I get a chuckle whenever I see Victoria’s Green Meanies rumbling around town in their armored personnel carriers, or anonymously staking out the McDonald’s parking lot
you know? the burly guys in those unmarked Ford sedans, painted a shade of military green no one else has bought for 2 decades, with big bars on the passenger windows, more antennae than marked patrol cars have, a black bullhorn on the front bumper, and those silly tiny hubcaps you only see on cop cars? in Québec they run snow tires year-round
now that’s camouflage, eh! do these guys really think they’re "undercover"? they’re about as subtle as the helicopters that buzz James Bay non-stop with klieg lights blasting into backyards and through living room windows every time there’s a couple of people around the inner harbour or someone’s held up the 7-11
somehow I find the Green Meanies more menacing than marked patrol cars; you can’t miss the fact they’re police, so why the camo? because they want to send the subliminal message “We are Everywhere!” why don’t they buy the bumpersticker?
don’t believe in the police state?
link:
www.planetfriendly.net/police.html
and if you ride a bike in Calgary, better buy a damn good radar detector
link:
www.ffwdweekly.com/article/news-views/news/city-cracks-down-speeding-cyclists
btw, speaking of anonymous self-serving omnipotent authority, The Orwell Trust has started posting George’s diaries, 70 years later to the day; George Orwell [né Eric Arthur Blair] foresaw the Big Brother syndrome in his best-known work, Nineteen Eighty-Four, published less than 5 years into the Cold War
the diaries started in early August 1938; he was home from the Spanish Civil War after 6 months recuperating in Morocco, just in time to watch the early days of Europe’s descent into evil; they begin dully, with misty days and snakes in Blair’s English garden, but I’m looking forward to the political comments which start in September
link:
orwelldiaries.wordpress.com
more next time
Blessed Be
20080829
20080825
Remember Robin Long?
we deported the US war resister in July, first time that’s happened in Canada
during the war in VietNam we allowed nearly 30,000 US draft dodgers into Canada and about half of them stayed, even after Jimmy Carter gave them amnesty in 1977 and welcomed them home
Alternet.org says there are an estimated 200 US soldiers in Canada today, and 64% of us would give them permanent residence, according to a June 27 Angus Reid poll; Parliament passed a resolution June 3 to stop deporting GIs and let them apply for permanent residency; the Harper administration has so far ignored the resolution
Robin was charged in Colorado Springs with desertion; he was sentenced Aug 25 to 15 months in a US jail
links:
www.alternet.org
Vietnam War Resisters in Canada
more next time
Blessed Be
during the war in VietNam we allowed nearly 30,000 US draft dodgers into Canada and about half of them stayed, even after Jimmy Carter gave them amnesty in 1977 and welcomed them home
Alternet.org says there are an estimated 200 US soldiers in Canada today, and 64% of us would give them permanent residence, according to a June 27 Angus Reid poll; Parliament passed a resolution June 3 to stop deporting GIs and let them apply for permanent residency; the Harper administration has so far ignored the resolution
Robin was charged in Colorado Springs with desertion; he was sentenced Aug 25 to 15 months in a US jail
links:
www.alternet.org
Vietnam War Resisters in Canada
more next time
Blessed Be
20080824
It's an astrology map
I’ve changed the title on the link at the bottom of the blog, trying to make the description of the astrology map clearer [tnx C]
to explain further, this is what your birth chart would look like if you were born in Seattle a few minutes ago; the chart is updated every time you come back to SpiderLines
thus, this is the Cosmic energy we are all dealing with now (i.e. whenever you’re reading this)
weather forecasts tell you if Gaia will rain on your picnic, astrology maps tell you whether everyone likes you, or wants to bite off your head!
as I write, Mars is square Moon and will be for several days, so I [we?] need to be aware of and be prepared for our nearly twice-monthly subconscious wave of irritability, with varying levels of individual awareness and/or mindfulness
if you understand how astrological aspects affect you, this map helps you chart current transits, because it’s a real-time illustration of where the planets are now
if you need help, check out the links on my astrology website:
members.shaw.ca/ravenastrology/welcome.html
more next time
Blessed Be
to explain further, this is what your birth chart would look like if you were born in Seattle a few minutes ago; the chart is updated every time you come back to SpiderLines
thus, this is the Cosmic energy we are all dealing with now (i.e. whenever you’re reading this)
weather forecasts tell you if Gaia will rain on your picnic, astrology maps tell you whether everyone likes you, or wants to bite off your head!
as I write, Mars is square Moon and will be for several days, so I [we?] need to be aware of and be prepared for our nearly twice-monthly subconscious wave of irritability, with varying levels of individual awareness and/or mindfulness
if you understand how astrological aspects affect you, this map helps you chart current transits, because it’s a real-time illustration of where the planets are now
if you need help, check out the links on my astrology website:
members.shaw.ca/ravenastrology/welcome.html
more next time
Blessed Be
20080821
Welcome …
… to my patch of the Web!
can’t tell you what to expect in future postings, I’ve never written a blog before, and I have extensive and eclectic interests, so, anything could appear
before I continue, sorry [though not really] about the lack of capitals and the sloppy punctuation; you’re lucky it’s not text messaging, or wireservice shorthand; welcome to the future!
as PBS said in the 60s & 70s, before laptops replaced console TVs as communication / entertainment centres [that’s Canadian spelling, btw], you can always change the channel [today, that would be website]
this is a journal, a new, third level for me; I started with a personal journal [not the same thing as a diary] which led to my Book of Shadows, a kind of private, magical journal; SpiderLines is an interactive public journal, and one influenced or inspired mostly by things I come across on the Web
spiders? webs? Wicked Witch of… get it? actually, The Wicked Witch of the Web first started writing SpiderLines as a column for Victoria’s Lavender Rhinoceros magazine near the end of the 20th Century; it was a monthly digest of Internet postings I came across about news and issues important to the GBLT community
if my blog settings are right, and all the links are working when you visit, this page includes a moon-phase widget, a Google newsfeed and, at the bottom, an astrology chart of what the zodiac looks like now from the Pacific Northwest; click the chart for a larger image
to start things off, these are some of the links I’ve bookmarked recently for my own reading that I think others may find stimulating
for example, those interested in US politics may find this Utne Reader article Supreme Warlord of the Earth interesting; it suggests the US is stuck with an imperial presidency under which executive powers grow at the expense of civil liberties
link: www.utne.com/2008-09-01/Politics/Supreme-Warlord-of-the-Earth.aspx?utm_medium=email&utm_source=iPost
speaking of the presidency, did you know one of McCain’s POW prison-mates says John’s one of the last people who should be allowed to make decisions about nuclear warfare?
link:
www.alternet.org
and speaking of eliti$m, I liked Iglika Ivanova’s article on The Tyee about Working Below the Poverty Line
link:
thetyee.ca/Views/2008/08/19/MinimumWageHike
more next time
Blessed Be
… to my patch of the Web!
can’t tell you what to expect in future postings, I’ve never written a blog before, and I have extensive and eclectic interests, so, anything could appear
before I continue, sorry [though not really] about the lack of capitals and the sloppy punctuation; you’re lucky it’s not text messaging, or wireservice shorthand; welcome to the future!
as PBS said in the 60s & 70s, before laptops replaced console TVs as communication / entertainment centres [that’s Canadian spelling, btw], you can always change the channel [today, that would be website]
this is a journal, a new, third level for me; I started with a personal journal [not the same thing as a diary] which led to my Book of Shadows, a kind of private, magical journal; SpiderLines is an interactive public journal, and one influenced or inspired mostly by things I come across on the Web
spiders? webs? Wicked Witch of… get it? actually, The Wicked Witch of the Web first started writing SpiderLines as a column for Victoria’s Lavender Rhinoceros magazine near the end of the 20th Century; it was a monthly digest of Internet postings I came across about news and issues important to the GBLT community
if my blog settings are right, and all the links are working when you visit, this page includes a moon-phase widget, a Google newsfeed and, at the bottom, an astrology chart of what the zodiac looks like now from the Pacific Northwest; click the chart for a larger image
to start things off, these are some of the links I’ve bookmarked recently for my own reading that I think others may find stimulating
for example, those interested in US politics may find this Utne Reader article Supreme Warlord of the Earth interesting; it suggests the US is stuck with an imperial presidency under which executive powers grow at the expense of civil liberties
link: www.utne.com/2008-09-01/Politics/Supreme-Warlord-of-the-Earth.aspx?utm_medium=email&utm_source=iPost
speaking of the presidency, did you know one of McCain’s POW prison-mates says John’s one of the last people who should be allowed to make decisions about nuclear warfare?
link:
www.alternet.org
and speaking of eliti$m, I liked Iglika Ivanova’s article on The Tyee about Working Below the Poverty Line
link:
thetyee.ca/Views/2008/08/19/MinimumWageHike
more next time
Blessed Be
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