Anger at Belgian face veil ban

link

Muslims, academics and human rights groups have hit out at a looming public ban in Belgium on the full face veil, following a decision in the country's parliament to make the wearing of the article of clothing illegal.

This is a fascinating article in Al Jareera (English version) , a middle eastern newspaper. The subject matter itself, the pro's and con's of a face veil , are not the fascinating part thought.

The fascinating part is that the article is heavily biased. There is no stock at all given to the notion that veils are a means of enslaving women (the reason why Belgium is doing this in the first place) and a great deal of stock about human rights and freedoms.

It is interesting to see them "take a walk on the wild side" in this manner, totally supporting the Islamic point of view and not mentioning at all any counter view.

I suppose this is the fault of western media , since they also have disposed of the whole notion of balanced reporting (at least hear in Canada) so if the middle easterner's are using them as an example ...sheesh !


aid Belgium "now joins Iran and Saudi Arabia in that exclusive but unenviable rare club of countries to impose a dress code in the public domain".


You forgot Canada. (Complete Nudity is forbidden in public)

Think that might be the USA as well.

World Polled , dictators still hate USA, think democracy sucks

World warming to US under Obama, BBC poll suggests

Nearly 30,000 people in 28 countries were interviewed for the poll, between November 2009 and February 2010.

Fifteen of the countries have been surveyed every year since 2005, allowing long-term trends to be discerned.


what exactly do we mean polled ? And was there a state sponsored official with a gun escorting the state sponsored translater while this poll was being conducted, to insure that the respondant didn't accidently give the wrong answer ?

methodology section reports phone or face to face, by their "partners" in each country (in other words, in despotic regimes the state sponsored minder did all the work and no polster even bothered to show up)

So all the honest democracies gave their governments the middle finger and answered honestly , and all the despotic states gave their citizens the business end of a rifle and told them what they would be answering , assuming they didn't just take the poll out of their hands and fill it out themselves.

Yes...good methology.

Excuse me while I flush this down the toilet with all the other worthless advertising I receive every day.

N.S. newspaper ordered to identify online web posters

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/newspaper+ordered+identify+online+posters/2911779/story.html#ixzz0lH4c7gYS


HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia court has ordered a Halifax newspaper to release information about several people who posted anonymous online comments on a story about alleged racism in the city's fire department.

Michelle Awad, lawyer for Bill Mosher, the fire chief, and deputy chief Stephen Thurber, said the posters made defamatory comments about the two on the website of the weekly newspaper, The Coast, and they want to file a defamation suit against them.

"They're looking to secure a remedy for the damage they believe has been done," Awad said.

The judge ruled The Coast must release whatever details it has about the authors of the comments.


So. If you post any opinions online, you can be sued for them. Even anonymous sites, these lawyers have now decided to shut down freedom of speech.

Some of the people who post , they probably deserve it , I've seen a lot of outright lies and slander posted on the cbc news site for example. But still... everyone knows you take that chance in the comments section, and you get to refute it.

Now some lawyers want to get in on the act and start suing people left right and center.

This aint good.

30% Discount

I used to work in a call center.

We got a lot of strange calls. Apparently save team offered these guys 30% discount if they'd stay.

And they left no notes.

Sorry buddy you're obviously lying to me , but I'm not allowed to say that. And you're in a new contract you're sticking around for a couple of years or paying the early termination fee. Wait for him to quit yelling and either demand a supervisor or end the call.

Because I know , we don't do stuff like that.

I was surfing , doing a google search. pop up from my provider rogers. you're over 75% of you montly quota.

Phone them up. I was on unlimited internet. Then they changed that to 60 gigs. Then they changed that to 30 gigs. Then 25. At the same time my usage went from 5 gigs to 20 gigs to 40 gigs. And I'm not doing anything illegal , copying dvd's , nothing like that. Just normal perfectly legitimate usage.

And I call them up. And I get told I'm a bad boy I'm using too much data because I'm on an older plan I was automatically moved to a new one (so much for long term loyalty...take note how they claim they value you , but then try to sheer you like a sheep in the next breath)

And I wind up in retention. And they offer me a 30% discount.

And i'm thinking , you got a clause in your contract that says you can change your mind any time you like. And there's nothing I can do about it I gotta ride out the whole 3 years even if you decide to turn off the taps and give me nothing.

And I'm thinking ...why does 30% sound so familiar ?

Oh yes, I was on the other end of this conversation a few times. It didn't work out so well for the customer.

The scumminess of Rogers

Phoned rogers to cancel my internet.

Offered me a higher plan at a 30% discount.

Umm... 30% off 60$ a month is still more than primus costs. Plus I'm being billed 10$ / month as a penalty for not having television.

I think they're scummy because they only make such offers when you're calling them up to quit. What about making such offers in the normal course of business instead of ripping people off by charging them 2.50$ / gigabyte overage fee's when they're not paying attention ? Thats like charging extra because we can get away with it , and then when you catch us , we'll stop but we don't give any back. I feel robbed.

I don't like dealing with people who commit robbery.

Plus various other charges that the government doesn't charge that rogers does, so primus isn't going to charge that.

Apparently their "save attempt" was to hope I can't add up a couple of numbers.

Unlmited vs 25 gig / month limit ... technically the same price in the best possible case, assuming they don't exercise their right to change their mind and rewrite the contract any time they like in any way they like.

Bye Rogers.

While I was ending the call with Rogers the line beeped and I picked it up. Primus...wanted info so they could run the credit check.

Oops...I still might not get Primus ???

This could get interesting ...

gEt out the rogers bill ... where is that 10$ fee for not having TV ? Umm... it's not broken down. Just a flat 35$ / month fee plus tax for internet.

Well ... they still kill me on bandwith even if they dropped the 10$ fee for tv a long time ago.

Goodbye Rogers. Hello Primus

Article = None , personal Experience

I started out ten years ago working in rogers tech support. Internet was about 30$ / month and it was unlimited bandwith, about 1 megabyte download speed , all that I needed.

They advertise that you really need 5 or 10 meg download for games.

Unless your a game manufacturer , in which case you normally advertise that a 56k modem will work for normal play. :)

Interesting contrast there.

Then this whole kerfluffle about people downloading entire DVD's and overloading the network came along.

Then they lowered my limit to 60 gigabytes a month. No biggy , I was only using 5 gig at the time.

Then they lowered my limit to 30 gig's a month. But I never incurred any overage how bad could it be ?

Then they lowered my limit to 25 gigs a month. And they intercepted my google page (read that "hacked into my data stream to show results google would not approve of and probably had no idea of" to pop up a really nasty message saying I had reached 75% of my monthly quota.

Phone rogers. My monthly quota was no 25 gigabytes a month. And I had used 20 gigs in about 14 days.

Every application on my computer , it seemed was using more and more bandwidth , but rogers was giving you less and less. And now the two had met in the center.

"You're on a grandfathered plan. You have to upgrade to a new one. " And sign a three year contract. If you fart , rogers considers you to have signed a three year contract. See my blog entry about the bell non contract contract where they can change anything they like and you cna't do nothing about it , rogers has the same thing , needless to say I'm not signing a three year contract with these idiots.

My wifes old phone provider , Primus has internet , and she reports they're a real business ,they won't just take your money and run as she suspects some company I never heard of before might do. (looked them up on the internet ..I won't mention their name since I know nothing about them they might even be perfectly legitimate).

35$ a month. No contract. 30 days notice to cancel. Unlimited bandwidth. About 5 megabit download speed (I was using 1.5 megabyte from rogers).

Heck , even if they lower the bandwidth to 200 gigs eventually , I'm only using 40 gig a month right now.

Signed up immediately. They didn't even want my credit card number they'll bill me later. They're fed ex-ing the modem. 4-7 days.

When I get it working , I'm cancelling rogers.

Rogers wants 35$ / month for 25 gig bandwidth and they tack on a 10$ penalty because I don't actually have a TV with them. And they want a three year contract you sign every time you fart.

I am so out of there.

Ow my eye !

Article = none , personal experience.

So , I already mentioned I failed a GTT (Glucose Tolerance Test) and it's pretty certain I'm a diabetic now (type two).

So they sent me off to the eye doctor to see what kind of harm diabetes had done to my eyes. And I waited for a while , and I saw, a technician I guess. Some guy you see before you see the doctor.

And he did an eye test. And then he had to "measure" my eye.

Which involves putting in eye drops , which I hate , and then he takes this little hand probe thingy and very gently touches your eye with it.

Which of course, is the part where I freak out. Ow my eye ! I can't stand having anything in my eye or touching my eye. It doesn't hurt , he was very gentle, but he had to try a few times. When the probe was coming closer and closer I literally could not make myself stay still. It was awful.

And then I saw the doctor , and she did it again , in both eyes. Repetition didn't improve my reaction , I actually yelled as if in pain. More unpleasant surprise, there wasn't any pain , I just hated the very idea of anything touching my eye.

In Philosophy , there is a belief that you do not deal with the world. You deal with a projection onto your awareness, that your senses draw for you. Your eyes, your ears , etc etc. When I got poked in the eye, this suddenly became crystal clear that I was looking at some kind of natural movie screen and not actually experiancing the real world.

How is that you ask ?

Ever see those blooper reels in DVD's about making the particular movie your watching ? And sometimes someone bumps into the camera ,and it all flexes and the whole view gets distorted for just a moment , and you instantly say "He touched the Camera" ?

Yeah. They touched the camera. Only I wasn't watching any movie. And I wasn't wearing glasses. And the whole world went DING ! and got all distorted for just a second.

PS: She said I have cataracts , but they're not serious to operate on , she wants to see me in a year.

Vancouver Police At it Again

Yet another example of Police Brutality in Vancouver BC , Canada.

At least this time they left the Tasers behind and no one died.

Rise of the Robots

Article = none, personal opinion.

Lost my job a while back (well they announced it , still got a month left before they kick me to the curb). It got outsourced to the Philipines. The dollar a day guys , as I call them.

I phone tech support for my Dell Computer. I get India.

I talk to a guy at work , ask him how long he's been here. Tells me he's worked four call centers the last year. Why you quit so many jobs ? He didn't . They all outsourced to pakistan. Or china. Or in the case of the one we work at at the moment, the philipines.

Dollar a day guys taking over everything.

So I'm thinking maybe retraining, what is it I can retrain in that they cannot outsource to these dollar a day guys ?

I remember an old news article on the internet. It was very very hard to get doctors to move to small towns, so their solution was to build robots that the doctors could run by remote control. Nice color monitors, remote controled hands.. get a doctor on the line to sit in the control booth , great idea.

Now I'm thinking ... they outsourced all the brainy stuff. Book keeping , computer programming , even computer repair. When these robots get going ... they're going to outsource the manual labor to.

We're gonna have dollar a day guys running a robot cleaning shopping centers and stuff. No need for high end artificial intellgence when you can hire a philipino for a dollar a day to sit in a booth on the other side of the world and do it.

so what does that leave for us ?

Does it leave anything for us , any job we can do to earn a living ?

Because you aint selling me your stereo and your nice computer if I can't hold down a job. Or if I only make a dollar a day.

Booksellers take on Ottawa over Amazon's distribution plans

Article



Canada's booksellers are urging Ottawa to block Amazon.com from building a distribution network in Canada, raising the stakes in a showdown over government restrictions on foreign control of the cultural industry.


Thats nice. Why do I care ?


“A few years ago I was disadvantaged from having a partner. That's not to say I didn't succeed. I, as a competitor, was in a position to be able to invest for a long time – losing money – to get to where I got. Many people would not have had the deep pockets that I had and, as a result, may not have succeeded without ... a U.S. or a foreign partner.”


This is why I care. "Deep Pockets" is the relevant term.

Americans come in , open up shop , lose money for a couple of years to put the competition out of business , and then they own the place. Time to raise prices. Their pockets are deeper than any canadian ones because they come from a country ten times our size. And they don't hesitate to use that size advantage.

So unless you all want to be working minimum wage jobs for americans , this kind of thing needs to be stopped. And not just for books. But for everything.

Raising the minimum wage can only do so much. It looks like maybe one of those so called "trade wars" is the way to go , where we stop buying american and they stop buying canadian ...hmm..didn't they already stop buying canadian a long time ago ?

So what have we got to lose ?

Yahoo Issues Takedown Notice for Spying Price List

Yahoo Issues Takedown Notice for Spying Price List


Yahoo isn’t happy that a detailed menu of the spying services it provides law enforcement agencies has leaked onto the web.

Shortly after Threat Level reported this week that Yahoo had blocked the FOIA release of its law enforcement and intelligence price list, someone provided a copy of the company’s spying guide to the whistleblower site Cryptome.

The 17-page guide describes Yahoo’s data retention policies and the surveillance capabilities it can provide law enforcement, with a pricing list for these services. Cryptome also published lawful data-interception guides for Cox Communications, SBC, Cingular, Nextel, GTE and other telecoms and service providers.


Yep. You have no privacy online anymore. You really shouldn't be writing emails that have much more info in them than "meet you at the coffee shop as usual".

Only question is , now that it's open to the police, how long before your private emails are open to the spammers ?

So long and thanks for the Cash

A.I.G. Plan for $100 Million Bonus Payout Draws Fire


The American International Group has agreed to cut employee bonuses by $20 million and will distribute about $100 million on Wednesday, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations.

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A.I.G. first promised the retention bonuses to keep people working at its financial products unit, which traded in the derivatives that imploded in September 2008, leading to the biggest government bailout in history.


Ok. So. You dumped the world economy down the toilet. And you're walking way with millions. Do you have anything to say on your way to your early retirement party ? Other than "So long SUCKERS ! GAWD I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW STUPID YOU PEOPLE ARE !!!"

No ?

I didn't think so.

The American banker. Fail so badly you take the whole world down into a depression. And you still collect millions.

The Bell Non-Contract Contract

Not being too happy with Rogers since they pulled that stunt with cancelling everyones unlimited texting and charging them, and then telling them they're still under contract, I thought I'd see if Bell was any better.

Bell Online Service Agreement


Changes; Amendments. To the extent permitted by applicable law, Your Service Provider may modify the Service, this Service Agreement, including any other document that forms part thereof, at any time and from time to time, with or without your consent or authorization, including but not limited to modification or amendment of Service Fees or modification, amendment or termination of any Service feature. Your Service Provider will notify you of any material amendment to this Service Agreement or of any material change to the Service in advance by posting notice of such change at www.bell.ca/agreements, by sending you notice via email to your Bell Internet parent email address or to another email address provided by you to Your Service Provider (in which case it is your responsibility to ensure that such email address remains current at all times) or by using any other notice method that will likely come to your attention. You agree to go to www.bell.ca/agreements periodically and to review this Service Agreement to be aware of such modifications. Nothing in this Service Agreement shall be construed as obligating you to accept receipt of the Service after any change is made to the Service or this Service Agreement; however, to the extent permitted by applicable law, your sole remedy in the event that you do not wish to accept such change shall be cancellation of the Service (and termination of this Service Agreement) including the payment of any discounted or deferred Service Fees (as set out in Section 3) or other charges that may apply.


'Nother words. We can change our minds about anything we offer you , and your sole recourse is to cancel and pay up all cancellation fees.

Which is another way of saying "Nope...we're no different than rogers. We do as we please and you need to bend over and take it up the (ahem) you silly fool you dared to sign a contract with us now you gonna pay and pay and pay ..."

There seems to be a lot of non-contract contracts going on here. We are bound to pay , they are bound to do not a dang thing at all.

I aint signing. Not anything. Not ever.

The American Oligarchy

24 States’ Laws Open to Attack After Campaign Finance Ruling


A day after the United States Supreme Court ruled that the federal government may not ban political spending by corporations or unions in candidate elections, officials across the country were rushing to cope with the fallout, as laws in 24 states were directly or indirectly called into question by the ruling.

Thus is born the American Oligarchy , or rule of the few. If you are a corperation, like Taser Corp , and your stun weapon is actualy killing people, you may now legally bribe politicians into going to bat for you , or create massive attack ad campaigns at election time to punish those who hurt your bottom line. (Which they have already threatenned).

Big business now rules the roost there, even more so than before. You can expect consumers to get the shaft on a frequent basis for everything. You can expect laws to be changed to become more lienient towards the indiscretions of large corperations. You can then expect those laws to be completely gutted in the name of profit. You thought the USA was a big polluter before ? You aint seen nothing yet.

In a society ruled by profit, you can now expect the USA to go to war for reasons of profit alone.

The whole world just got a little less safe.

Deactivate Facebook

Went to my old facebook account to get rid of it.

You cannot delete it. You can only deactivate it. And it specifically states people can still send messages to your account , look at photo's etc etc.

In my case there's nothing on facebook but a few rants about what a horrible violation of privacy it is. But other people who may have posted something... there's no removing it ..

(edit)
Delete Facebook

A google search turned this up. It doesn't show if you search facebook or look for an option , but google found it.

It seems facebook doesnt' want to get rid of those embaraassing photo's of you getting drunk and piddling on the cop car just before they arrested you. Isn't that just so irritating ?

Turn over Facebook history, judge orders

Article


Rosemary Carter is fighting Herbert Connors for damages after the two were involved in a collision in the northern New Brunswick community five years ago.

"Incidentally, it must not be forgotten that this legal action was commenced by the plaintiff and in launching it she has implicitly accepted certain intrusions into what otherwise might be private information, the disclosure of which would ordinarily be left to her own personal judgment."



So , you got into a car accident, you're sueing the guy who hit you , his lawyer demands you turn over your face book account, and it's legal.

Nice. Feel like sueing someone ? Hope you don't have a face book account. Feel like looking for a job ? Collecting insurance , anything at all almost with any large organization ? They want to look at your face book account.

Give me six sentences from an innocent man and I will hang him , as the Riechlieu quote goes. Give them your face book account and it wont stop there.

Assumed Sale Technique

Toronto telemarketing firm fined $15M for scam


DataCom telemarketers succeeded in the scam by using an "assumed sale" technique. They implied that the business had ordered a directory listing in the past and it had been authorized by someone in the company. Telemarketers would then use aggressive collection tactics to ensure payment. The targeted firms were usually duped out of $200 to $500.



This is actually how most collection agencies work.

You get in trouble with some company , usually because they're ripping you off, and they don't argue with you. They just send you to the collection agency. Now the collection agencie has no records to check anyones story so they just assume you're guilty as charged, and demand payment.

The really sleezy one is when my wife went through bankruptcy , and the collection agencies ignored that and still harrassed her about it and demanded payments.

And when she refused ? They sold her debt to another collection agency and it started all over again. Around and around and around.

Mom takes on Rogers policy

Mom takes on Rogers policy


A Coquitlam mother of three text-happy teenagers is angry with her cellphone provider for altering their contract, but Rogers Wireless said the customer was given advance warning that some terms of their agreement would change.
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"It’s wrong for Rogers to be able to change anything they want,” she said. “I want them to honour our original deal. I have no control over who texts my children.”

A spokesperson for Rogers said they notified customers in June 2009 that their contracts would be changing.

Edward Bukszar, a Simon Fraser University business professor, said the move is legal but risky for Rogers.

“You always risk alienating customers when you change things like this regardless of the strategy they put behind it,” Bukszar said. “Customers feel distanced from a company they’re expected to be loyal to.”


Welcome to the wonderful world of the Non-Contract Contract.

That would be the part where you're stuck with a two year contract and they can change the terms any time they like and there's nothing you can do about it. Giving notice that they're about to rip you off doesn't help if you don't get the opportunity to cancel , etc etc.

The day of signing contracts is over, if you ask me. Since you're bound by them and the other party is not , and you gotta know this has legs and is going to spread, there is no point to it. It's now become another form of advertising. Reel them in with a great deal then hit them hard with a fee hike afterwards.

I will sign nothing with Rogers anymore. Or bell, but thats another matter.

Rights groups Think Taliban just peachy, continue to Bash Westerners

Rights groups add to call for Afghan torture inquiry


OTTAWA – Canada has put at risk every Afghan prisoner it has transferred over the past eight years, the head of Amnesty International said today.


What about the all the people the Taliban were busy murdering , do they count for anything ?


At that time, prisoners were being handed over to U.S. forces in Afghanistan, despite the likelihood of further transfers on to Guantanamo Bay in addition to the "strong risk of torture and ill-treatment" at U.S. detention centres in Afghanistan, Amnesty states.


What about the Taliban throwing acid on school girls faces because they dared to attend school ? What about how they continue to this day to terrorize and close schools, murdering teachers and students alike ?


"We highlighted that given the prevalence and systematic nature of torture in Afghan prisons, such transfers were prohibited under international law," the open letter states.


Why is it Amnesty International only goes after western nations , never anyone else ? If I was a betting man , I'd say "follow the money" , who's benifiting this ? And that puts Amnesty in the pocket of every third world dictatorship on the planet.

Why don't you go after them for a change ?

The deafening silence of your response is answer enough , I think.

Insurers using Facebook to investigate claimants

Article

Canadian insurance firm Manulife has reportedly cut a depressed woman’s benefits because photos showing her happy were posted on Facebook.

The woman, Nathalie Blanchard, said she cannot understand how Manulife was able to access her account because she had adjusted her privacy settings so that only friends could see her posts, said CBC News.


Smile for the birdy ! Thank you. Kiss your insurance goodbye.


Manulife has confirmed to CBC News that it uses Facebook to investigate clients.
But it said, "We would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook."

Facebook has already proved its use to human resource departments wanting to investigate potential new staff. Senior managers have also been found to use Facebook to check up on employees.

According to Facebook's current privacy policy, the social networking site will share information to prevent fraud or other illegal activity.

"This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entities," says the policy.


We sell your facebook info to anyone and the dog. They get to see your pictures , your video's , anything marked private , anything at all !

So what can you do on face book ? You can talk shop. You cannot talk politics or religion, you can talk about a game you play. Thats about it.