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Sunday, September 11, 2011

Color wash and remembering.....

One of our favorite flowers is alstroemeria- As a cut flower, the blossoms take a little while to open up in bloom. Once open they last for quite awhile. These beautiful purple ones, have been sitting on our table for the past two weeks. In the center is a statice like flower whose name I have forgotten.

Here in Alberta,the September weather has been mostly hot and warm outside for the past two weeks- It has made the classroom quite warm, but manageable. My students and I are settling in together. I have 27, four and five year olds, who keep my days full. It takes some time to get the classroom routines established, but we are working hard at getting those routines in place. This week we will have our annual corn roast to kick off the school year. Meanwhile, we are playing games to learn each other's names and enjoying painting, reading stories and being active in the gym.

At home, our kitchen window has some beautiful cacti and a solo blooming pink violet plant. People keep telling me that violets bloom better in pairs but this pink seems to be unaware of that particular rule of nature. The sunflower containers were a gift from our very talented family friend Sherry. Pretty aren't they? I plan to keep coffee and tea in them.

This posts edition of From my Quilt Vault:

One of the techniques that I have explored on my quilt journey, is making quilts using the colorwash technique. I saw this churndash quilt in a magazine and really loved the graduated color. I really like the churndash block. Do you have a favorite block? The quilt is a nice sized wall hanging and our cat, Mars, thinks its a lovely place to sleep in the sun. I made it around 2001.

This quilt's name is Gran's Garden and it was made to celebrate my grandmother's 85th year of life. It was made from a McCall's quilt magazine pattern. The central medallion has 30 X 40- 2 inch squares that were laid on a large iron on grid fabric. The outer border addition came from an Australian patchwork and quilting magazine in 2002. I have done very little applique in my quilts but I liked how the flowers worked out. Perhaps some day I will design my own quilt completely. This quilt comes the closest to being my own design. I combined elements from a couple of different sources. I know that my gran loved her quilt. It was returned to me after she passed away in 2003.

Our niece posted this very cute photo of her little one. It makes me smile just looking at these sweet eyes peeking through.. She will be a year at the end of this month... Where has this year gone?

My blog friend Michele recently had a blog contest for a quilt album program where I was her lucky winner. Michele wrote this lovely piece about all the things that one can do with the album. I was very touched by all her kind words too. The quilt album is very cool tool and I feel really fortunate to be her winner.

Do you keep photos of your quilts? Do you journal about them. I have a couple of quilt journals. I am looking forward to using this great tool. Do check out Michele's blog. She is an amazing lady who creates beautiful quilts to raise money for Alzheimer's research. She has lots of links to explore and some great free patterns too.

Do you have a favorite color? Another blogging friend Pam had a giveaway to celebrate her 200th post where she gave away some beautiful fabrics. She loves purple(so do I) but her blog is called passionate purple quilter. I had the good fortune to be one of her winners. Do go and visit her blog and see her wonderful quilts.

There is a Moda county fairblog hop going on right now Sandy from pieces from my heart blog was the first of a number of designers who are offering free patterns and some prizes through out the month of September. They are creating some fun little projects for the hop. It is always fun to see what the designers are making... Do go and visit the links and catch up

I want to leave you with a link that another blogger,Melinda posted about 9/11. It is a four part link on You tube. You can find the link here:

Melinda has written a beautiful post for 9/11. Like so many others, I do remember that tragic day. It was a day like many others, where I began teaching my little ones... One where a colleague found a link to CNN news and we watched in bits and pieces, the tragedy unfold... In the days following, I remember thinking how quiet our skies were because of the grounding of the planes even in a city that was 4000 miles from NYC. As a society, we were forever changed- less innocent and trusting and marked by the tragic events ten years ago..We pause to remember those people who perished in that senseless tragedy....

Until next time,
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Global And China Wetsuits Industry 2014 Analysis, Current Trends and Growth

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Table of Contents

Chapter One Wetsuits Industry Overview
1.1 Wetsuits Definition
1.2 Wetsuits Classification and Application
1.3 Wetsuits Industry Chain Structure
1.4 Wetsuits Industry Overview

Chapter Two Wetsuits International and China Market Analysis
2.1 Wetsuits Industry International Market Analysis
2.1.1 Wetsuits International Market Development History
2.1.2 Wetsuits Product and Technology Developments
2.1.3 Wetsuits Competitive Landscape Analysis
2.1.4 Wetsuits International Key Countries Development Status
2.1.5 Wetsuits International Market Development Trend
2.2 Wetsuits Industry China Market Analysis
2.2.1 Wetsuits China Market Development History
2.2.2 Wetsuits Product and Technology Developments
2.2.3 Wetsuits Competitive Landscape Analysis
2.2.4 Wetsuits China Key Regions Development Status
2.2.5 Wetsuits China Market Development Trend
2.3 Wetsuits International and China Market Comparison Analysis

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Thursday, October 02, 2008

Sarah Palin is not a joke

Sarah Palin is bloody dangerous.

Oh, I know we all laughed at the incoherent Katie Couric interview, so lethally lampooned by Saturday Night Live.

And yep, Palin is the gift that keeps on giving for satirists. It does indeed seem like a so-cheesey-bad-it's-good Sunday afternoon TV movie at times. Grab the popcorn...

But running under the hood of the satire is real anger. Not wussy castrated liberal fear of a lipsticked attack-dog, a perma-perky, super-snarky, moose-huntin', wolf-shootin', elbows-out charismatic right-winger, but genuine outrage at her beliefs.

I said 'beliefs', not her politics. For Sarah Palin is a fundamentalist belief-centred politician whose supporters think she is on a mission from God. And Palin is expected to put her beliefs into action if (actually *when*, according to the GOP evangibase) - she ascends to the highest office

Never mind all the snippy stuff that bloggers unearthed within moments of the VP announcement: Palin trying to quash the 'Troopergate' scandal which threatens to expose her petty, vindictive abuses of power for personal reasons; never mind the undue influence of her husband Todd, unelected but copied into State business emails as a matter of course. Never mind the repeated shameless lies about rejecting the multi-million dollar 'Bridge to Nowhere' project out of fiscal high-mindedness - when in fact she supported it until it turned into a Millenium-Dome-like moneypit - and then kept the money earmarked for it anyway. Never mind the fact that she left the town where she was mayor over $19 million in debt, having started debt-free. All that is just run-of-the-mill small town politics stuff, and whilst disappointing, hardly unexpected.

No, it's the hard-wired don't-blink religious extremism, and how it drives her political actions that's so scary. McCain is 72 and a survivor of a virulent form of cancer that recently returned for the fourth time. His face is still swollen and scarred from the operation to cut it out - hence the $5000 make-up artist he hired. He has a poor diet, high blood pressure, a fierce temper and, as his aides constantly remind us, he underwent years of torture and imprisonment as a POW. This has led many bloggers to wonder whether he is still experiencing PTSD symptoms, even decades on. His medical records, reluctantly-released to 3 journalists for 3 hours, are over 1300 pages long. His father and grandfather both died of heart attacks before reaching the age of 73.

So the 'heartbeat away' issue is pertinent and pressing.

What bloggers have dug up about Palin's religious background is the real kicker. Palin was baptised a Catholic when an infant, but re-baptised aged 12 with her whole family at the Wasilla Assembly of God, in the small town of Wasilla, Alaska,where she later became the town's youngest-ever mayor. That church is part of a breakaway movement of extreme neopentecostalists, a movement so out-there that most charismatic evangelicals and pentecostalists think of it as heretical.

Although Palin moved to a nondenominational, less controversial evangelical church in 2002 when she ran for public office, she retains strong links with the Wasilla Assembly of God. She was publicly blessed in a laying on of hands ceremony in front of a crowd of 6000 at a church prophesying rally as recently as June 2008.

It turns out that the Wasilla Assembly of God is deeply involved with the Third Wave movement and frankly, it's into some really weird stuff. Speaking in tongues, healing, yeah, whatever, no biggie. Lots of evangelical churches go in for all that.

But...a belief in demonic spirits possessing geographic territories - actual cities, towns? Yep. Chasing out those demons with strategic level spiritual warfare? Casting out witches? Breaking inter-generational curses? Indeed. Battling Satanic Mind Control? Hell, yeah! How about an Armageddon-ready military youth army with a divine mandate to assert dominion over unbelievers? It's all linked in and part of the package which Palin's church and pastor-adviser subscribes to. And for Palin it's all familiar since childhood.

Then you have the belief - which Palin apparently subscribes to - that life starts when sperm meets egg - which makes contraception - the pill, condoms with spermicide, anything that prevents implantation of the egg - 'abortifacient', apparently. Hence abstinence-only policies for the unmarried ( poor Bristol) and hence Palin's truly abhorrent and disgraceful policy as Wasilla Mayor of charging rape victims up to $1200 for rape kits ( swabs etc used in evidence gathering for prosecution). The rape kits contained emergency contraception pills as well as antibiotics.

Alaska has the highest rate of rape and violence against women in the USA by the way.

Palin is anti-abortion; she has famously said that she thinks even pregnant rape and incest victims should not have abortions. Okay. It's one thing to have that as your personal belief; it's another thing entirely to deliberately limit access to the morning-after pill for rape victims as Mayor because of your personal faith, isn't it? But that is what she did.

And that's the problem, the big, scary problem. Palin has been anointed by a powerful lobby who are actively working for a theocracy. They see her as a second Esther, someone who will do the Lord's work, and translate religious belief into of political action. A pray-er and a do-er. Battling Satan, with real guns and bombs and missiles. The Lord is behind the chosen people, how can they fail?

They think we are in the Last Days, these 19%. They want Armageddon to hurry up and arrive. They even see the global financial meltdown as part of God's plan. They are packed and armed and ready for Rapture, for violent struggle and for righteous all-out holy war. They are itchy twitchy with the hair-trigger. They don't listen to naysayers; if you're not with them, you're against them. You're an evildoer, letting Satan mind-control you away from executing God's plan. Stay wired. No blinking. Let's roll.

And the Republican party courted these votes, and is now well and truly infiltrated by these zealots. And Palin was the price these nutters demanded for their money, their votes, their support.

We see a lot of scary news most days about religious fundamentalists with home-made IEDS.
We could see the elevation of a religious fundamentalist with access to the nuclear codes, and the world's most expensive army, who thinks Jesus will return to earth in her lifetime and who is geared up for Babylon (which was sited in modern-day Iran) to attack the Holy Land - and to pile right in atcha. Ka-pow! Take that, Satan! Boom!

For God's sake.

That's not funny at all.

Further reading

New evidence Palin had direct role in charging rape victims for exams
A Palin Presidency may have literal apocalyptic consequences
Sarah Palin's links to the Christian Right
Troopergate, rapekitgate and Joel's armygate
Palin's churches and the Third Wave
Wasilla book-burning
The CNP Dominionists who vetted Sarah Palin
Theocratic sect prays for real Armageddon

Blogger Dave Hodgkinson said...

For bonus points, find the Scientology connection.

October 02, 2008 7:56 pm
Blogger Rachel said...

Heh. There was so much stuff I had to chop out...

... I know most people know this stuff already. But for those who don't...and just writing it made me feel better.

We're not all doomed but it sometimes feels like it.

October 02, 2008 8:55 pm
Blogger family affairs said...

Unbelievable. Wow, impressed with your UN trip - I would LOVE to meet Ingrid Betancourt Lx

October 03, 2008 5:10 pm
Anonymous ellbell said...

she's terrifying.

p.s. found your blog through the amnesty website
it's amazing.

October 06, 2008 6:39 pm

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Popular South Indian actress Rambha tied the knot with Canada-based businessman Indhiran

Popular South Indian actress Rambha, who tied the knot with Canada-based businessman Indhiran Padmanathan on April 8 in Tirupathi said that she would continue acting after marriage.

The marriage, performed in a grand manner at the Karnataka Guest House, remained a relatively low-key affair with invitations limited only to family members and close friends. Mostly family members and film stars including actress Roja and her director husband R.K. Selvamani, choreographer Kala Master and the entire unit of the popular TV dance reality show Manada Mayiladu and popular Telugu director Raghavendra Rao, arrived at Tirumala hills for the muhurtam. The couple offered prayers at the hill shrine and immediately after the worship, the newly-wed couple left for Chennai with family members.

The marriage has taken place in Tirupathi on April 8. They planned a grand reception at Rani Meyyammai Hall in Chennai on April 11.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Brian Lara Speaks about his plan about Playing in IPL 4 2011 Twenty20 league.

Lara praised the concept of IPL. It is an awesome concept. IPL is into its third year. I like the concept of franchise based cricket with the private investors coming in. Just like in the English Premier League in England and the Spanish League you know people are following their clubs. Now it is catching up all around the world.

Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi recently revealed that Lara was keen to play in the fourth season of the high-profile event next year.

Will West Indian batting Legend Brian Lara play in next edition of the IPl 4 2011 Twenty20 league is the million dollar question?

Brian Lara has made it clear that he is not certain to play in next edition of the Twenty20 league. It has been a long time since I have played competitive cricket. The standard of cricket being played in the Indian Premier League is pretty high, so I need to be on the top of my game before I think of joining the League.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Thala Ajith talks, Thalaivar Rajinkanth claps In A Star Studded The CM kalanigar Karunanidhi Thanksgiving fuction

The function was marked by cultural programmes by various film and television artists. Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Sarath Kumar, Illayaraja, V C Guhanathan and many others spoke.

Most of the leading heroes and heroines Sneha, Tamanna, Jayam Ravi, Poorna, Rukmini, Sandhya, Poonam Bajwa, Bharath, Keerthi Chawla, Prasanna, Shakthi, and  Ramba, Srikanth, Lawrence, and Sunaina moved their legs on the stage to a packed audience at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor stadium, Chennai.

Comedian Vivek, spoke a few words and made the audience laugh. Also comedians Santhanam and M S Bhaskar tried their bit.

Many speakers thanked the CM, including actors Ajith, Vikram, Suriya, Sarath Kumar and Prakash Raj. As all were speaking in Tamil, Kamal Haasan was seen explaining the same to Amitabh Bachchan.

Thala Ajith went on to speak on the demands and pressures actors faced from a few vested interests to participate and extend moral support to various political and social causes. Actors only want to act and are not interested in taking a stand on issues. But they have been lending support to various causes under extreme pressure. I request the Chief Minister to issue a direction that film personalities should not be arm-twisted to attend social and political events. He also said that he attended the function on his own to thank the Chief Minister for his service to Tamils and Tamil Nadu for the past six decades and no one pressurised him to do so. It evoked a standing ovation from the ‘Thalaivar’ (Superstar Rajinikanth), which later turned into a thunderous applause from the audience.
This mega felicitation function for Chief Minister M Karunanidhi organised by the Tamil film industry in Chennai. And it ended with Beautiful star studded Programmes, dances and speech.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Happy Pongal friends

Hi friends!! Wishing that this festival is one, which brings good luck and prosperity and hoping that it is joyous, and fills your days ahead with happiness. Have a wonderful Pongal.

Pongal is a highly revered festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu to mark the harvesting season. it is An important festival in India, Pongal is celebrated by offering prayers to the Sun God and exchanging Pongal gifts among family members, relatives and friends.

The pongal festival is celedrated for four-day with different varieties..

Bogi Festival
Surya Pongal
Mattu Pongal
Kaanum Pongal

Wish you a Happy Pongal To every body.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

My Trip to Mahabalipurum

These are some pictures were me and my friends went to Mahabalipurum. i think some of the picture will be so fun to see

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy NEW YEAR 2010

Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go"

Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past

Happy New Year 2010 To every body!!!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Trip To Tirupathi

I would like to share the experiences on my recent trip to tirupathi.

Me and my friends planned to go to tirupathi.. and we booked the ticket in advanced to ensure safety darshan

[me, satya, neps, anush] four of them stared On 26 December 2009, We started from my place by 7.30 p.m on friday and reached koyamedu bus terminal around 10.Then we picked the bus by 11.00pm and reached tirupathi by 2.30am. Then we stayed in Sri Ganesh lodge. After 2.50 hours waiting We got the room by 5 and started sleeping by 5.30.


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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Why Money?

A brief history of money is as follows: before money most people lived in communal tribes where everything was shared and most labour was general and simple (i.e. hunter or gatherer), then came barter which allowed more specialization (i.e. farmer, rancher) but was incredibly ponderous as it fell on the people who had the surplus resource to find someone else who wanted that surplus resource but also had what you wanted. Then came the development of money that allowed for easy exchange and allowed for more specialization in labour (engineer, scientist, teacher, fashion designer).

Money is a step in a social financial evolution that has not yet culminated. Money is not the last step. Sharing, barter, money are each steps that have laid the ground work that has advanced our knowledge socially and technologically. However, money has runs it’s course and the next step in this on-going evolution is on the horizon, the abolishment of money replaced with access to the necessities for all the world’s people.

Money works best in an environment of scarcity and economic growth (expanding into new markets). There was nothing more efficient at allocating scarce resources than use of the price mechanism. The only problem is that the two key environmental factors that allow for the optimum use of money are no longer true, the factor of scarcity and the factor of economic growth.

Scarcity has been defeated through technological advances and globalization has allowed businesses to reach the saturation point of new markets. There are no more new horizons, economically speaking, that will allow for the growth that we’ve experienced perpetually for the past few centuries. Of course you may be thinking that how can I say we’ve defeated scarcity when some 3 billion people are underemployed and of those 2 billion people world-wide are underfed and of those 1 billion people are actually starving. So don’t we have scarcity? Yes we do. So what am I talking about? I am talking about the fact that we could solve this problem today if we wanted to. It is not that we don’t have the resources, we do. It is also not that we don’t have the labour; we have that in spades, 3 billion people’s worth. But do we have enough money? No we don’t.

Money is our bottleneck.

Money was the solution to allocating scarce resources because the system was designed to assume that all resources are scarce. Notice that resources that are not scarce have no price attached, like air, and until recently water. Money’s strength has now turned into a weakness by restraining productivity and causing inefficiency to maintain profit.

Profit is directly tied to scarcity and inefficiency. The more abundant something is and the more efficient it is at its function the less profit exists. In an economic system that has as its incentive profit will produce an inefficient system that thrives on scarcity. Solutions that offer anything contrary will be ignored, bought out, or suppressed.

How is that you say? Look at all the advancements we’ve gained through our current capitalistic system, cars, computers, NASA, cell phones. Granted in a system based on competition in growing markets, innovation and efficiency can gain you market share at the expense of your competitors. In the environment we see ourselves in today we have the corporate trans-nationals, cartels and monopolies that through lobbying local governments to prevent entry of new players into the markets through excessive regulation and are themselves not curtailed or limited by any one government, do not have to innovate their products anymore, generally speaking. What the transnational are doing, since new markets are becoming less common with globalization, is they are using any means necessary to cut costs to enhance their earnings per share and the primary way they do that is through technological automation which leads to a phenomenon called technological unemployment, the replacement of human labour with machine. Productivity as delivered by machine is constantly rising while human labour is falling off as rapidly. A good video that describes this is called Awakenings available on-line for free.

Money ultimately means nothing, resources mean everything. We live in a unique time in which we can pull off that which would have been considered impossible just 20 years ago. Some still think it is impossible. I think that it is a failure in their imagination.

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Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Bndhu ( Friend )

bndhu ( Friend )

 King Zinzir and queen along with their daughter had gone to visit. That day was holiday. On the holiday, the king and queen took their daughter many places to visit. The princess could see many things and learn something new. That day they reached a forest surrounded by a beautiful river. It was afternoon. How beautiful the forest was! The sun shone on the forest sweetly. There were many colorful flowers in the forest. A sweet sent was coming from those flower. There were various types of nice birds in that forest. There forest had been cheerful of the chirping of the birds. Seeing the birds and enjoying their songs, her mind became fresh.

The princess was also astonished at the forest. There were nice butterflies in the forest. They danced on the flower. Enjoying their dance, the princess was happy. She never saw such nice butterflies in her life. she touched a butterfly. As soon as she touched it sat on her hand. Getting it, she was joyous. She said happily, “you are nice. How nice your wings! Who colored you so nicely?”

 The butterfly replied, “My mom colors me. You don’t know that my mom can draw a picture very beautifully. Look, she has colored my wings nicely. Listen; there is a drawing school in our forest. I learn to draw there. My mom takes me there. On holiday, we come to visit the forest. When I get older, I also will draw nice pictures like my mom.”

 The princess said, “You are nice. I also draw picture. She teaches me how to draw a picture. I also go to drawing art school with my mom.”

The butterfly wanted to know how many friends you have there.

 The princess said, “I have so many. They are learning to draw like me. They can also draw beautifully.”

 The butterfly said, “Would you please show my drawings?”

 The princess said, “Wait a little. I have no drawing with me. I bring away from my mom.”

The butterfly flied away and sat on the tree.

Then the princess went to her parents to bring the pictures. She said, “Mom, give my pictures. The butterfly sitting on the tree wanted to see my pictures.” The king and the queen started laughing.

 The queen said, “ok, ok, take your picture.”

The princess went there with the pictures and became happy to see many butterflies. She welcomed them because they came to see her pictures. The she showed her pictures one after another. Seeing her pictures the butterflies became happy and started dancing on the flower.

The butterflies said, “You can draw very well. Your pictures are beautiful. One who drew well one’s mind is kind and soft. Will you be our friend?”

The princess agreed, “Yes. We are friend from today!

বিড়ালটাকে সবাই মিউ বলে ডাকে। এই নামটা তার নিজেরো অনেক পছন্দ হয়েছে। কেউ এই নামে ডাকলে মিউ ঘাড় ঘুড়িয়ে কৃতজ্ঞতা প্রকাশ করে। একদিন প্রত...


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Bette takes no shit

"I abhor cheap sentiment"

And words are all we have...

Platitude: attitude

The words we use shape how we think.
Even what we are free to think.

Smarm meets the Bullshit Detector

"Successful ideologies are often thought to render their beliefs natural and self-evident -- to identify them with the 'common sense' of a society so that nobody could imagine how they might ever be different. ...a ruling ideology does not so much combat alternative ideas as thrust them beyond the very bounds of the thinkable."

Terry Eagleton: Ideology: An Introduction, 1991

Hey! What's a Hollywood diva doing, tucked next to a theorist of ideology, in a debate cast as solemn cogitation on "the rights of lesbians and gay men"? Lately such a sober lot on the "rights" front, even the guys -- way past "camp" (or are they?), dragged up as Virtually Normal. Well, as Susan Sontag said in "Notes on Camp," 1966:

"Camp is a solvent of morality.
It neutralizes moral indignation, sponsors playfulness."

And god (maybe even God) knows: We need some solvent now. Not of morality. The ways we treat each other can truly be wrong or right: unjust or fair; selfish or giving; brutal or humane. But of "moral indignation" -- yes. It's a mask, real morality rarely behind it. Camp grew from keen awareness of masks: putting them on, taking them off -- and prying behind them. With wit, play, and acid parody.

Some radical gay lib types, and later proponents of "respectable" rights -- so different in their take on our lives -- share a certain disdain for "camping it up." To sober '70s lefties, camp was rooted in oppression: it was compensatory, frivolous, a vehicle not fit to carry us to liberation. And it was seen as a "downtown fag" thing (dykes don't wanna have fun?). To stern modern mavens it's an embarrassing stereotype. Even as they typecast all of us for sale as a "gay market" genetically programmed for "shop 'til you drop."

But camp went beyond "camping it up." It was a culture, a way of seeing: observant, perceptive, wickedly incisive. It was often brave, quite often funny. I said of that culture in a memoir:

"It was replete with -- in fact rooted in -- a sense of irony, a certain detachment, a view of the world from a place oddly if usefully positioned: on the margins. It was only because we lived to one side of 'the normal' that we could see so well how the supposedly normal world works. We stood outside, sometimes painfully, but we stood unblinkered.

"We could see."

That perspective -- "oblique" Neil Bartlett called it, "because of that informed, revealing, powerful" -- we might have shared with Radical Faerie Harry Hay, French philosopher Michel Foucault, fringe filmmaker Derek Jarman, New York poet Frank O'Hara. Or with the local tomboy or the high-school nerd or a hard-working streetwise kid.

With them we also share a rare and precious device, one of the mind, first tagged in the skeptical Sixties if maybe invented by Socrates: the Bullshit Detector.

On our long march to Virtually Normal, too many of us have left that sensible device behind. Some have even gone into the Bullshit Business (Nuptial Branch), happy to wallow in "moral" indignation. Some, I trust, deploy its glittering generalities in blithe good faith; of a few I suspect knowing fraud.

In any case, let's set our Detectors on de-stun. As Bette said in All About Eve more than 50 years ago (in addition to "I abhor cheap sentiment"): "Fasten you seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night!"

Bette's skeptical
"How dare you treat me
like a chorus girl!"

To equal-girl-opportunity
employer Jack Warner

Equality beyond sameness
The Canadian Charter of
Right and Freedoms

The Charter's Section 15 (Equality Rights) has two parts:

"(1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

"(2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups, including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability."

Anti-gay bias is not specifically barred, "sexual orientation" not among the Charter's "enumerated grounds." But two other words there have had sweeping effect: "in particular" -- meaning the list was not exclusive: other ground could be "read in." The Supreme Court of Canada read in "sexual orientation" in 1995 -- making bias based on it unconstitutional.

Subsection 2 is meant to allow discrimination in favour of people or groups "disadvantaged." The Charter was written to recognize that formally "equal" treatment can make some of us less than equal.

Equality as sameness
"The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

Anatole France, in Le Lys Rouge, 1894
(with thanks to Craig Patterson for the reference)

Equality, too many insist, means treating all of us in exactly the same way. As if all of us live the same life. Or some average, "normal" life. (And guess who gets to define "normal"? Not just in terms of sexual orientation, but culture and class.) We do not, any more than the rich and poor did 1894.

Canadian laws (if not American, nor too many Canadians steeped in American rhetoric) clearly recognize the difference between US-style formal "equality" and a deeper sort, called "substantive": equality not just in name, but in effect. (Get set for some Canadian constitutional history -- more interesting than you might suspect.)

In a 1994 essay called "Why treating people the same doesn't make them equal," David Vickers, now a justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, wrote:

"Similar treatment often generates very, very different results. The impact of some laws will vary depending upon a person's economic or social or cultural reality. ... The first lesson of equality is to understand that equality means accommodating differences. The fundamental notion of equality in this country is to address differences."

All human rights laws exist precisely to defend difference -- not to make us the same. For the last 20 years those laws have been based on the Charter of Rights, enshrined in the Constitution signed by the Queen and Pierre Trudeau on April 17, 1982. Section 15, its equality provisions (quoted at the left), came into force three years later.

That section has two parts. The first bans discrimination based on various grounds. The second allows discrimination -- of a positive kind: aimed at "amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups." It sets a clearly Canadian distinction: simplistic "equality" -- treating all of us as if we were the same -- is not the same as substantive justice: treating us with respect for our very different realities.

Section 15 says whose rights are protected. The Charter's first section says what those rights are. It too strikes a note distinctly Canadian: Rights are not absolute.

Guarantee of Rights and Freedoms

1. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

Fundamental Freedoms

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (a) freedom of conscience and religion; (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d) freedom of association.

So: We have freedoms -- within limits. Those limits must be "reasonable." They must be "demonstrably justifiable," which -- in a country dedicated to "peace, order, and good government," not "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" -- may not be all that hard to demonstrate. Courts can say discrimination is, in some cases, justifiable; politicians in a panic at potential disorder (or maybe defeat at the polls) can pass laws "notwithstanding the Charter of Rights."

Some, contrasting Canada to the Sweet Land of (formally absolute) Liberty, find this sadly deferential. Others see it as subtle acknowledgment of social fact: We share a civil society. Governments cannot grant "happiness." At best they can preserve enough peace to let us pursue happiness, however we may define it, for ourselves.

And, better, for each other -- without anyone getting trampled in a mad rush to vaunted, absolute, individual (and often illusory) "liberty."

Our greatest legal victory for erotic difference grew from just such subtle distinctions. In 1995 the case of James Egan and Jack Nesbit reached the Supreme Court of Canada. Together for more than 40 years, Jim hoped Jack would qualify for survivor benefits under the Old Age Security Act -- benefits solely for opposite-sex survivors. They claimed discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The court agreed, but said it was justifiable discrimination: the Act's intent when passed had been to provide for women likely in more need than men: indigent widows of war vets. But they also said that such bias was not justified more generally. In a unanimous decision "sexual orientation" was "read into" Section 15 of the Charter, making it not just subject to challenge under human rights laws in most provinces but -- for all of Canada -- unconstitutional.

That ruling was a defeat for mere equality. For freedom it was a stunning triumph.

Refusal to make such distinctions led to a different sort of Supreme Court ruling in the 1999 case of M v H, a lesbian couple otherwise anonymous who had split up, one suing the other for support. M (or was it H?) claimed that Ontario's Family Law Act's common-law definition of "spouse," limited to "man & [effective] wife," was discriminatory.

One judge disagreed. His written ruling took a close look at family law, historically meant to ensure a right to support -- from absconding men, for abandoned women and children. Two women splitting up shouldn't have automatic claim to that right: people of the same sex (in fact, even of the opposite) can have relationships that are different; not all fit the model of financial dependence.

The other eight justices didn't buy it, dismissing such distinctions as sadly illiberal. They opted for "equality." Or for its avid advocate: M and H has already settled out of court; their lawyer insisted they push on anyway -- to set a precedent. For all of us.

Brenda Cossman, taking a close look at this "lesbian alimony" decision, said it should please governments dying to download "dependent" costs onto "spouses," fitting their deeper agenda: privatization of social welfare. "Some of us," she wrote," have won the right to sue our exes. And a bunch of us have won the right to be sued and make the big pay out. And pay we will."

Bowing to the Court the next year, Parliament passed the "Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act," changing the definition of "spouse" from "man and woman" to "any two persons" in all laws -- except marriage law. Common-law couples of the same sex joined the million or so already bound in Thoroughly Modern Mandatory Matrimony.

That got called a victory. (Except, of course, by those whining that they had "won" everything but a word: marriage.) Watch out what you ask for. You might get it.

Breaking into jail?
Openly gay MPP Svend Robinson has said society has nothing to fear from gay nuptiality: "It will reinforce the institution of marriage." Precisely. See:

Welcome to our world!
Now here's the rule book.
The Real World blesses homosexual matrimony -- in the name of "social stability"

Gay people, having fought to win laws making space for difference, are now seen hiving to the norm in the name of equality. As sameness: We're just like you! We're nice! You should like us! And not a few nice liberals do -- welcoming nice homos into the "stable" and otherwise unrenovated (if maybe redecorated) house of social order.

Pioneering queer activist Harry Hay once said that gay people are just like heterosexuals -- in one place. And only one place: in bed. Sex is sex (think about it: anything you can do they can do too; kink is not solely "gay"). It's our lives beyond sex that make us distinctive. Some of us may want to be safely "the same." Some work hard to keep up appearances. They are free -- they even have a right -- to give it a try.

But they have no right -- even in the name of Rights -- to impose sameness on the rest of us. Or to lie about who we might be or how we live in order to "win respect" for their sameness. (Normal don't get no respect??)

Equality as sameness is not just bad pop jurisprudence. It is denigration of difference. It exposes a willingness to leave others not safely "same," by choice or by chance, out in the cold. Seems some judges are more humane that many "gay rights" activists.

As another activist asked years ago: "Will no one put the 'quality' back in Equality?"

Bette's wedding
"I don't recall ever
being laid by your father.
You had to be an
immaculate conception."

To her daughter Barbara
on Dad, wed to Bette in 1945

My dignity (to hell with yours!)

Equality as a legal concept is, as we've seen, complex. "Dignity" in law is merely ambiguous. My dictionary says its Latin root means "worthy"; its definitions deal mostly with status: ennobling rank bestowed by authority. "Dignify" may even mean "to give a high-sounding name: to dignify lust."

No definition on offer there connotes a more popular take on the term: "self-esteem." "Dignity" may appear in some laws, surely in some court rulings on human rights law. But some wonder if it has any place in law at all.

The state cannot grant you dignity (but maybe as a "dignitary"). Any more than it can make you happy. The best the state can do is create an environment in which your self- esteem might grow: one where our governments, and each other, respect each person's unique and autonomous body, mind and spirit; each person's freedom of action, thought, and desire; each one's beliefs, personal connections, and communal commitments.

In short: an environment in which each of us is regarded as a citizen. And regards other people as citizens. You don't have to love them or even like them. Nor they you. The one requirement? You have to be a citizen.

That's more than a status, a fixed state bestowed on isolated individuals by the state. It's a process: a continual becoming; everyday acts of being. We become citizens by acting in the wider world ("the guarantee of freedom," Michel Foucault said, "is freedom"). And by interacting with others whose citizenship we must also respect.

That means regard for the rights of others, not just your own. And the very first rights guaranteed by the Charter of Rights are: "freedom of conscience and religion; freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression."

Each "side" in the Great Gay Marriage Debate has indicated considerable impatience with "thought, belief, opinion and expression" that does not match their own. Neither side, however addicted to bathetic religiosity, actually respects freedom of religion. Or of conscience beyond religion. Each is begging the state to side with their own beliefs, to denigrate the conscience of anyone who does not share them.

"No! We just want Equal Rights! We're not trying to force anything on anybody!" The Christian (not to mention Islamic) Right cannot, of course, make that claim in good faith. They're thrilled to see loyal adherents born (or reborn) to The Faith rush to grasp the reins of state power in Washington, or Riyadh, or Teheran.

The Gay Right shamelessly pleads innocent. When Catholics claim (as I heard in yet another televised episode of The Great Debate): "They want the feds to force our priests to marry two girls! Or two guys!" -- marriage mavens just shrug. Or laugh. As they cheer a court forcing a Catholic school to let a boy bring a boy to the prom.

Okay: Other issues were in play. Is a prom a religious rite? Should Catholic schools get public funds? Why do they? (We know so little of our own history.) But many mavens were tickled -- giddy with altar-boy jokes all the rage: Catholic "Dignity" sure didn't get no respect -- to see Section 15 of the Charter override Section 29:

"Nothing in this Charter abrogates of derogates from any rights or privileges guaranteed by or under the Constitution of Canada in respect of denominational, separate or dissentient schools."

Rights trumping rights. It's a dangerous game: you may not always hold the winning hand. And the player across the table may, with cause, be feeling a bit paranoid. Even if that nun doesn't have an ace up her wimple, she may pack a pistol in her habit.

You don't have to be religious to get your rights dissed by the Gay Right. Or in this case, tellingly familiar jargon suggests, by the sympathetic sectarian Left -- ever eager to "mobilize the masses" (if here putting the move on a mass better-off than their usual).

In January 2001 Project Interaction, a McGill University group, put a petition online to protest comments made by two profs who'd been asked to testify in a case brought by two men who wanted to marry. Asked by the Quebec government. To offer "expert" evidence against gay marriage. One, Margaret Somerville, respected in the field of legal and medical ethics for her considerable (if sometimes troublesome) intellect, had said:

"Homosexual people and same-sex couples are entitled to respect for themselves and their beliefs, but so are people who believe that marriage is a sacred union of a man and a woman. Mutual respect requires restraint when values conflict. In this context, it requires restricting marriage to different-sex couples, and recognizing partnerships of same-sex couples, but not as marriage."

For Project Interaction, this was clearly interaction of the wrong brand.

"We find it unacceptable that you have taken a stance that is oppressive and that restricts access to equality. ... Whether one believes in the institution of marriage or not is beside the point; what is key is that the choice of civil marriage be available to all.

"Denying equality in marriage simply confirms to homosexual, bisexual and heterosexual people that homosexual relationships are devalued. ... We believe that positions arguing for a denial of human rights and equality are unacceptable and unethical. ... Such arguments simply justify oppression."

(Ah, devaluation. Of Dignity no doubt. And the usual Choice line. But we'll get to that one below.) The petition said Somerville should withdraw as a witness. A Queer McGill member opined: "What opinion about same-sex marriage does 'Margo' Somerville have that is (a) biological, for the 'bio' part of the ethicist or (b) something ethical. Either she believes homosexual relations are something unnatural or something unethical."

That reading looks to me either (a) facile or (b) willful. And (c) not how you likely read what "Margo" actually said. But whatever she says, if it's not "Gay Marriage Yes," it's wrong. Another McGill Queer (queer?) made it plain:

"This is an issue of right vs wrong. There is very little gray area here. ... We would like it if there were no possible expert witnesses to testify for the government against same-sex marriage, period."

Period. So, to anyone able to discern "gray" anywhere in this obviously black & white issue: Just Shut Up! Fuck you Margo -- and your "mutual respect" too. It offends my absolutely correct, deeply righteous, and dreadfully devalued dignity.

Bette: gun to head
"Prognosis negative!"
Bette meets Hobbson (sic) in
Dead Ringer (even if the line is maybe from Dark Victory

Two choices. Or no choice.
"We moderns hide behind the scrim of individual choice, insisting again and again that so long as we're not hurting anyone else it's our decision, but individual choice is a bit a chimera in a society driven by so many disparate forces. Money, status, power...."

Brent Ledger: "Who's in charge here?" (Prom & Circumstance),
Xtra!, October 3, 2002

Ah, Choice! Will that be Coke or Pepsi? Dasani or Aquafina? (Bottled tap water: Coke's and Pepsi's.) Telus or Fido? (Cute monkeys; cute dogs.) Old Navy, The Gap, or Banana Republic? (Same biz.) Coles or Chapters or Indigo? (Ditto.) CTV or The Globe and Mail? (Yup.) Grits or Tories? (Come on....) A chimera indeed.

It is also the great, glowing liberal shibboleth. You always have a choice. The choice is yours. Choose for yourself! I wouldn't presume to choose for you.... It's so nice, so sweet -- so free. No wonder it's been such a hit for the forces of gay marriage.

And an utter fraud. When you hear the word "choice" purred by some avid advocate, don't reach for your revolver. (Even if you're Goebbels. Or American. Or a nun.) Just pop 'em with a tag: Common-law.

The Gay Marriage Drive has just one goal: to get same-sex couples into the House of Matrimony. Just as it is. This one-issue campaign has been silent on the Law Commission of Canada's central idea in Beyond Conjugality: recognition and respect for a rich and varied range of intimate relationships.

Nearly all the benefits (not to mention burdens) of marriage, newly "modernized," now extend to same-sex coupledom surviving beyond one year -- but for bestowal of one precious word: marriage. For want of a word we're told gay people have been offered a place in the Out House. We Want Into the Big House!

Even if it's falling apart. Nearly half of all Canadian marriages end in divorce. Some survive only in a House of Horrors. For years men, women, and their children have fled in growing droves. But We Want In! We Demand First-class Citizenship!

The chimera of "Choice"
Selling limited options
in the Name of Equality

EGALE's avid deployment of "Choice" as a noble sentiment has seen wild success in gulling the media: stories on "gay marriage" rarely mention mandatory marriage by common law.

True choices
Better questions
And much better answers

A detailed look at the ideas, values, and proposals in
Beyond Conjugality.

Letting same-sex couples into the rickety House of Marriage does nothing for those held in its downstairs (wed)lock-ups -- involuntarily branded "spouses" in common law. Thought you were just in for visiting hours? Make it a year and we'll make you a bed. But then you're already in one, right? And surely not alone....

The "intrusive examinations into, or forced disclosure of, the intimate details of personal adult relationships" that the Law Commission of Canada saw as violations of personal privacy, autonomy (and no doubt Dignity) are routine for anyone suspected of sheltering a "spouse in the house." Especially if either one is poor enough to need social assistance: "spousal" status means they're fucked -- one deemed dependent on the other -- unless they can prove they're not fucking.

Let's say you're fairly well-off (for now; or don't fret the fate of poor slobs). Welfare Cops are not your worry. But the Tax Man might be. "Conjugal" couples are now legally bound to file joint tax returns. Your income is not you own: it belongs to your "household." If you're caught filing as individuals, you too may get fucked. By more than your "spouse": the state is in bed with you (so get used to ménage à trois).

If half the "better half," financially speaking, of your "household income" unit is not you, don't fall asleep counting your blessings. Wake up and count your pennies: you stand to lose benefits you may have got when "single." The GST tax credit, or the tax credit on your rent. Or maybe you're suddenly not "low income" enough to qualify for help with drug or dental bills. Or for a student loan.

If you are that "better half," whatever conjugal bliss you may now enjoy, don't forget that the greatest victory for "spousal rights," M v H, grew from a suit for "palimony." You may end up trying to hide in that Thoroughly Modern closet: The Love That Dares Not Declare Its Assets.

Bette and Ronnie
My dear....
What company we keep!

"Mother Goddam" gets her fill of "the Great Communicator" -- before "collateral damage" in Libya, Grenada, and Contra-indicated Nicaragua.

Gay marriage pushers peddling us "Choice" are unlikely to list the options they offer ("You're free to choose!"). There are in fact, and not unusually, just two that you're actually free to choose: marital status; or no legal status.

You may freely choose to enter the House of Matrimony -- the only place, they ever insist, where meaningful connections can get "first-class" respect. Or you're free to stay out in the cold. And (be careful!) stay there alone.

If you hope not to spend your life alone, there is a third option. But it is not a choice. The state may wedlock you in the common-law House of Involuntary Matrimony. Whether you want to live there or not.

Tossed "common-law" (though they rarely are) top lobbyists claiming to stand on the final frontier of gay freedom can do no more than dissemble at freedoms infringed. Just after same-sex couples got Modernized in 2000, I saw (as I was bound to) John Fisher of EGALE on TV. He was caught in a scrum. He did get lobbed forced common-law.

He parried in what looked to me some embarrassment -- if with the sure logic of a True Believer. I can't quote him exactly but the gist of it was: There may be some unintended if unavoidable consequences in the Noble Fight for Equality.

Call it, as George W Bush and his dad and Ronnie before him have, "collateral damage." Unfortunate civilian casualties -- you maybe among them -- in a noble, necessary, and even sacred Jihad for "rights."

Bette with butt

Photos from the Toronto Reference Library Picture Collection (great lines too, if some from faulty memory). Left: Bette Davis, 1971, by Victor Skrebneski.

Go on to:
Myth popularity
Like us! Love us! Dump us?...
"Acceptance": Rights as a numbers game (You bet your life!)

Or go back to:
Ideas  in play  (List of contents)
Spouse  touting  (Introduction)
Gay marriage? Wrong question  (Lead page)

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This page: http://www.rbebout.com/getfree/words.htm
October 2002 / Last revised: April 25, 2003
Rick Bébout © 2002 / rick@rbebout.com


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We’re No. 1: Palm Beach County ranks as nation’s hottest housing market

Florida Yard Sign

This item originally appeared in July 2016.

Forget fast-appreciating Denver and stratospheric San Francisco. Palm Beach County has elbowed its way into the top spot on real estate firm Ten-X‘s list of the nation’s hottest housing markets.

Ten-X’s analysis:

“Palm Beach County’s housing market is scorching. Seasonally adjusted home prices are up 16.8 percent year-over-year, the highest pace in the country, while quarterly gains have exceeded 3 percent in each of the past seven quarters. Prices are at a cyclical high after eclipsing $260,000 this quarter but still 14 percent below their pre-recession peak, suggesting additional room to run. Employment is also at an all-time high, with jobs up 2.4 percent from a year ago thanks to strong performances in key sectors like financial services, education, healthcare, and leisure & hospitality. As rents continue to rise for local apartments amid accelerating population growth (1.7 percent in 2015), the affordability of single-family homes should continue to fuel demand and the local housing market will continue to prosper.”

Florida markets swept the top four spots in Ten-X’s ranking of 50 U.S. metro areas.

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