News and Current Events - 2012

[Tony_]

  While the latest polls are showing Obama leading in Virginia, North Carolina is tilting the other way.  Strangely enough, a good way to reverse that would be the correct handling of the news stories of the N.C. minister calling for the killing of gays by enclosing them in electrified fenced-in areas, with only bare supplies of food.
  Reverend (?) Charles Worley, of Maiden, N.C., is all over YouTube with his fiery solutions to the problems of "lesbians, homosexuals, and queers" (sic), and the "baby-killing, homosexual-loving, President".  You can google his name for the full story; I would give a link to YouTube but my computer is still acting up  .
  Anyway, as a Southerner, I know that even a southern state that just banned same-sex marriages, would find this weirdo so much an embarrassment, they might have second thoughts about where some conservative beliefs can lead.
  It should not be used as a gay bashing issue, but as an example of extremism that would, in fact, make many southerners ashamed and willing to reconsider the political, as well as the religious right.
 This is a story that should not go away.  Where are the strategists?

[oilgun]

^^^^

Thanks for sharing. I wish this was here in the states. I fear here we are going backwards. Romney is leading Obama in Florida. Scott Walker in Wisconsin, is leading in his re-call election by 6 points.

Oh, Canada is also going backwards believe me.  There is private member's bill being discussed in the house of commons that will criminalise abortion and the pregnant women who "harm" their foetus in any way and potentially even some contraception methods.  And since the Religious Fascists Conservatives have a majority, it's sure to pass.  Our present regime is the most pernicious, hypocritical and underhanded we've ever had.  They have close ties to your repugnant Republican party of course and have been using the same tactics: election fraud being the most egregious.

A dangerous anti-abortion motion was accepted for debate in Parliament in March. Motion 312 (see full wording on Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth's website) calls for a Parliamentary Committee to examine whether the Criminal Code definition of "human being" should be expanded to include fetuses. This threatens to give legal personhood to fetuses and allow the re-criminalization of abortion, as well as deny the constitutional rights of all pregnant women.

The motion had one hour of debate in Parliament on April 26, and will have another hour of debate on June 8 with a vote on June 13. Although it is not expected to pass, we must send a strong message to Parliament and anti-choice MPs that we will never let anyone take us back to the 1950’s on hard-fought reproductive rights for Canadian women. Pro-choice MPs need to receive your signed petitions, letters, and tweets so they can decisively kill the motion in June.  Please take action today!

Website:
http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/m312.html

Online Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/oppose-motion-312-rejetez-motion-312.html

Paper Petition:
http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/action/m312-paper-petition-en.pdf

I urge all Canadians to take action.

[brokebacktom]

How much you wanna bet that these comments will be extremely common over at YAHOO? :
1. The left will no doubt make this political.
2. Why mention their sexual orientation? An assault is an assault.
Here's my response to these questions that are sure to be seen.
1. Between right and left, one of these sides is distinctly more anti-gay, unless you don't believe in social science research or common sense induction. Certain elements on the right actively encourage this sort of thing, witness the North Carolina pastors last week (and PLEASE don't even pretend that those pastors are liberal!)
2. Sexual orientation is mentioned because it's an important component. The attackers showed a hatred for an entire community, and a willingness to translate that hatred into actual physical violence. That is a quantitatively different act from random violence, and it deserves to be recognized as such.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/waffle-house-customers-gay-hate-crime-attack-_n_1544172.html#comments

[brokebacktom]

  While the latest polls are showing Obama leading in Virginia, North Carolina is tilting the other way.  Strangely enough, a good way to reverse that would be the correct handling of the news stories of the N.C. minister calling for the killing of gays by enclosing them in electrified fenced-in areas, with only bare supplies of food.
  Reverend (?) Charles Worley, of Maiden, N.C., is all over YouTube with his fiery solutions to the problems of "lesbians, homosexuals, and queers" (sic), and the "baby-killing, homosexual-loving, President".  You can google his name for the full story; I would give a link to YouTube but my computer is still acting up  .
  Anyway, as a Southerner, I know that even a southern state that just banned same-sex marriages, would find this weirdo so much an embarrassment, they might have second thoughts about where some conservative beliefs can lead.
  It should not be used as a gay bashing issue, but as an example of extremism that would, in fact, make many southerners ashamed and willing to reconsider the political, as well as the religious right.
 This is a story that should not go away.  Where are the strategists?

I just saw this video. Scary, can one say Hitler. The problem is this, the protest should not be coming from outside groups like this but from the neighborhood churches themselves and the community these churches serve. After all he is speaking as an ambassador of Christ and the Church, and trying to set policy of Christian behavior. Unless "WWJD" stands for "Who Would Jesus Detain" this man is giving the faudulent idea that torturing people to death is an idea Jesus would endorse. This man and his abuse of his ecumenical authority is an affront against believer and their faith, and unless this indeed the face of Christianity you want to wear, you, the believer, not anyone else, need to make your voices heard that this is not the Gospel you serve. You silence makes you as guilty as this preacher is.

[janjo]

This is the latest news on the gay marriage changes happening here in the UK:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18185135

[Cally]

This is the latest news on the gay marriage changes happening here in the UK:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18185135

I've emailed my (Conservative) MP.  Haven't had a reply yet.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

What do you guys think of the issue of stores banning plastic bags?
Los Angeles decided this week to ban grocery stores from having
plastic bags and to be charged 10 cents per paper bag if you don't
bring in your own bag.  The largest city to do this so far I have heard.

First, there appears to be a meme in this country that plastic bags are a problem and that banning them is something we have to or should do. Even I thought that until I started listening to the other side of the issue.

I have heard and read things that show banning plastic grocery bags does not reduce plastic bag litter, in fact in one study it actually rose .5%.  Why would it rise?  Well, many people use the plastic bags at home for trash or pet waste.  Without these available they have to buy plastic bags which are much larger than the ones used in grocery stores and so are actually wasted more.

People who use their own recyclable bags, like tote bags and stuff--guess what? Most of those are made in China and use materials that are not recyclable, and some are in fact, toxic.  A recent study that tested peoples reusuable shopping bags found 50% of them to be carrying unsafe germ levels presumably from things like meats and vegetables that are put into the bag, that are being transferred to new food items that you put in the bags.  It's recommended that you wash your recyclable bags every week.  Isn't that wasting water?

There's other things that make me see this issue as pretty non-relevant to most of the problems cities have right now.  Los Angeles has a high unemployment rate and this is an issue they feel compelled to vote on?  Which will put three plastic bag manufacturers in the county out of business.  Yay.

Personally, I abhor the idea of being charged for bags anywhere you shop.  Especially when I recycle them in the recycle bins and would anyway, even if I had to pay for them.  I also use public transportation and many times I buy groceries it's when I stop into the stores on my way from one place to another.  I don't think that because I use pubic transportation I should be penalized because I am not going to be carrying
around my own shoping bags to shop with. The reason plastic bags became in vogue in the first place is the idea we should save all the trees that were being used to make the paper bags.  What happened
to that idea?

One person I know who lives in Long Beach, which has had this ban for several months, says that some stores there are getting around the ban because plastic produce bags are not banned.  So the stores are using the same plastic bags they used to, only their supplier has printed "produce bag" onto them.

Some people think that paper bags will be eventually outlawed as well.

[janjo]

I've emailed my (Conservative) MP.  Haven't had a reply yet.

Can you let me know how you get on? I might e mail my Conservative MP also.

[Cally]

OK!

[janjo]

My MP is David Amess, who is a devout Catholic, so I suspect that he might give me a dusty answer.

[bentgyro]

I haven't seen this mentioned here, but the World Health Organization has removed homosexuality from
it's list of mental disorders.!
How enlightened of them.

[oilgun]

What do you guys think of the issue of stores banning plastic bags?
Los Angeles decided this week to ban grocery stores from having
plastic bags and to be charged 10 cents per paper bag if you don't
bring in your own bag.  The largest city to do this so far I have heard.

First, there appears to be a meme in this country that plastic bags are a problem and that banning them is something we have to or should do. Even I thought that until I started listening to the other side of the issue.

I have heard and read things that show banning plastic grocery bags does not reduce plastic bag litter, in fact in one study it actually rose .5%.  Why would it rise?  Well, many people use the plastic bags at home for trash or pet waste.  Without these available they have to buy plastic bags which are much larger than the ones used in grocery stores and so are actually wasted more.

People who use their own recyclable bags, like tote bags and stuff--guess what? Most of those are made in China and use materials that are not recyclable, and some are in fact, toxic.  A recent study that tested peoples reusuable shopping bags found 50% of them to be carrying unsafe germ levels presumably from things like meats and vegetables that are put into the bag, that are being transferred to new food items that you put in the bags.  It's recommended that you wash your recyclable bags every week.  Isn't that wasting water?

There's other things that make me see this issue as pretty non-relevant to most of the problems cities have right now.  Los Angeles has a high unemployment rate and this is an issue they feel compelled to vote on?  Which will put three plastic bag manufacturers in the county out of business.  Yay.

Personally, I abhor the idea of being charged for bags anywhere you shop.  Especially when I recycle them in the recycle bins and would anyway, even if I had to pay for them.  I also use public transportation and many times I buy groceries it's when I stop into the stores on my way from one place to another.  I don't think that because I use pubic transportation I should be penalized because I am not going to be carrying
around my own shoping bags to shop with. The reason plastic bags became in vogue in the first place is the idea we should save all the trees that were being used to make the paper bags.  What happened
to that idea?

One person I know who lives in Long Beach, which has had this ban for several months, says that some stores there are getting around the ban because plastic produce bags are not banned.  So the stores are using the same plastic bags they used to, only their supplier has printed "produce bag" onto them.

Some people think that paper bags will be eventually outlawed as well.

Plastic bags are not banned here but many places have a surcharge of 5 cents per bag.  The Liquor stores have no bags at all.  That's not true, they sell re-usable ones starting at 75 cents, every Montrealer that I know has a vast collection of them, lol!  At dinner parties, hosts get really offended if a guest tries to dump one on them.  "Do you want this b.." "NO!"

I never used to buy garbage bags but now I have to and I hate it.  I think I'll start paying the 5 cents.

[bentgyro]

Lyle,
I hear you on the recycled bag conundrum.
I use recycled bags when I remember to put them in the car, but sometimes you need a plastic bag for this and that.
There seem to be so many ways of making us feel guilty about our lives and habits, I can hardy drink my glass of wine
without a twinge, but I struggle though it.
HT

[oilgun]

Here's a good compilation video showing what's been going on in Montreal these last couple of months:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLvsy4eLAwk

"How do I tell my friends, across English speaking Canada, in the USA, and in Europe, that what is going on in Montreal these days and nights is bigger than Jesus or Arcade Fire, bigger than the Occupy movement, bigger than anything any handful of anarchists could ever have imagined possible, bigger than what the mainstream media is reporting? It is so hard to describe. The air is electric. The streets vibrate. The mood is open, public defiance of unjust law, rage at corruption at the highest levels, joyous, heartfelt solidarity with students and among people. It is something that has never been witnessed here before. Old, young, politicized or not, in Montreal, and outside the metropolis, something is stirring people's minds and hearts. Something big..." Norman Nawrocki

[morrobay]

What do you guys think of the issue of stores banning plastic bags?
Los Angeles decided this week to ban grocery stores from having
plastic bags and to be charged 10 cents per paper bag if you don't
bring in your own bag.  The largest city to do this so far I have heard.

First, there appears to be a meme in this country that plastic bags are a problem and that banning them is something we have to or should do. Even I thought that until I started listening to the other side of the issue.

I have heard and read things that show banning plastic grocery bags does not reduce plastic bag litter, in fact in one study it actually rose .5%.  Why would it rise?  Well, many people use the plastic bags at home for trash or pet waste.  Without these available they have to buy plastic bags which are much larger than the ones used in grocery stores and so are actually wasted more.

People who use their own recyclable bags, like tote bags and stuff--guess what? Most of those are made in China and use materials that are not recyclable, and some are in fact, toxic.  A recent study that tested peoples reusuable shopping bags found 50% of them to be carrying unsafe germ levels presumably from things like meats and vegetables that are put into the bag, that are being transferred to new food items that you put in the bags.  It's recommended that you wash your recyclable bags every week.  Isn't that wasting water?

There's other things that make me see this issue as pretty non-relevant to most of the problems cities have right now.  Los Angeles has a high unemployment rate and this is an issue they feel compelled to vote on?  Which will put three plastic bag manufacturers in the county out of business.  Yay.

Personally, I abhor the idea of being charged for bags anywhere you shop.  Especially when I recycle them in the recycle bins and would anyway, even if I had to pay for them.  I also use public transportation and many times I buy groceries it's when I stop into the stores on my way from one place to another.  I don't think that because I use pubic transportation I should be penalized because I am not going to be carrying
around my own shoping bags to shop with. The reason plastic bags became in vogue in the first place is the idea we should save all the trees that were being used to make the paper bags.  What happened
to that idea?

One person I know who lives in Long Beach, which has had this ban for several months, says that some stores there are getting around the ban because plastic produce bags are not banned.  So the stores are using the same plastic bags they used to, only their supplier has printed "produce bag" onto them.

Some people think that paper bags will be eventually outlawed as well.

This is interesting, as Austin is considering banning the bags from groceries, as well.

I didn't know this:  Most of those are made in China and use materials that are not recyclable, and some are in fact, toxic.  

Or this: Which will put three plastic bag manufacturers in the county out of business.

What I hate is the way manufacturers over-wrap things.  1 small example: I ordered a ring online, the ring itself was inside a normal ring-size box but it came in a box that 2 old VHS tapes could have fit in, and it was layered inside with 10 feet of brown paper...god forbid the ring should bounce around...

And don't get me started on the razor-sharp molded plastic they use....yeah, no more plastic shopping bags should do it.