Saturday, September 11, 2010
Into the mind of a suicide bomber
I will let them speak for themselves, this is from Al Jazeera. 75% of civilain Afghan deaths are at the hands of the Taliban.
Garden Display?
So if you have a good size front yard and you want to “Outdo the Jones” or just be the coolest dad on the block, then you need one of these for your garden. So what type of flowers does one plant to complement Sea-gray?
Hurry soon to be sold out!
An open letter to the President of PSAC
Yesterday I found out that my union is urging it’s members to send form letters to Jack Layton of the NDP to whip his M.P. into voting against bill C-391 to kill the gun registry. It is traditional in Canada for votes on a Private Members Bill not to be whipped. Seems the union does not like Jack’s plan to let his M.P.’s vote whatever their constituents wish. Frankly I don’t think Jack is doing this out of democratic principles, but out of political survival. Many of his rural seats are being held by a slim margin, voting to support the registry could seriously harm the NDP.
What really pisses me off is that the Union involves itself in non-labour related issues, under the guise of “social justice” The union never bothers to ask their members to vote on this sort of thing and decides to whatever it pleases. Clearly a case of some being “More equal than others”. Had they bothered to canvas their members they would find that a significant portion of them are gun owner who are opposed to the gun registry. So I sent this letter last night to the President of PSAC in a likely vain attempt to make them listen. If you belong to this union and are opposed to the registry, you need to make yourself heard!
I have been a member of PSAC since the early 90’s. I find your involvement in supporting the gun registry quite disgusting and have to ask how is this pertinent to your duties as a Labour union?
Many members of PSAC own guns and are avid shooters, why would you support a program that is used to seize and confiscate peoples property? Also are you aware that the program sucked up nearly 2 billion dollars that was badly needed in far more important programs. While this money sucking monster was been created, my Search and Rescue vessel was tied to the dock due to lack of fuel and training was cut.
I have seen lots of claims made by the people supporting the registry all of which fail the fact test.
Suicides: The registry has not affected total suicides and recent claims that it have using a study that covered 1995-2005 are totally hogwash, the registry started in 2003 and was barely working by 2005. The trends in suicides have not changed due to the registry.
Police use: The gun registry is not well received by the average police officers, a recent survey found that 92% of responding street level officer did not use it or trust. Their mistrust is well-founded, only about 33% of the legal guns made or imported into Canada have ever been registered, plus it has no effect on guns that were smuggled in. Only the police chiefs seem to like it, but not enough to offer to pay for it out of their budgets. Not to mention the Police chief association accepts donations from the company that built the registry and the same Police Association was also against the Charter of rights and recently had their ethics advisor quit in disgust.
Cost: The Liberals claimed it was only going to cost 200 million, well approx. 2 billion later we still have a white elephant that has only registered approx. 33% of the legal guns, plus it has re-registered guns that had been reported stolen and is so poorly maintained that even firearm experts have difficulty matching certificates to guns (Most guns up to the 1960’s did not have serial numbers) Currently supporters are claiming it only costs 4 million, yet strangely enough even the RCMP admit to salary costs at 13 million, with a total of around $86 million per year, which most people suspect is on the low side.
Use: supporters like to use figures showing how much the registry is used, these claims started out around 4,000 and now claiming 17,000 times a day the registry is checked. What they don’t say is that all but a tiny fraction are automated, so if you are pulled over for speeding, and they run you through their system, you have just become a statistic for the gun registry supporters. In reality the number of times in a day the system is checked directly is about 19 times. If it was 17,000 times daily that would mean 6,205,000 registry checks, there are 1.9 licensed million gun owners in Canada.
The original authors of the registry have said publicly many times, that it was part of their plan to eliminate gun ownership in Canada that is the only real purpose of the registry and every example in history bears this out. A registry is created with the claim it is for the public good, shortly afterwards, those law abiding citizens that complied have their gun seized.
Do you also know that the original purpose of the gun control laws of the 20’s and the 1934 handgun registry was to ensure the “wrong type” of people don’t have access to firearms. Those “wrong people” were Communist, Socialists and Union members. So I ask you again why are you supporting a program, that does not work, costs far more than it ever should and turns law abiding citizens into criminals. Currently the firearm laws in Canada has made appox. 2 million otherwise lawabiding citizens into criminals, all for the failure to have a piece of paper.
I will be writing Jack Layton and telling him that your campaign does not speak for PSAC or for me and tell him as a proud gun owner to let his MP vote freely as they should in a democracy.
What really pisses me off is that the Union involves itself in non-labour related issues, under the guise of “social justice” The union never bothers to ask their members to vote on this sort of thing and decides to whatever it pleases. Clearly a case of some being “More equal than others”. Had they bothered to canvas their members they would find that a significant portion of them are gun owner who are opposed to the gun registry. So I sent this letter last night to the President of PSAC in a likely vain attempt to make them listen. If you belong to this union and are opposed to the registry, you need to make yourself heard!
I have been a member of PSAC since the early 90’s. I find your involvement in supporting the gun registry quite disgusting and have to ask how is this pertinent to your duties as a Labour union?
Many members of PSAC own guns and are avid shooters, why would you support a program that is used to seize and confiscate peoples property? Also are you aware that the program sucked up nearly 2 billion dollars that was badly needed in far more important programs. While this money sucking monster was been created, my Search and Rescue vessel was tied to the dock due to lack of fuel and training was cut.
I have seen lots of claims made by the people supporting the registry all of which fail the fact test.
Suicides: The registry has not affected total suicides and recent claims that it have using a study that covered 1995-2005 are totally hogwash, the registry started in 2003 and was barely working by 2005. The trends in suicides have not changed due to the registry.
Police use: The gun registry is not well received by the average police officers, a recent survey found that 92% of responding street level officer did not use it or trust. Their mistrust is well-founded, only about 33% of the legal guns made or imported into Canada have ever been registered, plus it has no effect on guns that were smuggled in. Only the police chiefs seem to like it, but not enough to offer to pay for it out of their budgets. Not to mention the Police chief association accepts donations from the company that built the registry and the same Police Association was also against the Charter of rights and recently had their ethics advisor quit in disgust.
Cost: The Liberals claimed it was only going to cost 200 million, well approx. 2 billion later we still have a white elephant that has only registered approx. 33% of the legal guns, plus it has re-registered guns that had been reported stolen and is so poorly maintained that even firearm experts have difficulty matching certificates to guns (Most guns up to the 1960’s did not have serial numbers) Currently supporters are claiming it only costs 4 million, yet strangely enough even the RCMP admit to salary costs at 13 million, with a total of around $86 million per year, which most people suspect is on the low side.
Use: supporters like to use figures showing how much the registry is used, these claims started out around 4,000 and now claiming 17,000 times a day the registry is checked. What they don’t say is that all but a tiny fraction are automated, so if you are pulled over for speeding, and they run you through their system, you have just become a statistic for the gun registry supporters. In reality the number of times in a day the system is checked directly is about 19 times. If it was 17,000 times daily that would mean 6,205,000 registry checks, there are 1.9 licensed million gun owners in Canada.
The original authors of the registry have said publicly many times, that it was part of their plan to eliminate gun ownership in Canada that is the only real purpose of the registry and every example in history bears this out. A registry is created with the claim it is for the public good, shortly afterwards, those law abiding citizens that complied have their gun seized.
Do you also know that the original purpose of the gun control laws of the 20’s and the 1934 handgun registry was to ensure the “wrong type” of people don’t have access to firearms. Those “wrong people” were Communist, Socialists and Union members. So I ask you again why are you supporting a program, that does not work, costs far more than it ever should and turns law abiding citizens into criminals. Currently the firearm laws in Canada has made appox. 2 million otherwise lawabiding citizens into criminals, all for the failure to have a piece of paper.
I will be writing Jack Layton and telling him that your campaign does not speak for PSAC or for me and tell him as a proud gun owner to let his MP vote freely as they should in a democracy.
Jitterbug boogie
Excellent piano work and excellent dancing, wish the video was better, but that’s life. If you have a young son who is shy and awkward around girls get him dance lessons. If I could go back and time and tell myself only one thing when I was 18, it would be “Learn to dance” One of my few regrets in life is taking dance lessons in 30’s and not in my teens. Dancing, real dancing not that garbage that passes for dancing nowdays lets you meet girls and what I have found is that the women who take dancing lessons and like Ballroom, Latin and swing styles are the type of women you want to meet, generally switched on, successful and know what they want in life. This is a bit of a generalization, but I met lot’s of fantastic women while dancing and married one of them. The great thing about going to a Latin, ballroom or swing type dance is there is little of the social game playing going on. Everyone is there to dance first and if they happen to meet the right person then that is the icing on the cake. So enjoy this tune and if you think you can’t dance, then you just haven’t met the right teacher.
Ancient and ancient together
Thursday, September 9, 2010
A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder
Every wondered what soldier eat in the field, this article gives a good look at the current field rations. check out the pictures at this link.
When I started Canadian troops got field ration with small cans of commercial food, including canned bacon which was nice heated, but a bloop of congealed fat when cold. Included where crackers that were pretty good and tubes of peanut butter or butter, which was supposed to be thrown out as they went bad frequently. The worst item was the dehydrated tea, it was terrible! In the early 80’s we switched to new rations which were based on the “boil in the bag” system. This was a vast improvement in taste, calories and selection. The Ham and Cheese omelette was known as the “lung” for it’s texture and look. Most soldiers didn’t like it, but I did, meaning I got lot’s of extra food.
In Germany we ate US rations which were horrible at the time, being all freeze dried except for a chocolate brownie you could beat a man to death with. It included also a Hershey bar which the German kids loved and would trade their father’s beer for, why kids in the land of excellent chocolate would want a American chocolate bar was beyond me, but the beer was good so we didn’t ask to many questions!
Here is a religious view on our rations.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
So guess which is the safest country for Gays and Christians in the Middle East?
Quotes:
This trend has accelerated in the last 10 years." The Center focused on disturbing trends in the Palestinian territories, where "Christians are declining dramatically.
Syrian security forces are implicated in the disappearance of an estimated 17,000 individuals during this period. (lets not forget about Hama either)
Reports have revealed that gay Palestinians are regularly assaulted and tortured by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
Human rights activists have cited severe discrimination - enshrined in legislation and enforced by the government - of the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon. In 2001, Lebanon's Parliament passed a law banning Palestinians residents from owning property.
"Unfortunately we have heard about a lot of sexual harassment and assault specifically towards women in the West Bank recently. We have included this section to address how women can hopefully avoid sexual assault and harassment, what to do in case it happens, and how we can all help to stop this and support people that it has happened to.
This trend has accelerated in the last 10 years." The Center focused on disturbing trends in the Palestinian territories, where "Christians are declining dramatically.
Syrian security forces are implicated in the disappearance of an estimated 17,000 individuals during this period. (lets not forget about Hama either)
Reports have revealed that gay Palestinians are regularly assaulted and tortured by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
Human rights activists have cited severe discrimination - enshrined in legislation and enforced by the government - of the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon. In 2001, Lebanon's Parliament passed a law banning Palestinians residents from owning property.
"Unfortunately we have heard about a lot of sexual harassment and assault specifically towards women in the West Bank recently. We have included this section to address how women can hopefully avoid sexual assault and harassment, what to do in case it happens, and how we can all help to stop this and support people that it has happened to.
First day of school for my baby!
My oldest daughter has her first day at school today. She is very excited about going, we homeschooled her for kindergarten, so school with a whole bunch of kids will be a new experience for her, I expect some steep learning curves for her, but suspect she will do well.
It’s been a learning curve for me as well, it’s hard to let my baby go and trust others to protect her. I believe I have given her some solid training to look after herself, hopefully so.
My wife just left to visit family in Malaysia so I took time off of work to be nearby if my daughter has issues at school. Had to figure out new routines for her and us and I suspect I have overpacked her lunch! I also suspect my younger daughter is going to miss her sister a lot! But I plan to use this time to have one on one time with the youngest one, something I have not been able to give her much and feel a little guilty on that account.
When my youngest was about to be born, I wondered how I was going to love another child like I love my first, well the love part comes easy I found. But the logistics of love is harder. The oldest feels cheated because you can’t give her as much time as before, but does not realize she had something the youngest will never have, the undivided attention of her parents. The youngest doesn’t realize she missed out of something and that’s a good thing. Harder on the parents than the kid!
Well better check we got everything packed and it’s off to school.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
More Deadly Than Iraq
When I was in Venezuela back in 1994 you had to be careful, but WOW it has really gotten bad if it is worse than Iraq or Mexico, both of which have been in a state of almost full blown war! In Venezuela the murder rate is 200 per 100,000 that just stunning. In Canada there was 594 murders in 2007 giving our rate at about 1.71 per 100,000 the US is around 10 per 100,000
More on Venezuela murders here.
I guess the Left wing love fest for Chavez is slowly being forgotten.
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