Politics

In the meanderings around the web this morning, this crossed my path: Free Speech in Canada?

It references this article: Parliament to vote on Tory motion against free speech on the Israeli-Palestinian issue and Israeli Apartheid.

"Houston, we got a problem."

And yes, are we still allowed to say that in Canada?

X-Ray Vision

Gotta love the politics of Public Security vs Personal Privacy and legislation designed both to protect and preserve.

The whole debate makes me wonder if I would prefer a good full body pat-down by a creepy looking security person as compared to some other unknown creepy security person, who looks nothing like Clark Kent, perusing a pic of my now digitally naked body via electronic X-ray vision. All of it now digitally captured with the potential to save and destroy despite the assurances by US authorities that the images will be deleted immediately.

Guess we get to welcome the scanners to Canada which was inevitable and only a question of time. The time is here.

The next question that will arise is age exemption as it has in Britain because the scanner use brings the laws that counter the creation of child pornography into play. In Britain it seems that the time is here to hid the "shit" on the children, thus creating a whole new generation of extremely young martyrs for the cause.

It will be interesting to watch how our politicos reconcile our privacy with our safety and still prevent airport created porn from appearing on the web.

Happy flying!

Mixed Bag

An answer to one question that we've all had lately:

Nobel jury speaks out in defence of Obama prize, calls critics patronizing
October 14, 2009 - 5:42
Ian Macdougall,Karl Ritter, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

"To those who say a Nobel is too much too soon in Obama's young presidency, "We simply disagree ... He got the prize for what he has done," committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland told The Associated Press by telephone from Strasbourg, France, where he was attending meetings of the Council of Europe.

Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe.

"All these things have contributed to - I wouldn't say a safer world - but a world with less tension," he said.

In summation, I still think Obama got the award because he's not George Dubya, and the rest of the world likes that very much.

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This is still happening, and it always saddens that we can't live and love as we choose, safely:

Surveillance video captures brutal beating of gay man, Jack Price, in Queens; Both suspects arrested
BY Rocco Parascandola
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF

Updated Wednesday, October 14th 2009, 1:22 AM

A shocking video shows a gay man trying in vain to fend off two thugs who repeatedly punch and stomp him on a deserted Queens street.

Jack Price, 49, tries again and again to get to his feet and escape, only to have the cowards knock him back down in their brutal onslaught, the footage shows.

Two men have been arrested in the beatdown.

Daniel Aleman, 26, was nabbed Sunday night, and Daniel Rodriguez, 21, was captured Tuesday night in Norfolk, Va., police said.

The attackers walk away from Price at one point, only to return. One of them slugs Price one last time in the face before they leave for good, the video shows.

Late Tuesday, however, he remained in critical condition at New York Hospital Queens, hooked up to a respirator. His lungs are collapsed and his jaw and ribs are broken.

"It's a despicable crime," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said of the assault in College Point, where the victim and his alleged attackers all live.

"The individual was attacked simply for his orientation, and we're just not going to tolerate it in this city."

It shouldn't be tolerated in any city in any country that considers itself to be free, democratic, tolerant, for equality, first world, need I go on?

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This kind of medical work makes me wonder what kind of physical mutants humanity will have become in 25 or 50 years.

Genetic manipulation shows promise in preventing heart failure from aging:

In a paper published in the journal Circulation, Tetsuo Shioi, lead researcher and assistant professor of medicine at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Kyoto, and his team described how they managed to suppress a variety of the P13K gene in a group of elderly mice.

Compared with another group of mice in which the gene was left intact, mice with the suppressed gene had improved cardiac function, less fibrosis (which makes the heart inflexible) and fewer biological markers of ageing.

I think this is promising research for people that have a heart... now if someone could just figure out how to give Canada's political elite a heart to start with...

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Perhaps this speaks to Obama's popularity in France. It also makes one ask, just what the hell were they thinking, were they thinking?

French Vogue, the fashion magazine, has prompted outrage by featuring pictures of a Dutch model with her pale skin painted a dark colour.

Published: 8:00AM BST 14 Oct 2009

The photo shoot, which was styled by the magazine's long-time editor, Carine Roitfeld, presents pictures of model Lara Stone "blacked up" alongside normal photographs of the model.

The magazine is no stranger to controversy and has run images of supposedly pregnant models puffing cigarettes in the past.

Yep, I remember that controversy too, we covered hearts in the last article, maybe we need research on how to give fashion editors a brain?
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On the bright side, Punk seems to making a strong revival in mainstream fashion. Studs and leather and goth look have been seen on a number of runways for the past year, but it has just been noted that the UK Telegraph is writing on "how to" get the look punk with make-up. Like anyone who saw it the first time around is going to forget the black eyeliner with the fuchsia and turquoise eye shadows with the glittery black nail polish and deep red lips on deathly pallid skin.

They also just covered studs. Those shiny, pointy, square, round, grommetted, metallic things for shoes, boots, jeans, coats, gloves, hats, or anywhere that they can be fastened without necessarily having them adhered to flesh. Now that's a look I can do.

...and to wrap it all up in a warm blanket, we can rely on the Canadian twins of Dsquared2 to promote the rugged Canadian look in men's fashions during their Milan Spring/Summer 2010 show. At least men aren't going to have to work too hard to be fashionable men. A beer, boxers, and a blanket in the woods should do the trick.

Pix-napped from here.

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