OOPS There Goes Another ONE

So yesterday I watched the Under 18 Final and then the Canada Russia Game.








During the under 18 game I saw a sixteen year old execute a penalty shot that was amazing. The kid was so calm and professional you had to be amazed. He came in at good speed and then almost in slow motion pulled the goal keeper over to one side of the net and then dragged the puck back to the opposite way and basically shuffled boarded the puck into the net. The goal keeper was left facing the other way. It was Just beautiful.

The Junior Final was unfortunate. Our kids forgot rule #46 of the unwritten laws. Unless your team is leading by 3 goals and there is only 1/2 minute left on the clock you can't count the Russians out. They're going to find a way to beat you. That is why they are one of the great hockey nations in the world. Soon as you forget that and start to believe that you've got the game in the bag You Are Toast.

It was unfortunate and even more unfortunate is the amount of crap these kids are going to have to swallow for the next few days if not weeks. The over analysis of this game and THE LOSS could effect them for the rest of their lives.

In the background I can hear CBC News Network's Suhana Marchand repeating the words "Shocking Loss", "I am reeling". She is just one of many using these kind of words. I haven't heard McRae or Squire join the choir yet but I am sure they will. I think I may just avoid the news for the rest of the day and especially the sports channels. The best thing would be to duck and cover until this all blows over or at least runs out of wind.

To the Canadian Young Men involved in the game last night refer to paragraph two and remember unwritten law #46 and the old expression 'It ain't over til' the FAT Lady sings'. It hurts today, you will get over it and your future is still bright. Just keep playing the game and enjoying the wins and work through the losses, learn from both cases.

The goal tender in the photo is Jimmy TWO DOGS.....!, one of the best goal tenders in the family.

Vampire Lesbians

A couple of months ago I heard about an MSNBC programme host named Rachel Maddow. So I investigated her programme. Not being that interested in American Politics or Politics in general unless they directly affect my life, I generally click through these programmes quickly.



Much to my surprise I stayed and watched Rachel Maddow. She was sarcastic, funny and took shots at both Major American Parties as well as the Tea Party. Her coverage of the midterm election was in my opinion brilliant.

Rachel Maddow is somewhat like Jon Stewart. She demands your attention by delving deeper into stories, asking good well informed questions and provides solid well thought out opinions. I watched with interest as she roasted the Democrats for not taking the midterms seriously and wondered why they appeared not be campaigning. I first saw the racist Tea Party ad from Nevada portraying gangs of Mexicans sneaking over the border attack the White Residents of the State at least a month and a half before Barbara Walters brought it to the View.

Last Night's programme continued a post election wrap up and her take on the Mis-Information campaign that still continues. John Hodgman talked about how this Mis-information is created. Here's an example, Barack Obama is secretly bringing small groups of Muslims into the USA. Some goof wrote this in a blog somewhere and another idiot read it. Then at a televised Republican rally he asked a Senator if it was true. The Senator did a classic political non answer, 'I haven't seen that report but will be looking into it.' Next thing you know he is repeating the same claim. If you preface Mis-information by saying 'I read somewhere' or 'I heard that', somewhere somebody will buy it as fact.

I am attaching a You Tube clip to illustrate another example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOtR1IyiLjw

This sort information really requires an application of common sense. Just pull your common sense back off the shelf in your closet. Dust it off, and apply it where ever required. If you can't find your common sense, just Google it, I'm sure that someone somewhere is selling it online. If you can buy Canned Unicorn Meat, you should be able to buy some new or used common sense.

This will come in especially handy when you run into any Mexamericanadian Vampire Lesbians trying to tell you about Obama using an old Jimmy Carter sweater as a prayer rug or trying to get you to exchange your old money into the New North American Currency at par.

At least that's what I was thinking about this morning.

2 Million Dollar Dog

Years ago we had Million Dollar Dog named Tasha. She was a lovely mid sized dog with fur made from polyester. This meant that if it smelled bad, Tasha would eventually smell just as bad. The smell had nothing to with her status as a Million Dollar Dog, it was her leg that made her worth this small fortune.

When she was a puppy, a neighour crushed her right leg. The vet said, "We can pin this leg back into place and it will only cost $300.00." We thought this was pretty amazing considering the leg was being held on by a 1/2 inch strip of skin and fur. We were young and naive, and both had jobs, so we had Tasha fixed up. When the bills had reached the TWO THOUSAND DOLLAR mark, we started to refer to Tasha as the Million Dollar Dog. The Two Thousand Dollar Mark made us feel like a couple of Marks.

Now we come to Molly, the sweetest Rottie Cross you've ever met, with bark that would make Death Think Twice about arriving on our door step. Molly strained her right knee. She was slowly healing up and then for our anniversary present she tore her left knee completely.

Three Hundred Dollars, boy those were the good old days, Molly's starting point will be Two Thousand Dollars. Needless to say we will be returning all our empties.

In the meantime though, I built her some leg braces based on a little web surfing. At least now she has a little support for knees while we figure out when to turn her in the 2 Million Dollar Dog

Education

Education is an interesting thing. Yesterday I made French Bread for the first time. I found out what I needed to know from a book.


I know some of you know what a book is, it's where you go just before you try and find an answer by using Google.


I was doing some book keeping and my butt became sore from the ratty old chair we have in the computer room. (side note, we keep the ratty old chair because there are more important things to do than stare wide eyed into the gaping internet) We all know who Oprah is and once and a while I need to flush my tear ducts so today I watched for a few minutes until I uttered, "I hate you Oprah, you make care about American Stuff."

Today was Education Day on Oprah, normally I wouldn't watch her show's take on education ........but Bill Gates was on, so I quit my book keeping watched until I had to walk away and utter those words.

So How are we doing compared to our American Friends. After wiping the tears from my eyes, (I am critical but I do have compassion) I did a little Google Search on educational rankings.

Canada isn't doing to badly at all, I am impressed. Especially after my experience with some of the teachers my daughters had to deal with.


http://www.geographic.org/country_ranks/educational_score_performance_country_ranks_2009_oecd.html


Schools are one thing we have to consider, the other is how we deal at home in a helpful and nurturing manner. "I'll help you but I won't do the work, that's up to you."

Frank Zappa said, "If you want to get laid go to college. If you want to learn go to the Library."

Thanks Brie for the quote, my favourite Librarian.

Scapegoats

This morning while having my second cup of coffee I bounced back and forth from local news and CBC News Network. The thing that always fascinates me is that our national news source loves to run Press Conferences from the US White House. Okay, Okay I know that a lot of what happens in the USA effects our nation and that we are tied to them at the hip economically. I'm not saying that it is a bad thing I find it interesting for a couple of reasons. Number one, Are our own politicians so boring that they don't deserve full coverage of their Press Conferences? (I've watched a few and I may have a real point here.) Number two, Is it due to a lack of real Personality in our Politicians? (The Dynamic Stephen Harper for example.)

We have our issues, just like the Excited States, Forest Fire Season, The Annual Seal Hunt and Dwindling Salmon Stocks, Increasing Salmon Stock, too much Rain, too little Rain and the newest favourite, The Alberta Tar Sands. The Tar Sands and the Seal Hunt are the two big ones that get the World to notice that we are here. I'm not ignoring our countries' commitment to Peace Keeping around the Globe, but I bet most people change the channel when this comes on unless we've lost another soldier. Maybe I'm just getting jaded because of the presentation. I don't like the overly excited American News programmes because they tend to exaggerate the importance of the smallest story.

"This just in, 3 Fire Halls rush to the aide of Mother Cat that has given birth on third floor balcony. Swat teams has cordoned off the area for security. Placement of the Cat on the balcony may be an terrorist plot. Reporter Sky Slag is on the scene with this report."

On the other hand I don't like the Talking Heads, on almost all the Networks because they are just readers and should be paid as readers. I digress and have gone off on my standard rant about media, Sorry Folks. Now for the real subject of this posting.

I admire and respect President Obama. When he was asked this morning about growing animosity towards Islam in the USA, I found his answer very interesting. What he said without actually saying it was that when the general attitude of the nation is negative, the country is still involved in wars brought on by business interests and the banks and financial institutions have finally been exposed for the greedy MF's they are there is only one thing to do. Find a Scapegoat. Sound familiar, think back to the 1930's in Germany for example. Mr. Obama of course couldn't use that reference especially with that southern moron threatening to burn the Koran on September 11. If he did, the shit would not only have hit the fan but every fundamentalist in the States would be reviving racism on multiple levels.

Our own politicos may have been thinking ever since Mr. O has taken office, 'Boy I am glad I'm not in his shoes. He really got handed the shit end of a bunch of sticks. Maybe if we keep quiet our country will keep watching him and we can just quietly go about our business.'

Perhaps I have rambled a bit, but a Scapegoat is a Scapegoat. I have always tried to reject the concept of Scapegoats, why not just stand and tell the truth? "I am a poorly educated lazy facist who wants everything for as little work as possible and will blame anyone I can when they get my way. It can't be my fault I am a(n) (insert country name here)!"

Just a thought.

A faint Pulse

I have to ask, What's with PBS in the US? Friday night after dinner my darling Danish Princess turned on PBS Detriot, to watch a show called 'The Great American Songbook'. She is after all a Gay Man trapped in a woman's body. Her words not mine so calm down besides I'm just a Lesbian trapped in a decaying male body. Let's get back on point here. So here's this show, telling how great American music became during the early years of the 20th century. The time of Berlin, Hart etc. etc., well I agree but I did find some irony there. What I found amusing was that the Great American Songbook was written mostly by Russian Jewish immigrants that basically stole their musical style and subject matter from Black Americans. They then added enough White Bread American references that it would be deemed palatable to the rest of the country.

Okay maybe I'm being a little harsh on Irving and the other kids he worked with, after all I do enjoy some of the music. It just struck me odd that here is this show polishing over the fact that a lot of what they produced was 'borrowed' from a culture within a culture. The irony was that it is still being done today in popular music. Take EMINEM please. Next up on Detriot PBS was a ridiculous show about the history of Irish America hosted by Patty Duke. I don't know who dressed poor Patty or who did her hair and make-up and then supplied her with a terrible pair of glasses but they should be taken out back and shot. They took poor Patty and gave her middle America hairdo from the late sixties. Unbelievable! Then there was the show itself, Reetty Deetty Dumm Deery Dootie, crap. Again they proceeded to dumb down American History and put it to shamrock music including jigs.

That's when I lost it. I had to look at their programming for the next few days. More of the same sad shit pushing the concept the "Good Ol' Days" and how great America is especially if we package it in sugar and put music to it. I checked the other PBS Station from Seattle, same story, other coast. After checking three days of programming on both stations we realized that there was nothing on these stations to challenge you. There was nothing on these stations to create discussion, stir up a little controversy and engage you mind. Is this a Bush Mandate Holdover, stay the course, America support the troops? Has the commercialization of Public Broadcasting in the United States actually dumbed it down so much it has to play Victor Borge once week until they can save up to buy and play the latest Barry Manilow concert until we all puke and beg for more Victor?

I had a look at Knowledge Network and it's programming list for the next three days. Yes, there are some borrowed English Dramas but all in all it was an engaging lineup. Especially when we saw that at 10pm they were playing 'Wigstock the Movie', a gay romp in the world of drag queens.

That's when it felt good to live here with Knowledge Network asking and answering questions. CBC with Passionate Eye, Doc Zone, Market Place and more, all making us sit up and shout about stuff. That is democracy in action. When will America remind itself that there was more going on in the sixties than Ed Sullivans' Rock & Roll, or that while Big Band Swing Music flourished the world was at War. Have the specialty channels taken over this job in the United States? But what about Bubba and Lou-Anne that can't afford no fancy cable TV Specialty Channels? That's where publicly funded television is important. Look corporate sponsors, just fund the stations and stop dictating their content then we'll see PBS come back to life.

There is a faint pulse of hope if you listen, they do have Tavis Smiley.

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day!

We live in a great nation but we take a lot of what we have for granted.

I'm not just talking about the regular stuff we have, like universal healthcare, or stable government, hockey, beautiful landscapes and a recovering economy.

Yesterday afternoon I started to ponder what a great melting pot our country is. I was sitting on our deck enjoying a glass of Argentine Wine, I said to my darling wife (the Danish Princess), "I should pull out the Canadian Flag and finally set up the flag pole." Next thing I knew there was the flag. So I rigged up a flag pole from an old brass head board rail. (We Canadians are inventive afterall) After I had it all set up of course there wasn't any wind. Finally I have something I want to flap in the breeze and there's no wind, what's going with this great Canadian Weather?

So, I'm sipping my Argentine Wine and I thought I bet my beautiful Canadian Flag is made in China. It sure was. The other thing I noticed was a special warning on the package. A special message just for our French Canadian brothers and sisters. That's how much the world cares about us, they include special warnings just for Quebec. I am impressed.

Apparently for 3 year old English Canadians there is a choking hazard. For the 3 year old French Canadians not only is there a choking hazard but the flag might suffocate them.

Interesting, OUI.

So after this revelation I went into the house to use my Japanese TOTO Toilet. I undid my Chinese Jeans, dropped my Bangledesh Boxers and relieved my self. I tucked in my Cambodian T Shirt from Superstore back into my Chinese Jeans and headed back out to my Vietnamese deck furniture to sip my Argentine wine and look across the Juan de Fuca at the United States.

Recently I received an e-mail from a former work friend, it was one of those 'Look what our government gives refugees' rant. I didn't answer then but I will now. This whole country is made up of refugees of one sort or another either because of poor economic conditions, persecution of some sort or just people trying to give their future children a better life.

How do you think we get Cambodian T Shirts, Chinese Jeans, GM Trucks, Bangledesh Boxers, Swedish Volvos, Swedish Ikea, Danish Leggo and the list goes on and on?

These refugees write back to their homes of origin and say, 'Hey they need cheaper T Shirts over here'. Next thing you know you're wearing Bangledesh Boxers.

I love Canada, we are a real melting pot, if we weren't I wouldn't have met my imported Danish Wife.

Happy Canada, wave that flag!