For the first time in my life I exercised extremely reluctantly the tool of censorship. I received a slanderous and salacious comments from some total goof about other people who were prominent in the Green Party and in due course calling them fascists. Better to have a fascist than a cowardly gossipy sneak. To make matters worse this person, obviously a Green Party insider lurks looking for blogs stupid enough to publish their libelous statements.
This "coward" begged for anonymous status. I don't mind publishing anonymous comments so long as they are not slanderous or libelous and carry factual foundation to support or constructively criticize. The only statement which wasn't a libel insisted Elizabeth May was democratic.
Maybe this spamming coward doesn't really understand. I never meant to imply that she wasn't. That would have been an interpretation that could only made by a complete dyslexic too stupid to correctly read clear text. I meant to define her as a complete political idiot not fit to lead a national political party whose clear mission is to save the planet. And there are facts backing this up.
1. She is running against Peter MacKay. Of all the ridings in Canada that is the worst riding to pick. In the last sixty years only once has the Conservatives failed to hold that riding. Not only that MacKay is extremely popular in that riding. She is doomed to failure.
The Liberal support in that riding will not move to her instead it is more likely to move to their favorite son. Since Belinda betrayed him to shine in the Liberal light, any shake up in the demographic will favour his ass.
This is politics 101. Free fucking advice from a political expert here. No charge. A kindergarten kid could get the concept that in order to build a door ...you don't bang your head against a concrete wall.
2. "May" committed the ultimate failure of any political movement. She set back the Green Party grievously. By agreeing to anything with the Liberals publicly, by making this agreement with she handed the Liberals the principle foundational plank of the Green Party.
She allegedly commented that Dion is Green. Last I looked in his short tenure as Environment Minister, Dion did absolutely nothing. That is N. O. T. H. I. N. G.
Okay, lets suppose then, and she does defeat MacKay. She pulled the electoral platform feet out from every other Green in every other riding in the country for completely selfish egocentric reasons. Voters are not complicated people. Their major concern is self interest. They'll go for anyone who will lower taxes regardless of whether it causes bad government.
Here is the choice she left her constituency. Do I vote for a Green Party candidate, whose leader is so stupid to actually believe, that she can beat Peter MacKay. Do I vote for a Liberal who is running on the same environmental issues supported by the Green Party Leader, will be more likely to get to form the next government, who can then get me government grants for my gay child's dance performance. Or, do I vote for a Green Party candidate who won't form the government, who won't be able to enable green legislation based on the party platform, who won't be able to get me a grant for my gay child's dance performance.
Now who will these voter's choose. A enchilida or a single chili pepper. Isn't anyone in that Green Party capable of simple political concepts?
The riding May should've run in, Toronto Centre, was open with a dynamic voting pattern. That is why Bob Rae picked the riding its open to anyone phony lefties. Graham the puff adder, held the riding and did absolutely nothing for the constituents... and worse they didn't even mind.
The present perspective candidate in that riding for the Green Party, acts more like a goofy teenager than an a smart political animal. At one time ,I was actually interested in joining the Green Party, if only to stop Bob Rae's coronation.
Here's why stupidity gets contagious. So looking at this idiot's website, I saw an event where I could go and meet the person, press the flesh. I've done political work as a campaign management consultant for almost forty years. My political apprenticeship in practical politics was with the same campaign manager, Clem Downey of Nipigon, the guy who engineered the defeat of the most powerful Liberal in the country at that time, CD Howe.
People forget but CD Howe was big, big and he got dumped by an NDP guy. Such an upset would have been the same as hypothetically as Elizabeth May actually dumping Peter MacKay without Liberal help. Over the years I worked as a worker, advisor, driver, scrutineer, floor captain, rabble rouser, and manager on several campaigns until the normal middle age disillusionment with politics came into the fray. In short, I do know of what I speak.
I am an ad hoc member of Hoof & Cycle which is an ad hoc group which advocates on issues regarding active (human powered) transportation. We ad hoc a lot. Big. Really big on environment and practical not theoretical solutions. And the fearless ad hoc leader of our small but effluential ad hoc group, Wayne Scott was on the panel. Be there. Be square. Do a little ad hoc. Hoc. Hoc. Hoc.
So this Green Candidate, who shall remain nameless, because at this point I expect an apology for this person's simple minded behaviour from said person, listed in the "Calendar of Events." a panel discussion hosted by "Now" magazine which took place a couple of weeks ago. The topic was Bicycling and its perceived decline. To emphasize, I repeat, it was listed in the Green Party website. Not only that. The event occurred in his riding. Now Magazine's HQ and café is on Church south of Dundas East, and right inside the boundaries of Toronto Centre.
Hey I went. To be honest, most of these people are not in my demographic partying group. And they are stuck in bike lanes and most of them are jocks. Which isn't bad. Not at all. They are very good conscientious citizens. At least they cared enough to show up, unlike you know who. On the panel was the usual suspects in the Bicycle advocacy and the newly vetted TTC Chairman Adam Giambrone.
The hostess for this environment event, the co-founding CEO of Now Magazine, the beautiful Alice Klein, who is the most energetic environmentalists in the city. This was a not only the usual Toronto bitching-o-rama this was like a social environmental love-in. An ashram of purity and future light. This was the sunshine at midnight.
Not a demographic exactly in my personal comfort zone, but certainly it should be a must do for the Green Party. I mingled. Oh yes I did. Shook hands. Giggled at bad jokes. Grinned at boorish observations. Nodded at the inane environmental comments by urbanites who know squat about nature. Searching, searching. Screwing up the courage. Grinning like a lost child. I mingled.
The Green Party guy. The guy who has the most to lose in the next election Didn't bother to show up. Categorically no political reason for the Green Party to not be there even with a substitute. This was the guys Green demographic. This was the place to rally support. To press the flesh. To cash in on the moment. Get the momentum going. Garner support from those most likely to show up at the campaign rallies and campaign headquarter. I really looked hard.
Hey I am not going to give out free advice here. No way. I need the money. I know what I would be doing if I were the Green candidate. I be like behaving like there was no tomorrow. The race in this riding is open. Ripe for picking. Best chance to get into the House and shout insults at the Prime Minister. Best place to really go for the big bone. Got the right issue. Got the best alternative. I know what I would have done were I the candidate.
Also I know what I would have said if I were the campaign manager in the riding. Oh trust me. Tis would be a lesson. It would be a three... no a four hour fucking lecture with all the salient points and political examples extending back to Brutus's famous excuse... "Gee I didn't know that the knife was loaded!"
The guy didn't show. No one from the party stepped forward. It was on his website. Am I bitter about having to spend a half hour of time trying to ferret out the presence of this political movement? Did I feel bitter about having to pass up the free food service at the post game social reception to smile and ask people about people who should have been there? Am I bitter? Am I pissed?
I even went up to a scrawny look alike. I had too. There was a remote resemblance to the Green Party Candidate. Yes. At a function where I could have connected for employment. At a function where I could have scored a babe in my age category. You know what I was doing...? Oh yeah. Asking really stupid questions.
Oh ya a lot of fun going up to people. Are you ______? or Do you belong to the _____ Party? No? Hey what a fun time!!!.
Conclusion. I could not select the right name to accurately describe this ____ Party candidate. Please help. Go ahead. Pick a name out of this list: 1. idiot, 2. moron, 3. dog poop scoop, 4. pickle brain, 5. cubic minded ... aka blockhead.
I am at a loss to pick one, or just pick one. It is best to be democratic in the assignment of proper titles. We are all happy democrats here aren't we?
Now I don't blame this guy for being a (pick a name from above list). I've never met him. How could that happen. He's gotta show at the events he promotes, ya think? Maybe the guy had something to do? I dragged my sorry ass out of bed to attend this event. I had been in the hospital bed recovering from knee surgery less than a week before. But this isn't about me. I am just the victim of this really bad politic.
Maybe the (pick a name from above list) will read this post and go "Ooops"? But what it does show is just how politically unfit this particular political party is at the moment. Shit happens. Maybe he was in a hospital..? Maybe recovering from a double lobotomy? Who knows? Who knows?
And worst of all. Their alleged supporters and members of the Green Party's in Canada waste time with petty differences. Waste time with personality issues. Waste time in fractious and nugatory issues. They are basically leaderless, do need a political leader, and in the same breath, don't want a good leader. The whole globe is about to burn and these clowns are screwing up with kindergarten attitudes and infantile parochial infighting. How could these clowns unite a whole country when they can't unite a simple political movement? They are behaving absolutely small, they are thinking small when the issue, Global Warming is not just large but in quantity humongous.
Don't blame polluters. The people they should blame ...is themselves. The members of the Green Party are the most to blame for the future failure of environmental change if the course of this event.
What is more? I just really don't appreciate in having to be put in the position of being a censor. I apologize to my blog readers for that much.
Censorship is absolutely against my inner wishes. But allowing such specious comments would have definitely violated the slander and libel laws in Canada and since the person was too cowardly, too weaselly to attach a verifiable name to these false arguments they were in the final issue my responsibility and I put them into the garbage, without recycling them.
How's that for response no three R's not even one. Straight to garbage. I apologize to the garbage can whence they went. There was no balance in the text and article to the comment. And it was unfair to the people mentioned by name in that comment to publish it.
I know one thing, recalling that meeting. It is the most patent reason why the Green Party staggers. Almost all the people there at that meeting regarding the future of bicycling in this city were united in one thing. People who should be on side with all parties Green... Couldn't care less.
***30***
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Environmental crisis - Part two - The Greens
At this point of time, the Canadian environmental effort staggers from disaster to disaster. The major crisis for the Canada isn’t Global Warming. Not at all.
Only one great disaster remains and it is Humans. The worst thing to happen to the Canadian environment may surprise some. The enemy isn’t the greedy selfish energy guzzling Canadian businessman. At the heart of the crisis is the failure of the environmentalists themselves. The Canadian Green Party(s) continue playing the parable to a political Katrina, …nay a whole series of Katrina class storms.
Politically they cannot get it together. In theory, the Canadian Green Party represents the environment. In action, they mimic Keystone Cops lurching from idea to idea. Bickering amongst themselves incessantly. Making plainly stupid political decisions. They lack leadership, focus and vision.
Result a disaster for the environment. The accumulated follies would assemble into a long list, a compendium of literal disaster. Certainly Green Party members are well meaning people, good people, but presently they haven’t identified the problem. It isn’t waste. It isn’t emissions. Its them.
Top of the list remains the leadership of the party. While the environment remains the top most priority, Canadian environmental politicians care more about strokes to their ego rather than saving a pound of air. Get with it. Hell will suffer from Infernal Freezing before Elizabeth May wins an election, and any election against Peter MacKay in Nova Scotia, in MacKay’s home riding.
For a while there, the Green Party appeared to be on the right track with the leadership of Jim Harris. They were in growth mode albeit one too slow. Harris steered the party into the business and commercial mainstream. The theme was becoming mainstream Canadian.
Canadian voters are for the most part central on the political spectrum. Middle of the road positioning is politically important. Key to the voters is the policies regarding the environment. Apparently the common sense approach to politics remained subordinate to personal viewpoints. The radical factions of the Green Party maneuvered Harris into resigning and took over the party.
May’s surrender to Dion in consenting to allow the Liberals to help her try to win against MacKay remains a questionable tactic.
Not all Liberals will join her and more likely simply refuse to vote. One hunch is that she is not listening to any sound political advice. Even on paper her challenge in this riding is politically stupid. The riding in any form has remained in Conservative hands for at least fifty years with the exception of four years during the first Chretien landslide that swept any Mulroney Tory aside east of the Manitoba Border save for three. In the next election, the riding returned to the Tory side and the politician that did this was Peter MacKay.
By this no-compete effort between her party and the Liberals she may think this is a good thing but she literally killed her very own party by denying the Green party in Stephan Dion’s own riding to make a statement at the polling station. It is an anti-democratic move.
Worse it instantly paints the red Liberals green and environmental. The only recorded achievement Dion did for the environment during his ministerial tenure was to name his dog Kyoto. As for the real Kyoto it was largely ignored suffering from the usual posture of the modern Liberal politician which is to sit quietly on all hands. May foolishly handed the Liberal party environmental legitimacy.
Contrast this with the Harris stand against the urbanite dandy leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) Jack Layton. Jim Harris’s move to the centre suborned the alleged tree hugging posturing of the NDP. The NDP jumps on any fashionable cause de jour, promising but never delivering in any government they controlled in the last twenty years. (Can anyone recall the NDP mantra about Ontario Public Auto?)
Magnifying this was the continuing grievous mishandling by the Green Party of the Wayne Crookes’ Affair. Apparently Green Party members and internet sites are being sued allegedly for libel and slander on the internet blogs. The merits of this litigation is best left to the law courts. Regardless this sequence of events should have never occurred in the first place.
Of all the Canadian environmentalists to constantly harp but do absolutely nothing about it, is David Suzuki. When I was a member of the now defunct National Party under the political amateur Mel Hurtig. The major plank of the National Party involved the environment. Suzuki was rumored to have assured that if Mel took the jump to lead the party, he would be a candidate.
Indeed doubtless Suzuki has not only been asked by the National Party but he had received offers from the NDP, the Liberals (but they’ll ask anybody), and the present Green Party to run in a riding as a candidate. I can only speak to the National Party experience with Suzuki and a little bit with the NDP.
The National Party did start out rather well and united. One of those reasons was the possibility that Suzuki would run. Indeed some of the senior officials within that party felt that it was a done deal. Another promise of participation allegedly came from Maude Barlow another mouth and no action person. Recall that at that time there were only four self proclaimed and widely acknowledged ethical champions of Canada. Mel Hurtig, Maude Barlow, David Suzuki, and Margaret Atwood.
Of the four only one stuck their neck out, and put their reputation on the line politically and that was Hurtig. It is easy to understand why Atwood wouldn’t run, she’s a writer, an unelectable political dilettante. Maude Barlow would have been an iffy candidate. But the star was Suzuki.
Political experts within the nascent political party had correctly ascertained that Suzuki was likely the single most electable environmentalist in Canada. Certainly he would have won in any riding in British Columbia. It was also felt that Suzuki would have been the number two political leader in that party and certainly any party for that matter. Indeed had he asked he could have assumed the mantle of party leader. So strong is the Canadian identity and contact to ordinary Canadians by Suzuki that any campaign manager could have assisted Suzuki to become a political party leader of any political party of his choosing.
That was then. This is now, a decade and half later. Incredibly if Suzuki so chose to do so, he would easily win in many of the seats in Canada. Why doesn’t he?
Well, it would mean public scrutiny. This is the usual excuse. But then he has always been a public person used to being in the public. On the one hand the rumored participation by him in the National Party could have been used as membership bait. The mere mention of his name inspires participation. I can only relate what was told to me. He couldn’t run and keep his contract with CBC.
Recently, Suzuki went on a cross Canada environmental crusade to save Kyoto and stop global warming. According to the reports I’ve read, he did this in a large diesel guzzling luxury RV. He and his spokes people retorted that this was the only option. How wrong. Another option exists. He could have taken a Greyhound like the rest of us mortals.
But Suzuki is a case standard. Its fine and dandy for those celebrity environmentalists to spout. Remember, when people like Suzuki speak the critical issue of the environment to them it still is not their number one concern. Their bank account is.
To win this fight the time for talk is over. It takes guts to change the course of human history. Anyone can talk about it, til cows can roost in the treetops. People can make minuscule efforts to help the environment but at the moment it is not a small change, it is a big change that is needed. It is a political change that is needed. To save the environment depends wholly on a smart plan, a smart vision, a smart action on politics, a smart political leadership and a smart political unity.
Only one great disaster remains and it is Humans. The worst thing to happen to the Canadian environment may surprise some. The enemy isn’t the greedy selfish energy guzzling Canadian businessman. At the heart of the crisis is the failure of the environmentalists themselves. The Canadian Green Party(s) continue playing the parable to a political Katrina, …nay a whole series of Katrina class storms.
Politically they cannot get it together. In theory, the Canadian Green Party represents the environment. In action, they mimic Keystone Cops lurching from idea to idea. Bickering amongst themselves incessantly. Making plainly stupid political decisions. They lack leadership, focus and vision.
Result a disaster for the environment. The accumulated follies would assemble into a long list, a compendium of literal disaster. Certainly Green Party members are well meaning people, good people, but presently they haven’t identified the problem. It isn’t waste. It isn’t emissions. Its them.
Top of the list remains the leadership of the party. While the environment remains the top most priority, Canadian environmental politicians care more about strokes to their ego rather than saving a pound of air. Get with it. Hell will suffer from Infernal Freezing before Elizabeth May wins an election, and any election against Peter MacKay in Nova Scotia, in MacKay’s home riding.
For a while there, the Green Party appeared to be on the right track with the leadership of Jim Harris. They were in growth mode albeit one too slow. Harris steered the party into the business and commercial mainstream. The theme was becoming mainstream Canadian.
Canadian voters are for the most part central on the political spectrum. Middle of the road positioning is politically important. Key to the voters is the policies regarding the environment. Apparently the common sense approach to politics remained subordinate to personal viewpoints. The radical factions of the Green Party maneuvered Harris into resigning and took over the party.
May’s surrender to Dion in consenting to allow the Liberals to help her try to win against MacKay remains a questionable tactic.
Not all Liberals will join her and more likely simply refuse to vote. One hunch is that she is not listening to any sound political advice. Even on paper her challenge in this riding is politically stupid. The riding in any form has remained in Conservative hands for at least fifty years with the exception of four years during the first Chretien landslide that swept any Mulroney Tory aside east of the Manitoba Border save for three. In the next election, the riding returned to the Tory side and the politician that did this was Peter MacKay.
By this no-compete effort between her party and the Liberals she may think this is a good thing but she literally killed her very own party by denying the Green party in Stephan Dion’s own riding to make a statement at the polling station. It is an anti-democratic move.
Worse it instantly paints the red Liberals green and environmental. The only recorded achievement Dion did for the environment during his ministerial tenure was to name his dog Kyoto. As for the real Kyoto it was largely ignored suffering from the usual posture of the modern Liberal politician which is to sit quietly on all hands. May foolishly handed the Liberal party environmental legitimacy.
Contrast this with the Harris stand against the urbanite dandy leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) Jack Layton. Jim Harris’s move to the centre suborned the alleged tree hugging posturing of the NDP. The NDP jumps on any fashionable cause de jour, promising but never delivering in any government they controlled in the last twenty years. (Can anyone recall the NDP mantra about Ontario Public Auto?)
Magnifying this was the continuing grievous mishandling by the Green Party of the Wayne Crookes’ Affair. Apparently Green Party members and internet sites are being sued allegedly for libel and slander on the internet blogs. The merits of this litigation is best left to the law courts. Regardless this sequence of events should have never occurred in the first place.
Of all the Canadian environmentalists to constantly harp but do absolutely nothing about it, is David Suzuki. When I was a member of the now defunct National Party under the political amateur Mel Hurtig. The major plank of the National Party involved the environment. Suzuki was rumored to have assured that if Mel took the jump to lead the party, he would be a candidate.
Indeed doubtless Suzuki has not only been asked by the National Party but he had received offers from the NDP, the Liberals (but they’ll ask anybody), and the present Green Party to run in a riding as a candidate. I can only speak to the National Party experience with Suzuki and a little bit with the NDP.
The National Party did start out rather well and united. One of those reasons was the possibility that Suzuki would run. Indeed some of the senior officials within that party felt that it was a done deal. Another promise of participation allegedly came from Maude Barlow another mouth and no action person. Recall that at that time there were only four self proclaimed and widely acknowledged ethical champions of Canada. Mel Hurtig, Maude Barlow, David Suzuki, and Margaret Atwood.
Of the four only one stuck their neck out, and put their reputation on the line politically and that was Hurtig. It is easy to understand why Atwood wouldn’t run, she’s a writer, an unelectable political dilettante. Maude Barlow would have been an iffy candidate. But the star was Suzuki.
Political experts within the nascent political party had correctly ascertained that Suzuki was likely the single most electable environmentalist in Canada. Certainly he would have won in any riding in British Columbia. It was also felt that Suzuki would have been the number two political leader in that party and certainly any party for that matter. Indeed had he asked he could have assumed the mantle of party leader. So strong is the Canadian identity and contact to ordinary Canadians by Suzuki that any campaign manager could have assisted Suzuki to become a political party leader of any political party of his choosing.
That was then. This is now, a decade and half later. Incredibly if Suzuki so chose to do so, he would easily win in many of the seats in Canada. Why doesn’t he?
Well, it would mean public scrutiny. This is the usual excuse. But then he has always been a public person used to being in the public. On the one hand the rumored participation by him in the National Party could have been used as membership bait. The mere mention of his name inspires participation. I can only relate what was told to me. He couldn’t run and keep his contract with CBC.
Recently, Suzuki went on a cross Canada environmental crusade to save Kyoto and stop global warming. According to the reports I’ve read, he did this in a large diesel guzzling luxury RV. He and his spokes people retorted that this was the only option. How wrong. Another option exists. He could have taken a Greyhound like the rest of us mortals.
But Suzuki is a case standard. Its fine and dandy for those celebrity environmentalists to spout. Remember, when people like Suzuki speak the critical issue of the environment to them it still is not their number one concern. Their bank account is.
To win this fight the time for talk is over. It takes guts to change the course of human history. Anyone can talk about it, til cows can roost in the treetops. People can make minuscule efforts to help the environment but at the moment it is not a small change, it is a big change that is needed. It is a political change that is needed. To save the environment depends wholly on a smart plan, a smart vision, a smart action on politics, a smart political leadership and a smart political unity.
Environmental crisis - part one - Shit all over the place
With the entire planet's environment entering a period of warming humans stumble with reality. The humorous episode generated by rocker Sheryl Crow's comments on one sheet for one shit begs a comedy of errors. Her comments were greeted with derision and comedic reaction.
What is staggering though is that these comments outstripped all the press about the impending global warming for the last month. Crows comment wasn't well thought out sort of impractical but definitely her heart was pointed in the right direction. Secondly she can say anything she wants. I'd walk on nails for her and if she went out with me I would never see another beef steak nor care.
Remember one important thing for over two hundred years ago the principle cleaning device for la derriere was the left hand. And there was no place to wash hands back then. So the issue of tissue wipes out the position of those who chided and criticized such ambitious remarks. It presents an idea going forward. Not one of the critics came up with a positive alternative. It would need a larger mind.
If a lot of people did a little bit there would be an impact on the environment. The alliance of the media to the people who tried to humiliate Crow demonstrates the rather small contribution of the mainstream media to the attention. If this is the reaction by those of the fifth estate then the cause is lost.
Yet there lies the heart of the problem with the Environmental movement. The emotion is correct. Yet there lacks a clear focus on how to deal with the great challenge of this century. The concepts and efforts are too fractuous. Each faction more loyal to its pet peeves in sacrifice to the extremely important issue of reducing green house gas emissions from an ever bulging human population. Not all ideas work well.
The great challenge isn't deep space exploration at the moment. The great challenge of this coming century is to adjust the human lifestyle and civilization to the limited resources of this small planet. We already have most of the technology capable of rectifying this environmental situation.
There is a crisis point in Global Warming. Its humanities largest crisis. It is moving much faster than the natural world can cope with. Plants and animals need time to adjust to the change in atmosphere. Humans constantly infringe on the natural habitats and devices that protected our nascent emergence from the Serengeti. The crisis period is about a decade. It needs a larger plan a more consistent vision.
Recently I asked a notable person very emphatic to the environmental issues. He would have made an excellent Member of Parliament. But even this great issue didn't overcome the individual angst. The environmentalist movement to this point insists on calling its members warriors. Nay we need no warriors. Humanity requires soldiers.
Soldiers not to kill. Soldiers to put their reputation on the line. Soldiers well versed to sell the new dream. Soldiers armed with the vision. Soldiers trained to be fearless. Soldiers foresaking comforts. Soldiers willing to move the wall of doom facing humanity on this small planet.
Turning the current path of Global Warming better called the Global catastrophy will require a loyal, selfless army division of these leaders of these soldiers. It must be tried albeit it might be too late for the short term impact on the globe. Whether now or even if it is too late, the sacrifices of many will be necessary for the survival of the human species. The enemy of this army of human environmental soldiers. Only one enemy. Themselves.
What is staggering though is that these comments outstripped all the press about the impending global warming for the last month. Crows comment wasn't well thought out sort of impractical but definitely her heart was pointed in the right direction. Secondly she can say anything she wants. I'd walk on nails for her and if she went out with me I would never see another beef steak nor care.
Remember one important thing for over two hundred years ago the principle cleaning device for la derriere was the left hand. And there was no place to wash hands back then. So the issue of tissue wipes out the position of those who chided and criticized such ambitious remarks. It presents an idea going forward. Not one of the critics came up with a positive alternative. It would need a larger mind.
If a lot of people did a little bit there would be an impact on the environment. The alliance of the media to the people who tried to humiliate Crow demonstrates the rather small contribution of the mainstream media to the attention. If this is the reaction by those of the fifth estate then the cause is lost.
Yet there lies the heart of the problem with the Environmental movement. The emotion is correct. Yet there lacks a clear focus on how to deal with the great challenge of this century. The concepts and efforts are too fractuous. Each faction more loyal to its pet peeves in sacrifice to the extremely important issue of reducing green house gas emissions from an ever bulging human population. Not all ideas work well.
The great challenge isn't deep space exploration at the moment. The great challenge of this coming century is to adjust the human lifestyle and civilization to the limited resources of this small planet. We already have most of the technology capable of rectifying this environmental situation.
There is a crisis point in Global Warming. Its humanities largest crisis. It is moving much faster than the natural world can cope with. Plants and animals need time to adjust to the change in atmosphere. Humans constantly infringe on the natural habitats and devices that protected our nascent emergence from the Serengeti. The crisis period is about a decade. It needs a larger plan a more consistent vision.
Recently I asked a notable person very emphatic to the environmental issues. He would have made an excellent Member of Parliament. But even this great issue didn't overcome the individual angst. The environmentalist movement to this point insists on calling its members warriors. Nay we need no warriors. Humanity requires soldiers.
Soldiers not to kill. Soldiers to put their reputation on the line. Soldiers well versed to sell the new dream. Soldiers armed with the vision. Soldiers trained to be fearless. Soldiers foresaking comforts. Soldiers willing to move the wall of doom facing humanity on this small planet.
Turning the current path of Global Warming better called the Global catastrophy will require a loyal, selfless army division of these leaders of these soldiers. It must be tried albeit it might be too late for the short term impact on the globe. Whether now or even if it is too late, the sacrifices of many will be necessary for the survival of the human species. The enemy of this army of human environmental soldiers. Only one enemy. Themselves.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Kneed to know Part 8
A rambunctuious period of inaction to be sure. After the surgery the knee began to feel good almost immediately. Just the swelling was painful. Now it is three weeks and yesterday I began going out without a cane for the first time in a full calender knee.
However, I will use the cane in the future. It allows a seat at the front of the street car.
Modern medicine is wonderful. Yet I cannot thinking about the loss of the good old days. You see I got three little holes where the surgical probes went into repair some of the tears in the knee. That's a problem.
Remember the guys, stinking drunk on a case of beer and the cheapest rye, would sit around. "Hey wanna see my scar!" one always says.
"Shit that's bugger all" says another even drunker whistler. Drops the pants, "Look at this...."
Ah for the good old days. Show, tell and brag. Then the whole crowd lifts shirts, pull downs pants, pulls off socks in a chorus "Well I got this... !"
Now think. A whole year of dragging this pained appendage around and what have I got to show? Nothing.
.
However, I will use the cane in the future. It allows a seat at the front of the street car.
Modern medicine is wonderful. Yet I cannot thinking about the loss of the good old days. You see I got three little holes where the surgical probes went into repair some of the tears in the knee. That's a problem.
Remember the guys, stinking drunk on a case of beer and the cheapest rye, would sit around. "Hey wanna see my scar!" one always says.
"Shit that's bugger all" says another even drunker whistler. Drops the pants, "Look at this...."
Ah for the good old days. Show, tell and brag. Then the whole crowd lifts shirts, pull downs pants, pulls off socks in a chorus "Well I got this... !"
Now think. A whole year of dragging this pained appendage around and what have I got to show? Nothing.
.
Black - update
Conrad Black is appearing more upbeat this week as the prosecution founders. Indeed the prosecutors are having a hard time proving Black's criminality to this point. Even Black's journalistic buddies like Peter Worthington are trumpeting sure triumph for the defense.
No one including Worthington appears to be questioning the ethics of his business actions. Indeed the greedy maneuver of noncompete fees had to be kept quiet according to the lawyers involved. Black's actions were molded by others according to his defense team.
Regardless the ethics of such actions retain the allegorical shade of very gray. Black was legally in the right. Applied law is a question of legalities not ethics nor morality. A judge and jury can only deal with a legality based on written law in the case of the American format of justice.
Black may not need Canadian citizenship. Knowing the present Harperite Conservative government's penchant for sliding bad decisions under the door sill, Black already may have been reinstated citizen with true Conservative honors. Despite the decade old very public bashing of Canada on his exit to Lordshipdom the regaining of citizenship can be shielded as a private issue and not held in the public optic. Is he now a citizen? Without a conviction, we we'll never know for sure.
This is a belief but he, or the she, has been on the record as alleging Canadian penal institutions as being the least penalizing in the developed world. According to the expressed viewpoint of the time American prisons and justice had it right. Of this conjecture he will never know. He won't be going to jail. No need for a Canadian jail aka Club Kingston "the Resort". If he is found not guilty, he'll have no need of the burden of Canadian citizenship.
No one including Worthington appears to be questioning the ethics of his business actions. Indeed the greedy maneuver of noncompete fees had to be kept quiet according to the lawyers involved. Black's actions were molded by others according to his defense team.
Regardless the ethics of such actions retain the allegorical shade of very gray. Black was legally in the right. Applied law is a question of legalities not ethics nor morality. A judge and jury can only deal with a legality based on written law in the case of the American format of justice.
Black may not need Canadian citizenship. Knowing the present Harperite Conservative government's penchant for sliding bad decisions under the door sill, Black already may have been reinstated citizen with true Conservative honors. Despite the decade old very public bashing of Canada on his exit to Lordshipdom the regaining of citizenship can be shielded as a private issue and not held in the public optic. Is he now a citizen? Without a conviction, we we'll never know for sure.
This is a belief but he, or the she, has been on the record as alleging Canadian penal institutions as being the least penalizing in the developed world. According to the expressed viewpoint of the time American prisons and justice had it right. Of this conjecture he will never know. He won't be going to jail. No need for a Canadian jail aka Club Kingston "the Resort". If he is found not guilty, he'll have no need of the burden of Canadian citizenship.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Blogging, Wikipedia and accuracy
Anyone who believes everything in a blog to be the gospel truth, is an idiot. Any blog, including this one is totally opinion.
Anyone who reads anything in Wikipedia and then believes it is totally true, is an idiot. In the preamble to all Wikipedia contributors it is clearly written out that it is meant to be a compendium of knowledge written by faceless contributors wishing to contribute. Initially all contributions are subject to further scrutiny and subject to later examination. All contributors are responsible for that data not the Wikipedia.
I am a contributor to Wikipedia.
On the topic of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Dumont
Further discussion was encouraged. Fortunately some of that discussion was from a personal viewpoint but such a contribution bolsters the world knowledge. I may have been wrong but this was definitely opinion and written as such.
This was my contribution to world knowledge, it was to convey my deceased father's viewpoint who had been born only a couple of decades after that conflict and knew many of the people who had physically witnessed the relevant events.
The op-ed piece was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Gabriel_Dumont
Another was on page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:North-West_Rebellion
Guess which one is my contribution.
Now for a jokes media types such as Don Landry of the Fan590 of Toronto decided to furnish false information into the Wikipedia on a topic relating to his more famous morning radio partner Gord Stellick. I forgot what Landry wrote. He thought it was funny. I believe he usually thinks anything he does is hilarious. But he lacks the brainpower to take on people like Sam Mitchell effectively mano en mano, as his usual Wednesday morning interviews with Sam Mitchell have proven.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gord_Stellick
You will note that as a repercussion of Landry's actions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_McCown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Howarth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Swirsky
The Stellick entry has been corrected. As a result Landry, remains the only senior radio personality on the radio station who appears to be delisted on the Wikipedia. For any media savvy person with the hope of having any sort of future career an entry in Wikipedia maintains to a new modern de rigueur.
Such an open process can be subject to significant abuse. Of that is no doubt.
The scary thing remains that this misunderstanding will be maintained by those now wishing to shut down the process of the accumulation of knowledge. People are now suing such media as responsible for that which is published regardless of the long term convention that contributors are responsible for the data input.
To date the Canadian Supreme Court has supported this open process in such actions regarding the American interpretation of copyright legislation being applied in Canada. And so goes the course of justice. The problem with Common Law is that there is a belief amongst civil lawyers that it can be stretched. It can be.
Sites such as those being sued, have been used as a weapon of malice. According to reports to date, I believe a rather inept Green Party of Canada membership tried to splay some misinformation about a former officer of the party. It is a case before the courts. The plaintiff is trying to sue the site owners of such information. It will be interesting to see the effect of these legal shenanigans. The plaintiff has been able through litigious ambition to thwart the web sites in Canada and the United States. To date this has worked only because the defendants believed that surrender was the cheapest not the ethical response.
However the litigators largest problem will be to prove financial harm by these actions. From what I've seen is that the plaintiffs have not suffered any financial harm directly due to any information, or misinformation placed on the web.
Between Canada and the United States libel and slander legislation is a wholly different process. Lawyers are not always up front at the best of times. And this litigator appears to be dallying on down the rosy path laid out by his lawyers or lawyers who only tells him what he wants to hear.
Few actions of libel and slander in Canada have been successful. It is not a high percentage winner. And any litigation involves a double edge sword. If the defense capably defends itself all that information will be published and at a higher profile. Further the Canadian system of libel legislation follows the British model and not the American.
Significant harm must be proved in the British model. As a result winning may not be something to cheer. I recall that one libel award in the past as $1.00.
The problem is that most of the defendants have chosen to settle out of court. In the case of smaller site operators settling out of court takes on a significant onerous load. However taking on a site operator such as Google, the plaintiff should back off. Winning will not be all that easy.
All they have to prove is that that there is a foundation of truth within the alleged statements of slander or libel then the plaintiff's case is lost. If the court correctly believes that the blogging forum is opinion demonstrating facts that a blog constitutes a belief and not journalistic fact then the plaintiff's case becomes lost.
It seems a trivial but any op-ed writer knows that if a conjecture is prefaced by the phrase "I believe that..." the subsequent facts can be interpreted as a truth albeit false. The plaintiff is then required to shake that belief and place before the court a high level of proof that the defendant intentionally committed that statement knowing that it was false. It is a case of spreading a false truth.
For a person of journalistic background a court would find that there is a higher level of responsibility of getting the story right. However, and this is the problem with blogging, if the writer is enterring a belief in a blog then that blog is legally a truth despite being false. The vast majority of bloggers are amateur to the written process. Courts, especially civil courts apply a vastly different amount of mitigation to each type of writer.
A professionally paid writer has a vested interest in maintaining written accuracy. An amateur writer possesses no commercial advantage to whatever they wrote and the degree of truthfulness is much broader. As long as the writer truly believes that what they are writing is true beyond malice, that belief is total truth no matter how false it is.
British Law applied to Libel is a larger whole to fill and as long as the writer truly believes about the truthfulness of the statement then it cannot be libel. Remember libel and slander is only libel and slander if the teller knowingly made those statements knowing them to be false or without truthful foundation. The writer must be given adequate time to be contrite to revise, publish a retraction in the same media and/or apologize in a reasonable time.
If your eyes are crossing in that confusion, don't worry you are not alone. Google is only a search engine for data. The data doesn't have to be true.
Wikipedia publically states, from the outset, that the information may not be necessarily accurate. They do try however to make it as accurate as possible given the fact that it is constantly being bombarded by information.
And blogging is statement of opinions, not to be consider gospel truth. And opinions are beliefs not necessarily true facts. To the author - a truth. The site operator is not responsible for those beliefs.
You will note that I do not directly give you the litigants name until the court case is settled. Why am I writing this is that Canadian businessmen are employing malicious litigation to deter the truth about their business practice. They know that the lawsuit is frivolous.
Court action will prove that there is no adequate legislation regarding libel or slander in the internet world. Court action will prove that.
In final summation it should be put forward that Blogs, Wikipedia must be always construed as being an uncertified source of information. I use Wikipedia citations as the starting point to research not the final result in such material that needs a certification. Ninety nine percent of the material that flows into Wikipedia daily is accurate or accurate enough that a certain reliability of the truth can be ascertained. For almost everything it is a starting point, not an ending point of research and not the final word.
Anyone who reads anything in Wikipedia and then believes it is totally true, is an idiot. In the preamble to all Wikipedia contributors it is clearly written out that it is meant to be a compendium of knowledge written by faceless contributors wishing to contribute. Initially all contributions are subject to further scrutiny and subject to later examination. All contributors are responsible for that data not the Wikipedia.
I am a contributor to Wikipedia.
On the topic of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Dumont
Further discussion was encouraged. Fortunately some of that discussion was from a personal viewpoint but such a contribution bolsters the world knowledge. I may have been wrong but this was definitely opinion and written as such.
This was my contribution to world knowledge, it was to convey my deceased father's viewpoint who had been born only a couple of decades after that conflict and knew many of the people who had physically witnessed the relevant events.
The op-ed piece was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Gabriel_Dumont
Another was on page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:North-West_Rebellion
Guess which one is my contribution.
Now for a jokes media types such as Don Landry of the Fan590 of Toronto decided to furnish false information into the Wikipedia on a topic relating to his more famous morning radio partner Gord Stellick. I forgot what Landry wrote. He thought it was funny. I believe he usually thinks anything he does is hilarious. But he lacks the brainpower to take on people like Sam Mitchell effectively mano en mano, as his usual Wednesday morning interviews with Sam Mitchell have proven.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gord_Stellick
You will note that as a repercussion of Landry's actions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_McCown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Howarth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Swirsky
The Stellick entry has been corrected. As a result Landry, remains the only senior radio personality on the radio station who appears to be delisted on the Wikipedia. For any media savvy person with the hope of having any sort of future career an entry in Wikipedia maintains to a new modern de rigueur.
Such an open process can be subject to significant abuse. Of that is no doubt.
The scary thing remains that this misunderstanding will be maintained by those now wishing to shut down the process of the accumulation of knowledge. People are now suing such media as responsible for that which is published regardless of the long term convention that contributors are responsible for the data input.
To date the Canadian Supreme Court has supported this open process in such actions regarding the American interpretation of copyright legislation being applied in Canada. And so goes the course of justice. The problem with Common Law is that there is a belief amongst civil lawyers that it can be stretched. It can be.
Sites such as those being sued, have been used as a weapon of malice. According to reports to date, I believe a rather inept Green Party of Canada membership tried to splay some misinformation about a former officer of the party. It is a case before the courts. The plaintiff is trying to sue the site owners of such information. It will be interesting to see the effect of these legal shenanigans. The plaintiff has been able through litigious ambition to thwart the web sites in Canada and the United States. To date this has worked only because the defendants believed that surrender was the cheapest not the ethical response.
However the litigators largest problem will be to prove financial harm by these actions. From what I've seen is that the plaintiffs have not suffered any financial harm directly due to any information, or misinformation placed on the web.
Between Canada and the United States libel and slander legislation is a wholly different process. Lawyers are not always up front at the best of times. And this litigator appears to be dallying on down the rosy path laid out by his lawyers or lawyers who only tells him what he wants to hear.
Few actions of libel and slander in Canada have been successful. It is not a high percentage winner. And any litigation involves a double edge sword. If the defense capably defends itself all that information will be published and at a higher profile. Further the Canadian system of libel legislation follows the British model and not the American.
Significant harm must be proved in the British model. As a result winning may not be something to cheer. I recall that one libel award in the past as $1.00.
The problem is that most of the defendants have chosen to settle out of court. In the case of smaller site operators settling out of court takes on a significant onerous load. However taking on a site operator such as Google, the plaintiff should back off. Winning will not be all that easy.
All they have to prove is that that there is a foundation of truth within the alleged statements of slander or libel then the plaintiff's case is lost. If the court correctly believes that the blogging forum is opinion demonstrating facts that a blog constitutes a belief and not journalistic fact then the plaintiff's case becomes lost.
It seems a trivial but any op-ed writer knows that if a conjecture is prefaced by the phrase "I believe that..." the subsequent facts can be interpreted as a truth albeit false. The plaintiff is then required to shake that belief and place before the court a high level of proof that the defendant intentionally committed that statement knowing that it was false. It is a case of spreading a false truth.
For a person of journalistic background a court would find that there is a higher level of responsibility of getting the story right. However, and this is the problem with blogging, if the writer is enterring a belief in a blog then that blog is legally a truth despite being false. The vast majority of bloggers are amateur to the written process. Courts, especially civil courts apply a vastly different amount of mitigation to each type of writer.
A professionally paid writer has a vested interest in maintaining written accuracy. An amateur writer possesses no commercial advantage to whatever they wrote and the degree of truthfulness is much broader. As long as the writer truly believes that what they are writing is true beyond malice, that belief is total truth no matter how false it is.
British Law applied to Libel is a larger whole to fill and as long as the writer truly believes about the truthfulness of the statement then it cannot be libel. Remember libel and slander is only libel and slander if the teller knowingly made those statements knowing them to be false or without truthful foundation. The writer must be given adequate time to be contrite to revise, publish a retraction in the same media and/or apologize in a reasonable time.
If your eyes are crossing in that confusion, don't worry you are not alone. Google is only a search engine for data. The data doesn't have to be true.
Wikipedia publically states, from the outset, that the information may not be necessarily accurate. They do try however to make it as accurate as possible given the fact that it is constantly being bombarded by information.
And blogging is statement of opinions, not to be consider gospel truth. And opinions are beliefs not necessarily true facts. To the author - a truth. The site operator is not responsible for those beliefs.
You will note that I do not directly give you the litigants name until the court case is settled. Why am I writing this is that Canadian businessmen are employing malicious litigation to deter the truth about their business practice. They know that the lawsuit is frivolous.
Court action will prove that there is no adequate legislation regarding libel or slander in the internet world. Court action will prove that.
In final summation it should be put forward that Blogs, Wikipedia must be always construed as being an uncertified source of information. I use Wikipedia citations as the starting point to research not the final result in such material that needs a certification. Ninety nine percent of the material that flows into Wikipedia daily is accurate or accurate enough that a certain reliability of the truth can be ascertained. For almost everything it is a starting point, not an ending point of research and not the final word.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Quandary of internet ethics
Wouldn't you know. Just when this gets comfortable. The history of Microsoft proved one thing. The larger a company gets really big, blind greed explodes.
Google operates this blog site. It will be a challenge to them It also recently bought Double Click*. It is one of the most pervasive group of spyware on the internet.
This is alarming. While it is quite understandable for a company to provide advertising on its web pages, it is quite another for a search engine to engage in providing spyware onto users computers.
Not only that. Last January, Google developed a working relationship with Ad-aware**, once an effective anti-spyware company. It climbs into the ever annoying Google Tool Bar which itself is a form of spyware.
The question remains will Ad-aware, a Google Company, have the gonads to remove or block the spyware from Double Click? As a pararepairer for computers, what I see is the development of a very invasive data collection company like Gator***; but one with a giant reach.
For the moment I am serious contemplating of switching away from Google to Altavista.com which is a cleaner less ad invasive form of Yahoo. If you read this please join the move to reduce the use of Google replacing it with other search engines until a written declaration is made by Google to the effect that there will be Chinese Walls between these companies. Of course it is always a good policy to never trust any online computer company.
Why this ethically challenging move? In short it is a response to Microsoft's effort to buy the very invasive Claria or Gator company who I believe seriously attempts to literally take over the home personal computer. Regardless, this is a very serious move the first anti user, pro commercial move by Google. The true colours may be emerging.
Keep checking back to this particular blog entry. It may soon disappear because Google also owns the blogspot.com
Reference links
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Click
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad-aware
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gator_%28spyware%29
Google operates this blog site. It will be a challenge to them It also recently bought Double Click*. It is one of the most pervasive group of spyware on the internet.
This is alarming. While it is quite understandable for a company to provide advertising on its web pages, it is quite another for a search engine to engage in providing spyware onto users computers.
Not only that. Last January, Google developed a working relationship with Ad-aware**, once an effective anti-spyware company. It climbs into the ever annoying Google Tool Bar which itself is a form of spyware.
The question remains will Ad-aware, a Google Company, have the gonads to remove or block the spyware from Double Click? As a pararepairer for computers, what I see is the development of a very invasive data collection company like Gator***; but one with a giant reach.
For the moment I am serious contemplating of switching away from Google to Altavista.com which is a cleaner less ad invasive form of Yahoo. If you read this please join the move to reduce the use of Google replacing it with other search engines until a written declaration is made by Google to the effect that there will be Chinese Walls between these companies. Of course it is always a good policy to never trust any online computer company.
Why this ethically challenging move? In short it is a response to Microsoft's effort to buy the very invasive Claria or Gator company who I believe seriously attempts to literally take over the home personal computer. Regardless, this is a very serious move the first anti user, pro commercial move by Google. The true colours may be emerging.
Keep checking back to this particular blog entry. It may soon disappear because Google also owns the blogspot.com
Reference links
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Click
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad-aware
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gator_%28spyware%29
Monday, April 16, 2007
A moment of pause
Forgive the few days of absence. Trying to dig up a relevant irrelevancy. There were other topics but at the point of writing one event supersedes them. It was chosen for me.
32 students have just been murdered at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg VA. In the modern world's parade of savage murder in Bush's post September 11 world this appears a small statistic. Yet murder of a single person at an educational institution strikes close to home amplifying.
In the last few hours since I read about this horrible event I form my thinking to the awfulness and the sadness that alternates in a two moon tidal event. In a strange way it makes me thankful that at this moment my daughter and grand children are safe and sound so far as I know. Instinctively that was my thought. Yet that strong emotion transfers to incredible empathy for those parents who lost their children who also thought about their youngsters the same way I did. It is a day of great sorrow.
I am asking those few people who read this and other blogs to take a moment upon reading his article to take a moment of time to remember the victims of this cowardly onslaught. Remember that each number of those 32 from 1 to 32 to remember that each was a person who attended these places of higher learning with a youthful eye to the future.
At the bottom of this piece there is a long list of school shootings courtesy of Wikipedia. Note a spectacular increase of them in George W. Bush's new world. A single entry in this list makes for a list too long.
I am definitely old enough to remember the 1966 Texas School shootings from the cowardly sniper hiding in a dominating tower. It was a traumatic event socially. In the sequence of events that highlighted the socially optimistic Kennedy years that event shook that positive world view tremendously in the North American social structure. In many ways it was worse than the Kennedy assassination. Students have no security detail.
The next moment in this twisted sequence is Kent State. Numerically it doesn't rank very high except that the murders were committed by the US Government. In a strange way this let the evil genii out of a plugged vessel. It gave permission to any demented person or organization to attack the heart of a society, the once hallowed places of learning.
For Canadians the next major trauma fell upon innocent students at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal PQ. Such a terrible event was twisted by every side. It lead to the Canadian gun registry. It prompted feminists to rant against every male icon in Canadian society. It was from the start committed by a demented mind who created victims in his sick mind which happened to be women. The answer was the gun registry which doesn't work. Rather governments went onto not only emasculate men in society it gutted the mental health network that might have prevented such a sick act.
On this day though. We cannot figure out or postulate methods to deter such terrible and tragic events. Rather we should focus our thoughts (and prayers if one possesses a belief system) to the directly effected individuals victims and their families.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
.
32 students have just been murdered at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg VA. In the modern world's parade of savage murder in Bush's post September 11 world this appears a small statistic. Yet murder of a single person at an educational institution strikes close to home amplifying.
In the last few hours since I read about this horrible event I form my thinking to the awfulness and the sadness that alternates in a two moon tidal event. In a strange way it makes me thankful that at this moment my daughter and grand children are safe and sound so far as I know. Instinctively that was my thought. Yet that strong emotion transfers to incredible empathy for those parents who lost their children who also thought about their youngsters the same way I did. It is a day of great sorrow.
I am asking those few people who read this and other blogs to take a moment upon reading his article to take a moment of time to remember the victims of this cowardly onslaught. Remember that each number of those 32 from 1 to 32 to remember that each was a person who attended these places of higher learning with a youthful eye to the future.
At the bottom of this piece there is a long list of school shootings courtesy of Wikipedia. Note a spectacular increase of them in George W. Bush's new world. A single entry in this list makes for a list too long.
I am definitely old enough to remember the 1966 Texas School shootings from the cowardly sniper hiding in a dominating tower. It was a traumatic event socially. In the sequence of events that highlighted the socially optimistic Kennedy years that event shook that positive world view tremendously in the North American social structure. In many ways it was worse than the Kennedy assassination. Students have no security detail.
The next moment in this twisted sequence is Kent State. Numerically it doesn't rank very high except that the murders were committed by the US Government. In a strange way this let the evil genii out of a plugged vessel. It gave permission to any demented person or organization to attack the heart of a society, the once hallowed places of learning.
For Canadians the next major trauma fell upon innocent students at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal PQ. Such a terrible event was twisted by every side. It lead to the Canadian gun registry. It prompted feminists to rant against every male icon in Canadian society. It was from the start committed by a demented mind who created victims in his sick mind which happened to be women. The answer was the gun registry which doesn't work. Rather governments went onto not only emasculate men in society it gutted the mental health network that might have prevented such a sick act.
On this day though. We cannot figure out or postulate methods to deter such terrible and tragic events. Rather we should focus our thoughts (and prayers if one possesses a belief system) to the directly effected individuals victims and their families.
- Enoch Brown school massacre - Franklin County, Pennsylvania, United States; July 26, 1764
- Bath School disaster - Bath, Michigan, United States; May 18, 1927
- Poe Elementary School Attack - Houston, Texas, United States; September 15, 1959
- Cologne School Massacre - Cologne, Germany; June 11, 1964
- University of Texas at Austin Tower Massacre - Austin, Texas, United States; August 1, 1966
- Avivim school bus massacre, Israel by Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP); 1970
- Kent State shootings - Kent, Ohio, United States; May 4, 1970
- Ma'alot massacre, Israel by DFLP (see [2]); 1974
- California State University, Fullerton Library Massacre - Fullerton, California, United States; July 12, 1976
- École Polytechnique Massacre - Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 1989
- Stockton Massacre - Stockton, California, United States, 1989
- University of Iowa shooting - Iowa City, Iowa, United States; 1991
- Concordia University massacre - Montreal, Quebec, Canada; August 24, 1992
- Simon's Rock College of Bard shooting - Great Barrington, Massachusetts, United States; December 14, 1992
- Richland High School shooting - Lynnville, Tennessee, United States; November 15, 1995.
- Frontier Junior High shooting - Moses Lake, Washington, United States; February 2, 1996
- Dunblane massacre - Dunblane, Scotland, United Kingdom; March 13, 1996
- Sanaa massacre - Sanaa, Yemen; 1997
- Pearl High School shooting, Pearl, Mississippi, United States; October 1, 1997
- Heath High School shooting, West Paducah, Kentucky, United States; December 1, 1997
- Jonesboro massacre - Craighead County (near Jonesboro), Arkansas, United States; March 24, 1998
- Columbine High School massacre - Jefferson County (near Denver and Littleton), Colorado, United States; April 20, 1999
- Santana High School - Santee, California,United States (near San Diego, California)
- Osaka school massacre - Ikeda, Japan; 2001
- Erfurt massacre - Erfurt, Germany; 2002
- Rocori High School shootings - Cold Spring, Minnesota, United States; 2003
- Beslan school hostage crisis - Beslan, Russia; 2004
- Red Lake High School massacre - Red Lake, Minnesota, United States; 2005
- Dawson College shooting - Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 2006
- Amish school shooting - Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States; 2006
- Platte Canyon High School shooting - Bailey, Colorado, United States; 2006
- Virginia Tech shootings - Blacksburg, Virginia, United States; April 16, 2007
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Belinda, our Belinda retires
Toronto- Much adored Belinda Stronach finally retired from politics after a long and rewarding political career.
Thumbs up responses erupt on thousands of hands through the political community for the benefits she brought to Canada. If she was a Catholic she certainly would have earned saint hood.
Her political record lists out as: two leadership races in the two federal parties, one cabinet post, one divorce, one broken almost engagement, one adultress affair and at least one New York shopping trip.
This May 2nd, she will have her forty first birthday. She now joins daddy's company in order to guide it into the process of buying the foundering Chrysler corporation. It certainly is both a pay increase and a decrease in the grey matter allocations.
She will be totally missed in Canadian politics. Already worshipping and idolizing poems to her are already being made. In Canada, there are way too many poets.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Another illegal drug that causes no ill effects
Oh what have we here. People enjoying themselves? Canadian culture is woefully Puritan or Calvinist. A drug from our trading partner in NAFTA makes what appears to be a healthy form of hallucinigenic.
Apparently to this moment unlike LSD or other forms of mind bending drugs this one has no latent effects. And it is a natural product.
To date there is so few users that no deleterious health effects have been found to make it officially illegal. Never mind that state run booze sales cause the deaths and alcoholic dependencies in about 1 out of every 10 users, a single death or mishap will cause the banning of the following product. This story is enterred on the record for the education and
from Canadian Press
Apparently to this moment unlike LSD or other forms of mind bending drugs this one has no latent effects. And it is a natural product.
To date there is so few users that no deleterious health effects have been found to make it officially illegal. Never mind that state run booze sales cause the deaths and alcoholic dependencies in about 1 out of every 10 users, a single death or mishap will cause the banning of the following product. This story is enterred on the record for the education and
from Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- A freely available herb that packs a powerful psychedelic punch has some federal health officials recommending strict controls.
But Health Canada says it can't regulate the use of salvia divinorum until there's more evidence of its dangers.
Department documents obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information law say salvia is being used by adolescents and young adults for its hallucinogenic properties.
Salvia divinorum is difficult to grow outside of its native habitat in southern Mexico, but the plant's leaves and extracts of salvia's active ingredient in pill form are sold in Canada.
A December 2005 report by the marketed health products directorate, an arm of Health Canada, recommends that salvia be placed under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
| |
Department spokesman Jason Bouzanis said salvia has been known to cause hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, unconsciousness and short-term memory loss. But that's not enough to declare it illegal.
"We can't make any recommendations to place salvia under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act schedules until we have sufficient scientific and empirical data that concludes it has the potential for misuse and abuse," Bouzanis said.
Australia is one of few countries that has made it illegal to possess, distribute and consume salvia, also known as Sally D, the diviner's sage, or the sage of seers. It is a species of sage, which belongs to the mint family, and is most commonly found in Mexico, where indigenous Mazatec shamans have used it for centuries for spiritual journeys.
Salvia leaves are most commonly dried and smoked. Extracts of salvinorin-A, salvia's active ingredient, are available in tablet form. Pill prices can range anywhere from $30 to $80 in Canada depending on the potency desired. Most online sellers of salvia advertise the herb as a natural health product.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Kanuckistan and Grand Towers.
The haunting words of right wing Republicans in the United States reverb around knowing skulls.Here is the story from the much maligned CTV Website. Why is CTV News maligned? Well have you ever watched it? Its more pablum than problem.
Anyway they were first up on the news anyway.
Design unveiled for Yonge-Bloor skyscraper
toronto.ctv.ca
A Kazakhstan company unveiled plans today for an 80-storey tower that will change the landscape of the Yonge and Bloor streets intersection.
The $450 million structure by Bazis International will house 500 luxury condominiums, high-end retail stores and a five-star hotel.
The sleek building will be Toronto's tallest residential-commercial building and the tallest condominium structure in Canada.
The company's president, Michael Gold, said the tower will be "so bold, so striking" that it will become an "instant icon."
The tower will go up at the intersection's southeast corner, which is currently occupied by a Harvey's restaurant and a billboard.
Demolition of the old structure is expected to being this year.
The new tower, to be named 1 Bloor, is expected to open in 2011.
See what I mean. Pablum. They are for it.
Problem. Central questions aren't asked. The North American Auto Industry is loosing 10,000 jobs this week. Money is leaving Toronto for Calgary where the white rich people are. Question one. Where are the multimillion dollar tenants coming from?
The Trump Towers announced headed up by one of his un "fired" Apprentices two years ago originally scheduled for completion this fall... Is still a parking lot.
The company that owns 1 King east the highly publicized skinniest building or condo in the country is basically still half empty and well the company is in "receivership." So poor is it, that I haven't even seen pigeons living near it.
Some sort of towers got muscled in south of Eglinton, which is a consortium led by Tridel. This project was heavily opposed by other residents in the neighborhood who constantly pointed out that this area used to be a swamp. Nonsense said the developer and they started anyway only to find out that it wasn't a swamp but a full blown underground stream running there. According to original rumors or promises it is about a year behind and overbudget because they are trying to shore up the foundations.
The other condo project was a total glass lined fancy building called "The Spire." It is about thirty stories of glass. With an eye to saving the environment this glass lined monster will not only contribute to global warming they will most certainly heat up the planet all by themselves.
A glass building works for a building in Charlotte or Atlanta but in Toronto? The Spire will not help the Canadian Kyoto commitment. And it will cost new tenants. It is almost complete and as ugly as you can get.
Condos climb around the Rogers Center. And apart from the placement blocking the sightlines to Lake Ontario they are as ugly as the post at a vision obstacle seat in a music concert. Then some people complain about the Gardiner Expressway. Well you could five years ago but now no problem, no one can see it anymore. There is a phenomenally high vacancy rate in these new towers.
Now onto Bloor. The politicians love it. It is a monument to their stupidity. While the revenue generating base deserts this country, they love this project of future ugliness and future slum as a feather in their cap.
It seems that no one has clued in. Every single major residential project ever launched in Toronto eventually became a miserable failure all the way from Jamestown, Regent Park et al.
Back to this project. What a lot of people do not realize is that this particular project is right on top of the subway. It won' t be to the left. It won't be too the right. It will be right on top of it and on top of the south end of the Yonge line part of the station.
Now no one has explained to me how this project will manage to work around the fact that most of its foundations are going to be into the tunnel. This building is 80 stories high. It will require deep foundations that will impinge on the running of the vital NS transit corridor.
From the Star. An opinion.
*************
Apr 06, 2007 04:30 AM
************
Now it seems that this guy didn't ask the obvious transit question. Or how this monster will interact with the tunnels and future structure of the Subways. Of course this may be just another promise building. Signs are that there is a substantial cooling of the condo demand in Toronto. Its all a hustle.
No Pillow Fights
Now the thought police are on a crusade to ban pillow fighting.
Frank Thomas got a Blue Jays add banned because the idea was that a couple of kids were bouncing on a bed and enters Thomas. A kid takes a swipe at poor Frank. And Frank grabs a spare pillow and poof blows the kid off the bed.
Frank chuckles on the way stage exit and the kid pops up smiling.
Now.
{Long pregnant pause}
This ad was pulled.
{Another long pregnant pause}
People are freezing, starving, and homeless in all of Canada's major cities. Politicians are stealing tax payers dollars, giving themselves 50% annual raises, the car industry just lost 10,000 jobs yesterday. News programs on cable channels streams endless stories on useless social celebs like Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, Anna Nicole. The very same group allows GAP and Calvin Klein ads. The very same group allows ads from the drug addled sports teams from the NFL, MLB, NHL about jocks whose only contest is to see who can use the perfect drug.
Street gangs run the streets in the poorer sections of every city. They permit ads from PETA who in turns encourage their stars to make hundreds of useless air flights to protest animal extinctions. And these clowns go anal over a fucking pillow fight.
Obviously the people on this committee come from troubled families, likely the only child, likely the ethicists of divorced families, and more likely born abandoned fetuses. Where do these clowns come from?
The idea of a pillow fight is to knock the adversary off the bed.
{The final long pregnant pause.}
These people on that board are morons.
Frank Thomas got a Blue Jays add banned because the idea was that a couple of kids were bouncing on a bed and enters Thomas. A kid takes a swipe at poor Frank. And Frank grabs a spare pillow and poof blows the kid off the bed.
Frank chuckles on the way stage exit and the kid pops up smiling.
Now.
{Long pregnant pause}
This ad was pulled.
{Another long pregnant pause}
People are freezing, starving, and homeless in all of Canada's major cities. Politicians are stealing tax payers dollars, giving themselves 50% annual raises, the car industry just lost 10,000 jobs yesterday. News programs on cable channels streams endless stories on useless social celebs like Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, Anna Nicole. The very same group allows GAP and Calvin Klein ads. The very same group allows ads from the drug addled sports teams from the NFL, MLB, NHL about jocks whose only contest is to see who can use the perfect drug.
Street gangs run the streets in the poorer sections of every city. They permit ads from PETA who in turns encourage their stars to make hundreds of useless air flights to protest animal extinctions. And these clowns go anal over a fucking pillow fight.
Obviously the people on this committee come from troubled families, likely the only child, likely the ethicists of divorced families, and more likely born abandoned fetuses. Where do these clowns come from?
The idea of a pillow fight is to knock the adversary off the bed.
{The final long pregnant pause.}
These people on that board are morons.
Monday, April 02, 2007
I knew I had this right.
Okay this is the second entry this day. Don't go giddy. But this has to go on the record. Ya ma.
I knew I preferred dirty girls for a reason...
I knew I preferred dirty girls for a reason...
Getting dirty could help mental health
NICK FOLEY
PEOPLE who suffer from depression could benefit from getting "dirty", according to new research published today.
A "friendly" bacteria found in soil has the same uplifting effects as those produced by anti-depressant drugs, the study found.
A study of mice found they altered their behaviour and appeared more relaxed after they were treated with the Mycobacterium vaccae bacteria.
Scientists at Bristol University and University College London found the bacteria stimulated the immune system and activated a group of neurons in the brain which produce the mood-enhancing chemical seratonin, a lack of which has been linked to depression.
Dr Chris Lowry, of Bristol University, the lead author on the paper, said: "These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health.
"They also leave us wondering if we shouldn't all spend more time playing in the dirt. This soil that carries the bacteria is found almost anywhere.
"But we now need to find a way of getting it in our system, which we haven't done yet."
The study appears to support the "hygiene hypothesis" which argues that a rise in conditions such as asthma and allergies could be linked to a lack of exposure to various micro-organisms.
The emphasis on cleaning and hygiene, particularly in urban western environments, could be adversely affecting people's immune systems, according to the theory.
The findings, published in the journal Neuroscience, support the idea that increasing the release of seratonin in parts of the brain regulates mood.
Further studies are now planned to see if the bacteria stimulates this process.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=506592007
Last updated: 01-Apr-07 00:47 BST
Kyoto Schymoto
I believe its already too late to change the course of climate change. All energy production must change to nuclear for the short term (one century). It is the only way to provide enough energy to compensate for the time to develop sugar fuel cell energy technologies.
All unnecessary flying and travel must be eliminated. All combustion powered vehicles banned.
Still such drastic actions wouldn't reverse the warming trend for thirty years. And only if we did this action starting tomorrow, not a decade from now. That is too huge for the greedy individuals of humanity. Calamity is imminent. Utter destruction and human cultural extinction likely.
A complete reversal of human habits would require a massive sacrifice of lifestyle. All unnecessary air travel would have to be eliminated. Air travel accounts for a very high percentage of gassing the planet. Simply lowering emissions is not enough.
An ironic point is in the protests about the Canadian seal hunt. Global warming has almost eliminated all the ice on the sea ice in the huge St. Lawrence estuary this year. No ice. Tens of thousands of seal pups die.
The unnecessary flights of the protesters from Europe contribute to the global warming. Their actions are more likely to contribute to the complete extermination of the seal population than all the actions of Newfoundland hunters have done in the last four hundred years and could do in the next four centuries.
Are humans that stupid? Well hell yes.
For instance, global warming due to excessive carbon emissions will flood all the low lying areas of Europe. It means that the Arctic sea ice will disappear even before the massive glaciers on Nuuk (Greenland) and Antarctica.
All the Netherlands and Denmark will cease to exist since they would need massive diking more than 30M high which is an impossible capital project. Without the presence of the ice cap the course of the Gulf Stream will decidedly change or perhaps more likely disappear since the ocean currents will change.
While the rest of the world gets warmer, present day Europe will suddenly enter a much colder phase. If you draw a latitude Glasgow is at the same latitude as many of the colder parts of Canada and Siberia. Global warming will impact Europe far more seriously than many other parts of the planet.
Most of the present day estuaries such as found on the Rhine, Mekong, Yellow River, Amazon, Nile, Hudson, Ganges, Indus, St. Lawrence, Thames, produce a very large portion of the human food supply and house a high proportion of human commercial activities... are going to disappear.
Yet when the European commercial sector hears that the Arctic Sea Cap disappears. 'Oh good' these rich and wealthy say, 'there is a lot more oil on the Arctic sea basin'.
That is just how stupid humans are
Sunday, April 01, 2007
The Great Coverup
About a year ago or more. When one gets this old one starts forgetting things like...???
But the essence remains. Oh whatta you know. I did get it right it was a year. The links and reference story are attached at the end of this little entry.
Anyhow this event was buried faster than a politician's promise. The claim by police was that this was not a terrorist event.
No inquiry was further published. In fact a lot of material I recall sourcing about one week after the event is no longer available on the internet.
From memory, which might be faulty, I believe these basic facts to be true.
1. It appeared to be a suicide.
2. The bomber intended to detonate the device.
3. The bomber was young.
4. The bomber was Islamic.
5. The bomber was an immigrant.
6. It happened on a very busy moment in a very busy area.
7. It occurred at a Tim Horton's.
8. The workers of Tim Hortons also happen to be of Islamic faith.
9. Tim Horton's is iconic in Canada. Thusly must be on a target list of Al Qaeda.
10. Facts and articles which expressed doubt about the police point of view have disappeared from the internet and the public record. Only the police version remains. Contrary opinions from official commercial sites are missing, while forums and blogs retained the essence.
11. In the forums the facts emerge that the bomber had tried to enter Varsity stadium earlier but had turned tail because of security there. So there may have been some sort of security alert
Frankly I believe that this was an attack by an Al Qaeda sympathizer. That Tim Horton's may have been the alternate target.
We have learned much even in the last year.
First. Most of the attackers are considered home growns. This event is consistent with that.
Second. The methods are always IED or improvised. Although clumsy the device was improvised.
Third. That the result to the attacker is always death which is why it was called a suicide attack. In this case, it was suicide.
Fourth. The police and fire department proclaim that there was no explosion. Every eyewitness on that day testifies to declaring otherwise. In one of the
Here is the real quirk of Canadian legal practice. Information on suicides are not published. Which means the police can deny any such terrorist event legally because they can withhold information since it was a suicide.
Even if there was a suicide attack on some more public target by law the Canadian police do not have to release any information whatsoever. Not only that, they can go to the traditional media sources and expunge that information from that resource base leaving the only source to be blogs and forums like this.
For Al Qaeda this is problematic. There is a simple answer for them. If the bomber had not been suicidal the newspapers could freely publish the material.
Also the level of security must be observed. Within the hour of the Horton's attack, two other mysterious packages had been identified and dealt with by police. Remember this was a Sunday in 2006. The response time to Hortons apparently was led by police. Often in 911 calls, it is the fire department that gets there first. So on that day, an attack must have been expected.
The sudden drop off of any information after April 6, 2007 appears astounding. Even on the Tim Horton's Wikipedia account the record of such an event is not there. This site often gleefully records such events.
The police view is that this wasn't an attack. Despite all the facts pointing to this event entirely consistent with an Al Qaeda inspired attack. Police at the time promised a full disclosure after several months of investigation. As of this date such report appears on the public record or has been released. No public record of a coroner's inquest although it would be required by law.
To this date I can find no online record of such an inquest. I do remember a blurb being published in the Toronto Sun in June to August but can find no record of it now.
Sometimes the absence of subsequent relevant information is more indicative than an outright lie that says volumes. The statements of the police and fire department were at odds with both the eyewitness details and with the modus operandi of Al Qaeda. If that event wasn't a terrorist event why was the inquest suppressed and not on record?
Links and articles.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608061/posts?q=1&&page=74#74
http://ianism.com/?p=126
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=57647
http://www.parrysound.com/voice/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t2046.html
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=272668&page=6
http://boards.weddingbells.ca/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1306256&Main=1288571
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/04/03/tim-hortons-autopsy060403.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/04/02/toronto-explosion-060402.html
from the Glob and Pail of the same period.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060405.TIMS05/TPStory/?query=tim+hortons+explosion
But the essence remains. Oh whatta you know. I did get it right it was a year. The links and reference story are attached at the end of this little entry.
Anyhow this event was buried faster than a politician's promise. The claim by police was that this was not a terrorist event.
No inquiry was further published. In fact a lot of material I recall sourcing about one week after the event is no longer available on the internet.
From memory, which might be faulty, I believe these basic facts to be true.
1. It appeared to be a suicide.
2. The bomber intended to detonate the device.
3. The bomber was young.
4. The bomber was Islamic.
5. The bomber was an immigrant.
6. It happened on a very busy moment in a very busy area.
7. It occurred at a Tim Horton's.
8. The workers of Tim Hortons also happen to be of Islamic faith.
9. Tim Horton's is iconic in Canada. Thusly must be on a target list of Al Qaeda.
10. Facts and articles which expressed doubt about the police point of view have disappeared from the internet and the public record. Only the police version remains. Contrary opinions from official commercial sites are missing, while forums and blogs retained the essence.
11. In the forums the facts emerge that the bomber had tried to enter Varsity stadium earlier but had turned tail because of security there. So there may have been some sort of security alert
Frankly I believe that this was an attack by an Al Qaeda sympathizer. That Tim Horton's may have been the alternate target.
We have learned much even in the last year.
First. Most of the attackers are considered home growns. This event is consistent with that.
Second. The methods are always IED or improvised. Although clumsy the device was improvised.
Third. That the result to the attacker is always death which is why it was called a suicide attack. In this case, it was suicide.
Fourth. The police and fire department proclaim that there was no explosion. Every eyewitness on that day testifies to declaring otherwise. In one of the
Here is the real quirk of Canadian legal practice. Information on suicides are not published. Which means the police can deny any such terrorist event legally because they can withhold information since it was a suicide.
Even if there was a suicide attack on some more public target by law the Canadian police do not have to release any information whatsoever. Not only that, they can go to the traditional media sources and expunge that information from that resource base leaving the only source to be blogs and forums like this.
For Al Qaeda this is problematic. There is a simple answer for them. If the bomber had not been suicidal the newspapers could freely publish the material.
Also the level of security must be observed. Within the hour of the Horton's attack, two other mysterious packages had been identified and dealt with by police. Remember this was a Sunday in 2006. The response time to Hortons apparently was led by police. Often in 911 calls, it is the fire department that gets there first. So on that day, an attack must have been expected.
The sudden drop off of any information after April 6, 2007 appears astounding. Even on the Tim Horton's Wikipedia account the record of such an event is not there. This site often gleefully records such events.
The police view is that this wasn't an attack. Despite all the facts pointing to this event entirely consistent with an Al Qaeda inspired attack. Police at the time promised a full disclosure after several months of investigation. As of this date such report appears on the public record or has been released. No public record of a coroner's inquest although it would be required by law.
To this date I can find no online record of such an inquest. I do remember a blurb being published in the Toronto Sun in June to August but can find no record of it now.
Sometimes the absence of subsequent relevant information is more indicative than an outright lie that says volumes. The statements of the police and fire department were at odds with both the eyewitness details and with the modus operandi of Al Qaeda. If that event wasn't a terrorist event why was the inquest suppressed and not on record?
Links and articles.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608061/posts?q=1&&page=74#74
http://ianism.com/?p=126
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=57647
http://www.parrysound.com/voice/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t2046.html
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=272668&page=6
http://boards.weddingbells.ca/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1306256&Main=1288571
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/04/03/tim-hortons-autopsy060403.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/04/02/toronto-explosion-060402.html
Deadly blast in doughnut shop not a terrorist job: police
Police have ruled out terrorism as the cause of an explosion at a Tim Hortons doughnut shop that killed one man in a trendy downtown area of Toronto on Sunday.
The victim was likely an arsonist or attempting suicide, Staff Sgt. Don Cole of Toronto police told reporters hours after the explosion.
"He's not a strap-on al-Qaeda bomber guy," Cole said. "It sounds to me like a guy who either wanted to do a torch job or commit suicide."
Firefighters outside the Tim Hortons in Toronto where an explosion killed a man on Sunday.
Police said the man apparently carried a can of gasoline into a washroom stall about 1 p.m. local time at the eatery in the city's Yorkville area, and set off a flash fire that killed him.
The victim was an unidentified male who was pronounced dead at the scene with severe burns to his body. Nobody else was injured.
Tim Hortons spokesman Nick Javor later confirmed the victim was not an employee. In a statement, he praised the quick response of the staff, and said they would be offered appropriate support.
Toronto police Chief Bill Blair answers reporters' questions outside the doughnut shop Sunday. (Patrick Morell/CBC photo)
Explosion triggered flash fire: police
Police Chief Bill Blair earlier described the incident as a flash fire rather than a bombing. Two blocks in the downtown area were cordoned off as police investigated.
"It appears that there has been a very hot and intense fire in an enclosed area within the washroom," Blair said. But he declined to speculate on the cause of the fire.
A police robot removes a suspicious parcel from the shop in the aftermath of the explosion.
"Until we determine precisely what happened in that cubicle and what caused those flames that took that man's life, I really can't speculate," he said.
Police could not confirm reports the man was seen entering the washroom with wires or possibly explosives strapped to his body.
The ceiling fell down on the victim, bringing down wires and batteries from an air-freshening device that might have contributed to suspicions of a bomb, Cole said.
Suspicious bag not a threat
After the incident, a police robot was used to remove a duffel bag from the doughnut shop, which is on Yonge Street just north of the intersection with Bloor Street.Explosives experts detonated the bag with a loud bang. It contained school supplies.
Police also evacuated a second Tim Hortons a few kilometres north and detonated a suspicious package, which ended up being a clock in a shopping bag.
Eyewitness Jenny Phillips told Reuters that she heard bangs like pops from a firecracker and a scream "that will haunt me forever" as she left the washroom area.
She smelled burnt powder and saw a "wall of flames" inside the men's washroom before staff herded the two dozen customers outside.
"I thought the roof was caving in," she said. "People were screaming."
Blast rattles shop workers
Employees who appeared shaken were escorted from the scene, and some attempted to shield their faces from the throng of television cameras.
They refused to answer questions, but Tim Hortons district manager Amin Islam said they were doing well. "I'm just making sure they're going home safely," he said.
Daryl Fuglerud, a spokesman with Toronto's fire department, told reporters the man who died had burns to his body.
"It doesn't appear that there was much of a fire at all," Fuglerud said. "There was a very small amount of smoke upon our arrival."
Fuglerud said the investigation was turned over to police because it was a "possible criminal" case.
from the Glob and Pail of the same period.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060405.TIMS05/TPStory/?query=tim+hortons+explosion
Coffee-shop death a suicide, police say
TORONTO -- Police say the man who died in an explosion and flash fire at a downtown Tim Hortons restaurant that caused police to shut a part of the busy Yonge and Bloor area committed suicide.
Based on the evidence gathered at the scene from the coffee shop -- one of the busiest in Toronto -- and several eyewitness reports, investigators concluded that the incident Sunday afternoon was not accidental.
"Through various aspects of the investigation we have now determined that the injuries leading to the man's death were self-inflicted," Detective Sergeant Myron Demkiw said yesterday.
"We're still working on the identity of the deceased, and I can't say if we'll be releasing that information even if it is established."
The flash fire ignited inside the men's washroom of the restaurant on Yonge Street, just north of Bloor Street, sending startled patrons and employees out onto the street as smoke and flames shot out from under the washroom door and part of the ceiling collapsed.
Police have said they believe gasoline in a canister ignited in the washroom.
An autopsy Monday on the man's severely burned body concluded that he died of smoke inhalation.
The only other information that has been released about him is that he was not an employee of the coffee shop.
Det. Sgt. Demkiw said the investigation is continuing but would not comment on the forensic evidence that has been recovered from a white sedan towed from a parkade behind the Hudson's Bay Co., about two blocks from the Tim Hortons shop.
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