test blog #10

I'm sure Canadian readers all read about the death by taser of a teenage boy in Winnipeg. His murderers, some Winnipeg police, visited his mother that night, but didn't even tell her that her son was already dead. I saw a letter in the G&M saying that since the victim had used drugs and allegedly threatened officers with a screwdriver (originally reported as a knife), "he made his choice". Apparently a teenaged boy chose to forgo arrest, charges, representation, hearing, trial and sentencing. He chose to skip all that bureaucratic nonsense and just be executed in the street. In a country which doesn't have the death penalty. An odd choice, but hey, who I am to judge. That story was about as low as it gets, but James sent me one that would be even more outrageous, had the victim died. Police in Missouri tasered a 16-year-old boy who was lying on the ground with a broken back , having fallen from a bridge. The original news story here is crazy slow to load, so...

I miss a lot of marketing-speak because I usually mute commercials. But sometimes, for whatever reason, the sound stays on, and some new bit of jargon slips through. Recently I learned that sports drinks - those brightly coloured beverages that are supposed to replenish all the precious bodily fluids you supposedly lost while supposedly working out so hard - are now marketed as hydrators . Perhaps you can consume a hydrator in your luxury sports utility vehicle while expanding your skill set with other individuals in your demographic. Now rewrite that sentence in English. Today the excellent Globe and Mail columnist Russ Smith writes about jargon, and tries to articulate why writing is not content. I also reject that stupid word; as soon as a prospective editor refers to my work as "content", I know we're not on the same wavelength. As Smith says, it's difficult to explain why, but he does an admirable job. I find it hard to explain to anyone in business why I can...

The MLB trade deadline is today at 4:00, and few Red Sox fans think Manny Ramirez will be in a Sox uniform tomorrow. I'm sad and pissed off about this, and the Sox being mired in a losing skid doesn't help. Normally Allan would spend today glued to his computer, but we've had plans to get out of the house and I'm hoping to keep them. I'm determined to give myself one day off each week - one day neither writing nor day-job. I may not be able to do this in September as my deadline approaches, but for now it's still possible. Last week my day off was spent doing household chores and reading in the backyard, not something I want to make a habit. And in keeping with my goal of a hike in a park once a month, an outing today would sneak July in under the wire. But will Allan leave the house? I'm offering to bring a laptop and find an internet connection in the afternoon. We shall see. If you're interested in the roller-coaster-soap-opera of Manny and the Sox, b...

Members of the War Resisters Support Campaign have been taking road trips every Saturday, visiting ridings where Conservative MPs squeaked into their seats by small margins. They've been having great success gathering signatures on our petition and raising awareness - and almost always end up in the local paper on Monday morning. This Saturday, August 2, they'll be visiting Guelph in advance of the upcoming by-election. If you can join them or know people who could, please pass this along and contact the Campaign at either resisters@sympatico.ca or 416.598.1222. * * * * Wednesday night, August 20 in Toronto, come out to Grossman's Tavern for music by Chloe Watkinson and the Crossroads . Music starts at 8:30, and all proceeds benefit the War Resisters Support Campaign. Resisters have a huge amount of legal fees on the horizon, and every little bit helps. Admission is $10, or what you can. Grossman's Tavern is at 379 Spadina, corner of Cecil Street, Toronto. * * * * Sa...

Last night I heard some additional details about the arrest, detention and deportation of war resister Robin Long. At our meeting, spirits were high, our determination is unwavering, but on the way home I cried. Not out of despair, because I know we're going to win this thing. It's just so painful to think of someone being harassed, mistreated, deported and incarcerated because they don't want to kill innocent people . Robin's arrest was a total set-up; they wanted him in custody before he received his deportation order. The order itself ignored the recent rulings in both Joshua Key's and Corey Glass' cases, and has an air of vindictiveness around it. Robin was shuttled from jail to jail, first housed with a violent criminal who threatened his life, then assaulted by a group of inmates who took exception to his dreadlocks. (He cut them off before being transferred to the US.) Lee Zaslofsky, a backbone of the War Resisters Support Campaign, visited Robin. Here...

A while back, I posted an ethics question about a confidence an online friend had shared with me. Wmtc readers gave me a good perspective and offered excellent advice. Shortly after, the person in question gave me liberty to speak openly about what had happened to him and his wife. Turns out that's what he wanted all along. Last September, our friend Andy and his wife Audra lost their two-year-old daughter, Fianna. Fianna had a cold. Her conditioned worsened, and she was having trouble breathing. Her parents took her to the emergency room. Kaiser Permanente, the largest health insurer in the United States ( net income, $1.3 billion ), wouldn't approve treatment. They took their child home, and she died. Andy wrote the story on a site where people chronicle horror stories about Kaiser Permanente: you can read it here . I've always thought losing a child is the worst thing that can happen to a person. People survive, and they go on, because that's what people do. They e...

We do have photos from Newfoundland, I promise. I am under the gun on the Spinal Network project, and struggling to maintain some down-time (exercise, reading) and my sanity. Getting photos organized and online is usually my department, but this time it's Allan's. So you'll see the photos... at some point. Yesterday I started reading John Gimlette's Theatre of Fish , a memoir - travelogue - meditation on Newfoundland and Labrador, so this seems like a good time to cross something off my long to-write list. If you visit the west coast of Newfoundland, I highly recommend spending a day or more in Port Aux Choix , especially if you're interested in native peoples, ancient history and archeology. And while you're there, you'll want to see if Jeannie's Sunrise B&B has any vacancies. In Newfoundland, we stayed in both bed-and-breakfasts and motels. The B&B's were all lovely, and some were outstanding. The nightly crabfest put on by our wacky hos...

Last week I interviewed Eric Eales, a wheelchair curler from Kelowna, and the man behind the best wheelchair curling website online. We were emailing some follow-up questions, and apparently I forgot to delete the blog URL my signature line, something I usually do when working on certain projects. Eric must have clicked, and fortunately, he replied with some encouraging words about wmtc. He mentioned that I might be interested in his wife's blog. And she is - what else? - an American with a blog about living in Canada! Cate Eales writes Fahrenheit To Celsius: An American In Canada . I don't think Cate's blog is especially political, but she has joined Canadian culture in a way most of us never will: she curls. I have something else in common with Eric and Cate. They have a rescue dog, too, who has his own blog . (I hope my dogs never want their own blog!) The dog blog describes Kelowna as "one of the least dog-friendly places on this planet," which sounds awful. ...

Many of the Toronto-area war resisters live in Parkdale, where they enjoy strong support from their neighbours, including their MP, Peggy Nash . Earlier this month, local residents held an event to show that support, to speak out on behalf of their war resister friends and neighbours, and to urge Canada to Let Them Stay. I was unable to attend, so I was very happy to receive this video. Did you ever wonder why the War Resisters Support Campaign has so many great videos? We are incredibly fortunate that one of our core Campaigners is the talented activist filmmaker Alex Lisman . Alex films every Campaign event and produces huge numbers of special projects (like Corey Glass' appeal to Stephen Harper ). He also made the Campaign's outreach and promotional film, Let Them Stay , among other films. I can't imagine how the Campaign would have gotten this far without Alex's filmmaking talent and unflagging hard work, along with his ideas and organizing skills. You can see a who...

More than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hot line in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted, the government says. According to a recent RAND Corp. study, roughly one in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan displays symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, putting them at a higher risk for suicide. Researchers at Portland State University found that male veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide than men who are not veterans . [Emphasis added.] . . . The VA teamed up with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to launch the hot line last July after years of criticism that the VA wasn't doing enough to help wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In April, two veterans groups sued the VA, citing long delays for processing applications and other problems in treatment for veterans at risk for suicide. The department has spent $2.9 million on the hot line thus far. The hot line receives up ...

Can we declare a moratorium on the use of the words "um" or "uh" in mid-sentence to denote irony, sarcasm or the writer's supposed delicate search for the correct word? It was cute when it started, lo those many years past. I'm sure I've used it myself, and I probably thought it was cute at the time, too. But now it is just another over-used cliche, devoid of meaning, carrying no humour or any element of surprise. To those of you who enjoy using said "uh" and "um" in this manner: a suggestion. Consider writing those words as you always do, then going back and editing the sentence to more accurately reflect your meaning without that qualifier. Example: I would offer my opinion, but Laura might, uh, object. can become I would offer my opinion, but Laura would bite my head off. Why not just say what you mean? What would you have written before "um" and "uh" were used this way? Write that! If this post irritates you, y...

Further to our recent discussion of the pleasures and pitfalls of iced coffee , I note that Starbucks is closing 600 US outlets . That represents about 6% of the company's 7,200 US stores. This is very bad news for 12,000 people who will find themselves unemployed. So I say this with great sympathy for those workers: I told you so! And so did everyone else. There are 235 Starbucks in New York City alone. There aren't enough people to drink all that coffee, or to spend their hard-earned dollars on over-priced non-essentials in such difficult economic times. We all wondered why they wanted to open an identical store on every block. We wondered how long it would last. Apparently, this long. It won't be easy for those 12,000 newly unemployed people, and I shouldn't be jubilant about anyone losing work, especially a decent-paying, union job. So the labour activist in me is poking the New Yorker in me with a sharp stick. But as someone who loves New York City, I can only hope...

Supporting military resistance saves lives.

I have two questions for you science-y types out there. I can't find a good way to Google or Wikipedia this, and asking wmtc readers is my third choice for random factual information. 1. It is said that if you throw a coin from a great height, it picks up so much force as it falls, that it can do great damage. Where I grew up, we heard that if you threw a penny off the Empire State Building, it would bore straight through someone's skull into their brain and kill them. If this is true, why do raindrops not bore into our skin? Rain is falling from a great height. Is it because rain is liquid so it has different properties? Then shouldn't hail kill us? Or maybe that old story is not true? 2. Long ago, people believed in the spontaneous generation of life. The example I remember is that flies arose from rotten fruit, or that spoiled meat gave rise to maggots. Now we know that is not true. So where do the maggots come from? (From other maggots, yes.) I mean, specifically, when ...

I forgot to post a reminder yesterday. If you're in the Toronto area and believe, as I do, that Canadian citizen Omar Khadr should be brought back to Canada and treated as every other Canadian in the same circumstances would be treated, perhaps you will join the rally and march. Details here.

Have you seen this website? Those of us who have worked in any service industry will appreciate it. Thanks to James. Great stuff.

As I finish up Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow , I want to again recommend it as a must-read for understanding US foreign policy. And that means understanding it in a way that most USians will never do. On the evening of March 19, 2003, shortly before announcing that the United States was about to launch its long-expected invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush sat behind an antique desk in the White House and practiced reading his speech. It struck all the appropriate notes, including a declaration that the purpose of this invasion was "to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger." Some would later point to it as the speech that ripped the United States away from a long tradition of cooperative diplomacy, turning it into an arrogant power that assumed the right to determine which foreign governments could live and which must die. The man who looked down on Busy from a large oil painting on the wall behind him would have understood better t...

Troll update! Scrolling through some stories in the Toronto Star , look who I found commenting . This guy is a better chameleon than I thought. Here, he appears to be an articulate liberal.

Liberal MP Maurizio Bevilacqua, Citizenship and Immigration Critic, says Let Them Stay! NDP MP Olivia Chow, Citizenship and Immigration Critic, says Let Them Stay! Bloc Québécois MP Thierry St-Cyr, Citizenship and Immigration Critic, says Let Them Stay! And they all say: respect democracy. Stephen Harper, you are not Canada. Respect the will of the Canadian people.

Amnesty International statement at the War Resisters Support Campaign on June 25. Being forced into military service is a violation of human rights. No one should be forced to kill or be killed. We all have the right of conscience.

Search strings of the day: can i move to canada and still be a us citizen? how to sneak into canada for health care how to screw the air miles 1. Yes. 2. If you sneak in, you can't get health care! 3. ??

That's London, Ontario, of course. US and Brit readers may not realize that around these parts, "London" means a city in Ontario . The other London is called "London, England". This took some getting used to! I would like to highlight the website of the London chapter of the War Resisters Support Campaign . You can see photos from some of their events, there's a blog , and most importantly, you can get in touch with them and get involved. By coincidence, the first Iraq War resister in Canada I ever spoke with is London's Tim Richard . Longtime friend of wmtc (and friend of Allan and Laura!) James had a connection to him, and thought I might write about his story. I interviewed Tim, but quickly learned that Canadian editors were completely uninterested. (This was in early 2007.) Through Tim, I found Lee and the Campaign, and vowed to myself that when I was stopped writing for Kids On Wheels , I would join. Now two London Campaigners read wmtc, at least ...

We have arrived! Iraq War resisters make The Onion ! Many thanks to my blog-friend Impudent Strumpet . Elsewhere, she suggests I ask for a refund of my immigration-related expenses, because the Harper Government is playing bait-and-switch.

I received this from James Burmeister's support campaign. Perhaps you'll take a few moments to write to both James and Robin. Even if you don't, this information might come in handy one day. The guidelines come from the Lacey Phillabaum website. Googling, I learned that Lacey Phillabaum is an Oregon woman who served time in federal prison for participating in radical environmental activism. Rather than link to stories about Phillabaum, I will give you something in her own words, about the Bush administrations war on our planet . BOP = Bureau of Prisons + + + + + Mail sent into and out of any correctional facility will be read. Don't send letters that reference criminal activity, business affairs or escape plans. • Letters must include a full name and return address for the sender. • Use the inmate's full name and UPC code or register number. • Small water stains or dirt on a letter can cause it to be rejected. No tears, damnit! • Stationery and cards are allowed, b...

The priorities of too many USians.

This appeared in today's Owen Sound Sun Times . I've corrected what appears to be a typo. Almost 40 years ago, being young and idealistic, we came to this beautiful country to escape the demands that the U.S. military and government were placing on its citizens and society. We knew little of the country we came to but soon learned how important it was that people in Canada cared to help U.S. conscientious objectors. In 1968, with the help of the Mennonite, Quaker and United Church communities, the Canadian government agreed to allow U. S. deserters and draft evaders to stay in Canada and not be forced to return. This is not true for the current illegal Iraq war, where the Americans continue to send troops. There are hundreds of American Iraq war resisters in Canada. In spite of the fact that a majority of Parliament voted to allow the resisters to stay, the Conservative Harper government has stated that resisters will be deported and returned to the United States to face prosec...

On July 17, this Op-Ed appeared in the Halifax Chronicle , in opposition to allowing US war resisters to stay in Canada. The writer's point of view is the usual "but they volunteered," a specious, inaccurate, non-argument. Yesterday, the Chronicle ran this excellent piece in response. The writer is an organizer with the Council of Canadians , staunch supporters of Canadian independence - and of the war resisters. Let war resisters stay By Angela Giles Dominick Mirabile (July 17 opinion piece) argues that U.S. war resisters had a choice whether or not to enlist. However, signing a contract with the U.S. military does not obligate someone to participate in war crimes. Whether they volunteered or not is irrelevant. They have a higher obligation to international law than their "duty" to just follow orders. Mr. Mirabile argues that war resisters "broke the law. They are in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice." But under Principle 2 of Nuremb...

From my home state. New York state is in the process of replacing its lever voting machines with new voting equipment, but the state revealed recently that it has found problems with 50 percent of the roughly 1,500 ImageCast optical-scan machines [see video on original page] that Sequoia Voting Systems has delivered to the state so far -- machines that are slated to be used by dozens of counties in the state's September 9 primary and November 4 presidential election. Douglas Kellner, co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections, expressed frustration with the vendor, saying it appeared that Sequoia was using the state's acceptance testing process to find problems with its machines in lieu of a sound quality-control process. "There's no way the vendor could be adequately reviewing the machines and having so many problems," he told Threat Level. "What it tells us is that the vendor just throws this stuff over the transom and does not do any alpha- or beta...

Speaking of Harper Government priorities, this Saturday, Torontonians will have the opportunity to raise their voices in protest. No matter if they're listening or not. We have to express our disapproval loudly and often. If you live in the Toronto area, come out this Saturday, July 26 , for the Bring Omar Khadr back to Canada! rally. The rally is jointly sponsored by the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the Canadian Arab Federation and the Muslim Unity Group. Tell Stephen Harper: Bring Omar Khadr back to Canada! Rally & march Saturday, July 26, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. U.S. Consulate 360 University Avenue* (north of Queen West, east side of University) TTC: Osgoode or St. Patrick Canadian citizen Omar Khadr is the only Western national left in Guantanamo Bay, and the first child-soldier to be prosecuted in more than a hundred years. Khadr was only 15 years-old when he was captured by US forces in Afghanistan and later transported to the infamous US prison where he has now spe...

From the Tell Us Something We Don't Know Department, the Globe and Mail offers more proof of the Harper Government's priorities. Senior Canadian intelligence officials warned against allowing Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen, to return home from Sudan because it could upset the Bush administration, classified documents reveal. "Senior government of Canada officials should be mindful of the potential reaction of our U.S. counterparts to Abdelrazik's return to Canada as he is on the U.S. no-fly list," intelligence officials say in documents in the possession of The Globe and Mail. "Continued co-operation between Canada and the U.S. in the matters of security is essential. We will need to continue to work closely on issues related to the Security of North America, including the case of Mr. Abdelrazik," the document says. Although heavily redacted, the documents illuminate a government keen to placate the Bush administration, irrespective of the gui...

Two items from the Land of the Free. Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell phone vibrated. They were looking for an informant to show up at "vegan potlucks" throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors. Once he arrived home from the Hennepin County Courthouse, where he’d been served a gross misdemeanor for spray-painting the interior of a campus elevator, the lanky, wavy-haired University of Minnesota sophomore flipped open his phone and checked his messages. He was greeted by a voice he recognized immediately. It belonged to U of M Police Sgt. Erik Swanson, the officer to whom Carroll had turned himself in just three weeks earlier. When Carroll called back, Swanson asked him to meet at a coffee shop later that day, going on to assure a wary Carroll that he wasn't in trouble. Carroll, who requested that his real name not be used, showed up early and waited anxiously for Swanson’s arrival. Ten minutes later, he says, a casually dressed Swanson ...

It took Diane Pickel Plappert six months to tell a counselor that she had been raped while on duty in Iraq. While time passed, the former Navy nurse disconnected from her children and her life slowly unraveled. Carolyn Schapper says she was harassed in Iraq by a fellow Army National Guard soldier to the extent that she began changing clothes in the shower for fear he'd barge into her room unannounced — as he already had on several occasions. Even as women distinguish themselves in battle alongside men, they're fighting off sexual assault and harassment. It's not a new consequence of war. But the sheer number of women serving today — more than 190,000 so far in Iraq and Afghanistan — is forcing the military and Department of Veterans Affairs to more aggressively address it. The data that exists — incomplete and not up-to-date — offers no proof that women in the war zones are more vulnerable to sexual assault than other female service members, or American women in general. B...

Several months ago, I read an interesting piece by Sara Robinson of Orcinus , on Campaign for America's Future . I found it on Truthout . I live in a nice place. I mean that literally. It took some getting used to. After 20 years in Silicon Valley, where people put a premium on being direct and to the point, have no time to waste on small talk or personal sharing, and will call a stupid idea stupid to your face, moving to Canada required a whole lot of gearing back on that brusque American aggressive-in-your-face thing. The humbling fact was: We had to learn to mind our manners. Much of the adjustment work that first year involved re-learning the art of Being Nice. We had to get used to meetings that started with 10 or 15 minutes of personal chit-chat. We had to train ourselves to stop interrupting people, and to be more careful to say "please" and "thank you." We had to discover (sometimes, the hard way) that losing your temper with Canadians means that you wil...

As I hope you know, war resister Robin Long is in a US military jail, facing punishment for refusing to participate in the Iraq War. Robin is currently being held at Fort Carson, Colorado. Lee Zaslofsky, one of the mainstays of our national campaign and a Vietnam War deserter, is on his way there to visit Robin, so I'll soon have an update on his condition. You can send letters of support to Robin at: Robin Long, CJC 2739 East Las Vegas Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906 USA We are told: Robin is allowed to receive handwritten or typewritten letters. They must not include drawings made with markers, lipstick, crayons, or stickers or any printed articles. He cannot receive enclosures of any type except small photographs (up to 4x6 inches). Photographs can only be printed from a photo developer, not from a home printer or from photocopies, and no Polaroids. He can receive no more than nine photos at a time. Mail that violates these rules will be locked up with Robin's personal belo...

From today's Globe and Mail , by James Laxer, author of Mission of Folly - Canada and Afghanistan : The Harper government has hunkered down on the issue of Afghanistan -- committed to keeping Canadian troops on the front line there until at least 2011. The government has constructed its own sanitized version of events in the country while steadfastly ignoring reality. Tragically, Canadians continue to die in the conflict -- 88 soldiers to date -- earning us the dubious distinction of the highest per-capita death toll of any NATO member in the war. In January, in response to an access to information request for records from the Department of Foreign Affairs, I received documents that made clear what the Harper government wants Canadians to think about the mission in Afghanistan and exposed its strategy for managing the public relations campaign. At what are called "message events" where journalists are updated on developments in Afghanistan, officials from Foreign Affairs...

Geography is destiny. I think about this all the time: how where a person is born determines so much about her future. Poverty and the opportunity to leave it, education, health care - the rights and options of people with disabilities - freedom of personhood and conscience - reproductive freedom. Childhood! Having one at all, rather than being forced into a sweatshop, or sex work, or killing. So many basic human rights from which our lives flow are pre-determined by where a person is born. This is a terrible fact. But why should this be true within one country? From The Independent , via AMERICAblog , via James , emphasis mine. The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday. The...