PB&B sandwich; Inward pointed lens

He Who is Now Here enjoyed a major Western (Canadian, at least) treat sensation this morning -- he ate his first peanut butter and banana on toast sandwich. (Was also the first I'd had in years.)

~~~

One of the main points of advice the photographer who led the photography course I took at the AGO gave repeatedly was that we should do self-portraits often, turn the camera toward ourself. If I wasn't so lazy I'd get the tripod out and do some serious self-portrait work, but unfolding the tripod is so much work that I used a mirror to do a few self-portraits last night. Here's one I love because of how the changing wall textures and colours turned out. (Hope that is evident at the size I'll need to publish the photo). Also, interesting how I've wound up in the periphery of the shot.

The "Doksuri" Has Landed

He Who Is There is no longer there and is now He Who is Here.

His first duty (beyond the, ah, physical requirments of partnership) was to rid himself of his locks.

Bye bye hair.

I did the shearing. I think I'll be abandoning Bay St. for a Marine recruiting centre soon.

Stuff

The Italian Supreme Court ruled recently that sexually molesting girls who have had sex is not as bad as molesting virgins. There are no women on the Italian high court. More than a few under it doggy-style though, I suspect.

An 8 year old boy's foreskin (that organ that in adults leads to full sexual sensation and fulfillment) is the centre of a lawsuit in the U.S. A man is suing his ex-wife in Illinois to prevent her from having their son circumcised (that practice when applied to another gender is called, rightly, mutilation). Oh, how I suspect god is involved in this one. Or maybe just someone trying to win an argument they lost at the hospital 8 years ago.

The mystery killer in my aquarium has run its course -- well, at least all of my coral are dead (save three -- including the most expensive and arguably the most spectacularly beautiful, which is one small ray of light). I shall not begin restocking for at least 6 months (an arbitrary amount of time I've chosen as the length of time any coral parasite can live without its hosts). I never did find any evidence (visual) of a parasite -- some of the more commonly known are easily seen, but given that the die off clearly affected one type of coral most specifically and totally (acropora) -- a couple specimens of other types did die, but I attribute that to the nasty decline in water quality resulting from a tank full of once gorgeous coral becoming white skeletons. I also ruled out general poor water quality (of those things I can't measure) given the fish have remained vibrant and the giant clams, the three surviving coral, and all the invertebrates have continued to thrive... (granted they all could be more hardy than the famously fickle acropora).

An Arab paper published cartoons making fun of the Holocaust. One has Hitler in bed with Anne Frank, the caption reading: "Put that in your diary Anne..." Which proves one thing: Muslim irreverence for Jews is much funnier than Danish irreverence for Islam!

My yoga teacher touched me a lot last night.

HE SHOOTS HE... who gives a shit

A good news assignment editor is pretty much like a good political leader -- both should ultimately lead not follow.

Today I wake up to the CBC's World Report on CBC I leading the newscast with Canada's losses in Olympic hockey. Of course the story was top of the heap 'cause so many people were talking about it -- including everyone in the news lineup meetings. So much of importance happening, so much demanding some level of real public discourse (which of course the news no longer comes close to providing) and we instead get a bannered and top story on hockey games.

The story would have been better if it explored the need for people to attach personal ownership to sporting events or sporting individuals as if the people had anything to do with the damn performance or achievement/failure. I just don't get it.

I remember when Canada and Russia played hockey in whatever year that was ('72?), when Henderson scored the famous winning goal. My friend Paul and I admitted to each other later (we'd shared the cheering and jumping around with everyone else -- tv sets were set up in school classrooms so everyone could watch the game) that we had both been secretly hoping the Soviets would win the game. And both felt that way because we found it stupid that everyone around us was so engaged with something totally without any kind of real context at all. What the fuck did we (or the country generally) have to do with the team's performance?

The cry "we did it" when an athlete wins wearing a Canadian team uniform astonishes me. This isn't to say I don't root for someone when watching a sporting event, for I do (but rarely has nadathing to do with nationstatehood -- and usually has to do with opposing the other team)but the sense of ownership and self achievement that people adopt, adopting as one's own, someone else's achievement is frankly pathological, me thinks.

When I cheer on someone in a sport it's because I'm taking enjoyment from the glorious physicality of the performance, a sense of how difficult or how much talent it takes. Was thinking that yesterday watching bobsled on tv at the gym. For me, with no sense of what physical ability it takes (or what talent to steer or brake) I couldn't imagine how anyone could cheer for anyone in that sport -- unless one's concern is about what flag finishes at the top...

I love the fact a Canadian competed for Australia and won a Medal. I've been saying for years that Olympian should compete without colours -- it's the PERSONAL athletic accomplishment that is key, not the flag waving hyperbole.

But hacking off any third-party, detached sense of competition ("My country got more medals than your country") would only ruin TV viewership and sponsorship deals, so I'll just shut up.

PS -- makes more sense to cheer on athletes based on how hot they are not the state that issued their passport.

Integrity, Honesty, Kindness

Yah gotta love Mike Harris. No, that's not what I mean. More, you gotta want to see Mike Harris "fucked."

He once told my therapist to fuck off -- my former therapist was a recognized media type and then was/is an activist and was following the charming then Premier pestering him, when Harris turned and told him to fuck off. [I know, I know, we too often talked about things that had nothing to do with my emotional health :) ]

And then we have the Ipperwash inquiry.

Yesterday, Mr. Harris suggested he would never use such bad, 'wash-yer-mouth-oot-with-soap language in an important meeting -- former cabinet ministers have suggested Mr. Harris said he wanted the "fucking Indians" out of the park. Such language is something, even though he uses it occasionally he admits, just not appropriate.

Ah, then he admited in the same testimony to once telling a returning officer while voting to give him "the fucking ballot," and calling another voter "an asshole" and suggesting the citizen could "challenge [his] fucking ballot," in the same incident.

What a weasley, er, I mean, what a fucking weasley lying prick the man is.

7 Days

He who is there arrives in Canada, one week from today.

Ah, yah. Whoohoo!

caroon update

I am chagrined that I become more and more "right" on the cartoon issue, but love the irony that I become more right based on leftist indignation and leftist understanding of a secular, rule of law society...

So, let me get this straight, it's not an insult to my dogma (Western beliefs around freedom of expression and human rights) to overturn cars and set them on fire, burn down property that carries Western business signage or to threaten the violent death of people, to riot leading to the death of people, but it is an insult to publish inoccuous cartoons (and the cartoons are very much that -- go look for them. One is really good; one is hillarious; the others are a snore)that breach DOGMA (not even faith or religious teaching).

And to think I've often wished for a new Roman Catholic reformation--one which results in humanist Popes. Time for another reformation of another religion me thinks so that Islamic leadership begins to reflect modern majority thinking of their faith.

Gonna get messier this wonderfully interconnected world is.

cold nose

This wee girl is just shy of 20 days old. One of a litter of nine my brother's dog, Dixie, had.

My brother has chosen her for me, if I decide suddenly I want a dog in my life!

For the moment her name is puppy number 7.

I think it might be way too dangerous, given their culinary habits, to have a puppy in the apartment with a Korean!

Gay Cartoons Launch Worldwide Firestorm of Violent Protests!!

Pinnacle PR!

I received this news release today. This was produced and shared without a drop of irony.

hall%20news%20release.pdf

FYI, quoting one's own self in the third person has not yet become standard communication practice, even in PR.

More, more eleoquent and from (outside) within

I love how a reformist is called a dissident :)

Anyway, this says it so much better than my couple of previous ramblings on the subject:

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,398853,00.html

You'll have to cut and paste as my link feature appears today in the tool bar, but it does nothing when utilized. The editorial is short, if that makes reading it more attractive.

Love and Hate

A friend's father died early this morning -- just hours after the friend boarded a train and left his father's side in another city.

My friend (like me, in fact) had a relationship with his father that can best be described as loving someone you hate, or perhaps hating someone you love.

Nicely, there had been some reconcilliation over the past half year or so -- a lengthy and killing illness will afford that luxury. And my friend's father kissed him goodbye yesterday. A remarkable thing, really. Something so lovely, not to erase all the pain that came before, but lovely as it marked a point back to which the memories can more easily go. A new starting point for forgiveness in the relationship, which has just ended, perhaps.

So much for that secular moment/gesture...

The lead of an AP story (re: the topic of my last blog):

PARIS, France (AP) -- The managing editor of a French newspaper has been fired over publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that are inflaming the Muslim world, where Pakistani protesters on Thursday chanted "Death to France!" and Gaza gunmen demanded apologies from European governments.

The furor over the drawings, which first ran in a Danish paper in September, cuts to the question of which is more sacred in the Western world, freedom of expression or respect for religious beliefs?

The daily France Soir and several other European papers reprinted the pictures Wednesday, in a show of solidarity with the Danish daily.

Can I at least ask then tht we be consistent and that we apply all religious dogma to our behaviour, law making and expression. Dancing should no longer be shown on television for fear of insulting Southern Baptists and shopping needs be banned from Friday at sundown to 00:00:01 Monday to respect Jewish/Christian sensitivities. Oh, and the insult of women on the street alone...

I know, I know, there's a most fine line between freedom of expression and hatred or damaging insult but... The depth of "insult" has to be considered, surely, recognizing that insult determination rests, of course, with those insulted.

Did the cartoons incite hatred of the Prophet, his people, his religion? I'm not hearing that. I'm hearing the outrage is over the very fact his caracature was used at all -- since it's against the "rules." If the cartoons were hateful I'd say don't publish them, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Respect for religious belief means you are free to worship how you wish without interference (with the usual checks and balances to protect human rights and one's societal norms) not that I will be expected to assume your belief practices.

I shoulda blogged instead about the production of Rocky Horror Picture Show I saw at Hart House last night. That would have insulted a few religious right types -- guess they should shut the show down, which would be a shame since it was bloody fabulous even though most every song (save the lead's) was sung incredibly off key. Gee, that surely was an insult to music worshippers everywhere too -- another reason to shut down the show.

Okay, Sometimes I Love the Germans

Earlier this week I read how Muslim organizations in Islamic countries called for boycotts of Danish products over the publication in a Danish publication of cartoons that satarized or caricaturized the prophet Mohammed. Some Muslims were offended because of the critical nature of the cartoons and, as they pointed out, it is against Islamic dogma or law or tradition or bylaws to use any reprsentation of the prophet for fear it will lead to idolatry. I figure it's much the same sort of thinking which bans standing-up sex among Baptists for fear it will lead to dancing.

Apologies were forthcoming from the publication and I think even the Danish government. Hate to see the sale of cheese and chocolate plummet in Iraq.

Today a couple of German newspaper printed all the offending cartoons again, and threw in a few more of other religious types (Jesus, Buddha, ect) in satirical cartoons for good measure.

One of the German papers said democracy demands the right to blasphemy. Ain't that the swellest thing you've see from a newspaper in awhile!

A French newspaper also re-published the cartoons with the same aim as the Germans, reporting that, in the paraphrased words in the Globe, "religious dogma has no place in a secular society." More music to one's ears.

Now if only we could keep the Western media from giving such widespread coverage of messages from the Pope as if he was a world "leader."