In Memory and with Respect

This will remain at the top as long as we have troops being injured and killed in Afghanistan.

GAB

Hit them in the wallet

I have had it with the 2010 olympic games and all they stand for.

I am sick of our social safety net being systematically stripped to cover the ever increasing costs
I am sick of draconian legislation being imposed upon us to keep the IOC and Vanoc happy
I am sick of the sexism that will keep world class athletes from competing.

Yes, I should probably link to examples of all this stuff, but I am absolutely disgusted by it all and I just can't bring myself to hit teh google for it.

What I did do, was find a list of sponsors, partners etc of the 2010 oympics which I have listed below. I will be printing it off and checking it often so that I can be sure to give my patronage to businesses not on it.

Worldwide Olympic Partners

• Coca-Cola

• Acer

• Atos Origin

• General Electric

• McDonald's

• Omega

• Panasonic

• Samsung

• VISA

National Partners

• Bell

• Hbc

• RBC

• GM

• Petro-Canada

• RONA

Official Supporters

• Air Canada

• BCLC

• BC Hydro

• Bombardier

• Canadian Pacific

• ICBC

• Jet Set Sports

• Ricoh

• Royal Canadian Mint

• Teck

Official suppliers

• 3M

• Acklands Grainger

• Aggreko

• Aquilini Investment Group

• Birks

• Britco

• Canada Post

• COLD-FX

• Deloitte

• Dow Canada

• Epcor

• Garrett Metal Detectors

• General Mills

• Hain Celestial Canada

• Haworth

• Karl's Global Events

• Millennium Development

• Molson

• Nortel

• Port Metro Vancouver

• Purolator

• Saputo

• Sleep Country Canada

• Sun Microsystems

• Tickets.com

• TransCanada

• Vincor Canada

• YVR Vancouver Airport Authority

• Weston

• Workopolis

• Wrigley Canada

• Canwest Publishing

• The Globe and Mail

You go, girls

The CBC is currently running contest for the best highschool rock band in the lower mainland.

It's now down to 10 bands including 2 girl fronted bands.

Mother Father is a mostly girl band (3 girls 1 guy)

http://radio3.cbc.ca/play/band/Mother-Father/YVR

Elsa is the singer/songwriter and her band is made up of guys.

http://radio3.cbc.ca/play/band/Elsa/Gone-So-Soon


They both have my vote. Rock and roll, like politics needs more women.

Would you like jam with your waffle words?

As always, word choice is key. Waffle is the word choice of the day. Waffle words are those words that can get you out of a jam.

The VPD have this swanky new weapon for crowd control that can cause hearing damage, but:

Houghton said police don't plan to use the device for anything more than communication.

"The primary function we're using the device for is its ability to communicate with very large groups with respect to crowd control, evacuations, tactical situations where we may need the loudspeaker portion of it," he said. (emphasis mine)

Note the phrase PLAN TO USE. They did not say the police won't use it, they said they don't plan to use it. What they are saying is:

They don't plan to use the device for anything more than communication[, but we will if we want to]. The square bracketed part of the text is the silent part of the sentence. Kind of like the b in debt (what the olympics has us up to our eyeballs in).

Scenario:

The police use the sound weapon on protesters and the police and afterwards are confronted with "you lied, you said you wouldn't use it as a weapon" and the police say "no, we didn't lie. We never said that. What we said was, we didn't PLAN to use it as a weapon."

That said, I don't believe for a moment that they don't plan to use it as a weapon. Why? Because if they do use it, they have to have a plan in place to know the circumstances under which to use it along with how to use it.

I wonder if they will try to use it on my Nolympic Garden Parties ^TM

More on this dastardly deafening device over at The Straight Goods

Run far, run fast

What is it with the BC judiciary these days?

First there was Fernando Manuel Alves






Now there is Josh Boden
(if you see this guy - run like hell)

Why is women's safety so unimportant to the judiciary?

So, Vancouver City Council member, Andrea Reimer fires off the following tweet in reaction to BC Housing Minister, Rich Coleman's "force the homeless into shelters regardless of their feelings on the matter" bill:

(screen cap shamelessly stolen from citycaucus)

She acquiesced to demands for an apology (I'm too lazy to do my own screen cap):



Here's the thing. In this instance, I don't think she was out of line at all. While making pot-shots at someone's weight is very uncool, Coleman's war on the homeless is equally uncool.

Coleman being fat isn't really much different to people being homeless. In both instances one could either argue that they are victims of circumstance and have no control over their situations, or conversely, one could argue that they are responsible for their situations through their own choices.

Both are unsightly - better hide them away before the world comes to our city.
Both put additional strain on our health system.
The homeless have the right (or at least they once did) to refuse to go to a homeless shelter just as Rich Coleman has the right to refuse to go to Jenny Craig.

Just once I'd like to be wrong

Tomorrow is yet another fucking birthday. Every year, I know it is going to suck the big green weanie and every year I have this secret hope that I will be wrong and every year, I end up being disappointed because I am not wrong.

This year will be no different.

I have always been weird about my birthday because as a kid I never got what I wanted. I know that sounds shallow, but truly never. I wanted a barbie doll (a real one) and I got the cheap fake one without the bendy legs. I wanted a 5 speed bike and I got my neighbour's old no speed bike. I got handed down a lot from the older siblings, but we were not a family without means, and I really didn't ask for much. My 17th birthday was spent in bed because my father had spent the night before beating the shit out of his girlfriend, she and I escaped to the neighbour's and ended up being up all night. The good part about that birthday, my dad moved out and I didn't have to go with him.

I am the one who always makes sure that everyone else in my life has a kick-ass fabulous birthday celebration. I try and at least make sure I acknowledge everyone whose birthdate I know. Every year I make sure that the kids do something for the ex's birthday. Every year my birthday is 24 hours of feeling completely unloved and unimportant.

I don't like to be the centre of attention, so I don't want a big fuss made. I do want to be wished a happy birthday - a phone call or email works just fine. Last year I had 3 people remember my birthday. One of my four children, my mother and my sister (Feller managed to forget too).

This year is worse. There has been difficult stuff going on since June that is still unresolved. Rather than fight, I gave up and conceded. I stopped playing the game. Somehow, that made me the bad guy. What could have been fixed with an admission of guilt, an apology to me and an assurance that it won't happen again, is now out of control and as always, I am the one who is being pressured into capitulating. Just once, I would like someone to stick up for me and tell the other party to make it right. But that will never happen, so I guess I continue being the bad guy and get pushed from all sides.

There is no mail delivery tomorrow, so I've had all the cards I'm going to get. One - from my mother. My sister will send me an email tomorrow. We send each other gifts for our decade birthdays. I may get emails or facebooked tomorrow, but if this year is anything like last, I won't.

My whine-fest is now over. I will be miserable tomorrow and then back to my bright and sunny self until the next birthday rolls around.