Harper's BIZARRE!

Ok, so someone explain to me how it is that Israel isn't a terrorist state? And someone please explain to me why our white-bread, porridge face Prime Minister has nothing to say about Israel bombing the hell out of whomever they please, whenever they please.

And also, can someone please explain to me why people don't get it that they are visitors on this planet? Nobody owns any piece of land in any real way and if people who fight and kill each other still don't get it that fighting and killing each other for 1000s of years solves precisely ZERO things, there will never, ever be peace on this planet.

It makes me so completely sick to my stomach that our senior politician is so spineless that he will not condemn the actions of Israel or any other country that slaughters people for any reason. I would love to know who he and the US President are so afraid of that they have such oily mouths when they speak about these issues.

There will be no peace on this planet until people in power speak up and very publicly and loudly speak out against war, genocide, planned starvation, purposeful perpetuation of major health crises - AIDS for example - and any number of other politically motivated atrocities.

Disgusting.

Mr. Harper, you are a disgrace to your country and to the world.

What?

1100 +

This is just a simple thanks to the growing group of people who read my blog!

I am flattered that you're here - still here in many cases - and that you grace my blog with your eyes and intellegence.

Those of you who are new, I hope you'll go back into the archives and read the old stuff, a lot of which is on parenting - and no, I"m not done with that subject yet; how could I ever be?

I am always open to suggestions and ideas and I will consider publishing other people's writing, provided it meets my personal guidelines. Go to my profile for an e-mail address you can send to. I will contact you personally.

Here's to the next 1100.

WriterWriter

Now THAT's a Great Sales Technique!

Today about noon, as I was just racing back into my home office, the phone rang. Thinking it to be a client, I grab it off the hook and recite my welcome answer - into the electronic ear of some recorded message that is telling me I'm so lucky to have been randomly selected for an all-expenses paid trip to Florida and Bahamas.

Wow! I am lucky. Except for the part where I detest being bothered by these no-minds who can't find a decent job anywhere other than with companies that intrude on the unwilling.

It is almost certainly a scam. However, being the curious sort, I press 9 as directed, wait for a few seconds and am connected to a guy who is obviously from the southern US - another thing that annoys me to pieces. I'm biased, yes, but a guy who sounds like he's from the Ozarks AND works for a corporate slug... We'll just say it didn't inspire confidence.

His first question was about my name. I lied. I said Ann. With an E. With this tiny introduction, said hillbilly asked my phone number. I answered that I'd like to hear more about what he was offering before offering my phone number to a stranger. His reply?

"I'm not telling you anything because you're being a jerk."

Seriously.

So, they randomly pick my name, call me in the middle of a business day with an offer that is doubtless junk and probably not actually available in Canada (given the US population's propensity to belly-button gazing) and then they insult me because I won't give my phone number to a total stranger from a country that houses the largests number of on-line fraudsters in the world (according to this month's Wired)?

Yah. That should work. I'll run right out to buy stuff from that company!

Oh wait. They don't want us to know THEIR phone number, which is blocked.

Good job too because otherwise, I would have sent them an invoice for taking up my time with their inane offer. Yes, this has been done and very successfully. So successfully in fact that the US Do Not Call list was the result. If a person is on the DNC list and they receive solicitation of this sort, they do have legal recourse. If only in Canada.

If I could call that company and speak to the idiot's boss, guaranteed, I'd see him fired in less than one minute, partly for bothering me at all but mostly because nobody calls me a jerk without at least having known me for an appropriate 10 minutes.

In lieu of having access to a contact phone or real, educated human who speaks an intelligible language, here is a couple sites that have information on how to protect yourself from this kind of fraud. Sadly, there's no info on how to get rid of phone-billies.
National Consumer League
Travel Science

Trip Science

Quotes from the Truly Stupid

So, some months ago in my city, this wonderful human being was going about defrauding cancer victims. His ploy was to hang about the hospital ATM machines, pretent he was also sick (with cancer, not assholicness) and plead problems when he spotted a victim.

This wonder of honesty managed to scam several very ill people out of substantial money before he was caught. It came out later via his criminal record, which was long and full of fraud related everything, that he'd been up to this for ages. There were some 100 fraud charges on that record.

So last week he was quoted as saying that the media had ruined his life and that all the publicity had got him a bad name.

Now I ask you: how does a guy who as a 20 year career in screwing people over manage to rationalise his behaviour enough to blame the media that reports his activities?

Does it not occur to said genius that, had he not lived a life of manipulating innocent people, that he wouldn't have a record and the media wouldn't bother with him?

I dunno. Sometimes humans boggle my mind.

Here's the article from The Calgary Sun, written by Mike McIntyre. Check out Mike's blog at www.mikeoncrime.com

"CALGARY (CP) — A con man who targeted elderly or disabled victims told a Calgary court Wednesday that publicity his court case has ruined his life and the lives of his family.
Bryan Andrew Casavant said media reports following his guilty pleas in April have crushed his family, including his nine-year-old daughter.
“My little girl now knows what’s going on, it’s killing me, it’s literally killing me,” he told provincial court Judge Anne Brown.
“After the media did what they did to me, my wife had to basically quit at Husky — it’s killing her,” Casavant said. “My little girl is crying all the time.”
Defence lawyer Mitch Stephensen argued the adverse publicity should be a factor Brown takes into account when Brown sentences his client.
Stephensen said judges in other cases — including the Alberta Court of Appeal in the case of a former Lethbridge alderwoman — have considered public scrutiny to be a mitigating factor.
In reducing Dar Heatherington’s community term last November, the province’s top court said media scrutiny was something to consider.
“Mr. Casavant has been seriously vilified in the press,” said Stephensen, who is seeking a jail term of two to three years.
Casavant, 44, conned more than $20,000 out of 16 victims in Calgary, Edmonton, Wetaskiwin and Kelowna, B.C.
He targeted his victims during a three-month span between last September, and his arrest on Dec. 12.
Among those he swindled were hospital patients suffering a variety of ailments including terminal cancer, and several seniors, including two in their 70s and another two in their 80s.
In April, Stephensen said Casavant cheated his victims to get cash to support his family and pay for medical expenses, such as a hearing aid for his daughter.
Crown prosecutor Peter Barley is seeking a prison term of at least 10 years to send a message to others who might target the weak or sick.
Brown adjourned sentencing until Sept. 7, so both Barley and Stephensen can gather more information about Casavant and his criminal past, which includes over 100 convictions."

Mike also references another great case, that of Dar Heatherington, who claimed she was abducted and drugged while on policital Business in Montana two years ago. The funny part of her story - well all of it was funny - and false - was something I found out quite by accident. It seems said Miss had been planning or possibily already engaging in a little tryst with a member of the Lethbridge police force.

Apparently it was somewhat common knowledge that there was some intrigue in the Heatherington family, at least according to my source. She went to great lengths to disguise what I believe was planned infidelity, including placing lewd letters, which she herself wrote, on her own car windshield, and claiming many harassing phonecalls, none substantiated.

After this story broke, said member of the Lethbridge Police service was quietly moved to another location. The missing detail in every news story about this woman who claimed rape, was the lack of male suspect. She had zero description; she refused a rape kit and she wouldn't provide anything that would have allowed DNA evidence, because, I think, the meeting was consentual. Her plan seriously backfired because, although she also claimed she had been drugged, she would not allow any medical processing that would have determined if she had been and with what. The police in Vegas, where she finally turned up, and the Montana police, were skeptical from the get go and that resulted in Ms. H landing a charge of mischief, which she had to attend while under house arrest in her home town. Ironically, she was attended by several members of the LPS.

The sad side story is that Mr. Heatherington is a member of the Lethbridge Fire Department. Seems the boys in blue in Canada and the US are pretty good friends, because the real story has been supressed with great help from the guilty parties, the media, the Lethbridge Police Service and Fire Department and I believe the police south of the 49th. Go HERE for tons of news stories on this gal. Try and find any useful reference to the supposed rapist.

Get your $30Million Here, folks! Step right up!

A story from CrazyTown
(And a note about the photo below, which was found via google in images, using the search term "pedophile." I found it as it is here, with the caption at this address).

So I read in our local paper on Wednesday that a 14 year-old girl in the US is attempting to sue MySpace for not protecting her from a predator to whom she provided her name, actual address and real phone number and then went on a date with, which in every way implies full consent..

Now I ask you, how does MySpace protect a teenager who is obviously TOO STUPID to read the very large and prominent disclaimers on that site that expressly encourage users to NOT provide their personal information to strangers?

“Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer for MySpace.com, said in a written statement: "We take aggressive measures to protect our members. We encourage everyone on the Internet to engage in smart web practices and have open family dialogue about how to apply offline lessons in the online world."

The second question is where are this girl’s parents? Apparently they’re all shocked that something like this could happen. Like What? Like that their daughter’s an idiot who can’t read and shouldn’t be on MySpace unattended?

I hope that the judge who gets this silly case will first quit laughing and second, slap the parents with negligence for allowing their daughter to use MySpace without their due attention.

There is no way that MySpace is in any way liable for this girl's being pursued when she was in complete control of what information she gave out and that she was so stupid that she actually met this stranger knowing nothing of who he really was. Incidentally, although she’s alleging sexual assault, it doesn’t sound that that’s the case….

“Lauren Gelman, associate director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, said she does not think MySpace is legally responsible for what happens away from its site.

"If you interact on MySpace, you are safe, but if a 13-year-old or 14-year-old goes out in person and meets someone she doesn't know, that is always an unsafe endeavour," Gelman said. "We need to teach our kids to be wary of strangers."

Ironically, the lawyer for the girl in this case says, “MySpace is more concerned about making money than protecting children online,” which is hilarious considering how much money said lawyer stands to make from this case. They’re suing for 1% of the MySpace’s revenues, about $30M.

Absent from anyone’s pitch is a question about why the parents were not paying attention to what their daughter was doing on line, let alone who she was going to movies with, where she was going and how long she was out. This is a case of colossal stupidity on the part of two parents, and a kid who thought she was getting away with something behind their backs – until it all blew up in her immature face.

What is immensely sad is that this girl has parents and a lawyer who are attempting to reward her for her conduct and there is a young man who is potentially innocent but whose life is about one newspaper article away from being ruined forever, regardless of guilt or innocence.

It is completely unlikely that the rest of the story will ever appear in the media - the part where the case is tossed out, the truth is told and a possibly innocent young man is exhonerated. It is probable, however, that this girl will grow up knowing that her parents are much more intersted in saving face and cashing in via happy suing than teaching their daughter any moral lessons.

They might become rich off this one but they're as morally bankrupt as they come.

Just 'cause I think this is hilarious:

Can the English language survive Bush?

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is ' to be prepared '."

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future. "

"The future will be better tomorrow."

" We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."

"Public speaking is very easy."

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur. "

"For NASA, space is still a high priority."

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teaches our children. "

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in
our air and water that are doing it."

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system.
George W. Bush

Oh come ON!!!

I have nothing to say about this.

1000 words, all unsaid. I am speechless.



Are you Fxxking kidding me? Doesn't this woman have a mother - or anyone who cares about her - to tell her she looks like a complete, tacky idiot?

Arrggghghghgh. The US empire is crumbling. This is proof.

AntiAunti

It occured to me tonight, as I was watching inane TV shows that my life is a bit of an irony. Isn't everyone's?

I'm absolutely anti-marriage because I think marriage is social control/religious control/taxation base but it occured to me tonight that I feel a bit left out because I've never had a lovely, down-on-one-knee proposal and the two marriages I've ever been a bridesmaid at (both weddings of my sisters) ended quite badly. And I had to make my dresses - and theirs -for those weddings, so I never got to do the shopping for a wedding dress with the bride thing either.

hmmm. What a dilemma. If someone asked for my hand, so to speak, I'd probably rather give them the actual hand than the metaphorical article; and bridesmaid dresses are invariably ugly, unwearable and the subject of much ridicule, so really, who wants it - not to mention all the stress that goes into putting a wedding together.

I'll tell you a secret: nobody in my family knows whether my partner and I are married or not. We've been asked a hundred times and in all manner of ways but we've chosen to not reveal the true state of affairs. Why? Well, a bunch of reasons.

My mom is a Christian, which, in theory, isn't a bad thing but in practice? Let's just say the dogma gets in the way of real, deep relationships. When my partner and I first met, there was a lot of resistance to the relationship, most of which was due to our age difference. That was an issue, but not as much as the fact that we had the full-meal-deal relationship, without benefit of clergy, which, for her, was just so sinful (she doesn't seem to be bothered by the reams and reams of children being raped by family members every day or that a child somewhere in the world dies from starvation every two minutes. Pre-marital sex? Man, that's top of the heap!)

About four years into the relationship, my partner and I went to Vegas for four days. My youngest daughter made a big joke out of telling everyone my partner and I had been married by a fake Elvis (her presumption). Her joke ended up being our saving grace: see, after that, my family members weren't sure what had actually happened anymore. Oh, and we went back to Vegas the next year. And we made a lot of noise about the drive-through wedding chappel on Vegas Blvd. heading to old Vegas: The Michal Jordan, Joan Collins Drive-thru wedding chappel. How quaint. I bet all their marriages last!

We've never answered one way or the other whether we did or didn't, and we never will.

Now, for all you parents out there, here's how to get your children to never tell you anything: nag, bug, harrass and put down because your dogma is right and theirs is flawed. After a while, you'll be in a position of not knowing what's going on and having no way to find out. Yah. You win. My mother cannot say one word about my and my partner's relationship - any of it, including the physical part - because she doesn't know if we've married or not! Perfect. Works like a damn.

Our decision to remain mum on the question has also quite stopped the nasty age-related slagging, because you can't slag someone's spouse -if that person is indeed the spouse - which is also a benefit.

Here's the drill: a marriage is a commitment between two people and requires a total of two other people and an official to make it official. There is no rule that says you must spend a zillion dollars, stress yourself out and put a year's planning into a one day event to make it legit.

LOADS of people marry in order to have the dress, the cake, the ceremony, the adulation and the tiara, and then wake up the next day going "Holy crap, what did I do?"

Ten years on, we're every bit as commited to each other as the first night we met (that's a whole 'nother blog).

If I could can what we have and how we do it, I would. I could make a billion dollars selling it, but I wouldn't 'cause it's just too precious.

Flying

This is a "HOW NOT TO FLY" lesson for the sad legions of people who haven't a clue how to behave on an airplane.

Boarding
Here's the reality with the airplane: it has one entrance, which also acts as an exit. It is entrance when you are departing and exit when you've arrived at your destination. So, running to line up and making sure you're the first to be checked through serves not a ton of purpose. Get up when your row is called, proceed forward and PLEASE, like they ask, have your ID ready.

Now, as you board the aircraft, you'll notice that there are lots and lots of people behind you, also waiting to board. If you stand in the aisle trying to wrangle your carry on into the overhead, you're holding up everyone behind you. Step into the seating area and let some people pass. When there's a break in the lineup, then stuff your carry on into the overhead. You're not alone, in case you didn't notice.

On second thought, what exactly do you need to carry on? A bit of cash, the novel you're reading and a magazine or two. You do NOT need that hideous straw hat or the three bags of crap you're dragging on board. I travel with one large suitcase (in which I leave extra room) and one small suitcase that is usually mostly empty. They go in the aircraft's hold.

I take on smallish bag which has my wallet, my book, a couple of magazines, my headphones and sometimes a very light, fleece blanket on board. All go below the seat in front of me. No muss, no fuss and no fumbling in the overheads or seat pockets. I often pack my coat because really, I don't need it in a climate controlled airplane. I am perfect!

Sitting and Rising
As you lower yourself into your seat, keep in mind that when you use the seat in front as leverage, you will causing the person in that seat to suffer the springboard like effects of the seat back hitting their head when you let it go. On my last flight from Gatwick to Calgary, which is a 9 hour flight coming this way, the 'lady' behind me got out of and back into her seat, using mine as leverage, no fewer than 22 times. That means that I couldn't sleep because she was up and down twice every 40 minutes. She did not respond to my very pointed looks as I rolled myself around my seat to stare at her each time she did this. OK. I'm passive aggressive. I should have said something.

Seat Pockets
Every time you go fishing in that seat pocket in front of you, you are essentially in direct contact with the back of the person seated in front of you. Don't yank the pocket open and allow it to slam shut, PLEASE! Books and water bottles feel like books and water bottles when they hit you in the spine!

Said 'lady' on my flight seemed to have stashed a ton of stuff into that seat pocket, as she was in there about every 1/2 hour further precluding any nodding off on my part.

Finally, watch your feet and knees. Every time your knees, head or feet contact the seat in front of you, you're bashing the occupant of that seat, usually in the kidneys.

About Talking.
I'm inclined to say that passengers should just shut bloody up but that's not realistic. So, if you must talk, first make sure the person you're speaking to is interested and please also make sure to notice when they're ready to stop. On a flight from Toronto to Calgary once, I had a seat kicker behind me. Man, I was so ready to kill that guy, who also didn't respond to dirty looks, but finally decided to move to another seat. Sadly, I got myself beside a 'lady' who was unaware that when a person's eyes are closed, they're asleep. She actually poked me to have me stay in a conversation I was SO not interested in.

Also, the only person who is interested in what you have to say - especially when you're traveling alone - is yourself. Do not speak so loudly that everyone in the vicinity can hear you. I guarantee you, if you're trying to make yourself heard or you're not paying attention to the volume of your voice, you are, without doubt, uttering inanities that nobody wants to participate in.

Movies and Music
Speaking of loud, don't turn up your headset so loud that the person next to you can hear whichever radio station or film you're watching. You're not alone or particularly special so don't presume to impose yourself or your choice of entertainment on your fellow travelers.

Going to the Potty
Ok, so again on my Gatwick flight, the couple beside me in middle and window seats, waited until I'd been asleep for about 10 minutes before they decided they needed the loo. So here's the unofficial rule: most people head for the biffy right after a meal is served. Such is the safest route unless you're in the aisle seat. If you're one of those people who can't manage 3 or four hours without a potty break, take the aisle seat and DON'T grab the seat in front of you when you get up or down. That's what the arm rests are for.

The rest of this goes without saying: if you're fat, people are not going to want to sit with you because you're already spilling over onto their space. You may as well be sitting in a stranger's lap. If you don't practice some common courtesy - like keeping your elbows inside the arm rests, you're going to have some unhappy co-travelers. Whenever possible, see if you can take a seat where, in rows of 3, 4 or 5, there is a seat between you an the next passenger.

Do NOT fart or burp. Subjecting your fellow prisoners to your disgusting manners is not allowed.

BABIES
Ok, they have to come along usually. I have three children, all of whom I've traveled with since they were infants, so I'm not an idiot about this. If you're on a long flight, your kid will start crying at three specific points: at takeoff, at landing and as soon as they're tired and can't lay down in their own bed.

In the first two cases, you must remain seated and belted in, so give your child something to suck on. If they're little, a bottle full of water is the best thing, as it helps them clear their ears, which, due to pressure, usually hurt like crazy for about 15 minutes at takeoff/landing. If your child is of an age where they're unlikely to choke, give them some gum (and don't give me any crap about not giving your kid sugar! There is sugar free and seriously folks, this is not the time to get all health food on your co-passengers!). Gum stimulates the production of saliva, which the child has to swallow, which helps them clear their ears.

The other scenario, when your child is exhausted from a long flight and the inability to lay down, needs so specific action. Do NOT subject the people around you to your screaming child. Get up, take the child to the loo, shut the door and stay in there until the child calms down or falls asleep.

There is NO excuse for making your fellow travelers suffer through the screams of your child, nor is there for trying to make your exhausted child sit when they cannot any more. They need quiet and comfort and the loo is perfectly suited for both. Kids up to about 10 years old have an attention span of maybe 15 minutes. A 9 hour fight doesn't fit that bill.

Arrival
There is only one way out. Everyone has to leave. Your checked baggage will arrive on the carousel at least 5 minutes and usually closer to 15 minutes after you depart the aircraft. Therefore, it is not necessary for you to hold up everyone behind you whilst you again tackle your overhead baggage in order to make it out of the airplane first. If you can't easily get your bags out or if you have several, WAIT until the aircraft is cleared out or until there is a break in the lineup.

Alternatively, near the end of the flight you can take your baggage down and stash it under the seat in front of you. This way, when you stand, you can quickly slide your bags out and easily get off the flight.

Especially for those at the front of the aircraft, there is no excuse for making everyone else wait. I cannot stand people who hold everyone else up so they make a mad dash for the exit only to stand around with everyone else, waiting for their other baggage to arrive at the carousel.

I wish so much that I could make a short speech in the pre-boarding waiting area about these points, but alas....

More rants coming.... Did anyone see the great piece on CBS last night about the huge market for counterfeit drugs in the US? Oh man, don't get me started on how people can't mange their lives without a pill for every little thing..... And for the record, so-called Erectile Disfunction is almost always related to being fat, being unhealthy or having a very unattractive, unwashed spouse. Boys, Big Pharma had medicalised your willy! Speak up!