Recharging is exhausting work!

August 19, 2009 — xanthippa

Evening boat-rides,

Evening boatrides

morning sunrise,

Morning sunrise

sandy islands,

Sandy islands

rocky islands,

Rocky Islands

active pets,

Active pets

resting pets,

tired pets

resting feet,

resting feet

…

What can I say?

In order to truly ‘get away’ and re-charge, we were isolated from the news, the internet, and everything else that was not within a boat-ride of where we were. So, it is taking me a while to catch up on what happened…

Somehow, my brain does not want to get back into the ‘old tracks’!

In surroundings like these, it is easy to ‘get philosophical’ – and we did (as we do every year).

Last year, we got into the whole ‘if a tree falls in the forest…’ thing – and decided that the answer will vary, depending on what is meant by the words ‘hear it’ and ‘sound’.  Though these are ‘simple’ English words, they can be interpreted in so many different ways that they alter the nature of the question:  the very essence of what is being asked about!  (As in, measurability vs. perception/relevance of reality…)

This year, we discussed much different things – no less philosophical, but certainly more ‘practical’.  At the core was the concept of the diaspora (not the ‘capital ‘D’ diaspora’, which refers to the dispersion of Jews once they were exiled from Israel by the Romans, but the ‘little ‘d’ diaspora’, which refers to any group of people who immigrate not as individuals,  but as a society which does not integrate, but rather enforces its own separate cultural and/or religious norms) and its effects on host societies and vice versa….and the reasons for these effects.

I’m sure I’ll be writing this all up, just as soon as I can formulate it from ‘discussions’ and ‘debates’ into a more tidied-up prose.

Still, it is difficult to discuss – and write about – the diaspora in a way that does not send people screaming and calling the thought police and shutting their minds to the very human qualities which are at the core of all the prejudice against the people who immigrate into a land and snub that land’s culture…  not because of the end-concepts, but because in order to discuss this subject, one has to address many topics which are taboo to even mention, much less dissect and debate, in our politically correct society. And, one has to use language that ‘points stuff out’, instead of ‘normalizing’ things and hiding their true meaning.

Yet, I am convinced that unless we understand what is happening inside us, unless we discuss it openly and without reservations, we cannot begin to fix some of the systemic prejudices inherent in our society!  And, reducing (even a tiny bit) some of these ‘barriers’ is a good thing for our society in the long term, even if right now, discussing it openly may feel like pulling a band-aid off…

After all, unless we recognize our prejudices and understand their roots, we cannot hope to overcome them!  It’s just too bad that in our society today, even raising the subject is taboo… yet I intend to not just raise it, but to examine it and the very things which produce visceral reactions in us, human animals.  Politely, of course….  ;0)

At the same time, there is so much which is happening now that I ‘ought to’ be writing about and screaming about…. that I feel pulled in so many directions, I keep hopping from one draft of a post to another, not finishing any!

Yet, I am making progress and I hope to be posting some thought provoking ideas soon.  In the meantime, please, enjoy these pictures!  And, if you’d like to see more, please let me know:  I took a few thousand shots over those days, and some of them have managed to capture the ‘mood’ of the North!

Posted in about, human nature. Tags: , , . 2 Comments »

Summer holidays

August 8, 2009 — xanthippa

For the next little while, I will be away for summer holidays…far enough North that no internet signal is available nearby.  In he meantime, please, enjoy reading these fine blogs:

The Lynch Mob

Blazing Catfur

The Reference Frame

Just Right

Speak Out on Copyright

Stubblejumping Redneck

Tea and Politics

The Blog of Walker

John Robson Online

Dvorak Uncensored

In the meantime, I’ll be enjoying views like these:

Big skies

Rocky shore

Long evenings...

Posted in about. 3 Comments »

Elbow-deep in sewage…and the City of Ottawa focuses on standardizing signs on farms!

August 7, 2009 — xanthippa

Note:  many of my photos have not shown up in the post – only their titles appear.  I will try to figure out why – and how to fix it – but it may take me a while.  So, if you encounter a stray phrase that does not seem connected, it is likely a title of a photo that has failed to show up…my apologies!

If you believe City of Ottawa bureaucrats, Ottawa must have some of the longest lived people ever!

Not since Biblical times have ages this long been recorded – and in such large numbers.  There is a whole neoghbourhood in Ottawa’s west end where many, many residents have lived for over 3 centuries – and don’t even look it!

All right – here is the context:

Friday, July 24th, we had a bit of a storm.  OK – a big storm.  According to the City of Ottawa bureaucrats, it was a ‘once-in-a-century’ type storm:  and it is only due to the ‘once-in-a-century’ severity of the storm that the above-mentioned neighbourhood had flooding….

Now, since many of the residences in the Glen Cairn neighbourhood have been flooded with raw sewage like this 3 or 4 times – while the same people have lived there, it would appear that these folk ‘must’ be long-lived indeed!

What other explanation could there possibly be?  It could not be that the bureaucrats had started trying to cover their bottoms even before the sewage stopped flowing?!?!?

Oh, and they were also describing it as ‘rainwater runoff’ and the residents were told by the City’s health department that ‘there was no health risk’…

The flooding was bad.  Not ‘pretty bad‘ – just bad.  There was nothing pretty about it.  And this ‘rainwater runoff‘ that people were being told by ‘the City of Ottawa’ is no real problem?  It was boiling out of people’s toilets, stinky, icky brown sludge with poops floating in it…

self-explanatory....

I know – I went out and saw it!  On Tuesday, July 28th, I took my camera and went to talk to some of the people who had been flooded out of their homes…

I heard some sad, sad stories!

And, I took some pictures – with permission – to show at least a tiny bit of the damage because words don’t tell the story.  Actually, nor do the pictures:  one would need ‘smelo-vision’ to comprehend what these people are going through.

It’s not just the ruined stuff – though, that is a part of it.

Sewage-ruined posessions

It is that people’s homes smell like heavily used, never-cleaned latrines!  The whole neighbourhood smelled like sewage – with a strong overlay of must and mold thrown in for good measure (this was 5 days after the storm…).

One family I spoke to had had their basement filled 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep with this raw sewage soup of pathogens!  When I was there, some specialized clean up people were there, wearing protective rubber pants up to their chest, and one of them had to go ‘decontaminate’ because the stuff got inside his suit…

That is deep shit!

Can you imagine living in a house, the bottom of which is filled with 5-day-ripe sewage/germ soup???

All the pets were tied up outside – even if the owners had to be at work – because leaving them inside the homes would have killed them.  And, can you imagine what happened to pets who were kept in the basement (like, say, fish or ‘small mammals’ or reptiles whose cages were kept in the family room – traditionally in the basement)?

That is where this little girl’s pet was kept – only by coincidence (renovations) was this pet’s cage temporarily moved upstairs…  I dread to think what would have happened to this sweet little boo-boo, who was so friendly and gave me ‘kisses’!

Even pets were endangered...

Or how her young owner would have felt if she woke up in the morning and found her beloved pet had drowned in raw sewage…

This family had recently bought this home and were doing some renovations.  While this was going on, they stored all of their good ‘stuff’ in the basement:  still in the packaging from the movers.

Ruined!

Reflecting on the damage...

All ruined!

ruined and contaminated...

That, in itself, is sad.

The people I talked with were just happy nobody got killed.  One lady said that they will probably get angry later – but, now, they were just happy to be alive, not sick from the ‘sludge’ they were surrounded by!

And, their insurance company said they’d cover them!

At least, this family’s insurance company was good – not only did it cover them fully, it also allowed them to get rid of the damaged and contaminated things, taking their claim at their word (supported by photographs).

Not every insurance company took this approach:  some required an inspection by their representative.  And, 5 days after the poop-flood, some of these people’s insurance reps had not yet showed up!

This created a whole pile of other problems:  some despicable people started stealing the ‘contaminated stuff’ from their neighbours, in order to add it to ‘their pile’ and, in this way, to boost up the value of their own insurance pay off!  Some people resorted to taking axes to their ‘contaminated stuff’, to make it less easy for these unscrupulous fraudsters to carry off their destroyed ‘stuff’…

breaking 'stuff' into pieces so it's not easy to steal...

Almost half the homes on this street had their sewage lines completely blocked:  no water would drain from their toilets or sinks…making their homes even less habitable than the rest!  No flushing, no showers, no washing hands of brushing teeth…

OK – this is a really bad scenario:

  • the contaminated ‘stuff’ is out on people’s laneways and lawns, rotting there and polluting the whole area
  • the insurance people have not gotten around to looking at it yet – so it must not be stolen or taken away, or the people will not be compensated for it.
  • some people are stealing their neighbours’ ‘stuff’ to artificially (and fraudulently) inflate their own insurance claims
  • the cops have promised to patrol the area to prevent this form of looting, but, during the few hours I took to tour the area, I only saw one police officer, on a motorcycle – but stationary, in the parking lot of the nearest police station

…and then…

…the City decides it is time to send in the garbage trucks to take the contaminated ‘stuff’ away!  And while this was ‘good’ in the sense that it prevented the contaminated ‘stuff’ from being a petri-dish, growing all kinds of germs and spreading them throughout the neighbourhood… it was a serious problem for the people whose insurance companies would not accept photographic evidence and whose adjusters had not yet shown up…

garbage - all garbage

The really bad thing is…  for many of the residents, trying to satisfy an insurance adjuster was not really their worry – in a bad way!  Because they had been flooded in exactly the same way two or three times before, their insurance companies had refused to cover them!  Something about being a ‘bad risk’…

You see, dear readers, this is a bit of a regular thing!

'Cat' got your 'tongue'n'groove'?

(This family’s son’s employer loaned them the ‘cat’ to help them shift the really destroyed things – it was the only physical help this family got!)

As a matter of fact, some of the residents still have a class-action suit against the City of Ottawa from the last flood….  Suing a government is not easy in Canada – one has to show ‘gross negligence’ before they are even allowed to file such a suit.  Yet, this very type of lawsuit is indeed outstanding:  it seems that after the flood 2 floods ago, the City’s engineers in charge of the system were ‘grossly negligent’ in repairing the faulty sewage system that the previous flood was deemed to likely be their fault!

But, the City took care of it!

They spent several millions of taxpayer’s money on ‘fixing’ the ‘sewer system’ in this very neighbourhood following the last flood!  And, they must have done something:  this flood hot not just all the ‘old neighbourhoods’, but also destroyed the homes in all the neighbourhoods surrounding it!!!

The ‘funny’ thing is…

The City of Ottawa spent millions of dollars ‘fixing’ the sewer-line problem in this neighbourhood – both following the last poop-flood and as a response to the lawsuit.  Yes, many millions of taxpayers’ dollars.  And, last summer, the City announced that ‘all the problems were fixed’ and there would not be a repeat of the past 3 poop-floods!

Surprisingly, many people living in this neighbourhood believed them – and re-built their basements!  Even many insurance companies – satisfied that the ‘problem had been fixed’ – had finally released the funds for people to re-build their homes from the last poop-flood damage…

Yeah….just about all the homes had just finished the renovations of their basements…  Silly bunnies –  believing the City bureaucrats!!!

OK, so this is the situation…

  • a particular neighbourhood has been flooded with poop for the 4th time in 12 years (each flood was described by the city as ‘once-in-a-lifetime-thing) … OK, the boundary is a little variable – after the last ‘fixes’ the city put in, a much larger area is affected…
  • the City’s health department maintained that this raw sewage gushing into people’s homes – and flooding the lower levels, sometimes up to a meter-and-a-half deep, is not a health risk (even though people were admitted into local hospitals from the resultant infections)
  • the bureaucrats – and many elected politicians – insisted this was ‘water-run-off’ and denied that it included raw sewage – even though they knew perfectly well that here, as in most Ottawa neighbourhoods, the rain-water-run-offs and the sewage lines use the same pipes!  It would be physically impossible for the rain-water to get into people’s homes without sewage getting in too, as both share the same pipes!

This last ‘problem’ has been discussed ad infinitum – for decades!  This summer alone, the City of Ottawa has already dumped over 790 MILLION liters of raw sewage into the Ottawa river, and the predictions are that we will dump well over a BILLION (with a ‘B’) liters of raw sewage into the river before the summer is out!

So, is the City taking this seriously?  Are they trying to stem the flow of sewage into our river – which is also our source of drinking water (as it is a source of drinking water for all the places down-stream)?  Are they trying to help the residents with the clean-up?  Or with money – especially the ones whose insurance companies would not cover a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ thing that crops up 4 times in 12 years???

Well – not exactly…

The City Councilor representing this area is on holidays. Holidays are OK…  But, when this all happened, she could not return because she (Peggy Feltmate) is on a boat and cannot get off!  No, she’s not kidnapped – it’s just physically impossible for her to get off a boat tour of the river Rhine!  But, no worry – she sent in an email of support!

So, is the City of Ottawa – with or without this non-swimmer of a  councilor – busy trying to help?

Well – you be the judge…

They just hired a whole pile of inspectors!  No, not to gauge the problem…

Rather, these inspectors are driving around the geographically large area of the amalgamated City of Ottawa and making sure that all the farmers unfortunate enough to fall inside the city limits have taken down all the signs promoting or otherwise identifying their farms (even those who had invested into ‘branding’ and paid artists to develop their logos and make their signs) and replaced them with the official ‘City of Ottawa farm’ signs…

All these farm signs are the same size and shape – standardized to a common format:  blue, with white lettering and with a large City of Ottawa logo at the top….and a smaller area where the farm can put its name.

What the #)$(U?????

Yes.

The City has obviously spent a lot of time and personpower in developing these new standardized signs for farms!  The rules about them are pages long…

And, the City’s current priority is hiring inspectors who will enforce this new sign law, inspecting farms and fining anyone (hundreds of thousands of dollars PER DAY) who is not in full compliance with these new City of Ottawa signage laws….

I could not make this stuff up if I tried…

It is governments like these that feed the anarchist movement:  and that make me want to scream!!!

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Ottawa’s Mayor: NOT GUILTY!!!

August 5, 2009 — xanthippa

Breaking news:  Ottawa’s Mayor, Larry O’Brien, has just been found NOT GUILTY of ‘influence peddling’ charges!

Of course, many voices have been screaming that this whole mess has been lawfare.  And, many people will now want to know why has the operation of the City of Ottawa been so seriously disrupted on a bunch of trumped up, unsubstantiated rumours.

As news stories on this appear, I’ll add links to this post to them.

The Canadian Press

The Globe and Mail

CTV

CBC

The Star

Posted in politics, society. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »

7 things I like: I’ve been ambushed!

August 4, 2009 — xanthippa

OK – so going to parties is not a ‘hazard’ for most people.  But, I am not ‘most people’…. and, being on meds that seriously suppress the immune system, going to any gathering of people has serious risks for me that do not exist for other people.  And, having gone to a political ‘meet&greet’ last week had left me…well…a little ‘under the weather’ – no fault of the organizers of the event!!!

The truth is, I started to write a post a week ago – a post I actually went ‘into the field’ and met people and talked to them and took pictures and all that – and then got feverish before I managed to post it….and have not even booted up my computer since!

My apologies….

Still… during my absence, I have been ‘tagged’:  now, I am supposed to list the 7 things I like!  And, since this is something I can do without the ability to apply higher reasoning (like, say, writhing a ‘real’ post would require….something my fever-ridden brain is not quite ready for…), I will be happy to oblige and list 7 things I do like:

1.  Freedom of speech!

‘Freedom’ is NOT something I take for granted:  I was born in a totalitarian country where ‘freedom’ was not a concept that was valued at all!  Freedom of speech is the most important of all the freedoms, because it is the means of opposing oppression and the only way of ensuring all the other freedoms are indeed ‘applied’/’allowed’!!!

Without freedom of speech, there will never be freedom of thought or freedom of religion:  one only has to follow the most basic of logic deductions for that…or to look at history:  both are in agreement!  Without freedom of speech, there is no freedom of thought, no freedom of religion and, to a great degree, no freedom of association!

Personally, I think freedom of speech is essential for humans to truly be ‘human’!!!

2.  My family

My children and my spouse are the most important influences in my life!  Short of breaking the law, I would do anything to protect them and to ensure they succeed in their chosen fields. 

While my nuclear family is my utmost priority, my extended family (nieces and nephews in particular) are also extensions of my ‘self’ (whether blood or marriage related – they carry some of the same DNA as my offspring do, and that makes them important to me) and I will go to great lengths to help them succeed in whatever they choose to do.

BUT!!!

And this is  an important ‘but’:  I would NEVER wish to put my opinions and my priorities above those of the next generation – my kids, or my nieces and nephews!  Their own free will is more important than anything else and I WILL always do my best to allow them to achieve according to THEIR standards!

After all – it is Free Will which makes us who we are!  And, helping my family members (my kids first) to fulfill their Free Will is the most beautiful and important goal ever!  Without it, I would never be able to know who these people truly are:  and to appreciate them for it, and learn from them!!!

3.  Mammalian ‘babies’/fellow ‘living beings’

OK – this is strictly ‘biological programming’!!!

I cannot help it:  even though it’s been almost a decade since I have had my last surviving offspring, when I smell a ‘mammalian baby’ (human, canine, feline, rabbit…it really does not matter), my body immediately triggers lactation!

It fascinates me just how deeply this instinct has to be programmed!

And it fascinates me just how similar the facial proportions of most mammalian infants truly are!!!  It’s almost as if…. Nah!  I’m just a freak!!!

But… this ‘love’ extends to all types of living beings:  life is just ‘the universe’ learning about herself…one person once told me.  Perhaps.  Or not. It does not really matter, in the grand scheme of things…

Either way, I love all forms of life and wish them no ill and the minimum of suffering, even as I must kill some in order to survive:  but, survival is the name of the game, so no guilt comes of it. ‘Killing some’, as long as the killing is as ‘cruelty-free’ as possible, is necessary for life to go on – ant therefore it is not a bad thing.  After all, even ‘breathing’ kills some microbes… and I am not about to feel guilty about being alive and breathing!

4.  Languages/Mythology

Some peole might consider these to be two separate things:  language is a ‘means of communicating‘ while mythology is a ‘belief system‘.

Except that…

The language used is a result of the same environmental conditions which shape mythology…. and the points a mythology makes affect the ‘secondary +’ meanings of words in any language! 

Example:  my native tongue does not have ANY words designating a female dog which have seriously negative meaning:  at worst, the word ‘bitching’ means ‘having a fun time within bounds 0f politeness’…  The phrase ‘son-of-a-bitch’ had always puzzled me; even though an artificial ‘negative’ word for ‘bitch’ had been crafted, I never quite grasped the negative meaning of that phrase until I learned a few ‘foreign languages’!

In other words, this is a bit of a self-enforcing ‘circle’:  what is valued in the culture coloures the language;  what is valued in the language colours the mythology; what is valued in the mythology colours the culture… or something like that!  I am sure better people than I have articulated this better!

Still – it is highly educational to study various ‘mythologies/languages’!  I do not think it possible to separate the two and effectively master one ‘foreign one’ of them!

Yet, studying them gives one an insight into what it means to be human….something we ought to value more than we do…

In other words, language/mythology are essential to our perception of ‘the world’ – even as they differ from one human to another.  I find that fascinating –  and elucidating!!!  I love it!!!

Note:  Mathematics IS the language of science. It must NOT be left out of this section:  it is beautiful in itself and it contains a most wonderous mythology of its own.  As such, ‘Mathematics’ is both a language and a mythology…plus something more….a means of expressing a ‘universal awareness’…the most ‘perfect’ of all mythologies!!! (In the true sense of the word ‘perfect’, of course!)

5.  Books

OK – this is a ‘thing’ of mine…. I LOVE BOOKS!

Perhaps this is a redundant thing:  books only record the ‘language/mythology’ of a particular culture at a particular point in time. Still, this gives us an important insight into the psyche of ;’living beings’ – mostly, but not exclusively, human ones (this depends on the intelligence and interest of the writer).

Still…

There is something uniquely sensual about touching dead plant matter which transmits coded messages about living matter…

Fascinating!

(And, yes, I DO collect books…and have several thousand in just my house… many of them are over a century old…and only very few of them will I ever loan out again…  And, aside from reading them and learning from them, I do derive a physical pleasure from touching them….yeah, I know, I am a freak…)

6.  Science

As in, GOOD science – NOT bad science!

It is the bane of our culture that bad science has overtaken good science in public opinion.  It has become so entrenched in our culture that most of us are unable to tell the difference between ‘good science’ and ‘bad science’.

It troubles me greatly when people in positions of power use ‘science’ (well, actually, abuse science) to increase their power over people!  The examples of this are so numerous, it is difficult to pick just one….from legislated vaccination to the latest statistics, science is being misused to engineer the behaviour of our society.  And that is wrong!!!

Science – pure science, it its true form and without all the ‘political spin’, has improved our standard of living to an unprecedented degree!!!  That is a GOOD THING!

Yet, because it is so powerful – and because so many people mistakenly believe science is beyond their grasp (something our ‘approved’ teaching methods in high-schools and grade-schools perpetuate) – it is easily used by few to manipulate the many, just as religion was once used! 

That is bad!!!

Really bad!

But, the underlying science:  understanding that ‘science’ is not a ‘collection of facts’, but rather a ‘method of enquiry’ which will separate one’s prejudices and politics from the data….that will (given freedom of speech and thought) set us (humans) free of the superstitions which the ‘ruling class’ have always used us into submission… 

In other words, ‘science’ will set humans free from manipulative control by opportunistic oppressors!

Last, but not least…

7.  Crafts

This may not seem to be ‘obvious’…

BUT…

I truly admire all the artisans and craftsmen who have become masters in their field!  It is THESE people who have advanced the ‘development’ of human culture!

Just think….

Without people who figured out how to build stuff out of wood, or rock, or how to make bricks and build stuff out of them… Without people who figured out how to make usable fibers from the refuse of ‘food stuff’…and how to spin it into threads and weave it into fabrics….both for clothing and for blankets/tapestries…

The ancient Greeks separated ‘art’ into two major classes:  Apollonian and Athenian….  The art ‘ruled’ by Apollo was just ‘art for art’s sake’:  art which fails to have a function beyond being decorative.  In contrast, art ruled by Athena was ‘usable art’:  art which has a secondary purpose, from ‘clothing’ to decorative baskets that held ‘stuff’ to anything else that was both beautiful AND useful!!!

As such, I have followed some of the paths of ‘crafts’:  the very first commercial business I started was in the field of clothing design….I made the pattern and had immigrant women (who spoke little or no English, and who were not allowed by their husbands to have a j0b outside the home) make it come to life in their homes…  We were good enough to get the attention of at least one the ‘big guys’ in the field…

Still, clothing design is just one of these crafts:  I love and admire anyone who can actually use their own hands to crate ‘stuff’ – especially awesome, beautiful AND awesome-looking stuff!!!  From cooking to carpentry to painting (yes, I see it as a ‘craft’ more than as an ‘art’ – and that is a compliment to ‘painting’) to clothing and furniture and home design…all are beautiful crafts that fascinate me and which I wish I could master – one at a time!

Of course, all the 7 things I have listed are connected to each other, very very closely… They are all means of observing the pattern ‘humanity’ leaves on the face of this planet…. which makes them beautiful!  And, worthy of study…

Sorry if I sound all stuffy and all that…but, these are the things I truly like and love!

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A chat with Lisa MacLeod

July 27, 2009 — xanthippa

What interesting times we live in!

Tonight, Lisa MacLeod – the newly named Finance critic in Tim Hudak’s shadow cabinet – hosted a meet-and-greet with Tim Hudak.

It was very lovely.   Truly.

And while I spent most of my time talking with other attendees – especially with fellow immigrants to Canada – about our negative experiences with official Apartheid Multiculturalism policies (the latest honour dishonour killings made people – and not just us, immigrants – very, very angry), I did get to exchange a word or two with a few of the celebs there.

It’s been a very long day – and my stamina is still very low – so this will have to be a very brief post.  Yet, these little bits are well worth mentioning!

Mr. Pierre Poilievre was there and we exchanged a few words about the latest lawfare suit launched by one of ‘The Sock Puppets’ against Ezra Levant.  (Aside:  Wednesday, July 29th 2009, there will be an online fundraiser for Mr.Levant’s defense fund at Mark Steyn’s online store .  He is fighting this battle for all of us!  Thanks to BCF and 5’ofF for the tip!)

Then, I had a little chat with Lisa MacLeod, my host.  She was, well, to put it mildly, not impressed with what I have written about her in the past.  I can’t say I’m surprised, or that I blame her!  What can I say – she makes very lousy 1st impressions…which I did mention, unless I am much mistaken…

I must say that her reaction surprised me a little.  I was expecting her to be most upset by my criticism of her conduct as a politician…which we went into, very briefly.  Yes, the tention in the air was, as they say, palpable.

Still,  it was my criticism of her parenting that really, really upset her.  I must admit, I was not willing to  back down – I write what I see, as I see it;  no more, no less and I asked her if what I wrote was incorrect.  This seemed to upset Ms. MacLeod:  the anger seemed to dissipate and be replaced by a different kind of  ‘upset’.  That is good:  it showed me that beneath the ‘thick-skinned politician’ veneer (which I was so turned off by), there may be a truly genuine person who cares about the important things in life!

At this point, Ms. MacLeod excused herself and went  to watch her daughter play at the nearby playstructure.

Now, I am thinking that I may have been too quick to judge her:  that I fell for the image she tries to project (not one I would advise projecting) and failed to see the person behind it.  If she convinces me I was wrong about her, I’ll write about it.  

IF she convinces me!

Posted in freedoms, immigrants, perceptions, politics. Tags: , , , . 1 Comment »

WHY did the ‘Wafergate’ ever become ‘A Story’?!?!?

July 23, 2009 — xanthippa

In my last post, I voiced the opinion that the whole non-story of ‘what Prime Minister Steven Harper ‘ought to have done’ when, during a Roman Catholic funeral mass, a priest approached him where he was sitting in the front pew of the church and stuck a Communion Wafer into the surprised Prime Minister’s hand’ might have actually increased the PM’s popularity.

Since that post, several people from outside of Canada (some Roman Catholic themselves) expressed a surprise that this would ever become a news event, much less one which dominated headlines for over a week.  Following is my reply (and can be seen in the comments) as to how and why this non-story got the press coverage it did:

The whole ‘broo-ha-ha’ – in my never-humble-opinion – started because the RC church was trying to deflect attention from yet another child molestation scandal within The Church.  The news of the scandal broke the same day as the RC clerics started screeching ‘damn the sinner – he offended our religion!!!!’ against the PM.  I think they wanted to minimize the news coverage of the pedophilia arrests charges laid against some RC priests just then.

The ‘MSM’ news these days has very clear ‘slots’:  this ‘slot’ for ‘human interest’, that one for ‘scandal’, a little bit on ‘business’, and so on.  If The Church succeeded in making the ‘PM snubs Roman Catholics’ THE scandal of the day, then there would be minimal coverage of their own scandal.  The ‘main slot’ would already be filled…  AND – they succeeded!

The news-people do not like this PM – he does not treat them as ‘insiders with special privileges’…. so, they are offended that he thinks they are not better than other people – which they DO think they are!

After all, they have ‘access to power’!!!!  At least, they HAD access to power….. until this ‘newcomer’ PM refused to treat them as royalty.  Who did he think he was?  They were here longer than he – they KNEW ‘the ropes’!  And he refused to bow down to them?!?!?  Let them ‘take him under their wing’ and ‘show him how to get things done’?!?!?  In exchange for ‘inside info’, of course… (and free spots at expensive dinners, and other ‘perks’ they became accustomed to by the previous corrupt government, in exchange for not writing up the worst of the scandals….)

How dare he!!!

As a result, the vast majority (with exceptions, of course) of journalists – especially political ones – feel slighted by him and do their best to snub him back, put him down, make even positive things he does – even the ones they themselves like – surrounded by so many ‘backhanded compliments’ that despite the positive story, they make him look bad.  Or, they try to!

The political opposition – well, they would really, really like something to attack him for.  But… for all his faults (and he has those, of course), deep down, Steven Harper is a very honest man and he expects honest behaviour from his ministers.  So, there is actually very little that he can be attacked for by the opposition politicians!

His opponents have believed that Steven Harper’s support came from the ‘religious right’.  So, they thought any story which could be spun that he is ‘not sensitive’ to religion or religious people would erode his main support base.

I think that they miscalculated!

Most religious people – including Roman Catholics – shared YOUR reaction.  The attack has backfired on BOTH the RC church AND the PM’s opponents!

Still, this was not really ‘about’ the Communion Host:  it was cheap politicking!  And that, I suspect, is ‘universal’….

Posted in politics, religion, society. Tags: , , , , . 1 Comment »

‘Communion scandal’ improves Harper’s image

July 21, 2009 — xanthippa

Perhaps this is obvious to everyone, perhaps it has been written about and I have missed it…

Did the ‘Communion scandal‘ actually improved Prime Minister Harper‘s image?  Is that, at least partially, why the polls are saying his popularity is up by 7 points (as per Angus Reid poll, reported on CFRA today)?

Let me explain my reasoning…

Steven Harper is a lot of things:  an awesome economist (and, in these turbulent times, most of us prefer to have an economist rather than a lawyer or an academic without any experience outside the College campus.).  That is a big plus for Mr. Harper.

But, his political opponents have always successfully exploited the fact that, for ever, Steven Harper will be associated (in the minds of most urban Canadians, especially those in Ontario and Quebec) with the ‘Evangelical’ taint his Reform Party past brings.  Rightly or wrongly, the Reform Party could not shake the kind of ‘Sarah Palin-type- thingy’ (please excuse the technical jargon…):  right on so many things, but, kind of scary when it comes to ‘faith issues’….

In some places, politicians are ‘expected’ to be ‘religious’:  it ‘proves’ to the ‘little people’ that they are ‘humble’ and ‘pious’….  This is still true of ‘US conservatives’ – at least, this is more true of them than any other Western ‘group’.

Why these ought to be good qualities in a political leader, I don’t know!

As a matter of fact, I seriously question whether people who are willing to put religious faith above facts and reason – and, especially above the will of voters – ought to be in any positions of power whatsoever.  After all, I would like the laws governing my country to be reasonable – not faith based!

Here, it is important to note that this ‘faith’ could be religious or ideological – it does not make an iota of difference in the practical impact of ‘faith-based’ laws on our society!

Though Canadians are very poor in recognizing ‘ideological faith, we are very sensitive to ‘religious faith’. Therefore, any suggestions that a politician might be so religious as to obey the tenets of his religion over the will of his constituents when drafting laws and policies harms that politician.  It makes it very unlikely that he/she would get a majority, because the large urban areas will not take what they perceive as that big a risk.

And, more and more Canadians are aware of just how many religious leaders abuse their power.  This is not specific to any one faith – one could easily find examples of abuse from just about every religious sect.  Rather, more and more people suspect that the fault lies in allowing any man or woman to exercise power over another, using spirituality as the ultimate weapon:  obey, submit, behave this way and believe this dogma – or you will suffer eternal torture…

That is why most organized religions in Canada are loosing members:  dogmatization of spirituality is becoming more and more unacceptable to urbanized, mainstream Canadians!  And that includes Canadians of all political bends…

When the Roman Catholic Church said that priests ought to deny ‘Communion’ to any politician who does not vote to ban abortion, there was a serious backlash against the Roman Catholic Church.  This was widely understood to be ‘spiritual blackmail’ of the politician:  threatening him/her with eternal damnation of his’her soul UNLESS he/she placed the Papist dogma above the will of their constituents!

The ‘little ‘l’ liberal’ Canadians are loath of any erosion in the ‘secularity’ of our laws: they will never support a politician whom they suspect of having a religious agenda!

Perhaps not surprisingly, there are more and more ‘non-religious’ ‘little ‘c’ conservatives.  People who do support many core conservative values, but who are very uncomfortable with the ‘religious’ component of today’s Conservative movement.  Very, very, very uncomfortable!

Just remember John Tory!

Steven Harper – with all his good and bad points – had a problem shaking the ‘religious’ image of the old Reform Party.  And his political opponents exploited it very, very skilfully.

Now, to this ‘Communion scandal’:

Some Roman Catholic Cleric attacked Steven Harper for his conduct during a Catholic funeral mass which Steven Harper attended.  It would appear that the priest walked up to the people sitting in on the benches in the church.  Steven Harper offered him a hand for a handshake – that is what politicians do, they shake hands as a symbol of greeting or acceptance or a number of other things.

The priest, instead of shaking the offered hand, stuck a communion wafer in it.

Now, the PM was ‘damned if he did/damned if he did not’ do just about anything.

Had he rejected the wafer and tried to give it back to the priest, he would be committing a grave offense:  he would be ‘rejecting Jesus himself’!

Had he tried to minimize damage by pocketing the damned thing and giving it back to the priest later, he would create horrible offense:  one does not ‘stick Jesus in a pocket’!

And, had he committed ritual cannibalism and eaten the ‘literal flesh of Christ’ – as Roman Catholics believe they are doing when they consume a Communion Wafer – he would be giving great offense because non-Roman Catholic Christians are not allowed the salvation which eating the flesh of a dead guy is supposed to bring, according to the RC dogma.

The PM took the latest option.  And, was immediately attacked for not being a fine young cannibal!  A bunch of RC clerics attacked him, for ‘offending their faith’ – while not saying a peep about the latest child sex-abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church became public that day!

Steven Harper’s political opponents – seeing an opening to attack – made the most of the story.  The one about the PM accepting a communion wafer – not the one about more RC priest pedophiles.  They ‘shouted it from the rooftops’!  They got it into all kinds of papers, so no Canadian could remain unaware that Steven Harper is insensitive to religion!

Wait a minute!

Steven Harper was trying to shake the ‘he’s too easily influenced by religion’ image – especially among the urban folk.  And now, his opponents are announcing to everyone that Steven Harper is not religious enough???

What an effective way to allay those fears of people who liked him, but worried he might be a religious freak!  He’s just a normal guy, after all!

No wonder that Steven Harper’s popularity went up!

Posted in freedoms, human nature, ignosticism, perceptions, politics, religion, society. Tags: , , , , . 8 Comments »

Just Right: ‘Obama’s America ‘going Canadian’ on hate crime’

July 21, 2009 — xanthippa

How many ways are there of saying:  NOT GOOD!  NOT GOOD!  NOT GOOD!

Just Right has the story – with the video:

Sneaking it in under cover of a defense authorization bill with debate scheduled for the wee hours of the morning the Democrats succeeded in passing sweeping new federal hate crimes legislation.

Just as the ‘general awareness’ of this intrusive oppression is rising in Canada, Americans are going to be blindsided by it!

Of course, the majority of Americans will remain oblivious to the danger, thinking their constitution will protect them and their rights… till one of these neo-fascists smiles primly at them, explaining that ‘Freedom of speech is not an American concept’…or some such thing.

They’ll never believe it could happen to them – even though it already has!

Ayayayayay!



Posted in freedoms, opression, politics, society. Tags: , , , , , , , , . 5 Comments »

Aspies and careers

July 20, 2009 — xanthippa

Many parents of kids with Asperger Syndrome worry about what will happen to their child once they have to go out into the great, wide world and fend for themselves.

Ok, so all parents worry about this!

But parents of Aspie kids have some very particular concerns:  we tend to be ‘anything but middle ground’ people!

And, let’s face it:  our school systems are teaching a series of skills (a sort of a skills ‘tool set’) which will enable ‘middle ground’ kids to succeed.  And that is understandable – aiming at the ‘middle-ground majority’ will definitely provide a statistically successful outcome in that the most kids will learn how to succeed the most; the old ’80/20′ rule (80% of results are obtained by 20% of the effort, but the remaining 20% of results will demand 80% of the effort to get them ‘right’).

This is not at all helpful when you (or your kid) falls outside the proverbial ‘2 standard deviations from the mean’… and need to learn a very different set of tools in order to succeed in life!  Many Aspies have a difficult and frustrating time in school and they are not ‘getting as much’ out of it as their peers do.  Therefore, many parents worry.

Just today I was talking to a mom of an Aspie who is worried about his future.  She can see the potential in him – he is truly very, very intelligent!  But, his school marks are not reflecting his intelligence, he often gets sad and sometimes he becomes withdrawn.  To my untrained eye, that sounds like the Aspie (10 years old) might be slipping into depression:  it is very common for even child-Aspies to become clinically depressed when they see they are more intelligent and know more than their peers, yet they are not succeeding and people (parents, teachers) are disapointed in them (or their peers mock them for it).

This very intelligent mom (herself an educator) saw the potential in her son, both on the ‘good’ side as well as on the ‘bad’ side:  she could see him as either a professor or scientist – or homeless and destitute… depending on whether he learned to ‘fit in’ to the school system, or not!

That is not so!  Of course, Aspies could end up without marketable skills, poor and homeless!  But then again, everyone could…

There ARE non-academic careers where Aspies DO excel!

All kinds of artisans, or any kind of ‘specialists’ – skilled in a very particular thing – those are all things that Aspies can shine in!  Or, in the least, make a name for themselves and make a living at it.

Think about it:  if an Aspie finds a field in which they are interested, they will not stop before they learn everything there is to know about it, refine their knowledge, build specific rules and procedures which they have extensively tested and found to be most optimal.  They often see ‘solutions’ where others do not.  And, they are (usually) not afraid to tell people how to ‘do it right’…

From goldsmiths who craft the most beautiful jewelry to blacksmiths who make old-fashioned swords and armour (actually very popular these days), true to the ‘old methods’ – or who can make custom metal railing and chandeliers.  From chefs, who specialize in a narrow field of cooking and become most sought out for their skill and knowledge in how to prepare the best tasting bits of food to clothing designers, who look at a garment and see the pattern of how it was made. From cabinetmakers who can replicate period pieces using traditional tools and methods or make the best quality, modern pieces of furniture that ‘works’ or those who can make the most specialized custom kitchen cabitnets to landscapers who feel the best way to pattern interlock bricks and flowerbeds!

And that is just the tip of the iceberg!

Don’t get me wrong, many Aspies do succeed in the world of academics:  I suspect that more Math/Physics/Linguistics/Engineering professors are Aspies that not.  That is why ‘Aspergers’ is often called ‘the little professor syndrome’!  But academics are not the only options open to Aspies when it comes to careers!

We just have to find a field – and we CAN ‘own it’!  We just have to be told that we can…when we are young and before we give up trying to find ‘our field’.  Once we know we can, we WILL succeed:  after all, that IS ‘the rule’!

If we can stick with just one field long enough…

Cross-posted on ‘Xanthippa on Aspergers’

Posted in Aspergers, education. Tags: , , , . 1 Comment »
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