But best of all, Google has killed the Caps Lock key, the weapon of comment-trolls the world over. No longer will these idiots be able to SHOUT THEIR DUMB OPINIONS without holding down an extra key. And the rest of us will no longer have to retype a sentence after accidentally engaging this vestigial annoyance. The key that usually functions as Caps Lock is still there, but has been reassigned: Pressing it will bring up the netbook’s search function.
@AudreyIIETP Her twitterstream is disturbing: brain damage on the march. Good venue for her mindless chanting of #fetusfetishist propaganda.
I had put out mouse-traps earlier in the evening. One of them was just near my feet as I lounged, listening. It wouldn't be worth mentioning, natch, unless that was the trap that snapped - - which it did.
So I mention it.
But when I looked down, the trap was empty - no wee beastie.
Except . . .
. . . is that a stick?
Get glasses on . . . no, it's a tail. It was the tail of a merely stunned mouse. One way that I can imagine that a mouse could spring a trap without being 'held' by the trap is if they'd approached the bait from the wrong end; stepped over the 'snap-bar' to get to the bait. This would lead to catapult-mouse - - or mouse-catapult - - risky for mousey but loads of fun when it works. Imagine tumbling through the air with a mouthful of something irresistible - - cheap thrill.
I grabbed the tail and sent the mouse out of doors.
There was another snap somewhere but I seem to have hidden the trap - can't find the sprung one.
War is Hell.
MTV airs its stand-alone special about teen abortion, No Easy Decision, tonight at 11:30 p.m. — and having previewed it exclusively, I can report that it’s as sensitive, unflinching, and brave as the network’s hit series 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom (which have yet to tackle, and have barely mentioned, the A-word). Most of the hour follows Markai and James, a couple featured in the second season of 16 and Pregnant, as they wrestle with how to handle Markai’s second pregnancy less than a year after giving birth to daughter Za’karia. At the six-week mark, they decide, through heartwrenching discussions with each other, a friend, and Markai’s mother, to end the pregnancy mainly due to severe financial constraints. (James explains that he wants a better life for his daughter than he had growing up: “I’ve been without water, I’ve been without lights, I’ve been without food.”) And while pro-life critics will likely find fault with the show just for existing, no one can accuse the documentarians of making abortion look easy or fun.
But, when MTV shows the much-discussed program tomorrow, pro-life blogger Jill Stanek says it will be biased.
“According to Entertainment Weekly, MTV’s December 28 abortion reality show ‘will tackle all sides of the issue,’” she writes. “This apparently means the pro-life perspective will simply get tackled. The new website, 16 and Loved, sponsored by the pro-abortion group Exhale, states MTV collaborated with it for the program.”
The 16 and Pregnant program has been a ratings bonanza for MTV and many Hollywood and media blogs have focused on that fact, saying the decision to concentrate on abortion may be an attempt to snag more.
Canadian army gunners in Afghanistan are now cleared to fire new GPS-guided artillery shells at Taliban militants at a cost of $150,000 a round.
Don Cherry is now an unlawful combatant worthy of the same fair treatment afforded Omar Khadr.
I don't know what these three comics cover in their routine but I would love to see a stand-up routine that skewers Christians for their misuse of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". I was listening to some Songs in Season concert on CBC and sure enough they had to sing it.
Anyway, this person does a good job of skewering this gross misunderstanding of what the song is about:
http://www.politicalgroove.com/archive/index.php?t-18984.html
I love this line:And yet the song itself is never appropriate where it’s placed. It’s like putting a poster of Geurnica up in a nursery. Yes, beautiful, but utterly inappropriate. Hey kids! Look at the mutilated horsey head! Freaky, huh?
Yet the song with its haunting melody and refrain like a stiffy at a funeral keeps popping up in all the most inappropriate spots (the exception being the movie “The Watchmen” in which it was actually shown during a sex scene. That’s the only version in any movie I’ve ever seen that used the original version by Leonard Cohen rather than a cover. I think the director was sending a message: we understand what it’s REALLY about.)
The Canadian Weblog Awards are a juried competition brought to you by me, Schmutzie of Schmutzie.com. I will be blogging and coordinating this baby throughout the year.
Feminist
Féminisme
Top 5 finalists:
Cleavage
Screw Bronze!
Gender Focus
PhD in Parenting
Womanist Musings
Le Carnet d'Ysengrimus
little J
A Queer Family Grows In Redneckville
Stubblejumpin' Gal
LGBTQ
GLBTQ
Top 5 finalists:
We Move to Canada
Screw Bronze!
Dead Robot
Gender Focus
Sticky Crows
Alfred Lives Here
Any Dream Will Do
La Carmina
Donuts and Desires
Gay Persons of Color
Lesbian Cafe
Mama Non Grata
The Queer Behind the Mirror
A Queer Family Grows In Redneckville
Wandering Through Wonderland
Political
Politique
Top 5 finalists:
Stephen Taylor
Eye On a Crazy Planet
Christine Scott Cheng
Stageleft
We Move to Canada
Accidental Deliberations
Allan's Perspective
Archive Fire
Broadsides
Calgary Grit
the Commons
Dawg's Blawg
Endless Spin Cycle
The Gormley Files
Liberal Arts and Minds
Maggie Turner: Page By Page
Michael Geist
Pour un monde à droite
Praxis Theatre
Pushed to the Left and Loving It
Real Deal Economics
Through the Looking Glass
Wise Law Blog
The website is the brainchild of 21-year-old Andre Borys, who was inspired to create the forum after his own encounter with Toronto police last summer. It was on one May evening that Mr. Borys was the designated driver for a group of friends out for a night on the town when police nabbed him for stopping in front of a pizza parlour in a no-parking zone.
“One officer looked at my licence, saw that I’m from Mississauga, and asked ‘What, they don’t have no-parking signs like this in Mississauga?’ ” recalled Mr. Borys, a fourth-year business student at McMaster University.
“I wanted to show him respect, so I didn’t respond with a smart-ass comment. Here I am being very respectful and he’s talking down to me.”
Mr. Borys doesn’t dispute the fact that he was breaking the law, nor that he deserved the $60 ticket, but says he felt making a complaint would have had no effect. So he started the website to allow people with similar experiences to air their grievances.
But it wasn’t until he saw the recent public outrage over alleged police brutality during the G20 summit making headlines this week that he decided to go live.
The Toronto Police Association says it is worried that a new website allowing the public to rant about their police encounters, publish names and badge numbers and rate officer behaviour, could incite “abuse” toward its members.
"in addressing the issues of how police organizations manage their reputations as part of their risk management strategies and how they communication risk [sic] to stakeholders and the public."Okay doke. Perhaps Johnston is proposing to exploit social media in support of his client. If so, he might counsel in particular Chief Vern White to heed advice proffered by Marta Kagan.
What was that last point again? Honesty is the only policy. Good luck with that, Johnston. Hope that Chief White does not choose to emulate Toronto Chief of Police Bill Blair.Listen.
Messages are not conversations.
It's a dialogue not a monologue.
Relinquish control.
Don't F**k with people.
In a world of social media, honesty is the only policy.
The former head of Canada’s aid program in Afghanistan has expressed concern that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s religious beliefs are hampering humanitarian efforts.
Speaking to the Straight from Kabul, Nipa Banerjee noted that Harper is a born-again Christian, and she argued that his religious beliefs could be adversely affecting the Canadian International Development Agency’s efforts to help Afghan women.
“It has been said that reproductive health would not be a part of the government and CIDA’s aid programs,” said Banerjee, who led CIDA’s mission in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2006. “And the reproductive-health issue is a major problem in the context of Afghanistan because the maternal mortality rate is very high.”
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is anti-choice, tried to eliminate family planning from Canada's international funding for maternal health programs, and generally speaking has adopted global health policies that will further marginalize women and girls.
For some reason, the United Nations took this to mean he would be a great candidate to co-chair a high-level commission to hold countries accountable for spending $40 billion pledged in September to improve women's health.
Mr. Ignatieff takes the sunny outlook of a girl who mistakes a bulge for a curve.
Mark Zuckerberg wants it utterly closed. Julian Assange wants it utterly open. #time chose Zuckerberg man of the year, its readers Assange.
The bill was supported with speeches by Bruinooge, Kelly Block (Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, CPC), Bev Shipley (Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC), and David Anderson (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and for the Canadian Wheat Board, CPC).This morning Rod Bruinooge was on The Current lying his ass off as usual. (Listen at the link. There are also two clips from the debate: Shipley and Ashton.)
Speaking in opposition were France Bonsant (Compton—Stanstead, BQ), Niki Ashton (Churchill, NDP), and Brent Rathgeber (Edmonton—St. Albert, CPC) [CPC??? huh???].
Roxanne's story struck a chord with Rod Bruinooge. He's the Conservative MP who he chairs the multi-party pro-life caucus in Parliament. He believes Roxanne was killed because she refused to have an abortion.
Then this Con-veeenient (imagine Preston Manning saying the word) event, which blasted the credibility of the last functional Commons Committe that Stevie's bullies had not yet managed to destroy.A whodunit mystery captured Parliament Hill Friday after the international co-operation minister said she didn’t know who tampered with a document that bears her signature but one she is not certain she signed.
A two-page memorandum recommending the approval of $7,098,758 in funding to the church group KAIROS for its human rights activities was originally signed by two top bureaucrats at the Canadian International Development Agency in September 2009. But someone — it’s unclear who — handwrote “NOT” between the words “you” and “approve” on the memorandum’s last line. [...]
“It’s like a Clue game. We have the minister in the committee with the pen that says she signed it and killed the deal,” said NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar. “I think the minister needs to come clean … she used the department to explain away what was in the end an ideological position.”
Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae said the document was tampered with and changed retroactively so it would look as if CIDA was recommending the faith-based group be chopped. “If you put 'not' in front of a cheque or if you put 'not' in front of a number on a cheque, it is called fraud,” he said.
'Our lives became something we'd never dreamt': The former Israeli soldiers who have testified against army abuses have for the first time given up their anonymity, to make their voices all the harder to ignore. For anyone who has covered Israel, the West Bank and Gaza over the past few years, reading Occupation of the Territories, the new book from the Israeli ex-soldiers organisation Breaking the Silence, can be an eerily evocative experience.From here.
I hope that Gershman finds funding that will allow his photographs to travel across North America. This exhibit should tour as widely as possible, to counter the shrieeeking of islamophobes.An untold story of the Nazi Holocaust is on display at a Jewish temple in St. Louis, Missouri. It's a photography exhibit, featuring portraits of elderly Albanian Muslims - men and women who helped save nearly 2,000 Jews who fled to Albania during World War II. [...]
Basri Hasani sheltered his next-door neighbor and best friend, Moshe Rubenovic, who fought the Nazis throughout Albania and Kosovo. "I am a true Muslim," says Hasani. "My door is always open to anyone in need."
For the past six years, Gershman, a fine art photographer whose work is typically displayed in museums, traveled throughout Albania and Kosovo. He photographed most of his subjects in their homes, often with objects that were significant to the people they sheltered.
Ireland's longstanding abortion legislation could change due to a ruling expected to be handed down by the European Court of Human Rights next week.
When two Irish women and one Lithuanian woman who were forced to travel to Britain for abortions they took the action against the Irish state five years ago.
When Pope Benedict XVI departed from previous Church doctrine two weeks ago by saying condoms are acceptable in certain cases, Catholic-dominated Ireland was so distracted by news it might need an economic bailout that it barely noticed. There was a time, though, when a Vatican softening on the contraception veto would have made the top headline in Irish newspapers. A time when, in Ireland, things like condoms, pills and diaphragms were not just taboo, but outright illegal, according to a 1935 law forbidding the import and sale of contraceptives. In the 1970s, Irish feminists would challenge their government’s anti-birth control policies by staging protests like massive condom-buying expeditions to Northern Ireland, where contraception devices were legal. But this was still an Ireland where taking on the Catholic Church was socially daring and politically suicidal.
But the Ireland of today has the world’s largest percentage of married women under 49 using contraception, according to the United Nation’s 2010 Human Development Index. The UN figure of 89 per cent of women using birth control includes those who resort to so-called natural contraceptive methods, with which the Church has no moral qualms, but Irish studies looking exclusively at artificial contraception show use among 18- to 24-year-old girls is well over 90 per cent. It’s a startling change of social attitudes, some 30 years after the government lifted the birth-control ban in 1979, and one that illustrates how much the Church’s influence has waned in a country that was once a stronghold of Catholicism in Europe.
Among the Irish clergy, there is a sense “the battle has been lost” on birth control, said Garry O’Sullivan, editor of the Irish Catholic newspaper. In a historic upset, contraceptives, it seems, have gone from being social taboos to no longer being a topic for Sunday sermons. “The bishops have stopped pushing the issue,” said O’Sullivan. “People have moved on.”
Conservative spokesman Dunning Kruger announced today that he is launching Cirque du Steve’s Freaks and Geeks, a new circus-style show that will combine fund-raising for conservative causes with getting the message to the grassroots in key ridings. [...]
“All right-thinking Canadians love a circus – just look at the polls,” said Kruger. “But they’re sick of Pepsi performer types from Quebec with their New Agey ‘foreign-cultures-are-more-spiritual-than-yours’ crap and their fairy costumes. What they want is to get back to the good old days of clapping seals, scary strongmen, hall of mirrors, bearded women, bad suits and creationists. Circus for the base is base circus, baby!”
Featured in the show are: Duffster, the Human Cannonball; Iggy, the Dancing Bear; tight-rope walker Big Tony C.; Vic Toews, the Human Pretzel; John Baird, the Human Hankey; Bev Oda as Humper the Clown; the Amazing Tazing Fantino; Peter Mack, trained to jump through burning hoops; bearded lady Jason Kenney; and more.
Enterprise car rentals
Forbes magazine
Ing financial services
Toys R Us
Cisco Systems
Red Lion Hotels
Franchise Services
Rolex watch
Kenneth Cole
Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare
LDI once offered The Boycott List without requesting a donation, but the policy changed when:
1) pro-Planned Parenthood people were urged to send for The Boycott List in an effort to bankrupt us--which they nearly did; and
2) we began to realize the enormous expense involved in obtaining the information needed to prepare The Boycott List.
Enterprise car rentals
Forbes magazine
Ing
Toys “R” Us
Cisco Systems
Red Lion Hotels
Franchise Services
Rolex watch company
Kenneth Cole
Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare.
AOL
Darden Restaurants, including Bahama Breeze, The Capital Grille, LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Season 52.
Ignite Restaurants, including Brickhouse Tavern+Tap and Joe’s Crab Shack.
Hilton Worldwide, including Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inns/Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton Hotels, and Homewood Suites.
Kohl’s department stores
Mrs. Fields cookies
Staples office supply stores
The Gap clothing stores
Freddie Mac (????)
AlphaGraphics
Wells Fargo (including Wachovia)
Nike
Time Warner
Bank of America
Walt Disney
Johnson & Johnson
Lost Arrow (Patagonia, etc.)
Chevron
Nationwide Insurance
LDI estimates that the boycott has cost Planned Parenthood more than $40 million since the Corporate Funding Project (CFP) began nearly 18 years ago.
Antis conveniently posted list of companies that stopped donating to Planned Parenthood. Read it & boycott them!
As our teams work in crisis areas of the world, people often ask, "Why did you come?" The answer is always the same: "We have come to help you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Our ministry is all about Jesus—first, last, and always. As the Apostle Paul said, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake".
• Swipe Books (401 Richmond St. W., 1st floor)
• Outer Layer (577 Queen St W.)
• Outer Layer (480 Bloor St W.)
• Wise Daughters (3079b Dundas St W.)
One criticism lobbed at Blair in recent weeks is that the investigations into police misconduct appear to be lagging so far behind that of black clad vandals. In those cases, police appealed to the public for help, releasing a swarm of pictures. In a more recent development, police announced suspects will be extradited from the U.S.
“I understand that may be the perception,” said Blair, adding that he has asked the public for any evidence, photographic or otherwise.
He went on to say that his own officers have and will be investigated with the same techniques and the same rigor as anyone else. And that every police officer is required to report misconduct.
If Mr. Flanagan joked about a bomb in his shorts at the Edmonton Airport, should we expect the security guards to merely laugh and slap good old Tom Flanagan on the back for being such a funny joker?
Nice - and profitable - scam you've got going there, Pastor Steven Anderson.About one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word. This percentage is slightly lower than several decades ago. The majority of those Americans who don't believe that the Bible is literally true believe that it is the inspired word of God but that not everything it in should be taken literally. About one in five Americans believe the Bible is an ancient book of "fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man." [...]
Some denominations hold the belief in a literal Bible as a hallmark of their faith. The statement of "Faith and Mission" of the Southern Baptist Convention, for example, states that: " The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. ..."
From here.The church is not new and the controversy surrounding the beliefs of its leader are not new. However, a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center gives the church a new label. The SPLC is now listing the church as a hate group targeting homosexuals in a list of hate groups operating in Arizona. [...]
"Do I hate? Absolutely," said Faithful Word Baptist Church Pastor Steven Anderson. Anderson said. "I do hate homosexuals and if hating homosexuals makes our church a hate group then that's what we are." The church leader, with a Bible in his hand during the interview, said he preaches his hatred for homosexuals and wishes death upon them.
"Should I be a Baptist Pastor if I don't believe what the Bible says, if parts of this book offend the Southern Poverty Law Center then it should label it a hate book."
Is there room in the Con party for two dictators? I just can't see Fantino sitting down and shutting up and hiding out in the box where Steve keeps Cheryl Gallant. He doesn't take orders, and Steve doesn't tolerate insubordination. Plus the Cons have become scarier with this new addition. Even Blatchford (!!) doesn't support Fantino. Hopefully this much touted breakthrough in the GTA will backfire. Two fascists, three (Harris) stooges, and a bunch of refoooorm party leftovers. That's your "new Canadian government" folks!
Fantino is a scumbag. I would vote for Pierre Trudeau himself before I would mark an X for that piece of work. Why do the Conservatives think running him is a good plan???
Mr. Fantino accuses Mr. Trudeau of taking the information out of context, noting that at one time in Ontario more than 40,000 criminal cases were thrown out because of the “justice delayed is justice denied” section of the Charter.
“I mean these are serious, serious issues and I found it quite distressing really that Justin Trudeau would be trotted out to misrepresent what I said and take it out of context. It was an Academy Award performance.”
“You know what, here’s me with 42 years of working night shifts and facing people with loaded guns and dealing with murderers and rapists ... and I get a lecture from a newbie. C’mon.”
And that's the way to avoid criminal charges under a supposedly "Tough On Crime" Harper's New©™ Government because it's okay to break the law if you're a ReformaTory Conservative.University of Calgary spokesman Grady Semmens said the school had received numerous complaints about the comments. "At this point, the university is not considering any disciplinary action. We had discussions with department and faculty heads, but that's all we can really say," he said.
Flanagan was representing himself, not the university, when he made the comments and had a right to his opinion, said Semmens. "He has publicly backed down from statements and said he regrets making them in such an offhanded way," he said.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about the growing number of threats against Julian Assange. The former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said Assange should be, quote, "hunted down," and a former campaign aide of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper went a step further in a recent interview on the Canadian Broadcasting, CBC.TIM FLANAGAN: Well, I think Assange should be assassinated, actually. I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something. You know, there’s no good coming of this.
AMY GOODMAN: That was University of Calgary professor Tim Flanagan, who served as the Conservative Party’s campaign manager in Canada’s general election in 2004 and 2006. Jennifer Robinson, as Julian Assange’s attorney, your response?
JENNIFER ROBINSON: These calls for his assassination are absolutely outrageous and, indeed, illegal. I think that the prosecuting authorities ought to consider prosecuting these individuals for incitement to violence. Obviously assassination is illegal, and we take these concerns very seriously. Now, the press around the fact that my client is in hiding to evade arrest is absolutely incorrect. And one can imagine that when you have very public officials making these sorts of serious calls for assassination, that one would be concerned for their personal safety. I also think that it raises genuine concerns when you have Sarah Palin making such allegations for the prospect of my client receiving any sort of due process in the U.S.
Researchers have revealed a link between miscarriages and myocardial infarction or heart attack in women. According to the study, women who have had three or more miscarriages face nine times greater risk of suffering myocardial infarction in later life as compared with women who have had none.
There was no co-relation between induced abortion and heart attacks and pregnancy loss of any kind and strokes.
The women who had miscarriages and stillbirths weighed more, were physically less active and were predisposed towards diabetes and hypertension.