Friday, October 2, 2009, Vol. 4, No, 45 — 196
"True North is for opinion leaders"
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By Cindy Macfadyen
Charlottetown Fire Department
CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island, Canada — The Charlottetown Fire Department is a composite department consisting of two stations. The station doing the BBQ is located at 89the Kent St. Station 2 is located on St. Peters Rd. We were approached by the Rick Hanson Wheels in Motion to partake in their fund raising event. This event consisted of teams of 5 taking part in activities using a wheel chair. The entry fee was $1,000 and the 5 participants (Firefighters) decided to raise the money by having a BBQ on Fridays. We figured if we had it for 5 weeks we could probably come up with the money. Well we did! We participated in the event and we won! However this did not end the BBQ. The guys were enjoying it (even if the picture lies), the public were expecting it and we began to have regular buyers with specific orders....onions, honey mustard, yellow relish..... we had one gentleman that never missed a Friday, ordered 3 hot dogs, one at a time . So we continued the BBQ and are now directing the funds raised (approximately $150 per week) to restore an old truck we have in storage. It may take some time but the BBQ is great for the department, the community and for all those involved. The best cook in the station and nobody can take the BBQ away from him, is Firefighter Randy Flanagan, standing behind him is his helper LT. Kevin MacArthur, and behind Kevin is Firefighter Brian Burke. The girl is unknown. Hope this helps and drop by if you are ever in our fine city. We will have a hot dog for you and maybe, if in winter a good bowel of homemade soup that Firefighter Flanagan is excellent at making.
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From the Desk of Dennis Carr, Sustainable Development Editor
Urban rail is a new engine for development
Richmond, B.C., makes the most of new Canada Line with 'mini-villages.' Will other cities follow the same track?
By Frances Bula
The Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER — Vancouver's plush new $2-billion transit line, the first rapid-transit link between a Canadian city and its airport, is so popular with the public that thousands waited on the streets on opening day in August just to try it out, while 80,000 a day have been riding it since. — 1,331 words.
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By Tamara Pearson
VenezuelAnalysis.com
MERIDA — Creating a new Radio of the South, formalising the Bank of the South, criticising the make-up of the UN Security Council, and supporting Honduran President Manuel Zelaya were on the agenda at the second Africa-South American Summit (ASA) that was held last weekend on Margarita Island, Venezuela. — 973 words.
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Carl Dow, True North, Station E, P.O. Box 4814, Ottawa ON Canada K1S 5H9.
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Friday, October 2, 2009
True North Perspective
Vol. 4, No. 45 (196)
A few years ago, when Canada had a population of about 20 million, I had the opportunity to break bread with a Chinese journalist. Of course we talked of many things. I know that the entire conversation is buried deep in my unconscious and I could retrieve it all with effort but there is one piece of information that is as fresh in my memory as the morning sun. — 539 words.
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By James Travers
Toronto Star
OTTAWA, Canada — Bad ideas never die young enough here. Nine months after birthing a dud, Liberals can only bellyache as Conservatives use Opposition-imposed quarterly report cards to brag shamelessly about stimulating the economy. — 559 words.
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Seeks to recoup smoking-related health care costs dating back to 1955
By Ron Ferguson
Toronto Star
TORONTO, Canada — Ontario is suing tobacco companies for $50 billion to recover costs of treating citizens with smoking-related illnesses since 1955. The lawsuit was filed today and follows enabling legislation passed earlier this year that sets the stage for the court case. — 746 words.
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From the Desk of the politically incorrect Robert Jones
While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Albertan rancher, who's hand had been caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.
Eventually, the topic got around to Ignatieff and his bid to be the PM of Canada. The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, he's a Post Turtle'. Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post turtle' was. The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'.The old rancher saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. 'You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him there to begin with'.
Humour in the Court of Judge Harold Wright
It was Saturday night and the preacher still hadn't been able to think of a sermon for the next morning. About 9 PM he finally said to his wife, "Dear, I think I've come up with the perfect sermon. I'm going to give a sermon about horseback riding."
She said, "Don't be silly. You can't give a sermon about horseback riding."
He replied, "Well, it's going to have to do because I've preached on just about every other subject I can think of."
The next morning as they were driving to church, she said, "I can't believe that you're insisting on doing this. You know, if you're going to give that silly sermon on horseback riding, I'm just going to stay in the car during the service."
He said, "OK, then, suit yourself," so she stayed in the car.
Entering church, the preacher had a sudden inspiration and gave a hell-fire and brimstone sermon on SEX that had the congregation in awe. As the congregation filed out of the church, some of the members saw his wife sitting in the car and approached her. One of them said, "Wow! You just missed the best sermon your husband has ever given."
She said, "Yeah, right! What does he know about it? He talks big, but he's only tried it twice in his life. Once before we were married and once after, and he fell off both times!"
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From the Desk of Alex Binkley, Contributing Editor
By Staff Writers
The Montreal Economic Institute
MONTREAL — The Ontario-Quebec Trade and Cooperation Agreement that comes into effect on October 1 is especially welcome because of the trade opening dynamic it creates, says an Economic Note published today by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI). — 281 words.
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In case you missed it ... and always worth repeating
Let's say that news throughout human time has been free. Take that time when Ugh Wayne went over to the cave of Mugh Payne with news that the chief of his group had broken a leg while chasing his laughing wife around the fire. That news was given freely and received as such with much knowing smiles and smirks to say nothing of grunts of approval or disapproval. — 688 words.
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Health Watch
Canada rated ahead of the U.S. but trails several others
By Staff Writers
CBC News
Canada earned a B grade on health-care outcomes compared with a D for the U.S., but trailed several other countries, according to a report card released Monday by the Conference Board of Canada. — 510 words.
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Drugs, money, revenge, because it's fun — those are just a few of the reasons women have sex, according to a new book that interviewed 1,006 women from around the world
By Tanya Gold
AlterNet.org
Do you want to know why women have sex with men with tiny little feet? I am stroking a book called Why Women Have Sex. It is by Cindy Meston, a clinical psychologist, and David Buss, an evolutionary psychologist. It is a very thick, bulging book. I've never really wondered Why Women Have Sex. But after years of not asking the question, the answer is splayed before me. — 2,044 words.
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I'm delighted to report that readers are responding to our plea for financial support. So far it's a trickle, but trickles are known to grow and, eventually, to become nourishing rivers. Give us the flow and we'll take the current as it serves to provide you with the True North Perspective you deserve. Don't be shy. Shake your purse or your wallet or last winter's coat for a stray dollar you may have forgotten. If you find one send it to us. You won't miss it. We need it. We ask our readers to voluntarily donate $80 a year. But we'll be happy to receive whatever you can spare. So please give until just before it hurts. No subscription will be cancelled because of non-payment. For those who can't afford anything, we simply ask you to introduce True North Perspective to others. Please take time to send whatever you can afford to:
Carl Dow, True North Perspective, Station E, P.O. Box 4814, Ottawa ON Canada K1S 5H9.
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By Eva Golinger
VenezuelAnalysis.com
During a recent news segment, Al Jazeera aired a video obtained from inside Colombia of an interview conducted by police investigators of incarcerated Colombian paramilitary assassin Geovanny Velasquéz Zambrano. During the interview, obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera, the Colombian paramilitary confirmed that a "wealthy Venezuelan politician" named Manuel Rosales, offered him $25 million to assassinate President Chávez by any means. — 397 words.
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To hear it from the big financial companies, the big crash started when poor people bought homes they couldn't afford. But that was at most 1% of the problem
By Nomi Prins
AlterNet.org
Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Nomi Prins' new book, It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street.
The Second Great Bank Depression has spawned so many lies, it's hard to keep track of which is the biggest. Possibly the most irksome class of lies, usually spouted by Wall Street hacks and conservative pundits, is that we're all victims to a bunch of poor people who bought McMansions, or at least homes they had no business living in. If that was really what this crisis was all about, we could have solved it much more cheaply in a couple of days in late 2008, by simply providing borrowers with additional capital to reduce their loan principals. It would have cost about 3 percent of what the entire bailout wound up costing, with comparatively similar risk. — 3,972 words.
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By Pierre Tristam
About.com
There are no distinctions between child marriage and slavery. If anything, child marriage is worse: The child, unlike an adult slave (or a slave with his or her parents around) is entirely at the mercy of her "husband." — 542 words.
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Orwell would be proud
By Joshua Holland
AlterNet.org
I notice the major papers are now referring to the perpetrators of the military coup in Honduras as the "de facto" government. Quite a benign frame. Contrary to the prevailing narrative, right-wing elements in Honduras and the United States — including, according to reports swirling around Latin America, bloody veteran hands from Reagan's dirty wars, like Otto Reich — had been laying the groundwork for deposing President Manuel Zelaya for several years. — 576 words.
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By Natalya Krainova
The Moscow Times
MOSCOW — Mayor Yury Luzhkov wants supermarkets to stop giving away environmentally unfriendly plastic bags and to instead start charging customers for new biodegradable bags — and give any profits to charity. — 408 words.
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Science
By Staff Writers
TerraDaily.com
Jordan has decided to go it alone and build a two-billion-dollar pipeline from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea without help from proposed partners Israel and the Palestinian Authority, an official told AFP. — 328 words.
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By Agencies
ChinaDaily.com
HONG KONG — Chinese researchers have unearthed the fossil of a bird-like dinosaur with four wings in northeastern China, which they suggest is a missing link in dinosaurs' evolution into birds. — 294 words.
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By Staff Writers
ChinaDaily.com
When the best job Mikala Reasbeck could find after college in Boston was counting pills part-time in a drugstore for $7 an hour, she took the drastic step of jumping on a plane to Beijing in February to look for work. A week after she started looking, the 23-year-old from Wheeling, West Virginia, had a full-time job teaching English. — 1,160 words.
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By Staff Writers
TerraDaily.com
People who were killed, injured or bereaved in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake had the cruel misfortune to be victims of an event that probably occurs just once in four millennia, seismologists said on Sunday. — 384 words.
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By Ann O'Neill
CNN.com
The events of a single afternoon when she was 13 years old have haunted Samantha Geimer her entire life. A famous movie director allegedly gave her champagne and had sex with her. scienceShe is 45 now, and wishes the whole matter would just go away. — 1,138 words.
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By Amanda Hess
WashingtonCityPaper.com
Roman Polanski, the 76-year-old filmmaker who was accused of drugging and raping 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in 1977, has been arrested in Switzerland. Polanski, who was convicted of having sex with a minor but fled to France before he could be sentenced, is currently facing extradition back to the United States, where he could finally be sentenced for his 32-year-old conviction. In the wake of Polanski's belated arrest, commentators have posed dozens of arguments in the Oscar-winning director's defense. Most of them are bullshit. — 1,962 words.
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Frat houses are a haven for a masculinity that takes sexual conquest as one of its defining characteristics. But frats have not always been this way
By Nicholas L. Syrett
AlterNet.org
In the late 1980s the Florida News Herald reported that a Florida State University student had been gang raped by some fraternity brothers. Allegedly, the attackers painted the Greek letters of their house on her thighs, symbolically claiming her as they had also claimed her through sexual assault. — 2,062 words.
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Huge dowry demands have led families to use criminal gangs that kidnap men and force them into wedlock. The women in these unions fare even worse
By Deepali Gaur Singh
AlterNet.org
Marriage is an extremely critical social institution in the Indian context. For a majority of country it is traditionally viewed as the only way to continue the family and thereby repay one's debt to his/her ancestors. — 991 words.
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The Wisconsin Tourism Federation has changed its name, after being made aware that its acronym WTF had become crude internet slang
By Matthew Moore
Telegraph.co.uk
The body charged with attracting more visitors to the midwestern state will now be known as the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin (TFW), in an attempt to put a stop to the jokes. — 228 words.
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Money and Markets
By Larry Edelson
Money and Markets
Every few weeks the world’s most powerful and influential central bankers — those in charge of the world’s number one reserve currency, the U.S. dollar — come together in what’s called the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). — 849 words.
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Musings
By Barbara Florio Graham
True North Perspective
Barbara Florio Graham uses music in her online creativity course. Information on her website: www.SimonTeakettle.com.
This review of The Step-By-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit! by C. Pinheiro with Nick Russell, might help you answer that question. Since self-publishing is an option many authors are now considering, it's important to have all the essential facts before you proceed. — 478 words.
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By Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair
TrueNorthPerspective
Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair is the author of The Neglected Garden and two French novels. Visit her website to learn more www.albertevilleneuve.ca.
October is always a busy month for writers: speaking engagements, book festivals and fairs. As I prepare for a speaking engagement on Tuesday, the Canadian Authors' Festival at the Aviation Museum on the 16-18th (www.canadianauthorsfestival.ca and the Salon jeunesse at Garneau High School on the 28th, I thought I would share some tried and true tips for a successful venture. — 227 words.
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Spirit Quest
'It almost seems as though how one does it and with whom and under what conditions is of the essence of the faith.'
By The Rev. Dr. Hanns F. Skoutajan
My life has been changed by the arrival of a granddaughter, a beautiful red head with a great sense of humour. It took a long time for her to get here. It seems that my son was very particular about his choice of a soul mate/partner, thus he became a father for the first and presumably his last time when in his early forties. — 1,049 words.
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The Movies
True North Perspective's Managing Editor takes a strictly personal trip down a cinematic memory lane
By Geoffrey Dow
Ed-rex.com
The following is adapted from a post originally published at Ed-Rex.com.
Fifteen films in fifteen minutes!
(May not actually be do-able in 15 minutes!)
In The Begining was The Word - now it's poetry
By Paul Hiebert
MegaphoneMagazine.com
Originally from the Bigstone Cree Nation of Calling Lake, Steven Cardinal isn't surprised that he grew up to be a drug-addicted deviant. Raised in alcoholic homes, juvenile detention centers and federal prisons, he didn't know any other way of living. The big surprise in Cardinal's life is that now, at age 33, he's clean and sober. — 653 words.
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The Book End
Every Friday in this spot True North will feature a book by a Canadian writer. The presentation will not be a review. It will include a profile of the author and about the product of the author's literary labours. If a reader wants to file a review we'll publish it. Today we present The House of the Yellow Star, by Agnes Nemeth Bright. — Geoffrey Dow, Managing Editor.
The story is the fictionalized version of the haunting years of the Second World War, the fate of the mixed-marriage family members, and their Jewish relatives and friends. It is based on her personal story but written through the eyes of a teenager, not the child she was at the time. — 1,060 words.
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Ottawa author Randy Ray and his co-author Mark Kearney of London, Ont. have published their ninth Canadian book, The Big Book of Canadian Trivia, which is now available in stores and on the authors' Web site at: TriviaGuys.com.
The latest Ray-Kearney effort is best described as a "greatest hits" book that contains the best Canadiana from their previous eight books, plus a considerable amount of new material.
In one big book readers will find all the trivia and facts about Canada they need to know: there are stories of important Canadian artifacts and history including what became of Canada's World War II spy camp.
All regions and provinces are covered, as well as important Canadian figures like John Molson, Elizabeth Arden and Russ Jackson.
If that isn't enough there will also be pieces explaining whatever happened to such Canadian icons as the last spike, labour leader Bob White, hockey tough guy Dave "The Hammer" Schultz, the first skidoo, swimmer Marilyn Bell and the first Tim Hortons donut shop.
Some items are "classics." Others are little known facts. Approximately 25% of the material has never before appeared in print.
This fascinating Big Book brings together for the first time in one package the most notable facts and trivia from the archives of the trivia guys' collection.
The Big Book of Canadian Trivia is published by The Dundurn Group of Toronto.
The short story, The Old Man's Last Sauna, a groundbreaking love story, in the Friday, April 24 edition of True North Perspective, concludes the collection titled The Old Man's Last Sauna, written by Carl Dow. On Friday, April 17, you'll find O Ernie! ... What Have They Done To You! The series began Friday, February 20, with Deo Volente (God Willing). The second, The Quintessence of Mr. Flynn, Friday, February 27. The third, Sharing Lies, Friday, March 6. The fourth, Flying High, Friday, March 13. The fifth, The Richest Bitch in the Country or Ginny I Hardly Knows Ya, Friday, March 20. On Friday, March 27, One Lift Too Many, followed by The Model A Ford, Friday, April 3. The out-of-body chiller, Room For One Only, Friday, April 10. The series closed Friday, April 24, with the collection's namesake The Old Man's Last Sauna, a groundbreaking love story. All stories may also be found in the True spiNorth Perspective Archives.
Prolific best-selling Ottawa author and publicist Randy Ray has developed a website to promote his publicity services, which he offers to authors, publishers and companies. Mr. Ray has helped many clients get their message out across Canada on CTV, CBC Radio, CH-TV, A-Channel and Global TV, and in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun, Halifax Herald and many Ottawa-area weekly newspapers. Mr. Ray's web site is: www.randyray.ca. He can be contacted at: (613) 731-3873 or rocket@intranet.ca.
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Link not working? Story not loading? Can't click on the links? Got another computer problem? Never fear! Carl is here!
If you have any problems with accessing the newsletter or problems with your computer, send an email to Carl Hall chall2k5@gmail.com , and he will be more than happy to assist you.
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Archives
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Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher
Geoffrey Dow, Managing Editor
Yvette Pigeon, Associate Editor
Dennis Carr, Sustainable Development Editor
Benoit Jolicoeur, Art Director
Ian Covey, Director of Photography
Carl Hall, Technical Analyst and Web Editor
Randy Ray, Manager, Business and Publicity
Contributing Editors
Anita Chan, Australia
Canada
Alex Binkley, Ottawa
Rosaleen Dickson, Ottawa
Tom Dow, Sudbury
Bob Kay, Montréal
Randy Ray, Ottawa
Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair, Ottawa
David Ward, Ottawa
Harold Wright, Ottawa
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