Revocation of Judgment

After a night of not sleeping much, I managed to drag myself out of bed and was down at the Rental Board (Regie du Logement) at 8:45 AM. There I found out, to my surprise, that it was quite common for the slips announcing the hearing dates to get lost in the mail. For a fee of $65.00, I was able to get a Revocation of Judgment, which essentially puts an end to all proceedings until a new hearing can be held, which probably won't be until after the Rental Board re-opens on January 3, 2009 after the holidays.

Copies of the Revocation of Judgment form were sent by registered mail to both the husband and wife who own the building on Tuesday morning at about 11 AM. I was told that if the landlord tries to take action before he receives the registered mail (he lives in Beaconsfield), there would have to be a bailiff there with him, and I should show the bailiff my copy of the form, which would stop the eviction. If need be, I should call the police, and show them the form. I have also taped xerox copies of the form on both my front and back doors and on some of interior walls of my apartment. Hopefully, that should be enough.

So, maybe, I am safe for another little while.

An Ending

You may or may not have noticed that I have not written many blogs lately. I have been having landlord problems, which may end up with the Russian Mafia coming and throwing all my possessions into the street. So you may hear even less from me. I will now put down a timeline of the events of the last 8 months, so you'll know what I've been facing:

Jack Nathanson
E-mail: nathanson1947@yahoo.com

 

Friday, April 11, 2008 – My father passed away at about 10:40 PM in the Jewish General Hospital.

 

Monday, April 14, 2008 – the funeral took place.

 

April 14 – 16   –   The Shiva (mourning period) took place.

 

Monday, April 21 – Some workmen came to my apartment to upgrade the electrical wiring. They worked mainly on the kitchen, leaving holes in the wall after they had finished (as of December 6, the holes were never repaired). I stayed away from the apartment most of the day because of the noise and commotion. I got back in the late afternoon just as they were finishing up. The workmen said goodbye and left.

 

I was about to lie down and rest, when there was a knock at the back balcony door and the landlord, Igor Ezril, came in. He said that this was the first time that he had seen the apartment since he had bought the building and he was dissatisfied as to how dirty it was. He said that it was in such bad shape that it could not be cleaned and that it would have to be gutted and renovated. He wanted me to move out as soon as possible. He said that since I was Jewish and he was Jewish, he did not want to make trouble and preferred that I would move out voluntarily. He said that all the people in the building were complaining about all the cockroaches in the building and that I was causing them. When I suggested cleaning up the apartment instead of moving out, he said it was in too bad shape to clean up. He eventually left.

 

April – June 2008 – The landlord would come knocking on my door, usually around 8 or 9 AM on Monday or Friday morning, asking me either when I was moving out or whether the apartment had been cleaned. I was starting to have trouble sleeping because of this. At times, I didn’t bother answering the door. Eventually, there came a time when I answered the door and found no one there. Either the landlord had already left, or I had mistaken a random noise for a knock at the door. I stopped answering the door.

 

I started to try and clean up the apartment at this time, but I was still primarily occupied with settling my father’s estate.

 

June – August 2008 – Things quieted down. I was primarily occupied with settling my father’s estate.

 

Friday, September 12, 2008 – There was a knock on my door in the late morning or early afternoon. It was the landlord. He said that he wanted me to move out but did not want to make trouble. He said that if I found a place to move to by October 1, he would provide me with some men to help me move. This happened two days before the unveiling of my father’s tombstone. I told the landlord that for me to be able to move out within two weeks was impossible.

 

Sunday, September 14, 2008 – the unveiling of my father’s tombstone at de la Savane cemetery.

 

Around September 19 or 20 – I checked my mailbox, and found a notice telling me to go pick up a letter at the Jean Coutu pharmacy at Queen Mary and Westbury.

 

September 22 or 23 – I picked up the letter at the Jean Coutu pharmacy. It was a registered letter from the landlord telling me that they had given me the last verbal warning and from now on, if there was any more trouble, they would take legal action.

 

September 29 – October 1 – Rosh Hashanah

 

October 9 – Yom Kippur

 

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 – There was a knock at the door. A man came in, identifying himself as a City of Montreal Inspector. He examined the apartment, took some photographs, and left.

 

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 – A bailiff came to the door and handed me a letter. It was from a city inspector named Lounes Adi, commanding me to clean up my apartment or else.

 

Thursday, October 23, 2008 - A second bailiff came to the door and handed me a letter. This letter indicated that the landlord had made a demande at the rental board, based on the letter from the city inspector which I had received on October 21.

 

October 25, 2008 – Three women came in and cleaned the apartment at a cost of $250.00.

 

Monday, October 27, 2008 – I went to project Genesis. There, I received 3 pieces of advice:

 

1.    Get the City Inspector to come back and certify that the place had been cleaned.

2.    Take photographs to show that the place had been cleaned.

3.    Go back to Project Genesis when I get notification that a trial date has been set so that they can help me with my case.

 

Friday, October 31, 2008 – At about 2:30 PM, I phoned the number at the bottom of the letter from the City Inspector (514) 872-5160. I asked the woman who answered to speak to Lounes Adi. She said that he had finished work for the week, and that I should leave my name and the notice number, and that he would call me back on Monday, November 3.

 

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 – In the morning, I received a call from a man who said he was a City Inspector. I told him that the place had been cleaned, and he seemed surprised. He said that he would come and look. When I asked when he would come, he said maybe Thursday, November 6, but he would phone before coming.

 

November 6^th and 7^th – I spent almost all day at home both these days, but there was no word from the City Inspector. (As of Sunday, December 7, 2008, I still have not heard from him).

 

October 27^th until December 7^th, 2008 – On my October 7^th visit to Project Genesis, I had been told that I would receive a notice telling me when my trial at the Rental Board would be held. I never received such a notice.

 

Saturday, November 8, 2008 - At approximately 7 AM, I was awakened by a knock at my door. It was the janitor, who apologized for disturbing me, and told me that they would be spraying for cockroaches at 10:30 AM.

 

At 12:30 PM, one exterminator showed up, and proceeded to saturate my apartment with a white powder, presumably boric acid. After a while, he said he was finished, and he left.

 

I managed to get things back in order, and assumed that the extermination was finished.

 

I stayed up fairly late on Saturday night, which turned out to be a mistake. Because on approximately 10:30 AM, Sunday, November 9, 2008, I was awakened by the sound of two men having a loud conversation in my apartment. The front door of the apartment had been left unlocked, but there wasn’t anything of value outside my bedroom where I was situated. I assumed that it must be some workmen sent by the landlord to repair a hole left in the kitchen wall in April 2008, when the electrical wiring in the building had been upgraded.

 

All of a sudden, the bedroom door was opened, and in came an exterminator ready to spray my bedroom. He told me to get out. This time, I HAD RECEIVED NO ADVANCE WARNING WHATSOEVER! And I would never have expected a second exterminator to show up ONE DAY after an exterminator had just shown up.

 

After a while, he told me to get out and stay out of the apartment for five hours. I told him that I had a cat who was hiding under my bed or elsewhere in the apartment, and that the cat would not come out until the exterminator had left. His response was to yell “Ferme ta guele!” at me.

 

By this point, I was on the back balcony of my apartment, from which a fire escape leads four steps to the ground in back of the building. I was trying to figure out how to call the police, when the janitor came out of the apartment onto the back balcony. He had presumably just come into the apartment from the front door. He told me to stay calm. Eventually, it seemed as if the exterminator had gone, and the janitor told me to go in and retrieve the cat. The janitor then left.

 

The balcony door opens into the kitchen, and when I went in, the cat came out from one of the lower kitchen cabinets. I picked up the cat, and brought him onto the back balcony, closing the kitchen door while I did so. The cat and I were now both on the back balcony. The cat was meowing to be let in to the apartment. I looked in through the window on the door and saw the exterminator spraying the kitchen floor.

 

I climbed down the fire escape and walked over to a friend’s apartment. The cat was still on the balcony, meowing to be let in. A couple of hours later, I came back with a cat carrier which I had borrowed from my friend, managed with some difficulty to get the cat in, and brought him over to my friend’s apartment, where both the cat and I remained until 10:00 PM.

 

At 10:00 PM, I came back to the apartment, to find that it had been sprayed to such an extent that a lot of the posters and papers taped to the wall had been destroyed and had to be thrown out. Maybe the number of cockroaches was such that it had been necessary to do so. I don’t know.

 

From that point on, the front door of the apartment has been kept locked, but I think the janitor may have keys for it.

 

On Friday evening, November 14, 2008, at about 8:30 PM, there was a knock on the door. It was the janitor, coming to tell me that the exterminators were coming to spray again at 9:30 AM on Saturday morning.

 

November 15, 2008 - At about 9:20 AM, there was a knock at the door. It was the landlord, the janitor, and two exterminators. One of the exterminators checked the drawers of the bureau in my bedroom for evidence of cockroach infestation. He found cockroaches in there.

 

They left for a few minutes to get the supplies, and one of the exterminators returned and proceeded to spray the inside of my bedroom bureau drawers with a white powder – presumably boric acid.

 

I went onto the kitchen balcony for a while to get out of the way, while the exterminator continued to spray the apartment. I saw him spraying in the kitchen for a while.

 

I waited outside for about 10 or 15 minutes longer and went back inside. The exterminator had already gone. On checking my bedroom, I found that the floor was wet, meaning that the exterminator had sprayed it with the liquid spray. The total damage was that one poster, partly damaged in the second extermination on November 9, had to be thrown out, and one book, “Commune with the Angels”, had fallen on the floor and come out of the plastic bag it was in. As it may have absorbed some of the liquid pesticide, I threw it out as well.

 

I removed the cat’s bowls from the bedroom, cleaned them thoroughly, refilled them with food and water, and left them in a hallway where the floor was dry. I then heard a sound that sounded like the exterminator, but soon realized that he was not coming back to my apartment. So I went out for a few hours.

 

Saturday, November 22, 2008 - I went to the Dorshei Emet (Reconstructionist Synagogue, 18 Cleve Road) at about 10:30 AM, as I had not been notified about any exterminators coming. When I got back home around 4 PM, it was obvious that someone had been in my apartment. Two lights that had been left on were turned off, and a chair in my bedroom and my bed had both been moved. I don’t know if they actually sprayed or just checked for cockroaches and then left.

 

After this, there was no evidence of any exterminators coming into my apartment. The number of cockroaches seems to have dropped to close to zero.

 

Saturday, November 29, 2008 – I went out for a few hours, but there was no evidence of anyone having been in my apartment when I returned.

 

Friday, December 5, 2008 – I went out for the evening, and had returned home by about 10:30 PM. A few hours later, I decided my mailbox downstairs for any mail. Among the letters, was one which purported to have come from the Rental Board. It said that a trial of the case concerning me  at the Rental Board had been held on November 21, two weeks earlier, and, in my absence, judgment had been made against me. I had never received prior notice of such a trial, so I have no way of knowing whether there had been a trial, or whether the letter was a forgery.

 

 

 

Deena's Blog Challenge or How I ended up on Multiply

By the spring of 2004, I finally realized that one could get a Yahoo e-mail account without actually having to own a computer. So from August of that year until a year later, I could only use the computers in the library. This limited my use of computers to a great extent, but at least it was better than nothing.

A year later, I found out that my brother had a spare computer in his basement in Toronto, and this computer was eventually brought to me in Montreal, and connected to the Internet in late July 2005.

In September 2005, I found out that a Pagan online study group, Blackcauldron, was going to be starting soon, so I joined, not even sure if I would have the time for it. That is how I met Karen, who was leading the group.

A few months afterwards, I found out that Karen had a blog on Yahoo 360, so I started to follow that blog.

Around December 2005, Karen's blog went completely private (so that only she could read it). I missed reading this blog so much that I ended up starting my own Yahoo 360 page. I was quite active in 360 for close to two years.

Around October 2007, I began to hear from many sources that Yahoo was planning to discontinue 360. I started to tell everyone I knew about this.

More and more rumours began to circulate about possible effects from the impending closure of 360.

I had already started a Multiply page in the spring of 2007. So when a lot of people began to move from Yahoo to Multiply, I had already a back-up site.

Around this period, I mentioned to Karen that 360 was about to close. Karen investigated, and decided to switch to Multiply, along with a lot of her friends.

And thus, this group got formed.

Robot that looks like young girl unveiled

(from the Telegraph)

A life-like robot created to look like a five-year-old girl has been unveiled by scientists in Japan.

 

By Matthew Moore
Last Updated: 3:07PM BST 08 Oct 2008

Life-like: The team at Osaka University's robotics department claim Repliee R-1 is the most realistic robot suit ever created Photo: TIGERLAND2222

The robogirl, known as Repliee R-1, has flexible silicone skin and contains dozens of sensors and motors, allowing it to move and interact with its surroundings like a human.

The robot even has eyes that blink and pig tails, creating a spooky effect has led to comparisons with the boy robot David in Steven Spielberg's 2001 science-fiction movie AI: Artificial Intelligence.

The team at Osaka University's robotics department behind Repliee R-1 claim it is the most realistic robot suit ever created.

It has been designed to do basic tasks for the elderly and disabled, such as fetching objects. The scientists hope that its life-like features will put people at their ease, and help them get over their reluctance to interact with a robot.

Cyberdyne, a robotics firm, hopes to start mass producing the models within days, according to reports.

An earlier version of the robot - Repliee Q1 – was unveiled by scientists in 2005, but was criticised for appearing to have "spasms" because of technical glitches. It was modeled on a young Japanese woman, complete with trouser suit.

At the time Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University predicted that robots would soon be so life-like that they could fool humans into thinking they were real.

"An android could get away with it for a short time, 5-10 seconds. However, if we carefully select the situation, we could extend that, to perhaps 10 minutes," he said.

"More importantly, we have found that people forget she is an android while interacting with her. Consciously, it is easy to see that she is an android, but unconsciously, we react to the android as if she were a woman."

Under the Bed

After my last blog entry, I began to get the idea to look under my bed to see what was underneath.

I did not know what to expect, but I already seemed to be in enough trouble as is. So on Sunday night, September 21, I started to look under my bed.

The first thing that I noticed was  a green plastic garbage bag. I did not think that much of importance was in there. But I was not prepared for the shock that soon faced me.

There were mainly papers in the bag, but what shocked me most was their extreme unimportance.

On opening the bag, the first thing that I saw was the guide booklet on how to do my provincial income tax return for 2003. In the same bag, there were a few phone and hydro bills going as far back as 1999 and even 1998.

So why was I saving this useless junk? To understand the situation, we must go back to the summer of 2004, when I first met Ouija.

In August 2004, they were doing a renovation of my apartment, which included replacing part of my bedroom floor. In order for them to do this, it was necessary to move a lot of stuff out of their way. So the papers, which had been on top of a small desk, were placed in a green garbage bag which was then stuffed under my bed for the time being. The Guide to doing the tax return for 2003 had been used within a couple of months of the period when the renovations began.

After getting rid of most of the contents of this bag of junk, I continued to look for more stuff under the bed over the next few days. I found a bag full of electric lights and extension cords, which were the remains of the lights that had been hung up over the plants in the kitchen prior to the 2004 renovations. Then I found some gardening stuff which had been removed from the kitchen when the renovation had been done in the kitchen. I was then able to extract an Adler electric typewriter from under the bed and put it in the hall of the apartment building.

              (to be continued)

Sorry, Sir, but no bathing suits are allowed in the hotel lobby.

This clip appears to have originated on Israeli television. The humour is quite different from that seen in North America.

Giant Spider Stalks Liverpool

(Story from the BBC)

Liverpool city centre was brought to a standstill as thousands of visitors turned out to catch a glimpse of La Princesse, the 50ft (15m) spider.

Crowds packed the streets to follow the mechanical beast on its walkabout from the Cunard building through the city.

And although the rain eased for part of the day, onlookers were still soaked by huge jets of water from her abdomen.

The £1.5m Capital of Culture event, operated by French company La Machine, was continuing on Sunday.

La Machine's 37-tonne beast has generated headlines around the world, and culture bosses say they have been delighted with her impact.

Mike Doran, of the Liverpool Culture Company, said: "I've never seen the city centre look so busy. It is reminiscent of when Liverpool brought the European Cup back."

There was some disappointment earlier on Saturday when crowds turned up outside the Cunard building expecting a show which never materialised.

Spider to reawaken

Nicky Webb, a director of Artichoke - the company producing the show - blamed the mix-up on cultural differences and said the French artists never intended to stick to a schedule.

She said: "For them the story is a piece of magic. They want the spontaneity of things not running according to our British clockwork... it doesn't work like that with a show like this."

Nevertheless, show organisers said La Princesse would once again reawaken on Sunday afternoon.

La Princesse was unveiled to the public on Wednesday morning, hanging from a redundant office block next to Lime Street railway station.

She was woken in a hail of fireworks and smoke at 1130 BST on Friday, before striding up and down in front of the arena in front of a cheering crowd.

Later on Friday night she took a dip in the Mersey in front of an estimated 20,000 people.

The spider is made out of steel and poplar wood and is operated by up to 12 people strapped to her frame.

In May 2006, the company's Sultan's Elephant drew an estimated one million people to the streets of London.

I need your help again

Within the past 18 hours, the forces of negativity seem to have descended upon me again.

On Sunday, September 14, at 11:30 AM, there will be the unveiling of the tombstone for my father.
Last night,I was talking on the phone to my brother in Toronto about the details of the unveiling, and this didn't exactly put me into a cheerful mood. So I walked over to Tim Horton's to cheer myself up. When I got back, I noticed that there were posters hung up in the apartment building. Starting at 11:00 AM, on Sunday, September 14, they were going to exterminate the apartment building for cockroaches, and would all the tenants please clean off the kitchen counters and remove everything from them. Wonderful!The janitor had just sprayed boric acid powder over everything this past Monday. And now it's happening again during the unveiling. And how will my cat cope with it?

But that was not the worst of it. There was a knock on the door this morning. It was the landlord. He wants me to move out. He seem to feel that my messy housekeeping is creating a refuge for the cockroaches, and that's why they can't get rid of them. He was even offering me money and help in moving for me to be out by October 1 (two weeks from now). After I've been living here since 1992. Fat chance! So I feel like I'm back where I was a few months ago. Deeply mired in all sorts of shit. The only thing I can think of to do now is to start throwing out as much junk as possible, in the hope that it will either get the apartment cleaner, or at least improve the chi (qi) enough so that some doors will open for me.

So what I'm asking for is any help any of you can provide in the form of advice, prayers, spells, etc. Maybe there is some detail that I am missing in this situation. Thank you.

Nuns arrested for forcible conversion in Christian school

http://www.crusadewatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=834&Itemid=67

Monday, 30 July 2007

source: Haindava Keralam, July 29, 2007 BHUBANESWAR: Two nuns in Mayurbhanj district were arrested on charges  under Sections 323 (causing simple hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 (forcibly attempting conversion) of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act on Saturday, Reports Times news network Sister Mary (60) and Sister Prema (63) were accused of attempting to forcibly convert the girls studying at Bijay Sadan, a Catholic residential school in Baghamara.  The arrests were made after Sarojini Murmu (12) and Anjana Behera (10) complained that they were compelled to participate in prayers against their wish. They also accused the nuns of "physically and mentally torturing" them when they refused to sing the hymns. As usual Father Isaac of the Catholic Diocese in Balasore, rushed to Mayurbhanj. He said the charges were "cooked up". Mayurbhanj SP S K Singh Singh and the additional district magistrate conducted inquiries after they received an FIR on July 25. "The complaint was prima facie true," the SP said.  The issue came to light after Murmu, a Class IX student, and Behera, a Class VI student, ran away from the school hostel on July 13. However, the school did not inform the parents and approached the police only after the parents came to know about their children leaving the hostel.  These incidents are only tip of the ice berg and many Hindu kids are falsely indoctrinated in majority of Christian schools all over the country. Police authorities of other states also should follow the way of Orissa Police and make sure such criminals are bought infront of law.

 

FOX Attacks Obama Like Kerry

This video helps dispel the illusion of a "free press". It shows Fox News attacking John Kerry before the 2004 election and Barack Obama before the upcoming one. Notice how both attacks, although 4 years apart, make identical comments about both Kerry and Obama, as if the comentators were in both cases reading from the same script.

Life in a "Democracy"

Amy Goodman: Why We Were Falsely Arrested

[Amy Goodman and other journalists were arrested and attacked by police in St Paul, Minn, for covering demonstrations there during the Republican National Convention. She is the producer/ editor/ newscaster/ anchor for the radio/TV program carried nationally by Pacifica stations and others, "Democracy Now!" She will be one of the headline speakers at the action-gathering on November 23 in New York City, "Jews Uniting to End the War and Heal America," sponsored by The Shalom Center and the Workmen's Circle/ Arbeter Ring.  One "Heal America" aspect the gathering will address will be precisely the narrowing of civil liberties that is often justified as a "defense" measure.

To register for this gathering or to support it even if you can't come, click to  --

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/602/t/7445/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3732  ]
 
ST. PAUL, Minn. By Amy Goodman -- Government crackdowns on journalists are a true threat to democracy. As the Republican National Convention meets in St. Paul, Minn., this week, police are systematically targeting journalists. I was arrested with my two colleagues, "Democracy Now!" producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, while reporting on the first day of the RNC. I have been wrongly charged with a misdemeanor. My co-workers, who were simply reporting, may be charged with felony riot.

The Democratic and Republican national conventions have become very expensive and protracted acts of political theater, essentially four-day-long advertisements for the major presidential candidates. Outside the fences, they have become major gatherings for grass-roots movements -- for people to come, amidst the banners, bunting, flags and confetti, to express the rights enumerated in the Constitution's First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Behind all the patriotic hyperbole that accompanies the conventions, and the thousands of journalists and media workers who arrive to cover the staged events, there are serious violations of the basic right of freedom of the press. Here on the streets of St. Paul, the press is free to report on the official proceedings of the RNC, but not to report on the police violence and mass arrests directed at those who have come to petition their government, to protest.

It was Labor Day, and there was an anti-war march, with a huge turnout, with local families, students, veterans and people from around the country gathered to oppose the war. The protesters greatly outnumbered the Republican delegates.

There was a positive, festive feeling, coupled with a growing anxiety about the course that Hurricane Gustav was taking, and whether New Orleans would be devastated anew. Later in the day, there was a splinter march. The police -- clad in full body armor, with helmets, face shields, batons and canisters of pepper spray -- charged. They forced marchers, onlookers and working journalists into a nearby parking lot, then surrounded the people and began handcuffing them.

Nicole was videotaping. Her tape of her own violent arrest is chilling. Police in riot gear charged her, yelling, "Get down on your face." You hear her voice, clearly and repeatedly announcing "Press! Press! Where are we supposed to go?" She was trapped between parked cars. The camera drops to the pavement amidst Nicole's screams of pain. Her face was smashed into the pavement, and she was bleeding from the nose, with the heavy officer with a boot or knee on her back. Another officer was pulling on her leg. Sharif was thrown up against the wall and kicked in the chest, and he was bleeding from his arm.

I was at the Xcel Center on the convention floor, interviewing delegates. I had just made it to the Minnesota delegation when I got a call on my cell phone with news that Sharif and Nicole were being bloody arrested, in every sense. Filmmaker Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films and I raced on foot to the scene. Out of breath, we arrived at the parking lot. I went up to the line of riot police and asked to speak to a commanding officer, saying that they had arrested accredited journalists.

Within seconds, they grabbed me, pulled me behind the police line and forcibly twisted my arms behind my back and handcuffed me, the rigid plastic cuffs digging into my wrists. I saw Sharif, his arm bloody, his credentials hanging from his neck. I repeated we were accredited journalists, whereupon a Secret Service agent came over and ripped my convention credential from my neck. I was taken to the St. Paul police garage where cages were set up for protesters. I was charged with obstruction of a peace officer. Nicole and Sharif were taken to jail, facing riot charges.

The attack on and arrest of me and the "Democracy Now!" producers was not an isolated event. A video group called I-Witness Video was raided two days earlier. Another video documentary group, the Glass Bead Collective, was detained, with its computers and video cameras confiscated. On Wednesday, I-Witness Video was again raided, forced out of its office location. When I asked St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington how reporters are to operate in this atmosphere, he suggested, "By embedding reporters in our mobile field force."

On Monday night, hours after we were arrested, after much public outcry, Nicole, Sharif and I were released. That was our Labor Day. It's all in a day's work.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Besides Goodman, speakers on November 23 include Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Rabbi David Saperstein, Donna  Lieberman of NYCLU, Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, former Congresswoman Liz Holtzman, Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin,  Penny Coleman, author  of  Flashback: Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, Suicide and the Costs of War  -- and many others.

Doing the Mashed Potato

In the early 1960's, in the wake of a dance craze called the Twist, there were a whole bunch of copycat dances that influenced the younger generation for about 5 years or so. One of these dances was called the Mashed Potato. In truth, I never actually learned how to do it, and I don't even remember what it looked like. But I still remember the name.

By the mid-1960's, all these dances had faded into oblivion. That whole scene had begun to look increasing trivial and irrelevant in the wake of such things as the Kennedy Assassination, the Vietnam War, and finally "Tune in. Turn on. Drop out." Last week, however, an e-mail that I received brought the Mashed Potato back into my memory.

Dear Yahoo! Mash member, Thank you for trying out our Mash Beta service. We hope you had fun with it. Please note that we will shut down Mash on September 29, 2008. As a result, your current profile on Mash will no longer be available. We strongly recommend that you return to http://mash.yahoo.com and copy the content that you wish to save onto a separate document. For a list of FAQs, please refer to the Mash Help Page. Thanks for trying out Mash! Matt Warburton Yahoo! Community Manager

Yes, Virginia, after only being around for a year or so, Yahoo Mash was closing down on September 29. After this date, Yahoo Mash will be as dead as the Mashed Potato dance is. It just shows you how much dedication Yahoo has to it's own products.

Anyways, here is a memorial of my Yahoo Mash profile. Many thanks to the Fireshot Firefox screenshot extension for being able to help me pull this off.

 

Blog photos

Photos to be used in my blog.

Alternative Web Site Threatened

Please Re-Post This EVERYWHERE!

Think its safe to post the Truth? Read THIS!

InformationClearingHouse.info harassed

Source: Infowars:

Anti-War Website Operator Threatened By Armed Thugs

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, August 7, 2008

	Tom Feeley, owner and editor of InformationClearingHouse.info, has endured public harassment, home invasions, death threats and threats to his family simply for running a website.

The operator of a leading alternative news and strongly anti-war website has become the target of nefarious thugs apparently in the employ of the U.S. government who have continually harassed him and ordered him to shut down his website.

Tom Feeley, owner and editor of Information Clearing House.info, has endured public harassment, home invasions, death threats and threats to his family simply for running a website.

Counterpunch writer Mike Whitney has circulated an e mail describing what happened to Feeley in an attempt to draw attention to the matter.

Whitney writes that earlier this week Feeley’s wife was startled to suddenly discover three well dressed men standing in her kitchen who told her that Tom must “Stop what he is doing on the Internet, NOW!”

To emphasize the point, the thug pulled back his jacket to reveal a gun while barking out the warning.

Tom’s wife was hysterical and refuses to go back to the house. She contacted the FBI but was told there was nothing they could do.

According to Whitney, “The well-dressed man told Tom’s wife that he knew where her son lived, what line of work he was in, and how many children he had.”

Subsequently, two men in a parked car a block from Tom’s mother’s house were spotted using laptops and sped off when they were approached by Tom’s son.

A similar incident had happened four years previously, when Feeley was approached by a stranger in the parking lot of Long’s Drug store in Southern California, after being forced to remain in his car by an accomplice who blocked him from opening the car door. The man told him, “You need to stop what you are doing on the web”.

Tom said the man was overweight and had his shirt untucked. Tom was taken aback, but (after collecting himself said) “What the fuck? Who do you think you are telling me what I can do?”

The man answered, “Tom, I’m just giving you some good advice. You should take my advice, Tom.”

I’ll tell you this about Tom Feeley; he is no bullshitter,” writes Whitney, “He is the “real deal” and completely committed to exposing the mob that is presently running our country. He does not understand why, (as he says) “They are reaching down SO far to get someone who just runs web site”. But, the truth is, they are. Someone wants him to “shut up” and they apparently have the muscle to do it. He knows he is in danger.”

Feeley is ditching his cellphone and maintaining a low profile but to his credit, refuses to cave in to the threats and will continue to publish his website.

Drawing attention to Feeley’s situation is of paramount importance to ensure his protection and also to combat head on attempts to create a chilling atmosphere and intimidate journalists and website publishers.

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The Boy and the Apple Tree

based on the story by Sunitichandra Mishra

More 3D Photography

Here is a more common type of 3D photography known as anaglyph photography. Here, the left and right eye view of an object are photographed or printed through different coloured filters, so that when the image is viewed through glasses with a red filter covering the left eye and a cyan (blue-green) filter covering the right eye, each eye sees only one of the two images, and the object is seen in 3D. If you still have the 3D glasses used for seeing the "Spy Kids" movie, they will be perfect for viewing these images. If you have the 3D glasses from the "Night of the Living Dead 3D" movie, you will have to turn them around and wear them backwards so that the red filter is in front of the left eye.

Anaglyph images can even be made from stereoviews by using free software such as Anaglyph Maker.

The following photos were originally stereoviews taken of the stuffed animals in the Redpath Museum of McGill University in Montreal.

   

Has anyone ever heard of this?

The photograph here is one of the late Judy Garland dancing the jitterbug in the mid-1940's. Probably, the only thing unusual about the photograph is the strange colouring. This strange colouring was created when an ordinary black-and-white photograph was colourized in order to be seen in 3D when viewed through ChromaDepth glasses.

 The ChromaDepth process creates a pair of glasses that optically causes red objects to appear closest, blue objects to appear farthest away, green objects to appear at a middle distance, and so on.

Now, what I was wondering was, has anyone else ever heard of this type of 3D process, or is it virtually unknown?

To see a larger version of the photo, simply click on the photo, and to find out more about the ChromaDepth process, simply click on the name "ChromaDepth".

John McCain Humour Clarified

After I had written the previous blog entry on John McCain's jokes, I received the following comment:

yougottabeshittingme wrote today at 11:26 AM Jack you moronic fucktard! Do you ever check out the bullshit you post on here. Of course not! You just post your lies and don't give a fuck what morons believe you. You forgot to mention that these stories were recalled by the Tuscon Citizen. They have been repeated anough that the blogosphere believes them but they simply are not true.   Needless to say, I was pretty much upset by these allegations, and I found myself looking for evidence that the Tucson Citizen had in fact retracted the story in question. I at first had no success in this, until I saw the following entry repeated over and over again in Google: McCain Ape Rape Joke Recalled By Sources Now, the accusations against me DID say that the story was “recalled” by the Tucson Citizen, so I investigated further and clicked on one of the links. Now, remember, in the English language, the word “recall” can mean one of two things. According to the Cambridge Dictionary of American English, “recall” can either mean: recall (ASK TO RETURN) verb [T] to order the return of (a product made by a company) because of a fault in the product recall noun [C usually sing] The government ordered a recall of the garment, saying it could burst into flames. OR recall (obj) (REMEMBER) verb to bring (the memory of a past event) into your mind I can vividly recall our first kiss. He recalled that he had sent the letter over a month ago. Can you recall what happened last night? recall noun [U] the ability to remember things He has perfect/total recall. Obviously, my critic used the first definition of “recall”, and interpreted the Google entry to mean that the story about the ape rape joke had been retracted by the Tucson Citizen. I, however, went one step further and ACTUALLY READ THE ENTRY. This is what the article actually said: Sam Stein The Huffington Post  stein@huffingtonpost.com  McCain Ape Rape Joke Recalled By Sources July 15, 2008 06:37 PM News circulated fast late Tuesday afternoon that back in 1986, during his initial run for the Senate, John McCain allegedly told a crude joke about rape involving a woman's affection for an ape. The story, which was reprised on the blog Rum, Romanism and Rebellion before being blasted out by Think Progress, goes like this: In an appearance before the National League of Cities and Towns in Washington D.C., McCain supposedly asked the crowd if they had heard "the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?" The punch line: "When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, "Where is that marvelous ape?" Eeeshh. The joke, as one can imagine, did not go over well with various women's groups, which responded with indignation. But the McCain campaign denied that he had ever said the offensive gag. "It's pretty obvious to us that this is a politically motivated sideshow," Torrie Clarke, McCain's spokeswoman at the time, said back in 1986. Till this day it has never been proven definitively true or false whether the Senator ever said the line. The Huffington Post reached out to the original reporter in that story, Norma Coile (who, after talking to multiple sources months after it was told, wrote about the response to the rape joke in the Tuscon Citizen) to find out if she thought it was true. "I'm not sure exactly what the wording was of the joke, but something was said. Some joke involving a rape and ape was said. Enough women repeated it to me at the time and the McCain campaign had a non-denial denial," said Coile, now with the Arizona Daily Star. "It came after his 'Seizure World' joke, in which he referred to the [retirement community] Leisure World as Seizure World... I just think it reinforced this idea that John McCain is humor-challenged. Whatever his qualities, he seems to have a tin ear for how these jokes will go over." Indeed, while this anecdote occurred more than 20 years ago, McCain has occasionally found himself with his foot in his mouth throughout his time in public office. Back in 1998, he odiously declared before a GOP crowd: "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." More recently he joked that it might be good for the United States to keep exporting cigarettes to Iran as cancer would prove an effective weapon against that country's citizens. But venturing into the extremely sensitive subject of rape and humor is not something that - even 22 years later - will endear McCain to the women voters his campaign has sought to recruit. And organizations in Arizona that weighed in on that 1986 line see it as another example of the Senator not being sensitive to female issues and concerns. "I don't think we can say one example like that is indicative of someone's character. But certainly I think John McCain has made lots of quotes where he says jokes like that," said Linda Barter, head of the Arizona Women's Political Caucus, which objected to McCain's joke at the time. "Our organizational purpose, however, is to increase the number of elected and appointed women, and we support pro-choice women, so there is certainly a division there. John McCain has not been pro-choice or supportive of issues related to women's reproductive health. I guess this should lay that last batch of accusations against me to rest.

John McCain's Sense of Humour

This is a TV spot about some of the "Good Ol' Boy" humour that Presidential candidate John McCain seems to be fairly bursting with. Many thanks to Sherry for finding this.

Arrested Development?

During the current United States Presidential election, most of the focus has been on the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. Comparatively little has been said about the Republican candidate John McCain. He has been portrayed as the sober, conservative, family-values counterpart to the “radical” Democratic candidates.

Now it turns out that this portrayal has not been strictly accurate. During some of his speeches, McCain has made several jokes, some of which may provide a truer key to his character.

For example, McCain told the following joke to a group of Republicans back in 1998:

“Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”

This joke could probably be considered as insulting and sexist to say the least, as well as being almost incomprehensible.

But the jewel of the collection is a joke that he told in March 1986, when McCain was running for the US Senate. This joke was quoted in the Tucson Citizen:

“Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’”

Now, this joke offended a lot of people back in 1986, but it was largely forgotten about until someone mentioned it in a blog on the Internet.

Now, what I'm wondering is, aren't there some minimal standards needed for being a candidate for President of one of the largest countries in the world? Or can just anybody apply?

And you thought that cigarette advertising was illegal in Canada???

I had assumed that it was a done deal. It was bad enough having all these smokers befouling the air that I was trying to breathe, but at least I didn't have to worry about the media encouraging them to continue doing so. Or so I thought . . .
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/178/4/384-a

CMAJ • February 12, 2008; 178 (4). doi:10.1503/cmaj.080046.
© 2008 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association.

NEWS

Cigarette ads return to Canadian magazines

Roger Collier

CMAJ

If Mags and Fags doesn't carry a magazine that interests you, chances are you aren't interested in anything. With somewhere between 6500 and 7000 titles, on subjects ranging from miniature doll houses to elk hunting, the store offers the widest selection in the nation's capital.

The variety of magazines is matched only by the variety of ads within their pages. Every product imaginable — wrist watches, throat lozenges, spark plugs — is promoted somewhere on these shelves. For the past 10 years, however, one product has been absent from Canadian magazine ads: cigarettes. Now, much to the chagrin of anti-smoking advocates, they're back.

The days of the medical profession and the Marlboro Man serving as shills and icons for the tobacco industry are long gone, but tobacco advertising is back. Image by: Stanford University Lane Medical Library / tobacco.stanford.edu

Last summer, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the advertising restrictions listed in the Tobacco Act, which the federal government passed in 1997. The Act states, among other things, that no person or fictional character can be used to promote a tobacco product. That spelled the end of lifestyle advertising campaigns, such as those featuring the über-rugged Marlboro Man or cartoon hipster Joe Camel.

The Canadian tobacco industry's "big 3" — Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., JTI-Macdonald Corp. and Rothmans, Benson and Hedges Inc. — opposed the new restrictions. During the decade-long court battle that ensued, the companies refrained from advertising in mass-market publications, arguing that the restrictions were so limiting as to essentially constitute a ban anyways.

About 5 months after the Supreme Court's June decision, however, JTI-Macdonald launched several new products with accompanying ad campaigns. The ads have appeared in entertainment magazines, such as Montréal's Mirror and Vancouver's Georgia Straight, and in the Canadian edition of Time.

The new cigarettes contain additives to improve their taste or mask the smell of their smoke. One brand, called More International, comes in whisky or liqueur d'orange flavours. Another, called Mirage, emits a vanilla aroma when smoked and is being promoted as the only cigarette in Canada with "unique Less Smoke Smell (LSS) Technology."

Cynthia Callard, director general of Physicians For a Smoke-Free Canada, says the ads violate the Tobacco Act, which forbids promotions that are "likely to create an erroneous impression about the characteristics, health effects or health hazards of the tobacco product or its emissions." In early December, her organization objected to the Mirage ad campaign in a written complaint to federal Health Minister Tony Clement. Health Canada is investigating the complaint.

"People will think that if there is less of a smoke smell, there is less smoke and therefore less harm," said Callard.

JTI-Macdonald defends the Mirage ad campaign, claiming it contains no ambiguous health messages and adheres to the Tobacco Act. It also claims the ads are to promote a new brand to existing smokers, not to recruit new smokers. "In our minds, we have the right to communicate new products to smokers," said André Benoît, vice-president of corporate affairs and communications. "The only way to do that is through advertising."

Callard believes Mirage cigarettes will compromise non-smokers' health. When the smell is masked, people will unknowingly expose themselves to more second-hand smoke. The return of tobacco ads can only harm Canadians' health and by not issuing a comprehensive ban, the government is responsible for allowing it to happen. "I don't entirely blame the tobacco companies. It's their job to sell cigarettes."

As 1 of 168 members of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Canada is obligated to ban all tobacco product advertising by 2010. But the ban must adhere to each member country's constitution and antismoking advocates say that gives Canadian tobacco companies some wiggle room, which they will be sure to take advantage of. "Nothing short of a complete ban on advertising and sponsorship is effective," said Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative.

Bettcher says many studies have shown partial bans have no effect on reducing tobacco consumption. Restricting one form of advertising merely results in a shift to another form. Complete bans, however, can reduce smoking rates by as much as 6%, according to the World Bank Group's 1999 report "Curbing the Epidemic." About 20 countries have such bans in place.

In addition to implementing advertising bans, Bettcher would like to see countries forbid retailers from displaying cigarettes and require them to keep tobacco products under store counters. "The package itself is the last point of promotion to the customer."

Keeping Canadian tobacco companies out of the ad game won't be easy, says Richard Pollay, a University of British Columbia marketing professor who has followed the advertising practices of tobacco companies for 20 years. The industry is endlessly creative, he says, not only adapting to new legislation or changing public sentiment, but anticipating them: "They're playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers."

Copyright 1995-2008, Canadian Medical Association. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)
All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of
the Canadian Medical Association.

So now we're back to the Bad Old Days. How Wonderful! 

The Animator

An animated creation story.

Rising Food Prices

http://hubpages.com/hub/Rising-Food-Prices
An article on the Internet about rising food prices and their consequences.

'I'm addicted; bigger syringe, please!'

I received this in my e-mail today, and it seemed so relevant that I had to post it:

From:

"Rabbi Arthur Waskow" <office@shalomctr.org>

To:

nathanson1947@yahoo.com

A Prophetic Voice in Jewish, Multireligious, and American Life

Prez Sez: "I'm addicted; bigger syringe, please!" Several years ago, the President of the United States acknowledged that America is addicted to oil. He did nothing to address the addiction, protected its Drug Lords (the Big Oil companies) and their enormous profits, and now has demanded a bigger syringe so as to mainline his favorite drug into the veins and arteries of the American people. And of course into the veins of all the world, where the planet's very breath and wind are being choked to death by burning oil and rising CO2. Mr. Bush's proposal to drill for oil in the Alaska nature reserve and off the American coasts has nothing to do with reducing gasoline prices at the pump. (The oil companies already have legal options on reserves that they are not trying to drill.)  Nor does his proposal to limit the legal and environmental challenges to plans for new oil refineries, since in any case new refineries would take years to build. Tying these proposals to the price of gasoline is a lie. It follows in the heels of the Big Lie about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the Big Lie about imminent nuclear weapons in Iran. Those lies, like this one, were also tied to increasing the power of Big Oil. (For an analysis of how the military might of the US has been perverted to the protection of Big Oil, see an article by Michael Klare at http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1401 The Bush proposals have only one purpose: to add to the power of his favorite Drug Pushers before he leaves office. If he gets away with doing that, it is future generations of Americans and every other people and most species on our planet's face who will suffer. Instead of strengthening the power of Big Oil and its willingness to sell the future of our planet to multiply its world-record profits, this is what we could do now: 1.    Mr. Bush could have strongly supported the plan of Mayor Bloomberg of New York, to charge fees for auto use of car-choked central Manhattan, putting the proceeds into mass transit. And he could have urged such arrangements for other cities, too. That would have saved oil.  (se my Op/Ed piece on this, just pub;ished in the NY Jewish week, at --   2.     He could have asked Congress to reinstate lower speed limits on the nation's highways. That would have saved oil. 3.    He could have urged Congress to extend the tax credits for installation of wind and solar energy equipment, set to expire soon. That would have saved oil, and encouraged new jobs as well. 4.    He could have told his pet EPA administrator, who recently took his orders to prevent California and 25 other states from insisting on higher standards of gasoline mileage for autos, to reverse that kowtow to Big Oil and OK the higher standards.  That would have saved oil. 5.     He could have supported a strong Congressional  bill to enact cap-and-trade limits on CO2 emissions.   That would have saved oil. Instead, he announced he would veto even the weak Lieberman-Warner bill,  thus guaranteeing its defeat by Senate Republicans  -- though even that bill would have saved some oil. But saving oil, preventing global climate crisis, and benefiting drivers or truckers is not the point. Lining the pockets and increasing the power of his pals in Big Oil is the point. What is this like? In the story of Pharaoh, over and over his actions bring disaster on the people and land of Egypt. He does not care. He has become addicted to his own power, and even the warnings of his own advisers and the wreckage of his own country do not matter.   It is true that the Drug Lords of Big Oil have turned most Americans into oiloholic addicts, just as Big Tobacco turned millions of us into nicotine addicts. But we can redeem ourselves and save our children from asthma, our food prices from disaster, our Iowa from unprecedented floods and our Georgia from unprecedented drought and our New Orleans from unprecedented hurricanes if we act. Please do two things today: 1)    Call 202/224-3121 and ask for your Senators and your member of the House of Representatives.  Ask for the energy-policy person on their staff, and then say who you are, where you're from, and why your strongest religious, spiritual, and ethical beliefs are opposed to Mr. Bush's plan. 2) Write a short letter to one of your local newspapers.   In both, make clear that for you this is an issue of justice and survival, and urge your representatives to act now to strengthen not the oil industry but the practice of energy conservation and the use of sustainable and renewable energy sources. Ask them to speak out now, denouncing the President's plan to lavish more money and power on Big Oil even before the bills formally  come before Congress. There is nothing more important to our future. Nothing. Shalom, Arthur The Shalom Center | 6711 Lincoln Drive | Philadelphia, PA  19119 www.shalomctr.org | office@shalomctr.org | 215.844.8494