The question that seems to have been forgotten

Why was Karl Rove talking to a journalist about a CIA operative in the first place?

Blaming the victim

The Muslim community, or at least those members who get good media attention, does not get it. They have hemmed and hawed about the cancer that is within their community, always seeking to find someone else to blame for the hate that originates from within their own ranks. The attacks of September 11 were for past sins against Muslims, or Palestinians, or whomever. The London bombings were for Britain's participation in Iraq. So what was Australia being punished for when the Bali bombs went off, six months before the war in Iraq started?

One Muslim community leader said that Canada has not had any attacks because Jean Chrétien opted to keep Canada out of Iraq. So where did Ahmed Ressam come from? Minnesota? The bombings and attacks have nothing to do with Iraq. These are simply people who want to bomb things and will find a justification that suits the day's news.

There are those in the Christian community who view the Bible as a literal text to be followed. Abortion doctors are shot and killed by these extremists. The difference, however, is that these extremists find no shelter within the mainstream Christian community. They are properly referred to as a fringe group, lunatics who don't speak for Christians.

The Muslim community needs to ostracize the extremists from their community. It's all good and well to say that Al Qaeda doesn't speak for the Muslim community, but the mainstream Muslim community's silence (or "blame-the-victim" approach) creates a vacuum that is filled by, you guessed it, the extremists. So by default, those extremists to speak for the whole community.

Cancelling travel plans

I've decided that I will no longer visit London for the foreseeable future. The odds of me being killed by trigger-happy cops make the whole experience completely not worth it. I'll probably resist the urge to travel to the US too, lest I end up in Gitmo for being looking just a little too swarthy...

Sad, but true.

Possession

Sweet!

Hey Man, Nice Shot

I only just now read the whole story about Budd Dwyer. Feel free to Google it if you like, but be careful of any videos as they may be too graphic for some people. It helps to listen to the song by Filter while reading about it (or even watching the videos if you have the stomach for it). There is something about this whole sordid story that I can't get out of my mind...

Only one week left

And five days before I hand over the biggest cheque in my life.

Be here now

Great new website to while away the hours:

http://www.howdtheyvote.ca/

Rewarding stupidity

Around the time that I was travelling to my wedding, a woman in Georgia was travelling *away* from hers. Jennifer Wilbanks was supposed to get married on April 30 (heh...) but instead, decided to wander out West without telling anyone. As panic set in to her family (both current and would-be family) she eventually called them, but not to tell them she was fine and coming home and not to worry, but to tell them she had been kidnapped. One thing led to another, search and rescue operations were set up, police notified pretty much all over the American south and then the whole thing came to a stupid conclustion.

She had made it all up.

Yep, she just got nervous, scared, selfish, whatever, but she was fine. She was eventually given community work as a sentence and ordered to repay the costs incurred by towns and states to find her and her "kidnapper", which was totally unnecessary. You'd think that it would be appropriate to end there, but this is America. Someone doing something that breathtakingly idiotic and narcissistic should get rewarded! So, it came to pass, Jennifer got $500,000 for her life story, thereby encouraging a whole generation of women to fake their own kidnapping in the future.

And for those who say she may have had a legitimate reason to get cold feet or whatever, I say horsefeathers! If you were raised with any sense of values, dignity and respect for others, you would have simply called to say you had cold feet or second thoughts. You don't fake a kidnapping, thereby endangering the safety of others and causing untold grief and suffering on to your family.

Hopefully she uses the money for therapy and/or a lobotomy.

Only in America....thank goodness...

American Phishing

If you haven't heard about "phishing" you may recognize it. It's an e-mail from a bank, internet provider or other online merchant with whom you do commercial transactions on-line. The e-mail looks all official with logos and everything, informs you that there is a problem with your account, or suspected fraud, or whatever, and asks you to login to your account or send your password via e-mail or something. The website is redirected elsewhere and thieves now have your password and can get into your paypal, e-mail, bank or credit card info.

I get a few of these a week, but what I never understand is, why do I only get phishing e-mails from American banks? I've never heard of Southtrust bank, so how can I give my password to a bank I've never used? Canadian bank websites post fraud warnings, so presumably this happens here, but I've yet to receive such an e-mail.

Lucky me?

Happy Canada Day!

One hundred and thirty eight years young!