meggo

something very similar happened to d_rawk and i once on bank street. unbelievable. another time a guy asked me for change; i checked my pockets and had no change, only keys. i said sorry, no change. but, i guess he heard the keys and thought it was change, and he said, "you're the umpteenth person do to that to me today!!", all pissy-like! i was mad as hell.

okay, so you're talking purely sidewalk scenario. i'm with ya there. i guess i was thinking just a random walking situation, say in a mall, where there's not necessarily any "rules" b/c you're heading to such and such a store so you need to go in certain directions... i have to do that little dance a lot, where you both head the same way. i can't believe i just spent a minute of my life typing that.

how do you know you're not the one walking directly towards them? [i say that b/c i find myself in this situation rather frequently]

yep, that is definitely one of the points that the article touches on. it seems as though these towns don't see themselves as falling under any jurisdiction but their own: "While the standards largely target Muslims, they also refer to practices of Sikhs, who carry kirpans, or ceremonial religious daggers; Jehovah's Witnesses, who refuse blood transfusions; and Orthodox Jews, who obey strict dietary laws. However, several of the town's standards, such as not killing women, are already illegal under the Criminal Code and others, such as the right to carry a kirpan or wear a head covering, are protected by court rulings or human-rights legislation." tsk tsk!

and in the same vein... the quebec saga continues: Retract xenophobic 'standards,' Quebec town asked JILL MAHONEY From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Organizations representing minorities are outraged by a Quebec town's “standards†for newcomers, calling them insulting and xenophobic. The town council of Hérouxville issued a set of wide-ranging rules for immigrants considering moving there, including bans on beating or burning women alive, veiling one's face and children carrying symbolic weapons to school. “It is totally distasteful to see someone using this kind of writing and putting it in a public domain, and this is not just an ordinary someone, these are people in authority,†said Salam Elmenyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal. Critics urged Quebec Premier Jean Charest — who called the standards an “isolated case†earlier this week — to strongly denounce the town officials. They also want the mayor and councillors to apologize and retract the document. The standards, which the town sent to provincial and federal governments last week and wants immigrants to read before deciding to settle in Hérouxville, come during pitched debates in Quebec over the integration of ethnic, cultural and religious minorities. “It tries to make a mockery of this whole debate about reasonable accommodation, and it tries to say that these are our rules and if you don't like them, don't come here,†said Steven Slimovitch, national legal counsel for B'nai Brith Canada. “The whole tone of the document, and it says so quite clearly, is that this is the law of the strong.†Hérouxville is a town of 1,300, including just one immigrant family, in central Quebec, about 165 kilometres northeast of Montreal. Officials, who say they want to attract more immigrants, say the document is intended to help newcomers “integrate socially.†“We would especially like to inform the new arrivals that the lifestyle that they left behind in their birth country cannot be brought here with them and they would have to adapt to their new social identity,†it says. Hérouxville's initiative is spreading, with the town council in a nearby village, Saint-Roch-de-Mékinac, set to debate a similar resolution Friday night. Mayor Claude Dumont said the resolution is “saying out loud what some people are thinking quietly but don't have the balls to say.†Mr. Dumont added that three other communities outside of his village, population 311, are thinking of passing their own resolutions. Hérouxville officials have said the standards are in response to recent culture clashes, including at a Montreal gym where windows were obscured to block the view of exercising women from a nearby Hasidic Jewish synagogue and school. The Hérouxville document says women can drive, dance, vote, sign cheques and speak for themselves. Boys and girls swim together in the same pools, men and women ski on the same slopes and play hockey on the same rinks. “Don't be surprised, this is normal for us,†it says. The only time residents can veil their faces, it says, is during Halloween. It also dismisses Muslim and Jewish dietary laws, saying: “If our children eat meat, for example, they don't need to know where it came from or who killed it. Our people eat to nourish the body, not the soul.†While the standards largely target Muslims, they also refer to practices of Sikhs, who carry kirpans, or ceremonial religious daggers; Jehovah's Witnesses, who refuse blood transfusions; and Orthodox Jews, who obey strict dietary laws. However, several of the town's standards, such as not killing women, are already illegal under the Criminal Code and others, such as the right to carry a kirpan or wear a head covering, are protected by court rulings or human-rights legislation. “It really seems like statements that are very far out there. It's something that I feel that has already been covered and I feel almost as if we're going back to a debate of 30 years ago,†said Sameer Zuberi, human-rights co-ordinator at the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations. Mark Ruge, spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses in Canada, took issue with the standard that says health-care professionals “do not have to ask permission to perform blood transfusions or any task needed to save a life.†“It kind of goes against anything we've ever heard as far as laws protecting people's rights. So some town in Quebec is coming up with something very unusual here.†With a report from Tu Thanh Ha

amen, guigsy

that's funny shain, i wasn't digging it nearly as much as i was funeral. but, it may be one of those albums that grows on you [and i did have pretty high expectations]. i definitely agree about the church organ though, that really grabbed me!

phew! i'm glad you added easy skankin' in there. love that one.

i think he means ripped off cause the ferry charges so damn much for their ferry food. i wonder where that expression came from? rip-off.

i sat with the sloan people on a flight once. i was drunk. chris murphy let me wear his big headphones because i couldn't find mine and he was getting annoyed that i kept rummaging through my bag. i also helped him with his crossword. that is an E! true hollywood story. as for shows... saw them once with superfriends(z?) in london - 10 years ago probably? yowza. the venue was a really crappy warehousey place so i think that took away from it... plus i was underage and not allowed in the boozy area. booo! the backbacon was there.

i've been burnt-pot-free for a little while now. probably just jinxed myself. oh well. i think the one that got the stuff stuck in the bottom may have actually been a paderno... it's fine now. can't say the same for some other cheapo pots... now they just have flowers in them. and by the way mr grand mc, I AM PATIENT, DAMMIT!

*can't wait can't wait* [doing the can't-wait dance]

you know, despite all that, i actually think we are making it work. the article mentions the 'growing pains' of a multicultural society, and i think that's all this is. [look out! lots of italics in this one ] actually... it might not be as bad as you think! i'll use the school where i teach as an example, in the east part of ottawa, because we have students from pretty much every corner of the earth. at our school, it is true that there is no lord's prayer at the beginning of the day. we have 'O Canada', and then we have a 'moment of reflection.' i think it is this 'moment' that is meant to serve, as you say, as the time slot for everyone to say a prayer for them self, should they choose to. i don't think there would be time in the day to have prayers for every religion, every morning, but i don't think that's what you were suggesting we do. also, prayer itself isn't altogether banned in schools, it's the forcing of everyone to listen to prayer from one religion that's gone, and i think that's good. however, students are permitted to pray on their own time. 'friday prayer' is an important part of islam, from what i understand, and every friday at lunch a large group of muslim students use one of the bigger classrooms to hold their friday prayers in. admittedly there was some controversy around this a few years ago, but that's not b/c it was prayer, it's because it was islam. that seems to have faded, thankfully. as for having all the symbols up instead of just the cross; i don't necessarily see anything wrong with that, except if it is a government building then i don't see the need to involve religion there anyway. multiculturalism is a tricky business, for sure, and from time to time there are going to be seemingly nit-picky things to worry about. but in the end, i think it will work [i think it is working] and personally, i am happier with that than the 'melting pot' plan across the way.

jesus, we saw that the other night too. brutal.

recent related article in the G&M! this part gets me: "Mr. Ayman said the rights of minorities should be accommodated “as long as that doesn't infringe on the rights of the majority.â€" eeeek!! Quebec wrestles with multicultural identity link DENE MOORE Canadian Press MONTREAL — Men banned from pre-natal classes at a Montreal community health centre so as not to offend Muslim, Sikh or Hindu women. The windows at a community gym obscured so that boys at the Orthodox synagogue across the street couldn't see the Spandex-clad women inside. Most recently, a suggestion that it's time to remove a large wooden crucifix from the Quebec national assembly. Is it political correctness run amok or the natural growing pains of an increasingly multicultural society? That's the debate in Quebec, where politicians, minority advocates and everyday residents are weighing in on what is “reasonable†accommodation of racial, ethnic and religious minorities in what is an increasingly diverse society. Mario Dumont, leader of the Action démocratique du Québec, said Quebec should quit bending over backwards to accommodate minorities and, instead, set out in law reasonable compromises to be granted to religious and ethnic groups. “We must make gestures which reinforce our national identity and protect those values which are so invaluable to us,†Mr. Dumont wrote in a letter to be sent to Quebeckers. Unpopular with his political opponents, Mr. Dumont's position seemed to strike a chord with some Quebeckers. “We're tired of empty political shells who have no firm position,†one man wrote to Montreal La Presse newspaper. “For us, Mario Dumont is a breath of fresh air.†Then, Parti Québécois Leader Andre Boisclair entered the fray by suggesting it may be time to remove the crucifix that has adorned the Quebec national assembly since 1936. In a diverse society, “religious symbols have no place in public space,†Mr. Boisclair said. It was just the latest clash: — A Montreal elementary school had to hire guards last April after a Filipino mother alleged that her son was chided by a lunch hall monitor for the way he ate. The school said the reprimand had nothing to do with the traditional Filipino manner of eating, but bad manners. The mother said it did and made a complaint to the Quebec Human Rights Commission. The school received threats and the incident prompted a small demonstration outside the Canadian embassy in Manila. — A few months ago, an internal Montreal police magazine suggested female officers step aside to let male colleagues deal with Hasidic Jews. The police union was furious while a Hasidic Jewish leader wondered why the article was written at all. He said there had never been any complaint about dealing with female officers. — Last fall, some members of a Montreal YMCA were upset that windows in their exercise room were frosted at the request of the Orthodox synagogue across the street. And it's not just Quebec. Last month, an Ontario judge caused an uproar when she ordered a Christmas tree removed from the lobby of a Toronto court house so as not to offend non-Christians. “These are growing pains that are not limited to Quebec,†said Al-Yassini Ayman, executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Mr. Ayman said the rights of minorities should be accommodated “as long as that doesn't infringe on the rights of the majority.†Randall Hansen, Canada Research Chair in Immigration and Governance at the University of Toronto, said people have the right to religious freedom but not to force their religious precepts on others. “What people (in some of these cases) are expecting is that others alter their behaviour,†Mr. Hansen said. “When it involves denying individual rights for other people, that's where the limits need to be drawn.†Fo Niemi, executive director of the Montreal-based Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations, said considering the number of minorities living in Montreal alone, the problems are being “blown way out of proportion.†It reflects intolerance and “a certain cultural insecurity on the part of many francophones,†Mr. Niemi said. He worries these incidents overshadow real problems. Last week, 20 windows were smashed out of a private Muslim school in Montreal and two Orthodox Jewish schools have been firebombed in the past couple of years. The Quebec government has ordered a series of public hearings into racism and the integration of cultural communities into the province. A report is expected this year.

aw sweets. i always know the right thing to say

one day, about six years ago, i learned the unpleasant way [is there a pleasant way?] that i am pretty strongly allergic to wasp stings [yellowjackets]. luckily i got to the hospital and got stuck with a few needles, and everything worked out just fine. needless to say it was kind of a rough day [granted, coulda been a lot worse]. when i got home that evening, pretty exhausted, my mom and i sat down for a bite to eat. i ate my food, drank my water, and when i got to the bottom of my glass... there were two contact lenses in the bottom! uuuuuugh. my sister had taken them out and put them in the glass, and somehow that became my water glass. a fitting end to that day, i suppose.

this place was built in 1902. how do you find out if you have nasty mold in your bathroom? and how would you get rid of it? ew.

our bathroom doesn't have a fan. hmmmmm...

one thing that did sound promising was talk of more funding for protecting a wilderness area in BC [great bear?]. so there's that!

meh. now that i'm listening to the panel's reaction, sounds like they should have just kept the original energuide program. well.. better than nothing i guess?

just came from gary lunn... *fingers crossed for something useful* apparently there will be more from john baird later. from the globe and mail: Tories environment plan targets homes, business Canadian Press Toronto — The Conservatives are promising $300 million to help homeowners and businesses make their buildings more energy efficient. Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn says Ottawa will give homeowners an average grant of $1,000 which he expects will reduce their energy costs by 30 per cent. He also says 800 small businesses will receive help to reduce their energy bills as well. Mr. Lunn unveiled the last plank of the Conservative's green energy plan at Toronto's home show Sunday after promising earlier this week that Ottawa would spend $230-million over four years for research into clean energy. Liberals have accused the Conservatives of repackaging their party's previous environment initiatives. Political observers say the Conservatives are just trying to neutralize the thorny issue of environmental policy and climate change with a possible election coming in the near future.

those sound goooood.

neat! want to come cook for one of my spanish classes? we might be able to pass you off as a spaniard... a lovely latina that i know said that the recipe she uses is the one that comes on the corn flour bag. corn is definitely the way to go! what are you putting in your tortillas??

heh, yeah... not exactly practical ideas, but what are daydreams for? maybe we can share a farm?