The Lasso of Truth

And what if the sky wasn't falling?

When asked to comment on the hemmoraging of scientific support for his fearmongering, Al Gore was heard to mutter something incomprehensible and found later, crying in his soup...

“The increase in CO2 is not a cause for alarm and will be good for mankind,” Happer said. “Children should not be force-fed propaganda, masquerading as science.”

 

Happer is a professor in the Department of Physics at Princeton University. He was also the former Director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy from 1990 to 1993. However, Happer was reportedly fired by former Vice President Al Gore in 1993 for not agreeing with Gore’s scientific views.

 

“Many people don’t realize that over geological time, we’re really in a CO2 famine now. Almost never has CO2 levels been as low as [now],” Happer remarked. “[Earlier] the oceans were fine, animals grew fine. So it’s baffling to me that we’re so frightened of getting nowhere close to where we started.”

It's not like dipping into the petty cash

ew...

Douglas, 55, of Westwood, already is serving a prison sentence after he pleaded guilty last year to abuse of a corpse. He admitted he had sex with the nearly beheaded body of 19-year-old murder victim Karen Range in 1982.

Thursday, Douglas was indicted on two more counts of abuse of a corpse after DNA evidence, Deters said, showed Douglas' semen was in the bodies of two women who were killed in 1991 and stored at the morgue awaiting autopsies:

Charlene Edwards, also known as Charlene Apling, who was six months pregnant.

We are all plantation owners, now...

Just another not-so-subtle step in defining any criticism of Commander Hopeychange as racism...

The center's report, "The Year in Hate," found the number of hate groups grew by 54 percent since 2000. The study identified 926 hate groups -- defined as groups with beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people -- active in 2008. That's a 4 percent jump, adding 38 more than the year before.

What makes this year's report different is that hate groups have found two more things to be angry about -- the nation's first African-American president and an economy that is hemorrhaging jobs.

Little known Canadian laws

The god-given right to pretend you're a unicorn and shower with the ladies...

When John Fulton picked up the phone and heard a man's voice in June of 2006, he didn't quite know what to make of it.

Mr. Fulton had just advertised his new women-only gym in St. Catharines, Ont., and was offering a special introductory rate to attract members.

"I'm thinking, 'It's a guy who wants the women's price,' so I just kind of wrote it off as a guy who misunderstood the price plan," Mr. Fulton said. "And two days later, a woman shows up."

The middle-aged woman with the man's voice, among other unseen attributes, turned out to be a transsexual who had yet to undergo the surgical transformation from male to female.

And now, her request to join the gym has landed Mr. Fulton before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.

[..]

Mr. Fulton, however, has chosen to fight on the grounds that he never refused the woman membership, but was still exploring his legal rights and obligations when, just a week after the woman's visit, he received a letter from her lawyer demanding a written apology and a cash settlement. She filed a human rights complaint a few weeks later.

And that's what a shakedown looks like.

The worst part about this case is the fact that when this problem presented itself, the gym owner proactively contacted the Human Rights Commission to inquire what was required under law.  They advised he was required to allow the man to use the women's facilities.  When he asked what the right's of the other women who used his facility were, he was told they didn't know but he couldn't deny access to the man-wannabe-woman.  This, from the agency which is now prosecuting him.

I love it here.

A winning idea if ever there was one...

And really, why should you be expected to fund -- out of your own pocket -- the privileged education of those who hold views and beliefs which are utterly antithetical to your own way of life and the norms of the society which coddles them..?

A retired judge wants two Ontario universities to bar Muslim students from being awarded scholarships he has established, though the spokesperson for one institution says her school won't support a proposal that "flies in the face of everything we stand for."

Paul Staniszewski said he objects to the "medieval violence" used by the Taliban -- such as when Taliban militants recently kidnapped and beheaded Polish engineer Piotr Stanczak -- and he wishes to "disqualify" Muslim students from receiving financial aid he has paid for.

My pick for mother of the year

When she appeared in court the next day in the town of Orihuela, she was cheered and clapped by a crowd, who shouted "Bravo!" and "Well done!"

How many candles is that?!

 

It’s my Daddy’s birthday today and he hates it when anyone makes a fuss but fuss is what I do best so he should just resign himself to the fact that he’s got a family full of birthday-happy lunatics and just count himself lucky I can’t afford to send a clown to his office this year ;)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Return of the living dead

GAWD!

I think I may have finally turned the corner back to the land of the living.  I've managed to get out of bed and remain upright for longer than 20 minutes at a stretch and the incessant runny nose I've been chasing for days seems to have finally slowed down.

There's nothing like a simple flu to make a gal feel...old.

And throughout the whole ordeal I've been forcing myself to go to work every day which has left me very little time and energy for blogging or even reading the news.

Bear with me while I catch up and I will try to be back on my game for tomorrow.

Pearls of wisdom

From a "moderate" Muslim...

"We hate democracy"

"We want the occupation of Islam in the entire world. Islam does not permit democracy or election."

“From the very beginning, I have viewed democracy as a system imposed on us by the infidels. Islam does not allow democracy or elections,”

“I believe the Taliban government formed a complete Islamic state, which was an ideal example for other Muslim countries."

Oh, and he"does not preach violence except in the way of jihad against non- Muslims."

Well that's a relief.  I'm surprised he hasn't been offered a cabinet position in the Hopeychange Express administration.

Change you can believe in

But is it really the change we've all been hoping for..?

A week after the new president went about sending sweet peace signals via al-Arabiya, Iran launched its first homemade Earth satellite. The message is clear. If you can put a satellite into orbit, you can hit any continent with a missile, North America included.

And for emphasis, after the roundhouse hook, came the poke in the eye. A U.S. women's badminton team had been invited to Iran. Here was a chance for "ping-pong diplomacy" with the accommodating new president, a sporting venture meant to suggest the possibility of warmer relations.

On Feb. 4, Tehran denied the team entry into Iran.

Then, just in case Obama failed to get the message, Iran's parliament speaker rose in Munich to offer his response to Obama's olive branch. Executive summary: Thank you very much. After you acknowledge 60 years of crimes against us, change not just your tone but your policies, and abandon the Zionist criminal entity, we might deign to talk to you.

With a grinning Goliath staggering about sporting a "kick me" sign on his back, even reputed allies joined the fun. Pakistan freed from house arrest A.Q. Khan, the notorious proliferator who sold nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran. Ten days later, Islamabad capitulated to the Taliban, turning over to its tender mercies the Swat Valley, 100 miles from the capital. Not only will sharia law now reign there, but members of the democratically elected secular party will be hunted as the Pakistani army stands down.

Complaints from the trough

I was just thinking the other day that with a sputtering economy and a dearth of bright business minds in the wings, what this country really needs is more taxpayer-funded humanities and social science "experts"...

More than 2,000 professors, students and researchers have joined a Facebook protest against Ottawa's move to direct $17.5-million in new scholarships to business studies, condemning it as an attempt to control the direction of research on Canadian campuses.

The funding, announced in the federal budget, is part of a three-year expansion of the Canada Graduate Scholarship program, which provides highly sought-after awards through the three federal granting councils.

This latest grassroots protest centres on the share of that money given to the humanities and social sciences – $17.5-million – that the budget stipulates must be “focused on business-related degrees.”

Every year, the flu gets uglier

I am still recovering and now that I'm headed back to work I'll be swamped with catching up to do.  So I'll be abandoning you again for today.  Visit my friends in the Justice League and wish me better for tomorrow.

A Murderous Hoarde

If terrorism in the name of Islam is committed only by a handful of violent fanatics, why then is it starting to look like you could fill a football stadium with them?  And these are just the ones we've caught.

Long gone are the days when large scale terrorism was the work of one lonely guy with a basement full of combustibles and a head full of voices.  These days, they need a banquet hall to hold their meetings.

My Valentine

It is a flu-filled morning here at Paradise Island.  A germ-laden ending to what was otherwise a great weekend.

Admittedly, I agree with the general sentiment that Valentine's Day is a wishy-washy Hallmark holiday designed to cash in on the chumps who need to buy their way out of the dog house.  But for those of us who don't need an excuse to say "I love you" or be mushy and sweet to our loved ones, it's really just another excuse to do so, with the added bliss of a handful of cherry Kisses!

Being overwhelmed by the negativity in the news and with a large score of personal issues, it has been difficult keeping the fun and light spirit I used to enjoy, in my posting here.  But spending Valentine's Day with the sweet, wonderful man of my dreams and our bright, beautiful children has given me an opportunity to see and feel grateful for the many things I love, some of which I will share as my Valentine gift to you...

I love sitting down as a family -- all eight of us -- for our dinner, every night we are together.  For many people, family meals often get pushed to the bottom of the priority list as if they are an interruption to things you'd rather be doing.  For Mikey and I, a family meal is more important than almost anything else we could be doing.  It is vital reconnect time -- something that is essential in a household where it would be easy for quieter souls to get lost.

I love teaching my children about things.  I love when they ask questions about the world around them and I love when they follow my explanations and expand on them, in a revelation of understanding.  I love that I can give them that and I love the joy they take in getting it.

I love that Mikey and I can spend hours and hours just sitting at a game, or talking in the bathtub, or walking in the fresh air together and I never get bored.  I never need space or alone time.  I never feel the need to do anything else.  And I love that neither does he.  Ilove that we spend every single free moment together and never get tired of eachother's company.  I love that our children can see that and learn from it that it is possible to find someone who is meant for you.  I love that after 3 years and a lifetime's worth of stresses and complications, he can still make me feel giddy and powerfully grateful for every moment.

I love that Mikey will not go to sleep without wrapping his entire body around me.  I love that we wake up in the same condition and I love the feeling of knowing that were it possible, he would forsake everything else he needed to do, for one more minute of snuggling with me.  I love that I feel the same way.

Lastly, I love that I can share this with you.  I love that a few of you care to hear it.  I love that some of you even take a little piece of hope and inspiration from it.  I am fortunate to have such a loving circle of family and friends.  I love that it fills me with hope and joy.

Thank you all, for that.

Valentine's Pinup

No links today.  The weather is beautiful and I've got a house full of Valentines to entertain!

From "Big Brother" to "Big Mother"

The government which funds, permits and enables our egregiously corrupt Human Rights Commissions, now wants to expand it's ability to "monitor" thought and discussion in this country...

The Conservative government is preparing sweeping new eavesdropping legislation that will force Internet service providers to let police tap exchanges on their systems - but will likely reignite fear that Big Brother will be monitoring the private conversations of Canadians.

Presumably, these expanded powers would be used to listen in on pedophiles and terrorists...all fair targets, to be sure.  But endeavors like this have a tendency to stray beyond their mandate.

Lunch with Loftus Cuddy

Won't Mikey be soooo jealous!

But for all the Jim Cuddy fawning Wendy does, she really did have lunch with the far more interesting brother, I'd say.

All things Wonder Woman

Well, the consensus is in and I am lead to believe that the reason my readers hold their peace so well is because you're all a bunch of peeping Toms and I'm always right ;)

Thank you all for providing the feedback and I'd like to extend the exercise by asking for suggestions of what you'd like to see more of, here at The Lasso -- and don't say more pinups!  My family-friendliness rating is bad enough already.

On another note, I'll have to save up my pennies for a new title to add to my obsessive collection...

 

Wonder Woman is the kind of movie where the lasso of truth compels Steve Trevor to tell Hippolyta, "Your daughter's got a nice rack." If you know anything about Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston, [..] it's hard to think this is not exactly what he would have wanted.

It's also the sort of movie where Wonder Woman tells a little girl to "Unleash Hell!" in a play swordfight, where one of the Amazons calmly reminds Hippolyta they could have kept Diana on the island by shooting her in the leg, and where half the bad guys in the movie end up getting decapitated, including a minotaur. This is probably the most violent animation ever to bear the DC name, and director Lauren Montgomery manages to keep the violence hardcore but never gratuitous. Indeed, that is the general secret to Wonder Woman's success – the film always manages to strike with its complex elements, whether it's exploring gender relations without sermonizing or embracing Wonder Woman's mythological origins while avoiding too many stilted explanations from the Amazons.

The tattered Welcome mat

It makes me wonder why we continue to process applications from countries wherethe fraud rate is higher than the legitimacy rate..?

At the Chandigarh mission in the first nine months of 2008, more people had their applications for temporary visas to Canada rejected than accepted. The split was 9,781 rejected, and 8,641 accepted -- a rejection rate of 56%, according to immigration department figures.

Meanwhile, visa applications from Yemen are due to have a spike any day now.

Weekend Pinup

*tap* *tap* *tap*

  A question for my lurkers...why so quiet?

I have a solid regular base of readers with a large contingent of return visitors, but precious few of you who provide any feedback.

Come now...don't be shy.  A girl likes a little validation -- or a passionate debate, as the case may be.  In fact, those who know me might say I prefer the arguments ;)

I've been at this for 4 years in various forms and venues, and I have always most enjoyed the posts that spark rigorous discussion.

Something about this place keeps you coming back faithfully.  Thank you for that.  But though it may sometimes seem like it, this is not meant to be a perch and a megaphone.  This is my living room and I'm inviting you in for a chat.  Speak up and speak out.

I promise not to slap you too painfully ;)

Sadly not satire

And more than enough to make you weep for the future...

Thousands of 16-year-old school-leavers with no more than low-grade GCSEs are to be hired to fill in for teachers.

Plans for a new breed of classroom apprentice will see the teenagers given roles in secondary schools, helping to teach pupils only a little younger than themselves.

The apprentices could number 4,000 by next year and eventually 18,000 in primary schools alone, ministers said.

Thousands more would be taken on in non-teaching roles such as grounds staff and lab technicians  -  and in other public services, including the NHS.

What would bring about such a preposterous scheme, you may ask?  Has there been a radiation leak over Britain?  The toxic effects of lead paint?  Perhaps a viral outbreak of crippling madness?

Well, close...union action...

The recruits will help fill staffing gaps created by new teachers' contracts which guarantee them half-a-day a week away from the classroom to catch up with admin.

Socialized education.  Isn't it glorious?!

Tell me now, what child would opt to trudge through high school, when he can drop out and get paid  £120 a week to teach the class instead?

Rumor has it

...the secret ingredient will be Kevlar.

More taxpayer dollars

Working hard for those who'd rather not...

A Kelowna woman who failed to get a job after a manager complained she had a hacking cough and "reeked of smoke" has filed a human-rights complaint, arguing she was discriminated against based on her disability: an addiction to cigarettes.

In a decision released yesterday, the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal agreed to hear the case, one of the first of its kind in Canada. According to the tribunal's preliminary decision, Roxanne Stevenson, a relief employee with the City of Kelowna, applied for a job last May as a part-time operations clerk with the city. During her interview, Ms. Stevenson was asked about absenteeism, and she replied that she had "perfect attendance." However, when her personnel file was checked, it was discovered that she had taken numerous sick days during past jobs with the city. The city decided not to hire her, something it argued was due to Ms. Stevenson not being well-suited for the job. However, Ms. Stevenson claims she was not hired because she was a smoker.

And a liar.  And obviously a bit of a trouble maker.

Model City employee, I'd say.

And if you tip it over

...you might spill some...

Icemelt Could Shift Earth's Rotation, Moving Water Northward

When an ice sheet melts, its gravitational pull on the ocean is reduced and water moves away from it. That means sea levels could fall near Antarctica and rise more than expected in the northern hemisphere.

Antarctic bedrock that currently sits under the weight of the ice sheet will rebound from the weight, pushing some water out into the ocean.

The melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet will cause the Earth's rotation axis to shift, potentially moving water northward.

Can somebody please give these people helmets before they hurt themselves?

I don't even know how to begin to explain how preposterous is the notion that water melting and shifting from one pole to the other cannot possibly knock the Earth off it's axis.  Perhaps if the loss of the gravitational pull of an iceberg(?!) causes the water to migrate to the next largest gravitational body, being the moon, because the gravitational pull of the Earth is not strong enough...I don't know...

Maybe they just saw it on TV somewhere...(turn your volume down for this one boys.  Trust me)

ImPeachMint

Make a "drunken negroe head" cookie and they equate it to a lynching.

But they'd line up to suggest the name of a "Bush inspired" Ben and Jerry's flavor.

Personally, I think Gitmocha is actually a little clever.

h/t

From Nazi to Muslim

At least he was ideologically consistent...

One of the most wanted Nazi war criminals, Aribert Heim or "Doctor Death," lived for years as a quiet, pious Muslim in a small hotel on the edge of Islamic Cairo, where he was known as Doctor Tarek.

Concealed in the labyrinthine streets of the largest city in Africa and the Middle East, the man wanted for killing hundreds of concentration camp victims with horrific medical experiments found refuge until his death in 1992.

I say peer under a few burqas out there...you never know who you'll find.

h/t

The only good thing to come out of 9/11

...was 19 dead Muslims...

A WOMAN suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame.

I'm not sure which is more sickening...the fact that the cult of Islam compels it's women to feel enough shame for being victims of rape, that they find death to be the only way out of it; or the fact that these same women decide to assuage this misplaced guilt by taking a few innocent others with them.

Who's to say, really?

For the sake of the children

For too long, the family law system in this country has given women the benefit of favored treatment and one-sided rulings in divorce situations.  In the campaign to even out some of the historical disparities of the old patriarchal system, they managed to lose sight of the middle ground and instead, sprinted straight to the other side of the field to a point where the role of a father in a divorce proceeding becomes reduced to little more than ATM and occasional babysitter.

Within this lopsided environment a woman's natural feelings of spite and bitterness toward the man who slighted her get a legally sanctioned outlet that enables her to use any means available to punish a former partner, with minimal risk of reprimand through legal channels. 

Unfortunately, the screaming tragedy of this manufactured morass is not limited to the plight of helpless fathers -- most of whom are decent, loving and dedicated -- it invariably extends it's leprous effects to the hapless children, stuck like pawns in the middle.  Because through what better mechanism can a bitter, vengeful woman inflict the maximum amount of retribution, than the children whom they both must share?  And what recourse does a man have, to protect his children and himself from such a vengeful and destructive onslaught?

I can tell you from experience, little to none.  But that may be changing...

In a stunning and unusual family law decision, a Toronto judge has stripped a mother of custody of her three children after the woman spent more than a decade trying to alienate them from their father.

The mother's "consistent and overwhelming" campaign to brainwash the children into thinking their father was a bad person was nothing short of emotional abuse, Justice Faye McWatt of the Superior Court of Justice wrote in her decision.

[..]

The judge said awarding A.L. sole custody was the children's only hope for having a relationship with their father, given their mother's long-running transgressions.

These include ignoring court orders, shutting the door in A.L.'s face when he came to collect the children and refusing to answer the phone when he called to say goodnight. (He was granted telephone access to say good night on Monday, Wednesday and Friday). At times, she also arranged for police to show up when her daughters had overnight visits with their father.

Eventually, K.D. cut off contact altogether, refusing to allow A.L. to see or speak with his daughters. He was reduced to shouting goodnight to them through the door of their home, often not knowing whether they were there.

[..]

The mother squandered several chances to change her behaviour and is unable to accept it is in her children's best interests to have a relationship with their father, the judge said.

A mother who would use and abuse her children this way will not see reason and will selfishly refuse to improve her behaviour unless she finds it in her own interest to do so, or unless the legal system makes it significantly to her detriment...

As far back as early 2000, a child psychologist, Barbara Fidler, flagged the concerns in a court-ordered assessment. Dr. Fidler said the mother did not comply with court orders (such as those setting out time for the children to spend with their father), and was unlikely to comply in future. She "remained closed to reason and to opinions that differ from hers."

Let's hope this serves as notice to the selfish and irresponsible among us, that if they cannot bring themselves to consider the well being of their children and act like a responsible adult, they should at least worry a little that they may end up losing the war for the sake of a few petty battles.

Where they line up out the door, to be oppressed...

In my experience, the elitist "experts" and "activists" who often pronounce on the plebeian matters which trouble us regular folk, more often than not have absolutely no idea what the hell they are talking about -- and no desire to learn and experience first hand, that which they can condemn from the information provided in a union leaflet...

The job was as dull as I expected, but I was stunned to discover how benign the workplace turned out to be. My supervisor was friendly, decent, and treated me as an equal. Wal-Mart allowed a liberal dress code. The company explained precisely what it expected from its employees, and adhered to this policy in every detail. I was unfailingly reminded to take paid rest breaks, and was also encouraged to take fully paid time, whenever I felt like it, to study topics such as job safety and customer relations via a series of well-produced interactive courses on computers in a room at the back of the store. Each successfully completed course added an increment to my hourly wage, a policy which Barbara Ehrenreich somehow forgot to mention in her book.

[..]

As for all those Wal-Mart horror stories—when I went home and checked the web sites that attack the company, I found that many of them are subsidized with union money. walmartwatch.com, for instance, is partnered with the Service Employees International Union; wakeupwalmart.com is copyright by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Why are unions so obsessed with Wal-Mart? I'm guessing that if the more-than-a-million Wal-Mart employees could be unionized, they would be compelled to contribute at least half a billion dollars per year in union dues.

h/t

Do you have a permit for that?

In response to this madness, an aptly named screed...

But why are two kids okay? Perhaps because the fellow speaking has two of his own, and couldn’t bear to think of choosing which one he’d have culled for Gaia’s sake. Well,  I say the limit should be one, and that this fellow is to be roundly pilloried for the metaphorical Forest of Trafalgar Square his excess kin will immolate.   He might argue that two are necessary to keep the population going and the economy intact,  but of course population and the economy are the twin engines of our destruction, and people seem mulishly unwilling to part with either. If you’re really concerned - if you are a good person - then your heart cannot help but sink when you hear the phrase “There’ll always be an England.” That’s the problem. 

Not to say there won’t always be an England - the physical place, which no doubt is called something else by native fauna in a language made of barks and spoor-scattering - will always be there, if we act now. There’s only one kind of sea-level rise that’s acceptable, and that’s because everyone jumped en masse into the water to drown themselves. 

Imagine an England where the Hundred Acre Wood is unspoiled by Christopher Robin!

Then burns down entirely one day because there’s no one around to put out the fire. 

People do come in handy now and then. It’s good to have spares. 

Won't they all be sorry when they realize that through their campaign to rid the planet of well, themselves, they end up ceding it to the few children who are being born and who will form the next generation -- and they're all being raised by us neo-cons.