Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Peak of Inversion



Well it looks like the inversion has reached it's peak. It started in the morning and lasted all day. I remember a similar day last year in December. I was on the gondola heading up Grouse and the announced the temperature. Everyone cheered. It was really warm. Like spring skiing conditions. People were skiing and snowshoeing in T-Shirts. It was warmer on the mountain than it was in the city.



Today was one of those days. Warmer on the mountain than it was in the city. Seeing the rising sun light up the trees was awesome. The snow was perfect. Come afternoon the low clouds were still hanging around. You can see UBC on the left and the mountain range on the right is Vancouver Island with a sea of clouds in the foreground.



Here is Vancouver in the clouds. You can see the tips of Lion's Gate Bridge peaking through the clouds. I had a great shot of a few towers peaking through the clouds in the morning but it wasn't in focus. There were tons of people out taking pictures.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Morning


Inversion is still on. I couldn't believe how many people were taking pictures of the sunrise this morning from Cypress lookout. It's Christmas morning.
Sunset was even more packed. You couldn't get a parking spot. I was really surprised to see how many people went to the mountain today for Christmas. I was gonna take my kids there myself if I didn't have to work.
It's the best way to have a white Christmas in the city.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Inversion

A little inversion on the mountain today.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Pentagon eats Canadian Bacon



Well this is pretty bizarre. How does someone get a job at the pentagon anyways? I thought you needed a GED to work there? Apparently not. The latest news is the declassification of Pentagon documents that think Canada's fancy new quarters are get this, spy coins with hidden microphones: http://news.ca.msn.com/canada/cp-article.aspx?cp-documentid=22784611

Must have been a George Bush document. Looks like his Pentagon didn't realize John Candy was a comedian and that the movie Canadian Bacon was a comedy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG-CFJ74X1o
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What next Al Yankovic becomes the director of the CIA? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_TfBbR6L0M

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Sunrise Sunset



Today's sunrise over Vancouver.
Followed by today's sunset over Vancouver.





Monday, November 30, 2009

Ramadan's moratorium on stoning adulterers



There's an interesting but disturbing article about the practice of stoning adulterers in the Muslim faith: http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/communityofinterest/archive/2009/11/27/ramadan-s-moratorium-on-stoning-adulterers.aspx

It's a Jewish law that the Muslims agree is prophetic revelation. Christ was challenged on the doctrine when they brought a woman before him to be stoned for adultery according to the law. They said she was caught in the act of adultery and asked him what they should do with her. They wanted to trick him. If he said let her go they could arrest him instead.

Jesus' response was let he who is without sin cast the first stone. That has become a popular phrase within Christendom. Along with judge not least ye be judged and people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. The idea is none of us are without sin. Yet it goes beyond that.

Christ specifically said let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I am told that according to the old law, it is the witness who casts the first stone when the person is stoned which in itself is somewhat ironic. Perhaps the only witness in this case was the person she committed the adultery with. If that was the case it would be somewhat hypocritical for them to stone the woman and not the man for committing the same offence. Yet that appears to have been the intent.

That's what came to mind when I read this article about stoning women for adultery. The law said adulterers should be stoned. It didn't say men are exempt. How that law became perverted to mean only stone women for that offense is beyond me. Nevertheless I do agree the punishment for that sin is pretty harsh.

I agree adultery is serious but concede there are different degrees. A married man who is living with his wife and sleeping with her who goes out and has an affair and sleeps with another woman is very different than a man who has been legally separated for some time and finds a new partner before the paper work on his divorce is final.

One time my brother in law asked me a similar question. He said how would you feel about a married man who moved in with a younger woman? Not much I said, the guy's an adulterer. He smiled and said but that's me. I moved in with your sister before my divorce was final. I smiled and recognized he had tricked me and said you didn't say the married man was no longer living with his wife.

In their case he was married at one time and his wife left without a word or trace. He hadn't finalized the divorce as he didn't know where she was and wasn't very good with court papers. He met my sister later on. They moved in together and were later married. They have had a long standing successful relationship ever since. That in my opinion is very different than the desperate housewives thing where swingers commit adultery at the drop of a hat.

Now back to the equality of women issue. Stoning women not men for the same offence is unjust. Yet it seems to have become a common practice in biblical times which seems to be continued with this recent article about stoning in the Muslim faith. Yes that historical tradition seems to be biblical which only means it was an injustice Christ tried to correct not that is was the right thing to do.

Look at the story of Judah, one of the sons of Jacob who became the father of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. He was a widower. His daughter in law became a widow. According to the law in those days, if a woman's husband dies before they have children, the woman is to marry her deceased husband's brother so she can have a child. Don't ask me where that tradition came from. That's just the way it was.

Anyways, Judah's son Er married Tamar and died without children. Er's brother Onan didn't want to father someone else's kid so Judah just left Tamar a widow. Tamar wanted to have a child and is ticked they aren't following the rules. So she disguises herself, dresses up as a prostitute and stands on the street corner where she knows her father in law Judah will pass by.

Judah sees her and being a widow himself, gives in to temptation and sleeps with her thinking she is a prostitute. Only he didn't have any money with him so he leaves his staff with her as collateral and promises to send a servant the next day to pay her for her services. Only the next day, she isn't on the street corner and the servant can't find her.

Time passes and Tamar becomes pregnant. This is an embarrassing outrage for Judah. This is his son's widow getting pregnant out of wedlock. They bring her to Judah to be stoned according to the law. He asks her who the father of the child is and she produces Judah's staff and says the owner of this staff is the father of my child. Oh crap says Judah. He's caught and can't very well stone his daughter in law for committing adultery when he is the person she committed adultery with. He lets her go and Tamar ends up finally having a child of her own, twins.

My point is that I find this historical tradition of stoning women and not men for the same offence is wrong and it appears to continue within the Muslim faith today which is surprising because although Muslims don't regard Jesus as the Messiah most do regard him as a prophet.

That still leaves us with the fact that is was Jehovah, the one who spoke to Moses in the burning bush that gave therm that extreme law in the first place and Jesus said before Abraham was I am. Which means he claimed to be the one who spoke to Moses in the burning bush. Problematic so it is. Nevertheless, the law was never meant as a way men could oppress woman. If you punish the woman you must also punish the man and I do agree, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. http://www.thestoning.com/

Monday, November 23, 2009

Judge Walker's Limp Fish Decision



Snapping back to reality I will cite the Judge Walker decision and record my dissent before I move on. On June 1st 2007 TELUS had 23 videos removed from YouTube. 12 of those videos they had no possible copyright claim on.

I filed a counter notification stating that I objected and they made an application to the US District Court in San Fransisco. Only they lied in their application and they never served me a copy of it until after I had acquired a copy from YouTube and filed a response to the court objecting to the fact I hadn't been served as they had my address.

It looked like they were trying to proceed ex parte, (without me) so they could get away with lying about the content of the videos in court. It was another dirty trick in a long line of Corporate legal decadence. Ronald Lopez dodged a US Sheriff three times and refused alternate service before I was permitted to e file documents. http://cupwnewvision.org/court/rat.htm

The litigation went back and forth for two and a half years. Finally the court directed the plaintiff to file a motion for Summery Judgement because I objected to having to go to San Fransisco to attend a trial since both I and the plaintiff were Canadians living in Canada.

On November 12 2009 the parties met before Judge Walker, (I participated by way of telephone) to simply confirm the written submissions on the Plaintiff's motion. TELUS' proposed order only listed 11 of the 23 videos they had originally taken off YouTube. I said that proposed order was an admission of guilt they over reached and committed copy fraud.

The court awarded their proposed order for the 11 videos about TELUS Idol. The video TELUS lied and said was contained in a locked vault claiming I had some how broken in and stole it when in reality they used it as a training video posted on their network since employees who didn't attend the conference were expected to watch it as part of their training.

I am somewhat disappointed in the courts decision for many reasons. Despite my clear requests for an order authorizing YouTube to repost the 12 videos they had taken off not listed in their proposed order, no such order was made. It appears the way they do things there is you submit a proposed order and if you win the court crosses off the word proposed and the judge signs the order. I kid you not.

The court said nothing on my request for perjury charges against the plaintiff who was caught red handed committing perjury and fraud. The court made no consequence for the perjury whatsoever. That is a shameful disgrace.

Judge Walker is no Texas Ranger. I had hoped he was going to be the Chuck Norris of American justice. Not so. Instead all we got was the limp fish of corporate crime.

The censorship continues...

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Living the Dream

Well I sure love my new second job. I'm working in a cafe at an old cabin on a local ski hill. You have to snowshoe or cross country ski to get to it and it was built in 1926. It's very rustic and they have lots of old photos with antique skis and snowshoes on the walls. They specialize in homemade soups and bread and do chocolate fondues for the snowshoe tours at night with head lamps.

Today I got up early and snowshoed in about eight inches of fresh powder to the cabin. Lit a fire in an old wood stove. Made some home made bread and worked the grill in the cafe for the snowshoers and cross country skiers. Now that's living the dream.

I got cut back to part time hours in my regular job so I had to find something on the side. So if you see my reflection on a snow covered hill, maybe a landslide will bring it down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f46rv5EWbAU

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Canada - Lord of War



Harper wants to sell India Nukes: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Terror+threats+Indian+nuclear+plants+alert/2230252/story.html
Even after they used Canadian reactors to perform nuclear tests: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011704



China gave Pakistan the materials and technology to perform their tests but China got that from Canada as well: http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/atmosphere-energy/nuclear-free/candu-case/index.shtml
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Canada still sells India asbestos: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=e84067b8-1429-40a3-b55f-0d0aca4da358

Now Canada wants to sell arms to Pakistan as well: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/636699

More examples of how our politicians sell our morals out to the almighty dollar.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Godspell



I'm pretty choked about another censorship victory for TELUS. I'm going to dive into the case later but I'm really disappointed in the legal system. It's just an old boys club. It's bad enough when lawyers mock the Constitution but when judges do... that is really sad.

Martin Luther King had a dream. His dream was that the constitution be more than a nice piece of paper on the wall. His dream was that the principles and unalienable rights entrenched in the constitution become a reality. That dream is still far away in many respects.

Yet in times of darkness I reflect upon Bob Marley's Redemption song and reflect upon another dream. The dream of a just God who is not a respecter of persons. Justice is the habitation of his throne. As a result, peace is established simply because where there is no justice there is no peace but to know justice is to know peace.

I've been kicked out of a brave few churches so I have but I do have religious beliefs. They are hopes and aspirations. I aspire to something higher. I aspire to something good. Godspell was a musical I enjoyed when I was a kid. It is very unorthodox. It's a modern rendition of the life of Christ. He and his 12 disciples are a bunch of hippies running around like they're on E.

In the movie Christ is crucified on a electric chain link fence. It's kind of bizarre but it has a good soundtrack and there are a few songs in it i used to like. Yes confronting the lawyers and Pharisees was one of my favorites. It's taken from Matthew 25. Once that's dealt with some of the other more mellow songs come to light.

God Save the People: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNE-h-K_jQA

Alas for you lawyers and Pharisees (Song starts at 2:40 into the video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaEJLxT40BY

By my Side: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR3sfbvtwUs

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Eagles on Harrison River



Well Thursday's the big day. Final hearing with the Telus YouTube trial. Put the Kayak in at Kilby in Harrison Mills today and paddled up the river to see the spawning chum and all the eagles. It was awesome. Pictures turned out lousy though but there was lots of eagles and salmon in the rain. Just the chum. People don't eat them so there's plenty for the eagles. Lots of seals too. Tomorrow I start the new job on the mountain. Snow is on it's way.
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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Failed Heart



My mother always used to say tomorrow will be a better day. She would say it at the darkest times making one think you have got to be kidding. Yet one has to wonder how long can justice sleep.

Anyone with a social conscience has a desire to make the world a better place. We want to leave this world in better condition than it was when we entered it.

Yet my fear, my concern, my sorrow is that failure has now affected our children and our children's children. Our ancestors came here fleeing high rents and taxes wanting to make a better life. We have no place left to go.

What was affordable on a single income just one generation ago is out of reach today. Corporations use part time employment to save on benefits yet no one can afford to provide for a family on part time wages.

The labour dispute with Telus was to keep jobs in Canada. That fight has failed and our families and our children suffer as a result.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Anticipation of Winter



I hiked up Hollyburn ridge yesterday. The trail was a bit muddy but it was nice to see the first dusting of snow for the year at higher elevations. It's only gonna get better. Two feet of packed snow and the trail will be perfect.











Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The Toronto 18



Well it appears that new video evidence about the Toronto 18 has been released: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeGtvQtcL0Y

The explosion was set and filmed by officers to show what that kind of explosion could do. The only damning thing in the video is showing them unload a truck full of fertilizer. There's no question it was a sting operation and they were just doing what they were told to do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGzfvex1dSM

If they were going to blow people up then that is messed up. If they were set up then that's worse. We still haven't faced Operation Northwoods and the reality of false flag events. Sure there's a lot of hillbilly fucked up Muslims out there but that goes the same for any religion, group or political party.

When everyone lies to you it's hard to know who's telling the truth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDkcJ-62uuY

Saturday, October 10, 2009

God Bless the Dixie Chicks



They ran the Dixie Chicks documentary Shut up and Sing on TV tonight. What a farce. Americans prohibiting free speech. Just like the Americans who fought a war for the right to keep slaves. Shameful.

George Bush was a liar and an idiot. "Mission Accomplished?" They didn't find any Weapons of Mass destruction! That was a lie. MI 6 was caught giving false information about Iraq's WMD to the media in Operation Mass Appeal. Prior to the invasion America sold Iraq chemical weapons to use on Iran.

I was talking about Bush after the invasion of Iraq and someone said "They crashed a plane into the World Trade Centre." That was Afghanistan not Iraq! (and now we're not so sure it was Afghanistan) Bush did not invade Iraq for 911 he invaded Iraq because he said they had WMD which they didn't. It was a lie. Mission Accomplished indeed. Their lie was successful at stealing their oil. It was the invasion and occupation of a foreign nation.

The hillbillies who threatened the Dixie Chicks after that are no different that Stalin. They claimed the Dixie Chicks were Communists for expressing their opinion. The hillbillies are the Communists because they ban free speech.


It's understandable how they caved in to the hillbillies and coughed up an apology. Likewise it is understandable how that apology just didn't site right and didn't feel like the right thing to do making their song Not Ready to Make Nice a masterpiece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwc5YSAc-7g

Fuck the South: http://www.fuckthesouth.com/

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Redemption song



When the going gets tough, the tough play Bob Marley. He was a rebel so he was. An activist in his own right and very inspiring. This is a video clip of Ziggy Marley singing Redemption song with Lauryn Hill: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwNlQRvV-b4

And this is Ziggy Marley singing Redemption song with the Chieftains. I kid you not: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnJgIq48C9k

This is the mp3 of Bob Marley doing the song back in the day: www.emp3world.com/mp3/52224/Bob%20Marley/Redemption%20Song

Chicago, Obama and the Olympic Bid



Chicago lost the Olympic bid. Who cares? The media is going on about how this is a huge set back and failure for the Obama administration. Whatever. Every Olympics can't be in the States. There will be another year. Half of us didn't want the Olympics in Vancouver for 2010. Montreal's Olympics back in 1976 were a financial disaster. Most of us in Vancouver didn't want to waste billions on a freeway while they put the elderly and disabled on the street.

He did the right thing by endorsing it but lets face it, Brazil has never held the Olympics and the States has. Not to mention the chance of terrorism or even the chance of a false flag act of terrorism if it was held in the States. Not to say that we bend to terrorists because we do not. We just need some time to get over the horrific Bush administrations arrogance to heal the hate the rest of the world has for America right now.

Everyone hates terrorism. Everyone opposes killing innocent civilians. After 911 we were all for kicking Afghanistan's ass. Then all of a sudden numerous inconsistencies arose. The bin Laden video that didn't look like bin Laden. The fall of the third tower when no planes hit it. The asbestos in the twin towers the port authority were required to remove. The oil pipeline in Afghanistan and the Texan oil companies with close ties to the Taliban trying to win that contract. Not to mention the declassification of Operation Northwoods and the whole can of worms false flag operations bring.

Obama is too supportive of the Afghanistan mission. That is not to say acts of terrorism is warranted because it's not. That's the fastest way to get the world united in kicking your ass. The discrepancies bring concern. If Afghanistan did 911 then that was wrong. If the CIA aided and supported 911 as a false flag attack then rot in hell. Either way, both are wrong.