Hey, just for fun, go check this one out.You'll see a list of interesting and significant events that took place on this day in history.
   The one that really caught my eye for Sept. 30th took place in 1846, when Dentist William Morton of Boston became the first to use ether as an anesthetic on a patient. I know that it was a very tricky process at first, to get the use of the ether just right. A lot of patients were lost to overdoses.
   The first surgical anesthetic use of ether is credited to the 27-year-old Dr. Crawford Williamson Long, MD, of Jefferson, Georgia. He used ether on March 30, 1842, when he removed one of the two tumors from the neck of his patient, one Mr. James.
   If you want to know more about ether, go to this site. There's lots of fascinating info there, like the fact that ether was actually discovered in 1275 by a Spanish chemist Raymundus Lullius, who called it "sweet vitriol", the name that was used until 1730, when it was changed to ether.
   Have a look, but don't stay too long, in case the site puts you to sleep!

Students Bully Teachers

   So reads the headline on an article printed yesterday, reporting results from a province-wide survey of 1,217 teachers and support workers in the public and catholic schools. Grades 7 to 9 pose the most risk with 50% of the staff in these grades reporting having been subjected to some form of bullying, including persistent incidents of abuse, threats, insults or humiliation intended to hurt, either emotionally or physically.
   In November, results will be released dealing with bullying of teachers by parents and principals. Somebody ask me about all this, please. Been there, done that, got the goddamned T-shirt. I worked in grades 7 & 8 for years and I was out there on the front lines without any back-up or support. People who haven't been on the front lines make announcements every once in a while about their idea for the latest magic fix to the problems. There is no magic fix, but there sure as hell is a major overhaul needed. It is a massive problem, and there will be a great many more casualties before it is all turned around, but it is exactly right to refer to our classrooms as the front lines. For far too many students and teachers, surviving their days in those rooms feels like surviving a battle.

Suitable Sentences?

   Albert (Caesar) Tocco, has just died in a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. The 77-year-old mob boss had served 15 years of his 200 year sentence for racketeering, conspiracy, extortion and tax fraud. That's right, he had been sentenced to 200 years.
   Today, sentence was passed in a court in Madrid against Imad Yarkas, an Al Qaeda cell leader who was convicted of conspiring to commit murder in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. Yarkas arranged a meeting in the Tarragona region of Spain in July 2001 at which Sept. 11 suicide pilot Mohamed Atta and plot coordinator Ramzi Binsalshibh met to decide last-minute details of the attack. The prosecutors accused Yarkas of being an accomplice to murder and asked for a sentence of nearly 75,000 years - 25 years for each of the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives in the suicide attacks of 2001. The Spanish court saw fit to convict him of conspiracy instead, and impose a jail term of only 27 years.
   Is it only me, or does anyone else see an imbalance in the sentences imposed in these two cases? How is it that the one man could be served with a 200-year term while the other was only given 27 years? Both men were charged with conspiracy. Was the one sentence more severe because the offender's conspiracy had been to dupe the government of dollars and cents? Was the other sentence less severe because the offender had only conspired to rob some people of their lives? Is that what accounts for the difference, the value of human life being set lower than the value of the dollar bill? I am genuinely at a loss to understand this. Can you explain it?

Closure?

   In his article in today's Toronto Daily Star, columnist Jim Coyle takes exception to the use of the word "closure" by Daniel Sylvester's lawyer when he was explaining why his client turned himself in to the police for the murder of Alicia Ross. (See Sept. 23 entry "to Humanize a Monster") The claim was that the accused wanted to give closure to the family. "What presumption", says Coyle. "What closes? What ends? Not love. Not pain. Not a loss that echoes endlessly in silences and absence. None of it. Not ever. "
   Coyle is exactly right in his opining. It is being said that the lawyer is trying to humanize the killer with his statements. How could such a thing ever be accomplished, especially with such trite inanities as Hobson is rhyming off? Is Hobson in any way trying to suggest that it is time for the bereaved family to "come to terms" with their loss, and let his goodie-two-shoes client garner some kind of positive recognition for coming forward?
   Coyle says that our society is "a culture impatient with pain, and uncomfortable with discomfort, a culture that presumes intellect and will can trump emotion". Again, he is right. A close friend of mine lost a son to cancer, more than a decade ago. As each anniversary of the death approaches, she fights a bleak melancholy that threatens to engulf her, while others berate her for not yet being able to "get over it". How dare anyone presume to tell a bereaved parent what schedule they should conduct their loss and mourning by, most especially if they have never suffered in kind? Yet such presumption is constantly being inflicted on those who have suffered loss.
   Hobson should be taken to task himself for exhibiting crass inhumanity toward the dead woman's family, all for the sake of publicity and money. Even more, he should be charged with some count of duplicity, since he and his client supposedly were in discussion for five days before they made the trip to the police station. How could he have known that he was sitting in conversation with the confessed murderer and not have gone immediately to the police? By what criteria did he dare judge himself authorized to decide when the family should receive their "closure"?

To Humanize a Monster

   In mid-August, a young woman went missing from her home, and the hunt for her was on, powered by an incredible amount of volunteer searchers. After fruitless days of combing the area local to her home, the search was finally called off. Police seemed to have no suspects, although they were referring to the missing woman's boyfriend a "a person of interest" in the case, since he was officially the last person to have seen her alive.
   Finally, this week brought the dreaded worst to light when one of the woman's neighbours Daniel Sylvester, went to police in the company of his lawyer, David Hobson, and turned himself in as her murderer. Hobson is quoted in the media as saying that his client is " feeling great remorse. His conscience got the better of him." Supposedly, this wonderful guy with a conscience wanted to give the bereaved family closure and was also concerned that the police might arrest the wrong person. Of course, you have to keep in mind that this outpouring of conscience-driven feeling for others comes after he murdered the girl, dismembered the body and concealed the remains.
   The media is suggesting that the lawyer is making these statements in an effort to "humanize" Sylvester for the public. I don't know about you, but gosh, now that I've read what Hobson had to say, I just know that Sylvester is probably a great guy, a really good person to , oh say, trust with your children's lives. What do you think?
   This piece of shit admitted to the crime. Details he provided to the police led them straight to the woman's remains. How much more does anyone need in order to know that this is not a human we are discussing here? Spare me the attempts to "humanize" this monster in our midst. I suppose going through the process of trial by judge and jury is something that has to happen. I think that, with the aid of forensic science, it should be up and running in no time. Expedite the process, and while it's ongoing, keep the animal in a plain holding cell, nothing better than that. As soon as his culpability is proven, take him right out back, stand him up against the wall, and put a bullet in his head. He deserves nothing more.

   A slight brouhaha has been clouding the skies over Toronto's York University. The problem is whether or not the University should continue to cancel classes on Jewish holidays. It's been a long-standing tradition for York to do just that for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in October, in spite of concerns raised by professors that the policy violates the school constitution.
   History professor David Noble, himself a Jew, says he will not cancel his classes on the days in question. The rationale offered for the university closing down for the religious holidays is that 1 out of every 10 students on campus is Jewish. Noble says he regards it as an outrage that the school will be closed because 9 out of every ten students on campus are not Jews.
   I have to agree with Noble on this one. Someone on York's governing committee seems to have misunderstood the concept of "secular". Since York is not a religion-based institute, it should not close for these days.

He Never Did Forget

   Early on Tuesday morning Simon Wiesenthal finally was able to say the words he had waited decades to utter. On that day, Wiesenthal, at the age of 96, left this world to make his way to the next. "I didn't forget you," are the words he once declared he was planning to say when he made his way to the after-life and met the millions of Jews who died in camps during the Second World War. Wiesenthal himself narrowly escaped being a member of those ranks.
   During the war, Wiesenthal himself was imprisoned in a series of camps and narrowly escaped being one of the six million.The single-minded pursuit he undertook after the war is what will have entitled him to say that he never did forget. That pursuit earned him nicknames like "the deputy of the dead", and "the avenging archangel of the holocaust". It also earned him both fame and the enmity of many who wanted to stop the unease created by a man who would not still his conscience or allow them to subvert theirs. Martin Mendelsohn, a Washington lawyer who helped establish the Nazi-hunting Office of Special Investigations within the U.S. Justice Department, said that Wiesenthal "kept the memory of the Holocaust alive when everyone wanted it to go away."
   He claims for himself the distinction of having contributed to the arrest of 1,100 war criminals. One of his most famous cases involved Adolf Eichmann himself, who was finally brought to trial in Israel in 1964, and was hanged. The collection of concentration camp testimony and dossiers on Nazis that he amassed at his Jewish Documentation Center was used to help lawyers prosecute the cases against those responsible for the unspeakable horrors perpetrated against the Jews.
   Wiesenthal has been honoured many times through the years. In 1977, Rabbi Marvin Hier named his Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights center after Wiesenthal. In 1980, he was presented with the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, and an honorary British knighthood in 2004. He has been criticized as well, being called a publicity seeker and an egotist. It's true, he did say that if he were to be portrayed by Hollywood, he would want Paul Newman to do the honours, but tell me, please, compared to what Eichmann did, where is the harm in anything Wiesenthal ever did? It would be much easier instead to talk of the glory in what he did, and his selfless pursuit of justice on behalf of those to whom it had been denied during their lifetime.
   Sleep well. Simon. The world was lucky to have had you for a while. Let eternity take you now.

Afghanistan Votes

   I was just reading about the voting that took place in Afghanistan this past Sunday. I felt awed by what I read, and couldn't help comparing it with I know about the voting in Canada.
   Sunday's vote was to be the first legislative elections in Afghanistan for decades, in fact, since 1969. How many times have Canadians had the luxury of going to the polls in that same time span? The voters went to the polls in defiance of the Taliban, and in fear for their lives. There were "at least" 14 people killed in attacks made by Taliban guerrillas. When was the last time that any Canadian went to cast a ballot, knowing that to do so might cost them their life?
   Surveys taken since our last federal election in 2004 showed that 69% of the respondents said they had exercised their right to vote in that last election. Many people who read that might be tempted to say it's not such a bad result. I would see it differently. I would ask what possible excuse there could be for the 31% of eligible voters who never made it to the polls?
   There is one more figure to be aware of, however, in the Canadian stats, and that one is all the more reason for Canadian voters to feel shame when they read the numbers from Afghanistan's voting day. It is felt that a 22% error margin must be allowed for the results of any survey trying to gauge the number of eligible voters who exercise their right. The theory is that when asked if they did vote, many who did not actually do so will experience a moment of civic shame and lie, rather than admit the truth.
   Complacency is allowed to rule the lives of too many here in the pampered west. A stark contrast to our laissez-faire attitudes was provided on Sunday, in that troubled country, a contrast we might do well to look at carefully. In a land so badly torn apart by all it has lately endured, over 3,740,000 people braved real danger to cast their ballot. The country's population stands at 29,928,987. That means that more than 1/10th of the population turned out. Our figures do not hold up well to comparison with that tenth.
   One of Afghanistan's voters, Oari Salahuddin, is quoted in a Reuters news article as saying, "I (was) so happy, I couldn't sleep last night and was watching the clock to come out and vote." What provided such happiness to Oari is merely a reason to yawn for so many here. Maybe we need to rethink our attitude.

Someone Tell Lloyd McKell!

   Last Friday I wrote about Lloyd McKell's moron-minded idea of setting up a blacks-only school to help black students on the edge of becoming drop-outs. I'd like to draw your attention to someone else's idea today, someone who is dealing with the same kind of kids, and doing it in a far more positive and worthwhile manner.
   David Lockett, co-founder of PACT (Participation, Acknowledgement, Commitment and Transformation), a non-profit group that gives young offenders a second chance, came up with the idea of social entrepreneurship, wherein concerned citizens use their skills and ideas to build a healthier community. Last year, he brought Marjorie Agnew, owner of a kitchenware store on board, and her $10,000. was used to start up a cooking school that takes the kids through a six-week course. The cooking school began last February, in the upper-level kitchen of a Loblaws store. Two classes have graduated so far, and a third is scheduled to begin on Sept. 26.
   Lockett looks to this kind of involvement to gradually break the cycle of youth violence. There are some terrible offences committed by youthful offenders that do require jail time and punishment, but a majority of youth offences are less serious in nature. What is required is a response that will give the young offender a chance to turn themselves around, to avoid further involvement in the circumstances that led them into trouble in the first place. ''The whole idea is for the community to raise the kids,'' says Lockett.
   Students who could benefit are referred to the program by crown attorneys and probation officers. These are kids who have been in trouble with the law and ordered to perform community service in restitution for their acts. They often have trouble finding a meaningful placement, because many social agencies can't afford to take them on, and others just give them some mindless assignment to keep them busy and out of everyone's way for the required length of time. Given that 43 per cent of Canadian youth who are convicted will be charged again within a year, the system does not seem to one of high success rates.
   "What these kids need to turn their lives around are new skills, a new environment and a chance to contribute. This project works at every level. They get out of their neighbourhood, see teamwork, have choices.", says Lockett. The classes are co-ed and interracial, as determined by the group enrolled in any session. There are no blacks-only classes.
   Lockett is really getting into all this and now he's busily working to expand the concept, developing a job registry for the class participants and setting up a scholarship for kids who complete the course and come back as volunteers. Marjorie Agnew, in the meanwhile, is turning to her suppliers and associates, and exhorting them to get involved in similar projects.
   The previous courses ended with a banquet prepared and served to seniors, and the next course will culminate with the graduates presenting food baskets to low-income families. This gives the students an opportunity to see their efforts greeted with pleasure and appreciation, a reaction that may be a brand new experience for them. It's the very first taste of success for some of the participants, and it might be just enough to make them want more, to help them avoid future involvement with the law.
   Ending the classes with the act of giving to others is akin to aboriginal, or restorative justice, an approach that has shown positive results in reducing recidivism rates. A restorative justice approach to problem-solving can be used in the schools, with much greater success than segregating the races can provide.
   Of course, restorative justice is not the magic solution to all the difficulties faced by problem youth, but it will do a lot more to help than what we currently do. Cooking classes are not going to be the best activity for every youth with a problem, either, but they're definitely a step in the right direction, unlike the backward retreat into segregation that McKell espouses.

To My Daughter

   Happy, happy birthday to my first-born. Today she turns 23, and every year with her has been a blessing for me. I wish many, many more years for her - years of peace and joy, happiness and health.

Think Again, Little Lloydie

   Lloyd McKell, a Trinidad-born activist, has recently been appointed as executive officer of student and community equity for the Toronto District School Board. Sheila Ward, TDSB chairperson, claims he is the "ideal candidate" for the position because of his reputation and established relationships with the diverse communities of Toronto. Never mind the fact that these are the wrong reasons for which to give a job. Let's look at some of the first statements made by this new appointee.
    He has immediately begun to express his opinions about how to go about ameliorating the problems of black teens teetering on the edge of becoming drop-outs, dropping these pearls of wisdom from the lofty heights of his new position. McKell wants shades of Wal-Mart in every school, with "an adult at every door greeting each student with a handshake". (Toronto "metro", Sept. 14) Then, he would like to see his big idea put into action. He wants the creation of a "black-focused" school, for black students only, with a black staff and an Afro-centric curriculum.
   Where do they dig up these morons? What would be the great thinker's suggestion for how to baby these kids along when they walk out of the school and find themselves among all the other people they have to live among, day after day? Maybe the next step should be the creation of a whole "black-focused" city.
   Has Dum-dum ever heard of segregation, I wonder? How about Little Rock? Has he heard of the fight to end segregation, fought here in North America by people of his own colour, as well as whites, and people of every other colour? What could possibly be his rationale for suggesting a return to separation? What good does he think it would accomplish? Aren't we supposed to be moving forward, not voluntarily backward?
   I've been there, on the front lines. I've put in time in the trenches that are our school classrooms. Separating the kids along colour lines will accomplish nothing that is good. A major overhaul of the curriculum could be one place to start. Spend some money and get rid of the Euro-centric texts that litter the schools. Have the librarians scrap half of what is currently on the shelves and send them out to "A Different Booklist" to restock the school library.
   A major clean-up of half the staffs out there could be good, too. McKell says city schools "don't do enough to make students of all backgrounds feel valued", and he's right on that, at least. I've sat in more than one staffroom and listened to teachers come out with racial slurs, before they head back to their classes. People like that are going to get their message across to the kids, even if they never come right out and phrase it overtly.
   Ontario Premier McGuinty has responded to McKell's little gem by rejecting it. McGuinty says he thinks our schools should "bring children from a variety of backgrounds together and simulate the communities in which they are living and are going to have to grow up in."
   There's a hell of a lot of work that needs to be done to win this battle, but it isn't going to be won with segregation. It has to happen with all of us in it together. Remember? United we stand, divided we fall.

The Clarkson Cup

   Outgoing Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson has announced she is minting a new hockey trophy. It will be called the Clarkson Cup, (a little ego-trip there) and will be awarded for excellence in women's hockey. Like the Stanley Cup, the Clarkson Cup will be made of silver. It will be sculpted at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit. Clarkson says she took her idea from the action of former governor general Sir Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, who created the trophy in 1892. It was first awarded as a hockey trophy on March 22nd, 1894, to the Montreal Hockey Club upon their defeat of the Ottawa Capitals.There have been no details released yet as to how the winner of the Clarkson Cup will be determined.

A New Species?

   Artist Theo Jansen is working on engineering a new "species" as he refers to it. He crafts giant sea creatures, or Animaris with skeletons of steel or electrical tubing, but no motors. He hopes one day to achieve the creation of machines capable of long-term autonomous motion, that he can set free to roam about the beaches of the Netherlands, propelled only by the wind. The latest product of his artistic imagination, the Percipiere, contains lemonade bottles into which its flapping wings pump air pressure, thereby enabling itself to use this stored "energy" to walk for several more minutes after the last gust of wind passes. The only question I have is where he thinks he's headed with all this. To what purpose, exactly, does he see them roaming about?

Sisters Stand United

   The issue of faith-based arbitration is something I have opined about before. I know there were many others like me who were busily expressing their revulsion at the idea of sharia being allowed to exert power here in Ontario. As I said before, it is misogyny dressed up as religion.
   Yesterday, I called for the party hats to be passed around and the hallelujah chorus to ring out when I heard that Premier McGuinty had announced this would not be allowed. Today, the smile on my face grew even wider when I read the article in today's Toronto Daily Star about my sisters in Parliament standing united against this abomination. Apparently the whole 17-member caucus took a united stand, saying, "there was no way to protect women properly from sharia provisions, so the only solution was to drop all non-secular arbitration." You go, sisters!

A Wish

   Happy, happy birthday to my youngest daughter. I wish for her a day of happiness and a lifetime filled with peace and contentment. May her problems always be small and few.

Glad Tidings Indeed

   Rejoice, rejoice! Dalton McGuinty has announced that sharia will not be allowed into Ontario.

Smile!

   If you're anywhere near a Tim Horton's this week and you feel the need for a cup of coffee, stop by for a minute. Make your order just a little different by asking for a "smile cookie" and with very little effort, you can do something good. Every Tim Horton's across Canada will be giving "all the dough" from the sales of their special double-sized chocolate chip cookies to a local charity. In Toronto, the funds raised will be for the Hospital for Sick Children. Even if you don't eat cookies, you know someone who does. Give your cookie-purchase to the spouse, or the secretary at work, or the senior next door. More than one someone will get a smile out of these treats.

Freecycle!

   Enviroman dropped by my blog to comment on yesterday's entry. He mentioned freecycling as another alternative to monetary donations made in times of emergency.
   Freecycling is a great idea. This site is one you really want to include in your favourites, if you live in Toronto. They take that furniture you don't want anymore (yes, free pick-up is provided) and give it to people trying to rebuild a life after leaving an abusive situation, for instance. There are bound to be like organizations in other cities. Look for them. It means there should never again be a sofa, or chairs, or any other still usable furniture left out at the curbside as garbage. It bugs the livin' jesus out of me to see that kind of stuff lying there in the rain, or with squirrels climbing all over it, and know that it could still be serving a purpose in someone's home!
   Toronto's Furniture Bank's clients are individuals and/or families who are leaving shelters. They are refugee claimants, or people who are otherwise homeless. Many of them are referred to the Bank by one of 150 registered agencies in the city. The Furniture Bank's objective is to "reaffirm faith in the innate dignity of each member of the human family and to acknowledge the right of every person to his or her basic needs for sustainable living."
   If you have pieces you're replacing - if they still have some use left in them, please don't send them to the landfill. Last year, recycled furniture and household items weighing 206.5 tonnes were given to the Furniture Bank instead of being sent to landfill sites.Come on, people, get on board with this idea. It would only take one easy phone call for you to think globally, and act locally!

To Give or Not To Give?

  In the wake of the maelstrom comes the sucking quicksand of the heartless. The scam artists were out there in short order, opportunistic parasites feeding off the consciences of the decent people who want to help those victimized by Katrina. Internet sites with names like parishdonations.com and katrinafamilies.com were set up to solicit donations. They've been set up by scum like on white supremacy group which is not taking the money to give to anyone but themselves. If you want to make sure what you give does make it to the victims, you have got to be careful about where you send your funds.
   The thing is, many people are feeling like the old standby Red Cross isn't such a great place to direct their funds anymore. The agency is seen as bogging down in a sea of bureaucratic rigidity. Read about the "encounter" between the agency and Tim Murry, a manager at Alexandria's Holiday Inn Convention Center, where 100 to 200 evacuees have lived since Katrina's landfall. It's a good example of what is currently perceived as the less-than-desirable aspects of the red Cross. If you're looking for an alternative place to direct your donation, take a minute to check out the Grassroots/Low-income/People of Colour-led Hurricane Katrina Relief.
   Finally, the question of giving to relief funds for the victims of Katrina raises another problem for many, like myself. The great U.S. of A. is more than rich enough and powerful enough to take care of its own. If there are funds that your budget could earmark as directed to a charity, couldn't they do more good, for instance, in Africa where the ongoing scourge of AIDS is victimizing so many of the helpless and innocent? Just think of the children, often abandoned by one parent and then orphaned when the other dies of AIDS. There are so many pictures coming out of the "Big Easy" right now, pictures of survivors in heartwrenching circumstances, it is true, but they live in the midst of the world's superpower. There are so many more pictures coming out of Africa that show little children trying desperately to parent even younger siblings, in a world torn apart by the disease amid a country already ravaged by so many other problems. If you do have some extra funds and the aftermath of Katrina makes this feel like a good time to give them, maybe a look at the Stephen Lewis Foundation will give you just the right name to fill in on that cheque you want to write.

The Good Ol' Game

   The Toronto Maple Leafs have just signed on tough guy Brad Brown to add some supposed strength to their defense. The only problem is this guy is known more for his pugilism than his playing skills. At the moment, Brown's stats boast a mere two goals and 27 assists, compared to a hefty 747 penalty minutes. This 6-foot-4, 220 pound native-son of Baie Verte, Nfld.'s main claim to fame so far is that he has fought most of the NHL's heavyweights.
   Look at some of the players we've signed. Among others joining Mr. Punch-Happy is Mr. Concussion, Eric Lindros. Pop the popcorn and get out my jersey. I'll be there when the first puck drops, and I'll stay with the team right to the last second of the last period they play this season. I am a die-hard fan of my hometown team, but I'm really wondering about what kind of a season we might have coming up this year.

Healthy Nitrites?

   I'm sure you've heard the barbs that are regularly tossed in the direction of this meat preservative. Although nitrites prevent botulism, and help items such as hot dogs to keep their colour and flavour, they also cause the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines in our intestines during the digestive process. For that reason, foods containing nitrites also contain vitamin C derivatives like ascorbate or sodium erythrobate, because vitamin C prevents nitrosamines from forming. Most health-conscious types religiously eschew the ingestion of anything and everything containing the substance.
   Now comes word that perhaps this maligned additive might actually be a life-saver. Research suggests that nitrite could be helpful in the treatment of sickle cell anemia, heart attacks, brain aneurisms, and even pulmonary hypertension, an often fatal disease that can attack newborns. There is more work to be done, of course, and this is definitely not a suggestion to add hot dogs into your diet, since the use of it as a drug would likely be in pill form, but it's interesting to know that this substance might well have another side to it.

Good Ol' U of T

   The UTPS, U of T Police Services, will be patrolling their usual beats this year in a new Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, supposedly Canada's best selling compact SUV. The vehicle is expected to offer up to 40% savings on fuel, and even better, emission reductions of up to 60%. I'm so proud of my Alma Mater!

Airborne Snobbery

   It seems Air Canada thinks you're better folk if you have a higher income. The plastic knives that have been the norm on their flights since 9/11 are soon to be exchanged for metal knives, but only for executive-class passengers. Huh?

The Wolf Is At The Door

   The September 1-7 issue of NOW carries on page 30 an article titled "Sharia Showdown". Read it if you're feeling up for a fight; if you want to stay informed about what changes could be coming your way. Don't let those changes come as a surprise to you, 'cause by that time, it might be too late to do anything about it.
    If you're an H2G2 fan, think of the scene where the world is about to be destroyed and the voices of opposition are silenced with the announcement that a notice had been posted. "There's no point in acting all surprised about it. ...you've had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now." (pg. 31, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Douglas Adams)
   The difference would be that instead of a fictional character announcing that the earth is about to be demolished by extraterrestrial bulldozers, the announcement might be that it is time for your daughter to be genitally mutilated, or your sister, or you yourself. Of course, I do not mean to exclude Canadian men from this caveat. Guys, would you want to hear the announcement being made about your wife? If having your wife be your responsive lover is important to you, understand that genital mutilation would be the end of all of that. If wanting any of the women in your life to be treated with dignity and respect is important to you, understand that sharia law would be the end of all that.
   Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? No! I am making an appeal to your intellect. Do you want the stone-age barbarism of sharia law allowed into Canada? Are you willing to play russian roulette with Canadian freedoms and rights by allowing yourself the comfort of complacency? Would you rather expend the effort to raise your voice in protest right now, or sit back and wait for that announcement?
   On August 12th, there was a meeting of 400 at the U of T's Earth Sciences' Building, hosted by the International Campaign Against Sharia Court. The U of T police, personal bodyguards, and RCMP were all visibly present at the meeting. Why would the RCMP be there if there was no danger to the speakers who raised their voices against the introduction of sharia law in Canada? For that matter, why should there be any danger to them at all? Here, in Canada, where we pride ourselves on that freedom, the freedom of speech, how has it come to such a point that the supporters of sharia law, no matter how fringe a group they may be, actually constitute a danger to someone speaking their mind on the issue? Shouldn't that situation raise an alarm in everyone's mind? Do we really want to allow these people to exercise a "law" that is outside the law of the country? Do we really want to allow them the power to interfere with our rights and freedoms? If they were allowed to begin the exercising of such power, who could guarantee where it would end?
   On August the 12th, Dutch member of Parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Canadian TV host and writer Irshad Manji, and Iranian-born social worker Homa Arjomand all spoke out about the danger of allowing the backwardness that is sharia law to gain a foothold here on Canadian soil. They asked the question posed in the article; "Do we really want official recognition here of a system with a built-in bias against women?" What is your answer? When you frame your response, keep in mind that official sanction of any form of discrimination can be expanded and enlarged upon to include any group, as it suits the purpose of those in power. Keep in mind the lessons of the past, as taught by the likes of Hitler. "His people", the Aryans were the supreme race of the world, supposedly. Yet, when the last days of his power were upon him, Hitler had no hesitation in ordering his generals to destroy the city of Berlin, declaring the Aryan population therein to be unworthy of saving. Once you allow a snake its freedom, there is no way to know whom it will bite next. Only a system that guarantees the rights of every single one of its citizens is one that will guarantee you the greatest freedom in the future, no matter your gender.
   I have written before about this abomination being allowed into my country. "Allow any one of our citizens to be treated with less than the full rights dictated by our present laws, and you have set a precedent. " I said it before. I say it again. If the right to freedom means anything to you, get involved in this one, because the wolf is at the door. Don't let it in.

New Orleans

   There are more than enough sad pictures coming out of the stricken city right now. If you want to see one that speaks of hope, click here.

Bits & Pieces of Katrina

   A click here will take you to a photo journal dealing with Katrina's impact. This is a site to visit for opinions and more news about the storm and its aftermath.


   I'm writing this while the Neville Brothers serenade me. It was my birthday a few days ago and my youngest daughter gifted me with the CD "The Best of the Neville Brothers: The Millennium Collection" . The insert tells the reader that "for more than two decades, the Neville Bothers have joyously reigned as New Orleans' first family of sweaty, inexorably infectious funk". (The 5th track "Yellow Moon" has got to be one of the best ever written!) The Nevilles must be hurting now about what their hometown is going through.
   Another big name in music from New Orleans, Fats Domino of "Blueberry Hill" fame, was photographed being rescued, allaying fears that arose after he refused to leave his Lower 9th Ward home when Katrina approached, and his daughter lost contact with him. There is no word on the location he was moved to, but this is one life, at least, that the storm did not take.


   Today comes word that there has been an outbreak of dysentery in Biloxi. Are things going to get much worse before they get any better? You really have to wonder how it is that so many media members are able to get right into the middle of everything and yet relief workers and supplies seem to be having so much difficulty doing the very same thing. I also wonder if it has crossed the mind of anyone involved in any way in Katrina's aftermath that what is happening there to the people is so similar to what happened to the people of Iraq after the U.S. began its bombing?

Photo Gallery Update

   Wow, have I been busy with my camera! 19 new collections have been added in and I'm hoping that you'll find something to enjoy in each one of them. From Queen Anne's Lace, to the Toronto Skyline, I've got it all. If you like watching the wake left by the boat you're in, or the water washing the rocks of Georgian Bay, stop by here. Wild flowers and wind-whipped water on an overcast day will greet your eyes here, while the bucolic beauty of St. Jacobs country will lull your senses here. If you're intrigued by the shipwrecks of Fathom Five National Park, or Bach's First Suite for Unaccompanied Cello, as interpreted in the design of the Music Garden on Toronto's waterfront, you've come to the right place. Take a peek!

Good People?

   Police Capt. Ernie Demmo, speaking from the growing chaos in New Orleans says, "These are good people. These are just scared people." Demmo couldn't possibly be speaking of the people who have been looting, raping, and shooting at rescue personnel.
   Police in New Orleans say they can confirm reports of rapes inside the Superdome, where thousands await relief. Police and rescue personnel have both come under fire in different situations, such as when potshots have been taken at helicopters trying to airlift premature babies to hospitals in other cities. Anyone who commits such an act at a time like this is not struggling to survive, or to protect loved ones. They are instead animals, criminals, plain and simple. It is because of people like them that martial law has to be invoked and it is on people like them that martial law should be used. Summary execution, on the spot. That is all they deserve.