Bar bells or dumb bells?

We see it on the web. We see it in bars. We see it from rude single guys. Now a doctor who counselled an obese woman telling her she was overweight and that it was bad for her health, is taking flack from the New Hampshire Board of Medicine for his professional concern after she had hurt feelings.
Might we now see it on doctors' office doors too?

- - - - - - The Doctor is IN - - - - - -
- - - - - - - no fat chicks - - - - - - -




http://www.detnews.com/2005/health/0508/25/A11-292841.htm

Saddam Hussein - playing the game?

One thing is emerging from the sparse news about Saddam Hussein; he is adapting to the US justice system. Saddam is a survivor. He recently fired most of his lawyers. Sort of the same thing most criminals do in the US when buying time. He might hire more if needed.
Some think the American army should have just killed him when they found him in that spider hole, and some think that maybe Saddam will be with us for years, countering moves by his American puppet attorneys. He has only one charge against him at the present. Unless of course, the US tires of being embarrassed by his presence and simply pretends he died from whatever. Maybe they'll say he swallowed the WMDs.
He is playing the game, and indications are that he may become an expert at it.
No one ever doubted his intelligence, but perhaps George W. might have underestimated it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4180372.stm

the REAL criminals in Canada ...

There was recently a radio interview with Peter Warren of Rick Ciarniello, the president of the Hell's Angels in BC. Ciarniello said something when questioned about the money the motorcycle club makes (allegedly) on criminal activities, suggested as grow-ops, that seemed appropo, he said, (paraphrasing) - "compared to the money the government makes ripping off Canadians, we are just pikers!"
A lot of truth in that statement. Of course you KNOW you pay tax on tax in a lot of cases with the GST etc. And much of the so called user fees should have already been paid for by your income or property taxes.
But there seems to me to be one organization higher than both the Angels AND the governments .... those are the banks.
The BMO as it likes to be called now, (Bank of Montreal) is down at the mouth because they made only 541 MILLION DOLLARS IN THE LAST THREE MONTHS!!!!!

What does all this prove? That growing marijuana or taxing you to death is not nearly as criminally profitable as stealing the dollars right out of your bank account!

http://www.canada.com/businesscentre/story.html?id=d07080f6-8333-4c85-b717-f73486ce52ac

... Does that guy Tony Comper, the CEO, look like a reptilian shape-shifter to you?

Them social worker folks is smarter than us ....

Don't even try to figure it out.
A youth kills another student with the intention of murdering everyone at his school. He gets 3 years, THREE YEARS, for first degree murder and attempted murder. SOMEONE decides to move him to a halfway house. Open supervision. The JUDGE even says he is NOT ready for that. The psychiatrists say he is likely to commit an offence causing serious harm or death. The police say he is dangerous and likely to offend.
SOMEONE makes the decision to move him there anyway. Over-ruling the judge, the police, the psychiatric evidence and any idea relating to the protection of the public!
Now he's gone and announcing that he won't be taken alive. Do not approach this killer.
SOMEONE signed a form somewhere to initiate this situation.

Shouldn't the person who made this decision be fired?

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1124140138094_31/?hub=CTVNewsAt11

http://www.pei.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/08/15/Taber_killer_walks_away_from_halfway_house20050815.html

User fees?

The latest is that Gordon Campbell is going to start charging you $15.00 a time to visit BC Provincial parks. (rising to $20.) They say they need the money for maintenance. Doesn't tax money pay for that? What exactly DOES tax money pay for?
Remember when Stanley Park started charging parking fees throughout? For maintenance? The Park that Lord Stanley dedicated 'for all'. Anyone else notice that the nice grassy slope you could once sit on to overlook English Bay is now nothing but overgrown blackberry bushes? Where's the maintenance? I don't recall anything in Lord Stanley's speech that said 'for the rich only'.
Perhaps some parks shouldn't be maintained anyway, especially the 'wilderness' parks. Everytime a Liberal MLA makes any announcement whatsoever, I cringe at the hidden agenda lurking behind the toothy smile that will be revealed soon.
Anyone else believe there's a Liberal wolfhound in a back room right now figuring out how they can get away with charging us 15 cents a breath for BC air? (rising to 20 cents)

Priorities in the wrong place department.

In the latest issue of 24 Hours, the new newspaper in Vancouver, it has, on page 2, stories about Julia Roberts, Jennifer Anniston, Paula Abdul and Gwyneth Paltrow.
You have to turn to page 4 to read anything about Canadian war hero Ernest 'Smokey' Smith.
You can see where their priorities are.

Discovery

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Free Trade? deja vu all over again

Once again the Americans ignore the ruling against them on softwood lumber and simply refuse to abide by the present Free Trade Agreement. We knew it was going to be like this all the time. They do it on every occasion that doesn't suit them. Most of Canada's premiers are acknowledging that fact. The Toronto Star says it is meaningless. Others say it is useless as long as American lobbyists have control of the US government. (in Canada, 94 percent of our forest lumber production is on public lands. The majority of American lumber is produced from private lands. Those private people don't want competition.)
Does it look like it will improve? Nope. Time to end the agreement altogether? Yep.
In Canada we have whatever the US wants. We should be getting a premium price for it anyway. We should be giving Canadians a break on our own resources and paying for that break by charging others more. Just like a baker gets his family bread for 50 cents and charges everyone else $2. That's just the way it should be.
America is sniffing at our Alberta Tar Sands. There's enough oil there to supply North America for hundreds of years! We need to ensure that whatever we sell anyone else, that Canadians get the benefit.
America wants to build a pipeline from our natural gas resources directly to America. We should forget that and dole out to them what WE think they can have.
We should stop shipping raw logs to the US. Recover our mills and start offering them finished lumber. Why not support Canadian mill workers instead of American mill workers?
We should control our electrical energy resource more carefully. The last time California didn't pay for it when they got into a crunch! THEN they had the nerve to sue us and say we were charging them too much anyway! And they wanted us TO PAY THEM!
Our water resources are huge. The potential is huge. But only with a fair trading partner.
The examples are endless!
These suggestions are not in any way vindictive, but only smart management of our resources. We should have a 'Canada First' policy.
Meanwhile, all those latin countries now negotiating trade agreements with the United States need to take heed of this attitude. It doesn't bode well for them either.
Cancel the Free Trade Agreement. The five years notice needs to begin now. Meanwhile we should take back control of our resource companies and send a blunt message about our sovereignty.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2005/2005-08-12-04.asp
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050812.wxpremiers13/BNStory/National/

Vancouver - noise pollution capital.

The word "noise" is derived from the Latin word "nausea," meaning seasickness. Noise is among the most pervasive pollutants today. Noise from road traffic, jet planes, garbage trucks, construction equipment, manufacturing processes, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and boom boxes, to name a few, are among the audible litter that are routinely broadcast into the air.
Noise negatively affects human health and well-being. Problems related to noise include hearing loss, stress, high blood pressure, sleep loss, distraction and lost productivity, and a general reduction in the quality of life and opportunities for tranquillity.

In Vancouver, you need to love noise. It is constant. Buses routinely leave their engines running while disembarking passengers. Deisel trucks do the same while stopping for lunch. Construction equipment engines have no mufflers. Pile drivers pound constantly. People feel they can shout at will because they are 'downtown'. The Harleys with drilled mufflers reverberate through the night, setting off faulty car alarms. Last night in our area, a construction crew was pouring concrete, and using a noisy vibrator to settle it at 9:45 pm! They were 17 stories up and working in the dark, I assume hoping no one would notice them up there.

Noise intensity is measured in decibel units. The decibel scale is logarithmic; each 10-decibel increase represents a tenfold increase in noise intensity. Human perception of loudness also conforms to a logarithmic scale; a 10-decibel increase is perceived as roughly a doubling of loudness. Thus, 30 decibels is 10 times more intense than 20 decibels and sounds twice as loud; 40 decibels is 100 times more intense than 20 and sounds 4 times as loud; 80 decibels is 1 million times more intense than 20 and sounds 64 times as loud. Distance diminishes the effective decibel level reaching the ear. Thus, moderate auto traffic at a distance of 100 ft (30 m) rates about 50 decibels. To a driver with a car window open or a pedestrian on the sidewalk, the same traffic rates about 70 decibels; that is, it sounds 4 times louder. At a distance of 2,000 ft (600 m), the noise of a jet takeoff reaches about 110 decibels—approximately the same as an automobile horn only 3 ft (1 m) away.

Noise pollution has already been linked to human stress in that it contributes to immediate health, both physical and psychological. Some people simply get sick, others suffer subliminal stress iritability which leads to higher crime rates and assaults.
The futility of trying to deal with noise pollution adds to the general problem. In Vancouver, no one will respond to excessive noise. The police think it is way down the list. City Hall sends you on a merry-go-round regarding regulations. Worker's Compensation suggests an officer will call you back and investigate in 5 days.

Noise pollution requires our attention. Living in downtown Vancouver is a trial, not a pleasure. Because of the attitude that 'business' can do whatever it wants. Giving out permits to continue construction well into the evening is only helping private builders of high-rise buildings rent out their suites and offices sooner. And it shows no regard for the present citizens of the city. Noise pollution needs to be curbed, it needs rules that allow business to carry on yet it needs regulations to cause a little quiet to those in the immediate neighborhood.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Subjected to 45 decibels of noise, the average person cannot sleep. At 120 decibels the ear registers pain, but hearing damage begins at a much lower level, about 85 decibels. The duration of the exposure is also important. There is evidence that among young people hearing sensitivity is decreasing year by year because of exposure to noise, including excessively amplified music. Apart from hearing loss, such noise can cause lack of sleep, irritability, heartburn, indigestion, ulcers, high blood pressure, and possibly heart disease. One burst of noise, as from a passing truck, is known to alter endocrine, neurological, and cardiovascular functions in many individuals; prolonged or frequent exposure to such noise tends to make the physiological disturbances chronic. In addition, noise-induced stress creates severe tension in daily living and contributes to mental illness.

Trucks and buses must be forced to shut down their engines while making deliveries. Jack-hammers could have a simple foldable shield placed around them to absorb some of their noise. Pile drivers and contruction sites should have enforced hours of operation. Motorcycles and loud cars need to be taken seriously and ticketted by police. Backhoes, loaders and drilling equipment should have mufflers installed. Truck drivers shouldn't have to sound their horns at building sites. Even ambulance and fire truck sirens should be directional, there is no need to just send the noise up amid the buildings when they are trying to alert the street level traffic that they are there.
At present, you forfeit your right to hear a bird once in a while by living in Vancouver.
People? Yes, they make noise too but I'd rather hear a little shouting out there at night, at least I'd know what people are saying.
Noise, what's it doing to us?

reprint permitted - please credit

http://www.nonoise.org/

today in history - - - Aug 7, 1990

1990 - President Bush sent U.S. troops and air power to protect Saudi Arabian oil fields from possible Iraqi attack.

The problem is, that this was kept from the Saudi people who had no idea that US forces were even ON Saudi Arabian soil protecting them.
Yes, we know the US was basically protecting their OWN interests because of that Kuwaiti and Saudi oil, but still, allowing the Saudi powers to keep it secret was a gross PR mistake.
Yes, we know that the US basicaly condoned the Iraqi war against Kuwait by the American ambassador's comments at that time, when Saddam Hussein claimed Kuwait as a breakaway state of Iraq and that he was intent on taking it back. To which the American ambassador replied that the US had NO interest in internal Iraqi politics. THEN, when Iraq made a move on Kuwait the US suddenly turned on Saddam. And the result was the Gulf War. (not counting the fact that America NEEDED a convenient war to test new weaponry)

Yes, we know that the prince/shah/potentate/Grand Mufti of Kuwait or whatever he called himself at that time promised to democratize his country in return for US protection of HIS oil riches, and that he has done NOTHING to date to change the attitude toward women, allow citizens to vote or make any inroads to democracy at all.
And yes, we KNOW that the war got quickly out of hand and it was basically the US's doings that actualy caused it to begin with. The war that Iraq fought with US weapons given to it because Iran and the Ayatola Khomeini became the enemy after the Shah was booted.
And yes, even if 'they' were feeding us daily disinformation, most of us KNEW there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
And finally, yes, we KNOW that George Junior promised his Daddy that HE would get Saddam for him because Saddam was thumbing his nose at George Senior (who was dumped after only one term) and that led us to the present situation where hapless US troops are being killed daily and it looks like there is no way out.
It all seems like certain shadowy Americans in power lost control of their egos, doesn't it?
History is indeed strange.

Here's the trick ...

To fool British Columbians. Take a BC enterprise like BC Gas. Call it something else for a while, until BCers forget they ever owned the utility ... change it's name to something like Terasen Gas ... sell it to an American energy conglomerate who wants to extend a pipeline into America and bypass Canadian needs ... tell everyone it is free enterprise and Presto!
No one complains about losing another portion of sovereignty.
Gordon Campbell's continuing usurping of British Columbians' power and wealth goes on ...

US law in Canada

Marc Emory, head of the Canadian Marijuana Party has been arrested and detained by the RCMP at the request of the American D.E.A. because he sells seeds of bad plants, some of which, (it is alleged) find their way into America. Extradition procedings will commence soon.
Really.
One wonders, of course, why the US D.E.A. doesn't do the same thing with the drug lords in Colombia. The fraud schemers in Nigeria. The child molester tourists in Thialand. There are all kinds of America laws being broken in many countries acround the globe.
We Canadians violate them daily, we are all dangerous criminals in the eyes of white-hat America.
- Perhaps the RCMP could arrest the Purdy's chocolate company because in Idaho, the law states all boxes of candy given as romantic gifts must weigh more than 50 pounds.
Egads, Valentine's day terror for cheap husbands!
- At last, a reason to arrest all those register-resisting gun hawks in Alberta because in Connorsville, Wisconsin a man is legally prohibited from shooting a gun while his female partner is having an orgasm. It doesn't say anything about who she's having the orgasm with!
- No matter what you thought of your old miserable uncle, you must remain civil in his death, because in Texas, it is illegal to curse in front of, or indecently expose oneself to a corpse. I guess old Harold Ballard will face the courts of America for pissing on Lenin's tomb in Moscow and calling him a bastard. Wait a minute, speak only good of Harold and keep your pisser in your pants, Ballard is dead now too!
- Maybe the RCMP will arrest all Canadians because in Minnesota it is illegal to have sex in any other position other than missionary. Perverts all of you. Go to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect lawyers fees. For shame.

Will we extradite all same-sex marriage couples to the USA for persecution too?
Is Paul Martin still considering decriminalizing the possession of marijuana?

UPDATE: Recently on the TV show, To Serve and Protect, the RCMP had to intermediate a squabble between a man and wife. As the cop discussed the situation, he asked about drinking or marijuana use and the 'person of interest' showed the police constable his small stash of pot in a baggie, the Mountie checked it, and GAVE IT BACK TO THE MAN! Then told them to behave and went about his business! This is an example of the de facto unagitated attitude of our Canadian police.
I love our Mounties!