Wil's Rant

More and more we seem to hear about convictions being overturned due to modern DNA testing. Virginia has just pardoned two such men wrongfully convicted and recently proven innocent. In this case it was a sexual assault, it could just as easily have been a murder conviction. In any case, they were innocent but still spent time in jail. Now imagine it was two men already executed for a crime they didn't commit. My question is, how many times has this already happened?

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's " This Hour Has Twenty-Two Minutes" made a comment on the years justice al la the U.S. Jackson and Blake got off, Stewart was convicted. Apparently it's O.K. to kill your wife and molest kids, just don't lie about your stocks. Go figure!

I've been experiencing some serious problems with the computer lately. I have yet to solve the problem, hence my lack of writing for the last week.

Another case of honor killing has come to light. I fail to see what this kind of murder has to do with honor, yet many in the Muslim community continue to use this excuse to justify these horrible crimes. Hopefully for the women and female children stuck in this type of horrific mentality, enlightenment will come soon to the men.

One played, the other sang, with a bit of dance thrown in. I have been a fan of Gregory Hines for some time, yet I didn't know he could sing. Did I say sing? The word doesn't do justice to the magical sounds coming from the man's mouth. It was an old re-run of Saturday Night Live. Several songs by Hubie Brooks with Gregory Hines handling the vocals. An extremely rare treat indeed. If there is a heaven, it has to include music like this. A have a very strong feeling that Hines would have thought of the moment as one of the best of his life when Hubie leaned over to him after the first song and said " You really somethin, you know that". I imagine it was an honor that Gregory never forgot.

Anyone catch Barbara's show the other day about the search for Heaven? I found it very interesting. I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the various extremists represented on the show. In specific, radical Muslim and evangelist. Both believe their beliefs are the exclusive route to heaven. Both said that anyone else not sharing there beliefs was destined for Hell. Walters makes the point about how lopsided this would make Heaven and Hell. In other words, many more of us will be in Hell than in Heaven. They readily admit that this is in fact the case. I can't help but to think that this would make the whole Human experiment, by God, a miserable failure. When so many more fail the test than past, what more can we assume? Are we all to believe that the whole reason for life is simply to provide Hell with sufficient fuel, in the form of humans, to keep the fires burning for all eternity. I absolutely refuse to believe that any God capable of creating the Universe would be anywhere near this petty. This type of failure is more suited to people than to a God. I highly doubt that this was the plan all along. According to some of the Muslims, those actually reaching heaven will be rewarded with Youths specifically created to satisfy the lust of the lucky contest winners. Again, I somehow doubt Heaven exists to provide orgiastic bliss to those recipients. Wouldn't such an existence be more akin to Hell than Heaven. It certainly would be for the ones created for the sole purpose of satisfying the lust of those in Heaven. This is especially clear when considering that the same people who say that this is the case will be quite quick to kill anyone who led such an existence here on Earth. So, on Earth we must live in an existence completely devoid of all of life's pleasures so that when we get to Heaven we can experience all of life's pleasures. Yeah, O.K.

They are calling it a scientific debate. If that's what the Iranians are calling the President's remarks, I'm not certain they have a real good understanding of what a scientific debate is. The question of whether the holocaust took place has gone a little beyond the scientific debate phase. The evidence is overwhelming. Any remarks that suggest a western plot to manufacture this event are irresponsible and not based in logic at all. It is not only the Germans who have had their record tarnished by the holocaust. The rest of us share the responsibility for letting it happen. It remains a blemish on the records of many nations, including the U.S. and Canada. I can't imagine anyone making such a story up when it would show the kind of lack of humanity that the holocaust represents.

One of the many problems with having a President that has lost all credibility as a leader is the fact that everyone knows it and is becoming very reluctant to go alone with the Americans based on his word. The world has listened to Bush for too many years telling one tall tale after the other. South America has now taken a decidedly left turn in it's politics. One prevailing theme of politics in the south seems to be to not be taken advantage of by the U.S. The sentiment doesn't stop with South America. At home as well as abroad, not to many trust George. From Okinawa to South America, co-operation with the U.S. is going way down. Germany has released a suspected Hezbollah member despite a request from the U.S. not too. Perhaps anger over the CIA spy plane thing? In the U.S. itself it appears George may have broken their own laws by illegally spying on Americans. A show stopper if ever I've heard of one.

The real tragedy of all this is the fact that the U.S. really can be the leader of the free world that they have always claimed and aspired to be. It's the old problem of the reality living up to the ideal. In general, the people of the U.S. really are motivated by the desire to help and support others who are in need. The flaw comes in the way in which this is done. Along with the aid comes corporate America who very often treat the countries and the people they are helping as if they own it. Very little thought and respect has been given to the culture that exists in said nations. The Christian Peacemakers might be a great example of the right way to do things. The members who have been kidnapped in Iraq have received massive support all over the world. Muslim and Christian alike have called for their release. This is because they have helped these people without the insult of evangelizing to them or insisting that they adopt American values, structures, or beliefs. They are a refreshing example of real assistance and help. There are others who do the same. Trouble is, they are competing with the reputations of the American government and firms like Haliburton who act only with self-interest and sometimes significantly shady character. The contract awarding and administration in Iraq stands as a lovely example. The Iraqi people may long remember that way that and the oil revenues were handled.

A federal judge in the U.S. has ruled that intelligent design can't be taught as part of science class. Can you give me an Amen? I have no problem with going over the tenets of all the major belief systems regarding religion in school. My problem is when the school includes that as part of science class. By definition science is the study or collection of data on a subject that is repeatable and verifiable. To date, none of the major religions satisfies those criteria. That doesn't mean they are not true or real, just that they can't be regarded as scientifically verifiable. Therefore, for the time being, the subject doesn't belong in science class. What's the hard part about that?

Another person who had given of themselves to help others is dead. This time a retires R.C.M.P. officer has been killed in Haiti. It's the thing that most strikes me about people who do this kind of work. I'm talking about those who work in troubled regions of the world trying to help the people deal with a variety of horrors and tragedies. Many times they do so at extraordinary risk to their own well-being. From private aid workers to retired cops working with the U.N. they are all heroes of the planet. I don't have the courage to go to the places that more than half of these people go. They should all be honored for their sacrifice and bravery.

Once again, what is left out of the story may be significant. Many retail companies have similar policies. I'm talking about a rule against any employee taking anything from the store or garbage, and for very good reason. The policy is intended to stop or prevent the practice of an employee falsely tagging items as damaged or defective, putting them in the trash, then retrieving the items after store hours. This type of employee theft can be devastating to the profits of a company. It's possible Zellers over-reacted to this incident. It's also possible that the man had been doing this for sometime and this is the first time he had been caught. Another possibility is as I had mentioned, that he had been deliberately discarding items that had nothing wrong with them to later retrieve. The least likely possibility is that this was a one time thing.

This family just won't quit. I've written about them in the past so this comes as no surprise. What is surprising is the fact that any member of this clan is still in Canada. I would have thought that by now it would have been obvious, by their own admission, that they are hardly upstanding immigrants to Canada. They have admitted that they support terrorism.Family members have been killed alongside terrorists in Pakistan. Exactly what does it take for a person's refugee or immigrant status to be revoked in this country? Apparently, we haven't reached that point yet.

The fun continues. The U.S Ambassador has said his piece about Canadian politicians singling out the Americans in an attempt to win the election. I would have to say that they have very little choice. This is an issue that has become very important to Canadians, especially in light of the Iraq fiasco and the whole softwood lumber thing. For any political hopeful to ignore the issue is to loose the election. Canadians are upset over the softwood thing and many would rather leave NAFTA than to continue along the current lines. A recent poll in Canada says that fully 38% of Canadians believe Bush to be the worlds most dangerous man. Quite an accomplishment considering the competition for the title. The U.S. must learn to negotiate instead of dictate if this is to change anytime soon. Oh, by the way, they might try signing agreements with resolution processes that they actually intend to live by if they expect to sign any more agreements with the relevant countries.

Anytime someone in the U.S. suggests that the war or Bush might be less than ideal, they are labeled un-patriotic or traitors. If the comments come from outside the U.S. than they are American bashing or supporters of Bin Laden. It's possible that someone can respect the ideals that the Americans stand for and still take exception to George and Dick. An ideal can have tragic flaws. The U.S. today is a classic example of this. What remains to be seen is whether the U.S. can overcome these flaws and blossom into the kind of land of freedom and opportunity that it's citizens have always dreamed of and the rest of the world so desperately needs.

Syria has now joined Iran in a contest over who can deliver the most deranged and irresponsible speeches. Syria has entered the game with this initial offering in which an official at the U.N. has called the recently murdered Lebanese writer a dog. I have to score this speech fairly low on the insanity meter. Not a bad first effort but he'll have to study the Iranian's work more closely if he wants to take the title.

Speaking of Iran, the President's recent comments about Israel have generated some of the expected animosity. Many are expressing their anger over the man's words. Israel is taking this opportunity to point out danger posed by this new President and are preparing to respond if, or rather, when it escalates to that level. Judging by the pace of events so far, it may not be long.

The latest fumble by the Americans has been seen in Montreal. At first refusing to join with the rest of the planet in a commitment to reduce global warming. Once it became apparent that the rest of the delegates were going to move ahead without U.S. participation, again, the U.S. changed it;s position and signed at the eleventh hour. One small victory form the planet. The only thing really agreed to was the chance of future meetings on the issue.

In defense of the U.S. a few points must be conceded. While the Americans have not signed on to global initiatives to address the problem, they have been making gains. One notable example is the current commitment to reduce the damage that has been done to the Great Lakes. The Yanks have made similar progress in other areas despite their isolating themselves from the rest of us. Canada continues to make grand pledges, but has made very little real progress. I think I prefer the real progress to all the flamboyant talk.

It would appear that the number of racially motivated incidents against Muslims is increasing. It has been a problem for some time but lately seems to be growing especially in areas where it has not been seen before. Australia comes to mind, but is in no way unique. It's understandable considering the all out war some Muslims are waging against anyone who doesn't share their views. Obviously, these views are held by very few Muslims or we would already be fighting a world war. Unfortunately those who remain extremist are stooping to ever lower methods and rhetoric. The Iranians are following what can only be labeled a madman. He is now refuting the very existence of the holocaust as some kind of Zionist plot. It's one thing to support the cause of Palestinian liberation, it's another to advocate the kind of violence that the terrorists have been using. This man talks just like a terrorist without doing the actual crimes, yet!

Some of the anger in the world of Islam is righteous. The recent actions of the U.S. is greatly fueling the over-all level of miscontent of Muslims. The illegal abduction and torture can only hurt the cause of world peace and gives credibility to nuts like the Iranian president. Much progress is being made among leaders of the Muslim world and further dialogue can only help. Un-ethical and illegal actions by the Americans can erase all the gains that have been made. A Swiss investigator is calling the allegations crediblee. He should be very careful, the Americans don't appear to be respecting anyone's sovereignty anymore.

My wife and kids were returning from the store around 6 P.M. just South of Ottawa when they told me they saw a large light streaking across the sky which abruptly ended in what they described as a shower of sparks, like a firework. I suspect they saw a meteor which exploded while still high in the sky. I missed it, but it sounds very cool.

Essentially he's complaining about Canada dragging the U.S. into the Canadian election debates. Unfortunately, Martin doesn't really have much choice. The Americans position on softwood lumber has left Canadians with an extremely bad taste in our mouths. Despite more rulings in our favor than I can keep up with, the Americans refused to accept the ruling of a panel that they had agreed to abide by. They are now saying that they will cut the duties in half. Well, that's half right. The problem is the judgment wasn't for half, it was all. Canadians have no desire to be American citizens at all much less second class citizens as the U.S. now treats us. Doesn't matter, the Americans don't even follow their own laws when it doesn't suit them. The torture debate is a great example. Fact is, NAFTA is dysfunctional and should be abandoned. I suspect it was a mistake to enter into the agreement in the first place. It is simply not a win-win situation. NAFTA had the same potential as globalization. The trouble is globalization is highly favorable to the developed countries, and disastrous for everyone else. It doesn't have to be this way, but it is. The biggest advantage goes to major corporations, complete with subsidies, while the small players are left to wither and die.

Canadians have no desire to be American citizens at all much less second class citizens as the U.S. now treats us. That's still better than the Americans treat everyone else, but not by much. Hey, here's a thought, why not come to the table with respect towards all the other people there? Maybe even treat others as equals as opposed to ignorant sheep as the U.S. does now.

Doesn't look like this torture thing is going away any time soon. There were the initial denials. Then came the word play, what kidnapping, no way, it was extraordinary rendition is all. While the European Union is not investigating directly, many individual countries are responding to pressure to launch their own inquiries. Some are reporting evidence to support the allegations. Not the least of which is a German citizen who was the lucky recipient of rendition and is now becoming a real pain in the American collective ass. Of course it was all a mistake, which leads to the logic of not allowing this type of illegal, behind closed door, justice that the Americans seem to be embracing these days. Hold on a second, now Rice says she never made the admissions to the Germans after all. Iran is now taking the high moral road in response to it all. Now there's a hypocrisy if I've ever heard one. Imagine the Iranians giving moral lessons. The same people who beat a Canadian woman journalist to death in prison not so long ago. But enough about the Iranians, I'm sure I'll have plenty to add on that subject later. All of which brings us up to the present.

There are many positive moves in the world of Islam. Many are speaking out against extremism. Moderates are declaring a crisis within the Muslim community. I would have to agree. The fact that Muslim leaders are beginning to address the problems is a very good sign. I would have to say that this is likely a good outcome of the extremist movements. It has forced the mainstream Muslims, and the rest of us for that matter, to take a very hard look at our beliefs and prejudices. In the end, we may just all learn something.

I love this one. Alberta has passed laws making it illegal to smoke pretty much everywhere but your own house. This doesn't apply to the lawmakers own offices, of course, despite earlier promises to make the new law equally applied across the province.

More and more, the Muslim community is being forced, by the extremists, to address to problems created by terrorism. I can't stress enough that any solution to terrorism must come from within the communities with spawn it. Of course, the more moderates among them could be significantly helped in the cause by a more equitable distribution of the planets resources and by a whole lot less patronizing and dictatorial attitude from countries like the U.S.

The Iranian President has come up with a viable plan to end the whole "Jewish people in the Middle East"problem, move the whole country. Yes, it seems he feels that to move the whole country of Israel to perhaps Europe would be a great solution. Of course, the Israelis, who have historically lived in the region for thousands of years might have a problem with it, but hey, you just can't please everyone. The Israeli are reported to be preparing their own response to the latest round of statements out of Iran. They are preparing a military response which is likely to be spectacular given the nature of the Iranian's recent comments. Can anyone really blame them?

The U.S. continues to lead the world news reports for a variety of reasons, not many of them good. The climate conference in Montreal stood ready to achieve some minor success until Dick Cheney put his foot down and pretty much scuttled the whole thing. There is still hope that the rest of the planet will go on without the participation of the U.S. It better if we are to have any hope at all. Of course this could be the direct result of the Americans being unable to handle Martin's words. As I've said, Martin's comments are somewhat hypocritical, coming from Canada, but true none the less. Any way you cut it sure looks like the Yanks are well on their way to pissing off pretty much the entire planet. Europe is finding it hard to swallow the old "we don't use torture" thing in light of all the evidence to the contrary. Noam Chomsky has given us this quick look at the situation in South America and mentions the deteriorating relations with Canada. What amazes me is the fact that the American people don't seem to understand that the rest of the world has come to the point where they don't want anything to do at all with the Bush America and is now taking the position of waiting for the next administration before attempting any further progress.

You gotta admit, there's something special about this little lady. Perhaps it's her eyes. When you look right into them you see she has a very rare quality. You see, they look dead. I've had the chance to look at a few serial type killers over the years. From Ted Bundy, to Berkowitz, Olson, well, you get the drift. They all had a certain something, they looked crazy. Not to say that anyone facing the media spectacle that always accompanies such events wouldn't look a little nuts. But Homolka is special. Really, when you look at her it's like looking at a corpse. I'll never forget that special on her that showed a video of Karla going through the notorious house with detectives. In the basement where two young girls were assaulted, tortured, and killed, all on video, she chatted on about her possessions and when they would be returned to her. A normal person might not want the furniture from a room where these events took place. Not Karla, she was comfortable with it all. Hell, she didn't show any problem at all with being there, despite, as she described, her own assault and effectively captive state. Many ex-captives have no desire at all to go anywhere near the site of their past suffering. She didn't display any such concern.

In short, this woman is damned dangerous and should never have had the opportunity to walk free again after what she has done. Yet she is. That's Canadian justice at it's worst. Foolish deals made with ubber-criminals which lets them eventually walk free again. Having said that, we now get to watch as the same people who let this happen try to make up for it by violating every tenet of Canadian Law ever made by attempting, by one means or another, to extend her sentence. Too late guys. You messed up big time and now everyone is going to have to live with it until she does it again or you find something else to charge her with. Oh and by the way, if she does find some new lucky candidate for her special attentions, she may be a whole lot smarter about not getting caught after her lengthy stay with Canada's worst criminals.

A noble pursuit, to be sure, just a wee bit hypocritical. Last I heard was Canada is among the highest per capita energy users on the planet. In fairness, we are also among the coldest nations which increases our energy consumption. I still can't quite get my mind around the calling on other nations to decrease their energy use. Canada needs to address the issue at home first and foremost, then give advice to others. The same can be said about Kyoto. Canada signed on, but has made very little progress since. It's all fine to cheer on the noble cause, but it would be much more so to actually make some quantifiable change.

The uproar has started over the shooting of a passenger by an Air Marshal in the U.S. The guy was reportedly running up the aisle yelling that he had a bomb. Turns out the guy was deranged, and there was no bomb. I don't see how that fact makes any real difference. The Marshal had to act as if the guy was for real, it's his job. What should the Marshal have done, waited for the nut to blow the plane up to decide it was legitimate? He did the right thing! He acted to remove what he could only assume was a real threat. Any other course of action would have been irresponsible given the state of affairs at this time.

The bad news just doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon. First, the latest "position" on torture. Again, it would be humorous if it didn't involve the topic of torture. Rice now says that the international rules do apply to Americans working out of the country after all. So what we're saying is that you don't support the use of special means to get information. Perhaps she really needs to sit down with her boss and decide on which policy they are 1) going to follow, and 2) going to tell the rest of us they are following. These days it appears that the policy is determined by who they are speaking too and what day of the week it is. Ahhh credibility, a dying art in the U.S.

This article goes into the whole concept of how the U.S. could have come to this state in the first place and how Bush managed to get around all the safeguards and laws that would have prevented it. A very interesting piece if not for the scariness of it all.

The natural result of it all is the calling for the arrest and prosecution of Bush and Blair for war crimes. The latest to make the call is the recent winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. I doubt that it will happen anytime soon, but there's always hope.

I read an interesting article in relation to the rioting in France. What's interesting about these riots is that they were not religiously motivated. People from many faiths took part. The author relates the underlying problems of class separation that persist to this day in virtually every part of the world. This separation is getting worse, not better, and demonstrates a fundamental problem with the way our whole planet currently operates. If we can just manage to keep the internet free, it will likely be the trigger that allows people to take back control of our planet and lives. The best tools we have are knowledge, truth, and freedom. We have to face all those ugly details that in the past we have been content to let our leaders deal with in secret. So long as we didn't know about it, everything was O.K. Whenever it became public that perhaps someone was involved with something particularly ugly we would all be in an uproar. This despite the fact that activists have been telling us the truth about the given matter for years, but too few were interested. So is it our leaders fault for dealing with these matters as they saw fit, when we didn't want to know? Or is it our fault for not paying attention and insisting on the truth and ethical internal policies? It's ours, plain and simple. The world must change on almost every level. Each region and culture has it's particular strengths. Taken as a whole we could achieve a truly great society capable of feeding and housing everyone. As citizens of this planet, it's time that we insist that this is done.

Gilles Duceppe is reported to have said that he wanted to remove the liberals from the Quebec political scene. Jean Lapierre is calling his words Nazi-like, which I figure is way out of line. The Nazis did their removing with death camps. I don't get the impression that Gilles is suggesting anything so sinister. I think perhaps that what Gilles meant was as far as the election was concerned. Lets keep the term Nazi for the kind of genocidal murderers that they were. That name has no place in Canadian politics.

First she was telling the Americans European allies to "butt out" when it came to questions about the CIA prisons. We are now hearing variety of remarks from Rice. Now it's "we don't use torture", although we may have flown a few people around. Apparently, she doesn't get the paper. She has suggested that there were countries who were willing accomplices, so to speak. Finally she treats us to a very Homer-esque rendition of " Mistakes Were Made". Full damage control definately seems to be the order of the day. I think it's safe to say that the only way American integrity can even begin to heal is with a new administration. People may still be listening to what this one says, but no-one is believing anymore.

One might think that in these troubled times for the Americans, Rice might try to lessen some of the foreign relations damage that seems to be flooding out of Washington these days. That doesn't appear to be the case according to this report. Rice is reported to be telling enquiring minds among her "allies"to "but out" in regards to the latest CIA scandal. I imagine Bush wishes he could go back to the good old days when a trusting public would eat up every bit of bull coming out of his mouth.

The latest round of climate talks in Montreal are drawing unprecedented attention. Demonstrations and protests are going on around the world to point out the rising level of concern of the average person. The flame of hope has not completely died out yet.

Even the Sunni clerics are calling for the release of the latest hostages in Iraq. They are stating the obvious by saying that this can only harm their cause internationally. In any case, the insurgents have hurt the support they had managed to gain. We all agree that the Americans had no business going into Iraq. It's heartening to see that not all Muslims think the solution is the arbitrary killing of innocent people.

Looks like it's going to be Martin again. Let's face it, the opposition hasn't given us much choice. They have failed once again to give us any real option but to vote Liberal. This despite the fact that pretty much everyone agrees that the Liberals have been in power far too long. It's unhealthy not to clean house once in a while. Surely, there has to be more than one person in this country who can be the Prime Minister.

Those are the names of two people who I hurt unjustly in my youth. It one of those times when you've acted badly and caused others hurt, long ago. It was in the Saguenay Valley in the late seventies. Neither of them deserved the treatment I gave them and I have regretted it ever since. I've never been able to apologize as I moved away shortly after and have never seen either again. Two different people, two different episodes in a thirteen year olds life, neither test did I pass successfully, neither have I been able to make it up too. I wish I could! It is especially difficult because both of these individuals are among the finest people I had ever met. The wrongs that I did resulted from being a messed up kid, although that's no excuse. You know the kind of thing you really wish you could take back. I've had a few of those. Short of being able to actually get in touch with either, I figure this is the next best thing. Maybe, one day, they will Google themselves and read what I have written here.

It's heartening to see that there are some Muslims out there who think this guy is as dangerous as I do. His choice of words is bearing fruit in that many are now becoming concerned about him. He's definitely a dangerous nut that Iran, or anybody else for that matter, just doesn't need.

I have to admit that before the latest kidnappings in Iraq I had never heard of the Christian Peacemakers. By all reports this group has been doing some truly good work. Not the least of which was it's efforts to end the repression against the Palestinians. All of which is being noted by Muslims around the world. Many are calling for their release. It goes to show what I have always said, these guys don't care about faith. The terrorists hide behind Islam as an excuse to commit murder as well as other horrific crimes. It's refreshing to see other Muslims speaking out against these criminals and joining with their Christian brothers in the effort to live in peace and show appreciation to those humans who go beyond simply assessing someone based on religion and treat everyone as human beings with equal rights.