Dust my Broom ()

Guy Earle, activist

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:35:10 +0000

I took the opportunity to actually attend the fundraiser * for Guy Earle today, July 19. It is only a week after Orange Day, too.

I hooked up with three fans of Kathy Shaidle. They kept asking me if she was going to show up. When I was properly Irish drunk, I left, and Kathy had not shown up. Only one of the fans has a website * . You should hear the guys stories about his day job.

Aside from the swarm of comics, comic groupies (one of whom shares an interest of mine in hypnosis), and admiring parents of comics, there was a sprinkling of bloggers. One faction were animated by the insults and assaults upon Roman Catholicism. Not being a Papist, I did not feel I could butt into their conversation. The other faction (hello Dave, Tristan, Sylvia, and the other Dave) were aware of the Guy Earlesituation thanks to their reading of blogs.

Outside the club, I was made aware of what a racist shithole this country of Canada really is. There, on the south west corner of Delaware avenue, is a pleasant three story apartment building, with an environmentally friendly alley way backing it. I went there to celebrate my Irish heritage and piss onto a tree. Unfortunately, this drew the ire of an N-person, who was sitting on his third floor balcony. I know he was not a sentry for a crack house or whore house or whatever house, because sentries do not sit in silhouette, and besides, N-people are never criminals. Maybe he was guarding against the scourge of white vigilantes, who must be common on that stretch of Bloor, just west of Ossington.

Now, I have seen an N-person urinate in public, on the subway. And, I know of a TTC staff member who has also shared with me his stories of ethnic diversity about the culture of public urination upon underground railways, so common in the tropical islands where N-people who urinate on subways have developed this way of expressing outrage over racism, poverty, and the lingering effects of colonialism in Africa. And I have a growing list of people who are delighted at the sloshing puddles of cultural urine that celebrates recycling and Earth awareness. So, I felt excluded and unaccomodated when I attempted to share in this cultural expression. Perhaps I am unaware of the complete ritual of public urination, Island style. I must do more research so that I can share in this common cultural expression, and heal the wounds of racism, poverty, and segregation. It is too bad that I did not let the angry man who lives, er, hangs out on the third floor, know where I can be reached, although I know how to reach him. I would not want him to think that I am untouchable. I care. I may only be a stranger, whose hobbies are expressed in my basement machine shop, experiments in applied Darwinism through chemistry, and Tesla inspired microwave devices. Whoever you are, angry N-person who called me whitey, I celebrate your existance, and do not think that you are a sentry for a crack house.

I must admit, listening to all those comedians has made me laugh, and slowed the steady flow of tears that comes whenever I demand more money for more programs for more people who create jobs for people who demand money. It takes alot to get me to drag my ass out and spend other peoples money, and Guy Earle was worth every penny.

I love you, Guy Earle.

I, Fenris Badwulf, wrote this, at Mitchieville, DustMyBroom, and TheStormyDaysofMarch.

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon salute dead terrorists

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:14:01 +0000

UNIFIL in action

Understanding Canada's deportation system

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:06:21 +0000

Some troubling insight revealed in the case of career criminal Isam Merhumkelifa who was finally deported after 12 years. What took so long? He kept committing more crimes:

Canadian border officials who have been trying since 1996 to deport a man with 99 criminal convictions — including armed robberies in Winnipeg — were finally able to do so last week.
Lisa White, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, said government officials first issued a removal order against Isam Merhumkelifa in 1996, but the now-33-year-old man kept on committing more crimes, which forced the justice system to keep dealing with him and therefore delayed his deportation.
“Criminal matters take precedence over immigration matters. A person has to complete their due process under our judicial system before we can remove them,” White said. “(The CBSA) didn’t have the opportunity to arrest him for removal from Canada until last year.”
Merhumkelifa was most recently convicted of two counts of robbery with a weapon for his role in the August 2005 hold-ups of a convenience store on Main Street and a gas station on Salter Street. The following month, he was sentenced to 30 months in jail for those crimes and transferred to Alberta to serve his time.
Upon completion of that sentence in May 2007, the CBSA arrested him and kept him in custody until last week, when they sent him packing to an undisclosed country and permanently barred him from returning to Canada. (Winnipeg Sun)

Friday Night Blues and Beer #116

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:26:35 +0000

Early on today as I got a storm hanging around that has been messing with the power.

The Beer: Say hello to the Premium Export Lager from the Whistler Brewing Company in Whistler, B.C.. It comes in a clear bottle so I was a little iffy on even trying it but here goes.. She pours a clear bubbly gold with a mild head that leaves almost no lacing. It smells a little like sweet rotting grain with bits of malt. It tastes of sweet malt and corn sugar with a blunt aftertaste of something molasses-like that clings to the back of your throat. It ran around $12 Canadian for a six and contains 5% alcohol. I don't think I would buy it again - one thumb up but as always get a second opinion.

The Blues: Get ready and start your blues engines as we're breaking it up and breaking it down and pumping out the usual great joy - Let's get it on:

Playlist: Ron Yarosz (Gettin' It Done), Mighty Mike Schermer (I'll Be Glad), Downchild Blues Band (It's Been So Long), Etta James (Crawlin' King Snake), Patty Harper & Faultline (Honey If This Ain't Love), Hot Monkey Love (Fallin'), Pistol Pete and the Professionals (Wired), James Van Buren (Three Handed Woman), Big George Brock (Cut You Loose), Little Mike & the Tornadoes (Reseys Rock), Mister Jack (Vem Baby Comigo), Monti Amundson & The Blubinos (Hat Back Blues), Chico Banks (Call My Job), Guitar Pete (Do You Hear The Rain), 2 Aces & A Jack (I love the woman), Mojo Blues Band (Enough Love), and Steve Marriner (Plaything).

Lyrical highlight:

Don't meet death without having your fun,
Work with me cause I'm getting it done.

See you inside!

{mp3}071808_FridayNightBlues{/mp3}

1:13:41 33.7 MB

Friday Links: Subscribe |Vote -- I am Vital, Podcast Pup | A big thank you to M.C. Records, Stony Plain Records, NorthernBlues Music, Red House Records, Alligator Records, South Side Records and Delta Groove | OMMAG: just imagine a brewer that continuously improves their product! | Hot Monkey Love is listening | Guitar Pete with blues question of the week | It's much too hot to think, but never too hot for some steamy manflesh - Lisa. I need another drink to get that crap out of my head |

Canadian "Vietnam vets" in the Korean war

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:18:34 +0000

One of the most idiotic articles you will read all day - Michelle Thompson in the Edmonton Sun War vets were on Parade:

On most days, they're known as the forgotten heroes, and Vietnam vets said they had little reason to believe yesterday would be different.
As they prepared to step aboard a 10-tonne military vehicle during the Capital EX parade, the seniors worried no one would care about their contribution.
They worried few would remember what hundreds of Canadian troops accomplished when they helped push North Korean invaders from South Korea in the 1950's, that their presence would be overshadowed by more colourful, lively floats, parading past cheering Edmontonians downtown.
"It's difficult to communicate with young people," said Gene Bince, who was 19 when he boarded a Vietnam-bound ship nearly 60 years ago.
"Our society is such where we don't really appreciate what we've got."

It does get weirder.

Article revised:

On most days, they’re known as the forgotten heroes, and Korean War veterans said they had little reason to believe that yesterday would be any different.
As they prepared to step aboard a 10-tonne military vehicle during the Capital EX parade, the seniors worried no one would care about their contribution.
They worried few would remember what thousands of Canadian troops accomplished when they helped push North Korean invaders from South Korea in the 1950s, and that their presence would be overshadowed by more colourful, lively floats, parading past cheering Edmontonians downtown.
“It’s difficult to communicate with young people,” said Gene Bince, who was 19 when he boarded a Korea-bound ship nearly 60 years ago.

Hugo Chavez admits socialism is a failure

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:22:04 +0000

Interesting irony from the hero of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wore a suit for the occasion, and, grinning at about 300 business leaders he usually calls ``oligarchs,'' asked for help relieving a drought in investment.

``Those of you who have money abroad, bring some home,'' he implored company executives gathered June 11 at the former Caracas Hilton, a hotel taken over by the government last year. ``Let's ally ourselves, let's elevate production as much as we can,'' he said to scattered applause.

After squeezing the private sector for almost a decade with nationalizations and foreign exchange controls, Chavez is holding out the lure of lower taxes and $1 billion of loans to spark growth and combat spiraling inflation that only ramped up production can solve. (Bloomberg h/t Maxed Out Mama)

As Mama says: There is nothing like an economic retractioni to make an aging socialist into a capitalist.

Iranian Worshippers

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:57:28 +0000

Iranian worshippers shout anti-U.S. and anti-Israel slogans during Friday prayers in Tehran July 18, 2008. (Reuters)

Manitoba: Native-run Child and Family Services all under review

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:38:38 +0000

Following the 2006 high profile death of Phoenix Sinclair on a Manitoba Indian reserve who was under the care of a First Nations Child and Family Services authority the Manitoba government launched a number of inquiries that still continues today.

Currently the Cree Nation Child and Family Services, Anishnaabe Child and Family Services, Southeast Child and Family Services and the Peguis Child and Family Services are all under review under charges of nepotism, and your general gross incompetence.

The latest report unveiled comes from the Sagkeeng CFS agency whose findings have prompted the Manitoba government to audit every single child and family services organization in the province:

Two-year-old Gage Guimond fell through dozens of cracks at a child welfare agency rife with nepotism and incompetence that failed to perform basic safety and criminal checks on the homes he was left in, according to a review released Thursday.
The week he died, nearly every staff member at Sagkeeng's child welfare agency was in Calgary at a staff retreat, leaving only a skeleton crew to handle the agency's 200 kids in care, including Gage. Of the four extended family and foster homes Gage was shuffled into before his death, only one was safe and an unqualified resource worker hired because of nepotism consistently failed to do the proper criminal and safety checks on the homes where he was neglected and abused.
"We definitely failed the child," said Elsie Flette, CEO of the Southern Authority that oversees Sagkeeng's child welfare agency and conducted the long-awaited review. "But no matter what we found or how many reviews we do, that won't change. What we need to do is learn from this."
The review -- much of which was censored or held back because it contains confidential information -- includes 88 recommendations to fix the Sagkeeng First Nation's child and family services agency and similar aboriginal child welfare agencies in the province. Those recommendations will also be farmed out to the province's 17 other agencies, several of which are under review following the deaths of other kids in care.
"What a tragic, deadly cascade of bad casework, bad management and nepotism," said Family Services and Housing Minister Gord Mackintosh, who has expressed similar feelings with every new child welfare scandal.
Mackintosh said the province has boosted training, standards enforcement, staffing levels and oversight in all CFS agencies.
Gage Guimond's death almost exactly a year ago sparked outrage at the chaos that has gripped the province's child welfare system after devolution, the process of turning over control of aboriginal child welfare cases to First Nations.
After their teenage mother abandoned them with various relatives, Gage and his sister were apprehended and placed with a loving foster family in Selkirk, who were aboriginal but not related to the child. About six month later, in an attempt to reunite the kids with their blood relatives, Sagkeeng CFS bucked the foster family's protests and placed the kids with their paternal grandmother, who was known to be unreliable and likely an alcoholic.
Two months later, a social worker found the kids neglected, lice-ridden and living in the aftermath of a drinking party. Gage was ultimately placed in the care of his great-aunt, Shirley Guimond, who had a criminal record but was assessed as low risk. Other required checks into the safety of the home weren't completed, and police and child welfare authorities believe Gage and his sister were abused in the home.
Shirley Guimond, is charged with manslaughter in the toddler's death. Her next court appearance is in September. (Winnipeg Free Press)

The CBC take: The review found that Guimond should never have been sent to live with the aunt, who had serious shortcomings as a caregiver

Saudi textbooks filled with hate

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:51:22 +0000

Still. This report gives food for thought when you consider that millions flow in from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Culture to organizations right here in Canada such as the Canadian branch of the Islamic Society of North America and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR):

Two years after protracted American-Saudi negotiations persuaded the State Department that the Saudis would remove religious intolerance from their national textbooks, a new study finds the books still portray non-Sunni Muslims as the enemies of true believers.
The report from the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute finds that the Saudi textbooks are filled with the austere supremacism of the Wahhabi sect of Islam, despite promises from the Kingdom in 2006 to alter them. For example, a textbook for 10th graders on Islamic jurisprudence not only says it is permissible in Islam to murder a homosexual, but recommends the methods for doing so: burning alive, stoning, or throwing oneoff a high building.
Jews, Christians, and non-Wahhabi Sunni Muslims are described in many of the textbooks as enemies of the true faith and infidels. What's more, examples from Muhammad's teachings that focus on tolerance of other faiths are often ignored.
The report coincides with a conference the Saudi monarch is sponsoring in Madrid, at which he appeared to want reconciliation between the clerics of the Muslim world and their counterparts among Christians and Jews.
Saudi textbooks are not only a human rights issue, but also increasingly a national security matter, as the House of Saud underwrites Islamic education across the world, including a school in northern Virginia that has come under scrutiny for using the Saudi official textbooks. (New York Sun h/t Unambiguosly Ambidextrous)

Translations from the books {mospagebreak}

Save polar bears: move them to Antarctica!

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:39:19 +0000

From Wired News :

If the most dire climate predictions come to pass, the Arctic ice cap will melt entirely, and polar bears could face extinction. So why not pack a few off to Antarctica, where the sea ice will never run out?
<snip>
"It's a showdown. The impacts of climate change on animals have become apparent. And it's time to decide whether we're going to do something," said Notre Dame ecologist Jessica Hellmann, co-author of an influential 2007 Conservation Biology paper. "Reducing CO2 is vital, but we might have to step in and intervene."

As one reader commented, would that turn them into bipolar bears?