Idiot Alert Membership for Barry Quinn

Justice of the Peace Barry Quinn passed sentence last Monday on one Michael Dougan. In doing so, he has certainly earned a life-long membership in the Idiot Alert Files.
Dougan was making his appearance in court because his was the truck that sideswiped off-duty OPP officer, Sergeant Gregory Stobbart, and sent him to his death on June 9, 2006. Stobbart was on a cycling training-run when he was struck by Dougan, a man who is no stranger to the courts.
He had already accumulated $14,000.00 in fines over a ten-year period for five convictions of driving with a suspended licence and two convictions of driving with no insurance. He was back out there on the roads on the basis of paying his fines on the installment plan when he ended Stobbart's life.
What did Quinn feel was the appropriate sentence for this criminal who has no respect for the law? A two-year probation term, 100 hours of community service, loss of his licence for one year and compulsory attendance at a driver's education course seemed to Quinn like just the right sentence to pass. Moron.
Suspension of his licence has not stopped this killer from getting behind the wheel of his truck before. Why should it be any different now? This man obviously has no regard at all for the law. 100 hours of community service? Sweeping the floor at the local arena will not teach him regard for the life and safety of others. God forbid he should be placed in any organization where he could be working with youth and passing on his disregard for others.
Quinn should have banned Dougan from driving for life and don't give me any sob story about such an action taking away his means of livelihood. His action took away the very life from Stobbart. He was stolen away from his family and friends by Dougan, so don't tell me anyone should concern themselves with Dougan's supposed rights.
Canadian law is far too lax in this instance. It should be set up to slap offenders with a life-long ban the very first time they are caught driving under suspension. If they were to indulge in the negligent activity again, in spite of the ban, they should immediately be shown a nice comfy cell at Kingston Pen that would be their home for the next ten years, with absolutely no possibility of appeal or parole. When they willfully take actions that could endanger the very lives of others, any and all considerations for their comfort and rights should be out the window.
When Quinn was handing down his nasty-wasty sentence, he made note of the fact that just 62 days after killing the officer, Dougan was being charged again under the Highway Traffic Act for following too close. Perhaps this was supposed to point out just how much Dougan deserved the sentence Quinn passed. I don't know if it did that, but it certainly did underline just how much of an idiot Quinn is.

Champlain Plus 400

Plans are afoot to celebrate the founding of Quebec City 400 years ago by Samuel de Champlain. I'm sure all plans are for happy, happy little events.
I wonder if the First Nations' peoples of Canada would like just one little afternoon on the schedule to host an event of mourning?

Keep the Creep On the Sexual Offenders' List

A former Vancouver Island doctor who was convicted of sexually assaulting patients and served four years for it, has managed to get a little privileged treatment for himself. Having your name on Canada's registry of convicted perverts for a minimum 20 years is supposed to follow conviction, for everyone. This 63-year-old serial offender has, however, managed to worm his way out of having his name on the list. At the moment, he is being identified only as "S". Do you think that stand for "Sexual Predator"?
Apparently, he argued successfully in the B.C Supreme Court that it would be a significant violation of his privacy to be treated like all the others of his kind. This creep has returned to the neighbourhood where he enjoyed trampling on the rights of others and is now wanting to find work. A brother-in-law is currently paying him a pay cheque, but the good doctor wants to be able to find employment elsewhere. His justification for his demands are the psychological tests that declare him an unlikely repeat offender.
Excuse me? He is already described as a "serial offender". These criminals prey on others weaker than themselves. As soon as they do such a thing, the law should regard them as having willingly declared that they waive any rights of their own. How can you quantify what hells some of his victims are going to be condemned to for years and years? What difference does it make if his supposed privacy is infringed upon? He is garbage; walking refuse. Since when do we carefully safeguard the privacy of waste matter? Justice Catherine Bruce is the idiot who accepted the sex offender's arguments that there would be no public interest served by keeping his name on the list for what could amount to the rest of his life. In other words, he played up the "poor little old man" angle and she fell for it. She obviously did not ask herself who there was to play up the poor unsuspecting victim angle for those patients he abused from his position of trust.
How wonderful it would be if both he and the judge who decreed that his name should be taken off the list were suddenly to find themselves driven mad by nightmares that will not go away, no matter what recourse they seek. Nightmares that strike as soon as they close their eyes every single night for the rest of their lives, in spite of all the best doctors' efforts, would be only fitting reward for these two. It might help them gain a better understanding of the rights of others.

Ballsy Types Joining the Idiot Alert Files

I've found a whole new group in urgent need of membership in the Idiot Alert Files. I refer specifically to those numbnuts who are slapping down cold, hard cash to buy testicle implants for their dogs and cats. Made of polyprophylene, these bogus balls are meant to replicate in size, shape and weight the testicles of an animal that has just been neutered. Available in different sizes, they are implanted when the neutering is done and, of course, add to the price tag of the whole procedure. The manufacturers of said ersatz body parts assure prospective buyers that a dog or cat will miss their lopped-off parts and perhaps even descend into a maelstrom of depressed anxiety over their whereabouts. Ponying up for these substitutes, however, will allow your four-footed male companion to continue licking what he thinks are his own privates, to his lifelong delight.
This is where the idiocy comes in. The question is, who the hell buys phony balls for their pet when they could spend the money instead on something that could mean the difference between life and death itself for one of their own species? The answer is, a full-fledged, brain-dead member of the Idiot Alert Files.
Especially when you know that the manufacturers of the aforementioned lets-pretend jingle bells makes it known that the sizing of your dog's family jewels can be enlarged by up to 20%, you know you're dealing with an idiot if these examples of profligate consumerism show up on the vet's bill. Needing to have your dog or cat spend the rest of his life trying to waddle his back legs around equipment nature never intended him to be saddled with says something kind of sick and sad about the pet's owner.

Disability Is Not Inability

If you live in southern Ontario and you're wondering what to do with yourself on the weekend of the 29th of September, I've got a suggestion for you. Rev up the engine, "pack up the babies and grab the old ladies" and everybody go to the New Hamburg location of the Ten Thousand Villages chain. It's a hop, skip and a jump away from Stratford, at 65B Heritage Drive, and it's going to be the site of a tent sale on from the 27th to the 29th. All items in the tent will be sold at 75% off. If you have questions about getting there, call Catherine at 519-662-1879. If you know you won't be able to go in person but you'd still to like to do a little shopping, follow this link to fill your virtual shopping cart with some incredible one-of-a-kind items that make great gifts. The prices are reasonable and the selection is amazing.
In case you feel the need of a good reason to go to the sale or the website for your shopping, you could get all kinds of them, but let me just tell you about one in particular. These stores are all not-for-profit and operate on the principle of
"be(ing) the change you want to see in the world." If the idea of Fair Trade is important to you, than you're already on board for a trip to a Ten Thousand Villages store. All surplus from the stores is used to expand new market opportunities and to build the capacity of the artisans to be successful. A perfect example of that is to be found in the Bombolulu Workshop for the Handicapped in Kenya.

Started in 1969 as a rehabilitation project for the physically disabled of the country, it has grown to a dynamic site on the outskirts of Mombasa that includes a ranking as a tourist destination. Since the government of Kenya offers no aid or welfare to its disabled citizens, they have been disproportionately represented among the ranks of Kenya's destitute, but as of 2004, 160 artisans have found employment at Bombolulu. They specialize in woodcarving, jewellery making, tailoring or leatherwork. Most of them receive free housing at the site, or rent subsidies, as well as healthcare, assistance with school fess, retirement benefits, trade union memberships and a secure monthly wage that is twice the country's minimum wage. An artisan who decides to set out on their own will be given financial assistance to start their own business.
When you shop at any Ten Thousand Villages location, some of your money could very well end up there in Kenya, helping to provide the means for a dignified self-sufficiency to a person who might never have it otherwise. How do you set a price tag on putting a smile on the face of one of your brothers or sisters that you helped to save from inability?
Started in 1946 by Edna Ruth Byler, a Mennonite Central Worker who brought home a few pieced of Puerto Rican embroidery to sell to neighbours, the Ten Thousand Villages has evolved into an official MCC program. Now a member of the International Fair Trade Association, it is a non-governmental, self-supporting organization whose philosophy is that trade should have a conscience.
If any of this sounds good to you, take a minute to look into the Ten Thousand Villages, and maybe fill the gas tank for that trip out to New Hamburg this coming weekend.

Tidbits

Two little tidbits here:
The first is Overrated 100 List from Radar Magazine . Topping the list are David and Victoria Beckham. David is dismissed as "an overpaid soccer star, and his wife is labelled a "pointless collection of body parts".
I love it.

The second comes from a report released yesterday. The report, based on analysis of Statistics Canada's income data, identifies Ontario as being the worst place in Canada for child poverty. 44% of the country's poor children live in this province.
Since we have the largest population of the provinces, with Toronto being home to half the population of the entire province, it is not surprising that Ontario should take this shameful first place. What is sadly surprising is that there should be any child living in conditions of poverty here in one of the world's richest countries.
When will our society acknowledge this shame and begin to so something about it?

Adding to the Idiot Alert Files

Every once in a while, some act of mind-boggling stupidity requires a new admission to the ranks of those belonging to the Idiot Alert Files. The latest one comes from China, where some towering intellects in the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs have decided to ban Buddhist monks from reincarnation without government permission. The law goes into effect this month, barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from reincarnating. The State Administration declares the new law is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."
Duh.
It makes you wonder, will they create a new branch of the constabulary? Picture the Reincarnation Police running hither and yon through Tibet looking for anyone who has just reincarnated without permission, and giving 'em one vicious bitch slap when they find them. Of course, you have to wonder, just how will they know when they have found one of these renegade reincarnators?
What the Chinese government really means is, their new idiot-law represents their efforts to be in charge of naming the 15th Dalai Lama. During the 50 years since the behemoth China trampled all over little Tibet, the current Dalai Lama has wielded an influence, even in exile, that the Chinese want to end. His Holiness continues to be viewed as the country's symbol of unity and national identity, so it's not hard to understand why the Chinese want the next DL to hail from their home turf. They're just not acknowledging the belief that the Dalai Lama is supposed to be able to control his rebirth. The current Dalai Lama has already firmly declared his intent to avoid rebirth anywhere in a Chinese-controlled Tibet.
Are the Chinese really too stupid to see the coming situation where they will be presenting their hand-picked Dalai Lama while the Tibetan diaspora will be presenting another? How do they think that will be any better than the situation right now?
Like I said - duh.

Conceiving a Patriot

Today, when so many North Americans are going to the bus or car to get to work, many patriotic Russians will be going to bed to get to work. Lenin would be so proud.
The region of Ulyanovsk, on the Volga River about 550 miles east of Moscow already has secured its claim to fame as Lenin's place of origin. Ulyanovsk Governor Sergei Morozov has decided to take President Putin's appeal to Russian citizens to be a little more fruitful a step further. Russia has one-seventh of the world's land
surface but only 141.4 million citizens to inhabit it. That already makes it one of the world's most sparsely settled countries and the problem is just getting worse. Russia's low birthrate and high death rate has seen the population falling by almost half a percent each year. Putin's promise of cash incentives for families to have more than one child hasn't sufficiently lit the fires of patriotism, so Morozov has punched up the area's campaign.
Those who sign up to the campaign are given a half day off work to get down to brass tacks, so to speak. Parents who follow up this time off with the birth of a patriot nine months later on June 12th, Russia's national day, are in for some serious prizes. On the list of goodies to be won are cars and refrigerators, video cameras and washing machines, as well as cash.
Last year, more than 500 women signed up for the contest and on June 12 this year, 78 new patriots, exactly triple the region's daily average, were added to the census roll. The babies' entrance to this world is accompanied by the playing of Russia's national anthem, according to region officials. Everyone who has a baby on June 12 in Ulyanovsk gets a prize but only one couple wins the grand prize. They are selected by a committee that takes two weeks to reach their decision. This year, they awarded a UAZ-Patriot, an SUV, to the winners. Junior, apparently, arrived via C-section, to parents who assured everyone that they had wanted another child anyway, contest or no.
Hey Canada, I wonder what kind of prizes Harper would come up with for a similar campaign north of the 49th? Depending on what he offered, would you sign on for a half-day off work, to go to work on Canada's population?

Farewell to the Queen of Green

On Monday night, in a hospital in Chichester, England, Dame Anita Roddick crossed over this world's threshold and stepped into eternity. A major brain hemorrhage wrote the final paragraph in her body's biography, but her entrepreneurial spirit will live on in the more than 2,000 Body Shop stores that she leaves scattered across 51 countries.
Being raised by a mother who lived through the rationing of World War II may have been the catalyst that started Roddick and her stores down the eco-friendly road long before it was the flavour of the month. She opened her first shop in Brighton in 1976 to support herself and her children while hubby went trekking across the U.S. From the beginning, she stood against animal testing and also made herself a name as a supporter of fair trade, actually paying her suppliers sustainable prices instead of the lowest possible market price. As much as possible, the stores' products have always been sourced from natural products and are sold in containers that can be reused or recycled.
Roddick wrote on her company's website, "Businesses have the power to do good." and she conducted her business transactions as though she felt it was an imperative. Obviously, Dame Anita was a woman with a social conscience, as well as being quite the business woman.
It is to be hoped that L'Oreal, now the owner of the Body Shop chain, will keep her principles in mind, in operating the business. I also think it would be a great idea if Anita Roddick were to be added to the list of women that should be presented in school classes as an example of business acumen tempered with moral rectitude, a combination that seems to be lacking in so many of our leading economic personalities. She would make a tremendous role model for girls, but how many really know about her compared to the sad number who know all the latest about such self-centred wastes of time as Spears and her ilk?
I don't think a little rearranging of the educational curriculum would be out of order. That list I mentioned could readily take the place of some of the time teens spend memorizing dates in history class, for instance. History is taught all wrong, anyway. Students are not informed that their textbooks, as all history is, were written by the winners. Here in Canada, for instance, they are told in detail about the failed rebellions of the Metis people but they are not given equal exposure to the situation as seen by both sides involved. When you teach history that way, you might just as well say, "Everyone who ever opposed us in anything was a ring-tailed bastard, and not worth your time to learn about. We're the good guys. Lesson over."
We could take some of that time spent on loving ourselves and our immediate heritage forbears to the exclusion of everyone else, and spend it instead in looking at some more contemporary figures, like Roddick. She and others like her don't care what side the people she did business with found themselves on in the pages of the history book. She accorded them a respect that too many of our young people don't understand and are not being taught. We shouldn't just read about Roddick's passing in the news and then forget her. Why don't we make her the start of something new in our schools, just like she made herself the start of something new in the business world?

Ginger and Chocolate

My daughter and I spent Sunday afternoon exploring the Distillery District on Mill Street in downtown Toronto. We came across two products you need to know about if you like either of the title items.
First, "The Joy of Harvest".Their pineapple-ginger jam is incredible. The list of ingredients is short and sweet (no pun intended.) It reads: sugar, pineapple, ginger, pectin and citric acid. The ginger used is ginger root, the real thing, not the pretend stuff that the folks at Canada Dry put in their ginger ale, for instance. If you have a taste for the real thing, get your hands on some of this. It does absolutely incredible things to a morning slice of toast. Calvin & Zonia Slyfield are the people to call at (416)281-0037. They make other products too, like a scotch bonnet sauce and jerk sauce. It they're anything like the jam, you'll want to place a big order.
Chocoholics will want to know about SOMA, if they don't already. This chocolate maker is located at 55 Mill Street, where they open their doors seven days a week to sell the "food of the gods". They had biscotti and gelato, among their other offerings, but it was their dark chocolate that especially interested me. We tried some of their Amedei 70% cocoa content. It was wonderful. You might want to try some of their other temptations, like the "Dark Fire" or the "Baci di Dama". Follow this link to chocolate heaven.

I Don't See Any Problem

It's not as though I don't have great respect for the funky-hatted one. I just think the pic below is a giggle.

From the Rez to 1401 Rockland Avenue

Steven Point, one of Canada's few First Nations judges, will be moving his official residence soon. Although he may choose to maintain his current home on a Fraser Valley reserve, his new business address will be Government House, in Victoria B.C.
His appointment as British Columbia's next Lieutenant-Governor was announced this morning by PM Stephen Harper. When he is sworn in he will become the country's first native Lieutenant-Governor and much is being made of it in some quarters.
It is wonderful that he has been named to the post, but it is somewhat of a shame that any part of the attendant fuss is his being native. The only reason for particular notice to be paid to his appointment should be his qualifications for the post, not his being native.
On August 18th of this year, the wedding of Nova Scotia MP Brison to his same-sex partner came complete with much media attention, but it shouldn't have either. Brison put it well when he said he was looking forward to the day when a like wedding was "not a story at all". When the day arrives that the appointment of someone from the First Nations to a government post is not a story at all, Canada will be a better place.

With Great Sadness, Much Annoyance, and Tongue Firmly in Cheek

I went for a walk this morning along a busy street, making my way to an intersection that ensures me 40 minutes of cardio-vascular exercise but allows me to enjoy the time much more than if I put it on a treadmill with nought but gym walls to stare at.
It was 21 degrees Celsius, the sun was smiling happily, and a light wind was playing with the leaves on the trees.
As I was making my way out to the furthest point, I saw a squirrel run to the edge of the sidewalk just ahead of me. If that happens and I am close enough to them when they do that, I stamp my feet at them and "herd" them back to the safety of the trees or grass behind them, rather than let them run out. This one was too far ahead of me. As I watched, it made its dash out into traffic at just the wrong time. A car passing by struck the poor wee thing and ended its time here. I mourned its passing as I continued on. When I reached the end point, I turned back to return home. Just as I passed the first squirrel lying where it had fallen, a second one darted out, again just too far ahead of me for me to head it off. Before I could even look away, it too had been struck. Both were killed immediately. That could easily be seen. Such tiny, defenseless lives, so suddenly ended. It felt so wrong for their passage to eternity to go unmarked. I stopped, spread my hands wide, and asked the great life force to receive these little bits of life back unto itself; to let them be at peace in oneness with it. Then I walked away.

As I continued along the sidewalk, the wind tasted a tear on my cheek and decided it would see what it could do to lighten the mood. It seemed suddenly to discover that my hair was loose. My usual habit is to have my shoulder-length hair pulled back but today, on a whim, I had decided to leave it swinging free. I enjoy the feeling of its movement across my shoulders and neck, especially on a day like today when I was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt that let me feel it on my skin.
The wind began to twine its fingers in my hair and lift some it, pushing it back from my face on moment and draping it across my eyes the next. I felt wonderful and I smiled with pleasure of it. It was in that frame of mind that I rounded a bend in the walk and found myself facing a group of five Muslim women, each one veiled against the stares of men and the play of the wind. I smiled at them and said "Good morning" as I neared them. Each one of them looked down to the sidewalk and not one of them smiled or said anything in return. Even if they did not understand my words, they understood my smile. Smiles are universal.
I am sure it would be nothing but annoying to know the reason why every one of them felt it proper and right to spurn my friendly greeting.

When I was coming down the final stretch of my morning constitutional, I approached a tree I had passed on the way out. While I had been further along in my walk, someone had bicycled to the tree and left their bicycle locked to it. Smart rider, thought I. Even though it is not mercilessly hot today, parked vehicles can still build up a lot of heat as they sit through the hours until their owner's return. Thought I to myself, this person, by parking their bike in the shade of that tree, has written themselves a guarantee that their bike will be nice and cool when they return to it.
As I walked past the bike, I laughed out loud. What's the good of a little humour if there's no-one to laugh at it?