Brilliant

This is so funny that I laughed out loud and snorted more than once.

The sad fact is it's based on what Sarah Palin herself claims happened when her youngest child was born.

This just makes me feel sorry for her

I love it!

My dog is more qualified to be Vice President than Sarah Palin

Understanding "Troopergate"

Josh Marshall summarizes several weeks of research into one of Sarah Palin's scandals in her home state of Alaska. I fully recommend reading the entire article, but the summary of the summary is as follows:

We rely on elected officials not to use the power of their office to pursue personal agendas or vendettas. It's called an abuse of power. There is ample evidence that Palin used her power as governor to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. When his boss refused to fire him, she fired his boss. She first denied Monegan's claims of pressure to fire Wooten and then had to amend her story when evidence proved otherwise. The available evidence now suggests that she 1) tried to have an ex-relative fired from his job for personal reasons, something that was clearly inappropriate, and perhaps illegal, though possibly understandable in human terms, 2) fired a state official for not himself acting inappropriately by firing the relative, 3) lied to the public about what happened and 4) continues to lie about what happened.

These are, to put it mildly, not the traits or temperament you want in someone who could hold the executive power of the federal government.

John Kerry tells it like it is

Kerry discusses John McCain's selection of the woefully inexperienced Sarah Palin as his running mate, and questions McCain's judgment in this choice as well as many of his other flawed policies.

As Zen has said in a previous post, where was THIS John Kerry four years ago??? Ah well, I'm glad to see him now anyway ...

Absolutely ridiculous

What the ...????

A gift for the Democrats

If you somehow cannot see this as the perfect demonstration of McCain's total lack of judgment, I don't know what might convince you:

Incredible

Didn't see Obama's speech tonight? Then sit your fanny down and watch it now. Seriously.

Fantastic speech by John Kerry last night

So Awesome

Beautiful.

Very cool ...

Give this guy a few minutes. It's a great speech, but needs time to build.

I'm seriously jealous ...

... of those at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week.

Here's one reason why:

Wow, she's amazing

Still proudly looking on

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Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

Cheeky

So who's this Joe Biden guy?

A little look:






Ooh, and I like this smackdown:



It makes me laugh each time I watch it.


This is very cool, especially the very last part:



So Obama's VP pick isn't Wesley Clark ... but after a little research this morning, I'd have to say this pick is pretty darned good too! :)

Making a point on Fox "News"

Brilliant:



Read here how it all went down.

Fireworks at the Toronto Harbourfront

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Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

Again, taken a few weeks ago from Jenn's rooftop.

Traffic in Toronto's downtown - night

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Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

Taken a few weeks ago, with about a 10 second exposure.

Read, let it sink in, then CHOOSE

A very good friend forwarded this e-mail story to me, and I wanted to share:

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were any better, I would be twins!'

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, 'I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?'

He replied, 'Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood.'

‘Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point t out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.’

'Yeah, right, it's not that easy,' I protested.

'Yes, it is,' he said. 'Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life.'

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, 'If I were any better, I'd be twins...Want to see my scars?'

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

'The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,' he replied. 'Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live.'

'Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?' I asked.

He continued, '... the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action.'

'What did you do?' I asked.

'Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,' said John. 'She asked if I was allergic to anything. “Yes,” I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, “Gravity”.'

‘Over their laughter, I told them, “I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”’

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Summer night in Toronto

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Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

Taken a few weeks ago from Jenn's rooftop. Colours are as taken by my camera.

Worth watching

Introducing Andre Brunet and Martine Billette

I saw this couple perform their traditional Quebecois music last year at the Celtic festival, and they really are the reason why I returned this year. Over the last year, Brunet's CD (with guitarist Eric Beaudry) was one of my favourites - relentlessly cheerful, energetic, and with equal dollops of innocence and mischevousness. Andre Brunet has the sweetest onstage presence of any performer I've ever seen; it is very clear that his passion is this music and sharing it with others.

Again, it might not be for everyone, but I hope you enjoy it.



I don't think you can buy any of their music online, but if you're interested, let me know and I'll send you the mailing address and phone number from their latest CD.

Horrible

A 34-year-old man, a husband and father of two small children died in jail this past week. He had suffered terribly from cancer and a broken back for months, but was denied medical treatment and diagnosis until days before the end. (Apparently his captors felt he was "faking it", even though he'd been emaciated and shrunken by his disease and unable to walk or stand.) He was in jail because he'd overstayed a visa years before. Before he died, his family was finally able to visit him, but only under armed guard.

Where was this? Cambodia? North Korea? Columbia? Some other shithole country? Nope, the U.S.A.

I hope every single sadistic son of a bitch involved in this tragic story loses his job and faces serious jail time of his own. It still won't be enough.

She dreams in kittens too

Okay, got an interesting comment from a reader on something I'd posted many moons ago. Basically, the post was about my recurring dreams of kittens. Bryn responds:

ok was googleing kitten dreams because i too dream of kittens, at least 3 times a week, sometimes every other night. and i am always worried about the kittens being too thin, getting enough to eat, getting crushed, etc. they are alternatly stressful but also can be sweet because i love kittens and cats. can anyone tell me what this means. every dream dictionary seems to tell me deceptions await, but i am not sure if that applies to my specific dream. any help would be greatly appreciated. Bryn

Seeing as I've never pretended to be a psychologist or dream expert, I'm not sure why Bryn would take anything I have to take seriously, but let's pretend that I am a dream expert for a moment (I do dream every night, after all), and I will give my take on this dream.

While I'm sure that there are things such as prophetic dreams, I've never had one, and perhaps this biases my interpretation of this dream. For me personally, I've often found that my dreams are a symbolic way in which my unconscious attempts to talk to my conscious self about stuff that it finds important.

For example, my friend Sophie once had a dream that she was in a room somewhere and these cockroaches kept coming out of the walls. She'd kill one and then there'd be another, and another. I suggested to her that this was a symbolic view of her life at the time - one problem after another. "Oh my God, that's true!!!" she said. (See? I'm an expert!)

So, Bryn, I think your dream is telling you that you are a very caring person who is very worried about others, perhaps people for whom you feel great fondness. This is causing you a certain amount of distress, and your unconscious was just playing that back to you. Maybe it's even telling you that you need to find better, healthier ways to deal with this worry and stress.

Anyone else want to share their interpretation? :) Or another dream for interpretation by the Great Eclecta??? :-P

A bad song in my head

When I was a kid, we used to watch the TV show "Hee Haw". (I know, I know, but it's too late to call the CAS on my parents ... LOL).

And this morning, the song in my head?

Where, where are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the world over and thought I'd found true love
You met another and plbbbttttt you were gone!

Obviously I haven't yet recovered from the trauma of watching that show ...

Introducing Emily Smith

This might not be everyone's cup of tea, but Emily Smith is an artist I saw for the first time at last weekend's Celtic Festival, and I bought her album on the spot on the basis of just hearing the haunting song "Old Mortality". I'm really enjoying the whole CD, so I thought I'd offer some of her sounds:



And here she is with Jamie McLennan ... a fun piece by two very talented musicians:

To my dear American friends

You have a choice, an opportunity in November. Your options are really pretty clear. Please do not fuck this up.

Best Twitter update I've read so far

... is from Linda, of course:

Am fervently hoping Obama has a spotless record of marriage fidelity. KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS! KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS!

Amen.

Mini updates are to the right

So. I've joined the Twitter bandwagon. And I like it! I'm able to update this blog (see section to the right) and my Facebook status at the same time. And it's fun. You don't have to follow along if you find it insipid or pointless, feel free to ignore it, but just in case, I thought I'd point it out to all y'all ... :)

One more funny video

This one courtesy of Kevin:



(Though I have to pity the kid in the last spot - he's going to grow up as the kid who was in the sex toy commercial. LOL)

OMG so funny

One of the funniest segments on the Daily Show I've ever seen ... Unbelievably stupid people, but kudos to Jon Stewart!!!! :)

Cool video, rather black humour

Not for you, Mom ... sorry!

I'm totally surprised ...

... but it's actually kind of clever!

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Do you think it's really Paris Hilton??? LOL

Yes, yes, YES!

Out of the ball park ... :)

Naked ambition: Olympic athletes

Cool photos! Great lighting.

Know any Americans living abroad?

Then have them watch this video:



That is, unless you think they'll vote Republican. If so, we'll just keep this little video to ourselves, won't we? ;-> (But ewww, who would vote Republican???)

I especially like the comment in the video about Canada ... :)

Obama and celebrity - a rebuttal

Online petition for Gen. Clark to be Obama's VP

Here.

Need a reason to sign it? Here (reposted):

Charlotte Gray

What a great movie.



Cate Blanchett is a goddess.

And what can I say about Billy Crudup? Fantastic actor, for sure. And while I know he left his girlfriend when she was eight months pregnant, O those eyes and that chin!

McCain's nasty ads, racism, and dog whistles

Powerful article on McCain's offensive ad which compares Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.