fur trade: p-bears, beavis & chinese khats&dawgs

There is talk (Senator Eaton) of changing Canada's official emblem, national symbol, from a beaver-vagina (see: slang and merkins) to a polar bear.

The beaver has a long history, with the Hudson's Bay Company:

By the year 1600, the need for more beaver fur exploded. European beavers were dying out because of over-hunting, and new fashions, like hats, used lots of beaver felt. Which was why the discovery of the North American beaver was like a miracle to hat-makers! source 

***IDSTURBING***
In China, "When the fur is finally peeled off over the animals' heads, their hairless, bloody bodies are thrown onto a pile of those who have gone before them. Some are still alive, breathing in ragged gasps and blinking slowly. Some of the animals' hearts are still beating five to 10 minutes after they are skinned. One investigator recorded a skinned raccoon dog on the heap of carcasses who had enough strength to lift his bloodied head and stare into the camera." source: PETA

"CONDITIONS IN CHINA
Millions of dommestic dogs and cats plus rabbits, foxes, coyotes, mink, raccoons and other animals are suffering unconscionable treatment and agonozing death in China where there are no animal welfare laws. Dogs and cats for example are being crushed into barbed wired cages for transport to slaughter and forced to lay on each other for days with no food or water.

"MISLABELED FUR
Stores across the world are selling mislabeled fur from these dogs, cats, rabbits and other animals in China.  China supplies more than half of the finished fur garments imported for sale in the United States. The fur products on store shelves are from these same animals and range from purses to key chain accessories to collar accents to coats and more.  You can help support the abolishment of animal cruelty by not buying or waering any fur products." source

9/17/35 - mackay repatriation flites

Sept 28, 2011. "In approximately 50 per cent of the total challenger flights minister MacKay has taken, he has taken these flights to attend the repatriation of fallen military personnel," spokesman Jay Paxton told CTV News in an email.

CTV probe reveals Peter MacKay's $3M jet tab

However, documents show that out of 35 flights, only nine were for repatriation ceremonies. In fact, many of the flights were for press conferences and political announcements. article

"Peace Tower flag won't be lowered for military deaths," April 24, 2006

In 2006: The Conservative government says from now on the flag atop the Peace Tower in Ottawa will not be lowered to half-mast in honour of fallen Canadian soldiers... For more than 80 years Canada honoured its war dead by lowering flags on federal buildings on Remembrance Day. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien changed that in April 2002, when 4 Canadian soldiers were killed by U.S. bombs in Afghanistan. article

press release: atomic radiation is more harmful to women

NEW BRIEFING PAPER FROM NIRS: ATOMIC RADIATION IS MORE HARMFUL TO WOMEN
Nuclear Information & Resource Service
October 18, 2011
For Immediate Release

Excerpt: Women as a group suffer significantly more from the impact of ionizing radiation than do men. Today Nuclear Information and Resource Service published a Briefing Paper that focuses on a dramatic fifty-percent greater incidence of cancer and fifty-percent greater rate of death from cancer among women, compared to the same radiation dose level to men. To be clear: males suffer cancer and cancer death from exposure to ionizing radiation; but gender difference in the level of harm has been to date underreported.

like banking regs, conservatives ♥ black-footed ferrets

Press Release
Government of Canada Marks Third Release of black-footed Ferrets in Grasslands National Park
Endangered Species Bringing Canadians Together
Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, October 19, 2011– On the occasion of the third release of black-footed ferrets onto the Canadian prairies in Grasslands National Park, the Honourable Peter Kent, Canada's Environment Minister and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, today acknowledged the continued success of this species at risk program.

Grasslands National Park is gaining 15 black-footed ferrets
Wednesday as Parks Canada sends the group into the wild. source

Disingenuous: Stephen Harper has always supported bank deregulation and here and...

USA: Black-footed Ferret: The Comeback Kid Celebrates 30 Years of Rediscovery
Grasslands National Park: Grasslands National Park designated The Darkest Dark Sky Preserve, Oct '09

old man - redlight king

railroad spike

Redlight King.

"Old Man" is not a cover but rather offers up a reluctant salute to his own father, a larger-than-life figure who taught school by day and raced stock cars at night, while paying homage to rock icon Neil Young's song of the same name. source

Old Man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGt54Ozo8LQ

speculation: racist hate crime? wai ho tam

This is awful. In July 14, 2010, an old man is going for a walk, then sits at a bus stop to rest (Wai Ho Tam, 79). Some cow comes along and knocks off his baseball cap, and he goes to pick it up. She shoves him, he falls, and hits his head on the sidewalk. The old man is taken to the hospital, and later moved to a longterm care facility - due to that injury! - where he dies. RIP: March 17, 2011.

Coincidentally, it appears to have happened during Calgary Stampede, July 9-18, 2010. Police say drugs and alcohol are not a factor and they don't suspect a hate crime, either, but who would really say.

flood stories: so, anyway

After that terrible, absurd summer - graduations, finals, work as displaced persons - we moved, again, to another neighborhood, and worked to get our bearings with schools, bus routes, the fostered pets back, furniture, groceries, paid off the extra bills and the rest of it like fucking real estate prices and high rent and the landlord on rent-to-own that wasn't. Life started to feel a bit like camping. After a summer of endless laundry and sorting, salvage, some things I just put away, and have been going through recently.

Next thing you know, about the one year anniversary of our big change, there's shocking city news, family murder-suicide, several blocks away! Well, big fucking brouhaha welcome, let me say, fucking dead fucking kids and mom and tenant journalism student or gory whatever and I'd NEVER be cozily buried beside an SOB who murdered my kids but people are weird and that wasn't a very nice omen, which was followed by shocking national news of a strange decapitation on a Greyhound bus, and it all makes one wonder, is all I can say, what with the mysterious hum.

I would have moved sooner, as rent prices started to fall a bit, but at some point there was some stability to factor in, on account of the schools and kids' friends etc. And look, was that Mike Harris on the Enmax Board of Directors re those ridiculous bills at those all of homes, temporary and otherwise, that summer?

On June 8, 1995 Mike Harris became the twenty-second Premier of Ontario following a landslide election victory. In 1999, he was re-elected — making him the first Ontario Premier in over 30 years to form a second consecutive majority government. source

Oh never mind, there was a shake up there already. Yeah, so the old property flooded again. That makes twice in four years, a river through the front door. The new house flooded, too, just in the basement, several times and 2x over Christmas break in 2009, due to what appeared to be periodic root/sewer problems or somethiing, so we threw things out again, decided to move, just as soon as I recovered from a goddamned nervous water housing breakdown.

That was that. None of us is the same.

violence: calgary stampede (july 8-17, 2011)

Wild West: It has come to my attention that there is a lot of violence during Stampede. It seems that young men see it as a time to get liquored, with the sole intention of fighting. They roam around in gangs. My story about a loved one, who was freshly home from school, in another city, which I relay:

He was quite excited to see his friends, bought himself a cowboy shirt, took his girl and they went out. The sad part is that he was happy to be back in Calgary. After a random beer bottle was flung in their direction, while the couple faced each other, so behind my son's back, and after a hearty, drunken 'Fuck you' (uttered by my son), the dudester came towards them, whipping off his black t-shirt, at which time this couple turned to walk (or stumble) away, because they surmised that dudester was a... nutbar?

And so, the dudester barreled into him from behind, knocked him down. As he started to get up to fight, my son was kicked in the face. ("Curb-stomped," as is the parlance.) The rest is about the ambulance, the presence-of-mind and later disturbed girlfriend who hadn't seen gushing blood until that, the dental surgery, smashed face, so it's lucky the jaw wasn't broken. My other son was so outraged, says it happens all the time and he doesn't even engage in the [whatever it is]. Yes, men will be men.

As an aside, the medical costs are not covered (to reset the teeth) and they'll probably be, say, 2G. There is a program in Alberta for victims of crime, and we were sent the financial benefits package in July, to which we will apply when all the costs are totaled; they're still in process.

Another person I spoke with said the atmosphere downtown was disgusting: the business suits in drunken vomit and stench, so that person isn't too interested in the big annual event, either.

occupy wall street, chris hedges & the man in the yellow...

Tie. Video. So, first Obama says with some gravity that all across main street and so on, and is followed by this interview: Mr. Whoever Obnoxious and Mr. Cogent (guest), on CBC news.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author Chris Hedges
talks about the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement.

Chris Hedges interview: October 6, 2011.

gory update on bears

See: gud year 4bearies (Sept 29) 4sum strange, primitive, so-called wildlife management, or so it seams.

Compare:

http://www.canmore.ca/About-Canmore/Wildlife/

The Bow Valley WildSmart program is a proactive conservation strategy that encourages efforts by communities to reduce negative human - wildlife interactions.

coyote paws, SK $20 bounty '10 & custer

Alberta: "The carcasses were found with their paws cut off near Cypress Hills Provincial Park, which straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border and is about 80 kilometres southeast of Medicine Hat, Alta." source

The Cypress Hills are where Sitting Bull went, after The Battle of Little Bighorn (Battle of the Greasy Grass), June 25-26, 1876.

http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Saskatchewan/sitting_bull.htm

As a medicine man, he was shot in a double cross December 15, 1890, which was followed by Wounded Knee on December 28.

Wrzesnewskyj, CSIS, china, ignatieff and wheat

CSIS director Richard Fadden and foreign interference (June 2, 2011).

Wrzesnewskyj at Future Bakery

He had compiled a list of people who would testify before the committee, along with evidence—including a sworn affidavit from a former Chinese consular official in Australia—that substantiated Fadden’s claims that some mayors and provincial ministers may be under Chinese influence. ("Former MP Says Ignatieff Quashed Chinese Influence Questions," Sept. 29, 2011)

Gaye Delorme died this summer

http://www.gigcity.ca/2011/06/25/gaye-delorme-one-of-the-best-there-was

Gay Delorme died suddenly (June 24) at age 64: 'some incredible slide through a Purdy TD-55 Tweed,' wrote Earache My Guitar Metal with Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin, Sailor Sailor '99... more.

Wiki: In the early 1970s he led a Jimi Hendrix-styled power trio called The Window in Edmonton, Alberta. During this period, he could also be heard in jazz jams around town, or at the Hovel folk club. He moved from Edmonton to Calgary and played in country bands there for a few years, until forming another trio to play his original rock and blues oriented tunes to play the dance club scene in Alberta.

rhinos, desmond tutu 2/2, china & a no tibetan b-day party guest

China put some pressure on the South African government of Jacob Zuma. Desmond Tutu invited His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to his 80th birthday party.The Dalai Lama had to cancel, no entry visa. Desmond Tutu about it: video.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe tried to tamp down the dispute, telling The Star newspaper that South Africa was ready to grant the Dalai Lama a visa when the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader decided to cancel the trip. source

Also, recently, South African 'Groenewald Gang' expected in court tomorrow (Sept 29, 2011) from Rhino Horn is Not Medicine and more about illegal trade:

http://www.rhinoconservation.org/2011/08/03/cookies-crafts-and-cocktails-fresh-ideas-for-world-rhino-day-2011/

spelunking of immolation: 2railroads & china

Canadians helped China with theirs (Qinghai–Xizang railway, Bombardier, China-Tibet) by providing special cars. Chinese-Tibetan folk singer Han Hong has a song called Tianlu, Road to Heaven; 天路, praising the railway.

China-Tibet railway

And the Chinese built ours (not allowed in picture).

The last spike, Craigallachie (Nov 7, 1885)

Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act

See: More protest against harsh Chinese rule.

Wiki:  From 1959 to 1964, Tibetan guerrillas were secretly trained at Camp Hale by the CIA. The Tibetan project was codenamed ST Circus, and it was similar to the CIA operation that trained dissident Cubans in what later became the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

At the time of the sexytime Bob Dechert emails with a Xinhua reporter, the federal government's primary announcement of the day, and anouncements they are, no questions please, was Aglukkaq's appeal for Somalia.