This post popped up in my Facebook Memories today. I really appreciate Bob’s perspective on this subject and the knowledge he has about political issues. I’m putting this back out there in the world, in honor of Martin Luther King Day this week, and all that this amazing hero did for us.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. managed to work with President Lyndon Johnson, an unapologetic racist, to improve America for everybody. Of King, Johnson once said “We gave him the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we gave him the Voting Rights Act of 1965, we gave him the War on Poverty. What more does he want?”
Obviously Johnson never “got it.” The Civil Rights act, the Voting Rights act, the War on Poverty – these things were never “given.” They were demanded. They weren’t earned, because they were already owed. Instead Dr. King relentlessly demanded that to which he and all people were already entitled. Continue reading →
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When I heard about Jack Layton getting smeared about getting an innocent massage at a Toronto rub'n tug nearly twenty years ago, I thought it was just that - a smear.
I didn't know it was true until Jack's wife, Olivia Chow, told reporters that Jack had told her about it and his run in with police at the time, way back when.
That's when I began to wonder about this massage parlour. When I practised in Vancouver there was one of these joints above a nearby restaurant we often frequented. As I recall it went by the name of "Swedish Touch" and nobody remotely sentient had any doubt about what sort of touching went on in there.
Now there are plenty of legitimate massage therapists in Vancouver and, if they have a trade name at all, it's usually the therapist's own. So that got me wondering just what was the trade name of the spot Jack frequented. According to the Toronto Sun, the establishment went by "Velvet Touch."
Oh, come on. Layton is allegedly caught in the room with an "attractive, 5'10" Asian woman" in the Velvet Touch? Bringing it up at this point is a blatant smear job but, in my opinion, the ever sanctimonious Jack is as much to blame for that as anyone else.
I'm wrestling with how to vote on Monday and I probably will be even as I take pencil in hand in the booth. It's unfortunate they don't have a specific "none of the above" option because that's the way I'm feeling right now.
A good deal of my problem is that I'm coming to see the NDP, Liberal and Conservative leadership as something of a gelatinous mass. I suppose it's the predictable result of the Liberal leadership/policy vacuum that left the centre ground up for grabs. Harper moved to the left, Layton to the right and Iggy fought for air between them.
...The NDP has long since jettisoned, something Stephen celebrates and I lament, any commitment to the types policies that would restore the governments capacity to unwind the inordinate amount of power the corporate sector wields over the public. Without such “radical” options in their public policy arsenal they will be more or less forced to make the same type of trade-off’s.
The fix is in. Just as America fell to a corporatist Congress, Canada has been overtaken by a corporatist Parliament. Nobody, including Jack, seems willing to accept that 18th century capitalism, 19th century industrialism and 20th century geopolitics have run their course, have lost much of their former utility. Layton, Ignatieff and Harper all seem committed to governing as though we were still in the 80's. They're all stuck in the "growth and jobs" paradigm, a mechanical frame of mind that all but rules out vision at the very moment when we most need vision from our political leadership.
It's becoming increasingly harder to shove our heads in the sand. Globally we're already well into what has been called the "Century of Revolution." The evidence of the unrest that has already broken out or is quietly building through the developing economies and Third World is everywhere. Yet the reality of this is not even on the radar screens of our leadership. Are we to assume that, even if Canada remains stable, we'll be immune to the upheaval elsewhere? The indifference of our amorphous political leadership appears to assume just that.
Our civilization is beginning to slam into a wall that limits what is a genuinely finite world. Many resources remain in abundance but others, including some essential to a stable world, are becoming depleted or critically scarce. When demand (as in the sum of both want and need) exceeds supply, want loses its currency while need persists and grows in importance. This is where we either shift from a growth-based consumption model into an equity-based allocation model or else accept some seriously brutal alternatives. Again our amorphous political leadership appears oblivious.
Anthropogenic or man-made global warming is here and spawning climate change effects. Some of the best and brightest warn that we have a limited time left to break our carbon addiction or risk triggering unstoppable feedback mechanisms, runaway global warming that will move earth into a new climate mode that will render most of our planet inhospitable to most life. Yet again our amorphous political leadership mumbles vague promises about cap and trade measures that experience shows they have no intention of implementing on any effective basis. It's all greenwash and nothing more unless it is harnessed to a powerful break in our carbon addiction.
Even if we were willing and able to end our carbon addiction tomorrow and managed to do just that on a global scale, existing carbon emissions will continue the heating process for at least another century. We're in for a century of sea level rise; severe storm events of increasing frequency and intensity; precipitation pattern changes leading to extended drought and flood cycles impacting on our food security; species migration and extinction (and the resulting spread of pests and disease) - and this is just for starters.
We're not alone. Every corner of the planet is in for this. We are, however, unique. We're one of just a handful of countries that, by virtue of their geographical placement, stand to be the last and least affected. We also enjoy certain demographic and resource advantages necessary to meet these challenges. Yet most of this bounty, these advantages, won't be realized on their own unless they're harnessed to our service in a timely and effective manner. Again we're met with a deafening silence from our amorphous political leadership. They alone have the power and resources absolutely essential to initiating the information, evaluation, planning and implementation processes of climate change adaptation but they show absolutely no willingness to act.
I suspect the reason that Layton, Ignatieff and Harper seem so amorphous, so gelatinous is because none of them has any real vision and I'm pretty sure the reason they're all so devoid of vision is because each is working so hard to avoid acknowledging the great and pressing challenges facing our country. They have no vision because they're all looking backward, imagining they're still in the 80's. None of them has the courage to look forward and tell us what they see.
Billions of Asians want one thing - to live pretty much like you or me. The fact is, they can't. There isn't nearly enough of anything to go around for that to happen. The UN Secretary General has warned it would take two and a half Earths to come up with the resources to make those aspirations a reality.
India and China haven't come to grips with the West's economic exceptionalism but some, such as Chandran Nair, are speaking out to warn that the western model of consumption-led economic growth would be disastrous for Asia.
"It's a matter of numbers," Nair said on a visit to London to speak at the Royal Society of Arts. "What Europe and America does about restricting its impact on the environment is pretty irrelevant. The future will be determined by what happens in Asia. Three billion Asians want what you and I have, but there is not enough to go round. By 2050, there will be 5 billion Asians," says Nair, who grew up in Malaysia and now lives in Hong Kong.
"If Asia continues like the west, the game is over; as people in Asia get richer, they eat further up the food chain. If 500 million Chinese want to eat just one seafood meal a week, it will empty all the seas of Asia. If Asians ate as much chicken as Americans, by 2050 that would amount to 120 billion birds a year instead of today's 16 billion. To aspire to the western model in Asia is a deadly lie.
"If China and India had the levels of car ownership evident across the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development], that would amount to 1.5bn more cars – and it would take the entire oil production of Saudi Arabia to run them," says Nair, whose book Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet has just been published.
...Nair reserves most scorn for the west's mythology about Asian growth. Yes, millions have been lifted out of poverty but rather than putting this down as a triumph of liberal market capitalism, Nair argues that the model of development has consigned many millions more to continuing abject poverty. Trickle down doesn't work. Consumption-led growth creates a comparatively small middle class floating nervously in a sea of poverty. Its a cruel illusion to claim that the poor can all one day join the middle classes.
..."This is my key point. The majority of Asians are being left behind by the current model of growth, and governments will have to change tack or risk losing legitimacy," argues Nair. He challenges the development model of rapid urbanisation and calls instead for investment in rural areas to improve sustainable farming methods and raise farming incomes. A policy that the Chinese have already adopted.
He uses a telling fact: 2.2 billion Asians now have mobile phones, but far fewer have access to drinking water or toilets. The problem is not about needing more technology but about restructuring an economic system to meet human needs. How is it that TVs, playstations and mobile phones are more easily accessible in some of the cities of Asia than a glass of drinking water from a tap?
"We live in a world whose values are set by an economic system that incentivises and rewards those who can generate growth for a select group of mostly western institutions," states Nair in Consumptionomics.
It is in the meeting of genuine human need that the future of Asian capitalism must lie: food production, environmental stewardship, and health and education. "It's harsh for Asians to be told that as latecomers to the capitalist party they will never be able to attain that way of life taken for granted in developing countries," he admits.
What's needed is a strong interventionist state that can take these difficult long-term decisions – Nair talks of "benign authoritarianism" and insists that the key issue is good governance, not whether it meets democratic criteria.
Benign authoritarianism may well be Asia's fate, perhaps even its best hope. That, however, begs the question of what lies in store for us, for the West? The Asians may be running into a wall but it would be absurd for us to smugly assume it won't be felt in our homelands, that we will be able to maintain business as usual. Absurd and dangerous.
Our model of consumption-led economic growth is not only unsuitable for Asia but it's unsustainable for the West. Unlimited, perpetual growth is not capable on a finite planet with finite resources. And once you reach the wall where consumption exhausts supply you inevitably must (if you're to survive peacefully) transition from a growth-based economic model to an allocation-based model. Inequality and disparities in wealth and well being are far more tolerable in a growth-based world than in an allocation-based civilization. Allocation is another term for rationing which begets a measure of collective sacrifice and in an environment of sacrifice, inequality is far less tolerable than it is under 18th century capitalism.
I suspect that globalization itself will falter and then collapse with the demise of growth-based economics. The preservation of prosperity in the more affluent and self-sufficient nations will depend on restoring trade, tariff and currency controls to arrest the outflow of national wealth.
Will we be able to escape the "benign authoritarianism" that seems to lie in store for Asia? If we do it won't be without a good deal of vigilance and resistance to the authoritarianism already creeping into our societies. Democracy will have to be defended and that effort begins by recognizing those among us who would gladly relieve us of our democratic rights and freedoms. That includes a segment of the Left and of the Right. It the political centre doesn't hold we may be in for a very rough ride.
Bit by bit American democracy is being dismembered. Masses turn to propaganda mills like FOX News for information, arguing that the very number of viewers (the unseen hand of the marketplace) vouchsafes the Murdoch flagship's credibility. Notionally grassroots protest movements are funded by shady mega-rich characters and harnessed to their service. The defenders of the public interest allow corporatism to insinuate itself between the elected and their voting public, transforming them into a "bought and paid for" Congress. The nation is transformed into a warfare state in which perpetual war is essential for an ascendant military/industrial/commercial war-waging complex. Support for the country's less advantaged is ruthlessly slashed while their government relies on foreign borrowings to finance tax cuts for the rich and a malignant, bloated and ruinous defense budget.
Working class Americans, millions of their jobs outsourced, their incomes stagnated, their social and economic mobility all but choked off, seem whipped. An example of that was seen in the wake of a fracking blowout in Bradford county, Pennsylvania that resulted in many thousands of gallons of toxic fracking fluid flooding fields and pouring into an agricultural creek. Local radio station, WNEP, captured the resignation in the voices of affected residents:
"The biggest thing is the footprint on the environment. Well obviously this is a big footprint," said neighbor Ted Tomlinson. "It's one of those things that happens. Gotta live with it, I guess. Here to stay." ...
"It's just one of those things," said farm owner Randy Morse. He leased his property to Chesapeake. His beef cattle will no longer be able to drink from the brook that has been contaminated. Morse is broken up over the whole thing, hoping others don't blame him.
...Neighbor Ira Haire is one who does not worry over the leak, saying he trusts Chesapeake will make it right. "I will drink my water. I have salt water as it is," Haire said.
"Just one of those things"? This is a nation that venerates its independence forged in protest and revolution. But that steely resolve that once built America today seems hopelessly sapped, resigned to its fate. It's unclear how long today's America will be able to withstand the challenges that beset the nation but its future looks anything but promising.
Just what does it take to become a Republican governor in the American south? That region is in a lot of trouble as in global warming and droughts. You might think that, being the first of their countrymen to feel the climate change lash, they'd be demanding action from Washington but you would be wrong. You see, they want their climate change salvation from God.
This time it's Texas governor Rick Perry who is looking for divine intervention to break his state's crippling drought. Perry has introduced a three-day, "prayer for rain" initiative. Seriously, here's the gubernatorial proclamation:
WHEREAS, the state of Texas is in the midst of an exceptional drought, with some parts of the state receiving no significant rainfall for almost three months, matching rainfall deficit records dating back to the 1930s ... NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal way of life.
But Perry isn't the first southern governor to seek divine intervention. The slapstick governor of drought-stricken Georgia, Sonny Perdue, tried the same thing in November, 2007. Of course Sonny only went at it for an hour and, predictably, his brief prayer vigil was a bust. What can you expect for an hour of superstitious chanting? Perdue then said Georgians weren't doing enough to conserve water and the drought was God's way of getting their attention.
The Globe headline says it all, "Liberal, Tory attack ads zero in on Layton as NDP rise in the polls." Harper's first electoral gift was Layton turning on Ignatieff, deflecting the NDP effort against the Cons. Now it's the Liberals predictably doing his bidding, slagging Layton and exposing the abject silliness of his platform.
Any true progressive who doesn't see this opposition infighting as paving the way for a Harper majority is delusional.
Harper made the 2005 election a referendum on the Liberal Party and the sponsorship scandal. He made the 2008 run off a referendum on Stephane Dion. Now he's turning this election into a referendum on which opposition party is the worst, in the process turning the faithful of each party against the other opposition party and ensuring Harper smooth sailing ahead.
Harper probably couldn't have managed a majority against a focused, resolute opposition. Layton neutered that threat by turning on Ignatieff. Now Iggy is left with no option but to return the favour. And that leaves Steve away to the races.
Hillbilly "pastor" Terry Jones has taken his Islamophobia on the road. Jones and his equally inbred sidekick Wayne 'Gomer' Sapp were locked up for their own safety as they prepared to stage a protest outside the Islamic Center of America in the heavily Muslim Detroit suburb of Dearborn.
A local jury convicted them of attempting to incite violence. The judge imposed a $1 fine on each man. Citing their First Amendment "free speech" right the two refused to pay and were sent to jail in protest. Once they got locked up they thought better of it, paid the two bucks and were released.
Security forces of the despotic government of Bahrain are said to have abducted 32-Bahraini doctors. The Massachusetts-based, Physicians for Human Rights, says the medics were all involved in treating the victims of state atrocities.
“As doctors in Bahrain treat protesters and wounded civilians, they have seen evidence of the atrocities committed by the authorities,” the Massachusetts-based group said in an e-mailed report.
“This knowledge has made them targets. At least 32 health care professionals have been abducted over the past two months and are being held incommunicado by security forces.”
In Syria, protest is also being met with state violence. Al Jazeera reports that two Syrian MPs have quit over the ongoing killings of unarmed protesters by state security forces. Obama has called the Syrian state murders "outrageous" but the Syrians say the US president simply isn't being "objective." On Friday, Syrian snipers were said to have slaughtered 88-civilians.
As for Libya, senior NATO officials now admit the rebellion could be turning into a total quagmire. While this would be disastrous for the Libyan people of all tribes, it could also imperil Libya's neighbours in the region. Islamist extremists, particularly al Qaeda, are seeking to become established in the rebel forces. That would place them on Egypt's western border. The group has been quite open about seeking some way to get established in Egypt.
The Libs, arrogant sods that they are, should have seen it coming. He did all in his power to help Stephen Harper toss out Paul Martin. Next time he did everything he could to help Stephen Harper bludgeon Stephane Dion. Now, when the centre and centre-left so desperately need to hold Harper to a bare minority, he's at it again - dividing the centre and centre-left in a vain bid to carve out his own ascendancy.
I don't care how devout a Dipper you are, Jack Layton is a self-serving prick with all the conniving instincts that let Stephen Harper steamroller the PCs into capitulation.
As a Liberal, albeit a genuinely "Disaffected" member of the tribe, it has been fascinating watching the Libs bring themselves down. Layton didn't do it, he's merely a crafty and, when it serves his interests, sleazy opportunist who, at every turn, has been content with helping Stephen Harper in order to advance himself. Jack has been gaming Parliament since he opted to dump Martin and usher in Harper. That's what pricks do, consistently, predictably.
Oh well the Libs can't complain. The IgLibs thought they only had to fight Harper. They didn't see the knife coming from behind. Layton saw his spot and went for it and it's hard to fault him for putting Jack Layton ahead of Canada. That's politics.
If only. If only the Dippers had some coherent policy that would persuade the Canadian public to back them, but they don't. The best they can do is harness the popular discontent with Harper and his feckless Opposition and play that for what it's worth.
The bottom line. I don't care. Not one of these offerings - Conservative, Liberal or NDP - has earned my support. Not one is worth a shit to my country. None of them is willing or perhaps even able to rise above political brinksmanship to address the real challenges facing Canada in this century. A pox on all their houses.
Now that Canadian soldiers are about to give up their warfighting role, our senior officers don't waste an opportunity to crow about all the progress our side has achieved in Afghanistan.
The Obama/McChrystal Surge was supposed to make Afghans more secure in their homes, to win their hearts and minds over to the government side. Unfortunately, according to the Oslo-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) we've been a lot more successful at running Afghan civilians out of their homes. The UN Humanitarian News service, IRIN, reports that Western forces have displaced hundreds of thousands of Afghans.
About 400 individuals were displaced each day in 2006-2010 - 730,000 in total - mostly due to military operations by US/NATO forces, according to the Oslo-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), an affiliate of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The so-called “surge” in US/NATO troops and increased counterinsurgency operations in 2010 resulted in the displacement of about 85,000 people in the volatile south of the country alone. About 10,000 were also displaced by anti-insurgent offensives in the north, IDMC said.
“The US and ISAF [NATO-led International Security Assistance Force] currently lack an understanding of internal displacement in the context of their operations,” Jacob Rothing, an IDMC country analyst, told IRIN, adding that their own standard operating procedures to minimize civilian displacement were not developed and used by US/NATO forces in Afghanistan.
And, naturally, it only gets worse. One highly controversial tactic American commanders in Afghanistan devised was to establish and arm local militias who would supposedly keep the Taliban at bay. There were plenty who warned that the idea was madness and that arming gangs of tribesmen would give rise to banditry. Those warnings were ignored with the predicted consequences.
Furthermore, local militias hired by the government and its US/NATO allies for counterinsurgency purposes, were extorting communities and grabbing land, resulting in further internal displacements, Rothing alleged.
The Harper line is that he didn't know his close advisor Bruce Carson was bent until very recently. He knew about the initial fraud, misappropriation, disbarment, conviction and imprisonment but, hey, let bygones be bygones. He just figured that Carson was rehabilitated and a fine guy.
Heck, nobody in the Prime Minister's Office had an inkling about Carson until just recently. Nobody. Not Stephen Harper certainly. And not anyone close to him either. How Carson got a top security clearance, well, sometimes these things just fall through the cracks.
Harper is now caught in another blatant lie. A damned fine lie too. CBC News reports that Harper's PMO smelled a rat as far back as 2008. The evidence comes in the form of "at least" two letters about Carson written by Harper's Chief of Staff, Guy Giorno, to the federal ethics commissioner, Mary Dawson. It's reported that Ms. Dawson received another letter concerning Carson from a senior deputy minister in the Harper government.
Last month, the Prime Minister's Office called in the Mounties to investigate allegations Carson may have illegally lobbied the government in 2010 on behalf of a water-filter company employing his girlfriend, a 22-year-old former prostitute.
The relative hail of mail to the ethics commissioner about Carson in 2008 adds another bizarre twist to the unfolding saga of the convicted fraudster who became one of Harper's most trusted advisers.
The fact two of those letters came from Harper's then chief of staff is also bound to raise new questions about how much the prime minister knew of his former aide.
"Bound to raise new questions"? That's an understatement. It was a real stretch to believe that somehow Carson got a security clearance that wasn't vetted by the PMO or Harper. But to claim that everyone in Harper's immediate circle thought the guy was clean collapses with the disclosure of the Giorno letters. When Harper's chief of staff writes letters to the ethics commissioner, he doesn't do it behind Harper's back. Not Furious Leader and Control Freak Extraordinaire Stephen Harper.
First it was Defense Secretary Robert Gates session with Iraq's Maliki to broach the idea of American forces remaining in that country (shall we say indefinitely) after the end of 2011 deadline set for their complete departure.
Now it's Afghanistan where US forces are supposed to begin a gradual withdrawal process beginning this summer to be completed with a handover to Afghan forces in 2014. The late Richard Holbrooke's replacement, Marc Grossman, is busy trying to negotiate a Strategic Partnership Declaration for post-2014 Afghanistan.
Strategic Partnership Declaration is essentially code for permanent American military bases in Afghanistan. Critics have a better name for it, Great Game 3.0.
When word got out it sparked a buzz of activity from the neighbours. Iran's interior minister raced off to Kabul. He was followed by Indian and Russian national security advisors.
What is politely left unsaid in all of this is what an indefinite American presence in either Iraq or Afghanistan will mean for those countries. In both cases it's going to mean a hell of a lot more fighting as nationalist groups of all stripes join together to drive out the Infidel occupiers. It will be like going back to 2005 except the ranks of America's enemies will be greater and more lethal. Muqtada al Sadr has already warned that his Mahdi Army forces will be hunting any American soldiers remaining in Iraq after New Years day. The Pashtun Talibs will probably be able to recruit other ethnic warlords into their own coalition of the willing to make a continued US presence unacceptable to the American man on the street.
So why is America bent on stirring up these hornets' nests? Could it be that Afghanistan and Iraq provide their sole opportunities for maintaining a large, strategic military presence in a resource rich yet unstable region on the Middle East/South Asia? Could it be that America still wants to get a lock on the Caspian Basin oil and gas to keep it out of Russian control? Could it be that Washington is fearful of expanding Chinese influence in the region? It's probably all of these and more.
The Guardian's top enviro scribe, George Monbiot, says Canada has become the top global warming pariah in the world.
Well, Stephen Harper always promised us that, under his management, Canada would punch beyond its weight.
...the future [emissions] cut Canada has volunteered is smaller than that of any other rich nation. Never mind special measures; it won't accept even an equal share. The Canadian government is testing the international process to destruction and finding that it breaks all too easily. By demonstrating that climate sanctions aren't worth the paper they're written on, it threatens to render any treaty struck at Copenhagen void.
...After giving the finger to Kyoto, Canada then set out to prevent the other nations striking a successor agreement. At the end of 2007, it singlehandedly blocked a Commonwealth resolution to support binding targets for industrialised nations.
...In June this year the media obtained Canadian briefing documents which showed the government was scheming to divide the Europeans. During the meeting in Bangkok in October, almost the entire developing world bloc walked out when the Canadian delegate was speaking, as they were so revolted by his bullying. Last week the Commonwealth heads of government battled for hours (and eventually won) against Canada's obstructions. A concerted campaign has now begun to expel Canada from the Commonwealth.
In Copenhagen next week, this country will do everything in its power to wreck the talks. The rest of the world must do everything in its power to stop it. ...Canada now threatens the wellbeing of the world.
...Canada is a cultured, peaceful nation, which every so often allows a band of Neanderthals to trample over it. Timber firms were licensed to log the old-growth forest in Clayaquot Sound; fishing companies were permitted to destroy the Grand Banks: in both cases these get-rich-quick schemes impoverished Canada and its reputation. But this is much worse, as it affects the whole world. The government's scheming at the climate talks is doing for its national image what whaling has done for Japan.
Just because you're on the right doesn't mean you're a genuine conservative. Just because you're to the left of that person on the right doesn't make you a true liberal either. The political spectrum is very broad but both conservatives and liberals are inherently centrist. To the left of liberalism lies socialism. A good bit further to the right of conservatism lies what we might call, for the sake of a better name, Harperism.
In the United States, the equivalent of Harperism is the uber-right lunatic fringe populated by the likes of Bachmann, Gingrich and Palin. Granted they're more extremist than Steve would like to be but they share a good many similarities.
Neither Harperists nor American neo-conservatives feel constrained by facts, by the real world. When facts don't support their ideology, they either ignore them or make up suitable fantasies to present as facts.
In the States, for example, despite three decades of experience to the contrary, the far right continues to support the fantasy that tax cuts for the very rich boost their nation's economy. Facts don't matter, fantasy will do very nicely thank you. Universal healthcare is a mechanism to subvert American democracy. Single payor healthcare will give rise to Death Panels that will pull the plug on granny. Obama is a raging socialist and a foreigner to boot. Climate change is a socialist plot, a hoax perpetrated by many thousands of scientists to secure endless grants. Fantasy layered upon fantasy layered upon ever more fantasy until you're left with an entire socio-political matrix based on sheer fantasy.
When you're talking to someone like this you know you're not talking to a conservative but to something else altogether. Real conservatives abhor fantasy just like any reality-based group. You can talk to real conservatives because they prefer to be fact oriented. They may see those facts differently or they may derive different conclusions from them but you and they are still working from the same facts, the only facts. You can and usually will disagree but at least no one is setting up an alternative universe to confound legitimate debate. And, being willingly constrained by the facts, even contrary opinions are rarely offensive because - they conform to the facts, to reality.
Harperism holds that science and statistics should never be allowed to get in the way of instincts, religious superstition and ideological urges. Crime rates may be declining but ignore that reality and trust your gut instinct instead. That's precisely how Harper instructed his caucus to approach his prison building fetish. And so, like little robots, they did as their master commanded. Trying to talk to someone who thinks that way is futile. All you can ever hope to get out of them is "Because I said so, that's why." They're infantile.
True conservatives and true liberals can respectfully disagree without impugning the others' motives. They can accept that the other also seeks nothing but the betterment of the country and its people. They don't have to fear that the other is so besotted with raw ideology or religious superstition that he will drive the country into the ditch. Harperism, with its Old Testament ways and superstitious distrust of science and democratic openness, affords no such comforting assurance. One fact my conservative friends and I agree upon is that Harperism is very far past even the fringes of conservatism.
The festering pustules better known as the Fraser Institute are at it again. They want the feds to stop enforcing the rules governing medicare for five years to allow provinces to "experiment" with private healthcare alternatives.
The report by the Fraser Institute says Canada is experiencing a "medicare bubble" as its spending on health care becomes increasing costly and unaffordable.
The controversial report has been released as health care emerges as a major issue in the federal election. All of the parties are attempting to lay claim to the title of medicare's defender.
They have all promised to pump billions more dollars into the system, but none has presented a comprehensive plan to respond to the increasing concerns of experts, who say the system is heading toward financial unsustainability.
Curiously missing from the report is the punchline. A five year suspension would be all but impossible to reverse by the end. The uber-rightwing slime at the Fraser Institute know that full well but they also know that their approach is precisely matched to Harper's deceitful incrementalism approach to suppression of democracy.
The Guardian's, Charlie Brooker has written an interesting screed on Britain's tabloid journalists caught in Britain's phone-hacking scandal. But, as I read it, I realized how well his observations also fit modern, rightwing journos on this side of the Atlantic. See if you don't agree. Think FOX News but also think NatPo and the Sun group:
...it can't be easy being a tabloid hack at the best of times. Sure, there's the camaraderie, the sense of power, the rush of skulduggery, the thrill of feeling like one of the chosen few who can see through the Matrix but these are illusory compensations, sweatily constructed by your quaking, sobbing psyche in a bid to counterweigh the cavernous downside: the awful knowledge that you're wasting your life actively making the world worse.
Chances are you're quite smart. And you probably love to write – or did, once, back then, before . . . before the fall. Now you're writing nothing but NYAHH NYAHH NYAHH ad nauseum. You use the only brain you'll ever have to puke out endless gutfuls of cheap gossip or crude propaganda. Half the time you're wrecking lives and the other half you're filling your readers' heads with nakedly misleading straw- man fairytales. Every now and then something might come along to temporarily justify your existence: a political scoop; a genuine outrage . . . but do you build on it? No. You retreat to the warm cave of your celebrity chef shag-shocks and your tragic tot death- porn double-pagers: wasting your life actively making the world worse.
I suppose the best way to cope with the dull, constant, pulsing awareness that you're wasting your life actively making the world worse is to somehow bewitch yourself into believing you're actively making the world better.
Another strategy, I guess, would be to focus on the fun of the job, to see it as one long naughty jape. To swap tales about Fleet Street legends of yesteryear and consider yourself a fellow swashbuckling pirate.
...Successfully forging the belief that tabloid journalism is a worthwhile use of your brief time on this planet must require a mental leap beyond the reach of Galileo. This is one reason why so many tabloid stories are routinely peppered with lies – if their staff didn't continually flex their delusion muscles, a torrent of dark, awful self-awareness might rush into their heads like unforgiving black water pouring through the side of a stricken submarine, and they'd all slash their wrists open right there at their workstations. The newsroom hubbub would be regularly broken by the dispiriting thump of lifeless heads thunking on to desks. Each morning their bosses would have to clear all the spent corpses away with a bulldozer and hire a fresh team of soon-to-be-heartbroken lifewasters to replace the ones who couldn't make it, whose powers of self-deception simply weren't up to the job. Who couldn't cope with the knowledge that they were wasting their lives actively making the world worse.
One of the top medical journals, Britain's The Lancet, has published a resounding endorsement of Vancouver's Insite, safe injection centre. Harper despises Insite and has been trying to get it shut down. It is an affront to his darkest ideology. So far the British Columbia courts have been holding the tyrant at bay. Now, according to Reuters, they'll have even more reason to send Harper's minions packing:
North America's only sanctioned facility for injection of illegal drugs has cut overdose deaths and should be used as a model in other cities, according to a study published on Monday in the Lancet medical journal.
The study came as Canada's highest court prepared to hear a lawsuit over the federal government's attempt to close down the Insite facility in Vancouver despite calls by local health officials and police to keep it open.
Insite's critics say it promotes illegal drug use, and the federal government has said it wants to shut down the facility now that the medical trial period has ended. The United States has urged Canada to shut down the facility.
Two courts have blocked the government's efforts, ruling Insite needs to remain open as a needed medical service. Ottawa has appealed those rulings to the Supreme Court, which is expected to hear the case in May.
A commentary in Lancet accompanying the study's results said they demonstrated the facility's success and why additional sites should be opened across Canada.
"Supervised injection facilities clearly have an important part to play in communities affected by injection drug use," wrote Dr. Chris Chris Beyrer, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
American troops are supposed to be gone from Iraq entirely by December 31, 2011. That's just eight months from now, not much time to dismantle the US force and base structure. In fact, the Americans have let it be known that they'd rather stay - indefinitely. That's got bad boy Shiite Mullah Muqtada al-Sadr seeing red. He's warned the Americans to be gone or else a guerrilla war starts 1 January, 2012.
...this is what the Sadrists sent as a gift card to the "liberators"; you'd better leave our land by the end of 2011, for good, as agreed. Or else one of the Pentagon's ultimate nightmares will be back; a revived, revamped Mahdi Army unleashing guerrilla tactics.
The message came like clockwork, just one day after Pentagon head Robert Gates visited northern Iraq to convince the Nuri al-Maliki government to, well, keep occupying the country to an indefinite future. By then, the US State Department had already announced it wanted to keep an army of mercenaries and what could amount to thousands of bureaucrats in the largest US Embassy in the world. The mercenaries allegedly will protect the bureaucrats. Talk about American exceptionalism.
According to Muqtada, "The first thing we will do is escalate the military resistance activity and reactivate the Mahdi Army in a new statement which will be published later ... Second is to escalate the peaceful and public resistance through sit-ins." So if the US stays, Muqtada will turn Baghdad into a giant Tahrir Square - with the added bonus of commandos turning the Green Zone red and condemning contractors to road-kill status. The great 2011 Arab revolt keeps reinventing itself in myriad ways.
It's hard to imagine the American public tolerating a resumption of the carnage that beset US forces in Iraq just a few years ago. Yet the Americans have legitimate concerns about a Shiite Iraq falling into step with the Mullahs of Tehran.
This brings back the one prescient comment made by America's former proconsul, L. Paul Bremer, who said that the important decisions about Iraq's future would all be made after the Americans were gone.
This week The Tyee is chock full of helpful opinion pieces on our curious federal election and what it means to Canadians.
In two British Columbia seaside ridings fears of job loss stem from a move by the Conservatives some see as a gambit to shore up support in Quebec leading into this election.
The concerns arise from a $35 billion contract the Conservatives promised to two shipyards -- a contract B.C. shipbuilders fear they won't get, spelling the end of the province's industry.
Murray Dobbin laments "Our Wounded Democracy" in which voter apathy has paved the way for Stephen Harper to run roughshod over democracy in Canada.
What does it say about our democracy when the prime minister can with impunity demonstrate contempt for it and repeatedly violate its rules, conventions and the independence of its institutions and agencies?
Combined with a trend towards disturbingly low turnouts in federal elections, there is reason to start using the term crisis in describing Canadian democracy.
Visiting scribe Aleeza Kahn offers a "compare and contrast" piece on Britain's Conservative prime minister David Cameron and our own Conservative PM Harper.
While Cameron is desperate to be seen as fresh, Harper lumbers like a dinosaur of Canadian politics. He's ruthless, old fashioned, someone you wouldn't particularly want to have a beer with but wouldn't mind running the country. Bluntly put, he's dull. And has Lego-man hair.
The key lesson: Fear works. Raising money to support Harper's leadership campaign taught him to follow "the time-honoured advice for raising money by direct mail -- make people angry and afraid, and set up an opponent for them to give against."
The 21st century has barely begun yet it has taught us some invaluable lessons. One is that while Western leaders may be marginally capable of some things, when it comes to warfare they all ought to be locked away safely in some basement.
Another lesson is that military supremacy doesn't guarantee military victory and, even then, rarely translates into the desired political victory.
America and her leaders are positively besotted with their military prowess. Including their foreign adventures, the US government borrows about a trillion dollars a year to achieve - almost nothing. A trillion dollars is a lot of money, a lot of a lot of money, and it's even more so when you get it on the "never- never". But when you spend a lot of a lot of money borrowed on the "never-never" and get nothing back for it except the chance to do it all over again next year and the year after that, you're being led by a class of political morons served by a gaggle of ticket-punching military morons. If it was your kid, you would take away their allowance, hide the car keys and send them to their room without dinner.
To prime minister Steve, America's military misadventures are as seductive as a Friday night frat house poker party. Ya gotta get a seat at that table. You're dying for the chance to ante up with the fellas, pound a dozen Buds and smoke a couple of stogies. You're so eager to get in you never figure out how you're getting home when you're tapped out, can't remember your address and can barely stagger your way to the front door.
Vietnam taught the Americans never to get into a war without a clear exit strategy. You need to know how and when you're getting out no matter how the war turns out. Bush the Elder knew that when he stopped at the Iraqi border instead of driving on to Baghdad. A decade later his son, Bush the Lesser, decided he'd fix papa's mistakes and finish the job - without an exit strategy. American troops are still there.
Steve thought it was shameful that we didn't stand 'shoulder to shoulder' with our traditional (i.e. 'white') allies and join with them in invading Iraq. He was, however, a boasting booster of the Afghan fiasco - until he wasn't. Overnight, Steve went positively weak in the knees on that one.
However Afghanistan may have given Steve but a soiled nappy when he really needed scorched fingers. How else to explain his rush to get six Canadian Hornet fighters in on the 'beat up Gaddafi' bandwagon? If there was ever a mission that screamed "NO" that was it.
What was/is the mission? There's a wobbly UNSC resolution that seemed almost deliberately vague. Nowhere does it authorize regime change yet that is the plain objective of Washington and London. Our approach has been to use air supremacy to wreak havoc on Gaddafi forces, paving the way for the rebels to storm Tripoli and oust the dictator. But no one had a game plan to cover the "what ifs". What if we ran out of targets? What if we had nothing left to bomb and the rebels still couldn't win? What if our airpower was nullified and Gadaffi was poised to inflict a murderous defeat on the rebels and civilian population in their territory? How does this adventure end? What does victory for the guys driving our CF-18s look like? The answers? No one has a clue.
You don't remain in power over four decades in a developing country without learning a military trick or two from illustrious predecessors such as China's Mao Zedong and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh - not to mention bunglers such as Saddam Hussein in Iraq. After learning the lesson of having his tanks like sitting ducks in the desert bombed at will by the "coalition of the willing" (a few NATO members plus Qatar), Gaddafi is now fighting light-armor guerrilla style against the "rebels".
NATO's response has been more predictable than those everyday multilingual stalemates in Brussels; hurling accusations that Gaddafi is using human shields - as in his tanks in Misrata being "dispersed" across town and inside the perimeter. Translation: NATO's Tornado/Rafale air war is useless, unless you can bomb a tank column resplendent in the desert sun.
The circus is one more instance of how this war that is not a war is in fact a farce. The French and the British especially have bought their own hype that Gaddafi's regime is crumbling. They have also bought their own hype that this mixed bag of former Gaddafi loyalists, dodgy exiles, al-Qaeda-linked jihadis, business opportunists and true youthful revolutionaries have a political and militarily coherence, and are truly representative of the whole of Libya.
The war that in fact no one wants except Sarko and Cameron is fizzling out like a ghastly remake of The Three Stooges (bidding is open for nominating the third stooge). That's what you get when you take sides in an African civil war where even the "good guys" are murkier than the waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Western members of this "coalition of the willing", the Brits and the French foremost, not to mention the Pentagon, pray there will be, at the end of the tunnel, plenty of oil and a strategic Africom/NATO base in northern Africa. But there's no guarantee.
The last hope for sanity in all this mess is Turkey. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has proposed his version of a roadmap for peace - calling for humanitarian aid corridors and steps toward democracy.
With Japan still reeling from the tragedy of its March 11th earthquake, seismologists warn that one or more of the other three tectonic plates may have been left under increased strain.
...scientists are warning that the March 11 event not only will lead to years of aftershocks but might also have increased the risk of a major quake on an adjacent fault. A new calculation by American and Japanese scientists concluded that the March 11 event heightened the strain on a number of faults bracketing the ruptured segment of the Japan Trench.
“There’s quite a bit of real estate on which stress has increased by our calculations,” said U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Ross Stein. “The possibility of getting large, late aftershocks to the north and south of the main shock is real.”
...The scientists are not making a formal prediction of another big earthquake. But they believe that the section of the Japan Fault to the east of Tokyo now has more stress than before March 11.
“That section of the subduction zone is clearly loaded,” said Chris Goldfinger, an Oregon State seismologist who was not part of the new research.
...“It will take probably a decade before this aftershock sequence is over,” Stein said. “The watchword in Tokyo should be long-term vigilance. Nobody should think this should go away in a few weeks or a few months.”
CTV is reporting that a leaked draft of Auditor General Sheila Fraser's report into the Harper government's G20 spending claims Harper misled Parliament. The spotlight is on Tony Clement and some $50-million lavished around his riding apparently with very little at all to do with the summit. Fraser is said to recommend that Clement's largesse be investigated.
The news story comes out just one day prior to the English-language leaders' debate. Here's hoping Ig-Lay are able to use it to effect.
Reminds one of the Zaccardelli/Goodale smear that springboarded Harper into power. There is, however, no suggestion that Fraser was involved in this leak. Her report was to have been tabled April 5th but was put on hold due to the election.
Trying to bomb Muammar Gaddafi out of business isn't working. He's become quite adept at hiding his heavy weapons from NATO strike fighters. Worse yet, as he now proceeds the punitive destruction of the population of Misrata, his mercenaries are using Libyan civilians as human shields.
The rebels seem unable to topple Gaddafi's Libyan and mercenary forces without NATO air strikes and yet Gaddafi seems intent on forcing us to kill civilians to get at his army.
Somebody is going to have to go into Libya, on the ground, and put an end to this quickly. The one and only somebody for that job is the Egyptian army. They have brigades of state of the art American M-1A1 tanks that make very short work of the Soviet-era rust buckets Gaddafi fields.
There's really no love lost between Egypt and Gaddafi. They've tussled before. Anwar Sadat was on the verge of invading Libya and toppling Gaddafi in 1977 until he was talked out of it by other Arab leaders. That was then, this is now. Gaddafi's forces still aren't very good. They're just good enough to transform the uprising into a drawn out, bloody civil war.
This is really an Arab problem and it needs to be solved by supportive Arab states and, of those, Egypt is right next door with the ready means to shut this madman down in days, not weeks. NATO's prime directive is to protect Libyan civilians, not kill them. We don't have some "collateral damage" quota. Once he gets his people into urban areas air strikes are all but futile.
Egypt has a responsibility to protect the Libyan people, some of whom are from tribes resident across the Egypt-Libya border. Egypt should also have some say in ensuring the next Libyan government isn't Islamist, the first al-Qaeda state, one awash in oil money. With newly liberated Tunisia's help the job would be even easier. Best of all, we wouldn't have to look like Crusaders yet again.
It's not that I had any specific reason to think Bill Elliott was involved in getting Bruce Carson the requisite top security clearance needed to score a cushy advisory job in Harper's PMO. It was that I knew just enough to understand it was so unlikely, almost impossible, that it could happen otherwise.
CBC claims to have confirmed that the current RCMP Commissioner, William Elliott was instrumental in Carson getting that top security clearance despite five fraud convictions, imprisonment, disbarment and two bouts of institutional insolvency.
As the Carson scandal unfolded I kept thinking back to my law school colleague and former occasional drinking buddy, Bill "Bubbles" Elliott. Bill was the stereotypical Ottawa boy, born and raised, Tory insider. As I recall, he'd gone almost straight from law school to become exec. assistant to some Mulroney cabinet minister. During the dry spells of Liberal governments he percolated up through the public service, eventually being appointed by Paul Martin as Canada's national security advisor, our anti-terrorism czar. The last time we spoke he was in that position.
I consider myself lucky to have a small and dwindling number of , well placed, veteran Tory insiders among my friends today. Old school Progressive Conservatives going back to the Stanfield era. Guys that predate Elliott and Mulroney. You can't be good friends with someone for forty years without a healthy measure of candor and give and take. We're all centrists from an era when there was centre-left and centre-right and everyone grasped the difference. You could be a Liberal without loathing a Conservative back then and the other way around. We could freely discuss things without having to start in a debate that degraded into partisan squabbling. I hope we can all find our way back there when country came ahead of party affinity. But I digress.
One of the biggest non-secrets in Ottawa was Bruce Carson. He earned his considerable notoriety and, in that political enclave, such things do not go unnoticed. That's especially true for the circles in which Bill Elliott traveled.
Harper says he didn't know, he was let down, Privy Council procedures failed. Maybe that sort of bullshit is palatable in Red Deer or Moose Jaw but don't try to peddle it in Ottawa. One of my Tory friends volunteered that there were repeated warnings given to Harper's staff, not the PCO but Harper's own personal staff. Apparently everybody failed, everybody that is except Harper. He not only didn't know but he had to deliberately look away if that's true and that's one thing control freaks never do.
Think about it. How could Steve Harper have a hand-picked, political operative appointed to head the RCMP and claim he was in the dark about Carson's extensive criminal record? Now it's being reported that Harper's hand-picked, political operative was directly involved in getting Carson his security clearance. Can that really be any surprise save to the most strident Harper apologist?
As I've written repeatedly over the past two weeks, are we witnessing yet another instance of the RCMP being turned into a Conservative political agency? Both Bill Elliott's and Steve Harper's integrity and fitness for office have been called into question and both of them have a lot of explaining to do before Canadians go to the ballot box. Until they come forward and explain themselves to the satisfaction of the Canadian public, Stephen Harper deserves to be treated with our scorn and contempt.
Here's the scenario. Air patrol over the vast, empty Arctic. February. A long, long way from the nearest airbase. Suddenly warning lights turn the instrument panel into a Christmas tree. One F-35 pilot out of luck.
Since Canada first took to patrolling the far north we knew the job required a twin-engine aircraft. We used the CF-100 Canuck, the CF-101B Voodoo and the CF-18 Hornet. We once knew that the vast Arctic was no place to run out of engines. Apparently Harper and MacKay know better.
My guess is that the air force won't put our pilots lives at more risk than necessary. In other words, if we do wind up with the F-35s, don't ever expect them to venture very far from their home base on patrols.
One of Australia's top newspapers and anything but left wing, The Australian, carried an op-ed piece warning that, bad as democratic abuse has become in Australia, Britain and the U.S., Canadian democracy has eroded alarmingly under Stephen Harper.
The centralisation of power in the hands of the prime minister and political staffers - with the resulting diminution of the role and status of cabinet, parliaments and parliamentarians - is common to Anglo-Saxon democracies in Australia, Britain, Canada and the US, but the extent to which constitutional conventions, parliamentary etiquette and civil institutions of good governance have been worn away in Canada is cause for concern.
A minister told parliament she did not know who had altered a document that cut funding to a foreign aid group. Later, she admitted to ordering the changes, but did not know who had carried out the order. Lying to parliament, a cardinal sin of Westminster-style democracy, has become a political tactic.
Following rulings by Speaker Peter Milliken, for the first time in Canadian history, the government and a minister have been found to be in contempt of parliament for withholding information and misleading the house.
The Integrity Commissioner was so inept that she failed to uphold a single one of more than 200 whistle-blowing complaints.
Forced out of office by the ensuing public outcry, she was awarded a $C500,000 severance package on condition that neither she nor the government talk about it.
That is, a public servant paid by the taxpayer was financially gagged by yet more taxpayer money to stop taxpayers finding out what was going on.
When a foreign service officer blew the whistle on the Canadian military handing over detainees to Afghan security forces, in likely violation of international humanitarian law, the government tried to destroy him and refused to give documents to a parliamentary inquiry. The Speaker reminded the government parliament controlled cabinet, not the other way round.
After the last elections, when the opposition parties were close to agreement on a coalition majority government, rather than face the house in a vote of confidence, Harper talked the governor-general into shuttering parliament for a month until he shored up his own support.
When the time came to choose a new governor-general, Harper opted for someone who had carefully drawn up terms of an inquiry commission to exclude the potentially most damaging aspects of a scandal involving a former conservative prime minister.
Having come into office on campaign promises of greater transparency and accountability, Harper has silenced civil servants and diplomats, cynically published guidelines on how to disrupt hostile parliamentary committees, and suppressed research that contradicts ideologically-driven policy, for example data that show crime rates to be falling.
Judges who rule against the pet causes of the government's ideological base are not immune to attacks from cabinet ministers.
Civil society groups that criticise any government policy or ideology risk loss of funding and hostile takeovers by boards stacked with pro-government ciphers.
It speaks volumes for Canada's corporatized media that this had to find its way to print in Australia while here at home the PostMedia chain, the Sun chain, CTV and Global look the other way and stand mute.
It speaks volumes for the haplessness of the opposition leaders that they failed to energize the Canadian public, to mobilize and harness their outrage at Harper's gross insult to Canadian democracy.
Harper has cynically and deliberately reversed Canadian democracy and Canada will need a long period of post-Harper, post-Conservative restoration. Let's hope we have leaders up to that task when the time finally arrives.
It seems Harper did acknowledge knowing of Bruce Carson's earliest criminal transgressions. That much is apparent from a G&M article from March 24th. What remains unknown is how or why Harper wasn't aware of the subsequent three fraud convictions or Carson's near constant debt problems.
Federal rules require everyone working for the PMO to have a category 2 security clearance. How did Bruce Carson get a security clearance at all?
In 1993 Carson first filed for bankruptcy owing just over $100,000. Seven years later he was in trouble again, this time filing a proposal under the Bankruptcy Act. People with chronic debt problems usually don't get security clearances because of the risk they might take advantage of confidential information that falls into their hands.
When Carson landed in Harper's office in 2006 he had fallen into default of his payment promises under the proposal. The Trustee was notifying creditors that it was open to them to have the proposal set aside and Carson thrown into full bankruptcy - again. 2007 saw Carson get yet another chance and a restructured deal which, with his apparently generous PMO salary, allowed him to pay out his proposal in 2009.
Now I'm just guessing here but I think people with five fraud convictions over the course of a decade probably aren't prime candidates for top level security clearances either. Fraud sort of suggests they're not entirely honest. Five convictions for fraud and theft should clear up any lingering doubts.
This stuff is on the guy's criminal record. The Superintendent of Bankrutpcy likewise keeps a register.
Something stinks. Harper needs to explain how a guy with Carson's record managed to get the mandatory security clearance needed to work in the PMO. Was there a security clearance at all? Did Steve break the law by hiring Carson on without a clearance?
Harper still has a lot of explaining to do. Was security in the PMO compromised and, if so, by whom? Does Harper not bother to check out the very people he hires as his close advisors? Did the RCMP do their job? Did they give Carson a clean bill of health? Did they report all five convictions to the PMO and the bankruptcy problems including the ongoing one? Is Harper really this out of touch with his own office and key personnel?
Think individual and corporate political contributes are tightly restricted? Think again. According to The Tyee, it's remarkably simple for any corporation, union or individual to funnel as much as $60,000 to his chosen party if it's done right. And if it's not? Don't worry. Apparently enforcement is so weak as to be almost non-existent. No wonder Cap'n Weasel wants to get rid of government funding of political parties.
Put your money where it'll do the most good. That's the idea behind Swing 33. According to The Tyee, Swing 33 works by identifying ridings where the Conservatives are most vulnerable and then funneling donations to opposition candidates in those ridings. When the prime objective of this election is to ensure there's no Harper majority, this seems to make really good sense.
Stephen Harper wants us to believe he had no idea that his former senior policy advisor and office fixer, Bruce Carson, was a disbarred ex-con with five fraud convictions who had done time in the slammer. Harper now claims, totally unconvincingly, that if he'd only known he would never have hired Carson.
A reliable, veteran Tory insider I spoke with a week or two back, told me that Harper's PMO was repeatedly warned that Carson was toxic and to not let him near Harper.
Carson's lawyer adds that the guy's entire criminal record was disclosed at his security screening which, presumably, was done by the RCMP which is headed by another Ottawa boy and Tory political functionnaire, commissioner Bill Elliott.
Harper, "Had I known these things, I would not have ...hired him." Well, that closes off one exit. Harper admits that he hired Carson but based on what? The guy's been around Ottawa forever. What did Harper know about him? Did Harper get the guy's security screening report? Who did? What did it say? Who received all these supposed warnings about Carson and what did they do about them?
This guy, Carson, didn't just make one foolish mistake. He's got a rap sheet. It includes the two convictions for dipping into trust moneys that got him disbarred, convicted and imprisoned in the early 1980s. Then, in 1990, three more convictions - defrauding the Toronto Dominion Bank, defrauding the Bank of Montreal and defrauding Budget Rent a Car.
Harper's office is running for cover, claiming they can't comment on, "the security screening details of current or former employees."
C'mon guys, let's be real. A guy like Carson with his record and psychological problems doesn't get hired by accident. It's not like he landed from Mars and nobody knew the guy. He'd been around Ottawa and in trouble well before the early 80's. Somebody needs to find out why Carson was apparently turfed from his job at the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton that led to his hiring by a private law firm where he proceeded to commit what lawyers politely call "defalcation."
Carson had more than a small degree of notoriety in Ottawa and there are plenty of lifelong Tories in Ottawa, the head of the RCMP among them, who would have known about the guy. Is it conceivable that these veteran Tory insiders wouldn't warn the PMO, repeatedly warn them and probably Harper too, that Carson was trouble?
Sorry, no. Harper can't get off the hook this easy by hiding behind personnel confidentiality. The Carson affair strikes at the heart of the security of the Prime Minister's Office. It's said by some that Carson literally had the run of the place.
If Harper didn't know, who did? Harper is well known as a demanding, unforgiving guy to work for so surely, if he didn't know, heads must have been rolling in the halls, going bumpety, bumpety, bump down those marble stairs. Whose heads went to the block? Or is Harper keeping everybody on staff, under lockdown, lest they might talk about just what he did and did not know about Carson? Given the control freak that Harper is, I'm sure that's exactly what has happened. Do you think there are any members of the PMO on paid leaves of absence until the campaign is over?
Carson is a flashpoint for political corruption in the Harper administration. A lot of people have a lot of explaining to do, people who have no claim to "benefit of the doubt" while they insist on dummying up. First among them is Stephen J. Harper. This might reach well beyond the PMO to the headquarters of the RCMP also. Suspicion is an inevitable consequence of appointing a party insider to the top cop job. Was the RCMP itself compromised from the very top? Did a report disclosing that Carson was bent make it to the PMO? Until we get some straight answers, these are questions that need to be asked again and again and again.
This is a legitimate election issue because of the possible repercussions of what happened and what that says about the prime minister. There are a lot of ways to get information around the National Capital and the Libs and NDP need to mine this scandal hard until the answers leak out.
Harper is a terrible liar when he loses control of the facts. When he started his "coalition conspiracy" gambit and was forced to confront his own coalition machinations during the Martin administration, Harper kept changing his tune as a succession of contradictory facts emerged. He was desperate to keep the lie alive until it finally died a natural death.
The same pattern emerges on the Bruce Carson scandal. At first Harper claimed innocence. He knew nothing. Something got short circuited in the PMO that kept the information from reaching him. A key point to remember. This was during the "two count" period, when word had gotten out that Carson had been disbarred, convicted and imprisoned for two counts of dipping into his law firm's trust funds.
Today we're in a "five count" scenario as word emerges that, about a decade after the first two convictions, Carson received three more convictions for defrauding the TD bank, BMO and Budget Rent a Car.
When we were in the "two count" period, Harper disavowed any knowledge of Carson's criminal history. Now that we've moved into the "five count" scenario, Harper has tailored his lie. He now says he did know all along about the first two counts but was totally blindsided by the last three.
Ladies and gentlemen, a lawyer cross examining a witness like Harper would be ecstatic at the prime minister's floundering, contradictory statements. He would demolish that witness, totally destroy his credibility. No judge would believe a word he said. So, should any Canadian? If he's telling the truth now, he was deliberately lying through his teeth before. Just like he kept getting caught in his lies about his history of coalition-building. He gets himself hooked and he keeps squirming to set the hook even deeper.
Now, Michael and Jack - this is for you. When you've got a bottom feeder on the hook the most important thing of all is to constantly maintain tension on the line. Don't let it go slack, not for a moment, of he can throw the hook. Just keep the line taught and keep reeling this sucker in.
I guess Steve thinks we're all swept up in the "faith-based" society because he's counting on you to have faith in his child credit and annual fitness credit proposals that won't be coming before 2015. On these things you have to trust Cap'n Weasel, the very paragon of accountability and transparency.
Steve is acting like he's running the NDP. When you don't stand a chance in hell of having to run the country you can promise anything. Steve has probably figured out he doesn't stand a chance in hell of still being around in 2015 so for all the difference it'll make he might as well promise to pave the streets with gold. Sorry, I forgot we'll need all that gold when the real bills roll in for the F35 short-range, small payload aerial bomb truck.
2015, that's five years off. That's about the same amount of track record Steve's already logged, five years. So, if you were to judge the reliability of Steve meeting these new promises five years down the road based on the way he's met all his earlier promises these past five years, how do you rate the odds?
By the way, here's a chance to be creative. Try to come up with the biggest whoppers Steve can promise for 2015. The sky's the limit, isn't it?
Americans' belief in global warming may have fallen significantly in recent years but its inescapable signs are beginning to arrive and their complacency is yielding to anxious concern.
The U.S. is just getting its first taste of the lash in the form of sustained drought across the south and southwest, flooding in the northern midwest and the impacts of sea level rise on the eastern seaboard.
The Boston Globe warns that the state of Massachusetts is already fighting a losing battle with the sea:
SCITUATE — A piercing wail startled Gary and Paula Elsmore awake at 3 a.m. Paula knelt on the bed and peered out the upstairs bedroom window. In the blinding snow, she could barely make out a neighbor waving up at her frantically.
Fierce seas had overtopped a sea wall about three blocks away, and the roiling water was now heading straight toward the Elsmores’ neighborhood.
“You could see the storm surge, it was bending all the backyard fences one way as it came in,’’ Paula Elsmore said of that late December night.
The Elsmores’ basement filled with 5 feet of water, and flames billowed into the dark sky from two nearby houses that flooded and caught fire. Their neighbors’ young children had to be evacuated from their house by a bucket loader. In all, some 400 homes were swamped.
The ocean’s fury is an omnipresent threat for the growing number of people who live at its edge. But accumulating scientific evidence suggests that our warming climate could cause sea levels to rise faster than previously thought, making storm surges like the one that pummeled Scituate more dangerous.
Several lines of research now indicate that a 3-foot global rise by 2100 is a plausible scenario, though some scientists forecast a smaller rise. In other words, what was once a problem for our great great-grandchildren is one our children could confront.
The article points to a 2007 survey that found waterfront protection in the greater Boston area needs urgent repairs, to the tune of about a third of a trillion dollars. That's for one relatively small stretch of America's eastern seaboard. Every other east coast state is in the same boat - or worse.
The warming atmosphere and the greater volume of water vapour it holds provides powerful fuel for major storms of increasing frequency and severity. These storms amplify the already rising sea levels to produce storm surges that overwhelm sea walls and send salt water coursing inland.
A great many Americans may have been gullible enough to believe the stories that paint global warming as a hoax or, at worst, insignificant but they'll think twice when the truth starts getting delivered and it's going to come via their bank statements.
America's insurers long ago realized they can't afford to bear this sort of loss. They stopped writing hurricane insurance years ago for the entire eastern seaboard extending well inland. There is a massive amount of wealth tied up in an area that is now uninsurable for the greatest hazard they face. Their federal and state governments are on the ropes, they can't afford to make good these losses particularly as they steadily increase. How many times can any person reach into his own pocket and rebuild before he has to give up and leave?
Too little, too late. The world could eliminate all carbon emissions tomorrow but the impacts of the existing emissions in the atmosphere would still continue atmospheric heating for at least another century.
No one is really sure yet when (not "if" but when) America's seaboard, or significant parts of it, will become uninhabitable but it's probably a generation away, two at the outside. As that occurs, the United States will be vexed with a problem normally only seen in war torn countries - IDPs or internally displaced persons. Sustained droughts will add to the IDP problem, particularly from the recently populated urban areas of the southwest. At the same time the U.S. will have to confront the problem of waves of climate migrants from South and Central America.
What do you think this scenario holds in store for Canada? There are going to be an awful lot of people in dire need of exactly what we have. Meanwhile our leaders, the lot of them, are asleep at the switch as this train comes barreling down the track straight for us. If we don't start weighing our choices soon, we may find that we wind up in a jam where we have no choice.
The State of Israel is literally between a rock and a hard place, both of its own making. It's a new Middle East today and not one to Israel's liking but the new reality is narrowing Israel's options.
According to The New York Times, Israel has just months to make a "far-reaching offer" to the Palestinians or face a United Nations vote in September admitting the State of Palestine, a nation state comprising Gaza, the entire West Bank and all of East Jerusalem.
“We are facing a diplomatic-political tsunami that the majority of the public is unaware of and that will peak in September,” said Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, at a conference in Tel Aviv last month. “It is a very dangerous situation, one that requires action.” He added, “Paralysis, rhetoric, inaction will deepen the isolation of Israel.”
The next few months promise to be fascinating. The momentum is shifting, leverage is changing hands, Israel can no longer rely on Egyptian complacency even as America's global influence rapidly wanes. I hope the Israeli government comes to its senses and acts quickly. I hope it has watched America's fumbles in Iraq and Afghanistan and realized that there are a great many challenges that cannot be resolved by superior firepower. Above all, I hope this can be resolved peacefully.
There is hope. All candidates vying to replace the genuinely boneheaded Carole James say they'll ditch her "axe the tax" opposition to carbon taxation. About bloody time.
“I think we made a mistake in the last election. We as a party got it wrong,” said Mike Farnworth, speaking during an all-candidate debate this weekend in Vancouver.
“We were out of touch with the majority of British Columbians and I think that is one of the key reasons why we lost the last election.”
The New Democrats’ aggressive opposition to the carbon tax in the period leading up to the 2009 election upset many NDP supporters and outraged many environmental activists, including David Suzuki.
Out of touch, that's an understatement. For a lot of us Carole James refusal to repent on this issue showed us her NDP could never be trusted to do what was right for our province. Winning the public trust back isn't going to be easy or quick but at least some of us will be willing to listen again.
It's too bad Layton can't be man enough to follow the BC NDP's lead. It was disgraceful how he ganged up with Stephen Harper to trash Dion over his carbon tax proposal and it certainly handed Harper plenty of votes. Layton could begin by apologizing to Dion for being such a punk and leading his party to fully endorse effective carbon taxation. I'm not holding my breath.
The bias in the Bloomberg article is blatant. These workers aren't "earning" their pensions while working elsewhere. They earned their pensions (past tense) in their previous jobs, as agreed between employer and employee. Christ, the article makes these people out to be stealing.
There is a genuine concern. With unemployment so high (for America) should retired workers be taking jobs that could go to those who need them more? Should those with comfortable pensions do the right thing and make way for new breadwinners? It's an arguable point.
The giveaway, however, is that the article makes nary a mention of the worst offenders, the greediest offenders - the very people who so freely take shots at middle class Americans for doing what they themselves do on a much grander scale.
How many members of Congress take their generous pensions and go off into retirement? How many use Congress as a revolving door to more lucrative jobs down the road on K Street as lobbyists? How many generals clean out their desks at the Pentagon and move their personal effects straight into their new offices at places like Lockheed or General Dynamics? How big are their parting gifts, their pensions?
It's the rank hypocrisy that's so troubling, the logical disconnect, the sleight of hand. When will the rich folks be satisfied? When they've wiped out the middle class entirely?
Lately, when contemplating the things I ought to do but don’t want to do, my thoughts turn to a little old lady. She has white hair and glasses, and her big, old-fashioned (non-Apple WATCH) watch ticks very loudly. I think about her for a minute, and imagine her being disappointed in me. And then I sigh and I floss, or take my vitamins, or do another round of hip-flexor stretches, or whatever else was on my list that I was tempted — just for a moment — to shirk.
The little old lady isn’t my mom, or my grandma, or a teacher, or anyone real at all. She’s my future self, and I’m trying to be kinder to her.
I never really thought about my future self as a concrete person until last fall, and then I saw Hank Green give a rousing talk at XOXO — go watch the whole thing, it’s hanktastic. In it he said two things that gave me pause. “You have no obligation to your former self.” (Just because your eight-year-old self wanted to be an oceanographer, Hank said, you don't have to follow through.) Why don't you have an obligation to your former self, according to Hank? “He is dumber than you and also doesn’t exist!”
In fact, Hank sounded a little pissed off at his former self. (He sounded like he maybe wanted to go punch that guy. Note: please do not give Hank Green a time machine.) And then I thought: "I don’t want my future self to be that pissed off at me." (Because having a time machine is actually on my wish list.)
If I can’t be smarter than my future self, the only option is to be less dumb, or, failing that, kinder. (Kindness is a great stupidity offset. If you can’t help being dumb, at least don’t be mean.) And although I don’t have any obligation to my past self, I think I do have one to my future self.
After all, the one thing I do know for sure about my future self is that she’ll be older than me, and, entropy being what it is, will have a harder time doing the things I now take for granted. Given that I know her life will be harder than mine, and that probably some part of that will be my fault, wouldn’t it be kind to do what I can now?
So I leave her little notes (especially comments that will let her know where I left off in a project, or why a test is failing in the code, or a calendar reminder that says, “hey, when you go to the Oakland White Elephant sale next year, don’t forget to take an antihistamine because of all the dust”). I clean up after projects so that she doesn’t have to look for the good ruler or the seam ripper. I throw in that extra load of laundry tonight so that she has a better Saturday. I Evernote everything boring or complicated, even if I think I will certainly never, ever forget that eight-step process to mail-merge Adobe Illustrator files with XML.
This may seem a bit strange. I mean, people do floss and take their vitamins and pay into retirement funds every day, without conjuring up some hypothetical person who will benefit. But in the same way that even a drawing of a pair of eyes keeps people honest, thinking about a specific person — me! — whose future life will be better if I get up and do my dozen pushups in the morning instead of sleeping five more minutes makes me far more likely to actually get up and do them. Personifying what was previously an abstract duty just works better for me.
And in addition to doing things for my future self, I’m also trying to be kind by not doing things for my future self. That is, I'm trying not to do things that will unduly obligate my future self. For instance, I used to have a terrible habit of buying things in bulk and then deciding I didn't like them any more (e.g., buying the Costco-size jar of peperoncini and then having a 98%-full Costco-size jar of peperoncini in my refrigerator for a year). There’s a great TED talk by Dan Gilbert where he discusses research that shows that we vastly underestimate how we much will change over time — we tend to think that the person we are now is the person we will always be, and that's not the case. So I try not to lock my future self into my current preferences. I'll let her make her own choices, thank you, and not be constrained by whatever dumbass thing I’ve decided is awesome this week. (Especially since the endowment effect shows we value things that we own more highly than things we don't, which makes whatever you get now harder for your future self to get rid of.)
I’m sure it would be easy to go overboard with this idea — anything can be taken to extremes — but so far I haven’t seen any worrying signs, such as encasing the furniture in plastic covers or Scrooge McDuck-style hoarding of gold coins. And not all the benefits are stored up only for some far-off future: getting more exercise and being more organized have had pretty immediate payoffs for my current self.
If by some chance I do manage to acquire a time machine someday, I am hoping any meeting with my future self turns out more like a Dr. Who reunion show and less like Looper. (A few inside jokes and some eyerolling, but no heroic sacrifices or shootouts.) In the meantime, I’ll keep flossing.
For some reason I think this idea of ‘futurekindness’ needs a better name, something hefty and German, so that people will take it seriously. Does Zukunftliebenswürdigkeit work?
Darrin James is a local singer-songwriter and guitarist who spent a decade in the New York music scene before returning to Michigan 5 years ago. He celebrates the release of "Strange Storm," his 3rd full length CD, a concept album which explores themes of today's "climate" of constant violence, blatant greed, religious hypocrisy and political chaos. The title, "Strange Storm," takes on new meanings as his music journeys through eclectic sonic landscapes and diverse influences from Woody Guthrie inspired folk, to Afro-funk, blues, and rock n' roll. For this show, James has a full band, complete with a horn section of local musicians: Ross Huff (Macpodz), Dan Bennett (Nomo, Colin Stetson) Tim Haldeman, and a special appearance by Detroit's "Queen of the Blues," Thornetta Davis, who is featured on the album.
At The Astley, we love introductions. Part of what we’re hoping makes your time here so special is the chance to meet new people; to create new friendships. Our onsite team are here to help nurture our community, as well as being your all-important go-to-guys if you need any help. And because we love introductions, allow us to get the ball rolling as we invite you to meet the team…
Zac is an RSM that brings a wealth of experience from the residential sector. He’s seen how badly things can be done. That’s why he’s determined to do things differently at The Astley; to make sure you have everything you need as conveniently as possible.
He really wants to hear your ideas too. The Astley is an incredible building, but what our team want to create inside is going to be second-to-none. And it’s going to be shaped by you if Zac has anything to do with it. Seriously – you can talk to Zac about anything.
And it’d mean leaving Manchester too; a place where Mancunians look after their own; no matter if you’re new to the city or been here your whole life. We’ll strive to look after our own too – creating something genuinely authentic and amazing you with what we do.
Loving life here in his adoptive hometown, Zac is a chap you can depend on and he won't ever clock off without knowing that all our residents at The Astley are feeling good.
If there’s one thing Rebecca wants above all else for our residents, it’s the best possible experience while living here. You may not always see all the work that goes on behind the scenes to make that happen, but that won’t ever stop her greeting you with a smile.
The beating heart of Rebecca’s role at The Astley, as she describes herself, is “service”. In fact, she’ll tell you that “service is the most important thing” for herself and Zac; something that will make you not only feel special, but part of something unique too.
Don’t be shy of asking Rebecca for local food recommendations either. In the winter, you’ll be able to find the best latte and gateau in town; in the summer, meanwhile, it’s an ice cold pint with some nachos. We reckon we have our very own food critic here, you know!
At the end of the day, Rebecca sees herself and Zac as the glue that holds The Astley together. From the creative and diverse resident events to be part of, to making sure any problem you have is fixed at the double; this is one RSM who’ll go the extra mile for you.
After moving across from her native China in 2008, Rebecca is now a fully-fledged Mancunian; a creative spirit doing her utmost to keep the smile on all of our residents' faces.
Features a high capacity 200VA custom-made toroidal power transformer and power supply capacitors, this is not someone else's amp model in a Exposure Box.
This generation of the 20 series has a greatly improved all-aluminium casework and extruded front panel to control resonance and stray electro-magnetic fields which can greatly reduce the fidelity threshold of a product.
You will be glad to hear high quality capacitors are used in the signal path which is uniquely tuned and short, the power supply path is PCB based( not cheap or easy but better )
This amp has Toshiba bipolar output transistors for superior dynamics and performance, once again the care taken regards this product extends as far as the choice of a single and every component !
It has been designed and built to be Bi-wiring compatible (handy if you have super fat speaker cables or plugs or want your cables to be ready for Bi-Amping
This amp is rated at 75 watts per channel into 8 Ohms, that is a very conservative 75 watts and do not have the wool pulled over your eyes by some other brands who give you the 4 Ohms measurement which is normally close to twice what that amp is capable of into 8 !
It has a nice simple remote to control the volume, a very solid three year guarantee and lastly it is available in black or titanium.
Some of the key players in the pasta and noodles market include Barilla Group, The Kraft Heinz Company, Nestlé, Delverde, ITC, Acecook Vietnam JSC, House Foods Group, Ottogi Foods, Remo Macaroni Compa...
New from Creamette comes Creamette 150 — pasta (in three shapes) with about 25 percent fewer calories than regular pasta. (There are 150 calories per 2-ounce serving of Creamette 150; regular pasta ha...
Contact the South Carolina company at 843-235-2077. Shawn of Orlando reports that Creamette Pasta Rings are not sold in Florida. She "tried repeatedly to get the company to start stocking them down So...
Research indicates that mothers consume 60 percent of the Cracker Jack they buy for their youngsters. Borden wants to keep its grain-based meal products, such as Creamettes pasta, and its Classico pas...
Maldari's customers are some the best known names in pasta, including food giant New World, which owns Creamette, Ronzoni and San Giorgio. When one of them requests a pasta with six twists per inch, t...
The plant currently produces 500,000 pounds of pasta per day under the well-known brands of Ronzoni ®, San Giorgio ®, Creamette ®, Prince ... www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riviana-foods-celebrates- ...
Reserve online at www.arboretum.umn.edu or by phone at 612-625-9875. A.N. from MN likes Creamette The Creamette Pasta Comfort Food recipe contest is down to the top 10 contestants, and among them is A...
based New World Pasta, a unit of Ebro Foods S.A., emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization and named a new leadership structure. Its other brands include Ronzoni, Creamette, Prince and San Giorgio pasta...
But Peter Smith, chief executive of Harrisburg, Penn.-based New World Pasta, which makes such brands as Ronzoni, American Beauty and Creamette, said he was amazed commodity price increases last year d...
Such is the experience of eating Broders' fresh, homemade pasta. So long, Creamette. The veil has been lifted. Available in three widths and three flavors, Broders' Cucina sells the same pasta that it ...
Borden's U.S. pasta business, which includes Creamettes, Prince and R&F brands, totaled $191 million, a 16.6% share of the category in 1999.
In fact, three manufacturers are involved: Campbell's for the Prego, Kraft for the Parmesan cheese and Borden for the pasta brands (Creamette, Luxury and Ronco) that are included in most of the offers ...
Prince ® pasta is at the heart of wholesome meals, enjoyed by families in your neighborhood. Our commitment to quality ingredients and bringing families together at dinnertime lives on.
Hugs sauce, not kids. New Ronzoni ® Thick and Hearty pasta is specially cut with a bronze die for added texture, inviting more sauce to fill every nook and cranny and less sauce left behind in your bowl.
Pappardelle pasta is an Italian flat pasta cut into a broad ribbon shape. In width, the pasta is between tagliatelle and lasagna. This pasta is traditionally served with very rich, heavy sauces, especially sauces which include game such as wild boar, and it is particularly popular in the winter, when it can make the basis of a hearty, warming meal.
Online shopping for Grocery & Gourmet Food from a great selection of Spaghetti, Penne, Fusilli, Fettuccine, Italian Pasta & more at everyday low prices.
Grease pans. Mix all ingredients together and bake at 350°F for about 50 minutes. When bread is removed from oven, wrap in aluminum foil or cover with a towel to hold in moisture.
Penne Rosa. Simple and delicious, this 20 minute meal is the perfect go-to recipe for a busy weeknight.
The Marlins announced Thursday that they’ve designated veteran right-hander Junichi Tazawa for assignment and also optioned righty Tyler Cloyd to Triple-A New Orleans. Corresponding roster moves tomorrow will be announced tomorrow.
Carlson paid for the first treatment with money raised from friends and family. He's trying to sell his high-powered bass boat for the second infusion.
He needs about $20,000 more for the final two treatments and hopes the money comes from fundraising efforts that include two GoFundMe accounts.
2006 Skeeter 18 1/2 foot . 150 4 stroke runs perfectly . Lowrance HDS 7 and 5 . All bilge and live well pumps replaced last year . 3 batteries replace as well . 13,999. Currently on the lot of Lakeside Boat and Marine in Castaic.
In better times, fishing guide Doug Carlson enjoys the ride as he heads back to the dock at Lake Casitas. Carlson is fighting pancreatic cancer.
"My lungs and body want to die," he said, sucking in air from an oxygen tank. "We get this stuff and it'll be a big U-turn."
The therapy is offered in Houston through the state's Right to Try law that allows terminally ill people access to drugs not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Carlson leaves Tuesday with his sister to undergo final tests and receive the first of four infusion treatments.
Each infusion will cost about $10,000 in treatment and other costs. Little if any of it will be covered by insurance.
Doctors and therapists say the treatment carries no guarantees of success, but Carlson talks about the therapy without a flicker of doubt. He said it will extend his life.
"It absolutely will... It will give me three to five years of good quality life," he said, noting the extra years mean he could be around when researchers find a cure.
He is the ultimate optimist, the guy who declares a half-full cup as overflowing. He's always been like that and the attribute didn't disappear seven years ago when nausea, sweat and chills that emerged while he was fishing turned out to be symptoms of a malignant mass over his pancreas.
The cancer spread to the lining of his stomach. Carlson started a treatment path that would bring more than 500 days of chemotherapy. Once a quality systems auditor, the disease pushed him to pursue his dream of becoming a tournament fisherman.
He started a project called Fishing For a Cure, designed to raise awareness about pancreatic cancer, which is expected to kill 43,000 Americans this year. He helped organize a fishing tournament to raise money for the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.
Two years ago, he and his partner, Mike McQuillen, were a few good-sized fish shy of winning the American Bass Association's regional anglers of the year award. They finished third.
The gradual slide turned into a free-fall. Carlson stopped fishing in December. The energy and gregariousness that defines him faded. It was hard just to breathe.
The cancer spread to his right lung, then his left. Dr. Josh Roseberg, Carlson's oncologist and hematologist, called the disease a sinister mix of different types of cancer cells. He said Carlson has already gone through virtually all available therapies and survived longer than most people.
Carlson was told he probably has no more than six months left to live. He's still fighting, convinced PRRT will turn those months into years.
"He's the most persistent person I've ever known," said his fishing partner, Mike McQuillen. "He's still looking to tomorrow. It's not promised or guaranteed. He still believes it is."
He lives with his parents because he needs people to take care of him. His daughter, Raichel Lickver, visited him this month after hearing the cancer had spread to his lungs. They sat in a room decorated with the 14-pound largemouth bass he caught in Lake Casitas, looked at photos of his grandchildren and talked about PRRT.
Carlson's sister, Barbara Kingsbury, found out about PRRT on the internet. In the treatment, a small quantity of radioactive material is sent into the bloodstream, targeting receptors found in neuroendocrine tumors.
"It attaches to the tumor cell like a lock and key and then it destroys the cancer cell," said Susan Cork, therapy coordinator at Excel Diagnostics, where Carlson will receive the treatment.
The treatment is part of a wave of therapy that targets specific cancer cells. In theory, it is "sort of a holy grail," said Dr. David Dawson, a pathologist who runs a pancreatic cancer lab at UCLA.
The effectiveness of personalized therapy depends on the exact nature of a person's cancer, the way the radioactive treatment is delivered and its ability to target just the cancer and not normal cells, Dawson said.
Studies have stamped PRRT as "promising." Cork said there can be a very good response to the therapy, partial success and little or no success.
"We never know how a patient is going to respond," she said, telling of patients where the therapy didn't work and others where it helped bring new energy and extended lives.
Rosenberg, Carlson's doctor, said the treatment is his patient's best shot. He, too, stressed there are no guarantees.
"If he lives another five years after this therapy, he will be the poster child," Rosenberg said. "There will be papers written on his success. It will be an absolute home run."
"It's the only way he can continue to live," said Paul Carlson, his 83-year-old father who's helping manage his son's GoFundMe campaign.
Doug Carlson will fly to Houston on Tuesday, his bag packed with a change of clothes that will be disposed of after the radiation infusion. His body will likely be wracked by vomiting and diarrhea caused by the treatment. When the infusion is over, he'll have to be isolated and tested with a Geiger counter.
His optimism could help with the therapy. His family says his ability to stay positive has helped him survive seven years.
Carlson said he knows he'll raise enough money for four infusions spread out over several months. The treatment will work. He'll fish again. He'll spend time with his grandchildren. He'll wake in the mornings feeling OK, maybe even better than that.
I met Doug many years back while working as the freshwater editor for Western Outdoor News. We fished together a mere handful of times, but I've never crossed paths with a more genuine and kindhearted man. Doug and I became instant friends, as I imagine happens with most who meet the man. He is as selfless as they come, and truly a model human being.
When we fished together the first time, I knew he was sick, but, as has been the case since Doug was diagnosed, his spirits remained high... higher than even those I know who are blessed with good health. In other words, unless Doug informed you of his battle, you wouldn't have a clue.
Doug has continued his fight for the past few years, but it's reached a critical point. The cancer has spread and doctors have informed him that one of the only treatment options left are a series of four PRRT injections. In other words, hope remains, but it also comes at a price. The shots are $10,000 each, and while Doug has thus far managed to scrape together enough funds to pay for the first two treatments (even being forced to sell his bass boat), he needs our help, the help of the angling and bass fishing community, to come to his aid for the remaining two shots.
I told him I would do what I could, and thus, the existence of this GoFundMe page. Share it with your fellow anglers and bass fishermen, share it with your family and friends. Share it with anyone you feel may be inclined to help out a man who has helped so many others, even in his own darkest hours.
I thank you, and Doug thanks you, from the bottom of our hearts, and I hope that together, we can give Doug even more than hope... another shot at life.
Victoria had spent the majority of the day just catching up with what had been happening at school since the operation, and she was pretty sure she still hadn’t gotten all the info. First, apparently Derek her sort-of boyfriend decided he wasn’t all that interested in dating some coma chick so apparently he was hooked up with someone else.
That stung a little bit but she had to admit their relationship hadn’t been very serious in the first place. Honestly he had been a convenience to keep people from bugging her about why she wasn’t dating, but he was pretty easy on the eyes. The part that hurt the most was he that was with TT.
Which brought her to the problem of Traci Thordon. Apparently TT had decided to jump in and take over EVERYTHING while she was out. “It wasn’t enough to steal Derek; she needed to lead the Squad too.” Victoria was muttering to herself, “I really wouldn’t mind so much if it wasn’t for the fact that she doesn’t have any damn talent.”
That wasn’t quite true, but she knew that at least Maria or Jenny had better skills and more original ideas. TT was just a bully. She was approaching the gym for practice and realized that despite her big talk earlier in the car she still had yet to come up with one single routine that didn’t involve aerials.
“Damn. What am I going to do? Why do I always have to open my big mouth?” This habit of muttering to herself was getting out of control. When she opened her locker the answer literally fell on her. She had stuffed her rollerblades in there last fall when it got too cold to skate anymore and had forgotten about them. Yes, and maybe change it to roller skates instead since there had been a few movies about roller derby lately that had done a little something to capture the imagination of the public. As she changed into her uniform Victoria smiled to herself. This was going to be awesome.
“Toria, holy shit! I knew they had done some spinal operation on you but DAMN! What’s THAT?” The ever-tactful Jenny had walked in before Victoria had put her shirt back on and was pointing at her newly acquired prosthetic. “That’s MAJOR but it looks cool as hell. Does it hurt?”
Victoria pulled her cheer jersey over her head, “No it doesn’t hurt at all. I don’t even notice that it’s there really. Listen Jenny, don’t tell anyone about this OK? I mean I suppose they’ll find out eventually but it is; well as you pointed out it IS pretty shocking. I’m having a hard enough time getting back into the swing of things as it is ya know?” They were walking into the gym.
“Hey, no problem Toria, you’ve gotta let me take a closer look at that thing sometime though.” She grinned, “Swimming practice is gonna be quite the shocker isn’t it? Can you even swim with that thing? Damn! It looks so wild, like something out of a movie. No wonder you were out for so long. What’s with the blades anyway?”
“It’s my way of adding some sass to our routines without getting off the ground.” She grinned at Jenny, “I have some interesting ideas for if the team wants to use them. I figure we could get skates though, skating has been making a comeback lately and I figure we can use it to our advantage.”
“Oh. My. God. You can’t be serious. Roller skates? I couldn’t help but overhear you two; come on what is this crap? We aren’t trying out for a remake of Grease, fucking hell, where do you come up with this shit?” TT obviously wasn’t impressed and was making her displeasure clear. “I’m serious, this is middle school garbage.” She folder her arms, daring them to defy her.
“Hey, if you don’t like it I don’t care. I just thought it’d breathe some life into these stagnant routines you guys have been stuck with these last few months. It doesn’t matter to me if you guys don’t want to use it. After all, I’ve been out of the loop for a quite a while now, and I can’t take over again. I have other priorities.”
As the words left her mouth, she realized they were true. Despite wanting to go to state with the team, she was more interested in getting into a good college, making something of herself and making a difference in the world. No matter how small that difference would probably end up being.
TT crossed her arms and opened her mouth, about to go off on a tirade when Jenny cut her off. “Hey that’s fair. I LOVED ‘Whip It’ maybe mixing some skating in would be cool!” She threw Victoria a conspiratorial wink over her shoulder. “Let’s get out there. It’s good to have you back V!”
“Yeah. Why don’t you go to the back until you get the routine down. You can make suggestions after we run through the initial warm-up and practice.” TT was asserting her authority again but Victoria didn’t really mind.
“Sure. Sounds good, it’s just nice to be back at practice again.” She walked to the back, slapping palms with some of her closer friends and grinning like hell at everyone. It really did feel good to be back. She stood with a couple girls who looked like they were probably Freshman, Sophomores at the oldest. They looked at her like she was a Goddess or something.
“Sssshhhh.” The first girl blushed bright red and Victoria carefully pretended not to notice. Turning to the girl on the other side who looked like she was trying not to look intimidated she smiled.
“Hey I’ve been out of commission for a few months as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Can you give me the basic rundown? Take it easy on me OK?”
“Sure. Umm.. well it starts out with our standard moves for the fight song from last year…” Victoria was only listening close enough to get the gist and instead watched the others while she stretched. It sounded like TT had made a routine out of the most successful parts of the cheer squad’s routines from the last three years that didn’t involve throws. Just as expected, not an original bone in her body.
Grinning to herself, Victoria mentally mapped out the motions in her head. Things fell in place with supreme ease, something that would normally have surprised her if she hadn’t done all these routines before. The look on TT’s face when she didn’t miss a single beat was going to be priceless.
Victoria was standing in the front courtyard of the school with her rollerblades slung over her shoulder debating whether or not she should go back in to pee AGAIN when the low rumble of a tuned sports car exhaust interrupted her thoughts. A flat black convertible with shocking bright orange wheels pulled up to the curb. Victoria wasn’t the only one watching; half the cheer squad was on the lawn or sitting on benches waiting for rides and enjoying the weather, and a car like this tended to pique people’s interest.
When Eugene gave her a cheery wave from the driver’s seat Victoria did a double take. This was not the kind of car she thought he’d be driving. Maybe an aging Volvo or a Honda Civic; not a Porsche. There he was though, looking pretty damn fine with a little stubble on his chin, wearing an expensive looking pair of Ray Ban’s and a dress shirt with the top few buttons undone. He grabbed a blazer off the passenger’s seat and leaned over to open the door for her.
Feeling a little ostentatious she tossed her school bag and blades on the floor and slid into the leather seat while a group of curious students watched from the bus stop. Victoria couldn’t help but feel smug when she picked TT out of the crowd. She didn’t really resent her taking over the cheer squad or stealing Derek, but it was satisfying to see her black look as she was leaning against the side of the bus enclosure.
Despite driving a sexy sports car and looking a little like a movie star Eugene was all business as they pulled out of the school’s front gate. So much for the brief fantasy that this was some kind of date. Doctor Arlington was a medical geek through and through in spite of his startling car and change of appearance.
“So, have you noticed any other side effects? Did your diags go OK this morning? Do you have any discomfort? I was especially worried about the area around your connection node as I know that’ll get some stress. That’s why I made sure the cord for it was the lightest one the industry had to offer.”
He paid very close attention to traffic and driving as he talked; never looking at her and instead focusing completely on the road and his car. He shifted smoothly from gear to gear with a surgeon’s precision and delicacy. The car’s engine was much louder than Victoria had anticipated; a throaty growl that competed with the wind noise and the sound of him talking but didn’t quite drown either out. She gave herself a mental shake and focused on what he was saying.
“No, other than drinking a million gallons of water I haven’t noticed anything unusual. The machine was super easy to use this morning but I didn’t have time to finish all the diagnostics.” She paused, knowing she wasn’t really telling the whole truth but before she could decide whether or not to come clean something caught the edge of her eye.
“What truck?” He glanced in the rear view mirror, “The black Durango? Just because they’re behind us doesn’t mean anything, you’ve been watching too much TV.”
“Fine, I didn’t want to talk about it because.” She hesitated; there was no way she could tell him she’d murdered some people, even in self-defense, “Well because it’s too weird. But look to your left. There’s another one over there. They are part of a group of three that tried to take my dad’s car off the road this morning.”
He glanced at her, taking his eyes off the road for the first time. “I saw the news report. It said the guy lost control of the vehicle, they didn’t mention anything about road rage.”
“Look, it wasn’t road rage. They used a three point bracketing technique straight out of a military training manual.” Her voice trailed off, military manuals? Where had that come from? “Uh, I mean. Well, just trust me these guys are professionals and they mean business.”
Just as she finished speaking, another truck cut through traffic towards the Porsche on the right hand side, tires screeching. Before they could get close, Eugene downshifted and put his foot to the floor. The car’s growl changed to a scream of rage and it shot forward like a rocket.
“Holy shit!” Victoria grabbed the door handle as they swerved around a semi-truck to pass on the minimal shoulder. The car was still accelerating, the g-forces holding her to the seat. “We’re going to make it!” She was exhilarated and not scared at all. At least until the gunshots started.
With roughly three thousand pounds of good old fashioned American steel in the park, some Plan B riders got together for a heavy metal sesh like you’ve never seen. They sure don’t make ‘em like they used to!
Cold therapy has been proven to be very effective when it comes to relieving knee pain. Applying knee ice packs or wraps to an affected knee has the effect of slowing the blood flow to the surrounding tissues, thus reducing inflammation and swelling, quickly.
October 29, 2015 March 23, 2017 Ohio University Career and Leadership Development Center Bobcat Spotlights	
Leadership Positions & Organizations: Co-Chair of the Ralph and Luci Schey Sales Centre. The Schey is a nationally top-ranked collegiate sales program with over 300 students, 43 paying business partners (who recruit from us) and over 700 alumni.
Biggest Accomplishment: I led a team of five new Schey students last fall as sales reps. I spent time coaching and guiding them to achieve $3,000 in sponsorship sales for an on-campus event. All five came in with zero sales experience and left each having achieved multiple sales. This experience was incredibly rewarding for me to see my work positively impact others and it got me hooked on leadership.
Best Memory: The feeling of giving the final presentation and finishing up the Integrated Business Cluster. As a team, we had done extremely well and become quite close over the course of the semester, so it was great to have one last hurrah with everyone.
Role Model: It’s hard for me to define a single person because I like drawing from an eclectic array of vision/advice. I try to lead my life to be the best ‘me’ as I can. That said, two people who I really look up to and try to learn from are Elon Musk and Susan Cain.
What makes a leader: Humility & Curiosity. I think it can be easy to get caught in your own vacuum of self-importance. As a student leader, you spend day after day leading teams of students but it’s imperative not to forget to stay humble and stay curious about the expertise, the experiences, and the guidance of others. I believe very strongly in staying intellectually curious throughout the day – everyone has their own story and I can guarantee there’s something to be learned from it. I think the best leaders are curious enough and humble enough to listen to others and grow.
Farmers walk target muscle – This will work pretty much every muscle in your body. A great tool for fat loss and overall core strength.
There are various pieces of equipment that can be used for the farmers walk. These can also be performed with heavy dumbbells or bars if these implements aren’t available. Begin by standing between the implements.
After grabbing the handles, lift them up by driving through the heels, keep your back straight and your head up.
Walk taking short, quick steps, and focus on breathing. Move for the distance as fast as possible. This will build solid core strength. To get a six pack however, nutrition should come first.
The farmers walk is a great strength builder and very popular in strength and conditioning circuits. It can also massively improve grip strength due to the instability and heavy weights used. For this you will need a heavy implement such as a dumbbell, farmers walk handles or heavy kettlebell and a walkway.
Ideally a free track of 40m at least just so that you can really test your self before having to turn around.
Angels in the Snow is Derek Lambert’s first book. This book also marked the start of his career as one of the best mystery and spy novelist.
‘With a ready eye for drama, which gave his journalism and fiction its air of authenticity, Lambert smuggled his incomplete manuscript out of Russia in a wheelchair when he was invalided home with suspected rheumatic fever. He finished it on his battered Olivetti typewriter in a flat over a grocer’s shop in Ballycotton, Co Cork, and earned himself the then impressive sum of £10,000, which set him firmly on his career as a novelist.’
Angels in the Snow is more of a literary fiction than a mystery or a spy thriller. I have mentioned in my previous posts too that there is something special about Lambert’s writing that leaves the reader in awe. The writing is clear and concise. After having read seven of his books, there is something that I have noticed – though the writing is crisp, the language is not for those who love to read simple English. Over the years, the way authors write – their usage of words has changed a lot. If you compare the books written in the 1970’s with those written now, you will see that there is a drastic change in the writing. There is a different kind of sophistication and class about the books written in the 70’s.
The story is about the lives of diplomats in the Soviet Union. Harry Waterman, a defector who now lives with his Russian wife Marsha and her parents. Richard Mortimer, a diplomat at the British Embassy who is torn between Diana – his embassy-selected girlfriend and Nina – his Russian teacher. From people wearing the same printed dresses – the nearby factory made a batch of same printed material for all, to buying something simple like Scotch – which the locals could not afford, the book also gives an insight into the general atmosphere that prevailed during the USSR.
The lives of the defectors were not easy either. Harry Waterman defected to Russia because he was about to be convicted for a murder in the UK. But what poor Harry did not know was that he had to spend years at the camp in Siberia before being declared innocent. Spending the rest of his life in Russia was not easy for him – he longed to go to the country he was born in – Britain.
Photographs of diplomats in compromising position – from homosexuals to otherwise, were used to blackmail them. More than blackmail, it was a sense of disgraceful return to their home country for the diplomats. Bugging the homes of diplomats and secretly checking their homes when they were away was also common. The KGB – the secret police were busy keeping their eyes on the foreigners, especially the Twilight Brigade – the name given to those who defected to Russia.
The book also gives a peek into the harsh Russian Winters, the not-so-exciting Christmas air and Russian toys for children. The parties held by diplomats were an only means of socializing, and then there was the trip to a ski resort or the beach – a separate beach just for the diplomats! And the mention of various delicacies is not to be missed – Borscht ( soup made with beetroot as its main ingredient), Nazran water, fruit water, vodka (fire water) and Chicken Kiev.
This book might not be the best when compared to Lambert’s Saint Peter’s Plot or The Red Dove, but overall, it is a good read.
Well written review R. Haven’t read any of his books, but going by your review I think I’ll read one soon!
Thanks, R 🙂 I have read almost all his books. Some are really good. Saint Peter’s Plot is the best – it is about WW2 and Hitler and a sinister plot.
Texas Christian University quarterback Trevone Boykin was arrested early this morning in San Antonio, Texas following a bar fight. He has been charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, and public intoxication, according to ESPN.
Before 2 am central time, he is alleged to have been in an altercation at Pat O’Brien’s, a bar. A group of patrons, who were also at the bar, recognized him and began talking trash to him.
Boykin did not like what they were saying. The 22-year-old was with a group of teammates when this incident happened.
The two sides were removed from the bar when a scuffle reportedly took place. He’s accused of striking a bar employee, then the fight continued outside.
Once the San Antonio police arrived at the scene, they tried to break up the fight. At this time, Boykin reportedly threw a punch, which is being called “indiscriminate,” that hit one of the officers.
This season, the one-time Heisman candidate, threw for 3,575 yards with 31 touchdowns. He also had 10 interceptions.
The team has not announced whether Boykin will be suspended for the team’s Alamo Bowl on Saturday against the Oregon Ducks. One has to believe he’ll miss this game if the incident is true.
The Atlanta Falcons picked up their third win of the season. They defeated the New York Giants, 23-20, on Monday Night Football at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
Since their infamous boating trip prior to their playoff game with the Green Bay Packers on January 8th, 2017 at Lambeau Field, the team is 4-20.
Julio Jones had nine receptions for 104 yards. Marvin Hall had three receptions for 63 yards and a touchdown. Austin Hooper had three receptions for 48 yards. Calvin Ridley had five receptions for 43 yards. Coleman had two receptions for 32 yards.
Jones now has 812 receiving yards without a touchdown. That’s the most through a team’s first seven games without a touchdown, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Sterling Shepard had five receptions for 167 yards. Odell Beckham Jr. had eight receptions for 143 yards and a touchdown. Barkley had nine receptions for 51 yards.
New York outscored Atlanta 14-13 in the second half. Barkley scored on a two-yard rushing touchdown. Following the touchdown, the two-point pass conversion failed.
Manning hit Beckham Jr. for a one-yard touchdown reception. Barkley was able to score on the team’s second two-point conversion attempt.
Coleman scored the Falcons lone touchdown in the second half, as he scored on a 30-yard rushing touchdown. Giorgio Tavecchio also made two field goals, including a crucial 56-yard field goal with 1:55 left in the game.
The Falcons led 10-6 at halftime. Ryan hit Hall for a 47-yard touchdown reception. Tavecchio also made a 40-yard field goal.
This episode we discuss: Delayed hoop gratification, The Ascendance of the Fe, Demon summoning phones, Finishing series, Fun living room party games, A game with vehicles, Upcoming hardware for nobody, Sony’s modless future, Girl power in media, How to properly binge cable, English Magicks, Drilldos, John’s (unrelated) fall from grace, and How to take all social facets out of a MMO.
My store, .Lilly., is at the Jersey Shore shops and they’re having an awesome hunt called Fake Baked Turkey Hunt. Cute name, huh? These are the prizes for the hunt for only 10l! hehe. Hope you enjoy yourself.
Posted in Uncategorized	Tagged awesome, blog, clothing, cool, demon, fashion, fun, halloween, hipster, I can't, I dunno, indie, Jacket, knife, lol, love, Magika, pretty, second life, sl	
Hey everyone..sorry I haven’t made a post in awhile! Just been a bit crazy with rl stuff and store stuff in sl! But my store is FINALLY open, lol. And I’m also at the Jersey Shore and in The Black Market! So check it out sometime! This is my kinda fall/spooky post. Magika is giving out 2 gorgeous hairs for a group gift this autumn! I’m wearing the “candy corn”version, but there is also “blood” which you guessed it…is red! This post is a mix of stuff that I got from Collabor88 and Fi*Fridays! Here goes:
The Polish, Spanish, Estonian and Latvian Wikipedias shut down in protest of the European Union's proposed copyright reform, blocking access for all users. This follows identical actions taken by Italian Wikipedia the previous day.
I heard on the news that this year will be one second longer than last year to help deal with a slowed earth rotation or something.
I decided the one second was added at some point this week because this week seems so slow but then they told me the second is due to be added on June 30th.
Adding seconds to the year is not something I knew they were allowed to do (don’t ask me who they is, I never really know when I use the word they in these types of situations) but it sort of explains things.
Like, when we think a year flew by so fast? Maybe they took some seconds away from us and just didn’t say.
So now when time seems to be going slow, I will just assume that seconds were added to my clock and no one told me.
I forgot to buy plum tomatoes this week. I really like them– chopped up, roasted or sliced with avocado–but I completely left them off of the grocery list I write but never remember to bring with me to the store so I have been making do without them.
I am just staring at the clean dishes right now as I speak to you from my early morning dimly lit dining area of my kitchen.
Can I admit something? I am super disorganized when it comes to how I load the dishwasher. I have no system or order. It’s total anarchy in there. If throwing dishes inside the machine wouldn’t result in breakage, that would be how I do it.
Is it just me or do your legs and feet swell something serious after running? I only know that mine do because I struggle to tug on my recovery pair of compression socks post-run.
Before running? They slide on all nice. After? It’s like trying to do a simple task with a severe case of PMS involved.
Shopping and trying on jeans is a workout in itself, just try that after a long run with swollen legs and feet.
Not only was I out of breath by the time I left the dressing room the other day, I spent the time in the too small of a space struggling to get those skinny-styled pairs up and over my calves and then back down again.
And who I am to suddenly decide to wear jeans anyway? If I spoke in hashtag, this is where I would say #leggingsforlife.
Just when the Pure Barre instructor on the video tells me chin up, chest up, keep breathing is the exact point where I am probably about to turn blue.
I do it to make sure I am not tensing up or holding some sort of tight grip –it helps me to keep loose and relax.
I hate emptying the dishwasher! Especially when I am in a rush and I realize its full and I open it to put something in….and then I feel bad about leaving it without emptying it. If I had my way I would just throw things in there wherever they fit but Rob has a very particular way of organizing it so I let him take care of that.
I was thinking yesterday about how putting on pro compression socks after a workout/shower is a million times harder! Oh and I have those same socks!
yes! I blame the shower part too! I try so hard to dry off completely but I swear my calves and feet are just swollen too. It’s such a process and annoys me every time lol.
Trying on skinned is the -worst-… Sometimes I even struggle with getting the bottom to fit over my feet. Which is probably why I love the jeggings from American Eagle — they stretch 🙂 And is it weird that I almost never use my dishwasher? I’ll run it every once in a while to keep it from getting crusty or whatever, but I usually do all my dishes by hand.
This is why I shouldn’t complain because I probably hate washing dishes more than I hate unloading the dishwasher.
Oh how I hate emptying the dishwasher! Embarrassingly I didn’t actually do it until dinner time yesterday. So pathetic. And that will most likely happen again today. I actually feel like the week is flying!
I usually run it after dinner and unload in the morning. I just hate the whole process of unloading and putting away but I guess it’s better than no dishwasher at all. When we were first married, we didn’t have one and that really wasn’t too fun either.
YES! I totally swell after my long runs! I need to try compression socks- I have heard good things about them so it’s worth a shot! I ran my longest run in a while this past Sunday and oh WOW I was so swollen!
Definitely get a pair of Pro Compression socks. They really are as good as everyone says. I love them.
Oh I bloat and swell up so bad after running and working out! I HATE all my post-race pictures because of this. haha.
I’m the dishwasher unloader, and my Hus is the loader. When I DO load some of the dishes – very organized! – he moves everything around before he starts it. Apparently he fits more dishes in there, but it’s a chaotic mess and dishes break all the time. And he wonders why I don’t buy sets of dishes and i’m constantly buying dishes here and there! LOL
I try to be organized but after I put a few things in, the organization part of the load just gets left behind and I shove it all in.
How about trying to get your running bra off, when you are sweating. That trick in itself is a workout!!!!
Have Champion bras that hook in the back but the velcro thingy that covers the hooks digs into my back and after a few washings the velcro does not stay closed. Ugh thought that those bras would be the answer and had a coupon so seemed like a good deal!!!
I don’t have a bra like that but yes, I struggle pulling off my sweaty clothes too! And I get really cranky about it because I like to jump in shower before eating after my run but I am usually starving at that point and getting mean!
I HATE jean shopping. and wearing jeans. I’ll totally join team #leggingsforlife. I don’t know if it’s getting older but every morning I just stare at my closet and say I wish I could wear yoga pants to work.
We called jeans dungarees when I was a kid. Either way, my only pair now has worn through under the back right pocket. Now I feel I have to coordinate the color of my underwear with the rest of my outfit ….
Hahaha I am the WORST at remembering to breathe while working out! It seems like a pretty basic thing right? But no… When I had a personal trainer that’s what he kept reminding me to do most!
I HATE unloading the dishwasher too! Dishes are like the worst thing ever. It may sound totally backwards, but I normally wash my dishes by hand and rarely use my dishwasher. Maybe it is because it then results in me putting away a smaller amount of dishes in one time? 😉
Everything in my kitchen is mini [I live in a studio]….mini stove, mini fridge. But the dishwasher is full size. Go figure. I still seem to fill it up somehow.
I’m a crazy person about the dishwasher. I will move stuff around if it is “out of place”! Breathing while doing barre is totally hard. You’re concentrating so much on the shaking or burning in your legs that you forget to breathe!
I know! I have been trying to remember to breathe and even focus on it which I think might be helping to get through each set a little easier without straightening my legs.
Thankfully, most of the time now, my boys unload the dishwasher!!! I’m sort of anal about how it gets loaded and I think I taught them well enough to do it mostly the way I like it:)
I showed that Starburst gum to my very recent fiance and I think he about lost his mind. He loves Starburst! One second added to this year?…Weird. I had no idea that happened either. And I just got my first pair of pro compression socks to try this week in the mail! I already love them. Have a good weekend!
Aww… k this was cute. You’re hilarious! I think we’re opposite, though. I love organizing the dishwasher the same way as I love putting my groceries into order on the belt at the grocery store. And I don’t like tomatoes. I’ll even pick them out of my burgers. But everything else? We’re practically twins. He he. 🙂