A Selfish Pause for enjoyment

of Jeff Grant's photograph of a Kniphofia sp. (or so I've deduced)





And a dog named George

Canada's shame continues

This Talking Head over-rationalises the Israeli demolition of Lebanese society, reducing his position to little more than an apologist for murderers.

He is as useful as tits on a bull and doesn't have an opinion until it's given to him.

Apparently he cannot count either:

"I don't think that Canada's position is isolated in any way and I don't think that we have done anything other than participate productively, actively in looking for solution that will lead to a ceasefire."

Canada was alone with the UK in supporting the veto imposed by the US on the proposed UN resolution for a ceasefire.

He extolls the virtue and solemn importance of enforcing UN resolutions, but selectively excludes the myriad resolutions to which Israel has never complied.

Alexa McDonagh certainly has bigger balls than he, and at least sees that an immediate ceasefire is the minimum that Canada should be calling for. (and I do mean minimum)

Do I need a New World order Map?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he does not favour sending Canadian troops to southern Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force, adding that countries in the area should be responsible for resolving the conflict.

via (emphasis mine)

So did Afghanistan suddenly become part of North America when I blinked?

This jackassery really has to stop.

The politicians won't do it while we allow them to continue to decide which status quo situations should continue, and which they will decide (strategically) need to be changed.

"It is time for a new Middle East," she said. "It is time to say to those that don't want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail. They will not."

~Condlizzard quote via

A Measured Response....

...must be dependant upon who's yard-stick you're using.

Troops were also fighting Hezbollah militants inside the Lebanese border.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the number of Lebanese killed in the ten days of violence was more than 330.

He said that more than 55 bridges had been destroyed and claimed Israeli forces had also targeted medical convoys.

"This attack is no longer against Hezbollah, it is an attack against the Lebanese and Lebanon," he said.

via

But, of course, Israeli politicians and apologists have a different take on this situation:

Alan Baker says that Arbour, who has been an international war crimes prosecutor and a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, doesn't understand the situation.

via

And while western nations fawn and busy over getting out those Lebanese fortunate enough to hold dual citizenship along with foreign tourists:

"Here, it just seems like the world is doing nothing.

"People are dying and it feels like a collective punishment on the whole nation.

via

OR...

Maybe Israel was targetting the deadly and feared Lebanese Pigeons....



Lebanese pigeon fanciers release birds they found alive under the rubble of houses that were destroyed when Israeli airplanes targeted them, in the town of Choueifat, at the southern edge of Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday. (AP Photo)


Support Peace.
This means YOU!

shine on you crazy diamond

Syd Barrett

1946-2006


assorted news coverage

Never Again?

I have often wondered for whom this expression was intended.
Never Again....should any people suffer collective punishment simply for existing.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted that he intended to commit war crimes in Gaza, telling his cabinet that he wanted “no one to be able to sleep tonight in Gaza”. Olmert thus officially acknowledged Israel’s policy of collectively punishing 1.4 million Palestinians, a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

via

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Escalate Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and Isolate the Gaza Strip from the Outside World

29 June - 5 July 2006


~9 Palestinians were killed by IOF.

~6 of the victims were killed by the IOF shelling in the Gaza Strip.

~Two of the victims were extra-judicially executed by IOF in the West Bank.

~91 Palestinians, including 18 children, were wounded by the IOF gunfire.

~IOF warplanes launched a series of air strikes and mock air raids on the Gaza Strip; offices of the Palestinian Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior and a number of civilian facilities were destroyed or damaged.

~IOF conducted 81 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and reoccupied areas in the Gaza Strip.

~102 Palestinian civilians, including 7 ministers, 24 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, 6 children and two girls, were arrested by IOF.

~5 houses and hundreds of donums[1] of agricultural land were destroyed by IOF in the Gaza Strip.

~6 houses in the northern Gaza Strip were transformed by IOF into military sites.

~35 charitable societies in the West Bank were raided and a number of them were closed by IOF.

~The electricity network in Rafah was destroyed, and the town has been living in darkness.

~IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; IOF have imposed a tightened siege on the Gaza Strip; dozens of patients are stuck at Rafah International Crossing Point on the Egyptian border; and IOF positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 3 Palestinian civilians.

~IOF have continued to construct the Annexation Wall in the West Bank; IOF started to establish a fence around “Kermi Tsur” settlement, north of Hebron; and IOF confiscated at least 25 donums of agricultural land in Beit Oula village, west of Hebron.

via

Harriet

Rest in Peace, Harriet ~1830-2006

Light & Heavy

Arctic Forms III by Lawren Harris

Fibonacci in the Foyer

one of seven photos at 22 over 7

my disdain for humanity

Is partially explained by this:



Grizzly-Polar Bear Hybrid killed by Idaho Trophy Hunter

At a time when humanity is causing more species to go extinct than ever, when our polar ice is melting and the Arctic climate changing so rapidly and becoming an environment that is less and less inhabitable by those unique creatures indigenous to it, this man is already back up in the North (this time a Grizzly's in his sights) and an new hybrid species which is the only example of a creature heralding both the demise and survival of the powerful Nanuk, hangs on the wall of a trophy hunter from Idaho.

Of course, my disdain is not limited to the hunter; I have a healthy disdain for my government and its regulations which not only allow, but encourage foreign trophy hunters to visit our country for the main purpose of shooting and killing creatures for pleasure.

Get Some

I've been on a temporary internet hiatus, or rather a hiatus from the internet, which may continue for a while yet.

Life can become busy with itself in many ways.

In the meantime, a thought I think everyone can benefit from: create unity.

See you all soon, and thanks for continuing to check in at my little space on the world wide web.

Une femme de Montreal - then, and now

Marie Josephe Angélique
~Executed by Torture, Montreal, Québec ~ 1734

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I think today is sweet revenge"
~Governor General Michaëlle Jean, Montreal, Québec ~ 2006

"Racism has a history that we must never forget," Jean said. "The racism of today is an extension of the lingering racism of yesterday. If we forget this, then we risk perpetuating an unacceptable situation."

Luscious Lilium

JJFineArt

Stop the Seal Hunt

The seal hunt begins in less than 2 days.

Tell Canada's government to come clean about what's really happening on the ice before it's too late!

TAKE ACTION NOW

Now I must add that as a Canadian I respect that there are cultural and historical ties to the seal hunt. Many a fine Newfoundlander needed to hunt seals at one time both to put food on the table and to sell the pelt for income.
There is no need and no excuse for this to happen today.
Any outport Newfoundlanders who aren't happy about the protest to this hunt can use their time machines to go back and stop Joey Smallwood from killing your traditional way of life and making it unsustainable.

If you're without a time machine, then I'm afraid that you just have to deal with the fact that this is a barbarous practice and find an alternative supplement to your income.

Times change, so must we.

Surely we can see that these animals should not be predated by man any longer.

We're in it DEEP

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a great deal of explaining to do.

First we're 'only' in Afghanistan to ensure a better way of life for Afghans; many may buy into that crap, but Canada's forces are there as participants in the USA's Operation Enduring Freedom, no if's and's or but's about it; and this despite Canada never having issued a mandate from the people.

Now after hearing the good news of the rescue of 2 Canadians & 1 British hostage that CANADIAN TROOPS ARE IN IRAQ.

”CTV News has learned that Canada's elite Joint-Task Force 2 was involved in the rescue in western Baghdad.

"We're told that Canadian special forces and British special forces played a very key role," CTV's Robert Fife told Newsnet.

The Defence Department refuses to confirm Canadian military involvement in the operation.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, speaking in London, said the Mounties were also involved in the rescue, but an RCMP spokesman would not confirm that.
.....


Only three hours passed from the time rescuers learned the exact whereabouts of the hostages and when the raid took place, he said.”

full article

Now I'm glad those folks are safe, but it does not excuse the Canadian Government deceiving its citizens and spending their tax dollars wantonly and without discourse or disclosure.


I'd like to know:

1. WHY?
2. SINCE WHEN?
3. WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
4. HOW LONG WILL THEY STAY?
5. WHY DIDN'T YOU DEBATE THIS IN THE HOUSE?
6. WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL CANADIAN CITIZENS?

Welcome the Snowdrop

Galanthus nivalis

My belated greetings on the Spring Equinox.

Start Peace

Global Events

Canadian Events

"Women's Day" in India

Women break the petiole of chilies as they dry, in Ahmedabad, India, on Tuesday.
The women earn (11 cents US) for breaking the petioles of 20 kilograms of chilies.

March 8 is celebrated as World Women's Day

Sunrise

via

Hey - Wake Up!

I make a plea to all mindful Canadians to inform themselves and make their opinions known to their elected MP.

Thanks to Youngfox for a great post today, and one which addresses the most urgent topic of Canadian involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

If you pay your taxes you "SUPPORT THE TROOPS".
If you do not support this war you do not support government policy. See the difference and never let war mongers and their brainwashed thralls guilt trip you for having a conscience.
Remember what that did to the American public discourse.