You Hear It, Right?

Is it that we are all Pollyannas, clinging to the hope of love and happiness that accounts for all the misinterpretations of "You Are My Sunshine", or is it that nobody knows any lyrics past the first verse?

"You Are My Sunshine" is a horribly, horribly, sad song. It is about loss, unrequited love, and the promise to debase oneself to regain that love; love so important it's like the life-giving sunshine.

Was nobody paying attention when Regan used "Little Pink Houses" and George Bush Sr. used "Born in the USA" (incorrectly) as campaign songs? Did we all not learn from Sting that "Every Breath You Take" is about a stalker?

Is this thing on?

I know you, dear reader, see past the artifice and respect "You Are My Sunshine" for the bitter dirge it is at its core. I know you appreciate the morbid nature of so many folk songs and their near obsession with lost love and the subsequent killing of the one who refuses the love.

Like this pleasant old ditty. As usual, you have to wait for the 2nd verse for the violence to kick in.

It about fucking stabbing someone! It's a perfect sequel to "You Are My Sunshine". What it's not is a good song to use to show how much you love someone.

Here is The Civil Wars doing "Sunshine" properly.

"But if you leave me and love another, You'll regret it all one day".

Goodnight Sweetie!

City of Shitty Malls Has Shitty Mall Jingle to Raise Hopes

"Imagine a store!"

Sometimes the provincial and parochial nature of London is disheartening and not cute. Today is several of them.


London has a jingle! It's happy! It's peppy! It's bursting with love!* It's sung by Jim Chapman. More to the point, Jim Chapman and the Incontinentals. Not surprisingly, Jim and the Boys favour music from the 50s and 60s, much the same way Jim favours outdated political ideology and longs for the days of white privilege, when kids knew their place, when dogs didn't bark, and you could leave you Nash Rambler unlocked while you filled out your liquor order form at the LCBO. Good times.

Anyway, London developer and ever present force of dyspepsia, Shmul Farhi, who evidently lets Jim sleep under his desk, must have once again threatened to pull out of London and let it crash under the weight of his absence unless they let Jim and his band perform the song. Seriously, no other explanation makes any sense, especially in a town so full of musical talent as London.

I think we can offset the happy joy joy song best with a cover from Jim and the Incontinentals. It's souless and depressing and devoid of originality. Like the real London and it's jingle.

*Did you get the reference? Please tell me you got the reference.

Why Do You Want Lye In Your Coffee?

Jymn from the Let Freedom Reign blog lets us know about John Castle, who found the service at his dinner club so offensive, that he broke the waiter's fingers. John Castle is

"the chairman and CEO of Castle Harlan, a private equity firm. Before that, he was CEO of the investment banking firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. His is a positively Romney-esque tale of the value of raiding companies to extract value—his business acumen has subsidized a lifestyle that included purchasing the Kennedy family's Palm Beach, Fla., compound in in 1995 and hosting magnificently lavish weddings there for his children, complete with Trader Vic's catering and Mar-a-Lago luncheons."

Mr. Castle felt the waiter needed a broken finger to pay for the offense of bringing the cheque to the table at the request of Mrs. Castle. Evidently bringing the cheque, or listening to that stupid bitch (I assume that's how Mr. Castle talks), are two things one is not allowed to do around Mr. Castle if one wishes to remain unbroken.

Mr. Castle has obviously not seen The Pope of Greenwich Village and learned of the payback he is destined to suffer, or his system is so decayed and rotted from the all the sperm and saliva he has ingested over the years that nothing save a bowl of Grape Nuts With HIV Infected Razor Blades (tm.) can affect his morning constitutional.

Of course, there are worse things than a bit of horse laxative. Like lye in your coffee. But that would be uncivil and will not be condoned on this blog.

The Dumbest Person in the World, Today

But he's functionally moronic.

Daniel Dickin, mall cop, McDonald's assistant manager, and of course, political pundit, has this shocking revelation:

"Now I have another extremist alert for you: it's the Ottawa Citizen's Dan Gardner claiming that Prime Minister Stephen Harper uses heroin!  It's right there, in black and white: "The key to understanding Stephen Harper’s federalism is heroin.""

Wow. Dan Gardner is an extremist who is "...bordering if not violently vaulting into libel territory". Heady stuff if true.


Daniel, a conservative blogger, is full of shit.

Here is Dan Gardner's Ottawa Citizen article. It's all about how dealing with heroin, more specifically the heroin problem in East Vancouver, and the Insite treatment facility, are indicative of Prime Minister Harper's strategy of centralised control, contrary to his stated preference for decentralised control. Don't believe me, read if for yourself. Dan didn't, or didn't get it. Either option is equally valid when it comes to the guy who thinks Noah Richler accused Vic Toews of being a pedophile.

Daniel Dickin, blogger, pundit, and a man who has reached a "...position [that] was the pinnacle of business development, planning, and execution." We would do well to heed his words, because they are bound to be just as funny for years to come. Derp, herp, derp derp.

On No Account Will A Commie Drink Water

As the Reverend Paperboy has pointed out, the battle over fluoridation has already been fought. This battle over our precious bodily fluids is a battle against a monstrous and dangerous communist plot.

Stanley Kubrick made a documentary about it years ago. What a visionary.

Just Getting Ahead of the Screaming

They're coming, make no mistake about it. The anti-fluoridation hit squads (I use the term because they are sad and small so it's funny like Little John was a funny name) are coming to London. Evidently the concerned citizens will be presenting/showing up/yelling at council on the 16th during the Planning and Environment Committee meeting 25th at Centennial Hall (thanks to The Mcleod Report for the correct date). I guess they figured every wingnut woo-meister from three counties would be interested, so it is now in the big place.

 I thought this issue was done and gone last year, but no.

Oh joy.

Let's first go to some experts, whose opinion piece (full of facts) appeared in the Calgary Sun ahead of that city's decision to remove fluoride from the water supply.

Debunking fluoride falsehoods

Lindsay McLaren, J.C. Herbert Emery, and Lynn McIntyre, Guest Columnists

First posted: Saturday, February 05, 2011 07:58 PM MST | Updated: Saturday, February 05, 2011 07:59 PM MST

Calgary is on the verge of a decision to discontinue fluoridation of drinking water.

Since this decision will be difficult to reverse, it is important that it be based on credible scientific evidence and reason rather than emotion and anecdotes.

There seems to be three main arguments against continued fluoridation of Calgary's drinking water:

1. Drinking water fluoridation was effective in the past, but it is no longer needed.

False.

Tooth decay remains a problem for children.

Recently released data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey show that, among a nationally representative sample of Canadian children age 6-11, more than half are affected by tooth decay.

When a health problem is common, it makes sense to consider wide-ranging measures.

Drinking water is a highly cost-effective way of providing fluoride to all.

Another reason that drinking water fluoridation is still needed is that it is equitable: It is an efficient way to provide fluoride to all, regardless of income, education, or access to a dentist.

Children whose parents do not have private dental insurance (e.g. through employment) have more tooth decay than those with insurance.

One-third of families with young children, according to the Canadian Health Measures Survey, do not have private dental insurance.

Research has shown that in regions without fluoridation, the gap in oral health between the rich and the poor is much greater than in regions with fluoridation. To ensure fluoride for all, there is currently no practical alternative to drinking water fluoridation. 

Make no mistake - the up side of dental health is considerable.

Numerous studies show a direct relationship between poor dental health and overall health, including diabetes, heart disease and respiratory illnesses.

2. Drinking water fluoridation is unsafe, or poisonous.

False.

Credible scientific research continues to support the conclusion that water fluoridation is safe at optimal levels (0.7 ppm). 

In April 2008, Health Canada released findings and recommendations from a Fluoride Expert Panel. The panel found no compelling evidence to link fluoride with an increased risk of cancer, bone fracture, or any other health concerns.

The most common consequence of excess fluoride is fluorosis, or mottling of the teeth. 

The Fluoride Expert Panel found the existence of moderate dental fluorosis in the population is a potential indicator of too much fluoride. 

Among children in the Canadian Health Measures Survey, none had moderate dental fluorosis. 

Where fluorosis does occur, dental experts suspect that it's caused by children ingesting fluoride toothpaste, or use of fluoride supplements.

3. Drinking water fluoridation is an assault to our personal freedom.

Drinking water fluoridation is a public health measure. 

Public health aims to improve the health of the population. 

It values the collective good, and is based on a principle of providing conditions that enable health, without undue coercion. 

Three criteria are often used to justify a public health measure: Reduction of health inequities, reduction of ill health, and concern for children who constitute a vulnerable group. 

Drinking water fluoridation is justified on all three grounds. Further, it is possible to opt out: One can purchase alternatives to tap water.

Bottom line: The decision to discontinue drinking water fluoridation in Calgary must be based on scientific research and reason - rather than myths and anecdotes. 

So far, city council has rejected an offer by the University of Calgary's faculty of medicine to form an advisory panel to review the arguments and studies - pro and con - about fluoridation. 

Calgarians should be concerned about council's dismissal of evidence and reason.

Lindsay McLaren, PhD, J.C. Herbert Emery, PhD and Lynn McIntyre, MD, are professors, Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary

Some people, like London's own Butch McLarty, are pushing for the removal of fluoride from the drinking water. Butch points us to Betty McLarty's list of studies that purport to defend the claim that fluoride in the drinking water is bad. I say puport as no link is provided to any of the studies, or to an abstract. Other than heading to the Lawson Library for a couple of weeks and tracking down every journal listed from the microfiche archive, we'll have to take Butch's word that he, or Betty, have read every study or abstract, and that they do indeed defend removing fluoride from the drinking water.

On the other hand, here is an abstract you can read. This one is a bit more current than Ms. McLarty's offerings. The Long Term Effects of Water Fluoridation on the Human Skeleton:

Abstract

Municipal water fluoridation has notably reduced the incidence of dental caries and is widely considered a public health success. However, ingested fluoride is sequestered into bone, as well as teeth, and data on the long-term effect of exposure to these very low doses of fluoride remain inconclusive. Epidemiological studies suggest that effects of fluoride on bone are minimal. We hypothesized that the direct measurement of bone tissue from individuals residing in municipalities with and without fluoridated water would reveal a relationship between fluoride content and structural or mechanical properties of bone. However, consonant with the epidemiological data, only a weak relationship among fluoride exposure, accumulated fluoride, and the physical characteristics of bone was observed. Analysis of our data suggests that the variability in heterogenous urban populations may be too high for the effects, if any, of low-level fluoride administration on skeletal tissue to be discerned.

Like all debates of this kind, whether it's over the ill-effects of wifi, or wind turbines, or vaccines, nothing new is said.

So, before the screaming and the threats of violence start (oh yes, this can be a vitriolic crowd if they don't get their way), why not read some more facts.

For more information, please visit the websites of the following professional organizations:

Middlesex-London Health Unit	Fluoridation of Water
Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care	Drinking Water Fluoridation
Canadian Dental Association	Fluoride FAQs Fluoride and Your Child CDA Position on Use of Fluorides in Caries Prevention
Health Canada	Fluoride and Human Health
Ontario Medical Association	Ontario's Doctor's Set the Record Straight on Fluoride in Drinking Water
Canadian Public Health Association	Fighting the Good Fight:  Fluoridation of Drinking Water
Government of Ontario e-Laws	Fluoridation Act
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)	Community Water Fluoridation

Here's another fact sheet on fluoridation from the USDA: fluoridation facts.

If you want to believe the purveyors of woo, like Chris Gupta, one of the major anti-fluoride minstrels in the area, just check out his website. He'll tell you all about how dentists are conspiring to poison our babies (because that just makes sense), how vitamin C can cure cancer, how cholesterol-lowering drugs are a scam, how red wine will heal your lungs, and, of course, how vaccines cause everything from ADD to Multiple Sclerosis.

So who you gonna trust?

Fun, Fashion, & forehands : Wimbledon 1962 - British Pathe

The British Pathé newsreel archive is a wonderful time-sink. There are thousands of hours of newsreel footage to peruse from just about any topic. As is my want, I went looking for old tennis film and is there ever a gold mine of that. From Fred Perry v. Don Budge, to this great colour footage from 1969,

WIMBLEDON 1962

Here is a travelogue of lovely Vancouver, and it's American influences, from 1958.

ROCKIES FLIGHT TO VANCOUVER

Now get back to work.

Sucks to be You Matt Murdock

I always thought having heightened senses would be cool. Who wouldn't want the keen hearing, expert balance, and radar senses of Daredevil?

You just never think about the smell. Blood, cordite, Grimm funk, those are the kinds of things you figure you are going to come up against as defender of the weak in the Marvel universe.

Nobody prepares you for a dirty nappy and an aroused Squirrel Girl though, do they?

I admit, I thought Squirrel Girl's squirrelyness was a costume. A put on. I didn't know she had it going on, rodentially speaking, in and around the tail. I knew the tail was real, and that she got all interspecies with Wolverine, but really, squirrel musk?

Who says comics aren't edumacashional?

Because Everyone Needs a Support Group, Even Geniuses

I know that it's been terrible of me to only present one side of an argument. How uncivil, how uncaring can I be? Never let it be said that I don't allow for open discussion, no matter how many time Honshui and Fugle post that they can't post.

In that vein, I have found a truth-teller in arms, a brother in logic for them; it's Stan from http://atheism-analyzed.blogspot.com/.

From atheism, to evolution, to the very laws and properties of nature, Stan has proven them all wrong with undergrad level logic and a steadfast commitment to only using definitions for words that back his play. You guys should stop by and say hi to Stan. He understands your frustration with stupid atheist who refuse to open their eyes and minds to the real Truth.

Some Holiday Reading for the Grumpy People

Honshui's error-filled post, followed by further error-filled comments, makes obvious the need for some remedial reading.

Austin Cline, has this to say about agnosticism, the "eminently reasonable" position put forth by Honshui.

"Many people who adopt the label of agnostic reject the label of atheist — there is a common perception that agnosticism is a more “reasonable” position while atheism is more “dogmatic,” ultimately indistinguishable from theism except in the details. This is not a valid position to adopt because it misrepresents or misunderstands everything involved: atheism, theism, agnosticism, and the nature of belief itself. It also happens to reinforce popular prejudice against atheists"

Austin was a Regional Director for the Council for Secular Humanism and a former Publicity Coordinator for the Campus Freethought Alliance. So it might be a good idea for Honshui and Fugle to read up a bit, so at least we can all be reading from the same page, and not having to constantly correct them on their sincere, but plainly wrong, assertions.

And that's, one to grow on.

Back When You Took Your First Step Into A Larger World

Get on over to Superfun Happy Slide's blog and relive the glory days of Zellers and Star Wars toys.

As an enterprising young Star Wars fan of the late 70s and early 80s, Zellers was home to some of my greatest moody moments and temper tantrums. While my parents could never understand the allure of Zeller's toy section and how it could change the rational child I usually was into one that was induced into a temporary phase of I want, my passions were awakened as soon as we walked through the doors. In all honesty, I can't really be too hard on my parents, after all, they were soooooo old. Yes, Zellers was my Star Wars destination of choice and my still developing 8-year old rationality was stressed to its absolute finest fibers upon entry into that beautiful consumer's wonderland. Looking back now, I know that the lovely red glow of the Big Z owned my soul.

Atheism, Failed Science And Bad Philosophy

Here is a guest post from frequent commenter Honshui. I'll see you in the comments.


---



I was reading today about how atheists in santa monica have taken over the display space that previously held nativity scenes for Christmas. The Christians who have been crowded out from doing their festive display claim that the atheists "gamed the system" to get said space and they are none too pleased about the atheist statements about their blessed holiday.(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/us/santa-monica-nativity-scenes-replaced-by-atheists.html ).

As a committed agnostic I find the atheist religion amusing to watch. Like other intolerant religions, atheists cannot let people with other beliefs be. They feel a need to confront the other believers I presume in an attempt to convert them to atheism. Atheists are 21st century missionaries!

Now before the atheists get their knickers in a knot over being called a religion let me state my case that agnosticism is the only non-faith based position one can take. To be an atheist one must have faith that there is nothing like a god or higher power. If atheists truly understood science then they would see this but atheists are not scientists, they are philosophers relying on logic to infer the uninferrable.

Christians believe that there is a god. Atheists who believe that there is no god challenge Christians to prove that there is a good. If we were conducting this in a scientific way, then we would form a "null hypothesis" to test like: Ho: There is no god, against an alternative hypothesis Ha: There is a god. If empirical evidence could be generated to prove that there is a god then presumably the atheist would convert to christianity since the burden of proof would be to reject the null hypothesis. The tricky part for atheists comes from what to do when there is no evidence that there is a god. You cannot reject the null hypothesis. Atheists then make a flawed logical assertion that failure to reject the null means that one must accept the null -- ergo, there is no god. The problem with the atheist position that a lack of evidence that there is a god does not prove that there is no god. In the scientific method you can reject the null hypothesis but you cannot prove it is true. Thus, all we can say from this scientific test where we do not reject the null hypothesis is that we don't know if there is or is not a god. Ergo, the agnostic position is the appropriate one to take unless you have faith that there is no god. In this case, the faith or belief that there is no god guides the atheist making it just another religion that really doesn't fit well with science.

Magneto's Gonna Make You Blow Up? Put on a Happy (Iridium) Face!

Mettle, laid-back surfer dude and young Avenger. He's cool, he's calm, he's super strong and he's made entirely of living iridium.

Mettle has been through a lot in the past 6-7 issues. He's killed people, he's almost had sex with a toxic waste spill, and he's visited himself in the future (spoiler: still bald). Through it all, Sean Chen and Tom Raney have done a bang up job in bringing life and emotion to a metal skull.

Here's determined Mettle.

Here we have concerned Mettle.

This is Mettle looking pensive. This is a different panel. Swearsies.

Finally, Mettle looking quizzical.

My hat is off the Raney and Chen. I can't imagine they're excited about trying to bring emotion to a metal skull head, and they do a fine job along with the help of the writing of Cristo Gage and the lettering, and the inking, and the coloring.

Dinos Cheat Their Way to 8-0 Season, Still Lose in Playoffs

Stung by their repeated and annual failure to advance to the Vanier Cup, the Calgary Dinos Football team has had to rely on skulduggery and cheating in order to improve their 2011 regular season record. Thanks to the UBC Thunderbirds fielding an ineligible player, the Dinos now see their regular season record go to 8-0. Sadly for the Dinos, they had only themselves to blame for going 0-1 in the CupBowl, a game, in which it MUST be noted, that they played at home. No travel. Easy-peasy. Pumpkin-squeazy.

In light of this offense taken by an unnamed player, questions must be asked. How long did he play for Calgary? Did the Dinos coaching staff tell him to hide the truth of his eligibility when they forced him to transfer to UBC, and why did similar "transfers" not work work with Laval? Were those western quislings discovered, or were they simply too shitty to make the Rouge et Or? Why is no one asking these questions?

Here's to you Dinos. Here's to you turning failure into winning, the kind that comes with a "participant" ribbon.