Trashy's World

There is a lot of hubbub about the new security measures that have been put into place in the wake of the attempted bombing of the Detroit-bound flight on Christmas day. Passengers bound for American destinations are being subjected to a lot more scrutiny at the point of departure – especially if you are unlucky to be travelling on a passport from one of 14 countries that the U.S. deems to be a threat.

Though I don’t really understand why poor old Cuba is on the list – and I thought Obama would have a different approach to Canada’s fave sun-spot!

But I digress.

Here’s the thing – the Americans have every right to set the rules with regard to flights that are over their airspace or that land in one of their ports of entry. It’s called “sov-er-eign-ty”. Yes, the full body searches are invasive and in 99.999999% of cases, completely unfounded and unnecessary. Yes, they are engaging in racial profiling, which most Canadians find objectionable. Yes, they are delaying the travel plans of millions – some with kids, with mobility problems, etc. And yes, I do think they are being overly paranoid.

So, here’s a thought for those who are offended by the American actions.

DON’T TRAVEL TO THE U.S.!

It’s a crazy notion but it just might work!

I mean, I know that some Canadians need to travel there for work purposes. I know that there are hundreds of thousands of folks on this side of the border who have family in the States who they would like to see now and then. Yeah, yeah – I get all that and you know what? You’ll have to put up with the new measures no matter how much you bitch, holler and scream.

But most Canucks CHOOSE to go to the U.S. for purely recreational purposes. They want the sun of Florida, the craziness of NYC or the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon. So you either choose to forgo all of this OR you resign to being subjected to the new security crap. Very simple.

I rarely go to the States. The last time I was over the border was about 7 years ago when my wife and I went camping in upstate NY. And I don’t have a driving need to go there anytime soon. On one hand, I can count the number of places in America that I would like to visit (Grand Canyon, New Orleans, San Francisco, NYC and Boston) but I wouldn’t feel deprived if on my death bed, I hadn’t gotten around to any of those places. I would much rather see the Pyramids, cruise the Greek islands, go to the Arctic, visit Peru… and the list goes on.

So, the bottom line, kids – you don’t have to like what they are doing down in da South der. But they have every right to do as they wish. And if you can’t accept that, then stay in Canada or travel to somewhere else.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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I  need everyone who reads this to check out this blog entry by XUP.

I saw an article about this in the Globe the other day and the first thought to cross my mind was “why”?

Why is this technology needed?

I can see the YouTube vids now! EVERYTHING eventually ends up on YouTube! These pics, at the very least, will provide some jollies to more than a few security agents!

“Hey, Ralph, check out the kaboo-boos on this one, ain’t she a treat to the eyes?”
“Sure thing Herman, but ya should seen the bod on this chick that flew to Paris last week!”

Seriously, we have to question this hare-brained idea, and now. What is the impetus for this? Has there been a recent incident where a would-be terrorist has tried to sneak verboten items in his or her body cavities? Where is the “thing” that the CBSA (Can. Border Services Agency) can point to and say: “see – THIS is why we have to do this!”

I’d start a fb group decrying this but as I am a frequent flier, I fear I would be put on someone’s “list”.

Can you tell that I’m really pissed off about this?

Write your MP. Your MPP. Your Mom. Your psychic healer.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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This is good. It’s refreshing to see that some folks aren’t jumping out of their skins about the flu!

Thanks to Knitting is my boyfriend for this.

…and thanks to Mal Pingu for the image

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Hey? How’s THAT for an aggressive title?

In case you haven’t been following this, Pope Benedict XVI is doing a tour of Africa and is sticking to his guns about the whole condom thing… ie., use one during a horizontal bop session you’ll be slingin’ coal into the abyss once you rid yourself of your mortal coil.

In the name of all things that are human, when will the RC’s get their collective heads out of the sand? Condoms are the most practical way to stem the tide of AIDS that is devastating many families and communities in Africa. Instead of realising the inevitable slap-your-hand-on-the forehead-Mr.-Obvious-thing and begin to move into this millennium, the Catholic Church is actually becoming more forceful in its opposition to the use of condoms or other forms of birth control.

He (the Pope) had never directly addressed condom use, but has said the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against AIDS. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease.

“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane on its way to Yaounde, Cameroon, where he has arrived to start his first visit to Africa as pontiff. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”

Abstinence? “Increasing the problem”? What are they smoking?

At least the last guy who wore the long robes and major bling bling seemed to be at least approaching the last century in terms of his thinking. This dude is having 12th c. flashbacks!

Abstinence has ever been and will never be the answer to the AIDS problem, or teen pregnancies, or STDs. Hormones will always out-trump reason – always has and always will. Condoms are a cheap and effective way to prevent pregnancies and scales back the rate of population growth in the developing world. Even Sarah Palin’s daughter is saying that abstinence is not a practical option. In an interview with Christian Today, Bristol declares the following: “Everyone should be abstinent…but it is not realistic at all.”

PLUS they are an effective barrier against HIV.

PLUS they are relatively inexpensive – especially when compared to the social cost of carrying for AIDS victims.

PLUS what is wrong with sex anyways? Over at the Perpetual Post (a blog I just discovered), they said it best:

People, there is nothing wrong with having sex, provided you’re smart about it. But the thing is, the average person isn’t actually all that smart. And these are the folks who are breeding like crazy, further dumbing down the gene pool with many, many equally dumb babies. So, the very least we, the intelligent portion of the population, can do is to make knowledge available – namely, knowledge about how to have sex without disastrous repercussions.

Why oh why is this archaic institution still around? There are millions upon millions of Catholics who go along with these medieval edicts and carry them close to their heart. I will never in my life understand why.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Bill Maher – while I may not always agree with his political views – he does hit it on the head with this clip.

Thanks to The Squiddude for posting it!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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The Mothercorp reports that the Green Party has its first MP!

Mr. Blair Wilson is an ex-Grit Independent MP for the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding. He was kicked out of Liberal caucus last year after allegations surfaced about spending irregularities in his 2006 campaign. Allegations that were unfounded according to Elections Canada.

The Green leader, Elizabeth May, has seized upon this development to claim her spot in the televised leadership debates that will take place during the next campaign; likely to take place this Fall since Stevie is just itchin’ to go to the polls.

I think May has a point. Her party is hovering around 10% in the polls with higher ratings in traditionally leftward leaning ridings. Of course, the ReformCons say “nope, sorry Liz… but ya can’t come and play in our sandbox.” And frankly, I don’t expect the Grits to say anything much different from the Reformer tone. The Greens would in all likelihood not drain any votes from the Neocons, but they would indeed do so from the Grits.. and the Dippers too.

In any case, this development further stresses my own decision-making matrix as I am forced once again to choose between who I truly support (The Greens) and who I feel I NEED to support in order  to fend off a full-frontal attack by the NeoCons (i.e., vote for the Grits… which in my riding actually ain’t so bad since our MP is strong and his views on important issues fit in quite nicely with mine).

Well, it looks like the writ will be dropped next week, so I had better get my mind into election mode real quickly!

Of course, all of this will be taking place while another election takes place in the country to the south of us. Lawrence Martin of the G&M has a great piece in Saturday’s edition about how the continental political landscape may look later this fall.

For political junkies like me, these are good times…

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Thanks once again to Darin o’er at the Squid Zone for pointing out that there are indeed folks on this planet who are crazier than a drunken Parry Sounder during huntin’ season… this group takes the cake.

Seriously, in full understanding that there are some freaks that roam the hiways and biways, the The Creation Science Association for Mid-America preaches intolerance and downright (and heck, in their warped little world – righteous) violence against anyone who happens to not agree with their uneducated, ignorant and warped view of the world.

Here are some the the headliners from their newsletter:

Should Evolutionists Be Allowed to Roam Free in the Land?

Why Are Evolutionists Typically Socialists

and they (I’m not making this up) recommend the following:

Clearly then, “evolutionists should not be allowed to roam free in the land.” All that remains for us to discuss is“What should be done with evolutionists?” For the purposes of this essay, I will ignore the minor issue of Western-style jurisprudence and merely mention possible solutions to the “evolutionism problem,” leaving the legal details to others:

• Labor camps. Their fellow believers were high on these. But, my position would be that most of them have lived their lives at, or near the public trough. So, after their own beliefs, their life should continue only as long as they can support themselves in the camps.

• Require them to wear placards around their neck, or perhaps large medallions which prominently announce “Warning:Evolutionist! Mentally Incompetent – Potentially Dangerous.” I consider this option too dangerous.

• Since evolutionists are liars and most do not really believe evolution we could employ truth serum or water-boarding to obtain confessions of evolution rejection. But, this should, at most, result in parole, because, like Muslims, evolutionist religion permits them to lie if there is any benefit to them.

• An Evolutionist Colony in Antarctica could be a promising option. Of course inspections would be required to prevent too much progress. They might invent gunpowder.

• A colony on Mars would prevent gunpowder from harming anyone but their own kind, in the unlikely event they turned out to be intelligent enough to invent it.

All options should include 24-hour sound system playing Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris reading Darwin’s Origin of Species, or the preservation of Favored Races by Means of Natural Selection. Of course some will consider this cruel & unusual, especially since they will undoubtedly have that treatment for eternity.

Man- if there are really freaks like this who are allowed to run loose and spew this crap, then maybe the human race really is screwed.

I end this post with Darin’s last point:

3. People like this can get access to nuclear weapons in the USA. Sleep well tonight with that knowledge.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Good post by Darin over in The Squid Zone on how some parents are eschewing, for various unfounded reasons, vaccinations for their kids due to fears about autism, promiscuousness and other fairy tale consequences.

I’ve run across this a few times myself. Fairly recently, upon mentioning to an acquaintance that we were arranging to have my eldest get Gardasil, which has been SCIENTIFICALLY proven to reduce the rate of certain cervical cancers, I received a very weird reaction.

Read more…

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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There was a piece in this Globe and Mail article about anxiety disorders being surprisingly common among children. The piece goes on to describe little Cody who has this unnatural fear that is described in the following way:

“In the waiting room at the anxiety clinic at Montreal Children’s Hospital, Cory cheerfully draws, hums and skips like any other preschooler.

But when he is led into an observation room and spots 10 strangers – a team of doctors, medical students and therapists here to assess him – he squeezes his eyes shut and ducks behind his mother, pressing his face into her back.”

I don’t know about you, but even my middle-aged fear would kick in if I was in the same situation! I mean, what do you expect?! A team of 10 strangers in white lab coats? THIS is unnatural anxiety?

It seems like the poor kid was assessed for autism because his 10-year-old half-brother, Connor, has the genetic cognitive disorder. After autism was ruled out, two other experts suggested he had selective mutism, an anxiety disorder in which children refuse to speak in social situations.

Selective mutism? Aren’t ALL kids selectively mute? And especially in new situations? But happily, the conclusion that has been reached is that the kid may have separation anxiety disorder along with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The telling few sentences are the following:

“Ms. Mercier, a researcher at a medical company, says the label doesn’t matter as long as treatment comes with it.

“For me, it’s like, label him with something so we can help him,” she said.”

So. Let me get this straight. The parents are freaked that this 4 year old is shy in social situations and especially when surrounded by a large group of strangers in white coats and who are likely using words that the kid doesn’t even understand. And all of this is coming about because the well-meaning parents say they “just want Cory to feel good about himself in public. They want him to be able to order pizza, join a swim team or dial 911 if he’s in trouble.”

Order pizza? My four year old can’t order pizza either! Nor can my teenager! But hey, as long as the experts can label them – it’s all good because then we know what medication and or other therapy the kid should be subjected to.

Man, I, along with most of the kids I knew growing up should have been on meds at a very young age! I’m sure an expert – be they a psychologist or a teacher – would have labelled me as rebellious, out of touch with reality as I daydreamed quite a bit – and obviously as an obsessive/compulsive due to my pencil chewing habit!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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A colleague told me a story today that kind of freaked me out.
As part of the Ontario smart meter program, he had one of these devices installed in his home. You know – the smart meters are the ones that monitor your electricity usage through the day and will serve as a householder,s guide when we Ontarians begin to be charged for our consumption on a scale based on the time of the day.
Well, the folks at Ottawa Hydro or Ontario Power Generation or whomever is responsible for this program had another “gift” for my colleague. They would receive a brand new programmable thermostat free of charge and accessible over the web by you off PC so you can adjust the programming remotely,
But there is a catch.
You are not the only one who can access the controls to the thermostat. To receive the free gift, you must sign a waiver agreeing that the power authority can access your household’s thermostat from THEIR computers and adjust YOUR household’s temperature. So, on a scalding hot day, they can reach into your system and lower your consumption to reduce the loads on the grid.
Is this for real?
Of course, my colleague declined the offer but who in their right mind would consent to it?
What a Big Brother move.
Wow.
Here’s the link to the program: http://hydroone.apogee.net/smartstat/

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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