Atonement

After much freaking and spazzing out, I killed one of these today. I was pretty sure it was an evil demon or a time traveller from the Cretaceous period .

Now I feel very bad, because I've learned that House Centipedes feed on spiders, bedbugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish and ants.

CURSE MY IGNORANCE!

Never again.

Citizenship Rant

Conservatives order rewrite of 'insipid' citizenship guidebook

Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, sounds like a bit of an ass in this article.

The current guidebook for Canadian newcomers includes two pages on environmental stewardship and barely a mention of the Canadian military - and that has Jason Kenney hopping mad [...] As Kenney acerbically characterizes it, the booklet includes two pages "on recycling" - but "not one single sentence on Canadian military history."

I've been a Canadian citizen since 1993, and while I agree that the citizenship stuff I read at the time and in the years since could be described as somewhat "insipid," I take offense at the idea that focusing on things like the environment is "ridiculous," while lecturing about past wars is supposed to be a better way to introduce people to their new country.

It isn't that 1990's Liberal Canadian values are more "insipid" than 2000's Conservative Canadian values. It just that Canadian attempts to describe Canada are pretty much always gag-worthy in some way. The government, no matter who is in control, is always the most clichéd in this endeavour (except perhaps the CBC).* Insulting environmental stewardship in order to celebrate soldiers isn't going to change that. It's just exchanging one ideological emphasis for another, and if you ask me, the one that boasts of environmental responsibility and peacefulness is more valuable than the one that salutes military achievement.

I'm not saying that knowledge of military history isn't important, it's just not as important for the future of Canada as the topic the Minister singles out for derision. I believe that Canadians should know about Canadian history, including the good and the bad. I doubt, however, that along with the story of Vimy Ridge immigrants will learn about Japanese internment camps. I doubt that in addition to the importance of the poppy as a symbol, the new booklet will mention much about the residential school system. Unless I'm proven wrong and they somehow don't pick and choose the version of Canada they want to convey, I say give me a break, Minister! The changes you are planning are almost certainly going to be "a small-c conservative, partisan [and] ideological project." Don't pretend otherwise. Your version of Canada will be just as "insipid" as the old one, just in a conservative way.

And I don't see how this will "foster greater integration of immigrants" and improve "social cohesion."

In fact, I can feel my immigrant self dis-integrating as I write this! Thanks a bunch, Conservatives! You are ruining my cohesion, socially speaking.

*Don't get me wrong, I really like the CBC. I just can't stand to hear them talk about 'what it means to be Canadian' and stuff like that. It is just too self-congratulatory for me to stomach.

SuperPost

Rachel and I have set up a heck of a lot of categories in this here blog. Time to cram them all into one SUNDAY SUPER POST, random point-form style.

AFRICA

• As much as I agree with Palin that her fellow republicans are jerks for spreading rumours about her dumb questions during her debate prep, I have to profusely thank Americans for not electing a V.P with such a pitful understanding of Africa.

ART

• Hey! art’s great! Am I right?

BOOKS

• Currently reading Watchmen, thanks to Rachel. It’s starting up pretty slowly so far, and I’m looking forward to more action. I have to say that Rorschach was a great idea for a character, visually.
  

CAILIN

• I wonder how many people are actually called Cailin in Ireland? (It’s Irish for “girl”)

COMEDY


COMIC

• If it is at all possible that you are not yet aware of The Perry Bible Fellowship, get reading.

ENGLISH

• I had NO IDEA James Joyce was such a dirty, dirty man. If you’ve seen his love letters to Nora Barnacle, you know what I’m talking about.

ENVIRONMENT

• I wonder if the fact that my new low-flow shower head requires me to take about three times as long to wash my hair as it used to cancels out the water I’m supposed to be saving in the first place...

FASHION

• You know how JFK destroyed the hat industry by strutting around bare-headed? I’m hoping Obama also makes some huge male fashion impact. At the moment, I’m rooting for him just bringing the hat back.

GOSSIP GIRL

• haven’t seen the show yet, but that one brunette looks like a doll. This is my insightful observation!

JAMIE TUBBS

• I just accidentally typed “Jamir Tibbs.” That would make a great alter ego.

JOKES

• D.L Hughley’s are not funny.

LOGO

• At least if you got McCain's campaign logo tattooed on your body you can pretend you were in the navy or something...

MOVIES

• Anybody seen that “Nick and Nora” Micheal Cera one? How was it? I can’t see it because the title alone enrages me. Nick and Nora Charles forever!

MUSIC

• It’s been pretty great listening to civil rights movement music this week.

POLITICS

• I missed the last Liberal leadership convention since I was abroad at the time, so I never saw how handsome that Gerard Kennedy is. I mean, he’s no Justin Trudeau, but you take what you can get.

• Also, did anyone ever chant Hur-RAE, Hur-RAE for Bob Rae?

POLL

• Ah, how I will miss CNN’s POLL of POLLS.

QUOTES

• “ Just had a great lunch. Wham, bam, thank you ham!” - Jordan Morris, via twitter. He makes me laugh.

RACHEL

• What a pal! What an asset to civilization!

ROMANCE

• So many great romantic tales seem to hedge on circumstances that could have been altered by the slightest thing, like missing a certain bus or leaving a party early. Makes one wonder if, say, an ill-timed Steve Irwin impersonation might have cost one one’s soul mate. One would feel like a real jackass if that were true. One would indeed.

Good thing God doesn’t ever confirm such things. "THOU HAST TOTALLY BLOWN THY ONE CHANCE FOR TRUE LOVE, THOU IDIOT.”


SARAH PALIN

• She should get to keep the clothes. Come on!

TELEVISION

• I miss Mad Men.

TRAVEL

• I just watched a video of Obama playing basketball, and it looks like his buddies are letting him win. Unless he is the best at all things?

• The travel connection: I’m pretty sure traveling is something basketballers do.

VIDEO GAMES

• I could go for some treasure mountain.

ZIMBABWE

• is Ewbabmiz backwards!

Phew, this was difficult. Good Night.

Ivory

A large, legal sale of stockpiled ivory is going on in South Africa today. Sanctioned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the money raised is supposed to help fund conservation efforts in southern Africa. Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe have already sold off their stock of tusks in the last two weeks, and CITES plans to monitor buyers so that they don't mix the legal ivory with that gained from poaching. 45% of the ivory comes from elephants culled for population control in Kruger park during the eighties and nineties, and the rest died of natural causes. South Africa expects to raise $8m from the sale.

Even with all the rational arguments in favour of this sale, and the good intentions behind it, something just doesn't sit well with me. At first I was under the impression that these were confiscated tusks being sold, which gave me the easy protest that it's akin to say, police confiscating child porn and then selling it to raise money to fight child abuse. That comparison is of course a bit silly and, now that I have more information, unusable. I think my compulsion to make the comparison in the first place is simply because it seems morally wrong. People fighting to protect elephants shouldn't be dealing with the sick market that caused their slaughter in the first place. It's tainted money, even if it doesn't actually encourage the illegal market, like some animal protection groups have argued.


(Thank goodness China won't run out of ivory cellphones, though! )



(P.S. Happy Birthday Rachel! A happy post for a happy day!)

Vote for environment

I've signed a lot of local hippie do-gooder petitions in my day, and joined a lot of mailing lists. Today I received a link to a website that makes voting suggestions on a riding-by-riding basis, showing the most strategic way to defeat the conservative candidate in each area.

Vote For Environment

The thinking behind this site is that any party would be better on environmental issues than Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada. I've been ashamed of Canada's stance on environmental issues since Harper came to power, and am still angry about his international betrayal of the Kyoto Protocol, so I certainly agree that a vote against Harper is a vote for the environment. I'll be happy if this website helps anyone make a difficult choice between several appealing opposition candidates, as we have in my riding.