In Toronto Sunday night, demonstrators included young women and children. Images show some protesters grabbing police bicycles and throwing them at officers. Three people were arrested and charged.

I'm interested in seeing how the government handles this.

I sympathize with the cause, being from a place that suffers genocide (...while the world has forgotten the minority in Kosovo...family members haven't).

I am behind their cause...I'm not behind their protest tactics.

However, if this community gets the government's ear, I'll lead the rally of Serbs to block the 401 at Dufferin (you know how we love Yorkdale), and I encourage all communities whose families are suffering elsewhere to choose a transfer.

How many rap songs have sampled this theme after Dream Warriors did?

The Russian Tea Room looks totally gaudy, but it's one of the places I've always wanted to see.

Click on the image to see more Russian gold!

Classic Stars' Family Portraits


From LIFE Magazine.
Click on image for more.

When it comes to holding customers in seething contempt, few corporate entities do it with more blatancy than the Canadian telcos.

That's right.

thanks Funkaoshi

What are the statistics about crimes against children? What is the news that we're not hearing?

The crime rate today is equal to what it was back in 1970. In the '70s and '80s, crime was climbing. It peaked around 1993, and since then it's been going down.

If you were a child in the '70s or the '80s and were allowed to go visit your friend down the block, or ride your bike to the library, or play in the park without your parents accompanying you, your children are no less safe than you were.

But it feels so completely different, and we're told that it's completely different, and frankly, when I tell people that it's the same, nobody believes me. We're living in really safe times, and it's hard to believe.

I was just having this conversation with someone recently.
We've developed a culture of panic and fear which is crippling us in so many ways.

I heard Frank Furedi the Author of Culture of Fear and Paranoid Parenting interviewed a couple of years ago, and agreed with a lot of what he said.

Fear is actually quite profitable.

via Funkaoshi

OTTAWA — Embattled Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla has stepped down from her post as the Liberal Party's youth and multiculturalism critic over allegations she mistreated foreign caregivers and paid them under the table.

What an utter disappointment.
Ruby...say it ain't so...

In a March 4 deposition, Hilton, 28, again showed why she is an American treasure. While being quizzed about her cellular phone usage, Hilton noted that, "I've never looked at my phone bill in my entire life," adding that she was unaware who paid such things for her.

*sigh*
I wish I didn't know who paid my bills....

But come on. Who isn’t into this flick for the beatdown? Trust. You won’t be disappointed (unless you’re looking for an abundance of punny smack-talk).

There's a whole segment of the female population waiting for that beatdown.

Berlusconi met Lario in 1980, when she appeared in a play in Milan called The Magnificent Cuckold. At one point she appeared topless and the future prime minister was smitten. Berlusconi was still married to his first wife, Carla Elvira Dall Olglio, with whom he had two children, at the time.

Seriously.
Irony, and comeuppance all in play.

When you board the Venice Simplon-Orient Express (VSOE) train, you feel as if you are becoming part of a glamorous history. This train, with its restored, 1920s vintage cars, is the world’s most authentic luxury train.

Click on the image to read more about the train and how you can book a trip...

See how Chanel used the train in their ad campaign..

Vanity Fair marks the 14th year of its gigantic annual Hollywood Issue, and thus the 14th year of Annie Leibovitz’s spectacular gatefold covers. These classic photographs capture Tinseltown talent and glamour like nothing else. Here’s a look back at all of them.

Click on image for slide show.

Can you imagine the ego-fest on some of those shoots?

Forbes 20 Best Places to Live



We're #15.
Click on image to see all 20.

...and just for good measure...here are 10 countries to avoid right now.

Today's Quote:



via i can read

Case Studies in Schizophrenia

Gerald.


Part 2

Heather


My heart breaks for the families dealing with this.

Let's play "Pick the Perp"



I suck.
The only ones I'm ok at picking out are burglary, heroin possession (because they're skinny), and auto theft.

via Guanabee

Anna Skladmann

“The series “Little Adults” explores what it feels like to be a privileged child living in Russia, a country where its radical history and social hierarchy still rules their daily lives. It is the exploration of the recently growing society of the “Nouveau-Riche" in which little children have been raised to become the “Elite” and behave like little adults.”

Click on image to view the collection of photographs.
They're really quite fascinating.

via The Laughing Squid

"Writer Ayelet Waldman is a bad mother, at least according to critics who carved her name into the mommy Wall of Shame when she wrote that she loved her husband more than her children."

I was over at Jezebel when I read about Ayelet Waldman.
I had never heard of her before, but she's apparently caught the wrath of UberMoms over her statement that she put her husband, over her children.

I dunno. I've known people who were raised by couples who were so in love and dedicated to each other, that their children felt a little orphaned...because let's face it, kids demand it all.
There's that old adage that says that the best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.

But, really...kids don't even care if you love each other, they just want their parents together. It isn't until much later in life that they consider that divorce might have been better all the way around.

Parenting is frustrating business, and you can't choose your childrens' personalities.
There are plenty of women who prefer one of their kids over another. Women will deny it, but any child with siblings can name off mommy's favourite.

Women have been known to put men (and not even the father of the children in question) before their offspring, even while claiming that they don't, and at the same time scorning women who do. There's nothing women like more than pulling each other down over anything from parenting skills, or lack thereof to fashion.

Is it so bad to admit that you put your marriage and relationship with your life partner before anything else?
Would partners like this be more united, and less split by differing on decisions in order to curry favour with their children, as the "fun" or "better" parent?

I watch kids playing their parents all the time..if there's a crack in the parents' relationship, a kid can work that shit into anything they desire.

Obviously, the argument is that this decision to put a man/relationship over children is often based on unhealthy relationships. Abusive and controlling men, and weak and/or abused women.
Not all relationships that don't mirror our own are dysfunctional...

All relationships tick differently...and how you perceive someone's relationship isn't necessarily the way that it is. That's why that couple you thought were so perfect broke up, and that couple you thought would never make it are still together after 20 years.

The best thing in the end might be not to be so concerned with how others choose to live in their personal relationships and focus on our own.

How get out of Jury Duty



Sometimes I wish I worked for the government, just to see some of these gems every once in a while...

via Bits and Pieces.