Just Another Day in the Sandbox for Canada’s Parliament

Managing a country isn’t easy, which is why we hope those we elect into our governments are more than capable of doing the job.

Though if you’ve been watching Canada’s federal government the past few years, you might be shaking your head in disgust.

For the past few years, federal politicians in Canada have tried to resolve their differences by shutting down Parliament and calling snap elections. When elections weren’t called, the threats of them were held over our heads, as one political party claimed they just couldn’t work with the other.

The latest childish-acting out by Canada’s ruling party hasn’t forced an election, but might as well have, because it has a similar effect.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party has prorogued Parliament. This is what usually happens after an election, essentially wiping clean all un-passed bills or motions, allowing the politicians to start with a clean slate. Any bills or motions which weren’t voted on prior to the proroguing must be re-presented and voted on.

As proroguing usually happens after an election, we think nothing of it, because it allows the newly elected or re-elected government a chance to start the business of governing.

But when it is called in the middle of a government’s rule, there is reason to be concerned.

In this case, Prime Minister Harper’s government called the prorogue of Parliament because an economic statement they made alienated the opposition.
So, rather than trying to explain themselves, their actions and taking the enormous responsibility of governing seriously, they threw their hands up in the air, and decided to erase their controversial economic statement, so that they could start from scratch.

Just when you think the federal Canadian government has done the most childish thing unbecoming a group of professional politicians, there they go doing something completely different, but even more childish than before.

Makes you wonder just how far will these adults go, in their childish ways?

Far worse than embarrassing Canada on the world stage – which has already happened as we have seen by the reaction of many world leaders to Prime Minister Harper’s lateness for a photo opportunity during the last meeting of the G-20 – the other world leaders just laughed it off, in a “oh that’s just the bumbling Prime Minister Harper for you,” way – far worse than that, the business of governing constantly falls by the wayside. Things just don’t get done, because our federal politicians are too wrapped-up in their own childish antics, constantly trying to one-up the other, rather than doing the right thing.

And the right thing for any politician, municipal, provincial, state or federal, is to ensure the business of the government gets done.

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Where Would We Be Without Homer Simpson?

Last night, the FOX television network celebrated The Simpson’s 20 anniversary by airing a documentary – some might say mockumentary – on the famed prime-time cartoon show.

They even got documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, known for Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden and Supersize Me to put together the hour-long, made for television look back at the longest running television show so far.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a supersized Simpson’s fan. I never miss an episode; occasionally participating in the discussion forums online, racking my brain on Simpson’s trivia, and even purchasing Simpson’s merchandise.

Every Sunday night on FOX, I tune in to watch Homer, Marge, Bart, Maggie, Lisa, Grandpa and the rest of the townsfolk go about their lives in the fictional town of Springfield.

But last night’s anniversary special raised an interesting question – where would we be without the show?

Spurlock asked this of several celebrities and show producers. Musician Sting said he didn’t want to think about a world without the show – he’s appeared on a few episodes. The show’s creator Matt Groening says he’d probably be working in a mundane job, doing cartoons mocking his bosses during his breaks. One of the show’s voice actors smugly said he’d be a lot poorer.

But the question isn’t so much where would the world be without this cartoon television show, rather, it raises the question, where would we be without the escapes of television, movies, and other forms of entertainment?

If we really did live in a world which was all work and no play, then more than just Homer Simpson would go crazy.

We’d all go nuts, because we’d have nothing to really live for other than our work. And no matter how much you love your job, we all need some down time.
Scientists for years have been telling us we all need love in our lives to function.
There is more and more proof that we – being social animals – depend on the simple loving touch of a hug to be, otherwise we end up angry, aggressive, and dysfunctional.

So where would we be without Homer Simpson – or rather television?

Wherever that would be, it wouldn’t be good.

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Flying Naked – Full Body Scanners Come to Canada

Canada’s federal Transportation Minister John Baird held a press conference yesterday, where he announced the installation of 44 clothing-penetrating, full body scanners at 11 Canadian airports within the next two-months.

These scanners create a three-dimensional image of a person’s naked body, allowing airport security officers to see you in your birthday suit.

Though not all passengers will be seen sans clothes. Considered an alternative to a physical search, Government officials say these devices will only be used on passengers 18-years-old and older, that security feels merit a secondary screening.

These full body scanners were already being tested in Kelowna, British Columbia, off Canada’s west-coast, and will now be in use at airports in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and in Vancouver.

At a cost of $250,000 CDN a pop, this is no small investment for the Canadian government, but since the Christmas Day attack aboard a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit, the Canadian government is following the lead of the American government and ramping up airport security.

Or is the Canadian government just doing what our American big brother wants us to do?

American authorities want Canada, and all other countries around the world, to do quite a bit to keep America safe.

Using clothing-penetrating full body scanners raises numerous privacy concerns – essentially it allows complete strangers to take and store digital images of you completely naked. Though Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart says she approved the scanners only on the condition that the security officer viewing these naked full body images be in a separate room, and never actually see the passenger being screened. She also demanded that the digital image would have to be deleted once the passenger leaves the airport.

However, there are no guarantees that the federal Privacy Commissioner’s conditions will always be followed. Once a digital image is created, it can be copied, moved and stored pretty much anywhere. Just because it is deleted off the originating machine which created it, doesn’t mean it is gone for good.

When these clothing-penetrating full body scanners were first announced in the U.S., one of the immediate concerns was naked images of celebrities “suddenly” being found online for sale on places such as eBay.

And you don’t have to be famous to end up naked on eBay – anyone could fall victim to this.

So far, this hasn’t happened, but then these devices are relatively new, just starting to make their way into American and Canadian airports.

One of the less discussed, but just as personally intrusive requests the American government is placing on all countries is the sharing of passenger information.
The American government has sent formal requests to countries which have airlines flying planes across American airspace, requesting personal passenger information -- even if those passengers will never land at an American airport.
This personal information includes full legal names, citizenship, birth date, and destination.

There hasn’t been any indication of what action – if any – American authorities would take having this information. They could advise or warn other countries and/or airlines of possible persons of interest. Or a more drastic action would be to ban specific planes from flying through American airspace if American authorities don’t like one or more of the passengers or crew. And American authorities have been vague with just how long they would keep this information, and for what purposes.

So far, Canadian and many European countries have refused to provide this information for their passengers – it’s been a year since the Americans made the request. But with increased security measures being taken worldwide because of the recent Christmas Day terror incident, the American government could begin demanding this information, restricting air travel through American airspace to airlines which comply.

This would create chaos at airports around the world, as flights were delayed or canceled completely because of the new American airspace restrictions.

And even with all these new security measures in place, we still will never be completely safe. As soon as a security measure is taken, you can almost guarantee someone, somewhere around the world is working on ways to bypass it.

The only real way to prevent terrorism is to stop it in its tracks. George W. Bush coined the phrase the “war on terror,” and that in a literal sense is what it is – a war.

Although former U.S. President Bush’s “war” was questionable – he and his team falsified documents to justify attacking Iraq, claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (which he didn’t) and he sent troops to Afghanistan to “get Bin Laden,” but he never did, nor has anyone else.

The only real way to prevent terrorism is to win the war. Adding security at airports only challenges the terrorists to go further, and incites them to try harder. To win the war, we have to capture and imprison those who recruit, train and motivate people to do terrorist acts, and we have to capture and imprison those who have been recruited, trained and motivated to do these acts.

Until then, clothing-penetrating full body scanners and the sharing of personal passenger information may slow the terrorists down, but it will not stop them.

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Put On a Little Weight, Get Kicked Off Dating Site

Put on a little extra weight over the holidays? Don’t go to BeautifulPeople.com, they won’t let you in their virtual doors.

BeautifulPeople.com – a self-proclaimed elite dating site for only the best of the best looking – just cut about 5,000 people’s accounts, claiming because of their holiday weight-gain, they no longer qualify for membership.

“Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded,” says the person who created this online dating site, Robert Hintze.

Online dating sites are among the most popular and successful businesses to survive the “dot.com” bubble which went bust in the mid 1990’s. Surfing the net for that special someone is easy and usually a lot less painful than getting shot down in a bar.

Not so with BeautifulPeople.com – you can get shot down before they even let you on their site. Eager new wanna-be members must fill out a profile, complete with a picture. Current members vote on those requesting membership, and only if your profile and photo get enough votes do you get to join the online site.

Once on the site, you have to maintain the highest standards of – well – beautiful people – and that’s where 1,520 Americans, 832 British members, 533 Canadians and a handful of others from around the world – totalling about 5,000 people -- fell short. The online dating site threw these people out of their online dating site, advising them how to get back into shape. The company says once these people lose the excess weight they gained over the holidays, they can re-apply for membership.

Makes you wonder how long the relationships last which are formed from the BeautifulPeople.com website – because although we all are attracted to looks on some level, looks only go so far. Even the most beautiful people can be the most annoying, most devious, the most obnoxious, the most hateful – beauty doesn’t mean they don’t have their faults.

Only one in five applicants receives membership on the dating site, according to a statement from the company.

Guess most of us just aren’t all that beautiful.

What is the Internet coming too?

Years ago, a website went up where married and involved people could go to find others interested in cheating on their significant others. Website AshleyMadison.com – who’s slogan is “life’s short, have an affair,” says it is the world’s premier discreet dating service, giving us all the opportunity to hurt the ones we love.

Now, we have dating websites where you are judged mostly on looks, by complete strangers, before you can even join their online community.

What’s next, where do we as a society draw the line? How much more of a Jerry Springer-type world must we sink into, before enough is enough?

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Scam Watch: No Change No Problem

There’s a new scam circulating right in front of our noses – or more likely knocking at our front doors. Even worse, we’re letting these scammers into our homes without even suspecting them.

Fast food delivery men and women show up at your door, with your piping hot pizza, Chinese food, fried chicken, or whatever else it is you ordered, and when you promptly offer to pay, they suddenly exclaim that they are sorry, but they don’t have any change.

This scam almost made my pizza dinner last week of $23.40 cost me $40. All I had were twenty dollar bills, and the Dominoes Pizza delivery man at the door apologized, but said he hadn’t any change. I offered to put it on my credit card, but he said he couldn’t do it, because it had originally been ordered as a cash delivery.

The delivery driver then asks for the $40, and says he’ll go and get change – but you never hear or see from him again. Sure, you have your fast food, but you just gave the delivery driver a $16.60 tip (that’s a tip of 41.5 percent!), because when you call the pizza place and complain, they inform you that the delivery driver denies it all, and shows from his returned receipts that you paid the exact amount. Now it’s your word against the delivery driver, and the fast food company – having been paid for their products and services – stands behind their employee.

An alternative play on this scam, is the delivery driver takes your $40, and tells you next time you call, they will credit your next order the outstanding amount owing to you. But again, when you call and place your order, requesting this “credit” you find out that there is no credit, not even a record of what was said between you and the delivery driver. Again you are out $16.60 (using our numbers from above, but if you ordered more or less your numbers would differ).

This isn’t the first time I was made a victim to this scam, so I wasn’t going to let it happen again. Last time I lost $10 on a pizza order with another pizza place.
This time, I simply gave the driver the $20, and told him when he brought change for the other $20 (for $40 in total) I’d give him the remainder. At first he was adamant that I overpay him – because that is the whole nature of this scam – but once burned, twice shy, so the saying goes.

Begrudgingly, he took off with the $20, and surprisingly within five-minutes he came back with the change for a $40 payment. So I gave him the second $20 and took the change he provided.

Delivering fast food isn’t the most glamorous of gigs, and usually I tip my fast food delivery drivers for their time and effort. But when they pull scams like this, they’ll be lucky if I don’t call the police.

Though the cops can’t help much in these scams. Again, it is all based on a quick conversation at your front door between you and the delivery driver. All the police can do, is advise you to talk to a lawyer – and with the average lawyer costing about $100/hour, you’d lose more money doing just that. Even small claims court usually has a filing fee above $50 in most Canadian provinces, not worth the investment for a loss of under $20.

Quite the clever scam, but we’re on to you Mr. and Ms. Fast Food Delivery Person.
Problem is, from our research, this scam isn’t that uncommon. Others have fallen victim to this fast food delivery scam, happily giving the scammers several times more money than their orders cost, with a promise of either receiving the change soon, or a credit on their next order, only to find that neither promise will ever be fulfilled.

One could argue that there probably are instances where delivery drivers legitimately are out of change; however, delivering your fast food quickly is only part of the job. Being able to make change for common denominations is just as important as getting that food to you. And when they really can’t, honesty goes a long way towards keeping loyal customers coming back, or leaving for the competition.

From now on, despite the ease of home delivery, it may be best to go and pick up fast food yourself, or if you must order take-out, put it on a credit card.

NEVER give a delivery driver more than you intend to pay for your order unless they can provide the change immediately -- no matter what they say -- because if you do, you just kissed that money good-bye.

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We're Back!

Welcome to 2010!

Jordan's Daily -- Almost! took a bit of a breather over the holidays. We all need a break, even us nutty newsie muckrackers.

But we are back in full swing, covering hot topics in current affairs from a straight, no bull point of view. We'll keep you in the know about what is really going on around you, in plain English, and with lots of analysis breaking the news into bite-sized pieces for easy digestion.

From the latest in American, European and Canadian politics, to cool high-tech gadgets, gizmos and the wonders of the cosmos, to right here down on planet Earth, we'll give you glimpses into your world just not available in the traditional news media.

Last year, Jordan's Daily -- Almost! grew -- thanks to you, our loyal readers. We added new widgets to apply keywords and related articles automatically to all our posts, giving you even more sources for related information. We redesigned the layout to make this thing easier on your web-soaked eyes. And we were even ranked number one international political blog, and we're constantly in the top 500 of the most active Twitter posters in our hometown of Toronto, Canada.

We'll make more changes, and possibly bring home some more awards in 2010 -- but the main focus of this place isn't to be best in some ranking sites' eyes -- we want to be the best in YOUR eyes. The eyes of our readers.

We'll continue to tackle the issues from an easy-to-understand, no bull perspective. And we'll continue to listen to you, our dedicated readers, for story ideas, opinions, and more, to make this place the best it can be for you.

We always welcome your thoughts, ideas, rants and raves. Email us directly at jordansdaily@columnist.com, join us and debate the issues on our Facebook fan site, and keep current on the latest by following @jordansdaily on Twitter.

To the hundreds of regular readers, to the 25 or so that stop in on a semi-regular basis just to poke around and see what's new, to those newbies that just managed to land here while surfing the net -- t h a n k y o u for reading Jordan's Daily -- Almost!

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Toronto Humane Society – Humane Care?

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Last November, Canada’s largest city witnessed something most unusual – the very people charged with taking care of the city’s injured and abandoned animals was itself facing charges of animal cruelty.

On November 26, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) and officers from the Toronto Police Service raided the Toronto Humane Society’s River Street shelter. They claimed the shelter was no place for the humane treatment of animals, as they carted off numerous cats and dogs which were kept in overcrowded conditions. There were reports that some of the animals were in such cramped conditions, they were sleeping in their own feces and urine.

Five of the highest ranked Toronto Humane Society leaders – including former President Tim Trow – were charged with animal cruelty.

Today, the employees charged were allowed back inside the animal shelter, for the first time since this oddball case erupted.

What’s really odd about this is the fact that the Toronto Humane Society might not be the safest place for a sick, injured or abandoned animal.

Every summer, there are always stories about some jerk-ass that leaves his poor dog sweating in a car with all the windows closed on one of the hottest days of the year. People like that deserve to be charged with animal cruelty, and banned forever from ever owning a pet.

But those who work and volunteer at animal shelters usually are the least likely to be suspected of animal cruelty – if we suspect them of anything, it is having a big heart where our four-legged friends are concerned.

So how did one of the largest domestic animal shelters in Canada end up facing animal cruelty charges?

The problem isn’t the hearts of those managing the Toronto Humane Society, or rather – it is their hearts, just in a different kind of way.

The philosophy of the Toronto Humane Society has been for some time, to avoid euthanizing animals as much as possible – keep the stray and abandoned animals. Not a bad philosophy, and it shows just how big the hearts of those running the Toronto Humane Society are.

Most shelters will keep strays and abandoned animals only for a set period of time, hoping someone adopts the animals before the time runs out.

The Toronto Humane Society’s philosophy, while their hearts are in the right place, actually causes more harm than good. Because eventually, as more animals end up at the shelter, overcrowding ensues, and you end up with a shelter not fit for any living thing.

Yes, it is always hard to end a cute cat or dog’s life – but sleeping in one’s own urine and feces isn’t any better. In fact it is worse, because that’s how diseases spread, not just among the animals, but there is also a health risk to the staff, the volunteers and the visitors to the shelter as well.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) originated in a cat in China, and quickly spread around the globe. Germ warfare once was only a human-made thing, now we really do live in a society where all living things are at greater risks of spreading microscopic killing machines across species. Thanks to our increased use of antibiotics and other medicines over the years, microbes have become more resistant to these chemical cures, and so the fear of catching something from Fluffy is a legitimate concern.

Which is why the OSPCA did the right thing in forcing a cleanup of the Toronto Humane Society. What both the OSPCA and the Toronto Humane Society really need to do is better educate the public on the enormous responsibility of pet ownership.

Animal shelters wouldn’t overflow with unwanted pets if people knew just how great a responsibility pet ownership was, before they became pet owners, and realized they weren’t able to do so.

Raising a cat or a dog is a lot like raising a child, the only difference is, eventually the child will grow up, move out and have his or her own life. A dog or a cat – or any other pet – is dependent on their owner for life, for their life.

The most “humane” society’s are the ones with the biggest public education campaigns, not the ones which overcrowd their animals, because they can’t do the right thing.

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Christmas Day Bombing and Beliefs

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Score one big victory for the terrorists, after the Christmas Day bombing attempt on an American jumbo jet just days ago.

Security – particularly in the United States – got tighter than ever before over the days, weeks, months and years following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Never in recorded history had humankind been on such a high state of alert. At one point in time, we even had to remove our shoes – our shoes – prior to boarding an airplane.

Then, just as the world’s attention was focused on the holiest day for Christians – Christmas – the world was reminded just how important these measures are, as a man lit what initial reports claimed to be “fireworks” aboard an American flight over western Canada.

One wonders how on Earth – or rather about 30,000 feet in the air – someone can even get on an airliner with anything remotely flammable with all these security precautions.

And far worse, the ramifications since the Christmas Day fire cracker stunt may have gone too far, with little effect. In some American airports, security guards are even testing baby milk brought onboard flights. Maybe if you are real nice, they’ll feed and burp your infant?

Reportedly, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was briefed weeks ago about increased terrorist activities involving bombing attempts and American-bound flights. The reports said that secret terrorist cells had devised a new way to bypass security measures to get explosives on planes, and that these terrorists were conducting training exercises to ensure success.

The recent attempt this holiday season may have been the terrorist’s first attempt or a trial as part of their training exercises.

Either way, it sure got the world’s attention.

The real problem isn’t going to be fixed by adding more security – though that will be the immediate visible solution. For every additional security measure taken, eventually those unscrupulous minds that want to do harm, will.

For every creative and innovative step taken to prevent a terrorist strike, there are just as creative and innovative people at work figuring out how to circumvent these steps.

The only real way to prevent terrorist attacks of airplanes is to stop flying. And that’ll never happen, because air travel is an important necessity in our global village.

Well, there is one other possible way to put an end to terrorist attacks – world peace. If we could only ever achieve a world that truly is at peace, then, and only then, would we ever really be safe from the harm done by those non-peaceful terrorists.

But world peace will never happen either. There is more to peace than sitting around a campfire, roasting marshmallows and singing Cume-By-Ah.

With deeply held religious beliefs – some may even go so far to call ‘em cult-like beliefs – behind many wars around the world, some wars will never end despite all the attempts at peace.

Then you have beliefs so deeply entrenched in a person’s life, they are willing to actually die for them. Like those who killed by flying planes into the World Trade Center in 2001.

Stopping a belief – no matter how wrong – is virtually impossible. A belief is the foundation towards ideas, and ideas lead to actual solutions to problems.

And those problems, for the terrorists, are how to constantly counter all the security measures so they can fulfill their beliefs. So we come full circle, over and over again.

Because the American named “war on terror” isn’t really about people, bombs, planes, or peace. It’s all about beliefs.

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Wasn’t There Any Real News?

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Today, the Canadian media declared Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the newsmaker of the year. This isn’t the first time for the Canadian leader, as he was awarded the journalistic title last year.

Granted, Harper managed to quash many political fires, saving citizens from yet another federal election – it seems we have two seasons in Canada – winter and election season. However, Harper really didn’t excel as a Canadian leader, so why did a group of journalists take the easy way out and just hand it to the same guy from last year?

Maybe that’s exactly what they did: “who should be our newsmaker of the year? Duh, I dunno, let’s just give it to the dude who won it last year, what was his name again?”

Being granted newsmaker of the year should come with some hefty reasons – I mean we’re talking newsmaker for the majority of 365-days, not just for a month, a week or a day – it’s the whole year.

Prime Minister Harper didn’t solve the hole in the ozone layer, bring about world peace, or cure cancer – but then who has? But he didn’t do what many other potential newsmakers have done, and really stand out from the crowd.

Sure he met U.S. President Barack Obama, but so did Governor General Michaelle Jean – and she actually received a personal invitation from the American president to come to his house in an unofficial capacity. Though she did alienate many when she ate a seal’s heart during a visit up in our Arctic.

What about Canadian Defence Minister Peter Mackay? Many can’t get the image of the buff politician in a skin-tight wet suit doing donuts on his ski boat out of their minds – the image is both entertaining and disturbing. He’s responsible for finally ending our part in the American invasion of Afghanistan, as he declared this year that all Canadian troops would be out of the war-torn region by 2011.


Though if we’re going to name Canada’s newsmaker based on entertainment value alone, then this year it would have to be Garth Drabinski. He’s the former Canadian theatre mogul who was fined and sentenced to prison time, for ripping us off through his Live Entertainment Corp. – also called Livent. He even received the Order of Canada back in 1995 for producing Canadian-made movies, television and theatre events. But he’s currently a jailbird after being convicted on fraud and forgery charges. Maybe in seven-years when he’s out of the slammer?

I can see just how hard it must have been for Canada’s media to find an honest, hard-working Canadian to be the newsmaker of the year.

Not many choices so far – a blood soaked Governor General with seal guts oozing from her smiling face, a Defence Minister that looks more like a surfer dude, and a convicted criminal.

Surely there must be someone deserving of the title Canadian Newsmaker of the Year?

I know!

Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) funny man Rick Mercer. Rick Mercer probably won’t cure cancer, and he’s not a likely candidate to solve global warming, or bring about world peace.

But he brings out the best in Canadians by showing us who we really are in his silly skits and television comedy shows. Even better, he gets our neighbours to the south in the States to think about us every so often – which is something they rarely do.

Mercer was the first Canadian television personality to venture to the States, and ask Americans what they knew about Canada. The piece was hilarious, showing us how little they really do know, but also in a way, educating Americans a bit about us Canucks.

Comic relief may be the best way to solve many world problems. If we could all laugh at ourselves a little more, than perhaps we’d have fewer wars, and a more efficient and effective society?

Rick Mercer makes us see just how silly and trivial many things we take far too seriously are – mainly how too seriously we take ourselves.

And for those reasons, Rick Mercer should be Canada’s Newsmaker of 2009.

Holiday Could Teach Woods Many Life Lessons

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Ex-Toronto Blue Jay Roy Holiday could teach professionally embarrassed golfer Tiger Woods a thing or two about life.

Recently traded to another team – and one of the best pitchers in major league baseball – Roy Holiday took out a full-page newspaper ad in Toronto, thanking his fans for all the years he spent as a Toronto player.

In the ad, he says he was blessed for having the opportunity to play for Toronto’s ball club since 1995, and that the city will always have a special place in his heart.

Tiger Woods on the other hand, has led the media on quite the merry-go-round, with mistresses popping up like discarded plates at a banquet. However the banquet Tiger Woods had can talk.

Not to say that all Toronto Blue Jays were the best mannered. Back in the 1980’s Roberto Alomar spit on an umpire – he later apologized – and then there were the constant temper tantrums of legendary outfielder George Bell. Bell once threw a water cooler at then manager Jimmy Williams, barely missing the man by mere inches.

But if Tiger Woods was less interested in taking out his “woods” with women other than his wife, he wouldn’t be in all the trouble he currently is in – with his fans, his sponsors and most importantly of all – his family.

Although cheating on a significant other is never a good idea, to cheat on that person 15-times with women – some very high-profile ones too – all over the world shows a lack of respect, and personal integrity.

And that’s exactly what Roy Holiday can teach the Tiger – respect and personal integrity. Players get traded from Toronto teams all the time, yet Holiday is the first one to take out a full-page ad in a major daily newspaper thanking his fans for their loyal support. No one asked him to do it, he’s a good, honest and respectful person, chock full of something Tiger Woods lacks.

And what is it that Tiger Woods lacks? What could anyone worth over a billion dollars possibly not have?

The one thing which makes even the richest men in the world the poorest – personal integrity.

The Winter Solstice and Human Nature

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Today is the first official day of winter in the northern hemisphere – though you may be thinking otherwise if you’ve already experienced frosty temperatures.

At 12:47pm EST today, winter arrived – wow.

Actually it is a big “wow” if you go back to the start of human civilizations. Long ago we human beings were one with Mother Nature and her seasons.

Stonehenge in the United Kingdom is estimated to have been built somewhere from around 2500 to 3000 BC specifically for the Winter Solstice. The giant stone monument is an ancient burial ground, which archaeologists have cleverly figured out was used in conjunction with another Woodenhenge which is long since gone.

Locals back then would make the trek by foot from all the villages and towns up a giant path to Stonehenge in winter to honor recent and past deceased family and friends. The stones which compose Stonehenge line up perfectly to allow the final fall sunset to shine right through the giant monument – that’s one of the marvels of the thing, because during its construction, they didn’t have the technology we have now to master such miracles.

Archaeologists have found remains not far from Stonehenge of a similar structure which was once made of wood. They have found remains of celebrations, ancient pots, animal bones with burn marks (indicating they were cooked for food) and ancient chalices and other things. The remains indicate this Woodenhenge was constructed specifically to line up with the very first sunrise of summer.

These clever archaeologists have figured that the same people that built Stonehenge would travel to the Woodenhenge and have a celebration, to welcome and honor the re-birth of the growing season. Everything was tied to nature and the seasons.

At the start of the Winter Solstice, these ancient people would pray for their dead, and for the fall harvest. Then when summer returned, they would celebrate and thank their God or Gods for giving them the ability to plant crops once again.

Christian experts even link Christmas to the Winter Solstice, as they aren’t exactly sure of when Jesus Christ was born. But many believe the first Christmas happened on the last day of winter.

These days, with our incredible advances in technology, we know the seasons are caused by the Earth’s rotation around the sun. When the side of the planet you call home is furthest away, your part of the world gets colder and darker, and experiences winter, while the other side is hotter and brighter, and experiences summer.

Although knowing the science behind the seasons shows just how far we’ve come as species, we’ve lost that oneness with Mother Nature, and our world has suffered immensely from that loss.

Back before science told us how the world worked, we humans were in complete balance with all living things across the globe. We didn’t over-harvest our food or animal crops, and we didn’t overpopulate the planet with our kind either.

Back then, according to the experts, we lived in the harmonious cycles of nature with all other living things. The summer celebrations at Woodenhenge marked the start of the growing season, for crops, animals and even people – it was the mating season for us just as it was for deer, rabbits, the birds and the bees. Fall would be the harvest, when crops would be ripe for the picking, and most babies were born. Winter would be the dead season, literally as it reminded us of the power of nature. Spring would signal the start of life and lead us back to summer again.

Although it is good to know the reality of nature, it has put us over the top, out of whack and totally out of balance with nature.

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