Memo to Women in Indiana: Your body is not yours it belongs to the state

In draft legislation before the Indiana legislature here, the people elected by the citizens of Indiana are drafting new legislation that will make marriage a requirement for motherhood in that state, and have included specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do become pregnant "by means other than sexual intercourse."

Wow!

Bon cop, bad cop

Hoping to see this film this afternoon.

Will provide reviews later.

How Bush's Grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power

In a story sure to spur many conspiracy theories about the current US President, the Guardian today has a story about power and financing of Hitler's war machine by companies that Grandpa Bush was working for.

But decades later as a formula for successful war profiteering it is not so different from having your VP direct contracts to companies that profiteer from the war in Iraq - one of which he was the former CEO.

Repin

People often ask me about being Ukrainian - I often hear silly things about painting eggs and peasant shirts.

A copy of the above painting by Ilya Repin hangs in my home. While it is certainly rude and not reflective of my views, it does provide a sense of Ukraine's long-standing nationhood which even some intellectuals refuse to take seriously. In the heart of every Ukrainian is a small bit of cossack, and not a "little Russian";)

Despite its early nationhood in 988 AD, Kievan Rus', in the 17th Century, Ukraine was a constantly disputed territory between between Catholic Poland and Muslim Turkey and Orthodox Russia (just starting to emerge as a great power).

The Cossacks were Ukrainian cavalrymen who established autonomous military communities on the Turkish border. The most famous Cossack settlement was the Zaporozhian "Sich'" near present-day Zaporozh'e on the Dniepro River. At various times, different Cossack bands shifted alliances back and forth between Poland and Russia.

In 1675, Poland was forced by military losses to sign a treaty surrendering areas including Zaporozh'e to the Turks. The Cossacks themselves had plenty of fight left, however ... as the attached letter to the Turkish Sultan demonstrates, in fact makes Stephane Dion's modern day letter-writing battles with the separatists look wimpy.

The following is translated from D. I. Evarnitsky, "History of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (Vol 2)," St. Petersburg, 1895; pp. 517-518:

Original text in Russian

These [Cossack attacks] so inflamed the hatred of the Muslims toward the Zaporozhian Cossacks and the entire Christian population of Ukraine that the Turks decided to attack the Zaporozhian Sich and raze it to the ground.

There was a popular tradition that, before sending his troops to the Zaporozhian Sich, Turkish Sultan Muhammad IV sent to the Zaporozhians a letter demanding they submit voluntarily to him, an unconquerable knight. To the Sultan's letter, the Cossacks responded with free choice of words in a letter of their own. It denied the Sultan all honor, cruelly mocking his boasts of an "unconquerable knight."

Many who treasure Ukrainian lore preserve copies of this letter of the Turkish Sultan and of the quaint reply of the Zaporozhians. The letter may be fictitious, but it is entirely consistent with the spirit of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.

Sultan Mahmud IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks:

As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the sun and moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians -- I command you, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.
--Turkish Sultan Mahmud IV

Here is a translation of the letter that the Cossacks sent to the Turkish Sultan when he asked them to surrender.

Thou Turkish Satan, brother and companion to the accursed Devil, and companion to Lucifer himself, Greetings!

What the hell kind of noble knight art thou? The Devil voids, and thy army devours. Never wilt thou be fit to have the sons of Christ under thee: thy army we fear not, and by land and on sea we will do battle against thee.

Thou scullion of Babylon, thou wheelwright of Macedonia, thou beer-brewer of Jerusalem, thou goat-flayer of Alexandria, thou swineherd of Egypt, both the Greater and the Lesser, thou sow of Armenia, thou goat of Tartary, thou hangman of Kamenetz, thou evildoer of Podoliansk, thou grandson of the Devil himself, thou great silly oaf of all the world and of the netherworld and, before our God, a blockhead, a swine's snout, a mare's ass, a butcher's cur, an unbaptized brow, May the Devil take thee! That is what the Kozaks have to say to thee, thou basest-born of runts! Unfit art thou to lord it over true Christians!

The date we write not for no calendar have we got; the moon is in the sky, the year is in a book, and the day is the same with us here as with thee over there, and thou canst kiss us thou knowest where!

May we speak again, if only for posterity. - OEC

Grain alcohol and letter-writing baby, they certainly make for an entertaining combination.

And from Today's Rutland Herald...

The political season is heating up in Vermont, and two congressional candidates, Peter Welch (D) and Martha Rainville (R), have pledged to run clean and open campaigns. However, Rainville recently was the beneficiary of a $21,000 effort to test negative campaign tactics in Vermont. The Republican National Congressional Committee paid the firm that produced the "Swift Boat" ads in 2004 to question Vermonters about similar ads to appear on behalf of Rainville. The expenditure was recorded with the national Election Commission and reported by The Associated Press.

Rainville claims that she knew nothing of this. The question now is which of these candidates will say "no" to further attempts by national committees and their ad agencies to smear the opponent.

Murkowski not a sore loser man

The laws of common decency and civil conduct of Republican horndog and outgoing Governor Frank Murkowski should be a lesson to disgraced Connecticutt sore loser and 3 term Senator Joe Lieberman. While losing his party's primary, Murkowski here shows how you can remain committed to a cause or principle without putting your ego ahead of the interests of the team.

Frank Murkowski is an old style politician who at least remembers a lesson from little league. When you lose, shake the hand of your opponent and act with courtesy and dignity. Unlike Joe, whose fit may result in the team being sentto the showers early.

Pumpernickel Recipe #4 - Canapes of smoked salmon with cucumber, Cream cheese and dill

Ingredients:

6 slices Pumpernickel
4 oz Cold-smoked salmon
1 english cucumber
1 lemon (you will require both zest and juice)
3 oz cream cheese
3 sprigs fresh dill

Cut out rounds of pumpernickel by pressing a small glass onto bread.

Slice up salmon into 2 inch pieces.

Using a peeler, shave stripes into cucumber and then slice into 1/4 inch wheels.

Zest lemon.

Season cream cheese with salt, lemon juice and fresh dill.

Spread cream cheese on pumpernickel. Dress sandwiches with salmon, cucumber, cream cheese & top with dill and lemon zest.

Obamamania sweeping the country

I have a lot of time for Barack Obama. He is young, bright and a glimmer of hope for the blue team. Having said that, I think that he needs some maturing and I would advise against a run for President in 2008. Although, as the NY Times notes today here, he may be getting some practise in his father's country of birth - Kenya.

At the very least, a Presidential hopeful talking about AIDS, Darfur and the evils of Mugabe and failings of the Bush administration, well that's not bad at all. Let's see if the rest of the American public can figure out what the people of Kenya and Illinois have already discovered...

Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic and Delegate Selection meetings

While Liberals will be picking delegates to send to Montreal during so-called Super weekend, I intend to see the Chili Peppers on Fri 09/29/06 in Ottawa, ON at Scotiabank Place - Who would the Chili Peppers support?

Many of the gods, goddesses, angels, demons and elementals of the universe have conspired to send messages from beyond through the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the current civilization. After a year and a half of channeling and organization these messages have taken the materialized form of the double album Stadium Arcadium.

I'm going to have to spend some time contemplating that and I will imediately begin working on a contest to allow readers to match Liberal leadership candidates to Chili Pepper songs.

So if you have a candidate that you want to match up with Yertle the Turtle, my friends, scar tissue or any other Chili Pepper tune, send in your comments and I will try to post results in a family friendly way. How would Anthony Kiedis vote? even if I knew I wouldn't "give it away now"...

Is Britney Spears the new science advisor to PM Harper?

In a very bizarre video that has been making the rounds this week, Britney asks if time travel is real here.

I want to boldly and publicly endorse the belching pop queen. Prime Minster Harper's policies are right out of the 1940's according to Ken Battle of the Caledon Institute, taking the pre-"Leave it to Beaver" idea out of the annals of history to provide benefits that disproportionately serve the interests of higher income Canadians with one stay at home parent...hmmn, next thing you know Maxwell Q Smart will be around with his shoe phone and the suffragettes will turn up with some of their equally modern ideas...and maybe Britney can convince Steve that human activity causes climate change...

Pumpernickel Recipe Number 3 - The Reuben

The Reuben is one of the most famous sandiches which is at home with Pumpernickel.

Ingredients:

2 large slices of pumpernickel (per sandwich)
Pastrami 100g per sandwich
Emmental or Swiss cheese (2 slices per sandwich)
Sauerkraut

One of the key ingredients in a reuben is the sauce. Many diners use thousand island salad dressing, which is fine if you are in a hurry, or you can whip up your own by mixing the following ingredients:

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 c plain yogourt
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp horseradish
1 finely chopped dill pickle (small)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2-3 drops of your favourite hot sauce


Butter outside of both slices of bread and bread. Assemble sandwich (pastrami, sauerkraut, cheese, and sauce) and place sandwich in a hot skillet and grill it until the cheese melts and the bread is toasted, flipping once.

Enjoy.

An Independent Senator, a Republican Governor and Democrat Congressman

I'm just back from spending the long weekend in Vermont with family and visiting many Vermonter friends when I was struck by the absolute independent streak that runs through this state that is the home of Patrick Leahy, Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders.

Imagine for a moment that any other state in the union was running an 8 term independent (I think he dropped the socialist part of his degination years ago) congressman as an independent to replace the retiring Senator Jim Jeffords (most recently an independent) and that the independent congressman was ahead by 20 points - why that's enough to make Joe Lieberman take notice.

In a poll taken by American Research Group of Manchester, N.H. based on phone interviews of 600 likely Vermont voters on July 26 and 27, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Poll numbers

U.S. Senate:
Bernie Sanders (I) 56 percent
Richard Tarrant (R)35 percent
Undecided/Other 9 percent

U.S. House
Martha Rainville (R)42 percent
Peter Welch (D)41 percent
Undecided/Other16 percent

Governor
Jim Douglas (R)47 percent
Scudder Parker (D)36 percent
Undecided/Other16 percent

What really floors me is that a guy like Scudder Parker despite having travelled the State for the better part of a year hitting local markets is making absolutely no inroads. With a name like Scudder, wouldn't he be better off in a coastal state?

UPDATE!!! I know that in the poll attached the Republican Congressional candidate and the Democrat are virtually tied, there were polls out this weekend that had Welch taking the lead.

Growing up Canadian

One of the truly remarkable things about growing up in Canada was the high quality children's programming on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Ernie Coombs was excellent as Mr. Dress-up (not about drag queens even though it featured the tickle trunk) and Bob Homme as Friendly Giant (above), may they both rest in peace.

There was always one thing that annoyed and perplexed me about Finegan, the dog who was Casey's sidekick on Mr. Dress-up. Why is it that when Finegan spoke, only Casey could hear him? We could all hear Aunt Bird.

On Friendly Giant, we could all hear Jerome the giraffe and Rusty the rooster who would amuse us with their hilarious banter.


Casey seen here doing a monologue

While I understand that there are whistles which can only be heard by dogs, can someone please explain this phenomenon to me?

What ever happened to the Subliminal Party of Canada?

During the last election campaign, one of the funniest addtions to the public discourse was these spoof ads here. In a campaign that handed the liberal party its ass, these folks brought a cushion. I wonder if anyone is interested in doing something similar from a more progressive bent...

Strange Bedfellows

Ukraine's President and former Orange Revolutionary, Viktor Yushchenko today proposed his former arch-nemesis Viktor Yanukovich to become Ukraine's Prime Minister.

Having seen the Orange Revolution up close and personal, I can only imagine what it must be like to nominate someone responsible for poisoning you and who commited electoral fraud to head up your Cabinet. Here is the Reuters wire story.

Story developing...

A response that's a whole lot more interesting than the hot air coming from Rona Ambrose

Today's NY Times highlights what large corprations are doing to move to more environmentally friendly energy here.

Vail resorts and Whole Food Market Inc recognize that global warming is a serious issue and not one that will go away by burying our head in the sand as Rona Ambrose suggests. My friend DC Grit tells me that the international community established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an expert panel formed in 1988 that reviews scientific research and offers assessments of climate change and its effects.

In 1995, the IPCC concluded that: "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate." This result was remarkable; more than a thousand scientists, working through a process that allowed much political input from governments concerned to deny global warming, nonetheless found the evidence so overwhelming that they were able to state that one species, ours, was now changing pretty much everything on the face of the planet. In a recent press release from the Asia – Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, even the Bush administration and the Howard government in Australia acknowledged the serious problem of climate change.

Rona Ambrose’s “Made in Canada Approach” demonstrates a lack of understanding of climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions do not respect national borders. While we must do everything we can to decrease GHG emissions in Western countries, it is also important to note that it does not matter where the emissions originate from because they rise and create a greenhouse effect in the earth’s atmosphere. If you reduce emissions in Canada or if Canada helps developing countries reduce emissions it has the same net effect on the planet.

Let's hope that the Harper government will try to exceed Bush and Howard on GHG reductions and make an about face on their unilateralist approach to climate change and work on implementing the Montreal protocol.

I guess Mr. Andre was lying...

You can imagine my surprise when I opened my Globe and Mail this morning and discovered that not only is Stephen Harper continuing his daily broken promise routine, but that he is breaking wind with his 6 month, $500k appointment of Harvie Andre to the position of land-transfer negotiator with the NWT government.

Mr. Andre appears to be in a severe conflict of interest given his current capacity as the President of Wenzel Downhole Tools Ltd., an Alberta-based company that rents drilling equipment for the oil-and-gas industry and not to mention his other lobbying gigs.

Andre was a Mulroney era Minister of Supply and Services, Consumer and Corporate Affairs, and Government House leader.

Once when asked about his friends and former staff getting lucrative government contracts he opined, "It is better to know Harvie Andre than to be Harvie Andre". For half a million dollars in non-tendered contracts Mr. Andre, know thy self.

Today Canadians are right to wonder about what happened to the Steve Harper's election talk of integrity and how once again they find themselves hosed by one of Brian Mulroney's buddies.