Finally a tax law that makes sense!

The Santa Incentive care of Andrew Coyne. ;-)

NOTE: The fact that a significant portion of Mr. Coyne's readers actually believed the story is a sad, sad sign. Have we really become that numb to ridiculous tax laws?

Life in Prison for Smoking Marijuana

"The Dallas Morning News contrasted Dean's ridiculously harsh treatment of Brown, a poor black teenager, with the lenience he showed a wealthy white guy, John Alexander Wood, who received a 10-year suspended sentence for killing a prostitute."

Source: a post on the Reason Hit & Run blog.

Unreasonable Searches and Seizures

Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit.

:D

255 hp, 246 lb.ft torque, leather interior, 17" alloy rims, climate and traction control, heated memory seats, trip computer, 200 watt Bose 6 CD stereo, Xenon headlights, heated steering wheel...

Accord who? ;-P

Bono: Tax Evader Extraordinaire

Bono, the pop star who wants you and I and other middle to lower class citizens to pay more tax so our governments can give the money to third world dictators, has moved U2's business out of Ireland. Why? So he can avoid paying taxes of course. You see, Bono wants more money to be given to the third world, just as long as it's not his money. That's what I love about Bono though, after he comes down from his high horse it's easy to show him for what he is: a rich singer who gets off on having his picture taken with politicians. ;-)

My Current Desktop

Email Address Change

My jaydee.org e-mail address is not working properly. Please use my Shaw address until further notice. Kthnx.

To Be A Kid Again

Last week I helped run a soccer clinic for the kids in the league that I refereed in over the summer. What an experience! It was amazing to watch them soak up the information from instruction and build confidence through practice. I have always wanted to coach kids and give something back to the game I love, and the opportunity to positively shape young lives is an added bonus. It's definitely something I can see myself pursuing once I hang up my boots and can devote the required time to it.

(I knew my coaching certification would come in handy! :P)

Mr. Reggae Was Right

Well, I refereed my first soccer match on Tuesday night and had a great time! It was a game in a youth league that a friend of mine set up for an outreach program. Though it was a one-sided game on the scoreboard the kids had an awesome time, and that's the important part. I had a lot of fun too. A former teammate of mine (and current referee) suggested I become a referee a long time ago as he thought I'd be good at it and enjoy it. Looks like he was right! :)

What a Difference a Year Makes

I've been at my new job for a year now and I'm totally amazed at what's occurred and what I've accomplished. Of course I couldn't have done any of it alone. Management and my co-workers were/are a major factor. They have encouraged me and supported me and allowed me to grow (and they continue to do so).

Here's a brief summary:

• My employer has purchased and deployed JIRA and Confluence (partly due to my recommendation and experience) of which I've become co-administrator.
• I've also become co-administrator for the Enterprise Service Bus that forms the base of our new SOA patterned integration layer.
• I set up and continue to administrate the development, build, and continuous integration environments which leverage Subversion, JUnit, Cobertura, and CruiseControl.
• The boss that hired me moved to another position within the company and now I'm working for the same fantastic boss that I had at my first IT job.
• I obtained my ITIL Foundation certification
• I've leared a great deal more about Hibernate, Spring, Service-oriented Architecture, and XML/XSL both on my own and under the guidance of the lead developer and architect.
• I've settled into a leadership role helping to define development, deployment, and management frameworks as well as assisting in the design of SOA components and validation of architecture decisions.

With results (and support) like that I think this company is one that I could stay with for a very long time. I'm really looking forward to the next year and beyond!

Who's Really Targeting Civilians?

Here's a subtle, but key point that most news outlets are missing in the latest developments in the Israel - Hezbollah war. The CBC reported today that

"On Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told Israeli Arabs to leave Haifa, and threatened more rocket attacks against Israel's third-largest city." [Emphasis added]

Notice that Nasrallah did not instruct Israeli civilians to leave Haifa, but only Israeli Arabs. Killing non-Arab Israelis is apparently not a concern for Hezbollah. This is in contrast to Israel, which has gone out of it's way to inform all Lebanese civilians of pending attacks.

Tumors vs. Joints

According to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America having cancer is better than getting high.

Fixed Income?

You know what really annoys me? When people use "fixed income" as an excuse for economic meddling by the government. Usually when people say "fixed income" they mean senior citizens and those on welfare, but aren't most people on a fixed income? I'm on a fixed income. I get paid the same amount every pay period, it doesn't change. I think that's the same for most people, aside from commission salesmen and maybe hourly workers. So I don't know why the elderly think they're so special, almost everyone's on a fixed income!

Stand with Israel

A Clash of Opposites

After watching the documentary Control Room recently this exchange on Al Jazeera doesn't surprise me as much, but it's still fantastic to watch.

Someone else "gets it" too

There was an interesting article in the New York Times on Sunday about Reverend Gregory A. Boyd from Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. In a number of sermons, and a new book, Mr. Boyd has expressed the uncommon view that Christianity is not about obtaining political power in order to force the scriptures on non-believers.

This is one of the major reasons I like Riverwood. While they did do a political series during the last federal election, it was done objectively and focused not on enforcing Christianity through government, but on becoming educated citizens and making intelligent choices. Their main thrust is not political power, but "reaching far from God people... growing people to be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ."

Prying Open My Third Eye

I found this in my Drafts:

Researchers at the John's Hopkins School of Medicine released a paper today [July 11, 2006] discussing the spiritual effects of psilocybin (better known as magic mushrooms).

The study showed that the compound "can induce spiritual experiences descriptively identical to spontaneous ones people have reported for centuries".

While religious types were quick to criticize the study, I think it's important to note that none of the participants said their experiences devalued their religious traditions, but rather the opposite. The study also seemed to confirm the idea that set and setting have a major effect on the experiences that are had while using the compound.

Studies like this are good steps in the exploration of the links between the spiritual and metaphysical.

Zizou, mon Dieu!

Allez Les Bleus!

More Bombardier BS

"Toronto city councillors will debate a controversial proposal Wednesday to award a $700-million subway contract [the single largest purchase the city has EVER considered] to a Canadian company without seeking any competing bids."

You'd think the fact that it's such a large purchase would make councillors even more interested in having competing bids. But you'd be wrong. At least they'll be OUR subway cars though!

More here.

Swing on the Spiral

Embrace my desire to
feel the rhythm, to
feel connected,
enough to step aside and
weep like a widow, to
feel inspired, to
fathom the power, to
witness the beauty, to
bathe in the fountain, to
swing on the spiral of
our divinity and still be a human.

High is the way, but our eyes are upon the ground.
You are the light and the way, they'll only read about.
I only pray heaven knows when to lift you out.
Ten thousand days in the fire is long enough, you're going home.

Fetch me the spirit, the son, and the father
Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended.
It's time now,
My time now,
Give me my wings!

ITIL Certified

I received my Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management the other day. My employer is adopting ITIL best practices within the organization to coincide with the deployment of a major software project. The exam was proctored by Loyalist College and training was provided by Sierra Systems. While I was already familiar with ITIL, having used it in my previous job, the course was a good refresher and it was nice to come out of it with a valuable certification.

Those Crazy Kids

Good Bye Alice

I saw Jewel live in Minneapolis over the weekend, and I have to admit I was quite impressed. I've always liked her music, but I've never been a real fan until now. Her performance was one of the best I've seen and she sounds even better live than on her CD. She's up near the top of my list of [living] singer/songwriters now, though still behind Tori Amos and Ani DiFranco ;-)

The only downside was that she shared billing with Rob Thomas and so her set was rather short. When he started doing Eminem gestures and "raising the roof" while performing "Something to Be" the irony was just too much to handle, so we left.

Doubleplusungood

According to the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench, calling Jews a "disease" and praising Hitler for "frying" them is OK. (Just don't deny that it happened)

The Greatest Competition on Earth Has Begun

While in other football news, I played all 90 minutes of our match on Monday and about 80 minutes of our match on Thursday. That's fantastic given my health. Perhaps I've turned the corner and things will begin to improve. Only time will tell.

Nevermind the War on "Terra"

More casualties in the decades old War on Drugs.

Matt Epp

I saw Matt Epp perform on Friday night. I'd never heard of him before but I was impressed. I'm not sure why this guy hasn't blown up yet, but if you get a chance to check him out, take it.

A Good Start

Our 2006 outdoor soccer season got underway last Wednesday. We managed a win against one of the top teams in our division. Playing in 30 degree heat and 100% humidity I was actually able to log some significant minutes despite my health issues and that's a positive sign. Game number two goes Monday night, maybe we can start the season on a streak! ;-)

"Slipping back into the gap again. I'm alive when you're touching me, alive when you're shoving me down. But I'd trade it all for just a little bit of piece of mind."

New Era = New Number

My enjoyable winter soccer experience has translated into a wonderful long-term opportunity. In honour of this development I've chosen a new number. While the number five has many endearing and interesting attributes there are a few major ones that drew me to it.

First of all, five is a Fibonacci number. Not only that, it is the only number besides 1 that occurs in it's own position within the Fibonacci Sequence (it's the fifth number). It's also a prime number and the only one that ends in five.

Five is the sum of the digits of my previous number: 23, which was the number worn by one of my all-time favourite sports icons. It's also half of 10, the number worn internationally by many superstar footballers. Traditionally the number five was worn by the central player in either the defense (in the WM formation) or the midfield (in the 2-3-5 formation); both of which are my main positions.

We have five fingers, five toes, and five senses and there are five oceans in the world. Five is the most damaging number on the hurricane scale.

In asian cultures (and many other mythologies) there are five elements, with the fifth usually being somewhat mysterious or elusive. The Torah, the central and most important document of Judaism, is composed of five books.

The musical staff has five lines and the Perfect Fifth is considered the most stable harmony outside of the unison and octave.

The olympic symbol is five rings and five is the center of the numeric keypad.

Who knew a number could be so interesting! :P The 2006 outdoor season begins May 23 and despite some somewhat serious health issues that continue to plague me, I'm excited about the prospects! I just hope the weather is better this year than 2005.

Long Hiatus

Wow, I haven't posted in what seems like forever. So what's new? Well, I've been training with three soccer teams which has chewed up a lot of my time. But that should hopefully settle down once the season starts.

Also, 10,000 Days will be released in North America tomorrow. While I've already been listening to a leaked version of the album for the last few weeks I'll still be picking up a legit copy. (Maybe I'll post a review)

Finally, I attended a dinner with Christopher Hitchens the other night, which was quite entertaining. He's just as amusing in person as he is in print.

Other than that, hockey playoffs are in full swing, Champions' League and the Premiership are wrapping up, and summer is well on it's way!

Here's some lyrics until next post:

"angels on the sideline
    puzzled and amused
why did Father give these humans free will?
    now they're all confused

angels on the sideline
    baffled and confused
father blessed them all with reason
    and this is what they choose

how they survive so misguided is a mystery
    repugnant, dismal creature who would squander
the ability to live, to die, and have a conscience"

-- Maynard James Keenan (Lyrics from Right in Two from 10,000 Days)

The Mix - April 28 @ 7:30 p.m.

Tired of paying outrageous prices for crappy drinks and cookie cutter music at loud nightclubs packed with Abercrombie & Fitch wannabes? Get in The Mix!

Something to Celebrate!

Date	Time	Description
Good Friday (4/14/2006)	9:15 and 11:15 a.m.	A drama-enhanced morning pondering the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross.
Saturday (4/15/2006)	6:15 p.m.	Special "coffee-house" Easter service with FREE coffee and desserts!
Sunday (4/16/2006)	9:15 and 11:15 a.m.	Arts-enhanced, creative worship service pondering the power of what Christ did on Easter Sunday some 2000 years ago.

Fibs

National Poetry Month as well as Math Awareness Month, and an enterprising screenwriter has combined the two with something he calls "Fibs": poems based on the Fibonacci Sequence. Though interesting, Fibs are not new. Here's one of the best Fib's, from a great compilation.

UPDATE: I forgot the link to the guy's blog!

Back Home

By the way, in case it wasn't obvious, we're back home now. The trip back was a bit more exciting than the trip there. Due to weather we were stuck in the airport all day as our flight kept getting delayed. The airport was PACKED with cranky, frustrated people, but far from getting us down, instead it allowed us to explore and share some quality time, at least as much as possible in the world's busiest airport.

Here are some more photos from the trip.

	At the pub down the street after seeing Iraqtile Dysfunction at Second City. (Second City was awesome!)
	Waiting for the Subway.
	Riding the subway.
	At Joe's Sports Bar watching the Duke game. (They have big screen televisions everywhere!)
	Joe's Sports Bar was packed!
	So packed, they have a vending machine for ear plugs!
	Standing in front of Wrigley Field.
	Standing in front of Sue, the world's largest, most complete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex skelaton, at the Field Museum. She measures 42 feet long, 13 feet tall, and weighed 7 tons when alive. She's named after Susan Hendrickson, the fossil hunter who discovered her.
	Inside the Egyptian tomb, part of the Inside Ancient Egypt exhibit at the Field Museum. Those are the actual blocks (and actual hieroglyphics) from the tomb in Egypt in the background.
	The lobby of the Fisher Building, where we stayed. Behind the plaque is the Consierge desk. We had floorplan B1 on the 13th floor (yes, there's a floor labelled 13). The 19th floor had a lounge/games room with a foosball table, a bar, a pool table, a fireplace, couches, and a big screen TV. Sweet!
	Time to leave!

That's all for now, I'll have more photos up in the next couple of days.

May 2, 2006

Cool Illusion!

Check out this interesting video illusion that our pastor showed in church the other day.

QuickTime video

"This demonstrates the immense power of top-down knowledge which will actually counter signals bottom-up from the senses, and force an extraordinary illusion in which the sensory information of the present is cancelled by immense knowledge derived from the past"
-- Richard Gregory

Quotes Stuck In My Head

I've had a couple of quotes stuck in my head lately.

The first is from Robert Spritz in The Weatherman:

"Do you know that the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy. 'Easy' doesn't enter into grown-up life, to get anything of value, you have to sacrifice."

The second is an exchange between Jerry and George in episode 113 of Seinfeld (The Maestro):

JERRY: Get this, he [The Maestro] tells me there are no houses to rent anywhere in Tuscany.
GEORGE: You're renting a house in Tuscany?
JERRY: No.
GEORGE: So what do you care?

Psalm 23:4

Swimmin' with da fishes

Went to the Shedd Aquarium today.

	Dolphins performing in the Oceanarium show.
	Penguins chillin' on the rocks.
	More of the dolphin performance.
	My girlfriend smooching a turtle.
	My girlfriend and I in front of the aquarium, with the Chicago skyline in the background.

More Photos

Posted some more photos on my Flickr page this morning. (It's too much work to post them on the blog too, so you'll just have to look at them there)

Just a Few Photos

Below are some photos from the first few days. All the photos from Chicago can be viewed on my Chicago tag Flickr page.

	Me with one of the Blue Men after the Blue Man Group show. The blue mark on my face was put there by the Blue Man after they took me up on stage from out of the audience to "participate" in the show.
	Me, my girlfriend, and my friend at the Green Mill jazz lounge.
	My girlfriend and I in front of the Cloud Gate at Millennium Park.
	A sign on one of the streets in Chicago.

We're here!

We're in the Windy City now and it's fantastic! The flight was quick, about 1.5 hours, and the first couple of days have been hectic! There's a lot to see and do I don't know how we're going to fit it all in to 10 days. Yesterday we walked around Millenium Park and shopped on the Magnificent Mile, where I got a jacket and three shirts for $115 (regular over $250!). In the evening we went to the Green Mill jazz lounge, one of Al Capone's former speakeasys, then Ginger's Ale House where we had a few pints and watched the Newcastle match.

To say that Chicago is Winnipeg only slightly larger is a huge understatement! Winnipeggers like to delude themselves into thinking that their city is just as good as cities like Chicago (and Toronto!) but once you actually leave the confines of the perimeter highway there's no denying that Winnipeg has grossly missed it's potential. Anyway, more on that later. We've got a big day today. We're going to see the Blue Man Group in the afternoon, then doing more shopping on the Magnificent Mile, and finally closing the day off with an invite only Oscar party at Orso restaurant!

(I've taken a bunch of pictures already, but I forgot the cable to download them from the camera. My friend said he should have one that fits at the office so I'll post some pics as soon as I find one.)

Oh What a Season!

Due to my trip to The Windy City this Friday I played my last Futsal game of the season Tuesday. With a short bench (only one sub!), people playing out of position, and numerous key players missing we almost managed a draw. If it weren't for a heartbreaking lucky bounce with 10 seconds left in the game we would have stolen a point against difficult odds. No matter though, it was a fun game that was well played and served as a fitting end to the season. I don't know what the future holds but I was proud and honoured to be a part of this team. They're a well run, talented, and fun group of guys and should do very well in the upcoming outdoor season. I can honestly say that this Futsal season was the most fun I've had playing soccer since my youth.

I think the following situation sums the atmosphere on this team perfectly: When I told the coaching staff that I had been invited to tryout for another outdoor squad, instead of berating me and sending an email to the manager of the other team saying how poor a player I was they congratulated me, wished me luck, and told me that I would always have a place on their team. Now THAT'S a quality organization.

Here's hoping the snow melts soon!

Who's the real enemy: Esso or Celine Dion?

You think gas prices are inflated? The next time you're filling up at the pump think about the Private Copying Levy. As Michael Geist points out in his blog, the Private Copying Levy in Canada can increase the cost of blank media by as much as 333%! That means an $18 pack of CDs can cost almost $60. (And that's BEFORE taxes!)

What's worse is "while songwriters and music publishers are eligible regardless of nationality, only Canadian recording artists and record companies may receive payments". So even though people are burning quality bands like Tool, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or the Rolling Stones, the revenue from the purchase of that blank media is helping Canada produce more Celine Dion, Alanis, and Simple Plan.

Perhaps the worst part of the entire scheme is the implied guilt. The levy is paid by manufacturers and importers of the media, and passed on to consumers in the price. So the assumptions is if you're buying blank media, then you must be pirating Canadian music so you should pay a fine immediately. So even honest, law abiding citizens who buy media for backing up business or personal data or authoring home DVD's or photo CD's are paying the fines. While I don't agree with the RIAA lawsuits in the United States either, at least they are supposed to prove you actually committed a crime before they can hit you with a fine!

Almost there!

Four days to go!

That's MY train!

If you've been watching the olympics then you've probably seen the Bombardier commercials: some Canadian tourist notices a train or plane made by Bombardier and gets excited. Then the announcer says "Thousands of Canadians are behind Bombardier, and proud of it."

That's only half the truth though. The announcer should say "Thousands of Canadians are forced to support Bombardier financially, and don't even know it." Or maybe more accurately, "Thousands of Canadians are bent over in front of Bombardier and getting..." well, you can complete the sentence yourself.

CBC's The National ran a story this evening about hundreds of Bombardier jets sitting idle in a field in Arizona. Guess who owns those jets? You do. That's right, you, your neighbour, your co-workers, every Canadian taxpayer owns a piece of those jets rusting in the desert. Here's how it works. Bombardier builds a bunch of jets that nobody wants to buy. Export Development Canada, a Federal Crown Corporation, takes billions of Canadians' tax dollars and loans it to foreign companies whom the regular banks consider "high risk" with the condition that the companies use the money to purchase the aforementioned jets from Bombardier. Now, those high risk companies have defaulted on those loans and EDC is stuck with the planes. Since EDC isn't an airline, the planes sit in the desert and collect dust.

As if that loan/bribe scenario wasn't enough, the government still routinely coughs up billions of dollars in direct subsidies to Bombardier (because they still can't seem turn a profit, even with a bribed customer base) with the excuse that the company "provides jobs". Who are they kidding? I mean come on, if the government's going to do that, then skip the middle man, give the billions directly to the workers, and send them home to be productive already!

Yes, our roads are terrible, our military is an international joke, our taxes are outrageously high, and people die waiting for health care, but still the government finds it more important to use your money to buy airplanes that don't fly.

More Cartoon Rioting

More riots have erupted over controversial and offensive cartoons.

Fighting fire with fire

The Freakonomics blog has a link to an Israeli anti-semetic cartoon contest created in response to the psychopatic Muslim protests. Now excuse me while I go watch Curb Your Enthusiasm...

Special thanks to Cutie for giving me the link ;)

This just in...

In the spirit of Duck and Cover, Air Canada has banned pictures of Muslims with hats resembling bombs on all flights and in their lounges. Real Muslims with real bombs still allowed.

Getting Excited!

Less than two weeks to go!

Another Added Bonus

I found out today not only does my employer have a great benefits package, but I don't have to pay any premiums. I guess that stands to reason since they're an insurance company. ;) So the only non-government deduction on my paycheque is 75 cents for the social fund. Sweet!

Steyn hits the nail on the head (again)

Another great commentary on lunatic Muslims by Mark Steyn

No Thanks

Please don't thank me for my reaction to the cartoons. I fully support them and the cartoonists who drew them. I'd print millions of them and drop them from the sky if I could. I would post them on every telephone pole and in every paper and magazine in the country.

It's perfectly acceptable to Muslims for a Mohammed to blow up a real building, but draw him with a bomb and it's blasphemy. Now a Pakistani cleric has offered a $1-million US bounty for the murder of the cartoonist. And we're supposed to be rational with these people??? I don't think so. I've lost all respect for Islam.

Bizarro Islam

So I've been thinking about this whole cartoon holy war going on and after watching the media reports I had to ask myself: Am I the only one on this planet who thinks Muslims are overreacting? The media keeps treating the Muslim reaction as a normal response to being offended. Many columnists, reporters, and letter writers have asked "wouldn't you feel the same if someone offended your God?" Sure, I might feel the same, but I wouldn't act the same. And that's what differentiates Islam from other religions. Jews don't burn flags and bomb shopping malls everytime someone denies the holocaust and Hindus don't fly planes into buildings everytime someone in the West eats a hamburger. Instead, other religions work within the system and express their outrage within the boundaries of the rule of law.

In light of the flag burnings, murders, embassy vandalism, and calls for mass destruction it's getting more and more difficult to defend Islam. After September 11, western Muslim leaders kept telling everyone that the perpetrators of the attacks were not representative of Islam, but mislead extremists. After watching the cartoon violence I don't think that explanation holds. I see millions of Muslims burning flags, shooting AK-47's, and calling for the the murder of westerners on a nightly basis. It's not a handful of people doing this, it's millions. In fact, it's only a handful of Muslims saying the violence isn't right. On the news you see a few million Muslims in a blood frenzy and then some lone cleric from Toronto saying violence isn't the answer.

The Islamic world has become a bizarro world where the moderates are the extremists.

UPDATE: Muslims are insane psychopathic.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Winnipeg Free Press, Page B2, Column 5 :)

More on the Cartoon In-toon-fatah

Here's another great commentary on the cartoon fiasco.

Canada's (Spineless) Response

I was going to write a criticism of Foreign Minister Peter McKay's statement on the cartoon fiasco, then I read Ezra Levant's commentary and figured, why duplicate?

Freedom of speech... just watch what you say draw

The following letter to the editor appeared in The Winnipeg Free Press on February 8, 2006:

The protests against controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad have spread across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. It is the satirical intent of the cartoonists, and the association of the prophet with terrorism, that is indeed very offensive to all Muslims alike. Many in Arab media describe it as a modern crusade. They speak of a campaign to distort and discredit Islam. America's war on terror is still largely perceived in several Muslim countries as a war on Islam -- a perception reinforced by the fact that it is happening exclusively in Muslim countries; namely Iraq and Afghanistan.

The controversy appears to pit Western traditions of free speech against a tenet of Islam that says images of the prophet are strictly forbidden. In the final analysis, the right to freedom of expression by no means implies the right to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory and offend religious beliefs.

My response:

The author does not understand the right to freedom of expression when he says it "by no means implies the right to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory and offend religious beliefs." Actually, that is exactly what the right to freedom of expression implies and is designed to protect.

It is easy to protect or defend expression that one agrees with. Nobody requests censorship of expression they support. It is only offensive expression that provokes calls for censorship and supression. Freedom of expression is freedom of ALL expression, not of specific expression as determined by select individuals or groups. The foundation of such a right is the recognition that the best way to combat incorrect, inaccurate, or inflammatory ideas is with facts, data, and better ideas, not the heavy-handedness of censorship. Opponents of expression resort to censorship when they are unable, or unwilling, to effectively contradict the offensive material intellectually.

As for the association of The Prophet with terrorism, the responsibility for that impression rests solely with those who fly planes into buildings, behead hostages, murder innocent civilians, and preach death and destruction in His name, not a cartoon in a newspaper.

In memoria illorum quisnam mortuus: Cineri gloria sera est

Coyne's Coming!

Andrew Coyne, National Affairs columnist for the National Post will be in Winnipeg on February 27, 2006! He's speaking at a luncheon put on by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy titled "The New Conservative Government: Threat or Menace?" and will discuss "what the Tories will do, what they should do, and how to tell the difference".

I have bean reading and watching¹ Mr. Coyne since the National Post's inception in 1998. His blog is both enlightening and entertaining. He's an extremely intelligent man and should be one of the best speakers the Frontier Centre has had. Definitely worth the price of admission!

__________
1. In addition to writing for many newspapers Mr. Coyne also appears periodically on the CBC's The National.

I ruv roo!

I have the bestest, wonderfulest, supportivest, caringest, beautifulest, lovingest, awesomest girlfriend in the whole wide world, and I love her totally and completely! kthnx. :)

Conquering Canada?

"Allah is stirring up a generation who will fear nothing but him. A generation who will fear nothing and do everything to see Allah's dominion established in this generation. Allah is seeking a voice of righteousness and of justice who will come forth from the emerging generation and reclaim the righteous foundations of our nation. Allah is baptising a generation with a holy burning passion to see the idols of unrighteousness fall in our land and to see the altars of righteousness established again. He is looking for a generation who will walk in the ways of our righteous fathers who founded this nation for one purpose. They were sent with a vision, they were sent with a mandate, to see the kingdom of Allah and and all his glory dwell in a nation.

Through Muhammad, Allah took back all authority and because of that we now are baptized with a kingly annointing of authority to stand on the Earth and execute his dominion and to see the kingdom of Allah come on Earth as it is in heaven. Allah has given us a revelation that we need to possess and conquer. Allah is going to be sending us into all the places of influence in our nation. He's going to be sending us into the arts to stand there in a place of authority. He's raising up ones that he's going to send into the political realm and they're going to stand as a voice of righteousness. He's raising up ones who are going to stand in the education system, in the justice system, and in the medical system, and they're going to stand in a kingly annointing to tear down those things that exhalt unrighteousness and to reestablish righteousness."

Osama bin Laden released another message last week, but that's not where the above quote is from, though it easily could have been. The quote is from an interview with Faytene Kryskow, author of Stand on Guard and member of Motivated Young People for a Strong Canada (MyCanada), a religious group that targets youth in Canada. I simply substituted "Allah" for "God".

In the interview Ms. Kryskow rambles on for over ten minutes about how God spoke to her and told her that the youth in Canada have been chosen to rise up, destroy the insitutions of unrighteousness, and impose heaven on Earth.

Her words are similar to those frequently used by Islamic fundamentalists who wish to impose Sharia (Islamic Law) on all nations. Such Islamic zealots often call for the destruction of institutions they see as unrighteous such as banks, government buildings, democratic institutions, courts, and even large cities. Their tone and vocabulary are also very similar to that of Ms. Kryskow, and like MyCanada they target impressionable youth looking for a cause to fight for. To illustrate my point, here's a line by line comparison of Ms. Kryskow's comments with those of a well known Islamic fundamentalist:

Faytene Kryskow	Osama bin Laden
"God is stirring up a generation who will fear nothing but him. A generation who will fear nothing and do everything to see God's dominion established in this generation. He is seeking a voice of righteousness and of justice who will come forth from the emerging generation and reclaim the righteous foundations of our nation. He is baptising a generation with a holy burning passion to see the idols of unrighteousness fall in our land and to see the altars of righteousness established again. He is looking for a generation who will walk in the ways of our righteous fathers who founded this nation for one purpose. They were sent with a vision, they were sent with a mandate, to see the kingdom of God and and all his glory dwell in a nation."	"O you who believe fear God, by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden as He should be feared. Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always, and die not except as Muslims with complete submission to God."1
"Through Jesus, God took back all authority and because of that we now are baptized with a kingly annointing of authority to stand on the Earth and execute his dominion and to see the kingdom of God come on Earth as it is in heaven. God has given us a revelation that we need to possess and conquer."	"We also stress to honest Muslims that they should move, incite, and mobilize the [Islamic] nation, amid such grave events and hot atmosphere so as to liberate themselves from those unjust and renegade ruling regimes. They should also do so to establish the rule of God on earth."2
"We are coming together with one voice, with one heart, and one mind. It's through the voice that there's going to be a preparation. I believe He's looking for a voice in this day that will speak a message of truth, and justice, and righteousness, that will prepare the way to see His dominion and His kingdom established in a generation, and a culture, and a nation."	"Muslims must prepare all the possible might to repel the enemy on the military, economic, missionary, and all other areas. It is crucial for us to be patient and to cooperate in righteousness and piety and to raise awareness to the fact that the highest priority, after faith is to repel the incursive enemy which corrupts the religion and the world, and nothing deserves a higher priority after faith, as the scholars have declared, for this cause, it is crucial to overlook many of the issues of bickering in order to unite our ranks so that we can repel the greater Kufr. All must move giving life to the words of the Most High: "Indeed this, your community, is one community, and I am your Lord, so worship me" and that they should not be like those whom Allah has described with His words: "Indeed those who have divided their religion and became schisms, you are not of them in any way." It is essential to volunteer and not to bicker, and the Muslim should not belittle righteousness in any way."3

Now, I don't forsee Ms. Kryskow instructing Christian youth to fly planes into buildings anytime soon, however it is precisely this type of religious zealotry that leads to such things. Remember the Crusades? Inquisitions? Slavery? All justified by religion. The perpetrators of these events all claimed to be justified by God and/or the Bible.

As we have seen in many Muslim nations (not to metion England), theocracy doesn't work. It leads to oppression, rights infringements, and atrocities. Of course, being a libertarian I support, and defend, the right of all individuals and organizations to voice their opinions. However, that support hinges on the optimistic hope that common sense will triumph over religious fanaticism in the marketplace of ideas. I would hope that Christians who hear Ms. Kryskow's speech would have immediate concerns regarding not only the words and tone, but the professed goal: a Christian theocracy in Canada. Unfortunately, my experience does not seem to support that hope. I find that most Christians switch off their critical reasoning once a messenger has identified themself as a Christian. Also, Christians seem to love freedom only when it suits them. I don't think you'd find many Christians advocating for a Muslim theocracy, or Sikh laws, or Hindu prayer and Buddhist creation in schools.

Jesus never ran for public office. He didn't come to "possess and conquer". He never sought to overthrow the judiciary or impose Biblical law. He came to love, and to save. Just as He allowed people of all religions, all opinions, and all walks of life to approach him and be saved, so should we embrace all religions, all opinions, and all walks of life. It is not our place to judge, nor is it our place to "establish his dominion". God made man free. Truly free. There was no coercion or imposition. Man could choose God, or not. A truly Biblical nation should most certainly be built on that basic principle.

NOTE: Blind following is not unique to religion.

Church Signs

I found a neat website that generates custom church signs (thanks Greg!) so I decided to make a few.