SAVE THE SEALS

On Vancouver Island, sports fishers are calling for a cull on harbour seals because allegedly the animals are destroying spring Chinook salmon runs in the Puntledge River. In reality, pollution from various sources is damaging the river and poisoning the salmon. Killing seals is too easy a solution compared to the more difficult solution of saving the salmon environment. A seal cull would be cruel and unnecessary slaughter when human activities endanger not only the fish and seals but human life as well.

WE STAND WITH YOU FOR YOUR COURAGE

An Open Letter To The Family of John Edwards

I did not know my maternal grandmother because she died young of breast cancer. Another family member has had breast cancer but survived because of radiation treatment. Breast cancer is a shadow that hangs over all the females in our family from the eldest to the newly born. I salute John and Elizabeth's courageous decision to carry on with the presidential campaign and wish them the strength that their family will need in this time.

---Anne

CAN WE DEPORT ANN COULTER?

A coalition of evangelicals called the Families First on Immigration is trying to halt the right of citizenship by birth. In the 14th amendment to the Constitution, people who are born in the United States have immediate citizenship. The bill would not allow immigrants who are born in America to have automatic citizenship.

Well, yours truly knows a little bit about citizenship. Some of my ancestors were Native American. So it stands to reason that those, mostly of European descent, who are backing this policy ought to be the first ones to be tossed over the border. Especially,Manuel Miranda who is the head of Families First and who was born in Cuba.

UPDATE: LESLIE PINNEY

UPDATE/FAREWELL:

This falls into the wrapping up of loose ends category and saying a farewell to a topic subject. There are some matters that have become stale for me and others, like Karla Homolka whom I have blogged in the past, have entered the realm of the yellow press. The topic of Rachel Corrie may have a certain fire and controversy to it in diverse circles but it has no pzang for me as a writer. I will not be blogging Rachel Corrie as much, if at all,because I have lost interest in the subject of the Middle East. I want to work on subjects of a more cultural or sociological framework.

Rachel Corrie Play in Seattle

UPDATING

As you may have noticed, the site is looking a bit less ragged but not altogether there. I'm spiffying it up with graphics and doing housecleaning on some of the entries. If articles disappear, it was meant to be.
So, watch out for the dust bunnies and I'll see you soon.
----Izzy

UPDATE ON BOB WOODRUFF

COMPLETELY CUTE

Al Gore at the Oscars and his speech about the environment was endearing. Initially, the former VP seemed as if he didn't know that he should be there in front of all those "Hollywood types".I would have loved to know what was going through Gore's mind at the moment. He had a wonderful face,like a little boy on his birthday who had been hoping for the one special present and suddenly what he wished for was the first gift.

Nothing, however, could replace the gift that Al Gore has given the world as a statesman, a scientist, and an activist for the environment. His film and his persistence in sounding the alarm about our ailing planet will be a present to our and future generations.

APOLOGIES

Accck!I missed Alan Rickman's birthday on the twenty-first of February! That's what happens when you start a new job and are writing a second novel. Belated good wishes to one of the world's greatest actors.

TOO CUTE TO NOT BLOG

Yes, I have been away too long doing other things like writing an unpublished novel and another blog. However, this came to my attention and I can't resist noting the item. It seems that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckebee thinks that the war in Iraq is the beginning of World War III. Then why is the rest of the world leaving Iraq as fast as they can pull troops? Britain is leaving that country. Japan departed last year. Several other countries including Denmark, South Korea, and Italy have gone or will go.

My question to Mike Huckebee is, if this is World War III in Iraq, where is the rest of the world? It is going to be awfully lonely for America in Iraq.

Leslie Pinney lost her bid to ban books in the Township High School District 214 six to one, with Pinney against her school board colleagues. In celebration, the authorsof Freakonomics are offering signed copies of their book to the school district.

Oh, please. Yet another Christian idiot is trying to ban books without reading them.

Earlier, this month a fundie woman in Georgia attempted to ban Harry Potter books from the local schools.Of course, she didn't read them but did you expect those hooked-on-phonics types to have that level of literacy? Fortunately, the school board shot her down and Harry can remain to enlighten those savages in the deep South.

Recently a hausfrau, Leslie Pinney, on an Illinois school board is attempting to ban such books as Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner for being pornographic.

Now, The Awakening may have been pornographic ---say in the late nineteenth century--- but girlfriend, no one reads that now but Lit majors (like me) and middle-aged English profs (not me...I still look hot in fishnet stockings). Like many of the other books, Ms. Pinney has as not read Chopin and the author is not smutty by contemporary standards. In anyone's imagination, Mrs. Pontellier would not be a Playmate of the Year. It is ridiculous to ban something that has gathered the dusty name of "a classic". Oy, just don't show Leslie Pinney anything by the Brontes or (and this is being very racy) Djuna Barnes...

Four U.S. Marines killed in Baghdad.

I honestly do not want to hear the Religious Right whine about Christians being persecuted in the U.S. when soldiers are dying in Iraq for Amercian corporations who are bilking taxpayers as well as the government they are supposedly helping; and defending pious churchgoers who can (barely) fit their candy arses in gas guzzling SUVS so they can indulge in their yearly necrophilia worship at an environment killing megachurch. Wah. Grow up.

A British soldier,Lieutenant Richard Palmer aged 27, of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards died yesterday from an IED in Iraq.

Vigilante militia are patrolling the Canadian border in hopes of keeping out terrorists and illegal immigrants.The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps plans to watch along the Washington state border to stop refugees fleeing Canada.

There's something wrong with this picture. Why anyone would flee to the United States when Canadian businesses are welcoming immigrants. It is a mystery to me. Canada, compared to America, isn't bogged down in a no win war and their dollar is rising against the U.S. currency. Furthermore, in Canada there is more tolerance for diversity and immigration because this country is sparsely populated and has a birth dearth. America can't attract tourists from Canada. So why are these whiners playing soldier at the border? Probably because their white tushes are in wedgies over America becoming a land of brown skinned people. The militias do not realize the anti-immigrant trend is futile. Eventually, diverse ethnic groups will outnumber Caucasians. And then where will the militias be? They will have a lot of explaining to do.

Three soldiers died in Iraq yesterday bringing April's total to a stunning 32 dead this month.

Meanwhile, Bob Woodruff is recovering as an outpatient. Prayers for the family of the dead soldiers. Speedy recovery for Mr. Woodruff.

The Republican Party has descended to new lows in its quest for power.

Police arrested a Homeland Security press aide on charges of sexually preying on a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl in an Internet chat room. Brian J. Doyle, 55 is being held without bail in Maryland pending extradition to Florida.

Meanwhile, Republican Curt Weldon is attacking 4-year-olds with brain cancer. The GOP candidate from the 7th district in Pennsylvania has bashed his opponent Joe Sestak for renting a house in Pittsburgh while his 4-year-old daughter receives treatment for brain cancer in Washington D.C.

Essentially, Curt Weldon is bashing Mr. Sestak for not being politically committed to the 7th district despite the Sestak's heroic commute between Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. to give their ailing daughter the best pediatric care. Once again, the GOP has shown itself to be disgusting filth both in its preying on teenagers and in its hypocritical trashing of those who, like the Sestaks caring for their ill daughter, show true parental family values.

Well, I said I wouldn't post anything more about Bob Woodruff but I have to note that he won the David Bloom Award for excellence in enterprise reporting. Here's to the continued best for Mr. Woodruff and his family.

Radio Free Canada is in hiatus on Bob Woodruff's condition. While there has been no more recent news, we can certainly hope he is progressing in his recovery.

The play My Name is Rachel Corrie is being put on by the Seattle Repertory Theatre in its new season.
And it should be like this. After all, she wasn't a New Yorker. She was a PNWer, one of ours.

---Izzy

Rachel Corrie reading at the Riverside Church, in New York on Wednesday, March 22, 2006.

The Bush administration is attempting to implement regulations that would permit pesticide testing on aborted human fetuses despite the White House's proclamations about the sanctity of human life. It seems, to the Bush government, fetal life is sacred until pesticide companies need a convenient sacrifice for profit. Where the hell is the Religious Right or pro-lifers about this issue, that aborted fetuses can be used for corporate profit but not stem cell research? Why are the voices of the pro-life movement silent?

Too, why is there no outcry that the Bush administration would permit pesticide testing on orphaned, mentally handicapped, and abused children because they cannot give legal refusal to any experiments ? Such experiments include tricking people into thinking that they are taking vitamins while the testers are in fact feeding the test subjects massive doses of pesticides. This disregard for vulnerable populations, the mentally handicapped and abandoned children, is similar to Hitler's T-4 programmes where the Nazis murdered thousands of handicapped (babies, children, and adults) and orphaned children in gas chambers such as the Hartheim Castle.

After reading all that I did about the pesticides being possibly tested on children, I wanted to throw up and crawl into a fetal position. Here in Canada, the mayor of Vancouver, Sam Sullivan, is a quad in a wheelchair and the University of British Columbia is thinking of offering college courses for Down's adults---basically auditing classes for people with LDs (learning disabilities). Unlike America, Canada walks the walk on the sanctity of life.

It is grotesque and morbid but not surprising that the Bush administration is following the same path as the Third Reich in targeting abandoned children, and the handicapped for experimentation and execution in the name of corporate profit. The world should turn and spit on the current American government for its callous disregard for the lives of the most sacred --- the children and the handicapped --- among us.

---Izzy

Please sign this petition about the play My Name is Rachel Corrie. Let James C. Nicola, artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop know that censorship is wrong. Thank you.

---Izzy

Vietnam war deserter Allen Abney has been released from a Marine prison with a discharge so he does not have a tarnished record. He will be back in Canada in time for his brother's funeral.

Today is the third anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death.

Meanwhile, in Palestine the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine kidnapped Mark Budzanowski and held him until they realized that he had a Canadian passport. They released him, saying "We love Canada!" while giving him a business card for the PFLP. Mr. Budzanowski has returned to doing humanitarian work in Palestine.

Bob Woodruff is now in New York and recovering in a health facility. Here's the best to him and his family.

Two U.S. soldiers killed along with twenty other people including young children.

Two more soldiers died in Iraq on Monday
.
Meanwhile, more American troops, 700 soldiers are being brought in from Kuwait to "temporarily" deploy in Iraq for the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion and for the Shiite holy pilgramge of Arbeen which commorates the death of Husayn ibn Ali.

Vietnam War deserter Allen Abney might be released later this week with an other than honourable discharge from the military. However, due to the time it takes to process the order, seven days, he may not make it home in time for his brother Gerry's funeral. Let's hope the American government expedites the discharge and sends Mr. Abney home soon.

A Canadian arrested for deserting the Marines in 1968 will probably be released next week.

I suspect the Bush government finally realised what a hot potato they had on their hands with this one (okay, the administration is a little slow...). and they should not use Mr. Abney as an example to present and future deserters when Bush's ratings are not only in the toilet but flushed.

Four U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan on Sunday. Meanwhile, Bob Woodruff continues to recover.

MOTHER NATURE KNOWS BEST

James Watson, who helped discover DNA, wants to tamper with germ-line (ovum and sperm) genetics to build "smarter" and more "beautiful" humans.

Designer genetics do not always, and seldom, work. Consider the latest fad of "designer dogs". Many of the "new" dogs have potential problems with hip dysplasia and eye diseases because of the faults in their respective breeds. It is an unwise cruelty to tamper with any life's genetics for superficial characteristics such as "intelligence" or "beauty", because the outcome may not be safe nor effective.

Police in Idaho arrested a man with dual American and Canadian citizenship in Idaho on Thursday. Allen Abney deserted the Marines in 1968 during the long conflict in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, there is a reunion of Vietnam war resisters from July 6 to 9, 2006 in Brillaint, BC.

It has been nearly 40 years since Mr. Abney's immigration to Canada. The Vietnam war is over. Now, someone in the Marines may be making a point about they are going to get tough with future deserters but this is what we call "a double-edged sword". Works great for hari-kiri propaganda to highlight that the war in Iraq is lost and anyone would be a fool to listen to a military recruiter.

Just lovely that the American government stepped in this one.... Squish!

SITE FOR THE WEEK

Each week, I will be posting a random but selected site for the reader's information. This week I am posting DEFCONAMERICA.ORG, a site dedicated against the Religious Right.

ISAIAH 51:11

ISAIAH 51:11

Iraqi hostage Tom Fox found dead.

Two U.S. soldiers died in Iraq today.

Meanwhile, the American military is experiencing a desertion rate of 8,000 personnel since 2003.

I have no problem with military deserters simply because the Bush administration is shafting vets by cutting their benefits to the number of $10.3 billion over five years, mostly slashing health care. Furthermore, the Bush administration is not adequately compensating its current soldiers. Essentially, according to a survey by Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, military personnel are the lowest paid employees in America.

If the Bush administration endangers American citizens in not very well considered wars, there should be sufficient compensation for the military's trouble. To quote Sun Tzu's Art of War under the second chapter entitled Waging War: "There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare."

---Izzy

SATURDAY 3/11

Craig and Cindy Corrie, Rachel Corrie's parents, will give a presentation about their recent trip they took to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This will be followed by a theatre piece about Rachel Corrie called Daughter of Courage at Consolidated Works, 500 Boren Ave N, 633-1086, 3 pm, free.

THE WAR FROM HERE

Two Canadians died Sunday in Afghanistan.

As a Pacific Northwesterner from native stock, I am claiming the peragotive of critiquing the recent uproar about the cancellation of the Rachel Corrie play in New York.

Everyone take a deep breath and sit down. Valerian tea is under the cosy, if you need it. Hops and passionflower are optional. We all require a few good calming herbs, given the nature of the uproar but anything stronger would not be legal. Are all of you settled?

First, let's deal with Vanessa Redgrave urging a lawsuit against the theatre in question. Respectfully, I must ask Ms. Redgrave to sit in the corner and read Shakespeare's advice about lawyers in King Henry VI, Part II, Act IV, Scene II. There is no need to throw bad money after good. Your anger over the censorship is justified but the principles involved are already being tried in the court of public opinion. And she is a bitch to reckon with, "...a sovereign mistress of effects", to quote the Duke of Venice in Othello, Act I, Scene III. More so than any legal trial.

Next, we come to Mr. Nicola. Your excuse about scheduling is not acceptable. Dayplanners are good things. Barring that, Yahoo! has an online calendar and for the technically literate, you can get Google Desktop which has nifty plug-ins like its Calendar. Furthermore, simply talking to a few of your Jewish friends does not qualify as going to that community in question.

Katherine Viner's complaint in The Guardian was on target and understandable. Any artist hates to see their work shunned because of baseless and quisling fears.

The best for last. Alan Rickman's outrage over the cancellation was very eloquent. Yes, no artist or activist lives in someone else's pocket or cowardly behaviour. Radio Free Canada hopes that My Name is Rachel Corrie does make it to the American stage.

ADDED COMMENT ON 03/08/06:

However, I am writing this as a simple take on the nature of censorship. I do not claim to be proficient in Middle Eastern politics or to the circumstances of Ms.Corrie's unfortunate death of which I have read varying accounts. I think it is fair to write that the censoring of the play does a disservice to furthering the conversation about the Middle East or the conflicts between Jews and Palestinians.

---Izzy

IRAQ UPDATE


A senior Iraqi army general was shot dead in Western Baghdad.

Meanwhile, ethnic and religious loyalties are threatening to tear about the Iraqi security forces.

Dana Reeve, tireless champion for the disabled,of lung cancer at age 44.

BOB WOODRUFF PROGRESS

Bob Woodruff is speaking and walking according to ABC NEWS.

REPORTER DOWN/DEDICATION
Photojournalist Toby Morris, a reporter for Zuma Press was shot today in Iraq. The injuries are not life-threatening.

In other news: The doctor who cared for Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt, Dr. Richard Briggs, has returned home to his Tennessee home. Here's to all the dedicated medical personnel in the middle of the Iraqi and other conflicts.

Fifteen people killed in Iraq including US soldier .

Meanwhile, in disrespect to soldiers who have died in Iraq, a a t-shirt company Carry A Big Sticker is listing the fallen in protest of President Bush without any relatives's permission to list their deceased family members on the garments in question. This is rude and unfeeling to the grief that families have when their loved ones die so tragically. Radio Free Canada does not mention any soldier by name in consideration of the families left behind. Instead I aggregate the information to show sorrow and dismay at the current administration's foreign policy.

Izzy

HOLLYWOOD FLIPS THE BIRDIE

Well, I didn't come close to guessing the picks but the surprise to Middle America wasn't the gay themes of Capote, Brokeback Mountain, or the political themes of Good Night and Good Luck, nor even the award for best song about pimps. The greatest theme of the awards, and the one the Religious Right will miss in condemning Hollywood as being out of touch with most American morality was the celebration of imperfection in the human condition.

Look at the awards honoured. It was not a lack of ethics, instead it was an award for best actor, a man with a drinking problem who turned his life around. The best film and best song were about the racism that black people face everyday. The best director was for a man whose father fled to Taiwan after his paternal grandparents were executed by Communists.

In other words, the Oscars weren't about being white, male, and Protestant. The spectrum of human experience is what American culture should be. And what the 78th Oscars showed the world.

---Izzy

P.S. Bush's approval ratings are at an all time low.

IRAQ UPDATE

British and Australian troops are expected to be pulling out of Iraq in May and there are rumours that the United States will be withdrawing its troops in 2007. If the Iraqi security forces can maintain order, a dubious supposition since the Iraqi police are rag-tag, corrupt, and without proper equipment.

Meanwhile,another US soldier was shot dead north of Baghdad on Sunday.

---Izzy

GET THE MEDS

God is talking to Tony. At least that is what Prime Minister Blair has hinted in his recent interviews about Iraq and how he will be judged on his decisions regarding the conflict. Last year the PM said that history would judge him.

I think the term is called "grasping for straws" or to put it in Biblical language, he is messing with Leviticus 19:12, among other verses.

Personally, I would be worried about history because, once your mouth is shuttered by death, Clio the Muse of History is a harsh and fickle mistress.

---Izzy

Recently, the Alan Rickman/Katherine Viner play My Name is Rachel Corrie was cancelled by the New York Theatre Workshop. There are two versions of the story involving the cancellation. The first reason, according to the playwrite Katherine Viner, was the situation was too edgy with the recent elections of Hamas and Ariel Sharon's ill health to produce the play.

The second reason from the New York Theatre Workshop's artistic director James C. Nicola was that there was inadequete time to prepare for the staging of the play. If anyone has a definite take on this, please e-mail me so I can update my information. Thank you.

Meanwhile, Vermont Bread and Puppet Theatre is producing its own version of the Rachel Corrie drama through Seattle's Consolidated Works arts center March 8-11. If you are in the area, you may buy tickets here.

---Izzy

WOODRUFF UPDATE
Bob Woodruff is making good progress,according to a Newsday article. He is also sitting up and smiling after severe head injuries and broken ribs. This from the Detroit News.

We here in Canada are still rooting for him and cameraman Doug Vogt.

---Izzy

PROGRAM NOTE

When Radio Free Canada writes about casualities in Iraq, I am deliberately leaving out Iraqi dead and wounded because I cannot keep pace with the amount of local mortality and injured. This is just an acknowledgement of all the tradegy.I feel the same sorrow for the Iraqis as I do those from Commonwealth nations.

---Izzy

MY OSCAR PICKS

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Capote” (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
George Clooney in “Syriana” (Warner Bros.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Reese Witherspoon in “Walk the Line” (20th Century Fox)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Catherine Keener in “Capote” (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)

Best animated feature film of the year
“Howl’s Moving Castle” (Buena Vista)

Achievement in directing
“Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features)
Ang Lee

Best documentary feature
Alex Gibney and Jason Kliot
“March of the Penguins” (Warner Independent Pictures)

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features) Gustavo Santaolalla


Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Travelin’ Thru” from “Transamerica” (The Weinstein Company and IFC Films)
Music and Lyric by Dolly Parton

Best motion picture of the year
“Capote” (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
An A-Line Pictures/Cooper’s Town/ Infinity Media Production
Caroline Baron, William Vince and Michael Ohoven, Producers


Adapted screenplay
“Capote” (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
Screenplay by Dan Futterman

Original screenplay
“Crash” (Lions Gate)
Screenplay by Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco
Story by Paul Haggis

We'll see what happens. Notez bien, I'm just doing the big awards.

---Izzy

BRING THEM HOME

Four British soldiers die from a roadside bomb attack.

Meanwhile,a third of all returning U.S. soldiers are seeking mental health care for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.


The war on terror isn't being won. In Iraq, it is descending toward civil war. The conflict is also being brought back in the hearts and minds of returning vets whose health care the Bush administration is slashing veteran benefits. America owes better to its brave veterans. It's time to pull the plug on this farce of a war.

^___Izzy

THE OTHER WAR

One GI dies in Afghanistan fighting and two are wounded.

The death toll for American troops in Afghanistan is 266 since the invasion of the country and numerous others have been wounded in both conflicts.

There are an estimated 765 American troops wounded from Afghanistan.

Izzy

TRAGIC UPDATE

Two British Soldiers Die From A Roadside Bomb In Iraq which puts the tally at 103 for that country.

There have been more than 1300 Iraqi deathssince the Golden mosque bombing in Samarra.

From one article I read (and I barely got through it without losing dinner),morgues have the dead piled in cages where the bodies wait until claimed. The process is basically automated with the deceased being photographed and the pictures identified through a computer base regardless of the state of the corpse.

There is no, in the midst of this civil war between Sunnis and Shiites, any exit strategy now for the United States except one that involves turning tail and running like the nation's whipped dog of its foriegn policy.

---Izzy

NO SURPRISE

In more setbacks for the Bush administration,another U.S. soldiers dies, and some Sunnis and Shiites make friendly overtures to one another against the American and British occupation. But you could see this one coming for a long time. Before anything else, a foreign power that has invaded a country and is building four super bases is a threat to a nation's identity.

The United States is not a liberator to the Iraqis, but a conqueror that is increasingly a target for homegrown insurgence. This war will end in a shameful end for America because there is no love for the country in the Middle East. Even the arch conservative, William F. Buckley has conceded the Iraq war has failed miserably and there is no honourable way to disengage from the morass.

---Izzy

THE FEARLESS LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD

Our Great Commander-In-Chief, George Walker Bush, got in a bit of biking scrape last year.

Where is Chevy Chase for the satire when you need him?

---Izzy

MORE SENSELESS DEATHS

Two U.S. soldiers killed by roadside bombs.

I hate blogging. This is painful. Prayers for the family

---Izzy

HISTORY GIFT

Occasionally on these pages, Radio Free Canada will post a random History Gift from one of the Commonwealth countries.This Gift is from Scotland.
Enjoy!

---Izzy

IRAQ UPDATE

Another dead soldier (noncombat) and ID of previously killed.

COPYCAT

Well, isn't that special....

The Religious Right, in one of its responses to the soaring popularity of gay films in the Oscar nominations, has created a ripoff t-shirt that uses the breaking of the Ten Commandment tablets on Mt. Sinai as Brokeback Mountain.

While it is flirting with copyright infringement of the movie, this garment idea from Second Coming Clothing company is also not very creative. The appropriate word here is "tacky". I wouldn't be caught at the Rapture wearing it. Even Heaven has standards.

Recently, shirts from the Brokeback filmset were auctioned for $100,000 to benefit a childrens' charity . Unlike the 'me-too!' tawdriness from the Christian company, the Brokeback shirts are an authentic part of movie culture.

---Izzy

CONCERT NOTICE

Michael Stipe of R.E.M., and other musicians are headlining a concert in New York's Hammerstein Ballroom to mark the third anniversary of America's invasion of Iraq.

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan will be a speaker at the event.

OBIT

Sesame Street Lyricist Bruce Hart

"Sunny Day
Sweepin' the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet..."


Thank you for all the happy childhood memories.

---Izzy

PATRIOT GUARD

The Patriot Guard continues to shield families from Rev. Fred Phelps and his mongrel interpretation of Christianity. Yea, Patriot Guard!

---Izzy

ABC CAMERAMAN UPDATE
Bob Woodruff continues to heal from the IED attack while ABC cameraman Doug Vogt is on his way home.



Here's to the continued recovery of both men.



Meanwhile, the war in Iraq continues to be bloody with seven soldiers killed by IEDs Wednesday, bringing the death total of American troops to 2287 dead and 9007 wounded.

All our prayers to Woodruff, Vogt, those in Iraq and their families.



---Izzy

JESUS, IS THAT YOU?

According to some sources, the New Tribes Mission has been inciting peaceful native people in Venezuela to violence by giving them guns.

Whatever happened to the idea of Jesus as the Prince of Peace?

---Izzy

VP ASSASSIN UPDATE

VP Hunting Victim Recovers.


Pity.

----Izzy

SAGO MINE SURVIVOR IS RECOVERING

The sole survivor of the Sago Mine disater is recovering.

REPORTER UPDATE
Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt continue to recover from the IED attack in Iraq.

Happy Birthday to Alan Rickman.



60



Born on this day in 1946.



Cheers from all your fans.



---Izzy

TRUE HEROES

“The Reverend” Fred Phelps and his fellow Westboro Baptist Church members are touring the country to protest at solider funerals. Phelps’ claim is that IEDs (improvised explosive devices) are killing American military personnel in Iraq because God is punishing the United States for permitting homosexuality, among other so-called sins.  

Hookay… so someone in Kansas forgot to take their meds this morning. Gays aren’t allowed in the military so why should God bother with that particular sector of society? The claims of Mr. Phelps and his followers that God is targeting  soldiers and miners is somewhere off in an imaginary land similar to that inhabited by people like Jennifer Giroux of Women Influencing the Nation. At the time of the Southeast Asia tsunami, Ms. Giroux pronounced that the disaster occurred because America is sinful.  Obviously, she did not pay much attention in geography class. Asia is a different continent than North America and they don’t have similar cultures. More to the point, there is no cause and effect between someone enjoying Brokeback Mountain or Capote   in Vancouver or San Francisco, or TransAmerica in Seattle and an insurgent planting an IED in Baghdad. There again is a continental and cultural divide.

Furthermore, sin is in the eye of the beholder. I do not think homosexuality to be any type of sin Worrying about gays being evil is ridiculous when there are 37 million people in poverty in the United States. A starving child is a far worse crime in any decent religion.

The Phelps protests are causing much grief to the families of the slain soldiers and, more recently, to the miners who died in mining disasters. However, a group of champions has arisen to protect those in mourning. A group of bikers, the Patriot Guard, shields mourners from hate mongers like Phelps at funerals. As the descendant of the first Revolutionary War hero at the Battle of Point Pleasant in West Virginia , I bless these bikers for their honourable conduct in times of grief

---Izzy

DON'T BANG YOUR BUTT ON THE DOOR

In Washington State, Tim Eyman  is challenging the civil rights bill for gays and lesbians via the initiative process.

Mr. Eyman is known by all civil people in Washington State as a greedy opportunistic skink who at one point defrauded voters of political funds during anti-tax initiatives. Each initiative that he files is not to open discussion to the serious issues of the day but to line his own self-serving and unworthy pockets.

He poses as the champion of the taxpayers but, in fact, his shenanigans cost valuable resources for frivolous avarice. This money should be going to help the less fortunate in our communities. Instead, the initiative process pads his miserly wallet.

The voters of Washington State should disregard the latest attempt by Mr. Eyman to enrich himself at the expense of others and send him packing like any other carpetbagger.
---Izzy

FOOTNOTE

A follow up to my blog on Vice President Dick Cheney’s shooting of his hunting partner. It seems from some reports, that the VP was a little, um,impaired.
A man with his health problems should not be out hunting, or being the second in command to the President of the United States.
---Izzy