Over at We Move to Canada, L-Girl has blogged about the new right-wing version of Wikipedia, Conservapedia. Visiting them, I've just learned the rather surprising 'fact' that...
Did you know that faith is a uniquely Christian concept? Add to the explanation of what it means, and how it does not exist on other religions.
The article on faith goes on to state that "Faith is complete trust or confidence in an unseen, loving power... Jesus was unique in preaching the significance of faith and it is exclusive to Christianity. No other religion is based on faith as distinguished from mere belief."
Now isn't that a kicker? Of the three major Abrahamic religions, to say this of Christianity strikes me as high ironic, to be politie about it. In Judiasm, as I recall, Jacob wrestled with God in a dream, and God spoke to Moses in the form of a burning bush — or at least through the agency of one. Islam holds that God has no body, no face, no form, and certainly no begotten son. But Christianity, the religion supposed based on faith alone (unlike, of course, these others), has actually had the Man Himself show up, wander around, and shake hands with people. Jesus didn't just speak for God; supposedly, he was God.
Spot the logic bomb, kids.
Now it seems to me a bit much for these folks to hog the concept of "faith" for themselves alone, especially when their religion is the only one that actually supposes that God has shown up in the flesh (literally), while Judaism and Islam offer no such physical proof. If faith is supposed to be about belief in the absence of proof, well... doesn't Christianity kind of come in dead last in this department? Doesn't their own argument actually disqualify Christianity as a "faith" at all, relative to Islam and Judaism?
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
Saved from "North Korea"...
I read with happiness and relief that the Supreme Court has unanimously ruled today that security certificates, such as they have existed in Canada since even before 9/11, are in violation of the constitutional guarantees of life, liberty and security of the person in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In particular, the violations of centuries-old traditions of habeas corpus and the right to be charged and hear the evidence against you.
Security certificates are only used on people who are not citizens or legal residents ofCanada Canada
Some of the government’s lawyers argued last year that extraordinary threats required extraordinary powers. One remarked that the security of the country was the sine qua non of all other rights. "It is an absolute necessity," Crown counsel Bernard Laprade told the court during the hearing. "Without it, all the other rights become theoretical. Without it, we wouldn't be here to discuss these questions today. I don't want to be alarmist, but without it, there is nothing else."
To which Mr. Justice Louis LeBel responded, "Mr. Laprade, if we don't have the rest, we'll be living inNorth Korea
Too right. There will always be threats. But there are sensible and measured responses to them. Reducing our Just Society to a police state isn’t among them.
Security certificates are only used on people who are not citizens or legal residents of
Some of the government’s lawyers argued last year that extraordinary threats required extraordinary powers. One remarked that the security of the country was the sine qua non of all other rights. "It is an absolute necessity," Crown counsel Bernard Laprade told the court during the hearing. "Without it, all the other rights become theoretical. Without it, we wouldn't be here to discuss these questions today. I don't want to be alarmist, but without it, there is nothing else."
To which Mr. Justice Louis LeBel responded, "Mr. Laprade, if we don't have the rest, we'll be living in
Too right. There will always be threats. But there are sensible and measured responses to them. Reducing our Just Society to a police state isn’t among them.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
No, I'm sorry, you're going to Hell
What is the story with people who feel the need to back into parking spaces? I know I'm not going to change the world here, but I just gotta vent. What's the big scoop here? Do these people think they're going to win a prize? What, you get to the Pearly Gates and Saint Peter looks in the books and says, "Hmmm, well, we were going to send you to Hell, or at least Purgatory... but I see here that you backed into parking spaces 17,411 times in your life! Good for you! You may enter..." [Angels sing, trumpets play, cue the golden glow...]?
I think it's more likely you're going to get there and it'll be "Hmm, well, you were a marginal case we might have let slip by, but I see here you thought it was a good and considerate practice to hold everyone else in the universe up while you backed in... pulled out... straightened up... backed in... pulled out... straightened up... and backed in 17,411 times. Oh, and there are those three times you scraped other cars, and that time you knocked your own passenger side mirror off on the pickup truck, yes... No, I'm sorry... you need to spend to a couple centuries in Purgatory atoning by watching the same "How to Park" high school film over and over. We show it... back it up... show it again... back it up..." Well, you get the idea.
Folks, use your loaf. You're backing up one way or the other. But here's the juice: it's a lot easier to back up into infinite empty space than to back up into an 8'-wide gap with about $100,000 worth of other vehicles around you on all sides. And I have yet to see a single person back out of a parking spot... drive back in, straighten out... back out again... etc., etc., etc. Other drivers are going to see your car coming out regardless of which way it's pointing, and if you're telling me you can pay enough attention not to hit the other three cars when you're backing in but not the ones in the driving lanes when you're backing out, then you're either full of shit or your driving acuity is extremely selective.
If you must be facing forward when you park, do what I do. Park a few yards further from the door (we can all use the exercise) and find a spot where you can pull through. You'll be facing the right way, your risk of hitting other cars will be vastly smaller, and, best of all, you won't be making me and every other human being with a license sit there and watch you compete for Driving Olympics Neatness gold.
I think it's more likely you're going to get there and it'll be "Hmm, well, you were a marginal case we might have let slip by, but I see here you thought it was a good and considerate practice to hold everyone else in the universe up while you backed in... pulled out... straightened up... backed in... pulled out... straightened up... and backed in 17,411 times. Oh, and there are those three times you scraped other cars, and that time you knocked your own passenger side mirror off on the pickup truck, yes... No, I'm sorry... you need to spend to a couple centuries in Purgatory atoning by watching the same "How to Park" high school film over and over. We show it... back it up... show it again... back it up..." Well, you get the idea.
Folks, use your loaf. You're backing up one way or the other. But here's the juice: it's a lot easier to back up into infinite empty space than to back up into an 8'-wide gap with about $100,000 worth of other vehicles around you on all sides. And I have yet to see a single person back out of a parking spot... drive back in, straighten out... back out again... etc., etc., etc. Other drivers are going to see your car coming out regardless of which way it's pointing, and if you're telling me you can pay enough attention not to hit the other three cars when you're backing in but not the ones in the driving lanes when you're backing out, then you're either full of shit or your driving acuity is extremely selective.
If you must be facing forward when you park, do what I do. Park a few yards further from the door (we can all use the exercise) and find a spot where you can pull through. You'll be facing the right way, your risk of hitting other cars will be vastly smaller, and, best of all, you won't be making me and every other human being with a license sit there and watch you compete for Driving Olympics Neatness gold.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Halton bald eagle
Cool, serendipitous shot I took of a bald eagle a few years ago at the Mountsberg Raptor Centre in Halton Region.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Canadian Sunset
Did I never blog this? I probably should have. :)
From Wikipedia:
Radio's Metro Morning show in Toronto ran a controversial contest to find new lyrics for the song in 1997. The contest was won by Romanian émigré, mathematician, and now a songwriter, actor and poet, Vladimir Radian, who came to Canada in the 1980s. This version received its first full orchestral treatment on June 27, 1997 at a concert by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
------------------------------
O, land of blue unending skies,
Mountains strong and sparkling snow,
A scent of freedom in the wind,
O'er the emerald fields below.
To thee we brought our hopes, our dreams,
For thee we stand together,
Our land of peace, where proudly flies,
The Maple Leaf forever.
Chorus:
Long may it wave, and grace our own,
Blue skies and stormy weather,
Within my heart, above my home,
The Maple Leaf forever!
From East and West, our heroes came,
Through icy fields and frozen bays,
Who conquered fear, and cold, and hate,
And their ancient wisdom says:
Protect the weak, defend your rights,
And build this land together,
Above which shine the Northern Lights,
And the Maple Leaf forever!
(Chorus)
Oh, Maple Leaf, around the world,
You speak as you rise high above,
Of courage, peace and quiet strength,
Of the Canada I love.
Remind us all our union bound,
By ties we cannot sever,
Bright flag revered on every ground,
The Maple Leaf forever!
(Chorus)
From Wikipedia:
Radio's Metro Morning show in Toronto ran a controversial contest to find new lyrics for the song in 1997. The contest was won by Romanian émigré, mathematician, and now a songwriter, actor and poet, Vladimir Radian, who came to Canada in the 1980s. This version received its first full orchestral treatment on June 27, 1997 at a concert by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
------------------------------
O, land of blue unending skies,
Mountains strong and sparkling snow,
A scent of freedom in the wind,
O'er the emerald fields below.
To thee we brought our hopes, our dreams,
For thee we stand together,
Our land of peace, where proudly flies,
The Maple Leaf forever.
Chorus:
Long may it wave, and grace our own,
Blue skies and stormy weather,
Within my heart, above my home,
The Maple Leaf forever!
From East and West, our heroes came,
Through icy fields and frozen bays,
Who conquered fear, and cold, and hate,
And their ancient wisdom says:
Protect the weak, defend your rights,
And build this land together,
Above which shine the Northern Lights,
And the Maple Leaf forever!
(Chorus)
Oh, Maple Leaf, around the world,
You speak as you rise high above,
Of courage, peace and quiet strength,
Of the Canada I love.
Remind us all our union bound,
By ties we cannot sever,
Bright flag revered on every ground,
The Maple Leaf forever!
(Chorus)
As usual, there's no pleasing some people
Let me preface this by laying my cards on the table.
If I could go back to the early 1970s and shove the Spadina Expressway down the City of Toronto's throat, I'd happily hop in the TARDIS and do so. I think one of the dopeyest decisions this city ever made — in conjunction with an abysmal lack of vision exhibited by Premier Bill Davis — was to kill the highway. That said...
...I'm no enemy of public transit, either. And so I'm equally pissed off to hear the whining going on from business concerns on St. Clair Avenue West now that the streetcar line has been rebuilt and segregated from traffic. Let me be plain. I like streetcars... when I'm riding them. When I'm stuck behind them in a car, they are second only to hemorrhoids as a pain in the ass. So a segregated line solves both problems. A public transit line, and one that doesn't fuck up auto traffic.
What's the beef?
People can no longer park on St. Clair.
Pardon me, but only the stupidest cities allow people to park on major thoroughfares in the first place. I grew up in Mississauga, where NO ONE was allowed to park on a major city street... EVER. If you stopped on a city street in Mississauga, you'd better have the excuse of a major myocardial infarction. But amazingly, much of Toronto proper remains in the 19th Century on this one. "I'm just tying Seabiscuit to the post here for a second, Constable, whilst I purchase some comestibles..." Sorry, pal, this is 2007. Get thee to a side street. The rest of us have places to go.
To the business folks on St. Clair: you will adapt. Your patrons will adapt. If not, this city is too stupid to live. Move to Mississauga, where, amazingly, customers are smart enough to manage to buy things even without the ability to clog traffic like cheesecake clogs arteries.
If I could go back to the early 1970s and shove the Spadina Expressway down the City of Toronto's throat, I'd happily hop in the TARDIS and do so. I think one of the dopeyest decisions this city ever made — in conjunction with an abysmal lack of vision exhibited by Premier Bill Davis — was to kill the highway. That said...
...I'm no enemy of public transit, either. And so I'm equally pissed off to hear the whining going on from business concerns on St. Clair Avenue West now that the streetcar line has been rebuilt and segregated from traffic. Let me be plain. I like streetcars... when I'm riding them. When I'm stuck behind them in a car, they are second only to hemorrhoids as a pain in the ass. So a segregated line solves both problems. A public transit line, and one that doesn't fuck up auto traffic.
What's the beef?
People can no longer park on St. Clair.
Pardon me, but only the stupidest cities allow people to park on major thoroughfares in the first place. I grew up in Mississauga, where NO ONE was allowed to park on a major city street... EVER. If you stopped on a city street in Mississauga, you'd better have the excuse of a major myocardial infarction. But amazingly, much of Toronto proper remains in the 19th Century on this one. "I'm just tying Seabiscuit to the post here for a second, Constable, whilst I purchase some comestibles..." Sorry, pal, this is 2007. Get thee to a side street. The rest of us have places to go.
To the business folks on St. Clair: you will adapt. Your patrons will adapt. If not, this city is too stupid to live. Move to Mississauga, where, amazingly, customers are smart enough to manage to buy things even without the ability to clog traffic like cheesecake clogs arteries.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Pretend that...
Okay, call me naive, but when I was 21 and she was 18, I really did think that when I was out of university, we'd be married, if not sooner. There was comfort in the idea... one more aspect of my life more or less dropped into place. A wife, a home, the 2.4 kids, whatever. We used to talk about it, and at the time it seemed pretty weighty. And why not? We were both adults, if only just. Technically, it was within our grasps. All of it. All that remained was for us to commit to it, to declare it, and it would be so. Now it all seems like the games children play that begin with one of them saying, "Pretend that..."
She threw in the towel. It wasn't that we argued and fought; it was just that nothing sparked for her. There was a lot of rubbing stuff together, but that friction never burst into flame for her. She drifted. She was young; is it so surprising? Not to me, not now. Devastating then. And really, part of me never did move past it. Years went by, but somehow, I kept waiting for it to happen. For the promise to be fulfilled. Not her promise, or my promise... more like the promise the world had made to me growing up. You will find someone. The one. You will make a life together. This is how it is; it will be so. And so somehow I spent my life like a car in a driveway, waiting for the driver, waiting to get out on the road just off my shoulder. Growing older. Rusting. Balding tires, sag, obsolescence. How did it happen? When did I stop being young? Somewhere, sometime. Options ran out, opportunities evaporated. This is all there is, has been, ever will be. I wish I could go back and say "forget it."
She threw in the towel. It wasn't that we argued and fought; it was just that nothing sparked for her. There was a lot of rubbing stuff together, but that friction never burst into flame for her. She drifted. She was young; is it so surprising? Not to me, not now. Devastating then. And really, part of me never did move past it. Years went by, but somehow, I kept waiting for it to happen. For the promise to be fulfilled. Not her promise, or my promise... more like the promise the world had made to me growing up. You will find someone. The one. You will make a life together. This is how it is; it will be so. And so somehow I spent my life like a car in a driveway, waiting for the driver, waiting to get out on the road just off my shoulder. Growing older. Rusting. Balding tires, sag, obsolescence. How did it happen? When did I stop being young? Somewhere, sometime. Options ran out, opportunities evaporated. This is all there is, has been, ever will be. I wish I could go back and say "forget it."
"Pretend that..." That's what I'm left with. Memories, hopes, wishes and dreams that foundered on the rocks of a shore I was too cowardly to leave. I think back and imagine, conjure, yearn. After three billion years or so, the line ends here, with me.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Digital watercolour - Ontarian farm in winter
Watercolour created in Photoshop from a technique outlined in How to Wow Photoshop for Photography" by Jack Davis and Ben Willmore. This is worked from a photo I took this morning in Hamilton.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
CF-104 Starfighter
It probably goes without saying that this is not a real photograph; it's a composite of two. One, that of the background, was taken from the observation deck of the CN Tower, facing west over Lakeshore Blvd. and the Gardiner Expressway. The second, that of the CF-104, was taken at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mt. Hope on Hamilton Mountain... which, oddly enough, is about 45 miles off in the direction the background shot faces. The Starfighter is mounted on a pole outside the museum, pointing straight up. I knew it would make an excellent shot if I ever got around to compositing it. This afternoon, I finally did. :)
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