test blog #10

The U.S. Navy has begun its Court Martial of Lieutenant Commander Matthew Diaz, a 10-year veteran of the Navy. Diaz's crimes? Upholding international law, upholding the Constitution, and telling the truth. From Harpers : Commander Diaz ... faces charges that he disseminated "secret national defense information" with "intent or reason to believe that the information was to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation." The charges carry a possible prison sentence of 36 years. What exactly did Commander Diaz do? It appears from press reports that he mailed a New York law firm a list identifying detainees who were being held at Guantánamo. The government had a legal obligation to disclose the names to the Red Cross — an obligation imposed by the Geneva Conventions, and followed by fifty years of military tradition. That obligation exists for simple reasons. Throughout human history, persons held in secret detention have been t...

I am still unemployed. The firm I originally called Crappy Firm is indeed crappy. After recruiting for this position since January, they've now decided to eliminate it. They're not hiring me or anyone else. No other weekend spots are available right now at any of the big law firms. This means that I have to broaden my search and look for any job in my field, whatever the schedule. This sucks in so many ways. The consolation is that, despite several degrees of suckitude, I think it would have been worse to stay in the job that was making me so miserable. And of course, whether or not that's true, that's in the past, so why am I thinking about it. Onward.

Thank you, Cindy Sheehan, for everything you gave us. Thank you for your strength and courage, for being a model of commitment, for channeling your pain into action. Shame on so-called liberals who condemn this woman's decision. Shame, shame, shame. Good Riddance Attention Whore by Cindy Sheehan I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called "Face" of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such "liberal blogs" as the Democratic Underground. Being called an "attention whore" and being told "good riddance" are some of the more milder rebukes. I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to ...

This Saturday, June 2, the Royal Ontario Museum will officially open its new addition, the "crystal" designed by Daniel Libeskind . The building is almost universally loathed in the Toronto area. I can only imagine what Canadians elsewhere, who already roll their eyes at Canada's largest city, think of it. Torontonians can't sneer loudly enough. They don't simply dislike it. They hate it. They're outraged. There's little doubt that the new ROM addition is a fabulous building. It may end up being a Great Building. But it's different , and most people don't like different. Bring us the same old thing, please. Bring us the comfortable. Don't move our minds in new directions. Don't expand our horizons. Christopher Hume, urban issues columnist for the Toronto Star , wrote an excellent piece about this reaction, placing it in context of critiques of new buildings everywhere, always: "Build It, And They Will Shun" . Next Saturday, when ...

I'm still not working. This firm made an offer , but they can't get it together to give me paperwork or a start date. Meanwhile I'm checking other possibilities. I like having more writing time, and I've got plenty to do. But the lack of income is starting to get a little creepy.

I know that an important step we can each take towards reducing greenhouse emissions is buying locally grown produce. I want to know: how many of you do that? Do you buy only locally grown produce? Where do you buy it? Do you not eat fruits or vegetables that have to be flown to your area? How do you weigh locally grown vs organic but grown in a distant region in your shopping decisions? Do you extend the locally-grown mantra to other products that can be imported without refrigeration? I'll go first. In recent years, I've been making an effort to buy more organic produce, knowing that the more people who buy it, the more supermarkets will stock it, and the more producers will use organic methods. I do this equally for labour (the effects of conventional pesticides on farm workers), health and environmental concerns. (My niece E should be proud that she has influenced me so much on this.) I also make an effort to buy local produce, and I always have. Growing up, my family was ...

Tala and Cody Originally uploaded by JnL James took these amazing photographs of Cody and Tala . I told James I wanted some good shots of the pups for some new frames I bought. Allan and I are decent photographers, but more so of scenery than moving objects. Plus, our digital camera is not very good, and we've been too busy (and money is too tight) to deal with our better film camera. I knew James would oblige, but these are even better than I anticipated. Have a look. The photos were taken on Victoria Day, when James and Lori and their puppy Cobalt were at our place. We were supposed to take all the dogs to Jack Darling Park, the huge leash-free park in Mississauga, but we couldn't get in! We're usually there on weekdays when there are maybe 10 cars in the whole parking lot. That Monday, the lot was filled to capacity, and the overflow lot was also completely full. That's one of the benefits to working weekends: we never see those crowds. We ended up just ba...

In comments here , I mentioned the inconvenient truth of my and Allan's life in Canada: we now work full-time to earn what we used to earn in a 24-hour work-week. In our last jobs in New York, we worked two 12-hour days. (Allan also worked the major holidays.) Now we work three 12-hour days and take home about the same income. My friend Dean, a long-time wmtc reader, asked: How does the lower salary affect your standard of living? Did you know before you moved to Canada that you would have to work longer hours to make as much money? Do you feel that this is a drawback to living in Canada? We did know this before we moved to Canada. Before our first visit to Toronto , I emailed people at the big legal staffing agencies there (here!), and set up appointments to meet them when we were in town. (Amazingly, this was after we filed our applications to immigrate!) The most important things to find out were (a) were there jobs in our field, that is, do the large law firms in Toronto use ...

Impudent Strumpet, one of my Five Who Make Me Think , asks a type of question that I ask all the time, and for which I seldom see answers. We know that fluorescent lightbulbs are better than incandescent lightbulbs. But does that mean you should throw out your perfectly good incandescents, or just replace them with fluorescents when they burn out? Does the heat generated by incandescents help in the winter when you need to heat your home anyway? What about replacing your perfectly good old electronics and appliances with Energy Star ones? Is that worth the waste generated? Does that depend on the options available for disposing of them? What if you donated them to charity? We know that locally-grown produce is better than imported produce. But how far is it worth driving to buy it? Is it worth driving to the local supermarket if it means you'll use fewer plastic bags? Is it worth buying organic produce if it goes bad faster than I can eat all of it, thus requiring me to throw out ...

I hate money. I hate needing money, and I hate how the need for money so often controls our lives. Some people who want to need money less consciously simplify their lives. Lower your expenses, lower your earning needs. That just doesn't work for me. I'm not a conspicuous consumer for whom shopping is a form of entertainment. But I'm also not willing to do without certain creature comforts that I'm finally able to afford. I don't crave more and more and more, but I'm extremely reluctant to do with less. So where does that leave me? My new job won't start for at least another week, possibly later. New Firm won't pay me for some already-planned time off, as it's too soon after my date of hire. (My previous employer was letting me take the vacation time retroactively.) This means that I really should go one more round with Kids On Wheels , even though I don't want to. I'm lucky I have this option, and I should take it. I'll have to work hard...

Stephen Harper's recent visit to Afghanistan, and the fawning way most of the Canadian media reported on it, showed Harper at his US-wannabe best. I was going to wax sarcastic about it this morning, but this letter to the Star by a Guelph man saved me the trouble. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Afghanistan visit was no surprise. Boost morale? Please. As one commentator said, "Shania Twain would've been a better choice." To gain understanding of the situation? What could anyone learn in a 48-hour visit dominated primarily by press conferences. Conservative popularity waxes and wanes with support for the mission, so despite Harper's protestations, the polls are precisely what brought him there. Now, I'm no Harper fan, but do I support our troops? If our soldiers must be in Afghanistan, I'd rather they do more humanitarian work. But I'd rather they not be there at all, considering they receive little attention from the rest of NATO, unwilling to sh...

The federal of Canada government has an estimated budget surplus of $13.7 billion . After some $4 billion in earmarked spending is deducted, the surplus will be about $9.7 billion. Where is all that money going? The provinces could sure use some of it.

David Sirota writes, "We Gave Them Our Hearts, And They Gave Us A Blank Check" . Democratic politicians, Capitol Hill staff, political consultants and all their lobbyist friends sitting comfortably tonight in their Northwest Washington homes believe the public thinks Democrats are "weak" because they don't more strongly support leaving American troops to be killed or maimed in the middle of a bloody civil war in a country half way around the globe that had no WMD and had nothing to do with 9/11. What they seem unable - or unwilling - to realize is that the public has believed Democrats are weak not because some in the party have opposed the war, but because many in the party refuse to wield the power the public entrusts them with on all sorts of issues. At least on Iraq - the biggest issue of the day - the public's perception has proven right. As I wrote to one congressional lawmaker in an e-mail correspondence we had today: "The spoils go to those who ...

The Declaration of Independence, revered as a document but ignored as a guide to action, needs to be read from pulpits and podiums, on street corners and community radio stations throughout the nation. Its words, forgotten for over two centuries, need to become a call to action for the first time since it was read aloud to crowds in the early excited days of the American Revolution: "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government." Our man Howard Zinn says if Congress won't ITMFA , then we the people have got to do it ourselves. Courage is in short supply in Washington, D.C. The realities of the Iraq War cry out for the overthrow of a government that is criminally responsible for death, mutilation, torture, humiliation, chaos. But all we hear in the nation’s capital, which is the source of those catastrophes, is a whimper from the Democratic Party, muttering and natterin...

First the Democrats hand the Resident almost $100 billion of their constituents' money so Dick Cheney and his friends can continue to reap mammoth profits off the occupation of Iraq. They try to disguise this increased funding as a plan to end the war! How can you end a war by funding a war? By throwing a deadline for troop withdrawal into the sack of money. As if we expect the White House to give a shit about a Congressionally imposed deadline. But wait, the Resident doesn't like the deadline! He doesn't want a deadline! So what do the Dems do? They get rid of the deadline! What else? With an opposition party like this, who needs elections? Oh wait, they're not having real elections either. It all ties up so neatly. Democracy Rising and United for Peace and Justice are urging Americans to express their outrage . I sympathize that it's very difficult to continue to express that outrage, and continually have it ignored. But please. Do so. Please do not give up wit...

Well, I got another job, with the hours I wanted. One of the places where I first interviewed (after Dissolving Firm gave us notice) still hadn't hired anyone. At the time I thought this was Crappy Firm, but since Very Nice Firm turned out to be Crappy Firm, who knows. It's slightly (although not significantly) less money, but everything else is the usual. Allan and I will have the same hours, so we'll commute together, which saves Allan from having to get up early to drive me to the bus, after working late the night before. I'm feeling a bit stupid about this whole thing. I had a job that paid more with the hours I wanted. Why did I leave? Well, because I was miserable. It's easy to have doubts after the tension and anxiety of a hateful job has been lifted. It's like when you end a bad relationship, then later on some lonely night, you think, why did I let him go? He would have been here now. Well yes, he'd be there, and you'd be miserable, remember? * ...

This is a brave man. This is a hero of justice. "I cannot participate in a judicial process where the prospects of a fair trial are negligible, and more crucially, where the death penalty is a possibility," writes James Loney, who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2005. May 23, 2007 James Loney On Nov. 26, 2005, I was kidnapped in Baghdad. My associates and I, all members of a Christian Peacemaker Teams' delegation, were held by Iraqi insurgents for four months. Tom Fox, a 54-year-old American, was found dead on the streets of Baghdad on March 9, 2006, of multiple gunshot wounds. Two weeks later, Harmeet Singh Sooden, 34, and myself, 42, both Canadians, were rescued along with Briton Norman Kember, 75, by British and American soldiers. In November last year, we were told that an unspecified number of men alleged to be our kidnappers were in U.S. custody. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Scotland Yard want us to testify in a trial to be conducted in the Central Criminal Court...

I saw this on the CBC website this morning and was moved to learn more. Three members of the Anti-Poverty Committee were arrested Tuesday after protesters trashed the provincial cabinet office in downtown Vancouver . An APC spokesman said the symbolic "eviction" was aimed at Ken Dobell, an adviser to Premier Gordon Campbell and a lobbyist for the City of Vancouver, who is helping plan the 2010 Olympic Games. The action — in which furniture, vases, flags and other property were thrown into a hallway — occurred while the APC was holding a news conference at another downtown location, called to outline the group's campaign to evict senior Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee officials. "As we speak, we are evicting Ken Dobell from his office," APC spokesman David Cunningham told the assembled reporters. Two men and a woman were arrested in the incident. As he was led away by officers, Thomas Malenfant promised the group would raise the stakes in confronting those...

I got tired of complaining to other baseball fans and decided to complain to management. If you are a baseball fan, please read the petition to end interleague play . If you agree, please sign it and pass it on, especially to any baseball blogs or message boards you may know. Thanks!

It's spring, the weather is beautiful, I love where I live, my dogs are both healthy, I love my partner, we are happy, we are in Canada. Those things are all true. But this is why I am so happy today: the Red Sox are 10.5 games up. It's the largest lead Boston has ever held at this point in the season. I believe that this year, this year, this is the year that Boston will finally win the American League East and the Yankees will not even make the playoffs. This is filling me with such joy, I simply had to share it. Enjoy your day!

I graduated from college (university) 25 years ago today. One of the many great things about the internet is making friends of many different ages, more so than you probably would in your regular life. I have blog-friends and online friends who think I'm very young, and others who look at me as a senior. Today I'm inclined to feel senior-ish. Twenty-five years ago today. Wow.

Once in a while, something fills me with such revulsion and horror that I can hardly read about it, and can't respond in writing at all. I mentally peek through my fingers, coming at it from an angle, absorbing little bits of information until I can summon the intestinal fortitude to look at it straight on. The so-called "Ashley Treatment" was one of these events. "Ashley X," as she is known, has a congenital disability called static encephalopathy. She cannot walk or talk; she cannot sit up or raise her head. She must be tube-fed, and although alert, she is, and always will be, developmentally an infant. Ashley's parents, who call her their "pillow angel," wondered what would happen to their daughter when she was too large for them to carry, or when they were too old to care for her themselves. They decided to keep Ashley forever young. Beginning when Ashley was six, her parents administered hormones to stunt her growth and prevent the onset of pu...

Monday is Victoria Day , reminding me that this begins my second summer in Canada. Working weekends for so many years, these long weekends have never meant to me what they do for most working people. But right now the gorgeous spring weather, and the trees and flowers all coming to life, are bringing floods of memories. Two years ago at this time, our long wait ended , we found the house in Port Credit and signed the lease , and the clock started ticking on our crazy final months in New York. Last year at this time, we had just returned from Peru, and I started a new job. Every day brought another "my first ____ in Canada". Now we're not the new kids on the block anymore. We're just living our lives, here in Canada. * * * * Last year someone at work told me that everyone calls this holiday "May Two-Four Day," but wmtc readers disagreed . Just in time for the Queen's birthday, a court has cleared the way for Toronto man to file a class-action lawsui...

Occasionally the liberal Hollywood media elite, or whatever the hell they're called, can actually be found on TV. James sent me this clip from "Boston Legal", which I understand has a distinct liberal bias. I don't watch the show but everyone says I would love it. In a note probably only interesting to me, this clip features the lovely Bernadette Peters appearing as the judge. During my theatre days, I worked at Peters's Off-Broadway home . Everyone loved Bernie, and I was no exception. Thanks, as always, to James for thinking of wmtc. Check out his excellent photographs of the continuing adventures of Cobalt The Puppy.

This has been sitting in my inbox for a few weeks. Enjoy. Great Moments In Punditry: Four Years Later , a Huffington Post exclusive from the great Tom Tomorrow .

This is old news, but I've wanted to blog about it for ages, and I'm guessing many of you have not seen it. In late April, a US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held hearings into the source of misleading information about the supposed rescue of Jessica Lynch and the death of Patrick Tillman. Do you remember Jessica Lynch? Lynch was the object of much US flag-waving and chest-thumping in 2003, after she was (supposedly) rescued by a team of US Special Ops soldiers from an Iraqi hospital where she was (supposedly) being held prisoner. Americans were told that Lynch, a 19-year-old clerk, had stumbled into an attack during routine convoy travel, and bravely fought back against her attackers as her unit was surrounded and her comrades were killed and injured. Too bad for the creators of that fiction that when Lynch returned to the US - after she recuperated from broken arm and leg bones, kidney damage, and a head wound - she spoke out about what really happened. S...

A few days ago, war resister Agustin Aguayo landed in Sacramento, California, to a joyous, emotional greeting from his wife, Helga Aguayo, and hundreds of well-wishers and supporters. Aguayo had been held in prison in Germany by the U.S. Army for the last nine months. He was convicted of desertion for refusing to redeploy to Iraq last year and for publicly speaking out against the war. Only a few hours after landing, Aguayo made his first appearance in a multi-city speaking tour of California. From Courage to Resist : "Before I left for Iraq I searched deep within me, I concluded that if I go over there I can't take a life. I ultimately say I'll go, but I'm definitely a conscientious objector. I'm not willing to cross that line, no matter what I can't take a life." Two years later, after his application for discharge was a conscientious objector was denied by the Pentagon, Army Spc. Agustin Aguayo went AWOL in order to resist redeploying to Iraq. . . . . S...

I love the blogosphere. A reader named Lee just sent me this. Doodle by Lee . The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles . In her email, Lee said: "It strikes me that you've just let go of something negative. It's only a matter of time before something positive comes by for you to grab on to!" Beautiful, eh? I appreciate what it says, but more than that, I appreciate receiving it from a stranger. PS: I also love Lee's method of copyright-protecting her work, while remaining blog- and net-friendly. Nicely done.

Friends of wmtc have discussed and debated the role of the media in keeping the US public acquiescent in the crimes of its government. From readers' comments, I've come to soften my hard-line view of the American people as unwitting dupes. Clearly they must bear some responsibility. But I cannot, as some do, blame the people of the United States entirely, as if they are actually in control, as they would be, say, in a democracy. Here's an item that's been sitting in my inbox for nearly a month, from the terrific blog Attytood , sent to me by Allan. Read it carefully: The Patriotism Police . Isaacson notes there was "almost a patriotism police" after 9/11 and when the network showed civilian casualties it would get phone calls from advertisers and the administration and "big people in corporations were calling up and saying, 'You're being anti-American here.'"

Now that the knot in my stomach is finally gone , I can blog about something other than myself. I was very disappointed, but not at all surprised, to see that the City of Toronto is handing over one of the last undeveloped pieces of prime waterfront property to condo developers. Frankly, it would have been shocking if they had done otherwise. Most of Toronto's lakefront is blocked by a wall of condo towers, growing ever denser and uglier every year. The City Council claims they are powerless to stop the project, a unusually frank admission that the real-estate developers actually control the city. It takes a powerful and forward-thinking city government to bring about true public waterfront development. Toronto can find a model for such urban planning in the city of Chicago, where the lakefront has been preserved and developed for the use of the people, thanks to Mayor Richard M. Daley . On our last visit to Chicago, we were astounded by the lakefront's elegant, people-friendl...

Well, I just did something foolish, although not rash. After much thought and much conversation with my partner, I have quit my job at Crappy Firm, without another position lined up. I kind of can't believe it myself. I'll get other work. We'll make it work. I hope that's true. All day today, I thought, how can I quit a job that pays decently, that many people would be thrilled to have, when there are so many people toiling in horrible, low-paying jobs, or suffering under truly awful conditions, or unemployed? Then I would think, if I stay in this job and continue to be miserable, will that help those people? There's a slight possibility that Crappy Firm will want to negotiate in order to keep me. If they do, I will try. But I'm (obviously) not counting on that. They seem pretty rigid. So far their answer to everything has been, "This is Firm policy." Well, well, well. Here's an adventure.

Reading comments in this post really helped me out. You guys reminded me that we've all had bad jobs, jobs that annoyed us or demeaned us or drove us nuts, but we had to suck it up, and go to work, because we need the paycheque. Most of us are worker bees. It's nice if we can love our jobs, but even if we don't, working is not optional. It's required. I'm lucky that it's been a long time since I seriously hated a job. I'm out of practice! Now I have to get back in touch with the coping mechanisms that get us through those stretches, while I send my resume like crazy. Funny, just hearing other people relate a little of their own experiences brought me back to reality.

Hookworms again. $%&?@ hookworms. Those buggers do an enormous amount of damage. This is actually a huge relief to me. Hookworms are serious, but curable. Inflammatory bowel disease is forever. IBD now looks unlikely. Hurrah. Tala had whipworms and hookworms when we first brought her home in January. It's possible that the deworming was incomplete: a negative test is only 70% accurate. It's also likely that our yard is contaminated. Apparently if that is the case, it's nearly impossible to decontaminate. The doc is putting both dogs on a very aggressive deworming schedule, and Tala can begin to transition back to a regular diet. Hurrah hurrah. Folks who are (or might be) bringing your dogs here, I will be in touch with the risk-benefit analysis. My interview with Steven Fletcher - the one I was supposed to do in Ottawa - is tomorrow, so I'd better go prepare. Thanks for all the support, you all.

My new job sucks. I wasn't going to blog about this, in case someone at my workplace is spying on me. (HR definitely Googled me before I was hired.) But I don't even care anymore. I just hate it. What a disappointment. New Firm is Crap Firm. There's no one thing. It's a lot of smaller issues, and cumulatively, they form a very unpleasant work environment. Perhaps I didn't investigate the firm thoroughly enough. I was so happy to get an offer with my unconventional hours, I just snapped it up. But most of these issues couldn't have been known in advance. Intellectually, I know I'm lucky to have a job that pays decently, has good benefits, blah blah blah. But every day I have to go there - every day I have to think about going there - it wears me down. I've contacted the other firms who made me offers during my job search, and of course those positions have been filled. I've also emailed my HR contact from Dissolving Firm, at her new firm, to let her ...