I wouldn't call this an open thread.
It has one restriction.
No one posting to this thread may say a single wonkish word about the Liberal leadership candidates, nor about the shenanigans that their supporters are currently engaged in, tying one another's shoelaces together and just generally behaving as though political life in Canada were one endless big frat party.
People can talk about anything else, though. What is on your mind? POGGE International wants to hear from you, about anything except the Liberal leadership campaigns.
Things are getting pretty bloody awful in Iraq, yes? (About which I will try to write tomorrow, but read Juan Cole's posts over the last few days, and just weep.) Or maybe you're worked up about the games the Harpercons are playing with income-splitting or the Canadian Wheat Board. Maybe you're enjoying our strange weather, or if you're not, hang on: half an hour from now, it will be completely different. Perhaps you'd like to compose a poem to the universe. We take those; we cherish them, and we will send them on if we can ever figure out the effective forwarding address. Send recipes. What colour should I paint my bathroom? Do you trust your big brother? Can I? Say something. Say anything.
Just don't talk about the Liberals.
It's -40 celsius here in the Yukon.
Celsius, fahrenheit, at -40 it's the same damn thing: Cold.
Yeah, I thought of that after I posted: -40C is -40F. I'd hate to be a wild woods critter on a night like this.
I've always been partial to purple bathrooms myself.
Me, I'm trying to write something intelligent about the obstacles facing Nurse Practitioners. You know, the forces keeping them from generally saving the health care system...well vastly improving it anyway.
But - you can't go wrong with purple in the bathroom.
Our bathroom is blue - a blue tarp over a pole frame outside that we fondly refer to as "the Blue Room". It gets interesting when it's 40 below ...
Literacy is on my mind today, skdadl.
I'm a volunteer literacy tutor at the local library, working with newcomers to Canada who need ESL help. Today, we had our annual literacy conference in Regina, where we heard inspirational stories from, among others, ESL learners from Sudan, Ethopia, South Korea, and Eritrea: the courage of these people is amazing.
In addition, we heard an excellent address by a young woman named Carey Rigby-Wilcox who struggled for years with low literacy skills before the challenge of filling out an immunization consent form for her child convinced her to overcome the fear and shame and get some help from an adult literacy program at her local library.
Now she illustrates children's books and reads Jane Austen for fun.
Some people, unfortunately, don't see the value in such government-funded programs.
You read about the guy in Red Deer who was convicted of possession of kiddie porn after he was turned in by the burglar who broke into his house and found it on his computer?
Who'd have guessed there might actually be a code of honor among thieves.
skdadl will rue the day she thought of putting up an open thread at this place. I don't even want to think about what may be lurking in the shadows around here.
Disgusted - Been there and done that for more years than I care to remember. Had a friend from Uranium City, Sask (when there still was a Uranium City, Sask) who used to put caribou "seat covers" on the plastic seats in his "two holer" for the winter. You might want to give that a try.
But mahigan: look! Everyone just went to bed and had a good night's sleep. Is this a well-behaved group or what? Milk and cookies all 'round.
Purple, you say, Nightingale. I once painted our old bathroom a sort of violet colour, and I loved that for a while -- it was surprisingly flattering to the complexion. I have a weakness right now for myrtle, the blue that looks headed towards purple if you put it next to other blues. But absolutely purple: hmmmn. Do I have the courage for that? You're right, though: bathrooms can take a lot.
Put me down as a supporter of nurse practitioners too, Nightingale. Put me down as supporting anything that will lower the level of attitude we run into from many doctors (not all, for sure, but still too many), especially the doctors we have to cope with in emergencies. I know that they are under too much pressure, but the practical solution to that problem seems obvious to me -- it's the one that we never seem to try. Relieve the pressure, eh?
Stephen, I just read Carey's page, and that brought tears to my eyes. I feel ashamed, y'know, given that reading and writing have been my life, that I've never bothered to learn the facts about barriers to literacy and the serious work that a few dedicated people have been doing to understand and address the problem. I believe entirely that simply paying attention to specific cases can start to turn the lights on, and I'm grateful for that link to ABC Canada -- my homework for the day.
sean, that is ... well, it's a happy story, I guess, but it does make me wonder. What did they do with the honourable burglar?
When I were a lass, there would be at least one week every Medicine Hat winter when the temperature would drop below -40, at which point the schools would close. The best part of that weather is the sound of the snow as you walk along -- crunch crunch crunch. People who live in warmer parts don't know what they're missing. Actually, I think that people in Medicine Hat are now missing the experience too -- I don't think it gets that cold there any more.
I always thought that wooden two-holers were ok in the cold (that was at my Aunt Mary's place near Sylvan Lake). At least, when it is very cold, you can be sure there's nothing awake down there that can suddenly spring up to bite ... Well, never mind.
Apparently the burglar used the victim's camcorder to record images of the kiddie porn, then hid it somewhere and called the RCMP to pick it up.
Smart burglar! Give the guy a contract!
PS: Red Deer is an interesting place. The Red Deer Advocate, for instance, seems to me a most intelligent newspaper whenever I run into its editorials, which I should maybe try to follow more regularly.
Yes, I know about Stockwell Day and all that, but then it was a hometown lawyer who forced him to concede way back when, yes? And they have Douglas Cardinal's beautiful church.
Here's a thought ..
I just found out that along with curbing the "income trusts" - Mr. Flaherty: "also propose(s) a 1/2 percent decrease in the corporate tax rate"
I have never heard of that part of the plan. (thank you New Brunsiwck Politics blog).
croghan27
Home from writing retreat. Behind in blog-reading. Interested in the Wendy's TV commercial, "Stuck in the middle with you," a disgustingly sexist ad that refers to two women as two pieces of meat. Interestingly, the ad is not on the Wendy's website.
Wendy's from the same people that bring you Tim Hortons ..
Back in the days of yore (not the Stockwell Day days) I was young and and irresponsible (as opposed to now when I am old irresponsible) I was hitch-hiking through Red Deer on the way to Edmonton.
It seems some elected Tory had crossed the floor to the Trudeau side of the House .... and in thanks was appointed Minister in Charge of the Wheat Board.
One night some indignant voter started wailing away at friend politican's campaign office with his fowling piece. Just after that happened, poor a-political me came a hiking through.
The RCMP took a dim view of the whole procedings and commensed to "pick up the usual suspects" .. aka the passing hitch-hikers.
I was release not too long afterward ,, but forever burned in my memory is the places they searched for said 12 gauge. GEEZE guys ,,, a shot gun WOULD NOT FIT UP THERE!
Red Deer holds a special place in my .... "heart".
croghan27
That would be Jack Horner, who became Minister without portfolio, and who was never elected again, though it looks like the Liberals looked after him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Horner_(politician)
Anything, huh?
Well, how does everyone think things are going to go in Mexico? We've got Lopez Obrador saying he's the real President, we've got rebellion in Oaxaca being countered with murder and detention-without-charges and stuff, we've got the ongoing Zapatista ignoring-the-government process in Chiapas, there's at least one other insurrection of some sort happening, and the Other Campaign is going around building ties between people who've had it up to here in different parts of the country.
What do people figure the chances are of a Mexico-wide revolution (violent or otherwise) within a couple of years?
It is simmering away, PLG, I know, and I'm ashamed that I am as ignorant of a good half-dozen potential crises in this hemisphere as I am. What can I say? Inform us. Here is the space.
I can tell you one thing about recent left successes in Central and South America that have troubled some of us. First in Nicaragua, now in Ecuador, we have promising new leaders whose economic and foreign-policy plans give us heart, even as they announce new laws to limit women's autonomy. At least one woman has already died in Nicaragua because doctors feared an anti-abortion law that hadn't yet come into force but now has, Ortega's law, which forbids medical intervention of any kind in the process of birth, even to save the life of a dying woman.
Yes, I know the cultural background such murderous bigotry arises from, but that doesn't change the fact that it is murderous bigotry.
In response to Berlynn's posting about the Wendy's commercial: That was the funniest thing I've ever heard!
The only disgusting thing here is extreme political correctness.
It's a free country. Free speech. 1st amendment. Don't like it? Don't eat there (but I'm sure your a vegan, anyways).
Yo Tom Jones:
"It's a free country. Free speech. 1st amendment. Don't like it? Don't eat there (but I'm sure your a vegan, anyways)."
I was not informed that we gave up our status of an independant country and amaligated with a foreign power that has "1st amendments. Does that mean I can apply for social security cheques? (or is that social security checks?)
By the By ..... I hear that Wales is just gastly this time of year .. cold and damp - maybe you should check (there IS that word again) it out. Perhaps revisit the geography classes you missed while off drinking with Rod Stewart.
It is amazing how Stewart, who often comes to this country, manages not to confuse Canada with the USA. Go complain to Gordon Brown - I hear he is about to dump several billion into schools in the British Isles. You are one example why it needs it.
I thought I heard somebody in here. Thanks for checking (there's that word again) it out for me, Croghan -- I was busy gnawing on a tasty cut of raw Bambi that mahigan sent me.
Does that mean I can apply for social security cheques? (or is that social security checks?)
Probably not, but it would definitely mean we'd be in for more security checks, if you know what I mean.