About a Boy on a Plane

Are we disgusted yet? Are we, the non-US, international community not done with the US telling travellers all over the planet how and when to travel?

And are we not done with the wimp-assed idiot who pretends to be the Canadian PM? Don't even get me started....

I hereby will probably never go near the US ever again. I totally hate that country's politics and I detest how it throws its weight around the international community and I HATE it that they elected a man who, left to actually govern, would probably be a really great President but who was elected to put a very acceptable face on the continued reign of terror coming from INSIDE that nation.

The previous US administration has turned terrifying its country's people into an industry and it seems that the current administration either cannot or is unwilling to put an end to that.

There is NO basis for this level of fear and scrutiny. One has more likelihood of drowning in a bathtub - or being shot by a carjacker (much higher in that case) - in the US than one has of encountering a 'terrorist.'

As for this young man, his father called and made it clear the boy should not be allowed on the aircraft. I understand the young man was in possession of a valid visa but did NOT have a passport and was still allowed aboard. The media has not mentioned (nor researched, or even noticed?) who accompanied this young man and managed to convince security on the departure end to let the boy aboard.

The US government's security wing has been pushing for full body scanners for ages. The public has been vocally opposed due to the fact that the scanner virtually strips a person. As such, an event was needed to convince the public to accept such scanners.

These events, called false flag events, are commonly used to sway public opinion. There is much evidence such events are very, very commonly used, particularly in the US.

As for the 'explosives' this young man had on his person, the chemical in question can be used with other components as an explosive, yes; but it is also a component of certain heart medications. The young man did not have enough chemical on his person to blow off his own socks.

Sadly, citizens of the US have had their security and patriotism used very much against them and they are not educated enough to know, nor are they interested in knowing. They have been taught to fear outsiders - and that includes Canadians because Canada, according to certain US politicians, lets the terrorists over the boarders - and to believe they and their country are constantly under code-red status.

The terrorists have utterly won where it comes to security in the US. The terrorists are none other than the US Security system and the current US government that supports - encourages - this pathological xenophobia. US citizens are prisoners in their own country.

As it turns out, Steven King, the author, is somewhat of a prophet. See:
The Stand
Under the Dome.

I cannot imagine under what circumstances one would NEED to got to the US. Given one can work remotely and there are phones and Skype and the like, having to actually go anywhere near the US is unnecessary.

The international community - travellers in particular - should boycott any travel to or over or near the US. There are a million other places to go to visit or work. Let the US have its dome; let it have its pathology and let its government scare its citizens into cowering submission. The rest of the world is not in any way obliged to play.

Yes, I'm going to slam religion again.

A writer who I read a lot and whose writing I generally enjoy, stepped into a bit of a childish argument on an opinion column today. He's decided to boycott any and all Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam work.

Cat and Yusuf are the same person for those of you who didn't know: Stevens converted or whatever he did, in the 80s.

Boycotts are very effective IF they're enacted for very good reasons by large numbers of people. if, for instance, all residents of Nova Scotia or Alberta - or both - refused to buy petrol for a week to protest per-litre costs, it might make a reasonable impression. But 1 or 20 people boycotting Cat Stevens isn't going to do a damn thing to irradiate Islam or any other belief system. Sorry. Truth.

The current issue at hand is an assassination attempt against one of 12 cartoonists implicated by the Danish cartoons that were published.

Yusuf Islam is alleged to have said he supported some fatwa - Salman Rushdie in this case. Stevens/Islam's own blog denies this but given people's propensity to revise history when caught out or when it doesn't suit their current goals, I have no opinion on whether he did or didn't support or not.

For the record, the Danish government has not yet shown the guts to say 'to hell' with the religious freaks who presume to speak for their 'god.'

Even those of us who think religion is the greatest freakshow on earth understand the unbelievable presumption of speaking on behalf of a being the religious say is omnipotent.

The bigger problems are immense and cannot be affected by boycotts unless the entire thinking human population suddenly comes to its senses about religion. To believe that will ever happen is as insane as believing there are invisible beings running things on this planet.

I know the writer did not mean to spark such a debate - or maybe he did; I don't know him well enough to say - but spark he did and those who have weighed in (except for me!) totally missed the key flaw in their and the writer's argument.

Yet again, the ugly truth of religion reveals itself. Yusuf Islam is as much a victim of coercion as anyone else who shuts their intellect to the falsehoods perpetrated by religion and it’s ‘leaders.’

What the media pointedly ignored when covering the original story is this: Muslims had an issue with ‘mohammed’ being pictured – the fact that the pictures were cartoons is a side issue.

What the media did not also cover is the FACT that pictures of Mohammed – who probably never existed anyway – are readily available on the streets of Tehran and many, many other places; just as readily available as photos and drawings of any other supposed deity and for the same consideration: money.(I said photos on purpose: many people believe their religion's 'leaders' are gods on earth; hence, photographs. See the pope for example).

As in many other places, people, who, in too many cases cannot feed their children, are handing over the little cash they have for pictures of their imagined tribal warlord, who, if he even existed, was certainly mentally ill and who is dead over 2000 years.

Had the media covered this reality, that many among the murderous throngs had themselves paid for and possessed their own images, the stuffing would have been quickly knocked out of the Islamic argument. As usual, making sure the story had legs took precedence over a minimal amount of necessary research.

As long as humans continue to profess belief in ridiculous stories (flying horses, talking snakes, alchemy) utter, verifiable falsehoods (Jerico, some war outside of New York, virgins being inseminated by angels) and as long as they continue to place their ‘faith’ in liars (Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, Ellen G. White, whoever recreated Horus as Christ) political regimes (Rome) and small groups (the two-by-twos, etc, etc) bent on social control, we continue to support an 'us/them' culture on this planet.We will continue to kill each other to 'prove' the utterly false. It's sick.

There is no pantheon of invisible beings living in the clouds; there is no old white guy who directs human traffic on this planet; there is no evidence at all that christ or mohammed or any other ‘god’ ever existed. There is MUCH, however, to quickly divest humans of these silly notions.

There is ample, endless proof, not to mention unending wars, boiling hate, putrid social and civil conflict, to convince humans to abandon childish beliefs in unseen spirits.

And before you all get your backs up and try to convince me how wrong I am and how I’m an infidel and going to hell, read up.

Read something other than your so-called ‘holy’ texts. Find out where your religion came from, who had a hand in it and WHY.

Humans are innately moral and ethical. This is an established, testable FACT. Religion makes us immoral and unethical and prone to perpetrating hell on our fellow humans in the name of impotent imaginings.This fact is viewable by US statistics. Crime is highest in the most 'religious' states. Look it up. Or surf this blog; I have posted the research and the tables.

READ any of the following:
Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion
Christopher Hitchens’ God is not Great
Sam Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation and this, also from Sam Harris

And may I say, if you refuse to educate yourself, if you refuse to read Dawkins because you 'hate that man,' you cannot argue. One who can but will not read is far worse than one who cannot but desires to.

One must know all sides of the ‘argument’ in order to argue effectively. For the record, yes, I have and I can.

Late Afternoon, Lougheed House, Calgary AB

My Smart and soon-to-be-famous friend, Steve Brewer in England says...

This gorgeous post is a response to comments that were made in response to my FaceBook status today.

Steve and I talk lots but live on opposite sides of the Atlantic. I think he's brilliant and I'm sure, someday, he's going to be famous and is months away from being discovered.

My FaceBook status is: "As long as we allow 'they' to let religion and skin colour divide us, there will be no getting along. Religion and 'race' are social constructs designed and manipulated to divide and conquer us. 'god' and 'race' are both myths. Rise above."

There are loads of comments on there and I'm sure some commenters are not so thrilled with my replies - or the links to Richard Dawkins I put in my replies - but that's life.

Either you are willing to know all sides of an issue in order to argue your point well or you're not. It's like being pregnant; you is or you ain't.

Someone said there's no difference between racisim and 'incomeism' meaning how we treat rich/poor people. Someone also said that all people are racist to some extent.... That's when Steve weighed in (and read my mind). Names have been removed because despite not always agreeing with everyone, I LOVE my friends and their minds - and that they use them and that they're willing to participate in the dialogue.

"...., I'm not even remotely racist and neither are most of my friends. Racism is the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, particularly so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. I believe 100% that all people are different. A little bit is down to genetics, most of it down to experiences, but a lot is just who they are. Even identical twins are often totally different, and they're genes and upbringing would mostly be the same. We can't explain everything, I wish humans would give up trying to do so without any conclusive evidence whatsoever.

"...., don't be so nice - the MO of religion IS to not accept others as they are, there's no escaping it because it won't survive if it just accepts that people are born atheist and leaves them alone.

The whole point of evangelism is to convert people to their side and make them followers. Pretty much every religion (except maybe Judaism, I don't know) has it's own version of conversion and some of us are getting really sick of being advertised at to come inside and be loved by an imaginary being.

It's not comforting - it's patronising - that they think we're dumb enough to buy it and it's a fat waste of time and the whole industry could be put to use doing something so much more productive than just 'praying things get better because we happened to be asking God for it right now', because, you know, he's not quite omniscient enough to see we need help until us 'clever' humans happen to ask him for it.

Which [requests] he doesn't respond to by the way (with actions, we all know he doesn't respond in words) have you seen the news lately? Or ever? Ask and you shall receive. Yeah. Right. Tell that to Africa, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, South America, China, India or Sri Lanka to name a few. Tell that to Europe when the Romans were invading it.

Tell that to the Native Americans when Europe was invading it. Tell it to the indigenous people of Australia when the British were invading them. Tell it to the Jews and gays in Nazi Germany, and then tell it to the rest of Europe when it proceeded to invade them. In fact, tell all the people at various stages in history that if they'd only asked, they would have received. That is assuming that they didn't already ask, and I'm fairly certain the Jews would have asked during World War II.

Was God on vacation throughout the 1940s?

Not to mention, these religious converts are kidding themselves if they think they're getting a second and eternal life after they die. Talk about false promises. If you're selling your car, would you trust the buyer to pay you AFTER you signed over the registration? BIGGEST SCAM EVER. No, you won't, cuz he'll be long gone, just as every religious preacher will be when you're all dead and non-existent. Non-existent like you were BEFORE you were born.

Worse still, laws are decided almost wholly based on this invented, 2000 year old 'logic'. Laws concerning abortion, gay marriage/adoption and euthanasia to name a few. It's total manipulation used to convince people of a set of opinions that just aren't the way the world thinks any more, thanks to science and technology.

We all know that being gay isn't a 'sin' that people are tempted into by a demon; we all know that gay couples are just as capable of raising children and we all know that a baby in such an early stage of life is not alive enough to know what is being taken away from it. It's religious beliefs, not atheist ones, that still dominate and oppress large parts of the world today as it always has done.

So yeah, it would be wonderful if everyone would just accept everyone else's beliefs; if religious people would stop indoctrinating children while they're still young enough to believe whatever whack an adult allowed near them has to say; if cults/religions (totally the same thing by the way, no matter how much Christians deny it) stopped preying on vulnerable/uncertain people, offering them love, comfort and 'answers' in exchange for buying the crap they're preaching at them and the odd donation to pay their wages and maintain that shiny, prestigious location they congregate at once a week.

These people could donate this time and money to helping sick people or educating poor people and get the same 'happy' feeling, while actually DOING something about the problems in the world.

Religion AND race are just bad, ignorant ideas invented by people who knew a vast amount less about the world than we do now and whose motives may have been driven by times that were a lot tougher and more competitive than life is today. It needs to stop.

Because I Really MUST Know...

I was given the gift of a really great book this holiday. It's called "In My Humble Opinion; A Journal to Vent About Why People are Like That..." My mother gave it to me. Is it possible she has finally woken up to 1. I am super opinionated; 2. I'm the heathen's heathen?

You will surely be howling at the moment, thinking what an excellent book this is for me. It's a collection of quotes by famous people about how stupid other people are and why it is such shite to have to put up with 90% of the population. I could have written most of the quotes.

Fortunately, the book's editors have situated the quotes in colourful displays on the left page and have provided (me?) blank lines beckoning me to write on the right. Know know I'm gonna.

The publisher is KnockKnock in Venice CA if you're curious.

I've read most of the quotes in the book, but not all, so am not sure whether the issue of idiots who don't use their car's indicator - signal if you're in North America - may have been brought up (apologies to those who can't because they're missing both their arms or something). But it won't be discussed unless you contribute.

But I MUST know.

WHY don't you signal?

Why?

The indicator is right there, not 1/2 an inch from your left-hand pinky. The indicator provides such a simple, obvious solution to "How do I make sure people behind me know my intentions."

So this blog post is an open forum for all of you to tell me - and my readers - why you don't or won't signal.

Please contribute. It will be cathartic.

Of course, be anonymous. I don't need to know who you are. I just simply MUST understand why people don't signal. Seriously. This really, really, really bugs me so I figure if I can at least understand why people don't do it - and perhaps read the occasional rational reason one ignores such a simple, effective thing as signalling, the entire thing will bug me so much less. I hope.

The art on this page is from Local Girl's Day in Pictures, a hilarious blog with even more hilarious illustrations. It's a must read, so please do yourself - and Local Girl - the favour of visiting.

Also, please forward this blog to anyone you know is an 'infractor' of the non-signalling type. Tell 'em it's market research. Please.

Oh. And once you've posted, please consider that act as an act of contrition and of renewal and promise, from this day forth, to acknowledge that you are not, in any way even closely resembling a fact, alone on the road, more special than other drivers and that you will signal forever and ever, until death or age or bankruptcy separates you from your vehicle.

Merci.

Because this is still a big story... 'story' being the operative word...

Winter by the Bow River, Close up

'Kay, I don't know what these are. All I know is that they're small - very small; about 1cm in diameter or so. They grow all over the place beside the river and I'm sure they're green or something in summer. But now they're just dusted with very fine frost.


Same with these: They're prairie grasses of some distinction but, I'm a photographer, not a botanist so anyone who's reading this and knows what these grass are can please contribute names.

Thanks.

Les Pets de Soeurs

These are a very commonly eaten amuse gueule in Quebec. They can be made with puff pastry and other sweet, store-bought pastries but they're usually made with left over pie dough.

I had to laugh at the description on About.com for this photo; it's called 'Canadian Fart Recipe 1.'.... We have more than one fart recipe?? Who knew?

If you want a pie dough recipe, scroll down to the previous post for Tarte a l'onion.

These are the simplest things to make. Just roll out the pie dough to 1/4" thickness. Slather with BUTTER - yes, butter. Don't deprive yourself. Everyone knows French women don't get fat...

Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar, cinnamon and a couple pinches of ground cloves. I dust very, very gently with salt because it enhances the sweet.

Roll the dough tightly into a log. Seal the open end with a bit of water or egg white if you have some sitting around... Ok. water...

Slice into 1/2 inch wheels. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 350 F.

Eat when warm - careful, the sugar is HOT when it comes out of the oven. Yummy with milk. Or wine. Or beer. But, as they're nun's farts and all, maybe milk is the most pure...

Tarte a l'onion style Alsace

OK. I looked at a lot of recipes for this pie and I have come to the conclusion that this is a family recipe, meaning each family makes it their own way. This is MY way. There's no right/wrong, Gordon Ramsay be damned and yes, I WOULD win against him!

Here's what you'll need:

4 - 5 large onions - 2.5 lbs
1/2 package sliced, fatty bacon
Fresh Thyme leaves
18% cream or 33% if you want
2 large eggs
1 bottle of dark beer - any beer will do but dark is nice
Ground nutmeg
Ground cloves
1c grated Gruyère cheese
Pastry for pie shell
fluted pie plate - or your basic 12" pie plate.

Crust.
2 sifted cups unbleached flour
1/3 cup COLD lard or butter. NO, not margarine. It doesn't work.
1/8th tsp Creme of Tartar and NO do not skip this
1/8th tsp salt
1 egg yolk
1/4c ice water

Now do exactly what I say.

Sift the dry ingredients together
cut the lard/butter into smallish chunks, into the flour

Get your hands in there and start squishing the butter into the flour, rubbing the mixture with your fingers. Do this quickly so the butter doesn't warm up any more than it has to. It's right when it looks like really coarse oatmeal.

Mix the egg yolk into the water
Pour 1/2 the water into the dry ingredient

With a fork, stir the mixture up. Add 1/2 the remaining water and mix again with the fork. Scrumple the mix up with two hands. If it feels like it could be rolled out without breaking apart, it's done. If it needs a bit more water, add a BIT more. Once you can scrumple it into a ball, stick it in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge.

Now.
Heat a deep saucepan or dutch oven over medium high heat
Cut up that bacon across the strips into 1/2 inch pieces and then layer it into the bottom of your pan

Cut onions in half top to bottom and then into half rings. Doing it this way saves your fingers (because you're going to lay the flat side of the onions down before you slice 'em) and gives you nice rings.

Throw the onions in with the bacon, which should have begun to brown. Stir well to coat the onions with bacon fat; reduce the heat to just under medium. Stir occasionally as the onions cook down.

When the onions begin to be transparent, add a pinch of nutmeg and pinch of cloves; couple pinches salt and ground pepper. You can adjust these seasonings again later.

The onions will take almost an hour to caramelise over medium heat, so get a glass of wine and a book. Do not let the onions burn or stick. Turn the heat down if they begin to crisp. Meanwhile, open that beer, pour 1 cup into the onions and drink the rest. Turn the heat down a bit more, slap on a lid and drink 1/2 your glass of wine. Stir the pot occasionally.

The onions will turn a very gorgeous caramel colour. There will be liquid now, so take the lid off, turn the heat up slightly and let the liquid cook down.

While the liquid is cooking off, roll out your dough to a scant 1/4 inch thick circle (on a slightly floured board with a slightly floured rolling pin (an empty wine bottle works great too so get drinkin')

Place the pastry into the pie plate. The easy way is to roll the pastry over the rolling pin/wine bottle and then unroll it over the plate.

Pat the pastry nicely into the shell and then pinch the edges around the pie plate. Cut away the excess and save... you'll have lots of extra and I'm going to tell you next how to make Les Pettes de Soeur...

Now. Get a sieve over a large bowl and dump the onions into it - drain off the extra liquid.. just let it sit there for a spell. Pour the juices into a sealable container and then dump the onions into the bowl. Stick 'em in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool

Beat 1/2c cream with two eggs. Get the onions and mix the milk and eggs and 3/4c of the cheese into them. Then dump the whole lot into your nice pie shell. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.

Bake at 375F for 40 minutes - and keep an eye on your pie crust... don't want it to burn. If it looks done in 35 minutes, take the pie out.

Serve with a salad. This serves six people easily.

Crazy Canucks Ice Fishing in Ontario

We are certifiable. We know. But we're hardy....