test blog #10

I find wmtc in the coolest places. Check out David Parsons's This Space For Rent , which he writes on his own blog program. A very interesting guy, with an excellent blog.

ALPF and Redsock both sent me this story. ALPF found it at Reuters' AlertNet , and Allan saw it on Yahoo News Canada . Thanks (as always) for doing my work for me, guys. Canadians beat U.S. Army to New Orleans suburb A Canadian search-and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiana state senator said on Wednesday. The Canadians beat both the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. disaster response department, to St. Bernard Parish east of New Orleans, where flood waters are still 8 feet (2.4 metres) deep in places, Sen. Walter Boasso said. "Fabulous, fabulous guys," Boasso said. "They started rolling with us and got in boats to save people." "We've got Canadian flags flying everywhere." The stricken parish of 68,000 people was largely ignored by U.S. authorities who scrambled to get aid to New Orleans, a few miles (km) away. Boasso said residen...

We drove over the border and back today, our first time "on US soil" - as the wingnuts love to say - since our landing. It was uneventful, on the outside - the fewest number of questions we've ever been asked, in both directions. But it felt momentous to me. We zipped over to the Buffalo airport and dealt with the rental car exchange. Then we drove home. To Canada.

We're off to Buffalo to return the minivan and pick up a smaller rental car for another week. After that, more unpacking and setting up. Our new couch is being delivered today, and we have to make some room for it! I'll check in with you all later.

In an email from United for Peace and Justice , Cindy Sheehan writes: Sept. 7, 2005 Dear Friends and Supporters of Peace, On August 31st, we closed down Camp Casey on the outskirts of President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. In the three and a half weeks that we were in Crawford, thousands of people passed through - some for just a few hours and some for days or weeks. Throughout the country, hundreds of thousands of people responded to my vigil, calling on the President to meet with me and, just as importantly, adding their voices to the growing cry for an end to the war in Iraq. The horrific events that have unfolded in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, in the wake of the deadly hurricane Katrina are stark reminders of just how lop-sided our nation's priorities are. Resources that could have been used to save lives are instead tied up in a war that continues to kill Iraqis and U.S. servicepeople. Our nation is at a crossroads: will we contin...

This is something I've noticed throughout my Canadian odyssey, from our earliest trips to Toronto to today. I've waited a long time to mention it, to make sure I wasn't drawing a hasty generalization. Canadians seem very careful with money. Frugal. Cheap. Of course no generalization is absolute. But on the whole, people here seem very concerned with how much things cost, and with saving money. I'm not talking about people who simply can't afford things. I've been poor. I know what it is when your basic expenses outstrip your income, how wearing that is, the stress it puts you under. So we'll leave that aside. I'm talking about an attitude. A concern with spending the least amount of money possible, about avoiding or reducing costs if at all possible. An unwillingness to part with money. Phone bills. Parking. Cable TV. The garbage tags I blogged about yesterday. In the US, charging an extra dollar for garbage tags would not create an incentive to put out ...

At the bank when we opened our chequeing account, at the corner store where we made copies of our driver's licenses, on our driveway chatting with our neighbours, people want to know, "What brings you here from the US?" They often say, "Are you here for a change of employment?" To the first question, I'll answer, "We didn't want to live in the US anymore. We like Canada better." To the second, I'll say, "No, actually, a change of life. We wanted to live in Canada." Generally the person expresses some amount of surprise, in a pleased and friendly way. The young guy at the store said, "Yeah? Wow, good stuff, I love it." The bank officer - also young, but trying to be professional - said, "Oh interesting..." and looked like he was dying to ask more. The neighbour pressed a tiny bit further. I said, "Yes, we've emigrated, we're here for political reasons". He seemed fascinated. The woman next door...