Doug Fleming and his Caledonia Shitshooters

It seems that the aforementioned Fleming has decided to take matters into his own hands in Caledonia, and organize a citizens' militia that he wants to call the "Caledonia Peacekeepers". His group would consist of unarmed self-righteous types who would supposedly use citizen arrests and force to deal with "illegal" occupations in Caledonia. Fleming is quoted in the media as saying his group "is not for hotheads (or) for someone who will lose their temper and want to hurt someone".
News flash, Fleming, you feeble-minded moron. You yourself are saying your group will use force, and yet you're trying to say it will only include the most reasonable of the righteous. What a load of shit that is. If Fleming really wants to serve his community, he might do better to take some of the manure spewing from his mouth and spread it over the nearest flowerbeds, instead.
If Fleming were to look up "force" in the dictionary - if he knows what that is - he would find it defined as: strength used a person or thing, violence or constraint. Then he could try to explain exactly how he thinks setting up a group whose leader adverts it as out to use force is not setting up a group that will appeal to hotheads.
Fleming apparently came up with his brilliant idea earlier this month when a Mohawk man occupied a corner of a farm field on the edge of town and set up a shack to sell duty-free cigarettes to protest the state of land claim talks. The OPP said they wouldn't move in to evict the protester and that pissed off little Mr. Fleming. He's hoping his vigilante group will embarrass the OPP into action.
Interestingly enough, the farmer who owns the land where the shack was set up, doesn't want Fleming to stick his nose in here. He says the federal government, not local vigilantes, should solve the Caledonia land claim. "Outsiders, they stick their nose into it … because this is my problem," said Ernie Palmer. "Mr. Fleming, you are a publicity seeker and you should have stayed out of it as I told you." In accordance with Palmer is Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister Brad Duguid who called Fleming's plan a "dumb idea."
More than an outright stupid idea, Fleming's group is a dangerous precedent setter, an attempt by hotheads to take the matter into their own heads and circumvent the proper legal pathways to a solution to the problem. If this group is allowed to take any action at all, it could create a backlash of follow-up idiots who decide they know better than the judicial system how to handle others who don't fit into their grand scheme of things.
Kind of raises images of the post-war southern states when the civil war was over and the KKK was just beginning their trampling rides across the rights of others.

What Do You Call It?

Let me be right up front about two things here.
First, I do think there is a place for abortion. It must be medically determined and properly carried out, if it will spare the health or sanity of the mother. For instance, I can not imagine carrying to full term and giving birth to a baby created during a vicious rape. And don't give me that bullshit about rapes not resulting in pregnancies. I have actually heard that nonsense forwarded by people who damn well should know better. They can, and do, result from rape, and I think that is one of times when the option should be available. They should not, however, be available simply as a form of birth control. There are more than enough products out there to forestall the creation of a human life.
An abortion should be done only if the mother agrees to it. For myself, I carried my first pregnancy when I was 32. Doctors advised me to have amniocentesis done, so that I could "best determine a course of action" if there was found to be a problem. Checking with them for clarification on that euphemistic mumbo-jumbo brought out the truth that the advised "best" course would be to have an abortion, if the test revealed the presence of Down Syndrome. I refused the test and let all and sundry know that I was having that baby, come hell or high water. That said, however, I think a woman whose health is threatened by the pregnancy should have the chance to make a different decision than I did.
The second point I would make in any discussion about abortion is that it should be done at an early stage, or not at all. I think the murder of Wichita's Dr. George Tiller is anything but pro-life and any pro-lifer who denounced the accused Scott Roeder is smart to do so, but I also think it was just plain morally reprehensible for Tiller's clinic to be offering the late-term abortions that it did. It should have been shut down on the very same day that it tried to open.
It is almost impossible to view late-term abortions as anything other than murder, especially when everyone knows that if circumstances were different, if the baby arrived prematurely in a maternity ward, it would be given every medical opportunity and assistance to survive that our society has to offer. Part of the reason why it is possible for some to view such termination of a life as other than murder is the word games used to skirt the whole issue. Using the words "mass of foetal tissue" to refer to the life being ended helps to blur the reality of what is taking place in a clinic such as that run by the late Tiller. Move all the people involved in a scene at Tiller's clinic to the nearest maternity ward, and the "mass of tissue" would become a "preemie", a baby.
Human life is created at the moment of conception. It does not somehow wait until the foetus can draw independent breath outside the mother's body. That's playing with words. That's indulging in euphemistic wordplay in order to avoid the truth. No-one bothers debating over whether or not two zebras, for instance, create a zebra when they mate. Neither do they bother with such nonsense when the animals in question are any other of the species with which we share this earth. They only cavil over the first moment of human life and the terms to be used in reference to it in order to facilitate making the termination of that life less open to the question of legality.
If Tiller and his ilk perform abortions of babies that could and would be saved were the circumstance of their arrival different, then surely they are indulging in what should be an illegal activity.

Happy Day, Everyone!

Short and sweet - happy National Aboriginal Day to all my Canadian brothers and sisters.
Yes, it's an artificial construct, but then so is Mother's Day and Father's Day. It is, at least, an official day to proudly declare belonging to one of the First Nations.

Revisiting the Idiot Alert Files

Today, two idiots more than worthy of inclusion in the Alert Files came to my attention. One is a retro-moron, Pope Pius IX, and the other, Jeffrey Stier, is still very busily involved in spreading inanity even as I write.
Let us deal with the late pontiff first, shall we? This particular nutcase was a contemporary of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, 1861-65. We all know Davis and his troops lost the war, and rightly so. What some of us may not know is what the pontiff did while Davis was held in prison for two years following the war's end. Seeking to show his solidarity with this good southern gentleman and slave owner, Pius sent a gift of a crown of thorns woven by the pope with his own hands and a portrait of himself autographed with the words from Scripture, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
What I find myself wondering when I read about this idiocy is how many like gifts were sent from the Vatican to the hundreds and thousands of slaves who were taking up their crosses in the southern states? I wonder how many such presents were posted to the blacks who found themselves having to deal with the damn near insurmountable problems lobbed at them like rocket fire after the war by the intolerant whites who still clung to the delusion of racial superiority?
Pope Pius IX is already somebody I had considered for membership in the Idiot Alert Files simply by virtue of his having been responsible for the declaration of papal infallibility, but I could never quite find enough inspiration to waste any time writing about this pea-brain. Coming across this little nugget today however tipped the scale in the numbnut's favour, and so, Pius IX. welcome to the rank and file of idiots incomparable.
Mentioning peas in any way, even as a measure of brain size, serves well as an intro to the second dork upon whom membership will be granted today. Jeffrey Stier is associate director of the American Council on Science and Health, a group that accepts corporate funding from Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s and PepsiCo and generally sides with industries’ positions on health and environmental hazards. He is one of the many vocalizing their grave concerns about the ramifications of Michelle Obama's irresponsilbe and thoughtless organic gardening habits. Really, what was the woman thinking about, to plant a garden with the help of school children and not deluge it with chemicals? Who knows what nasty vegetable aberrants could result from such wilful carelessness? She claims to have been motivated simply by the desire to highlight the importance of a healthful diet for children and how much easier it can be to get children to voluntarily ingest their least favorite food group, vegetables, when produce they helped to grow is pulled fresh from the garden.
Thank heavens the public has such staunch defenders of their best interests as Stier. Interviewed recently on the Jon Stewart show, Stier explained his fearful reaction to Michelle's underhanded failure to sprinkle chemicals on anything and everything that stood still long enough. Said Stier, “I think the Obama garden should come with a warning label. It’s irresponsible to tell people that you should eat organic and locally grown food. Not everyone can afford that. That’s a serious public health concern.” The great intellect continued delineating the parameter of his concern over what havoc the White House garden could wreak. “People are going to eat fewer fruits and vegetables. Cancer rates will go up. Obesity rates will go up. I think if we decide to eat only locally grown food, we’re going to have a lot of starvation.”
The last two sentences uttered by this great thinker are really the ones that provide food for thought. If obesity rates do go up, can starvation, indeed, be very far behind? Obesity and starvation stalking the land, hand-in-hand. It's a picture that could only form itself in the mind of someone with a brain no larger than a pea, whether it be one grown organically or not.
Yes, Jeffrey Stier, the rank and file of the Idiot Alert Files are proud to welcome someone of such stunted mental stature as yourself. You do the organization proud.

The Status Quo Ain't Good Enough

Those are the words of John Kay, discussing his commitment to taking the world in a love embrace. Yep, it's the John Kay of Steppenwolf we're talking about here, and I just found out that he and his wife Jutta are giving back some of the good fortune life has blessed them with. I think what they're doing is totally wonderful.
Their decision to give back has taken the form of the Maue Kay Foundation, a not-for-profit that raises funds for schools in rural Cambodia and Tanzania. It also funds nature reserves in Kenya, among other places, helping such worthies as the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which shelters orphaned baby elephants and black rhinos until they are released in Kenya's Tsavo National Park.
Says Kay, in explanation of his philanthropic endeavors, "I realized that anything that I was really passionate about was rooted in the idea that the status quo ain't good enough and there's much to be done."
Being legally blind (20/200) and living in post-war Germany 'til his mid-teens, Kay saw many living "hand-to-mouth" as he says. Experiences and images from those years must have stayed with him and been part of what guided him when he decided to contribute to making the world a better place. His iconic Born to Be Wild is still stirring listeners. Recently used in the soundtrack of the kids' movie "Racing Stripes", the song is going on and on, reaching new generations. So is John Kay.

What To Do with Unwanted Electronics?

If you live in Ontario, the WEEE program is the answer to that problem. This program is setting up collection points across the province where you can drop off designated electronic equipment and know it will either be reused, recycled or disposed of in an environmentally responsible way. At the moment, the program includes:
*desktop and laptop computers
*keyboards, mice and other peripherals
*monitors
*desktop printers
*disk drives
*fax machines
*TV's
Started up in April, 2009, the program is funded by fees paid by brand owners, first importers, and assemblers of electronic equipment. The program keeps old electronics out of landfills, as well as tackling the issue of consumer education. If you want to know more about how to rid of yourself of unwanted electronic products in an environmentally responsible manner, click here to visit the website dowhatyoucan.ca. Once you're there, you'll find you can also get the info you need about what to do with household hazardous waste, or "special"waste like unused paint. You can search for you nearest collection site by municipality, postal code or material type.
The site also includes a great list of teacher resources for individual instructors or whole schools who want to go green. There's E-Zone for elementary students and Obviously.ca for secondary level students, as well Green Teacher Magazine. The EcoKids Program is a free, environmental education program that offers curriculum-linked materials and activities specifically for Canadian schools. It doesn't get much better than free! School may be winding down for the summer break now, but spending a little time here during July and August could help a teacher go back in the fall ready to turn their whole school green
The industry organization, Ontario Electronic Stewardship is the group responsible for the launch of WEEE. They're doing what they can to make it easier for us. Now, it's our turn to step up to the plate.

Tell Me, Is It Safe To Use?

I think by now most of us are aware that there is no guarantee of having the above question answered with complete honesty by product manufacturers. We are also becoming more and more aware of the proliferation of potentially harmful additives in so many of the products that come into our lives on a daily basis. Plastic bottles with their BPA are a recent example of what dangers blind trust in manufacturers can lead us into. Did you know, BTW, that BPA is not only used in plastic bottles? It's omnipresent in the linings of food cans, as well. If you want to get away from the noxious substance completely, you'll want to buy your own stainless steel bottle to carry water in, and but any canned foods you consume from EDEN, the only company at the moment that completely eschews the use of BPA in their products.
The problem is, of course, who wants to wait for the next big announcement that we are being gradually poisoned by some other additive the manufacturers just forgot to tell us about? Getting the facts before we buy on a range of products would allow us to make a more informed choice on just which goods we're willing to purchase and take home to out families. Where to get such info? Click here, and you'll be taken to "Skin Deep", a data base maintained by EWG, the Environmental Working Group. You'll find products listed there under eight categories - Makeup, Skin Care, Hair Care, Eye Care, Nail Care, Baby Care, Oral Care, and Fragrance. Each category will give you myriad entries, all listed under brand names and all rated on a hazard scale from 0 to 10 with 0 being no hazard and 10 being high, or "run screaming" before you buy this one! As you browse through each list, you can click on any product and see a complete list of its ingredients. You'll also see each ingredient listed separately on a hazard scale, and the health concerns with which it has been linked. Click on any ingredient and you can find yourself looking at a listing of dates and results of studies done on it to address health issues.
It can make for some damn interesting reading if you find yourself looking at suspected/known carcinogens in a previously favourite product. Pass the word around about this site. After all, an educated consumer is the best consumer.

Apologizing for Bataan

On May 30, some of the 73 surviving Bataan Darth March veterans of the U.S. army and former army air corps met at the 64th annual convention of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. A visitor they may not have expected flew from Washington to be with them on that day. Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, came to offer an unusual, in-person apology for the death march. "Today, I would like to convey to you the position of the government of Japan on this issue.As former prime ministers of Japan have repeatedly stated: The Japanese people should bear in mind that we must look into the past and to learn from the lessons of history," said Fujisaki. "We extend a heartfelt apology for our country having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people, including prisoners of war, those who have undergone tragic experiences in the Bataan Peninsula, in Corregidor Island in the Philippines and other places. Ladies and gentlemen, taking this opportunity, I would like to express my deepest condolences to all those who have lost their lives in the war, and after the war, and their family members.”
Ex-POW, Lester Tenney, leader of the ADBC felt the apology was "momentous", but not all the survivors agreed. Some of them still carry far too many emotional scars from the barbarism they were forced to endure and witness. In what was ruled as a war crime after Imperial Japan's surrender, 75,000 American and Filipino POW's were forced by their Japanese captors in 1942 to march some 65 miles from the Bataan Peninsula to prison camps. Along the way, the prisoners were subjected to incredible brutality. Some incapable of keeping up were beheaded or disemboweled, while others had their throats cut for stopping to help a fallen comrade. Still others were attacked for no discernible reason at all. The death count will likely never be known for certain, but some historians think perhaps between six and eleven thousand men died on the march. These figures do not include the deaths directly resulting from the delayed effect of the deprivations and brutalization of the march that would have followed at the camps.
Perhaps one of the reasons that some of the vets there to hear Fujisaki were less than impressed could be the Japanese government allowing textbooks like the Fushosha text to be used in the country's classrooms. Okayed by the Ministry of Education and its affiliate Textbook Authorization Research Council, the text is published by the right-wing publisher Fushosha and it whitewashes Japan's actions during more than one of its aggressive periods, including the Second World War.
Although the majority of teachers in Japan have, apparently shies away from using the text, the fact that it was given the nod by Japan's powers-that-be is a bone that sticks in the craw of more than just the American vets. I realize that every country's authors would like to present their homeland in a rosy glow accompanied by the faint background sound of celestial choirs, and most do, glossing over whatever incident in their history tends to tarnish that glow. For instance, as a teacher here in the Canadian school system, I never did see a text that addressed the issue of conflict between the First Nations and the invading Europeans with anything other than a Euro-centric bias. Still, the reality of history events is often a far cry from what students are taught in the classroom. It's one reason why videos of survivor interviews would be such an incredibly powerful aid to the teachers of truth. Interviews with the Bataan survivors should be taped and used in classrooms in Japan. Doing that would lend credibility to Fujisaki's words. In like manner, interviews with Holocaust survivors should be taped before they succumb to old age. Interviews with survivors of Canada's residential schools should be taped and used in every Canadian classroom where a history class is examining our country's past. The list goes on, but perhaps the idea of rethinking the common approach to the recording of history is not such a bad one. At the moment, as the saying goes, the winner writes the history books. If we let some of those who survived being on the subjugated side of various conflicts speak to the children of today, maybe the adults of tomorrow would have a little more luck at not repeating history.