Seemingly Random Current Events

Peter Rukavina

Why doesn’t the media question George Bush’s appearances on television with the same degree of skepticism as they do with Saddam Hussein’s? You never hear “someone purporting to be George Bush made an appearance today at a local hospital” on CNN.

The waiter at the Taj Mahal restaurant in Charlottetown reports that they had a winter that exceeded their expectations, and are looking forward to a banner summer season. They purposefully opened in the winter so they could get an idea of what running lean was like.

Nanci Griffith appeared on the David Letterman show last Tuesday with Tom Russell. Had to stay up until 1:30 a.m. to see it, but it was worth it.

We’re headed to Europe for 2 weeks at the beginning of May for a vacation. We fly to London on May 2nd, and come back on the 17th. No plans beyond that yet. We welcome suggestions from the readership of European kid-friendly hotspots.

Question of the day: if Christ died today, why is it called “Good” Friday?

Comments

Submitted by Rob Paterson on

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Hi Peter

On Kid Friendly - England is not Kid friendly. This is where the term “being seen but not heard” was invented In France you can take your dog to many restaurants and have it served at your table. But children are not popular in public and have to be well mannered.

The best thing about going to England is that it is the hub of the really cheap airfare to Spain or Italy.

I would take Easy Jet or its equivalent (Ryan Air) and go to Barcelona in Spain. Very easy to book - only online. I recommend that you go to Sitges which is a small town about 20 minutes by train south of Barcelone and rent a small flat or stay in a small hotel. Sitges is really unspoiled - you can walk everywhere and it is warm enough to swim now. The siesta is still a big deal there. You get up with the sun and beach it or wander in the morning and then have a lunch with lots to drink. Then sleep beckons. Dinner is eaten by the whole family, including Olver, between 9 and 10.30 pm. All the shops are open in the evening and you “paseo” around town before and fater dinner to enure a good appetite and digestion

Sitges is all small streets, cobbles, noisy motor bikes, hills, history and Catalan culture. You can be as busy or quiet as you want. Kids are everywhere and welcome everywhere. Day trips to Barcelona are a doddle - the Spanish train system is great. Barcelona is our favourite city in Europe. Lots to see and great food.

Check it out - Rob

Submitted by Steven Garrity on

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Maybe we should regard Bush’s television appearances with suspicion. The latest issue of WIRED magazine includes an interview with special effects guru John Gaeta (of The Matrix series). Apparently he actually wrote a letter to President Clinton about his concerns that the special-effects technology he was developing could be used for “mass deception”.

“These questions troubled Gaeta himself so much that, a few years ago, he wrote a letter alerting President Clinton to the fact that such technology could be used for purposes of mass deception. (The letter was never answered.)”

Submitted by Wayne on

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Maybe the citizens pulling down the statues were after all, really Americans dressed up as Iraqis, and the tanks and planes never were really at the airport, but actually on a set in Hollywood.(I miss Comic Ali, and hope he made it)
The point of interest about the wherabouts of Saddam is that there are 100,000, armed to the teeth, really-pissed U.S. soldiers looking for him with a whole lot of hurt on their mind. And many, many Iraqis with similar aspirations. (Dare I say, a majority)Being the leader of a terrorist dictatorship regime certainly has its drawbacks when it comes to privacy.

Submitted by Ken on

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What terrorism did Iraq do? Invading Kuwait wasn’t terrorism it was occupation of a sovereign state by invasion, just like the US has done.
There was no link to terrorism or we would have heard about it a lot. Saddam did not fly planes into buildings, he just refused to bend over to US authority.
This war was shot on location in Iraq using the same production and editing techniques as Hollywood.
I bet the US Military killed and injured more people in a shorter time in Iraq than Saddam ever has, it’s just now the blood is on US hands.

Submitted by Wayne on

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His country harboured known terrorists such as Abu Abbas, (a hero in Palestine for killing a 69 year old man in a wheelchair)and others, while sending $25,000 US to every grieving Palestinean mother who could convince her son to blow himself up in a pizza parlor for the cause. I bet there will be found weapons of destruction, and I know Saddam and friends killed more muslims then anybody alive, and far more then the US.

Submitted by Wayne on

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What terrorism did Iraq do…?

“No one is sure how many men were mutilated during that particular spasm of terror, but from May 17 to 19, 1994, all the available surgeons worked shifts at all of Basra

Submitted by Alan on

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The interesting thing about this is the shift in left/right perspective. In the good old days, the right wingers said that internal matters were no one else’s business. Lop off an year, gas a valley, none of our bees wax. Good international socialists raged against it - brotherhood of the workers and to heel with the imperialists. Now, the lefties are anti-war, anti-intervention and the righties are the interventionists. What is a boy to do?

Submitted by Ken on

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Because the interventionists in Iraq are capitalists! Now, if Saddam would behave like Suharto, King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah and follow US policy then he could continue to cut things off his enemies as they do now, unnoticed by our press.
The CIA spawned the vengence that led to the WTC disaster by playing sides in the nastiest region of the world, double dealing, and selling weapons.
At the same time the US supports friendly dictatorships by training their ‘Republican Guards’ at The School of the Americas (SOA), a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia
Saving Iraq was a bullshit excuse for an American power grab and it has made America into Israel: Always right, always striking back, always victims.

Submitted by Wayne on

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I believe 9/11 changed everything, Alan. Iraq was the second country to bare the might of US response to threats to their people, and might not be the last. Should other countries fear what might come their way? Yes. And I think that is the intended message. The gloves are off, and a little fear could shake up some of these terrorist regimes. If not, they could be next. They can choose to do it the easy way, or the hard way like the Taliban and Saddam and friends.

Having other bullies in the schoolyard should not prevent us from acting on the worse ones.

Seek common sense.

Submitted by Alan on

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The interventionists in Central America and Chile were right wingers, too, but the “covert” actions of the US then were at odds with right wing isolationism. I think the only thing that has happened is that the wing nuts behind Olly North are now around the cabinet table in Washington.

Seek cover.

Submitted by Ken on

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Exactly right Alan.
Rumsfeld is Nixon.
Bush uses Bully Diplomacy, Wayne, which leaves no choice, not even for it’s allies.
I can’t think of anymore Bush can do to anger young Arab men than he has done, but I’m sure he’ll find a way.
Maybe they won’t take revenge, but even I’m pissed at the Bush doctrine and I am a US citizen.

Submitted by Alan on

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Oh…he’s letting the rightist fundamentalists into southern Iraq this week to “provide humanitarian assistance.” That outta pop a few brainpans.

Submitted by Ken on

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Crusade step number 1: Define Evil
Crusade step number 2: Get Heavy
Crusade step number 3: Crush Evil
Crusade step number 4: Convert The People
Release the missionaries!

Submitted by Wayne on

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Many “Young Arab men” are dead-enders looking to die for a cause, preferably one that gets them fame, a fortune for mom, and 14 virgins in heaven. All taught to them in primary school. In the meantime, they spend their idle time drinking,(against Islamic faith) using their imaginations to interpret the Kor’an, looking for common hate with their dead-end brothers and fantasising about killing the infedel. Having actually talked to some, I am amazed at the display of imaginative thinking among some of the best educated Arabs of the world…they claim the US used nukes at the Baghdad airport, and that everything is a Jewish plot. They claim to like Americans but hate their government, no matter what government is in power. What they need is an authorative power that interprets for them and guides them. But no Arab is willing to speak against the brotherhood. Right now, it is an Islamic Hate free for all, with Jews and Americans at fault for everything from global warming to the price of olives and dates at the local market in Beirut. A democracy in Baghdad will shake up the Arab world, and put others in the area on notice. The present Arab intellect is more of a challange then the Marshall Plan, but the US is commited. Leadership in Canada would help, but the PM’s daughter is married to a French Oil magnate with ties to Iraqi oil, so I am not hopeful to see leadershipfrom him, hopefully his successor will fix the damage done.

Ken, you forgot Step number 5:Educate their women.

Submitted by Ken on

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If America improves life in Iraq the rest of the Arabian world looks more like a failure. This is why US led nation building is doomed and what comes after that? If it is US backed government then tension builds. If it is a return to despotism then what was the war for?
America dominates the region, this isn’t a rumour or a conspiracy theory anymore. They control the territory in Iraq and by doing so they’ve shown themselves to be exactly the beast those dead-end young men made them out to be. What would Mohammed do?
So the PM is more interested in appeasing his daughter than in Canada’s best interest? That kind of deference to oil power is better expressed in the supertanker named after Condoleeza Rice.

Submitted by Ken on

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The PM protects his daughter’s husband’s oil interests?
Just like Bush’s and Cheney’s energy interests guide the Mother Of All Foreign Policies?
Cretien understands diplomacy, vision and is as close to the hearts of his nation as any national leader gets.
People connect with him.
Bush is blunt, doesn’t get the vision thing and is the ultimate Washington insider, passing as a Texan.
His face betrays him.
Please tell me one thing Bush is ahead of Cretien on? Increasing the gap between American ghetto’s like Camden, NJ and hyper rich neighborhoods like Highland Park, TX?
Reducing privacy with the Patriot Act?
The environment?

Submitted by Wayne on

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It seems that there is a concern here about the imposing of a new religion on the people of the region.Inarguably, anyone who views flying planes into the World Trade Center as a matter of religious devotion is going to have to get a new religion, whether it is a conversion to another faith, or to the “True” Islam. In any event, religious freedom is a right in a democracy, and forcing it on the region by starting in Iraq would be a great way to begin dealing with the Saudis.

Bush and Blair are ahead of Cretien in leadership.

Submitted by Alan on

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Inarguably?!?! Wayne, you really have to mind your debating manners. Of course it is arguable. Those who flew into the towers do not need a new religion as they are dead. Those who are extremists under any religion - think of Catholic administrators who protected pedophile priest for the betterment of the Church - are deviations from the faith. Your idea that forcing a religion on a people in the name of freedom of religion is self-exposing. You must have a better response than this.

Submitted by Wayne on

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It is those who “View flying planes…” not those who flew the planes who need their noggin shaken and stirred. All faiths have deviants, true. But, the actions of those administrators and pedophiles, as ugly as they were, were not done in the name of their twisted, demented religious views. So, I cannot agree with your attempt to compare the actions of Mohammad Atta with those of the Bishop of the Diosese of Boston, Cardinal Law.

The Islamic extremists are brainwashing a whole generation to hate, and are directing that anger at anything that is different. They are intolerant of other religious views and other societies, and many strive for world domination. A little imposed tolerance in the region would be “a good thing”. Maybe a little Martha Stewart would help, too…something to sooth the savages mind.

Submitted by Alan on

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The acts of the administrators and pedophiles covering up for the benefit of the administration of the church were exactly done in the name of their religious views as the Catholic church is a hierarchical organization that has as a core religious principle the authority of its bureaucracy - hence the highest example in the infallibility of the pope. It may be uncomfortable to view Western failings as equal to others but until you do, you only appear to lash at “others”. The catholic extremists for decades in Boston, Newfoundland and Cornwall and elsewhere imposed the harsh centralist views to the damage of thousands. So, do the Protestants get to take over parish offices?

Submitted by Ken on

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Martah Stewart could show them how to swing those empty sweater arms and tie them stylishly behind the back of your mutilated child.
Maybe a nice bracelet with your dead fathers teeth, at least he ones you can find.
How to keep the stink of infection in your wounds down, with a poultice of freshly ground mint.
Is this what you meant by educating women?

Submitted by Wayne on

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I am not uncomfortable about the equality of East/West failings at all. But, I do not agree that we should allow the corruption/brainwashing in the Middle East to hide behind mistakes made in western society. Why not stay on topic about what needs to be done, rather then shift to others mistakes? I also know that every time something is done to attempt to correct a failing, arguments come forward that highlight other failing in order to thwart attempts to change that what is wrong. Do nothing, people complain. Do something, the same ones complain. That’s ok. It is a right. But there is a choice to be a part of what is going to work or sit on the sidelines (Like our legacy-focused PM). Some people choose to vote…others choose to not. And complain.

I never liked that word “others”…ever notice how irritating it is in the movies, when the hero says she is going to the deep, dark basement “To find the others”?

The type of education of Middle Eastern women should be decided by women of that area. This is called freedom of choice, unknown in that area and often unappreciated here at home. If they want to specialize in crafty things to do with foam rubber and styrophone cups, so be it. But if they wanna study Bus. Admin. in order to open a Casino, they should be able to do that, too. Just don’t let a group of old men hold on to power over a country by hiding behind a twisted view of a religion and convince the population how to get to heaven, have several wives locked in the kitchen, and shout “Death to the infadel”.

“Inarguably” is one of those “Hook” words Alan.

How about George Kells?
We Win!
Happy Days are here again!
We are the Champions!
Victory is ours!
Justice in our time!!!

Question of the day? Will this decision affect Leo’s credibility?

Submitted by Wayne on

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Funny how some have been silent while Iraqi citizens were fed into plastic shredders, summary executions, maimings and unanesthetized ear-loppings. Now they have they found something truly fiendish going on in Iraq: Christian missionaries are proselytizing! The theory here is that Iraqis who withstood Saddam Hussein’s sadistic tyranny for 30 years will be unable to withstand a Christian missionary. Christians who are willing to leave the safety and comfort of their home to go to Iraq, risking disease, pestilence and murder, simply because they so love their fellow man

Submitted by Kenny on

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That’s what Wilbur McDonald would have decided if he were still chairman. Gotta keep that social justice machine greased and stoked. Arbeit Mach Frie.

Submitted by Ken on

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Let’s keep this discussuion 1198 going, even though no one will really see it. It can become a mythical place…
Just bookmark it, then email that bookmark to others as a passwrod.

Submitted by Alan on

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I am wallowing in the sin of canned pop and ale here. By the way, my bet came through with the closure of Seamans by Pepsi. Next step, Coke and Pepsi will refuse to supply in other than cans…

Submitted by K on

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Check out <font color=”green”>Rave></font> it is my attempt at keeping a blog, but I’ve given up on it the last few weeks after my mom keeps asking “when’s something new going on your web page?”. I just couldn’t take the pressure.
Anyway I always wondered when I picked up pop cans from the ditch in PEI how come I can’t get a deposti back like on a a bottle since it is an awesome way to keep them out of the ditches.
Also, I am looking for work if any off you know of any IT opportunities, I am a Nortel DMS specialist but that is very hard to be employe din. I am a geek at large now.
Also, one of my favorite authors is Henry David Thoreau who wrote Walden
Also I speak Brasilian Portuguese very badly.

Submitted by Q on

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How to add a link to your posting:
Step 1 is go to the page you want to link to, highlight the address, right click over the highlighted text, and copy. On this page the text your looking for is:
http://www.reinvented.net/disc…
Step 2 is to set up your tags in your posting, use an opening tag like this: < Example

>

Use paste to drop the link in between the ” ” marks.
Use < to close the link.

like this example:
Example

Submitted by Q on

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How to add a link to your posting:
Step 1 is go to the page you want to link to, highlight the address, right click over the highlighted text, and copy. On this page the text your looking for is:
http://www.reinvented.net/disc…
Step 2 is to set up your tags in your posting, use an opening tag like this: Example

>

Use paste to drop the link in between the ” ” marks.
Use < to close the link.

like this example:
Example

Submitted by Q on

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Oh well, use View, Source at the top of Explorer to see how the tags are made…they disappear in my example and I’m not sure how to show them…

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About This Blog

Photo of Peter RukavinaI am . I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.

To learn more about me, read my /nowlook at my bio, read presentations and speeches I’ve written, or get in touch (peter@rukavina.net is the quickest way). You can subscribe to an RSS feed of posts, an RSS feed of comments, or receive a daily digests of posts by email.

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