Well, well. well – I am not surprised, but, it’s good to have it confirmed.
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What the Jack?!?!?
April 30, 2011 — xanthippaSome women who come to Canada get trapped by the system – and become exploited as sex workers.
No, not all.
Some women choose to prostitute themselves – and they should be free to do so, and safely (as in, within the law, so they feel free to call police if they are robbed or assaulted – just like everyone else).
But, until our anti-prostitution laws are thrown out, some women – especially some immigrant women – will be trapped ‘by the system’ and will become, in a very real way, sex-slaves. In ‘therapeutic massage’ places and strip clubs and so on…
How?
Their sponsors (whom they owe money for transportation here) take away their ‘papers’ and force them to ‘work off the debt’… Except that, once they start working in the illegal sex industry, they are told that since they broke the laws, they must continue to work as sex slaves or they would be ‘turned over to the authorities’ – something most 3rd world immigrant women fear, as they come from countries where ‘authorities’ do not treat women in jail very well.
So, while I think that prostitution should be legal – until it is, I cannot condone anyone paing for the services of 3rd world immigrants trapped in the ‘massage parlour’ sex trade. It’s not the sex that bothers me – it is that these customers are actively helping to enslave women who would are not in this line of work voluntarily.
So much has been written about it that one would have to try very, very hard not to be aware of this.
Except, perhaps, Mr. Layton.
Or, perhaps not!
Mr. Layton – if you want to get your jollies off, good for you. But don’t abuse the most vulnerable in our society in order to do it!!!
P.S. – I should be more clear on what I mean: I don’t care if Mr. Layon got a massage or a massage with a ‘happy ending’ – I have a problem with the fact that he would financially support an illegal bawdy house.
Update: things keep getting more and more incriminating.
Winds sweeping through Ottawa…
April 28, 2011 — xanthippaThere were quite some winds sweeping through Ottawa today!
I’m hoping these are not the winds of political change, because so far, they bode no good!!!
And how exciting!
First, my dog began to behave ‘weird’….
Yoshi, a golden retriever (whose mom was a rescue while she was pregnant with him – so we knew there would be ‘issues’), he is sweet and loving but, frankly, not that intelligent. When it comes to thunderstorms, he sees that we are calm so he is calm.
Except today!!!
For a couple of hours, he was shaking with fear – on my lap, of course – and drooling this weirdly thin saliva. I have never seen him like this!!!
I tried to console him as best I could, but nothing worked!
Yes, he does get spooked by beeping sounds (like when power goes out and our UPS’s our computers are hooked up to beep periodically), but that is more of a ‘startled’ kind of thing, not actually scared.
And, he is a little bit afraid of cats, but that is more of a playful afraid, not shake uncontrollably and drool type of a thing. Plus, there were no cats here then…
I did not know what was going on!!!
A while after he started freaking out, we kept hearing these weird banging noises from upstairs – except that nobody was there!!! Obviously, for a little while, our house must have become haunted by a ghost. I distinctly recall reading that dogs don’t like ghosts – and that ghosts may make ‘banging sounds’ – so what else could it have been?!?!?
Then, even the rabbit became nervous.
Aside:
If you have not happened to read the few posts of mine where I boast about my (sorry, my son’s) rabbit, let me fill you in:
- he is an English Spot – and if you search YouTube for rabbits which are bold, daring and unafraid, chances are very, very high that that rabbit will either be an English Spot or look like he has some English Spot in him
- Hip Hop (my son named him: he is hip – and he hops!) thinks he is a dog: rabbits are social creatures who live in groups and try to adapt to the group – which makes them way more trainable than, say, cats are. When we brought him home, we introduced him to the dog: who, using dog language, immediately put his chin over the rabbit’s head to show ‘I’m the boss!’ However, rabbits have scent glands in the bottom of their chin which they rub on ‘stuff’ and ‘critters’ they want to mark as ‘their own’ – in other words, if a rabbit rubs any part of you with his/her chin, the rabbit is saying ‘I love you – you are now mine!’ So, the rabbit thought the dog was declaring undying love – and figured he was ‘mama-Yoshi’
- HipHop has since shown a penchant for courting female squirrels while chasing male squirrels away – and dominating any and every dog he has encountered. He has succeeded in this with our dog’s sister, my brother-in-law’s dogs (shi-tsus and a shi-tsu/maltese mix who likes to pick fights with german shepherds – and wins), my neighbour’s two poodle/schnauser mixes and her sister’s dachsund, my parents’ tibetan terriers – even one hunting dog we met while walking him on leash!!!
- The last time we went for an appointment at the vet’s, he bitched down the two cats that live at the clinic AND never looked nervous!!!
- AND, if you were still doubting Hip Hop’s bravery – this bunny regularly goes to school and faces school children!!!
For about half-an-hour, Hip Hop joined Yoshi on the sofa (highly unusual!) in trying to sit on my lap and both seemed, well, frightened!!!
Then, a neighbour came over to tell me that from her house (behind mine), she can see the whole back of my roof flapping up and down violently – and that we should go into the basement, just in case….. She helped me gather up the (way too many) shingles that had flown off my roof and then went home.
Yes, my roof lost a lot of shingles. Many of them are still up in my neighbour’s tree – just north-east of my house. But, during daylight, the wind was still too high to retrieve them – or to assess just how bad my damages are.
The funny thing is – my next-door-neighbour had also lost a lot of shingles! But, instead of going and landing east-north-east of her house, all of HERS landed west-south-west of HER house!!!!
HOW WEIRD IS THAT!!!
Ours were the only two houses in the neighbourhood to suffer this level of damage…
Of course, being good neighbours and also being (reserved) friends, we both got our roofs done at the same time, by the same company…. My neighbour is in the US on a business trip, so her sister is trying to figure out the damage…but it sure does seem weird that the only two houses in the neighbourhood who got their roofs re-done at the same time, by the same company (hey – my neighbour is a smart and thorough businesswoman – if she vets a company to do work on her house, I am more than happy to piggy-back!), should be the only two houses to loose so many shingles off their roof!!!
Oh boy, they must not have done a good job – right?
Except that…
…according to multiple neighbours, a micro-tornado touched down between my house and my neighbour’s!!!
How cool is that!!!
That would kind of explain why their shingles landed west-south-west of their house while our shingles landed east-south-east of our house.
Ah, well, I guess I’ll have to figure it all out over the next few days…
At least, the dog and the rabbit are OK now!
And I still have most of a roof over my head….
GoogleTechTalks: ‘Copyright Regimve vs. Civil Liberties’
April 28, 2011 — xanthippaAn excellent explanation of the origins of our copyright laws – and how they have evolved over time. Plus – a strategy on dealing with the problems they create.
He Who Must Not Be Named (on pain of litigation) is at it again…
April 27, 2011 — xanthippaYou-know-who is suing people again – because he finds them ‘annoying’!
That little silly bunny will just not let up!
With his skinhead-like haircut and fascist tactics, he really does look like the member of a Neo-Nazi organization (Stormfront) that he is. Yet, watching him in person for any length of time, the comparison to Uriah Heep (just before the 2 minute mark) crowds itself into one’s mind unheeded…
I don’t know how he can live with himself, that little tyrant-wanna-be silly bunny!
Pirate Party of Canada is running candidates in th2011 Canadian federal election
April 27, 2011 — xanthippaWho the … is the Pirate Party of Canada?
And, why am I writing about them?
I am writing about them because, for the first time ever, I have come accross so very many people who are so reluctant to give their votes to the ‘traditional’ politicial parties that they are – for the first time in their lives – considering not voting at all. Or spoiling their ballot in protest…
And, the Pirate Party of Canada may be a strategic place to trust one’s vote to. They don’t stand much of a chance to get elected (though, in Sweden, the home of the Pirate Party movement, they have 2 seats in the European Parliament), but the more votes they get, the more their central message will be strengthened, perhaps even reach the ears of the policymakers…
What is theie central message message?
It my never-humble-opinion, it seems to be this:
- Current copyright and patent laws are unbalanced
- Anti-copyright-infringment and anti-terrorism laws are too invasive and can (and will) be tools of oppression. Therefore, these must be reformed, with an eye to privacy rights
But, don’t rely on my imperfect understanding check them out yourself. Even if they are not your cup of grog, their message is worth thinking about.
If you are interested in a bit of the background – the zeitgeist that gave rise to the Pirate Party, it is well described in’Steal This Film‘. Here are Part 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and (better) Part 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5.
Some of these very serious issuess – without the ‘pirate mentality’ – are presented inMichael Geist’s movie, ‘Why Copyright‘.
Why raise this issue now?
Well, the ‘gatekeepers’ who profit from manufacturing ‘culture’ have now began convincing governments that having file-sharing capability on one’s personal computer automatically means they intend to breech copyright laws – and so they are passing laws against this.
According to these laws, my son would be a criminal, for ‘filesharing’ when he submits his homework to his teacher electronically – which he does, because it is easier, neater and he gets immediate feedback…
According to this, my husband and his brother would be criminals because they file-share family photos and have programs on their computers that allow them to back-up store all of each other’s photofiles…
And now, the Conservatives want to pass a law that would give civil servants complete access to all the ‘internet activity’ of Canadian citizens – without judicial oversight!!! As in, any civil servant could listen in to all your VOIP phone calls, read all your emails, follow each click you surf – without telling you…. In Michigan, cops routinely download all information from a person’s phone during a traffic stop…this would, in a very real way, permit each and every civil servant to do the same when your phone is sinked-up to your computer.
Even if you have nothing to hide, do you trust your civil servants not to abuse these new powers?
We need to bring balance to our IP and copyright laws.
Right now, there is not even a pretense, not even a lip service to privacy (not to mention all the other violations of liberty)!
Which is why taking a look at the Pirate Party of Canada – just taking a look – does not seem like a bad idea.
BlazingCatFur chats with an Islamic leader…
April 26, 2011 — xanthippaGeert Wilders and Ezra Levant come to Ottawa!
April 26, 2011 — xanthippaWhen: Tuesday, 10th of May, 2011, 7pm
Where: Ottawa
Cost: $20.00
There is also a pre-event, which costs $250.00, before the speaking one – but I suspect this is too expensive for us regular mortals…
More info is here – including info about evenings in London, Ontario (8th of May, 2011) and Toronto, Ontario (9th of May, 2011).
Update: this post has been modifed regarding the location of the event.
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 