Would you be If I told you I’m enjoying spending most of the day flat on my back with my leg up? If so, you would believe a lie. I got so bored yesterday that I got up and cleaned up hundreds of excess tags. Administrators and Authors, please add new tags if and only if you intend to use them over and over again. Use existing tags whenever possible. Thanks. At least today is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, and my Broncos service with the Steelers will be televised here. Hugs to all!
It has been a quiet day fortunately. A hair cut and nap and reading. The weather was very wet this afternoon and will likely continue that way tomorrow. I won't even go near a mall . . . total insanity!
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:29 (average 5:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
Huffington Post — Canada’s refugee policy is world class, and the big secret behind its success is its private sponsorship program, according to a former Toronto mayor.
“I think at the end of the day the absolute brilliance of the Canadian refugee program is that it relies on private groups to support the refugees and integrate them into Canadian society,” John Sewell, who helped resettle tens of thousands of people in the city decades ago, told The Huffington Post Canada in an interview.
“No other country has this kind of program,” he said. “It’s absolutely brilliant.”
In the late 1970s, the federal government began to feel pressure to increase its intake of Indochinese refugees uprooted by the Vietnam War.
It was around this time, in 1978, when Canada’s private sponsorships program launched. Since then, citizen groups have fundraised millions to support refugee families both financially and emotionally for upwards to a year.
The program has helped resettle over 200,000 refugees across the country.
I was involved in my church's sponsorship committee in the late '70s when we supported a Vietnamese family. It was a lot of work but so worthwhile. My ESL student is a refugee from South Sudan via Uganda and I know I am making a difference. People helping people is what life should be about. Here is a Care2 petition urging the US Congress to legalise private sponsorship which I hope you'll sign. Just click on the link and it will open a new page with the petition.
Alternet — Can you imagine him? Here is, in other words, a dark-skinned, bearded, unkempt Middle Eastern Jew, acting all kinds of suspicious, ranting on street corners and hanging around with prostitutes and fanatics, rejecting money, violence and the ruling class, seen by Muslims as the divine precursor to their prophet as he lures the innocent and the seditious into his lawless cult of pacifism and peace.
Jesus in America, today? Almost certainly to be shunned, feared, derided. Depending where he wandered, also likely harassed, spit upon, even beaten – that is, if he was allowed into the country at all.
Looks quite like a Muslim, you see. Might be an ISIS sympathizer. Definitely radicalized. Got a Facebook feed full of strange proclamations, rapturous interventions, cryptic references to how you’re to seek the divine within, silly. Who knows what he might be up to?
Do you doubt it? Of course you can’t. I mean, just look at him.
Many years ago, I was introduced to liberation theology which Wikipedia describes as
…"an interpretation of Christian faith out of the experience of the poor…an attempt to read the Bible and key Christian doctrines with the eyes of the poor",[1] or "the message of the gospels", restored from "the first three centuries [of Christianity in which] it was … a pacifist … religion of the poor".[2] Detractors have called it Christianized Marxism.[3]
We don't hear the term liberation theology very often any more but nonetheless, I certainly see Jesus in that light, not as the right wing evangelical supply-side Jesus, the complete antithesis of the authentic Jesus. The author concludes:
But the sad truth is, the real, dark-skinned, pacifist prophet, the hippie mystic Jesus of yore, preaching peace, loving thy enemy, inner divine wisdom? He wouldn’t come anywhere near America today.
Too many guns, you see. He wouldn’t have a prayer.
I am not proselytising, but rather trying to demonstrate the difference between the authentic Jesus and the right wing evangelical supply-side Jesus that is seen in Republican politics.
Mother Jones — "The end of JONAH signals that conversion therapy, however packaged, is fraudulent—plain and simple," David Dinielli, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement. The center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs. …
In a pretrial decision in February, Judge Bariso wrote, "The theory that homosexuality is a disorder is not novel—but like the notion that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it—instead is outdated and refuted."
How long will it take to ban all conversion therapy? Being gay or lesbian or transgendered is not a learned behaviour or chosen lifestyle. Who in their right mind would choose to be discriminated against, denied opportunities etc? Good judgement!
My Universe —
A couple of years ago, Dandelion on Care2 shared this humourous video with me and I have been singing it ever since.
More incidents which seem to me to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with. Just as a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."
One thing many US women hoped after Roe v Wade was handed down in 1973. was that the era of coat hangers was over – except, of course, for hanging clothes. But it has turned out to be unceasing.
Raw Story: A Tennessee woman who tried to abort her own pregnancy in September has been charged with first degree attempted murder. (It doesn't get much rawer than that, does it?
Detective Tommy Roberts determined that 31-year-old Anna Yocca attempted to “self-abort” her pregnancy in September. Police said that Yocca filled her bathroom tub with hot water, got in and then “took a coat hanger and attempted to self-abort her pregnancy.” Roberts wrote that Yocca became “concerned about her safety” after she lost a lot of blood. She was taken to Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital by her boyfriend.
She didn't deny that she wanted to end her pregnancy. "However, doctors were able to save the baby, which weighed only 1.5 pounds at birth. It will reportedly need medical care for the rest of its life because of damage done to the lungs, heart and eyes during the abortion attempt."
A grand jury indicted her last week. She is of course in jail; workers at Amazon fulfillment centers can't afford bail, even were their wages not getting stolen, and certainly not $200,000.00 bail. Alecto, I see three individuals or groups here. First, the doctors who thought it was a good idea to keep a 1.5 pound baby alive in those circumstances. Second, Detective Roberts. Third, the grand jury. Perhaps you can try to — um, reason with all three.
That story also had an element if grudging women the right to be human. This story, from Equality Now, also has an element of unceasing, since FGM has been going on for literally centuries. But I am focusing on the element here of the grudging of justice. It was a doctor who performed the FGM from which 13-year old Sahir al-Batea died. Her father, who took her to the clinic for the procedure, and Dr. Raslan Fadl, who performed it, were both charged. It is illegal – a criminal offense since 2008.
Both Dad and Doctor were tried and acquitted, but the prosecution appealed, and on January 26, 2015, the appeals court sentenced Dr Fadl to two years and three monthe – three months for performing FGM and two years for manslaughter. (Dad was given a three month suspended sentence.) OK, I hear you say "That's not enough," and I concur, but it would at least be something IF he were serving it. He never reported to prison, he was never remanded to prison, he has not served a day. His clinic, which was to be closed for a year, was never closed, and he has been performing FGM daily. Megaera, I hear Egypt is lovely this time of year.
And now to Kentucky, where a "Christian"-run homeless shelter is exercising vengeful destruction of women, and children as well. The vengeful here is not REvenge, just common or garden variety hate and fear. At least I understand that to be the case. If there is in fact any fancied revenge, that would be a whole other ball of neuroses.
Billy Woodward, the cold-hearted Emergency Christian Ministries Director, defended the ban and justified it by saying it is based on teachings in the Bible. Furthermore, Woodward claims that his actions were not “biased or prejudiced whatsoever.” He reasoned that homeless women were utilizing the shelter as an impromptu dating or hookup service that he was not having any part of, “They say, ‘We’re homeless, maybe we can find somebody, a mate or something.’ They want to meet or slip in a room occasionally and we can’t have that."
Tisiphone, I realize that Megaera and Alecto could also have an interest, but they are busy right now. I know you can handle it.
I should let everyone know that I do not intend to run an article in this series next week. It is too close to Christmas, and it can get too depressing, and besides, we are probably all busy with much happier things.
Because my stump is swollen, I’m under orders to keep a shrink wrap on it and spend as much time as I can in bed with my stump elevated as I can, until my doctor returns on Thursday, or the swelling abates. So I’ll be mostly offline for a few days. On Monday I do have to get my power chair measured, so I can go to the doctor Thursday. Hugs to all, and thank you for your patience.
Well it rained today but not as hard as it has been raining. We are promised a snow/rain mix on Monday and very probable snow for Christmas day. We'll see! I was able to get to the doctor's today and thankfully I do not have pneumonia, but I do have a respiratory infection so it is anti biotics for 5 days.
Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:57 (average 5:08). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
Alternet—But as it turns out, the music-less music television station is working to educate their audience on the racist origins of some commonly used phrases.
It is interesting to note where expressions come from and how their meaning changes. I remember a rhyme for childhood — Eenie, meenie, miney, mo — in which the second line was "catch a n…r by the toe". I had no idea what a n…r was but when I found out, that rhyme was never spoken again.
Huffington Post — The United States holds a presidential election — and many of its citizens claim they will move to Canada if one of the contenders is elected.
This year, with the advent of people like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on the right (and Democrats Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on the left), these mutterings have become increasingly louder.
As one who travels frequently across the border, both for business and personal reasons, one can get the impression that entire Blue (Democratic) states will be depopulated the moment President Trump puts his hand on the inaugural bible. And a President Sanders, if you believe the cocktail-fueled rhetoric at certain conservative functions, would have a similar effect on Red (Republican) states.
When Democrats take the White House and the senate in 2016, red state populations best not think about coming north. No Republicans or Teabaggers allowed. We like our democratic socialism, warts and all. But seriously, any time I mention Trump in discussions, there are loud sighs! Dump Trump!!!
CBC — Canada's welcoming reception of the first planeloads of Syrian refugees has prompted an overwhelmingly positive response in the Arab media, with one Jordanian news site going so far as to call Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "Superman" for his acceptance of refugees.
Online interest in Canada has seen a huge upswing among Arabic speakers in recent weeks. The number of people searching for the word "Canada" in Arabic doubled in the past month, according to Google Trends. The primary source countries of the queries were Jordan and Lebanon, but internet users in Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Libya also generated some of the searches.
CBC News found tens of thousands of Arabic searches within the past week (Dec.8-15) for "Canada + Syrian refugees."
With the current refugee crisis and Canada's actions so far under Justin Trudeau, I feel like my Canada is coming back to its values, the ones that made me proud to be a Canadian. And it feels good.
The trains are fast approaching the end of their journeys, which will conclude in Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, B.C. on Dec. 19.
A sunset sky over the Elk River Valley as we steamed toward Fernie, BC.
The trains will finish their journeys in Port Moody about 5 blocks from my house. There is always a celebration in the older part of town by the trackside.
Today is a mess. My stump swelled, and I can't wear George. That means I’m mostly helpless, and have to set up the new chair. This may take a couple days, Hugs!
This is finally it . . . November stats and it isn't January yet! I have to say though, my furbabies don't come near me while I'm working on them.
Here is our latest summary:
Month
Unique visitors
Number of visits
Pages
Hits
Bandwidth
Jan 2015
10,329
29,156
79,523
241,305
3.34 GB
Feb 2015
9,917
27,754
75,630
220,134
3.12 GB
Mar 2015
9,547
26,594
77,688
217,204
3.12 GB
Apr 2015
9,838
26,580
80,467
233,368
3.36 GB
May 2015
8,806
27,104
75,708
216,640
3.09 GB
Jun 2015
8,798
27,484
79,415
212,991
3.04 GB
Jul 2015
9,760
30,626
89,850
235,370
3.17 GB
Aug 2015
9,612
32,079
91,883
245,973
3.09 GB
Sep 2015
10,087
29,818
104,743
274,560
3.44 GB
Oct 2015
10,265
32,938
118,319
302,050
4.53 GB
Nov 2015
11,064
34,904
143,087
377,069
5.80 GB
Dec 2015
0
0
0
0
0
Total
108,023
325,037
1,016,313
2,776,664
39.10 GB
It is not as neaty and tidy as TomCat's, but thanks to the Puddy Tat, the graph is no longer the size of a postage stamp. The numbers here are definitely going up, with November seeming to take right off. I hope TomCat will comment on the direction of the stats. I suspect with the holiday season upon us, things will slow down, but be prepared for more activity as the elections grow closer.
Data from November 2015:
Reported period
Month Nov 2015
First visit
01 Nov 2015 – 00:00
Last visit
30 Nov 2015 – 23:59
Unique visitors
Number of visits
Pages
Hits
Bandwidth
Viewed traffic *
11,064
34,904
(3.15 visits/visitor)
143,087
(4.09 Pages/Visit)
377,069
(10.8 Hits/Visit)
5.80 GB
(174.27. KB/Visit)
Not viewed traffic *
393,309
453,597
7.23 GB
Unfortunately, I was unable to reconcile October 2014 numbers from the Monthly Report for November 2014 to give you any meaningful data.
Here is our latest demographic data from Quantcast:
Compared to October 2015, all referral sources are down with the exception of Care2 which is up significantly again. Thanks to JL for trying and succeeding to widen the distribution on Care2.
During September and October, the resident Big Mouth designation was shared by JL, Joanne Dixon, SoINeedAName and me, Lynn Squance as TomCat was ill. TomCat increased his postings substantially through November and is back to posting daily. Kudos TomCat for a spectacular return!
Kudos to JL for winning the Big Mouth Award for the 72,000th comment.
I recommend using your own avatar. Go to Gravatar. Sign up using the email address you use to post comments here and upload the image you want to use as your avatar. Whenever you comment under that email address here or on any WordPress blog (several others too), that image will become your avatar.
The political campaign has definitely heated up much earlier than it normally has. Whether you support Bernie, Hillary, or Martin, please base your arguments on the good things about your choice. However, it’s open season (politically) on the Republican candidates. They and the Republican Bubble Machine will be repeating so many lies so often that we’ll be hard pressed to keep repeating the truths. Of course as we have been seeing, Donald Trump and now Ted Cruz are taking insaniTEA to new heights. Ben Carson is sinking into oblivion. How so many of these Republican candidates can afford to stay afloat financially with poll numbers so low, I really don't know. Expect little help from the media. we will do our best to assist you, by exposing the lies and presenting the truths clearly.
Thank you for all that you do, here and elsewhere. You make doing this job worth the effort!
