aka.alias

To Spread Peace

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:40:00 +0000

Plans to build a mosque at Ground Zero set my teeth on edge, as I have detailed before, but I have no control over that. I can not stop the plans for such an insult to the memory of those who dies on 9/11. I can not single-handedly stop the hate that swirls so violently through the supposed religion of peace, but I can still let my little candle against the dark. I can do what I can to make the world a better place for me and mine, you and yours. To that end, I will be returning yet again to Kiva, a place I already frequent. Once there, I will be delighting in the loaning of another $50. I have already made enough loans that I've lost track of just how many. The two new loans I will be making will be part of my effort to spread peace; to let others know that there is goodness and caring in the world. I want others to know that there are those who stand ready to help, simply because it is the right thing to do; not because the person to whom I will make this loan has been first coerced into behaving in some way I decree they should or believing some dogma that I demand they accept. I want them to know that they are important, even to people whom they will never meet. They are valued, simply because they are alive and part of my global family.

A Mosque in Death Valley, Indeed

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:21:00 +0000

Plans are being made to build a mosque at Ground Zero. Those plans raise every hackle I own. I want to start with WTF and then go on to use every profanity and all the vitriol I can manage in response, but I think I'll save myself the time and effort and let Pat Condell say it all for me, instead.
Watch the whole thing before you make any decisions. If you're a person who is normally ready to be open-minded and fair, some of the video's content can be a little difficult to sit through. Remind yourself of how pretty much the whole world backs off of their plans when some islamic fundamentalist threatens jihad,and you might just be able to view the plans for the mosque in exactly the terms Condell uses.
The islamic world is not known for its tolerance of others, or for fair treatment of anyone who dares to offer less than obsequious deference to their "religion of peace". Surely it is time for the rest of the world to stop bending over backward in their efforts to be seen as tolerating islam.
Don't let this mosque be built.

Idiot Alert Files Updated

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:26:00 +0000

I'd like to extend membership to a group, again. This time the membership honours go out collectively to the cretins who litter. This network of ninnies was brought to my attention today when I walked across the street to the food store to pick up an item or two at a store in a little mall that includes a Tim Horton's. As I made my way back home, I found myself passing the area where people stand every day, waiting for the bus to stop. Unfortunately, the ground was littered with Tim Horton's cups, paper bags, and plastic water bottles. The mindless morons who dropped them there are only a small part of the brotherhood of environment destroyers, I know, but I would love to be able to set up a small surprise for each one and every one of these effen idiots. It would be so incredibly wonderful to be a fly on their kitchen wall for just a moment tomorrow morning, if only I could be there to see their face when magic happened. The magic I have in mind would be the sudden appearance of the lousy litter they dropped the night before, right smack in the midst of their bowl of breakfast cereal. It would be like icing on a cake, of course, if some dog had pissed on the litter while it lay where they had dropped it. You know, just an added touch of flavour to titillate their taste buds!
The fact that these muttonheads thoughtlessly drop such items when they're through with them bespeaks a mindset of meagre mentality. Out of sight, out of mind, for these imbeciles. They don't likely give it much of a thought, but if they do, I suppose they assume since they don't see the garbage anymore, it somehow just disappears. They obviously haven't read much - if at all - about the disappearance of natural resources on the planet they treat as their own personal garbage dump. They allow themselves to dwell in blissful unawareness, for instance, of the calculations done by the Global Footprint Network. The Network has calculated nature's supply in the form of biocapacity, the amount of resources the planet regenerates each year, and compared that to human demand, the amount it takes to produce all the living resources consumed, and to absorb carbon dioxide emissions. The Network's data shows that, as of August 21, humankind will have demanded all the ecological services - from filtering CO2 to producing the raw materials for food - that nature can provide this year. That means that from this past Saturday until the end of this year, humankind will meet the rest of its annual ecological demand by depleting the existing stock of natural resources. That's pretty heavy-duty news for anyone with the intellect to understand and be frightened by it. There's the rub, however, when we're talking about the kind of mental midget who marks their passing with a trail of garbage. They lack intellect. They are quite likely incapable of the thought needed to process the info published by the Global Footprint Network; quite likely unable to comprehend the concept of depleting.
Idiots, indeed.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:43:00 +0000

Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu.

So goes the African proverb that declares, "A person is a person because of other people." Not being of African heritage myself, I have to admit that I do not know for certain in what context the saying is normally used, but it seems to me a rephrasing of John Donne's declaration that no man is an island, entire of itself. Donne declares, "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind" and I think those who do know when best to use the above saying must surely believe the same as Donne did about our interconnectedness.
The problem is, the number of those now acting as though they truly believe seems to be so small. Witness the current desperate straits in Pakistan and the international community's aid response. The flooding began in Pakistan almost three weeks ago and the waters are not expected to completely recede until the end of August. An estimated 1,600 have been killed and 8 million people have been left in urgent need of assistance. Highways and bridges have been washed away, and left hundreds of villages marooned. Millions are now living with the threat of diseases such as cholera, carried by contaminated water, and the need for clean drinking water, food rations and shelter is desperate. "Heart-wrenching" and the worst disaster he has ever seen was how UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon described it on his visit to Pakistan.
So why is the international response to this disaster lagging so far behind what the UN has appealed for? Is it because people suspect aid dollars will be diverted by corrupt officials? Such an occurrence has plagued international aid responses before, but it should not be enough of a reason for people not to open their wallets. Since Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari saw no reason to cancel his visit to Europe or yet declare a national disaster, it might be that the world doesn't quite understand the scope of the disaster.
Kilian Kleinschmidt, deputy to the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy to Pakistan, has stated of the international community, "Pakistan will require our continued and sustained engagement to recover." Our engagement, however, has not gotten off to a good start. Perhaps, sadly, it is the low death toll. The Haitian government, for instance, estimated the death toll in the 2010 earthquake to range between 100,000 and 270,00 although the true number may never be known. Compare that to the death toll in Pakistan. Perhaps some decide their response or lack thereof based on the number of dead.
After having given to the aid effort for Haiti, many are feeling they have nothing left in their budgets with which to respond to the need in Pakistan. This may be true for some, but I would question if it is for all those who say the coffers are empty. I have to wonder just how many might be making such a declaration with the latte of the day clutched firmly in their hand.
Certainly, there are those who are responding with an open heart and open hands. ike Asma Mahmood, of Mississauga, Ontario is a good example of the people who understand the need. She has organized "Tents from Toronto", a drive to collect tents that will help provide shelter for the estimated 20 million who have been left homeless by the flood waters, but it just seems too easy for many who live the privileged life of the western world to turn their back on their stricken brothers and sisters. I know there are those who have much less than others here in the west. I know that there are those on welfare, and the homeless on the streets, but they are not the majority. The majority of us do have the cash in our pockets for that latte, day after day. Far too many have confused luxury with necessity. They do not care to listen to Gandhi's admonition to live simply so that others may simply live. They do not care to listen to Donne's warning that if "if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less". They think they live far enough away that they are granted a kind of immunity from the social-conscience imperative to respond when there is desperate need.
Perhaps those who have decided to ignore the need in Pakistan should pause for a moment over their next latte. They should take that moment to pray that they never experience such need in their own lives, or in the lives of those whom they love. They should pray they are spared the need ever to ask for which of their kindred the bell tolls, lest they find themselves hoping for aid from others as disconnected as they.

Cracking Open a Cold One

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:25:00 +0000

Ontario's summer this year to date has been a sizzler. According to Environment Canada's records, July 2010 saw 10 days with temperatures that were over 30 degrees celsius. There weren't any days last July that reached such highs. Peterborough experienced the highest humidex value of 45 on July 8 but values of 44 were recorded at Toronto Pearson on July 5, and in London on July 7. The UV index - the strength of the sun's ultraviolet rays - has also been setting records. Using that index, a reading of 6 or 7 is "High" while 8 to 10 is "Very High". During that same period, "Extreme" UV index readings of 11+ were forecast for more than one location, an occurrence that is rare, indeed, in Canada. All the while, the government has been issuing air-quality warnings and extreme heat alerts.
Now, it seems that August will head in the same direction, with yesterday's humidex talking Toronto temps into the low 40's. How to survive the heat is becoming the topic de jour around the water cooler, but being Canadian generally means taking a phlegmatic approach to most problems, including those posed by the weather. Of course, everyone with air conditioning has been keeping it cranked up, but many have sought out another antidote to the high temps; a relaxed, laid-back one that doesn't strain the power grid. A recent Ipsos-Reid poll shows that 33 per cent of Canadians choose the brown bottle as their favorite summer drink, and the latest figures from the LCBO more than back that up. The figures show that sales of barley pop have been pushed to new highs by the heat baking Ontario so far this summer. Chris Layton, an LCBO spokesperson, says that, "(T)he volume sales of beers and ciders were up 11.5 per cent or 2.4 million litres." for the past month, Layton explained that's a million more six-packs this year than last, in the same four-week period. He also announced that sales of single cans of Ontario brewskis have shot up by 46 per cent.
If you find yourself this summer in the same straits as Ontario, baking in a heatwave that brings new meaning to "prickly heat", there's really no need to get your knickers in a knot. Just do like the Canucks - head to the fridge, or your favourite watering hole, and crack open a cold one. It should help you get by 'til the weather changes and the summer's heat is gone.

Workplace Harassment

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:23:00 +0000

For an interesting take on the question of how to handle the harassment of an employee, follow this link. A vexatious course, indeed.

Metronews.ca and the Catalan Parliamentarians

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:42:00 +0000

On Wednesday of this week, the members of the Catalan parliament in Spain voted 68 to 55 to ban the barbarism of bullfighting from their region. The move made Catalonia the first region in mainland Spain to take this historic step. Josep Rull, a lawmaker from Convergence and Union, a Catalan party opined, “We can be proud to have demonstrated today that Catalonia has a more dignified and respectful society that believes in eliminating the torture and suffering of animals.” Obviously an intellect, as is everyone else who voted with him.
Not to be outdone, of course, the voice of the mental midgets arguing to keep the cruelty going for the entertainment of discerning types, found a spokesperson. A bullfighter, Vicente Barrera spoke up for those who thrill to bloodletting. This cro-magnon denounced those who voted for the ban as abandoning "the tradition and culture that makes Spain so special." How sad that anyone should believe public spectacles that exist solely to kill for entertainment are all that distinguish the Spanish culture. How wonderful that the majority of those who voted in the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on Wednesday have moved past the dark ages where Barrera and his ilk are mired.
Unfortunately, although Catalonia, a region previously steeped in the tradition of bullfighting, has been able to see the "sport" for the horrendous barbarism that is is, others are seemingly incapable of such forward thinking. I am not talking here about any citizen of Spain, more's the pity. No, I speak of intellectually challenged individuals at metronews.ca. Metro produces freebie newspapers distributed in six Canadian cities, not in Spain. These people are not part of the tradition that supposedly makes Spain so special. Those involved with the paper's Wednesday caption contest are simply idiots. On that day, the picture displayed for readers to caption was one of a bullring scene, showing a bull in the process of being tortured to death. The instructions to the left of the disgusting photo read, "Write a funny caption for the image to the right..." What kind of moron considers such a picture to be one that could actually have any humour to it at all?
Another very sad aspect to this display of inexcusable disregard for life is the fact that there will be captions submitted by far too many people. When the sanctity of life, in any form, is treated with such blatant disregard, even one person submitting a caption would be one too many.
I wonder - if those who chose the photo for the contest and those who submit captions could be plunked down in front of the spectacle; if they could be forced to watch the death throes of the poor beleaguered bull and listen to those who cheered while its life blood drained away ... would any of them upchuck their lunch at the gore, or would they all come out happily giggling and full of funny new captions to submit for the next photo of a death scene that metronews.ca digs up for its readers' amusement?

You're Going to Die Anyway, So ...

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:15:00 +0000

As people age, lifestyles and habits that were less than healthy sometimes get left by the wayside in a later-years attempt to stretch out a lifespan. If you've decided, however, that longevity isn't necessarily what you're aiming for, you might still want to tweak your lifestyle just a little. Getting yourself out to the nearest bookstore, or even an online site like "Indie Bound" will help you make the necessary adjustment. There you can purchase your guide to going out happy, whenever it happens.
The book you'll need is "Old Man Drinks", a 160 page wealth of wisdom on how to pickle yourself with the kinds of drinks that grandpa used to knock back during his barstool days. Recipes for alcoholic age-defiers like Sidecars and Rusty Nails are included along with real photos of real ol' guys guzzling back their poison of choice.
If, however, you have decided that you do want to try and stretch out your allotted time as much as possible, you'll need to do your tweaking in another direction. While the jury is still out whether or not alcohol consumption can contribute to healthy aging, the verdict is definitely in on marriage. Researchers at the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging (NJISA) have announced in an article in The Gerontologist that being married is one significant factor in successful aging. Their findings are based on telephone surveys conducted with more than 5,600 New Jersey residents between the ages of 50 and 74. If you're single and decide to take the life-lengthening walk to the altar, you could enlist a little help from friends and family, get yourself right out there on the marriage market and maybe even be tying the knot before week's end! According to the good folk at NJISA, this is one modifiable indicator of healthy golden years to come. Just to be sure you're clear on this, however, there's a caveat. Successful aging is not something you can suddenly give all your attention to when you hit retirement in the expectation of reversing years of "pary hearty" attitudes that saw you helping to originate every recipe in a book like "Old Man Drinks". Nope. Unfortunately, as Rachel Pruchno, PhD, killjoy, and the director of research at NJISA says, "Our research shows how aging is a lifelong process. (emphasis my own) The person you become at a very old age is really a function of how you lived your earlier years."
The researchers also found other significant indicators like how much formal education subjects had acquired and whether or not they had served jail time. In other words, while getting hitched is a criterion of successful aging that you can still do something about a little later in life , what you did in your younger years can never be changed and it might just come back and bite you in the ass.
In case it does, consider getting yourself a copy of the abovementioned book. After all, no matter how successfully you age, you're still going to die sooner or later, so you might just want to throw caution to the wind and ride out on a wave of pickled glory!

Of Course He'll Appeal

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:39:00 +0000

Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch, as his good buddies know him, served as the former chief jailer of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. He ran the S-21 prison where as many as 14,000 people were tortured and killed between 1975 and 1979. This week he became the first former Khmer Rouge leader to be tried for war crimes committed during the group's rule in the 1970s. A UN-backed tribunal sentenced him on Monday of this week to 35 years in prison for his part in the brutality. During the 77-day proceedings, Duch acknowledged responsibility and pleaded guilty, but the judges actually reduced the sentence to just 19 years to take into account the time he had been detained before the trial. Relatives of the victims present at the sentencing burst into tears at the reduced sentence.
Kar Savuth, Duch's lawyer, has said they will appeal the court's decision. Well, of course. Duch's expectation is apparently that he should be acquitted on the grounds that he was not a senior member of the Khmer Rouge hierarchy. Now there's one hell of a good reason to be set free, no matter how many people you had a hand in murdering. It is farcical that he should make such an appeal; farcical that any lawyer would be so willing to sully his own soul as to take on this monster's defense.
Such a pity that some of his victim's kin could not have had an hour alone in some dark alley with this vicious criminal, just to maybe chat a little about what he did at prison S-21. Not that I'm suggesting any personal "killing field" for Duch. I'm just sure they could have all had a jolly old time, and the bereaved kin could have walked away feeling better. Any pieces of filth left after the chat could just have been thrown on the dung heap.

Should the MIT Learn from the IIT?

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:13:00 +0000

In 2005, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology unveiled their prototype of a supposed $100 laptop for children in the developing world. Those laptops ended up costing approximately twice that amount. In May of this year, Nicholas Negroponte (MIT's Media Lab) announced plans again to develop a basic tablet computer for $99 through his non-profit association, One Laptop per Child. The western world keeps backing up and taking another run at it. It remains to be seen how this latest effort will do.
On Thursday of this week, the Indian government unveiled their prototype of an iPad-like touch-screen laptop, with a price tag of just $35, developed by the Indian Institute of Technology. It hopes to begin next year, producing these devices that have no hard disk, but use a memory card instead, and are able to run on solar power. Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said the tablet, expected to run the Linux operating system, would be introduced to higher education institutions next year.
The device's developers say it supports web browsing, video conferencing and word processing, and is intended for use by students. If all goes according to the ministry's plans, the price for the laptop will drop to $10 in the future. Granted, the device has yet to enter production, but Mamta Varma, a ministry spokeswoman, says there are several global manufacturers already expressing interest in producing it.
This all begs the question: Why couldn't the mighty MIT manage this feat? Mr. Sibal might very well be right when he says, "The solutions for tomorrow will emerge from India."

Why?

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:00:00 +0000

The Canadian government currently invests $2,000 per student less educating kids on reserves than it does in the rest of the country. WTF? Somebody explain this one to me, please.

Overfed Girths, Underfed Minds

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:24:00 +0000

This morning I came across some numbers that grabbed my attention, because of the stark contrast between them and because they both need to be changed, ASAP.
The first numbers are to do with Canada's overweight/obese children. The Canadian Health Measures Survey shows that the percentage of boys ages 15 to 19 considered overweight or obese has more than doubled in the past 15 years and is now at 31 per cent. The figure for teen girls sits at 25 per cent. Since there is no major difference between lifestyles in the States and Canada, you know that these disturbing figures, with appropriate adjustment made for the difference in overall population of each country, also apply to the U.S.A. The obesity epidemic is reaching such sad proportions that Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children has actually launched a program for obese teens that will see those with a qualifying girth able to get laporoscopic band surgery. The aimed-at ages are 12 to 17.
These figures speak sad volumes about the excesses available to/and indulged in by too many in the western world, while the developing world struggles to meet even the basic needs of its citizens.
That brings us to the second set of figures. There are currently nearly two–billion children in the developing world and while I know hunger stalks so many of them on a regular basis, this is not about the hunger their stomachs must deal with. It is, rather, about their rarely fed hunger for knowledge, and a way to ameliorate that. Many countries of the developing world have simply not got enough of a budget to spend on education. It is not uncommon for a developing nation to allot less than $20per year for the education of each of its children, in contrast to the U.S. where an average of $7,500 is spent per annum. One in three children in the less privileged world does not even complete the fifth grade.
This is where such organizations as OLPC enter the picture. The mission of OLPC is based on the assumption that, "children in remote, rural, and poor regions of the world take to computers as easily and naturally as children anywhere", and so one of their chief aims is "to bridge the so-called global digital divide separating rich countries from poor countries by spreading access to the Internet in the developing world." What they hope to do is get an XO laptop into the hands of each one of those nearly two billion children, so that they can become part of building the bridge across that global gap.
That's where you and I come in, and not necessarily by giving money. Of course, if you can, feel free to give some dollars and cents, but using a little time to give some space on your Facebook page can be every bit as effective. It doesn't get much easier than making a Facebook entry linking to OLPC to do some good for a child who too much of the world will otherwise forget.
And that brings you and I back full circle to where this entry began, with the overweight children of Canada. Perhaps one way to get them off their corpulent posteriors would be to get them involved in raising a little cash for their global brothers and sisters who aren't as lucky as they are. They could, for instance, stage their own fund-raising walk, getting family and friends to pledge so much per distance covered. That way their overfed girths would benefit at the same time as would the underfed minds of their third world counterparts.
Just a thought.

Missing the Boat

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:33:00 +0000

Those are the words used by Barbara Dorris, of the Survivors’ Network for Those Abused by Priests, who says the new pedophile-priest guidelines issued by the Vatican “can be summed up in three words: missing the boat.” The vatican, on the other hand, claims its new "laws" will make it easier to discipline priests who use their position of authority to facilitate their pedophiliac preferences.
The new rules would seem to be aimed at priests who molest children and the mentally disabled, as well as those clerics with a penchant for child pornography. I say "seem" because these laws have just as much bite as a toothless centenarian. The document was outlined at a briefing on Thursday by the Vatican’s sex crimes prosecutor, Monsignor Charles Scicluna. (Don't you just love that this community of righteous followers of Christ has to have such an office?) The document makes no mention of any need for bishops to report clerical sex abuse to police and provides no sanctions of any kind for mitre-wearers who cover up for known abusers. In other words, these new "laws" really do nothing to change the good ol' boys' club run by the Vatican for pedophiles.
What the document did give very real effort to doing, however, was the laying down of a smoke screen. They need one to cover up the ineptitude of the R.C. church at making a difference in the lives of those it has victimized in the past and will go on, unhindered, to victimize in the future.
At Thursday's briefing, Scicluna hotly defended the inclusion of the document's smoke screen - the assertion that ordaining women is as grave a sin as pedophilia. Many have forwarded the suggestion that ordaining women would be a valid move in more than one way. The feeling is, of course, that women have just as much to value to bring to ministering to the faithful as men do. It would help boost the flagging numbers of those taking up the job and it might even lessen the problems the church has experienced for endless years with priests who merely mumble meaningless mumbo-jumbo at the altar and then hotfoot it out to get their hands on the next helpless child.
In 2007, the good ol' boys at the vatican issued a decree saying the attempted ordination of women would result in automatic excommunication for the woman and the priest trying to ordain her. That dire threat is repeated in their new document, but this time it goes further to say that the priest can also be punished by being defrocked. Oh, horrors! Since that is basically the only "punishment" the document says it will level at those clerics with a penchant for under-age sex, they obviously are very serious about equating women priests with pedophiles.
Many women's groups have reacted to this idiocy with outrage. I think Erin Saiz Hanna, executive director of the U.S.-based Women’s Ordination Conference fits it all nicely into a nutshell when she says, "The idea ... reveals an antiquated, backwards church..." Exactly.
The old boys' club that is the R.C. church is most unwilling to lose any of the single-gender power and privilege it has enjoyed since the dark ages, where it still dwells. It would probably take a personal appearance by the big J.C. himself to get any of them to budge an inch away from their intransigence. The Jesus of the bible is quoted more than once as giving shit to the morons of his day who regarded women as unworthy to take their equal place beside men, but I'm guessing Scicluna and others like him are just kept way too busy these days in their work prosecuting sex crimes to spare any time for reading the bible.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:44:00 +0000

Perhaps a good point for you to keep in mind while reading the following would be the fact that Iran is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The ICCPR is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976. Signing this treaty is supposed to mean that the country doing so is pledging itself to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, and the rights to due process and a fair trial. The plight of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani clearly illustrates the fact that Iran's signing of this treaty is little more than a very poor joke.
Very little clear detail is being made available to the global community about the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. It is known that Sakineh was convicted of “illicit sex” and sentenced to 99 lashes in 2006. That sentence was carried out, in front of her two sons. Subsequently, she was charged with “adultery while being married” and it is for this charge that the sentence of being stoned to death was passed, although it seems that the woman was given no access to a lawyer to defend her against such an outcome. When the horrendous sentence was handed down, her sons sought to bring their mother's terrifying position to the attention of the world, and they have succeeded, with a storm of international protest resulting.
Among other protests against the sentence, Heather Reisman, the chief executive of Indigo Books and Music, has initiated an international petition to decry the planned execution. (Follow the link to get involved.) As of Monday morning, the petition had already seem more than 60,000 who are concerned with human rights affixing their signatures. Those members of Iran's judiciary who are connected to the case have announced, however, that “Western media propaganda” will not prevent the carrying out of the execution. Such petitions and the notion of human rights mean nothing to these savages.
A statement was made on Monday by Malek Ajdar Sharifi, chief of the judiciary of East Azerbaijan, where the sentence was passed, to say that the "heinousness of the defendant’s crimes defied belief". What really defies belief is the fact that the head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, (oxymoron, anyone?) said this past weekend that Ms. Ashtiani had been “convicted of adultery". That supposedly is the heinous crime that means the barbaric, medieval judiciary of Iran feel justified in totally ignoring the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and sentencing her to death. These unbelievably backward hate-mongers go to great lengths to ensure they get maximum entertainment value from such an execution. They even manage to imbue it with a misogynistic twist, which I am sure broadens the evil smiles on their faces as they watch their version of justice being done.
The size of the stones used is carefully prescribed as to be larger than pebbles so they will inflict mortal injury, but not so large as to kill with the first strike. After all, for those who get their jollies from watching helpless souls being stoned, they don't want the fun to run out before they finish their popcorn, do they?
The twist comes from the way in which the victims are immobilized so they have to stick around and provide the fun for the attendant holier-than-thou types who watch the sentence being carried out. A man sentenced to such a death is buried up to his waist. A woman is buried up to the top of her breasts. The victims know that if they are able to dig themselves free in one hell of a hurry, they can go free. I wonder how many of those Iranian perverts giggle maniacally while they consider the difference in the way the men and women are positioned?
Certainly, these Cro-magnons are forgetting one detail of their own faith every time they sentence anyone to stoning. The Quran acknowledges Jesus as a prophet, and Islam says all the prophets were divinely chosen to spread the word of god. The story is told of Jesus defending a woman from stoning and admonishing the self-righteous men wanting to murder her, saying that the one among them who was free of all sin himself should cast the first stone. The story goes on to say that the whole crowd dropped their missiles, and left the woman alone. It would be no different today if that same stricture was placed on those passing sentence on Ashtiani. It's just too damn difficult to deal with the problematic dichotomy between one of their divinely inspired prophets commanding compassion and their own inhumane actions, so they just conveniently ignore it.
The likely outcome of this case is that the Iranian judiciary will still carry out the death sentence on this poor woman, but they will do so by hanging or shooting her instead. It has happened exactly that way before. In 2008, for instance, Abdollah Farivar was convicted of “illicit relationship outside marriage” and sentenced to death by stoning. A worldwide storm of protest resulted in Iranian officials backing off from the stoning. They hung him instead. The international protest at that time did not cause them to give a second thought to the dried ink that is their signature on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
I doubt that it will now.

Changing a Life

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:12:00 +0000

I know, even just one more good cause could be just one too many, but I'm posting this one in case ... in case it really resonates even with just one reader. Something as simple as the chance to "play in the backyard" can be a life-changing experience for an inner city child, and it really doesn't take too much to facilitate it, so in case you're that one reader, follow the link to learn about the Fresh Air Fund. Donations are always welcome, but if you have the room and a little bit of adventure in your soul, you could host a child for a summer vacation.
They're still looking for 2010 hosts, and if you're interested, you could become part of the 65 per cent mentioned in the happy declaration on the Fresh Air website: "More than 65% of all Fresh Air children are reinvited to stay with their host family, year after year."
Take a minute and take a look, please.

All About Size, Isn't It, Tut?

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:43:00 +0000

Jo Marchant, contributor to "New Scientist" has written yet another article about the demise of the famous Egyptian boy-king. Through the years, theories attempting to explain Tut's death at the age of 19 have abounded. I have seen TV "documentaries" that detailed how it was a case of murder by poison or resultant from an accident that took place while the king was out in his chariot. Both made convincing presentations. The theories continue, however, and now Christian Timmann and Christian Meyer of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, have written a June 2010 submission to the Journal of the American Medical Association, contending that it must have been a case of sickle cell disease. SCD, apparently, is the most common cause of bone damage like that observed in Tutankhamen's mummy observed during a battery of tests run by a team led by Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass.
The size problem has arisen because another team, this one American, has also written a letter to the JAMA. In this letter, they posit their theory that King Tut might have had Antley-Bixler syndrome, a genetic mutation that can cause such effects as elongated skulls, breasts on male sufferers, and under-developed male genitalia. Who hasn't seen pictures of artwork dating from ancient Egypt that depicts Tut's father with a face a mile long? I guess, maybe, it's nature's way of compensating for something else lacking in the expected length.
The hilarious part of all this is Marchant's note that Tut's penis seems to have gone missing. It was noted as still there when Carter dug up the mummy in 1922, but declared in 1968 to have somehow gone missing. Assuming that Tut himself did not make a midnight raid to retrieve his pride and joy, the disappearance does raise a question of where the little item went. Supposedly, a CT scan turned it up somehow disconnected from Tut and lying in the sand around the mummified monarch. You do have to wonder how it got there, and if it even is the real thing.
Marchant theorizes that the current penis is actually one swapped in as a replacement because Tut did indeed have Antley-Bixler syndrome, and the modern world was about to discover that the royal member wasn't quite up to snuff. Zahi Hawass has got his shorts in a knot because of such suggestions. He stoutly declares that the king was well-endowed.
So, you see? Size does matter. Hawass will not allow anyone to think any the less of his famous countryman, for the sake of an errant inch or two.

Idiot Alert Files Welcome the Folks at L'Osservatore Romano

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:50:00 +0000

30 years ago, John Belushi and Dan Akroyd made the film "The Blues Brothers" and a cult classic was born. Not everyone was totally thrilled by the film, mind you, including the Office for Film and Broadcasting for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. They panned the film, saying it did nothing more than "milking cheap laughs from rough language and crude situations". Certainly, that was not a review designed to get the faithful up and out of those pews and down to the theatre show. What did they know? According to L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican rag, they were dead wrong in their assessment of the film.
The good folks at the Vatican have declared the Blues Brothers to be a Catholic classic. I'm thinking there must be some element of ESL involved in their decision making. If there isn't, then it's just plain stupidity; good old fashioned idiocy that entitles them all to deluxe, first-class membership in the Idiot Alert Files.
You see, the ESL angle would explain away their misinterpreting dialogue like that where the brothers decline the delights of listening to some "jive-ass preacher talking to me about Heaven and Hell". Clearly, that would not be the correct attitude for any of the faithful to take to their local priest's Sunday sermonizing.
Back to the ESL component in the declaration made by the pope's press. If it isn't a factor in their rating the film as a classic, then how does one explain their lack of any problem with Mrs. Murphy's description of the "two honkies out there dressed like Hasidic diamond merchants"? (emphasis my own) Gasp! You don't think there cold be any element of the vatican's taking pleasure in a little indulgence in stereotyping rivals for souls, do you? OMG, realization dawns - that must be why they turn a blind eye to the denouncing of the jive-ass preacher, since he is not a catholic but an evangelical.
Anyway, no matter what angle you view this film from, the Blues Brothers' self-declared mission from god is nothing more than a part of the film's tongue-in-cheek sending up of everything to do with penguins and living the righteous life. It's nothing more than a part of a film made just for fun, with very little intent other than to bring in a profit while the actors enjoyed themselves playing silly buggers. For the papal periodical to declare it a 'catholic classic' is to showcase the mental challenge under which the vatican and its mouthpiece labours.
To think: the vatican is supposed to lead how many millions down the path of righteousness? Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, help us all.

The Mad Men of Somalia

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:50:00 +0000

The following news has me wondering how the hell - if ever - anyone can manage to drag these unbelievably stupid pea-brains, kicking and screaming, into the current century and out of the dark ages where they seem so much at home.
Somalia's militant group, Hizbul-Islam, has told football fans that they will be publicly flogged - at the least- if they are caught watching the World Cup on TV. They have already killed two people and arrested 10 others when they attacked a house north-east of the capital Mogadishu, where people were watching the game between Argentina and Nigeria.
A spokesman for the group, Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aros demands the rest of Somalia respect their ban on the World Cup, giving these words of wisdom as justification:
"We are warning all the youth of Somalia not to dare watch these World Cup matches. It is a waste of money and time and they will not benefit anything or get any experience by watching mad men jumping up and down." Not content to have anyone more steeped in stupidity than they are, the al-Qaeda inspired group al-Shabab has also announced a ban, leaving almost nowhere safe for fans to watch the games.
The bans proclaimed by these neanderthals dates back to a law that was introduced by the Islamic Courts Union who had their 15 minutes in the spotlight back in 2006. That law banned Somalis from all forms of entertainment considered un-Islamic under the courts' asinine interpretation of Sharia law. Their interpretation of pastimes un-Islamic includes watching sports in public. Some militant mental midgets have gone still further, declaring that young men should not even watch the games in the privacy of their own homes, because doing so will "distract them from pursuing holy jihad."
The only time the above advice might be even the least little bit worthwhile would be if the jihad were to be conducted against the Islamic militants of Somalia. Were the young men of Somalia to decide it was time for a good house-cleaning; if they were to rise up and render each and every one of those militant thugs lifeless landfill, it would be the perfect response to the real mad men who are jumping up and down on the freedom of the Somalis.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:28:00 +0000

Manitoba Justice Murray Sinclair spoke today at the opening of the Truth and Reconciliation commission's first public hearing in Winnipeg. Addressing himself to the survivors of the residential schools, he said. "To all those who wish to share their experience with us, I promise you this: if you have something to tell, we will hear you. You will not be questioned. You will not be asked to prove anything. You do not have to share anything that you do not wish to share." He promised that those who came forward to speak would be treated with respect and dignity, something that would be a totally new experience for many, perhaps most of them.
The Canadian government has such a deplorable track record in their interactions with the First Nations people of this country, that it is hard not to snigger just a little at Sinclair's words. Certainly, the move was made to acknowledge the dignity of those who had been wronged by holding the $60-million commission's opening ceremonies in a grassy area called the Oodena Celebration Circle at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, a traditional aboriginal meeting place for thousands of years. The fly promptly landed in the ointment, however, when Federal Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl opened his mouth at the ceremony and said the government plans to repeal the section of the Indian Act that allowed aboriginal children to be removed from their homes and sent to residential schools in the first place. "Plans to"? They haven't yet done that? Surely, that is mind-boggling at best. Although a cheer went up from the assembled listeners when Strahl made his announcement, there must have been those present as well who could do no more than sadly shake their heads following his words.
Sinclair is sure that the truths exposed by these hearings will ultimately strengthen Canada and that they will also help to explain the yawning-gap of disparity that remains between the Native population and the rest of the country. Strahl avows that it is important to ensure First Nations education is reformed and strengthened so as to improve aboriginal high school graduation rates. Although his declaration sounds so promising of affirmative action, one needs only remember that the last residential school outside Regina was not closed until 1996 to have doubts begin worming their insidious way through his words. The fact that such an institution could still have been running short years ago begs the question of whether or not the official mindset really is open to change, whether or not the systemic discrimination that surrounds the Native population can be replaced by justice and equality.
Only a few weeks ago, I was talking with a recent immigrant to Canada, someone who had come here from mainland China, looking for a better life for herself and her family. She has been here only two years, and yet I was saddened and surprised to hear her views on the problems faced by Canada's aboriginal communities. I was talking with her about the health disparities between some groups here in Canada and told her that it was worst between the Aboriginals and the rest of the Canadian population. My conversation partner informed me that the difference was due to "the lifestyle that Indians like. You know, they drink so much and they are always using drugs and smoking smuggled cigarettes. Of course, their health is not so good as ours." As I said, saddened and surprised. Who is it that has her already so firmly convinced that the Native population is worthy of less than respect? How many times has she heard someone express such vitriol? The belief seems almost to be endemic in Canadian society.
An article in the Decemner 2006 issue of "Health Policy" by Katherine L. Frohlicha, Nancy Rossb, and Chantelle Richmond states the authors' belief that this "most egregious" disparity will be reduced only by reducing the social inequities in Canada. What a massive undertaking that will have to be. Maybe the government could start by sending the Department of Indian Affairs to the slag heap. Even its name is offensive. Its very existence bespeaks a continued paternalistic attitude toward the First Nations that sees the government patting them on their heads when they raise concerns, handing out the occasional little party favours, and expecting them to fade quietly away again into the background. Why should this department not be promptly disbanded?
Taking immediate steps to clean up the drinking water on every reserve from coast to coast to coast would be a good step, as well. Certainly it would indicate far more sincerity on the part of the white power establishment when they conduct such commissions as the one they started today. The government apology issued on June 11, 2008 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper was a beginning, perhaps, but it needs to be followed up by giant steps taken by our government. Many hope this commission will make giant strides down the path of reconciliation.
I fear it will end up being only another of the tiny, faltering steps our government specializes in when it comes to addressing the inequities faced by the First Nations' people.

Could You Be Mandi's Hero?

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:54:00 +0000

The Canadian hockey community is appealing for help for Mandi Schwartz, a 22-year-old player with the Yale women's team. Mandi, whose family is from Wilcox, Saskatchewan, has acute myeloid leukemia and desperately needs to find a proper stem-cell donor so she can undergo a bone-marrow transplant to save her life. She needs to find a 10-out-of-10 DNA match in order to have a chance. Mandi was told on Wednesday, June 9 that she is currently in remission, a fact which means that she would be healthy enough now to undergo surgery.
Team Canada captain Hayley Wickenheiser hopes people will consider fighting for Mandi by signing up to see if they are a potential stem cell donor. “I think people are afraid to join because it could be invasive or 'hurt' and for 90% of the people, it's as much as taking a blood sample, so it's easier than you think. You just go online and register and then they will call you back within 10 days, send you a kit for a cheek swab and away you go.” If Mandi's own personal hero isn't found soon, she will have to accept a bone-marrow transplant from the closest DNA match possible, currently a 9-out-of-10 donor from Germany. The reason she's looking for someone else is because a 9-out-of-10 donor is far from the guarantee for success Mandi and her family are hoping for.
If you think you might have the makings of a personal hero for Mandi, you can go to "Become My Hero". If this story has resonated with you and you feel like finding out if you could be that one match to save the life of Mandi or anyone else who finds themselves in like need, go to the "one match stem cell and marrow network".

Russell Peters for Mayor

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:50:00 +0000

Toronto's citizenry will go to the polls on October 25, 2010 to elect a new mayor. Earlier this year, incumbent Mayor David Miller announced he would not seek a third term in office. Beside the obvious change of mayor, this election will bring another change, moving voting day to the fourth Monday of October from the previously traditional second Monday of November. Since this is a time for change, why don't we go whole hog? Let's hold back nothing in our pursuit of change here in Toronto. Let's take a page from the electoral book of the electorate of Reykjavik, Iceland, who recently elected Jon Gnarr as their new mayor. The 43-year-old Gnarr, leader of the "Best Party", will assume office on June 15 for a four-year term. So what, you might say, but that would perhaps be because you're missing some very important info about Gnarr and his Best Party. Gnarr is one of Iceland's top comedians and his political party was only established six months ago, but those in the know are theorizing that Gnarr's party benefited from voters' loss of trust in government. The Best Party's campaign video featured a music video on YouTube (included below for your viewing pleasure!) of its candidates singing to the tune of Tina Turner's "Simply The Best". Their key pledges included "sustainable transparency", free towels at all swimming pools and a new polar bear for the city zoo, as well as a "drug-free parliament" by 2020 and "topnotch stuff as a general rule".
The Best Party referred to the current politicians ruling Reykjavik as "blathering idiots" and suggested they all be sent to reside at the zoo. If we do that here in Toronto, (and it might be a good idea at that), we would need a local comedian to head up our own Best Party, and so I would like to be the first to nominate the mayor's replacement - Russell Peters. For those who know anything about Peters, the sagacity of the nomination will be more than evident. For those in the dark about the man's eminent suitability to fill the Mayor's chair at City Hall, there is nothing that can be said, other than to advise them to watch a few clips of Peters on YouTube, and then make up their own mind.
If we go the Reykjavik route, I say there could be no better leader to take us there than Russell Peters.

Fakelakegate, Indeed!

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:18:00 +0000

Canada is about to play host to both the G20 and the G8 summits, later this month. Details have recently been made public from the goverment plans to dress up the venues where the meetings will take place. A lot of people here in Canada are less than impressed with the government's decision to construct a fake lake at the G8/G20"Experience Canada" pavilion in Toronto's Direct Energy Centre. The lake itself comes with a price tag of $57,000. and will include canoes, trees, deck chairs and a fake dock that all add up to a whopping $1.9 million.
More than 3,000 journalists are expected to be here later in June, covering the G20 here in Toronto and the G8 up in Huntsville. Since there is no way they can all be accommodated in the tourism-country environs of Huntsville, most will have to "cover" the proceedings from down here in good ol' T. O. The display that includes the fake lake with its Muskoka chairs charmingly placed about it is called "The Canadian Corridor" and it is supposed to make amends to the media who will have to miss out on seeing real lakes with real Muskoka chairs and docks when they are shut out of Huntsville.
The G20 is supposedly a meeting about dealing with international debt and countries living more within their means. Given the high profile of the finance ministers and central bank governors who will be attending, the amount to be spent on security is beyond question. Given as well, the potential for nut jobs to decide this is a meeting they have to try to bomb or otherwise terrorize, every penny spent on security is a good investment. A fake lake, however, has absolutely nothing to do with keeping the attendees and their surroundings safe.
The reaction to this ridiculous expenditure has been swift and loud. For instance, Rodger Cuzner, MP for Cape Breton, declared in Parliament that, "The government's half-baked fake lake takes the cake! What a mistake," and was rewarded with loud laughter for his put down of Harper's Half-baked Lake. Harper, however, has been just as quick to defend his government's profligate ways with the public's money. His answer to the criticism is that this asinine display will encourage all those media members to tell the world just how great a country Canada is.
Since the rest of the world with money enough to spend on tourism is already able to check out Canada's real charms, none of which will be evidenced by the phony pond, I have a suggestion or two to make to the dodos who came up with the idiotic idea. First, scrap the fake lake! If Harper wants to send out the message that Canada is a great place, he could keep his focus on water but move it from a let's-pretend-loch to the drinking waters of the First Nations Reserves. Remember the crisis on the Kashechewan reserve, in remote northern Ontario? Premier McGuinty decided to evacuate those sickened by the Walkerton-like condition of the water, and found that figure to be over 50 per cent of the reserve's population. There are other reserves that live under constant boil-drinking-water advisories, here in Ontario and scattered across this country that Harper wants to showcase to the world's media. Maybe instead of throwing money away on a stupid artificial puddle, he could use the cash to clean up some of that polluted drinking water and showcase the action on the backdrops planned for the two summit-hosting meeting halls. At the moment, those backdrops are expected to cost $1,102,500.
That incredible cost leads me to my second suggestion, which is that Harper scout the graduating classes at Ontario colleges, like Sheridan, and get some students to design and construct the backdrops. The price tag would be significantly reduced, I'm sure. The students involved could sign their work and be highlighted - great advertising for them and their talents, and a not-to-be-missed chance for the world to see that Canada is, indeed, a great country where all its citizens are of equal import, not just those who can afford to spend tourism dollars.

Eurocentric Claptrap

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:46:00 +0000

Just a few days ago, I was standing at the highway lookout where the Parks Canada sign informs viewers that they are seeing Mount Edith Cavell. OK, so far, so good. But then the sign continues its supposed imparting of knowledge by declaring the "first ascent" to have taken place in 1915. That's where the whole thing falls apart in a whirling eddy of euro centric claptrap.
Archaeological evidence shows the First Nations people to have been living in the area for more than 11,000 years. Does Parks Canada really expect us all to believe that in that incredible span of time, not one First Nation individual ever scaled the heights of that mountain? They would have had their own name for the mountain, and their own reason for climbing it. The only problem was, there was no white person standing there watching and recording it all with pen and paper. What arrogance on the part of the Canadian government to continue condoning systemic denigration of the accomplishments of the First Nations.
The sign should be amended, as should every other one like it, to read "First known ascent by someone of european descent/origin"

What Colour Do You See In?

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:29:00 +0000

According to new research from the University of Toronto Scarborough, a team led by PhD student Jennifer Gutsell and Professor Michael Inzlicht found that there is a basic difference in the way people's brains react to those from other ethnic backgrounds. The researchers had study participants, all of whom were white, view a series of videos while hooked up to electroencephalogram (EEG) machines. In the videos, white, black, South Asian and East Asian men picked up a glass and took a sip of water. It was noted that observing someone of a different race produced significantly less motor-cortex activity than observing a person of one's own race. That means people were less likely to mentally simulate the actions of other-race than same-race people. Apparently, the trend was even more pronounced among those participants who had high scores on a test measuring subtle racism.
Inzlicht says, "The so-called mirror-neuron-system is thought to be an important building block for empathy by allowing people to 'mirror' other people's actions and emotions; our research indicates that this basic building block is less reactive to people who belong to a different race than you.", but also notes that there are cognitive exercises available that can increase empathy and understanding.
It's good to know about those exercises, of course, but having taught junior kindergarten and found four-year-olds in the class already regurgitating mom and dad's words of hatred, I wonder just how effective we can hope those exercises to be with adults. That might just be too many years of twisted thinking for it to be set straight. I also wonder why the research team used only white subjects for their testing. Shouldn't the testing be administered as well to members of the various groups pictured in the videos?

An Alabama Teacher Joins the Idiot Alert Files

noreply@blogger.com (aka.alias) — Tue, 18 May 2010 21:48:00 +0000

Idiot Alert File memberships are being awarded to a group again. This time, the first membership goes out to the Jefferson County, Alabama, geometry teacher who used assassinating President Barack Obama as a way to teach angles. The teacher was introducing his geometry students to the mystery of parallel lines and angles, officials say, when he used the example of where to stand and aim if shooting Obama. Joseph Brown, a senior in the geometry class, told reporters, "He was talking about angles and said, 'If you're in this building, you would need to take this angle to shoot the president.' " Brilliant mind, wouldn't you say?
The next memberships go out to the school board officials who failed to fire the idiot when they were informed of his deliberate ignorance. Explain to me, if you can, how this is a man who should be allowed to instruct any one, and while you do it, please spare me the usual drivel about how one "mistake" shouldn't cost him his livelihood. It was no mistake. This so-called educator knew exactly what kind of hate he was indulging in, when he opened his mouth to spew this garbage at his pupils.
Idiots, every one of them.