Willy Loman

With a niqab ban, anti-immigrant rallies and now a gun registry protest, the next thing you know Quebecers will start wearing cowboy hats and demanding that the rest of us will have to start kissing their asses. A Quebec pro gun group was planning a rally to protest against the Quebec gun registry laws at the park commemorating the victims of the Polytechnique Montreal massacre, our worst mass shooting when fourteen female students were killed because they were women on December 6, 1989. The group called Tous contre un registre Quebecois des armes a feu (All against a Quebec registry) was planning their rally in the park, two days before the 28th anniversary because it is a controversial location and it will get attention, according to a spokesperson Guy Morin. Well it got a lot of attention, all negative and as of this evening they have changed their plans.  Look Guy, i get that you want attention to your cause but you might consider changing the name of your ...

Imagine going out every week to stand on the side of the road and wave your horrific images at innocent people passing by and at no time have you ever considered what the ramifications of making abortions illegal would be on the woman who choose to have one. Apparently the fundamentalist, anti-choicers in this video, who have been protesting for the abolishment of a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy for the last two years, have never taken the time to consider what the punishment should be to a woman who gets caught having an illegal abortion. It never crossed their collective minds, they just never thought about it. Give me a break these born again fundamentalists are walking robots incapable of independent thought. What a waste of time, cardboard and in their case two births. JAWL

The Liberals have decided to attack Layton over his alleged deal with Marc Emery and his BC Marijuana Party. It appears quite clear through the work and financial support Mr. Emery gave to the NDP, he believes he has lived up his end of this agreement. However, when asked about this deal in Edmonton, yesterday, Mr. Layton denied there was ever a deal. The questions that Mr. Layton still needs to answer are: Why did Mr. Emery raise money and work so hard for so long for the NDP? And what was he promised in return? Liberal Press Release here Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. This is the most ridiculous political move I’ve seen in years. You are foolishly inserting marijuana decriminalization into the election from position of weakness. It was the Liberal Party that has twice proposed to decriminalize marijuana possession and it is the Liberal party that has twice failed to do so. It raises the question of where do you stand on decriminalization now. Focus, on the enemy here. Let ...

There is a lot of press about and a few polls illustrating that Dion is considered to be a weak leader by a large number of Canadians. There are three reasons for this: The conservative attack ads. Brilliantly the Tories started attacking Dion right after the hard fought Liberal leadership race with it's surprising result. Dion in winning the leadership was probably the third or even fourth choice amongst the pundits and the party membership. By attacking his leadership abilities early, before he had the opportunity to actually start leading created doubt and has continued to work brilliantly. Dion is not leading in this campaign Although Dion appears to be more intelligent, honest and sincere than Harper, he also seems to suffer from pride, vanity and single mindedness (actually the same traits that appear to be admired in Harper).  Dion or his Liberal strategists seem to be determined to have Dion single handedly take on Harper and prove that he is a strong leader and that the T...

Crawling back into the lime light, Charles McVety and his group are requesting that the Governor General, strip Dr. Morgentaler of his membership to the Order of Canada. D.Min McVety says the abortion pioneer's conduct is unbecoming of a member of the Order of Canada. According to McVety Morgentaler's admission that he broke the law and the fact he had his medical license suspended for one year by the Professional Corporation of Physicians of Quebec means he should lose his membership. Ignoring the fact that the good Doctor has not received his well deserved honor yet, only an idiot would miss the point that this is one of the reasons that the good Doctor is getting the honor in the first place. Surprisingly we haven't heard McVety joining the chorus to revoke Conrad Black's membership. I can't wait until the Unrepentant Old Hippie Posts on this one. Go get him JJ. Reference CBC here .

CBC news: Waitress loses job after shaving head for cancer charity. "I felt like this was a pretty easy thing for me to do to raise money to help people," StaceyFearnall told CBC News on Thursday. She said she told her bosses what she was planning to do, but when she arrived at work at the restaurant practically bald, she said they sent her home and told her she wasn't welcome back. "'We'll call it a layoff.' That's what he said," Fearnall said her boss told her. "'Spend the summer with your kids.' I call it losing my job." Nathaniels owner and chef Dan Hilliard issued a statement late Thursday saying Fearnall did not advise him that she was planning to shave her head. "Mr. Hilliard had indicated that this is an employer-employee matter and such matters are not to be dealt with in the public," the statement said. Nathaniel's must be something like Owen Sound's version of a Tim Horton's.

This whole Young People Fucking thing strikes me as totally absurd. Apparently the film has been held up as an example by proponents of Bill C-10, which would allow the government to deny tax credits to a Canadian movie that it deems "contrary to public policy". So the director/producer wanted to prove that their film wasn't offensive and invited those who might be voting on the bill to view a special screening. So you've got a movie that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last September. With one quick Google search , the first hit is a review of the film. So you know you're not being invited to view kiddy porn or probably even a pubic hair from the description. But still from the article here , we've supposedly got several Conservative MPs, who were originally invited to the screening, scrambling around, saying that their names were listed by mistake and they had no intention to attend in the first place. And as a side plot we've got someone named V...

The second best thing was that this man didn't come crashing down to earth. The first was that this man did.

And sometimes a person has been assigned one gender, usually on the basis of their sex at birth, when in fact they are really the other.  Now read this part carefully Pete. It is the important part that explains why Ontario is re-instating coverage and why your latest blather, here is so embarrassing. According to psychologists and physicians this condition is known as Gender Identity disorder and one of the treatments for this condition is Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS). You know, the thing that doctors do in the big building with the H on the side of it. For Christ's sake Steve, I know Pierre Poilievre is the youngest sitting MP and all that, but could you not take him aside and have that, you know, little birds and bees talk with him. Or better yet, send him on one of your famous hotel room meetings. The boy really needs an education.

According to Day our somewhat paranoid Safety Czar and his site here , there is Organized Crime in my neighbourhood and I should post this page near my phone. I bet it is those Jamaicans across the street. Strange they keep their lawn, looking so good and the kids are so polite or it could be that old hippie couple two doors up. He's nice and polite but he always looks a little stoned to me. And then there are the Italians on the corner, yep it's the Italians... After Snark ( as the cynics would say ) For Christ's sake Day ( ref intended ) I realize that your government only panders to it's patchwork base of supporters, but surely you could also inform your own somewhat inbred electorate ( there were long isolated winters in the early days of the wes t ), that 911 could be used for other emergencies as well.  And as far as posting your notice next to their phone, come on it's three fucking numbers, memorize it or at least have them scribble it next to their  Dial ...

This morning the Globe reported here . That the National Capital Commission has told the auditor general's office that the Prime Minister's official residence at 24 Sussex Drive, hasn't had major renovations in 50 years and needs $10 million of work and that the occupants would have to move out for 12 to 15 months to get that work done. Harper's office responded that the prime minister has no intention of moving out of the official residence until his term is up At a time like this we should all put our differences behind us, especially us progressives. I think that it is important that the whole country comes together and support Steve in his decision and as quickly as possible end his term as Prime Minister. I'm behind you Steve and I solemnly promise that I will do everything I can to end your term as soon as possible. It is the right thing to do for this treasured Canadian landmark and the right thing to do for our country. You're welcome.

Thanks to Steve I now know what a "Juicy" is. It's not like I  was naive about drugs (after all my somewhat mandatory Friday music post is called the Acid Test) , but I wouldn't consider myself to be a drug user, at least not under the old Liberal government. And I could certainly pass a Olympic Snow Board blood test with the six month residue and all.  But I never knew what a "Juicy" was and now unfortunately every kid that sees our government's new drug ads with sombre, wasted, looking 12 year olds explaining the different street names for drugs, also knows.  But Steve's not worried about that. No these ads have one purpose and one purpose only and that is to scare us. Despite reports to the contrary Steve wants us to believe that drug use is on the rise with teenagers. Our schools are full of heroin users. There is no difference between marijuana and heroin. If you have children you need to be afraid, very afraid. Just like the neocons in the...

What a week for our wild life. Ducks, Polar Bears and now Reindeer.  See this "Rudolph laden" CNEWS article  Zoo kills 2 baby reindeer Give me a break, you are a Zoo, for crying out loud!

Now this is strange. Within one week of each other, both Canada and the US are considering a proposal to allow guns in their respective national parks.  On May 1st from the Guardian Bush administration proposes allowing concealed guns at parks The Bush administration proposed today to allow concealed weapons inside national parks. The idea being that park visitors need protection from animals or criminal attacks. Of course this fulfills a long sought goal of the NRA. However a park service advocacy group claims "The chance of becoming a crime victim in an official US refuge is 1 in more than 708,000" and from the coalition of national parks retirees. "This proposed regulation increases the risk to visitors, employees and wildlife rather than reducing it.". On May 3rd from the CNEWS Parks Canada debates allowing guns in national parks with polar bear populations Policy director Darlene Pearson said the agency is reviewing its strict 122-year-old policy of no guns in...

With one church destroyed the Christian rock group Starfield is continuing it's tour across Canada. You would think that these evangelical, cultists just might take it as a sign of some sort, you know, like from God that he/she or it is not really happy with what they are doing and how they are doing it. You could be a devout Catholic, Jew, Hindu, Muslin, Buddhist (I like the Buddhists, they're cool) or even the Pope himself, but you ain't going to heaven with these spurious, sycophants. At least not until you convert and are reborn by renouncing your other faiths and accept Jesus as your savour. And these churches are renting out their halls to allow these well organized propagandists access to the children of their congregation. Are they not a competing group for Christ sake (pun intended). PS: Oh and check out their online store where you can buy a cool shirt that reads "I want to hold the hand that holds the world". I really don't know much about religio...

It is strange though that the CTV headline here emphasizes the spray painting of "Traitor" and not the "FLQ" which you would think would be more to the point. Maybe they are taking their new found affection for the neocons too seriously or they just want to increase their Alberta ratings,

As promised by Baird, when announcing his plans to save the environment, Canadians are going to have to make sacrifices in order to lower our carbon emissions. Harpers government wants to reduce smog-causing additives in paints, stains and varnishes.  According to CNEWS : Baird is proposing limits on volatile organic compounds, which are found in everything from house paint to nail polish and vehicle coatings. Baird says the compounds are the second largest contributor to smog in Canada, after vehicle emissions. Apparently they are not quite as concerned about the Tar Oil Sands. At least not in the same way. PS: In all fairness Baird probably saw the word "Organic"and thought is was a Liberal additive.

Right on queue here's the Fox News Canada National Post framing of the neocon spin on the forthcoming Bill C57. The  article  is about a Roman Catholic doctor: Dr. Levia "who refuses to prescribe birth control pills, though he will talk about natural family planning; and no patient should expect him to give a referral for an abortion because that, he said, would be akin to "co-operating with evil". When you read down the article you find that Levia is member of the "Canadian Physicians for Life" . This organization headed by a Williard Johnston MD defines something called the Hippocratic Tradition (apparently not the Oath that we have heard some much about) as being against abortions and birth control.  The Post article basically steers it along the Roman Catholic argument, even mentioning the Pope's recent visit and of course no mention of C57. I mean Catholics still represent a large portion of voters in Canada and especially in Quebec, you know the...

Interestingly the winner of last Friday's Neocon Scandal of the Week: Harpers, In and Out Scheme, dominated the media throughout the early part of this week.  There were numerous articles and newscasts about how the neocons tried to circumvent the messaging of the raid by holding a private meeting with select representatives from friendly, media, corporations and how candidates were unaware of the tricks used in funding.  Some conservative candidates in the last election claim that they were dropped by the party because they wouldn't agree to the shady accounting. There were even charts showing how the scheme might have unfairly influenced the actual results of the election. But hey, they are neocons and as Harper said upon his return from praising Bush in New Orleans, if our interpretation of the rules was wrong, we won't do it next time. With so much press, I  was concerned that we would have to run with the same story. But leave it to those crazy Neocons, there's a...

Associated Press: U.S. President George Bush sought Thursday to boost the flagging Mideast peace process by voicing fresh optimism about the creation of a Palestinian state. He remains confident that the definition of a state for the Palestinian people would be reached before he leaves office in January. This is from the fucking idiot who when taking office in 2001, scrapped Clinton's Mid East Peace Plan, claiming that he was not interested in nation building and that the Israelis and the Palestinians should work it out on their own. Let me help you out here, George. There already is a definition for a state, you idiot. state |stāt| noun: a nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government Next week Bush will be in Africa, working on a new definition for hunger.