What is Really Scary is ...

Some people will support the police whatever they do. When I saw the recent CBC poll I was disturbed, but then when I saw the CFRA poll I was disgusted.

CBC Poll - Did the Ottawa police officers go too far in their dealings with Stacy Bonds?

Yes 88.99%

No 8.93%

Undecided 2.08%

CFRA Poll - Should Ontario’s Attorney General resign after the province said it supports the decision made by crown prosecutors to proceed with a case against Stacey Bonds?

Yes, it’s an injustice and a travesty that the case went ahead in spite of how she was treated by police 60.3%

No, just because Bonds was not convicted doesn’t mean the decision to proceed was wrong 36.3%

Other 3.27%

Ottawa Citizen story


What I realized is that, indeed, some people will support the police no matter what they do. These are people who think the courts are too soft and that the police never arrest anyone that isn't guilty. These people think that if someone is beat up by the police they probably have it coming to them.

These are the same type of people who supported the right wing law and order blame the scapegoats German equivalent of the Tea Party in the 1930s.

These people are very scary and they are growing in numbers, egged on by people like Glenn Beck and Lowell Green. We must speak up against them.

At Least She Won't Be Sunburned When She Cracks Her Head Open

Anna Bebon, from Tommy & Lefebvre, is cool to go out
in the sun thanks to her UV-protected clothing by Lole.
Photograph by: Jana Chytilova, The Ottawa Citizen
As one who is a strong advocate of wearing bicycle helmets, seeing the apparent promotion of cycling without a helmet by a prominent local cycling store in what considers itself to be the city's newspaper of record is sure to catch my attention.

Perhaps upon further reflection and examination of the photo that comes with a photo credit, but looks like it should also have a Photoshop credit, I should not take the article, which appears to be an advertorial, too seriously. I mean what type of dock is that anyway, and why would anyone try to cycle on it.

Nevertheless, community leaders should be careful about what type of messages they are sending.

Reid on Saul on Riel on Canada

Sometimes somebody else says it better than you ever could. This is one of those times.

From: “A perfectly incompatible country” by Jennifer Reid, Ottawa Citizen, November 22, 2008

John Ralston Saul suggests in his recent book, A Fair Country, that Canada is a Métis state. I like this argument, though it differs from mine. Where Mr. Saul and I diverge is in our view of what it means to be a country founded on cultural hybridity. He finds a distinct trajectory in Canadian history linking contemporary political values, such as cultural co-operation, with aboriginal precursors. I, on the other hand, find within our Riel myths an ongoing story about collective identity grounded in the destructive polarities that have too often made cultural co-operation impossible.

It may well be our self-consciousness about these incompatibilities that has kept us together. We know that national unity and cultural homogeneity (the supposed benchmarks of the modern nation-state) are impossible. It's that self-consciousness that makes us distinctive and, perhaps, gives us a reason to stay together.

There is something radical about Canada, about the way in which multiple ethnicities, regionalisms, and self-designated nations have been formally integrated into a single geopolitical structure that has managed to survive. It is a community that has been able, thus far, to withstand the basic dichotomies of ethnicity, religion, region, and language that are the foundation -- and the stumbling block -- of all modern western states.

Riel, both the man and the myth, speaks to this radical character. He shows us what makes us distinct in this culturally tangled world of the 21st century.

Actually Not - Al Gore

Click image to enlarge
Today’s editorial cartoon in the Ottawa Citizen may not have been intended to be taken seriously but only meant as a lighthearted comment on the current "cold spell" but it still reinforces the stereotype that there is a good side to global warming.

The truth is global warming is ruining Canadian winters. I grew up in Northern Ontario. I know what a Canadian winter is supposed to be like - cold with lots of snow. It only became abnormally cold when it hit 40 below and then you just added more layers and went out to play.

The fact is global warming is wreaking havoc with our winters, ruining our fun and costing us money and lives. Recent years have seen a change from winters of primarily cold and snow to a predominance of up and down temperatures, with rain and freezing rain and drizzle rather than snow. I remember a couple of years in a row when almost every week early in the week we would get nice snowfalls and look forward to a weekend of cross-country skiing only to have it rain on Friday ruining the weekend.

But the excessive amounts of rain and freezing rain due to global warming not only ruins our fun but costs us money and lives. These conditions require the use of much more road salt that we pay for once as taxpayers and a second time as drivers as our cars rust out faster. It also costs us in automobile damages as accident rates increase, not to mention the injuries and lives lost from those accidents.

And, of course, growing up in Northern Ontario before global warming we never had “ice storms” that are becoming much more frequent with economic costs and more lost lives.

There is no good side to global warming. Al Gore would not be amused.

Quitting Smoking Can Kill You and Global Warming is a Myth

Yes it is true - “giving up smoking can kill you”, and not only that, not smoking causes “neurotic depression, violent irritability, and obscene weight gain”, not to mention the fact that increased tobacco consumption is responsible for longer life expectancies.

Who would claim that - David Warren, writing in the Ottawa Citizen citing an article in Medical Hypotheses a non-peer reviewed journal in which authors pay to be published.

He also states:

“There is one more hypothesis with which I would like to leave my reader. It is that the kind of quack "science" that was used to ban smoking has now mutated into the kind that is used to flog global warming. It should have been resisted then; it should certainly be resisted now.”

It appears that Mr. Warren thinks that if he can convince us that smoking is good for us we will also believe that global warming is a myth.

And, just for the record, the Canadian Cancer Society states:

Health benefits of quitting

All kinds of smokers – men and women, young or old – can get health benefits from quitting. The minute you stop smoking, your body begins to clean itself of tobacco poisons. Here’s how:

* Within 8 hours, carbon monoxide levels drop in your body and oxygen levels in your blood increases.
* After 2 days, your sense of smell and taste begin to improve.
* Within 2 weeks to 3 months, your lungs work better making it easier to breathe.
* After 6 months, coughing, sinus congestion, tiredness and shortness of breath improve.
* After 1 year, your risk of a smoking-related heart attack is reduced by half.

The younger you are when you quit the greater the health benefits.

Quit and reduce the risk of cancer

Quit now and reduce the risk of developing cancer. In general, the longer you don't smoke the more you lower your risk.

* Within 10 years of quitting, the overall risk of an ex-smoker dying from lung cancer is cut in half.
* After 10 years, the overall risk of an ex-smoker developing cancer approaches that of a non-smoker.