John Kerry tells us how he really feels...

"Soldiers are dumb! Stay in school so you don't have to be a soldier..." - paraphrased

For some reason I think this may tank the Dems in next weeks election...

Ladies and gentleman, RightGirl is leaving the building. I will be taking the month of November off to withdraw from the exciting and disturbing world of Islamoterror and focus on fiction. Well, the quasi-fiction that I write in my off moments: pieces of my past mixed with elements of my today and a little fantacizing of how it should have all turned out.

Two years ago, unemployed and bubbling over with catharsis over the relationship that changed my life, I took the NaNoWriMo challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I succeeded. This year (with no election to distract me as it did last year) I will take the challenge again. Again I am working through something large, something that causes the words to spill out on a daily basis anyway, so I may as well link them all together. NaNo helps because it gives me the discipline and support a lazy bitch like me needs to finish a large-scale project.

Once more I will spend November developing writer's callous on my right middle finger (I prefer to write the old fashioned way - on paper), eating grilled cheese and living on hot chocolate with a hefty dash of cayenne pepper. Don't knock it - food, like sex, should always hurt just a little. Or a lot, depending on your tolerance for that sort of thing...

So let me spend my 30 days purging my body & soul of whatever is weighing so heavily upon it. I need this. I'll try to check in from time to time, to let you know what's inspiring me on the iPod, or to share a passage of what I've been working on. But you'll still be looked after. Kathy Shaidle is on board, as is Richard Evans. And with any luck EM Zanotti will share her Friday Random Ten with you for the next four Fridays. This will all start on November 1. Until then... probably silence, or maybe a picture of a pumpkin on Tuesday. I have to get out of the Islamofunk and into the right frame of mind for what I'm about to do.

In the meantime, here's a snippet of what I gave birth to in 2004. The story is called Pandora's Woe.

Packing up the house didn't get any easier. In fact, it got harder. Ellie and Chris couldn't be there with me every moment. I spent a lot of time in the car, running away from it. I was driving all the time again. When I took up with Chris, I really cut down on my driving. But with the house and everything, well, it was easier just to hit the road. I couldn't sleep when it was dark, and the further we went into October, the longer the nights were. I also couldn't pack when it was dark. Too depressing. All I could do was drive. Which left the daylight hours for packing and sleeping. I couldn't bring myself to do much of either. I didn't drink as heavily as I had the night Ellie and Chris were there, but I was still going through a good deal of bourbon. Southern Courage, it should have been called. I also started taking more of the Valium from the medicine cabinet. It had been prescribed for me years before, and I'd hardly ever taken any of it before Papa went into the hospital. Before that, he would give me some on the really bad nights, but mostly I just took bourbon. The original bottle had been way past the expiry date when I finished it, but it didn't matter. It still did the trick. By the time I began packing up the house, I was on my fourth bottle just that year.

I went through my closets, clearing out piles of old toys, school reports, and other memorabilia. The scrapbook of my accomplishments ended in sixth grade. That was the year that Mama died. I didn't accomplish much after that, and besides, even if I had, who would have recorded it? I couldn't take everything with me to the new apartment. Stuffed animals that I'd been holding onto for more than a decade would have to go. Pictures I'd drawn, stories I'd written, and books I'd read. It would all have to go. I was throwing my childhood away, not just leaving it behind. Most kids got to grow up and move out, and when they did, their parents safeguarded the evidence of their youth. I didn't get to grow up naturally - it was demanded of me. And there were no sentinels to protect the few precious remains of a childhood cut short. Did I have the space for class photos and swim team medals? Who was even left to care if I held onto the fourth grade science project I got an A+ for? Parents aren't just the people who store your stuff. They actually care about it. Try to get a mother to part with a half-burned baptismal candle. Now try to get an orphan to find space in her life for it. I had to let so much go. Even the things I kept for sentimental reasons would have to stay packed away in boxes, out of sight, probably never to be looked at again.

So out it all went. The baby blanket, the report cards, and the poorly made ashtray I'd given Papa for Father's Day when I was eight years old. Mama would have kept all these things; they would have mattered to her. But my future didn't have space for the past.

(or who, like me, have not quite figured out the joys of RSS feeds), Beth at Blue Star Chronichles has a Cotillion "Best Of" round-up. Go check it out. I'm off to Starbucks for a coffee.

Iranian Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has issued a fatwa - a Muslim religious edict - saying it is legitimate for men to hit their disobedient wives. Shirazi, one of the leading clerics of the Shiite holy city of Qom, wrote on his website that "the Koran first of all advises a man to try and convince his wife to obey to him in a polite way and through advice, then by refusing to have sexual relations with her and, finally, if all this will have failed to make her reason, with physical punishment."

The punishment, the leading cleric said, "must be light and considered an exceptional event, like surgery in case of a serious illness."

Makarem Shirazi advised his readers against "physical punishment which leaves signs and wounds." Women, he axplained, "are masochistic and sometimes they have a crisis and need light physical punishment to get back to normal."

Yeah? Well why don't you just come on over here and try it on me you hairy filthy bearded backwards bastard?

The French "youths" (aka Muslims) have gone too far.

A group of marauding teenagers set fire to a bus Saturday in the southern French port city of Marseille, seriously wounding a passenger and leaving three others suffering from smoke inhalation, police said.

The press and the police have largely ignored the nonsense coming from the north-African malcontents of the Paris Banlieus and the Provinces, but now people are getting hurt. Can they continue to ignore the problem and blame it on the marginalization of immigrants?

Three or four young people burst onto a bus in the southern French city and tossed inside a bottle of flammable liquid before fleeing, police said, citing witnesses' accounts. A fire stared, seriously injuring a 26-year-old woman who suffered second- and third-degree burns on her arms, legs and face.

Do the animals really believe that France will be more welcoming of them if they are violent? Do they really believe there will be less segregation? Looks like it's time to segregate these bastards back to Algeria and Morocco where they belong.

In Clichy-Sous-Bois, the region worst affected by the "youth" problem, cops have been attacked. Again.

Six police officers suffered minor injuries and 25 people were arrested in scattered violence across France on the first anniversary of the start of nationwide riots, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.

Police had deployed 4,000 reinforcements across the country Friday night to brace for a replay of violence in mostly poor, immigrant suburbs.

Marauding youths torched two public buses and police and firefighters were targeted in some towns, but overall, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that the night was "relatively calm."

I can believe it. Where Muslims are involved, a few injuries and torchings really is relative calm.

The remains of Manjit Panghali, 30 years old, pregnant, have been found burned. Ok, murders happen. But...

Her husband, a high school physics teacher, admitted he did not report his wife missing until Thursday evening, about 26 hours after he last saw her.

Your pregnant wife disappears, and you don't report it for more than a day?

The police have put an information blackout on the case, which also leads me to suspect honor killing.

I will be interested to see how this case unfolds.

I had the chance to see Monte Solberg speak last night at the Islington Golf Club, as a guest of Etobicoke Centre hopeful Axel Kuhn. Of all the Canadian politicos I've met (including PM Harper), Monte is my favorite. He's an absolute gem, and a wonderful friendly man to talk to. I had little chance to get near him last night, but I do fondly remember him attending a fundraiser last fall for my own riding of Parkdale-High Park, in the home of a local businessman. It was a very intimate affair, maybe 20 people with a high entry fee, but it gave everyone a chance to have a chat with the then-Finance Critic.

As my business associate and I left the club last night, I looked back to see Monte (of small stature), as Immigration Minister, surrounded by tall thin Somali businessmen. They were all smiling and pictures were being taken. Yet I couldn't help but think that if the circumstances were different, different place, different time, Monte would have been torn to shreds as the child of pigs and monkeys. If they didn't want something from him, they would have disposed of him in short order.

With a chill, I walked out into the rain.

There are people (not real people, but apologists, Hannah, and others who wish to live in Dhimmitude) who will read this post and pooh-pooh me once again, for after all, what am I but a piece of uncovered meat?

The disgusting and misogynist mufti of Australia has the support of his congregation. He has the support of the Muslim Council of Britain. We know he has the support of the roving Lebanese rape gangs in Australia who his words cleared of any responsibility. He believes he has the support of "leading Muslim clerics" who are due to meet to discuss his words, and he has said that he will step down if they can prove his views were inappropriate. My question is, inappropriate to whom? Because the other Muslims will likely agree that he was spot on in his sermon. He has all this support because as a community, Muslims truly believe what he says. They believe that men have no control over their desires, and that women are wicked and dirty property to be done with what you please. Crimes against women (all women, not just Muslims) by Muslims happen every minute in Islamist countries like Somalia, Rwanda and Pakistan, and every day in the West. I have said before that Islam is a cult of sex and death, and I still believe it to this day. It is a culture of debauchery, based in a 6th century groupthink that cannot and will not adapt to the modern world.

The mufti in question, Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilali, does not feel he needs to learn english to live in Australia. After all, the people he talks to every day are Arabic speakers. Why should he adapt?

We have seen time and again that new immigrants to the West, as well as second and third generation Muslims, want to do us harm. Yet still we refuse to believe it. And while I don't think I have much right to be preaching morality and religion to anyone, I truly belive that in our Judeo-Christian societies, if we were better Jews and Christians, we would believe in evil as much as we believe in good. For you can't have one without the other. It is a balance. And if we cannot acknowledge evil wherever it may be, how the hell can we claim to be morally superior and doing good?

Today is October 27th, a day of mixed emotions for me. You know how some people have a natural phobia of girls named Julie or guys named Steve? I have a phobia of October 27th. For as long as I can remember, this has been a date of tragedy. There have been deaths (including my own), quarrels that tore families apart, massive office-related blowouts, one of which precipitated me getting in my car and leaving town for three weeks, having driven across the USA.

But in a sense, today is also my birthday. My 10th birthday. For it was a decade ago that T saved me from myself, saved me from ending my life. I have tried to "take back the date" and make it something positive, but I have so far been unsuccessful. No matter. Life is all about the bittersweet, and even if I cannot learn to enjoy October 27th, I can at least learn to appreciate it.

Like good scotch.

Given all the brouhahah surrounding the wearing o' the veil, I have decided that from now on, when I leave the house, I shall wear this mask. You see, as ridiculous as this seems, and even though it is not required by any religion, it is a matter of personal choice. And I will not allow you to tell me otherwise. If you try to make me stop wearing my mask - at work, shopping, at church - then I will have all the men of my village riot and burn your cars. I will, I swear I will.

I am woman - see me hide.

The Parkdale-High Park Conservative Riding Association is looking for great members and potential candidates. If you have always wanted to make a difference in your government and in your country, contact them! Get involved, and stand for something. Something great: Canada.

An Italian politician will be given police protection following comments she made about the Islamic veil on television.
The MP, Daniela Santanche, from the right wing National Alliance, said the veil was not required by the Koran. [Which it's not - RG]

She was labelled an infidel by an imam appearing on the same programme and there are now fears for her safety.

How much longer are we going to allow for this bullshit? How much longer are we going to let these backwards cave-dwelling assholes run our lives and dictate who has rights and who does not? This is absolutely unacceptable in Western society, and should literally be stamped out.

And yet they wonder why we paint them all as violent. Perhaps if angry comments from imams were routinely ignored and the followers of the Religion of Peace weren't known for shitting themselves and losing complete control of their faculties, then we wouldn't think they were all mad. But the sad truth is - the bulk of them are. Mad. Completely 6th century mad.

On Friday she appeared on a chat show on Sky Italia for a heated debate which quickly spiralled out of control.

"A veil," she said, "is never a symbol of liberty and it is not required in religion".

"And in our country," she went on, "there is a law which forbids - for reason of terrorism - people to go around with masks on".

Her comments brought a furious response from the imam who appeared alongside her.

Ali Abu Shwaima, from a mosque near Milan, called her an infidel.

I wonder what kind of reception I would get if I walked into my local bank wearing a mask. Or my office. Or perhaps the airport...

A peace activist has been jailed for eight months after an attack on a young rock singer which left him in a coma.
New Zealander Christiaan Briggs, 30, punched Les Incompetents frontman Billy Leeson, 19, after a dispute on a bus in Islington, north London, in June.

He was left critically ill and in a coma after hitting his head, but has since left hospital, a court heard.

Briggs, who once acted as a human shield in Iraq, admitted a charge of grievous bodily harm.

No, it wasn't over politics or the Iraq war. Peace activists just tend to be... violent, is all.

We hereby sentence you to socialized healthcare and reruns of Wayne & Schuster for the next three years...

Sentence for sexual abuse: three years' exile in Canada

With all due respect, Mr. Prime Minister, maybe you shouldn't have cut literacy funding after all...

Via Mesopotamia West

Looks like Straw, and Blair, and Prodi and the others were making sense after all...

Egyptian students who wear the veil could face expulsion from a leading university if they refuse to uncover their faces.

Helwan University has already banished students from residence halls and has threatened to expel from campus those who turn up with their faces covered, university officials said on Friday.

"They say nothing to indecent girls, but we - the daughters of Islam - are being hounded," said Iman Ahmed, a 21-year-old female student.

The decision was made by Abdel al-Hay Ebaid, dean of Helwan University, which is located on the edge of a large industrial estate 30km outside of Cairo.

"What I want is to protect students against those individuals who might worm their way in, disguised under a face veil," Ebaid said.

"[Students] Their parents would kill me if a man infiltrated the women's halls."

Just like I wouldn't be terribly thrilled if a bomber hid his face and his detonator under a veil and burka... just sayin'.

"I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true."

Oriana Fallaci willed the bulk of her library to a pontifical university because of her esteem for Pope Benedict XVI.

Oriana Fallaci had described the pontiff as an ally in her campaign to rally Christians in Europe against what she saw as a Muslim crusade against the West. As she battled breast cancer last year, she had a private audience with Benedict, who was elected only a few months earlier, at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

In one of her final interviews, Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal: "I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true."

Benedict was surprised by the gift of the books, which dated back as far as the 17th century and included volumes about the formation of modern-day Italy, American history, philosophy and theology, said Monsignor Rino Fisichella, rector of the Pontifical Lateranense University in Rome.

"The veneration that she had for you, Holy Father, persuaded her to make this donation, which will be known as the Oriana Fallaci Archives," Fisichella said during a ceremony at the university Saturday to announce the gift of the books.

A convicted paedophile is using a gym at a leisure centre which is also used by schoolchildren it has emerged.
Concerned parent Anthony Callaghan alerted the authorities about the man, using the gym near Whitecross School in Lydney, Gloucestershire.

The man was convicted of sex abuse on three girls aged 12 and 13 in 1999.

But solicitors acting for the school and local council said a ban would not be practicable as it might infringe the man's human rights.

Or some other eco-warrior group. After all, it can't be those poor marginalized "youth", can it?

French Intifada: 112 Cars Burned Every Day

Thankfully this time the victim survived, though barely.

Police have arrested a man who stabbed his wife several times in an attempted honour killing, police officials said yesterday.

The 50-year-old UAE national, identified as A., stabbed his 28-year-old Egyptian third wife, identified as M., causing wounds all over the body.

The suspect, who is from Fujairah, tried to kill her because he suspected she was having an affair with another man.

He dumped the bleeding woman on the road behind the main office building of Sharjah Police's Al Anjad Patrol in the Al Butaina area. The woman is in a critical condition.

If only all religions could be so peaceful and forgiving. Like Kathy always says, "They invented chess, you know!"

My Dutch is a little rusty (actually, I don't know any), so I don't know if this blogger is accurate with this link, but if so, I would like to know why this wasn't more widely reported.

Moroccan youth cheered loudly during a showing of the film World Trade Center in Rotterdam. The cheering started the minute the terrorists in the movie hit the Twin Towers with an abducted plane.

Several viewers left the hall angry and disgusted, finding it inappropriate that popcorn was used as confetti. Security was immediately called to oust the youth.

Popcorn? I guess they had no sweets to throw to the children. Bastards.

Kudos to France for revoking the ramp passes of four suspicious Muslim employees at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

A local government spokesman says the decision was based on an assessment of the terrorist risk.

He denied the move was linked to the men's religion.

Lawyers acting for the four men say that dozens of other Muslims who work at the airport have also been stripped of their security passes, leaving them unable to work.

The four men, who are of North African origin, say they were summoned by security officials for interviews concerning their employment in August.

A few days later they were told that their airport passes, which gave them access to the area near runways, were being withdrawn.

A lawyer acting for the men said the baggage handlers were told they had been barred because they had "not shown that their behaviour was unlikely to violate airport security".

As well as appealing against the local authority's decision, the baggage handlers' lawyers have submitted a criminal complaint for alleged discrimination against the men on the grounds that they are Muslims.

The head of a local government office, Jacques Lebrot, said the ban had nothing to do with religion.

"For us, someone who goes on holiday to Pakistan several times raises questions," he told Reuters News Agency.

They have made exactly the right move, whether the Muslims or the Politically Correct like it or not. There is no reason for North Africans to be visiting Pakistan "several times" - Algeria, sure, they would have tons of family there. But Pakistan? It raises supicions. Those ramp passes are precious commodities, and if the Lockerbie bombing is anything to go on, revoking them before a tragedy was the best way to proceed. Good for France!

Apparently, if you get cancer, you're more likely to kill yourself. Huh. Someone actually did a research paper on this. Having seen two parents who did pretty much that, I can hardly say I'm shocked by Dr. Wayne Kendal's findings. What I am shocked by is the fact that we needed a study to figure that out. I'm glad that Dr. Obvious was using American money for this little boondoggle, and not my tax dollars or my annual contribution to the Cancer Society. Otherwise, I'm would want a government handout to study whether or not today is Friday.

In a research paper published on-line this week in the Annals of Oncology, Dr. Wayne Kendal analyzed 1.3 million cancer cases in the United States and found that 19 out of every 1,000 male cancer patients and four out of every 1,000 female cancer patients committed suicide.

At about 24 suicides per 100,000 among cancer patients per year, the rate was between two and two-and-a-half times that of the general population. Overall, the U.S. population records 10.6 suicides per 100,000 people, including cancer patients.

The nearly fivefold predominance of suicides among male-to-female cancer patients reflects a similar pattern in the general population.

Let's see... you get a life-ending, wasting, horribly painful disease, and that makes you five-times more likely to top yourself? Imagine that!

I also feel sorry for Globe & Mail subscribers (I often feel that way for them). They paid to read this news. The G&M actually used valuable space to run this.

In other news, it's still Friday!

Canadian folk singer Bruce Cockburn is one of my guilty pleasures. Like most folk singers, he's an excellent songwriter. So his name in the news caught my eye this morning.

But the singer, whose songs strongly condemn war and injustice, says enlisting in the military is something he could consider.

"What would I do if the Taliban invaded Canada?" he said in an interview, staring reflectively at the ceiling of his dressing room before performing at Belleville's Empire Theatre.

"I'd sign up. I know how to shoot," Cockburn said with an easy shrug.

Tough words for an avowed peace-loving folkie.

Tough words indeed. Perhaps Bruce should leave his teepee or whatever he lives in once in a while, and look around him. He'll see that between the Islamic "information" centres, the "charitable" "fund-raising" entities, and the ratty beards on our streets, that the Taliban has already invaded. The only difference between here and Afghanistan is that there haven't been any suicide bombings here. Yet.

That, or I ate too late before falling asleep last night. I dreamed that Kathy had me locked in her apartment, and she was forcing me to watch all these terrible B-grade horror films from the 50's-70's. Torture, I tell ya!

The scariest part? This could actually happen someday!!!

Disgruntled "reader" Kathleen Bridel has this to say in an email to yours truly:

Aboriginal children were forced to go to residential schools where they were stripped of their culture and their language
Since you are quoted on Relapsed Catholic-you need to know that even questioning who changed the rules about residential schools is just blatantly evil. [emphasis mine - RG]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what the real problem is. Either you think and act accordingly to the Liberal groupthink, or you are EVIL.

Am I the only one who finds that a trifle (hitler-burning-books) frightening?

Janke has an excellent post on the Court Challenges Program, and Stephen Harper's integrity in ending it, not just "fixing" it.

So special kudos to the Conservative Party and to Stephen Harper. They recognized that the CCP was not just a waste of money, or just poorly managed. They recognized that the CCP was not just something that could be fixed. They recognized that the CCP was inherently dangerous, that it could not be anything but a tool for a government to use to surreptitiously drive changes in the social landscape that align with a particular party's philosophy.

But reaching that understanding is not what earns the Conservative Party and to Stephen Harper much deserved praise. It is that they rejected the temptation to use that tool for themselves. They could have just as easily handed the CCP to the control of hand-picked bureaucrats who would have made sure that future funding went to groups looking for stronger property rights, for example, and any other Conservative-friendly issue you can imagine. But instead they recognized that the CCP is a corruptive influence. That whatever help the CCP could have provided in promoting conservatism was illusory, since it would have come at the cost of transparency and good governance. And ensuring transparency and good governance is far more important to protecting our Charter rights than anything the CCP could hope to accomplish.

Of course, the Bar Association, whose members stand to gain the most from the program, regardless of which way it swings, want it kept alive.

The Canadian Bar Association called on the federal government yesterday to reinstate the court challenges program.

The association said the program, recently cut by the Conservative government, is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of all Canadians, not just those with deep pockets.

The Trudeau-era program provided money so that minority and other marginal groups could finance legal challenges based on Charter arguments.

Trudeau-era. Therein lies the problem, folks! Like I said yesterday - just let it die.

Sweet fuck all, darling. I smoked pot, had promiscuous sex, and made hemp shirts...

From the moonies over at Rabble (read Rabble - it makes bulimia that much easier!), I learn that there will be an anti-war march in Toronto on October 28th in front of the US Consulate (natch). Because Canadians never make decisions for themselves - everything we do is dikkktated by Amerikkka.

Here's a listing of the supporters. I have made the reading experience easier for you by highlighting what you really need to know:

Canadian Labour Congress
Canadian Islamic Congress
Le Collectif Échec à la guerre
Council of Canadians
Canadian Arab Federation
National Union of Public and General Employees
Canadian Union of Public Employees
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
United Steelworkers - National
Canadian Auto Workers Union
Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade
Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association
Greenpeace Canada
Act For the Earth
Muslim Unity Group
Canadian Peace Congress
The Muslim Services, Toronto
Al-Hidaya Association (Montreal)
Adala - Canadian Arab Justice Committee
United Front Canada
ICNA Canada
The Islamic Supreme Council of Canada
Islamic Association of Canadian Women
The Canadian Muslim Forum (CMF)
The Association Musulmane du Québec (AMQ)
The Alternative Perspective Media (APM-RAM)
Ahlul Bayt Assembly of Canada
The Muslim Community of Calgary
Al Ansar Islamic Centre
The Salaheddin Islamic Centre
Dar Al Tawheed Islamic Centre
The Islamic Foundation of Toronto
The TARIC Islamic Centre
Al Hoda Centre
Not In Our Name (Toronto) - [the self loathing Jews who want to die at the hands of Arabs - RG]
Halifax Peace Coalition
Fredricton Peace Coalition
Rassemblement outaouais contre la guerre
NoWar-Paix - Ottawa
Student Coalition Against War - Ottawa
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
November 16 Coalition - Hamilton
Hamilton Steelworkers Area Council
People for Peace (London)
UVic Students Against War
Victoria Peace Coalition
Edmonton Coalition Against War and Racism
Solidarity For Palestinian Human Rights - McMaster
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - Toronto
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
Ottawa Raging Grannies
The Boundary Peace Initiative
Kootenay Region United Nations Association
Kelowna Peace Group
October 28 Coalition - Nanaimo
Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Palestine Community Centre of BC
Niagara Coalition for Peace
Niagara Secular Humanists
Burlington Association for Nuclear Disarmament
Stopwar.ca Vancouver
Gerald and Maas
Global Importune
Boiling Frog
Green Party of Ontario
Canadian Action Party
Communist Party of Canada
Socialist Project

Feel free to look any of the highlighted groups up. You will find that the bulk of them are Islamic, and the rest of them are socialist/unions. Something tells me I might be downtown, somewhere near the US Consulate on University street, that day, camera in hand...

The Nanny State in the UK is out of control:

Magistrates have fined a man [pounds]200 after finding him guilty of putting paper in a recycling sack for bottles and cans only - breaking council rules.
Michael Reeves, 28, a journalist from Swansea, had denied putting an item of junk mail in the bag.

The court was told the letter, which was addressed to him, "contaminated" the other items put out for recycling.

After the hearing Mr Reeves said he had since stopped recycling and feared his case would discourage others.

Lucien Bouchard has upset the status quo in Quebec by saying that Quebecois don't work hard enough. I took the whole thing from the Globe & Mail:

Former premier Lucien Bouchard has set off a firestorm of debate by saying Quebeckers do not work hard enough.

The former separatist leader of the Parti Quebecois said Quebec trails Ontario and the United States in economic terms, in part because its residents lack the same work ethic.

In a television interview, Mr. Bouchard said Quebec is failing to make economic headway and that its future could be very, very difficult.

Labour leaders were enraged.

They said Quebeckers are willing workers but that they want fair wages and a balance between work and family life.

Pierre Cere of the Conseil national des chomeurs, a group that advocates for the province's unemployed, said the comments are insulting.

Advocates for the unemployed??? There's really nothing funnier I can add to this. It speaks for itself!

It seems that CUPE (you remember CUPE, right? they are anti-Israel, pro-Hezbollah...) is trying to reverse the Prime Minister's decision to put the Court Challenges Program out of its (our) misery. They've started a "Save the CCP" website, encouraging Canadians to bombard the PM and his staff with emails. From a more credible source I might buy it, but Canada's largest union is notorious for being a special interest group catering to special interest groups.

As taxpayers, we've had enough with special interest groups being funded by the government. If you really feel you have a case, then find people who are on your side and agree with you to fund it - stop taking the money out of my pocket. Here's a good idea - if CUPE thinks the cases that go through the CCP are so worthwhile, let them fund it! Or let them find a Canadian George Soros to back them.

Want a good laugh? The CCP website has a section on your "rights" that reads as follows...

Did You Know That...

* Until the 1920's, no women in Canada were allowed to vote, and that it wasn't until the 1960's that all Canadian women could vote?
* Aboriginal children were forced to go to residential schools where they were stripped of their culture and their language?
* In the 1940's, Japanese Canadians were put in prison camps in Canada just because they were of Japanese ancestry?
* Until the 1970's, there were laws in Canada that allowed governments to sterilize women and men with disabilities without their knowledge or consent?

Yet the CCP had absolutely nothing to do with changing any of the above. Most of those changes were organized and driven privately, or the government simply changed them on their own. The Court Challenges Program didn't even exist for most of that time! Yet the only thing they refer to on that "rights" page as having been accomplished by them is

One example where funding was given to individuals and to a group is the Egan case. In the Egan case, a gay couple, Mr. Egan and Mr. Nesbit, challenged a law that gave government benefits to couples of the opposite sex, but refused those benefits to same sex couples. They argued that this law violated Section 15 because it was unfair to gay men and lesbians. The Program's funding helped Mr. Egan and Mr. Nesbit pay the costs of taking the case to court.

Bravo. You didn't give me the right to vote, but you let two gay men collect each other's insurance. Yup, they've made a huge difference here in Canada. Let me write them a cheque!

Yet here's an example of a very successful private case that went in front of the Quebec Supreme Court and has already succeeded in changing the way Canadian patients are treated: Chaoulli vs. Quebec.

Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General) [2005] 1 S.C.R. 791, 2005 SCC 35 was a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada where the Court ruled that the Quebec Health Insurance Act and the Hospital Insurance Act prohibiting private medical insurance violated the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. In a 4 to 3 decision, the Court found the Acts violated Quebeckers' rights to life and security of person under the Quebec Charter; as such the ruling is only binding in Quebec. Three of the seven judges also found that the laws violated section seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The highly controversial nature of this ruling has brought much of the current Canadian public health system into question.

FYI, CUPE wasn't pleased... that should tell you something right there.

As Canadians, are we going to continue to fund special interest groups that break down the fabric of our country, or are we just going to let this blasted program die? I say we send it to a publicly funded heath institution, and let it die on a stretcher in a hallway. But that's just me...

Why don't we, as taxpayers and citizens, counter the negative effects of CUPE by writing to the PM and Jim Flaherty, expressing our support for them pulling the plug on the Court Challenges Program?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper can be reached at the very easy to remember pm@pm.gc.ca

Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, can be reached at jflaherty@fin.gc.ca

Don't waste your money anymore!

As far as breakups go, it was probably the best I could have hoped for. It's not every man who is about to break your heart that draws you a bubble bath on a snowy night, lights candles in the bathroom, and puts your Jewel CD on in the background before you even get home from fighting your way through the blizzard.

It was a Wednesday night in January, 1997. I came home to this magnificent display, but an empty apartment. T wasn't there. But I knew he'd be back, so I slipped into the tub (ouch! too hot! I cooled it a little), relaxed to the sound of Jewel, and soaked for a while. The CD kept playing the same song over and over, and it was so romantic...

Please don't say I love you,
those words touch me much too deeply
and they make my core tremble
Don't think you realize the effect you have over me
Please don't look at me like that
It just makes me want to make you near me always

Out of the tub, I slipped on my green silk nighty, and lay down, letting the cares of the day dissipate. I took a call from a friend, telling her I had the best boyfriend in the world. And then I heard the key in the lock. The music was still playing. I bolted to the door to greet him, excited as a puppy. I kissed him, and he untangled my arms from around his neck and pulled away. I was confused. I actually thought he had a toothache or something!

He looked into my eyes, he looked so sad, and I understood. All the bubbles and candles were there just to soften the blow. He was leaving me.

At the time I was angry at his approach, but damn! That was classy. Heavy on the awful mixed messages, but classy nonetheless. No heartbreak before or since has had such a soundtrack, such a set stage... it certainly appealed to my sense of the dramatic.

On my iPod tonight (yes, I finally got one, thanks to Mr. Right on my birthday):

She - Elvis Costello

She may be the face I can't forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
Maybe my treasure or the price I have to pay
She may be the song that summer sings
May be the chill that autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day

Under My Skin - Frank Sinatra

I've tried so not to give in
I've said to myself this affair never will go so well
But why should I try to resist, when baby will I know damn well
That I've got you under my skin

The More I See You - Michael Buble

The more I see you,
The more I want you.
Somehow this feeling
Just grows and grows.
With every sigh I become more mad about you,
More lost without you,
And so it goes.

You Go To My Head - Frank Sinatra

You go to my head
You go to my head,
And you linger like a haunting refrain
And I find you spinning round in my brain
Like the bubbles in a glass of champagne.

I Love You - Sarah McLachlan

I have a smile
Stretched from ear to ear
To see you walking down the road

We meet at the lights
I stare for a while
The world around disappears

Just you and me
On this island of hope
A breath between us could be miles

Let me surround you
My sea to your shore
Let me be the calm you seek

Oh and every time I'm close to you
There's too much I can't say
And you just walk away

And I forgot
To tell you
I love you
And the night's
Too long
And cold here
Without you
I grieve in my condition
For I cannot find the strength to say I need you so

Seems I'm Never Tired Loving You - Nina Simone

Darling, you are always needed
And your tenderness is needed too
And it seems that Im never tired
loving you, loving you
never was a feeling stronger
aching for the sweet things you do
and it seems that Im never tired loving you

Uninvited - Alanis Morissette

Like anyone would be
I am flattered by your fascination with me
Like any hot blooded woman
I have simply wanted an object to crave
But you're not allowed
You're uninvited
An unfortunate slight

I Want You - Melissa Etheridge

Since that night I'm not the same
Desire breeds an ugly stain inside me
Satisfaction never comes
It's always dark and yet I still run
Even when I close my eyes
You torture me with shameless sighs seduction
Walking in a chilling sweat
Pounding heart inside my chest I'm screaming

The 2012 London Olympics have been plunged into controversy by the discovery that the Games will clash with Ramadan, the most holy month in the Islamic calendar.

The clash will put Muslim athletes at a disadvantage as they will be expected to fast from sunrise to sunset for the entire duration of the Games.

Bitch, bitch, bitch. I guess the Muslim countries could always sit this one out, right? After all, participation in the Olympics isn't mandatory, but submission to the wacky desert God is...

Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, said: "They would not have organised this at Christmas. It is equally stupid to organise it at Ramadan.

Hosting the summer Olympics at Christmas would be a little foolish... although, the winter Olympics might get a better viewership if it was, indeed hosted over the holidays. Of course, with something like Ramadan that moves all over the calendar like a cockroach on a ham sandwich, the Olympic comittee should not be expected to keep up. Where were the Islamic councils and the Imams when London was making te bid?

And Muslim countries such as Turkey are calling for the date to be changed.

Togay Bayalti, president of the National Olympic Committee of Turkey, said: "This will be difficult for Muslim athletes.

"They don't have to observe Ramadan if they are doing sport and travelling but they will have to decide whether it is important to them.

"It would be nice for the friendship of the Games if they had chosen a different date."

The "friendship" of the games? Dare I translate, folks?

"If you do not change the dates, we will riot in the streets of London as we do in the streets of Paris..."

Before I turned 7 I was sweetness and light. I was the daughter everyone would have wanted. My hair was long and shiny and brown, my eyes had already lightened from the dark brown they were in my infancy to the bright sparkling green they are today. Cute, happy, obedient, smart... and then sometime before my 8th birthday, that Wendy was lost forever. A tragedy had taken something precious from me, and I learned that just because someone loves you, it doesn't mean you can trust them not to hurt you. I became harder. I learned sarcasm. I lashed out at those closest to me - those who should have protected me, but instead let me down and betrayed me.

The psychologists and therapists and counsellors all said I should rechannel my anger into something positive - art, music, other such nonsense. They said I should turn my hatred back into love. But it was the anger and the hatred that protected me. It kept me from ever trusting like that again.

And so as I grew, I tested everyone around me. I had to know how much I could trust them. Poor Mr. Right has been through every hellish test you could imagine a woman putting a man thorugh, and yet I still hold him back to some degree. Because I learned it is easier to be angry than to apologize. And it is easier to say I hate you than it is to say I love you. It is easier to take the small slights and blow them out of proportion that it is to admit you've hurt me. Passion can tear your walls down and make your eyes tell the truth. So in passion, it is better to turn it to anger, to divert the eyes of those watching you, to scare others away.

I've done the opposite from what they wanted me to do: I rechannelled every positive emotion into something hard and hateful. Because I don't trust you.

Back to the UK we go (yes, I know I've covered the UK a lot in the past few days, but they've had more interesting stuff than we have).

The Madani High School in Leicester is an Islamic school, but was built with 15M pounds of public funds. Which means the education department gets to force the school to accept 10% non-Islamic pupils, and the school gets to force that 10% to wear the headscarf (if they're female).

And now I'm really going to shock you all - I'm on the side of the school.

I back Catholic schools that do not allow the headscarf on their Muslim pupils, and I back this school demanding that all females wear the scarf. The headscarf is one of the main reasons that Muslims want schools of their own. They don't want to be forced one way or another.

This doesn't change my view that the whole religion of Islam is a farce and a sham, but stepping back from that for a moment and focusing only on this as a cultural issue, I back the school. The fact that the government paid money to the school should not allow them to force the school to take pupils that are not of a like mind. Would you like your child, in Catholic school, to not get her prayer lessons because it upsets the Muslim kids? No, of course not. So while we can get up in arms over that, we should also be able to stand up and say making a Muslim school accept Christian or secular students detracts from the whole purpose of the school, and should those students still wish to attend, they should be willing to adhere to the regulations of the school.

Including the headscarf. Remember, this is an Islamic school, not a public school with predominantly Muslim students. They make no secret of the fact that this is a school by Muslims, for Muslims.

Ok, all this fairness has left a bad taste in my mouth. Off to make a coffee...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the French left-wing newspaper Liberation, and how they were losing money due to decline in readership. I mentioned too how the Toronto Star's circulation is down.

Well, guess who just signed for Chapter 11 in the US?

Air America Radio, a liberal talk and news radio network, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a network official told the AP.

I guess hating America doesn't have as big a market as everyone thought.

LGF calls it a jawdropper. They are not exaggerating. I defy anyone to read this while drinking coffee, and not wind up wearing a little.

A teenage schoolgirl was arrested by police for racism after refusing to sit with a group of Asian students because some of them did not speak English.

Codie was attending a GCSE science class at Harrop Fold High School in Worsley, Greater Manchester, when the incident happened. The teenager had not been in school the day before due to a hospital appointment and had missed the start of a project, so the teacher allocated her a group to sit with.

"She said I had to sit there with five Asian pupils," said Codie yesterday. "Only one could speak English, so she had to tell that one what to do so she could explain in their language. Then she sat me with them and said "Discuss"."

According to Codie, the five - four boys and a girl - then began talking in a language she didn't understand, thought to be Urdu, so she went to speak to the teacher.

"I said "I'm not being funny, but can I change groups because I can't understand them?" But she started shouting and screaming, saying "It's racist, you're going to get done by the police"."

Maybe there is, after all.

Muslim organisations that refuse to defend core British values and fail to take a "pro-active" role in the fight against extremism are to lose access to millions of pounds of Government funding, it was disclosed yesterday.

Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, said it was time for a "fundamental rebalancing" of relations with Muslim organisations if a new generation of terrorists was not to grow up in this country.

The tough new approach would involve shifting grants towards those organisations which accepted and promoted a set of "non-negotiable values" including respect for the law and freedom of speech.

"It is only by defending our values that we will prevent extremists radicalising future generations of terrorists," Miss Kelly said in a speech to Muslim groups in London.

In an apparent threat to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the umbrella group for Muslims which has received more than £200,000 from Government in the past two years, Miss Kelly highlighted its refusal to take part in Holocaust Memorial Day.

"I can't help wondering why those in leadership positions who say they want to achieve religious tolerance and a cohesive society would choose to boycott an event which marks, above all, our common humanity and respect for each other," she said.

That's a very direct question, Ms. Kelly. May I answer it for you? It's because they hate the Jews! Islam isn't about humanity or respect for others - it's a cult of world domination, bent on the destruction of anyone who doesn't submit.

It's no secret that Labour is in trouble, what with Tony Blair on his way out and no end in sight for Iraq. Is it possible that they, as a party, are finally trying to win over the one type of voter who has been ignored since the Thatcher era: The British? Instead of pandering to the rapidly multiplying hordes of Muslims in Britain, Labour looks as if they are attempting, at long last, to remember that Britain was once Great, and that it could be again with a little backbone.

Inayat Bunglawala, the assistant general secretary of the MCB, accused the Government of trying to coax Muslim groups to back its unpopular foreign policies.

"If the Government is planning to merely seek out those organisations who will be less critical or parrot its policies, then this is not a strategy that will succeed. If that happens, the Government will lose credibility with the Muslim community."

Translation: If they do not continue to meet our demands for protection money, we will riot in the streets of London as we do in Paris.

Don't give in.

How many times have we heard about violent criminals and sex offenders being let out onto the streets and causing more harm to society? Here is another example, from the UK:

A 35-year-old man accused of snatching a six-year-old girl from a bath and raping her is a convicted paedophile, Newcastle Crown Court has heard.
Peter Voisey, of Blyth, Northumberland, denies abduction, rape and sexual assault in Willington Quay, North Tyneside, on 27 December last year.

The jury heard he molested a girl, aged 12, in the changing rooms of a leisure centre in Macclesfield, in July 2001.

He admitted indecent assault and was convicted in September that year.

Now, my area is commercial law, not criminal law, but I have a pretty good idea that "indecent assault" is considerably different from "molesting a child". What do you think?

How many more kids/abused wives/whatever have to be harmed or even killed before the courts actually charge and convict people for the crimes they commit, not just the ones they plead to?

Also from the UK:

More than 1,000 violent crimes, including five killings, have been committed by prisoners released early with electronic tags, it has emerged.
Home Office figures show tagged offenders have committed one murder and four manslaughters, among other crimes, since the scheme began in 1999.

Raise your hands, everyone who thinks this is ok.

I have been waiting five years to see the United States exercise its dusty laws on treason, and finally charge someone with it. Michael Moore would have been a prime example. Or Cindy Sheehan. Or Sean Penn, maybe (though he's in far greater danger here in smoke-free Toronto).

Finally, finally, they have decided to indict someone for treason, and the guy isn't even in the country! In fact, they can't find him! Way to go, Uncle Sam.

A California man who joined al-Qaida and appeared in its videos declaring that "the streets of America shall run red with blood" was indicted Wednesday on the first treason charge filed in more than 50 years.

Adam Yehiye Gadahn, 28 - who is believed to be in or near Pakistan - could be sentenced to death if convicted of the charge. He also was indicted on a charge of providing material support to terrorists.

Treason has only been brought a few dozen times in U.S. history and not at all since the World War II era.

Gadahn "knowingly adhered to an enemy of the United States, namely, al-Qaida, and gave al-Qaida aid and comfort ... with intent to betray the United States," according to the indictment, handed up by an Orange County grand jury.

Are they just trying it out to see how it feels before going after Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton? I hope so...

... and like a pirate, he has made off with a fortune in British pounds. But he's no seafarer. He is a desert despot who has taken great advantage of UK hospitality and weak laws. He is Abu Hamza, of the now infamous Finsbury Park mosque.

Legal aid chiefs are seeking to recover court defence costs from Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri amid reports that he bought a £220,000 house while in jail.
Recovery hearings have been held after an investigation into the cleric by the Legal Services Commission (LSC).

The Evening Standard has reported that he purchased the property in Greenford, west London, in October 2004.

Abu Hamza al-Masri was jailed for seven years in February for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred.

The newspaper said he bought the four-bedroom semi-detached house despite his assets being frozen by the Treasury under anti-terrorism measures.

The legal aid costs were in the region of £250,000, it added.

Quite possibly one of the most evil men alive (most of whom are Muslim, by the way... a coincidence I'm sure), Abu Hamza was jailed for inciting racial hatred as he raged from the pulpit of his popular London mosque. I was living in the UK at the time, and my tax money went to pay for his legal aid. And his lovely home, apparently.

He was jailed for seven years for the six charges of soliciting murder, 21 months for the three incitement to racial hatred charges, three years for possessing "threatening, abusive or insulting recordings" and three-and-a- half years for having a document useful to terrorists.

Oh, and I also helped fund his pedicures. I guess you could say I'm glad I'm no longer living and paying taxes in the UK. But if I was, it would be very hard for me not to walk right up to the door of his ill-gotten house and take it over. It's more mine than it is his.

I can't believe I haven't posted on this yet, but I have to admit I haven't been following very closely. I only remembered the other night when I found out that Binky the Clown was also running, instead of the drag queen from years past. Yes folks, this is Toronto.

So here's the deal: We have to get rid of Mayor David Miller. Not just because he is a bloody awful NDP socialist nightmare (and pal of Peggy Nash), but because if you live in High Park like I do, you've seen the sonofabitch running by in spandex. And that, my friends, is the real reason I need to be medicated. In fact, I ought to be billing his office for the prescriptions. Miller. In spandex. In our streets. In our city. I am not making this up.

Who are we going to choose?

Binky? Uh, I mean, Stephen LeDrew? I would be willing to have this man as mayor for the sole reason that I doubt he would ever wear spandex. And because he's quirky. Toronto needs quirky, even if it is from a Liberal. He has sterling experience, as former president of the Liberal Party. His website, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired. There is no real platform to speak of, although I believe he's against the St. Clair streetcar right of way. But if you have enough time, (which most municipal voters, myself included, do not) feel free to watch the videos on his site. I'm sure there's something worthwhile there - though he should have just put up some quick text.

Or Jane Pitfield (who would be my choice)? Pitfield (the most photogenic of the three) is currently City Councillor for East York. Her website says she kibbutzed when she was in university. In Jew-hating toronto, that might work against her, but who knows? Her campaign office is in my neighborhood, so I may take a wander down there and try to get a quote or two from the lady. So far all I really know about her is that she is to the right of Miller, but really, Che Guevera would have been to the right of Miller. Also, she voted against pay increases for herself and fellow city councillors. Obviously, she was outnumbered on that vote. Let's hope she's not outnumbered in the election.

And that leaves the worst for last. David "I love marching in the Pride Parade" Miller. Miller is campaigning on revitalization of the Waterfront (as my pal Alison would say "That old chestnut!"). Remember, this is the same mayor who should have been proud to have last year's Miss Universe Natalie Glebova, a fellow Torontonian, attend the Tastes of Thailand Festival at Nathan Phillips Square, but she wasn't permitted to dress in her Miss Universe tiara and sash, because "beauty pageants are degrading to women." However he marches in the Pride Parade, billed as a "family event," where there is plenty of cock sheathed in little more than a Prince Albert and a cockring on display. Nice. Remember, people: Spandex!

So those are your main choices, Toronto. Best of luck to you. For your information, the election is on November 13, 2006. Details can be found here. To make sure you are on the voters list, call 416-338-1111. Absence from the voters list does not prevent you from voting. You will simply have to fill out a form at your polling station. (If you are deceased, you are required to vote for the Liberal...)

That's our new expletive, Mr. Right and I. Instead of a holy shit! or even a sacre bleue! we now yelp Christ the King and Cows! Yes, there's a story behind it, and yes, I'll get to it.

First and foremost: The wedding. On Friday, in an impossible-to-find rose garden in an impossible-to-find state park in Northeastern Ohio, I saw my dear friend and ex-great-love marry his beautiful bride against the backdrop of autumn leaves. No, I didn't cry, though a couple of times I thought I might. They are a wonderful couple, and they belong together. I wish them every happiness.

The reception was held at a Masonic Hall, and was Medieval in style. I will upload pics soon (I always say that and never do, so I hope she emails me to pick on me till I do it).

On Saturday, without any fatalities, I finally met the American Princess, EM Zanotti. We've been trying to do this for over a year, but people keep dying just days before we're to get together. Husband and I decided to make a side trip to the Crunchy Capital of Ann Arbor, Michigan to meet the Princess. So glad we did. Ann Arbor is beautiful - almost as lovely as EM herself. She had her best friend in tow, who Mr. Right and I are now totally smitten with and hope to see again. There were, of course, margaritas. That was a given, really. I have always been intrigued by American college towns, and thought them very romantic, in a wholesome apple pie sort of way. But after spending a few days there, I realize they look better in the movies than in real life - at least to me. I could never live in a town where at 30, I am the oldest one in the bar, including the bouncer (who actually carded me!) and the manager. No thanks. I need grown ups!

On Sunday Mr. Right and I took a drive around. We went into Detroit (and lived!!!), then past it to see Gross Point. Gorgeous. I haven't seen homes like that up close since the old days of doing the Wendy Drive around Senneville in Montreal. However, the lakeshore has been privatized. You must belong to a yacht/country club to get anywhere near the water. How odd. But I guess that's what money can buy. Something to work towards, I suppose. And then it was off in search of EM's school, just to see the place that gets to handle that wonderful brain of hers. We think we found it. We may never know for sure, because the building we came across was completely unmarked. It looked spookily like the NSA Headquarters just outside of Washington DC. Big and black with no signs as to its purpose. But the street name made sense, and there was a big cathedral (Christ the King) and lots of cows, as we were told there would be. And the name of the farm? Too perfect to be a coincidence. So EM, I think I've seen your school. And Christ the King and Cows, it's huge!!

Back home yesterday, and back to real life tomorrow. Blah. Oh well. It was a relaxing mini-vacation.

Seems a little silly for a blogger to be blogging about... blogging, but I think we all have one or two posts in us as to why we do it.

For those of you who haven't already heard the story, Girl on the Right was born in February of 2004 after I, Wendy, was kicked off a forum of otherwise charming and interesting women who could not bear to question the appropriateness of maternity leave or paid days off while one looked after one's children. We had been having such a discussion when I - not knowing a right wing from a left wing from an airplane wing - said that I didn't feel it was a company's responsibility to pay for your children. They kicked me off. It was the first time I encountered the intolerance of the tolerant left. It would not be the last.

And so I became RightGirl, the conservative with a heart of gold - haha. I wanted to see if there were others out there like me. I wanted to know if my thoughts were "normal", even if they weren't popular. Turns out there are thousands, if not millions, of bloggers - both male and female - who feel the same about things as I do. Not just about the politics of breeding, but about government, safety, national security, and my pet topic: Islam. This blog has been an outlet, a safety net, and a means to connect for over two years. Through it I became a member of the Cotillion. You may notice that as a group we don't post as much as we used to. It doesn't mean the Cotillion has ceased to exist. It just means that we've shifted to private conversations in our email group and on the phone. We have a network of medical professionals, lawyers, mothers, techs, and most of all friends at our disposal 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If one of us is in trouble, a team is dispatched to deal with it. Phone bills be damned, we look after our own! To me, this is the very best of blogging: the connections you make with real life people. Blogging doesn't have to be insular.

But not everything is ribbons and bows. There are the dissenters who - in my opinion - usually deserve a response. I try not to delete or ban commenters unless I have run out of other options. If you come here spewing nonsense and hatred, you will usually be ignored or made fun of (although I don't like to feed the trolls, either). If you make a valid point or contribute something to the topic of discussion, someone (me or another reader) will usually respond. I enjoy those volleys back and forth between two people of opposing opinions. What I do not enjoy is the death threats, the hate mail, and the creeps. The internet, like real life, is full of them. Are they enough to make me quit? No. Are they enough to keep me on my toes, with security experts, law enforcement, legal counsel and the like on speed dial? You bet. I still have to live my life, and I won't allow myself to be crippled by creeps any more than I will allow myself to be crippled by jihadis. But like with the jihadis, I pay attention to my instincts, and I try to be careful.

So that's some of the good and some of the bad of what blogging has been for me. It's a long, roundabout way of getting to the "other". "Other" refers to all those little mistakes along the way, and the people who don't clearly fit a category. Like waking up to find your alter-ego has been written up in the National Post as a bigot in an echo chamber. Like getting the facts completely wrong in an article posted on another, larger website, and having to take the heat for it. The "other" is a learning experience. It is also the shit you have to clean off your metaphorical carpet after getting mixed up in a blog war, whether directly or indirectly. It is people like Ian Scott, who live to be a thorn in your side (backside, actually), and you just have to learn to deal with them. I had attempted on more than one occasion to block Ian from commenting here at GOTR, but it appears that the ban did not go through, probably through my own error. Not to silence him, but because he actually contributes nothing to the conversation. His comments are pithy and pointless, and personal in a way that is unnecessary. He is the grown-up, web equivelant to the boy in the schoolyard who would make jokes about your mother to get a rise out of you. Moreover, he would then go back and write about my personal life on his own blog, knowing only what I've chosen to share with you, my readers. He could not possibly know more, as even I haven't figured Wendy out completely, and even I cannot pass judgement on myself yet.

But is Ian a threat, or a nuisance? Honestly, I don't know. I know very little about him, just as he knows little about me. So how can I turn around and say he has no right to pass judgement on me, and then pass judgement on him? Rather hypocritical, isn't it? For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about (and probably no interest, but hey, it's my blog), I made a random comment last week on Let Freedom Reign (here's the post, with my comment) referring to Ian as a stalker. He may or may not be amused to know that I also refer to some of my top clients as stalkers (to their faces) for the amount of times they call me in a day and amount of grief they give me, but hey-ho, looks like he wouldn't be that amused after all. Ian got angry. Full on, vein-popping-in-the-forehead angry, and took me to task on it. Some have said "he doth protest too much", but it is his right to defend himself, if he felt he needed defending.

And so, as Beth would say, I'm gonna "put on my big girl panties and deal". I'm going to suck it up, that bitter pill, and extend my apologies to Ian, especially since once the haze of anger cleared, he came directly to me and made his case like a gentleman. And as a gentleman, I apologize for not thinking before I spoke. Please accept this as my formal retraction of my comment, Ian. It's over.

No, you won't see Ian around here at GOTR, as I have asked him to please find somewhere else to go, and he has agreed, which I appreciate. With any luck he will also find something else to blog about other than yours truly. We can only hope.

Today is Thanksgiving in Canada. Although we're not doing the turkey thing today, I can still give thanks. So what am I thankful for? Hmmm, well, in no particular order:

My health
Mr. Right, who is my opposite and balance
My neighborhood
My real-life friends (some of whom are bloggers)
My internet sisters at the Cotillion
All the other cool kids I've met through GOTR, and I'm thankful for the blog itself
The short time I had with my parents, especially my dad - he might not have realized it, but he taught me a lot
My three healthy, gorgeous pets
That I live in an almost-free country, and that it's getting freer by the day
That all the Americans I've sponsored through Soldiers Angels have come home safe
That Canada has a military fighting for my freedom
That I'm finding my faith - and that I'm allowed to

What are you thankful for?

See you next week. I may be able to blog now and then, if I can find wireless in the rugged backwoods of Ohio.

Regarding the story of PC Basha who didn't want to guard the Israeli embassy in London, the Metropolitan Police have sprung to their own defence. And what they've come out with is even more disturbing:

But Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said the move followed a risk assessment and was "not about political correctness".

The decision to excuse the officer has been attacked by some former police officers and politicians, while being defended by groups representing officers.

Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair ordered an urgent review into the matter.

Mr Stephenson said: "At the height of the Israeli/Lebanon conflict in August this year, the officer made his managers aware of his personal concerns which included that he had Lebanese family members."

He said that following a risk assessment "and not because of the officer's personal views whatever they might have been", a temporary decision was made not to deploy Pc Basha to the Israeli embassy. [all emphasis mine]

Is this a polite way of saying they couldn't trust Basha to guard the Embassy with impartiality? Did they believe he may be a threat himself? If that is the case, they must be rid of him at once.

I've often wondered what I would do if I were a cop or a court guard. Would I be able to protect a guy who's on the stand for commit some terrible offense like murder or child molestation? Would I be able to escort a terrorist without putting a bullet in his brainstem? If I were a doctor, would I be able to treat a gang banger responsible for three or four fatalities when he comes in with a gunshot wound to the leg?

I like to think that if I were to take an oath "to serve and protect" or to heal without prejudice, then I would mean that oath with my whole heart, no matter ho much I disagree with the assignment. I like to think that if I say I'm going to escort a pedophile to court, I will do my utmost to make sure he arrives in one piece, and that if I am selected to guard the Saudi Arabian embassy, I will do so with my life. Otherwise, why would I even agree to be a cop or a doctor or whatever?

PC Alexander Omar Basha - a member of the Metropolitan Police's Diplomatic Protection Group - refused to be posted there [the Israeli Embassy in London] because he objected to Israeli bombings in Lebanon and the resulting civilian casualties of fellow Muslims.

In a move which has caused widespread astonishment at Scotland Yard, senior officers in the DPG agreed that that PC Basha should be given an alternative posting.

The officer, who carries a gun, is now thought to be guarding another embassy.

PC Basha is in the wrong line of work. The Royal Oath is to protect everyone in London - not just the ones he approves of. He should be immediately dismissed, and his superiors who allowed him to choose who he does and does not want to protect should be suspended without pay.

Ex-Met Flying Squad commander John O'Connor, said: "This is the beginning of the end for British policing.

"If they can allow this, surely they'll have to accept a Jewish officer not wanting to work at an Islamic national embassy? Will Catholic cops be let off working at Protestant churches? Where will it end? This decision is going to allow officers to act in a discriminating and racist way.

"When you join the police, you do so to provide a service to the public. If you cannot perform those duties, you leave.

"The Metropolitan Police are setting a precedent they will come to bitterly regret. Top brass granted his wish as they were probably frightened of being accused of racism. But what they've done is an insult to the Jewish community."

Just think: Put on an opera in today's Germany, and have it shut down, not by Nazis, Communists, or kings, but by the simple fear of Islamic fanatics.

Write a novel deemed critical of the Prophet Mohammed, as did Salman Rushdie, and face years of ostracism and death threats - in the heart of Europe no less.

Compose a film, as did Theo Van Gogh, and find your throat cut in "liberal" Holland.

Or better yet, sketch a cartoon in postmodern Denmark, and then go into hiding.

Quote an ancient treatise, as did the pope, and learn your entire Church may come under assault, and the magnificent stones of the Vatican offer no refuge.

There are three lessons to be drawn from these examples. In almost every case, the criticism of the artist or intellectual was based either on his supposed lack of sensitivity or of artistic excellence. Van Gogh was, of course, obnoxious and his films puerile. The pope was woefully ignorant of public relations. The cartoons in Denmark were amateurish and unnecessary. Rushdie was an overrated novelist, whose chickens of trashing the West he sought refuge in finally came home to roost. The latest Hans Neuenfels adaptation of Mozart's Idomeneo was silly.

But isn't that precisely the point? It is easy to defend artists when they produce works of genius that do not offend popular sensibilities - Da Vinci's Mona Lisa or Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws - but not so when an artist offends with neither taste nor talent. Yes, Pope Benedict is old and scholastic; he lacks both the smile and tact of the late Pope John Paul II, who surely would not have turned for elucidation to the rigidity of Byzantine scholarship. But isn't that why we must come to the present Pope's defense - if for no reason other than because he has the courage to speak his convictions when others might not? [emphasis mine - RG]

"A Koran thrown into the toilet? I am hurt, not just as a Muslim but as a human being," said Zeina Berjaoui, 20, president of Pace's Muslim Student Association.

Cue the rioters.

I say a little, because I just don't think it's enough, and I know it isn't for the right reasons.

Turkey puts a man away for life for the honor killing of his pregnant sister. That's good. Way to go. But their reason for doing it is to ingratiate themselves with the EU, who they are petitioning for membership. That's bad.

A young Turkish man was sentenced to life imprisonment Tuesday for killing his unmarried teenage sister to avenge the family honor after she became pregnant, Anatolia news agency reported.

The court in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, classified the murder as an "honor killing" and handed down a life sentence against Selahattin Sezgin, 22, even though he had argued that he killed his sister in a fit of anger during an argument, the report said.

It isn't just the courts in Turkey that need to recognize this as a serious crime - it is the Turks themselves. As long as they remain in an age of barbarity, they will continue to act out in violent ways. And the rest of the world will continue to ignore it, saying it's "just their culture".

The government and civic groups have stepped up efforts to stamp out honor killings in recent years, but opinion polls have shown that they enjoy considerable public support in the mainly Kurdish southeast, where most cases occur.

The whole mindset of the people needs to change.

The moonbats are skipping school and ditching work because they hate George W. Bush. This is news, why?

On October 5, people everywhere will walk out of school, take off work, and come to the downtowns & townsquares and set out from there, going through the streets and calling on many more to join us - making a powerful statement: "NO! THIS REGIME DOES NOT REPRESENT US! AND WE WILL DRIVE IT OUT!"

A whole bunch of Celebutards will come out and remind everyone that Bush is eeeeevil, just in time for the elections next month.

Yawn. Just another day, as far as I'm concerned.

On a scale of miffed to ballistic, how offended is the Islamic community this time?

From the The Religious Policeman, via The Halls of Macadamia, comes the official color chart of Muslim offense. It ranges from Slightly Miffed to Completely Ballistic, with the various threats and intimidations that apply to each, as well as the Infidel reaction.

Brilliant!

Like a new pair of shoes. Pretty, but a little uncomfortable. The kind you pay too much for, and then think about returning. The kind you know you'll never wear, but only bought cause they're in style. And like most of my shoes, this 30th birthday kinda stinks.

I've never ever ever been to school or work on my birthday before. My parents firmly believed that if a bunch of dead guys got holidays for their birthdays, then I was bloody well entitled to one too, if I wanted it. And I wanted it. This year, due to circumstances beyond my control (and I really hate anything that's beyond my control), I had to postpone my birthday holiday by a few days, and I was in the office today. I'm kinda glad I went.

I dressed up today - not too much, but something nice. I looked pretty. I made an effort. In case of a lunch invite. But I didn't receive an invite from my darling husband (or anyone else's husband, for that matter). In fact, all the people I expected spoiling from let me down big time. Y'all have some major ass kissing to do to make up for this, and y'all know who y'all are. It's a big ass, and I expect it to be thoroughly kissed! Were it not for Friend Bert who took pity on me by 3 o'clock and brought me a Happy Meal (and let me keep the toy), I would still be sitting dressed up at my desk like Miss Havisham. Y'all are soooo disowned!

But colleagues have proven themselves to be far better than personal friends when it comes to this birthday stuff. One baked me cupcakes. Another bought me gift certificates. The Boss bought me a spa package. There was much merry-making and spoiling of the RG at the office today.

Which means I learned something (and after all, isn't growing older all about growing wiser?). It isn't school or work I should be avoiding on International Wendy Day. In fact, I should look forward to the office on such days. It's home I should avoid.

(I should clarify - this is specifically a downtown rant. and those of you who were at my birthday dinner on Saturday? This doesn't apply to you.)

Some UN relief money was channelled through charities associated with extremist jihadi groups in the wake of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, a BBC investigation has found.

Uh huh. No surprise there...

There followed a mass mobilisation by ordinary Pakistanis, non-governmental organisations and Muslim groups to help the survivors. Various charities associated with militant groups also responded.

They included the al-Rashid Trust, which is banned by the UN Security Council and accused of being a conduit for al-Qaeda financing. The group is also on Pakistan's own terrorism watch list.

But the UN on the ground delivered aid to relief camps controlled by al-Rashid - tents, trucks, medicine, blankets and schools.

UN agencies also worked with Jamaat ud-Dawa, another charity which the US state department claims has close associations with the outlawed militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba.

The UN denies "working with" the groups, but says that they (the UN) were "active in the camps that were run by them."

But at one of their schools in the town of Mansehra - set up initially with the help of the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef - primary children were singing a song at morning assembly which many might find disturbing.

It includes the line: "When people deny our faith, ask them to convert and if they don't, destroy them utterly."

I asked the Jamaat ud-Dawa spokesman, Abdullah Montazzer, why they were teaching such bloodthirsty songs to young children.

"No, they weren't singing that," he said. "Lots of infidels came in the aid effort and they weren't harmed. I don't believe these kids were singing these kind of songs."

Infidels? Why the fuck do we keep helping these people?

He said they matched my eyes, though my eyes were greener and sparkled more. He and Steve took me out for a lobster dinner, and T presented me with the little velvet box. The gorgeous emerald earrings would have meant a lot coming from anyone, but coming from this boy who was working to pay for school - they meant the world.

Ten years. My 20th birthday.

I lost one of the earrings on a plane 7 years ago. The other one I'm hanging on to. I want to have it made into a ring. To remember, as if I could ever forget.

Yesterday as I walked through Bloor West Village, I saw two kids from the Royal Canadian Air Cadets walking toward me. These are girls and boys between 12 and 18 who are learning the disciplines of the Canadian military in a structured but fun part-time environment. Many of these youth will grow up to have further affiliation with the Canadian Forces. They are the next generation of our soldiers, airmen, sailors and submariners. Several times a year they do fundraising drives, asking for spare change. I always make it a point to give them whatever I can. To me, supporting the troops we have deployed right now not only means writing letters and wearing red - it also means helping to groom their replacements; the ones who will one day be defending our country.

When you see the Cadets fundrasing in your neighborhood, be sure to drop a few coins in their collection box.

Mr Right & I turn thirty on Monday and Tuesday respectively this week (although I am claiming a do-over and plan to turn 30 in style next year). I want to thank our close friends from the local VRWC for coming over last night to celebrate the Holy Month of Ramadan with roast pork and wine, and to toast our Dirty Thirty. Kathy & Arnie, along with MustControlFistOfDeath and M.

Also thanks to Greta (who's name I *always* type as Great) for the Barnes & Noble gift card.

Love to you all!!

A Charleston, S.C., city councilman suggests sterilizing parents could be one way to address society's problem of children running amok.

"What we've got is a failure in society, whether it's in Mount Pleasant with yuppie parents or whether it's on the East Side with poor crackhead parents," Councilman Larry Shirley told the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Ledger.

"We pick up stray animals and spay them. These mothers need to be spayed if they can't take care of theirs. ... Once they have a child and it's running the streets, to let them continue to have children is totally unacceptable."

Shirley said sterilizations should also be mandated for deadbeat dads.

Love it. Love. It. Think about it - think about the effort a good household goes through in order to adopt a child. It can take years, with investigations, background checks etc. Not to mention people like me, who know we'd be bad parents, but have to go through psych exams in order to be sterilized.

Why should the irresponsible morons of the world be allowed to spread and breed with impunity? No, I'm not talking about the family with four children where one of them turns into a bad apple. I'm talking about the irresponsible sluts who can't keep their knees together, pop out a neglected brat every year, and sit at home on welfare while their kids join gangs or take drugs or turn to some other sort of crime. We have to stop rewarding these people and start punishing them.

Same old same old story, this time out of France.

France's anti-terrorism authorities have launched an enquiry into death threats against a philosophy teacher who wrote an article criticising Islam.
Robert Redeker has been forced into hiding after making controversial remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.

Writing in France's Le Figaro, Mr Redeker described the religion's founder as "a merciless war leader".

This is in France - ostensibly still one of our countries, but in reality it is deep in the grip of Islam.

In the article, published on 19 September, the French teacher describes the Koran as a "book of extraordinary violence" and Islam as a religion which "exalts violence and hate".

Mr Redeker says that he fears he will not be able to come out of hiding for the immediate future.

"The Islamists have succeeded in punishing me on French territory as if I were guilty of a speech crime," he said.

Paris-based press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said the choice not to publish Mr Redeker's article would have represented "a defeat for freedom of thought".

France has one of Europe's largest Muslim communities with an estimated total of six million people, or ten percent of the population.

Welcome to the future, ladies and gentlemen. It looks a lot like the 9th Century to me.