Campbellgate

Gordon Campbell is a criminal. Not only is he a drunk driver and an oppressor of the elderly and disabled, he is a lying greedy pig. He was originally elected with the campaign promise to oppose the gold plated pension. Not only did he come full circle and endorse the gold plated pension, he added a huge pay hike as well.

Yes this is past history except he did it again! As soon as his party’s popularity starts to finally sag in the opinion polls he just gave himself another outrageous raise: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=ef2256ae-24f4-49fc-a94f-84abe6ed6e81

Not only that but they are refusing to hold parliament again: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=3cb307e8-35a9-40b7-a925-897d759310b0

This is how they ram things through without debate in the legislature. That is how they rammed TILMA through and no one heard about it. That is criminal!

Abortion's Wish

This is the reason the world was stuck with an idiot for president two times running and why we might get another idiot third time unlucky.

Abortion is a pretty passionate issue. Most people are dead set in their way and debating the issue will not sway one person from one side to the other. As a result many Americans see elections as one issue and vote solely base on the politician’s position on abortion.

Abortion stops a beating heart. That fact is not debatable. Yet intolerance and extremism plague both sides of the debate. Personally I am against abortion. I think abortion on demand as a form of birth control is utter irresponsibility. Tubule pregnancies is a different matter. They are automatically aborted as are any other cases when the life of the mother is threatened.

Abortion after the first trimester is simply archaic. Inducing labour and killing the baby with a saline injection is just plain evil. What’s the difference between that and putting a newborn in a dumpster or leaving your baby to die of exposure on a hill because it was born deformed. In some ways modern man has not evolved at all: http://clcbc.org/clinic/whsc1.html

Obviously in cases of incest or rape that is an extenuating circumstance and difficult choices have to be made. Personally I think adoption is the answer to abortion but I don’t have to go through labour nor do I have to face medical expenses in the United States. Surely pro-life activists will also be for affordable medical insurance. Telling someone they can’t have an abortion while you refuse to subsidize medical expense is somewhat counter productive.

Some pro-choice advocates oppose abortion after the first trimester. Many don’t. To me there is a difference although we don’t have to watch the movie of an abortion called the silent scream to realize that at 6 weeks a beating heart has already been formed. 8 weeks the baby looks like a baby.

I had one friend who wanted to have children but couldn’t and really regretted having an abortion when she was young. She said she still had nightmares of pieces of cut up fetus screaming. Wow, I thought. They don’t tell those stories at pro-choice rallies: http://www.abortionconcern.org/stories/index.php?storytype=late

Nevertheless, we all make mistakes and forgiveness is always possible. I’m not talking about being forgiven by God. I’m talking about being able to forgive ourselves. Many say how carrying a baby full term then giving it up for adoption is a very hard thing to do. Some mothers who give up their child for adoption latter on have second thoughts and change their mind.

Many children given up for adoption seek out their biological parents and ask them why they were given up for adoption. That would be uncomfortable. As would meeting the baby one aborted and have to answer the question why you didn’t want them but also why you didn’t give them a chance at life so someone else could love them. Feeling that pain would be somewhat uncomfortable.

What’s the saying. An once of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Birth control is the responsible choice for someone who wants to have sexual relations but doesn’t want to have children. Abstinence is wishful thinking. Happy Birthday: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr_90kFinvc&feature=related

Obama's Dream

Did you hear Obama speak when he accepted the nomination to be president? He spoke about restoring faith in the American dream: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=kv8eiDvrHJ4

What is the American Dream? Different people have different dreams.

Some dream of riches. Others dream of eliminating poverty. Some dream of conquests in battle. Others dream of affordable health care. Some dream of democracy as long as everyone agrees with them. Some dream of the freedom of religion as long as everyone believes what they believe. The right to be Christian, the right to be Muslim the right to be Atheist. Indeed those are fundamental rights.

During the gold rush many came to America with dreams of getting rich. Many of those dreams were lost and broken. Many came to America simply wanting to own a home and provide a better life for their children. Many of those dreams were laid off and foreclosed.

Restoring faith in the American Dream is a good thing. Unlike the rantings of the Happy bunny, it’s not all about me. Dr. King said that as long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich. As long as fellow citizens go without health care I can never be healthy.

Like my father always used to say, Follow the fellow who follows a Dream: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=v3gXk00JVTY

It’s not about changing political parties. It’s about restoring hope: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=EcRA2AZsR2Q&feature=user

Can we do it? Yes we can: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

McCain me Not

.

Of all the republican candidates, why on earth did they choose a geriatric with Alzheimer’s? Aside from being very old, Mc Cain’s claim to fame is hugging Bush at every opportunity and spewing unprecedented rhetoric about Iraq: "We’ll stay there 30 years if we have to."

Did someone forget to tell him they were wrong and invaded that country under false pretense since they had no WMD: http://www.peacecandy.com/gwbush/remindus/

Why would you dig your heels in the sand and boldly declare that you refuse to admit you are wrong when you clearly are. That is not noble. It’s just plain silly as are the pictures of him hugging Bush all the time.

Hey did ya hear they only gave Bush 8 minutes to speak at the republican convention by way of satellite and wouldn’t let him speak in person: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=1a15c801-9814-4923-86af-7b7006c82077

That’s probably because McCain gets so flabbergast in Bush’s presence he can’t stop hugging him and drooling all over him. Even the republicans find it embarrassing. What’s embarrassing is picking McCain to be their candidate. Go figure. http://www.mccain.com

George W. Bullshit

Thank God for the rule you can’t run for president a third term. George W. Bush will no doubt go down in history as the most hated and least respected president ever.

This picture says it all. He’s giving the cameraman the finger when he was a Senator because "Everyone is telling him what to do." George Bush is the kind of guy that should have done more listening and less talking: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=YVynnbx1Xsc

It’s one thing to overcome opposition and stand for a principle. It is quite another thing to stand for a lie(s) and be rude and arrogant about it. Take the invasion of Iraq. They were wrong! There were no weapons of mass destruction. That invasion was based on a lie: http://www.peacecandy.com/gwbush/remindus/

Instead of admitting they were wrong and pull out, they boast about it as the "Success with the war in Iraq." Success?! You were wrong! You lied. You kicked a little country’s ass and you pat yourself on the back when the invasion was based on a lie? That is insane.

The biggest crime of that event was hanging Saddam instead of Bush. The CIA put Saddam in power and the Americans sold Iraq chemical weapons to use on Iran. Even if Iraq did have WMD it would have been a double standard to invade them when it was the Americans that sold the weapons to them in the first place: http://www.bushflash.com/swf/thanks.swf

Now with all the 911 conspiracies Bush boldly declares the questions he refuses to answer are "malicious lies designed to take responsibility away from the terrorists." Here we have a guy we hate, calling a rising public concern over 911 discrepancies malicious lies when we don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth: http://www.peacecandy.com/gwbush/remindus/

I don’t understand the discrepancies with 911 but I do know that Bush is not trustworthy. He is an arrogant asshole that has stained the American flag and the American reputation in the world. He was a skinny little guy with small man syndrome that sucked billions and billions out of the U.S. economy to foster his ego and lie. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25188728.htm

None of that earned any respect internationally. On the contrary whenever I see a picture of Bush I can’t help but see one of the many expressions people have compared to that of a monkey. Who is the bigger fool? The monkey or the monkey that votes for him? http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=aD3xfT0c99g

Speaking of Dictators, don’t forget Bush Vetoed the bill preventing the CIA from torturing prisoners. That is nothing to be proud of. It opens the CIA up to Stalin’s definition of a terrorist. All of a sudden the good guys have become bad. Very bad. Say hello to the new beast. Same as the old beast. The beast’s name is tyranny. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/10/2185249.htm

Oh and let’s not forget the election fraud in Florida: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/145.html

Now there’s a democracy to be proud of. Not.

Hey, I didn’t realize that George Bush was a draft dodger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyFdZqWDn3c

Or that George Bush’s grandfather financed Hitler: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

Here's a song about Bush: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb6yo99VfO0

Coliseum Mountain

How about that Vancouver Coliseum? I’m not talking about the old ice arena at the PNE that the Canucks used to play in. I’m talking about the mountain in North Vancouver.

I just discovered it having recently climbed Goat Mountain and Goat Ridge. It’s flat and round kind of like a Coliseum. That was a long hike. It’s 7 KM in to the starting point of the trail which is easy but the trail itself is difficult. Everything’s relative I suppose.

A couple of people passed me on the way up. I’m not a marathoner myself. I’m not in shape to run a marathon and my attention span doesn’t cut it. Likewise these long hikes are a bit much for me. Climbing up is fine, it’s the climb back down that kills me.

On the web site it said it was an 8 hour hike but from the Lynn Headwaters park it said it was a 10 hour hike. The Lions is a harder hike but this one is a little bit longer. All in all those two hikes are nice but a bit long for me. I like Dam Mountain and Hollyburn Ridge. Those are perfect day hikes.

If they allowed camping the Coliseum would be perfect for an overnighter. It is pretty spectacular.

Goat Mountain

Well I finally made it up Goat mountain. It’s sure a lot easier to find the train in summer. Especially when the trail markers are only about five feet tall and we had a snow cap well over 12 feet last year. I discovered Dam mountain and Thunderbird ridge by way of snowshoe last winter. The view is magnificent and the climb is easier than Hollyburn Ridge, which is also awesome. The back country was closed due to avalanche risk with such a heavy snow cap.

So here we are. Goat Ridge from Goat mountain looking over the next stop, Coliseum mountain in the top left.