HAPPY, HAPPY!

Okay, so I am homeschooling my youngest. Long story about her being bullied that will take a while to explain. Suffice to write that some Brit girls vie for fishwife status in their tender elementary school years. I call the monster Alisoun for the Chaucer character although she comes from Yorkshire,not Bath. Almost needless to report, but germane to the situation,the school my daughter attended does not understand the unhappy situation. They had retained my daughter in the same classroom with the tarty thugette. I am searching for alternatives for my daughter's education

While this has all evolved, I have become a Girl Guide co-leader, am still looking for work as a freelance writer, and struggling through a second novel even though the first remains unpublished.

I am tired but pause to take time out of my manic schedule of writing, homeschooling, and (pointless) meetings with the school, to wish Alan Rickman HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

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GIVE US BACK OUR BOOKS!

The Greater Victoria Public Library Board (GVPLB) has decided to lock-out the librarians from their workplace. This is an escalation of a pay dispute ongoing for five months.
Librarians cannot make a living wage in Victoria due to the high cost of housing, food and other goods. They provide a valuable service to the people of this city. Victoria (or should it be Victorian?) librarians create a hub for education, knowledge, and simply an inexpensively safe place to take the kids on a rainy day. Here I must assure the librarians that, at least my youngest, has supervision at all times. The teen simply wanders off, mp3 player headphones hardwired, into the manga section. Librarians are not babysitters or mere book jockeys or shelvers of books. The librarians I know are very patient when treated with respect, eager to assist, and competent guides to the library's resources.

The GVPLB, despite the professional work of Victoria's librarians, have denied these knowledge workers a raise after ten years of broken promises to remedy the situation.

Please send a message of support to the librarians. Thank you!

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CHOICES

My preferences for president are Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. Fight it out among yourselves.

Technorati Tags:barack obama,hilary clinton

WE MISS MARPLE

Actress Geraldine McEwan is retiring from her role as Miss Marple. After three glorious years as the knitting sleuth, McEwan has decided to hand the role over to another yet unnamed actress.

We hardly knew ye, ma'am. We will regret not seeing your sparky eyes and mischievous smile. Cheers for the memories.

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MICROYA WHO?

Microsoft has made a bid for search engine company Yahoo! to the tune of $44.6 billion. While that is pocket change for Bill Gates, why? Yahoo is just a portal. It doesn't have the applications that Google has such as spreadsheets, documents, notebooks, e-mail, and --- by the way --- a search engine. The Yahoo! MyWeb can't compete with Reader in terms of cross-functionality with other Google apps. Bill and company are too little, too very late in buying a company that hasn't understood how to use the Internet for socialization, information, and business. I don't understand the logic behind Congress and the European Union scrutinizing Microsoft for the purchase as possible monopoly. Whoever thought of this purposed merger was shy five pixels off the screen.

To place the idiocy of the merger in perspective, I Googled not Yahooed or Live Searched for the information for this post. And, yeah, it's an article on Blogger. 'Nuff said.

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CLOSE THE GAP

The Virginia Legislature recently voted against S.B 109, legistlation that would have closed a loophole that allowed private sales without background checks at unregulated gun shows. The defeat came after the National Rifle Association and the Virginia Citizens' Defence League lobbied to torpedo the bill.

The defeat of the bill occurs after family members of students killed in the Virginia Tech Massacre staged a "die-in" on the lawn of the Virginia capitol to support S.B. 109. During the protest and support of the legistlation, pro-gun lobbyists heckled and taunted those who suffered the loss of their family and friends.

My sympathies are with those who supported closing the gun show loophole. I champion their cause not only for the common sense of requiring background checks on gun buyers and dealers but also for their civility. It is trashy to heckle and taunt someone whose family or friend was murdered in a horrible event such as happened at Virginia Tech. The NRA and the Virginia Citizens' Defence League are what is commonly referred to, regardless of skin colour, as "white trash" and "patterollers". Yes, those are loaded terms. The obscene behaviour of taunting someone whose family or friend has died in gun violence warrants harsh words of condemnation.


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AWAY UNTIL FEBRUARY

I'm away from blogging until early February.I have a paying gig writing web reviews. More on that when I return.

WHY NOT SUE STARBUCKS?

There is ballot proposition in Colorado and five other states that would define a fertilized egg as a human being with the full rights of a human being. Well, chickies, why not sue Starbucks for selling a abortificant because caffeine in coffee can cause miscarriage? That's the thought. Let's go on a pro-life rampage and burn down every coffee or tea shop in America to protect the unborn fertilized eggs. The church ladies will have to give up their freeze-dried coffee in tins after Sunday service. Destroy all the soft drink factories for the pre-born. No more Coca-Cola or Pepsi for women. Why stop there? No caffeine for men either. Every sperm is sacred.

Where's my torch and hammer?

Technorati Tags:Technorati Tags:abortion,colorado politics,starbucks

RIP HEATH LEDGER

April 4, 1979 to January 22, 2008

Drugs are stupid.
Painkillers: oxycodone and hydrocodone.
Antihistamine: doxylamine
Sleeping Medication: temazepam
Anti-anxiety Drugs: diazepam and alprazolam

Screw the pharmaceutical companies.

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OBIT: CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN

Sir Edmund Hillary is dead at the age of 88. The first man to climb Mount Everest, he called himself a "no-hoper at university". After his famous climb to the top, he raised and donated millions of dollars for the Sherpas to build clinics, schools, hospitals, roads, and bridges. A staunch conservationist, he badgered climbers into keeping Mount Everest clean from trash.

From nothing, a man who called himself "no great shakes at Auckland Grammar" [high school,]he made several mountains out of the molehill of his life. The world needs more people like Sir Hillary to inspire and challenge us to be greater in what we can do with the little that we think of ourselves.

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HER MAJ'S XMAS

Queen Elizabeth II has become a member of the YouTube generation. She gave her 2007 Christmas address on YouTube and has her own section on the site. It was a very precise do good onto others lecture with grand music and royal posh all around.

Give 'em 'ell Ma'am! Happy Holidays!

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WRITERS' STRIKE

Please support the writers' strike in Hollywood. One way that you can support the writers' strike is to boycott any scab activity that takes place online. Recently, I found this ad. The spelling errors are not mine:

"Freelance TV Writers - (US-CA-Hollywood - 90078)

Min Education: Bachelors
Job Type: Contract

Everyone knows it is a rough time here in Hollywood with the strike and with the holidays coming up it couldn't have come at a worse time. I was starting to wonder how I would be able to make it an enjoyable Christmas for my twin 12-year old daughters. That is why I decided to come up with an alternative.

I, and some marketing folks, producers, and other interested parties had some private disucssions on how to get some writers back to work while this strike works itself out. I've worked out deals to get scripts written on a couple of CBS shows and I'm working on a deal with Fox. We will be privately and discretely writing scripts for these shows. We will ensure your privacy and confidentiality and are willing to pay top dollar for talented writers. We are currently working on bring other shows into the mix, but the producers want to see if we can make this work for a few shows first before giving us many more.

Together we can make this a happy holiday season for our families, contact if you have any questions.

William Kinkade
Kinkade Creative Solutions"


I've excised the contact information for the company. Why help them?

Help these people instead.
Here is the web page for the Writers' Guild of America.
http://www.wga.org/

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FREEDOM FROM RELIGION

Would someone please whack presidential candidate Mitt Romney over the head with a large history book? Mr. Romney claims that freedom needs religion to be successful and that religion needs freedom.

Uh, hello? Hasn't Romney heard about the term auto-da-fé? Being a Jew in Inquisition Spain was dangerous. There was no freedom in being, for example, a Protestant in Queen Mary's Catholic England nor for that matter Queen Elizabeth I's supposedly Catholic tolerant leadership where followers of the Pope were under the same suspicion as Huguenots in the former reign. Perhaps Mitt Romney should read Fox's Book of Martyrs, or brush up on the atrocities of St. Bartholomew's Day in sixteenth century France where the rivers were so thick with Protestant corpses that no one could fish, to understand that religion does not confer freedom if you are of a then heretic faith.

Mitt Romny also disregards the thousands of primarily women murdered for alleged witchcraft. The freedom inspiring qualities of religion were not evident in Salem Massachusetts when innocent people, mostly women,were accused and hung for the supposed crime. Those of us touched by the evil of religion, myself with an ancestor hung and burnt for witchcraft, do not forget or forgive how religion is an instrument for ensnaring and destroying innocents.

Perhaps it is too much to expect Romney's followers to be historically literate (or for that matter, simply literate). When Mr. Romney claims that the big FFs, Founding Fathers, were religious, he is not quoting Thomas Jefferson who once wrote to his nephew Peter Carr to "Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear". and "Do not be frightened from this enquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you." None of the Founding Fathers had much love for religion. They were, unlike your average fundamentalist Christian or Republican presidential hopeful, were great in curiosity and scholarly pursuit.

Mitt Romney, or other candidates for the presidency who claim religion as as a necessity for freedom, should take a hint from the intellectual bent of the Founding Fathers and study history.

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STUFFIE UPDATE

Authorities in Sudan released British private school teacher Gillian Gibbons from jail.

Gillian Gibbons was arrested for naming a class teddy bear 'Muhammad'. A staff member at the school complained to authorities about the alleged idolatry. Sudanese officials pardoned Ms. Gibbons and she was deported.

My question is where were the staff member's priorities? Naming a teddy bear 'Muhammad' is not sacrilegious but somewhat tacky. The Prophet,when he was sixty-three, had a child bride. Aisha bint Abi Bakr was six years of age when Muhammad married her. He consummated the marriage when the girl was nine.

Hello? In the modern world this is called paedophilia. Muhammad played with the child's dolls and whatnot to gain the victim's trust. Naming a teddy bear, or a child, 'Muhammad' is nauseating in view of the Prophet's sexual assault on a very underage girl. Needless to say, the female in question did not have any children of her own. Rape of a young child can damage the internal reproductive organs.

The Sudanese Muslims who condemned Gillian Gibbons for simply having a class mascot should look to some of the vile origins of their own religion for censure.


Technorati Tags:aisha bint abi bakr,child sexual abuse gillian gibbons,child sexual abuse muhammad,

IT'S JUST A STUFFIE

Rabid members of Islam in the Sudan have called for the execution of a British teacher because she named the class mascot Muhammad.

British private school teacher Gillian Gibbons was arrested and jailed for 15 days because her students named the class teddy bear 'Muhammad' and wrote diary entries about their mascot when they took the bear home overnight.

Now, I have known teachers who have done similar exercises to foster literacy and no one has threatened a firing squad or six months in jail and lashes with a cane. The difference is that these teachers live in a more civilized and rational society than your average Islamic fanatic. Naming a teddy bear Muhammad is not idol worship nor is it cause for imans to get their robes in a wahhabi over an object made of cloth and stuffing.

The imans who are upset about the incident should repeat after me: it's just a toy, it's just a toy,it's just a toy...

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BUG FIX

Hi, just a program note: I had a webring application on the site that was redirecting my blog. I have since removed the application and the site works as it should.


--Anne

UPDATE:CHRISTORPHER WORDEN

RCMP is still looking for evidence in the murder of Constable Christopher Worden who was shot at Hay River in October.

His alleged killer, Emrah Bulatci 23, is due in court on December 13.

Nice of the RCMP to give the death so much attention after the fact. According to news reports, neither Worden or Constable Douglas Scott had backup which should be standard procedure for all RCMP regardless of the funds that Constable Scott did not have in his region.
Technorati Tags: guns

CANADA'S FINEST

Constable Douglas Scott, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, of Brockville, Ontario was buried on Tuesday.

I can feel nothing but a sad tiredness when I watched his eulogy. Constable Scott's killer,Pingwaktuk Kolola, was an intoxicated driver that the Scott had pulled over for impaired driving. The shooter brandished a gun but Constable Scott could not shoot back. The killer held a baby as a human shield. Rather than risk the child's life, Constable Scott decided to take the bullet.

Why is the world not as weary of pain as I am of blogging gun deaths, especially one as noble as that of Constable Douglas Allen Scott? If there was any word to be placed in a thesaurus as a synonym for "hero", it would have to be this young man's name. His RCMP hat won't be one that anyone could wear as honourably and as proud.



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THE FALLEN

Once again, the stupidity of readily available firearms is proved. An 18-year-old man in Finland has shot and killed five boys, two girls, and an adult woman before police subdued him. The killer is now in critical condition in the hospital.

Before the massacre, the killer had posted a video on YouTube entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007"

Now, logically, all posts on YouTube that show violence aren't going to end up with people being killed. However, if a specific target is named, shouldn't someone at Google/YouTube be more involved with monitoring the videos and seeking help so this type of tradegy does not occur?

Where is corporate responsibility in Internet companies? Certainly not at Yahoo! which handed over its computer records on journalist Shi Tao on the request of the Chinese government. Shi Tao is now a political prisoner due to the corporate weak knees at Yahoo! Specifically, Chief Executive Jerry Yang and VP Michael Callahan lied to Congress about their knowledge of giving the information about Shi Tao to the Chinese government. Furthermore, Yahoo! has been implicated in the arrests of four other dissident journalists.

At Google/YouTube, the answer may lie in greater vigilance about content. At Yahoo!, there needs to be a corporate overhaul about human rights, and about honesty.

UPDATE: The shooter died of his self-inflicted injuries. The adult killed was the high school principal. Please keep the family and the seven students injured in your thoughts.

UPDATE TWO: The shooter, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, killed six students, the school nurse, and the principal. He was a loner who faced bullying at school.

Technorati Tags: guns,google,yahoo

REMEMBER THE FALLEN

Const. Douglas Scott, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, of Brockville, Ontario was fatally shot last Monday night. The killer was an intoxicated driver that the constable had pulled over for impaired driving. The shooting was in Kimmerut. a hamlet in Nunavat that bans alcohol. Constable Douglas Scott was 20 years of age.

Earlier this month, RCMP Const. Christopher Worden was shot, possibly with a Glock 9mm pistol in North West Territory after responding to a noise complaint. His killer, Emrah Bulatci has been arrested. Constable Christopher Worden leaves behind a wife and eight-month-old daughter.

A list of fallen police officers from The Globe and Mail.

Technorati Tags: guns