High School Confidential - Redux

I went back to High School last night and it wasn’t much fun. In fact, it was almost as bad as the first time except this time no one hated me except the Ukrainian math teacher. Well, maybe she doesn’t hate me, but ignoring my phone calls for two weeks and then standing me up at her office door for our meeting does not bode well for “like” status. I knew our conversation would not necessarily be pleasant but usually people wait to meet me before they come to any firm aversions.

It was parent-teacher interview night at the local secondary school my children attend. It is very strange but I don’t remember my parents or family every going to parent’s night in High School. I do remember my mother getting annoyed when she got called to the office regularly and frequently but I don’t remember any parent’s night. Who knows, maybe I skipped that week or it could be a case of parent’s night not being a very seventies kind of thing.

Anyway, I came a rather startling conclusion. The teachers at my children’s high school are decidedly freaky and weird looking. Not all of teachers- just most of them. You got your basic Goths, general punks, drag queens and witches, but oddly enough, it was the teenagers who looked ordinary, normal and sane. What struck me as even odder was - mostly the teachers were from my generation. Did I ever feel left behind, as I did all the weird and freaky shit when I was a teenager - obviously even then I was ahead of my time.

There were a few teachers who looked normal but those ones looked somewhat older than me. Every time I saw one in the hall, I had to fight off a two fold compulsion to stalk the teacher and then beg him/her to teach my child. My son did give me a warning that most of his teachers were “sensitive” so I wasn’t to say or do anything to either offend them or jeopardize his working relationship with them but he hadn’t warned me they were freaks – almost down to the last one. The exception was the Latin teacher. He not only looked normal but he sounded ordinary. I had fun in that interview. We re-enacted sack of Carthage with his action figures. I cannot remember why I never took Latin as it looks like great fun.

Apparently little clues to the teacher’s sex like Ms, Miss, Mrs or Mr are too old school. Instead the teacher’s signs or name tags are identified strictly by last name. I still can’t figure out if the Canadian history teacher I was speaking to was a man or a woman. Let that sink in – the CANADIAN HISTORY TEACHER’s sex could not be readily determined by a visual examination. Public School in the Centre of the Universe. Nothing else like it.

Let's talk about boomers

I was reading an article on the decaying infrastructure of Canadian cities and another thought struck me. In twenty year's time, my mother's generation will be in their mid-80's – that is, if the majority are even living at all. As a nation, we have only briefly talked about the ramifications of the aging boomer population in terms of government revenues, pensions, services, and healthcare related to the needs of the elderly, but when has the national discourse every verged out of this paradigm?

As a nation, we need to stop and think about what the dying baby boomers mean to the ordinary lives of younger Canadians. Even with a huge massive immigration push started yesterday, we cannot replace the aging and dying boomers with immigrants in any viable way. The largest available pool of potential immigrants comes from third world countries that possess limited literacy and/or skill sets. These immigrants are in no position to waltz into the country and pick up the boomer's slack – pants maybe, but certainly not the slack.

Our standard of living is set to undergo one of the most massive and unprecedented changes of history. Canada is a small country of approximately 33 million people. The boomer generation represents approximately 9.5 million Canadians. I cannot think of any country, in any period of history, where a top-heavy third of the population was elderly.

When the aging boomer population is discussed, everyone talks about the consequences to our social service safety nets and government debt financing but what about the economies outside of public service sector? For example, take construction/housing industry. In 10 to fifteen years time, when the boomers hit the seventies- to-early eighties mark, our cities and rural communities could potentially be hit with the mother of all housing gluts. If you think Canada has regional disparity now - wait until the boomers start dying off.

The average house price in Toronto has currently hit around $400,000 mark. Twenty years from today, it might be one of the few times, when a resident/owner of a home in a major Canadian city will see a marked depreciable value from the original purchase price of their home. No region throughout the country would potentially be immune from this glut/surplus since one cannot take one's house when one goes into the great beyond.

Of course, the Canadian construction/housing industry will probably undergo the lengthiest and longest depressions in it's history - from which it might never recover. Along for the ride are all the other industries and trades, which tap into and feed the construction/housing industry. Of course, going hand and hand with housing gut, will be depreciating property values, and with declining property values, means less revenue to run municipalities. Less revenue for municipalities means less tradition means of raising funds for things like education, hospitals, nursing homes and infrastructure repairs.

Then there is the fashion industry. Elderly people are generally not clotheshorses per say, and if they are not going to work, there is even less reason to dress relatively stylish or buy new clothes. The Elderly are not big eaters so let us just nix fashion, food and retail industries by at least a third of their current size. Of course, what will our auto industry look like when a potential third of all cars on the road are driven by retirees? While it is true health services, nursing homes, and the death services industry will be in big demand it is only for a very limited cycle, and then, the boom period for these industries will go bust as the population stabilizes once again.

So what is the solution? I simply have no idea but until we start to pay attention and think about the ramifications of when tomorrow cometh; we are sunk. Or in the words of the Who….I hope I die before I get old.

Vatican-Israeli Relations hit bottom. Vatican continues to dig and

As long as Vatican officials continue to make remarks like this one (taken from the Jerusalem Post):

A Vatican official said Wednesday that Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their homeland, and said he hoped Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would address the issue. Cardinal Renato Martino, who heads the Vatican's office for migrants, said an agreement to restart peace talks, reached Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland, was encouraging and that he hoped by this time next year concrete measures would be under way. "It is my hope that all the parts of the problem are taken into consideration such as that of the Palestinian refugees, who like all other refugees, have the right to return to their homeland," Martino said.

It will continue its southernly dive.

And how good of the Cardinal to wholeheartedly support the “right of return” I wonder if the Cardinal is prepared to extend that right to Jewish refugees? But why stop there? What about extending the ‘right of return’ to property? I believe there is millennium plus of priceless Jewish religious artifacts currently residing in the Vatican’s archives which were stolen from various Jewish communities throughout the ages. As long as there exists a Jewish state, there exists only one legitimate home for the religious artifacts of the Jewish people.

as the beat goes on

The debate rages on. One argument used regularly to bludgeon the so-called black community over the head pits the success of Chinese or Jewish children against black schoolchildren, and then asks why can’t black kids mimic the same success? Actually, some do but it’s the other half who does not which we all should be concerned about.

Then reasons are legion, but the first problem is in defining the black community because, contrary to many, it is not a single homogenous community. It rarely comes together outside of cultural constraints. In fact, the cultural prejudice among competing groups within the black community rarely finds a common platform or speaks with a single voice on any issue.

Earlier this fall there was a debate before the Trustees of the Toronto district school board on the establishment of one or two black focused schools. This sparked off a debate within the larger Canadian community with editorials from the larger Canadian dailies issuing a flat out large dose of “no” to the return to segregation in education. It was one of those rare times when the black community was actual able to pull itself together and get out a single dominate message to the utter bafflement and total amazement of the larger non-black community.

What the larger non-black community failed to fully comprehend is that a return to black-centric education was asked for by black educators and parents. The ills of black society cannot be fixed from outside the community. It cannot be resolved by sending in legions of well-meaning social workers, community activists or even throwing more money into diversity programs within the larger school system. This is one time when the patient must also be the physician and heal thyself.

Fifty years later and with the debate raging on, the words of Ralph Ellison from the Invisible Man still ring apt.

It goes a long way back, some twenty years. All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man!

It is a powerful book which is masterly written with as message as timely and true as it was in 1953. A major theme of the book deals with the empowerment which lies in defining oneself. I am not surprised if you haven’t heard of it as it goes deeply into ‘black’ identity politics but it is the kind of book which would be on a required reading list for black secondary students in a blackcentric school and a book which would almost be impossible to teach in our current public system.

Who knew there was a black hole in the Centre of the Universe?

I also want to give a big ‘YOU SUCK’ to the folks in charge of keeping the electrical grid glowing in the Centre of the Universe. Last night’s outage was not the first blackout, we have been averaging 2-10 minutes at least once a week for the last two years, but it was the longest outage in a while. Of course, the whole ‘root causes’ of the outage thing remains a mystery. It always does.

I say the mayor goes to the next Israeli-Palestinian peace summit and lobbies hard to get the Israelis to take over the running of Toronto Hydro. If the Olmert Administration won’t keep the lights off on those who regularly lobby rockets at them, destroy their homes and terrorize their children on the way to school; there has got to be a better than average chance that the power will stay on for weeks at a time.

The Peace Games

The Israeli Palestinian conflict has now had its peace in our time moment but what struck me as intriguing was the Russian announcement that the next peace summit will be held in Moscow. Taken from the Jerusalem Post:

"The next peace summit between the Israelis and Palestinians will be held in Moscow," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Wednesday morning, confirming a Jerusalem Post report from Tuesday. According to Lavrov, the date and content of the meeting have yet to be determined. He did not mention which parties, if any, have committed to attending, Army Radio reported.

Now we can turn these peace summits into a kind of Olympic event and have different cities around the competing for the chance to host the next summit.

Tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar.

Taken from the Jerusalem Post:

The majority of Hamas detainees arrested by PA President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces in the West Bank since June have been released, sources close to Hamas have told The Jerusalem Post. According to the sources, not a single Hamas detainee has been put on trial so far. In a bid to defuse tensions with Hamas on the eve of the peace conference in Annapolis, the Palestinian Authority on Sunday also released three Hamas members from prison.

The decision to release the Hamas men was taken by the PA leadership in Ramallah shortly before Abbas and members of the Palestinian negotiating team headed to the US to participate in the conference. The decision was taken in spite of Hamas's increased threats, in the past few days, to foil the peace conference. Hamas spokesmen have also stepped up their criticism of Abbas, warning him against making any concessions to Israel during the conference.

One of the three men who were released was Ahmed Dolah, a senior Hamas leader from Nablus. He was arrested more than three months ago in the context of a massive PA clampdown on Hamas figures and institutions in the West Bank. The other two who were released Sunday were Ala al-Titi and Assid Amarneh, both from Hamas. The two, who work for Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV in Hebron, were arrested by the PA security forces 30 days ago.

The release of the three came as a surprise even to Hamas leaders. Only a day earlier, the PA security forces prevented two senior Hamas officials, Hassan Abu Kwaik and Faraj Rumaneh, from holding a press conference in Ramallah. The two were briefly detained and warned against making public appearances against the Annapolis conference.

Who knows, maybe Olmert is a bad influence on Abbas?

Let’s talk about sex.

I could never talk to my mother about sex. I remember our one and only painful discussion on the topic. It last 3 minutes and I couldn’t wait for her to be done. I would have rather stuck a needle in my eye than go another painful round with my mother. In fact, I believe it took her at least a month before she could look me in the eye. This ‘discussion’ happened years after my grandmother and great-grandmother had taken the time to sit me down and explained the facts of life to me as well as my obligations towards myself, my family and the wider community. I think I was about 12 years old when the Grannies set me straight. They didn’t trust my mother to do it properly, and in retrospect - they had a point.

For years, I have been waiting for the children to show enough interest to ask me questions about sex so I could share all my Granny wisdom was well as a few tips I have learned along the way but a funny thing happened. The tribe has been actively avoided asking me any questions. Even when something of a sexual nature comes up which seems like a natural starting point - like when we are watching television; all three of them desert the room enmass rather than watch it with me.

When Isaiah Sender was about 9 years old he came home one day from school and at the dinner table he announced he had Sex Ed class in school. So if I had any questions, he felt confident in being able to supply me with the correct answers. He felt the class was great because all his questions were finally answered. I was a little taken back by this because I didn’t know he had any questions so I asked him why he didn’t ask me. Isaiah Sender told me I was not enough of an expert because I only had three children and Mrs. M was on her sixth which effectively shut me up. I mean, what was I suppose to do at that point – debate a 9 year old that I knew way more about sex than his teacher?

It is not that I haven’t tried bringing up the topic of sex through the years but it is just that I get shut down by my children every time I do. They are still mad that I made all of them learn how to put a condom on a banana while blindfolded. I thought it would be an important life skill to acquire and I did think it would be more fun if I made it into a competition. Apparently, the children have pit it down to one of the worst parenting moments possible in which they have had to endure.

Montana had at least enough confidence to come to me just shortly after he had been boxing with a question about masturbation. We were walking along Bloor Street West at the time, just as most of the office buildings were letting out for the day. He wanted to know if it was a good idea to masturbate with a shop-vac. The older guys at the gym recommended the shop-vac because it could take both wet and dry. The question really startled me. I never thought I would ever be asked my opinion on the effectiveness of vacuum cleaners and masturbation, but hey, I am no prude. It would take more than to throw me completely off my game. I even managed to establish a few basic rules like “keep your hands off my Hoover Upright”. Apparently, I told him more about masturbation than he wanted to know and he ended up sulking for a week.

So why all this talk about sex? I was in the used bookstore yesterday with the Last Amazon and she got all excited about finding a “Sex for Dummies” book but refused to buy it as long as I was with her. I have to admit to having my feelings a trifle hurt that she has obvious questions but feels too insecure to ask me. It got me to thinking. Maybe children really don’t want to learn about sex from their parents and all those who complained that the parents told them nothing were, in fact, just general whiner kind of people.

Orthodox Fringe

Last August I posted a piece I called Peace Partners or What Lefties do on their downtime when visiting Israel. Basically, it was a story published by Arutz Sheva detailing the attacks against a Jewish farmer within the disputed territories. It was picked up by a few other bloggers and it came under criticism as my source was “Orthodox extremist fringe newspaper (censored by the military)”.

This week I found this piece in Ha’aretz. I was rather taken back they had even published it. Ha'aretz is one the oldest dailies in Israel, as well as being a newspaper. which is so far to the liberal left that their editorial staff is permanently bent.

West Bank settlers say there has been a recent spate of Palestinian vandalism on property belonging to Jewish farmers, and an Haaretz investigation has found evidence of arson, sabotage of equipment and destruction of crops.

The farmers claim that the police are not designating their complaints as high priority, because they do not fall under the rubric of "hostile terrorist activity."

(…)
A new report by a settler civil rights group cites several examples of damage to Jewish farmers' property. Under the heading, "Who will protect my olive tree?" the report describes the torching of 900 dunams of grazing ground, a stable, and 30 pomegranate trees belonging to Yehuda Cohen of Bat Ayin. Shamai Pozak at Ofra had young saplings chopped down, tons of grapevines destroyed before the harvest, and irrigation pipes torched. Moshe Kedem of Pnei Kedem had 500 olive tree saplings uprooted.

At Sde Calev, in the Hebron Hills region, arson consumed more than 100 cherry trees, and assorted buildings and storage sheds were set on fire. Just recently, another 400 grapevines were uprooted.

Shlomi Cohen's vineyard in the Dolev region was uprooted four times, which finally prompted the Shin Bet security service to investigate. Suspects were subsequently arrested, but the Shin Bet does not ordinarily get involved in these cases.

Israeli police hardly ever enters Arab villages in the West Bank, and as with cases of agricultural theft within Israel, the moment the stolen property makes it into the nearby Arab village, its owners usually have no chance of getting it back. When farmers occasionally have conducted their own investigations and located their property in the surrounding villages, the police refrained from entering the villages.

An exception was the case of Yehuda Cohen, who persuaded the police to intervene by threatening to go into the town of Dahariya himself to retrieve his stolen horses.

Settlers complain that irrigation systems are prime targets for repeated vandalism by Arab shepherds, who slice the pipes to water their flocks, and by Palestinian farmers or others who tap into these systems for free water. The new report lists a series of cases in which "Israeli and international leftist groups were clearly involved in incidents of rioting that damaged agricultural plots of Jews in Judea and Samaria."

This claim proved correct in at least two of the cases Haaretz checked. For example, in the course of a protest march by leftists, anarchists and Arabs on August 22, dozens broke into Shlomi Cohen's vineyard at Neria and uprooted some 5,000 vine saplings.
On October 17, a left-wing activist was caught along with Arabs from the West Bank in the act of setting several fires around the illegal outpost Havat Gilad. There are indications of leftists' involvement in several other cases, and police sources confirm the matter, but no suspects have been arrested.

When all is said and done, I would still rather hang out with fringe of the Orthodox than be left at the end of a bottom feeder.

Blowing the boys out of the water

There is a reason why I have hardly blogged of late. I finally found a game in which I stand a fairly reasonable chance of beating either of my sons’ scores.

It’s been years since I could blow them away in a game unless we were playing something like Risk or Battleship. Not only do the boys hog the Xbox360 but I find it nerve rattling to play when they are around. Usually, they will sit behind my chair and shout at me in irregular intervals. This has a way of putting me off my game.

It doesn’t matter in this game because - this got to be the dumbest game ever invented though it is addictive. Oh yeah, Van Halen might have had a hit with You Really Got Me but it’s a Kink’s Song

Not only is the house divided - so is the school

One Palestinian university has decided to close to the doors to its’ hallowed halls of learning out of concern for the physical safety of the student body. Apparently, fractional in-fighting between the various and sundry other terror groups and Fatah has taken a decidedly bloody turn. The Jerusalem Post reports:

"We have decided to suspend studies and evacuate all students from the campus out of concern for their safety," said a spokesman for Bir Zeit University. He said the decision was made following an assault on one of the students late Monday. Students said four men from the PFLP attacked a Fatah student in the dorms, wounding him seriously. The assailants used charcoal to burn the student's face. They also hammered nails into the victim's feet, the students said.

According to the students, the decision to suspend studies came after Fatah gunmen appeared on campus and threatened to kill PFLP supporters. Earlier this week, scores of students from both parties clashed on campus, using clubs and stones. At least 10 students were wounded.

The tensions have also spread to Al-Quds University in Beit Jala, where supporters of the two parties were involved Tuesday in a brawl that also led to the suspension of studies. Sources in the university said the two sides had used knives and clubs, and some students claimed that shots had been fired during the melee.

Later in the day, clashes erupted between Fatah and PFLP supporters in the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. The camp has long been a traditional stronghold of the PFLP.

The problem with the Americans betting the proverbial farm on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' to carry the day and deliver Palestinian compliance on any given issue is that it is a fool’s bet. While Mahmoud Abbas struck the Americans as an imminently reasonable ‘moderate’ figure; he was also a deeply flawed choice. Abu Mazan never had a broad support base or inspired respect among the various Palestinian terror fractions. The real surprise wasn’t so much that Hamas rebelled against rule by Fatah in the Gaza Strip but that Hamas waited as long as it did to take control.

"Next year" - and the year after, and after, and after until the end of time - in Jerusalem!"

I have shamelessly stolen this blog title from the ending of an opinion piece running in the Jerusalem Post today which was originally published in the Times of Israel shortly after the Six Days War circa 1967. The piece not only still resonates (well at least with me) but is also extremely relevant given the lead up to Annapolis and beyond.

I am not a creature from another planet, as you seem to believe. I am a Jerusalemite - like yourselves, a man of flesh and blood. I am a citizen of my city, an integral part of my people. I have a few things to get off my chest. Because I am not a diplomat, I do not have to mince words. I do not have to please you, or even persuade you. I owe you nothing. You did not build this city; you do not live in it; you did not defend it when they came to destroy it. And we will be damned if we will let you take it away.

There was a Jerusalem before there was a New York. When Berlin, Moscow, London and Paris were forest and swamp, there was a thriving Jewish community here. It gave something to the world which you nations have rejected ever since you established yourselves - a humane moral code.

Here the prophets walked, their words flashing like forked lightning. Here a people who wanted nothing more than to be left alone, fought off waves of heathen would-be conquerors, bled and died on the battlements, hurled themselves into the flames of their burning Temple rather than surrender; and when finally overwhelmed by sheer numbers and led away into captivity, swore that before they forgot Jerusalem, they would see their tongues cleave to their palates, their right arms wither.
For two pain-filled millennia, while we were your unwelcome guests, we prayed daily to return to this city. Three times a day we petitioned the Almighty: "Gather us from the four corners of the world, bring us upright to our land; return in mercy to Jerusalem, Thy city, and dwell in it as Thou promised."

On every Yom Kippur and Pessah we fervently voiced the hope that next year would find us in Jerusalem. Your inquisitions, pogroms, expulsions, the ghettos into which you jammed us, your forced baptisms, your quota systems, your genteel anti-Semitism, and the final unspeakable horror, the Holocaust (and worse, your terrifying disinterest in it) - all these have not broken us.

They may have sapped what little moral strength you still possessed, but they forged us into steel. Do you think that you can break us now, after all we have been through? Do you really believe that after Auschwitz we are frightened of your threats and blockades and sanctions? We have been to hell and back - a hell of your making. What more could you possibly have in your arsenal that could scare us?
I HAVE watched this city bombarded twice by nations calling themselves civilized. In 1948, while you looked on apathetically, I saw women and children blown to smithereens, this after we had agreed to your request to internationalize the city. It was a deadly combination that did the job: British officers, Arab gunners and American-made cannons.

And then the savage sacking of the Old City; the willful slaughter, the wanton destruction of every synagogue and religious school; the desecration of Jewish cemeteries; the sale by a ghoulish government of tombstones for building materials, for poultry runs, army camps - even latrines.

And you never said a word. You never breathed the slightest protest when the Jordanians shut off the holiest of our holy places, the Western Wall, in violation of the pledges they had made after the war - a war they waged, incidentally, against a decision of the UN. Not a murmur came from you whenever the legionares in their spiked helmets casually opened fire upon our citizens from behind the walls.

Your hearts bled when Berlin came under siege. You rushed your airlift "to save the gallant Berliners." But you did not send one ounce of food when Jews starved in besieged Jerusalem. You thundered against the wall which the East Germans ran through the middle of the German capital - but not one peep out of you about the other wall, the one that tore through the heart of Jerusalem.

And when the same thing happened 19 years later, and the Arabs unleashed a savage unprovoked bombardment of the Holy City again, did any of you do anything? The only time you came to life was when the city was at last reunited. Then you wrung your hands and spoke loftily of "justice" and the need for the "Christian" quality of turning the other cheek.

There is more here, and if I were to quibble with this piece, it would be in referring to the Kotel or Western Wall as "the holiest of our holy places". It is not. The Temple Mount above the Western Wall is the holiest place in Judaism, and ironically a place where no Jew can openly pray whenever the spirit so moves him to do so without facing penalties under Israeli law. Time to take back the Temple Mount too.

connecting the dots

On Monday night an Israeli man was murdered in terrorist attack. Ynet News carried this report:

Ido Zoldan, 29, of the settlement of Shavei Shomron was murdered Monday in a late night shooting attack near the Palestinian village of Funduk in the area of the Kedumim settlement in the northern West Bank. The terrorists opened fire at the Israeli from a passing car at around 11:30 pm. Magen David Adom paramedics who were called to the site attempted to revive the man, but pronounced him dead a short while later.

And one of the usual culprits quickly claimed responsibility:

Shortly after the attack, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's military wing, announced that it was assuming responsibility for event. A spokesman for the organization said that the terror attack was "an act of protest against the Annapolis conference and a response to Israeli crimes".

So Fatah acts with two faces - again. Nothing really new with that state of affairs, but it wasn’t until I was reading this Jerusalem Post report:

Right-wing lawmakers on Wednesday lashed out at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert following an announcement the he had agreed to allow Palestinian security forces in Nablus to receive 25 armored vehicles, reversing two years of IDF opposition. Likud officials said the plan was "the continuation of the moral deterioration of Olmert, [Defense Minister Ehud] Barak and [Foreign Minister Tzipi] Livni, which will only lead to a further deterioration in security." Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu added on Army Radio that "these armored vehicles and weapons will eventually fall into the hands of Hamas."

...that the full measure of the insanity of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert becomes woefully clear:

The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) have opposed supplying Abbas's forces with armored vehicles, in part out of concern that they might fall into the hands of Hamas or other violent groups.

The security establishment questioned the judgment of such a move, citing Monday's shooting attack near Kedumim that emanated from the Nablus area, which the PA was supposed to be controlling with its newly-deployed police force, Israel Radio reported Wednesday morning. Security officials said this proved that PA forces were not capable of reining in terror groups.

All hat, no cattle

I haven’t done much blogging about the upcoming Annapolis Summit between the Israelis and Palestinian Authority even though the Mid-East news is full of reports in the lead up to the conference. Frankly, the rationale for this conference keeps eluding me. I keep waiting for a moment of clarity which never seems to come….

For example, the Palestinian Authority negotiators refuse to recognize or acknowledge a key fact on the ground - Israel is a Jewish state. Apparently to insist on having the Palestinian Authority do so - amounts to a “poke in the eye”.

Then there is today’s report in the Jerusalem Post:

The Annapolis conference will be important, despite the fact that no negotiations will be taking place there, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday. Olmert told the ministers at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting - which was held on Monday this week rather than on Sunday - that negotiations would only begin after the conference and would "deal with the most fundamental issues in order to arrive at two nation-states alongside one another."

Saying negotiations will only take place after the conference is like saying negotiations will only take place sometime after the sun rises. It is not like Olmert and Abbas have not met in public before. In fact, Olmert has even had Abbas over for dinner – long before this conference took place.

well, I was punk in the seventies...

The children insist on watching music videos on television which becomes part of the background noise to either my reading or even gaming activities. For months, I have been hearing about the “antics” of one Amy Winehouse. I finally got a look at her the other night. And you know - any woman with that much long hair, and that much eyeliner can’t be all bad even if she can’t hold her booze in public. Up until last night I couldn’t tell one of her songs from say…Britney Spears…I have been literally tuning out more or less the last 10 years of popular music or I was until last night. Oddly enough she does manage to get a groove on…

How come the pollsters never poll me?

I get a number of friends and acquaintances suggesting things I should blog about all the time. Usually I hear them out and go my own way. A lot of the helpful suggestions are just things I don’t care about or even have nothing to say about. Sometimes I read things in the papers, day in and day out, and no matter how many articles are written, I just can’t get all blogged up the issues. I feel strangely out of whack when that happens.

What brings this on? Brian Mulroney. I thought he was a condescending sob and I didn’t much like him at the time but he wasn’t Trudeau and that was a relief. The man hasn’t been Prime Minister in about a gazillion years and hopefully it is relatively safe to eat tuna now; so like can we drop it and move on?

And for all those frustrated types who just can’t let go I offer this piece of advice. If you really want to poke Mulroney in the eye - just stop writing, talking or listening to the man. Trust me, being assigned to the dustbins of history with no hope of reprieve will rub him the wrong way more than a million official inquiries.

And don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

The Toronto Star reports the Supreme Court of Canada has refused to grant a hearing to the appeal of two US Army deserters for refugee status in Canada.

Two U.S. army deserters have lost their court fight to stay in Canada, but supporters say the political battle will continue. The Supreme Court refused today to hear appeals from Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, who sought refugee status on the grounds of their opposition to the war in Iraq.

As is usual in such decisions, the high court gave no reasons for its ruling.
Disappointed supporters say the pair’s only hope of staying in Canada lies in the political arena. Otherwise, they say, the Immigration Department will likely start the deportation process to send them back to the United States and the military justice system.

“I think the focus now turns to a political solution to this problem,” said Jeffry House, lawyer for the men. Jane Orion Smith of the Quaker group Canadian Friends Service Committee said the next step is for Parliament “to create a provision for them to stay.” “We will be working with our community and others to encourage MPs to help create such a provision. . . There simply needs to be political will.” Smith said exceptions have been made in the past for Vietnam-era draft dodgers and for the Vietnamese boat people.

New Democrat MP Olivia Chow said she will introduce a motion urging the Conservative government to step in: “The minister must intervene and allow the war resisters to stay in Canada.” Immigration Minister Diane Finley’s office had no immediate comment.

Oy. War resisters my butt. The term is “deserter”. And whatever is Chow thinking? It is not as if there is a current shortage of freeloaders, welchers or cheaters in this country; so I hardly think we need to import a few more from America to fluff up the ranks of the retrobates. Cut them loose – Now.

Shameful

The Toronto Star is carrying a report and a video link to the last few minutes of Robert Dziekanski’s life at the Vancouver Airport. The following is the Toronto Star’s script of what transpires in the last few minutes of Dziekanski’s life.

Four RCMP officers arrive, the camera panning from the frustrated looks on security guards' faces to the men in uniform striding through the hall.

Loud cries of what sound like "polizia," can be heard as the officers are told by someone that the man is behind the door and only speaks Russian.

They vault over a railing and walk Dziekanski behind the glass doors. He gestures at his luggage as they appear to be talking to him.

He throws up his hands in the air and walks away.

The officers follow, apparently indicating he should put his hands on the counter of an information desk behind the glass.

Dziekanski stands with his back to the counter and the officers fan around him.

Crack – the sound of the 50,000 volts of electricity zapping from an officer's gun can be heard.

Dziekanski winces and starts screaming, his hand waving a stapler madly in the air.
He grabs at his chest and lunges through a doorway, howling.

Crack – a second shot, electricity sizzles, and Dziekanski writhes on the ground, spinning in circles.

Police surround him again, the bystanders gasp in amazement. A voice can be heard yelling "hit him again, hit him again."

The four officers clamber on top of him, restraining his arms, his head.
Dziekanski twitches as they fight to restrain him.

Finally, he is still.Though the video doesn't show it, paramedics were called to the scene. Dziekanski died there.

The RCMP response:

"Our officers would like to comment, but there is an ongoing investigation," said Cpl. Dale Carr, a spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Team leading the investigation into the incident. A coroner's inquest has been called into what happened at the airport that night and the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP has also launched their own investigation. Carr said the four officers involved in the incident that night will testify."That's the venue where they will be scrutinized," he said. "This video is one small piece of evidence. We are not making a case based on one piece of evidence."

When news first broke about the incident at the airport, police said the man they encountered was out of control. Though agitated, in the video, Dziekanski responds to bystanders and security by putting down furniture or calmly standing still. Police also said even after he was zapped once, he remained combative.

But the video shows that after the first shot, Dziekanski fell to the ground and was writhing in agony.

It might be only one ‘small’ piece of evidence but it is utterly damning and unless one is committed to being willfully deluded and/or blind; there is no way one can rationalize or justify the behaviour of the RCMP. The Mounties are reputed to be the premier police force in this country, and G-d help us all.

Well at least the blog made it out of high school

I’m really not up to speed yet but I saw this test at Treppenwitz and decided to see how the blog measured up.

Finishing college wasn’t the issue for me, on the other hand, there is simply no telling when I will get around to finishing my undergraduate degree at university.

Retail Lobby now lobbies the Taxman

Generally, when one has dug a hole for oneself, the prudent course is to stop digging, but I guess no one at Retail Council of Canada or the Cornwall & Area Chamber of Commerce figured that out. Who knew RCC or the CACC would chose to go out and scout more places to dig? Taken from the Toronto Star

Endless lineups are common at border crossings these days as retail groups, stung by the surging loonie, pressure the government to diligently collect taxes and duties.

After a full day of discount shopping in the U.S. with her friend, Jessica McCulloch, stocking up on designer jeans, Moran hit the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge lineup around 11 p.m. Moran and her friend had spent a combined $200.

After two hours waiting in her car, Moran then joined the tax and duty line. A handful of the 250 other angry day shoppers huddled outside the customs building were cloaked in old blankets typically stored in car trunks in case of an emergency. Two agents assessed duty and tax and while another two collected the cash, most people paying about $20 to $30. That led to a roughly hour and a half wait time.

(…)

Part of the issue is that retail groups have put customs under intense pressure not to just wave shoppers through. The Cornwall and Area Chamber of Commerce have called on the federal government to ensure appropriate taxes are being collected on U.S. purchases. The Retail Council of Canada has sent a letter to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day on the issue as well. The chamber issued a release last week saying the Canada Border Services Agency may not be acting as diligently as it should be in collecting taxes.

Maybe a little re-branding is in order - sort of a like - a truth in advertising moment. RCC now morphs into the Retail Council of Snitches as in keeping with their new found role.