Victor has been walking since April. Every day he gets more confident in his stride, and the motions get less jerky. Unfortunately the confidence is leading him to move at speeds he’s not quite ready for. Which means my son … Continue readi…
Continue readingTag: Family
Blast Furnace Canada Blog: Simplify the tax system and give us back the lost decade and a half
My beef this Sunday morning is taxes.
I haven’t had much time to think about the “revised” federal budget, and there’s not much point in tearing it apart, any honest analysis would be as long as the budget paper itself (300 pages plus). I do g…
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Sometimes dipping your toes is a full immersion
The smell of the sea and tears-tasting salt water still cling to me as I dress/undress for bed. My skin is red where the sun kissed it a little too long, and my hair is whipped to a frenzy by the ocean breeze. There, on a promontory at St. Andrews-by-t…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Social Determinants of Health
(Note: This post contains a portion of the talk that I gave last month at the 16th International Conference of the Association of Psychology and Psychiatry for Adults and Children in Athens). Research has now clearly established that economic, and social variables – more than individual or family behavior – are the most salient factors […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Releasing Government Bad News Under Cover of a Hockey Game
Based on the bad news coming from the BC and Canadian governments under cover of game one of the Stanley Cup finals, we should be wary of the Canucks going to seven games. It used to be Friday afternoons were a great time for governments to release bad news. The week’s media cycle was drifting […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Nestlé’s War on Breastfeeding Mothers Takes Shameful New Turn
Infant formula is a medical necessity for those who are unable to breastfeed their infants. There are a host of medically sound reasons why a mother, in conjunction with her physician would choose to utilize infant formula in lieu of breast milk. The regulated manufacturing of infant feeding products has come a long way in […]
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Splitsville for Ahnold, Shriver
Divorce is never a simple matter. Especially when it involves Arnold Schwarzenegger and his soon to be ex wife Maria Shriver. It is just possible if the truth above his love child came out during the 2003 recall, he might have never been electe…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: A Snapshot of the Vulnerable Underclass of Foreign Workers in Canada
There are lots of ways to look at Canada’s checkered history with immigration. Europeans welcome, French to a lesser degree after they lost a war or something, Chinese railroad workers, the Komagata Maru, internment of Japanese-Canadians, residential schools and a variety of abuses of the First Nations who “we” tend to treat as lesser people, […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Positive Women’s Network Enriches Community Fabric
I’m constantly impressed with the caliber of community cooperation in Vancouver. The Positive Women’s Network is holding a film screening fundraiser on May 26th at 7pm at Vancity Theatre. VIFF and Reel Causes are cooperating to produce the event. Every element of this event is a testament to what makes communities strong. What does the […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Masturgate: The Little Scandal That Couldn’t
It’s election time and everyone is abuzz with the ostensibly shocking allegation that Jack Layton might have, possibly, received a happy ending at a rub-and-tug 15 years ago. Let’s let that sink in for a moment: The man might have, possibly, received a handy J from someone other than his wife a decade and a […]
Continue readingcultural sn:afu: Victor takes his first walk
At the tender age of seventeen months, my son has started to walk. He has taken short steps before, about a month ago he taught himself how to appear to be walking while actually falling to the floor with less … Continue reading →
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Tunisia’s Deposed Ben Ali Family: Canadian Immigration’s political statement
Yesterday reports appeared in the Canadian press, TV and radio, about the arrival in Montreal of family members of the deposed Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his wife, Leila, nee Trabelsis. The expatriate Tunisian community in Montreal had already been watching the situation closely as unidentified Tunisian
Continue readingHerbinator: X-spouse from Hell
I have been reading up on the new 2010 changes to family law in Australia. Apparently significant changes have been made there with respect to family law and child rights.
Specifically, what tickled my fancy was:
A Child Has the Right to Spend Substan…
Five of Five: December 18
This is not the type of thing I usually write about, but…This is one the few photos of my dad that I have, standing outside the Alberta Legislature in his RCAF uniform. Hard to say what the year is, or how old he is. I barely had any time with my fat…
Continue readingThats a fact Jack
Be careful how you interpret the world: It is like that.~Erich Heller I went to a workshop once and a great little nugget from it has managed to stay imbedded in my leetle grey cells…and I guess the underlining meaning the presenter was trying to get…
Continue readingWhat the hell do I know?
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”Galileo Galilei You know sometimes I just have to stop and think and think hard because sometimes it seems quite unbelievable what is going on…Oh the Fif…
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