The estates of disabled Canadian veterans have been mismanaged for decades and actually extinguished upon their deaths by successive Canadian governments since the first world war.
This longstanding, painful oversight has given rise to a class action law suit representing tens of thousands of disabled Canadian vets and their families. One facet of it dealing with the right of Parliament to change the law affecting compensation for the veterans was dismissed last July 23, 2004, when the nine justices of the Supreme Court of Canada rendered a unanimous decision upholding the right of the government to extinguish the property of vets any time the legislators felt like it. And this was precisely what the Mulroney government did when it slipped in a clause into a complex bit of legislation that obliterated any actions the vets might take after 1990 to have their property and funds returned to them. The seven justices sided with the government’s power to enact such legislation but hinted in its ruling that the legislation itself was not ethical. While acknowledging successive federal governments mismanaged the veterans’ affairs (not paying interest and extinguishing their properties upon death) “the parliament has, by enacting legislation to that effect, made the debt unenforceable.”
It was argued by the lawyers for the disabled vets and their families that the Canadian Bill of Rights should be foremost in protecting the life, liberty and property of all Canadians. To imagine that any government, (corrupt or not) can enact legislation in order to get out of paying a legitimate debt is appalling and an outrage to all vets and their families, if not all right-thinking Canadians.
”When a government sends its youngest, and its bravest into the battlefields of the world to protect the general rights of all Canadians and to stand in harm’s way to protect the Canadian Bill of Rights, then that government and all successive governments should do its utmost to protect those vets returning home mentally disabled or at least not competent to manage their own financial affairs,” stated David Greenaway, lawyer for the veterans.
Successive Canadian governments reaching all the way back to WW1 did exactly the opposite and stole what was rightfully the vet’s property and that of his heirs. And the fact that Jean Chretien pushed this issue all the way to the Supreme Court makes him just as dirty as Mulroney. How can any of these people possibly consider this a victory?
This case is ongoing despite the ruling of the Supreme Court because that ruling applied to only one aspect of the overall case. This month Judge Brockenshire of Windsor, Ontario, will be making a statement as to how much monies are owed the thousands of veterans and their families for these misdeeds of the federal government. It is expected that once again the lawyers for the federal government will appeal any payouts to the disabled veterans or their families while interest has been accruing since December 2004 on a sum of approximately two billion dollars.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Year of the Veterans cont'd.
Prime Minister Martin has the power to override the Attorney General’s persistent negative litigating and make an honest offer to the veterans and their descendants. He, however, apparently would prefer to fly to Holland to make grand statements of how valuable a contribution our noble veterans made in war times than do the right thing by them and settle this long and shameful lawsuit.
When next you stand solemnly at a Remembrance Day ceremony, remember these disgusting facts.
The Disabling of a Soldier,
The Story of George W. Langen
My father was just 20 when he was hit twice in less than 20 minutes as he and his fellows of the Cape Breton Highlanders attempted to ford a river by Rimini, in Italy, on September 28, in 1944. Their company had been dispatched to take a battalion objective, a truly aggressive and ill-advised action.
We learn the circumstances from a chronicle of the war entitled, The Canadians in Italy.
When next you stand solemnly at a Remembrance Day ceremony, remember these disgusting facts.
The Disabling of a Soldier,
The Story of George W. Langen
My father was just 20 when he was hit twice in less than 20 minutes as he and his fellows of the Cape Breton Highlanders attempted to ford a river by Rimini, in Italy, on September 28, in 1944. Their company had been dispatched to take a battalion objective, a truly aggressive and ill-advised action.
We learn the circumstances from a chronicle of the war entitled, The Canadians in Italy.
Canadians at war, con'td.
“Company A of the cape Breton Highlanders were ‘ordered to secure the bridge at the village of Fiumincino’ near rimini. In the early hours of the 28th, after wading the river, the company was surprised by the tank and infantry fire of the 26 Panzer Division. After the ‘unequal fight’ the enemy withdrew with 53 captives, ‘leaving behind one wounded and nine dead Canadians.’ The one wounded man, left for dead, was George Langen , 20, only one month out of his teens.”
The chronicle concludes, “The failure taught a useful lesson : not again in Italy in the 11th Brigade was a company dispatched to take a battalion objective.”
My dad, Private George Langen, sustained shrapnel wounds across his knees and a severe bullet wound to his right shoulder, just missing an artery. He eventually waded out of the river and found a barn into which he collapsed. He was tended to there by two German soldiers who had surrendered to him, themselves weary of war, and Dad escorted them as his prisoners back to his camp.
After expecting (and willing) to return to the front, he was assigned to guard duty in Ireland. It was decided that he had taken enough damage.
The chronicle concludes, “The failure taught a useful lesson : not again in Italy in the 11th Brigade was a company dispatched to take a battalion objective.”
My dad, Private George Langen, sustained shrapnel wounds across his knees and a severe bullet wound to his right shoulder, just missing an artery. He eventually waded out of the river and found a barn into which he collapsed. He was tended to there by two German soldiers who had surrendered to him, themselves weary of war, and Dad escorted them as his prisoners back to his camp.
After expecting (and willing) to return to the front, he was assigned to guard duty in Ireland. It was decided that he had taken enough damage.
Such a soldier cont'd.
He was to spend the last 18 years of his life in the care of the Veterans’ Affairs during which time his estate was mismanaged and his monies did not accrue interest. He has become somewhat of a poster boy in the media campaign in this lawsuit against the government.
Perhaps that’s where this writer gets his feistiness, being the son of such a soldier.
PANIC IN THE PANDEMIC DEPT.
Dr Michael Osterholm, author and leading infectious disease and bioterrorism expert, warns that an influenza breakout could, apart from draining the global economy, trigger universal panic. “Pandemic influenza has the ability literally bring this world to a halt,” Osterholm said Wednesday. Osterholm emphasizes that any pandemic must be viewed as a global threat, not a regional one, thus treatment and vaccinations must be made available globally. While Canada is well prepared in its own environment for an outbreak, Osterholm believes that we cannot isolate ourselves from the world-wide fallout of a devastated economy. Canada’s health minister has proposed an international conference to address this issue.
It seems our days of isolationism are coming to a close. More and more we will have to behave as though we are all neighbours in the same block and abiding by similar principles of conduct. And given our current state of juvenile behaviour and worship of emptyheadedness and suicide aficionados, and our inclination to mob frenzies, panic would seem to be the inevitable reaction to even a hint of a pandemic.
Perhaps that’s where this writer gets his feistiness, being the son of such a soldier.
PANIC IN THE PANDEMIC DEPT.
Dr Michael Osterholm, author and leading infectious disease and bioterrorism expert, warns that an influenza breakout could, apart from draining the global economy, trigger universal panic. “Pandemic influenza has the ability literally bring this world to a halt,” Osterholm said Wednesday. Osterholm emphasizes that any pandemic must be viewed as a global threat, not a regional one, thus treatment and vaccinations must be made available globally. While Canada is well prepared in its own environment for an outbreak, Osterholm believes that we cannot isolate ourselves from the world-wide fallout of a devastated economy. Canada’s health minister has proposed an international conference to address this issue.
It seems our days of isolationism are coming to a close. More and more we will have to behave as though we are all neighbours in the same block and abiding by similar principles of conduct. And given our current state of juvenile behaviour and worship of emptyheadedness and suicide aficionados, and our inclination to mob frenzies, panic would seem to be the inevitable reaction to even a hint of a pandemic.
Panic cont'd.
And given our very own Dr Daniel Kalla, of the emergency ward of St Paul’s, has just written to worldly acclaim his first novel, entitled Pandemic, this whole idea of a fast-spreading lethal virus seems to be gaining a creepily fast credibility.
When you link our climate of war with our sagging sense of human values, then the spectre of what a pandemic might wrought here in Lotusland takes on truly spooky dimensions. Don’t ask Paris for directions to the exit. Not even her grotesque amount of personal fortune can point the way to clear thinking.
More on
Man Has Always Been Man
Frank J Kenwood signed the following affidavit on November 27, 1948, in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas.
“While I was working the Municipal Electric Plant in Thomas, Oklahoma, in 1912, I came upon a solid chunk of coal which was too large to use. I broke it with a sledge hammer. This iron pot fell from the centre, leaving the impression or mould of the pot in the piece of coal. Jim Stall (an employee of the company) witnessed the breaking of the coal, and saw the pot fall out. I traced the source of the coal and found that it came from Wilburton, Oklahoma mines.” According to Robert O. Fay of the Oklahoma Geological Survey, the Wilburton mine coal is about 312 million years old.
–derived from Hidden History of the Human Race, by Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson.
Assuming for the sake of this commentary that reincarnation is true, then what does it take to emancipate oneself from these return visits? Living by a doctrine? Abiding by a church’s dictates? Individualistic moral living, following one’s own mind and sense of spirituality? Accumulating good deeds like brownie points, as if to bribe heaven’s gatekeeper with brownies but hey, ya never know! Hash brownies have been known to do all manner of havoc.
There is a whole spectrum of fantastic dogmas and goofy ideas about the next life, resurrection or just vaulting into heaven after being a no-harm kinda dude. As to that last mention, I think not. One is not prepared to enjoy the complex and intimate thrills of being near God in a heavenly state by merely being meek and harmless. Rather I would suggest entrance into an intense state of heavenly awareness requires a few more tidbits of something divine being added to our earthly, and oft mediocre selves.
A language perhaps, extreme unctions spoken in light, a speaking which allows continuity might be something to consider as opposed to our usual syllable flinging from impudent lips. Manufacturing words (like lawyers) is not a surefire remedy to opening closed gates. Chance blatherings will not achieve the same effect as Open Sesame did for Ali Baba. The formula is probably more involved than that, otherwise all manner of murderous human detritus might find their way to God’s inner sanctum. Nazi codebreakers, conniving strategists, and perish the thought - Chess players!
(Graphic below by Juan Gris)
When you link our climate of war with our sagging sense of human values, then the spectre of what a pandemic might wrought here in Lotusland takes on truly spooky dimensions. Don’t ask Paris for directions to the exit. Not even her grotesque amount of personal fortune can point the way to clear thinking.
More on
Man Has Always Been Man
Frank J Kenwood signed the following affidavit on November 27, 1948, in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas.
“While I was working the Municipal Electric Plant in Thomas, Oklahoma, in 1912, I came upon a solid chunk of coal which was too large to use. I broke it with a sledge hammer. This iron pot fell from the centre, leaving the impression or mould of the pot in the piece of coal. Jim Stall (an employee of the company) witnessed the breaking of the coal, and saw the pot fall out. I traced the source of the coal and found that it came from Wilburton, Oklahoma mines.” According to Robert O. Fay of the Oklahoma Geological Survey, the Wilburton mine coal is about 312 million years old.
–derived from Hidden History of the Human Race, by Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson.
Assuming for the sake of this commentary that reincarnation is true, then what does it take to emancipate oneself from these return visits? Living by a doctrine? Abiding by a church’s dictates? Individualistic moral living, following one’s own mind and sense of spirituality? Accumulating good deeds like brownie points, as if to bribe heaven’s gatekeeper with brownies but hey, ya never know! Hash brownies have been known to do all manner of havoc.
There is a whole spectrum of fantastic dogmas and goofy ideas about the next life, resurrection or just vaulting into heaven after being a no-harm kinda dude. As to that last mention, I think not. One is not prepared to enjoy the complex and intimate thrills of being near God in a heavenly state by merely being meek and harmless. Rather I would suggest entrance into an intense state of heavenly awareness requires a few more tidbits of something divine being added to our earthly, and oft mediocre selves.
A language perhaps, extreme unctions spoken in light, a speaking which allows continuity might be something to consider as opposed to our usual syllable flinging from impudent lips. Manufacturing words (like lawyers) is not a surefire remedy to opening closed gates. Chance blatherings will not achieve the same effect as Open Sesame did for Ali Baba. The formula is probably more involved than that, otherwise all manner of murderous human detritus might find their way to God’s inner sanctum. Nazi codebreakers, conniving strategists, and perish the thought - Chess players!
(Graphic below by Juan Gris)
Heaven: Getting There
So let’s consider the range of possibilities here for getting our tickets stamped for this eternally fun party we call heaven.
Staying with reincarnation for this issue, I suspect that our lives from one to the next actually have something to do with evolving spiritually. Otherwise, it would all be hopelessly redundant, an inexorable revisiting of futile existences. We have to assume there is a purpose and in that purpose I propose that joy is connected. And the concept of heaven is intended obviously to facilitate that joy. So: life after life, adopting form after form, we may evolve into a greater spiritual being, until perhaps it is clear that any further rebirth in this form is not necessary. But as to what triggers the spiritual evolution we need to contemplate most thoughtfully.
Allow me to expand: By permitting godliness in every human interaction are we not associating ourselves with something divine and by such familiarity are we not preparing ourselves for an esteemed relationship with a constantly divine eminence? By acting charitably with all God’s children are we not perhaps pleasing the creator?
And I slipped in there an assumption by using the word children, I assumed that yes, we are children of the creator, thoughts given into light of the personality of the infinite. So if we are children then we have to consider that God, this sublime personality, is parental. The earth and all of its complex ecosystems and spectacular vistas and myriad scents and mysterious sounds is a kind of House of God, a continuum which permits us steadfast enjoyment were we to permit it, and allow ourselves to be facilitated in it. But for that we would need to be alive.
We are not alive. We pretend existence. That’s why we’re so enamoured of professional pretenders. They make it all look so real, so dramatic. And so we emulate the actors and in our own minds we are stars. But this is folly and pretense. Our spiritual growth is stunted by these illusions of living. Living is what God is doing. And while feeling neglected (I would imagine), nonetheless that source of the eternal streams of life has all the intentions in the world to continue giving life and making the way passable for us, each of us to live.
You can tell you’re not alive by your attention span of life. You can detect that you are checking out while life is proceeding. In this culture, an abbreviated attention span is what is precisely being cultivated. To wit, the flashing commercials. The fast-paced episodic nature of most everything on TV, especially the sitcoms. So when you turn off your awareness, your capacity to absorb reality, where do you imagine the palpable joy is going to be experienced, vicariously through the television actors, or that story they’re telling you is life? No luck there, pal.
When you are unaware not only are you not enjoying, you are not even living. Your spirit has closed down, your eyes glaze over and a sign out front reads, “Nobody home.” Something akin to all those ipod people.
Now what good host would include such a dolt on his invitation list to heaven?
Staying with reincarnation for this issue, I suspect that our lives from one to the next actually have something to do with evolving spiritually. Otherwise, it would all be hopelessly redundant, an inexorable revisiting of futile existences. We have to assume there is a purpose and in that purpose I propose that joy is connected. And the concept of heaven is intended obviously to facilitate that joy. So: life after life, adopting form after form, we may evolve into a greater spiritual being, until perhaps it is clear that any further rebirth in this form is not necessary. But as to what triggers the spiritual evolution we need to contemplate most thoughtfully.
Allow me to expand: By permitting godliness in every human interaction are we not associating ourselves with something divine and by such familiarity are we not preparing ourselves for an esteemed relationship with a constantly divine eminence? By acting charitably with all God’s children are we not perhaps pleasing the creator?
And I slipped in there an assumption by using the word children, I assumed that yes, we are children of the creator, thoughts given into light of the personality of the infinite. So if we are children then we have to consider that God, this sublime personality, is parental. The earth and all of its complex ecosystems and spectacular vistas and myriad scents and mysterious sounds is a kind of House of God, a continuum which permits us steadfast enjoyment were we to permit it, and allow ourselves to be facilitated in it. But for that we would need to be alive.
We are not alive. We pretend existence. That’s why we’re so enamoured of professional pretenders. They make it all look so real, so dramatic. And so we emulate the actors and in our own minds we are stars. But this is folly and pretense. Our spiritual growth is stunted by these illusions of living. Living is what God is doing. And while feeling neglected (I would imagine), nonetheless that source of the eternal streams of life has all the intentions in the world to continue giving life and making the way passable for us, each of us to live.
You can tell you’re not alive by your attention span of life. You can detect that you are checking out while life is proceeding. In this culture, an abbreviated attention span is what is precisely being cultivated. To wit, the flashing commercials. The fast-paced episodic nature of most everything on TV, especially the sitcoms. So when you turn off your awareness, your capacity to absorb reality, where do you imagine the palpable joy is going to be experienced, vicariously through the television actors, or that story they’re telling you is life? No luck there, pal.
When you are unaware not only are you not enjoying, you are not even living. Your spirit has closed down, your eyes glaze over and a sign out front reads, “Nobody home.” Something akin to all those ipod people.
Now what good host would include such a dolt on his invitation list to heaven?
Thoughts of reincarnation cont'd.
When you come to life here on this earth and experience the godliness in all things, in all people, and see your connection to the universe as a form of covenant with God the Parent, and see also that each human being has been given the same equipment with which to know this experience then you are beginning, just beginning to get a glimpse of your own magnificence and where heaven really is after all. Right here on terra firma the way it was given and meant to be enjoyed in all its profound and infinite manifestations.
So are we to evacuate this earth in one great final life of excellence never to have to return to a physical form and suffer the vagaries of a human existence? Not quite. We come back. Spiritually full-bodied and of good memory. And when returning to an enlivened earth with a boundless spiritual bounty affirmed by every other individual of this earth living in concert with the personality of love, then the word 'heaven' will dim in comparison to the reality of the bliss we will all be experiencing for all of time… as there is no time, there never was, just your relationship to the truth and perhaps for you the extreme and intense peace of knowing.
And that, dear fellow human being is our destiny written right there in the sky, as we have no choice ultimately but to acknowledge the Giver, from our perspective here on a spiritualized, revivified earth. But for the moment, the potent earth exists in its state of quiescence, similar to the sleeping princess of our dreams. Its edenic blueprint obscured, we animated corpses currently defiling it at every opportunity.
Only when we relinquish being the director of the movie of our life might we permit a sacred presence. Hearing the unscripted language of that exalted living will be as sensational to our ears as is wild honey to our tongue.
Face to face under this splendrous sun we will find the words to reconcile ourselves to the infinite.
INDIA'S CONCEPT OF GENESIS
This universe existed in the shape of darkness, unperceived, destitute of distinctive marks, unattainable by reasoning, unknowable, wholly immersed, as it were, in deep sleep.
Then the Divine Self-existent, himself indiscernible but making all this, the great elements and the rest, discernible, appeared with irresistible power, dispelling the darkness.
He who can be perceived by the internal organ alone, who is subtle, indiscernible, and eternal, who contains all created beings and is inconceivable, shone forth of his own will.
He, desiring to produce beings of many kinds from his own body, first with a thought created the waters, and placed his seed in them.
That seed became a golden egg, in brilliancy equal to the sun; in that egg he himself was born as Brahma, the progenitor of the whole world...
The Divine One resided in that egg during a whole year, then he himself by his thought divided it into two halves.
And out of those two halves he formed heaven and earth, between them the middle sphere, the eight points of the horizon, and the eternal abode of the waters.
From himself he also drew forth the mind, which is both real and unreal, likewise from the mind ego, which possesses the function of self-consciousness and is lordly.
(The India myth is essentially the same as the stories of Ziusudra, Utnapishtim, and Noah. Like those flood heroes, Manu - the protagonist - receives supernatural help and is saved by remaining in a ship until he is able to tie up on an Indian version of Mount Ararat. This story is told in the Shatapatha-Brahmana)
So are we to evacuate this earth in one great final life of excellence never to have to return to a physical form and suffer the vagaries of a human existence? Not quite. We come back. Spiritually full-bodied and of good memory. And when returning to an enlivened earth with a boundless spiritual bounty affirmed by every other individual of this earth living in concert with the personality of love, then the word 'heaven' will dim in comparison to the reality of the bliss we will all be experiencing for all of time… as there is no time, there never was, just your relationship to the truth and perhaps for you the extreme and intense peace of knowing.
And that, dear fellow human being is our destiny written right there in the sky, as we have no choice ultimately but to acknowledge the Giver, from our perspective here on a spiritualized, revivified earth. But for the moment, the potent earth exists in its state of quiescence, similar to the sleeping princess of our dreams. Its edenic blueprint obscured, we animated corpses currently defiling it at every opportunity.
Only when we relinquish being the director of the movie of our life might we permit a sacred presence. Hearing the unscripted language of that exalted living will be as sensational to our ears as is wild honey to our tongue.
Face to face under this splendrous sun we will find the words to reconcile ourselves to the infinite.
INDIA'S CONCEPT OF GENESIS
This universe existed in the shape of darkness, unperceived, destitute of distinctive marks, unattainable by reasoning, unknowable, wholly immersed, as it were, in deep sleep.
Then the Divine Self-existent, himself indiscernible but making all this, the great elements and the rest, discernible, appeared with irresistible power, dispelling the darkness.
He who can be perceived by the internal organ alone, who is subtle, indiscernible, and eternal, who contains all created beings and is inconceivable, shone forth of his own will.
He, desiring to produce beings of many kinds from his own body, first with a thought created the waters, and placed his seed in them.
That seed became a golden egg, in brilliancy equal to the sun; in that egg he himself was born as Brahma, the progenitor of the whole world...
The Divine One resided in that egg during a whole year, then he himself by his thought divided it into two halves.
And out of those two halves he formed heaven and earth, between them the middle sphere, the eight points of the horizon, and the eternal abode of the waters.
From himself he also drew forth the mind, which is both real and unreal, likewise from the mind ego, which possesses the function of self-consciousness and is lordly.
(The India myth is essentially the same as the stories of Ziusudra, Utnapishtim, and Noah. Like those flood heroes, Manu - the protagonist - receives supernatural help and is saved by remaining in a ship until he is able to tie up on an Indian version of Mount Ararat. This story is told in the Shatapatha-Brahmana)
HORRORSCOPES
With Ms Urble
(Read at your own risk)
ARIES
Don’t rock the boat this week. Someone in the House of Mars forgot to remove the plastic keel and any undue sudden motion will likely find you entangled with an undesirable Libra who will somehow have managed to fasten himself to those long unshorn pubic hairs you’ve been so enamoured of lately. And then Sagittarrius is likely, with its moon in recession this fortnight, covet the action and further encumber your crossing the ellipsis, but all of this can be avoided if you repaint the plastic keel to resemble a passing wind.
TAURUS
There is an immense booger clouding your vision. Blow your horn in the bathroom.
GEMINI
This is an exciting and frustrating time for you. Reading Umberto Eco’s Latin tribute to Tom Cruise’s smoochfest in the theatre, and you know all too well who’s doing the pretending this week, puts you in a cynical mood on Thursday, so sleep in and take care of that frustration. That should set you up nicely for a rousing rendition of The Innate Values of Viagara by the Holy Water. Don’t forget to genuflect upon completion.
CANCER
This is a choice week to exhibit utmost determination about something serious for a change. With Mother’s Day behind you, and your sun in retrograde, tell sissy to look after the plastic keel part while you build an ark for daddy. Ask Leo for help with the cat-skinning.
LEO
As you approach the Ides of May, meditate upon the spent cherry blossoms and descending buds as you realize that all things in this cosmos must in the end transmogrify (just ask Sylvester). To prevent your undoing and any facial downfalls, pray to the new moon on a grassy slope that your wife won’t find that night-thingie until you can get home from work and dissolve it in scorpion’s blood. Ask Rachel for a velvet hand. She’ll know.
VIRGO
I see money on your vertigo. You may want to check your mail for rusty cans from an unbridled runaway. Wear gloves and send a letter of thanks to the editor of Soldier of Fortune. And if you’re still flummoxed about what to wear to the annual office summer bash-up, now you can afford that pipe bomb outfit. You go, guy.
LIBRA
With your crescent moon on the door and the well backing up, this is not a good week for traipsing naked in the dark near anything which may be emitting an untoward scent. Send the dog out first and if she makes it back with something venomous in its mouth you know the coast is clear for those diabolical night games you’ve been lifting from the Joneses. Don’t invite the tricky Macauley.
SCORPIO
If you’re still trying to extricate that fur ball then at least take heed that “All in moderation” was meant for you too. After Tuesday, your moon is in upgrade and you might want to consider a brushcut. Who needs the chewy aggravation anyway?
SAGITTARIUS
You’re having a very productive period. Sometimes quantity matters more than quality. Clear your table for a jinxed jigsaw puzzle and when you’re in the midst of absolute furor, chant the Seven Rings of the Dharmic Rosary. Then gingerly place each puzzle chip into those hash brownies mentioned earlier and send to Leah the Unhelpful. Don’t add Ginger.
CAPRICORN
Now is a good time to impress your boss with your sensitivity and thoughtfulness. Send your swaddling clothes to Sally Anne, then tip off Sagittarius and then vaunt about this deed (discreetly) to the main man. Expect a raise, or at least a Tequila Sunrise with a view.
AQUARIUS
Now that the moon is finally out of the seventh house, it’s long overdue for a spring cleaning. Hire all the contractors before another episode of Desperate Houseboys and wear something supremely evocative when they come a calling. Whips are on sale at Sally Anne.
PISCES
Uranus moves to your sign on Tuesday so ask Wimpy for his secret hot sauce and anything else he might have for those episodic hemorroids. Michael has white gloves. Or borrow some swaddling material from Capricorn.
(Read at your own risk)
ARIES
Don’t rock the boat this week. Someone in the House of Mars forgot to remove the plastic keel and any undue sudden motion will likely find you entangled with an undesirable Libra who will somehow have managed to fasten himself to those long unshorn pubic hairs you’ve been so enamoured of lately. And then Sagittarrius is likely, with its moon in recession this fortnight, covet the action and further encumber your crossing the ellipsis, but all of this can be avoided if you repaint the plastic keel to resemble a passing wind.
TAURUS
There is an immense booger clouding your vision. Blow your horn in the bathroom.
GEMINI
This is an exciting and frustrating time for you. Reading Umberto Eco’s Latin tribute to Tom Cruise’s smoochfest in the theatre, and you know all too well who’s doing the pretending this week, puts you in a cynical mood on Thursday, so sleep in and take care of that frustration. That should set you up nicely for a rousing rendition of The Innate Values of Viagara by the Holy Water. Don’t forget to genuflect upon completion.
CANCER
This is a choice week to exhibit utmost determination about something serious for a change. With Mother’s Day behind you, and your sun in retrograde, tell sissy to look after the plastic keel part while you build an ark for daddy. Ask Leo for help with the cat-skinning.
LEO
As you approach the Ides of May, meditate upon the spent cherry blossoms and descending buds as you realize that all things in this cosmos must in the end transmogrify (just ask Sylvester). To prevent your undoing and any facial downfalls, pray to the new moon on a grassy slope that your wife won’t find that night-thingie until you can get home from work and dissolve it in scorpion’s blood. Ask Rachel for a velvet hand. She’ll know.
VIRGO
I see money on your vertigo. You may want to check your mail for rusty cans from an unbridled runaway. Wear gloves and send a letter of thanks to the editor of Soldier of Fortune. And if you’re still flummoxed about what to wear to the annual office summer bash-up, now you can afford that pipe bomb outfit. You go, guy.
LIBRA
With your crescent moon on the door and the well backing up, this is not a good week for traipsing naked in the dark near anything which may be emitting an untoward scent. Send the dog out first and if she makes it back with something venomous in its mouth you know the coast is clear for those diabolical night games you’ve been lifting from the Joneses. Don’t invite the tricky Macauley.
SCORPIO
If you’re still trying to extricate that fur ball then at least take heed that “All in moderation” was meant for you too. After Tuesday, your moon is in upgrade and you might want to consider a brushcut. Who needs the chewy aggravation anyway?
SAGITTARIUS
You’re having a very productive period. Sometimes quantity matters more than quality. Clear your table for a jinxed jigsaw puzzle and when you’re in the midst of absolute furor, chant the Seven Rings of the Dharmic Rosary. Then gingerly place each puzzle chip into those hash brownies mentioned earlier and send to Leah the Unhelpful. Don’t add Ginger.
CAPRICORN
Now is a good time to impress your boss with your sensitivity and thoughtfulness. Send your swaddling clothes to Sally Anne, then tip off Sagittarius and then vaunt about this deed (discreetly) to the main man. Expect a raise, or at least a Tequila Sunrise with a view.
AQUARIUS
Now that the moon is finally out of the seventh house, it’s long overdue for a spring cleaning. Hire all the contractors before another episode of Desperate Houseboys and wear something supremely evocative when they come a calling. Whips are on sale at Sally Anne.
PISCES
Uranus moves to your sign on Tuesday so ask Wimpy for his secret hot sauce and anything else he might have for those episodic hemorroids. Michael has white gloves. Or borrow some swaddling material from Capricorn.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
A CLIMATE OF WAR
Angry sentiments are being expressed from the Chinese to the Japanese, especially among the youth and supposedly having to do with the atrocious activities of the Japanese soldiers in the Second World War. Japan’s version of the Second World War as outlined in one of its school history books apparently is too soft a retelling and a whitewash of some of its more diabolical war-time deeds.
The Chinese government, conveniently overlooking its own soldiers’ ruthlessness in Tiananmen Square and its generally miserable human rights record involving the imprisoning of people for their political views, is allowing the heat between these two countries to rise ominously and we here in Vancouver are getting a taste of this action. The Japanese Consulate in Vancouver is trading barbs with former city councillor and writer for the Chinese press, Tung Chan.
The Chinese government, conveniently overlooking its own soldiers’ ruthlessness in Tiananmen Square and its generally miserable human rights record involving the imprisoning of people for their political views, is allowing the heat between these two countries to rise ominously and we here in Vancouver are getting a taste of this action. The Japanese Consulate in Vancouver is trading barbs with former city councillor and writer for the Chinese press, Tung Chan.
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