The Nita

Rep. Peter King (N.Y.), the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, is also asking whether Attorney General Eric Holder discussed the treatment of Shahzad with the intelligence community before deciding to arrest him on criminal charges, Politico reports.

"If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he's an American citizen but still," King said.

Is it me, or are there more and more elected members of the Republican party who seem to think that the rules the US has put in place and used for years are somehow only applicable to people they like??

I'm back to one of my most frustrated moments with sections of the US - if you espouse a set of laws and believe them to be what makes you a good and great nation, then you don't get to pick and choose whom of your citizens they apply to. This isn't something I would have thought needed to get pointed out, but more and more, it seems that's the case.

If this guy really set that bloody bomb up, then he needs to get hit with the full force of due process. But willy nilly deciding who we should give the rights granted in the Constitution and the laws of the United States and who shouldn't get them is a recipe for a place that doesn't look like the USA I was raised learning about, the USA that my friends & some of my family hail from, and it sure isn't somewhere I want way too close to my border (and way to close to my own pet authoritarian, PM Harper)...

Bloody hell - "I know he's an American citizen but still"???

Really?

Is that the hill you want to die on, you bloody idjit?

Representative Grayson from Florida?

I have only seen a little of you. Mostly your two big bits in Congress recently - the "Die Quickly" speech and the "Not apologizing" speech.

As a die hard Canadian who has many loved ones in the US, I have one thing to say.

Get 'em, Tiger.

You may be grandstanding, but hell, you're doing it with some serious balls, and I have to respect that.

For my American readers, my apologies for the hackles that are about to get raised.

Cause my ire's up.





Ahem.




Where the fuck do some Americans get off assuming that since they are more visible at conferences and industry meetings that automatically equates to the American Free Market is the sole cause of their visibility?

Gee. Let's compare countries for a moment:

Population - US has roughly 10 times the Canadian population
2008 GDP (millions of USD) (source: IMF list) United States $14,264,600 - Canada $1,510,957 - so again, roughly 10 times.

Grr.

Get a clue, people. More resources are more resources. It will generally be easier to accomplish things with more resources. That is not the same thing as the free market making you better.

I am a self-described mercenary - I get the whole money/supply/demand thing. I am also entirely capable of being an arrogant sob when I want to be.

But even I get difference of scale issues.

I'm less irritated at the original source of today's rant, but having spent entirely too much time visiting the US and being preached at how the US does it right and Canada does it wrong, and having spent my entire life listening to talking heads on the TV explain how very much better the US is to Canada, including about shite they know squat all about? Apparently the camel felt the straw hit and now I need a brand new camel.

Things you need to know, in case you don't.

1. I have no patience at the best of times.


2. I'm a bibliophile.


3. I read roughly 1.5 books per week - down in recent years from 3 due to real life


4. Many of the books I read are series

Over the past 12-18 months, I've seen several blog posts by various authors, responding to fan mail, explaining that, as Neil Gaiman recently put it, "[AUTHOR] is not your bitch."

Over and over, I see writers addressing the demands of fans who ask, bitch, moan, whine and otherwise complain that said author, or another author, isn't putting out the story they want to read at the speed or direction they wanted it to be available.

Um.

Maybe I'm dumb. Maybe I just don't get humanity - gods know, that's been a pretty common theme in my whole life.

It's a book. You paid for a book. Not their life. Not the future. You enjoyed the book. GRAND - I'm sure the author, their agent & publisher are all delighted.

What the hell convinces someone that means they are entitled to anything else???

You don't like subsequent novels because you think the author started phoning it in? Don't buy them.

You don't like the speed the novels are coming out? Really, either put on your big kid pants and wait or stop buying books by that author.

Simple market economics here, folks. If you don't like the way a producer provides their product, don't give that producer your business any more.

Now one of the things that has been pointed out to me as a possible explaination (at least for the ones where the fans address the author in question directly) is a "hey - I want to keep giving you my money, but you're making it hard, as you don't have more product out". Which is reasonable, to a point. There's a world of difference between "I'm waiting for your next book and I'm very eager for it to come out." and "Why haven't you given me my next book yet? You owe me, because I'm a fan." Those fans who address other authors looking for that other author to back them up on their sense of entitlement to the works of [AUTHOR_THEY'RE_COMPLAINING_ABOUT] fall in the "oh grow the hell up" bucket.

Authors don't owe you jack, [FAN]. They work for the publisher, not you, regardless of how it might seem otherwise. Trust me, if the publisher thinks the author isn't profitable, they won't publish them any more.

I cannot comprehend the thought process that would allow an adult to demand a book from an author based solely on the fact that the reader liked the book.

Anyone care to explain this to me in a rational manner? I'd love to know, beyond the apparent whiny, grabby, small child mentality that lets a grown adult act like a producer of art they like (be it a book, TV, movie, paint, dance, theatre, pick your art here) somehow belongs to them.

That a song entitled Hallelujah evokes loss, pain and death.

Just watched it (cause I knew that I was waking up at 5am,I wasn't staying up all night, not with the joys of the internet to help me).

Damn, but that man's a fine orator.

Because it wasn't that inspired a speech. He's definately done better.

It covered what it needed to: kudos to his defeated opponent, thanks to his running mate, family, and staff, call to both sides of the partisan divide, an initial statement of essentially "I may not be everything you want me to be" and a very inspiring, but ultimately non-specific call to the people for coming together as a nation.

It was on message (how many times can you say "Yes we can" and attribute it to iconic figures of american history?)

But at the end of the day, it wasn't a brilliant speech. It did what it was supposed to do, and that was all.

I still had tears in my eyes at the end of it. And that's the difference between someone who can deliver a speech and someone who can orate well.

It also distresses me, and at the same time I grok utterly the need, that the whole thing was buffered with bulletproof glass.

I long for a day when a leader doesn't have to be encased in security when they go out in public. I doubt we'll ever be there, but damn, it would be nice.

Hello all,

There is a special resolution for the membership to consider. To summarize,
performance space in the region is becoming prohibitively expensive for KWLT to
continue to rent for productions, and the most cost-effective solution is to take out
a line of credit and finish the rebuild so that we operate again from our own space.

For purposes of expediency, we require a vote before the Annual General Meeting
in June. Below is the official notice of a Special General Meeting to be held
on Thursday, May 8th.

I invite everyone who can attend to please come to this very special meeting. KWLT needs
the support of its membership to take on this challenge and we require quorum
to come to a decision.

Josh Hoey
President


-----------------------------

Notice of Special General Meeting

To be held in Waterloo, Ontario on Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at the
University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave West, in Hagey Hall Room 280.

Notice is hereby given that a special general meeting of the members of the
Kitchener - Waterloo Little Theatre has been called to consider and, if
deemed advisable, to adopt the following special resolution of the members:


SPECIAL RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING LINE OF CREDIT

WHEREAS the Kitchener - Waterloo Little Theatre, a corporation duly formed
pursuant to the laws of the Province of Ontario, has been rebuilding its
theatre premises on the property it owns at 9 Princess Street E. in Waterloo
(the Property) since its previous premises were lost to a fire in 2002;

AND WHEREAS significant additional funds are required to complete the
rebuilding effort;

AND WHEREAS suitable alternate performance space has become prohibitively
expensive;

BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of Directors is authorized to execute a Line
of Credit in the amount of $85,000 secured against the Property on behalf of
the Kitchener - Waterloo Little Theatre.

Further information will be provided at the meeting or sooner if possible.

By Order of the Board of Directors, April 21, 2008

----------------------------------

the_nita here again....

My take? I want my damned theatre back. Where we're performing out of now goes away as of the end of the year - it's been bought and is being turned into an art gallery. The Registry can't accommodate the number of performances we want in their schedule. Other locations are beyond our budget. This is a solution that gets us our theatre built in the time frame we have. oldgrover has been working like a dog to get it done. Gods - give him the money and let him get it done. Once we have a space, we can become the people renting out their space when we're not using it - REVENUE STREAM!

If you're a KWLT member, please, for the love of theatre, come to the meeting & vote.

Edit: Anyone who's been involved with KWLT, and cares about the outcome, but isn't currently a full member still has the option of buying a membership at the meeting tomorrow night, according to what I've read.

Ken Epp, an MP in Alberta, is putting forward a bill (going into it's second hour of debate today at 11am ET) to make it a crime to harm or kill a fetus during the attack on the pregnant woman carrying it

Conceptually, I have to say I agree.

Granted, this is a Conservative MP from Alberta. Which has the liberal part of my soul searching in the corners for the catch that would eventually use this piece of legislation to make it illegal to have an abortion, or perform one. Then again, the information on that page seems to make it clear that he's specifically trying to avoid that.

People harming women so they cannot have their desired children does bother me enormously - anyone who's seen the white knight complex I have knows that damned well.

Problem is, this government has pulled so many damned fast ones on the people of Canada that I also have trouble taking any "good works" of theirs on faith.

More thinking & reading ahead, methinks. Not that I can really change this - I believe it goes for a final vote on Friday, if I'm remembering the CBC interview correctly. I suppose if nothing else, I can get on the horn to my MP's office and tell them what I think.

After all, what's a White Knight Complex for if you don't try to do what's right?

CBC article on the false lock down alarms in Ottawa Carleton schools - apparently there have been more since this article.

They've had something like 28 of them now in the past month. All false.

School & authorities have to react like its real - the calls have been either "someone's in the school with a gun" or "someone planted a bomb". That's not something you can take a chance with - you need to act like it's real. And the phone calls are coming from outside the schools, inside the schools, cell phones & land lines. They've found a few suspects, but nothing to tie the whole thing together.

Thing is, as I understand psych theory, the more often they do this, the more the people inside the system will believe its false (that whole "cry wolf" response).

Here's where my conspiracy nature comes in, and my lack of faith in people. I think that someone (or more likely several someones) thinks that the lockdowns are wrong some how - don't ask me - could be students, could be adults, could be any number of reasons for why they're "wrong". I just think they're using the "cry wolf" response to force the system to reevaluate using lockdowns or to remove them entirely.

Then again, the thought just crossed my mind that the best way to really cause a tear in a school would be to convince them the lockdowns aren't necessary - then really have a gun/bomb in the school.

Yah.

Please let it be someone who's decided that they shouldn't have one. Please let me just be a paranoid bitch.

Something you should know, that will help give perspective. I have, over the years, been called frigid once or twice. Bluntly put, I'll happily sock anyone who does this to anyone any more. Far as I can tell, it's a lovely made up disease to convince people they have to spend more money "fixing" themselves, and feeling like they don't measure up to someone else's expectations of what their sexuality should be.

Uh - excuse me, who the hell other than the person who's sexuality it is should be deciding if it's "up to snuff" or not?

In any case, I was listening to CBC while doing my final edits. Ideas tonight had a woman, Leonore Tiefer, a PhD & (gods, I hate this word) sexologist, who's involved with something called the New View Campaign - which is challenging the current trend to medicalizing sex. Sex shouldn't be something you buy at the pharmacy. Intimacy doesn't need a pill, cream, ointment or other snake oil.

Gods be damned, but when I saw ads recently for FSAD ointments (FSAD = Female Sexual Arousal Dysfunction), I went, "Oh, someone decided to create a demand for Viagra For Women".

I understand why the drug companies are doing this - convince people there's something wrong with them, even if you have to make up the disease to do it, and they'll pay to fix it. That most North Americans don't have enough sexual education about their own bodies & how to pleasure them makes them convenient sheep.

I am studying marketing. I enjoy it. But yah - there are times when we are the bad guys.