Move to unionize by employees of a Quebec outlet could not avail themselves of protections under the labour code



Hey, I'm no Wal-Mart fan...but, how would you like to invest in a private business and then have a union come in and tell you how to run it?

A few days after leaked e-mail messages appeared on the Internet, the U.S. Congress may probe whether prominent scientists who are advocates of global warming theories misrepresented the truth about climate change.

Surprising?
I don't think so.
Climate change, and global warming response is big, big business.


Taking advantage of people's fears has been successful business practice for centuries.

But the pangs of envy still hit very hard from time to time. But I know I'm not alone. I see the signs of envy in my friends' eyes too. A look of deep yearning as they watch their daughters' lithe, bikini-clad bodies on the beach perhaps.

Or a muttered word or two when a daughter borrows a top or dress - and looks a million times better in it.

It doesn't mean love isn't there - but that jealousy is simmering away underneath it.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1222341/I-used-turned-mens-heads-teenage-daughter--makes-SO-jealous.html#ixzz0VHTVVnKL

While the article really only covers the physical aspect of mother/daughter jealousy, there is a deeper and more poignant aspect to it.
There is no denying that things are better for younger people with every generation.
My life is better, with more choices than in my mothers' day, and better still now.

It's the life and times, no?

My grandmother spent her youth in a war. Very few choices.
My mother spent her youth on the cusp of the burning of the bra womens liberation movement. Confused and self-limiting choices because of the way that she was raised.

I don't have a daughter, so I am hard pressed to comment on it from a mother's perspective.

One of the taboos of this society is to perceive mothers as anything less than perfect.

Yet they are.

Some, very imperfect.

Mothers who are jealous of their daughters freedom of choice.
Jealous of their perceived successful marriages.
Jealous of their more prosperous lives.

The interesting thing for me is that women never seem to stop competing with one another.

From the stay at home mom who thinks the working mom is selfish.
To the vapid competition of "hotness"...to the "stealing" of men.

Motherhood doesn't seem to erase that competition.
Although, it's taboo to even think about mothers being anything but selfless.

This has been the big discussion and deal today.

Frankly, I think that the police officer in the video showed infinite patience.
Most people would have lost their temper, and punched the disrespectful little snot in the head.

Police confirmed the student was insulting the officer in the lead-up to the incident.

The officer tried to identify the student because there was some speculation he was a trespasser in the school, Drummond said.

When the student refused to identify himself, the officer initiated the arrest.

I understand through the info provided by the YouTube poster, that some of the insults included "Fuckin' Paki"...yeah, I'd say that the officer involved showed restraint.

Context people. Context.

"I looked at the patients name while walking into the exam room, I started asking; "What's wrong with..." and stopped because of how odd the name was. I asked the mother (the patient was only 3) "How do you pronounce your child's name?" She looked at me as if I was stupid and said "Sh-theed." Ouch! The patient's name was spelled: SHITHEAD, pronounced: "Sh-theed". What a dumb mom. Poor kid, I hope he isn't getting beaten up in school every day! I saw him often over several years. No lie!"

from ERtards

"This is why we're doomed as a species. Make a couple of hit songs and die and they'll praise you everywhere. Save a BILLION people from starvation and nobody knows who you are."

Quote: Cynical-C

Norman Borlaug has died.

Apparently, Coors Light had a contest called "Coors Light...colder than...." looking for a slogan.

This is apparently what won.

You know what ran through my mind when I saw it?

"Oh, F*CK off."

Evidently, we are the center of the Canadian universe.

My mother has been in and out of hospital over the years, and the care that she's received has been exemplary.

Hospital staff, EMS workers, Doctors...all of them.

My own care when I was sick years ago was very good. I can't complain about it. I didn't like my first Specialist, I was given the option of others.
The second Specialist was wonderful.

Kind and compassionate.

No matter how many Canadians complain about our healthcare system....it isn't this.

So, while there is two tiered healthcare in this country for those who can afford speedier tests, and more comfortable hospital stays...for the rest of us, our healthcare system is good.

Not perfect.
But, at least existent for everyone.

While American zealots can predict euthanasia, and sinister government conspiracies, my own experience in this country has been Doctors who have chosen their profession for the right reason.

My own Doctor whom I've been with since I was 18 years old...and about whom I complain on occasion because sometimes I wait over an hour to see her....when she sits with me, and examines me...spends sometimes 40 minutes to an hour talking about my life situation, my health, and reminding me that she has known me, and taken care of me, and watched my health since I was 18.

It's comforting.

I know that not everyone has been as fortunate as I have been with healthcare providers, but...I have nothing to complain about.

It's not this.

My healthcare has been free.

How anyone can be against US healthcare reform is baffling to me.

Thanks SinPantalones for the link.

I love NPR.

Very good interview and social commentary from David Simon.

"From crime beat reporter for the BALTIMORE SUN to award-winning screenwriter of HBO's critically-acclaimed The Wire, David Simon talks with Bill Moyers about inner-city crime and politics, storytelling and the future of journalism today."

via Cynical-C

Women with children earn about 22% less than their male colleagues, according to a new report that explores the "devastating" impact of motherhood on earnings.

"Before becoming parents, men and women are equally likely to be employed, but childbirth marks the start of a great divide, which continues even after children have left home and does lasting damage to women's careers," the report finds.

Women with children are rather costly to employ.
While we don't want to admit it, and we get all mad about it...it's true.

We were led to believe that we could do it all.
It's a Feminist Lie.

The truth of the matter is that when you have children, they have to come first...before your job, and I suppose there is ultimately a cost for that.
Especially when there is some childless person who is willing to do the time that you can't.

What do you think?



I think that it should be another road or an LRT, because this 5 million doesn't address a pressing problem this city has...transit and traffic.

Not bike paths and trees...

BTW, what happened to the condos on the left in the picture?
Where did they go?
They're what's blocking the view to the lake, not the Gardiner.

Behaviour of Serial Bullies

Feigning victimhood:

in the unlikely event of denial and counter-attack being insufficient, the bully feigns victimhood or feigns persecution by manipulating people through their emotions, especially guilt. This commonly takes the form of bursting into tears, which most people cannot handle. Variations include indulgent self-pity, feigning indignation, pretending to be "devastated", claiming they're the one being bullied or harassed, claiming to be "deeply offended", melodrama, martyrdom ("If it wasn't for me...") and a poor-me drama ("You don't know how hard it is for me ... blah blah blah ..." and "I'm the one who always has to...", "You think you're having a hard time ...", "I'm the one being bullied..."). Other tactics include manipulating people's perceptions to portray themselves as the injured party and the target as the villain of the piece. Or presenting as a false victim. Sometimes the bully will suddenly claim to be suffering "stress" and go off on long-term sick leave, although no-one can quite establish why. Alleged ill-health can also be a useful vehicle for gaining attention and sympathy.

I finally fired one last year.
It took me 6 years to fire that woman, and it's made a world of difference in the workplace.
One person can ruin the atmosphere, even if everyone else is relatively peaceful.

Here is more on Attention Seeking Personality Disorders

The first step in stopping this sort of person from taking over your work environment is by recognizing what they are.
They are actually not the victims they portray themselves. They are fucked up individuals who bully through manipulation, and playing the victim...and this society, and it's laws support people like this to flourish at the expense of others.

articles found via Mizi[social]

While I don't agree with Miss California, the last time I checked, she had the right to say it out loud.

Isn't that what's supposed to be so great about living on this continent?

I hardly think a contestant in a pageant is going to make any huge impact on whether or not California will or won't recognize gay marriage.

While we're on this topic, isn't it baffling that of ALL states, California is a holdout?

I'm just gobsmacked about that.

Integrity

The word integrity is related to the roots of words like “integrate” and “entire.” In Spanish it is rendered “integro,” meaning whole. Integrity thus implies the state of being complete, undivided, intact, and unbroken. Such a state contrasts with one that is scattered, fragmented, and incomplete. In writing this article, I was struck by the way in which integrity pulls together so many of the other things we have discussed on the Art of Manliness. Integrity is really the bond that holds a man’s other virtues together; it is the mark of a man who has successfully integrated all good principles. His life is a unified whole.

The Art of Manliness is a fantastic site...if only all men subscribed to it...

and more:

It’s Easier

It may not seem like it at first blush, but living with integrity is easier than living a deceitful life. While making unethical decisions is often easier in the short term, it eventually takes its toll. There’s no real happiness to be found in struggling to remember your lies, living in fear of getting caught, and not feeling like you truly earned your reward. It’s empty and stressful. Bernie Madoff may have lived high on the hog, but did he really enjoy his wealth knowing that one day his house of cards would collapse? Living with integrity brings wholeness and peace. Your conscience can rest easy, and you can look at yourself in the mirror with pride.

In the past decade, Ms. Hassan, an articulate, elegant woman in a brown head scarf, long skirt and leather jacket, has met more than 30 Somali families in Toronto with one or more autistic children.

She has also given birth to another, her fourth child, Abshir.

The condition, which Somalis call the "western disease" or the "disease from abroad," appears to have struck their community with a particular vengeance. While no data are available on prevalence, Somali parents in Canada are concerned enough to go public about what they say is a sleeping epidemic.

The comments are sad.
People arguing about immunization, and wheat and gluten allergies...vitamin D and sun deficiency, and even marriage between family members from "that part of the world".

Because Autism is so baffling, people scramble to find something to blame to help settle it in their own minds. Putting their children on extreme and restrictive diets with hope that it can change their child's developmental decline.

I don't know what it means, but I've seen a spike in autistic children in the past decade...and not a little spike, a huge one. When I started working with children, autism was a word in a textbook.
Now, twenty years later (especially in the last ten) I've met and worked with more autistic children than I would ever have imagined when I was in school.

The article is interesting to me because I have experience with autism and families of children with autism from Somalia.
I applaud Ms. Hassan for wanting to bring her community's children out into the light.
Because as much as people want to pretend that all treat autism the same way..with empathy and understanding, it isn't true.

Many Eastern communities see it as an imperfection, and they do hide.
Families will deny for longer than they should.

I was sad to learn that one mother who has two children with moderate Autism Spectrum Disorder hides her children's condition from her family "back home", and shows so much shame while interacting with the people who can help her that it's painful to be present while conducting meetings in order to find resources to help her children.

It's just heartbreaking.

Bravo, Ms Hassan!
More power to you in your attempt to shine the light of understanding onto the families struggling with autism in your community.

"Try interviewing girls at Hunter, Stuyvesant, or the Bronx High School of Science and see how they feel about Chris Borwn/Rihanna -- I'm sure you'll get completely different answers. Poverty and education has everything to do with how young women see domestic violence. It's not a "teenage" issue, it's a class issue.

— J. Smith, Fla."

From the comments on this article.

Poverty and education has everything to do with how all people see everything.

Canada is world's "Friendliest Country" says Forbes.com.

"It's no wonder they likely find Canada so welcoming. It has an accessible language, diverse culture and low levels of government corruption, says Patricia Linderman, editor of Tales from a Small Planet, an online newsletter for expats."

I once volunteered for a program designed to "adopt" a family new to Canada.

The idea was to be paired up with a family new to the country and help them to learn simple things like how to do their banking, or direct them to services...help them with forms and so on.

At the time, they had more volunteers than families, so I never got to do that.
I guess that says a lot in itself.

Lev Grossman gives us 10 reasons why Facebook is for old fogies.


Grossman declares that it's cooler not to be on Facebook.
I'm sure it is.

I've only got a couple of things to say about that:

1. Not being on Facebook will save you from having your prospective employer see drunken pictures of you sucking on a bong, or pictures of you reclining in cheesy lingerie in a messy bedroom.

2. Marketing companies will sorely miss the demographic that loves those stupid quizzes, but reveal valuable purchasing preferences.

I've been off Facebook for awhile now.
But, not because I care about being "cool".

I didn't like the fact that my photos could end up who knows where, in the whole six degrees of separation way of file sharing Facebook has.

I also didn't like the random friend requests from strangers who have never once commented on my blog, but assume we are "friends".

It's creepy.
Facebook is creepy, with their refusal to let you go.
You can't delete your profile, only "deactivate" it.

So, really...by making it "uncool", those old fogies are saving people from themselves, and forcing it to maybe evolve as something altogether different.

Teacher Takes a Ho Day, Gets Busted

"BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio (Feb. 11) - A fourth-grade teacher had a side job as a prostitute, and even skipped class after using a school computer to arrange an afternoon tryst at a motel, authorities said Wednesday.
Amber Carter, 35, left school early on Tuesday — taking half a sick day — and was arrested in a motel parking lot in Bellefontaine, where authorities had set up a sting operation."

Asylum says:

"After 13 years in the Bellefontaine school system, Carter has been placed on administrative leave, and the school's principal and guidance counselor met with the students to answer questions about the allegations. We're wondering if the career counselor also held an impromptu Q&A about the disadvantages of getting into a field as low-paying as teaching."

Is teaching such a low paying career choice in the states?
That's just sad.

It's a coveted job here in Canada, and busting into the Toronto District School Board with a full time, permanent position is harder than trigonometry.