Welcome to my Jungle.

The "poisonous" Native/Government relationship.

2011-12-04T13:22:00.000-06:00

A fine list of examples of this "poisonous" relationship between First Nation Reserves and the Government is written by the National Post. The one issue they fail to address in all their "The numbers you hear are incorrect, they only get 5.8 million in 2010-2011 for houses", is the fact that most people that read this will be paying for their own homes and upkeep themselves (and through their taxes obviously paying for First Nation Homes)!

I agree with funding Education and Health care, everything that every Canadian expects already. But when you have to work for something you take pride in it and take care of it, and that is where handing out houses turns into a money pit because they expect it to be kept up for them too. You want First Nation houses to last, let First Nations people buy them for themselves like the ROC.

Attawapiskat First Nation.

2011-12-03T10:53:00.001-06:00

One of my best childhood friends for a number of years was a native boy named Hubert. Now Hubert and I would sleep over at each others houses, and I even spent time on the band reservation that he and his family were a part of. I never gave a second thought that we were in any way different, he was just another kid that was one of my closest friends. So when I talk about reserve life, I speak from someone with first hand experience having not just visited, but been a apart of their daily life.

Recently in the news the Attawapiskat First Nation has declared a "State of emergency" and has put out their hands to the Government to finance their recovery. Here is where I start to question the dis-service we are doing to the Native population by continuing to assist them at every turn financially, instead of allowing them to grow in both pride and self reliance. I'm not saying that the Government shouldn't be there to help, but I think some personal responsibility needs to be taken on the part of the Attawapiskat First Nation as to how and why they feel they NEED to delare this state of emergency.

I am going to regress for a moment, and look at the point of the "Reservation". This was a place set aside for native peoples to manage and hold as their own, where they could raise their children in their traditional culture. This seems to me to be a noble cause, worthy of a noble people. I may be mistaken, but I believe Reservations falls outside any number of Federal Legislations, and is even given money and houses by the Government. Which is why I question how they came to be in a state of emergency. I really think the problem starts with the way a native mentality has changed to one of entitlement rather than self reliance, "you took our lands, now you owe us". Let's think for a moment about the state of being when the Europeans started settling Canada, are the native people better or worse off for it? Sure there were a number of problems that the settlers brought with them, but I would still have to say that European influences and settlement has improved life for most natives that have embraced it as also theirs.

I'm not saying don't help when it's needed, what I am saying is that the current relationship between the native community and Government is unhealthy, and it is primarily so for the Native community. What I say to the First Nations people is simple; Don't give up your culture and heritage, but embrace the society around you to become healthy, proud, and self relient Canadians. I say this also after having read a disturbing stat that 80% of Prairie correctional inmates are Native, which I also believe is another disturbing effect of this unhealthy relationship, as well a number of factors/attitudes being handed down in native communities.

I don't have all the answers, but I find the problem serious enough to point out that it's been there too long.

** addition; The day after I write this I see an article in the National post is saying basically the same things I've said here, but it does touch on the subject of how some First Nations haven't any idea on how to govern themselves. National Post Article.

Western freedoms under seige. Oct 23rd 2011.

2011-10-23T13:21:00.002-06:00

2 stories are striking examples of what I'm talking about this week:
First is that of the "Honour killings' in CANADA of 4 Muslim women by their husband/father. This attack is more than just against the Canadian acceptance of Women's obvious rights and freedoms, but it goes even deeper when the offender's religion can influence both assistance from authorities, or recognition as a mitigating factor in his trial. Charles adler speaks about it here: Charles Adler

Second is that freedom of speech is being "weeded out" in Universities, and indoctrination is taking it's place. When Universities (Either campus activists OR University Authorities) choose to shut down events, groups, or ideas just because they disagree with them, it set a dangerous precedent for the future of our freedom of speech. Universities should be a place of Diversity (not the opposite, as Kate from small dead animals points out), where dissenting opinions are not only tolerated, but encouraged for dialogue! When groups of people, or the powers that be in charge, start shutting the doors on freedoms of speech, it should anger us all! Read the Canoe article on the abismal behaviour of academia here: Free speech suppressed

For another example, Islam extremists force the cancellation of a speaker in Texas. Watch here: The Arena.

Our Culture and values are under attack, and if we don't fight back we may lose that which is dear to us!

Equal rights for men!

2011-06-19T14:02:00.000-06:00

The dictates of societal norms, and current laws prevent me from currently murdering others because they are an inconvenience to me. But this seems to me, in light of women's rights to murder unborn children, unfair and inappropriate! Why should I be denied the right to murder someone that is an inconvenience to me just because I'm a man? Is it just because I am unable to carry around the person I am legally allowed to murder within my body, supposing to be under my protection? I think if it's fair for Women to have the right to murder the most vulnerable members of society, the unborn child, I should be well within my Manly right to kill someone for inconveniencing me! After all we already know how stupid and inconvenient some people can be, and we have no idea of the potential of an unborn child, so it seems actually more logical to get rid of the people that have proven themselves unworthy of life than to kill off someone before they have the chance to prove themselves! (And can you imagine how much more productive we would all be if we knew that if we inconvenience someone else they might kill us?

Now I'm not trying to be facetious, sarcastic and condemning maybe, but be assured that I take the matter of abortion very seriously. I think that giving in to pressure from Feminazi's (Women's rights have killed more people than the nazi's, so the name is well earned) to allow women to kill children (and yes from the moment of conception they are children, they will not grow to be anything other than human being, so abortion is CLEARLY MURDER)is ridiculous, and shows a weakness of will and morals in the Governments that allowed it (Liberals.)

I'm posting this on Father's day, because as serious as it is, these are the things we talk about at our table, and when we were doing so this morning I was encouraged to post on it.

Life is no longer kill or be killed, so how can such an "enlightened" society still condone the reckless, wanton murder of innocent children? As I often say, if the Government wants to be my moral leader, they must be my moral superior. And as long as abortion is allowed by the Government, they have no chance of being such.

Bob

Cool new feature for smart phone users,

2011-06-06T22:52:00.000-06:00

For those of you with smartphone, Mobile Barcode has a generator that allows you to create a smartphone barcode for your site. You have to love tech! :-)

Have fun!
Bob

So what comes next?

2011-05-22T12:22:00.000-06:00

After schooling our youngest child through his final year of High School, today I started to wonder what was next. The thing is I know that Drew will move on and forward with his life, but as a chronic pain sufferer my limitations leave me looking for things that can fulfill and validate my existence.

I have to admit I've been quite sick lately (a case of Labyrinthitis that is just hanging on), and keeping my energy up and pain levels down has been a continuous battle, so that might play into my current mentality. However the dilemma stays the same, how can I accommodate the limitations of my condition and yet find something that can encourage self worth? (which is always harder the worse I feel, so hopefully that will change soon.)

Bob

Are you the product of a social experiment?

2011-05-21T12:29:00.000-06:00

Essentially anything new and different in a culture can be deemed a "Social Experiment", because we really don't know the outcome until the damage has been done. Take for example the "Free Love" movement experiment, or for that matter the "Public school" experiment.

What are the results of the first experiment? What has society gained by accepting and embracing a culture of instant gratification rather than one of delayed gratification? By my estimations it has encouraged selfishness over one of compassion for those around us. What we want is all important, at whatever cost. Free love wasn't just about sex, it was an ideology based on personal gratification through any means one deemed appropriate. This included sex, drugs, and anything else that made you feel good. With unrestricted intercourse the results became evident quickly, as is wont to happen when the product only takes 9 months. Yes I'm talking about unexpected/unwanted pregnancies. Of course in a society where the individual's desires are paramount, this creates an situation where it is no longer fun or pleasurable so something must be done to control this as well. This creates yet another result, abortion. A direct result of personal desire overriding the well being of another person is abortion, the blatant wanton murder of the most innocent and vulnerable of society. Murdering children so that the individual could abdicate responsibility for their actions.

I believe the drug portion of the "Free love" 60's social experiment goes without saying, as it is abundantly obvious with the number of shows on TV dedicated to rehabilitation from substance abuse.

So what about the experiment I referred to as "Public School"? And why did I call it a social experiment? What we tend to forget is that learning is passed down, and before public education it was a natural part of parental responsibility. Now not that I believe that there isn't a place for public education, because I believe it gives us a chance to learn outside the confines of our own experiences. However I do have a problem with massing groups of hormonal, vulnerable, impressionable children together for enormous lengths of time. Anyone who has read "Lord of the flies" can tell you that this is the attitude and behaviour carried out (albeit in smaller, less lethal manners) in the schoolyards of public institutions. Although there is a staggering trend towards lethality that has been taking hold, and should we not find a solution to the mentalities that develop within a (public education) society the trend will only increase. For as much as we hope that all of our children will be treated equally, this just isn't the reality of the public education system. Not only that, but with so few adults to influence children in proper behavioral patterns, the children learn and feed of each other and develop in a more "wild" manner.

I started this post after reading a social experiment being conducted by a set of parents called "Gender Neutrality". Read the article here. Obviously this is going to create issues in the future, but what are they? What ramifications will this (thankfully limited) social experiment have on children that are not taught how to be a man or a women? I believe that the way we are raised, and the events that occur in our lives are what dictate the person we will become. Already one of the children is confused, and has asked for a note to be written telling leaders at a nature center that he was a boy.

What I think people tend to forget is that these social experiments can reproduce exponentially when we introduce offspring into the equation through the subjects. I think it's time to step back and look at what we are doing and question if it is the best thing for society, or are we indulging our base instincts for that instant self gratification.

Bob

My day in court,

2011-04-19T13:06:00.000-06:00

Although I had hoped for the Judge to see that this law is one that sometimes needs to be broken, and does not actually endanger the public as much as the "nanny staters" would have you believe, It came down to the strict application of law which lead him to find us Guilty of running an extension cord over a sidewalk.

It was about an hour that we were in court, I cross examined the witness, and presented evidence, then made my argument. Had I known then what I know now, I would have done things slightly differently in my preparation, but now that is neither here nor there.

I do feel like I was on the verge of swaying the Judge to side with me, but lack of courtroom experience and understanding tipped the balance in favour of strictly the facts. I don't think I did to bad for a complete rookie though, even if I do say so myself. However now comes the task of staying on top of the city, and getting them on top of this before fall comes again.

I actually have my argument written out, so I'll post what I read to the court for you;

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I would like to start by explaining that I respect the law, and I am not here simply because I am unwilling to pay a ticket. I am here today because I disagree with a law that forces countless residents of Regina to break it, either knowingly or as in my case unknowingly, out of necessity. This law creates unnecessary financial hardship for people with no other option than to park on the street, with extra costs to avoid a ticket, further ticket costs, or possibility lost wages. It is not only my civil right to dispute this ticket, it is my civic responsibility to fight a law that is an inappropriate injustice to a large number of city residents who have no option but to park on the street, and yet need to keep their vehicle in running condition to support their families in Saskatchewan's winters!

As residents of Saskatchewan I am sure we are ALL aware of the necessity to plug in our vehicle in winter, and we are also all aware that a lot of the time sidewalks are not kept in the best conditions (by both the city and residents). As a result we are all more careful when we go out on them because poor conditions and power cords that accompany block heaters, are simply a part of the Saskatchewan winter landscape. Perhaps someone visiting from some a more tropical climate might be ignorant of this feature of the our winters, but residents know that one common winter feature will be power cords running over sidewalks in an effort to keep vehicles running. When a citizen takes appropriate measures to maintain both theirs, and the city's, sidewalks in such a condition for both ease of city sidewalk use, and a clear visibility of said “hazards”, these appropriate measures negate any real threat or liability. I was born in Saskatchewan, and have lived in the west all of my life, in all that time I cannot recall ever having tripped on an extension cord run across a sidewalk (of which were innumerable!) Why? Because like everyone else here in Saskatchewan, I am aware of the necessity for it, and that I need to be conscious of this very minor inconvenience.

It should also be noted that in the 14 years of this bylaw being enacted, there have only been “roughly 400” tickets issued (29/season), which shows decidedly that this is not an actively enforced bylaw, but one only acted upon at the behest of a complainant.

Your Honour; I was unaware of this bylaw's existence and although ignorance is not an excuse, it is a valid explanation when you look at the sheer number of Federal, Provincial, and Municipal laws that an individual would be forced to memorize to be in complete compliance. This is why the City has the 24 hour notice policy, and I was denied even the primary opportunity to comply willingly. Ticketing in a case where it was obvious where the owner of the vehicle is resides (the officer threw the cord onto my property), as well as being very likely that they were available (since their car was plugged in), is completely unnecessary, especially in a first offense situation.

As for the “hazard” our cord presented (As per the 3 criteria mentioned by the city, which were Tripping, snow blowers, and shovelling);

first off we promptly shovel our walks (to the extent that one Canada post parcel delivery man thanked me, out of the blue, for keeping it clean when he brought a parcel to my door during the major snowfall in November).
Secondly we did not leave excess cordage on the walk, it is one length of cord, flat and easily visible on the sidewalk. (Our cord is also one that has ridges on it which helps prevent slipping if it were stepped on.)
We have been diligent to clean the city sidewalks every winter for as long as we have lived in our home, and there is as far as I know only 1 snow blower in the neighbourhood, which I have never seen run. (And when we have shovelled for others, or Vice Versa, it has been easy to avoid cords.)
Finally I think it is safe to say that this hazard is minimized by pedestrians already understanding that they need to be aware of icy conditions, and any number of cords, that exist, not unnecessarily, on most residential sidewalks during our winters, (especially since residents are often forced to walk on the street because of poorly maintained sidewalk conditions elsewhere.)

I believe this law needs to be changed and adapted to suit the conditions we in the “Great White North” live in, and I am looking for some sort of compromise on this bylaw, whereby to maintain the functionality, it is not necessary for anyone to break the law, and yet still adequately ensure the safety of those walking down our street, as I believe we have already been diligent to do. There has to be a way for citizens without off street parking to maintain an operational vehicle in our Saskatchewan winters without being contrary to the law, otherwise it would be safe to say that thousands of the city's residents are forced every winter to break this law, just to have a functional vehicles.

On December 13^th 2010 I received a call from Mayor Pat Fiacco, who informed me that he, and my City Councillor Mr. Mike O'Donnell, would be putting forward a motion for the city administration to look at possible changes of this bylaw. Obviously after having this brought to their attention they have seen the problems with this bylaw, and they are taking the steps necessary to amend it to better reflect the needs of residents who have no choice but to break it. The Motion was set forward on December 20^th at the City Council Meeting, which was passed. There is currently an investigation going on by the public works department to look into adequate changes to the law because of this motion.

I would also like to mention that this bylaw is also NOT environmentally friendly, as it forces residents, if they want their cars to function during winter, to run them far more frequently than if they were able to use the block heater (which vehicle manufacturers recommend plugging in below -15C). And when we look into the future, where the possibility of “Green” electric cars becomes the norm, this bylaw will effectively eliminate a large number of “green” vehicles on the road as they will have no way to recharge them.

The courts not only have the power to enforce laws, but also to affect positive change when needed. Obviously this law needs amendment to allow for a compromise from the city to its residents, while having enough common sense in it to eliminate any real hazards. I am asking you to send a message to the city administrators that they are in fact creating a hardship for residents and the environment with this law, and let them know that this law does not work for the average citizen therefore it needs to be amended.

Your Honour, I invite you participate in this process by finding me not guilty.

Thank you, Your Honour.

Got a nice little note from an unhappy neighbor.

2011-03-16T11:16:00.002-06:00


Note left on our car

I was welcomed to my wife's' car this morning by this note left from my neighbor.

Now to put this story into perspective; Yes I backed up to about 6 inches off his full sized extended cab truck's front bumper with our Pontiac G3 wave sub compact, when I parked in front of my house. Why were you being an ass you ask? I wasn't, I was complying with a city bylaw which requires me to leave 2 meters clearance to a driveway, it was in fact this individual parking too close to the spot ahead of him which created the issue. It should be noted that my "daughter's vehicle" which he refers to in the note hasn't been there for almost a year, as she hasn't lived at home in almost that long.

Here is a picture of the space he has to park, with our vehicle in the front, and their second vehicle in the back. Now I'm pretty sure there is enough room for him to get in and out of, while leaving me adequate space to comply with the law. Yes our street is crowded for parking, but honestly if you complain your huge truck doesn't have room to park because of a sub compact, I think your head is planted a little to firmly and deeply in a dark stinky space behind you. You will note that there would probably be enough room to fit two more of our vehicles in the space left, and ANY other vehicle.

I have asked them to park properly in the past because they have parked in front of our house backwards, too close to the driveway, and left a visitors vehicle parked in front of our house over Christmas, and I've politely asked them to leave us enough room for our one car, which is why I believe it was likely them that called the police to have us ticketed for our extension cord.

It's not really a question of whether or not we are doing anything wrong, because we aren't, it's a question of him somehow feeling entitled to get everything how he wants it. Well boy, it's time to grow up a bit. I will be waiting for him to arrive home and speak to him in person, like a real man does. I was considering a note with the offer to come and discuss things, but I think I'll just wait and do it in person.

Updated from my Councilman.

2010-12-15T09:53:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I received a call from my city councilman Mike O'Donnell, who knew that I had heard about the motion he and the Mayor are going to put forward to amend the current extension cord bylaw. He also called to give me a little heads up on the procedures the use, and a little thing called an "executive meeting", which is a less formal meeting than publicly addressing Council during there regular meetings. Basically he invited me to watch for this on the agenda and make an appearance.

I thanked both he and the Mayor for taking me and this cause seriously, and that I appreciated their efforts in working on it. He said that my logic made sense, and it seemed that it was time to do something about it. :-)

Update from the Mayor.

2010-12-13T14:45:00.000-06:00

I spoke with the Mayor of Regina (Mr. Pat Fiacco) about this issue for the first time on November 30th 2010, and he commiserated and agreed that he didn't like the law, as well as saying he would have the Cuty's legal team look into it.

Today (December 13th 2010) Mayor Fiacco called me back and informed me that he was going to put a motion in front of council to amend the bylaw where it will have a safe allowance for the use of extension cords to run across a city sidewalk. I mentioned that the City of Grand Prairie had a bylaw in place that satisfies both safety and necessity, so that he knew I supported a rewording like it.

I also got a letter today on my dispute of the ticket, and it appears that they didn't even read the reasons I was disputing it. I disputed it for 2 reasons, 1. the law is inappropriate for Saskatchewan, and 2. because the enforcement agency did not follow City procedure in issuance of City bylaws. So I will continue on with it in court, and I will argue my case with even more ammunition knowing that the City will probably amend the bylaw.

Regina Extension cord bylaw.

2010-12-07T13:21:00.004-06:00

I was upset about getting a ticket for a bylaw infraction, and wrote a letter about it to the Leader Post here in Regina Saskatchewan. And it seems this was a bigger issue than I thought.

I was also interviewed by CBC, Global, and CTV about this issue, and in an online poll conducted on the CBC article it seems that 85% of the voters agree that this should either not be a law, or the officer should have used judgment on whether or not it was dangerous.

I have started an online petition to start change, located at; PETITION.

I would love to hear ideas on how we can keep pedestrians safe, and at the same time accommodate the necessity of Saskatchewan residents to plug their vehicles in when they must park on the street.

Bob

Why I am fighting this ticket.

2010-11-29T09:10:00.005-06:00

I am not an enemy of justice, but this ticket is an injustice, and in this case the law was unjustly applied. This bylaw is an injustice to every person forced to park on the street who needs to keep their vehicle running, so they can get to work and make ends meet, in our Saskatchewan winters! Also complaints should not warrant instant tickets, they should illicit discussion first for compliance if possible, before ticketing, but if the offence truly warrants an instant ticket, tickets should be given across the board to everyone in violation of the infraction.

This ticket is an example of how our bylaw systems can be easily abused. When bylaws are enforced only on when a complaint is received, it is easy for individuals to use them in their petty squabbles against their neighbours. I say this because the enforcement officer who came and unplugged and ticketed my car neglected to ticket anyone else in our neighbourhood for the same infraction, including the vehicle plugged in all day right next door to us who was plugged in as we were being ticketed (and potential 5 more as he left our street.) I guess this is why I find myself personally arguing with individuals parked in marked Handicap spaces who have no legal right to be there, instead of them getting ticketed, because they know they can get away with it as enforcement usually only comes when called, and that takes time.

I should also mention that I was unaware of this bylaw's existence, and although ignorance is not an excuse, neither should ticketing be a form of enlightenment, especially in a case where it was obvious where the person resides, as well as being highly likely they were home if their car was plugged in. There are obviously 14 others in small my neighbourhood that are ether unaware, or by necessity breaking this law because they have no other option, as we live in a climate that requires our vehicles to be plugged in during the winter months.

As for the “hazard” our cord presented;

first off we contentiously, and diligently shovel our walk, and the city walk in front of our home (primarily to make it convenient for postmen, which one Canada post parcel delivery man profusely thanked me for when he brought a parcel to my door).
Secondly we did not leave excess cordage on the walk, it is one thin cord flat on the sidewalk.
Finally we never left the cord on the sidewalk when it was not in use.

All being said and done, I am looking for some sort of compromise on this bylaw, where to maintain the functionality to support your family, it is not necessary to break the law. There has to be a way for citizens without off street parking to maintain an operational vehicle in our Saskatchewan winters without being contrary to the law, otherwise it would be safe to say that thousands of the city's residents are right now, and every day, are contrary to the law just so they can get to work and feed their families. As well as keeping the public reasonably safe and not inconvenienced. I am look for suggestions for the court, and from the city, on how to best resolve this issue and maintain compliance with the law not only for me, but also for those unknown multitude of others that are forced to break this law every winter.

BEWARE! Winter parking on the street means no power for you!

2010-11-27T10:16:00.000-06:00

Those of us forced to park on the street overnight in winter are going to need stout vehicles, because in Regina it's actually a ticket-able offense to run an extension cord across a sidewalk to plug your car into! What an absurd bylaw to have, let alone to enforce, in a Saskatchewan winter!

The explanation I received from the Bylaw division was that “it is a trip hazard, and the city would be liable for it” as well as "we only ticket complaints" which wqas to explain why my next door neighbor did not receive a ticket at the same time for the same infraction. Now I understand that the city wants to protect itself from liability, but with reasonable measures (such as a bright yellow extension cord, and a contentiously cleaned sidewalk), there should be no reason that even an infirm individual will not recognize and be able to avoid this sometimes very necessary and insignificant “hazard”.

That's not the worst of it unfortunately; my first issue is how the officer (Badge No: C504) decided that rather than come to the house and inform us we were in violation of a city ordinance, and give us the opportunity to comply, he UNPLUGGED the vehicle and THEN wrote the ticket! (Obviously we were home, and of course we would have complied to the law!) My next issue is that this Officer failed to give a ticket for the EXACT same infraction, to the house right next door to us (not to mention any number of other offences occurring on the street, at the very moment he was issuing my ticket!)

Now of course we all feel like a victim when we get a ticket we don't want (and in this case weren't even aware that it was an infraction), but it's even worse when you are singled out among many of the same infractions occurring in the exact same single block street. If the officer was there to strictly enforce the bylaw (rather than give the person a chance to comply with it), then why was I the only one ticketed for that on my block?

My question is simple; What do you do in winter in Regina to keep your car running, if you have to park on the street?

It's really hard to “heart” Regina with bylaws like this enforced without the application of common sense or common courtesy.

Bob

The paradox of pain.

2010-03-02T11:11:00.000-06:00

Pain seems to make the day last forever, but it never leaves you time to get anything accomplished.

I always seem to be fighting with the chronic pain I have, which seems to leave little or no time to accomplish even the things I am capable of. I was thinking about this as I struggle through the day, wishing I could accomplish something while at the same time just trying to hold off being overwhelmed by it. It's an odd situation we put ourselves in, we force ourselves to be task oriented, or outcome driven, and we never expect that to be taken away from us. Yet at the same time the fragility of our bodies leaves us vulnerable to injuries which can leave us incapable of doing the simple things we once took for granted, and should this happen it takes considerable rewiring of the way we think to avoid a number of mental conditions which arise from it. Of course I speak primarily of depression, but often our previously programmed thoughts can lead to other feelings like that of inadequacy, low self esteem, and burdening of family.

It's a tough thing trying to to come to terms with both the pain and the feelings of inadequacy it evokes, but maybe that itself is an accomplishment to be recognized? Then again maybe I'm just grasping at straws, but you take what's in arms reach when you feel like you're drowning.

A trip through the headlines.

2010-02-22T09:08:00.002-06:00

Today I noticed 2 striking headlines coming out of the Middle East, which seemed to me to explain each other.
1. NATO Afghanistan airstrike kills 27 civilians.
2.Car bomb kills 6 in Pakistan.

In Headline 1 it states how the Afghan cabinet (whom I might point out would not be where they are without western involvement) condemned the deaths as "Unjustifiable". Yet at the same time that civilian deaths are tragic, when you fight an enemy that uses civilians as cover and camouflage what else would you really expect to happen? Which brings me to the second headline. This screams of civilian deaths, however accidental deaths of civilians seems to affect these Governments more than the threat caused by these cowardly terrorists who dress in civilian clothes and are absolutely willingly to kill innocent people.

Here's my dilemma; does the Afghan cabinet not realize that NATO does not want to kill civilians, or are they simply making political noise to appease the masses? Do they not realize that insurgents dress as civilians? Have they forgotten that NATO is there to help them abolish the oppressive regime they were living under? Are their flipping turbans wrapped too tight?? (Ok I know they don't all wear turbans, but I'm at a loss to the mentality that directs their anger against those trying to help, RATHER than them all rallying to fight these murderous, cowardly sons of goats with everything they have!)

Voltaire said "So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men" AND "it is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere".

Maybe it's time for the Middle east to wake up.

Britney Spears "Womanizer"; playing the blame game?

2008-12-01T09:44:00.008-06:00

I guess I question the motivation behind this song simply because of the apparent hypocrisy it conveys. I have to say that this song and it's music video do nothing to promote respect for women, but to the contrary they actually degrade women to as little as objects for the use of men (the definition of a womanizer is a man who has numerous casual sexual encounters with multiple women - *paraphrased). This video is about how she won't fall for someone "like that", yet she dresses (or undresses) and acts in a manner that encourages just this action from a man. So really who is the womanizer? Is it the man who responds to the enticement, or the woman that encourages the behaviour?

If you don't demand respect by appropriate actions, you shouldn't be surprised when you don't get it. Unfortunately this undermines efforts of women throughout the ages who have worked tirelessly to advance the status of women without the use of sexuality, but based on a woman's abilities.

The thing that disturbs me the most about this video is really the message it sends out to men that tend to "prey" on women, and by this I mean the ones who don't require consent to fulfill their desires. This song and video just scream conflicting messages that could be very dangerous in the long run for women.

There is also a number of relational problems I see arising from the mentalities I see on both sides of this song and video. Foremost is the possibility for long term productive and fruitful (meaning mutual love and respect) relationships. Let me analogize for a moment; if I see a commercial for my favorite restaurant I may want to go out and have a meal, but it doesn't make me feel like going out and buying the establishment. (You know, the whole "why buy the cow when you get the milk for free".) This promotes a fragile shallow relationship which is easily broken by the next "commercial" that offers something different.

I haven't even come close to touching on all the issues I saw in this song/video, but I can break it down to simply saying that you have to "*honestly" respect yourself if you want others to have respect for you.

Bob

(* I used honestly here to accentuate the fact that we must all be aware of our own faults and self evaluate ourselves critically to become a person worthy of respect for ourselves through moral actions and attitudes. We cannot expect that we should receive respect just because we are alive, because respect is really not a human right but a privilege we enjoy when we we contribute positively to society.)

Once again Quebec holds back progress in Canada.

2008-10-14T22:45:00.002-06:00

I'm not going to mince words; I think the Bloc has no place in federal politics. PERIOD! There is no place on a Federal stage for a Provincial party to be elected. If you want to sit in the House of Commons I think there has to be a simple understanding that you must run candidates in all provinces of the Country.

Honestly what can the Bloc accomplish in the House that any one of the Federal party candidates from their area couldn't? There are local members of a legitimate federal party that could represent them not only as adequately, but more effectively with the support of a national party behind them.

I personally think it's a travesty of democracy to have to kiss Quebec's behind with it's own "special" party because they somehow think they are more deserving, more entitled or simply better than everyone else in Canada.

Hey Quebec... Grow up.

Bob

With record profits for "Big Oil", how can they claim competition over collusion?

2008-08-01T10:44:00.002-06:00

With record profits being recorded by companies like Exxon raking in 11.7 Billion dollars profit, Shell right behind at 11.5 Billion and 2 other major companies in the states (BP and conico) also raking in 9 and 7 billion dollars respectively.

So let's think about this for a second; In a competitive market place costs are driven down by companies "competing" for business by giving the consumer a better deal than the next company, on the other hand we have the collusive market place where companies form alliances and strategies to control the market place and increase profits. So with how on earth can big oil explain the consequences of collusion (big profits) of as being competitive?

The only competition I see, is the one between big oil companies for the dollar sitting in YOUR pocket.

Time for these Government watchdogs to pull their heads from where they are firmly planted (where the sun don't shine), and come down hard for the consumer they are supposed to be there to protect!

Sincerely (from me to the Government),
Bob

The Order of Canada now means murder is acceptable.

2008-07-26T11:44:00.002-06:00

With the Order of Canada being awarded to Henry Morgentaler, Canada has not only condoned the murder of innocent children but by the award it says that Canada believes that this is something to strive for.

This award is even worse than if it had been posthumously awarded to Adolf Hitler! The problem is that Morgentaler's efforts will kill far more people than Hitler could ever have imagined to. I see Morgentaler's beliefs and actions as even more heinous than the Nazi leader because of his fight to kill those that have absolutely no way to fight back for themselves.

In a nutshell, that's the way I see it.

"Worst Neighborhood in Canada" strikes again.

2008-03-12T13:45:00.009-06:00

In a place that has made itself infamous with the problems of substance abuse (and all the crimes that follow it), we have people who say they encourage healthy lifestyles and yet through their actions promote the opposite. This is yet another black eye for the "Worst Neighborhood in Canada".

What bothers me the most in this situation is that the people that are supposed to be in charge and helping inner city kids overcome an unhealthy lifestyle where the ones perpetuating the usage of alcohol and tobacco (and I hesitate to not to say drugs, because logically in a party situation with high risk individuals this would not be a very broad leap, especially in Jamaica. But as there is no evidence, I shall apply the benefit of the doubt here as it does nothing to diminish the scope of inappropriateness of the known situation.).

Here's the issue, The North Central Family Centre's mission states: "Our Mission is to carry out works for the encouragement and empowerment of the inner city community by offering a variety of programs. Our programs and services will promote positive and healthy changes in our community." From what I understand all of the children enrolled in the marathon program were required to sign a contract abstaining from drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Now I've heard the justification that "the contract ended after the race", but wouldn't anyone that truly wanted to help these kids live healthy lives off of the dependence from any type of substances continue that contract on principle? What I'm trying to say is that if you TRULY wanted to help these kids live a lifestyle free of dependence, why would you EVER supply any of them to high risk individuals? Ii makes me feel the need to ask how this in any way fulfills their motto of "Empowering Youth, Families and the Community"? Why wouldn't you continue the contract even after the race, and if a deadline is required make it after you've returned home? Even on principle this contract should have been enforced by the chaperone's until the children were no longer THEIR RESPONSIBILITY!

I believe the Centre needs to take measures to re-establish it's credibility in the community which they propose they are there to help, and I feel this action is obviously the dismissal of the chaperone's involved, and further after the ridiculous decision of the Board of directors not to accept their resignation that these Board members ALSO need to step down and let others with a higher standard of values step in and take over.

Obviously this was not entirely an altruistic undertaking for these people, and it makes you wonder why they are doing it if their beliefs don't really match up with their stated philosophy........ Money maybe?

Ever more the cynic,
Bob

This is 12 years of "Liberal" Canada at it's finest.

2007-12-19T23:23:00.002-06:00

Here is a kick in the pants for those intelligent enough to consider human life more important than an animals. In Canada you can be charged for killing an unborn deer, but not for killing an unborn child (for now that is, and with any common sense maybe the House of Commons will actually approve the unborn victims act to protect the people it claims to serve.) But it took 12 years of Liberalism being defeated by a minority Conservative government to have an issue like this addressed.

There is something seriously sick about a society that values the life of an animal over that of a human. Granted; animals are our responsibility to protect as good stewards of our resources, and it is even disgusting that anyone would consider killing a pregnant animal on purpose, HOWEVER after a fine and having hunting privileges revoked it’s case closed. On the other hand I COMPLETELY believe that the murder of a pregnant woman is by FAR more heinous than that of an animal, and the laws of the land should reflect the importance of those human lives.

Trying not to get swallowed up by the stupidity out there,

Bob

__________________________________________________________

For more info on this story I have include the lifesite article (and link) below;

In Canada You Get Charged for Killing an Unborn Fawn, but Not an Unborn Human Being

By Hilary White

VANCOUVER, As Canada's legislators prepare to debate Bill C-484, Canada's unborn victims of crime bill that was introduced in Parliament in November, conservation officers are reportedly "emotional" after having discovered three men in British Columbia who were hunting pregnant deer.
The three have pleaded guilty to violating the Wildlife Act after having shot two female deer, one of whom was found to have been pregnant with two fawns. The men have been charged with four counts against the Act, two for killing the two adult females and two more for the unborn fawns.
CanWest News service reports that conservation officers were "horrified" at the incident.
The deer season in British Columbia runs from mid-September to the end of November and the law prevents female deer from being included in the hunt. The officers believe that the deer were targeted specifically because they appeared pregnant.
Conservation officer Dave Jevons told CanWest that the case was "emotional," because the hunters appeared to be after the fawns for food or medicine. Some consider foetal fawns a delicacy.
John Hoff, head of Campaign Life Coalition British Columbia said the case highlights the "absurdity" of having laws that protect foetal fawns but not foetal human beings.
The Unborn Victims of Crime bill was condemned recently by the member for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Alexa McDonough, former head of the pro-abortion New Democrat party, who dismissed the testimony of the families of children killed in the womb as being motivated, through their grief, from a desire for revenge.
"In our democratic society, we have long decided that revenge is not a proper basis for drafting or adopting our laws," she said.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Canada Unborn Victims of Crime Act Introduced in Parliament by Conservative MP
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/nov/07112104.html

A summer of loss.

2007-07-05T19:30:00.000-06:00

This summer has been a summer of loss for my wife, 2 family members have been killed in Alberta in just over a month.

It started at the end of May when her Nephew died. Her 19 year old nephew had a car accident near Leduc Alberta, and amazingly he survived the crash. What he didn't survive was the semi which hit him when he returned to the highway to look for help. This happened only days before her mother's (his grandma's) birthday, and it turned out that the funeral was held the day she turned 60.

Today we found out that my wife's Step-dad was killed in a 2 car collision yesterday morning. The car accident took place near Leduc Alberta, where a half ton ran a stop sign and collided with his SUV. The aftermath at the scene was brutal. We were able to watch coverage on the Edmonton news and both vehicles were incredibly damaged, but her Step-dad was ejected from his vehicle as he wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

Dealing with pain and disability.

2006-12-30T10:43:00.000-06:00

I read an article in a chronic pain magazine about Annette Funicello's battle with MS a while back, and I've been meaning to post on it for some time so here it comes. A quick warning, this will be lengthy.

The article I read mentioned how even though people knew she had the condition, she never "appears" as if she is suffering even though it is quite common to do so. Her reason can be summed up in a quote I read which went like this; "I think you only have two choices in this kind of situation. Either you give in to it or you fight it. I intend to fight."

After the first 5 years of my own chronic condition I came to this same conclusion, but somehow I saw it as logical and not something anyone else may need to hear so I really kept it to myself. But in recent days I have observed others in my life with chronic conditions who are not accepting the situations they deal with enough to fight the outward appearance no matter what they are feeling internally.

I found the reason that I don't allow myself to show many outwards signs is because I don't want others to pity me, or look at me any differently because of my disability. Sure I will talk about my condition to help people understand, but my only motivation is for others to be aware of my limitations to physical contact. (Not to say I haven't tried to do things with the result being some very severe consequence, but that too is a learning process which sometimes takes trial and error to discover the boundaries). However even through the sometimes rigorous trials of even everyday life, I do this not for my own sake but for the emotional well being of those around me, whom without my self control would be targets to lash out at in anger (more at the pain than for anything they might have done).

In particular there have been 2 other people that I am in direct (though infrequent) contact with which made me realize that the coping skills I developed may not be to everyone what I saw as a logical conclusion.

The first of these individuals I watched very harshly (quite rudely for that matter) speak to someone they call a friend, simply because this friend was performing a simple ability that the disabled individual could no longer manage for any length of time. This act was the simple act of standing, but the disabled person was so caught up in how they couldn’t do it that they took it out on their supposed friend. This is what I meant at the end of the last paragraph, if those of us who suffer don’t accept that we are and may forever suffer we will lash out in jealousy at those able bodied around us.

The second person I know was disheveled, lethargic and had an attitude of discontent when I ran into him the other day. Now I am in ABSOLUTELY NO WAY saying that he should be clean shaven and immaculately dressed, his appearance was mentioned only because it helped me understand that he is not at all coping well with his condition (which is the same as mine) even on vast amounts of Opiates. After talking to him I also found that he had not accepted his condition and is aggressively searching out a cure.

This attitude of not accepting said condition is extremely common among chronic illness sufferers. Unfortunately this can cause more harm than good, which is apparent after learning that this individual’s condition has worsened because of the continued search for treatment options and therapies that will cure him. When I decided to discontinue taking opiates for pain relief I understood that my amount of daily pain was going to increase exponentially, but that knowledge was very helpful in dealing with it. The key was having a mindset change from doing everything I could to get rid of the pain to one of knowing I will have to deal with, so I needed to learn to balance my activities to manage my condition and for the rest I just have to suck it up and deal with it!

At a men’s breakfast today I heard someone very succinctly describe “Joy”. He said that joy is an attitude that is outside the situation which we are currently experiencing, experiences which would normally cause more negative attitudes. My attempt to revisit his wisdom is a little longer, but I hope it conveys the information appropriately. It is up to us to experience joy through whatever we are dealing with, and this can only be found through Christ. This is not mere happiness which can be obtained by the simple act of receiving a gift, but true joy through even the worst circumstance and even further to outwardly glorify God by actions indicative of someone with the joy of Christ. Unfortunately neither of these fellow sufferers show anything near this joy, one because they don’t know the Lord, and the other because they haven’t dealt with the self centered issues of betrayal, disappointment, bitterness and jealousy just to mention a few.

How do I get this joy? What does it feel and look like? I can’t answer that because God will encourage each person differently, but it will look outwardly the same for everyone. It will manifest itself in the visible attribute of the gift of the Holy Spirit, Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Unfortunately these will be more obvious to others than to ourselves, and if we fail to listen to those around us (no matter who they are) that point out our shortcomings in these areas we will be unable to correct ourselves. There is a way to have this joy, but it takes a lot of self examination to align your mind with scripture, and sometimes very pointed truths by others that will be a severe blow to your pride and your feelings.

I’ll be honest, I feel like I stumbled onto this by accident (though I don’t really believe in accidents, I’m sure the understanding was given to me by God). Nonetheless it is still something I work towards in an ongoing battle against the pain and limitation I deal with.

Bob

Hypocrisy thy name is ?

2006-11-03T17:22:00.000-06:00

The latest scandal involving Christian leadership is that of Ted Haggard. Mr. Haggard has been accused of a homosexual affair and illicit drug use. Who is his accuser? The accuser is none other than the homosexual prostitute drug dealer that Mr. Haggard was said to have had the affair. But wait it gets better; the reason that this person said he came forward was a “matter of principle”.

I believe that leaders in the church are just as apt to make mistakes or fall into sin as anyone else, but I also believe we have to take into context the character of the accuser. This is especially true when dealing with homosexuals or their activist groups. They sheer hypocrisy of Mike Jones to accuse Ted Haggard of any wrong doing is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Sure there need to be repercussions to Ted Haggard’s actions, and these are already coming into effect as he has stepped down from his leaderships roles. However before we condemn him for anything more, we need to look at the motives behind Jones’ accusations.

Jones said he did it as a “matter of principle”. But this man is a self proclaimed drug dealer and homosexual prostitute, yet people are putting blind faith in his accusations. Since this man obviously doesn’t hold to the principles I do, it begs the question of what principles did he find so offensive that made him feel he must shout his claim to the world? Was it because Mr. Haggard was scheduled to speak out against homosexual marriage in a political arena (with US elections looming)? The timing does seem a little too coincidental, and since I don’t believe in coincidences I can only come to the most obvious conclusion that this was the case. It wouldn’t be the first time that a gay activist group tried to rally support by propaganda spreading.

What I’m trying to say is look behind the motives of people. This may or may not have been Jones’ reason, but his obvious lack of character gives me cause to consider his accusations far less credible.

Bob

What is Marriage?

2006-10-30T09:17:00.000-06:00

Question: Is marriage simply a union between to people that love each other?
Answer: No.

To explain further, marriage is the union between one man and one woman that love each other and come together to have and raise children. There is no such thing as “gay marriage”, there are gay unions but within the true definition of marriage there is no such thing as “gay marriage”. Marriage is for procreation not for recreation, and it has the vital function of passing down morals and values to the next generation. Marriage is FOR children or for the propagation of humanity; and in no way is this possible for, or between, to people of the same gender.

Is gay marriage really best for society, or are we bowing to the pressure of political correctness forced on us by those only interested in themselves (homosexual activists)? What benefit will this social experiment of gay marriage have, or better yet we should ask ourselves what further damage this will have on the already lowered morals and values of the next generation. .

People may think this is equality, but really it is more like giving in to a child that is throwing a temper tantrum. It is not for the benefit of everyone, but for the benefit of a partisan group (to quiet down the raucous child in other words). This is not something that should be taught as acceptable to our children, but taught as a deviation from normal due to unknown traumatic experiences. I also don’t feel it is in the best interest of children to be adopted or raised by a homosexual couple either, nor do I believe that we should be teaching in a public education system that this lifestyle is either appropriate or acceptable.

Homosexual marriage does not strengthen society, it weakens it by saying that morals are relative and that self desires override that of society as a whole.

Bob

Being Strong.

2006-10-28T22:18:00.000-06:00

"A strong man stands up for himself, a stronger man stands up for others". It's ok to encourage these principles to children in movies like "Barnyard, The original party animals", but heaven forbid that adults should act on them.

Just a simple thought for those of you that disagree with the efforts in the middle east.

Bob

Hate speech

2006-10-20T11:56:00.000-06:00

Hate speech.

Ok so what truly constitutes hate speech? I’m going to be blunt; hate speech is not any opinion opposing the views of any group (whether they are called evil or not), hate speech IS when someone tries to garner support for physical violence towards another group. PERIOD!

Freedom of speech allows me to say that Islam is a religion of evil; it even allows me to say that Islamic Muslims will be going to hell when they die. Freedom of speech DOES NOT allow me to incite violence against this group, which is not only what I believe to be wrong but is also common sense. (Unlike the current Muslim threat of violence against Israel and countries that support it.) So what is hate speech? Obviously that which threatens bodily harm on someone or promotes actions against any other group, not that which tells them they are wrong or that a different way may be right.

Again I heard this on CTV coming from a Muslim activist group, and I guess all I can say is know what you are talking about before you go spouting off rhetoric that could damage ALL freedom of speech.

So let’s recap: Hate speech encourages violence; Freedom of speech allows opposing opinions. Did I make that simple enough?

Bob

Cultural relevance vs. Christian conservatism.

2006-10-19T09:58:00.001-06:00

One CTV news report today focused on how a church in Moncton, NB was trying to be “culturally relevant” in their community by holding a heavy metal concert for the youth. Although I understand that they are trying to draw the youth into the church, what does it matter if you draw them in with worldly enticements?

What point is there to draw them into the church by worldly offerings and throw a few minutes of God at deaf ears? Do you really think it matters to kids if they have to sit through a few minutes of “religious stuff” to get what they want? In a word, no! Instead of a house of worship this church was turned into a house of the world; and instead of presenting God to these youths in an appropriate manner by the church’s actions they told them that their selfish desires were acceptable.

In today’s youth culture which includes bad parenting, over stimulation by media sources and intense peer pressures, I understand how some might see this as a justifiable action to get the youth into the church. But just getting them in is not enough. Yes, I agree that kids need to realize that they are accepted as they are but just accepting them without mentoring or discipling is a waste of time and energy. For a quick analogy it’s like throwing the jack and tire iron at a flat tire and expecting it to fix itself.

I also have issues with defiling a house of worship with something as obviously anti-Christian as heavy metal music. Look at Christ’s example of righteous anger at the money changers; it’s not much different than when you allow music designed to balk at traditional religious morals (it was created to antagonize parents and promote and proselytize a worldly set of immoral values). The church isn’t here to give people their worldly desires, what it is here to do is teach people about God. I’m not saying this can’t be fun and exciting but to be effective for God it can’t conform (through acceptance or even encouragement of secular desires) to a fallen world.

This speaks directly to the teachings that youth pastors are being taught in Bible school, which I feel are become far too liberal in their attempts to “reach” the youth. There is no substitute for sound doctrine and good theology, and I feel that the latest crop of youth pastors are concentrating too much on fluff ministries that are more acceptable to the secular masses. Showing youth motorcycle stunts in a church parking lot before this concert was also irresponsible and unacceptable; it just goes to even further encourage them in worldly behaviour which in this case is very dangerous. This youth pastor in particular even admitted that he wasn’t there to “convert you to my religion”, so I have to ask what was he there to do? Was he just there to enjoy the concert too? Was he there to do anything for God? Mark Moore (loosely titled youth pastor) even went so far as to say "Jesus Christ loves you. He does not care what you've done,", but if Christ doesn’t care what we’ve done why did He have to come to save us from our sins? This is not only bad theology; it is unscriptural and ineffective evangelism. Moore also said "It's easy to be an arm-chair critic and sit at home if you're 40 or 50, and say, 'I can't believe this is happening,”, but it shouldn’t be (and isn’t) that I can’t believe it’s happening but rather that it is unacceptable no matter what age you are. This is just another attempt to erode Christian values with a justification of reaching today’s youth. It is yet another current trend in the church to offer the world where we should rather be a “light in the world” (Matthew 5:16, Luke 1:79, Eph 5:8) set apart from it. The Ten Commandments are not all there is to being a Christian, and if that’s how you are living you are forgetting (or discounting) salvation and repentance; the only way to heaven.

“Culturally relevant” does not have to mean culturally accepting, or even worldly (culturally) encouraging; there are many verses that tell us that the world will hate us and God’s feelings towards those “of the world”, so we need to be careful of the message we are sending the youth. Remember we are to bring a message contrary to worldly views, values and desires, so to encourage and accept those things in a house of the Lord is unacceptable. (1 John 2:15-16, John 15:19, 1 John 4:5). 1 John 4:1 specifically tells us to be careful of false prophets, and 2 Peter 2:1 warns us of false teachers. If you’re preaching or teaching it, you should make very certain that it lines up with the Word of God and not just your theology based on your desires and interests.

Bob

Submission to the paper.

2006-10-16T10:27:00.000-06:00

Recently I was affronted by a post submitted in the “Letter to the Editor” section of my local paper. This post stated that only “religious leaders” should be able to openly oppose homosexuality, and that the “rank and file” should not have this right. The reason this got my hackles up was that this writer was using the same freedom of speech to express his opinion that he wanted to take away from everyone else! I couldn’t imagine someone so stupid as to write something like this without thinking of the potential consequences of such an idiotic ideology, so I felt I had to write the editor myself to correct this egregiously stupid philosophy.

My letter went as follows;
______________

Although I only saw part of a quote from an editorial in your paper, "There is an argument to be made for allowing religious leaders leeway in criticizing homosexuality. Many religions have prescriptions against the practice and religious leaders should be permitted to publicly defend their religion's tenets. But extending that right to rank-and-file members of a religion goes too far.", I am amazed that anyone in a free country would try to take away anyone else's charter right to freedom of speech (Canadian Charter Right number 2 a & b).

It goes to show that this writer clearly doesn't value the freedoms the charter gives them, and believes if you aren't an authority you should not be able to voice your opinions (which really begs the question: what authority has the writer to say what he did?). I guess if his wish were the case, he would also not be able to voice the opinion he did.

If homosexuals have the right to voice their opinion that their lifestyle is ok, and they do, they have to accept every opposing opinion as well. You cannot say that one group's "rank and file" have the right to speak in advocacy of their beliefs, but that any opposing group doesn't have that exact same right.

This writer really needs a lesson in rights, and how they belong to everyone. If they don't believe that is the way it should be, then I guess maybe they should do as they themselves suggest and keep their mouths shut.

Sincerely
Bob
________________

I was alerted to this situation by an article from Lifesite news (view full article here). I understand that this was only the writer’s opinion, and he’s welcome to it, but the sheer hypocrisy of it is astounding. If everyone would take a little more time to logically and rationally work out their opinions before they opened their mouths, we would have a lot less people of the out there that look like idiots.

Opinions are like armpits; everyone has them, and a lot of them really stink.
Bob

Family values

2006-10-11T17:29:00.000-06:00

In recent posts I have mentioned Family Values, but I don’t think I’ve explained my views on dynamics behind this issue. Family is not just a bunch of people who live together, but a support system to develop productive and resourceful future generations.

Now I’m going to step out of the generally accepted “politically correct” view, and tell you how I think a family should be run. The “PC” view has the man and woman as equals, (for that matter the current trend is to even treat the children as equals) but I see this as way to appease the militant feminist instead of strengthening the family as a whole.

Whether you believe that the traditional view of men as the head of the house or not, the truth is that this is how it was meant to be. Current trends have the children dictating their desires to the parents (with fear of outbursts as a motivation); this is a warped family unit that is not functioning for the benefit of those children, but to create as little friction as possible for the parents. I call this “namby pamby” parenting, as it is usually done by weak parents with lowered self esteem, those that cannot handle confrontation, those lacking parenting skills, and/or those with a worldly set of values.

Look at the family as a ship, there is only one captain (the father) and his is the final say. This captain is responsible for EVERYONE on his ship; his duty is to see that the ship runs smoothly and that all of his crew is safe. I see the wife as an XO (this is the executive officer, next in command on the ship). But even though the XO answers to the captain, they still have a set of experiences and skills that the captain draws on to make the best decision making the XO invaluable to the captain. The children are the crew, anywhere from raw recruits with no knowledge or experience (babies) to junior officers such as Lieutenants (teenagers) with much more knowledge, experience and responsibility. You could never run a ship with two captains; just like you could never run a ship with a raw recruit as the captain. When everyone in the family lives up to their responsibility that is when the ship will run smoothly.

This is not a direct parallel, but an analogy as an example of the way I see a strong family structure to be. It is our job as parents to raise our children in such a way as to prepare them for life on their own, and be able to properly take care of their own children. This means teaching them morals and values which society scoffs at (love, integrity, righteousness, compassion, and the importance of traditional family), and not accepting the eroded values of the world we live in.

This means men have to be men and women have to be women, and you can’t let the lines of these roles become unclear or you end up with a weak family which in the long run will cause the children suffer the consequences. Men have to stand up and accept their familial responsibilities in a respectful way, and women have to let men lead without feelings of inferiority (because they are not). Men and women were created for different roles, that much is apparent by physiology, but this in no way goes to say that one is inferior to the other.

Whether you like what you’ve read or not, you should think about what and why you believe what you do with an open mind to what I’ve said. There are a million ways to disagree with what I’ve said, and there just as many justifications. But in all honesty if you are not treating your spouse and children with the appropriate respect (and respect is everyone’s responsibility), those relationships will fail no matter how you run your family.

(This was written at my wife’s prompting, after a discussion on the relevance of youth pastors in the church.)

Bob

Suicide bombers, Islam's temper tantrums.

2006-10-10T10:46:00.000-06:00

I just came to the conclusion that suicide bombers are like little children throwing temper tantrums.

Look at how the mentality is the same. Both the child throwing the tantrum and the suicide bomber are doing everything they can to get what they want, and in the bombers' case if they can't get what they want they take the stand that "then they don't want anything". I'm sure you can picture your child crossing their arms and pouting when they don't get their way, the only difference is that suicide bombers will kill people to get what they want.

Sure it's simple, but the similarities are incredible.

Bob

A safe school part 2.

2006-10-10T10:01:00.000-06:00

Feminism at it's finest. The beating of a 14 year old girl by two other girls on a school bus is another new trendy type of violence. Girls now see themselves as having to be just like boys (a feminist ideology), and since they see boys as violent and irrational (not knowing really how men and boys really are, or why) they are starting to act out with violence.

There's only one way out of these ongoing trends in violence, but it means self sacrifice and conservative morals (Family and yes I dare say it, Christian morals). This is something I don't see happening in the near future, because most people are selfish and immoral; and that means the rise in violence from girls and shootings in schools will only increase (and escalate).

So again I ask; what are you doing to help ensure safety in our schools (or for our children)?
Bob

A safe school?

2006-10-09T20:28:00.000-06:00

Here's a question to all of you out there that send your children to public school; Are you doing everything you can at home to make the public schooling environment safe for everyone else?

Now you’re probably asking “What does he mean?” or “What can we do to make schools safer?” or maybe even “Why do we have to do anything to make schools safer?” Well if you asked the latter question you are in serious denial of your parental responsibility, but if you asked the first questions you understand that your actions affect your children’s social behaviour.

What I’m really talking about is actual parenting. Not just having kids and shipping them off to daycare and then public school, but personal parental interaction with our offspring. It’s up to parents to pass down morals and values to their children; this is not the school’s job, nor is it the job of their peers and/or friends from school. It’s about taking the focus off ourselves and our own desires and doing what’s best for them, which is spending time with them ourselves. Get to know your child, once you know them you are able to help them when they are struggling with things that might make them suicidal or even, God help us, homicidal.

I have a real problem with feminist groups that devalue the incredible task of raising children, in favour of seeing equality as “the same pay for the same job” as men. But the truth of the matter is that mother’s who choose to stay home and dedicate their lives to raising moral, upright children are far more successful than any female businesswomen. What the stay at home mom has done is ensured that the next generation will be properly raised by someone with a vested interest in them instead of shipping them off to satisfy their own ambitions.

I’m not saying that there aren’t single mothers out there who go against the “mom at home” scenario, but if the fathers had been raised with stronger family values there would be no need for this scenario.

Society says that school is the best thing for our children, but the same system that is considered best for our children is also where they are most vulnerable. Just look at the problems with daycare abuse, school bullying, and now the increasing rash of school murders. Is this truly best for our children, or just more convenient?

Look out for everyone’s kids by taking care and knowing your own.

Bob

Irrational does not mean illogical

2006-10-04T14:53:00.000-06:00

Yet another day goes by with reasons and excuses for Robert’s shootings of the young Amish schoolgirls. No matter what caused him to do this, there is absolutely no justifiable reason or excuse to make this in any way acceptable. But we need to look at it logically even though Roberts himself may not have been thinking rationally.

One theory touted by the media is that the death of Robert’s premature child changed him which psychologically contributed to his attack. The failure of the logic here is that Robert’s should have been more empathetic to others who have lost children, and not sent him into a murderous rage (and more specifically to kill only young girls). Whether or not the death of his daughter made him mad at God, or anyone else for that matter, it is illogical for this unfortunate event to lead to murder.

The second theory, based on the information released from Robert’s suicide note, is that he had molested minor children in the past and was having dreams of doing so again. Again this is not the catalyst to the murders he committed, but at this point it is conceivable that the guilt may have turned suicidal. Had it been simply that he was guilt ridden; he could have chosen suicide without the need for murder, but it did turn to murder, and apparently almost repeat pedophilia.

The fact that Roberts went to the school was a testimony to how he succumbed to the pressure of his depravity; and when he couldn’t fulfill his lusts (either by interruption or inability), in either aggravation and frustration (or both) he turned the gun on his intended victims. Finally he felt his only option was to take his own life, knowing that after taking such offensive actions as murder and pedophilia (admitted in a suicide note and attempted by the paraphernalia he carried with him) he could never face his family or community again.

What I’m saying is that the death of Robert’s premature daughter more than likely had absolutely nothing to do with his actions at the school, but the fact that he was a pedophile did. Roberts may try to justify his actions in his own mind by bringing up his grief, but it was his lack of willpower and/or self control led him to the school for what he wanted, and this is indicative of the current societal values which elevate self over others.

This is also a good example of how even the man or woman next door may be suffering with temptations like this, and the outcome shows how unable they feel to seek help. So why is it they feel unable to seek the help they need? Is it because of the judgmental attitudes of our society (both worldly and religious)? Is it because they really don’t want help, or maybe they think they don’t need it? Is it that they feel to guilty or self conscious about admitting they have a problem? (These are rhetorical questions for reflective purposes).

I don’t really know, and would it really make a difference even if we did? What we do know is that we have to live with the reality that we will deal with people like this, and that no where is truly safe. So what do we do? I gave an outline in my last post on how we need to raise our children with appropriate morals, but that is not even going to be enough especially when these offenders don’t see even death as a big enough deterrent to stop them from committing their crimes. Maybe if they understood that death will not get them out of paying for their crimes, it would change the way they act. But this is what happens when you live in a society that criticizes belief in God and moral behaviour; you feel like you will get away with it if you kill yourself.

So maybe the world views of “self gratification, look after #1, if it feels good do it, and it’s my life to do what I want” are wrong after all, and society need to take a good look at how destructive this view is before it is to late.

The real reason for this heinous crime will never be known, but we need to look at this as more than just a sad story of something that happened to someone else because this could happen to you, me or anyone just as easily. We all need to look at the way we raise our children, and we need to look at the values our children are adopting from a society that doesn’t care about them.

Bob

A sign of the times.

2006-10-03T11:02:00.000-06:00

A truly sad social commentary played out recently in the Amish community in Lancaster. It is inconceivable that anyone would enter a school and shoot children, and it is particularly heinous in a community of known pacifists. (Murder in any form is never acceptable, and when the act is perpetrated on a group known not to defend themselves physically it is like shooting fish in a barrel and particularly reprehensible.)

Shooting children has seemed to become acceptable in some people’s minds, whether it is kids shooting other kids or now even adults shooting children. It goes to show that these people (both types of murders) care for nothing except their own desires, no matter how abhorrent or malicious. Self has become the focus instead of community; and I know this is not my first diatribe on the subject of selfishness, but it is an issue that people need to hear about for the betterment of life for all of us.

I guess what disturbs me most about this is that there will be people out there that will try to figure out why Roberts did this, but that really doesn’t matter now. What does matter is seeing the upward trend of violence (especially that perpetrated against children), and trying to find a solution for all of society. Of course this is impossible; first off because what will happen is that there will be reactive measure put into place (band-aid mentality) and it will be accepted as being fixed. But no matter what security measures are put in place, it is no substitute for proper parenting with family, community, and moral values. Secondly it is because society as a whole is unwilling to change its belief that the individual comes first, to that of one where the community (or others) should come first. (For example, look at these common sayings. "If it feels good do it", "If you don’t like it, change it", and even in music you find lyrics like this one from Sloan’s song titled "If it feels good do it"; "If it feels good do it -Even if you shouldn't". Even look at modern business practices; you are encouraged to step on whoever it takes to make it to the top, instead of giving your neighbor a hand up when he’s down.) And thirdly, it is because we have devalued human life right from the stage of conception. When our own governments condone the murder of the most innocent of human beings at their most vulnerable time of life, the message they send to the immoral masses is that anyone else’s life is not as important as yours.

This is why I say that the current shootings are a commentary on society, because society shares the responsibility with the offender for encouraging this mentality of self importance. When we elevate the importance of self over the importance of community welfare, we come up with situations where eventually the individual will feel violence is legitimate because what they want is more important than anything else. This type of logic does not take into account the wants or needs of others, and only that of the individual. It is a self defeating way of thinking, because if all we think about is what we want (and then fall in with the current trend toward violence to achieve those goals) we will eventually kill off the human race.

I pity the family of Charles Roberts, because the children will have to grow up knowing their father murdered completely helpless children, his wife will wonder how the man she loved could ever do something so amazingly terrible and how will she ever explain it to her children, and his parents will ask themselves where they went wrong.

But in the end this falls on no ones shoulders but Charles Carl Roberts, and even though he took his own life he will face a justice far mightier than anything here on earth.

Bob

"There's the rub"

2006-09-21T06:26:00.000-06:00

So here's the "rub" (problem), how do you tell people the truth? 1st when they really don't want to hear the truth, 2nd because they think they know the truth, and 3rd because they think truth is subjective (basic relativism, your truth may be right for you, but mine is right for me).

Right now I’m speaking particularly about witnessing to others, but this is a universal problem with even simple issues. Do we put too much emphasis on opinion making it more important than truth? I mean just because we have the right to an opinion doesn’t make that opinion right, and without clear moral guidelines and reasoning’s for that opinion shouldn’t we question it?

In “A few good men” with Jack Nicholson (Jessep) and Tom Cruise (Kaffee), Kaffee says “I want the truth” and Jessep responds “You can’t handle the truth!” But in reality it is just the opposite. It’s not that we can’t handle the truth, but that we really don’t want to hear it because it may mean that we don’t have it as “all together” as we thought we did. Or it may even go as far as meaning we might have been wrong.

This means as Christians we have to know what we believe, and why we believe it to be an effective witness. But even deeper how can we relate it to those around us that may have little or no Biblical knowledge (thereby having no frame of reference to understand the Scriptures) without coming off sounding like a “religious nut”?

The rub here is twofold; 1st Christians need to realize that we are no different than the people we are trying to bring the truth to. (If you didn’t get it, we are ALL sinners and deserve death! So we need to understand that no matter who it is, except for Christ as man, they are our equals!) 2nd we have to be able to relate to those outside Christian circles by understanding the world they live in. (In other words get our heads out of the sand of “Christianese” and start living in the world! Now be careful, I said IN not OF. We don’t have to accept the loose moralities of the world, but if we don’t understand where people of the world are coming from we have no frame of reference to know how to witness to them.)

But back to my first question, how do you tell the truth to those that don’t want to hear it? Do we just accept them as lost? Maybe we hope that some day they may see the benefits of a Christian life lived before them? Or do we go on banging away at them with the potential of making Christianity look pushy? I really don’t know the answer to this one, because there is no pat answer for it.

I often feel that some Christians evangelize because they see it as their job, or as some way of racking up points in heaven. I also feel they lose site of what is truly important in evangelism too, Love. God loved us enough to give His Son to save us from our sins, and Christ told us to love our neighbours. We need to be witnessing because we love people and don’t want to see them lost to hell, not only because we were given the task of spreading the Gospel.

This is where relationships come in. If we are in relationship with the people we are trying to witness to, we have more insight to how to witness to them, and even more importantly a reason TO witness to them, LOVE. Don’t mistake me here, I don’t believe we are called to witness to only those we can love or agree with; but we are called to love everyone, however we don’t love everyone we meet or know because our values and/or opinions may differ enough to cause this division. It’s a matter of differentiating the values or morals we find inappropriate or offensive from that person, and then loving the person even though they hold them. (Easier said than done I find; I know I still struggle with this. I even struggle with this with other Christians, especially with the touchy feely, wishy washy Hyper Charismatic ones. No offense intended.)

I think one of the saddest and hardest things for me lately was when my neighbour said “I don’t need to be saved from anything”. This is a nice guy, and it is apparent that although he lives a life in the world, he tries to live by a higher set of ethics. So to hear him say this made me very sad for him, because he really doesn’t understand that there are consequences at the end of this life (and I got the distinct impression that my neighbour has been pushed at by "religious nuts" in the past). Mainly I see the reason behind this attitude as not wanting to be accountable to anyone but themselves, and when they are only accountable to themselves they can’t understand that there will be consequences no matter how good a life we try to lead. So my reason behind this post is really to work out how to witness to him in a way that he would find accepting, and until I know him better I won’t know how to do it (and maybe to help someone else work through the same or similar issue.)

Bob

homonazi's new propoganda war.

2006-09-19T16:36:00.000-06:00

It never ceases to amaze me how supposedly rational people can accept an irrational act like homosexuality enough to add it into a school curriculum as a "viable alternative lifestyle". What a crock of bull manure. For more information on the book in question, visit Lifesite news at their website. Simply put this is just another attempt by homosexual activists to promote (and recruit to) that lifestyle. However I won’t lengthen this post any more than necessary by quoting the article, but I encourage you to read it for yourself. I think the thing that bothered me most in this article was even the possibility that my tax dollars may be funding something I find so morally abhorrent.

I went on to read another article which featured a pro life individual being arrested in Lodz, Poland. This reminded me of WWII, and of hearing about the “Lodz ghetto” which I believe I heard was reserved for Jews. However the cross thinking of these two situations did not end there, and brought back a term I had once heard; “homonazi’s” (as pertaining to radical militant individuals bent on global acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle). But this isn’t the extent of it; it also made me look at the similarities and differences between the two groups.

Although Hitler wanted to rule the world, he at least wanted to have a surviving society (what he called “the master race”). Whereas homosexuality doesn’t even leave room for furtherance of the human race, as homosexuality does not propagate any species but is purely for the gratification of the individual. (This makes me wonder why homosexuals believe they should be able to adopt children; beside the fact that they cannot conceive their own children through the homosexual relationships they pursue, they should also not expect to have children outside a relationship designed for the purpose of having children.) Ask yourself this, if homosexuality is normal and/or natural, how would the human race survive? In the same way I disagree with Hitler’s attempt at ethnic cleansing, I also disagree with the homosexual agenda to promote and recruit to the acceptance of an abhorrent lifestyle.

But they both have some startling similarities; Like both being militant about a view not consistent to the well being of all people, both are militant that their opinions be accepted without any tolerance toward the opposite viewpoint, and they both believe that they are doing what’s right.

Is it scary? Yes!
Is it surprising? No.

Bob

Islam vs Pope Benedict.

2006-09-17T13:20:00.000-06:00

I guess my question would be this; if Muslims don't want to be seen as violent threats to other religions, why would they react violently over a speech they felt was defamatory? Wouldn't it have strengthened their position to rationally approach the Vatican and ask for a public apology, rather than burn a "crude effigy" of the Pope? Consequently the response of the muslim community has only strengthened the view that many muslims are violent extremists ready to go overboard at the drop of a hat.

Bob

The Crocidile Hunter; Steve Irwin.

2006-09-06T11:10:00.000-06:00

With everything that has alread been said about The crocidile hunter there is not much left for me to say, except that I hope he knew and accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour. As any Christian knows; just because we are good people does not mean we will go to Heaven, and this is why I hope that Steve Irwin accepted Christ.

My heart and condolences go out to the Irwin family, and especially Terri, Bindi Sue and Bob, who I know will miss him greatly.

Bob

5 Canadians killed in Afghanistan.

2006-09-05T12:21:00.000-06:00

So does this mean that the Canadian military should turn tail and run like cowards? HECK NO!! (FYI; Jack Layton is one of these people that would bring our troops home and sacrifice the Afghani people to the Taliban regime, rather than support our troops already there.) These men should be honoured for the contribution they put in for the freedom of a nation, and remain there to finish the job they started!

Here's the thing, If we were to leave Afghanistan now the previous tyrants which ruled over this Country would be back in power faster than you could shake a stick at. The problem with this is the group we are talking about were muslim extremists with no value for human life, and this means a very bad situation for not only women and children but every average Afghani citizen. Afghanistan would become another safe haven for terrorists, and a threat to North America in the future. What we are doing there now is really securing our own safety by encouraging a democratic and reasonable Government for their people.

As for the people out there that say "oh Canadians are dying... we better bring them home", I say GET A GRIP! These are Canada's military and they knew they may be called to serve in a military capacity, and now that they are we have people saying they were wrong for choosing this work? This is not a draft in which people were forced to fight, but these brave men and women signed up for this task. I also say stop demeaning the nature of their work and SUPPORT THEM; and instead of questioning why they are there, tell the world that they died for a noble and righteous cause... FREEDOM.

Do I like the fact that these men died? Absolutely not.
Do I think they died in vain? Absolutely not.
Do I support the military initiative in the middle east? ABSOLUTELY!

Maybe we need to stick our heads out of our turtle shells here in Canada and realize that many other nations do not have the freedoms we have, and it is our responsibility as a member of a global community to help these other nations enjoy these same freedoms we take for granted.

Stepping off my soapbox,
Bob

Understanding

2006-09-05T00:46:00.000-06:00

When my pain is bad I often find myself thinking of unusual things, tonight being no exception I was trying to fall asleep when John Merrick came to mind (for those who don't know John Merrick, and I'm not sure if I spelled his name correctly or not but, he was called the elephant man due to rare physical deformities). I went through some of the scenes in the movie, and I think I came to understand what people were afraid of beyond simply his appearance. I believe that generally people were also afraid of his possible actions or reactions, which they were unsure whether they would conform to normal socially acceptable standards. This, of course, was purely base on a preliminary judgement from appearance, but at the same time may have been true due to lack of social skills training due to that same affliction.

I was wondering why this was going on in my head when I remembered an incident in the public pool last week which involved a mentally challenged man coming to close to my arm. The situation was really very benign, the young man was simply saying hello physically instead of verbally, none the less it was still a slightly uncomfortable situation for me. I'm not saying I couldn't have physically stopped this man from touching my arm, but how would I communicate to him that he can't touch a specific appendage? I understood that he was not being aggresive, and I neither felt threatened or upset by the incident, however I did feel confused at how to express my needs in a way that would not offend or upset him.

I am really not sure what meaning or insight I am supposed to get from this yet, but I thought I should put it into words for later reflection. Right now it is a confusing jumble of social skills and graces, warped perceptions and a need for me to be actually heard when I explain what I am going through. It's not a matter of sympathy, but empathy through real understanding. I realize that people know I have some pain, but I also know they don't understand the magnitude of it. Furthermore I know now that pain is much harder to understand than I thought it was before the onset of RSD/CRPS.

Bob

Why do we need a Federal Status of Women group?

2006-08-25T18:55:00.000-06:00

After reading a number of blogs, and looking at the federal Status of Women site I have to ask myself what purpose they serve in this day and age? Now I understand that the general consensus will be that this is a funnel for radical feminists, and this may be true, but I am asking what rights (or lack thereof) Women in Canada are missing that men have.

SWC says on their site; "(SWC) is the federal government agency which promotes gender equality, and the full participation of women in the economic, social, cultural and political life of the country", but the last time I checked women had as many rights as men if they choose to take advantage of them. However there are those out there that choose a higher calling to better our social situation in Canada by staying home to raise their own children instead of leaving this vital task to strangers or creating more latchkey children. Our society has developed to value financial prosperity of the individual over a sound social structure with children raised with values passed on by their parents. Instead the value society is passing on to them is that they are not important unless they have lots of money, thereby perpetuating the cycle by reinforcing this in further generations. Ultimately this will be the downfall of society, because it favours the individual over what is best for society.

While I was reading the blogs and the website I pondered the Idea of true equality in the workplace, and instead of favouring minorities and women like now lets ad two simple questions to job applications. "Are you married?" and "Are you the primary wage earner in your family?" Let's start to put the jobs back where they belong, with the person that brings in the income to support themselves or their family. Let's start to see the people in need get the jobs they need instead of not being hired because a minority has applied for the same job (I include women in this because the need for such an organization must mean that they are in need of special attention for some reason or another). Or maybe we should encourage true equality by giving jobs to the most qualified individual, which would force applicants to have the appropriate high quality training for the job whether they be man OR woman (which lets face facts would only strengthen Canada's economy as a whole).

True equality would be seeing the value in the woman (or man) that stays home to raise their children, instead of valuing the amount of money or prestige a job or position might seem to hold. When we value the proper raising of children with morals and values, that's when we have a strong and productive society. Children ARE our future, they will be the ones running the Country when we are too old to do so.

I ask you to consider this; Are we raising your children in a manner that makes you comfortable with how they will be when they are in charge?
This is what the stay at home parents out there do. Your job may be important to you, but are you contributing anything to future generations like raising a proper child does?

We've forgotten how important "Mom" (or Dad in some unique cases) is, her job may not be glamorous or notable but it is more important than anyone else. She (He) is the one that passes on the most teaching to us at the most critical stage of our lives.

I had intended this to be a simple critique of what I see to be a useless Federal tax burden, but instead it turned into a commentary on the social ramification of the agenda they are promoting. I only hope the damage is reversible when it is finally realized. We need a return to family values, and that of caring about your neighbor. As I have stated before if we all followed one rule we would have a wonderful world to live in, and that is simply "love thy neighor as thyself".

Below is a list of blogs and the link to SWC. Make up your own mind on the situation, but be informed before you do.

Bob

Lifesite News service

Big Blue Wave

Relapsed catholic

Family Matters

Small dead animals

Angry in the Great White North

Status of Women Canada

"Our place in the Universe"

2006-08-14T07:42:00.000-06:00

As I watched a program on TLC where scientists were presenting their theories of future events, one thought seemed to come to the forefront and that was what our role or place do we have in the universe. It may be true that "some" of the science fiction of today will become science fact for future generations, what and how remains to be seen. Do we really have any place in the universe as aggressive and violent as humans are? Scientists look into the future and don't see more intelligent life, but life forms they equate to prehistoric man (or less). This seems like a more inflated view of humanity than we should have, if there is life out there how do we know they are not avoiding us because of our violent and overly aggressive nature? Or might there not be a spectrum of life from bacteria or microbial right up to even more intelligent than us? But the question remains, what is our place in the universe.

So then what is our place in the universe? We have no way to travel through it (making it to the moon and back doesn't really count when you take into account how vast the universe is), we cannot affect or change anything in it. I will go even further to a truth that hits home: none of us can even change one other person, the only real power for change we have is to change ourselves, and most of the time people don't even use that. (This does not mean we can't be the catalyst for change in others, but it is not us that makes the change, it is that persons will and capacity that changes themselves.)

So what is our place in the universe? A better question may be "do we need a place in the universal community", or even to ask ourselves "why do we need to feel we have a place in the universe". The one little place we do have in the universe, earth, is a mess. Maybe we should stop looking out and start looking in at our own planet with everything that is happening and ask "Do we deserve a place in the universal community?".

If we can't get it right for everyone here on earth, do we really need to subject the universe to how wrong we have gotten it?

I'm going to give you one simple guideline, if everyone used it, it would change the world we live in now to a eutopia.

"Love thy neighbor as thyself". The Bible, Mark 12: verse 30.

We do have a guideline for life, change, and even happiness, the problem is that society has fostered an attitude of selfishness and when you couple this with the aggressive and violent tendencies of mankind you get the world we have today. What we need is to come back to a lifestyle that considers the next person before ourselves, and the satisfaction from those actions would be more rewarding than even getting your own way.

What is our place in the universe? Maybe it is to help and love our fellow man. That would be a truly noble place.

This was much longer than I planned, but I hope it makes you ponder your place in our world and how much better of we would all be if we followed the precepts of the Bible.
Bob

Cape Breton U vs Professor David Mullan.

2006-08-02T12:45:00.000-06:00

Seems a little like David and Goliath doesn't it, but that's what we have to face now because homosexual activists are far more raucous than those of us who accept traditional morality. So I've written a letter to the University which I have posted below. (To see Professor Mullan's site go here; Professor David Mullan or his other site at Professor David Mulan.)

This has become a fight to save the freedom of speech, but why is there even a question? If it is allowable to have and speak the opinion that homosexuality is right, why is it not allowable to have and speak the opinion to the contrary? Well I will tell you why;
Homosexuals know their lifestyle is wrong and therefore need social acceptance to justify their immoral acts, and anyone who reminds them that they are wrong must be silenced so they can minimize the conviction they feel which nags them in their souls.

This is a very basic explanation, but it covers the base reasoning behind the homosexual mindset against free speech.

Here is my letter to Cape Breton University;

_______________________________________

Dear President of Cape Breton University,

I am writing in response to your actions against Professor Mullan, and I hope you will take the time to read and consider my views.

I feel that the most egregious error in this whole matter was that this was not in fact an issue concerning "Human rights", and therefore the University was unjust in their application of any penalties. The professor was not inciting a riot to take away a homosexual’s right to have unnatural sexual relations, he was merely stating his opinion that the act is immoral, unnatural and simply wrong. The University has instead succumbed to the pressure placed on them by proponents of this lifestyle, and obviously they felt it would be easier to quiet the professor rather than the militant homosexual activists. To take this action you are saying that it is wrong for Professor Mullan to even think this way, and are trying to force a strict framework of thought on him instead of allowing him to be an individual with the freedom for his own thoughts and beliefs.

It does not matter whether a few (or even every student on campus) disagree with Professor Mullan, the University should back up what is a human right (the freedom of thoughts, beliefs and speech), in the same way which this benefit is extended to homosexuals trying to foster support for their lifestyle! Homosexuals are calling foul and "intolerance" at the mention of anything that does not support their beliefs, but this itself has turned into intolerance for the freedom of the rest of society to think or speak anything contrary to them. This is a slippery slope that is especially dangerous for a public institution of higher learning to tread down, the ramifications to the institute’s ability to foster ideas and maintain open discussions on all topics is unknown but could be devastating.

To be fair the University must asses this matter based on what a human rights issue is, and not just because a few raucous activists have made an uncomfortable situation for it by crying wolf. To be a “Human Right” it must apply to ALL humanity, and not simply to one group or faction that perceives themselves persecuted. To allow homosexuals to say that there lifestyle is acceptable on campus, you must also allow the opposite opinion equally.

Sincerely,
Bob

Want a cheap rolex?

2006-06-24T05:27:00.000-06:00

High quality replicas! Top quality brand watches!

These are the latest spam blitz I've been receiving, but instead of making think "Ooo I really need one of those", it made me think of those cheap street peddlers you see in movies trying to hawk junk to unsuspecting passersby.

Most of these spam messages are coming from China or Korea (third world internet providers with no real abuse policy enforcement, and more often than not are apt to take money to allow spammers to use them). So every time I see these spam I picture this shifty looking little Asian guy opening a trench coat saying "psst.. scuse please sir, you want to buy cheap rolex?". As funny as this picture is, it's disturbing to realize that there are people out there that actually fall for these scams. There are a couple of old adages that apply here, "A fool and his money are soon parted" or even more appropriately as PT Barnum was apt to say "There's a sucker born every minute!", and if this weren’t the case we wouldn't have all these fly-by-night scams to try to separate the fools from their money.

With that I leave you with a final encouragement to report the spam you get, it’s easy (http://www.spamcop.net) and maybe if we all do it they will get the message that we don’t want this crap. (Pardon the expletive, but it was the only one that seemed to fit).

Bob
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

People versus insects.

2006-05-26T07:17:00.000-06:00

Some days are harder than others to tolerate the increasingly ignorant masses. It's not always that people don't have the capacity for intelligence or compassion; it is simply that as a society most people have become so complacent in their laziness that they choose not to think or act like a rational, intelligent, caring species should. As I was waking up this morning my mind looked back over the previous days’ events and I saw the general populous comparing in intelligence to a species we see as inferior to us, ants.

Simply my comparison came down to how both humans and ants scurry around on their own little missions without a care for or about their comrade. But it gets worse, if we were to continue to compare the two species humans would lose out in the end because we don’t seem to think of anyone but ourselves, where an ant colony’s goal is for the survival of the whole at the cost of the individual.

Now I’m not saying that we should all go out and sacrifice ourselves for each other, because let’s face it, most of humanity doesn’t have even a fraction of the integrity that an act like this would take, even in a scenario where it might be appropriate. What I am saying is that we need to leave our little cocoons of selfishness and laziness and start thinking about others. Where does this leave the individual you might ask (or the “what about me” mentality), when you consider that if we all were to start caring about their neighbors we would have more people than just ourselves looking out for us it would seem to be more to all of our benefits. Doesn’t it make more sense that we would be better off as a race if we didn’t just “look out for number one”?

This is by no means a new philosophy, if you look back to how people helped each other before we became such an “enlightened” society, you would realize that this premise from the past was the foundation for the society we have now but is being quickly eroded by attitudes of self centeredness. Before insurances, government aid and charities it was the church and communities that helped each other through tough times. If it had been the same then as it is now, I have a hard time imagining that we would be as technically advanced as we are. However I don’t think we needed to trade compassion and relationship with each other to gain technology, essentially we can have it all if we only stop thinking of ourselves as more important than anyone else!

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. once said "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." Although we are technologically, medically and scientifically advanced, the masses are also becoming more sincerely ignorant and conscientiously stupid in their thoughts (or lack thereof) and actions (or inactions).

Bob

"Tolerance"

2006-03-16T09:01:00.000-06:00

"Tolerance", the latest catchphrase for the intolerant.

Spam should be globally criminalized.

2005-08-16T13:34:00.000-06:00

I just received my first spam from the comments on this blog. Well if you don't know my stand on spam and the offenders that send it, here it is.

1. Spammers deserve to go to jail for invasion of privacy. No one asked for the stuff they send, and they should be treated as criminals. These are drugs pushers and pimps coming into your home through your computer, selling something they would be jailed for on the street. Just because it is on the internet does not matter, a pimp is a pimp, and a pusher is a pusher and there is only one place for them.

2. Spam is a waste of time, especially for those that use e-mail for business purposes, and I propose that companies using spam as an advertising method be penalized with enormous fines to compensate for those wasted man hours. (But because we have people stupid enough to respond to them, why should they quit?)

3. And this one is for people who respond to spam... You are idiots! First if you believe them, and second if you buy from them you are a complete idiot for prolonging the problem for everyone else.

Fianlly I have taken off comment capability because I feel even one abuse warrants it, which means that spammers have silenced your freedom of speech on my site.

Time to wake up and start taking action against these invaders, and if you would like an easy method of reporting them go to:
SpamCop

http://www.SpamCop.net if that link did not work for you.

Homosexuals are trying to force their religion on us.

2005-06-26T21:46:00.000-06:00

Homosexual activists claim that Christians are forcing our religion on them when we disagree with gay marriage, but aren't they trying to force their religion of homosexuality on us? The truth is obviously YES, they are.

Religion is not just whether you belive in God or not, it is defined as: "a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices", and simply stated that means what you believe and practice is your religion. So then why is the homosexual religion so much more accepted than a moral one like Christianity? Again I see this as having a simple explination which goes like this: Christianity has a set of moral guidelines that it expects people to follow, this goes against the selfish nature of human beings and it becomes unpalatable for those only concerned only with what they want, therefore they choose whatever religion suits their moral deviance.

Rainbow my eye, Morality is black and white.

Personal Update

2005-06-21T12:12:00.000-06:00

I guess it's time to set aside bashing the government for their egregious stupidity, and actually do a personal update.

There was a plan in place for me to take a disability management course from Dalhousie University (I was accepted and waiting to register), and then go on with a specialized degree of Psychology.

However this all did not pan out, how it all worked out went like this.
After applying to Dalhousie I was sent for an interview with a Vocational Rehab Cousellor, and this was to see what was involved in the position I was about to undertake training for. This meeting led to an vocational assessment and market analysis for the path I was about to take. The Market Analysis came back with a determination that VRC was to physically demanding for my limitations, and then went on to give some alternate occupations. The problem with the Alternate occupations was that they were even more physically demanding than the original occupation of Vocational Counsellor, which was not only disturbing but disheartening. So the outcome was that taking the Disability Management course was no longer a feasible option.
We met with my Vocational CSR from Worker's Comp, and discussed the positives and negatives brought up in the Feasibility Report. We will be looking into my taking a Psychology course at present and see how it goes. It's all a matter of taking my limitations into full account, which in itself causes so many problems.

Keeping my chin up though.

Internet pharmacies, 21st Century "Cyber" Pushers

2005-04-15T07:50:00.000-06:00

"Onl|ne Ph4rm4cy", "\/icoddin, CodI1ne,V1aagrra,Xanaa,", "No perscription required"

How do I feel about these Pushers coming into my home daily trying to pedal there drugs, well to be honest it makes me SICK! Let's face the facts they are NOT here to save me money, it is an entirely selfish venture exactly the same as a dealer from the street.

Now the most intolerable thing about this is not that they will sell prescription meds without a prescription (although this in itself is completely illegal), it is that they are preying on people at some of their most vulnerable times! They perpetuate addiction, the same as any street pusher would, and they make it so easy with "Next day shipping worldwide" or "Buy in bulk and save" and most heinously "No prescription required". These are not advertising strategies focussed toward the legitimate user of prescription meds, they are tactics designed to intice the illicit user (and a cheap way for actual street pushers to restock designer drugs). The easier it is for an addict to obtain their drugs , the more difficult it will be for them to break the habit.

Are we coming to a place where most of society is going to be "whacked out" on drugs because they "can't handle life? And what does that in itself say about society's parenting skills?

I don't put all the blame on the illegal practices of these online pharmacies. Another simple fact is that we all have the freedom to choose to take drugs or not, and as long as there is a market for them to exploit, they will. However these companies are so brazen that they publically advertise how they are breaking the law yet there is nothing being done about it! But what I see as the worst offense is that they are coming into our homes uninvited, and we have no available means to stop them! With a street pusher we would calls the police, but who do we call to stop "Cyber" pushers? The only resource that I see we have is to address them as spammers and report them that way. ( A good site for this is SPAMCOP). As long as we all actually do this, we might eventually get them out of our inboxes.

Bob

Religion VS Christianity

2005-04-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

I caught an article on the news last night about how this older "religious" couple didn't see a problem condoning gay marriages, and this caused me to ponder what religion they believed in. Let's call a duck a duck here, not all religions are Christianity, and even different denominations do not believe the same thing. HOWEVER, to tell me you are a Christian and do not see anything wrong with gay marriage tells me that you either don't read the Bible, or you really don't have a clue what you really believe in.
Let's take the United denomination for an example, here is a group of people that are supposed to be dedicated to teaching the uncompromised word of God, and then they ordain homosexual ministers? Even worse yet they elect a homosexual bishop! Have they been reading the same Bible I do, because mine says that homosexuality is immoral and wrong according to God. Now I must be quick to point out at this point that I do NOT harbor ill will to gay PEOPLE, it is the ACT of homosexuality I have a problem with. On the same note it is not nature that makes you gay, it is upbringing (or nurture).
I guess my point here is that there is no middle ground on this issue as a Christian. Homosexuality is unequivocally wrong, and if you believe otherwise you are NOT a true Christian. You may be a person of faith, but like I said religion is NOT Christianity! So who do you really believe in?

Remember that this is my opinion, and I'm not out to convict or condemn anyone (and I'll point out here that God tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves). I'm only pointing out the truth as I see it in the Bible.

I quote:
"Why can't they get the picture, why don't they understand? We're not dealing with the planet of apes, we're talking about the modern man... Here's your sign!"
Bill Engvall

Murder is not a crime.

2005-04-06T19:40:00.000-06:00

At least not according to the law of man, that's what the courts in Florida (Judge Greer in particular) are telling us. What makes walking up to a mentally retarded person and shooting them any different from pulling the feeding tube from Terri's body, not a whole heck of a lot! Is this what we've condemned society to become? We have become so selfish that we can't be bothered with taking care of the infirm, it gets in the way of what WE want! How convenient for us all, no more of those nasty disabled people to bother us! Yes I have a disability, not nearly as severe as Terri's but are we next on the hit list? It would be FAR more convenient for my family if I wasn't around at times, and I'm sure most caregivers and families could say the same thing about the ones they care for. And after that who's head would be on the chopping block, homeless people? Drug addicts? Alcoholics? Smokers? Maybe people that lie to us? Where do we eventually draw the line? Let's face it morality doesn't take a break just to make things easier for us!
Now forgive my rant, I just feel very passionately that we have allowed governmental bodies to rule so much of our life that we can no longer do without their so called "guidance". Remember these people lie to use to get into office (just so you know campaign promises are not legally binding, so once they are in they don't have to follow through with them), break their promises once they get in, and then we let them rule our Countries! I know the US has a system in place to "impeach" a president for misconduct, and I think we need to institute a system like this for all government positions thereby making them accountable to their employers' (THE CITIZENS) for their actions while in office or else they are OUT OF THERE (and in case of the current ADSCAM fiasco, Out of office and into a jail cell)! I'm not saying it would be a perfect system, but we could be assured that we would hear the truth from then on! These are the people that make the laws, spend our tax dollars, and represent our Country in other Nations, shouldn't our politicians make DANG sure that they are above reproach? Infidelity and corruption in Government is INTOLERABLE, and we need to let them know it is NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE!

God help us all, because the way things are run here on earth we sure need the help!

One of those days

2005-02-17T10:55:00.000-06:00

Sometimes pain is good, it reminds you that you're alive. Then there are time times when pain makes you wish you were dead, for chronic pain sufferers those are tough days. Things go wrong and you feel like you're not only fighting things in the world around you, but you also have this battle with something you have no control over within yourself. I know most people don't have a clue as to what I deal with, and knowing this makes it a little easier to forgive people's attitudes.... To a point! It's hard not to want to pack it in, give up, just walk away from everything on "Those Days", and even staying sane take an incredible effort. Sometime you need to walk away and leave things for a bit, and then there are also times to give these people a kick in the rear. Distinguishing between these becomes even more difficult when what you're dealing with invokes enormous amounts of anger and frustration in the first place. This is the type of day I'm having today, I don't know whether I'm coming or going.

Assesments, meetings and PROGRESS.

2005-01-14T10:46:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I met with the Career counsellor and my Vocational Rehab councellor, and there were some good things that came from it. First was the acceptance of assistive equipment recommended by the Neil Squire foundation, so I have a fair bit of "shopping" to do. Thank goodness the Assistive specialist at Neil Squire is able to help me contact the appropriate suppliers, and therby set up shipping and billing. The Lady I'm dealing with through them has been a God send, supportive, uplifting and encouraging. But then I have to say that recently I have been thoroughly blessed with some very helpful professionals, and they are willing to do what it takes to make this process a possibility!

We also came to the conclusion that college prep courses would be a good idea as well, after all it's been a long time since I've had to attend school! Even after attending SIAST (career college) to take my meat cutting certificate, It didn't include papers and essays like my upcoming endevour. So this should be starting in February, I only hope I will have learned about and set up all the equipment by then!

I finally come to Today, where we received a call from an organization called "Independant Living". This group has yet more assistive products to help with the more mundane day to day living, such as shower support bars and electric adjustable beds (Gee who would have imagined that might help? I only bought one 2 and a half years ago....). There are other things that they'll be recommending like an electric recliner, and single handle hot/cold taps. Things that we would have eventually done, but it all cost so much and we're on a fixed income. I can't even remember everything we've done or bought on our own to help make life a little easier, but after seven years of fighting with them for even basic coverage we are finally getting some help and understanding.

Now for the future, we have one more assessment to come. This one is specifically to evaluate the level of personal care I need, that has to do with how much (and what type of) regular life items are required to be done for me. Simple things like cutting my own meat, washing my hair in the shower, clipping my toenails or fingernails. These are things that a normal person wouldn't even think about, yet they cause me excruciating pain were I to attempt them myself. So it has been very enlightening to have all these assessments done, I'm just amazed (and appalled) that none of this was even considered sooner by WCB. There are a lot of problems at WCB that need to be addressed and most of it has to do with treatment of injured workers, but that's a WHOLE different post. (Maybe one that will come sooner rather than later, keep an eye out for it!).

Patience is a virtue.

2005-01-11T13:15:00.000-06:00

11 days into the new year, and as much as I would like to get moving on things I still have to wait on others. I understand that I have nothing else pressing to work on like they do, so I find no fault with the people doing the things that need to be done no metter how long they take. The problem is in myself, being so anxious to start moving and feeling productive again that it feels like it's taking forever to come together. After 7 years of dealing with loss, trying to cope with pain, dealing with medications and their side effects and ultimately the wiening off of them, and then trying to figure out how to handle life with this pain and no medication, I need to feel useful again.
I meet again with the Rehab CSR from WCB on the 13th, for what I'm not sure (The career counsellor and CSR set up the meeting) but I will be able to give her the quotes I have for the things I'll need and the report from Neil Squire. We'll see what happens at this meeting, and I'll post an update then.

Assistive Technologies are incredible!

2004-12-15T17:39:00.000-06:00

I had an assessment today (more like a meeting but she did assess my needs, so I'll keep it as assessment) with an assistive technology specialist, and I was amazed at the items they have out there to help disabled individuals! I have adapted most things I already have to accomodate my needs, but today I found products specifically designed to make life easier. For example I found out that there are mice available that would keep my wrist in a natural position allowing more time that I could use it. Then of course there is a mouse that you don't even have to touch, it's called "Tracker" and works by watching the movement of a reflective disc on a headset or front frame of your glasses. I was blown away! I also found that they have a portable adjustable arm rest, it attatches to tables and/or chairs for proper support!
This was all preformed by an employee of the Neil Squire Foundation (their website can be found in my previous post), which I set up but Worker's Comp approved and will now pay for the necessary equipment. I have to admit that seeing some of these things like the armrest made me a little emotional, you see I've been trying to adapt everyday items to fit my needs but it never seems to work as well as planned or hoped for. So when she was showing me things that I knew would help me deal with my condition better, I have to say I got a little damp in the eyes. It hasn't been very often in the past 7 years that I've had any kind of real from Worker's Comp, and it's a little overwhelming at times.
Now I have to wait for a report from the specialist, and then I will submit to Comp the quotes I got for some of the equipment and software that is readily available to me. Then it's a matter of getting everything, setting up my workstation and I'm ready to go. Meanwhile I still need to work on getting my transcript, as well as getting ready to apply for University. There is still some work to be done in the area of school, but it's amazing how God is really in control.

Heading toward the mark.

2004-12-13T22:08:00.000-06:00

After meeting with the disability office at the UofR, I was given the name of a foundation specifically set up to assist disabled individuals with proper equipment to return to as normal a life as possible. For me this means ergonomic specialty equipment to accommodate keeping my pain down, thereby making it feasible and possible for me to return to school and work towards employment. The name of the organization is The Neil Squire Foundation, their website is Neil Squire Foundation. The foundation called me back today regarding their ergonomic specialist coming out and assessing my needs for this upcoming endeavor, I'm looking forward to this as it is a chance to learn what's available out there to assist me.
Last week I also met with the career counselor I've been working with, and she helped with the decision about what I should take. She did this by telling me that some of the things I want to do are only available with certain credentials. We also came up with a plan that would let us start anytime now, which involved taking a disability management course and transferring those credits into a B.A. in psychology. The major two factors that delay the start date are, first I need to have all the equipment in place and ready to go by the time I submit the application and secondly I need to get my transcripts for the application. I see the former being the largest challenge at present, mostly because I don't know what's available out there to help.... YET... However that is being taken care of very smoothly on both ends, that of the assessor and of the insurer! (As much as I dislike shopping for the most part, I have to get quotes for a lot of the equipment myself *ugh*)
That pretty much covers what's going on for now, assessment, shopping, getting transcripts and then submitting the application. I have no idea if it's going to get interesting yet or keep running this smoothly, but I'm trusting God to keep things smoo-ooth! *Grin*

December 1st - Career Options.

2004-12-01T15:56:00.000-06:00

I met with my Vocational Rehab CSR from WCB yesterday, and once again it was an enlightening and productive meeting. This lady is incredibly supportive and helpful, it's like the complete opposite of what I had to deal with at the beginning of this ordeal and I thank God for it! She is letting me put together my own program specifically designed to assist injured workers! I see this being a combination of things like Disability Management, Occupational Health and some Rehabilitation Services. I do want to be careful not to duplicate materials from the individual programs, and at the same time I want to be thorough and complete for the best opportunities for employment.
I was very surprised at one point, when she said that she would not be opposed to my taking a BA in Psychology. A BACHELOR'S IN PSYCHOLOGY!!!! This is 3-4 years of full time studies, and she is well aware that I may be only be able to work at it a MAXIMUM of part time! The most exciting part about all this is the limitless opportunities that are being presented. I do understand that some of the things in a Psych degree would be unnecessary to do the particular job that I'm working towards, but there are other avenues I can explore that may reduce the "fluff"(as my Voc CSR called it, and she should know as she has a Psych degree) information.
So I'll be meeting with the Career counselor again next week, as we had a mix up in this weeks meeting when I missed a message to reschedule. The meeting yesterday was actually meant to be with the Voc CSR and the Career counselor, but it was most likely Divine intervention as we got to discuss much more than just career objectives. And the extras we discussed were very important, they involved things like personal care as well as what they cover for medical equipment (some of which we've bought ourselves because they were needed, but didn't claim for them).
Needless to say these are very exciting times in my life. I'm really enjoying it even through the added pain levels, which is very cool! I would really love to help injured and disabled people like myself and that looks to be the way things will work out. It's just a matter of collecting appropriate information from employers on employment requirements, then finding the right courses and creating a program to encompass it all. There is still a fair bit of work to do, but it's getting closer every day!!

Not an easy task.

2004-11-22T19:34:00.000-06:00

It's been about a month now since I did the testing with the career counsellor, and in 2 weeks I meet with her and my Vocational CSR from Comp (Worker's Compensation Board) to evaluate where we are at. However things have not gone as smoothly as they might have hoped, and I just hope that the Voc. CSR understands that this isn't as cut and dried as a normal case. With all the restrictions I have, finding an appropriate course to fit the strict criteria from my assessment team is tough going! I have an idea of the areas I'd like to move into, it's just hard finding suitable educational options. But even though there have been disappointments (wanting to do a certain course and then finding it unavailable to me), the level of it and stress has been minimal. I thank God for the way this has all been working out because I'm usually FAR more high strung concerning things like this, but that's not the case this time! So I'll update further on this subject when I know more.
But stay tuned for more "Stupid Politician Tricks", a week doesn't seem to go by without them doing something ridiculous!

Test results

2004-11-01T16:50:00.000-06:00

I went today to find out the results of the CTBS tests, and the combination of it with the Myers -Briggs Type indicator and Strong Interest inventory. And to be completely honest some of the results really surprised me, and then gave clarification to my personality.
The Myers-Briggs really nailed down my personality (which at first I doubted it would do), and the career counsellor helped explain how to use these traits to choose a profession to compliment and capitalize on my strengths.
The Myers-Briggs type indicator showed me to be an ENTJ (which is an acronym for: Extroverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging) personality. A short explaination of ENTJ is: "The Executive" externally focused, rational and logical, natural born leaders, quick and decisive judgements, easily take charge, dislikes seeing mistakes repeated and having no patience with inefficiency. This is of course far from complete, but I was surprised at how I saw myself in the descriptions. For more about ENTJ you can see ENTJ personality , which goes into much (MUCH) more detail, and even includes relationships, strengths, weaknesses as friends, lovers and parents.
The combination report (Strong Interest Inventory and "MBTI" or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) gave some suggestions for employments that were based those and Holland's RIASEC theory of careers. Holland's theory classifies 6 occupation themes, R-Realistic, I-Investigative, A-Artistic, S-Social, E-Enterprising and C-Conventional. These traits are placed the points of a hexagonal pattern, and the closer the two traits are along the lines of the hexagon, are our stronger traits which will help us locate a more satisfying career. We have the all the traits from around the hexagon, it's how they work together that is hard to describe here. There is obviously far more to this as well, and it's how I understood things from speaking with the career counsellor. My occupational suggestions went like this:
Occupational Therapist, Dentist (this one really surprised me), Photographer, College Professor, Engineer, Biologist, Psychologist, Audiologist, Chiropractor, Flight Attendant, Housekeeping and Maintenance Supervisor, Military Enlisted personnel, Nursing Home Administrator, Paralegal, Reporter, Science Teacher and finally Sociologist. However my choice of career possibilities is not limited to just this list, but it gives me an idea of possibilities to look into further.
And lastly came the CTBS (Canadian Test of Basic Skills), this is the same test you probably took throughout high school. However something I never realized was that it is far more complex in it's depth than we imagine. It bases your Grade level on the percent correct, and goes on past simply grade 12. I completely expected to need upgrading in certain areas (I don't care for math, and my Capitalization and Punctuation leave a bit to be desired and I thought I totally messed up with Sources of information!), however the tests threw me for a loop! Out of the total 6 tests, my average grade level is grade 15 and 6 months. THAT INCLUDED MATH AND WRITTEN! (Am I shocked and amazed, yes! but it was a nice boost to my moral!) A breakdown of grade levels went like this:
Vocabulary, grade 18 and 5 months
Reading and Comprehension, grade 14 and 6 months
Written Language, grade 14 and 9 months
Sources of Information, grade 15 and 8 months
Quantive Thinking (Math), grade 14 and 4 months
Science, grade 16 and 2 months
And what all this means is that I could walk into a college level course TODAY without any type of upgrading! I was very pleased with the results, especially since I was sick as a dog when I took the tests.
Now comes the decision, what do I think I'll be able to do long term, and remembering to factor in all the intricacies of my disability. It's exciting (and scary at the same time) to go through this procedure, but it's worth it to take the time and do it right.

And as I go along I gather support from the people, today I got another vote for the "Vote Bob" campaign from my career counsellor! *grin*

Relating to others

2004-10-30T21:30:00.000-06:00

A lot of Christians today have become accustomed to using certain language and phrasing specific to regular church attenders, and we call this Christian-ese. As I'm watching football on TV (Go Riders!!), I caught the announcers using football specific terms, something I never really paid attention to before as it made sense to me. Then I thought to myself "Would that make any sense to my wife Dee?". As I watched and thought more about it, I realized a parallel between Christian-ese and football jargon. Both of these modified languages use terms that would confuse someone not familiar to them, and that makes it difficult to relate to anyone outside that group.
If we want to get Jesus' message out to everyone, we have to be able to relate to them. I'm not talking about using them same words (cursing etc..), or by spending time with them putting yourself in a position to sin. I am saying is don't talk in church code (Christian-ese), it just tends to make people tune you out and I don't think that's what God would want. Also simply understand that we are all susceptible to sin, so don't be as willing to judge as we usually are. (And whether you think you do or not, understand that you do, that we all do.)

The need for the return of manners

2004-10-30T14:30:00.000-06:00

Holding the door for a stranger, please and thank you, even these small courtesies have lost a place in modern society. Are we too civilized to show respect to those whom we are destined to share time on earth with? Our efforts to be tolerant of everything makes us complacent to the moral decline of our societal etiquette.
It appals me when I see today's children interacting with others, the complete lack of respect for their elders is disgusting and they way they treat their peers is horrifying. Between our quest to be open minded and trying to obtain the "American Dream" lifestyle, society has stopped "raising" their children. We've left that to schools, daycares, babysitters, television and last but far from least their friends.
I'm not saying we need to pull the chair out for a lady (at least not every time, but wouldn't it be nice to make that person feel special?), however teaching our children that it is unacceptable to be rude or disobedient should be of utmost importance to us all. It's a simple thing that we think we're all doing, but we're not seeing the results in real life, are we? We get out of our kids what we put into them, and when we started taking God out look what happened.
I got all this as I watched a Saturday afternoon movie "Kate and Leopold", it made me think of how much we've changed since the foundation of Canada and the fact that a lot of it wasn't for the better. "We have every comfort and convenience, but no time for integrity" Leopold said, and doesn't that sum up the way of the world. It's up to all of us to change it!

How annoying

2004-10-28T10:21:00.000-06:00

I know that the internet is still confusing and new for a lot (most) of people, but instead of learning more about it they jump in with both feet after the absolute minimum of knowledge. I'm not saying that people with less experience should not use things like e-mail, I AM saying that if you're going to use it take the initiative to learn more about it!
Let's take forwards for example:
When you forward anything by just blindly following the instructions that come in the e-mail, you are putting your address and the all recipients adresses out there for hundreds, thousands etc.. of others to see OR USE as they wish. So let's protect each other online, LEARN as much as you can and ALWAYS BLIND CARBON COPY if you feel you must forward something!

A simple truth

2004-10-18T11:12:00.000-06:00

As I sat here getting more and more angry at the copious amounts of pain I'm in, I was raging at God that I wanted my life back...... My mind finally went quite and I heard the simple truth, "It's not your life".
If you not a Christian and you're reading this it might not make any sense, even as a Christian it may be confusing. Christ gave us a mission when He came, to let people know about Him and His gift of salvation. When Jesus died so that I can have eternal life, He paid for my life. God gave His Son to the world, and Christ willingly died for every person on earth. Jesus not only died for us, His gift gave us the promise of heaven if we simply accept it. How selfish am I to think that what I want is more important than what God's wants, and when you know that ALL God wants for you is the best of EVERYTHING, it borders ridiculous!!!
There is way more to this subject than what I posted, and I hope you'll look into it whether you believe it or not.

Last 2 weeks

2004-10-17T15:58:00.000-06:00

This whole thing actually starts July 12th, 2004. That's the date of the assessment that started a rollercoaster of pain. This assessment was three days of incredible pain as they pushed, pulled and prodded my arm trying to assess my functional limitations. It took 2 months for me to get used to the new pain levels, and no they never decreased to where they were prior, I have had to adapt myself to these new levels. I then went to a second assessment on August 5 with an Orthopedic surgeon. This assessment I must say was a FAR more humane than what I was put through in July, and I use the word humane because what they put me through would be considered cruel and inhumane if it were done to an animal.
Anyways on to the title subject. The last 2 weeks I have been going to InTouch Career College, these test are a personal interest inventory, personality type and to find my high school levels (to see if I need upgrading to take anything more post secondary, dependent of course on what field I choose ie: math upgrading for computer programming). It sometimes even surprises me how physically draining it is to go out and do even simple things, and that's due to the varying pain level. And that is still a major concern where retraining comes into play, are the going to flexible enough to accommodate my varying pain and level of ability? But we'll leave that in God's hands, after all His plans always work out.
It is very interesting to have this opportunity to find out where my interests and personality would be best suited in the workplace, it's something that not a lot of people get the chance to do but I believe we'd have a lot more satisfied workers if this were more available to the average person. We'll be able to go through the results either later this coming week or early the next. Either way I'm really grateful for the break now, because I kind of feel like I'm coming apart at the edges (because of continuous elevation in pain through recent testing). I'll post more once we go through the results!

Winter came in like a lion.

2004-10-17T13:12:00.000-06:00

It started to sleet last night as we came home from friends, and then this morning I found out how bad it was on the way to church.... the roads are NASTY!!!! Now, I don't have a problem driving in winter, because I actually use my signal lights, shoulder check and pay attention to the road conditions. This is NOT however the case with the majority of drivers out there! I am appalled at the number of drivers that consider a signal light "OPTIONAL"! Last I heard it was still a ticketable offence to not use indicators, I guess if this were enforced more strictly it would be less of a problem. But then the police and RCMP would be considered hypocrites if they were to ticket the public for the same offences they commit. I know I drive better with one arm than most people do with two, and that fact in itself frustrates me about other drivers' laziness. And then there's the subject of driving while using a CELL PHONE... I have to words for these hazardous drivers... "HANDS FREE"!!!!!!!!!!! How hard is it to use an earphone??? I go back to the lack of using common sense and laziness being the main problems here too. There is a whole new level of danger when you factor in how poorly some people drive and add on the distraction of trying to talk on the phone.... It's bad enough trying to figure out what the person in front of you is going to do on dry pavement, now we're dealing with sleet, snow and ice on top of it! Now add all these problems together, multiply by the number of drivers that do these idiotic things and it's one heck of a mess out there!!!
Just because this makes me angry doesn't mean I had an accident, you'll find if you continue reading my posts that I am an advocate of common sense and the lack of it's use is a sore point with me. God didn't put a brain in your head to hold your ears apart, it actually has another use called THINKING!

Welcome!

2004-10-15T11:50:00.000-06:00

I wish I would have had the opportunity to start a blog several years ago, when I was first injured and needed an outlet to express myself. See I'm terrible at Journaling or keeping a diary, so a lot of what I went through is lost in the mists of time and medications. What I have written from what I remember is on a page that I will link, it's a combination of writings from my wife and I on some of the going ons of my disability and dealings with those involved.
I'll ask for one indulgence if I may, with the fact of having only one arm to work with I ask that you forgive the spelling mistakes that are bound to pop up (I tend to forget to use spellchecks).