on the Cadman affair. They deserve clear explanations from Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his government's growing list of controversies. These issues will not go away until the Prime Minister finally answers.
"With poverty everything becomes frightful." Nicolas Boileau, Satires.
- Friday, March 14, 2008 at 13:06:34 (PDT)
University of the Streets Café, March.
Friday, March 7 2008.
Arts Café, 201 Fairmount Ouest
Politicize This! Home life: What’s your home-made manifesto?
To what extent is the personal also political? In this discussion, we will explore ways in which one's home can become a vehicle for political values. We will consider issues related to cooperative living, home waste management, efficient energy, alternative energy, and alternative home-based education. We will discuss various locally developed approaches to these issues, as well as their motivations.
Moderator: Jim Morris
Guests: Stephanie Conway, Leslie Bagg
Monday, March 10
Centre St-Ambroise, 5080 St-Ambroise*
The Commons: Who owns what? Stewardship, Ownership and Privatization
Who does society 'belong' to? Do we take better care of things we own? Can we take care of something we are not allowed to own at all? How do we care for what we have agreed belongs to everybody? What are the implications of these questions? What possible responses exist and how does this impact how we approach changing society? During this conversation we will explore issues related to the ownership and stewardship (and the threat of privatization) of the physical and the knowledge commons.
Moderator: Kim Klein
Guest: David Austin
All conversations in this series will take place The Centre St-Ambroise, 5080 St-Ambroise between St-Remi and Chemin de la Côte St-Paul. You can get there by taking a short ride on the 78 bus from Lionel-Groulx metro, the 37 bus from either Vendôme or De l'Église metro, or the 36 bus from Monk metro (http://www.stcum.qc.ca). Free on-site parking is also available.
Wedesday, March 12
Le Cagibi, 5490 Saint-Laurent
Sex Talks! Is anybody having SAFE sex? (and what does that mean anyways?)
Ah, the buzzword of the ‘90s: safe sex. Whatever happened to that concept? A generation or so ago youth were inundated with information and scare tactics about how to have safe sexual practices. Currently, some of the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are among young people ages 15 to 24, the same age group where more than half of respondents in a recent survey believed there is a cure for AIDS. Not to mention a growing concern about seniors who are leading longer, healthier and more sexually active lives but who don’t see STIs as a concern. What kind of portrait does that paint for safe sex today? Is postivie sexual education even possible in today’s climate? Sex is going to happen so how do we create a culture of sexual health?
Moderator: Daniel Bouchard
Guests: Christina Foisy, Hugo Vaillancourt
The University of the Streets Café creates gathering places for citizens to pursue lifelong learning and engagement through public conversations. These collective discussions are an opportunity for people of diverse backgrounds and realities to meet, in a respectful environment — where all perspectives are welcome!
- Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 07:16:42 (PDT)
Montreal Canadiens and the NJ Devils battle for East lead.
The Montreal Canadiens took over the Eastern Conference lead when they defeated the New Jersey Devils at the Bell Centre more than a week ago, and hope for the same result tonight, (Mar 11,08...7:30 p.m. ET) in Montreal.
The Habs begin an important four-game homestand in second place in the East with 85 points, one behind the Devils. The teams also battled for first place in the conference on March 1, with the Canadiens winning 2-1.
Forward Andre Kostitsyn's power-play goal late in the third period paced Montreal to its second consecutive victory over the Devils for the first time since 1993.
"We played really good hockey in the first half of the season," said Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau after the win. "But ever since Christmas, we've been playing really great hockey."
The Canadiens (38-23-9) remain one of the hottest teams in the NHL, but are coming off a 2-2-0 road trip that finished with a 3-1 loss to the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night. Forward Alex Kovalev scored his team-leading 30th goal of the season and rookie goaltender Carey Price made 34 saves for Montreal.
With the game tied 1-1 heading into the third period, Montreal allowed two goals, including one short-handed marker.
"It's tough to give up a goal in the third period. It's even tougher to give up two, because you know you were so close the whole game," Price said.
Still, Price has been solid since taking over the No. 1 role between the pipes after netminder Cristobal Huet was traded to Washington, going 4-2-0 with a 2.51 goals-against average.
The Canadiens may be without centre Tomas Plekanec, who is doubtful because of a bout with to the flu. Plekanec's possible absence means rookie Mikhail Grabovski will be called upon for a second straight game if Montreal's second-leading goal scorer can't play.
With a victory, the Canadiens, two points ahead of the Ottawa Senators in the Northeast Division, can clinch the season series against the Devils for the first time since 1993 - the last year Montreal won the Stanley Cup.
But a win over the disciplined Devils (40-23-6) will be difficult. New Jersey has won its last three games, including 2-1 versus the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Brodeur's the bomb
Goaltender Martin Brodeur played his typical stellar game, making 42 saves in his 27th consecutive start.
Forward Zach Parise netted his second goal of the game with only 48.3 seconds remaining in regulation for the Devils, who are only one point ahead of the surging Pittsburgh Penguins in the Atlantic Division.
Brodeur has been brilliant during the Devils' 12-3-3 surge, and has stopped 104 of 107 shots in the last three games.
"Marty, obviously, has been unbelievable," Parise said told the team's official website. "He's one of the main reasons we are where we are. We like the way we've been playing, and the way we've been winning games lately."
While Brodeur is only 1-2-0 with a shutout in three meetings with Montreal this season, he remains dominant against the team he grew up idolizing. In his career, he is 34-14-0 with five ties, eight shutouts and a 1.76 GAA in 53 games.
Brodeur, who had won four consecutive contests at Bell Centre before New Jersey's loss on March 1, is also 14-11-0 with a tie, four shutouts and a 1.77 GAA in 26 games in his hometown.
Blind Guitarist Jeff Healey Dies at 41
March 3, 2008, 8:59 AM EST
TORONTON (AP) -- Blind rock and jazz musician Jeff Healey has died after a lifelong battle against cancer. He was 41.
Healey died Sunday evening in a Toronto hospital, said bandmate Colin Bray, who was in the room with Healey's family when the guitarist died.
The Grammy-nominated Healey rose to stardom as the leader of the Jeff Healey Band, a rock-oriented trio that gained international acclaim and platinum record sales with the 1988 album "See the Light." The album included the hit single "Angel Eyes."
Healey had battled cancer since age 1, when a rare form of retinal cancer known as Retinoblastoma claimed his eyesight.
Due to his blindness, Healey taught himself to play guitar by laying the instrument across his lap.
His unique playing style, combined with his blues-oriented vocals, earned him a reputation as a teenage musical prodigy. He shared stages with George Harrison, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Bray said he and many others expected the guitarist to rally from this latest illness.
"I don't think any of us thought this was going to happen," Bray said. "We just thought he was going to bounce back as he always does."
Healey had undergone numerous operations in recent years to remove tumors from his lungs and leg.
Bray and fellow bandmate Gary Scriven remembered their frontman as a musician of rare abilities with a generous nature and wicked sense of humor.
Healey's true love was jazz, the genre that dominated his three most recent albums.
His love of jazz led him to host radio shows in Canada where he spun long-forgotten numbers from his personal collection of over 30,000 vinyl records.
His death came weeks before the release of his first rock album in eight years.
"Mess of Blues" is slated for a North American release on April 22.
He is survived by his wife, Christie, and two children.
- Monday, March 03, 2008 at 11:09:37 (PST)
jeeezuzz ..........this should be named the canadian politics tribal soul kitchen wall ....sumone pass the Crown .......
- Monday, March 03, 2008 at 05:34:56 (PST)
have a splendid day!
- Saturday, March 01, 2008 at 06:12:18 (PST)
BAD CRACK OTTAWA: Just wanted to let you know that we received a call from staff at Sherbourne Health Centre today, advising that there have been several reported cases of "bad crack" in the downtown area recently. *Apparently people have been presenting at St. Mike's Emergency Dept. with symptoms of stroke. The rock has been described as both dark beige or gleaming white in colour, there seems to be both around and has a cat pee odour about it. Staff at Sherbourne advised that the crack is reportedly being mixed with embalming fluid. Maybe Stephen Harper has been moon-lighting again.
Alex Krinos.
- Friday, February 29, 2008 at 07:49:03 (PST)
Wellesley Institute's Federal Budget Housing Scan:
Healthy corporate profits – healthy communities???
Minister Flaherty federal budget fails to offer funding;
Billion-dollar housing / homelessness gap is looming
Just five days before federal Finance Minister James Flaherty rose in the House of Commons earlier today (February 26) to deliver the 2008 national budget, Statistics Canada reported that corporate profits reached their highest level ever in 2007. “Canadian corporations earned record high operating profits of $262.5 billion in 2007,” reported Canada’s national statistical agency on February 21.
“Canadians want a healthy environment,” said Minister Flaherty in his budget speech. “They also want healthy, safe communities.” The national budget is the place where the government sets out its fiscal plan of strategic investments so that the top priorities of Canadians can be met.
Put the two together (record-high corporate profits and an urgent need for healthy communities), and you’d expect that the 2008 federal budget would include a sensible plan for increased strategic investments in Canada’s fraying economic and social infrastructure paid with a fair share of those record-high corporate profits.
That didn’t happen. In fact, profitable corporations will continue to benefit from billions in corporate tax cuts announced in the past two years.
There’s not a penny for new truly affordable homes in federal budget 2008, even though all three national housing and homelessness programs are due to expire in fiscal 2008.
Minister Flaherty missed the opportunity to announce plans to renew and enhance those programs in his budget speech. If the federal government doesn’t renew these programs within the next 12 months, then there will be an annual billion-dollar hole in funding for new affordable homes, transitional housing and supports / services for the homeless.
That’s the amount of money that will be lost each year from a failure to renew federal affordable housing spending, along with funding for the federal housing rehabilitation program and the national homelessness strategy.
Officially, 1.5 million households (about 4.2 million women, men and children) are in “core housing need” and perhaps 300,000 Canadians will experience homelessness over the course of the year. Housing insecurity has a large personal cost, leading directly to increased illness and premature death. It also disrupts communities and puts a brake on economic competitiveness, according to a growing number of business organizations.
Homelessness – the most visible sign of housing insecurity – also carries a high cost for taxpayers. One recent study estimated that homelessness costs Canadians between $4.5 and $6 billion annually – more than triple the dwindling amount that the federal government pays for affordable homes.
In his budget speech, Minister Flaherty said: “Even in good economic times, there are those at risk of being left behind. But Canadians are guided by the values of compassion, kindness and generosity. That’s why the Mental Health Commission of Canada was struck last year. Under the leadership of the Honourable Michael Kirby, the Commission has recommended the Government proceed with five pilot projects across the country. These will help increase our knowledge of those who are homeless and suffering from mental illness.”
Increasing knowledge is critically important, but so too is building affordable homes with the appropriate supports for people with mental health concerns. And the money to do that is absent from the 2008 federal budget except for a handful of pilot projects in just five communities (Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Moncton).
These projects, while worthy, will at best prove the very same lessons that Canada’s supportive housing providers have demonstrated time and again over the past two decades in previous pilot projects: Safe and affordable homes combined with accessible and appropriate services are the most fundamental needs for people suffering mental health issues.
There was some new spending in federal budget 2008, including an additional:
- $122 million for prisons;
- $400 million to recruit new police officers; and
- $43 million for the super-secret Communications Security Establishment (Canada’s electronic snoopers).
“The fundamentals underpinning the Canadian economy remain strong,” says the 2008 federal budget plan at p.29 in what is the traditional message of finance ministers. But Canada’s housing fundamentals are extremely shaky:
- housing affordability is deteriorating for homeowners across the country;
- average market rents have outpaced the household incomes of more than half of Canada’s renter households; and
- homelessness and housing insecurity remains deep and persistent in urban, rural, remote and Northern communities.
- Michael Shapcott
PS – The Wellesley Institute’s federal pre-budget backgrounder, with more details, is available at http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com
PPS – John Stapleton’s quick scan of social policy issues in federal budget 2008 is attached.
* * *
Michael Shapcott
Director of Community Engagement
The Wellesley Institute
45 Charles Street East, #101
Toronto, ON, Canada M4Y 1S2
Dès le roi des animaux,
Qui dans sa grotte était malade,
Etait laisser savoir à ses vassaux
Que chaque espèce de l'ambassade
Envoyé des gens à le visiter,
En vertu de la promesse de bien traiter
Les députés, eux et leur maintien,
Foi de Lion très bien écrite.
Bon passeport comptoirs de la dent;
Contre la griffe tout autant.
L'édit du Prince est effectuée.
De chaque espèce un nomme à lui.
Renards de maintien de la maison,
L'un d'eux dit cela d'elle:
Etapes impressionné sur la poussière
Par ceux qui à partir de là, seront apportées à la cour de leur patient,
Tous, sans exception, regarder sa den;
Pas un ne marque pas un retour.
Cela nous met en méfiance.
Que Sa Majesté nous dispense.
Agrandir la merci de son passeport.
Je crois que la bonne mais, dans cette caverne
Je vois très bien, comme on entre,
Et ne voyez pas là que l'on sort
Toutes les Fables de Jean de la Fontaine, livre VI, Fable XIV.
- Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 20:56:10 (PST)
Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum!??
I smell the blood of an Englishman!
Bring him, find him make ith he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make my bread.
Jack the Giant-Killer.
By Joseph Jacobs.
When good King Arthur reigned, there lived near the Land’s End of England, in the county of Cornwall, a farmer who had one only son called Jack. He was brisk and of a ready lively wit, so that nobody or nothing could worst him.
In those days the Mount of Cornwall was kept by a huge giant named Cormoran. He was eighteen feet in height, and about three yards round the waist, of a fierce and grim countenance, the terror of all the neighbouring towns and villages. He lived in a cave in the midst of the Mount, and whenever he wanted food he would wade over to the main- land, where he would furnish himself with whatever came in his way. Everybody at his approach ran out of their houses, while he seized on their cattle, making nothing of carrying half-a-dozen oxen on his back at a time; and as for their sheep and hogs, he would tie them round his waist like a bunch of tallow-dips. He had done this for many years, so that all Cornwall was in despair.
One day Jack happened to be at the town-hall when the magistrates were sitting in council about the Giant. He asked: “What reward will be given to the man who kills Cormoran?” “The giant’s treasure,” they said, “will be the reward.” Quoth Jack: “Then let me undertake it.” So he got a horn, shovel, and pickaxe, and went over to the Mount in the beginning of a dark winter’s evening, when he fell to work, and before morning had dug a pit twenty-two feet deep, and nearly as broad, covering it over with long sticks and straw. Then he strewed a little mould over it, so that it appeared like plain ground.
Jack then placed himself on the opposite side of the pit, farthest from the giant’s lodging, and, just at the break of day, he put the horn to his mouth, and blew, Tantivy, Tantivy. This noise roused the giant, who rushed from his cave, crying: “You incorrigible villain, are you come here to disturb my rest? You shall pay dearly for this. Satisfaction I will have, and this it shall be, I will take you whole and broil you for breakfast.” He had no sooner uttered this, than he tumbled into the pit, and made the very foundations of the Mount to shake. “Oh, Giant,” quoth Jack, “where are you now? Oh, faith, you are gotten now into Lob’s Pound, where I will surely plague you for your threatening words: what do you think now of broiling me for your breakfast? Will no other diet serve you but poor Jack?”
Then having tantalised the giant for a while, he gave him a most weighty knock with his pickaxe on the very crown of his head, and killed him on the spot.
Jack then filled up the pit with earth, and went to search the cave, which he found contained much treasure. When the magistrates heard of this they made a declaration he should henceforth be termed and presented him with a sword and a belt, on which were written these words embroidered in letters of gold:
“Here’s the right valiant Cornish man,
Who slew the giant Cormoran.”
The news of Jack’s victory soon spread over all the West of England, so that another giant, named Blunderbore, hearing of it, vowed to be revenged on Jack, if ever he should light on him. This giant was the lord of an enchanted castle situated in the midst of a lonesome wood.
Now Jack, about four months afterwards, walking near this wood in his journey to Wales, being weary, seated himself near a pleasant fountain and fell fast asleep. While he was sleeping, the giant, coming there for water, discovered him, and knew him to be the far-famed Jack the Giant-killer by the lines written on the belt. Without ado, he took Jack on his shoulders and carried him towards his castle. Now, as they passed through a thicket, the rustling of the boughs awakened Jack, who was strangely surprised to find himself in the clutches of the giant. His terror was only begun, for, on entering the castle, he saw the ground strewed with human bones, and the giant told him his own would ere long be among them. After this the giant locked poor Jack in an immense chamber, leaving him there while he went to fetch another giant, his brother, living in the same wood, who might share in the meal on Jack.
After waiting some time Jack, on going to the window beheld afar off the two giants coming towards the castle. “Now,” quoth Jack to himself, “my death or my deliverance is at hand.” Now, there were strong cords in a corner of the room in which Jack was, and two of these he took, and made a strong noose at the end; and while the giants were unlocking the iron gate of the castle he threw the ropes over each of their heads. Then he drew the other ends across a beam, and pulled with all his might, so that he throttled them.
Then, when he saw they were black in the face, he slid down the rope, and drawing his sword, slew them both. Then, taking the giant’s keys, and unlocking the rooms, he found three fair ladies tied by the hair of their heads, almost starved to death. “Sweet ladies,” quoth Jack, “I have destroyed this monster and his brutish brother, and obtained your liberties.” This said he presented them with the keys, and so proceeded on his journey to Wales.
Jack made the best of his way by travelling as fast as he could, but lost his road, and was benighted, and could find any habitation until, coming into a narrow valley, he found a large house, and in order to get shelter took courage to knock at the gate. But what was his surprise when there came forth a monstrous giant with two heads; yet he did not appear so fiery as the others were, for he was a Welsh giant, and what he did was by private and secret malice under the false show of friendship. Jack, having told his condition to the giant, was shown into a bedroom, where, in the dead of night, he heard his host in another apartment muttering these words:
“Though here you lodge with me this night,
You shall not see the morning light
My club shall dash your brains outright!”
“Say’st thou so,” quoth Jack; “that is like one of your Welsh tricks, yet I hope to be cunning enough for you.”
Then, getting out of bed, he laid a billet in the bed in his stead, and hid himself in a corner of the room. At the dead time of the night in came the Welsh giant, who struck several heavy blows on the bed with his club, thinking he had broken every bone in Jack’s skin. The next morning Jack, laughing in his sleeve, gave him hearty thanks for his night’s lodging. “How have you rested?” quoth the giant; “did you not feel anything in the night?” “No,” quoth Jack, “nothing but a rat, which gave me two or three slaps with her tail.” With that, greatly wondering, the giant led Jack to breakfast, bringing him a bowl containing four gallons of hasty pudding.
Being loth to let the giant think it too much for him, Jack put a large leather bag under his loose coat, in such a way that he could convey the pudding into it without its being perceived. Then, telling the giant he would show him a trick, taking a knife, Jack ripped open the bag, and out came all the hasty pudding. Whereupon, saying, “Odds splutters hur nails, hur can do that trick hurself,” the monster took the knife, and ripping open his belly, fell down dead.
Now, it happened in these days that King Arthur’s only son asked his father to give him a large sum of money, in order that he might go and seek his fortune in the principality of Wales, where lived a beautiful lady possessed with seven evil spirits. The king did his best to persuade his son from it, but in vain; so at last gave way and the prince set out with two horses, one loaded with money, the other for himself to ride upon.
Now, after several days’ travel, he came to a market-town in Wales, where he beheld a vast crowd of people gathered together. The prince asked the reason of it, and was told that they had arrested a corpse for several large sums of money which the deceased owed when he died. The prince replied that it was a pity creditors should be so cruel, and said: “Go bury the dead, and let his creditors come to my lodging, and there their debts shall be paid." They came, in such great numbers that before night he had only twopence left for himself.
Now Jack the Giant-Killer, coming that way, was so taken with the generosity of the prince, that he desired to be his servant. This being agreed upon, the next morning they set forward on their journey together, when, as they were riding out of the town, an old woman called after the prince, saying, “He has owed me twopence these seven years; pray pay me as well as the rest.” Putting his hand to his pocket, the prince gave the woman all he had left, so that after their day’s food, which cost what small spell Jack had by him, they were without a penny between them.
When the sun got low, the king’s son said: “Jack, since we have no money, where can we lodge this night?”
But Jack replied: “Master, we’ll do well enough, for I have an uncle lives within two miles of this place; he is a huge and monstrous giant with three heads; he’ll fight five hundred men in armour, and make them to fly before him.” “Alas!” quoth the prince, “what shall we do there? He’ll certainly chop us up at a mouthful. Nay, we are scarce enough to fill one of his hollow teeth!”
“It is no matter for that,” quoth Jack; “I myself will go before and prepare the way for you; therefore stop here and wait till I return." Jack then rode away at full speed, and coming to the gate of the castle, he knocked so loud that he made the neighbouring hills resound.
The giant roared out at this like thunder: “Who’s there?” Jack answered: “None but your poor cousin Jack.” Quoth he: “What news with my poor cousin Jack?” He replied: “Dear uncle, heavy news, God wot!”
“Prithee,” quoth the giant, “what heavy news can come to me? I am a giant with three heads, and besides thou knowest I can fight five hundred men in armour, and make them fly like chaff before the wind.”
“Oh, but,” quoth Jack, “here’s the king’s son a-coming with a thousand men in armour to kill you and destroy all that you have!”
“Oh, cousin Jack,” said the giant, “this is heavy news indeed! I will immediately run and hide myself, and thou shalt lock, bolt, and bar me in, and keep the keys until the prince is gone.”
Having secured the giant, Jack fetched his master, when they made themselves heartily merry whilst the poor giant lay trembling in a vault under the ground.
Early in the morning Jack furnished his master with a fresh supply of gold and silver, and then sent him three miles forward on his journey, at which time the prince was pretty well out of the smell of the giant. Jack then returned, and let the giant out of the vault, who asked what he should give him for keeping the castle from destruction. "Why,” quoth Jack, “I want nothing but the old coat and cap, together with the old rusty sword and slippers which are at your bed’s head." Quoth the giant: “You know not what you ask; they are the most precious things I have.
The coat will keep you invisible, the cap will tell you all you want to know, the sword cuts asunder whatever you strike, and the shoes are of extraordinary swiftness. But you have been very serviceable to me, therefore take them with all my heart." Jack thanked his uncle, and then went off with them. He soon overtook his master and they quickly arrived at the house of the lady the prince sought, who, finding the prince to be a suitor, prepared a splendid banquet for him.
After the repast was concluded, she told him she had a task for him. She wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, saying: “You must show me that handkerchief to-morrow morning, or else you will lose your head.” With that she put it in her bosom. The prince went to bed in great sorrow, but Jack’s cap of knowledge informed him how it was to be obtained. In the middle of the night she called upon her familiar spirit to carry her to Lucifer. But Jack put on his coat of darkness and his shoes of swiftness, and was there as soon as she was. When she entered the place of the Old One, she gave the handkerchief to old Lucifer, who laid it upon a shelf, whence Jack took it and brought it to his master, who showed it to the lady next day, and so saved his life.
On that day, she gave the prince a kiss and told him he must show her the lips to-morrow morning that she kissed last night, or lose his head.
“Ah!” he replied, “if you kiss none but mine, I will.”
“That is neither here nor there,” said she; “if you do not, death’s your portion!”
At midnight she went as before, and was angry with old Lucifer for letting the handkerchief go. “But now,” quoth she, “I will be too hard for the king’s son, for I will kiss thee, and he is to show me thy lips.” Which she did, and Jack, when she was not standing by, cut off Lucifer’s head and brought it under his invisible coat to his master, who the next morning pulled it out by the horns before the lady. This broke the enchantment and the evil spirit left her, and she appeared in all her beauty. They were married the next morning, and soon after went to the court of King Arthur, where Jack for his many great exploits, was made one of the Knights of the Round Table.
Jack soon went searching for giants again, but he had not ridden far, when he saw a cave, near the entrance of which he beheld a giant sitting upon a block of timber, with a knotted iron club by his side. His goggle eyes were like flames of fire, his countenance grim and ugly, and his cheeks like a couple of large flitches of bacon, while the bristles of his beard resembled rods of iron wire, and the locks that hung down upon his brawny shoulders were like curled snakes or hissing adders. Jack alighted from his horse, and, putting on the coat of darkness, went up close to the giant, and said softly: “Oh! are you there? It will not be long before I take you fast by the beard.” The giant all this while could not see him, on account of his invisible coat, so that Jack, coming up close to the monster, struck a blow with his sword at his head, but, missing his aim, he cut off the nose instead. At this, the giant roared like claps of thunder, and began to lay about him with his iron club like one stark mad.
But Jack, running behind, drove his sword up to the hilt in the giant’s back, so that he fell down dead. This done, Jack cut off the giant’s head, and sent it, with his brother’s also, to King Arthur, by a waggoner he hired for that purpose.
Jack now resolved to enter the giant’s cave in search of his treasure, and, passing along through a great many windings and turnings, he came at length to a large room paved with freestone, at the upper end of which was a boiling caldron, and on the right hand a large table, at which the giant used to dine. Then he came to a window, barred with iron, through which he looked and beheld a vast number of miserable captives, who, seeing him, cried out: “Alas! young man, art thou come to be one amongst us in this miserable den?”
“Ay,” quoth Jack, “but pray tell me what is the meaning of your captivity?”
“We are kept here,” said one, “till such time as the giants have a wish to feast, and then the fattest among us is slaughtered! And many are the times they have dined upon murdered men!”
“Say you so,” quoth Jack, and straightway unlocked the gate and let them free, who all rejoiced like condemned men at sight of a pardon. Then searching the giant’s coffers, he shared the gold and silver equally amongst them and took them to a neighbouring castle, where they all feasted and made merry over their deliverance.
But in the midst of all this mirth a messenger brought news that one Thunderdell, a giant with two heads, having heard of the death of his kinsmen, had come from the northern dales to be revenged on Jack, and was within a mile of the castle, the country people flying before him like chaff. But Jack was not a bit daunted, and said: “Let him come! I have a tool to pick his teeth; and you, ladies and gentlemen, walk out into the garden, and you shall witness this giant Thunderdell’s death and destruction.”
The castle was situated in the midst of a small island surrounded by a moat thirty feet deep and twenty feet wide, over which lay a drawbridge. So Jack employed men to cut through this bridge on both sides, nearly to the middle; and then, dressing himself in his invisible coat, he marched against the giant with his sword of sharpness. Although the giant could not see Jack, he smelt his approach, and cried out in these words:
“Fee, fi, fo, fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman!
Be he alive or be he dead,
I’ll grind his bones to make me bread!”
“Say’st thou so,” said Jack; “then thou art a monstrous miller indeed.”
The giant cried out again: “Art thou that villain who killed my kinsmen? Then I will tear thee with my teeth, suck thy blood, and grind thy bones to powder.”
“You’ll have to catch me first,” quoth Jack, and throwing off his invisible coat, so that the giant might see him, and putting on his shoes of swiftness, he ran from the giant, who followed like a walking castle, so that the very foundations of the earth seemed to shake at every step. Jack led him a long dance, in order that the gentlemen and ladies might see; and at last to end the matter, ran lightly over the drawbridge, the giant, in full speed, pursuing him with his club. Then, coming to the middle of the bridge, the giant’s great weight broke it down, and he tumbled headlong into the water, where he rolled and wallowed like a whale. Jack, standing by the moat, laughed at him all the while; but though the giant foamed to hear him scoff, and plunged from place to place in the moat, yet he could not get out to be revenged. Jack at length got a cart-rope and cast it over the two heads of the giant, and drew him ashore by a team of horses, and then cut off both his heads with his sword of sharpness, and sent them to King Arthur.
After some time spent in mirth and pastime, Jack, taking leave of the knights and ladies, set out for new adventures. Through many woods he passed, and came at length to the foot of a high mountain. Here, late at night, he found a lonesome house, and knocked at the door, which was opened by an aged man with a head as white as snow. “Father,” said Jack, “can you lodge a benighted traveller that has lost his way?" "Yes,” said the old man; “you are right welcome to my poor cottage." Whereupon Jack entered, and down they sat together, and the old man began to speak as follows: “Son, I see by your belt you are the great conqueror of giants, and behold, my son, on the top of this mountain is an enchanted castle, this is kept by a giant named Galligantua, and he by the help of an old conjurer, betrays many knights and ladies into his castle, where by magic art they are transformed into sundry shapes and forms.
But above all, I grieve for a duke’s daughter, whom they fetched from her father’s garden, carrying her through the air in a burning chariot drawn by fiery dragons, when they secured her within the castle, and transformed her into a white hind. And though many knights have tried to break the enchantment, and work her deliverance, yet no one could accomplish it, on account of two dreadful griffins which are placed at the castle gate and which destroy every one who comes near.
But you, my son, may pass by them undiscovered, where on the gates of the castle you will find engraven in large letters how the spell may be broken.” Jack gave the old man his hand, and promised that in the morning he would venture his life to free the lady.
In the morning Jack arose and put on his invisible coat and magic cap and shoes, and prepared himself for the fray. Now, when he had reached the top of the mountain he soon discovered the two fiery griffins, but passed them without fear, because of his invisible coat.
When he had got beyond them, he found upon the gates of the castle a golden trumpet hung by a silver chain, under which these lines were engraved: “Whoever shall this trumpet blow,
Shall soon the giant overthrow, and break the black enchantment straight; so all shall be in happy state.”
Jack had no sooner read this but he blew the trumpet, at which the castle trembled to its vast foundations, and the giant and conjurer were in horrid confusion, biting their thumbs and tearing their hair, knowing their wicked reign was at an end. Then the giant stooping to take up his club, Jack at one blow cut off his head; whereupon the conjurer, mounting up into the air, was carried away in a whirlwind. Then the enchantment was broken, and all the lords and ladies who had so long been transformed into birds and beasts returned to their proper shapes, and the castle vanished away in a cloud of smoke. This being done, the head of Galligantua was likewise, in the usual manner, conveyed to the Court of King Arthur, where, the very next day, Jack followed, with the knights and ladies who had been delivered. Whereupon, as a reward for his good services, the king prevailed upon the duke to bestow his daughter in marriage on honest Jack.
So married they were, and the whole kingdom was filled with joy at the wedding. Furthermore, the king bestowed on Jack a noble castle, with a very beautiful estate thereto belonging, where he and his lady lived in great joy and happiness all the rest of their days.
- Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 16:18:03 (PST)
"Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit." Abbie Hoffman.
- Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 11:38:36 (PST)
Bonjour!
Lundi prochain nous lançons une nouvelle série de conversations publiques sur les thèmes du bien commun et des biens communs (The Commons.) Ces conversations se dérouleront en anglais, mais comme d'habitude avec l'Université autrement les interventions en français sont les bienvenues. Vous trouverez plus d'information (en anglais) ci-dessous.
Au plaisir,
Elizabeth
L'Université autrement: Dans les cafés
www.univcafe.org
***********************
Hello!
Next Monday (February 25th) we are launching a new series of public conversations on "The Commons" (see descriptions below) that will take place each Monday for four weeks. This series is especially exciting as we are broaching a new topic, trying a new venue (the Centre St-Ambroise) and working with Kim Klein (see bio below), the Institute's current Resident Resource Person , and thinker extraordinaire, to develop the content and focus of this series. Kim will be playing a major role in each of these conversations as either guest or moderator.
So please circle the date on your calendar and circulate this information to your networks.
I hope to see you there!
************************
The Commons – Winter 2008
Monday, February 25: What Belongs to Everybody?
Monday, March 3: What role should taxes play in taking care of our common assets?
Monday, March 10: Who owns what? Stewardship, Ownership and Privatization
Monday, March 17: So Many Answers, So Few Questions. What do we do with all this knowledge?
All conversations in this series will take place The Centre St-Ambroise, 5080 St-Ambroise between St-Remi and Chemin de la Côte St-Paul. You can get there by taking a short ride on the 78 bus from Lionel-Groulx metro, the 37 bus from either Vendôme or De l'Église metro, or the 36 bus from Monk metro (http://www.stcum.qc.ca). Free on-site parking is also available.
Monday, February 25 - 7 to 9 p.m.
Centre St-Ambroise, 5080 St-Ambroise
The Commons: What Belongs to Everybody?
The commons is a short, simple phrase that describes all the resources a community has rights or access to. Either because these resources exist all around us, such as sunlight, water, air, and oceans, or because they were built using tax dollars for the benefit of the public as a whole, such as libraries and parks or the infrastructure that allows us to get around, such as sidewalks, bridges, and streetlights. This notion even includes the more hidden and complicated infrastructure of sewers, health inspectors, fire protection, courts, and the like. During this conversation, we will explore the very definition of ‘the commons,’ how it is expanding with the Internet and contracting every time a plant or an animal becomes extinct. We will ask ourselves: Are there things in the commons that should not be there? And things that should be that aren’t? Is the phrase ‘the commons’ helpful or off-putting? How is the commons accessible to the public?
Guest: Kim Klein has been in fundraising for 31 years. She is the founder of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal and the author of Fundraising for Social Change. She is also a member of the Building Movement Project, working on understanding what should be privately funded and what taxes should pay for. This has led her to a keen interest in exploring the Commons. On break from her California life, Kim is currently Resident Resource Person at Concordia University’s Institute in Management and Community Development.
Moderator: Elizabeth Hunt coordinates the University of the Streets Café program at Concordia University, a space for community members to pursue lifelong learning and engagement in the form of public conversations. Elizabeth enjoys that her work allows her to connect people with each other and watch ideas grow.
Monday, March 3 - 7 to 9 p.m.
Centre St-Ambroise, 5080 St-Ambroise
The Commons: What role should taxes play in taking care of our common assets?
Death and taxes, we are told, are inevitable – and there is nothing anyone can do about it. During this conversation we will explore the relationship of the commons (all the resources a community has rights or access to) to the common good, and how the common good is made possible by taxes. Do taxes do their job? Are they fair? How could they be more fair? What does it take for us to feel good about all the taxes we pay?
Guest: Kim Klein – see above for bio
Moderator: Elizabeth Hunt – see above for bio
Monday, March 10 - 7 to 9 p.m.
Centre St-Ambroise, 5080 St-Ambroise
The Commons: Who owns what? Stewardship, Ownership and Privatization
Who does society 'belong' to? Do we take better care of things we own? Can we take care of something we are not allowed to own at all? How do we care for what we have agreed belongs to everybody? What are the implications of these questions? What possible responses exist and how does this impact how we approach changing society? During this conversation we will explore issues related to the ownership and stewardship (and the threat of privatization) of the physical and the knowledge commons.
Guest: David Austin is a Montreal writer with years of community development experience. His writing explores social, political, cultural, and historical themes and the meaning of social change in our time. David is a trustee of the Alfie Roberts Institute.
Moderator: Kim Klein – see above for bio
Monday, March 17 - 7 to 9 p.m.
Centre St-Ambroise, 5080 St-Ambroise
The Commons: So Many Answers, So Few Questions. What do we do with all this knowledge?
With the world wide web, we now have access to the world's biggest library: more facts, opinions, history, critique anyone could ever want, but no one could ever thoroughly explore. Almost any question can get a variety of answers. Yet what are the questions that cannot be answered solely by facts, that cannot be explored through technology? And what use is knowledge if it doesn't helping us come up with better solutions? How do we learn to ask the questions that will create the answers that will help us create the world we want? And what does all of this have to do with protecting, enhancing and preserving the commons?
Guest: Michael Lenczner works at the intersection of activism, community and technology. He has been working in community information and communication infrastructure since 1998 and has been a partner or researcher in related academic groups since 2003. He is a co-founder of Ile Sans Fil and Civic Access.
875 C.E. Celtic Monks from Greenland are believed to have established a colony on Brion Island (Magdalen Island) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and to have eventually settled on Cape Breton Island. Their settlement by Scandinavian tradition is called Huitraamannland. It is believed they are gradually absorbed into the Mi'-Kmaq tradition.
- Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 13:01:19 (PST)
The University of the Streets Café is proud to announce this week's upcoming events.
Thursday, February 21 - 7 to 9 p.m. Artist + Audience: Languaging art and negotiating language politics,where do we start? Guests: Karen Spencer, Sylvie Lachance, Karen Trask Moderator: Michelle Lacombe Venue: articule - artist-run gallery, 262 Fairmount O.
Friday, February 22 - 7 to 9 p.m.Politicize This! Sports: Is this a playing field or a battlefield? Guests: Shirley Roburn, Paul Beaulieu Moderator: Alex Megelas Venue: Arts Café, 201 Fairmount O. The University of the Streets Café creates gathering places for citizens to pursue life long learning and engagement through publicconversations. These collective discussions are an opportunity forpeople of diverse backgrounds and realities to meet, in a respectfulenvironment - where all perspectives are welcome! Established as part of Concordia University in 1993, the Institute in Management and Community Development was created through a collaborative effort with community-based groups. The Institute supports the building of democratic community structures and innovative programming that respond to challenging social justice issues. The work of the Institute is based on the belief that an engaged citizenship and support for community-based organizations through shared reflection, resources and action is essential for building and nourishing healthy communities.
For more information:univcafe@yahoo.cawww.univcafe.org 514-848-2424 ext. 3968
- Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 15:34:38 (PST)
Tolkien estate sues over Lord of the Rings movies.
CBC News
The charity that manages the estate of British writer J.R.R. Tolkien has sued the studio behind the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, saying it hasn't been paid a cent for granting the rights to the story.
The Tolkien Trust and publisher HarperCollins filed suit against New Line Cinema in a Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday.
The suit is claiming $150 million US in damages and threatens to revoke New Line's right to make The Hobbit, another Tolkien tale, into a film.
The suit claims New Line has not paid any part of the 7.5 per cent of gross receipts from the films it promised in return for rights to film the story.
Tolkien, who died in 1973, is the world-renowned author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit.
The filing estimates return from the three Lord of the Ring films — The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King — at $6 billion US, but says New Line has not allowed it to audit the last two films of the series.
- Friday, February 15, 2008 at 07:04:40 (PST)
American Prayer
- Saturday, February 09, 2008 at 19:55:28 (PST)
bottle rolls across the table, clung, across the floor and on into the corner -- Bo-Diddley have ya heard, *hic* pass that RubenRyeSandwich and mustard: Burp.......!!
- Friday, February 08, 2008 at 07:02:50 (PST)
I wanna copy of the Soul Kitchen CD!
*hic*
- Tuesday, February 05, 2008 at 01:11:49 (PST)
The Spirit and The Flesh (Revised): Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture
Author: Walter L. Williams.
ISBN: 978-080704615-9
- Monday, February 04, 2008 at 18:53:05 (PST)
Èirinn gu bràth: "My name's Duncan Campbell from the shire of Argyll ... I've travelled this country for many's the mile ... I've travelled through Ireland, Scotland and a'.... And the name I go under's bold Erin-go-bragh. One night in Auld Reekie as I walked down the street .... A saucy big polis I chanced for to meet .... He glowered in my face and he gi'ed me some jaw ... Sayin' "When cam' ye over, bold Erin-go-bragh?"
Éirinn go Brágh!
- Monday, February 04, 2008 at 07:43:54 (PST)
Happy Groundhog Day!!
PS: Don't for get to do the Gopher Dance with ALL your Relations. It's good Metis Medicine for the heart, year-round and snow wise.
Peace, Jean Williams.
Viva Ms. Gopher, De CaddyShack, brave furry Suburban Warrior.
- Saturday, February 02, 2008 at 11:15:38 (PST)
"Let the nastys of this Life reep what they sow, so their own hard hearted stupidity be their legacy to chasen and quicken all good things, as to grow a better world." Charles Dickens.
- Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 15:46:13 (PST)
"Two-thirds of Cherokees fought with the Union
against the Confederacy during the Civil War."
- Cherokee Nation History Department.
- Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 05:09:34 (PST)
Heüaúa Sapa (Black Elk)
“The power of a thing or an act is in the understanding of its meaning.”
"Dagu wa¡age nagu icanu ne ogaüniðabi."
- Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 16:51:24 (PST)
Soul Kitchen is headin to the studio to record its first cd ..... Cortez the Killer White Room Going Down Roadhouse Blues Spoonful Hey Joe Whippin Post Politician Starship Trooper Tales of Brave Ulysses Hear my Train a Comin ....*sip*
- Friday, January 25, 2008 at 22:25:39 (PST)
The True Peace.
The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship,
their oneness, with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize that at the center
of the universe dwells Wakan-Taka (the Great Spirit),
and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this.
The second peace is that which is made between two individuals,
and the third is that which is made between two nations.
But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is known that true peace,
which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men.
Black Elk, Oglala Sioux & Spiritual Leader (1863-1950).
- Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 17:58:54 (PST)
A Soulful Talent: Cherishing Heath Ledger
Intelligent, sensitive star made every part uniquely his own
By Kim Morgan
Special to MSN Movies
*******************************
I couldn't agree more with the reporter's views. What a loss. RIP Heath Ledger.
- Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 14:35:23 (PST)
Hey, Bo Diddley!
(Ellas Mcdaniel)1957.
Bo diddley done had a farm,
On that farm he had some women,
Women here, women there,
Women, women, women everywhere.
But one little girl lived on a hill,
She rustled and tustled like buffalo bill,
One day she decided she’d go for a ride,
With a pistol and a sword by her side.
She rolled right up to my front door,
Knocked an’ knocked ’til her fist got sore,
When she turned and walked away,
All I could hear my baby say:
Hey bo diddley, oh bo diddley,
Hey bo diddley, oh bo diddley.
Saw my baby run across the field,
Slippin’ and slidin’ like an automobile,
Hollerin’, my baby got towed away,
Slipped on from me like a cadillac-8.
Hey bo diddley, oh bo diddley,
Hey bo diddley, oh bo diddley.
- Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 06:31:01 (PST)
BABY COME BACK.
Spending all my nights, all my money going out on the town
Doing anything just to get you off of my mind
But when the morning comes
I'm right back where I started again
Trying to forget you is just a waste of time
Baby come back, any kind of fool could see
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back, you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can't live without you
All day long, wearing a mask of false bravado
Trying to keep up the smile that hides a tear
But as the sun goes down, I get that empty feeling again
How I wish to God that you were here
Baby come back, any kind of fool could see
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back, you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can't live without you
Now that I put it all together
Give me the chance to make you see
Have you used up all the love in your heart?
Nothing left for me, ain't there nothing left for me
Baby come back, any kind of fool could see (oh darlin')
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back (listen baby), you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can't live without you
I was wrong, and I just can't live
Baby come back (oh baby), any kind of fool could see
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back, you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can't live without you
- Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 06:27:35 (PST)
Behind Blue Eyes.
The WHO.
No one knows what its like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what its like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies
But my dreams
They arent as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
Thats never free
No one knows what its like
To feel these feelings
Like I do
And I blame you
No one bites back as hard
On their anger
None of my pain and woe
Can show through
But my dreams
They arent as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
Thats never free
When my fist clenches, crack it open
Before I use it and lose my cool
When I smile, tell me some bad news
Before I laugh and act like a fool
If I swallow anything evil
Put your finger down my throat
If I shiver, please give me a blanket
Keep me warm, let me wear your coat
No one knows what its like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
- Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 06:20:38 (PST)
yes they do ......soul kitchen that is .......jimi, doors, and srv .....it don' get much rockier that that .......and cream tew ......*sip* ......
- Friday, January 18, 2008 at 22:21:00 (PST)
Frank about that question in that movie The 300, the Thracians would have been dressed as follows. "The Thracians joined the expedition wearing fox caps, wearing long coats under their vivid colored capes. Their calf-high footwear was made of deerskin. They were equipped with spears, light shields and small daggers." Hope that helps your essay.
Glen
- Friday, January 18, 2008 at 18:21:03 (PST)
Soul Kitchen ROX!
- Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 21:23:24 (PST)
"The white man who is our agent is so stingy that he carries a linen rag in his pocket into which to blow his nose, for fear he might blow away something of value." Piapot, Cree Chief.
- Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 12:47:35 (PST)
*siiip* .........jus in case anywon shcould wanna know .....they could jus check this site out ta find out .....*siiiip* .......so ta schpeak ......
http://www.myspace.com/soulkitchenrocks
- Monday, January 14, 2008 at 16:32:40 (PST)
Someone help me. Please tell me what these signs say. http://mariettaok.com/strangesigns/ You can email me from the email on the website where the word me is highlighted.
- Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 17:21:19 (PST)
The music and poetry of Life was Jim's beautiful gift. Here is a gift of Spirt back.
Elder's Meditation: "Race and language makes no difference; the barriers are gone when persons can come together on high spiritual levels."
Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE.
Not only are race and language barriers overcome by spirituality, but all things are overcome by spirituality. Inside every human being is the spirit. When we see people, we can choose to look at their outside or we can choose to look at their inside. Spirituality resides inside of others, we must be able to look at our own inside. If we see spirituality inside ourselves, we will see spirituality inside others. The saying is, "what you sees is what you gets."
have a good one, Leo Aznavour.
http://www.whitebison.org
- Friday, January 11, 2008 at 10:27:25 (PST)
"Canada is not a country for the cold of heart or the cold of feet." Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
- Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 10:42:21 (PST)
"We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture." George W. Bush. Too bad, he don't know his own stink and get that torture and indefinite detention are shamefully un-American.
Wade Evans.
- Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 07:41:34 (PST)
New Videos for Angels By the Sea
and Every star Must Fade
For months we've had lyrics posted on our myspace site without any version of the songs We went ahead and put up YouTube video versions of the songs, so you can hear
what they're supposed to sound like. Angels By The Sea is one of my favorite
songs, a song about Los Angeles, the town of my birth and where I spent
almost 35 years.
Why I Add People?
I sort of feel like I'm creating this fantastic cosmic rock concert
taking place in the future, and like all the people I add
are like the people in the audience and all the bands are the lineup
and it's this concert that just goes on forever, so I really don't add just anyone,
but cool sounding bands, cool logos, cool looking people, real people,
peace and love images, hippies, star girls, lost angels, mystics
gurus, cosmic graphics, things that grab my eye.
I'm having fun doing this and it's a hell of a time to be alive. Thank
you to all who have gathered together on this thin raft.
The Brainflower Video
Election Year B.S.
I don't think any year is any different. Every year there is an election, the voters
want "change." And then nothing ever changes. It's quite pathetic if you think about it to watch these talking heads go on about this candidate or that one, and
how they're for "change." I think I want to throw up.
or pick up a CD for about $11. I have a limited number of these CDs left and pretty much don't plan to make more. Copies are signed and the shipping is free :-) Click on the email link below subject CD.
CD Last Fling w/ Decadence & Democracy 8 songs Only $10. Free Shipping:
Last Words
Just so you all know, my favorite part of my page is the comments section I read them all, and try to respond as best I can. I really don't understand why so many big names don't let you post anything but text in their comment sections. I say bring on the creativity. I love your faces and icons, choices of images and pictures of Jim and quotes, and animated graphics. I got the best friends and they all give the best comments and I dig it.
Also, I am back at work full time. I am a working class hero just like most of us, with kids. For about 1/2 of last year, I was pretty much a stay at home dad, and was able to spend a lot of time on here. Now that I am working again, well ... time is precious. I try to get around to my email and comments and stay in touch, so just remember if you don't hear back from me right away, I'm just out there in that rat race like the rest of us.
It's all about the L O V E in 2008!
Joe "Deadhead Dylan" Rossi
- Monday, January 07, 2008 at 18:39:59 (PST)
New Videos for Angels By the Sea
and Every star Must Fade
For months we've had lyrics posted on our myspace site without any version of the songs We went ahead and put up YouTube video versions of the songs, so you can hear
what they're supposed to sound like. Angels By The Sea is one of my favorite
songs, a song about Los Angeles, the town of my birth and where I spent
almost 35 years.
Why I Add People?
I sort of feel like I'm creating this fantastic cosmic rock concert
taking place in the future, and like all the people I add
are like the people in the audience and all the bands are the lineup
and it's this concert that just goes on forever, so I really don't add just anyone,
but cool sounding bands, cool logos, cool looking people, real people,
peace and love images, hippies, star girls, lost angels, mystics
gurus, cosmic graphics, things that grab my eye.
I'm having fun doing this and it's a hell of a time to be alive. Thank
you to all who have gathered together on this thin raft.
The Brainflower Video
Election Year B.S.
I don't think any year is any different. Every year there is an election, the voters
want "change." And then nothing ever changes. It's quite pathetic if you think about it to watch these talking heads go on about this candidate or that one, and
how they're for "change." I think I want to throw up.
or pick up a CD for about $11. I have a limited number of these CDs left and pretty much don't plan to make more. Copies are signed and the shipping is free :-) Click on the email link below subject CD.
CD Last Fling w/ Decadence & Democracy 8 songs Only $10. Free Shipping:
Last Words
Just so you all know, my favorite part of my page is the comments section I read them all, and try to respond as best I can. I really don't understand why so many big names don't let you post anything but text in their comment sections. I say bring on the creativity. I love your faces and icons, choices of images and pictures of Jim and quotes, and animated graphics. I got the best friends and they all give the best comments and I dig it.
Also, I am back at work full time. I am a working class hero just like most of us, with kids. For about 1/2 of last year, I was pretty much a stay at home dad, and was able to spend a lot of time on here. Now that I am working again, well ... time is precious. I try to get around to my email and comments and stay in touch, so just remember if you don't hear back from me right away, I'm just out there in that rat race like the rest of us.
It's all about the L O V E in 2008!
Joe "Deadhead Dylan" Rossi
- Monday, January 07, 2008 at 18:36:18 (PST)
'Twas the Week After Christmas.
'Twas the week after Christmas,
and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I'd nibbled,
the eggnog I'd taste
At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).
I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,
The wine and the rum balls,
the bread and the cheese
And the way I'd never said,
"No thank you, please."
As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt
I said to myself,
as I only can
"You can't spend a winter disguised as a man!"
So away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake,
every cracker and chip
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
"Till all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won't have a cookie - not even a lick.
I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won't have hot biscuits,
or corn bread,
or pie,
I'll munch on a carrot
and quietly cry.
I'm hungry, I'm lonesome,
and life is a bore
But isn't that what January is for?
Unable to giggle,
no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all
and to all a good diet!
The riddle of Epicurus aka the problem of evil: "Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
verses...
The riddle of Epicurus over coffee and New Year's brunch, is not really a paradox or a riddle, but rather a reductio ad absurdum of the premises. Epicurus drew the conclusion that the existence of evil is incompatible with the existence of the Gods who care about the matters of mankind, assuming absolute concepts of benevolence, knowledge, and power. More generally, no paradox or problem exists for those who do not accept the premises, in particular the existence of a benevolent god or gods. However, many Greeks did; Plato, in his "Timaeus," states gods are good.
Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world? — Epicurus, as quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief.
or maybe?
1. If a perfectly good god exists, then there is no evil in the world.
2. There is evil in the world.
3. Therefore, a perfectly good god does not exist.
Logical problem of evil
God exists? (premise)
God is omnipotent and omniscient? (premise — or true by definition of the word "God")
God is all-benevolent? (premise — or true by definition)
All-benevolent beings are opposed to all evil? (premise — or true by definition)
All-benevolent beings who can eliminate evil will do so immediately when they become aware of it? (premise)
God is opposed to all evil? (conclusion from 3 and 4)
God can eliminate evil completely and immediately. (conclusion from 2)
Whatever the end result of suffering is, God can bring it about by ways that do not include suffering.
God has no reason not to eliminate evil.
God has no reason not to act immediately.
God will eliminate evil completely and immediately.
Evil exists, has existed, and probably will always exist.
Item-points 8 and 9: are contradictory; therefore,
one or more of the premises is false: either God does not exist, evil does not exist,
or God is not simultaneously omnipotent, omniscient, and all-benevolent (i.e. God is omnipotent and omniscient but not all-benevolent, omnipotent and all-benevolent but not omniscient, or omniscient and all-benevolent but not omnipotent).
Ex nihilo the Good God in ALL things, more wine please!!
- Thursday, January 03, 2008 at 10:38:00 (PST)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
- Monday, December 31, 2007 at 23:37:28 (PST)
George Bush is sat in the oval office one morning, reviewing the Iraq situation with his generals. The door opens, an aide walks in...."Bad news Im afraid , Mr. President...we have just had word that 3 Brazilian soldiers have been killed in Iraq"
President Bush drops to his knees and puts his face in his hands...and starts sobbing with grief....absolutely inconsolable...the President seems to have taken the news incredibly badly......All the assembled generals can hear from the president is a mumbled "oh my god ...oh my god...."
Eventually, Bush looks up to Dick Cheney through teary eyes from where he is kneeling and asks....."Exactly how many is a brazillion,Dick?"
- Thursday, December 27, 2007 at 00:37:18 (PST)
- Sunday, December 23, 2007 at 09:57:05 (PST)
1849
The Bells
by Edgar Allan Poe
I
Hear the sledges with the bells-
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
II
Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And an in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
III
Hear the loud alarum bells-
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor,
Now- now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows:
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
Of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
IV
Hear the tolling of the bells-
Iron Bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people- ah, the people-
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All Alone
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone-
They are neither man nor woman-
They are neither brute nor human-
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells-
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells-
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells:
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells-
Bells, bells, bells-
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
- Saturday, December 22, 2007 at 18:32:56 (PST)
Christmas Carols for the Disturbed
* 1. Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?
* 2. Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are
* 3. Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas
* 4. Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me
* 5. Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Busses and Trucks and Trees and.....
* 6. Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me
* 7. Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire
* 8. Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why
* 9. Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy oooh look at the froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?
